TV News LIES

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) appears to have dropped his demand that a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security include money for ICE and Border Patrol, accepting a deal he disparaged as unacceptable only days earlier.

If Johnson lets the House pass the bill, it will mean the end of a seven-week shutdown that’s caused many DHS workers to miss multiple paychecks. It’s a significant retreat for Johnson and House Republicans, though it also means Democrats could soon have little leverage in the push for reforms at the two immigration enforcement agencies.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) announced they would be “fully funding the entire Department of Homeland Security” through two separate tracks, one a long-term budget process and the other a more immediate appropriation. President Donald Trump seemed to endorse the plan in a post on his website.

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Republicans are grappling with how to handle an expected $200 billion request for supplemental funding for the war in Iran, weighing their desire to support the president with demands from fiscal hawks, questions about the scope of the funding and the challenge of a super-slim majority in the House.

Democrats are not expected to support such a Pentagon funding boost for a war they oppose, leading Republicans to eye fulfilling the request through the special budget reconciliation process, which bypasses the need for Democratic support to clear the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

But to do that, Republicans must get near-unanimous support in a slim House GOP majority — a tall task for even the most populist GOP priorities — while contending with demands from their own members to offset the cost of such a funding boost with cuts elsewhere.

“It needs to be paid for. We need to do the fiscally responsible thing,” said Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), a member of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus.

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Democrats are now all but certain to elect another Black woman to the U.S. Senate after Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton won Tuesday’s bitter and expensive primary in Illinois.

Stratton overcame a crowded Democratic contest for the state’s open Senate seat, defeating front-runner Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi with the help of millions of dollars of outside spending — much of it from her old running mate, Gov. JB Pritzker.

She is widely seen as the favorite to succeed Sen. Dick Durbin in the blue state and would become the sixth Black woman to have ever served in the upper chamber.

The contest was defined by heavy outside spending and intraparty fissures over race. It became contentions during the final weeks, with Krishnamoorthi and Stratton trading sharp attacks on the debate stage and blasting each other in TV ads over corporate money and immigration policy.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus — who backed a different contender, Rep. Robin Kelly, in the primary — also warned that Pritzker’s interference could split the Black vote and cost Democrats a chance at electing a Black woman to the Senate this year.

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Rep. Kevin Kiley (Calif.) announced Monday that he will formally leave the Republican Party this week to become an independent..

Rep. Kevin Kiley (Calif.) announced Monday that he will formally leave the Republican Party this week to become an independent.

Kiley had previously announced that he will run for reelection in the midterms as an independent. But he accelerated the process on Monday, saying he will file a letter with the House clerk immediately to drop his identification as a Republican for the remainder of the current Congress.

“I will be the sole independent member of the House of Representatives,” Kiley told reporters Monday during a virtual press conference. “We’re going to be submitting the letter to the clerk today.”

Optically, the switch is another setback for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and other GOP leaders, who currently have a paper-thin majority and are scrambling to defend it in November’s elections.

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The ex-Marine who was forcibly removed by police from a congressional hearing for protesting Wednesday said the incident made him “only more determined” to continue his candidacy for the U.S. Senate.

Brian McGinnis is running as the Green Party candidate in North Carolina’s election to replace outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R). The anti-war activist could be heard shouting, “No one wants to fight for Israel,” as he was pushed out of the hearing room.

“And for the record, I’ve been running long before this, and yes even after breaking my arm standing up for what I believe in,” McGinnis wrote in a post on the social platform X.

“It’s only made me more determined,” he continued. “Anger is real, and so is resolve. Take care.”

Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) joined U.S. Capitol Police in pushing McGinnis out of the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing room. The retired Marine sergeant resisted by sticking his arm in the exit doors.

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Senate Republicans on Wednesday voted down an attempt to require Donald Trump receive Congress’s permission before continuing the war with Iran, batting aside concerns from Democrats that the campaign is illegal and risks plunging the United States into a prolonged conflict.

The 47-53 vote on a war powers resolution introduced by Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine broke largely along party lines. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the sole Democrat to vote against the measure, while Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only member of the Republican majority to support the resolution.

The measure would have forced an end to the US air and naval campaign against Iran and require the president to go to Congress before re-entering the war. Before the vote, Democratic senator Chris Murphy said the resolution was necessary to prevent Trump from repeating in Iran the follies of previous US presidents in Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere.

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