Freedom Caucus Jokes & Cartoons

Biden says he could have won the presidency if he ran

Former Vice President Joe Biden said on Friday that if he had run for president in 2016 he could have won.
Biden told students at Colgate University in New York that the Democratic primary would have been "very difficult."
Biden said his son Beau's battle with brain cancer kept him out of the race.
Biden said anyone who runs for president should be able to "look the public in the eye and promise you they can give you 100 percent," the Observer-Dispatch of Utica reported.  

More on this...

• University launches Biden research and policy institute

• Estranged wife: Biden son wasted money on drugs, prostitutes

The former vice president says that he doesn't regret not running, but added, "Do I regret not being president? Yes."
Biden also added that he hopes President Donald Trump "grows into the job a little bit."

Arrests after scuffle breaks out at California Trump rally

A scuffle broke out on a Southern California beach where President Donald Trump supporters were marching as counter-protesters doused organizers with pepper spray, authorities said Saturday.
The violence erupted when the march of about 2,000 people at Bolsa Chica State Beach reached a group of about 30 counter-protesters, some of whom began spraying the irritant, said Capt. Kevin Pearsall of the California State Parks Police.
Three people were arrested on suspicion of illegal use of pepper spray and a fourth person was arrested on suspicion of assault and battery, Pearsall said.
Pearsall added that two people had suffered minor injuries, not requiring medical attention.
One anti-Trump protester who allegedly used the eye irritant was kicked and punched in the sand by Trump supporters, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Before the march started the counter-protesters had said they intended to try and stop the march’s progress with the use of a “human wall.”

Divided GOP makes dismantling ObamaCare little more than campaign promise

Speaker Ryan stuns Washington by yanking the health bill

There was supposed to be a death panel when it came to ObamaCare: Congressional Republicans.
Starting in 2009, Republicans in Congress promised to euthanize the then-bill, later law. They’d kill it. “Repeal and replace” was the GOP mantra as the party stormed the House in the 2010 midterm elections.
Republicans echoed the incantation in 2012 and 2014. The “repeal and replace” declaration even helped Republicans capture the Senate in 2014. The House and Senate voted on a bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare in 2015-16. But President Obama vetoed it.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., argued that’s why it was essential that voters reward the party with “unified government.”
“I’m tired of divided government,” Ryan said. “It doesn’t work very well.”
The speaker never thought President Trump would make it to the White House. He feared Trump’s lewd, “Access Hollywood” tape wound sandbag GOP House and Senate candidates across the country. Trump was the GOP presidential nominee and slated to speak at a political rally in the battleground state of Wisconsin the day after the tape materialized.
Ryan fretted about what Trump’s appearance on the stage would mean for himself and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., locked in a competitive re-election campaign, as control of the Senate swung in the balance.
The speaker disinvited candidate Trump.
But Ryan is a pragmatist. When Trump captured the White House, the GOP maintained control of the Senate and Democrats barely dented the Republican majority in the House.
Ryan’s vision of unified government became a reality. With unified government, Republicans could repeal and replace ObamaCare, undo dozens of Obama-era policies and finally retrench the tax code.
It was easy to vote dozens of times to repeal ObamaCare when Republicans used dummy ammunition on a target practice range that doubles as the House floor. But as soon as the ordnance went live, it blew up in their faces.
Republicans have never held a roll call vote in the House to replace the 2010 health care law known since the party took control in 2011. The Senate never held a roll call vote on an ObamaCare replacement plan since taking the majority in that chamber in 2015.
That streak remains intact today. Republicans have never agreed on any health care replacement plan that would pass the House and Senate.
It’s not hard to decipher the code around Capitol Hill if you know what to look for.
The House Rules Committee -- the gateway for legislation to the House floor -- met for nearly 13 hours Wednesday without setting the groundwork for the chamber to consider the GOP health care bill for debate Thursday.
“The deal hasn’t been cut yet,” bemoaned committee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, just before midnight Wednesday.
Ryan and the rest of his leadership team conducted a lengthy conclave in his office Wednesday night with members of the “Tuesday Group,” an amalgam of 54 moderate Republicans led by Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent.
Most everyone then escaped out a back exit to elude a throng of press waiting in the hallway. Dent’s office quickly published a statement declaring his opposition to the health care package. The usually-genial Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-Maine, speed-walked out the front, ignoring reporters’ questions and not even making eye contact.
But the reticence spoke volumes. Many moderates were disgusted.
“It’s a terrible deal. Leadership is asking the Tuesday Group to vote for it so leadership doesn’t look bad for pulling the bill,” lamented one member who requested anonymity. “Members are asked to walk the plank.”
Moderate Republicans faced the most exposure on this bill and could pay with their seats if they voted yea.
Meantime, negotiations continued with the conservative House Freedom Caucus. White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, top adviser Steve Bannon and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney (who co-founded the caucus when he served in Congress) descended on Capitol Hill for a short meeting Thursday night with all House Republicans.
Their message?
“Let’s vote,” Bannon said.
“It’s up to those guys in there,” said Mulvaney, jerking his head over his right shoulder toward Republicans huddled in a conference room in the basement of the Capitol.
“You heard a lot of members tonight express their passion about getting this done,” said House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., afterwards. When asked if he was still whipping the vote, Scalise replied, “We will have more conversations tonight.”
Several senior House GOP sources made clear that the administration was responsible for converting nays to yeas. Some House Republican leadership figures and White House sources openly lit into the Freedom Caucus, saying there was an effort to “isolate” those members for never budging.
“Nothing’s changed,” sighed exhausted caucus leader Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., after the meeting. “I’m not confident in anything right now. All I’m confident in is I’m going home to go to bed.”
People weren’t home in bed very long. Updated bill text arrived just before midnight Thursday, courting the likes of some moderates.
GOP Reps. Tom MacArthur, N.J.; Martha McSally, Ariz.; Elise Stefanik, N.Y.; and Tim Murphy, Pennsylvania, all applauded the changes. The Rules Committee scheduled a 7 a.m. meeting to prepare the updated bill for the floor Friday.
“The directive to us last night was to put our pencils down and turn our papers in,” said Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, as the House GOP prepared the health care bill for debate.
But something was amiss.
Vice President Pence was slated to head to Little Rock, Ark., and Memphis, Tenn., on Friday morning.
But the vice president cancelled the trip on little notice, and motored to the GOP’s “Capitol Hill Club,” a hangout just behind the Cannon House Office Building. A secretive huddle with members of the Freedom Caucus at the Capitol Hill Club would avoid reporters streaming through the Capitol.
Ryan then dashed off to the White House to meet with the president.
There would be no need for either event if the vote count was solid.
The magic number to pass a bill in the House was 216, with 430 sitting members and five vacancies. The number necessary for passage was expected to be a little lower as there are always absences. (Hey, you try getting 430 people in the same room at the same time). Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill.,  was out because his wife passed away.
The House usually conducts a series of “bed check” votes ahead of major issues on the floor. Such votes are often on parliamentary issues or non-controversial bills.
The checks enable leaders to determine how many members are actually present that day and also do final assessments of where members stand on an issue. On those roll calls, the total of members voting ranged between 422, 424 and 420. That meant the threshold to pass the health care bill could be 212, 213 or 211 yeas.
But the House was never within striking distance. If Republicans were within a vote or two, the GOP brass might be able to lug it across the finish line. But this bill was going to fail. Forging ahead with a roll call vote would put a lot of members on the record on a bill destined for the dust heap.
“It is going to be tattooed to you,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., warned Republicans on Wednesday night at the Rules Committee, looking in the GOP direction of the dais.
Everyone knew the gig was up around 3:30 p.m. et Friday. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., presided over the House and recessed the chamber “subject to the call of the chair.”
The term means the House is out  but will meet again at an undetermined time. If everything was set, they’d hold the vote.
TV monitors all around the Capitol flipped onto a graphic known as the “screen of death.” The picture shows the Capitol Dome with a waving U.S. flag. The words “The House is in recess subject to the call of the chair” are emblazoned across the top.
Republicans failed.
The exercise underscored that the internecine schisms that divided Republicans during the presidential election and under the tutelage of former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, still remain.
Some members think Boehner was no longer effective. Members of the Freedom Caucus helped nudge his departure in October 2015. Would things be different under Ryan?
Maybe. But not really. New speaker. Same membership.
Boehner often engineered a coalition of Democrats and Republicans to pass major legislation. Avoiding a government shutdown. Wrestling with the debt ceiling. But no Democrat was going to vote to repeal and replace ObamaCare. Republicans were on their own. And without help from the other side of the aisle, Ryan could never get to 216, 213, 212 or even 211 yeas.
“We had roughly 200 votes,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Oregon, one of the authors of the GOP health care bill.
The question now is how much political capital did Republicans exhaust in this effort? They have to fund the government by April 28. A fight over the debt ceiling looms. Trump, Ryan and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, say now it’s on to tax reform.
Damage for Ryan?
When Boehner resigned, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., surfaced at the Capitol one day and spoke of what led to Boehner’s exit.
“In the leadership, you take on barnacles like a ship at sea and they start to weight you down after battle,” said Lott, bounced from his post in 2002. “Once you get in the leadership, there ain’t no such thing as purity.”
Ryan’s ship certainly accumulated major barnacles in this fight.
And ObamaCare remains.
That’s because Republicans have divided government. Yes, they have the House, Senate and White House. But the GOP remains fractured and fratricidal.
So why was “repeal and replace” such an effective campaign tool for Republicans?
Perhaps it’s just that. A great campaign tool. Kind of like tax reform. What lawmaker doesn’t campaign on lowering taxes? Yet no major updates to the tax code in decades. How about abortion? Settled law. But both sides campaign on the issue and little changes.
Gun control? Democrats invoke the Columbine, Sandy Hook, San Bernardino and Orlando shooting massacres. A crazed gunman shot former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., in the head -- ironically delaying the House GOP’s first vote to repeal ObamaCare in January 2011. Yet the firearms issue hasn’t evolved much since 1994. Both sides deploy guns as a campaign issue.
And so here we are with repealing and replacing ObamaCare.
The screen of death flashed on TV monitors all over the Capitol Friday afternoon. Repealing and replacing Obamacare was dead. And by nightfall, some Republican lawmakers were blasting out statements, pledging to continue the repeal and replace fight.

Pence vows Trump will continue ObamaCare fight, calls out Democrats and Republicans

Vice President Pence tried Saturday to deliver a pep-talk to Americans after fellow Republicans’ failed effort to overhaul ObamaCare -- admitting that members are “back to the drawing board” but vowing that President Trump will “keep fighting.”
Pence spoke in the aftermath of House Speaker Paul Ryan on Friday cancelling the final vote for the ObamaCare replacement bill, upon concluding he didn’t have enough votes despite the chamber’s GOP majority.
Republicans Ryan and Trump after announcing the cancellation, sounded as if efforts to fulfill campaign promises to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law were essentially finished.
Ryan publicly said Americans would be living with ObamaCare for the “foreseeable future,” while Trump simply told The New York Times, “It’s enough already.”
However, Trump and Pence on Saturday seemed to come back fighting.
“ObamaCare will explode, and we will all get together and piece together a great healthcare plan for THE PEOPLE,” Trump tweeted. “Do not worry!”
Pence later said at a business event in Charleston, West Virginia, that small-business owners in the state repeatedly tell him about the need to dismantle ObamaCare because it “stifles growth” and slows job creation.
“President Trump is never going to stop fighting to keep his promises to the American people,” he said
He also argued those who claimed victory in Republicans’ failure Friday are merely championing the status quo and said, “I promise you, that victory won’t last for long.”
Pence also put pressure on West Virginia Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican, and Joe Manchin, a Democrat, to confirm Judge Neil Gorsuch as the next Supreme Court justice.
However, he also made clear that Gorsuch, Trump’s pick, would be confirmed “one way or another,” implying that Senate Republican leaders would invoke parliamentary tactics to win confirmation with a simple, 51-vote majority.
Pence was joined at the first event by Small Business Administration leader Linda McMahon, who helped start and run World Wrestling Entertainment.
“Maybe we could have used a couple of WWE superstars on Capitol Hill yesterday,” Pence, who did his share of arm-twisting for ObamaCare reform, said jokingly.
On Friday, after the vote was cancelled, Trump appeared to already be focusing on tax reform and returning to his plan to allow ObamaCare to continue -- with the expectation that the 2010 health care law would implode amid increasing costs and dwindling options for Americans.
Still, his tweet Saturday suggested a potential willingness to work on a bipartisan plan on overhauling the law -- albeit a scenario in which Democrats come to the GOP-controlled Congress to work together on improvements.
Late Friday, Tennessee GOP Sen. Bob Corker also suggested the fight to replace ObamaCare was not finished.
“At some point, on behalf of the American people, we have to resolve the issues that are driving up costs, limiting choices, and causing the individual market to spiral downward,” he said. “I stand ready to work with the administration and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in order to fix our broken health care system.”

House Intelligence Committee Cartoons

Intelligence Committee Democrats hell bent on destroying Trump presidency

Schiff blasts Nunes' 'dead of night excursion' for documents

The House Intelligence Committee is supposed to be more bipartisan than other House committees and a place where members conduct serious oversight of America’s intelligence agencies. Its members are expected to put politics aside to oversee sensitive intelligence programs that are crucial to protecting our nation’s national security.
That’s not what we saw in Monday’s rare open Intelligence Committee hearing.  Democratic members spent every minute of the hearing to smear the president before the cameras. By doing so, they made a mockery of bipartisan intelligence oversight.
Republican Intelligence Committee members were taken off guard by hyper-partisan behavior of their Democratic colleagues. At the hearing there were some useful exchanges between Republican members and Comey on the seriousness of recent leaks of intelligence as well as the unmasking and illegal disclosure of General Michael Flynn’s name from NSA reports.  Unfortunately, these discussions were overshadowed by the Democrats who were much more aggressive in pushing their Trump-Russia conspiracy theories.
Congressional Republicans must learn from this episode that the Democratic Party is so obsessed with destroying President Trump that their Democratic colleagues cannot be trusted to engage in good faith deliberations or hearings on anything that they can use to hurt Trump.  Sadly, this includes national security.
This means there should be no more open hearings on issues like Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Additional open hearings that the Senate and House Intelligence Committees have scheduled on this issue should be made closed hearings.
Republicans seemed to have gotten the message on this. Friday, an open House Intelligence Committee hearing scheduled for next week on the Russia/election hearing scheduled was cancelled. It will be replaced with a closed hearing.
If open congressional hearings on the Russia/election or similar issues are held, Republican members must be much more aggressive in pursuing leaks of classified information and the abuse of U.S intelligence by the Obama administration to spy on the Trump campaign. Committee chairmen should run such hearings with iron gavels and give Democratic members zero leeway to turn them into political circuses.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes proved that he knows what he’s up against in the aftermath of Monday’s intelligence committee hearing by the way he handled new information suggesting that the Obama administration did surveil the Trump campaign.
Nunes was given intelligence, apparently under the table from U.S. intelligence officers, which indicates the names of Trump campaign aides were “demasked” in intelligence reports that had nothing to do with Russia or any alleged wrongdoing by the Trump campaign.
This is a big deal because the names of American citizens incidentally collected by U.S. intelligence agencies are blacked out and are not supposed to be revealed unless there is a compelling national security reason.
Nunes has been condemned by Intelligence Committee Democrats and the news media by the way he disclosed this information since he presented it to the press without informing his Democratic colleagues in advance. Nunes also informed the White House about this information before he briefed the committee and is refusing to tell Democratic committee members the name or names of his sources.
Maybe Nunes should not have brought this information to the White House before he briefed committee members.  (He apologized to them for this.)
My view is that Nunes took the right approach. He knows it is pointless to work with committee Democrats on this issue and if he had brought this intelligence to them before his press conference, they would have quickly leaked this information to the press to discredit it.
Nunes also is absolutely right in not revealing the name or names of his sources since there is a good chance committee Democrats would try to out these sources or get their managers to retaliate against them. I saw this happen when I worked for the CIA.
This story looks like it will soon get even more interesting. Fox News’ James Rosen reported Thursday that the committee may soon receive – possibly today -- intelligence that “is said to leave no doubt the Obama administration, in its closing days, was using the cover of legitimate surveillance on foreign targets to spy on President-elect Trump.”
Nunes was smart to double down on his effort to fight back against Democratic politicization of intelligence oversight when he said at a press conference Friday that he was cancelling an open hearing next week on the Russia election hearing and had turned it into a closed hearing.
In addition, Nunes said he has recalled FBI Director Comey and NSA Director Rogers to testify to this hearing.
I assume Nunes’ new information, the FBI’s refusal to fully cooperate with the committee’s investigation and Comey’s failure to fully answer questions about intelligence leaks are why Nunes is recalling Comey and Rogers.
Predictably, Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee complained bitterly in a follow-up press conference Friday that Nunes cancelled the open hearing and questioned why Comey and Rogers were being recalled.
It was the height of gall for Schiff to complain that Nunes’ actions indicate he is not interested in an independent and objective investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election after Schiff and his Democratic colleagues proved at Monday’s hearing that they are only interested in using this investigation to destroy the Trump presidency.
Nunes realizes this and decided to fight back.  Until congressional Democrats start putting the good of the country above their hatred of President Trump, Republican congressional leaders must employ similar tactics to do the work of the American people and safeguard our national security.
Fred Fleitz is senior vice president for policy and programs with the Center for Security Policy, a Washington, DC national security think tank. He held U.S. government national security positions for 25 years with the CIA, DIA, and the House Intelligence Committee staff. Fleitz also served as Chief of Staff to John R. Bolton when he was Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security in the George W. Bush administration. Fleitz specializes in the Iranian nuclear program, terrorism, and intelligence issues. He is the author of "Peacekeeping Fiascos of the 1990s: Causes, Solutions and U.S. Interests" (Praeger, May 30, 2002).

Trump administration approves Keystone XL pipeline

WASHINGTON –  The Trump administration has issued a presidential permit to pipeline builder TransCanada to build the Keystone XL pipeline.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer tweeted that President Donald Trump would discuss the pipeline later Friday morning.
The State Department says that it determined that building Keystone serves the U.S. national interest. That's the opposite conclusion to the one the State Department reached during the Obama administration.
The State Department says it considered foreign policy and energy security in making the determination.
The permit was signed by Tom Shannon, a career diplomat serving as undersecretary of state for political affairs. That's because Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recused himself due to his previous work running Exxon Mobil.
Keystone will carry tar sands oil from Canada to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.