DeSantis open to pardons for Jan. 6 attackers
Negotiators still trying to seal a debt limit deal
Also in today’s edition of ‘Regular Order’ for May 26, 2023:
Lawmakers head home, wait for an agreement.
DeSantis pokes at Trump on spending.
Senate GOP relief in Pennsylvania.
JANUARY 6. The fight over the 2020 election isn’t going away. A day after announcing his bid for President, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis embraced the idea of possibly issuing pardons to those convicted in the sprawling investigation of January 6, when thousands of backers of Donald Trump laid siege to the Capitol in a bid to illegally keep him in office.
PARDONS. "On day one, I will have folks that will get together and look at all these cases," DeSantis said on the Clay and Buck podcast. "And we will be aggressive at issuing pardons." DeSantis also took shots at the Justice Department and FBI, saying they have been 'weaponized.’
TRUMP. The declaration by DeSantis puts him on the same side as Trump, who has openly talked about pardons for those convicted of crimes on January 6. "I am inclined to pardon many of them," Trump said in his CNN town hall earlier this month. "They've persecuted these people," Trump added.
BOTTOM LINE. It means the top two Republican candidates for President are ready to wipe away the convictions of those prosecuted for the January 6 attack. The GOP - long the party of law and order - is now getting fully behind those who tried to use violence to keep Trump in office.
OTHER SIDE. Basically no one in the Republican Party stood up to oppose DeSantis. "Any candidate who says they will pardon Jan. 6 defendants is not qualified to be President," said ex-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who was run out of Congress because she wanted Trump and the rioters held accountable.
RAP SHEET. A few hours after that DeSantis interview, the feds announced the latest arrest in the Jan. 6 investigation, which involved a man who was part of the 'Gray Ghost Militia.' An FBI affidavit included text messages from Daniel Wilson about what violent measures might be needed to keep Joe Biden from taking office.
WILSON. "When tyranny becomes law resistance becomes duty and good men must do bad things," said Wilson, who was considering all sorts of options. "It’s been crossing my mind if we go to a Civil War do we try to take Washington DC first or do we try to take state capitals first."
OATH KEEPERS. Convicted of seditious conspiracy, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia was sentenced to 18 years in prison by a federal judge on Thursday. The sentence for Stewart Rhodes is the longest jail term handed out so far in the investigation. One of his deputies was given 12 years in prison.
DEBT LIMIT. The House and Senate are both out of town until next week - as rank and file lawmakers wait to see what kind of agreement gets worked out by the White House and Republicans on a budget and debt limit package. "We do not have an agreement yet,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters as he left the Capitol last night.
DEAL MAKING. McCarthy did not get into any of the details of what the agreement might look like, as the possible shape of it has left some Republicans aggravated. "We're going to continue to work until we get this done,” McCarthy said. “We knew this will not would not be easy.”
DETAILS. What seems to emerging is a deal that would not cut as much spending as Republicans approved in a House-passed bill. It would allow for more spending on defense and homeland security, with spending caps just for the next two years. (I will be very interested in the total impact on the deficit.)
WORK WORK WORK. Democrats used a series of speeches on the House floor yesterday to accuse the GOP of pushing the nation towards financial ruin. "We are days away from a devastating default on our debts and where are House Republicans? Catching flights to soak up the long weekend," said Rep. Nikema Williams (D-GA).
GOP. Republicans had their answer ready. "Democrats keep asking why we went home for Memorial Day weekend with the debt limit in the balance," said Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK). "We already did our job," Kern added, referring to the GOP debt limit package. "The ball is in the Democrats' court."
SENATE. One GOP Senator was already threatening yesterday to use the rules to delay any compromise, worried the final product will be toothless. "I will use every procedural tool at my disposal to impede a debt-ceiling deal that doesn’t contain substantial spending and budgetary reforms," said Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT).
BITTER TASTE. Obviously, any compromise is going to leave both sides aggravated - and probably won’t include what Lee might want in terms of ‘spending and budgetary reforms.’ Let’s face it - the final deal probably won’t look like what the House approved one month ago today.
TRUMP DEBT. Democrats have long chafed at Republican criticism over spending and the nation's debt, often pointing back to the massive deficits run up during the Trump Administration. Oddly enough, those attacks are now being used by Gov. Ron DeSantis, as he takes on Donald Trump in the 2024 GOP race.
DESANTIS. In an interview with WASR Radio in New Hampshire, DeSantis said Trump was wrong to sign a series of Omnibus funding bills approved by the Congress. "We're $31 trillion in debt, and he added almost $8 trillion in debt in just four years as President," DeSantis said.
VOTES. But DeSantis doesn't exactly have clean hands when it comes to spending, which shouldn't be a surprise. In 2018 - just before he resigned from Congress to run for Governor - DeSantis was one of 167 House Republicans who voted to increase spending caps and raise the debt ceiling.
GOP RACE. Is Gov. Ron DeSantis ready to take on Donald Trump? I'm still not sure about that. But the Florida Governor will certainly have the chance in coming months to take on the GOP leader - who continues to mock him at every turn, calling him 'Rob DeSanctimonious.' That's my column this week in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
REGULAR ORDER. Help me spread the word about my Congressional newsletter. Buy yourself a subscription, give someone the gift of straight news, and support independent journalism in the halls of Congress! The other option to show your support is you can always just buy me a drink.
SCOTUS WOTUS. Republicans in Congress celebrated on Thursday as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the EPA had gone too far in applying the Clean Water Act to certain wetlands. "Today's ruling puts farmers and ranchers before Washington bureaucrats," said Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA), as GOP lawmakers denounced regulations known as 'Waters of the U.S.'
GOP. "The Biden administration clearly overreached its authority in defining which waters received federal protections, and I’m glad the Supreme Court agreed with what Republicans have been saying all along," said Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY).
FUMING. On the other side, Democrats were furious with the ruling. "This MAGA Supreme Court is continuing to erode our country’s environmental laws," said Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer. But let’s be clear - this wasn't a ruling that was only supported by the court’s conservatives.
UNANIMOUS. All nine of the Justices agreed with the premise that the EPA had overstepped the authority granted by Congress. But the court's three liberals - along with Justice Brett Kavanaugh - argued the decision would have "significant repercussions for water quality and flood control throughout the United States."
HUNTER BIDEN. An IRS whistleblower who claims the investigation of President Biden's son has been slow-walked by the feds will reportedly answer questions behind closed doors today before a House committee. Gary Shapley, a veteran IRS investigator, revealed his identity earlier this week in an interview with CBS News.
SHAPLEY. "There were multiple steps that were slow-walked," Shapley told CBS, claiming it was done 'at the direction of the Department of Justice.' What's interesting is the timeline here, as Shapley first raised questions about the Hunter Biden probe in 2020, during the Trump Administration.
ATTORNEY. One red flag that I noted about the Shapley story is that he recently dumped his original lawyer, a noted whistleblower attorney. Reportedly, his first lawyer wasn’t interested in press attention.
KEYSTONE. Republicans breathed a sigh of relief last night when Doug Mastriano announced that he would not run for U.S. Senate in 2024. The Pennsylvania state Senator - endorsed by Donald Trump - ran one of the worst GOP campaigns imaginable in 2022, losing badly in a race for Governor. He won't be repeating that next year.
MUSE OF HISTORY. May 26, 1830. On this date, Congress gave final approval to the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which was used to push various tribes to relocate west of the Mississippi River. After forcing sick members to attend the day's session, the House voted 103-97 in favor of the plan - a day after voting 99-98 against final action. The Senate then voted 24-18 against the idea of limiting this Indian removal bill only to the state of Georgia - where authorities were already clashing with the Cherokee. This law would ultimately lead to the Trail of Tears.
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The House is expected back for votes after Memorial Day.
The Senate next has votes on Tuesday.
President Biden’s daily schedule link.
Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree. Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com
If you want to say ‘thanks’ - you can buy me a cup of coffee.
"On day one, I will have folks that will get together and look at all these cases," DeSantis said on the Clay and Buck podcast. "And we will be aggressive at issuing pardons.".... DeSantis just lost me.
You have a sharp eye, Jamie. That Daniel Wilson affidavit link has a rich trove of information. I haven't thought about the Grey Ghost for years. There was a TV series about him in the Fifties but in those early days of the civil rights movement its days were numbered. I had no idea until this morning that Col. John S. Mosby attended the same college from which my maternal grandfather graduated a few decades later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_S._Mosby
Hope you have a good Memorial Day weekend.