Republicans rush to Trump's defense

Charges expected next week in porn star hush money case

Also in today’s edition of ‘Regular Order’ for March 31, 2023:

• House okays sweeping GOP energy bill.

• One Republican warns against a TikTok ban.

• The gun debate spills onto the Senate floor.

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DONALD TRUMP. Last night should have been an evening to celebrate for Republicans in Congress, after the House approved the top item on the GOP legislative agenda. But as with so much in the Republican Party in the last eight years, by the time GOP lawmakers got home - it was all about Donald Trump.

• MANHATTAN. With a New York City grand jury ready to formally indict Trump in a case involving his hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels - Republicans reacted last night with outrage, denouncing the prosecutor, and accusing Democrats of persecuting the former President.

• GOP. Even before any of the details had been made public, Republicans basically said any criminal charges filed against Trump would be unacceptable. "What we are seeing is the attempted political assassination of a former President," said Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL). "This unprecedented weaponization of our justice system is as shameless as it is dangerous," said Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA).

• SPEAKER. From Capitol Hill, Speaker Kevin McCarthy again vowed to use the power of the House against the Manhattan D.A. for his prosecution of Trump. "The American people will not tolerate this injustice, and the House of Representatives will hold Alvin Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power to account," the Speaker said.

• MRS. GREENE OF GEORGIA. "Impeach Biden," said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) after news of the Trump indictment became public. "Enough of this witch hunt bullshit," she tweeted.

• SENATE. The reaction was much the same across the Capitol among Senate Republicans. "This indictment doesn't pass the smell test," said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC). "Smells like politicization of our justice system," said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA). Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) called it 'political persecution masquerading as law.' "There is no limit to what the left will do to bring down President Trump," said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).

• CALLS. Trump worked the phones last night to shore up support with allies in the Congress. "He is resolute and focused," said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). "He is also concerned about what this politically-motivated indictment will do to America's brand around the world."

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DEMS. While Republicans erupted in anger, the reaction from Democrats on Capitol Hill was much more reserved. "Donald Trump deserves every protection provided to him by the Constitution," said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). "Whatever the charges may be, he is constitutionally entitled to a presumption of innocence,” said Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA). "No one is above the law, not even a former President," added Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL).

• DETAILS. Democrats jabbed at Speaker McCarthy for denouncing the indictment before any of the details are known. "You haven’t seen the indictment nor the evidence so you cannot possibly have any basis to say this is partisan," said Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY). "But you sure do kiss the ring well."

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TIMING. The news about Trump arrived at an interesting moment for members of Congress, as most lawmakers had just headed home for an extended Easter break. The House and Senate aren't due back for legislative business until the week of April 17. That means lawmakers will be commenting from afar about the latest on Trump - instead of being chased around Capitol Hill by reporters.

• TIP OF THE ICEBERG? I also think we have to step back and realize that this could be just the beginning of Donald Trump's legal troubles. The New York investigation might actually be the weakest case against the former President.

  • There is a major investigation in Georgia of how Trump tried to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss.

  • The federal Jan. 6 investigation continues, which has been gaining new testimony in recent days from top Trump aides.

  • There is also the federal probe into why Trump had classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, and whether he misled the FBI.

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REGULAR ORDER. Help me spread the word about my newsletter! Unfortunately, since my voice doesn’t work right - I can’t go on radio, TV, or do podcasts to talk about ‘Regular Order’ - so, if you know someone who is interested in politics - give them the gift of straight news and support independent journalism in the halls of Congress! Or, you can always buy me a drink.

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ENERGY. A few hours before news arrived about Donald Trump, Republicans left Capitol Hill for their Easter break with a big legislative victory, as the House voted 225 to 205 to approve a GOP package designed to spur domestic oil and gas production. "Today is a good day in America," said Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

• BILL. "H.R. 1 reverses Biden's misguided policies and produces more energy here at home," said Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA). The GOP plan would force the feds to make more land and offshore waters available to oil and gas exploration, and reduce the royalties which companies would have to pay Uncle Sam.

• VOTES. Only one Republican voted against the bill, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA). Four Democrats broke ranks to vote for the GOP measure - Cuellar TX, Golden ME, V. Gonzalez TX, and Perez WA.

• FUTURE. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer has said the top legislative priority of House Republicans has no future. "Once again, I want to make it clear, H.R. 1 is dead on arrival in the Senate,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. "Not because of politics, but because it's so ridiculous."

• CHUNKS. While Democrats don’t have to bring this bill up for a vote in the Senate, I still think the permitting reforms in the measure could have a future. And you never know what else might happen along the way.

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EASTER BREAK. The House GOP game plan was to spend the upcoming two-week break period trumpeting the energy bill vote. Republicans will certainly still do that - but we all know that most of the News Oxygen in the coming days will be sucked up by one thing, and that’s the charges being filed in New York against Donald Trump.

• NEXT WEEK. What will be really interesting is the reaction when the details of the indictment are made public. Once you move past the true partisan believers in Trump, there are a number of Republicans who have not commented as yet on his legal predicament. (One of them is Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell.)

• COVERAGE. This brings me back to an odd thing that has happened regularly over the past 18 months or so. I get a lot of messages on Twitter and Facebook from people demanding that I stop reporting about Donald Trump. These come seemingly from Democrats, who think that I should just ignore him.

• NEWS. I don’t know how people think that ignoring Trump is the answer. He is the leading GOP candidate for President. He basically sent a mob to attack the Congress in order to keep himself in power on Jan. 6. These are not things to ignore - especially when they are all interrelated.

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TIKTOK. One week ago, we were looking at the smoldering wreckage left behind on Capitol Hill after the Congressional testimony of the CEO of TikTok, and wondering if lawmakers would ban the social media app. While TikTok is still certainly in hot water, it’s not clear that Congress will follow through on that tough talk.

• WARNING. While many Republicans have led the charge to have Congress approve a national ban on the TikTok app, one prominent GOP voice is warning that could cost their party the support of young voters in the future. And it is something to think about.

• RAND. "If Republicans want to continuously lose elections for a generation, we should pass this bill to ban TikTok, a social media app used by 150 million people, primarily young Americans," said Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).

• GOP. Republicans have had troubles with younger voters in recent years, whether it's over guns, climate, abortion, or TikTok. Gun violence is a perfect example of how one event can spur a large amount of political involvement - as the Parkland school shooting in Florida showed in 2018.

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SENATE DUSTUP. With Congress going nowhere on school shootings yet again, the issue generated an unusually personal exchange on the Senate floor yesterday between Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT). It was another reminder of how the Congress remains deadlocked over what should be done to safeguard kids and teachers.

• LONE STAR. "This is about stopping these damn murders," Cruz yelled, as he tried to win approval of a bill to fund police officers at schools, which was blocked by Murphy. "The corporate media doesn't report on this," Cruz bellowed, belittling what he said was a 'dishonest' press corps.

• NUTMEG. When Murphy got the floor, he needled Cruz for not joining school safety talks after the Uvalde massacre in Texas. "Sen. Cruz never expressed one iota of interest in being part of those negotiations," said Murphy, who has been the Democratic point man on gun violence.

• CRUZ. As Murphy left the floor, Cruz continued his verbal barrage, making it even more personal. "He gave his speech and ran away," Cruz said of Murphy, saying 'very few people outside of Connecticut' know who he is.

SCHOOL SHOOTINGS. This back and forth is a good way to segue to my column this week for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Three 9-year-olds and three teachers were shot and killed at a Nashville elementary school. We have a lot of yelling and finger pointing. But is anyone going to do anything about kids and teachers getting gunned down? It sure doesn’t look like it. Americans will now just wait for the next school shooting. And then we will repeat the same exercise.

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RAP SHEET. A South Carolina man was arrested this week and charged with spraying a chemical irritant on police officers outside the Capitol on Jan. 6. The background on the investigation into Thomas Andrew Casselman shows the persistence of the feds in tracking down suspects from that day.

• PROBE. The FBI received several tips pointing to Casselman, who cut his long hair, and deactivated his Facebook account - which had photos and videos from Jan. 6. But when he reactivated that account on March 17, 2021, it gave the FBI all sorts of leads, and led to his arrest.

• GOOGLE. A search warrant indicated Casselman made the following Google searches: “charges for dc rioters,” “Capitol arrests list,” “how many times has capitol hill been breached,” “the statute of limitations for assault on a federal officer,” and “assaulting a federal officer punishment.”

• VIDEO. How come Fox News has stopped showing the U.S. Capitol security videos? I truly believe if more of those tapes are made public - a lot more people will get identified and arrested.

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MUSE OF HISTORY.  March 31, 1949.  On this date, President Harry Truman made clear he wanted no part of a government running too much red ink.  "I think that the fact that we may have to run a deficit this year would be much more dangerous for the country than to levy taxes necessary to run the Government," Truman told reporters.   Truman had proposed a $4 billion tax increase, but that had run into trouble, objected to by Sen. Walter George (D-GA), who led the powerful Senate Finance Committee.

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 LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:

The House next has votes on April 17.

The Senate next has votes on April 17.

President Biden’s daily schedule link.

Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree. Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com

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