Weekly Recap 12/9: Bye, Kevin, Part 2

By TokyoSand on December 9, 2023 • ( 2 )

The only thing Republicans in the House can manage right now is dysfunction, so it’s not a big surprise Kevin McCarthy doesn’t want to stick around for it. That leaves the Republicans with a two seat majority.

With that, let’s get into the good news!

Good News

Alan Hostetter, a former California police chief who brought a hatchet to the Capitol on Jan. 6, has been sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for his role in the siege.

A Nevada grand jury has indicted the six Republicans — including the chair of the Nevada Republican Party — who falsely pledged Nevada’s electoral votes to Donald Trump following the 2020 election.

Peter Doocy, reporting on Fox News said the following: “The House Oversight Committee has been at this for years, and they have so far not been able to provide any concrete evidence that Joe Biden personally profited from his son Hunter’s overseas business.”

The federal court of appeals in Washington, DC has upheld key aspects of Judge Chutkan’s gag order against Donald Trump. The court also rejected Trump’s claim that his candidacy affords him greater protection from restrictions on his speech.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) vetoed a bill that would have banned all forms of gender-affirming care for minors.

Vice President Kamala Harris broke a nearly 200-year-old record for casting the most tiebreaking votes in the Senate when she voted Tuesday to advance the confirmation of a new federal judge in Washington, D.C.

Karen Smith, the new Central Bucks school board president in Pennsylvania–a board that voters flipped from red to blue last month–chose to get sworn in on a stack of frequently banned books.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R), who served as Speaker pro tem for 3 weeks while Republicans struggled to pick a permanent Speaker, announced he isn’t seeking re-election.

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy also announced he isn’t seeking re-election and furthermore, is leaving Congress at the end of this month.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville partially lifted his months-long blockade on more than 400 senior military promotions.

The U.S. just added 199,000 in jobs, a consecutive 35 months of job growth under Biden. By the way, this seems like a good time to share this chart (now updated):

And the unemployment rate declined again, to 3.7%.

Biden has endorsed Native American athletes in their pursuit of fielding a lacrosse team at the 2028 Olympics. During the White House Tribal Nations Summit on Wednesday, Biden said he is requesting a “narrowly-scoped exception” to Olympic rules.

Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler appears to have departed her role at the conservative Leadership Institute, which removed her name from its website in the wake of a three-way sex scandal and criminal probe involving her husband.

This week the White House announced $4.8 billion in student debt relief for some 80,300 people. That brings the total approved student debt cancellation by the Biden administration to $132 billion for more than 3.6 million Americans.