House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has expressed doubt over House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) statement that footage from the Jan. 6 Capitol riots will be screened by the Capitol Police before being released to the public, questioning whether the police have done so yet. Jeffries said that any material footage must be vetted before it is released into the public domain, and McCarthy's office has not yet responded to his comments. It is unclear when the Capitol Police will finish screening the footage or when it will be released.
Posts tagged as “Hakeem Jeffries”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries have written a letter to Fox Corp. and Fox News executives, urging them to stop pushing baseless claims and “grave propaganda” about the 2020 presidential election. Documents from a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems revealed that Fox News commentators endorsed false claims about the election. Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch acknowledged this in the documents, and Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management, warned of possible shareholder lawsuits and an SEC investigation.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have agreed to create a bipartisan task force to establish a process to remove members from committees. Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina has been offered the position of chair, while Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma and Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas have also been asked to serve. The task force is a response to the fallout from McCarthy's decision to call for a vote of the full House that removed Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the Foreign Affairs Committee, and will be an important step in ensuring the U.S. continues to provide support to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
In his 2021 State of the Union address, President Joe Biden congratulated the new members of Congress and the new Speaker of the House, and expressed his desire to work together. He discussed the progress the United States has made in the past year, and the need for further progress in areas such as infrastructure, climate change, and immigration. He concluded his speech by expressing his optimism for the future of the United States and was well-received by members of Congress.
Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter, visited Capitol Hill on Thursday to meet with House leaders from both parties and receive a law enforcement briefing. The meeting was likely related to the fairness of the platform and the ongoing debate over tech regulation. It is unclear what the outcome of the meeting was, but it is the latest in a series of high-profile visits to Capitol Hill by tech executives.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has blocked two Democratic representatives from serving on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence due to national security concerns, citing that "integrity matters" and that the decision was not based on political payback. He has also filled out the GOP rosters of newly created select committees to investigate the politicization of the government and the origins of the Covid pandemic.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has blocked two Democrats, Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, from serving on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in a move seen as political payback for the Democrats' removal of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from committees earlier this year. McCarthy has cited a “new standard” from Democrats for why he would strip Schiff and Swalwell of their committee seats, and the decision has been met with criticism from both sides of the aisle. The move is seen as a response to the Democrats' decision to remove Greene and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) from committees, and it remains to be seen how the decision will affect the House Intelligence Committee's ability to fulfill its duties.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has nominated California Representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell to serve on the House Intelligence Committee, setting up a potential showdown with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy who has vowed to block the pair. Jeffries cited Schiff and Swalwell's "decades of distinguished leadership providing oversight" of the intelligence community and their careers as prosecutors before serving in Congress. The move signals a rocky start to the relationship between Jeffries and McCarthy, with the potential conflict between them affecting the committee's work.