The latest on Congress as GOP tensions rise

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office criticized Republicans in a statement issued shortly after the House voted to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments. 

What happened earlier tonight: The House voted to remove Greene from her committee assignments, a decisive step that comes in the wake of recently unearthed incendiary and violent past statements from the congresswoman that have triggered widespread backlash from Democrats and divided congressional Republicans.

The vote tally was 230-199 with 11 Republican House members voting with Democrats to remove Greene from her committee assignments.

Clarification: An earlier version of this post attributed the statement to Pelosi. Her office issued the statement.

Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, who faced off with members of her own caucus last night over her vote to impeach former President Trump, defended her vote to keep Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on her committee posts.

In a statement, Cheney said it is the GOP’s responsibility to address Greene’s statements “inside our conference.”

Read her full statement:

The House voted today to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, from her committee posts.

Greene was removed by a vote of 230 to 199.

Eleven Republicans crossed party lines and voted to remove Greene from the committees.

These 11 GOP lawmakers voted with Democrats:

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00:47 - Source: cnn

Several Republicans crossed party lines and voted to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, from her committee assignments.

So far Reps. Adam Kinzinger, Nicole Malliotakis, John Katko, Fred Upton and Brian Fitzpatrick voted yes to strip Greene of her committee posts. 

The vote on the House floor is ongoing. 

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01:29 - Source: cnn

The House is voting right now on a measure to remove Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments, a decisive step that comes in the wake of recently unearthed incendiary and violent past statements from the congresswoman that have triggered widespread backlash from Democrats and divided congressional Republicans.

House Democrats, who control the chamber, set up the vote after first attempting to pressure Republicans to strip the Georgia Republican of committee assignments on their own. House Republicans have not taken that action, however, and House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday released a statement calling the push by Democrats to take away the congresswoman’s committee assignments a “partisan power grab.”

Greene defended herself ahead of the vote in a speech on the House floor and attempted to distance herself from the dangerous and debunked QAnon conspiracy theory, which she has previously embraced.

Read more here.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer walked a giant photograph of a post from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene across the House floor during his remarks today. 

The post featured an AR-15 and pictures of members of the so-called “Squad.”

The post said “AR-15- the squad’s worst nightmare.” 

“They are not the squad — they are Ilhan, they are Alexandria, they are Rashida. They are our colleagues,” Hoyer said, referring to House Democratic members Rep. Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib. 

Correction: An earlier version of the article incorrectly stated that Greene’s message was posted on Twitter. It was posted on Facebook.

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03:30 - Source: cnn

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is speaking on the House floor against the resolution to remove Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments, saying that while he condemns the comments made by Greene, he blames the Democrats for pushing through a “dangerous new standard.” 

He said Greene’s comments “do not represent the values of my party as a Republican, as a conservative, as an American” and that he “condemns those views unequivocally”

“I made that clear when I met with Rep. Greene. I also made clear that we as members have a responsibility to hold ourselves to a higher standard. She acknowledged this during our conversation and apologized for past comments. I will hold her to her words and her actions moving forward.”

He’s now blaming Democrats for not punishing Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rep. Eric Swalwell.

President Donald Trump's attorneys Bruce Castor and David Schoen

Former President Trump will not testify at his impeachment trial, Trump adviser Jason Miller told CNN.

“The president will not testify in an unconstitutional proceeding,” he said.

Miller has also tweeted a response from Trump’s lawyers to the request from Democratic impeachment managers that the former president testify.

“We are in receipt of your latest public relations stunt,” Trump’s attorneys write to Rep. Jamie Raskin.

“The use of our Constitution to bring a purported impeachment proceeding is much too serious to try to play these games,” wrote Trump’s attorneys, Bruce Castor and David Schoen.

Earlier today: The House impeachment managers requested Trump testify at his upcoming Senate impeachment trial, in a dramatic move to try to get the former president on the record about his conduct surrounding the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol.

See his tweet:

Sen. Lindsey Graham leaves the floor of the Senate on January 26.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters he doesn’t think former President Trump would come testify at the Senate impeachment trial next week.

He added: “It’s just a nightmare for the country to do this… it’s just a political, show boat move. They didn’t call him in the House.”

The South Carolina Republican also said he spoke to Trump a few days ago, and that he’s in “pretty good spirits… trying to get adjusted to his new life” and that he’s “very focused on 2022” to help the GOP retake the House and/or Senate.

Sen. Jim Risch, a Republican from Idaho, is offering a budget amendment opposing a $15 federal minimum wage. It’s designed to highlight divisions in the Democratic party over the issue since moderate Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin have already voiced opposition to the $15 increase.

The move comes as President Biden is pushing to include a $15 an hour hike – a long sought agenda item for Democrats – in the Covid-19 relief package, but is already facing resistance from some in the party on the dollar amount

Earlier this week, Manchin told reporters “no” he doesn’t support a $15 increase, and argued it’s more reasonable for his home state of West Virginia to instead raise it to something in the ballpark of $11 an hour. 

Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat from Montana and another moderate, similarly told reporters while he supports an increase, he’d prefer a lower number that would also make more sense based on the cost of living in his state.  

Every single Democratic senator’s vote will be needed in order to pass Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package, if Democrats choose to go through the budget reconciliation process to bypass GOP support.

Senate Republicans weighed in on the announcement that House impeachment managers are requesting former President Trump to testify at his upcoming Senate impeachment trial.

Some said they need to think about it, others like Republican Sen. Ted Cruz were quick to shut it down, arguing Democrats just “want a ridiculous show trial.”  

GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski told reporters: “I’ll think about it.”

The Alaska Republican added that she hadn’t even “considered that as a possibility,” when asked if she thinks there’s any value in Trump testifying at the trial.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy also said he has to think about it, but said he’s a “little frustrated” that the House didn’t gather evidence before sending it over to the Senate. 

“Why did they not take the time to gather the evidence on the House side?” the Louisiana Republican asked. Adding, “It’s unfair to the process, it lowers the bar to what we’re doing. So let me think if we want to enable it.”

In his first visit to the State Department as President, Biden gave employees a clear message: “America is back. Diplomacy is back.”

Biden is set to announce a series of significant changes to US foreign policy, including measures on Yemen and LBGTQ rights, during a speech at the State Department, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Thursday.

Indicating that, Biden added:

“We’re going to rebuild our alliances. We’re going to re-engage the world and take on the enormous challenge we face dealing with the pandemic, dealing with global warming, and again, standing up for democracy and human rights around the world.”

He emphasized that employees will be “trusted and empowered” to do their job and asked everyone to follow some core tenets — integrity, transparency and accountability — while working in the service of American people.

The House impeachment managers just requested former President Donald Trump testify at his upcoming Senate impeachment trial. It’s a dramatic move to try to get the former President on the record about his conduct surrounding the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol.

Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin sent a letter to Trump’s attorney Thursday requesting that Trump testify before or during the upcoming impeachment trial, which begins on Tuesday, arguing that his testimony was needed after he disputed the House’s allegations that he incited the insurrection at the Capitol.

Raskin asks Trump to testify “as early as Monday, February 8, 2021, and not later than Thursday, February 11, 2021. We would be pleased to arrange such testimony at a mutually convenient time and place.”

The House’s letter did not threaten to subpoena Trump if he does not appear voluntarily, though Raskin suggested the managers would use his refusal against him.

“If you decline this invitation, we reserve any and all rights, including the right to establish at trial that your refusal to testify supports a strong adverse inference regarding your actions (and inaction) on January 6, 2021,” Raskin continues.

Some Senate Democrats have said they are open to issuing a subpoena to Trump if House managers want to go that route.

“If the House managers are insistent that a subpoena for him is necessary, their view is entitled to a lot of weight,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal told CNN.

Some context: In a 14-page response to the House’s impeachment effort on Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers argued that the Senate cannot vote to impeach Trump when he no longer holds office as well as that Trump’s speech about the election and before the Jan. 6 riots did not cause the riots and was protected by the First Amendment.

The House impeachment managers, in their brief filed Tuesday, pushed back directly on that point, which Senate Republicans have coalesced around as a reason to acquit Trump, arguing there is ample history and precedent to hold a trial and convict Trump, who was impeached by the House while still in office.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke from the House floor as the chamber prepares to vote on a resolution to strip her from her committee assignments due to extreme comments she made before winning her seat.

Greene went on to say that she believes shootings are “absolutely real” and that 9/11 “absolutely happened.” She did not apologize for her past comments.

Some context: Outrage over Greene, who has in the past embraced the dangerous and debunked QAnon conspiracy theory, grew more intense in Congress in the wake of a report from CNN’s KFile that she repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democratic politicians in 2018 and 2019 before being elected to Congress.

The Georgia Republican has also faced backlash over recently resurfaced comments about the 2018 Parkland school shooting.

The House will vote today on a measure to remove Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments, a decisive step that comes in the wake of recently unearthed incendiary and violent past statements from the congresswoman that have triggered widespread backlash from Democrats and divided congressional Republicans.

Below is some guidance on what to expect this afternoon in the House:

Note: Timing can always shift, but this is what we expect. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated President Biden’s belief that the US minimum wage needs to be increased. Asked if it’s something the President would be willing to drop in Covid relief bill negotiations, Psaki declined to say if it’s a measure that’s being included in the Democrat’s budget reconciliation process. 

Pushed further, Psaki reiterated her remarks and added, “there’s obviously a process that’s ongoing, the reconciliation process, that will make some determinations about what can and cannot be in the bill, based on rules.”

What is reconciliation? As Biden pursues a bipartisan Covid-19 relief deal, Senate Democrats are laying the groundwork for passing relief without any Republican votes using a procedural shortcut known as budget reconciliation.

Reconciliation could allow Democrats to fast track key aspects of Biden’s agenda, from Covid-19 relief to infrastructure, but the process comes with a strict set of rules attached.

You can read more about this process here.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he and Sen. Elizabeth Warren had a 45-minute conversation with President Biden and his advisors “a few weeks ago” to discuss taking an executive action to cancel up to $50,000 in federal student loan debt. 

Warren noted that the action would cost an estimated $650 billion.

“There is very little that the President could do with the flick of a pen that would boost our economy more than canceling $50,000 in student debt, it will be a huge push into our economy,” Schumer said Thursday.  

The New York Democrat made the remarks at a news conference calling on the President to take executive action to cancel up to $50,000 in federal student loan debt, alongside Warren and Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Alma Adams (D-NC), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Mondaire Jones (D-NY).

Schumer argued that while he believes Biden has taken some steps in the direction of alleviating student debt, “he has to go much further.”

“They have been extremely open to listening to us Senator Warren and I had a 45 minute conversation with the president and his advisers just a few weeks ago… we believe the American people are strongly behind us on this issue overwhelmingly,” he said. Adding that if the American people and lawmakers keep pressuring the administration: “This is gonna happen.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell denounced the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion plan addressing the coronavirus pandemic, saying it would blow up the deficit after Congress already passed “the largest federal response to any crisis since World War II.”

He argued that Congress just passed in December an additional $600 billion plan to assuage the health and economic crises, and argued that “nearly half” of the federal funding for testing and two thirds of the funding for vaccine distribution has not yet been spent.

“It will not serve Americans to pile another huge mountain of debt on our grandkids for policies that even liberal economists say are poorly-targeted to current needs,” he later said.

McConnell said that Republicans would put senators on record in the budget vote-a-rama, including on the Keystone pipeline, a “one-size-fits-all” minimum wage increase, “stimulus checks for illegal immigrants,” “pouring money into schools where unions are blocking reopening” and whether to delay new spending until existing funds have been spent.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized House Republicans for failing to punish Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, saying:

“Today the House will vote to remove Rep. Greene from her seat on Education and Labor and the Budget committees. It’s just so unfortunate. You would think that the Republican leadership in the Congress would have some sense of responsibility to this institution as they did when they did not seat Rep. King of Iowa two years ago. For some reason, they have chosen not to go down that path even though we, Mr. Hoyer, gave leader McCarthy that this was a path we would follow,” she said.

Pelosi’s comments come ahead of a House vote today on a measure to remove Greene from her committee assignments, a decisive step that comes in the wake of recently unearthed incendiary and violent past statements from the congresswoman that have triggered widespread backlash from Democrats and divided congressional Republicans.

Outrage over Greene, who has in the past embraced the dangerous and debunked QAnon conspiracy theory, grew more intense in Congress in the wake of a report from CNN’s KFile that she repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democratic politicians in 2018 and 2019 before being elected to Congress.

WATCH:

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01:14 - Source: cnn

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters this morning she has no concerns about Republicans retaliating for Democrats moving to strip GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committees.

Pelosi’s comments come ahead of a House vote today on a measure to remove Greene from her committee assignments, a decisive step that comes in the wake of recently unearthed incendiary and violent past statements from the congresswoman that have triggered widespread backlash from Democrats and divided congressional Republicans.

Some more background: The move could set a risky precedent as Democrats target a sitting member of the opposing party in Congress over views expressed prior to her serving as an elected official  — one that has the potential to someday be used against the party by Republicans.

Outrage over Greene, who has in the past embraced the dangerous and debunked QAnon conspiracy theory, grew more intense in Congress in the wake of a report from CNN’s KFile that she repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democratic politicians in 2018 and 2019 before being elected to Congress.

The Georgia Republican has also faced backlash over recently resurfaced comments about the 2018 Parkland school shooting.

CNN’s Clare Foran contributed reporting to this post.