December 23, 2024
GOP Blinks; Government Keeps Running
A brief update to Friday’s story: The House did end up pushing through a Continuing Resolution late Friday night to keep the federal government running until March. But not too many folks emerged from the tiff unscathed:
- Speaker Mike Johnson’s chances of being re-elected to his position seems shaky, since members of the Freedom Caucus are livid that he “gave in”.
- But don’t think that the Dems are celebrating. While House minority leader Hakeen Jeffries succeeded in keeping a measure to increase the debt ceiling out of the bill, roughly 500 pages of Democratic priorities (like reforms to lower drug prices, or banning revenge porn) that had been in the original bill got cut out of the one that passed.
- President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly cheesed off, bigly, that Elon Musk seemed to be more in control of things last week than himself — and the snarky comments and memes of “President Musk” aren’t helping.
- And finally, (actual) President Joe Biden didn’t seem to be engaged at all in this situation, making him look weak and ineffectual.
One thing that Jeffries did succeed on, though, was kicking the can far enough down the road that the next time this situation arises, it will be decidedly on Trump’s watch and not Biden’s.
Biden Commutes Sentences of Most Federal Death Row Inmates
Speaking of the President, one thing that he did do over the weekend is announce that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 federal prisoners facing death sentences. The 37 have had their sentences adjusted to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The three who didn’t get clemency are the Boston Marathon bomber, and the two gunmen who shot and killed worshipers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, and Mother Emanual Church in Charleston, SC.
During Biden’s first year in office, the Justice Department instituted a moratorium on executions. Trump, on the other hand, has stated that he intends to not only resume executions, but perhaps to even try expanding the crimes that qualify for capital punishment. Biden appeared to be aware of this in a statement announcing the commutations:
“In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
–President Joe Biden
House Ethics Committee Releases Gaetz Report
Despite a last-minute attempted lawsuit by former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), the House Ethics Committee did release their report on the Republican firebrand. In it, they state that they found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz used illicit drugs like cocaine, accepted illegal gifts, favors, and privileges, obstructed investigations into his conduct, and paid a 17-year-old high school student for sex when he was 35.
I do want to point out that while the report stated the Gaetz and the girl, identified only as Victim A, “had sex”, according to legal definitions of this sort of situation, Gaetz committed statutory rape. This is regardless of the fact that the report states that they “did not receive any evidence indicating that Representative Gaetz was aware that Victim A was a minor” during the two encounters. In fact, Florida’s statutory rape law states specifically that it is a felony for anyone 24 years of age or older to engage in sexual activity with a 16- or 17-year-old, and “a person charged with this offense may not claim ignorance or misrepresentation of the minor’s age as a defense.”
Gaetz has denied all of these accusations.
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