The right-flank revolts

And an indictment for bribery

Right-Flank Revolt

I’m at the airport about to fly back to D.C. after about 24 hours at home.

Last week was remarkable, and this week might top it.

In short, the Speaker of the House just enraged the one group he’s been trying to play nice with all year. Now they’re going to come for him, and nobody knows how it will go.

Here’s what happened:

As of last Saturday morning, a shutdown looked inevitable. We were about 12 hours away from the deadline and the Speaker’s last-ditch effort the day before had failed.

The fundamental issue is that we’ve got about 20 members of the majority party - the hardcore members of the right-flank - who want to shut down the government. Pulling a stunt like that comes with a media bonanza, and that’s what they’re after.

The Speaker, by contrast, doesn’t want a shutdown because he knows it will hurt his chances to pick up seats in the next election.

So, last Friday, he tried to compromise with his right-flank.

Instead of a shutdown, he offered them a short-term budget but loaded it up with deep cuts to all kinds of programs - in some cases, cuts of 30%.

It was a super conservative offer, but the right-flank voted against it anyway. They really want the shutdown.

The next day was Saturday, and we were told to stay near the Capitol, just in case.

Suddenly, we all got a text message: “Come to the Capitol immediately.” 

I threw on my suit, got on my bike, and was there in about five minutes.

When I showed up, I learned that the Speaker was getting ready to cross the line he had tried hard not to cross all year. He was going to go around his right-flank and to the minority party to get the votes he needed to keep the government open.

But the minority party would only accept a clean budget extension for about 45 days. No poison pills, no big cuts.

When the right-flank saw that the Speaker was about to go around them, they were furious. Beyond furious. 

And the minority party was skeptical - because the Speaker gave them a 71-page bill and then tried to call the vote for it immediately, before his right-flank could organize a revolt, but also before anyone had a chance to read it.

The minority party asked for 90 minutes to read it. We were told no.

So the minority leader asked to speak to the whole chamber, and the rule is that party leaders get to speak to the chamber for as long as they want.

He spoke for 52 minutes while the rest of us combed through the bill.

And we did find one piece that was a problem. There was one section that would have allowed for congressional pay raises, and that piece was taken out. 

(It also didn’t include funding for Ukraine, like the minority party wanted, but the plan is to pass that either as a standalone bill or as part of the final budget.)

Then we voted, and it passed with a big bipartisan vote, but almost half of the majority party voted no - which is bad news for the Speaker.

As soon as we finished, one of the leaders of the right-flank marched up to a microphone in order to address the chamber. 

The congressman next to me said, “Here it comes. He’s going to make a motion to fire the Speaker.” 

But the congressman who was presiding over the chamber - who is an ally of the Speaker - suddenly brought the gavel down and said, “We’re adjourned.”

Which bought the Speaker some time, but the right-flank has already said they are going to try to fire the Speaker this week.

We don’t know if they have the votes, we don’t know if the Speaker is going to try and make a deal with the minority party to save himself, and we don’t know who would replace the Speaker, if he’s fired.

Historical note: No motion to fire a Speaker of the House has ever been successful. It hasn’t even been formally attempted for over a century. This is truly uncharted territory.

Sen. Menendez

I didn’t send you an update last week, but I did post a video on social media calling for the resignation of a member of my party, Sen. Menendez.

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about his indictment for bribery.

When I say bribery, I mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gold bars, and a Mercedes for his wife. 

This Senator was Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee and had a lot of power over whether other countries got money or weapons.

Egypt wanted money and weapons and the allegation is it used a businessman with ties to their government to help make that happen by bribing the Senator.

The day after the Senator took a trip to Egypt, he allegedly Googled, “How much is one kilo of gold worth?”

There are also allegations that he took bribes to interfere with a couple of criminal prosecutions. One of those is where the Mercedes for his wife allegedly came from. She’s indicted as well as the go-between for a lot of these transactions.

There are a bunch of text messages between her and him and others that are very incriminating.

Some of the cash was stuffed in envelopes that had the DNA of the guy who was allegedly bribing him on the envelope.

Moreover, Senators are required to disclose all the income they receive. At no point during this period, did he disclose the cash, the Mercedes, or the gold.

He has responded by saying he is totally innocent. He says the prosecutors “have misrepresented the normal work of a congressional office.”

Well, that’s B.S. 

I’m a member of Congress, and I assure you, taking gold bars from people seeking favors is not part of my normal work.

I’m also a former prosecutor, and the notion that he tried to intervene in the ongoing prosecution of other people - that isn’t normal, either.

Now look, prosecutors can make mistakes. That’s why we all have the presumption of innocence in a criminal court - but we also have the right to call on people to step down from elected office when we see clear evidence of ethical failure.

That’s why I called on Rep. George Santos to resign. I read his indictment and thought there was strong evidence he behaved in an indefensible way. 

Now it’s a member of my party, and frankly, the allegations are much more serious than the ones against Santos. Not even close, really.

I don’t know what a jury is going to do, but I know what I’m going to do, and that’s to say that he should step down.

For something like this, party shouldn’t matter. We all deserve better treatment than this as citizens, and we should insist on it.

Best,

Jeff