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The End Of The Shutdown Is In Sight
The first procedural hurdle was cleared last night. Coverage – local – on the Hill – the Beeb. Seems like the typical pattern is holding, those moderate and endangered Dems finally reaching a deal with Thune, et. al. – enough to get over the line anyway. And you know it is a good deal because the hard Left is NOT happy.
The post The End Of The Shutdown Is In Sight appeared first on The Hugh Hewitt Show.
‘Pathetic’ Senate Democrats cave, advancing key shutdown vote and prompting intraparty uproar: ‘It’s a surrender’
Over a month into the record-breaking shutdown, enough Senate Democrats finally caved to advance a key vote, sparking outrage within the party.
Eight Senate Democrats broke from their party late Sunday night to break the filibuster in a 60-40 vote, advancing key legislation and putting the government back on track to reopen after a record 41-day stalemate. The Senate is expected to formally pass the legislation Monday, when the continuing resolution will be punted back to the House.
‘America deserves better.’
Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire joined Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Angus King (I) of Maine, and Catherine Cortez Masto, who have consistently voted to reopen the government for the last six weeks. Notably, only Shaheen and Durbin are up for re-election in 2026, and both are retiring.
Although these other rogue Democrats are electorally safe for the next several years, many of their colleagues have ridiculed them for bucking the party and cutting a deal with Republicans.
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Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
After 15 failed votes to reopen the government, Democrats folded and finally came to the negotiating table. Party negotiators walked away with a continuing resolution to fund the government through January 30 featuring a reversal on reduction-in-force notices issued after October 1 and also barring future RIFs from being issued through the duration of the CR.
While Republicans made concessions on RIFs, Democrats ultimately were unable to push through any meaningful policy goals and fell short on their call to extend Obamacare subsidies. In response, high-profile Democrats tore into their Senate colleagues for caving, calling it a “surrender.”
“Pathetic,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office said in a post on X. “This isn’t a deal. It’s a surrender. Don’t bend the knee!”
“America deserves better,” Newsom added in another post on X.
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Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
It’s not just rumored presidential hopefuls who took a stand against their Democrat Senate allies. Many of the eight defectors’ colleagues came out against their vote, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
“There’s no way to sugarcoat what happened tonight,” Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said in a post on X. “And my fear is that Trump gets stronger, not weaker, because of this acquiescence. I’m angry — like you. But I choose to keep fighting.”
“To my mind, this was a very, very bad vote,” independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said in a post on X.
“Just on Tuesday, we had an election, all over this country. And what the election showed is that the American people want us to stand up to Trumpism. … That is what the American people wanted. But tonight, that is not what happened.”
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‘No MAGA left behind’: Trump pardons Giuliani, Powell, others involved in 2020 alternate electors case
President Donald Trump has announced “full, complete, and unconditional” pardons for those allegedly involved in the effort to arrange an alternate slate of electors and submit certificates of ascertainment indicating that Trump won the 2020 Electoral College vote in critical states.
According to the presidential proclamation shared by U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin early Monday morning in response to an older post stating, “No MAGA left behind,” pardons were also granted to individuals who attempted “to expose voting fraud and vulnerabilities in the 2020 Presidential Election.”
‘President Trump is putting an end to the Biden regime’s communist tactics once and for all.’
Martin signaled that Trump, unlike his predecessor, was directly involved in the pardon process, noting that the signatures on the pardons were “wet (not autopen),” meaning they were hand-signed.
Among the dozens of names identified in the non-exhaustive list of those pardoned is Trump lawyer Boris Epshteyn, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell, and John Eastman, a lawyer who advised Trump’s 2020 campaign. Trump did not pardon himself.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to Blaze News, “These great Americans were persecuted and put through hell by the Biden administration for challenging an election, which is the cornerstone of democracy.”
“Getting prosecuted for challenging results is something that happens in communist Venezuela, not the United States of America, and President Trump is putting an end to the Biden regime’s communist tactics once and for all,” added Leavitt.
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Valerie Plesch/Washington Post/Getty Images
The proclamation notes at the outset that these pardons serve to end “a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 Presidential Election and continues the process of national reconciliation.”
A White House official told Blaze News that “Americans in seven states acted to preserve alternate slates of electors as a result of major issues with the 2020 election. They took action, while exercising their First Amendment rights, that the system was designed to let them do: preserve the right of the American people to seek redress including through our courts and federal and state legislative processes.”
The official likened the actions allegedly taken by some of those pardoned to those taken by “the famous 1960 Hawaiian alternate electors for President Kennedy, who were never prosecuted or even questioned.”
“The alternate electors were involved in a purely federal constitutional proceeding before Congress. Under long-established law, states have no jurisdiction with respect to any alleged wrongdoing associated with a federal proceeding,” added the official.
‘I wish the pardon would terminate the lawfare totally.’
Although providing a clean slate and shield where federal charges are concerned, the pardons are largely symbolic, as they are unlikely to help those facing state-level prosecutions — such as those defendants facing charges in Nevada, those embroiled in the so-called “fake electors” case in Arizona’s Maricopa County, and those who recently lost their appeal to move their Georgia case to federal court.
Jeff Clark, the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Trump Office of Management and Budget, who is among those pardoned, expressed gratitude to the president but stressed that his legal battle is far from over.
“I wish the pardon would terminate the lawfare totally — and under SCOTUS’s venerable Ex Parte Garland decision, it certainly should. But zooming in on the DC Office of Disciplinary Counsel, we expect the leader of that office not to drop his case,” wrote Clark.
“I wish I could be declaring this legal nonsense over for good — a pardon should totally and abruptly kill off these federal bar and Georgia-federal attacks on me and many others.”
Martin noted in a Monday-morning X post that when he started in his current role, “POTUS encouraged us to look at two categories of Americans especially: First, those who needed and deserved clemency, especially long serving inmates who are ready to be released. Second, he wanted us to look at those people who had been targeted by the Biden administration. The targeted is a huge group of Americans.”
The pardon attorney indicated that “one group that jumped up right away” was the “alternate electors and their affiliates who were targeted by Jack Smith and others.”
The pardons come just days after Trump approved a pardon for three-time World Series champion Darryl Strawberry and months after the president pardoned approximately 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants.
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