Day 722: "MAGA extremists have hijacked the Republican Party."
1/ House Republicans approved the formation of the Weaponization of the Federal Government select committee to investigate any federal agency for perceived wrongdoing against conservatives, including the FBI, IRS, and the intelligence community. The subcommittee, approved on a party-line 221-211 vote and chaired by Jim Jordan, pledged to probe “ongoing criminal investigations” at the Justice Department despite the department’s long-standing practice of not providing information about ongoing investigations. The panel also has authority to obtain highly classified information typically only shared with the House Intelligence Committee. Democrats, meanwhile, likened the panel to Joseph McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee, which harassed Americans suspected of being sympathetic to communism or socialism, saying: “This committee is nothing more than a deranged ploy by the MAGA extremists who have hijacked the Republican Party and now want to use taxpayer money to push their far-right conspiracy nonsense.” (Washington Post / Politico / New York Times / ABC News)
2/ Republicans on the House Oversight Committee asked the Treasury Department for suspicious activity reports related to financial transactions by the Biden family. Committee Chair James Comer requested the bank activity reports for Hunter Biden, President Biden’s brother James Biden, and several other Biden family associates and their related companies. Comer is also seeking the public testimony from three former Twitter executives about the company’s 2020 decision to temporarily suppress a story about Hunter Biden and his laptop. “Now that Democrats no longer have one-party rule in Washington, oversight and accountability are coming,” Comer said, adding that “there’s a very good possibility” that Hunter Biden will eventually receive a subpoena. (Bloomberg / Associated Press / New York Times / Politico / CNN / Wall Street Journal)
3/ House Republicans filed articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for his handling of immigration and the border. Pat Fallon, a Texas Republican, accused Mayorkas of “high crimes and misdemeanors” as homeland security secretary, claiming he failed to maintain “operational control over the border,” “willfully provided perjurious, false, and misleading testimony to Congress” and “knowingly slandered his own hardworking Border Patrol agents and mislead the general public.” As House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy called on Mayorkas to resign in November, saying he had failed to secure the southern border. The articles were referred to the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Jim Jordan. (NBC News / ABC News)
4/ George Santos refused to resign despite top New York Republican officials demanding he step down over the multiple inquiries into his finances, campaign spending, and fabrications about his background. Chairman Joseph Cairo Jr. of the Nassau County Republican Committee said Santos’s campaign was “a campaign of deceit, lies and fabrication,” adding that Santos “disgraced the House of Representatives, and we do not consider him one of our congresspeople.” Santos, meanwhile, said he has no plans to resign, saying he was elected to “serve the people […] not the party & politicians.” (Washington Post / New York Times / Politico / Wall Street Journal / CNBC / CNN)
5/ The Supreme Court allowed New York to enforce a gun control law that places restrictions on carrying a concealed gun while legal challenges play out. The law requires people seeking gun licenses to show that they have “good moral character,” provide a list of social media accounts from the past three years, and bans guns from “sensitive place,” like health care settings, churches, and parks. Nevertheless, six Gun Owners of America members challenged the law, claiming it violates their constitutional right to keep and bear arms and flouts the court’s decision in June to strike down a law that required people seeking a license to carry a concealed handgun in public to demonstrate that they had a “proper cause.” The Uvalde school police chief, meanwhile, told investigators that he didn’t try to stop the gunman, who killed 19 children and two teachers, because “there’s probably going to be some deceased in there, but we don’t need any more from out here.” Pete Arredondo’s decision to not confront the gunman effectively left everyone in Classrooms 111 and 112 for dead, and was one of many times he did not follow the protocol for an active shooter. (New York Times / CNN / Politico / Bloomberg / CNN)