Watch live: House Republicans give remarks amid FISA, reconciliation crunch
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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and GOP leaders will speak with reporters Tuesday morning as time ticks down for Congress to pass its legislative priorities, including passing a long-term extension of the government’s warrantless spying powers and a spending bill to fund immigration enforcement. The House is set to take up a $69.5 billion budget reconciliation…
Vice President JD Vance on Monday announced that he is referring Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison to the Department of Justice's anti-fraud division for a criminal investigation after allegations that they allowed billions of dollars in fraud. Vance discussed the referral in an interview with Fox's Jesse Watters, calling for a "full criminal investigation," adding, "You had people in Governor Walz's office who were saying, 'You know what?
The post Vice President Vance Fires Off Criminal Referral to DOJ Against Minnesota Governor and Attorney General Following Bombshell House Report (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
After Venezuelan then-President Nicolás Maduro was captured by U.S. forces in Caracas and the Trump administration installed leftist Delcy Rodríguez as interim president, opposition leader María Corina Machado tried to curry favor with Trump by offering him her Nobel Peace Prize (which was merely symbolic, as it cannot be transferred under Peace Prize rules). But Machado wasn't the first person to offer Trump a symbolic "peace prize": before that, in December 2025, FIFA President Gianni Infantino offered Trump the inaugural "FIFA Peace Prize." In the Daily Beast, reporter Leigh Kimmins details FIFA's "embarrassing" campaign to "sooth Trump" with a made-up peace prize.Trump isn't shy about claiming that he deserves to win the coveted Nobel Peace Prize, and in 2025, he was disappointed when that award went to Machado. "Gianni Infantino, the president of soccer's global governing body, FIFA, sensed an opportunity and cooked up the 'FIFA Peace Prize' to soothe Trump," Kimmins explains in the Daily Beast. "He did so because a closer relationship with the U.S. president would mean a smoother World Cup, which, in turn, would help repair his organization's image after years of fraud and neglect. Infantino, a former lawyer from Switzerland, had lobbied for Trump to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, but quickly devised a plan when he was overlooked, according to The New York Times."Kimmins continues, "Just weeks after the snub, senior officials at the organization, a nonprofit with billions of dollars in its coffers, were informed of the plan. According to the Times, they asked how much time they would have to pull off the ingenious stroke of bootlickery. They also needed to know what the criteria for the award would be and how the nomination committee would be structured."The Daily Beast reporter notes that according to a FIFA insider interviewed by the Times, the "plan was to stage a charade to please" Trump. The World Cup draw was held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC in December 2025. According to the Times, FIFA originally had Las Vegas in mind. But that was before "Paolo Zampolli, a longtime Trump ally serving as a presidential envoy, forced Infantino to reconsider," according to Kimmins."Some soccer officials were angered by the circus, saying it blew up FIFA's claims of political neutrality," Kimmins notes. "The president of Norway's soccer federation, who is a human rights lawyer, declared that the prize breached FIFA's rules on political neutrality and announced that Norway would back an ethics complaint against Infantino and his shilling."
Bill that passed the Senate last week would fund ICE and border patrol and is expected to pass along party linesHouse Republicans on Tuesday will seek to pass a $70bn bill to fund the agencies leading Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants through the duration of his term, ending a months-long standoff with Democrats.The Secure America Act, which passed the Senate last week, allocates $38bn to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), $26bn to Customs and Border Protection and $5bn more to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Continue reading...
WASHINGTON — Cracks in President Donald Trump’s stranglehold on the GOP — and the 119th Congress — went on full display at the U.S. Capitol this month as the House of Representatives sent the White House a defiant message.Last week, 18 Republicans voted to approve a Ukraine aid package opposed by the White House. It came after four Republicans supported a measure calling for the removal of U.S. troops from Iran unless Congress votes to authorize that war. The rare presidential rebukes revealed tension in the GOP, with Republicans now openly attacking other Republicans.“To lessen the president's hand, I think, was inappropriate,” Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) told Raw Story at the Capitol. “I don't think they were thinking.” Still, Democrats aren’t doing any end zone dances just yet.Now that Israel and America have been at war with Iran for longer than 60 days, Trump and his allies are re-packaging it.“Really, at this point, it’s a blockade, and more than anything, we are ensuring safe transit and making sure that there’s freedom of navigation,” Zinke, who served as Interior Secretary in Trump’s first term, told Raw Story.Zinke shares the president’s frustration with the 226-195 vote reasserting congressional control of the conflict."It's tragic,” Zinke said. “Do you think those Republicans who crossed over were looking at November?” Raw Story asked. “I don't think they were thinking,” Zinke said of his GOP colleagues who crossed the aisle. While Zinke says he agreed with the premise of the Iran measure — that Congress has the ultimate say on matters of war and peace — he says now isn’t the time for Congress to be tying the president’s hand."I agree with the underlying premise, but I also agree that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon," Zinke said. "They can't have an arsenal of destruction. They can't have nuclear material. So I'm giving the president a little latitude on this one." Since Trump re-entered the White House last January, Republicans on Capitol Hill have given his administration broad leeway on everything from tearing down the White House's historic East Wing to letting Elon Musk and DOGE — Department of Government Efficiency — rescind billions of dollars Congress itself had approved. While the Iran measure is largely symbolic, it did reveal growing unrest with the conflict. “I guess, maybe, it’s just a little bit of frustration,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told Raw Story just off the House floor. “We had really good combat operations, but now we've had two months of, I don't know, it seems like a little bit of indecision being made.”Bacon’s retiring at the end of this term and tends to be more moderate on many issues, but he actually voted with the president on Iran — though he’s not judging his GOP colleagues who bucked Trump. “I think we grapple with this. I want to see us win. Iran's terrible. I would hate to tie the president's hands right now,” Bacon said. “But I understand the other side of the position, too.”Ukraine’s a different story, though.On Thursday last week, 18 Republicans — including Bacon — voted with Democrats to authorize $8 billion in loans to Ukraine and America’s NATO allies. “It’s Congress saying, ‘hey, we’ve got a different opinion,’” Bacon said. “And, by the way, 70 percent of the American people want more support for Ukraine. I think it's important for him to hear that.”The measure’s future is in doubt now that it’s been sent to the GOP-controlled Senate, but Trump’s growing number of congressional critics say this week was important because, if nothing else, it showed a restive American public that Congress is more than a rubber stamp, at least in theory. “Do you think that raises awareness to the public?” Raw Story asked Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI). “Some,” Dingell told Raw Story while walking to the Capitol this week. “Yeah.”“They should be worried going into the election,” Dingell said. “People are unhappy right now with energy costs. Gasoline prices have risen dramatically.”That’s why Democrats are glad Congress finally stood up to Trump. “It's important for Congress to insert itself,” Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA) told Raw Story. Still, with Trump’s success in recent GOP primary contests, Democrats aren’t expecting the president’s grip on congressional Republicans to let up ahead of this year’s midterms. “He can ignore it. He can do whatever he wants,” Bera said. “A lot of my colleagues will echo what the president's saying.”
The race for the next California governor began with 61 official candidates looking to replace Democrat Gavin Newsom, with no clear early frontrunner. The top two candidates, regardless of party affiliation, proceed to the general election in November.Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra (D) and former Fox News host and small-business owner Steve Hilton (R) received the most votes in Tuesday’s primary election and will advance to the general election, according to Decision Desk HQ and RealClearPolitics. As of Tuesday morning, other election aggregators, including the Associated Press and NBC News, have confirmed Becerra’s spot in November’s runoff election, but not yet Hilton’s.'Enough with this disastrous system — universal mail-in chaos is killing election integrity and transparency.'With 83% of the votes counted, Becerra received 2,177,556, Hilton received 1,975,062, and Democratic candidate Tom Steyer received 1,759,328. Hilton held a 2.7-point lead over Steyer as of Tuesday morning.With many Democrats in the race and the party failing to coalesce behind one candidate, there was early speculation that two Republicans, Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, might be the two candidates to advance to the general election.However, in the final days leading up to the primary, Becerra began to pull ahead in the polls. An Emerson College poll, which surveyed registered voters from May 27 to 28, reported Becerra with a stronger lead, securing 28% of the vote, followed by Steyer with 22%, Hilton with 21%, and Bianco with 12%.RELATED: California Democrats’ search for a front-runner: Polls show 26% of voters undecided in fast-approaching gubernatorial race Xavier Becerra. ETIENNE LAURENT/AFPGetty Images.Steyer has criticized Becerra, labeling him a “corporate Democrat.”“For too long, we’ve had a system where corporations buy off politicians to protect their profits,” Steyer said during a campaign rally. “If that sounds familiar, it’s because that’s the story of Xavier Becerra’s campaign.”RELATED: Democrats narrow field in California’s crowded gubernatorial race to avoid primary disaster Steve Hilton. Mario Tama/Getty Images.Hilton’s campaign criticized California for its vote-counting delay, calling it an “ABSOLUTE DISGRACE.”“California’s election machine is a slow-motion disaster deliberately dragging out vote counts for 35 DAYS while the rest of the world tallies hundreds of millions in hours,” his campaign wrote. “Enough with this disastrous system — universal mail-in chaos is killing election integrity and transparency.”Hilton stated that he will wait for the AP to call the race before declaring a victory. “Thank you so much for all your congratulations! We always said we would wait for@AP_RaceCalls before declaring victory so we're not popping the champagne just yet ... but it's definitely time for a beer!” Hilton said.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is meeting with President Trump Tuesday morning as Democratic outrage about Trump tapping Bill Pulte as the acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) endangers reauthorization of the nation’s foreign spy powers set to expire at the end of the week. On the way out of the U.S. Capitol for the meeting, Johnson…
