Search Results for Republican Convention

The RFK Jr. Strategy Clicks Into FocusWhat if everyone’s wrong? What if Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign is savvier, more organized, and more cunning than it’s been given credit for? This past weekend, Kennedy’s “We the People” party gamed an Iowa loophole to secure his spot on the state’s 2024 election ballot. Instead of spending months gathering thousands of signatures, Kennedy’s allies persuaded hundreds of voters to show up in the same place on the same day and partake in something akin to a potemkin political convention. The summit barely lasted two hours. It was a bold gambit, and it worked.On Saturday in West Des Moines, Kennedy “accepted” his nascent party’s nomination for president, then spoke extemporaneously (no teleprompters, no printed remarks) inside the historic Val-Air Ballroom. Twenty years ago on this same stage, Howard Dean gripped the mic and emitted a guttural “YAHHHHHH!”—a gargling, alien howl that many…

Biden Needs More Than NostalgiaInterstate 81, southbound, you can’t miss it: Exit 185 PRESIDENT BIDEN EXPRESSWAY. The three-quarter-mile road leads into downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, birthplace of Joe Biden. Keep going straight and you’ll eventually end up—where else?—on Biden Street. That these namesake roads exist while the president is still alive, let alone still in office, feels odd. But this exact strangeness—forced nostalgia, preemptive memorialization—is the essence of Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign.Yesterday afternoon, inside the Scranton Cultural Center, Biden sought to remind a few hundred supporters of his lifelong Scranton values. His address coincided with the release of a new campaign ad, titled—wait for it—“Scranton.” The president’s event took place just down the road from his childhood home. Of course he popped by the old place to say hello, with his traveling press corps in tow. Subtlety has never been a Biden virtue.The hometown crowd wasn’t treated to the booming, bombastic…

Gaetz Hits Back at Not ‘Particularly Intelligent’ Fellow Republican Who Called Him ‘Tubby’ I…CNN’s chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju spoke with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on Thursday after Gaetz was involved in a tense back and forth with his fellow Republicans – including Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) who called him “tubby.” “So you would have been opposed to moving forward on a motion to vacate. Now that there’s talking about possibly changing those rules, have you changed your mind?” Raju asked Gaetz about possibly removing Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) as Van Orden demanded earlier. “I hope we don’t have to go down that road. It was very puzzling and concerning to me that Congressman Van Orton, in a conversation we just had on the floor, repeatedly, was insisting that we call a motion to vacate to the floor. He was demanding it in kind of an unhinged way,” Gaetz…

CNN’s Jessica Dean Spars With House Republican on Foreign Aid Bill: ‘This Stuff Has Not Gotten W…House Republicans are trying to get a bill passed for once, but some in the party remain steadfast in their opposition to providing foreign aid without some attention being paid to the U.S. southern border — even after they had the opportunity to pass a bipartisan border bill and chose to kill it at the request of former President Donald Trump. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) is one such member of the House. She has signaled her opposition to the bill unless there are “common sense border protection measures” included in it. CNN anchor Jessica Dean had Malliotakis on CNN News Central on Thursday and confronted her about her position: Malliotakis: So what I would argue is that the president made 60 executive order policy changes when he came into office. He can use the…

Republican Don Bacon Warns ‘A Few of My Colleagues Would Like to See the Russians Win’ Amid Ukra…Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) accused some of his Republican colleagues of spreading Russian propaganda and wanting to see Russia “win” in their invasion of Ukraine. Bacon appeared on C-SPAN on Thursday as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is trying to rally support for foreign aid bills that would provide assistance to Ukraine and Israel. Johnson has faced far more pushback from his conference over Ukraine funding. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) already filed a motion to vacate that Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said he will support. Bacon blasted attempts to oust Johnson, calling the Speaker a “man of character” who is “trying to do the right thing, whether you agree with him or not.” The Republican congressman painted Ukraine’s situation as dire, arguing they need the munitions support to continue fighting off Russia….

House Republican Got In Speaker Johnson’s Face and Called Him ‘Tubby’ in Heated Argument: Repo…AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite Tensions came to a boil in the House Republican conference with one congressman calling Speaker Mike Johnson “tubby,” according to a new report. NBC News was first to report on the fiery exchange. Network congressional correspondent Julie Tsirkin reported that a group of Republicans approached Johnson about holding on a financial aid package for Ukraine in the House until aid for Israel is passed in the House and Senate. Johnson has faced backlash in his conference over a package with approximately $100 billion in foreign aid for countries like Ukraine and Israel. Johnson separated the aid requests in a bid to get legislation pushed through the House and Senate, but two members of his conference, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), have both come out in support of a…