Matt Laslo

Based on Capitol Hill, Matt Laslo has been covering campaigns and every aspect of federal policy since 2006. In addition to his reporting for Raw Story, Matt has been a contributor at WIRED, VICE News, VICE News Tonight, The Daily Beast, Rolling Stone, and Playboy. He also contributes reports to NPR and more than 40 of its affiliates and numerous other publications, including The Atlantic and Billboard. He also has the The LCB — or Laslo Congressional Bureau — a Washington-based wire service. Since 2009, he’s sat on the board at the Regional Reporters Association, and in 2011, he graduated cum laude from The Johns Hopkins University MA in Government and Public Policy program. He now teaches there as an adjunct political communications professor, as well as teaching communications and/or journalism at George Washington University, Boston University and the University of Maryland.

House Republicans increasingly sick of MTG’s performance politics

WASHINGTON — Embattled House Speaker Mike Johnson’s fate seems to rest in the answer to a seemingly petty, though deeply — if accidentally so — philosophical question: Where’s performance end and policymaking begin these days?

For Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and her allies on the far right of today’s far-right Republican Party — whether her congressional colleagues or someone livestreaming from their basement — Speaker Johnson lacks fight.

And they’re always itching for a fight. And, sometimes, the fight is the goal.

“Republican voters want actions,” Greene told Raw Story on the Capitol steps Thursday. “They want to be protected from the destructive Democrat agenda, and Republican leaders aren't doing it.”

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In today’s era of pop politics, performance is paramount to the MTG’s of the political world. But rank-and-file Republicans from competitive districts are sick of sacrificing policy at the feet of political antics.

Whether flashing a d–k pic of the president’s son in committee or threatening to deploy a motion to vacate Speaker Johnson — just as eight Republicans did to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy last fall — Greene and others from the party’s rightward flank are aggravating their own by actively working to derail the agenda more moderate Republicans ran on.

The self-righteous rhetoric is too much for their colleagues, especially those defending tough districts this fall who are openly accusing Greene and her allies of rank hypocrisy.

“They only want to abide by the rules when it serves their purpose,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) told Raw Story. “The moment it doesn't serve their purpose, they're fine with changing the rules.”

Greene and her band of giddy gadflies don’t care. Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) are now backing her motion to vacate Johnson.

The threat of another GOP-on-GOP brawl over who should lead the House hangs over the chamber as lawmakers work a rare weekend session in order to give members more time to digest the foreign aid package.

But the party’s far right now parade about — with the blessing of their titular head, former President Donald Trump —- as if they’re the mainstream, hence they’re threatening to derail the speaker himself if he moves the monthslong stalled foreign aid measure.

That’s not how politics works — or, at least, not how it worked — and members of both parties say things aren’t working at the Capitol these days.

“Every member has a right to represent their districts and their conscience. You have a right to vote yes; you have a right to vote no,” Lawler said. “When it comes to governing as a majority, we are here to advance legislation.”

Johnson’s allies floated overhauling House rules to make it harder for Greene — or any single one of her cohorts — to challenge the speaker, but that measure was torpedoed before it really took root Thursday.

Middle-of-the-road Republicans say the constant threat of being deposed by his rightward flank — whether from Greene or, say, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) — makes governing practically impossible in the House.

“It's so much bigger than just her. She's whatever. She doesn't matter to me very much,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) told Raw Story. “I don’t care who’s speaker, just you cannot live under these conditions.”

On Friday, Speaker Johnson needed the votes of Democrats to advance the Ukraine aid package. While that’s heretical to the party’s purists, Crenshaw says there’s no apostasy in policymaking.

Like many, Crenshaw’s sick of all the performance art parading about as policy these divided days.

“I've heard members say those kinds of things: ‘It’s better to lose so that we appear that we're fighting.’ So that tells me something really important, which is that it really is just about the appearance. It's never been about moving the ball forward and getting conservative wins,” Crenshaw said.

With November’s election on the horizon, Crenshaw and other Republicans are starting to take this new style of politics personally.

“They always paint the rest of us as these RINOS [Republicans in Name Only], when it's, like, we're the ones actually trying to get the wins,” Crenshaw complained.

That’s a quaint notion these days.

“You think losing a battle is better than no battle at all?” Raw Story asked from the Capitol steps.

“Absolutely,” Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) told Raw Story. “We lose a lot of fights up here, but they expect us to fight. They're not seeing that from this party.”

Crane’s one of the eight Republicans who retired Speaker McCarthy last fall, and he’s left the door open to backing Greene and the motion to vacate she’s hanging over Johnson.

Members in what’s left of the middle are angry with Crane, Greene and company for selling a false reality to the party’s base, though.

Digital dunking’s one thing; data’s another thing entirely, according to the increasingly vocal block of Republicans who are sick of their GOP colleagues claiming they speak for the party — for the people even.

“They don't. They're completely absent from the polling. We're polling these issues — these issues are popular. America wants us to stand strong in support of our allies,” Rep. John Duarte (R-CA) told Raw Story.

Duarte fears too many in politics these days live in their own digital universe rather than reality.

“We have them standing up and saying, ‘the base of the party wants this,’ ‘the base of the party wants that.’ Well, it's new math. They can't show it in the polls. They can only show it in their Twitter feed. And, you know, that's a chat room. That's not the American public,” Duarte said.

Don’t tell that to Marjorie Taylor Greene, though.

“A lot of your Republican colleagues are increasingly frustrated with you,” Raw Story pushed Greene just outside the Capitol. “Saying that you don't speak for the party.”

“I think I speak for the people, and the people are the party,” Greene told Raw Story. “And that's everything wrong with the Republican Party. Many Republican leaders have forgotten that. And this is why Republican voters for many years now are so tired of the Republican Party.”

It also seems to explain why the GOP — or what’s left of Reagan’s Republican Party, at least — is increasingly tired of Greene and her political pals, empowered as they may be.

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Republican dodges when asked if ousting Speaker Johnson makes his party look strong

WASHINGTON — Kentucky Republican Congressman Thomas Massie spoke to Raw Story Tuesday, minutes after announcing he would add his name to a Marjorie Taylor Greene motion to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) from power.

Answering questions from reporters on Tuesday, Massie, a member of the far-right wing of the GOP conference, said that the party is angry over Johnson passing the budget bill and foreign surveillance legislation.

According to Massie, Johnson is "cleaning out the barn," presumably meaning he's passing all of the legislation that Republicans have held up this past year. When it comes to the final bill, funding for Ukraine and Israel, Massie said Johnson is "riding that horse until it collapses."

To continue with the horse metaphors — which he said referred to the Kentucky Derby — Massie said the Ukraine bill is the "triple crown" of Johnson legislation.

CNN's Manu Raju asked the lawmaker what Republicans would do if Democrats stepped in to save Johnson. He explained that it won't matter because a united Republican delegation would have the votes to remove Johnson.

Florida Democrat Rep.Jared Moskowitz already indicated he would back keeping Johnson in power over Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-GA) measure to oust the speaker.

"Democrats don’t even let her rename post offices, I’m not gonna let her make a motion to vacate,” Moskowitz told Raju.

And Johnson has vowed not to go easily.

“I am not resigning," he said Tuesday. "And it is in my view an absurd notion that someone would bring a vacate motion when we are simply here trying to do our jobs.”

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At issue for Massie is the Ukraine funding, which he said "most Republicans in America are against."

"We’re so tired of the betrayals in the House," Massie complained, speaking of the legislation passing.

Raw Story asked Massie if he was worried at all about how the Republicans will be perceived by the electorate so close to an election if they oust their speaker.

"But, do you think ousting the speaker is going to make your party look like you can govern the house more?” Raw Story asked.

"Uh," Massed paused. "Our party is upset and people are upset with this speaker."

He then raced away.

'Pretty dismissive': Republican says most House colleagues don't back MTG's speaker fight

WASHINGTON — The House drama continued into Friday as rumors spread that Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene could imminently move to vacate Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) from his leadership post — but her colleagues told Raw Story there was little appetite to join her fight.

The Republican Conference met in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, where Greene said she didn't address the issue with the members.

"I respect my conference," she said when asked why she didn't bring it up.

And several of those members told Raw Story Friday that they aren't interested in hearing about it.

"I think we've been through way, way too much speaker drama already this year. That would be a mess to go through that again right now," Rep. Westerman (R-AR) told Raw Story when asked if he stood with Greene on removing Johnson.

"It wouldn't be good for, number one, the country. It wouldn't be good for the Congress, and I don't think it would be good for Republicans heading into the election," Westerman said.

Raw Story went on to ask how Johnson can satisfy that sect of the GOP and Westerman confessed not only did he not know, but he doesn't think Johnson does either.

Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) agreed, noting Greene doesn't have a lot of support.

"I think most of my colleagues in the conference are pretty dismissive of Marjorie's move there," he said Friday morning.

"Hopefully, my colleagues have learned a lesson: running Congress into this dysfunctional mess where you don't have a speaker doesn't help the country. That doesn't advance their agenda or objectives," he continued.

He went on to recall that Johnson once told him, "During the day I'm Speaker of the House, certain evenings I'm like a marriage counselor," speaking about the lawmakers as if they were in a dysfunctional union on the rocks.

Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) was one of the eight Republicans who helped remove former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). When asked if he'd heard anything about Johnson coming over to his side a little, he said he hadn't.

"I haven't heard any signals like that," Crane told Raw Story.

Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) is perhaps best known for his resignation from the Trump administration after it was revealed he was using military helicopters to go horseback riding with the vice president. It cost taxpayers about $53,000.

On Friday, he told Raw Story that the motion to vacate would be a "waste of resources and time."

With the younger members of Congress, Zinke said he's become a kind of ad hoc therapist. He told Raw Story it "seems like I'm almost Lucy in Peanuts with 5-cent counseling."

Asked if he is giving "basic civics lessons" to the members, including Greene, he confessed, "Yeah. I do a lot of that too."

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) was another lawmaker who aided the ousting of McCarthy, but he told Raw Story he hadn't made his mind up on Johnson yet. Margins are so thin in the GOP right now that Gosar could personally end Johnson's career.

Gosar claimed that Johnson said, "Border security is a hill to die on. That's some kind of a gopher hole now."

Asked if Johnson is letting him and members like him down, Gosar said, "Yeah," and walked off.

Rep. Paul Gosar: I’m off the hook in January 6 probe

WASHINGTON — Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) exclusively told Raw Story he’s no longer under a subpoena in Arizona’s state-level probe of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“They withdrew my subpoena,” Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) told Raw Story while walking back to his office at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

While Gosar reports being in the clear in the investigation into the state’s 2020 fake elector scheme, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) says he can’t discuss his own subpoena.

ALSO READ: A criminologist explains why keeping Trump from the White House is all that matters

“In Arizona it is illegal to talk about that. I cannot talk about that under Arizona law,” Biggs told Raw Story on Wednesday.

Last week, Politico first reported that Gosar and Biggs were issued subpoenas by the grand jury empaneled by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat. Mayes is expected to drop indictments any day now.

Gosar alerted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) of the subpoena back in February, but it remains unclear when or why his was withdrawn.

Gosar’s office didn’t respond to a request for details from Raw Story, and a spokesperson for Arizona’s attorney’s general office said they aren’t allowed to discuss grand juries.

Gosar has previously called January 6, 2021, rioters “peaceful patriots,” said the Capitol Police “executed” Ashli Babbitt as she tried to enter the Speaker’s Lobby that day. He’s also called for a “January 6th Truth and Reconciliation Committee to investigate the members of the original January 6th Committee.”

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In the aftermath of now-President Joe Biden winning the 2020 election, Gosar reportedly pushed then-Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) to investigate the state’s Dominion Voting Systems machines.

“The thing about it is, now I have done nothing at all wrong,” Gosar told Raw Story.

But Gosar, a dentist by trade who’s serving his seventh term in Congress, says he’s clueless as to why his subpoena was withdrawn.

“I have no idea,” Gosar said. “I’m not an attorney.”

For his part, Biggs reportedly called then-Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, and pressured him to support the effort to decertify Arizona’s electors, as Bowers publicly told the Jan. 6 committee.

While he’s maintained his innocence, Biggs says he can’t discuss the grand jury inquiry.

And Biggs tells Raw Story he’s also in the dark as to why Gosar’s subpoena was withdrawn.

“I don’t know what’s going on with him,” Biggs said.

“But they haven’t done that with you?” Raw Story asked.

“I can’t talk about that,” Biggs said.

“I don’t want you going to jail!” Raw Story quipped.

“Sure you do,” Biggs laughed.

GOP senators back away from MTG's 'ridiculous' speaker threat

WASHINGTON — Conservative Republicans in the Senate were cagey Tuesday as they were asked to delve into the chaos going on among the Republican House colleagues.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is threatening to throw out Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) if he moves forward with a Ukraine and Israel funding package.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was once known as being the no-filter official, being among the first to embrace social media and say whatever he wanted — typos be damned, Politico showcased in 2012.

But speaking to Raw Story on Tuesday, however, he said he wanted nothing to do with the debate in the House over Ukraine funding.

ALSO READ: Marjorie Taylor Greene to federal election regulators: get bent over ‘MTG’

"I'm a policy guy," he said, refusing to be drawn into questions about the infighting between Greene and Johnson.

The same could be said for Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), who may be a Donald Trump loyalist, but who outright laughed when Raw Story asked about the feud between the opposing sides in the Republican House.

"I'm not going to comment on that," he said.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) said he doesn't want the Ukraine package to pass, but wouldn't commit to supporting Greene.

"He may have to pay a price," Tuberville said of Johnson. "I don't know enough about that — whether they can do it or not. They ain't got enough votes, do they?"

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) said that if Greene moves forward with the plan, "it would be bad for the republic. The voters, in their wisdom, gave us a divided government. The founders, in their wisdom, gave us virtually required compromise."

He said that America, "Should stand by our word and our allies."

Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) was also against Greene's plot to oust Johnson, saying it would be "not good" because it was "chaotic the first time it happened," referencing the removal of Johnson's predecessor Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

"I don't think we gain anything by doing it," Braun continued. "So, I would hope she would not do that. I don't know how we end up landing on our feet the second time."

When asked whether the GOP landed on its feet the first time, he confessed, "That's debatable."

"Whatever," was Sen. Markwayne Mullin's (R-OK) comment. He concluded that Greene was, "Making a move she feels like she has to do and I think most people disagree with.'

"Listen," he continued. If you don't agree with someone, fine; vote against it. But to make a motion to vacate and disrupt the whole house is really ridiculous."

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez takes 'victory lap' after making GOP see red over tiny green pins

WASHINGTON — Republicans can’t stop thinking about Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). They see her everywhere — including in the sheen of their recently retired green congressional pins.

Turns out, when Republicans see green these days, they see a flash of Ocasio-Cortez and the Green New Deal she’s championed. That proved to be the driving reason behind why the GOP-controlled House of Representatives scrapped the official congressional lapel pin — which help Capitol Police officers quickly identify lawmakers — during the 118th congressional session.

“I hated the color,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) — while rocking a large defund the World Health Organization button — told Raw Story while walking across the Capitol grounds. “It reminded me too much of the Green New Deal.”

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Like most of her Democratic colleagues, Ocasio-Cortez says this political pin drama shows how unserious, hypocritical and out of touch today’s Republican Party has become.

But the AOC-Green New Deal dust-up itself was “news” to Ocasio-Cortez.

“I don't know why they changed the pin,” Ocasio-Cortez told Raw Story while walking to cast her vote on the House floor last week. “I had heard it was maybe a [George] Santos thing, but then, like, he can still use his pin, so I don’t know.”

Sporting twin pins — including his old congressional member pin — ousted Republican Rep. George Santos of New York talks with U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) ahead of the annual State of the Union address by President Joe Biden during a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the Capital building on March 7, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images)

When Raw Story caught up with her, Ocasio-Cortez was pinless — “I have the front, but I don’t have the magnetic back!” — and initially perplexed when informed her that a fellow Democrat had indeed picked green to in part signify environmentalism.

“Usually they don’t make political statements with them,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “But if that's what it is, I'll take a victory lap!”

While Ocasio-Cortez’s head is high, many on the right are embarrassed that the retired green pins were replaced with new, dark blue-and-gold ones that cost an extra $40,000 — even as the party regularly berates Biden over the ballooning national debt.

Embarrassment aside, House Republicans have left a lot of their actual work undone, which Democrats are quick to point out.

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“It's bizarre, isn't it? Why when we haven't funded Ukraine are we worrying about the color of the pin?” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) told Raw Story.

In the last Congress, when Democrats were in charge, Lofgren chaired the House Administration Committee where she tried to mix things up by literally going green.

“I just thought, it's usually, like, either red or blue, right? Which fits in with the divide in the country. I thought, well, let’s have something that's neutral,” Lofgren said. “Green is agriculture. Green is the environment. Green is in the middle. Why not?”

Pin politics are real

Lofgren seems to have underestimated the juvenile nature of the contemporary Congress.

“I know what it was, the pins were designed when Democrats were in the majority so it was thought it was, you know, the Green New Deal,” Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA) told Raw Story from behind his shiny green pin. “I thought it was whining, and I thought it was a waste of money to redo them mid-term. We don't have that kind of money here.”

As chair of the House Agriculture Committee, Glenn’s one of the rare Republicans embracing the green pins, which are still official 118th Congress pins — just this Congress now has two official pins.

U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) sporting the now-defunct green congressional member pin while walking through the U.S. Capitol on May 31, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“It's a Farm Bill year, so I own the green one. Given the fact that 92 percent of all planted acres are represented by Republicans, every Republican should embrace it, and I don't like wasting money,” Thompson said, before divulging his plan for what he sees as unnecessary replacement pins. “Never taken out of the envelope, but it's beautiful. It’s going in my collection, but I'm not gonna wear it.”

Thompson’s not just an outlier in the GOP. The green pins were initially off-putting to many Democrats, too.

“Originally it was kind of like, ‘Huh?’” Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) told Raw Story.

But many Democrats — or at least their wardrobes — just evolved along with the gaudy green pins.

“Everybody started buying green clothes. I went and bought a green suit,” Payne said, before ripping on pouting Republicans. “Ridiculous. Just live it out.”

While the new pins are reported to cost an estimated $40,000, no one in power seems to want to talk about that price tag, let alone petty pin politics, in general. Raw Story’s requests for comment from the Architect of the Capitol (the office charged with running all things Congress, including the pin program), House Administration Committee and Speaker Mike Johnson’s office were not returned.

Washington’s pin culture

Washington is weird. That’s not news. But Capitol Hill has a particular fetish for pins and buttons.

This Congress kicked off with many Republicans rocking aggressive AR-15 lapel pins, which did the trick and offended their gun-control supporting colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

“It’s hard to imagine they put AR-15 pins on,” Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) told Raw Story at the time.

House Freedom Caucus memeber Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) sports an assault rifle tie pin during a news conference where he announced that he and many of his fellow caucus members would oppose the deal to raise the debt limit outside the U.S. Capitol on May 30, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Not all pins are meant to personally offend the opposing party, although lawmakers are all about making statements.

Some plug their home states, such as Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI), whose lapel pin is the shape of his home state.

“I don’t know — might have been the cheesemakers — but it was some Wisconsin group and I put it on to show how appreciative I was,” Grothman said.

Other pins may not be head turning, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t hyper-political.

Take these little red heart pins with two baby feet in the center, which signal support for a national abortion ban covering any human fetus whose heartbeat has been detected.

It’s not meant to offend, said Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), who added that he doesn't mind if his liberal colleagues are offended regardless.

“Everything though is gonna have a political bent to it, right?” Kelly told Raw Story. “We can't do anything normal.”

Former history teacher Rep. John Larson (D-CT) is on his 13th term in the House, so he’s ditched the official congressional pin for years now. In its place: a rectangular JFK pin — paying perpetual homage to his political hero of a bygone era.

“I haven’t worn anything but this since 2017,” said Larson, who also now wears a blue and yellow pin to show his solidarity with the people of Ukraine. “I’ve been around long enough, so people recognize you.”

Source: Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin’s Instagram account, where he muses, "Did I wear my U.S.-North Korea pin to the DMZ? You are gosh darn right I did."

Of course, American flag pins abound, along with solidarity pins showing the American flag alongside U.S. allies. Washington Post foreign policy columnist Josh Rogin even found a North Korean-American flag solidarity pin for sale at the State Department that he couldn’t resist wearing regularly at the Capitol — or even while traveling to the DMZ with former Vice President Mike Pence.

An array of rainbow flags are also everywhere in the Capitol these days. And if you keep your eyes peeled, you’ll likely see at least one neon bicycle pin, which is worn — and peddled to visitors! — by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR). Blumenauer co-chairs the Bike Caucus, as well as the Cannabis Caucus, but for the latter role, he usually rocks a marijuana leaf-dotted bow tie.

It’s rare, but occasionally you’ll catch a campaign button, such as those on the made-for-clicks outfit Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wore at this year’s State of the Union address.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), while sporting several pins and a "Make America Great Again" hat, shouts at President Joe Biden as he delivers the State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the Capital building on March 7, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained inventor Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) sports an ever-rolling digital clock on his lapel.

What does it signify?

“Debt clock, I built it,” Massie told Raw Story. “It’s got WiFi. Goes to Treasury [Department] once a day and calibrates.”

“Where we at right now?” Raw Story asked Massie on the Capitol steps last week.

“34,585,640,78-dot-dot-dot-dot,” we read along with Massie.

“I wanted to induce anxiety in my colleagues,” Massie said.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) wears a pin showing the U.S. national debt during a meeting of the House Rules Committee to consider H.R. 3746 - Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 at the U.S. Capitol May 30, 2023 in Washington, D.C. The number has since ticked up by more than $3 trillion. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

As for the new pin? Massie may be a millionaire from his time in tech, but he’s also always looking to make a buck.

“Mine's new in the wrapper. I didn't take it out. It's still on the placard with the spouse pin. One day when everything blows up, I'm gonna sell it on eBay,” Massie said. “And the bonus. Just wait, there's more: The Republicans thought they were so ugly, they made their own pin. So now I got a three pin set, new in the wrapper, never-been-worn-before condition.”

‘I'm trying to think of what else they've done, and I can't’

Pins and buttons may make statements, but members of Congress were sent to Washington to make policy.

No pin can mask this Congress’ historical level of dysfunction-induced gridlock.

Like other conservatives — including Greene, who dropped the same motion to vacate on Speaker Johnson that was used to oust McCarthy — Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) is still upset GOP leaders broke the party’s 72-hour rule and released the final $1.2 trillion government funding measure last Thursday before bringing it to a vote on Friday.

“Now we're a little bit back to the usual way of doing things where things are cooked up behind closed doors or dropped on us,” Roy told a gaggle of reporters after last week’s last House vote. “We need to get back to what we're doing last year. It was working, and let's try to do that.”

U.S. Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, wears Congress' new navy blue-and-gold member pin at a press conference about a government funding bill at the U.S. Capitol on March 22, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“You forgot, you all were able to change the color of the congressional pin!” Raw Story reminded Roy as he was walking back to his office across the street from the Capitol.

“I know,” Roy replied through a smile. “That is one thing!”

Democrats weren’t impressed with how the GOP functioned — or dysfunctioned? — last year, but they can’t help but agree that this do-nothing Congress has now accomplished one tangible thing: Republicans successfully lobbied to ditch their green pins.

“Literally. I'm trying to think of what else they've done,” Ocasio-Cortez told Raw Story. “And I can't.”

‘Don't have enough’: Wealthy Trump allies balk at helping Donald pay legal bills

WASHINGTON — Some of former President Donald Trump’s fiercest allies in Congress may be multi-millionaires, but that doesn’t mean they’re opening up their wallets for the reality TV star turned contestant for America's most indicted.

“There’s only so much money,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told Raw Story.

With creditors demanding a $454 million bond as his appeals slowly wind through the courts, Trump’s personal deficits have been the talk of the Capitol in recent days.

“Hopefully, I never get into that problem myself,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told Raw Story while riding an elevator in the Capitol.

ALSO READ: A criminologist explains why half of America does not care about Trump's crimes

“You’re not planning to cut him a check?” Raw Story asked.

“No. I don't have enough. Mine would be just a blip,” Tuberville — who’s been estimated to have a net worth of around $20 million — said. “But if I could help, I’d help, maybe.”

Most Republicans on Capitol Hill now parrot the former president’s rhetoric, dismissing Trump’s legal problems as “lawfare” — think lawsuits instead of bullets — by the left and presenting him as a modern day martyr.

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) ranks among the wealthy Trump supporters in Congress who tell Raw Story they aren't able — or willing — to send former President Donald Trump a financial life line. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“Listen, I’m sympathetic with the lawfare that is being waged against him. Actually quite sympathetic. This is the price he's paying for being involved in politics and running for the office again,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Raw Story. “You could argue it's grossly unfair for him to have to pick up the full tab, so I personally don't have a problem with him explicitly asking for support.”

“Are you gonna donate?” Raw Story asked the former CEO worth an estimated $78 million.

“I've paid my price,” Johnson — who the Select Jan. 6 Committee implicated in helping carry out Wisconsin Republicans’ fake elector scheme in 2021 — said through a smile and chuckle.

While Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is estimated to be worth more than $300 million — making him the wealthiest sitting U.S. senator — Trump shouldn’t come shaking his tin cup around the former chief executive of the Sunshine State.

“I’m optimistic he’ll figure it out. He's a pretty resourceful guy,” Scott (R-FL) told reporters just off the Senate floor Thursday.

“Would you donate?” Raw Story asked.

“He's a resourceful guy,” Scott answered with a laugh before heading into the chamber to vote.

Personal and political money troubles collide

Trump hasn’t directly asked his Senate allies to chip in to help him pay his civil penalties, fines and lawyers, which now top half a billion dollars — including interest, which Forbes reports is ticking up at $111,984 a day.

But the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee finds himself in a potentially cataclysmic financial mess that mixes both his personal fortune and the finances of his presidential campaign.

During the past two years, Trump’s political operation has spent upward of $80 million on legal fees — an astounding sum for anyone, let alone a presidential candidate. Every dollar Trump’s political machine spends on his four separate criminal cases and various civil court matters is a dollar not spent on attacking Democrats or boosting Republicans.

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Conversations in conservative circles have often focused on fundraising for Trump’s legal defense instead of beating President Joe Biden, which has some Republicans fearing the GOP will suffer up and down the ballot come November.

And while it’s still early in this general election and Trump’s poll numbers have looked decent, his fundraising has been anemic. Similarly, Biden’s poll numbers are lagging, even as his campaign coffers are overflowing.

Biden’s warchest is currently triple that of Trump's. The latest Federal Election Commission filings show Biden’s campaign and joint fundraising committee are sitting on $155 million compared to the $41.9 million cash on hand at Trump’s disposal. Such figures don't include money raised by committees the candidates don't directly control, such as supportive super PACs.

President Joe Biden, seen departing the White House on March 19, 2024 in Washington, D.C., enjoys a campaign cash advantage over Trump at present. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Trump may have had a good fundraising month in February, netting upward of $20 million in tandem with his joint fundraising committee, but he still found himself outraised by $3 million by former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) before she dropped out of the GOP presidential primary — withholding both her endorsement and her dollars.

“I think we just have to look at the hard math. Democrats are hitting on all cylinders in terms of fundraising, so we've already got a structural challenge where we're not raising as much as them,” Sen. Tillis of North Carolina said as he entered an elevator in the Capitol. “These races are big races. They cost a lot of money. You gotta mobilize voters, so I'm sure it's a concern for them, too.”

Besides begging for longshot loans, selling off assets and engaging in other creative monetary maneuvers, the former president is now leaning on the sale of $399 gold sneakers and a GoFundMe with an eye-popping $355 million goal.

It’s still unclear if Trump can wiggle out of the straight jacket ensnaring him through the newly announced merger between his fledgling social media company, Truth Social, and Digital World Acquisition Corporation. While the deal could eventually net Trump some $3 billion, his hands are currently tied by an agreement constraining him from selling his shares for the next six months — when the earliest of 2024 early votes are slated to be cast.

Instead of focusing on his reelection, Fox News hosts, such as Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin, have been pushing their massive audiences to donate to Trump’s legal fund.

They’re not the only ones thinking about Donald’s debt these days.

'Trump’s a movement'

Per his usual, Trump has his fierce defenders who say everything’s fine.

“Trump’s a movement. It’s not just the candidate. He’s a movement,” Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) — who served as Trump’s first Interior secretary until scandals ended his tenure in the executive branch — told Raw Story. “I'm not worried.”

“You gonna cut a check for his legal fund?” Raw Story inquired.

“I’ll support my president,” Zinke — who’s estimated to own assets topping $30 million — said.

Other rich Republicans also aren’t entirely slamming the door shut on providing future legal aid to Trump.

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“I am confident the [former] president will be able to figure out how to manage his campaign and finances to be successful,” Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) told Raw Story while walking through the Capitol.

“You have plans to donate to Trump?”

“We’ll see,” said Ricketts, who’s estimated his net worth around $50 million and comes from a family of billionaires who, for example, own the Chicago Cubs.

While he may not be as wealthy as his Senate counterparts, Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) has made millions through his gun store and firing range, which means he can’t give Trump in-kind donations because it’s illegal for the former president to even “receive” a firearm or ammunition while under felony indictments.

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Budd’s not looking to arm Trump for warfare though.

“Oh my goodness, it's complete lawfare,” Budd (R-NC) told Raw Story on his way to a Senate vote.

The freshman senator dismisses fears from some in the GOP that Trump’s legal fundraising is handicapping the party ahead of November.

“No. Completely separate,” Budd said.

Many in the GOP are banking on Biden foiling his own reelection bid. They expect the grassroots to be there for Trump — no matter the mind-numbing sums he’s scrambling to raise — just as they’ve been there for him in past fundraising appeals.

“I think that his support that he has at the grassroots will give him the money he needs,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told Raw Story. “And I think that there's a big anti-Biden movement. A downturn in money's not going to make a big difference.”

Other Republicans are indifferent or awkwardly distancing themselves from the troubled Trump — and the entire GOP through him, the party’s defendant-in-chief — brand.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) wouldn't answer Raw Story's question about whether she still considers herself a Republican. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“I haven’t thought about it at all,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) told Raw Story.

“What about the RNC losing 60 staffers?”

“I didn't know about that either,” Collins said in reference to the “bloodbath” earlier this month when Trump ousted Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and installed his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as Republican National Committee — or RNC — co-chairwoman.

“Oh, yeah?” Raw Story asked. “Are you still a Republican?”

“It’s not uncommon when there's a new chair for there to be a major staff turnover,” Collins replied without answering our question.

RNC shakeup sends shivers through old Republican guard

Campaigns are more than dollars and cents though, and Trump’s ongoing personal shakeup of the RNC has unsettled many veteran Republicans.

Among country club Republicans and critics alike, this is just par for Trump’s political course.

“I don't think there's any norm or barrier that former President Trump won't be ready and willing to cross if it's in his personal, financial or egotistical interest,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) told Raw Story while walking to a vote on the Senate floor.

Romney is dismissed as a disloyal “Never Trump”-er by many in his own party. Besides McDaniel being his niece, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee is retiring at the end of this term.

Romney may be a critic, but he says he’s not given up on his party yet, even as the Republican Party has morphed into something unrecognizable from his time as the GOP standard-bearer.

Romney says he loves his party and fears Trump’s self-serving moves will be felt by conservatives for decades.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) answers questions in his office after announcing he will not seek re-election on September 13, 2023 in Washington, DC. Romney Called for a "new generation of leaders" while also criticizing both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

“The party has to exist beyond and after Donald Trump and I are gone, and so weakening the party, making it a personal appendage, is not a good thing,” Romney — who’s estimated to be worth more than $170 million, making him one of the top 10 wealthiest senators — said.

Even though he lost to then-President Barack Obama in 2012, Romney credits the RNC with helping turn out his supporters.

“It was a very helpful organization in turning out the vote, so it helped raise money for me and it turned out the vote. To win elections, it’s all about organization. Ground game still makes a difference,” Romney said. “Once I became the presumptive nominee, we worked hand in glove.”

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Romney did that without placing any of his children at the helm of the RNC.

“Having family members serve in the administration looked like nepotism. Didn't seem to bother him. Didn't seem to bother the voters who put him there,” Romney said.

Not all Democrats are dancing

On the other side of the proverbial aisle, many liberal talking heads are giddy watching Trump scramble for millions and millions of pennies. But Democrats in tight races this fall know they can’t count on Trump’s legal woes to win.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) is fighting for his political life in Montana. He’s raised upwards of $5 million four quarters in a row now, and he’s not letting up just because of Trump’s mounting legal bills.

“I don’t know that it makes a lot of difference, actually,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) told Raw Story.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) listens during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs committee hearing on January 11, 2024 in Washington, D.C. Tester is in the midst of one of the most competitive U.S. Senate races in the nation this year. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Democrats also have other fears.

“Depends on whether he’s busy raising money for his legal fees instead of for his campaign, but it does concern me that it will be added financial pressure compromising him,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) told Raw Story on his way to meetings on the Senate side of the Capitol Thursday.

Schiff, who recently clinched a spot on the ballot in California’s U.S. Senate general election in November, is a Harvard educated lawyer who was the impeachment manager for Trump’s first impeachment.

“He’s always been all about the money,” Schiff said. “But now there will be even greater risk that he trades American interests for money.”

'Absurdity from absurd members': Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle slam MTG's new move

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are slamming Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's new motion to vacate House Speaker Mike Johnson, they said in interviews with Raw Story Friday.

Outrage churned on Capitol Hill as Greene targeted Johnson — who forced members to vote on a massive omnibus spending package to prevent a government shutdown — by taking steps similar to those that ousted the previous House speaker Kevin McCarthy just last October.

"What do I make of absurdity from absurd members?" Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) asked Raw Story. "Members like...Marjorie Taylor Greene are arsonists who are intent on burning down the institution."

Torres urged Greene to remember she is just one among 435 House representatives, each representing constituents with specific priorities.

"It never occurs to them, you only represent a small subset of the country," Torres said. "You cannot expect to run the House as if you were the speaker."

But the Bronx, N.Y., lawmaker struck an optimistic note to conclude, arguing Greene and fellow political arsonists were going to end up burned.

"It's just inexplicable stupidity," said Torres. "It's going to backfire."

Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) agreed with Torres that Greene's antics served as a distraction from the important work of legislating.

"I came here to focus on gun violence and the issues I think are really important right now, but we can't really do that because nothing is coming to the floor," Frost told Raw Story. "It's just a clown show, here we go again."

The two House Democrats found themselves in philosophical alignment with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who also decried what he described as mere "theatrics."

Tillis suggested Greene's decision not to ask for privilege — which would make her motion eligible for immediate consideration under House rules and procedures — was telling.

ALSO READ: Marjorie Taylor Greene to federal election regulators: get bent over ‘MTG’

"It sounds like she's venting more than serious," Tillis said. "It kinda reminds me of my kids when they were teenagers."

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Raw Story his preference would be for the House of Representatives to turn their attention to passing a federal budget.

"We need to have a functioning appropriations process," said Johnson. "That would be my suggestion."

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) wholeheartedly agreed.

"What we've come to do is to support democracy and freedom of human rights all over the world," Raskin said. "If Speaker Johnson wants to break from the ...Trump-MAGA faction that's been controlling the Republican party, I would love to see it."

House Republican giggles over Hitler praise — and admits he never listens to Trump

WASHINGTON — A Republican House representative burst into laughter Tuesday when a Raw Story reporter asked him to comment on former President Donald Trump's remarks praising autocrats that included Adolf Hitler.

"You guys still paying attention to what Trump says?" Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) said with a giggle. "Oh my God ... journalists never learn."

Harris, a Freedom Caucus member whose ties to Trump include attendance at a meeting in 2020 to discuss keeping the former president in the White House, admitted that he does not listen to the words that come out of the leading Republican presidential candidate's mouth.

"You guys don't listen to Trump?" Raw Story asked.

"No, of course not!" Harris said. "You look at what he does, not what he says."

Harris' assertion comes as the release of a new book — "The Return of Great Powers" by CNN's John Sciutto — details warnings from former Trump advisers over their onetime boss' admiration for autocrats.

“He likes dealing with other big guys, and big guys like Erdogan in Turkey get to put people in jail and you don’t have to ask anybody’s permission,” John Bolton, who served as national security adviser under Trump, told Sciutto. "He kind of likes that.”

Retired Marines General John Kelly told Sciutto he convinced Trump to stop praising the Nazi leader who masterminded the Holocaust by arguing Italian's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was "a great guy in comparison.”

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"Hitler did some good things," Trump said, according to Kelly. "[Hitler] rebuilt the economy."

This prompted Kelly to note what Hitler did with that thriving economy: "He turned it against his own people and against the world.

"I said, ‘Sir, you can never say anything good about the guy. Nothing.'"

News of this exchange came as a surprise to Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), who told Raw Story he "didn't know anything about" Trump's professed admiration for strong men leaders and added, "That's crazy."

Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA) came to Trump's defense, telling Raw Story he believed Trump's praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin was simply respect for an intelligent adversary.

"Somebody could be dastardly ... but they could still be smart," Meuser said. But he added, "I'm not going to get into Hitler."

Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) echoed Meuser's adversary argument and accused Kelly of stirring up a fuss because he did not have a war to fight.

"All these old generals, retire, go home, enough is enough," Nehls said. "Oh come on. Praising Hitler? They take that all out of context."

Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘Squad’ dying?

WASHINGTON — “The Squad” — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) tight knit band of progressive rabble-rousers — is still making headlines.

But lately, it’s for all the wrong reasons.

After a string of scandals, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) are both facing AIPAC-backed primary challengers this year. Bowman’s troubles include pleading guilty to pulling a fire alarm in the Capitol, over which House Republicans censured him. Bush, meanwhile, is under investigation by the FBI for paying her husband for security services.

Of The Squad’s two Muslim American members, one, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), was removed from a key foreign policy-focused committee. The other, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), was censured by the full House. Both situations involved anti-Israel comments.

Republicans, meanwhile, have placed a target — figurative and quite literal — on The Squad, sensing a grand opportunity to weaken an arch political enemy.

Squad members, however, laugh off critics who are counting them out. They instead warn that their own Democratic Party leaders better start listening to them soon, or the party risks suffering another defeat at the hands of Republicans come November.

Three members of "The Squad" — Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) — arrive before participating during a town hall hosted by the NAACP on September 11, 2019, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

“Is The Squad on the ropes?” Raw Story asked Bowman, the first male member of The Squad.

“S—. The ropes? F— you talkin’ about, dog?” Bowman told Raw Story through a broad, if skeptical, smile. “What you mean, ‘the ropes’? We running 1,000 miles per hour. They tryin’ to figure out how to stop us, man.

“The ropes?” Bowman again protested.

“So you feel like you are pulling the party in your direction?” Raw Story countered.

“I don’t know if we’re pullin’ no party or none of that, I know we're serving the people in our district. I know that,” Bowman said. “I know we’re showing up.”

ALSO READ: ‘I really am sincerely sorry’: Rep. Jamaal Bowman on his alarming ‘unforced error’

Opponents are also showing up, with some Squad members — particularly Bowman and Bush — drawing serious primary challenges.

That’s why Raw Story asked six of the group’s now eight members whether The Squad really is on the ropes.

“I don't think so, but I think we're always the little guy because we fight for the little guys — that's actually what a constituent told me,” Ocasio-Cortez — who first used the term “The Squad” in 2018 to describe herself and three other progressive women who came to Washington intent on overhauling politics as usual, including in the Democratic Party — told Raw Story.

“We're underdogs, because we fight for underdogs,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “And that doesn't mean we're on the ropes, but it means that we know what we fight for.”

Dem-on-Dem battles

Ocasio-Cortez's own rocket-like political rise was birthed out of a bloody Democratic primary.

Her surprise 2018 defeat of former chairman of the Democratic Caucus, then-Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) — the fourth most powerful House Democrat, at the time — still stings some more senior Democrats.

That’s partly why Ocasio-Cortez brushes off this year’s primaries against her fellow Squad members.

“Just by virtue of the positions that we have, I think, we expect at the very least a primary challenger for each of our re-elections, especially our first reelection,” Ocasio-Cortez said while walking through an underground tunnel to the U.S. Capitol.

Some Democrats in Congress are still upset with Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive Squad members for what they consider a betrayal: backing their more liberal primary opponents in recent elections.

ALSO READ: Marjorie Taylor Greene to federal election regulators: get bent

“They’re being primaried where in the past they primaried me, [former Reps.] Dan Lipinski, Kurt Schrader — a whole bunch of folks,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) — the last anti-abortion Democrat left on Capitol Hill — told Raw Story. “I always said, they ought to focus the resources on the other party, but they did that so now they're getting the same.”

Lipinski — an eight-term, socially conservative Democratic lawmaker from the suburbs of Chicago — went down in 2020.

U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), left, and U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), right, depart a leadership election meeting with the Democratic caucus in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill November 30, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Then, in the 2022 midterms, Schrader — a seven-term Oregon centrist — lost in a primary to liberal Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who herself lost in the general election to now-Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR).

Cuellar eked out two nasty primary victories back to back those years; one by a mere 300 votes.

In 2022, more than $16 million was spent on Cuellar’s seat, making it the 8th most expensive House race in the nation in the midterms, according to nonprofit research organization OpenSecrets.

“I’m not getting involved. Even though a few of them got involved with mine, I'm not gonna,” Cuellar said. “I don't do that.”

Cuellar likens these progressives and their purist positions, such as the Green New Deal they forced into the Democratic mainstream, to the demands of the GOP’s far-right, which includes Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

“The far-left and the far-right are the loudest. We're seeing the same thing right now with the Republican caucus,” Cuellar said. “Where they pushed us, some of the positions they took, like, the ‘defund the police, ‘say no to I.C.E.’ — you know, say no to Border Patrol — all that affected the Democratic Party.”

President Joe Biden may have been pulled further to the left by young, energetic progressive voices like those of The Squad, but Cuellar says that’s now tarnished moderate Democrats.

“It affected the Democratic Party. It affected the brand of the Democratic Party,” Cuellar said. “This is why they need to understand that, if you're going to build a big tent, you need to have progressives and you got to have moderate, conservative Democrats. That's how you do it. You add to make it bigger, you don't subtract.”

Squash the Squad?

Outside forces are trying to subtract two Squad members from the congressional rolls ahead of November.

In Missouri, Bush faces a three-way August 6 primary. A poll last month from the Republican firm Remington Research Group showed Bush down 22 points to St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell. Former state lawmaker Maria Chapelle-Nadal is also running.

Latest fundraising numbers showed Bush’s campaign had roughly half as much cash on hand as Bell.

Raw Story asked Bush if she’s worried about her campaign money.

“Oh, no. Not at all. No. When Republican ‘dark money’ funds the campaign for someone who was supposed to be a Democrat against the Democratic incumbent who was actually working in taking care of the community when their money is tied to the people that want to see national abortion bans and all this,” Bush told Raw Story. “I can't really get into it right here, but I would just say: no.”

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In New York, ahead of the state’s June 25 primary, Bowman is up against American Israel Public Affairs Committee-backed George Latimer, county executive of Westchester County, N.Y.

Recently, after speaking to a crowd of a few dozen youth activists gathered outside the Capitol, Bowman was fired up after telling the young voters focused on the plight of Palestinians that his campaign is “against AIPAC.”

“They're trying to hit us with metaphorical political bombs to stop us, but we're like, we're out of here, son. We’re on a whole nother level than that,” Bowman told Raw Story. “Historically,

U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) speaks as supporters of social media app TikTok listen during a news conference in front of the U.S. Capitol on March 22, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

anyone who fights for justice, what happens? People go after them.”

Bowman has endured a particularly difficult 2023-2024 congressional session.

In October, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and paid a fine related to his pulling of a fire alarm in a Capitol office building.

Bowman has also faced criticism after The Daily Beast unearthed old blog posts of the former school teacher and principal that espoused 9/11 conspiracy theories, which he’s since disavowed. He blames his critics for uncovering the old posts in spite of them being deleted.

“So the power structure doesn't want voices like mine, Cori [Bush (D-MO)] and Summer [Lee (D-PA)] fighting the way we're fighting without fear, with humanity and love in our hearts. So they're going to come with, you know, bring up some s— I did 15 years ago,” Bowman said. “It’s like, what? That’s all they got? I wasn’t even in Congress. Y’all crazy. But it’s because they didn't want to focus on the work we're doing here. They’re the Wizard of Oz, man.”

Tlaib, Omar and ‘uncommitted’ movement

Last February, Republicans removed Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee over past comments — ones she later apologized for — about Israel where she accused U.S. lawmakers of pledging their “allegiance to a foreign country.”

Then, at the end of last year, Tlaib — the lone Palestinian-American in Congress — became the 26th person ever to be censured by the House over what Republicans and 22 of her fellow Democrats deemed her anti-Israel rhetoric.

But the effort seems to have only emboldened Tlaib.

During the last quarter of 2023, Tlaib pulled in $3.7 million after House Republicans censured her.

“Rashida Tlaib outraises entire Michigan congressional field,” an Axios put it.

At a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol recently, Tlaib recounted the pleading she heard from one of her constituents with family in northern Gaza.

“The grandfather lives in my district and he’s saying to me, ‘My grandson has a fever, Rashida, how do I get him medicine? How do I save his life? We don't know what to do.’ Using starvation as a weapon of war is undeniably a war crime,” Tlaib told Raw Story in a passageway underneath the Capitol. “It is a war crime that we continue to be complicit in those decisions.”

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) (C) and Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) hold up signs as President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address during a joint meeting of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol on March 7, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Tlaib helped spearhead the effort to protest President Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza by getting Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in the state’s Feb. 27 primary.

This proved to be a wake up call to Democratic Party leaders after more than 100,000 Democrats — upward of 13 percent of Michigan Democrats — voted “uncommitted” in the primary. Biden’s campaign is treating Michigan, a genuine general election swing state, as critical to the president’s reelection prospects.

In Minnesota, about 46,000 Democratic voters — or 19 percent — protested Biden by voting “uncommitted” on Super Tuesday. In Omar’s district, 25 percent of Democrats joined the Biden protest at the ballot box.

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“Of course, there needs to be a real shift. We’re saying we’re the party of the people, we have to start listening to the people,” Omar told Raw Story. “We are going to stand up to AIPAC. We’ve always stood up to them, and it's not going to be any different cycle.”

Just this week, a "Reject AIPAC" coalition of progressive political groups launched with the stated intention of boosting Squad members and other like-minded Democrats during 2024 elections.

“I think there are people who try to make it sound like we are not in a good position, but we have great fundraising numbers. We have the support and endorsement of all of the leadership. I think we're in a great place,” Omar said.

As for whether The Squad’s role has changed?

Omar says not at all.

“I think it's the same. We've always had primaries. I think we're in a unique place. I think this is probably going to be a primary cycle where we all squash, I think, our challengers in a great way,” Omar said. “No, I mean, I think our role is still the same, you know, defending democracy, fighting for the advancement of our country through policies like the Green New Deal, Homes for All, taking on big corporations.”

‘Yeah. No. We’re good.’

“So is the Squad hurting these days?” Raw Story asked Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA).

“Let me just say this: We're used to being targeted. We're doing transformative work, disrupting the status quo, and we're all BIPOC. Nothing new,” Pressley told Raw Story while riding an elevator in the Capitol. “You know what we're hurting from? We're hurting from — our communities are hurting because we're here in this dysfunctional place and we're not lifting up, centering and working on the things that matter to them, like housing.”

“Yeah. No. We’re good,” Pressley said. “Focused on the people.”

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) speaks at the National Council for Incarcerated Women and Girls "100 Women for 100 Women" rally at Black Lives Matter Plaza on March 12, 2021, in Washington, D,C. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

While The Squad has moved the party further to left on many issues, its unofficial leader, Ocasio-Cortez says their work isn’t done yet, especially when it comes to Gaza.

“It is moving. I think we've certainly had major policy concessions on everything from climate to student loans,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I think we do need to see some of those real policy concessions on foreign policy in Gaza, for sure.”

As for all the negative attention that The Squad is receiving — from censures to primaries — that’s the world they inhabit. Together.

“I guess I’m less fazed, because this is the way it's always been,” Ocasio-Cortez told Raw Story. “I don't know any other way.”

'What a piece of work': Marjorie Greene's 'childish' SOTU response trashed by Senate Dems

WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans' cold, rude and, at times, antagonistic reactions to Thursday night’s State of the Union address has one of President Joe Biden’s closest allies missing Richard Nixon.

If you thought the bar couldn’t get any lower for American politicians, think again. Watergate now seems to be the high water mark for American politics.

“We're not perfect by any stretch on our side, but what's happened, especially with Trump, is very, very sad,” Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) told Raw Story as he walked through the Capitol after the president’s address. “I'm thinking of Republican presidents that I've known — Richard Nixon, both presidents Bush, [Republican presidential nominee] John McCain — those guys must be spinning in their graves.”

Living Republicans were left spinning too.

“My head got to hurting,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told Raw Story after the president wrapped his speech.

“You guys didn’t even stand up at all,” Raw Story asked of Biden’s calls to increase teacher pay, defend democracy, and protect American allies. “None of that was worth it?”

“No,” Tuberville replied. “Hell no.”

“No?”

“Optics,” Tuberville said.

Even Republicans who admitted they couldn’t hear the address well were unapologetic for barely rising out of their seats to applaud Biden when he touted the job growth that had taken place during his administration.

“There was nothing to stand for?” Raw Story asked after the address. “Nothing to clap for in there?”

“I stood for Israel,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) replied to Raw Story.

“What about America?”

“Honestly, most of it I couldn't understand. I don't hear well anyway and he was mumbling and then yelling and I kind of gave up,” Ernst — chair of the Republican Policy Committee in the Senate — said.

Ernst wasn’t alone in not being able to hear what the president said clearly — but then dumping on him anyway.

“I'm gonna have to go home to read it, because I couldn't understand what he was saying most of the time,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) told Raw Story after leaving Thursday night’s prime time speech. “I think he was trying so hard to sound strong that he sounded angry. It came across as anger.”

Some Democrats also couldn’t make out the whole speech.

“I got most of it, I think,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) told Raw Story.

Turning back to the GOP reaction, other Democratic senators ripped the GOP's reaction and compared them to petulant toddlers.

“It’s childish,” former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) told Raw Story as he walked through the Capitol Rotunda Thursday eve. “You’ve got to realize that the rest of the world looks at us as the leader — a free nation — and if instead they see a grade school assembly, there’s our soul.”

Sen. Carper singled out Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) as particularly bothersome.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. What a piece of work,” Carper said of the Georgia Republican. “In the end that kind of behavior is self-defeating, and it maybe makes the perpetrator of that behavior feel better for a while, but I don't think it earns outside respect. I was raised to treat other people the way I wanted to be treated, with respect.”

‘Mean girl on a revenge tour’: Kevin McCarthy has knives out for his ‘Gaetz 8’ tormentors

WASHINGTON — Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy may have been publicly beat down before being booted out of power after just 269 days on the job, but his presence is still being felt in the GOP.

And McCarthy’s got some scores to settle first.

McCarthy’s allies have been on the offense against some of the eight far-right Republicans who cost him his coveted speaker’s gavel last fall and prompted his resignation in December.

Super Tuesday provides McCarthyites an opportunity: Three of the House GOP’s “Gaetz Eight,” as they’ve been dubbed in some corners of Capitol Hill, are on their state’s respective primary ballots. More primaries will soon follow.

ALSO READ: ‘We're wounded:’ Speaker Mike Johnson struggles to lead GOP after ‘unnecessary purging’

While a longshot, McCarthy’s set on exacting revenge at the ballot box and knocking them out. He’s raising campaign cash for their primary opponents, rallying the old GOP guard to challenge these incumbents and, whenever possible, undercutting and belittling them with what little stature the third shortest serving speaker in U.S. history still maintains.

Many Republicans say this was inevitable after what the former speaker had to so publicly endure.

“Politics is a contact sport. They wanted to get rid of Kevin, were they going to assume he wasn't going to retaliate? That's human nature,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) told Raw Story. “That's what I knew was going to happen.”

“What’s that say about him?” Raw Story inquired. “Isn't that literally kind of making their case? Putting personality over party?”

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) leaves the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 14, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“I don't think so. People hold grudges,” Donalds said. “I would just say this: If there’s a job I've been trying to get for 20 years, and you take that away from me, you think I'm just turning the other cheek? Nope. I'm not. I'm not surprised, and they shouldn't be either.”

Others in the party are angry, especially because they say the former speaker amassed huge sums of political money purely because donors trusted him to help maintain Republicans' majority in the House.

“People are really pissed?” Raw Story inquired.

“They should be,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) told Raw Story. “Let’s use it to advance conservative principles. Anything but vendettas. It’s not right. I don't know how he feels good about that.”

Norman’s fellow South Carlonian, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), has the biggest target on her back from McCarthy, and she’s been letting it be known that she’s warring with McCarthy.

“He’s acting like a mean girl on a revenge tour,” Mace told Raw Story. “It’s mind numbing. I've always been against the establishment, and you're going to recruit the establishment to run against me?”

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) listens during an House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building on Feb. 1, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“The establishment” means Catherine Templeton, an attorney who former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) tapped to be her director of Labor, Licensing and Regulation before she came in third in the Republican Party’s 2018 gubernatorial primary.

Templeton did not reply to an interview request, but she recently netted the endorsement of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and her campaign claims moment is building ahead of South Carolina's June 11 Republican primary.

Mace laughs off the full court press from what she sees as the Washington establishment.

“He could not have picked a worse opponent,” Mace said. “She's a puppet to Kevin McCarthy. Like, that doesn't sell in my district. My district wants someone who's going to be conservative, but an independent voice. They don't want a puppet to Kevin McCarthy.”

‘He didn’t stay’

A week after South Carlonians vote — on June 18, 2024 — Virginia Republicans will decide whether to stick with Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) or ditch the newly minted chair of the far-right Freedom Caucus for Virginia state Sen. John McGuire (R).

McGuire netted the endorsement of former President Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) after Good initially endorsed former Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in this year’s presidential primary. And last quarter, McGuire outraised Good by a few thousand dollars, which is not a good position for an incumbent to be in.

In January, Good tried to cuddle up to Trump by endorsing him after DeSantis bowed out. While Good is now moving to the MAGA end of the GOP spectrum, and he laughs off McCarthy’s presence in his district.

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“I think he ought to come and campaign for my opponent. He’s funding my opponent's campaign. I think my opponent should bring him in to campaign for him. I think that'd be terrific,” Good told Raw Story.

The barbs in the contest are getting swampy.

“I don't think the people of the 5th District [of Virginia] are gonna let their seat be bought by D.C.-California swamp interests, but that's clearly who's funding my opponent’s campaign,” Good said. “Heck, McCarthy's bragging — his affiliates are bragging about their funding this campaign and others — so I think they ought to just come and campaign for my opponent. That'd be terrific.”

Further south, in Tennessee, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) has been able to fend off potential primary challengers, in part by having Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) come down to host a fundraiser for him in February.

U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) speaks to the media during a House Republican candidates forum where congressmen who are running for Speaker of the House presented their platforms in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill on Oct. 23, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Burchett has had a bone to pick with McCarthy since the former speaker allegedly elbowed him in the back at the U.S. Capitol. And there’s a lot of time between now and the state’s GOP primary on Aug. 1, 2024.

“I knew he was going to. I knew it when I made that decision. I knew he’d use his $17 million that was given to him by Republicans to beat Democrats, obviously. But that's the world we live in,” Burchett told Raw Story about McCarthy striking back.

“Does this show you were right?” Raw Story asked.

“Absolutely. Absolutely,” Burchett said. “He didn't stay. You know he said he cared about the party, but then he leaves after he’s dethroned and puts us in a worse spot. So I think that shows exactly — and it goes back to the last thing he said to me was, ‘I really want to be speaker.’”

Sharp elbows

Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) is the only member of the Gaetz Eight that pushed McCarthy out who’s retiring after this year. He’s not surprised McCarthy’s trying to weigh into local GOP politics.

“It’s Kevin. That's why he had trouble leading us, because it’s who he is,” Buck told Raw Story.

“It’s akin to hitting somebody in the back with an elbow.”

Close McCarthy confidant Brian O. Walsh — a consultant with Red Print Strategy — is spearheading the longshot effort, as Politico first reported. He couldn’t be reached for comment.

McCarthy may be active behind the political scenes, but on Capitol Hill he’s become largely an afterthought.

“He couldn't beat us in Washington, you think he's gonna beat us playing an away game?” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said to Raw Story through a laugh.

U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 13, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

One thing’s clear, there’s no McCarthy remorse from the “Gaetz Eight.”

“That’s his prerogative. He’s a private citizen now, he can do what he wants,” Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) told Raw Story.

Many other Republicans want to stay out of the mini-civil war still raging in their party.

“What do you think of McCarthy going after some of your colleagues from beyond the grave? Or from the grave?” Raw Story asked.

“You said that, I did not,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) replied through a laugh. “I'm not a big fan of internecine warfare.”

Perry is the recent former head of the fringe-right Freedom Caucus — a group that was a constant thorn in McCarthy’s side before evolving and derailing Johnson’s speakership agenda.

Regardless of whether Perry’s a fan, it seems internecine warfare follows the Freedom Caucus wherever it goes.

That’s why McCarthy still has many cheerleaders in Congress, especially now that the party’s most far-right wing has blocked, gutted and then opposed all efforts to fund the government long-term during this divided session of Congress.

“The ding dongs wouldn't vote for it, because I guess it looks like they wanted to hang McCarthy,” a senior California Republican who asked for anonymity to discuss his colleagues told Raw Story, before they added. “I’m glad for him.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn't get why Dems don't want Biden to have absolute immunity

WASHINGTON — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) told reporters she's furious with her party over the budget bills. She also downplayed the GOP's failures over the Joe Biden impeachment and championed Donald Trump's immunity case headed to the Supreme Court.

"I think it's great," Greene told Raw Story at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday.

If the Supreme Court allows for presidential immunity to protect Trump, all the cases "are gone," Greene added.

"I think the Supreme Court is the place for this to be, given the fact that some of these lower courts are politically biased, which is a major problem."

"I think he had immunity. I'll tell you, I don't think President Trump did anything wrong," she continued.

Raw Story asked if she'd be as supportive if Biden could claim immunity too.

"Yeah, which you would think that Democrats would support presidential immunity as well," said Greene.

She went on to say that she introduced a bill that would allow January 6 rioters to move their cases to different courts, and "I didn't put a political bias in that."

ALSO READ: ‘America First’ is Trump first, Russia close second

"People need to stop looking at it through the political lens at the moment and realize how it affects everyone overall," Greene said.

That's one of the reasons that Democrats oppose presidential immunity for both Biden and Trump — arguing that presidents should not be above the law.

Greene moved onto GOP's efforts to impeach Biden, promising that effort wasn't dead despite a lack of evidence and a key witness being arrested and charged with lying to the FBI.

She said she was looking forward to having public hearings with Hunter Biden — which the GOP has previously pushed against.

She went on to say that she was disillusioned with her party after budget talks.

“I’m unhappy with our entire GOP conference. It’s a failure,” she said. “We’re doing everything we said we wouldn’t do. That’s a failure, in my opinion.”

The government is set to shut down at midnight Friday if funding measures aren't agreed.

"Why can't they have peace? Like, why can't the Senate — why can't our border matter?" Greene asked. "So, I think it's pretty foolish to bring up a funding bill — to the floor — when it's something the American people just don't support."

According to a YouGov/EuroTrack poll from Jan. 5 - Feb. 4, "a plurality of Americans, 43 percent, think the West should support Ukraine until Russia withdraws, and 46 percent think the West is not doing enough to support Ukraine." Meanwhile, 45 percent think the U.S. is spending too much money on Ukraine. The polls are split largely on party lines.

"Our job title is Representative. Our job title is not, um, fund the CIA's war against Ukraine," Greene said.

“Well, I’ve kind of brought back the name ‘House of hypocrites’ because our conference was all about no CRs, no CRs, no minibuses, no omnibuses. And all I heard talked about this morning was we’re on our third CR … so that we can vote on multiple mini-buses,” she told CNN’s Manu Raju.

Republican senators kick Mitch McConnell on his way out the door

WASHINGTON — Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced he will resign from the leadership after the November election — and many of his GOP colleagues responded by giving him a big shove on the way out the door.

Speaking to Raw Story after McConnell's floor speech on Wednesday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) complained that the Republicans need leadership that works for them — not "Big Pharma" and corporate interests.

"Their political contributions control what goes on in the Senate," said Hawley. "No one has done more to open the geyser of corporate cash than Mitch McConnell."

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told reporters while walking through the U.S. Capitol complex that if the people want Donald Trump to run the Republican Party, then that's what should happen.

"The leader of the Senate has not been on the same page as the people we represent," complained Tuberville. "It's just a leadership position. There's not a lot of spilled milk with moving out. He's worked hard. He's been the leader of the Senate longer than anybody. Now it's time for him to bring us all together and get us on the same page as President Trump.

"If he's going to be the leader he can't be in the middle. He's got to be 100% in with President Trump and for all the people that are running for Senate positions."

Raw Story noted that during the CPAC event over the weekend, the so-called "old guard" like McConnell wasn't anywhere to be found.

"Yeah. Well, in defense of Leader McConnell, he hasn't been the same in a year," Tuberville continued.

"And so he's had problems, health-wise. It's a tough job. I can't imagine doing it. But whoever's going to do it has got to have a lot of energy. The next nine months are going to determine the fate of our country, in my eyes. The way I look at it."

When talking about the divide between McConnell and Trump, he explained that the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee considers issues like the border or drilling for oil to be a "big deal."

"His big deal is to get us out of wars," Tuberville continued about Trump. "And the leadership on our side is the opposite. You know, we've tried a little bit at the border, but not a whole lot."

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The Senate Republicans joined with Democrats in passing landmark bipartisan legislation to deal with immigration. The House killed the bill.

"We're in more wars now and our leadership is supporting those wars," complained Tuberville. "But Trump's not. And I don't think we've made a big enough push for oil."

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said that it isn't easy being a leader and "herding cats. ... And I think I'll just leave it at that. It's the end of an era."

He said the announcement coming now will give the conference the time necessary to figure out where the party stands and what kind of leadership it wants.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) said it's "out with the old guard."

CPAC all about paranoia and anger: 'I'm worried that we're going to have a civil war'

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Civil war is on the minds of many conservatives.

At least many of those gathered just outside of the nation’s capital this week for CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference. In recent years, the annual meeting has evolved into a populist confab remade in the image of former President Donald Trump.

If the speakers here are correct in their doomsday predictions — and fear-soaked fundraising pleas — attendees have good reason to be scared.

“I'm worried that we're gonna have a civil war in this country,” CPAC attendee Lucy Kruse — wearing a coat embroidered with her home state of Maryland’s busy yellow, black, red, and white flag — told Raw Story outside the convention hall.

Gone are the days of fiscal conservatism. Like the Republican Party itself, since 2016, when former President Donald Trump started his populist takeover of the GOP, this annual event has continued moving further and further to the far-to-fringe-right.

Victimhood abounds. ‘Deep state,’ the media, academia, Hollywood — or ‘the woke,’ as they call it in these parts — and the Biden White House are all conspiring against Trump. His disciples here take his every prosecution personally — Trump is their “J6er-in-chief,” as some call him, after all.

It’s surely a new day in the GOP. Populism has morphed into paranoia. Angst transformed into anger. Conspiracies are now the code — on paper at least — for many of the card carrying conservatives gathered here.

The formerly fringe is now front and center. Everyone seems prepped — or, at the very least, resigned — for chaos to come.

Kruse, now a grandmother herself, says she can relate to what her foremothers endured in the 1860s.

“I’m worried. I'm worried. I think often about the Civil War, and I think often about how they talked about mothers having brothers fighting each other on opposing sides,” Kruse said. “Well, I can tell you that in my family, there are opposing sides, and I'm not supposed to talk about it. Like, I'm supposed to be quiet — they can say anything they want, but I'm not supposed to talk about it.”

A decade ago, Kruse was an outlier on the right, because she supported gun-control efforts. Not anymore.

While Kruse refused to say if she now owns a gun (“I'll leave that up to your imagination”), she senses an armed clash — a contemporary civil war — is just around the corner.

“I think about those things a lot. I think about the Civil War, and I think how horrible it must have been for a mother and a grandmother — which I am — to sit there and see this coming and feel like you have no way to stop it,” Kruse said.

The Maryland grandmother is far from alone here. She’s also not nuts. Kruse is warm, personable, and has a fun sense of humor.

Kruse is also informed. She’s basically weaned herself off Fox News, and not just because they no longer play Trump’s full live rallies.

“I used to be a Fox News person, but — well, I never really loved Fox. I used to go into my mom and dad's house and they watched it 24/7, and I always said, ‘They were the yellers of the news,” Kruse said. “They were in that mode of yelling, yelling, yelling, you know? And it just drove me crazy, but it's funny how you evolve.”

There’s been a lot of yelling at CPAC this week. It’s now soothing to Kruse. She’s at home.

“They're clamping down on everything here in Maryland, so, again, that's troubling as well,” Kruse said. “When you talk to — when you listen to the new President of El Salvador [Nayib Bukele] and him talk about what they experienced there, we better wake up. We better wake up. Like he said, ‘you don't want to experience everything we've experienced.’ And he's the one who said, ‘stand up and fight.’ You have to fight.”

President Bukele isn’t alone. While only a handful of elected American policymakers are speakers at this year’s CPAC, the common theme is that the civil war’s already started.

And — if they’re to be believed, which they surely are here at CPAC — it was President Joe Biden who fired the first shot. And who, they say, continues to do all he can to ‘destroy’ America.

“Joe Biden is clearly in partnership — without saying it, without having a written contract — with the cartels,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told CPAC attendees Friday.

The top law enforcement official in Texas — who barely escaped being impeached by his fellow Texas Republicans just last year — went on to tell the crowd, “we are at war.”

“It is all designed by our own government,” Paxton said of the border crisis. “So we are at war with the cartels, the Chinese importing fentanyl and our own president against the United States and our country and my state.”

While other elected Republicans stopped short of saying the ‘war’ has begun, some pledged to fight to the death anyway.

“I will die – I will fight to my last breath to make sure that our Second Amendment is protected, because that’s what protects our First [Amendment],” Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) told the crowd Friday.

There’s no gray here. The conference may be titled ‘where globalism goes to die,’ but this is Trump’s turf now and the agenda is all America First. Those who don’t embrace it, according to Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD), “hate America.”

“This election, the choice is clear. There are two kinds of people in this country right now: Those who love America and those who hate America,” Noem — who served eight years in the U.S. House of Representatives before moving into South Dakota’s governor’s mansion — told attendees. “Those who hate America are working everyday to destroy it, and let’s be clear: Joe Biden is destroying America and taking away your freedoms.”

Freedom’s flowing at this conference where the First Amendment is getting a workout.

While “aiding and abetting” is legalese for anyone found guilty of helping someone else carry out a crime, here at CPAC it’s been tossed around so much one may think it’s part of Biden’s official job description.

“Biden is aiding and abetting the invasion of our nation by thugs, Islamic extremists and Chinese spies,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) told the audience Friday afternoon in his address entitled, ‘Burning Down the House.’

Located roughly 10 miles from the U.S. Capitol — which was attacked, including by some gathered at CPAC, on Jan. 6, 2021 — many attendees at this year’s CPAC are proudly celebrating those who stormed the Capitol after Trump lost the 2020 election.

While Capitol Police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 were awarded Congressional Gold Medals for their valiant efforts to protect American democracy, at CPAC, they’re barely an afterthought. Law and order are viewed differently here, as Biden’s bludgeons, to most.

“I think that the government has gone after these January 6 political prisoners, because they want to make an example out of them,” Helena Gibson, a Virginia resident, told Raw Story. “I think that they're being used as political pawns, so that they can get to Trump.”

Like many here, Gibson’s convinced Biden’s an illegitimate president; Democrats a cabal.

“They can't win an election, so they have to get Trump all penned up in, you know, the traditional sense of the system with false allegations and things that he didn't say and do. And it's a mess,” Gibson said. “I mean, we all know now that the election was stolen.”

If the election was stolen by Biden — a common belief here at CPAC — those in prison for storming the Capitol are ‘patriots.’ Resisting the establishment — whether Democrats or the old guard in the GOP — also makes one a ‘patriot’ here.

Those willing to sacrifice their bodies, futures, and families to try and overturn the 2020 election are now heralded as heroes — heroes memorialized on J6 tees, cookies, DVDs (yes, actual DVDs), and petitions. There’s even a Jan. 6 themed video game for attendees to play at this year’s CPAC.

“It was funny. It was really funny. It’s, like, you’ve got to protect people from the left,” Emerson Young, a student at Ohio University at Athens, told Raw Story after playing. “That’s hilarious.”

Many aren’t laughing though. Rather, there’s an effort underway to make it easy for Trump to pardon all those J6 prisoners if he wins a second term.

“We sometimes call him the J6er-in-chief. He's facing some of those same charges in the same weaponized way and in the same completely abusive manner,” Suzzanne Monk — a J6 activist —- told Raw Story.

Just as the conservative Heritage Foundation has Project 2025 — a roadmap for Trump to staff up to start overhauling the federal government from day one, if he wins a second term — Monk’s crafting a blueprint for Trump to quickly pardon J6 prisoners if he ousts Biden in November.

“We are producing a book for one man: Donald J. Trump,” Monk said. “It's called, ‘How to Pardon the J6ers: A Comprehensive Guide for Donald J. Trump.’ And it will have all of the information. It’s a multi-pronged strategy, as well as a dossier of the information he needs for each and every individual who needs clemency.”

The newly normalized far-right is focused well beyond Jan. 6 prisoners and the national stage they thrust themselves onto. So far beyond the spotlight they’re often hiding in plain sight.

The group Moms for Liberty has been labeled an ‘extremist’ organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its ties to militias, espousing anti-government views, efforts to ban books and discrimination.

But here at CPAC — like in the Republican Party at large — they’re heroes, especially for their local efforts to upend school boards and influence the 2024 election.

Like much at CPAC, Democrats remain largely in the dark, even as the storm continues growing, looking more ominous by the hour.

“Huge. They’re huge, man,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) told Raw Story. “With Moms for Liberty, they’re gonna be a huge part of our elections … so I think that their voices are going to be loud and clear. They're now a major part of us.”

“What do you think of the folks on the left saying that they’re extremists?” Raw Story asked.

“That's what the left always does,” Donalds said. “Man, if you don't agree with the left, you're an extremist. All that means is that they're the real extremists.”