Kevin McCarthy says Marjorie Taylor Greene a ‘canary in the coal mine’ for Republicans
Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy has said Majorie Taylor Greene’s abrupt resignation is a sign of broader trouble for the GOP next year, given several House Republicans are leaving.
“She’s almost like the canary in the coal mine,” McCarthy told Fox News on Tuesday.
“And this is something inside Congress, they’d better wake up, because they are going to get a lot of people retiring, and they’ve got to focus.”
The GOP still has a slender House majority, and even with Greene’s departure has two votes to spare, but already, 22 House Republicans have said they will retire or forgo re-election next year. This is an above-average number analysts say.
Greene – a three-term representative from Georgia – resigned last Friday following weeks of an escalating public spat with president Donald Trump, over several issues including the release of the Epstein files.
Key events
Trump remains vague about future healthcare proposal, says he’d ‘rather not’ extend Obamacare tax credits
Donald Trump has no public events scheduled today. On Tuesday he left Washington to spend the Thanksgiving break at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
On Air Force One yesterday, he spoke with reporters briefly about a number of issues, including reports that the president would reveal a new healthcare proposal soon.
“I like my plan the best. Don’t give any money to the insurance companies, give it to the people directly. Let them buy their own health care plan,” Trump said.
When asked if the president planned to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, which are set to lapse at the end of this year, Trump said he would “rather not”.
“Somebody said I want to extend them for two years. I don’t want to extend them for two years. I’d rather not extend them at all,” he reiterated, pushing back against reporting earlier this week. “Some kind of extension may be necessary to get something else done because the unaffordable care act has been a disaster. The premiums are going up, and it’s the Democrats’ fault. But, you know, they are negotiating with me. It’s very interesting.”
Mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew arrested by ICE- reports
CNN is reporting that the mother of Karoline Leavitt’s 11-year-old nephew is in ICE custody after having been arrested earlier this month.
Bruna Caroline Ferreira, a Brazilian native, was arrested near Boston on 12 November as she was on her way to pick up her son, her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, told CNN.
The Department of Homeland Security has told CNN that Ferreira had been in the US illegally since 1999 after overstaying a tourist visa.
She hasn’t had any significant contact with the White House press secretary for several years, but shares joint custody of her son with her former fiancee Michael Leavitt, Karoline’s brother.
Ferreira had been driving to New Hampshire to pick her son up when she was detained. Michael told a local station that his son had not been able to speak to his mother since she was taken into detention.
Trump slams ‘purposely negative’ New York Times report on his health
Trump’s first social media missive of the day has just gone out – and he’s blasting the New York Times for their lead story on his age-related struggles in office.
The report details signs of the 79-year-old president’s growing fatigue in office and his shorter days.
Trump called it a “hit piece” from a “cheap rag”, which he says is “purposely negative” about him. There was a lot more vitriol in the Truth Social post which included a personal attack on the report’s author. But I’ll highlight his response on the health claims:
“[They] did a hit piece on me that I am perhaps losing my Energy, despite facts that show the exact opposite.
“There will be a day when I run low on Energy, it happens to everyone, but with a PERFECT PHYSICAL EXAM AND A COMPREHENSIVE COGNITIVE TEST (“That was aced”) JUST RECENTLY TAKEN, it certainly is not now!”
Trump defends report of Witkoff coaching Putin aide
The Kremlin this morning has confirmed that Witkoff is due in Moscow again next week – expected given the progress reported on a peace deal between Ukrainian and US negotiators earlier this week.
But hanging over that is a report that has emerged of a leaked recording of Witkoff advising Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, last month on how he should pitch to Trump on the peace plan.
At the time, Trump was appearing to lose patience with Putin.
“Just reiterate that you congratulate the president [Trump] on this achievement… that you respect that he is a man of peace and you’re just, you’re really glad to have seen it happen,” Witkoff is quoted as saying in the Bloomberg report. “I think from that it’s going to be a really good call.”
Following this, a Trump-Putin call did eventuate, right before Ukrainian leader Zelenskyy arrived at the White House for a meeting. And since then, the US has unveiled its peace plan, which appears to offer far more concessions to the Russian side, setting off rounds of furious negotiations.
Last night when asked by reporters about the leaked recording, Trump said he hadn’t heard it but defended Witkoff, saying the reported approach to the Russians was just “standard negotiating procedure”.
“He’s got to sell this to Ukraine. He’s got to sell Ukraine to Russia,” he said. “That’s what a dealmaker does.”
The deal as it stands appears to have been revised more in line with Ukrainian and European demands following US-Ukraine talks in Geneva this past weekend.
Zelenskyy has said a revised version could be “workable” but there are still several outstanding key issues. Zelenskyy is hoping to meet with Trump in coming days.
Kevin McCarthy says Marjorie Taylor Greene a ‘canary in the coal mine’ for Republicans
Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy has said Majorie Taylor Greene’s abrupt resignation is a sign of broader trouble for the GOP next year, given several House Republicans are leaving.
“She’s almost like the canary in the coal mine,” McCarthy told Fox News on Tuesday.
“And this is something inside Congress, they’d better wake up, because they are going to get a lot of people retiring, and they’ve got to focus.”
The GOP still has a slender House majority, and even with Greene’s departure has two votes to spare, but already, 22 House Republicans have said they will retire or forgo re-election next year. This is an above-average number analysts say.
Greene – a three-term representative from Georgia – resigned last Friday following weeks of an escalating public spat with president Donald Trump, over several issues including the release of the Epstein files.
Welcome to the US politics live blog
Hello and welcome to our US Politics blog for today. I’m Frances Mao and I’ll take you through the next few hours as lawmakers begin to head off for the Thanksgiving weekend.
The fall-out from President Trump’s attack on six Democrats who released a video urging US troops to defy “illegal orders” continues, after first the Pentagon and then the FBI reportedly launched investigations into the matter.
The two inquiries mark an extraordinary escalation in Trump’s use of federal institutions to go after political opponents, and sitting members of Congress. One of the Democrats who says she’s received questioning from the FBI called it a “scare tactic”.
Meanwhile, GOP veterans continue to weigh in on MAGA loyalist turned rebel Marjorie Taylor Greene’s departure – warning that the party’s facing several retirements next year that could leave it vulnerable ahead of the midterms.
And Russian officials have just confirmed that Steve Witkoff will return to Moscow next week to pursue a Ukraine deal – but it comes after a report showing Witkoff coaching a Russian official on how to appeal to the US president. Trump has defended his envoy. More on this shortly.
