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Fights over increasing the nations borrowing authority have been contentious in Congress, yet follow a familiar pattern: Time and again, lawmakers found a way to step back from the brink before markets began to panic and the nation risked a dangerous default on its debt.

But this years fight has a different feel, some lawmakers say.

A new Republican majority in the House is itching for a spending showdown, and determined not to yield. They blame what they view as excessive federal spending for higher food and gasoline prices and the growing national debt. Led by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, they have ruled out passing a clean debt ceiling increase even as the White House insists such legislation be passed without conditions. Its an impasse that shows no signs of easing ahead of this summers deadline for action.

Very worried. Very worried, was how Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., a close McCarthy ally, described his outlook. And frankly, I dont see how we get there at this point. Theres no process set up, theres no dialogue, theres no discussion.

The political conditions are comparable to 2011, when a new Republican majority swept into power after a resounding election win and was determined to confront a Democratic White House and extract major spending cuts in return for a debt limit increase.

To resolve that stalemate, Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed the Budget Control Act. The bill temporarily allowed borrowing to resume, set new spending limits and created a bipartisan supercommittee to recommend at least $1.2 trillion more in deficit reduction over 10 years. Republicans and Democrats on the panel failed to compromise, however, triggering automatic reductions in spending.

But some damage was done. Standard & Poors Ratings Services downgraded U.S. debt for the first time that year because it lacked confidence political leaders would make the choices needed to avert a long-term fiscal crisis.

In 2013, Obama took a different tack. He made clear early on there would be no negotiations on must-pass legislation to prevent a U.S. default, and he never wavered.

A partial government shutdown, which began Oct. 1, swiftly coincided with the prospects of a default. On Oct. 16, Congress passed legislation to end the twin threats and GOP lawmakers who demanded to roll back Obamas signature health care law got nothing for their efforts. We fought the good fight. We just didnt win, conceded then-House Speaker John Boehner.

Republicans say they are determined that Biden, who was Obamas vice president during both of those debt ceiling battles, will have to follow the path set in 2011 not the one set in 2013.

President Biden is not President Obama, right? said Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., the leader of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus. His poll numbers are in the tank and theyre going to keep going down.

The result, Perry said, is that Biden doesnt have the political standing to ignore House Republicans.

Look, theres gonna be shrapnel all around, right. Right? Perry said. Everybody might take some wounds from it, but hes not walking out of this thing unscathed.

After a tumultuous start to the new Congress in which Republicans struggled to elect a speaker, they are taking great pains to show unity. Moderates and conservatives in the House are adamant: Biden must engage.

Any damage in Treasury markets and the bond market, to the economy, will fall at the feet of the president of the United States because hes the one that started this entire saga saying he wanted no negotiations, said Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla.

Hes got to meet us partway, added Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb.

Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia said what concerns him most is that some Republicans believe the damage from a federal default is manageable, rather than to be avoided at all costs.

Some of these people are substituting belief for empirical evidence and dont accept the warnings of economists, Wall Street, Janet Yellen, Connolly said.

Breaching the debt ceiling is different than a federal government shutdown. The government can continue to operate once the Treasury has exhausted its cash-on-hand. But outgoing payments would be limited to incoming revenue. Not all payments could be made on time and in full. Many fear such an event would shake the foundations of the global financial system.

Some lawmakers dont believe the consequences would be that devastating. Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., said breaching the debt limit without an agreement to increase it would force prioritization of our spending.

Im not afraid of that, quite frankly, Good said.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the government may be unable to pay all its bills as soon as June. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moodys Analytics, told a House panel this week the so-called X Day is likely to occur in mid-August. He said market pressures will likely build after Congress returns from its July 4th recess.

As we can see from recent events given the banking crisis, the system is very fragile at this point in time, Zandi said. Adding the debt limit as an issue for investors would be particularly inopportune.

He said there would be immediate and long-term consequences from a default.

I think under any scenario, we would go into recession, it would be severe, financial markets would be upended, Zandi said.

In the Senate, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is encouraging negotiations. I think Kevin McCarthy has been most reasonable, he said.

GOP leadership in the Senate has also voiced support for McCarthys efforts. But some Senate Republicans say spending fights should be relegated to the annual spending bills that Congress passes to fund government agencies. An increase in the debt limit doesnt authorize new federal spending it only allows borrowing to pay for what Congress has already approved.

Look, if we have disagreements on spending, and if we have to close government to resolve things, so be it, but threatening a collapse of the U.S. and world economy without raising the debt ceiling is, in my opinion, a weapon that is too severe, said Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah.

There have been roughly 80 deals to raise or suspend the borrowing cap since the 1960s. Romney noted that the debt ceiling was extended, with the help of Democrats, multiple times during Donald Trumps presidency.

Of course, last time you had President Trump as the individual pushing to raise the debt ceiling, but somehow when we have a Democratic president, we find religion, Romney said.

The focus on the debt limit, now at about $31.4 trillion, intensified this week with McCarthy sending a letter to Biden warning that his position of not negotiating could prevent America from meeting its obligations and hold dire ramifications for the entire nation.

In a formal response, Biden signaled that he would not be willing to meet directly with the speaker until House Republicans released their own budget plan, which he asked McCarthy to do before lawmakers left Washington on Thursday for the Easter recess.

As I have repeatedly said, that conversation must be separate from prompt action on the Congress basic obligation to pay the Nations bills and avoid economic catastrophe, Biden wrote.

The letters did not appear to generate any progress or good will. Republicans left town without proposing a budget. And McCarthy accused Biden on Thursday of making the decision to put the economy in jeopardy, while seemingly making a crack about the presidents age.

I dont know what more I can do and how easy. I would bring the lunch to the White House. I would make it soft food if thats what he wants, McCarthy said, prompting laughter from other Republicans in the room.

____

Associated Press staff writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

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Republicans largely shrug off warnings on debt ceiling as they smell blood, saying Bidens poll numbers are in the tank and theyre going to keep going...

In the weeks before their massive energy package reached the House floor, some Republicans were aghast about marine mammal deaths and blamed the burgeoning offshore wind industry.

They said the rush to build out offshore wind in the Atlantic has been killing whales at a rapid clip and they tried to use the legislation to address their concerns.

Like the canary in the coal mine, the recent spate of tragic whale deaths shed new light and increased scrutiny to the fast-tracking of thousands of wind turbines off our coast, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) declared at a packed field hearing in New Jersey earlier this month.

The concern among Republicans was great enough that it cast some doubt on whether the energy package, H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, would have enough votes to pass. In the end, concerned lawmakers got whale- and wind-focused provisions added.

Despite that resolution, the issue shows no sign of dying down. Former President Donald Trump famously railed against wind turbines. And conservative media and commentators like Fox News Tucker Carlson, who has been running a series titled The Biden Whale Extinction, have continued elevating the issue on the right.

Since December, 30 whales have been found dead along the Atlantic coast, many of them in New Jersey. Eight dolphins were found dead in New Jersey this week.

Though NOAA Fisheries says there is no evidence that preparations to build offshore wind facilities were the cause of the deaths, and blamed many deaths on vessel strikes, that hasnt stopped Republicans from beating the drum on the issue.

Democrats are dismissing the outrage as a blatant attempt to give fossil fuel interests an advantage. They say the sudden concern amounts to misinformation backed by oil money and the Koch network.

Given their political track record on not supporting a lot of conservation bills, the argument does ring hollow, said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.

Renewable energy proponents acknowledge that all human activity in the ocean poses impacts whether from oil and gas or wind energy.

The fates of all sectors are intertwined, said Alex Herrgott, a former Trump administration official and president of the Permitting Institute, a nonprofit with offshore wind and oil and gas members. You cant single out one for attack without creating a new hurdle for the sector you were trying to help.

Ultimately, he said, whales dont care what the drilling, surveys and vessel traffic is for.

At one point this week, the uproar over wind energy seemed big enough to threaten the Lower Energy Costs Act. Ultimately, it passed the House on Thursday mostly along party lines.

Multiple amendments requiring the federal government to study a range of potential offshore wind turbine impacts eased concerns among Republicans and got Democratic buy-in.

One, from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), would require the Government Accountability Office to study the impact on, among other things, military readiness (E&E Daily, March 30).

Another, from Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), would require the GAO to publish a report on all potential adverse effects of wind in the North Atlantic Planning Area. Those include maritime safety, the economy, the environment and endangered species.

People are really concerned, and theyre not all Republicans; theyre independents, middle-of-the-roaders, Van Drew, who helped lead the field hearing, told E&E News. People love whales and dolphins, and this gets them going.

Democrats, meanwhile, tried to offer an amendment in favor of wind, but it failed. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) scoffed at the Republican-led amendments, saying they gave hot air to the fictions about offshore wind.

He pointed to information from NOAA stating there is no specific links between recent large whale mortalities and currently ongoing surveys.

The clean energy lobby argued that federal agencies have been studying an increase in whale deaths since 2016 well before any offshore wind construction began.

Disinformation shouldnt dictate policy, American Clean Power Association CEO Jason Grumet said.

One of the key witnesses from the March New Jersey field hearing, David Stevenson, has been a consistent opponent of offshore wind projects (E&E Daily, March 17). The organization he works for, the Caesar Rodney Institute, has received funding from American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers. CRI is also connected to the State Policy Network, which receives money from Koch network foundations.

House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), one of the chief drivers of H.R. 1, laughed off the idea that dark money groups were potentially driving the anti-offshore wind push.

I find that amazing, he said during an interview at the Republican retreat in Orlando, Fla., earlier this month. It doesnt change the fact that there are dead whales washing up on the shore. You would think the environmental groups would be raising the red flag. But they are turning a blind eye.

Westerman and several other Republicans interviewed for this story called Democrats guilty of double standards.

Had that happened in the Gulf of Mexico, everybody would be blaming the oil industry, he said.

The only thing that is changing on the East Coast is the wind industry. I dont know if thats affecting the whales or not, but we should probably do some kind of a study to find out what is causing those whale deaths.

Westermans remarks were before the energy bill hit the House floor. But by Wednesday, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) was willing to point the finger at the energy transition.

The Green New Deal is on the backs of marine life, he said. Its something that, in this rush to renewables, Democrats frankly ignore.

The whale issue could put Democrats in a difficult spot.

At a recent hearing, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) pressed an oil executive whether he cared about whale deaths specifically blaming seismic surveys.

It did not take long for offshore wind proponents to take note and worry that those arguments could come back to bite Democrats, especially since wind energy requires seafloor-penetrating surveying and pile driving during construction activities.

When asked about the whale-and-wind issue, other climate-minded Democrats downplayed concerns.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said theres no evidence of wind activities affecting whales.

I think this is another evidence-free effort to try to interfere with [energy] competition for their fossil fuel overlords, he said.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), a senior member on the House Natural Resources Committee, argued that for the last decade Democrats have authored bills to protect marine mammals, particularly the right whale with little Republican support.

But this interest in whales just suddenly springs up when offshore wind is starting to take off and threaten fossil fuels, he said.

Just this week, the White House put out a fact sheet detailing its advances on offshore wind. President Joe Biden has set a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind electricity by 2030.

Still, Democrats are beginning to press the administration on the whale deaths. In a letter this week to NOAA, five senators raised concerns on the matter, though they did not mention the offshore wind industry.

Republicans were more inclined to support offshore wind when it was still a futuristic energy source, said Dave Anderson of the Clean Energy Policy Institute, which advocates for renewables. Now that it stands to seriously compete with oil and gas, he argued, they oppose it.

Its easy to say nice things about renewables when they are not actually happening, he said.

In 2019, when the Trump administration delayed the Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts and ordered more environmental reviews, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Northeast Democrats to urge the administration to move ahead.

We believe it is possible for multiple industries to coexist in mixed use regions offshore, the bipartisan group of lawmakers wrote in their letter.

But this week, the now-House majority leader was singing a different tune: I mean, there are whales that are showing up dead on the beach, he told reporters.

Industry sources do acknowledge they have a public relations problem.

We can complain all we want that its not us, but theres a huge constituency out there, both on the left and the right, that believes that sound kills whales in the oceans, said one industry lobbyist, granted anonymity to speak candidly. And we have not spent nearly enough to fight that dynamic.

Reporters Timothy Cama and Heather Richards contributed.

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Why Republicans suddenly hate offshore wind - E&E News

WASHINGTON Senate security officials have taken new steps to protect the secrecy of senators weekly closed-door lunches in the U.S. Capitol after a contract employee was arrested and accused of recording audio of a Republican lunch meeting in early March, four sources said.

Its really concerning, Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said of the incident, which has not previously been made public. Those conversations are an opportunity for senators to talk candidly about issues. So to have people on record and easily identifiable by their voices is problematic.

Capitol Police arrested and charged a 25-year-old Maryland man with a misdemeanor, interception/use of wire tap, which was later dismissed, according to court documents. The employee told police he set his phone to record for multiple hours during the Senate Republican lunch on March 7 and left it behind, court documents say. When the employee went back with a police escort to retrieve the phone, he was told it was not there. A senator had spotted the phone and handed it over to police, two sources said.

NBC News originally withheld the identity of the employee because charges had been dropped. But in an interview after this article was first published, the man, Patrick Gartor, said he regrets recording the meeting.

I just wanted to learn from them," he told NBC News.

Gartor, who said he started working as a server on Capitol Hill three weeks before the incident, described himself as a Trump person," adding, I love Republicans.

I was eager to learn, I see these people on TV, Gartor said.

Gartors attorney, Matthew Rist, told NBC News that his clients case was dismissed on Wednesday without explanation.

I personally think that Mr. Gartor is harmless, Rist said in an interview. And with no prior criminal record, they dismissed the case because hes not connected to anyone else and hes not a threat to anyone. And I think that the government saw that and thats why they dismissed the case.

The incident, however, prompted security officials to institute new protocols for contractors and service staff members, including a requirement for workers to leave cellphones in cabinets outside the party meeting rooms before they enter Senate lunches.

Capitol police are also now required to wand workers with a metal detector before allowing them to enter.

According to court documents, Gartor told police before he was arrested that he had been recording the meeting for multiple hours. He also claimed that he was married to the vice president of Liberia and wanted to provide his wife the Vice President of Liberia with American political information.

There is no record that Gartor is married to the vice president of Liberia. The Liberian Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Gartor, who said he came to the United States from Liberia in 2015, said in the interview with NBC News that he had never met her, but admitted to having "an infatuation" with her.)

According to the document, Gartor also possessed gathered trash from the Senate Republican lunch meeting, including a slideshow of information that was talked about in the event.

It was a temporary person hired on by the food service people. The phone was left in the record mode found in the food line, said Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso, R-Wyo. Its very concerning.

Gartor was an employee of At Your Service, a food service and bartender provider with locations along the East Coast. The company provides staffing for Senate lunches and other functions as a subcontractor for Restaurant Associates, the company that handles food services on the Senate side of the Capitol, the court records say.

This activity is in direct violation of our policies, let alone the appropriate decorum and respect we expect of anyone serving the Senate community, Sam Souccar, the senior vice president of Creative Services for Restaurant Associates, told NBC News in a statement. We can confirm the issue has been addressed and appropriately handled.

Asked for information about the incident, a U.S. Capitol Police spokesman said, We cannot publicly discuss any potential ongoing investigations at this time.

The Senate sergeant at arms did not respond to repeated requests for information about the incident or any subsequent security posture.

The Senates weekly party luncheons, held almost every Tuesday in the Capitol, provide senators with the opportunity to discuss the agenda for the week, as well as strategize over coming legislation and nominations. The meetings are attended by senators and very few staff members; conversations are considered private but are often leaked to reporters.

I think it was kind of a one-off thing, said Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D. The question I had was did anyone put him up to it? And to my knowledge, the answer is no.

The incident has Republican senators buzzing about what the employee was doing and why he was able to get into the lunch.

I am very concerned that its someone in close proximity of the building and the members, some of whom have personal security assigned to them, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said. I think that was worrisome when I heard it.

Frank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate.

Garrett Haake is an NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent.

JulieTsirkin is acorrespondent covering Capitol Hill.

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Man arrested over secretly recording Republicans prompts Senate to change security policies - NBC News

Republican officials almost unanimously rallied around Donald J. Trump after his indictment, but the actual G.O.P. voters who will render a verdict on his political future next year werent nearly as solidly behind him.

Some previous Trump voterssaid the indictment, the first ever of a former president, was the latest shattering of norms in a ledger already stuffed with chaos from the Trump years, and it was time for their party to move on in seeking a 2024 nominee.

In Hawthorne, N.Y., Scott Gray, a land surveyor who voted for Mr. Trump in two elections, said he had wearied of him.

I think he did a lot of things right, Mr. Gray said, then immediately darted in the other direction: I think hes completely unpresidential. I cant believe hes still running for office.

As an alternative, Mr. Gray said he was interested in that guy down in Florida whos governor DeSantis. (Ron DeSantis, who is expected to run but has not yet announced a campaign, is Mr. Trumps closest rival for the G.O.P. nomination in recent polling of primary voters.)

In conversations with Republican-leaning voters around the country, Mr. Trumps indictment brought out much anger, occasional embarrassment and a swirl of contradictory reactions, not unlike every other twist in the yearslong high drama of Donald Trump.

As expected, many rallied around the former president, calling the indictment by a Democratic prosecutor in New York a sham a provocation they said would only cement their allegiance to Mr. Trump, who for years has encouraged supporters to see attacks on him as also attacks on them.

But for some the rush to defend was weighed down by scandal fatigueand a sense that Mr. Trumps time has passed.

Outside Wild Cherry Nail and Hair Studio in Port Richey, Fla., on Friday, Ilyse Internicola and Meghan Seltman, both Trump supporters, discussed the indictment during a smoke break.

The race begins. Four years after a historically large number of candidates ran for president, the field for the 2024 campaignis starting out small and is likely to be headlined by the same two men who ran last time: President Biden and Donald Trump. Heres who has entered the race so far, and who else might run:

Donald Trump. The former president is running to retake the office he lost in 2020. Though somewhat diminished in influencewithin the Republican Party and facing several legal investigations he retains a large and committed base of supporters, and he could be aided in the primary by multiple challengers splitting a limited anti-Trump vote.

President Biden. While Biden has not formally declared his candidacy for a second term, and there has been much hand-wringing among Democratsover whether he should seek re-election givenhis age, he is widely expected to run. If he does, Bidens strategyis to frame the race as a contest between a seasoned leader and a conspiracy-minded opposition.

Marianne Williamson. The self-help author and former spiritual adviser to Oprah Winfrey is the first Democrat to formally enter the race. Kicking off her second presidential campaign, Williamson called Biden a weak choice and said the party shouldnt fear a primary. Few in Democratic politics are taking her entry into the race seriously.

How far are they going to go? Ms. Internicola, a hair stylist in the salon, demanded.

Ms. Seltman, a manicurist, said she would always stay loyal to Mr. Trump. But for the presidency, Id like to see DeSantis have his chance, she said. Hes done well with Florida, and Id like to see what he does with the nation. Get it back to how it used to be.

Mr. Trump was charged by a grand jury on Thursday with more than two dozen counts, with an arraignment expected on Tuesday, when specific charges will be unsealed.

Polling has shown a marked shift toward Mr. Trump among Republicans in recent months, primarily at Mr. DeSantiss expense, which may partly reflect the highly anticipated indictment, on charges stemming from a $130,000 payment to a porn star on the eve of the 2016 election. Nearly two weeks ago, Mr. Trump incorrectly predicted the day of his arrest and called for protests, seeking to energize supporters. His provocations have included posting a picture of himself wielding a baseball bat beside a picture of the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg.

How Times reporters cover politics.We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause.

William Stelling, a real estate agent in Jacksonville, Fla., once kept his options open about the 2024 Republican primary. But the indictment goaded him to stand up for the former president.

I am dusting off my Trump flags and hanging them proudly, Mr. Stelling said. This proves to me that hes the right candidate. Because theyre throwing the kitchen sink at him on a trumped-up charge that we all know is basically a misdemeanor at best.

Debbie Dooley, a staunch Trump loyalist who helped found the Atlanta Tea Party, went so far as to organize a demonstration for Mr. Trump during a DeSantis visit to suburban Atlanta on Thursday. She said the indictment bolstered her faith that he would win the presidency in his third campaign.

Im going to go ahead and make reservations for a hotel in D.C. for the inauguration because Trump is going to be the next president of the United States, she said. The prosecutors not doing anything but helping him.

And Allan Terry, a Trump supporter in Charleston, S.C., who has Trump flags flying in his front and back yard, plans to add a new one to his truck, he said.

If he messed around, so what? Mr. Terry said of the payment to the former porn star, Stormy Daniels, which prosecutors say underlies violations of campaign finance and business records laws. Its immoral. Its wrong. He shouldnt have done it. If he did, so what does that have to do with his presidency?

But not all previous Trump backers share such loyalty. In a Quinnipiac University poll released this week before the indictment, one in four Republicans and one in three independents said criminal charges should disqualify Mr. Trump as a presidential candidate.

A Fox News poll of the potential Republican field this week showed Mr. Trump with 54 percent of support from primary voters, followed by Mr. DeSantis at 24 percent and others, including former Vice President Mike Pence and Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador and South Carolina governor, in single digits.

In Iowa, which will hold the first Republican nominating contest early next year, Gypsy Russ, who lives in Iowa City, said she once supported Mr. Trump but doubted he could win the partys embrace yet again.

Theres not enough Republicans supporting him, she said.

Ms. Russ said Mr. Trump had shown over and over that he is not presidential. Hes just very rude, she said. And he doesnt talk like a president is supposed to. Although he has many fans, including her parents, she added, He didnt gain any more followers because of the way he carries himself.

Jim Alden, a Republican businessman from Franconia, N.H., who is no particular fan of Mr. Trumps, nonetheless predicted that the indictment would strengthen his support because Republicans find the behavior underlying the charges to be inconsequential, and they believe politics were driving Mr. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, in his inquiry.

Unfortunately, it will embolden Trumps core supporters because he has cultivated this persecution complex, and being indicted on what may be a questionably strong case is only going to strengthen the persecution complex, said Mr. Alden.

One of those core supporters was Keith Marcus, who owns a wholesale beauty supply business in New York City.

Im shocked and Im upset, he said. The indictment is setting a really bad precedent for the future, he added. Its just a witch hunt. The D.A. is a joke a total joke.

But the indictment also seemed to have shaken at least some Trump voters willingness to back him in a bid for another four years in the White House.

In Hawthorne, N.Y., a red island of Republican voters in the otherwise liberal northern suburbs of New York, Palmy Vocaturo said he twice voted for Mr. Trump, but his confidence in him has eroded in light of the criminal investigations, not just in Manhattan but in cases pursued by a Georgia prosecutor and a special counsel for the Justice Department.

Im getting mixed feelings, said Mr. Vocaturo, a retired construction worker. If he is as bad as I think he is, go ahead and do something, he said of the indictment.

Jon Hurdle, Elisabeth Parker and Haley Johnson contributed reporting.

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For Some G.O.P. Voters, Fatigue Slows the Rush to Defend Trump - The New York Times

In bizarre scenes in a US House hearing, the far-right Republican Lauren Boebert asked if a revised Washington DC criminal code was now law only to be reminded that Congress overturned it earlier this month then fixated on whether that code would have decriminalised public urination.

The revision was meant to give the District of Columbia a first code update in 120 years, but it became subject to fierce debate over crime as a political issue. Republicans said the code was soft on violent offenses. Angering progressives, Joe Biden said he would not veto a Republican measure to overturn the code.

Charles Allen, a city councilman, chaired the DC judiciary committee which considered the revisions.

On Wednesday, Allen was one of four witnesses at the mercy of House Republicans in a hearing entitled Overdue Oversight of the Capital City.

Allen, DC council chair Phil Mendelson, chief financial officer Glen Lee and Greggory Pemberton of the DC Police Union faced aggressive Republican questioning, mostly regarding policing and crime, including the stabbing last weekend of a staffer to the Republican senator Rand Paul.

But Boeberts fixation on public urination made the biggest splash.

The pro-Trump Coloradan, who has a history of inflammatory behavior, asked: You led the charge to reform DCs crime laws. Is that correct?

Allen said: I chaired the committee that proposal came from, yes.

Boebert said: You led the charge, yes sir. And these changes are now law here in DC. Correct?

Allen said: You mean the revised criminal code? No, those are not the law.

Boebert appeared confused. Mendelson said: The revised code was rejected by

Cutting Mendelson off, Boebert pressed Allen.

Did you or did you not decriminalise public urination in Washington DC? Did you lead the charge to do so?

Allen said: No. The revised criminal code left that as a criminal.

Boebert repeated: Did you lead the charge to decriminalise public urination in Washington DC?

Allen said: No, maam.

Boebert said: Did you ever vote in favor of decriminalising public urination in Washington DC?

Allen said: The revised criminal code that was passed by the council kept it as a criminal offense.

Boebert said: Did you ever support this criminal offense status?

Allen said: I voted for it, yes.

Boebert said: You voted to keep it as a criminal offense?

Allen said: Thats correct. The full council did.

Boebert claimed to have records showing Allen favored allowing public urination.

Allen said: No. The

Boebert asked: Is that something you intend to pursue in the future?

Allen said: No. The legislation youre referring to came from the criminal code reform commission that changed public urination from a criminal to a civil offense. The council then changed that, to maintain it as a criminal offense at the request of the mayor.

Boebert yielded her time.

Addressing the witnesses, Becca Balint, a Democrat from Vermont, lamented: Rather than addressing a number of serious concerns our constituents have, [Republicans] are choosing to waste our time talking about public urination. Do you have anything additional you want to say about public urination?

Boebert said: I do.

Balint said: No, not you. Its not your time. Its a question to these people.

In conclusion, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the panel, said: This has been a degraded, tawdry discourse today, with obsessive questioning about public urination.

I hope the public doesnt see this hearing and regard all of it as an episode of public urination in which the people of Washington are the ones getting rained on.

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Wee the people: Republican Boebert presses DC witness on public ... - The Guardian US