Former President Trump’s conviction in his secret trial in New York is poised to dominate the conversation on Capitol Hill this week, as lawmakers return to Washington and face questions about the guilty verdict and how they think it will affect the presidential election and electoral disputes. as the calendar turns to November.
A handful of vulnerable House Republicans have remained silent on the former president’s conviction, while other Republican lawmakers pledge action in response to the conviction — two dynamics that will take center stage when lawmakers from both chambers arrive on Capitol Hill on Monday.
Also this week, Anthony Fauci is scheduled to testify before a House panel, marking the first time in nearly two years that he will appear publicly before lawmakers. The hearing — centered on the U.S. response to COVID-19 — could turn fiery as Republicans vow to grill the public health expert who has become a right-wing bogeyman.
On the House floor, lawmakers will consider legislation to sanction International Criminal Court officials after the ICC requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli and Hamas leaders. The lower house will also vote on the first of 12 appropriations bills for fiscal year 2025.
On the other side of the Capitol, senators will vote on a bill to protect access to contraceptives, as Democrats look to highlight reproductive rights in the run-up to the November elections.
Trump conviction to dominate the conversation
Lawmakers are sure to face questions about Trump’s 34 guilty verdicts when they arrive at the Capitol on Monday, which marks the first day many will come face-to-face with reporters since a 12-person jury voted to convict the former president. for business falsification. records in the case, which centered on a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
The most sought-after members will likely be a group of vulnerable House Republicans who have yet to comment on Trump’s conviction. Republican lawmakers come from districts won by President Biden in 2020, a dynamic that makes their reaction to the guilty verdict more complicated as they run for re-election in November.
That GOP list includes California Reps. Mike Garcia, Michelle Steel, David Valadao, John Duarte and Young Kim, as well as Reps. Tom Kean Jr. They did not respond to The Hill’s requests for comment last week.
As the Republican group’s silence persists, the House Democrats’ campaign arm has begun going after front-line Republicans, increasing the pressure as they leave people wondering when — and how — they will respond to conviction. historical.
“If these shameless, self-serving Republican representatives cared one bit about ‘law and order’ in California, they would be convicting this 34-time convicted felon instead of endorsing him to be President of the United States,” Congressional Democratic Campaign Committee spokesman Dan Gottlieb said in a declarationname-checking many of the California lawmakers who have remained silent.
The vast majority of the Republican Party, however, continued to attack the accusations of guilt, labeling the process that led to the conviction as politically motivated and criticizing the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Cohen, as untrustworthy.
Top Republicans have signaled that their outrage will translate into action on Capitol Hill in the near future. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) announced last week that he will “require” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and another top prosecutor who worked on the hush money case to appear for a hearing in June 13th.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Sunday that the purpose of this event is to “investigate what these prosecutors are doing at the state and federal levels to use politics, you know, political retribution in the judicial system to pursue political opponents, federal officials like Donald Trump.”
“We have to fight back, and we will, with everything in our arsenal,” he added during an interview with “Fox News Sunday.” “But we do this within the limits of the rule of law. We believe in our institutions.”
House GOP ready to grill Fauci
House Republicans are expected to grill Anthony Fauci during a high-profile hearing on the COVID-19 pandemic this week, which will mark the first time since September 2022 that the public health expert has testified publicly.
The hearing, before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, is scheduled for Monday at 10 am.
The event comes after Fauci — who stepped down as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the end of 2022 after nearly 40 years in the role — participated in two closed-door interviews with the panel in January, during which Republicans pressed him on the “lab leak” theory of COVID-19’s origins and six-foot social distancing guidelines, among other topics.
The panel released those transcripts on Friday, ahead of Monday’s hearing.
Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), the panel’s chairman, said he is interested in asking Fauci about his role in responding to the pandemic and the origins of COVID-19. Republicans are also expected to ask Fauci about allegations that an NIAID official evaded public records laws to hide records related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Retirement from public service does not exempt Dr. Fauci from accountability to the American people,” Wenstrup said in adeclarationlast week.
House to vote on ICC sanctions legislation and appropriations bill
The House is expected to vote this week on a bill to sanction the ICC after its chief prosecutor filed arrest warrants for Netanyahu and other Israeli and Hamas leaders last month, a move that sparked widespread bipartisan outrage in Washington.
Omeasure– led by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) – calls for sanctions to be imposed on ICC officials who “have engaged in any effort to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies.”
The sanctions would include blocking US property transactions for individuals, deeming them inadmissible to the US, and revoking any visas they hold.
“If the ICC insists on targeting Israel, a democracy that defends itself from harm, the United States must stand up to them and ensure there are consequences for these international bureaucrats,” wrote House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La. .), on a watchman on Sunday. night.
The vote will certainly fracture the Democratic Caucus, which was divided over the ICC ruling. Pro-Israel Democrats criticized it, accusing authorities of drawing a false equivalence between Israel and Hamas, while pro-Palestinian liberals – who are outraged by the rise in humanitarian deaths in the Gaza Strip – called for the court’s independence. respected.
Adding to the domestic politics, the White House said last week it was opposed to sanctioning the ICC, complicating bipartisan negotiations that had been ongoing for days.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan filed arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leaders last month, arguing that they “bear criminal responsibility” for a handful of war crimes, such as the starvation of civilians as a method of war and extermination as a crime against humanity.
ICC judges will not determine whether to grant the warrants.
The House is also expected to vote this week on the first appropriations bill for fiscal year 2025, beginning consideration of government funding measures before the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline.
Olegislation– one of 12 appropriations bills – funds military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The House Appropriations Committee advanced the measure by a 34-25 vote last month.
Senate will vote on bill that protects the right to contraception
The Senate will vote this week on a bill to protect access to contraception, as Democrats look to build on the issue of reproductive rights ahead of the November elections.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) announced in a “Dear Colleague” letter on Sunday that the upper chamber would vote on the legislation — titled the Right to Contraception Act — on Wednesday.
The vote comes ahead of the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Wade – the case that established the constitutional right to abortion – sending the question of abortion rights to the states.
Contraceptive legislation is unlikely to pass the Senate, where there is a 60-vote filibuster. But the vote will give Democrats the opportunity to make Republicans clear on reproductive rights and will help fuel pro-choice messages on the campaign trail before November.
“Democrats have made clear that we will not tolerate these attacks and that we will fight to preserve reproductive freedoms,” Schumer said in his Sunday letter.
“The far-right MAGA Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade opened the floodgates for Republicans to force their anti-reproductive freedom and anti-women agenda down the throats of all Americans,” she added.
Consideration of the contraceptive bill comes after Schumer prepared a messaging vote last month on the bipartisan border agreement, which a group of senators unveiled earlier this year. Republicans ultimately blocked the measure, which was intended to give vulnerable Senate Democrats an opportunity to officially vote in favor of cracking down on the situation at the southern border, an issue that has emerged as a key campaign issue this cycle.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
