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US House of Representatives

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Elon Musk & X have filed a lawsuit against advertisers he claimed colluded to boycott the social media platform.

According to reports, tech billionaire Elon Musk and the parent company of the social media platform X, formerly Twitter filed a lawsuit in a Texas federal court against the World Federation of Advertisers claiming these companies colluded to boycott the platform. The suit also names other companies such as Mars, Unilever, CVS, and Dutch clean energy firm Orsted. “This is an antitrust action relating to a group boycott by competing advertisers of one of the most popular social media platforms in the United States,” the suit reads.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino informed subscribers of the lawsuit in a video and letter posted to X, formerly Twitter, stating that the advertisers were harming “the marketplace of ideas” with their actions. The suit also named the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, or GARM as a defendant claiming they were “discontinuing entirely or substantially reducing their previously substantial advertising purchases.” The company seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages, alleging the boycott is still ongoing. “By sharply curtailing its revenues, the boycott has reduced X’s ability to invest in new or improved functionality, thus harming the consumers who use X’s platform.”

The lawsuit comes after an investigation was initiated by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee last month, which heard testimony from those companies involved. “The extent to which GARM has organized its trade association and coordinates actions that rob consumers of choices is likely illegal under the antitrust laws and threatens fundamental American freedoms,” its report read. Musk infamously told advertisers at the DealBook Summit last November who had begun to withdraw after his acquisition of X in 2022 to leave, saying: “Somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising?! Blackmail me with money? Go f–k yourself. Go. F–k. Yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.” Companies cited the rise of racist and anti-Semitic content on the platform as a major reason for their exit.

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Source: The Washington Post / Getty
GOP Congressman George Santos has survived a vote to expel him from the House of Representatives over allegations of criminal actions.
On Wednesday (November 1), Congressman George Santos from New York faced a vote of expulsion from the House of Representatives as a House Ethics Committee investigation into his affairs along with a criminal trial of Santos allegedly defrauding donors’ credit cards and inflating campaign finance reports in his home state. Santos faces 23 federal charges. The vote’s final tally was 179 for expulsion and 213 against, with 19 stating they were “present” and 22 not voting, making it short of the two-thirds needed to kick Santos out.

The vote was the second time that George Santos faced expulsion. The previous vote resolution was introduced by Democrats, and Republicans had all voted unanimously against it. This time, the resolution to expel was brought by New York GOP Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, along with Reps. Nick LaLota and Mike Lawler. They stood with D’Esposito as he forced the vote on the House Floor. “New Yorkers from Queens and Nassau Counties deserve better than George Santos — a total fraud and serial liar representing them in Congress,” LaLota stated.
31 Democrats sided with Republicans against Santos’ expulsion. Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland cited that the House of Representatives has only done so five times in its history for those criminally convicted as the reason behind his vote. “This would be a terrible precedent to set, expelling people who have not been convicted of a crime and without internal due process,” he said after the vote. “It’s a very risky road to go down and we have to stick by due process and the rule of law, as obvious as the eventual result seems.” Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut explained his vote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, writing: “Neither the Ethics Committee nor the courts have finished adjudicating this. In this country, one is presumed innocent until PROVEN guilty. No exceptions.”
https://x.com/jahimes/status/1719865741611262075?s=20
Santos issued a statement on Thursday (November 2) defending himself. “Despite facing opposition and calls for my expulsion, I remain steadfast in my commitment to serving my constituents and upholding conservative ideals.” he wrote. Another House member, Rep. Marc Molinaro of New York suggested Santos is not out of the woods. “I suspect the report is going to come public soon, and it’s going to be clear that he should be removed from Congress,” he said afterward.

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Source: The Washington Post / Getty
A Black reporter who asked Republican House of Representatives members about their new speaker with an extremist past was told to “shut up” and booed.

On Tuesday night, the continued chaos over the role of speaker in the House of Representatives seemed to end when Mike Johnson of Louisiana was elected to be their nominee. At a press conference to announce the news, Johnson was surrounded by gleeful GOP members when ABC News reporter Rachel Scott (who is Black) posed a question. “Mr. Johnson, you helped lead the efforts to overturn the 2020 election results,” Scott began. “Do you stand by —”

Scott was then interrupted by those assembled around Johnson, who began to boo her. GOP Representative  Lauren Boebert of Colorado said “oh God” as others yelled out “Go away!” Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, standing off to the left of the podium, then loudly yelled, “Shut up! Shut up!” Johnson, who is also the Vice Conference Chair, smiled and said, “Next question.” The entire exchange, caught on video by C-SPAN, soon went viral. Fervent Donald Trump supporter Johnson took over as Majority Speaker on Wednesday, ending a turbulent three-week period that saw Rep. Kevin McCarthy ousted and Representatives Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio be denied the job, with Tom Emmer of Minnesota dropping his bid after a few hours.
Rep. Foxx has been notorious for her brusque behavior towards members of the press in the past, particularly when it comes to the members-only elevators in the Capitol buildings. Two days earlier, she yelled at reporters to “get away from the damned elevator” in response to them being gathered by an elevator seeking comment from the GOP Representative Byron Donalds of Florida.
The moment has now become an ad for a group created to combat MAGA politicians based in New York who supported the extremist Johnson for the role. “ He has no business being Speaker… His extreme agenda – from a national abortion ban to cuts to Social Security – will impact millions of New Yorkers, which is why it is absolutely imperative we come together and raise the alarm bell on this new MAGA Speaker and his divisive and deeply unpopular record,” said  Courage For America spokesperson José Morales, Jr. The ad is now airing in parts of upstate New York.

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Rep. Kevin McCarthy found himself on the wrong side of history after he was voted out of his Speaker of the House position, the first time that has ever happened in congressional history. While Kevin McCarthy says he will not seek reelection, a mad scramble is underway by the Republic Party to vote for his replacement.
The Washington Post and its political reporting team have been following the ordeal of Kevin McCarthy and the motion to vacate launched by Rep. Matt Gaetz, which adds to a growing instance of infighting between the GOP.

Gaetz filed the motion on October 2 to force a vote on McCarthy’s removal from the Speaker post. McCarthy may have saved the role had he worked with House Democrats to secure their support but he was unwilling to do so for political concessions. After an hour of debate between Gaetz and Rep. Tom Cole, voting commenced with the motion leading to oust the speaker at a vote count of 216-210.
In McCarthy’s stead, Rep. Patrick McHenry, reportedly an ally of McCarthy, was named as speaker pro tempore in an interim role.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy has maintained that Rep. Gaetz launched the motion to take attention away from the ethics probe against him and that the action was “personal.”
“It had nothing to do about spending,” McCarthy said. “It all was about getting attention. I mean, we’re getting email fundraisers from him.”

Photo: Getty

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A lawyer representing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has blasted a move to launch an ethics investigation into her expenses in relation to the 2021 Met Gala she attended..

According to reports, the Democratic representative from New York is now under investigation by the House Ethics Committee in relation to her appearance at the Met Gala fundraiser in 2021. The probe was reportedly announced last year but didn’t specify what it was looking into. But in documents released on Thursday (March 2nd), it was mentioned that her “Tax the Rich” dress along with shoes, jewelry, and a handbag along with hairstyling for the event was in question. Her boyfriend Riley Roberts was also provided with a bowtie and a suit for the event. The announcement of the probe came on the same day it was announced that the committee was looking into controversial Republican Representative George Santos.

“This matter definitely does not rise to the level of a violation of House Rules or of federal law. No Ethics violation has been found,” said David Mitriani, a lawyer representing Ocasio-Cortez in a letter sent to the chief counsel of the House Ethics Committee. The congresswoman had previously retained counsel to help her ensure that House rules were followed prior to the Met Gala. 
But while the items she and her now-fiancee received are now paid for, there was a delay in those payments until months after the investigation began last year. Vendors involved had sent out invoices to her office which weren’t answered. Ocasio-Cortez stated that “there was a ball that was dropped” and that it was a “regrettable” situation. “I feel l terrible for especially the small businesses that were impacted,” she told investigators. A former staffer with her office accepted responsibility. “I think the delay there for me was I didn’t have access to her personal credit card at that moment,” the staffer said.
A spokesperson for her office, Lauren Hitt, said: “However, while regrettable, these delayed payments definitively do not rise to the level of a violation of House rules. Even after OCE’s exhaustive review of the congresswoman’s personal communications, there is no record of the congresswoman refusing to pay for these expenses. To the contrary, there are several explicit, documented communications, from prior to OCE’s review, that show the congresswoman understood that she had to pay for these expenses from her own personal funds – as she ultimately did.”

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Rep. Hakeem Jeffries decided that his first order of business as the new House Minority Leader was to address the division in the House of Representatives between the Republicans and Democrats. The congressman then launched into a speech employing the alphabet that took some slight digs at Republicans and urged collaboration.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, 52, graciously extended his party’s hand to the newly-elected House Speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, and members of his party vowing to find “common ground” in their future proceedings.

“We do extend our hand of partnership to you and want to make clear that we extend and intend to try to find common ground whenever and wherever possible on behalf of the American people,” Jeffries said. “Not as Democrats, not as Republicans, not as independents, but as Americans. But I also want to make clear that we will never compromise our principles.”
Jefferies then launched into his “Alphabetical Slaughter” (Look up this classic from Papoose) speech, using each letter of the alphabet to deliver a poignant line.
The speech in full below:
House Democrats will always put American values over autocracy, benevolence over bigotry, the Constitution over the cult, democracy over demagogues, economic opportunity over extremism, freedom over fascism, governing over gaslighting, hopefulness over hatred, inclusion over isolation, justice over judicial overreach, knowledge over kangaroo courts, liberty over limitation, maturity over Mar-a-Lago, normalcy over negativity, opportunity over obstruction, people over politics, quality of life issues over QAnon, reason over racism, substance over slander, triumph over tyranny, understanding over ugliness, voting rights over voter suppression, working families over the well-connected, xenial over xenophobia, “Yes we can” over “You can do it,” and zealous representation over zero-sum confrontation.
We will always do the right thing by the American people, so let us not grow weary of doing good for the American people who will reap the benefit of the harvest if we do not give up. God bless you, God Bless the house, and God bless the United States of America.
Salute to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.

Photo: Tom Williams / Getty

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Source: Tasos Katopodis / Getty
Rep. Cori Bush is currently making waves in the U.S. House of Reprensativies amid the ongoing debacle that is the Speak of the House selection process. After Rep. Kevin McCarthy repeatedly failed to gain support from his Republican Party cohorts, Bush claims that a Black Republican congressman is being used as a “prop” by the MAGA faction of the party.

Rep. Cori Bush, 46, is one of the rising star members of Congress after assuming office back in 2021 and is known for her outspoken views and unwavering critique of the GOP. The Democratic Party congresswoman fired a shot toward the opposing party after McCarthy failed yet again to assume the Speaker role due to some fringe members of the Republican Party withholding their vote over dissatisfaction with some of his positions.

Bush took to Twitter to blast Republican Congress members for attempting to push a Black candidate among its ranks for the Speaker role in Rep. Byron Donalds. In the tweet, Bush wrote, “FWIW, @ByronDonalds is not a historic candidate for Speaker. He is a prop. Despite being Black, he supports a policy agenda intent on upholding and perpetuating white supremacy.”
Bush continued with, “His name being in the mix is not progress—it’s pathetic.”

Donalds’ little feelings were hurt and tweeted back, “FWIW, nobody asked @CoriBush her opinion on the matter. Before you judge my agenda, let’s have a debate over the policies and the outcomes. Until then, don’t be a crab in a barrel!”

Rep. Dan Bishop, getting in the middle of Black people’s business uninvited, called Bush racist for her jab at Donalds.
And as of this writing, Rep. McCarthy is still not the Speaker of the House.

Photo: Getty

Written By D.L. Chandler , Senior Editor Posted 31 mins ago @dlchandler123 D.L. Chandler is a veteran of the Washington D.C. metro writing scene, working as a journalist, reporter, and culture critic. Initially freelancing at iOne Digital in 2010, he officially joined the iOne team in 2017 where he currently works as a Senior Editor […]