The Time to Run: The Case of Mitch McConnell and the Loss of the Voting Rights of the Georgia Senate Minority Leader

Unfortunately for McConnell and Senate Republicans, what’s played out of late was exactly what they were worried about all those months ago. CNN isn’t able to verify the allegation against Walker, who has denied ever paying for an abortion.

It was made worse by the fact that GOP strategists knew for the better part of a year that Walker wasn’t what they were looking for in a candidate.

More than a year ago, in response to an Associated Press story detailing Walker’s turbulent past – including reportedly threatening his ex-wife and exaggerating his business successes – Josh Holmes, a longtime confidante to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, was blunt in his assessment of the situation.

And while McConnell stayed silent publicly, he was operating behind the scenes to try to maneuver Walker from his prime position in the Georgia Senate primary.

“McConnell has suggested to allies that former Georgia senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler should take another look at running again, according to three sources familiar with the matter, after their narrow losses in January flipped the Senate to Democratic control.”

McConnell, who has been the leader of Republicans in the Senate for many years, did not get to where he is by charging at windmills. He knew that there was no point in standing in Walker’s way because the former football star was going to be the Republican nominee. McConnell got on board.

Walker had already been endorsed by Donald Trump. He was (and is) a celebrity in Georgia due to his football accomplishments. None of the other potential high-profile GOP candidates – like Perdue and Loeffler – ended up running.

He was skeptical of Walker after initially doubts, but they never went away. It was a classic case of, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” in action.

Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the committee, was its obvious star, imbued with moral authority by the fact that she’d sacrificed her position in Republican leadership, and possibly her political career, to stand up to Donald Trump. But there were many others.

The speaker of the Arizona House who refused to help the ex-president subvert the election results was a portrait of rectitude. Cassidy Hutchinson was a top aide to Donald Trump and she refused to be intimidated to describe him as crazy.

“When you look back at what has come out through this committee’s work, the most striking fact is that all this evidence comes almost entirely from Republicans,” the committee’s Democratic chairman, Bennie Thompson, said on Thursday.

Rep.-elect Anthony D’Escorio, an incoming Republican from New York, called onSantos to pursue a path of honesty, but he stopped short of calling for an investigation.

While acknowledging he made up parts of hisresume,Santos says he intends to serve in congress.

If necessary, law enforcement is required, as a Navy man who advocated for restoring accountability and integrity to the government, I believe a complete investigation by the House Ethics Committee is required, said GOP Rep.-elect Nick LaLota in a statement.

It is unlikely House Republican leadership will refuse to seat Santos, who is scheduled to be sworn in with the rest of the new members of Congress next Tuesday. The House has the power under the Constitution to expel any member with a two-thirds vote, but doing so is extremely rare and only five lawmakers have been expelled in US history.

The referral to the House Ethics Committee is one of the options being considered for dealing withSantos. Kevin McCarthy could possibly not give him any committee assignments.

In the past, the California Republican has shown little appetite for punishing his own members for bad behavior – particularly when it comes to actions from before they were a member of Congress. McCarthy has also declined to weigh in when members are under investigation, arguing he will let the probes play out before determining how to proceed.

“This will not deter me from being an effective member of the United States Congress in the 118th session,” Santos told City & State in an interview posted Monday night.

The chairman of the Nassau County Republican Committee said thatSantos has broken the public trust and needs to do a lot to regain the trust of voters.

“I am deeply disappointed in Mr. Santos, and I expected more than just a blanket apology,” Cairo said in a statement. “The damage that his lies have caused to many people, especially those who have been impacted by the Holocaust, are profound.”

CNN reported that a number of sources are differing withSantos claims that his grandparents survived the Holocaust as Ukrainian Jewish refugees from Belgium.

The document that stated Santos was a “proud American Jew” was shared with Jewish groups during the campaign and was confirmed by CNN.

The Republican Jewish Coalition on Tuesday said the incoming congressman had “misrepresented his heritage” and “will not be welcome at any future RJC event.”

The Santos Investigation into a Sexual Relationship Between a 17-Year-Old Congressman and a Tax Collector

Santos admitted Monday he didn’t graduate from any college or university, despite previously claiming he had degrees from Baruch College and New York University.

He also admitted that he never worked directly for the financial firms Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, as he has previously suggested, but claimed that he did do work for them through his company, telling the New York Post it was a “poor choice of words” to say he worked for them.

The New York Times first revealed last week that Santos’ biography appeared to be partly fictional. CNN confirmed details of that reporting, including about his college education and employment history.

Two years ago, The New York Times reported that Mr. Gaetz was the subject of a Justice Department investigation over allegations that the congressman had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him, a violation of federal sex-trafficking laws. Mr. Gaetz denied the allegation and was not charged.

Last month, Joel Greenberg, a Florida tax collector and Gaetz confidant who has been cooperating with the sex-trafficking investigation, was sentenced to 11 years in prison. It is unclear how the sentence will affect Mr. Gaetz, whose lawyers have been unable to determine whether the case remains active or closed.

Odious Demography: Addressing the Issues of Abortion and Psychoactive Testing During His First Year in Congress with Speaker Paul D. Ryan

Mr. Gaetz has in the meantime propelled forward, as quick to offend as ever. During last summer’s conference of conservative college students, he said that abortion supporters are less likely to get pregnant if they are unattractive. “Nobody wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb,” he said. “These people are odious on the inside and out. They are about 450 pounds, and they say, if I don’t get an abortion, I will march and protest.

Yet he can be as quick to surprise as to repel. He was praised by the animal rights groups for his stance against federally funded testing. Colleagues on the House Armed Services Committee say they regard him as a productive member, and he was recently seen on the House floor having a lengthy discussion with Representative Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican and former member of the Navy SEALs, about providing veterans with access to psychoactive drugs.

During votes in the House chamber, he tends to sit by himself, with no visible signs of discontent. Friends of Mr. Gaetz maintain that three terms of political seasoning on Capitol Hill, in addition to his 2021 marriage to Ginger Luckey, a sales analyst he met the previous year at Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald J. Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Fla., have matured the congressman’s approach to politics and the way he conducts his personal life.

Republican colleagues remember how swiftly Mr. Gaetz sought to ingratiate himself in 2017, his first year in Congress, with Speaker Paul D. Ryan — how, at a dinner Mr. Ryan hosted for the new members, Mr. Gaetz showed exaggerated concern for a minor sports injury Mr. Ryan had suffered on his hand.

Mr. Gaetz also displayed a lawyerly deftness when it came to cajoling the House Steering Committee into awarding him a seat on the Armed Services Committee. But he could also be boorish, as when he bragged about his sexual conquests and even showed photos of them on the House floor, according to one member.