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Vivek Ramaswamy says ‘no better plan’ than McCarthy removal, lawmakers should ‘own it’
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is siding with members of the GOP who voted to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Ramaswamy, who has never held elected office, said he understood McCarthy’s critics and supported the desire to inject “chaos” into the legislature.
“The point of removing the House Speaker was to sow chaos. That’s what the critics of Matt Gaetz and everybody else is saying,” Ramaswamy said Tuesday in a video posted to social media. “And my advice to the people who voted to remove him is [to] own it.”
HOUSE DEMOCRATS CELEBRATE REPUBLICAN CHAOS AFTER HELPING GOP REBELS OUST SPEAKER MCCARTHY
“Admit it. There was no better plan of action of who’s going to fill that Speaker role. So was the point to sow chaos? Yes, it was,” Ramaswamy said. “But the real question to ask, to get to the bottom of it, is whether chaos is really such a bad thing?”
Eight hard-line Republican lawmakers joined every present House Democrat in Tuesday’s historic vote to oust McCarthy from the top job.
“We’re concerned about the future of the conservative agenda in the house,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla, who was the informal leader of McCarthy’s critics.”I would say that the conservative agenda was being paralyzed by Speaker McCarthy.”
McCarthy said Gaetz’s move was “personal” and suggested it was done in retaliation for an ongoing Ethics Committee investigation into his conduct.
McCarthy angered hardliners over the weekend when he passed a short-term spending bill known as a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government open for 45 days in order to avert a government shutdown and give lawmakers more time to cobble together 12 individual spending bills.
Ninety House Republicans voted against the CR on Saturday, arguing that it was a “clean” extension of the previous Democrat-held Congress’ policies. But the speaker’s previous attempts to put a CR on the table that would cut spending for its short duration were upended by several of those same conservatives who were opposed to any such measure on principle.
Ramaswamy listed a series of issues facing the US that he feels do not yet have a solution in motion — the national debt, border crisis, lawlessness in cities, and more — and said a comprehensive plan was more important than a “babysitter” to “shepherd” votes.
“For everybody out there who’s asking the question, ‘What’s the plan to get a new speaker?’ — you’re asking the wrong question,” Ramaswamy said. “What’s the plan to actually revive this country?”
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind , Brandon Gillespie, and Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.
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Biden border policies under fire from another blue state governor
The Democratic governor of Illinois this week blamed President Biden for creating an “untenable situation” in his state by failing to address the national migrant crisis.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker joined a growing number of Democrats who have criticized Biden’s border policies when he sent a letter to the president on Monday with a list of demands outlining how the federal government’s response to the border crisis is inadequate. Pritzker complained that more than 15,000 migrants have been shipped “like cargo” to Illinois from border states “in a dehumanizing attempt to score political points.”
While Illinois Democrats welcome migrants — Chicago is a sanctuary city — Pritzker wrote that the number of migrant arrivals is “overwhelming our ability to provide aid to the refugee population.”
“Unfortunately, the welcome and aid Illinois has been providing to these asylum seekers has not been matched with support by the federal government. Most critically, the government’s lack of intervention and coordination at the border has created an untenable situation for Illinois,” the letter states.
MIGRANT NUMBERS HIT HIGHEST EVER RECORDED IN ONE MONTH: SOURCES
The letter comes after Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson had a call with White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, senior adviser Tom Perez and officials from the Department of Homeland Security. Pritzker and Johnson warned the White House that Chicago is expected to see 25 buses a day from Texas starting this week, potentially dropping off 1,250 migrants a day, the Chicago Sun Times reported.
“On top of the 15,000 that have arrived in Chicago and Illinois over the last 13 months, we are now seeing busloads more migrants at increasingly higher rates being sent specifically to Chicago each day,” Pritzker wrote. He said that Illinois’s state government has spent over $330 million to address the crisis, “a massive amount of money for a state,” and demanded Biden’s “immediate help” to find housing for migrants that are currently sleeping in police stations and on sidewalks.
“There is much more that can and must be done on a federal level to address a national humanitarian crisis that is currently being shouldered by state and local governments without support,” Pritzker wrote.
Pritzker’s letter comes after New York Democrats including Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams have called on the Biden administration to increase federal assistance on the migrant crisis amid a historic wave of illegal immigration.
GOV. KATHY HOCHUL HAS MESSAGE FOR MIGRANTS LOOKING TO COME TO NEW YORK: ‘GO SOMEWHERE ELSE’
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources tell Fox News that total migrant encounters for September have exceeded 260,000, which is the highest monthly total ever recorded. That number includes both Border Patrol encounters between ports of entry and Office of Field Operations (OFO) encounters at ports.
Border state governors and mayors, overwhelmed by the sheer number of people, have controversially bused thousands of migrants up north to sanctuary jurisdictions like Chicago and Illinois so that these cities would share the burden of illegal migration.
Fox News’ Adam Shaw, Griff Jenkins and Bill Melugin contributed reporting.
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Adams goes on Latin America tour to dissuade migrants from going to NYC, yet says ‘borders should remain open’
New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday will begin a four-day trip to Latin America where he is expected to personally try to dissuade migrants from making the journey to the Big Apple.
At a press conference Tuesday, Adams said he would travel to Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador, as well as the Darian Gap – a treacherous terrain of jungle between Panama and Columbia where leaders who visited during the United Nations General Assembly last month told the New York City mayor that a “heavy flow” of migrants were pouring through to head north to the U.S.-Mexico border. Yet, Adams maintained the position that the border “should remain open.”
“We believe the borders should remain open,” Adams told reporters Tuesday. “That’s the official position of this city. But we have made it clear there should be a decompression strategy that we could properly deal with the volumes that’s coming into our city, and no cities should have to carry the burden of a nation … of the national government.”
Adams intentionally contradicted his chief adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin, who recently drew criticism from city council members for insisting the U.S. close the southern border.
The mayor said he would be appearing on local TV and radio stations and speaking with newspapers in Latin America during his “public relations campaign” meant to counter messaging flooding social media telling migrants in Central and South America that if they make it to New York City they’ll be on easy street.
“We want to give people a true picture of what is here,” Adams told reporters.
“We’re going to tell them that coming to New York doesn’t mean you’re going to stay in a 5-star hotel,” he continued. “It doesn’t mean that that mere fact you come here you automatically are going to be allowed to work, which as you understand, TPS was only given to those Venezuelans.”
“We’re going to tell them what the real conditions are, the large number of thousands of people are living in congregate settings,” Adams said. “We know that there’s a propaganda machine that basically – it has given the false promise of what life is like of being a migrant and asylum seeker, and we want to be honest with those who live in these regions.”
Adams said Tuesday that more than 117,000 migrants have arrived in New York City, but New York Gov. Kathy Hochul recently estimated the count to have surpassed 125,000 people.
NEW YORK GOV HOCHUL WANTS TO ‘LIMIT’ WHO CROSSES BORDER, SAYS IT’S ‘TOO OPEN RIGHT NOW’
Reiterating the city is “at capacity,” Adams said at one point about 10,000 migrants were arriving per month, and more recently, the city has recorded an influx of about 600 new migrants a day or about 4,200 new migrants a week. Adams also blamed Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, whose administration says it bussed only 16,400 migrants to New York City since August 2022 to alleviate the burden on border communities. The mayor claimed Abbott had “primed the pump” of the flow of migrants to New York.
Adams’ travel to Mexico will be covered by the U.S.-Mexico Foundation, while the mayor insisted Tuesday he was personally footing the bill for the other legs of the trip. His security detail will be paid for by the city and handled through the NYPD Intelligence Bureau. Also joining the trip are city commissioners Edward Mermelstein of the Office of International Affairs, and Manuel Castro from the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, who both will be funding their own travel expenses.
Also Tuesday, Adams and fellow Democrat Hochul announced more than $38 million in new state funding to bolster the city’s efforts to provide legal services for asylum seekers.
The announcement came on the first day that the federal rule extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Venezuelans who entered the country before July 31, 2023, took effect.
New York City will begin assisting eligible Venezuelans to submit their paper applications for TPS, as well as work authorization and fee waiver forms at the city’s Asylum Application Help Center – which is also partially funded by state resources. Since the migrant crisis began, New York City has opened 210 emergency sites, including 17 other large-scale humanitarian relief centers. The city has also established navigation centers to connect asylum seekers with resources and enrolled thousands of migrant children in public schools.
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Chris Matthews: McCarthy yielded his power to one guy from Florida
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‘Political terrorists without any demands’: Joe rips House GOP’s ousting of McCarthy
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What does McCarthy’s removal mean for Biden investigations, daily functioning of the House? Experts weigh in
EXCLUSIVE: Academics and experts with in-depth knowledge on how the U.S. government operates told Fox News Digital that former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s, R-Calif., removal from his post on Tuesday would likely not prevent the chamber from continuing to function, which includes the investigations into the Biden family and the impeachment inquiry against President Biden.
“There’s nothing that requires committees to slow down their activities, so there’s no reason why the Hunter Biden investigation or the impeachment-related investigation conducted on a joint committee basis would have to slow down,” said Steven S. Smith, a professor at the Arizona State University School of Politics & Global Affairs.
Smith went on to say that “not a whole lot” would happen with the investigations in the span of a week anyway, assuming the search for a new permanent speaker to replace McCarthy and take over for Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry swiftly concludes.
TOP REPUBLICAN REP. STEVE SCALISE WORKING BEHIND THE SCENES TO REPLACE KEVIN MCCARTHY AS SPEAKER
“Of course, members are going to be distracted. So maybe some meetings are going to be called off because members are worrying about electing a speaker for the time being. If it goes longer than the end of next week, then I think there’s going to be some serious issues about how they proceed,” he added.
Mark Harkins and Joseph Huder, both senior fellows at The Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University. agreed with Smith.
“Today’s event was historic. It was huge, but effectively it changed nothing,” Huder told Fox. “The House has its rules, it’s got committees, they’re all empowered to do investigations, they’re empowered to subpoena, to take witness testimony. The speaker, as the speaker pro tempore, has the powers of the speakership, and until he is reined in by his majority, he can use those as freely as the previous speaker.”
‘SHELL SHOCKED’ KEVIN MCCARTHY WILL NOT RUN FOR HOUSE SPEAKER AGAIN FOLLOWING REMOVAL
“All of the kind of institutional mechanics at the House level operate just the same as they were. They’re in place, and they’re not going to change just because there’s no speaker. What does change are some of the politics behind the scenes, and that’s where it gets very murky about what Mr. McHenry can and cannot do,” Huder added.
Harkins explained that the difference between January – when the House was at a standstill prior to McCarthy’s election as speaker – and now is that the rules of the House have been established and there is somebody actually acting as speaker.
“So the committees can continue their operations. There’s no change there. The only possible minor change that could happen that doesn’t have to do with the Biden family investigations is that the Financial Services Committee, which Speaker Pro Tempore McHenry is the chair of, may pass off to somebody else as a chair for the interim,” Harkins said.
WHO IS PATRICK MCHENRY, SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE OF HOUSE FOLLOWING MCCARTHY’S OUSTER?
“There’s nothing that needs to stop the chairs of the various committees doing investigations, whether it’s Oversight or Ways and Means or Judiciary, from continuing to do their work and continuing to have public hearings. So that’s the biggest difference,” he added.
Clint Brown, the Heritage Foundation’s vice president of government relations, agreed, but told Fox the main focus of the House would be to “quickly try to settle the question of speaker.”
“They’ll be focused on that, at least initially. It’s a tough issue to resolve. It’s going to require a lot of agreement. Failing agreement early on, the chairmen are still chairmen, the rest of the elected House leadership is still elected, including the whip and the majority leader. The majority leader schedules votes on the floor. The House can continue to function if it needs to under a speaker pro tempore,” he said.
McCarthy was removed from his short-lived speakership by a narrow 216-210 vote on Tuesday, with eight Republicans joining all Democrats in voting in favor of the motion to vacate that was introduced late Monday by U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.
According to U.S. Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., the GOP conference’s plan was to have a candidate forum on Tuesday then a vote on Wednesday to decide who would succeed McCarthy.
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