The White House News

A Michigan businessman allegedly offered a Democrat candidate for the Michigan Senate $20 million to drop his current candidacy and run against House Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-MI., instead. The candidate — Hill Harper — reportedly declined the offer.

Linden Nelsen, the businessman and political donor, pitched the offer last month, according to Karthik Ganapathy, a spokesperson for Harper’s campaign, the New York Times reported. 

The conversation between Harper and Nelson was “respectful on both sides,” according to Ganapathy.

Harper and Tlaib could not be reached for comment. But in a post on X — formerly known as Twitter — on Wednesday, Harper wrote, “I will not be bought, or bossed, or bullied.” 

LEGAL GROUP CALLS ON MICHIGAN BAR TO INVESTIGATE, SANCTION TLAIB OVER ANTI-ISRAEL RHETORIC

“For me, this isn’t about one person or one phone call. It’s about a broken political and campaign finance system that’s tilted towards the wealthy and powerful. I’m running for the U.S. Senate because I believe the wealthy and powerful have too much representation in Washington. I’m running to be a voice for the people. I will not be bought, or bossed, or bullied,” he said. 

Politico first reported on the allegations of the offer and reached Nelson briefly on Wednesday, but the call quickly concluded, and Nelson would not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Harper, an actor and entrepreneur, faces an uphill battle to succeed Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. But he has positioned himself as a progressive option and joined other Democratic calls for a ceasefire earlier this month. Tlaib also has called for a ceasefire. 

“The answers to ensure long-term peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians are neither simple nor pain-free, but one truth stands firm: violence against defenseless children, trapped and frightened, is abhorrent, regardless of who is behind it,” Harper reportedly wrote in a statement. 

DEM SENATE HOPEFUL URGES BIDEN TO DROP OUT OF 2024 RACE AMID PARTY INFIGHTING OVER GAZA

Tlaib, a progressive “Squad” member, was censured this month for her statements about the Israel-Palestine war. 

whose members have glamorized Hamas in its war battle with Israel after the terror group attacked and killed hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians last month, Fox News Digital exclusively learned last week.

The group is hidden from non-members and does not appear on the platform’s search engine, though Fox News Digital was able to gain access to it.

The group’s founder, Maher Abdel-qader, who has extensive ties to Tlaib and has also been linked to other liberal politicians, has come under fire in the past for his antisemitic social media posts, including questioning whether the Holocaust ever occurred.

Fox News’ Houston Keene contributed to this report. 

Miami University in Ohio is my alma mater. And for decades, Miami’s football teams played on a field which featured a mystifying, archaic, non-digital game clock which nobody – and I mean nobody – could understand. 

Not even the players and coaches from Miami.

Most clocks tell time.

But all that old clock told was ambiguity.

THE DIVIDE: HOW A PROTEST OVER ISRAEL EXPOSED A SERIOUS RIFT IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

No one was ever quite sure how many minutes or seconds were left in the game.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., never set foot on Miami’s field. But the clock he’s dealing with in Congress is reminiscent of the bizarre timepiece on the gridiron in Oxford, Ohio.

Johnson’s held the Speaker’s chair for less than a month. But he is already on the clock. And much like football games at Miami, no one quite knows how to read the clock or how much time is left in the game for Johnson.

The Speaker maneuvered to pass an interim spending bill last week to avoid a Thanksgiving government shutdown. Johnson did so with a margin nearly identical to that of his predecessor to sidestep a September shutdown. Only that bill cost former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., his job.

Everyone knew that McCarthy was on the clock this year after it took 15 ballots and parts of five days to elect him Speaker back in January. McCarthy’s clock was far different from the outmoded clock at Miami.

McCarthy’s clock was a chronograph with quartz movement. Everyone knew it was just a matter of time with McCarthy.

McCarthy finally won the gavel following the longest Speaker’s election since 1859. But to understand Johnson’s clock management, one only need to examine the failure of a procedural vote on the House floor just before lawmakers abandoned town for the Thanksgiving recess.

The House was trying to rifle through one more, individual spending bill before the break. This measure would fund Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) programs. Also on the docket: a bill to freeze $6 billion in Iranian assets the U.S. sent to Tehran as part of a prisoner exchange.

FIVE FOR FIGHTING: WHO ARE THE MEANEST, TOUGHEST AND ROUGHEST ON CAPITOL HILL?

House Republicans have struggled for weeks to pass even their own appropriations bills. That was a hallmark of McCarthy’s tenure. Things haven’t gotten much better under Johnson. In fact, the GOP leadership has either yanked from the schedule or the House has blocked an astonishing four spending bills during Johnson’s abbreviated Speakership.

Such was the case last Wednesday when House conservatives teamed with Democrats to bar the House from even beginning debate on the (CJS) appropriations bill and the Iran measure. 

With no bill to debate, the House brass pulled the plug and sent everyone home a day-and-a-half earlier than expected.

“The swamp won,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Tex., about Johnson writing yet another temporary spending bill. But he called Johnson “a good man.”

Still, Roy was just heating up.

 “Republican voters are tired of promises to fight. We want to actually see change,” barked Roy on the House steps.

A few minutes later, Roy was inside, ranting on the House floor. Roy’s voice cracked in anger as he bellowed about Johnson’s bipartisan gambit to fund the government.

“I want my Republican colleagues to give me one thing – one – that I can go campaign on and say we did! Anybody sitting in the (Capitol) complex, if you want to come down to the floor and come explain to me one material, meaningful, significant thing the Republican majority has done besides ‘Well, I guess it’s not as bad as the Democrats,’” beseeched Roy.

The Texas Republican had no takers.

Except perhaps by Democrats.

Republicans might not have a lot to show for their efforts. But considering the chaos on the GOP side of the aisle – punctuated by the three-week vacancy in the Speakership – Democrats will likely deploy Roy’s diatribe about the dearth of GOP accomplishments in every political ad for competitive House contests next year.

Roy was relentless in his criticism of how Republicans quickly reverted to old ways under Johnson. That’s why he and other conservatives torched the provision for the House to consider the spending bill and Iran measure.

THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE AS TO WHY TENSIONS ARE RUNNING SO HIGH RIGHT NOW ON CAPITOL HILL

“We went through an entire month without a Speaker and we just did the same damn thing that we’re doing,” exploded Roy. “I didn’t come here for more excuses. I didn’t come here to have the Speaker of the House assume the position and in 17 days, pass a continuing resolution (the interim spending plan) on the floor of this House through suspension of the rules.”

Johnson used a procedure called “suspension of the rules” to approve the emergency spending plan because Roy and other right-wing members would have blocked the House from considering the “rule” required to put a bill on the floor. The House must first approve a “rule” before it considers most major pieces of legislation. No rule? Then no debate on the floor.

That is, unless you go around the rule and consider the measure as a suspension bill. 

House Freedom Caucus Chairman & Rep. Scott Perry, R-Penn., described the CJS/Iran bill as “very, very, weak.”

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., was more strident.

“We’re going to make sure that he follows through on what he said he was going to do,” said Luna of Johnson.

Yours truly asked Johnson why the Speaker’s two-step spending plan “didn’t seem to satisfy some of the arch-conservatives in your caucus.”

“I’m one of the arch-conservatives and I want to cut spending right now,” answered Johnson. “But when you have a three-vote majority, as we do right now, we don’t have the votes to be able to advance that right now. 

In short, it’s about the math. 

But that might not satisfy the likes of Roy and other conservatives. They essentially argued in favor of a government shutdown over Thanksgiving in their quest to secure immediate spending cuts.

They’ll get to go to the mat over that in the coming weeks. Johnson’s two-leveled spending plan sets up government funding deadlines on January 19 and February 2.

With a note of irony, we’ll note that February 2 is also Groundhog Day.

It’s not 100 percent clear that Johnson is in the precise position that Kevin McCarthy was. But a trendline is emerging. Johnson says he won’t allow another temporary spending measure. And if he does, Johnson has gone back on a promise. If he sticks to his promise, that could spark a government shutdown.

That’s why there’s worry about Johnson facing a challenge to his leadership much like McCarthy. Thus, he is on the clock.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., summoned the Congressional press corps for a news conference a few hours after House members fled Washington last Wednesday.

A reporter asked Jeffries about his relationship with Johnson and if he had “any advice for him as he faces these difficulties.”

“Good luck!” chortled Jeffries, eliciting laughter from reporters as he concluded the session with the scribes.

Jeffries speaks the truth.

Johnson is on the clock. And if time’s not on his side, perhaps luck will be.