CategoryHeather Cox Richardson [Letters from an American]

• Kevin McCarthy of California was elected speaker of the House of Representatives after 15 ballots, the most since 1860.
• McCarthy made concessions to extremist Republicans to win their votes, weakening his position as speaker.
• In his acceptance speech, McCarthy promised a right-wing wish list of investigations, deregulation, and attacks on immigration.
• He thanked President Trump for his influence and support.
• Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries gave a barn-burning speech, praising Nancy Pelosi and calling for Democrats to continue the fight for lower costs, better paying jobs, safer communities, democracy, and economic opportunity for all.
• Republicans in Ohio and South Carolina have passed laws to restrict voting rights.

Published January 7, 2023. Visit Letters from An American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post.

• Two years ago, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, believing Democrats had stolen it.
• This attack was the result of decades of rhetoric from the Republican Party, which had become increasingly hostile to the liberal consensus of the New Deal and civil rights laws.
• Republicans have since manipulated the electoral system and gerrymandered districts to gain control of the House of Representatives, where they are now threatening to take the government into default in order to dismantle the liberal consensus.
• On this day, President Biden awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal to fifteen people who defended democracy on January 6, 2021, reminding the audience of FDR’s 1941 “Four Freedoms” speech.

Published January 6, 2023. Visit Letters from An American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post.

• After 11 ballots, the Republicans remain unable to elect a speaker and thus unable to organize the House, with the Democrats united behind Hakeem Jeffries and delivering 212 votes for him 11 times.
• Kevin McCarthy has allegedly agreed to the demand of the hard-right Freedom Caucus that a single person can force a vote to get rid of the speaker, and has offered them two spots on the House Rules Committee and control over appropriations bills.
• President Joe Biden is working to make sure people understand just how much the Democrats got done in the past two years, and is also stepping up to address the influx of migrants to the border with new measures.
• On Sunday, Biden will go to El Paso, Texas, to meet with local officials and community leaders, and on January 6 he will honor people who distinguished themselves by protecting the country during the 2020–2021 attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
• Trump’s name has barely been mentioned during the fight over the House speakership, and he has gotten just one vote.

Published January 5, 2023. Visit Letters from An American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post.

• The Republicans won a narrow majority in the House of Representatives in 2022, but have been unable to elect a speaker due to a group of 20 far-right Republicans backing their own choices.
• The chaos suggests that Republican leadership does not have the skills it needs to govern, and the roots of their current worldview lie in the Reagan Revolution of 1980.
• The Republican Party has been purged of traditional Republicans and replaced with ideological fellow travelers, and their policies have concentrated wealth upward and hollowed out the middle class.
• A new era is pushing the Reagan era aside, with Republicans recognizing that it is our democratic government and the rule of law that protects their investments, and that maintaining the government will take basic laws and the skills to negotiate and pass them.

Published January 4, 2023. Visit Letters from An American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post.

• The Republicans took control of the House of Representatives by removing the metal detectors installed after the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) failed to win the House speakership on the first ballot, due to internal feuding among the Republican conference.
• Extremists tied to former President Trump and right-wing media are demanding outsize influence and power.
• Democrats united around Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), while the Republicans are still deciding whether to accept the extremist Jim Jordan (R-OH) or work to find a compromise candidate.
• Former Republican governor of Ohio John Kasich has called on House Republicans to work with Democrats to pick a speaker and create a coalition government.
• George Santos (R-NY) was conspicuously excluded from the talking and visiting on the House floor today, despite his crucial vote for McCarthy.

Published January 3, 2023. Visit Letters from An American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post.

• The 118th Congress is gathering in Washington and GOP minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is struggling to get the votes to become speaker.
• McCarthy has made several concessions to far-right House members, but they still won’t back him.
• Republican representative-elect George Santos of New York is facing fraud charges and his vote for speaker is crucial.
• The Democratic-controlled Senate is confirming judges and rebalancing the Supreme Court, while the Biden administration will be traveling around the country to highlight the laws passed in the last two years.
• The January 6th committee’s transcripts revealed an email from rally organizer Katrina Pierson showing that Trump’s invitation to supporters to march on the Capitol was part of the plan, and Hope Hicks and Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff Julie Radford exchanged horrified texts after the riot.

Published January 2, 2023. Visit Letters from An American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post.

• On January 1, 2023, the out-of-pocket cost of insulin for Medicare recipients will be capped at $35 a month.
• Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued the 2022 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary, which makes no mention of the leak of the Dobbs decision, popular demands for justices to have a code of ethics or Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife Ginni’s involvement in attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
• Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was inaugurated as the new president of Brazil today, replacing Jair Bolsonaro. A 33-year-old garbage collector, Aline Sousa, presented the sash to Lula as a symbol of the peaceful transfer of power.

Published January 1, 2023. Visit Letters from An American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post.

• In 2022, the U.S. and its allies successfully pressured Russia to prevent an invasion of Ukraine and defended the country with money, armaments, and humanitarian aid.
• At home, the Biden administration and Congress passed major legislation that included the American Rescue Plan, the bipartisan infrastructure law, the PACT Act, the CHIPs and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Respect for Marriage Act, the Violence Against Women Act, and the most significant gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years.
• The Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision, overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized reproductive healthcare as a constitutional right.
• The January 6th committee’s public hearings exposed the deliberate plan to overthrow our democracy, and in the midterm elections, Republicans only gained control of the House by four seats and the Democrats actually picked up one seat in the Senate.
• Despite the growth of authoritarianism, global post-lockdown inflation, and gerrymandering, the U.S. ended the year with a sense of progress and hope.

Published December 30, 2022. Visit Letters from An American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post.