GOP Shenanigans Put Americans At Risk

Dear Friend,

For the first time in history, the House of Representatives voted to remove the Speaker of the House. This was a predictable mess of McCarthy’s own making — one of the concessions MAGA Republicans extracted of McCarthy was a change in rules that made it easier to remove the Speaker. Just 269 days later, McCarthy fell victim to the trap MAGA Republicans set for him, and now we’re all paying a price in the form of choas and disarray in Congress.

The government will shut down on November 17 without Congressional action, and the GOP just announced no votes for at least a week. But before leaving, the Republicans couldn’t resist playing petty politics by ordering former Speaker Pelosi and former Majority Leader Hoyer to vacate the offices they use between votes in the U.S. Capitol. They chose to do THAT as opposed to providing vital aid to Ukraine. The U.S. House under Republican leadership is completely dysfunctional.

The two leading candidates to replace McCarthy as Speaker are Reps. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Jim Jordan (R-OH). Scalise is an election denier who used antisemitic tropes, blaming “radical, Soros-backed elements of the Democratic Party” for violence against Republicans in 2018; he actually described himself as “David Duke without the baggage.” Jordan was condemned for an antisemitic tweet in 2019, has been accused of complicity in sexual abuse of college athletes, and refused to cooperate with the panel investigating the January 6 insurrection. This extremism makes both men unqualified to lead the House of Representatives and demonstrate just how out of step the GOP is with Jewish American values.

With exactly the same slim House majority that Republicans have now, Democrats in the previous Congress passed the American Rescue Plan, the Inflation Reduction Act, aid to Ukraine, reform of the Electoral Count Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the largest gun safety bill to pass Congress in 30 years, and the Chips and Science Act of 2022. All that progress ground to a halt the day Republicans took the majority earlier this year.

The American people can see that the GOP is in disarray and refuses to govern responsibly. We don’t know who the next Speaker will be. But we know who the Speaker following the November 2024 election must be: Hakeem Jeffries. Now more than ever, please join us in our efforts to retake the House majority, strengthen our Senate majority, and re-elect President Biden and Vice President Harris.

Don’t get disillusioned. Don’t give up hope. There was good news yesterday too. Laphonza Butler (D-CA) succeeded Dianne Feinstein in the U.S. Senate and became the Senate’s only Black woman and only the third Black woman senator in history. We are confident that she will fight, as Sen. Feinstein fought, for the values we share.

If you doubt that we can win in 2024, watch this incredible event we held yesterday, moderated by political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen and featuring Secretaries of State Jocelyn Benson (MI), Cisco Aguilar (NV), and Adrian Fontes (AZ).

Thank you for your continued support and partnership.

Halie Soifer
CEO, Jewish Democratic Council of America