How do you think the U.S. political system is doing? From our viewpoint, things are pretty grim. Let’s review.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the Democratic executive of the nation’s largest city, has been indicted on five federal criminal counts, the first time that’s happened in Big Apple history. The allegations include accepting straw-man donations and taking bribes in the form of upgraded seats on Turkish Airlines flights around the world.
Adams said he won’t resign, but New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul — who has the power to replace him — hinted Thursday night that she may.
Another indicted pol held a press conference in New York City on Thursday — former President Donald Trump. We won’t get into a full readout of the presser except to say that it was basically a campaign rally with some news thrown in at the end.
Also on Thursday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) publicly denied that he’d had sex with any women under 18, made a vague comment about drug use and warned that he may not cooperate with a subpoena from the House Ethics Committee.
Earlier this week, the New York Times broke a story that freshman Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) had both his mistress and fiancee’s daughter on his congressional payroll. D’Esposito insisted he broke no ethics rules.
So far this Congress, former New York Republican Rep. George Santos was expelled following his criminal indictment. The wildly dishonest Santos later pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He faces up to 22 years behind bars.
Former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) — who had gold bars hidden in his closet — was hit with 16 federal criminal counts last fall, including bribery and taking actions to benefit the Egyptian government. The 70-year-old Menendez resigned following his July conviction and will be sentenced in late January.
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) was indicted in May for money laundering, conspiracy and bribery in a crazier-than-fiction tale about an entanglement with business interests in Mexico and Azerbaijan. Cuellar is still in Congress and running for reelection.
And did we mention that the current president’s son, Hunter Biden, was convicted on federal gun charges and then pleaded guilty to tax fraud?
The FBI seized Rep. Andy Ogles’ (R-Tenn.) cell phone in August. He’s been accused of filing false campaign reports. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) has his own legal fight with the Justice Department after his phone was seized as part of the Jan. 6 investigation.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) was arrested for pulling a fire alarm in a House office building. Bowman lost in the Democratic primary in June and won’t be coming back.
Reps. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), Wesley Hunt (R-Texas), Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) all face ongoing ethics investigations. Jackson, in fact, gets accused of a lot of strange stuff.
Criminal or ethics cases not your forte? There’s plenty more.
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) this week said Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio — who he called “thugs” who practice “vudu” — should get “their ass out of our country” before Inauguration Day 2025. Higgins deleted the racist tweet after Democrats confronted him about it on the House floor. Higgins also said he prayed about the decision in the House chamber. Speaker Mike Johnson defended him as a “dear friend” and “principled man.”
Rep. Mark Green’s (R-Tenn.) wife recently accused him of having an extramarital affair with the wrong woman and later apologized. The couple is getting divorced. Rep. Max Miller’s wife (R-Ohio) has claimed he’s on drugs during their divorce proceedings. Miller’s attorneys say the congressman has tested negative for drug use. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) will always have “Beetlejuice.”
As far as the broader world scene, things are also going poorly.
President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron called for a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon only to be ignored by the Israelis. Upon arriving in New York Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded in Hebrew that “we will continue to hit Hezbollah with full force.” The war in Ukraine continues its deadly daily toll. Sudan is in the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet.
OK, fine, the presidency and geopolitics are complicated. How about the Capitol? How are our leaders doing there?
Well, Johnson, who was elected speaker 11 months ago this week, just passed a short-term spending bill after insisting he was “done” with such measures.
Johnson promised to keep Congress in session until they passed 12 appropriations bills. However, House Republicans have only passed five bills. Instead, they’ve spent the vast majority of the last few months back home. The Senate, for its part, has passed zero appropriations bills on the floor.
In fact, Congress left town Wednesday without doing anything on disaster aid, the farm bill, the defense authorization bill or Ukraine.
Finally, in the category of downright bizarre, we scooped that Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin (D-Md.) was the target of a sophisticated deepfake operation. Cardin thought he was talking to a high-ranking Ukrainian official. That is, until the “official” started asking him if he supports bombing Russia with long-range American-made missiles.
— Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan
