Congress
Capitol agenda: Trump 1.0 enemies face brutal primaries
Democrats who rose to prominence as #Resistance figures during President Donald Trump’s first term are stumbling politically during his second.
The pileup illustrates a new era for the restive Democratic base, where vocal opposition to Trump through official channels and public remonstrations no longer guarantee success in the party’s primaries.
If Democrats retake the majority in the House, leaders will have to find a balance between their base’s appetite for holding Trump accountable and election results that some strategists say suggest Americans are ready to move past Trump.
“‘#Resistance’ was a very Trump 1.0 mood, and now we are in a different moment of anger,” said Lanae Erickson, senior vice president at center-left think tank Third Way. “They’re mad about the war. They’re mad about costs. They’re mad about the establishment not having delivered anything for them.”
Alexander Vindman’s stunning loss in Florida’s Senate primary to democratic socialist Angie Nixon was the latest example this week.
Vindman, a former National Security Council aide who testified during the 2019 House impeachment inquiry, made standing up to Trump a centerpiece of his campaign. But although his national profile helped haul in big money, it couldn’t overcome the shifting politics of the party base — a predicament that has left some Democrats rattled about their prospects in Trump’s home state.
“Vindman is a hero, but memories fade and the focus of most folks is on the cost of living,” said longtime Democratic strategist David Axelrod, adding that Nixon, “made those issues her focus.”
Vindman’s not alone in the political graveyard of Trump-resistance-fighter campaigns: Two of the 2021 House impeachment managers, Reps. Diana DeGette and Eric Swalwell saw their reelection prospects fall apart as well: DeGette lost her reelection bid to a democratic socialist this summer, while Swalwell dropped out of the California gubernatorial primary after a string of sexual assault allegations.
Rep. Dan Goldman, the lead majority counsel in the first Trump impeachment inquiry, was ousted in his primary. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a member of the Oversight and Intelligence committees during the 2021 impeachment, fell short in his Senate bid. Reps. Shri Thanedar and Al Green, both of whom led impeachment pushes against Trump, were ousted by younger challengers.
Not all the races were defined by Trump accountability politics. But one Democratic operative said the throughline is that those struggling candidates are “institutionalists” who argued the justice system was going to hold Trump accountable. Now, voters who lost faith in those institutions after Trump returned to office were sold on other candidates’ messaging railing against those very systems.
“The prescription isn’t what they were looking for anymore,” the operative said.
What else we’re watching:
— BRAID PLANS WHITE HOUSE EXIT — James Braid, the top White House aide in charge of liaising with Congress, is leaving the administration, according to a person with knowledge of the transition, granted anonymity to discuss private plans.. Braid, from his perch as director of legislative affairs, has been responsible for shepherding Trump’s agenda through a narrow majority, a job that’s become increasingly difficult as the president clashes with members of his own party.
— FIRST IN IC: OLIVER GILBERT’S COMMITTEE HOPES — Retiring Rep. Frederica Wilson’s chosen successor is eyeing her spot on House Transportation and Infrastructure, along with other committees that impact the South Florida district. Miami-Dade County Commissioner Oliver Gilbert III on Tuesday won a crowded Democratic primary in the deep blue 24th District, almost guaranteeing he’ll take Wilson’s seat come November. In an interview Wednesday, Gilbert said he has “broad interests” but named the Transportation and Foreign Affairs committees as potential options for his desired policy work, along with the Appropriations and Judiciary panels.
Samuel Benson and Dasha Burns contributed to this report.
Congress
Jimmy Gomez is being investigated for ‘sexual harassment and assault,’ according to lawyers for woman interviewed by the Ethics Committee
Lawyers for a woman interviewed as part of the House Ethics Committee probe into Rep. Jimmy Gomez alleged the California Democrat’s interactions with their client were not consensual — rebutting claims by Gomez that his “personal mistakes outside” his marriage were “consensual in nature.”
“Contrary to Representative Gomez’s assertion in his statement, his actions were not ‘consensual in nature’ with respect to our client,” Lisa Banks and Sarah Nesbitt, attorneys for the woman who spoke with the Ethics Committee “about her experience of sexual harassment and assault by Representative Jimmy Gomez,” said in a statement Wednesday.
They added, “We fully expect that the House Committee on Ethics will come to the same conclusion in its investigation.”
Gomez’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Banks’ claims.
The disclosure that Banks and Nesbitt’s client was interviewed by the Ethics panel regarding alleged “sexual harassment and assault” provides more granular details on what the bipartisan committee, which operates in secret, is actually investigating.
The committee announced Monday that it was looking into whether Gomez engaged in “sexual misconduct,” including “inappropriate sexual contact with a House staffer.” Gomez released his own statement conceding that while he did cheat on his wife in years past, his extramarital affairs were “consensual” and “haven’t violated the law or House Ethics rules.”
He also said he respects the process of the Ethics Committee and was “confident that a full and impartial review of the facts will bear” out that he did not violate House rules or the law.
Currently, members of Congress are permitted to have consensual intimate relationships with any staffer as long as they are not the members’ subordinate. A bipartisan effort is underway to change the rules to prohibit lawmakers from engaging in such activities with employees of any congressional office.
That initiative is being spearheaded by Reps. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) and Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.), who hope to unveil ethics overhaul legislation in September. They are also working to make sure the Ethics Committee works faster to investigate allegations of misconduct, make reports public and recommend punishments that are proportional to the offense.
There’s a strong appetite on Capitol Hill to root out and crack down on members engaged in sexual misconduct after two lawmakers — then-Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) — were forced to resign within a week of each other amid accusations of serious misconduct toward staffers. Swalwell has denied an allegation of assault and allegations of sexual misconduct, while Gonzales admitted to an affair with his subordinate who died by suicide.
Gomez was a co-chair of Swalwell’s campaign for governor and quickly called for his former colleague to withdraw from the Democratic primary.
A third member, Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) was pressured to drop his bid for reelection earlier this month after the Ethics Committee released a report with findings that the lawmaker engaged in “persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers.” Lawyers for Edwards said that the Ethics Committee “failed to demonstrate that either of the two staffers expressed discomfort to Representative Edwards regarding his conduct with them.”
Banks and Nesbitt, the attorneys for the woman who made claims against Gomez, in their statement Wednesday, said the Gomez case was “just the latest example of brazen sexual misconduct by a member of Congress. Congress must act to rein in its members who seem to believe that preying on young women working on Capitol Hill is one of the perks of their job.”
“We will continue to work with our client and with the House Committee on Ethics to ensure there is accountability for Representative Gomez and a safe path for any other survivors to come forward and share their experiences,” they said.
Tom Rust, the staff director for the House Ethics Committee, declined to comment Wednesday.
President Donald Trump says he told Florida Rep. Cory Mills to exit the Republican primary before his election defeat Tuesday but that the embattled lawmaker “wouldn’t listen.”
Mills, who was defeated by former local television news reporter Ryan Elijah on Tuesday night in Florida’s 7th District, was dogged by a litany of scandals, including a restraining order issued by a Florida judge last year after a former girlfriend accused him of threatening to reveal her sexually explicit videos.
Still, Trump endorsed him in February. But the president suggested on Truth Social on Wednesday that he was far from confident in the prospect of a Mills victory.
“I told Congressman Cory Mills of Florida, a friend of mine, to get out of the Race, but he wouldn’t listen,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He thought he could win, so who can blame him?”
The president immediately backed Elijah, whom he said “stands for EVERYTHING MAGA, and is respected by ALL.”
Mills isn’t the only Trump-backed Republican to see defeat in a GOP primary this summer. A slew of the president’s governor picks — including Mike Lindell in Minnesota and Randy Feenstra in Iowa — were bested by other candidates. So too were Reps. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) and Navy veteran Amir Hassan. Catalina Lauf, the president’s choice for Florida’s 19th congressional district, lost on Tuesday to media executive Jim Schwartzel.
It isn’t the first time Trump has distanced himself from a Republican after defeat.
Ogles, he said in a Truth Social post after the Tennessee primary, “was a person who I remained loyal to even though he had virtually no chance of winning.” And his opponent, former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher, was another “Great “Trump” Candidate,” the president wrote.
Senate Republicans are facing unexpected waves of online vitriol after — essentially — standing in front of their empty chamber during recess and hitting the gavel.
MAGA social media circles have seized on what was once a little-noticed, low-drama procedural affair as the newest opportunity to eviscerate Republicans for what they see as being insufficiently loyal to President Donald Trump.
Some GOP senators have even told colleagues in recent weeks they don’t want to be included in the conference’s rotation for presiding over what’s known as the chamber’s pro forma sessions because it will result in being flamed on the internet, according to two people granted anonymity to disclose private conversations.
“I think people just do it to get clicks, right? And they are also misinformed,” Sen. Ron Johnson said in an interview about the online furor, adding that Republicans “broke the logjam” by confirming most of Trump’s nominees before recess.
The purpose of such sessions is to prevent any president from temporarily installing a Cabinet pick or filling other vacancies without securing Senate confirmation. A 2014 Supreme Court decision laid out restrictions on recess appointments that have limited presidents’ use of the maneuver, and the House would need to agree to terms that would allow them.
But those restrictions are lost on hard-line online activists who are now willing to publicly skewer even typical Trump allies they see as undermining the president’s ability to leapfrog the Senate’s confirmation process and make unilateral recess appointments on nominations.
The outcry also overlooks the fact that Senate Republicans have confirmed more of Trump’s civilian nominees in his second term so far as compared to this point in his first term, thanks to a rule change they made last fall allowing most executive branch picks to be confirmed as a bloc rather than individually.
Sen. Jim Justice on Monday was the latest of the 11 Republican lawmakers who will make the trek to Washington to preside over a pro forma session this summer — and he’s already being branded in corners of the internet as a “traitor” who is “BLOCKING the America First Agenda.”
He followed Sens. John Boozman and Jim Banks, who got an earful from conservatives themselves.
When Johnson presided over the chamber briefly in early July as part of Independence Day recess, he said he got flack online for it. And while he said he wasn’t bothered by the criticism, which included being called one of the “five filthy failures” who oversaw a session during the chamber’s two-week break, his Trump-supporting bona fides also didn’t spare him from the trolling.
What else we’re watching:
— PROGRESSIVES NOTCH FLORIDA WIN AS MILLS EXITS: Democratic Socialist member and state Rep. Angie Nixon pulled off a stunning upset for progressives in the Democratic Florida Senate primaries last night, defeating her better-funded opponent, retired Lt. Col. Alex Vindman. It marks one of the progressive movement’s biggest breakthroughs yet this primary season, in part because other successes have been in blue and purple states. In GOP upsets: scandal-plagued Rep. Cory Mills lost his four-way primary battle for Florida’s 7th District to Ryan Elijah, a former local television news reporte.
— MILLER WARNS OF BLEEDING UNION SUPPORT: GOP leaders have not stood in the way of Rep. Max Miller’s reelection bid amid allegations of domestic abuse against his ex-wife and young child. But the Ohio lawmaker is fretting the loss of support from a key constituency — unions — could damage his reelection prospects. Miller wrote in a July 8 court filing that multiple unions are turning their backs on him as a result of allegations raised by his ex-wife Emily Moreno. “Based on those organizations’ typical levels of support, I estimate the withdrawn organizational support at approximately $30,000, in addition to lost personal contributions from individual donors who have told me or my campaign that they will not contribute because of these allegations,” Miller wrote.
Jordain Carney, Kimberly Leonard, Gary Fineout and Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.
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