Congress
Crypto bill ethics talks wobble as senators eye Trump engagement
Senators emerged from a closed-door meeting focused on ethics language that Democrats want to insert into landmark cryptocurrency legislation split over the status of the talks, with one Republican calling the negotiations a “circus.”
A bipartisan group of senators met in the Capitol Tuesday with a top White House crypto policy adviser to negotiate language that would restrict government officials’ engagements with digital assets — a key demand for Senate Democrats who have raised concerns about the Trump family’s crypto businesses. Lawmakers are trying to come to a deal ahead of a Thursday markup in the Senate Banking Committee.
“The Democrats are trying to find reasons to vote against the bill and making up a bunch of bullshit excuses,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), who called the meeting a “circus.”
“Super annoying,” he added.
Other members struck a more positive note.
“Sen. Moreno is prone to exaggeration,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a key Democratic negotiator. “We are working constructively. I think that could be his interpretation and then, it that’s the interpretation, maybe he should stop going to the meetings.”
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a key GOP negotiator, said lawmakers are “making progress.”
“You have to go into those discussions assuming that the other side is negotiating in good faith,” she said. “And if that turns out not to be the case, then shame on them, not shame on me. I’m trying to get a deal here.”
Patrick Witt, a top Trump administration crypto policy adviser, is representing the White House in the talks. But lawmakers on both sides say they want sign-off from Trump on any final ethics deal.
“Whatever we agree to, it has to be signed off by Trump,” Gallego said earlier Tuesday. “And if he doesn’t sign off on it, then it doesn’t happen.”
Lummis said in an interview that she and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) have agreed to seek a meeting with Trump about the ethics issue if White House staff are unable get him on board.
“If we end up with a ethics proposal that the White House staffers think is on the bubble in terms of the president’s ability to swallow it, it would be important for us to go,” she said.
Republicans have said that ethics language can’t go into the bill that the Banking panel votes on this Thursday due to jurisdictional issues, but Democrats are insisting on a deal ahead of the markup. Gallego told reporters the ethics issue “will have to be addressed before the Banking Committee,” but added: “It doesn’t necessarily have to be addressed through the Banking Committee.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell remains hospitalized, his office said in a statement Thursday — without offering details about a recent medical episode that has renewed concern about the health of the former Republican majority leader.
McConnell “continues his recovery in the hospital” and “continues to improve,” his office said.
“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” the statement said. “The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”
The statement did not explain why he was hospitalized last month.
The update comes after multiple outlets reported details of a first responder dispatch call indicating emergency medical personnel responded to McConnell’s home last month to treat an unconscious person who had experienced “cardiac arrest.”
Blue Light News has not independently verified the dispatch call.
The 84-year-old senator, who is retiring at the end of this term, has experienced multiple medical incidents in recent years. On two occasions in 2023, he froze while speaking with reporters. He has also suffered multiple falls and temporarily used a wheelchair, a move his office described at the time as a precautionary measure.
Congress
House Ethics says it doesn’t have information to share on lawmaker sexual misconduct settlements
The House adopted a resolution Tuesday requiring the House Ethics Committee to release information on taxpayer funds used to pay out sexual misconduct settlements with lawmakers — but the committee now says it has no information it can share.
In a statement Thursday, the committee reiterated it does not manage sexual harassment lawsuits or their settlements; taxpayers have not footed the bill for those payments since 2018.
Since that time, according to the statement, “the Committee has not been notified of any awards or settlements relating to allegations of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, or other sexual misconduct by a Member.”
Instead, the bipartisan Ethics Committee said it was up to the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to publicly release a list of each member who has received settlements for sexual misconduct allegations, as mandated by the resolution championed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).
The committee, in the Thursday statement, said it “fully supports the release of information about sexual misconduct settlements and calls on OCWR to abide by [the resolution] and make publicly available information about Member sexual misconduct matters resulting in payment of taxpayer funds.”
Massie, in a text message Thursday, said “OCWR can release it.”
The OCWR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The bipartisan Ethics Committee has been under pressure in recent months to show it takes allegations of sexual misconduct against colleagues seriously. Two former House members — Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) — were forced to resign earlier this year amid serious accusations against them.
The renewed reckoning has prompted new questions about whether the House is up to the task of policing its own. The resolution earlier this week was adopted nearly unanimously, with just one member, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), voting “present.”
House Ethics Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) said in an interview earlier this week that while he would support Massie’s resolution, the relevant “information was already out in the public domain.”
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) endorsed Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign for Michigan’s open Senate seat on Thursday, a decision that comes as progressives look to capitalize off a series of recent high-profile primary victories in New York, Colorado and elsewhere.
Her endorsement could provide El-Sayed with a critical boost just over a month before the state’s Aug. 4 primary. The former public health official is locked in a heated contest against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow for the right to take on Republican Mike Rogers in the general election.
It also comes as El-Sayed has risen to the top of the pack in recent public polling.
Virtually any Democratic path to flipping the Senate in this year’s midterms would see the party hold the open Michigan Senate seat, with two-term Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) retiring at the end of his term.
The race has emerged as perhaps the largest battleground over the ideological future of the party. El-Sayed, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018, has collected endorsements from progressives, while Stevens has the tacit backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, with AIPAC also boosting her candidacy.
El-Sayed, Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with The New York Times, is her party’s best chance.
“Despite our ideological differences and whatever disagreements there are in the party, every single one of us sees this moment as existential,” she said. “And I think many people are willing to put aside differences in order to give us the best chance at winning. And I think that Abdul gives us that right now.”
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