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Elon’s back: The tech mogul’s checkbook and platform are galvanizing the GOP

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Just six months ago, most congressional Republicans kept their distance from Elon Musk after the tech mogul’s messy political breakup with President Donald Trump and his feverish attempt to kill their signature megabill.

Musk is persona non grata no longer, thanks to his mega checkbook and mega platform — both of which he is now using to influence the future of the GOP.

Republicans see his recent donation to a Kentucky Senate candidate as an encouraging sign that Musk will make good on his promises to back the GOP, and top House leaders are elated — especially those in charge of defending their razor-thin majority. Musk spent more than $260 million in the last election helping to elect Trump and Republicans.

“It’s definitely a positive development for us,” NRCC Chair Richard Hudson said in an interview.

He added, “By the way, when they had their rift, I told you all this would happen.”

That rift seemed unlikely to heal early on, with Musk accusing the president of covering up the Jeffrey Epstein files because Trump was named in the documents, then threatening to start his own political party.

But just six months later, Musk is back having dinners with Trump and attempting to steer GOP policy again — and he is making his presence felt in key offices on Capitol Hill.

Musk, who posted on New Year’s Day that “America is toast if the radical left wins,” did not respond to requests for comment.

Recently he has used his 233-million-follower X account to push Senate Republicans to pass the SAVE Act — a bill meant to tighten election laws to prevent noncitizens from voting, in part by imposing new proof-of-citizenship requirements and restricting mail voting.

The campaign has driven a huge volume of calls to member offices, according to two aides granted anonymity to discuss internal matters, forcing Republican after Republican to publicly state their support for the legislation. It has no Democratic support and has not been called up for a vote because it cannot overcome the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster hurdle.

Two of the Senate’s most endangered Republican incumbents — Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Cornyn — have leaned into Musk’s push to hold a vote on the bill, often reposting his messages on their accounts. Cornyn also spoke privately with Thune about the bill last week.

When Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas announced on X Saturday he was “reviewing” the bill, Musk reposted the message with a pair of American flag emojis.

Asked about the bill, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in an interview Tuesday night that he was sure it would come up for a vote “at some point” but “we’ll have to figure out where we can get it done.”

“We’ve got a lot of interest in it, and I’m supportive of it,” Thune said, noting he has co-sponsored the bill previously.

The public pressure campaign appears to have caught some Republicans by surprise given that there’s been little internal rush to formally sign onto the bill since it’s currently not moving and can’t pass the Senate.

Congressional Republicans, who have fresh memories of the trail of destruction he has often left on Capitol Hill, see Musk’s re-emergence as a mixed blessing. He blew up a carefully negotiated bipartisan government funding deal in December 2024 and almost sunk the GOP megabill in the final stages of passage over his personal objections to the cancellation of electric vehicle subsidies and other policies.

“He’s a big voice,” said Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah), a member of House GOP leadership, who recalled how Musk was “really antagonistic” about the huge Republican policy bill last year.

But, he added, “I think if he’s willing to be accurate, yeah, then I then totally want him on board.”

That’s especially true when it comes to Musk’s money. Even amid his feuding with Trump, he cut $10 million worth of checks to the GOP super PACs charged with preserving the House and Senate majorities.

But with Musk dropping another $10 million into Kentucky Senate candidate Nate Morris’ campaign effort — and ending his dalliance with a third party — the expectation is that more checks will now be on the way.

Hudson said he hasn’t talked to Musk yet about any future financial commitments to helping House Republicans. But members are straining to get in his good graces as Republicans face huge midterm challenges without Trump on the ballot.

“History is not on our side,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) said, referring to the typical midterm losses suffered by the president’s party. “We’ll take any and all help possible to reverse that trend in history, because I think it’s important for the Republican Party.”

Whether they want Musk as a presence on the campaign trail is a more complicated question. His Department of Government Efficiency initiative is widely seen as a bust nearly a year later, and his post-2024 election efforts to vocally back conservatives — like a Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate — backfired at the ballot box.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a hard-liner who is running for governor of South Carolina, said Musk “did an unbelievable job in identifying waste, fraud and abuse” and would be welcome both on the campaign trail and in his potential administration as an efficiency consultant.

But Republicans in swingier territory are cooler to the idea of a large Musk presence in their races this fall.

Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.), one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the House, said he was pleased to see Trump and Musk patch up their rift — that “obviously we are better when we are united and as a team.”

Asked if he wanted Musk to campaign in his district, Bresnahan was more equivocal.

“I’m not really sure — I’m impartial,” Bresnahan said. “We look at whoever’s going to be supportive of what we’re trying to do for northeastern Pennsylvania, and if their mission aligns with our mission, then we’re going to embrace it.”

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The AI threat undercutting the White House’s FISA push

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The growing power of artificial intelligence is driving new worries among both Republicans and Democrats about government agencies’ warrantless purchases of Americans’ sensitive data. And it’s complicating efforts to renew a federal spying law before it expires — including as House GOP leaders struggle to cobble together support for passage Wednesday a clean, 18-month reauthorization, per President Donald Trump’s wishes.

The federal government has long used commercially available information bought from data brokers for national security, military operations and criminal investigations, bypassing constitutional restrictions on what kinds of information agencies can gather on Americans directly. But agencies’ surveillance capabilities were limited by the vast amount of labor and expertise required to analyze millions of data points.

Now, though, AI is eroding that barrier, making it possible to parse massive amounts of personal information with ease. That’s causing a bipartisan group of lawmakers to call for requiring agencies to get warrants before making those purchases.

“Artificial intelligence has transformed American industries for the better while enabling an unprecedented capability to glean information from private data, increasing the risk of unconstitutional government overreach,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a co-sponsor on the Government Surveillance Reform Act, saidin a statement.

Her bill would require federal agencies to get a warrant when buying Americans’ data, and when accessing Americans’ private communications under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

She and other lawmakers are also calling for Congress to insist on privacy safeguards before it reauthorizes Section 702’s surveillance capabilities, which were meant to collect data from non-U.S. citizens but have been used to investigate Americans without a warrant. The Trump administration and Speaker Mike Johnson want to reauthorize the law without changes before it expires Monday. Some lawmakers fear AI will enhance the government’s surveillance capabilities, pointing at how intelligence agencies have used Section 702’s authority toobtain data from Black Lives Matter protesters and political donors.

“Passing FISA 702 without strong new guardrails, while doing nothing to stop the government from buying Americans’ location data and feeding it into AI systems to conduct unprecedented mass surveillance, would be shocking negligence,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement.

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Capitol agenda: Cory Mills under fire but not going anywhere

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You may hear House members calling for his ouster after the resignations of Reps. Tony Gonzales and Eric Swalwell, but Rep. Cory Mills looks to be on solid footing.

Despite months of scrutiny over a range of conduct issues — including accusations of illicit involvement in federal contracts and stolen valor — members of both parties say the circumstances are different for the Florida Republican.

Republicans and Democrats are leaning on bureaucratic rationalizations before leaping to a fresh wave of expulsions, despite growing alarm around congressional sleaze.

They say they’re waiting for the conclusion of an active House Ethics investigation into Mills before moving to crack down on him — a similar approach they’re taking with Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who is set to hear her formal punishment from Ethics next Tuesday after the panel found her guilty of two dozen counts of misconduct.

“I have a three part test — Has the member admitted to the conduct in question? Has there been a finding by a court? Or has there been a finding by the Ethics Committee?” Republican Rep. Nick LaLota said. “I don’t think that the Mills case meets any of those three criteria.”

“If there’s expulsion votes, if they’re political, I’m not interested,” said Rep. Brad Schneider, the chair of the centrist New Democrat Coalition. “If they are based on facts established by process, I’m gonna follow the facts.”

Mills said in an interview he had told Speaker Mike Johnson he was “unfairly lumped into this” with Swalwell and Gonzales as well as with Cherfilus-McCormick. Unlike Cherfilus-McCormick, he is not facing a federal indictment. And unlike Swalwell and Gonzales, he is not facing charges of sexual misconduct — something Mills said Johnson has acknowledged.

It’s not clear where the investigation into Mills stands. Johnson told reporters Tuesday he is “looking into” it. Republicans have quietly worried about the accusations against Mills for some time, but the GOP’s narrow House majority has complicated the prospect of leadership engaging in any sort of accountability.

What else we’re watching:

— FISA lives to face its next test: Johnson is figuring out how to move forward with a clean, 18-month extension of a key spy power — Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act— as several Republicans plan to vote against a procedural step up for consideration Wednesday. Talks are ongoing between GOP leaders, hard-liners and the White House as the program faces an April 20 expiration.

— Sanders to Force Israel Arms Sales Vote: Sen. Bernie Sanders plans to force a vote Wednesday on two resolutions to block nearly half a billion dollars in U.S. arms sales to Israel. There’s renewed energy behind Sanders’ push as Democrats separately try to rein in Trump’s power to continue the Israel-US war in Iran.

—Vought’s Budget Pitch: White House budget chief Russ Vought is set to defend Trump’s $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget request when he appears at House Budget Wednesday. Meanwhile House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers said Tuesday he expects to craft defense policy legislation with a $1.15 trillion budget topline, a move that could make the upcoming NDAA more politically palatable to Democrats.

Riley Rogerson and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.

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GOP leaders struggle to keep $75B immigration plan narrow

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Senate Republicans plan to forge ahead next week with the first formal steps to pass a party-line immigration enforcement bill totaling $65 billion to $75 billion.

But as GOP leaders scramble to meet President Donald Trump’s June 1 deadline to clear a bill funding ICE and Border Patrol for more than three years, they are facing competing visions within their ranks for what else should be tacked on as the party runs out of time to score more legislative wins before the midterms.

“I think this is it. This is our shot,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters Tuesday, predicting that Republicans would not end up enacting a third filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation bill before Election Day.

“And that’s why you sense some frustration among a lot of the senators,” he added. “Some of which has been voiced and a lot of which it hasn’t.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune laid out the up-to $75 billion price tag for the bill to reporters Tuesday. The bill’s topline was in the range of what Republicans had been telegraphing over the past week but could spark pushback from at least one fiscal hawk — Senate Homeland Security Chair Rand Paul — because it’s higher than the roughly $50 billion it would cost to fund immigration enforcement at current levels for three years.

The worry among some senior Republicans is that expanding the scope of the bill will slow down the process and complicate the measure’s chances of passing. Instead, they want to simply fund the immigration enforcement agencies not covered under the Senate-passed measure House Republicans are still waiting to clear, two months after funding first lapsed for all of the Department of Homeland Security, which houses the immigration agencies.

“We have members who want other things. I mean, I want other things,” Thune said Tuesday afternoon. “But obviously we have a specific mission and purpose here.”

Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C) is expected to release the budget resolution as soon as this week to set the general framework for the final package.

Senate GOP leaders are encouraging Republican senators to offer their ideas as amendments during the chamber’s marathon “vote-a-rama” debate, during which lawmakers are allowed to offer as many germane amendments as they wish.

“There was some suggestion that it ought to be a little broader and everything. I think that’s where the default position is, ‘Then put it in an amendment, and we’ll see if it can pass,’” West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the No. 4 Senate Republican, told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said Tuesday the chamber intends to vote “next week” on approving the fiscal blueprint that will allow them to later pass the party-line immigration enforcement bill.

Thune can lose three of his own members and still win on the floor with Vice President JD Vance as the tie-breaking vote, and Republicans are cautiously optimistic they will have the votes next week.

But some fiscal hawks aren’t yet backing down from their demand that the immigration enforcement bill be paid for, which could broaden the scope of the measure as well as the number of issues where Democrats could force tricky amendment votes.

Even if Senate Republicans succeed in adopting the budget framework next week, an identical budget measure also needs to clear the House. GOP hard-liners rejected the Senate’s last attempt to end the DHS shutdown and are now demanding that Republicans use the party-line reconciliation process to fund all of the department.

Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson had been expected to hold a weekly meeting Tuesday where they would discuss the path forward on DHS funding, among other issues. But Thune said the sitdown was punted to Wednesday because of scheduling issues.

Mia McCarthy and Calen Razor contributed to this report.

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