Congress

Republicans tried to snag Jack Smith on technicalities. But they didn’t engage with the facts.

Published

5 months ago

January 22, 2026

Republicans finally had their moment to take on the man who tried to put President Donald Trump in jail. But they didn’t land any significant blows.

During Thursday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing with Jack Smith, GOP members spent almost no time challenging the facts of the criminal case that the former special counsel brought against Trump: that he conspired to corrupt the results of the 2020 election and seize a second term he didn’t win.

Instead, Republican committee members spent much of the hearing challenging the technical aspects of Smith’s probe into Trump’s election interference, including whether the veteran federal prosecutor properly signed his oath of office as special counsel and if he was sufficiently cognizant of the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause that protects Congress from executive branch overreach.

They questioned whether Smith was too friendly with a Justice Department official who recommended him for the special counsel position and challenged his approval of a $20,000 payment to a confidential human source for the FBI who was reviewing video and photos for the bureau.

House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan pressed Smith on his view of the House’s now-defunct select committee to investigate the events of Jan. 6, 2021, which also probed Trump’s 2020 election gambit. He also questioned that panel’s reliance on former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson to implicate Trump in plans to overturn the results favoring Joe Biden.

“Democrats have been going after President Trump for 10 years. For a decade. And the country should never, ever forget what they did,” Jordan said.

This nibbling around the edges by Republicans underscores the GOP’s lingering discomfort with Trump’s bid to subvert the election — an effort that preceded a violent attack on the Capitol by a mob of the president’s supporters. Several Republicans on the Judiciary Committee were among those who fled the rioters that day and condemned the violence at the time, and none at the hearing suggested Trump actually prevailed against Biden.

The posture of committee Republicans Thursday also gave Democrats ammunition to claim that Republicans had no legitimate argument with the substance of Smith’s findings — both in the election interference case and in the case alleging mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

“Our Republican colleagues want to try to dirty up his investigation, but they want to try to avoid as much as possible the underlying facts, because it’s all about what is incontrovertibly true: Donald Trump’s determined plan to overthrow the 2020 presidential election,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, in an interview during a break in the hours-long hearing convened to receive Smith’s first-ever public testimony.

Raskin and other Democrats feel so emboldened by Smith’s testimony Thursday that they are now asking Jordan to hold a continuation of the hearing as soon as a report is unsealed that would allow Smith to go into more detail about the classified documents charges he sought to bring up against Trump.

The most forceful attack on Smith came from Trump himself who appeared to have watched or been briefed on aspects of the hearing during his trip to Europe.

“Jack Smith is a deranged animal, who shouldn’t be allowed to practice Law,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Hopefully the Attorney General is looking at what he’s done, including some of the crooked and corrupt witnesses that he was attempting to use in his case against me.”

Smith, who later said he expected the Trump administration would pursue federal criminal charges against him “because they have been ordered to by the president,” forcefully defended his office’s work throughout the hearing Thursday. He denied that politics played any role in his team’s findings and calmly parried the attacks Republicans lobbed at him over his investigative tactics and decision to bring charges at all.

And he repeatedly suggested the failure to hold Trump accountable for his 2020 election maneuvering could invite future attacks.

“I have seen how the rule of law can erode. My feeling is that we have seen the rule of law function in our country so long that many of us have come to take it for granted,” Smith said. “The rule of law is not self-executing.”

Smith’s hearing, which came weeks after the public release of his closed-door deposition testimony to the panel late last year, also provided a venue for relitigating the events of Jan. 6 — specifically who was responsible for the violent event. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) called the hearing “theater” for Republican lawmakers seeking to rewrite the history of the attack, noting the presence in the audience of police officers who defended the Capitol that day.

Also in attendance at the hearing was Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the Jan. 6 riot and sentenced to 18 years in prison before Trump commuted his sentence last year.

“I want to see true transparency in our government,” Rhodes said in an interview, adding that it was “really kind of surreal” to be back in the Capitol complex after being banned prior to his commutation.

At some points emotions ran high, such as when former Metropolitan Police Force officer Michael Fanone coughed “Fuck yourself” when Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) opined that police bore responsibility for the Jan 6. security breach at the Capitol. There was also a tense confrontation between Fanone and Ivan Raiklin, an activist and advocate for Jan. 6 defendants, that almost culminated in a physical altercation.

Throughout the day Smith remained straight-faced and measured, offering little visible reaction as the occasionally irate Republicans repeatedly condemned his work and attacked his character in deeply personal terms.

He also appeared unmoved amid the effusive praise from Democrats, who repeatedly thanked him for his service to the country and urged him not to bow to intimidation from Trump and his allies.

Democrats eagerly teed up the evidence Smith amassed in his Trump investigations that underscored their view that Trump knew he lost the election but attempted to stay in power anyway.

Smith has said Trump’s campaign of lies about election fraud fueled the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol that resulted in hundreds of assaults on law enforcement officers. He has also said Trump exploited the violence to try and pressure Congress to block Joe Biden’s victory.

“I’m so pleased you’re here on national TV telling the American people that Trump was indicted, he was indicted lawfully and multiple grand juries secured those indictments,” said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said during the hearing.

But Republicans spent little time questioning that narrative: Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) asked whether Smith’s subpoenas for GOP lawmakers’ phone data — revelations that reignited the party’s determination to compel Smith’s Capitol Hill testimony — violated the Constitutional speech and debate clause that protects correspondence about the legislative process.

Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.) suggested that Smith was appointed special counsel because of a friendship with another Justice Department staffer in the Biden administration.

Even when a handful of Republicans did question Smith’s case against Trump, they focused largely on whether Trump could be excused for his conduct if he genuinely believed he won the election — even though he was defeated and the results were certified in Biden’s favor.

“I’ve talked to Donald Trump over a period of time. Donald Trump is 100 percent certain he won that election,” said Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.). “There is zero percent chance that he believes he lost.”

Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) noted that Trump relied heavily on a team of legal advisers as he worked to reverse the election results and said Smith needed to prove Trump “knowingly” sought to subvert the outcome.

Smith, both in the indictment against Trump and his testimony Thursday, repeatedly argued that Trump knew he lost.

“He was looking for ways to stay in power,” Smith said. ”When people told him things that conflicted with staying in power, he rejected them.”

Congress

Congressional Black Caucus blasts Slotkin over her calls for new leadership in the House

Published

10 hours ago

June 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Congressional Black Caucus is emphatically declaring its support for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — and denouncing Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s call for new leadership in Congress.

In a statement posted to social media on Friday, the entirely Democratic CBC declared that it stands united behind the nation’s first Black minority leader of the House. The caucus accused the Michigan senator of “posturing for higher office in 2028” and called attention to her votes to approve multiple members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.

“House Democrats don’t need a lesson on reading the political moment from someone who handed Donald Trump one of the most corrupt Cabinets in American history,” the CBC said. “Voting to confirm Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, and five other Trump Cabinet secretaries is not the posture of someone who understood the moment’ after 2024.”

The CBC closed its defense of Jeffries with a sharp parting shot of remaining focused on providing for Americans rather than “engaging in distractions that only serve to divide Democrats at a moment when unity and resolve are essential.”

A spokesperson for Slotkin, who has repeatedly called for a new generation of leadership in Congress, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Congress

Key Democrats urge House to reject kids’ safety proposal

Published

13 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Commerce Committee’s top Democrat Maria Cantwell (Wash.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) warned House lawmakers against advancing their chamber’s version of the Kids Online Safety Act, arguing it would face intense lobbying from tech companies in the Senate and risk unraveling years of bipartisan work.

“If it is passed by the House it will come to the Senate,” Blumenthal, the bill’s Senate cosponsor, told reporters at a Friday press briefing. The Connecticut Democrat said he is concerned senators will be influenced by the tech industry’s “armies of lawyers and lobbyists” who may “confuse and exploit” misunderstandings about a House bill with the same name as a Senate version but excludes key provisions, such as the “duty of care.” (This concept requires online companies to design social media platforms with an eye for children’s safety.)

“We’re not going to let bad legislation with a good title just get across and think somebody’s done something,” Cantwell said.

The House version of KOSA — which is included in the KIDS Act, a revised bipartisan package that the Energy and Commerce Committee advanced along party lines in March — is scheduled to be considered on the House floor next week under suspension of the rules.

“We need to stop this bill in the House, and we need to prevent the White House from forming an alliance with Big Tech on this issue,” said Blumenthal, who characterized the version of KOSA that House leadership is pushing as a “sham.”

Both Democratic lawmakers also expressed concern that Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) could adopt the House version of KOSA in a kids’ safety package he has yet to publicly release but has pledged to markup by August recess. Cruz said “negotiations are ongoing” earlier this week when asked by Blue Light News whether he would be open to incorporating such changes put forward in the House.

Cruz’s package is expected to include KOSA as well legislation barring companies from using minors’ personal data for targeted advertising, banning kids under age 13 from social media, and providing greater oversight for how children interact with AI chatbots.

Although Blumenthal remains hopeful that Cruz will “stay true to his first vote in favor of KOSA,” which overwhelmingly passed in the Senate last Congress, the Connecticut Democrat said Friday he’s worried Cruz and others may be tempted to “take the bait” and abandon the bill’s basic principles.

Congress

Moderates beware: Mamdani coalition portends a dramatically different Democratic Party in NYC

Published

17 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

NEW YORK — A coalition powered by Mayor Zohran Mamdani expanded the left’s reach Tuesday, winning younger voters across racial and ethnic lines and once again upending conventional wisdom about elections in New York City.

A series of hotly contested congressional and state elections pit a slate of Mamdani-backed democratic socialists and progressives against establishment candidates who, in several cases, differed little on policy aside from U.S.-Israel relations.

The results were staggering.

Midterm election cycles in deep-blue New York City tend to be sleepy affairs. Both this year and in 2022, just over 500,000 people cast ballots, less than 20 percent of eligible voters. But turnout within a congressional district spanning Upper Manhattan and the Bronx increased by roughly 50 percent between 2022 and Tuesday, with more than 66,000 voters heading to the polls.

In another seat covering parts of Brooklyn and Queens, turnout more than doubled from 2022, though state and federal elections were held on different days that year and the seat was not competitive, which would have reduced the number of voters going to the polls.

Congressional candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America were able to replicate the mayor’s success by winning younger Latino voters in Brooklyn and a majority of Black voters in Harlem. Combined with the DSA’s base in relatively wealthy neighborhoods, the result charted the far left’s broadening appeal and a potential reorientation of the electorate that will influence races for years to come.

“This was a big wave for DSA and they did a good job capitalizing on it,” said Evan Roth Smith, a pollster with Slingshot Strategies. “The question now is: Was this a wave cycle that will abate, or is it the start of the takeover?”

Much of Mamdani’s base is concentrated in the so-called “commie-corridor,” a series of neighborhoods along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront filled with young, educated and affluent voters who’ve propelled several DSA candidates into office. They went gaga over Mamdani’s candidacy and, as Tuesday’s results show, will turn out for candidates he supports.

The area was crucial to Assemblymember Claire Valdez’s crushing 56-38 defeat of Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

“The factor that felt most significant to me were all of these New Yorkers who got activated and politicized in the mayor’s race last year who were looking for the next fight,” said Andrew Epstein, a political adviser to Mamdani who worked on Valdez’ campaign. “Those people didn’t go away. And they want to keep going.”

Valdez also won several heavily Latino areas that were expected to break for her opponent.

Reynoso was born in Brooklyn to Dominican parents and just a few years ago was a City Council member representing Bushwick, a long-gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood that’s home to Latino families and young hipsters. Valdez was born in Texas, moved to New York City in 2015 and served in the state Assembly for just one term before launching her Mamdani-backed bid for retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s seat.

She ended up winning areas of Bushwick by even greater margins than the total results — in some election districts winning upwards of 80 percent of the vote.

“You don’t win the district by 35 points if you don’t have broad advantages across age and demographic groups,” said Michael Lange, an election analyst and Mamdani supporter who has tracked several contested races with extreme granularity. “Is she blowing him out of the water with Hispanic voters under 50? I see tons of evidence that the answer is yes.”

The age advantage was the common thread across several other races.

In Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, for example, younger Black voters in Harlem were key to Darializa Avila Chevalier’s win over Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who had built a small political empire in the district.

While gentrifying, the neighborhood remains a seat of Black political power and is home to younger households who tend to rent. That particular demographic is a strong indicator of why Mamdani won the area in 2025, even as he lost the Black vote overall to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose support was concentrated among older Black homeowners in Brooklyn and Queens.

While Espaillat never healed a rift with the Black community in upper Manhattan opened during his election in 2016, which contributed to his weak performance, Avila Chevalier demonstrated Tuesday that a significant share of voters there were not just supportive of Mamdani the person, but of the broader political movement he’s now leading.

Overall, she edged out Espaillat with Black voters 48-46, according to an analysis from The New York Times, which charted demographic breakdowns for several contested races.

Three winning congressional candidates endorsed by Mamdani — including former city Comptroller Brad Lander in Brooklyn, who unseated incumbent Dan Goldman — share several similarities. They won younger, college-educated and wealthier voters by huge margins, in several cases by 30 points or more, and lost lower-income voters to incumbents or candidates affiliated with incumbents — a sign that the movement seeking to boost struggling New Yorkers has not won them over.

While the DSA was able to win three state races without the support of Mamdani — a testament to the organizing prowess of the left that was essential to reactivating the mayor’s coalition — there were limits to the city’s leftward shift.

Rep. Grace Meng won her reelection race, though she only vanquished challenger Chuck Park by 14 points, an uncomfortable margin for an incumbent of her stature. Park, who ran to Meng’s left, was boosted by a huge turnout in Woodside, Queens, a multiethnic neighborhood that went heavily for Mamdani in last year’s mayoral race.

Elsewhere in the Bronx, however, incumbents remained strong. Rep. Ritchie Torres handily won reelection with 72 percent of the vote, though it was a low-turnout affair more consistent with an uncompetitive midterm. Nevertheless, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries touted the results — even as he watched a series of his endorsed candidates fall to the DSA in Brooklyn, his home borough, in a preview of the intraparty battles to come.

“In some higher-income districts, there was an outsized focus on the Middle East. In other districts, for instance, in the South Bronx, Ritchie Torres ran against somebody who was heavily critical of his position on Israel, and he won by fifty points,” Jeffries told MS NOW on Wednesday.