Are Pennsylvania Democrats starting the steal?

“Dave McCormick won. Bob Casey lost. Dems can’t handle it. Don’t let them get away with this scheme…”

I got this text a few hours ago, and before texting back, “Stop,” as I’ve done about a thousand times over the course of the last month, I tapped the Senate GOP’s link to learn Pennsylvania’s incumbent Democratic senator, “Punxsutawney Bob” Casey (so-called because of allegations he only comes out of hiding when it’s re-election time), is not going back into his hole quietly.

The Associated Press declared Republican candidate Dave McCormick the winner many days ago, as he “was leading by more than 30,000 votes when AP called the race… and though there were an estimated 91,000 votes still outstanding at that time, there were not enough in areas supporting Casey for him to make up the difference.”

Despite the Pennsylvania Supreme Court order not to count undated mail-in ballots, at least four counties (including Centre County, where I live) are doing it anyway, and Dems elsewhere in the Keystone State are going rogue and doing whatever they think will help them “win.”

The New York Post reports on the Dems’ shameless tactics:

One Democratic official said the quiet part out loud.

“I think we all know that precedent by a court doesn’t matter anymore in this country,” said Bucks County commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia, who voted Thursday to count deficient provisional ballots previously barred by court order, where voters did not sign in one of two necessary boxes, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.  
       
“People violate laws any time they want,” Ellis-Marseglia said. “So, for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention. There’s nothing more important than counting votes.”

The Senate GOP text took me to a page that reads:

“With the Pennsylvania Senate race heading to a recount, we need all the support we can get to fund field staff on the ground and the costly legal battles ahead,” it continued. “This recount is going to cost Pennsylvania taxpayers $1 million… all because Democrats REFUSE to accept they lost fair and square.” 

It closed with an urgent plea for supporters to chip in some money for the Emergency Legal Fund (now!).

-Teresa Mull

On our radar

SWEET-TALKING SLY Legendary actor and director Sylvester Stallone made a guest appearance at the America First Policy Institute gala held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, calling the president-elect the “second George Washington” and a “mythical character.” “Nobody in the world could have pulled off what he pulled off, so I’m in awe,” Stallone said. 

A SURPRISE CONTENDER Minnesota Democratic congressman Dean Phillips said he would be open to working in a Trump administration “if there is a job that could help the country and that my skillset would be useful for.” Phillips previously challenged President Joe Biden in the Democratic presidential primary. 

BREYER BREAKS RANK Former liberal Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer surprised the audience at a Federalist Society event by appearing on stage with conservative justice Neil Gorsuch. The pair received a standing ovation and spoke about the importance of an independent judiciary. 

House GOP leadership takes shape

The 2024 elections are finally winding down, and several votes happened earlier today that saw House Republicans elevate new leaders within their ranks.

The biggest leadership votes were for the chairmanship of the Republican Study Committee, the freshman class president, steering committee representative, Elected Leadership Committee and to the Republican Policy Committee.

The RSC, one of Congress’s largest committees, will be helmed by Representative August Pfluger, a Texan who convincingly won the race to succeed Representative Kevin Hern, who himself ousted an incumbent to take over the Republicans’ Policy Committee. Hern is eager for his successor to get to work.

“Serving as RSC chair this Congress has been the honor of a lifetime,” Hern told The Spectator. “August has a strong vision to lead RSC through the critical years ahead of us as we welcome President Donald Trump back to the White House and take full control of the government in January.”

Elsewhere, Republicans elected Representative-elect Brandon Gill as their freshman class president; he ran unopposed. They also elected Riley Moore to serve as their elected leadership committee representative and Brian Jack to serve as their steering committee member. Finally, they elected Michael Baumgartner to represent them on the Republican Policy Committee.

All the action was on the GOP side of the aisle today; Democrats have their respective freshman elections coming up soon. 

–Matthew Foldi

Who’s least likely to be confirmed to Trump’s cabinet? 

A new betting pool emerged on the Hill at the tail-end of this week: who will get fewer votes in his confirmation hearing? Matt Gaetz or Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?

So far, most of President-elect Donald Trump’s staffing announcements have prompted either jubilation or downright astonishment — and that’s only among his supporters. When Matt Gaetz was announced, some suspected a typo: surely Trump had meant to tap his former attorney general, Matt Whitaker? 

One top Judiciary Committee staffer compared Gaetz’s bid to helm the DoJ to that of Neera Tanden to helm the Biden administration’s Office of Management and Budget: an effort that was doomed from the start but meant to reward a Twitter-happy loyalist of the new president. If Gaetz goes down, some believe he’ll turn around and immediately run for Senate or governor in Florida, because his nomination is far from hurdle-free.

“Gaetz needed the hearing yesterday, because today he’s damaged goods following this ethics report,” one Republican staffer said. While Gaetz may or may not ever assume office as AG — and given Trump’s recent affinity for recess appointments, this could still happen — the rumors are that he timed his resignation to avoid the release of a damning ethics report that could detail his transgressions that reportedly involve teenagers and narcotics.

Kennedy, who could appear more palatable in the wake of Gaetz, may struggle to make it out of his Senate hearing, however. Both Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski sit on the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; they were a pair of thorns in Trump’s side during his first term.

The Kennedy scion could be in for a tough task at the department. “God I hated it there,” a top Trump HHS staffer told Cockburn. “By the end, I would have drunk all the fluoride he wants to take out of the water.”

While Trump is already demonstrating his affinity for keeping his fellow Republicans on their toes with these picks, he also has a proven ability to destroy the careers of his intra- and extra-party opponents — so senators may not prove eager to line up to ax any of his nominees, even if they’d like to.

–Cockburn