Two Men Out

Today’s notice: Take the political implications off the table and suddenly, expelling disgraced members is a great idea! How a building full of wealthy people talks about affordability. Unease over the next steps in the war with Iran. A Catholic scholar on Trump vs. the pope. And: Do not talk about removing the president, Senate Democrats say.

THE LATEST

Kinda says it all: “Sounds like it’s a bit of a mess,” Senate Republican Leader John Thune told NOTUS’ Al Weaver of the news coming from the House on Monday afternoon.

It was two different tales with the same ending. Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell resigned after a flurry of sexual assault and harassment allegations pushed him out of the California gubernatorial primary, left him with no allies in the House and led to an Ethics Committee investigation against him. It was a remarkably swift fall.

The second tale: Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, who faces allegations stretching back months that dogged him through his primary, yesterday announced his resignation as well. Gonzales’ decision followed a torturous, drawn-out crisis for his conference, which wanted nothing to do with him but also didn’t want him leaving to make its narrow majority even narrower.

That math is now not a problem because one guy from each party was in hot water. A person familiar with the Swalwell situation told NOTUS’ Daniella Diaz, “Leadership in both parties wanted them gone.”

A senior Democratic aide told her, “This may be the beginning of a revolutionary bipartisanship wave going forward.”

As long as the scandals keep coming in even numbers, of course. Before yesterday’s resignation fest, some members were thinking they could expel Swalwell, Gonzales, Republican Rep. Cory Mills and Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick in one fell swoop.

Two down, two to go?

Open tabs: DOJ fires attorneys who prosecuted anti-abortion protestors under Biden (MS NOW); Top GOP lawmaker pushes back on NASA’s budget cuts (Politico); Minnesota investigates ICE arrest as possible kidnapping (NBC); Threats to Library Funding End With Settlement by Trump Administration (NYT)

From the Hill

Trust the rich? Affordability concerns rank among the top issues for voters less than eight months away from the midterms, and Republicans are struggling to make their case to Americans facing rising gas, food and electricity prices.

Another complication: Many of the highest-profile Republican members are unimaginably rich, Emily reports, making them appear out of touch with their constituents who are struggling.

“How many lawyers would you hire that were penniless? How many doctors would you hire that didn’t go to medical school?” said Rep. Darrell Issa, a retiring Republican from California who has been one of the House’s wealthiest members for years. Issa also said he was “offended” by the suggestion that wealthy lawmakers are out of touch with average Americans.

“Being in touch with the voters is not insulated simply because you have some wealth,” Issa continued. “If you have to fly these shitty airlines back and forth in coach every week, getting upgraded when you’re lucky and waiting in long lines, you’re not out of touch with voters.”

From the war

“The ball is in the Iranians’ court” is what JD Vance said yesterday on Fox News, detailing what comes next after the Trump administration’s whirlwind negotiations in Islamabad. “There really is a grand deal to be had here, but it’s up to the Iranians to take the next step.”

As the war approaches the 60-day mark, which requires Congress to authorize an extension or force the administration to cease military operations, Senate Republicans say they need to see how the administration plans to end it, NOTUS’ Avani Kalra and Hamed Ahmadi report.

“They need a plan for how to wind this down, how to get an outcome that actually leads to a safer, more secure Middle East and, by extension, a stronger national-security position for the United States,” Thune told reporters yesterday.

Unease has set in among the GOP members who once said they were OK with a more limited operation.

“I can’t be comfortable because I don’t know what the strategy is,” Sen. Thom Tillis said.

THE BIG ONE

MAGA vs. the magisterium: Donald Trump’s insults toward Pope Leo XIV — and a subsequent post that depicted himself as a Christlike figure — have not gone over well with many Christians in his base.

“Lame-duck status is setting in,” Ethics and Public Policy Center fellow Patrick T. Brown said of Monday’s backlash from the religious right toward Trump.

“The first American pope is pretty popular and the war in Iran is pretty unpopular,” Brown said. “Trying to polarize the former to make the latter more popular doesn’t seem likely to work.”

Religious Republicans in the Senate largely said it’s a good thing that Trump at least deleted the Jesus image, NOTUS’ Helen Huiskes reports. Sen. John Curtis of Utah said he was “offended by it.”

Many brushed off Trump’s rant against the pope, however. Sen. Bernie Moreno, a Catholic, said the pope’s recent statements have been a “disgrace” to the church. But not all of his colleagues agreed.

“The office of the church is to give moral counsel to leaders, whether they like it or not,” Sen. Josh Hawley told reporters yesterday.

The Trump administration’s most prominent Catholic, Vance, came to Trump’s defense last night when asked about the posts by Fox’s Bret Baier. The vice president called the Jesus image a joke and argued that Trump’s sparring with the pope is NBD: “We’re gonna have disagreements, Bret, from time to time. I think it’s a good thing.”

It actually is kind of a big deal, other Catholics say. Trump’s political rant against the pope represents an “unprecedented” schism between the U.S. and the Vatican, a scholar of the faith told Emily.

“The American government of today and the Vatican of today, they present two visions of Christianity that are very, very different,” said Massimo Faggioli. “[Trump] has a coalition that is in serious crisis ideologically.”

A NOTUS EVENT

TODAY! — NOTUS Event Livestream

Join us for the livestream of Made in
America: A NOTUS Summit on the U.S. Economy. Featuring Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Rep. Derrick Van Orden, Bill Anderson (Bayer), Dedrick Asante-Muhammad (Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies), former Ambassador Kip Tom (America First Policy Institute) and Arielle Elliott (NOTUS). Moderated by NOTUS reporters Daniella Diaz, Paul Kane and Anna Kramer.

Get details for today’s livestream by following along on X @notusreports.

Programming from 8 – 10 a.m. ET

Event presented by Bayer.

NEW ON NOTUS

DOA: Senate Democrats are trying to keep their party away from calls to remove Trump from office either through the 25th Amendment or impeachment, NOTUS’ Igor Bobic reports, which a number of their colleagues in the House are pushing.

“Congress went down the impeachment path with him a couple of times,” Sen. Mark Kelly told NOTUS. “Unless you have Republican senators saying, ‘Hey, this is the appropriate thing to do,’ it’s like, it just becomes an exercise in futility.”

More: Markwayne Mullin to Keep Kristi Noem’s No. 2 at DHS, by Torrie Herrington

NOT US

• Into the Right-Wing Dreamworld: DHS’s Regime of Images, by Mitch Therieau for The Drift
• An Oligarchy of Old People, by Idrees Kahloon for The Atlantic
• A scenic Chesapeake Bay county finds itself in the middle of a data center fight, by Paul Schwartzman for The Washington Post
• Vance’s K Street army is growing, by Alex Gangitano for Politico

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