The Week In Politics Oct. 28-Nov. 3
Welcome to week 5 of Politics Explained! For those of you that are new here, we’ve built this website for people who are hungry to learn about politics. We cover the major happenings on Capitol Hill in compact weekly blogs, creating an easy way for you to stay in the loop. This week was definitely less chaotic as we finally secured House leadership, but still included the neverending drama of U.S. politics, so let’s dive right into it!
This past Saturday, former Vice President Mike Pence dropped out of the race to be the Republican nominee for the 2024 Presidential election. During his campaign, Pence had low polling and fundraising, and even now critics say his absence is not not really a big deal. His withdrawal is not expected to give any sort of boost to the non-Trump candidates, and it’s important to note that his campaign never had any momentum, and there were really no points that were ever exciting. Ever since he started, he continually lost support. The support he received from his own party took a huge hit after he refused to support the opposition of the certification of the 2020 Presidential election. After this, as Mike Pence continued to criticize former President Donald Trump his support continued to die out.
This past week has also been Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) first week in office as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Mike Johnson is a very conservative lawmaker from Louisiana, and is expected to be difficult to work with for anyone not on the far-right side of the Republicans. This has already been proven with the action he’s decided to take concerning passing an aid package for Israel. Although a main reason for the rush to elect a new House Speaker was to pass an aid bill for Israel, Mike Johnson has been difficult as he looks to cut from the IRS’s budget to pay for the $14 Billion aid package. What this means is even more delay in the passing of this bill, and it gives us an insight into what his House leadership might look like for the future.
UPDATE: Late Thursday night the House passed a new bill to aid Israel in its ongoing war with Hamas. The bill would give Israel $14.3 billion in aid, offset by reducing IRS funding. “Offset” meaning the money that they get for this bill would be taken from the IRS’ budget. The bill passed with a closer vote than most would expect of 226-196, with only 12 Democrats voting for the bill to pass. The Senate plans on not passing the legislation, as they want another bill that includes both Israel and Ukraine funding and aid. Representative Lois Frankel (D-FL), being one of the 12 Democrats who voted to pass the House bill, said “[I want to] send an unequivocal message to the world that we stand with Israel. The United States has a moral duty and national security urgency to aid Israel in defending herself.” This is an evolving story within the coming weeks and months, so we will continue to keep you updated on what's happening!
Drama continues to swirl around individuals of Capitol Hill, including the familiar Rep. George Santos (R-NY) and a new development in Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). If you read the blog from two weeks ago, you would know about the drama surrounding George Santos. As an effort to get rid of him persisted, a vote for his expulsion in the House failed, as fewer than two-thirds of the chamber supported his expulsion. This means that for now, Santos will keep his seat in the House. In a completely different situation, Rep. Rashida Tlaib is now under fire for alleged antisemitism. It’s important to note that Tlaib is the only Palestinian American in the House. She’s being called out for criticizing Israel for their response in the Hamas attacks, and for refusing to apologize for blaming Israel for a deadly hospital blast in Gaza. Marjorie Taylor Greene proposed a resolution for the censure* of Tlaib, but The House voted to table this, meaning they dropped this resolution.
*Censure is a statement of disapproval that is made into a resolution
