President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk have succeeded in getting House Republicans to kill what was expected to be an easily-passed continuing resolution that would keep the federal government open and avert a costly and confusing shutdown just days before Christmas.

Early Wednesday evening, Republicans rejected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s bill, according to The Washington Post.

“The chances of a shutdown have now increased quite a bit,” CNN’s Manu Raju had reported at 4:35 PM ET, amid the fast-moving developments. “Congress hasn’t even discussed a debt ceiling hike. And Trump is inserting that toxic fight on top of the government funding bill that is already at risk of collapsing amid a revolt on the right.”

“And just like that,” observed NBC News’ Garret Haake, “we’re teetering on the edge of a government shutdown, as Trump & Vance come out against Speaker Johnson’s CR.”

“Suddenly Trump and Vance now say they want to negotiate on the debt ceiling, as the CR+ deal goes absolutely sideways in less than 24 hours,” noted longtime congressional correspondent Jamie Dupree.

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“Trump-Vance statement trashes the bipartisan stopgap funding bill and now calls for adding a DEBT CEILING INCREASE, which is nowhere in the mix. Two days till government shuts down,” noted NBC News’ Sahil Kapur.

Trump and his Vice President-elect, JD Vance, had issued a statement after Musk’s many hours of attacking the continuing resolution, which The Post attributes to killing the CR.

“Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF,” the statement read.

Democrats are not calling for the federal government to shut down.

“It is Schumer and Biden who are holding up aid to our farmers and disaster relief,” it also states, which is false. “THIS CHAOS WOULD NOT BE HAPPENING IF WE HAD A REAL PRESIDENT. WE WILL IN 32 DAYS!”

Wednesday morning, PBS News had reported: “Congressional leaders have unveiled a stopgap spending bill that will keep the federal government funded through March 14 and provide more than $100 billion in emergency aid to help states and local communities recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters.”

“President Joe Biden has sought about $114 billion in disaster aid, submitting a $99 billion request in November, telling lawmakers the funding was ‘urgently needed.’ The administration subsequently updated its request to include funding to repair federal facilities damaged due to natural disasters.”

“The bill will provide $100.4 billion in disaster relief, with an additional $10 billion in economic assistance for farmers struggling with low commodity prices and high input costs.”

Musk, Donald Trump’s incoming co-chair of the non-federal government Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), on Wednesday had been calling for Congress to stop passage of all legislation until the President-elect is sworn in to office on January 20. For more than 12 hours it appeared Musk was actively undermining the CR that was meant to avert a shutdown at 12:01 AM Saturday.

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“No bills should be passed Congress until Jan 20, when @realDonaldTrump takes office. None. Zero,” Musk, late Wednesday afternoon, posted to his social media platform X.

“Kill the Bill,” Musk declared to his more than 207 million followers, referring to the continuing resolution. The CR must be passed by the House and Senate and signed into law by President Biden before the midnight Friday deadline to avert a costly and disruptive government shutdown right before Christmas.

Musk’s remark was in response to a post from far-right Congressman Jim Banks, who is now the Republican Senator-elect for Indiana.

Banks had claimed the CR “funds the censorship of conservative speech for the entire first year of the Trump administration. Unacceptable!”

“‘Shutting down’ the government (which doesn’t actually shut down critical functions btw) is infinitely better than passing a horrible bill,” Musk also claimed.

CBS News’s Jim LaPorta, a former Marine who has written extensively on the military and veterans, responded to Musk’s claim by saying, “The impact to military families, particularly at the lowest ranks where there’s food insecurity and families living paycheck to paycheck are impacted. Child care centers which some service members depend on can shut down during a shutdown—a critical function for them.”

In response to a post falsely claiming the bill also includes a 40% pay raise for members of Congress, Musk wrote: “Unconscionable.”

Unconscionable https://t.co/oPuF3bVMnj

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2024

Musk also wrote, and pinned to the top of his feed, this: “How can this be called a ‘continuing resolution’ if it includes a 40% pay increase for Congress?”

The pay raise, the first for Congress since 2009, would increase salaries by about 4%, not 40%.

“Rank-and-file lawmakers in both chambers earn $174,000 annual salary, with those in leadership earning more. The maximum potential member pay adjustment in January 2025 under the stopgap spending bill would be 3.8 percent, which would result in a salary of $180,600, an increase of $6,600,” Politico reported.

Musk had kicked off the day attacking the continuing resolution.

“At 4:15 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, Musk tweeted that ‘This bill should not pass,’ and he’s gotten noticeably more strident as the day has gone along,” Mediaite reported Wednesday afternoon. “In a raging tweetstorm over the last hour or so, Musk has called the bill a ‘scam,’ a ‘criminal bill,’ an ‘insane crime against the American people,’ ‘an outrage,’ ‘terrible,’ and ‘madness.'”

“’The more I learn, the more obvious it becomes that this spending bill is a crime. It even includes funding for the worst illegal censorship operation in the entire government (GEC)!!’ mused Musk in one post.”

At 3:58 PM Musk claimed the continuing resolution was “dead.”

Your elected representatives have heard you and now the terrible bill is dead. The voice of the people has triumphed!

VOX POPULI
VOX DEI

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2024

House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries warned if the government shuts down, Republicans will own it: “House Republicans have been ordered to shut down the government. And hurt the working class Americans they claim to support. You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow.”

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) also issued a warning: “Remember what this is all about: Trump wants Democrats to agree to raise the debt ceiling so he can pass his massive corporate and billionaire tax cut without a problem. Shorter version: tax cut for billionaires or the government shuts down for Christmas.”

Meanwhile, Aaron Fritschner, Deputy Chief of Staff for Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia, offered this observation: “Trump and Vance intervening to personally block states from getting disaster relief – including red states hit by Helene – after weeks of flat out lying to the country about the emergency response is one of the most cynical and depraved things I’ve ever seen in this town.”

RELATED: Gaetz Rages at Secret Vote to Release Ethics Report, Insists He Was ‘Fully Exonerated’

Image via Reuters

After strongly defending even his most controversial nominees, and amid growing skepticism, pushback, and occasional mockery, even from Republican senators, President-elect Donald Trump issued a confusing statement Tuesday night, ordering Senate Republicans to not “fast track” any “nominations.”

It appeared to be either a signal he might want to reconsider some nominees facing difficult confirmations by suggesting he has not made any nominations official and will do so only after he is sworn in next month, as some news outlets have suggested, or that—as some other news outlets suggested, he was referring to the last of President Biden’s nominees.

Trump also ordered Senate Republicans to not make any “deals” with Democrats. The Senate majority is currently in control of Democrats.

A New York Times tracker currently lists 53 Trump nominations that would need to be confirmed by the Senate.

“To all Senate Republicans: NO DEAL WITH DEMOCRATS TO FAST TRACK NOMINATIONS AT THE END OF THIS CONGRESS,” Trump wrote Tuesday night on his social media website.

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“I won the biggest mandate in 129 years,” he said, a claim many disputed. Some also pointed out that he did not even win a majority of the popular vote.

“I will make my appointments of Very Qualified People in January when I am sworn in,” he added, appearing to suggest the nominations he has publicly stated may be subject to revision.

The U.S. Constitution requires presidents to submit nominations to the Senate for certain positions, including their cabinet. Presidents cannot “appoint” cabinet officials, although in his first term Trump often made “acting” appointments.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is continuing to schedule votes for Biden’s judicial nominees, with votes expected Wednesday.

It’s also unclear what metric Trump is using to claim “the biggest mandate in 129 years,” especially since elections are held in even, not odd years.

“On a percentage basis, Trump’s 2024 winning margin was the fourth smallest since 1960,” according to Politifact, based on votes counted as of Nov. 21, 2024. Also, “Trump’s 2024 raw vote margin was smaller than any popular vote winner since 2000, and the fifth-lowest since 1960.”

An unofficial analysis shows Trump’s 2024 popular vote margin of 1.48% ranks 47th out of 59 presidential elections, although that has not been verified.

Out of all the nominations Trump has made, one of his earliest was the most controversial. Now-former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, for U.S. Attorney General. Gaetz was forced to pull out after Republicans balked over allegations of sexual misconduct and possible teenaged sex trafficking, among other possible wrongdoings.

RELATED: Gaetz Rages at Secret Vote to Release Ethics Report, Insists He Was ‘Fully Exonerated’

But more recently, other nominations have received varying degrees of pushback. Among the most controversial are: Pete Hegseth for U.S. Secretary of Defense, Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, and Robert F. Kennedy for Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Amid a flurry of news reports examining former Fox News weekend host Pete Hegseth, a December 1 examination of “Pete Hegseth’s Secret History” by The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer was among the most damaging to his confirmation bid.

Robert F. Kennedy is also under scrutiny, as he sits down with GOP senators this week to discuss his confirmation.

In a rare move, several Republican senators appeared to criticize or even mock RFK Jr.’s nomination in recent days, as The Washington Post, which is tracking the positions of all senators on RFK Jr.’s confirmation, reported Tuesday.

“I’m very concerned, being the incoming chairman of agriculture,” Senator John Boozman (R-AR) said.

“I have never flinched from confronting specious disinformation that threatens the advance of lifesaving medical progress,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who fought polio as a child, remarked.

“Our Iditarod race was all about getting the diphtheria vaccine to save a whole community,” Senator Lisa Murkowski declared.

“If he has a different point of view [on vaccines], then he’ll have to explain,” said Senator Mike Rounds.

“One of my first questions will probably be where he got his PhD in cellular and molecular biology. Oh wait. He doesn’t have a PhD,” snarked Senator John Kennedy.

“In previous administrations, the belief was that [the health secretary’s] view on the issue of abortion was important,” lamented Senator Jerry Moran.

U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) over the weekend warned any pressure mounted on senators to try to force them to confirm Trump’s nominees could backfire.

Speaking about third party organizations, Senator Tillis noted some are fundraising off their efforts to push certain nominees to be confirmed, Politico reported.

“Here’s what I would tell them: If they really support President Trump’s nominees they should stand down and let the nominees win on their own merits and I think most of them will.”

He also warned nominees they will have to be prepared to answer tough questions.

“Nothing is sacred — family, past experiences, personal experiences, high school yearbooks. The nominees need to get ready and they need to answer these questions to the satisfaction of the Republican members minimally,” Tillis said.

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Image via Reuters

In an angry statement ending in vulgarity, Republican former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz expressed outrage after the House Ethics Committee voted in secret to release its report on its years-long investigation into numerous allegations against him, including possible sexual misconduct.

The House Ethics Committee has said it was investigating allegations that Gaetz “may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.”

Calling it a “stark reversal,” CNN, in an exclusive, reported Wednesday that the “House Ethics Committee secretly voted earlier this month to release its report into the conduct of former Rep. Matt Gaetz before the end of this Congress, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter.”

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“The report is now expected to be made public after the House’s final day of votes this year as lawmakers leave Washington for the holidays, those sources said.”

CNN also noted that the House Ethics Committee’s vote last month to not release the report was made when Gaetz was Trump’s nominee to become Attorney General. “Since then, Gaetz withdrew himself from consideration for the Senate-confirmed post, though he maintains frosty relations with many in his party and is still active in GOP politics.”

Last month, NBC reported that a “woman told the House Ethics Committee that she saw Matt Gaetz, who is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for the U.S. attorney general, have sex with a minor, her lawyer said.”

Gaetz released a statement declaring that he had been “FULLY EXONERATED” by the Biden Dept. of Justice. The DOJ reportedly only declined to bring charges against the former Congressman.

“The Biden/Garland DOJ spent years reviewing allegations that I committed various crimes,” Gaetz’s statement reads. “I was charged with nothing: FULLY EXONERATED. Not even a campaign finance violation. And the people investigating me hated me.”

“Then, the very ‘witnesses’ DOJ deemed not-credible were assembled by House Ethics to repeat their claims absent any cross-examination or challenge from me or my attorneys. I’ve had no chance to ever confront any accusers. I’ve never been charged. I’ve never been sued. Instead, House Ethics will reportedly post a report online that I have no opportunity to debate or rebut as a former member of the body.”

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Some found the next portion of his statement of particular interest.

“In my single days, I often sent funds to women I dated – even some I never dated but who asked. I dated several of these women for years. I NEVER had sexual contact with someone under 18. Any claim that I have would be destroyed in court – which is why no such claim was ever made in court. My 30’s were an era of working very hard – and playing hard too.”

“It’s embarrassing, though not criminal,” Gaetz concluded, “that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now.”

“But at least I didn’t vote for CR’s that f*ck over the country!” he added, referring to the controversial continuing resolution the House passed that will keep the federal government open and running past Friday’s midnight deadline.

Longtime Capitol Hill correspondent Jamie Dupree noted that “Gaetz resigned from Congress seemingly in a bid to stop the public release of the ethics report. Now he complains that as a former member, he can’t rebut the report about him.”

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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license