House Republicans Ridiculed into Dropping “Appliance Week”

House Republicans announced early Monday they were dropping bills tackling home appliances, plans that had drawn widespread scorn, in light of Iran’s counterattack against Israel over the weekend.

Last week, the House Rules Committee was scheduled to review six bills about washing machines, refrigerators, and air conditioners, sparking jokes from Democrats and commentators. Monday’s last-minute change means the House agenda this week will now consist of 17 bills meant to either shore up support for Israel or to punish Iran, reported Chad Pergram, the senior congressional correspondent for Fox News. Of those bills, 11 would require a two-thirds majority vote, including one that would increase sanctions on Iran, and six would head to the House Rules Committee, where one would explicitly condemn Iran’s attack.

Some of the bills will also sanction Chinese companies that buy oil from Iran, as well as target U.S.-designated terror groups, particularly Hamas. One such bill will be blatantly superficial: declaring the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” to be antisemitic (despite the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has used the phrase “From the river to the sea” himself).

In a statement, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said the bills “demonstrate our support of Israel and take action against Iran.”

“These bills … represent a comprehensive response to the Iranian threat by supporting Israel’s response to the attack and sanctioning Iran’s leaders, cutting off their revenue sources, and targeting their partners and terrorist proxies,” Scalise said.

While it certainly is an improvement to see House Republicans flushing “appliance week” for more serious and current events, why did it take a new international crisis? Not to mention that Israel’s brutal assault of Gaza has been ongoing for six months, without any substantive bills from the GOP side.

It may be an improvement that Congress isn’t wasting time on dishwashers, or, for that matter, gas stoves, but the GOP’s posturing on Iran isn’t a breath of fresh air. It doesn’t take much for Republicans to start rattling sabers every time there’s news from Iran, with the last such event taking place just a couple of months ago.

Even Republicans themselves know that their party wastes time while ignoring important issues. And when the important issues come up, the party melts down into chaos and inaction, and then its own members start looking for the exits.

Even party stalwarts know that the GOP has little to nothing to campaign on. And “We talked tough about potentially starting a new war” is hardly a better campaign slogan than “We spent a week worrying about your appliances.”

Donald Trump had a few last words to say before entering  the initial proceedings for his—and the country’s—first criminal trial of a former president.

Jury selection in Trump’s hush-money trial began Monday. But just hours before, Trump slammed the proceedings in several posts on Truth Social, hurling insults at Judge Juan Merchan and President Joe Biden.

“As virtually every legal scholar has powerfully stated, the Biden Manhattan Witch Hunt Case is, among other things, BARRED by the Statute of Limitations. This ‘trial’ should be ended by the highly conflicted presiding Judge,” Trump wrote.

The GOP presidential nominee also claimed that the criminal charges against him and the lengthy trials are tantamount to election interference as a method to keep him away from the campaign trail—even though he’ll be permitted to campaign every weekend, evening, and Wednesday during the process.

“The Radical Left Democrats are already cheating on the 2024 Presidential Election by bringing, or helping to bring, all of these bogus lawsuits against me, thereby forcing me to sit in courthouses, and spend money that could be used for campaigning, instead of being out in the field knocking Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST President in the History of the United States,” he wrote. “Election Interference!”

Trump also lamented the recently expanded gag order placed on him by Merchan, insisting that it’s “unconstitutional” that he isn’t allowed to say whatever he wants related to the trial—like repeatedly insulting Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan.

“I want my VOICE back. This Crooked Judge has GAGGED me. Unconstitutional!” he posted. “The other side can talk about me, but I am not allowed to talk about them! Rigged Trial!”

Moments before entering the courtroom, Trump had a couple more words to share—with a slightly different tone.

“It’s an assault on America. And that’s why I’m very proud to be here,” he told reporters.

Trump is accused of using former fixer Michael Cohen to sweep an affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels under the rug ahead of the 2016 presidential election. He faces 34 felony charges in this case for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to further an underlying crime. Trump has pleaded not guilty on all counts.

Donald Trump’s two co-defendants in his classified documents case requested Friday the charges against them be dropped, insisting they had no idea about the contents of the boxes they helped to move.

Carlos De Oliveira, a property manager at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and Walt Nauta, the former president’s aide, are accused of helping Trump move boxes of classified documents so that federal investigators could not find them. They have also been accused of trying to delete security footage that showed them moving boxes.

The men’s attorneys claimed that their clients couldn’t be guilty of their obstruction-related charges because they didn’t know what Trump was really up to. De Oliveira’s lawyers even said he wasn’t aware of a grand jury subpoena for the security camera footage, and thus isn’t guilty of obstruction of justice.

“It’s not possible to obstruct an investigation you know nothing about,” attorney John Irving said in court.

Nauta’s lawyers also said he didn’t know he was doing anything illegal when he moved boxes “whose contents he was not aware of.”

But prosecutors argued otherwise, telling the court that they had evidence that De Oliveira knew the boxes were part of a legal action.

Cannon did not rule at the end of the hearing, but suggested that the positions sounded more like arguments to a jury—not a judge. A Trump appointee, she has been accused of delaying the case in Trump’s favor and possibly slow-walking a dismissal.

Meanwhile, Trump’s lead attorney on the classified documents case stepped down recently. Evan Corcoran was one of the few lawyers to have been with the president from the start and, thanks to being misled by Trump and his aides about the documents, could even be called as a witness in the case.

Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake is claiming she has switched sides on the abortion debate.

After galvanizing her budding, far-right political career by fearmongering about the medical procedure, Lake suddenly changed her tone following the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision to revive a 160-year-old anti-abortion law that offers no exemptions, even in cases of rape or incest. Apparently, actually getting what she had been advocating for was a step too far.

“This total ban on abortion the Arizona Supreme Court just ruled on is out of line with where the people of this state are,” Lake said in a video on Thursday, apparently coming out as in favor of abortion rights. “This is such a personal and private issue.”

“I chose life, but I’m not every woman,” she continued. “I want to make sure that every woman who finds herself pregnant has more choices so that she can make that choice that I made.”

“It’s natural for women to be nervous or anxious when they’re pregnant. I never would ever assume that any woman had the same exact feelings that I had or situation that I had,” Lake said. “We know that some women are economically in a horrible situation. They might be in an abusive relationship. They might be a victim of rape.”

It’s a strategic move from a woman who has previously supported banning the abortion pill, publicly identified as “100 percent pro-life,” and had previously called the 1864 ban a “great law.” When she entered the political sphere with her gubernatorial run in 2022, Lake called abortion the “ultimate sin.”

And lest you think she has truly moved away from those positions, earlier this week, she backed Arizona Republicans’ bill to replace the 1864 ban with a law banning abortion after 15 weeks. The proposed bill also does not make exceptions for rape or incest.

Trump took note of the turning tide this week, telling reporters on the tarmac of Atlanta’s airport on Wednesday that the Arizona high court went too far in actually banning the procedure. He promised that, if reelected, he would not sign a national abortion ban. But like Lake, his new stance is a little hard to believe.

Trump has made abortion a key component of all three of his campaigns, repeatedly promising over the last eight years to ban the medical procedure at every available opportunity. While in office, he expressed support for a bill that would have banned abortion nationwide at 20 weeks.

Since then, he has used scare tactics to spread disinformation about the procedure, erroneously claiming as recently as Monday that Democrats support “execution after birth.” And Trump’s track record includes the most egregious offense against national access: the appointment of three Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Abortion has become a losing issue for Republicans nationwide. The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn nationwide abortion access proved disastrous for Republicans last November, resulting in major losses in districts where abortion was a key talking point. Postelection, those raw numbers turned into some stunning platform reversals for the conservative party, with GOP consultants referring to the turning tide on the issue as a “major wake-up call.”

With all of the problems facing the country, House Republicans have decided that next week is the perfect time to do the laundry. And fix the air conditioning. And take a look at the fridge.

Seriously, that’s the focus of six bills the House Rules Committee put on its schedule for next week. The committee is usually the last place bills are reviewed before they go to the House floor for votes.

Republicans fought hard last year to prevent the government from putting health and safety regulations on gas stoves. But why dishwashers and other home appliances are now the top priority is anyone’s guess. Spring cleaning, maybe? A distraction from House infighting? Trump’s use of the toilet to get rid of documents? House Democrats are trying to insert more important items into the bills, but they have no idea, either.

Some House Democrats decided to have some fun with the agenda, and one House Democratic amendment even proposed renaming one of the bills the “Make Appliances Great Again Act.”

In that spirit, here are a few bills that House Republicans could add to the list.

• Hampering Progress Act
  
• Free and Liberate the United States House Act (perhaps in November, or if Mike Johnson is removed)
  
• Stop Ousted American Presidents Act (probably more for Democrats)
  
• Toilet Regulation and Unqualified Master Plumber Act (because Donald Trump is obsessed with toilets)
• Make Gas Stoves Great Again Act
• Let Roombas Roam Free Act
• Don’t Touch My Dyson Act