A number one Home Democrat hammered Republicans on Monday for refusing to swear in a newly elected Democrat in Arizona, saying GOP leaders are frightened of staging a vote on Jeffrey Epstein.
“The bulls‑‑‑ continues,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) informed reporters within the Capitol.
McGovern, the senior Democrat on the Home Guidelines Committee, went to the chamber ground Monday afternoon throughout a routine professional forma session in an effort to extract a Republican dedication to seat Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who gained a particular election in Arizona final month however has but to be sworn in.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), the chair of the Guidelines Committee, occurred to be presiding over the Home chamber throughout the transient professional forma session, that are customary procedures permitting one chamber to pause ground actions for days at a time with out the consent of the opposite.
Ignoring McGovern’s entreaties from the ground, Foxx shortly gaveled the session closed with out permitting him to formalize his request.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has used professional forma classes this yr to swear in newly elected Republican lawmakers, however is refusing to take action within the case of Grijalva. He has mentioned he’ll swear in Grijalva when the Home returns to common session.
That’s prompted accusations that Johnson is in search of to keep away from a vote on Epstein, since Grijalva is vowing to be the decisive 218th signature on a discharge petition forcing a Home vote on laws requiring the Trump administration to launch all the federal government recordsdata on the kid intercourse offender.
“This is outrageous,” McGovern mentioned. “I imply, you get the White Home undermining our democracy, and now you get the Speaker of the Home doing the identical factor.”
“This is all about a continuation of the Epstein cover up.”
Fueling these costs, Johnson has canceled all Home votes since Grijalva gained her election, each earlier than and after the federal government shut down Oct. 1. As soon as she indicators the Epstein petition, it might begin a course of that may convey the underlying invoice to the ground inside 9 legislative days.
Johnson has mentioned the Home would return to session as soon as the Senate approves a Home-passed stopgap authorities funding invoice to reopen the federal government.
“They’re not bringing us back primarily because they’re afraid of the discharge petition, you know, and getting the clock started to move a vote on the Epstein files,” McGovern mentioned.
Johnson has refused to think about laws forcing the Trump administration to launch the Epstein recordsdata. He says the simpler technique of deciphering the numerous mysteries surrounding the enigmatic millionaire is thru the Home Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee, which is investigating the case.
These supporting the legislative strategy disagree, saying the Oversight panel isn’t getting any info that Trump’s Justice Division desires to maintain below wraps. They are saying Trump, who had related to Epstein a long time in the past, is defending his buddies and rich Republican donors.
Grijalva, in the meantime, says the delay in her swearing in seems to be related to the Epstein vote.
“I am a woman of color, a Chicana, from Tucson. But none of those factors, I don’t think, are reasons why I wouldn’t be being sworn in, other than pointing to the Epstein files and the complete lack of transparency from this administration in releasing those files,” she informed CNN on Monday. “The other is Speaker Johnson has closed down votes in the recent past to avoid a vote on the Epstein files. So, there does seem to be a connection.”
Emily Brooks contributed.
