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Senate Republican ‘targeted by Communist China’ in $50 billion lawsuit

Senate Republican ‘targeted by Communist China’ in billion lawsuit

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., is being sued by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for tens of billions of dollars in damages for a lawsuit he filed against the country during his time as Missouri’s attorney general. Schmitt is being sued by the People’s Government of Wuhan Municipality, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for roughly $50 billion, several years after the lawmaker sued the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawsuit, first obtained by Fox News Digital, accused Schmitt, FBI co-deputy director Andrew Bailey, and the state of Missouri of damaging the reputations of China, Wuhan and the associated research facilities through “malicious vexatious litigation, fabricating enormous disinformation, and spreading stigmatizing and discriminating slanders.” CRUZ SAYS REP ILHAN OMAR COULD FACE JAIL TIME, DEPORTATION IF MARRIAGE ALLEGATION PROVES TRUE Schmitt said in a statement to Fox News Digital that he’d been “banned from Communist China, and now I am being sued and targeted by Communist China in a $50 billion lawfare campaign, and I’ll wear it like a badge of honor.”  “China’s sinister malfeasance during the COVID-19 pandemic led to over a million Americans losing their lives, economic turmoil that rocked our country for years, and an enormous amount of human suffering, and as Missouri Attorney General I filed suit to hold them accountable,” Schmitt said. “Instead of trying to defend its indefensible behavior, Communist China responded with frivolous lawfare, attempting to absolve themselves of all wrongdoing in the early days of the pandemic.”  “This novel lawsuit is factually baseless, legally meritless, and any fake judgment a Chinese court issues in this lawsuit we will easily beat back and keep from being enforced against the people of Missouri or me,” he continued. “This is their way of distracting from what the world already knows, China has blood on its hands.” TRUMP’S SENATE CLOSER: REPUBLICAN FRESHMAN EMERGES AS KEY WHITE HOUSE ALLY Schmitt, who served as attorney general for the Show-Me state from 2019 to 2023, sued the PRC, several Chinese government ministries, the Communist Party of China, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in early 2020, shortly after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, Schmitt accused the Chinese government of withholding information on the COVID-19 virus, failing to contain the outbreak of the virus, and actively hoarding high-quality personal protective equipment (PPE) while producing and selling lower-quality PPE for the rest of the world. SENATE ADVANCES $901B DEFENSE BILL AS CONGRESS RACES INTO YEAR-END LEGISLATIVE SPRINT That case resulted in an eventual $24 billion judgment earlier this year. Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said in a statement that the state stood “undeterred in our mission to collect on our $24 billion judgment that was lawfully handed down in federal court.”  “I find it extremely telling that the Chinese blame our great state for ‘belittling the social evaluation’ of The Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Hanaway said. “This lawsuit is a stalling tactic and tells me that we have been on the right side of this issue all along.”  The lawsuit against Schmitt, Bailey, who resigned as Missouri’s attorney general after he was tapped by President Donald Trump to serve as co-deputy FBI director in September, and Missouri contended that the preceding lawsuit, and statements published across a variety of media outlets, led to severe reputational and economic harm. They’re demanding that apologies be published in several outlets, including The New York Times, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Chinese media outlets. The apologies come with a price tag, too. Wuhan and the Chinese government demanded compensation of over 356 billion Chinese Yuan, which converts to just over $50 billion dollars.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to where we stand with a healthcare package: Christmas or Groundhog Day?

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to where we stand with a healthcare package: Christmas or Groundhog Day?

There’s a year-end rush in all aspects of life. Businesses try to run up profits in December. Supervisors want to finish employee reviews. Professors must grade exams. Congress is no different. There’s always a race to the finish line in December on Capitol Hill.  KENNEDY URGES GOP TO RESTART SPENDING BATTLE AMID SOARING COST OF LIVING, WARNS AGAINST WASTING MAJORITY This year’s adventure is health care. But it’s a practical impossibility that Congress can actually make law on health care before the calendar flips. Premium spikes for 24 million Americans loom on January 1st. Congress tried — kinda — to address this problem. But not really. So, if you’re that professor handing out the grades at the end of the semester, prepare to flunk some pupils, if not the entire Congressional student body. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., hermetically sealed any possibility of addressing health care in 2025 on Tuesday afternoon. “We’re not going to pass anything by the end of this week. But I do think there is a potential pathway in January if Democrats are willing to come to the table,” said Thune. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., rapidly assembled a bill to allow groups of people – like a bunch of small businesses or a coalition of carpenters – to purchase what they call “association” health plans. In other words, this alliance of people would suddenly have “buying power” if they operate as a team. So if they purchase a set of plans as an “association,” that would defray the cost. “This is going to be a great piece of legislation that everybody will unite around,” said Johnson. But many Republicans groused privately that it’s one thing to do “a health care bill.” It’s another thing to actually short-circuit the astronomical leap in premiums which hit on January 1. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., spoke frankly about simply re-upping the existing subsidies. “We need to do deeper fixes. This is throwing good money after bad. There is some truth to that. But we have constituents. They’re going to have their premiums go up. That doesn’t help them. That’s why I think we need a temporary extension,” said Bacon. Many conservatives adamantly oppose continuing the subsidies. Even if that would help their constituents. But Bacon addresses the realpolitik of the moment.  MODERATE REPUBLICAN ERUPTS ON HOUSE GOP LEADERS, SAYS NOT HOLDING OBAMACARE VOTE IS ‘ABSOLUTE BULLS—‘ “It’s not our fault that these things are skyrocketing. But we are in charge. When you’re in charge, you’ve got to deal with it,” said Bacon. “They’re going to have to find some compromise.” A Christmas Congressional crunch often compels lawmakers to solve big legislative headaches before the holidays. “What intensifies the pressure is January 1st is coming,” said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash. “It’s having a huge impact on people. I think that is definitely a forcing mechanism.” The push from Democrats — and some vulnerable Republicans — was to renew the subsidies. “I don’t understand why we can’t just do a clean extension of what we just had in place earlier this year,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. “I think that is the easiest and most accessible, no nonsense thing for us to do. Especially as the year is coming to an end.” But that wouldn’t fly with conservative Republicans. “I pity the Republican that has to explain why they would propagate or perpetuate a fraud-ridden subsidy from the COVID-era to prop up a failed health care program,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas.  Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., also opposes extending Obamacare help. But he worries what voters will think of Republicans if the party doesn’t address health care costs.  “I think that we fail the American people. We fail our base. We fail the Republican Party. Before I got up here, I was frustrated the Republicans didn’t repeal Obamacare,” said Burlison.  “Repealing Obamacare” probably won’t happen. That’s because the GOP has tried to unwind the measure since Democrats passed the first versions of it in late 2009. That’s why even through everyone was talking about health care on Capitol Hill, most were skeptical that lawmakers could solve this in a matter of days. Despite possible Christmas magic. And even as Thune punted health care into 2026, the House still nibbled around the edges. Critics argued this was only so House Republicans could inoculate themselves from denunciations that they did nothing on health care. SENATE REPUBLICANS UNVEIL PLAN TO REPLACE OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES WITH HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS On Tuesday morning, Johnson nixed an idea from GOP moderates for a temporary extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies because it didn’t comply with Congressional budgetary rules. But by afternoon, Johnson reversed himself to entertain another plan backed by Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y.  Rather than simply extending federal Obamacare subsidies on an interim basis — which means that insurance companies receive the money — LaLota’s idea provides a two-year tax deduction for those who previously received the Obamacare aid. President Trump said he would not sign a bill which continued to send money to the insurance companies. So the revamped approach cuts out insurance companies from the equation and policyholders score the tax relief. “There’s a real possibility they’ll get a vote on it,” said Johnson. “I’ve tried everything I can to get them that vote on the floor.” But a roll call vote is a far cry from an actual fix. And it’s uncertain that the House would adopt any amendment and copy it onto the underlying GOP health care bill. However, a vote on the amendment could give Republicans from swing districts a fig leaf to say they tried to defuse the health care premium crisis. And it’s still unclear if voters might blame Republicans for not addressing health care — now that Democrats copied that issue onto the fall government funding fight. Health care will be a major issue in the 2026 midterms. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. appeared skeptical that Congress could address the skyrocketing premiums in the

201 House Dems vote against bill named after 20-year-old American killed by illegal immigrant teen

201 House Dems vote against bill named after 20-year-old American killed by illegal immigrant teen

Two hundred and one House Democrats voted against a bill that Republicans say would prevent dangerous migrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children from walking free on the streets. The legislation passed in a 225-201 vote. Just seven Democrats voted with Republicans in favor of the bill: Reps. Adam Gray, D-Calif.; Jared Golden, D-Maine; Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.; Don Davis, D-N.C.; Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas; Laura Gillen, D-N.Y., and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas. The Kayla Hamilton Act is named after a 20-year-old woman with autism who was killed by a 16-year-old from El Salvador, Walter Javier Martinez, in 2022. Martinez pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in April. Martiez came to the U.S. illegally as an unaccompanied minor and was a member of the notorious MS-13 gang, according to a press release from the Maryland State Attorney’s Office in Hartford County. REP JASMINE CROCKETT REFERS TO YOUNG WOMAN MURDERED BY AN MS-13 ILLEGAL MIGRANT AS A ‘RANDOM DEAD PERSON’ The bill, led by Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., would heighten screening requirements for unaccompanied migrant children (UAC) who come to the U.S. undocumented in ways that Republicans argue could prevent future tragedies like Hamilton’s. “I think in this one instance, a simple phone call to El Salvador would have kept him in a secure facility. An eyeball check on gang tattoos on his body would have kept him in the secure facility, because he had both. He would have never been on our streets. He would have been in a security facility pending his immigration hearing, which happens pretty quickly,” Fry told Fox News Digital Tuesday afternoon. His bill would mandate that the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) screen unaccompanied minors for gang tattoos and place UACs who have such indicators in secure federal facilities rather than letting them go to a sponsor somewhere in the U.S. It would also prohibit unaccompanied minors from going to sponsors who are also undocumented in the U.S. HOUSE UNANIMOUSLY VOTES TO MEMORIALIZE TEXAS GIRL ALLEGEDLY SLAIN BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS Regarding the sponsors they are placed with, the federal government would be required to do a background check on all adults in the household, which would include fingerprint scans and an immigration status check. Progressives who argued against the bill on the House floor said it would harm already vulnerable children. “Republicans are treating unaccompanied migrant children like criminals,” Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., said. “We must use every tool at our disposal to protect vulnerable children. … This bill criminalizes children and creates dangerous precedent that only makes them more vulnerable.” Rep. Luz Rivas, D-Calif., said it “undermines and strips critical rights from vulnerable children” and “subjects children as young as 12 to strip searches.” Fry said in response, however, “We already do medical evaluations of children when they come into this country. It already is in practice. All we’re saying is if there’s a tattoo on your shoulder, on your forehead, that’s a gang tattoo, we’re saying, ‘Hey, maybe we shouldn’t let them out onto the streets.” “I think some intellectual honesty is really important for them,” Fry told Fox News Digital after the debate. “They want to complain about medical evaluations for kids. That was a Democrat proposal. That was the Democrat law that they did. But if they want to misrepresent what this bill is about, just because they don’t like Trump, I think kids and their safety are more important than being mad at the president.”

Shashi Tharoor’s increasing distance from the Grand Old Party

Shashi Tharoor’s increasing distance from the Grand Old Party

After the BJP won the Thiruvananthapuram corporation polls. In a post on X, Tharoor said: “I also want to acknowledge the historic performance of the BJP in Thiruvananthapuram, and offer humble congratulations on their significant victory in the city Corporation.”