CBS News
Mike Johnson takes risk on separating Israel and Ukraine aid
Washington — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday unveiled a proposal for sending wartime aid to Israel and Ukraine as he seeks to fend off a right-wing revolt that could put his leadership in peril.
The Louisiana Republican said he plans to put four separate bills on the floor, separating aid for Israel with assistance for Ukraine, which has faced fierce pushback among some members of his conference. A third measure includes aid for Taiwan and the final bill addresses other Republican foreign policy demands.
“We won’t be voting on the Senate supplemental in its current form, but we will vote on each of these measures separately in four different pieces,” Johnson told reporters after meeting with House Republicans.
Johnson said they’re still discussing whether to then merge the individual bills into one package before sending it to the Senate for approval, though his preference is to send them individually.
Johnson has resisted pressure from defense hawks in both parties to bring up a $95 billion package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan that passed the Senate in February with bipartisan support. Johnson has struggled to find a path forward amid fractures among Republicans and Democrats over emergency assistance to Ukraine and Israel. But Iran’s drone-and-missile attack over the weekend on Israel, which came in retaliation for a strike on an Iranian consulate in Syria earlier this month, increased the pressure on Johnson to hold a vote on the Senate bill this week. Proponents of the Senate bill believe it has enough support to pass the House.
Putting Ukraine aid up for a vote carries the threat of ending his six-month tenure as speaker that has been defined by GOP infighting that has thrown the lower chamber into dysfunction. House Republicans’ narrow majority has forced Johnson to repeatedly rely on Democrats to pass major legislation, much to the chagrin of some conservatives. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, has threatened to trigger a vote on ousting Johnson if he moves ahead with an aid package for Ukraine.
Greene called the proposal “another wrong direction” for Johnson, but said she hadn’t decided on whether she’d move ahead in trying to oust him.
“I am firmly against the plan as it stands right now,” Greene said after Monday’s conference meeting. “This is such a scam.”
When asked whether he could survive a vote to remove him, Johnson said, “I don’t spend my time worrying about motions to vacate. We’re trying to govern here, and we’re going to do our job. I’m not sure how that shakes out.”
While splitting the aid into individual bills could appease conservatives, it also makes passage in the Senate uncertain. The White House said Monday it opposes a standalone Israel bill.
Meanwhile, some progressives oppose sending additional aid to Israel over its handling of the war in Gaza. A recent Israeli strike that killed seven aid workers for the World Central Kitchen could harden Democratic resistance.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Beryl, the second tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, took shape Friday as it barreled its way toward the Caribbean.
Beryl was expected to strengthen into a hurricane as it approached the Windward Islands in the West Indies, the National Hurricane Center reported in its latest advisory late Friday night.
Beryl was centered about 1,110 miles southeast of Barbados, the hurricane center said, with maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour and tropical storm-force winds extending 45 miles from its center. It was moving west at 18 mph.
The system was expected to hit the Windward Islands by late Sunday or Monday, and was forecast to bring anything from 3 to 6 inches of rain to the Windward Islands and Barbados. No watches or warnings were yet in place.
NOAA
Last week, Tropical Storm Alberto brought torrential flooding to portions of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico. It was responsible for at least four deaths in the Mexican states of Nuevo Leon and Veracruz, according to the Associated Press.
The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and lasts through Nov. 30. According to the hurricane center, the season’s first hurricane usually forms in early to mid-August, which would make Beryl unusual if it were to reach hurricane strength. In a report released last month, the NOAA predicted an “above average” hurricane season with 17 to 25 storms, 8 to 13 hurricanes and 4 to 7 major hurricanes of category 3 or higher.
A tropical storm is a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph, while a hurricane is defined as a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds greater than 74 mph.
CBS News
Martin Mull, beloved actor known for “Fernwood 2 Night,” “Roseanne” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” dies at 80
Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died, his daughter said Friday. He was 80.
Mull’s Daughter, TV writer and comic artist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness.”
Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, came to national fame with a recurring role on the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and the starring role in its spinoff, “Fernwood 2 Night,” on which he played the host of a satirical talk show.
Mat Hayward/Getty Images for Netflix
“He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials,” Maggie Mull said in an Instagram post. “He would find that joke funny. He was never not funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and coworkers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and —the sign of a truly exceptional person— by many, many dogs.”
Melissa Joan Hart, who acted alongside Mull in the series “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” paid tribute to him on Instagram on Friday, calling him “a wonderful man who I am better for knowing.”
“I have such fond memories of working with him and being in awe of his huge body of work,” she wrote.
Known for his blonde hair and well-trimmed mustache, Mull was born in Chicago, raised in Ohio and Connecticut. He studied art in Rhode Island and Rome. He combined his music and comedy in hip Hollywood clubs in the 1970s.
“In 1976 I was a guitar player and sit-down comic appearing at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip when Norman Lear walked in and heard me,” Mull told The Associated Press in 1980. “He cast me as the wife beater on ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.’ Four months later I was spun off on my own show.”
In the 1980s he appeared in films including “Mr. Mom” and “Clue,” and in the 1990s had a recurring role on “Roseanne.”
He would later play private eye Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Development,” and would be nominated for an Emmy in 2016 for a guest turn on “Veep.”
