Star Tribune
After debt deal success, Rep. Tom Emmer faces obstacles
WASHINGTON — House majority whip Tom Emmer’s window to celebrate avoiding a potentially calamitous debt default was short lived.
The Minnesotan and third-highest ranking House Republican declared during a Tuesday news conference that, “Republicans have been succeeding since the beginning of the year.”
“Do not underestimate [Speaker] Kevin McCarthy and the House Republicans,” Emmer said.
Hours later, Emmer was on the House floor navigating an animated scene in the back of the chamber.
The GOP suffered an embarrassing setback when a small group of Republicans turned on House leadership and helped sink a procedural vote on what’s known as a rule, something that according to congressional data hadn’t happened in about 20 years.
in retaliation for the bipartisan debt ceiling deal McCarthy brokered with Democratic President Joe Biden and other intraparty tensions.
“We’ve got some trust issues and we’ve got to get those resolved,” Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett, one of the GOP lawmakers going against leadership, said.
Their move prevented any other major votes on Tuesday and the day after, and leadership called off plans for Thursday’s floor action. The House is not set to return until early next week.
“The extremists in the House Republican Conference have once again taken control of the House floor,” Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said at a news conference.
The debt limit bill was signed into law last weekend just before a critical June 5 deadline to avert the threat of a default. Dealing with the debt ceiling had loomed as a challenge for the GOP for months after officially taking control of the House earlier this year.
“This was a real tough vote,” said Texas GOP Rep. Troy Nehls, who voted for the bipartisan agreement. “You look at the first five months, it was somewhat of a honeymoon.”
The move by a vocal sliver of the party to reject leadership in such a public way by stalling the House this week underlined the difficult task for top Republicans. But McCarthy dismissed any concerns about Emmer’s leadership, as the whip tasked with counting votes and building Republican support for legislation in the narrow majority.
“He does a great job,” McCarthy told the Star Tribune.
Unease within the GOP was clear when 71 House Republicans, including Minnesota Reps. Michelle Fischbach and Brad Finstad, voted against the temporary suspension of the debt ceiling last week. And while two-thirds of the GOP lawmakers in the chamber voted for the agreement, more Democrats ended up voting for the bill than Republicans.
Emmer claimed during his Tuesday news conference that “the debt limit fight last week displayed just how far House Republicans have come as a team.”
But that team struggled this week. While some conservatives criticized McCarthy and GOP Majority Leader Steve Scalise to reporters, Emmer didn’t appear to be getting similar pushback.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican who also went against leadership on the procedural vote, said on Monday night before the logjam began that Emmer has “that Midwestern crankiness that’s so endearing.” People respect Emmer as a “truth teller,” Gaetz said, and “even when we don’t like what he has to say, we know he’s being honest with us.”
But that didn’t mean Gaetz saw the debt ceiling vote passing as a victory for Emmer.
“I don’t know if it’s a win for any particular politician,” said Gaetz, who opposed the bill. “I think it’s a loss for the country.”
Emmer has charged that Democrats got nothing out of the deal and House Republicans forced Biden to negotiate.
“Our only concession by the way was averting an economic disaster that would have hurt American families and small businesses,” Emmer said Tuesday.
Democrats don’t view the agreement that way.
“Our goal was to not default and try to preserve the progress that we made when we were in the majority,” said Michigan Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee. “We didn’t default and we preserved that progress.”
The legislation suspended the debt ceiling into early 2025, moving the issue past what is likely to be a contentious presidential election. The new law also has spending limits and other changes, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating it would shrink projected budget deficits by about $1.5 trillion over roughly a decade.
The House GOP narrowly passed a conservative debt ceiling increase in April filled with other Republican goals. It never had a realistic chance of passing the Democrat-held Senate, which meant some sort of compromise was needed that was likely to rankle the edges of both parties.
Emmer’s office did not respond to requests from the Star Tribune this week for comment or an interview.
In an interview with the Daily Mail website, Emmer was asked about more Democrats voting for the final debt ceiling agreement than Republicans.
“I was very upset. We should have had 218 Republicans vote for that bill,” Emmer said, adding that while the new law didn’t solve the problem, “it’s the beginning of the solution.”
Emmer also said in the interview the GOP holdup on the floor Tuesday was spontaneous. He predicted, however, that Republicans would end up stronger than before.
“This team was extremely successful and has been for the first five months doing things that people never thought possible,” Emmer said.
“I said for the last five months … do not expect us to be successful always,” he added. “There will be a day where we run into adversity, there will be a day where we have a disagreement. That’s what teams do. We’re going through that period right now.”
The Tuesday setback meant that lawmakers lingered around Capitol Hill earlier this week waiting to see when the House could get back to passing bills.
“This is a family working out its differences and that’s what you’ll see,” Tennessee GOP Rep. Andy Ogles said. “It’s not the first time and it’s not going to be the last time this happens.”
“In here, it can be a very dark and lonely place, and it can be difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Benson said. “Events like this just help keep that hope alive.”
While the incarcerated people listened, they were joined at tables by prison staff, guards, the warden, and others, including Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell, who stood against a brick wall. A couple of inmates, who work as photographers for the prison’s newspaper, strolled the cafeteria taking pictures.
When the performance went longer than expected, the warden smiled and gave the performers a thumbs up. He was fine with letting it continue. When it was done, the musicians took a handful of questions and signed flyers. Then inmates were guided back to their cells.
Hennepin County Board candidate Marisa Simonetti was arraigned in District Court on Thursday morning on a misdemeanor charge of 5th-degree assault after a dispute with a tenant of her Edina home.
Simonetti, who was arrested and jailed in June on allegations that she assaulted the tenant by throwing a live tarantula and other objects at the woman, stayed in the court hallway Thursday while her attorney John Daly handled the routine appearance. Simonetti was given a Jan. 9 pre-trial date and plans to plead not guilty.
Wearing a campaign T-shirt, Simonetti said after the court proceeding that she’s done nothing wrong and plans to fight the charge “to the death.”
Simonetti said her campaign for the District 6 seat is going well and that she sent out “a ton of texts” last week. “We’re getting feedback, positive feedback. It’s going to be very exciting to see what happens on Nov. 5,” she said.
An email to Simonetti’s opponent, Commissioner Heather Edelson, was not immediately returned Thursday.
In April, Simonetti came in second in a six-candidate special primary for an open seat on the board and then lost the special election Edelson, a DFLer and former state representative. Simonetti has campaigned as a Republican, although some local Republicans have since pulled their support for her.
The board oversees the county’s $2.7 billion budget and 10,000 employees. Commissioners earn $122,225 annually.
District 6, which covers cities including Edina, Hopkins, Mound, Minnetonka, Wayzata, Long Lake, Shorewood and the northern portion of Eden Prairie.
“I wanted to be just like him, to love every part of the competition, to be the first to show up and the last to leave, to love the grind, to be your best when you don’t feel your best and make other people around you the best version of themselves,” Ionescu said. “And to wake up and do it again the next day.”
In her final season with the Ducks, Ionescu became the first NCAA Division I basketball player to record more then 2,000 career points, 1,000 assists and 1,000 rebounds. She dedicated the performance that put her over the edge to Bryant. “That was for him,” she told ESPN.
“I can’t really put it into words,” Ionescu said. “He’s looking down and really proud of me and just really happy for this moment with my team.”
Ionescu is a menace from behind the 3-point line like Steph Curry, Luka Doncic and Caitlin Clark
Ionescu has made more three-pointers during the regular season than any other WNBA player in history.
Ionescu’s clutch three might give Minnesota basketball fans deja vu. It was reminiscent of the three-pointer Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks sank in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals to win that game 109-108 and put the Timberwolves on their heels. The Mavs ended up winning the series 4-1.
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