CBS News
House Republicans move ahead with leadership elections as majority yet to be decided
Washington — House Republicans are moving forward with their leadership elections Wednesday, though majority control still hangs in the balance as a number of key races have yet to be determined.
Still, Republicans are operating as if they’ve secured control of the lower chamber for another two years. CBS News has characterized control of the House as lean Republican.
The election for the No. 4 leadership spot, House Republican Conference chair, is the only competitive race, after Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York was offered a role to serve in President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida. Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan and Rep. Erin Houchin of Indiana announced Monday they are running for conference chair.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both from Louisiana, said the day after the election that they would seek to return to their leadership roles in the next Congress, which begins in January.
In a pair of letters to their Republican colleagues, both laid out similar priorities including border security, extending Trump-era tax cuts, reining in government spending and cutting regulations.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota also said in a letter to colleagues last week that he would seek another term in the role and acknowledged the infighting that has been a staple of the GOP majority in the current Congress.
“We will always have disagreements over policy and strategy. That’s a good thing,” he said in his pitch. “Governing is messy and imperfect. But I have always believed that there is more that unites us than divides us. I’ve witnessed this as your whip, bringing together members from across our conference to hash out these disagreements and find a path to 218 votes.”
Republicans regained control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections after four years of Democratic rule. But infighting has made it difficult for them to govern with a razor-thin majority amid early retirements and the expulsion of GOP Rep. George Santos, whose New York seat was later picked up by a Democrat.
If they do hold onto control, House Republicans could again be governing with a slim majority, which would again put Johnson in a difficult position, even with Republicans in power in the Senate and White House. Johnson has had to rely on Democratic votes to pass legislation and was even rescued by Democrats from an ouster attempt.
Trump’s personnel selections for his second term could also have an effect on the potential Republican majority. As of Monday evening, the former president had tapped two House Republicans to serve in his administration, which would squeeze the potential GOP majority even further until those seats are filled in a special election.
CBS News
Billy Bob Thornton takes on oil industry in new series, “Landman”: “I don’t take things that I’m not right for”
Oscar-winning actor Billy Bob Thornton joined “CBS Mornings” to discuss his new role in “Landman,” the latest Paramount Plus series from “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan. Thornton stars as Tommy Norris, a man tasked with managing land and people in the oil-rich landscapes of West Texas.
Thornton’s character works in the world of oil rigs, securing land and overseeing everyone from workers to billionaires who fuel the oil industry. The role was made with Thornton in mind since Sheridan wrote the role specifically for him.
“He said, ‘I’m going to write it in your voice.’ So when I read the first script, sure enough, it’s like, yeah, if I were a landman, I think I’d try to be like that,” said Thornton.
Thornton said he prefers to stick to roles within his strengths.
‘I don’t take things that I’m not right for,” Thornton said. “If I read something and it fits like a glove, then those are the things I do if I’m interested in the subject.”
When it comes to describing what a landman is, Thornton said that a landman is a middleman between the oil company owners and the workers in the fields. His job is to protect the workers while making sure they do their tasks to extract oil, because he needs to earn money for his employer.
“The show is really about how the people who work in and around the oil business are affected, how relationships are affected. It’s a dangerous business, and it’s a gamble also,” Thornton said.
“Landman” premieres Sunday, Nov. 17, exclusively on Paramount+.
HarperCollins
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In “Cher: The Memoir – Part One” (to be published November 19 by HarperCollins), the singer-actress writes of her early years in the music business, including her partnership and marriage with Sonny Bono. The duo had eight Top 20 hits in the 1960s and ’70s, and their TV series, “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour,” was a ratings bonanza.
Read an excerpt below, in which she recounts attending, at age 11, an event that would change the direction of her life: an Elvis Presley concert.
And don’t miss Anthony Mason’s interview with Cher on “CBS Sunday Morning” November 17!
Prefer to listen? Audible has a 30-day free trial available right now.
PREFACE
Los Angeles, Summer 1956
Staring at the television open-mouthed, I let my peanut butter and jelly sandwich drop onto the plate in my lap as chills ran up and down my body.
Home alone after school, I was sitting cross-legged (my favorite position, still) on the floor in front of the TV enjoying the peace and quiet and watching my favorite show, American Bandstand. “And now, ladies and gentlemen, Ray Charles,” Dick Clark announced as the camera panned to a handsome man in sunglasses sitting at a piano.
“Georgia, Georgia . . . ,” he began, and I burst into tears. I couldn’t believe he was singing a song about my mom. As tears dripped onto my sandwich, I’d never felt more connected to anything in my life. Ray Charles’s voice and the melody seemed to express exactly how I felt.
It took me weeks to get over seeing him sing, and in some ways, I never did, but then someone whose songs I first heard on the radio blew a hole in my understanding of the world and I was never, ever the same. As I stared at the TV with my mom watching The Ed Sullivan Show, a popular young singer named Elvis Presley filled the screen. Mom and I were two of the sixty million Americans who witnessed that historic performance in September 1956.
Even though Elvis was dressed quite traditionally that Sunday night, he looked and moved differently than any performer I’d ever seen. He began by singing “Don’t Be Cruel,” and by the time he broke into “Love Me Tender,” I felt as if he was singing only to me. I wanted to jump right into the TV and be Elvis.
When I heard a year later that he was giving a concert at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles, I rushed home with stars in my eleven-year-old eyes. “Mom, Mom! Elvis is going to be at the Pan-Pacific! Can we go? . . . Please?” I was convinced that I had to be there. Secretly, I thought that he would spot me in the crowd and pick me, although I’m sure that’s what every girl thought.
Luckily for me, my thirty-one-year-old mother was as crazy about Elvis as I was, a fact that impressed my friends because their moms didn’t approve of his raw sexuality. To this day I don’t know where she found the money, but somehow Georgia did. Mom and I dressed up and made our way into town, more like sisters than mother and daughter. Feeling the tension grow the closer we got to the Fairfax District, we soon found ourselves caught up in a pulsing mob of nine thousand noisy girls.
We were swept inside the auditorium on a wave of pure adrenaline. Our folding seats were about halfway back in the audience, but that was fine by me. Looking around at all the girls gazing in anticipation at the darkened stage, I could feel my heart pounding inside my flat little chest—a sensation I was to become all too familiar with later in life.
The stage was dark, but when the spotlights hit him, Elvis was there and he was magic. There was a roar from the crowd that was like nothing I had ever heard. An explosion of flashbulbs went off. I only wished I’d brought our little Kodak Brownie. Elvis was standing there in his famous gold suit, which was shimmering and changing color in the spotlights.
He was so handsome with that amazing smile and lustrous black hair, exactly the same color as mine. Everyone around us jumped to their feet and started screaming so hysterically that we could hardly hear a word of “Heartbreak Hotel.” But, boy, we could see his moves—the way he gyrated his hips and shook his legs so that they quivered. Not content with making as much noise as they could, the girls began jumping up onto their chairs for a better view, which meant that from then on, we could only see Elvis’s head and shoulders.
Being in the middle of that shrieking crowd was like being caught up in a massive swivel-hipped tidal wave, swept along with the hysteria toward the stage. I had no idea why everyone was acting so insane. I was too young to get that part of it, truthfully (but if I had been three years older and my mom had been three years younger, we would have fainted). It was the most exciting experience I’d ever had because I knew that I wanted to be on that stage in the spotlight one day too.
When I looked over at my mother, she was down for the count. We were both mesmerized. She looked so beautiful dressed in some amazing outfit that of all the girls in the place, including me, I felt sure that Elvis would have picked her.
Pressing my mouth to her ear so that she could hear, I cupped my hand over it and yelled, “Mom, can we stand on our seats and scream, too?”
“Yes,” she replied, grinning like a teenager and taking off her high heels. “Come on, let’s do it!” So we did, straining on our tip-toes to see him.
Glowing with happiness, I tried to work out if Elvis would be too old to marry me by the time I was grown, so that he could sing to me every day. Dreaming of being Mrs. Presley, I couldn’t stop talking to Mom about Elvis for weeks as I floated around on a gold lamé cloud.
Excerpted from “Cher: The Memoir (Part One)” by Cher. Copyright © 2024 by Cher. Reprinted with permission by HarperCollins.
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