(A)Political Newsletter - Volume 12

(A)political Newsletter - U.S. Political News & Election Updates

Good morning everyone,

As you likely have seen the last week or so on our Instagram, app, and website, we have opened fundraising in order to bring higher quality and higher volume to our content for you. I’ll spare you the lengthy pitch, but click here if you want to read more about the campaign. Additionally, if you feel so inclined, check out investment options to both help us grow, and earn yourself something sweet. Now, to the news.

In today’s edition:

  • Stock Watching

  • Biden restarts Trump-era border policy

  • Kevin McCarthy ousted

CONGRESSIONAL STOCK WATCHER

  • Representative Tom Malinowski shorted the Treasury bond ETF $TLT in 2020.

    • The move was almost perfectly timed. $TLT has fallen over 45% since the trade, its largest drawdown on record.

  • Senator Bernie Sanders has called on Senator Bob Menendez to resign, following indictments on charges of bribery.

    • Earlier this year we caught Menendez selling gold bars worth up to $400K.

  • Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) has called on Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) to resign, following indictments on charges of bribery.

    • Still no explanation from Menendez on how he came to possess gold bars worth up to $400K.

  • Senator Mendez suggested that hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash found during a bribery raid were 'personal savings'.

    • Congress was notified of a sale of up to $400K in solid gold bars months ago.

    • Still have not heard an explanation for how he came to possess those.

  • Senator Menendez is now stepping down as chair of the foreign relations committee after being indicted for allegedly accepting gold bars as bribes.

  • Former Congressman Stephen Buyer has been sentenced to 22 months in prison for insider trading.

    • The last time a member of Congress was convicted of insider trading, they were pardoned from their sentence

  • Representative Thomas Kean Jr. just disclosed trades made back in April, violating the 45-day reporting deadline set by the STOCK Act.

    • At most he will pay a $200 fine, although many politicians who violate the law aren't penalized at all.

  • Pioneer Natural Resources, $PXD, has risen almost 10% on news of a potential acquisition by Exxon.

    • Representative Kevin Hern has made a profit of approximately $400K from his trading of $PXD.

    • Hern has been a member of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources

Be on the Lookout:

Matt Gaetz has hinted on X (previously known as twitter) that he would be interested in discussing Rep. Ro Khanna’s anti-corruption proposals, which include banning insider trading and increasing the punishment.

President Biden to Restart Border Wall Construction

(Photo - Reuters/Loren Elliott)

October 5, 2023: President Biden is restarting many Trump-era policies, including restarting border barriers and deporting undocumented Venezuelan immigrants, in a large reversal of policy. President Biden ran for president on a platform of a much more forgiving border policy than his predecessor, but after outcry from Democratic and Republican politicians across their distressed constituencies and continued low approval numbers in relation to his handling of the border, Biden has been forced to reevaluate his promises and policies. Recent years have seen record migrant crossings, and an overwhelmed US Border Patrol which has been dealing with both migrant crossings and cartel violence.

President Biden will use funds set aside in 2019 by the Trump administration to build more barriers, while Homeland Security has been ordered to deport migrant families faster. Venezuela, a country whose fleeing citizens make up a large voting bloc for Trump in South Florida, has agreed to cooperate with the U.S. in their deportation efforts. Another example is the Biden administration diplomatically compelling Mexico to deport people along its northern border with the U.S. Tensions have recently increased between the United States and Mexico, as military deployments to the border and rhetoric from border-state political figures have upped the ante. This is a major reversal of Biden's own efforts that the Trump administration had been pursuing for years.

Kevin McCarthy Ousted from Speaker of the House

(Photo - J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

October 3, 2023: Earlier this week, McCarthy went around his right flank to pass a 45-day extension on the spending bill to avoid a government shutdown. This angered many of the members of the “Freedom Caucus,” who were trying to force the shutdown.

Following his decision to ignore the Freedom Caucus’ demands, Matt Gaetz put in a motion to remove McCarthy as speaker of the House, and it successfully passed after eight Republicans turned on him to vote alongside the entire Democratic aisle. The final vote was 216–210, and it effectively removed a speaker of the house for the first time in American history.

Gaetz stated that “nobody trusts McCarthy” after he failed to deliver his promises to the “freedom caucus” and multiple other groups in this highly contested Congressional season. McCarthy told his Republican allies that he would not be running for the speaker position again.

Right now, Patrick McHenry is the interim speaker of the House. There have been rumors of potential candidates, but the suspected runners are Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, who was recently endorsed by former President Trump, and Kevin Hern. Republicans will hold evening forums to give colleagues the chance to address potential candidates.

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