(A)Political Newsletter- Volume 18

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

Friday, November 11, 2023

Good morning everyone,

It’s been a slow week in U.S. Politics for the most part, but there has been some motion in the House with a bill that avoids government shutdown. The House Ethics committee has also been busy putting together a report on Rep. George Santos and his actions regarding campaign funds and donor money. Finally, two large conservative social media personalities get into a spat over Israeli-Hamas war. Lets dive in.

In today’s edition:

  • Stock Watching

  • House Passes Bill to Avoid Shutdown

  • Rep. George Santos Not Seeking Reelection

  • Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens Clash

CONGRESSIONAL STOCK WATCHER

  • Senator Tommy Tuberville

    • He bought stock in Facebook, $META

    • He bought put contracts betting against Tesla, $TSLA

    • He bought stock in @pulte's PulteGroup, $PHM

    • He bought United States Steel call options.

    • He sits on the Senate Subcommittee on Commodities, which may give him inside information on the steel market.

  • The House Ethics Committee has released its report on Representative George Santos.

    • The committee says it has found substantial evidence that Santos: 

    • - Knowingly filed false reports with the FEC

    • - Used campaign funds for personal purposes

    • - Engaged in fraudulent conduct in connection with RedStone Strategies LLC

    • - Engaged in knowing and willful violations of the Ethics in Government Act

  • The Pentagon has again failed its independent annual audit of $3.8 trillion in military assets.

    • Over 80 members of Congress have traded stock in defense contractors over the last few years.

    • They've traded up to $3.1M in Lockheed Martin stock and options alone.

  • Representative Greg Stanton has said that he will not trade individual stocks.

  • Representative Nancy Pelosi bought up to $1M in Microsoft call options on February 21st, 2020.

    • Since then, $MSFT has risen over 103%.

    • Pelosi has earned more from $MSFT than she has earned from her salary as a member of Congress.

Be on the Lookout:

It’s been a slower week on congressional stock trading, but there is plenty of news headed down the pipeline. More members of Congress are continuing to feel both internal and external pressures to ban Congressional stock trading which has led to members to say they will no longer trade stocks. Following that, the House Ethics Committee released their report on Santos and have said that there is substantial evidence he filed false reports with the SEC, among other things.

Continuing Resolution Passed, Averting Gov. Shutdown

PC: Darren Lyn

November 17, 2023: The U.S. House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown, in a win for new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. Johnson had been facing pushback from House Conservatives, especially the Freedom Caucus, for keeping the funding levels the same year-over-year, when they have wanted a decrease. The House passed the Resolution through bipartisan action, which is reminiscent of when former Speaker Kevin McCarthy did the same, to which he was subsequently ousted.

The funding bill was separated into two, where the most important were voted on first, and the second bill could be pushed off. There is a race to get all 12 appropriations bills passed before coming deadlines. The House is especially fractious, especially the Republicans caucus. The bill itself did get cut down, with no aid to either Israel or Ukraine being put into it. Also, The Freedom Caucus was also outspoken against it because it did not include border security funding.

Rep. George Santos Not Seeking Reelection after House Ethics Committee Report

November 17, 2023: Rep. George Santos (R.-NY) has stated he will not seek reelection to Congress after a House Ethics Committee report found he stole money from his campaign and lied to both voters and donors while running for a U.S. House seat. The report itself documents mishandling of campaign money from being used to pay for Botox, Onlyfans, and Sephora, and then also file fake reports to federal election regulators to mask the purchases. The panel investigating referred the case to the U.S. DOJ, who are already investigating Santos for a myriad of fraud allegations.

The investigative committee also documents Santos's campaign vulnerability report, which is commissioned by a campaign as a way to defend against opposition research. They found that he lied about his enrollment in New York University and his MBA to Baruch College.

In relation to his filing fake reports to federal regulators, the report found that he had the login credentials to large swaths of his campaign accounts, and his campaign treasurer admitted in court to filing fake federal documents in collaboration with Santos. She plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Candance Owen and Ben Shapiro Clash

November 17, 2023-Earlier this week Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens exchanged personal insults over their differing views on the Israel-Hamas war. Originally the exchanges were indirect and covered behind tweets. A video was taken of Ben Shapiro calling Owens “disgraceful” for her opinions on the conflict which seemed to escalate the situation rapidly.

Owens then called Shapiro “emotionally unhinged” followed by a post with a bible verse including the words “you cannot serve both God and money” which led to Shapiro saying that if “taking money from The Daily Wire somehow comes between you and God, then by all means quit.” This led to Owens claiming that Shapiro has acted this way for weeks and that he is out of line for suggesting she can’t post scripture.

Owens appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show and claimed she and Shapiro have many disagreements on topics such as Covid-19 vaccines and The Ukraine-Russia war but those mostly stay behind the scenes.

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