Wakey-Wakey, Congressman
Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah) was spotted sleeping during a roll-call vote of the House Ways and Means Committee early Wednesday. (Watch the video below.)
Several names were called as C-SPAN's camera panned across mostly empty seats before arriving at Moore snoozing away with his chin tucked downward.
'Mr. Moore,' a voice could be heard in a request for his tally. 'Mr. Moore?'
Finally, Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) gently tapped him on the arm to wake him up.
Moore sheepishly broke into laughter and gave a mini-bow as his vote was recorded as a 'no' on a Democratic amendment to President Donald Trump's budget package.
In fairness to the slumbering lawmaker, the committee had pulled an all-nighter.
'All my other colleagues were in the back room dozing off; they just were smart enough not to do it on camera,' Moore told KSL.com.
This Travel-Friendly Noise Machine 'Is A Game Changer For Sleep' — And It's Almost 50% Off
'Junk Sleep' Could Explain Why You're Tired After A Full Night's Rest
Restless Sleepers Share Their 5 Go-To Secrets For Falling Back Asleep
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump administration plans to cut $4 bn from California rail
The Trump administration intends to pull some $4 billion in federal funding from California's long-delayed high-speed rail project, transportation officials say. The announcement Wednesday by the Department of Transportation follows a report by federal railroad regulators, which concluded the project to link the state's megacities Los Angeles and San Francisco was rife with "missed deadlines, budget shortfalls, and overrepresentation of projected ridership." "I promised the American people we would be good stewards of their hard-earned tax dollars," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement. "This report exposes a cold, hard truth: CHSRA has no viable path to complete this project on time or on budget," he added, referring to California High-Speed Rail Authority. Duffy said California's rail agency has 37 days to respond to the findings of the review before the two grants worth some $4 billion would be terminated. CHSRA said it strongly disagreed with Federal Railroad Administration's conclusions, adding they "do not reflect the substantial progress made." "We remain committed to completing the nation's first true HSR system & will fully address + correct the record in our response to the FRA's notice," the rail authority said. California's Democratic lawmakers also strongly denounced the decision by President Donald Trump's Republican administration. "For the millions of Californians left to pick up the tab for Trump's reckless trade wars and rising costs of living, today's announcement is devastating," Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff said in a statement. Despite being the world's largest economy, the United States does not have high-speed rail lines and the California project has been 15 years in the making. Another high-speed rail line is planned to open in 2028 in the neighboring state of Nevada, connecting Las Vegas to Los Angeles in time for the Summer Olympics hosted by the United States. fz/elc/eb/md/rsc
Newsweek
21 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Trump Florida Ally Byron Donalds Skewers 'Woke' David Jolly
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) called David Jolly an "anti-Trump, radical leftist" after the former Republican congressman entered Florida's gubernatorial race as a Democratic candidate. Jolly formally announced his bid Thursday, becoming the latest party convert hoping to wrest back control of what had been the country's premier swing state that in recent years has made a hard shift to the right. Donalds, who is vying for the Republican nomination for the Florida governorship in 2026, took aim at Jolly in a post on X, formerly Twitter, and made support of Trump the key dividing line. "David Jolly is an anti-Trump, radical leftist who wants to raise your taxes, allow illegals to pour across our border, take school choice away from families, ban guns, and bring woke ideology to Florida," Donalds said. "He's completely out of touch with Florida's voters and our values. Florida is Trump Country, and I am proudly endorsed by President Trump to be Florida's next Governor. "As Governor, I will fight side by side with President Trump to protect Florida families and Make America Great Again." Even as Florida serves as a place for the Trump administration to poach staff and test policies, Jolly says he's confident that issues such as affordability, funding public schools, and strengthening campaign finance and ethics laws will resonate with all voters in 2026. He predicts elections next year will herald nationwide change. "I actually think Republicans in Tallahassee have gone too far in dividing us. I think we should get politicians out of the classrooms, out of the doctor's offices," Jolly said. "I think enough people in Florida, even some Republicans, now understand that. That the culture wars have gone too far." This is a developing story. Updates to follow. This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
Politico
35 minutes ago
- Politico
The governor's race wakes up
Presented by MIND YOUR BUSINESS — California is overtaxed, strangled by red tape and too darn pricey — so say prominent Democrats running for governor. Of the six gubernatorial hopefuls (including two Republicans) on stage for the California Business Outlook Dinner last night in Sacramento, the harshest barbs about the state's economic health arguably came from members of the party that has held unfettered power at the Capitol for years. 'This is the worst state for business in the United States of America,' said Antonio Villaraigosa, the former Los Angeles mayor, landing one of his bigger applause lines of the night. Yes, yes, the audience was a large roomful of Chamber of Commerce members, so denouncing regulations is not exactly going out on a limb. But the way the candidates broached California's affordability crisis and other issues offered some important revelations about the state of this governor's race (at least as it stands with Kamala Harris still undecided on a run): BUH-BYE BERNIECRATS? Raising the minimum wage and increasing taxes on corporations — policies that are typically red meat for Democratic base voters — got a noticeably cool reception from the four Democrats on stage. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis was the only contender to unabashedly back raising the statewide minimum wage to $20 an hour, arguing that not doing so is akin to 'throw[ing] poor people under the bus.' As for raising taxes to deal with the state's current budget crunch — an option floated by labor groups and some Democratic lawmakers — Toni Atkins, the former legislative leader, was the only Democrat to even consider the possibility, taking pains to specify it was 'absolutely a last option.' It was a notable contrast from last month's gathering at the California Labor Federation, where most Democrats clambered over each other to cozy up to organized labor (one exception: Villaraigosa, who seemed to relish saying no to labor's face and opposing unemployment benefits for striking workers). But it's clear that, so far, no candidate has seized the progressive banner, tapping into the left flank that was galvanized by national figures like Sen. Bernie Sanders or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, who pundits sometimes place in the progressive lane, seemed eager to shed any perceptions that she was Elizabeth Warren 2.0. She talked about attracting tech jobs and 'winning the AI race,' which would be anathema to labor unions that are leading the charge for more regulation. She spoke sympathetically about the challenges facing businesses, lamenting the 'regulatory death by 1,000 papercuts.' Speaking to Playbook after the forum, Porter pointed to a recent proposal by state Sen. Steve Padilla that would have required plastic bottles to be manufactured with attached caps as an example of small-bore legislating that's missing the forest for the trees. 'LA is literally on fire, and that is what a legislator is working on,' Porter said. 'I would love to work with that legislator on his goal of reducing plastic waste. … He's focusing on the wrong thing. I want him to think bigger.' TRUST THE PROCESS: Despite President Donald Trump's unpopularity in California, Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco didn't appear all that interested in putting daylight between themselves and the Republican in the White House. Hilton, the Fox News personality, defended tariffs as a chance to lure back manufacturing to the U.S., while Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, offered a full-throated endorsement of Trump's stop-and-go trade policy — reducing concerns to 'fear mongering' and advising people to 'just wait and see what happens.' 'Just buckle down with what we have going on, let the president take care of it,' Bianco said. 'If he fails miserably, then somebody's going to come in and we're going to rescue it.' California's a tough state to make that case. And Democrats on stage all used the setup to tee off in front of the business crowd. Villaraigosa retorted that 'tariffs are taxes' to applause. The other Democrats agreed, with Kounalakis tearing into the duties as hard as anyone. She warned the growing expenses of imported drywall and appliances will jack up home costs and took a direct shot at Bianco. 'You're not a businessman. You're a government employee. You've got a pension. You're going to be just fine,' Kounalakis said, to a chorus of 'ooooo's' from the crowd. REAL TALK: Playbook could hear the candidates salivate over moderator John Myers' prompt to describe an instance when they told 'hard truths' to display leadership. It played right into Villaraigosa's wheelhouse about how he tangled with unions in Los Angeles. It gave Hilton a chance to tout his early activism against Covid-19 lockdown mandates. And it gave Atkins the opportunity to give some blunt talk to her audience about what she cast as a major obstacle to building housing in California — a reality that often gets elided when politicians make sweeping promises about building scores of new units. 'We've done some CEQA reform. We've done zoning regulations … If we could get housing built faster, we would do it,' she said. 'The problem is our communities that do not want density.' GOOD MORNING. Happy Thursday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. You can text us at 916-562-0685 — save it as 'CA Playbook' in your contacts. Or drop us a line at dgardiner@ and bjones@ or on X — @DustinGardiner and @jonesblakej. WHERE'S GAVIN? In Los Angeles County for a roughly 12:15 p.m. announcement about 'literacy and student success.' Watch the governor's news conference here. STATE CAPITOL DRIVER'S SEAT — California's latest battle over the gig economy will continue after the Assembly narrowly passed legislation to let Uber and Lyft drivers unionize. The measure was expected to pass given the clout of backers like SEIU California and Appropriations Chair Buffy Wicks. But the relatively narrow 44-vote margin, with numerous Democrats holding off, underscored how fights over app-based workers remain contentious years after they first came to dominate Sacramento's agenda. In that time, the struggle shifted from the courts to the Legislature to the ballot to the courts to the Legislature again. Now it moves to the Senate. Per Wicks, there are still 'many conversations to have.' — Jeremy B. White Number of the day 61.2 CENTS — That's how much California's gas tax will increase to per gallon, effective July 1. It's a slight hike from the current rate of 59.6 cents per gallon. The annual inflationary increase is baked into the state's fuel tax that lawmakers approved in 2017, which was signed into law by then-Gov. Jerry Brown. Republicans at the state Capitol tried — once again — this session to freeze the gas tax. They were rebuffed, per usual, by the Democratic supermajority. The tax pays for highway repairs and construction, as well as mass transit projects. CLIMATE AND ENERGY RAILROADED — California Democrats rallied around the state's high-speed rail project Wednesday after Trump announced he'd withhold $4 billion previously allotted for construction. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff in a statement accused Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy of seeking to 'appease President Trump and punish Californians who didn't vote for him.' 'In Donald Trump's corrupt world, there's no need for high-speed rail when you can accept a $400 million jet from a foreign government,' the senators wrote. 'But for the millions of Californians left to pick up the tab for Trump's reckless trade wars and rising costs of living, today's announcement is devastating.' Read last night's California Climate on why Trump's attacks are strengthening Democrats' support for the controversial project. Top Talkers GOING TO THE MATT — San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan defended his Pay for Performance initiative on X after Councilmember David Cohen told the San Jose Spotlight that the effort came 'straight out of the toolkit of authoritarian governments.' Mahan's plan would tie the pay raises of some city employees to performance metrics, like in many private-sector jobs. 'I'm tired of my fellow Democrats crying authoritarianism whenever they disagree with something — that is something that shouldn't be taken lightly or used as a catchall for discontent,' the mayor wrote. PALM SPRINGS UPDATE — U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli says Daniel Park has been charged with providing and attempting to provide material to support a terrorist in connection with the car bombing at a Palm Springs fertility clinic last month, the Los Angeles Times reports. Park is accused of helping Guy Edward Bartkus, the other suspect who died in the attack, secure 270 pounds of ammonium nitrate. AROUND THE STATE — A federal judge ruled that San Diego must allow beach yoga classes to resume immediately after they began cracking down on the practice in 2024. (The San Diego Union-Tribune) — Despite San Francisco's downtown slump, two shopping destinations are booming thanks to Asian retailers and restaurants. (San Francisco Chronicle) — The San Jose City Council will vote next week on Mahan's Responsibility to Shelter proposal, which would allow police to arrest or cite homeless people who repeatedly refuse shelter. (The Mercury News) Compiled by Nicole Norman PLAYBOOKERS PEOPLE MOVES — Louie Kahn of Rep. Ami Bera's office has been promoted from deputy communications director and digital director to communications director. — Joe Arellano is now spokesperson for the Stop the Recall campaign in support of San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio. He's a veteran SF comms pro and worked for former Mayors London Breed and Gavin Newsom. BIRTHDAYS — former Assemblymember Evan Low, CEO of LGBTQ+ Victory Fund (favorite cake: rainbow) … actor Mark Wahlberg … musician Kenny G WANT A SHOUT-OUT FEATURED? — Send us a birthday, career move or another special occasion to include in POLITICO's California Playbook. You can now submit a shout-out using this Google form.
