Congressman Details How Trump Strong-Arms Votes In House, And It Sounds Spot-On
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) on Wednesday described President Donald Trump's tactics to bully Republican House members who don't vote his way. (Watch the video below.)
Boyle correctly predicted the House would eventually pass Trump's so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which would slash $1 trillion from federal health and food programs while solidifying $4 trillion in tax cuts for mostly wealthier Americans.
But Boyle's version of how the president reverses the votes of recalcitrant Republicans is a must to check out.
'I have seen time and time again House Republican members saying they're a 'no' at the outset, and then suddenly they get a tap on the shoulder,' Boyle told MSNBC 'All In' host Chris Hayes. 'They're dragged out of the House floor and back to their Republican members' cloak room, and they're handed a cellphone, and it's Donald Trump literally yelling at them and cursing at them.'
Whether or not the president used his alleged high-volume powers of persuasion this time around, Boyle's forecast that any GOP holdouts would cave appeared to come true.
'I tend to think that that history will repeat itself, and that one way or the other, they'll be able to get the votes,' he said before the all-night session. 'I hope I'm wrong. I pray that I'm wrong. I'm going to fight like hell to make sure this awful policy doesn't become law. But I've just seen them fold too many times before to believe that they won't fold again this time.'
The bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate.
The Most Brutal Zingers About Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' During Fiery House Debate
House Passes Trump's Tax And Spending Cuts
'Gross': House Republicans Ripped Over 'Incredibly Creepy' New Way To Honor Trump
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
4 minutes ago
- CNN
Sen. Coons: ‘President Trump's bill certainly is big, but it's not beautiful'
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons slams President Trump's tax bill as it makes its way through the Senate and talks with CNN's Wolf Blitzer about why Republicans are still more trusted to handle the economy.
CNN
5 minutes ago
- CNN
Laura Loomer meets with Vice President JD Vance at White House complex, sources say
Laura Loomer, the far-right activist who once posted a video claiming 9/11 was an 'inside job,' was back at the White House complex Tuesday morning, where she met privately with Vice President JD Vance, three sources familiar with the meeting tell CNN. The sources would not share the substance of the one-on-one closed-door meeting, which occurred in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, or what was discussed. Loomer did not meet with President Donald Trump and has since departed the White House complex, one of the sources said. After Loomer's last known visit to the White House in April, the White House fired several National Security Council staffers whom she labeled as disloyal. The administration also fired the director and deputy director of the National Security Agency. Loomer, who has a loyal online following, has been an influential figure in the Trump administration. She has a direct line to the president and has been known to influence personnel decisions, though she has not been able to secure a White House press credential. 'I do think there's a fear that I may ask questions about the loyalties of people in the White House,' she told CNN recently, 'and they fear me having a national and global microphone to ask those questions.' Loomer had publicly criticized then-national security adviser Michael Waltz before he was ousted from his position, accusing the former Florida congressman of making poor personnel choices. She weighed in more recently on the administration's move to withdraw Jared Isaacman as its nominee to be the next NASA administrator, touting Isaacman's professional accomplishments and questioning why the White House would not move forward on him. During the 2024 campaign, Trump's travels with Loomer on September 11 were illustrative of her influence with the then-candidate. But her proximity to Trump sparked some friction in part because she had previously posted a video claiming that the attack on the World Trade Center towers was an 'inside job.' Loomer told CNN at the time, 'I've never denied the fact that Islamic terrorists carried out the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In fact, the media calls me anti Muslim precisely for the reason that I spend so much time focusing on talking about the threats of Islamic terrorism in America.'
Los Angeles Times
5 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Trump pushes a July 4th deadline for big tax bill as senators dig in
WASHINGTON — President Trump wants his 'big, beautiful' bill of tax breaks and spending cuts on his desk to be signed into law by the Fourth of July, and he's pushing the slow-rolling Senate to make it happen sooner rather than later. Trump met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune at the White House early this week and has been dialing senators for one-on-one chats, using both the carrot and stick to nudge, badger and encourage them to act. But it's still a long road ahead for the 1,000-page-plus package. 'His question to me was, How do you think the bill's going to go in the Senate?' Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said about his call with Trump. 'Do you think there's going to be problems?' It's a potentially tumultuous three-week sprint for senators preparing to put their own imprint on the massive Republican package that cleared the House late last month by a single vote. The senators have been meeting for weeks behind closed doors, including as they returned to Washington late Monday, to revise the package ahead of what is expected to be a similarly narrow vote in the Senate. 'Passing THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL is a Historic Opportunity to turn our Country around,' Trump posted on social media. He urged them Monday 'to work as fast as they can to get this Bill to MY DESK before the Fourth of JULY.' Thune, like House Speaker Mike Johnson, has few votes to spare from the Senate's slim, 53-seat GOP majority. Democrats are waging an all-out political assault on GOP proposals to cut Medicaid, food stamps and green energy investments to help pay for more than $4.5 trillion in tax cuts — with many lawmakers being hammered at boisterous town halls back home. 'It'd be nice if we could have everybody on board to do it, but, you know, individual members are going to stake out their positions,' Thune said Tuesday. 'But in the end, we have to succeed. Failure's not an option. We've got to get to 51. So we'll figure out the path forward to do that over the next couple of weeks.' At its core, the package seeks to extend the tax cuts approved in 2017, during Trump's first term at the White House, and add new ones the presidents campaigned on, including no taxes on tips and others. It also includes a massive build-up of $350 billion for border security, deportations and national security. To defray the lost tax revenue to the government and avoid piling onto the nation's $36 trillion debt load, Republicans want reduce federal spending by imposing work requirements for some Americans who rely on government safety net services. Estimates are 8.6 million people would no longer have health care and nearly 4 million would lose Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program benefits, known as SNAP. The package also would raise the nation's debt limit by $4 trillion to allow more borrowing to pay the bills. Senate Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer said Trump's bill 'is ugly to its very core.' Schumer said Tuesday it's a 'lie' that the cuts won't hurt Americans. 'Behind the smoke and mirrors lies a cruel and draconian truth: tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy paid for by gutting health care for millions of Americans,' said the New York senator. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is expected to soon provide an overall analysis of the package's impacts on the government balance sheets, particular its rising annual deficits. But Republicans are ready to blast those findings from the congressional scorekeeper as flawed. Trump Tuesday switched to tougher tactics, deriding the holdout Republican senators to get on board. The president laid into Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the libertarian-leaning deficit hawk who has made a career of arguing against government spending. Paul wants the package's $4 trillion increase to the debt ceiling out of the bill. 'Rand votes NO on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy (losers!).' Trump posted. The July 4th deadline is not only aspirational for the president, it's all but mandatory for his Treasury Department. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned Congress that the nation will run out of money to pay its bills if the debt ceiling, now at $36 trillion, is not lifted by mid-July or early August to allow more borrowing. Bessent has also been meeting behind closed doors with senators and GOP leadership. Thune acknowledged Tuesday that lifting the debt ceiling is not up for debate. 'It's got to be done,' the South Dakota senator said. The road ahead is also a test for Thune who, like Johnson, is a newer leader in Congress and among the many Republicans adjusting their own priorities with Trump's return to the White House. While Johnson has warned against massive changes to the package, Thune faces demands from his senators for adjustments. To make most of the tax cuts permanent — particularly the business tax breaks that are the Senate priorities — senators may shave some of Trump's proposed new tax breaks on automobile loans or overtime pay, which are policies less prized by some senators. There are also discussions about altering the $40,000 cap that the House proposed for state and local deductions, known as SALT, which are important to lawmakers in high-tax New York, California and other states, but less so among GOP senators. 'We're having all those discussions,' said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., another key voice in the debate. Hawley is a among a group of senators, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who have raised concerns about the Medicaid changes that could boot people from health insurance. A potential copay of up to $35 for Medicaid services that was part of the House package, as well as a termination of a provider tax that many states rely on to help fund rural hospitals, have also raised concerns. 'The best way to not be accused of cutting Medicaid is to not cut Medicaid,' Hawley said. Collins said she is reviewing the details. There's also a House provision that would allow the auction of spectrum bandwidth that some senators oppose. Mascaro and Jalonick write for the Associated Press. AP writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.
