Back in session and Congress goes censure crazy! (11-20-2025--Hour3)

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. So remember, I don't know, it's been a while, but like I'm old enough to remember it, so maybe maybe you do too. Remember when the government was shut down and everybody was like, hey, we got to get these people back into session. They need to be working for the American people and all of that. Well, now they're back in session and man it is lit. They are just like censuring each other. They're just they're just going at it. So is this really what we wanted them? Like, we can we shut it down again? How about we just shut down? Can we just shut down the Congress for a little while, just the Congress? Maybe? How about we try that, you know, like a control all delete kind of a thing, Like can we just try to like shut it down, give it five minutes or something, and then bring it back online see if it resets. You know. So over the last few days, while we've been focusing a lot, and rightfully so, on the customs and Border patrol operation here in Charlotte, the members of Congress have just been ripping each other apart, trying to pass all sorts of resolutions, saying this person stinks. That person stinks. I don't like them, they did wrong, They're bad. All this stuff. None of them have passed, but that's what they But they keep running, which like I don't know why I do, well, I do know why. This is great for fundraising. Okay, this stuff is great for funding, and you know, try to think of like where people's incentives may be on some of this stuff. All right, So I'm gonna get to him and try to hit all of these different censure moves that have been going on. But I have to start first with the previously unknown Democrat Representative Sheila Cherphillis McCormick. She has been indicted on charges of stealing five million dollars in federal disaster funds and then using some of that money to assist her in her twenty twenty one congressional campaign. So woh, so she's like a national version of Tijuana Brown here in Charlotte, except she used the money to get elected rather than on like an extravagant birthday party with a horse drawn carriage in a queen's throne. The Florida Democrat is accused of stealing FEMA payments. FEMA money in the form of overpaid so FEMA paid her too much money that her family healthcare company had received through a federally funded COVID nineteen vaccination staffing contract. A portion of the money was then funneled to support her campaign through candidate contributions. According to prosecutors who laid this out in their charges, I have never heard of this one. But look, there's four hundred and thirty five members of Congress. I probably don't know half of them at least. Okay. Sherphillis McCormick's attorneys, David oscar Marcus Margo Moss, and Melissa Madrigal, I think you have to have the last name that starts with an M to get on that legal team. Anyway. They said in a statement that Sherphillis McCormick quote is a committed public servant who is dedicated to her constituents. We will fight to clear her good name. Which is not exactly a denial that I'm going to read this sentence again because this is like, I know, there's an inference of innocence, but everybody has that presumption. They say she's a committed public servant who is dedicated to her constituents, and the lawyers are going to fight to clear her good name. That is not like maybe they have a different statement maybe out there saying something a little bit more specific, maybe more explicitly saying, you know, she's innocent of all the charges. She didn't do this, we will prove it whatever. She was first elected to Congress in twenty twenty two in Florida's twentieth district, representing parts of Broward County and Palm Beach County. This was a special election that was held after Representative Alce Hastings died in twenty twenty one. One. So fast forward then to twenty twenty four, a Florida state agency sued a company owned by her family. Right the Florida State agency, the Florida Division of Emergency Management, sued her company, saying that her company had overcharged the state by almost five point eight million dollars for work that they did during the pandemic, and the company said they were not going to give the money back to the State of Florida. Right, They're like, no, we we did everything that we said we would do. We fulfilled the contract. The Florida Division of Emergency Management said that it made a series of overpayments to Trinity Healthcare Services. Okay, that's her family's company, after the state hired Trinity in twenty twenty one to register people for COVID nineteen vacations. The agency says that it discovered the problem after a single overpayment of five million dollars drew their attention, which that does tend to happen with a five million dollar draw down, right, And Sherphillis McCormick, the now congresswoman, she was the CEO of Trinity at that time. Now, the Office of Congressional Ethics said in a January report that Sherphillis McCormick's income in twenty twenty one was coincidentally a little bit more than six million dollars higher than it was the previous year, which is pretty close to the five million, five point eight million overpayment. You know, it's a little that number looks a little weird. In July, the House Ethics Committee unanimously voted to reauthorize and invest the Degative Subcommittee to examine the allegations involving Sherphillis McCormick. But now she's got bigger problems, because you know, congressional ethics is one thing, but besides the oxymoron. But now now she's got an indictment on federal charges of stealing the five million dollars in disaster funds. So there's that. Then there is the censure fest that's been going on up in Washington. So I'll start with the attempted censure of Corey Mills, also from Florida. Corey Mills is a Republican. Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace from South Carolina introduced a resolution to censure Corey Mills and remove him from all of his committees. She listed allegations of harassment, assault, stolen valor, as well as improper contracts by his Arms Safells company. Now, this motion failed, this censure resolution that was offered up it failed. Mills narrowly avoided a formal rebuke by his colleagues. Last night, Mace stood at the podium while her censure resolution was read and stared directly at Mills, who sat just a few seats away from her. Seven Republicans voted with her and that that is not enough. That's just not enough, not enough votes to get that done. That included Representatives Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia, Lauren Bobert of Colorado, Timberchett of Tennessee, Joe Wilson of South Carolina, Kat Camick of Florida, and Harriet Hageman of Wyoming. Now, I don't know, well, Nancy mas is running for governor of South Carolina, right, so I don't know if this is part of like a political calculation. However, there may be a bit of there may be a bit of personality conflict going on here or personal animis. Maybe At the Hill dot Com they kind of go through the sort of what led up to this, and there are accusations that there are deals being made to protect members from censure resolutions, and this is a bipartisan thing, Democrats trading Republicans and vice versa in order to protect their own members, So like, we won't vote for your censured your censure resolution if you don't vote against our person. That kind of a deal. You know. Stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life, and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video started in nineteen ninety seven and Minhill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creative video dot com. All right, I got a message from Russ. He says, let me help you out with interpreting Nancy Mace's motivations. If she does or says anything, it is one hundred percent politically motivated. Hope it helps. There you go, all right, So that's good to know. Thank you. So she introduces this censure resolution against one of her Republican colleagues in the House named Corey Mills from Florida, and the failed censure effort comes after the House Ethics Committee announced the creation of a new subcommittee yesterday to investigate the allegations against Mills involving sexual misconduct and financial impropriety. Mills has consistently denied any wrongdoing. Nancy Mays slammed the creation of this ethics panel just hours before her censure resolution. She called it a naked attempt to kill my resolution to censure Mills, right, because well, we have this investigation now set up, so we don't need to censure him. House Democrats have previously threatened to advance a censure measure against Mills on several occasions in an attempt to ward off GOP led efforts to formally rebuke Democrats. So Democratic New York Representative Evette Clark she submitted a censure resolution against Mills Tuesday night, but that was after Republicans. She withdrew her resolution after Republicans did not secure enough votes to reprimand Democratic Delegate Stacy Plaskett over her ties to the late convicted sex predator Jeffrey Epstein. See, so Democrats have been holding this censure of Mills as a as a sort of sort of damoclet. He's like, if you try to censure any of us, we're gonna censure Corey Mills. So Nancy Mays is like, let's do it, and then all the Democrats vote no, and that indicates right that there is some coordination about this stuff going on. Democrats have actually done three different efforts to censure Corey Mills in the recent months, but every one of those was a retaliatory threat in response to a Republican attempt to censure a Democrat. The censures of those Democrats all failed, So then the Democrats declined to force votes on censuring Mills. Three Republicans voted with all the Democrats against the censure resolution of Stacy Plaskett and three other Republicans voted present, so that measure failed. Annapaulina Luna, Republican from Florida, insinuated a shady deal had led to the plasket resolution failing in order to protect Mills, which that is what it looks like. Mills put out a statement he said he expected that censer to succeed against him, saying, I voted to center plasket, so I didn't cut any deal. He said. Let me be perfectly clear, there was no backroom deal, no negotiation, and no quid pro quo of any kind that would have forced the Democrats to stand down on that vote against me. Anyone pushing that narrative is just wrong. Another censure of Mills that never moved forward came after the House in September rejected an effort also brought by Nancy Mays. She was trying to censure Representative ill On Omar over comments that she posted about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk Mills, who was facing a retaliatory censure. If Omar's reprimand had succeeded, he was going to get one. He was the last minute deciding vote to sinc ilan Omar's censure Mills denied his vote against the censer was a way to protect himself. It just worked out that way for him. That's when Mace went on the offense against Corey Mills. So when Mace put this up up for ilan Omar up for a censure resolution, it lost by one vote. Corey Mills was won. And then after that vote they withdrew the censure resolution against Mills. The Democrats withdrew their motion, and that's what got Nancy mas All upset. A similar retaliatory center of Mills was also abandoned in September when Republicans killed a resolution that was trying to censure Representative La Monica mc iver, she of the famous TV show democrat from New Jersey who was facing charges resulting from her fisticuffs clash with the immigration officials at that detention center in New Jersey. So Republicans put a centre resolution up against her, and the Democrats said, oh, well, then we're going to cent your Corey Mills again, and then Republicans tabled THEIRS and Democrats withdrew THEIRS in response. So yeah, it does look like there's some sort of deal going on. We won't criticize yours if you don't criticize ours, here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion, Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. 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And this is because Jeffrey Epstein, the now dead convicted pedophile, was apparently feeding questions to her during a twenty nineteen congressional hearing and giving her real time help on how to damage President Trump's reputation. This was part of the batch of emails and documents that the House Overside Committee dumped. There was like twenty thousand of these emails and they dumped all this stuff out. The texts were first reported though by the Washington Post, and it shows they lined this up with the video and everything from the hearing and shows that Epstein was chatting with Plasket during a February twenty seven, twenty nineteen House Overside Committee hearing in which Trump's former fixer, attorney Guy Michael Cohen, was testifying about Trump's alleged payments to mistresses in order to silence stories before the twenty sixteen election. Right and in the text, Epstein appeared to be watching on TV while Cohen brought up a former Trump executive assistant named Rona graph ronagraph no relation to the phonograph. Okay, Cohen, this is what Epstein texted. Cohen brought up Rona, keeper of the secrets, and he misspelled her first name. But Plaska didn't know what he was talking about because he all capped her name and misspelled it. So it's r O NA And so she responds, rona question mark question mark quick, I'm up next? Is that an acronym? So she didn't know what he was talking about. So she's responding to him like, oh, brought up Rona. What's Rona? Tell me what the acronym name means? I'm up next? She has to In other words, her time is about to start. Epstein quickly responds, that's his assistant. He has opened the door to questions regarding who are the other henchmen at Trump dot org or at Trump Org. She says, yep, very aware and waiting my turn. She then begins questioning Cohen at two twenty eight, and she asks about Rona Graf as well as with other Trump associates Epstein had mentioned. Are there other people that we should be meeting with? She asks Cohen, and Cohen says so, Alan Weiselberg is the chief financial officer in the Trump organization. And then she says, you've got to quickly give us as many names as you can so we can get to them. Is what is miss Rona's name? Rona Graf? She's executive assistant. Cohen responds, her office is directly next to his. She's involved in a lot of what went on. And then Plasket's time expires and Epstein sends her attacks that says, good work. The documents redacted Plasket's name. So had the Washington Post not done this analysis, had not found these emails and lined it up with a congressional hearing, we would not know this. Now, keep in mind, this is twenty nineteen. Epstein was already convicted on state prostitution charges and just a couple months later, he would be charged with sex trafficking of minors. Epstein owned two private islands in the US Virgin Islands, which the FEDS have called the nexus of his sex trafficking operations. Plasket initially declined comment, but after the newspaper published its story, her office issued a statement confirming yes, she did have contact during the hearing with her former campaign donor, Jeffrey Epstein. Quote. During the hearing, Congresswoman Plasket received texts from staff, constituents, and the public at large offering advice, support, and in some cases, partisan vitriol, including from Epstein. As a former prosecutor, she welcomes information that helps her get at the truth and took on the GOP that was trying to bury the truth. She's previously made clear her long recording combating sexual assault and human trafficking, her disgust over Epstein's devian behavior, her support for his victims. The Virgin Islands delegate in July of twenty nineteen said she would part ways with over eight thousand dollars in campaign donations that he had given her, after initially saying that she was going to keep the cash, but then she caved on that credit to Caitlin Collins because she had Hakeem Jeffreys on the House Minority Leader and asked him about this. Have you heard Stacy Plaskett there, she was arguing her text with that Jeffrey Epstein were not illegal, but in your view, were they appropriate? Well, Stacey Plaskett is not accused of violating any House rule, any law, any statute, and she's clearly and on the quick denounced Jeffrey Epstein. And I think what the survivors fought for today is the type of transparency that came out of the House, went through the Senate, and is now on its way to Donald Trump's death where hopefully he'll sign it into law. Because at the end of the day, all the American people I'm asking for is just the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, which is why these Epstein files that Donald Trump and his administration has been hiding for months need to be released. But do you think it was appropriate for her to be texting with Jeffrey Epstein eleven years after he pleaded guilty. I mean, I have not had a conversation with Stacey Plaskett to discuss this issue because we've been focused today on making sure that there was a decisive vote as. A related tests, not an answer. The Epstein files and the release. Do you think it was appropriate of. Representative massity of Rocanna? But most importantly the survivors. Do you plan to talk to her about it? I think that we successfully defeated a resolution that lack any basis was incredible, was not credible, and was being brought by an individual who was trying to weaponize this issue to reinvigorate his own failed gubernatorial campaign in South Carolina. All Right, so doesn't answer the questions is it appropriate that she was texting? Are you planning to talk to her about it? Doesn't answer any of those questions, but at least she asked them. All Right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, and you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. As part of the censurefest that resulted in zero censures in DC, another one that was floated was against Jasmine Jazzy Jazz fresh Face Jasmine Crockett from Texas, the code switcher in chief, and this was because she got onto the floor of the house where you can say whatever you want and not be sued for defamation or slander because you have a protection there. So she gets up on the floor and she's accusing all of these Republicans of taking money from Jeffrey Epstein, one of the people she accused of taking and this was in response to the news that class Get was getting these texts or was swapping texts, which, by the way, she initiated. She reached out to Jeffrey Epstein during that hearing of Michael Cohens. She was the one that initiated that, and she now says, oh, I was just trying to get information to help with the questioning and whatever. So that prompted the backlash from Democrats that are like, oh, yeah, well you took money too. And she lists Lee Zelden, who's the EPA chief now former congressman. He ran for governor, a Republican, and her staff went through the FEC filings and found these Republicans that took money from Jeffrey Epstein. So she gets on the House floor and accuses them of taking money from Jeffrey Epstein. Slight problem, as Lee Zelden pointed out, if you actually looked at the documents that are uploaded to the FEC, the Jeffrey Epstein that gave money to Lee Zelden is actually a physician and not the other Jeffrey Epstein, not the guy who hanged himself or maybe did not that guy. It's just he's a doctor who has the same name. And he made his donation to lee Zelden on August thirty first, twenty twenty, which is after the other Jeffrey Epstein killed himself or did it like That's so it would not be possible for that donation to have occurred. But they didn't even do any research on it. They just saw a name, Jeffrey Epstein, and they said that must be the guy, and they smeared lee Zelden. Now and by the way, Trump did sign that. I think there's a loophole here and one other point here on the centrefest, and I'll go into this because this is just classic Democrat being Democrat behavior. Chewey Garcia out of Illinois. There was also a condemnation against him that was floated by a Democrat because of the way he obviously rigged his seat for the next election because he decided not to run again and he cleared the field in order for his preferred candidate to take the seat. That one didn't go anywhere either, but that was part of the Centerfest. But sticking with the Epstein files story, Trump last night signed the bill ordering the Department of Justice to release its records on Epstein. The Department now has thirty days to comply with the bill and release the evidence and records that it has compiled on Epstein. Here's the key from Daily Wire, notwithstanding any redactions to the materials. Okay, so they're gonna they're making redactions. So that's the first thing to keep in mind. The bill reached the President's desk after the House voted to approve the release of the records earlier this week. The President had long resisted the efforts to release the files, calling accusations that he was attempting to hide the facts of the case a hoax while blaming Democrats for pushing conspiracies. The President switched to supporting the file's release on Monday, urging House Republicans to support the measure after it became clear that the bill would pass regardless. Under the bill, Attorney General Pam Bondi has thirty days to release all unclassified information. There's another one unclassified related to Jeffrey Epstein. Bondi is allowed to withhold or redact int that could jeopardize a federal investigation. Now, this is the problem because subpoenas went out to banks for Epstein's financial records and stuff. So does that mean that they're going to now shield a bunch of stuff because they say it's part of an ongoing investigation. Much of the remaining materials cannot be released also because they are under seal by a court order, so they're not going to be allowed to release that stuff either. So I'll be watching, I'll be watching. We'll see what happens there on o'clock now thirty days. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.