Posted on 10/21/2023 4:14:03 AM PDT by Libloather
Florida Congressman Byron Donalds has announced he is running to become the first African American speaker of the House.
The politician, 44, who endorsed Donald Trump's 2024 White House bid, shared news of his candidacy on X (formerly twitter) on Friday.
'I look forward to securing the votes of a majority of my Republican colleagues to become the first African-American Speaker, the first Speaker from the great state of Florida and the next Speaker of the 118th Congress,' he said.
It comes after Republicans voted out Jim Jordan as their House speaker nominee after he tried - and failed - three times to capture enough support to become GOP leader.
There has been a struggle as to who should lead the House of Representatives after Republican Kevin McCarthy was ousted in a historic vote on October 3.
Donalds' office confirmed his candidacy on Friday evening and shared a statement from the politician on X.
'Tonight I am announcing my candidacy for speaker of the US House of Representatives,' he said.
'My sole focus will be securing our border, funding our government responsibly, advancing a conservative vision for the House of Representative and the American people and expanding our Republican majority.
'As a member of this conference, I’ve seen firsthand the devotion of my colleagues to improving the lives of their constituents and the future of America.
'We come from different walks of life but share the common pursuit of a more perfect union.
'As speaker, every voice in our conference will have a seat at the table to ensure our unity and consensus on the legislative battles we face.'
He continued: 'Under my leadership, the House will lead the charge to advance a simple objective: Put the American people first, keep them safe and make their lives easier.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“ I’m pretty sure voting against him would be raciss.”
It does create an interesting situation for the CBC.
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factcheck.org
D'Angelo Gore
Feb 23, 2023
snip
In total, about $113.1 billion in funding for Ukraine was authorized in 2022, according to an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Most of that – about $67.1 billion – was for defense-related spending, the CRFB said. The other $46 billion included $26.9 billion for an economic support fund; $7.9 billion for international disaster assistance; $6.6 billion in assistance for refugees; $1.5 billion for assistance for Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia; plus another $3.1 billion for other nondefense spending.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has been coordinating with the Treasury Department to distribute authorized economic aid to Ukraine in tranches. In a report published on Feb. 17, USAID said it had so far provided $13 billion in “direct budget support” to the government of Ukraine, or “GoU” for short.
“This funding has helped the Ukraine pay the salaries of 618,000 educators, 517,000 health workers, and 56,500 first responders,” the report says. “It has also helped them to sustain critical healthcare services, meet its pension responsibilities for 9.8 million people, assist 1.3 million internally displaced persons, provide housing assistance to 4.1 million people, and provide social assistance to 240,000 low-income families and 480,000 persons with disabilities.”
That report did not say how much was spent on pensions, but a USAID spokesperson sent us another USAID report to Congress that indicated $4 billion of budget support for Ukraine was spent on pensions as of Nov. 30, 2022.
The bottom line: While the video of Biden talking about providing funding to pay Ukrainian pensioners may have caught some by surprise, the fact is that Biden made those comments BEFORE Congress approved the money months ago on a bipartisan basis.
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Update, Feb. 23, 2023: After we published this story, a USAID spokesperson responded to our request for more information. We updated this story to include the amount spent on pensions
This is getting very interesting. I don’t dislike the idea and I hope it puts the ‘25’ in such a quandary that they have to vote for him. They just may be sorry they didn’t vote for Jordan! LOL
Can't ignore the felony conviction for bank fraud for Speaker of the House.
I like what he’s saying. May his actions match his words should he be elected
He just got a total of two votes, one of them from the equally black John James, my congressman...James is a dumbass
I don’t care anymore, the Republican party is utterly dead to me, it’s a non-entity. Why even pick a speaker when they do absolutely nothing anyway??
The DemoMarxistNazi party gets to do whatever the hell they want while the Republican party is in one big coma.
Look at the last time Republicans had a majority in 2017. They had the WH, house and senate and the DemoMarxistNazis STILL stomped all over them with that Russia collusion BS. Unbelievable! Compare that to 2020 where the DemoMarxistNazis immediately crushed any opposition to the Biden stolen election.
The fact is the Republican party is about as useful as Anne Frank with a drum kit
They’ll call him an “uncle Tom” or an “oreo” and vote against him without missing a step.
Since criminal activity is SOP on capital hill …. Don’t know if criminal activities prior to capital hill could be considered training for a position on capital hill. The entire congress is corrupt so a small time criminal goes to Washington to become a Big Time criminal. Would make a great TRUE movie for the majority of our congresscritters ……
Byron Donalds would be an even better choice than Jim Jordan. He’s very MAGA. So the RINOs will dislike him even more. Hopefully they’ll be too scared of being called RRRRRACISSSSS!
That would be truly hilarious if they were forced to swallow a Trump supporting MAGA Republican because he’s Black.
Find the 20 votes against him, and note them as racists. Fair way of handling the mess created.
First Black anything in history is no bfd anymore so gtf over yourselves.
JJ seems like a decent guy, but we need a ruthless Pelosi-esque fighter and I don’t think he’s that guy.
I think Gaetz could do it. Maybe my previous, Rep. Burchett. Or Stefanik.
Donalds might be good as far as conference creds go, but is he tough enough? We have a batch of dreadful members in the House.
I really like the guy,, but he’s only been in congress for 34 months. 4 in the Florida house
Trying to herd the feral cats in his caucus would be tough on its own, but he’d also have to deal with a hostile Senate and demented Potato
The job requires negotiating, and the first time strays from a pure MAGA agenda, he’ll be called RINO, a sellout, and McCarthy Lite by the purists and will forever wear that brand
I hate to see them eating him alive and tainting his future
The GOP’s role is to act like there is a opposition party in America, when we all know there isn’t one. Normies line up and cast their vote, and all they deliver is the same trash as the dems.
I highly do we’ll see a MAGA Speaker
Jordan was about as close as we’d get
I’d prefer having a black American speaker as opposed to an African American house speaker.
However, I can't get past Donalds' no contest plea for felony bank fraud.
The House holds the purse strings. We must not have a GOP House Speaker with a felony bank fraud conviction. No matter that the record was later expunged for whatever reason.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?531262-8/rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-speaker-election# .. She’s our Rep.
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