McCarthy punts on Greene + Billionaire won’t challenge Newsom + EDD package is coming
Good morning and welcome as always to the A.M. Alert!
MCCARTHY DEFENDS QANON CONGRESSWOMAN’S COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENT
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday released a statement about his fellow Republican, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
As a refresher, Greene has faced heightened media scrutiny in recent days for her public support of conspiracy theories, including claiming falsely that Rothschild Inc., a frequent subject of anti-Semitic tropes, and then-Gov. Jerry Brown used space lasers to cause the 2018 Camp Fire.
To be clear: The Camp Fire was caused by PG&E power lines, not space lasers.
“Past comments from and endorsed by Marjorie Taylor Greene on school shootings, political violence, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories do not represent the values or beliefs of the House Republican Conference. I condemn those comments unequivocally. I condemned them in the past. I continue to condemn them today. This House condemned QAnon last Congress and continues to do so today,” McCarthy said in a statement.
McCarthy said that he has spoken with Greene and made it clear such remarks are unacceptable, and that Greene understood.
But does spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and endorsing the execution of Democratic lawmakers merit removing Greene from her committee assignments?
McCarthy doesn’t think so. He stopped well short of calling for Greene to be stripped of her committee assignments, and in fact accused House Democrats of “choosing to raise the temperature” by moving to remove Greene from committees.
McCarthy then went on to complain about several Democratic lawmakers’ committee assignments.
CHAMATH OUT
Via Lara Korte...
The billionaire-former-Facebook-executive Chamath Palihapitiya said he’s not going to launch a campaign for governor, despite tweeting out a link to what appeared to be a campaign website last week.
“Let’s be really honest. I’m not ready to do any of that,” Palihapitiya told the co-hosts on his “All In” podcast on Wednesday.
Even if he’s not trying to take Gov. Gavin Newsom’s job, he’s still backing the effort to unseat him. State records show the billionaire donated $100,000 to the campaign to recall Newsom on Friday.
Palihapitiya has been openly critical of the governor, taking shots at his performance during COVID-19 and California’s affordability and homelessness problems. The tech investor joins a growing chorus of Californians who are looking to knock Newsom out of office. Recall organizers have until March 17 to collect the necessarily 1.5 million signatures needed to trigger a recall election, and said this week they’ve collected 1.3 million so far.
LAWMAKERS TO UNVEIL EDD REFORM PACKAGE TODAY
A band of nine Assembly members are set to announce a number of initiatives aimed at reforming the beleaguered Employment Development Department, which has struggled with getting unemployment checks out in a timely manner, and with sending out checks to fraudulent applicants.
The lawmakers include Assemblymembers David Chiu, D-San Francisco; Wendy Carrillo, D-Los Angeles; Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego; Chad Mayes, I-Yucca Valley; Adrin Nazarian, D-Van Nuys; Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Laguna Beach; Rudy Salas Jr., D-Bakersfield; Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles; and Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland.
The announcement comes on the heels of a punishing audit, which found that the EDD’s response to widespread fraud was “marked by significant missteps and inaction.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“If I was concerned about lawsuits, I would have collapsed a year ago. We receive dozens of them every week.”
- Gov. Gavin Newsom, in response to the lawsuit filed by two high school athletes in San Diego seeking an immediate return to competition.
Best of the Bee:
If a high school football season doesn’t happen in this spring, or any number of other sports, really, it won’t be for a lack of effort, via Joe Davidson.
California is running short of inmates who have for decades fought the state’s wildfires, as the state braces for the possibility of yet another drought and a summer of catastrophic infernos. So it may go on a firefighter hiring spree this year, via Ryan Sabalow.
The criminal case against a Southern California man accused of harassing Rep. Devin Nunes’ wife centers on two vulgar emails she received a year ago at her work email address, according to law enforcement records obtained by McClatchy, via Kate Irby.