The House voted to pass a rule vote to begin debate on four separate spending bills after two rules votes failed last week, prompting Republicans to burst into applaus on the floor.  

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was the only Republican to vote against the rule, opposing the ‘blood money’ it contained for Ukraine. 

The House now moves on to debating amendments for the agriculture-FDA, defense, homeland security and state appropriations bills.

McCarthy celebrated the win in a news conference with reporters after the vote where he vowed to bring a stopgap spending bill to the floor to extend the September 30 deadline for a government shutdown.

He said he would bring it to the floor whether or not it had the votes to pass as multiple GOP members remain opposed to any CR, arguing the House must pass 12 single-subject spending bills or nothing.  

‘We want to make sure government stays open as we do our work,’ he said. 

But the speaker scoffed at the Senate‘s new bipartisan CR plan that includes money for Ukraine and disaster relief. He said the Senate’s priorities are ‘backwards’ because their CR included money for Ukraine but did not include border security provisions.  

With only four days to shutdown, the rule vote gave a hint of optimism to the House GOP, which is not facing new pressure to agree on spending legislation after the Senate released a bill that would kick the deadline for a government shutdown down the road by six weeks.

The continuing resolution (CR), endorsed by both Senate leaders Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would extend government funding from September 30 to November 17. 

It includes over $6 billion in Ukraine aid, sure to trigger some House conservatives. It also includes $6 billion in disaster relief and no border provisions. 

It’s unlikely the deal could pass before Sunday if Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., holds up ‘quick passage’ – which requires unanimous consent. He claimed Tuesday he would continue to do so. 

‘I will object to any kind of easy passage or speeding up of the time. I think it’s bad policy to borrow money from China to send it to Ukraine.’

Meanwhile Speaker Kevin McCarthy remained non-committal on whether he’d ever give a Senate-authored CR a vote on the House floor. He’s also called for Ukraine aid to be dealt with separately from stopgap spending legislation. 

On Tuesday he did say he would put a stopgap funding bill on the floor before Saturday but said he would continue pushing for one that included border security. 

The Senate CR would likely pass both the upper chamber and the lower chamber with votes from Democrats and some Republicans if House GOP leadership put it up for a vote. But doing so could endanger McCarthy’s speakership. 

McConnell endorsed a ‘standard, short-term’ stopgap spending bill on the Senate floor Tuesday. 

‘Over the years, I’ve been pretty clear in my view that government shutdowns are bad news whichever way you look at them. They don’t work as political bargaining chips,’ the GOP leader said. 

The Senate is set to advance the House’s FAA reauthorization bill on Tuesday, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will use to advance a CR through the Senate. 

Meanwhile the knives are out between Congress and the White House four days before a government shutdown, as McCarthy lays blame on Joe Biden‘s border policies and tears into right-wing Republicans who ‘side’ with the president.

The GOP leader said he would put a short-term continuing resolution (CR), or a stopgap spending bill to fund the government past September 30, on the floor before Saturday and it would likely include provisions to bolster border security. 

‘What’s concerning to me is that there are people in the Republican Party who will take the position of President Biden against what the rest of Americans want,’ McCarthy said Tuesday. 

The speaker can only afford to lose four Republican votes and still pass a party-line CR loaded up with spending cuts.

More than four in his conference have expressed opposition to a CR – most vocally McCarthy opposer Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. They insist the House most move forward on 12 single-subject spending bills. 

McCarthy, who cut a debt limit deal with President Biden that set top line spending numbers for fiscal year 2024, is now requesting a meeting him to cut another deal to keep the government funded.  

‘Why don’t we just cut a deal with the president?’ McCarthy told reporters who pressed him on when he would cut a CR deal with congressional Democrats. 

The House is set to vote on a rule to advance four of 12 appropriations bills Tuesday night in what could be an bellwether for the week to come.  It’s not clear yet clear whether a handful of obstinate Republicans will allow the rule to pass. 

He then suggested that if Biden fixed his border policy they could work together on funding – a seemingly infeasible tradeoff. 

‘Listen, the president, all he has to do … it’s only actions that he has to take. He can do it like that. He changed all the policies on the border. He can change those,’ McCarthy said. ‘We can keep government open and finish out the work that we have done.’

Border crossings in fiscal year 2023, which ends at the end of September, are on track to surpass that of 2022 after figures released Friday show an uptick of 50,000 in apprehensions in the month of August.

In recent days the Biden team has piled on to the GOP for causing the shutdown: Biden warned voters to ‘stop electing Republicans’ if they could not pass spending deals that keep the government open. 

By Tyrell Feaster For Dailymail.Com

Published: 19:13 EDT, 11 September 2023 | Updated: 21:00 EDT, 11 September 2023

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Rudy Giuliani ‘begged’ former President Donald Trump to pay his legal bills during a face-to-face meeting at Mar-a-Lago, reports claimed.

A desperate Giuliani traveled down to Florida with his lawyer Robert Costello in April to meet with the former president and plead their case for why he should pay for his former attorney’s legal bills, CNN reported.

According to the outlet, Giuliani and Costello had two separate meetings with Trump to discuss him covering the reportedly seven-figure sum.

They are said to have claimed that covering the costs would be in the 2024 Republican presidential candidate’s interests. However, Trump showed little interest but verbally agreed to help the former New York City mayor without committing to any details, CNN reported.

It comes amid Giuliani’s entanglements with Trump that saw the former president this week indicted for a fourth time amid accusations that he made efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.

Giuliani, a close Trump adviser at the time, also faces charges in the Georgia case and is accused of making several false claims about the vote-counting process.

Following the meetings between Trump, Giuliani and Costello in April, CNN reported that the former president agreed to attend two of his former attorney’s fundraisers.

The outlet said Trump agreed to cover a small portion of the costs that saw his Trump Save America PAC pay $340,000 to cover the cost of a data vendor hoisting Giuliani’s record.

Another of Giuliani’s attorneys told a New York state judge on Wednesday that the former mayor could not afford the costs for additional legal fees that require him to produce records in a defamation lawsuit from voter technology company Smartmatic. The company has sued Giuliani over claims he made about the 2020 election. 

Giuliani could be facing further stress as his legal woes pile up.

He was this week indicted by a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, accused of a ‘criminal enterprise’ as part of Trump’s election overturn efforts. Under an order by the judge, he will have to turn himself in for arrest by August 25.

As Trump’s former personal lawyer, Giuliani, played a prominent public role in the campaign’s efforts to push false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

The former New York City mayor was involved in litigation that was rejected by courts and falsely claimed in testimony at local hearings in Georgia that he was in possession of evidence proving election fraud.

The grad jury indictment alleges he made numerous false statements about election fraud, including to officials in other states like Arizona and Pennsylvania, in a failed bid to convince them to approve an alternative slate of electors to keep Trump in power.

He and other Trump allies are also accused of making false statements to Georgia lawmakers about the election, including claims about vote counting errors by Dominion voting machines. Giuliani’s attorney declined to comment.

He is also facing legal action from election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, who are referenced in the indictment, and have sued Giuliani for defamation. A judge has ordered him to pay them $89,000 in legal fees.

Despite Fox News settling with Dominion at the eleventh hour in April, after the voting systems company alleged the conservative network knowingly aired false claims that its machines were used to rig the 2020 presidential election, its defamation lawsuit against Giuliani is still understood to be active.

Dominion sued Giuliani and Sidney Powell, also Trump’s former lawyer, in January 2021, saying the voting equipment company was defamed by their false claims that it had rigged the 2020 presidential election.

Reuters confirmed that both lawsuits were still active . ‘Dominion isn’t finished pursuing accountability,’ a Dominion spokesperson said in an email to the news agency.

‘We have six active cases against media outlets and individuals who knowingly spread harmful lies about our company, including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.’

He was also in May accused of sexually harassing Noelle Dunphy, a published writer and business consultant, when she worked for him as an associate between 2019 and 2021.

In a federal lawsuit filed in Manhattan, the 44-year-old claimed for two years, she was subject to regular sexual abuse by her high-profile ex-employer – who had since his law license suspended after defending his client in the wake of the 2020 election.

Included in the bombshell filing are claims the Giuliani regularly – and without warning – demanded she perform oral sex on him, at times while on speaker phone with Trump, while forcing her to lie to the FBI as they investigated him.

Giuliani has ‘unequivocally’ denied the charges.

It comes as the former New York City mayor last month put his $6.5million Upper East Side apartment on the market amid his possible money trouble.

Giuliani listed the three-bedroom property located close to Central Park with Sotheby’s Realty in July. 

It features a wood-burning fire-place as well as a ‘semi-private elevator landing,’ according to its listing.

The home also includes a ‘massive Primary Bedroom’ made of two combined bedrooms.

While the listing’s photos have been purged of most signs of Giuliani, Insider pointed out that you can see a replica of Joe DiMaggio’s Yankees jersey given to Giuliani in 2002.

The listing states: ‘This splendid residence boasts bright, high-floor outlooks and an abundance of sunshine, high ceilings, and beautiful hardwood floors.

‘The thoughtful and inviting layout of the apartment is complemented by copious original detail, such as wood paneling, and leaded-glass and 12-over-12 paned double-hung windows.’

Former Bills punter Matt Araiza said he plans to sue attorney Dan Gilleon for defamation in regard to a civil lawsuit filed by the lawyer that alleged the player took part in a gang rape.

Araiza was released by the Bills last August after he was accused of raping a 17-year-old girl along with two of his former San Diego State football teammates near the school’s campus in the fall of 2021.

However, last month, it was concluded by the DA’s office that Araiza was apparently not present during the alleged 2021 gang rape. There is, however, an ongoing civil lawsuit that remains active.

Now, speaking on HBO‘s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on Tuesday night, Araiza revealed he has retained an attorney and will not settle the pending civil lawsuit, as he intends to sue Gilleon for defamation. 

‘I’ve already hired an attorney for it, and things have already been drafted,’ Araiza told HBO’s Andrea Kremer. ‘I will never waive my right to sue him. That’s coming.’

Gilleon, who was also interviewed on the program, insisted Araiza hadn’t necessarily been absolved of liability when asked about the conclusion by the DA’s office that the player had left the party at the time of the alleged gang rape. 

‘We are not saying that he was, and we are not saying that he wasn’t,’ Gilleon said. ‘Let’s say he was not one of the men in there. That doesn’t absolve him of liability.’ 

The new theory reportedly put forward by Gilleon on the program is that Araiza was ‘part of a scheme among several men to target his client, to get her drunk and to take turns having sex with her over the course of the night.’

However, this theory was not included in the original complaint. 

‘Our allegation is, is he contributed heavily to the harm that she suffered that night,’ Gilleon said. 

‘He had sex with my client. Following that, she ended up having sex with multiple guys and came out of there bloodied, in shock.

‘Ended up at the hospital, ended up with the police, and ended up traumatized. So that’s what I mean by the gang rape. Gang rapes can occur for two days. They can occur over time. They can occur multiple places. So that’s the clarification.’ 

Araiza, who said he was in shock when he first read the initial complaint, told HBO he was sure he ‘had never played part in any gang rape.’

He did admit he had sex with the girl but said he believed it to be consensual as he claimed the contact had been initiated by her and that she had ‘made her intentions clear.’

Araiza, who is currently living at home with his parents, did admit that sleeping with the girl only 15-20 minutes after meeting her was ‘stupid’ but insisted it wasn’t deserving of being labeled a ‘gang rapist’ by the media.

He also claimed he was judged in the court of public opinion ‘within seconds’ with no chance to defend himself. 

In May, Yahoo Sports reported on a 200-page unsealed document including a transcript of a conversation where a deputy district attorney told the girl, who at the time of the alleged incident was 17, why charges against Araiza were not pursued.

The DA’s office had apparently concluded that Araiza had left the party in San Diego at 12:30am on the night of October 15, 2021 – around an hour before the gang rape is alleged to have happened that Araiza was accused of participating in.

‘He wasn’t even at the party anymore,’ Trisha Amador is quoted as telling the girl by Yahoo. ‘All I know is that at that point, suspect Araiza is gone from the party.’

The report added that there are recordings of the encounter with the girl where the time stamp is 1:30am. Araiza apparently had a witness that helped prosecutors conclude that he had left around an hour earlier.

In February this year, Araiza’s agent denied that he was signing with a Mexican team in a bid to revive his career and said his client hopes for another chance in the NFL.

He was released by the Bills in late August, amid the allegations and mounting public pressure, despite winning the starting job in training camp. 

The Ray Guy Award Winner – given to the best punter in college football – was a sixth-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft and beat out veteran Matt Haack to be the Bills punter. 

When the lawsuit became public on August 26, Buffalo initially defended Araiza, before eventually cutting the then-22-year-old two days later. 

General manager Brandon Beane said the organization was aware of Araiza’s version of events prior to bringing him to Orchard Park. 

Hillary Clinton’s criticism of ‘open border’ under Biden is a sign she WILL run for president again in 2024, says former adviser to Bill who now works for Trump

• Dick Morris was an adviser to Bill Clinton when he was Arkansas governor and later as president in 1992, but now advises Donald Trump
• He said both Bill and Hillary’s recent comments about migrants are a sign that she’s gearing up to run as Democrats’ ‘moderate’ option in 2024
• Morris predicted Clinton would announce a third White House bid if Democrats faced huge midterm losses in the Senate and House of Representatives 

By Elizabeth Elkind, Politics Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Published: 10:54 EDT, 2 October 2022 | Updated: 14:08 EDT, 2 October 2022

Analysts predict average household energy bills could fall to below £2,000 a year this summer after a slump in gas prices

By Luke Barr, Financial Mail On Sunday

Published: 16:52 EDT, 6 May 2023 | Updated: 16:52 EDT, 6 May 2023

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