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AboutArticles by Eric Garcia

DeSantis tried to fight on two fronts — and cowered in both

22 Jan 2024

“Trump’s base support kind of doubled when they started all these indictments,” Rooney, former congressman and US Ambassador to the Vatican told me. Conversely, Bob Vander Plaats, the Iowa evangelical kingmaker, told me shortly before the caucuses that DeSantis “needs to convince those

Trump just killed Ukraine-immigration agreement

19 Jan 2024

Republicans in Congress simultaneously got a flashback to life under Donald Trump’s presidency and a preview of what life will be like in the future should he re-take the White House. For the past few months, a bipartisan group of senators has been negotiating immigration restrictions that

There is no former governor Nikki Haley ‘moment’

03 Jan 2024

Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley went into damage control this week over her comments about the Civil War. At an event on Wednesday in Berlin, New Hampshire, someone asked her what caused the bloody conflict. What followed was a garbled and evasive mish-mash of words

Trump could galvanise partymen around him

01 Jan 2024

For the second time in as many weeks, a state disqualified former president Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot. A week after Colorado disqualified Trump from the 2024 Republican primary ballot, Maine secretary of state Shenna Bellows said in a filing that Trump was disqualified because he

Biden warned about using immigrants as a ‘bargaining chip’

15 Dec 2023

And just like that, the first year of the 118th Congress came to a close. With no aid to Ukraine on the horizon, no aid to Israel, no potential breakthrough negotiations on spending bills and no aid to Gaza, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives rewarded itself by leaving for the holidays.

Obamacare: A distraction for Trump, opportunity for Biden

05 Dec 2023

There’s an old saying when it comes to health care policy: don’t mess with what people already have. Much in the way that Americans think Congress is irrevocably broken but then re-elect their members by at least 90 per cent most years, most Americans complain regularly about the status quo of the

House Speaker Mike Johnson faces duelling interests

15 Nov 2023

The spending showdown will serve as the first major test for newly-installed House Speaker Mike Johnson. Of course, Johnson, who won the unamimous support of the House Republican conference after 22 days without a speaker, faces dueling interests.

Who the hell wants to be a GOP speaker anyway?

15 Oct 2023

On Wednesday, House Republicans gave themselves a half-victory when they nominated Majority Leader Steve Scalise to be speaker. This came after a standoff between Scalise, the number two in the House Republican conference who is a well-liked figure, and Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH),

The race for House speaker can hardly be called a race

12 Oct 2023

The battle for Kevin McCarthy to save his speakership is over. The battle for the House Republican conference — and indeed, the entire House of Representatives — is about to begin. On Wednesday, the House GOP conference will convene to pick a new speaker. As of right now, the House has two

Matt Gaetz has thrown the House into chaos

03 Oct 2023

At the beginning of the new Congress, newly-elected representative Cory Mills (R-FL) handed his fellow Republicans inert grenades. It was an apt welcoming gift since House speaker Kevin McCarthy effectively handed conservatives a live grenade when he allowed for a single member to file a motion to vacate the chair,

Eric Garcia

Eric Garcia is the Washington bureau chief and senior Washington Correspondent at the Independent.