The Daily Signal - Calls for Speaker Johnson to Resign Grows, NPR Whistleblower Suspended, Supreme Court Hears Case on Jan. 6 | April 16

Starting point is 00:00:01 I'm Brian Gottstein, and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Tuesday, April 16th. Here are today's headlines. Representative Thomas Massey announced on social media Tuesday that he's co-sponsoring a motion to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson from the Speaker's position. In doing so, the Republican Congressman from Kentucky joined Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Green and her motion that she launched back in March. Massey is the first other Republican to back. Green in the effort. This comes from a report by the Daily Signal's own, Jarrett Stepman. Massey wrote on X that he told Mike Johnson that he was co-sponsoring the motion to vacate. Massey called on Johnson to pre-announce his resignation, as former House Speaker John Boehner once

Starting point is 00:00:58 did, so the House could pick a new speaker and have one in place before he steps down. Johnson, according to NBC's Jake Sherman, said that he's not resigning. Johnson said it was absurd that someone would bring such a motion when he was simply trying to do his job. Johnson became the Speaker after the ouster of his predecessor, former California Republican Kevin McCarthy, by a motion to vacate back in October. Johnson has been facing increasing pressure from conservatives in the House and has been criticized for working with Democrats when he couldn't secure enough Republican support on certain pieces of legislation. Johnson continues to receive the support of Donald Trump. The former president said

Starting point is 00:01:40 that Johnson was doing a very good job when the two appeared together at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida on Friday. I stand with the Speaker, Trump said. Johnson was elected House Speaker in October with 220 Republicans supporting him. Since he became Speaker, McCarthy and Representative Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican, have both resigned and left Congress. Former New York Representative George Santos was expelled from the House, and Wisconsin Representative Mike Gallagher will resign effective on Friday. That leaves just 217 Republicans and 213 Democrats in the House a razor-thin Republican majority. National Public Radio on Friday officially suspended editor Yuri Berliner. Berliner, a 25-year employee at NPR recently published an essay,

Starting point is 00:02:30 alleging that the publicly funded news network has an extreme left-wing bias. According to the Daily Caller News Foundation, NPR informed Berliner in 11th. on Thursday afternoon that he neglected to get the news outlets required sign-off for publishing an essay for another outlet. Berliner has not appealed the suspension, and NPR said that it would fire him if he violated their policies again. In his essay, Berliner described the news outlet as extremely one-sided. He wrote that after doing an investigation of the top editors at the outlet, he found that there were 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions, yet no Republicans.

Starting point is 00:03:13 Berliner accused the publication of not only being one-sided in who it hires, but partisan in what it decides to cover or not cover. He said that NPR was dedicated to producing a constant stream of news stories about Donald Trump colluding with Russia before he was president, then abruptly stopped when the story fell apart. He also wrote that the news outlet's stories of... are guided by a growing number of identity groups within the company and that its coverage now veers far to the left.

Starting point is 00:03:43 That wouldn't be a problem for an openly opinionated news outlet serving a niche audience, Berliner wrote, but for NPR, which purports to consider all things, it's devastating for both its journalism and its business model. President Joe Biden has declined to appear before House impeachment investigators. A letter written by the President's Special, Council and released on Monday declared that the impeachment investigation being led by Kentucky Republican Representative James Comer is over. Your committee's purported impeachment inquiry has succeeded

Starting point is 00:04:18 only in turning up abundant evidence that, in fact, the president has done nothing wrong, the letter read, according to the news outlet, the Hill. The letter said that Comer is asserting the same litany of false allegations that have been repeatedly debunked and refuted by the documentation and the witnesses Comer has brought before his committee. The impeachment investigation revolves around Biden's connection to his son Hunter's foreign business dealings. Comer requested that Biden answer to the committee directly. In March, Comer invited the president to answer questions in front of his committee, saying, in light of the yawning gap between your public statements and the evidence assembled by the committee,

Starting point is 00:04:59 as well as the White House's obstruction, it's in the best interest to the American people for you to answer questions from members of Congress directly. Comer condemned Biden on Monday for his refusal to appear before his committee, saying, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in the Biden family. Like his son Hunter Biden, President Biden is refusing to testify in public about the Biden's corrupt influence peddling. The Supreme Court on Tuesday cast doubt whether federal prosecutors should be allowed to use federal obstruction laws to charge people who entered the Capitol during the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. The court heard an appeal by Joseph Fisher, a former police officer who's seeking to have

Starting point is 00:05:43 the charges brought against him dismissed. The law in question, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, criminalizes any attempt to obstruct a legal proceeding with up to 20 years in prison. Justice Neil Gorsuch pressed Solicitor General Elizabeth Preliger, who was representing the federal government on the limits of the law. Here's part of that exchange, courtesy of C-SPAN 3. If I might. So what does that mean for the breadth of this statute? Would a sit-in that disrupts a trial or access to a federal courthouse qualify? Would a heckler in today's audience qualify or at the state of the union address? Would pulling a fire alarm? before a vote qualify for 20 years in federal prison.

Starting point is 00:06:35 Justice Samuel Alito asked prelogger similar questions, to which she responded, I think it's in a fundamentally different posture than if they had stormed into this courtroom, overrun the Supreme Court police, required the justices and other participants to flee for their safety. Alito responded that what happened on January 6th was very, very serious,

Starting point is 00:06:57 but that the court needs to figure out what the outer reaches of the state. of the law are under the Department of Justice's interpretation. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to The Daily Signal's top news. If you haven't gotten a chance, be sure to check out our morning show right here in this podcast feed where we interview lawmakers, experts, and leading conservative voices. Also, make sure you subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you get your podcasts and help

Starting point is 00:07:24 us to reach more listeners by leaving a five-star rating and review. We read all of your feedback. Thanks again for listening. Have a great night, and we'll be back with you all tomorrow morning. The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of listeners like you. Executive producers are Rob Blewey and Kate Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Mary Margaret O'Lehann, and Tyler O'Neill. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop.

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The Daily Signal - Calls for Speaker Johnson to Resign Grows, NPR Whistleblower Suspended, Supreme Court Hears Case on Jan. 6 | April 16

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