Tom Reed

Congressman Tom Reed is one 398 members of the U.S. House of Representatives included in a sanctions list by Russia.

Newsweek reported also included on that list is several Republican representatives who have been accused of making comments sympathetic to Russia, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the list of sanctioned members of Congress was a response to the United States placing sanctions on 328 members of the Russian State Duma, the country’s lower house of parliament, on March 24.

No explanation was given for how Russia chose the names for its list. Last week, Greene and Gaetz were two of only three House representatives who voted against banning the import of Russian oil.

The U.S. sanctions on the State Duma members target their property and assets, as well as banning them from dealings with American citizens. Few details were made available about Moscow’s sanctions against American politicians, aside from that they would “mirror” the U.S. measures and ban those on the list from visiting Russia.

Reed issued a statement saying, “We were proud to be on the list of House Members to be officially sanctioned by Russia. Being put on this permanent ‘stop list’ by a dictator like Putin can only be seen as a badge of honor. Watching the atrocities that Putin is committing on a daily basis against the people of Ukraine is heartbreaking, and it must stop. American leadership must project to Russia that we will achieve peace through strength.”

Daniel Scavino, Peter Navarro

NPR reports the U.S. House voted Wednesday to hold former Trump White House aides Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino in criminal contempt of Congress after they defied subpoenas from the select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

The move comes after the Democratic-led panel last month approved a contempt report against Navarro, the former trade adviser, and Scavino, a former deputy chief of staff.

The 220-203 floor vote, cast largely along party lines, triggers a series of steps to send the criminal referrals to the U.S. attorney’s office, leaving the Justice Department to decide whether it will pursue prosecution.

Congressman Tom Reed said in a weekly media call prior to the vote that he would not be supporting the vote. He said he voted for a bipartisan committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the Capitol and that’s not what was approved, “And once Speaker Pelosi elected not to recognize the Republican members that were elected to represent us on that committee, they went down this partisan path of the January 6 committee today. And as I look at this, that has contaminated this entire process and therefore I will not be supporting this sanction today.”

Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, the only two Republicans appointed to serve on the select committee, were the only two from their party to vote for the referral.
Wednesday’s floor vote marks the third for a criminal contempt referral effort tied to the January 6 committee’s work. Previously, the House has approved criminal referrals for ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon and former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

So far, the Justice Department has only pursued prosecution for one of those cases, Bannon, who is now battling related criminal charges.

In each case, a subpoenaed witness could face up a year in jail for each contempt charge, plus fines of up to $1,000 each.

Congressman Tom Reed, who voted in favor of the bill, said the reforms proposed by the Post Master General will go a long way in stabilizing the Post Office, “Making sure they’re pre-funding requirements with their retirement obligations is taken care of. Making sure that through Medicare and a transition policy for their retiree benefits exposure are taking care of in a way that allow them to manage the Post Office’s liabilities and future liabilities in a way that allows the Post Office a ten-year window, essentially, to get their fiscal house in order.”

The House Oversight Committee said these measures would save the agency nearly $50 billion over the next decade.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed to take up the long-sought legislation before the end of next week.

WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives finalized a massive $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill on Wednesday. It will head to President Biden’s desk for his first legislative victory.

The vote was 220 to 211 in the House. No Republicans voted “yes” on the legislation that Democrats say is needed to crush the pandemic, rebuild the economy and to lift children out of poverty.

The so-called “American Rescue Plan” calls for $1,400 stimulus checks for individuals earning up to $75,000 and $2,800 checks for couples earning $150,000 or under.

Households will receive an additional $1,400 for each dependent child.  For the unemployed, the legislation extends $300-per-week enhanced federal benefits through Sept. 6.

The legislation also establishes a “child allowance” worth upwards of $300 per month for each child under the age of six, or $3,600 a year.  For older children up to age 17, families would get $3,000 a year in the new child tax credit program.

Congressman Tom Reed talks with regional media to discuss the recent GOP Congressional Caucus meeting involving the selection of leadership positions for the new congress, as well as whether or not to take action against embattled Republican Congresswoman Margorie Taylor Green. Reed also responded to recent comments made by the Cuomo administration, after he and other members of New York’s Republican Delegation called on the US Attorney General’s Office to investigate Cuomo’s nursing home policies…. among other issues as well.

Tom Reed

Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) talks with regional media to share his thoughts on the impeachment of President Donald Trump while also answering questions from the media.

Tom Reed

Donald Trump

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has been impeached for a second time, now becoming the only U.S. President to hold that dubious distinction.

On Wednesday members of the House sped to a vote on impeachment just a week after president Trump encouraged supporters to “fight like hell” against the November election results, and then a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. The impeachment also comes just one week before his term is set to end and President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

Late Wednesday afternoon the House voted 232-197 to impeach Trump, with 10 Republicans joining the vast majority of Democrats in the effort.  During debate on the articles of impeachment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) asked Republicans and Democrats to “search their souls” ahead of the historic afternoon vote.

“We know that we faced enemies to the Constitution. We know that we experienced the insurrections that violated the sanctity of the People’s capitol and attempted to overturn the duly recorded will of the American People. And we know that the President of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion, against our common country. He must go. He is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love,” Pelosi said.

Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) also spoke and admonished those who participated in the raid, saying violence is never a legitimate form of protest. And while he didn’t support the impeachment effort, he did acknowledge that it was the supporters of the president – and not anyone else – who was to blame for the raid.

“Some say the riots were caused by Antifa. There is absolutely no evidence of that and Conservatives should be the first to say so,” McCarthy said.

Tom Reed

While many members of the House did speak during the lengthy debate on Wednesday, local Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning) did not. But he did hold a press call with regional media on Wednesday to discuss the matter.

“There have been numerous other issues that I’ve been attending to as we speak and my comments on impeachment have been widely reported and widely known, so I don’t anticipate I will be given floor comments on this issue,” he told Reporters on Wednesday, less than two hours before the impeachment vote took place.

The New York Times published an op/ed by Reed on Tuesday, where he called for the censure of the president, rather than impeachment. He said he was against impeachment because he knew it would be a rushed process with just seven days remaining in the president’s term.

“I think snap impeachment is not the way to go and not substantively the right thing to do in regards to not having an investigation, not respecting due process rights, and not respecting and debating the issues of Constitutional free speech that is involved here. And also the division and anger that is being exacerbated by this snap impeachment can not be underestimated,” Reed said.

The impeachment proceedings came one week after a violent, pro-Trump mob breached the U.S. Capitol, sending lawmakers into hiding and hindering the nation’s long history of peaceful transfers of power.  The riot has also forced a reckoning among some Republicans, who have stood by Trump throughout his presidency and largely allowed him to spread false attacks against the integrity of the 2020 election.

The impeachment in the House now leads to a trial in the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is required to remove the president from office.

Trump has been at this point before. The House impeached him in late 2019 for his pressure campaign on Ukraine and the Senate ultimately voted to acquit after quickly rushing through the trial process without calling any witnesses.  This time, the trial process is expected to be far more extensive with Democrats controlling the Senate.

Even if found guilty, the actual removal of Trump is highly unlikely before the Jan. 20 inauguration of Biden. But some say that the Senate trial – whenever it takes place – is still necessary in order to lay out all the evidence against the President and his alleged involvement in the insurrection and putting it on the public, and historic, record. A guilty verdict could also lead to Trump never being able to hold office again.

Tom Reed

WASHINGTON – Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) joined several of his Republican colleagues and even some Democrats on Tuesday to introduce a concurrent resolution to “censure the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, for attempting to unlawfully overturn the 2020 Presidential election and for violating his oath of office on January 6th, 2021.”

The Censure measure is being presented as an alternative to House Democrats’ effort to impeach the president for a second time on a single charge of “incitement of insurrection.”

The dueling resolutions are being presented less than one week after President Trump encouraged a mob of loyalists to “Stop the Steal” and “fight like hell” against election results. Soon after his speech, the U.S. Capitol became the target of a deadly siege that left five people dead, including a Capitol Police Officer and four Trump supporters.

While the first impeachment of Trump in 2019 brought no Republican votes in the House, a small number of leaders and other lawmakers are breaking with the party to join Democrats. But a majority of the Party – including Reed – say they won’t vote to impeach.

“If our leaders make the wrong decision in how to hold him accountable, it could damage the integrity of our system of justice, further fan the flames of division, and disillusion millions of Americans ─ all while failing to accomplish anything,” Reed said in an opinion piece published in the New York Times on Tuesday. “Given the tools that lie before Congress, it is clear that pursuing impeachment only days before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated is not the answer.”

Democrat and Republican Members of the U.S. Senate are convinced that the House’s impeachment efforts will almost certainly result in a second acquittal of President Trump, which even some Democrats say would even further divide and inflame tensions in our nation.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) stated, “…it is clear the 25th Amendment will not be invoked and that the Senate will not convict the president after impeachment. A censure resolution is the only way to send a bipartisan, bicameral message without delay to the country and the world that the United States is a nation of laws.”

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) also stated that the House’s current impeachment approach “is so ill-advised for Joe Biden to be coming in, trying to heal the country, trying to be the president of all the people when we are going to be so divided and fighting again.”

According to those who support censure, there are two constitutional purposes of impeachment: 1) removal from office, and 2) barring the future holding of office and the current approach being advanced by House leadership is certain to accomplish neither one of these. As a result, they are pushing instead for censure.

“[Censure] is an important step to hold the President accountable. Congress must make clear that it rejects extremism and condemns the President’s actions,” said Reed. “We will continue to push for Congressional leaders to work with us on investigating the events surrounding this dark period in our history and make sure it never happens again with the public’s trust in our democratic institutions restored.”

Meanwhile, the four-page impeachment resolution relies on Trump’s own incendiary rhetoric and the falsehoods he spread about Biden’s election victory, including organizing a White House rally on the same day Congress was to certify Biden’s election. Some of those who attended the rally also participated in the raid on the Capitol following Trump’s speech, and supporters of impeachment say the speech was intended to whip his supporters into a frenzy just as members of congress took up the certification issue.

The House tried first to push Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to intervene, passing a resolution Tuesday night calling on them to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove Trump from office. But Pence made it clear he would not do so. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Pence said it was “time to unite our country as we prepare to inaugurate President-elect Joe Biden.”

The President, meanwhile, insisted on Tuesday that he believes he bears no responsibility for the insurrection carried out by his supporters and has yet to explicitly call on them to refrain from launching another assault on the Capitol.

Vice President Mike Pence, who serves as president pro tem of the U.S. Senate, and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the Joint Session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

WASHINGTON – Congress has concluded its count of the electoral vote for the 2020 presidential election and has certified President-Elect Joe Biden’s victory.

The action occurred early Thursday morning and took place only after an historic day at the nation’s capitol in which a mob of individuals, identified as supporters of President Donald Trump, stormed the U.S. Capitol building Wednesday afternoon while congress was in session to disrupt certification proceedings that are part of the constitutional process for allowing a peaceful transfer of power at the White House.

Following Thursday’s morning certification by Congress, President Trump for the first time acknowledged his defeat in the November election and announced there would be an “orderly transition on January 20th.”

But Trump’s acknowledgement came only the certification vote was completed and also after he attended a rally near the Capitol, where he continued to urge supporters to fight the election results and encouraged them to march to the Capitol, using remarks that were peppered with incendiary language and rife with violent undertones.

Once the mob arrived at the Capitol, there wasn’t enough security on hand to keep the large group at bay and hundreds of people eventually rushed and entered the building and freely roamed the halls, ransacked offices, and took items and posed for pictures in the chambers of both the Senate and House of Representatives. Meanwhile, members of Congress, their staff, and media were ushered into a secure location in the basement of the Capitol out of fear for their safety.

During the chaos, one woman was shot and killed, and three others died due to what was described as medical emergencies. No elected representatives were reported to be injured.

After the mob was cleared from the building and the chaos was subdued, both chambers resumed proceedings early Wednesday night, and they continued until the business of the people was concluded early Thursday morning.

Sen. Chuck Schumer

Sen. Charles Schumer, who represents New York in the Senate and who is the current minority leader of the Democratic Party, spoke events that occured earlier in the day.

“I have never lived through or even imagined an experience like the one we have just witnessed in this Capitol,” Schumer said. “President Franklin Roosevelt set aside Dec. 7, 1941, as a day that will live in infamy. Unfortunately, we can now add Jan. 6, 2021, to that very short list of dates in American history that will live forever in infamy.”

Schumer also pulled no punches in blaming President Trump for the chaos.

“This will be a stain on our country not so easily washed away – the final, terrible, indelible legacy of the 45th president of the United States, undoubtedly our worst… Make no mistake, today’s events did not happen spontaneously. The president, who promoted conspiracy theories and motivated these thugs, the president who exhorted them to come to our nation’s capital, egged them on – he hardly ever discourages violence and more often encourages it – this president bears a great deal of the blame. This mob was in good part President Trump’s doing, incited by his words, his lies. This violence, in good part his responsibility, his ever-lasting shame. Today’s events certainly — certainly — would not have happened without him.”

Schumer also said that those who participated in storming the Capitol should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

“I want to be very clear: Those who performed these reprehensible acts cannot be called protesters – no, these were rioters and insurrectionists, goons and thugs, domestic terrorists. They do not represent America. They were a few thousand violent extremists who tried to take over the Capitol building and attack our democracy. They must and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law – hopefully by this administration, if not certainly by the next. They should be provided no leniency,” Schumer said.

Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives, Chautauqua County’s representative in Washington – Republican Congressman Tom Reed – also spoke out against the storming of the Capitol.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

“I come to this side of the aisle as a proud Republican, but most importantly, as a proud American,” Reed said as he moved from the Republican side of the House chamber to the Democratic side. “Today we saw an assault on our democracy. I love this institution. I love the United States Congress. And I love the United States of America. And what I saw today was mob rule that spat upon the blood of my father that is in the soil of Europe and in the soil of Korea. And who gave us that blood this sacred constitution and this sacred ability to lead this world as a power that says, we settle our differences not with mob rule, we settle our differences through elections. And when those elections are over, we have a peaceful transition of power.

Meanwhile, Trumps’ acknowledgement of losing the election also included a statement that may lead to additional unrest in the future, saying, “While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again.”

Trump’s statement was posted to Twitter by his social media director. His own account had been locked by the company for posting messages that appeared to justify the assault on the seat of the nation’s democracy. His Facebook and Instagram accounts were also locked from being used.

Trump’s response to the violence underscored his months-long obsession with trying to overturn the results of the election.

He has spent the final days of his presidency angrily stewing and lashing out at Republicans for perceived disloyalty while refusing to acknowledge his loss or concede.

The violence, coupled with the president’s tepid response, alarmed many in the White House and appeared to push Republicans allies to the breaking point after years of allegiance to Trump. According to the Associated Press, a number of White House aides were discussing a potential mass resignation, according to people familiar with the conversation. And others quickly departed. More departures were expected in the coming days, although other aides indicated they planned to stay to help smooth the transition to the Biden administration. And some harbored concerns about what Trump might do in his final two weeks in office if they were not there to serve as guardrails when so few remain.

Trump has been single-mindedly focused on his electoral defeat since Election Day, aides said, at the expense of the other responsibilities of his office, including the fight against the raging coronavirus. Indeed, it was Vice President Mike Pence, not Trump, who spoke with the acting defense secretary to discuss mobilizing the D.C National Guard on Wednesday afternoon.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)

WASHINGTON – A group of Republican lawmakers orchestrating an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election will reveal their strategy Wednesday during a joint session of Congress to confirm the Electoral College vote.

According to the Associated Press, Republicans leading the long-shot effort in Congress were still deciding the details of their strategy on Tuesday to overturn Joe Biden’s victory and instead hand it to current president Donald Trump.

On Tuesday morning, House Republicans met to discuss the situation and Congressman Tom Reed, a Republican who Represents Chautauqua County, was one of those in attendance. But unlike nearly 100 of his GOP colleagues, Reed explained during a conference call with media that he is against the effort, basing his decision on the Constitution.

“It is clear to me that the U.S. Constitution calls upon our election for president to be done at the state level. If there are issues of fraud, if there are issues of whether or not those elections are carried out lawfully, they are to be adjudicated at the state level. They are to be reviewed at the state level,” Reed said. “There is no state legislature that has asked us to intervene…. that being said, I will not be objecting to the state electors [from the Electoral College], based upon my commitment to the U.S. Constitution.”

Reed also announced the same decision during a virtual town hall meeting Monday night, drawing harsh criticism from many of the Republican and Conservative constituents that have supported him during his ten years in congress.

Trump’s attempt to enlist his allies to overturn Biden’s 306-232 election win is unlike anything ever attempted in modern times, and it is all but certain to fail. Biden is set to be inaugurated Jan. 20.