Political news you might have missed last week
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ended his presidential campaign on Jan. 21. This cancellation comes after DeSantis failed to poll above former President Donald Trump in the Iowa Caucuses.
“If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome… I would do it,” Desantis said on X. “I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don’t have a clear path to victory. Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign.”
DeSantis’s withdrawal leaves former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as Trump’s only opponent for the Republican presidential nomination.
President Joe Biden signed a short-term spending bill on Jan. 19, to keep the federal government operating until March. With substantial bipartisan majorities, 77-18 in the Senate and 314-108 in the House of Representatives, Congress passed the bill on Jan. 18.
According to AP Politics, the bill “provides funding for agencies overseeing agriculture, veterans affairs, energy, transportation and housing runs through March 1. Funding for the rest of the federal government now runs through March 8. It’s meant to buy lawmakers extra time to draft full-year spending bills through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.”
House Republicans held a impeachment hearing for Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Jan. 18. Mayorkas is accused of failing to enforce the nation’s laws because of the record number of migrants at the United States-Mexico border.
House Republicans called two witnesses, both mothers, to testify against Mayorkas. Tammy Nobles lost her daughter in 2022 after a non-citizen sexually assaulted and murdered her daughter. Josephine Dunn lost her daughter in 2021 to a fentanyl overdose. According to the Missouri Independent, the mothers blame the deaths on “administration immigration policies.”