Failed effort to censure Democrat over texts with Epstein sparks recriminations in the GOP
By Ellis Kim, CNN
(CNN) — A failed effort in the House of Representatives to censure Democratic Del. Stacey Plaskett over her text exchanges with Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing sparked bitter recriminations in the GOP on Tuesday, with some conservative lawmakers alleging that a backroom deal was struck to spare one of their own from an unrelated rebuke.
Several staunch House conservatives accused their own party of cutting a secret agreement with Democrats to spare Plaskett, who represents the US Virgin Islands in Congress as a non-voting delegate, from a formal House reprimand in exchange for Democrats dropping a retaliatory censure measure against Florida Republican Rep. Cory Mills.
Democrats had planned to bring up a resolution against Mills, who has faced a swirl of controversies in his time in Congress, if the House voted to censure Plaskett. But they dropped the resolution when the Plaskett censure effort failed on a 209-214 vote, with three Republicans joining Democrats in opposing the measure and three Republicans registering as “present.”
Shortly after, Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna attempted to raise a question on the floor to get Speaker Mike Johnson to explain “why leadership on both sides, both Democrat and Republican, are cutting back end deals to cover up public corruption in the House of Representatives” by both parties.
Her inquiry was rejected for not following proper protocols, but it received support from GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert, who exclaimed “get it girl!” from the House floor. Boebert could be heard in the chamber moments earlier lashing out at members of her own party over the failure of the Plaskett censure push.
Other Republicans, including Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett, took to social media to denounce an alleged back room deal, though none offered any evidence of an agreement between Democrats and Republicans.
Florida Rep. Kat Cammack said on X that “a handful of Republicans took a dive on a vote to strip Stacey Plaskett of her position on House intel because of her ties to Epstein. They did it to protect a Republican facing his own ethics issues from a similar vote.”
“This backroom deal sh*t is swampy, wrong and always deserves to be called out,” she wrote.
South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace also took to X to protest what she said was “another backroom deal.”
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