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Rep. Emanuel Cleaver caused a social media storm Monday, closing a public prayer with “Amen and a woman,” as if the Hebrew word meaning “let it be” was somehow gendered. Cleaver, of course, later claimed the embarrassing episode was actually “a lighthearted pun” in recognition of women, a description that might draw water on paper, but which the video clearly shows is not the case. But there’s far more than simple ignorance on display in the Democrat and Methodist pastor’s blessing of the new year’s legislative session. The prayer’s true scandal was largely ignored — and is indicative of a...

The Democratic congressman who opened up the 117th Congress with a prayer that ended in “amen and awoman” has since said that awoman was meant to be a “light-hearted pun” rather than an ecclesiastical statement. After Sunday’s “awoman” prayer provoked condemnation from many conservatives and Christians on social media, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., responded to critics by releasing a statement condemning those who he said “misinterpreted and misconstrued” his prayer. “I am deeply disappointed that my prayer has been misinterpreted and misconstrued by some to fit a narrative that stokes resentment and greater division among portions of our population,” the...

A House Democrat tasked with leading the body in an opening prayer for the new Congress has gendered the word “amen.” To close a prayer he delivered from the House chamber Sunday to mark the swearing in of the 117th Congress, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), an ordained minister, altered the traditional “amen” to say “amen and awoman.” “May the lord lift up the light of his countenance upon us and give us peace,” Cleaver said during his two-minute invocation, “Peace in our families, peace across this land, and dare I ask o Lord, peace even in this chamber.” “We ask...

Did you catch any of the chaos in the House chambers yesterday as the Dems moved to condemn President Trump’s tweets? Pelosi was banned from speaking for the day for breaking House rules, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver dropped the gavel.He issued the following statement, which reads in part: “I want to thank Leader Hoyer for assuming the chair and reading the parliamentarian’s ruling following my abdication. Like the vast majority of Americans, I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with the childish rancor of our public discourse. Our inability to conduct ourselves in a civil and respectable fashion has paralyzed the most powerful government...

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) said Wednesday that a congresswoman besides Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should be the House Speaker. “There’s plenty of really competent females that we can replace her with,” Ryan told reporters, before listing people such as Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) as potential candidates, The New York Times reported Thursday. His comments come as the battle for Democratic leadership in the House intensifies. Pelosi, who held the Speaker position from 2007 to 2011, expressed confidence on Thursday that she had enough support to be voted into the role. But many lawmakers are insistent about the idea of having...

Rep. Marcia Fudge is in a serious bind as she faces mounting pressure to challenge Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for the Speaker’s gavel — a move that could divide the Ohio Democrat's allegiances between the insurgency she supports and the Black Caucus she once led. A group of anti-Pelosi insurgents has been ramping up efforts to recruit Fudge, a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), amid criticism that the majority-male cohort is trying to oust the top-ranking female Democrat in the “Year of the Woman.” Pelosi allies have been deriding the rebels as “five white guys,” a...

Imran Awan, his brothers and their associates were merely doing what they were “ordered to do” by Democratic members of Congress when the IT aides allegedly falsified records on how the members’ office budgets were spent, according to lawyers for Awan. **SNIP** One of Imran’s lawyers, Aaron Page, who acknowledged the invoicing discrepancy on office equipment last month, told DCNF, “This is just how things have been done for forever. This is what experienced members of Congress expect: to expedite things, they adjust the pricing.” Luke Rosiak of DCNF’s Investigative Group noted that “If members or senior staff instructed IT...

Congressional aides suspected of criminally misusing their access to House computer systems owed $100,000 to an Iraqi politician who is wanted by U.S. authorities and has been linked to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Middle Eastern terrorist outfit. Imran Awan and four of his relatives were employed as information technology (IT) aides by dozens of House Democrats, including members of the intelligence, foreign affairs and homeland security committees. The aides’ administrator-level IT access was terminated earlier this month amid a criminal probe by U.S. Capitol Police of a suspected security breach, including an off-site server housing congressional data. The Daily Caller News...

Cleaver told MSNBC’s Craig Melvin on Thursday that Democrats would need new leaders but now is not the time to make a shift. “At the present time, I’ve got to say, we have no strategy and we have no plan,” Cleaver said. “But at least we have some proven leadership that can, you know, take us into what’s going to be a new era.” “But think about this, we cannot have as our plan to go to the floor for the next two years only to hit the ceiling,” Cleaver continued.

Many of us who did not vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election found some solace in the notion that Obama’s presidency, if nothing else, would ease racial tensions. The poll numbers suggested the same. In the month of Obama’s inauguration, 79 percent of whites and 63 percent of blacks held a favorable view of race relations in America, something of a high water mark in recent history. Those paying close attention, however, saw reason to worry. There were forces on the left, the White House included, that were prepared to use Obama’s presidency to drive the races...

Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D) said it could have set race relations back by several decades if police had fired back at the shooter of two officers in Ferguson late Wednesday. Cleaver, the former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, along with Ferguson Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) has offered a $3,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the shooter(s) responsible for wounding two officers outside of the Ferguson Police Department. Cleaver told CNN today that “what I think most people can agree on including the police in Ferguson is that the shots didn’t come from the demonstrators.”...

A growing chorus of liberal Democrats is pushing President Obama to get Congress's explicit approval before launching missile strikes into Syria. The pressure from supporters on Capitol Hill is not only a headache for Obama, but also puts House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other top Democrats in the difficult position of bucking a broad segment of their own caucus in order to protect an ally in the White House. Scores of Democrats had signed letters a year ago advocating against military strikes targeting the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad without congressional backing. Thirteen months later the enemy...

When the House voted last Thursday to find Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal contempt of Congress, members of the Congressional Black Caucus walked out. Why is the Black Caucus trying to make this about race? It’s about Holder’s refusal to turn over Justice Department documents requested by the House Oversight and Government Committee in its investigation of the “Fast and Furious” operation. “Fast and Furious” was a “gun-walking” operation conducted by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF). ATF would allow known smugglers to purchase arms from dealers in Arizona with the idea that they would...

Several Congressional Black Caucus members have introduced a resolution that memorializes 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and calls for the repeal of controversial gun laws that allow shooters to claim self-defense. The resolution states that the February shooting of Martin “sets a horrific precedent of vigilante justice and compromises the integrity of the legal system.” It also says assailant George Zimmerman’s “unfounded assumptions and racial bias led to the use of deadly force.” Zimmerman’s family and lawyer have refuted claims that he shot Martin because he was black.

On December 12, 2011, Jacob Turk entered Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, stood before a microphone and asked those who had gathered before him, "Has our economic outlook improved over the past year? Have we revived the job market? Has our national debt declined? Unfortunately, the answer to all three questions is No." Turk then announced he would be challenging Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's hold on Missouri's Fifth District for a fourth time. You read that right. Jacob Turk has run for Congress three times before and lost, each time against Emanuel Cleaver. That hasn't dissuaded Turk in the slightest....

Congressional staffers control the content on Members’ websites. They control Members’ Facebook and Twitter accounts. They can even manage Internet search results by buying ads and using search engine optimization techniques. But Hill staffers can’t control what people wonder about their bosses. The latest trend in helpful Web search technologies is quietly causing headaches for Members of Congress and those who manage their reputations. Search engines such as Google now offer suggested search terms that appear in a drop-down menu as users begin typing. Those search terms, formulated partly based on what other users are searching, often serve up all...

Pelosi: GOP tax bill ‘doesn't have a shot’By Mike Lillis - 12/09/11 01:01 PM ET Republican "extremism" is the only thing stopping Congress from finalizing an extension of the payroll tax cut and getting out of town for the holidays, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi charged Friday. The California Democrat hammered the tax package from House Republicans, warning that the addition of "poison pill" riders — particularly language expediting approval of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline — means the bill is dead on arrival. "Their proposal doesn't have a shot," Pelosi said during a brief press event in the...

The House of Representatives passed a bi-partisan resolution Tuesday night reaffirming “In God We Trust” as the official motto of the United States. The 396-9 vote came at the request of Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) – in part over President Obama’s refusal to correct remarks he made that misstated the motto as “E pluribus unum” instead of “In God We Trust.”Lawmakers voting against “In God We Trust” include Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich), Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA),...

Debt Crisis: Republicans Scent Victory With 'Sugar-Coated Satan Sandwich' Both sides express unease at the deal,but it is Democrats who have given most ground to raise debt ceiling Ewen MacAskill 1 August 2011. It was easy wandering round the corridors of Congress yesterday to spot who had won the debt standoff. In huddles with party colleagues or heading off to caucus meetings to discuss the details of the deal or standing in front of TV cameras, it was the Republicans who had all the smiles. Democratic members of Congress looked uneasy, at times shifty; and some downright were angry. "If...

This sounds like good news...The leader of the Black Socialist Caucus says the debt deal is a “sugar-coated Satan sandwich.” That must mean it is a much better deal than we had hoped for. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver is the current leader of the Black Caucus (without black Republican members) Roll Call reported: President Barack Obama’s rightward lurch to reach a $3 trillion deficit reduction deal with no guarantee of additional revenues had liberals fuming and Republicans all but declaring victory Sunday afternoon. With time running out to reach an agreement to raise the debt ceiling before Tuesday’s default deadline, Obama...