on tuesday we learned that senator sheldon whitehouse and ron wyden have asked merrick garland to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate supreme court justice to clarence thomas for tax fraud. the next day alexandria ocasio- cortez filed articles of impeachment against thomas and samuel alito, citing failures to publicly disclose financial income, gifts, and other transactions as well as the recusal -- refusal to recuse themselves from cases in which they may have had a conflict of interest. >> in january, 2021, after the former president of the united states incited an insurrection on the capital in this chamber, to interfere with the results of the u.s. election, justice samuel alito and his wife flew and upside down american flag, a symbol of solidarity with the attack outside their home. despite the overwhelming appearance of a conflict of interest, justice alito refused to recuse himself from cases surrounding the 2020 election and questions of the former presidents legal immunity in the attack. justice thomas, who is married to virginia thomas, a financially and personally invo

senator sheldon whitehouse of rhode island and ron wyden of oregon are urging attorney general merrickgarland to appoint a special counsel to investigate thomas' failure to disclose lavish gifts and luxury travel and other perks gifted to thomas by wealthy friends, including billionaire conservative megadonor harlan crow. the senator said in a statement, "no government official should be above the law." another democratic congress member has called on president biden bow out of the presidential race following his disastrous performance in a debate against donald trump last month when biden appeared disjointed, confused, and frequently lost his train of thought. on tuesday, new jersey congressmember mikie sherrill said in a statement -- "because i know president biden cares deeply about the future of our country, i am asking that he declare that he won't run for reelection and will help lead us through a process toward a new nominee." it was at least the 10th such call by house democrats. members of the uncommitted movement to democratic voters have asked the democratic national committ

we learned that ron wyden asked attorney general merrick garland to appoint a special prosecutor to criminally investigate supreme court justice terrance glamis-- clarence thomas for fraud. citing their failures to publicly disclose financial income, gifts, and other transactions, as well as their refusal to recuse themselves from cases in which they had a conflict of interest. >> in january 2021, after the former president of the united states and cited an insurrection on the capitol, in this chamber, to interfere with the results of the u.s. election, justice samuel alito and his wife flew an upside down american flag, a symbol of solidarity with the attack outside their home. justice thomas, who is married to virginia thomas, a financial and personally involved operative in the stop the steel movement and capitol attack, also joined opinions in these cases, even as clear evidence mounted that not only was his wife fully committed to overthrowing the results of a fair election, but she was actively lobbying members of the trump administration attempting to do just that. >>> these efforts are

in a letter sent to attorney general merrick garland on tuesday, senators sheldon whitehouse and ron wyden called on garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate thomas and said the justice may have committed tax fraud by not reporting the gifts. a bipartisan group of senators announced the ethics act wednesday, which would ban members of congress, their families, and the u.s. president and vice president from stock trading while in office. democratic senator jeff merkley said, "we must be here to serve the public, not our portfolios." jury deliberations are expected to begin today in new jersey senator bob menendez's corruption case. the democratic senator, his wife nadine menendez, and three new jersey businessmen are accused in the bribery scheme. senator menendez is also accused of abusing his official position to benefit interests in egypt and qatar. if convicted, senator menendez could face years in prison. chicago's democratic mayor brandon johnson has spoken out after a spate of shootings over the july 4 holiday weekend, which injured more than 100 people and killed at

so i brought the petition to the capitol and met with senator ron wyden. and to present my petition. i can't even what the. oh that's me talking to the press freedom of speech chopping that's not really in the constitution. but i try to get into the mindset. so i, i tend by writing my horse in manhattan and oh, i did join a reenactor group and fought in the battle of monmouth. there's my wife and son and i die, by the way, but i died in the shade so it wasn't actually that that hard and then my favorite part is i hope we get to that i hope i brought the 18th century tradition of election cakes to celebrate, to micro, say and remind ourselves our catch was democracy is sweet and we have to fight to keep it because. it is fragile. so that's just a quick overview and holly, tell me what interests you most of it? what do you want to talk about? well, election cake is actually a very important. we'll get to that later. that's an important throughline. but you mentioned originalism and there definitely a push and pull throughout the book about originalism versus

wyden have done this in a way that puts attention on an outrageous situation, not just the millionsars but the failure to disclose. we have never seen anything quite like the whole lifetime that thomas has enjoyed because of one highly conservative benefactor. >> justice thomas, he's more or less given ammunition to judge eileen cannon and his concurrence on trump's immunity willing to casting a shadow of a doubt on the legitimacy of special counsel jack smith's appointment. trump's lawyers used it in their latest filings. jack smith responded late friday asking cannon to not rely on that. how do you expect judge cannon to proceed? >> you never know with judge cannon. it's the equivalent of a conference call but through the federal reports. here's what thomas wrote, he said i totally agree with roberts, i totally agree with my colleagues. i write separately to highlight another way in which it may violate our constitutional structure. really? he write separately just to talk a little bit about what, the very motion in front of judge cannon? what judge cannon take the hint and apply

sheldon whitehouse and ron wyden write this to merrick garland.y suggested that justice thomas has committed willively violations, and raises significant questions about whether he and his wealthy benefactors have complied with the federal tax obligations. presented with opportunities to resolve questions, justice thomas has maintained a suspicious silence. gabe roth and former deputy choor chief, christy greenberg. gabe, this is the kind of action you've been calling for for a long time. your thoughts. >> i have been calling for a special counsel investigation since i think since april 13th of last year when some of the first propublica stories came out. it's clear the judiciary doesn't have the capacity to conduct its own fact finding. just this last week we learned of a judge in alaska that had been sexually harassing his cleerks for weeks, and it too 21 months to push him out, which is pathetic. the idea we'll have something similar in the supreme court, would the idea that we're going to have something similar in the supreme court, though, wo

>> absolutely pure the tax agreement you are referring to was a bipartisan effort between senator ronon and myself to members of congress that are not alike politically, but we found common ground. in fact, it proved it was common ground because it passed the house of representatives in january with 84% of the vote. for anything to pass united states house of representatives with 84%, we got five more votes than the tiktok bill, so i'm quite happy with that. i believe the votes are there. it will help millions of americans. it will fix several of the tax provisions that have expired from trump's tax cut. joe: we have had a long-running debate here, and i know it's going to continue. kevin brady has been speaking to us about this. there are questions about how you make all of this happen. i know there is an effort to increase defense spending. nobody wants to touch social security or medicare but we want to make the tax cuts permanent. if that's all that happens, potentially add a good amount of money to our deficit, in the trillions, which i don't think something you want to see, so t

it was negotiated by the chairman of the senate finance committee, our democratic colleague ron wyden, and the head of the house ways and means committee, jason smith, the republican. they released a framework of this agreement in mid-january. the ways and means committee immediately scheduled hearings on a markup, and by the end of january this bill p was passed. and passed with broad bipartisan support, admittedly. given the partisanship that often grips congress, advancing a bipartisan tax bill is no small feat, but they only got it half of the way there. they cleared the house, but we are the senate and we have our ability and, frankly, the need if you're going to build bipartisan consensus, to be able to shape that legislation here in this body, starting on the finance committee. the senate is not a rubber stamp. it was never intended to be, and it isn't today. members of both chambers have a responsibility to evaluate and shape legislation before it goes to the president's desk. but you don't put a major tax bill on the floor after waiting six months, the day before we're suppos

senator sheldon whitehouse, a democrat of rhode island, and ron wyden, a democrat of oregon, said theytter to attorney general merrick garland last week requesting he appoint a special counsel to probe whether thomas violated ethics, false statement, and tax laws. and we will watch that if there's any new developments on that at and talk to sarah, independent, washington, d.c. caller: thank you for taking michael. i just. wanted to -- taking my call i just wanted to comment a little bit about president biden's age and trump stage. i understand they are both old. i do not understand why everyone is making a big deal out of president biden's age. he is doing a great job. i did not vote for him but he's doing a great job. and i will vote for him next time. i think this is gas lighting that they saying he is not well. i know what happened at the debate but that does not mean that he has not done a great job. and trump has had issue with his speech, at times. i just don't understand why everybody is harping on an older person that is doing a great job. in a test -- in the past, people use t

i also tried to get ron wyden, the senator here to help me.is aid shut me down and delayed the problem until the complaint was completely over. he never, ever said anything to the u.s. senator or try to help me. -- tried to help me. i want to let everybody know that if you are one citizen, you can't get any kind of help at all from any of our government agencies. i am old school. i don't have a smart phone or a computer. i'm a senior citizen. i can't get anybody to help me in any kind of government agency. that is my complaint. host: i prescient your calling in -- appreciate you calling and sharing your concerns with us. jill, jamestown, north carolina. democrat. good morning to you. caller: it is gill. host: sorry about that. caller: i would like to make some important points regarding j.d. vance and his wife. they are models of political expediency. his wife was a lifelong democrat. when donald trump asked him to be vice president she just changed her registration to republican. no surprise there. i would like to make two other points. to my