House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., knew from the start that it was going to be a public relations disaster.
McCarthy argued in a closed door meeting on Monday night that it was a bad idea for the Republicans to make gutting the independent congressional ethics office their first move since taking control of both houses of Congress and the White House following the November election.
“I was one of the first to the (microphone) as to why I didn’t think this was the best timing to do it,” McCarthy, of Bakersfield, told reporters on Tuesday.
House Republicans ignored his counsel and voted 119-74 on Monday night to curtail the independent Office of Congressional Ethics. Only after President-elect Donald Trump and others criticized the move on Tuesday did Republicans hold an emergency caucus meeting and drop the plan.
McCarthy had been caught in a vise, struggling to defend the plan to reporters Tuesday morning on the one hand while emphasizing his personal opposition to the timing on the other. Some two hours later, House Republicans decided curbing the ethics office didn’t have to be their first priority after all.
McCarthy’s office would not immediately comment on his role in convincing his fellow Republicans to drop the idea, but at least one lawmaker characterized him as playing a major role in the emergency deliberations that led to Tuesday’s decision not to curtail the ethics office.
The House Republican decision to reverse course on sweeping changes to the ethics office came after Trump weighed in with his own feelings.
“With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance!” Trump tweeted.
Asked by reporters about the criticism from Trump, McCarthy said that he shared the president-elect’s view.
“I read the tweet and those are the same arguments I made last night,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy said he’d prefer for House Republicans not to change the ethics system on their own – suggesting some Democrats also had concerns with the ethics office.
“Anytime you want to deal with some reforms it’s probably best to do it in a bipartisan manner,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy nevertheless attempted to defend the plan to reporters, arguing that criticism of it was overblown. He fumbled on details when pressed, though, saying at one point “I’ll have to go back and look.” He said there were concerns about ongoing ethics probes becoming public.
“Someone may be accused of something, that doesn’t mean they did it or not,” McCarthy said.
The independent Office of Congressional Ethics was created in 2008 after scandals and complaints that the House Ethics Committee wasn’t aggressive enough in policing members of Congress.
The change would have renamed it the Office of Congressional Complaint Review and put the office under oversight of the House Ethics Committee.
The planned change was heavily criticized by watchdog groups and Democrats in Congress, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
“House Republicans showed their true colors last night, and reversing their plans to destroy the Office of Congressional Ethics will not obscure their clear contempt for ethics in the people’s House,” Pelosi said in a written statement Tuesday.
Rep. David Brat, R-Va., said House Republicans withdrew the planned ethics changes after media coverage helped fan intense criticism of the move.
“We were just getting calls,” Brat said. “Part of it is the headlines.”

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The announcement, which was first reported by New York magazine, comes after it was announced that former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush would attend the inauguration. Last month, former President Jimmy Carter, 92, announced that he would attend the inauguration.
Sources told New York magazine that the Clintons decided to attend out of a sense of duty and respect for the democratic process.
Mr. Trump won the Electoral College 306-232 while Clinton, the former first lady, senator and secretary of state, beat Mr. Trump in the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million votes.
Since the election, Clinton has been lying low except for events for the Children’s Defense Fund and a tribute to retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, near the end of last year. She has also run into some of her neighbors in the woods near her home in Chappaqua, New York.

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House Republicans agreed Tuesday to withdraw the rules change that would have stripped the chamber’s outside ethics watchdog of its independence and power after heavy public backlash and tweets of disapproval from President-elect Donald Trump.
Republican lawmakers agreed by unanimous consent in a closed-door emergency meeting Monday to strip the rules change from their overall rules package that the lower chamber is scheduled to vote on later in the day, according to a GOP aide.
This came as the new Congress was supposed to gavel in, and just two hours after Mr. Trump tweeted that congressional Republicans shouldn’t be wasting their time with a major ethics change.
With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it
……..may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance! #DTS
On Monday night, a majority of Republicans voted to rename the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) to the Office of Congressional Complaint Review. The House Ethics Committee–whose members are lawmakers–will now oversee that outside office’s work.
Under the change proposed by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, the outside office would not have been able to investigate anonymous tips, it couldn’t have had a spokesperson and it would have been barred from releasing its findings to the public. Members of the House Ethics Committee would also have been able to stop the office’s investigations.
Republican strategist and CBS News contributor Frank Luntz joins “CBS This Morning” from Capitol Hill to discuss how the Republicans undermined t…
Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, opposed the move, but Ryan defended the change in a statement before the emergency meeting Tuesday.
House Democrats created the independent watchdog after the lobbying scandal involving Jack Abramoff.

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Ford has said it will cancel a $1.6bn (£1.3bn) plant it planned to build in Mexico and instead extend operations at its factory in Michigan.
The US car giant will spend $700m on expanding the plant at Flat Rock.
Ford boss Mark Fields said the decision was partly due to falling sales of small cars and partly a “vote of confidence” in Donald Trump’s policies.
The President-elect has criticised both Ford and its rival General Motors over production of models in Mexico.
Mr Trump earlier on Tuesday tweeted criticism of GM’s production of its Chevy Cruze model in Mexico.
Ford’s chief executive, Mark Fields, told the BBC that the main decision to cancel the plant in Mexico was because of a “dramatic decline for the demand for small cars here in North America,” allowing the company to cope with its existing plant.
But he said another factor in the decision was the “more favourable US business environment that we see under President-elect Trump and some of the pro-growth policies that he’s been talking about”.
“That did play a part and it’s a vote of confidence that he can deliver on these things,” Mr Fields added.
Ford is not abandoning production completely in Mexico, but is switching production of its Focus model to its existing plant in Hermosillo there to improve profitability.
It makes the current version at its plant in Wayne in Michigan. Production at that facility will switch to two new models, which it says will safeguard 3,500 US jobs.
The planned $1.6bn plant in Mexico was to be built in San Luis Potosi, but Ford said it would now invest some of that sum in Flat Rock, creating 700 jobs building a range of electric cars.
Mexico’s economy ministry said it regretted Ford’s decision, adding that it had assurances that the US car firm would pay the state of San Luis Potosi for any costs incurred from the cancellation.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Trump criticised General Motors on Twitter for making cars built in Mexico and made available tax-free in the US.
“General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to US car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U. S. A. or pay big border tax! ” he tweeted.
However, GM said most of its Chevy Cruze cars were made in the US.
A spokesman said only the hatchback model, which forms a small percentage of sales, was made in Mexico.
He added that the car was built there for global production and said that although some Cruze sedans were made in Mexico for a while last year, all the ones now sold in the US were manufactured in Ohio.
Cars made in Mexico can move across the border tax free thanks to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), something that Donald Trump attacked during his campaign for causing the loss of US manufacturing jobs to cheaper labour.
In fact, only a tiny fraction (2,400 out of 190,000) of the GM model he singled out, the Cruze, are made in Mexico.
But while he may have picked on the wrong model, the message was unmistakable – the President-elect’s hostility to NAFTA hasn’t faded post-victory.
That position – and its popularity among many US consumers – is clearly not lost on car makers.
Read Simon’s blog in full
Glenn Johnson, president of a union at the Lordstown factory in Ohio, said there had been no protest about the move of sedan production across the border.
And responding to Mr Trump’s tweet, he said: “It makes for news, that’s all. ”
Mr Trump has criticised other US industry titans since his election win and has vowed to make good on campaign promises to bring jobs back to America by, as he puts it, levelling the playing field.
However, some commentators have expressed concern that restricting imports could damage the US economy.
In November, GM said it would lay off around 1,250 workers at Lordstown and around 800 at its plant in Michigan from the middle of January, although some may find work at other factories.

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The White House criticized House Republicans’ efforts to gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics on Tuesday, saying that it had been created in 2008 to “in response to ethical scandals plaguing congressional Republicans.”
“It is disheartening that the very first thing that the Republicans in Congress chose to do was to vote in secret to gut ethical accountability,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at a press briefing. “That’s not draining the swamp.”
House Republicans voted 119-74 during a closed-door meeting on Monday night to place the ethics watchdog group under the control of the very lawmakers it oversees. The full House was slated to vote on the plan on Tuesday as part of a larger bundle of changes to House rules.
Republicans reversed course on the rules change on Tuesday afternoon after backlash to their plan, including from President-elect Donald Trump, overshadowed the first day of the 115th Congress.
“With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it … may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance! #DTS,” Trump said in two tweets, using the hashtag for his signature ‘drain the swamp’ slogan.
The White House on Tuesday said the changes sought by Republicans would make it easier for them to escape accountability.
“There’s a lot of talk about ethics and revolving doors, but I think the revolving door that we see right now is the continual challenge on the part of congressional Republicans to skirt responsibility for their ethical violations,” Earnest said.
He added that it will be up to Trump to check lawmakers from his party if they try to help favored special interests and donors, citing Wall Street and the oil lobby as examples.
“One other thing we know congressional Republicans are likely to do is to go to their donors in the oil industry and say ‘Hey we can help you escape accountability for polluting the air and water and land,’” he said. “I think the real question for the president-elect is, will he stand up to them then…so we’ll just have to wait and see exactly how that plays out.”

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Last Updated Jan 3, 2017 4:30 PM EST
Megyn Kelly is leaving Fox News, where she had been one of the network’s biggest stars, for NBC News.
At NBC, she’ll host a weekday daytime show, an in-depth Sunday magazine and take part in the network’s coverage of high-profile events. She was at the 21st Century Fox ( FOX ) TV network for 12 years and gained notoriety after she clashed during presidential debates with Donald Trump.
According to The New York Times, NBC News President Andrew Lack was able to convince the 46-year-old Kelly to leave Fox News, even though it seemed doubtful that NBC or other networks could match the $20 million annual compensation that Fox offered her to stay.
Kelly’s contract isn’t due to expire until the summer, and it isn’t clear if Fox will allow her to start ahead of time, the newspaper said. Financial terms of Kelly’s deal were not disclosed. Fox News and NBC News didn’t respond to requests for comment for this story.
“While I will greatly miss my colleagues at Fox, I am delighted to be joining the NBC News family and taking on a new challenge,” Kelly said in a statement on her Facebook page. “I remain deeply grateful to Fox News, to Rupert, Lachlan and James Murdoch, and especially to all of the (Fox News Channel) viewers, who have taught me so much about what really matters.”
Kelly’s tenure at Fox News has been rocky since she gained notoriety for questioning now President-elect Trump during a 2015 presidential debate about why he called women he didn’t like “fat pigs, slobs, and disgusting animals.” When Trump joked that he said mean things only about his longtime nemesis Rosie O’Donnell, Kelly responded that his remarks were targeted more broadly than at just the stand-up comedian.
Kelly later complained about getting death threats from pro-Trump supporters.
She wound up in the headlines again last summer when former Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson accused longtime Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes of sexual harassment in a lawsuit. Several high-profile Fox hosts such as Bill O’Reilly, Maria Bartiromo and Sean Hannity publicly defended Ailes against the accusations. O’Reilly even called the 76-year-old Ailes “the best boss I ever had.”
Kelly, however, broke ranks and told an internal Fox investigation that Ailes had made unwanted advances toward her when she was starting out her career. More than a dozen other women made similar claims, and Ailes was eventually forced to resign. Ailes has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Lachlan and James Murdoch, sons of 21st Century Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch, reportedly were keen on keeping Kelly at the network. The elder Murdoch took over from Ailes as the head of Fox News on a temporary basis.
“It’s a loss for Fox,” said Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television & Popular Culture, who called Kelly a “bona fide news celebrity.” He added that “There has been a lot of animosity between Megyn Kelly and Fox, and I have a feeling that they aren’t terribly surprised” by her decision.
Moving to NBC News will greatly increase the size of Kelly’s audience. Fox News averaged 2.4 million viewers in prime time, the most of any cable network in 2016. However, “NBC Nightly News” attracted more than 9 million viewers during the week of Dec. 19 , topping rivals ABC, which is owned by Walt Disney ( DIS ) and CBS ( CBS ), the parent company of CBSNews.com
NBC’s move isn’t without risks. High-profile talent such as Katie Couric and Anderson Cooper tried and failed to attract audiences in daytime. NBC’s magazine show “Rock Center” was canceled in 2013 after two seasons. Plus, Kelly faces a challenge in switching from cable to a wider audience on a broadcast network.
“One has to wait and see how these transitions get made,” Thompson said. “Sometimes you move from one place to another, and it’s a triumph. Sometimes it’s not. They aren’t going to put Megyn Kelly into a daytime show that people are going to confuse with a Fox show, but at the same time they would be wise to play upon the strengths for which she is known.”
Kelly, who has a law degree, could wind up with high-profile assignments like anchoring the news or appearing on the “Today” show given her experience and credibility with the audience, according to Thompson.
“Now that she’s with NBC, she could potentially be popping up on MSNBC,” noted for being the liberal answer to Fox News, “which is funny,” Thompson said.

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