Republican Senators called it quits Thursday over a proposal to deliver restitution to the political victims of government weaponization, instead giving themselves paid vacation after balking at the idea that Americans deserve compensation for being targeted and mistreated by the federal government.
As many as 25 Republican senators reportedly balked at the $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund designed to “to provide a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare” during a briefing by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
The fund would make restitution to people like pro-life Americans targeted for praying outside abortion facilities, individuals who were unfairly or excessively prosecuted for involvement in the Jan. 6 protest, and others targeted by the Biden administration. However, the fund is open to anyone who believes he was unfairly targeted by the government, and disbursement of monies will be decided on a case-by-case basis, according to Vice President J.D. Vance, who was asked about the fund earlier this week.
“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again,” Blanche said of the fund in a press release.
Despite the fact that Senate Republicans approved a victim slush fund for themselves (to the tune of $500,000 each) after they learned the Biden administration spied on them, some senators seem to think regular Americans — who have far fewer resources and legal protections than members of Congress — should be left out to dry.
“I think it’s stupid on stilts. … When you take money from me to give to a purpose that I vehemently disagree with, that’s tyranny,” said outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who has become a vocal critic of President Donald Trump.
Mitch McConnell reportedly said, “So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong — Take your pick.”
As The Federalist CEO Sean Davis pointed out, both Tillis and McConnell voted for the senators-only victim slush fund, which “wasn’t available to any normal Americans whose rights had been violated. … But now Tillis is mad that actual American citizens might receive restitution. What a clown.”
As the senators escape Washington, D.C., until June, Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and the rest of the caucus are refusing to finish their work to pass $72 billion in funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). That makes Trump’s June 1 deadline for the funding essentially unreachable.
The decision to leave town comes after legislative failures and other turmoil in the Senate, such as Thune’s impotent attempt to get the SAVE America Act passed and Trump’s endorsements of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (in his primary bid to unseat incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas) and Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La. (in her bid to unseat incumbent Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La).
In doing so Trump brushed off the Senate’s tradition of protecting incumbents, and the upper chamber’s choice to leave the immigration bill on the table before it is passed is believed by some to be retribution for not supporting the incumbents.
An anonymous Senate Republican reportedly said, “The Uniparty GOP senators deliberately wet the bed as punishment for Trump endorsing against Cassidy and Cornyn. It’s totally embarrassing.”
