Bishop, Dan Rep

sidekick mike lee?

MERRIOK

rich?

xian?

---

an 4 26

Dan Bishop has been lucky enough to score several jobs in President Donald Trump's administration after he failed to win in a primary race and it isn't the first time.

Writing for the Rachel Maddow Show blog, producer Steve Benen noted Bishop was first hired after he gave up his North Carolina House seat to run for attorney general in the state. He lost. So the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) hired him.

After less than a year, he left OMB for a prime spot at the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina. After five months, he was shifted to another job: Winning Trump's 2020 campaign, in 2026.

Trump has spent the first part of the year revisiting the 2020 election, which he lost to President Joe Biden. In Fulton County, Georgia, the FBI seized ballots from the past election. In Maricopa County, Arizona, in early March, an FBI agent took more than three dozen hard drives and servers containing data from a partisan audit of the 2020 election from the state Senate building. The audit was done by the company "Cyber Ninjas" and lambasted by legal experts and watchdog groups as a "sham audit."

Benen cited the Wall Street Journal report, which cited Bishop's recent "quiet" appointment to the investigative team at the Justice Department.

"Attorney General Pam Bondi, last week, quietly authorized Dan Bishop, a U.S. attorney in North Carolina, to pursue election-related probes across the country, according to a copy of the order," the Journal cited. One DOJ official told the reporters that "Bishop, a former congressman who voted against certifying Biden’s 2020 win, will also examine voter-roll data the Justice Department has been collecting from states in an effort to determine whether noncitizens have illegally registered or cast ballots."

Benen wrote, "Given his record, it’s tough to be optimistic about Bishop overseeing these efforts in a detached and independent way."

The report indicated that "the lines have grown blurry," Benen said, when it comes to how the DOJ is being used to pursue 2020 election conspiracy theories. While Bishop is concerned, Benen, it's the combination of all of it that sent up the red flags.

"Making matters worse is the scope of the efforts. The Bishop news is important, but it dovetails with the president and his team seizing ballots and election records in Georgia and Arizona; seizing voting equipment in Puerto Rico; waging an aggressive campaign to acquire voter rolls from states where Democrats won; organizing an unnecessary FBI elections 'briefing' for state officials; and providing Kurt Olsen, one of Trump’s highly controversial former campaign lawyers, with classified information as he tried to advance election conspiracy theories," Benen explained.

While it's part of Trump's continued efforts to relitigate the 2020 election, it's also part of a larger campaign to restrict voting rights.

As Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained it in 2020, “If Republicans don’t challenge and change the US election system, there will never be another Republican president elected again. President Trump should not concede. We’re down to less – 10,000 votes in Georgia. He’s going to win North Carolina. We have gone from 93,000 votes to less than 20,000 votes in Arizona, where more – more votes to be counted.”

Trump further commented in early March that passing voter restrictions “will guarantee the midterms."

---

pro publ

---

For a project explicitly designed to influence Congress, Steve Berger’s operation has left a scant paper trail. The archconservative evangelical pastor, who started a D.C. nonprofit a few years ago to shape national policy, does not file lobbying reports. His group does not show up in campaign finance records.

There is a simple way to glimpse his effort’s expanding reach in Washington, however: Pay attention to who is walking out the front door of his Capitol Hill townhouse. New evidence suggests Berger may be running what amounts to a group house for conservative lawmakers, with multiple members of Congress living with him at his organization’s headquarters.

The six-bedroom, $3.7 million home is owned by a multimillion-dollar Republican donor.

Rep. Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican who is among President Donald Trump’s most aggressive allies in Congress, has been at the house on multiple days over the past two weeks, according to people who live in the area. Video reviewed by ProPublica showed Ogles leaving the townhouse with bags on Feb. 27. As he left, he locked up the front door and pocketed the keys to the house.

As ProPublica reported last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson is living in the townhouse. And Dan Bishop, a former congressman from North Carolina now nominated for a powerful post in Trump’s White House, appears to have lived there until recently as well.

Berger has said his goal is to “disciple” members of Congress so what “they learn is then translated into policy.” He has claimed to have personally spurred legislation, saying a senator privately credited him with inspiring a bill.

Berger, Bishop and Ogles did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Johnson previously said the speaker pays fair-market rent for the part of the townhouse he occupies but didn’t answer questions about the specific rate. He said Johnson has not spoken to the pastor about “any matter of public policy.”

Ogles is in only his third year in Congress, but he’s drawn attention for his bombastic displays of fealty to Trump. He recently introduced a resolution to amend the Constitution so that Trump could serve a third term as president. He’s filed articles of impeachment against multiple judges who’ve ruled against the new administration. (Last week, Elon Musk posted a video of Ogles touting his impeachment efforts, set to the beat from the rap song “Shook Ones, Pt. II.”)

Ogles’ short tenure is also notable for the pace of scandal that’s followed it. He has faced allegations that he inflated his resume, claiming alternatively to have been an economist, a member of law enforcement and an expert on international sex trafficking, NewsChannel 5 in Nashville reported. (Ogles has acknowledged at least one mistake on his resume but said that “my body of work speaks for itself.”)

Last year, the FBI seized his phone during an investigation and obtained a search warrant to review records associated with his personal email address. Federal investigators were seeking evidence related to potential campaign finance violations, according to a court filing. The scope of the FBI investigation remains unclear.

Perhaps no one is more responsible for Ogles’ rise in politics than Lee Beaman, the Tennessee businessman who owns the Capitol Hill townhouse. When Ogles announced a short-lived Senate bid in 2017, Beaman said he planned to raise $4 million to support the run. Beaman, whose wealth derives from a large car dealership chain, then served as campaign treasurer in Ogles’ successful 2022 run for the House.

Rep. Andy Ogles appeared on stage at Steve Berger’s 60th-birthday party last year. Credit:via Facebook

Beaman and Berger have publicly advocated together for numerous specific policy changes, in areas including foreign affairs, fuel efficiency standards and removing barriers to firing federal employees. After the 2020 election, they both signed a letter declaring that Trump was the rightful winner and calling for Congress to overturn the results. (Beaman did not respond to requests for comment. ProPublica could not determine whether he and the pastor have discussed policy issues with Ogles during his time in Congress.)

In sermons, Berger has devoted long stretches to attacking the separation of church and state, as well as COVID-19 vaccines. The pastor used violent language to describe his disdain for “LGBTQ+ Pride” parades and “drag queen story hour” during an interview for a podcast in 2022, according to unpublished footage obtained by ProPublica.

“If I was left to myself, I’d take a baseball bat and beat the hell out of every single one of them. And not feel bad about it,” Berger said. “I have to go, ‘You know what? That’s probably not the will of God, is it?’ And obviously it’s not.”

Beyond his ownership of the townhouse, Beaman’s role in the pastor’s influence project is unclear. After Beaman purchased the house in 2021, a lawyer sought to change it from a single-family dwelling to a “boarding house/rooming house,” according to Washington, D.C., property records. Around that time, Berger’s nonprofit group, Ambassador Services International, registered the home as its address.

Members of Congress are allowed to live anywhere, as long as they pay fair-market rent, experts said. Discounts on rent are generally seen as improper gifts and prohibited by House ethics rules.

....

---

5 23

at least six more members of Congress have violated the STOCK Act by failing to disclose transactions — up to $376,280 collectively — within a 45-day federal deadline, according to Raw Story analysis of congressional financial documents.

The majority of the late disclosure dollars came from Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) who was late in disclosing up to $300,000 in stock transactions from a joint trust.

He is joined by five other lawmakers who were late in disclosing transactions in the $1,000-to-$15,000 range: Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-ID), Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC) and Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD).

The lawmakers aren’t alone in violating the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act this week.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who last year led Democratic House leadership’s self-aborted effort to ban congressional stock trading, violated the STOCK Act with up to $265,000 in late financial disclosures, Raw Story reported on Wednesday.

Raw Story also broke the news last week that Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) was late in disclosing up to $5 million in U.S. Treasury note purchases.

The ongoing violations come at a time when a bipartisan group of lawmakers have introduced several similar bills aimed at banning congressional stock trading.

---

an raw 3 23

During a House Judiciary hearing this Tuesday, things got a little heated as lawmakers discussed the role of religion and God when interpreting the Constitution.

According to Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), the notion that “all our rights are God-given” doesn’t make sense.

“I just wonder, when God decided to give women the right to vote, and why God didn’t give women the right to vote back in the 1700s,” Cohen said. “And when God decided that slavery would be illegal — God was okay with slavery until we had a war millions of people were killed, then God changed his mind? That’s hard to fathom.”

Cohen went on to provide the same analogy for abortion and interracial marriage. He clarified that he has respect for people’s belief in God, but added that he doesn’t believe the notion that every right is “God given.” “God did not decide to keep African Americans as slaves until there was a Civil War, and then God changed his mind,” he said.

IN OTHER NEWS: Greene gets schooled after her ‘divorced from reality’ rant at House Homeland Security hearing

Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) then chimed in, saying that in the view of the Founders, and his view as well as other Americans, the rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” were given to us by God. “That doesn’t mean that God makes a decision on every single law that is passed in this country,” Buck said. “That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t frown sometimes when there are horrible historical actions by human beings, like slavery, like the denial of the right to vote and some other things.”

“But life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are recognized in our founding documents as given to us by God, and those rights are the rights that everything else flows from,” Buck said.

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) then accused Cohen of not caring about the rights endowed in the Constitution. “He embraces that modern Democratic Party’s view that it’s not about God, it’s not about God’s will or what God has created in mankind, you cannot trace rights to the existence of God … that’s all passe … Okay, that’s what we’re up against,” Bishop said.

Bishop declared that he is “absolutely certain that Thomas Jefferson and the other authors of the [Declaration of Independence] were correct.” He continued with his rant before being cut off, but he refused to yield his time.

“I’m not gonna yield! Because I’m gonna make this statement really clear.”

Watch video below or at this link.

https://www.alternet.org/2021/12/gop-populism/

Some analyses of Trumpism and Republican populism have claimed to detect a strain of anti-corporate sentiment. It is true that today’s right-wingers are willing to criticize big tech companies for supposedly treating them unfairly. But most of the time the GOP continues to serve the interests of big business.

That was clear during an important hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on antitrust, commercial and administrative law. Subcommittee chair David Cicilline (D-R.I.), vice-chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), other Democratic members and the witnesses all raised serious questions about the current regulatory system, focusing on issues such as disclosure and social equity.

The Republicans, on the other hand, did their best to change the subject or spoke in favor of less rather than more oversight. Ranking member Ken Buck (R-Colo.) used his opening remarks to attack executive overreach and praise the Trump administration’s wholesale attack on regulation.

Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) spent his time attacking what he claimed was a plan by the Justice Department to treat parents critical of school boards as domestic terrorists. One of the witnesses, NAACP climate justice director Jacqueline Patterson, was asked by Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) whether she was a revolutionary. She was also chastised for a facetious tweet about vaccines. The comments of GOP members on regulation were mainly limited to attacks on so-called woke bureaucrats.

Despite these antics, there was a serious exchange between the Democrats and the witnesses on the failures of the current regulatory system. These issues are also addressed in theStop Corporate Capture Act introduced by Jayapal.

The legislation would create more transparency in rulemaking, reduce corporate influence over the process and create a framework for considering social equity. It would fine companies that lie about the impact of public interest rules. It would also create a public Advocate to provide for more robust public participation.

It turns the usual discussion on its head. Rejecting the idea of executive overreach, the bill correctly diagnoses the problem as a situation of what one might call regulatory anemia. Agencies are not aggressive enough in tackling serious problems relating to the environment, the workplace and the marketplace. The parties meant to be targeted instead are playing an outsized role in creating the rules. Hence the reference in the bill’s title to regulatory capture.

Jayapal’s proposal is what one might call a populist approach to reforming the regulatory system—one that is not likely to receive support from corporate lobbyists. When they are not simply kicking up dust, Republicans, by contrast, are doing the bidding of big business by continuing the Trump Administration’s drumbeat against regulation.

This is one of those areas in which the conventional labels of U.S. politics continue to baffle me. Why are those working to benefit giant corporations called populists, while those who are seeking to rein in that power are called elitists?

---

2019[

In the 2019 special election in North Carolina's 9th congressional district, the Club for Growth endorsed state senator Dan Bishop in the 10-candidate Republican primary field.^[195] Bishop advanced from the primary and defeated Democrat Dan McCready in the general special election on September 10, 2019.^[196]

In the 2019 special election in Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district, the Club for Growth endorsed Fred Keller, who advanced to the general election.^[197] Keller won the general special election held on May 21, 2019.^[198]

In the 2019 special election in North Carolina's 3rd congressional district, the Club for Growth endorsed Celeste Cairns in the 17-person Republican primary field. Cairns did not advance to the run-off primary

---

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Bishop

james Daniel Bishop (born July 1, 1964)^[3][4] is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. Representative for North Carolina's 9th congressional district since 2019. He also served in the North Carolina State Senate from 2017-2019. A Republican, his district includes south-central Mecklenburg, Union, Anson, Richmond, Scotland, Robeson, Bladen, and Cumberland counties. He previously served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 2015 to 2017, and the Mecklenburg County Commission from 2005 to 2009.

Bishop was the lead author of North Carolina's so-called "bathroom bill" which prohibited transgender individuals from using public restrooms other than those by their biological sex as defined on their birth certificates.^[5][6] The bill was signed into law. It created public backlash and was subsequently overruled by a federal judge in Asheville in a ruling affirmed by the United States Supreme Court.

Bishop won the 2019 special election to the U.S. House of Representatives with 50.7% of the vote to Dan McCready's 48.7% on September 10, 2019.^[7][8] He took office on September 17, 2019.

Education[edit]

Bishop received a B.S. in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1986 and a J.D. in 1990 from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1990.^[9]

Political career[edit]

Bishop with President Donald Trump in September 2019

Bishop has attracted attention for statements attacking journalists, which have been likened to statements by Donald Trump.^[10] On one occasion, Bishop criticized the Raleigh press corps over coverage of the state budget, calling reporters the "jihad media."^[11]

County Commission and state House (2005–2016)[edit]

Bishop was a member of the Mecklenburg County Commission from 2004 to 2008. After a six-year absence from politics, he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives from a south Charlotte seat for a single term (2015-2017), running against a Libertarian opponent, Eric Cable, but without a Democratic one.^[12] Bishop's district was House District 104.^[9] He succeeded Ruth Samuelson, who retired from the House.^[12]

State Senate (2017–2019)[edit]

Bishop won his North Carolina State Senate District 39 seat in November 2016 to succeed Bob Rucho who was not seeking re-election. He received 58,739 votes (52.81%), defeating Democrat Lloyd Scher, who received 44,655 (47.19%).^[13]

During the 2017-2018 legislative session, Bishop was the co-chairman of the Select Committee on Judicial Reform and Redistricting, the vice-chairman of the Select Committee on Elections, and a member of several additional committees.^[14]

In the state Senate, Bishop was one of the primary sponsors of legislation in 2017 that would prevent persons living near North Carolina factory farms from recovering meaningful damages in civil actions against agribusinesses found responsible for harming them. This legislation was supported by big industry lobbyists and opposed by consumer protection agencies and environmental groups, such as the League of Conservation Voters.^[15] In 2017, the American Conservative Union gave him a lifetime rating of 87%.

LGBT issues[edit]

Bishop was the architect of the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, or House Bill 2.^[16][17][6] This controversial "bathroom bill" legislation restricted transgender individuals from using gender-segregated public facilities, other than those identified for use by their biological sex as defined on their birth certificates.^[16] The bill, signed into law by Republican Governor Pat McCrory, also invalidated a local nondiscrimination law passed by the Charlotte City Council and prohibited any local government in North Carolina from enacting new protections for gay, lesbian, or transgender individuals.^[17] Bishop used his sponsorship of HB 2 in fundraising emails, stating that he stood up to the "radical transgender agenda."^[16] Bishop's role in promoting HB 2 raised the profile of the freshman state senator.^[16] In 2017, after a public backlash against the legislation and economic harms of $3.7 billion, HB 2 was repealed and replaced with new compromise legislation brokered between Democratic Governor Roy Cooper and the Republican leadership of the state legislature.^[6] Bishop was the sole senator to make a floor speech against HB 2's revocation, calling it a "betrayal of principle."^[18] In emails from Bishop subsequently made public under North Carolina's public-records law, Bishop compared LGBT rights activists to the Taliban.^[19]

Following release of video showing HB 2 protesters shouting "shame" at former Governor McCrory during protests in Washington D.C., Bishop said he supported legislation that would criminalize such political behavior. Critics have called the proposed action antithetical to First Amendment principles.^[20]

U.S. House of Representatives[edit]

2019 special election[

Main article: 2019 North Carolina's 9th congressional district special election

Tenure[edit]

Committee assignments[edit]

Gab.ai[

In August 2017, Bishop contributed $500 toward the establishment of the social network Gab.ai, a website criticized for allegedly allowing white supremacist content.^[21] Bishop said he decided to make the contribution in response to what he called a California "tech giants' Big Brother routine", referring to companies such as PayPal and Facebook canceling accounts used by organizers and funders of the Unite the Right rally, in Charlottesville, Virginia.^[10]

Bishop's crowdfunding contribution attracted attention the following year, after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.^[21] Bishop responded that he was being "smeared," saying "I don't use Gab, but if its management allows its users to promote violence, anti-Semitism, and racism on the platform they have misled investors and they will be gone quickly, and rightfully so."^[21] The contribution came up again during the 2019 election season, one week following the El Paso Shooting and a month before the election. A group called Stand Up Republic aired criticism of McCready's contribution towards Gab.ai as part of a $500,000 dollar advertising campaign. McCready criticised the advertising, arguing that it was "defamatory."^[22]

Electoral history[

On March 14, 2019, Bishop announced he would run for the U.S. House of Representatives, he entered the 9th congressional district special election.^[23] He won the Republican Party primary on May 14, 2019, with 47% of the vote.^[24][25]

...