Ron Johnson

Oct. 21 (UPI) — Paul Ingrassia withdrew his nomination on Tuesday to head the Office of Special Counsel after his Republican support in the Senate crumbled following the release of his racist and inflammatory text messages.

Ingrassia announced his decision in a post on X just a day after Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters that the 30-year-old lawyer and political commentator did not have enough support in the chamber and asked the White House to rethink his nomination.

“I appreciate the overwhelming support that I have received throughout this process and will continue to serve President Trump and this administration to Make America Great Again!” he wrote.

The development is a rare instance of Senate Republicans publicly drawing a line with President Donald Trump over his picks for who works in his administration.

Ingrassia has been nominated by Trump to lead the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency responsible for protecting government whistleblowers and investigates complaints of wrongdoing.

His nomination began unraveling after Politico reported on Monday on a series of his texts where he said he had a “Nazi streak” and that the federal holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs.”

Ingrassia used an Italian slur for Black people, according to Politico. He also wrote “Never trust a chinaman or Indian” in reference to former Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Following the report, Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rick Scott of Florida and James Lankford of Oklahoma all signaled that they would not vote to confirm Ingrassia, Semafor reported. Republicans hold a 53-seat majority in the chamber.

For the most part, Trump’s controversial nominees have cleared the chamber and Republicans even changed the chamber’s rules to overcome Democratic opposition. However, Trump recently withdrew his nomination of E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Ingrassia serves as the Trump administration’s go-between with the Justice Department and previously represented Andrew Tate, who has been accused of human trafficking, money laundering and other charges, which he denies.

Ingrassia performed poorly in a meeting with committee staff ahead of a confirmation hearing, Axios reported.

“There’s just some different statements he’s made in the past that need clarification,” Lankford told the news outlet at the time.

Two Senate Republicans have opened yet another investigation into the deadly Palisades fire, adding to a long list of ongoing probes aimed at determining whether local officials prepared sufficiently for the emergency.

The investigation will look at whether emergency preparations were sufficient, including an examination of whether there was enough reservoir water to respond to the deadly wildfire.

Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin announced Monday that they were leading the congressional investigation, which they said is necessary to “uncover and expose the truth” about how the state and local governments responded to the major blaze, which broke out amid hurricane-force winds and quickly overwhelmed firefighting resources.

“Families in this community deserve answers and accountability,” Scott and Johnson wrote in a joint statement.

The new probe is the latest in a string of ongoing investigations into the start of the fire and how officials responded. It comes almost nine months since the fire broke out on Jan. 7, killing 12 and largely destroying Pacific Palisades. That same day, the Eaton fire erupted in Altadena, killing 19 people and devastating the foothill community.

The congressional investigation appears to focus only on the Palisades fire, and will look specifically at what water resources were — or weren’t — available, and why.

The Times first reported that the Santa Ynez Reservoir, located in the heart of Pacific Palisades, was empty when the fire broke out, and remained that way as firefighters experienced dry hydrants and water pressure issues. The 117-million-gallon water storage complex had been closed for repairs to its cover for nearly a year, officials said.

After The Times’ reporting on the reservoir, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered an investigation into the city’s water system and how it may have hampered firefighting efforts.

Times reporting also exposed poor preparation and deployment by the Los Angeles Fire Department, even as city officials were repeatedly warned about life-threatening winds and red flag conditions. Top brass at the agency decided not to deploy roughly 1,000 available firefighters and dozens of water-carrying engines in advance of the Palisades fire.

The announcement of this federal investigation comes a few weeks after Scott — the former governor of hurricane-prone Florida — met with former reality star Spencer Pratt to tour some of the areas destroyed by the Palisades fire. At the time of their meeting, Pratt, who lost a home in the fire, was demanding a congressional investigation — an action that Scott said he would do his “best to make sure it happens.”

Pratt has also sued the city, alleging it failed to maintain an adequate water supply and other infrastructure.

In recent weeks, Scott has sent letters to several agencies seeking answers about how California used federal funds for wildfire management and response. In an August letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Scott said it appeared that the state and the city of Los Angeles had not used the agency’s funds “wisely or appropriately.”

The response to the January firestorm, particularly in the Palisades, has become a polarizing topic — and rife with misinformation —among national and local political leaders, from President Trump to developer Rick Caruso, a former mayoral contender against L.A.’s current mayor, Karen Bass. Caruso, who owns Palisades Village mall, became an immediate critic of the city’s response, blasting officials for struggling to meet water demands during the fire fight.

But fire and water experts have repeatedly said that the conditions during the fire were unprecedented, and one that no urban water system could have been properly prepared.

Still, understanding what, if anything, went wrong during the Palisades fire appears to have struck somewhat of a bipartisan note. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday said his team will “absolutely welcome” this additional review.

“It complements the thorough investigations already taking place — including by the federal government, the state, and an independent review by the nation’s leading fire experts,” Newsom said in a statement. “From day one, we’ve embraced transparency because Californians deserve nothing less.”

Los Angeles officials last month delayed releasing one of those reports, so as not to interfere with a federal investigation into the cause of the Palisades fire.

The new congressional investigation, which will be led by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, will give senators the power to issue subpoenas and seek documents for the committee’s review.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-WI, questions Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young during a Senate Budget Committee hearing on President Biden’s fiscal year 2024 budget proposal at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, in 2023. File photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

May 25 (UPI) — President Donald Trump is losing support for his ‘big, beautiful bill,’ a budget measure that would add $3.3 billion to the national deficit over the next decade.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, said there are enough GOP Senators to stymie the bill, which the House passed by a one vote margin on May 22nd.

“I think we have enough to stop the process until the president gets serious about the spending reduction and reducing the deficit,” Johnson said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Republicans have a 53-47 vote margin in the Senate, but several members of the GOP have said they are not ready to support the budget bill, and are poised to defeat it.

“This is our moment,” Johnson said Sunday. “We have witnessed an unprecedented level of increased spending. This is our only chance to reset that to a reasonable pre-pandemic level.”

Trump has urged conservatives to support the measure, but Johnson called on his fellow Republicans to adopt a different approach to addressing the deficit before he could get behind a budget bill.

In its current form, the budget bill would increase the debt ceiling by $4 billion which would prevent a default on the national debt, which would occur in August.

Johnson was joined in his opposition to the bill by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who also cited the hike in the national deficit.

“I still would support the bill, even with wimpy and anemic cuts,” Paul said on Fox News Sunday, “if they weren’t going to explode the debt. The problem is, the math doesn’t add up. It’s just, you know, not a serious proposal.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., a Trump confidant, agreed “wholeheartedly” with Paul’s criticism of the budget bill. Johnson followed Paul on the Fox News Sunday program.

“I love his convocation and I share it,” the speaker said. “The national debt is the greatest threat to your national security, and deficits are a serious problem.”

Critics of the bill have called on the Senate to take a different approach to reaching a compromise.