Andrew Garbarino

Former President Trump's latest inflammatory remarks about Jewish voters have Republicans in Congress again trying to perform a careful balancing act.Why it matters: It is a dynamic with which GOP lawmakers will have to familiarize themselves if Trump is elected president in November.Driving the news: Trump said Thursday during an Israeli American Council event on combatting antisemitism, "If I don't win this election — and Jewish people would have a lot to do with that, 60% are voting for the enemy — Israel will cease to exist in two years."He also said that any Jewish voter who supports Vice President Harris "should have their head examined."It's the latest in a series of critical remarks the former president has made towards Jewish voters who support Democrats.What they're saying: A handful of Republicans, asked about Trump's comments, offered what amounted to light pushback against their party's nominee."During this difficult time for Israel, we have to remain focused on supporting our democratic ally and combating all forms of antisemitism to protect our Jewish community," said swing-district Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.).Another vulnerable House Republican, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Trump is "not as smooth as we want," but added that "Jewish voters are supporting him in record numbers."Zoom in: One House Republican close to Trump offered more blistering criticism of the former president's comments, but declined to go on the record."I'm not going to justify his comments," the lawmaker said, arguing that Jewish voters make up a relatively small portion of the electorate and would not be responsible for a Trump loss.Jewish people made up about 2.4% of the U.S. population as of 2020, according to the Pew Research Center.The House Republican added that they "don't like this rhetoric," also citing Trump's comments about Haitian immigrants: "I think it's awful ... I think it's disgusting."Zoom out: Several House Republicans, including those in swing-districts or those with large Jewish populations, simply declined to weigh in."No comment," said Rep. John Duarte (R-Calif.)."I didn't hear him say that," said Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.)."I don't even know what you're talking about. No comment," said Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.).The other side: Several other Republicans leapt to Trump's defense or argued that his comments won't hurt Republicans with Jewish voters. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) argued that Trump was "talking about the fact that the Jewish community is going to have a big voice in this election."Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) said that he hasn't seen Trump's comments, but "the Republican Conference, and President Trump when he was in office, have stood by Israel every step of the way."Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.) said Democrats "have abided antisemitism on our campuses and helped fuel a surge in hate crimes - no matter [what] your religion is, I don't know how you vote for it."

More than a dozen House Republicans on Tuesday wrote to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) asking him not to axe clean energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) if the GOP maintains or expands its House majority next year. In the letter, first shared with Politico’s E&E News and led by Rep. Andrew Garbarino [...]

NEW YORK — With Vice President Harris’s selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as her running mate, the 2024 presidential field is set. And Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is confident about the GOP’s chances up and down the ballot. Johnson — speaking to The Hill in a wide-ranging interview from New York City on Tuesday [...]

The Republican lawmakers said the House Committee ‘cannot ignore the magnitude’ of the incident.

Top House lawmakers are calling on CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz to testify about what caused a global IT outage on Friday and affected roughly 8.5 million Windows devices.Why it matters: The request is the first congressional action against CrowdStrike over the widespread incident, which caused at least 5,100 flights to be canceled Friday and cost some companies possibly billions in damages. Zoom in: Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), head of the cyber and infrastructure subcommittee, sent a letter to Kurtz on Monday demanding he schedule a time to testify before the committee. Lawmakers are giving Kurtz until the end of the day on Wednesday to set up a time. They said they are interested in learning more about how the incident happened, the national security risks tied to network dependencies and the best ways to prevent an incident like this in the future. Catch up quick: Since Friday, the fallout from the CrowdStrike IT incident has only continued to grow. Delta canceled more than 800 flights on Monday as it struggled to recover from the IT outages caused by a faulty software update. Federal officials have warned of phishing scams targeting customers, and CrowdStrike has detected malware going after some impacted customers, too. What they're saying: "Recognizing that Americans will undoubtedly feel the lasting, real-world consequences of this incident, they deserve to know in detail how this incident happened and the mitigation steps CrowdStrike is taking," the lawmakers wrote. A CrowdStrike spokesperson told Axios that the company is "actively in contact with relevant Congressional Committees. Briefings and other engagement timelines may be disclosed at Members' discretion."What we're watching: It's possible this is just the first of many congressional letters and hearings about the incident. A congressional aide told Axios on Friday that the Senate Homeland Security Committee is "closely monitoring the situation" and will weigh its own next steps "as more information becomes available."