'Bunch of psychos': Sen. Rubio slams NYC Dems over noncitizen vote measure, plans bill to pull city's funding



Republican Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) announced on Friday that he plans to introduce legislation this week to cut federal funding for U.S. cities that choose to allow noncitizens to vote.

What are the details?

The forthcoming legislation comes in response to a move made by Democratic leaders in New York City last week that granted more than 800,000 legally permanent immigrant residents the power to cast ballots in local elections for offices such as mayor and city council.

With the measure ratified with a veto-proof majority on Thursday, New York City became the largest municipality in the country to extend the franchise to noncitizens.

But the move did not sit well with many in the city, as well as Republican onlookers across the country, Rubio included.

"No city which allows non-U.S. citizens to vote should receive U.S. government funds," the senator tweeted Friday, adding, "Next week I am going to file a bill to make that the law."

No city which allows non-U.S. citizens to vote should receive U.S. government funds \n\nNext week I am going to file a bill to make that the law
— Marco Rubio (@Marco Rubio) 1639175035

One day later, Rubio returned to Twitter to address the issue once again, this time saying "I love NYC. But its government is run by a bunch of psychos."

"Now look, there's a lot of crazy stuff going on in the news these days," Rubio said in a video. "But not requiring people to be citizens in order to vote, that takes a special kind of psycho, that's crazy talk."

I love NYC \n\nBut it\u2019s government is run by a bunch of psychospic.twitter.com/dNdlSZBKfk
— Marco Rubio (@Marco Rubio) 1639281626

"So here's what I'm going to do about it," he went on to say. "I'm going to file a bill in the Senate, and I'm going to pursue it as an amendment every chance I get, that basically says if you [pass legislation] that doesn't require people to be U.S. citizens in order to vote, then you shouldn't be getting U.S. citizen taxpayer money."

What else?

State and city Republican officials in New York have also pledged to take legal action against the new measure.

“We will pursue every legal action to see that this dangerous law is struck down," state GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy declared last week, according to the New York Post, adding, “Besides being bad policy, it’s unconstitutional, it’s dangerous and un-American.”

Republican councilman Joseph Borelli claimed that the measure violates the state's constitution.

“The people in this building are doing something against the state constitution,” Borelli said. “The truth is, this will influence our elections, and the people who are registered to vote, the 5.6 million registered voters, ought to have a say in this.”

It is unclear at this point how much support Rubio's forthcoming bill will garner in the Democrat-controlled Congress, but he said in his Saturday video that he wants to get lawmakers on record on the issue.

Top CEOs threaten to cut off funding for Republicans backing Trump’s election challenge: report



Several CEOs of major corporations are threatening to pull financial support from congressional Republicans backing President Donald Trump's election challenge, according to Yale School of Management's Jeffrey Sonnenfeld.

What are the details?

Sonnenfeld, a senior associate dean at the prominent business school, told CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Tuesday that more than two dozen chief executives were considering the move as a way to express their frustration with Trump and his Republican allies' attempts to overturn the election.

The business leaders reportedly made the comments during a virtual conference hosted by Sonnenfeld earlier that day, in which 33 unnamed executives from a variety of sectors including finance, pharmacy, transportation, and manufacturing were present.

According to Sonnenfeld, every executive on the call answered "yes" to the survey question, "Should CEOs warn lobbyists privately that their firms will no longer support election result deniers in Congress?" Additionally, nearly nine in 10 said they were in favor of cutting off support.

"The GOP acting this way — these GOP members are certainly not the voice of American business, large or small. So they're talking about cutting off support," Sonnenfeld said.

New CEO survey on public officials denying election results youtu.be

He added the executives on the call, who reportedly joined on the condition of confidentiality, said the situation was causing "divided communities, angry workforces, and hostile workplaces" and that "this is not business as usual."

They reportedly expressed a desire to move beyond statements and start to "put our money where our mouth is."

What's the background?

President Trump has maintained for the better part of two months that the 2020 election was fraudulent, and his legal team has filed numerous legal challenges to the results in battleground states such as Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona, but thus far to no avail.

But, in recent days, a new long-shot strategy has emerged as several Republican House and Senate members announced their intention to object when Congress moves to officially count Electoral College votes on Jan. 6 and demand a commission to audit the results. The challenge, however, is all but certain to fail.

Sonnenfeld said the potential of a chaotic transition is what gave rise to the last-minute the conference Tuesday. Given that fact, it might be fair to assume that the participating CEOs were not ones particularly supportive of Trump in the first place. But due to the call's confidentiality, only Sonnenfeld knows their identities.