Another high-profile departure at the Heritage Foundation: Mary Vought, who served as the think tank’s VP of strategic communications, bids adieu this week. “I’m grateful to @KevinRobertsTX for entrusting me with this position. It’s been an honor to work alongside some of the nation’s foremost policy minds while leading Heritage’s talented communications team – a group I am deeply proud of,” Vought tweeted. “I am returning full-time to my company, Leverage PR.”
“Thank you, @MaryVought, for your great work,” Heritage Foundation president Kevin D. Roberts wrote in response. “It’s been a pleasure to work with you for nearly a decade – both @TPPF and @Heritage – so I look forward to collaborating with you in the future. Best wishes on the next step! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸”
A very neatly orchestrated exit for Vought – though you’d expect nothing less from the VP of strategic communications.
Vought’s ex-husband Russ is currently serving a second stint as Trump’s OMB director. And not unlike the Trump administration, Heritage and Vought seem to be adopting a policy of omertà: Cockburn understands the terms of Vought’s departure involved her signing a non-disclosure agreement and receiving a $500,000 payout. Vought didn’t respond to a request for comment when asked about this – but then, why would she?
On our radar
NOT GOING DUTCH The White House hosted the King and Queen of the Netherlands for dinner last night, as well as PM Rob Jetten.
PEACE TALKS Israel and Lebanon are presently engaged in direct talks in Washington, DC, overseen by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
POPE AND CHANGE Vice President J.D. Vance, a Catholic convert, said Pope Leo XIV should “stick to matters of… what’s going on in the Catholic Church” in a Fox interview last night. God, who is omnipresent, is yet to comment.
Drilling time
President Trump considers the “Special Relationship” between America and the UK less special than ever these days. Particularly since Britain and other NATO partners declined to join – or bail out – America and Israel in their joint campaign against Iran. Now the President is taking pot shots over UK energy policy. “Europe is desperate for Energy, and yet the United Kingdom refuses to open North Sea Oil, one of the greatest fields in the World. Tragic!!! Aberdeen should be booming,” he wrote on Truth Social this morning.
“Norway sells its North Sea Oil to the U.K. at double the price. They are making a fortune. U.K., which is better situated on the North Sea for purposes of energy than Norway, should, DRILL, BABY, DRILL!!! It is absolutely crazy that they don’t… AND, NO MORE WINDMILLS! President DJT.”
It sounds like Trump would be rather fond of Robert Bryce’s piece in the Technology section of our forthcoming US edition, about the differences in energy prices between here and Europe. “The US actively drills for oil and gas. Europe doesn’t,” Bryce writes. “Europe’s refusal to drill has made it heavily dependent on imported hydrocarbons and, therefore, left it at the mercy of the energy price spikes now slamming consumers around the world. Like it or not, it’s time for Europe to drill, baby, drill.” The President – and other curious readers – should subscribe to get the next mag…
Swal’s well that ends well
It was a case of jump or be pushed. Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell and Republican Representative Tony Gonzales, both facing accusations of sexual misconduct, have announced their intentions to resign from the House. Gonzales’s GOP colleague Representative Anna Paulina Luna had been leading simultaneous campaigns to expel both, but such a measure would have required a two-thirds majority to pass.
For Swalwell the fall has been particularly dramatic. This time last week he was the Democratic front-runner – albeit in a crowded field – to succeed Gavin Newsom as governor of California. From that perch, Swalwell would have been one of the most prominent opposition politicians in America, clearing the way for – who knows – another run at the presidency in 2028? Out, out, brief candle…
Expulsions from the House are rare and a quasi-compelled double departure like this is unprecedented. Congress used to be much more reticent about expelling its members, aware that the tool could be used for cynical reasons, and that the moral character of representatives was ultimately a matter for the voters. Neither man has been convicted of anything yet.
Luna, for her part, is not resting until the two men are gone. “If Congressman Swalwell has not resigned with the Clerk of the House by 2 p.m. today, I will continue my resolution regarding his expulsion,” she tweeted this morning. “His statement about his ‘plan to resign his seat’ is not binding and is wormy. The same goes for Tony.” Swalwell resigned by 2:30.
Cockburn gets the sense that the taboo has now been broken, and that expulsions are likely to happen more often. Speaker Mike Johnson this morning endorsed kicking out Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, after she was found guilty of misappropriating Covid funds. And if the expelled former congressman George Santos’s lurid theories about sex “cages” below the Capitol building prove correct, then all of a sudden Congress could feel very empty.
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