Eric Cantor

TN Man Arrested For Threatening Cantor's Family

Ryan J. Reilly | November 3, 2011, 6:26PM

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

Glendon Swift, a 62-year-old Tennessee resident, was arrested by the FBI late yesterday for allegedly threatening Rep. Eric Cantor and his family.

The FBI says Swift left two "screaming, profanity-laden" voicemail messages with Cantor's Virginia office on Oct. 27 and threatened Cantor, his daughter and his wife.

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Norman LeBoom

Philadelphia Man Gets Two Years For YouTube Videos Threatening Eric Cantor

Ryan J. Reilly | April 7, 2011, 6:55PM

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Norman Leboon

Norman LeBoom, a 38-year-old Philadelphia man who posted YouTube videos threatening Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison and three years supervised release, the Justice Department said.

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Eric Cantor

Eric Cantor Slams NPR Over O'Keefe Prank

Benjy Sarlin | March 8, 2011, 4:57PM

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

Republicans are seizing on James O'Keefe's hidden camera prank against NPR executives to bolster their calls to defund the news organization. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) became the highest ranking lawmaker to weigh in on Tuesday, putting out a press release slamming the "disturbing" video that featured NPR Foundation president Ron Schilling calling Tea Partiers "seriously racist," remaining silent while a fake Muslim group accused Jews of controlling the media, and suggesting that NPR might be better off with out federal funding.

"As we continue to identify ways to cut spending and save valuable resources, this disturbing video makes clear that taxpayer dollars should no longer be appropriated to NPR," Cantor said in a statement. "Not only have top public broadcasting executives finally admitted that they do not need taxpayer dollars to survive, it is also clear that without federal funds, public broadcasting stations self-admittedly would become eligible for more private dollars on top of the multi-million dollar donations these organizations already receive."

In the video Schiller says that NPR might "better off in the long-run without federal funding," since it would allow them to become more independent. The House passed a bill last month that would cut off NPR's funding and Senate Republicans recently introduced similar legislation as well.

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David M. Rivera

Eric Cantor "Very Concerned" About David Rivera Scandal

Benjy Sarlin | February 28, 2011, 4:33PM

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

Days after snubbing embattled Rep. David Rivera (R-FL) on a visit to Florida, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) told reporters on Monday that he was keeping an eye on reports of a brewing scandal surrounding the freshman Republican.

"There are ongoing investigations in Florida involving Congressman Rivera and we are respectful of those investigations," Cantor said in a briefing with reporters. "I'm obviously very concerned about the reports surrounding those investigations, but we'll wait to see the result of them."

Rivera is reportedly under investigation over questions surrounding $817,000 his campaign paid to a political consultant as well as additional issues involving a $500,000 payment from a dog track to a consulting firm run by his mother to help pass a gambling initiative he supported while in the Florida House of Representatives. According to the Florida Clarion, Cantor deliberately avoided contact with Rivera on a trip to Miami last weekend.

David Rivera

Cantor Wouldn't Touch Ethics Questions On New Rep. Rivera

Ryan J. Reilly | January 7, 2011, 1:00PM

Rep. David Rivera (R-FL)

Rep. David Rivera (R-FL) tried this week to clear up questions about his finances amidst a reported investigation into $500,000 in payments by a dog track (whose cause Rivera supported) to a company owned by his mother and godmother.

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National Council for a New America

Cantor's GOP Ideas Factory Declared Dead A Year After It Launched (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | May 7, 2010, 8:48AM

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA)

It was supposed to be a GOP ideas factory that would fill the leadership vacuum on the right after Barack Obama's landslide election. The National Council for a New America was supposed to be, in the words of founder Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), "a conversation with the American people" to "develop innovative solutions that meet the serious challenges confronting our country."

But, Roll Call reports, the group is now dead one year after it launched to what, in hindsight, appears to be excessive media coverage of an entity that hadn't actually done anything.

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Norm Coleman

Norm Coleman's New Group Plans Ad Blitz To Take Advantage Of Citizens United Ruling

Zachary Roth | April 20, 2010, 11:37AM

Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), American Action CEO

Less than a year after the conclusion of his marathon Senate contest against Al Franken, Norm Coleman is back. He's teaming up with other GOP heavy-hitters on a new group that will likely take advantage of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision to pour money into congressional races this fall.

Coleman is the CEO of American Action, which launched in February, billing itself as an "action tank" -- thinking without action is for liberals, it seems -- that will act as a center-right version of the Center for American Progress. That's the John-Podesta-run operation that has proven adept both at incubating progressive policies and at shaping the day-to-day political debate. The yearly budget for the new venture has been reported at around $4 million.

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Right-wing extremism

Going To Extremes: The Obama Era's Top Ten Anti-Government Flare-Ups

Zachary Roth | April 1, 2010, 6:35PM

Clockwise from top left: David Stone, Sr., John Patrick Bedell, Joseph Stack and James von Brunn

The charges filed this week against nine members of the Hutaree Christian militia group have re-focused attention on the resurgence over the last year or so of the broader militia movement.

That resurgence has been driven in part, say experts, by the election of President Obama. But during the Obama era, threats of anti-government violence -- and even the real thing -- have become more widespread. In fact, with disaffected Americans from Massachusetts to California freaking out against the Feds en masse, it sometimes seems that going postal has become all the rage. Of course, in some cases, that anti-government animus long predates the election of our current president. But there seems to be something about the current climate that's contributing to the rash of incidents.

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ACORN

House Votes To Strip ACORN Of All Federal Funds

Zachary Roth | September 17, 2009, 3:04PM

In the wake of a scandal in which employees were caught on tape advising people posing as a prostitute and pimp in how to break the law, the House of Representatives voted today to strip ACORN of all federal funding.

The vote was 345-75 on a measured pushed by GOP House leader John Boehner. The Senate voted earlier this week to withdraw housing and urban development funding. But the House bill would remove all federal funding.

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