7 Things: Gaetz nominates McCarthy-backing Trump; Britt beats Biden to the border; and more …

7. Local amateur gets invite to Masters

• The Masters is the world’s most prestigious golf tournament and usually features the world’s best professional golfers. This year, Mountain Brook native Gordon Sargent will receive a special exemption to play in the tournament.
• Sargent is the reigning NCAA Champion at Vanderbilt and the 3rd ranked amateur in the world. Sargent’s coach at Vanderbilt, Scott Limbaugh, is excited for his player and amateur gold as a whole, “this is a huge day for college and amateur golf as Augusta National Golf Club has extended a special exemption to Gordon to play in this year’s Masters as the reigning NCAA champion.”

6. So, did we win?

• After going into cardiac arrest and needing CPR on a professional football field, Damar Hamlin is now awake and has asked his doctors who won the football game he was playing in.
• Doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center say Hamlin is making “substantial progress” and note that he is “neurologically intact.” Also, and far less importantly, the NFL is reportedly not preparing to resume the game between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals.

5. Biden has a bad immigration plan

• President Joe Biden is preparing to offer 30,000 individuals a path to legal status and they super-promise to crack down on illegal crossings. They will even have an app to speed up the process. (Was this an issue?)
• Biden told potential asylum-seekers, “Do not, do not just show up at the border.” This is all happening ahead of his trip to the border, but whatever it takes to make the government start dealing with this issue. How long Biden will keep this plan in place is unknown, but liberal advocates for immigration are predictably not happy at any limits on immigration.

4. Britt is headed to the southern border

• While it has taken President Biden 213 years to get to the southern border, Alabama’s junior United States Sen. Katie Britt (R-Montgomery) is planning a trip within two weeks of taking office.
• Britt will join Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) to head to the Del Rio Sector of the U.S.-Mexico border and witness the flow of illegal immigration firsthand. In a joint statement, the senators called out Biden’s failures, “President Biden created a humanitarian and national security crisis at our southern border. He ended Remain in Mexico, terminated the safe third country agreements, and pushed to end Title 42.”

3. Donald Trump gets nominated for Speaker, but he supports McCarthy

• U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is apparently not ready to give up his fight to force U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (D-Calif.) to vacate the Speaker’s office and end his fight to become Speaker of the House.
• In an attention-grabbing move, Gaetz nominated former President Donald Trump. Gaetz knows, as does everyone, Trump has yet again thrown his support behind McCarthy. This is the second person nominated by the “rebels” who is supporting the candidate with the most votes, the other one was U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio.).

2. Speaker fight goes on

• After 3 days and 11 votes, the U.S. House of Representatives have still not selected a leader and adjourned last night around 7 p.m. CST. Negotiations are still ongoing, with concessions being put in writing, with the voting continuing tomorrow.
• U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (D-Calif.) has suffered 11 straight losses – the first time this has happened since before the Civil War and the longest contest in 164 years.

1. Aderholt questions potential deal that could upend seniority

• U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (D-Calif.) may be willing to make concessions to the 20 members who are objecting to him achieving that position. This is not sitting well with all of McCarthy’s supporters and Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville) is raising those concerns. He said these concessions could cost McCarthy votes with the 201 members supporting him.
• In particular, McCarthy appears to have agreed to give seats on the House Rules Committee to the group opposing him; this committee controls what bills get floor votes. Aderholt believes this undermines seniority traditions in the House. He has eyes on the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Appropriations committees and made it clear he is not happy, “As far as skipping over people’s seniority, I think that’s where you’ve, I think we’ve gone too far.”