XPost: talk.politics.guns, talk.politics.misc, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: primates@shaw.ca   
      
   Kathy Hochul has another black turd on the carpet.   
      
   He’s got a oui bit of explaining to do.   
      
   Rep. Mondaire Jones used a congressional COVID rule to assign another   
   lawmaker to vote for him on more than a dozen bills in the House of   
   Representatives — while he partied on the French Riviera at HBO star Issa   
   Rae’s lavish wedding, The Post has learned.   
      
   The Democrat — who represents New York’s Hudson Valley but is currently in   
   a crowded field vying for a new Park Slope-Lower Manhattan district — said   
   au revoir to the hot and humid Washington, DC, summer while voting via a   
   proxy while citing the “public health emergency.”   
      
   The allowance was enacted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to let   
   COVID-stricken members vote as well as to reduce their potential exposure   
   to the virus while traveling from their districts to the nation’s capital.   
      
   Jones employed the potentially misused perk on 17 pieces of legislation   
   between July 19 and July 27, 2021, as he lived it up in France, Instagram   
   posts and online records reveal.   
      
   During that period, a series of posts on the picture-sharing social media   
   platform in which the lawmaker is either featured or tagged show he spent   
   time with a group that included multiple entertainment industry   
   professionals who traveled to Paris, Beaune, Bordeaux and Saint-Jean-Cap-   
   Ferrat.   
      
   Jones — competing for the open House seat in a race that includes ex-Mayor   
   Bill de Blasio — did not travel to Bordeaux, Versailles or Beaune,   
   according to his campaign spokesperson, who confirmed he was in France to   
   attend the “Insecure” star’s wedding.   
      
   In order to authorize votes to be cast by someone else while out of the   
   country, the Democrat wrote in a July 19 letter to the House clerk that he   
   was “unable” to be there in person because of the “ongoing public health   
   emergency” — the standard language used in proxy vote permission notes.   
      
   “I am unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to   
   the ongoing public health emergency, and I hereby grant the authority to   
   cast my vote by proxy to the Honorable Nikema Williams (Georgia), who has   
   agreed to serve as my proxy,” he wrote alongside his signature.   
      
   While across the Atlantic, Jones hung out with a fashionable jet-setting   
   group, three members of which either appeared in or worked on HBO show   
   “Insecure” co-created by Rae, who married Louis Diame on July 25 in Saint-   
   Jean-Cap-Ferrat, a French commune overlooking the Ligurian Sea.   
      
   Rae overlapped with Jones, 35, at Stanford University, where Jones   
   graduated in 2009, while the 37-year-old YouTuber, producer and comedian   
   did so two years earlier.   
      
   Rae — who doesn’t appear in any of the photos but commented in at least   
   one of them — hosted a fundraiser for Jones in August 2019 in Manhattan,   
   where she said, “We need people like him” in Congress.   
      
   Ahead of the wedding, Jones handed off his votes to a colleague on   
   legislation such as the Divided Families Reunification Act to help Korean   
   American families reunite with family members who remain in North Korea, a   
   bill to ban toxic carcinogens that have been found in New York’s drinking   
   water, as well as the yearly budgets for the federal Health, Labor and   
   Education departments.   
      
   “We know Mondaire is quite unfamiliar with New York City, but remote-   
   control governance ain’t gonna cut it here,” scoffed a rival campaign   
   insider on Wednesday.   
      
   “Sending votes in from the south of France feels par for the course for   
   MIA Mondaire.”   
      
   In response, a Jones campaign rep said the congressman had no regrets   
   about delegating votes for the decidedly not COVID-19 precaution-related   
   reason.   
      
   “It’s hard to tell what The Post is more offended by, Mondaire Jones   
   voting against Republicans multiple times or Mondaire Jones attending the   
   wedding of his close friend, and absolute icon, Issa Rae,” campaign   
   spokesperson Bill Neidhardt said in a statement.   
      
   “I know it makes the Post feel ‘Insecure,’ but Rep. Jones has no apologies   
   for his votes against the GOP or for being with his good friend during the   
   most important week of her life,” he quipped.   
      
   It’s unclear when exactly Jones arrived in France for the nuptials. The   
   rep could not provide a timeline for his trip.   
      
   An Instagram post indicates he was back in DC by Aug. 2.   
      
   Before his return, in a July 26 multi-picture post by producer and actor   
   Andrew Allan James, who acted in the comedy-drama, Jones was captured   
   dressed in a blue blazer and white button-down shirt riding with more   
   casually dressed friends in a vehicle in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat near Nice.   
      
   Rae commented on it with a string of approving emojis.   
      
   The day the snaps were shared, the Democratic lawmaker had his votes cast   
   by Williams three times, according to congressional records.   
      
   Williams registered votes on the Gold Star Mothers Family Monument   
   Extension Act, a bill to authorize the National Medal of Honor Museum   
   Foundation to create a commemorative project in DC, and a procedural   
   matter, they show.   
      
   Jones has designated others to vote for him on nine other occasions,   
   according to online records.   
      
   Following the excursion, on Aug. 1 Jones’ traveling companion Deniese   
   Davis, an “Insecure” producer, gushed about it in a series of pictures on   
   Instagram — one in which Jones is captured wearing a blue suit — with the   
   caption, “The trip of a lifetime.”   
      
   On Aug. 2, James, the actor and producer, shared several photos, including   
   a selfie with the Democratic legislator, and a video of Jones toasting   
   with a drink along with the vacationers.   
      
   “Ravi d’avoir fait votre connaissance,” James wrote in the post, which   
   translates roughly to “Pleased to have made your acquaintance.”   
      
   And on Aug. 14, another member of the travelers — Amy Aniobi, a producer   
   and writer on the show — shared more snaps with her more than 14,000   
   followers from the vacation, one of which showed Jones with 14 others in   
   what appears to be a hotel room.   
      
   “I just came back from Nice, so…,” its caption read.   
      
   Jones liked both posts from his personal Instagram account.   
      
   While the pictures were posted in early August, the coterie seemed to have   
   taken them several days earlier, since James listed other photos from   
   Paris and Versailles as taken on July 21 and July 22.   
      
   Ahead of his trip, Jones expressed to his Twitter followers the joys of   
   leaving the country, while reminding them to make sure their passports are   
   valid.   
      
   “Summer is a great time to travel abroad, but before you go, make sure   
   your passport is valid and up to date!” he tweeted on July 10. “As more   
   Americans prepare to travel abroad, passport renewals can take up to 18   
   weeks, so don’t delay.”   
      
   After his presumably up-to-date passport was stamped during his jaunt,   
   official federal documentation shows Jones passed off his vote-casting   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)