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Aaron Fritschner

@fritschner.bsky.social
41K followers 1.6K following 2.5K posts

Hey there Mr. Blue We're so pleased to be with you House guy. DCoS @beyer.house.gov Priors: Kamala Harris, Jennifer Wexton, et al. Hendersonville, NC native SciFi, Rock n Roll, he/him Posts mine/dumb

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Reposted by Aaron Fritschner
Semafor @semafor.com · 22h
🟡 NEW: House Democrats are criticizing the Trump administration after US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer wouldn’t commit to imposing Russian sanctions recently enacted by Congress. www.semafor.com/article/10/0...
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Trump posted Tom Cotton’s cell phone this morning because he’s mad that Cotton is apparently blocking the permanent daylight savings time bill. Added him to my contacts in case anything ever comes up
iPhone image of new contact for Senator Tom Cotton
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Reposted by Aaron Fritschner
Matthew Gertz @mattgertz.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Picture of him with me would probably be worse for him tbh
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
[SENATOR ERIC SCHMITT]: So you’re telling me under oath that you’ve never spoken with an Attorney General nominee? [JACK SMITH]: No, I don’t think— [SCHMITT]: WELL THEN *unveils poster* please explain this picture of you with Matt Gaetz! [SMITH]: That is Media Matters senior fellow Matt Gertz
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Reposted by Aaron Fritschner
Blue Virginia @bluevirginia.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Fascinating, revealing, spot-on comment by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08)'s Deputy Chief of Staff, @fritschner.bsky.social, re: Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA01), who can come off (falsely) as a milquetoast moderate, but when it comes down to it is as far-right-extreme as they come. bluevirginia.us/2026/09/new-...
"I’ll never forget the moment I saw that he voted to overturn the 2020 election—I mean him specifically. A watershed moment for the delegation and a gut punch. It was a failure of character he will never live down, and if he loses, as I hope he does, he’ll have himself to blame." - Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08)'s Deputy Chief of Staff Aaron Fritschner
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
lol best possible audience
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Just pulling everyone’s leg, but he would make a great Senator from Kansas
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Important spoiler role in Kansas Senate race being played by @dgraham.bsky.social
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Early voting just opened in Virginia. The 2026 midterm election has begun!
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
And just fyi the Senate never tried to do anything better and they didn’t even talk to the House much less negotiate, because they were obsessed with honoring Lindsey Graham. They barely touched his bill, they were thinking about his legacy when they should’ve been thinking about Ukraine
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
We are deeply, genuinely thinking about Ukraine. That’s what the post you shared was about, it’s about the difference between saying “I’m helping a friend” because that is easy to say va doing something harder and more complicated that they may not appreciate or like but is in their best interest.
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I want to help Ukraine and this bill will not do that. It’s a trap, a fake, a copout. Desperate people are projecting hopes onto it and seeing a win for Ukraine. I read legislative text for my job and I’ve read this bill. It has really bad problems
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This wasn’t the best that was possible, I never believed that for a second and if I did I would have spoken and acted differently. We could have done so much more. It’s deeply tragic
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Politics aren’t tying our hands, we passed a good bill to send Ukraine missiles. Politics tied the Senate’s hands so they did this awful substitute instead and told people it was the best they could come up with. They refused to even discuss it with us. You’re mad at us?
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
If I am wrong about this I will be overjoyed, nobody will be happier about that than me. I would be THRILLED to be wrong about this bill. But I don’t think we will get that satisfaction.
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Very slightly. Senate Dems negotiated a “sunset” that sunsets the law, not the tariffs, and the sunset is after Trump leaves office. They also got in writing a promise from USTR not to use the tariffs except in ways specified by the law, which is beyond useless. I feel nausea thinking about it
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
To be clear we did NOT fail to act. We passed a 1000% better bill that supported Ukraine with weapons and money, not symbolism fake sanctions and likely tariffs on Ukraine’s allies. The Senate threw that bill in the trash and passed this, which I fear will make things worse bsky.app/profile/salo...
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
A thing you commonly encounter in politics is the divide between people who think true friendship and support means standing with someone and saying yes to them no matter what, vs people who think true friendship sometimes means disagreements or hard conversations. I am firmly in the latter camp.
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
My thread on here about why the substance of the bill will be harmful to America and Ukraine here: bsky.app/profile/frit...
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
If anyone is interested specifically in why the symbolism of the Lindsey Graham Sanctioning Russia Act will in my opinion ultimately be bad for Ukraine, I wrote about that here: threadreaderapp.com/thread/20998...
threadreaderapp.com
Thread by @Fritschner on Thread Reader App
@Fritschner: Ambassador McFaul's reason for supporting this bill is imo the most defensible one and something we've heard a lot, including from the Ukrainians... but I'm afraid it's still very much wr...
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The point of my post was the supporters of the bill were only engaging with the symbolism of the bill and not its substance. This post sounds to me like more of the same tbh. Fwiw I argued with references to the text that both substance and symbolism of the bill will ultimately be bad for Ukraine
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
We had Ukrainians in our office all week. At every point in this conversation you have confidently asserted things that aren’t true. Not issuing a statement on the anniversary of the invasion is not the same thing as being silent for years on Ukraine.
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
They haven’t been very silent, that simply isn’t true, it’s preposterous. The bill is worse than nothing because it makes the situation worse than the status quo as you will see. Call it sneering if you like but when you come in with condescension and rudeness it doesn’t inspire friendly discourse
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
You sound both fair minded and like you are asking questions in good faith which makes me eager to continue talking to you
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Candidly don’t know much about this and haven’t had time to learn more or think about it
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Yes we did actually, we passed it in the House
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Reposted by Aaron Fritschner
Blue Virginia @bluevirginia.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
What @fritschner.bsky.social (Rep. Don Beyer's deputy chief of staff) said! bluevirginia.us/2026/09/mond...
"The House is supposed to vote in the next four days on a bill to give this guy massive tariff powers supposedly to block oil and natural gas exports from Russia, entirely at Trump’s control, with no guardrails or oversight.

Folks please just think about this for like ten seconds" - Aaron Fritschner

"Trump: "Zelenskyy has to do one thing -- he has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia. He's causing a shortage of diesel fuel. This isn't done by the Middle East, this is done by what's happening with Russia and Ukraine."" - Aaron Rupar
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Reposted by Aaron Fritschner
TOM @tomwalker.bsky.social · 17/07/2023
KOKO THE GORILLA: Koko birkin bag. Practical Koko possession bag RESEARCHER: No, Koko. You can’t have a Birkin bag. KOKO: Good Birkin good Koko give beautiful Koko deserve gorilla RESEARCHER: Koko, we simply can’t afford a Birkin bag. It is an unjustifiable expense. KOKO: jealousy professor
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
That's the one
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I wrote a bit back in July about why this is a bad bill, and why House Dems dug in to stop it despite a lopsided Senate vote. It appears we were successful bsky.app/profile/frit...
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Speaker Johnson pulls the plug on the Lindsey Graham Sanctioning Russia Act. Per Punchbowl:
Sticking points. This change to the schedule all but guarantees that the House will not immediately consider the Russia sanctions bill that cleared the Senate in July.

Johnson told us this morning that he doesn’t have consensus among Republicans on the bill. Johnson noted Democrats are opposed as well.
“We have to build consensus around that final product,” Johnson said.
“As you’ve seen, the Democrat leadership in the House is opposed to it. The ranking member on the Foreign Affairs Committee, [New York Rep. Greg] Meeks, apparently is vehemently opposed to it, and I think the Democrat leadership is as well. This should be a bipartisan effort.”

Johnson acknowledged there are “a couple of pockets of concern” about the package among Republicans.
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I would not describe the things you are talking about as a "coup" because I want to still have that word when they are doing something like J6 or worse. Semantics aside, my point has been and remains that a shutdown is not a correct or smart or helpful response to the problem.
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Put another way, if I have a choice between pointing an undecided 30-year-old man in Virginia Beach at info about election shenanigans or the Iran War, I'm going to take the Iran War. At least under present conditions
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Don't need to explain popularism vs process debate to one of the principle participants, for myself Ive found both convincing on different things. In this case I think there will be fair elections and that we will be successful in them and I think our focus on costs is likeliest to meet with success
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
And I think if you want a rider here that's not a bad idea but I am skeptical that provoking a shutdown over it makes political sense in this moment. Also I think there are other mechanisms to fight what USPS is doing that will be more effective
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I don't think it is a coup attempt, at least not yet, and I don't think it will succeed either way, and I think there are good reasons not to panic about it, and even if none of these were the case, as I keep telling you, a government shutdown is not a response that would help in any way
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I don't claim to know what goes on in that man's brain, I certainly believe that he would like to mess with the election. I also believe that his attempts will fail and that it would be unwise to take ineffective and possibly harmful actions in response to them
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
The one would not achieve the other, USPS is not even funded by appropriations. It would not create leverage, and there is a decent chance that it would backfire
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
To the extent that any such plot exists it doesn't seem super realistic to me to think that it would be affected by government funding
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
CR was signed into law yesterday, there won't be a shutdown
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
House Republicans just canceled the last two weeks of votes in the session, from the end of September and beginning of October. The last votes in the House before the midterm, if they adhere to the current schedule, will be two weeks from today. We're also out next week
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
And there's Wahab. 219-214 in the House now
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
When Rep.-Elect Aisha Wahab (D-CA) is sworn in tomorrow the party breakdown in the house will be 219R*-214D *Kevin Kiley changed his party affiliation to "Independent" but did not change his voting patterns at all so I'm counting him as a House Republican and imo you should too
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
There's one- Rep. Everton Blair Jr. of Georgia, just sworn in
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Yes I think so
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Unless they send us home early, yes I think so
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Supposedly tomorrow
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Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
As Republicans cling desperately to what we will generously call "control" of the House Floor, with rumors swirling about an early recess and threats by their rank and file to tank today's rule vote, House Dems are set to get two new members today/tomorrow after recent special elections in CA and GA
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Reposted by Aaron Fritschner
Congressman Don Beyer @beyer.house.gov · 19/08/2026
Today @repsuhas.bsky.social and I hosted Northern Virginian Carolina Molina and her husband for a meeting on Capitol Hill to discuss her encounter with ICE agents who threatened her with a gun. 1/
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Congressman Don Beyer @beyer.house.gov · 19/08/2026
Then we announced that we, along with @repwalkinshaw.bsky.social and the leaders of @oversightdemocrats.bsky.social, @democrats-judiciary.house.gov, and House Homeland Security Committee Democrats are opening an investigation into this incident. 2/
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