A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.
Not Satire
Trump reportedly told then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in 2018 that German dictator Adolf Hitler “did a lot of good things.” That’s according to the Guardian, which obtained a copy of Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender’s new book “Frankly, We Did Win This Election.”
- The Guardian report says the book attributed the remark to unnamed sources, and describes the back and forth between Trump and Kelly.
- Trump reportedly emphasized Germany’s economic recovery under Hitler’s leadership, according to the book.
- Kelly reportedly had to tell the then-president that “you cannot ever say anything supportive of Adolf Hitler. You just can’t.”
Didn’t Last Long
Many corporate giants, including General Electric and AT&T, have essentially reneged on their vows to stop donating to the GOP lawmakers who voted against certifying Biden’s win by donating to PACs that benefit those lawmakers.
- But maybe not all those promises were a cynical ploy: Hallmark has not donated to PACs since making their pledge, the Associated Press noted, and has in fact asked Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) to return the card company’s campaign donations.
New York, New York
Former police captain and Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams appears to have won New York City’s mayoral Democratic primary on Tuesday night, and will be the presumptive winner of the general election in the deeply blue city.
Haitian President Is Assassinated
Haitian president Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in his home early Wednesday morning, according to Claude Joseph, Haiti’s interim prime minister.
- Joseph’s statement: “A group of unidentified individuals, some of them speaking Spanish, attacked the private residence of the president of the republic and thus fatally wounded the head of state.”
Mask Barely Hanging On To The Strings
We’re at the point now where it’s actually getting hard to remember all the times Rep. Paul Gosar’s (R-AZ) cozied up with white nationalists and other far-right extremists, so here’s a detailed list by reporter Nick Martin.
- One example on the list includes TPM reporter Matt Shuham’s story on Gosar following white nationalists on Twitter.
Behind Closed Doors
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) called climate change, which has been scientifically proven over and over, “bullshit” last month during a Republican luncheon.
GaetzGate
Indicted ex-tax collector and Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) wingman Joel Greenberg is seeking to delay his sentencing hearing so he can keep cooperating with the feds in their investigation, which reportedly is examining whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, among other things.
The Lamentations Of An Ex-GOP Lawmaker
There is no “fight for the soul of the party” within the GOP over Trumpism, former Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) says.
- That ship has sailed, and now “[t]here is nothing left of this Republican Party other than a party that’s able to embrace and to elevate an undemocratic, anti-republic theme that somehow we can engage in a fraud on the American people as long as it supports our guy winning an election.”
"This notion that somehow there's a fight for the soul of the party… there is nothing left of this Republican Party other than a party that's able to embrace and to elevate an undemocratic, anti-republic theme" – @DavidJollyFL w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/HI31AOVzRU
— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) July 6, 2021
Must-Reads
- “Their neighbors called covid-19 a hoax. Can these ICU nurses forgive them?” – The Washington Post
- “Hospitals Often Charge Uninsured People the Highest Prices, New Data Show” – The Wall Street Journal
In Which Lucy Admits Straight Up That The Football Is A Trap
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) fully declared during a conservative grassroots event with Patriot Voices last month that he and his GOP colleagues have no interest in actually doing their jobs as lawmakers and will be spending the next year making sure nothing gets done until the midterms, when they have a shot at taking back the House.
- Seriously, that’s what he’s said: “I mean honestly right now, for the next 18 months, our job is to do everything we can to slow all of that down to get to December of 2022, and then get in there and lead.”
NEW–> GOP Congressman on bipartisanship: We want "18 more months of chaos and the inability to get stuff done" pic.twitter.com/yvsGTNkDGB
— Lauren Windsor (@lawindsor) July 6, 2021
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Hitler would have felt the same way about T****.
And Goebbels! He’d have gushed over the propaganda successes with envy!
Marveling at what they might have accomplished with a media arm like Fox News.
Not surprised and not shocked. It’s exactly the kind of thing a certain type of pinhead contrarian is likely to say because they’re “just being honest.” Hell, Herman Wouk put this sentiment in the mouth of a relatively sympathetic German character in “The Winds of War,” the idea that at least Hitler had given the nation a sense of direction and enthusiasm. The reader is assumed to already know that other national leaders did that without invoking a kind of demonic chauvinism that touched off a worldwide conflagration that left as many as 50 million or more dead after just 12 years of good things like the ones our boy was so impressed with. Kelly, of course, provides the historical perspective a fucking idiot like Trump lacks: There is no sane reason to be an apologist for Hitler. But like I said, Trump isn’t alone in being profoundly stupid.
And tRump went on to say - and I think Benedict Arnold was misunderstood, as was John Wilkes Booth. There was a lot of fake news about those two by the press at the time, which as we all know was an enemy of the people.
Rump wasn’t referring to the autobahn. He never got around to infrastructure.