Nicole Lafond

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Nicole Lafond is TPM’s deputy editor, based in New York. She has also worked as the special projects editor and as a senior newswriter for TPM. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and previously covered education in central Illinois.

Where Things Stand: Biden Will Torch ‘MAGA Republicans’ In Primetime Speech Tonight
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In a primetime speech from Pennsylvania, President Biden plans to deliver a national address that has all the makings of a pre-midterms campaign speech.

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Trump: I Know How To Stage Fake Documents And The FBI Stole My Schtick!
Where Things Stand: Eastman’s Probably A Target
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In other Trump investigation-adjacent news today, election steal scheming attorney John Eastman’s lawyers think that he is “probably a target” of the Fulton County probe led by District Attorney Fani Willis, who is looking into Trump team efforts to overturn the election results in her state of Georgia.

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Where Things Stand: Reminder Of Ornato’s Role In Pushing Pence To Leave Capitol On Jan 6
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As my colleague Kaila Philo reported earlier today, Secret Service Assistant Director Tony Ornato retired from the agency this week, leaving plenty of unanswered questions in his wake. The DHS inspector general’s office had reportedly been trying to get him to sit for an interview about matters related to the missing texts scandal; it’s unclear, now, whether that will happen.

There are two layers to recent intrigue surrounding Ornato. His role in whatever tf was going on with the missing Secret Service texts is, of course, one. But secondly, Ornato’s standing as a character of interest to the Jan. 6 committee increased 10-fold after Cassidy Hutchinson gave astonishing public testimony earlier this summer.

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Where Things Stand: Don’t You Dare Move On From 2020
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He was several days late to the party, but the former president appears to have finally gotten wind of some remarks that Mark Zuckerberg made during a Joe Rogan podcast that had conservatives up in arms last week.

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Where Things Stand: Blake Masters Wipes Extreme Abortion Views From Campaign Website
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Blake Masters has long embraced one of the most extreme anti-abortion positions out there. And in this post-Roe America, that’s saying a lot.

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Where Things Stand: House Panel Confirms What We Suspected In Real Time
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We covered quite a bit of the horse-pill propaganda being peddled as a COVID cure by many in anti-vax circles and by some members of the Trump White House at the time when hydroxychloroquine first emerged as a word that people knew how to pronounce. It provided some dark comedic relief as an absurd storyline to chase during an otherwise very bleak and scary time. (Hydroxychloroquine, you’ll recall, would eventually be replaced in the vaccine-skeptic imagination by an actual livestock pill, ivermectin.)

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Where Things Stand: Ohio Newspaper Refuses To Cover DeSantis-Vance Rally Over Absurd Press Restrictions
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Let me just start out by saying this pair deserves each other — truly a dynamic coupling.

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Where Things Stand: RonJohn Is Flailing Around
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A recent Marquette University Law School found that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) may not be as safely re-electable as he was ahead of his last reelection in 2016.

The poll was released last week, showing RonJohn is trailing a bit behind his Democratic rival — Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes has a 7-percentage point lead over Johnson with 51 percent of the vote compared to his 44 percent.

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Where Things Stand: McConnell Admits Dems May Hold Senate Because He’s Bad At His Job
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It’s political canon that the president’s party does poorly in the Midterms — especially if it’s said president’s first term. But the Senate minority leader is tossing bits of that conventional wisdom out the window as we get closer to the general election. And it’s not even the first time Mitch McConnell has preemptively winked in the direction of things not going super well for Republicans this fall — at least when it comes to control of the Senate.

During an event in Kentucky on Thursday McConnell suggested that it was far more likely that Republicans are able to flip the House than take back the Senate. That’s because the Senate is “different.”

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