As expected, Republicans react to historic electoral losses by doing more to make it harder for Democrats to vote.
It’s that time of year: The 2018 Golden Duke awards have been announced. The competition as usual is fierce. Given that the Dukes have been around now for more than a decade – joined this year by the Duke of the Week – I thought it might make sense to go back to the beginning and explain just what the Dukes are, why they’re called Dukes, and what the whole point is.
We’re aware that some readers are getting pop-up page-takeover ‘ads’ on the site in the last two days on mobile devices. We are aware of it and tracking it down is our absolute top priority. Tracking down the culprit can be time consuming since ad network advertising includes multiple intermediaries and third parties operating on the same networks. But again, we know and we’re doing everything in our power to track it down.
Josh Kovensky has the fascinating backstory on a third, lesser-known figure in the alleged Roger Stone-Jerome Corsi Wikileaks’ outreach effort during the summer and fall of 2016.
Mike Pence’s Chief of Staff surprised everyone this weekend – none more than Donald Trump it seems – when he turned down Trump’s offer to succeed John Kelly as Trump’s third Chief of Staff. An overeager Trump couldn’t wait to announce Kelly’s departure this weekend and now he’s running through an increasingly desperate and comical list of potential chiefs of staff after Ayers turned him down. What happened here? Read More
Maria Butina seems to have cut a plea deal. I’m sure folks at the NRA are terribly pleased.
This following is from an SEC filing released today by Verizon regarding it’s “Oath” media business. That’s the unit which owns the assets of Yahoo, AOL and Huffington Post …
Verizon’s Media business, branded Oath, has experienced increased competitive and market pressures throughout 2018 that have resulted in lower than expected revenues and earnings. These pressures are expected to continue and have resulted in a loss of market positioning to our competitors in the digital advertising business. Oath has also achieved lower than expected benefits from the integration of the Yahoo Inc. and AOL Inc. businesses. Effective August 1, 2018, Hans Vestberg became Chief Executive Officer of Verizon, and effective October 1, 2018, K. Guru Gowrappan was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Media business.
We’ve just finished a wild press availability with President Trump, Vice President Pence and Democratic leaders Pelosi and Schumer. This was clearly not something Trump was prepared for, as predictable as it was. There are a few takeaways. One is Schumer at the very end baiting Trump into defiantly insisting he’ll be “proud” to shut down the government. (“I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck.”) Another is Pelosi, steel without bluster, formidable in any circumstance but particularly for Trump who couldn’t seem to find either weakness or escalation. He would switch over to Schumer for a break. My tweeted blurbs for some of the clips are a bit flippant. But each captures a revealing moment in the increasingly combustible exchange. Clips after the jump. Read More
As we get past the midterm election and into the thick of the accelerating Mueller probe, I wanted to remind you: If you’re a dieheard TPM Reader and interested in a new way to support and be a part of TPM beyond the cost of a Prime membership, please consider joining TPM Inside. You can find out the details here. If you sign up for an annual membership before December 21st you become a Launch Member and have your subscription extended through the end of January 2020. Click here for the details and here to sign up.
In case you missed it yesterday, I want you to see this deep dive on Ted Malloch, a guy who’s been hovering around the Russia scandal for more than a year and looks like he was probably a key link in the chain of communication between Wikileaks and the Trump campaign. If you’re a Prime member, here’s a companion piece on how his career has been sustained by the general non-enforcement of so many white collar crime laws.