A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Weird Theater
Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk, who was temporarily suspended by Twitter in March for violating its hateful conduct rules, triumphantly announced on Thursday that he was “back” on Twitter “Due to New Management” several days after Tesla CEO/”free speech” messiah Elon Musk made a $44 billion deal to buy the social media giant.
- Yeah, there’s no “new management” at Twitter. Musk’s deal with Twitter won’t close for at least another three months, so he doesn’t have the power to unsuspend anyone at the moment.
- Kirk was able to come “back” because he complied with Twitter’s requirement that he delete the tweet that got him suspended. The tweet had misgendered and deadnamed U.S. assistant secretary for health Rachel Levine, who is a transgender woman.
- Fox News host and testicle-tanning enthusiast Tucker Carlson put on the same show on Monday.
- By the way, you’ll be shocked to discover that Musk, who’s worth about $246 billion, really isn’t the free speech warrior he claims to be when it comes to unions and labor rights.
Russia Strikes Kyiv During UN Visit
Russian forces fired missiles into Kyiv during United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ visit to the Ukrainian capital on Thursday.
House Jan. 6 Panel To Begin Public Hearings In June
We’ve reached the public testimony stage of the House Jan. 6 Committee’s investigation: Committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) announced on Thursday that the panel is slated to hold eight public hearings in June, starting June 9. He also said that the committee will reach out this week to more House and Senate Republicans that panel members want to speak to.
Dem Calls Out GOPers’ Racist Private Talking Points Prepped For Hearing
During the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing with Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) pointed out that a certain internal memo showed that the Republicans on the committee may not be acting in 100 percent good faith with their questions.
- The memo is a 60-page document prepped by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) that outlines specific talking points Republican committee members ought to deploy during the hearing to paint migrants as dangerous and make the Biden administration look soft on immigration.
- The memo was marked “CONFIDENTIAL — FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY,” and it was leaked to the New York Times, which reported on the document last week.
Biden Says He Won’t Cancel $50K In Student Debt
The President confirmed on Thursday that while yes, he is weighing “some debt reduction” for student borrowers, he isn’t considering going as far as forgiving $50,000 per borrower, as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has proposed.
- Biden said he would announce his decision on debt forgiveness in the next couple of weeks. He didn’t say how much cancellation he was looking at in the meantime.
- The President had promised to cancel $10,000 in student debt during his campaign. That would wipe out almost 12 million borrowers’ debt entirely, but 70 percent would still be in debt, according to CNBC.
Must Read
“Florida gave voting rights to people with felony convictions. Now some face charges for voting.” – News From The States
Cawthorn Doubles Down On Suggesting Scandalous Behavior By GOPers
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), in the crosshairs of the rest of the GOP for alleging that lawmakers privately used coke and had orgies, tweeted on Thursday night that “many of my colleagues would be nowhere near politics if they had grown up with a cell phone in their hands.”
- Cawthorn didn’t offer any specifics on that point, but the subtweet came after a video apparently filmed on a phone went viral: The video seemed to show a man putting his hand on Cawthorn’s crotch and the two of them seemingly flirting jokingly.
- The video just happened to resurface amid the Republicans’ ongoing oppo campaign against Cawthorn; The homophobic idea of leaking the video to embarrass the lawmaker on the basis of queerness echoed in the similarly salacious photos of Cawthorn wearing lingerie that got leaked to Politico last week.
Biden Proposes Selling Russian Oligarchs’ Yachts To Pay For Ukraine Aid
The President put out a new set of proposals for Ukraine aid on Thursday that, among other things, proposes that the U.S. government sell the seized yachts and other assets belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarchs to fund the aid.
- Here are the fancy megayachts that’ve been seized by the U.S., U.K. and E.U. so far.
How Wokeness Plagues Pools
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) has no respect for those rabbit food-eating Twitter “wokers” who don’t belly-flop into swimming pools:
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