Fox Accuses Biden Of Causing A ‘Santa Shortage’

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.

So Begins The War On Christmas

Fox News had a whole segment yesterday decrying an apparent “shortage” of people pretending to be Santa Claus thanks to Joe Biden … somehow.

Maybe you could pass it off as Fox just doing a light segment on Christmas news, but the Republican National Committee highlighted the clip in earnest, so apparently it’s actually meant to be a political attack point???

House Jan. 6 Panel Sets Sights On Trump’s ‘Find The Votes’ Phone Call

The House Jan. 6 select committee interviewed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), whom Trump called in January to demand that the elections official magically “find” the votes needed for the then-president to steal the 2020 election from Biden, on Tuesday.

• The interview went on for more than four hours. Raffensperger told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he discussed Trump’s infamous call “and everything else leading into the election.”
• However, Raffensperger, a Republican, made it clear that he wasn’t out to be an ally in Democrats’ efforts to get to the bottom of the Capitol attack. He told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he wanted the panel to know that “looking backward isn’t helpful” and that there needs to be more focus on inflation and the border.

McCarthy’s Limp Response To His Party’s Trolls Goes Nowhere

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) took far-right shitstirrer Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) aside on Tuesday evening to tell her to lay off Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC)–only for Greene to emerge from the meeting telling CNN that she was still backing a primary challenge to Mace.

• In case you weren’t caught up in that particular mess yet, this about sums it up:

And so does this:

Abortion Rights Are In Danger 

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today in the case that could decide the fate of abortion rights in the United States. The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, centers on a 15-week abortion ban out of Mississippi. The state and a chorus of conservative groups have urged the justices to overturn precedent guaranteeing abortion as a constitutionally protected right. 

• In these arguments, viability is key. The precedent, decided in Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood, guarantees access to abortion before viability, or when the fetus could survive outside of the womb — around 24 weeks. 
• If you hear the conservative justices questioning the viability line, or the well-established scientific data on when a fetus can feel pain, that spells trouble for abortion rights. 
• Without a viability line states have to respect, red states could offer legal abortion technically, by doing something like allowing it only one day into the pregnancy.
• Experts told TPM they’ll be listening most closely to Justices John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The last two are relatively new to the Court, and Roberts is considered the swingiest justice right now. They could be the deciders.

School Shooting Leaves At Least Three Dead

At least three people were killed and eight others were injured on Tuesday after a 15-year-old student in Michigan opened fire at his high school on Tuesday. It seems to be the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. in over 18 months.

Abbott Promises Texas’ Electric Grid Won’t Bust This Year

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who saw millions of Texans go without power after a snowstorm shut down the state’s electric grid in February, said last week that he “can guarantee the lights will stay on” this time thanks to legislation he signed requiring extra “weatherization” measures to protect the grid.

Top GOP Philly Elections Official And Trump Punching Bag Resigns

Republican Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt, a key Pennsylvania elections official who firmly pushed back against Trump’s election fraud lies and subsequently became a target of the ex-president’s wrath, plans to resign in January.

• Schmidt has been tapped to be the CEO and president of the Committee of Seventy, a Philadelphia-based good government organization, to “continue to fight against the election disinformation and misinformation that is threatening our democracy,” he told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
• The official says his departure wasn’t prompted by Trump’s attacks and the MAGA crowd’s threats against him.

Sidney Powell Ensnared In Another Investigation

Several of the pro-Trump lawyer’s fundraising groups have been slapped with a grand jury subpoena for financial records in federal prosecutors’ newly reported criminal investigation digging into the organizations.

• The records prosecutors seek date all the way back Nov. 1 of last year–shortly before Powell started asking Trump supporters for donations to help fund her failed lawsuits attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
• The subpoena was signed by the same assistant U.S. Attorney who’s overseeing cases connected to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, including the criminal contempt case against ex-White House adviser Steve Bannon.

Trump Never Got Intel Briefing After Jan. 6

After siccing his supporters on the Capitol on Jan. 6, Trump didn’t get a classified intelligence briefing that day or any other day for the rest of his presidency, according to the CIA.

• It’s not clear why exactly the briefings stopped. Several former intelligence officials told the Daily Beast that the White House sets the schedule for briefings.
• Trump’s spokesperson denied that the ex-president had stopped receiving the briefings, predictably telling the Daily Beast that it was fake news.
• A different Trump aide also insisted that Biden never cut off Trump from receiving post-presidency intel briefings. It was totally Trump’s decision not to get the briefings, the aide told the Daily Beast, and the ex-president “would have continued to get them if he wanted.”

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