A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.
Getting Right To It
The House Jan. 6 select committee struck directly into the core of Trumpland yesterday with its first blast of subpoenas demanding documents and witness testimony from:
- Ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows
- Ex-senior White House adviser Steve Bannon
- Dan Scavino, who’s long served as Trump’s social media chief
- Kash Patel, a former Devin Nunes aide who became acting chief of staff to the defense secretary in the final weeks of Trump’s presidency
In letters to each of the four men released Thursday evening by the committee:
- The committee gave the men two weeks to send in the requested documents.
- Bannon and Patel were ordered to appear in front of the committee for depositions on Oct. 14, followed by depositions from Meadows and Scavino the next day.
Naturally Trump was enraged by the “Harassment Subpoenas,” and swore via his Save America PAC he would fight them “on Executive Privilege and other grounds.”
- The ex-president accused the committee of issuing the subpoenas to distract from the findings of the Arizona GOP’s fake 2020 election audit, which were slated to be released today.
- Trump declared that the committee’s alleged scheme wouldn’t work because “everybody will be watching Arizona tomorrow to see what the highly respected auditors and Arizona State Senate found out regarding the so-called Election!”
Arizona Phony Election Auditors And State Senate Find Out Biden Won The Election
The clownish hand recount of the Maricopa County 2020 election results led by Cyber Ninjas, the pro-Trump tech firm that state GOP senators contracted for the bogus “audit,” failed to find anything that would magically flip Arizona to Trump.
- In fact, the recount found that Trump lost by an even wider margin than the county’s certified results showed, which was 45,109 votes. He actually lost by 45,469 fewer votes than Biden if the “highly respected auditors” are to be believed.
- The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors responded with a “Yeah, duh.”
- Board chair Jack Sellers asserted in a statement that the findings “should be the end of the story” and “everything else is just noise.”
- Sellers predicted that it won’t be the end for Trump’s allies, though. “We will be accused once again of not cooperating, failing to fill holes in the knowledge of the Senate’s chosen contractor,” he said.
Biden’s Leaning Toward Releasing Info On Trump And Jan. 6
In its crucial deliberations over whether to give the House Jan. 6 investigation committee information on what Trump and his cronies were up to on the day of the Capitol insurrection, the White House is bending toward “yes,” unnamed sources told the Washington Post.
- Biden “supports a thorough investigation” into the attack and is “deeply committed to ensuring” there won’t be another, Biden spokesperson Michael Gwin said.
- Though Trump’s predictably raised hell over the committee’s sweeping information request to the National Archives, Biden ultimately has the authority to hand over the documents. Trump’s only option would be to take the fight to court, according to the Post.
People Who Got Their COVID-19 News From Trump Early In The Pandemic Are Way Less Likely To Be Vaccinated
Those who relied on the ex-president and his task force for updates on COVID-19 in April 2020 are among the least likely to have gotten the vaccine, according to a very surprising Pew poll.
- Another baffling finding: 83 percent of the Americans who listened to Trump’s brainworms gurgle about the pandemic were white.
Must-Read
“What It’s Like at Rikers, According to People Who Just Got Out” – Curbed
Grassley’s Running For Reelection
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), 88, the Senate’s longest-serving Republican, announced with a GIF at 4 a.m. local time that he wasn’t retiring ahead of the 2022 midterms:
Reporting Live From Fox Studios
Okay but that look is actually kind of a serve. Where can I get that dress?
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I don’t think ex-executive privilege is a thing.
Mornin
Yesterday wasn’t a good day for trumplandia.
The universal response to the 1/6 Committee subpoenas, after court challenges fail - “On the advice of counsel I respectfully decline to answer under the Fifth Amendment.”
I really hope the leaked report is correct, but as Rachel Maddow said last night she’s concerned this is a “too good to be true” moment that was deliberately created. She wouldn’t even discuss it because there was no confirmation on any level. “But fingers crossed…”