Jan. 6 Defendants Keep Trying To Be Their Own Lawyers

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

Fool For A Client

At least five people who’ve been charged with storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 have insisted on representing themselves in their court cases, a strategy that doesn’t seem to working out super well for them so far.

• Alan Hostetter, the retired police chief-turned-yoga instructor who has been charged with conspiracy in the attack, told the judge that he wanted to represent himself due to what he called the “corruption of this investigation.”
• Pauline Bauer, a restaurant owner in Pennsylvania, has gotten sassy with the judge, at one point telling him that she doesn’t want “any lawyering from the bench,” according to the Associated Press.
• Brandon Fellows, a Pennsylvania man who happens to have the same judge as Bauer, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, accidentally blabbed about new alleged felonies while he was speaking during his hearing last week.

Dems Troll Trump Over GOP Nominee Running Away From Him

The Democratic National Committee is pouncing on how Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin, a Republican who’s been endorsed by Trump, has persistently kept Trump at an arm’s length as he tries to win over a state that roundly rejected the former president in both 2016 and 2020.

• The Democrats flew banners and parked billboards and signs near Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort in West Palm Beach, Florida asking why Youngkin “won’t let” Trump campaign for him in Virginia:

BTW, you might remember that one way Youngkin tried to get the Trump stench off him in the gubernatorial race was by passing it on to Terry McAuliffe, his Democratic rival, with a “no, u” ad pointing out the Democrat’s ties to the ex-president.

Biden’s Climate Centerpiece Imperiled Thanks To Manchin

It looks like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), an actual coal baron in his home state, might have won in his fierce opposition to President Joe Biden’s effort to replace coal and gas-powered plants with clean energy in the sweeping reconciliation plan.

• The program is likely to be cut from the bill, congressional source told the New York Times.
• West Virginia is exposed to more flood damage than any other state thanks to climate change, by the way.

Congress Back To Business This Week

The Senate’s back in session today, and the House is reconvening tomorrow.

Pro-Impeachment GOP Senator Has Low ’24 Expectations For Trump

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), one of the seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump in the post-Jan. 6 impeachment trial, said during a pre-taped Axios interview that it’s not a given that the former president will have a red carpet rolled out in front of him in the 2024 primaries.

• “I don’t know that,” Cassidy interrupted when the Axios reporter, true to form, tried to whip out some conventional wisdom assuming that Trump would definitely win the presidential nomination.
• Cassidy noted that the GOP lost the Senate, House, and the presidency in four years under Trump’s watch. “Elections are about winning,” the Louisiana Republican said.
• Cassidy also claimed he won’t vote for Trump in the next election. “I’m not,” he told Axios.

Must-Read

“Strikes are sweeping the labor market as workers wield new leverage” – The Washington Post

? Morning Memo Radio ?

GOP Guv. Says Trump Needs To Give The Big Lie A Rest

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) is pushing back against the ex-president’s demand that the GOP somehow “solve” the 2020 election that he definitely lost.

• “Relitigating 2020 is a recipe for disaster in 2022,” Hutchinson told “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “Let’s talk about the future. The election is past. It’s been certified.”
• Trump’s “comments” about election fraud “are not constructive,” the Republican governor also said.

Bill Clinton Released From Hospital

The former president was discharged from UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, California on Sunday, according to Dr. Alpesh Amin, the chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine.

• Clinton’s fever and white blood cell count “are normalized,” Amin announced, and “he will return to New York to finish his course of antibiotics.”
• Clinton was admitted to the hospital to be treated for a “non-Covid-related infection” on Tuesday, according to his spokesperson, Angel Ureña.

Jan. 6 Insurrectionist Who Attacked Cop Calls Himself ‘Piece Of Shit’

Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez, the insurrectionist who allegedly shocked Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone with a cattle prod during the Capitol attack, self-flagellated several times during his interview with the FBI.

• The interview transcript obtained by the HuffPost also showed one of the FBI officials giving a weirdly Fox News-esque view of the insurrectionist’s predicament. “Danny gets to choose if he writes a story today with us. But right now, the story that’s being told is by D.C. ― is by antifa, BLM, and the Huffington Post,” the official said.

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