MTG And Boebert Fight Over Jewish Space Lasers And Who’s Crazier

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.

Pass The Popcorn!

Kevin McCarthy’s struggle to nail down the speakership is powering venomous recriminations among far-right members who have split over his candidacy. Sad to see it.

• Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who opposes McCarthy, took a shot at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA): “I’ve been asked to explain MTG’s belief in Jewish space lasers, why she showed up to a white supremacist’s conference, and now why she’s blindly following Kevin McCarthy and I’m not going to go there.”
• Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who supports McCarthy, fired back with a reference to Boebert’s tiny victory margin in November.

• Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is publicly splitting with Trump over McCarthy, and he’s not afraid to tell you about it:

Give Me Everything On George Santos

The epic NYT exposé alleging that incoming GOP Rep. George Santos (NY) is a serial fabulist went unrebutted yesterday. Santos put out a statement attacking the newspaper’s report but not denying a single factual allegation in the report. Some highlights from the day:

• The Santos statement closed with a fake quote attributed to Winston Churchill.
• Dems pounced. Republicans were largely silent.
• Where’d Santos get $700,000 to loan to his own campaign?

Highlights From The Jan. 6 Committee’s Big Day

What jumped out from the coverage:

• TPM: 4 Big Takeaways From The January 6 Committee’s Public Finale
• NBC: Ivanka Trump, Hope Hicks, and Kayleigh McEnany were not forthcoming with the committee
• Just Security: How Jan. 6th Committee’s Revelations of Interference in Their Investigation Can Enable the Special Counsel
• Bloomberg: Committee has serious concerns about testimony of former Secret Service Agent Tony Ornato
• NYT oped: The Jan. 6 Committee Just Made History. Here’s What That Means for Prosecutors.
• Politico: The Jan. 6 committee’s big reveal hasn’t happened yet

Liz Cheney Takes Her Final Shot

The defeated Wyoming Republican went out with a bang: “No man who would behave that way, at that moment in time, can ever serve in any position of authority ever again. He is unfit for any office.”

Profile In Courage

Mike Pence remains an insipid little man:

‘Something Is About To Happen’

CBS News obtained more video footage of Mike Flynn’s deposition by the Jan. 6 committee that shows interesting lines of questions about what Flynn knew the day before the Capitol attack. While the former national security adviser turned conspiracist took the 5th repeatedly during the deposition, the committee’s questions reveal quite a bit about alleged communications Flynn was having:

Trump’s Final Words On Jan. 6

SCOOP!

Politico:

Longtime judicial activist Leonard Leo appears to have helped facilitate the sale of former White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway’s polling company in 2017 — as she was playing a key role in advocating for Leo’s handpicked list of Supreme Court candidates, according to previously unreported financial documents reviewed by government ethics and finance experts.

Some Serious Muckraking

NPR: In the Southeast, power company money flows to news sites that attack their critics

Going Deep On The Rising Violence Against Transgender People

Insider closely examines the killings of 175 transgender people over the last five years:

Insider has compiled the most comprehensive account to date of the rising homicidal violence targeting transgender people, systematically filing hundreds of public-records requests and sending reporters around the US to gather information on five years of homicides targeting transgender and gender nonconforming, nonbinary, and two-spirit people across the United States and Puerto Rico from 2017 through 2021. 

Happening On The Hill

Negotiators from both chambers and both parties unveiled a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill to fund the government in 2023. Congress is racing to pass the mammoth bill before the holidays.

Weinstein Convicted On California Rape Charge

A Los Angeles jury deliberated for nine days before finding disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein guilty on one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault, not guilty on a count of sexual battery, and hanging on the remaining three counts.

Earthquake Rocks Northern California

An earthquake with an preliminary magnitude of 6.4 struck Humboldt County, California, at around 2:34 a.m. local time. Initial reports are that the quake knocked power out to more than 50,000 customers in the area.

Teenage Concentration Camp Secretary Sentenced

NYT:

BERLIN — A court in Germany on Tuesday sentenced a 97-year-old woman to two years’ probation for her role in abetting over 10,000 murders committed during her tenure as a teenage concentration camp secretary in World War II, as prosecutors race to bring justice to the last surviving participants of the Nazi killing machine.

Black Celebs Pitch In To Extend A Broadway Run

The Broadway run of “Ain’t No Mo” had barely gotten underway but by Dec. 9, it was petering out. The provocative premise of 27-year-old Black playwright Jordan Cooper’s play: The U.S. government offers Black Americans one-way tickets to Africa to eliminate racism. After the imminent closing of the show was announced, Tyler Perry, Queen Latifah, Shonda Rhimes, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, and Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade stepped up to buy out entire shows. The run has now been extended a bit, to Dec. 23. Morning Memo saw “Ain’t No More” during its DC run earlier this year. It’s a great show. Check it out.

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