Terry McAuliffe Zeroes In On GOP Rival’s Bad Blood With Taylor Swift

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

I Knew You Were Trouble

In a crossover that you never would’ve imagined in your wildest dreams, Terry McAuliffe is looking to tap into the Taylor Swift stan voting bloc to regain the Virginia governorship.

• Through a fearless new ad blitz on Facebook and Instagram that aims to make GOP rival Glenn Youngkin see red, McAuliffe’s campaign is highlighting Youngkin’s role in music executive Scooter Braun’s infamous fight with Swift over the ownership of her master recordings in 2019.
• Youngkin’s history with the pop star, or at least the rights to her music, isn’t exactly a love story. He was the CEO of the private equity firm that helped Braun acquire the recordings, a controversial business dealing to which Youngkin should have said “no,” McAuliffe’s campaign argues.

• Youngkin’s campaign is trying to shake it off. “Terry McAuliffe has reached the stage of desperation in his campaign where he’s rolling out the most baseless attacks to see what sticks,” campaign spokesperson Christian Martinez told Axios, making it clear that the Republican won’t be shedding any teardrops on his guitar over the ads.
• Look what you made me do, McAuliffe. I had to spend more than 22 minutes trying to come up with as many Taylor Swift songs to shoehorn into this post as possible.

Youngkin Swan Dives Into GOP’s Bogus Election Audit Gambit

Virginia’s GOP gubernatorial hopeful on Monday called for an “audit” of the state’s voting machines during a virtual forum, marking him as yet another Republican candidate to push for a bogus review of election materials to boost Trump’s fake narrative about voter fraud.

• The audit is necessary to “make sure that people trust these voting machines,” Youngkin argued. There is no evidence that voting machines have interfered with election results, contrary to Trumpland’s conspiracy theories.

• Youngkin, a former CEO, tried to spin his suggestion as just standard business practice. “I grew up in a world where you have an audit every year, in businesses you have an audit,” he said.

Biden Says Loosening The Filibuster To Dodge Debt Crisis Is A ‘Real Possibility’

The President, who’s been reluctant to call for any kind of filibuster reform up until now, is warming up to the idea of adjusting the filibuster as Republican senators weaponize it to prevent Democrats from raising the debt limit and avoid a financial calamity.

• There are “not many options” if Republicans are “going to be that irresponsible,” Biden told reporters on Tuesday night. “There’s not much time left to do it by reconciliation.”
• “I think that’s a real possibility,” the President replied when asked if Democrats were considering tweaking the filibuster specifically for the debt ceiling crisis.
• But Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) continues to bearhug the filibuster, even during this incredibly high-stakes standoff. The senator argued on Monday that the filibuster “has nothing to do with debt ceiling” and that “we have other tools that we can use, and if we have to use them we should use them.”

Graham Doesn’t Want To Be A ‘Complete Asshole’ About The Debt Crisis He’s Enabling

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Politico that he’s “not going to be a complete asshole” about Democrats’ efforts to stave off a national economic collapse as Graham’s fellow Republicans repeatedly thwart them.

• “But I’m going to make them take some tough votes,” the GOP senator added.
• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is putting a debt ceiling suspension measure to a vote today. It will fail, thanks to the filibuster.

A Trump Goon Goes AWOL Amid Jan. 6 Committee’s Subpoena Efforts

The House Jan. 6 select committee can’t find Dan Scavino, Trump’s social media chief, to physically serve him their subpoena, according to CNN.

A Bombastic Police Union Chief Resigns After FBI Raids His Home

Ed Mullins, the president of New York’s Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA), agreed to resign at the SBA executive board’s request yesterday after the feds executed a search warrant at his Long Island home and the SBA headquarters, the board said.

• A New York Post reporter tweeted a video of the feds carrying boxes of evidence they seized from the SBA’s HQ:

• It is unknown what exactly the FBI was after or even what the probe is about, only that it’s an “ongoing investigation,” according to FBI spokesperson Martin Feely. The SBA board claimed not to know either, saying in its announcement that the “nature and scope of this criminal investigation has yet to be determined.”
• Mullins is currently facing disciplinary proceedings after tweeting NYPD a document on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daughter’s arrest during the George Floyd protests last year. The SBA chief has also attacked Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), who is gay, as a “first-class whore” and then-Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot as a “bitch” on Twitter.

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