Texas GOPers Scheduled To Attend NRA Convention In Houston

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

It’s Okay, They’ll Be Safe

After at least 19 students and two adults were killed during a shooting rampage at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) are scheduled to speak at the National Rifle Association’s convention in Houston on Friday.

• Abbott, Cruz and Crenshaw haven’t yet confirmed whether they’ll stick to their plans to attend.
• The office of Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) claims that the senator had already canceled his appearance at the NRA convention before the shooting “due to an unexpected change in his schedule” and that he now has to be in D.C. “for personal reasons” on Friday.
• Former President Trump is also set to go to the convention, but guns will be banned in the area, per the NRA’s website, so he and other attendees will be perfectly safe.

Abbott’s Gun Fetishizing Under Scrutiny

Manchin Refuses To Budge On Filibuster After Shooting

In response to the Texas elementary school shooting, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) told reporters that he’ll “do anything I can” to prevent future shootings–except get rid of the Senate filibuster, which he insisted is “only thing that prevents us from total insanity.” Instead, Manchin proposed “common sense.” Okay!

A Bad Night For Trump In Georgia

Incumbent Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) fended off challenges from their Trump-backed rivals in the state’s GOP primaries Tuesday night, despite the revenge-hungry former president’s best efforts to kill their careers for not helping him steal the 2020 election.

• Kemp beat ex-senator David Perdue. Ate him alive, in fact.
• Raffensperger beat Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA). Kind of ate him alive too.
• At least Trump’s other Georgia picks prevailed, including Senate candidate Herschel Walker and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and ex-state Rep. Vernon Jones (R) is headed toward a runoff in his U.S. House race. But there’s no way those wins would’ve been anywhere near as satisfying for Trump to see his punching bags go down.

Ken Paxton Survives Scandal Avalanche (For Now)

Embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), endorsed by Trump, defeated Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush in the state’s GOP attorney general runoff last night. Bush was the last member of his family in elected office, by the way, so RIP Bush dynasty.

Mo Brooks Survives Trump’s Un-Endorsement (For Now)

Despite Trump yanking away his endorsement, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) is now headed toward a runoff against rival Katie Britt on June 21 in the GOP Senate primary. With 91 percent reporting, Britt leads Brooks 44.7 to 29.1.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Wins Guv Nomination

Trump’s ex-White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, won the GOP Arkansas gubernatorial primary last night.

Herschel Walker Wouldn’t Say Which Georgia Guv Candidate He Backs

Georgia GOP Senate hopeful Herschel Walker knew better than to give a straight answer when asked on Tuesday afternoon if he supported flailing fellow Trump endorsee Perdue or Trump target Kemp in the gubernatorial primary, saying only that “I’m going to wait and see who wins.”

Majority Of Trump Voters And Fox Viewers Believe ‘Great Replacement Theory’

Some 61 percent of Americans who voted for Trump agree that “a group of people in this country are trying to replace native-born Americans with immigrants and people of color who share their political views,” according to a new poll by Yahoo News/YouGov.

• 53 percent of Fox News viewers agree too, the poll shows, and it’s really not a mystery why.
• Meanwhile, only 34 percent of Americans overall agree with the racist conspiracy theory.
• The survey was conducted several days after the Buffalo shooting, which was allegedly carried out by a white supremacist who claimed he was motivated by that conspiracy theory.

Pennsylvania GOP Drags Out Tortured Fake Election Audit For Another Six Months

Yippee, Pennsylvania Republican senators have extended their inquiry contract in their bogus 2020 election audit through Nov. 18. We’ll definitely find something by then, right guys?? (That is, if we take it on good faith that they’re actually trying to find something and not, say, deliberately spin a fake narrative about voter fraud to undermine people’s trust in the elections process!)

• Wisconsin Republicans similarly established a new contract earlier this month to carry on with their fake election audit–except they didn’t bother putting an end date.

As TPM’s Matt Shuham artfully put it:

“The bogus “investigation” of Joe Biden’s 2020 win in Wisconsin could extend forever into the horizon, melting into our collective consciousness until the human project comes to a sputtering end, and all memory of our presence lies deep in the neurons of our vertebrae’d brethren.”

Mar-A-Lago Raked In $400K From Trump Stooges In Yesterday’s Primaries

The seven Trump endorsees who ran in the primaries yesterday funneled more than $400,000 combined into the ex-president’s Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida over the course of their campaigns, per CNBC’s analysis of campaign finance records.

Psaki To Host New MSNBC Show

MSNBC President Rashida Jones* announced on Tuesday that in addition to making appearances across the network, ex-White House press secretary Jen Psaki will host a new program for streaming that’ll debut sometime in the first quarter next year.

*In case anyone’s confused (like I was at first), this is not the same Rashida Jones from NBC sitcom “Parks and Rec.”

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