A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Yeah Let’s Sink Lower
Apparently not content with hurling accusations of being pro-pedophilia, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) found a new angle with which to smear Supreme Court pick Ketanji Brown Jackson.
- Yep, Cotton declared the following during Jackson’s confirmation hearing on Tuesday: “You know the last Judge Jackson left the Supreme Court to go to Nuremberg and prosecute the Nazis. This Judge Jackson may have gone there to defend them.”
- It goes without saying that there’s literally nothing to back up Cotton’s latest accusation against Jackson, who would be the first Black woman on the Supreme Court if successfully confirmed.
MTG Redirects Deranged Pedophile Accusations At Dems After Attacking GOPers
After accusing Republican senators of being pro-pedophilia for supporting Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson (here’s how that awful GOP talking point started), far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Tuesday shifted her disgusting rhetoric away from her own party to where the GOP actually wants it to go: Democrats.
Anyway, I’ll just leave this here:
Ivanka Speaks To Jan. 6 Panel
The House Jan. 6 Committee held an interview with former White House adviser Ivanka Trump, the ex-president’s eldest daughter, for about eight hours on Tuesday after her husband and fellow White House adviser, Jared Kushner, was in the hot seat last week. They both testified voluntarily.
- Ivanka Trump’s testimony is crucial to the panel’s investigation: Trump’s staffers allegedly turned to her during the Jan. 6 attack to get her father to call off his supporters who were ransacking the Capitol.
Jan. 6 Panel Finally Gets Ahold Of Eastman Emails
After a looooong court battle, the House Jan. 6 Committee has obtained a tranche of ex-Trump legal adviser John Eastman’s emails in which he allegedly discusses with fellow Trump cronies how to maneuver the courts to overturn the 2020 election.
Fake Trump Elector Loses Election
Kelly Ruh, an alderperson from De Pere, Wisconsin who was on the slate of sham electors for Trump in the 2020 election and has been subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 Committee, lost her reelection bid on Tuesday.
- Her rival volunteers as a poll worker. How’s that for poetic justice?
Oklahoma GOP Lawmakers Pass Near-Total Abortion Ban
Oklahoma’s Republican-controlled legislature on Tuesday approved a bill that would make it illegal to perform an abortion unless the pregnant person’s life is in danger. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) is expected to sign it into law.
- A person who gets convicted of performing an abortion under the ban would face up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. The legislation would take effect in the summer when Stitt signs it, unless it gets blocked in court.
- Abortion access in Oklahoma has been crucial for Texans seeking out the procedure after their state passed its infamous ban last year. About 45 percent of Texans who traveled out of state for abortion care got it in Oklahoma, the University of Texas at Austin found.
Must Read
“A Quarter of Africans Face Food-Security Crisis Partly Due to Ukraine War, Red Cross Says” – The Wall Street Journal
White House Extends Student Loan Pause
The White House will push back federal student loan payments from May 1 to Aug. 31.
Fetus Hoarders Try To Explain Themselves
The fetus-hoarding saga got even wilder yesterday, when the anti-abortion activists involved in the incident held a press conference giving an explanation (or what they claimed to be an explanation, anyway) of how five fetuses ended up in one of the activists’ apartment.
- Their dizzying story: The activist and another fellow activist at a D.C. clinic approached a truck driver from a medical waste company and asked him about two boxes he was loading into the truck. The activists told the trucker that the boxes contained fetuses and asked if they could take one of those boxes. The trucker gave them a box, which they later opened and discovered 115 fetuses. They gave 110 of them a “proper burial” and kept five fetuses they believed to be fully developed, and those were the fetuses found in the activist’s home.
- The activist has been indicted by the feds, but the case is unrelated to the fetuses. She and eight other anti-abortion activists were charged with federal civil rights violations in connection to a protest in 2020 in which they blockaded a D.C. abortion clinic.
Ohio GOPer Flees When Asked About Her ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill
Ohio state Rep. Jean Schmidt (R) has introduced her version of Florida’s ban on classroom discussions on LGBTQ+ issues, but she didn’t seem very eager to discuss it publicly on Tuesday:
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