A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Who, Me???
Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Monday night tried to put up a wall between himself and a gunman’s alleged motive for opening fire in a Black neighborhood’s grocery store in Buffalo.
After peddling the Great Replacement Theory on the regular on his program, Carlson found himself shocked! at the backlash against him.
- The Fox host insisted on Monday that the suspected shooter’s manifesto was, in fact, “not really political at all” and nothing more than “a rambling pastiche of slogans and Internet memes.”
- Also, Carlson wants his viewers to know that they’re the real victims here. The Fox host accused his critics of using the shooting as a “pretext” to stifle free speech.
- Carlson didn’t directly address the replacement conspiracy theory during his monologue. Again, it’s a conspiracy theory he’s advanced over and over on his show.
Arizona Senate To Investigate Wendy Rogers For Claiming Buffalo Shooting Was False Flag
The GOP-controlled Arizona Senate voted on Monday to launch an ethics investigation into state Sen. Wendy Rogers (R) after she baselessly suggested that the deadly Buffalo shooting, which was allegedly inspired by the racist “great replacement” theory, was a false flag operation by the government (there’s no evidence for that whatsoever).
- “Fed boy summer has started in Buffalo,” Rogers wrote in a Telegram post on Saturday after the attack.
- The vote to approve the investigation came after Arizona Democrats’ motion to full-on expel Rogers failed. The Senate would need to reach a supermajority of two-thirds in order to kick her out.
Moment Of Truth For Some Of MAGA’s Worst
We’ve got some pretty major primaries today in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Idaho, where we’ll see how some of these Trump ghouls will fare ahead of the November midterms:
- North Carolina: Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC)
- Pennsylvania: State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) for governor and conservative commentator Kathy Barnette for U.S. Senate
- Idaho: Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin (R) for governor
Pennsylvania Senate Hopeful Marched With Proud Boys On Jan. 6
Newly surfaced photos show far-right Pennsylvania Senate candidate Kathy Barnette marching to the Capitol with the far-right Proud Boys on Jan. 6:
- Barnett’s campaign claimed that the candidate had “no connection whatsoever” to the Proud Boys, and that she didn’t participate in the violent attack on the Capitol that day.
- Barnett also declared a day before the insurrection that she was bringing buses full of “pissed off patriots” to D.C. for the Jan. 6 rally as part of “our 1776 moment,” per CNN.
Trump Throws Cawthorn A Lifeline
The former president threw his support behind the besieged Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) on the eve of North Carolina’s primaries, writing on TRUTH Social, his Twitter knockoff, that the lawmaker only “made some foolish mistakes, which I don’t believe he’ll make again.”
- So apparently Trump’s gotten over the video of Cawthorn messing around with a guy and apparently humping his face, which at one point prompted the ex-president to ask if Cawthorn was “fucking his cousin,” according to Rolling Stone.
- While Cawthorn has said that the video included his cousin, the actual allegation as far as ethics violations go is that he improperly gave his cousin more than $141,000 in taxpayer and campaign funds.
Must Read
“1 in 6 Americans live in areas with significant wildfire risk” – The Washington Post
Georgia Voters Press On With MTG Disqualification Bid
The Georgia voters who are trying to get Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) kicked off the ballot filed an appeal on Monday to fight Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s (R) decision to reject their challenge.
GOP Senator Booed For Dragging Transgender Grievance Nonsense Into Commencement Speech
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) apologized for claiming that “the existence of two sexes, male and female” was a “fundamental scientific truth” during her commencement speech at the University of Wyoming on Sunday. Students booed the senator as she pasted this awkward-ass smile on her face:
- Lummis put out a statement after the speech apologizing to anyone who felt “un-welcomed or disrespected” by her comment, which was “intended to highlight the times in which we find ourselves, times in which the metric of biological sex is under debate.” K.
Sentencing Delayed For Gaetz Wingman Cooperating With Feds
Sentencing for ex-Florida tax official and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) buddy Joel Greenberg has been delayed again as he continues to cooperate with the Justice Department’s sex trafficking investigation into Gaetz.
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Carlson was on a roll last night. Here he is, going after Dan Crenshaw.
Man who screams “FIRE” in a crowded theater is shocked that audience members are trampled and killed in the panic that follows.
Tucker Carlson has to believe himself the victim. Victimhood is just sooooo much easier than being a responsible broadcaster.
Re this:
I read somewhere on Twitter on Sunday that in the past Rogers has approvingly described white nationalists as “Feds.” There were some screenshots of those posts. I don’t know what to make of that, but if that’s indeed the case, Rogers may actually have been more approving of what happened in Buffalo than what people are assuming.
There’ve been two interpretations of her statement - both on opposite ends of the spectrum. I defy anyone to get the real truth out of her or her office.
Sentencing for ex-Florida tax official and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) buddy Joel Greenberg has been delayed again as he continues to cooperate with the Justice Department’s sex trafficking investigation into Gaetz.
Gaetz probably has trouble sleeping at night, knowing some real Ammon Bundy style justice awaits him. DOJ is dropping the hammer big time. Yeah. Uh huh. It’s coming. Any year now. Maybe a decade. But soon. Ish.