(This post has been updated.)
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.
Democracy On The Line
A big day ahead as the House select committee investigating the insurrection holds its first hearing Tuesday. One crucial outstanding question: Will the committee tackle the entirety of the Big Lie-driven conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, or focus narrowly on the events of Jan. 6?
- TPM’s Matt Shuham has an ambitious new story out this morning on what a thorough investigation of the entire conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election would look like. Give it a read!
- The select committee seems determined to focus on Jan. 6 as a security breach, rather than the culmination of a months-long effort to delegitimize, undermine, interfere with and ultimately overturn the 2020 election.
- Committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) declared in a WaPo op-ed that “nothing will be off-limits,” but it’s not clear if the committee is prepared to grapple with the scope of the Trump effort to seize and retain power.
- Will the committee probe Trump’s shenanigans in Georgia?
- Trump’s calls to pressure the secretary of state in Georgia to find more votes for him
- The reported scheme to remove the acting attorney general in favor of a lower level official who would put the weight of the Justice Department behind Trump’s bogus election fraud claims
- The resignation of the U.S. attorney in Atlanta and the installation of a Trump loyalist
- Will the committee call Gen. Milley to testify?
- Milley, the chairman the Joint Chiefs of Staff no less, reportedly feared a coup.
- All the living former secretaries of defense penned a letter warning of dire things afoot at the Pentagon.
- In his waning days, Trump was installing or attempting to install loyalists at DoD and CIA.
- Will committee examine all the ways in which Trump used or attempted to use the powers of his office to hold onto power?
- NYT obtained a letter from the Biden Justice Department to former Trump officials saying they are free to testify to the committees investigating Jan. 6.
- The announced witnesses for Tuesday’s scheduled hearing reflect the committee’s narrow focus on the events of Jan. 6:
- Capitol Police officers Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell
- DC Metro Police Department officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges
Oy, Now They’re ‘Political Prisoners’
The House wackadoodle caucus is counter-programming the opening hearing of the select committee with a press conference outside Main Justice to draw attention to “the treatment of January 6th prisoners.”
- “One would expect to see abuses of political prisoners in tyrannical third-world countries, not the United States,” caucus chair Louie Gohmert (R-TX) said in a statement.
- Among the announced attendees, in addition to Gohmert: Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
Keep An Eye On This
The criminal case against Tom Barrack continues to unfold slowly:
- TPM’s Josh Kovensky attended Barrack’s arraignment yesterday in Brooklyn.
- A newly unsealed case from 2019 against one of the key figures in the Barrack scandal offers interesting new details about the alleged foreign influence scheme.
Puzzling Over This One
The conservative strategist running for governor in Pennsylvania who reportedly drove several miles with a motorcycle stuck to the grill of his car did not hit or kill the motorcyclist, his lawyer said.
Mike Enzi, 1944-2021
The former Republican senator from Wyoming, who retired earlier this year, has died following a bicycle crash near his home.
‘Why Would You Do That To A Grandmother?’
Former Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), 80, was uninjured in a robbery and assault in Oakland.
Who’s Gonna Call It
When can we declare the bipartisan infrastructure talks in the Senate dead and move on?
Sarah Huckabee Joins The GOP’s Big Vaccine Switcheroo
The former White House press secretary and current candidate for governor is urging Arkansans to get what she cleverly dubs the “Trump vaccine.”
- Huckabee touts the Trump family’s own inoculations: “If getting vaccinated was safe enough for them, I felt it was safe enough for me.”
- She goes down swinging though, blaming vaccine hesitancy on the usual right-wing rogues’ gallery: Fauci, Biden, Harris, the news media, and the “expert class.”
Must Read
“‘We’re f—ed’: Dems fear turnout catastrophe from GOP voting laws”
Coup Joke Kills
Upon receiving an AR-15 as a gift at a California church, former Trump National Security Adviser Mike Flynn said with a smile, “Maybe I’ll find somebody in Washington, D.C.”
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I’ll repeat what I said in the other thread: This headline is misleading; it’s unnecessary fear-mongering for click value. Here’s what House bill H.R.3233 actually says, and it is absolutely intended to look into root causes and not just the events of the day:
That’s a wide open door.
The select committee should accommodate the wannabe speaker’s stated wishes to investigate events of last summer.
Start with the Michigan twats protesting their COVID cancellations of tee times and hair appointments, Mama’s roots were showing, dammit!
Then get serious with residents’ testimony of the neighborhoods where rioting occurred last summer, who all claimed at the time that outside agitators were the ones burning and breaking shit. I want a deep dive into the white kid who was filmed smashing a “Vans” store window with his skateboard. Who was really behind the teenaged, white, FIB (Wisconsin-speak for Friendly Illinois Buddy) who shot up Kenosha with a SWAT rifle? Let’s hear from Portland residents kidnapped by unmarked, unbadged Feds. Let’s review the gassing of the priest out of her own church so that Rump could go get his Bible photo taken.
Those Republican pricks want to play whataboutism I say bring it.
BTW, I realize that the members of the committee might theoretically depart from the intent of the bill’s text, but considering the current members, I don’t see any reason to speculate that this would happen.
The committee members are immune to political pressure from the other side. Cheney and Kinzinger have made their stand, and the other members are Dems in a Dem majority House. There is nothing McCarthy or any other Republican can do to change how the committee operates. He and the other R’s threw away that option and they’ll have to live with the consequences.
Let’s hope the Dems don’t do stupid grandstanding here. Let some of the actual insurrectionists, including violent ones, testify as to why they did what they did. Their words will speak for themselves. The American people need to see the threat these people represent.