House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is reportedly worried about at least one thing in particular if Congress successfully put together a bipartisan commission to study the Capitol insurrection on January 6: Being forced to share under oath his allegedly explosive communications with then-President Donald Trump on that day.
Power and Lies and Elise Stefanik
Aaron Blake of the Post dug up these statements from Elise Stefanik, the representative from New York State who is likely to replace Liz Cheney once she’s ejected from the House GOP leadership. Stefanik was a garden variety Upstate New York Republican before she hitched her wagon to Trump around 2018 and went all in with the Trump personality cult.
In the lead-up to the January 6th insurrection most congressional Republicans were careful to avoid repeating Trump’s most outrageous lies about a stolen election. They focused on the purported unconstitutionality of pandemic-related changes to election regulations. In other words, they weren’t directly claiming a stolen election in the sense of stuffed ballot boxes or dead voters or other similar stuff. They were arguing that states had exceeded their constitutional authority in doing things that making voting by mail easier. So those votes were illegitimate though not ‘fraudulent’ in the way most of us understand the term. This allowed them to back Trump’s claims of an illegitimate election by hanging their hat on a very weak constitutional argument rather than racist lies about ‘inner city’ vote fraud and other conspiracy theories.
But Stefanik wasn’t so careful.
Two Views on Science and COVID Shaming
From TPM Reader JS …
Strongly disagree. Science is science. You can’t wrap yourself in it to justify the shutdowns and then appeal to “trauma” to be for them.
And from TPM Reader MH …
Thank you, Josh, for your humane defense of people feeling cautious and traumatized, and for pointing out that most of the country is still not vaccinated.
The case numbers didn’t start dropping in New York until the first week of April. I didn’t get my “fully vaccinated” card until a month ago, and the data on variants and vaccine escape was also slow to arrive. We didn’t know *what* was keeping the cases up, but if you listened to the epidemiologists, they said “variants” a lot.
Cheney Throws Down the Gauntlet
I’m not sure what the analogy is. But a new Post OpEd from Liz Cheney makes crystal clear that she is making her political fate – certainly her role in the Republican House leadership, which seems doomed – a test case for the future of the Republican party. Here’s the piece.
As I said in the podcast today, it would be simple enough for Cheney to ‘look forward and not back’ as they say. Not change her position on the disgraceful legacy of last winter but point to where she and her conference agree on opposing the Biden agenda. Rather she has deepened and sharpened her critique.
Cheney Doubles Down On Warning GOP Against Falling Prey To Trump’s Bogus Claims
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) made clear on Wednesday that she has no plans to back down on her vehement criticism of former President Trump amid House Republicans threatening to give her the boot as its conference chair. Continue reading “Cheney Doubles Down On Warning GOP Against Falling Prey To Trump’s Bogus Claims”
Sketchy AZ Audit Looks For Bamboo In Ballots In Nod To Bonkers Election Hijacking Claim
The recount of Maricopa County, Arizona’s 2.1 million ballots includes an analysis of whether the ballots have any bamboo fibers, an audit leader said Wednesday. The official said that the auditors were seeking to vet a wild claim that 40,000 counterfeit ballots were shipped in from Asia.
Remember When Tucker Carlson Got Eaten Alive By Jon Stewart On National TV?
Jon Stewart, the famed former host of “The Daily Show,” found himself trending on Twitter on Wednesday.
“Trending??…I didn’t realize I was still alive!!” the comedian tweeted.
Continue reading “Remember When Tucker Carlson Got Eaten Alive By Jon Stewart On National TV?”
U.S. Supports Waiving Vaccine IP During Pandemic, Trade Rep Says
The United States now supports waiving protections on the intellectual property behind COVID-19 vaccines as a way of quickening the end of the global pandemic, the U.S. trade representative said Wednesday.
Continue reading “U.S. Supports Waiving Vaccine IP During Pandemic, Trade Rep Says”
Ernst Offers Lukewarm Defense Of Cheney Amid Silence From Most GOPers
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) on Wednesday offered a lukewarm defense of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) as House Republicans suggest that the third-ranking Republican’s ouster is in the cards. Continue reading “Ernst Offers Lukewarm Defense Of Cheney Amid Silence From Most GOPers”
Where Things Stand: The Gang’s All Here
Some of Trump’s closest “Big Lie” allies along with one of his former lawyers are launching a new advocacy group to try to further cement former President Trump’s false claims about a stolen election into reality.