Remember, our 2nd annual drive for The TPM Journalism Fund starts next week. I’ll get into all the details and the pitch next week. But it’s really important for our operation. So please keep an eye out and if you can give a glance to our posts about it we would really appreciate it.
The Senate’s Big China Bill Doesn’t Portend Much Good About ‘Bipartisanship’
On the few issues in Congress where there’s bipartisan support for some kind of action, the idea persists that the body can break through deadlock and pass real change.
It’s even led to discussion of a “secret Congress,” one free of the culture war-infected partisan politics in which legislators are free to quietly, and in a bipartisan fashion, pass meaningful legislation that the country needs.
But is that really true? Take a look at the Endless Frontier Act, a much-heralded package aimed at boosting federal investment in research and development to keep the country competitive with China in science and technology.
Continue reading “The Senate’s Big China Bill Doesn’t Portend Much Good About ‘Bipartisanship’”
Readers Respond on Lab Leaks #5
From TPM Reader JB …
For what it’s worth, I think most of the discussion in the US political world about the origins of COVID-19 has been about ephemera, driven by Republicans flopping around like fish in a boat as they try to devise a winning post-Trump (but Trump-friendly) political issue and media people fretting about whether media coverage is giving adequate weight to the things Republicans claim to be upset about today.
DOJ Inspector General To Probe Seizure Of The Data Of Lawmakers And Reporters
Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced on Friday his investigation of the Justice Department’s seizure of the data of Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee and of several reporters as part of wide-ranging leak investigations during the Trump years.
Continue reading “DOJ Inspector General To Probe Seizure Of The Data Of Lawmakers And Reporters”
OAN Hosts’ AZ ‘Audit’ Fundraising Group Now Bankrolling Visits From Out-of-State GOPers
A fundraising group led by a host and correspondent from the far-right One America News Network is now covering travel expenses for out-of-state Republican legislators to tour the shambolic “audit” of Maricopa County, Arizona’s 2020 election results.
Garland: DOJ Voting Rights Push To Include Focus On Sketchy Audits, Elex Worker Threats
Attorney General Merrick Garland laid out on Friday a muscular approach he says the Justice Department will take to protect the right to vote. In a policy speech at the department’s D.C. headquarters, Garland addressed not only the slew of restrictive voting measures advancing in GOP statehouses, but the harassment of election officials and the recent phenomena of dubious post-election “audits” that cast doubt on the 2020 results.
Toensing Appeals In Bid To Force Gov’t To Return Phone It Took
Trump lawyer Victoria Toensing appealed a lower court ruling on Friday that rejected her request to have prosecutors return a search warrant executed on her.
Continue reading “Toensing Appeals In Bid To Force Gov’t To Return Phone It Took”
Where Things Stand: Stark Contrasts At DOJ
By now you’ve read the New York Times bombshell report: the Trump administration Justice Department seized records from Apple for metadata from Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, including Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), in 2017 and 2018.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Stark Contrasts At DOJ”
STOP and Read This
If you’re following the infrastructure negotiations, you’ll know the various bipartisan deals involve funding infrastructure with no new taxes. As Josh Kovensky explains here, when you look at the details, the demand is to get the money by cannibalizing the Covid relief bill Biden pushed through Congress in March.
Top Dems Demand Barr, Sessions Testify Under Oath On Trump-Era Leak Probe Into Lawmakers
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) are demanding answers from former Attorney General Bill Barr and other top Trump-era Justice Department officials on the former administration’s secret seizing of several Democrats’ metadata.