A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Kate and Josh discuss the beginning of the New York hush money trial, arguments at the Supreme Court that could affect a different Trump trial and Mike Johnson’s newest woes.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
On Tuesday afternoon, the CEO of MyPillow Mike Lindell, along with a cadre of election deniers, spoke in front of a crowd of what organizers boasted could be over 800 people at the Ahern Hotel in Las Vegas, during an all-day event hosted by the far-right Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association.
Continue reading “Constitutional Sheriffs Group Plans To Insert Itself Into More Aspects Of The Voting Process In 2024”I don’t pretend to even understand the moving parts of how this is supposed to work. But almost out of the blue Speaker Mike Johnson has decided to go all-in on an aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. As this started to come into view over the last two or three days, I’ve had a number of TPM Readers write in to say, why is this happening? What’s the catch? Or, why is he walking the plank like this? What is he sacrificing his Speakership for? And I don’t have a really good answer.
Continue reading “House Installs New Speaker: YOLO Johnson”NEW YORK — Prosecutors with the Manhattan DA’s Office accused Donald Trump of violating his gag order seven more times on Thursday morning amid a series of new developments in the trial which resulted in two already-seated jurors being dismissed.
Continue reading “Flurry Of Unusual New Developments In Trump Hush Money Trial”A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
In his craven quest for the House speakership last year, Kevin McCarthy was willing to give up anything, including changing the rules to allow any one member to bring up a discharge petition to oust the speaker. It cost him dearly, and now it’s putting his successor in a similar bind.
The House GOP leadership is making noises that it might try to change the rule back and take some of the pressure off Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who is currently being held over a barrel on Ukraine aid by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). But it’s not clear if there’s enough support among Republican members, each of whom is empowered by the McCarthy capitulation, for it to happen.
McCarthy, so weakened by what he was willing to concede for his own ambition, held the gavel a mere nine months before he was bounced by the likes of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). For his part, Johnson could be looking at an ouster attempt soon after he brings Ukraine aid to a vote.
The speaker Wednesday finally released the text of the package of foreign aid bills that includes desperately needed aid for Ukraine. A floor vote on the package could come as soon as Saturday and seems likely to lead to a move by far-right GOPers to oust him from the speakership.
Gaetz called Johnson’s decision to move forward on Ukraine aid an “abject surrender”:
The package’s prospects are highly uncertain, but Johnson’s apparent willingness to put everything on the line to get it passed is a glimmer of hope for Ukraine, which hasn’t had much positive news coming out of Washington in the months the aid bill has been stymied by Republicans on the Hill.
TPM’s Josh Kovensky is back in the Manhattan courthouse this morning for the resumption of jury selection in the Trump hush money case, which sat in recess Wednesday. Among the new developments:
The NYT catches us up on the fake elector criminal cases in Georgia, Michigan and Nevada plus the ongoing criminal investigations in Wisconsin and Arizona.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) hinted this week that death threats may be behind his early resignation decision: “This is more just me wanting to prioritize being with my family,” he told reporters on the Hill. “I signed up for the death threats and the late-night swatting, but they did not. And for a young family, I would say this job is really hard.”
Quite a scene in Arizona yesterday, as state House Republicans once again blocked an effort to repeal a newly revived Civil War-era abortion ban, as TPM’s Kate Riga reports:
Rep. David Livingston (R-AZ) turned to the galleries, stuffed with a mix of pro- and anti-abortion rights protesters, and applauded his supporters, raising his fists in triumph. Majority Whip Teresa Martinez (R-AZ) mouthed “we got you” and did a thumbs up. Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci (R-AZ) grinned and accepted a handshake on his way out of the chamber.
“They were posing for their far-right base,” scoffed Assistant Minority Leader Oscar De Los Santos (D-AZ), calling TPM from the House floor minutes after the last procedural vote failed.
In the state Senate, a similar repeal effort is making progress with the help of crossover Republicans, so this could come up again in the House for vote.
The bogus House GOP impeachment of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was quickly dismissed Wednesday by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Fuck around and “you’re about to find out very soon” … eventually … almost there … wait for it … any minute now …
Also, who pronounces “dynasty” as “din-asty”?
Antisemitic threats in the U.S. have soared since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, FBI Director Chris Wray told Jewish leaders. “So to be more specific, between Oct. 7 and Jan. 30 of this year, we opened over three times more anti-Jewish hate crime investigations than in the four months before Oct. 7,” Wray said.
WaPo: Red states threaten librarians with prison — as blue states work to protect them
Nine people, including an Air Canada employee, have been arrested in connection with last year’s heist of more than $14.5 million in gold bars from a warehouse at the Toronto airport.
Just one of the incredible shots of this week’s eruption of Mount Ruang in Indonesia:
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There will be a six-week abortion ban in place when voters head to the polls in Florida in the fall to vote for not just the president and a U.S. senator, but also on whether abortion should be enshrined in the state constitution. That collocation has Republicans nervous and Democrats skeptically optimistic that Florida could be back on the map for the party.
Continue reading “Rick Scott Does Damage Control On His Abortion Anxiety Spiral”Arizona Republicans celebrated Wednesday after swatting down Democrats’ fourth attempt in two weeks to repeal the state’s near-total abortion ban, which the state Supreme Court upheld last week.
Continue reading “Arizona Republicans Gleefully Shoot Down Democrats’ Attempts To Repeal 1864 Abortion Ban”Now that we’re getting a view of the dynamics of Donald Trump on trial — not indicted, not awaiting trial, not the first of this or that, but actually on trial — with the requirement to be there and, well, be on trial, it’s worth revisiting where we may be this fall. As we know, SCOTUS decided to do Donald Trump a massive solid by first refusing to take up Trump’s immunity appeal without it first being heard by the DC circuit court. Then they really piled on the favors by agreeing to take up the case in full after the circuit court emphatically shot it down. SCOTUS oral arguments are next Thursday and realistically we may not get a decision until June or July. That puts the beginning of the trial in late summer at the earliest and quite possibly into September.
Set aside for the moment that the appeal itself is baseless and out of sync with American law, and that few think there’s any chance of Trump actually getting any relief even from this Supreme Court. It’s been treated as a scandal that the Court has taken upon itself to delay the trial anyway from four to six months. It very much is a scandal and not one that can be explained by any sort of apolitical weddedness to procedure or practice. But sometimes getting what you want may not be all it’s cracked up to be.
Continue reading “Candidate in the Dock in the Final Stretch”A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Yesterday’s NYT apologia for Melania Trump was laugh-out-loud funny, by which I mean so, so bad. Reminiscent of its much-mocked coverage of Javanka during Trump I, the piece had all the usual hallmarks of NYT toadyism.
Let’s start with the passive-voice headline: “Melania Trump Avoids the Courtroom, but Is Said to Share Her Husband’s Anger”
“Said to” is one of the great journalistic sophistries. It does so much apparent work with so little actual effort.
What is this awkward headline construction meant to convey? That despite all her heartache over the Stormy Daniels affair, Melania, too, is outraged (OUTRAGED!) over Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s wrongful criminal prosecution of her husband.
How does the NYT know this? So glad you asked!
Melania hasn’t said anything publicly about her supposed outrage. She hasn’t attended legal proceedings with Trump. She hasn’t been by his side at the trial.
But wait! She’s has purportedly spoken “in private” about her feelings.
It’s the classic dipsy-do of the Javanka coverage: Why take any risk of speaking publicly when you can launder it through the NYT. We are never so courageous as we are in our private musings.
But how is the NYT privy to Melania’s private thoughts and comments?
The sourcing: “according to several people familiar with her thinking.” Yes! Bravo! It’s self serving on top of self serving, with two degrees of separation to play it safe.
Why are these “people familiar” granted anonymity? Because they can’t speak publicly “out of fear of jeopardizing a personal relationship with the Trumps.” Perfect! These brave truth-tellers are risking so much – by which I mean, so little – to get their essential truths out into the public sphere.
Here’s the nugget of “reporting” around which the entire article is built:
But Mrs. Trump, the former first lady, shares his view that the trial itself is unfair, according to several people familiar with her thinking.
In private, she has called the proceedings “a disgrace” tantamount to election interference, according to a person with direct knowledge of her comments who could not speak publicly out of fear of jeopardizing a personal relationship with the Trumps.
The rest of the piece is a filament of speculation, pop psychology, knowing winks about cliched relationship tropes, and lazy stereotypes about wives and mothers – all in service of trying to wring a drop of compassion from readers for the private turmoil that comes with being married to DJT.
News coverage of first ladies, former first ladies, and first ladies to-be-again is still caught in a time warp of 1950s domesticity and style section preciousness. The NYT isn’t alone in falling into this coverage trap. But it has taken the form to new lows – and appallingly used it as a coverage template for the most nepotic administration in American history. Yesterday’s Melania piece suggests that despite everything, the NYT is going to haul this worn-out coverage into Trump II.
Well done all around, by which I mean wtf.
What initially seemed like a jury selection process in the hush-money trial that could drag on for as long as weeks shifted quickly into productive mode yesterday afternoon. By the end of the day, seven of the 18 jurors (12 jurors + 6 alternates) had been selected, and the judge was telling them to plan on being back Monday for opening statements.
The trial stands in recess today. That gives the judge Thursday and Friday to complete jury selection. Monday opening statements could still get pushed back if things go slower than expected the rest of this week, but only by a day or so. In short, the trial remains on track despite some early misgivings.
Be sure to read Josh Kovensky’s dispatch from the courthouse yesterday.
The trial judge issued his show cause order, setting a hearing for next Wednesday on whether Trump violated the terms of the gag order against him and should be sanctioned for it, as prosecutors are arguing.
The order itself contains a big, bold-faced warning to Trump at the top:
WARNING: YOUR FAILURE TO APPEAR IN COURT MAY RESULT IN YOUR IMMEDIATE ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT
The judge isn’t messing around.
The Supreme Court took up Tuesday the issue of whether the government properly used a 2002 statute to prosecute hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters and to charge Donald Trump himself. Reaction to the oral argument was decidedly mixed.
One respected observer who I follow closely said, “5 justices seem implacably opposed to DOJ view” while another equally respected reporter said, “The conservatives … didn’t sound reflexively hostile to the government’s position.”
Which is it? TPM’s Kate Riga tries to iron it all out.
Ahead of a court hearing next week, the insurance company that provided Donald Trump with an appeal bond in the multi-hundred million dollar civil fraud case in New York has submitted a new filing explaining and justifying the terms of its undertaking.
Voting tech company Smartmatic has settled its big defamation claim against right-wing One America News over its 2020 Big Lie coverage. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Smartmatic still has defamation claims outstanding against Fox News and other Trump world figures.
In a newly unsealed court filing, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) previewed one possible defense in his upcoming corruption trial: His co-defendant wife withheld information from him or otherwise led him to believe nothing unlawful was afoot.
Watching hard-right members of Congress swat around the last three GOP speakers of the House and now do the same thing to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) yields some pleasurable schadenfreude and offers a smidge of justice. But it is painful to see desperately needed U.S. aid to Ukraine caught up in the clownish internal turmoil of the House GOP.
Johnson’s tentative plan to try to get Ukraine aid through the House as early as this week quickly ran into rough waters yesterday, with another far-right member of his caucus joining with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in threatening to depose him as speaker if he pushes Ukraine aid through.
Johnson vowed to stay on as speaker, but when you’re having to publicly say you won’t resign …
Arizona legislators may take another stab as soon as today at repealing the state’s Civil War-era abortion ban. Repealing the ban will require Democrats getting help from enough Republican legislators, some of whom foiled a similar repeal attempt last week.
If you take Donald Trump’s bizarro remarks over the weekend about the battle of Gettysburg and set them to a Ken Burns-style score with a mashup of vintage slapstick film clips, you arrive at this masterpiece:
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NEW YORK — Donald Trump is pushing the boundaries set for criminal defendants in the first days of his Manhattan hush money trial, at one point earning a rebuke from Judge Juan Merchan for purportedly trying to influence a prospective juror.
Continue reading “First Seven Jurors Selected Over Objections From Uncontained Trump”
