Kate and TPM’s Nicole Lafond are joined by Professor Karen Lee Ashcraft to discuss a masculinity “in crisis,” its intrinsic connection to right-wing politics and how the Josh Hawleys and J.D. Vances of the world are hijacking it for their own ends.
Belaboring The Point is now on YouTube! Check out the latest video episode of the podcast here.
Continue reading “Listen To This: Manly Grievance And The Far Right”The case of the Zieglers, the Florida GOP traditional values power couple, caught up in a case of three-ways and alleged rape took several turns for the weird and the worse over the weekend. (David provided an update in this morning’s Morning Memo.) The story has a complicated, uncanny dynamic because, on the one hand, it’s that old as the hills story of a family values Republican caught up in sexual practices which, if harmless themselves for consenting adults, don’t at all square with their public personas or policy agenda. On the other, buried in that schadenfreude-y story of Republicans with their pants down is a very credible accusation of rape.
Let’s try to give each part of the story its due.
Continue reading “What A Tangled Web – Florida Republicans Gone Wild”After losing his job as a congressman, George Santos is apparently trying to cash in on his infamy by selling videos on the online service Cameo.
Within the past few days, Santos added a link to the site where a motley assortment of largely lower grade celebrities and influencers sell text messages and personalized videos, to his Twitter page. Santos’ Cameo account bills him as a “Former congressional ‘Icon’!💅🏼” and “the Expelled member of Congress from New York City.” He’s selling “personal” videos for $150 and text messages for $10. Santos did not immediately respond to requests for comment about his new venture.
Santos’ brief political career erupted into scandal shortly after he won a House seat last November when a local newspaper and the New York Times revealed he had lied about several aspects of his professional and personal history. As the spotlight fell on Santos, multiple reports — including several exclusives from TPM — uncovered irregularities in his campaign finances and allegations he ripped off donors’ credit cards. Santos subsequently faced criminal charges and a House Ethics Committee investigation that precipitated his expulsion. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him and dismissed the Ethics probe as a “slanderous report.”
The various investigations into Santos have painted a picture of him living a high roller lifestyle while operating on financial fumes and allegedly making up the difference by misappropriating campaign funds. Becoming just the sixth person expelled from Congress left Santos without a salary and, if the Cameo is any indication, needing to turn to new inventive sources of income.
Santos is not the first MAGA Republican to join Cameo while facing legal trouble and associated financial issues. Two of President Trump’s top advisers who have been caught up in investigations related to Jan. 6, Roger Stone and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, have both operated accounts on the site. Their presence has led to some content that, depending on your viewpoint, is either embarrassing or amazing.
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
A lot happened on Friday, and I unpack most of it below. But unquestionably the two most significant events were separate court rulings on the limits of presidential immunity.
The first decision came from the DC Court of Appeals and ruled that a civil lawsuit by members of Congress and law enforcement against Donald Trump for the Jan. 6 attack can proceed despite Trump’s claims of civil immunity. This was the less consequential decision of the day because while a blow to Trump it largely punted for now the question of whether Trump’s conduct as a losing candidate and around the Jan. 6 attack was within the scope of his duties as president. That’s a factual question that will need to be developed at the trial court level, and we are likely to see this issue back before the appeals court before all is said and done.
Later in the day, in a more significant decision, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected Trump’s ahistorical argument that the president enjoys absolute immunity from criminal prosecution. This is Trump’s boldest, most sweeping legal defense and threatens to undermine any prosecution of him from his time in office. It’s also absurd, and Chutkan was unmoved by Trump’s arguments.
Importantly, the immunity argument is part and parcel of Trump’s delay strategy to push his prosecutions until after the 2024 election, gambling that he will win and then can use the powers of the office to make his personal criminal liability go away. The immunity ruling is appealable now and will likely end up at the Supreme Court, all of which takes time. This doesn’t, as Joyce Vance notes, fall into the category of preposterous Trump delays. “Appeals mean delay—not the sort of strategic, excessive delay that is Trump’s hallmark in court proceedings, but delay as a necessary incident to the process.” Still, time is short.
So satisfying to read these lines from Judge Chutkan’s ruling against absolute immunity from criminal liability for American presidents:
Whatever immunities a sitting President may enjoy, the United States has only one Chief Executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong “get-out-of-jail-free” pass.
“If one man can be allowed to determine for himself what is law, every man can. That means first chaos, then tyranny.”
(quoting Justice Felix Frankfurter)
Every President will face difficult decisions; whether to intentionally commit a federal crime should not be one of them.
By definition, the President’s duty to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed’ does not grant special latitude to violate them.
Defendant’s four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens.
Former Presidents enjoy no special conditions on their federal criminal liability. Defendant may be subject to federal investigation, indictment, prosecution, conviction, and punishment for any criminal acts undertaken while in office.
A former President’s exposure to federal criminal liability is essential to fulfilling our constitutional promise of equal justice under the law.
The trial judge overseeing Atlanta DA Fani Willis’ RICO prosecution of Trump et al. expressed skepticism from the bench Friday that the August 2024 trial date she is seeking is realistic.
Trump’s pardons remain among the most corrupt acts of his presidency, so I happily wallow in any coverage that seeks to unpack what happened and why. Two gems over the weekend:
The DC federal judge overseeing the defamation case against Rudy Giuliani by Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss has rejected his attempt to avoid the jury trial set to begin next week.
Giuliani had argued inexplicably that because a default judgment on liability was entered against him (as a sanction for not complying with his pre-trial discovery obligations), a jury trial on damages was somehow inappropriate.
Sorry, no dice, the judge breezily ruled. Trial is set for Dec. 11.
Even as we contend with the slow-moving legal accountability for Donald Trump’s past misdeeds, he continues to engage in the same conduct that led to his indictment for subverting the 2020 election and is now directing it toward the 2024 election.
Trump claims that when he goes to trial in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, "we want to redo the election." pic.twitter.com/ybZQZc9yei
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 2, 2023
Not even this House GOP, with its band of crazies and super-thin majority, could stomach any more of George Santos. That fellow members of the GOP conference were alleged victims of Santos, too, didn’t help.
The tale of the Florida GOP chairman and his Moms For Liberty wife who had a threesome with a woman who accused him of subsequently raping her – with me so far? – got a bit more sordid with the release of investigators’ search warrant affidavit:
Christian Ziegler has denied wrongdoing.
The 5th Circuit ruled against Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and in favor of the Biden administration, ordering Texas to remove the border buoys in the Rio Grande. The buoys were but a part of Abbott’s long-running performance pretending that Texas is still a republic and in control of the border with Mexico.
September: Unapologetic ex-ambassador avoids prison in illicit lobbying case
December: Former US ambassador arrested in Florida, accused of serving as an agent of Cuba
The first woman on the Supreme Court lived long enough to see four women sitting on the high court simultaneously.
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As you’ve no doubt seen, the series of ceasefires and prisoners-for-hostages exchanges have come to an end and hostilities between the Israeli military and Hamas has resumed. Through several channels Hamas officials have now said that they won’t release any more hostages until the war is over. Though the details are murky it appears that only a small number of female civilians and children remain in captivity. Israel puts the number at 17. Those that remain are male civilians and soldiers.
Continue reading “Why Did the Hostage Releases End?”This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
Having negotiated “record contracts” with the Big Three – and seen the bulk of its rank-and-file members approve them – the United Auto Workers says its work isn’t done.
Continue reading “Next On The Docket: UAW Works To Persuade Rest Of US Auto Industry Workers To Join The Union”The judge overseeing Trump’s RICO prosecution in Georgia indicated during a marathon Friday hearing that he was unsure if the case could go to trial by August 2024, the time that state prosecutors have proposed. The judge did not seem to think the case could go to trial before August and expressed some concern about it happening on Election Day, suggesting it might get pushed to 2025 or beyond.
Continue reading “Judge In Georgia RICO Case Skeptical About A 2024 Trial Date”As members of the House of Representatives debated the expulsion of Rep. George Santos (R-NY) on Thursday, Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) stood and leveled a blockbuster allegation.
“I myself have been a victim of George Santos,” Miller declared, before turning to face Santos and adding, “You sir, are a crook.”
Miller elaborated on his claim in an email to colleagues shortly before the expulsion vote on Friday. TPM obtained a copy of the email, which was previously reported by Punchbowl. In it, Miller explained the “personal impact” Santos had on him.
“Earlier this year, I learned that the Santos campaign had charged my personal credit card — and the card of my Mother — for contribution amounts that exceeded FEC limits. Neither my Mother nor I approved these charges or were aware of them,” Miller wrote.
Miller went on to claim he had “seen a list of roughly 400 other people to whom the Santos campaign allegedly did this.”
TPM published the first report in January on indications the Santos campaign improperly charged donors’ credit cards. In October, Santos was indicted by federal prosecutors on charges of credit card fraud and identity theft for an alleged “scheme” to bilk donors. Miller’s email is the first indication of the full scope of the alleged fraud.
In the wake of a damning Ethics Committee report detailing alleged misuse of campaign funds by Santos, the House voted to expel Santos on Friday, making him the first person in history to be removed from Congress without being convicted of a crime or being part of the Confederacy. According to Rep. David Joyce (R-OH), Miller’s email was the final straw that convinced some House members who had been concerned about the precedent of expelling a colleague without a criminal conviction to vote for Santos’ ouster.
When Miller first alluded to his accusation on Thursday, Santos angrily demanded that the comment be “stricken from the record.” His request was rejected as “not timely.” Santos, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story, blasted the remarks as “hypocrisy” in light of the fact that Miller has faced domestic violence allegations.
“We all have pasts,” Santos said.
Yesterday The New York Times published a major article about Hamas’ October 7th massacres in southern Israel. If you haven’t had a chance to read it, I’m going to provide a brief summary and then share a few thoughts on how to contextualize the news.
The gist is that Israel had a lot of intelligence about Hamas’ plans to mount an attack something like the one that occurred on October 7th. And in the last year, Israeli intelligence got ahold of plans for an attack pretty much exactly like the one that unfolded on October 7th. (The Israelis gave the plan, some forty pages in length, the code name “Jericho Wall.”) But mid-level and, in some cases, high-level intelligence and military leaders dismissed the intelligence, considering it either aspirational, something Hamas lacked the resources to accomplish or something that conflicted with its current strategy of seeking “quiet” to focus on effective governance within Gaza.
Continue reading “About that Big Israeli Intel Story in the Times”An appellate court unanimously found on Friday that Donald Trump can face civil lawsuits over claims that he incited violence on Jan. 6, allowing cases to go forward while permitting Trump to re-raise immunity defenses down the line.
Continue reading “Trump Can Be Sued Over Jan. 6 For Now, Appeals Court Says”
