Turns out grinding the government to a halt during a time of global crisis to flex power over your colleagues doesn’t go over super well with the viewers back home.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is experiencing some political repercussions for dumping gasoline on his fractured party’s descent into dysfunction when he ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for the sin of keeping the government open. While the congressman is still popular in his Panhandle home district, his standing in Florida overall is in a state of disrepair.
I recognize that this post is somewhat preaching to the choir. But I wanted to discuss Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Media Matters for America. If you haven’t followed this closely a brief recap: Since purchasing Twitter, Musk has been in a battle both to make the platform a free-fire zone for racists, Nazis and other violent and bad actors and keep advertisers, who don’t want to be associated with those people, on the platform. He has made the matter more coherent by, incrementally over the last year, himself becoming the most prominent of those racists and Nazis. This is not hyperbole. He now routinely promotes and explicitly agrees with the most ghastly and dangerous forms of antisemitism and racism.
The pattern is consistent and clear: 1) Musk either promotes or parrots racist or anti-semitic speech. 2) Activist groups catalogue the prevalence of such speech on the platform and in some cases records advertisements appearing immediately adjacent to those posts and speech. 3) Advertisers get upset and pull their ads. 4) Elon Musk gets upset and sues (or threatens to sue) the activist group. It has the fixed pattern and regularity of cellular respiration, only with money and bad people.
You probably know the basic contours of the story by now. Last Wednesday, Elon Musk endorsed an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory on X/Twitter. The next day the liberal watchdog group Media Matters produced a report that showed ads appearing on X/Twitter next to pro-Nazi content. Major advertisers began to flee the platform. Late in the week, Musk threatened to sue over the report. Yesterday, X/Twitter followed through with a federal lawsuit against Media Matters in the Northern District of Texas.
Musk’s company’s essential claim is that Media Matters manipulated the X/Twitter algorithm to generate objectionable content next to high-value ads. In other words, no one (or a de minimis number of users) really saw such ad placements in the wild. In the lawsuit, X/Twitter calls what Media Matters reported “manufactured, inorganic, and extraordinarily rare.”
What begins to tip this story into something more grave is that last evening Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton – yeah, him – launched his own investigation into Media Matters over its X/Twitter report. The tone and tenor of Paxton’s announcement tells you all you need to know: “We are examining the issue closely to ensure that the public has not been deceived by the schemes of radical left-wing organizations who would like nothing more than to limit freedom by reducing participation in the public square.”
It leaves us with a situation where the world’s richest man is suing to silence critics of his lurch toward antisemitism and extremism and he’s being joined in the effort by partisan allies who actually control government functions. It’s a combination immediately recognizable as a toxic threat to public discourse, a free press, and targeted minorities.
Stay tuned.
Not A Great Sign
The DC Circuit Court of Appeals struggled more than I had expected with the Trump gag order during oral arguments yesterday. TPM’s Kate Riga has our report on the judges trying to find some middle ground between the gag order in its current form and Trump’s maximalist First Amendment argument against it.
Next Step In Colorado Disqualification Clause Case
Both sides – voters and Trump – have appealed the Disqualification Clause ruling in Colorado to the state Supreme Court.
The judiciary is essentially split between judges, like Aileen Cannon, who are thrilled to protect Trump from the rule of law, and more impartial jurists who are scared to apply it to him. The latter behave as though holding Trump to a more lenient set of rules is worth it to avoid some civil strife they’ve conjured in their minds, or the death threats they know will follow any significant adverse rulings.
Investigating The Investigators … Again
A move is afoot among House Republicans to launch an investigation of the House Jan. 6 committee investigators. It’s like a replay of the Barr-Durham investigation of the Mueller probe. As TPM’s Hunter Walker points out, the GOPers involved are the same ones who conspired to thwart Biden’s victory in 2020.
Speaker Mike Johnson Makes Pilgrimage To MAL
Newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson met with Donald Trump last night at Mar-a-Lago while attending a fundraiser there for Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL).
Terrible Development For Voting Rights
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals defied a half century of precedent and actual practice in ruling that private parties cannot enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
2024 Ephemera
The presidential debate schedule for the general election was announced: Sept. 16 at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas; Oct. 1 at Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia; and Oct. 9 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. It’s not a sure thing that Trump will participate. A vice presidential debate will take place on Sept. 25 at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.
In a bid to keep Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) from peeling off GOP votes, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has a new digital ad up in Arizona touting her liberalism while slamming Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).
Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) are the linchpin of Dem hopes to keep the Senate.
A Good Holiday Read
Stipulating that I really don’t like the celebrity profile genre and especially not the ones built around a sit-down interview (your coffee klatch, limo ride, conference room stare-down, or comfy living room chat with your subject is not a metaphor for anything, or a revealing glimpse into their soul, or a mirror of their inner psychology), this WSJ profile of Travis Kelce is about as good as the contrived form can get.
The Portals Of Age
If you want more fiber than Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift can provide, Anne Lamott has another essay on aging up at the WaPo.
There’s Still Time To Prep For Gumbo
I usually spend Black Friday transmogrifying the leftover turkey carcass into the best gumbo of the year. Nothing is quite as good as post-Thanksgiving gumbo. Travel and other obligations are probably going to keep me from doing it this year, so instead I will share with you my old friend Pableaux Johnson’s recipe for turkey and andouille gumbo. I’m offering it up a little bit ahead of time so that you have time to add any missing ingredients to your last-minute shopping list. You really don’t want to have to go shopping for anything yourself come Friday.
A few tips:
Your gumbo is only as good as your sausage. Find the best smoked sausage you can.
A deep-fried turkey carcass tastes nasty in a gumbo. A roasted or smoked turkey carcass is what you need.
The two most time-consuming elements of the preparation are making (i) the stock (including letting the simmered carcass cool enough to debone it) and (ii) the roux. But it’s slow, pleasant, meditative work – the opposite of braving the Black Friday crowds – so enjoy it.
Pick up some crusty french bread to go with it.
Let’s talk about the rice. It’s not make or break the way the sausage is. But why pour the magical elixir of gumbo over poorly prepared rice? If you have a rice cooker, then you’re in business. If you don’t:
3 cups of water
2 cups of long-grain rice.
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Bring the water to a boil in a pot with a tight lid. Add the salt and rice.
Keeping the pot UNCOVERED, bring it back to a boil and let it boil until the water level is even with the surface of the rice.
Now COVER the pot, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 20 minutes.
Turn off the heat and let it sit for five more minutes. Don’t you dare take off the lid until the five minutes is up.
If the recent wins in Ohio and Virginia weren’t enough evidence in addition to data from most elections since Roe‘s overturning that the Dobbs ruling has fired up the cross-party coalition supporting abortion access, there’s more.
Now that they finally have a new House speaker, some congressional Republicans are mounting an effort to question the select committee investigation into the January 6 attack that wrapped up last year. Their push is the perfect fox and the henhouse type scenario. Some of the members most loudly attempting to question the official probe — including the new speaker — played a part in elements of the conspiracy-fueled push to challenge the 2020 presidential election results that was a major focus of the investigation.
The latest calls to investigate the select committee’s work gained momentum on Friday after Johnson announced a plan to release some of the security footage of the attack that involved thousands of supporters of former President Trump storming into the U.S. Capitol building as his loss was being certified on January 6, 2021. Johnson, who became speaker late last month after weeks of contentious votes and intraparty fighting, had campaigned on a promise to air out the footage. In a statement on Friday, Johnson suggested it would “provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials.”
The January 6 attack has been — like Trump’s 2020 loss — the subject of far-right conspiracy theories that suggest the hundreds of people prosecuted for their role in the attack were being politically persecuted. Along with easily disproved suggestions the crowds who brawled with police and broke through barricades that day were peaceful, there have also been thoroughly debunked claims that federal law enforcement was really behind the violence raised in the right-wing media.
Johnson’s office did not respond to a request from TPM asking if he had accepted the results of the 2020 election and whether he had seen any specific evidence that called the January 6 committee into question. His release of the footage and his suggestion there is a story people can “see for themselves” has played into the conspiratorial narratives that the pro-Trump mob everyone watched on live television was something else.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who helped lead the select committee and has been one of the most prominent Republican critics of Trump’s efforts to falsely deny his loss, responded to Johnson’s move with some clips of her own showing the crowds fighting with police officers at the Capitol.
This is not Johnson’s first time dabbling in 2020 denialism and revisionist history. The new speaker, who will play a role in certifying the next presidential election, was among the 147 Republican members of Congress who voted to overturn the last one. In the leadup to the certification, Johnson was also among members of Congress who worked with the Trump campaign to promote baseless conspiracy theories about the results as part of an official effort to dispute the results that precipitated the violence at the Capitol.
In the weeks after the American people voted on Nov. 3, 2020, Johnson participated in legal challenges to the election and promoted debunked conspiracy theories that the results had been manipulated. In a Facebook post on Nov. 7, 2020, the day media outlets determined President Joe Biden had won the race, Johnson revealed he was coordinating with the Trump campaign on efforts to overturn the former president’s loss.
“I arrived back in northern Virginia last night and have been in legal and political strategy meetings for the Trump Campaign all day. Though the media is calling the election for Biden, they shouldn’t,” Johnson wrote. “As I write this, very important legal challenges are pending and being filed today in several states. President Trump is fighting for you, and we are fighting for him.”
After he became speaker, Johnson’s efforts to dispute the election received new scrutiny. On the night he was selected as the speaker nominee, he and his Republican colleagues literally laughed off questions about his role.
Johnson’s push to air out the security footage prompted a new round of conspiracy theories from other Republicans who worked with him to overturn the 2020 election. On Saturday, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) took to the site formerly known as Twitter to share a message from a West Virginia man who pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the Capitol attack. The man suggested the clip showed someone “flashing a badge,” implying it was proof law enforcement was behind the violence. Lee, who did not respond to a request for comment, responded that he wanted to question the FBI director about the clip at an upcoming hearing and predicted the answers would “be 97% information-free.”
The clip Lee promoted has gained traction in far-right Jan. 6 conspiracy circles, but it has also been totally debunked. As the Bulwark noted, the footage shows a man who is not a federal agent holding a vape pen rather than a badge. It’s one of many examples of how the supposed evidence of federal involvement being promoted by the far-right just doesn’t add up.
Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman and Air Force intelligence officer who worked with the January 6 committee, responded to Lee with a post of his own noting his team had reviewed the evidence and found nothing to support the idea the attack was a grand conspiracy involving federal agents.
“We’ve been down this road many times (over two years now). I’ve used validated data —as Senior Tech Advisor to the J6 committee—to help GOP & Dems understand that FBI/Antifa/Deep State conspiracies are hogwash,” Riggleman wrote.
Riggleman, who co-wrote a book on the investigation with this reporter, also pointed to the text messages his team helped obtain from Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
“Maybe it’s time to look at Mike Lee’s texts to Mark Meadows—again,” Riggleman wrote.
Those texts, which have been examined thoroughly here on TPM, showed the Trump White House coordinating with Lee and over 30 other congressional Republicans on efforts to overturn the 2020 election. And one of the many messages Lee exchanged with Meadows also shed light on Johnson’s participation in the push.
On Nov. 7, 2020, as the race was being called for Biden and Johnson was admittedly coordinating with the Trump campaign, messages obtained by the committee show that Lee texted Meadows some strategic ideas for reversing the former president’s loss. Lee also provided Meadows with a petition that was signed by him, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Johnson, and a slew of Republican activists:
“Dear Mr. President, We the undersigned offer our unequivocal support for you to exhaust every legal and constitutional remedy at your disposal to restore Americans’ faith in our elections. This fight is about much more than just this election. This fight is about the fundamental fairness and integrity of our election system. The nation is depending upon your continued resolve. Stay strong and keep fighting Mr. President. Sincerely, Senator Mike Lee Congressman Andy Biggs … Congressman Mike Johnson Brent Bozell, Founder and President, Media Research Center Adam Brandon, President, FreedomWorks Bill Walton, President, Council for National Policy Marjorie Dannenfelser, President, Susan B. Anthony List David McIntosh, President, Club for Growth PAC Matt Schlapp, Chairman, American Conservative Union Jenny Beth Martin, Chairman, Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund David Bozell, President, ForAmerica Tom Fitton, President, Judicial Watch Seymour Fein M.D., MRC Board of Directors.”
Lee, who did not respond to a request for comment on this story, encouraged Meadows to share the petition with Trump — and potentially publicly.
“We’re sending this as a private communication from us to him through you. We are not issuing it as a press release,” Lee wrote, adding, “Use it however you deem appropriate And if it’s helpful to you for you to leak it, feel free to do so.”
Washington , D.C. – February 1 : Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., waits to speak at a news conference about impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, on Tuesday, Feb. 01, 2023, in Washington DC. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA), another Republican member of Congress whose role fighting the 2020 election was revealed by the Meadows Texts, responded to Johnson’s decision to release the security footage by asking him to go even further and to investigate the prior investigation. As she called for creating a new committee to investigate the previous one, Greene — who was billed as a speaker for one of the planned January 6 protests at the Capitol — declared there was no way Trump supporters were responsible for the violence.
“I’ve said it all along, MAGA did not do this,” Greene wrote.
That is indeed a claim Greene has been making “all along.” Text messages exposed by TPM last year show Greene was among several right wing figures baselessly advancing claims left wing anti-fascist activists were actually responsible for the violence. Before the smoke even cleared at the Capitol, the text logs indicate Greene wrote Meadows with a wild, convoluted conspiracy: “We don’t think these attackers are our people. We think they are Antifa. Dressed like Trump supporters.
The following day, as she emphasized her role as one of the members who voted to overturn the election, Greene doubled down.
“Yesterday was a terrible day. We tried everything we could in our objection to the 6 states. I’m sorry nothing worked,” Greene wrote. “I don’t think that President Trump caused the attack on the Capitol. It’s not his fault. Antifa was mixed in the crowed and instigated it, and sadly people followed.”
The text logs indicate her conspiracy was enthusiastically received by the Trump White House.
In case you were feeling too rosy about the state of the world, it’s worth reading this new article by Zvi Bar’el in Haaretz (sub.req.) about “day after” scenarios in Gaza. You can believe, as I do, that Israel is and was justified in and in fact obligated to destroy Hamas’s de facto army in Gaza after the events of October 7th. Here Bar’el goes into some depth about the utter lack of any realistic plan about what comes after that happens, assuming it does happen.
I’ve already noted the malign role of the disgraced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He is of course ideologically opposed to any move toward self-rule or statehood for any of the Palestinian territories. At the moment what is equally important is that he sees leaving the military and “day after” questions unresolved being in his personal and political self-interest.
A divided federal appellate panel took a pipe to the knees of the Voting Rights Act Monday, handing down an eyebrow-raising decision that would severely curtail the effectiveness of the landmark civil rights law.
A federal appeals court Monday struggled with whether and how to lawfully restrict criminal defendant Donald Trump’s pre-trial speech given his history of targeting court personnel and witnesses with vitriol that prompts his followers to threaten and harass those he names.
Over the weekend I had an exchange with TPM Reader AB that I’d like to share with you. AB is a dedicated listener to our podcast (and you should be too!) as well as a reader and he flagged an exchange in which my cohost Kate Riga discussed Donald Trump’s recent “vermin” comments, which mapped quite closely to a lot of Nazi rhetoric from the 1920s and 1930s. The comments would have gotten more attention, she said, had they happened in the heat of the campaign instead of 9 months or a year prior. AB insisted that we need to be vigilant. We need to be sounding Red Alerts. We can’t be complacent thinking the actual election is a year off and everything will change for be better.
To be clear, this was an aside from Kate in part of a longer discussion. And AB himself seemed to recognize this. So I raise this not to disagree with anyone or call anyone out. I note it because it illustrates an impulse and dynamic I think countless Democrats (and others who simply oppose Donald Trump) are finding themselves caught up in. I won’t belabor the foundational point. Trump 1.0 was really bad. Trump 2.0 promises to be much worse. A year out, polls suggest Trump and Biden are tied or with Trump slightly ahead in the popular vote. That makes something really unthinkable seem like a very real possibility.
That’s bad. Really bad. So get to sounding the Red Alerts. Break the glass and pull the alarm. Pick your metaphor. These are all very understandable and logical responses, not so much — in my mind at least — because of the percentage chances of one candidate winning over the other but because of the consequences of a bad outcome.
A ‘faith-based’ leader of Moms for Liberty in Philly turns out to be (subscription required) a registered sex offender. But don’t worry: He says he was framed. It was part of a squabble from when he was part of the LaRouche movement back in Chicago, he claims.
