Lil Miss Hot Mess, a prominent drag queen, realized about a week ago that she had been pulled into a fight over abortion in Ohio, which is over a thousand miles from her current home. The news came via a message from a friend, who tipped Lil Miss Hot Mess off that she was starring in an ad paid for by the group Protect Women Ohio. The commercial warned an upcoming ballot measure, “State Issue 1,” would allow “out-of-state special interest groups” to “enshrine late-term abortion in our constitution and abolish parental rights so someone can take your child to get an abortion or sex change operation without your consent.” Along with this ominous message, the ad featured footage of Lil Miss Hot Mess participating in a “Drag Story Hour” event alongside images of happy families with prepubescent children.
Continue reading “Multimillion-Dollar ‘Disinformation Campaign’ Seeks To Make Ohio’s Big Abortion Vote About ‘Sex Change’ Operations”Mike Pence’s Vaguely Inspiring Supervised Visit with His Dignity
There’s this strong tendency with some people, that whenever you point to any comment from former Vice President Mike Pence that’s non-terrible, to immediately chime in, “It’s too late!” “He had his chance!” “Pathetic!”
But really all those things are a given and yet it’s still worth noting even his most trivial shifts in the direction of salvaging some frail shadow of dignity. I say this all to preface the observation that Trump’s coup indictment and his own conspicuous role in the indictment narrative and chain of evidence seem finally to have convinced Pence that this is a divide he simply cannot straddle. You’re either on Team Coup or you’re not.
Some quotes from the 48 hours after the indictment was handed down.
Continue reading “Mike Pence’s Vaguely Inspiring Supervised Visit with His Dignity”Tennessee Dems Expelled After Gun Protest Win Back Seats In Special Election
Reps. Justin Pearson of Memphis and Justin Jones of Nashville both comfortably reclaimed their legislative seats in the Tennessee House in a Thursday special election.
Continue reading “Tennessee Dems Expelled After Gun Protest Win Back Seats In Special Election”Don’t Miss The Import Of Jack Smith’s Comments About Jan. 6
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Context Matters
In his brief 2-minute remarks at Main Justice Tuesday, Special Counsel Jack Smith placed the new indictment of former President Trump squarely in the context of the hundreds of other federal prosecutions related to the Jan. 6 attack.
Here’s the key line from Smith:
Since the attack on our Capitol, the Department of Justice has remained committed to ensuring accountability for those criminally responsible for what happened that day. This case is brought consistent with that commitment.
In tying this case directly to the Capitol attack and the other prosecutions – even though the charges against Trump don’t yet include seditious conspiracy or anything akin to incitement to riot – Smith has made this prosecution the ultimate prize as DOJ worked its way up the ladder from random rioters to Oath Keepers and Proud Boys to the White House itself.
For the federal judges in DC who have handled dozens of Jan. 6 cases each, the context is clear. Trump is the big fish. And his conduct will be judged with that broader context firmly in mind. So too will sentencing occur in the context of the hefty prison terms handed down for the worst of the rioters and the right-wing extremist groups who formed an initial vanguard for the attack.
Remember Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes has the longest prison sentence to date: 18 years. No federal judge in DC could sentence Trump without having that context firmly in their minds.
The Third Trump Arraignment
- WaPo: Packed courtroom, somber defendant. A recap of Donald Trump’s arraignment
- NYT: Four takeaways from Trump’s court appearance.
- Bloomberg: Trump’s ‘Very Sad Day for America’ Went About as Expected
- Politico: Donald Trump, Jack Smith and a historic glance
Notable
Jarring Moment
CNN reported that rival campaigns were complaining that Trump sucks up all the oxygen – while CNN was using O.J.-style coverage of Trump motorcading from the airport to the DC federal courthouse live with a reporter and cameraperson embedded.
When A Trial?
- Politico: “Depending on whom you ask, Donald Trump’s trial on charges that he sought to subvert the 2020 election could happen in 70 days. Or in three years.”
- TPM’s Josh Marshall: “[I]t’s clear that pushing the trial out past the election is an almost existential goal for Trump and his lawyers.”
Who Is Co-Conspirator 6?
The identity of the sixth unindicted co-conspirator remains unconfirmed, but a couple of clues as to who it is NOT.
And So It Goes …
WaPo: Jeffrey Clark is GOP star after trying to use DOJ to overturn election
Still Can’t Get Enough?
Here’s some more reading on the latest Trump indictment:
- Just Security: The principal author of the Jan. 6 committee report compares it to the Trump indictment
- Empty Wheel: The Elements Of Offense In The Trump Jan. 6 Indictment
Kagan: SCOTUS Struggling To Agree On Ethics Code
A couple of key quotes from a public appearance by Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference in Portland, Oregon:
- Via WaPo:
“It’s not a secret for me to say, we’ve been discussing this issue, and it won’t be a surprise to know that the nine of us have a variety of views about this — and about most things,” Kagan said, drawing laughter from hundreds of lawyers and judges attending a judicial conference. “We’re nine freethinking individuals.”
- Via Politico:
“It just can’t be that the court is the only institution that somehow is not subject to checks and balances from anybody else. We’re not imperial. … Can Congress do various things to regulate the Supreme Court? I think the answer is: yes.”
Tennessee Three Members Re-Elected
Expelled Tennessee Democratic state Reps. Justin Pearson and Justin Jones were overwhelmingly re-elected to the House in special elections.
Justice Done
Six white former Mississippi sheriff’s deputies pleaded guilty to federal civil rights violations for torturing two Black men in January.
Stand Strong
The College Board would not bend to Florida’s demand to change sections of the AP race, gender, and sexual orientation – and then recommended that Florida schools no longer offer the class.
What A Fiasco
Texas A&M has reached a $1 million settlement with Kathleen McElroy, the Black journalism professor from the University of Texas whom it tried to hire then jerked around under pressure from regents and out of fear of a backlash from conservative lawmakers.
Noted In Passing
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has granted power of attorney for legal matters to her daughter.
Remembering An Alt-Weekly Legend
Phoenix New Times co-founder Jim Larkin, a feisty, relentless, fearless publisher in his heyday, has died of suicide just a week before his re-trial on federal criminal charges related to his prior ownership of Backpage. A previous prosecution ended in a mistrial.
Uh-Oh …
WaPo: The world just got its first real taste of what life is like at 1.5 degrees Celsius
Small Silver Linings
The destruction of Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam and the resultant draining of the reservoir behind it has exposed a wealth of artifacts for archaeologists.
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Bluster, Menace and Trial Calendars
I deliberately avoided getting pulled into today’s play-by-play and drama. I kept up on it by dropping in on our team’s live blog. But with the day over, every account and image I’ve seen of today’s events reads like a man, yes, overcome by rage but even more overcome by fear. His Truth Social platform has a bit of an air of The Wizard of Oz, bellowing and menace. But out from behind the curtain he’s a much smaller figure.
The simple fact is that if Donald Trump isn’t elected in November 2024, there’s a good chance he’ll spend a good part or most of the rest of his life in prison. That would terrify anyone. Especially someone who experiences powerlessness, being dominated as a kind of death.
Continue reading “Bluster, Menace and Trial Calendars”Where Things Stand: Arizona Republicans Realize That Hand Counting Ballots Is Actually Really Annoying
An Arizona county run by Republicans recently voted against moving forward with plans to try to get rid of electronic ballot-counting machines and to conduct the tabulation of the 2024 election by hand. While initially propelled in part by conspiracy theories about voting machines, the all-Republican county board of supervisors determined that ultimately moving to a hand count would be too expensive and the methodology too unreliable.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Arizona Republicans Realize That Hand Counting Ballots Is Actually Really Annoying”Senate Dems Ask Roberts To ‘Ensure’ Alito Recuse From Key Tax Case
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked Chief Justice John Roberts to “take appropriate steps” so that Justice Samuel Alito would recuse himself from a tax case that the Court agreed to hear next term, as well as any cases involving laws that regulate the High Court.
Continue reading “Senate Dems Ask Roberts To ‘Ensure’ Alito Recuse From Key Tax Case”Trump Enters Not Guilty Plea In Election Theft Case
Two and a half years after Trump left office as the only President in U.S. history to refuse to accept the results of an election that unseated him, he’s getting the first measure of criminal accountability.
Continue reading “Trump Enters Not Guilty Plea In Election Theft Case”Listen To This: Trump’s 2024 Courtroom Tour
A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate look at the sheer number of criminal and civil cases that will dominate Donald Trump’s 2024 calendar, while he’s also running for President on the side.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
Plus a bonus pod! What’s the Deal with the Jan 6 Indictment?
Josh and TPM’s Josh Kovensky go through the big questions surrounding Jack Smith’s 4 count indictment of Donald Trump over the post-2020 election coup plot.
DeSantis Returns to Serial Killer Chic
A desperate DeSantis showed up in New Hampshire for a three day trip. On federal employees, he told attendees at a campaign barbecue in Rye: “We are going to start slitting throats on Day One.”