Today Marjorie Taylor Greene announced on Twitter that at her request Speaker Kevin McCarthy is providing unrestricted access to Jan. 6 surveillance tapes to discredited journalist John Solomon, a Jan. 6 conspiracy theorist named Julie Kelly and another unnamed party.
McCarthy Steers Debt-Ceiling Bill Through House After Months-Long Hostage-Taking. But Not Without Far-Right Threats To Speakership
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s debt ceiling hostage-taking gambit came to a close Wednesday evening after he managed to convince a large chunk of Democrats to join Republicans to pass the legislation to avoid allowing the nation to run out of money and, in so doing, tank the national and perhaps global economy. The bill was the product of a compromise with the White House after McCarthy used Republicans’ leverage as the majority party in the House to hold the debt-ceiling hostage and forced some budget concessions out of Democrats.
While progressive House Dems were vocally opposed to the bill, Democratic leadership said Wednesday they’d get behind the measure in order to avoid default.
After the deal was reached this weekend, it seemed fairly likely the bill would pass the House. But far-right Republicans who mucked up McCarthy’s speakership bid tried to flex their muscles again, this time threatening to block the bill and oust McCarthy, believing the proposed cuts didn’t go far enough.
Catch up on our live coverage below:
Where Things Stand: Save This Clip For Next Time They Pretend They Don’t Wanna Cut Soc Security, Medicare
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is seemingly trying to get a handful of far-right members of the Freedom Caucus to chill out and stop threatening to redo the speakership election. They’re not likely to successfully depose him, but no one is eager for a redo of the January spectacle as a few loud members seek to reassert their authority. And, so, in what is seemingly a half-hearted effort to throw them a bone, McCarthy went on Fox News and promised to create some vague “commission” that’ll review further cuts to next year’s budget.
The speaker then took it a step further. Instead of just promising that “this isn’t the end” and proposing some sort of additional amorphous cuts to quell a hardliner uprising, McCarthy doubled down, raising the possibility that this next step commission could look into gutting Social Security and Medicare. Music, in theory, to the ears of a salivating Freedom Caucus.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Save This Clip For Next Time They Pretend They Don’t Wanna Cut Soc Security, Medicare”Paxton’s Replacement Fought To Overturn 2020 Election—But Not Like Paxton Did
With Ken Paxton awaiting his impeachment trial, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has appointed a onetime Trump attorney to take his place.
Continue reading “Paxton’s Replacement Fought To Overturn 2020 Election—But Not Like Paxton Did”Trump Attacks DeSantis For ‘Blatantly’ Plagiarizing A Speech Line That Trump Actually Took From Reagan
Former President Donald Trump is continuing to attack Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his closest — though still fairly distant — rival in the polls amid an increasingly crowded Republican presidential primary field. On Tuesday evening, Trump’s campaign blasted out a press release that claimed DeSantis had “blatantly” plagiarized the former president’s 2020 State of the Union address. The accusation hinged on a single phrase: the “great American comeback.”
Continue reading “Trump Attacks DeSantis For ‘Blatantly’ Plagiarizing A Speech Line That Trump Actually Took From Reagan”The Secret History of ‘Debt Ceiling,’ the Original Movie
As we analyze and try to make sense of how this debt ceiling drama has worked out, there’s one important difference with the original crisis 12 years ago to keep in mind. Back in 2011, President Obama was very much bought into the idea of deficit reduction and “the grand bargain.” Some of this of course is the distinct matter of inoculating against Republican fiscal politics — nods to fiscal probity, deficit reduction and so forth. To really understand politics it’s critical to distinguish between true agendas and reactive, positioning politics of that sort. But, to a degree, he was actually bought into it.
Continue reading “The Secret History of ‘Debt Ceiling,’ the Original Movie”Right Wingers Are Attacking The FBI To Neutralize It For Future Criming
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
The Big Picture
The ongoing attacks from the far right against federal law enforcement have been so unrelenting and manifested in so many different ways that I’m afraid even astute observers are beginning to lose the forest for the trees. So a quick reality check.
It’s one of the most reliable truisms of the Trump era and its fits neatly into the scholarship on authoritarianism: Any power center outside of Trump and the right wing is a threat that needs to be neutralized. Media. Universities. Corporations. Law enforcement.
You’ve seen the script run over and over. Discredit external power centers, draw them into ridiculous fights over their credibility and legitimacy to turn them into political actors that are no better than Trump, sow distrust and suspicion so that any actions they take are de facto illegitimate.
Trump attacks on the FBI are not new. He corruptly fired FBI Director James Comey way back in 2017, prompting the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel. He savaged deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. We’re many years into this now.
What distinguishes the latest round of wholesale attacks on the FBI is that eliminating it has become a tenet of GOP politics, not just Trump, not just the far-right fringe. These are just a few examples from the past 24 hours:
If Trump Wins, A Purge Is Coming
- Rolling Stone: The former president wants to “immediately” purge the Justice Department’s ranks of the officials and agents who’ve led the criminal probes into his actions.
- Reax:
Heritage Wants To Eliminate The FBI
Comer Is The Tip Of Trump’s Anti-FBI Sword
I haven’t troubled you with the bizarro claim that the FBI is sitting on evidence of a massive bribery scandal involving Joe Biden when he was vice president, but House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) has been touting this nonsense for weeks as evidence of the lefty FBI being in the tank for Biden:
- Politico: House Oversight Chair James Comer is vowing to move forward with holding FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress.
- Philip Bump: How Oversight Committee Republicans are keeping their conspiracy alive
New Angles In Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 Probe
The NYT has a story out this morning on two new angles in the Jan. 6 investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith, but both angles seem to run through the White House Personnel Office, which you’ll recall was being run by the uber-Trump loyalist John McEntee, a 30-something neophyte who was allowed to run amok:
- Within the past two weeks, Smith has issued subpoenas to Trump White House officials about the firing of Christopher Krebs, who was at the time the administrations’s top cybersecurity official.
- Smith is also seeking information about interactions between the White House Personnel Office and the Justice Department around and after the 2020 election.
The firing of Krebs was always deeply corrupt and fit logically into the Trump-led conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election, so I’m glad to see it getting renewed scrutiny.
Another Curious Account From MAL Probe
We have another in the long and sometimes confusing series of stories about what Special Counsel Jack Smith has found in his Mar-a-Lago investigation.
The latest iteration from the WaPo is about investigators’ focus on what happened at Mar-a-Lago after a federal grand jury subpoenaed the resort’s surveillance video:
Authorities have also examined events in mid-July surrounding a different subpoena,which sought footage from security cameras on the property. Around that time, the employee allegedly had a conversation with an IT worker at the site about how the security cameras worked and how long images remained stored in the system, the person familiar with that aspect of the investigation said.
The employee later told investigators that the conversation was innocent and was not about trying to hide anything from authorities, saying that he didn’t know at the time about the investigation or subpoena, according to another person familiar with the probe.
But those answers were met with skepticism, people familiar with the situation said.
Like a few other recent stories, this one is focused on and seems derived from what one lowly Mar-a-Lago employee has told investigators. Given that, I’m not sure how much these stories give us the full picture of the scope and nature of the investigation. Just be cautious.
Debt Limit Disaster Averted
At this point it looks like we’re over the hump on raising the debt limit. Never say never, etc, but there’s no obvious impediment to this getting done.
- The debt ceiling budget deal made it through the House Rules Committee last evening.
- It is expected to pass the House this evening.
- Then it heads to the Senate, where it’s looking like a long weekend of procedural maneuvering to get it passed before the federal government runs out of borrowing authority around June 5.
Some additional reading if you’re a hardcore debt limit junkie:
- Aaron Blake: McCarthy’s secret speaker deal takes a bizarre turn
- NYT: 14th Amendment Questions Linger Despite Debt Limit Deal
McCarthy’s Majority May Shrink Even More
Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) is expected to announce his resignation from Congress as soon as today due to his wife’s undisclosed health issues. It’s a safe GOP seat, but Stewart’s resignation would temporarily shrink the already slim GOP majority in the House until a special election is held in Utah.
Arizona Big Lie Charlatan Sanctioned
In case you missed it, losing GOP nominee for Secretary of State Mark Finchem of Arizona was ordered to pay his winning Democratic opponent $40,000 in legal fees for his baseless challenge of the election results. Finchem’s lawyer was also sanctioned with a $7,434 penalty for his role in the lawsuit.
Rosalynn Carter Has Dementia
Former first lady Rosalynn Carter, an advocate for mental health care for decades, is suffering from dementia, the Carter Center announced. She is still at home with former President Jimmy Carter, who remains in hospice care.
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The Diehards Fold
Yesterday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (F-FL) said that a bright line Kevin McCarthy couldn’t go past without triggering a “motion to vacate” would be having a majority of the GOP caucus vote against his debt ceiling/budget deal with Joe Biden. This gives away the game. They might as well say that they’ll end McCarthy’s speakership the second he announces he’s identifying as non-binary. The couple dozen Freedom Caucus diehards are now setting the bar comically high because it’s suddenly clear the cudgel they’re allegedly holding over McCarthy has been vastly overstated.
Continue reading “The Diehards Fold”Where Things Stand: Some 2024 Hopefuls Latch Onto Freedom Caucus Complaints. Trump Remains Silent.
As my colleague Josh Marshall spelled out earlier, there is one very loud voice that is notably absent from this conversation.
Donald Trump has remained largely silent on the debt ceiling ever since the Biden White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) settled a deal over the weekend to ransom the debt ceiling hostage in exchange for some GOP legislative priorities, most notably work requirements for SNAP recipients.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Some 2024 Hopefuls Latch Onto Freedom Caucus Complaints. Trump Remains Silent.”Rep. Paul Gosar Claims He Has Been ‘Smeared’ As A ‘Nazi’
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) does not want to be described as a “Nazi” or a “white supremacist.”
Continue reading “Rep. Paul Gosar Claims He Has Been ‘Smeared’ As A ‘Nazi’”