President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris officially kicked off their re-election campaign on Tuesday with a three minute video in which Biden promised to “finish the job” and take on “MAGA extremists.” Biden also announced his leadership team, including Julie Chávez Rodríguez, who will serve as his campaign manager. Multiple sources talked to TPM about Rodríguez and her experience in the White House that prepared her to take on the role.
Continue reading “Joe Biden Taps A ‘Get-Sh*t-Done’ Staffer To Lead His Re-Election Campaign”College Board Will Revise African American Studies Course That Was Diluted After GOP Pushback
The College Board announced that it will revise its Advanced Placement African American Studies course after activists and scholars accused the organization of kowtowing to pressure from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
Continue reading “College Board Will Revise African American Studies Course That Was Diluted After GOP Pushback”Senate Dem Asks GOP Mega Donor For Details About Gifts To Clarence Thomas
A top Senate Democrat has requested that Harlan Crow, a Texas billionaire who’s donated millions to conservative causes, provide details about the luxury gifts he gave Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas over their decades-long friendship.
Continue reading “Senate Dem Asks GOP Mega Donor For Details About Gifts To Clarence Thomas”Don’t Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Why Was Tucker Canned Now?
I’m sorry to disappoint, but there was no overnight reporting that fully explained the mystery of Tucker Carlson’s firing by Fox News. Everything from some yet-to-be revealed bombshell to the mercurial whims of Rupert Murdoch remains in play as the “real reason” for Tucker’s demise. But so far at least the reporting doesn’t generally point in the same direction, isn’t particularly definitive, and doesn’t establish with any conviction a solid answer to “Why now?”
A sampling of some of the more reliable observers:
- NPR media reporter David Folkenflik:
Murdoch empire expert Gabriel Sherman:
Tucker Carlson Miscellany
- Fox said a rotating series of hosts would replace Tucker until a permanent host is selected. Brian Kilmeade was the first to take over Tucker’s chair Monday night:
- Donald Trump and MAGA World were reportedly “stunned” by the news.
- Carlson, who made $20 million a year, will be paid the remainder due on his current contract.
- Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott seem to want credit for the decision to fire Carlson.
Biden Launches Re-Election Campaign
The three-minute announcement video unveiled today at 6 a.m. ET begins with a short montage of the Jan. 6 attack then has Biden himself narrating. The first half of the video is about what he’s running against. He squarely tees up “MAGA extremists” as the foe but deftly makes their threat not just about “bedrock freedoms” of democracy like the right to vote but also about Social Security cuts, abortion restrictions, and tax cuts for the wealthy.
The battle for the soul of America continues, he intones before the video shifts to an upbeat, bouncy message about what he’s running for. In short, it’s to “finish the job,” but with the buoyancy and optimism that marked his 2020 campaign, contrasting his lightness and hope with the darkness and fear of Trump, who is never mentioned by name and appears only once in a fleeting image that is more focused on Ron Desantis and tying him to Trump.
2024 Ephemera
- This is why “DeSantis bobblehead” was a thing yesterday:
- Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, endorsed Trump for president.
- UGH: Politico games out a Tucker Carlson presidential run.
Trump Rape Trial Starts Today
Jury selection begins in the trial of E. Jean Carroll’s rape claim against Donald Trump.
Fani Willis Will Decide On Trump Charges This Summer
The Atlanta DA told law enforcement to expect a charging decision in her investigation of the 2020 election subversion effort sometime between July 11 and Sept. 1.
A Bit More To Gnaw On
TPM: Trump Was At A Meeting Where Loyalists Discussed Plans To Break Into Voting Machines
Do Tell
A Michigan grand jury has been quietly investigating voting machine tampering after the 2020 election by Trump supporters.
Proud Boys Closing Args Underway
Closing arguments began Monday and will continue today in the month’s old seditious conspiracy trial of the Proud Boys taking place in DC.
Clarence Thomas Has A Harlan Crow Problem
Despite the denials, it turns out billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow did have business before the Supreme Court. Clarence Thomas did not recuse himself in the case.
I would hasten to add that we shouldn’t define “business” too narrowly. In his role as a board member for two major conservative think tanks –the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution – Crow had loads of business before the high court at the same time that he was generously giving Thomas undisclosed travel and accommodations.
Gorsuch Has A Disclosure Fail, Too
Nine days after his Senate confirmation, Justice Neil Gorsuch sold a Colorado property he co-owned but failed to list the buyer on his financial disclosure form: Greenberg Traurig CEO Brian Duffy.
College Board Backtracks On AP African-American Studies
NYT: “The College Board said on Monday that it would revise its Advanced Placement African American studies course, less than three months after releasing it to a barrage of criticism from scholars, who accused the board of omitting key concepts and bending to political pressure from Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had said he would not approve the curriculum for use in Florida.”
Abortion Alert
North Dakota enacts a new, near-total ban on abortion.
He Called It
The late Simon Maloy didn’t live to see the day Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News, but he teed it up perfectly back in 2016:
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Maybe Tucker Was a Blood Sacrifice?
I made the point clearly below that there’s going to be one big reason why Tucker Carlson got canned, not a bunch of little reasons that tipped the scales against him. It’s going to be one big, big thing that renders the secondary good and bad things basically irrelevant. Except there’s maybe one other possibility. Let me caveat this by asking you to think of this as somewhere between an edge case possibility and an explanation from an alternate universe.
Got it? Great. Let’s dig in.
Continue reading “Maybe Tucker Was a Blood Sacrifice?”All These Carlson Canning Explanations Look Like BS
We’re now a few hours out from the first reports that Fox News had canned its top rated host Tucker Carlson. As best I can tell there’s still no clear explanation of why this happened. There are reports he’d been too critical of Fox management. There are reports pre-pretrial discovery unearthed revelations that could be damaging to Fox News in other lawsuits. Yet another report says it was Carlson’s peddling anti-semitism or perhaps the hostile harassment-saturated environment he created at his show, according to the suit by producer Abby Grossberg. Many of these reasons are reported as ‘contributing’ to the decision to oust Carlson. And there seem to have been a lot of them. Indeed, there appear to be so many ‘contributing’ factors – of various different sorts – it’s a wonder Carlson lasted as long as he did.
Continue reading “All These Carlson Canning Explanations Look Like BS”Judge Says He’s Leaning Towards Abortion Drug Maker As West Virginia Tries To Toss Lawsuit
A federal judge said during a Monday hearing that he’s leaning towards ruling in favor of a company that makes generic mifepristone in its quest to prove it has standing to sue over West Virginia’s abortion ban.
Continue reading “Judge Says He’s Leaning Towards Abortion Drug Maker As West Virginia Tries To Toss Lawsuit “Trump Was At A Meeting Where Loyalists Discussed Plans To Break Into Voting Machines
You’ll remember that, in the waning days of the Trump presidency, a crew of conspiracy-theorizing loyalists pushed the president to use the federal government to seize voting machines and investigate his bogus claims of fraud.
Continue reading “Trump Was At A Meeting Where Loyalists Discussed Plans To Break Into Voting Machines”Tucker Carlson Out At Fox News
We don’t have many details yet beyond a clipt press release from Fox and the note that the departure is effective immediately. There were a number of fall-out scenarios I envisioned after Fox’s settlement with Dominion. But this wasn’t in any of them.
There’s a key reason why.
Continue reading “Tucker Carlson Out At Fox News”Tucker Carlson Is Out At Fox News
Tucker Carlson and Fox News have “parted ways,” the network announced on Monday morning.
Continue reading “Tucker Carlson Is Out At Fox News”