DeSantis Reveals He Can Be Bullied 

Posted on by Nicole LaFond

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.

Ammo For Trump

For big picture purposes, let me just make this clear off the bat: Ron DeSantis’ position on U.S. support for Ukraine is still unclear. But that is largely beside the point. 

Over the course of the last week and a half, the Florida governor has been roundly criticized by fellow Republicans for an answer he gave in a Tucker Carlson questionnaire about his stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the U.S.’s support for Ukraine’s military. His response at the time was more telling about his 2024 campaign strategy than his actual beliefs about the war. In remarks to Carlson, DeSantis characterized Russia’s year-long deadly invasion of Ukraine as a “territorial dispute” and argued that supporting Ukraine’s defense was not necessarily in the U.S.’s best interest. Here’s the full quote:

“While the U.S. has many vital national interests—securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural and military power of the Chinese Communist Party—becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them.”

The remark confused some Republicans and supporters who have been following DeSantis’ positioning for longer than the past year. Back when DeSantis was a congressman from Florida, he was incensed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and frequently attacked the Obama administration, claiming it wasn’t doing enough to punish Russia for the occupation. 

But the rationale for the about-face earlier this month is fairly obvious. Carlson often uses his show to promote pro-Putin propaganda — a year ago a leaked memo revealed the Kremlin had been advising Russian state media to broadcast Carlson segments as often as possible — and has been highly critical of the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine. 

So on one hand, DeSantis knew his audience and was likely hoping to appeal to Carlson’s viewership, which has been bathed in the Fox News host’s anti-Ukraine sentiment for over a year. But he’s also trying to make inroads with Trump supporters before he officially challenges the former president for the Republican nomination. When Carlson’s team asked Trump if “opposing Russia in Ukraine” was “a vital American national strategist interest,” Trump held to his isolationist stance: “No, but it is for Europe.”

Other far-right MAGA Republicans like Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO), J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Freedom Caucus members in the House have become increasingly critical of the U.S.’s military support for Ukraine, with some calling for it to end. 

But Republican foreign policy hawks were quick to pounce on DeSantis for his position on Ukraine, and publicly lambasted the Florida Republican for it — John Cornyn said he was “disturbed” by DeSantis’ remarks, Marco Rubio suggested the governor wasn’t experienced enough in foreign policy to have an opinion, etc. 

And it appears it’s all getting to DeSantis. During his interview with Piers Morgan this week, which will air in its entirety tomorrow, DeSantis cleaned up his remarks. He called Putin a “war criminal” who should be “held accountable” and admitted he could have been clearer about the whole “territorial dispute” thing.

The bigger point is that DeSantis, in caving to criticism, proved that he’s capable of being shamed — a massive vulnerability and character flaw in today’s MAGA Republican Party that Trump will surely feast upon.  

Related

During a Senate hearing Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reacted to news of the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Putin, saying European countries should detain Putin and turn him over to the ICC should he visit. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked the Biden administration official if he would “encourage our European allies to turn him over.”

“Anyone who is a party to the court and has obligations should fulfill their obligations,” Blinken said. 

Corcoran Testimony

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling compelling a Trump attorney to sit for grand jury testimony and hand over documents to special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation. The lawyer, Evan Corcoran, is likely to testify Friday.

Indictment Watch

Business Insider was the first to report the news that the panel of jurors weighing an indictment of Trump over the hush payments did not meet Wednesday. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg did reportedly tell the grand jury to still stand by for Thursday and reports indicate the panel will meet today.

The panel last met on Monday when it heard testimony from Robert Costello, Michael Cohen’s former lawyer whom Trump’s team brought in to poke holes in Cohen’s credibility and testimony. Cohen, who already served time for charges related to the hush money payments, has been a key prosecution witness. It is not unusual for a grand jury to shift its schedule to accommodate witness testimony. 

The Amount Of People Who Have Sent Me This 

Someone used AI to create fake images of Trump getting arrested and they went viral.

UPDATE: A Journalist Believes He Was Banned From Midjourney After His AI Images Of Donald Trump Getting Arrested Went Viral

Grain Of Salt But …

There are reports that indicate otherwise, but Trump does Live For The Drama:

Thank You Hunter

Send some strength and good vibes to my colleague Hunter Walker who slogged through seven years of the swampy, racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic grime that is North Carolina Lieutenant Gov. Mark Robinson’s (R) Facebook footprint for your outrage and reading pleasure. Bonus: 

A must read.

Don’t Say Guilty

The now-former Republican state lawmaker who wrote the “Don’t Say Gay” bill that gave DeSantis all the ammo he needed to declare his war on wokeness in Florida and start a ghost 2024 campaign, pleaded guilty to COVID-19 relief-related fraud charges this week. Ex-state Rep. Joseph Harding faces up to 35 years in prison for the federal felony charges. 

RELATED: DeSantis to expand ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law to high schools

For Everyone Having ‘The Last Of Us’ Withdrawals 

New alert from the CDC:

Trump Lawyer Personally In Comms With House Republicans

Mere hours after Trump raised baseless conspiracy theories on Truth Social arguing that the Biden DOJ was doing shady coordination with the Manhattan DA’s office, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was On The Case. He and other House Republicans sent a letter to Bragg’s office on Monday demanding Bragg answer to the conspiracy theory. The letter was so over-the-top misleading that Bragg, who rarely speaks publicly, responded to the letter with a statement saying his office wasn’t “intimidated” by the House GOP’s various attempts to run interference for Trump. 

Well, it appears Jordan may have had a bit of a heads up on how to respond to reports of the indictment. Per the New York Times:

Mr. Trump’s lawyers have quietly pushed the Republican-led House to intervene. Last month, a Trump lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, wrote to Mr. Jordan calling on Congress to investigate the “egregious abuse of power” by what he called a “rogue local district attorney,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The New York Times.

Democrats aren’t happy. This from WaPo’s Greg Sargent:

Though that doesn’t prove collaboration, congressional aides tell me Democrats will seize on any hearings to publicly grill Republicans on whether they have been communicating with Trump’s legal team and if so, how.

You’ve Learned Nothing Jon Snow

A former Trump White House aide Sarah Matthews — who served as deputy press secretary for a time — laid into Trump for his latest incitement of violence on Truth Social. 

“I think it goes to show he’s learned nothing in the aftermath of Jan. 6,” Matthews said on CNN. “The rhetoric he was using was similar to the rhetoric he used around Jan. 6. I think in his Truth Social post he said that they needed to protest to ‘take back our nation.’”

“I do think at the same time we’re probably not going to see the same response from his supporters that we saw regarding Jan. 6,” she added. “I don’t think it’s going to be the same level.”

Christian Nationalism

Jennifer Rubin’s compelling take on why white Christian nationalists are in such a panic:

The reality is that the convergence of the declining population of White Christians with the rise of Trump has been bad for both evangelicalism and American politics. Trump came along, telling the shrinking band of white Christian nationalists that they are victims. He reveled in nostalgia for a time when they dominated (demographically and politically) and blamed immigrants, elites and “wokeness” for their ills. They were the group most susceptible to a message that reinforces their feeling they have “lost” something or something has been “taken away.

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Michigan Is Poised To Repeal Right-To-Work, Getting Back To Its Union Roots. Will Other States Follow?

Posted on by Kate Riga

All that’s left is to dot the i’s and cross the t’s, and Michigan, powered by its shiny new Democratic trifecta, will repeal its right-to-work law. 

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Trump’s to Lose

Posted on by Josh Marshall

This is just out tonight from the insider sheet Puck …

With the Manhattan district attorney threatening to put Trump on trial, and DeSantis declining to stand in his way, G.O.P. operatives are coalescing around the notion that it’s now the ex-president’s race to lose.

I think this is right and I think it’s been clear for a while. This doesn’t mean Trump will definitely be the nominee. We can’t know that. But people are starting to see what, again, should have been clear for a while. With Trump’s remaining support — which is diminished but still robust — and the likelihood of multiple indictments, there’s just not room for a challenger to confront and unseat him.

A Conversation With Michael Kofman About the Ukraine War

Posted on by Josh Marshall

Last week we sat down with Michael Kofman, the head of the Russia Studies Program at the Center for Naval Analyses, to discuss the Ukraine War. The CNA is an independent but government-funded think tank which is tasked with generating scholarship and analysis to serve the Department of the Navy (the Navy and the Marine Corps) and the larger U.S. national security community. You may not have heard his name before but Kofman is one of the country’s most knowledgable people on the ins and outs of the Russian military, its strengths, doctrines, culture and challenges. Among the many subjects we discussed was why a direct military assault may not be the best or most feasible way for Ukraine to reclaim Crimea, if that’s in the cards at all; and the downsides of having so many different countries donating so many different weapons systems for the Ukrainian war effort. If you’re a member, join me for our TPM Inside Briefing with Michael Kofman after the jump.

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Florida Republican Behind ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Pleads Guilty To COVID Relief Fraud

Posted on by Kaila Philo

Joseph Harding, the now-former Florida Republican lawmaker who authored the state’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill, has pleaded guilty to federal felony charges relating to COVID-relief funds. 

Continue reading “Florida Republican Behind ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Pleads Guilty To COVID Relief Fraud” →

DC Circuit Issues Lightning-Fast Order Requiring Trump Lawyer To Turn Over Docs To Special Counsel

Posted on by Josh Kovensky

A federal appeals court took less than a day to bat away an attempt from President Trump to block an attorney of his from participating in Jack Smith’s investigation.

Continue reading “DC Circuit Issues Lightning-Fast Order Requiring Trump Lawyer To Turn Over Docs To Special Counsel” →

Two More Red States Leave Voter Roll Maintenance Program Attacked By Far-Right

Posted on by Kaila Philo

Ohio and Iowa have abruptly joined a parade of Republican-led states leaving a multistate voter roll program as right-wing media spread false information about the organization.

Continue reading “Two More Red States Leave Voter Roll Maintenance Program Attacked By Far-Right” →

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan Issues Sweeping Information Requests To Universities Researching Disinformation

Posted on by John Light

This post first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

House Republicans have sent letters to at least three universities and a think tank requesting a broad range of documents related to what it says are the institutions’ contributions to the Biden administration’s “censorship regime.”

The letters are the latest effort by a House subcommittee set up in January to investigate how the federal government, working with social media companies, has allegedly been “weaponized” to silence conservative and right-wing voices. So far, the committee’s investigations have amplified a variety of dubious, outright false and highly misleading Republican grievances with law enforcement, many of them espoused by former President Donald Trump. Committee members have cited supposed abuses that include the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago, its investigations of Jan. 6 rioters and the Biden administration’s purported use of executive powers to shut down conservative viewpoints on social media.

Now, universities and their researchers are coming under the spotlight of the committee, which the Republicans have labeled the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. The letters, signed by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who is chair of both the House Judiciary Committee and the subcommittee, were sent in early March.

They cover an investigation into how “certain third parties, including organizations like yours, may have played a role in this censorship regime by advising on so-called ‘misinformation,’” according to a copy of one of the letters obtained by ProPublica.

The committee requested documents and information dating back to January 2015 between any “employee, contractor, or agent of your organization” and the federal government or social media organizations pertaining to the moderation of social media content. ProPublica confirmed the requests went to Stanford University, the University of Washington, Clemson University and the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

The letters have prompted a wave of alarm among those in the field that the congressional inquiry itself, no matter what it finds, will lead universities to pull back on this research just as the 2024 election gets underway. “Recent efforts definitely have a chilling effect on the community of experts across academia, civil society and government built up to understand broader online harms like harassment, foreign influence and — yes — disinformation,” Graham Brookie, who leads studies in this area at the Atlantic Council, told ProPublica.

“The ‘weaponization’ committee is being weaponized against us,” another researcher told ProPublica. Like half a dozen others interviewed for this story, this person asked not to be identified because of the ongoing congressional probe.

Democrats have called the committee a modern-day House Un-American Activities Committee, akin to the congressional committee that pursued alleged communists during the McCarthy era.

Since Rep. Jordan took over the gavel of the judiciary committee in January, he has issued more than 80 subpoenas and requests for documents. Recipients have included the CEOs of social media companies, intelligence officials who signed on to a statement about Hunter Biden’s laptop during the 2020 campaign and members of the National School Boards Association who asked the Justice Department to investigate threats of violence against school board officials. Jordan himself refused a subpoena to testify before the Democratic-led House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, prompting that committee to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee.

Jordan’s missives were sent a day after a committee hearing on the “Twitter files,” leaked internal communications from the company that purported to show how right-wing accounts were sidelined and silenced. In written testimony, a panelist accused a broad swath of organizations and individuals of being members of the “Censorship Industrial Complex,” including, he implied, the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, CIA, Department of Defense and universities. The witness wrote disinformation researchers, working with the government, are “creating blacklists of disfavored people and then pressuring, cajoling, and demanding that social media platforms censor, deamplify, and even ban the people on these blacklists.”

A New York University study concluded in 2021 that social media had not silenced those on the right. “The claim of anti-conservative animus” by social media companies, the study said, “is itself a form of disinformation: a falsehood with no reliable evidence to support it.”

A spokesperson for Rep. Jordan did not respond to requests for comment.

Since the 2016 elections, Stanford, UW, Clemson and others have engaged in research, sometimes in partnership with social media platforms, government officials and each other, into ways that disinformation can pose threats to democracy and how such efforts can be meaningfully countered. The role of lies and disinformation leading to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol gave increased prominence to their work.

As ProPublica has previously reported, sustained accusations by congressional Republicans and right-wing influencers that the Biden administration is stifling dissent have caused the administration to back away from its efforts countering disinformation, including canceling research contracts and sending messages inside the administration that disinformation work is too hot to handle.

Those moves followed a bungled rollout of a clumsily named “Disinformation Governance Board” to coordinate efforts to counter what the administration had called “dangerous conspiracy theories that can provide a gateway to terrorist violence.” Following criticism, the administration disbanded the board and accepted the resignation of its executive director, Nina Jankowicz.

Jordan has subpoenaed Jankowicz, too. She is scheduled to testify April 10 and said she will happily testify under oath.

“This sort of inquiry isn’t something that belongs in the United States Congress,” said Jankowicz. “But given that this method of bullying has caused other institutions to fold to Republican pressure in the past, I fear we may see the blunt force of congressional committees continue to be used in ways that are in direct opposition to the safety, security and free expression of the American people.”

Stanford did not answer a question about whether it stood by its research or make its researchers, the Stanford Internet Observatory’s Alex Stamos or Renee DiResta, available for comment. The university referred ProPublica to an online fact sheet addressing “inaccurate and misleading claims” made in the congressional testimony about Stanford’s “projects to analyze rumors and narratives on social media relating to U.S. elections and the coronavirus.” The German Marshall fund said it was working to address the request and Clemson University’s media relations department did not respond to requests for comment.

The University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public issued a statement that said “We’re incredibly proud of our work,” adding that “some of the projects CIP researchers have contributed to have become the subject of false claims and criticism that mischaracterizes our work, a tactic that peer researchers in this space are also experiencing.” The statement did not specifically address the House requests.

A university spokesperson, Victor Balta, said in an email, “The UW stands behind this important research aiming to resist strategic misinformation and strengthen our discourse. We have received a request for documents and information, and a response is in progress.”

Low Energy DeSantis

Posted on by Josh Marshall

Ron DeSantis is now slowly, kinda starting to announce his presidential candidacy and criticize Donald Trump. He says, for instance, that the “underlying conduct” in the Stormy Daniels case is “just outside my wheelhouse.” And if that seems a bit underwhelming, yeah, that was kind of my impression too. He also says that a political leader should try to be “like our founding fathers” and have “character.” He notes at one point in an interview with Piers Morgan that George Washington “always put the Republic over his own personal interest.” As I think about it, in a pre-Trump world these might be fighting words. Sorta. But not in the Trump era. Not if you’re trying to take down Donald Trump.

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