Just after the Federal Election Commission warned that he couldn’t raise or spend money without one, it appears that freshman Rep. George Santos (R-NY) has finally hired a new treasurer.
Continue reading “George Santos Allegedly Has A New Treasurer. It’s Been A Journey.”Georgia Grand Jury Foreperson Goes On Wacky Press Tour
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Just Stop Talking
In the absence of indictments in Georgia and with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s own Jan. 6 investigation mostly tight-lipped, we are left with this: The foreperson of Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis’ special grand jury mouthing off to reporters and sitting for TV interviews.
Juries, including grand juries, are composed of ordinary people, and they do ordinary people things. But with the fate of the Republic and the rule of law hanging in the balance at this perilous moment, it’s not the time to jeopardize long-running investigations with public winks and nods about what’s coming.
Emily Kohrs, a 30-year-old between jobs, was first interviewed by the AP for a story published Tuesday morning. Other interviews soon followed, culminating with the on-camera sit-down with NBC last evening.
Kohrs walked right up to the line of discussing grand jury deliberations, which she and the other grand jurors were ordered by a judge not to do. She all but confirmed that the special grand jury recommended that former President Trump be indicted. She also said that the special grand jury recommended indictments of other high-profile figures in the probe, but didn’t name names. Not good news if you’re, say, Rudy Giuliani or Mark Meadows.
Kevin McCarthy’s Corrupt Bargain With Tucker Carlson
The Washington Post has the best rundown yet on Tucker Carlson’s special access to the Jan. 6 surveillance video from the Capitol thanks to Speaker McCarthy.
While much of the video has been made public as part of Jan. 6 prosecutions and official investigations into the attack, Capitol Police have been very reluctant to let all of the surveillance video be made public for fear of compromising existing security measures.
A big tell yesterday on how out of bounds McCarthy is: Officials responsible for Capitol security didn’t know of McCarthy’s dirty deal with Carlson until it became public via Axios on Monday.
Monumental Wisconsin Supreme Court Race Set
Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz, regarded as a liberal, and former state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, a conservative, finished 1 and 2 in the primary vote yesterday and will face off April 4 for the empty Supreme Court seat that will determine the ideological makeup of the court, which has been under GOP control for some 15 years.
Virginia Elects Its First Black Congresswoman
State Sen. Jennifer McClellan (D) romped over Leon Benjamin (R) in the special election to fill the 4th Congressional District seat, held by Rep. Donald McEachin (D) until he died in November.
In Case You Missed It
The chief investigative counsel for the Jan. 6 committee sat down for an interview with the NYT now that the committee’s work is done:
What was the moment when you knew this committee would be breaking new ground?
When the pattern of the multipart plan to prevent the transfer of power started to take shape. That started to fall into place pretty early, and that was surprising. The world had seen the violence of the Capitol and how awful it was. But how we got there, and how methodical and intentional it was — this ratcheting up of pressure that ultimately culminates in the president inciting a mob to disrupt the joint session — that was new.
How early on did you know you had enough material for a criminal referral?
When we started to see intentional conduct, specific steps that appear to be designed to disrupt the joint session of Congress, that’s where it starts to sound criminal. The whole key for the special counsel is intent. The more evidence that we saw of the president’s intent, and others working with him, to take steps — without basis in fact or law — to prevent the transfer of power from happening, it started to feel more and more like possible criminal conduct.
Analyzing Pence’s Defense To A Jan. 6 Grand Jury Subpoena
With Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation mostly underground at the moment, legal commentators have had a lot of time to parse former Vice President Mike Pence’s Speech or Debate Clause defense to complying with a subpoena from one of Smith’s grand juries.
If you’re catching up on this sideline debate, Just Security is a good place to start: The Limited Scope of Vice President Pence’s Speech or Debate Clause Immunity.
Good Work
The folks at Grid News with some good sleuthing on Capitol Hill real estate: Meet ‘Patriot’s Row’: Mark Meadows’ MAGA hub buys a multimillion-dollar chunk of ‘the Swamp’
Why The South Has Such Low Credit Scores
A choice piece of journalism from the Washington Post on the chronic low credit scores across the American South.
Spoiler alert: Failure to expand Medicaid under the ACA leads to medical debt which kills credit scores.
The South is where Republicans continue to resist Medicaid expansion the most, and where its need is greatest.
And so in a way it still all comes back to race.
Minnesota Restores Voting Rights To Convicted Felons
Both chambers of the Minnesota legislature have passed a bill restoring voting rights for convicted felons as soon as they complete their terms of incarceration. Gov. Tim Walz (D) is expected to sign the bill.
Dismaying AF
A glimpse into the ways in which the Big Lie has firmly embedded itself in the right-wing zeitgeist and become a “thing” for local officials to campaign on, investigate, police, and legislate. All of those dynamics are captured in the goings-on in Tarrant County, Texas, home to Ft. Worth and more than 2 million people where the district attorney and sheriff have created a new election integrity task force.
George Santos, You’re George Santos!
CNN fact check: George Santos tells new lies in interview about his old lies
Politico: George Santos’ campaign spending did not line up from the start
The Brave New World Of MTG
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With Primary Decided, Stage Is Set For Wisconsin Supreme Court Barnburner
One liberal and one conservative won the most votes Tuesday, setting up a massively significant Wisconsin Supreme Court general election on April 4.
Continue reading “With Primary Decided, Stage Is Set For Wisconsin Supreme Court Barnburner”Ohio Groups File Ballot Initiative Text In Fight To Protect Abortion Access
Ohio groups filed the text of their proposed ballot initiative Tuesday, aiming to enshrine the right to abortion in the state’s constitution.
Continue reading “Ohio Groups File Ballot Initiative Text In Fight To Protect Abortion Access”Putin Delves Back Into American Culture Warring
One year ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin took one of his final public steps towards war against Ukraine.
In a speech on Feb. 21, 2022, he moved to recognize the independence of two Russia-backed proxy states in Ukraine — and, in doing so, suggested that war was inevitable.
Continue reading “Putin Delves Back Into American Culture Warring”DeSantis, Big Social Security Cutter
I just wanted to drop this in here because it’s an important set of facts that I suspect will be a big issue both in the coming GOP primary and — if DeSantis gets the GOP nomination — during the 2024 general election.
A week ago I noted that, contrary to press claims that only a few GOP outliers have called for cutting or phasing out Social Security, the great majority of House Republicans had already endorsed doing so during this fiscal year. There’s a lot of press special pleading surrounding proposals for Social Security cuts: It’s only Rick Scott or Ron Johnson or Mike Lee. In fact, such proposals are GOP orthodoxy and have been for decades. The Republican Study Committee, which is a caucus including about three-quarters of House Republicans, endorsed a proposed budget for this fiscal year calling for Social Security privatization, benefit cuts (through changed COLA formulas), raising the retirement age to 70 and more.
Continue reading “DeSantis, Big Social Security Cutter”Georgia Grand Jury Foreperson Lifts The Curtain, Says Panel Recommended Multiple Indictments
Over the past year, a special grand jury has been investigating if former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to unlawfully interfere in the 2020 election results in Georgia. For the first time, one of the jury members at the heart of the matter is offering some behind-the-scenes details of the months-long inquiry.
Continue reading “Georgia Grand Jury Foreperson Lifts The Curtain, Says Panel Recommended Multiple Indictments “Putin Blames US For ‘Degraded’ Relations While Announcing Suspension Of Last Nuclear Arms Agreement
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
After decades of progress on limiting the buildup of nuclear weapons, Russia’s war on Ukraine has prompted renewed nuclear tensions between Russia and the United States.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his annual State of the Nation address on Feb. 21, 2023, that Russia is “suspending” its participation in the U.S. and Russia’s last remaining nuclear arms agreement – known as New START.
“Our relations have degraded, and that’s completely and utterly the U.S.’s fault,” said Putin, who stopped short of entirely withdrawing Russia from the deal that aims to limit nuclear arms expansion.
Continue reading “Putin Blames US For ‘Degraded’ Relations While Announcing Suspension Of Last Nuclear Arms Agreement”Evolving Thoughts on Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models
Amidst all the storm and drama I’ve been enjoying learning more about just how the current crop of AI applications (LLMs, or Large Language Models) operate. I don’t want to imply that I understand them at a deep level — my programming career peaked with some piecework programming in Visual Basic that I did in grad school. (Actually, there was also that extremely elegant bubble sort program I wrote in middle school. But I digress …) But it has at least given me some sense of the roots of the limitations that are coming to the fore. Specifically — but not only — the way applications like ChatGPT frequently fabricate false claims clothed in the trappings of facticity. I’m not just claiming this new protein structure exists. I’m citing the specific journal article with the page numbers and date and authors, etc. It’s got to be true!
Continue reading “Evolving Thoughts on Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models”GOPers Furiously Try To Spin Biden’s Ukraine Trip As UnAmerican
When President Biden appeared in Kyiv on Monday, he was met with two reactions.
Continue reading “GOPers Furiously Try To Spin Biden’s Ukraine Trip As UnAmerican”