Chatting with Fox Business’s Lou Dobbs, chief Republican investigator Rep. James Comer (R-KY) got so frustrated that Trump DOJ appointee David Weiss hasn’t indicted Hunter Biden yet that he went on a tangent venting that the President’s elder son Beau Biden hadn’t been indicted either, according to a report in The Daily Beast.
Continue reading “Top GOPer Upset Beau Biden Wasn’t Indicted Either”Gorsuch Attacks Dynamic That Has Been Enormously Useful To Anti-Administration Litigants
Justice Neil Gorsuch made a point Tuesday during oral arguments on the Biden administration’s debt relief plan that, if adopted by the other justices, would drive a stake through the heart of a highly successful, largely right-wing legal scheme.
Continue reading “Gorsuch Attacks Dynamic That Has Been Enormously Useful To Anti-Administration Litigants”Right-Wing Justices Conjure Up Lawn Care Strawman To Juxtapose With Supposedly Elite Student Debtors
A number of conservative justices weighed a question more at home at a political roundtable than a court of law during Tuesday’s oral arguments on the Biden administration’s student debt relief plan: Is the President’s initiative really fair?
Continue reading “Right-Wing Justices Conjure Up Lawn Care Strawman To Juxtapose With Supposedly Elite Student Debtors”Student Debt Case Reveals How Far Conservatives May Go With Major Questions Doctrine
As the Supreme Court weighed the future of President Joe Biden’s student debt relief program, the right-wing justices brought up the same “doctrine” they nearly always do during questions of agency power: the major questions doctrine.
Continue reading “Student Debt Case Reveals How Far Conservatives May Go With Major Questions Doctrine”Abbott Tries To Resurrect Trump Border Wall Project Through Bizarre Use Of State Resources
Last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) had an announcement to make: he was picking up where Trump left off.
Continue reading “Abbott Tries To Resurrect Trump Border Wall Project Through Bizarre Use Of State Resources”Report: House GOP Moves To Give Jan. 6 Defendants Access To Internal Capitol Security Footage
House Republicans are planning to provide Jan. 6 rioters and other defendants in insurrection related cases access to internal Capitol security footage.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), the chair of the House Administration Committee’s oversight subpanel, told Politico that the access, which was green-lighted by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), would be granted on a “case-by-case basis.”
Continue reading “Report: House GOP Moves To Give Jan. 6 Defendants Access To Internal Capitol Security Footage”Ignore the Noise. It’s Still Trump’s Nomination to Lose
Every day we see more evidence that Donald Trump has jumped the shark — poor fundraising, deteriorating elite GOP support, mounting criminal legal peril and more. Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis, coming off a resounding reelection win, has all the malevolence and lib-owning of Trump and none of the baggage. The only remaining bright spot for Trump are the polls which continue to show him … well, to be the leader of the GOP and the odds-on favorite to be the 2024 GOP nominee. Yes, that’s what I’m saying. Don’t believe the hype: Trump is still the guy. And if you look at recent polls he seems to be becoming more the guy rather than less as we get further from the November election.
Continue reading “Ignore the Noise. It’s Still Trump’s Nomination to Lose”More on the DC Elite’s Latest Biden White House Shiny Object
As a follow-up to the that ludicrous Times op-ed yesterday about an open primary for vice president, TPM Reader JS shares some thoughts …
Continue reading “More on the DC Elite’s Latest Biden White House Shiny Object”I was never a Kamala partisan, I was for Loretta Sanchez in the primary (even after she came out dancing around at the state party convention, even after she lost the nomination there). There was just too much trying to bottle Obama’s lightning going on with how her ascent was handled in California politics and Loretta had my eternal thanks for ridding us of Bob Dornan. I thought Kamala was the inevitable and solid pick for VP. I agree that she’s less than ideal as a presidential candidate, that her performance was poor in the primary, and that performance was connected to her indelible traits as a leader.
But what all of these stupid articles miss, whether it’s NYT editorialists who’ve had too much box wine or a certain former-Slate podcaster or some other hot take, is that the perfect way to make her stronger is for her to, you know, actually be the President.
Judge In Georgia Special Grand Jury Case Weighs In On Foreperson Media Tour
Following the pushback the foreperson of the Georgia special grand jury received after giving several high profile interviews, the judge overseeing the case clarified that jurors “can talk about the final report.”
Continue reading “Judge In Georgia Special Grand Jury Case Weighs In On Foreperson Media Tour”Wow, Rupert Murdoch Is Fox News’ Own Worst Witness
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Pass The Effing Popcorn
Dominion Voting Systems is absolutely going to town on Fox News in its billion-dollar defamation suit, and it’s using the network’s 91-year-old billionaire mogul as cannon fodder in the effort.
Rupert Murdoch’s own recent deposition testimony turned out to be absolutely devastating for the crown jewel of his media empire.
In a new filing in the case yesterday that mirrored but also expanded upon some of Dominion’s most eye-popping revelations from a week and a half ago, Murdoch emerges as making one damning admission after another. Let’s run through the best bits:
Did Murdoch Believe The Bogus Claims Against Dominion? No, He Did Not
Murdoch Gave Jared Kushner Sneak Peek At Biden Ads!
Rupert Murdoch gave Trump son-in-law/aide Jared Kushner access to “Fox confidential information about Biden’s ads,” apparently showing them to him before they were public. pic.twitter.com/NqOsIw1yJe
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) February 27, 2023
Murdoch Admits Fox News Hosts ‘Endorsed’ Bogus Dominion Claims
This admission undermines Fox News neutral report defense:
Murdoch Is All About That Green
“When asked why Fox continues to give a
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) February 27, 2023
platform to Lindell—who continues to this day to spout lies about Dominion—
Murdoch agreed that ‘It is not red or blue, it is green.’” pic.twitter.com/5Nv46rUlfB
Fox Board Member Paul Ryan Warned The Murdochs
Fox board member Paul Ryan ‘told Rupert and Lachlan “that Fox News should not be spreading conspiracy
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) February 27, 2023
theories.” ‘ pic.twitter.com/FmMVghM8Xi
The Dominion case really is starting to look like not just a landmark legal case but perhaps a watershed historical moment. The American descent towards authoritarianism, minority rule, and insurrection doesn’t happen without Fox News. It doesn’t happen only because of Fox News, but it’s been a critical ingredient in the toxic stew of misinformation, grievance, and division.
Didn’t See This Coming
Signs emerged yesterday that House Republicans as a whole aren’t completely onboard with Speaker McCarthy’s wholesale turning over of the Jan. 6 surveillance footage to Tucker Carlson.
I want to be careful about not overstating what’s going on here, because it’s subtle.
On the surface, some House GOPers seem concerned about the security implications, or at least the public perceptions involved. You can see that new wobbliness even from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA):
Another dynamic, which I find more amusing than telling, is that some astute House GOPers are concerned about another round of extensive media coverage of footage showing the violent attack on the Capitol, according to CNN. You might say there’s only so much laundering and manipulating of the footage that Tucker Carlson can do. The insurrection is still a bad look for Republicans! Laugh or cry. Your choice.
A final dynamic here is the issue of Carlson being the only one with access. Many major media outlets have been clamoring for access to all the footage for years now. Some House Republicans seem to favor a wider release than the one McCarthy has orchestrated so far. Just keep in mind, though, that may not be as much about opening up the footage to more mainstream news outlets, but also to the news and propaganda operations to the right of Fox News.
Santos Wannabe Kinda Sorta Comes Clean
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) copped to some but not all of his falsehoods about his resume and background in a new statement Monday.
DeSantis Completes Takeover Of Disney
This remains such a wild story on so many levels. Disney with its own special taxing district in Florida that it controlled singlehandedly for decades. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) asserting his own power over the district to punish Disney in a performative way for its “wokeness” sins in opposing his “Don’t Say Gay” law. Now DeSantis appointing conservative firebrands and his own donors to the board overseeing the district and making noises about having a say in Disney content.
Blast From The Past
The Senate is working towards repealing the AUMFs for Iraq from 1991 and 2002, Punchbowl reports. The measure is expected to win majority support in the House, too. But rather than representing some kind of historic reckoning, it just reinforces Congress’ self-imposed irrelevance in matters of war and peace. Congress finally acting now just shows it’s an ongoing problem, not some moment of epiphany.
SCOTUS Takes Up Biden Student Debt Relief Plan
Oral arguments today before a conservative Supreme Court generally considered hostile to President Biden’s student loan debt relief plan.
2024 Ephemera
- Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) launched her Senate campaign for the seat being vacated by the retiring Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).
- Aaron Blake: The inevitable — and imminent — Trump-DeSantis war
- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 presidential campaign “emerges from the shadows.”
- Paul Ryan says he will not attend the Republican national convention in 2024 if Donald Trump is the nominee.
Fox News Being Fox News
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