Why On Earth Are Some MAGA Republicans Wearing AR-15 Pins?

Over the past couple of days, some MAGA Republicans were spotted on Capitol Hill going about their business wearing AR-15 pins on their lapels, in the spot where members of Congress traditionally wear the American flag or congressional seal pins. 

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What Were They Talking About?

Our Kate Riga was able to confirm and get additional evidence of this chat first reported by Punchbowl. This was from last night, just after McCarthy’s meeting with President Biden.

Pelosi Says She Will Get Behind Schiff If Feinstein Retires

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said on Thursday she will support Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) in his California Senate bid if Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) decides to retire next year.

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LA’s Long, Troubled History With Urban Oil Drilling Is Nearing An End After Years Of Health Concerns

This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.

Los Angeles had oil wells pumping in its neighborhoods when Hollywood was in its infancy, and thousands of active wells still dot the city.

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Trump Org Official To Testify In Stormy Daniels Hush Money Probe

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

Try Explaining This In 50 Years

The first and only president to launch a coup attempt from inside the Oval Office has yet to face criminal charges for that travesty, and now there’s a chance the first thing he’ll be criminally charged with will be a hush money scheme with a porn actress that helped get him elected in the first place.

American politics is weird.

The newly reinvigorated probe of the Stormy Daniels scheme by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who initially shelved the probe when he took office last year, is now full steam head.

Trump Org controller Jeffrey McConney is expected to testify today to a New York grand jury investigating the matter, CNN reports.

Prosecutors have circled back to Michael Cohen, the former Trump fixer and lawyer, who is a key figure in the hush money scheme. Cohen says he was interviewed for about 2 1/2 hours by investigators, who want access to his phone.

“Most recently, they asked for my cell phones because they want to be able to extract from it the voice recordings that I had had with Keith Davidson, former attorney to Stormy Daniels before Michael Avenatti, as well as a bunch of emails, text messages and so on, that way it could be used as evidence if in fact they proceed forward, which I suspect they are,” Cohen said on CNN.

The Big Fani Willis Profile

New York Times Magazine goes deep on the Atlanta district attorney investigating Donald Trump’s 2020 election subversion efforts in Georgia:

Late on the first Sunday of 2021, news broke of President Donald J. Trump’s call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of Georgia, asking him to “find 11,780 votes” to help contest the 2020 election. The next morning — Monday, Jan. 4 — was Fani Willis’s first day in the office as the district attorney for Fulton County, which encompasses most of Atlanta, as well as suburbs like Sandy Springs, East Point and Alpharetta. “Not the second day,” she told me when I met with her in November. “My very first day in this office — in that conference room, it’s all over the TV.” She found herself hoping that the secretary of state might have been “in another county when it happened,” she said, laughing darkly. He was not. And so, Willis said, “I’m stuck with it.”

Why Was The FBI Asleep On Jan. 6?

NYT: Bias and Human Error Played Parts in F.B.I.’s Jan. 6 Failure, Documents Suggest

College Board Caves To DeSantis

Not a good look for the College Board. It watered down the AP African American Studies curriculum after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) complained loudly and publicly about it.

Gone from the revised curriculum:

  • Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Kimberlé Crenshaw

Added to the revised curriculum:

  • “Black conservatism”

FBI Searches Biden Beach Home

President Biden consented to a FBI search of his Delaware beach home Wednesday morning for more improperly retained classified documents. None were found, according to Biden’s personal attorney Bob Bauer.

The search came the same day as Robert Hur officially began his work as special counsel in the matter, after disentangling himself from his DC law practice.

Hunter Biden Shifts Strategy

With Abbe Lowell now his lawyer, Hunter Biden has shifted to a new, more aggressive strategy to confront his legal and political woes.

Arrest Made In Attack On NJ Synagogue

Nicholas Malindretos, 26, of Clifton, N.J., was arrested and charged under federal law with allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at the synagogue last weekend.

Add Another Santos Investigation To The Growing List

The FBI has reportedly interviewed the disabled veteran who claims George Santos pocketed the money from a GoFundMe campaign for the vet’s dying dog.

Santos’ New FEC Filing Offers More Muckraking Fun!

The Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger: “an autopsy of George Santos’ latest campaign finance filing reveals what experts are calling ‘a colossal mess’ and a ‘chaotic state of affairs.’”

Where Did ‘George Santos’ Come From?

CNN: Inside George Santos’ transformation from Anthony Devolder into a political figure

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Santos Touches the Third Rail of Big Dog

There now appear to be multiple federal investigations of George Santos. This is in addition to a number of investigations in New York state. The one we learned about today is based on the truly hideous story in which Santos used his sham charity to raise $3,000 for life-saving surgery for a disabled vet’s service dog and then pocketed the money and let the dog die.

You can read the story here, if you haven’t already. It’s almost cartoonish in its horribleness.

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Where Things Stand: Can’t Even Set Up Their Bogus Subcommittee Right

I will preface this by saying that it appears the issue has been resolved BUT for at least a few of the last 24 hours, Democrats held a supermajority on the subcommittee that Jim Jordan created to, essentially, find out what dirt the DOJ has on him.

That’s a bit reductive but not untrue. Here’s what happened:

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College Board Strips Down African American Studies Course After DeSantis Loudly Rejects It

On the first day of Black History Month, the College Board sent to us a revised curriculum for their Advanced Placement African American Studies course, weeks after Florida governor and likely 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis (R) said that it “lacks educational value.”

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