Earlier today I posted this video in which Sen. Mike Lee reacts with disbelief and shock that President Biden said some Republicans propose sunsetting Social Security and Medicare. Pure disbelief. Where could Biden get this obviously false crazy idea? Note that he did this while sitting next to Sen. Rick Scott, the guy who actually formally wrote the proposal as the Senate GOP platform position.
Great moment from last night: Arch Social Security gutter and debt ceiling hostage taker @SenMikeLee (R-UT) reacts with incredulity to President pointing out GOP support for sunsetting Soc Sec and Medicare. And he's sitting right next to Rick Scott, THE GUY WHO PROPOSED IT! pic.twitter.com/cdmXzLs2Bb
Now look at this video from Lee’s first campaign for Senate in which he says, “It will be my objective to phase out Social Security, to pull it up by the roots and get rid of it.”
One of the cases brought by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ stunt election crimes task force actually managed to make it to trial this week – and it ended in a split verdict and partial acquittal.
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
From 2016 to 2020, the Department of Transportation (DOT) was a dumpster fire. President Donald Trump appointed Elaine Chao, the Secretary of Labor under George W. Bush and Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) wife, to run a department whose mission she either did not support or did not understand. Chao rolled back a panoply of rules and regulations. When COVID-19 hit, Chao allowed airlines to avoid imposing safety measures and paying refunds owed for flight cancellations—a decision that cost consumers billions.
By contrast, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has made the department responsive to the concerns of ordinary Americans. But, as with much of the federal government, the Trump-era damage has not been undone. While he has made progress on some fronts, Buttigieg’s DOT tenure shows him failing to keep a basic charge: using his authority to enact sound policies and undo bad ones.
With the future of Social Security and Medicare back under discussion — and not in a good way — we need to review a few points about how these subjects are discussed in the nation’s capital. This morning I saw some very solid, level-headed reporters noting that Rick Scott didn’t say Social Security and Medicare should be sunsetted after 5 years. He said all government programs should be sunsetted. And it just happens that Social Security and Medicare are government programs. In other words, these folks suggested, while Biden’s claim was technically true it amounted to a kind of cheap shot.
The 2024 GOP primary race has long been predicted to be a showdown between former president Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. On Tuesday, it seems Trump cast the first stone, giving us a taste of the mess to come.
The new House subcommittee focused on the “weaponization” of the federal government is filling out its roster which, as reporters unearthed Tuesday, now includes Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
It’s A Dog Eat Fake-Dog-Charity World Out There
Confronted by the spectacle of Rep. George Santos (R-NY) glad-handing official Washington on the floor of the House chamber moments before President Biden’s State of the Union address, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) had had enough:
Republican Rep. George Santos positioned himself in a prime location for the State of the Union address — a prominent place for the embattled new lawmaker — and was met with a stern rebuke from a fellow Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney. https://t.co/O1KhoKV9Qupic.twitter.com/Sjs5yQBemz
According to Romney himself and various eyewitness accounts, he told Santos, “You don’t belong here.” That seems to be both a reference to Santos serving in Congress and taking a front and center position on the aisle before the State of the Union.
‘You Oughta Be Embarrassed’
There was more! A close lip-reading of the exchange on the floor of the House:
Mitt Romney and George Santos have a little chat and this may be what was said pic.twitter.com/Hx1xxxSXiE
Mitt Romney knows a thing or two about dogs (poor Seamus), so when he dismissed Rep. George Santos (R-NY) after the State of the Union as a “sick puppy” … oh my:
Raw video: Romney says Santos is a “sick puppy” who “shouldn’t be in Congress.”
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah): Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) “should be sitting in the back row and staying quiet.” pic.twitter.com/ovCwLvJfKb
Look, embellishing is saying you got an A when you got an A-minus. Lying is saying you graduated from a college you didn’t even attend. And he shouldn’t be in Congress. And they’re going to go through the process and hopefully get him out. But he shouldn’t be there and if he had any shame at all, he wouldn’t be there.
MTG Gives the (Unofficial) GOP Response
UNITED STATES – FEBRUARY 7: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., gives a thumbs down during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, February 7, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The snarling, dyspeptic, always aggrieved modern GOP was perfectly embodied by Rep. Marjorie Taylor (R-GA), who yelled, heckled, pointed, and made a scene of herself throughout the State of the Union. Behold MTG in all her glory.
That Was Some Martial Arts Shit
President Biden leveraged the GOP’s unbridled aggression in the House chamber and flipped them with it.
The key moment, described here at length by TPM’s Kate Riga, came when Biden went hard at the GOP over Social Security and Medicare. He did it with a smile and aplomb, and they responded with boos, jeers, and heckling. The moment played out a bit longer than is easily captured in a video clip, but Biden used a mix of sarcasm, good cheer, and unscripted remarks to dominate the raucous GOP response, setting them back on their heels repeatedly.
The coup de grace was Biden backing the GOP into a corner, mischievously exclaiming that he was happy to see unanimous agreement that Social Security and Medicare are now off the table in the debt-ceiling hostage taking by Republicans.
Poignant
President Biden not only recognized Paul Pelosi, the husband of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi who was attacked last year by a Big Lie-spouting intruder in their San Francisco home, but he drew a line directly from the Jan. 6 insurrectionists to the Pelosi attacker:
Biden: Here tonight in this chamber is a man who bears the scars of that brutal attack but is as tough and a strong as resilient as they get. My friend, Paul Pelosi. pic.twitter.com/Ml4xqKFM0d
I’m not much for the close analysis of who clapped or didn’t clap and about what, but it was hard not to be distracted by the squirming of Speaker Kevin McCarthy over President Biden’s shoulder, unsure of how much to embrace the calls for bipartisanship or how much to shush his howling conference. This was a particularly telling moment:
Biden: “Two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War. Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken.”
One of the central figures in the George Santos debacle is his now-former campaign treasurer Nancy Marks:
“Given her apparent history and relationship with Mr. Santos, I have to assume that any investigation of him will focus intensely on her role and her knowledge of how the fundraising was organized, accomplished and carried out especially in light of the fact that she’s now resigned,” Paul Krieger, a former federal prosecutor told CNN.
McCarthy Quietly Named Gaetz To Corrupt Subcommittee!
With no fanfare or public announcements, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) last week named Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to the deeply corrupting Judiciary subcommittee targeting federal law enforcement. Reporters discovered the move only Tuesday.
Gaetz, himself under federal investigation until recently for alleged sex-trafficking but who now seems unlikely to face charges, joins other Republicans on the subcommittee who themselves are targets of federal criminal probes.
Scott Perry Acknowledges Secret Fight With DOJ Over His Phone
Politico caught up with Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), who for the first time acknowledged that he’s been engaged in a secret court battle over whether the Justice Department can access the contents of his cell phone.
The FBI seized Perry’s phone in August as part of its investigation into Jan. 6 and the effort to subvert the 2020 election. Perry was a central figure in Donald Trump’s Big Lie, at one point introducing the president to a minor DOJ official named Jeffrey Clark, who Trump would eventually consider installing as acting attorney general.
The fight over Perry’s phone has played out in federal court proceedings in DC and has gone up to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, but almost all of it remains sealed because it’s related to grand jury proceedings, which are kept secret.
Jean Carroll Continues To Own Donald Trump
The latest developments in the legal battle between Donald Trump and Jean Carroll, who claims he raped her in the 1990s:
Law&Crime: Donald Trump skewered in court for mixing up rape accuser with ex-wife Marla Maples
The judge in Carroll’s defamation case rejected Trump’s delay tactic, refusing to push the trial off until June and instead giving Trump a mere two-week delay. The judge will decide later whether to combine the defamation trial with the trial of her rape claim.
Ugh
NYT: Memphis Officer Texted Photo of Tyre Nichols After Beating, New Documents Show
In a new book set for release this week by former acting defense secretary Christopher Miller, the ex-Trump-administration official writes that Melania was, inexplicably, in the Situation Room during the US’s 2019 ISIS raid that resulted in the death of then ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. According to Miller, Melania was there with the president, Vice President Mike Pence, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, among others. He writes: “Her presence was unexpected, to say the least. I wondered how it would play in the press if word got out that the first lady had popped in to watch a major military operation,” according to a copy of the memoir that was viewed by The Hill.
The White House has been unusually public (and repetitive) with its stance on the debt ceiling: that it simply will not negotiate with Republicans on future cost cutting while those same Republicans have a gun to the head of the global economy.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy told his members to be on their best behavior at the 2023 State of the Union address. But Republican House members didn’t follow his lead any more than they did during the fifteen votes it took him to become speaker in early January. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was a stand-out, repeatedly heckling the President, hooting and hollering and thumbs-downing him with abandon. Some Twitter commenters compared her performance to iconic moments from Bravo’s ‘Real Housewives’ franchise.
Here are some of her greatest moments.
Standing Out in a Crowd
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) gives a thumbs down during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address during the State of the Union. The speech marks Biden’s first address to the new Republican-controlled House. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Rep. Greene Not Having It
Credit: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images.
In the strongest moment of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, the President used Republican boos and jeers to veer off script and push members of the opposing party into backing off their long-discussed desire to cut Medicare and Social Security.
