MTG: If Me And Steven Bannon Had Done Jan. 6, It’d Have Been Armed And We’d Have Won

Posted on by David Kurtz

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

Saying The Quiet Part Out Loud

Quite a confab Saturday night in Manhattan.

The annual gala of the New York Young Republican Club featured far-right extremists hobnobbing with other Republicans and Don Jr.

Marjorie Taylor Greene was a hit of the evening, parrying charges that she and Steve Bannon were responsible for Jan. 6 by declaring that they would have done a far better job at insurrecting.

“I want to tell you something, if Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, we would’ve been armed,” the Georgia congresswoman told the adoring audience.

Among the other attendees, according to reports: Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon, James O’Keefe, Jack Posobiec, Josh Hammer, Peter and Lydia Brimelow, and incoming members of Congress George Santos (NY), Mike Collins (GA), and Cory Mills (FL).

The Southern Poverty Law Center sent people to the event and their descriptions of the scene are really quite something:

While answering questions, Posobiec grew testy with a Hatewatch reporter and described SPLC as a “domestic terror organization.” Posobiec called that reporter a “scumbag” and a “troll.” After Posobiec’s speaking tone became palpably agitated, a crowd formed and NYYRC executive secretary Viswanag “Vish” Burra escorted both Hatewatch reporters to the exit, physically shoving one of them.

Even the NY Post looked askance at MGT: “Her speech took a strange turn while she noted how ‘you can pick up a butt plug or a dildo at Target nowadays’ while bashing transgender-friendly policies in classrooms.”

What To Make Of This?

The Justice Department did not succeed Friday in persuading the chief federal judge in DC to hold Trump or his office in contempt of court for failing to declare that he has returned all classified material in his possession. Former DOJ official Harry Litman with a good thread puzzling through the latest developments:

Inside Jack Smith’s Operation

CNN has a good bit of new detail on the inner workings of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations. It looks less like Mueller’s separate setup and more like a U.S. attorney operating within the Justice Department.

One thing that caught my eye, because it hasn’t fully been on my radar, is a financial crimes component of the investigation:

Another top prosecutor, JP Cooney, the former head of public corruption in the DC US Attorney’s Office, is overseeing a significant financial probe that Smith will take on. The probe includes examining the possible misuse of political contributions, according to some of the sources. The DC US Attorney’s Office, before the special counsel’s arrival, had examined potential financial crimes related to the January 6 riot, including possible money laundering and the support of rioters’ hotel stays and bus trips to Washington ahead of January 6.

In recent months, however, the financial investigation has sought information about Trump’s post-election Save America PAC and other funding of people who assisted Trump, according to subpoenas viewed by CNN. The financial investigation picked up steam as DOJ investigators enlisted cooperators months after the 2021 riot, one of the sources said.

Second Oath Keepers Trial Set To Start

The second of two seditious conspiracy trials of members of the Oath Keepers involved in the Jan. 6 attack is set to start today in federal court in Washington, D.C. The first trial ended last month with convictions on several major charges, including against group leader Stewart Rhodes.

Judge Declines To Dismiss Charges Against Proud Boys

The judge overseeing the upcoming trial of five Proud Boys involved in the Jan. 6 attack has declined to dismiss the charges against them, including seditious conspiracy.

What The Jan. 6 Report Will Look Like

Politico sketches out what to expect next week from the Jan. 6 committee.

Kari Lake Is Still At It

The defeated GOP nominee for governor of Arizona has filed suit contesting the 2022 election – and then some. Credit the NYT for its proper level of skepticism (emphasis mine):

The 70-page filing relies on a hodgepodge of allegations, ranging from voter and poll worker accounts to poll numbers claiming that voters agreed with Ms. Lake on the election’s mismanagement. Some of what is cited comes not from last month’s election but from the 2020 contest. Other allegations accuse officials of wrongdoing for taking part in efforts to try to tamp down election misinformation.

Elon Musk Unlocks Supervillain Status

I have a low-tolerance threshold for the Elon Musk-Twitter story. But Josh Marshall is immersed in it for us all. It was quite a weekend:

Alleged Lockerbie Bomb Maker In US Custody

Just days before the 34th anniversary of the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, the alleged maker of the bomb that brought the plane down is in U.S. custody and will make an appearance in federal court in the coming days.

Fusion Breakthrough?

We might look back on this in a few years or decades and decide this was the biggest news of 2022: Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory were able for the first time to produce a fusion reaction that creates a net energy gain.

“Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was slated to make the announcement Tuesday at a media event billed as the unveiling of ‘a major scientific breakthrough,'” the WaPo reported. The Financial Times was first with the news.

Can’t Get Enough

The NYT goes deep on the Prince Heinrich XIII of Reuss, the alleged co-ringleader of the German coup plot who was to be installed as the new head of state.

Catch It If You Can

Morning Memo caught Alex Edelman’s extraordinary one-man show “Just For Us” last night at Woolly Mammoth. It looks sold out through the rest of its DC run, but standing room only tickets are available at the door first come, first served.

Sneak Peek

For devoted Morning Memo readers, a quick heads up. This week TPM is rolling out an important new series of stories on the effort to overturn the 2020 election, drawing on extensive, previously unreported material. Stay tuned! You’ll want to see this.

Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!

Maybe

Posted on by Josh Marshall

I’m not sure what to make of this but The Financial Times is reporting that scientists at the Livermore laboratory in California believe, according to preliminary results, that they have achieved a net energy gain with a fusion reaction. Though the practical immediate impact would be very limited, the historic impact of such an achievement is great. In theory a controlled fusion reaction holds the promise of essentially limitless clean energy. The fuel is simple hydrogen. This, if true, is simply getting slightly more out of a fusion reaction than that used to create it. But this is certainly a key milestone on the path to that. The article claims that Energy Secretary Granholm will make some announcement on Tuesday. There was a fusion announcement a couple decades ago that turned out to be bunk. So I can’t help but be skeptical about this — honestly, very skeptical. I also have some question why the news is appearing first (and only, so far as I can tell) in The Financial Times. Still, if it were true the future would change dramatically.

Late Update: Having seen so little press pick-up besides The Financial Times and getting some more reader feedback I’m inclined to think this is a more incremental step in the process than is presented in the article. So I think my skepticism was merited but more on the significance than the accuracy. Do you know the science of fusion? Let me know what you think.

Musk Retaliates Against Former Twitter Exec with Pedophile Smear

Posted on by Josh Marshall

We’ve discussed at some length in the past how there’s a far-right alternative universe in which pedophilia and child sexual exploitation are not those actual things but cudgels to be used against political enemies, “globalists” and anyone even proximate to supporting the rights of the LBGT community. This is the wellspring of things like the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory and much of what is now labeled QAnon.

For years on the far right of anti-Twitter “free speech” activism there have been hate campaigns targeting Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s former General Counsel, and Yoel Roth, head of Trust and Safety. Since Roth is gay and Jewish he’s been a particular target for the far-right spaces which have been the foot soldiers of this variety of “free speech” activism.

Continue reading “Musk Retaliates Against Former Twitter Exec with Pedophile Smear” →

Musk Goes Full Pizzagate

Posted on by Josh Marshall

I’ve already written about the narcissism/radicalization cycle that took hold of Elon Musk at some point for whatever reasons and has been accelerating at a rapid pace since he finalized his acquisition of Twitter six weeks ago. It keeps accelerating, and in two distinct but interrelated ways I would like to note.

The first is that Musk is now in near constant dialogue with the most rabid conspiracy theorists and anti-Semites in the digital space. He’s jumped head first into the “globalist”/pedophile vortex which was at the heart of the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory and later the entire QAnon movement. He now accuses former Twitter management of intentionally allowing the platform it to become a breeding ground of pedophilia and child sex trafficking. He claims he’s shutting the offending accounts down after previous management refused to do so. These accusations have become so totalizing that yesterday Musk drew a rebuke from former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who has been one of Musk’s bigger supporters during the takeover.

Continue reading “Musk Goes Full Pizzagate” →

A Bit More on Sinema

Posted on by Josh Marshall

Let me return again to what I think is the key point with Kyrsten Sinema, something I think most of D.C. press misses. The conventional wisdom here is that Senate Democrats need Sinema’s seat to have any hope of holding the Senate. They have a one-seat majority and three Democrats are up for reelection in clearly red states. There’s no margin for error. So they need to swallow their misgivings and line up behind her. I don’t have a good read on where the Senate Democratic leadership is on this or the various stakeholder groups that are involved in this kind of decision. But I don’t think I need to. Because I don’t think it will be their call. Sinema is simply too reviled by Arizona Democrats to make this work.

Continue reading “A Bit More on Sinema” →

Golden Dukes: It’s Time To Vote On 2022’s Superlative Scandal

Posted on by Nicole LaFond

Really great stuff, guys. I asked and you certainly answered. Now, it’s voting time.

For those of you just tuning in, welcome to the 2022 Golden Duke awards. This is TPM’s version of the Oscars except we celebrate all the horror-show politicians and delightfully abominable public figures who kept us in business this year.

Continue reading “Golden Dukes: It’s Time To Vote On 2022’s Superlative Scandal” →

A View from Arizona

Posted on by Josh Marshall

An Arizona TPM Reader checks in on Kyrsten Sinema. Along those lines, a new poll out today shows her current favorability rating at 18%–5% among Democrats, 25% among Republicans and independents. She wouldn’t clear 10% in a three person race.

From our reader …

What’s good about writing to you about this topic is that I don’t have to do the work of convincing you that Sinema’s antics were not working among any voting group. You figured this out months ago.

One of the things that frustrates me about the self-appointed smart guy conversation about politics is that there are too many commentators who think that there is an untapped majority of voters out there that matches their exact degree of social liberalism and fiscal conservatism. You’d think the rise of Trump and a lot of what’s gone on in politics would have disabused them of that, but no such luck. I haven’t had a lot of time to delve into the commentary on this morning’s news, but I’m imagining there are blog posts being written about how brilliant this is despite the obvious signs that it doesn’t seem to have earned her fans among actual Arizona voters.

Continue reading “A View from Arizona” →

Here’s the Deal On Sinema’s Non-Switch Switcheroo

Posted on by Josh Marshall

I first heard about Kyrsten Sinema’s party switch this morning and I thought, Holy Crap! I didn’t expect her to join the GOP. This reaction was largely based on my first seeing the Axios headline “Senate Earthquake.” Only it’s not an earthquake and she’s not joining the GOP.

First I saw the key news that she would not caucus with Senate Republicans, and then the real tell — that she will continue to caucus with the Democrats. In other words, she’s going to do the same thing Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine already do with much less drama and preening.

Literally nothing changes. It’s still a 51 to 49 Senate, except the Democrats’ 51 senators are now made up of three nominal independents rather than 2. That ain’t no earthquake.

Continue reading “Here’s the Deal On Sinema’s Non-Switch Switcheroo” →

Ruben Gallego Goes After Sinema For Leaving Democratic Party

Posted on by Kate Riga

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) put out a statement going after Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) when the senator announced Friday that she’d left the Democratic party to become an independent. 

Continue reading “Ruben Gallego Goes After Sinema For Leaving Democratic Party” →