A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate discuss the to-be Republican House in disarray and Donald Trump getting punked on his own turf.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
Ex-Girlfriend Comes Forward On The Record With New Violent Allegations Against Walker
Cheryl Parsa is the latest in a long line of women who have come forward with allegations of violent behavior against Georgia’s GOP senate nominee Herschel Walker in recent months and years. And she’s the first to come out on the record with accusations since he announced his Senate bid in August 2021.
Dallas resident Parsa described an intimate yet turbulent five-year relationship with Walker to the Daily Beast.
Continue reading “Ex-Girlfriend Comes Forward On The Record With New Violent Allegations Against Walker”Gaming Out the Numbers in the Kevin McCarthy Tunnel of Doom
Let me game out a few possibilities on the speakership vote. And let me say first, these remain quite hypothetical. I think Kevin McCarthy will become Speaker. But it’s worth walking through how different scenarios could play out.
First, as we know, to be elected Speaker you have to win a majority of the chamber. In other words, 218 out of 435 votes. A majority of your own party doesn’t cut it. That’s why having such a narrow majority makes everything so difficult. Other unexpected events can become very important. The passing of Rep. Donald McEachin (D-VA), who died on Monday, could turn out to be significant in how this plays out, a point we’ll get to in a moment.
Continue reading “Gaming Out the Numbers in the Kevin McCarthy Tunnel of Doom”House Dems Finally Have Trump’s Tax Returns
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
A Pyrrhic Victory
Back in early 2019, after Democrats won the House and were poised to start holding Donald Trump accountable, I cautioned our staff that these things take time, so don’t be impatient and don’t rush to judge the pace of accountability.
At the time there was growing public pressure on House Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal (D-MA) to immediately obtain Trump’s tax returns from the IRS. A lot of people thought Neal was being too cautious and too slow. I was dubious. Give the guy a half a second to get his feet under him and sort out an order of priorities. Tax returns are one avenue for accountability … blah blah blah.
I was wrong.
Congressional Democrats across the board were slow, they weren’t ready on Day One for the legal and political warfare ahead, and it cost them and the country.
And so it is that almost four years later, with one month left before Dems lose control of the House, Richie Neal finally obtained Trump’s vaunted tax returns with too little time left to do much about them.
A New Investigative Angle on Jan. 6?
A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., has subpoenaed raw video footage of Jan. 6 from filmmaker Alex Holder in what Playbook calls “a new avenue” in the Justice Department’s criminal investigations of the Jan. 6 attack. “The new subpoena … does not appear to be related to the DOJ’s criminal investigation of Trump himself,” Playbook reports.
Stanley Woodward Is Not A Household Name
Politico: Meet the legal nerd who MAGA bigwigs are turning to for help.
How Bad Is It Going To Be? Very Bad
Just a taste of the corrosive, toxic, retaliatory, and absurd approach to politics the House GOP will bring to the last two years of the Biden presidency:
How Bad Again?
Kevin McCarthy is the passive-aggressive flip-side to Jim Jordan’s undisguised aggression. McCarthy sent Jan. 6 committee chair Bennie Thompson a pissy, disrespectful letter yesterday demanding that he preserve all records from the panel’s work. It hits all the notes of a troll in the Fox News comments section.
Jan. 6 Committee Is Done With Witnesses
As the Jan. 6 committee winds down, it completed its last witness interviews Wednesday, according to panel char Bennie Thompson (D-MS). The final witness was Wisconsin House Speaker Robin Vos (R). Also interviewed this week: Kellyanne Conway and former Secret Service agent Tony Ornato.
It’s Gettin’ Good Down In Georgia
The chair of the Georgia GOP was so central to the 2020 fake electors scheme that he can’t share defense counsel with the other fake electors caught up in the investigation by Fulton County DA Fani Willis, a state judge ruled.
Keep An Eye On This One
Closing arguments begin today in the New York criminal trial of the Trump Org.
Here’s a good cheat sheet on a key issue jurors will have to resolve.
We’re Down To One Holdout In Arizona
The last Pennsylvania county holding out on certifying the 2022 elections has relented. I believe that leaves Cochise County, Arizona, as the only laggard in the country.
Irony of All Ironies
The game GOP-controlled Cochise County is playing in Arizona could cost Republicans a House seat.
Secretary of State Katie Hobbs is warning in filings made in her lawsuit against Cochise County that if it doesn’t certify the results by Dec. 8, the ballots from the county will not be included in the final count. That would be enough to flip the results of the House race in the AZ-06.
That would flip the results of the race for Arizona’s Sixth Congressional District, where Republican Juan Ciscomani holds a 5,232-vote lead over Democrat Kirsten Engel in unofficial results, as well as the race for state Superintendent of Public Instruction, where the Republican candidate has a narrow lead.
Greenberg To Be Sentenced Today
Rep. Matt Gaetz’s old running buddy Joel Greenberg is scheduled to be sentenced in his sex trafficking case today. Greenberg pleaded guilty and cooperated with investigators, who are trying to give him some credit for his cooperation when its comes to sentencing, but in a surprise development the sentencing judge expressed deep skepticism toward both sides in a hearing Wednesday. The judge seems to think Greenberg deserves a stiffer sentence than range prosecutors and the defendant came up with. “The parties are under agreement about something I don’t agree with,” the judge reportedly said.
House Wades Into Railroad Labor Dispute
The House intervened in the labor dispute between railroads and workers, trying to avert a nationwide rail strike during the holidays. The 290-137 vote to impose a new labor agreement comes at a steep price for workers. The bill’s future in the Senate is very uncertain.
On Point
Axios: The Republicanization of Elon Musk
Great Read
My PR Day of Yes: I accepted every publicist pitch I got for a full day. If only I knew what I’d done.
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What’s The Upshot Of Herschel Walker’s Residency Issues?
Since the Georgia Senate race headed to a Dec. 6 runoff, GOP nominee Herschel Walker has been plagued by revelations that he is more Texan than Georgian. It is questionable how much of the new information around his residency will matter in a state where many see him as a football god, but reporting solidifies that the Georgia football star appears to have been living near Dallas until last year.
Continue reading “What’s The Upshot Of Herschel Walker’s Residency Issues?”Experts Worry Congress Might Run Out Of Time To Pass Legislation To Prevent Next Jan. 6
Whatever happened to reforming the Electoral Count Act (ECA)? Earlier this year, Democrats were confident they would be able to pass some sort of reform to the 1887 law that dictates how election results are certified. But time for the 117th Congress is running out, and pro-democracy groups and election law experts have begun to worry that the lame duck session could wrap up without the legislation making it across the finish line.
“The closer you get to the 2024 cycle, it’s not helpful,” Holly Idelson, a policy advocate at the nonpartisan think tank Protect Democracy, told TPM. “We really think it’s vital that this get done this session. That is a sentiment we’ve heard from many believers as well.”
Continue reading “Experts Worry Congress Might Run Out Of Time To Pass Legislation To Prevent Next Jan. 6”Speaker-elect? Kevin McCarthy’s Website Is Getting A Little Ahead Of Itself
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is facing a floor fight as he hopes to become speaker of the House of Representatives when his party assumes the majority next month. However, you wouldn’t know that by looking at his official website, which is already touting McCarthy as the “House Speaker-elect.”
Continue reading “Speaker-elect? Kevin McCarthy’s Website Is Getting A Little Ahead Of Itself “A Surprise Challenger: Cicilline Announces He Will Run Against Clyburn For Leadership Spot
So much for the entire new House Democratic leadership team being selected by unanimous acclamation.
In a surprise announcement, Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) said Wednesday he will be running against House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) for a top leadership spot.
Continue reading “A Surprise Challenger: Cicilline Announces He Will Run Against Clyburn For Leadership Spot”Could Big Kev Be Toast?
I’ve written repeatedly that Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) remains highly likely to become Speaker of the House on January 3rd, despite all the sturm und drang to the contrary. But I admit I’m a bit less sure than I was. We should also remember that if McCarthy cannot muster the votes to become Speaker, that is almost certainly the end of his career in electoral politics. (It’s not like he can run statewide in California.) And if tradition holds his defeat would be followed in short order by his resignation and departure from Congress. You don’t get passed over twice for Speaker and remain in the leadership or in Congress.
Yet, to understand this drama, we must remember that it has nothing to do with Kevin McCarthy. To the extent McCarthy’s opponents have made an argument against him it largely turns on the mean things his predecessors John Boehner and Paul Ryan allegedly did to them when they were Speaker.
Continue reading “Could Big Kev Be Toast?”Republicans Lean In To Threat Of Holding Debt Ceiling Hostage In Exchange For Social Security Cuts
Pre-election, Republican lawmakers baffled political observers with their candor: they openly spoke about their plans, should they flip the House, to demand cuts to Medicare and Social Security in exchange for not sending the United States careening into default on its debts.
Continue reading “Republicans Lean In To Threat Of Holding Debt Ceiling Hostage In Exchange For Social Security Cuts”