Former President Donald Trump has spent the past two days shitposting on his off-brand Twitter app about Special Counsel Jack Smith — who was appointed less than two weeks ago to oversee two federal criminal investigations involving now-candidate Trump.
Continue reading “Posting Through It: Trump Spends Two Days Knocking New Fav Punching Bag Jack Smith”Where Things Stand: Devil Will Not Be Going Down To Georgia
Republicans and aides surrounding both Donald Trump and Herschel Walker’s campaigns apparently don’t want the former president touching Georgia’s runoff Senate race with a 10-foot pole.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Devil Will Not Be Going Down To Georgia”The True Nodes of Power
The ongoing drama at Twitter — along with all the antic heat — has also helpfully illustrated where key power points in our society and economy really reside. Because Twitter is now a private company — no market reactions to worry about — and has no board, Elon Musk can, at least in the short run, do pretty much anything he likes. That’s part of the drama and craziness of the moment. Yoel Roth is the former head of safety at Twitter. He held on for the first few weeks before eventually resigning. Afterwards he wrote an op-ed about the situation in the Times. It’s a very interesting piece, filled with more information than indignation. It’s worth reading. But one thing he noted had gotten very little attention so far in the coverage of the Musk-Twitter story. Twitter is deeply reliant on access to the Apple and Android (owned by Google) app stores.
Continue reading “The True Nodes of Power”Georgia Voters Break Sunday Record As They Settle Last Senate Race Of The Midterms
As Monday ushers in a stretch of statewide, early, in-person voting in Georgia, runoff voters have already broken a turnout record amid the more sporadic voting opportunities over the weekend.
Continue reading “Georgia Voters Break Sunday Record As They Settle Last Senate Race Of The Midterms”Maricopa Officials Clarify, Again, That The Election Was Conducted Fairly In New Report
County officials in Arizona’s largest district are once again trying to get out ahead of far-right conspiracy theories, with officials publishing a new report over the weekend reiterating that problems that occurred with their printers on Election Day didn’t violate the Arizona Constitution or prevent residents from voting.
Continue reading “Maricopa Officials Clarify, Again, That The Election Was Conducted Fairly In New Report”Ye and Fuentes Dine With Racist, Anti-Semitic, White Supremacist Ex-POTUS
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Our Dinner With Trump
The defining political story of the holiday weekend was former President Trump’s dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes.
The coverage was all so predictable and rehearsed, like the coverage of a school shooting: an unsatisfying response to an intractable and recurring problem.
The most valuable part of the coverage was the fact that the dinner happened.
- The dinner was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
- The news of the dinner for four at the ex-president’s beachside resort trickled out in bits and pieces, with some initial confusion about who was actually there.
- By the Friday after Thanksgiving, Trump World was confirming that the dinner as reported did in fact happen.
- The attendees: Trump, Ye, Fuentes, and Karen Giorno, a political operative who worked on Trump 2016 campaign in Florida. Who is Nick Fuentes?
The flawed conceit of the coverage is that the dinner reveals something about Trump we didn’t already know.
Trump Is Who He Is
The premise to the coverage: What does dining with Ye and Fuentes say about Trump?
Really? That’s an open question?
I almost headlined today’s Morning Memo: “Ye and Fuentes Tainted By Dinner With Trump.”
Trump is the unabashed leader of the far right in America and has been since 2016. While in office, he unleashed a far-right coup attempt from the White House. Before, during and since being president, Trump has fomented racism, anti-Semitism, white supremacy, political violence, extremist groups, and Christian nationalism.
Everything that right-wing extremists have represented in the collective mind for the last 40 years, Trump has personally embodied. The notion that Kanye and Fuentes might somehow rub off on Trump and soil him in the process is to mistake the leader for the followers.
Some of the language and journalistic constructs still in use were outdated five years ago. They’re the equivalent of mass shooting’s “thoughts and prayers.” In this slow-to-get-it way of looking at things, Trump is “embracing” extremists, he’s under- or poorly staffed, he’s the victim of lamentable vetting at Mar-a-Lago. You can spot it easily because it’s the coverage that still openly ponders if this is what Trump truly believes. Please.
Trump’s GOP Rivals Mostly Mum
Beyond the initial fact of the dinner happening, the coverage quickly devolved into the condemnation game: Would GOPers condemn it? Would they not?
Few GOP contenders for 2024 weighed in on the fiasco, but it should be noted that few Republican officials defended him either.
- Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted a condemnation of anti-Semitism out of the blue without naming Trump or offering any context.
- RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel condemned “white supremacy, neo-Nazism, hate speech and bigotry” but did not name Trump.
- The Republican Jewish Coalition condemned West and Fuentes but did not name Trump either.
Among the few GOP elected officials to criticize Trump directly: Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) and Rep. James Comer (R-KY).
Condemnation, or lack thereof, from GOPers who have been party to this nightmare has a certain hollowness to it that weighs down the coverage, unless you focus on the comedy. It is comedic to watch Republicans do this dance every time. Even their failure to defend him much this time around is fundamentally amusing.
Jan. 6 Committee Winding Down
With the Jan. 6 committee set to expire with the end of this Congress, it’s focused on issuing its final report in the coming days.
As we headed into the Thanksgiving holiday, there was backbiting and recriminations among committee staff over the scope of the final report and what would be left on the cutting room floor.
Coming Up
Monday
~ Arizona counties face deadline to certify the results of the 2022 election, and some GOP-controlled counties are dragging their feet.
~ A federal jury in Washington, D.C., resumes deliberations in the seditious conspiracy trial of the Oath Keepers.
Wednesday: House Democrats hold leadership elections (the top four leadership slots will be agreed to by unanimous consent, multiple Democrats told Punchbowl).
Thursday: The special master in the Mar-a-Lago documents case hears arguments over disputed privilege issues (unless the 11th Circuit rules first and grants the Justice Department’s appeal to halt the special master review).
Mauna Loa Erupts For First Time Since 1984
Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano on earth, began erupting overnight on the island of Hawaii. Heightened unrest began at Mauna Loa in mid-September, but an eruption had not been considered imminent. Mauna Loa “eruptions tend to produce voluminous, fast-moving lava flows that can impact communities on the east and west sides of the Island,” according to the Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory.
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Silenced
Here are some revealing comments from Rep. James Comer (R-KY), a big player in the incoming GOP House majority, on resistance to Kevin McCarthy. Note specifically the references to Ryan and Beohner. As we’ve discussed, post-midterm Washington conventional wisdom is that Trumpism is toxic at the ballot box and Republicans are looking for a new leader. But the argument from House Republicans is that the problem for McCarthy is that pro-Trump/Freedom caucus voices have been, are being silenced.
Here’s Comer, a McCarthy supporter, explaining continued resistance to McCarthy’s elevation to Speaker.
Continue reading “Silenced”Trump’s Rough Week and the ‘Press Bias Avoidance’ Framework
Yesterday morning TPM Reader MS asked, “Is it my imagination or has the press turned against Trump?” It may seem that way and perhaps it is effectively the case. But not precisely. What’s happened over the last week — and especially in response to the Kanye/Fuentes/Trump hoedown — illustrates a key feature of the political journalism and news ecosystems.
No, it’s not that the press has turned against Trump. It’s that Republican political elites are not defending him. That changes the tenor of press coverage in clear and immediate ways. If one party is defending something or supporting it, it trips off the framework of “bias” or rather what we might call “press bias avoidance.” So such and such happened or so and so did this. Many say it’s bad. But what do their defenders say? Their defenders say X. It’s a story with two sides. Events like the January 6th insurrection and the Big Lie have put this model under strain. But it’s persistent and robust.
Continue reading “Trump’s Rough Week and the ‘Press Bias Avoidance’ Framework”Ye And Trump Dine With White Nationalist Nick Fuentes, And Other News
We hope you had a great Thanksgiving! The new special counsel for the now-candidate Trump’s various legal issues, Jack Smith, is apparently hard at work through the Thanksgiving break — and so, today, we are too.
We’ve got you covered with the news. Stay tuned.
Elon Musk and the Narcissism/Radicalization Maelstrom
It’s a fascinating thing to watch far-right radicalization unfold in real time. I’ve been watching the Elon Musk and Twitter drama with a mix of fascination and awe. He bought Twitter as part of his romance with the “free speech”/anti-“cancel culture” right and Donald Trump. Just what set him off on that path has never been adequately or convincingly explained, though there are a number of very plausible and not-mutually exclusive theories. Over the last four weeks Musk’s attachment to this crowd and that ideology have been constantly apparent. He gave an early and even for him startling taste of this when he tweeted out a rank gay-bashing conspiracy theory about the QAnon dead-ender’s hammer attack on Paul Pelosi days before the November 8th election. The process has only accelerated and intensified over the subsequent four weeks.
As he virtually high-fives supporters on Twitter he’s moved on from “free speech” and ending bans on people like Donald Trump to a much more explicit insistence that old Twitter management ran the site with the express purpose of elevating the left over the right. So just two days ago, for instance, he wrote: “Far left San Francisco/Berkeley views have been propagated to the world via Twitter. I’m sure this comes as no surprise to anyone watching closely. Twitter is moving rapidly to establish an even playing field. No more thumb on the scale!”
Continue reading “Elon Musk and the Narcissism/Radicalization Maelstrom”