Five died and eighteen were wounded overnight in a mass shooting at a LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs. Initial reports suggest that the gunman was initially subdued by club attendees rather than police, perhaps reducing the death toll. We should treat all the initial reports as tentative. The shooter was apparently also injured and is in custody receiving medical treatment. (In the summer of 2021 the alleged shooter threatened violence against his mother with “a homemade bomb, multiple weapons, and ammunition.” A SWAT team negotiations unit was able to get Anderson Lee Aldrich to come out of the home voluntarily and he was taken into custody.)
Let’s Not Whine About Trump Being on Twitter
I see we’re back to the question of whether Donald Trump should be allowed back on Twitter, whether Elon Musk will allow him back, what it will mean? All I can add to this debate is that getting hung up on this question is undignified and unwise. Put simply, it makes the supporters of civic democracy and Americanism sound weak, helpless, lacking the courage of their convictions and beliefs, afraid. (As I was writing this post, I heard that Elon Musk had announced he was reinstating Trump on the platform.) Much of this stems from the really wrongheaded idea that Trump leapfrogged to the commanding heights of American politics in 2015 because he got so much TV coverage or because people engaged with his tweets on Twitter. That was never true. All sorts of bad conclusions flow from that misapprehension.
Continue reading “Let’s Not Whine About Trump Being on Twitter”Garland Appointing Jack Smith is Just Fine
Many of you are asking me what I make of Merrick Garland’s decision to appoint Jack Smith to serve as a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation into Jan 6th (he won’t take over current cases) and the Mar-a-Lago investigation. I think it’s fine. I strongly suspect, though here I’m talking more hunch, that it’s also bad news for Donald Trump and probably various associates.
Continue reading “Garland Appointing Jack Smith is Just Fine”Who Is Jack Smith?
A quick rundown on the newly appointed special counsel Jack Smith, with whom I wasn’t familiar prior to today’s announcement:
Continue reading “Who Is Jack Smith?”AG Merrick Garland Appoints Jack Smith As Special Counsel For Trump Probes
Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed Jack Smith to serve as special counsel to handle the various federal criminal investigations involving former President Donald Trump.
The attorney general made a formal announcement Friday afternoon, three days after Trump announced he will run for president in 2024.
Continue reading “AG Merrick Garland Appoints Jack Smith As Special Counsel For Trump Probes”Jack Smith Named As Trump Special Counsel
Update: Merrick Garland named Jack Smith, pictured above, as special counsel. More soon.
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The big news of the day: We could get an announcement as early as this afternoon from Attorney General Merrick Garland that he is naming a special counsel to handle the various federal investigations of former President Trump.
The Wall Street Journal was the first I saw to report the news, but other Main Justice beat reporters have the same info.
Continue reading “Jack Smith Named As Trump Special Counsel”Jim Clyburn Is Moving Down One Spot In The House Leadership Ranking
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) is making way for new Democratic Party leaders in the upcoming Congress. On Friday afternoon, shortly after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) issued a statement praising Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Katherine Clark (D-MA), and Pete Aguilar (D-CA) as a “new generation” of leadership whose “time has come,” Clyburn’s spokesperson Hope Derrick issued a statement to Talking Points Memo announcing that he was running for the fourth ranked spot in the caucus.
Continue reading “Jim Clyburn Is Moving Down One Spot In The House Leadership Ranking”Where’s the Money, Ron?
We’ve discussed this before. But The Miami Herald now fleshes out the story. When Ron DeSantis’s administration hired Vertol Systems, a defense contractor, to run its migrant flights program, Vertol insisted on being paid up front for a package deal. That’s not how Florida works with contractors. But Vertol insisted and eventually the politicals in DeSantis’s administration overruled the state employees who manage payments to contractors. (It seems likely that that was done by the appointee running the program, Larry Keefe, who recommended Vetrol and used to be the company’s lawyer.)
Continue reading “Where’s the Money, Ron?”Kari Lake Unsurprisingly Refuses To Admit That She Lost
It’d be bad for the brand if she didn’t make a fuss.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has refused to concede to her Democratic opponent Katie Hobbs in the race to become Arizona’s new governor. Instead, she’s signaled a potential legal challenge, but hasn’t followed through yet.
Continue reading “Kari Lake Unsurprisingly Refuses To Admit That She Lost”Boebert’s Dem Opponent Concedes Defeat Despite Automatic Recount
Update: Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) Democrat challenger Adam Frisch conceded earlier today, not waiting for the likely automatic recount.
“The likelihood of this recount changing more than a handful of votes is very small. Very, very small,” Frisch said Friday in a video. “It’d be disingenuous and unethical for us or any other group to continue to raise false hope and encourage fundraising for a recount.”
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The lead that Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) Democratic challenger held over her as counts first poured in was one of the biggest surprises of Election Night. More than a week later, the freshman congresswoman is still hanging on for dear life.
The Trump-backed, gun-toting, MAGA fave is holding on to a lead tighter than ever against Democratic challenger Adam Frisch. With 99% of the votes reported, Boebert is leading by 0.16 percentage points — 551 votes — according to the Associated Press.
Colorado requires an automatic recount when a candidate wins by 0.5% or less of the winner’s total vote count. And with the margin so small, the AP is declaring that the race in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District is likely headed to a recount.
Boebert — who has long falsely claimed that former President Trump won the 2020 election — announced late last night that she has won her reelection.
“There are less than 200 votes outstanding, which makes me so happy to announce we have won this race,” Boebert said in a video she posted on Twitter. “Over the next couple of weeks, this race will have an automatic recount… My campaign team and our lawyers will definitely make sure everything is conducted properly.”
With the race too close to call, Frisch, of course, hasn’t publicly conceded as of Friday morning. Frisch attended the congressional orientation earlier this week, saying it was “in the best interest of the district for me to attend new member orientation given the closeness of this race.” After orientation, he tweeted thanking volunteers who helped cure votes and count ballots.
“The volunteers who have spent hours—including sleepless nights—getting ballots cured & counted in #CO03 deserve the nation’s thanks as they complete one of the most democratic processes in the world and ensure the integrity of our elections,” Frisch wrote.
The Cook Political Report rated the district as solidly Republican ahead of the midterms but Frisch outperformed expectations and has been closely trailing Boebert since Election Day.
A full count is expected to be completed today, which is the deadline for counties to submit their tabulations to the Colorado secretary of state, according to the New York Times. If the race goes to a recount, it will have to be done by Dec. 13. State law requires that a mandatory recount be completed no later than 35 days after the election.