A reader pointed out to me that in this video, in which Santos is interviewed by ABC reporter Will Steakin, Santos appears to be wearing an AR-15 lapel pin. He was being asked about news that the FBI is now investigating him allegedly stealing $3,000 meant to save the life of a dying dog.
I will preface this by saying that it appears the issue has been resolved BUT for at least a few of the last 24 hours, Democrats held a supermajority on the subcommittee that Jim Jordan created to, essentially, find out what dirt the DOJ has on him.
That’s a bit reductive but not untrue. Here’s what happened:
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Can’t Even Set Up Their Bogus Subcommittee Right”On the first day of Black History Month, the College Board sent to us a revised curriculum for their Advanced Placement African American Studies course, weeks after Florida governor and likely 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis (R) said that it “lacks educational value.”
Continue reading “College Board Strips Down African American Studies Course After DeSantis Loudly Rejects It”Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) might finally have the votes he needs to keep his longtime promise and block Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from sitting on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. This comes as Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) — who had previously indicated she would not vote to boot Omar — reversed her previous statement, saying she’ll now support McCarthy’s effort to vote Omar out, which could take place today.
Continue reading “Looks Like McCarthy Managed To Cobble Together Enough Votes To Oust Omar”To many it seems premature to be thinking concretely about these things or planning them. But that’s wrong. The most logical and least destructive path out of the GOP radicals’ debt-ceiling hostage taking is for Democrats to temporarily ally with a group of House Republicans to force a vote on a clean debt ceiling bill through a discharge petition.
A discharge petition is a parliamentary tool by which a majority of members signs a petition which then forces a bill to be brought to the floor for a vote.
Continue reading “Preparation”This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
President Biden might not be known, first and foremost, for his stirring public remarks, but there is one subject to which he always brings a rousing passion: his son Beau, who died of an aggressive brain cancer in the spring of 2015. Biden’s 2017 memoir Promise Me, Dad is a testament to their intense bond. Biden has described Beau as “all the best of me.” Grappling with grief, Biden chose not to run for president in 2016. He ran in 2020 in part because of one of his and Beau’s last conversations.
Continue reading “Biden Should Wed His Cancer Moonshot To The Energy Transition”A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
A floor vote to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the House Foriegn Affairs Committee could come as soon as today after a flurry of late night activity to check procedural boxes.
Almost every story covering this brouhaha claims the GOP’s power move is because of Omar’s past anti-Semitic remarks. That may be the ostensible reason, but the House GOP is unabashed about the real reason: It is payback for Democrats removing Reps. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) from committees in the last Congress.
“You were warned. You were warned in the last Congress. You were warned if you went down this road,” Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) told Democrats.
The fact that payback involves targeting a Somalia-born, hijab-wearing member who was one of the first two Muslim women in Congress is just icing on the bad faith cake.
The vote seems less in doubt than it was a few days ago after Speaker Kevin McCarthy wrangled a couple of GOP holdouts.
It feels like we’re just waiting now for the next shoe to drop.
TPM’s Hunter Walker with a profile of the proudly transgressive Vish Burra, a Steve Bannon acolyte and former aide to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) who is now working for Rep. George Santos (R-NY).
There’s always that one guy who takes the GOP’s pretend freakout one step too far:
Rep. Eric Burlison compares DirecTV dropping Newsmax to the Holocaust pic.twitter.com/XsyefbbRTr
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 1, 2023
The former president invoked his 5th Amendment right not to incriminate himself some 400 odd times in last summer’s deposition by New York Attorney General Tish James. CBS obtained some of the video of the deposition. Watch.
CNN: “The New York attorney general’s office is asking a judge to sanction former President Donald Trump, his adult children and their attorneys after taking issue with their legal responses to the $250 million fraud lawsuit filed last year.”
Two of the people hired by Donald Trump to search four of his properties for additional classified records testified last week to a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., CNN reports. Their November search found two more classified documents at a storage facility in Florida.
It had not been previously disclosed that the FBI searched the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement after the November discovery by President Biden’s lawyers of classified documents retained from his vice presidency.
I just can’t devote any brain cells to the arcane ins and outs of this particular faux GOP obsession, but thankfully others have taken on this difficult task. If you’re into it, or merely want to understand the byzantine references and shorthand, Asha Rangappa has a reference guide to catch you up.
The rollout of Biden-targeted circus investigations commences today:
The failed GOP candidate for the state House who bought into his own Big Lie theory and allegedly masterminded a shooting spree targeting Democratic elected officials has been indicted on 14 counts, including three counts of conspiracy to commit a shooting at a dwelling, three counts of shooting from a motor vehicle, and one count of aggravated battery.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announced that he plans to defund diversity, equity and inclusion programs in every public university in the state.
Another of the handful of residents of The Villages in Florida who double voted in 2020 has admitted to the crime.
“John Rider, 62, recently entered into a pre-trial intervention program that will allow him to avoid potential prison time if he successfully completes court-ordered requirements and refrains from violating the law,” according to a local report.
But here’s the kicker. Rider was ordered, among other things, to complete 50 hours of community service. But in some jurisdictions, you can “buy out” of your community service at a rate of $10 per hour. So he’ll pay $500 and skip the community service. Nice.
Defense counsel for the upcoming Oath Keepers trial were in high dudgeon over the … limited amount of space at the single table they were allocated in the courtroom.
U.S. District Amit Mehta acceded to their demands and gave them an additional table but not before roasting them in a minute order:
Judge MEHTA’s sarcasm just drips off the page here in response to the defense’s complaint about tables pic.twitter.com/NGIgsyi5bX
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) February 1, 2023
Do you like Morning Memo? Share it with your friends and family … and let us know!
As he “actively” prepares for a presidential run, Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announced Tuesday that he plans to defund diversity, equity and inclusion programs in every public university in the state.
Continue reading “DeSantis Makes 2024 Ambitions Clear As He Pours Gasoline On His ‘Woke’ Education Fire”CBS News obtained and published footage Tuesday of a portion of Former President Donald Trump’s deposition in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud investigation from last summer, in which he notoriously pleaded the fifth repeatedly.
It’s a rare scene to witness and a seminal moment to watch. The one-time leader of the free world pleaded the fifth nearly 450 times throughout the hours-long deposition that day. Watch the first below:
The deposition was a part of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil investigation into the Trump organization’s business practices, which culminated in the $250 million lawsuit James filed against Trump, three of his children and his company alleging they were involved in an expansive, decades-long asset inflation fraud that the former President used to enrich himself.
Portions of transcripts from the former president’s deposition were included as an exhibit in the lawsuit filed in October by the New York AG’s office. Once the exhibit was filed, those portions of Trump’s deposition were no longer classified as confidential, making the videos that corresponded to the transcripts accessible to the public under New York’s Freedom of Information Law, according to CBS News.
In the video released on Tuesday, Trump — who recently announced his bid for the 2024 presidential election — is seen facing questions under oath about his finances on Aug. 10.
After an opening statement full of his usual rants about “witch hunts,” the former president began responding to questions by invoking the Fifth Amendment, saying, “For all of the reasons provided in my answer, which is incorporated herein in its entirety, I decline to answer the question.”
Senior enforcement counsel Kevin Wallace of the attorney general’s office then told Trump he could say, “same answer” to “speed things up,” instead of repeating the formal response.
Trump did just that, repeating “same answer” over 400 times during the course of the nearly four hours of questioning, according to CBS News.
The New York attorney general’s civil case trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 2. The judge on the case has rejected multiple attempts by Trump attorneys to push the trial date back.
From TPM Reader JS …
Continue reading “The Trump Question”My working hypothesis is that there’s not much reason to see Trump 2024 different than Trump 2016. In fact, he had less establishment support in the 2016 primary. Up until the end there was talk of a floor challenge, not to put John Kasich in, but a sort of pre-DeSantis in Ted Cruz.
I’m open to convincing that we’re not in for a repeat, but if, even after this, Trump is holding on to 30% or so of the primary electorate those folks are never, ever going to give up on him. So maybe he’ll lose in a one v one with DeSantis, but I think, paradoxically, the more polls like this come out the more likely it is for others to get in and I don’t think there are lanes other than “Trump” and “Not Trump.”
