A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
But Why Tho
The GOP nominee trying to unseat Rep. Lizzie Pannill Fletcher (D-TX) published a book titled “The Lost Diary of Anne Frank” in 2020 that was meant to be some sort of sequel to Anne Frank’s diary after she gets taken to the concentration camps, JTA reports.
- Johnny Teague, an evangelical pastor and businessman, conjures up an imaginary world in which Frank discovers Jesus while she’s in the camp.
- As JTA aptly puts it:
It’s common for evangelical Christians to engage in proselytizing, including toward Jews, and surveys have indicated that nearly half of American adults believe the country should be “a Christian nation.” But the size and scope of Teague’s efforts to undermine Anne Frank’s Judaism in his book is unusual even in such circles.
- Teague’s fictional Anne Frank writes that she’d “love to learn more about Jesus” and “all He faced in His dear life as a Jewish teacher.”
- Eventually, Anne Frank arrives at the conclusion that “every Jewish man or woman should ask” questions like “Where is the Messiah?” and “Did He come already, and we didn’t recognize Him?”
- Problematic much? Yes, yes it is:
DOJ Says Arizona Drop Box Surveillance Is Probably Illegal
The Justice Department officially stepped into a lawsuit over right-wing vigilantes’ monitoring of ballot drop boxes in Arizona on Monday by filing a “statement of interest” backing the League of Women Voters’ argument that the surveillance was voter intimidation.
- The risk of violating federal law, specifically the Voting Rights Act, “is significant” when private citizens “attempt to take over the State’s legitimate role of overseeing and policing elections,” the DOJ argued in its filing.
- A federal judge in a similar lawsuit refused to stop drop box surveillance by right-wing group Clean Elections USA on Monday.
Trump Turns To SCOTUS To Shield Tax Records From House
As expected, the ex-president on Monday asked the Supreme Court to bar the IRS from handing over his tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee.
Pelosi Attack Suspect Planned To Break Her Kneecaps, DOJ Says
David DePape was handed federal charges on Monday after he allegedly broke into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) San Francisco home and assaulted her husband Paul Pelosi with a hammer.
- In addition to the state charges filed last week, DePape now faces federal charges of assaulting a U.S. official’s immediate family member and attempted kidnapping of a U.S. official. The charges carry maximum prison sentences of 30 years and 20 years, respectively.
- According to the FBI, DePape told investigators that he was specifically targeting the House speaker (who wasn’t home) and wanted to hold her hostage for some kind of interrogation (law enforcement allegedly found zip ties and duct tape at the scene).
- DePape allegedly said he would break the lawmaker’s kneecaps if she “lied” to him.
Paul Pelosi Making Steady Progress With Recovery, Speaker Says
The House speaker on Monday gave a status update on her husband, who’s currently recovering from surgery for a fractured skull after he was struck with a hammer during the break-in on Friday:
Bolsonaro Still Silent About Defeat
Far-right Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro, who had claimed in a Trumpian fashion that only a rigged election would lead to his defeat in his country’s election, hasn’t had anything to say about his stunning ouster by ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Sunday.
- The soon-to-be former leader was “holed up” at his presidential offices and speaking to his advisers plus the minister of defense on Monday, in the New York Times’ words.
- Bolsonaro plans on giving some kind of public response today, according to the New York Times. We don’t know what that response will be–specifically whether he’ll concede the race or not.
Key Analysis
“The Supreme Court Has No Reason to End Affirmative Action. They’re Doing It Anyway.” – Slate
Although these cases involve both public and private institutions, the Supreme Court has consistently held that federal law simply applies the equal protection clause to private universities that receive federal funds. So, in theory, the justices should’ve been debating the meaning of the Constitution. Instead, the conservative justices continually reverted to free-floating policy discussions about how affirmative action makes them feel. (Hint: they feel bad.)
GOP Nevada Senate Nom’s Campaign Staffer Tied To Hateful Tweets
Jewish Insider found that GOP Nevada Senate nominee Adam Laxalt’s campaign had paid more than $6,500 to a staffer on its payroll who ran a now-deleted anonymous Twitter account called “LaxaltStan” that repeatedly posted anti-Semitic, misogynistic, and anti-LGBTQ+ tweets.
- Screenshots of the account (which was suddenly deleted on Thursday) show the staffer calling Judaism a “cult,” arguing that “guns should have more rights than women,” mocking gender-affirming care as “child abuse,” and other ugly tweets.
- Laxalt’s press secretary said that the staffer was fired in August and “is not affiliated with the campaign in any way.”
- This marks the fourth time a high-profile Republican campaign or a major GOP organization was recently found to have an outspoken anti-Semite on its payroll:
Oz Unaware Pennsylvania Isn’t On The Coast
Pennsylvania GOP Senate nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz complained to Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday that “we do not have a Republican senator north of North Carolina on the Atlantic coast until you get to Maine, if I don’t hold this seat.”
Then again…
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