The California state bar moved to revoke attorney John Eastman’s law license on Thursday, saying that he lied over and over again to support President Trump’s effort to stay in office after losing the 2020 election.
Continue reading “California Bar Moves To Nix Eastman’s Attorney License”Today in GOP Weirdos
Today in Republicans, we find that there seems to be at least signs of a real race for RNC chair, a contest that three-term incumbent Ronna McDaniel has seemed to have locked up. I suspect McDaniel still has the votes. But today Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, most recently seen with his poll numbers falling against ex-President Trump, has told far-right luminary Charlie Kirk that he’s backing Harmeet Dhillon, McDaniel’s top opponent.
“I think we need a change … I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC.”
Continue reading “Today in GOP Weirdos”Listen To This: 2024 Already
A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate discuss early 2024 Senate projections and the discovery of yet more classified documents, this time at the home of former Vice President Mike Pence.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
Lighting Money on Fire in California?
In general, I’m of the mind that it’s not really “wasting” money to spend a lot in one place when the money is better spent elsewhere. If Dems are burning money on a hopeless race in Kentucky just because they despise Mitch McConnell it doesn’t mean that money was really on offer for a sleeper race in another part of the country. I also think campaign dollars are fairly elastic. That person who’s given candidate A $100 probably has another $100 they can give to candidate B if that other candidate catches their fancy. But TPM Reader HS makes a decent point about a possible bonfire of Dem campaign dollars about to be spent in California.
Continue reading “Lighting Money on Fire in California?”I don’t think it’s too soon to warn TPM readers away from picking a candidate for the Feinstein seat. Democratic Party activists are about to waste tens of millions of dollars (hundreds of millions?) on the Porter/Lee/Schiff race that really doesn’t matter, they all would be more than adequate.
National Archives Asks Past Presidents and VPs To Check If They Have Any Classified Documents
The National Archives is formally asking former presidents and vice presidents from the last six administrations to go through their personal belongings to make sure they’re not in possession of any classified documents.
The letter is the latest in a frenzied news cycle that only began because former President Trump fought tooth and nail for over a year to avoid handing over documents that the National Archives and, later, the Department of Justice suspected were at his property.
Continue reading “National Archives Asks Past Presidents and VPs To Check If They Have Any Classified Documents”The Great Mystery
Here’s a tweet thread by Tim Snyder, the Yale history professor whose expertise both on the borderlands between Russia and Germany (Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania et al.) and democracy and authoritarianism have put him at the center of numerous public discussions over the last half dozen years. The thread basically looks at The Long Trump-Russia Story in the context of the arrest of Charles McGonigal, the high-ranking FBI counterintelligence agent.
Continue reading “The Great Mystery”Schiff Announces Senate Bid For 2024, Joining Already Crowded Field For Feinstein’s Seat
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) announced on Thursday he will be running for Senate in 2024.
“I wish I could say the threat of MAGA extremists is over. It is not. Today’s Republican party is gutting the middle class.Threatening our democracy. They aren’t going to stop,” Schiff said in a campaign video launching his Senate bid.
Continue reading “Schiff Announces Senate Bid For 2024, Joining Already Crowded Field For Feinstein’s Seat”George Santos Gets Snippy About Those Bizarro Campaign Loans
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
More Questions Than Answers
A day after making sweeping amendments to his past FEC reports and further muddying the waters on the origins of the funds he used to make personal loans to his congressional campaign, Rep. George Santos (R-NY) dodged reporters’ questions with this word salad:
Let’s make it very clear: I don’t amend anything; I don’t touch any of my FEC stuff, right? So don’t be disingenuous and report that I did because you know that every campaign hires fiduciaries.
I’m especially moved by Santos’ use of “disingenuous” and “fiduciaries.” Bold, brother, bold.
TPM On George Santos
Kate Riga and Josh Kovensky: New York’s Redistricting Chaos Changed Santos’ Future
Emine Yücel: Dems Demand McCarthy Deny Santos Access To Classified Info
More George!
Curbed: What George Santos Was Really Like as a Roommate
Insider: In a resurfaced 2020 interview George Santos claimed he met Jeffrey Epstein, and entertained the idea that he could still be alive
WaPo: ‘I felt like we were in “Goodfellas’’’: How George Santos wooed investors for alleged Ponzi scheme
Daily Beast: George Santos Planned ‘Engagement Party’ With Man While Married to Woman
NYT: How George Santos Made Baruch Volleyball Famous
Today In Political Hostage Taking News
A few tidbits on the debt ceiling hostage-taking:
- House Republicans may want to push off the debt ceiling fight until the government shutdown showdown in the fall
- Veterans of the Obama-era debt ceiling standoff weigh in on the current one: We may be doomed
- Manchin: McCarthy agreed not to cut Social Security and Medicare in debt ceiling talks
Must Read
One of the best-written things we’ve ever published at TPM:
The Sacred Lies of Virginia Thomas, by Francis Wilkinson
Rents Hit New Milestone
For the first time since tracking began in 1999, rents crested 30% of median U.S. income, meaning the typical household is now “rent-burdened.” When Moody’s first began using the metric more than two decades ago, the typical rent-to-income ratio was 22.5%.
Obamacare Sign-Ups Set New Record
The NYT:
A record 16.3 million Americans have signed up for health insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces during this year’s open enrollment period, beating last year’s sign-ups by 13 percent, the Biden administration said on Wednesday.
Awww …
After a modest Alabama farmer died on New Year’s Day, it emerged that he’d been secretly paying for his neighbors’ prescriptions for more than a decade.
WHOA
Pope Francis: Homosexuality is a sin, but it’s “unjust” to criminalize it –– and bishops should welcome the LGBT faithful into the church.
Judge Orders Release Of Pelosi Attack Video
Video of the October attack on Paul Pelosi in his San Francisco home could be released as soon as today.
RNC Chair Election Slated For Friday
WaPo: Everything you need to know about the heated RNC chair election
A Headline For The Current Age
“Marjorie Taylor Greene aims to be Trump’s VP pick in 2024”
Deep Dive On Jan. 6 Committee Report
Sigh
Trump has been reinstated to Facebook and Instagram, some two years after being banned over Jan. 6. Can’t argue with this:
Meta put Trump back on bc “the risk to public safety had “sufficiently receded” since January 2021” – understandable perception given the complete lack of any criminal charges against Trump or his co-conspirators.
— Shanlon Wu (@shanlonwu) January 26, 2023
Break The Fever?
Greg Sargent: Can enormous amounts of federal spending launched under President Biden, much of it destined for MAGA country, dampen the right-wing populist fervor unleashed by his predecessor Donald Trump?
Elaine Chao Calls Out Trump’s Racist Name-Calling
The former Trump cabinet official who resigned over Jan. 6 (and is married to Mitch McConnell) released a public statement about Donald Trump’s repeated mocking of her name:
When I was young, some people deliberately misspelled or mispronounced my name. Asian Americans have worked hard to change that experience for the next generation. He doesn’t seem to understand that, which says a whole lot more about him than it will ever say about Asian Americans.
Right-Wing Extremism Is Fundamentally And Always A Grift
Hunter Walker: ‘People’s Convoy’ Trucker Protest Movement Says It Has Been Taken Over By Text Message ‘Scammers’
Jan. 6 Conspiracy Mumbo Jumbo Hits A Wall In South Dakota
For right-wing extremists, including GOP members of Congress, the Jan. 6 rioters have been “political prisoners” unjustly detained in solitary confinement and subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.
It’s all malarky, of course. But it’s been a persistent background noise since Jan. 6.
Yesterday, the state House in South Dakota decided it didn’t want to wade into this mess, defeating a resolution that called for the “humane and fair treatment of the Jan. 6 defendants.”
LOL!
Yesterday in the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy trial:
Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!
House GOP Going Wobbly?
Are House Republicans going wobbly on debt-ceiling hostage taking?
Roll Call reports that House Republicans are now considering passing a series of short-term “clean” debt-limit suspensions in order to create more time for negotiations with the White House over the debt limit and all the spending cuts House Republicans are demanding.
There’s a lot of jargon here. So let me explain what this means.
The House would pass a series of short term laws “suspending” the debt limit. It wouldn’t create a higher debt ceiling but empower the Treasury to simply ignore the debt limit for a period of time. The point is that the crisis seems to be coming sooner than House Republicans want. Generally, the side that wants to free up more time for “negotiations” isn’t on the winning side of the engagement.
Continue reading “House GOP Going Wobbly?”Where Things Stand: Is There One Thing That Is True?
Mother Jones just reported that the new guy that the George Santos campaign listed as its new treasurer on FEC filings Wednesday is not actually his campaign’s new treasurer.
Their headline is 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 George Santos’ New Treasurer Wants You to Know He’s Not George Santos’ Treasurer.
Mother Jones called the attorney for Thomas Datwyler, a campaign finance consultant who was listed on a handful of FEC docs filed by campaign committees affiliated with George Santos as the Santos campaign’s new treasurer today, replacing Nancy Marks. Datwyler’s attorney told the publication that he never agreed to be treasurer and even told the campaign straight up that he wasn’t interested in the gig.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Is There One Thing That Is True?”