House Jan. 6 Committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) suggested on Wednesday that the panel’s made some major progress on obtaining key communication records from the Secret Service.
Continue reading “Jan. 6 Panel Now Receiving ‘Huge’ Tranches Of Secret Service Material, Members Say”The Dobbs Moment #2
From TPM Reader JS …
Continue reading “The Dobbs Moment #2”As a native Kansan, my astonishment began with the media reaction day after KS primary where the mostly ladies in KS “surprised” many and even “shocked” others. Really? No polls but we knew registrations by mostly younger women spiked day after Dobbs and continued upward until the election. In one KS county, Douglas, home of KU and fondly labeled “one of the most liberal counties in the US”, the vote was roughly 80% no to 20% yes. My native county, rural, strongly Republican, Catholic, the vote was far closer than recent elections.
Generation X (The Dobbs Moment)
TPM Reader GX (not her initials) on the current Dobbs moment
Continue reading “Generation X (The Dobbs Moment)”I’ve listened with interest to your discussion of Dobbs and the political fallout, and I wanted to add my perspective. I’m a middle-aged lady, late Gen X, professional, no kids.
One of the biggest generational difference I’ve noticed – comparing my group of female friends and women in their late teens/early twenties is how younger women don’t have the internalized shame around sex and female bodies that many in my generation carry. This really came into focus for me with this: Women allege sexual misconduct by Burger Records musicians – Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
GOP Nominee Hiding Election Denialism
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing
Not all election-denying Republican candidates are openly peddling the Big Lie on the campaign trail and letting everyone know how divorced from reality they are: Some are trying to sneak in disguised as a person still anchored in reality. For example:
- Erik Aadland, a Republican running for Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, privately told conservative activists in June that he believes the 2020 election was “undermined by fraud” and now “we have an illegitimate government in power,” according to audio obtained by FiveThirtyEight.
- Aadland explained that he’s being “deliberate” with his public rhetoric about the election because “it’s not an issue that wins us this race.” He argued that he’d be “much more effective in addressing” (nonexistent) voter fraud in Congress than “just screaming from a bully pulpit.”
- So FiveThirtyEight’s tally of 200 candidates (for governor, Senate, House, secretary of state or attorney general) who fully deny the 2020 election results is likely an undercount. Awesome!
Meadows Complied With DOJ’s Jan. 6 Subpoena
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has handed over the materials federal investigators sought in their subpoena to him in the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 probe, according to CNN.
- They were reportedly the same materials Meadows had turned over to the House Jan. 6 Committee (before he stopped cooperating with it), which included thousands of texts and emails.
Jan. 6 Panel Won’t Cooperate With DOJ
The House Jan. 6 Committee has decided not to work with the Justice Department, which had requested the committee’s interview transcripts to assist the federal government’s investigation into the Capitol attack, Punchbowl reports.
- That might change, however: Punchbowl’s sources said that the panel won’t be cooperating with the DOJ “at this time.”
- The committee is reportedly worried about people who would potentially get indicted in the DOJ’s probe getting access to the transcripts before their trial.
WH Reaches Tentative Deal With Rail Workers To Avoid Strike
President Biden announced a tentative agreement with rail worker unions and railroad companies early Thursday morning to prevent what would’ve been an economically disastrous nationwide strike.
- Union members will now vote on whether to ratify the deal.
- Train companies like Amtrak had already started prepping to shut down services ahead of the deadline on Friday at 12:01 a.m.
- Labor Secretary Martin Walsh spearheaded the negotiations on behalf of the White House.
Key Analysis
“Mitch McConnell’s Refusal to Seat Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court Is Coming Back to Haunt Him” – The New Republic
Charlie Kirk Accuses Graham Of Deliberately Tanking GOP Senate Majority With Abortion Ban
Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) new 15-week national abortion ban is backfiring among conservatives to the point where some are apparently starting to suspect he flopped on purpose.
- Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, for example, has a question: “Why is Lindsey Graham, 25 days from ballots going out, galloping in” – Kirk took a moment to gallop as a demonstration – “and saying we need a federal abortion ban?”
- “That feels like election interference,” he declared with a straight face.
Must Read
“Satanic panic is making a comeback, fueled by QAnon believers and GOP influencers” – NBC News
“Patagonia’s billionaire owner gives away company to fight climate crisis” – The Guardian
NH GOPers Offer Little Gift To Dems In Senate Race
Retired Army Gen. Don Bolduc, an avowed election denier, defeated New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse (R), the establishment candidate, in New Hampshire’s GOP Senate primary. So now Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the Senate, can thank Republicans for giving her a less rocky path to reelection.
Trump Says Pence Committed ‘Political Suicide’ On Jan. 6
Though it was always obvious that Trump had no intention of picking Mike Pence to be his running mate ever again, the ex-president confirmed it in an interview with reporters Peter Baker and Susan Glasser for their upcoming book.
“Mike committed political suicide” by not overturning the 2020 election on Jan. 6, Trump told the reporters, which is some pretty unsettling phrasing given how he spurred his supporters into hunting for Pence at the Capitol as they screamed about hanging the then-VP.
Food-Thieving Cats Throughout History
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Fascinating
Kate Riga and I spent most of today’s episode of the podcast marveling at what on earth Lindsey Graham was thinking or smoking when he decided to push abortion even further to the center of the national campaign dialog. Nicole Lafond discusses the issue below, with Mike Pence getting on board with Graham’s proposal. What really surprises me though is Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Ted Bud who’s running for a Senate seat in North Carolina.
Continue reading “Fascinating”Where Things Stand: Pence Joins Graham’s Great ‘Election Interference’
While vowing his undying allegiance to the “pro-life” movement, Turning Point USA founder and far-right provocateur Charlie Kirk could barely contain his ire with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) this week as he sweatily yelled at the senator for his abortion ban legislation. Kirk described the introduction of a bill that would ban abortion federally at 15-weeks just weeks out from the midterms as synonymous with “election interference.”
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Pence Joins Graham’s Great ‘Election Interference’”Election Deniers Are Running To Control Voting In More Than Half of U.S. States
Election deniers are running to oversee the election process in 27 states, according to a new report out the morning after the final primary elections of 2022.
At least 43 candidates running for governor, attorney general and secretary of state across the country have promoted former President Donald Trump’s false claim that the 2020 general election was stolen from him, the report found.
Released by the nonpartisan election monitoring group States United Action on Wednesday, the analysis was the last in an ongoing effort to track election-denying candidates throughout the primaries.
States United Action qualifies as an election denier any candidate who claimed Trump won the election, spread lies or conspiracy theories about the 2020 contest on various forms of media, called for a “forensic audit” of the election, or attempted to undermine it in other ways.
This year, 18 of the 36 gubernatorial races have an election denier on the ballot; ditto for 10 out of 30 races for attorney general and 13 out of 27 races for secretary of state.
“Campaigning on lies and conspiracy theories, Election Deniers are now seeking these positions across the country in a coordinated attack on the freedom to vote,” the report’s authors wrote. “The stakes for democracy are as high as they were on January 6, 2021.”
This cohort could have a seismic impact in Arizona and Michigan — two swing states in which election deniers are running for all three jobs.
Arizona in particular has become “ground zero for the threat to American democracy,” Larry J. Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, told the Washington Post. Election deniers advanced to the general election there in early August.
The candidates include Mark Finchem, a secretary of state candidate and far-right lawmaker who was present at the siege on the Capitol complex; Kari Lake, a former news anchor and staunch Trump supporter who said that if she lost the primary race for governor then “there’s some cheating going on”; and Abraham Hamadeh, the attorney general candidate who has boosted false claims of voter fraud and described Republicans who supported certifying the 2020 results as “weak-kneed.”
The Michigan GOP recently nominated two election deniers for state office: Kristina Karamo, who claimed that Trump won in Michigan, for secretary of state and Matthew DePerno, who challenged 2020 election results in court, for state attorney general. Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon has also expressed doubt about the election results.
An election denier winning just one of these races could throw the democratic process into chaos for the foreseeable future, the report warns.
“Half the country has an Election Denier running to oversee their elections — and if a single Election Denier wins, that’s a five-alarm fire for our democracy,” Joanna Lydgate, the CEO of States United Action, told TPM. “It’s critical that voters know what’s at stake right now.”
For Donald Trump, Information Has Always Been Power
This article was originally published at ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom.
Ever since the FBI came out of Mar-a-Lago last month with box after box of documents, some of them highly sensitive and classified, questions have wafted over the criminal investigation: Why did former President Donald Trump sneak off with the stash to begin with? Why did he keep it when he was asked to return it? And what, if anything, did he plan to do with it?
Continue reading “For Donald Trump, Information Has Always Been Power”Texas Delays Release Of Pregnancy-Related Death Count Until Next Summer
Texas health officials won’t be releasing the findings of their latest study on statewide maternal death rates until next summer, a major delay from the original September 1 release date.
Continue reading “Texas Delays Release Of Pregnancy-Related Death Count Until Next Summer”Conspiracy Theorist Wins New Hampshire Primary, Becoming Latest Problem For McConnell
Retired Army Brigadier General Don Bolduc has apparently triumphed over both New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse and the establishment Republicans who tried to stifle his ascendancy, fearing that he’s too extreme to win the general election.
Continue reading “Conspiracy Theorist Wins New Hampshire Primary, Becoming Latest Problem For McConnell”