Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) plans to unveil a new national abortion ban Tuesday afternoon — the so-called “Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children from Late-Term Abortions Act.”
Continue reading “A 15-Week Gestational Ban Is In No Way A ‘Late-Term’ Abortion Ban”Archives Unsure Trump Gave Up All Gov’t Records, Congress Says
When the Justice Department searched Mar-a-Lago last month, it found not only reams of documents, but empty folders, marked classified.
Continue reading “Archives Unsure Trump Gave Up All Gov’t Records, Congress Says”DOJ Willing To Accept Trump’s Proposed Candidate For Special Master
The Justice Department signaled on Monday that it would accept one of ex-President Donald Trump’s picks for a special master who would review materials the FBI seized in its Mar-a-Lago raid last month.
Continue reading “DOJ Willing To Accept Trump’s Proposed Candidate For Special Master”Republicans Move to Ban Abortion Nationwide
With the morning we have a bit more clarity on the national abortion ban Lindsey Graham announced last night and says he will be introducing today in the Senate. It appears to be a national ban on abortions past 15 weeks, with as yet unspecified exceptions. It’s still possible that the number will be 20 weeks. We’ll have to see that detail. This NBC News piece explains the strategy, which is more or less what we thought: an updated version of the GOP playbook over the last couple decades which is to move the debate from absolute bans, where their position is overwhelmingly unpopular, to “late term” abortions where a broad swathe of the public gets more squeamish and uncertain.
Continue reading “Republicans Move to Ban Abortion Nationwide”‘Deep State’ Alex Jones Spied On Own Wife And Ex-Wife, Texts Reveal
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
When The Tyrannical Surveillance State Is Fine And Normal, Actually
Texts on far-right Infowars host Alex Jones’ phone reveal that the conspiracy theorist has been secretly surveilling his ex-wife, Kelly Jones, and current wife, Erika Wulff Jones, in recent years through private spies and informers, Rolling Stone reports.
- Jones has reportedly been snooping into Kelly Jones’ location and activities for years during their custody battle through what one source called a “spy ring.”
- Jones also reportedly spied on Wulff Jones by having a member of his security team follow her around. The Infowars host would repeatedly text the security guy asking for information on his wife, per Rolling Stone.
DOJ Sends 40 Subpoenas, Seizes Several Phones
The Justice Department’s Jan. 6 investigators have been busy this past week, sending more than three dozen subpoenas to people in Trump’s orbit, according to the New York Times. CNN similarly reports that the Justice Department issued more than 30 subpoenas to Trumpland in recent days.
- Ex-Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien and ex-Trump campaign chief financial officer Sean Dollman were among those who got subpoenaed, according to CNN.
- Ex-White House social media director Dan Scavino reportedly got one too. He still works as one of Trump’s advisers.
- Federal agents also reportedly seized phones from Trump campaign advisers Boris Epshteyn and Mike Roman, who were both involved in the fake elector scheme.
- Ex-White House senior adviser Stephen Miller was subpoenaed last week too, as the Times and CNN previously reported.
Trump Campaign Aide Who Tried To Deliver Fake Elector List To Pence Is ID’d
Remember that Mike Roman guy I mentioned in that item up there just now? He was the one who brought the bogus elector certificates from Michigan and Wisconsin to Congress, where a friendly lawmaker’s office was supposed to have them delivered to then-Vice President Mike Pence, according to Politico.
- Roman reportedly delivered them to Rep. Mike Kelly’s (R-PA) chief of staff at the time, Matt Stroia.
- Pence ultimately never received the certificates.
DOJ Open To Trump’s Pick For Special Master
The Justice Department stated in a court filing on Monday that its investigators would accept one of Trump’s proposed candidates to independently sift through the documents the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago.
- The candidate is a former chief federal judge in New York named Raymond J. Dearie. He was appointed by Ronald Reagan.
- The next step: The federal judge who shockingly approved Trump’s request for a special master in the first place, Judge Aileen Cannon, will decide whether or not to assign the review to Dearie.
Plaintiff In Dumb Election Fraud Suit Unaware She Was Plaintiff
John Pierce (whom you might remember as the defense lawyer for a bunch of Jan. 6 defendants and who ghosted his clients for two weeks) is suing Rep. Dan Webster (R-FL) on behalf of far-right clown Laura Loomer’s supporters who want a do-over primary after their fave lost decisively to Webster in the Aug. 23 GOP primary.
But one of those supporters listed as a plaintiff in the suit told the Daily Beast that she had no clue she was a plaintiff until she read about it in a local news report and “just about fainted.”
- Theresa Rinaldi of Orange County, Florida said she doesn’t believe there was fraud in the primary and wants nothing to do with Pierce’s gambit. “I want my name off of that, because I did not witness any voter fraud,” she said.
- Not all the plaintiffs were looped into the suit without their knowledge, though: Yesterday I got in contact with one of them, Anne Marcotte, who told me that she was invited to join the lawsuit by a so-called election integrity group.
More Than Half Of Americans Will Have Election Denier On Ballot
This November, a staggering 60 percent of American voters will have a candidate (for House, Senate, governor, secretary of state and/or attorney general) who refuses to accept the 2020 election outcome on their ballots, according to this alarming new analysis by FiveThirtyEight.
- 118 election deniers running for the House have at least a 95 chance of winning, per the analysis.
- Only 30 percent of GOP nominees actually accept the 2020 election in some form (they either “fully accepted” it or “accepted with reservations”).
- And only 74 Republican candidates out of the total 540 fully accept the election results.
Must Read
“One of Long COVID’s Worst Symptoms Is Also Its Most Misunderstood” – The Atlantic
SCOTUS Judges Expected To Get Update On Leak Probe, Kagan Says
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said yesterday that she expects that she and her fellow justices will finally receive an update on the investigation into the unprecedented Roe opinion leak.
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Gas on the Fire
I’m still trying to understand the precise details of this. But Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) just announced that he will introduce a national abortion ban bill in the Senate tomorrow. The news just surfaced a short time ago. And I’m still seeing conflicting reports as to whether his bill is a ban at 15 weeks or 20 weeks. The first report was from TPM alum Alice Ollstein.
Continue reading “Gas on the Fire”More 2020 Poll Forebodings
Over the last couple weeks we’ve seen write-ups pointing to the possibility or probability that polls in 2022 will underestimate Republican strength just as they did in 2020. Now Nate Cohn has one in The New York Times. Cohn’s analysis is particularly interesting to me since he’s been a fairly consistent skeptic of polls in recent cycles in terms of their ability to accurately gauge the strength of the Trump coalition. G. Elliott Morris had a similar write-up in The Economist last week. Philip Bump kicked the tires on Morris’s claims in the Post. While they break down the numbers, the gist is pretty straight-forward: If you take the polling error from 2016 and 2020 and plug it into our current polls you go from Dems being in a strong position for holding and even expanding their senate majority to more like a 50-50 odds of holding the chamber at all. On the House, a GOP majority and maybe a significant one is basically a given.
Continue reading “More 2020 Poll Forebodings”More Details On Those Rumored Jan. 6 Subpoenas
Rumors have percolating in recent days among right-wing pundits that dozens of Trump allies had been subpoenaed by the DOJ — but it’s been hard to get a clear picture what’s true and what’s not.
Now the New York Times has some details, reporting that 40 people were subpoenaed in recent days as part of the DOJ’s Jan. 6 investigation, including some who helped on the fake electors scheme. Names on the list overlap with those subpoenaed by the congressional Jan. 6 Committee. Story here.
We’ll have more on this, too, in the next few days.
Ari Fleischer Stopped His 9/11 Tweets. He’s Also Been Working For A Saudi Golf Venture.
Former Bush administration Press Secretary Ari Fleischer has a 9/11 tradition.
Continue reading “Ari Fleischer Stopped His 9/11 Tweets. He’s Also Been Working For A Saudi Golf Venture.”Fruit of the Poison (Leonard Leo) Tree
A friend of mine pointed out to me this tweet from the head of Leonard Leo’s new “Honest Elections” outfit, the one that was recently given more than a billion dollars. He’s referring to the “independent legislature theory” the right is now trying to push in a case before the Supreme Court.