She’ll never let go, Jack!
Continue reading “Under Oath, Ginni Thomas Stuck To Big Lie Script”Gingrich Clutches Pearls Over Fetterman’s Tattoo Because Gangs And Heroin And Hide Your Kids!
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Morality Authority Speaks
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) is desperately sticking to the GOP’s extremely weird new line of attack claiming that Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman has gang ties, though Gingrich has an added a special twist: Heroin.
- Gingrich zeroed in on Fetterman’s “I Will Make You Hurt” tattoo on Fox last night, which the Republican claimed was “either a reference to a song in favor of heroin use” or “was a tribute to the Crips, which was a Los Angeles-based, very violent gang.”
- “These people verge on being sick,” said Gingrich, who divorced his first wife as she was being treated for cancer.
Reality alert: Fetterman’s tattoo is a reference to “Hurt,” a well-known song by Nine Inch Nails that has literally nothing to do with the Crips.
Hurricane Barrels Toward South Carolina After Slamming Florida
Biden has declared a state of emergency as Hurricane Ian makes its way to South Carolina, leaving a devastating trail of destruction in Florida.
Senate Dodges Shutdown With Spending Bill
The Senate on Thursday approved must-pass legislation in a bipartisan vote to keep the government funded until Dec. 16.
- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) was forced to cut his proposed permitting reform from the bill after Republicans abruptly dropped their support for it out of spite over his deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on climate and drug pricing legislation.
- Insider reports a troubling moment with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) right before the vote in which the 89-year-old Democrat (who’s been increasingly struggling with her cognitive health) got frustrated with her aides as they tried to prepare her for the vote. At one point, Feinstein reportedly snapped, “I don’t even know what that is” when they asked if she had questions about the measure.
- The House is expected to take up the spending bill today before government funding expires at midnight.
Ginni Thomas Regurgitated Big Lie During Jan. 6 Panel Testimony, Chair Says
Hardline MAGA activist Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, had her voluntary interview with the House Jan. 6 Committee yesterday. It turns out that if you’re as dedicated to the Big Lie cause as she is, then you’ll keep insisting the 2020 election was stolen even while under oath.
Cannon Rescues Trump From Having To Back Up His Bullshit
Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday threw out special master Judge Raymond Dearie’s order that would’ve required Trump to actually substantiate his accusations that the FBI planted evidence in its Mar-a-Lago raid. Cannon also gave Trump another boost by extending the deadline for Dearie to wrap up his review to Dec. 16.
Putin Set To Officially Annex Ukrainian Regions
Russian leader Vladimir Putin is holding a ceremony today to sign what the Kremlin calls “accession treaties” that would illegally annex the four regions in Ukraine (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia) where Russia held fake referendums.
- Russia fired a missile at a civilian convoy in Zaporizhzhia that killed at least 25 people on Friday morning, according to Ukrainian officials.
- The U.S. and the E.U. are expected to slap new sanctions on Russia in response to the annexation.
SCOTUS’ Crumbling Legitimacy By The Numbers
Americans’ trust in the Supreme Court is plummeting to historic lows, according to a new Gallup poll, which notes that people’s opinions of the high court overall in terms of trust, job approval and confidence are “the worst they have been in 50 years of polling.”
- 47 percent say they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in SCOTUS, the lowest number recorded. It’s a staggering 20-point drop from 2020.
- SCOTUS’ job approval figures are astonishingly terrible too: Disapproval is at 58 percent, an all-time high.
- People are seeing the right-wing partisan hackery that’s infected the high court: A record high number of Americans say SCOTUS is “too conservative.”
- But don’t you dare suggest the high court is losing its legitimacy, or else Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito will wag his finger at you for crossing what he calls “an important line.”
Key Analysis
“What the urban-rural split in the 118th Congress will look like” – The Washington Post
Wake Up, Sheeple
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Correction: John Fetterman is the Democratic nominee for Senate not governor. We regret the error.
These Judges are Corrupt
Do take a moment to read Josh Kovensky’s report here on Judge Cannon’s latest order. It’s hard to capture just how unheard of and close to unprecedented this is. Trump literally asked for this particular judge to be the special master. Now only a couple weeks after his appointment she is jumping in and just overruling him in the most transparently one-sided ways. It’s really not too much to say that she’s essentially acting as Trump’s defense counsel — which is good I guess since he’s had a hard time holding on to them.
Special masters do work on behalf of the judge. At the end of the process he can make recommendations and she can simply not take them. So she is not acting beyond her authority in the narrow sense. But the point of the exercise is to have a respected outside party review evidence and make recommendations to the judge. By jumping in and overruling entirely reasonable and unremarkable decisions about how the review will be conducted she’s removing whatever pretense was left that she is there to oversee the case under the law as opposed to protect Trump. It’s not the worst of her orders in this ruling. Others are much worse on substance. But Special Master Dearie said he needed x amount of time to conduct the review. She jumps in and says, no actually you need to until past the election.
It’s all very transparent. But here we are. Read it.
Judge Cannon Does Trump Another Solid
After twisting federal criminal and national security law to help former President Trump fend off the Mar-a-Lago investigation, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for the Southern District of Florida has given him another boost.
Continue reading “Judge Cannon Does Trump Another Solid”Listen To This: The Smorgasbord Episode
A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate discuss a charcuterie tray of a Supreme Court case, the latest hijinks of the two most infamous Democratic senators and some recent shifts in midterm polls.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
Five Alarm Fire
The DC insider sheets are already buzzing about the exciting news: House Republicans plan a new round of debt limit hostage taking next year. Of course, this is all treated as somehow totally normal, as opposed to an unconstitutional form of legislative terrorism. This piece in Axios walks through the ins and outs of it, noting the following ….
The debt limit turning into a “political football” has become a “pattern in divided government,” particularly with a Democratic president, Neil Bradley, chief policy officer for the U.S. Chamber of Congress, told Axios.
This is a crock. Let’s be honest. Only Republicans do this. It only happens with Democratic presidents. Perhaps understandably, the head of the pro-business Chamber — which is, paradoxically, somewhat reviled now in the Trumpite GOP — can’t say this directly. But journalists don’t have to repeat their nonsense. The leading contender for the key committee chairmanship that would call the shots on this is already being clear on what Republicans will do. Tell the President that he has to repeal his 2021-22 legislation or the country has to declare national bankruptcy.
Continue reading “Five Alarm Fire”Fed Agencies Outline Plans To Prevent More Missing Texts After Jan. 6 Debacle
The mystery of the missing text messages from January 6th hasn’t unraveled just yet. Since several federal agencies admitted that they hadn’t retained any text messages from key figures surrounding the attack on the Capitol complex, officials have taken steps to prevent it from happening again.
Continue reading “Fed Agencies Outline Plans To Prevent More Missing Texts After Jan. 6 Debacle”Missed Chances
If you look at recent polls, there’s definitely a drift away from Democrats in a number of key races. The shifts are tiny if you look at the race averages. They may simply be the sloshing back and forth of poll numbers which is essentially noise. My best guess, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, is that Republicans have gotten back on the airwaves in a number of key races and been helped by a few weeks or ominous economic news — market declines which create a backdrop of disquiet even for people who have little or no direct exposure to equities markets. These things are mostly beyond Democrats’ and individual Senate candidates’ control. But what campaigns do control or have some real impact on is what an election is about. And it is always critical to make the election “about” whatever it is on which you have the strongest hand. In this case, for Democrats, that’s on abortion rights.
Continue reading “Missed Chances”Ginni Thomas Will Testify In Front Of Jan. 6 Panel This Week
Ginni Thomas, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, will have her voluntary interview with the House Jan. 6 Committee this week, according to committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS).
Continue reading “Ginni Thomas Will Testify In Front Of Jan. 6 Panel This Week”Mastriano Turns To Fasting And Jesus To Rescue Drowning Campaign
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Thoughts And Prayers
Today is the start of GOP Pennsylvania gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano’s “40 days of fasting and prayer” campaign that’s set to end on Election Day, as you can see here:
- But you can’t really blame Mastriano for turning to divine intervention at this point: His (non-fasting) campaign isn’t doing so hot polling-wise and money-wise to the point where, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, he’s going on podcasts and asking Americans living abroad to send him cash.
Jan. 6 Panel To Meet With Ginni Thomas This Week
House Jan. 6 Committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) told CNN yesterday that the panel is set to meet with far-right activist Ginni Thomas, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, for her voluntary interview sometime this week (he didn’t give an exact date).
- Thompson also said that the committee hasn’t figured out a new date for its next hearing, which got postponed due to Hurricane Ian. He did say he doubted it’ll happen next week, though.
- Thomas’ lawyer announced that his client had agreed to a voluntary interview last week, several months after the attorney told the committee that it needed a “better justification” to get Thomas’ testimony.
Damage Assessment Begins After Hurricane Ian
We’re just now getting the first post-storm reports from Southwest Florida, where Category 4 Hurricane Ian swept ashore.
- In a sobering but unconfirmed early report, the Lee County sheriff said on national TV that while he doesn’t have confirmed numbers, “fatalities are in the hundreds” and thousands of people are awaiting rescue.
- Sanibel is cut off from the mainland after a section of the causeway was wiped out.
- About 2.5 million Floridians are currently without power.
- Ian brought record levels of storm surge and inland flooding.
- Here, warm your heart with some hurricane animal rescue content:
Trump Uses Hurricane To Dodge Deposition
The ex-president, facing a class-action lawsuit accusing him and the Trump Organization (and his adult children) of a fraudulent marketing scheme, insisted on doing his Friday deposition at Mar-a-Lago, and oh no, look at that, there’s a major hurricane keeping the plaintiffs’ lawyers from flying down to hold the deposition! Now the deposition deadline is Oct. 31! Darn!
Alito Can’t Believe Anyone Would Question SCOTUS’ Legitimacy
After gleefully dismantling Roe, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Tuesday harrumphed at fellow Justice Elena Kagan’s warning that the high court is at risk of losing its legitimacy when justices make their decisions based on their personal beliefs.
- “Saying or implying that the court is becoming an illegitimate institution or questioning our integrity crosses an important line,” Alito complained to the Wall Street Journal.
- Also, Alito, a devout Catholic, held a Q&A at the Catholic University of America on Tuesday in which the justice said his faith made him aware of how SCOTUS’ decisions have a “real impact on the world.”
Must Read
“‘Putin Is a Fool’: Intercepted Calls Reveal Russian Army in Disarray” – The New York Times
New Mind-Boggling Trump Tales Brought To You By Maggie Haberman
Here are some of the fever dream moments in New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s upcoming book about Trump (per outlets that have received the book in advance, including CNN, the Washington Post, the Daily Beast, and Rolling Stone):
- He told then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) in 2016 that he didn’t want to disavow white supremacist supporters (i.e. David Duke) too quickly because he was worried about losing their support. “A lot of these people vote,” Trump said.
- Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) suspected in 2019 that Trump had called her while pretending to be a Washington Post reporter. The call came soon after Trump had publicly attacked Dingell’s recently deceased husband, and the purported journalist–whose voice sounded like Trump’s–asked the congresswoman if she wanted an apology from the then-president.
- He proposed bombing drug labs in Mexico as a way to crack down on drug smuggling at the border. He proposed it several times, in fact.
- He declared in 2019 that he would “just sue” Congress if it impeached him over his Ukraine aid pressure campaign.
- He almost fired his own daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, as White House advisers via Twitter at one point. Then-White House chief of staff John Kelly convinced Trump to hold off on canning his own family over social media, and he urged the then-president to speak to Ivanka and Kushner directly (he never did).
Katie Couric Announces Breast Cancer Diagnosis
Reporter Katie Couric revealed on Wednesday that she was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer in July and had the tumor removed several weeks afterward. She said she finished her last round of radiation on Tuesday.
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