A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.

Same Tho

During the Sandy Hook families’ defamation trial against professional tinhatter Alex Jones on Tuesday, the judge told Jones to spit out the gum he was apparently chewing in the court. Jones insisted that he wasn’t chewing gum; he was merely using his tongue to massage the hole left by a tooth removal, and offered to show the judge the hole to prove it.

The judge wasn’t interested in witnessing the hole.

“I don’t want to see the inside of your mouth,” she told him. “Sit down.”

Senate Passes Vet Bill After GOPers Get Over Themselves

Republicans who tried to kill the PACT Act (the bipartisan bill to provide aid for veterans suffering from toxic exposures) out of revenge over Democrats’ climate and tax bill reversed course after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) brought it to a vote again on Tuesday night. GOP Senate leaders made it pretty clear yesterday that the caucus had realized their tantrum was backfiring, big time.

Cipollone Subpoenaed By Federal Grand Jury

In a major development in the Justice Department’s investigation into Trump’s election steal scheme, a federal grand jury has subpoenaed ex-White House counsel Pat Cipollone, according to the New York Times, CNN and ABC News.

Mixed Results For Pro-Impeachment GOPers

Reps. Dan Newhouse (R-WA), Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) and Peter Meijer (R-MI), three of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, were on the primary ballot last night.

• Meijer lost to election denier John Gibbs.
• Newhouse and Herrera Beutler are on track to survive their primary challenges, though their races haven’t been called yet.

Huge Abortion Rights Win In Kansas

Kansas voters absolutely crushed Republicans’ efforts to scrub the right to an abortion from the state’s constitution by a jaw-dropping margin of 17 points.

Out-of-touch coastal elites in Kansas may reject forced birth, but out in the Heartland of America (Harvard Law), real Americans (20-something Catholic converts in bow ties) actually *like* it https://t.co/kKOEOvgm6x

— Eric Levitz (@EricLevitz) August 3, 2022

A Good Night For Big Liars In Key Primaries

Several election-denying MAGA faithfuls emerged as the winners in their primaries in the critical swing states of Arizona and Michigan last night.

• Arizona:
  • Mark Finchem (secretary of state)
  • Blake Masters (U.S. Senate)
  • Kari Lake (governor) is currently leading (albeit by less than two points) with 80 percent of votes reported

• Michigan:
  • Tudor Dixon (governor)
  • John Gibbs (U.S. House)
  • Kristina Karamo (secretary of state), who technically already won her primary at the Michigan GOP’s endorsement convention in April.
    • Also she believes Satan hides everywhere

Disgraced Ex-Guv And Alleged Abuser Eric Loses Senate Race To Other Eric

Eric Greitens, Missouri’s disgraced ex-governor whose ex-wife has accused him of horrific domestic abuse, lost the GOP primary for U.S. Senate to Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt last night.

• Gun-swing’ Mark McCloskey was a candidate, too. He got creamed.

Top Trump Pentagon Officials’ Texts Got Wiped Too! Huh!

The Defense Department acknowledged in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that texts belonging to senior Pentagon officials who left at the end of the Trump administration have been erased, including ones dated on and around Jan. 6, 2021.

• The officials whose texts were scrubbed included acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, his chief of staff Kash Patel and Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy–aka key witnesses to Trump’s refusal to respond to the Capitol attack.
• But to be clear, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the officials deliberately deleted the texts. We don’t know how they vanished.
• So this + the Secret Services’ Jan. 6 text erasure + top Trump DHS officials’ text erasure = a helluva lot of questions!

Georgia Now Allows Embryos To Be Claimed As Dependents

Georgia’s Department of Revenue has put out new guidance stating that ​​the agency “will recognize any unborn child with a detectable human heartbeat […] as eligible for the Georgia individual income tax dependent exemption.”

• The guidance directly cited Georgia’s ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy (when many people don’t know they’re pregnant), which was recently upheld by a federal court.
• Now Georgians are allowed to claim $3,000 tax exemption for each embryo.

Biden Has COVID With Return Of Loose Cough

White House physician Kevin O’Connor reported on Tuesday that Biden continues to test positive for COVID-19 due to a rebound case of the virus but continues to feel well, although he’s now experiencing “a bit of a return of a loose cough.” Still, the President’s lungs are clear and he remains “fever-free,” according to O’Connor.

Must Read

“RNC links up with ‘Stop the Steal’ advocates to train poll workers” – Politico

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Upholds Mail-In Voting Law

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the state’s law allowing any voter to vote by mail is constitutional.

Biden Appoints WH Monkeypox Coordinator

The President tapped Robert Fenton, a senior official at the FEMA, to head the White House’s response to the monkeypox outbreak on Tuesday.

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