I wanted to refer back to the email from TPM Reader SR which I published last night. SR referred to yesterday’s email from TPM Reader TL about government lawyers and the challenge they face taking stock of the fundamental changes in today’s judiciary. SR interpreted this as a matter of toughness or willingness to take extreme steps to advance policy outcomes. As he put it, these roadblocks stymie Democrats but they didn’t create an obstacle for Republicans or Trumpers because they just ignored the legal advice. “The difference is integrity. Dems have it. Reps don’t. You knew that already.”
This is not at all what we’re talking about. Certainly not what I’m talking about and I’m quite confident not what TL was talking about either. Toughness or willingness to break things is another metric that can be very important. But that’s not what we’re talking about here.
A man in Minnesota was federally charged with fraud on Tuesday after he vandalized his own home, falsely claimed he’d been targeted for being a Trump supporter and then tried to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance for what he called an “Arson Hate Crime.”
Several women who served in the Trump administration have reportedly created an informal support network as some come forward to testify publicly before the Jan. 6 Select Committee, a new report in Politico explains.
New arrest documents in a criminal case over leaked voting machine data make repeated allegations about the involvement of Sherronna Bishop, Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) former campaign manager.
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Not Today
During a Senate hearing on abortion access yesterday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) tried to manufacture a Fox-friendly “gotcha” moment with one of the witnesses with snarky questions about her recognizing that trans men and non-binary people can get pregnant.
“I want to recognize that your line of questioning is transphobic and it opens up trans people to violence by not recognizing them,” the witness, UC-Berkeley law professor Khiara Bridges, fired back.
Hawley proceeded to whine about “being treated like this.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) tries to mock Berkley law professor Khiara Bridges for using the phrase "people with the capacity for pregnancy" during a Senate hearing on abortion.
The Justice Department announced on Tuesday a special team called the Reproductive Rights Task Force, which aims to find ways for the federal government to protect reproductive health and abortion rights in wake of the Supreme Court’s dismantling of Roe v. Wade and GOP-controlled states’ subsequent abortion bans.
The task force will monitor and respond to “all state and local legislation and enforcement actions” that threaten to, among other things, prevent out-of-state travel for abortions and block access to FDA-approved abortion pills, according to the DOJ’s announcement.
Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta will chair the group.
Jan. 6 Hearing Postponed Due To New Info From Cipollone Testimony
House Jan. 6 Committee member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told Axios on Tuesday that the panel decided to move its hearing that was initially scheduled for tomorrow to next Thursday due to receiving “an infusion of new testimony.”
More specifically, new testimony from ex-White House chief counsel Pat Cipollone, which has “opened up a number of different avenues,” according to Raskin.
Catching Up On Yesterday’s Jan. 6 Hearing
The House Jan. 6 Committee held its seventh hearing yesterday afternoon, during which the panel laid out how Trump mobilized his already-enraged supporters–including far-right extremists–to storm the Capitol as a last-ditch attempt to cling to power.
Oath Keepers attorney Kellye SoRelle green screened herself in front of the Queer Eye loft kitchen for her January 6th committee interview pic.twitter.com/YupPZKQUxm
Twitter Sues Elon Musk For Trying To Weasel Out Of Deal
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is now facing a lawsuit from Twitter after he announced that he was terminating his $44 billion deal to buy the social media giant.
Twitter’s court filing includes screenshots of what seem to be some pretty solid self-owns on Musk’s end when he tried to troll the company on its own platform:
U.S. Central Command reported on Tuesday that ISIS leader Maher al-Agal had been killed in a drone strike that the U.S. carried out earlier that day in northwest Syria.
FLOTUS Apologizes For Comparing Latinos To Tacos
First Lady Jill Biden, or rather, her press secretary, said on Tuesday that she “apologizes that her words conveyed anything but pure admiration and love for the Latino community” a day after the first lady, speaking at a Latino civil rights conference, praised the diversity of the Latino community as being “as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio.”
Jill Biden thanking the diversity of Hispanic communities from bogadas and tacos 🌮 Who wrote this? 🙃 pic.twitter.com/O2DK6XXIyt
She’s also gonna need to apologize for that pronunciation of “bodega.”
John Bolton, Proud Coup-Doer
John Bolton, Trump’s mustachioed, war-lovin’ former national security adviser, knows that not just anyone, especially Trump, can try to overthrow duly elected country leaders:
Tapper: I don’t know if I agree with you with all due respect. One doesn’t have to be brilliant to attempt a coup Bolton: I disagree with that as somebody who has helped plan coups, not here but other places… pic.twitter.com/jK61a0e3lV
Also, Tapper, shouldn’t you have maybe pressed him a little on that???
Anyway, I’m reminded of the one (1) Trump tweet that made me crack up unironically, when he said that if he had listened to Bolton, the U.S. “would be in World War Six by now.”
Spicer Loses Bid To Sue Biden Over Military Board Ouster
A federal judge on Monday threw out ex-White House press secretary/Melissa McCarthy impersonator Sean Spicer and fellow ex-Trump administration crony Russell Vought’s lawsuit against Biden for kicking them off military academy boards.
Since the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not protect the right to abortion, furious legal scrambling is underway on both sides over what state constitutions say about abortion access.
I disagree with TPM Reader SR on this. But I post it here to add to and advance our broader discussion of the issue.
Those same gutless government lawyers mentioned in the edblog email today also put an end to a LOT of stupid shit long before the public gets a whiff of it. “Big shouldered” tough-guy dummies in the last admin were stopped dead in their tracks more often than not. They were literally too stupid for their own good. Which, was good for the rest of us.
The same starting point of what is the statutory/const authority for doing this action is an equal opportunity roadblock. The difference is that the republicans say thanks and do it anyway by finding some political lawyer hack to overrule. The dems piss and moan about the laudable goals(often true) and ask to rethink it 5 times and then gnash and wail forever. But don’t do it.
House Jan. 6 Committee vice chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) made it clear that she and her committee will not be steamrolled by Trump or any of his allies’ efforts to try to interfere with the panel’s investigation or to try to intimidate witnesses. Today was the second time she’s publicly revealed that Trump and people close to him are clearly watching the hearings — and might be getting spooked.
The House Jan. 6 Committee kicks off its seventh public hearing today at 1:00 p.m. ET. Led by Reps. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the session will focus on Trump and his allies’ ties to far-right extremists groups and how those relationships helped fuel the Capitol insurrection.
