Pat Cipollone and Patrick Philbin, two of former President Trump’s top White House lawyers, are reportedly set to speak informally with the Jan. 6 Select Committee on Wednesday.
Continue reading “As He Speaks To Jan 6 Panel, Here’s A Reminder Of What Cipollone Was Up To Pre-Insurrection”A Few Ukraine Notes
A few miscellaneous Ukraine notes.
The White House just announced that President Biden has approved the transfer of another $800 million in arms and security assistance to Ukraine, including ammunition, armored personal carriers and helicopters. This comes just after a call today between Presidents Biden and Zelensky. This is part of a more general move toward providing Ukraine not just defensive weaponry — light/mobile anti-tank and anti-aircraft weaponry — but heavier weaponry required for offensive operations. It’s also best to see these moves in the context of actions taken by all NATO member states since they are all coordinated.
Continue reading “A Few Ukraine Notes”Judge Lets Durham Prosecution Go Ahead, Leaving Key Question For Jury
Special Counsel John Durham will get to proceed with his prosecution of a lawyer that he’s accused of being in cahoots with the global Hillary Clinton conspiracy, after a federal judge denied a motion to dismiss the case.
Continue reading “Judge Lets Durham Prosecution Go Ahead, Leaving Key Question For Jury”GOP Guvs’ Anti-Immigration Theater Gets Weird With D.C. Bus Stunt
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) political clown show has rolled into town and parked itself helpfully right on Fox News’ doorstep.
Continue reading “GOP Guvs’ Anti-Immigration Theater Gets Weird With D.C. Bus Stunt”Meadows Nixed From North Carolina Voter Roll Amid Probe Into Fraud Allegations
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is reportedly no longer listed in North Carolina’s voter rolls amid an investigation by state authorities into allegations of election fraud in the 2020 election.
Continue reading “Meadows Nixed From North Carolina Voter Roll Amid Probe Into Fraud Allegations”Leading Iowa Democrat Battles In Court To Qualify For Bid To Challenge Grassley
Former Rep. Abby Finkenauer (D-IA), Democrats’ current leading contender to take on Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in the fall, is already fighting for her political life — and that’s just to get on the ballot.
Continue reading “Leading Iowa Democrat Battles In Court To Qualify For Bid To Challenge Grassley”A Genocide Friendly GOP
I found out yesterday that the latest episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast with me and Kate Riga got pulled from YouTube apparently because we were **discussing** QAnon-adjacent pedophilia conspiracy theories peddled by Republicans. This got me in the mind of the frequently absurd ways that social media platforms try and fail to distinguish between bad or predatory speech and discussing bad or predatory speech. It also made me want to expand on some points that I made in that episode. (To be clear, you can still hear the episode. You just can’t watch the video version of it, at least for the moment.)
As I noted yesterday, mainstream political media is particularly ill-equipped to grapple with the ways in which the GOP pushes what is in essence eliminationist rhetoric and incitement. Many of us know about the QAnon conspiracy theory world which posits a vast liberal/Democrat conspiracy of sex trafficking and pedophilia which will finally be undone by a violent cleansing of America by Donald Trump. Conventional media seems entirely incapable of grappling with, explaining or describing the way that the “mainstream” GOP has increasingly promoted and mainstreamed these beliefs with a spectrum of indirect to increasingly explicit messaging. We see it in the otherwise quite difficult to explain focus on the sentencing specifics of a few cases overseen by future Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. We see it in what I discussed yesterday as the right-wing appropriation of the pedophile/sexual predation language of “grooming” to indict and discredit any and all support of transgender minors. Conventional journalism simply has a willed incapability to make the connections.
Continue reading “A Genocide Friendly GOP”Sinema Promises To Stay Mavericky If BBB Talks Get Revived
Amid rumblings that the White House might renew talks with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) over President Joe Biden’s sweeping Build Back Better (BBB) plan several months after the senator tanked the legislation, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) is proud to announce that she’ll be staying true to herself as a major obstacle in the negotiations if they do get resurrected.
Continue reading “Sinema Promises To Stay Mavericky If BBB Talks Get Revived”Brooklyn Subway Shooter Still At Large
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Person Of Interest Identified
The police named 62-year-old Frank R. James as a “person of interest” in the case.
- James allegedly rented a U-Haul truck in Philadelphia that was abandoned about five blocks away from the station where police say the gunman entered to get on the train. A key to the truck was found at the scene of the shooting.
- James seemed to have posted disturbing videos of him ranting about New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Russia’s war on Ukraine and other topics.
- James has addresses in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, police said.
- The gunman opened fire inside one of the cars of a New York City subway train in Brooklyn Tuesday after tossing two smoke grenades on the floor while wearing a gas mask, according to the New York City Police. The suspect fired at least 33 times with a Glock 9mm handgun, the police said.
- 10 people were struck, five of them were in critical condition, police said on Tuesday. At least 29 people in total were treated at hospitals after the attack, according to Brooklyn hospital officials.
Trump’s Top White House Lawyers To Speak To Jan. 6 Panel
Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his deputy, Patrick Philbin, are expected to go in for an informal interview with the House Jan. 6 Committee, according to Politico.
Biden Accuses Putin Of Committing ‘Genocide’ In Ukraine
The President declared on Tuesday that the war atrocities by Russian forces in Ukraine show that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was going beyond just invading the country; he was “trying to wipe out the idea of even being Ukrainian.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Biden for calling Russia’s attack “genocide,” and asserted that “calling things by their names is essential to stand up to evil.”
Hit-And-Run Attorney General Gets Impeached
Yesterday was a special day for South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg (R): He turned 46 years old and also became the first statewide official in South Dakota history to be impeached after he killed someone with his car.
- The Republican-controlled state House reached the minimum 36-vote threshold to impeach Ravnsborg when 28 Republicans joined all eight Democrats in voting “yes.”
- Now Ravnsborg’s impeachment case moves over to the South Dakota state Senate, where lawmakers need to reach a two-thirds majority to successfully convict him. The impeachment trial won’t be held until at least May due to state law requiring that Senate trials be held at least 20 days after the House vote.
- Like the South Dakota House, the Senate is overwhelmingly Republican: 32 GOP senators to three Democrats.
- The attorney general is now suspended until the Senate makes its decision. The state’s chief deputy attorney general will take over Ravnsborg’s duties in the meantime.
New York Lt. Guv Gets Arrested On Corruption Charges
New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin (D) was arrested on Tuesday after being indicted for an alleged bribery scheme in which he allegedly funneled $50,000 in state funds into a real estate developer’s charity in exchange for campaign contributions back when Benjamin was a state senator and running for New York City comptroller.
- Benjamin resigned on Tuesday after his arrest and pleaded not guilty. He was released on a $250,000 bond and now needs special permission to travel to Albany, New York.
- There is no evidence that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), who tapped Benjamin as lieutenant governor, was involved in the alleged plot. The alleged criminal activity happened before Benjamin was appointed to the post, according to prosecutors.
QAnoners Are Running For Office In 26 States
Hey so here’s a cool thing that’s happening: At least 78 people who’ve aligned themselves to a conspiracy theory that Trump is secretly fighting a cabal of pedophiles embedded in elite circles are now running for elected office as governors, secretaries of state, and state and federal legislative seats in 26 states, according to analysis by Grid.
DOJ Won’t Share Info On Trump Taking Docs To Mar-A-Lago With House Oversight Committee
The Justice Department has turned down House Oversight Committee chair Carolyn Maloney’s (D-NY) request for information on the 15 boxes of White House records Trump took to his Mar-A-Lago club in Florida, which both the DOJ and the committee are investigating right now.
Virginia’s GOP Guv Vetoing Bipartisan Legislation To Own The Libs
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed 25 Democrat-sponsored bills this week that had bipartisan support in the state legislature while also signing some of the bills’ companion legislation that was identical to the legislation he had vetoed.
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Where Things Stand: McConnell Warns ‘Unacceptable’ GOP Candidates Could Spoil The Fun For Everyone
There’s still plenty of room for error, especially when your hopes might have to hinge on someone who insists you call him by his TV character name (Dr. Oz) or someone who may not know what cocaine is (Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC)).
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: McConnell Warns ‘Unacceptable’ GOP Candidates Could Spoil The Fun For Everyone”