Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) announced on Wednesday morning that she plans to vote “yes” for Supreme Court Justice nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation on the high court, the first drop of support Jackson has received from a Republican as President Joe Biden’s SCOTUS pick.
Continue reading “Susan Collins Announces ‘Yes’ Vote For Jackson, Giving SCOTUS Nom First GOP Backing”Perdue Claims He Just Misheard When He Grinned At ‘Lock Him Up’ Chants About Kemp
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
No No, I Was Calling For A Different Political Enemy’s Imprisonment!
Georgia GOP gubernatorial hopeful David Perdue insisted on Tuesday that when he gave a thumbs up at his supporters chanting “lock him up!” about incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp (R) at a rally on Saturday, he “misunderstood” what they were saying.
- “I really thought they were saying ‘lock them up,’” Perdue claimed during a local Georgia GOP gathering. It’s hard to keep track of whoboo to lock up!
- Context: Perdue was adopting Trump’s lies about the 2020 election being riddled with voter fraud in Georgia and accusing Kemp of allowing that fraud to happen. Perdue vowed to make sure those “responsible for that fraud in 2020 go to jail,” leading to the cheers that the candidate would later “misunderstand.”
What The WH Trump Jan. 6 Call Logs Do Show
The Washington Post and CBS News obtained the White House records of Trump’s Jan. 6 calls that were turned over to the House Jan. 6 Committee–and said records have a seven-hour hole that don’t include any calls Trump made during the actual Capitol insurrection. But the New York Times and Washington Post lay out all the newly revealed calls in those logs that we still got.
Indignant Clarence And Ginni Thomas Defenders Enter The Scene
- The National Review: “The Smearing of Clarence Thomas” – Andrew C. McCarthy
- The Wall Street Journal: “The Hypocritical Attack on Justice Clarence Thomas” – Jason L. Riley
Must Read
“Ginni Thomas’ Texts Are a Barometer for the Far Right” – The Atlantic
Manchin Quickly Punctures Biden’s Billionaire Tax Plan
Just 24 hours after Biden unveiled his proposed “Billionaire Minimum Income Tax” that would apply to households worth more than $100 million (only to the top one-hundredth of one percent of American households, per the New York Times), Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) made it clear on Tuesday he won’t let it get off the ground.
Russian State TV Host Calls Trump A Partner
Evgeny Popov, a Russian state-owned media host, called for regime change in the U.S. and declared that it was time to “help our partner Trump to become President,” according to Daily Beast columnist and Russian media expert Julia Davis.
- Popov’s comments came after Biden declared on Saturday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who’s been attacking Ukraine for nearly a month, “cannot remain in power.” However, Biden’s clarified since then that he wasn’t calling for actual regime change in Russia.
- Anyway, Trump would really like it if Putin could put his bloody invasion on hold for a sec and dig up some dirt on Hunter Biden, the president’s son, please and thank you.
Tennessee’s Trying To Stonewall Ex-Trump Official’s Bid For Congress
Something that might be flying under your radar: Tennessee is on track to block former Trump-era State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus, who is now running for Congress in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, from the state’s GOP primaries with a bill requiring candidates to live in the state for three years in order to qualify. And a lot of Republicans, including Trump loyalists, reeeaaally don’t want her to qualify even though Trump endorsed her.
- Ortagus is a Florida native who didn’t start living in Tennessee until she moved to Nashville last year, and, uh, she really doesn’t seem to know much about the district she’s running in!
- The Tennessee legislature passed the bill on Monday. All that’s left is Gov. Bill Lee’s (R) signature.
- But lo, the Tennessee Conservative PAC, which reportedly backs Ortagus, told Punchbowl on Tuesday that it’s ready to fund a lawsuit against the legislation if it passes. Stay tuned!
They’re Going To Jared
Trump son-in-law and former White House adviser Jared Kushner is expected to appear in front of the House Jan. 6 Committee for a voluntary interview tomorrow, and the White House confirmed on Tuesday that, unsurprisingly, Biden won’t be extending executive privilege over Kushner’s testimony.
Older Americans Can Now Get Second COVID Vaccine Booster
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday that it had authorized a second booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday for certain immunocompromised people and everyone ages 50 and up.
- According to the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, current evidence “suggests some waning of protection over time” against getting seriously sick from COVID for older and immunocompromised individuals.
- Biden will get the second booster shot if his doctor recommends it, according to the White House.
Biden Signs Anti-Lynching Hate Crime Bill
Lynching is now a federal hate crime: Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act on Tuesday. Under the law, which is named after the 14-year-old Black boy who was brutally murdered by white men in 1955, lynching is a criminal offense punishable by up to 30 years. Congress tried to pass this kind of legislation about 200 times before.
CBS Hires Mick Mulvaney For Some Reason
Ex-Trump White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney is now a contributor at CBS News, where he’ll provide “political analysis across the Network’s broadcasts and platforms,” according to the press release I got.
Indeed, would CBS do without sage analysis like this?
From a guy who actively participated in Trump’s Ukraine aid quid-pro-quo scheme?
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Loud And Proud: Republicans Take Aim At Whole Constellation Of Privacy Rights
Senate Republicans don’t have the votes to take down Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, but they’ve used her confirmation process to broadcast their intention to roll back decades of civil rights progress.
Continue reading “Loud And Proud: Republicans Take Aim At Whole Constellation Of Privacy Rights”Trump Colludin’ and Losin’ Steam At the Same Time
I was offline for a few hours and I came back to the news that ex-President Trump is calling on Vladimir Putin to help him unearth dirt about Joe Biden. I had been thinking it was going to be important going forward to remind people that Trump has repeatedly worked with Vladimir Putin to intervene in U.S. domestic politics and subvert U.S. elections. After all, it seems like Putin is getting less popular in the United States of late. But I guess that won’t be as pressing a need as long as Trump continues to re-collude out in the open on an ongoing basis. So here we are.
Continue reading “Trump Colludin’ and Losin’ Steam At the Same Time”Where Things Stand: J.D. Vance Is Just A Trump Body Double At This Point
QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) recently endorsed “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance’s bid for the Republican nomination in Ohio’s Senate race. And as he continues his descent into Trumpian madness, he’s welcoming the far-right lawmaker’s support — and all the white nationalist ties that come with it — with open, orange-tinted arms.
It’s quaint now, but I wrote a bit here about my impression of Vance from the perspective of a young person living in a small conservative town in the Midwest at the time. I was once cautiously stirred by “Hillbilly Elegy” for what it did to seemingly usher-in a new wave of nuance surrounding conservative intellectualism. But I was also deeply skeptical of his approach to Republican values; a style that seemed far too generous to the GOP during an era in which the conservative movement largely shrugged off the vile and racist rhetoric overpowering the party.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: J.D. Vance Is Just A Trump Body Double At This Point”Trump Demands Putin Drop What He’s Doing To Help Him Unearth More Hunter Biden Dirt
A month into Russia’s unprovoked, violent and deadly war on Ukraine, former President Trump is demanding Russian President Vladimir Putin turn his focus elsewhere: digging up dirt on … Hunter Biden.
Continue reading “Trump Demands Putin Drop What He’s Doing To Help Him Unearth More Hunter Biden Dirt”Liveblog: About That Hours-Long Gap In Trump’s Jan. 6 Call Logs…
There are no White House call records from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. on Jan. 6, at least according to records turned over to the Jan. 6 Committee by the National Archives. The Washington Post and CBS News first reported the mammoth gap, which raises all sorts of questions about where the missing logs are, and why they’re MIA in the first place.
It’s High Time We Revisited Manafort’s Dirty Work In Ukraine
For years, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort worked in Ukraine for people who have now either fled to Russia, or been accused of supporting it.
Manafort, now staging a comeback via a book deal, worked in Ukraine from 2005 up through the country’s 2014 revolution and afterwards.
Continue reading “It’s High Time We Revisited Manafort’s Dirty Work In Ukraine”GOPers Dare Cawthorn To Name Names As He Flings Around Cocaine And Orgy Accusations
“Key bumps.” “Fax machines.” “Orgy.” “Sexual perversion.”
We’ve been gifted a fresh congressional cocaine/orgy/sex party news cycle, folks — a treasure we shall not waste.
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) has once again found himself in a steamy situation with his fellow House Republicans.
And this time, it’s because Cawthorn’s tossing around allegations that Congress is basically a Den Of Sin, filled with devious colleagues hellbent on trampling his innocence by inviting him to orgies and doing a bunch of blow, right in front of him!
Continue reading “GOPers Dare Cawthorn To Name Names As He Flings Around Cocaine And Orgy Accusations”Trump Was 100% Making Phone Calls During The Jan. 6 Attack: Here’s The List
As you’ve probably seen by now, White House call logs the National Archives turned over to the House Jan. 6 Committee have a seven-hour gap that don’t include any calls then-President Donald Trump made or received from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. on Jan. 6, according to the Washington Post and CBS News, which obtained the records. That wide gap runs contrary to reports of multiple calls that Trump took as the Capitol insurrection was unfolding — key conversations between Trump and his allies that have helped shape the scope of the Jan. 6 committee’s probe.
Continue reading “Trump Was 100% Making Phone Calls During The Jan. 6 Attack: Here’s The List”