Shortly after Missouri Senate GOP candidate Eric Greitens’ (R) ex-wife surfaced domestic abuse allegations against him in court Monday, a handful of Republicans condemned the former Missouri governor, with some demanding he drop out of the GOP Senate race.
Continue reading “Some Senate GOPers Demand Greitens Drop Out Of Race Over Domestic Abuse Allegations”Please Read This Important Post
We’re starting the second week of our drive. It’s really, really critical it be a good one. I’ve spoken to a number of TPM Readers over the last few days who have told me, “Well, I’d been thinking about it and that post pushed me over the edge.” I need to push more of you over the edge. If you’ve been meaning to join but haven’t gotten around to it, please make today the day. If you’ve been on the fence, please lean into it. Come off the fence and join us. You get a lot of great additional stuff we publish. And you support a truly independent operation bringing you the news in a genuinely unique way. Please join us. Just click right here.
Thank you in advance from all of us.
Small COVID Update
This is a quick follow-up on a COVID post I did last week, noting evidence of a new mini- or moderate- surge after the trough of the last month or two. I had said that my impression was that the driver was mainly the relaxation of mitigation measures — both as policy from governments and people individually changing their behavior. That seems less clear than I thought. There seems to be more evidence that the Omicron subvariant BA.2 is a key driver, perhaps the key driver. The evidence still seems muddy because BA.2 appears to have only a moderate advantage in infectiousness. And its share of cases has grown fairly slowly against the original Omicron strain. So there’s a lot about the dynamics of this latest trend that are not clear to me. But just let this stand as a partial correction or update on the earlier post which focused on declining mitigation. Be safe out there.
Cawthorn Spouts Pro-Russia Attack Lines Against Zelensky Yet Again
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Regurgitating Russia’s Imperialist Narratives To Own The Libs
Far-right Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) refused over the weekend to walk back his attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “thug,” the Asheville Citizen-Times reported.
- Instead, Cawthorn once again accused Ukrainian government of being “corrupt” and spreading misinformation on the conflict. (He provided zero evidence of this. Meanwhile, Russia’s disinformation campaign on its attack on Ukraine has been well established).
- The Republican congressman also said he wasn’t ready to call Russian leader Vladimir Putin a war criminal as Russian forces bomb hospitals, schools and residential neighborhoods in Ukrainian cities.
KBJ Takes Questions
Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson faces her first day of questioning from the Senate Judiciary Committee today, and we’ll be liveblogging it all. Stay tuned!
- One of the things we learned from yesterday’s hearings: Republicans are still very mad about the Kavanaugh confirmation process (you know, the one that ended in them getting everything they wanted). Here are our other main takeaways.
- We did a liveblog yesterday, which you can read here.
Visuals Of Jackson’s Broad Experience
Turning Point founder and eminent right-wing grifter Charlie Kirk called SCOTUS nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson an “affirmative action pick” (and called Vice President Kamala Harris the same) yesterday.
- Yes, Kirk is a racist, water is wet, sky is blue etc. so the only reason I’m bringing this up is to direct y’all to the Washington Post’s infographic laying out Jackson’s sweeping educational and career experience compared to the current Supreme Court justices:
Greitens’ Ex-Wife Accuses Him Of Domestic Abuse
Sheena Greitens, the ex-wife of Senate Missouri candidate Eric Greitens, filed court documents on Monday that laid out in horrendous detail multiple instances of the candidate allegedly abusing her and their young children during and after the sex scandal that led to his resignation as Missouri governor in 2018.
- One instance included Eric Greitens allegedly cuffing their three-year-old son across the face. Greitens also allegedly threatened to commit suicide multiple times.
- The documents are part of a bitter custody battle in wake of the Greitens’ divorce in March 2020.
- The accusations against the Senate candidate emerged four months after another GOP Senate hopeful, Sean Parnell of Pennsylvania, ended his campaign over similar domestic abuse allegations from his estranged wife.
Secret Service Took Pence To Loading Dock On Jan. 6, Official Testifies
During a trial of one of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrectionists on Monday, Secret Service inspector Lanelle Hawa testified that the Secret Service took then-Vice President Mike Pence to a loading dock, a restricted area underneath the plaza on the Senate side of the Capitol, as the pro-Trump mob ransacked the building.
Must-Reads
“20 days in Mariupol: The team that documented city’s agony” – The Associated Press
“Nearly one-third of American workers make less than $15 an hour, study finds” – CNN
Oh God, Palin’s Hinting At Running For Don Young’s Seat
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told Newsmax on Monday that she was considering a bid to succeed the late Rep. Don Young (R-AK), who died on Friday.
Palin said she would say yes “in a heartbeat” if she were “asked” to fill Young’s seat. (Alaska will hold a special election to pick a temporary replacement, so Palin wouldn’t be asked to do anything. Does she know that?)
Ohio GOP Guv Has Beef At Beef Expo
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) and his Republican primary challenger, Joe Blystone, nearly got into a scuffle at the Ohio Beef Expo in Columbus on Saturday after Blystone “debate me, coward”-ed the governor, who allegedly told the challenger he’d kick his ass.
Permanent Daylight Savings Bill Faces Cloudy Future
The bill to make daylight savings permanent that the Senate passed unexpectedly (and by accident for some senators) last week might be in trouble in the House: Both Democratic and Republican House lawmakers want to pump the brakes on the legislation and do more research before taking it up in their chamber.
Finland Has Detained 21 Yachts Potentially Belonging To Russian Oligarchs
Finnish customs officials have put a freeze on more than 20 luxury yachts docked or stored in Finland suspected to belong to Russian oligarchs, according to Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest newspaper.
You can follow our “Yacht-Watch” here.
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More on Ukraine and The Reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European
A few of you asked for book recommendations to read more on the subject of my post this morning about Ukraine and the homeland of the speakers of proto-Indo-European, the ancestor language to the languages spoken by just under half the world’s population. There’s a long answer and a short answer. But the short answer is the better one. The book is The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by David W. Anthony.
Continue reading “More on Ukraine and The Reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European”Where Things Stand: Even Some Conservative Media Find Hawley’s QAnon-Flavored Attacks On Jackson ‘Disingenuous’
As Kate Riga noted repeatedly during her coverage of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) made a point of injecting some QAnon-adjacent claims about Jackson into the public record Monday.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Even Some Conservative Media Find Hawley’s QAnon-Flavored Attacks On Jackson ‘Disingenuous’”Greitens’ Ex-Wife Reveals New Allegations Of Domestic Violence In Custody Case
Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R), who is a frontrunner in the GOP Senate race to replace retiring Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), is pushing back against allegations of domestic violence his ex-wife made in court records filed Monday.
Continue reading “Greitens’ Ex-Wife Reveals New Allegations Of Domestic Violence In Custody Case”Three Routes Senators Intend To Take In Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings
The first day of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings featured opening statements from members, road maps of where the senators intend to go during the next couple days of questioning.
Republicans have struggled to coalesce behind one coherent line of attack, not least because they don’t have much of an impetus to vociferously fight her confirmation. They already have a supermajority on the Supreme Court, and Democrats seem to have the votes to confirm Jackson without them.
For Democrats, it was a chance to tout what they liked about her record — over and over and over again.
Here are three takeaways from day one of the confirmation hearings.
1. Republicans Are Still Very Bitter Over The Kavanaugh Hearings
Perhaps the most striking feature of opening day of the hearings was how little time was spent on Jackson, the candidate up for confirmation. Republican after Republican instead cast their gaze backwards, rehashing the supposedly egregious way Justice Brett Kavanaugh was treated during his hearings.
Professor Christine Blasey Ford, in 2018, accused Kavanaugh of attempting to sexually assault her while they were in high school. Republicans reduced that accusation and its subsequent protests Monday to “nonsense,” “theatrics” and a “circus.” Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) bemoaned their own treatment during the hearing, the former grousing about being interrupted during his opening statement and the latter claiming he was spit on as he walked back to his office.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) invoked Justice Clarence Thomas’ hearings too, calling them a “disgrace.” Thomas was accused of sexual harrassment by Anita Hill. Both men, obviously, were confirmed anyway.
Many followed up the bitter remembrances of past hearings with promises that Jackson would not be subjected to the same treatment — a seemingly obvious point, since no one has accused Jackson of sexual assault.
2. Republicans Continue To Embrace Hawley’s QAnon-Flavored Attacks
The most specific attack line trotted out during the hearing was Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO), which he has been telegraphing on Twitter and Fox News in recent days.
In a criticism seemingly tailor-made for the QAnon wing of the party, he has stitched together cases he claims prove that Jackson has a history of leniency in sentencing sex offenders who prey on children.
The claims have been debunked in multiple outlets, but the Republican National Committee is happily amplifying them.
“Ketanji Brown Jackson has shown leniency towards child porn offenders,” the RNC blasted out to its email list. “That is a fact.”
Hawley essentially read his Twitter thread into the record Monday, reiterating the accusations to a note-taking Jackson, who sat in front of her children. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) also lodged the accusations amid a dizzying list of complaints about Fox News talking points — trans kids in sports, criminals on city streets, critical race theory — and Graham said that Hawley’s accusations were “fair game.”
The few other Republican attacks Monday involved accusing Jackson of radicalness by association with some groups that supported her candidacy.
3. Abrupt And Disconcerting Tenor Changes
After Republicans complained about Kavanaugh or accused Jackson of sympathizing with pedophiles, nearly every Democrat would pivot back to the specially odd confirmation hearing practice of reading to the nominee the bullet points of her resume.
The tone went from tense and dark to soporific with each party baton handoff. Very few Democrats rebutted Republicans’ accusations, the majority choosing to stick to their prepared remarks about Jackson’s experience and intelligence.
After the hearing concluded, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) didn’t even take the bait to respond to Republicans’ myriad Kavanaugh complaints.
“We’re looking forward,” he said, adding that “we all learn from life experiences,” without detailing what exactly he learned from Kavanaugh’s confirmation process. He added that not every part of Kavanaugh’s hearings was in Democrats’ control, seeming to suggest some agreement with Republican complaints about the protests and interruptions.
Senators Make Opening Statements As SCOTUS Nominee Jackson’s Hearing Marathon Begins
After weeks of traipsing to various Senate offices to meet lawmakers one-on-one, Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday for the start of a multi-day hearing marathon.
Day one should be relatively low-key — committee members, individuals introducing Jackson and Jackson herself will deliver opening statements. The speeches may provide a roadmap of where lawmakers intend to go in the next couple days of questioning.
10,000 War Dead?
This is hard to make sense of. But let me give you a brief update. A short time ago the Russian paper Komsomolskaya Pravda published an article which cited official Russian military numbers of killed in action in Ukraine as 9,861. That is a mind-blowing number. In one month Russia would have lost 2/3rds of the soldiers it lost in a decade in Afghanistan. But then a very short time later the article was pulled and replaced by a 404 error. Then it was reposted without any numbers.
What lends some credibility to these numbers is that that is in the ballpark of many Western estimates for Russian fatalities. I’ve been watching expert Russia watchers debate this in real time on Twitter and they seem to disagree on whether this was a real number that was rapidly pulled or whether it was just a complete goof, a typo.