A host on far-right cable channel OAN called President Joe Biden the “groomer-in-chief,” the natural culmination of the work Republican senators started in earnest during Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings.
Continue reading “Building On Republican Senators’ Work, OAN Host Dubs Biden ‘Groomer-In-Chief’”Hit-And-Run Attorney General Begs South Dakota Lawmakers Not To Impeach Him Pls
Update: The South Dakota House has voted to impeach South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg (R).
South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg (R) is staring down the barrel of potential impeachment after fatally hitting a man with his car.
He made his case to the state legislature on Monday evening in the form of a both fiery and plaintive letter to South Dakota House lawmakers, sent the night before the House was slated to vote on whether to impeach the official.
Continue reading “Hit-And-Run Attorney General Begs South Dakota Lawmakers Not To Impeach Him Pls”Oklahoma Governor Signs Near-Total Abortion Ban Into Law
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed one of the nation’s most extreme abortion bans into law Tuesday morning, making it a felony to perform or attempt to perform an abortion in the state unless the pregnant person’s life is in danger.
Continue reading “Oklahoma Governor Signs Near-Total Abortion Ban Into Law”John Eastman’s Out Here Still Coupin’ Even While Being Investigated For Coupin’
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
You Almost Have To Admire The Commitment To Destroying Democracy
Former Trump legal adviser John Eastman went to Wisconsin last month, where he and a few other Trump allies privately met with Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) to try to convince him to somehow undo Biden’s 2020 election win in the state, according to ABC News.
Vos’ meeting last month with election deniers seeking to decertify the election (which isn’t legally possible) has previously been reported; the fact that Eastman, who’s under scrutiny for drawing up blueprints for Trump to steal the 2020 election, had attended the meeting was not.
- Eastman urged Vos to start “reclaiming the electors” and either hold some kind of “do over” or have “a new slate of electors seated that would declare someone else the winner,” Jefferson Davis, a leader in the decertification push who was at the meeting, told ABC News.
- Eastman confirmed to ABC News that he had attended the meeting with Vos, but he refused to say what they’d discussed in their “confidential” discussion.
Oklahoma Guv To Sign Near-Total Abortion Ban Into Law
Today, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) is expected to sign what will be the country’s most extreme abortion ban to date amid the GOP’s war on Roe.
- Oklahoma’s ban makes performing an abortion at any stage of pregnancy a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison plus a fine of up to $100,000, with no exceptions for rape or incest. The only exception is if the pregnant person’s life is in danger.
- Abortion will become illegal almost immediately in nearly a third of the states if the Supreme Court overturns Roe, per our tracker on Republicans’ flood of anti-abortion legislation.
South Dakota To Decide On Impeaching Hit-And-Run AG
South Dakota’s Republican-controlled state legislature will decide today whether to move forward with impeachment proceedings against South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg (R) after he ran over and killed a pedestrian with his car in 2020: At least 36 lawmakers in the 70-member South Dakota House will need to vote for impeaching Ravnsborg to trigger a trial in the Senate.
- Ravnsborg is far from safe even though all but eight House lawmakers are Republicans. Several GOP lawmakers have said they support impeaching the attorney general, it was a Republican state representative who first introduced the impeachment resolution last year and Republican Gov. Kristi Noem (R) has been actively calling for Ravnsborg’s ouster for more than a year now.
- The House’s special committee that investigated the crash voted against recommending impeachment in a 6-2 vote along party lines a little over two weeks ago. However, that vote came before the South Dakota Highway Patrol briefed lawmakers on its investigation and revealed even more damning (and gruesome) details of Ravnsborg hitting the pedestrian and likely being aware he had struck a human.
- Ravnsborg got little more than a slap on the wrist in his criminal case, which ended in no jail time. Instead, prosecutors offered him a plea deal in which he pleaded no contest to two traffic misdemeanors and paid $1,000 in fines plus $3,742 in court fees.
Ukraine Gears Up For Next Major Russian Attack
- The Washington Post: “Ukraine braces for new offensive as Russia reinforces military in east”
- The New York Times: “Fears Grow That Russia Will Escalate to Use of Chemical Weapons”
- NBC News: “Fears for Mariupol as fighting set to escalate in the east”
- CNBC: “Pentagon monitoring reports of possible Russian chemical weapons attack in Mariupol”
Must Read
“Distraught over orders to investigate trans kids’ families, Texas child welfare workers are resigning” – The Texas Tribune
MTG Loses It Over Candidacy Challenge
Far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) had a meltdown via Twitter on Monday over Georgia voters’ bid to get her disqualified from running for office, declaring that courts “should not be used as political platforms that entertain political conspiracy theories and lies invented by one party against another.” Okay Marjorie.
- Much of her rage was directed at “fraudster lawyers from NY and Mass,” and in case it wasn’t clear exactly what she was getting at, Greene ended her rant with a second reference to “scumbag lawyers from NY and Mass” who allegedly want to “control” who Georgians vote for.
- The federal judge overseeing the lawsuit has hinted at allowing the disqualification bid to move forward. She said that she will make her decision sometime this week.
The Right-Wing Media Cesspit
RNC Has A Moment About A Jewish Biden Nominee
The RNC’s Twitter account got kinda weird on Monday when Biden introduced Steve Dettelbach, his pick for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives:
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Where Things Stand: Cawthorn Skips Debate After Being Forced To Admit He Doesn’t Know What Cocaine Is
Look, It is hardly the most consequential detail of the entire storyline, but it is the most brutal — and hilarious — to me.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Cawthorn Skips Debate After Being Forced To Admit He Doesn’t Know What Cocaine Is”Jan. 6 Panel Member: ‘Shocking’ Findings Show How Close Insurrectionists Were To Success
Months into the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s investigation, Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) gave a preview of what the public can expect when the panel reveals its findings, some of which she described as “shocking” in an interview published in New York Magazine on Monday.
Continue reading “Jan. 6 Panel Member: ‘Shocking’ Findings Show How Close Insurrectionists Were To Success”Colorado GOP Faithful Overwhelmingly Support Indicted MAGA Clerk’s Secretary of State Bid
Tina Peters, the Colorado county clerk now facing felony charges for an alleged conspiracy theory-fueled scheme to breach her county election systems’ security protocols, was the clear favorite of core Republican Party voters who met Saturday to pick their 2022 candidates.
Continue reading “Colorado GOP Faithful Overwhelmingly Support Indicted MAGA Clerk’s Secretary of State Bid”The Big, Big Money
Before we delve deeper into the details I just want to point your attention to this article in the Times magazine. Through the Trump administration it was clear for all to see that Jared Kushner and Saudi de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman (aka MBS) had developed a corrupt relationship which was both defining U.S.-Saudi relations and laying the groundwork for saving and then expanding Kushner’s (and wife Ivanka Trump’s) personal fortune. Now we learn that six months after he left the White House, a sovereign wealth fund controlled by MBS made a $2 billion investment in Kushner’s brand new private equity firm, Affinity Partners — this despite the fact that the panel that screens these investments for the Saudi sovereign wealth funds advised against the investment for reasons ranging from it being a bad investment, excess risk, Kushner’s firm being poorly run and inexperienced, not to mention the obvious “public relations risks.”
Continue reading “The Big, Big Money”Colorado Republican Party Backs 2020 Election Denier For Senate
The Colorado Republican Party on Saturday officially threw its support behind U.S. Senate primary candidate Ron Hanks, a GOP state representative who’s been advancing ex-President Donald Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election.
Continue reading “Colorado Republican Party Backs 2020 Election Denier For Senate”Texas Drops Murder Charge Against Woman For Alleged ‘Self-Induced Abortion’
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Dodging A Nightmare (For Now)
District Attorney Gocha Allen Ramirez of Starr County, Texas announced on Sunday that he wouldn’t be pursuing prosecution of a woman who had been indicted for murder after allegedly being involved in a “self-induced abortion.”
- The circumstances of the alleged incident remain unclear, including whether the woman was inducing her own abortion or assisting in someone else’s.
- Ramirez said the woman “cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her” after he reviewed her case. The prosecutor still defended her arrest, however, saying that the county sheriff’s office “did their duty in investigating the incident brought to their attention by the reporting hospital.”
- The woman was arrested on Friday. It’s unclear how far along the pregnancy was or under which statue she was indicted, given that none of Texas’ new anti-abortion bans directly target people actually carrying the fetus.
- Both abortion rights groups and some anti-abortion advocates hailed the decision not to prosecute.
Ginni Grifted During Meeting Between Clarence Thomas And Trump
President Trump hosted a private lunch with the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni a week after the 2018 midterms, during which she pushed the president to install her far-right allies and fellow activists at the White House as part of her reportedly “insane” hiring/firing recommendations, according to a new CNN report.
Utah GOPers Catch Voter Frauding At Own Convention
Two men were caught trying to vote more than once as the votes in the Republican primary race for Salt Lake County clerk were being counted at the Salt Lake County GOP Convention on Saturday.
- Their attempt at stuffing the ballot boxes came after the county GOP chair claimed during the same meeting that paper ballots for the primary election would be “safest.” “But look—we fixed it, right?” the chair responded when asked about the clear self-own.
Alabama Guv Goes All In On Trump’s Big Lie
In case you missed it, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) put out a campaign ad last week claiming that “fake news, Big Tech and blue state liberals stole the election” from Trump–”but not here in Alabama,” she proudly declared of her state, as if it were ever in question that Alabama would vote for Trump.
Key Analysis
“So, Let’s Talk About Republicans and Sex Crimes” – Slate
Virginia GOP Official Resigns After Calling Secretary of Defense The N-Word
David Dietrich, the Republican chair of the Electoral Board in Hampton, Virginia, heeded calls from his own party for his resignation on Saturday over his racist post about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and retired Gen. Russel Honoré, whom House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had appointed to investigate the security failures of the Jan 6. insurrection.
- Dietrich had directed the N-word at Austin and Honoré in a Facebook rant posted in February last year but which only recently came to light.
- Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) had publicly demanded earlier on Saturday that Dietrich resign. The official agreed to do so after that, the governor’s office told WAVY-TV, after reportedly ignoring calls from the Hampton GOP to quit.
Third Biden Cabinet Member Gets COVID
Several days after Attorney General Merrick Garland and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo revealed that they had come down with COVID-19, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced on Saturday that he too had tested positive for COVID-19. All three had attended the Gridiron dinner last weekend, after which at least 67 people (including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) got infected.
MAGALand Is Big Mad After Trump Endorsed Dr. Oz
The ex-president endorsed fellow TV star Dr. Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania Senate race on Saturday, incensing some of Trump’s top supporters in right-wing media and conservative circles.
- They compared Oz to Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), apparently believing that the TV doctor isn’t MAGA enough to be worthy of Trump’s support.
- Trump was clearly dazzled by Oz’s celebrity, declaring during a rally on Saturday that being on TV as long as Oz has (18 years) was “like a poll” and “means people like you.”
Elon Musk Decides Not To Join Twitter Board
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who recently became Twitter’s biggest shareholder after buying a 9.2% stake in the company, won’t be joining Twitter’s board of directors, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced on Sunday.
- Agrawal didn’t explain exactly why Musk decided not to join the board, but apparently the move was “for the best,” according to the Twitter chief.
- Republicans had been hoping that Musk’s appointment to the board would lead to Trump’s Twitter account being restored given the Tesla leader’s previous complaints about the social media giant supposedly stifling “free speech” by banning elected officials.
A Palate Cleanser
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