Rand Paul Wants Trucker Convoy To ‘Clog Things Up.’ Three Guesses What He Said About BLM

Posted on by Cristina Cabrera

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo, and happy Valentine’s Day to you all!

What Could Have Possibly Prompted This U-Turn?

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is an enthusiastic supporter of Canadian truckers’ anti-government protests which have been causing major blockages at the Canada-U.S. border, telling the Daily Signal on Thursday that he hopes the so-called “Freedom Convoy” travels down south to congest American cities, too.

Canada-U.S. Border Crossing Blocked By Convoy Opens Up

Canadian police unclogged the Ambassador Bridge, a major border crossing that connects Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan, on Sunday night after a six-day logjam led by hundreds of truckers protesting government restrictions.

  • The blockade is still going on in other areas of Ottawa more than two weeks after it began.
  • Ontario premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency on Friday over the protesters’ “illegal occupation” of Ottawa.

Sen. Luján Announces He Needs A Few More Weeks To Recover From Stroke

Sen. Ben Ray Luján, whose stroke last month deprived Senate Democrats of a crucial 50th vote, posted a video update on his health status Sunday announcing his plan to return to D.C. in “just a few short weeks” to vote both on legislation and Biden’s yet-to-be-announced Supreme Court nominee.

  • Luján said he was “doing well” and will soon be discharged to an in-patient facility to recover from his surgery.
  • The senator had decompressive surgery to ease swelling in his brain, according to one of the doctors who’s treating him at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque.

National Archives Threatened To Contact DOJ If Trump Didn’t Turn Over Docs

These new CNN and Washington Post reports detail how the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had to turn the screws on Trump to get him to hand over the 15 boxes of records–some of which were marked as classified–that he’d improperly taken to his Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

  • NARA reportedly warned the ex-president that if he didn’t surrender the documents, the agency would tell the Justice Department and Congress about the issue.
    • It was reported last week that NARA has asked the DOJ to investigate both Trump taking the records and his habit of ripping up official documents in violation of the Presidential Records Act, but it’s unclear if the DOJ has done so.
  • The National Archive’s efforts to take back the records reportedly began in the summer. The agency didn’t begin receiving the documents until last month, and officials are still searching for more.
  • Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team was told about Trump’s habit of tearing up documents as it investigated the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, according to CNN.

Youngkin Mixes Up Two Black Women Lawmakers

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) apologized on Saturday after he confused state Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D) with state Sen. Mamie Locke (D) when he tried to congratulate the latter via text on the Black History Month speech she gave on the floor.

I’m sure it was because both their last names start with L.

Pelosi Tries To Put Thousand-Mile Distance Between Dem Party And ‘Defund The Police’

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wants to make it extremely clear that her party doesn’t want anything to do with the “Defund the Police” civil rights movement championed by Black progressives like Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO). 

  • Defunding the police is “not the position of the Democratic Party, with all due respect to Cori Bush,” Pelosi told ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, adding that “community safety to protect and defend in every way is our oath of office.” Biden has similarly rejected the movement.
  • That’s definitely going to stop Republicans from putting out attack ads claiming Democrats want to defund the police and antifa your neighborhoods.

Must Read

“A Rhodes Scholar barista and the fight to unionize Starbucks” – The Washington Post

A Friendly PSA

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the most wholesome government-run account on Twitter, issued this simple warning yesterday:

A Football Happens

The Los Angeles Rams defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 at the Superb Owl  Super Bowl yesterday, and that’s about all I know about it. Oh and that the NFL is now the league of sexual anarchy and the hip-hop halftime show should not have been allowed on television, according to conservative Turning Point USA leader and philosopher king Charlie Kirk.

Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!

Graham Laughs Off Trump’s ‘RINO’ Jab At Him: ‘He’s The Most Dominant Figure In GOP’

Posted on by Summer Concepcion

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a top ally of former President Trump, on Sunday shrugged off the former president calling him a “RINO” for not agreeing that Capitol insurrectionists should be given pardons.

Continue reading “Graham Laughs Off Trump’s ‘RINO’ Jab At Him: ‘He’s The Most Dominant Figure In GOP’” →

Kinzinger: Jan. 6 Committee Fully Expects Giuliani’s Cooperation Amid Reported Talks

Posted on by Summer Concepcion

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who serves on the Jan. 6 Select Committee, on Sunday said that the panel “fully” expects Rudy Giuliani to comply with its subpoena. Kinzinger’s remarks come a day after the New York Times reported that Giuliani is in talks with the committee to testify.

Continue reading “Kinzinger: Jan. 6 Committee Fully Expects Giuliani’s Cooperation Amid Reported Talks” →

Report: Giuliani Is In Discussions With Jan. 6 Committee To Testify

Posted on by Summer Concepcion

Rudy Giuliani, one of the most active proponents of former President Trump’s Big Lie, is in discussions with the Jan. 6 Select Committee about testifying, according to the New York Times.

Continue reading “Report: Giuliani Is In Discussions With Jan. 6 Committee To Testify” →

Threat By National Archives To Go To DOJ, Congress May Have Led To Trump Turning Over Mar-a-Lago Records

Posted on by Summer Concepcion

Before it obtained documents from the Trump White House last month, the National Archives reportedly issued a threat to the former president’s team, saying that it planned to alert Congress and the Justice Department if Trump did not immediately resolve a months-long back and forth to turn over records, according to CNN.

Continue reading “Threat By National Archives To Go To DOJ, Congress May Have Led To Trump Turning Over Mar-a-Lago Records” →

Why Does The US Keep Highlighting The Imminence Of A Russian Invasion?

Posted on by Josh Marshall

There has been a growing chorus of articles arguing that the Biden administration is trying to confront Russia on its own ground of information warfare. The key example is moving rapidly to declassify military intelligence about Russian moves to eliminate their potential element of surprise. The administration is trying to upend Russian tactics by continually revealing what they’re about to do or what they are preparing to do in advance. But there is something else they are doing that is getting less direct attention, something I mentioned earlier this month.

Continue reading “Why Does The US Keep Highlighting The Imminence Of A Russian Invasion?” →

The Situation in Canada is Worse Than It Looks

Posted on by Josh Marshall

I wanted to share with you this post about the situation in Ottawa, sent along TPM Reader JK. I recommend reading the whole thing. But this is the gist:

What’s happening in Ottawa, they were clear, is two separate events happening in tandem: there is a broadly non-violent (to date) group of Canadians with assorted COVID-related gripes, ranging from the somewhat justified to totally frickin’ insane. But that larger group, which has knocked Ottawa and too many of our leaders into what my colleague Jen Gerson so perfectly described as “stun-fucked stasis,” is now providing a kind of (mostly) unwitting cover to a cadre of seasoned street brawlers whose primary goal is to further erode the legitimacy of the state — not just the city of Ottawa, or Ontario or Canada, but of democracies generally.

Continue reading “The Situation in Canada is Worse Than It Looks” →

SCOTUS Ruling On Alabama Map Could Open The Door To A New Wild West Of Redistricting

Posted on by John Light

This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It first appeared at The Conversation.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s order allowing Alabama to use a congressional map that critics say disadvantages Black voters has voting rights advocates worried – and understandably so.

On the surface, the stay issued Feb. 7, 2022, in Merrill v. Milligan was procedural. In a 5-4 decision, the justices halted a district court’s injunction that had barred Alabama from using a newly redistricted map in the upcoming 2022 elections. The Supreme Court will hear the full case in its next term starting in the fall, with the ruling due by the end of June 2023 – after this year’s midterm elections.

Had it stood, the district court’s injunction would have required Alabama to redraw congressional districts ahead of the election to give Black voters greater representation. Instead, Black voters – more than a quarter of Alabama’s electorate – will be the majority in just one of seven districts.

The Supreme Court’s order could have a significant, substantive effect on the 2022 midterm elections – and not just in Alabama. In allowing the state to use a voting map adopted in late 2021 that a court has ruled unlawful soon after passage, the Supreme Court is sending a signal to other states regarding the lack of review available regarding problematic maps they may draw.

Expanding Purcell

The justices’ decision rests on the Purcell principle – a rule the Supreme Court created in 2006 when vacating a Court of Appeals decision to block Arizona’s voter ID law a month before the upcoming general election.

In their ruling in the case Purcell v. Gonzalez, justices said federal courts should not interfere with state election processes close to a general election because doing so would confuse voters and burden election officials.

The latest ruling by the Supreme Court in Merrill appears to expand the scope of the Purcell rule significantly.

The Merrill ruling does not appear to track Purcell. The district court’s injunction in Merrill was the result of a full review of Alabama’s congressional redistricting plan. The district court heard seven days of testimony and read a substantial volume of briefings before reaching its decision.

At the conclusion of the case – handled at warp speed for a federal court – the district court wrote an opinion of more than 200 pages explaining in detail the law and facts underlying its decision.

Moreover, the injunction against Alabama’s redistricting plan was issued on Jan. 24, 2022 – more than nine months before voting in Alabama’s general election ends on Nov. 8, 2022.

In contrast, the Court of Appeals in Purcell had enjoined the use of the Arizona voter ID law without explanation mere weeks before that year’s general election.

Novel reading of the Voting Rights Act

This apparent expansion of the Purcell principle is more than just a technical change. It could have a tangible impact on the election results in Alabama.

At the heart of the case is a dispute over whether Alabama must redraw its congressional districts to provide a second seat in which Black voters form the majority. The current map contains one such district.

That issue reaches the heart of the 1965’s Voting Rights Act and could affect Black Alabamians’ ability to elect their representatives of choice.

In Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s concurrence with the court’s order, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, he suggested the stay of the injunction stopping Alabama from using its map is sensible, in part, because the plaintiffs are not clearly going to win the underlying case when it comes before the Court.

Justice John Roberts dissented from the stay, noting the district court appears to have applied the law correctly and left nothing for the Supreme Court to correct.

Meanwhile, Justice Elena Kagan’s dissent – which was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor – argued the underlying merits in the challenge to Alabama appear so clear that the Court’s majority would need to employ a novel reading of the Voting Rights Act to make the case appear debatable.

Tilting elections

The court’s order in Merrill suggests that the window for deciding the legality of redistricting measures before the 2022 elections has now closed.

That likely sends a message to all states – those that have not finished redistricting and those that may wish to revise their redistricted maps – that they can pass whatever maps they want, possibly tilting the 2022 congressional election, without fear of being overruled in federal court.

Henry L. Chambers Jr. is a professor of law at the University of Richmond.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Dem Sens. Flag CIA’s ‘Secret Bulk’ Surveillance Program In Eyebrow-Raising Statement

Posted on by Cristina Cabrera

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), who both sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee, made a surprising announcement late Thursday, releasing a statement saying that they had discovered the CIA had been running a “secret bulk collection program.”

Continue reading “Dem Sens. Flag CIA’s ‘Secret Bulk’ Surveillance Program In Eyebrow-Raising Statement” →