Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), one of the few Republican lawmakers who’ve been outspoken in denouncing ex-President Donald Trump, announced on Friday morning that he will not run for reelection in the 2022 midterms.
Continue reading “Kinzinger Announces He Won’t Seek Reelection, Underscoring Trump’s Grip On GOP”Voting Machine Part Goes Missing In Michigan After QAnon Clerk Barred From Running Election
Michigan State Police on Thursday opened a criminal investigation into the disappearance of election equipment in a rural township after the local clerk — who has boosted 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories and QAnon memes online — was stripped of her authority to run next week’s election.
Continue reading “Voting Machine Part Goes Missing In Michigan After QAnon Clerk Barred From Running Election”WSJ Gets Huffy Over Backlash After Publishing Trump Op-Ed Boosting Big Lie
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.
Well Excuuuuse Me!
The Wall Street Journal editorial board yesterday put out a prickly defense of its decision to publish Trump’s rambling letter to the editor in which he regurgitated his usual lies about voter fraud in the 2020 election — a screed identical to any of the hundreds of emails from his Save America PAC, except it was published in a reputable news outlet wholesale, without a single factcheck.
- “The progressive parsons of the press are aflutter” over the letter, the editorial board sneers in their column. They write further down that “the media clerics” and “their attempts to censor” Trump “have done nothing to diminish his popularity.”
- The board goes on to fact-check Trump’s lies in the letter that they didn’t fact-check beforehand because “it’s difficult to respond to everything.”
- They also argue that since Trump lies all the time anyway, “we hardly did him a special favor by letting him respond to our editorial.”
- Trump’s op-ed had gone after a WSJ editorial about an open seat on Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court. It included such high-minded prose as: “Well actually, the election was rigged, which you, unfortunately, still haven’t figured out.”
Lt. Guv Staffer Arrested For Impersonating Him In Her Divorce Proceedings
A (now-former) staffer for Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R) turned herself in to law enforcement earlier this week for allegedly using her state-issued computer to send seven emails from Duncan’s address to her attorney to get information on her own divorce.
- The ex-staffer, who worked for Duncan from January 2019 until July, is charged with impersonating a public officer, computer trespass and computer invasion of privacy.
- So far it’s unclear why she did, uh, any of this.
Where We’re Left On Build Back Better
It was a bit of a whirlwind on the Hill yesterday: Biden released a framework for a scaled-down $1.75 trillion reconciliation bill after weeks of trying to hash out a deal with Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV). Then Democratic leadership went on to push for a House vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill (BIF), leading progressives to threaten to tank BIF if there was a vote before text for the new reconciliation legislation was released and if Sinemanchin didn’t commit to voting for it.
- Ultimately, the day ended without a vote, and negotiations will continue next week. TPM’s Kate Riga lays out yesterday’s events and what lies ahead here.
Biden Across The Pond
The President, a devout Catholic, is meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican today to discuss climate change before the G20 summit in Rome on Saturday and Sunday.
- Then Biden and many of the other global leaders at the summit will head to COP26, a critical climate change conference hosted by the United Nations in Glasgow.
- Biden’s trip comes amid negotiations with fellow Democrats over his Build Back Better plan in the reconciliation bill that would’ve delivered the President true evidence to the international community that the U.S. is taking new strides to address the climate.
Conservatives Already Trotting Out Election Fraud Narrative For Virginia
Fox host Mark Levin told his listeners on his radio program yesterday — with no evidence whatsoever — that Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe “is preparing to try and steal the election” in Virginia on Tuesday.
- That’s just the new normal now: preemptively declaring that any Democratic win is illegitimate.
Meadows Faces Potential Criminal Contempt Charges From Jan. 6 Panel
The House Jan. 6 select committee is losing patience with former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows as talks with the former Trump official over the panel’s subpoena drag on, according to CNN.
- Meadows’ deadline to provide documents and testimony earlier this month was temporarily postponed, and committee leaders have said that he’s been “engaging” with the panel.
- But now the frustrated committee is reportedly mulling several options to ramp up the pressure on Meadows. One option that’s being considered is setting a new deadline for the ex-White House official under threat of criminal contempt charges if he doesn’t comply, à la Steve Bannon.
Katie Porter Busts Out Visuals To Bust Oil Barons
Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) dragged the oil and gas executives during their hearing in front of the House Oversight Committee yesterday — using M&Ms and bags of rice:
Later @RepKatiePorter (D-CA) uses jars of M&Ms to ask how much of Shell’s budget is used for renewable energy, despite public assurances (it’s not a large fraction). pic.twitter.com/iU1oeCmS6R
— Ryan Koronowski (@koronet) October 28, 2021
Latino Rights Org Sues Iowa Over English-Only Law
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in Iowa is suing Iowa secretary of state Paul Pate, the Iowa Voter Registration Commission and auditors in four counties.
- Election officials have failed to provide Spanish language materials to voters who speak little English, according to LULAC. Spanish speakers and others with limited English proficiency “face unnecessary barriers to voting” due to an “erroneous interpretation and implementation” of the state’s “English-only” law, the lawsuit states.
- The organization is requesting that a judge order an exemption to the law for voting materials.
Trump Sort Of Walks Back GOP Voter Turnout Threat But Not Really
A couple of weeks after declaring that “Republicans will not be voting” in the 2022 or 2024 elections if the GOP doesn’t “solve” the 2020 election, Trump’s brainworms apparently realized that discouraging his supporters from voting would fully backfire on him.
- He released a statement yesterday insisting that his previous threat “was in no way meant to imply that I would tell them not to vote,” but rather that they “may not have the incentive to vote if the election process is not fully remedied, and quickly.”
?Voter Fraud Alert?
Ummm I’m pretty sure it’s illegal for non-humans to run election administration!
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The Sausage Making: A Weird, Stop-Start Kind Of A Day
The day started with the White House releasing the long-awaited reconciliation framework, clocking in at $1.75 trillion and outlining the bill’s primary programmatic elements.
Continue reading “The Sausage Making: A Weird, Stop-Start Kind Of A Day”Where Things Stand: Schrödinger’s Sinemanchin
A lot happened today, and, at the end of it, it’s not clear how far we’ve come from where we were when we started.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Schrödinger’s Sinemanchin”Groundhog Day
A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate discuss yet another week where Democrats are close to a reconciliation deal — if they can just circumvent Joe Manchin’s obstinance on a few key proposals.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
White House Unveils New, $1.75 Trillion Reconciliation Framework, Seeks Dems’ Support
Could this finally be it?
The White House unveiled a new reconciliation framework this morning, one it says it believes all Democrats will get behind. Biden is pushing both chambers of Congress to pass the bipartisan infrastructure deal alongside the new, $1.75 trillion reconciliation package that the framework details. It remains unclear whether centrist senators Manchin and Sinema are supporting the new framework, and whether House progressives will support the BIF.
Follow our live coverage below:
Cuomo Charged With Misdemeanor Sex Crime, Court Says
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) has been charged with forcible touching, according to a criminal complaint filed in court in Albany.
Continue reading “Cuomo Charged With Misdemeanor Sex Crime, Court Says”Awash In Threats And Harassment, Many Election Offices Struggle To Attract And Retain Workers
Testifying at a Senate hearing this week, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) detailed one of the many threats her office received in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
Continue reading “Awash In Threats And Harassment, Many Election Offices Struggle To Attract And Retain Workers”House Progressives Scale Back Demands To A Simple Ask: A Commitment From Biden That He’ll Get 50 Votes
After the Congressional Progressive Caucus meeting today, chairwoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) told reporters that the group is scaling back its demands. To get their votes on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, she said, they need to see the legislative text of the reconciliation bill and to get a promise from President Joe Biden that he has all 50 Senate votes to pass it.
Previously, Jayapal had been insisting on back-to-back votes — the better to ensure that Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) don’t see the bipartisan bill out the door then leave reconciliation to fail.
When asked by TPM whether she’d need explicit public statements from Manchin and Sinema saying they’d vote for reconciliation, Jayapal said she’d “like” it, but would accept Biden’s word if he said he had their commitment. It’s a sign of the current high levels of trust in the President among the caucus.
Jayapal, and a host of other progressives, were eager to share their support of the reconciliation framework released by the White House Thursday morning. It contained disappointments for the group — especially Manchin’s killing of federal paid leave — but they applauded the President for getting the negotiation to this point and pointed out that many of their priorities made it into the “transformational” bill.
“It is not everything we would do if we had much bigger majorities, and we are not giving up the fight for anything,” Jayapal said.
The logistics of how to move these two bills forward at this point boils down to trust. House progressives trust the President, and trust 48 of the senators. But they don’t trust that Manchin and Sinema will be there on reconciliation if they give away their leverage on the bipartisan bill early.
The House Rules Committee released the text of the bill at breakneck speed Thursday afternoon. Now all eyes are on the two senators. Sinema put out a vaguely supportive statement on the framework, and Manchin told reporters he’d need to see the text; both stopped short of committing to vote for the final bill.