A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.

Mom I’m Scared

Virginia GOP gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin put out a 60-second ad yesterday of a Very Concerned Mother who somberly recounts how her son showed her his school reading material, and how her “heart sunk” because the reading was “some of the most explicit material you can imagine.”

• Lawmakers’ “faces turned bright red” upon reading the material when the mother, Laura Murphy, brought it to them, she claims.
• Curiously enough, the ad never mentions which book it was or how old Murphy’s son was at the time.

What's it like to have Terry McAuliffe block you from having a say in your child's education?

This mom knows – she lived through it. Watch her powerful story. #VAgov pic.twitter.com/u8EjmMQX0n

— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) October 25, 2021

• It turns out the book was Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel “Beloved,” according to the Washington Post’s 2013 report on Murphy’s plight. It was assigned to her son in his AP English class when he was a high school senior, and Murphy attempted to get the book banned.
  • The student told the Post at the time that the book had given him nightmares because it was “disgusting and gross” and “hard for me to handle.” He is now an associate general counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Greatest Country In The World

As Democrats whittle paid leave from 12 weeks down to a mere four in their negotiations over their reconciliation package, a new analysis by the New York Times shows how badly the U.S. is falling behind on leave compared to the rest of the world.

• The U.S. is one of the only six countries in the world that doesn’t have any paid leave – and the only wealthy country that doesn’t offer it:

The U.S. is one of six nations in the world without any form of national paid leave. The Democrats are proposing four weeks, but even that is low. Of the 185 countries that offer paid leave for new mothers, only one, Eswatini, offers fewer than four weeks. https://t.co/kkzG92E9qA

— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 25, 2021

• Four weeks of leave would still leave the U.S. way behind most other countries. Only 26 countries offer four weeks or less out of the 174 countries that have paid leave. The average is 29 weeks.

Infrastructure Scramble Continues

Democratic leaders will be rushing today to hammer out a framework for the reconciliation package containing Biden’s sweeping Build Back Better agenda and pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill (BIF) this week before the President leaves for a climate summit in Glasgow.

• The House Democratic Caucus will hold a meeting this morning. Senate Democrats will hold a party lunch and are expected to speak to the press afterward.
• Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) is working on the billionaire tax proposal.
• Some Democrats aren’t giving up on trying to include immigration reform in the package, despite the Senate parliamentarian’s previous rejections.

Mo Brooks Chucks Staff Right Under Honking Bus

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), one of the Trump lackeys whom two unnamed Jan. 6 rally organizers told Rolling Stone magazine was intimately involved in planning the rallies that preceded the Capitol attack, claimed on Monday evening that he had “no involvement” in those events.

• The GOP lawmaker hot-potatoed it to his staff. “I don’t know if my staff did. .. but if they did I’d be proud of them for helping to put together a rally lawful under the First Amendment at the ellipse to protest voter fraud and election theft,” he told CNN (the 2020 election was not tainted by voter fraud).
• Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), one of the other Republicans identified in the Rolling Stone article, similarly denied the allegations, insisting yesterday that she had “no role in the planning or execution of any event that took place at the Capitol or anywhere in Washington, DC” on Jan. 6. But “with the help of my staff, I accepted an invitation to speak at one event” that day, she said, but “ultimately I did not speak at any events on January 6th.”

DeSantis Pretends He Didn’t Offer Reward To Unvaxed Cops

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) backtracked wildly yesterday after dangling a $5,000 signing bonus to out-of-state cops who refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine and entice them to move to the Sunshine State.

• DeSantis insisted his plan actually has “​​nothing to do with” vaccines and that it’s “for officers, period.” The offer goes out to any poor, beleaguered cops “if the morale is low” and they “can’t take that environment,” the governor said, adding that “the corporate media lies.”
• The thing about that, though, is that DeSantis was definitely talking about vaccine mandates when he was telling Fox News about his proposal on Sunday. He and Maria Bartiromo were wringing their hands over workers, including police officers, who were quitting over workplace vaccine mandates when he brought up the $5,000 bonus:

DeSantis offers police a bonus to relocate to FL & slams Biden amid vaccine mandates: "These people we've been hailing as heroes, the nurses we've said have been heroes… What Biden's doing is unconstitutional. He does not have the authority to do this."pic.twitter.com/esayWMplOA

— Catt (@CattHarmony) October 24, 2021

Tennessee GOPer Indicted On Campaign Finance Charges

A federal grand jury indicted Tennessee state Sen. Brian Kelsey (R) on Friday for alleged campaign finance law violations in connection with his failed campaign for U.S. Congress in 2016, the Justice Department announced yesterday.

Biden Stumps For McAuliffe

The President will be campaigning this evening for Terry McAuliffe, who’s currently neck-and-neck with Glenn Youngkin.  

Another House Dem Out

Rep. Anthony Brown (D-MD) announced yesterday that he would not be running for reelection in 2022 because he’ll be making a bid for Maryland attorney general instead.

Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!