A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate discuss a bill to codify the right to same-sex marriage, Joe Manchin’s latest antics and the possible last Jan. 6 hearing.

You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.

The Secret Service text destruction story has been a sort of slow burn. As Kate Riga and I discussed in the new podcast episode, I think this is due to the fact that a lot of people in government and media are having a hard time making sense of the story. They keep wanting to hear more because the current facts don’t make any sense. More to the point, both the guilty and the innocent versions of events seem equally absurd. Is it really possible that the Secret Service would purge its records of Jan. 5th and 6th and somehow not think anyone would notice or care? It seems too over-the-top and brazen even for some of the most cynical of observers. At the same time, the Secret Service’s explanation seems even more absurd. Let’s take a moment to walk through what that story is.