“Kanye. Elon. Trump.”
“Kanye. Elon. Trump.”
How it’s working out for the House Judiciary Committee GOP.
Some news: As you may have heard, we’re holding our first live, in-person event next week. It’s sold out, even before our announcement this morning of our special guest: Officer Michael Fanone, one of the heroes of January 6th.
He’ll join me for a live discussion of the insurrection and his new book — which is coming out tomorrow.
The book is making some news today:
Later in the meeting, Fanone also confronted McCarthy about his defense of Trump, telling the Republican leader: “While you were on the phone with him, I was getting the shit kicked out of me!”
“I asked McCarthy why he would take credit for Trump’s pathetic, half-hearted late-afternoon video address to his followers. I said, ‘Trump says to his people, ‘This is what happens when you steal an election. Go home. I love you.’ What the f–k is that? That came from the president of the United States,” Fanone writes in his book.
All three urged McCarthy to condemn 21 members of his own party who voted earlier that month against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to officers who defended the Capitol and pushed him to commit to a serious “insurrection investigation,” Fanone writes in his memoir.
“I told McCarthy I felt betrayed by the way some Republicans were twisting a riotous assault on law enforcement officers into a fundraising grift,” Fanone writes in his book.
“‘It’s crap,’ I said. ‘It’s disgraceful,’” he adds, recalling his comments during the meeting and noting that “McCarthy offered no response.”
See you next Thursday night!
Kanye, Elon, Trump
Last week, the official account of the House Judiciary Committee GOP put out this cryptically bizarre tweet (which is still up, but you should probably take a screen shot for posterity).
At the time, I asked what I thought was a pertinent question: Da fuq? The question, I regret to tell you, is still unanswered. But I think it’s safe to say that the tweet is not aging well, at all.
He is, of course, referring to this:
Which came shortly after this:
[Kanye’s] renewed attack on Jewish people comes just a day after sharing screenshots on Instagram revealing messages sent to Diddy in which West, 45, accused the rapper of being controlled by Jewish people trying to silence his 'White Lives Matter' message.
The post resulted in his Instagram account being suspended.
Just hours after the Meta restriction, Kanye took to Twitter to continue the attacks.
West's tweets marked the first time in nearly two years since he has posted to Twitter. Elon Musk welcomed his return to the platform, tweeting 'Welcome back to Twitter, my friend!'
Since Elon is not yet in charge, Twitter locked Kanye’s account after the anti-Semitic rant. The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg weighed in:
Because this is 2022, prominent GOP voices immediately denounced leapt to Kanye’s defense. Here’s Indiana’s GOP attorney general, Todd Rokita, taking time off from his duties as the state’s chief law enforcement official to provide cover for the right’s new icon:
Rokita is now furiously trying to spin away from this, but as the NYT’s Maggie Haberman noted, “Regardless of what motivates Kanye West, an attorney general defending someone for a lengthy public attack on Jews is a new dimension to 2022.”
**
And to round out the House Judiciary GOP’s trifecta of dementia, Trump used this weekend’s rally to celebrate the January 6th insurrection and spin contradictory rationales for his law-breaking:
“You know the biggest crowd I have ever seen?” he asked the crowd. “January 6. And you never hear that… they were there largely to protest a corrupt and rigged and stolen election. It was the biggest crowd, I believe, I have ever spoken to.”
And then, back-to-back, without blinking, he suggested (1) that the FBI had planted documents at Mar-a-Lago, and (2) that they were all his Precious.
Wait, there’s more
Hanlon’s razor reminds us to “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
But racism and rank stupidity have never been mutually exclusive, as Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville reminded us this weekend, when he declared:
“They want reparations because they think the people who do the crime are owed that,” Tuberville said as the crowd cheered. “Bullshit!” he added.
Once again GOP leaders reacted with denunciations of Tuberville’s pretty blantant racism complete silence.
Bonus:
And, ICYMI, via the AP:
Once shunned as a political pariah for her extremist rhetoric, the Georgia congresswoman who spent her first term in the House stripped of institutional power by Democrats is being celebrated by Republicans and welcomed into the GOP fold. If Republicans win the House majority in the November election, Greene is poised to become an influential player shaping the GOP agenda, an agitator with clout.
Crossing the aisle
Former Virginia Republican congressman Denver Riggleman is going to bat for Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D) in her competitive reelection bid in Virginia’s 7th District, appearing in a new TV ad urging voters to back the congresswoman for her willingness to work across the aisle.
“This is not a typical political ad,” Riggleman says in the opening frame. “I’m a Republican congressman saying nice things about a Democrat.”
Indeed, it’s pretty unusual for a former Republican congressman to campaign for a sitting Democrat, a la Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) supporting Democrats in Arizona over the election-denying Republican candidates for governor and secretary of state. But Riggleman is pretty unusual in that he was part of the vocal minority of Republicans to break ties with the GOP over former president Donald Trump’s stolen-election lies, telling The Washington Post in interviews last year he no longer identified as a Republican.
Quick Hits
The Question Ted Cruz Can’t Answer
You saw the movie, now read the article. In this morning’s Bulwark, Tim Miller writes about his confrontation with Ted Cruz while filming this weekend’s new episode of the Circus:
Following the rally Cruz stuck around to take questions from the media, and as luck would have it, he looked right at me and smiled. Possibly because he remembers my brief period as a supporter of his in 2016 when he was the last person alive who could stop Trump. Or possibly because of my welcoming mien. Either way, I took it as an opportunity:
“Hey Senator, nice to see you in Arizona. You objected to the 2020 vote here. . . . Since then there have been a few audits. The Republican governor, the Republican Senate president, the Republican speaker of the House all said the election was fair. Do you disagree with Doug Ducey and agree with Blake Masters and Kari Lake? Or have you changed your view? It’s been two years now.”
At this point Cruz launched into a rant about how “the people of Arizona” don’t care about the 2020 election. He insisted that what they really care about is gas prices and food prices and the rising murder rate. Before he could continue his listicle I interrupted.
“The people of Arizona voted for Joe Biden though. Right? Did they not?”
Cruz proceeded to call me a shill and a hack and repeatedly shouted “you’re done, you’re done” as I continued to try to get an answer to a very simple, yes-or-no, factual question about the 2020 election result—that he had tried to overturn.
Cheap Shots
Speaking of Elon.
Jeb!
Now that George P Bush is no longer in the Texas Attorney General race, you would think we could count on George W. and his family to speak out regarding today's GOP a la Liz Cheney, but all we get is either silence or brother Jeb's inane post about his father enjoying a Chinese meal and a 7-10 split. It's infuriating that they have chosen complicity through their silence, when they know that our democracy is on the line.
Donald Trump's rallies are an ongoing reminder of how he envisions his role as a former President, as primarily continuing to serve the self rather than others, especially in their time of need. Has this prominent Floridian done anything at all to help hurricane victims in his own state? Assist with cleanup? Make monetary donations? Offer moral support in meeting with those directly impacted? Throw anyone paper towels if they need them?
Jimmy Carter has helped build many homes for those in need. George Bush and Bill Clinton worked together to bring aid to tsunami victims and others globally in distress. Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter developed a warm friendship and offered support for each other's initiatives. Barack Obama is engaged with a charitable foundation and speaks out strategically against racism and other social inequities. Donald Trump continues to promote himself and his own interests, and foment discord in our midst.
Quick quiz: which one of those things is not like the others?