Hmm. What's it say when two Republicans sound like Cringe Jean-Paul. Oh, it works. Cringe. Cringe Jean-Paul. This is going to stick. But it does make me long for the honesty of Jen Psaki. But it's obvious that Jan. 6 is their therapy and nothing more. Because as a criminal referral, it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't obligate feds to bring a case, meaning the hearing was simply a political vendetta disguised as a hearing, but turned into a show trial. And once again, this isn't any more surprising than our president huffing a bottle of Johnson and Johnson "No More Tears" shampoo. Just a piece of fake news in a week where the networks take what they can get. And they took it because they're already on vacation from reality.
The Liz Cheney committee has issued a sham “criminal referral” on Donald Trump, a sideshow that will prove to be a pyrrhic victory for Democrats, but in the meantime one that Trump obviously won’t take lying down.
Last night and this morning he let them have it via Truth Social. A few minutes ago he blasted them for claiming he doesn’t even believe the election was stolen, an obvious untruth.
“I see where the Unselect Committee, using the Democrats favorite weapon, DISINFORMATION, is trying to make the case that I didn’t really believe I won the Election. This is a total LIE. I never thought, for even a moment, that the Presidential Election of 2020 was not Rigged & Stolen, and my conviction became even stronger as time went by. Now, with all of the massive evidence that has come to light, including recently with the FBI suppression of Election changing information, I was 100% RIGHT!”
As for the referral, Trump said something that could not be more true, and which someone observed in our comments section the other day.
“These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me,” he wrote. “It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”
That could not be more correct. When they do this, it empowers Trump and the MAGA base. They just don’t get it.
“January 6 2021 was the first time an American president refused his constitutional duty to transfer power peacefully to the next,” the outgoing Wyoming Republican said on Monday. “In our work over the last 18 months, the Select Committee has recognized our obligation to do everything we can to ensure this never happens again.”
“At the beginning of our investigation, we understood that tens of millions of Americans had been persuaded by President Trump that the 2020 election was stolen by overwhelming fraud,” she said. “And we also knew this was flatly false. We knew that dozens of state and federal judges had addressed and resolved all manner of allegations about the election.”
“Our legal system functioned as it should but our president would not accept the outcome. Among the most shameful of this committee's findings, was that President Trump sat in the dining room off the Oval Office watching the violent riot at the Capitol, on television for hours,” Ms Cheney added. “He would not issue a public statement instructing his supporters to disperse and leave the Capitol, despite urgent pleas from his White House staff and dozens of others to do so.”
“Members of his family, his White House lawyers, virtually all those around him knew that this simple act was critical. For hours, he would not do it,” she said.
“During this time, law enforcement agents were attacked and seriously injured. The capital was invaded, the electoral count was halted and the lives of those in the capital were put at risk,” Ms Cheney added. “In addition to being unlawful as described in our report. This was an utter moral failure and a clear dereliction of duty. Evidence of this can be seen in the testimony of President Trump's own White House counsel, and several other White House witnesses.”
“No man who would behave that way at that moment in time can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again. He is unfit for any office,” she said.
“The committee recognizes that our work has only begun. It's only the initial step in addressing President Trump's effort to remain in office illegally. Prosecutors are considering the implications of the conduct that we described in our report as are citizens all across our nation,” the Republican added.
Chris Hayes got proved wrong and dumb so fast this time you have to marvel at the speed of the modern era. No more horse and buggy proving him wrong after a couple of days because nobody was watching his show or reading what he writes! In these modern times we have apps that can survive paying attention to him and his wrongness becomes apparent in hours or even minutes.
For example, Hissy Chrissy has been really super feelings-hurt about the fact that scam artist and fraud Sam Bankman-Fried was so deeply in bed with Democrats they were sharing a pillow and a toothbrush. So when SBF was trying to get the media to cut him slack he threw them a chew toy by claiming he was giving dark money to Republicans, which the press jumped on like a rabid dog finding Donna and Tad in a Pinto.
Chris Hayes was raining fire on Fox for pushing right-wing conspiracy theories. "Now, there's two major problems with the story they've been telling. The first major problem is that Sam Bankman-Fried, it turns out, wasn't a partisan donor. By his own admission last month, he gave just as much to Republicans as he did to Democrats."
So wait a minute. Bankman-Fried is on record for humongous Democrat donations, but the fraudster should be automatically believed when he claims he made massive but untraceable donations to the GOP?!
Hayes was putting all of his crypto-punditry on the empty words of SBF: "All his Republican donations were dark, the dark money the Republican Supreme Court enabled, that he was able to funnel without anyone noticing to Republican donors, too. Somebody please tell Tucker."
Hayes didn't mention that Bankman-Fried claimed he gave "dark money" to Republicans because "reporters freak the f--- out if you donate to Republicans. They're all super liberal, and I didn't want to have that fight."
There were Republican politicians on the SBF list. Nik Popli at Time magazine reported Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Susan Collins of Maine received the maximum individual contribution of $5,800. But that doesn't balance out being the No. 2 Democrat sugar daddy of 2022.
Bankman-Fried conned a large number of leftist journalists with his talk of "effective altruism," growing mega-rich only to give it all away. Even now, they can't admit how easily conned they were.
The most obvious evidence of journalistic skulduggery perpetually emerges in coverage of scandals. Republican scandals are hyped to the skies, and Democrat scandals are buried or carefully elided.
The media elite's transparent partisanship is at the center of why they're not trusted by most Americans.
Mitch McConnell blamed former President Donald Trump on Tuesday for the Republican Party's poor showing in Senate elections this year, saying that the influence of Trump's endorsements limited the ability of the party to choose better nominees.
"Our ability to control a primary outcome was quite limited in [2022] because the support of the former president proved to be very decisive in these primaries," he told reporters at his weekly press conference at the Capitol. "So my view was: do the best you can with the cards you're dealt."
"Hopefully in the next cycle, we'll have quality candidates everywhere and a better outcome," he added.
I would note, if my memory serves me, that these candidates that McConnell doesn’t like were conservative candidates. Regardless of Trump, McConnell has never liked strong conservative candidates and has fought against them time and time again. He’d rather a Democrat win that a candidate he doesn’t like. Which is why we can never have a large majority in the Senate, because we always end up with too many gutless compromisers.
You saw in this last election that McConnell didn’t support a number of candidates with his leadership fund because he didn’t like the ‘candidate quality’, and thus we didn’t win control.
McConnell is the biggest problem for Republicans in the Senate. He can blame Trump and ‘canidate quality’ all he wants, but he’s the one supporting terrible candidates like Murkowski. He’s the one who made the promise to always support incumbents, even when they are essentially Democrats.
Jen Psaki on Sunday said former President Trump has an “evil charisma” that shouldn’t be underestimated as he once again vies again for the GOP’s presidential nomination.
“Democrats and sane Republicans underestimate Trump at their own peril because in order for Trump not to win the nomination, there has to be a better alternative. That’s how primaries work, right?” Psaki said at the roundtable for NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“So the question is, who’s the alternative? Trump has some evil charisma that helps him win the nomination. The nomination process is long. What is going to happen here? And my view is people should not underestimate him,” she added.
Why it matters: Trump, who was twice impeached and is under criminal investigation, formally launched his 2024 campaign for president in November, as Republicans reevaluate his role as the face of the party following midterm failures and ongoing controversies.
What she's saying: Psaki said the key question to ask during the primaries is who is the alternative.
“Democrats and sane Republicans underestimate Trump at their own peril, because in order for Trump not to win the nomination, there has to be a better alternative," she said.
President Trump has just lost the special master given to him by a lower federal district court.
The 11th Circuit today reversed the district court order which granted Trump a special master to oversee the documents obtained in the Mar-a-Lago raid:
In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday, though, McCarthy soberly alluded to the stakes if fellow GOPers don’t fall in line: a Democratic House speaker.
“I believe we’ll get to 218,” he said. “Why? ’Cause if we don’t, none of those investigations go forward, none of the work that we have put before us. We can’t start investigating [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas, we can’t secure the border, we can’t lower the gasoline price by making us energy-independent.”
He continued: “We can’t [hold the government] accountable, we can’t pass a parents’ bill of rights. All of that will stop. The subpoenas can’t move out until you elect a speaker."
Setting aside for a moment that the GOP’s investigative agenda is motivated by conspiracy theories — and that dubious claim about lowering gas prices — this was McCarthy in angry parent mode. It was like seeing him crane his neck to the children in the back seat and snap at them, “If you don’t do what I say, this car is turning around and going back to where we came from!”
That is, a place without subpoena power.
The threat of a Democrat’s becoming House speaker may be enough to whip enough Republicans back under McCarthy’s control. That’s yet to be determined. But it’s just as likely that McCarthy’s failure to keep GOP extremists in line means he has “raised” a crop of House Republicans too rambunctious for their own good.
