In the news today: Another Trump aide who was witness to events inside the White House leading up to the Jan. 6 coup attempt has agreed to give public testimony to the House select committee investigating the coup; Trump’s former deputy press secretary, Sarah Matthews, resigned her post immediately after the Trump-incited violence. Sen.
Another holiday weekend is behind us, and with it another spate of mass shootings because that’s how America works now. A Georgia grand jury has now subpoenaed key allies of Donald Trump as part of an investigation into a potentially criminal effort by Trump and others to pressure state officials into altering vote totals on his behalf; one of those subpoenaed is Sen. Lindsey Graham, who made his own inquiries as to how vote totals might be changed.
After witness Cassidy Hutchinson described the state of the White House before and during the Jan. 6, 2021 coup attempt, Republicans rushed to discredit her testimony last week. It didn’t stick—and new information corroborates her account of a Trump who was furious he couldn’t personally lead the armed mob he had assembled.
The Supreme Court continued to dismantle the very foundations of civil rights and government with a new ruling today claiming that government agencies cannot pass regulations touching on “major questions” if Congress has not written a law authorizing those specific regulations. What counts as a “major question?” Whatever six archconservative Supreme Court justices handpicked for their hostility toward regulations declare to be one, that’s what.
Testimony that marked both Donald Trump and Mark Meadows as being aware that the crowd Trump had assembled to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 made for the dominant headlines today, and Trump allies were quick to insist that the allegations of Trump throwing food or lunging at his own driver were false.
In stunning testimony before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 coup, Mark Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchison testified that Meadows and Donald Trump had both been told the crowd Trump had assembled on Jan. 6 were carrying a variety of weapons.
The Supreme Court continued to roll back all the rights you thought you had with a new uniquely dishonest decision allowing your school’s sports coaches to promote their own personal religion (so long as it’s the right one) to your kids during team sports, and if your kid doesn’t comply and is retaliated against by the rest of the team then guess what: That’s exactly what the court majority intends.
The Supreme Court gutted both American privacy rights and public safety with two brazenly far-right rulings last week. They’re not done yet; by this time next week, the court is likely to have erased the government’s ability to enforce environmental regulations using an equally bizarre far-right theory that could erase the federal government’s ability to write any regulations.
Author Celeste Headlee has composed a helpful list of quotes from the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe today, and it’s a reminder that Senate confirmation hearings are, at this point, just another institutionalized venue for lying.
In another ruling relying on historical errata of the 1600s to nullify laws passed centuries later, Supreme Court conservatives overturned a New York law that put limits on who can carry concealed handguns. The families of future mass murder victims can rest assured that their loved ones did not die in vain, but as a nod to the beliefs of 17th century witch hunters and English partisans concerned about the political dynamics after the Stuart Reformation.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 coup attempt will be adding more public hearings to its schedule due to the continued revelation of new evidence; those hearings will be held “later in July,” says committee chair Bennie Thompson. In the meantime committee members are being provided with beefed-up security due to threats of violence by pro-coup Trump supporters.
In the news today: The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 coup attempt today heard evidence of Republican attempts to place fake electoral counts for several states in the hands of Vice President Mike Pence, thus allowing Pence to claim the counts for those states were “in dispute.
The Texas Republican Party held their state convention on Saturday, putting the finishing touches on a new party platform that rejects the legitimacy of President Joe Biden as president and demands the state hold a referendum on seceding from the nation. It also responds to the murder of 19 Texas grade schoolers by demanding the legislature be stripped from any power to regulate guns.
It was a day of stunning developments in the House select committee hearings on the Jan. 6 coup attempt. A released email revealed that Trump lawyer John Eastman requested a presidential pardon after helping to spearhead the plan that would have had Vice President Mike Pence unilaterally throw out the electoral votes of several Biden-won states—a plan that witnesses told the committee was clearly criminal.
Newly released security footage is raising questions about a tour Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk conducted on Jan. 5, 2021, just one day before the Jan. 6 coup attempt.
Monday’s House select committee hearings on the Jan. 6. coup attempt raised new questions about just how much of Trump’s post-election fundraising was just a money-seeking grift, but his most likely Republican presidential competitor in 2024 won’t play second fiddle to anyone when it comes to making off with other people’s money: It turns out that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ various “culture war” laws are costing Florida taxpayers a fortune.
The Jan. 6 committee hearings continued today with more evidence that Donald Trump’s closest inner circle absolutely knew the anti-election hoaxes Trump was offering up weren’t true—and with new evidence that Trump was siphoning off the cash he was collecting from supporters who believe his lies.
A group of Democratic and Republican senators have reached a tentative deal on a bill that would deal with the nation’s rampant gun violence problem, but there are two problems remaining. The first is that many in that group are already well-known for “negotiating” compromises that they themselves later back out of; the second is that the proposals for curbing gun violence pointedly dodge doing anything about the actual guns.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection held its first public hearings tonight; see our guide to the players and our live coverage for what you might have missed.
Outside the Capitol, it’s been a hectic news day. A (Fox News-commenting) Republican House candidate in New York opined that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler is “the kind of leader we need today.
Five top members of the far-right group Proud Boys have now been indicted for seditious conspiracy as a result of their actions in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection; the charges indicate that prosecutors believe they can prove that at least some members of the violent crowd planned their actions as means of overthrowing the United States government.
This week will also see the first public hearings of the House select committee investigating the Jan.
Since the Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York murders, mass shootings have continued at the usual pace in America with new versions popping up nearly every day. Also as usual, the rifles used to kill children are seeing skyrocketing sales as gun fans and other buyers seek out those particular models.
As the Biden administration ponders how aggressively it should confront the student loan crisis (which more accurately might be called the grifting college crisis), at least some students will be seeing full relief. The administration announced that the federal government will erase all of the nearly $6 billion in student debt incurred by those defrauded by the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges.
After yet another mass murder in a public school, the race is on to do something, anything, to protect Americans from America’s gun-toting aspirational terrorists—and for Republicans, the challenge is how best to stonewall reforms until that urgency again dies down. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to polish his credentials of “like Trump, but somehow worse” with a recruitment drive for a new Florida state paramilitary force.
The first funerals for children killed by a teenager wielding an AR-15 in Uvalde, Texas, took place Monday, but at last weekend’s annual convention of the National Rifle Association (NRA), the indifference was palpable. Donald Trump adviser Peter Navarro has now been subpoenaed by a grand jury after previously refusing to testify to Congress about his knowledge of the Jan.
President Joe Biden arrived in Uvalde, Texas today to pay his respects to the victims of the latest school shooting that didn’t have to happen. This time, 19 grade school students and two teachers died.
The horror of what happened in Uvalde continues to get worse with each new detail, but what is clear is that the fictions Texans relied on to “harden” their schools while still allowing guns to flow freely were just that: fictions.
The death toll in the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting now stands at 19 elementary school children and two teachers, with at least 17 others injured. The state’s Republican leaders immediately launched into defenses that tried to push blame onto everything other than their own efforts to reduce even the flimsiest hurdles standing between Texas mass murderers and weapons of war. The National Rifle Association is still planning to hold its convention in Houston this weekend.
It happened again. At least 18 elementary school children and one teacher are dead in a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. All victims were killed by an 18-year-old gunman who is now also dead.
The National Rifle Association’s annual meeting is in Houston, Texas, on Friday. Both Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and seditionist Donald Trump will be speaking.
It’s been a day of Republican politicians being just gawdawful, even compared to the normal gawdawful. Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy’s defense of his state’s horrific maternal death rates—with a claim that the rate wouldn’t be as bad if you just excluded his state’s Black residents—might be one for the record books.
Far-right conspiracy crank Dinesh D’Souza is back with yet another conspiracy theory to promote, and if you haven’t heard much about the Republican propagandist’s newest film, it’s because it is extremely, unfathomably stupid. 2000 Mules achieved a level of stupidity so stupid that D’Souza can’t even get Fox News to jump in with the usual publicity boost. It’s a train wreck.