The Conversation -- March 14, 2024

Oklahoma. Marie: I have found it impossible to find a straight news story on this: Judd Blevins successfully ran for the Enid, Oklahoma, city council. Blevins was elected in February 2023, even after some local residents -- and later the local newspaper -- outted him as a white nationalist who had participated in the Neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. He was also, from 2017 till at least 2019 an active leader of the alt-right Neo-Nazi group Identity Evropa and a Hitler admirer. After activists obtained the requisite number of signatures, the city council set a recall election in December 2023. The election will be held April 2. Here's the background story by Brandy Zadrozny of NBC News.

Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, on Thursday delivered a pointed speech on the Senate floor excoriating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel as a major obstacle to peace in the Middle East and calling for new leadership in Israel, five months into the war. Many Democratic lawmakers have condemned Mr. Netanyahu's leadership and his right-wing governing coalition, and President Biden has even criticized the Israeli military's offensive in Gaza as 'over the top.' But Mr. Schumer's speech amounted to the sharpest critique yet from a senior American elected official -- effectively urging Israelis to replace Mr. Netanyahu. 'I believe in his heart, his highest priority is the security of Israel,' said Mr. Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States. 'However, I also believe Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel.... He has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.'" ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Israel's military intends to direct a 'significant' portion of Rafah's population of 1.4 million toward 'humanitarian islands' in central Gaza ahead of Israel's planned ground offensive, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said.... The humanitarian zones 'that we will create with the international community' would house the displaced and provide food, water and other necessities, Hagari said at a news briefing Wednesday. The Biden administration announced sanctions on two West Bank settlements Thursday, marking the first time economic restrictions have been placed on entire Israeli outposts in the Palestinian territory. The move coincided with a scathing speech by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) calling for new elections in Israel." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Thursday are here.

Marianna Sotomayor, et al., of the Washington Post: "Pressure is mounting for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to address aiding foreign allies as House Democrats and Republicans tee up opposing measures that would supersede House GOP leadership and trigger votes on bills funding Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the U.S. border. Democrats and a separate bipartisan group of lawmakers on Tuesday began gathering signatures for competing discharge petitions, a mechanism that moves legislation out of committees and forces a House floor vote without support from leadership if it has the backing of 218 lawmakers. The Democratic measure, led by Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), had amassed nearly 180 signatures from the caucus as of Wednesday evening and would advance a national security package the Senate overwhelmingly approved over a month ago that allots $95.3 billion to assist foreign democracies.... The bipartisan petition extends funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan for one year. But unlike the Democratic petition, it also extends Trump-era border security measures used to mitigate the flow of migrants at the U.S. southern border...." It has received fewer than 15 signatures. ~~~

~~~ Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Republican senators Wednesday to expect the House to send them legislation to help Ukraine, but cautioned that what comes out of the House will look substantially different than the $95 billion foreign aid package the Senate passed last month. Johnson tried to reassure frustrated GOP senators who asked him about funding for Ukraine during a question-and-answer session at the annual Senate Republican retreat, which was held at the Library of Congress." MB: Maybe the most startling part of this story is that Republicans found a library -- with books! (My vague recollection is that there's a tunnel between the Capitol building & the Library of Congress, so maybe the GOP members thought they were "retreating" via a secret tunnel and wouldn't get caught in the vicinity of books.) ~~~

~~~ Mitch Is Not Amused. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) on Thursday again pressed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to take up the Senate-passed national security spending package, which includes $60 billion for Ukraine, despite Johnson's message to GOP senators this week that he's moving in a different direction. McConnell didn't express much interest in waiting weeks or maybe months for the House to come up with an alternative proposal to help Ukraine [which reportedly would be some kind of lend-lease arrangement]. 'I want to encourage the Speaker again to allow a vote, a vote. Let the House speak on the supplemental that we sent over to them several weeks ago,' he said."

Marie: In case you were wondering how a kleptocracy works, the Trumps continue to provide previews. Here's one that involves multiple high-stakes business schemes (one of which led to RICO charges), personal associations, international intrigue, a dirty spy and fake attacks on the political opposition. IOW, it's got everything but sex (as far as we know): ~~~

~~~ ** Jacqueline Sweet of the Guardian: "An American company [-- Economic Transformation Technologies (ETT) --] that paid the now indicted FBI informant Alexander Smirnov in 2020 is connected to a UK company owned by Trump business associates in Dubai, according to business filings and court documents. Smirnov is now accused of lying to the FBI about Hunter Biden and his father, President Joe Biden, alleging that they engaged in a bribery scheme with executives at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Smirnov's accounts to the FBI, beginning in 2020, that federal prosecutors now say are fabrications, served as a major justification of the House impeachment investigation into the Bidens." Sweet elaborates on the complicated business and personal ties to Trump, which go back a decade. Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

~~~ AND worth noting: the Trump Congressional Gang, foiled by the DOJ's investigation & indictment of Smirknov, continues on its merry way: ~~~

~~~ Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Facing the prospect that they may never be able to impeach President Biden, House Republicans are exploring a pivot to ... issuing criminal referrals against him and those close to him.... The move would be largely symbolic, but it would allow Republicans in Congress to save face while ending their so far struggling impeachment inquiry. It has the added appeal for the G.O.P. of aligning with ... Donald J. Trump's vow to prosecute Mr. Biden if he wins the election.... On Thursday, Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed that Republican leaders were discussing the possibility of criminal referrals."

Then There's This. Aaron Gregg of the Washington Post: "Former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin is putting together a group of investors to buy TikTok, he said Thursday.... Mnuchin was part of a 2020 effort to force a TikTok sale or ban when he led the Treasury Department under ... Donald Trump.... Several other investors have expressed interest in buying TikTok, although it's unclear how advanced those efforts are." A CNBC story is here. MB: It works like this: (1) You use your high-profile government job to try to force the sale of a foreign O&O company to a U.S. company. (2) If you succeed, you buy the company, maybe at a bargain price because it's a forced sale.

Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump is attending a court hearing Thursday where his lawyers are trying to persuade a federal judge to throw out charges against him for allegedly mishandling highly classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home and private club in Florida. U.S. District Court Judge Aileen M. Cannon is hearing from prosecutors and defense lawyers about Trump's claim that he is protected from prosecution by the Presidential Records Act, and what his legal team says is the unfairly vague language of the federal law on national defense secrets. National security law experts say Trump's arguments about the records act misstate the law.... Jason R. Baron, former director of litigation at the National Archives, called Trump's reading of the PRA 'absurd.'... Legal experts have said multiple federal laws protect national security information -- and whether Trump considers the materials classified or personal property is irrelevant if they contain some of the nation's secrets."

Confused, Elderly Man Still Claiming Clinton Bleached (or Something) Her Emails. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: During an interview with Newsmax this week, "Trump claimed that Hillary Clinton had destroyed some emails with acid -- an assertion that is not only untrue but has also been debunked countless times over the past eight years. 'She used, uh, all sorts of acid testing and everything else. They call it, uh, BleachBit, but it's essentially acid that will destroy everything within 10 miles -- I mean, what she did was unbelievable. Nothing happens to her.'" Originally, Trump claimed Hillary bleached her emails, but that bleach morphed into acid over the years. MB: Now, I guess he's asserting she used an acid bleach. Bleach, as Bump notes, is a base, not an acid. But Trump has a very good brain so he definitely does not need something as lame as grade-school-level sciencey stuff to make his repeated absurd claims.

Ja'han Jones of MSNBC: "In a victory for the extremist wing of the Republican Party, it looks like Donald Trump's hand-picked leadership team at the Republican National Committee has officially scrapped the GOP's plan to encourage early voting this election cycle. Instead, the party is taking steps to prioritize legal challenges to voting systems ahead of November.... The significance, of course, is that Trump has pushed false claims that mail-in voting is rife with voter fraud since 2020, months before he lost the election to Joe Biden. Ever since the election, Trump has continued to spread conspiracy theories that mail-in voter fraud cost him that race."

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David Lynch & Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "President Biden, speaking Wednesday in a community that he cited as a painful example of racist urban policy, highlighted a new economic strategy aimed at revitalizing places that for decades have been cut off from the nation's growing prosperity. Biden spoke at a Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee in a largely Black and Latino neighborhood where 17,000 homes and 1,000 businesses were destroyed in the 1960s to make way for an interstate highway. The president's trip, which includes a stop in Michigan Thursday, is part of an effort to court minority voters in states that are key to his political future. In conjunction with the Midwestern swing, the White House unveiled $3.3 billion in federal grants to remove or retrofit highways that separate minority neighborhoods in many cities from jobs, entertainment centers, hospitals and other services."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "He has a large storehouse of stories, this president, and he shared them freely during interviews with prosecutors last fall. Mr. Biden described giving an oration in law school on a case he had not read and lying his way into an exclusive club in Delaware. He recounted his time with President Barack Obama and trying to 'save his ass' from manipulative generals. He boasted of building a solar facility in Angola. What any of that had to do with Mr. Biden's handling of secret papers was not always clear, but transcripts of his five hours with the special counsel Robert K. Hur released this week opened a window into a president not often seen by the public lately. He was funny and folksy, chatty and charming, quick and quirky." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: That's exactly what I thought when I read part of the transcript, and Biden's generosity to Hur made me even madder that Hur didn't have the decency to show any respect to the President. But then many Republicans aren't long on traits like common decency. Hur saw his job as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to nail a Democratic president. Bring him up on charges! Failing that, he would have to find another way to disparage Biden. It must have been disconcerting for Hur, then, when he had to sit through a long conversation in which it was obvious who the better person was. ~~~

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "Special counsel Robert K. Hur was even more unfair to President Biden than we originally knew.... We now have the transcript of the president's interview with Hur, and ... it turns out that the special counsel mischaracterized and overstated Biden's alleged memory lapses. He consistently adopted an interpretation that is as uncharitable and damaging to Biden as possible. Gratuitous is bad enough. This was gratuitous and misleading."

Sapna Magesgwaru, et al., of the New York Times: "The House on Wednesday passed a bill with broad bipartisan support that would force TikTok's Chinese owner to sell the hugely popular video app or be banned in the United States. The move escalates a showdown between Beijing and Washington over the control of technologies that could affect national security, free speech and the social media industry. Republican leaders fast-tracked the bill through the House with limited debate, and it passed on a lopsided vote of 352-65, reflecting widespread backing for legislation that would take direct aim at China in an election year. The action came despite TikTok's efforts to mobilize its 170 million U.S. users against the measure, and amid the Biden administration's push to persuade lawmakers that Chinese ownership of the platform poses grave national security risks to the United States. The result was a bipartisan coalition behind the measure that included Republicans, who defied ... Donald J. Trump in supporting it, and Democrats, who also fell in line behind a bill that President Biden has said he would sign. The bill faces a difficult road to passage in the Senate...." The AP report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ David Sanger of the New York Times: "In the four years [the] battle [over TikTok] has gone on, it has become clear that the security threat posed by TikTok has far less to do with who owns it than it does with who writes the code and algorithms that make TikTok tick. Those algorithms ... are the magic sauce of an app that 170 million Americans now have on their phones. That's half the country. But TikTok doesn't own those algorithms; they are developed by engineers who work for its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, which assembles the code in great secrecy in its software labs, in Beijing, Singapore and Mountain View, Calif. But China has issued regulations that appear designed to require government review before any of ByteDance's algorithms could be licensed to outsiders. Few expect those licenses to be issued.... So [a] new, American-based company would have to develop its own, made-in-America algorithm."

Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "Hunter Biden has declined an invitation to testify next week in a public hearing before the House Oversight Committee, according to a letter from Hunter Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell, sent to Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the panel's chairman.... In the letter to [Rep. Jim] Comer, Lowell argued that the younger Biden had answered every question Republicans had for him in the deposition, and he said the public hearing 'is not a serious oversight proceeding.... It is your attempt to resuscitate your Conference's moribund inquiry with a made-for-right-wing-media, circus act.'..."

Marie: I meant to look for this earlier. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) played a short video at Tuesday's Hur hearing, featuring elderly, confused & forgetful Donald Trump:

The Hur Report was revealed today! A disaster for Biden, a two tiered standard of justice. Artificial Intelligence was used by them against me in their videos of me. Can't do that Joe! -- Donald Trump on his social media platform, Tuesday night ~~~

~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC: Donald Trump "could've simply ignored all of this and hoped that the clips went unnoticed. Instead, he drew fresh attention to the video montage and claimed that Democrats relied on 'artificial intelligence.' By pushing this defense, Trump is simultaneously (a) lying, (b) drawing attention to videos he should hope voters don't see; and (c) implicitly suggesting that the clips are so humiliating that they couldn't possibly be real, except they are, in fact, genuine and unaltered." (Also linked yesterday.)

Kathleen Culliton of the Raw Story: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Tuesday shared with her X followers a photograph of herself smiling directly into the camera next to an announcement for ... '... a hearing on investigating the black market of baby organ harvesting.'... Greene adds, 'Join me and special guests.' The hearing, slated for March 19 at 2 p.m., will include testimony from David Daleiden and Terrisa Bukovinac, according to the announcement.... Daleiden is an anti-abortion activist ordered to pay $2 million in damages to Planned Parenthood over accusations of conspiracy and eavesdropping, according to a Reuters report from October. Bukovinac is an anti-abortion activist who appears in a 2022 feature from New York Magazine about Lauren Handy, a fellow activist who reportedly stored baby fetuses in her refrigerator until they were removed by police." Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This announcement is weird on so many levels. Besides the beaming smile, MTG is wearing a dress that looks like just the thing to flounce around in at a lawn party. The announcement itself looks like a party invitation. And with "special guests"?? Witnesses called to a Congressional hearing on a serious subject are not "guests." They're supposed to be "experts," not that Miss Margie's crackpot "guests" are experts on anything. The whole thing just screams, "Wow, I'm having fun partying in Washington, D.C.! Join me!" It's not exactly breaking news that Miss Georgia Peach 1993 is not a serious member of Congress, but this is an offensive misuse of her office.

Kate Santaliz of NBC News: "Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., has come under fire in recent days over allegations that she misrepresented the story of a sex trafficking victim in the Republican response to the State of the Union last week. An NBC News review of her remarks over the last year shows it's an anecdote she's used often to criticize the Biden administration's border policies, though the victim she references was trafficked through Mexico roughly two decades ago."

Tierney Sneed, et al., of CNN: "The presiding judge in the Georgia criminal case against Donald Trump and his allies has thrown out some of the charges against the former president and several of his co-defendants. The partial dismissal by Georgia Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee leaves most of the sprawling racketeering indictment intact. McAfee ruled that six charges in the 41-count indictment related to Trump and some co-defendants allegedly soliciting the violation of oath by a public officer lacked the required detail about what underlying crime the defendants were soliciting.... 'As written, these six counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission, i.e., the underlying felony solicited,' McAfee [wrote]. 'They do not give the Defendants enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently, as the Defendants could have violated the Constitutions and thus the statute in dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways.'... The new ruling did not address the ethics allegations brought against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis by the defendants. McAfee has pledged to issue a ruling on that issue by the end of the week." (Also linked yesterday.) Related story linked under "Georgia" below.

Presidential Race

Confused, Elderly Man Still Begs to Debate President Biden. Amelia Neath of the Independent: Donald Trump "called himself 'Honest Don' in a recent Truth Social post in which he called on President Joe Biden to have a 'full-scale debate' with him. 'For the good of our now failing Nation, and in order to inform the American people of what is going on in our Country, we must immediately have a full-scale debate between Crooked Joe and Honest Don. I'm ready to go, ANY TIME, ANY PLACE!' Mr Trump posted on Tuesday.... [An X user [wrote]: 'Trump calling himself Honest Don is like Jeffrey Dahmer calling himself Vegan Jeff.'" Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.)

Maya King & Michael Bender of the New York Times: "The Republican National Committee, days after electing new [MB: Trump-aligned] leadership and overhauling its presidential campaign operation, is shuttering all of the community centers it established for minority outreach nationwide and laying off their staffs.... The community centers ... were part of a yearslong effort to encourage Black, Latino, Asian and Native American voters to join the party. Republicans closed several minority outreach centers in battleground states more than a year ago and did not retain their minority media outreach directors.... Republicans have widely promoted the community centers, which were established largely within the racial and ethnic communities they aimed to court." MB: C'mon. These centers were totally superfluous. "The Blacks," et al., already love Trump. Just ask him.

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Georgia. Jeff Amy of the AP: "Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law Wednesday that lets a state commission begin operating with powers to discipline and remove prosecutors, potentially disrupting Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' prosecution of ... Donald Trump.... Though Kemp signed legislation last year creating the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission, it was unable to begin operating after the state Supreme Court in November refused to approve rules governing its conduct. The justices said they had 'grave doubts' about their ability to regulate the duties of district attorneys beyond the practice of law. Tuesday's measure removes the requirement for Supreme Court approval."

News Lede

New York Times: "The third try turned out to be closer to the charm for Elon Musk and SpaceX, as his company's mammoth Starship rocket launched on Thursday and traveled about halfway around the Earth before it was lost as it re-entered the atmosphere. The test flight achieved several key milestones in the development of the vehicle, which could alter the future of space transportation and help NASA return astronauts to the moon." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It really irritates me that we live in a country with a tax structure that allows a private citizen to be rich enough to run his own space program.

The Conversation -- March 13, 2024

Marie: I meant to look for this earlier. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) plays a short video at yesterday's House hearing, featuring elderly, confused & forgetful Donald Trump:

The Hur Report was revealed today! A disaster for Biden, a two tiered standard of justice. Artificial Intelligence was used by them against me in their videos of me. Can't do that Joe! -- Donald Trump on his social media platform, Tuesday night ~~~

~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC: Donald Trump "could've simply ignored all of this and hoped that the clips went unnoticed. Instead, he drew fresh attention to the video montage and claimed that Democrats relied on 'artificial intelligence.' By pushing this defense, Trump is simultaneously (a) lying, (b) drawing attention to videos he should hope voters don't see; and (c) implicitly suggesting that the clips are so humiliating that they couldn't possibly be real, except they are, in fact, genuine and unaltered."

BUT the Confused, Elderly Man Still Begs to Debate President Biden. Amelia Neath of the Independent: Donald Trump "called himself 'Honest Don' in a recent Truth Social post in which he called on President Joe Biden to have a 'full-scale debate' with him. 'For the good of our now failing Nation, and in order to inform the American people of what is going on in our Country, we must immediately have a full-scale debate between Crooked Joe and Honest Don. I'm ready to go, ANY TIME, ANY PLACE!' Mr Trump posted on Tuesday.... [An' X user [wrote]: 'Trump calling himself Honest Don is like Jeffrey Dahmer calling himself Vegan Jeff.'" Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead.

Sapna Magesgwaru, et al., of the New York Times: "The House on Wednesday passed a bill with broad bipartisan support that would force TikTok's Chinese owner to sell the hugely popular video app or be banned in the United States. The move escalates a showdown between Beijing and Washington over the control of technologies that could affect national security, free speech and the social media industry. Republican leaders fast-tracked the bill through the House with limited debate, and it passed on a lopsided vote of 352-65, reflecting widespread backing for legislation that would take direct aim at China in an election year. The action came despite TikTok's efforts to mobilize its 170 million U.S. users against the measure, and amid the Biden administration's push to persuade lawmakers that Chinese ownership of the platform poses grave national security risks to the United States. The result was a bipartisan coalition behind the measure that included Republicans, who defied ... Donald J. Trump in supporting it, and Democrats, who also fell in line behind a bill that President Biden has said he would sign. The bill faces a difficult road to passage in the Senate...." The AP's report is here.

Tierney Sneed, et al., of CNN: "The presiding judge in the Georgia criminal case against Donald Trump and his allies has thrown out some of the charges against the former president and several of his co-defendants. The partial dismissal by Georgia Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee leaves most of the sprawling racketeering indictment intact. McAfee ruled that six charges in the 41-count indictment related to Trump and some co-defendants allegedly soliciting the violation of oath by a public officer lacked the required detail about what underlying crime the defendants were soliciting.... 'As written, these six counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission, i.e., the underlying felony solicited,' McAfee [wrote]. 'They do not give the Defendants enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently, as the Defendants could have violated the Constitutions and thus the statute in dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways.'... The new ruling did not address the ethics allegations brought against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis by the defendants. McAfee has pledged to issue a ruling on that issue by the end of the week."

Kathleen Culliton of the Raw Story: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Tuesday shared with her X followers a photograph of herself smiling directly into the camera next to an announcement for ... '... a hearing on investigating the black market of baby organ harvesting.'... Greene adds, 'Join me and special guests.' The hearing, slated for March 19 at 2 p.m., will include testimony from David Daleiden and Terrisa Bukovinac, according to the announcement.... Daleiden is an anti-abortion activist ordered to pay $2 million in damages to Planned Parenthood over accusations of conspiracy and eavesdropping, according to a Reuters report from October. Bukovinac is an anti-abortion activist who appears in a 2022 feature from New York Magazine about Lauren Handy, a fellow activist who reportedly stored baby fetuses in her refrigerator until they were removed by police." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This announcement is weird on so many levels. Besides the beaming smile, MTG is wearing a dress that looks like just the thing to flounce around in at a lawn party. The announcement itself looks like a party invitation. And with "special guests"?? Witnesses called to a Congressional hearing on a serious subject are not "guests." They're supposed to be "experts," not that Miss Margie's crackpot "guests" are experts on anything. The whole thing just screams, "Wow, I'm having fun partying in Washington, D.C.! Join me!" It's not exactly breaking news that Miss Georgia Peach 1993 is not a serious member of Congress, but this is an offensive misuse of her office.

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The New York Times live-updated Tuesday's election results:

Michael Nicholas Nehamas: "The Associated Press named Mr. Biden the presumptive Democratic nominee after projecting his victory in Georgia, while Mr. Trump was designated the presumptive Republican nominee after he swept the G.O.P. contests in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington State."

Georgia: President Biden has won the state's Democratic primary presidential election. Donald Trump has won the state's Republican primary presidential election.

Hawaii. Donald Trump won the Hawaii caucuses.

Mississippi. President Biden has won the state's Democratic primary presidential election. Donald Trump has won the state's Republican primary presidential election.

Washington. President Biden has won the state's Democratic primary presidential election. Fuckface Von Clownstick has won the state's Republican primary presidential election.

Chris Cameron: "Donald Trump has won the Republican primary in Georgia, according to The Associated Press, winning in a state where he is under indictment on 13 charges, including racketeering, in connection with his effort to overturn the 2020 election."

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Glenn Thrush & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Robert K. Hur, the special counsel who investigated President Biden, on Tuesday fiercely defended the disparaging assessment of the president's mental state included in his final report -- and his decision not to charge Mr. Biden with a crime. Mr. Hur, appearing before the House Judiciary Committee to answer questions about his polarizing 345-page report, cast himself as an impartial arbiter.... Mr. Hur, a registered Republican who has been slammed by Mr. Biden's allies for including his politically damaging assessment of Mr. Biden's memory, showed little emotion during the hearing, but reacted angrily when a Democrat suggested he had 'smeared' the president to bolster Mr. Trump....

"About an hour before Mr. Hur testified, Democrats on the congressional panel released a lightly redacted transcript of the five-hour interview Mr. Hur and his team conducted with Mr. Biden. It offered a more nuanced portrayal than the special counsel's damning description of the 81-year-old president as 'a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.' While the 258-page transcript showed that on several occasions the president fumbled with dates and the sequence of events, he otherwise appeared clearheaded, with the kind of gaps in recollection not uncommon among people interviewed about events that transpired years earlier.... Democrats kicked off the hearing by playing a highlight reel of Mr. Trump's own verbal miscues and memory lapses -- and included a clip in which he said he did not remember saying he had a great memory."

Marie: Gee, nothing like this has ever happened before (Jim Comey/Hillary Clinton): a Republican DOJ official releases a report finding a Democratic nominee for president had committed no prosecutable crimes, then exaggerates the investigation's findings and trashes the nominee.

Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "A Post review of the complete 258-page Hur transcript ... paints a more nuanced portrait of the exchanges between [President] Biden and the special counsel. Biden doesn't come across as being as absent-minded as [Robert] Hur has made him out to be -- and Hur doesn't appear as crass as Biden has made him out to be.... The full transcript provides a more complete window into the back and forth between the two men, in which Biden frequently joked with prosecutors in a setting that seemed more chummy than antagonistic."

Andrew Prokop of Vox: "... the full transcripts of Hur's interviews with Biden have been released -- and they make Hur's claims about Biden's memory appear cherry-picked and exaggerated. Biden sat for more than five hours with Hur's team over two days. In that time, he said he did not recall specifics about how particular boxes ended up in his residences or offices after his vice presidency. But he engaged at length about his process for handling classified information and many other topics. Hur's claim that Biden had demonstrated some sort of general 'poor memory' hangs almost entirely on mix-ups by Biden about in what specific year several years-old events occurred. The transcript makes clear Biden remembers all those events. But it seems Biden just doesn't pay a lot of attention to which specific year stuff happened in.... Following in the footsteps of former special counsel John Durham, who labored without success to prove theories of Democratic malfeasance in the Trump-Russia investigation, he released a report that kind of swipes at his target anyway."

Anthony Adragna of Politico: Robert Hur "praised Biden during the interview for his 'photographic understanding and recall' of a house the president visited during a trip to Mongolia. Biden also used the interchange to tout his archery skills while recalling his foray into the sport during his foreign trip. He said that he's 'not a bad archer' but that due to 'pure luck, I hit the goddamn target.' The president added that 'I turned to the prime minister and handed [the bow] to him and the poor son-of-a-bitch couldn't pull it back.'" (See pp. 46-47 of the interview transcript, linked below.)

The transcript of Hur's interview of President Biden, via the House, is here.

Marie: One thing Hur purports not to understand is that people use different hooks to remember things. Like Biden, I don't much remember dates. The other day I had to figure out what year my husband died (2013). It's not that his death wasn't a significant and traumatic event in my own life; it's just that I don't naturally peg events to dates. Hur's report of Biden's "poor memory" is more a reflection of Hur's personal limitations than of Biden's memory. Hur, for instance, may have poor affective responses, so he may be more likely to remember milestones than to feel the meaning of the milestone events themselves. Thus, he was impressed with Biden's vivid recollections of a long-ago trip to Mongolia because Hur himself would not have remembered the affects of an event itself as much as he would tie it to a chronology of his own life.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Another MSM Fail. Matt Gertz of Media Matters: "Major news outlets that ran dozens of stories hyping then-special counsel Robert Hur's claim that President Joe Biden evinced a 'poor memory' during their interview are now acknowledging that Hur's depiction was exaggerated after reviewing the newly released transcript.... The mainstream political press treated Hur as an impartial voice levying credible accusations, unleashing a deluge of reports calling Biden's mental acuity into question. Hur's background as a former clerk to right-wing judges and a Trump administration appointee -- and his gratuitous swipes at a Democratic president that happened to align with a yearslong GOP campaign to portray Biden as addled -- failed to raise their alarms....

"The Washington Post ran 33 reports on Biden's mental fitness in the four days following Hur's report, according to a review by Popular Information. On Tuesday, however, the Post reported that the transcript 'paints a more nuanced portrait of the exchanges between Biden and the special counsel' and that 'Biden doesn't come across as being as absent-minded as Hur has made him out to be.'... The New York Times ran 30 reports on Biden's mental fitness in the four days following Hur's report, according to Popular Information. But on Tuesday, the Times reported the transcript 'shows that on several occasions the president fumbled with dates and the sequence of events, while otherwise appearing clearheaded.'"

Alex Gangitano of the Hill: "The White House on Tuesday declared it was 'time to move on' from Robert Hur's controversial report on President Biden's handling of classified documents after the special counsel testified for hours before the House Judiciary Committee and took fire from all sides."

The New York Times live-updated the House hearing of testimony by Special Counsel Robert Hur. It looks like Gym Jordan is running the hearing, so no doubt it will all go very smoothly. And totally fairly. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I couldn't stand to watch the hearing, but the Times updates are are helpful. The reporters' analysis suggests to me that Hur -- a Republican -- is bending hard toward Republicans. For instance,

Charlie Savage: "As Republicans like Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey use their questioning of Hur to portray Biden's and Trump's actions as equivalent in order to disparage the charges against Trump, Hur could respond by repeating what he wrote in his report, that there are clearly 'several material distinctions' between the two cases, and the allegations against Trump, if proved, 'present serious aggravating facts' unlike the evidence involving Biden. It is notable Hur is choosing not to speak up." Emphasis added.

Glenn Thrush (pinned item): "It is not unusual for witnesses in federal cases to cite their faulty recollections in interviews with investigators, particularly about events that occurred years earlier. But Mr. Hur included references to Mr. Biden's memory that did not relate directly to retaining classified documents -- including the president's struggle to recall the year (2015) when his son Beau died." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, as we all know, there's a difference between (1) conveniently repeating "I don't recall" in the way, say, Cassidy Hutchinson's Trump-paid lawyer advised her to do in order to avoid providing incriminating answers, and (2) innocently forgetting a specific date or event that may have occurred many years in the past and/or may have nothing to do with the matter at hand.

BTW, NiskyGuy notes at the top of today's Comments thread that Hur testified as a private citizen, not as a DOJ official. He quit the DOJ way back on Monday. I had been wondering why he did so: (1) something innocent, like got a great job? (2) or something more nefarious? Well, Hur is a Republican fixture, so my first guess didn't count. ~~~

~~~ Andrew Feinberg of the Independent: Robert Hur "has arranged his departure from the Department of Justice to be official as of Monday 11 March, one day before he is scheduled to appear on Capitol Hill. Instead of appearing as a DOJ employee who is bound by the ethical guidelines which govern the behaviour of federal prosecutors, he will appear as a private citizen with no constraints on his testimony.... ... [He] has surrounded himself with Republican partisans and notorious figures linked to former president Donald Trump.... In preparing for the hearing, Mr Hur has turned to William Burck, a veteran Washington lawyer with deep ties to the Republican political establishment to serve as his counsel during his testimony before the committee." Read on. Burck has a long client list & sundry associates that are nothing less than a GOP rogue's gallery. MB: Please don't try to tell me Hur ever intended to act as an honest broker in this "investigation."

Clare Foran of CNN: "Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, a hardline conservative who has clashed with his own party at times, announced on Tuesday that he will leave Congress at the end of next week. Buck criticized dysfunction on Capitol Hill in discussing his decision to leave, telling CNN's Dana Bash, 'It is the worst year of the nine years and three months that I've been in Congress and having talked to former members, it's the worst year in 40, 50 years to be in Congress.... This place has just devolved into this bickering and nonsense and not really doing the job for the American people.'... Buck's decision to step down before the end of his term will trim Republicans' slim edge to 218 seats over 213 for Democrats, with three vacancies. With that breakdown, Republicans could only afford to lose two votes to pass legislation on a party-line vote." MB: I heard on the teevee that Buck didn't bother to give Mike Johnson a heads-up. ~~~

~~~ Robert Jimison of the New York Times looks at the ways Buck's resignation could affect Colorado Congressional elections this year.

Presidential Race, Ctd.

MEANWHILE, the GOP presidential frontrunner is a stable genius. This, from a transcript of one of Trump's campaign speeches. Thanks to RAS for the link: ~~~

Never forget. It's nothing new. Trump has always been a barking lunatic.pic.twitter.com/jv0VZ2Iumz

— Michigan GOP Watch (@MiMagaWatch) March 11, 2024

Tierney Sneed of CNN: "The policy-making body of the federal judiciary is clamping down on the system that conservatives have successfully used in recent years to hamstring President Joe Biden's agenda and other federal policies, including those concerning reproductive rights. The new policy seeks to curb 'judge-shopping,' the strategy where litigants strategically file lawsuits in courthouses where the cases will be guaranteed to be heard by judges perceived to be sympathetic to their arguments.... The Judicial Conference of the United States announced Tuesday a new policy that will broaden the pool of judges who could be assigned to hear cases seeking state-wide or nationwide orders, making it more difficult to single out a particular judge, although it will still be possible to seek out a favorable pool of judges to hear cases. Under the new policy, such cases seeking nationwide or state-wide orders will go into the lottery system used by the entire district." The Washington Post's report is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Laura Meckler, et al., of the Washington Post: "School hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ people have sharply risen in recent years, climbing fastest in states that have passed laws restricting LGBTQ student rights and education, a Washington Post analysis of FBI data finds. In states with restrictive laws, the number of hate crimes on K-12 campuses has more than quadrupled since the onset of a divisive culture war that has often centered on the rights of LGBTQ+ youth. At the same time, calls to LGBTQ+ youth crisis hotlines have exploded, with some advocates drawing a connection between the spike in bullying and hate crimes, and the political climate." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: There's a chicken-and-egg question here. The data show a correlation but not a clear cause-and-effect.

Wisconsin. Todd Richmond of the AP: "Republicans who control the state Senate fired eight more of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' appointees Tuesday, including two Universities of Wisconsin regents who voted against a deal that limited campus diversity and four judicial watchdogs who wouldn't commit to punishing liberal state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz. The Senate also fired a member of the governor's domestic abuse council after Republicans accused the body of violating open records laws and taking what the GOP considered a stance against white people, as well as a member of the deferred compensation board, which administers a state retirement program. The Senate has now fired 21 Evers appointees since the governor took office in 2019. The governor said in a statement Tuesday that he was 'apoplectic' that Republican senators keep firing his appointees for no good reason."

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al. CNN's live updates of developments Wednesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The first maritime humanitarian aid shipment to Gaza since the war began is on its way to the enclave from Cyprus, according to nonprofit World Central Kitchen. As fears of famine grow in northern Gaza, the UN World Food Programme said one of its food convoys reached Gaza City for the first time since February 20.... An Israeli border police officer fatally shot a 12-year-old Palestinian boy in a refugee camp in occupied east Jerusalem, officials said." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Wednesday are here.

Ukraine, et al. Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration said Tuesday that it will send an additional $300 million in security assistance to Ukraine, an 'extraordinary measure' being taken as President Biden's request for billions of dollars more remains stalled in Congress. The emergency package, announced by the White House, will be funded by 'unanticipated cost savings' from contracts the Pentagon had brokered to replace weapons previously provided to Ukraine, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. The aid will include artillery shells, anti-armor weapons, antiaircraft Stinger weapons and other arms, as well as spare parts, U.S. officials said."

Paul Sonne of the New York Times: "The chief of staff to Aleksei A. Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died last month in an Arctic penal colony, was attacked with a hammer and tear gas outside his home in Lithuania's capital late Tuesday, according to Mr. Navalny's press secretary, who said the police and an ambulance had been called to the scene. Leonid Volkov, who served as one of Mr. Navalny's top organizers, was pulling up to his house in Vilnius when the attack happened. At least one assailant smashed his car window, sprayed him with tear gas and began beating him with a hammer.... Mr. Volkov survived the attack."

The Conversation -- March 12, 2024

The New York Times is live-updating the House hearing of testimony by Special Counsel Robert Hur. It looks like Gym Jordan is running the hearing, so no doubt it will all go very smoothly. And totally fairly. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I couldn't stand to watch the hearing, but the Times updates are are helpful. The reporters' analysis suggests to me that Hur -- a Republican -- is bending hard toward Republicans. For instance,

Charlie Savage: "As Republicans like Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey use their questioning of Hur to portray Biden's and Trump's actions as equivalent in order to disparage the charges against Trump, Hur could respond by repeating what he wrote in his report, that there are clearly 'several material distinctions' between the two cases, and the allegations against Trump, if proved, 'present serious aggravating facts' unlike the evidence involving Biden. It is notable Hur is choosing not to speak up." Emphasis added.

Glenn Thrush (pinned item): "It is not unusual for witnesses in federal cases to cite their faulty recollections in interviews with investigators, particularly about events that occurred years earlier. But Mr. Hur included references to Mr. Biden's memory that did not relate directly to retaining classified documents -- including the president's struggle to recall the year (2015) when his son Beau died." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, as we all know, there's a difference between (1) conveniently repeating "I don't recall" in the way, say, Cassidy Hutchinson's Trump-paid lawyer advised her to do in order to avoid providing incriminating answers, and (2) innocently forgetting a specific date or event that may have occurred many years in the past and/or may have nothing to do with the matter at hand.

~~~~~~~~~~

Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Monday called for major new spending initiatives to lower costs for health care, child care and housing and enough new taxes on the wealthy and major corporations to pay for those proposals and also shave $3 trillion off the national debt over the next decade. Biden's reelection year budget lays out the broad policy planks that many leading liberals have pushed him to embrace as he campaigns for another four years in the White House. With Republicans in control of the House, the proposals stand almost no chance of becoming law.... In a $7.3 trillion budget for fiscal year 2025, Biden would have Congress offer universal prekindergarten education, provide 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, expand anti-poverty tax credits and create a new tax break for first-time home buyers." (Also linked yesterday.) NPR's report is here.

Sahil Kapur, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump opened the door Monday to 'cutting' spending under Social Security and Medicare, drawing swift pushback from President Joe Biden and elevating a key policy battle in the 2024 election.... Biden's campaign tweeted out the video and the president responded quickly: 'Not on my watch.'... Biden has ruled out benefit cuts to the programs. In his State of the Union speech last week, Biden said he'd 'protect and strengthen Social Security and make the wealthy pay their fair share.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Perry Stein & Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "When Robert K. Hur testifies to Congress on Tuesday about his investigation of President Biden's handling of classified documents, he is expected to defend a special counsel process created to shield fraught cases from political interference.... [Hur] said in [his] report that a jury might see Biden as 'a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,' not a criminal trying to break the law.... The report fueled White House anger at [Attorney General Merrick] Garland, who Biden aides say has over-relied on special counsels ... in a way they believe has insulated the attorney general from some of the Justice Department's toughest decisions.... [White House officials] accuse Garland of allowing prosecutor David Weiss's investigation of Hunter Biden's business dealings to drag on for years, only to result in a plea deal that embarrassingly collapsed in public and led to Weiss's appointment as a special counsel. Two indictments quickly followed -- on gun and tax charges -- that Biden allies say would not be levied against most Americans in similar circumstances. And White House officials and Biden's allies say the Hur report contained gratuitous and inappropriate swipes at the president's age and memory -- political kryptonite for congressional oversight committees and voters in an election year." ~~~

     ~~~ Zeke Miller, et al., of the AP: "Hur says he didn't sanitize his findings on [President] Biden but also didn't disparage him unfairly. Hur will say in prepared remarks that he was aware of the need to explain why he'd decided not to charge the president. Such explanations are common but usually confidential; and so he didn't hold back, particularly in this case."

Annie Karni & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times: "House Republican leaders are moving this week to pass legislation that would force the Chinese owners of TikTok to sell the platform or face being barred in the United States, even after ... Donald J. Trump came out against targeting the popular social media app he once vowed to ban. Representative Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana and the majority leader, said on Monday that the House would try to speed the bill to passage under special procedures reserved for noncontroversial legislation, which require a two-thirds majority for passage. The approach reflected the bill's growing momentum on Capitol Hill during an election year in which members of both political parties are eager to demonstrate a willingness to be tough on China.... It is not clear what the bill's prospects would be in the Senate, where Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, has not committed to bringing it up."

Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump offered a rambling and confusing explanation on Monday of why he had reversed himself on whether the United States should ban TikTok over concerns that its Chinese ownership poses a threat to national security. In a CNBC interview, Mr. Trump said that he still considered the social media app a national security threat but that banning it would make young people 'go crazy.' He added that any action harming TikTok would benefit Facebook, which he called an 'enemy of the people.'... Mr. Trump tried to ban TikTok while in office, pushing its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the platform to a new owner or face being blocked from American app stores. A House committee advanced legislation last week that would similarly force TikTok to cut ties with ByteDance. In a powerful display o bipartisanship -- rare these days in Washington -- the top Republican and Democratic lawmakers on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party used nearly identical language to describe the risks of TikTok.... The full House is expected to vote on the legislation on Wednesday. President Biden said last week that he would sign the measure into law if it reached his desk.... On Monday, asked about suspicions that he had been 'paid off' to change his view on TikTok after a meeting with a major TikTok investor, the billionaire Jeff Yass, Mr. Trump denied it." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In yesterday's thread, Akhilleus made the shocking allegation, "He's for sale!" Oh, could it be? Gosh, Rachel Maddow suspects Trump, too. She brings receipts. Time-stamped: ~~~

Marie: It's worth pointing out that the public doesn't know ... where Chubb got the funding to back Donald Trump's $91MM bond in the the Carroll case. I've seen some speculation on the Internets, but until we get some quasi-reliable, apparently fact-based reports, I'm not linking any of the speculative musing.

Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump asked Elon Musk last summer whether the billionaire industrialist would be interested in buying Trump's social network Truth Social, according to two people with knowledge of the conversation. The overture to Musk ... did not lead to a deal. But the conversation, which has not been previously reported, shows the two men have communicated more than was known. The two have had other conversations, too, Trump advisers say, about politics and business.... Musk once belittled Truth Social, posting in 2022 that Trump's site had a 'terrible name' and that it was 'time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.' Trump responded on Truth Social by posting a photo of the two men in the Oval Office alongside a caption: When Musk visited 'the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects ... I could have said "drop to your knees and beg," and he would have done it.'..."

No. Self. Control. Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "Donald Trump on Monday once again denied allegations by E. Jean Carroll that he raped and defamed her, despite facing nearly $90 million in civil penalties for making similar statements about the writer. Carroll's attorney quickly responded that they are closely monitoring Trump's latest remarks about her -- and suggested that a third defamation lawsuit could be in store for the former president. Trump in an interview on CNBC's 'Squawk Box' claimed that several civil court judgments against him in New York -- two of them in Carroll's favor -- will cause companies to leave the state.... They're 'the most ridiculous decisions,' Trump said, 'including the "Ms. Bergdorf Goodman," a person I'd never met.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump Employee 5 Speaks. Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "A longtime Mar-a-Lago employee who is a central witness in the investigation into ... Donald Trump's handling of classified documents is now speaking publicly because he believes that voters should hear the truth about his former boss and the case before the November election. Brian Butler, who is referenced as 'Trump Employee 5' in the classified documents indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith, told CNN in an exclusive interview that he doesn't believe the criminal case against Trump is a 'witch hunt,' as the former president has claimed. Butler gave testimony to federal investigators that informed crucial portions of last year's criminal obstruction charges against Trump and his two co-defendants, Walt Nauta, a personal aide to Trump, and Carlos De Oliveira, a property manager at Mar-a-Lago who had been Butler's closest friend until recently. Butler, who was employed at Mar-a-Lago for 20 years, has spoken repeatedly with investigators, paying for his own attorney and breaking with the orbit around Trump....

"Butler told CNN how he unknowingly helped Nauta deliver boxes of classified information from Mar-a-Lago to the former president's plane in June 2022 -- the same day that Trump and his attorney were meeting with the Justice Department at Mar-a-Lago about the classified documents.... Butler also was a witness in the room to several conversations that allegedly capture how Trump was positioning his closest aide Nauta, De Oliveira and others to thwart federal authorities. De Oliveira told Butler, for instance, about Nauta traveling [secretly] to Palm Beach in late June 2022, at a time when Nauta and De Oliveira were allegedly interested in deleting surveillance tapes of a storage room where the boxes had been kept at the club, according to the indictment.... At one point in his interviews, Butler says he told investigators that Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt repeated classified submarine secrets following a conversation with Trump in spring 2021." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: We now know that, according to Butler, Trump carried about 15 "beautiful boxes" to Bedminster. But, in this June 2023 Guardian story, we learned, "... when the new searches of the Trump properties by contractors took place, they found no classified documents at Bedminster, according to people familiar with what they certified to the then chief US judge in Washington, Beryl Howell, who was overseeing the grand jury litigation." We also know that Trump had classified documents at Bedminster because, according to the indictment, he showed at least one of them to Mark Meadows' biographer and other people unauthorized to receive classified information. So what happened to the contents of the 15 boxes Mar-a-Lago employees put on the plane bound for Bedminster? From what we know so far, Trump is still hiding them. Somewhere.

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "... within 30 seconds [of getting into his armored vehicle after his speech at the Ellipse on January 6, 2021, Donald Trump's] conversation with his lead Secret Service agent took a ... contentious turn, according to a transcript released on Monday of an interview by House investigators of another Secret Service agent who was driving the car. Mr. Trump wanted to go to the Capitol, but his lead agent, Robert Engel, said no, telling him there was no plan in place. 'The president was insistent on going to the Capitol,' recounted the driver, whose name was not disclosed. 'It was clear to me he wanted to go to the Capitol. He was not screaming at Mr. Engel. He was not screaming at me. Certainly his voice was raised, but it did not seem to me that he was irate -- certainly not, certainly didn't seem as irritated or agitated as he had on the way to the Ellipse.'

"But, the driver said, Mr. Trump never lunged for the steering wheel or physically accosted the agents, contradicting one of the most sensational and hotly disputed elements of testimony given to the House Jan. 6 committee by a White House aide.... Mr. Trump had already begun the morning in a 'pretty agitated, pretty irritated' mood on his way to the Ellipse, the driver testified. The president's voice contained a 'tinge of anger' as he spoke with Mr. Engel, who rode with him in the vehicle.... '... He was pushing pretty hard to go,' the agent testified. He added, 'The thing that sticks out most was he kept asking why we couldn't go, why we couldn't go, and that he wasn't concerned about the people that were there or referenced them being Trump people or Trump supporters.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Just a reminder: Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony was, as far as we know, truthful. She did not testify as to what happened in the Beast; she testified as to what another Secret Service agent, Tony Ornato, told her happened in the Beast. We don't know at this point why Ornato embellished the story: to impress Hutchinson or because an eye-witness told him the more dramatic story about Trump's lunging at the driver & grabbing the steering wheel. ~~~

~~~ Scott Wong & Kyle Stewart of NBC News: "A House committee investigating the special Jan. 6 committee released a sweeping report Monday that Republicans say demonstrates that four other White House employees did not corroborate key witness Cassidy Hutchinson's dramatic account of ... Donald Trump's actions that day. 'None of the White House Employees corroborated Hutchinson's sensational story about President Trump lunging for the steering wheel of the Beast...,'" says the 81-page target="_blank">report by the House Administration Committee's oversight subcommittee, led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., a section of which was obtained by NBC News in advance of its release.... One of the GOP's top priorities has been to discredit Hutchison...."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Stephen Robinson, in Public Notice, writes that the MSM keep covering Donald Trump as if at any moment he could suddenly "pivot" to normal behavior, and they highlight his "scripted moments" when he says something that is not off-the-wall bigoted, unhinged and/or untrue. The media offer no such possibility for Trump's opponents; rather they have written about Hillary Clinton's "confronting her untrustworthiness" and Joe Biden's delivering a "too-political" SOTU speech that presented a view that was merely "different" from Trump's. Thanks to RAS for the link.

Ella Lee of the Hill: "Peter Navarro, once an economic adviser to former President Trump, has been ordered to report to a Miami prison March 19 to begin serving a four-month sentence for refusing to comply with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Navarro, 74, was convicted last year on two counts of contempt of Congress -- one for failing to produce documents related to the probe and another for skipping his deposition." (Also linked yesterday.)

Day-One Dictator Vows to Release Violent Insurrectionists. Megan Lebowitz of NBC News: "... Donald Trump said Monday that one of his first acts as president if he wins in November would be to 'free' those charged and convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 'My first acts as your next President will be to Close the Border, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, and Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!' Trump wrote on his Truth Social account. It appeared to be the first time that he has definitively referred to releasing the Jan. 6 defendants as a Day One priority."

Melissa Quinn of CBS News: "Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge will leave her post atop the department later this month, the White House announced Monday. Fudge has helmed the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, since the start of the Biden administration and is set to depart March 22. President Biden praised Fudge's leadership in a statement shortly after she announced her departure." (Also linked yesterday.)

Mark Walker of the New York Times: "A six-week audit by the Federal Aviation Administration of Boeing's production of the 737 Max jet found dozens of problems throughout the manufacturing process at the plane maker and one of its key suppliers, according to a slide presentation reviewed by The New York Times.... For the portion of the examination focused on Boeing, the F.A.A. conducted 89 product audits, a type of review that looks at aspects of the production process. The plane maker passed 56 of the audits and failed 33 of them, with a total of 97 instances of alleged noncompliance, according to the presentation." ~~~

~~~ Lori Aratani & Niha Masih of the Washington Post: "A former Boeing employee who raised quality-control and safety concerns over the company's aircraft production was found dead this week, according to authorities in South Carolina. John Barnett, 62, was a quality manager with Boeing who retired in 2017 after several decades with the company. He died March 9 from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Charleston County coroner's office said in a statement. The Charleston City Police Department is investigating, it added.... In a 2019 New York Times story, Barnett was one of several whistleblowers who raised quality issues at Boeing's South Carolina plant where the company builds its 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Barnett said he had discovered clusters of metal shavings left near electrical systems for flight controls, which he said could have 'catastrophic' results if the shavings penetrated the wiring." The BBC News story is here.

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: This past week, both Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) used incidents of violence against women to falsely implicate President Biden and to defend Donald Trump, who has been found liable for raping E. Jean Carroll. ~~~

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Britt and her office have responded to the fact checks of the speech with defiance. But their attempted justifications are little better, and [sex-trafficking victim Karla Jacinto Romero] herself has now taken issue with Britt's use of her story.... Britt herself took to 'Fox News Sunday,' where she was asked to weigh in on the fact checks. She claimed that she never intended to suggest this had happened on [President] Biden's watch, but that she wanted to spotlight the human cost of trafficking by the cartels.... In addition to Jacinto's story not involving Biden, the United States or even the border, it also doesn't involve the cartels. Jacinto testified to Congress in 2015 that she was trafficked by a 'professional pimp.'... Pointing to a story that doesn't involve Biden, immigration or the cartels and is two decades old to attack Biden's present-day border policies and warn about the cartels doesn't really make any sense. (You could even make a case that, to the extent U.S. immigration policy is involved at all, the anecdote reinforces the need for an accessible asylum process for victims like Jacinto.)"

Presidential Race

digby: "Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on CBS urged his supporters to vote for President Biden despite the widespread opposition among them to Biden's continued backing of Israel. 'The fight continues to change Biden's policy in Gaza, but the contrast between Biden and Trump is day and night,' he said. 'The election of Trump would be a disaster for this country and, in my view, the world.'... If you care about Gaza you have to do everything you can to make sure Biden is re-elected. Otherwise, you are consigning them to total hopelessness."

Trump Purges RNC. Josh Dawsey & Patrick Svitek of the Washington Post: "The new leadership team at the Republican National Committee -- picked by former president Donald Trump -- started firing dozens of employees days after taking over, according to three people.... About 60 people were told they were no longer employed, according to a person with direct knowledge of the changes.... [Trump advisor & newly-installed committee chief-of-staff Chris LaCivita reportedly planned and effected the firings.]... LaCivita also told some contractors that they would not be renewed...." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. The Politico report, which broke the news, is here.

Anatomy of a Trump Speech. Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "On the last Friday in February, the day before the South Carolina primary, Trump took the stage in Rock Hill, S.C., where he spoke for just over an hour and a half. A close examination of his remarks that day offers an anatomy of a Trump rally speech. Like many of his recent speeches, it was long and laden with resentments, offering a dark vision for the nation that terrifies Democrats and animates his Republican base. It touched on recurring themes, including his election denialism, his promise of a sudden transformation in another Trump term and his claims of persecution and martyrdom. Perhaps more importantly, Trump's stump speech provides a road map of what a second Trump term might look like -- fulfilling his promises to root out the so-called 'deep state' of civil servants, harshly cracking down on illegal immigration and crime, and pulling back from the world stage. It also reveals many of his weaknesses as a candidate, such as sometimes slurring his words, confusing names of world leaders and attacking minorities in offensive ways.... One constant [in his stump speech] is that it is certain to contain a slew of falsehoods and mistruths, ranging from hyperbole to outright lies...." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Violent Revolution Is Not Over. Annie Gowen of the Washington Post: "A Republican fundraiser in the Kansas City suburbs on Friday night at which attendees beat and kicked an effigy of President Biden has sparked bipartisan outrage and calls for the GOP leaders responsible for the event to resign. At the 'Grand Ol' Party' fundraising event at the Overland Park Convention Center -- hosted by and promoted on the Facebook page of the Johnson County Republican Party -- attendees paid $100 to $300 a ticket to hear a keynote speech from musician Ted Nugent. It also featured a booth where attendees kicked and swung a foam bat at a mannequin topped with a rubber Biden mask, posts on social media showed." The chairwoman of the Johnson County Republican Party blamed outsiders for the violent incident. "The state GOP ... blamed the incident on an outside exhibitor and a former state party member...." Thanks to RAS for the link.

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Florida. Win for People; Loss for DeSanctimonious. Lori Rozsa of the Washington Post: "A lawsuit settlement over Florida's 'don't say gay' statute announced Monday affirms that teachers and students can discuss LGBTQ+ issues and have access to related library books, largely canceling many of the impacts of the signature legislation from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The settlement was immediately praised by rights groups who said it marked a major victory for LGBTQ+ students, teachers and families who were effectively barred from speaking about their own personal lives or loved ones in same-sex relationships." The AP's story is here.

Wisconsin. Patrick Svitek of the Washington Post: "A group seeking to oust the Republican speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly over his handling of Donald Trump's 2020 reelection loss in the state submitted signatures Monday in hopes of forcing a recall election.... Trump supporters have been persistently targeting [Speaker Robert] Vos since the 2020 election, when Trump narrowly lost Wisconsin.... While Vos launched an investigation into the results, he resisted Trump's pressure to figure out a way to overturn the outcome, calling it impossible and unconstitutional.... In 2022, Trump backed a primary challenger to Vos, who prevailed by a slim margin."

~~~~~~~~~~

Haiti. Emiliano Mega of the New York Times: "Haiti's prime minister, who has come under growing pressure to resign as gangs have overrun the country, said late Monday that he would step down once a transitional council had been established, to pave the way for the election of a new president and help restore stability. 'The government that I lead will withdraw immediately after the installation of this council,' Prime Minister Ariel Henry said in a speech posted on social media."

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Tuesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "A dire shortage of food and ongoing Israeli strikes in Gaza have made for a somber start to Ramadan -- normally a time of dawn-to-dusk fasting and celebration -- after a cease-fire failed to be agreed by the start of the Muslim holy month. A ship loaded with desperately needed humanitarian aid has departed Cyprus for Gaza, as part of the maritime aid corridor announced by the United States and its allies last week.... Israel's military said that approximately 100 rockets were launched Tuesday morning from Lebanon toward the Golan Heights, a disputed strip of land on the border between Israel and Syria. The IDF said its fighter jets struck three rocket launchers used in the attack in response."

Robert Jimison of the New York Times: "A group of Democratic senators urged President Biden on Monday to stop providing offensive weapons to Israel for the war against Hamas until it lifts restrictions on U.S.-backed humanitarian aid going into Gaza. In a letter to Mr. Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, and seven Democrats argued that by continuing to arm Israel, Mr. Biden was violating the Foreign Assistance Act, which bars military support from going to any nation that restricts the delivery of humanitarian aid.... The act says that as soon as the president is made aware that a country is blocking or restricting the delivery of American humanitarian assistance, no U.S. military aid can be provided."

Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "A new American intelligence assessment released on Monday raised doubts about whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel could stay in power, as the C.I.A. director said a hostage deal was the most practical way to halt, at least temporarily, the war in Gaza. The 2024 Annual Threat Assessment expressed concerns about Israel's vision for the end of the war and said that Mr. Netanyahu's right-wing coalition 'may be in jeopardy.' 'Distrust of Netanyahu's ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public from its already high levels before the war, and we expect large protests demanding his resignation and new elections,' the report said. 'A different, more moderate government is a possibility.' The report predicted that Israel would struggle to achieve its goal of 'destroying Hamas.'"

Ukraine, et al.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The president of Poland plans to use a White House meeting with President Biden on Tuesday to propose that most NATO countries increase their military spending by at least half to meet what he sees as the growing threat of Russian aggression against Europe and the United States. The Polish president, Andrzej Duda, said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had made clear that NATO must take more seriously the possibility that Moscow would move against one or more members of the alliance. To prepare for that, he said, each NATO country should spend at least 3 percent of its own economy on military needs, up from a current goal of 2 percent."

David Sanger & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "Senior intelligence officials [-- CIA Director William Burns & Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and others --] warned on Monday that without additional American aid, Ukraine faced the prospect of continued battlefield losses as Russia relies on a network of critical arms suppliers and drastically increases its supply of technology from China. In public testimony during the annual survey of worldwide threats facing the United States, the officials predicted that any continued delay of U.S. aid to Ukraine would lead to additional territorial gains by Russia over the next year, the consequences of which would be felt not only in Europe but also in the Pacific.... If the House approved the $60 billion in security assistance for Ukraine that passed the Senate, Mr. Burns said, Kyiv would be able to strike a strategic blow against Russia."

Claudia Chiappa of Politico: "Donald Trump will totally stop funding Ukraine if he wins the U.S. election in November, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said following a meeting between the right-wing figureheads. 'He will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russia war,' Orbán told Hungarian state media Sunday. 'Therefore, the war will end, because it is obvious that Ukraine can not stand on its own feet.' The longtime allies met last Friday at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, a summit which was lambasted by U.S. President Joe Biden.... According to Orbán, Trump has a 'detailed plan' to end the war in Ukraine, which marries with Hungary's interests. Orbán, who has maintained contact with Putin amid Russia's full-scale invasion, has repeatedly said he is opposed to sending more money and weapons to Kyiv." (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

CNBC: "Inflation rose again in February, keeping the Federal Reserve on course to wait at least until the summer before starting to lower interest rates. The consumer price index, a broad measure of goods and services costs, increased 0.4% for the month and 3.2% from a year ago, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. The monthly gain was in line with expectations, but the annual rate was slightly ahead of the 3.1% forecast from the Dow Jones consensus."