The Conversation -- January 21, 2024

Marie: Ron DeSantis's dropping out of the presidential* race Sunday is the reason I have not knocked myself out for the past year cataloguing every development in the race. I'll admit I linked to some stories about the race, especially if these little episodes provided a window into the party of nihilists -- and I have spent a lot of effort following what Der Furor was up to. But if you woke up today and had never heard of, say, Doug Burgum or Vivek Ramaswamy, you would be okay. Anyhow, buh-bye, Rhonda. ~~~

~~~ So here are the New York Times presidential* race developments for Sunday, with terribly, terribly sad news:

"Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida suspended his campaign for president on Sunday and endorsed the race's front-runner, Donald J. Trump, as the primary race in New Hampshire enters its final 48 hours.... It marked a spectacular implosion for a candidate once seen as having the best chance to dethrone Mr. Trump as the Republican Party's nominee in 2024. His departure from the race leaves Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, as Mr. Trump's last rival standing.... Mr. DeSantis flew home to Tallahassee late Saturday after campaigning in South Carolina. He had been expected to appear at a campaign event in New Hampshire on Sunday afternoon, but one person familiar with the matter said that was no longer the case."

If you're an elected Republican, you lie. If you're a supposedly ever-so-Christian elected Republican, you lie:

Chris Cameron: "Haley said that Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina ... had lied when he said earlier on CNN that he had texted Haley to inform her of his endorsement of Trump before it was publicly announced. 'He didn't call, he didn't text, he didn't tell me that he was going to do this,' Haley said. 'Am I disappointed? Yes. But that's his decision to live with.'"

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Congress Majors in Recess, Aces Test after Test. Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Once the House on Thursday finished kicking the can on government funding until early March, lawmakers did what almost comes naturally at this point. They left town for a 10-day break, not returning until the night of Jan. 29. Exempting half-days that are scheduled for traveling into or out of Washington, the House has only five full legislative days on its calendar before lawmakers leave Feb. 16 for what is slated to be an almost two-week break from the Capitol.... Senators, for their part, have only a slightly busier schedule despite their very heavy workload.... All told, between now and late February, the House and the Senate will be in session at the same time just seven days, several of those coming on shortened fly-in/fly-out travel days."

Benjamin Weiser & Jonathan Bromwich of the New York Times: Judges set to oversee cases against Donald Trump may be studying his interactions with the judges in recent courtroom episodes to gauge how to treat him in their own domains. "What has made Mr. Trump's appearances challenging is that he may be making the calculation that disobeying a judge or perhaps even losing a legal argument could be politically advantageous. In [E. Jeanne] Carroll's defamation trial, Mr. Trump seemed almost to be goading Judge [Lewis] Kaplan into throwing him out of the courtroom."

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Washington, D.C., bar investigators have filed disciplinary charges against three lawyers who aided Donald Trump ally Sidney Powell's campaign to mount discredited legal challenges to the 2020 election results. Filings made public Friday accused attorneys Juli Haller, Lawrence Joseph and Brandon Johnson of making knowingly false representations to courts about a slew of lawsuits they filed in the weeks after the 2020 election."

Presidential Race

The New York Times liveblogged developments yesterday in the Republican presidential* primary:

Nicholas Nehemas: "It is three days before the New Hampshire primary, but Ron DeSantis is spending the weekend campaigning in South Carolina, which doesn't vote for another month. It's a clear sign that DeSantis has basically given up competing in New Hampshire."

Jazmine Ulloa: "'Donald Trump has got to stop praising these dictators,' [Nikki] Haley says in one of her most confrontational attacks on Trump and his relationship with authoritarian leaders.... She goes on to say that she had to have a sit down with Trump 'because he was having too much of a bromance with Putin,' that he praised 'President Xi a dozen times after China gave us Covid' and that he exchanged 'love letters' with Kim Jong-un....'"

Nehemas: At a MAGA-friendly rally in Myrtle Beach, S.C., DeSantis twice dodges a question on whether or not Trump won the 2020 presidential election.

Ulloa: "Nikki Haley on Saturday escalated her attacks on Donald J. Trump, directly criticizing his mental acuity for the first time a day after the former president appeared to confuse her for Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker, during his Friday night rally in New Hampshire. In a news conference with reporters after her campaign event in Peterborough, N.H., Ms. Haley stopped short of calling Mr. Trump mentally unfit. But she did question whether he would be 'on it' enough to lead the nation. 'My parents are up in age...,' she said. '... when you see them hit a certain age, there is a decline. That's a fact -- ask any doctor, there is a decline.'" MB: No, Trump didn't appear to confuse Haley with Pelosi several times (see Mediaite story linked below); he did confuse Haley with Pelosi. And Haley's comparing Trump with her parents is a mighty mild criticism of an opponent by someone about to lose a primary to a daffy old codger.

Jonathan Swan: "It's hard to overstate the difference between a Nikki Haley New Hampshire event and a Donald Trump New Hampshire event.... [At an event I attended this afternoon:] A couple of hundred people, no crude shirts, neat sweaters and glasses, very little Haley paraphernalia, and I couldn't see anybody wearing American flag gear.... Here at Trump's event, people were stuck outside in freezing temperatures, blocked from getting in. Inside the arena, are probably 5,000 people.... There was a chant of 'Let's Go Brandon' (a code for a slur against Joe Biden). One of these politicians leads a movement. The other doesn't."

Reid Epstein: "Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota, a Democrat running a long-shot primary challenge to President Biden, said on Saturday that he would consider running on the ticket of No Labels, a centrist group exploring an independent bid, if it appeared the general election would be a rematch between Mr. Biden and Donald J. Trump."

Maggie Haberman: "'It's nice to have a strong man running your country,' Donald Trump says of Viktor Orban, the strongman prime minister of Hungary."

Michael Gold: A protester "interrupted Donald Trump as Trump was accusing Biden of being a threat to democracy. After he was taken out of the arena, Trump suggested -- without evidence -- that the protestor and other 'troublemakers' were being paid by George Soros." MB: No, not "without evidence." Trump made up a false charge out of whole cloth.

** Donald Trump Has Lost What Little Was Left of His Mind. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump blamed his Republican presidential opponent and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot during a rally on Friday. Speaking in Concord, New Hampshire, Trump confused his former ambassador to the U.N. with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Trump has previously blamed Pelosi for the security breakdown that enabled the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to take place. During his speech, Trump repeatedly said Haley's name before claiming she was behind the lapse. 'You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, you know they -- do you know they destroyed all of the information and all of the evidence?' Trump told the crowd. 'Everything. Deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it because of, lots of things. Like, Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people.'... However, the speaker [MB: who never has been Nikki Haley] is not in charge of the National Guard." Thanks to RAS for the link. Update: The New York Times has a story here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: We already knew that for Trump, blonde women were interchangeable: During a deposition, Trump also couldn't tell E. Jean Carroll from his wife. So we now know that for Trump, brunette women are interchangeable, too. Still, you have to be pretty daft to confuse Haley with Pelosi. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Dylan Wells of the Washington Post: "Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley on Saturday aggressively questioned ... Donald Trump's mental fitness, seizing on a flub at a rally in which Trump repeatedly called Nancy Pelosi by Haley's name when attacking the former House speaker.... 'Do we really want to go into an election with two fellas that are going to be president in their 80s?' Haley said at a stop Saturday in Keene, N.H., referring to Trump and President Biden. 'We see that Biden has changed so much over two years,' Haley said. 'But last night Trump is at a rally, and he's going on and on mentioning me multiple times as to why I didn't [handle] security during the Capitol riot, why I didn't handle January 6th better,' Haley said. 'I wasn't even in D.C. on January 6th. I wasn't in office then.... The concern I have is, I'm not saying anything derogatory, but when you're dealing with the pressures of a presidency, we can't have someone else that we question whether they're mentally fit to do this,' Haley added." That's a little better. Haley has some Susan-Collinsish "concern" over poor ole Trumpty-Dumpty. ~~~

     ~~~ The NBC News story on Haley's pushback is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Now, let us pause to enjoy Trump veep-hopeful Elise Stefanik's read of Trump's obvious confusion. Ali Vitali & Alex Rhoades of NBC News: "Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., balked at the idea that Trump has 'lost a step' in an interview with NBC News, insisting that despite the former president mistakenly referring to [Nikki] Haley instead of Nancy Pelosi at a rally last night, it 'wasn't a mix-up' at all. 'The reality is Nikki Haley is relying on Democrats, just like Nancy Pelosi, to try to have a desperate showing,' Stefanik said. Pressed by NBC News that Trump was talking about Jan. 6 when he misspoke, Stefanik doubled down: 'President Trump has not lost a step. He is a stronger candidate' now than in 2016." This is way down the page in NBC News' liveblog of campaign developments.

"Our Demagogue." Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "It is not hard to find, throughout American history, Trump-like demagogues with loyal followings. And these men tend to represent, most often, the popular expression of a certain will to power -- the freedom to dominate.... [George] Wallace was a smart, clever and intellectually agile man. We are probably lucky that our demagogue, dangerous as he is, lacks those particular attributes. Even so, if Wallace has a legacy in national politics, it is very clearly Trump."

Marie: I suppose Maureen Dowd of the New York Times likes to show how totally, impartially both-sider she is, but she makes a ridiculous dig at the Biden family in this week's column: "[The TV series] 'Succession' is a scorching dynasty drama -- the kind we have seen in both the Trump and the Biden clans." There is no Biden dynasty; there's just Joe. Joe more than likely hoped son Beau would follow in his footsteps, and Beau probably would have done had he not been cut down by a brain tumor. Moreover, neither Joe nor Beau was in business; "family business" is public service. Hunter's assorted endeavors & diversions are on no way part of that picture. Then Dowd knocks MSNBC for refusing "to carry Trump's [Iowa] victory speech at all.... Rachel Maddow said her network's decision was 'not out of spite.' It's not personal -- it's strictly business, as Michael Corleone said. MSNBC's business model, after all, is flaying Trump 24 hours a day." What Maddow actually said, and has said more than once, is that MSNBC won't carry Trump's speeches live because there's no way to keep up with his lies, a genuine journalistic problem that Dowd herself acknowledges.

Since this was a topic of discussion in yesterday's Comments, let's see what the NYT says about it: ~~~

Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: "Now that a grand jury has indicted Alec Baldwin on a charge of involuntary manslaughter for the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the film 'Rust' in New Mexico in 2021, the contours of the looming legal battle are coming into focus. If the case reaches trial, the challenge prosecutors face will be convincing a jury that Mr. Baldwin was guilty of either the negligent use of a firearm or of acting with 'total disregard or indifference for the safety of others' -- even though investigators found he was told on the day of the shooting that the gun he was rehearsing with contained no live rounds, and even though the film set was not supposed to have any live ammunition at all.... The outcome of the case at trial ... would hinge on how jurors view two key questions: Should Mr. Baldwin have known of the danger involved in his actions that day? And, using a term of art in criminal law, did he act with a 'willful disregard for the safety of others'?" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Were I an actor in a film (I was in a real movie once!) in which I was supposed to shoot a gun, I would not know how to do a chamber check. Even if I figured that out, I would have no idea how to distinguish between blanks & live bullets. It's true Baldwin has been in dozens of movies, a few of which may have required him to handle a prop gun. But still. Based on what I know now, I would not convict Baldwin.

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Colorado. Ryan Grenoble of the Huffington Post: "Hundreds of copies of newspapers in Ouray, Colorado, were stolen from around town this week, the day the paper published a story about an alleged rape at the police chief's house. Ouray County Plaindealer co-publisher Erin McIntyre acknowledged the apparent theft of almost all the papers in an email to readers Thursday and encouraged them to connect the dots on their own.... The front-page headline on the January 18-24 edition of the paper in question reads, 'Girl: Rapes occurred at chief's house.'"

Connecticut. Amelia Nierenberg of the New York Times: The last mayoral election in Bridgeport, Conn., is headed for a do-over after a judge ruled that rampant voter fraud in the Democratic primary put into question whether or not the declared winner Joe Ganim actually won the primary. "The judge pointed to videos showing 'partisans' repeatedly stuffing absentee ballots into drop boxes.... In Bridgeport, Connecticut's largest city, ballot manipulation has undermined elections for years. In interviews and in court testimony, residents of the city's low-income housing complexes described people sweeping through their apartment buildings, often pressuring them to apply for absentee ballots they were not legally entitled to. Sometimes, residents say, campaigners fill out the applications or return the ballots for them -- all of which is illegal.... In both the 2019 and 2023 races for mayor, the beneficiary of questionable acts in the initial Democratic primary vote was Mayor Ganim, the incumbent, who once spent seven years in prison on federal corruption charges, then regained the mayor's post in 2015." MB: He seems qualified. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Donald Trump claims that he did nothing wrong when he tried to overturn the 2020 election because part of his president* job was to ensure that elections were free and fair. Yet in Connecticut, where there is known fraud, he did not order any investigation or challenge the results. Could it possibly be because he lost to Biden 59% to 39%, and no amount of fraud in one city could make up the difference in the total state vote for president*? Why, it's almost as if his lawyers lied in court papers about his motive for the insurrection.

Pennsylvania. Dog Saves Home, Neighborhood. Sydney Page of the Washington Post: A Philadelphia family's 4-year-old husky, named Kobe, repeatedly dug a hole in their home's front yard to expose a dangerous gas leak. When resident Chanell Bell put a gas detector to the area, it "'went off like crazy,' she said. Bell called Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), and staff ... told Bell the leak -- which was caused by a rusting pipe -- was 'really serious,' and even flipping on a light switch could have blown up her house, she said.... After PGW workers repaired the pipe in front of her house, they discovered that other pipes were also leaking.... Gas leaks can increase the risk of a fire or deadly explosion, and can also lead to carbon monoxide poisoning in people and pets."

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Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Gaza's Health Ministry said the number of people killed in the Strip during this war has passed 25,000, a grim marker reached in just over 100 days of devastating conflict. The Biden administration is planning a sustained military campaign targeting the Houthis in Yemen after several days of strikes failed to halt the rebel group's attacks on maritime commerce, The Washington Post reported.... U.S. troops were being evaluated for traumatic brain injuries after Iranian-backed militants in western Iraq attacked the Ain al-Asad Air Base, U.S. Central Command said. The base's air defenses intercepted most of the missiles, but others hit the site, Centcom said, as fears of a regional escalation mount. A Palestinian American teenager was fatally shot in the West Bank, a family member told The Post. Tawfic Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, 17, grew up in the New Orleans area. The State Department confirmed the death of an American civilian in the West Bank, and Israeli police said they were launching a 'comprehensive investigation.'" ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's live updates for Sunday are here. The New York Times' live updates are here.

The Conversation -- January 20, 2024

** Donald Trump Has Lost What Little Was Left of His Mind. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump blamed his Republican presidential opponent and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot during a rally on Friday. Speaking in Concord, New Hampshire, Trump confused his former ambassador to the U.N. with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Trump has previously blamed Pelosi for the security breakdown that enabled the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to take place. During his speech, Trump repeatedly said Haley's name before claiming she was behind the lapse. 'You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, you know they -- do you know they destroyed all of the information and all of the evidence?' Trump told the crowd. 'Everything. Deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it because of, lots of things. Like, Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people.'... However, the speaker [MB: who never has been Nikki Haley] is not in charge of the National Guard." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: We already knew that for Trump, blonde women were interchangeable: During a deposition, Trump also couldn't tell E. Jeanne Carroll from his wife. So we now know that for Trump, brunette women are interchangeable, too.

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Washington, D.C., bar investigators have filed disciplinary charges against three lawyers who aided Donald Trump ally Sidney Powell's campaign to mount discredited legal challenges to the 2020 election results. Filings made public Friday accused attorneys Juli Haller, Lawrence Joseph and Brandon Johnson of making knowingly false representations to courts about a slew of lawsuits they filed in the weeks after the 2020 election."

Colorado. Ryan Grenoble of the Huffington Post: "Hundreds of copies of newspapers in Ouray, Colorado, were stolen from around town this week, the day the paper published a story about an alleged rape at the police chief's house. Ouray County Plaindealer co-publisher Erin McIntyre acknowledged the apparent theft of almost all the papers in an email to readers Thursday and encouraged them to connect the dots on their own.... The front-page headline on the January 18-24 edition of the paper in question reads, 'Girl: Rapes occurred at chief's house.'"

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** Dan Froomkin's proposed additions to the New York Times style guide are priceless -- and necessary. If, like me, you keep searching for honesty in MSM reporting, reading Froomkin's suggestions is a must. Sadly, the Times' reporters and editors will shine on Froomkin. It's what they do. The "first drafts of history" are not serious. Many thanks to mJK for the link, and to Froomkin, of course, for never giving up (or as a NYT "journalist" would put it, "for not giving up so far").

Erica Green of the New York Times: "President Biden on Friday signed legislation averting a partial government shutdown, which will fund agencies until early March as Congress continues to wrangle over spending proposals to fund the government for the remainder of the year. The Senate and the House approved the stopgap measure on Thursday; funding was to run out at midnight Friday. The six-week deal was passed over the opposition of hard-right Republicans in the House but with bipartisan majorities in both chambers." (Also linked yesterday.)

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of Washington Post: "Millions of Americans are paying down their student loans for the first time in years but with more repayment options than before. Chief among them is President Biden's new income-driven repayment plan -- Saving on a Valuable Education plan, commonly known as SAVE -- which ties monthly payments to earnings and family size. The White House estimates the plan could save the typical borrower $1,000 a year on payments because it reduces the amount of income used to calculate monthly bills. And some people enrolled in the plan will have their balances forgiven starting in February. So how does it work? Here's some information that could help you decide whether SAVE is right for you."

Rebecca Beitsch & Emily Brooks of the Hill: "An attorney for Kevin Morris, a close friend of Hunter Biden, accused House Republicans of misrepresenting his testimony following Morris's Thursday closed-door interview. The pushback from Morris, a Hollywood lawyer who paid off Biden's overdue taxes, came after his lawyer accused GOP leaders of cherry-picking items from his testimony 'not two hours' after he left his meeting with investigators.... Democrats and Republicans offered very different accounts of Morris's Thursday testimony, which reviewed some $5 million in what Morris said were loans to Biden to cover the cost of his tax debts. 'Morris made clear that he loaned money to Hunter when he needed help and never asked, expected, or received anything from the White House, the Administration, the Biden family, nor the President in exchange for his representation, loans, and friendship with Hunter,' said a Democratic source familiar with the interview.... But a statement from Comer said Morris's relationship with Biden 'raises ethical and campaign finance concerns.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Congressman Who Cried Wolf. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Jim Comer (R-Ky.) has so often cherry-picked and misrepresented witness testimony from closed-door depositions that when the attorney for friend-of-Hunter Kevin Morris claimed that's exactly what Comer did after Morris's testimony, the lawyer's accusation was entirely believable. Perhaps a full transcript of the deposition will be released someday, but in the meantime, Comer's version is less believable than is the witness's lawyer's. (Also linked yesterday.)

Injustice Follows a Judge. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: President Obama nominated D.C. Judge Todd Edelman to the U.S. District Court, but Mitch McConnell's blockade of Obama's nominations put the kibosh on that. President Biden renominated Edelman, but "Republicans struck again, this time with an ugly, Willie-Horton style smear campaign. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) fabricated an outrageous lie, telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that a man Edelman released in a pretrial hearing 'went on to murder -- to murder -- an 11-year-old.' In reality, the man in question hadn't murdered anyone, but Blackburn badly distorted the facts of a case to suggest that Edelman was to blame for a child's death." Some Democrats eventually stood up for Edelman but not enough to get him a vote out of committee, and the White House refused to renominate him for the new sessions of Congress. Edelman & Milbank are longtime friends. (Also linked yesterday.)

Evan Perez, et al., of CNN: "Attorney General Merrick Garland said in an interview with CNN that he believes there should be a 'speedy trial' in the election subversion case against Donald Trump, while also pushing back on allegations that his department is targeting the former president for political reasons. Garland said he agrees with special counsel Jack Smith's assertion that the 'public interest requires a speedy trial' in the 2020 election currently set for trial in March in Washington, DC." (Also linked yesterday.)

Graham Kates of CBS News: "Combative, angry and prone to grandiose claims -- newly unveiled footage of an April 2023 deposition gives a glimpse into how ... Donald Trump behaves when testifying under oath. The video, released to CBS News on Friday in response to a freedom of information request, shows Trump claiming to have averted a 'nuclear holocaust' and 'saving millions of lives' as president. A transcript of the deposition was previously made public as an exhibit in Trump's New York civil fraud case.... "I was very busy[,' Trump said in the April 2023 deposition. ']I considered this the most important job in the world, saving millions of lives. I think you would've had nuclear holocaust if I didn't deal with North Korea. I think you would've had a nuclear war if I weren't elected. And I think you might have a nuclear war now, if you want to know the truth,' Trump said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: By Trump's standards, every modern president except Truman could claim to have saved millions of lives by preventing a nuclear holocaust. So could untold numbers of presidential aides, not to mention the leaders and top military & diplomatic aides of other nuclear-armed countries like Russia and China.

Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump said on Friday night that American presidents deserve complete immunity from prosecution even for acts that 'cross the line,' contending for the second time this week that the holder of the nation's highest office should effectively remain beyond the reach of criminal law. Mr. Trump's remarks on his social media platform, Truth Social, were the latest signal that he seems to view the presidency as an office unbounded by the normal checks of the criminal justice system.... Mr. Trump's statements appeared to go further than legal arguments that one of his lawyers made in his efforts to use sweeping claims of executive immunity to dismiss a federal indictment he is facing.... Mr. Trump's lawyer took the position during the appellate court hearing that presidents could be prosecuted for things they did in office ... only if they were first convicted in an impeachment proceeding.... Mr. Trump's statements this week, which made no reference to impeachment, suggested that he believes there are no circumstances that would allow presidents to be held accountable under criminal law.... Mr. Trump's posts ... appeared to be an indication that the former president was taking a position that he could not be subject to prosecution for anything he did in office should he be elected again in November." MB: Throw him in Guantanamo, Joe.

Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "The estranged wife of a special prosecutor accused of having a romantic relationship with Fani T. Willis, the Atlanta district attorney who hired him, offered evidence on Friday that Ms. Willis accompanied him on trips unrelated to their work: leading the Georgia case against ... Donald J. Trump. A court filing from Joycelyn Wade, who is in divorce proceedings with the prosecutor, Nathan J. Wade, included what it said were statements for a credit card account belonging to Mr. Wade. The statements showed that he bought plane tickets for himself and Ms. Willis, including tickets to San Francisco from Atlanta purchased on April 25, 2023, and to Miami from Atlanta purchased on Oct. 4, 2022." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race

Reid Epstein & Ken Bessinger of the New York Times: "Even as [Joe Biden & Donald Trump] stroll toward likely summer coronations and a fall rematch, an undercurrent of disbelief is coursing through the country. Many Republicans view Mr. Biden as so politically and physically weak that they think his party will replace him. Many Democrats can't fathom that Mr. Trump could win another nomination while he is facing 91 felony counts and four criminal trials. This incredulity -- ranging from casual doubtfulness to conspiratorial denial -- has lurked beneath a year of polling showing a deeply gloomy public mood, and has emerged in dozens of interviews over the past two weeks as well as recent declarations from candidates and political commentators.... The [Republican] party is nearly a decade into the Trump era, and misinformation and conspiratorial thinking about Mr. Biden's health and Democratic plotting to replace him are rampant in the conservative news media and broader political world. Democrats, for their part, are consumed by a gut-wrenching hope that Mr. Trump won't be the nominee. They are crossing their fingers that his legal cases or efforts to disqualify him from office through the 14th Amendment will keep him off the ballot." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, that's so silly. I firmly believe that all Americans -- Republicans & Demcrats alike -- will coalesce around somebody like Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse or Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Amy Wang, et al., of Washington Post: "... Donald Trump is lobbing racially charged attacks at Republican rival Nikki Haley, a daughter of Indian immigrants who served as his U.N. ambassador, days before a hotly contested New Hampshire primary that could determine the trajectory of the party's nominating contest.... Writing on [his social media platform], Trump repeatedly referred to Haley as 'Nimbra,' an apparent intentional misspelling of her birth name. Haley ... was born [in the U.S.] Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. Reminiscent of his spurious claims about former president Barack Obama's citizenship, Trump also last week spread a false 'birther' claim about Haley when he shared a post on Truth Social from the Gateway Pundit, a far-right website that propagates baseless accusations.... Haley recently asserting that the United States is not and never was a racist nation.... Trump, whose mother migrated to the United States from Scotland, has a history of using a rival's name or background as a tool in his efforts to make rivals sound like they are not fully American." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: There are three reporters on this story: Wang, Maegan Vazquez & Azi Paybarah. My wild guess is that none of them came from Scotland (though it's possible!). Why not just write down that the reason it's okay for your parent to come from Scotland (or your wives from Eastern Europe) is that Donald Trump thinks his mother & wives are Whitey-White people? It isn't immigrants whom Trump despises; it's non-European immigrants. We'll have to ask him if Southern Europeans -- Spaniards, Italians, Greeks & so on -- are okay. He makes me sick. ~~~

     ~~~ Ah, well, the AP report is worse. The reporter is Bill Barrow. Whaddaya bet he's a White guy? Barrow characterizes Trump's racist attack on Haley as being "the latest example of the former president keying on race and ethnicity to attack people of color, especially his political rivals." Yes, indeedy, "keying in on race and ethnicity." Doesn't sound so bad, does it? Why, look at Louisiana (link below). The state legislature "keyed in on race and ethnicity" when, under court order, it expanded Black-majority Congressional districts from one to two. And that's a good thing. The press is an incorrigible band of wimps. That wimpiness makes them liars. ~~~

~~~ SO THEN. Comedy of Horrors, Ctd. Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, et al., of ABC News: "South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott delivered a blow to Nikki Haley ahead of the New Hampshire primary, appearing on stage with ... Donald Trump and endorsing him at his rally in Concord[, New Hampshire].... 'We need a president who will unite our country,' Scott said. 'We need Donald Trump.'... Haley, who served as South Carolina governor from 2011 to 2017, appointed Scott to the Senate in 2012." Scott apparently flew to Florida Friday so he could fly with Trump to New Hampshire (NYT link). MB: So the only Black Republican in the Senate, who owes his job to Haley, endorses Haley's opponent, who has been lobbing racist taunts at Haley. And he claims said racist fellow will unite the country.

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Between government reports, testimony from witnesses, the confessions of Klansmen and the physical evidence of violence and destruction [made public in the 1870s], it would seem impossible to deny the awful scope of Klan terror, much less the existence of the Klan itself.... We know, as much as we can know anything, that Donald Trump led a conspiracy to overturn the results of an election that he lost. Yet that is exactly what happened.... [Today,] despite this unambiguous evidence of insurrection, there is a concerted effort -- out of either skepticism or denial -- to present the events of Jan. 6, including the schemes that led up to the attack on the Capitol, as something else.... And in much the same way that the collapse of Reconstruction and the political victory of so-called Redeemers heralded the ideological victory of the Klan's defenders, sympathizers and apologists, it is Trump's ultimate fate that will shape and determine our lasting memory of what happened on Jan. 6."

Dennis Aftergut & Walter White in the Bulwark: "JAMIE DIMON ISSUED WHAT CNN characterized as a 'warning to Democrats' this week. During a CNBC interview on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum at Davos, the JPMorgan Chase CEO said that 'Donald Trump was right about some critical issues,' so Democrats should not too quickly dismiss Trump's base as a cult of personality.... Such a statement from such a powerful and influential business leader is just what a mad doctor ordered to normalize Trump.... Dimon's endorsement of Trump's policies serves as a kind of permission slip to others in the world of finance and commerce to move in Trump's direction." Read on, because the authors ask just what Dimon likes about the policies he references. ~~~

     ~~~ Robert Reich writes a similar column, excoriating Dimon on the specifics of his praise. "At a time in American history when the most influential leaders of America need to stand up loudly and clearly for the rule of law, for democracy, for decency, and against Donald Trump, Dimon is leading the charge in the opposite direction. This is how fascism takes root and spreads, friends." Emphasis original.

Jenna Russell of the New York Times: "Maine's top election official said on Friday she intends to appeal the ruling by a state Superior Court judge this week that placed on hold her decision to exclude ... Donald J. Trump from the state's Republican primary ballot. In a statement, the official, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, said she welcomed the guidance of the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to hear arguments on a similar case on Feb. 8. But in the meantime, she said, she will seek the input of Maine's highest court.... 'This appeal ensures that Maine's highest court has the opportunity to weigh in now, before ballots are counted, promoting trust in our free, safe and secure elections.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Joe Rennison & Edward Moreno of the New York Times: "The stock market broke through to new heights on Friday, with the S&P 500 index finally hitting a record after weeks of bumping up against its previous peak. The index, one of the most widely watched Wall Street benchmarks and a cornerstone of many portfolios, rose 1.2 percent to close above the high that was set in January 2022." MB: I suppose Donald Trump would explain the buoyant market as a sign that investors are optimistic because He Donald is about to become president* again.

Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: "A grand jury in New Mexico indicted Alec Baldwin on Friday on a charge of involuntary manslaughter, reviving the criminal case against him in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the film 'Rust' more than two years ago when a gun he was rehearsing with went off. The indictment, which came exactly one year after the first involuntary manslaughter case against him was announced, was the latest reversal of fortune for Mr. Baldwin. The local district attorney's initial case fell apart and the initial charge against Mr. Baldwin was dismissed in April. But a new prosecution team, Kari T. Morrissey and Jason J. Lewis, decided to present the case to a grand jury, which indicted Mr. Baldwin on Friday." (Also linked yesterday.)

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Florida. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "The former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida who was ousted earlier this month amid a criminal investigation will not be charged with sexual battery, the Sarasota Police Department said on Friday. But the authorities will seek to charge him with video voyeurism, a felony. Christian Ziegler, the ousted chairman, recorded a sexual encounter he had in October with a woman who later accused him of assault. The recording occurred without her knowledge or consent, the Police Department said in a statement. Officers prepared a probable cause affidavit for the video voyeurism charge and sent it to state prosecutors on Friday. They did not pursue a more serious sexual battery charge because the video, which the police obtained, 'showed that the encounter was likely consensual,' the statement said."

Louisiana. Miracle* on the Bayou. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Louisiana lawmakers on Friday approved a new congressional map that would create a second district with a majority of Black voters, after a federal court found that the existing map appeared to illegally undercut the power of Black voters in the state. Given that Black voters often back Democratic candidates in the state, the new map also increases the possibility of Democrats' taking control of a second congressional seat in Louisiana.... Lawmakers in Baton Rouge also agreed to tighten the state's raucous 'jungle primary' system for federal elections and State Supreme Court races beginning in 2026, though they stopped far short of the statewide overhaul sought by Gov. Jeff Landry, the newly inaugurated Republican governor."

* Oh, and a nudge from a federal court: Mr. Landry [-- who as the state's attorney general, defended the original map --] now governor and facing a court order, threw his weight behind a new map that not only creates a second majority-Black district but also protects the state's two most powerful conservatives in Washington -- Speaker Mike Johnson and Representative Steve Scalise, the majority leader. The new map does undercut one Republican, Representative Garret Graves, who endorsed one of Mr. Landry's rivals in the governor's race." MB: Funny how that worked out.

New York. In J. Edgar Hoover's Shadow. Ed Shanahan of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday ordered that a New York man be freed from prison because a 'most unsavory' government informant had duped him into an 'F.B.I.-orchestrated conspiracy' focused on attacking an upstate Air Force base and Jewish sites in the Bronx. The scathingly worded decision by the judge, Colleen McMahon, granting the man, James Cromitie, 'compassionate release' was the latest twist in the case of four Hudson Valley men who were convicted of terrorism charges in 2010 despite arguing that they had been entrapped. In July, Judge McMahon, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, ordered the release of Mr. Cromitie's co-defendants, Laguerre Payen, David Williams and Onta Williams, for the same reasons. The men, the so-called Newburgh Four, had each been sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2011. As with the others, the judge's order called for Mr. Cromitie's sentence to be reduced to time served plus 90 days. The order did not reverse his conviction."

Texas. Edgar Sandoval of the New York Times: "The district attorney in Uvalde, Texas, [Christina Mitchell,] has said for months that she intended to convene a grand jury to consider evidence from the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School, with the possibility that state criminal charges could result over the botched police response to the massacre.... On Friday, it emerged that selection for the grand jury had begun, according to a person familiar with the matter. The inquiry was likely to last months. Word that the grand jury had begun to be convened, first reported by The Uvalde Leader-News, came a day after the Justice Department published a 600-page report that found broad and 'unimaginable' failures that delayed the response and subsequent medical care to the victims after the mass shooting."

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "U.S. forces destroyed three Houthi anti-ship missiles that were aimed at targets in the Red Sea and were ready to be launched, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. The State Department confirmed the death of a U.S. civilian in the occupied West Bank on Friday, hours after National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said he was 'seriously concerned; about reports of the death of a Palestinian American teenager there."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden pressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Friday to agree to the creation of a Palestinian state after the war in Gaza is over and raised options that would limit Palestinian sovereignty to make the prospect more palatable to Israel. Hoping to overcome Mr. Netanyahu's strenuous resistance, Mr. Biden floated the possibility of a disarmed Palestinian nation that would not threaten Israel's security. While there was no indication that Mr. Netanyahu would ease his opposition, which is popular with his fragile right-wing political coalition, Mr. Biden expressed optimism that they may yet find consensus." ~~~

~~~ Liz Goodwin & Yasmeen Abutaleb of Washington Post: "After weeks of unquestioning support, the Senate is emerging as a center of resistance to [President] Biden's unwavering embrace of Israel -- at least in modest ways -- as even centrist Democrats are signaling their discomfort with the president's "bear hug' of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A number of prominent Democrats have proposed or backed measures that aim to hold Israel accountable or to shift American strategy, even if they are unlikely to garner enough support to pass.... While few senators are voicing full-throated criticism of Biden's Israel policy, the new, more skeptical tone reflects an increasing unease as the civilian toll in Gaza rises and Israel repeatedly flouts U.S. requests to modify its military onslaught."

The Conversation -- January 19, 2024

Erica Green of the New York Times: "President Biden on Friday signed legislation averting a partial government shutdown, which will fund agencies until early March as Congress continues to wrangle over spending proposals to fund the government for the remainder of the year. The Senate and the House approved the stopgap measure on Thursday; funding was to run out at midnight Friday. The six-week deal was passed over the opposition of hard-right Republicans in the House but with bipartisan majorities in both chambers."

Rebecca Beitsch & Emily Brooks of the Hill: "An attorney for Kevin Morris, a close friend of Hunter Biden, accused House Republicans of misrepresenting his testimony following Morris's Thursday closed-door interview. The pushback from Morris, a Hollywood lawyer who paid off Biden's overdue taxes, came after his lawyer accused GOP leaders of cherry-picking items from his testimony 'not two hours' after he left his meeting with investigators.... Democrats and Republicans offered very different accounts of Morris's Thursday testimony, which reviewed some $5 million in what Morris said were loans to Biden to cover the cost of his tax debts. 'Morris made clear that he loaned money to Hunter when he needed help and never asked, expected, or received anything from the White House, the Administration, the Biden family, nor the President in exchange for his representation, loans, and friendship with Hunter,' said a Democratic source familiar with the interview.... But a statement from Comer said Morris's relationship with Biden 'raises ethical and campaign finance concerns.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Congressman Who Cried Wolf. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Jim Comer (R-Ky.) has so often cherry-picked and misrepresented witness testimony from closed-door depositions that when the attorney for friend-of-Hunter Kevin Morris claimed that's what Comer did after Morris's testimony, the lawyer's accusation was entirely believable. Perhaps a full transcript of the deposition will be released someday, but in the meantime, Comer's version is less believable than is the witness's lawyer's.

Evan Perez, et al., of CNN: "Attorney General Merrick Garland said in an interview with CNN that he believes there should be a 'speedy trial' in the election subversion case against Donald Trump, while also pushing back on allegations that his department is targeting the former president for political reasons. Garland said he agrees with special counsel Jack Smith's assertion that the 'public interest requires a speedy trial' in the 2020 election currently set for trial in March...."

Jenna Russell of the New York Times: "Maine's top election official said on Friday she intends to appeal the ruling by a state Superior Court judge this week that placed on hold her decision to exclude ... Donald J. Trump from the state's Republican primary ballot. In a statement, the official, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, said she welcomed the guidance of the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to hear arguments on a similar case on Feb. 8. But in the meantime, she said, she will seek the input of Maine's highest court.... 'This appeal ensures that Maine's highest court has the opportunity to weigh in now, before ballots are counted, promoting trust in our free, safe and secure elections.'"

Graham Kates of CBS News: "Combative, angry and prone to grandiose claims -- newly unveiled footage of an April 2023 deposition gives a glimpse into how ... Donald Trump behaves when testifying under oath. The video, released to CBS News on Friday in response to a freedom of information request, shows Trump claiming to have averted a 'nuclear holocaust' and 'saving millions of lives' as president. A transcript of the deposition was previously made public as an exhibit in Trump's New York civil fraud case.... 'I was very busy[,' Trump said in the April 2023 deposition.'] I considered this the most important job in the world, saving millions of lives. I think you would've had nuclear holocaust if I didn't deal with North Korea. I think you would've had a nuclear war if I weren't elected. And I think you might have a nuclear war now, if you want to know the truth,' Trump said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: By Trump's standards, every modern president except Truman could claim to have saved millions of lives by preventing a nuclear holocaust. So could untold numbers of presidential aides, not to mention the leaders and top military & diplomatic aides of other nuclear-armed countries like Russia and China.

Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "The estranged wife of a special prosecutor accused of having a romantic relationship with Fani T. Willis, the Atlanta district attorney who hired him, offered evidence on Friday that Ms. Willis accompanied him on trips unrelated to their work: leading the Georgia case against ... Donald J. Trump. A court filing from Joycelyn Wade, who is in divorce proceedings with the prosecutor, Nathan J. Wade, included what it said were statements for a credit card account belonging to Mr. Wade. The statements showed that he bought plane tickets for himself and Ms. Willis, including tickets to San Francisco from Atlanta purchased on April 25, 2023, and to Miami from Atlanta purchased on Oct. 4, 2022."

Injustice Follows a Judge. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: President Obama nominated D.C. Judge Todd Edelman to the U.S. District Court, but Mitch McConnell's blockade of Obama's nominations put the kibosh on that. President Biden renominated Edelman, but "Republicans struck again, this time with an ugly, Willie-Horton style smear campaign. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) fabricated an outrageous lie, telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that a man Edelman released in a pretrial hearing 'went on to murder -- to murder -- an 11-year-old.' In reality, the man in question hadn't murdered anyone, but Blackburn badly distorted the facts of a case to suggest that Edelman was to blame for a child's death." Some Democrats eventually stood up for Edelman but not enough to get him a vote out of committee, and the White House refused to renominate him for the new sessions of Congress. Edelman & Milbank are longtime friends.

Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: "A grand jury in New Mexico indicted Alec Baldwin on Friday on a charge of involuntary manslaughter, reviving the criminal case against him in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the film 'Rust' more than two years ago when a gun he was rehearsing with went off. The indictment, which came exactly one year after the first involuntary manslaughter case against him was announced, was the latest reversal of fortune for Mr. Baldwin. The local district attorney's initial case fell apart and the initial charge against Mr. Baldwin was dismissed in April. But a new prosecution team, Kari T. Morrissey and Jason J Lewis, decided to present the case to a grand jury, which indicted Mr. Baldwin on Friday."

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Jacob Bogage & Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "Congress on Thursday passed legislation to keep the federal government open into March, approving the third stopgap spending bill in four months as lawmakers struggle to agree on long-term government funding plans. The bill extends deadlines to March 1 and March 8. Money for roughly 20 percent of the government -- including the Transportation Department, some veterans' assistance and food and drug safety programs -- had been set to expire just after midnight Saturday morning. The remainder -- which funds the Defense and State departments, among other critical functions -- would have expired on Feb. 2 without the new extension. The Senate passed the legislation, 77-18, early Thursday afternoon. The House followed suit, 314-108, hours later, after GOP hard-liners launched a last-minute pressure campaign to attach partisan border security measures to the funding package. The votes send the legislation to President Biden to sign into law and avert a partial shutdown ahead of the deadline." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Maybe you think it's great that Congress didn't wait till Friday -- the very last day parts of the government could "stay open" -- to pass the stop-gap legislation. But the reason they didn't wait till the literal eleventh hour: Washington, D.C. weather forecasts suggest bad weather might ground flights, and some members were afraid they couldn't get out of town.

House Republicans Plan Fake Impeachment. Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "House Republicans wrapped up impeachment hearings against Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, on Thursday, a little more than a week after the proceedings began, racing to charge him with failing to enforce the nation's immigration laws. The Republicans are moving ahead without evidence that Mr. Mayorkas has committed high crimes or misdemeanors, the constitutional standard for impeachment.... They plan to bring charges against Mr. Mayorkas as early as the end of this month, without having featured testimony from him or any other witness from the Biden administration to publicly answer for his conduct, or a single constitutional expert to support their argument that he is guilty of impeachable offenses.... The push to impeach Mr. Mayorkas has coincided with his participation in a high-stakes set of bipartisan talks in the Senate to reach a border enforcement compromise that would set new policies on asylum and detention." MB: This really is extraordinary. ~~~

     ~~~ A CNN story, which doesn't mention that the committee has produced no evidence of high crimes or misdemeanors, is here.

The Nihilists. Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "Bipartisan Senate negotiators and the White House say they are close to a deal on legislation to alleviate what everyone agrees is an emergency. It would give Republicans much of what they want regarding the southern border -- beefed-up security against illegal crossings, tightened asylum rules, provision for more detentions and expulsions, perhaps even limits on President Biden's authority to 'parole' certain groups of immigrants.... The package would also approve billions of dollars in military aid for Ukraine.... But ... on Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) immediately threw doubt on the very idea of an agreement that addresses both the border and Ukraine.... Partisanship is one thing, but what Republicans are practicing ... is political nihilism. It's not about enacting policies or fulfilling responsibilities but, rather, about accentuating voters' fears, anxieties and resentments -- and doing whatever Trump wants them to do."

** Edgar Sandoval & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "A Justice Department investigation released on Thursday found that a near-total breakdown in policing protocols hindered the response to the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 21 people dead -- but the gravest error was the reluctance of officials to confront the killer during the first few minutes of the attack. The department blamed 'cascading failures of leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy and training' for the delayed and passive law enforcement response that allowed an 18-year-old gunman with a semiautomatic rifle to remain inside a pair of connected fourth grade classrooms at Robb Elementary School for 77 minutes before he was confronted and killed. The 'most significant failure,' investigators concluded, was the fateful decision by local police officials to classify the incident as a barricaded standoff rather than an 'active-shooter' scenario, which would have demanded instant and aggressive action regardless of the danger to those responding or the lack of appropriate weapons to confront the gunman." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The AP's report is here. CNN's report is here. Update: CNN has a facsimile of the full DOJ report here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Trials of the Trump Mob

AP: "The federal judge [Tanya Chutkan] overseeing the 2020 election interference case against Donald Trump on Thursday rejected his lawyers' bid to hold special counsel Jack Smith's team in contempt for actions prosecutors took after the judge put the case on hold. But the judge said no further 'substantive' court filings should be submitted without permission. The former president's lawyers had accused prosecutors of 'outrageous conduct' for turning over to the defense thousands of pages of evidence and filing a motion after the judge paused the case while Trump appeals his presidential immunity claim." ~~~

     ~~~ BUT. Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The judge overseeing the federal criminal case against Donald Trump for attempting to subvert the 2020 presidential election indicated Thursday that the March 4 trial date is unlikely to hold. In a six-page order, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan barred special counsel Jack Smith from filing substantive new motions without advance permission while Trump is seeking to have the case thrown out on 'presidential immunity' grounds."

Amy Gardner & Holly Bailey of the Washington Post: "A state judge overseeing the election-interference case against ... Donald Trump in Georgia has scheduled a hearing for Feb. 15 to hear evidence regarding accusations that Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) and her lead prosecutor engaged in an improper relationship and mishandled public money. Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee also wrote in his order that Willis must respond to the accusations in writing by Feb. 2. The accusations first came to light in a filing from one of Trump's co-defendants, former campaign aide Mike Roman. The order, which is not yet on the case docket, was obtained by The Washington Post." At 1:15 pm ET Thursday, this was a developing story. (Also linked yesterday.) The NBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Fani T. Willis, the district attorney prosecuting the Georgia election interference case against ... Donald J. Trump, is trying to quash a subpoena seeking her testimony in the divorce proceedings of a special prosecutor she hired to manage the case. A court filing last week accused Ms. Willis of having a romantic relationship with the prosecutor, Nathan J. Wade.... On Thursday, Ms. Willis responded [to the subpoena] with a filing stating that she 'lacks personal knowledge of any matter that is relevant' to the divorce. She did not directly acknowledge the allegation, but said there was no reason for her to testify because both Mr. Wade and his wife had declared their marriage to be 'irretrievably broken.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Kate Brumback of the AP: "Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is accusing the estranged wife of a special prosecutor she hired of trying to obstruct her criminal election-interference case against ... Donald Trump and others by seeking to question her in the couple's divorce proceedings.... A lawyer for Willis wrote in a filing Thursday that lawyers for [Nathan] Wade's wife, Joycelyn Wade, served a subpoena to the district attorney last week. The filing says that the subpoena is being sought 'in an attempt to harass and damage' Willis' professional reputation and accuses Joycelyn Wade of having 'conspired with interested parties in the criminal Election Interference Case to use the civil discovery process to annoy, embarrass, and oppress' the district attorney."

Marcy Wheeler writes that Donald Trump's bad behavior in court is a pre-planned attack on the rule of law and that Trump is willing to pay millions extra in damages and/or face contempt-of-court charges to advance his plan. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: While I agree with Wheeler's general point, she faults the media for "serially fall[ing] into Donald Trump's trap of reporting on his courtroom tantrums rather than the evidence of his fraud and crime presented therein." I don't totally disagree with her here, either, but I do think it's important to showcase Trump's lack of self-control. Everyone (except Nikki Haley -- see Mediaite item linked below) knows that Trump has already been found liable for raping & defaming E. Jeanne Carroll, for instance. The public's interest in the extent of the damages she deserves is more limited, I think, than the public's interest in Trump's conduct. We cannot do anything about how much a jury awards Carroll, but we can do something about Trump; i.e., deprive him of regaining the presidency* & wriggling out of every civil and criminal action against him.

Zach Montague of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors asked on Thursday night for a sentence of six months in prison for Peter Navarro, a former White House adviser to ... Donald J. Trump, for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Prosecutors said they were seeking a sentence at the top end of the guidelines because of his 'bad-faith strategy' of 'sustained, deliberate contempt of Congress.... The defendant, like the rioters at the Capitol, put politics, not country, first, and stonewalled Congress's investigation,' they wrote in their sentencing memo. 'The defendant chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump over the rule of law.'... Mr. Navarro was convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress in September...." CNN's report is here.

Presidential Race

Samantha Waldenberg & Michael Williams of CNN: "White House chief of staff Jeff Zients called Asa Hutchinson on Wednesday morning to apologize for a statement issued by the Democratic National Committee's press secretary that mocked Hutchinson's withdrawal from the presidential race. The statement came after the former Arkansas governor dropped out of the 2024 presidential race following his sixth-place finish in the Iowa Republican caucuses. It read: 'This news comes as a shock to those of us who could've sworn he had already dropped out.' President Joe Biden has a 'deep respect' for Hutchinson, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during Wednesday's press briefing, 'and admires the race that he ran.' 'This morning, the chief of staff here, Jeff Zients, called the governor to convey this and apologized for the statement that did not that did not represent the president's views,' she said. Hours after the call, Hutchinson told CNN that while he didn't 'pay much attention' to the DNC's statement, he appreciated Zients reaching out to him." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So we could choose a second term for a classy president or for a president* who constantly denigrates his opponents & others.

Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "... Nikki Haley, who -- to gain ground on Trump ahead of the New Hampshire primary -- has sharpened her pitch against him by doubling down on questioning his age and cognitive abilities.... [So on Wednesday night, Trump] bragged that he correctly identified a whale on a cognitive test when he was president." MB: Bear in mind that it's been about four years since Trump has had the acuity to ID a cartoon of a whale, and a lot can change in that period of time. Plus this: ~~~

     ~~~ According to Meidas Touch (a very anti-Trump site prone to exaggeration), "Moments after bragging that he "aced" a screening test meant to detect signs of dementia, Donald Trump appeared confused and disoriented while delivering remarks in Portsmouth, New Hampshire." Transcript of Trump's remarks: "But we're also going to place strong protections to stop banks and regulators from trying to de-bank you. From your -- you know, your political beliefs, what they do. They want to de-bank you, and we're going to de-bank -- think of this. They want to take away your rights. They want to take away your country. The things they're doing, all-electric cars. Give me a break." MB: So maybe not perfectly coherent. Thanks to Forrest M. for the link.

A PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES MUST HAVE FULL IMMUNITY, WITHOUT WHICH IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR HIM/HER TO PROPERLY FUNCTION. -- Donald Trump, in a post Thursday morning

President Biden, invoking full immunity, should immediately order the Army to take Donald Trump into custody, remove him to an undisclosed location (say, Guantanamo) and incarcerate him there for the rest of his natural life, rendering Trump unable to ever assume any political office in which he might enjoy any form of immunity. If questioned about Trump's mysterious disappearance, Biden should respond, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ You're welcome. -- Marie Burns

Sara Boboltz of the Huffington Post: "A Washington [state] judge ruled Thursday that ... Donald Trump can be listed on state presidential primary ballots after he encouraged supporters to stage an insurrection in his last days in the Oval Office.... After hearing arguments on Thursday, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Mary Sue Wilson dismissed the case. Wilson said the secretary of state had acted 'consistent with his duties' by placing Trump on the state primary ballot."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to reverse a ruling barring him from the primary ballot in Colorado and to declare him eligible to seek and hold the office of the presidency. Mr. Trump's brief, his main submission in an extraordinary case with the potential to alter the course of the presidential election, was a forceful recitation of more than half a dozen arguments about why the Colorado Supreme Court had gone astray in ruling him an insurrectionist barred from office by the Constitution.... The case will be argued on Feb. 8, and the court will probably decide it quickly...." CNN's report is here.~~~

~~~ Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: "Nearly 180 congressional Republicans signed on to an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Donald Trump's legal battle to remain on the primary election ballot in Colorado. The long list of signatories to the brief includes someone who has largely steered clear of the 2024 race and who previously said the former president is responsible for provoking the 2021 insurrection: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).... The list of signatories does not include several moderate Republicans, nor does it include any of the House Republicans who hold seats won by Joe Biden in 2020." The Hill's story is here.

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Florida. Brendan Farrington of the AP: "A bill advanced by Florida Republicans on Wednesday would ban teachers and other government employees from displaying a rainbow flag -- even wearing one as a lapel pin for a day -- but they could hang the full-size flag of any 'recognized nation' as long as they want, according to the bill's sponsor. Flag displays that depict a 'racial, sexual orientation and gender, or political ideology viewpoint' would be banned from any state or local government building, including public schools and universities, under the bill authored by GOP Rep. David Borrero.... The ban wouldn't apply to students, or to government employees when they're not at work or in public buildings, Borrero said." Thanks to Forrest M. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Obviously, this is a homophobic, racist bill. Borrero seems to have tried to stay within First Amendment bounds, but if it becomes law, attempts to enforce it may prove otherwise, particularly since race & sexual orientation are protected categories and gender is, well, gender. If a teacher wears a necklace with an "XX" pendant, isn't she breaking Borrero's proposed law? On the other hand, if Borrero is just trying to call attention to what a jerk he is, well, mission accomplished.

Missouri. Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "A coalition of reproductive-rights groups in Missouri kicked off a campaign on Thursday to establish a right to abortion in the state constitution, setting up the nation's next big test of public support for legalized abortion. Missouri was the first state to officially outlaw abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade 18 months ago. A successful ballot measure there could make it the first state where a citizen-led initiative reverses a near-total ban. Abortion-rights supporters have prevailed on all seven ballot measures put before voters since Roe was overturned, and groups in roughly 10 other states are attempting to pass similar abortion-rights measures this year. In Missouri, though, they face a tight timeline, fierce opposition from the Republicans who control state government, and a long tradition of anti-abortion politics." (Also linked yesterday.) The Hill's story is here.

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Israel/Palestine, etc. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday surrounding the Israel/Gaza war are here: "Iranian-backed Houthi militants targeted a tanker in the third such attack on commercial shipping in three days, U.S. Central Command said, as President Biden acknowledged that U.S. strikes have not deterred the Yemen-based group. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he 'told our American friends' that he opposes Palestinian statehood after the war, despite the United States emphasizing the importance of a two-state solution.... Netanyahu said that under 'any future agreement, Israel must have security control over the entire territory from the sea to the Jordan River,' even though it 'clashes with the ideas of sovereignty' for Palestinians. [White House National Security Council spokesman John] Kirby responded that the United States and Israel 'obviously see it differently,' noting that 'were not going to stop working' toward a two-state solution." ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's live updates for Friday are here.