The Conversation -- January 7, 2024

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Senate and House leaders announced on Sunday that they had struck an overarching agreement on 2024 government funding, but it was not clear whether they would be able to cement the deal and pass it into law in time to avert a partial government shutdown in less than two weeks. After weeks of negotiations and on the eve of Congress returning from its holiday break, top Senate and House members said they had agreed to set the total amount of spending at nearly $1.66 trillion, bringing funding in line with the deal struck last year between President Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy that met with vehement conservative opposition."

Kelly Garrity of Politico: "House Speaker Mike Johnson called suggestions that he is an election denier 'nonsense,' but refused to affirm that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election during an interview that aired Sunday. The Constitution was 'clearly violated during the 2020 election,' the Louisiana Republican told CBS' Margaret Brennan during an interview on 'Face The Nation.'... 'The Constitution was violated in the run up to the 2020 election, not always in bad faith, but in the aftermath of Covid, many states changed their election laws in ways that violated that plain language. That's just a fact,' Johnson said. Saying it was now 'water under the bridge,' Johnson noted that he works 'with President Biden as the President of the United States.'" ~~~

~~~ Summer Concepcion of NBC News: "Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. [the fourth-ranking House Republican], on Sunday wouldn't commit to certifying the 2024 election results during an interview on NBC News' 'Meet the Press.'... After [host Kristen] Welker pressed her [twice, Stefanik said,] 'We will see if this is a legal and valid election.... What we're seeing so far is that Democrats are so desperate, they're trying to remove President Trump from the ballot. That is a suppression of the American people.'... Stefanik ... said that she did not vote to certify the 2020 results in the state of Pennsylvania and several other states because there were 'unconstitutional acts circumventing the state legislature and unilaterally changing election law.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So now we know the new talking point, one meant to imply that these folks are sane, that they know the vote tallies show Joe Biden won, but that the election itself was illegitimate because "Constitutional violations." Because Covid.

Trump's Former Golf Caddy Talks! Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "Special counsel Jack Smith's team has uncovered previously undisclosed details about ... Donald Trump's refusal to help stop the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol three years ago as he sat watching TV inside the White House, according to sources.... Many of the exclusive details come from the questioning of Trump's former deputy chief of staff, Dan Scavino.... Scavino wouldn't speak with the House select committee.... Sources said Scavino told Smith's investigators that as the violence began to escalate that day, Trump 'was just not interested' in doing more to stop it.... After unsuccessfully trying for up to 20 minutes to persuade Trump to release some sort of calming statement, Scavino and others walked out of the dining room, leaving Trump alone, sources said. That's when, according to sources, Trump posted a message on his Twitter account saying that Pence 'didn't have the courage to do what should have been done.' Trump's aides told investigators they were shocked by the post." There's more.

The Art of the Deal. If Only Lincoln Had Been as Smart as Trump. Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump suggested Saturday at a campaign event [in Iowa] that the U.S. Civil War 'could have been negotiated,' a remark that drew criticism from historians as well as political opponents. 'The Civil War was so fascinating, so horrible,' Trump said. 'So many mistakes were made. See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you. I think you could have negotiated that. All the people died, so many people died. You know, that was the disaster.' Trump went on to ... suggest that 'Abraham Lincoln, of course, if he negotiated it, you probably wouldn't even know who Abraham Lincoln was.'... David Blight, a history professor at Yale University, described Trump's suggestion that the Civil War could have been negotiated as 'elementary school nonsense' and 'historically ignorant.'... Former House member Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) posted on X: 'Which part of the Civil War "could have been negotiated"? The slavery part? The secession part? Whether Lincoln should have preserved the Union?...'" CNN's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The odd part about this is that Trump has no idea he embarrasses himself every time he opens his mouth.

Forrest M. points out in today's Comments that Trump was not only a better president* than Lincoln because he would have negotiated the states out of the Civil War before it started. Why, in his spare time, he's a brilliant scientist, too! ~~~

     ~~~ Kelly McClure of Salon: At an event in Iowa (where somehow he got to talking about magnetic elevators): "Trump said, 'Think of it, magnets. Now all I know about magnets is this, give me a glass of water, let me drop it on the magnets, that's the end of the magnets. Why didn't they use John Deere? Why didn't they bring in the John Deere people? Do you like John Deere? I like John Deere.' After a bit more along these same lines, Trump did a little dance and left the stage." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: That's a radical scientific theory, akin to the theory of drinking bleach to cure Covid. Oddly, any number of sciency guys write this, or a variation thereof: "Magnets work great underwater. You can even get special magnets, called retrieving magnets, to pick up objects containing iron that have fallen into lakes or wells."

~~~~~~~~~~

Helene Cooper & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "It took the Pentagon three and a half days to inform the White House that Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III had been hospitalized on New Year's Day following complications from an elective procedure, two U.S. officials said Saturday. The extraordinary breach of protocol ... has baffled officials across the government, including at the Pentagon. Senior defense officials say Mr. Austin did not inform them until Thursday that he had been admitted to the intensive care unit at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The Pentagon then informed the White House.... On Saturday night, Mr. Austin issued a mea culpa. 'I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed,' he said in a statement. 'I commit to doing better.' Mr. Austin added, 'This was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decision about disclosure.' President Biden and Mr. Austin spoke by telephone Saturday night, a U.S. official said, adding that the president was glad to hear that Mr. Austin is recovering. Another official said that the president has full confidence in his defense secretary." Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wait a minute. Didn't inform "the public";? Joe Biden isn't "the public." He's Austin's immediate boss and, BTW, President of the United States. There may or may not be a good reason for the defense secretary to keep private a serious medical condition during a time the U.S. is involved in two wars, but it's up to the president to make that determination. Moreover, I don't see how a proper temporary chain of command could have been put in place if the Pentagon didn't know the boss was laid up in an ICU. Austin or a family member should have informed appropriate officials as soon as it was feasible.

Ann Carrns of the New York Times: "The Internal Revenue Service is rolling out a free option for filing federal tax returns this year to some residents of a dozen states.... Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington State and Wyoming are participating.... Last month, the agency published details of its plan to test an in-house filing system, in which taxpayers submit their federal tax returns directly to the agency online at no cost.... The direct file pilot will be open to low- and moderate-income taxpayers with simple returns.... Residents of 12 states are eligible to participate if they meet certain criteria.... While the direct filing system is starting on a limited basis, it has already faced some resistance, particularly from commercial tax-preparation companies.... Many filers already have the option to prepare and submit free electronic returns based on their income, either through I.R.S. Free File, a partnership with do-it-yourself tax software firms, or directly through some commercial providers."

Happy Third Anniversary, Folks! Shania Shelton of CNN: "The FBI on Saturday arrested three people in Florida who were charged in connection with the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, and were considered fugitives after fleeing from law enforcement. Jonathan Daniel Pollock, Olivia Michele Pollock and Joseph Daniel Hutchinson III were taken into custody early Saturday morning, according to a press release from the FBI. They are scheduled to appear in federal court in Ocala, Florida, on Monday. The arrests come on the third anniversary of the attack on the Capitol."

Melanie Zanona & Kaanita Iyer of CNN: "The Justice Department has released new footage from the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol that shows a dramatic moment of rioters shouting through broken glass at two Republican lawmakers.... In the newly released eight-minute clip, rioters stare down Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas and Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma -- who at that time was a member of the House -- through cracks in the entrance to the House chamber as they face the guns pointed at them by two members of law enforcement.... The video was shot by Damon Beckley, who was found guilty of obstructing the electoral college certification and of civil disorder. Beckley is set to be sentenced in February." Thanks to RAS for the lead. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I turned on closed captioning because naturally I didn't want to miss a word of this scintillating colloquy, but you can turn off CC. I especially like it that one of the dimwitted insurrectionists call these members of Congress "socialist pigs." Nehls & Mullin are a couple of the most incorrigible goobers on the Hill.

Maegan Vazquez & Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) will be away from Washington until February so he can receive a stem cell transplant as part of his treatment for blood cancer, further dwindling the House Republicans' narrow majority. Scalise's temporary absence comes as the House is facing down significant deadlines.... Another Republican, Rep. Bill Johnson (Ohio) is retiring later this month to lead Youngstown State University -- narrowing the House GOP's bench further. That means Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) can only afford to lose two members of his party to pass any legislation, or rely on Democratic support for measures."

Presidential Race 2024

The Road to Hell Is Lined with Warning Signs. Cate Cadell of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump did not sign a loyalty oath requested of candidates for election in Illinois that asks, among other things, to swear that they won't support overthrowing the government, according to an analysis of candidate petitions by the local news outlets WBEZ and Chicago Sun-Times.... The loyalty pledge is not required but is a long-standing tradition that candidates undertake as part of that paperwork. Trump has not publicly acknowledged the decision but had signed the oath during his presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020.... The oath remains enshrined in Illinois law but has been struck down as unconstitutional on free speech grounds in federal courts. Other candidates, including President Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), filed signed oaths along with their petitions, according to the local media reports." Here's the Sun-Times/WBEZ story.

Isaac Arnsdorf & Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump observed the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by glorifying people charged in the riot, repeating baseless claims that left-wing or government interlopers caused the breach, and attempting to turn the term 'insurrection' against his political opponents. The remarks were part of an ongoing escalation of Trump's and other Republicans' efforts to minimize, justify and deny the violence of three years ago while also defending the Trump supporters who committed it.... 'He's now directly saying that violence and criminality is okay if it's in service of my power,' said Michael K. Miller, a political science professor at George Washington University...."

Matt Viser & Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "A few hours after [President] Biden had given a sweeping denunciation of Trump, calling him a sore loser and a threat to American democracy, the former president made fun of Biden's childhood speaking impediment. 'Did you see him? He was stuttering through the whole thing,' Trump said to a chuckling crowd on Friday in Sioux Center, Iowa. 'He's saying I'm a threat to democracy. "He's a threat to d-d-democracy,"' he continued, pretending to stutter. 'Couldn't read the word.' The remark was not true; Biden said the word 'democracy' 29 times in his speech, never stuttering over it. Trump's comment also marked a particularly crass form of politics that he has exhibited throughout his career that places politeness and human decency at the center of the 2024 presidential election.... 'His speeches last about three minutes, you know why? Because he runs out of fuel,' Trump said during a campaign event in Newton, Iowa, on Saturday. (Biden's speech on Friday was 32 minutes.)"

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Marie: Yesterday I pointed to this New York Times he-said/he-said article as representing one of the worst current examples of both-sider "journalism"; out there. I see that the writers have revised the thrust story by adding this paragraph near the top: "Three years after the former president's supporters stormed the Capitol, Mr. Trump and his campaign are engaged in an audacious and baseless attempt to paint Mr. Biden as the true menace to the nation's foundational underpinnings. Mr. Trump's strategy aims to upend a world in which he has publicly called for suspending the Constitution, vowed to turn political opponents into legal targets and suggested that the nation's top military general should be executed." The Times also changed the headline from "Clashing Over Jan. 6, Trump and Biden Show Reality Is at Stake in 2024," to "Trump Signals an Election Year Full of Falsehoods on Jan. 6 and Democracy." Apparently others also were incensed, at least about the headline. (This is a Daily Beast link; the site is firewalled.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: See also Marcy Wheeler's critique of recent MSM "journalism" on Biden's speech & Trump's reactions: "The reason Trump projects his own failures on other people is because journalists never fail to reward him for it, presenting his false claims alongside true ones, leaving the impression that truth is up for debate, that professionals are helpless to discern which of these claims are true. Trump's goal is to degrade the very notion of truth. And this kind of journalism only helps him do that." Wheeler also mentions the NYT headline change.

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Too many commentators have spent too much time fretting over Trump's voters -- and how they might react to the effort to remove the former president from the ballot -- and not enough time thinking about the tens of millions of voters who have said, again and again, that they do not want this man or his movement in American politics.... Trump's voters are not the only ones who count." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Bouie doesn't say so, but I expect a good deal of that "fretting" has to do with the violent propensities of Trumpites, who, besides having no impulse control, don't put much stock in democratic processes. See video above.

~~~~~~~~~~

Florida. Nicolás Rivero of the Washington Post: "In this Florida development, no one pays an electricity bill. It's not because of subsidies, but by design: All of the 86 homes built or planned in Hunters Point, a residential development about an hour south of Tampa, boast 14 solar panels and a 12-kilowatt-hour home battery in the utility closet.... Hunters Point is the first residential development in the world to get a LEED Zero Energy certification, according to the U.S. Green Building Council, which means the entire community produces more electricity than it consumes.... In addition to reducing planet-warming carbon emissions, the solar panels and batteries in the homes at Hunters Point make them less likely to lose power in a storm."

Marie: I told you candidates for public office get disqualified for all kinds of reasons: ~~~

Ohio. Emily Schmall of the New York Times: "A transgender woman was disqualified from a race for the Ohio House of Representatives after she did not include her previous name in election materials, raising the prospect that transgender candidates would face similar barriers elsewhere. Vanessa Joy, a real estate photographer running as a Democrat in Ohio's 50th District, was informed in a letter from the Stark County Board of Elections on Tuesday that she had been disqualified from the state House race. The board cited a state law that requires a person running for office to list on the candidacy petition any name changes within five years of an election, and it gave Ms. Joy until Friday afternoon to appeal. Ms. Joy ... said in an interview that she had appealed the board's decision and planned to challenge the law in court."

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting the Middle East as the United States seeks to avoid escalation in the region, prioritizing the prevention of a wider war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, The Washington Post reported. Nearly 90 percent of Gaza's population has been forcibly displaced in three months of war, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said, warning that a famine is looming.... The Israeli military has dismantled Hamas's 'military framework' in northern Gaza, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman, said. The IDF will now focus on similar operations in the Strip's central and southern areas, he said. Israel says it has killed 8,000 Hamas fighters in northern Gaza." ~~~

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

     ~~~ Hagari's assertion notwithstanding, CNN's main-page top left-hand column headline is "Israel is nowhere near destroying Hamas." Rob Picheta: "Now, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is shifting to a new phase of its war on Hamas in Gaza -- and there are signs its objectives are changing too.... 'IDF leadership understands very well that the most they can do is severely degrade the military capabilities of Hamas,' [Middle-East expert Bilal] Saab said.... And as international pressure increases, so too could domestic unease towards Netanyahu -- an embattled prime minister eager to point to tangible victories. 'There is a race against time,' said Saab, outlining the key questions facing Israel's leadership. 'At what price is this tactical success going to come, and how much time do the Israelis have to achieve that tactical success without suffering from more significant international outrage?'"

News Ledes

New York Times: "The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday ordered U.S. airlines to stop using some Boeing 737 Max 9 planes until they were inspected, after one of those planes lost a piece of its body in midair, terrifying passengers until the plane landed safely. Alaska and United Airlines on Saturday began canceling dozens of flights after grounding their Max 9 fleets so the planes could undergo the federally mandated inspections."

New York Times: "Maj. Mike Sadler, a World War II navigator on the trackless Sahara of North Africa, who guided Britain's first special forces across sand seas on daring behind-the-lines night raids that blew up enemy aircraft on the ground and troops in their billets, died on Thursday in Cambridge, England. He was 103." MB: This obituary may be nearly half as colorful as Mr. Sadler's exploits, some of which are recounted in a BBC TV series.

The Conversation -- January 6, 2024

Presidential Race 2024

... it was a remarkable speech which spoke directly to the moment and it was delivered with amazing passion and conviction and integrity.... And it was the kind of speech, I think, that will galvanize and mobilize millions and millions of people across the country to get in this fight. -- Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on President Biden's speech yesterday ~~~

~~~ Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "President Biden on Friday delivered a ferocious condemnation of Donald J. Trump, his likely 2024 opponent, warning in searing language that the former president had directed an insurrection and would aim to undo the nation's bedrock democracy if he returned to power. On the eve of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Mr. Trump's supporters, Mr. Biden framed the coming election as a choice between a candidate devoted to upholding America's centuries-old ideals and a chaos agent willing to discard them for his personal benefit.... In an intensely personal address that at one point nearly led Mr. Biden to curse Mr. Trump by name, the president compared his rival to foreign autocrats who rule by fiat and lies. He said Mr. Trump had failed the basic test of American leaders, to trust the people to choose their elected officials and abide by their decisions.... The 31-minute speech was Mr. Biden's first public campaign event since he announced in April that he would seek re-election and was, in tone and content, arguably his most forceful public denunciation of Mr. Trump since the two men became political rivals in 2019." The CBS News story, also linked yesterday, is here. ~~~

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether ... Donald J. Trump is eligible for Colorado's Republican primary ballot, thrusting the justices into a pivotal role that could alter the course of this year's presidential election. The sweep of the court's ruling is likely to be broad. It will probably resolve not only whether Mr. Trump may appear on the Colorado primary ballot after the state's top court declared that he had engaged in insurrection in his efforts to subvert the 2020 election, but it will most likely also determine his eligibility to run in the general election and to hold office at all.... The case will be argued on Feb. 8, and the court will probably decide it quickly.... Mr. Trump asked the Supreme Court to intervene after Colorado's top court disqualified him from the ballot last month. That decision is on hold while the justices consider the matter. Jena Griswold, Colorado's secretary of state, pressed the Supreme Court to act fast." The Hill's story, also linked yesterday, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: While I firmly agree that Trump is an insurrectionist, I do think it's not totally unreasonable to leave that determination up to the individual states. States determine what candidates for public office must do to qualify for inclusion on their ballots -- number of signatures required, filing fees paid*, forms properly & timely completed, etc. They also determine whether a candidate has met some Constitutional requirements: is s/he old enough to be president, senator or member of the House, was a presidential candidate a natural-born citizen? So cannot states also decide, within reason, whether or not a candidate is disqualified under Article II, Section 3? ~~~

     ~~~ * I'm sure I just read that some court once ruled that Texas' filing fee for presidential candidates was too high -- $8,000+ -- to be a reasonable requirement for ballot access, but I can't find the story. Whether or not I'm right about that, it seems obvious that if states make "unreasonable" demands or determinations, a court can veto or amend such unfair restrictions. For instance, Missouri's secretary of state has threatened to kick Joe Biden off that state's ballot in retaliation for Trump's removal from the Colorado & Maine ballots. Unreasonable. ~~~

~~~ Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: The House Select Committee concluded that on January 6, 2021, Donald Trump "'summoned tens of thousands of supporters to Washington for Jan. 6,' the day Congress was slated to certify the election results, and 'instructed them to march to the Capitol' so that they could '"take back' their country."' He even sent a message on Twitter attacking his vice president, Mike Pence, knowing full well that 'a violent attack on the Capitol was underway.'... Trump sought and actively tried to subvert constitutional government and overturn the results of the presidential election ... through the threat of brute force, carried out by an actual mob. Looked at this way, the case for disqualifying Trump through the 14th Amendment is straightforward.... There was ... a legal consensus at the time of the amendment's drafting and ratification that an individual 'engaged in insurrection whenever they knowingly incited, assisted or otherwise participated in an insurrection.'... What unites Trump with the former secessionists under the disqualification clause is that like them, he ... rejected the bedrock principle of democratic life, the peaceful transfer of power." ~~~

~~~ Payback Time, O'Kavanaugh. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Addressing the Supreme Court's looming 14th Amendment decisions on whether Donald Trump can be disqualified from state ballots for engaging in insurrection, [Trump lawyer Alina] Habba decided it would be a good time to remind people of just how much Trump has done for Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.... 'You know, people like Kavanaugh who the president fought for, who the president went through hell to get into place, he'll step up.'... She has since done some cleanup work, trying to assure audiences that she wasn't suggesting that Kavanaugh owed Trump loyalty.... [Habbas' comment] adds to a volume of evidence that indicates that Trump does indeed expect loyalty from judges and justices -- along with plenty of others in positions where that shouldn't be a consideration.... Trump said of Kavanaugh in an interview for a 2021 book..., 'Where would he be without me? I saved his life. He wouldn't even be in a law firm. Who would have had him? Nobody. Totally disgraced. Only I saved him.'" (Also linked yesterday.) The Hill's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sounds like a mob moll warning Bart he's in for a couple of broken legs if he doesn't "step up." ~~~

     ~~~ Akhilleus is wondering, in today's Comments, if Trump, who had his pick of "all the best people," would choose to put on the highest court in the land a "totally disgraced" fellow whom nobody "would have," Here's a lawyer so bad no law firm would hire him, yet Trump "saved him" and put him in a position to make decisions about all of our lives.

Trump's Advice on Shooting of School Children: "Get Over It." Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump reacted to the shooting at the high school in Perry, Iowa, during a commit-to-caucus event in Sioux Center on Friday evening.... 'It's horrible to see that happening,' said Trump. 'It's just horrible. So surprising to see it here. But we have to get over it.' The shooting at Perry High School left a sixth-grader dead and injured five others, according to law enforcement." MB: How could people say Trump is a narcissist who doesn't care about anyone but himself?

OMG. A Most Profane Campaign Ad. Kayla Gallagher of the Messenger: "'God Made Trump,' a new nearly three minute ad from ... Donald Trump's campaign claims. 'And on June 14th, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said "I need a caretaker," so God gave us Trump,' the narrator says in the same style that the Book of Genesis in The Bible is written, while a video of Earth from space flashes to a photo of a young Trump. The ad, which has a run-time of two minutes and 44 seconds and was shared on Trump's social media network Truth Social, alleges that God created the former president for the purpose of leading the nation." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Colby Hall of Mediaite: Trump "just posted a satirical version of Paul Harvey's famous 'So God Made a Farmer' video in which HE is the subject. And yes, it's just as creepy and a messianic bit of messaging that will cause many to cringe but others to fall to their knees in supplication. The former president ... included [the video among] a slew of 'joking but not joking' and over-the-top political videos...." Includes the full text of the video's voiceover. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Won't at least some MAGA Christianists be appalled by this exercise in blasphemy?

Mary Papenfuss of the Messenger:"Staunch Donald Trump foe Republican Liz Cheney warned at an appearance at Dartmouth University Friday that the next vote Americans cast for the former president could be their last. The former Wyoming congresswoman told the New Hampshire college crowd that Trump will not relinquish power at the end of his term if he again wins the White House. 'He won't leave office,' Cheney declared. 'He already tried not to leave office once. So I think there's a lot of living in a fantasy world that's going on with Republicans telling themselves, "Look, we'll vote for him, it won't be so bad." It may well be the last real vote you ever get to cast. It will be that bad,' she said. What's even more frightening this time, Cheney warned, Trump would be surrounded by enabling supporters in the House. His biggest enabler could be current House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., she added. 'I think we need to be concerned about a Mike Johnson speakership, particularly in an instance where there's a contested election,' Cheney said." ~~~

     ~~~ Lisa Kashinsky of Politico: "Liz Cheney is adding her voice to the movement to bar Donald Trump from the ballot, saying Friday that there's 'no question' his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, fall under the so-called insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment."

The Short Memory of the American Voter. Washington Post Editors: "The third anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob comes amid troubling indicators about public opinion on that event. A Post-University of Maryland poll published this week shows a sizable share of Americans accept lies about the 2020 election and the insurrection that followed on Jan. 6, 2021. Only 62 percent say Joe Biden's victory was legitimate, down from 69 percent two years ago, and far lower than after the contested 2000 election.... Disproportionate numbers of Republicans hold [these views], showing just how corrosive Mr. Trump's repeated lies, amplified by a right-wing media echo chamber, have been.... The truth must be told. Mr. Biden won the 2020 election, fair and square, and no credible evidence has emerged of widespread voter fraud."

Next by @AP : "Julia Child and Jeffrey Dahmer are two famous cooks with different approaches to ingredients." -- Stuart Stevens (Thanks to RAS.)

Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis: Two leaders, two traditions; both making the South's 'peculiar institution' a rallying cry. -- James Fallows ~~~

~~~ Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Both-Siderism, Extremist Version. Alex Griffing of Mediaite: "The Associated Press kicked up a firestorm of criticism on Thursday with a headline that appeared to give equal weight to both President Joe Biden and ... Donald Trump's 'interpretations' of what happened on January 6th, 2021. The story in question was headlined, 'One attack, two interpretations: Biden and Trump both make the Jan. 6 riot a political rallying cry,' and was written by national political reporter Will Weissert. The article begins with a breakdown of how both Trump and Biden will mark the third anniversary of the storming of the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump supporters." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Today's New York Times article on Biden's & Trump's "Clashing Over Jan. 6" is just as egregious an exercise is both-siderisms as is the AP's, IMO. The Times gives equal weight to Biden's and Trump's criticisms of one another, though wa-a-y down the page, the writers do acknowledge a few of Trump's "false statements" and his propensity for "projecting" his own faults onto his foes. These NYT & AP stories forebode general election coverage, which now promises to be a he-said/he-said endeavor. "You're a threat to democracy"/"No, you're the threat." And the reader will learn nothing. ~~~

~~~ Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "On Thursday, the Biden-Harris campaign blasted out excerpts from a Margaret Sullivan column in The Guardian, upbraiding the media on its tendency to fall into 'performative neutrality,' focusing too much on Biden's presentation and poll numbers and not enough on stressing what a second Trump presidency would mean. Journalists should not fear looking as if they're 'in the tank' for Biden if they zero in on Trump's seditious behavior, Sullivan said; the media should worry less about the horse race than about underscoring that many of Trump's threats are authoritarian. She is right that the media must constantly remind itself not to use old tropes on a new trollop like Trump, particularly since the media is in a confluence of interest with Trump -- as he himself has pointed out.... I am not sure whether pounding away on the facts will work in a country with alternate realities."

     ~~~ Marie: Dowd concludes, "You do your job, Mr. President, and we'll do ours." As to the latter proposal, there's scant evidence of that today.

Perry Stein & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: Attorney General Merrick "Garland [spoke] ... ahead of a private meeting with law enforcement officials at Justice Department headquarters to discuss violent crime. The attorney general said officials would be discussing how best to 'double down' on efforts to fight the rise in threats against government workers.... Garland said the Justice Department has so far charged 1,250 people and secured 890 convictions in connection with the [Jan. 6, 2021] attack [on the U.S. Capitol], which aimed to stop the peaceful transfer of power from ... Donald Trump to [Joe] Biden." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Alanna Richer & Michael Kunzelman of the AP: "... hundreds of people ... have been convicted in the massive prosecution of the Jan 6, 2021, riot in the three years since the stunned nation watched the U.S. Capitol attack unfold on live TV.... And the hunt for suspects is far from over.... Authorities are still working to identify more than 80 people wanted for acts of violence at the Capitol.... And they continue to regularly make new arrests, even as some Jan. 6 defendants are being released from prison after completing their sentences.... One of the biggest remaining mysteries surrounding the riot is the identity of the person who placed two pipe bombs outside the offices of the Republican and Democratic national committees the day before the Capitol attack. Last year, authorities increased the reward to up to $500,000 for information leading to the person's arrest. It remains unclear whether there was a connection between the pipe bombs and the riot."

Note to January 6 Capitol "Tourists." Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A federal appeals court ruled Friday that Jan. 6 defendants can be found culpable of 'disorderly' or 'disruptive' conduct inside the Capitol even if they weren't personally violent or destructive. The decision is a victory for the Justice Department in cases against hundreds of defendants charged with misdemeanor counts of disorderly and disruptive conduct, one of the staple charges that has been applied to nearly every member of the mob that entered the halls of Congress."

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors pushed back on Friday night against ... Donald J. Trump's attempts to hold them in contempt of court for continuing to file motions while the case accusing him of plotting to overturn the 2020 election is paused.... The prosecutors said that they were nonetheless continuing to 'voluntarily' file motions and turn over discovery materials to Mr. Trump's lawyers, explaining that the steps they were taking 'impose no requirements' on the former president. 'Nothing here requires any action by the defendant,' the prosecutors wrote, 'and he fails to explain how the mere receipt of discovery materials that he is not obligated to review, or the early filing of government pleadings to which he does not yet need to respond, possibly burdens him.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Andrew Weissmann said on MSNBC Thursday night that Trump's motion to find the prosecutors in contempt was a non-starter, though the judge could order the prosecutors to stop helping out Trump's defense lawyers by providing them with copies of discovery materials.

In Other Trumpy Court News. Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "The New York attorney general on Friday asked the judge who had overseen the civil fraud trial of Donald J. Trump to penalize the former president about $370 million, saying the trial had demonstrated that he had gained that amount through unlawful conduct. The sum was well over the $250 million that the attorney general, Letitia James, had estimated in the fall of 2022, when she sued Mr. Trump, accusing him of inflating his net worth to obtain favorable treatment from banks and insurers." An NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

So Unfa-a-a-ir! Matt Dixon of NBC News: "A central Florida venue has canceled an event that was to have featured Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., after it learned the event was intended to commemorate the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The event was set to be hosted by the Republican Party of Osceola County at the Westgate Resorts in Kissimmee. It was originally pitched to Westgate as a small book-signing event featuring Greene, without mention of Jan. 6." When NBC News questioned Greene about the cancellation, she refused to address the matter and "call[ed] the question 'stupid.'"

Isaac Arnsdorf & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Attempts to minimize, excuse or deny the violence of [January 6] began with people returning home from the mob and intensified with family members of rioters.... Their cause became ... amplified by prominent right-wing media figures[, especially Tucker Carlson]. The grass-roots and media pressure then spread from far-right lawmakers such as Reps. Paul A. Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene to take over the Republican mainstream. This changing view of Jan. 6 among Republicans offered Trump a lifeline, paving the way for his political comeback.... Now, on the third anniversary of the nation's first interruption to the peaceful transfer of power since the Civil War era, Republicans' attitudes about Jan. 6 are increasingly unmoored from other Americans, and Trump holds a commanding lead in the race for the party's 2024 presidential nomination." This is a long article, worth a read.

Missy Ryan & Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was hospitalized earlier this week for unspecified reasons but is recuperating, the Pentagon said late Friday, after withholding the information for days. Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said that Austin, who is 70, was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington on Monday 'for complications following a recent elective medical procedure.' Ryder ... said that Austin ... was 'recovering well and is expecting to resume his full duties today [Friday].'" CNN's report is here.

Christina Jewett & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration has allowed Florida to import millions of dollars worth of medications from Canada at far lower prices than in the United States, overriding fierce decades-long objections from the pharmaceutical industry. The approval, issued in a letter to Florida Friday, is a major policy shift for the United States, and supporters hope it will be a significant step forward in the long and largely unsuccessful effort to rein in drug prices. Individuals in the United States are allowed to buy directly from Canadian pharmacies, but states have long wanted to be able to purchase medicines in bulk for their Medicaid programs, government clinics and prisons from Canadian wholesalers.... But significant hurdles remain. Some drug manufacturers have agreements with Canadian wholesalers not to export their medicines, and the Canadian government has already taken steps to block the export of prescription drugs that are in short supply.... The pharmaceutical industry's major lobbying organization, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, which has sued over previous importation efforts, is expected to file suit to block the Florida plan." A CBS News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "On the eve of a legal battle in New York, Wayne LaPierre told board members on Friday that he would step down as the longtime chief of the National Rifle Association. Mr. LaPierre, 74, has led the organization for more than three decades. But his resignation came as he faced his gravest challenge yet, a corruption trial in Manhattan amid a legal showdown with New York's attorney general, Letitia James. Jury selection has already begun and opening arguments were scheduled for early next week. The announcement, which is effective on Jan. 31, is not part of a deal with the attorney general's office. Andrew Arulanandam, Mr. LaPierre's longtime spokesman, will become the interim chief executive." A Politico report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Oh My. Anemona Hartocollis & Anna Betts of the New York Times: "For weeks, Bill Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager, has campaigned on social media against Claudine Gay, who resigned as Harvard's president amid accusations of plagiarizing other scholars and of not taking a strong enough stand against antisemitism on campus. But ... Business Insider, an online publication, posted similar accusations of plagiarism against Mr. Ackman's wife, Neri Oxman, an architect and designer, who holds a Ph.D. in design computation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Business Insider said on Friday that Dr. Oxman 'stole sentences and whole paragraphs from Wikipedia, other scholars and technical documents in her academic writing.'... In response, [Ackman] wrote, he would begin a plagiarism review of all current M.I.T. faculty members; Sally Kornbluth, the president of M.I.T.; and the university's governing body, and would share the results with the public.... He posted later on Friday that he would also review the work of reporters at Business Insider.... Jonathan Bailey, a copyright and plagiarism consultant who also runs the website Plagiarism Today, said he worried about the 'weaponization of plagiarism.'"

What Do You Have to Lose? Your Life. Marc Eccles of Politico: "Nearly 17,000 people may have died after taking hydroxycholoroquine during the first wave of Covid-19, according to a study by French researchers. The anti-malaria drug was prescribed to some patients hospitalized with Covid-19 during the first wave of the pandemic, 'despite the absence of evidence documenting its clinical benefits,' the researchers point out in their paper, published in the February issue of Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy. Now, researchers have estimated that some 16,990 people in six countries -- France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the U.S. -- may have died as a result.... Hydroxychloroquine ... was also considered something of a 'miracle cure' by ... Donald Trump, who said: 'What do you have to lose? Take it.'" Thanks to RAS for the link.

~~~~~~~~~~

Florida. Arek Sarkissian of Politico: "Groups seeking a constitutional amendment protecting abortion on Friday secured enough state-certified signatures by the Feb. 1 deadline to put a referendum on [Florida's] 2024 ballot.... Floridians Protecting Freedom, the main group seeking to place a constitutional amendment protecting abortion on the 2024 ballot, has collected 910,946 state-certified signatures, more than the 891,876 needed by February.... The Florida initiative would protect abortion until about 24 weeks of pregnancy. It would need 60 percent of voter approval to pass if it's on this year's ballot.... If successful..., [the amendment] would ... deliver a blow to Florida Republicans, who have tightened controls over abortion under Gov. Ron DeSantis and made it harder for groups to successfully use ballot initiatives to amend the state Constitution. The GOP is so concerned about the threat that Republican state Attorney General Ashley Moody is mounting an aggressive effort to block the measure in the state high court." Thanks to Bobby Lee for the lead.

Idaho. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear a challenge to Idaho's near-total ban on abortions, which the Biden administration said conflicted with a federal statute that allowed for some exceptions. In scheduling arguments for April, the court also temporarily revived the law, which had been partly blocked by a federal trial judge. The court's brief order gave no reasons, which is typical when the justices act on emergency applications. President Biden criticized the court's action. 'Today's Supreme Court order allows Idaho's extreme abortion ban to go back into effect and denies women critical emergency abortion care required by federal law,' he said in a statement." Emphasis added. MB: Unblocking the law does kind of tell you how the Supreme Misogynists will rule. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's Biden's statement, via the White House. ~~

     ~~~ They Really Don't Care. Mark Sherman of the AP: "The Supreme Court on Friday allowed Idaho to enforce its strict abortion ban, even in medical emergencies, while a legal fight continues. The justices said they would hear arguments in April...." MB: Typically, an argument heard in April is decided in June. So that's a minimum of six months when women in urgent need of medical care may die. ~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Top U.S. and European diplomats are heading to the Middle East in a new push to avoid escalation after a tense week in which a suspected Israeli strike in Beirut killed a senior Hamas leader and a U.S. strike in Baghdad killed an Iran-linked militia commander. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday arrived in Turkey, the first stop on his Middle East tour, and Josep Borrell, the European Union's top diplomat, is visiting Lebanon until Sunday.... The State Department is offering up to $10 million in reward for information 'leading to the disruption of financial mechanisms' of Hamas, the militant group behind the Oct. 7 attack in Israel. It is seeking information on five financiers, a notice said.... In a speech Friday, Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah said 'we cannot stay silent' in response to the killing of a Hamas leader in Beirut while also seeming to suggest an openness to negotiating on border demarcation with Israel -- but only after a cease-fire in Gaza." ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's live updates for Saturday are here: "Lebanese militant group Hezbollah says it fired a total of 62 rockets at an Israeli observation post along the Israel-Lebanon border on Saturday as an 'initial response' to the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Beirut earlier this week.... At least 122 people have been killed during the past 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said Saturday, as Israel's military operations continue. Footage from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital shows staff urgently trying to treat severely wounded victims."

U.K. Victor Mather of the New York Times: "Two neo-Nazi podcasters who called for the execution of Prince Harry were sentenced to prison in London on Thursday. The podcast hosts, Christopher Gibbons, 40, and Tyrone Patten-Walsh, 36, both from London, had been convicted in July on all charges against them. Mr. Gibbons, who was convicted of encouraging acts of terrorism and dissemination of terrorist publications, was sentenced to eight years in prison. Mr. Patten-Walsh received seven years for encouraging acts of terrorism. A statement from the police described the men's views as 'homophobic, racist, antisemitic, Islamophobic and misogynistic.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

News Ledes

CNN: "Alaska Airlines has temporarily grounded its fleet of Boeing 737-9 Max aircraft after one of its planes made an emergency landing in Oregon on Friday, officials said -- an incident that a passenger says involved a panel and window blowing out in flight."

New York Times: "Joseph Lelyveld, a former executive editor and foreign correspondent for The New York Times, who won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for his book 'Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White,' died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 86."

The Conversation -- January 5, 2024

Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "The Supreme Court agreed to take up whether former President Trump can be disqualified from appearing on Colorado's ballot over his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, setting up a historic case that could upend the presidential election. The justices' order sets the case up to be heard at a speedy pace, with oral arguments scheduled in the coming weeks...." ~~~

     ~~~ Devan Cole of CNN: "The court scheduled oral arguments for February 8." ~~~

~~~ Payback Time, O'Kavanaugh. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Addressing the Supreme Court's looming 14th Amendment decisions on whether Donald Trump can be disqualified from state ballots for engaging in insurrection, [Trump lawyer Alina] Habba decided it would be a good time to remind people of just how much Trump has done for Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.... 'You know, people like Kavanaugh who the president fought for, who the president went through hell to get into place, he'll step up.'... She has since done some cleanup work, trying to assure audiences that she wasn't suggesting that Kavanaugh owed Trump loyalty.... [Habbas' comment] adds to a volume of evidence that indicates that Trump does indeed expect loyalty from judges and justices -- along with plenty of others in positions where that shouldn't be a consideration.... Trump said of Kavanaugh in an interview for a 2021 book..., 'Where would he be without me? I saved his life. He wouldn't even be in a law firm. Who would have had him? Nobody. Totally disgraced. Only I saved him.'"

Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "In his first campaign speech of the election year, President Biden warned the nation against the perils of compromising democracy, and the threat he and his campaign believe ... Donald Trump poses to American democracy.... 'Whether democracy is still America's sacred cause is what the 2024 election is all about,' Mr. Biden said. 'The choice is clear. Donald Trump's campaign is about him, not America, not you. Donald Trump's campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He's willing to sacrifice our democracy to put himself in power. Our campaign is different.' By 'trying to rewrite the facts' of Jan. 6, Trump is 'trying to steal history the same way he tried to steal the election, Mr. Biden claimed." ~~~

Perry Stein & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: Attorney General Merrick "Garland [spoke] ... ahead of a private meeting with law enforcement officials at Justice Department headquarters to discuss violent crime. The attorney general said officials would be discussing how best to 'double down' on efforts to fight the rise in threats against government workers.... Garland said the Justice Department has so far charged 1,250 people and secured 890 convictions in connection with the [Jan. 6, 2021] attack [on the U.S. Capitol], which aimed to stop the peaceful transfer of power from ... Donald Trump to [Joe] Biden." ~~~

Christina Jewett & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration has allowed Florida to import millions of dollars worth of medications from Canada at far lower prices than in the United States, overriding fierce decades-long objections from the pharmaceutical industry. The approval, issued in a letter to Florida Friday, is a major policy shift for the United States, and supporters hope it will be a significant step forward in the long and largely unsuccessful effort to rein in drug prices. Individuals in the United States are allowed to buy directly from Canadian pharmacies, but states have long wanted to be able to purchase medicines in bulk for their Medicaid programs, government clinics and prisons from Canadian wholesalers.... But significant hurdles remain. Some drug manufacturers have agreements with Canadian wholesalers not to export their medicines, and the Canadian government has already taken steps to block the export of prescription drugs that are in short supply.... The pharmaceutical industry's major lobbying organization, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, which has sued over previous importation efforts, is expected to file suit to block the Florida plan." A CBS News story is here.

Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "The New York attorney general on Friday asked the judge who had overseen the civil fraud trial of Donald J. Trump to penalize the former president about $370 million, saying the trial had demonstrated that he had gained that amount through unlawful conduct. The sum was well over the $250 million that the attorney general, Letitia James, had estimated in the fall of 2022, when she sued Mr. Trump, accusing him of inflating his net worth to obtain favorable treatment from banks and insurers." An NBC News story is here.

OMG. A Most Profane Campaign Ad. Kayla Gallagher of the Messenger: "'God Made Trump,' a new nearly three minute ad from ... Donald Trump's campaign claims. 'And on June 14th, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said "I need a caretaker," so God gave us Trump,' the narrator says in the same style that the Book of Genesis in The Bible is written, while a video of Earth from space flashes to a photo of a young Trump. The ad, which has a run-time of two minutes and 44 seconds and was shared on Trump's social media network Truth Social, alleges that God created [Trump] ... for the purpose of leading the nation." ~~~

     ~~~ Colby Hall of Mediaite: Trump "just posted a satirical version of Paul Harvey's famous 'So God Made a Farmer' video in which HE is the subject. And yes, it's just as creepy and a messianic bit of messaging that will cause many to cringe but others to fall to their knees in supplication. The former president ... included [the video among] a slew of 'joking but not joking' and over-the-top political videos...." Includes the full text of the video's voiceover. ~~~

Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "On the eve of a legal battle in New York, Wayne LaPierre told board members on Friday that he would step down as the longtime chief of the National Rifle Association. Mr. LaPierre, 74, has led the organization for more than three decades. But his resignation came as he faced his gravest challenge yet, a corruption trial in Manhattan amid a legal showdown with New York's attorney general, Letitia James. Jury selection has already begun and opening arguments were scheduled for early next week. The announcement, which is effective on Jan. 31, is not part of a deal with the attorney general's office. Andrew Arulanandam, Mr. LaPierre's longtime spokesman, will become the interim chief executive." A Politico report is here.

Victor Mather of the New York Times: "Two neo-Nazi podcasters who called for the execution of Prince Harry were sentenced to prison in London on Thursday. The podcast hosts, Christopher Gibbons, 40, and Tyrone Patten-Walsh, 36, both from London, had been convicted in July on all charges against them. Mr. Gibbons, who was convicted of encouraging acts of terrorism and dissemination of terrorist publications, was sentenced to eight years in prison. Mr. Patten-Walsh received seven years for encouraging acts of terrorism. A statement from the police described the men's views as 'homophobic, racist, antisemitic, Islamophobic and misogynistic.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

More News from Trumpsidedown World. Marie: Congressional Republicans are busy trying to impeach President Joe Biden for imaginary benefits they claim without evidence he got -- while not in office -- from his son Hunter's foreign enterprises. But why don't they register shock and horror at Donald Trump for definitely raking in millions from countries like China while he was in office and in violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution??? Much of the proof of these unconstitutional payments/bribes comes from Trump's own accounting firm. ~~~

** ~~~ Kleptocrat-in-Chief. Zachary Cohen & Kara Scannell of CNN: "The Chinese government and its state-controlled entities spent over $5.5 million at properties owned by Donald Trump while he was in office, the largest total of payments made by any single foreign country known to date, according to financial documents cited in a report from House Democrats released Thursday. Accounting records from Trump's former accounting firm, Mazars USA, were obtained by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.... The House Democrats say that China is one of 20 countries that made at least $7.8 million in total payments to Trump-owned businesses and properties during the former president's stint in the White House.... The documents offer additional evidence of the rare practice of foreign governments spending money directly with businesses owned by a sitting president but are not a complete record of all foreign payments made to Trump's businesses during his time in the White House." Read on to see how these payments effectively worked as bribes to deter Trump from imposing recommended sanctions on companies that paid up. ~~~

     ~~~ UPDATE. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The transactions, detailed in a 156-page report called 'White House For Sale' that was produced by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, offer concrete evidence that the former president engaged in the kind of conduct that House Republicans have labored, so far unsuccessfully, to prove that President Biden did as they work to build an impeachment case against him.... They have so far failed to show that President Biden was enriched in any way by any of those transactions.... The Constitution prohibits a president from accepting money, payments or gifts 'of any kind whatever' from foreign governments and monarchs unless he obtains 'the consent of the Congress' to do so. The report notes that Mr. Trump never went to Congress to seek consent.... House Republicans ... dismissed the revelations, arguing that there was nothing wrong with Mr. Trump receiving revenue from foreign governments while he was president but that Mr. Biden's family's business was corrupt." ~~~

     ~~~ Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "When Republicans took control of the House in 2023, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) ended the congressional investigation into Trump's alleged violations of the emoluments clause. He also declined to enforce a court-ordered agreement that Mazars USA, Trump's former accounting firm, produce evidence related to Trump's financial dealings." ~~~

     ~~~ The report, via Axios, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: There "has always been [a] problem with the Republican targeting of [President] Biden. Their insistence on the nefariousness of layered corporations or money from overseas was always more applicable to Trump and his family than to Biden and his.... A source familiar with the data indicates that all of the $5.5 million included in the Democrats' report [of Trump's foreign money haul] links back to the Chinese government or state-owned entities." ~~~

     ~~~ Betty Cracker of Balloon Juice: "Cue the sad trombones!... Trump was flagrantly corrupt before, during and after his single embarrassing term. The idea that the lunkhead sons were actually running the family con without Trump’s input was always absurd. Even gross hangers-on like in-laws on the Kushner side eagerly peddled influence, and Kushner enriched himself to the tune of billions-plural on the strength of his relationship with Trump and position as a White House nepotism hire. So the Biden impeachment fishing expedition was always an elaborate 'I know you are, but what am I?' taunt. But still, it's gotta stick in [Rep. Jim] Comer's craw that a member of the committee he chairs so easily produced scads of evidence of Trump's corruption (from incomplete records!) even as the GOP side fruitlessly beats the bushes for proof that Biden acted improperly."

Holmes Lybrand of CNN: "Donald Trump's legal team told a federal judge on Thursday that special counsel Jack Smith and prosecutors in his office should be severely sanctioned and possibly held in contempt after they continued to submit filings in the case following a stay order from the judge. Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the Washington, DC, election subversion case, issued a stay on the case after Trump appealed her ruling dismissing his claims that presidential immunity protects him from prosecution.... Trump's attorneys have asked Chutkan to issue an order for Smith and the prosecutors to show why they should not be held in contempt, be forced to withdraw their filings and be 'forbidden' from submitting further filings.... 'Such malignant conduct undermines the integrity of this proceeding and warrants severe sanction,' Trump's attorneys wrote."

Tom Dreisbach & Noah Caldwell of NPR: "An NPR review of social media posts, speeches and interviews found that Trump has made calls to 'free' Jan. 6 defendants or promised to issue them presidential pardons more than a dozen times. Trump has said he would issue those pardons on 'Day 1' of his presidency, as part of a broader agenda to use presidential power to exact 'retribution' against his opponents and deliver 'justice' for his supporters. 'We'll be looking very, very seriously at full pardons,' Trump told an interviewer in 2022. 'I mean full pardons with an apology to many.'... He has also hosted fundraisers for a controversial nonprofit group that financially supports Jan. 6 defendants, and campaign finance records show that his political action committee donated $10,000 to the group." The article cites numerous remarks and other types of support Trump has given insurrectionists. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The authors note that "Special counsel Jack Smith ... has indicated that his team plans to introduce these kinds of comments at Trump's trial...." What about the money? It seems to me that Trump is interfering with potential witnesses by promising them pardons and donating money to a dodgy PAC that supports them in defiance of. Judge Tanya Chutkan's "gag order" bars Trump from making "statements intended to influence a witness’ testimony," and which the D.C. Appeals Court partially upheld. Obviously, most J6ers would rather accept a get-out-of-jail card & a small donation than testify against their hero & potential savior.

Olivia Diaz of the Washington Post: "A member of the far-right Proud Boys group got a 10-year prison term Thursday for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The defendant, Christopher Worrell, missed his first scheduled sentencing hearing, in August, after he fled home detention and vanished for weeks, according to authorities, who said he later purposely took a drug overdose to further delay the proceedings. Worrell, 52, of Naples, Fla., was convicted of multiple felonies May 13 in U.S. District Court in Washington. The charges included assaulting three police officers with pepper-spray gel during the Capitol riot...."

Presidential Race 2024

President Biden to Speak Today. Alex Gangitano of the Hill: "President Biden moved his speech on democracy, marking the anniversary of Jan. 6, up a day due to the incoming winter storm in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions this weekend. The president was set to travel to the Philadelphia area on Saturday to mark the third anniversary of the riots at the U.S. Capitol. On Wednesday evening, the White House announced that Biden's trip was moved from Saturday to Friday.... Biden's speech in Valley Forge, Pa., which is outside of Philadelphia, will be his first campaign event of the year and he is expected to emphasize the threat that former President Trump poses to democracy." ~~~

     ~~~ Katie Glueck & Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Mr. Biden is expected to use a location near the famous Revolutionary War encampment of Valley Forge and the looming anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to cast preserving democracy as a foundational issue to the 2024 campaign, according to a senior Biden aide.... Leaning on a phrase used by ... George Washington, around the time he commanded troops at Valley Forge, Mr. Biden is expected to suggest that the 2024 election is a test of whether democracy is still a 'sacred cause' in the nation, the aide said."

~~~ Mike Memoli of NBC News: "As President Joe Biden prepares to deliver his first major re-election speech of 2024, marking the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, his warning about the fragility of America's democracy will be front and center in the campaign's first ad to hit the airwaves this year. The Biden campaign says the new 60-second spot highlights 'the existential threat our country's democracy faces from the MAGA extremism that now defines the Republican Party.'" ~~~

Jenna Russell, et al., of the New York Times: Donald Trump's candidacy is subject to "a growing constellation of ballot challenges -- some lodged by established groups with national reach, many others far more homemade -- that have been playing out in more than 30 states.... Some of the weightiest issues of American democracy are being raised not primarily by elected officials or a political party, but by an unlikely assortment of obscure figures, everyday citizens and nonprofit groups.... Most establishment Democrats have not publicly embraced the cause. President Biden said after the Colorado Supreme Court ruling that it was 'self-evident' that Mr. Trump had supported an insurrection, but that it was up to the judiciary to determine his eligibility for the ballot." ~~~

~~~ Hannah Rabinowitz of CNN: "Groups of voters from Illinois and Massachusetts on Thursday filed motions to remove Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot, adding to the list of states where the former president faces a challenge to his candidacy under the 14th Amendment's so-called insurrectionist ban. In Illinois, the challenge filed in conjunction with the liberal advocacy group Free Speech For People, asks the Illinois Board of Elections to hold a hearing on the matter and bar Trump from appearing on both the primary and general election ballots because of his role in the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack.... The same advocacy group on Thursday filed a challenge to Trump's eligibility to appear on Massachusetts ballots for both the primary and general presidential elections in the state. The challengers include former Boston Mayor Kim Janey, a Democrat, as well as 'a mix of Republican, Independent, and Democratic voters,' the group says." ~~~

~~~ David French of the New York Times: "The Trump movement commits threats, violence and lies. And then it tries to escape accountability for those acts through more threats, more violence and more lies. At the heart of the 'but the consequences' argument against disqualification is a confession that if we hold Trump accountable for his fomenting violence on Jan. 6, he might foment additional violence now. Enough. It's time to apply the plain language of the Constitution to Trump's actions and remove him from the ballot -- without fear of the consequences. Republics are not maintained by cowardice.... Fear of a negative public response cannot and must not cause the Supreme Court to turn its back on the plain text of the Constitution -- especially when we are now facing the very crisis the amendment was intended to combat." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: French isn't a Constitutional scholar, and neither am I. But here's where he errs. He writes, "So when a person criticizes Section 3 as undemocratic or undermining democracy, your answer should be simple: Yes, it is undemocratic, exactly as it was intended to be. The amendments' authors were worried that voters would send former Confederates right back into public office." And I say, no, the section is not undemocratic. Most obviously, Trump tried to undo a principle of American democracy: to retain power through extra-legal, violent means. That's what is undemocratic. The authors of the Fourteenth Amendment, having just endured a brutal civil war, recognized that violent rebellion was undemocratic. As the lawfully-elected representative of the people, they initiated the post-Civil War amendments to expand and enhance democracy. Moreover, they anticipated the possibility that a future candidate for office might be unfairly or unreasonably targeted as an insurrectionist or someone who gave aid & comfort to the enemy. So they built in another democracy-based off-ramp: "Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability"; that is, may overrule legal findings that a candidate for office engaged in insurrection. ~~~

~~~ And Right on Cue.... Adam Klasfeld of the Messenger: "... Donald Trump's political allies urged the Supreme Court on Thursday not to allow states to decide who runs for federal office.... "A self-executing Section Three ... empowers each of the 50 states to decide for themselves who is disqualified, a recipe for electoral chaos perfectly illustrated by this case and by Maine's recent decision to disqualify President Trump,' wrote Jay Sekulow in a 19-page brief."... [Sekulow,] Trump's former longtime personal attorney..., now representing the Colorado Republican State Central Committee in a fight to restore the former president to the ballot, argues that [Section 3 of the Fourteenth A]mendment was intended to 'limit' state power, making the rulings an 'upside down' execution of constitutional authority." Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The sturm und drang over these ballot issues is ridiculous. It is not at all unusual for candidates, even presidential* candidates, to be disqualified from appearing on state ballots. We've already noted that Maine disqualified Chris Christie, but historically, third-party candidates' biggest challenge often is just trying to get on state ballots.

** Summer Concepcion of NBC News: "A group of House Democrats ... led by Rep. Hank Johnson, of Georgia, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee's courts subcommittee ... on Thursday called on conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from a case involving ... Donald Trump's eligibility to appear on Colorado's Republican primary ballot.... The letter says Thomas should recuse himself because his wife, conservative activist Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas, was an outspoken supporter of Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.... The letter cited Ginni Thomas' attendance at the 'Stop the Steal' rally that took place before the Capitol attack, and said, 'Not only did your wife attend the January 6 rally, but she was instrumental in planning it and bringing the insurrectionists to the Capitol.'... It is unthinkable that you could be impartial in deciding whether an event your wife personally organized qualifies as an "insurrection" that would prevent someone from holding the office of President.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The letter is here, and it makes a compelling case as to why Thomas must recuse.

Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: "Today, three years after Jan. 6 and more than a week before the Iowa caucuses, Mr. Trump has almost entirely subjugated the elected class of the Republican Party. As of this week, every member of the House Republican leadership is formally backing his campaign to recapture the White House.... In recent weeks, his allies have told lawmakers that Mr. Trump will be closely watching who has and hasn't endorsed him before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 15. Mr. Trump works his endorsements through both fear and favor, happily cajoling fellow politicians by phone while firing off ominous social media posts about those who don't fall in line quickly enough. In October, he felled a top candidate for House speaker, Representative Tom Emmer, by posting that voting for him 'would be a tragic mistake!' On Wednesday, Mr. Emmer capitulated and endorsed him. 'They always bend the knee,' Mr. Trump said privately of Mr. Emmer's endorsement...."

Battle of Two Mini-Trumps. Nicholas Nehamas, et al., of the New York Times: "Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is finally taking the fight to ... Donald J. Trump. After months of being pressed by voters to go harder, Mr. DeSantis accused Mr. Trump of not being 'pro-life' during a nationally broadcast CNN town hall in Des Moines Thursday night. He pointed out that Mr. Trump had deported fewer undocumented immigrants than Barack Obama did in his presidency. And Mr. DeSantis suggested that Iowans ... would do well to contrast his behavior with that of Mr. Trump.... Immediately after Mr. DeSantis's hourlong town hall finished, another began for former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, also broadcast on CNN. For her, the evening seemed to go less smoothly. She was consistently placed on her back foot, defending herself over a string of recent gaffes and even receiving boos because of a joke she made a day earlier about the Iowa caucuses. At one point, she used an oft-derided cliché when talking about race, saying that she had 'Black friends growing up.'" ~~~

     ~~~ A related Washington Post "take-aways" article is here. CNN covered its "townhalls" in this liveblog of election updates.

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "While migrants from African nations still represent a small share of the people crossing the southern border, their numbers have been surging, as smuggling networks in the Americas open new markets and capitalize on intensifying anti-immigrant sentiment in some corners of Europe.... Nonprofits that work on the border said that the trend has continued, with the absolute number and share of migrants from Africa climbing in recent months as potential destinations in Europe narrow.... A record number of people are on the move worldwide, according to the United Nations, fleeing climate change, authoritarian states and economic instability....

"President Biden is facing pressure from Republicans in Washington and from some mayors and governors to stanch the flow of migrants into the country and into cities and towns struggling to absorb the new arrivals. For decades, Congress has failed to reach a consensus on comprehensive changes to the immigration system, and that has compounded the challenges of responding to the surge."

Sophia Nguyen of the Washington Post summarizes "the scope of the allegations against [former Harvard President Claudine] Gay, and how ... they unfold[ed]."

~~~~~~~~~~

Iowa. Remy Tumin & Victor Mather of the New York Times: "The police in Perry, Iowa, said there were multiple victims in a school shooting early Thursday morning just as students were arriving back to school after their winter break. Sheriff Adam Infante said at a news conference on Thursday that there was no further threat to the public. He would not say if the shooter was dead or captured. He said that the shooter had been identified but did not reveal the identity. The Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy held a scheduled campaign event in Perry amid reports of the shooting. The candidate led a prayer circle as attendees expressed fear, but little surprise." Thanks to contributor El for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ New Lede: "A gunman killed a sixth-grade student and injured five other people at a high school in Perry, Iowa, early Thursday morning just as students were arriving back to school after their winter break. Four of the injured were students, and one was an administrator, said Mitch Mortvedt ... of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, at a news conference on Thursday. One of the injuries was critical.... The shooter, Dylan Butler, a 17-year-old student at Perry High School, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Mr. Mortvedt said. Law enforcement believe he acted alone."

Maryland. Congressional Race. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Harry Dunn, a former U.S. Capitol Police officer who rose to prominence for his defense of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and for his emotional public testimony describing the attack, announced on Friday that he was running for Congress in Maryland's third district.... Mr. Dunn, 40, will enter a crowded Democratic primary field to replace Representative John Sarbanes, the retiring 17-year incumbent. Five state lawmakers have already announced their campaigns to represent the central Maryland district, which snakes between Washington and Baltimore."

Ohio Congressional Race. Stefanik Imposes a Purity Test, and 99.44 Percent Pure Won't Do. Miranda Nazzarro of the Hill: "Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) withdrew her support from a former Ohio state lawmaker's bid for Congress over his reported criticism of former President Trump.... [Craig Riedel] came under fire last month after audio leaked that featured him calling Trump 'arrogant' and saying he didn't want the former president's endorsement.... [Riedel said he] dislike[d] the way Trump communicates and 'calls peoples names,' and called the former president 'arrogant.' Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a staunch Trump supporter, posted the leaked audio on X.... The following day, Riedel announced his endorsement of Trump, pointing to his record on the U.S. southern border, inflation, job creation and foreign policy."

~~~~~~~~~~

Iran. Vivian Yee, et al., of the New York Times: "The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Thursday for the bombing attack that killed 84 people in Kerman, Iran, a day before, during a memorial procession for Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, according to a post on the extremist group's official Telegram account. The extremist group called the attack a 'dual martyrdom operation,' and described how two militants approached a ceremony at the tomb of General Suleimani and detonated explosive belts strapped to their bodies 'near the grave of the hypocrite leader.'... The Islamic State, a Sunni Muslim organization, considers its mission to kill apostate Muslims, including Shiites. Iran, a majority-Shiite country, is led by a theocratic government in which Shiite clerics are in charge." An ABC News report is here.

Israel/Palestine

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah said in an address Wednesday that Israel should expect 'a response and punishment' a day after the death of senior Hamas leader Saleh Arouri in a suspected Israeli drone strike in a Beirut suburb. Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group based in Lebanon, has traded fire with Israel in recent weeks, though the Lebanese government said it was urging Hezbollah to show restraint.... Before Nasrallah's speech, the Israel Defense Forces said its troops were 'prepared for any scenario.'... Israel has not claimed responsibility for the Beirut attack, but a U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity..., said Israel was behind the strike. Separately, a senior U.S. official who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity noted that Arouri 'has American blood on his hands' and 'was held accountable.' The Israel Defense Forces said it retaliated after detecting 'a number of launches from Lebanon' and that a military jet also targeted Hezbollah infrastructure in the country." ~~~

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

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Two far-right members of Israel's cabinet, the national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, caused an international uproar this week with their calls to depopulate Gaza.... [They] called for most Gazan civilians to be resettled in other countries.... The Biden administration has joined countries all over the world in condemning these naked endorsements of ethnic cleansing. But in doing so, it acted as if Ben-Gvir and Smotrich's provocations are fundamentally at odds with the worldview of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to whom America continues to give unconditional backing.... We're writing a blank check to a government whose leader is only a bit more coy than Ben-Gvir and Smotrich about his intentions for Gaza. Netanyahu said this week that the government is considering a 'scenario of surrender and deportation' of residents of the Gaza Strip.... Whatever you want to call attempts to 'thin out' Gaza's population -- as the Hebrew newspaper Israel Hayom described an alleged Netanyahu proposal -- the United States is implicated in them."

South Africa. Lynsey Chutel of the New York Times: "Oscar Pistorius, the South African athlete hailed as an inspirational figure until he was convicted of killing his girlfriend, was released on parole on Friday after more than seven years in prison.... Mr. Pistorius was granted parole on the basis that he had served half of a 15-year sentence for murder. In 2013, Mr. Pistorius shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, through a locked bathroom door before dawn, killing her.... Mr. Pistorius, a double amputee, had gained international acclaim first as a Paralympic athlete and then for competing in the Olympic Games, and Ms. Steenkamp was a model and reality-television star."

News Ledes

CNBC: "The U.S. labor market closed out 2023 in strong shape as the pace of hiring was even more powerful than expected, the Labor Department reported Friday. December's jobs report showed employers added 216,000 jobs for the month while the unemployment rate held at 3.7%. Payroll growth showed a sizeable gain from November's downwardly revised 173,000.... The report, along with revisions to previous months' counts, brought 2023 job gains to 2.7 million, or a monthly average of 225,000, down from 4.8 million, or 399,000 a month, in 2022."

Washington Post: "An exceptionally active weather pattern will send multiple large storm systems slicing across the country. Air masses will wage war, whipping up possible tornadoes and blizzards. Monster waves will batter the California coastline, while up to feet of snow and hurricane-force winds will plaster summits in the Sierra Nevada. In the East, after cold and snow this weekend, warmth and flooding rains could sweep north next week. The meteorological mayhem, fueled by a strong El Niño climate pattern, will culminate in a possible cold air outbreak in a little more than a week that could send temperatures plummeting across much of North America."

New York Times: "David Soul, a doleful-eyed blond actor and singer who rose to fame portraying one half of a cagey crime-fighting duo on the hit 1970s television show 'Starsky & Hutch,' and also scored a No. 1 hit single in 1977 with 'Don't Give Up On Us,' died on Thursday. He was 80."

New York Times: "Glynis Johns, the British actress who in a trans-Atlantic career that endured for more than 60 years won a Tony Award for her role in 'A Little Night Music,' giving husky, emotion-rich voice to the show's most memorable number, 'Send In the Clowns,' and played an exuberant Edwardian suffragist in the Disney movie classic 'Mary Poppins,' died on Thursday in Los Angeles. She was 100."