Politicus Pod

This podcast and newsletter are free so please share with family and friends.This is not normal. Don’t let them get away with claiming that the now three-day Speaker election dysfunction is how democracy works. It is not.This is not normal. Electing a Speaker by the time it gets to the floor is a formality; it’s negotiated in advance. Republicans are all over the news and their media saying this is perfectly normal, which is more Kellyanne Conway style gaslighting. Let’s set the record straight.Kevin McCarthy has lost a seventh vote to become the next Speaker of the House.They don’t get to rename an assault on our democracy and institutions to avoid accountability. It is lies like these that further the divide in this country and buttress election lies that have led repeatedly to violence. And yes, this is yet another form of election lie.Kevin McCarthy is now on day three of trying to get elected to the Speaker of the House position he took so for granted he has already moved into Nancy Pelosi’s office.When Republicans try to claim this failure is perfectly normal, it’s “The People,” at work, that is a lie. It’s 20 people, 20 far-Right radicals, upset that they aren’t being catered to. Where did they ever get that idea? This is tyranny of the minority again. Republicans’ own tactics being used to destroy them — in front of the whole world.They’re doing this for their own power. It’s disrespect for the institution and The People it’s meant to serve. The Daily is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts/podcasts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Of course, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is to blame ultimately. What kind of leader goes to the floor repeatedly for a vote without being sure he has the votes? To make matters even worse, McCarthy is reportedly threatening the “rebels” behind the scenes, according to them, and it’s easy to believe that’s true given that Kevin McCarthy made a “joke” about how it would be hard not to use the gavel to hit Nancy Pelosi.Kevin McCarthy is not a man known for his leadership skills. Every would-be speaker has to face “rebels” in their own caucus. The good leaders know how to finesse these negotiations to be a win-win. But to be fair to McCarthy, this gang doesn’t seem satisfied with anything he offers them. It seems they are unwilling to accept him as leader, but this is something he should have addressed prior to the 6 votes we’ve endured thus far.Tomorrow it will be two years ago that 139 House Republicans voted against certifying the presidential election.  That was a profound abuse of the public trust and disrespect for our institutions. And here they go again. They remain a threat to democracy. Nothing has changed.It’s not normal no matter what they say. Some of their own members acknowledge this: Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) compared the process to Dante’s nine circles of Hell, saying, “I’m in at least one of them right now.”But so are we all, especially when two other options being thrown out are Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan. Republicans are now whining that Democrats need to help Republicans by voting for a Republican to show bipartisanship. Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) had the nerve to say that if Democrats had only voted for Rep. Byron Donalds yesterday, the fight over who will be speaker would be over. The entitlement expecting Democrats to fix this by voting for a Republican is astonishing.Republicans need help, so they need to do the compromising. This should be pretty basic. And I hate to break it to them, but no Democrat is going to vote for Steve Scalise, who has not only addressed white nationalists before but reportedly introduced himself with this charming shorthand, “He told me he was like David Duke, without the baggage.” Or Jim Jordan, who called a ten-year-old rape victim a liar in his effort to deny that abortion is healthcare, and then deleted his tweet when the rapist was charged.Before more demands come from Republicans for help from Democrats, let’s go back to this Kevin McCarthy: “I want you to watch Nancy Pelosi hand me that gavel. It will be hard not to hit her with it.” He said that after Pelosi had been a target of a 1/6 assassination attempt from McCarthy’s own shared base of Trump supporters.Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), chair of the Freedom Caucus that is leading this fit, sought a presidential pardon for his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election, but yesterday he claimed that he’s learned to “take fire” for the American people as a way of explaining his role in this shameful attack on our democracy. This man literally tried to steal my vote and the vote of the majority of voters in Pennsylvania. Perry justified investigations into the 2020 Election with wild claims, including alleging that Italian satellites changed the votes here.Lest you think that was just more conservative crazy talk, “A call was actually placed by Secretary Miller to the Attaché in Italy to investigate the claim that Italian satellites were changing votes from Trump to Biden,” Adam Kinsinger said. “This is one of the best examples of the lengths former President Trump would go to to stay in power.”Perry is not “taking fire” for the American people.And of course, the four Republican members of Congress who were referred to the House Ethics Committee for failing to comply with subpoenas are: Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Scott Perry and Andy Biggs.If they did not honor a Congressional subpoena, how could anyone expect them to lead Congress. They do not respect the power of the institution to do its job.According to testimony from former aide to Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Cassidy Hutchinson, among the Republican House members who asked for a pardon: Scott Perry, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mo Brooks, Andy Biggs, and Louie Gohmert. They asked for a pardon for their role in trying to steal votes and overturn an election, and now many of them are trying to suggest that what we are witnessing is totally normal and is actually for The People.Marjorie Taylor Green threw her fellow conservatives who are not supporting McCarthy (Matt Gaetz, Scott Perry, Lauren Boebert, etc.) under the bus in a video clip, saying that one of them didn’t even vote to overturn the election on January 6th, which is what the base wanted.Now, I suspect that this is where the idea that what they’re doing is for “The People” comes from, but of course that is disingenuous. Who lied to the base claiming election fraud? That’s right. Trump and these MAGA Republicans.As I got into in my pod about what Harry and Meghan’s Netflix documentary exposed about how the media works, the Right wing media deliberately elevates the lowest voices from the internet, wash them to give them legitimacy while also providing cover for the “journalists” who are just “reporting” on these neo-Nazis types… and then the far-Right, astrofurfed, populist puppets like Marjorie Taylor Greene et al repeat these talking points and want to investigate them, thereby inserting them forever into history as something legitimate.They are taking 4 Chan, 8 Chan, white nationalist message board talking points and inserting them into the mainstream. They’ve been doing this for a decade. Doing the work of enemies to democracy, presumably for the personal glory and power. All of the dark money flowing in our politics and going to these Republicans, who are then parrotting these talking points that serve the agenda of foreing power, makes it impossible to know.So when they claim they are doing the work of the people, the MAGA base, that is a base that these same people have propagandized to, radicalized, and used. Many of them are in jail now after January 6th, but not these Republicans who lied to them.And, of course, why is Marjorie Taylor Greene so mad? She’s mad because she’s been promised great power by Kevin McCarthy. Like the rest of the MAGA crowd, MTG is just here to stroke her own ego, to get on Fox News and other far Right cable hits, to be powerful.What’s happening here is this gang is not fit for governing. They can’t handle it. They can’t even pick a Speaker. And before that gets normalized, here’s what President Biden said about this mess:Remarks by President Biden Before Air Force One Departure (sent to PoliticusUSA by the White House press office, edited by me for brevity and clarity):Q    Mr. President, are you concerned about the implications of there not being a functioning House of Representatives at this point?  THE PRESIDENT:  Well, obviously, I am. For two reasons.  One, it's embarrassing for the country.  I mean, literally.  It’s just the reality is that to have a Congress that can't function is just embarrassing.  We're the greatest nation in the world.  How can that be?  And we've had a lot of trouble with a lot of trouble with the attacks on our institutions already.  And it just - that’s what worries me more than anything else.We’ve had a lot of trouble with attacks on our institutions. Indeed. What he didn’t say was that the attacks mostly came from these same people. There have been relentless, ongoing violence, dangerous propaganda, and lies coming from the Republican side of the aisle since 2015.Yesterday, these people – who tried steal votes from millions of Americans – were on the House floor claiming what we were watching was the American people are in charge.  Coincidentally, a lot of bot type and newer accounts were tweeting this is the government working and this is how democracy works.It’s not.This is how Trumpified government works. This is what you

It took Republicans less than a day to show that they are a threat to democracy and the nation. Join us in speaking out against the threat by becoming a paid or free subscriber.Republicans, including Sean Hannity, are looking around for someone to blame for the state of their party, as Kevin McCarthy’s ongoing humiliation is played out in front of the world.  Matt Gaetz is trying to get McCarthy evicted for being a squatter in the Speaker’s office.Who could be to blame? How could this party have scratched its way to a scant 4-seat majority even with the help of gerrymandering and disenfranchising voters and still not be unified enough to vote for this man who stands for nothing?Tim Miller at The Bulwark wrote, “Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Tx.) expressed dismay over his Republican colleagues’ opposition to McCarthy, calling their actions “petty” and “childish,” and venting about how they are more concerned about notoriety than governing…How might the new Republican conference have attracted these charlatans and con men and peacocking blowhards, I wonder?”Yes, prostrating themselves before Donald Trump for six plus years, including after he incited a domestic terrorist attack upon his own country in a desperate attempt to keep power, is a big reason why they can’t attract or keep anyone with integrity now. They attract the George Santos types now, and the Marjorie Taylor Greenes and the Lauren Boebert types. These are not serious people.Let’s go back to 2016 and Donald Trump. Back when the whole world found out that Trump was an admitted serial sexual assaulter, caught on tape bragging about it. He mocked a Gold Star family. He mocked a reporter with a disability. He did all of these things on video.Yet, all of these things were made acceptable — in an effort to use Donald Trump to keep power. People with a lot of power and money thought he was their ticket to getting things they wanted, like a tax cut for the rich. So, who was behind using Trump as a fake populist puppet to keep power? And what kind of base has been so primed for embracing an ideology that tells them it’s not only OK to hate and to do horrible things to others, but it is nothing to even feel bad about. A rejection of shame.The same base that fell in love with Sarah Palin in 2008, because she attacked then Senator Barack Obama with racist dog whistles, not in spite of, but because of. The same party that used Sarah Palin, another astroturfed, fake populist puppet, in an attempt to give presidential power to someone more mainstream Republican, like Senator John McCain.But the Palin monster ate McCain. She arguably cost him the election, and then left the Republican Party in tatters as she quit her job as Governor to travel the country with her grievance bus tour of botched history and raging resentment. Instead of turning their backs on her, they used her for every ounce of anger she could stir up in her Tea Party base, to weaponize them against affordable healthcare for the masses.Predictably, she melted down in a sea of antisemitic self-pity, claiming accusations against her were “Blood libel,” when her delusions about God picking her to be President didn’t pan out. Her Fox News hits dried up and reality TV show offers eventually withered into dust. See a trend there?This kind of degradation can happen with any political party. But all it takes to stop it is for the party to be willing to give up power until it regroups. That’s all it takes. They could have done this at any moment. They kept saying they would, but they didn’t. Real conservatives have long since fled this party. They are homeless now, some of them even resorting to voting for Democrats in an effort to defend the republic from the Republican Party’s ongoing attacks.There is no excuse for Trump Republicans.  Their own history with Palin showed them the path was fraught. They chose this and now they are paying the price.The larger problem is that we all pay along with them. So long as they are the only other political power in our democracy, we all suffer. A democracy like ours is meant to function through good faith vigorous debate about ideas. These people can’t even pick a Speaker.Every day Republicans spend undermining the U.S. House of Representatives is a day work for The People is not getting done and a day that we signal to the world how dysfunctional western democracy appears to be – both are great gets for Putin.Republicans have no one to blame but themselves. They had every chance to be better, but they failed. The fact that Donald Trump is still the leader of their party, two years after a deadly, failed self-coup that eventually resulted in the deaths of several police officers, says everything about their current state.They have no one to blame but themselves.

Get full access to The Daily at politicususa.substack.com/subscribe

Incoming House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries described the Republican “circus” in Washington as “chaos, crisis, confusion, and craziness.”I’m afraid he is correct, but even worse, these folks represent a real national security threat. Not only are they being led by what’s been labeled the “Sedition Caucus,” because major players in the domestic terrorist attack on our country have been elevated to leadership positions instead of being kicked out, but we learned on Monday that the January 6 committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and committee Vice-Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY)  fear Republicans will leak names of national security personnel who work at the White House and who testified to help their country before the now disbanded U.S. House Select Committee’s 1/6 investigation.The Daily is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and podcasts consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Thompson and Cheney said in a letter to the White House that White House employees had “provided very important information for the Committee’s investigation” and have had their identities shielded, but warned that with the changeover, they can no longer “ensure enforcement of the commitment to maintain the confidentiality of the identity of the witnesses.” They have concern for “the safety, security, and reputations” of the witnesses.And who can blame them.We have all seen what happens to anyone who gets on the bad side of Donald Trump, but of course, this kind of political extremism and even terrorism isn’t relegated to just Trump supporters.There are extremists on both sides, but the extremists on the Right are responsible for most of the domestic terrorism we are currently experiencing, and they were also using these same tactics back during President Obama’s leadership. Let’s not allow this all to be laid at Trump’s feet. The Tea Party bringing machine guns to town halls to stop affordable healthcare wasn’t exactly a gesture of willingness to share power with the executive branch when they don’t hold it.But just based on the earlier testimony in the January 6th committee, we know that witnesses who cooperated will be targeted if their names are leaked.What would Republicans get out of leaking those names? Why would they jeopardize their own country? To further obstruct justice and send a message to anyone else even thinking of coming forward that they will be harassed, threatened, and even physically harmed. This party is operating more like an organized crime operation than a political party in a two-party democracy.In December, we learned that in her Sept. 14 deposition, former White House aide and assistant to former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Cassidy Hutchinson was assigned a lawyer by the Trump team, who then took calls with New York Times’ “Trump whisperer” Maggie Haberman, even when Hutchinson asked him not to.Hutchinson said under oath that the same Trump lawyer who told her to lie, Stefan Passantino, said, "Don't worry. Like, Maggie's friendly to us. We'll be fine."Thank you for reading The Daily. This post is public so feel free to share it.Here’s that whole exchange from May 17th, when they were on their way to Hutchinson’s third interview. This is important because it shows how Trump lawyers appear to have used what they qualify as “friendly” media sources to let Trump know what had transpired in a witness’ interview and it is also the last time Passantino represented Hutchinson:So we’re going to the wharf and literally — I want to say maximum 2 minutes after we’re in the car, his phone starts to ring. I look over at his phone. We’re sitting, like, probably closer than Jody and I are sitting here, so maybe about a foot, foot and a half apart. His phone is ringing. I look down at his phone. It’s Maggie Haberman calling him. And I looked at Stefan, and I said, “Stefan, did you tell Maggie Haberman that we were meeting with the committee today?” And he’s like, “No, no. Maybe that’s not what she’s calling me about.” And I said, “Stefan, did you tell Maggie that we were meeting with the committee today?” And he said, “No, no, but I should probably answer to see if she knows, right? I should answer.” And I said, “Stefan, no. I don’t think you should answer that call. She probably wants to know if we met with the committee today.” He said, “Cass, I’m just going to answer. It will just be 2 seconds. I just want to find out what she’s going to talk to me about.” He answers. I can’t hear what she’s saying, but I hear Stefan say, “Yeah, yeah, we did just leave her third interview. You can put it out, but don’t — don’t — don’t — don’t make it too big of a deal. I don’t think she’ll want it to be too big of a deal. All right. Thanks.” And I said, “Stefan, was that Maggie Haberman asking about my interview?” And he said, “Yeah, but don’t worry. She’s not going to make it a big deal.” I said, “Stefan, I don’t want this out there.” He said, “Don’t worry. Like, Maggie’s friendly to us. We’ll be fine.” So I was just like, “Whatever.”Haberman followed this up with a tweet about Hutchinson’s appearance at her third deposition.Back in July, Cheney said several witnesses had been contacted ahead of questioning, including this message sent to Hutchinson in an apparent attempt to influence her testimony. They didn’t say at the time who had sent it, but it was later reported to have been sent by Mark Meadows to Hutchinson.“[A person] let me know you have your deposition tomorrow. He wants me to let you know that he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal, and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.”If we put that in context with calling Haberman, we can see a very effective and well-oiled mob-esque pressure campaign. (Haberman might not be friendly to them and she most certainly didn’t report on these matters to help Trump pressure witnesses, but she was clearly used to do so.)The January 6th Committee pointed out that Trump and his lieutenants "engaged in at least 200 apparent acts of public or private outreach, pressure, or condemnation" regarding state officials to overturn the election results.Trump’s team contacted nearly 200 state legislators from battleground states to solicit support for overturning the election - at least some said they were on behalf of the president.On Jan 2, 2021 nearly 300 state legislators from battleground states participated in a private briefing with then President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and others.Before January 6th, there were other “opponents” who got targeted, including Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who made the courageous decision to share her experience of being sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh years ago, only to have to move from her home and be unable to go to work.Okay, so we’ve established the pressure campaign, but you might be thinking that you don’t see national security risks yet. I would argue that a party enabling an attack on its own country is obviously a national security risk, in addition to the foreign interference and specifically Russian talking points the party had adopted against its own country and against Ukraine, starting in 2016 when they allowed Trump to alter their party platform in regard to Ukraine.But no, it gets worse.This is a moment that is simply stunning. We had heard of this in Bob Woodward’s book Peril, but it was confirmed in 1/6 Committee testimony. Speaker Pelosi asked the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs if the nuclear codes were safe because she feared the President was crazy and might use military power to hold power.From Milley's testimony regarding the January 8, 2021 call:Q: Yeah. What prompts her call is concern about the President's stability or mental health. She even says in the call, "You know he's crazy, don't you," and she is reported to have said, General Milley, that you agreed with her. You said: I agree a hundred percent with everything you've said. The one thing I can guarantee is that as the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, I want you to know, I want to you to know this in your heart of hearts. I can guarantee you 110 percent that the military, use of military power, whether it's nuclear or strike in a foreign country of any kind, we're not going to do anything illegal or crazy.You reassured her that, despite her concerns about the President's stability, the nuclear codes and the launch capacity has to go through this process, and you personally will ensure that nothing crazy, the word that you used, happens.A: That's right. And I was, you know, talking to the Speaker of the House.As you all are all aware, the current Speaker of the House is no longer the esteemed Nancy Pelosi. We don’t have one as of this recording, because Republicans are having a war among extremists to see who can seize the most power from the Speaker in order to misuse the power granted to the U.S. House of Representatives, to abuse that power to go after political opponents instead of doing the work they were ostensibly elected to do.Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund warns us in his new book “Courage Under Fire,” that the Capitol is still not safe from domestic terror attacks. This is coming from top law enforcement.Back to the House, the New York Times reported that Brazilian authorities intend to prosecute George “Jew-ish” Santos for fraud. These are the kinds of people that a healthy political party would reject. But Republican leadership can’t afford to give any members the boot, even if they attacked their own country and or tried to steal the votes from millions of Americans or defrauded people, because they only have a four-seat majority.None of this concern is hyperbole, I wish it were. I’ve been covering politics since 2010, and the Republican Party has only gotten worse in that time. Even Jake Sherman tweeted, “I'

Tuesday night, Trump’s tax returns made headlines even before they were released. The first bombshell is the Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee said that the IRS didn't audit Trump’s personal tax returns during his first two years in office, despite an agency program that mandates scrutiny of every president's tax information.This not only calls into question the many claims by Trump and his administration asserting that Trump couldn’t release his taxes because they were being audited (which is also not true, there is no constraint), but it calls into question why Trump was not subjected to an IRS mandate dating back to 1977.Trump’s returns only began to be audited by the IRS in 2019. That’s when Democrats took control of the House. That’s the actual job of “oversight” – contrary to the idea of investigating the President’s son’s laptop.“There is virtually nothing known about the IRS's mandatory audit program other than that it is an internal policy and requires mandatory examinations of Presidents and Vice-Presidents,” the New York Times reported.After all of his claims of his taxes being audited, for some reason, the IRS that Trump weaponized against others did not even do its job to audit the president’s returns for two years.Trump repeatedly told John Kelly, his White House chief of staff, that he wanted the Internal Revenue Service to investigate his political foes, according to Kelly.Kelly said Trump wanted to “get the IRS on” former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and former FBI Director James Comey.McCabe and Comey were both picked by the Internal Revenue Service for a supposedly random yet invasive tax audit. In the interest of full disclosure, we at PoliticusUSA had two invasive yet random audits authorized on our company under Trump and were given no reason for the audits, which they claimed were just because they were interested in how digital media works. (The second audit was eventually canceled after they were told that they were auditing returns they had already audited.)So the government stopped doing the mandated IRS audits of Trump while auditing his enemies.This looks very directed. The question is by whom. Was it the IRS director? Trump’s Commissioner of Internal Revenue Charles Rettig was sworn in on October 1, 2018. His term expired on November 12, 2022. Charles Rettig did not take office until the end of 2018. So, it seems likely that it went even higher up (though Rettig might have also implemented direction to weaponize the government against Trump critics, which is also not okay).This leads us back to Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who violated the law by taking the unprecedented action to lead the effort to block Trump’s tax returns following a Congressional request -- something he did for years.Mnuchin was in office from 2017 to 2021, one of the very few who made it an entire Trump presidential term. The Treasury Department oversees the IRS.The Daily is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts/podcasts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Some background from CREW (my bold):When Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin blocked the release of then-President Trump’s tax returns, it was the first time the IRS failed to turn over tax returns following a congressional request, the IRS informed CREW. It is clear that then-Secretary Mnuchin’s actions to block Trump’s tax returns from scrutiny were unprecedented and against the law, and they have set the stage for the Janet Yellen-led Treasury Department to reverse course and release Trump’s taxes to Congress.The Internal Revenue Code says that, upon a written request of the Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Treasury Secretary shall [emphasis added] provide the committee with any return that it requests. House Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal did exactly that in 2019, requesting the IRS provide six years of Trump’s tax returns then issuing a subpoena when the IRS did not comply. Mnuchin famously defied the subpoena by refusing to provide the tax returns, stonewalling Congress for the rest of Trump’s time in office, leading the House to sue to get its subpoena enforced.So it’s established that Mnuchin’s actions to protect Trump’s tax returns were unprecedented and against the law. He also kept his job for Trump’s full term. Mnuchin’s role in the IRS failure to audit Trump’s taxes as mandated needs to be investigated.Republicans have been trying to make the argument that if Trump has to share his tax returns like every other president and presidential candidate since Nixon has done, then we will all be targets. But the truth is that under Trump, many of his critics were targets.Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) warned that if House Democrats release Trump’s tax returns, it could lead to the release of the tax returns of Supreme Court Justices (!!), which of course given Brett Kavanaugh’s massive debts disappearing and the sudden wealth of several of the justices, would be most welcome. So it’s odd that Republicans are trying \to use that to fearmonger about why we should not see Trump’s tax returns.We need to see a president’s tax returns for national security purposes and I would argue that for this same reason, we need to see Supreme Court Justices’ returns.Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) of the House Ways and Means Committee said that Trump’s tax returns suggest that he had tens of millions of dollars in unsubstantiated claims. Imagine what the fines would be on that amount of fraud if that happened.“I think you will see tens of millions of dollars in these returns that were claimed without adequate substantiation. The extent to which the IRS made an effort to get that substantiation, I invite you to look at the reports. But I think you’ll be surprised by how little there is, and I have my doubts that another taxpayer could go into audit and provide as little as was provided here and expect to have a completed audit. “The IRS is required to audit presidential tax returns. They didn’t audit Trump for two years. His critics got viciously audited with invasive audits. It’s time to investigate Steve Mnuchin for his potential role in this unlawful abuse of power by people in the Trump administration.This is Sarah Jones on the Politicus Pod for PoliticusUSA’s The Daily.

Get full access to The Daily at politicususa.substack.com/subscribe

If you like what you’re hearing, give me a follow on Post.News at PoliticusSarah and subscribe to our newsletter so you don’t miss any episodes.No former president has ever been criminally referred by Congress for prosecution. Until now.“That evidence has led to an overriding and straight-forward conclusion: the central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, who many others followed. None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him,” the January 6th summary report reads.In the summer of 2021, months after a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the Democratic-led U.S. House formed an investigative committee to look into what led up to the domestic terrorist attack. Republicans often claim the panel is “partisan,” but Senate Republicans blocked the formation of bipartisan investigation. Then when the House took it up, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy tried to stick Congressional insurrectionist supporters on the panel and then refused to participate when Speaker Nancy Pelosi basically told him potential witnesses can’t investigate themselves.McCarthy would go on to ignore congressional subpoenas, along with several of his Republican colleagues, and yet soon will be in charge of issuing these same congressional subpoenas with the expectation that they are legitimate. It’s obvious that he shouldn’t have that authority since he doesn’t respect it enough to comply, but this is the modern-day Republican Party.In fact, the 1/6 Committee referred Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, and 2 other House Republicans to the Ethics Committee for sanctions for failing to comply with a lawful congressional subpoena.Still, the panel is bipartisan due to two lone Republicans with the courage to stand up to the Trump coalition destroying their party: Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill).After 17 months of investigation, including more than 1,000 interviews, 10 stunning public hearings which drew ratings “in the ballpark of big television events like a ‘Sunday Night Football’ games” and more than a million documents, a 154-page “executive summary” report was released on Monday and the conclusion was: All January 6th roads lead to Donald Trump. Without Trump, January 6th, 2021 would not have happened.Every president in American history has defended the orderly transfer of power, “except one,” Liz Cheney said. And thus, a bipartisan select committee referred Donald J. Trump on at least 4 criminal charges.This is a historic moment. A former president has never been referred for criminal charges by Congress before. The charges are at least obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, making false statements and or conspiracy to submit false statements to the government related to the fake elector scheme and assisting or aiding an insurrection.The attack on the United States Capitol was vintage Trump: It was based on repeated lies about an election he lost by over 7 million votes, yet another attempt to make image matter over reality. Trump did nothing to help lawmakers and then Vice President Pence who were under attack and whose lives were being threatened. He sat in the dining room watching the violence unfold and did nothing.New evidence offered Monday included the fact that Trump allies had invoked the fifth when asked to provide proof of their claims about a “stolen election.” Also, Trump aide Hope Hicks told the committee that Trump told her, “The only thing that matters is winning” and Ivanka Trump was identified as one of several senior White House officials whose testimony was not “entirely frank or forthcoming.”Trump’s signature mob “leadership” style was touched on again as the committee recommended that the Justice Department should look into whether Trump allies committed a criminal offense by interfering with an official proceeding due to their repeated contacts with witnesses. We first heard about witness tampering last summer, but on Monday Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) shared yet another attempt at witness tampering. Bribing or threatening or paying legal fees are all Trump-stamped ways of handling legal messes he gets into, including the Mueller investigation.“We’ve learned that a (witness) was offered potential employment that would make her, quote, ‘financially very comfortable’ as the date of her testimony approached, by entities that were apparently linked to Donald Trump and his associates. These offers were withdrawn or didn’t materialize as reports of the content of her testimony circulated. The witness believed this was an effort to affect her testimony, and we are concerned that these efforts may have been a strategy to prevent the committee from finding the truth.”Obstruction of justice might just be re-labeled “Trump Cope.”  Throughout his “career” as a lucky person, who inherited enough money to never learn how to actually conduct business, Trump has used lawyers as his personal thugs.  As soon as he took office, he continued on in the White House as he ran his property and brand rackets.The Daily is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and podcasts consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.So his henchmen interfered in the Mueller investigation. And then they interfered in the first impeachment by finally supplying what they called a transcript, but wasn’t actually a transcript but rather a memo of one of his calls with Ukrainian President Zelensky (Trump claimed there was a second call that he implied had taped but this was never released).  That call, attempting to extort Zelensky to manufacture dirt on Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden, led to his first impeachment.We also see Trump’s penchant for obstruction in the lies he told in response to a subpoena about the top secret documents he stole and lied about having and then lied about returning. Obstruct obstruct obstruct. That is how Trump has escaped justice his entire life.Has that finally come to an end?Trump refused to appear to the committee to defend himself, although he regularly claims that they shut him out, he was actually invited to speak via a subpoena, which he sued the committee over - and again, obstructed. Trump did not show up. His lawyers claimed "absolute testimonial immunity,” which is not a thing for a violent coup that was not related to Trump’s duties as President.The committee was very careful to not allow Trumpworld to use the committee’s televised hearings to spread further propaganda, and this frustrated some witnesses who claimed that they weren’t allowed to tell their side.  But, it’s likely Trump has always known he can refuse to speak on the record when it could have consequences, while telling his cult a completely different story, and they will continue to pay him.Trump said in response on Truth Social, “These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me.  It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”Trump supporters have not only committed violence for him, but they have threatened a Civil War if he is prosecuted. In this light, we not only need some entity of our government to finally stand up to Trump and his vigilante militia of criminals, but we also need to examine his consistent enablers, including the quiet ones.Senator Mitch McConnell said at Trump’s second impeachment trial over this violent self-coup attack, “There’s no question—none—that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.” He repeated this sentiment yesterday saying, “The entire nation knows who is responsible for that day. Beyond that, I don’t have any immediate observations.”Lest we get the false notion that Republicans have found a spine just because they didn’t rally to the defense of the man who just hurt them politically in the midterms, revealing his own weakness as a party leader, McConnell has failed to be accountable for his no vote against conviction of Trump for the exact same insurrection. At the time, McConnell claimed some kind of made-up exception having to do with the fact that it was January and soon Trump wouldn’t be in office, so impeachment was irrelevant. That, of course, is almost as flimsy as his excuse for refusing to bring President Obama’s Supreme Court Justice up for a vote for almost a full year.Mitch McConnell punted Donald Trump’s alleged crimes upon his own country. McConnell didn’t feel compelled to do his basic duty to protect this country and her people by voting to convict on something he clearly knows happened and holds Trump responsible for. That failure has led to more violence and more threats. It has kept the door open for Trump to run again. It has put all of the burden on the Biden Department of Justice, when it could have been done at that second impeachment.After all of the evidence and 17 months of investigation, Liz Cheney pronounced Trump “unfit for any office.” But Mike Pence, whose life was threatened, told Fox News’ Bill Hemmer he hopes they don’t bring charges against Trump because it would be “terribly divisive."In reality, it would be divisive not to bring charges and it would embolden the use of terrorism to achieve political ends. A coup trying to steal the votes of millions of people is “divisive.” It is wrong to treat it as something people should just get over.Speaker Pelosi said in a statement sent to PoliticusUSA of the criminal referrals, “With painstaking detail, this executive s

Donald Trump has a very bad week ahead. Very very very bad.


On Monday, the January 6th Committee is meeting at 1 PM, and reportedly plans to issue at least three criminal referrals against Trump, according to an NBC exclusive, including inciting or assisting in an insurrection, obstructing an official proceeding, and conspiracy to defraud the government. But the nightmare doesn’t end there for Trump.On Tuesday, the Ways and Means Committee is meeting to discuss his tax returns and what they will release.On Wednesday, the January 6th Committee will release its report.

Get full access to The Daily at politicususa.substack.com/subscribe

Donald Trump has a very bad week ahead. Very very very bad.


On Monday, the January 6th Committee is meeting at 1 PM, and reportedly plans to issue at least three criminal referrals against Trump, according to an NBC exclusive, including inciting or assisting in an insurrection, obstructing an official proceeding, and conspiracy to defraud the government. But the nightmare doesn’t end there for Trump.On Tuesday, the Ways and Means Committee is meeting to discuss his tax returns and what they will release.On Wednesday, the January 6th Committee will release its report.

If you like what you’re hearing, give me a follow on Post.News and subscribe to our Substack newsletter so you don’t miss any episodes.Donald Trump has a very bad week ahead. Very very very bad. On Monday, the January 6th Committee is meeting at 1 PM, and reportedly plans to issue at least three criminal referrals against Trump, according to an NBC exclusive, including inciting or assisting in an insurrection, obstructing an official proceeding, and conspiracy to defraud the government.   But the nightmare doesn’t end there for Trump.On Tuesday, the Ways and Means Committee is meeting to discuss his tax returns and what they will release.On Wednesday, the January 6th Committee will release its report.Speaking of the insurrection, CREW has a new report out meant to address the election of individuals to the U.S. Congress and state assemblies who might be disqualified from holding office under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment for engaging in the Trump terrorist attack on the United States.The members of Congress whose disqualifications should be investigated are:* Paul Gosar (AZ 9th)* Derrick Van Orden (WI 3rd)* Anthony Kern (AZ)* Donnie Loftis (NC)* Mike Azinger (WV)* Matt Maddock (MI)* David Eastman (AK)Crew says people in Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Alaska can urge their member of Congress or state legislator to prevent insurrectionists from taking office.“If elected officials don't want to uphold the Constitution, then we all will.”Thank you for reading The Daily. This post is public so feel free to share it.CREW believes that there is reasonable suspicion that each of the individuals named in this report is disqualified because they (1) previously swore an oath to the Constitution and (2) either (a) joined the mob that gathered at the United States Capitol or (b) helped orchestrate the rallies on January 6th and related extra-legal events to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Meanwhile, it’s probably going to be one of the last times the House will be functioning as anything other than a conspiracy chamber of far-Right bonkers misdirection and deflection from the real issues Congress should be addressing.The incoming House Republican majority say their “top priority” is to investigate President Biden’s family, who aren’t even in government, which isn’t a good use of our taxpayer-funded resources since the DOJ is already investigating Hunter Biden.This is even more unpopular than the midterms might have led people to suspect. A USA Today Suffolk University Poll says only 5% of people want the House to be investigating the Biden administration, let alone the Biden family.Inflation and the economy took the top concern, followed by threats to democracy, immigration, climate change, gun control, and abortion, none of which the incoming Republican-led House will be addressing because several of these issues they are against addressing as a party (democracy, immigration, climate change, gun control and abortion -- well I guess they’re against everything that’s popular).This is Sarah Jones on the Politicus Pod for PoliticusUSA’s The Daily. If you’re tired of billionaires controlling the news you see and you want to support independent news that puts The People first, please subscribe to our Substack, which we are using to keep the whole website open to the public and not behind a paywall. The Daily is a reader-supported publication. To receive new podcasts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Top Stories From PoliticusUSA:GOP House Majority In More Jeopardy As Investigation Reveals Potential Criminal Activity By Congressman-ElectAn investigation into Representative-Elect George Santos's (R-NY) biography reveals that is largely fiction but also criminal activity that could be a big problem for the slim four-seat GOP House majority.GOP Disaster As Just 5% Of Americans Want Biden InvestigationA recent poll from Suffolk University revealed that just 5% of Americans want House Republicans to investigate the Biden administration.Trump Described As Living In A Sad Barbie Dream HouseNew reporting on Trump's post-presidential life explains how he got himself on the cusp of a criminal indictment by living in a sad Barbie Dream House with no rules.Pat Toomey Urges John Fetterman Not To Kill The FilibusterOutgoing Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey urged his Democratic replacement John Fetterman not to kill the filibuster.Donald Trump Jr. Claims There Is A Conspiracy Trying To Make The Right Look CrazyDonald Trump Jr. claimed with zero evidence that Twitter was elevating people to make the entire right look crazy.Adam Schiff Comments Suggest Monday Will Be A Very Bad Day For Trump1/6 Committee member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) explained why he thinks as a former prosecutor there is sufficient evidence to criminally charge Trump. Get full access to The Daily at politicususa.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you for reading The Daily. This post is public so feel free to share it.You can file this under: Projection, Desperation, Gaslighting, and Sweating Hair Dye.Before we get into these new text messages, let’s start off with a reminder that a Republican-led Senate report confirmed the Special Counsel’s findings and definitively found that Russia interfered in the 2016 election on Trump’s behalf. It said the Trump campaign chairman had regular contact with a Russian intelligence officer while other Trump allies were eager to exploit the Kremlin’s assistance.So the Russians did their best to “rig” the 2016 election for Trump, and Trump’s campaign chairman was in regular contact with Russian intelligence. You know what that means. It’s time for Projection.Flashforward to December 2020, courtesy of newly released text messages, as Trumpland was getting more and more desperate. Rudy’s hyperbolic and sweaty rants had turned up nothing. Trump was unwilling to respect democracy. Something had to give.In stepped Rudy Giuliani’s reported girlfriend and/or associate Maria Ryan.Ryan was texting Republican former Trump White House chief of staff and former North Carolina Representative Mark Meadows with bonkers conspiracy theories peppered with huge rants she meant as talking points for Trump and suggesting Meadows tell the Intel Community that the election had been rigged by “foreign interference.”Yes, there it is. The projection and the false conflation and weaponizing reality against those who tried to establish that it actually happened by denying it when it was real and then using it as an accusation when it was not. That is vintage Trump.In text messages exclusively obtained and vetted by Talking Points Memo, Maria Ryan, Giuliani’s reported girlfriend and associate, texted Mark Meadows on December 19, 2020 at 12:41 pm (mind you none of her claims about the “media” saying x, etc. has a basis in fact):Dear Mark, I hope you are doing well. I am very happy POTUS has such a smart and honest man as you by his side. I strongly believe in a special counsel for election integrity. I strongly believe it CANNOT be Powell who leads it . K. Cuccinelli or someone of equal prominence. Powell can be named lead investigator or given another title. Also the issue with cyber security. Strongly recommend Radcliffe put out a statement that it was foreign interference, likely cast of characters is China, Iran and maybe Russia. ( unfortunately the media is saying definitively it was Russia but my sources say it is just as likely China- Radcliffe could shed light on this) Our President has been tough on all these nations and we will continue to seek to hold them accountable. These opinions expressed are my own. If I can be of help to you or our President please let me know . Dr Maria Ryan (sic sic sic)For some context here about Ken Cuccinelli, text messages pertaining to January 6th from Donald Trump’s acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf and acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli have apparently vanished.So the man whose January 6th text messages mysteriously disappeared is who Giuliani’s girlfriend/associate is suggesting is of prominence who should be special counsel for “election integrity” - by which they mean, undermining the most secure election in U.S. history so that Donald Trump can seize power that voters did not willingly give him.Cuccinelli was likely hired by Trump due to his infamy as a bad lawyer who filed a lawsuit against President Obama’s healthcare law without standing and his GiftGate scandal. These seem to be prerequisites for being a close Trump associate. Oh, he also tried to make sodomy a crime in Virginia as Attorney General and pushed for a 2012 Personhood Bill meant to outlaw abortion and birth control. He’s very interested in other people’s sex lives, as you can see. It’s also relevant that in late December of 2020, Arizona State Rep. Mark Finchem asked Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to do a “a full spectrum forensic examination” of Arizona’s voting machines.We only know this because American Oversight filed a Freedom of Information Act request, which resulted in emails showing Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his allies trying to use the levers of government to help Trump steal an election he had resoundingly lost.OK, so there’s more. And really, this is exactly what you would expect from someone who spends any amount of time with Rudy Giuliani.Shot: On Jan. 4, 2021, the text isn’t viewable, but the title is: “GA dead voters ”Chaser: In October, a registered Republican in Pennsylvania “was charged with felonies after trying to apply for a mail-in ballot in his dead mother’s name.”Rudy Giuliani and other Trump allies, including Fox News, blamed “dead people” voting for Trump’s losses in Pennsylvania and Georgia, among other states. But election experts say that while dead people occasionally vote, it’s “most often with votes cast by a spouse, it is exceedingly rare, and would not likely affect the outcome even in a relatively close race…”1Then Ryan sent Meadows texts under the claim that Trump had asked her for talking points. She ended up sending “a 1,429-word rant arguing that ‘the Presidential election of 2020 will go down in history as the most fraudulent election…a direct assault on the American people.’”In this context, the Four Seasons Total Landscaping disaster might be seen as a prophecy of things to come. Incompetent legal advice combined with feverish conspiracies and a fascist entitlement to holding power at any cost.The mere fact that Donald Trump had to rely upon Rudy Giuliani to peddle his election lies should have been a warning. But it takes intelligence, unmarred by delusion, to see and interpret clear signals of mistakes. And while Donald Trump is wily and manipulative and very crafty at leveraging power for money, he is not a person who is comfortable with reality or good at reading a room.So it is that their grand plan to steal millions of votes from Americans fell to pieces and left them relying upon the ghoulish rantings of Rudy Giuliani’s rumored girlfriend texting about dead voters and claiming the election had been stolen by foreign interference.None of us should miss the fact that they intended to use foreign interference claims as a reason to delegitimize the 2020 elections, when they were deeply invested in denying the fact that the election that put Trump into the White House in 2016 had in fact been “rigged” by the Russians.It has never been reported to what extent this interference went and if it rose to the level of determining the election. The experts have all said that it didn’t. Trump lost the popular vote by almost 2.9 million votes. But what we do know is it happened, and the Trump campaign accepted the help, which in and of itself should have been disqualifying.This is Sarah Jones on the Politicus Pod for PoliticusUSA’s The Daily.The Daily is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.1.    https://www.factcheck.org/2020/11/thin-allegations-of-dead-people-voting/2.    https://www.politicususa.com/2022/04/12/stunning-new-report-reveals-trump-administration-used-dhs-to-conduct-cyber-audit-of-arizona-at-request-of-one-state-rep.html3.    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/us/politics/senate-intelligence-russian-interference-report.html4.    https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf5.    https://vademocrats.org/news/czar-cooch-lets-look-at-how-ken-cuccinelli-embarrassed-virginia/ Get full access to The Daily at politicususa.substack.com/subscribe

Oh, optimism, how we’ve missed you! Let’s unpack.Last night we learned the unsurprising and yet thoroughly unacceptable fact that Donald Trump, Jr was behind plan to use state legislators to overturn the 2020 election results.Jason Easley wrote in PoliticusUSA, “Donald Trump Jr. was talking about operational control as if the will of the people is something that can be ignored and twisted to suit the needs of an incumbent president who has lost an election.”So it was really good news that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke on the Senate floor Tuesday saying about the funding of the government, “ I expect an omnibus will contain priorities both sides want to see passed into law, including more funding for Ukraine and the Electoral Count Act, which my colleagues in the Rules Committee have done great work on. It’ll be great to get that done.”It might take some time but it should be done…. Before the holidays. Patience!Schumer warned, “Still, we’re going to need a little more time beyond this week to get an omnibus done. To avoid a shutdown this Friday, the Senate should be ready to pass a one-week CR by the end of this week, to give negotiators more time to finish an agreement by the holidays.”So don’t be discouraged this week when it looks like a punt.Funding bills aren’t fun usually, since they involve basically agreeing to pay for things they’ve already agreed to spend money on, and other priorities.But this time, we have something pretty important hiding in the bill, which is the Electoral Count Act reform. The thing that Donald Trump used to try to steal the 2020 election.The Daily is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts/podcasts and to support work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.We pointed out yesterday on Substack that it actually seemed likely that this would pass after Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-MN., the Rules Committee chair, said in an interview, “We will get this done by the end of the year if I have to slow everything else down. It’s going to happen.”But Klobuchar is a Democrat and we need ten Republicans to join Democrats pass anything in the Senate. Which is why it’s encouraging that Greg Sargent pointed out in his column there is “A big reason for optimism: It's unlikely Schumer would have announced ECA reform will be on the omnibus if Mitch McConnell hadn't privately indicated his assent, people close to the process tell me.”Senator Susan Collins’ version (yes, that’s right, Susan Collins) would only allow one slate of recognized electors as chosen by the governor of each state, it clarifies the role of the vice president in the electoral vote count process, raises the objection threshold, and provides judicial review so legislatures and officials can’t refuse to certify the results.BOOM.We are currently still using the law passed in 1887. (Also known as the point in time to which the Republican Party is trying to send women.)The League of Women Voters provides a history of the ECA:Currently, this process is governed by a law passed in 1887 called the Electoral Count Act (ECA). The ECA was passed to set up a formal counting procedure for electoral votes following the 1876 presidential election, which saw states submit multiple slates of electors and where a deadlock in electoral votes left Congress unable to resolve the election for several weeks. The 1880 and 1884 elections that followed were also close and forced Congress to put legislation that would put procedures in place to resolve future election disputes. How the ECA was Used to Challenge the 2020 Election Fast forward to 2021, when lawyers and supporters of former President Trump attempted to use the ECA’s ambiguities to challenge the results of the 2020 election. The loopholes they tried to exploit included persuading Vice President Pence to throw out votes of electors and recruiting slates of “fake electors” from states where Joe Biden had been declared the winner and the electoral slate had been certified in his favor.  These constitutional and political challenges all played out while thousands of insurrectionists rioted at the US Capitol, broke into the chambers of the US House and Senate, and threatened the lives of members of Congress. Readers of PoliticusUSA most likely recall with some horror the fate of prior funding bills ever since the Republican Party started holding the country hostage under former President Obama to get legislative wins that they couldn’t get fairly. It’s often been a countdown to the holidays in a game of chicken when there’s a Democratic president to be foiled.But perhaps Democrats have finally wised up. Perhaps the is the year Susan Collins finally does something to earn that “moderate” badge she was awarded by the press for unclear reasons.This year has already offered up hard-won hope for our democracy, thanks to the work of each individual voter showing up and making their voices heard in midterms and special elections across the country.If we end it with a reformed Electoral Count Act, we can breathe a huge sigh of relief. Yes, there is so much more work to be done to protect democracy, but part of that work is appreciating the work that is done – especially when by some miracle, it’s bipartisan and actually good for the country.More of this, please, Santa.This is Sarah Jones with the PoliticusPod for PoliticusUSA’s The Daily.Sources:1.   Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s press office email with floor remarks sent to PoliticusUSA (view here).2.   https://www.politicususa.com/2022/12/13/donald-trump-jr-overturn-election.html3.   https://www.collins.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/one_pager_on_electoral_count_reform_act_of_2022.pdf4.   https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/13/electoral-count-act-reform-trump-2024-coup-maga/5.   https://talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/inside-team-trumps-chaotic-attempts-to-overturn-the-2020-vote-in-georgia* https://www.lwv.org/blog/reforming-electoral-count-act Get full access to The Daily at politicususa.substack.com/subscribe