Chinese President Xi Jinping told European Council President Charles Michel that people protesting against the country’s strict Covid-19 measures are “mainly students” who are “frustrated” after three years of the pandemic, the South China Morning Post reports.
Republicans Are Paying for Trump’s Dinner
William Saletan: “When Trump crosses a moral line, Republicans find ways to excuse him, deflect the criticism, and move on. Maybe they imagine that our moral boundaries will hold—that racism and antisemitism will remain unacceptable—even when a current, former, and potentially future president is shielded from accountability for ignoring those boundaries.”
“But no true conservative would make that bet.”
Quote of the Day
“The fact that the former President had dinner with a guy that was SO Nazi, that he disavowed knowing him by saying the dinner was supposed to be with a guy who just said Hitler is dope, is definitely something unimaginable on alternate sane Earth.”
— Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), on Twitter.
Herschel Walker’s Campaign Desperately Pleads for Cash
“Outgunned financially as Democrats dominate early voting, Herschel Walker’s Georgia Senate campaign Thursday begged donors to pony up more money because of Sen. Raphael Warnock’s growing sense of momentum,” NBC News reports.
Said Walker campaign manager Scott Paradise, in a memo: “Simply put, we’re being outspent 3 to 1 by Warnock, and we’re being outspent nearly 2 to 1 by outside groups. We need help.”
“The memo calculates that Warnock and the Democratic groups backing him have spent and committed a combined $92 million since the November election, compared with $45 million that Walker and his Republican allies have ponied up.”
USA Today: Super PACs spending $16M more on Raphael Warnock than Herschel Walker in Georgia runoff.
Hate Speech Soars on Twitter
“Before Elon Musk bought Twitter, slurs against Black Americans showed up on the social media service an average of 1,282 times a day. After the billionaire became Twitter’s owner, they jumped to 3,876 times a day,” the New York Times reports.
“Slurs against gay men appeared on Twitter 2,506 times a day on average before Mr. Musk took over. Afterward, their use rose to 3,964 times a day.”
“And antisemitic posts referring to Jews or Judaism soared more than 61 percent in the two weeks after Mr. Musk acquired the site.”
Alex Jones Files for Bankruptcy
“Alex Jones filed for bankruptcy on Friday, less than two months after a jury ordered him and the parent company of his Infowars website to pay nearly $1 billion in compensatory damages to relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting,” Reuters reports.
A Few Thoughts for the End of the Week
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Job Growth Exceeds Expectations Again
“Job growth was much better than expected in November despite the Federal Reserve’s aggressive efforts to slow the labor market and tackle inflation,” CNBC reports.
“Nonfarm payrolls increased 263,000 for the month while the unemployment rate was 3.7%, the Labor Department reported Friday.”
Trump Embraces Extremism as He Seeks to Reclaim Office
New York Times: “The video underscored just how much the former president has aligned himself with forces that used to be outside the mainstream of American politics as he seeks to reclaim the White House through a rematch with President Biden in 2024. With the Justice Department targeting him as well as some of his violent allies, Mr. Trump’s antigovernment jeremiads lately sound like those once relegated to the outer edges of the political spectrum.”
“He has embraced extremist elements in American society even more unabashedly than in the past. The video comes as Mr. Trump has been using music sounding like a QAnon theme song at recent rallies and hosting for dinner Kanye West, a rap star under fire for antisemitic statements, and Nick Fuentes, a prominent white supremacist.”
“And it comes just two days after the conviction of Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, placed Mr. Trump at the spiritual heart of a seditious conspiracy to illegitimately keep power in a way that is unparalleled in American history.”
Raphael Warnock Holds Lead in Senate Runoff
A new CNN poll in Georgia finds Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) leading challenger Herschel Walker (R) in the Senate runoff, 52% to 48%.
Trump Expresses Solidarity with Capitol Rioters
“Donald Trump expressed solidarity with the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, sending a video of support to a fundraising event Thursday night hosted by a group called the Patriot Freedom Project that is supporting families of those being prosecuted by the government,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Trump, in a video: “People have been treated unconstitutionally, in my opinion, and very, very unfairly, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it. It’s the weaponization of the Department of Justice, and we can’t let this happen in our country.”
GOP Tension Builds Over House Speaker Race
“House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and his critics are gearing up for a potential floor fight over the speakership in January, raising the possibility of a messy intraparty showdown that could bring uncertainty and chaos just as Republicans prepare to enter their new majority,” CNN reports.
“McCarthy still insists he will have the 218 votes needed to secure the speakership. Conservative hardliners seeking to plot McCarthy’s ouster say otherwise.”
“And what will happen if he can’t get 218 votes? No one knows.”
What Will Democrats Do with Trump’s Tax Returns?
Punchbowl News: “That’s the issue befuddling Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee, led by Rep. Richie Neal (D-MA), with just a month left in their majority.”
“Neal is facing pressure from Ways and Means Democrats to move quickly to analyze Trump’s returns – and possibly release them to the public – before Republicans take over and make the whole question moot.”
“But Neal is providing little detail about how he plans to spend the next 32 days. In fact, the Massachusetts Democrat wouldn’t even acknowledge gaining access to six years of Trump’s tax returns, citing privacy laws.”
Pennsylvania Republicans Reconsider Mail Voting
Politico: “Across the country, the GOP’s disappointing midterm results have kicked off hand-wringing about the party’s attitude toward early voting and mail ballots. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley — both potential 2024 GOP presidential candidates — have said recently that Republicans can’t simply ignore the voting mechanisms Democrats have taken advantage of.”
“But the about-face is particularly striking in Pennsylvania, where Republicans have adopted an especially uncompromising approach to mail-in voting.”
Obama Stumps for Raphael Warnock
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “The former president spoke to a boisterous crowd of several thousand people ahead of Tuesday’s runoff, which will determine whether Warnock or his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, go to Washington.”
Said Obama: “I’m here to tell you, we can’t let up. I’m here to tell you, we can’t tune out. We can’t get complacent. We have to run through the tape, And I know you can do it because you did it before.”
Kanye West Suspended From Twitter Again
“Twitter again suspended Kanye West’s account after the musician and designer posted a swastika in a tweet that the social-media platform’s owner, Elon Musk, said violated its rules,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Meanwhile, CNBC says West’s deal to buy the conservative social network Parler has been called off.
The GOP’s Bet on Kanye West Goes Very Bad
Philip Bump: “As if to reinforce that point, the Twitter account of the House Judiciary Committee’s Republican caucus — an account weirdly focused on engaging in culture war fights — quietly deleted the tweet it had offered in October praising three men then seen as important anchors of the political right. ‘Kanye. Elon. Trump,’ that tweet said, referring to Ye, the then-new owner of Twitter and the former president.”
“The goal of the tweet, very obviously, was to claim the popularity of those individuals as their own.”
Raphael Warnock Holds Edge in Senate Runoff
A new SurveyUSA poll in Georgia finds Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) leading challenger Herschel Walker (R) in the Senate runoff, 50% to 47%, with 3% still undecided.