Political Wire

GOP Candidate Details Clandestine Government Flights

June 8, 2022 at 2:15 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rob Astorino (R), who is running for the Republican nomination for New York governor, “called for an end to clandestine flights by the federal government bringing what he described as illegal immigrants into the area,” the Westchester Business Journal reports.

Astorino said that “after arrival in New York, the immigrants are dispersed into various communities and even taken to rest areas on the New Jersey turnpike where vehicles are waiting to take them to other destinations.”

Said Astorino: ”The flights are accelerating, there is no question about that. We have video. It’s not just little kids with backpacks being reunified with their families.”

Twitter Plans to Comply with Elon Musk’s Demands

June 8, 2022 at 2:07 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“After a weeks-long impasse, Twitter’s board plans to comply with Elon Musk’s demands for internal data by offering access to its full ‘firehose,’ the massive stream of data comprising more than 500 million tweets posted each day,” the Washington Post reports.

“The move aims to end a standoff with the billionaire, who has threatened to pull out of his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter unless the company provides access to data he says is necessary to evaluate the number of fake users on the platform.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

June 8, 2022 at 2:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“None of it makes sense to me… You can’t take politics out of politics.”

— Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), quoted by CNN, on Attorney General Merrick Garland being cautious about bringing charges against Donald Trump.

There’s More to Debbie Lasko’s Claims of Abuse

June 8, 2022 at 1:57 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Debbie Lasko (R-AZ) has claimed she’s a victim of domestic violence, but an Arizona Republic investigation finds there’s more to the allegations.

“The fuller story reveals a decade spent alongside a career criminal, with their lives cycling between temporary comfort in a new location to a hasty exit ahead of creditors or police.”

“New details uncovered by The Republic include her status as a key witness to her then-husband’s felonies in Scottsdale, financial problems in New Mexico, more than a dozen payouts to her business customers from an Arizona fund to cover derelict contractors, and multiple pleas to judges for mercy for her then-husband and business partner.”

U.S. Pays Taliban Airline to Help Afghans Flee

June 8, 2022 at 1:53 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The U.S. government indirectly pays an airline controlled by the Taliban regime to ferry Afghan refugees out of Kabul,” NBC News reports.

“Without U.S. troops or diplomats on the ground, the Biden administration has no viable alternative to the arrangement as it tries to help Afghans seeking to resettle in the U.S.”

Supreme Court Torn Apart Over Leaked Opinion

June 8, 2022 at 1:48 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

NPR: “Normally at this time of year, the justices would be exchanging hundreds of pages of draft opinions and working with each other to resolve differences and reach consensus in the most challenging cases of the term. Instead, the court is riven with distrust among the law clerks, staff and, most of all, the justices themselves.”

“The atmosphere behind the scenes is so ugly that, as one source put it,'”the place sounds like it’s imploding.’ To cite just one public example, Justice Clarence Thomas in a speech a few weeks ago seemed to say he no longer trusts his colleagues.”

The Perfect Graduation Gift

June 8, 2022 at 1:43 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

Give a Political Wire membership to someone graduating from school this year.

They’ll get exclusive analysis, new features, bonus newsletters, and an ad-free experience.

For a limited time, it’s 20% off.

Quote of the Day

June 8, 2022 at 1:32 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“They’re all upset that Fox isn’t covering it live. We actually do something called, ya know, cater to our audience. Our audience knows what this is. We’ll cover it, and we’ll do plenty of coverage… but it’s the theater, total theater.”

— Laura Ingraham, talking about the January 6 hearings on her Fox News show.

Fox News Not Covering Hearings Is a Big Problem

June 8, 2022 at 1:02 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Greg Sargent: “The not-so-shocking revelation that Fox News will not carry House committee hearings about the insurrection is yet another sign that right-wing media will go to extraordinary lengths to shield the GOP base from brutal truths about Jan. 6, 2021.”

“Yet Fox’s blackout also highlights severe information challenges that Democrats will face for the foreseeable future. The fact that Republicans enjoy a massive media apparatus that manufactures a separate reality for the base, even as Democrats rely on traditional news organizations to communicate with voters, creates deep information asymmetries that continue to bedevil them.”

White House Struggles to Talk About ‘Problem From Hell’

June 8, 2022 at 1:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “The administration has at times splintered internally over how to discuss price increases and has revised its inflation-related message several times as talking points fail to resonate and new data comes in. Some Democrats in Congress have urged the White House to strike a different — and more proactive — tone ahead of the November midterm elections.”

“But the reality the White House faces is a hard one: There is little politicians can do to quickly bring price increases to heel. Federal Reserve policy is the nation’s main solution to inflation, but the central bank tempers price gains by making money more expensive to borrow to cool off demand, a slow and potentially painful process for the economy.”

Cawthorn Failed to Disclose Two Dozen Trades

June 8, 2022 at 12:58 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) “appears to have again violated a federal conflict-of-interest law by failing to properly report purchases and sales of six types of cryptocurrencies,” Insider reports.

Blake Masters Once Praised ‘Unrestricted’ Immigration

June 8, 2022 at 12:24 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

In a series of blog posts, Arizona U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters (R), who is running as an immigration hardliner, once suggested that “illegal immigration is an ethical contradiction in terms,” argued that “unrestricted immigration is the only choice,” Jewish Insider reports.

He also commended U.S. service members who had participated in a drug trafficking ring along the southwestern border as “heroes.”

White House Sounds Alarms Over Lack of Covid Funds

June 8, 2022 at 12:15 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The White House issued a new warning to Congress Wednesday on the continued urgent need for Covid-19 funding, highlighting new ‘unacceptable tradeoffs’ as it reallocates and reprioritizes remaining funding toward new vaccines in the absence of congressional action,” CNN reports.

How to Think About the January 6 Hearings

June 8, 2022 at 12:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Amanda Carpenter offers “a sample platter” of the stories the January 6 Committee has to nail down in their public hearings:

Trump’s lies.
How the GOP and its many aligned advocacy organizations fundraised off Trump’s meritless legal challenges to cancel Democratic votes.
The efforts to squeeze state officials to “find the votes” in swing states Trump lost.
The schemes inside the Department of Justice to launch sham investigations into voter fraud.
The wild ideas entertained inside the White House to seize voting machines in order to “rerun” the election.
The pressure campaign on Republican members of Congress and Vice President Mike Pence to deny Electoral College votes for Biden.
How Trump summoned a real-life mob, bearing tactical gear and weapons, that resorted to physical violence to stop Congress from certifying Biden as president.

“It’s a lot. Give it time to sink in. And do not let the political junkies rush the process with their relentless questions about whether or not the hearings will ‘work’ in changing public opinion.”

Armed Man Arrested Near Brett Kavanaugh’s Home

June 8, 2022 at 11:55 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“An armed man was arrested early Wednesday near the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh after making threats against the Supreme Court justice,” the New York Times reports.

Washington Post: “The man, described as being in his mid-20s, was found to be carrying at least one weapon and burglary tools… Police were apparently notified that the person might pose a threat to the justice, but it was not immediately clear who provided the initial tip.”

Related story: Politico reports Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “is demanding the House take up and pass Senate legislation boosting security protections for Supreme Court justices and their families.”

Colorado to Probe Boebert’s Mileage Claims and Tax Liens

June 8, 2022 at 11:34 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Colorado officials are examining allegations that Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican representing the state’s western half, inflated the mileage she logged on the campaign trail in 2020 and then used more than $20,000 in reimbursements from donors to pay off years of tax liens on her restaurant,” the New York Times reports.

“The allegations have bounced around liberal circles since The Denver Post first reported in February 2021 that Ms. Boebert had cashed two checks from her campaign totaling $22,259 for mileage reimbursement, a figure that equated to 38,712 miles — well more than 24,901-mile circumference of the planet.”

The Political Incentives Have Shifted on Guns

June 8, 2022 at 11:12 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Punchbowl News: “In the long struggle over guns and gun control, there’s finally a window open for a compromise – albeit a small window with room for only a narrow accord.”

“Democrats are working within the confines of a razor-thin majority in Washington, dropping their calls for big policy changes in favor of small progress. And some Republicans have accepted that opposing any and all changes to gun laws is both politically and substantively unacceptable.”

“It has led to an almost head-snapping sense in the Capitol that President Joe Biden may actually get a package of gun-control laws to sign in the next several months, ahead of the midterm elections.”

Earlier for members: Why Gun Reform May Pass This Time

How San Francisco Became a Failed City

June 8, 2022 at 11:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Nellie Bowles: “I do need you to love San Francisco a little bit, like I do a lot, in order to hear the story of how my city fell apart—and how it just might be starting to pull itself back together.”

“Because yesterday, San Francisco voters decided to turn their district attorney, Chesa Boudin, out of office. They did it because he didn’t seem to care that he was making the citizens of our city miserable in service of an ideology that made sense everywhere but in reality. It’s not just about Boudin, though. There is a sense that, on everything from housing to schools, San Francisco has lost the plot—that progressive leaders here have been LARPing left-wing values instead of working to create a livable city. And many San Franciscans have had enough.”