“Former president Bill Clinton planned to have lunch with President Biden at the White House Monday, days after the two crossed paths at the funeral of former secretary of state Madeleine Albright,” the Washington Post reports.
Skipping Debates Is Big This Year
Associated Press: “As the most competitive phase of the midterm primary season unfolds this week, many candidates for leading offices — often Republicans — are abandoning the time-honored tradition of debating their rivals before Election Day.”
“For some gaffe-prone candidates such as Walker, avoiding the debate stage reduces the chance of an embarrassing moment. For others, it’s an opportunity to snub a media ecosystem they find elitist and cast themselves in the mold of former President Donald Trump, who made a show of missing some debates during the 2016 campaign.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“There was some, the dress, the stuff that these young women — liberated women — are wearing. They wear this stuff and then they talk about #MeToo. It sends a mixed signal, that’s for sure.”
— Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R), quoted by the American Independent, suggesting that women on the Grammy Awards were inviting sexual assaults.
House Select Committee Looking Into Trump Pardons
Playbook: “At this stage of the investigation, after the committee has talked to hundreds of people and secured countless documents via subpoenas, all eyes are on any details that suggest the committee may accuse Trump or any of his alleged co-conspirators with criminal wrongdoing. Naturally, you don’t need to pardon someone if they didn’t take an action that was against the law. And you normally wouldn’t inquire about a pardon if you didn’t think laws might have been broken.”
Ex-New York Police Officer Convicted In Capitol Riot
“A former New York City police officer who claimed he was acting in self-defense when he swung a metal flagpole at a fellow officer during the attack on the Capitol last January was convicted on Monday of all charges, including assault,” the New York Times reports.
Mike Lindell Banned from Twitter Again
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell was banned from Twitter for a second time after attempting to use a new account to access the social media platform, the AP reports.
Racism No Longer Carries Any Stigma
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Quote of the Day
“Democrats have lost their way in the sense that they have not been talking to mainstream America. They have lost their way talking to rural America, to folks on Main Street.”
— Former Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL), quoted by AL.com.
Stop Smearing Biden’s Mental Capacity
Jonathan Bernstein: “One of the many ugly things that’s happened during Joe Biden’s presidency: The smear that he’s lost it — that he’s cognitively impaired. It’s a frequent explicit refrain within Republican-aligned media, and quite a few Republican politicians, Trump included, have repeated it. I don’t know quite how common the belief in it is among Republican voters, but judging from my reader mail, many of them treat it as simply a well-known fact that the U.S. president is barely able to function.”
“As bad as smearing the mental capacity of political opponents is — and I do think this is the worst I’ve ever seen it — it’s not new, and it’s not a case where only Republicans are guilty. Many Democrats thought Trump, another aging politician, had serious cognitive deficits, just as they had believed Presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan were stupid. Republicans believed that President Barack Obama was so stupid that he was incapable of functioning without a teleprompter (despite the obvious fact that Obama was constantly seen in public giving perfectly cogent statements without one).”
Why Alaska Has a 106% Voter Registration Rate
Anchorage Daily News: “Alaska has a robust and successful registration process. Anyone who applies for a Permanent Fund dividend — and in Alaska, that’s almost everyone — is automatically registered to vote unless they’re ineligible or opt out.”
“Between 1990 and 2019, Alaska had the highest gross migration rate of any state, and the state continues to stay at or near the top of the list for mobility.”
“State law allows people to stay registered when they move away, as long as they have an ‘intent of returning’ to Alaska and don’t register to vote anywhere else.”
Antiabortion Movement Pivots to Nationwide Ban
“Leading antiabortion groups and their allies in Congress have been meeting behind the scenes to plan a national strategy that would kick in if the Supreme Court rolls back abortion rights this summer, including a push for a strict nationwide ban on the procedure if Republicans retake power in Washington,” the Washington Post reports.
“The effort, activists say, is designed to bring a fight that has been playing out largely in the courts and state legislatures to the national political stage — rallying conservatives around the issue in the midterms and pressuring potential 2024 GOP presidential candidates to take a stand.”
Manchin Endorses In Republican Primary
Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) has turned to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to back him in a campaign ad in his GOP primary against former President Donald Trump’s endorsed pick, Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV), the Charleston Gazette Mail reports.
“In a McKinley campaign ad, Manchin says the congressman has always opposed ‘reckless spending because it doesn’t make sense for West Virginia.’ The ad comes as McKinley argues that Mooney is misleading voters about McKinley’s vote for President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law. Mooney voted against it.”
Abortion Rights Groups to Spend $150 Million on Midterms
A trio of pro-abortion rights groups — Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America and EMILY’s List — is rolling out a $150 million spending plan ahead of the 2022 midterms, Politico reports.
Tulsi Gabbard Suggests Obama Behind ‘Ministry of Truth’
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) suggested that former President Barack Obama is behind the effort to establish a Disinformation Governance Board, which she likened to George Orwell’s famed “Ministry of Truth,” Yahoo News reports.
She added: “Biden is just a front man.”
Tennessee Suspends All Executions
“Gov. Bill Lee has paused all Tennessee executions through 2022 after granting a temporary reprieve for death row inmate Oscar Franklin Smith last month due to ‘technical oversight’ in the lethal injection,” the Tennessean reports.
Select Committee Wants to Hear from 3 GOP Lawmakers
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is seeking voluntary testimony from three additional members of Congress — Reps. Mo Brooks (R-AL), Ronny Jackson (R-TX) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ) — who appeared to have some coordination with rioters and efforts to block President Biden’s electoral victory both before and after the attack, The Hill reports.
Romney Wears Disguise to Hide from Trump Supporters
“According to a forthcoming book, Sen. Mitt Romney wears a hat in public to keep from being recognized by supporters of former President Donald Trump,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
“Romney’s wife, Ann, told the authors Trump’s grip on the party and the hatred toward Mitt from his supporters gave her severe doubts about whether any of their five sons could ever run for elected office as Republicans.”
Connecticut Moves to Protect Abortion Rights
New York Times: “The Connecticut bill, which Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, has said he intends to sign, would expand the field of people who can perform certain types of abortions beyond doctors, to include nurse-midwives, physician assistants and other medical professionals.”
“And in what lawmakers said could be a model for other states seeking to safeguard abortion rights, the law would also shield abortion providers and patients from lawsuits initiated by states that have banned or plan to ban abortion, even outside their own borders.”
