Greg Sargent imagines “how the both-sides media would cover a successful Trump coup.”
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Decoding the GOP Whining
Bill Kristol: “I’m cheered up by all the Republicans complaining Biden’s speech was partisan and conservatives whining it was divisive. They must be worried the speech was effective. And that it suggests an effective model going forward.”
Cuomo Appears to Be Eying Comeback
New York Times: “Over the past few months, Mr. Cuomo has reached out to friends and associates to sound them out about the political landscape, and some who have spoken with him came away with the impression that he is interested in finding a way back to relevance in public life.”
“He was especially focused on how the Albany County district attorney, David Soares, would proceed, according to people who have been in touch with his camp, and likely sees the decision to drop the case as significant.”
December Jobs Report Falls Short of Estimates
The U.S. economy added far fewer jobs than expected in December just as the nation was grappling with a massive surge in Covid cases, CNBC reports.
However, the unemployment rate fell to a fresh pandemic-era low and near the 50-year low of 3.5% in February 2020.
Supreme Court Set to Decide Biden’s Vaccine Mandate
“Most American businesses are holding back on requiring vaccines or testing for their employees. Now the U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide whether the Biden administration can force their hand,” Axios reports.
Kazakhstan’s President Orders ‘Shoot to Kill’ Protesters
Kazakhstan’s president said in a televised speech Friday that he ordered security forces to “shoot to kill without warning” in an attempt to forcibly suppress an unexpected uprising, adding that those who failed to surrender “need to be destroyed,” Axios reports.
Thoughts for the End of the Week
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Ex-Michigan Speaker Accused of Sexual Assaulting Teen
Michigan State Police are investigating allegations of sexual assault involving former state House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R), the Detroit Free Press reports.
Chatfield reportedly “had a sexual relationship with a girl that began about 11 years ago when she was about 15 and ended only recently.”
How This Covid Wave Is Different
“The number of Americans hospitalized with covid-19 reached more than 126,000 this week — the highest level in a year. But this wave of the pandemic looks different from what came before, with dueling variants on the move,” the Washington Post reports.
“This time, a majority of patients counted as covid cases in some hospitals were initially admitted for other reasons, their covid infections discovered incidentally.”
Clyburn Says Getting Tough Is What Biden Needed
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) told Politico that Democrats’ problem isn’t their message; “the problem is the image, which I think that the president took a big step toward helping to change today.”
He added: “There are people who just generally feel that we are not being tough enough. If they continue that into not just Georgia, but Florida, go to Texas, go to North Carolina, go to these places where people think they have free rein to restrict access to the ballot. And I think that we’ll see an excited base.”
Yeah, They Were Terrorists
Although Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) apologized to Tucker Carlson for calling the Capitol rioters terrorists, Reuters notes that federal prosecutors have categorized more than 150 January 6 cases as being “domestic terrorism” in their internal case-tracking reports.
And Politico points out that about 45 defendants “are charged with a crime on the terrorism list: depredation of federal property.”
Ex-Staffer Slams Kevin McCarthy
Kevin O’Toole, a former staffer for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, unleashed fierce criticism of his onetime boss in a CNN interview.
Said O’Toole: “His leadership strategy is dictated by the most extreme wings of his party. And so, when Marjorie Taylor Green or Matt Gaetz put their thumb on the scale, that’s what he responds to. And that drives the House Republican Conference into the arms of somebody like Donald Trump… The leadership that enables that behavior is continuing today, as we’ve seen.”
Playbook: “It’s a fascinating interview. Staffers rarely speak out like this against sitting lawmakers, let alone leadership. That’s especially the case when, like O’Toole — who is now a staffer for Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) — they still work on the Hill.”
Quote of the Day
“Equal to anything that JFK did or anything that Obama did.”
— Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe, quoted by Politico, on President Biden’s speech marking the first anniversary of the Capitol riots.
Ted Cruz Apologizes for Calling Capitol Rioters ‘Terrorists’
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) went on Tucker Carlon’s show to say it had been a “mistake” for him to call the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol a “terrorist attack” after he received pushback from supporters of former President Trump.
Said Cruz: “As a result of my sloppy phrasing, it’s caused a lot of people to misunderstand what I meant. What I was referring to was the limited number of people who engaged in violent attacks against police officers.”
Jonathan Chait: “Cruz thought the sweet spot for him was to position himself as a champion of Trump’s non-violent efforts to discard the election results while strongly condemning its violent aspects. Not for the first time, and probably not for the last, he misjudged the political market.”
Aaron Blake: “It did not go quite so well. But it did at least provide an extremely apt picture of the current state of the post-Jan. 6 GOP — on the evening of Jan. 6 itself, no less.”
Inside Biden’s Decision to Denounce Trump
Washington Post: “Biden’s remarks do not mark a permanent shift in strategy about how to handle Trump, according to the president’s aides and allies. Rather, they said, Biden felt he had no choice but to directly address Trump’s culpability in the Capitol insurrection last Jan. 6 and the ongoing threat he poses to democracy.”
“Biden and his team also calculated that his speech at Thursday’s remembrance event would draw maximum media attention. Indeed, all three broadcast networks as well as Fox News Channel, which does not consistently air Biden’s speeches, carried his remarks live.”
New York Times: “The approach has its risks, not least in providing Mr. Trump with better opportunities to hit Mr. Biden with broadsides of his own…”
“But continuing to ignore his predecessor carries real peril for Mr. Biden as well. Recent polling suggests that millions of Americans are at least somewhat willing to tolerate or support political violence against partisan opponents.”
White House May Ship Test Kits As Soon As Next Week
“The White House is finalizing details with the U.S. Postal Service to deliver 500 million coronavirus test kits to households across the country, according to four people familiar with the plans, kick-starting a key part of President Biden’s response to the raging omicron variant,” the Washington Post reports.
“The administration will launch a website allowing individuals to request the rapid tests, the people said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private planning sessions. Officials aim to begin shipping the kits by mid-January.”
Wall Street Journal: Families shell out for Covid tests amid race to lift supply.
Dick Cheney Greeted Warmly by Democrats
“Former vice president Richard B. Cheney visited the House floor on Thursday and patiently waited to greet more than a dozen members waiting to shake his hand,” the Washington Post reports.
“They were all Democrats.”
“The man who was once portrayed by the Democratic Party as the dark villain of the Bush administration, responsible for failed wars, ruinous energy policies and torturing America’s enemies in a betrayal of the nation’s values has found common ground with his onetime foes over Jan. 6.”
Kamala Harris Was at DNC When Pipe Bomb Found
“Then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was inside Democratic National Committee headquarters on Jan. 6, 2021, when a pipe bomb was discovered outside the building,” Politico reports.
“Harris’ presence inside the building while a bomb was right outside raises sobering questions about her security that day. It also raises the chilling prospect that the riots could have been far more destructive than they already were, with the incoming vice president’s life directly endangered.”
