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.”
Another Anti-Vax Host Dies of Covid
“Far-right podcast host Douglas Kuzma—who was an outspoken critic of the COVID-19 vaccine—has died while battling the coronavirus, which he contracted after attending a QAnon-friendly gathering in Texas that right-wingers baselessly claimed was the victim of an anthrax attack,” the Daily Beast reports.
Republicans Cede the Day to Democrats
Punchbowl News: “We didn’t anticipate President Joe Biden going so hard after former President Donald Trump, nor did we anticipate how overwhelmingly silent Republicans were going to be today. The GOP leadership in both chambers seemed almost overwhelmed by the moment. Here and there, individual GOP lawmakers took shots at Biden and the Democrats for ‘over-hyping’ the attack or using today’s ceremony to score points against Republicans. And conservative media criticized Biden for his barrage against Trump, although Trump wasn’t named. But largely, Republicans ceded the field to Democrats.”
“The Republicans’ absence stuck out like a sore thumb: Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and former Vice President Dick Cheney were the only Republicans in the building today. That’s not surprising, but it’s still pretty striking. Just a year ago, the Capitol was under attack and the entire Congress was stunned.”
Mike Pompeo Lost 90 Pounds
Mike Pompeo, who wants to run for president in. 2024, has lost 90 pounds in the last six months, the New York Post reports.
It all started last summer, when Pompeo stepped on the scale and saw he was just pounds away from 300 for the first time in his life.
Gaetz Says He’s ‘Proud of Work We Did’ on January 6
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) doubled down on his rhetoric about the Capitol insurrection on Thursday, saying that he is “ashamed of nothing” and “proud of the work we did” on Jan. 6, Axios reports.
The Twisted, Trumpist Religion of January 6th
Thomas Lecaque: “An underappreciated aspect of last year’s insurrectionist mob attack at the U.S. Capitol is its religiosity. The involvement of conspiracy-minded QAnon adherents was vividly on display as the insurrection was televised live, and the participation of extremist political groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers has been widely reported.”
“But less obvious and less well understood is the extent to which Christian groups played a part in the day’s events—groups like the Jericho March, one of several prominent efforts to bring Trump supporters to the nation’s capital on January 6th.”
Fed Warns of Faster Rate Rises
“The Federal Reserve may need to raise interest rates “sooner or at a faster pace” than officials had initially anticipated as the central bank seeks to tame soaring inflation, according to minutes from its latest meeting,” the Financial Times reports.