Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said he “won’t use any long-range missile systems the West might provide to strike civilian neighborhoods in Russia,” USA Today reports.
Said Zelensky: “We are not interested in shelling civilians, we are not terrorists.”
The Intercept: “Instead of fueling a groundswell of public support to reinvigorate the party’s ambitious agenda, most of the foundation-backed organizations that make up the backbone of the party’s ideological infrastructure were still spending their time locked in virtual retreats, Slack wars, and healing sessions, grappling with tensions over hierarchy, patriarchy, race, gender, and power.”
Said one organization leader who departed his position: “So much energy has been devoted to the internal strife and internal bullshit that it’s had a real impact on the ability for groups to deliver. It’s been huge, particularly over the last year and a half or so, the ability for groups to focus on their mission, whether it’s reproductive justice, or jobs, or fighting climate change.”
Molly Ball: “Torching the news cycle is what Gaetz and Greene love to do. They are constantly in the headlines for their attention-getting antics, outrages and feuds. The pair have defended the Jan. 6 rioters, promoted countless conspiracy theories, hobnobbed with white nationalists and picked fights with colleagues on both sides of the aisle. Their own Republican colleagues have called them ‘unserious,’ clowns, bigots, and worse…”
“Gaetz and Greene are the ringleaders of the GOP’s most hard-core, pro-Trump congressional faction. The MAGA Squad, as you might call them, is not a formal caucus, but its numbers are growing—despite the impending departure of one prominent member, Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who lost his North Carolina primary after scandals ranging from insider-trading allegations to lewd videos.”
“The MAGA Squad has spent the past year building their power, and now they’re preparing to wield it. If Kevin McCarthy—or any other Republican—wants to be Speaker, he’s going to have to go through them.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has an article on how he’s defending himself against an ongoing sex trafficking investigation — autographed by Donald Trump — prominently displayed in his congressional office.
“I am disgusted and outraged at the out right lie by Jason Miller and Bill Stepien. I was upset that they were not prepared for the massive cheating (as well as other lawyers around the President.) I REFUSED all alcohol that evening. My favorite drink… Diet Pepsi.”
— Rudy Giuliani, responding on Twitter to testimony that he was drunk on Election Night 2020.
“Supporters of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny do not know where he is after the politician was abruptly transferred from the prison where he has been serving out a sentence since February 2021,” Axios reports.
Ron Brownstein: “With the powerful case it has assembled against former President Donald Trump, the bipartisan House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection may provide the clearest – and potentially most ominous – measure yet available of how completely red and blue America have separated into divergent information bubbles that no longer share even the most rudimentary agreement on the basic facts of American life.”
“In the 1980s, Virginia ‘Ginni’ Thomas had a moment of clarity: She realized she had fallen in with a group she considered ‘a cult’ and sought to be ‘deprogrammed’ from it,” NBC News reports.
“Thomas’ involvement with Lifespring, an organization advertising training seminars purporting to help participants unlock almost superhuman potential, left her wondering what it was about herself that allowed her to be drawn in. Her successful deprogramming — considered a controversial tactic — led her to become a vigorous anti-cult crusader.”
“It’s difficult to reconcile Thomas then and now, four people who worked with her at the height of her anti-cult activism through the late 1980s said in interviews. After she spent years trying to expose cults, these people found Thomas’s efforts to promote outlandish plans to overturn the 2020 results, particularly the text messages and emails in which she referenced false election conspiracies that originated in QAnon circles on the internet, surprising. Democrats and Republicans alike have said QAnon supporters exhibit cult-like behavior.”
Max Boot: “I admit to having been skeptical, ahead of time, of the hearings planned by the House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021. What more is there to be said, I wondered? The evidence of Donald Trump’s guilt in inciting an insurrection was already so obvious that it was hard to imagine that the committee would have much to add. This was not, after all, a situation such as Watergate, where the scandal happened behind closed doors. The entire nation saw Trump’s incendiary remarks and tweets, and the riot that followed, on national television.”
“I am happy to say I was wrong. The committee’s hearings are exceeding expectations, because it is not behaving like a typical congressional committee. There is no grandstanding and no preening. There are no petty partisan squabbles. There is not even the disjointedness that normally occurs when a bunch of politicians are each given five minutes to question each witness. There is only the relentless march of evidence, all of it deeply incriminating to a certain former president who keeps insisting that he was robbed of his rightful election victory.”
Vice News: “On February 10, over a week before the platform went live, the developers set up Trump’s account. But that account was not the first one set up on the platform. A full 24-hours earlier, the developers running Truth Social set up an account with a single letter in its name: @Q.”
“Now, four months later, the platform is overrun with QAnon content, pushed by multiple QAnon influencers who have been given verified profiles on the platform. And now, Trump himself is boosting the QAnon content, resharing dozens of posts containing QAnon imagery, phrases, or memes.”
Gallup: “The party of the president typically loses U.S. House seats in midterm elections — an average of 23 since 1974. However, 2022 is not shaping up to be an average year. Rather, as of May, Gallup finds presidential job approval and three other key national mood indicators well below the historical averages measured in past midterm election years. On their own, those numbers would all predict a greater-than-average loss of seats for the Democratic Party this fall.”
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) said that tomorrow’s January 6 Committee hearing will be postponed due to “technical issues,” Punchbowl News reports.
The next hearing will be on Thursday.
William Saletan: “On Monday, the House January 6th Committee presented evidence that Donald Trump, after losing the 2020 election, promoted allegations of voter fraud that his own advisers had told him were false. According to the committee, this evidence proves he was lying.”
“But the evidence actually points to a different conclusion: Trump wasn’t lying in the way that other presidents have done. He was simply impervious. He refused to accept unwelcome facts. And that degree of imperviousness, in a president, is much more dangerous than dishonesty.”
“President Biden is planning an expansive trip to the Middle East next month, including a controversial meeting with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, a much-debated move that signals a striking relaxation in Biden’s posture toward the Saudis,” the Washington Post reports.
“The trip reflects Biden’s attempt to address some of the thorniest challenges in the region: pressure to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a need for more oil that could help lower soaring gas prices, efforts to revive peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, and a push to end the war in Yemen.”
“Investigators probing efforts to meddle with the 2020 election results in Georgia have sought testimony from a former publicist to R. Kelly and Kanye West who allegedly pressured a local election worker,” CNN reports.
“Democratic groups are buying ads touting some of the most extreme pro-Trump candidates in Republican primaries around the country — meddling in GOP contests to set up more favorable matchups in November,” Axios reports.
“The risky gambit assumes general-election voters will reject candidates who embrace conspiracy theories or lies about the 2020 election. But it could dramatically backfire by vaulting fringe Republicans into national office.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.