“Members of the Senate Commerce and Intelligence committees will get a classified briefing on Wednesday about TikTok and the House-passed bill to force its sale, according to two aides with direct knowledge of the briefing,” Punchbowl News reports.
Tommy Tuberville Warns of ‘Satanic Cult’
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) “had a stark warning for the approximately 100 Utah GOP delegates who crowded into a warehouse to hear him speak on Friday afternoon: Malevolent supernatural forces are working to undermine America,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Said Tuberville: “I’ve traveled all over the country — all 50 states — I’ve been in good places and bad places. The one thing I saw, we are losing our kids to a satanic cult.”
He added: “We’ve lost our moral values across the country. We’ve got to get back to the Constitution, and we have got to get back to the Bible. We’ve got to get God back in our country. There’s not one Democrat that can tell you they stand up for God.”
Super PAC Helped Push Out Kyrsten Sinema
Politico: “For nearly four years, Sinema was on the receiving end of a relatively unusual political-money phenomenon in the capital’s politics industry: the single-target PAC, an outfit geared towards creating precisely the outcome that became real when the senator announced her exit.”
“For better or worse, it is a model that probably won’t stay rare for long. And whatever you think of Sinema, the effort against her is also likely to speed up some of the most brutal trends in politics, another way for deep-pocketed donors to further wage permanent war on rivals who might not always make such obvious targets.”
Muslim Judicial Nominee Doesn’t Have the Votes
“Multiple Democratic senators and their staff have privately warned the White House in recent days that there does not appear to be enough votes in the Senate to confirm Adeel Mangi, President Joe Biden’s Muslim-American judicial nominee – appearing to suggest that the confirmation of one of Biden’s top-priority judicial picks is in peril,” CNN reports.
Katie Britt Has Used Her Misleading Story Many Times
“Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) has come under fire in recent days over allegations that she misrepresented the story of a sex trafficking victim in the Republican response to the State of the Union last week,” NBC News reports.
“An NBC News review of her remarks over the last year shows it’s an anecdote she’s used often to criticize the Biden administration’s border policies, though the victim she references was trafficked through Mexico roughly two decades ago.”
Exchange of the Day
Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) discussed Saturday Night Live mocking her State of the Union rebuttal on Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) podcast:
CRUZ: You’re played by Scarlet Johansson.
BRITT: How awesome is that?
CRUZ: Ok, Katie, look. To be candid, Scarlet Johansson is hot.
BRITT: Yes.
CRUZ: And I am genuinely jealous… they don’t ever have Tom Cruise play me.
TikTok Is In Trouble
Within moments of the House passing a bill to force TikTok’s sale, Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), the chair and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, threw their support behind the bill, Punchbowl News reports.
“This is an important development for the measure’s outlook in the Senate… Rubio has long favored banning TikTok, but Warner had expressed potential constitutional concerns. Warner proposed having the Commerce Department look into the issue first in his own TikTok bill last year. But both senators are now backing the House legislation.”
Said Warner and Rubio in a joint statement: “We are united in our concern about the national security threat posed by TikTok.”
Quote of the Day
“Joe Biden is a garbage human being.”
— Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), on X.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“There are a lot of divisive issues in Washington, perhaps none more divisive than who is taller me or John Fetterman.”
— Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), sharing a great photo.
At Least Katie Britt Impressed Tommy Tuberville
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Sex Trafficking Victim Says Katie Britt Was ‘Not Fair’
The woman whose story Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) appeared to have shared in the Republican response to the State of the Union as an example of President Biden’s failed immigration policies told CNN she was trafficked before Biden’s presidency and said legislators lack empathy when using the issue of human trafficking for political purposes.
Said Karla Jacinto: “I hardly ever cooperate with politicians, because it seems to me that they only want an image. They only want a photo — and that to me is not fair.”
“Jacinto said she met the senator at an event at the southern border with other government officials and anti-human-trafficking activists, instead of one-on-one as Britt stated.”
Ernst to Run Against Cotton for GOP Conference Chair
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) is running for Senate Republican Conference chair, setting up a blockbuster fall race against Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) for the No. 3 position in party leadership in the next Congress, Politico reports.
Katie Britt Defends False Allegations Against Biden
Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) on Sunday “sought to defend comments she made in her response to President Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday, when she described the experience of a woman who was sexually trafficked in Mexico between 2004 and 2008 in a way that falsely implied it had happened in the United States under President Biden,” the New York Times reports.
Said Britt: “I very clearly said I spoke to a woman who told me about when she was trafficked when she was 12. I didn’t say a teenager. I didn’t say a young woman. A grown woman, a woman, when she was trafficked when she was 12.”
What’s Wrong with Katie Britt
Reed Galen: “Britt represents a long, unhealthy tradition of staffers running for their boss’s old seat. They come not with beliefs but an ingrained sense of how to ‘play the game.’ She was an aide and then chief of staff for retired Alabama Senator Richard Shelby.”
“This is not new in American (or human) history, but that doesn’t make it better. It allows someone like Britt to achieve an incredible amount of power and prestige powered not by belief and conviction, but timing, fundraising, and connections. They now sit on the other side of the desk, and along with their staff and bevy of consultants, triangulate every issue, every vote, and every press release based on what’s best for their career. She represents not the people of Alabama, but her own ambition.”
Katie Britt Falsely Linked Story to Biden
Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) falsely linked a sex-trafficking case to President Biden, the Washington Post reports.
The woman’s story is tragic, but she was not trafficked across the border — and her story has nothing to do with Biden.
Katie Britt’s Strange Speech
Elaina Plott Calabro: “It was just five days ago that Newt Gingrich was imagining the possibilities for Britt’s future, framing the freshman senator from Alabama’s coming rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address as her ‘big audition.’ ‘It will be interesting to see if Britt rises to the occasion,’ the former House speaker had mused to a New York talk-radio host.’“If she does, it will be a major step up in her potentially being Trump’s vice-presidential candidate.'”
“When I called Gingrich this morning and asked if Britt had, in fact, risen to the occasion last night, he sounded flustered. ‘Ah, well, um, I don’t have any comment right now, thank you.’ He hung up.”
“Gingrich is far from the only Republican skirting on-the-record conversations today about Britt’s performance. The Alabamian’s 17-minute address, delivered from her own kitchen, surprised many in the party for its tonal confusion and the dramatic affectations that often distracted from the message itself—a party-line discourse on illegal immigration and the imperiled future of American families. The speech has been mocked widely on social media and cable news, including by various right-wing commentators. But lawmakers and other prominent Republicans—those who had cast the event as Britt’s potential star turn—have mostly stayed quiet.”
Quote of the Day
“The sad part of it is, Mitch McConnell knows full well that the president was guilty of a crime on Jan. 6. So for him to know how bad the president’s predecessor was on all of this, and then come to the conclusion that he would endorse him when we thought he was going to convict him — the word was, he was close to conviction, and now he’s endorsing — it’s really very, very sad.”
— Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), quoted by the HuffPost.
Katie Britt, With Smiles and Menace, Delivers GOP Response
“With a sunny, inviting smile, Senator Katie Britt of Alabama welcomed Americans into her kitchen on Thursday night,” the New York Times reports.
“Many soon backed away nervously.”
“In the Republican Party’s official response to President Biden’s State of the Union address, Ms. Britt delivered a jarring speech that toggled between an increasingly strained cheerfulness and a fierce glare as she gave ominous warnings about illegal immigration.”
Daily Beast: “The performance was so bad that some Republicans watched the high-profile speech with a grimace. A GOP strategist told The Daily Beast that Britt’s delivery quickly became a gossip item Thursday night among operatives connected to Donald Trump—something that could have potential implications for her consideration as a vice presidential pick for the former president.”
Said this Republican: “Everyone’s fucking losing it. It’s one of our biggest disasters ever.”
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