Sen Ron Johnson (R-WI) said last week he “had no hand” in an effort to deliver illegitimate “alternate” Electoral College ballots, but now he says he coordinated the attempted delivery with a Wisconsin attorney and was given the fake electors by Rep. Mike Kelly’s (R-PA) office, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
However, Kelly’s office called Johnson’s allegation “patently false.”
In a 2010 deposition in the case, given a week after he was elected to his first term in the U.S. House, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) testified that he believed a 13-year-old girl could consent to sex, the AP reports.
“A former judge who legally represented President Donald Trump coordinated with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WY) to pass documents falsely stating Trump won Wisconsin to then-Vice President Mike Pence as Pence was set to confirm Joe Biden as the next president on Jan. 6, 2021, newly revealed messages show,” the Wisconsin State Journal reports.
Join for as low as $6 per month. Learn more.
Already a member? Sign in here.
Jonathan Bernstein: “Senate Republicans continue to be more open to compromise and, basically, acting like normal politicians during this Congress than many people expected. They’ve reached a deal on gun safety. There’s a bipartisan bill rolling out on insulin pricing. And there are small things, too. HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery reports that Montana Senator Steve Daines ‘heaped praises’ on Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and her team for their response to flooding at Yellowstone National Park.”
“It’s good to see a Republican senator acknowledge such help, because it indicates that the positive, healthy incentives built into the system are working. Too often, Republicans have acted as if any cooperation with Democratic administrations was a mistake because it would tend to make the president more popular and, therefore, cost Republicans in the next election. Such effects in truth are pretty marginal. But it’s good for their constituents if Democratic administrations have incentives to govern well even in states they won’t carry in the next election.”
“Dude. Don’t blame the intern.”
— Monica Lewinsky reacting to Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-WY) explanation of how his chief of staff ended up in possession of a slate of fake electors.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) told ABC News he had several concerns with President Biden’s proposal for a gas tax holiday and signaled he would not support it.
Said Manchin: “I’m not a yes right now, that’s for sure.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has put her home in Maine up for sale and intends to purchase “a slightly smaller house with more land,” the Bangor Daily News reports.
Their current home “has been the site of numerous protests.”
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) disclosed he sustained a major injury to his right hand while doing yard work over the weekend with “a high risk of infection and the possible need for amputation” of some fingers, Politico reports.
After revelations that he was asked to give slate of fake electors to Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) appeared to fake a phone call to avoid taking questions from reporters as he walked away from the Capitol.
Said Johnson: “I’m on the phone right now.”
Replied the reporter: “No you’re not. I can see your phone. I can see your screen.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) insisted that “there’s no conspiracy here” when CNN pressed him over his staff’s newly-revealed attempt to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election.
Text messages show Johnson had an “alternate slate of electors” to personally deliver to Vice President Mike Pence, but the senator claimed that “some staff intern said the vice president needs this, or whatever. I wasn’t involved.”
“The Senate on Tuesday cleared the first hurdle to passing a bipartisan measure aimed at keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous people, agreeing to take up a compromise bill whose enactment would break a yearslong stalemate over federal legislation to address gun violence,” the New York Times reports.
“While the bill falls short of the sweeping gun control measures Democrats have long demanded, its approval would amount to the most significant action in decades to overhaul the nation’s gun laws. The 64-to-34 vote came just hours after Republicans and Democrats released the text of the legislation, and after days of feverish negotiations to hammer out its details.”
Punchbowl News: “This is the first significant gun control bill to have a real chance of becoming law in nearly three decades. And it signals the extraordinary pressure Congress is under to respond to the horrific wave of gun violence plaguing the nation.”
“A top aide to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) attempted to arrange a handoff of false, pro-Trump electors from the senator to Mike Pence just minutes before the then-vice president began to count electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021,” Politico reports.
“The aide, Sean Riley, told Pence’s legislative director Chris Hodgson that Johnson wanted to hand Pence lists of the fake electors from Michigan and Wisconsin for Pence to introduce during the counting of electoral votes that certified Joe Biden’s win.”
“Senate Democrats are preparing for possible summer action on their still-elusive climate, tax reform and prescription drugs bill, grinding behind the scenes on a new version during high-profile gun safety talks,” Politico reports.
“With much of Washington’s attention on guns, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) met twice this week on a potential party-line package. There’s more afoot: Schumer and his staff are working with the Senate parliamentarian to help tee up a possible July or August vote. And a prominent Democratic pollster has tested how popular major components of a hypothetical bill would be in Senate battleground states.”
“The Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked 11-11 on the nomination of Steven Dettelbach to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives,” Politico reports.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer “could move to advance the nomination on the floor later Thursday.”
“In an indication of the political risks Republicans see in embracing even modest gun safety measures, none of the 10 who endorsed Sunday’s deal was facing voters this year,” the New York Times reports.
“The group included four Republican senators who are leaving Congress at the end of the year … and five who are not up for re-election for another four years.”
The only one up in 2024? Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT).
Punchbowl News: “Think about this as well – Cornyn needed to show enough momentum to overcome a GOP filibuster, which is why having 10 solid Republican votes is such a big deal. Yet it also cuts the other way too. Cornyn has 10 solid votes. If you’re an undecided Republican, you can vote no and the bill will still pass.”
“Something strange is happening among Senate Republicans when it comes to guns,” Politico reports.
“As bipartisan talks on a gun safety package continue, conservatives are pointedly not trying to derail them. Several, in fact, seem open to supporting a modest deal. And Republicans are considering some ideas that would have been a non-starter just a month ago, particularly more scrutiny of gun buyers’ juvenile records.”
“Leaked text messages between Utah Sen. Mike Lee and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows suggest Lee was a participant in the plot to keep Donald Trump in office, a charge Lee vehemently disputes,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
“Recently released court documents could prove problematic for Lee’s defense.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) “is backing away from a proposal to require low-income Americans to pay at least some federal income tax, shifting his stance after facing criticism from fellow Republicans and handing an attack line to President Biden and Democrats,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
The proposal “now states that able-bodied Americans under 60 should work if they don’t have young children or incapacitated dependents.”
Also new in Scott’s revamp: making the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent.
☑️ Get 25% off any shared eCommerce or Managed WordPress hosting plan at WP Engine.
☑️ The Almanac of American Politics 2022 is the gold standard of accessible political information, relied on by everyone involved, invested or interested in politics in America.
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.