Andy Borowitz: Declaration of Independence Found in Trump Storage Unit

Donald J. Trump’s legal team struggled to explain how the original Declaration of Independence made its way to a storage unit leased by the former President in Queens, New York.

The lawyers informed the Justice Department that they had discovered the eighteenth-century document under a stack of hastily packed items, including several pairs of socks and the Oval Office’s television remote.

“Mr. Trump will, of course, return the Declaration of Independence to the National Archives as soon as possible,” Harland Dorrinson, one of the attorneys, said. “This seems to have been some kind of honest mistake.”

That version of events differs from one provided by a source close to the former President, who indicated that Trump had intentionally taken the Declaration of Independence in the hopes that it had a treasure map on the back.  https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/
 

A Plot to Overturn the Election

A new trove of Mark Meadows text messages  provide a real-time record of the plot to overturn the 2020 election.

They show the senior-most official in the Trump White House communicating with members of Congress, state-level politicians, and far-right activists as they work feverishly to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. The Meadows texts illustrate in moment-to-moment detail an authoritarian effort to undermine the will of the people and upend the American democratic system as we know it. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/a-plot-to-overturn-an-american-election

Elon Musk uses QAnon tactic in criticizing former Twitter safety chief

Elon Musk escalated his battle of words with previous managers of Twitter into risky new territory over the weekend, allying himself with far-right crusaders against a purported epidemic of child sex abuse and implying that the company’s former head of trust and safety had a permissive view of sexual activity by minors.

In imputing nefarious motives to Twitter’s former managers and saying a crime had been committed, Musk adopted techniques used by the QAnon conspiracy movement, which falsely claims that Democrats and elites are running child sex abuse networks. Promoted by Alex Jones and other far-right operatives, claims of Democratic involvement in child abuse, QAnon’s precursor, inspired a shooting at Comet Pizza in Northwest Washington when a follower of the theory searched the restaurant intending to rescue any children trapped in a basement that did not exist. The incident became known as “Pizzagate."  https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/12/musk-child-porn-qanon/

January 6 committee considers criminal referrals for at least 4 others besides Trump

The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection is considering criminal referrals for at least four individuals in addition to former President Donald Trump, multiple sources told CNN.

The panel is weighing criminal referrals for former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, right wing lawyer John Eastman, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani. https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/politics/january-6-committee-criminal-referrals/index.html

House Republicans brace for doomsday scenario if McCarthy falls short of 218 votes for speaker

With the increasing likelihood that the speaker’s race could go to multiple ballots – something that hasn’t happened since 1923 – McCarthy’s allies and foes alike are starting to quietly game out the next steps if he can’t get the necessary 218 votes on the first round and they move into uncharted territory.

McCarthy’s supporters are vowing to keep voting for him on multiple ballots, and GOP sources said there are early discussions about a floor strategy for that potential scenario, including whether to recess the House or let the votes keep rolling – no matter how long it takes.

To prevent that from happening, McCarthy and his team have been engaged in serious talks with a group of conservatives, including over potentially giving them influential committee assignments and more power to drive the legislative process. GOP sources said those negotiations are still early in the process and could ultimately end up giving the group some aspect of what the hardliners desperately want: additional power to seek a sitting speaker’s ouster with a vote on the floor.  https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/09/politics/mccarthy-speaker-house-republicans-218/index.html

Arizona governor builds border wall of shipping crates in final days of office

A makeshift new barrier built with shipping containers is being illegally erected along part of the US-Mexico border by Arizona’s Republican governor – before he has to hand over the keys of his office to his Democratic successor in January.

Doug Ducey is driving a project that is placing double-stacked old shipping containers through several miles of national forest, attempting to fill gaps in Donald Trump’s intermittent border fencing.

The rusting hulks, topped with razor wire and with bits of metal jammed into gaps, stretch for more than three miles through Coronado national forest land, south of Tucson, and the governor has announced plans to extend that up to 10 miles, at a cost of $95m. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/11/arizona-governor-border-wall-shipping-containers

Twitter thread at https://twitter.com/MelissaLaLinea/status/1598009196347559936

Congressional Republicans divided on attacking Trump investigations

Republicans in Congress are splintering over how aggressively to run interference for former president Donald Trump as he faces potential criminal prosecution, with only his closest allies planning to directly attack the Department of Justice investigations now under the purview of special counsel Jack Smith.

The chasm between lawmakers who have continued to vehemently defend the newly announced presidential nominee and those who have started to quietly inch away from the former president widened last week as top GOP leaders laid out the party’s investigative priorities. The emerging split raises another sign of Trump’s uncertain position in the party after a month of taking blame for a disappointing midterm and drawing criticism for controversial statements. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/12/trump-investigations-republicans-congress/
 

Most voters don’t want either Trump or Biden to run again, CNBC survey finds

 “No thanks!”

That’s how majorities of the public responded when the CNBC All-America Economic Survey asked if President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump should run again for president.

The survey found 61% of the public think Trump should not seek the presidency, compared with 30% who believe he should. And 70% say Biden should not run for a second term with just 19% supporting a run.

For Trump, 37% of Republicans who don’t want Trump to run along with 61% of independents and 88% of Democrats.

For Biden, 57% of Democrats say he shouldn’t stand for office in 2024 along with 66% of independents and 86% of Republicans. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/09/majority-of-americans-dont-want-biden-or-trump-to-run-again-in-2024-cnbc-survey-shows.html
     

Trump was fresh and new during his 2016 campaign. Has his fame fizzled?

The swagger of 2016 has given way to somnolence in 2022. Opinion polls are grim. Legal setbacks are piling up. A run of dismal results in the midterm elections, culminating in another Republican loss in Georgia this week, have punctured his aura of invincibility within the party.

And Trump has performed astonishing acts of self-sabotage, from dining with antisemites to calling for the constitution to be shredded. He has eschewed a widely-anticipated spree of public rallies, instead remaining largely out of the public gaze. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/10/donald-trump-presidential-bid-republicans

RNC chief: GOP can’t ‘do an ostrich method’ on abortion and ‘pretend that it doesn’t exist’

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel addressed GOP midterm election performance, attributing some losses to candidates ignoring the abortion argument.

Said McDaniel: “It was probably a bigger factor than a lot of people thought. We’ve got to get conversant on that.”

She added: “We can’t just do an ostrich method and pretend that it doesn’t exist when Democrats are spending $30 million on that message.” https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3770385-rnc-chief-gop-cant-do-an-ostrich-method-on-abortion-and-pretend-that-it-doesnt-exist/

Analysis: The road to the White House now runs through Georgia and Arizona

The midterm outcome makes clear that the nation’s political battleground has shifted: The road to the White House in 2024 will run through the South and Southwest. The big industrial states bordering the Great Lakes, which dominated the last several election cycles, remain important, but no longer as exclusively.

That will change not only where presidential candidates campaign, but also the nature of the voters on whom they focus: For Democrats, the shift will intensify the need to mobilize the Black and Latino voters whose support — and large turnout — they need in order to win southern and southwestern states. For Republicans, the fact that both states have relatively young electorates could draw greater attention to the party’s growing deficit with millennial and Gen Z voters. https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2022-12-09/road-to-white-house-now-runs-through-georgia-arizona-essential-politics

Business groups optimistic Congress may finally strike immigration deal

Some of the largest business groups in Washington are making a last-ditch effort to get Congress to pass immigration legislation before the end of the year and are optimistic a bipartisan agreement could fall into place.

Companies in a range of industries, from agriculture to technology, have long urged Congress to make changes to the immigration system to allow for more foreign-born workers and thereby address widespread worker shortages

But with deep partisan divides on the issue, there was little optimism of a deal getting done, until this past week when Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., began circulating the contours of a possible deal. (Sinema announced on Friday she was leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent.)

While the details of a Sinema-Tillis bill have yet to be finalized, the pair’s track record of being able to reach compromise on other issues sparked a wave of optimism among industry lobbyists, who see it as their last best hope to get a deal done on immigration in an increasingly narrow time frame. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/economics/business-groups-optimistic-congress-may-finally-strike-immigration-dea-rcna60760

Another DeSantis Election ‘Fraud’ Case Falls Apart

A Miami judge has tossed out another voter fraud case brought by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ elections police, the third case to fall apart since the governor announced the arrests. https://www.miamiherald.com

Turnout by Republicans Was Great. It’s Just That Many of Them Didn’t Vote for Republicans

In state after state, the final turnout data shows that registered Republicans turned out at a higher rate — and in some places a much higher rate — than registered Democrats, including in many of the states where Republicans were dealt some of their most embarrassing losses.

Instead, high-profile Republicans like Herschel Walker in Georgia or Blake Masters in Arizona lost because Republican-leaning voters decided to cast ballots for Democrats, even as they voted for Republican candidates for U.S. House or other down-ballot races in their states. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/08/upshot/georgia-voter-turnout-republicans.html

After Georgia Loss, G.O.P. Stares Down Its Trump Dilemma

The Democrats’ capstone re-election victory of Senator Raphael Warnock forced Republicans to reckon on Wednesday with the red wave that wasn’t, as they turned with trepidation to 2024 and the intensifying divisions in the party over former President Donald J. Trump.

Mr. Warnock’s two-and-a-half percentage point win over Herschel Walker in the Georgia Senate runoff left Democrats with a 51-49 seat majority in the upper chamber, a one-seat gain. That came despite dire predictions for a blood bath for President Biden’s party.

It quickly had Republican fingers pointing every which way: at Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader accused by detractors of abandoning or belittling embattled Republican Senate candidates; at Senator Rick Scott of Florida, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who many feel badly mismanaged the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm; and at Mr. Walker himself, for hiding and lying about his past, only to see the details stream out steadily over the course of his campaign.

But for a handful of Republicans, newly emboldened by re-election or retirement to say so aloud, the biggest culprit was Mr. Trump. In increasingly biting terms, they slammed him for promoting flawed candidates, including Mr. Walker, dividing his party and turning many swing voters against the G.O.P. for the third election cycle in a row. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/07/us/politics/georgia-senate-republicans-trump.html
 

Biden earned political capital this fall. He’s quietly spending it

Biden aides have been working with outside advisers to help sketch out components of a reelection ramp up, including Obama alum Jim Messina, with whom the president has discussed polling in recent weeks, according to two people familiar with his involvement. Messina did not return calls for comment.

They are also reengaging donors and zeroing in on key staff roles and hires to fortify a unit that could operate outside the close-knit group that runs operations at the White House. They’re further along on finalizing a headquarters for the campaign, too, with Wilmington, Del., the likely destination, although Philadelphia has not been ruled out. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/09/biden-2024-democrats-00073207

Florida Republican who sponsored ‘Don’t Say Gay’ indicted on COVID relief fraud charges

A federal grand jury indicted Florida state Rep. Joe Harding (R) on six counts after authorities said he illegally obtained $150,000 in pandemic-related small business loans by allegedly using the names of two dormant companies. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/florida-republican-sponsored-don-t-224751326.html

DeSantis surges to 5-point lead over weakened Trump in 2024 primary matchup

A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll finds that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis now leads Donald Trump by 5 percentage points in the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, 47% to 42%.

DeSantis is ahead by even more — a whopping 11 points — among Americans who say they voted in a 2016 Republican primary or caucus in their state. https://news.yahoo.com/poll-de-santis-surges-to-5-point-lead-over-weakened-trump-in-2024-primary-matchup-100022596.html

Georgia loss piles more pressure on Trump amid bad month

Former President Donald Trump had hoped to jumpstart his 2024 comeback bid buoyed by a team of newly elected MAGA allies.

Instead, Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker on Tuesday became the latest high-profile Trump-endorsed candidate to go down to defeat — joining a long list including Pennsylvania’s Mehmet Oz, Arizona’s Kari Lake and Blake Masters, Wisconsin’s Tim Michels and Nevada’s Adam Laxalt.

The losses have raised new questions about Trump’s political strength and capped off what those close to him concede was a nightmarish month, one that has left the former president badly wounded just as he is embarking on a new campaign. Trump lieutenants have been forced to reckon with everything from the ex-president’s much-criticized dinner with the antisemitic rapper formerly known as Kanye West and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, to a campaign launch that was widely panned as low-energy, to a widening net of legal investigations on subjects including his conduct before and during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and his handling of confidential documents.

Trump is also confronting a group of would-be rivals who are showing little deference, instead moving to capitalize on his political setbacks. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin delivered an implicit criticism of Trump on Tuesday just hours before polls closed in Georgia, arguing during an appearance before the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council that “when we start looking back to 2020 we’re looking backwards, and it’s time for us to … look forward.” https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/07/trump-world-georgia-2024-00072924

The mass unbanning of suspended Twitter users is underway

Thousands of previously banned Twitter users, including members of the far-right and users sharing blatant misinformation, have begun to have their accounts restored to the platform. https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/tech/twitter-unbanned-users-returning/index.html

Some Hunter Biden allies making plans to go after his accusers

Hunter Biden’s friend and lawyer Kevin Morris was blunt in laying out his thoughts at a strategy session last September on an expected onslaught of investigations by House Republicans: It was crucial, he suggested, for Biden’s camp to be more aggressive,.

Morris, at the meeting in his California home, described defamation lawsuits the team could pursue against the presidential son’s critics, including Fox News, Eric Trump and Rudy Giuliani. He outlined extensive research on two potential witnesses against Hunter Biden — a spurned business partner named Tony Bobulinski and a computer repairman named John Paul Mac Isaac. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/10/hunter-biden-plans-defense/

Twitter Suspends Account that Tracked Elon Musk

Twitter suspended an account that actively tracked Elon Musk’s private jet, raising questions about Musk’s commitment to free speech on Twitter, a value he has directly linked to his takeover of the platform. https://www.axios.com/2022/12/14/twitter-elon-musk-jet-tracker-account-

Gov. Kate Brown commutes sentences of all 17 people on Oregon’s death row

Gov. Kate Brown (D) “announced on Tuesday afternoon that she would commute the sentences of all 17 individuals on Oregon’s death row to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the latest in her end-of-term string of clemency decisions. https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2022/12/gov-kate-brown-commutes-sentences-of-all-17-people-on-oregons-death-row.html

Musk Shakes Up Twitter’s Legal Team as He Looks to Cut More Costs

To cut costs, Twitter has not paid rent for its San Francisco headquarters or any of its global offices for weeks… Twitter has also refused to pay a $197,725 bill for private charter flights made the week of Mr. Musk’s takeover.

Twitter’s leaders have also discussed the consequences of denying severance payments to thousands of people who have been laid off since the takeover.

The aggressive moves signal that Mr. Musk is still slashing expenditures and is bending or breaking Twitter’s previous agreements to make his mark. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/13/technology/elon-musk-twitter-shakeup.html