Andy Borowitz: Elon Musk Praised by Americans Thirsting for Content from Marjorie Taylor Greene

In what is being widely hailed as a business masterstroke, Elon Musk is receiving thunderous acclaim from Americans starving for content from Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The Georgia congresswoman’s reinstatement on Twitter ended a ten-month ban during which, in the view of millions from coast to coast, her silence has been intolerable.

“Anyone who’s been betting against Elon Musk better think again,” Harland Dorrinson, who lives in Milwaukee, said. “Within weeks of taking over Twitter, he figured out what was wrong with it: no Marjorie Taylor Greene.”

“Now that Marjorie Taylor Greene is back on Twitter, Elon’s going to be laughing all the way to the bank,” Carol Foyler, a resident of Phoenix, said. “This might be an even shrewder move than that eight-dollar-blue-check thing.”

Tracy Klugian, who lives in Akron, called the restoration of Greene’s Twitter account “yet another sign that Elon Musk is at the top of his game.”

“There was a Marjorie Taylor Greene-size hole on the Internet, and Elon Musk has filled it,” Klugian said. https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/

Trump’s Legal Problems All Converged Into One Day of Spectacular Failures

In a matter of hours Tuesday, former President Donald Trump suffered humiliating defeats in courtrooms across the country that put him on track to have his personal taxes exposed, see his company dismantled, face a trial for an alleged rape, and confront the unencumbered power of the Department of Justice.

It was setback after setback for the former president, who would have struggled to keep up with all the bad news hour by hour—just as journalists struggled to keep track of all the updates and court appearances on Tuesday. https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-legal-problems-all-converged-into-one-day-of-spectacular-failures

For experts, the evidence in two probes compels charging Trump

Veteran prosecutors and top legal minds this week banded together to offer an assessment of two ongoing probes — one in Georgia examining Trump’s actions in the state leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, the other led by the Justice Department as it explores the mishandling of sensitive government documents at Mar-a-Lago.

In each, the attorneys found robust cases and significant legal risk for Trump, who is facing mounting trouble as he launches an early bid in the 2024 presidential race.

“Donald Trump is facing many more legal problems than just these two probes. But the Georgia investigation of whether his election denial slipped into criminality after the 2020 election and the federal investigation [into] whether his retention, classified, and other documents at Mar-a-Lago also crossed the criminal red line are the most threatening legal peril that he faces,” Norm Eisen, counsel for Democrats in Trump’s first impeachment and an author on both reports, said that “They represent a one-two punch that has the potential to finally achieve the accountability that he has so often evaded in the past … I think that run is about to end, and these are the two cases that are most likely to do it.” https://thehill.com/regulation/national-security/3742386-for-experts-the-evidence-in-two-probes-compels-charging-trump/
 

Donald Trump's third party threat looms over 2024

Republicans who have spent the last two years wondering what happens if Donald Trump wins the 2024 nomination suddenly have another question on their mind as he begins to look more vulnerable: What happens if he loses?

Trump’s loose attachments to the Republican Party are already raising speculation about a potential third party move, or other steps to undermine the eventual nominee, that could be devastating to a GOP ticket.

“The threat is simple: Unless the rest of the party goes along with him, he will burn the whole house down by leading ‘his people’ out of the GOP," Trump's former Attorney General William Barr warned. https://www.semafor.com/article/11/21/2022/donald-trumps-third-party-threat-looms-over-2024

Despite dangerous pregnancy complications, abortions denied

A growing number of physicians and families tell similar stories as a post-Roe fear comes to pass: Pregnant women with dangerous medical conditions are showing up in hospitals and doctors’ offices only to be denied the abortions that could help treat them.

Some doctors in states with restrictive abortion laws say they’ve referred or suggested more patients go elsewhere than ever. Some women are facing harmful, potentially deadly delays. https://apnews.com/article/abortion-science-health-business890e813d855b57cf8e92ff799580e7e8

Maricopa County Chairman moved to 'undisclosed location' for safety after midterm elections

Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates has confirmed that he moved to an undisclosed location for his safety after security concerns connected to the 2022 midterm elections.

Gates, a Republican and one of the leaders of the Maricopa County Elections Department, has been a fierce defender of the county's election system and an outspoken critic of false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and has continued to defend the county against continued claims of fraud during the midterms. https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/maricopa-county-chairman-moved-to-undisclosed-location-for-safety-after-midterm-elections

The educational divide between voters is growing

In the 2018 midterms, 56 percent of voters with college degrees and 51 percent of voters without them voted for Democrats, according to the Associated Press’s VoteCast survey — a gap of five percentage points.

This year, the gap widened to 10 points: 52 percent of voters with college degrees supported Democrats while 42 percent of voters without degrees did so. The split echoed the gap between college-educated and non-college-educated voters’ support for Biden in 2020.

Voters with and without college degrees were more likely to support Republicans this year than in 2018 — a stronger year for Democrats. But voters without college degrees shifted more sharply toward the GOP than college-educated ones across racial and gender line. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/23/educational-divide-between-voters-is-growing/

In a Republican House, investigations and fiscal clashes loom

Some of the consequences will be more performative than substantive. The finances of Hunter Biden, Mr Biden’s troubled son, are likely to be one target; America’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and the origins of covid-19 are also possibilities. The Trumpiest fringe of the House Republicans may push for the president’s impeachment. None of this is likely to amount to much of anything, since the Democrat-controlled Senate will, as a matter of course, reject it all. Still, the theatrics of divided government will have important repercussions, especially for the economy.

The biggest concern is that Republicans will provoke a crisis by refusing to increase America’s debt ceiling. https://www.economist.com/united-states/2022/11/17/in-a-republican-house-investigations-and-fiscal-clashes-loom
 

GOP plans to punish ‘woke’ Wall Street

Republican lawmakers, who will be in the House majority come January, are pressing party leaders to send a message to big financial firms: Stop appeasing the left with ‘woke’ business practices, keep financing fossil fuels and cut ties with China. Republicans will have committee gavels and subpoena powers to back that up.

GOP lawmakers are singling out major asset managers and their Washington trade groups as targets because of climate investing practices they see as hostile to oil, gas and coal. Some Republicans want to continue hauling in big bank CEOs to publicly testify — a tradition established by liberal Democrats. GOP senators are already demanding that law firms preserve documents related to how they advise clients on environmental and social initiatives, signaling a potential investigation. Wall Street firms and Washington lobbyists are preparing for subpoenas. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/17/republicans-congress-wall-street-00065688

Trump sets off GOP identity crisis heading into 2024

Leadership fights in both chambers of Congress are exposing deep disunity about how to win back independent and swing voters who have often been scared away by Trump’s extremism. Many lawmakers blame Trump for his fixation on the 2020 election and his lies that he was cheated out of power for their failure to win back the Senate.

But some maintain that the party isn’t Trumpy enough. The ex-president’s allies, for instance, failed in an attempt to oust veteran Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell – a longtime Trump antagonist – on Wednesday. But if House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy wants to be the next speaker, he cannot afford to alienate Trump’s acolytes who will wield huge power in the new House, meaning that one half of Capitol Hill at least will dance to the ex-president’s tune. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/17/politics/republican-party-2024-identity-crisis-analysis/
 

White House is preparing for a GOP investigative onslaught

While President Joe Biden and Democrats campaigned to preserve their congressional majorities, a small team of attorneys, communications strategists and legislative specialists have spent the past few months holed up in Washington preparing for the alternative.

The preparations, largely run out of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building near the White House, are among the earliest and most comprehensive by any administration ahead of a midterm election and highlight how far-reaching and aggressive Republican investigations are expected to be. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/17/politics/biden-white-house-preparations-republican-investigations/index.html

GOP operative found guilty of funneling Russian money to Donald Trump

A Republican political strategist was convicted of illegally helping a Russian businessman contribute to Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016,

Jesse Benton, 44, was pardoned by Trump in 2020 for a different campaign finance crime, months before he was indicted again on six counts related to facilitating an illegal foreign campaign donation. He was found guilty Thursday on all six counts. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/17/benton-trump-russian-vasilenko-guilty/

Republicans Barely Won the House. Now Can They Run It?

Republicans managed to make their victory in the House seem like a loss by underperforming so badly. But while they did not win control by anywhere near the margin that they anticipated, they did win. And in the House, even the barest majority can work its will if it can hold together to produce 218 votes.

The main question going forward is whether Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, who was nominated on Tuesday to lead the new Republican majority, can achieve the unity necessary to perform fundamental tasks such as funding the government, or whether unyielding far-right members will make the new speaker’s life miserable and the House an unmanageable mess.

Despite their underwhelming showing, Republicans are unlikely to be chastened into cooperating with Mr. Biden and no doubt will plunge ahead aggressively once they get their hands on the gavels. For many, that was the point of the election. Their agenda is investigative, not legislative. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/16/us/politics/republicans-house-majority-mccarthy.html

What Divided Government Means for Washington

Republicans’ narrow control of the House of Representatives will usher in a return to divided government in Washington next year, likely shattering the chances of any major legislation, stoking divisions within the GOP and putting President Biden on defense as the new Congress investigates his administration.

Mr. Biden, who downsized his agenda to get bills through a Congress narrowly controlled by Democrats, will now have to contend with House Republicans who have said they plan to pressure him to cut government spending and make other policy changes by threatening to withhold votes to keep the government open or to ensure that the U.S. meets its debt obligations.

Legislating will likely grind to a near halt, including some bills that once saw bipartisan support but have recently drawn skepticism from Republicans, such as assistance for Ukraine in defending itself against Russia. Republicans will get to push a competing agenda if they can hold their caucus together on key priorities — a daunting task with such a small majority. https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-divided-government-means-for-washington-11668642809

Key Allies Are Inching Away From Trump

Three billionaire donors have moved on and others are actively weighing their options. A number of former allies are staying on the sidelines. A long list of potential rivals — from popular governors to members of Congress — are seriously assessing their chances for 2024. Even his own daughter has declined to get involved.

Within hours of Donald J. Trump announcing his third presidential bid on Tuesday, some of his former aides, donors and staunchest allies are shunning his attempt to recapture the White House, an early sign that he may face difficulty winning the support of a Republican Party still reeling from unexpected midterm losses.

While Mr. Trump has long faced opposition from the establishment and elite quarters of his party, this round of criticism was new in its raw bluntness, plainly out in the open by Wednesday and focused on reminding voters that the Trump era in Republican politics has led to the opposite of the endless winning Mr. Trump once promised. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/16/us/politics/trump-republicans-alternatives.html

Marjorie Taylor Greene Seeks to ‘Defund’ Special Counsel

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) argues that Republicans should impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland and insisted that her party refuse to appropriate any funding to Merrick Garland’s Special Counsel and defund any part of the DOJ acting on behalf of the Democrat party as a taxpayer funded campaign arm for the Democrat’s 2024 presidential nominee.

It sets up a new and explosive spending clash that could easily prompt a government shutdown in the next Congress. Why? MTG and like-minded Trump loyalists will press Kevin McCarthy (or whoever else manages to become speaker) to toe a hard line while Democrats will absolutely refuse to defund the investigations. https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2022/11/19/a-new-special-counsel-sets-d-c-ablaze-00069587

Murkowski pulls ahead of Tshibaka in latest ballot count

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican who was censured by the Alaska Republican Party, pulled ahead of her right-wing opponent Kelly Tshibaka in the number of first-choice votes, with late-counted absentee and early votes breaking in her favor.The incumbent is on track to win reelection when ranked choice votes are tabulated by the Division of Election on Nov. 23. https://www.adn.com/politics/2022/11/18/friday-ballot-tally-strengthens-incumbent-positions-in-alaskas-statewide-races/

Capitol rioter who said he wanted Trump's 'approval' gets three years in Jan. 6 case

A Donald Trump fan who was convicted on all counts after telling jurors that he thought he was ‘following presidential orders’ when he stole a liquor bottle and a coat rack from the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was sentenced to three years in federal prison on Friday.

Dustin Thompson, a college-educated Ohio man who testified that he believed Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, was convicted on six charges in April after he told jurors he was seeking Trump’s ‘respect’ and ‘approval’ on Jan. 6. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/capitol-rioter-said-wanted-trumps-approval-gets-three-years-jan-6-case-rcna57882

THE DAILY GRILL

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) vowed during an appearance on Fox News said that if he becomes speaker of the House. that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) wouldn’t be allowed to serve on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, citing her “antisemitic comments.” https://www.axios.com/2022/11/20/kevin-mccarthy-ilhan-omar-foreign-affairs-israel

VERSUS

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN): “From the moment I was elected, the Republican Party has made it their mission to use fear, xenophobia, Islamophobia and racism to target me on the House Floor and through millions of dollars of campaign ads. Whether it is Marjorie Taylor Greene holding a gun next to my head in campaign ads or Donald Trump threatening to ‘send me back’ to my country (despite the fact that I have been a proud citizen of the United States for more than 20 years), this constant stream of hate has led to hundreds of death threats and credible plots against me and my family.” https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3744719-omar-fires-back-after-mccarthy-vows-to-remove-her-from-committees/



Two top House Republicans — Rep. James Comer and Rep. Jim Jordan — who are expected to chair the House Oversight and Judiciary committees next year are planning to lay out the evidence they say they have gathered from whistleblowers that show President Biden's son, Hunter, engaged in influence peddling and his father, potentially while serving as vice president, may have benefited financially. https://www.npr.org/2022/11/17/1137197668/republicans-have-won-the-house-now-theyre-promising-to-investigate-the-bidens

VERSUS

"Instead of working with President Biden to address issues important to the American people, like lower costs, congressional Republicans' top priority is to go after President Biden with politically-motivated attacks chock full of long-debunked conspiracy theories. President Biden is not going to let these political attacks distract him from focusing on Americans' priorities, and we hope congressional Republicans will join us in tackling them instead of wasting time and resources on political revenge.” — White House spokesperson Ian Sams. https://www.npr.org/2022/11/17/1137197668/republicans-have-won-the-house-now-theyre-promising-to-investigate-the-bidens