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What else is new? After all, he’s been saying Biden stole the 2020 election for 3 solid years

With his latest tribute to the late great Pee Wee Herman, former president Donald Trump unveiled his latest “I know you are but what am I” campaign strategy over the weekend by attacking President Joe Biden as “the destroyer of American democracy.”

President Trump In Iowa:
“Biden and his Radical Left allies like to pose as defenders of “Democracy”—but Joe Biden is not the DEFENDER of American Democracy, Joe Biden is the DESTROYER of American Democracy, and the WRECKER of the American Dream.” pic.twitter.com/3DsBKsiaJ4

— Jayne Zirkle (@JayneZirkle) December 2, 2023

The crowd loved it, as they love all things Trump. The Des Moines Register interviewed one rally goers who explained why: “Teens have rock stars that they follow like Taylor Swift. Grown-ups have Trump.” It doesn’t really matter what he says.

Trump’s senior campaign adviser explained the real reason for this new campaign slogan:

TRIGGER WARNING!!! Want to watch the lefties heads explode?? Push this message: “…Joe Biden is not the defender of American democracy. Joe Biden is the destroyer of American democracy. … This [Trumps] campaign is a righteous crusade to liberate our republic from Biden and…

— Chris LaCivita (@LaCivitaC) December 3, 2023

The Washington Post reported that a “senior Trump adviser” told them, “President Trump is turning the tables, We are not going to allow Joe Biden and the Democrats to gaslight the American public, and it’s clear from what LaCivita wrote that it’s yet another of their juvenile attempts to “own the libs.”

I don’t think I saw any lefties heads exploding over this but many people did explode with laughter. The claim is ludicrous, of course. Trump’s the one who attempted to overturn the election and incited a violent mob to storm the capitol and stop the certification of the election. There is no greater example of democracy destruction than that. But he said it and it wasn’t off the cuff. They passed out placards before the rally that said, “Biden attacks Democracy” and flashed the words on a big screen above him as he said it.

The New York Times characterized this move as the Trump campaign “going on offense” to counter accusations by Biden that he is a threat to democracy. But I’m not sure this marks much of a change in strategy. After all, Trump has been saying since 2016 that any election he loses is rigged. He even says it when he wins! Recall his “commission” to investigate voter fraud in the election against Hillary Clinton in which he sought to prove that he really won the popular vote because of all the illegal votes. That investigation didn’t go anywhere but his claims helped set the stage for his Big Lie in 2020.

This weekend he made an even bolder claim:

Trump says the elections are “rigged” if he doesn’t win in California, Illinois, and New York.

This is not a sane comment. https://t.co/awPETyRLTA

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) December 2, 2023

He further commanded his troops to go to Atlanta, Philadelphia and Detroit to “watch” the vote count next November to make sure they don’t cheat. I think we know what he’s telling them to do, don’t you? “It will be wild….”

All of his talk about electoral fraud for the past five years is essentially saying that the Democrats in general and Biden specifically are destroying democracy by stealing elections. This has been the central message of his ongoing campaign. Why anyone thinks that this is a new tack is beyond me.

Trump does this to get his followers all excited and angry so they’ll send him money and come out to vote. It’s a fundamentally dishonest but rational approach and it’s one that’s kept the Republican Party under his spell for the last eight years. In that respect it has been a great success. But if swing voters haven’t been convinced that Biden stole the election from Trump by now, all this bellowing about Biden “destroying democracy” is going to fall on deaf ears. Everyone in America has heard it all before.

It can be powerful in a different way, however. It serves to neutralize the topic as just more political “tit-for-tat” and some people may just dismiss the entire argument that the Democrats are making. Witness how Trump and his Republican henchmen have managed to persuade a majority of the American public that Biden is involved in corrupt activity with his son.

An AP/NORC poll from October found:

Most adults say President Biden has at the very least acted unethically in his handling of the international business dealings of his son Hunter, including about a third who say he did something illegal. Only 30% of the public think Biden has done nothing wrong regarding Hunter’s business dealings.

They have even managed to convince 40% of Democrats that Joe Biden acted unethically or illegally based solely on lies and innuendo. It’s a stunning result that proves the power of repetition and propaganda. The AP reported that result and then added this, proving that Trump has gotten exactly what he wanted:

A similar percentage of adults (67%) said former President Donald Trump acted unethically or illegally in his interactions with the president of Ukraine according to an AP-NORC poll taken in October 2019, with 38% believing he acted illegally.

Trump is at this very moment pushing hard for the US House to impeach Joe Biden over all this and the new speaker Mike Johnson said that he thinks it’s just about ready to go. Everyone knows that it’s dead on arrival in the US Senate but that doesn’t matter. All Trump wants to do is ensure that Biden is impeached in order to neutralize his own impeachment(s).

His claims of Biden “weaponizing” the government against him, despite no evidence that Biden had anything to do with the Justice Department’s decisions is now serving to open the door for his authoritarian agenda of retribution which he portrays as legitimate:

Trump on Truth Social suggests he would use DOJ in retaliatory ways, says the charges against him opened “Pandora’s Box” and that Biden should tell prosecutors to drop them “before it’s too late for him and the rest of the country.” To Dems he adds “be careful what you wish for.”

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) November 29, 2023

That’s really rich coming from the man who said this:

Trump to Clinton: "You'd be in jail" if I was in charge pic.twitter.com/FvgldWAsNS

— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) October 10, 2016

He tried and couldn’t get it done. He knows the ropes now.

As you can see, the Pee-Wee Herman strategy isn’t springing from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago brain trust. This is Trump’s one true talent. He instinctively understands the power of turning his own flaws into his rivals’ and then criticizing them for it. Psychologists call this “projection” and it is. But it’s more than that. Trump is corrupt and incompetent and he’s projecting that on to Biden to be sure. But he’s also feeding the cynicism that has overtaken our political culture.

His own followers may believe that he is an innocent martyr being persecuted unjustly, but all those swing voters or “low information” voters who may be unhappy about other things can be persuaded that “they all do it” or even “they’ve always done it” so what’s the big deal? He knows that all he has to do is get his fan base out and convince a small sliver of the rest of the voting population that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between him and Joe Biden and he could pull off another win like he did in 2016.

Salon

Retribution For Dummies

TPM reports on the latest Trump boot licking move by the House Republicans:

Now that they finally have a new House speaker, some congressional Republicans are mounting an effort to question the select committee investigation into the January 6 attack that wrapped up last year. Their push is the perfect fox and the henhouse type scenario. Some of the members most loudly attempting to question the official probe — including the new speaker — played a part in elements of the conspiracy-fueled push to challenge the 2020 presidential election results that was a major focus of the investigation.

The latest calls to investigate the select committee’s work gained momentum on Friday after Johnson announced a plan to release some of the security footage of the attack that involved thousands of supporters of former President Trump storming into the U.S. Capitol building as his loss was being certified on January 6, 2021. Johnson, who became speaker late last month after weeks of contentious votes and intraparty fighting, had campaigned on a promise to air out the footage. In a statement on Friday, Johnson suggested it would “provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials.” 

The January 6 attack has been — like Trump’s 2020 loss — the subject of far-right conspiracy theories that suggest  the hundreds of people prosecuted for their role in the attack were being politically persecuted. Along with easily disproved suggestions the crowds who brawled with police and broke through barricades that day were peaceful, there have also been thoroughly debunked claims that federal law enforcement was really behind the violence raised in the right-wing media. 

[…]

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who helped lead the select committee and has been one of the most prominent Republican critics of Trump’s efforts to falsely deny his loss, responded to Johnson’s move with some clips of her own showing the crowds fighting with police officers at the Capitol. 

This is not Johnson’s first time dabbling in 2020 denialism and revisionist history. The new speaker, who will play a role in certifying the next presidential election, was among the 147 Republican members of Congress who voted to overturn the last one. In the leadup to the certification, Johnson was also among members of Congress who worked with the Trump campaign to promote baseless conspiracy theories about the results as part of an official effort to dispute the results that precipitated the violence at the Capitol. 

In the weeks after the American people voted on Nov. 3, 2020, Johnson participated in legal challenges to the election and promoted debunked conspiracy theories that the results had been manipulated. In a Facebook post on Nov. 7, 2020, the day media outlets determined President Joe Biden had won the race, Johnson revealed he was coordinating with the Trump campaign on efforts to overturn the former president’s loss. 

“I arrived back in northern Virginia last night and have been in legal and political strategy meetings for the Trump Campaign all day. Though the media is calling the election for Biden, they shouldn’t,” Johnson wrote. “As I write this, very important legal challenges are pending and being filed today in several states. President Trump is fighting for you, and we are fighting for him.”

After he became speaker, Johnson’s efforts to dispute the election received new scrutiny. On the night he was selected as the speaker nominee, he and his Republican colleagues literally laughed off questions about his role. 

Johnson’s push to air out the security footage prompted a new round of conspiracy theories from other Republicans who worked with him to overturn the 2020 election. On Saturday, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) took to the site formerly known as Twitter to share a message from a West Virginia man who pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the Capitol attack. The man suggested the clip showed someone “flashing a badge,” implying it was proof law enforcement was behind the violence. Lee, who did not respond to a request for comment, responded that he wanted to question the FBI director about the clip at an upcoming hearing and predicted the answers would “be 97% information-free.”

The clip Lee promoted has gained traction in far-right Jan. 6 conspiracy circles, but it has also been totally debunked. As the Bulwark noted, the footage shows a man who is not a federal agent holding a vape pen rather than a badge. It’s one of many examples of how the supposed evidence of federal involvement being promoted by the far-right just doesn’t add up. 

Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman and Air Force intelligence officer who worked with the January 6 committee, responded to Lee with a post of his own noting his team had reviewed the evidence and found nothing to support the idea the attack was a grand conspiracy involving federal agents. 

“We’ve been down this road many times (over two years now). I’ve used validated data —as Senior Tech Advisor to the J6 committee—to help GOP & Dems understand that FBI/Antifa/Deep State conspiracies are hogwash,” Riggleman wrote. 

Riggleman, who co-wrote a book on the investigation with this reporter, also pointed to the text messages his team helped obtain from Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows. 

“Maybe it’s time to look at Mike Lee’s texts to Mark Meadows—again,” Riggleman wrote.

Those texts, which have been examined thoroughly here on TPM, showed the Trump White House coordinating with Lee and over 30 other congressional Republicans on efforts to overturn the 2020 election.  And one of the many messages Lee exchanged with Meadows also shed light on Johnson’s participation in the push. 

On Nov. 7, 2020, as the race was being called for Biden and Johnson was admittedly coordinating with the Trump campaign, messages obtained by the committee show that Lee texted Meadows some strategic ideas for reversing the former president’s loss. Lee also provided Meadows with a petition that was signed by him, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Johnson, and a slew of Republican activists:

“Dear Mr. President, We the undersigned offer our unequivocal support for you to exhaust every legal and constitutional remedy at your disposal to restore Americans’ faith in our elections. This fight is about much more than just this election. This fight is about the fundamental fairness and integrity of our election system. The nation is depending upon your continued resolve. Stay strong and keep fighting Mr. President. Sincerely, Senator Mike Lee Congressman Andy Biggs … Congressman Mike Johnson Brent Bozell, Founder and President, Media Research Center Adam Brandon, President, FreedomWorks Bill Walton, President, Council for National Policy Marjorie Dannenfelser, President, Susan B. Anthony List David McIntosh, President, Club for Growth PAC Matt Schlapp, Chairman, American Conservative Union Jenny Beth Martin, Chairman, Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund David Bozell, President, ForAmerica Tom Fitton, President, Judicial Watch Seymour Fein M.D., MRC Board of Directors.”

Lee, who did not respond to a request for comment on this story, encouraged Meadows to share the petition with Trump — and potentially publicly.

“We’re sending this as a private communication from us to him through you. We are not issuing it as a press release,” Lee wrote, adding, “Use it however you deem appropriate And if it’s helpful to you for you to leak it, feel free to do so.”

Marge Greene is right in the middle of this too.

I have a sneaking suspicion that any spectacle they put on over the 2020 election is going to be greeted with eye-rolling by certain members of the voting public who may like Trump but really don’t want to hear about this crap anymore. So sure, bring it on guys. Let’s re litigate 2020 just as Trump’s being tried for staging the coup. Very helpful.

Kicking the 14th Amendment down the road

Whistling past a graveyard. Tiptoeing through a minefield. Neither the courts nor election officials nor Congress want to touch ruling Donald Trump ineligible to serve as president.

Colorado Politics:

A Denver judge on Friday found Donald Trump remains eligible for the state’s 2024 presidential ballot even though he engaged in an insurrection, joining courts elsewhere that have rejected attempts to disqualify the leading Republican candidate.

District Court Judge Sarah B. Wallace determined the provision of the 14th Amendment barring insurrectionists from holding office does not apply to presidents and, therefore, does not disqualify Trump.

“While the Court agrees that there are persuasive arguments on both sides, the Court holds that the absence of the President from the list of positions to which the Amendment applies combined with the fact that Section Three specifies that the disqualifying oath is one to ‘support’ the Constitution whereas the Presidential oath is to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ the Constitution,” Wallace wrote.

‘Tis the season for reluctance

“To be clear, part of the Court’s decision is its reluctance to embrace an interpretation which would disqualify a presidential candidate without a clear, unmistakable indication that such is the intent,” she wrote in a Nov. 17 order.

Nonetheless, the 102-page order offered a damning critique of Trump’s conduct leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol, and Wallace concluded Trump did, in fact, incite an insurrection to halt the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.

Associated Press:

The decision by District Judge Sarah B. Wallace is the third ruling in a little over a week against lawsuits seeking to knock Trump off the ballot by citing Section 3 of the amendment. The Minnesota Supreme Court last week said Trump could remain on the primary ballot because political parties have sole choice over who appears, while a Michigan judge ruled that Congress is the proper forum for deciding whether Section 3 applies to Trump.

Three judges. Three different explanations for why they could not rule Donald Trump disqualified under the 14th Amendment from serving again in elected office.

Ruby Freeman knows well what it’s like to draw the wrath of the Trump cult. As do other election workers. Members of Congress and Secret Service members who sheltered in place during the January 6th attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters do too. Prosecutors involved in Trump cases in New York, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. face a flood of threats and require beefed-up security details. Sen. Mitt Romney has spent $5,000/day on personal and family security since the Jan. 6 insurrection.

As we head into holiday season, we’ll repeatedly see Hans Gruber fall from the 30th floor of the Nakatomi Tower. But not before he ruins Joe Takagi’s London-made suit by splattering it with Takagi’s brains and blood. The priciest judge’s robes I found online are not nearly that expensive. Still, if I were wearing one I’d rather not see it ruined that way either.

How much of a factor in a judge’s decision-making in a Trump case is the deepening fog of threats, menace, and intimidation from Trump and his followers over Trump’s prosecutions and his attempts to return to the White House he called “a real dump“?

I don’t know. But I do know we put up with this shit. And I’m sick of it.

He knows how to fail

When Mike Johnson tried to start a law school it didn’t go well:

In February 2012, Mike Johnson sent an aide on an urgent mission at the college where he had been working to open a law school: Locate a study that he believed would provethe project was financially possible.

For more than a year, Johnson — the dean of the not-yet-opened law school — had been telling donors and the public that the institution, which would focus on training Christian attorneys in northwest Louisiana, was not only achievable, but inevitable.

“From a pure feasibility standpoint,” Johnson, then 38, told the local Town Talk newspaper in 2010 after becoming dean, “I’m not sure how this can fail because … it looks like the perfect storm for our law school.”

But he had still not actually seen a feasibility study commissioned by the parent school, Louisiana College,a private Southern Baptist college in Pineville, La., now known as Louisiana Christian University.

The aide soon returned with disturbing news: The study had been buried in a filing cabinet. And it was all but useless.

Six months later, in August 2012, Johnson resigned as dean of the new school, which never opened even though the college spent $5 million to buy and renovate a Shreveport headquarters, among other expenses detailed in local media accounts.

The feasibility study was a “hodgepodge collection of papers,” with “nothing in existence” related to the need for the new law school, market studies, or “funding sources and prospects,” Johnson wrote the following year, describing the episode in what he called a “confidential memorandum” responding to questions from the Louisiana College Board of Trustees

Johnson’s April 2013 memo, which was obtained by The Washington Post, reveals how he navigated a previous executive management experience as he takes over a much larger organization, the U.S. House of Representatives, and becomes second in line to the presidency. The memo suggests that Johnson encouraged and agreed to lead what he later described as a sparsely researched effort that collapsed soon after he left.

The new speaker’s congressional biography makes no mention of his tenure as dean of the never-opened law school.Before winning election to the Louisiana legislature in 2015, and Congress a year later, Johnson mainly worked as a litigator for conservative causes, once remarking that his profession was “legal ministry.” He has also taught college courses, according to his House financial disclosures.

A spokesman for Johnson did not respond to a request for comment about the failed law school. Several others involved in the effort said Johnson had worked hard to make the project a reality and was not to blame for its failure.

The 2013 memo suggests, however, that when given a leadership opportunity, Johnson oversold his project’s prospects and failed to divulge key problems until after he left the job. In the memo, he blamed others for the problems,writing that the project collapsed because of larger issues at Louisiana College. He also faulted administrators for failing to send him the feasibility study, and said that a crisis involving the college’s accreditation agency undercut his effort to have the law school win operational approval.

“The ordeal created a real hardship for me and my family,” Johnson wrote, saying that he resigned “with great sadness and only as a last resort.”

Joe Aguillard, the president of Louisiana College,later offered an alternative explanation of events — pinningthe blame for the law school’s failure on Johnson, according to a memo written at the time by another board member, Heath Veuleman. Aguillard said that Johnson’s resignation was a selfish decision to pursue a “dream job,” according to the memo,which was obtained by The Post.Aguillard also blamed Johnson’s resignation “for the Law School’s present delays in opening its doors.” After leaving the school, Johnson said in a memo that he had accepted a job at a conservative legal institute in the Dallas area.

Veuleman wrote that Johnsonhad denied these allegations and said in an interview with The Post that the college’s financial and management turmoil made Johnson conclude that he “couldn’t be dean. He was constantly being usurped. … I remember phone calls in which Mike would say, ‘I can’t keep doing this.’”

Aguillard said in a brief phone conversation that he was hospitalized and could not give an interview. His wife, Judy Aguillard, later texted that “my husband loves Mike and mentored him. They are very close.”

Johnson had raised hopes in Shreveport that his project could be transformative for Louisiana’s third biggest city by bringing in its first law school. Today, civic leaders say that whoever was responsible for the failed effort, it was a significant missed opportunity.

He was the leader. And he was clearly unable to get the job done. Maybe he’s learned something since then. If so, I’d guess he’s learned how to grift off the wingnuts even better.

It just doesn’t get any better than this:

The law school was to be named for Paul Pressler III, a retired Texas judge and leader of the Southern Baptist Convention who, after the school’s collapse, was accused in a lawsuit and court affidavits of sexual misconduct or assault by multiple men, including some who said they were underage at the time of the alleged activity.Tim Johnson, who was executive vice president of Louisiana College at the time of the law school’s launch, said there was pushback about making Pressler the namesake due to his “ultraconservative” biblical views, but that the assault allegations were unknown at the time.

Pressler’s lawyer, Ted Tredennick, said the 93-year-old was unable to respond directly due to dementia but rejected the assault allegations on his behalf. “He denied those allegations categorically when they were first made 20 years ago; he has continuously and consistently denied them since; he would deny them today if he were able.” A trial in the lawsuit has been delayed but is expected early next year.

Here’s a good example of his leadership skills:

Gabriel Little, who was in charge of the capital campaign, said Johnson led an impressive effort to recruit faculty, create a curriculum, and present a proposal to win certification from the American Bar Association.

“He put together one heck of a presentation for accreditation” by the ABA, Little said.

But as Johnson prepared to do that, he later wrote in his memorandum to trustees, he learned that Louisiana College had run into a roadblock in its own effort to bolster its accreditation statusfrom the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Johnson wrote that the college’s problem with accreditation meant hecould not win ABA approvalfor the law school.

Around the same time, the college faced other struggles. As it moved in a more conservative theological direction, its leaders seized on doctrinal disputes within the Southern Baptist convention to discredit critics, sparking protests by students and some faculty.

Rondall Reynoso, a previous head of the college’s art department, said a culture of fear pervaded the campus — to the point that he stopped using his work computer because of concern that he was being surveilled.

“It was an inquisition-type atmosphere, almost,” Reynoso said, attributing the unrest to what he called the undue influence of the Southern Baptist Convention.

A spokeswoman for Louisiana Christian University, as the school is now known, said no one currently in leadership was serving at the time of the failed law school. The new administration, which took over in 2015, “has worked to address previous deficiencies,” the spokeswoman said, resulting in a 2021 review that affirmed the university’s accreditation “with zero findings of noncompliance.”

Johnson wrote in his memo that the “unrest” on campus was shocking, but others said he should have been well aware of the turmoil from news reports about threats to the college’s accreditation.

“By the time Johnson gets involved, the problems are well-known, but they’re dismissed by hardcore conservatives as a liberal attack,” Reynoso said.

At the same time, concern grew at the college about millions of dollars of deferred maintenance at the Pineville campus, raising questions about plans to spend money to start the law school and other projects.

Johnson wrote in his confidential memorandum that Louisiana College’s conflicts undercut his plans and he had “no choice” but to delay the ABA filing. In addition, he needed to provide information from the law school feasibility study to win over the ABA.

The problem was that he had never seen the study, notwithstanding his bold statement more than a year earlier that the school’s feasibility was beyond question.

He’d heard about the feasibility study but hadn’t seen it. He asked for it bu they just didn’t get it to him. What could he do? Well, he quit:

“… when the law school struggled to raise funds, along with the accreditation issues, “Mike probably saw that it was going to be a long time to do it, if it ever got done, and he was a bright young man and just chose to pursue another path.”

Admitting nothing he covered his ass and moved on.

On Aug. 15, 2012, Mike Johnson wrote Aguillard a letter of resignation. He said that developments “beyond our control” had affected his ability to run the school, citing the college’s accreditation problems that had made it difficult to raise funds and recruit students and faculty.

“Our hands are currently tied,” Johnson wrote, adding that he needed to look out for his family.

Privately, Johnson worked with the college on a public relations strategy to cast the resignation in the best possible light, according to internal documents reviewed by The Post.

The talking points included, “Minimize publicity on Mike’s resignation and keep all necessary messaging brief, positive and consistent,” and “Do not concede law school, but maintain it as a temporarily delayed and scaled-down future project.”

That didn’t happen. The law school never opened. Johnson, meanwhile, was elected as a state representative and then in 2016 to the U.S. House, followed by his elevation last month to the speakership.

It sounds as though the new speaker has the skills to run the House like Trump ran the Trump Organization. Great.

A different kind of soother for a Friday afternoon

This is what we call a happy thought in these troubled times:

Whenever I look at the latest polls and start to freak out about Donald Trump winning the presidency again, I calm myself by remembering that the guy is very likely going to be an at-least-once convicted felon by next November. While that won’t bother his fans, I still think it will bother enough swing voters that he will lose, and maybe spectacularly.

That scenario got a little more likely Thursday when the California judge overseeing a misconduct trial against Trump attorney and coup-plotter John Eastman made a “preliminary finding” of culpability on Eastman’s part for his attempts to halt the certification of the 2020 election results.

What’s the upshot? No, Eastman isn’t guilty of anything just yet. But he is now closer to being disbarred, and that could make it more likely that he flips. MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance wrote on X: “If John Eastman loses his license in the bar proceeding, it incentiv[iz]es him (or would incentivize a rationale person) to plead & cooperate in the criminal case to avoid prison (since he’s already lost his license).”

Eastman is one of the 19 defendants in the Fulton County, Georgia, RICO case against Trump and others for conspiring to steal the election. Four named defendants in that case have already pleaded out and agreed to provide testimony against other defendants: lawyers Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, and Kenneth Chesebro and bail bondsman Scott Hall.

And don’t forget former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who got an immunity deal from special counsel Jack Smith in Smith’s January 6–related case against Trump. It was revealed just last week that Meadows has testified under oath in that case three times since agreeing to the deal. It was this news that led Chris Christie to go on Morning Joe and crow: “This is deadly. It’s done. [Trump]’s going to be convicted. It’s over.”

On top of all this, of course, was the main Trump family drama of the week, the testimony by his sons in the New York attorney general’s case against the Trump Organization. Don Jr. in his testimony tried to pin any misstatements about Trump family property values on Mazars, the accounting firm the Trumps used; Eric basically denied that he worked on financial statements. Ivanka Trump is set to testify next week, after a judge late Thursday denied her motion that requiring her to testify during a school week would place an “undue hardship” on her (these people are so shameless). The case could cost the family $250 million.

But the real cases are likely to cost Donald Trump a lot more: the White House. His future. His freedom.

I’m telling you, this is all going to catch up with Trump at the worst (or, depending on your point of view, the best) possible time. Yes, Judge Aileen Cannon down in Florida did Trump a favor this week by suggesting she might postpone next May’s trial date in the Trump case she’s hearing, the one about the classified documents. She might move it to after the election.

A bummer, and she’s a hack, as she’s already proven to us. But fine. The other cases will proceed. And high-profile people who had direct contact with Trump have flipped and will testify against him. Christie, whatever else we think of him, is a former federal prosecutor, so when he says what he said about Meadows, he’s speaking from experience.

We’re entering what’s going to be a maddening and horrifying time. In all likelihood, none of these other Republican candidates is going to make a charge at Trump. They’re just too afraid of him. Nikki Haley criticized him obliquely a few days ago, but no one (save Christie) is going to tell the truth about him because they know what will happen to them: They’ll sink like stones. So they’re in an impossible position—of their own making, by the way, because every one of them cheered Trump’s rise—whereby if they don’t go after the front-runner, he’ll be untouched and stay 25 points ahead of the field, and if they do, it will hurt them, and Trump’s lead will likely only grow.

So we’re in for 10 weeks—until the January 15 Iowa caucuses—of poll after poll showing Trump ahead and probably gaining. No piece of bad news will matter. He’ll roll in Iowa. Next will come New Hampshire. No date has yet been set for that primary, but it’s expected to be sometime in January. In New Hampshire, Trump is if anything further ahead than he is in Iowa. Then there’s not another GOP primary until South Carolina on February 24 (there will be Nevada and Virgin Islands caucuses on February 8). In other words, if Trump wins both Iowa and New Hampshire, the race is basically over, and there will be a full month of headlines calling Trump victorious and unstoppable.

Actually—not all headlines. In fact, on the very day, January 16, that we’ll wake up to headlines blaring, “Trump Sails to Victory in Iowa,” we will also be greeted by this headline: “E. Jean Carroll Damages Trial Against Trump Starts Today.” Remember that New York Judge Lewis Kaplan has already said that Trump raped Carroll in the normally understood sense of the term. So readers, and voters, are going to be reminded of that. Then the January 6 trial, the one in which Meadows flipped, starts the day before Super Tuesday. And so on.

Trump is a cornered animal. As the walls close in, he is going to go insane. Nothing in his pampered life has prepared him for the reckoning that’s coming his way. He’s gotten out of everything, from the Vietnam draft to all the bankruptcies, to the impeachments, when he obviously committed high crimes and misdemeanors. His skating days are over.

I pray for that every night.

His first hire says it all:

When an ABC News reporter last week tried to ask Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), the soon-to-be Speaker of the House, about his key role in Donald Trump’s efforts to overthrow the 2020 election, the message relayed by House Republicans was, essentially, “Shut up.”

While the new House leader continues to sidestep questions about his election denialism, his latest hire shows that trying to overturn the next presidential election may still very well be at the top of the House GOP’s agenda.

It was reported on Tuesday that Johnson had tapped Raj Shah to be his office’s chief spokesperson and oversee his communications operation. In this position, he will not only serve as Johnson’s top mouthpiece but also, according to Politico, “help run messaging for House Republicans.”

Representatives for Johnson and Shah did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Shah, a veteran GOP operative who served in the Trump White House, also happened to spend four years as Fox’s “brand protection” expert before leaving in disgrace this past June after the right-wing network settled Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit for a massive $787.5 million.

Shah’s role at Fox News’ parent company, in fact, was a key component of Dominion’s case, which alleged that the conservative cable giant knowingly peddled false conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud in order to boost sagging ratings following the 2020 election.

The network, after making a controversially early but inevitably accurate call for Joe Biden in Arizona on Election Night, watched its viewership crumble as disgruntled MAGA viewers fled for far-right rivals Newsmax and One America News, who were more than willing to parrot Trump’s baseless claims of a “rigged” election.

Shah, whose job as senior vice president was to protect Fox’s brand, spent the weeks after the election warning top executives that the network’s core audience was increasingly incensed with Fox News for supposedly abandoning Trump. And while texts and emails from that time, which were obtained and publicly released by Dominion during its case against Fox, suggest he didn’t buy into Team Trump’s wild conspiracies about hacked voting machines flipping millions of votes to Biden, he also didn’t want the channel’s reporters and anchors to contradict those claims on the air.

In the immediate aftermath of Trump’s election loss, Shah scrambled to find conservative pundits who would come to the network’s defense amid the right-wing backlash against Fox. With none of the “biggest folks” biting, Shah told the network’s PR team that he could potentially get some “Tier 2 folks” to write a column defending Fox News. Unfortunately, even most of those writers refused the assignment.

At the same time, Shah—who also acted as a bridge between Trumpworld and Fox—was desperately trying to get the network to at least issue a public apology for its Arizona call, citing anger from Trump supporters.

“Want to ask, even though it seems impossible, but is the idea of some sort of public mea culpa for the AZ call completely and totally out of the realm?” Shah wrote the network’s top flack Irena Briganti on Nov. 10. “Or some programming that’s focused on hearing our viewers grievances about how we’ve handled the election?”

While that request was ultimately denied on the grounds that it would cause additional turmoil between the channel’s “hard news” and opinion sides, Shah continued to express concern about Fox’s tumbling ratings. In his view, one of the main issues wasn’t just that the network’s Decision Desk had called the election against Trump, it was that Fox’s on-air reporters were also undermining Trump’s fraudulent election narrative.

Noting that “more of our viewers have an unfavorable opinion rather than favorable opinion of Fox,” he discussed the “threats” to Fox News’ reputation among the MAGA base. For instance, he highlighted the criticism anchor Neil Cavuto was facing for cutting away from then-Trump spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany for spreading election lies.

“Both Donald Trump and Newsmax have taken active roles in promoting attacks on Fox News. Positive impressions of Fox News among our viewers dropped precipitously after Election Day to the lowest levels we’ve ever seen,” Shah wrote in an email to Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, and then-Fox Chief Legal Officer Viet Dinh.

Following an unhinged Nov. 19 press conference that featured then-Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani making outrageous claims about widespread election fraud, which the network carried on-air in its entirety, Fox News correspondent Kristin Fisher swooped in with a comprehensive fact-check. Shah, meanwhile, was extremely displeased.

“This is the kinda shit that will kill us,” Shah texted a colleague. “What a fucking mess. We cover it wall to wall and then we burn that down with all the skepticism.”

Yet, while seemingly urging higher-ups to “respect the audience” and cater to their election denialism, Shah privately admitted in messages to colleagues and friends that Trump’s “stolen” election claims were largely nonsense. In fact, after then-Fox News star Tucker Carlson publicly challenged Powell to provide proof to back her claims, Shah said that the belief that there was “vote rigging to the tune of millions” was “so fucking insane.”

Shah, who had a close working relationship with Carlson, also advised Carlson on how to handle any backlash from Powell and Trump’s team, telling him to be “deferential.” Meanwhile, he was also working behind the scenes to get Trump to distance himself from Powell.

“After criticism from social media for Tucker’s segment questioning Attorney Sidney Powell’s outlandish voter fraud claims, our consultants and I coordinated an effort to generate Trump administration pushback against her claims,” he wrote top execs, adding: “We encouraged several sources within the administration to tell reporters that Powell offered no evidence for her claims and didn’t speak for the president.”

The effort apparently worked. On Nov. 22, the Trump campaign announced that Powell was “practicing law on her own” and was “not a member” of the outgoing president’s legal team. Yet, even though Powell was officially distanced from Trump, she continued to appear on Fox News airwaves for weeks.

In the end, while helping to whitewash Trump’s election lies, Shah still let friends know that he didn’t believe that the election was rigged.

“It’s really disheartening,” Shah wrote to a former White House colleague days before the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. “The only clear cut evidence for voter fraud is the failed attempts from Trump.”

Now Shah will serve as the top spokesperson of a suddenly prominent Republican lawmaker who will almost certainly insert himself into the 2024 presidential election, especially since Trump will almost certainly be the Republican nominee.

While Johnson rose from relative obscurity to the speakership last month, he did play a significant role in Trump’s attempts to overturn his loss to Biden.

Shortly after Biden was projected as the winner of the election, Johnson aligned himself with Trump’s refusal to accept the results. “President Trump called me last night and I was encouraged to hear his continued resolve to ensure that every LEGAL vote gets properly counted and that all instances of fraud and illegality are investigated and prosecuted,” he tweeted at the time. “Fair elections are worth fighting for!”

Johnson also helped fuel the conspiracy theories about “rigged” voting machines—the same baseless claims that ended up costing Fox News nearly a billion dollars.

In a Nov. 17, 2020 radio interview, he said there was “a lot of merit” to the Dominion claims, adding that “when the president says the election was ‘rigged’ that is what he was talking about; the fix was in.” He also peddled debunked conspiracies about Dominion being owned by deceased Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

In that same interview, Johnson backed Trump’s assertions about Georgia’s vote for Biden being fraudulent, claiming “it really is rigged” and “was set up for the Biden team to win.” Trump and 18 others have since been indicted over their attempts to overturn Georgia’s election results, with some already pleading guilty.

Johnson’s support of Trump went further than tweets and radio interviews, though. He quietly worked behind the scenes to recruit House Republicans to join an amicus brief in support of a Texas lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to block four Biden states from voting in the Electoral College. In the end, the majority of the GOP caucus signed the brief. The lawsuit would soon be tossed out by the court.

Eventually, Johnson joined most of the House GOP in voting against certifying Biden’s electoral victory on the same day a mob of angry MAGA supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to keep Trump in power.

Regardless of where Shah personally stands on election denialism, Media Matters senior fellow Matt Gertz argues, he’s shown a willingness to sell whatever it is the conservative base desires.

“But Shah’s private concerns did not prevent him from encouraging propaganda,” Gertz wrote on Wednesday. “And in his new role, backing a speaker who was neck-deep in Trump’s election subversion plot, he’ll assuredly do the same if Trump takes another pass at trying to overturn an election.”

As you can see, Shah is one of the worst MAGA wingnuts out there. He’s slick and he’s experienced. But he is extreme. It say everything about Mike Johnson that he hired him.

Trump vs. Cohen today

Donald John Trump won’t be armed and he won’t be standing in the middle of Fifth Avenue when he and his former fixer Michael Cohen meet today at the former president’s state fraud trial in Manhattan. Trump plans to be there, mug-shot glare at the ready (The Guardian):

“I look forward to the reunion,” Cohen, once Trump’s lawyer, said. “I hope Donald does as well.”

Now in its fourth week, Trump, his adult sons and their family business have been found liable for inflating the value of Trump’s assets to routinely and repeatedly deceive banks, insurers and others. Judge Arthur Engoron is using the hearings to decide on punishment, which could include a huge fine and probably means the dissolution of the Trump’s New York property empire.

Over a dozen witnesses, many former Trump Organization employees, have testified in the trial so far. But Cohen’s testimony is seen as crucial to the case.

Trump has a schedule full of court cases, indictments, and a lengthy list of complaints about how unfairly he’s being treated.

Just last night, Trump barely made the cutoff date for filing motions to dismiss his January 6th indictment. Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel) provides a handy table of his motions to dismiss things for which he’s not been charged:

Wheeler ticks through the list, perhaps most ironically this one:

Motion to Strike Inflammatory Allegations: This is an attempt to eliminate the language in the indictment showing how Trump mobilized his mob because he isn’t charged with mobilizing the mob (as DOJ already laid out, that is one of the means by which he obstructed the vote certification). This is likely tactical, an attempt to remove one of the primary means by which he obstructed the vote certification to make his 18 USC 1512(c)(2) argument less flimsy.

Washington Post cites the filings, explaining that these type of motions are fairly typical:

“Because the Government has not charged President Trump with responsibility for the actions at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, allegations related to these actions are not relevant and are prejudicial and inflammatory. Therefore, the Court should strike these allegations from the Indictment,” wrote defense attorneys Todd Blanche, John Lauro, Emil Bove and Gregory Singer.

“The indictment must be dismissed because it seeks to criminalize core political speech and advocacy that lies at the heart of the First Amendment,” they wrote.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors will respond in coming weeks, the Post reports.

Trump is scheduled to face trial in federal court in Washington in March after pleading not guilty to an Aug. 1 indictment accusing him of a criminal conspiracy to remain in power, obstruct Congress’s lawful certification of Biden’s victory and deprive Americans of their civil right to have their votes counted.

These types of motions are all the more typical for Donald Trump.

In Trump’s appeal of the defamation lawsuit by writer E. Jean Carroll on Monday, a Trump attorney argued presidential immunity shields him. This would be the Nixon defense on steroids. When the president does it, it’s not illegal (Politico):

Trump’s argument comes as he is pressing a similarly aggressive immunity defense in his federal criminal case stemming from his efforts to subvert the 2020 election. Trump is “absolutely immune from prosecution” in that case, his lawyers contended in court papers this month — an argument that special counsel Jack Smith said is in sharp conflict with American history and the Constitution.

In the Carroll case on Monday, Trump lawyer Michael Madaio told a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals that presidential immunity is “an absolute and non-waivable protection.”

“If this court does not overturn the lower court’s ruling,” Madaio said, “a president, for the first time in our nation’s history, will be held civilly liable for his official acts.”

A more pedestrian version would be a tourist from Sheboygan in the hands of Italian police shouting, “You can’t do this to me. I’m an American!”

Meantime, Trump is still fuming about the gag order imposed last week in his federal Januray 6th trial. He’s filed an appeal of that as well (Washington Post):

Judge Tanya S. Chutkan agreed to temporarily lift the gag order that had restricted Trump’s public statements about special counsel Jack Smith, his team and witnesses while she considered a motion from Trump’s lawyers to suspend it entirely while they appeal.

Within 48 hours, Trump issued a new broadsideattacking the prosecutor, Trump’s first since the gag had been imposed. On Sunday, he took to his social network Truth Social to attack Smith in the exact terms that the order had prohibited, calling him “Deranged Jack Smith.”

Fred and Mary Anne Trump never gave little Donny a “time out,” did they?

The sequence illustrated the careful dance Trump had engaged in since Chutkan issued her order. He had refrained from immediately and flagrantly violating the gag order while it was in place, even as he railed against it and continued attacking judges and making a host of other comments that, while not technical violations, most defense attorneys would advise against.

And most clients would take the advice for which they are paying handsomely. Trump’s attorneys can neither count on getting paid nor on him taking their advice. *

Trump is fundraising furiously off the gag order.

“Anything that turns up the temperature and becomes controversial is where the online fundraising comes from,” said Brad Parscale, a former Trump campaign manager who now works in online fundraising. “It’s a lot easier to catch fish in a hot lake than a cold lake. All these stories heat up the lake.”

As Trump racked up criminal charges over the summer, his campaign message increasingly focused on fighting the prosecutions that he claims are politicized. In doing so, Trump has worked to position himself alongside his supporters, with one fundraising message last week calling the gag order against him “an attempt to gag American people and cancel out your vote.”

“We couldn’t script this any better from a political standpoint,” one adviser said. “He does best as the victim who is being treated unfairly.”

How Trump manages his schedule among all the court cases, lawyer meetings, campaign rallies, and Truth Social tirades is a wonder. His scheduler is not paid enough, it goes without saying,

* I can relate. One of my cocktail party answers to, “So what do you do?” was, “Clients pay a lot of money to ignore what I tell them.”

He’s a Trump henchman and accomplice and nothing is going to change

He should be on trial with Donald Trump but for some reason congressional officials are off-limits. Huff Post’s Igor Bobic has the story:

Staunch conservative Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is in the spotlight after launching a bid for the speaker’s gavel this week, a race that is sure to provide even more drama and chaos than the unprecedented ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

But one critical aspect of Jordan’s history that has been omitted by most Beltway publications is the prominent role he played in spreading lies about the 2020 election and rallying supporters to contest the results. The extraordinary effort led by former President Donald Trump, who has endorsed Jordan’s bid for speaker, led to the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“Jim Jordan knew more about what Donald Trump had planned for Jan. 6 than any other member of the House of Representatives,” former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who co-chaired the House Select Committee tasked with investigating the insurrection, said in a speech at the University of Minnesota this week.

“Jim Jordan was involved, was part of the conspiracy in which Donald Trump was engaged as he attempted to overturn the election,” she added.

Jordan, who now chairs the House Judiciary Committee, refused to cooperate with the select committee regarding his communications with Trump as the attack was occurring, defying subpoenas for testimony.

Trump spoke on the phone with Jordan for 10 minutes on the morning of Jan. 6. Jordan has never divulged the nature of the conversation, saying only that he had spoken to Trump “a number of times” that day.

He has said he had “nothing to do with” the attack on the Capitol.

Jordan also phoned then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows while the attack was underway, according to former Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson.

“They had a brief conversation,” Hutchinson told the committee. “In crossfire, I heard briefly what they were talking about. I heard conversations in the Oval [Office] dining room at that point talking about the ‘Hang Mike Pence’ chants.”

Jordan also sent a text to Meadows on Jan. 5 outlining a legal theory that then-Vice President Mike Pence, who presided over the Senate chamber on Jan. 6, had the authority to block the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.

Jordan was also actively involved in spreading falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election before and after it had taken place, baselessly alleging fraud had occurred in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia. Many of his false claims were aired again and again in repeated appearances on Fox News.

In October, the month before the election, Jordan claimed that Democrats “are trying to steal the election, after the election.” He appeared at a “Stop the Steal” rally in Pennsylvania after the state had already been called for Biden, urging supporters to keep up the pressure.

In the days leading up to Jan. 6, Jordan urged Republicans to “unite and fight for President Trump” by objecting to the certification of the 2020 election in Congress.

“He has fought for us, the American people. … It’s time for us to fight for him and the Constitution,” Jordan said in an interview with Newsmax.

Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, on Thursday lauded Jordan for his college wrestling career and his education credentials. Trump wrote in a post to his Truth Social platform that Jordan “has my complete & total endorsement” in the race for House speaker.

Six former wrestlers alleged that Jordan as an assistant coach knew about an Ohio State University doctor who had been molesting student-athletes. Jordan has denied any knowledge of the abuse.

A “desperate effort at censorship”?

Donald J. Trump is one grain alcohol and rain water away from pulling a Browning machine gun out of his golf bag.

I just learned that windmills are causing mental illness in whales. pic.twitter.com/AjRONdTQdw

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 26, 2023

Facing 91 felony charges across multiple jurisdictions, Trump believes it violates his rights if he’s not allowed to issue threats, intimidate potential witnesses, and taint jury pools as he campaigns for president awaiting trial. His defense team alleges a “desperate effort at censorship” by federal prosecutors.

Can you hear His Indictedness whine from where you are?

Politico:

Donald Trump’s lawyers said Monday that a gag order proposed by prosecutors would unconstitutionally silence him during key months of the 2024 presidential campaign, urging a federal judge in Washington, D.C. to reject the proposed limits.

In a 25-page filing that mirrored some of Trump’s own heated political rhetoric, Trump’s attorneys said the former president’s attacks on potential witnesses, special counsel Jack Smith and even U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan herself are protected by the First Amendment and were not actual threats or incitement of attacks.

“The prosecution may not like President Trump’s entirely valid criticisms,” attorneys Gregory Singer, John Lauro and Todd Blanche wrote in the late-night filing, ”but neither it nor this court are the filter for what the public may hear.”

Meaning what? His Incitefulness is free to shout “FIRE” in any theater in the land? That’s Trump’s position. As if he cannot campaign for president without issuing threats and promising retribution against anyone who has or will cross him.

[Special prosecutor Jack] Smith’s team sought the gag order earlier this month, citing Trump’s recent inflammatory attacks on potential witnesses in his upcoming trial on charges related to his bid to subvert the 2020 election. They also cited his attacks on prosecutors and Chutkan, as well as on figures like Mike Pence, who is expected to be a key witness in the case.

Trump’s defense team argues that “the prosecution offers no evidence of any causal connection between [Trump’s] speech and the alleged unlawful acts of others.”

Marcy Wheeler reminds those who clearly need reminding that multiple prisoners convicted for their actions during the Jan. 6 insurrection “blamed Trump for their actions,” testimony the DOJ cited in its gag order request:

Lauro ignores the multiple cases, cited in prosecutors’ filing, where people told Trump directly that his incitement had ratcheted up threats against people like Jeff Duncan, Chris Krebs, and Ruby Freeman. He ignores prosecutors’ citation of Trump bragging about the way his followers respond to Trump.

As he acknowledged in a televised town hall on May 10, 2023, his supporters listen to him “like no one else.”

Perhaps more importantly, Lauro ignores something he has already ignored, in his reply to his own motion to recuse Tanya Chutkan.

As I noted, by filing a motion to recuse based off things Judge Chutkan said when January 6 defendants blamed Trump for their actions, Trump invited prosecutors to lay out the many more times defendants had done just that. Not only did prosecutors provide eight other examples where defendants already sentenced by Chutkan blamed Trump for their actions, DOJ laid out something that Robert Palmer said of his own actions on January 6: That he went to the Capitol “at the behest” of Trump and took action to prevent the certification of the vote because of the false claims Trump had made.

It’s an overused reference, but the defense’s defense has no clothes. The only people who cannot see Trump’s efforts to taint the jury pool and intimidate witnesses are those who refuse to see. We may be past the point where MAGA threats against anyone and everyone perceived as a Trump enemy are self-sustaining. But that does not mean Trump should be free to keep feeding the fire and putting his targets at risk of injury or death.

Rachel Maddow a week ago (even before the Trump/Gosar remarks about Gen. Milley): Headlines about violent threats have become the ambient mood of public service in the Trump era of Republican politics. pic.twitter.com/lOgPcfLUub

— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) September 25, 2023

Meidas Touch has collected “27 Insane Things Trump Said He Will Do in a 2nd Term.” Many reflect Trump’s dictatorial vision for a United States of Trump. Here is just a selection:

1. He will arrest all homeless people across the country for “urban camping,” round them up and then “relocate them” to “tent cities” where they can be “rehabilitated. 4/18/23

2. Require every federal employee to take a new patriotism exam and they will be terminated if they refuse to take them or fail to pass. 4/14/23

5. He will have DOJ subpoena local DAs and their staff and remove them from office if he determines that they are failing to do their job to his satisfaction. 5/4/23

7. He will seize university endowments and also fine them millions of dollars if he determines the schools are marxist and/or discriminating against white people. 5/2/23

8. He will have DOJ investigate and prosecute General Milley for treason. 9/22/23

11. Any person convicted of selling drugs will get the death penalty. 11/15/22

12. Pardon convicted J6 inmates convicted of seditious conspiracy and assaulting police officers, with an apology from the US government. 9/1/22

13. Have DOJ investigate Comcast, NBC and MSNBC for treason and remove them from the public airwaves. 9/24/23

17. He would terminate the Constitution if he determined that fraud occurred during an election. 12/3/22

21. Fire 40,000 career civil servants on day one and replace them with “patriots” loyal to him. 7/22/22.

And while he’s busy saving the whales by demolishing wind turbines, Trump will require all citizens to change their underwear every half-hour.

One of the minor mysteries about the January 6th coup plot is what Grassley was talking about when he said that. Considering that the next day Trump unleashed a slavering mob on the Capitol during the proceedings and the secret service attempted to get him to leave the building (which he resisted, unlike the rest of the leadership) it’s interesting to say the least. There was also the comment by Pence adviser Keith Kellogg that they were afraid that they’d take Pence away to Alaska if he left the building, which is indicative of an awareness that there was a plan afoot to make is so that Pence would not be able to fulfill his duties that day.

Grassley clarified that remark saying that he meant he would preside over the expected Senate debate about voting against the certification and that actually sounds reasonable when you see his full comment. But what do we make of this interesting nugget from yesterday’s John Eastman disbarment hearing in California:

John Eastman, testifying at his own disbarment trial, sidestepped a question Wednesday about whether he and others in former President Donald Trump’s orbit discussed the possibility that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — rather than Mike Pence — would preside over the Jan. 6, 2021, session of Congress.

During several hours of sworn testimony in a California disbarment proceeding, Eastman said discussions on that topic were protected by attorney-client privilege. When pressed about which client of his he was referring to, Eastman replied: “President Trump.”

Oh really…. This issue was discussed with Donald Trump? Why would that be?

I don’t know if we’ll ever get to the bottom of this. But it’s very weird that Eastman invoked executive privilege over that question.