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- Sean Hannity seemingly calling for his own imprisonment??
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Donald Trump may have been the only Republican to officially toss his hat in the 2024 ring so far, but the coming GOP primary is going to be the kind of car wreck that we absolutely will (and should) rubberneck.
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To say the American political landscape has shifted since the last crowded GOP primary in 2015-2016 would be the understatement of the century, but even within the Republican Party, the status quo bros, they’re looking for change. The last few weeks have produced rumblings that the GOP billionaire donor ghouls are openly planning to support a candidate other than disgraced former president Donald Trump in the next election, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
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Even former staunch supporters of ole’ Donny are freaked out that he will be the Republican nominee. They worry that, as in 2016, a splintered field would allow Trump to win the nomination without the support of a majority of GOP primary voters. And then they worry Trump would lose to President Biden, again, for all the same reasons he lost to Biden in the first place. The Iowa caucuses are 11 months away (a great reminder that the presidential campaign season is way too long!!) and many senior members of the Republican Party are trying to prevent a repeat of its last crowded primary. Remember this famous 2016 tweet from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…and we will deserve it.” Ah, memories.
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Back in 2016, Republicans thought Trump would lose because he was a proud bigot and shameless liar. Now they think he’ll lose because he spent the last three years publicly losing his fucking mind about the 2020 election, and then hand-selected a bunch of midterm candidates who ended up getting crushed by their Democratic opponents. Eric Levine, a top GOP fundraiser, went so far as to say that it’s not that Trump is a damaged candidate, but rather “He is a metastasizing cancer who if he is not stopped is going to destroy the party.” Okay first of all, damn! And second of all, we love the sound of the last part!
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So, who do the big Republican donors and fundraisers want instead? We’ll give you three guesses.
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Yeah, it’s obviously Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). A new Monmouth poll positing a Trump/DeSantis face-off had the Florida Governor beating the former president by seven points and besting him in every single sub-category of Republican voters except those earning less than $50,000 per year, and those 65 or older. But those favorable poll numbers for DeSantis are actually lower than they were in December. Any possible Republican Party nominee is going to be horrible, but DeSantis in particular should have our attention because he has distanced himself from Trump while still doing a bunch of fascist shit, a strategy which proved successful for many of the Republicans who did win in the midterm elections. He’s also 30 years younger than Trump, which is of particular importance at a time when many in both parties are hungry for younger leaders.
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DeSantis hasn’t launched his campaign yet, but it would be a huge surprise if he decided not to run. Other GOP contenders expected to announce soon include former Trump’s former U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, and Trump’s former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. Polling also suggests that each additional aforementioned Trump administration flunky would pull votes from DeSantis, not Trump, allowing their former boss to walk away with the nomination.
All of that said, if Trump does become the Republican nominee for a third time, the pearl-clutching from GOP mega-donors will cease, and they will do everything they can to push him over the finish line, just like they did in 2016 and tried to do in 2020. All of the options are horrifying, and none of them would be “easy” to beat, per se. The only comfort we could take in a DeSantis vs. Biden 2024 race is that the shorter candidate historically always loses.
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We’re excited to announce the return of Stuck with Damon Young, an original podcast from Crooked and Spotify. On this show, award-winning author Damon Young has returned for more off-the-cuff conversations inspired by today’s most culturally relevant headlines and round ups of Damon-approved listener-submitted questions. He’s joined some of the brightest minds and bold voices of the Black community including Kiese Laymon, Roy Wood Jr., Elaine Welteroth, Nikole Hannah-Jones and more.
The trailer is live right now and the first episode drops on February 16th! Listen to Stuck with Damon Young for free only on Spotify.
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A new analysis conducted by The Associated Press and Stanford University’s Big Local News Project unearthed the contours of a phenomenon in K-12 education that teachers and administrators across the country have seen for some time now: Thousands of students dropped off the radar during the pandemic, and never came back. An estimated 240,000 students in 21 states have absences which could not be accounted for. They didn’t move out of state or enroll in private school or homeschooling; they're just “missing.” And in the years since 2020, when the pandemic first hit, urgency to reach and re-engage these kids has dissipated. The staggeringly-high number comprises kids who may have dropped out of school or missed out on the basics of reading and school routines in elementary school. As so often happens in the American education system, the conversation about how children will recover from pandemic learning losses has centered largely around test scores and performance, not the impact on their overall development. Some students fell so far behind developmentally and academically that they no longer know how to behave or learn in a school setting. States where kindergarten is optional were more likely to have large numbers of unaccounted-for students. The true number of missing students is likely much higher than the 240,000 estimate, as the analysis doesn’t include data from 29 states, including those with large populations like Texas and Illinois. It’s clear that the United States and its social systems will be grappling with the consequences of learning loss and development loss for years to come.
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Former Vice President Mike Pence received a subpoena today from the special counsel in the January 6 investigation.
Rep. Angie Criag (D-MN) was assaulted in the elevator of her Washington, DC, apartment building early this morning.
As the Kansas City Chiefs head to the Super Bowl this Sunday, Native American groups have renewed their calls for the team to change its name, logo, and extremely racist/embarrassing “tomahawk chop.”
The death toll in Turkey and northern Syria from a major earthquake and subsequent aftershocks has surpassed 20,000 and is expected to keep climbing.
The Biden administration announced today that the PRC balloon shot down by the United States last weekend was equipped to collect intelligence signals as part of a sweeping military-linked aerial-surveillance program.
A new Republican-backed bill in Montana would prohibit schools in the state from punishing students who intentionally misgender or deadname their transgender peers.
The Republican-controlled Missouri House of Representatives blocked a proposal last night that would have banned children(!) from openly carrying firearms on public land without adult supervision.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was hospitalized last night after feeling lightheaded while attending a Democratic retreat. Fetterman’s Communications Director said today that MRI results confirm that the episode was not another stroke.
A former Memphis, TN, police recruiter confirmed that in the years leading up to the killing of Tyre Nichols, the Memphis Police Department lowered its standards to facilitate filling hundreds of slots on the force.
The Florida High School Athletic Association walked back a proposal that would require female high school athletes to disclose their menstrual histories, following severe backlash from students, parents, physicians, advocacy organizations, lawmakers, and basically anyone with more than 10 brain cells.
Burt Bacharach, the hit-machine pop composer whose career spanned more than half a century, has died at the age of 94.
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Our favorite whiny coal-baron centrist is whining again. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) was instrumental in passing the Inflation Reduction Act (because he bitched about it so much that it almost died). Now, Manchin has introduced a bill that would halt credits for electric vehicles until Treasury Secretary Jane Yellen implements strict requirements for E.V. battery sourcing. In a sentence that has been said probably one-million times over the years: Unfortunately for Democrats, they still need Manchin. He hasn’t decided whether to seek re-election next year in a state that may determine control of the Senate, and he’s the Chair of the Senate Energy Committee, so he could wreak havoc on a lot of Biden’s plans. He also dislikes that the Inflation Reduction Act is seen primarily as a climate change-fighting bill, and working in accord with the Biden administration is simply not popular in his deep red state. Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) has been dispatched to the front lines to try to patch things up with Manchin. Here’s hoping the two Joes can smooth things over in the name of a livable planet.
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Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) defended President Biden’s decision to shoot down the Chinese surveillance balloon. Two days in a row with Mitt in the Good News column…what is happening?
Mainers are embracing electric heat pumps (kind of like reverse air conditioners) despite the fossil fuel industry fighting electrification with great force in New England. No clam chowder for you, fossil fuel industry!
Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY) told a CNN reporter that he would vote to expel fellow Republican Rep. George Santos (R-NY). I bet he and Mitt Romney have a lot to talk about.
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