Crooked Media - What A Day: OnlyScams

- Right-wing activist Riley Gaines on Fox News, firing the first shot of the annual war on Christmas. 

Rep. George Santos appears to be in real danger of expulsion from the House after yesterday’s Ethics Committee report detailing his extensive use of campaign funds for everything from Botox to OnlyFans. 

• The Republican head of the House Ethics Committee made good on his promise to file an expulsion resolution against Santos today. If it goes to the floor—and it looks like it will—that’ll be the third attempt to kick Santos out of the House for his long list of lies, scams, frauds…and 23 criminal counts! The Ethics Committee referred Santos for even more criminal charges, saying he tried “to fraudulently exploit every aspect of his House candidacy for his own personal financial profit.” 

• Santos said he won’t seek reelection. But Santos, the straight shooter, also says he’ll never resign. (Which means… He’s resigning immediately? Right?) That stubbornness helped keep Santos in office despite more than a year of humiliating exposures, mostly because GOP leaders like former Speaker Kevin McCarthy maneuvered to keep Santos from facing expulsion. The reason was always clear: Republicans, already at war with each other, had only a five-vote majority for things like debt limit confrontations and government shutdown fights. Santos may be an embarrassing, indicted scam-artist, but he was an embarrassing indicted scam artist with a reliable GOP vote! 

• But McCarthy is so yesterday. Speaker Mike Johnson, who just avoided a government shutdown with lots and lots of Democratic votes, is now signaling that Santos won’t be protected. Johnson called the Ethics Committee report “very troubling” and suggested Santos could face an expulsion vote after Thanksgiving. Johnson urged lawmakers to do what they think is “in the best interest” of the House, presumably when that vote comes up. 

• What Republicans consider “in the best interests” of the House is an ironic and fascinating question, and not only because they’ve already voted twice to keep Santos around (again, five-vote majority). Nearly 140 GOP House members voted not to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 election win. They went on to block a bipartisan commission examining January 6; to enable a dangerous and damaging standoff over the debt limit; to attempt to undermine criminal investigations of Donald Trump; and to barrel ahead with an evidence-free impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden. Let’s hear it for Best Interest of the House!

There’s still a House majority to win.

• What happens if Santos gets gone from New York’s 3rd Congressional District? He won the district easily in 2022, in a year when NY voters were pretty fed up with Dems in Albany. But Joe Biden beat Donald Trump 54% to 45% in the district that includes parts of Nassau County and Queens and was redrawn after the 2020 Census. New York law requires a special election within about 90 days of a congressional seat going vacant. There’s been a huge field of both Dems and Republicans circling around Santos for months, including former Dem Rep. Tom Suozzi, who gave up his seat last year before a failed run for governor. Dem party official Robert Zimmerman, who Santos defeated in 2022, sounds like he’s considering jumping into the race too.
   

Now that the House’s ethics report unreservedly condemns Santos, fewer Republicans will have an excuse to keep him around for expediency. Will enough of them join Democrats for…actual accountability to meet the two-thirds threshold expulsion? We’re about to find out.

After historic abortion rights victories in Ohio and Virginia, Hysteria sits down with Chrissy Teigen for insight into her personal journey with abortion, the impact of abortion bans, and discussion around the importance of reproductive health advocacy. Watch the full conversation on Hysteria’s YouTube, out now.

The United Nations warned that civilians in Gaza are at risk of starvation amid fuel shortages inside the territory. The UN was forced to halt food deliveries because of a communications blackout caused by the lack of fuel. Meanwhile, the Israeli government yielded to pressure from the White House and said it would allow about 37,000 gallons of fuel into Gaza every two days. The UN Relief Works Agency is supposed to have custody of the fuel to ensure it’s used for civilian needs and not commandeered by Hamas. 

Back in the U.S., calls for a ceasefire spread. NYPD cops arrested pro-Palestinian protestors who occupied the lobby of Fox parent NewsCorp’s headquarters in New York. In Congress,  Democrats' demands for a cease-fire expanded…kind of. Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for Israel to "stop the bombing" in Gaza, then repeated the demand in a radio interview. That may sound like calling for a ceasefire. But Warren’s staff said her position hadn’t changed and that she’s not using that word. California Dem Rep. Mark DeSaulnier called for a “negotiated ceasefire” that deals in Hamas, but also demanded Hamas be “brought to justice.” Only one senator, Dick Durbin of Illinois, has called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Arizona State University canceled a speech to pro-Palestinian students by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, saying groups didn’t follow proper procedures for campus logistics and safety. Tlaib, the only Palestinian member of Congress, was censured last week for some of her anti-Israel statements.  

Several companies, including Apple, IBM, Disney, and Lionsgate Studios pulled their advertising from X, formerly known as Twitter, in reaction to Elon Musk’s public antisemitism on the platform. Criticism rained down on X after Musk responded to a tweet accusing Jews of “hatred against whites,” by calling that comment “the actual truth.” Brands also didn’t really love their ads running next to tweets praising Hilter and Nazis, all boosted by the Musk’s blue-check algorithm that has made X so fetid since Musk’s takeover.
 

A Colorado judge rejected the latest attempt to boot Donald Trump off the 2024 ballot. Several voters and the watchdog group CREW sued to disqualify Trump under the 14th Amendment’s prohibition against an insurrectionist holding public office. Denver Judge Sarah Wallace found that Trump had indeed engaged in insurrection, but also ruled that the “disqualification clause” in the 14th Amendment doesn’t apply to the presidency. Similar cases are pending in at least 18 other states. None has succeeded so far. 

Trump admitted that he wanted to go back to the Capitol on Jan. 6, and the Secret Service wouldn’t let him. (Remember when he allegedly lunged at the agent driving “The Beast,” the presidential limo, and tried to grab the wheel?) Trump told ABC’s Jonathan Karl: “I wanted to go back. I was thinking about going back during the problem to stop the problem, doing it myself. Secret Service didn’t like that idea too much. And I could’ve done that. And you know what? I would have been very well received.”

Chrissy Teigan opened up about her abortion—a procedure she originally understood to be a miscarriage—in an in-depth conversation about reproductive rights, politics and daily life on this week's episode of Hysteria. The model and TV personality said: “It was hard going public with something like that and being publicly ignorant [about] your own body…. and not knowing what had to happen in order to save your life.”  

A Trump-inspired far-right candidate in Sunday’s presidential election in Argentina says if he loses, it’s because of fraud. Javier Melei, a former television personality with a mess of wild hair, loves being compared to Trump. And he loves Trump’s antidemocratic tactics even more! Don’t cry for me, MAGArgentina. 

TikTok is blaming journalist Yashar Ali for causing Osama bin Laden love to go viral on its platform, by…talking about it. But it doesn’t add up. The disturbing trend was already seen by millions before Ali sounded the alarm. CNN estimates videos extolling bin Laden’s infamous “Letter to America” have reached 14 million viewers. 

Retired Army Col. Yevgeny “Eugene” Vindman, who played a key role in Trump’s first impeachment (the guy who said: “Here, right matters…”), raised a lot of money in the first 24 hours after announcing his run for Congress in Virginia. Vindman’s campaign says he raised over $800,000 in his first official day as a candidate. 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, champion of “Jewish space lasers,” is attempting to defend herself for promoting the infamous antisemitic conspiracy theory about laser beams starting California wildfires, by claiming in her new book that her original post about the idea was “sarcastic.” She goes on to claim that she isn’t antisemitic because she donates to a crackpot right-wing Jewish cause.

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A federal judge ruled that North Dakota’s 2021 legislative redistricting plan improperly diluted the voting strength of two Native American tribes and violated their rights. Section. 2 of the Voting Rights Act is so hot right now, it could help flip 2024 congressional seats in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana.

Trump’s attempt to secure a mistrial in the $250 million fraud lawsuit against his family business in New York City was dismissed by Judge Arthur Engoron as “utterly without merit.” 

Trump also failed to have any mention of the Jan. 6 riot struck from his federal indictment, after Judge Tanya Chutkan denied the request. It was a bit like asking to strike any mention of banks, money and theft from your indictment for bank robbery. Nice try, though, Donnie.