Crooked Media - What A Day: Greene-House effect

The House has passed a resolution to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)—a QAnon cultist who has advocated assassinating Democrats—from her committee assignments, after Republicans refused to take any action beyond giving her a private standing ovation. 
 

• The vote was 230-199, with just 11 Republicans joining the “bigotry and violent conspiracy theories are bad” bloc. Ahead of the vote, Greene delivered a speech on the House floor  in which she did not apologize or express remorse for her endorsements of political violence, but did perform some impressive passive-voice contortions: “I was allowed to believe things that weren’t true;” “these are words of the past.” Greene helpfully clarified that school shootings are real and that “9/11 absolutely happened” (cool thing to have to say), before equating the media with QAnon: “Will we allow the media that is just as guilty as QAnon of presenting truth and lies to divide us?” A changed woman, as all can see.
   
• Yesterday night, after deciding to let the GOP’s conspiratorial “cancer” (in Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s words) metastasize unchecked by not even holding their own vote on Greene’s committee assignments, Republicans voted by secret ballot on whether to strip Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) of her leadership post, as punishment for supporting Trump’s impeachment. Cheney prevailed, with 145 votes to keep her in her position and only 61 votes to remove her. (One iconic member voted “present” on a secret ballot—a pioneer on the frontier of cowardice.) The vote turned out to be a profound humiliation for Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and the hardcore MAGA contingent, but it’s ominous that it happened at all.
   
• Rather than risk alienating the GOP’s frothy-mouthed base, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has opted to perform his clumsiest Memento impression. Here’s McCarthy on Wednesday night, feigning total ignorance of QAnon: “I think it would be helpful if you could hear exactly what she told all of us—denouncing Q-on, I don’t know if I say it right, I don’t even know what it is.” And here’s McCarthy last August, pronouncing and denouncing QAnon with ease: “There’s no place for QAnon in the Republican Party.” Nothing like a violent insurrection plastered in QAnon imagery to wipe that knowledge clean out of your head. 

For better or for worse (spoiler: it’s for worse), Republicans have now officially tethered themselves to what were once unspeakable right-wing fringe elements. 
 

• It’s a terrifying national step backwards into the abyss, but it might be useful in the midterms? The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has already launched a $50,000 ad campaign that highlights Greene as the face of the GOP, in an effort to tie vulnerable House Republicans to Greene and her horrific beliefs. Republican leaders have made that task much easier by refusing to take any disciplinary action on their own, and subsequently going on the record in her defense. 
   
• That said, ads won’t help win elections if people can’t vote. Republicans around the country have continued to introduce an avalanche of new bills aimed at making it more difficult for Democratic constituencies to vote, using Donald Trump’s voter-fraud lies as a smokescreen. In states like Georgia and Arizona where Republicans control the legislature, Democrats can’t do much to block those laws from taking effect. In order to avoid permanently losing their majorities to the party that just tongue-kissed QAnon in public, congressional Democrats must pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and to do that, they’ll need to abolish the filibuster.
   

If Republicans can line up behind a member who unapologetically endorsed the execution of House leadership, it sure seems like Democrats could change an arcane Senate rule to protect their ability to govern and to retain power through free and fair elections. We may not have a democracy for much longer if they don’t. 

On today's What A Day pod, Akilah and Gideon interviewed Christian Smalls, a former Amazon employee who led a walkout last March at a warehouse in Staten Island and was subsequently fired. He spoke about his experience, his thoughts on the union push in Alabama, and what's next for essential workers. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts → 

The Government Accountability Office eviscerated the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, in a 346-page report that deviated from the watchdog’s usually neutral tone. The GAO made 31 recommendations for the pandemic response in 2020, and 27 of them—almost 90 percent—had not been implemented as of January 15. Those ignored recommendations included addressing gaps in the medical-supply chain, issuing a comprehensive national testing strategy, speeding up the disbursement of coronavirus funding, and establishing a national plan for vaccine distribution. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), who received the report as a member of the House oversight committee, summed it up thusly: “This independent report is a stunning indictment of the Trump administration’s total failure to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. Their inaction resulted in lives lost.”

• Lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) sent a letter to Donald Trump requesting his testimony under oath, either before or during the impeachment trial. Trump’s lawyers quickly wrote back with a hard no, presumably over Trump’s profanity-laden objections. Democrats could still issue a subpoena, but Trump would likely ask the courts to quash it. 
   
• The Senate has begun a “vote-a-rama” debate over the coronavirus-relief budget resolution, which could last overnight. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) plans to propose an amendment to provide at least $3000 per child to millions of families, giving bipartisan support to Biden’s effort to expand child benefits.
   
• The Justice Department may charge Capitol rioters under the RICO law usually used to prosecute mob bosses, which would require showing that the far-right groups involved qualify as a “criminal enterprise.” So far more than 175 people have been charged in the attack—11 of them have been charged with conspiracy, at least 21 have possible ties to militant groups, and at least 22 are current or former servicemembers.
   
• Prosecutors have asked for a fresh arrest warrant for Kyle Rittenhouse, after he was set free on bail and disappeared. Rittenhouse’s lawyers deliberately omitted the address of his safe house from his bail documents, instead of seeking an order to have that information sealed. 
   
• Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) dishonestly accused Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) of lying in her account of the Capitol attack, in the latest episode of GOP efforts to downplay the insurrection rather than face accountability.
   
• Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) has issued a new statewide mask mandate, an hour after Wisconsin’s GOP-controlled legislature voted to repeal his previous mandate.
   
• Voting-machine company Smartmatic has filed a $2.7 billion libel suit against Fox News and Fox hosts Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, and Jeanine Pirro, as well as infamous Defamation Duo Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.
   
• Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) paid herself more than $22,000 in mileage reimbursements last year. For that number to make sense, Boebert would have had to drive nearly 39,000 miles while campaigning, which would have left barely any time to give her customers diarrhea. Anyway, she has an opponent we can support now, hi Kerry Donovan. 
   
• One hedge fund made $700 million on the GameStop surge, somewhat complicating the David vs. Goliath narrative. 
   
• Trump sent a “you can’t revoke my membership, I resign” letter to SAG-AFTRA and unfortunately it’s a masterpiece. 
   
• There’s a shortage of perfect tweets in the world, it would be a shame to miss the one where Cary Elwes gives Ted Cruz a swirlie. 

Oh cool, right-wing extremist groups in Georgia are building a coalition to advocate for secession. The leader of a Three Percenter paramilitary group that once provided security for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said he’s formed alliances with the American Brotherhood of Patriots and American Patriots USA (APUSA), a group formed by Chester Doles, who previously belonged to variety of neo-Nazi groups. That coalition blends rabid anti-government ideology with a group centered around white nationalism, a classic cocktail that’s never gone wrong! It’s an example of new collaborations that have been emerging in the wake of the election and the January 6 insurrection, according to researchers who study the far-right, as extremist groups that wouldn’t normally mix now build alliances around a “shared victimhood narrative.”  

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Joe Biden has announced that the U.S. will no longer support the Saudi Arabia-led military offensive in Yemen.

A group of Democrats led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) have reintroduced a resolution calling on the Biden administration to cancel up to $50,000 in student debt. 

Los Angeles will expand Project Roomkey, a program that uses hotel rooms to house seniors experiencing homelessness, now the Biden administration has agreed to cover 100 percent of the costs.

Johnson & Johnson has filed an application for emergency-use authorization for its single-shot coronavirus vaccine.