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The Senate held its first public hearing on the January 6 breach of the Capitol, in which security officials delivered testimony on devastating intelligence failures, and Republicans delivered a steaming heap of conspiracy theories.
- Tuesday’s witnesses included former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, acting Capitol Police Chief Robert Contee, former House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving, and former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger.
- All four officials testified that they never saw an email from the FBI warning of potential violence on January 6, even though it did reach Capitol Police the night before. (A rare, confirmed “email that should’ve been a meeting,” spotted in the wild.) As a result, law enforcement prepared for the wrong situation: “We properly planned for a mass demonstration with possible violence, what we got was a military-style coordinated assault on my officers and the violent takeover of the Capitol building,” Sund said. Had security officials seen any of the numerous media reports that Trump supporters were flooding online forums with calls to attack the Capitol? Great question—still unclear! Sure seems relevant to their job descriptions, though.
- Addressing the hours-long delay in deploying the National Guard, officials pointed fingers at the Pentagon and at each other. Sund testified that he had spoken to both Stenger and Irving about calling in the National Guard in the days before the riot, and that Irving said he was worried about the “optics” of having troops present—an account that Irving disputed. Contee testified that when Sund was on the phone pleading for National Guard assistance on January 6, Army representatives expressed the same concern.
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One Republican senator saw the hearing as a forum to continue building a fiction.
- Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) used his time to promote the conspiracy theory that the pro-Trump crowd had been infiltrated by Antifa provacateurs and “fake Trump protesters.” “I think these were the people that probably planned this,” said Johnson, after reading excerpts from a single, debunked article published by the right-wing Federalist.
- Fox News’s Tucker Carlson pushed a complementary conspiracy theory on Monday night: "There's no evidence that white supremacists were responsible for what happened on Jan. 6. That's a lie.” Fact check: Nope! The accounts of Black Capitol Police officers on the day of the siege speak for themselves. During Tuesday’s hearing, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) asked the security officials whether they would “agree that this attack involved white supremacists and extremist groups,” and all of them unhesitatingly answered yes. There are plenty of remaining unknowns about what happened on January 6, but the political and ideological makeup of the mob itself ain’t one of them.
The right-wing effort to rewrite the insurrection goes hand-in-hand with the GOP effort to turn fictional voter fraud into extreme voting restrictions. This is why, when the House sets up an independent commission to investigate the attack, Republicans who helped incite the attack and now hope to further suppress the vote need to be left all the way out of it.
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On the latest Pod Save America stream, Georgia State Representative Bee Nguyen talks to Tommy about her fight against a new round of voter suppression legislation from Republicans. Watch and subscribe → youtube.com/crookedmedia
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California set up coronavirus-vaccine access codes for Black and Latino communities, and affluent white people promptly appropriated them. The program was intended to improve vaccine takeup in hard-hit minority communities, by providing codes that community organizations could distribute to help people nab appointments on a vaccine scheduling website. But shortly after those codes became available, they started circulating among wealthier people who work from home in Los Angeles, many of whom aren’t yet eligible for the vaccine under state rules. The comfortable white folks sharing the codes didn’t seem aware that they were intended for more vulnerable populations, and the purpose wasn’t stated anywhere on the scheduling website. It’s the latest example of inequity in the state’s vaccine rollout, and illustrates how even with targeted measures, people with fast internet and plenty of free time will jump to the front of the line.
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- The Senate has confirmed Linda Thomas-Greenfield to become the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., and Thomas Vilsack to serve (again) as secretary of agriculture.
- New studies suggest that the dominant coronavirus strain in California is more contagious than earlier forms, but also, that variant has been bopping around since mid-2020, and California’s case numbers have been declining sharply. Unclench at least half of your jaw!
- The Biden administration has reopened a Trump-era migrant facility for children in Texas, in order to temporarily house unaccompanied minors. The HHS agency that cares for those kids while looking for sponsors has had to reduce shelter capacities due to coronavirus precautions, so this was a move to prevent overcrowding. Is it a great long-term solution? Many immigration advocates say no, and that the whole system needs to be drastically overhauled. But immigration reporter Dara Lind has offered some useful context.
- Disgraced former Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) announced he won’t run against Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) after all, in order to spend more time with his voter suppression.
- Meanwhile, Georgia's other disgraced former senator Kelly Loeffler has launched a Republican version of Fair Fight (not called Unfair Fight, for some reason), which is also committed to voter suppression.
- Tiger Woods suffered multiple leg injuries in a serious car crash in Los Angeles County. He was hospitalized and taken into surgery.
- Facebook will end its Australian news ban after striking a deal with the government on changes to a law that would make digital platforms pay media publishers for news content.
- Al Jazeera will launch a platform to target an American conservative audience, filling a gaping hole in the U.S. media landscape.
- Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was arrested on drug trafficking charges at Dulles Airport. Prosecutors also said she helped organize her husband’s two prison breaks in Mexico.
- Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti has died, at age 101. Ferlinghetti was the proprietor of San Francisco’s City Lights bookstore and publishing house, a hub for the Beat Generation.
- This link is just a picture of Bernie Sanders holding a box of shirts. No more, no less.
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Minority rule in the Senate: It’s worse than you think! Daily Kos compiled a spreadsheet calculating the popular vote for the Senate going back almost 30 years, and shows what fraction of the population that senators from each party represent. The big takeaway: It’s been over two decades since Senate Republicans won more votes or represented more Americans than Democrats, yet the GOP has had control of the Senate over half the time since then. The imbalance has only grown more extreme: In today’s 50-50 Senate, Democrats represent 41 million more Americans than the Republican caucus. Republican minority rule in the Senate has gotten us a far-right Supreme Court that’s now poised to dismantle voting rights and preserve gerrymandered districts, making it increasingly difficult for Democrats to eke out majorities. Fortunately, Democrats can neutralize that threat to democracy by granting statehood to Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico. To get it done with 50 votes, all they need to do is abolish the filibuster.
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Illinois has become the first state to completely eliminate cash bail.
Ithaca, NY Mayor Svante Myrick has unveiled a proposal to abolish the city’s current police department and replace it with a civilian-led agency, which would respond to most calls with unarmed workers.
Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has announced a proposal to use $3.2 billion to significantly subsidize broadband service for millions of low-income households.
Voto Latino and Media Matters have launched the Latino Anti-Disinformation Lab, an initiative to combat misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine in the Latino community.
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