Today, Democratic voters in Georgia gave President Joe Biden enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination for president when the Democratic National Convention is held in August. Republican voters in Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Washington gave Trump enough delegates to win the Republican presidential nomination, although former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the race last week, continues to win voters—more than 21% in Washington.
Also today, Special Counsel Robert Hur testified before the House Judiciary Committee about his report on Biden’s handling of classified documents in his possession from his years as vice president. The hearing appeared to show that the Democrats have finally found a way to defang the tactic Republicans have been using since the 1990s. For decades now, under the guise of the important function of congressional oversight, Republicans have weaponized congressional hearings to smear Democrats in the media.
In this Congress, and especially today, rather than accept the framework the Republicans advance as they try to craft a narrative for right-wing media, Democrats have pushed back with facts and their own story.
In January 2023, apparently wishing to avoid accusations that the Department of Justice was favoring Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur, a partisan Republican whom Trump had appointed U.S. attorney for Maryland, to oversee the investigation into whether Biden had mishandled classified documents.
In his final report, released last month, Hur concluded that “no criminal charges are warranted in this matter...even if there was no policy against charging a sitting president.” But then Hur went on for more than 300 pages to offer a picture of Biden as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Notably, Hur reported that Biden did not remember the date of his son Beau Biden’s death.
The media ran with that editorializing rather than the fact that Hur had concluded that criminal charges were not warranted. Stories about Biden’s age swamped the media. Judd Legum of Popular Information found that in the four days after Hur’s report appeared, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal together published 81 articles about Hur’s assessment of Biden’s memory, suggesting that Biden was sliding into dementia and should not be running for reelection.
Republicans immediately demanded the transcriptions of Biden’s interviews with Hur and his staff, saying they needed more information for their case for impeaching Biden. Republican House leadership issued a statement that “[a] man too incapable of being held accountable for mishandling classified information is certainly unfit for the Oval Office.”
House Republicans asked Hur to testify before the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Trump loyalist Jim Jordan (R-OH). Hur prepared for his testimony with the help of Trumpworld figures, and he resigned from the Department of Justice effective yesterday, so he appeared before the committee today not as a DOJ employee bound by certain ethical guidelines, but as a private citizen.
But while Republicans clearly designed their plans for this Congress’s investigations to seed smears of Democrats in the public mind, Democrats have come to hearings exceedingly well prepared to turn the tables back on the Republicans. That strategy was obvious today as it quickly became clear in the hearing that it was not Biden who was on the hot seat.
Hours before the hearing was about to begin, the Department of Justice released a transcript of Biden’s interviews, held in the two days after Hamas attacked Israel as he rushed to respond to that crisis. The transcripts belied Hur’s portrayal of Biden’s answers; among other things, he clearly knew the exact date Beau died.
The transcript also revealed a pointed contrast between Trump and Biden, with the president telling investigators he didn’t “own a stock or a bond that I’m aware of…. I never wanted to have any argument…. The thing I valued most my whole life, my reputation and integrity. So I never wanted to have anything that someone said, you bought that stock and it went up because you traded. Never did that.”
Democrats came to the hearing prepared to turn it into a hearing on Trump. Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) called out Hur for unprofessional behavior in disparaging the president after finding the matter should be dismissed. Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) suggested Hur was angling for an appointment in a second Trump administration and asked him to demonstrate his credibility by pledging that he would not accept such an appointment. Hur declined to do so.
The hearing was covered live on various television channels, and the Democrats used that media time to show videos of Trump slurring his words, forgetting names, and speaking in word salad, getting their own sound bites to voters. They got Hur to spell out the clear contrast between Trump’s theft of documents and Biden’s cooperation with the government.
Conservative lawyer George Conway wrote on social media: “I think Biden’s State of the Union address last week and Hur’s immolation today will go down in political history as Reagan’s ‘I am not going to exploit…my opponent’s youth and inexperience’ moment…only on steroids.” Conway was referring to Reagan’s response in a 1984 presidential debate to a question about his own age; Reagan’s opponent, Walter Mondale, later said he knew Reagan’s answer was the moment he had lost not only the debate but probably the election.
In other news today, pressure on House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to bring up the national security supplemental bill that includes aid for Ukraine continues to increase. Although the administration says it has found an additional $300 million from Pentagon cost savings to supply artillery rounds and munitions for Ukraine, national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters:
“It is nowhere near enough to meet Ukraine's battlefield needs and it will not prevent Ukraine from running out of ammunition."
House Democrats are working to get enough signatures on a discharge petition to force Johnson to bring up a vote on a supplemental bill—which is expected to pass if it makes it to a vote—and today, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also added pressure, encouraging Johnson to bring up the measure that passed the Senate in mid-February. “Allow a vote,” he said. “A vote. Let the House speak.”
Johnson’s control of the House, such as it is, got a little weaker today as Representative Ken Buck (R-CO) announced he is leaving Congress at the end of next week. “It is the worst year of the nine years and three months that I’ve been in Congress and having talked to former members, it’s the worst year in 40, 50 years to be in Congress,” Buck told CNN’s Dana Bash. “But I’m leaving because I think there’s a job to do out there…. This place has just devolved into this bickering and nonsense and not really doing the job for the American people.”
The Internal Revenue Service today launched a pilot program in 12 states to enable taxpayers to file their federal tax returns directly, for free. The Treasury Department estimates that about one third of all tax returns are simple enough to use this new system and that about 19 million taxpayers could use it this season.
Trump Faces Significant Protest Vote in Georgia March 13, 2024 By Taegan Goddard
Although Donald Trump clinched the Republican presidential nomination last night, it’s worth noting that he lost 13% of the Georgia Republican primary vote to Nikki Haley even though she dropped out of the race last week.
That amounted to more than 77,000 ballots in a very low turnout primary.
When they stood up from the corner table where they meet for coffee, the committee of old farmers won't admit their sons are the farmers now, they are just retirees. But then he walks out to the field currently being planted. (those amazing perfectly straight guided rows) and taking out an old Case jack knife digs the kernels, digs a little deeper, and watches a dust devil. So he flags down the tractor, his son a little annoyed to be slowed, and advises that it might be a dry year having seen dust devils in April in '88. Who knows what the Pacific might send post El Nino. And helps set the depth wheels up. Walking back to the truck remembers when the ground talked back to his feet, softer then. Pillow talk. A love affair with dirt. Dirt that was alive. And would talk back. Whispers. Soft whispers..
Second part of National Geographic UFO online series [Click] Secret Pentagon program revealed. There are two events I hadn’t heard of before. When one of the US Navy fighters approached one of the UFO’s, the UFO jammed the fighter’s radar. And when an Iranian air force pilot (following orders) attempted to shoot down a UFO, it defended itself by destroying the rocket (or rockets) fired at it and temporarily disabling all the electronic instruments and controls in the fighter.
I keep coming back to the question of why extraterrestrial beings would investigate Earth, and how. I am inclined to believe they would be investigating to satisfy their curiosity; communication with their exploratory craft might be by quantum entanglement, but how to get them to Terra? —Alan
Yknow, I don’t want my money going to fund the aggressors anymore. I just want to support the victims. Can we, in America, discern and make adjustments?
Election Results
ReplyDeleteNote: Presidential results only.
DeleteRFK, Jr is jumping into the Presidential Race...just to be a big pain.
ReplyDeleteSmall pain, it seems to me; but I could be mistaken.
Delete---Alan
{listener}
ReplyDeleteHeather Cox Richardson tonight:
Today, Democratic voters in Georgia gave President Joe Biden enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination for president when the Democratic National Convention is held in August. Republican voters in Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Washington gave Trump enough delegates to win the Republican presidential nomination, although former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the race last week, continues to win voters—more than 21% in Washington.
Also today, Special Counsel Robert Hur testified before the House Judiciary Committee about his report on Biden’s handling of classified documents in his possession from his years as vice president. The hearing appeared to show that the Democrats have finally found a way to defang the tactic Republicans have been using since the 1990s. For decades now, under the guise of the important function of congressional oversight, Republicans have weaponized congressional hearings to smear Democrats in the media.
In this Congress, and especially today, rather than accept the framework the Republicans advance as they try to craft a narrative for right-wing media, Democrats have pushed back with facts and their own story.
In January 2023, apparently wishing to avoid accusations that the Department of Justice was favoring Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur, a partisan Republican whom Trump had appointed U.S. attorney for Maryland, to oversee the investigation into whether Biden had mishandled classified documents.
In his final report, released last month, Hur concluded that “no criminal charges are warranted in this matter...even if there was no policy against charging a sitting president.” But then Hur went on for more than 300 pages to offer a picture of Biden as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Notably, Hur reported that Biden did not remember the date of his son Beau Biden’s death.
…continued:
DeleteThe media ran with that editorializing rather than the fact that Hur had concluded that criminal charges were not warranted. Stories about Biden’s age swamped the media. Judd Legum of Popular Information found that in the four days after Hur’s report appeared, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal together published 81 articles about Hur’s assessment of Biden’s memory, suggesting that Biden was sliding into dementia and should not be running for reelection.
Republicans immediately demanded the transcriptions of Biden’s interviews with Hur and his staff, saying they needed more information for their case for impeaching Biden. Republican House leadership issued a statement that “[a] man too incapable of being held accountable for mishandling classified information is certainly unfit for the Oval Office.”
House Republicans asked Hur to testify before the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Trump loyalist Jim Jordan (R-OH). Hur prepared for his testimony with the help of Trumpworld figures, and he resigned from the Department of Justice effective yesterday, so he appeared before the committee today not as a DOJ employee bound by certain ethical guidelines, but as a private citizen.
But while Republicans clearly designed their plans for this Congress’s investigations to seed smears of Democrats in the public mind, Democrats have come to hearings exceedingly well prepared to turn the tables back on the Republicans. That strategy was obvious today as it quickly became clear in the hearing that it was not Biden who was on the hot seat.
Hours before the hearing was about to begin, the Department of Justice released a transcript of Biden’s interviews, held in the two days after Hamas attacked Israel as he rushed to respond to that crisis. The transcripts belied Hur’s portrayal of Biden’s answers; among other things, he clearly knew the exact date Beau died.
…further continued:
DeleteThe transcript also revealed a pointed contrast between Trump and Biden, with the president telling investigators he didn’t “own a stock or a bond that I’m aware of…. I never wanted to have any argument…. The thing I valued most my whole life, my reputation and integrity. So I never wanted to have anything that someone said, you bought that stock and it went up because you traded. Never did that.”
Democrats came to the hearing prepared to turn it into a hearing on Trump. Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) called out Hur for unprofessional behavior in disparaging the president after finding the matter should be dismissed. Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) suggested Hur was angling for an appointment in a second Trump administration and asked him to demonstrate his credibility by pledging that he would not accept such an appointment. Hur declined to do so.
The hearing was covered live on various television channels, and the Democrats used that media time to show videos of Trump slurring his words, forgetting names, and speaking in word salad, getting their own sound bites to voters. They got Hur to spell out the clear contrast between Trump’s theft of documents and Biden’s cooperation with the government.
Conservative lawyer George Conway wrote on social media: “I think Biden’s State of the Union address last week and Hur’s immolation today will go down in political history as Reagan’s ‘I am not going to exploit…my opponent’s youth and inexperience’ moment…only on steroids.” Conway was referring to Reagan’s response in a 1984 presidential debate to a question about his own age; Reagan’s opponent, Walter Mondale, later said he knew Reagan’s answer was the moment he had lost not only the debate but probably the election.
In other news today, pressure on House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to bring up the national security supplemental bill that includes aid for Ukraine continues to increase. Although the administration says it has found an additional $300 million from Pentagon cost savings to supply artillery rounds and munitions for Ukraine, national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters:
“It is nowhere near enough to meet Ukraine's battlefield needs and it will not prevent Ukraine from running out of ammunition."
House Democrats are working to get enough signatures on a discharge petition to force Johnson to bring up a vote on a supplemental bill—which is expected to pass if it makes it to a vote—and today, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also added pressure, encouraging Johnson to bring up the measure that passed the Senate in mid-February. “Allow a vote,” he said. “A vote. Let the House speak.”
Johnson’s control of the House, such as it is, got a little weaker today as Representative Ken Buck (R-CO) announced he is leaving Congress at the end of next week. “It is the worst year of the nine years and three months that I’ve been in Congress and having talked to former members, it’s the worst year in 40, 50 years to be in Congress,” Buck told CNN’s Dana Bash. “But I’m leaving because I think there’s a job to do out there…. This place has just devolved into this bickering and nonsense and not really doing the job for the American people.”
The Internal Revenue Service today launched a pilot program in 12 states to enable taxpayers to file their federal tax returns directly, for free. The Treasury Department estimates that about one third of all tax returns are simple enough to use this new system and that about 19 million taxpayers could use it this season.
click here for references
{listener}
DeleteSorry…it didn’t seem that long when I read it. But it was encouraging enough that I wanted to share it here. 🙂
NO problem. I saw part of Hur's questioning; immolation indeed.
Delete----Alan
Trump Faces Significant Protest Vote in Georgia
ReplyDeleteMarch 13, 2024 By Taegan Goddard
Although Donald Trump clinched the Republican presidential nomination last night, it’s worth noting that he lost 13% of the Georgia Republican primary vote to Nikki Haley even though she dropped out of the race last week.
That amounted to more than 77,000 ballots in a very low turnout primary.
----Alan
ReplyDeleteRNC Ends Minority Outreach Program [Click]
—Alan
As Stephen Colbert said: "Aw, and just when they were on the verge of finding a minority to reach out to."
DeleteE. Jean Carroll’s Lawyers Foil Trump’s Quiet Attempt to Stall $91 Million Payment [Click]
ReplyDelete—Alan
Federal Courts Crack Down On Legal Strategy That Has Given Trump Judges Massive Power [Click] Sounds more like “discourage” than “crack down” IMO.
ReplyDelete——Alan
Judge dismisses six charges against Trump and defendants in Georgia election case [Click] More coming soon.
ReplyDelete—Alan
From Phil*in*Iowa (shared with permission)...
ReplyDeleteThe Committee Of Old Farmers
When they stood up from the corner table
where they meet for coffee,
the committee of old farmers
won't admit their sons are the farmers now,
they are just retirees.
But then he walks out to the field
currently being planted.
(those amazing perfectly straight guided rows)
and taking out an old Case jack knife
digs the kernels, digs a little deeper,
and watches a dust devil.
So he flags down the tractor,
his son a little annoyed to be slowed,
and advises that it might be a dry year
having seen dust devils in April in '88.
Who knows what the Pacific
might send post El Nino.
And helps set the depth wheels up.
Walking back to the truck
remembers when the ground
talked back to his feet, softer then.
Pillow talk. A love affair with dirt.
Dirt that was alive. And would talk back.
Whispers. Soft whispers..
Phil Specht
DNA reveals relationships of mesolithic hunter-gatherers and neolithic farmers. [Click]
ReplyDelete—Alan
Second part of National Geographic UFO online series [Click] Secret Pentagon program revealed. There are two events I hadn’t heard of before. When one of the US Navy fighters approached one of the UFO’s, the UFO jammed the fighter’s radar. And when an Iranian air force pilot (following orders) attempted to shoot down a UFO, it defended itself by destroying the rocket (or rockets) fired at it and temporarily disabling all the electronic instruments and controls in the fighter.
ReplyDeleteI keep coming back to the question of why extraterrestrial beings would investigate Earth, and how. I am inclined to believe they would be investigating to satisfy their curiosity; communication with their exploratory craft might be by quantum entanglement, but how to get them to Terra?
—Alan
Yknow, I don’t want my money going to fund the aggressors anymore. I just want to support the victims. Can we, in America, discern and make adjustments?
ReplyDeleteGaza war: UNRWA says Rafah aid centre hit by Israeli forces