A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Yup We’re Sticking To The Door Thing
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) wants to make it clear that he absolutely is doing something to prevent future school shootings like the horrific massacre in Uvalde last week, and he can prove it with this letter he sent to the commissioner of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) yesterday. In it, Abbott directs the commissioner to, among other things, ensure that school doors are keeping the kids safe.
- Schools should be instructed to “conduct weekly inspections of exterior doors to verify they are secure during school hours,” Abbott writes.
- The GOP’s new door control platform is part of conservatives’ Very Serious push to “harden” schools into quasi-supermax prisons rather than consider gun control.
Dem Rep. Cicilline’s Had Enough
During a tense House Judiciary Committee session on a sweeping gun control package on Thursday, Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) tore into Republicans’ “bullshit” argument that gun control is an infringement on constitutional rights, and he wasn’t having it when he was asked to yield after saying The Bad Word.
“No, I will not yield, and I’m not gonna yield for my entire five minutes, so don’t ask again!” Cicilline retorted.
- The committee ultimately passed the legislation (which is titled the “Protecting Our Kids Act”) along party lines, and it’ll be taken up for a full House vote next week, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
- Needless to say that the package almost certainly won’t go anywhere in the Senate. A bipartisan group of senators is apparently working on its own legislation at the moment.
DeSantis Tells Gun Control Supporter To Get Lost
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) yelled “Nobody wants to hear from you!” at Democratic House candidate Maxwell Alejandro Frost, who confronted DeSantis during an interview:
Support For Abortion Access Reaches Record Highs
Two polls that were conducted by the Wall Street Journal and Gallup after the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision leak show how much Americans’ support for abortion access has ramped up in the face of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority striking down Roe.
- 57 percent now believe a person ought to be allowed get an abortion for any reason, according to WSJ, the highest figure since its pollster started surveying people on the issue since 1977.
- For the first time, a majority of Americans now say abortion is morally acceptable, according to Gallup.
Get Ready For Public Jan. 6 Panel Hearings
The House Jan. 6 Committee announced that it will hold its first public hearing on Thursday, June 9. The panel has reached out to three people closely tied to ex-vice president Mike Pence asking them to testify publicly, according to CNN: Ex-federal Judge J. Michael Luttig and Pence’s ex-chief counsel, Greg Jacob, plus Pence’s ex-chief of staff, Marc Short.
Must Read
“The bleak spectacle of the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp trial” – Michael Hobbes
Hit-And-Run AG Not Expected To Testify At Impeachment Trial
South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg’s (R) defense team didn’t file a witness list for the official’s upcoming Senate impeachment trial by the deadline on Wednesday, and the prosecutors in the case don’t have him on their witness list.
- Ravnsborg never testified on his deadly crash against a pedestrian in the criminal investigation. He only had his lawyer go to court for him, including when he pleaded no contest to a couple of traffic misdemeanors in the case.
- Ravnsborg doesn’t plan on running for reelection regardless of how the impeachment trial goes, according to local outlet KOTA.
White House Interns Will Finally Start Getting Paid
Interns for the White House and the vice president’s office will no longer have to work for the highest offices in government for free: Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Thursday that interns would start getting paid, beginning with the White House’s fall 2022 internship program. They’ll be paid a stipend of $750 a week.
Sanctioned Russian Oligarch Stashes $300M Yacht In A Creek
Russian fertilizer and coal tycoon Andrey Melnichenko has been keeping his $300 million superyacht anchored in a creek in Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, per the Financial Times and Associated Press, as Western governments seize sanctioned Russian oligarchs’ fancy toys.
- Melnichenko already had to kiss another yacht goodbye in March, when Italian authorities seized his $578 million boat in northeastern Italy. That was the biggest sailing yacht in the world, according to SuperYachtFan, and it came with several smaller boats to go with the big boat.
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