A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Just Three Days Afterward, In Fact
Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA), one of the 157 House Republicans who voted against a bill to enshrine the right to same-sex marriage into federal law (aka the Respect for Marriage Act) on Tuesday, went to his gay son’s wedding on Friday.
- Thompson and his wife were “thrilled to attend and celebrate” their son’s marriage and are “very happy to welcome their new son-in-law into their family,” the GOP lawmaker’s spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.
- Thompson voted against the marriage equality bill because, according to his spokesperson a day after the vote, the legislation was “nothing more than an election-year messaging stunt for Democrats in Congress who have failed to address historic inflation and out of control prices at gas pumps and grocery stores.”
Top Pence Aides Appear Before Grand Jury
Marc Short, who served as Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, confirmed in an interview with ABC News last night that he testified under subpoena in front of a federal grand jury in the Justice Department’s investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. ABC News, NBC News and Politico had reported earlier on Monday that Short testified last week.
- Greg Jacob, Pence’s former legal counsel, also testified to a federal grand jury last week, according to ABC News, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
- What the prosecutors focused on, according to the Wall Street Journal:
- A meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 4 last year when then-Trump legal adviser John Eastman tried to pressure Pence into disrupting the electoral vote count
- Ex-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who tried to rope Pence into the fake Trump elector scheme
Judge To Shoot Down Hice’s Bid To Avoid Testifying In Fulton County Probe
A judge in Atlanta said on Monday that she will reject Rep. Jody Hice’s (R-GA) motion to quash the subpoena from the special grand jury in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Trump election meddling investigation.
Judge Disqualifies Fulton County DA From Investigating Fake Trump Elector
A Fulton County judge on Monday ruled to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office from questioning Georgia state Sen. Burt Jones (R), one of Trump’s sham electors and who is also the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor, in her investigation into Trump’s election interference.
- What this means: A whole new team of prosecutors chosen by the Prosecuting Attorney’s Council of Georgia will decide whether to subpoena or bring charges against Jones.
- The judge agreed with Jones’ argument that Willis was politically biased because she had hosted a fundraiser for Jones’ Democratic rival last month.
- 11 other fake Trump electors similarly tried to get Willis disqualified in their cases, but the judge rejected their bids. Like Jones, those electors (and all the others, 16 in total) are now being criminally investigated for their roles in the sham elector scheme.
Trump’s ‘Law And Order President’ Cosplay Implodes Yet Again
House Jan. 6 Committee member Elaine Luria (D-VA) on Monday posted a video with more material on Trump’s unwillingness to condemn the Capitol attackers. The video included a draft of Trump’s Jan. 7 address showing parts that the then-president had crossed out, and if you had any doubts that Trump’s self-identification as America’s “President of law and order” was, uh, bullshit, seeing him striking out the following lines about holding his violent supporters accountable to the law might convince you:
“I am directing the Department of Justice to ensure all lawbreakers are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We must send a clear message-not with mercy but with JUSTICE. Legal consequences must be swift and firm.”
– A full paragraph Trump refused to say
Trump also changed “And if you broke the law, you belong in jail” to a vaguer “And if you broke the law, you will pay.”
And he got rid of the line telling the violent insurrectionists that “you do not represent me. You do not represent our movement.”
Biden Says He’s Feeling Good Amid Treatment For COVID
After four days of being treated for COVID-19, the President told reporters during a virtual press conference on Monday that he’s “feeling great.” And earlier in the day, White House physician Kevin O’Connor reported that Biden’s symptoms “have now almost completely resolved.”
Manchin And Murkowski Get COVID
Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) both announced on Monday that they had tested positive for COVID-19.
(In his tweet, Manchin said that he was experiencing only mild symptoms and would “continue to work remotely to serve West Virginians,” and if you check the responses, you’ll see that Twitter critics had, well, a lot to say about the last three words there.)
The Woes Of OAN
OAN has been howling about Verizon’s “Marxist agenda” after the carrier dropped OAN last week, leaving the MAGA conspiracy theory machine without any major TV carrier to peddle Trump propaganda after DirecTV dumped the network back in January.
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