Note: We won’t have a Morning Memo tomorrow. Happy Veteran’s Day!
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.
Hey Guess Who Hates Women
Sean Parnell, the Trump-endorsed Pennsylvania Senate candidate whose wife has accused him of strangling her, expressed some decidedly unhinged opinions about women during a Fox Nation interview last year.
- Parnell scoffed at the idea that women could be happy and successful without men. That “nonsense” has “done nothing but raise one generation of woman tyrants after the next,” he complained.
- He bemoaned the end of the time when women had to rely on men, arguing that women used to be attracted to men because men could protect them from dinosaurs (which, uh, went extinct millions of years before humans existed).
- Parnell also complained about seeing women on Instagram posting selfies with “narcissistic” duck faces.
- The year-old interview was surfaced by an oppo research group Tuesday, the same day as a court hearing in a long-running custody dispute between Parnell and his estranged wife, who has accused him of abusing her and their children. Parnell has denied the accusations.
Prosecutors Recommend Prison For QAnon Shaman
“QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley (aka the guy who marched through the Capitol with a spear while wearing fake horns and facepaint on Jan. 6) should go to prison for 51 months, the government argued in a new filing last night.
- Prosecutors called Chansley the “public face” of the Capitol insurrection in their 28-page document.
- In a plea agreement with prosecutors, Chansley pleading guilty in September to felony obstruction of Congress.
Judge Shoots Down Trump’s Executive Privilege Gambit
In a major blow to Trump’s efforts to block the sweeping investigation into his role in the Capitol insurrection, federal judge Tanya Chutkan rejected the ex-president’s claim that the White House documents sought by the House Jan. 6 panel in its subpoena were protected by executive privilege.
- Now the National Archives are required to release the documents by Friday. Chutkan let the committee’s subpoena stand without alterations, so it’ll be all the records the panel requested starting i April 2020.
- Chutkan reminded Trump in her ruling that presidents aren’t kings. She also reminded him that he isn’t president anymore.
- Trump immediately took steps to appeal the ruling.
Stephen Miller Won’t Say If He’ll Comply With Jan. 6 Subpoena
Ex-White House senior adviser Steven Miller was vague about whether he’d cooperate with House Jan. 6 select committee’s subpoena last night:
- The committee had also targeted former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany in the same batch of subpoenas yesterday.
A Glimmer Of Hope In Climate Change Fight
Renewable energy in the U.S. from solar and wind nearly quadrupled between 2011 and 2020, according to a new report by the Environment America Research and Policy Center and nonpartisan research organization Frontier Group.
- If the current rate of growth continues, it would put the U.S. on track to reach Biden’s goal of 100 percent clean electricity by 2035.
- There are at least two big factors in the new numbers, according to the researchers: 1) Renewable energy has become way less expensive and 2) states have steadily enacted more robust policies to expand renewable energy use.
Shocking Tapes! How The NRA Grappled With Columbine Shooting
In the immediate aftermath of the 1999 Columbine high school massacre, the head honchos of the National Rifle Association frantically calculated how to clean up their image, according to tapes of their conference calls published by NPR.
- One leader who recognized the NRA was in “deep shit” floated a $1 million victims fund, but another official rejected the idea out of concern that it would look like the gun group was admitting fault for the shooting.
- That fear was also at the center of their internal debate over whether to move forward with a NRA convention in Denver that was coming up in just a few days–only miles away from the scene of the shooting.
- Both the gun industry and GOP lawmakers were asking the NRA for guidance in the fallout of the shooting, according to the executives.
- The NRA leaders also didn’t seem to think too highly of their group’s more fervent members: Choice words included “nuts,” “fruitcakes,” “wackos,” “hillbillies” and “idiots.”
Talking To Trumpers Who Harassed Election Officials
Reuters got ahold of nine Trump supporters who admitted to trying to terrorize election workers with threatening or hostile phone calls.
- All of them claimed they didn’t do anything wrong, and only two regretted that their messages had scared the officials.
- Seven of them targeted election workers outside their home states.
- One of the harassers was triggered by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s goofy “Cyber Symposium” on election fraud in August. He subsequently sent Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold a Facebook message telling her that he hopes she dies and he knows where she sleeps.
More Than A Dozen Trump Appointees Violated Hatch Act
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) revealed in a newly released report that 13 senior Trump administration officials used their official authority to push for the then-president’s reelection during the 2020 election cycle in violation of the Hatch Act.
- 11 of the officials flouted the law by praising Trump’s campaign or bashing Biden during official interviews or media appearances, according to the OSC:
- White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway
- White House senior adviser Jared Kushner
- White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany
- White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows
- White House senior adviser Stephen Miller
- National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien
- White House communications director Alyssa Farah
- Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short
- White House deputy press secretary Brian Morgenstern
- Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette
- U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman
- Two officials violated the Hatch Act by mixing their official duties with RNC festivities, the OSC found:
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, by taping a speech for the RNC during an official trip to Jerusalem.
- Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, by presiding over a naturalization ceremony for the purpose of creating video content for the convention.
- However, Trump holding the 2020 Republican National Convention at the White House wasn’t a Hatch Act violation, the OSC said, because the president and vice president are exempt from the law and the event was produced by non-federal employees.
WTF Read Of The Day
“Inside the bitter, nasty feud over making daylight saving time permanent” – Politico
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