A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.
Great Timing, Guys
Two members of Congress went on a junket to Kabul right in the middle of the massive airlift to rescue Americans and Afghans from the Taliban takeover.
- The guilty reps are Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Peter Meijer (R-MI).
- Military and State Department officials were livid, according to the Washington Post.
- A diplomat lambasted the trip as “one of the most irresponsible things I’ve heard a lawmaker do,” and a senior official said it was “as moronic as it is selfish.”
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) didn’t seem to care for the stunt either, reminding members that State and Defense Department officials have asked them not to travel to the region now.
- “Member travel to Afghanistan and the surrounding countries would unnecessarily divert needed resources from the priority mission of safely and expeditiously evacuating America [sic] and Afghans at risk from Afghanistan,” she wrote in a letter.
- Moulton and Meijer insisted that they went there to “to gather information, not to grandstand,” and that they hadn’t taken up room in a plane that actual refugees needed.
- “We left on a plane with empty seats, seated in crew-only seats to ensure that nobody who needed a seat would lose one because of our presence,” they said.
- Let the dunking begin:
Whether it is Haiti or Afghanistan, taking up space in a disaster zone for your own ego helps no one. https://t.co/Unh6HXvZjd
— Sara Jacobs (@SaraJacobsCA) August 25, 2021
What they thought could be gained by pulling this stunt is beyond me ??♀️ https://t.co/zuUm60iyCY
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 25, 2021
Biden Sticks To His Afghanistan Withdrawal Timeline
The President won’t be extending his Aug. 31 deadline despite pressure from some lawmakers and officials, saying in a speech yesterday that he was “determined to complete our mission.”
- Whether Biden ultimately decides to extend the deadline “depends on the Taliban continuing to cooperate and allow access to the airport to those who are transporting out and no disruptions to our operation,” he said.
President Biden said that the United States is “on pace” to finish its mission in Afghanistan by Aug. 31, the deadline he set.
70,700 Americans and others who have assisted the United States have evacuated since Aug. 14. pic.twitter.com/POFfHbu2j4
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 24, 2021
The House Passes The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act
The effort to revive key elements of the Voting Rights Act passed 219-212, with no Republican support.
- Among other things, the bill would require jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination to receive federal approval before implementing new voting laws (also known as “preclearance”).
- The bill attempts to counter the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act in the 2013 Shelby case.
- The legislation is almost certainly doomed in the Senate without changes to the filibuster rule. The only GOP senator who supports it is Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).
Yet Another Insurrectionist-White Nationalist Crossover
The Jan. 6 insurrectionist who is accused of stealing a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) office during the attack allegedly participated in a neo-Nazi chat room, an investigation by Vice found.
SCOTUS Upholds One Of Trump’s Worst Anti-Immigration Policies
The Supreme Court ordered the Biden administration to comply with a lower court’s ruling to reinstate Trump’s infamous “Remain in Mexico” policy.
Get The Damn Shot
Hospitalization rates for people who weren’t vaccinated for COVID-19 were 29 times higher than for the vaccinated in Los Angeles County in July, according to a new study by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.
An Actual Voter Fraudster’s Reckoning
GOP operative McRae Dowless, who masterminded an absentee ballot fraud scheme in a 2018 North Carolina congressional election, will be sentenced today after pleading guilty to federal Social Security fraud charges.
- Dowless still faces separate state criminal charges for allegedly ordering his assistants to collect incomplete ballots and fill them out during the 2018 election in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District.
A Ghost Pleads Guilty
A former Florida Senate candidate who ran as a “ghost” candidate in a Republican’s plot to siphon votes from a Democratic rival with the same last name pleaded guilty to election law violations.
And The Award Doesn’t Go To…..
Remember when then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo won an International Emmy for, uh, holding press conferences last year? Well, now he has to kiss that little statue goodbye after resigning in disgrace.
- The International Academy announced that it was “rescinding” the award, and that Cuomo’s “name and any reference to his receiving the award will be eliminated from International Academy materials going forward.”
- In case you forgot, they gave Cuomo the Emmy last November “in recognition of his leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic and his masterful use of television to inform and calm people around the world.”
The difference between me and Andrew Cuomo? Neither of us is governor, but I still have my Emmy(s).
— Cynthia Nixon (@CynthiaNixon) August 24, 2021
Having A Normal One
Andrew Giuliani, the son of ex-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, is out here doing … this:
Let’s make New York the SAFEST and CLEANEST state in the world AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/GuMImAxOxL
— Andrew H. Giuliani (@AndrewHGiuliani) August 21, 2021
Did anyone else forget that Giuliani’s running for New York governor? And that he’s a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum board of trustees?
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