A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
This Is Fine
Virginia deputy attorney general Monique Miles resigned on Thursday after the Washington Post asked her about Facebook posts she’d made applauding the “peace loving” Jan. 6 Capitol insurrectionists and spreading MAGA conspiracy theories that China election frauded Trump.
- A spokesperson for Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) said that he didn’t know about Miles’ posts until the Washington Post found them.
- Miles insisted to the Washington Post that her posts were taken out of context, that they were made “at a time when the news was still developing” and that she now believes Biden is the president “as he was certified as such.”
- Miles’ job as deputy attorney general involved election-related matters, including handling litigation over elections and giving legal advice to Virginia’s Department of Elections.
Minnesota GOP AG Candidate Brags About Staffers Joining Jan. 6 Insurrection
Lynne Torgerson, one of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s (D) Republican challengers, was proud to inform everyone at a GOP primary candidate forum last month that at least two of her staffers stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to a video clip flagged by Heartland Signal on Thursday.
- Torgerson described the insurrectionists as “heroes” and argued Biden’s victory in the 2020 election seemed to be “actually somewhat of a coup.”
- Another Republican hopeful at the event, Doug Wardlow, similarly stood by the insurrectionists, parroting the MAGA narrative that they were being “improperly prosecuted.”
- Wardlow is the general counsel for MyPillow by the way, which tells you about everything you need to know about the guy.
Biden Doing ‘Deep Dive’ Into Four SCOTUS Candidates
The President told MSNBC in a pre-taped interview on Thursday that he’s currently doing thorough background checks on four potential replacements for outgoing Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
- Biden predicted that his eventual nominee would have GOP support because he’s “not looking to make an ideological choice.”
- The President met with Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee to hammer out a nomination strategy earlier on Thursday. He signaled to the senators that he would start interviewing candidates next week, people who were at the meeting told the Washington Post.
- The FBI has begun vetting U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger and South Carolina federal district judge Michelle Childs, according to the Washington Post.
Texas GOP Voter Suppression Efforts Are Paying Off
Hundreds of mail-in ballots in Texas have been rejected as a result of Texas Republicans’ new sweeping voting restrictions ahead of the state’s primaries.
- The news follows a wave of complaints last month about staggeringly high rejection rates for ballot applications.
- As TPM’s Matt Shuham explained then, the issue largely comes down to an ID number the new law requires Texans to have on their ballots. Many people have no idea what their ID number is.
Oklahoma GOPer Pushes For Database On People Seeking Abortions
Oklahoma state Sen. George Burns (R) introduced a bill that would create a database of every pregnant person looking for an abortion by giving them a “unique identifying number” when they call a “pre-abortion resource” hotline.
Trump Supporter Arrested For Election Fraud In Wisconsin
One of the five people who were charged with voter fraud by a GOP district attorney in Wisconsin on Thursday was allegedly a Trump voter who had told investigators to look into voter fraud.
Must Read
“The Hawks, Lobbyists And Dictator Who Are Pushing Joe Biden To Spark A Historic Famine In Yemen” – HuffPost
Kinzinger Warns Of Potential Civil War
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), one of the two Republicans on the House Jan. 6 committee and has been censured by the Republican National Committee for it, asserted during an appearance on “The View” on Thursday that “we have to recognize” the possibility of a civil war.
Canada Trucker Convoy Spillover
The anti-vax “Freedom Convoy of 2022″ protests by Canadian truckers in Ottawa have ballooned to the point of clogging up several U.S.-Canada border crossings, and they’ve galvanized not only the far-right in the U.S. but also similar potential protests in 27 European capitals and New Zealand.
- Paris and Brussels have already banned convoys ahead of plans for anti-COVID restriction protests in those cities.
- Though there are some very serious implications behind these Canadian protests and the anti-vaxxers they’re apparently inspiring around the globe, I’d still like to direct your attention to the absolute hilarity of the copycat attempt in my half-homeland of Finland (“Suomi,” just FYI) last week, “#ConvoyFinland2022,” that mostly featured alcohol, Santa, snowballs being hurled at police horses and an actual mobile sauna, a thing that truly couldn’t be more Finnish if it tried:
In fact, these two guys told Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s biggest newspaper, that they weren’t there to protest anything. They just wanted to saunoo on the streets.
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