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Where Things Stand: We’ve Been Covering The Duggars For A While 
The Russian Nesting Doll of Giuliani’s Corruption
I had worried that federal prosecutors might be forced to whittle the fullness of Rudy Giuliani’s criminal conduct down to a technical violation of failure to report lobbying on behalf of a foreign entity. But reports this morning suggest his legal peril may go well beyond that. Federal investigators seem to be looking at his decision to work with Russian spies to damage Joe Biden and spread disinformation about his family and seek the ouster of the US Ambassador to Ukraine as part of the extortion plot that eventually got Trump impeached.
Where Things Stand: A Very Public Testing Of The Waters
The former Veep is speaking at a carefully chosen podium this evening.
He’s giving his first speech post-Trump administration tonight, in a less-than-coincidental state (South Carolina) to a less-than-coincidental audience (the conservative Christian Palmetto Family Council).
I didn’t have great expectations for tonight’s speech because political events seldom turn on speeches. Nor is speechifying Biden’s forte. He’s workmanlike, solid. But he’s no great orator. That’s Barak Obama.
But I saw an extraordinarily effective speech. Like so much with Biden he managed to find in the historical moment things that play to his strengths. I’ve been watching State of the Union addresses for forty-plus years and I have never seen one like this. Biden delivered it with a tremendous informality. Biden is no Obama when it comes to oratory. But Obama couldn’t have delivered this speech. It would not play to his skills which are heroic and oratorical rather than empathic and conversational.
Where Things Stand: What To Expect Tonight
The President is scheduled to deliver his first joint congressional speech tonight, which will largely serve as a platform to unveil the details of his latest legislative proposal.
From TPM Reader TS …
Absolutely right, this latest one. My university sends out an endless stream of apologies for centuries old ethnic crimes, “climate surveys” asking who feels excluded, demands to take one kind of sensitivity training after another, and letters from every administrator after every national controversy showing “compassion” and asking us all about our feelings. Administrators are being hired by the droves to supervise all this, write reports, conduct surveys, and police language.