Author: todd.lassa

Republicans, Democrats Agree on Chinese Threat

WEDNESDAY 3/1/23

By Todd Lassa

In the refreshingly bipartisan House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party’s first public hearing Tuesday evening Republicans and Democrats pretty much agreed that U.S. acquiescence to China is boosting its economy and global prominence at the cost of our own. 

“We may call this a strategic competition, but it is not a polite tennis match,” Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) said in his opening statement. “This is an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st Century.”

At times, Democrats used their cross-exam time to promote Democratic policy, while Republicans used their time on the mic to promote Republican ideals. Even then, the committee’s three hours of testimony was almost unnaturally civil, with a panel consisting mostly of moderates from both sides of the aisle. Unlike an earlier House committee hearing earlier Tuesday on oversight of U.S. funding for Ukraine, there was no Matt Gaetz (R-FL). 

There was Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY), who warned the federal government “should not embrace Chinese-style central planning.

“We should not try to counter China by being more like China.”

Barr followed Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH), whose questions prompted witness Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, to say that public investment was needed – including infrastructure spending -- for local manufacturing of computer chips and other products currently dominated by Chinese industry. 

Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) warned that Congress’ potential failure to raise the federal debt ceiling this year would show weakness in our democracy to the Chinese. 

“Democracies that reach high don’t always reach the skies,” responded witness Matt Pottinger, who served as deputy national security advisor under the Trump administration. “People understand that it’s not always going to look pretty.”

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) .

“I believe fentanyl is committing diplomatic blackmail,” he said, and Pottinger cited FBI Director Christopher Wray’s assessment that a lab in Wuhan, China “most likely” released COVID-19 to result in the pandemic. (An Energy Department assessment leaked to The Wall Street Journal last week says it has “low confidence” in that conclusion.)

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) noted that China has increased its holdings in farmland outside its own borders by 1,000% in recent years. While Chinese entities, mostly governmental have purchased relatively little farmland in the U.S., it’s mostly close to military system installations, replied witness H.R. McMaster, Trump administration national security advisor in 2017 and 2018.

Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) suggested then-President Trump’s withdrawal from an Asian trade pact with China was a boon to the Chinese president’s plans for world domination. 

“January 6, 2021 was Xi Jinping’s best day in office,” Auchincloss said. He suggested negotiation of a new trade agreement involving the U.S. and Taiwan.

The hearing’s fourth witness, Chinese dissident Tong Yi (above), said tech experts here should “research how to bring down the great firewall,” China’s blocking of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google. “The truth is powerful on its own,” she said, and journalists and rights lawyers are “heavily repressed” inside China. 

The U.S. must watch not only the social media site TikTok, but also WeChat, Tong said, “a must-have inside China, but also a must have” for Chinese-Americans to communicate with their relatives inside China who must self-repress what they convey to those relatives to keep from being blocked by Xi’s government.

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

CPAC Returns to D.C.

The Conservative Political Action Conference returns to Washington, D.C., Wednesday, where announced 2024 presidential candidates Donald J. Trump and Nikki Haley are highlighted speakers.

But CPAC and its chief, Matt Schlapp – widely credited for Trump’s rise as a presidential candidate in 2016 – are under a cloud as Schlapp was accused in early January of sexual misconduct. CPAC’s parent organization, the American Conservative Union has “denounced the claim as a political attack,” according to The Washington Post. The otherwise anonymous accuser is a former staff member to Herschel Walker in his 2022 midterm campaign for a U.S. Senate seat from Georgia.

CPAC runs through Saturday.

Meanwhile: Trump topped Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has yet to declare, in a Fox News poll of 2024 Republican presidential candidates Monday, 43% to 28%, with Haley (the only other declared candidate beside Trump) tied with former Vice President Mike Pence at 7%, according to The Hill. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott grabbed 2%. In earlier polls pitting Trump against DeSantis alone, DeSantis dominated with no dilution by other potential candidates.

What do you think? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the left column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the right column” or “for the left column” in the subject line.

_____

Slotkin to Run for Stabenow’s Seat

Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan announced Monday she is running for fellow Democrat Debbie Stabenow’s Senate seat next year. Stabenow, 72, announced in February she would not seek a fifth term. 

The race for the purple state’s Senate seat so far is marked by the prominent Democratics who say they will not run for Stabenow’s seat, according to Bridge Michigan, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer – often mentioned as a potential presidential candidate if President Biden were to step down after one term – and Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist. U.S. Rep. John James, a Republican, also has said he will not run for Senate. 

Two Republicans already have registered with the federal Election Committee, Bridge Michigan says; Nikki Synder, a member of the state Board of Education, and small business owner Michael Hoover.

______________________________________

Schiff Leads in Race for Feinstein's Seat

Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank leads Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine among Democratic candidates vying for retiring Sen. Diane Feinstein’s (D-CA) seat in the 2024 elections, according to a poll of Democratic voters by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times. Among declared candidates, Schiff leads Porter by a narrow margin, 22% to 20%, with Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland, in third with 6%. Rep. Ro Khanna, serving Fremont, has not yet declared his candidacy, but earned 4%, the LAT reports.

But it’s early, with just four in 10 of the Democrats surveyed saying they had already made up their minds.

•••

What do you think? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the right column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the left column” or “for the right column” in the subject line.

_____

…meanwhile…

TUESDAY 2/28/23

(Rupert Murdoch said some Fox News commentators endorsed false allegations of the Big Lie pushed by Donald J. Trump and allies that the 2020 election was stolen, and did not stop the personalities from promoting these claims, according to excerpts of a deposition in the Dominion Systems’ $1.6-billion lawsuit against the network, AP reports.)

House Committee Challenges China – The newly formed House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party holds its first hearing in prime time, 7 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday night, with four witnesses expected. They are former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster and former Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger, both from the Trump administration, and human rights activist Tong Yi and Alliance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul. 

Chairman is Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), with Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) vice-chair of the refreshingly bi-partisan committee. Ahead of the hearing, Gallagher told NPR’s Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition; “A Chinese spy balloon drifting over the country and circling our nuclear ICBM facilities has a way of sort of bringing the threat close to home.”

•••

SCOTUS Takes Up Student Loan Forgiveness – Can six Republican-led states put the kibosh on President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program? The Supreme Court hears arguments for two hours Tuesday over whether the Education Department under Biden has authority to eliminate college student debt. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the White House program will cost $300 billion, NPR’s Nina Totenburg reports on Morning Edition. 

Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, South Carolina and Iowa have challenged the loan forgiveness program, which would offer up to $10,000 relief for students with family income of up to $125,000 annually, and up to $20,000 for low-income students. 

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

______________________________________

...meanwhile...

DOE Says COVID Likely from a Chinese Lab – The U.S. Energy Department now agrees with an FBI assessment that the COVID-19 pandemic was likely the result of a leak from a Chinese laboratory, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing an update to a 2021 document by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines. The classified report was provided to the White House and key members of Congress (the latter of which explains how the WSJ got it).

•••

NATO Deal to Offer Kyiv Arms for Peace Talks? – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has outlined a plan to give Ukraine “much broader access” to advanced military equipment, weapons and ammunition as an incentive for Kyiv reaching out to Moscow to begin peace talks, The Wall Street Journal reports. Germany and France have joined Britain in supporting the deal, which falls short of full-on NATO membership for Ukraine. 

Sunak last Friday said such arms would give Ukraine a “decisive advantage,” including war planes, on the battlefield. But according to the WSJ, the developing deal masks growing private doubts among political leaders in the United Kingdom, France and Germany that Ukraine will be able to push Russian aggressors out of its eastern regions and Crimea, which Russia has controlled since 2014.

Upshot: This is a decidedly sober attitude from Europe’s lead NATO members, coming after a year in which Ukraine has fought a Russian army many thought would have captured Kyiv by March 2022, and deposed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who last week said his country will prevail and push out Russia by the end of this year.

This Week – Both the House and Senate are in session Monday through Wednesday. The Senate only is in session Thursday and Friday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Who’s On First at CPAC This Week

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and her former boss, ex-President Trump, are scheduled to give dueling addresses at the Conservative Political Action Conference this week in Washington, D.C., The Hill reports. CPAC is scheduled for Wednesday through Saturday.

Meanwhile, former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) says he will not attend the 2024 Republican National Conference in Milwaukee – yes, his home state – if Donald J. Trump is the GOP’s nominee for president. Ryan made his remarks on Milwaukee’s WISN-TV, according to The Hill.

•••

What do you think? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the left column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the right column” or “for the left column” in the subject line.

_____

Democracy Lives!

FRIDAY 2/24/23

By Todd Lassa

One year after Russia invaded Ukraine, democracy lives. In Ukraine. 

President Biden said so in his surprise visit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday. 

“One year later, Kyiv stands. Ukraine stands. And democracy stands,” Biden said Monday. On Friday, the White House announced additional sanctions on Vladimir Putin’s Russia, targeting banks and tech industries, NPR reports.

“We endured. We were not defeated,” Zelenskyy said in his address to Ukraine Friday (BBC News translation). “Let us not forget how many gave their lives for Ukraine and the freedom of our people.”

Zelenskyy pledged that Ukraine would defeat Russia before the end of this year.

One year ago, Russia was expected to quickly capture Kyiv and depose Zelenskyy, replacing him with a Putin puppet. With Biden having already warned of the Russian invasion ahead of Russia’s invasion, the U.S. responded with military and humanitarian aid. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians escaped across the western border into Poland, while many Ukrainian men and women under 62 stayed or returned to fight back the Russians.

Ukraine pushed back and recaptured some of its eastern regions, while ill-equipped and ill-prepared Russian troops, later backed by the mercenary Wagner Group, launched missiles into schools and hospitals and apartment buildings, killing many civilians. In Russia the struggling anti-war movement reportedly is dead as Putin continues to tell lies about the invasion and his reasons for the attack. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday that Russia should push Ukraine back to the Polish border, the BBC reports.

With more, and better NATO and U.S. arms and equipment on the way, polls in Ukraine show that 80% of the people believe their country will eventually regain all its land, including the Crimea, lost to Russia in 2014, according to NPR’s Morning Edition.

Protecting democracy demands constant vigilance, and here in the United States, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has handed over 44,000 hours of Capitol security video from 1/6 to Tucker Carlson, presumably so the Fox News host, a fan of authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbån of Hungary – himself a Putin ally – can advance his conspiracy theories and alternative history of the attack. 

But the vociferous MAGA forces in the U.S. House who are calling an end to “Ukraine Fatigue” appear to be a small minority, including among the chamber’s Republicans. After Biden’s Monday visit, a small delegation of House Republicans, led by Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, of Texas, met with Zelenskyy in Kyiv and pledging continuing U.S. support and even offering more military equipment. 

Democracy lives.

Slava Ukraine!

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

McLellan Wins Virginia Seat, Lee to Run for Feinstein’s

Virginia State Sen. Jennifer McLellan (D) (above) defeated conservative pastor Leon Benjamin in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Rep. Donald McEachin (D), who died of colorectal cancer last November, weeks after the midterm elections. McLellan becomes the first Black female to represent Virginia in Congress, according to The Washington Post, and represents parts of Richmond, south to the North Carolina border. She counted McEachin as a friend and mentor.

Meanwhile: Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) becomes the third announced candidate for Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) seat in the 2024 election, USA Today reports, and the first of them to announce only after Feinstein, 89, said she will not seek another term after three decades in the Senate. 

The first two are fellow Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff. Lee, 78, a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, represents Oakland and parts of Northern California.

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

1/6 Footage to Carlson Secured Speakership -- Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) handed all 44,000 hours of video of the January 6th insurrection including security footage previously withheld to Fox News conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson as part of the congressman's deal to secure MAGA votes to become House Speaker, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) told NPR. Thompson, chairman of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, said the video footage turned over to Carlson was not part of his committee’s hearings last year because they show escape routes and the position of hidden cameras used by Capitol police for Congress members’ safety. Roughly 40,000 hours was available for the committee to show in nine public, televised hearings last year.

“It’s dangerous because some of the video we chose not to share in concert with the Capitol police because it would compromise the security of the Capitol,” Thompson told Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition. “And at no point did we want to make the Capitol more vulnerable by sharing that kind of information with the public.”

The additional footage identifies the position of certain cameras in the Capitol, which could make it more vulnerable in any subsequent attack, Thompson said. Carlson, who has hosted Fox News programs and documentaries with conspiracy theories and alternative histories of the January 6th attack, according to Inskeep, is likely to use the footage to advance those alternative histories and show his audience what the Select Committee tried to “withhold” from the American public.

Fox News appears to be the only outlet to receive the footage from McCarthy.

“I understand he had to make certain commitments to become speaker,” Thompson said, “but in no way should these commitments jeopardize the security of the United States Capitol.”

•••

Trump Daughter, Son-in-Law Subpoenaed -- The Justice Department’s special counsel investigating the January 6th Capitol insurrection, Jack Smith, has subpoenaed Donald j. Trump’s daughter Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, The New York Times reports. Ivanka Trump was one of the former president’s closest White House advisors during his final months in office. According to the report, Smith’s subpoenas indicate how deep inside the 45th president’s inner circle that the special counsel is getting and that “no potential high-level witness is off-limits.”

The Ivanka Trump/Jared Kushner subpoenas come two weeks after Smith subpoenaed ex-President Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, who has resisted testifying, claiming “legislative privilege” as he was president of the Senate during the administration. Though Trump’s daughter and son-in-law might be expected to fight the subpoenas themselves, the former president did not try to block them from testifying before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, last year.

--TL

______________________________________

...meanwhile...

WEDNESDAY 2/22/23

UPDATE: Speaking from Warsaw, President Biden reacted to President Vladimir Putin's suspension of participation in the last-remaining U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control treaty talks; "It's a big mistake."

Biden Meets with Bucharest Nine – President Biden spoke with the Bucharest Nine (B9) about the “destabilizing” military buildup along Ukraine’s border and the need for a “united, ready and resolute NATO stance for the collective defense of allies,” before preparing to return home from Warsaw Wednesday, according to a White House readout of the meeting. Biden stressed the U.S. commitment to “close consultation and coordination” with Transatlantic allies and partners in defense of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

B9 Leaders Attending: Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, Czech Republic Prime Minister Andrej Babis, Estonian President Alar Karis, Hungarian President Janos Ader, Latvian President Egils Levits, Lithuanian President Gitanis Nauseda, Polish President Andrzej Duda, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and Slovakia Prime Minister Eduard Heger.

Where’s Orbån?: Significantly, Hungary sent its president rather than authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbån, who is considered sympathetic to, if not an outright ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It should also be noted that Polish President Duda leaned authoritarian – a sort of “Orbån lite” who has fought the European Union over his attempts to dismantle an independent judiciary – during the Trump administration and roughly up to the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine after the Russian invasion a year ago.

Biden, who has made a point during his trip to Kyiv and Warsaw that Ukraine’s resilience in the war is a victory for democracy over authoritarianism, has an 82% approval rating among Poland’s populous is 82%, according to MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

•••

SOTU Boosts Biden's Approval Ratings -- President Biden's approval ratings hit a new high of 46% in an NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll of 1,300 respondents taken after his State of the Union address. Biden's approval rating had sunk to a low of just 36% last July. Of the 1,300 respondents in the poll, 1,200 were registered voters who gave Biden an approval rating of 49% in the same poll, according to NPR's Morning Edition.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Pro-Ukrainian House Republicans Counter MAGA Republicans

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-TX) led a small delegation to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy following President Biden’s visit to offer support and call for more aid -- including F-16 fighter jets -- beyond the $113 billion-plus already committed by the U.S., Stars and Stripes reports. The five Republicans supporting the U.S. and NATO war effort against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion a year ago come after 11 House MAGA Republicans, led by Florida’s Matt Gaetz introduced a “Ukraine Fatigue” resolution this month. 

Gaetz’s resolution says the U.S. “must end its military and financial aid to Ukraine” and urges combatants to “reach a peace agreement.”

Pro-Ukraine Republicans (above): Joining McCaul in support of Ukraine and Zelenskyy are Reps. Darrell Issa (CA), Keith Self (TX), Max Miller (OH) and Jake Ellzey (TX).

The MAGAs: Joining Gaetz in the “Ukraine Fatigue” resolution are usual suspects Andy Biggs (AZ), Lauren Boebert (CO), Paul Gosar (AZ), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Anna Paulina Luna (FL), Thomas Massie (KY), Mary Miller (IL), Ralph Norman (SC) and Matt Rosendale (MT).

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Buttiegieg Urges Stronger Rail Safety

Facing growing criticism from Democrats as well as Republicans over slow White House response to a February 3 derailment near East Palestine, Ohio, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote to Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw Sunday urging him to support stronger rail safety standards, The Hill reports. The derailment earlier this month resulted in the pileup of 150 freight cars, 20 of them carrying cargoes of hazardous materials. 

Republicans have suggested the derailment in a rural, politically “red” region in Ohio has been treated indifferently by the Biden administration.

Last Friday White House officials said they would welcome Congressional action to beef up safety standards for trains carrying hazardous materials, according to Roll Call. Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Railroad Administration and Department of Health and Human Services are waiting for a report from the National Transportation Safety Board on the derailment.

•••

What do you think? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the right column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the left column” or “for the right column” in the subject line.

_____

Biden in Poland

(President Biden was in discussions in Warsaw with Polish President Andzrej Duda to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank Tuesday. Biden was scheduled to address the Polish people later Tuesday (per The Guardian). PICTURED: Biden with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on the U.S. president’s surprise visit Monday.)

TUESDAY 2/21/23

Putin’s National Address – Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking in his scheduled annual address blamed NATO and the U.S. for starting the war with Ukraine, which hits its first anniversary Friday. Putin said Russia is “suspending” participation in the latest nuclear arms treaty with the U.S. (NPR)

--TL

______________________________________

Biden in Kyiv

MONDAY 2/20/23

UPDATE – Russian President Vladimir Putin “thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided,” President Biden said during his surprise visit to Kyiv Monday. “He thought he could outlast us. But he was dead wrong.”

Revealing more details of the meeting Monday afternoon, the White House said the president met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his team for “an extended discussion on our support for Ukraine.”

“I will announce another delivery of critical equipment, including artillery ammunition, anti-armor systems, and air surveillance radars to help protect the Ukrainian people from aerial bombardments,” Biden said. “And I will share that later this week, we will announce additional sanctions against elites and companies that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine. Over the last year, the United States has built a coalition of nations from the Atlantic to the Pacific to help defend Ukraine with unprecedented military, economic and humanitarian support – and that will endure.”

Surprise Visit: President Biden left for Europe a day earlier than announced to make his surprise visit to Kyiv and meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskyy Monday (per BBC and NPR), and military and intelligence services. Biden announced a half-billion dollars of additional aid to the country in the week of the first anniversary of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion. 

“One year later, Kyiv stands, Ukraine stands. And Democracy stands.”

Biden left Kyiv later Monday local time, reportedly by train, to travel Warsaw for a previously announced meeting with Polish President Andzej Duda and other NATO leaders to in part discuss further support for Ukraine's defense against Russia.

Congressional Calendar: The House and Senate are not in session this week (per Ballotpedia). 

•••

Fox News Gonna Be Fox ‘News’ – Yeah, Dominion Voting Systems’ filing in Delaware State Court in its $1.6-billion lawsuit last week was all over the damn place by the weekend, including even Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, a fellow Murdoch property. As a refresher, the lawsuit is about the part of the Donald J. Trump “Big Lie” that accused Dominion voting machines of being able to automatically flip votes for the ex-president in favor of votes for the real winner, Joe Biden.

ICYMI, here are a few of the many standout conversations outlined by The Hill …

Viktor Orbån’s Number One Fanboy, Tucker Carlson, to Laura Ingraham: “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane.”

Ingraham back to Carlson: “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy (Trump attorney Giuliani).”

Despite Carlson’s antipathy for Powell and Giuliani, he and fellow Fox News host Sean Hannity tried to pressure network execs to fire White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich for fact-checking a tweet from Trump pursuing claims against Dominion. 

Carlson to Hannity: “Please get her fired. Seriously … What the fuck? I’m seriously shocked … It needs to stop immediately [.] Like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.”

Hannity to Carlson: “I’m 3 strikes. [Chris, now of CNN] Wallace shit debate [.] Election night disaster [.] Now this BS? Nope. Not going to fly. Did I mention Cavuto?”

According to Dominion attorneys’ filing, Fox execs were “not pleased” with White House correspondent Kristin Fisher’s fact-checking of a Nov. 19, 2020 Powell/Giuliani press conference. Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton allegedly called Fisher and said she needed to do a better job of “respecting our audience,” according to The Hill’s wrapup. Fox News appears to have been more concerned with competition from Newsmax than about truthiness.

About That Election Night ‘Disaster’: Refers to Fox News’ “early” call of Arizona for Joe Biden. Political Editor Chris Stirewalt, otherwise proud of the election night count algorithm he helped develop for Fox News that could beat competing networks was fired over the call, and went on to testify in the second hearing by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

Upshot: In real journalism, “respecting our audience” means telling the truth.

•••

Carter in Hospice – Former President Jimmy Carter, 98, has chosen to forego additional medical attention and will receive hospice care at home. Carter is America’s oldest living former president. He served from 1977 to 1981.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Graham Backs Biden on Ukraine

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) praised President Biden’s dangerous, surprise trip Monday to Kyiv, Ukraine, The Hill reports.

Biden’s visit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was “the right signal to send at the right time,” Graham said.

Meanwhile, The Hill reports, Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said that Biden is neglecting domestic problems with his trip to Ukraine and Poland. 

“We have a lot of problems accumulating here in our country that he is neglecting.”

_______________________________________

Michigan GOP Sticks with Trump

Michigan’s Republican Party chose pro-Trump election denier Kristina Karamo over another pro-Trump election denier, Matthew DePerno, to be its leader going into the 2024 elections, Michigan Radio reports. This despite a fairly thorough rejection of MAGA hats in favor of Democratic candidates in last November’s midterms.

Karamo lost her bid to become Michigan secretary of state last November to Democrat Jocelyn Benson by 14 points, while DePerno lost to Democrat Dana Nessel by just eight points (both Democrats were incumbents).

Two moderate Michigan Republicans who did not make it to the midterms had something to say about their party’s inability to free itself from the grip of the 45th president, ahead of Saturday’s leadership vote, The New York Times reports.

“In our state, this civil war is benefitting no one but the Democrats,” said former Republican Rep. Peter Meijer, who voted to impeach Trump after the January 6th Capitol insurrection and was defeated in last year’s primary, with some help from the Democratic Party. “Part of what the Republican Party in the state of Michigan needs to get back to is being a broad tent. To me, the fundamental challenge is, how do you build trust in the state party after losses like we saw in November?”

“Sadly, it looks like they want an encore,” said former Rep. Fred Upton, another of the Republicans who voted in favor of Trump’s second impeachment. Unlike Meijer, Upton announced his retirement before he could be primaried by a Trump acolyte in 2022.

•••

What do you think? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the left column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the right column” or “for the left column” in the subject line.

_____

Much Ado About an Unknown Something

By Ken Zino

The report’s introduction and conclusion, as well as a section where the grand jurors expressed unease that some witnesses may have lied under oath in the partial report released Thursday by Fulton County, Georgia, Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney confirmed what is already publicly known. A crime regarding an allegation of election fraud has likely been committed. The Grand jury found by unanimous vote that no widespread fraud was committed. 

There isn’t enough here for me to comment on, so I’ll have to wait for the widely expected indictments. Like detective Sam Spade throughout most of The Maltese Falcon, we know that people are lying. We still don’t know how many people in this pending case shot to kill American Democracy. Interesting coincidences – in both cases there is an overweight man (described in Dashiell Hammett’s classic detective novel with a politically incorrect epithet for his physical appearance), a lying blonde, and perfidious relatives.

Any recommendations on who should or should not be prosecuted will remain secret for now to protect his or her due process rights, McBurney wrote in the opinion ordering the skimpy release (just four of its nine pages were released) today. The cast of characters who testified over several months include clear Trump supporters – disbarred attorney Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. There are Georgia politicians, starting at the top with Gov. Brian Kemp. How about the 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate in December 2020 falsely stating that Trump had won the state and that they were its “duly elected and qualified” electors? 

So, I await Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to say something to the effect that I don’t care who loves you, I’m not going to play the sap for you. The stuff that dreams are made of?

______________________________________________

What is Left

Write to us about ...

•Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA), 89, will not seek re-election in 2024. California Reps. Katie Porter and Adam Schiff have already announced they will run for the Democratic nomination for her seat. 

•Coverage and analysis of President Biden’s State of the Union address, plus commentary by Ken Zino, “Biden’s Strategy Wins,” this column and Stephen Macaulay, “Say Goodbye, Joe,” in the right column.

•As Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave the traditional opposing-party response to Biden’s State of the Union address (right column), Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) gave a response on behalf of the progressive Working Families Party (this column).

•••

What do you think? Go to the Comments section in this column, or the one in the right column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and type “for the left column” or “for the right column” in the subject line.

_____