It’s official: Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is joining MSNBC as part of its political coverage, and will host a new program currently under development for streaming, and scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2023, The Hill reports. Psaki, possibly best known on both sides of the political spectrum for her verbal sparring with Fox News’ White House correspondent Peter Doocy, was replaced last month by Karine Jean-Pierre.

Read our Substack page, https://thehustings.substack.com for an in-depth look at how incumbent Brian Kemp’s deal to land an electric vehicle factory in Georgia became a political issue in his race with challenger David Perdue for the GOP gubernatorial midterm primary.

Scroll down for …

•Our debate on expectations of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, which begins public hearings June 9. Ken Zino comments in the left column.

•Tucker Carlson’s embrace of the Great Replacement theory and the racially motivated killing of 10 Black shoppers at the Tops grocery in Buffalo.

Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and indicate whether you are “left” or “right”.

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Midterm primaries today in Georgia, Arkansas and Alabama, plus two Texas primary runoffs are battlegrounds for the GOP, as Donald J. Trump-endorsed candidates challenge incumbent Republicans in several key races. Watch this space Wednesday for a roundup of results, and email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and let us know whether you are “right” or “left.”

Read our Substack page, https://thehustings.substack.com for an in-depth look at how incumbent Brian Kemp’s deal to land an electric vehicle factory in Georgia became a political issue in his race with challenger David Perdue for the GOP gubernatorial midterm primary.

Georgia’s GOP primary for governor and how 

Scroll down for …

•Our debate on expectations of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, which begins public hearings June 9. Ken Zino comments in the left column.

•Tucker Carlson’s embrace of the Great Replacement theory and the racially motivated killing of 10 Black shoppers at the Tops grocery in Buffalo.

Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and indicate whether you are “right” or “left.”

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Midterm election primaries to be held Tuesday, May 24, are in Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas, with a primary runoff for Texas’ 28^th congressional district, according to Ballotpedia. In addition, Minnesota holds a special election in its 1^st congressional district to replace Republican Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died while in office February 17.

Scroll down to read our debate on the status of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, with Ken Zino commenting on the left. Scroll further down for our center column discussion of Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson’s culpability in Buffalo’s racially motivated grocery store shootings.

Comment on any of these issues with an email to editors@thehustings.news.

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(MON 5/23/22)

Biden says U.S. would be willing to intervene militarily … if China were to invade Taiwan, NPR reports. Answering a reporter’s question at a Tokyo news conference with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Akasaka Palace, President Biden said the U.S. burden in protecting Taiwan is “even stronger” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to NPR’s Morning Edition.

Strategic ambiguity: White House aides scrambled to say Biden’s statement does not reflect a “policy shift” from the U.S. “one China” rule, in which it recognizes Beijing as China’s government and has no diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

But Biden said that any Chinese force against Taiwan “would not be appropriate,” and would dislocate “the entire region, and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine.”

•••

Polish leader visits Zelenskyy … Polish President Andrej Duda met in Kyiv with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Sunday to express support for Ukraine’s aspiration to join the European Union. Duda, whose country has accepted the majority of refugees from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since late February, told the Ukrainian parliament that it does not need to submit to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s conditions, AP reports. 

“I want to say clearly: Only Ukraine has the right to decide for itself,” Duda said.

Upshot: In part due to Poland’s enthusiastic support of Ukraine as its immediate neighbor to the west (and to the implicit threat of Putin expanding his offensive to other former Soviet satellites) Duda has been softening his country’s hardline nationalism recently.

•••

Speaking of authoritarian leanings … Not many headlines from last week’s Conservative Political Action Committee gathering in Budapest, Hungary, where perhaps in the worst authoritarian tradition, mainstream free press were kept out of much of it. Coverage in The Guardian centered on the speakers, which included (via video) ex-President Trump, Fox News “personality” Tucker Carlson and Trump’s last chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

The MAGA wing of the GOP are in awe of Hungary and its nationalist-authoritarian President Viktor Orbån, who earlier this year won his fourth term. 

TV talk show commentator Zsolt Bayer, described by The Guardian as a “notorious racist” who has called Jews “stinking excrement,” has referred to Roma as “animals” and has used racial epithets to describe Black people, appeared on the CPAC stage live Friday with a prominent right wing Hungarian screenwriter talking about gender issues, and derided a 2019 Calvin Klein advertisement featuring a white supermodel with Black rapper Chika for “political correctness.”

The closing speech was by right-wing blogger Jack Posobiec, a purveyor of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory that accused Democrats of pedophilia. 

In his video address before Bayer’s speech, Trump heaped praise on Orbån, according to The Guardian, which apparently did get access to key speeches, as “a great leader, a great gentleman, and he just had a very big election result. I was very honored to endorse him.”

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Former Sen. David Perdue’s (R-GA) challenge to incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is perhaps the most closely watched race in Tuesday’s Georgia midterm primaries, but if polls are the least bit accurate it won’t be a contest. Latest Fox News poll has Kemp leading Perdue by 60% to 28%. Donald J. Trump had endorsed Perdue because Kemp made no effort to turn over the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, though the ex-president has since backed down from that as polls have overwhelmingly favored Kemp, who will face Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams for the second time in four years, this November.

Meanwhile in Georgia’s U.S. Senate race Republican Herschel Walker, the former football star and Heisman Trophy winner endorsed by Trump is leading the race to face Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in November. [An earlier version of this story incorrectly named Walker as challenger to Sen. Jon Ossoff (D), who beat Perdue for a six-year term in January 2021.]

Scroll down to read our debate on the status of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, with both RJ Caster and Stephen Macaulay commenting on the right. Scroll further down for our center column discussion of Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson’s culpability in the Buffalo grocery store shootings.

Comment on any of these issues with an email to editors@thehustings.news.

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Scroll down to read our debate on expectations for the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, and whether it has any relevance. Contributing pundit Ken Zino comments in this column below.

Scroll down further to read our center-column piece on Tucker Carlson’s culpability for last weekend’s shooting of 13 people at a Buffalo grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood, with reader comments in the right column. 

•Page 2: Contributing pundit Jim McCraw’s commentary on the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, also is in this column.

•Page 3: “Don’t Say Gay” is contributing pundit Timothy Magrath’s commentary in this column on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his state’s culture wars.

As always, we appreciate your comments on these and any other issues covered in the center column. Email us at editors@thehustings.news and let us know in the subject line whether you identify as “left” or “right.”

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Contributing pundit RJ Caster and pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay have two distinct opinions on their expectations for the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, in this column below. Scroll down using the second track bar on the right to read. 

Scroll down further to read a right-column reader comment on our center-column piece on Tucker Carlson’s culpability for last weekend’s shooting of 13 people at a Buffalo grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood. 

•Page 2: Stephen Macaulay and contributing pundit Bryan Williams’ both comment on the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, in this column.

•Page 3: “DeSantis’ Education Push-Back” is RJ Caster’s commentary in this column on the Florida governor and his state’s culture wars.

As always, we appreciate your comments on these and any other issues covered in the center column. Email us at editors@thehustings.news and let us know in the subject line whether you identify as “right” or “left.”

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Let’s Start with the Facts

By Ken Zino

The way you pose a question sometimes dictates the answer, but not always the final result. Given our critically wounded democracy, I have little confidence in the politicians, most -- if not all of them Republicans -- who are presiding over our decline into fascism. They doth protest too much, after initially condemning January 6. Then claiming it was a peaceful demonstration, a legitimate political protest. And now, given the current political winds, seeing the chance that – maybe, just maybe – a coup isn’t needed to seize the power they lost, they are claiming that they are shocked, yes shocked that politics is actively in the background of the January 6 committee.

The remit of the committee seems clear (full resolution here https://january6th.house.gov/about) excerpted:

“Whereas January 6, 2021, was one of the darkest days of our democracy, during which insurrectionists attempted to impede Congress’s Constitutional mandate to validate the presidential election and launched an assault on the United States Capitol Complex that resulted in multiple deaths, physical harm to over 140 members of law enforcement, and terror and trauma among staff…

“Whereas, on January 27, 2021, the Department of Homeland Security issued a National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin that due to the “heightened threat environment across the United States,” in which “[S]ome ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence.” The Bulletin also stated that: 

“(1) “DHS is concerned these same drivers to violence will remain through early 2021 and some DVEs [domestic violent extremists] may be emboldened by the January 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. to target elected officials and government facilities.”; and…

Whereas, on April 15, 2021, Michael Bolton, the Inspector General for the United States Capitol Police, testified to the Committee on House Administration of the House of Representatives that --

(1) “The Department lacked adequate guidance for operational planning. USCP did not have policy and procedures in place that communicated which personnel were responsible for operational planning, what type of operational planning documents its personnel should prepare, nor when its personnel should prepare operational planning documents.;” and

(2) “USCP failed to disseminate relevant information obtained from outside sources, lacked consensus on interpretation of threat analyses, and disseminated conflicting intelligence information regarding planned events for January 6, 2021”; and

Whereas the security leadership of the Congress under-prepared for the events of January 6th, with United States Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton testifying again on June 15, 2021, that -- 

(1) “USCP did not have adequate policies and procedures for FRU (First Responder Unit) defining its overall operations…

(2) “The Department did not have adequate policies and procedures for securing ballistic helmets and vests strategically stored around the Capitol Complex.;” and

(3) “FRU did not have the proper resources to complete its mission.”: Now, therefore, be it resolved…

1) To investigate and report upon the facts, circumstances, and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex … and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power, (emphasis added) including facts and causes relating to the preparedness and response of the United States Capitol Police and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies...

(2) To examine and evaluate evidence developed by relevant Federal, State, and local governmental agencies regarding the facts and circumstances surrounding the domestic terrorist attack …. on the Capitol and targeted violence and domestic terrorism relevant to such terrorist attack…

What I expect of the House panel are: Questions answered under oath by the House members who have publicly implicated themselves as "persons of fascist interest." Since this is our burning of the Reichstag moment -- Hitler used it as an excuse to suspend civil liberties -- I think we must follow our law here. How this plays out, we will see, but first as Badge 714 often said, “just the facts.” There is a tangled web here that's needs elucidation by the persons involved. 

But you might say “this is a dangerous precedent,” claiming this will weaponize congressional subpoena power. Well, let’s begin at the beginning. A lot of what happened on January 6 is on camera, but that’s just the culmination of what appears to be a long and deliberate attempt to keep Trump in power at any cost. Including mobilizing our police and armed services to seize power, declare martial law and nullify an election he lost. 

Here’s the Joint Chief of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, describing the Capitol attack, six days after it occurred -- eight days before President Biden’s inauguration: “The violent riot in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021 was a direct assault on the U.S. Congress, the Capitol building, and our Constitutional process. We mourn the deaths of the two Capitol policemen and others connected to these unprecedented events.

“We witnessed actions inside the Capitol building that were inconsistent with the rule of law. The rights of freedom of speech and assembly do not give anyone the right to resort to violence, sedition and insurrection.”

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news OR on this page.

Time to Move On

By RJ Caster

By this point everyone should be in agreement that what happened on January 6th was, in fact, utterly defenseless and condemnable in every way. 

Having worked on the Hill, one of my fondest memories was walking through the Capitol from the Senate side to the House side to avoid the weather, and not once did I make that walk and not think about the history encapsulated beneath those frescoed ceilings. Nevertheless, the political angle to the January 6 investigation is a demonstration of tone-deafness by the Democrats. 

The polls already are working against the Democrats heading into the midterms, and polls about January 6th show that Americans are increasingly ready to move past it. Fewer people than a just a few months ago believe President Trump is accountable. At a time when Americans are bracing for a recession and planning for how they’ll pay to balance rising fuel and food costs, I don’t think the Democrats are going to find a very receptive audience outside of the Beltway. 

•••

Servant Cheaters

By Stephen Macaulay

Solemn Promise to a Divine Witness.

First, the oath that members of the U.S. House of Representatives take upon assuming office, which is codified in Title 5, Section 3331 of the United States Code:

“I, ______, do solemnly swear [or affirm] that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.” 

Second, a Thought Experiment

A local social media sensation with a marvelous toothy grin posts that said dental remarkability is the result of a daily gargle with bleach and that it is recommended that whoever else wants such a dentifrice, said rinse is the ticket.

You know, having checked out the National Library of Medicine of the National Center for Biotechnology Information: 

“Mouth/throat: In the home and emergency department, give plenty of water to drink. Milk may be more soothing but not necessarily.

“Stomach/GI tract: At home and in the emergency department, do not induce vomiting; if the bleached burned on the way down, it would burn on the way back up. Give plenty of water.”

It may not kill the person who possibly ingests it, but it can cause damage.

You work for a bleach distributor. If people follow the advice of the local media star the demand for bleach will rise and you will get a bonus.

You also know, from the aforementioned source, “a 2010 pediatric study over a 16-year period that just under 270,000 US children (< 5 years of age) were injured by household cleaning products. Bleach was the leading source (37%) and usually by ingestion (63%).”

Do you:

• Ask that the company you work for to start a campaign that promotes the gargling with bleach?
• Ask that the company you work for to start a campaign that promotes safe practices to protect the population?

The Details

On May 12, 2022, Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), chairman of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, released the following statement:

“The Select Committee has learned that several of our colleagues have information relevant to our investigation into the attack on January 6 and the events leading up to it. Before we hold our hearings next month, we wished to provide members the opportunity to discuss these matters with the committee voluntarily. Regrettably, the individuals receiving subpoenas today have refused and we’re forced to take this step to help ensure the committee uncovers facts concerning January 6. We urge our colleagues to comply with the law, do their patriotic duty, and cooperate with our investigation as hundreds of other witnesses have done.”

The members receiving letters signed by Thompson are Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Scott Perry (R-PA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Mo Brooks (R-AL).

All of them had previously received invitations to appear. Those invitations were ignored. Which resulted in a subpoena.

Why the subpoenas? you might wonder.

According to the Committee:

• McCarthy: “in communication with President Trump before, during, and after the attack on January 6. . . also in communication with other members of the White House staff during the attack and in the days before and after January 6 concerning the events at the Capitol. . . .”
• Perry: “directly involved with efforts to corrupt the Department of Justice. . .had various communications with the White House about a number of matters relevant to the Select Committee’s investigation, including allegations that Dominion voting machines had been corrupted.”
• Jordan: “in communication with President Trump on January 6 and participated in meetings and discussions throughout late 2020 and early 2021 about strategies for overturning the 2020 election.”
• Biggs: “participated in meetings to plan various aspects of January 6 and was involved with plans to bring protestors to Washington. . . . was involved in efforts to persuade state officials that the 2020 [election] was stolen.”
• Brooks: “spoke at the rally on January 6, encouraging rioters to ‘start taking down names and kicking ass.’ In addition, Mr. Brooks has publicly described conversations in which the former President urged him to work to ‘rescind the election of 2020’ and reinstall Mr. Trump as President.”

It is worth knowing why the Select Committee exists. In part:

“(1) To investigate and report upon the facts, circumstances, and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex (hereafter referred to as the “domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol”) and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power, including facts and causes relating to the preparedness and response of the United States Capitol Police and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies in the National Capital Region and other instrumentalities of government, as well as the influencing factors that fomented such an attack on American representative democracy while engaged in a constitutional process.”

So these five men were politely asked to come. They refused. Now they are being subpoenaed. They will probably refuse.

Why?

They have sworn to uphold the law. The Committee, whether they like it or not, is a legally constituted body. So how does their refusal square with their oath?

They might claim that their discussions with Donald Trump are privileged. Except it isn’t. According to the U.S. Department of Justice: “Privileged communication is defined as statements made by people within protected relationships (e.g., husband and wife, attorney and client).”

They are (1) not Donald Trump’s spouses nor are they (2) his attorneys.

They may argue that this could set a bad precedent in terms of being forced to reveal a private discussion with the president, but there are a couple things to consider here.

First of all, what the Select Committee is going to ask them about is something bounded by the events occurring on and related to the events that occurred in Washington on January 6.

Second, their discussions with the president are discussions that occurred in their roles as public servants. They are not private individuals. They are in Washington at the behest of and in the service of the people. They might not like having to share what they said, but what they said was only because of their being elected. (Odd none of them claim that the votes that put them into office were somehow invalid.)

Whither Truth, Justice and the American Way?

January 6 was an unprecedented event that put the Constitution in danger (e.g., the 12^th Amendment). Presumably the purpose of the Select Committee is to keep it from being a precedent for other Electoral College vote certifications being put at risk.

So regardless of what political party you support, ask yourself this question about the five subpoenaed congressmen:

If they have nothing to hide, if they did nothing untoward, then why the resistance to simply telling what they know?

One gets the sense that were they holding the bleach franchise they’d be beating the drum for it.

Where is their probity?

Some Considerations

So what should the Select Committee do?

They should simply publicly make it clear to the American people what these people are staying quiet about. If they did nothing wrong, then why aren’t they owning up to it?

What’s more, they should also make it plain that if a regular American is subpoenaed, they are likely to do their civic duty and show up where and when they are directed to, and that these men, for whatever reason (one suspects it has more to do with avariciousness than principle) are refusing to do what the rest of us are expected to.

They talk about “making America great again.”

How is their behavior, how is their example, helping?

That there was an attack on the Capitol is something that no one can doubt.

That there was a stolen election is something that no one has put forth compelling evidence to support.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news OR on this page.

The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection has issued subpoenas to five fellow members, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). All five Republicans are expected no-shows. Public hearings begin June 9. 

Will the hearings be too little, too late a response to the violent attack and attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election? We debate expectations in these three columns Wednesday.

Scroll down for …

•Our analysis and reaction to Saturday’s shootings at a grocery store in a predominantly black neighborhood in Buffalo.

Click to page 2 for …

•Russia’s reaction to Finland’s application for NATO membership. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has since objected to NATO membership applications by both Finland and Sweden charging they harbor “terror” groups including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which are blacklisted by the U.S., European Union and Ankara, according to Aljazeera.

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COMMENT: editors@thehustings.news OR this page.