March 3, 2023

Marie: I will be away for most of the day today.

Late Morning, Afternoon Update:

First, Indict All the Lawyers. Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election have asked witnesses extensive questions about the actions of Rudy Giuliani.... Investigators looking into classified documents taken to Mar-a-Lago ... have sought to force testimony from another Trump lawyer, Evan Corcoran, by saying there is evidence that the former president used the attorney's legal services in furtherance of a crime. And prosecutors have repeatedly sought information on the actions of yet another Trump lawyer, Boris Epshteyn, in connection with both classified documents and Trump's false electors scheme.... They have quizzed multiple Trump attorneys involved with the documents case....

From the CNN liveblog on the Murdaugh murders: "Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to two life sentences without the possibility of parole, for the murders of his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, and hiss son Paul Murdaugh."

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Burgess Everett, et al., of Politico: "President Joe Biden told Senate Democrats on Thursday that he would not veto a GOP-backed bid to repeal changes to the D.C. criminal code, raising the stakes of an upcoming Senate vote on the proposal. Biden's plans not to veto, relayed by three attendees at the party meeting, leave Republicans on track to roll back the new D.C. law when the Senate takes up the House-passed measure as soon as next week. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) had already said he will support the disapproval bid, Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) backed it on Thursday and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is on an extended leave for health issues, eliminating the margin for error in the 51-49 Senate." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Al Weaver & Mychael Schnell of the Hill: "House Democrats were infuriated and taken aback by President Biden's announcement on Thursday that he will sign a resolution to nix the District of Columbia's crime bill. The crime bill has come under heavy criticism from Republicans and centrist Democrats. But last month, 173 House Democrats voted along with what they thought was the White House's stance that Biden would veto the resolution in an attempt to stand up for the District's 'home rule.'... The crime bill passed the D.C. City Council unanimously in January. After Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) vetoed it, the city council overrode it 12-1. Among other things, the bill would eliminate most mandatory sentences and lower penalties for a number of violent offenses, including carjackings and robberies. It would also expand the requirement for jury trials in most misdemeanor cases."

Edward Wong of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and his Russian counterpart on Thursday held the first private, face-to-face exchange between a U.S. cabinet member and a top Kremlin official since the [Russian] invasion [of Ukraine], and Mr. Blinken said he used the encounter to demand that Russia end its war on Ukraine. The unscheduled encounter with Sergey V. Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, at an international conference in New Delhi showed that the Biden administration saw a need to reestablish in-person diplomatic contacts with Moscow so the two governments can discuss the year-old war as well as issues beyond it. Mr. Blinken said at a news conference on Thursday night that in addition to calling for Russia to halt its 'war of aggression' in Ukraine, he told Mr. Lavrov that Russia should return to the New START nuclear arms control treaty it withdrew from last month and comply with its terms. And he once again urged Moscow to free Paul Whelan, an American citizen who the State Department says is wrongfully imprisoned on espionage charges." ~~~

~~~ John Hudson & Karishma Mehrotra of the Washington Post: "The foreign ministers of the world's 20 largest economies failed on Thursday to reach consensus on a wide-reaching agenda addressing poverty, corruption and counterterrorism because of persistent disagreements over the war in Ukraine, a blow to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had urged nations to set aside their differences.... In a document summarizing the meeting, the Indian government said 'most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy.' It noted, however, that there were 'other views' as well as a recognition that 'the G-20 is not the forum to resolve security issues.'"

Ida Lieszkovszky & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday that it had instructed the operator of the freight train that derailed near the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line to test for dioxins, toxic pollutants that could have formed after officials decided to burn the train's cargo of vinyl chloride in order to avert the threat of an explosion. The increased testing mandate came ahead of a meeting at East Palestine High School on Thursday evening that was expected to be the largest public confrontation yet between the community and officials from Norfolk Southern, the train operator, nearly one month after the derailment on Feb. 3." ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been updated. New Lede: "Frustrations boiled over on Thursday night in the largest public confrontation yet between the people of East Palestine and the operator of the freight train that derailed nearly a month ago, with angry residents in an emotional town hall lashing out at the lone representative from Norfolk Southern who took questions at the meeting. As Darrell Wilson, a top government relations official for Norfolk Southern, tried repeatedly to apologize to the community and outline the company's recovery efforts, residents interrupted and shouted over him, demanding that he commit to getting them out of the area, and that the company 'do the right thing.'" Politico's story on the dioxin testing is here.

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "... FBI Director Christopher A. Wray ... is not doing his job when it comes to threats from right-wing authoritarianism.... The Government Accountability Office issued a report this week concerning the performance of multiple agencies and police units regarding the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Among its findings: The FBI 'did not consistently follow agency policies or procedures for processing tips or potential threats because they did not have controls to ensure compliance with policies.' The extent to which the FBI was aware of credible threats but did not prepare is breathtaking: '... Specifically, the FBI did not process all relevant information related to potential violence on January 6.... While the FBI identified and shared threat information, it did not process certain referrals from social media platforms according to policies and procedures and, as a result, it failed to share critical information with all relevant partners.' Worse, the bureau has not undertaken the kind of systematic self-evaluation needed to correct glaring inadequacies.... The failure of leadership in the Jan. 6 case is inexcusable. Yet Wray has never been held to account for this delinquency.... The Post's recent report concerning FBI's foot-dragging at Mar-a-Lago raises additional red flags.... Why is Wray still there?" Emphasis original. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I could not agree more. Ask Chris for his resignation, Joe.

Michael Gold & Grace Ashford of the New York Times: "The House Ethics Committee announced Thursday that it had opened an investigation into Representative George Santos, the embattled Republican from New York under scrutiny for lies about his background and questions about his campaign finances. The inquiry will cover several areas where Mr. Santos has been accused of financial or sexual misconduct. The committee said in a statement that it would seek to determine whether Mr. Santos had failed to properly disclose information on his House financial disclosures, violated federal conflict of interest laws or engaged in other unlawful activity during his 2022 congressional campaign. It will also examine an allegation of sexual misconduct from a prospective congressional aide who briefly worked in Mr. Santos's office. The action began on Tuesday when the 10-member body, split evenly between Republicans and Democrats, voted unanimously to create an investigative subcommittee to scrutinize Mr. Santos...." NPR's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ A statement by the chairman & ranking member of the Ethics Committee is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Oh, Horrors. Azi Paybarah of the Washington Post: "House Ethics Committee said Thursday that it extended its investigation into Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) after a watchdog found that she might have violated House rules by accepting 'impermissible gifts' when she attended the Met Gala in New York in 2021.... 'While Rep. Ocasio-Cortez appears to have now paid for the rental value of the attire she wore to the Met Gala and for the goods and services she and her partner received in connection with this September 2021 event, payment for these goods and services did not occur until after the OCE contacted her in connection with this review,' the [Ethics Committee] statement ... said.... The Met Gala is a charitable event that raises money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute.... Ocasio-Cortez drew widespread attention when she attended the event wearing a white dress that said in red letters along the back, 'Tax the Rich.' In its report, the OCE said Ocasio-Cortez received 'a couture dress, handbag, shoes, and jewelry' as well as services for her hair, makeup, transportation and hotel accommodations. It said her partner 'received a bowtie and shoes in advance of the event.'"

** Gym Jordan's Weaponization of (Paid-for) Right-wing Nuts & Malcontents. Luke Broadwater & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "House Republicans have spent months promising to use their majority to uncover an insidious bias against conservatives on the part of the federal government, vowing to produce a roster of brave whistle-blowers who would come forward to provide damning evidence of abuses aimed at the right. But the first three witnesses to testify privately before the new Republican-led House committee investigating the 'weaponization' of the federal government have offered little firsthand knowledge of any wrongdoing or violation of the law, according to Democrats on the panel who have listened to their accounts. Instead, the trio appears to be a group of aggrieved former F.B.I. officials who have trafficked in right-wing conspiracy theories, including about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, and received financial support from [Kash Patel,] a top ally of ... Donald J. Trump. The roster of witnesses, whose interviews and statements are detailed in a 316-page report compiled by Democrats..., suggests that Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the panel, has so far relied on people who do not meet the definition of a whistle-blower and who have engaged in partisan conduct that calls into question their credibility." ~~~

     ~~~ A related CNN report, which does not cite the Democrats' report, is here.

Remy Tumin of the New York Times: "Senator Marco Rubio [R] of Florida reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act in the Senate on Wednesday, months after the same bill, which the Senate passed unanimously last March, died in the House at the end of the last session. The bill would end the practice of turning the clocks back one hour to standard time every November and make daylight saving time, which currently begins in March, last throughout the year.... Proponents of the bill have argued that a permanent change would make people more productive, well-rested and happy, as some research has suggested. The retail and leisure industries have argued that more daylight could mean more spending hours. Others, including many farmers, find the time change counterproductive, but favor making standard time permanent."

Manu Raju of CNN: "Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the 89-year-old Democrat from California, announced Thursday that she was hospitalized and receiving treatment for shingles, hoping to return to Washington later this month. Feinstein's absence could influence Democratic strategy in the chamber as the Democratic Caucus controls the Senate by a 51-49 margin, and Sen. John Fetterman has also been hospitalized since last month for treatment for depression."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Thursday called for more briefing on whether it should still decide one of the term's most important cases, involving whether state legislators may manipulate congressional district lines and set federal voting rules without any oversight from state courts. The case is one of the most important and potentially far-reaching of the term. Justices said they want to know how a decision by the North Carolina Supreme Court to rehear the lawsuit affects the high court's proceedings. At issue is [MB: far-right] 'independent state legislature theory,' which holds that the U.S. Constitution gives exclusive authority to state legislators to structure federal elections, subject only to intervention by Congress. That is true, those who favor the theory say, even if those plans result in extreme partisan voting maps for congressional seats and violate voter protections enshrined in state constitutions."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Justice Department told a federal appeals court on Thursday that it should reject ... Donald J. Trump's claims that he is absolutely immune from being sued over his actions related to the attack on the Capitol by his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. Members of Congress and Capitol Police officers have contended in a lawsuit that Mr. Trump incited the attack, including by delivering a fiery speech falsely claiming that the 2020 election had been stolen and urging his supporters to march on the Capitol. In a 23-page brief, lawyers for the Justice Department's civil division urged the appeals court to allow their lawsuit to proceed.... The Justice Department&'s filing was notable in part because the department usually takes a broad view of executive power and defending the prerogatives of the presidency. But its brief asserted that if Mr. Trump did incite violence then the speech fell outside a president's legally shielded official responsibilities." The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

OMG! Zach Everson of Forbes: "Donald Trump and a group of individuals incarcerated for their alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 riot have collaborated on a song called 'Justice for All.' It will debut Thursday at midnight on streaming services.... The track interpolates Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance into 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' which is performed by a group of about 20 inmates, called the J6 Prison Choir, housed at the Washington, D.C. jail. The song ends with the inmates chanting, 'USA!' Profits are slated to benefit the families of people imprisoned for their alleged roles in the Capitol riots...." MB: The video has dropped, and it's here. I hope some of the people who are suing Trump can use this as evidence of his collaboration with the insurrectionists.

Sad! Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "Fox News has imposed a 'soft ban' on Donald Trump appearing on the channel, his inner circle is reportedly complaining, even as the broadcaster extends a warm invitation to other Republican hopefuls in next year's presidential election. The news startup Semafor reports that the cooling of relations between the former president and his once-beloved cable news channel has gone so far that a 'soft ban' or 'silent ban' is now holding Trump at arm's length. The former US president has not made a weekday showing on Fox News since he chatted with his closest friend among the network's star hosts, Sean Hannity, in September."

Democratic Wives Are Abusive Harridans. Monica Hesse of the Washington Post: "In a Tuesday evening segment, [Tucker] Carlson and Candace Owens discussed President Biden and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who is seeking inpatient treatment for clinical depression while simultaneously recovering from a stroke. Carlson doesn't believe either man should be in office.... But the point of that particular segment wasn't to blame the politicians. It was to blame their wives.... Carlson demanded, asserting that a 'a woman, a spouse, who loved her husband' would keep her husband away from campaigns.... 'Absolutely,' Owens agreed. 'These women are monsters.' 'Jill Biden and Gisele Fetterman should be ashamed of themselves,' Laura Ingraham declared on air a few weeks ago. 'Who's the bigger elder abuser, Jill Biden or Gisele Fetterman?' radio host Jesse Kelly tweeted a couple of days after that. 'Jill Biden and Gisele Fetterman are failing their husbands,' read the headline of a recent Washington Examiner column, the body of which went on to claim that 'both of these men are arguably victims of terrible women.'... The attacks on Gisele, in particular, are dizzying in scope and ambition.... Women are to blame."

Alice Ollstein of Politico: "The nation's second-largest pharmacy chain confirmed Thursday that it will not dispense abortion pills in several states where they remain legal -- acting out of an abundance of caution amid a shifting policy landscape, threats from state officials and pressure from anti-abortion activists. Nearly two dozen Republican state attorneys general wrote to Walgreens in February, threatening legal action if the company began distributing the drugs, which have become the nation's most popular method for ending a pregnancy.... The list includes several states where abortion in general, and the medications specifically, remain legal -- including Alaska, Iowa, Kansas and Montana."

The Pandemic, Ctd. Melody Schreiber of the Guardian: "Covid was the top cause of death in the line of duty for American law enforcement for the third year in a row in 2022, according to a recent report, though the pace has slowed.... The total number of Covid deaths in 2022 was significantly lower than the previous two years, with 70 deaths in the line of duty, but it still outpaced all other causes of mortality on the job, according to a report from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF).... As emergency measures enacted during the pandemic end, a key way of counting line-of-duty deaths from Covid will soon disappear, making it harder to discern the virus's toll. It will also signal the loss of benefits for families of officers who die because they contract Covid in the course of their duties."

Presidential Race 2024

Tyler Pager & Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "President Biden's team is moving quickly to build a 'national advisory board' stocked with Democratic governors, senators and other political stars who will travel and speak on Biden's behalf during his expected reelection campaign, an early effort to unify party leaders and minimize the chance of dissent. The group, which will be housed at the Democratic National Committee and formally announced this month, is among steps Biden aides are taking to prepare for the president's likely reelection bid, which he is expected to announce in April. In joining the operation, the political leaders will be asked to travel, attend events, appear on television and perform other duties as high-level surrogates for the Democratic Party, at first, and then Biden once he launches his campaign."

Pamela Paul of the New York Times: "Astonishingly, some people still see Nikki Haley as one of the 'good' Trump cabinet members, the future of a more tolerant and accepting Republican Party. Like those anti-Trumpers who willfully interpreted each casual flick of Melania's wrist as a prospect of rebellion, Haley hopefuls want to believe that a conscience might yet emerge from Trump's Team of Liars.... This requires listening to only half of what Haley says.... Even in short-term-memory Washington..., the serene hypocrisy of Nikki Haley stands out. She wants it both ways -- and she wants it her way most of all.... It's on voters to decide, when choosing between her and those Republican candidates who are ideological to their core, whether they prefer a candidate with no core at all." Paul provides specifics.

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Sam Sachs of WFLA Tampa: "Florida Sen. Jason Brodeur (R-Lake Mary) wants bloggers who write about Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody, and other members of the Florida executive cabinet or legislature to register with the state or face fines. Brodeur's proposal, Senate Bill 1316: Information Dissemination, would require any blogger writing about government officials to register with the Florida Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics.... For blog posts that 'concern an elected member of the legislature' or 'an officer of the executive branch,' monthly reports must disclose the amount of compensation received for the coverage, rounded to the nearest $10 value. Explicitly, the blogger rule would not apply to newspapers or similar publications, under Brodeur's proposed legislation." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I was happy to see that Alex Wagner of MSNBC & Jelani Cobb, Dean of Columbia's journalism school, agreed that it was appropriate to call DeSantis & Co. "fascists" as opposed to "cultural warriors" or something of that nature. We've been doing that here for a while.

New York. Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "As a corrections officer stood outside his cell door in November 2020, Ryan Wilson took a long white bedsheet, looped it around a light fixture, tied it around his neck and stood on a small stool. He began counting down from five. The officer ran to find Capt. Rebecca Hillman, the supervisor on duty at the Manhattan Detention Complex, and told her what was happening. How a jury interprets what she did during the ensuing 15 minutes will determine the outcome of her trial on one count of criminally negligent homicide, which opened Thursday in Manhattan Criminal Court. Prosecutors say that when Captain Hillman walked to the cell, she saw Mr. Wilson, his head hanging at an unnatural angle, his arms dangling and his feet grazing the floor. She did not call for help, and when the officer, Oscar Rojo, pleaded with her to go into the cell and cut him down, she refused, said Matthew Sears, a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office."

South Carolina. Jeffrey Collins & James Pollard of the AP: "Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murder Thursday in the shooting deaths of his wife and son in a case that chronicled the unraveling of a powerful Southern family with tales of privilege, greed and addiction. The jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding Murdaugh guilty of two counts of murder at the end of a six-week trial that pulled back the curtain on the once-prominent lawyer's fall from grace. The judge said sentencing would take place at 9:30 a.m. Friday. Murdaugh, 54, faces 30 years to life in prison without parole for each murder charge." (Also linked yesterday evening.)~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times has a liveblog here. (Also linked yesterday evening.)~~~

     ~~~ Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "Twelve jurors began deliberating on Thursday afternoon over whether Alex Murdaugh murdered his wife and son, weighing the prominent South Carolina lawyer's fate after listening to nearly six weeks of testimony in a closely watched trial. Before the jury began deliberating, Mr. Murdaugh's lawyer, Jim Griffin made the case in his closing argument that the police had become so fixated on the idea that Mr. Murdaugh himself was the killer that they 'fabricated' evidence and a dubious theory about his possible motive." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The story has been updated to reflect the jury's verdict.

Tennessee. Livia Albeck-Ripka of the New York Times: "Tennessee on Thursday became the first state to sharply restrict drag performances as the state's governor, Bill Lee, signed a bill banning the shows on public property and in places where they could be watched by minors.... The new law came amid attacks by Republicans on the rights of transgender and L.G.B.T.Q. Americans across the country. On Thursday, Mr. Lee, a Republican, also signed a separate bill banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth.... According to the A.C.L.U., the language of the law, which will restrict performances that are 'harmful to minors,' is narrow, covering only extreme sexual or violent content that has no artistic value. According to the organization, drag performances do not fall into this category and are protected by the First Amendment.... [Stella] Yarbrough [of the Tennessee A.C.L.U.] said the A.C.L.U. would challenge any enforcement of the law used to punish drag performers or to shut down family-friendly events." An NPR story is here. MB: Now let's see if any librarians dare to cross the yahoos & schedule "drag queen story time."

Texas. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Tex.) is facing a censure vote this weekend from the Texas Republican Party for actions including voting in favor of a bipartisan gun-control package during the last Congress after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, which is in his district. The state party's expected censure would follow a similar move by a county party in Texas, which also cited Gonzales's support for same-sex marriage legislation in the last Congress and votes against a House rules package and border legislation in this Congress. The censure resolution by the Medina County Republicans concluded that Gonzales has been 'a poor representative' of his constituents.... To pass, the effort would need the support of three-fifths of the 64 committee members. If successful, the state GOP's move could encourage other Republicans to run against Gonzales in a primary next year or deny him party funding."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live briefings of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Friday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Friday are here: "... President Biden will welcome German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Washington for a working visit Friday, which will involve discussions about Ukraine, among other national security topics.... Wagner boss Yevgeniy Prigozhin said 'the pincers are closing' on Bakhmut, in a video posted on Telegram Friday where he claimed to be speaking from a rooftop in the city. He paraded three men who appeared to be captured locals on camera and said Ukrainian forces should withdraw to 'give them a chance to leave the city.'"

Canada. Norimitsu Onishi of the New York Times: "Nearly 40,000 migrants crossed unlawfully into [Canada] last year -- more than double the number in 2019 -- and the number arriving monthly has spiked recently, including almost 5,000 people in January. Facing labor shortages, Canada is actually opening its doors much wider to legal migrants and recently committed itself to significantly raise the number of legal immigrants and accept 1.5 million newcomers by 2025. But an extraordinary pandemic-era movement of migrants across the world, fueled by economic misery and growing insecurity in many countries, has put Canada in an unusual position. Shielded by geography, strict immigration policies favoring the educated and skilled, and its single border with the United States, Canada is now being forced to deal with an issue that has long bedeviled other wealthy Western nations: mass illegal border crossings by land."

Greece. Monika Pronczuk & Sarah Hurtes of the New York Times: "The Greek government was supposed to install a safety system nearly three years ago that was designed to prevent the kind of head-on train collision that resulted this week in the worst railway disaster in the nation's history. As a freight train and a passenger train barreled toward each other at high speeds on the same track late Tuesday night, railway officials had to rely on a system that was far less sophisticated than those used in many other European countries, according to railroad and union officials and records. But even that more rudimentary system was not fully operational, with lights and signals out of service, union and safety officials said on Thursday as Greek investigators searched for more bodies amid the wreckage. That confluence of delays, warnings and mistakes left Greece's busiest rail corridor vulnerable to what every safety system is designed to prevent: human error.... Officials and experts agreed on one thing: If a modern safety system had been in place as planned, it would have been all but impossible for a freight train to end up on the same track as a crowded passenger train."

Iran. Karen DeYoung & Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "The discovery in Iran of a small quantity of uranium enriched to near bombmaking level has increased U.S.-Iranian tensions already stretched tight by moribund nuclear talks and Tehran's aid to Moscow's war effort in Ukraine. The nuclear alarm also comes as the Biden administration -- walking a diplomatic tightrope in criticizing domestic policies of Israel';s new far-right government while maintaining strong security cooperation -- appears to have softened its public resistance to potential Israeli military action against Iran. Uranium 'particles' enriched to nearly 84 percent purity were detected during a routine sampling by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency at Iran&'s Fordow nuclear site last month, the agency said in a restricted report circulated Wednesday among IAEA member states. The particles are only slightly below the 90 percent enrichment level regarded as weapons-grade, or suitable for use in nuclear weapons."

Turkey. Kareem Fahim, et al., of the Washington Post: "Again and again, over at least a decade, engineers, architects and planners had raised concerns about buildings that were shoddily constructed, built before inspection standards were tightened or erected on unsteady agricultural land in Adiyaman[, Turkey,] -- a southern city of more than 290,000 people that sits along one of the world's most active fault lines. But by the time the ground began to shake on Feb. 6, local and national authorities had done little to protect people who lived in some of the city's most vulnerable structures, residents and engineers said -- despite evidence that disaster relief officials were keenly aware of the danger. More than 6,000 people were killed in Adiyaman province, the government has said, most in the city itself. More than 1,200 buildings collapsed. An additional 3,000 to 4,000 buildings -- or more than 10 percent of the city's stock -- were 'heavily damaged,' Suleyman Kilinc, Adiyaman's mayor, told The Washington Post."

March 2, 2023

Afternoon/Evening Update:

South Carolina. Jeffrey Collins & James Pollard of the AP: "Disgraced South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was convicted of murder Thursday in the shooting deaths of his wife and son in a case that chronicled the unraveling of a powerful Southern family with tales of privilege, greed and addiction. The jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding Murdaugh guilty of two counts of murder at the end of a six-week trial that pulled back the curtain on the once-prominent lawyer's fall from grace. The judge said sentencing would take place at 9:30 a.m. Friday. Murdaugh, 54, faces 30 years to life in prison without parole for each murder charge." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times has a liveblog here. ~~~

     ~~~ Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "Twelve jurors began deliberating on Thursday afternoon over whether Alex Murdaugh murdered his wife and son, weighing the prominent South Carolina lawyer's fate after listening to nearly six weeks of testimony in a closely watched trial. Before the jury began deliberating, Mr. Murdaugh's lawyer, Jim Griffin made the case in his closing argument that the police had become so fixated on the idea that Mr. Murdaugh himself was the killer that they 'fabricated' evidence and a dubious theory about his possible motive."

Burgess Everett, et al., of Politico: "President Joe Biden told Senate Democrats on Thursday that he would not veto a GOP-backed bid to repeal changes to the D.C. criminal code, raising the stakes of an upcoming Senate vote on the proposal. Biden's plans not to veto, relayed by three attendees at the party meeting, leave Republicans on track to roll back the new D.C. law when the Senate takes up the House-passed measure as soon as next week. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) had already said he will support the disapproval bid, Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) backed it on Thursday and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is on an extended leave for health issues, eliminating the margin for error in the 51-49 Senate."

Michael Gold & Grace Ashford of the New York Times: "The House Ethics Committee announced Thursday that it had opened an investigation into Representative George Santos, the embattled Republican from New York under scrutiny for lies about his background and questions about his campaign finances. The inquiry will cover several areas where Mr. Santos has been accused of financial or sexual misconduct. The committee said in a statement that it would seek to determine whether Mr. Santos had failed to properly disclose information on his House financial disclosures, violated federal conflict of interest laws or engaged in other unlawful activity during his 2022 congressional campaign. It will also examine an allegation of sexual misconduct from a prospective congressional aide who briefly worked in Mr. Santos's office. The action began on Tuesday when the 10-member body, split evenly between Republicans and Democrats, voted unanimously to create an investigative subcommittee to scrutinize Mr. Santos...." NPR's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ A statement by the chairman & ranking member of the Ethics Committee is here.

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Justice Department told a federal appeals court on Thursday that it should reject ... Donald J. Trump's claims that he is absolutely immune from being sued over his actions related to the attack on the Capitol by his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. Members of Congress and Capitol Police officers have contended in a lawsuit that Mr. Trump incited the attack, including by delivering a fiery speech falsely claiming that the 2020 election had been stolen and urging his supporters to march on the Capitol. In a 23-page brief, lawyers for the Justice Department's civil division urged the appeals court to allow their lawsuit to proceed.... The Justice Department's filing was notable in part because the department usually takes a broad view of executive power and defending the prerogatives of the presidency. But its brief asserted that if Mr. Trump did incite violence then the speech fell outside a president's legally shielded official responsibilities." The AP's report is here.

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Confederates Behaving Badly. And Other Ancillary News:

Despicable Jim. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) criticized a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for not prosecuting President Biden's late son when he was still alive, a notion the White House slammed as 'despicable.' Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, suggested Monday on a right-wing podcast that U.S. Attorney David Weiss had sat on his hands when it came to campaign finance investigations of the Bidens. Weiss was appointed by ... Donald Trump to serve as the U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware in 2018, and had previously prosecuted Christopher Tigani, a Biden donor who was sentenced in 2012 for illegally funneling contributions to campaigns. Weiss is now supervising a federal investigation of the president's younger son, Hunter Biden.... On Monday's episode of the podcast 'The Great America Show with Lou Dobbs,' Comer suggested without evidence that Joe Biden and his elder son, Beau Biden -- the former Delaware attorney general who died in 2015 of brain cancer -- should have been indicted along with Tigani.... Beau Biden, then Delaware's attorney general, recused himself from the investigations into his father's campaign donations. A subsequent report by a special prosecutor found no credible evidence that the Bidens had been aware of Tigani's fraudulent campaign reimbursements. When asked Wednesday on [MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,'] about Comer's comments, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield ... [said,] 'It's despicable. And frankly it says quite a lot -- none of it good -- about Jim Comer.'..."

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Republicans subjected Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to a four-hour grilling before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, a harbinger of the fights that loom ahead as the party targets the Justice Department in the months leading up to the 2024 election. One by one, Republican senators accused Mr. Garland -- testifying before Congress for the first time since appointing special counsels to investigate ... Donald J. Trump and President Biden -- of politicizing the department by aggressively investigating Republicans and conservative activists while shielding Democrats. They also rebuked Mr. Garland over a range of policy and law enforcement issues, including his response to the fentanyl and immigration crises as well as the court's decision in June to end the constitutional right to an abortion.... As the day wore on and the questioning intensified, Mr. Garland, a former federal judge, seemed increasingly impatient." ~~~

~~~ John Wagner & Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "Today, Attorney General Merrick Garland said he has stood by his promise not to interfere in an ongoing federal investigation of the finances of Hunter Biden, President Biden's son. His comments came as members of the Senate Judiciary Committee peppered him with questions on multiple controversies during Garland's first testimony before the new Congress. Other members are expected to question the department's decision to conduct a surprise search at former president Donald Trump's Florida property to try to recover classified documents." This is part of a politics liveblog. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ MSNBC ran clips of Ted Cruz, Foghorn Leghorn & Josh Hawley ripping into Garland that was, well, embarrassing. Joe Scarborough suggested the senators needed acting lessons. MB: I'll look for the clip later; it isn't up yet.

Yasmine Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: "Republicans are seizing on the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, to ramp up their attacks against Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, saying he is promoting his own agenda at the expense of families who are grappling with a toxic chemical accident in their backyard. The Transportation Department does not have primary responsibility for the cleanup, and Buttigieg and his supporters are firing back, suggesting the GOP has other motives for its focus on him. The secretary ... has taken the unusual step of responding directly to some of his critics, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)..., Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The result is an unusually personal and, on occasion, vitriolic back-and-forth ... -- far from the usual technocratic and logistical debates that surround the Transportation Department.... Rubio tweeted that Buttigieg is 'an incompetent who is focused solely on his fantasies about his political future & needs to be fired.' McConnell said on the Senate floor that Buttigieg is 'more interested in pursuing press coverage for woke initiatives and climate nonsense than in attending to the basic elements of his day job.'" ~~~

~~~ Stephanie Lai of the New York Times: "A group of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate has proposed legislation to mandate that the Transportation Department tighten safety rules for freight rail, the first glimmer of bipartisan activity on the issue since a train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, last month. The measure by Senators Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and J.D. Vance, a Republican, both of Ohio, would strengthen notification and inspection requirements for trains carrying hazardous materials, increase fines for safety violations by rail carriers and authorize $27 million for research on safety improvements. But it would stop short of dictating major regulatory changes, leaving the matter to the Transportation Department. The bipartisan nature of the bill -- which is co-sponsored by Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Josh Hawley of Missouri, both Republicans -- indicates that it may be able to gain traction in the Senate.... But it is not clear whether the measure can draw support in the Republican-led House." ~~~

     ~~~ Dominic Pino of the right-wing National Review complains: "Republican senators have been outspoken about their feelings on Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. On February 14, Senator J. D. Vance (R., Ohio) said, 'Yesterday, Pete Buttigieg had the opportunity to address this problem. He instead talked about the excessive amount of -- this is not a joke -- too many white men in the construction industry.... The secretary of transportation needs to focus on real problems, not fake problems.' On February 16, Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) said, 'Yes, my gosh, [Buttigieg] should have resigned after the rail strike. He should certainly resign now.' Hawley has reiterated his call for Buttigieg's resignation since then.... Yet Vance, Hawley, and [Marco] Rubio are now joining with Democrats to expand Buttigieg's power and make significant portions of his response to the recent East Palestine, Ohio, train crash into federal law.... In many cases..., [the bill] does ... exactly ... [what] Buttigieg wants." Firewalled. ~~~

~~~ Alicia Lozano of NBC News: "Western Pennsylvania residents living near the Ohio border say they have been left out of recovery efforts following the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern train derailment in neighboring East Palestine, Ohio.... Pennsylvania residents say they are frustrated by a lack of information about the lasting risks from the disaster and demand more transparency from state and federal leaders, who they say are focused too narrowly on recovery efforts within a 2-mile radius surrounding the derailment, a designation set by the EPA.... Last week, [Pennsylvania] Gov. Josh Shapiro [D] met with residents in Darlington who received water testing through the state's Department of Environmental Protection. The department has also been working closely with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the state departments of health to monitor developments in East Palestine.... On Monday, Shapiro announced the opening of a health clinic in Beaver and Lawrence counties that closely mirrors one created for East Palestine residents."

Stephanie Lai of the New York Times: "Congress on Wednesday cleared a measure to block a Labor Department rule that allows retirement plan managers to incorporate climate and social considerations into their investment decisions, setting up a veto fight with President Biden over an otherwise obscure regulation that has become a flash point in the culture wars. The Senate passed the resolution by a vote of 50 to 46 after two Democrats, Senators Jon Tester of Montana and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, joined every Republican. Coming the day after the House approved the measure on a mostly party-line vote, that cleared the measure to be sent to the White House, where Mr. Biden's advisers have said he plans to veto it. The vote was the latest piece of a broader Republican political strategy to portray Mr. Biden's policies as extreme liberalism run amok, and to characterize his administration's actions as attempts to force progressive values into every area of American life." CNN's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ David Gelles of the New York Times: "... Republicans around the country say Wall Street has taken a sharp left turn, attacking what they term 'woke capitalism' and dragging businesses, their onetime allies, into the culture wars. The rancor escalated this week as Congress entered the fray. Republicans used their new majority in the House on Tuesday to vote, 216 to 204, to overturn a Department of Labor rule that allows retirement funds to consider climate change and other factors when choosing companies in which to invest." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. See also Ken's commentary below.

Daniel Dale of CNN: “Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia falsely claimed Tuesday that the Biden administration is responsible for the fentanyl deaths of two young men who actually died during the Trump administration -- and her congressional spokesperson profanely dismissed questions about the false claim as irrelevant.... 'Listen to this mother, who lost two children to fentanyl poisoning, tell the truth about both of her son's murders because of the Biden administrations refusal to secure our border and stop the Cartel's from murdering Americans everyday by Chinese fentanyl,' Greene tweeted.... [Greene spokesperson Nick ]Dyer responded in an email by asking whether CNN thinks the many Americans who have died from drugs under Biden 'care about the details' of this particular case. He added, 'Do you think they give a f**k about your bullsh*t fact checking?'...

"At a Tuesday meeting of congressional Republicans' caucus on 'election integrity,' Greene castigated a Georgia Republican election official, Gabriel Sterling, who has repeatedly vouched for the integrity of the 2020 election in the state. Greene's comments, which she also posted on Twitter, featured a variety of lies that were long ago debunked by Sterling and many others. Greene falsely claimed that 'Trump won Georgia,' though he lost by 11,779 votes, fair and square, in a state with a Republican governor, Republican elections chief and Republican-controlled legislature. She falsely claimed that there were 'thousands of dead voters in Georgia,' though Georgia elections officials have found only four such cases in the 2020 election to date and Trump allies' claims about various other supposedly deceased voters have been disproven by CNN and others. And she falsely claimed that a video showed workers in Atlanta's Fulton County doing something nefarious while counting ballots, though the workers were simply doing their jobs and though false claims about the video have been debunked not only by Sterling but by Trump's deputy attorney general and a Trump-appointed former US attorney in Georgia, among others."

** Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Months of disputes between Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents over how best to try to recover classified documents from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club and residence led to a tense showdown near the end of July last year, according to four people familiar with the discussions. Prosecutors argued that new evidence suggested Trump was knowingly concealing secret documents at his Palm Beach, Fla., home and urged the FBI to conduct a surprise raid at the property. But two senior FBI officials who would be in charge of leading the search resisted the plan as too combative and proposed instead to seek Trump's permission to search his property, according to the four people.... Prosecutors ultimately prevailed in that dispute, one of several previously unreported clashes in a tense tug of war between two arms of the Justice Department over how aggressively to pursue a criminal investigation of a former president....

"Starting in May, FBI agents in the Washington field office had sought to slow the probe, urging caution given its extraordinary sensitivity, the people said.Some of those field agents wanted to shutter the criminal investigation altogether in early June, after Trump's legal team asserted a diligent search had been conducted and all classified records had been turned over, according to some people with knowledge of the discussions." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IMO, some of these FBI agents were corrupt and worked to halt an investigation that yielded tens of classified documents by pretending to believe that the Big Liar had turned over all documents to the authorities, despite evidence to the contrary. ~~~

     ~~~ digby republishes a chunk of an a firewalled column by Adam Serwer of the Atlantic. Serwer writes, "The way conservatives tell it, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is a hive of anti-Trump villainy, filled with agents looking for any excuse to hound the former president with investigative witch hunts. But the thing to understand about Donald Trump's legal troubles is that they exist not because federal agents are out to get him, but despite the fact that the FBI is full of Trump supporters who would really like to leave him alone." digby concurs: "The idea that the poor FBI agents are terrified of Trump -- who is just a private citizen living in Florida at the moment -- is absurd. These agents are Trumpers and they want to protect him. Of course they do."

Sean Piccoli, et al., of the New York Times: "Kellyanne Conway, who managed the final months of Donald J. Trump's 2016 campaign, met with prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney's office on Wednesday, the latest sign that the office is ramping up its criminal investigation into the former president. The prosecutors are scrutinizing Mr. Trump's role in a hush money payment to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, who has said she had an affair with him. The $130,000 payment was made by Mr. Trump's longtime fixer, Michael D. Cohen, in the closing days of the 2016 campaign, and Mr. Trump ultimately reimbursed him. Mr. Cohen has said that Ms. Conway played a small yet notable role in the payment: she was the person Mr. Cohen alerted after making the payment, he wrote in his 2020 memoir." An ABC News story is here.

** A Supreme Crook. Heidi Przybyla of Politico: "A Politico investigation based on dozens of financial, property and public records ... found that [right-wing judicial activist Leonard] Leo's lifestyle took a lavish turn beginning in 2016, the year he was tapped as an unpaid adviser to ... Donald Trump on Supreme Court justices. It's the same period during which he erected a for-profit ecosystem around his longtime nonprofit empire that is shielded from taxes. Leo was executive vice president of The Federalist Society at the time.... A network of political non-profits formed by ... Leo moved at least $43 million to a new firm he is leading, raising questions about how his conservative legal movement is funded. Leo's own personal wealth appeared to have ballooned as his fundraising prowess accelerated since his efforts to cement the Supreme Court's conservative majority helped to bring about its decision to overturn abortion rights. Most recently, Leo reaped a $1.6 billion windfall from a single donor in what is likely the biggest single political gift in U.S. history.... Spending by Leo's aligned nonprofits on his for-profit business ... shows how campaign-style politics -- and the generous paydays that go along with it -- are now adjacent to the Supreme Court, the one U.S. institution that's supposed to be immune to it."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "Starbucks committed 'egregious and widespread' violations of federal labor law while trying to halt union campaigns, ruled a federal administrative law judge, who ordered the coffee giant to reopen closed stores and reimburse backpay and damages to employees who launched a nationwide organizing drive at the company. Starbucks showed 'a general disregard for the employees' fundamental rights,' Judge Michael A. Rosas wrote in a 220-page order released Wednesday. In resolving an extensive case that combined 33 unfair labor practices charges from 21 stores in the Buffalo area, Rosas held that the company retaliated against employees affiliated with Starbucks Workers United as they began a union drive in 2021. Since then, 268 of the roughly 9,000 company-owned U.S. stores have voted to unionize, and Starbucks's interim chief executive Howard Schultz has drawn the ire of liberal political leaders."

Shane Harris & John Hudson of the Washington Post: "The mysterious ailment known as 'Havana syndrome' did not result from the actions of a foreign adversary, according to an intelligence report that shatters a long-disputed theory that hundreds of U.S. personnel were targeted and sickened by a clandestine enemy wielding energy waves as a weapon. The new intelligence assessment caps a years-long effort by the CIA and several other U.S. intelligence agencies to explain why career diplomats, intelligence officers and others serving in U.S. missions around the world experienced what they described as strange and painful acoustic sensations.... Seven intelligence agencies participated in the review of approximately 1,000 cases of 'anomalous health incidents.'..."

Presidential Race 2024. Scott Wong & Kate Santaliz of NBC News: "President Joe Biden hasn't announced whether he's running for a second term yet, but his address to a gathering of House Democrats [in Baltimore] Wednesday sounded a lot like a 2024 stump speech. Biden dared House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California to reveal Republicans' budget full of spending cuts, mocked GOP Sen. Rick Scott's reversal on targeting Social Security and Medicare and knocked 'MAGA Republicans' like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. an acolyte of ... Donald Trump who recently called for a 'national divorce' between red states and blue states....

"Biden also claimed credit for drugmaker Eli Lilly's announcing Wednesday that it would cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month. '... I called on the prescription drug companies to bring down the price of insulin to $35 to everyone -- not just seniors. And today, Eli Lilly, the largest manufacturer of insulin in the United States of America, agreed to do just that: 35 bucks,' Biden said. 'But guess what that means? Every other company making insulin is going to have to lower their prices to 35, because they can't compete.'" ~~~

~~~ Marie: "Claimed credit"? He deserves credit.

Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "Former Vice President Mike Pence still won't say whether he's running for president next year, and he won't speak ill of ... Donald Trump. But in an interview with CBS News in Michigan on Wednesday, he also twice declined to commit to supporting Trump if he is the Republican presidential nominee. Instead, Pence said he believes voters in 2024 will choose 'wisely again,' as they did in 2016. But said he thinks 'different times call for different leadership.'" MB: The headline here is "Pence won't commit to supporting Trump if he's the nominee." It should be "Pence won't commit to anything." He deflected most of the interviewer's questions. What a sissy.

The Pandemic, Ctd. Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Nearly three years after criminals first set their sights on the government's generous coronavirus aid programs, President Biden on Thursday called on Congress to approve $1.6 billion to combat fraud, hoping to empower federal prosecutors and prevent such historic theft from targeting taxpayer money again. The new request for funds foreshadows the years of costly and complicated work now ahead of Washington, after malicious actors set their sights on the more than $5 trillion that lawmakers intended for workers, families and businesses amid the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. But the push from the White House could still face familiar political obstacles on Capitol Hill. Seeking to punish criminals and secure new savings at a moment of rising deficits, lawmakers long have expressed alarm about the vast sums stolen during the pandemic -- yet they have done little to address the root causes of the problem." The AP's report is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan. Michelle Watson, et al., of CNN: "A Michigan man allegedly threatened on social media to kill Jewish members of the Michigan government, the FBI said, and state Attorney General Dana Nessel says she was among those targeted. The incident adds to recent concerns about threats against public officials as well as reports of increasing antisemitic incidents across the country. It also evokes the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as well as the at-times threatening demonstrations against Covid-19 protocols. On February 18, the FBI National Threat Operations Center told the Detroit FBI office that a person on Twitter by the handle of 'tempered_reason' said he was heading to Michigan and 'threatening to carry out the punishment of death to anyone that is Jewish in the Michigan govt.' Any attempt to 'subdue' him would 'be met with deadly force in self-defense,' the user said. Authorities traced the Twitter handle to a man named Jack Eugene Carpenter III, who had a protection order against him and had previously been arrested by state police, according to the complaint filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Carpenter also had three 9mm handguns registered in Michigan's Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN), the complaint said."

Pennsylvania. April Rubin of the New York Times: "A 40-year-old man was arrested this week on federal charges after he checked a suitcase containing an explosive for a flight to Florida at a Pennsylvania airport, the F.B.I. said. The suitcase checked by Marc Muffley, of Lansford, Pa., at an Allegient Air counter at Lehigh Valley International Airport for a flight to Orlando, Fla., on Monday was flagged by an alarm during a Transportation Security Administration screening, Eddie Garcia, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.... The F.B.I. said that Mr. Muffley, who was paged over the airport's speaker system at about 11:40 a.m. on Monday after the T.S.A. screening, left the airport five minutes after being asked to report to the security desk, security camera footage shows. He was arrested late Monday night and charged with possession of an explosive in an airport and possessing or attempting to place an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft."

South Carolina. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "The prosecutor seeking to convict Alex Murdaugh of murdering his wife and son said in his closing argument on Wednesday that a 'gathering storm' had been threatening to expose Mr. Murdaugh's thefts of millions of dollars, leading him to kill his family in a last-ditch effort to preserve his legacy and wealth. Creighton Waters, the prosecutor, argued that evidence in the case could only lead jurors to conclude that Mr. Murdaugh, a fourth-generation lawyer in South Carolina, had carried out the June 2021 murders to halt the expanding inquiries into his finances and reported thefts from clients and his law firm.... The closing arguments took place on the 27th day of a trial that lasted far longer than expected. Over five weeks, prosecutors outlined an extensive case against Mr. Murdaugh, accused of killing his wife, Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and their younger son, Paul Murdaugh, 22.... One of Mr. Murdaugh's lawyers was to deliver the defense's closing argument on Thursday morning, and 12 jurors will then begin deliberations. Earlier on Wednesday, the jury toured the Murdaughs' rural hunting estate, known as Moselle, where the victims were found dead near dog kennels on the property."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "The Russian Volunteer Corps, a group of anti-Kremlin fighters, claimed responsibility for an attack on their country on Thursday. The claim comes after Russia's federal police force said that 'armed Ukrainian nationalists' had entered Bryansk after unconfirmed reports suggested that Russian civilians were being held hostage while others were shot. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, called the Russian report a 'classic deliberate provocation.' Secretary of State Antony Blinken briefly met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of foreign ministers in New Delhi. It is their first face-to-face encounter since Russia's war on Ukraine.... Blinken and Lavrov's encounter lasted less than 10 minutes, in which Blinken urged Russia to reverse its decision to suspend cooperation in the New START nuclear arms treaty, and to accept a U.S. proposal for the release of American citizen Paul Whelan, said a senior State Department official familiar with the discussion. Russia's war on Ukraine is expected to dominate the agenda at the G-20 meeting.... Ukrainian authorities will exhume a newly discovered burial ground in Bucha, the area near Kyiv where alleged atrocities last spring set off worldwide outrage last year.... Russian forces are making advances in Bakhmut, the besieged city in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has intensified...." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Thursday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

     ~~~ The New York Times is live-updating developments at the G-20 meeting.

Edward Wong & Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken came to Central Asia to press his case that the region should hold the line against Russian efforts to seek economic aid as Moscow grapples with Western sanctions. Within hours of landing in Astana, the snow-draped capital of Kazakhstan, he received a sign that the United States had some leverage. The Kazakh president stood next to Mr. Blinken in the blue-domed presidential palace and thanked the Americans for their support of his nation's 'independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty.' The president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has not criticized Russia's war, and neither have leaders of the four other Central Asian nations, former Soviet republics with decades-long ties with Moscow. But his pointed statement suggested that, after the invasion of Ukraine, also a former Soviet republic, there was concern that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia could try to seize parts of their own nations or encourage separatists."

U.K. King Evicts Harry & Meghan. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have been asked to move out of Frogmore Cottage, their five-bedroom Georgian house on the grounds of Windsor Castle, the couple's press secretary said, in a further sign of the bitter rupture between them and the British royal family since they withdrew from royal duties and left Britain. Queen Elizabeth II offered the house to the couple, known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, at the time of their wedding in 2018. It has served as their home base on infrequent visits to Britain since they relocated to Montecito, Calif.... The Sun, a British tabloid..., said that King Charles III had made the decision shortly after the publication of Harry's memoir, 'Spare,' which is replete with scorching accounts of Harry's dysfunctional relationship with Charles, his father; and with his brother, Prince William. Buckingham Palace has declined to comment on the report...."

News Ledes

Hong Kong. New York Times: "A 42-story building under construction in Hong Kong caught fire late Thursday, showering a bustling shopping district with sparks and debris and lighting up the nighttime sky. Onlookers flocked to the waterfront neighborhood of Tsim Sha Tsui to take in the spectacle, as the flames made their way through the skyscraper and the scaffolding around it and explosions pierced the air. News reports put the number of people injured at two, and firefighters were still batting the blaze early Friday.... Several nearby buildings also caught fire, but firefighters were able to douse those flames."

New York Times: "Wayne Shorter, the enigmatic, intrepid saxophonist who shaped the color and contour of modern jazz as one of its most intensely admired composers, died on Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 89."

Washington Post: "With as much as 12 feet of new snow over the past week, and seasonal totals surpassing 41 feet, California's Sierra Nevada is buried. So much snow has fallen that homes are engulfed and roads resemble canyons. More is on the way this weekend, with the National Weather Service office in Sacramento forecasting an additional three to four feet. 'Expect disruptions to daily life including dangerous/impossible driving conditions with road closures and whiteout conditions at times,' the agency tweeted. 'MOUNTAIN TRAVEL IS HIGHLY DISCOURAGED![']"

March 1, 2023

Late Morning Update:

John Wagner & Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "Today, Attorney General Merrick Garland said he has stood by his promise not to interfere in an ongoing federal investigation of the finances of Hunter Biden, President Biden's son. His comments came as members of the Senate Judiciary Committee peppered him with questions on multiple controversies during Garland's first testimony before the new Congress. Other members are expected to question the department's decision to conduct a surprise search at former president Donald Trump's Florida property to try to recover classified documents." This is part of a politics liveblog.

** Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Months of disputes between Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents over how best to try to recover classified documents from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club and residence led to a tense showdown near the end of July last year, according to four people familiar with the discussions. Prosecutors argued that new evidence suggested Trump was knowingly concealing secret documents at his Palm Beach, Fla., home and urged the FBI to conduct a surprise raid at the property. But two senior FBI officials who would be in charge of leading the search resisted the plan as too combative and proposed instead to seek Trump's permission to search his property, according to the four people.... Prosecutors ultimately prevailed in that dispute, one of several previously unreported clashes in a tense tug of war between two arms of the Justice Department over how aggressively to pursue a criminal investigation of a former president....

"Starting in May, FBI agents in the Washington field office had sought to slow the probe, urging caution given its extraordinary sensitivity, the people said.Some of those field agents wanted to shutter the criminal investigation altogether in early June, after Trump's legal team asserted a diligent search had been conducted and all classified records had been turned over, according to some people with knowledge of the discussions." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IMO, some of these FBI agents were corrupt and worked to halt an investigation that yielded tens of classified documents by pretending to believe that the Big Liar had turned over all documents, despite evidence to the contrary.

~~~~~~~~~~

Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "resident Biden on Tuesday announced his intention to nominate Julie Su, the deputy labor secretary, to succeed Labor Secretary Martin J. Walsh, who has said he plans to leave the department in March. Ms. Su has helped oversee a department that put forth a series of rules meant to benefit workers, including rules designed to protect workers from Covid-19, a rule making it more likely for workers to be classified as employees rather than contractors, and a rule that would probably raise the wages paid to workers on federally funded construction projects.... Ms. Su, a fluent speaker of Mandarin whose parents were immigrants, served as head of California's Labor and Workforce Development Agency before joining the Biden administration in 2021." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Biden administration urged Congress on Tuesday to renew a controversial warrantless surveillance law, emphasizing that security officials use it for a broad range of foreign policy and national security goals like detecting espionage by countries like China and Iran or stopping hackers. The administration's effort is likely to face particularly steep headwinds because many Republicans have adopted ... Donald J. Trump's distrust of security agencies and surveillance, bolstering privacy advocates who have long been skeptical of the law, known as Section 702.... In a letter to lawmakers, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, described the law as vital." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "Republicans in Congress sharply questioned senior Pentagon officials on Tuesday about the tens of billions of dollars in military and other aid the United States has sent to Ukraine, casting fresh doubt on whether they would embrace future spending as Democrats pleaded for a cleareyed assessment of how much more money would be needed. The exchanges at two House committee hearings, coming just days after the anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, highlighted how concerns about the high cost of sending weapons to Kyiv have intensified on Capitol Hill.... The steep price tag of the war has prompted Congress to issue a battery of oversight requirements for information about how the money has been spent. Some of those details have been provided to lawmakers, but few have reached the public. The accelerating spending and dearth of detailed information have fueled the resolve of several naysayers, who doubled down this week on a campaign to cast the Ukraine assistance program as a failed boondoggle, with the apparent tacit blessing of party leaders." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: "Sharply questioned"? Some of those questions weren't so sharp. ~~~

     ~~~ A Planned Gotcha Moment that Went Terribly Wrong. Wherein Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Media Whore, Fla.) favorably cites a Chinese propaganda outlet while attempting to grill a Biden administration undersecretary. The Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl, politely shot down Gaetz: "I as a general matter, I don't take Beijing's propaganda at face value." Via Mediaite. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post elaborates on Gaetz's boo-boo, noting that Gaetz "has emerged a leading critic of the Ukraine funding": "Gaetz has promoted his question-and-answer period from the hearing on Twitter, while cutting off the video before the above exchange.... Even if you don't know the Global Times's background [as the Fox 'News' of China], the article itself has some real red flags." And it is more derivative than investigative, though Gaetz can't tell the difference. He described the article as a "Global Times investigative report" and asked that it be entered into the Congressional Record. More on the Global Times linked below under The Pandemic, Ctd.

** GOP Members of Congress Will Aid Insurrectionists. Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: "House Republicans are moving to provide defendants in Jan. 6-related cases access to thousands of hours of internal Capitol security footage, a move that could influence many of the ongoing prosecutions stemming from 2021's violent attack. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who chairs the House Administration Committee's oversight subpanel, said that the access for accused rioters and others -- which Speaker Kevin McCarthy has greenlighted -- would be granted on a 'case-by-case basis.'... McCarthy's decision to let [Tucker] Carlson view the footage from the violent riot by ... Donald Trump's supporters has already been raised in two ongoing Jan. 6 criminal cases. In one instance, a lawyer for one of the Proud Boys charged with seditious conspiracy has asked prosecutors to determine whether they will access and share the footage; then on Tuesday morning, Joseph McBride, an attorney for Jan. 6 defendant Ryan Nichols, claimed he had already been given permission to review the footage." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday defended his decision to give conservative TV host Tucker Carlson access to roughly 40,000 hours of security footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, telling reporters that the footage will soon be released broadly and that his office is taking measures to address concerns about security risks. 'It almost seems like the press is jealous,' McCarthy said in a one-on-one interview with The Washington Post.... McCarthy added that he has been in consultation with U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) on the release of the footage and dismissed concerns that Carlson will mislead viewers about the events of the day. A spokesperson from the USCP would not confirm McCarthy's assertion that he or Carlson's team are requesting security review of any footage that may be used on his show.... McCarthy instead condemned the House select committee tasked with investing the Jan. 6 attack for airing video showing part of the exit route from his office and a portion of Vice President Mike Pence's escape from the Senate chamber as a mob invaded the Capitol.... Tim Mulvey, a former senior staff member and spokesman for the Jan. 6 committee, previously said in a statement that when the panel obtained access to U.S. Capitol Police video footage, "... the public use of any footage was coordinated in advance with Capitol Police. It's hard to overstate the potential security risks if this material were used irresponsibly.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So the order of distribution is (1) TuKKKer, (2) violent insurrectionists, (3) some media outlets. Seems prudent. ~~~

     ~~~ Emily Brooks & Mike Lillis of the Hill: "... [Kevin] McCarthy and other Republicans, following days of silence on the topic, made clear Tuesday that no information would be released to [Tucker] Carlson's team -- let alone broadcast publicly -- before the footage is screened to ensure it doesn't compromise the security of the Capitol complex.... '... We work with the Capitol Police as well, so we'll make sure security is taken care of,' McCarthy told reporters in the Capitol.... [McCarthy] stressed that the Fox News host's team specifically said they do not want to see 'exit routes.'... Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, said that his panel is still working through those procedures.... While Carlson's team has full access to watch the tens of thousands of hours of footage, Loudermilk said, he will work with the sergeant-at-arms and Capitol Police to ensure that any copies of that footage given to Carlson do not pose security risks. 'There hasn't been a release of tapes,' Loudermilk said."

     ~~~ Marie: Wait just one minute. TuKKKer has boasted he had "unfettered" access to the tapes. Now My Kevin & Loudermilk are saying they're "fettering" access: According to Loudermilk, "It';s basically controlled access to be able to view tapes. Can't record, can't take anything with you. Then they will request any particular clips that -- that they may need, and then we'll make sure that there's nothing sensitive, nothing classified -- you know, escape routes." The Hill reporters write, "It's unclear if McCarthy's most vocal Republican detractors -- whose backing he needs to pass legislation in a narrowly divided House -- will accept [this] more limited release of the footage." ~~~

     ~~~ If McCarthy & Loudermilk are telling the truth, TuKKKer may have a long wait to get those tapes. According to the Capitol Police, there are nearly 42,000 hours of tapes. So if McCarthy has three staff reviewing the tapes eight hours a day every single day, it will take them 1,750 days to complete the review. That's close to five years. Of course, the Congressional staff could release the tapes to TuKKKer as they approve them. I'd be surprised if TuKKKer still has his job five years from now. Are the real media supposed to wait another five years or more to gain access to the tapes while TuKKKer puts together his Fake Show exposing the insurrection as a hoax? There's definitely a hoax in this tape release story, but I don't think it's the insurrection.

Spartan of National Zero: "House Oversight Committee chair Congressman James Comer [R-Ky.] on Tuesday lamented in a podcast interview with batshit former Fox News host Lou Dobbs that Beau Biden was never prosecuted for some probably made-up campaign finance scandal before he died, the Daily Beast reports. 'This US attorney had had an opportunity to go after the Bidens years ago.... But nothing ever happened...," said Comer, apparently upset that Beau Biden had escaped justice by dying of brain cancer." MB: Sorry I can't read the Beast's story.

Robert Barnes & Daniel Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "Conservative Supreme Court justices on Tuesday seemed highly skeptical that President Biden has authority from Congress to provide more than $400 billion in student loan forgiveness to borrowers as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.Over more than three hours of argument in two cases, conservatives led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. questioned how what Roberts repeatedly called a 'half-trillion dollar' program could be implemented without more direct involvement from Congress, which controls the purse of federal spending. The justices on the right seemed unsatisfied with assertions from their liberal colleagues and U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar that blocking the program would actually thwart the will of Congress, which provided for the secretary of education to act on student loan debt in times of emergency." The NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Wherein Elena Kagan Tries in Vain to Explain Separation of Powers to Six Jerks Who Think They Can Run All Three Branches of the Federal Government. Ian Millhiser of Vox: "If you were hoping that your student loans would be forgiven under a program that President Joe Biden announced last summer, you should, unfortunately, make other plans. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases, Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown, that ask the Court to strike down the student loan relief program.... The Brown case is laughably weak, and no justice appeared to believe that federal courts have jurisdiction to hear this case. But the Supreme Court only to needs to assert jurisdiction over one of these two cases to kill the loan relief program, and the Court appeared likely to split along party lines in the Nebraska case.... A handful of questions by [Justices Brett] Kavanaugh and [Amy Coney] Barrett aside, the six Republican appointees spent much of the argument fixated on concerns that if this student debt relief program is upheld, then the Biden administration would have too much power.... The Court's Republican appointees spent much of the argument discussing policy disagreements with President Biden that have nothing whatsoever to do with the question of whether this loan forgiveness program is legal."

Olivia Rubin of ABC News: "After the foreperson of the Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury investigating ... Donald Trump and a push to overturn the 2020 election spoke out in several headline-making interviews, the judge overseeing the case told ABC News on Monday that jurors 'can talk about the final report.' But Judge Robert C. McBurney noted the matter can get 'problematic' if jurors start to 'synthesize the testimony' and the group's thoughts on it.... 'I explained [to the jurors in a "farewell session" that] you don't talk about what the group discussed about the witnesses' testimony, but you can talk about witness testimony,' he said. 'You could talk about things that the assistant district attorneys told you.... And then finally, you can talk about the final report because that is the product of your deliberations, but it's not your deliberations.'... McBurney declined to say if he saw anything in [foreperson Emily] Kohrs' public comments that overstepped his guidance or her oath." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "According to a report from the Daily Beast, it appears that Donald Trump's attempt to raise cash to finance a recount of the 2020 election returns is the subject of an unpublicized investigation by the Federal Elections Commission. As the Beast's Roger Sollenberger reports, a recent FOIA request he made on Trump fundraising and use of funds was turned down with an explanation of, 'To the extent that the records you requested concern an ongoing FEC enforcement matter, we can neither confirm nor deny that any such records exist,' which is an indication that they can't say anything because an investigation is underway." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beth Reinhard & Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "For nearly a decade, Matt Schlapp has captained the blockbuster Conservative Political Action Conference, bringing together influential figures on the right and establishing himself as a key voice in ... Donald Trump's movement.... But as Schlapp rebuffs the allegation [of sexual misconduct] by a former staffer from Herschel Walker's Senate campaign in Georgia, who says Schlapp groped him during an Atlanta trip last fall, dozens of current and former employees and board members interviewed by The Washington Post described a wider range of complaints about the longtime Republican power broker and CPAC's culture under his leadership.... Schlapp is facing multiple challenges, including the exodus of more than half of its staff since 2021, according to the current and former employees and board members.... The Fox Nation streaming service is not returning as a sponsor, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ... is skipping it.... As CPAC's flagship event in the Washington area kicks off Wednesday, ticket sales are lagging from past years....

"A Post review of the Walker staffer's [sexual assault] claims also corroborated that he shared his story with friends and colleagues in the immediate aftermath.... The Post review found that call logs, texts and videos provided by the Walker staffer and his confidants broadly match his account of Schlapp making unwanted sexual advances after buying him drinks at two Atlanta bars on the night of Oct. 19...."

Annals of “Journalism,” Ha Ha Ha. Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Ever since Donald J. Trump announced his presidential campaign in 2015, Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News Channel have struggled with how to handle the man and the movement they helped create.... For the most part, Mr. Murdoch has been wildly successful at striking the balance [between truth and 'crazy']. Fox converted Mr. Trump's mass following into loyal viewers who deliver Mr. Murdoch and his shareholders huge profits. But the emails among the Murdochs and the senior leadership of their companies, along with depositions of both men as part of the case, revealed just how Fox and its leaders strained to push back against Mr. Trump when he began spreading unfounded claims about widespread election fraud.... In the wake of the election, they appeared fearful of alienating Mr. Trump's supporters, almost to the point of powerlessness.... By early December 2020, as Mr. Trump's claims of being cheated grew more far-fetched, Mr. Murdoch acknowledged how difficult it had become to continue delivering coverage that didn't insult loyal, pro-Trump viewers without stating the obvious: The president was lying to them about his loss." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: While the Murdochs, Fox hosts & others at the network were pursuing lies in the service of the company's profits & stock values, all of the principals who weren't multi-millionaires were billionaires. That is, they lied to the rubes to make money they absolutely didn't need. Yeah, capitalism is awesome, all right. I've noticed commentators on the teevee complaining in the wake of the Dominion revelations that truth in advertising should preclude Fox from calling itself "Fox News." I've been doing that for more than a decade. And Al Franken, in his book Lies and the Lying Liars, beat me to that conclusion by several years. ~~~

~~~ Pandering for Profit = Fox's Business Model. Amanda Carpenter of the Bulwark: "Fox News loves to project bravado, but the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit shows how deeply threatened the network is by flimsy, fringe competitors and how executives and hosts talked themselves into dishonestly pandering to viewers to keep ratings and profits up.... Dominion ... filings are already proving something significant, beyond the shadow of a doubt: that Fox casually and knowingly feeds its viewers lies." Carpenter gives quite a good tick-tock narrative of how Fox executives & stars "handled" the Big Lie.

The Pandemic, Ctd. Anumita Kaur & Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "FBI director Christopher A. Wray said Tuesday that covid-19 'most likely' originated from a lab incident in Wuhan, China, his first public comments on the agency's position on the origins of the coronavirus. They come as Republican leaders have reignited probes into the possible source of the pandemic, with GOP House leaders holding a roundtable Tuesday to review the government's response and scheduling a hearing for next week to delve into the virus's origins. 'The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,' Wray said Tuesday in an interview with Fox News. 'The Chinese government, seems to me, has been doing its best to try and thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we're doing, and that's unfortunate for everybody.'... Among the nine entities investigating the pandemic's origin, most still favor the theory that the virus naturally spread from animals to humans, with, as The Post reported, only the FBI concluding that the cause of the pandemic was a lab accident, a view that the agency held with 'moderate' confidence." NPR's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Akhilleus wondered yesterday why Republicans were so exercised about the origins of Covid, inasmuch as they characterized the deadly illness as "no big deal, no worse than a cold, nothing to worry about. Mask and vaccine mandates were tantamount to communist Russia's stealing their freeeedoms and sending them to a Siberian gulag for fingernail removal." ~~~

     ~~~ Speaking of China's Global Times. Rohan Goswami of CNBC: "A Chinese state-run newspaper issued a warning to Tesla CEO Elon Musk after he shared reporting on the U.S. Department of Energy's 'low confidence' assessment that the global Covid pandemic originated in a Wuhan laboratory. CNBC's Eunice Yoon reported Tuesday morning on the warning from the social media pages of the Global Times, the English-language subsidiary of the government-controlled People's Daily. The Global Times warned Musk that he could be 'breaking the pot of China' after the Tesla and Twitter CEO responded to tweets that asserted that the Covid pandemic originated in a Wuhan research laboratory.... The saying is akin to the idiom 'to bite the hand that feeds you,' Yoon reported."

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Mike Wright of Florida Politics: State "Sen. Blaise Ingoglia is sponsoring the 'Ultimate Cancel Act,' which would eliminate all political parties that once used slavery as part of its platform. While 'Democratic Party' isn’t mentioned in the bill, Ingoglia said that's his target. 'For years now, leftist activists have been trying to "cancel" people and companies for things they have said or done in the past. This includes the removal of statues and memorials, and the renaming of buildings,' he said. 'Using this standard, it would be hypocritical not to cancel the Democratic Party itself for the same reason.'... According to Ingoglia's bill, the Division of Elections would decertify any political party that has 'previously advocated for, or been in support of, slavery or involuntary servitude.'" Thanks to Bobby Lee for the lead. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I guess this is supposed to be a joke inasmuch as it is Republicans who are trying to suppress Black Florida voters and Black & LGBTQ cultures by a number of means. The Republican party of Florida isn't pro-slavery (I guess), but the modern Florida GOP was born in "Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy, which took advantage of objections to the advances of the American Civil Rights Movement."

Georgia. Jane Timm of NBC News: "Georgia Republicans introduced legislation Tuesday to make it easier to kick voters off the rolls through mass challenges.... A draft of proposed legislation was released hours after NBC News exclusively revealed that at least 92,000 voter registrations were challenged in Georgia last year. Amateur fraud hunters largely used voter rolls, public records (including change-of-address data from the U.S. Postal Service) and some door-to-door canvassing in their claims that voters were ineligible. Most of the challenges were rejected, and some counties said broadly that having mail forwarded was not enough evidence to conclude a voter had moved.... The new SB 221 would change that, noting that appearing on the postal service's change-of-address database 'shall constitute sufficient cause to sustain the challenge against the elector' unless a voter is determined meet certain exceptions, like being a student.... 'If being on the [National Change of Address System] meant it was enough to take you off the voter rolls, that would be disastrous and I hope immediately thrown out of court,' said Vasu Abhiraman, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, arguing that federal voting rights law would prohibit such a rule." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Those who vaguely recall that Donald Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that "I just want 11,780 votes" will realize that dumping 92,000 voters often can change the results of statewide elections.

** Illinois. Julie Bosman & Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago lost her bid for a second term on Tuesday, a resounding defeat that reflected widespread dissatisfaction from voters over her handling of crime and policing in the nation's third-largest city. Four years ago, Ms. Lightfoot made history as the first Black woman to be elected mayor of Chicago when she swept all 50 of the city's wards. But she saw her popularity plunge during the coronavirus pandemic as Chicago suffered a spike in violent crime, with looting and destruction on its famed Magnificent Mile in 2020. The two candidates to emerge from Tuesday's first round of voting and advance to an April 4 runoff, according to The Associated Press, were Paul Vallas, a former public schools executive, and Brandon Johnson, a county board commissioner." The NBC News story is here.

Iowa. They Just Won't Quit. Matt Lavietes of NBC News: "Nearly eight years after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage and several months after Congress codified gay nuptials, Iowa legislators proposed banning such unions in their state constitution." Eight members of the state's house sponsored the bill to amend the state's constitution.

Marie: Without looking into the matter too closely, I've been of the impression that New York City's mayor Eric Adams was a jerk. He confirmed my suspicions yesterday. This was kindly of him; it's one less thing for me to ponder. ~~~

~~~ New York. What First Amendment? Dana Rubenstein of the New York Times: At "the annual interfaith breakfast hosted on Tuesday by Mayor Eric Adams..., the mayor's closest aide, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, took the stage to declare that the Adams administration 'doesn't believe' in the separation of church and state, characterizing the mayor of New York City as 'definitely one of the chosen' as she introduced him.... 'Ingrid was so right,' Mr. Adams said.... 'Don't tell me about no separation of church and state. State is the body. Church is the heart. You take the heart out of the body, the body dies. I can't separate my belief because I'm an elected official,' he continued, over scattered applause. He went on to suggest that his path to the mayoralty was divinely ordained, saying that when he implements policies, he does so in a 'godlike approach.' At another point, Mr. Adams seemed to suggest that it was a mistake for the Supreme Court to ban mandated prayer in public schools, as it did in 1962. 'When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools,' he said." The Huffington Post's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Shorter Eric Adams: 'Some people say that the Supreme Court misinterpreting the 2nd Amendment is a major reason why there's so much gun violence, but the real problem is the Supreme Court enforcing the First Amendment.'"

Tennessee. Do As I Say, Not As I Do. Matt Lavietes of NBC News: "By the time Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee confirmed Monday that he would sign a recently passed bill criminalizing drag performances in public and in front of children, a photo that appears to show him dressed in drag as a high school student had already started to circulate on Reddit and Twitter. Just before midnight Saturday, a Reddit user shared an image that appears to show Lee as a high school student wearing a short-skirted cheerleader's uniform, a pearl necklace and a wig, posing on a school sports field next to two girls in men's suits. The caption says, 'Governor Bill Lee in drag (1977 high school yearbook).'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Wednesday is here: "The war in Ukraine is due to dominate conversations at the Group of 20 summit in India, where foreign ministers from the world's most powerful economies are gathering on Wednesday. Those set to attend include Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. In Ukraine, the besieged city of Bakhmut is facing the 'most difficult situation' in the country as battle for control of the symbolic city in the east intensifies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Russia has deployed mercenaries from the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group in a bid to break through the city's defenses, according to Ukrainian military officials.... Alexander Lukashenko, the Kremlin-friendly president of Belarus, is continuing his state visit to China on Wednesday. The two sides are expected to sign agreements deepening cooperation on trade, education and technology. Finland's Parliament is expected to vote Wednesday on the country's accession to NATO, a step that would bring it closer to joining the trans-Atlantic military alliance. The bid still needs to be approved by Turkey, which has indicated that it views Finland's application more favorably than Sweden's because of concerns around Stockholm's approach to groups Ankara considers to be terrorists. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday called on Turkey and Hungary to urgently ratify both countries' accession." ~~~

     ~~~ Related stories about a Congressional hearing on U.S. spending for Ukraine linked above.

U.K. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "King Charles III had nothing to do with the Northern Ireland trade agreement unveiled on Monday by Britain and the European Union. But one could be forgiven for thinking that he had put his royal imprimatur on the deal. It is called the Windsor Framework, which happens to be the king's family name. It was sealed at a luxury hotel in Windsor, west of London, where he has a castle. And it was there, at Windsor Castle, that Charles welcomed one of the negotiators, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, for tea just minutes after she and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak presented the deal to the world. That courtesy call, and the resulting photo of a smiling king appearing to celebrate his guest, prompted angry recrimination from critics, who said the government improperly recruited King Charles to be an ally in one of the most divisive issues in British politics."

News Lede

Greece. Washington Post: "A passenger train and a freight train collided overnight in northern Greece, killing at least 36 people and injuring 85 others as plumes of smoke filled the sky. The crash occurred shortly before midnight near Tempe Valley in northern Greece, the Hellenic Fire Service said."