February 21, 2023
Afternoon Update:
Aamer Madhani, et al., of the AP: “President Joe Biden, returning on Tuesday to the Polish castle where he spoke shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year, said the war had hardened Western resolve to defend democracy around the globe. He warned that there were 'hard and bitter days ahead,' but pledged that the United States and its allies would 'have Ukraine’s back' as the war enters its second year. 'Democracies of the world will stand guard over freedom today, tomorrow and forever,' he said at the Royal Castle, a historical landmark in Warsaw, before a cheering crowd of Polish citizens and Ukrainian refugees.”
Sarah Fitzpatrick of NBC News: “The Environmental Protection Agency announced a sweeping enforcement action against Norfolk Southern on Tuesday, compelling the rail company to conduct and pay for cleanup actions associated with the Feb. 3 derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio. 'The Norfolk Southern train derailment has upended the lives of East Palestine families, and EPA’s order will ensure the company is held accountable for jeopardizing the health and safety of this community,' said EPA Administrator Michael Regan in remarks prepared for a news conference in East Palestine. 'Let me be clear: Norfolk Southern will pay for cleaning up the mess they created and for the trauma they’ve inflicted on this community.' If the company fails to complete any of the actions ordered by the EPA, the agency will 'immediately' conduct the necessary work and then seek to compel Norfolk Southern to pay triple the cost.”
Steve Benen of MSNBC: “By some accounts, [House Speaker Kevin] McCarthy committed to the release [of all January 6 security footage] as part of the negotiations with his far-right detractors who initially stood in the way of him becoming speaker.... Axios was first to report ... [that] '... McCarthy has given Fox News’ Tucker Carlson exclusive access to 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage from the Jan. 6 riot....'... The video tapes in question are official government materials. They don’t belong to one member, one party, or one cable channel; they belong to all of us. And yet, there’s the new House speaker, who apparently made a unilateral decision to give one controversial Fox News host exclusive access to 41,000 hours of surveillance footage. What could possibly go wrong?... Carlson lacks credibility on the issue.... [And there] is the extraordinary timing: It was just days ago when a new court filing presented evidence of Fox News hosts, including Carlson, deliberately promoting bogus election claims they knew to be false in order to pander to their audience and make more money.
“There are also security considerations to keep in mind. Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chaired the Jan. 6 committee and now serves as the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement yesterday, 'It’s hard to overstate the potential security risks if this material were to be used irresponsibly.'... Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland ... ask[ed], 'What security precautions were taken to keep this from becoming a roadmap for 2024 insurrection?'”
~~~ Lauren Sforza of the Hill: “House Homeland Security Committee ranking Democrat Bennie Thompson (Miss.) on Monday blasted Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for handing over tens of thousands of hours of riot footage from Jan. 6, 2021, to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.... 'If Speaker McCarthy has indeed granted Tucker Carlson — a Fox host who routinely spreads misinformation and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s poisonous propaganda — and his producers access to this sensitive footage, he owes the American people an explanation of why he has done so and what steps he has taken to address the significant security concerns at stake,' Thompson said.... In 2021 [Carlson] produced 'Patriot Purge,' a documentary series that purports to tell an alternative story of the Jan. 6 insurrection and features at least one subject who suggests the event may have been a 'false flag' operation. Fox News staffers were reportedly angered by the series, and at least two contributors to the network resigned in protest.”
Danny Hakim of the New York Times: “A special grand jury that investigated election interference by ... Donald J. Trump and his allies in Georgia recommended indictments of multiple people on a range of charges in its report, most of which remains sealed, the forewoman of the jury said in an interview today. 'It is not a short list,' the forewoman, Emily Kohrs, said, adding that the jury had appended eight pages of legal code 'that we cited at various points in the report.'... Asked whether the jurors had recommended indicting Mr. Trump, Ms. Kohrs gave a cryptic answer: 'You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science,' adding 'you won’t be too surprised.'” At 2:20 pm ET Tuesday, this is a breaking story. ~~~
~~~ Kate Brumback of the AP: “The AP identified [special grand jury foreperson Emily] Kohrs after her name was included on subpoenas obtained through open records requests. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney advised Kohrs and other jurors on what they could and could not share publicly, including in interviews with the news media.... But her general characterizations provided unusual insight into a process that is typically cloaked in secrecy. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was on the receiving end of Trump’s pressure campaign, was 'a really geeky kind of funny,' she said. State House Speaker David Ralston, who died in November, was hilarious and had the room in stitches. And Gov. Brian Kemp, who succeeded in delaying his appearance until after his reelection in November, seemed unhappy to be there.... Rudy Giuliani was funny and invoked privilege to avoid answering many questions but 'genuinely seemed to consider' whether it was merited before declining to answer, she said.” Read on.
Julia Shapero of the Hill: “Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) will leave Congress in June to take over as the president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, his office announced on Tuesday.... Cicilline, who has represented Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District since 2011, will officially step down June 1. Cicilline’s staff will continue to operate the district’s Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., offices until a new representative is chosen in a special election, his office said.” MB: Sad news.
California Senate Race. Jazmine Ulloa & Rein Epstein of the New York Times: “Representative Barbara Lee, who stood alone against authorizing military action after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and remains a leading antiwar voice in Congress, entered the 2024 Senate race in California on Tuesday, becoming the third prominent Democrat to run for the seat being vacated by Dianne Feinstein. Ms. Lee, 76, the highest-ranking Black woman appointed to Democratic leadership in the House, unveiled her Senate bid in a video that highlighted the racism she fought against in her youth and the struggles she faced as a single mother and a survivor of domestic violence.”
Mary Ilyushina, et al., of the Washington Post: “Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in a state of the nation address Tuesday that Moscow is 'suspending' its participation in the New START nuclear nonproliferation agreement, the last remaining arms control treaty between the United States and Russia. Putin said that Russia will not 'withdraw' completely from the treaty, which has been extended to run through Feb. 4, 2026, but that Russia would not allow NATO countries to inspect its nuclear arsenal. He accused the alliance of helping Ukraine conduct drone strikes on Russian air bases that host strategic bombers that are part of the country’s nuclear forces.” ~~~
~~~ David Sanger of the New York Times: “When President Vladimir V. Putin announced at the end of a 100-minute speech on Tuesday that he would suspend Russia’s participation in the New START treaty..., it was one more indication that the era of formal arms control may be dying.... He sounded like a leader who was done with arms control at a time of escalating confrontation with the United States and NATO. If that attitude holds, whoever is sitting in the Oval Office when the treaty expires in a bit more than 1,000 days may face a new world that will look, at first glance, similar to the one of a half-century ago, when arms races were in full swing and nations could field as many nuclear weapons as they wanted.”
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AP: "Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Western countries Tuesday of igniting and sustaining the war in Ukraine, dismissing any blame for Moscow almost a year after the Kremlin’s unprovoked invasion of its neighbor that has killed tens of thousands of people. In his long-delayed state-of-the-nation address, Putin cast Russia — and Ukraine — as victims of Western double-dealing and said Russia, not Ukraine, was the one fighting for its very existence."
The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. "President Vladimir V. Putin is scheduled to deliver a state-of-the-nation speech in Moscow on Tuesday in which he is expected to double down on war goals despite not having achieved any of his objectives nearly a year into his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Hours later and 800 miles away, President Biden is scheduled to deliver an address in Warsaw, the capital of neighboring Poland, a day after a brief but dramatic visit to Kyiv that highlighted the American commitment to supporting Ukraine. The speeches — three days before the anniversary of the Russian invasion — will offer a rare moment of almost direct confrontation between two leaders at opposing ends of the global order." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here: "President Biden is due to meet with leaders of the Bucharest Nine during his visit to Europe this week. The group consists of nine countries that are part of NATO’s eastern flank: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia. The leaders of Poland and Romania launched the Bucharest Nine in 2015, shortly after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Tuesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.
On Presidents' Day, a President Worthy of the Title. David Rothkopf of the Daily Beast: President “Biden joined a great history of American presidents standing up to Russian aggression, and significantly broke from the shameful actions of his predecessor.... Biden, in going to Kyiv, offered the clearest possible reminder of his stance against Russian aggression from the first moments of his presidency. It illustrated that he did not hesitate to support Ukraine when it was imperiled and that his leadership among our allies worldwide has been one of the signature triumphs of his first term in office.... To Vladimir Putin, it was Biden’s way of saying, 'I am here in Kyiv and you are not. You not only did not take Kyiv in days as some predicted, but your attack was rebuffed. Your army suffered a humiliating defeat from which it has not recovered.'...
Biden went to Europe to send Putin a message of American and allied strength. Trump went to grovel before Putin. Biden stood up for American values and our allies. Trump said he trusted Putin more than America’s own intelligence and law enforcement services. Biden embodied America’s strength. Trump illustrated and represented our greatest weakness. A year after Trump embarrassed the country in Helsinki, he compounded the offense by withholding aid from Ukraine in an attempt to extort [Volodymyr] Zelensky into doing political dirty work against Biden to help Trump’s reelection efforts.... [And] Biden’s trip sent an important reminder to Beijing just how high a priority Ukraine is for the U.S. and the West and presenting the war in the context of Russia’s violations of international law will emphasize to the Chinese that directly supporting Russia’s attack and serial war crimes would make China an accessory to those crimes.” Firewalled. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Mark Wright of the (right-wing) National Review: "President Biden’s secret visit to wartime Kyiv is an example of America in its finest tradition. The New York Times reports that after a “trans-Atlantic flight to Poland, Mr. Biden crossed the border by train, traveling for nearly 10 hours to Kyiv as other American officials have in recent months.' This trip took guts.... Make no mistake, there was risk involved in this trip. Traveling to the capital of a nation fighting a shooting war with a great power, the U.S. had no way to choreograph with exactitude the circumstances of his travel or arrival. Neither the U.S. nor Ukraine has total control of the airspace. Neither the U.S. nor Ukraine could guarantee Biden’s security on the ground.” Firewalled. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Evan Vucci, et al., of the AP: “President Joe Biden’s motorcade slipped out of the White House around 3:30 a.m. Sunday.... The president vanished into the darkness on an Air Force C-32, a modified Boeing 757 normally used for domestic trips to smaller airports.... Once Biden was secreted aboard the Air Force jet, the call sign 'SAM060,' for Special Air Mission, was used for the plane instead of the usual 'Air Force One.' It took off from Joint Base Andrews at 4:15 a.m. Eastern time.... After a refueling stop in Germany, Biden’s aircraft switched off its transponder for the roughly hour-long flight to Rzeszow, Poland, the airport that has served as the gateway for billions of dollars in Western arms and VIP visitors into Ukraine.... He arrived in Kyiv at 8 a.m. Monday and was greeted by Ambassador Bridget Brink and entered his motorcade for the drive to Mariinsky Palace.... Over the next five hours, the president made multiple stops around town — ferried about in a black SUV rather than the presidential limousine — without any announcement to the Ukrainian public that he was there.... A small group of senior officials at the White House and across U.S. national security agencies set about working in secret for months to make it happen, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday. Biden only gave the final sign-off on Friday.” Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times story is here.
Peter Beaumont & Julian Borger of the Guardian: “The White House notified the Kremlin of Joe Biden’s intention to visit Kyiv hours before he departed for Ukraine, as the details began to emerge of how the US president pulled off his high-profile diplomatic coup. Meticulously planned over several months by a tight circle of key advisers, Biden’s visit was described as 'unprecedented in modern times' by his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan on the grounds that it was the first time a US president had visited 'the capital of the country at war where the United States military does not control the critical infrastructure.... We did notify the Russians that President Biden will be traveling to Kyiv, Sullivan said. 'We did so some hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes, and because of the sensitive nature of those communications I won’t get into how they responded or what the precise nature of our message was, but I can confirm that we provided that notice.'” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Wingnuts Will Always Be With Us. Shannon Pettypiece of NBC News: “President Joe Biden’s surprise trip to Ukraine on Monday drew a variety of attacks from congressional Republicans who criticized his support for the war-torn country and accused him of neglecting issues back at home. 'You should be standing with East Palestine — an American town in your own country that needs your help,' tweeted Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.... The President’s Day criticism, much of which came as Biden was still in the war zone, echoed Republicans who have accused Biden of neglecting the U.S. southern border and bearing some responsibility for the war in Ukraine.... Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene ... said the conflict has become a proxy war between the U.S. and China and should be ended immediately.” More on Miss Margie linked below.
Oh, My Kevin Has His Very Own January 6 Committee. It's Called TuKKKer Carlson. Mike Allen of Axios: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has given Fox News' Tucker Carlson exclusive access to 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage from the Jan. 6 riot, McCarthy sources tell me. Carlson TV producers were on Capitol Hill last week to begin digging through the trove, which includes multiple camera angles from all over Capitol grounds. Excerpts will begin airing in the coming weeks.... Carlson has repeatedly questioned official accounts of 1/6, downplaying the insurrection as 'vandalism.'... The process with Carlson started in early February...." MB: For anyone who thought there was a chance My Kevin might grow into his job -- a job that's one of the most important in the country -- get over it. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Uncivil War. Miss Margie Calls for Secession. Shannon Pettypiece of NBC News: “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called for the U.S. to be separated by red and blue states and for shrinking the federal government in a tweet on President's Day.... 'We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government,' Greene, R-Ga., said in the tweet. '... From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.'” ~~~
~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and GOP leaders recently rewarded Greene with committee assignments, including a slot on the House Homeland Security Committee. Are Republicans prepared to defend a member of the House Homeland Security Committee openly endorsing the dissolution of the United States?... GOP leaders should let the public know whether they’re comfortable with such a dynamic — and what they’re prepared to do in response if they’re not comfortable with such a dynamic.... The focus should be on McCarthy." MB: How can a person who proposes to destroy so-called homeland security sit on a committee committed to preserving the country's security?
Santos Lies About Lying Again. Jacob Kornbluh of the Forward: “Rep. George Santos ... appeared to double down in a new TV interview on Monday about his false claim that he had Jewish grandparents, and openly denied calling himself a member of the Jewish faith. 'I never claimed to be Jewish,' Santos said in a tense exchange with British television host Piers Morgan for the Piers Morgan Uncensored program, which airs in the United Kingdom and on the Fox Nation streaming service. Santos said it was a 'party favor joke' he used in public appearances to claim he was “Jew-ish” since 'my grandparents are Jewish on my mother’s side.' Santos publicly raised his Jewish ancestry and called himself a 'Latino Jew' and 'halachically Jewish' during last year’s campaign. He claimed his grandparents fled anti-Jewish persecution in Ukraine and then Belgium during World War II. In a two-page document that the Santos campaign shared last year with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other Jewish groups, Santos described himself as a 'proud American Jew.' In a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference after his election in November, Santos said he was proud to be one of three Jewish members of the Republican caucus.... However, a Forward review of genealogy websites showed that both of his maternal grandparents were born in Brazil before the Nazis rose to power.” Firewalled.
Congressional Race 2023. Meagan Flynn of the Washington Post: “State Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan (D-Richmond) will square off with Republican pastor Leon Benjamin on Tuesday as voters select their next member of Congress in a special election to fill the seat of Rep. A. Donald McEachin (D-Va.), who died in November. McClellan, a lawyer who has served in the Virginia General Assembly since 2006, is widely expected to prevail in the deep-blue, Richmond-anchored 4th Congressional District. Benjamin has run for the seat twice and lost to McEachin in November by roughly 30 percentage points, weeks before McEachin died following a long battle with the secondary effects of cancer treatment.”
Cat Zakrzewski & Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear oral arguments in Gonzalez v. Google, a lawsuit that argues tech companies should be legally liable for harmful content that their algorithms promote. The Gonzalez family contends that by recommending ISIS-related content, Google’s YouTube acted as a recruiting platform for the group in violation of U.S. laws against aiding and abetting terrorists.At stake is Section 230, a provision written in 1996, years before the founding of Google and most modern tech giants, but one that courts have found shields platforms from culpability over the posts, photos and videos that people share on their services.”
Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: “James O’Keefe, who as the leader of the conservative group Project Veritas used theatrical stunts, undercover stings and other deceptive tactics in efforts to inflict embarrassment and charges of hypocrisy and wrongdoing on perceived liberal enemies in politics and the media, has left his post, Mr. O’Keefe disclosed on Monday. His departure came amid an uproar among the group’s staff about his leadership style, his treatment of subordinates and his use of the group’s funds for high-priced expenses like flights on a private plane. It also came in the midst of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into how Project Veritas acquired a diary kept by Ashley Biden, President Biden’s daughter, before the 2020 election. Mr. O’Keefe’s home was searched by F.B.I. agents with a warrant in the fall of 2021 as part of the investigation. Project Veritas’s board put Mr. O’Keefe on paid leave earlier this month.” Politico's story is here; it describes O'Keefe as having been stripped of his post.
Fox's Main Source for Election Fraud Claims: a Headless, Semi-Conscious Time-Traveler. David Folkenflik of NPR: "A woman who says the wind talks to her and put forth claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential race that she admitted were 'pretty wackadoodle' turns out to be a key source of allegations that Fox News presented, night after night, to millions of viewers late that fall. Joe Biden's victory caused Fox News personalities to all but melt down on the air.... Fox News and the Fox Business Network turned at least a dozen times to a pro-Trump attorney named Sidney Powell who, when pressed for evidence, forwarded a memo entitled 'Election Fraud Info' to Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo.... The author of the memo in which Powell and Bartiromo put so much stock offered detailed and utterly false claims of how Dominion Voting Systems helped rig the election for Biden. She also ... [wrote] that she gains insights from experiencing something 'like time-travel in a semi-conscious state.... Who am I? And how do I know all of this?... I've had the strangest dreams since I was a little girl,' the woman wrote in the email shared by Powell with Bartiromo and [then-Fox Business host Lou] Dobbs. 'I was internally decapitated, and yet, I live.'... David Clark, then the senior executive over Fox's weekend shows, later said under oath to Dominion's lawyers that he 'would not have allowed that claim to be aired,' had he known this memo was the sole foundation of the 'crazy' theories."
Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: “Prosecutors have downgraded the involuntary manslaughter charges against Alec Baldwin, significantly reducing the possible prison time for the actor, who was holding the gun that discharged on the 'Rust' movie set, killing the film’s cinematographer. Mr. Baldwin’s lawyers argued this month that the Santa Fe County district attorney had incorrectly charged the actor under a version of a New Mexico firearm law that was passed months after the fatal shooting in October 2021. If convicted under that law, called a firearm enhancement, Mr. Baldwin would have received a minimum prison sentence of five years. Instead, he now faces a maximum of 18 months in prison.”
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