December 12, 2020

Twitter limits users interacting with Trump's tweets about 'stolen' election

BY CELINE CASTRONUOVO - 12/12/20 09:46 AM EST

Twitter on Saturday prevented users from liking and replying to a series of tweets from President Trump in which he repeated false claims that he won the election and that the race was “stolen” from him.

In three separate tweets Saturday morning, Trump responded to the Supreme Court’s decision to throw out a lawsuit from Texas aiming to nullify President-elect Joe Biden’s win in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Trump cited the dissenting opinion from Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito expressing their view that the court is obligated to hear interstate disputes.


Aside from this jurisdictional disagreement, however, those two more conservative justices indicated they joined the court’s seven other members in siding against Texas.

more
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/529942-twitter-prevents-users-from-liking-replying-to-trumps-tweets-about-stolen

December 12, 2020

How the GOP Tried to Topple a Pillar of Democracy

December 12, 2020 at 10:31 am EST By Taegan Goddard

“The Supreme Court repudiation of President Trump’s desperate bid for a second term not only shredded his effort to overturn the will of voters: It also was a blunt rebuke to Republican leaders in Congress and the states who were willing to damage American democracy by embracing a partisan power grab over a free and fair election,” the New York Times reports.

“The court’s decision on Friday night, an inflection point after weeks of legal flailing by Mr. Trump and ahead of the Electoral College vote for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Monday, leaves the president’s party in an extraordinary position. Through their explicit endorsements or complicity of silence, much of the G.O.P. leadership now shares responsibility for the quixotic attempt to ignore the nation’s founding principles and engineer a different verdict from the one voters cast on Election Day.”

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https://politicalwire.com/2020/12/12/how-the-gop-tried-to-topple-a-pillar-of-democracy/

December 11, 2020

McCarthy among new names being added to House GOP briefing asking Supreme Court to effectively...

Source: Washington Post


McCarthy among new names being added to House GOP briefing asking Supreme Court to effectively overturn the election

By John Wagner

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was among 20 new names added Friday to an amicus brief filed by a majority of House Republicans in support of a Texas-led effort with the Supreme Court to effectively reverse the results of the presidential election.

With the names added Friday, 126 of the 196 House GOP members have now signed onto the brief, according to its organizer, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.). Johnson said the additional names had been left off Thursday because of a “clerical error.”

The Texas lawsuit asks the court to dismiss the results in four swing states that Biden won, an effort that Trump is publicly championing.

Several other House GOP leaders were already among those supporting the effort, which a large number of legal scholars have said is meritless and based on unfounded claims. They include Minority Whip Steve Scalise (La.) and Rep. Tom Emmer (Minn.), chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/12/11/joe-biden-trump-transition-live-updates/

December 11, 2020

State Dept IG Finds Pompeo's Wife Bypassed Approval For Most Taxpayer Funded Trips

By Summer Concepcion
|
December 10, 2020 6:58 p.m.

The State Department inspector general found that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s wife, Susan, bypassed written approval from the State Department for the majority of the taxpayer funded trips she took within a two-year period.

In its report, the State OIG concluded that Susan Pompeo took eight official trips between April 2018 to April 2020. Out of those trips, only two had documentation of written approval. Four trips were given verbal approval by the under secretary of management, but he did not document his approval. There is no indication of approval for the remaining two trips.

Official travel means that the trips are government-funded. Otherwise, any non-official passengers on those flights must reimburse the government.

“For family travel that is considered representational, not only does the family member not have to reimburse the government for the flight(s), but he or she also receives significant travel support from the Department at no cost, including provision of a control officer and many hours of support from Department employees,” the State OIG said.

more
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/state-department-inspector-general-susan-pompeo-trips

December 11, 2020

Falwell drops defamation case against Liberty University

He must have decided the University's discovery might be a little tough

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BY CELINE CASTRONUOVO - 12/11/20 11:51 AM EST

Former Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. has dropped his defamation lawsuit against the school that alleged damages to his reputation.

The decision comes after the former president was pressured to resign following a series of scandals.

The News & Advance first reported the news Thursday, writing that lawyers for Falwell first notified Lynchburg Circuit Court on Wednesday that their client did not wish to move forward with the legal action, with Judge James Watson granting the motion to dismiss the suit.

According to The Associated Press, there was no indication given of why Falwell decided to withdraw his lawsuit filed in late October, which claimed that Liberty officials too quickly accepted allegations from former family friend and business partner Giancarlo Granda that Granda had an affair with Falwell’s wife between 2012 and 2018, and that Falwell had knowledge of the sexual affair and allegedly watched his wife have sex with Granda.

more
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/529817-falwell-drops-defamation-case-against-liberty-university

December 11, 2020

Jeb Bush blasts Texas lawsuit: 'This is crazy. It will be killed on arrival.'

BY BROOKE SEIPEL - 12/11/20 12:17 PM EST

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is among the Republicans criticizing Texas's Supreme Court lawsuit seeking to overturn the presidential election results in several battleground states that voted for President-elect Joe Biden, calling it "crazy."

"Why are smart people advancing this notion?" Bush tweeted late Thursday. "Let it go. The election is over."

https://twitter.com/JebBush/status/1337203239138242562

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) on Tuesday filed the lawsuit against Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — all states Biden won. The suit argues that electors from those states should not cast their votes because the states unconstitutionally changed their voting processes to allow for increased mail-in voting.

Multiple other red states have since joined Texas's suit.

more
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/529826-jeb-bush-blasts-texas-lawsuit-this-is-crazy-it-will-be-killed-on

December 11, 2020

Sarah Palin and Louie Gohmert campaign on the 'Save America' bus tour

https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1337427656850239491

https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1337425237034610688

December 11, 2020

The View's Ana Navarro unloads on Rudy Giuliani for getting bailed out on COVID after 'reckless' ...

The View’s Ana Navarro unloads on Rudy Giuliani for getting bailed out on COVID after ‘reckless’ behavior

December 11, 2020

CNN's John Berman Checkmates Members Who Signed Texas Letter: Why Haven't They Resigned if They Won

CNN's John Berman Checkmates Members Who Signed Texas Letter: Why Haven't They Resigned if They Won 'Fraudulent Election?'

December 11, 2020

Americans want to cancel student loans -- but not all of them

Student debt forgiveness is especially popular among people with student debt. Those without it are more split.

By Emily [email protected] Dec 11, 2020, 9:05am EST

Is it a good idea to forgive student debt? The answer is complicated and, ultimately, driven by politics — not only political will but also political popularity.

Some critics have suggested that if President-elect Joe Biden were to unilaterally take action to cancel some or all student loan debt, it would be a disaster for Democrats and cause major backlash from many voters. That’s not the likeliest outcome, based on polls, but it’s not a clear political win either.

A poll from Vox and Data for Progress found that a majority of likely voters support forgiving some student loan debt up to a certain amount and in certain situations, but the popularity of the idea varies among voters based on age and other characteristics.

Two-thirds of voters say they would support canceling $10,000 in student loan debt for every year someone works in national or community service (up to give years). More than half of voters support canceling $50,000 of debt without the service requirement, but the idea is more politically palatable if the program targets debtors making less than $125,000 a year. Only about four in 10 likely voters, however, support forgiving all student debt.

more
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/12/11/22167555/biden-student-loan-cancellation-poll