A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
The Past Is Never Dead. It’s Not Even Past.
Like John Ganz, I find myself impatient with the commemoration of the fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack. Impatient and frustrated.
President Biden epitomizes the disconnect I feel. He wrote a mostly unobjectionable WaPo op-ed urging us not to forget Jan. 6, 2021, but as is his wont he was too quick to congratulate us on this year’s transfer of power being peaceful and too eager to declare it part of the past. Speaking to reporters yesterday about Trump, Biden said: “I think what he did was a genuine threat to democracy, and I’m hopeful that we’re beyond it.”
Beyond it?
After the Supreme Court first ignored the Disqualification Clause and then imbued the presidency with new and astonishing levels of immunity, hamstringing the criminal justice system’s slow-motion effort to hold Trump to account for his election subversion crimes, it’s hard to sit here on this Jan. 6 four years later and be self-congratulatory or hopeful.
The truth is what has transpired since that fateful January day is the worst nightmare of all of us who saw the attack coming, warned that election subversion had been underway for months, and feared that Jan. 6 wasn’t a culmination but a beginning. I wrote in October, a week and half before the 2024 election, that Jan. 6 never ended and is ongoing to this day. That remains true, and Trump’s willingness to abide by the results of an election he won shouldn’t obscure what would have happened had he lost.
Jan. 6 Anniversary Tidbits
- Politico: The Justice Department is weighing charging as many as 200 more people for their involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
- WaPo: U.S. Capitol Police chief opposes pardons for assaults against police
- Politico reports for the first time on an encounter last year between Al Gore and Mike Pence regarding Jan. 6.
Trump To Be Sentenced Friday
The judge in the New York hush money case is determined to sentence Donald Trump before his inauguration, setting a hearing for Jan. 10. Trump is expected to rush to get an appeals court to block the sentencing. The judge signaled that the sentence will not include jail time nor probation, a nod to the constitutional conflict posed by Trump having won re-election as president.
Rudy G Contempt Hearing Enters Day 2
Rudy Giuliani will resume his testimony today in the contempt of court hearing in his defamation case, but he will be remote not in person unlike Friday’s day-long session. Expect a report today once the hearing is over from TPM’s Josh Kovensky, who was in court Friday.
Mike Johnson Re-Elected Speaker In A Squeaker
It took leaving the vote open for more than an hour and a phone call from Donald Trump cajoling two wayward GOP members but Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) was re-elected speaker in what would have been dramatic fashion were it not for the 2023 debacle of Kevin McCarthy’s multi-ballot win that crippled his speakership.
The GOP Battle Plan Takes Shape
Donald Trump has come down on the side of House Republicans and despite Senate GOP misgivings will push for one giant bill early this year combining his anti-immigration priorities with massive tax cuts for the wealthy and retrograde energy policies.
It sets up a rapid-fire schedule on the Hill and a tough early test of the Trump majority in Washington. Trump will host a “broad cross-section” of House GOP members at Mar-a-Lago this weekend as he starts trying to sell the one-bill approach.
New Orleans Attack Aftermath
- Shamsud-Din Jabbar made two trips to New Orleans ahead of the attack, the FBI said Sunday.
- Jabbar used Meta smart glasses to record video of the area during one trip, and they were recovered from him after the attack.
- Jabbar had planted IEDs in coolers around Bourbon Street before the attack, but failed to detonate them during the attack, the FBI said.
- Jabbar had traveled to Egypt and Canada in 2023 but investigators haven’t established a connection between those trips and the attack.
- President Biden is visiting New Orleans today to meet with first responders and families of the victims
Green Beret In Cybertruck Suicide Left ‘Minifestos’
TPM’s Josh Marshall: “Those documents denounce Democrats and demand they be ‘culled’ from Washington, by violence if necessary, and express the hope that his own death will serve as a kind of bell clap for a national rebirth of masculinity under the leadership of Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Bobby Kennedy Jr.”
Cartoonist At Bezos’ WaPo Resigns Over Interference
A cartoon mocking WaPo owner Jeff Bezos was rejected by editorial page editors, prompting the resignation of Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes, who penned a level-headed, thoughtful explanation of the episode.
Here’s the draft cartoon in question:
“As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that job. So I have decided to leave the Washington Post”— Ann Telnaes, after drawing this cartoon, which included the image of a supplicant Jeff Bezos
— Bill Grueskin (@bgrueskin.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Bezos’ Amazon Doing Melania Trump Documentary
Semafor’s Ben Smith:
The director and producer Brett Ratner, forced out of Hollywood at the peak of the #MeToo movement, will direct a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump for Amazon, the studio confirmed Sunday.
The move is both a warm embrace by the e-commerce giant for the incoming administration and a dramatic return for Ratner, the director of X-Men: The Last Stand and the Rush Hour movies.
Elon Musk Watch
- WaPo: Elon Musk goes global with his playbook for political influence
- Politico: Elon Musk’s European political meddling is ‘worrying,’ says Norway’s PM
- The Guardian: Starmer condemns ‘lies and misinformation’ as he hits back at Musk
Not Good
E&E News: Trump team takes aim at crown jewel of US climate research
NYC Launches Congestion Pricing In Manhattan
Manhattan’s long-awaited congestion pricing regimen was introduced Sunday, making today the first weekday it is in effect. Here’s a cool real-time tracking site of the impact of the new policy.
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