Driving the Day:
Must Read Stories
Tucker Carlson airs Jan 6 tapes acquired from Speaker McCarthy, paints insurrection as “peaceful gathering”
- NBC: Tucker Carlson, with video provided by Speaker McCarthy, falsely depicts Jan. 6 riot as a peaceful gathering: Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Monday released security video from the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, using footage provided exclusively to him by Speaker Kevin McCarthy to portray the riot as a peaceful gathering. Carlson acquired the tapes as part of a deal for McCarthy, R-Calif., to win the speaker’s gavel. When McCarthy was struggling to gather the votes to lead the House, Carlson used his program to list two “concessions” he could make to win over far-right Republicans. “First, release the January 6 files. Not some of the January 6 files and video — all of it,” Carlson, the most-watched host on cable news, said after McCarthy faced three failed votes. “So that the rest of us can finally know what actually happened on January 6, 2021.”
Former President Trump shows his continuing control of the MAGA Movement at CPAC
- NPR: Despite Republicans cooling on him, CPAC is still the Trump show: Saturday marked the final day of the Conservative Political Action Conference, and former President Donald Trump delivered the closing act. The speech comes more than three months after he announced another bid for president. The former president spoke for more than 90 minutes, ticking through a list of pledges for a second term in office while also hitting on points he’s repeatedly made in past speeches since leaving the White House, notably the lie that he won the 2020 election.
- Axios: CPAC exposes conservative split: This week’s CPAC conference underscored the difficulty Republicans will have in keeping their increasingly fractured coalition together for 2024. Why it matters: The Republican Party once was defined by its general ideological unity on three core conservative principles: free markets, a muscular foreign policy and traditional social values. Those pillars made up the Reagan revolution. But the MAGA movement, which dominated this year’s CPAC conference, has moved the GOP’s center of gravity toward a more protectionist, populist and belligerent outlook. The driving theme of the conference was fighting “wokeness,” one of the few issues that still unites the GOP.
Voting Rights Still “Under Assault”
- New York Times: Biden, in Selma, Says Voting Rights Are Still ‘Under Assault’: President Biden told a crowd gathered to commemorate the 58th anniversary of a brutal police attack on Black protesters that the right to vote was “under assault” as Republicans introduce laws to restrict ballot access and redraw voting districts. Observing the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, an event that electrified the civil rights movement, Mr. Biden said the marchers who crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965, had bucked the “forces of hate” and encouraged activism that led to the signing of the Voting Rights Act five months later.
- Washington Post: Election deniers take aim at group that helps states maintain voter rolls: At a time of hyperpolarization over voting and elections, Democrats and Republicans had largely managed to agree on one thing — that a little-known data-sharing consortium of more than 30 states has helped keep voter rolls updated and free of opportunities for fraud. But the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), as the consortium is known, has been straining lately under the weight of accusations and misinformation from election deniers. Critics, some of whom have aligned themselves with the false stolen-election narrative of former president Donald Trump, have claimed that the group is actually a left-wing vehicle that shares sensitive voter data with liberal groups, encourages bloated and inaccurate rolls and enables the very fraud it is intended to stamp out. ERIC’s leaders deny these accusations.
In The States
GEORGIA: State GOP lawmakers not yet done fiddling with Georgia voting law in response to 2020 election
- The Guardian: Georgia Republicans race to pass laws to restrict and challenge votes: In the final few days of this year’s Georgia assembly legislative session, Republican lawmakers raced to propose laws seeking to restrict voting access, and make it easier for citizens to challenge and subvert normal election processes. Senate bill 221, house bill 422 and house bill 426 are just a few of the newly proposed election laws, which come after state Republicans, including the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, praised election officials for smooth elections in the past two years. They include measures to eradicate absentee ballot drop boxes, allow citizens to more easily challenge voter registrations – which Republican conspiracy theorists had already done with little backing evidence during the midterms – and even unseal ballots for review. While some of the elements of these proposed laws offer expanded flexibility and resources for elections, including the popular bipartisan effort to eradicate runoff elections in the state, other aspects are grounded in unfounded claims and conspiracy theories surrounding mass election fraud stemming from the 2020 election.
NEVADA: Political shake ups in the 2024 battleground state facing Voter ID laws and an expedited primary calendar
- KUNR: Nevada Republican-backed election bills on voter ID, moving up deadlines for voting: Republican Assemblyman Gregory Hafen II has sponsored a bill that would require Nevadans to show identification to vote, such as a driver’s license or tribal identification card. He’s also open to expanding the requirements to include military IDs. Voter ID is not required in most cases in Nevada; however, it is in more than 30 states. Opposition to the bill says it could create barriers for people who don’t have easy access to getting or affording an ID, but Hafen says the bill has a solution for that. “If anyone claims financial hardship, they can obtain the ID for free,” Hafen said. Voter ID is something Nevada voters on both sides of the aisle agree with. According to a poll by OH Predictive Insights and The Nevada Independent, nearly three-quarters of Nevada voters support showing identification to vote, including 62% of Democrats.
- NBC: Democratic socialists swept out of power in Nevada: Nevada Democrats have ousted a slate of democratic socialists who took over the state party two years ago, ending a troubled reign marked by divisions and infighting. Judith Whitmer was booted as chair in a vote Saturday, with a new slate headed by state Assemblywoman Daniele Monroe-Moreno assuming control of the party. Monroe-Moreno, who is the first Black woman elected to lead Nevada Democrats, was backed by a slew of elected officials, as well as the so-called Reid Machine, the powerful organization first brought together by the late U.S. Sen. Harry Reid. Whitmer repeatedly clashed with key figures in the party in a tumultuous term. Establishment Democrats charged that she had at times undermined members of her own party, including Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who was in a close re-election race last cycle. Whitmer also lost the support of some of her progressive allies, including some in the camp of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and local democratic socialists.
NORTH CAROLINA: U.S. Supreme Court wants to know more about what’s going on with redistricting in North Carolina
- Washington Post: Supreme Court asks for more briefs on important election-law case: 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 “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.
What Experts Are Saying
Joyce Vance, former US attorney: “No one should be surprised Trump is desperate to prevent Pence from testifying under oath. The truth is not Trump’s friend-he knows it. But the law here is also not his friend-prior executive privilege claims have been set aside & witnesses have testified.” Tweet
Barbara McQuade, former US attorney: “Trump’s effort to block Pence’s grand jury testimony with executive privilege will fail under Nixon precedent, but will cause further delay. The ticking clock is getting louder.” Tweet
Norm Eisen, former White House ethics czar: “It’s not enough legally. When a board member sees something wrong that is happening — and Rupert Murdoch himself admitted that Fox hosts endorsed the falsehoods about the 2020 election, they didn’t just report on them — the board member has a fiduciary duty to do more, not to just say “oh, I gave my opinion.” So legally, Fox is exposed to potentially a massive verdict in this case for libel. It’s ethically wrong. When you see something like that, when I was the Ethics Czar in the White House, our philosophy was you’ve gotta speak out. You’ve gotta stop the wrongdoing, not just say “oh, I gave my opinion.” And I think it’s politically disastrous because this election denial ideology has hit the Republicans in swing states, where you had election deniers running on these continuing lies. They ran well behind so-called “team normal” in the Republican party. So, on every front, Paul Ryan’s behavior is far short of what he should have done.” CNN Transcript via Media Matters for America
Headlines
The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections
NBC: Steve Bannon declares war on Fox News: ‘You’ve disrespected Donald J. Trump long enough’
Rolling Stone: The Right Is Big Mad at Big Tech But Can’t Quite Figure Out Why
Trump Investigations
Washington Post: As 2024 race begins, special counsel advances with focus on Trump lawyers
CNN: Trump says he won’t drop out of 2024 race if he’s indicted
New York Times: As Trump Inquiry Continues, Republicans Seek Oversight of Georgia Prosecutors
New York Times: Hope Hicks Meets With Manhattan Prosecutors as Trump Inquiry Intensifies
January 6 And The 2020 Election
Washington Post: Trump takes support for Jan. 6 rioters to new level, collaborates on a song
New York Times: Inside the Panic at Fox News After the 2020 Election
CNN: January 6 rioter pleads guilty to assaulting Michael Fanone
New York Times: Authorities Search for Two Fugitives Charged in Jan. 6 Capitol Attack
Opinion
New York Times: Take Threats of ‘National Divorce’ Seriously
The Atlantic: The New Anarchy: America faces a type of extremist violence it does not know how to stop.
The Hill: Ideology-driven federal judges should not be allowed to rule the entire nation
In The States
Arkansas Democrat Gazette: States propose laws to restore felons’ voting rights
Guardian: Georgia Republicans race to pass laws to restrict and challenge votes
KOB 4: New Mexico lawmakers debate voter protections, requirements
WESH 2: Voting rights groups accuse new law of voter suppression in Florida
