Source tells me that roughly half the House GOP conference gave Marjorie Taylor Greene a standing ovation after she rose to speak a few min ago.
Fwiw other sources saying it was likely less than half the conference but all say it was a substantial chunk of the conference. And came after MTG (sort of) apologized.
Full story on how the GOP decided to embrace BOTH their loudest QAnoner and the most prominent impeachment supporter after a long, tense meeting: vice.com/en/article/bvx…
In about 24 hours, House Republicans will meet for the first time to discuss whether to punish Marjorie Taylor Greene — or Liz Cheney. Whatever they do, it'll say a lot about where the party is headed. vice.com/en/article/4ad…
The most likely outcome: They don't do anything.
McCarthy hasn't indicated he'll move to strip Greene of her committee assignments, and it sounds like Cheney's foes don't have the votes to oust her from her leadership role. But there's a helluva lot of uncertainty.
R's from across the party told me they're not thrilled with how Kevin McCarthy has handled this so far. One GOP Hill aide said that by not acting decisively on either front, "He’s self-created this snowball of shit and now it’s coming to a head."
Okay, why the hell did @politico hand its top newsletter @playbookplus over to @benshapiro for today? That newsroom is filled with such talented folks. We're 1 day after impeachment, a week past insurrection and stuff days to inauguration. 4 years and they've learned nothing.
Seriously. It's not like Ben Shapiro doesn't get enough attention. His pieces basically dominate Facebook. And I think he's worth reading. But wtf.
Ben has a big megaphone and represents what a lot of Republicans are thinking so he's worth reading to understand where they're coming from. He doesn't need to be handed the keys to an influential newsletter for that.
The deepest cuts were driven by COVID and shifts to vote by mail and voting centers. But many states are just cutting while doing little to nothing to expand VBM.
40 of the 45 states that weren't already vote by mail saw cuts, and 35 are not sending mail ballots to everyone.
This was a biiig lift - it took bugging 50 secretaries of state/election boards (and DC!) for their info and comparing it to 2016 and 2012 @No_Little_Plans deserves kudos for doing most of that.
.@realDonaldTrump is running an ad claiming he built "the best" economy in US history and will do so again. That ad uses footage of him at a steel plant that recently laid off hundreds — part of industry-wide layoffs that predate COVID. vice.com/en_us/article/…
U.S. Steel issued layoff warnings to 737 Granite City, Ill. steelworkers in late April. Hundreds were let go. Though the company wouldn't tell me exactly how many, at the time they were planning 2,700 layoffs nationally and warned 6,500 people they could be let go.
"We suffered a lot. We were essential [workers], and had to get rid of some guys," United Steelworkers local president Dan Simmons told me. "It's cost us quite a bit. It’s been a tough year."
.@realDonaldTrump has signaled strongly that he won't concede if he loses this election. I gamed out what could happen next. There are some really alarming scenarios.
The key tipping-point Electoral College states (AZ/MI/PA/WI) all will use heavy vote by mail this election and all but AZ can't start counting ballots 'til election day means long counts expected - and Trump could lead big on election day even in states where he'll lose.
On top of that, mail ballots are a lot more likely to be rejected for technical reasons (missing signatures/envelopes/witness signatures/etc)— and a lot more likely to face litigation over whether they should count post-election.
Happy virtual convention week. I took a look at how this'll be the most visible test so far of whether Dems' virtual campaign can match up in crucial Wisconsin, as their ground game has been moved online while the GOP keeps knocking doors & holding events. vice.com/en_us/article/…
Part of this disparate approach is driven by necessity. WI Dem @JoeZepecki: "For every voter really longing for face to face communication there could be three that are really turned off by the depravity of sending someone out into a community and risking spreading coronavirus."
WisDems chair @benwikler: "“Trump waltzing around like there’s no pandemic underway and Democrats taking every precaution to show we’re not spreading coronavirus — that sets up exactly the right contrast."