Russian state media announces that convicted Russian spy Maria Butina, now member of the Duma, is asking Putin to fast track Russian citizenship for Tara Reade, the woman whose accusation of sexual assault rocked the Biden campaign in 2020 - and who's now already in Russia Reade had previously been a contributor to RT, also a Russian state media outlet, and Russia had tried to get her to be a witness on its behalf to bring Ukraine conspiracy theories to the UN Security Council semafor.com/article/12/22/…

On the anniversary of Jan. 6, Trump’s acting defense secretary Christopher Miller is putting out an excerpt of his forthcoming book, in which he both downplays the riot and attacks the leaders of Congress for asking for his help quelling it. (1/x) Miller writes Pelosi&McConnell “cowering like frightened children for all the world to see.Do I blame a bunch of geriatrics for acting like a bunch of geriatrics? Of course not. But do I judge them for it? You’re damned right”

In fact, they were evacuated. (2/x)

NEW - dozens of Republicans who last year voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill, calling it "socialist," "radical spending," spent the past few months quietly lobbying the administration for money out of that bill to come home to them cnn.com/2022/10/07/pol… Among those who wrote to the Transportation Department asking for money they voted against: Tom Emmer, the head of the House Republicans' campaign arm, who called the bill a "socialist wish list."

Here's Emmer's letter asking for money to go to Minnesota:

Joe Manchin at the White House, pen from the Inflation Reduction Act in his pocket, says he named the bill that because “tell me another time that we paid down the debt, provided more energy, lowered the prices at the pump, lowered the prices at home” “In any other time,” Manchin says, “this would have been a bipartisan bill.”

Trump had a private meeting with Viktor Orban:

https://twitter.com/zoltanspox/status/1554563966633971713

Former presidents do sometimes meet with current foreign leaders, but when they do, they usually keep the meetings informal. This one was made to look, at least, like a bilateral meeting.

About two dozen members of congress protesting in front of the Supreme Court on choice
Police:
“Cease and desist or you will be arrested” Arrests are about to begin:

.@KamalaHarris plays Carnegie Hall (speaking at the National Action Network event) “The American people have waited long enough — and Congress must vote on the Build Back Better plan,” @vp says

NEW from me and @jeremyherb: secretaries of state around the country are living in fear, as threats from those convinced by Trump's election lies mount - and they don't see nearly enough being done to secure them on the state or federal level

cnn.com/2021/10/26/pol… "I am a hunter -- and I think you should be hunted," a woman can be heard saying in a voicemail left for AZ Sec of State Katie Hobbs. "You will never be safe in Arizona again."

"Bullet," read a tweet reply to CO Sec of State Jena Griswold. "That is a six letter word for you."

COVID vaccination is only a politicized issue because of those political and media figures (many of whom are vaccinated themselves) who decided to politicize it Also important to remember that in poll after poll, when asked whom they blame for the continuing shutdowns and pandemic disruptions to life, the vaccinated are overwhelmingly blaming the *unvaccinated* - not Biden, Trump, or any governor or other political figure

Clyburn’s determination to stop Sanders from being the 2020 nominee was part of what led to the energy he put into his Biden endorsement. Now he’s moving in to try to stop Nina Turner, Sanders’s campaign co-chair & hope for a continuation of his politics. nytimes.com/2021/06/29/us/… Hillary Clinton’s endorsement of her opponent led to Nina Turner’s having a monster fundraising day - Clyburn theoretically wades into this race differently, though…

Who could have predicted Biden on infrastructure?

McConnell 6/15:
“we are anticipating at some point getting a reconciliation bill.I guess what we will find out soon is whether there's an additional bipartisan effort to address the subject that a lot of us would like to address” Or Roy Blunt in April:

“My advice to the White House has been, take that bipartisan win, do this in a more traditional infrastructure way, and then if you want to force the rest of the package on Republicans in the Congress and the country, you can certainly do that.”

In light of Biden’s crime spike speech coming today, a look back at one of his first interviews, from 1970:
“I have some friends on the far left, and they can justify to me the murder of a white deaf mute for a nickel by five colored guys. .. (1/x) … They say the black men had been oppressed and so on. But they can’t justify some Alabama farmers tar and feathering an old colored woman. … I suspect the ACLU would leap to defend the five black guys,” Biden continued in the interview. (2/x)

Many differences between Eric Adams & Biden, but some parallels:
-less informed observers never processed or believed his strength
-hold on Black support rivals couldn’t break
-electorate not as left as newer activists want it to be
-big field stopped opposition from coalescing Adams’s attack on social media and those who take their cues from is another parallel between Biden’s campaign (and White House) - and it’s only reinforced by how he’ll be made fun of on Twitter for how he said what he said, with all his rhyming word play

ahead of Biden's summit with Putin, I joined @AliciaMenendez to talk about previously unreported details about Obama's last meeting with Putin which you can find in Battle for the Soul:
msnbc.com/american-voice… from the book: They stood up as Obama sent the others away and then turned back to Putin. At six foot one, he towered over the Russian leader, looking down on him and pointing at him as he spoke.

Get your copy: penguinrandomhouse.com/books/607647/b…

.@AOC and @RepJeffries aren’t aligned much on internal party politics, and there’s been talk of the AOC-backing Justice Democrats supporting a Jeffries challenger—but here she’s backing a mayoral candidate still viable largely b/c he endorsed 3 weeks ago
nytimes.com/2021/06/05/nyr… another chapter of, “who gets to decide what a progressive is?” When Jeffries endorsed Wiley, the NYT Ed board, many unions, the @NYWFP (initially) had gone w/others. Jeffries is sometimes made out as not a prime progressive, but the types who say that are now following his lead

In February, I spoke with Joe Biden for what was his FIRST interview as president.

The full interview is in BATTLE FOR THE SOUL, which goes on sale today.

But you can get a taste here, as Biden calls himself “the dog that caught the bus.”

theatlantic.com/politics/archi… Had the Democratic Party been ready for 2020? I asked Biden.

No,” he said. “I don’t think it was.”

“I’m going to say something outrageous—well, not outrageous: I have the most progressive platform any Democrat who’s ever *been* president has run on,” Biden told me, pointedly.

.@mattgaetz in his book: “I arrived in DC as a single man after a couple of long-term relationships that didn’t work out. I knew going in how many people had been brought down by sexual missteps in this town, so I set some rules to help myself err on the safe(r) side.”

https://twitter.com/cnn/status/1377751781493575692

“I have an active social life,” Gaetz adds a few pages later, “and it’s probably easier in the era of Trump. ... I’m a representative, not a monk.”

Ron Klain says the White House will work with Republicans in DC on infrastructure if they can but not holding out hope. McConnell says Senate GOP won’t work with the White House on infrastructure at all. So when no Rs vote for infrastructure, is that on Biden or Republicans? memories today of Mark Meadows, a few days before Trump's inauguration (when he was still in the House & Trump infrastructure plan seemed maybe real) telling reporters in the Capitol that he had to come up with a tea party-approved way to sign off on $1 trillion in spending

NEW from me - Like a lot of people, @ericswalwell is going through some stuff as he adjusts to life & politics post-Trump.

But he's a congressman who has to show up to work each day figuring out a recalibrated job and side by side with insurrectionists.
theatlantic.com/politics/archi… “My first couple years, you’re constantly wondering, Do I belong here?” Swalwell told me.

He turned 40 two weeks after Election Day, and is already now in his 5th term. He's trying to be a mentor, and sort out his own new path, calling himself “the oldest of the youngest.”

Here’s Tara Reade on Kremlin-owned RT, claiming her accusations weren’t taken seriously because she was opposing Biden. “I see the same tactic being used toward Russia, with anti-Russian propaganda, and towards President Putin himself.”
Reade says she was one of many Americans who took offense at Biden’s calling Putin “a killer.” She just wants to be peaceful with Russia, she says, and adds her own favorable impression of Putin’s response: “a lion doesn’t need to say he’s a lion: he just is.”

it's a joke for anyone in Congress to pretend that there's some principle, rather than partisanship, driving them on DC statehood. Republicans oppose it because it would give Dems more power, which is why Dems want it.

But none of that accounts for the 700,000 DC residents. the Republican position on waiting for a new GOP state to pair with DC for statehood, though, is a canard. There will never be a new solid Republican state, unless one splits off from an existing state. (Puerto Rico, which may try to become a state, has some Republican history)