Senate GOP Gives Trump Green Light on Slush Fund
INSIDE: Todd Blanche ... Aakash Singh ... Graham Platner
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Fealty to Trump Wins Out Again
In an early morning vote, the GOP-controlled Senate passed the reconciliation bill funding immigration enforcement — but without any language in it barring President Trump’s $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” slush fund.
Hours earlier in the marathon session, Republicans had defeated an attempt by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to explicitly ban the slush fund. But Republicans had votes to spare, allowing vulnerable GOP Sens. Susan Collins (ME), Dan Sullivan (AK), and Jon Husted (R-OH) to vote for Schumer’s measure and campaign on opposing the slush fund even though all three senators ultimately voted in favor of the final bill.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was the only GOP senator to cross the aisle and oppose the final bill.
Two GOP senators who were loudly opposed to the slush fund — Thom Tillis (NC), who is not seeking re-election, and Bill Cassidy (LA), who lost in the GOP primary — ended up voting for the final bill. “I’m taking the cue from my colleagues that are in cycle,” said Tillis. “Whatever suits their purposes.”
The Trump administration has been playing a nod-and-wink game on the slush fund all week long.
In Senate testimony Tuesday, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche declared the slush fund dead but refused to commit to it in writing. On Wednesday, President Trump publicly declared his “love” for the slush fund and claimed to be unsure whether it was in fact dead.
On Tuesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tweeted that the purported victims of Biden DOJ “weaponization” could still press their claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act, even if the slush fund were dead.
In response to Graham, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, who signed the settlement agreement that resolved Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS by creating the slush fund, tweeted: “We’re on it.”
Woodward’s tweet was deleted Wednesday morning.
“Republicans are trusting the word of Todd Blanche, who built a career on lying, that the administration will just drop this slush fund,” Schumer warned on the Senate floor before last night’s final vote.
It appears likely that the Senate GOP’s failure to ban the slush fund will at the very least encourage the Trump administration to make abusive use of the Federal Tort Claims Act to reach sweetheart settlements with Jan. 6 rioters and plotters, along with other purported weaponization victims.
The Trump DOJ has already shown itself more than capable of friendly, non-adverse settlements of weak cases it could have defended, not just in Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS, but in million-dollar paydays for former Trump advisers Michael Flynn and Carter Page.
Voter Fraud Bamboozlement Alert
Main Justice is pressuring U.S. attorneys offices nationwide to pursue criminal cases against noncitizens who have illegally voted — an exceedingly rare occurrence that Trump has falsely claimed for years turns the results of elections.
During a May 13 conference call, Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh complained that DOJ’s 90 open investigations of illegal voting were languishing and urged prosecutors to “get creative,” the NYT reports.
Jan. 6 Rioters Are Notorious Recidivists
A new Lawfare study reveals that at least 97 of the 1,500 people granted clemency by President Trump for their roles in the attack on the Capitol have been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of separate crimes since Jan. 6.
Jan. 6 Never Ends
After the Arizona Supreme Court yesterday declined to revive the original indictment in her fake electors case, state Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) said she would seek a new indictment against allies of President Trump who tried to subvert the state’s 2020 election.
For Your Radar: ICE Shooting Edition
There are growing signs that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) may refuse to extradite to Minnesota the ICE agent charged with shooting an undocumented immigrant through a closed door during Operation Metro Surge — then lying about it.
The agent declined to waive extradition yesterday in state court in South Texas, where he is being held on $200,000 bail. Earlier this week, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) formally asked Abbott to extradite the agent.
Abbott’s office is not commenting on whether he will comply with the routine request from Walz.
John Bolton Expected to Plead Guilty
Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton is expected to plead guilty later this month to one felony count of unlawful retention of national defense information. The circumstances of the Bolton prosecution set it apart from the prominent vindictive prosecution cases under Trump II.
Other Shoe Drops In Maine Senate Race
Even before the revelation last week that Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner had been sexting with women who were not his wife, the NYT had spent two months interviewing women with whom he had been romantically involved previously. After the publication of the NYT story yesterday, Platner did an extended live interview with Chris Hayes in which he conceded to “not exactly acting with the best behavior” but denied the account by one woman that he had physically harmed her.
FDA Moves to Restrict Abortion Pill Access
In an ominous move, the FDA — under pressure from antiabortion groups and GOP members of Congress — has launched a new safety study of mifepristone that is a thinly veiled move to restrict mail and telehealth access to the abortion pill.
“The administration is aiming for a robust study that will withstand legal criticism,” administration officials told the WSJ, previewing the intended outcome.
Boat Strike Death Toll: 207
Two people were killed Wednesday in the eastern Pacific in the Trump administration’s lawless campaign against alleged drug-smuggling boats, bring the overall death toll to at least 207.
‘Woke’ Quotes Removed at Bunker Hill
After a visitor to the Bunker Hill monument complained that a quote on display related to women’s suffrage represented “woke” feminist ideology, the Park Service removed three other quotes on display:
“We find, upon reflection, that our duty to our country has not ended … We as Vietnam Veterans, strongly feel that the United States should cease to build memorials to death and begin to glorify life.”—from a 1971 anti-war editorial by Vietnam War veterans
“As we drew near to Boston, there stood Bunker Hill Monument, towering up towards the heavens, as if in silent, bitter mockery of the millions of slaves guarded by the professed lovers of Liberty, who reared it’s lofty column.”—from a 1846 letter to the abolitionist newspaper the Liberator
“Now that a public orator has declared that foreign-born men have no association with the men of the Revolution, it is our duty to show that in love of freedom and loyalty to the republic, the citizens of foreign birth take no second place.”—from a Boston newspaper in 1875
The quote that prompted the complaint was allowed to remain.
See Ya Back Here Monday
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[...] "I’m taking the cue from my colleagues that are in cycle,” said Tillis. “Whatever suits their purposes."
And there you have it, GOPer "courage" and "conviction" under fire...feh!
The amazing thing is that so little performing is needed to fool so many voters… That voting against the slush fund before (indirectly) voting for the slush fund of course will work. Pretty much always does.
Whatever. The passage of the bill *should* make it clear, maybe clear enough, that while Trump’s a problem, so is the entire GOP.
Worse. While the state and local Democrats are reasonably honorable as it were and only the national party is a disgrace or worse, the entire GOP is shit, top to bottom by which I mean the voters — all the politicians but all the voters too.
Meanwhile, the floor gets ever lowered…