https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1573324527425273858

https://twitter.com/msnbc/status/1567271685333688321


https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-world-suddenly-focused-anew-russia-scandal-rcna45243

It was a few days after the FBI executed a court-approved search warrant at Mar-a-Lago when Donald Trump started complaining anew about the investigation into the Russia scandal, reiterating his familiar belief that the controversy “was a hoax.” The former president echoed the line again yesterday, by way of his Twitter-like platform:

“The Radical Left Dems fraudulently created the now fully debunked Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, they got caught and failed, but tried to get me with 'obstructing' their Fake investigation of their fraudulent, made up story.”

Some of his Republican allies have read from a similar script. Former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney — now a paid analyst on CBS News — yesterday also referred to the scandal as a “hoax.” Around the same time, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson appeared on Fox News and insisted that former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation “never should’ve happened.”

The comments came on the heels of a curious New York Times op-ed from National Review’s Rich Lowry, who dismissed the investigation as “a national fiasco,” and who lamented the lack of regret among those who took seriously “the unnecessary, yearslong psychodrama.”

To be sure, on the surface, this isn’t altogether new. Republicans were eager to dismiss, discredit and disregard the Russia scandal since its origins, largely out of partisan necessity: The truth was a disaster for Trump and his political operation, so their allies set out to assure Americans that we need not trust our lying eyes.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/john-solomon/john-solomon-representative-trump-national-archives-many-his-claims-about-case-are

John Solomon, former President Donald Trump’s official representative to the National Archives and Records Administration, released a letter that reveals in plain detail that Trump and his legal team did not cooperate with the National Archives, and that the August 8 Mar-a-Lago search occurred only after they repeatedly sought to delay the FBI’s involvement. Despite these facts, Solomon has made numerous appearances in the right-wing media, including on Fox News, to spread misinformation and spin about the letter.

Dated May 10, the letter from acting National Archivist Debra Wall to Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran details the back-and-forth between Trump’s lawyers and the National Archives in retrieving over 700 pages of classified material from Mar-a-Lago. It clearly lays out how Trump did not fully cooperate with the National Archives and the Department of Justice, outlining the five-month process to retrieve the documents.

Solomon’s website Just the News was the first to publish the damning document late on August 22. The next morning, he appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room: Pandemic to put a confusing pro-Trump spin on the story.

In Solomon’s version, the FBI mysteriously heard that the National Archives retrieved documents from Mar-a-Lago and wanted to look through them. The bureau asked President Joe Biden, who told the DOJ and the FBI to go right ahead and look through the documents, completely ignoring that Trump maintains executive privilege over them.

This is completely false. Here’s a breakdown:

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https://twitter.com/jessicavalenti/status/1561756940765650945


https://jessica.substack.com/p/shit-republicans-say

I’m tired of writing over and over again about Republicans who don’t know shit about women’s bodies legislating said bodies. So I’ve decided to keep a running list of the worst things they’ve said. Sadly, I expect it to be updated regularly.

Tudor Dixon, GOP gubernatorial nominee, Michigan, 2022, On why raped and impregnated children should be forced to remain pregnant

“I’ve talked to those people who were the child of a rape victim and the bond that those two people made…And the fact that out of that tragedy, there was healing through that baby.

Factcheck: Rape isn’t healed through forced pregnancy.

City Council member Dave Alvord, Salt Lake County, Utah, 2022, Responding to a tweet from Vice President Kamala Harris

“The baby is not part of the body of a woman. The umbilical cord and placenta do not directly connect to the woman. The baby floats inside the woman.”

Factcheck: Babies don’t float.

Sen. Tim Scott, South Carolina, 2022, In a fundraising email

“If we don’t take back the Senate, Dems will pack the courts, give DC statehood, grant abortions up to 52 weeks, and Republicans will never win again.”

Factcheck: Pregnancy lasts approx. 40 weeks.

*snip*

https://twitter.com/davidnir/status/1558640297122439168


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/13/2116280/-The-complete-guide-to-every-excuse-Republicans-have-made-for-Trump-s-theft-of-classified-documents

My oh my. It’s been less than a week since federal agents raided Donald Trump’s Florida beachhouse in search of classified documents that Trump stole from the White House, but Republicans have come up with a truly dizzying number of excuses and smokescreens trying to cover up his wrongdoing—often several each day. Honestly, it’s been somewhat hard to keep track of them all, especially as many contradict one another, but we’re here to help. Below, please find our day-by-day catalog of every b.s. pretext Trump’s defenders have tossed out there.

MONDAY
Excuse: Everyone is corrupt except Trump—says Trump himself.

In fairness, if anyone can recognize vintage caudillo behavior, it would be Donald Trump.

Excuse: This warrant and raid business was uncalled for. Trump would have turned over everything had the government simply asked politely.

Oh, wait, they did subpoena him? Nevermind!

TUESDAY
Excuse: It’s totally fine that Trump took all of those documents. The only issue is that he racked up some library fines for failing to return overdue government secrets.

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https://twitter.com/jamespmanley/status/1557181370346110977


https://time.com/6204928/irs-87000-agents-factcheck-biden/


Since news broke on Monday that the FBI searched former President Donald Trump’s South Florida home, Republican members of Congress and right-wing media figures have launched a new line of attack against Democrats: that the Internal Revenue Service intends to use nearly $80 billion in new funding to pursue similar intrusions on average Americans. Those dollars, Trump allies are saying, will go toward the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents.

“Do you make $75,000 or less?” tweeted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. “Democrats’ new army of 87,000 IRS agents will be coming for you—with 710,000 new audits for Americans who earn less than $75k.” Richard Grenell, Trump’s former Acting Director of National Intelligence, wrote on the social media platform: “The FBI raids Trump’s house and the Democrats vote to add 87,000 new IRS agents to go after Americans. Wake up, America.”

Other high-profile conservatives have insinuated that the Biden administration intends to direct those additional auditors to dig up dirt on the President’s political opponents. “After todays raid on Mar A Lago what do you think the left plans to use those 87,000 new IRS agents for?” tweeted Sen. Marco Rubio.

It’s a notion that has taken off like wildfire, signaling what is likely to be a prominent broadside from Republicans against Democrats in the midterm elections.

There’s only one problem. It’s not true.

*snip*

(This thread was too old for threadreader. I could have posted each of these tweets and then copied and pasted the text, but.....laziness is the real mother of invention so I did it in picture form!)

https://twitter.com/brandi_buchman/status/1533991476270706694


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/2/22/2067807/-A-field-guide-to-the-figures-at-the-center-of-the-Jan-6-probe?_=2022-06-06T18:46:09.000-07:00

The January 6 Committee’s has obtained huge amounts of information from sources high and low to piece together a clearer understanding of what happened when the U.S. Capitol came under siege by a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters and members of neofascist extremist groups.

This week when the committee resumes its public hearings—the debut hearing was held in July 2021—investigators are expected to unveil their findings and argue that the evidence obtained through more than 1,000 interviews and sourced from more than 125,000 pages of records, indicates that the twice-impeached former president possibly broke the law when he deployed a scheme aimed at overturning the results of the 2020 election.

During the 11-month investigation, subpoenas from the probe have flowed steadily. The public hearings will lay out the story and the key individuals at focus. The committee will issue its final report in September. In the meantime, to guide those following the probe, the following is a comprehensive guide to who’s who at the center of the Jan. 6 investigation.

The following guide includes a variety of Trump White House and administration officials, strategists, advisers and lawyers and others, including those in Vice President Mike Pence’s office. They orbited Trump or figured prominently in the select committe’s investigation. Each section provides some context behind subpoenas and requests. Links embedded throughout will take you to related reporting here at Daily Kos and elsewhere.

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https://twitter.com/fronterasdesk/status/1532212158301212672


https://fronterasdesk.org/content/1784529/some-politicians-insist-migrants-bring-drugs-across-border-data-tells-different

Earlier this year, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and 11 country sheriffs in the state were part of an effort urging Arizona Congressional representatives to fight fentanyl trafficking and cross-border migration by increasing immigration judges and building more border wall.

It was one of many instances where elected officials in Arizona and around the country have linked the increased number of migrants at the the border to the rise in fentanyl seizures. Many have insisted lifting pandemic-era restrictions on asylum like Title 42 will make it worse.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick is with the American Immigration Council says data tells a different story.

"The overwhelming majority of fentanyl that is coming across the border is coming into the United States at ports of entry in passenger vehicles and usually smuggled by U.S. citizens," he said.

Reichlin-Melnick said that's consistent with data the Department of Homeland Security has long reported. For his report, which appears on social media, he compiled Customs and Border Protection press releases and Twitter posts over the last six months. He found out of a total 89 fentanyl seizure events, just three involved undocumented people.

CBP data shows 411 fentanyl seizures along the southwest border over the last six months, but that only breaks data down by drug type, weight and location, rather than by nationality or mode of transport. Reichlin-Melnick says his report doesn’t show the full picture because CBP doesn’t post about every seizure, and reporting can differ from place to place.

What it does show, he says, is a clear pattern that doesn’t include the migrants.

https://twitter.com/dgolumbia/status/1529150757433491459


https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/replacement-theory-judis-teixeira/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/nTcrT


We know that the so-called “great replacement” theory, which has inspired white supremacist massacres from New Zealand to Buffalo, is a racist hoax. But after a few days professing sorrow over a white supremacist’s murdering 10 Black people at East Buffalo’s Tops Friendly Supermarket last Saturday, and after disavowing the theory, conservative pundits began to fight back. There is, in fact, a great replacement theory, they now argue—and it’s been peddled by Democrats. They’re claiming it emerged largely from a book by two friends of mine: The Emerging Democratic Majority, written by Ruy Teixeira and John B. Judis roughly 20 years ago.

As Republicans flip from “We don’t believe in a great replacement theory” to “Hey, it’s real, but Democrats invented it!”—they routinely cite Judis and Teixeira.

Ann Coulter counted the two authors among the “nutcases who believe in ‘replacement’” in a column last week, claiming that their 2002 book held “that demographic changes, mostly by immigration, were putting Democrats on a glide path to an insuperable majority.” National Review editor Rich Lowry said the book made the case that Democrats are “the party of transition” as “white America is supplanted by multiracial, multiethnic America.” Boy genius (not) Ben Shapiro cribbed the exact same line Lowry did, claiming that Teixeira and Judis envisioned a world “in which white America is supplanted by multiracial, multiethnic America.” (Being Ben Shapiro, he got the book’s pub date wrong.)

In National Review last week, Charles C.W. Cooke slurred the writers for essentially arguing that “demographics will destroy the GOP, all we need to do is wait.” In The Federalist, John Daniel Davidson insisted “the notion that ‘demographics is destiny’ has been a long-running belief among Democrats, famously spelled out in John Judis and Ruy Teixeira’s widely acclaimed 2004 book, The Emerging Democratic Majority. Part of their argument rests on the assumption that immigration, legal and illegal, will swell the ranks of Democrat voters and hasten the inevitable emergence of a permanent Democratic majority.” (Again, guys, the book came out in 2002.)

*snip*