Lindsay Beyerstein/Editorial Board:
The coup conspirator confesses
John Eastman admitted he knew his scheme to overturn the 2020 election was illegal. He admitted he told Donald Trump the same.
Just as importantly, today’s hearing established that Trump waged a public and private pressure campaign to get Mike Pence to follow John Eastman’s plan to overturn the election during the electoral certification. This campaign was waged in person, over the phone and on Twitter. The committee shared evidence of every step.
The hearing’s star witness was Greg Jacob, former counsel for the vice president. One of the most intriguing aspects of his testimony was a review of an email exchange between Jacob and Eastman that took place while Pence and Jacob were hiding from the mob.
“And thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege,” Jacob wrote to Eastman from a secure location. Eastman shot back that the siege was happening “because you and your boss did not do what was necessary.”
Carl Hulse/NY Times: “Representative Cheney says that “an honorable man” who had been given the information President Trump had would have conceded the election. She obviously doesn’t put him in that category.”
"What talking point will Rs respond with?" is the most superficial way possible of looking at Jan 6 committee. Therefore, expect to see a lot of it.
"But it's news," they will claim.
As Bill Barr famously said, that's bullshit. The news is the attempted and ongoing coup.
"My job is to get snappy quotes from people close to Jared and Ivanka".
Your job is context so Americans know what happened.
Politico:
The Jan. 6 select committee makes a criminal referral — its own way
For all the quibbling over whether they should ask DOJ to investigate Donald Trump, panel members effectively did so on Thursday.
They used Thursday’s public hearing to present what they see as some of their most compelling evidence and thereby mount a case, with Attorney General Merrick Garland watching, that Trump broke the law in his effort to make former Vice President Mike Pence single-handedly overturn the election.
Axios:
Jan. 6 panel to seek testimony from Ginni Thomas
Why it matters: The decision comes after public and private wavering among committee members in recent weeks over the importance of Thomas’ role in Jan. 6 and former President Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.
John Eastman was central to the mechanics of how to steal the election, including Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and other states with alternate electors.
The central focus is on Donald Trump, not Ginni Thomas, but still …
Philip Bump/WaPo:
The odd timing of Eastman’s claim of a ‘heated fight’ at Supreme Court
In part because the stories were published near the same time, it was natural to wonder if they were linked: Did Eastman hear about heated fighting from Virginia Thomas?
But there’s a more interesting issue of timing. Did Eastman instead hear about this purported fighting because there was an unfounded rumor of such fighting circulating online right when he was writing?
Philip Bump/WaPo:
A small county in New Mexico shows where ‘big lie’ delusions can lead
This is a story about how a small county in New Mexico has decided to reject the results of the state’s primary elections after being infected by Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
NY Times:
Jan. 6 Panel Says Capitol Marcher Toured With G.O.P. Congressman
The video that the committee released also featured footage apparently taken by a person who is marching toward the Capitol on Jan. 6, and can be heard saying, “There’s no escape, Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler. We’re coming for you.”
Detroit Free Press:
Free Press poll: Kelley leading GOP gubernatorial field after arrest
Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley’s recent arrest by the FBI for his suspected involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol appears to have boosted his name recognition and favorability among GOP voters in Michigan, new polling conducted in the days following his arrest indicates.
Kelley was arrested June 9. In a June 10-13 poll conducted for the Detroit Free Press and our outstate polling partners by EPIC-MRA of Lansing, 17% named Kelley as their preferred candidate for the August primary to determine which Republican candidate challenges Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November.
Other Republicans vying for the party’s nomination garnered varying enthusiasm — 13% of respondents picked Kalamazoo-area chiropractor Garrett Soldano as their preferred candidate, 12% named Bloomfield Hills businessman Kevin Rinke, 5% touted Norton Shores businesswoman Tudor Dixon and 1% selected Farmington Hills pastor Ralph Rebandt.
Politico:
Dem redistricting group lays out broad 2022 election targets
The group's targets include midterm races across 17 states.
The National Democratic Redistricting Committee’s “2022 democracy targets,” shared first with POLITICO, includes midterm races across 17 states. In addition to state legislative and gubernatorial elections — which the group has targeted in the past, as part of its mandate to set the stage for redistricting — the NDRC plans to get involved in five secretary of state races, including in states where the chief election officer doesn’t have a direct role in the mapmaking process.
Noah Smith/Substack:
Progressives should fear inflation more than recession
Raising interest rates will hurt the economy (and the Democrats) less than the alternative.
In 1919, John Maynard Keynes (pictured above) wrote the following regarding inflation:
As the inflation proceeds and the real value of the currency fluctuates wildly from month to month, all permanent relations between debtors and creditors, which form the ultimate foundation of capitalism, become so utterly disordered as to be almost meaningless; and the process of wealth-getting degenerates into a gamble and a lottery.
Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.
Some American progressives seem to have forgotten Keynes’ warning. Even as inflation continues to rage, they’re frantically fighting against the idea of hiking interest rates. The reason is that they fear that rate hikes would trigger a recession.