WaPo:
Politico:
Stay tuned. We know Liz Cheney has lost this battle but the war is far from over.
Joyce Vance/MSNBC:
NPR:
Margaret Newkirk/Bloomberg Businessweek:
Burdett A Loomis and Marc C Johnson/Bulwark:
George T Conway III/WaPo:
Eliza Griswold/New Yorker:
McCarthy formally endorses Stefanik for Cheney’s leadership spot
It is the first time that McCarthy has officially endorsed Stefanik as a replacement for Cheney, though Axios reported last week that the GOP leader had said he had “had it with her” — meaning Cheney — during an off-air conversation with Fox News’s Steve Doocy that was caught on a live microphone.
Politico:
Larry Hogan decries 'circular firing squad' within GOP
Maryland's governor said the party has had a terrible four years.
Hogan said he was alarmed that more members of his party haven't spoken out about Trump's role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, saying many members are still afraid to criticize the former president at risk of being attacked from within the party.
Stay tuned. We know Liz Cheney has lost this battle but the war is far from over.
“All the job gains in April went to men. The number of women employed or looking for work fell by 64,000, a reminder that child-care issues are still in play.” https://t.co/sfFdCNlGJF
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) May 8, 2021
Joyce Vance/MSNBC:
Judge Amy Berman Jackson's Barr rebuke opens the door to DOJ accountability
There are four possibilities for holding an attorney general accountable if evidence suggests he did abuse his office to protect a president.
We already know Barr’s characterization of the evidence and findings contained in the Mueller report when he spoke to the American people — and later to Congress — was deceptive. In fact, Jackson noted that Barr “hardly had time to skim, much less, study closely” Mueller’s hundreds of pages of investigative work before “summarizing” it for Congress. Meanwhile, Barr’s claim that the evidence didn’t support indicting Trump — even as he withheld the report from the public for several weeks — allowed Trump to proclaim he was fully exonerated. All of which is to say, it would be fair to presume the memo that Jackson has ordered the DOJ to disclose portrays Barr in a less than favorable light.
Vaccine clinic at brewery that included a free beer and pint glass was 4x-10x as effective at attracting people than other clinics — we should do a lot more of this stuff! https://t.co/EJGnSSCkkK pic.twitter.com/uXoRpqrMce
— Otis Reid (@otis_reid) May 9, 2021
NPR:
New Study Estimates More Than 900,000 People Have Died Of COVID-19 In U.S.
A new study estimates that the number of people who have died of COVID-19 in the U.S. is more than 900,000, a number 57% higher than official figures.
Worldwide, the study's authors say, the COVID-19 death count is nearing 7 million, more than double the reported number of 3.24 million.
The analysis comes from researchers at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, who looked at excess mortality from March 2020 through May 3, 2021, compared it with what would be expected in a typical nonpandemic year, then adjusted those figures to account for a handful of other pandemic-related factors.
The final count only estimates deaths "caused directly by the SARS-CoV-2 virus," according to the study's authors. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.
Reminder: she got a last minute pardon for her ex-husband, who was convicted of white collar felonies. pic.twitter.com/VE5gDp7pDG
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) May 9, 2021
Margaret Newkirk/Bloomberg Businessweek:
The Battle for Control of Georgia’s GOP Shows the Power of Trump’s Grip
In the state’s biggest Republican strongholds, conventions that were supposed to last a few hours dragged into the evening as insurgent delegates—many of whom had never participated in party politics before—booted longtime leaders in favor of Trump-embracing newcomers. They attacked the party’s top officeholders, passing resolutions condemning them for not supporting Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. They dissed former GOP officeholders, too, flouting a tradition of giving them votes at a coming state convention. They denounced the state’s voting machines and buzzed with debunked conspiracy theories.
As India shows exponential rise can come so quickly that you have no time to prepare and the associated loss of life is staggering. I really don't like writing scary tweets. But in this case I'm beyond worried. #GetVaccinatedASAP pic.twitter.com/cQS3axmsZ7
— Vincent Rajkumar (@VincentRK) May 9, 2021
Burdett A Loomis and Marc C Johnson/Bulwark:
Three States and a Funeral (for the Republican Party)
If you want to see the next version of the GOP, look at the states where it dominates the legislatures.
Political sorting has created a country in which even local elections are highly polarized. In practice this means that divided government is uncommon even at the state legislative level. Forty-seven states have both branches of the legislature controlled by the same party. (The exceptions are Minnesota, Alaska, and Nebraska’s unicameral.),
Of these, Republicans overwhelmingly dominate—meaning either complete control of both branches or veto-proof legislative majorities with a Democratic governor—in 25 states, giving party leaders carte blanche to set the agenda and pass bills.
What you see in these instances is indicative of where the GOP’s priorities are. And more often than not, what you see are not public policy proposals, but grievance-based attacks on vulnerable populations or that amount to performative political theater.
The mypillow guy continues with mymeltdown pic.twitter.com/ag5CJoNQia
— Molly Jong-Fast? (@MollyJongFast) May 9, 2021
George T Conway III/WaPo:
What Trump has to fear from Rudy Giuliani
To borrow the infamous line of his ex-presidential ex-client, it looks like Rudolph W. Giuliani is “going to go through some things.” Like possibly being charged with a crime. Worse, some people who might have tried to save him from that fate might have actually guaranteed it.
In law and in life, things have a way of coming full circle. The quoted words come from the former president’s supposedly “perfect” phone call with Ukraine’s president, and described what could happen to the American ambassador there, Marie L. Yovanovitch. It was Giuliani’s relentless efforts that got her recalled.
Now that’s what might land poor Giuliani in the dock. Last week, the FBI showed up at his apartment at dawn, armed with a search warrant that reportedly focused on Yovanovitch’s firing. Questions the seized materials might answer: On whose behalf was Giuliani acting? Just Donald J. Trump, legal client? Or was Giuliani also representing Ukrainian officials who wanted the corruption-fighting diplomat gone?
Its effectiveness had a lot to do with the way it was front-page trumpeted by most of the national press the next day. pic.twitter.com/f3Wq8Fg30f
— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) May 8, 2021
Eliza Griswold/New Yorker:
A Pennsylvania Lawmaker and the Resurgence of Christian Nationalism
How Doug Mastriano’s rise embodies the spread of a movement centered on the belief that God intended America to be a Christian nation.
Doug Mastriano, a Republican state senator from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and parts of neighboring counties, was a little-known figure in state politics before the coronavirus pandemic. But, in the past year, he has led rallies against mask mandates and other public-health protocols, which he has characterized as “the governor’s autocratic control over our lives.” He has become a leader of the Stop the Steal campaign, and claims that he spoke to Donald Trump at least fifteen times between the 2020 election and the insurrection at the Capitol, on January 6th. He urged his followers to attend the rally at the Capitol that led to the riots, saying, “I’m really praying that God will pour His Spirit upon Washington, D.C., like we’ve never seen before.” Throughout this time, he has cast the fight against both lockdowns and Trump’s electoral loss as a religious battle against the forces of evil. He has come to embody a set of beliefs characterized as Christian nationalism, which center on the idea that God intended America to be a Christian nation, and which, when mingled with conspiracy theory and white nationalism, helped to fuel the insurrection. “Violence has always been a part of Christian nationalism,” Andrew Whitehead, a sociologist and co-author of “Taking America Back for God,” told me. “It’s just that the nature of the enemy has changed.”
The 5 men in this photo each lost more than 20 years to the police, DA misconduct that wrongly convicted them There are 100s more -- mostly Black men, many still behind bars. Amid a racial reckoning, we aren't we talking about this more? My new column https://t.co/LsWlXQ7OPN
— Will Bunch Sign Up For My Newsletter (@Will_Bunch) May 9, 2021