“A political action committee Donald Trump co-founded to help Republicans take control of the Senate spent 20% of its operating expenditures at the former president’s businesses, according to a financial disclosure filed earlier this month. The Trump-Graham Majority Fund paid the Trump Hotels Collection $22,000 on June 3 for a facility rental and catering. The PAC reported total operating expenses of $105,000 for the quarter. Just days after it launched in April, it held the Trump Graham Golf Classic at Trump International Golf Club Palm Beach.”

“The entry fee was $25,000 a person, per Punchbowl News. The PAC raised $705,000 last quarter. Contributors who pitched in at least $25,000 included Lynda Blanchard, Trump’s former U.S. ambassador to Slovenia. She is now running for Senate in Alabama. Her husband made a big donation as well. Mississippi State Sen. Joel Carter (R) also was in for $25,000. The PAC for the GEO Group, a private prison company, chipped in $20,000. Representatives from the Trump-Graham Majority Fund and the Trump Organization did not respond to inquiries” – Forbes.

“Rep. Andrew S. Clyde (R-Ga.), who infamously compared the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to ‘a normal tourist visit,’ steadfastly stood by his contention Tuesday night during an extended spirited exchange with Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.). The clash came during a Rules Committee meeting several hours after Raskin had taken part in a House select committee hearing with four police officers who were on the scene when a violent mob of supporters of President Donald Trump breached the Capitol. During the earlier hearing, Raskin questioned one of the officers, Daniel Hodges of the D.C. force, about Clyde’s comparison. Hodges rejected it, instead repeatedly using the word ‘terrorists’ to describe those who took part in the riot” the Washington Post reports.

“During the Rules Committee meeting, Raskin pressed Clyde on whether he had watched the testimony of the officers earlier in the day. Clyde said that question was ‘absolutely irrelevant’ to the matter in front of the Rules Committee. ‘Do you stand by your statement that they were tourists?’ Raskin asked. Clyde objected to that question, claiming Raskin had taken his words from a May congressional hearing out of context, instead offering ‘your interpretation of my statement.'”

“Raskin had Clyde’s full comments handy and read them: ‘Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes, taking videos and pictures. You know, if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.’ ‘Those are your words,’ Raskin said. ‘And I stand by that exact statement as I said it,’ Clyde responded. He later insisted that he did not say that those who breached the Capitol were ‘tourists.’ ‘That is not my statement!’ Clyde said, growing increasingly agitated with Raskin. ‘You want to make this another January 6th hearing, and this is not! This is the Rules Committee!’ Clyde said.”

Politico: “Democrats made structural racism a centerpiece of the 2020 presidential primary. Now the Republican rebuttal is emerging as an early plank of the 2024 GOP contest: America is not a racist country. The mantra, used by nearly all of the Republican contenders, is unavoidable in the earliest stages of the GOP’s nominating campaign. At the annual Family Leadership Summit in Iowa this month, all three potential presidential prospects on stage – former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem – took turns joining in the refrain, in one form or another. Top Democrats, including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, have said publicly they don’t believe America is a racist country.”

“But Republicans are hoping to portray the party as out of step with the thinking of mainstream America. And by attempting to harness lightning-rod issues such as critical race theory and ‘defund the police,’ the GOP is signaling race will again be at the center of the 2024 campaign. ‘It’s a winning issue with independents, and it’s good for the base, but I really think rank-and-file American voters who are in the middle, whether you’re center-left, center-right, suburban votes, parents, I think they all feel like America’s not a racist nation, critical race theory is being shoved down everybody’s throat,’ said Bob Heckman, a Republican consultant who has worked on nine presidential campaigns, including Sen. Lindsey Graham’s in 2016. ‘I think this is a case of the Democrats going way too far, and I think it’s a very effective issue.'”

“With Democrats in full control of Washington, some Republicans are hoping their party can rally chiefly against President Biden and the Democrats in the 2022 midterms. Yet Biden’s name has been as absent from the G.O.P. pleas for cash as Trump has been pervasive, a warning sign that Republicans are struggling to stir the kind of impassioned opposition to him that they had once generated to former President Barack Obama, and that Democrats had uniting their party against Trump four years ago. Since May 1, the Republicans’ Senate campaign arm has invoked Biden’s name in the sender line on its emails just four times; Trump’s name has appeared there 185 times.”

“The Republican National Committee treated Trump’s June 14 birthday almost like a national holiday, sending out no less than 19 emails about it, starting more than five weeks in advance. The House campaign arm joined in, too: ‘Why haven’t you signed Trump’s Bday Card?!’ read one text message. ‘We’ve texted 6x & it’s only 5 days away!'” reports the New York Times, surveying the state of the campaign fundraising landscape in 2021.

“Max Miller, 32, is the poster child of Trump’s post-impeachment retribution tour. In his mounting efforts to punish Republican apostates in next year’s midterms and to bolster his political sway for a potential run of his own in 2024, Trump has endorsed an array of supportive candidates in House, Senate and state-level races – but there’s nobody on the list like Miller. He’s not merely a loyalist – he’s a loyalist who worked on both Trump campaigns as well as in the White House and used proximity to the president to foster by all accounts an actual affinity and rapport. He’s not just one of Trump’s ‘Complete and Total’ House endorsements – he was the first. And he’s pitted against one of the impeachment voters who galls Trump the most – in a state he won twice. While the statement that accompanied Trump’s late February endorsement called Miller ‘a wonderful person,’ this rally on a sweltering summer Saturday marked a yet more full-throated and visual showing of his backing. ‘An incredible patriot,’ Trump said, ‘who I know very well.'”

“Maybe not well enough, according to police records, court records and interviews with more than 60 people. Ranging from people who grew up with Miller in the affluent Cleveland inner suburb of Shaker Heights to those he worked with and for in the White House and on Trump’s campaigns – some of whom were granted anonymity because they fear retaliation from Miller, Trump or both – these people told me Miller can be a cocky bully with a quick-trigger temper… And barely more than a year ago, according to three people familiar with the incident, Miller’s romantic relationship with former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham ended when he pushed her against a wall and slapped her in the face in his DC apartment after accusing him of cheating on her” – Politico.

Daily Beast: “In advance of announcing his run for Senate, Hillbilly Elegy author turned venture capitalist J.D. Vance deleted dozens of old tweets blasting former President Donald Trump. But Vance, who is warring with fellow Ohio Republicans for the MAGA vote, forgot to scrub one Twitter element of his anti-Trump past: his ‘likes.’ Vance’s Twitter likes, which were still visible as of Monday afternoon, include two tweets supporting Hillary Clinton’s 2016 candidacy, a post implying Trump supporters are antisemitic, and multiple tweets indicting Trump’s character. One tweet even accuses then-candidate Trump of sexual assault, and another calls him ‘psychologically disturbed.’ He also liked two tweets mocking Melania Trump. Most of the controversial Twitter likes came around the time of the leaked ‘Access Hollywood’ tape in early October 2016, where Trump was caught on microphone saying he could grab women by their genitals with impunity because, ‘When you’re a star, they let you do it.'”

“On Oct. 8, 2016 – the day after the video leaked – Vance liked a tweet calling Trump a ‘thug’ who ‘[committed] sexual assault.’ The post compared Trump’s behavior to his false allegations against a group of Black teenagers in New York in the 1990s. ‘Maybe the Central Park 5 could take out a full-page ad to condemn the coddling of thug real estate barons who commit serial sexual assault,’ the tweet, from Washington Post columnist Radley Balko, said. Vance also liked a tweet from that same day announcing that the Beckley Register-Herald – a newspaper in the heart of West Virginia coal country – had endorsed Clinton. Vance’s like was one of 20 for the tweet. The investment banker and Yale Law grad also liked yet another tweet from that day, declaring that ‘Trump is making the GOP the latest victim of his bankrupted endeavors,’ and linking to a Business Insider article headlined, ‘Donald Trump is on the Verge of Poisoning the Entire GOP Brand for Years.'”

Nominees for the 42nd News and Documentary Emmy Awards were released Tuesday, with PBS, CNN and CBS sweeping up most of the nominations, and Fox News receiving–[Checks list.  Checks again.]–exactly zero honors, Deadline reports.

For programs, Vice News Tonight and CBS’s 60 Minutes each received 16 nominations.  PBS’s Frontline received 14 nominations for its own programs and another 5 for its collaborations.

In the cable news segment, CNN’s AC360, CNN Films and The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer each grabbing five nominations.  MSNBC got 8 nominations, including two for its flagship Rachel Maddow Show.

Trump favoring propaganda networks Fox News, OANN, and NewsMax were blanked in the nomination.  Even CNBC got one for The News with Shepard Smith.

Earlier today, the Department of Justice determined that they would not be representing Mo Brooks in his attempt to defend himself against a lawsuit from Eric Swalwell because: “The record indicates that Brooks’s appearance at the January 6 rally was campaign activity…Members of Congress are subject to a host of restrictions that carefully distinguish between their official functions, on the one hand, and campaign functions, on the other…The conduct at issue here thus is not the kind a Member of Congress holds office to perform, or substantially within the authorized time and space limits, as required by governing law.”

Cook Political Report’s “I’ve seen enough” guy Dave Wasserman says he’s seen enough to call the Texas 6th district special election for Jake Ellzey over Trump-backed Susan Wright, adding “Before drawing sweeping conclusions about the outcome, a reminder: turnout in this runoff was fairly pathetic. With all early votes and most election day votes reported, there are only 37k votes counted – less than 8% of registered voters in #TX06 and less than half of 5/1 votes cast.”

What Dave’s leaving out is that Trump put a lot of political capital behind Susan Wright (for whatever stupid reason he did) and will be pretty pissed at Jake Ellzey for winning a runoff election he wasn’t supposed to, which we guess makes him a RINO.

https://youtu.be/-r1qGbT05J4

Animated pile of bat guano and Fox News host Tucker Carlson literally laughs at the injuries a police officer experience during the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol.

Saying that DC Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone should not be responsible for protecting people, even “people he doesn’t agree with in Washington, and that is unacceptable and that should make you very nervous”–even though police officers and federal security agents regularly disagree with the citizens they protect. 

“Brook’s participation at a campaign event was not within the scope of the office or his employment as a Member of Congress” concludes the DOJ in their motion of non-intervention. This follows the House general counsel also declining to intervene in the case earlier Tuesday.

Mike Nearman, the Q-Anon/far-right Republican who laid out a plan to a fringe group on how to invade the Oregon state capitol in Salem, has been barred from entering the capitol building or being on the complex grounds for 18 months after he pleaded guilty to assisting protesters gain access to the building in December, the Oregonian reports.

Nearman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of official misconduct in a plea agreement with the Marion County District Attorney’s office.  Prosecutors dropped a second charge of criminal trespassing in exchange for the ban and the plea deal, in which Nearman will perform 80 hours of community service, pay the Legislature $2,700 in restitution, and pay $200 in court fees.

During a riot by right-wing protesters on capitol grounds in December 21st, Nearman left a state legislative session to exit out a backdoor of the building, where protesters had amassed.  The protesters gained access into the building thanks to Nearman holding open two secure doors that were locked.  The protesters were angry over public health restrictions put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The partisanship of Kevin McCarthy continues.  In a fit of pique, the House Minority Leader has withdrawn the six Republicans he named to serve on the House select committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth, which was supposed to meet for the first time this week.

CNN reports McCarthy made the move as a protest to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi rejecting two of McCarthy’s appointments to the January 6th committee.  An unnamed lawmaker said “a hold for if and when he gets his appointments to the 1/6 committee.”    It is not clear if the members will join the select committee at a later date.

The select committee was formed in June to assure that the benefits of the economic growth seen in the United States benefits all Americans and not just C-suite executives or wealthy families.

A National Security Agency internal audit failed to find any information that Fox News host (and patron saint of the aggrieved… but only if he’s white) Tucker Carlson was either the subject of NSA monitoring or even incidentally caught up in the surveillance of a foreign national.

According to The Record, the Agency reported that Carlson’s name may have been mentioned by people being surveilled, but it doesn’t explain Carlson’s explicit claim that “the Biden administration is spying on us” and his claims that NSA officials refused to respond to his inquiries.

Carlson claimed that the NSA was spying on him and had intercepted his communications, which he also claimed a whistleblower repeated back to him verbatim.  Carlson said he was working with Russian officials to have an exclusive interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, something journalists typically work with the State Department to arrange.  Carlson’s name was revealed at the request of an unnamed administration official, known as “unmasking.”

“Given that the underlying litigation was initiated by a current Member of the U.S. House of Representatives individually suing another current House Member individually and does not challenge any institutional action of the House or any of its component entities, the Office has determined that, in these circumstances, it is not appropriate for it to participate in the litigation. Pursuant to the Rules of the House of Representatives, the Office ‘shall’ provide legal assistance to the House, which includes all Members of the House, ‘without regard to political affiliation'” says the House of Representatives counsel in a court filing in California Dem Rep Eric Swalwell’s lawsuit against Alabama GOP Rep Mo Brooks for inciting the January 6th Capitol riot.

There’s a lot of confusion on the Twitters about this being the House counsel or the Department of Justice. Per the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin (emphasis added): “On Tuesday, the Justice Department and the House of Representatives will file briefs explaining to a federal court whether each believes that Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) was acting within the scope of his employment when he allegedly incited the violent attack on the Capitol and sought to subvert the peaceful transfer of power on Jan. 6″ so it would seem we’re still waiting on the DOJ’s answer.

“Democrats do this because they can. They will not stop unless you stop them.”

– The current top comment on the Gateway Pundit article “Screaming Leftist Mob SHUTS DOWN Presser by Marjorie Greene and Matt Gaetz on Jan 6 Political Prisoners“, posted Tuesday afternoon.

“There should be no shortage of fresh chicken at a Chick-fil-A. Oh, cooked too much? Toss it and take the loss. You can afford it. We’ve seen the lines. But, no, the inspector found cooked chicken in the reach-in cooler dated 13 days before and nine days before. Stop Sales – and, hopefully, shame – descended on this store, which also had to toss corn, shredded cheese, bleu cheese, cut lettuce mix in the apparently ineffective reach-in cooler with cut tomato. All were well above the 41 degrees safe temperature high for cooled food. These flies have good taste, as 20 of 41 were on top of the lemonade station… Chick-fil-A passed a same-day re-inspection on Thursday” the Miami Herald reports of the Chick-fil-A located in the Westfield Broward Mall, in Plantation, Florida which raises questions about Governor Ron DeSantis’s commitment to Christian values.

This Miami Herald article, along with a recent report by WPLG of the shutdown of a Fort Lauderdale Arby’s picked up by National Zero, the source article for which was presented in a strikingly similar format seems to reveal an apparent Florida media tradition of using the state’s public health inspection violation blotters as regular coverage material, which is oddly charming for some reason.