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January 6th was one of the most dramatic and consequential moments in our nations history, proclaimed Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) as portrayed tonight on Saturday Night Live again by Kenan Thompson. So, to fight back, we assembled a team of monotone nerds to do a PowerPoint, the longtime cast member added as fellow SNLers played Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and soon-to-be departing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), the latter in the form of Heidi Gardner.

Yep, with double duty by Megan Thee Stallion as host and musical guest, the third episode of SNLs 48th season kicked off with the January 6th Select Committees unanimous October 13 vote to subpoena Donald Trump. Of course, even with the wide spectrum of opinions about the effectiveness of the congressional panels multiple primetime and otherwise televised hearings over the past few months to make the case and tighten the legal vice on one-time SNL host Trump, SNL couldnt resist undercutting its own caricature with the promise of a little treat, as held up by Thompson played by another Thompson.

Aww, cmon, cant I have one cupcake now, whined Illinois GOP congressman Adam Kinzinger, brought to life here by Andrew Dismukes. A big Dick Cheney energy joke from Gardner as the ex-VPs daughter echoing a real-life recent comment from Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake on Trump held some promise for the skit. Unfortunately, not every indication of hope is a prayer answered, if you know what I mean?

Circling around the explosive video from that terrible day in early 2021 that was unveiled at this weeks final January 6th Committee hearing until next months midterms, a Door Dash jab at now Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (Sarah Sherman) of New York and Californias finest House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Chloe Fineman) missed the mark in trying to thread the comedy needle. The fact is the work of the Select Committee to investigation the violent MAGA insurrection of last year and literally save American democracy has become even more vital in recent weeks, making ripping at the shortcomings of its execution simply just too soon as you can see above.

You know the votes dont matter, raged Trump (James Austin Johnson) while seated in the bathroom of the White House. Ive always said that the votes dont matter at all, SNLs Trump went on, name-dropping Rockys Apollo Creed as if the character was a real person and pal, Obamacare, and his own VP Mike Dead Yet Pence. Because what even is the vote? Its just a piece of paper you fold up.

A week after Herschel Walkers haywire personal life and Georgia Senate seat bid was mocked as part of SNLs last cold open, and a day after the fake-badge-flashing candidates bizarre real-life debate with incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock rendered satire almost DOA, SNL tonight seemed lost in the current events it traditionally puts under the knife in its cold open.

We tried, it was a fun country while it lasted, lamented Kenan Thompsons Thompson with little humor on the empty gesture of the subpoena vote. A vote that Trump in reality and on SNL has no intention of complying with as he moves towards a 2024 POTUS bid.

D.C. politics aside, today was the third appearance by Megan Thee Stallion on the long-running NBC late-nighter, but the chart toppers debut as host. All of which lands her now in the somewhat elite club of 40 performers who have held both the frontperson and musical guest roles on SNL simultaneously. Of that rarified group of nearly four dozen spanning the past nearly five decades, JLo, Justin Timberlake, Drake, Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, Garth Brooks and Paul Simon have all served as host and musical guests at least twice, with the Mrs. Robinson songwriter holding the top spot as a four-time participant. Heres some more math: Simon has been the musical guest on SNL eight times including as the opener in the shows first post-9/11 episode, and made six cameos over the decades, one of which was pre-recorded.

It was announced tonight that Jack Harrow would take on the host and musical guest double gig on the October 29th airing of SNL.

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SNL Scorns Donald Trump Subpoena Vote At This Weeks January 6 Committee Hearing In Tired Cold Open - Deadline

Motion for Preliminary Injunction Seeks to Stop Ongoing Fraud, Prevent Trump fromMoving Assets to Evade Liability, and Appoint a Monitor to Oversee Financial Disclosures

NEW YORK New York Attorney General Letitia James took action today to stop Donald Trump and the Trump Organization from continuing to engage in the significant fraudulent and illegal business activity outlined in Attorney General James September 2022 lawsuit pending trial. In a motion for a preliminary injunction filed today, Attorney General James is seeking several measures to stop Mr. Trump and the Trump Organizations ongoing fraudulent scheme and ensure funds are available to satisfy any disgorgement award, including prohibiting the Trump Organization from transferring any material assets to another entity without court approval, requiring that any new financial disclosures to banks and insurers contain all supporting and relevant material, and asking for the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee compliance with these measures. Attorney General James is also seeking the courts permission to serve Mr. Trump and Eric Trump electronically, as both defendants and their counsels have refused to accept service of the complaints for almost a month.

Our investigation uncovered the fact that Donald Trump and the Trump Organization engaged in significant fraud to inflate his personal net worth by billions of dollars to illegally enrich himself and cheat the system, said Attorney General James. Since we filed this sweeping lawsuit last month, Donald Trump and the Trump Organization have continued those same fraudulent practices and taken measures to evade responsibility. Today, we are seeking an immediate stop to these actions because Mr. Trump should not get to play by different rules.

Since Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization became aware of the Office of the Attorney General's (OAG) investigation, they have continued to use many practices they knew to be improper or fraudulent, including on Mr. Trumps 2021 Statement of Financial Condition.

Beyond the continuation of that fraud, the Trump Organization appears to be taking steps to restructure its business to evade the reaches of OAGs lawsuit. On September 21, 2022, the same day OAG filed its lawsuit, the Trump Organization registered a new entity with the New York Secretary of State: Trump Organization II LLC. That entity is a foreign corporation that was incorporated in Delaware. The Trump Organization has since refused to provide any assurance that it will not seek to move assets out of New York to evade legal accountability.

Specifically, OAG is seeking an order that would prohibit the Trump Organization from submitting a statement of financial condition or other asset disclosure for Mr. Trump to lenders and insurers, either to satisfy existing obligations or to obtain new financing and insurance, that fails to adequately disclose the assumptions and techniques used for valuing his assets, as outlined in the complaint. The order would also prohibit the Trump Organization from transferring any material asset to a non-party affiliate or otherwise disposing of a material asset without court approval.

In order to oversee these requests, the motion seeks the appointment of an independent monitor until trial that would oversee the submission of financial disclosure information to any accounting firm compiling the 2022 Statement of Financial Condition; financial disclosures to lenders and insurers required by continuing obligations or to obtain new financing and insurance; and any corporate disposition of significant assets.

In September 2022, Attorney General James filed a lawsuit against Mr. Trump, the Trump Organization, senior management, and involved entities for engaging in years of financial fraud to obtain a host of economic benefits. The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Trump, with the help of his children Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump, and other senior executives at the Trump Organization, falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to induce banks to lend money to the Trump Organization on more favorable terms than would otherwise have been available to the company, to satisfy continuing loan covenants, to induce insurers to provide insurance coverage for higher limits and at lower premiums, and to gain tax benefits, among other things. From 2011 to 2021, Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization knowingly and intentionally created more than 200 false and misleading valuations of assets on his annual Statements of Financial Condition to defraud financial institutions.

This investigation and subsequent legal action have been conducted by Senior Enforcement Counsel Kevin Wallace, Special Counsel Andrew Amer, Assistant Attorney General Colleen K. Faherty, Assistant Attorney General Alex Finkelstein, Assistant Attorney General Wil Handley, Assistant Attorney General Stephanie Torre, Special Counsel to the Solicitor General Eric R. Haren, Enforcement Section Chief Louis M. Solomon and Legal Support Analyst Samantha Stern. Additional support was provided by Assistant Attorney Generals Sherief Gaber and Matthew Conrad, Data Analyst Anushua Choudhury, Senior Data Analyst Akram Hasanov, Data Scientist Chansoo Song, Deputy Director of Research and Analytics Megan Thorsfeldt, and Director of Research and Analytics Jonathan Werberg; as well as Information Technology Specialist Hewson Chen, Information Technology Specialist Paige Podolny, and Information Technology Specialist John Roach. Appellate support was provided by Deputy Solicitor General Judith Vale and Assistant Solicitor General Eric Del Pozo. The investigationand legal action are overseen by First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy.

A memorandum of lawandaffirmationwere filed in this matter.

To access the exhibits:

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Attorney General James Takes Action to Immediately Stop Donald Trump and the Trump Organization from Continuing Financial Fraud - New York State...

Theres no shortage of threats to democracy this political season, and, during a debate last week in Ohio, two candidates for the U.S. Senate were asked what they thought the greatest danger might be. Representative Tim Ryan, the Democrat, who spoke first, said that it was extremism, and then got more specific: his opponent, J.D. Vance, he said, has no ability to stand up to his own party, or to anybody. At a recent rally in Youngstown, Donald Trump had bragged, J.D. is kissing my ass, he wants my support. But what was even more troubling to Ryan was Vances response, which was to join Trump onstage, shaking his hand, taking pictures. Ryan said, I dont know anybody I grew up withI dont know anybody I went to high school withthat would allow somebody to take their dignity like that.

With the midterms now only a few weeks away, one shouldnt expect an overflowing of dignity in any of the half-dozen or so states, including Ohio, where Senate seats are being seriously contested. At the rally, Vance, who came to prominence as the author of Hillbilly Elegy and then reinvented himself as a MAGA man, said that Ryan doesnt seem like an Ohioan because hes a fan of yoga. Vance has also suggested that President Joe Biden was letting fentanyl stream across the border in order to punish Republican votersan insinuation that G.O.P. candidates around the country have echoed. Recent polls have Ryan and Vance within a few points of each other, but Trump won the state in 2020 by more than eight points.

According to projections by the research firm AdImpact, a hundred and thirty-eight million dollars will be spent in the Ohio race on media advertising alone. Roughly a quarter billion dollars is expected to be spent on ads in Senate races in Nevada, in Arizona, and in Pennsylvania, and two hundred and seventy-six million is the estimate for the most expensive race, in Georgia. The motive for these outlays is clear. A sitting Presidents party usually loses seats in the midterms, and that seems likely to happen in the House, where the Democrats have a margin of just eight. Barring a blue wave, Kevin McCarthy, not Nancy Pelosi, will be Speaker in January. But the Democrats have a decent shot at holding on to the Senate, which is now evenly divided, and even of picking up a seat or two.

It helps that, of the thirty-five seats being contested, twenty-one are held by Republicans. And, owing to Republican retirements, there are open seats that now seem to be in the Democrats reach in Ohio and in Pennsylvania, where John Fetterman, the hoodie-wearing lieutenant governor, is in a close race against Mehmet Oz, the Trump-endorsed television doctor. The situation is similar in North Carolina, where a Democrat, Cheri Beasley, is running a strong race against Representative Ted Budd. Beasley, who would be the states first Black woman senator, is a former chief justice of the states Supreme Court; Budd has said that the January 6th assault was just patriots standing up.

In the House, Budd co-sponsored a bill that would ban abortion nationwide after about the six-week mark, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Democrats around the country appear to be benefitting from public anger at this summers Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and made bills such as Budds plausible. Republicans, in turn, have focussed on discontent with inflation and, in attacks that are more and more crudely drawn, on immigration and crime. In Wisconsin, ads for Ron Johnson, the most vulnerable G.O.P. Senate incumbent, portray his challenger, Mandela Barnes, the states Democratic lieutenant governor, as an inciter of mobs who wants to empty prisons and unleash havoc in the streets. The January 6th committee linked Johnson to Trumps fake elector scheme; the Senator called the allegation a smear and said that hed been involved for only a couple seconds.

Pennsylvania, however, has been seen as the Democrats best pick-up chance. The Fetterman campaign gained ground by portraying Oz as a huckster whose true home is New Jersey. The question is Fettermans health. He had a stroke a few days before the primary, in May, and by his own account has not fully recovered. He has spoken at some rallies, but still has difficulty with auditory processing. In interviews, he uses transcription software: he reads what is said to him, then responds. That technological work-around will get its biggest test on October 25th, when the candidates debate. The health discussion has exposed the lowness of Ozs campaign, which at one point said that, as a debate accommodation, it would let Fetterman raise his hand and say bathroom break! More recently, Oz has focussed on claiming that Fetterman is weak on crime, calling him Free-Them-All Fetterman.

The Democrats also need to hold on to the seats they have. In Arizona, Senator Mark Kelly has had a small but steady lead over Blake Masters, a Trumpist who is funded by Peter Thiel, the tech billionaire. (Thiel is also backing Vance.) In Nevada, though, in some polls, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto is falling behind Adam Laxalt, the grandson of Paul Laxalt, the late Nevada senator. Earlier this month, Laxalt appeared with Trump at a rally where the former President said that, because of Democrats, American cities are drenched in blood.

But the most concentrated locus of G.O.P. indignity is in the race in Georgia between Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat who won a special election in 2020, and Herschel Walker, whose tight connection with Trump extends back to his stint, in the nineteen-eighties, with the New Jersey Generals, a team (in the ill-fated U.S. Football League) that Trump briefly owned. In the latest spectaclein a campaign that has been full of thema woman told reporters that Walker had pressured her to get an abortion and had paid for it. (She is also the mother of one of his children.) Walker, who supports an abortion ban with no exceptions, has offered bafflingly phrased denialsas he does on many subjects. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, is still standing behind Walker. Last week, Senators Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, and Rick Scott, of Florida, joined Walker at a campaign stop.

Cotton said that fans of the Razorbacks, the University of Arkansas football team, had not forgotten how Walker dominated them when he played for the University of Georgia Bulldogs. But, Cotton said, they have no hard feelings, because they want Republicans back in charge in Washington. The message to G.O.P. voters is that they all need to see themselves as indulgent Razorback fans. The Republicans are going after the Senate with Trumps team, and they have stopped caring what it takes to get over the line.

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The G.O.P. Is Standing by Trumpists Ahead of the Senate Midterms - The New Yorker

We were taught as children that lying had consequences. Is that still true? The jury is still out. Events last week serve as a reminder that an epic political struggle is underway in this country between forces defending the rule of law and the integrity of elections and those who would subvert it.

Thats why voters should regard the casting of ballots on Nov. 8 as something more than a midterm election. Its also a referendum on core American values, notably the integrity of state and national elections, and the ability to uphold criminal and civil laws when public figures are caught lying.

It is an unassailable fact that Joe Biden won and Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. Voter fraud played no role in the outcome in any of the 50 states. More than 60 state and federal court judges rejected claims by Trump and his circle of fringe supporters that the election was stolen.

Yet many Republican officeholders and candidates in Texas and across the country continue to support Trumps Big Lie. Evidence gathered by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, most of it provided by Republicans who served in the Trump administration, shows that Trump, his family and his senior advisors all knew he lost to Biden by more than 4 million votes.

Yet the Big Lie persists. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was front and center in the many unsuccessful efforts to take the Big Lie into federal court and overturn the election. He did so even as he remained under criminal indictment on two securities fraud counts, charges that are now seven years old.

Will Paxton be held accountable?

Paxtons political power in this red state has enabled him to evade trial on the charges. In his case, allegedly lying about his own business affairs and lying on behalf of Trump has not resulted in any consequences, at least not yet. Voters can send a message and strip Paxton from his apparent legal immunity by voting him out of office on Nov. 8.

Republican voters should set aside party loyalty and vote against any candidate who supports Trumps Big Lie. Consider it a vote for an enduring democracy.

A rambling 14-page letter Trump released Friday following his subpoena by the Jan. 6 House committee repeats his false claims that he won the election. Trump openly brags about the size of the mob that came to hear him speak before marching on the Capitol, and he dismisses the House committee work as a political witch hunt.

Will Trump be held accountable?

Its now up to the Justice Department to take the committees work and its own investigative findings and decide if Trump is fit to run for office again or whether, as the evidence shows, he was party to insurrection against the U.S. government and is therefore disqualified from holding office.

Voters, meanwhile, continue to be fed lies by right-wing fringe media figures and social media feeds, including lies delivered in Spanish and intended to suppress or mislead Latino voters. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro joined other Latino leaders last week in calling out the disinformation campaigns spread via Youtube, Facebook and other channels.

Will conspiracy theorist Alex Jones be held accountable?

Juries have delivered damning verdicts against the Austin-based Jones and his Infowars podcast and website, and last week a Connecticut jury returned a stunning $965 million judgment against Jones. Will the courts ultimately require Jones to surrender his fortune, estimated to be $270 million, to financially compensate the families who lost children in the Sandy Hook school shooting and then were victimized again by Jones and his Infowars broadcasts and postings claiming the school massacre was a government-staged hoax?

For me, the Nov. 8 midterm election is both the first opportunity to hold a free and fair election after 2020 and a prelude to the 2024 presidential election and the ability of the nation to continue to select a president without powerful political forces seeking to undermine the vote.

As early voting polls open eight days from now, election integrity should be on the minds of voters who can send a message that telling the truth and not spreading lies still matter.

This seasons vote is all about accountability.

Link:
The Big Lie still poses a threat to democracy and election integrity - San Antonio Report

Anything can happen between now and 2024, but as Republicans understand, and Democrats begrudgingly acknowledge, theres more than a decent chance that the White House will return to agree with me that of all the Democrats, arguably the one with the best chance to beat Donald Trump and the worst chance to beat any other Republican nominee is Joe Biden, who would be days shy of his 81st birthday.

In that case, why wont Republicans finally cut the cord and let Trump sail into the Florida sunset paving the way for Ron DeSantis or some other presidential hopeful with formidable credentials and Trumpian pedigree, but without Trumps baggage? Why risk trying to win in a squeaker when a near-landslide might be attainable?

For many reasons, some more obvious than others.

There is, of course, brand loyalty, Trump being the brand in question here. Not his ties, steaks, or wine, but his founding the MAGA movement and leading it all the way to the presidency.

Then, theres the undeniable fact that Trump is a proven product. He won in 2016 and in 2020 gained more votes than any incumbent president ever. Can DeSantis do the same? Maybe, maybe not. Lets not forget that in 1984, many Democrats thought their best hope to beat Ronald Reagan would be astronaut John Glenn, a national hero. Twenty years later, they thought another affable national symbol, General Wesley Clark, could be the one to topple George W. Bush. And in 2008, long before John McCain won the GOP nomination to face Barack Obama in the general election, the Republican heavy favorite was Americas Mayor, Rudy Giuliani.

But Glenn, Clark, and Giuliani never caught traction on a national scale. (On the other hand, the last governor Republicans were this excited about running for president was Ronald Reagan, who exceeded their highest expectations.)

Theres the sliver of fringe Trump voters who believe hes fighting a secret battle against a Democrat satanic and pedophilic cabal, run from a DC pizza parlor and resulting in discarded bodies buried underneath the White House lawn, on orders from the Clintons and the Obamas. Thankfully, those uber-conspiracy theorists are probably too small in number to field a baseball team.

And even those who dont believe those warped tales have been political misfits their entire lives and were lured out of the woodwork by Trump, whom they are convinced is the best president ever, by far, and the only one who really tells the truth and cares about the American people.

Those Trump absolutists too do not comprise the largest slab of his loyalists.

The most common type of Trump voter is the law-and-order, national security, anti-establishmentarian populist, who is grateful that Trump rescued the party from its country-club, libertarian, and even Evangelical factions. Ideologically, theyd be just as happy with DeSantis, et al. so why dont they just cut Trump loose?

For a less obvious but deeply practical reason: they want to win in 2024, and if they reject Trump, hes not going to go away quietly.

Consider this scenario: the Democrats nominate, say, California Governor Gavin Newsom in 2024. Sure, the prospect of a President Newsom is a national nightmare to half the country (me included), but suppose that DeSantis edges out Trump for the GOP nomination. Is it out of the question to think that Trump couldnt stomach his protg beating him out for the nomination? He might be more bent on stopping an ungrateful, disloyal DeSantis than keeping a Democrat from winning. He might run as an independent, or even form the MAGA Party. That would split the Republican vote, giving the election to Newsom, about whom Trump might say weve spoken on the phone before. He was very nice to me.

Of course, to Democrats and Never-Trumper Republicans, the terrifying scenario I just described would be a dream come true. Both sides would love to drive Trump out of politics for good, and each would enjoy an added bonus: The Democrats would have one of their own back in the White House and the Republicans would ease the pain of another loss by the hope of reshaping the party back to its establishmentarian tendencies. Mitt Romney would emerge as its elder statesman and George Will would write about it with glee.

To the rest of us, though, thats not OK. Were not always happy with what Trump says or does even though we think he did much good in his four years in the Oval Office. Were not in Trump or bust mode. If Trump simply stepped aside and endorsed a successor who shared his platform but not his shortcomings, wed be all for it.

But we are absolutely not going to squander our opportunity to reclaim the White House from the most ineffective president since Jimmy Carter by allowing a Democrat to win by default as Woodrow Wilson did in 1912 with just 41 percent of the vote, because two Republicans canceled each other out.

Essentially, then, Trump is holding the Republican Party hostage. Dont get me wrong, its not as if they dont have affection for him and faith in his leadership, but they also realize they have no choice but to go along with him, because hes got just enough ultra-MAGAns that will follow him off the side of a mountain, who think the Democrats are such cheaters that Republicans wont ever win another election anyway.

It boils down to this: either do Trumps bidding, or say hello to President Newsom. And even on Trumps worst day, I wouldnt take Newsom over him. Not in a million years.

The rest is here:
Why the Republican Party and its Voters Will Not Abandon Donald Trump - The National Herald