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CHARLIE SYKES: CPAC Goes Full Orbán.
THE NEXT LEVEL: Republicans Are Deeply and Genuinely Concerned About Grooming.🔐
THE SECRET POD: Self-Manufactured Crises.🔐
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JENNIFER HARRIS writes: How the Texas Election Law Suppressed Voting.
Everything’s bigger in Texas. And that’s more than just our tourist slogan. It’s also the way we restrict people’s freedom to vote!
Last year state Republican lawmakers decided to address Texas’s so-called “election integrity” problems, which had been raised by Donald Trump’s mere 600,000 vote victory in 2020. Never mind that the integrity of Texas elections was not in question. And that there’s never been credible evidence of widespread voter fraud in Texas. And the 2020 presidential election was deemed “safe and secure” by state elections officials.
Donald Trump had said that he was cheated in the 2020 election and he must have been cheated everywhere and so by God, the good people of Texas were going to fix the problem.
And what has happened since is a cautionary tale.
The Democrats are the more sane party, but their self-inflicted wounds have created the most favorable Republican environment since 2010. National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar joins Charlie Sykes on today’s podcast.
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New from me. Democrats have a tough choice in MO-1.
Roberts was accused of rape in October 2016, when he was running unopposed for a seat in the Missouri House of Representatives. The accusation became one of the more-talked-about sagas in Missouri Democratic political circles at the time, in part, because his accuser was also a member of the political class: Cora Faith Walker, also then a candidate running unopposed for the Missouri House.
Walker, a Democrat from Ferguson (the St. Louis suburb made famous in 2014), was a rising star in 2016, with energy and talent and a master’s in public health and a law degree. Her accusation—she said she visited Roberts’s apartment, drank two glasses of wine, and woke up the next morning in a bed in the apartment—divided the Gateway City’s Democratic establishment.
Roberts denied the accusation and was never charged, and as he and Walker went on to become freshmen state lawmakers, Roberts took the additional step of suing Walker for defamation, with his attorney even laying out his side of the story to Bill McClellan, a longtime columnist for the Post-Dispatch, providing texts, receipts, and even a nude picture. It wasn’t pretty. Walker then filed a countersuit, alleging that Roberts drugged her the night she alleges he raped her. The two ultimately dropped their lawsuits in 2019. But that wasn’t the end of it, as you can imagine: One does not accuse a future colleague of drug-induced rape, countersue him after charges aren’t filed, and then ride off into the sunset with no hard feelings. Walker left electoral politics, taking a job as chief policy officer for Saint Louis County Executive Sam Page’s administration. And as Roberts continued his rise, the rift among the various supporters of both Walker and Roberts continued.
TIM MILLER writes: The Republican Party Is Trump Steaks.
“What do you want your username to be on Trump’s new app? Hurry!”
This urgent missive was one of dozens upon dozens of fundraising emails and texts I received from the Republican National Committee and other official Republican political organizations over the past few months providing pro-bono promotion for TRUTH Social.
In this instance the RNC was requesting that I tell them my TRUTH username (N.B. It’s @FredDidNotLoveYou). The committee then asked me to pitch in a few bucks to show that I STAND WITH TRUMP, conveniently pre-checking a box that would make said donation recurring and warning that if I unchecked I would not be doing my part to SECURE TRUMP’S LEGACY.
I declined to reply.
My demurral did not please Ronna “Don’t Call Me Romney” McDaniel. Just eight hours later I received another stalkerish email from her committee with the subject line: “We’ve been trying to reach you”
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
I’m on assignment today… And I am trying to keep my dogs from barking at the neighbors’ landscapers, so today’s section will be short. But I have a recipe and a real estate listing for you.
Show me you love airplanes. Because this person does. A buddy of mine has a pair of seats off of a Super 80 , talk about hosting!
Here’s how you make your own Szechuan sauce… In case you were denied its return.
That’s it for me. Tech support questions? Email members@thebulwark.com. Questions for me? Respond to this message.
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