The Secret Service’s Inexcusable Document Destruction
The Secret Service’s Inexcusable Document Destruction
Plus, Trump’s Jan. 6th National Guard Lie Crumbles
Recently at The Bulwark:
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PHILIP ROTNER: The Secret Service’s Inexcusable Document Destruction.
The Secret Service’s destruction of text messages requested by the House January 6th Committee appears to have been brutally efficient. With the exception of one lone survivor—an innocuous exchange concerning a request for assistance—the service managed to wipe out every single text sent and received by the agents the committee asked about on and around the day of the insurrection.
Even if taken at face value, the service’s explanation for this slaughter is more of a confession than a justification: Gross negligence, recklessness, and finger-pointing are the service’s defense. Because the alternative—that the destruction of communications may have been part of an intentional coverup—is unthinkable.
But even if the Secret Service was “merely” reckless, as it has effectively admitted, those responsible must be held accountable.
The Jan 6 committee hearings are like a well-produced true crime doc. Using TV tropes and popcorn elements, the committee is the telling the very serious story of how Trump & co tried to steal the election. Yes, the ketchup does matter. James Poniewozik joins Charlie Sykes today.
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🎥 TNL: Stop Trying to Make Pence Happen, It’s Not Gonna Happen
AMANDA CARPENTER: Trump’s Jan. 6th National Guard Lie Crumbles.
Over time, the lie about Trump sending in the National Guard has taken other forms. For example, Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, has claimed that Trump gave a direct order to have 10,000 National Guard troops “at the ready” on Jan. 6th, but that his request was somehow rejected by Democrats like Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
In February 2021, Meadows told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, “As many as 10,000 National Guard troops were told to be on the ready by the secretary of defense. That was a direct order from President Trump.”
That lie has now been decisively put to rest.
Yesterday, the House January 6th Committee revealed testimony from Christopher Miller, Trump’s acting secretary of defense, rejecting the notion that Trump ordered thousands of Guard troops to be standing by.
BILL LUEDERS: Tucker Carlson’s Dogged Pursuit.
The other night on Fox News, Tucker Carlson shone a light on an important and underreported story regarding the use of animals in research.
I am not being facetious.
The primetime cable bloviator demonstrated a shallow understanding of his subject, engaged in unnecessary hyperbole, and was clearly motivated by bad intentions—to further demonize one of the right’s biggest bogeymen, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health.
But Carlson and his guest, Daphna Nachminovitch, a senior vice president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), were on firm ground in decrying a dog-breeding and research facility in Virginia that is being forced to relinquish all of its 4,000 beagles because of scores of violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.
This shutdown was ordered by a federal court in the Western District of Virginia after the U.S. Justice Department brought an enforcement action based on violations flagged by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which conducted inspections over a nine-month period that largely affirmed the grim findings of a 2021 probe by PETA. The order is part of a settlement between the Justice Department and Envigo that allows the latter to avoid admitting “liability for violations asserted in the government’s complaint.”
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
So you’re saying there’s a chance… The Decision Desk HQ thinks that Democrats are favored to keep control of the Senate.
Maybe it’s the GOP’s bad candidates? In Georgia, Hershel Walker was quoted as saying, in a stream of consciousness about debating his opponent: “I just want to make it for the fans.” Not making it up.
Speaking of bad candidates… Meet Dr. Oz’s curious tenants, in New Jersey.
Flooded Saint Louis. I was saddened by the images of the floods, knowing there would be sad stories to come. There were.
How a minor league ballplayer started a yard sign meme. And he’s raising money for charity, despite being a low-paid minor leaguer.
The baseball history map. The good folks at the Society for American Baseball Research now have released a map you can access of historic baseball sites. What’s the nearest one to you? From where I grew up, mine is the grave of “Luscious” Luke Easter.
Manchin agrees to play ball on climate and tax. Here are the details of the deal he reached with Chuck Schumer.
Good riddance. Verizon is the last major cable carrier to drop One America News (where I once appeared when I considered doing TV journalism as a career.). Their appeals to liberals to save them are, quite funny.
Dems balk on Assault Weapons vote. The votes aren’t there. But they might be a little later in the summer.
Paging Dr. Ian Malcom… Scientists have brought back dead spiders so they can become, effectively, zombies.
The realities of this new American life. National Journal on the Afghan refugees in Austin and how they’re adapting.
Without media accountability… Will the GOP govern like a one-party state? Jonathan Chait argues yes.
That’s it for me. Tech support questions? Email members@thebulwark.com. Questions for me? Respond to this message.
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