Missouri still backsliding into MAGA swamp

Progressives suffered a major blow in Tuesday night’s primaries as Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) became the second “squad” member to lose to a challenger this cycle.

Coming just hours after Vice President Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in a move seen as a win for the progressive wing of the party, Bush’s loss put internal party frictions over the Israel-Hamas war on full display.

[...]

Bush’s defeat [to St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell] makes her the second member of the squad to lose reelection after Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D) lost his seat in New York earlier this year. [O]ther high-profile members, like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) are likely to win reelection handily. And another progressive, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), won her primary challenge earlier this year despite being outspent.

  The Kill

Maybe it's more about Missourians than progressives.

AIPAC’s super PAC spent big to unseat her in the primary, reportedly throwing more than $8 million into the race.

The group’s opposition to Bush came in response to her vocal criticism of Israel’s war against the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza.

She was one of just a few House members who opposed a resolution that expressed support for Israel last year, and when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress last month, Bush called it “sickening that Congress gave him a standing ovation.”

I agree with Bush.

Meanwhile in Kansas...

Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden kickstarted an investigation after the 2020 election, despite claims from local officials that there was no widespread fraud, as reported by The Associated Press.

Hayden paused the investigation last month after producing no criminal charges and stoking suspicion toward state and local election systems.

[...]

On Tuesday, Hayden appeared headed for defeat in his GOP primary to Republican Doug Bedford, a former U.S. Navy SEAL who served as Hayden’s undersheriff from 2017 to 2021. He’ll face Democrat Byron Roberson, the police chief of Prairie Village, in the fall.

The incumbent’s likely defeat comes after he ran unopposed four years earlier, and signals divisions among Republicans in the state surrounding claims of election fraud.

Former President Trump has refused to commit to accepting 2024 results and has continued to tout his debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, while some in the party have pressed fellow Republicans to move on from the last cycle.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 07:53 am:

UPDATE 02:16 pm:

Bush said in a fiery speech after her loss that leaving Congress will only “takes some strings off.”

“Because now, there are some strings that I have attached. And as much as I love my job, all they did was radicalize me, and now they should be afraid,” she said.

“They’re about to see this other Cori, this other side,” she continued. “There is nothing that happens in my life that happens in vain. So, this happened because it was meant to happen. And let me say, it’s because of the work that I need to do.”

“And let me say this: AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down!” she added to cheers.

  The Hill

Well.

Missouri should recall Hawley

Congressional leaders pushing to finish election verification tonight, sources say.

Congressional leaders are pushing to finish the verification process tonight, multiple sources familiar told CNN.

And as senators wait to get back on the Senate floor and resume the certification process, some senators are using the time to push and cajole the GOP senators who planned to object to states like Georgia and Pennsylvania to back down after they finish debate over Arizona’s election results, two senate sources familiar with the conversations told CNN.

It is unclear whether the efforts would be successful. It would require Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, for example, to back down in a very public way.

  CNN

While leaving a secure location with other senators, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin told CNN there’s a belief that Congress will finish the Electoral College certification tonight.

“These thugs aren’t running us off,” Manchin said.

He said he thinks it will happen in the Capitol but didn’t know for sure.

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, one of the Trump allies helping lead the effort to object to the Electoral College votes, tweeted this afternoon that Congress "must get back to work and finish its job."

  CNN

Shunning his ass is their first job.

Aiding and abetting insurrectionists might be prosecutable.

Pence's security detail will need to be increased

What was that Trump was saying about him and Pence completely agreeing on the issue?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

They're going for it

And, of course...

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Trump called on them to march on Congress.

And people don't think Trump will call these dogs to barricade him in the White House.

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

And there it is:

“This is not America,” a woman said to a small group, her voice shaking. She was crying, hysterical. “They’re shooting at us. They’re supposed to shoot BLM, but they’re shooting the patriots.”

  The Nation

Remember their names

May they live on in infamy.

Image at Politico.

Pelosi names debate squad leaders for GOP challenge to election results

Reps. Zoe Lofgren (Calif.), Jamie Raskin (Md.), Adam Schiff (Calif.) and Joe Neguse (Colo.) will lead House Democrats after possibly 140 House Republicans and at least 13 Senate Republicans join to object to the Electoral College’s margin of 306-232 for President-elect Joe Biden.

The four lawmakers and the Democratic heads of state delegations “have been working on our Democratic presentation of the Constitutional, historical and thematic justification for respecting the will of the people,” Pelosi wrote.

“On the Floor of the House, we will have a civics lesson about protecting the integrity of our democracy. Priority to speak has been given to state delegation Members from states that are expected to face a challenge,” she said.

  The Hill

After watching the entire impeachment proceedings, I know I can't bear to watch the asshole Republicans who'll be talking out of their assholes today, but I will definitely try to find clips of Schiff. He's such a great speaker.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.