This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 46

… Alina Habba and Benny Johnson have been getting roasted by their MAGA fans after fawning all over indicted human trafficker and admitted serial abuser of women Andrew Tate. Habba has been Trump’s lawyer, campaign “Legal Spokesperson”, and is now his incoming ‘Counsel to the President.’ Johnson was previously outed for getting paid by the Russians to push their propaganda to American audiences. All the best people.

… Even a big chunk of the MAGA cult is repulsed by Tate, who is one of worst human beings on the planet. Besides his indictment, which includes many charges of him sexually abusing women and girls, he has posted a number of videos bragging about beating women. One of his victims was 15. You don’t even need to know all the details on Tate, all you need to know is that he is even too disgusting for MAGA, which is saying something.

… But all that didn’t stop Habba from telling Tate on Benny’s podcast that she was “a huge fan!”

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… The backlash was immediate. Desantis primary supporter then Trump supporter John Cardillo: “Andrew Tate has probably posted over 100 videos where he glorifies beating women into submission and exploiting them for sex. The next Counsel to the President is swooning over him telling him she’s a fan. This is fucking embarrassing for America. I’m sorry, but someone with judgment that poor should not be a counselor to the President of the United States.”

… Right-wing talk show host Monica Matthews: “Susie Wiles (Trump’s Chief of Staff) you need to come get your ‘advisor’ Alina Habba - swooning over known sexual deviants and Islamization sycophants is not a good look for the administration. At all. And maybe give her some wardrobe ideas on respectability. She has a nice rack. Who cares? Send her to the Tate’s for a webcam career or represent the damn Admin with some respect. We demand her dismissal from the Admin.”

… I’m pretty sure Habba has enough dirt on Trump to make it impossible for him to fire her at that point. Some of that dirt may involve her. And she is smart enough at least to hold on to the evidence.

… MAGA talk show host Liz Wheeler posted a video of Tate bragging about abusing women with this caption: “You gonna ask Andrew Tate about this, Benny Johnson? When Tate brags about grabbing women by the throat, choking them, breaking their cheekbones, making them cry during sex, beating them and pimping?” (In fact, Benny did not ask him about any of that. I know, shocking).

… Benny then lamely tried to defend himself using the standard MAGA playbook - First Amendment, quoting Jesus, etc. None of it worked. His first attempt, which got 2,500 replies from irate MAGA people: “If you're upset that people you disagree with have conversations, then you need to find a different year to live in. It’s 2025. Censorship and deplatforming is dead. People can think for themselves. We are free. Grow up.”

… That did not go over well.

… Babylon Bee Editor Joel Berry: “You’re allowed to platform who you want. It’s a free country. And I’m allowed to think a conservative Christian husband and father has no business promoting an Islamic pornographer and serial abuser of underage girls.”

… Matthews: “The new trend of the so called Right- they royally fuck up in a very public way and to avoid the public scrutiny they cry “FREE SPEECH”. Your lack of care or competence of how your airwaves affect society makes you a liability to consumers and an asset for those who use you like a Tate webcam girl who just lost her virginity.”

… Benny then tried using Jesus. That went even worse for him. He posted: "He who is without sin cast the first stone..." John 8:7. That post got hit with this Community Note: “After Jesus spoke these words, he later turned to the woman accused of adultery and said, ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’ Benny Johnson recently hosted Andrew Tate, who was credibly accused of rape and human trafficking. He did not tell Tate to leave his life of sin.”

… In fact, he did not. Christian Family Man Benny celebrated Tate’s life of sin.

… J6 QAnon Shaman Jake Chansley: “Tate is toxic bro. You had to expect SOME backlash. THAT is part of getting the clicks & engagement my friend. Think about it bro, he literally ripped off 1000's of men for MILLIONS of dollars FOR YEARS using cam girls like they were meat on a hook. THEN he was dumb enough to BRAG ABOUT IT OPENLY ON THE INTERNET like he is some kind of badass or like that is ‘cool’ & he expected NO CONSEQUENCES.”

… When you’ve lost the Q Shaman.

… Christian author Jennifer Greenberg: “John 8:7 is quoting Jesus who was telling men not to beat a woman. The irony is off the charts.”

… Right-wing radio show host Dana Loesch: “If you’re going to proclaim that ‘Christ is King’ then prove it. Make Him the King of your content, too.”

… The weekend of MAGA on MAGA Violence continued with Steve Bannon: “I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day. He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down. Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it. I’m not prepared to tolerate it anymore.”

… Musk’s $100+ million did keep Bannon quiet for a solid month. Truce over.

… Bannon continued in his interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera: “Peter Thiel, David Sacks, Elon Musk, are all white South Africans. He should go back to South Africa. Why do we have South Africans, the most racist people on earth, white South Africans, why do have them making any comments at all on what goes on in the US? He went out of his way to mock our movement as racist and retards. He’s got the maturity of a little boy.”

… Since Vivek Ramaswamy got destroyed over Christmas by MAGA on social media after posting that Americans aren’t smart enough and won’t work hard enough for tech jobs so we have to bring more immigrants in from India, he has only made 2 posts on X. He used to post dozens a day.

… Vivek sure did a lot of tough talking right up to the point his MAGA friends turned on him. Since then, he’s been pretty quiet. He is also going to find out that their ability to forgive and forget is on a sliding scale - the darker the skin tone the less likely it’s going to happen.

… JD Vance created a firestorm among the J6 defendant community and their MAGA supporters when he said this morning that Trump does not plan to pardon defendants who engaged in violence: “If you protested peacefully - you should be pardoned. If you committed violence that day, obviously you should not be pardoned.”

… That is NOT what Trump promised during the campaign. And many of the J6ers, their families, and supporters are furious.

… J6 inmate Jake Lang is currently incarcerated and about to go to trial for beating cops. He thought he was getting out next week with a Trump pardon, but since he is charged with assaulting a cop with a baseball bat it looks like he is now going to stay behind bars: “Name one J6er who got a fair trial in J6! If you’re going to start nitpicking between which J6ers can stay and which can go home on Day 1 in 8 days, then we need answers on which of us have been treated fairly. All of us have been railroaded!”

… J6 inmate Luke Lints was also upset: “People like JD Vance - he wasn’t there. He doesn’t know what happened. President Trump, you wanted us to believe that they stole the election, which is against the law. Now you’re not willing to stand with us after we went through 4 years of hell!”

Tragic.

… Marge Greene, who infamously claimed that Jewish Space Lasers were used to intentionally set the CA wildfires in 2018 (she said the Rothschild family was using satellites with lasers on them), is now back with some new thoughts. She posted on X: “Why don’t they use geo engineering like cloud seeding to bring down rain on the wildfires in CA?”

… Every Republican member of Congress from CA except one abandoned their state this week to hang out at Mar-a-Lago with Trump, attend some parties, and pose for photos. The only one who didn’t go was David Valadao, who was also the only one who voted to impeach Trump. They were busy tweeting their thoughts and prayers to the people back home, though.

… President Musk was also there all weekend. He still hasn’t left Mar-a-Lago since the election.

… Mike Pence was asked by Christianity Today what his wife Karen said to Trump at Jimmy Carter’s funeral when he tried to talk to her: “You’d have to ask my wife. But we’ve been married 44 years and she loves her husband.” I think we can guess.

… ABC read Republican House Whip Tom Emmer a social media post from Trump insulting him calling him “out of touch” and a “RINO”, and was asked what he had to say in response: “The president has been wonderful to me. He’s been wonderful to my wife.”

… Judge Aileen Cannon responded to Merrick Garland’s statement that he will release all the reports on Jack Smith’s J6 investigation this week since it has nothing to do with her documents case, so her order not to release anything doesn’t apply to that. She ordered Smith to submit an affidavit by 10:00 AM stating that there is nothing in that report that relates to the documents case. He immediately complied and said it does not.

… Then he resigned.

… Ukraine was able to capture two of the N. Korean soldiers that Russia has brought in since they are incapable of defeating the much smaller country on their own. Zelensky explained why it is so hard for them to capture NK POWs: “Our soldiers have captured NK military personnel in the Kursk region. Two soldiers, though wounded, survived and were transported to Kyiv, where they are now communicating with the Security Service of Ukraine. This was not an easy task: Russian forces and other NK military personnel usually execute their wounded to erase any evidence of NK’s involvement in the war against Ukraine.”

… Zelensky followed that news up with this today: “There should be no doubt left in the world that the Russian army is dependent on military assistance from NK. Putin started this 3 years ago with ultimatums to NATO and attempts to rewrite history, but now he cannot manage without military support from Pyongyang. Ukraine is ready to hand over Kim Jong Un’s soldiers to him if he can organize their exchange for our warriors who are being held captive in Russia. For those NK soldiers who do not wish to return, there may be other options available. In particular, those who express a desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in Korean will be given that opportunity.”

… The reality is that Kim will execute their entire extended families if they cooperate with Ukraine or don’t want to return. Or maybe Trump will just call up his boyfriend Kim and get all the N. Korea troops out of there since he promised to end the war in 24 hours.

… Speaker Mike Johnson quietly sent a letter to the EPA asking for grant money for his district under Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. He wants the money for the city of Minden and Louisiana Tech University. His letter said their project “is designed to focus on water quality and sustainability … specifically targeting underserved communities in north Louisiana.”

… But Johnson also voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, calling it “clueless”, “legislative malpractice”, “disaster” that will “crush the American people.”

… Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) was asked by CBS if Republicans will pass an immediate disaster relief package for CA, despite the fact that some have said they want CA to change their laws and policies first before any aid is provided: “I expect that there will be strings attached to money that is ultimately approved.”

… ABC then asked Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) to comment on that: “I’ve been in Congress a long time approving aid after disasters. I never once even considered ‘is this hurricane hitting a red or blue state?’ We need the incoming president to view it that way.”

… Good luck with that.

… Alexander Vindman addressed Trump’s NSA Mike Waltz’s comments that he plans to replace every single DOD detailee to intelligence agencies with Trump loyalists on day one: “Waltz justified this move by referencing my role in exposing Trump’s abuse of power, which led to his first impeachment. Using my actions as a rationale, Waltz aims to purge scores of professionals from the DOD, Dept of State, CIA, and other agencies—not because of their conduct, but due to a demand for blind allegiance to Trump.”

… More Vindman: “This so-called ‘Vindman Rule’ sets a dangerous precedent by ensuring that only political loyalists can serve on the NSC, advise the president, and interact with the president and top decision-makers. Such an approach will have a chilling effect on senior policy staff across the government. Talented professionals, wary of being dismissed for principled stances or offering objective advice, will either self-censor or forgo service altogether. This undermines the very purpose of the NSC: to provide the president with the best possible advice as well as the coordinating team to advance U.S. national security interests.”

… Fox host Greg Gutfeld decided to try one of his patented, weak “own the libs” posts for his audience of Neanderthals this weekend. Except this time he tried it on me. Bad decision.

… Mark Zuckerberg’s move to lift content restrictions and kiss Trump’s ass isn’t going over well with everyone in Meta. Michael McConnell, co-chair of Meta’s Oversight Board, told NPR that Zuck is just “buckling to political pressure. I would have liked to have seen these reforms laid out in less contentious and partisan times, so that they would be considered on the merits rather than - Donald Trump is president and now they’re caving in.”

… According the the NYT, neither McConnell nor the board were told about the new policy in advance, but Meta executives told Trump officials about the change in policy prior to the announcement.

… Over 60 German Universities announced in a joint statement that they will no longer use Musk’s X platform for any purpose: “This decision sends a clear signal in favor of fact-based communication and against anti-democratic forces.”

… Incoming Trump Admin officials were all over Sunday morning shows trying to lower expectations after Trump promised voters the moon, sun and stars during the campaign, while preemptively blaming Democrats for their expected failures. JD Vance was on Fox with this: “I wish Joe Biden all the best, but he left the incoming Administration with a dumpster fire. President Trump is going to have to put it out, but that’s exactly what he’s good at.”

… Give me a break. Trump inherited a great economy in 2017 from his predecessor and when he left in 2021 it was in complete shambles. Now he inherits another great economy, which Vance seems to know he is about to screw up again with his trade war nonsense, and he’s already blaming Biden for it. Just like Trump inherited $400 million from his dad and went bankrupt until NBC bailed him out with a reality show premised on the myth that he was a successful businessman.

… Meanwhile, CNN is reporting that Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan met with Republican members of Congress and told them to temper their expectations with migrant deportations. One Republican Rep told them: “Homan has been telling some of the members that ‘Hey, if you want me to do all these things that you’re talking about, this costs money, and it’s not being done with the CR that’s in place now.”

… Which is exactly what Joe Biden said. That’s why he negotiated a bipartisan border bill with Republican members of the Senate, which Trump then had killed. DHS simply didn’t have the funding to do mass deportations, detain more people, and didn’t have enough immigration judges to handle asylum claims in a timely manner. Now, instead of 20 million deportations this year like Trump promised, Homan is telling House Republicans it will be more like 1-2 million, which isn’t much more than the Biden Admin has deported annually.

… Homan also announced that the government will be setting up a special deportation “Hot Line” for citizens to call if they spot someone who they think is doing something illegal who also might be a migrant.

… CNN is reporting that many Republican members of Congress are prepared to fight Trump on his attempt to raise the debt limit, and are demanding at least $1 trillion in spending cuts since he promised $2 trillion in cuts during his campaign. Tim Burchett was asked if he would vote for a Reconciliation bill that raises the debt limit: “I don’t know that I ever would” vote for that.

… WaPo asked Marco Rubio whether he has addressed his past criticisms of China with Trump, or co-President Elon Musk, since the Chinese Communist Party is Tesla’s largest business partner and China is Tesla’s 2nd largest market. Rubio has called out China for a “grotesque campaign of genocide” against Uyghur Muslims, resulting in Rubio being banned for life from entering China.

… Rubio also said this, which clearly includes Musk more than any other person on earth: “Nationless corporations are helping the Chinese Communist Party cover up genocide and slave labor in the region.”

… This past April, Musk said this: “I’m a huge fan of China.” Musk told his biographer Walter Isaacson: “China’s repression of the Uyghurs … had two sides.”

… What was Rubio’s response to WaPo’s inquiry? His spokesman Dan Holler: “Rubio as a senator is different from Rubio as a secretary of state. In this role he is going to be implementing the president’s policies.” Very courageous and principled as always.

… President Biden will deliver his Farewell Address to the nation from the Oval Office at 8 PM ET on January 15.

… Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who recently gave birth, has introduced a bill to allow proxy voting for 12 weeks after women give birth. This would allow another Member to cast their vote for them on floor. Proxy voting has always been strictly prohibited due to the potential that it would be abused by Members not showing up for work.

… Russian State Media Monitor Julia Davis posted a new clip from their primetime news. They talked about Trump wanting to take over Greenland, which they said should be relatively easy. Then they talked about Trump turning his attention to taking Canada, which they said would be a bit more difficult since Canada has a much larger military to defend itself against a US invasion than Greenland.

… They then began a segment where they complained about a new round of sanctions against 200 Russian oil and energy companies from the Biden Admin. But they said help is on the way: “This will be the last package of sanctions. Trump is coming next, he’s planning to lift all sanctions.”

… Then they mocked the American court system for Trump getting convicted of so many felonies while receiving no punishment: “The American president is a convicted felon, but since he is president, he goes free. Unconditional release. Very interesting court ruling. An amazing court system. They’ve asserted that everyone is equal under the law, but it turns out no, not everyone. Trump is guilty but was not punished.”

… JD Vance said today why he agrees with Trump that the US needs to take over Greenland: “Greenland is very important for America, strategically. It has a lot of great natural resources. The Danish government has not done a good enough job of securing Greenland. I think there actually is a real opportunity here for us to take leadership.”

… After claiming on Joe Rogan’s podcast that 3 of his friends with Stage 4 cancer were cured by taking ivermectin, Mel Gibson announces: “I am ready to begin the sequel to Passion of the Christ. It will be called, ‘The Resurrection of the Christ’. Jim Caviezel is coming back. It covers from the Fall of the Angels to Hell to the death of the last apostle.”

… Gavin Newsom said he set up a special website of facts about the wildfires to counter the flood of misinformation on social media from right-wingers. He introduced the site with three facts: “1. CA did NOT cut our firefighting budget. We have nearly doubled the size of our firefighting army and built the world’s largest aerial firefighting fleet. 2. CA has INCREASED forest management ten-fold since we took office. 3. CA will NOT refuse to prosecutor looters.”

… Elon Musk retweeted a post that claimed CA decriminalized looting under Newsom and just made it a civil fine. He also put a clown emoji over Newsom. Another lie put out by Elon to his 220 million followers. Newsom responded: “Stop encouraging looting by lying and telling people it’s decriminalized. It’s not. It’s illegal and it always has been.”

… Dinesh D’Souza, pardoned by Trump for his felony conviction, claimed that Oregon sent 60 fire trucks to LA but they were stopped and held up in Sacramento for emissions testing. That was also a lie. He also made millions off his movie ‘2000 Mules’ before he was forced to admit it was all a lie.

… Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who avoids press interviews so her views on many issues are largely unknown, was asked by NYT if she believed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. She said it was: “There was sufficient fraud in a number of states, and that fraud likely cost the president the election in 2020.”

… I don’t think Wiles believes that for a second. But if she says anything different, she is out of job. EVERY member of the Trump Admin is required to espouse The Big Lie.

… Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) sent a letter to Mike Johnson asking him to raise the flags from half-staff for Trump’s inauguration. The flags are flown at half-staff for 30 days after the death of a president, and they are currently at half-staff for Jimmy Carter. Mills: “I believe that most Americans would prefer to avoid an occurrence where their incoming president is sworn in while the flags are lowered. Congress must act and raise the flags for the inauguration.”

… Oh, and Mills also announced he will be running for Marco Rubio’s open Senate seat.

… Trump confirmed this weekend that his former golf caddie and current Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino was the one who started his Twitter account and posted everything for him for years. Trump claimed he would dictate posts for Scavino and Scavino was the only one with the password. This first came out in Trump’s trial when his lawyers tried to blame his gag order violations on Scavino, but this is the first time Trump himself has said someone else makes all his posts.

… Trump this weekend on Scavino: “I call him the most powerful man in politics because nobody else has my password.”

… CBS is reporting that Tik Tok is prepared to shut down their site if the Supreme Court rules against them and forces the Chinese owners to sell next month. The company is valued at over $100 billion, largely because of the US market. If the Chinese are willing to burn that much money, then obviously maintaining control of the company and the data of its American users is worth losing that much money to them.

… Trump nominated 3 more Project 2025 contributors to his Administration: Paul Lawrence to Veteran’s Affairs, Gil Bradbury to Transportation, and Casey Mulligan to the Small Business Administration.

Snow tubing on Saturday was a lot of fun. I can’t ski or run anymore because of a foot injury suffered when I was a competitive triathlete, so I have to find other things to do that doesn’t put pressure on my foot. My wife, Jackie, struggled to learn how to ski anyway, so I think she is happier with the tubing. She was a little nervous at first, then ended up staying out there longer than me.