This was the week that the rich and highly effective bent the knee to Donald Trump. Tech CEOs together with Apple’s Tim Cook dinner, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos took their turns at Mar-a-Lago wining, eating, and dropping off million-dollar checks for Trump’s slush fund of an inaugural committee.
In Texas, the warfare on abortion intensifies
Throughout the presidential marketing campaign, Republicans went out of their solution to distance themselves from the nightmarish outcomes of their nationwide warfare on abortion. Not anymore. This week Texas Legal professional Normal Ken Paxton reignited the abortion wars after he sued New York physician Margaret Carpenter for prescribing abortion medicine to a Texan girl—which, although authorized in New York, is now a criminal offense in Texas.
Paxton’s lawsuit is predicted to grow to be a mannequin for different purple states, the place Republican legislatures and attorneys basic are doing their greatest to ban girls from accessing abortion sources even in states the place abortion stays authorized. New York has legal guidelines defending the physician that Paxton sued, however different states don’t have such strong protections for well being care practitioners and the sufferers they serve. That might tee up a nasty federal authorized battle over how a lot management states have over girls’s our bodies.
For Dr. Carpenter, the case is extra acute: Violations of Texas’ ban on offering abortion providers comes with a most sentence of life in jail and a $100,000 effective for every infraction. If Carpenter ever visits Texas, Paxton and anti-choice Republicans have vowed to detain her for violating the regulation. A lot for that entire “small government” factor!
Florida’s very Trumpy showdown
Ron DeSantis isn’t a person identified for his braveness. In truth, the Florida governor spent a lot of the presidential marketing campaign being gleefully humiliated by Donald Trump. However that will all change subsequent month, when Sen. Marco Rubio is predicted to be confirmed as the following secretary of state. Trump desires his daughter-in-law and newly retired RNC co-chair Lara to fill Rubio’s senate emptiness. DeSantis might produce other concepts.
DeSantis is keen to shore up his place in Florida after a botched presidential run and declining help amongst voters. A technique he’s wanting to do this is by appointing a private loyalist with a historical past of holding elected workplace. In the meantime, DeSantis can also be resentful on the variety of instances Trump has publicly demanded he grovel earlier than the Mar-a-Lago crowd, elevating the chance that DeSantis might, lastly, develop some spine and stand as much as the Boss. He hinted that the wannabe popstar-in-law may get not a seat within the higher chamber final month. DeSantis has pledged to call a successor in early January, based on a put up on X.
x
Senator Marco Rubio is predicted to resign from the Senate to imagine duties as Secretary of State when the Trump administration takes energy on January twentieth, making a emptiness roughly two months from right this moment.
Now we have already obtained sturdy curiosity from a number of doable…
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) November 18, 2024
This large determination is rapidly turning into one other litmus take a look at for simply how highly effective Trump has grow to be throughout the Republican Social gathering. With eyes to 2028, Meatball Ron could be well-served with a good friend within the Senate. Now he has to resolve if that play is value alienating the authoritarian within the White Home.
Kash Patel: Trump’s Terminator
The company media’s concern round Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI Director, Kash Patel, lasted barely every week earlier than the circus moved on. That calm could also be untimely, as ex-FBI officers now fear that Patel is poised to train “unlimited power” in his potential new position. That features putting in new authorized workers on the FBI who would willingly log out on even blatantly unconstitutional raids and focused harassment of Trump’s many enemies.
Kash Patel
Patel’s more and more open fantasizing about utilizing the FBI as a software for Trumpian revenge comes as journalists have began poking severe holes in his massively inflated CV. Because it seems, not solely has Patel by no means finished significant work throughout the FBI, he additionally grossly exaggerated his personal position within the Division of Justice’s Benghazi investigation. That shouldn’t shock anybody who is aware of something about Patel. It’s additionally fueling his already white-hot resentment on the media—lots of whom he’s already singled out for future prosecution.
In the meantime, the chances of Patel truly turning into FBI director are rising by the day as senate Republicans bend the knee to Trump’s political whims. Even former skeptics together with Sens. Thom Tillis and Joni Ernst at the moment are saying they’ll seemingly help Patel, regardless of the problems together with his resume and his blatant guarantees to make use of the FBI as a software for attacking Democrats. It’s going to be a completely insane January on Capitol Hill, of us. Get loads of relaxation now, as a result of we’re about to kick the doomscrolling into overdrive.
Attain out!
Till subsequent week, preserve your eyes peeled and keep inquisitive, associates.
