A Newsletter Is A Dream Your Heart Makes
Here’s how a “normal” DC morning political tip sheet goes.
THE MAIN EVENT
* The Washington Post curtain raises tonight’s 8pm ET January 6 session:
The hearing, whose chairman, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), will attend remotely due to his recent covid diagnosis, is expected to clock in at just under two hours, the aide said.
The hearing is also expected to tie together details from prior hearings, including the inflammatory presidential rhetoric that drew thousands to Washington that day, Trump’s willingness to grant audiences to fringe figures peddling fabulist and unconstitutional theories on how he could keep hold of the presidency and the many times he was urged to intervene during the violence but refused to do so.
All of it points to one conclusion, which the committee plans to argue Thursday: Trump wanted the violence, he is responsible for it and his unwillingness to help end it amounts to a dereliction of duty and a violation of his oath of office.
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IF YOU READ JUST ONE THING….
* Bret Stephens on what is arguably one of the most pressing issue in our politics — how to bring at least some Trump supporters into the community of nations:
I could have thought a little harder about the fact that, in my dripping condescension toward his supporters, I was also confirming their suspicions about people like me — people who talked a good game about the virtues of empathy but practice it only selectively; people unscathed by the country’s problems yet unembarrassed to propound solutions.
I also could have given Trump voters more credit for nuance.
For every in-your-face MAGA warrior there were plenty of ambivalent Trump supporters, doubtful of his ability and dismayed by his manner, who were willing to take their chances on him because he had the nerve to defy deeply flawed conventional pieties.
Nor were they impressed by Trump critics who had their own penchant for hypocrisy and outright slander. To this day, precious few anti-Trumpers have been honest with themselves about the elaborate hoax — there’s just no other word for it — that was the Steele dossier and all the bogus allegations, credulously parroted in the mainstream media, that flowed from it.
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THE PRESIDENT’S DAY
President Joe Biden is proposing to spend roughly $37 billion for fighting and preventing crime, including $13 billion to help communities hire and train 100,000 police officers over five years.
Biden will outline his anti-crime program on Thursday during a visit to Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The Democratic president will request the money from Congress as part of his latest budget proposal, according to senior administration officials who previewed the plan on the condition of anonymity ahead of the formal announcement.
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SURPRISING
* For 2.8 news cycles, the Capitol Hill press corps uniformly conveyed the Conventional Wisdom that the House’s gay marriage legislation would die in the Senate for lack of Republican support. Now: not so fast.
* As part of the under covered change in the professional relationship between the Biden White House and Speaker Pelosi, wow this:
* USG says Putin is fit as a Russian fiddle; maybe fitter.
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COMING SOON (?)
* Fox News and CNN update on the Hunter Biden criminal probe, with the latter reporting:
Discussions recently have centered around possibly bringing charges that could include alleged tax violations and making a false statement in connection with Biden's purchase of a firearm at a time he would have been prohibited from doing so because of his acknowledged struggles with drug addiction….
The Justice Department investigation initially focused on Hunter Biden's financial and business activities in foreign countries dating to when Joe Biden was vice president. But investigators have examined a swath of broader conduct, including whether Hunter Biden and associates violated money laundering, campaign finance, tax and foreign lobbying laws, as well as whether Hunter Biden broke federal firearm and other regulations, multiple sources said.
As the investigation has entered its final stages, prosecutors have narrowed their focus to tax and gun-related charges, the people say….
Some officials have noted that Biden could argue he wasn't aware of wrongdoing because he was on drugs, one source said. CNN has previously reported that some officials were concerned it could be a defense, but more recently, Justice officials have coalesced around the view that Biden's own public accounts of his recovery show he was fully responsible for actions now under scrutiny, according to the person familiar with the discussions.
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