A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Defense lawyers for Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), who’s currently on trial for allegedly lying to the FBI about a call in which an informant had told him an illegal campaign donation “probably did come from” a foreign billionaire, argued that the call in question was actually just one big misunderstanding caused by “a bad cell phone connection.”
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu ® announced on Thursday that he would veto the congressional district map for the state’s two districts (which are both currently represented by Democrats) that the New Hampshire GOP-controlled legislature had passed earlier that day.
I am beginning to suspect that Gov. Sununu’s mom had something going with the mailman.
North Carolina Attorney General Requests Investigation Into Meadows
How the turntables: The North Carolina attorney general’s office has asked the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) to probe former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ voter registration, a spokesperson for the office told WRAL on Thursday, after a damning New Yorker investigation found that he’d registered to vote in the 2020 election with a North Carolina address where he didn’t live.
The attorney general’s office asked the SBI to investigate the matter with the North Carolina State Board of Elections , according to the spokesperson.
Meadows registered to vote with an address of a mobile home in Scaly Mountain, North Carolina that he’s apparently never spent a single night in, the New Yorker found. The ex-Trump official, one of Trump’s loudest proponents of the lie that the 2020 election was tainted by voter fraud, had voted absentee.
But isn’t the key, here, whether he actually filed a ballot from that location, either showing up at the precinct or casting an absentee ballot? And did he also vote in his real ‘home’ precinct? I don’t think voter fraud extends to registration; only to the place a ballot was actually cast, right?
Yepper… although… that example is obviously fictitious… you might register in Iowa and live in Vermont, but not the other way 'round. I mean that is just NOT a thing.
I don’t think so, if you never cast a vote in Vermont?? Who cares where you register - I care where you cast a ballot.
Don’t know what the law says, but here’s the thing (because I’m going to do this probably in August): in order to register anywhere, you have to have proof of that address - a utility bill, a mortgage statement, a paycheck - something legit. My town in CT is small enough that they know everyone, anyway (of course, not true in larger locations).
So was this voter fraud, if he produced phony ID, or was it just fraud of mis-representation?
I admit to not knowing the law, but if he never cast a ballot there, I don’t get this being voter fraud. And do town clerks or registrars not check to see if an address exists in their area? My late relative in CT was a Registrar back in the 20th century without the internet, but he had to check all this stuff out on his part.
Regarding the CNBC article https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/18/heres-what-chinese-state-media-is-saying-ahead-of-xis-call-with-biden.html
I think that one of President Biden’s accomplishments is vastly underrated. One huge advantage that the U.S. has over autocratic regimes like Russia and China is that its diplomatic and military pronouncements are generally taken to be factually accurate (Self-serving perhaps, but not outright lies…). This trust was greatly weakened in the Trump administration. However, in his measured and highly accurate statements, Mr. Biden is doing a great deal to restore the international credibility of the U.S. On the other hand, Mr. Putin might as well say “Da Da Da”, because no one outside the Russian domestic propaganda bubble believes a word he says (With the notable exception of some GOP pols and Fox News hosts…).
