The News & Guts Digest: a Serving of the Day’s Top News Stories with a Little Side of Commentary

Did the Cast of Hamilton Save Democracy?

POLITICO published an interview this morning with retired Judge J. Michael Luttig, who provided Mike Pence the legal rationale to reject Donald Trump’s claim that his vice president could overturn the results of the 2020 election…

…Luttig’s participation in the defense of democracy was particularly important because he is a dyed-in-the-wool conservative who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, worked in George H.W. Bush’s White House, was seriously considered as a Supreme Court nominee during W’s administration, helped justify the war on terror from the federal bench, and served as an informal advisor to Trump Attorney General Bill Barr, among other right-leaning officials…

…A Pence aide reached out to Luttig just days before Congress – under Pence’s leadership – was set to certify Biden’s victory. The aide warned Luttig that one of his former law clerks, academic John Eastman, had helped craft a legal argument that Trump was using as a cudgel to pressure Pence to spearhead a convoluted coup…

…Luttig was so aghast, that he volunteered to make a public statement dismantling Eastman’s dubious argument. The 66-year-old volunteered to publish a series of tweets to that effect. After his son begrudgingly taught him how to use the social media platform, Luttig published his authoritative opinion. Pence would cite those tweets when publicly explaining why he chose to certify the election…

…Luttig’s son, incidentally, works for Peter Thiel, the billionaire Trump booster who has grown increasingly committed to the MAGA movement. It’s a small world…

…In Luttig’s retelling of the days before January 6th, you get the sense that Pence and his confidants were determined to FINALLY reject Trump’s undemocratic tendencies. Pence has subsequently become a pariah among his former supporters…

…We wonder, how did Pence finally summon the political courage to oppose his powerful boss? Did it have anything to do with this Broadway moment, captured in the tweet below?

…Ok, maybe we’re being naive…It’s a nice thought though, right?

What About For Brain Worms?

Ivermectin, which somehow became a folk cure for COVID-19, doesn’t prevent severe disease in patients infected with the virus, according to a new study published in a prestigious journal. Worse, patients given the medication experienced a “notably higher incidence” of adverse events than the placebo group, which “raises concerns about the use of this drug outside of trial settings and without medical supervision.”

…Future generations will have a hard time understanding what this is all about. In sum, a menagerie of right-wing influencers, politicians, quarterbacks, and relatives of Donald Trump, insisted that the drug was a cheap and easy way to fight COVID-19. The government refused to acknowledge that, according to a depressingly widespread conspiracy theory, because they were hell-bent on pushing vaccinations…

…Many of ivermectin’s biggest boosters are also vaccine skeptics. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for instance, has said the government’s refusal to endorse ivermectin is akin to murder, but insists that vaccines are unsafe…

…The controversy over ivermectin got particularly insane when people realized that it could be purchased at animal supply stores, albeit in doses unsuitable for human consumption…

…Will a clinical trial published in one of America’s leading scientific journals finally put this issue to bed? We’re not holding our breath…

We Get It, the GOP Really Dislikes Liz Cheney

Rep. Liz Cheney, the conservative scion, used to be a GOP standard bearer. Now, she’s their punching bag…

…Because Cheney committed the cardinal sins of criticizing Trump and working to investigate what the heck happened on January 6th, she’s been cast out of party leadership and formally censured by Republican officials…

… This week, the GOP turned the revenge screw once again. Reps. Kevin McCarthy and Elise Stefanik – two of the highest ranking members in the House’s GOP caucus – endorsed Cheney’s primary opponent. It is extremely rare for a sitting member of Congress to oppose a colleague’s re-election efforts, but political norms have been rewritten over and over again during the last five years…

…Meanwhile, Trump is reportedly pressuring Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon to rewrite the state’s election laws. As we explained earlier, “Currently, Wyoming voters can switch their party registration at the polls, allowing partisans to crossover and cast a ballot for a candidate representing a party they don’t truly support. This unusual – but longstanding – arrangement is widely considered Cheney’s only hope of holding onto her seat.”

…Cheney may have her party working against her, but she has one BIG advantage: cash. She’s got $5 million on hand, while her opponent has a mere $380k.

Russian Sins, On and Off the Ice

… Anne Neuberger, President Biden’s national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, said Russia was responsible for a cyberattack on Ukrainian banks earlier this week…

…. “While of limited impact, this recent spate of cyberattacks in Ukraine are consistent with what a Russian effort could look like in laying the groundwork for more disruptive cyberattacks accompanying a potential further invasion of Ukraine sovereign territory,” Neuberger said…

…Meanwhile, a U.S. official said the number of Russian troops amassed at the Ukrainian border has now swelled to somewhere between 169,000 and 190,000…

…Yesterday, Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken both indicated that Russia was going to fabricate a false flag operation to justify an invasion of Ukraine. Those warnings seemed prescient Friday when Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine claimed they had evidence that the Ukrainian army was about to attack them. A State Department official told The New York Times that such announcements are “further attempts to obscure through lies and disinformation that Russia is the aggressor in this conflict.”

…Late on Friday, President Biden said he believes Vladimir Putin has made the decision to invade Ukraine, and he will likely target the capital of Kyiv.

…With Russia inching closer and closer to initiating a war, the country’s athletic pursuits may seem unimportant. But earlier today, we published an opinion piece arguing that “The sad story of Kamila Valieva’s tumultuous week at the Beijing Olympics is a reminder of the intense pressure placed on young athletes and a yet another demonstration of Russia’s callous disregard of its citizens’ well-being, even when the world is watching.”

Also Churning This News Cycle

…  “The National Archives and Records Administration confirmed on Friday that it found classified material among the boxes of White House documents that former President Donald Trump improperly took to Mar-a-Lago,” reports NBC News.

… “U.S. health regulators delayed their review of Pfizer Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine in children under 5 years old because the initial two-dose series so far wasn’t working well against the Omicron variant during testing, people familiar with the decision said,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

… “Kim Potter, the former suburban Minneapolis police officer who said she confused her handgun for her Taser when she fatally shot Daunte Wright, was sentenced Friday to two years in prison. Wright’s family denounced the verdict as too lenient and accused the judge of giving more consideration to the white officer than the Black victim,” reports The Associated Press.

… “Police began arresting protesters and towing away trucks Friday in a bid to break the three-week, traffic-snarling siege of Canada’s capital by hundreds of truckers angry over the country’s COVID-19 restrictions. In an operation that unfolded slowly and methodically in the morning, officers were seen going door to door along a line of trucks, campers and other vehicles parked on Ottawa’s snow-covered streets,” writes CBS News.

Sorry for The Inconvenience

On Thursday, The New York Times reported on a container ship transporting 4,000 vehicles – including 1,100 Porsches and 189 Bentleys – that was on fire off the coast of the Azores…

…Crew members were rescued from the floating disaster, but it’s unclear if the cars can be salvaged…

…There’s nothing funny about property damage, but the Times story included this nugget, which contains one of the great understatements in customer service history:

Matt Farah, a car enthusiast and editor of The Smoking Tire, had been waiting for his 2022 frozen-berry metallic Boxster Spyder, with a retail price of about $123,000 and modified to his precise specifications, since August. “The best sports car of all time, hands down,” he wrote.

He received disappointing news on Wednesday, he said: “I just got a call from my dealer. My car is now adrift, possibly on fire, in the middle of the ocean.”

In a statement on Thursday, Mr. Farah said that a Porsche representative confirmed that his car was on the boat and apologized for the inconvenience.