  Friday, March 17, 2023

TODD ZWILLICH

Deputy D.C. Bureau Chief, VICE News

Washington, D.C. Bureau
@toddzwillich

Former Vice President Mike Pence addresses an audience during a GOP fundraising dinner, Thursday, March 16, 2023, in Keene, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Play press to begin

Five days (and seven news cycles) ago, before a bunch of mid-sized banks failed and Russian MiGs bumped a US drone into the Black Sea, Mike Pence dominated the news. The former veep took a swing at former President Donald Trump, accusing him of endangering Pence's family on Jan. 6, and repeating that Trump was wrong to ask him to reject electors in the House chamber.

The Beltway media lit up because Pence had gone at his one-time boss. The story was irresistible political combat. It was also a depressing reminder of how eager the political press is to maintain the habits of normal politics when the politics they're covering are shockingly abnormal.

"Tourists don't injure 140 police officers by sightseeing," Pence said. "Tourists don't break down doors to get to the speaker of the House or voice threats against public officials." A shot at Trump and his Fox News enablers all at once!

Pence said a true, good thing there. The "meek" "normal tourist" line peddled by Tucker Carlson, House Republicans, and other pro-insurrection forces is an outrageous lie. But where Pence said it says a lot more.

Pence planned his speech for the Gridiron Dinner, Washington's most gilded press party. Only the most elite Beltway journalists are members. It doesn't get more "establishment MSM" than this. What Pence knows about this crowd is that they professionally cover politics for politics' sake, and they rarely color outside the lines. That's not an insult, really, it's just how the room is. No cameras are allowed.

So when he dropped his news there, Pence knew he'd generate excited, chattering coverage analyzing his punch at Trump, what it means for the GOP presidential primary, and nothing more. He could expect just savvy analysis, and no risk of the video playing on Trump-friendly right-wing networks or going viral online.

Almost everyone played right along with coverage of Pence "going hard" at Trump. Some pundits even noticed that Pence had smartly carved out the "anti-insurrection lane"' in the GOP primary field. That analysis is actually right. But isn't the corollary, the fact that one of the two major American political parties has an anti-insurrectionist lane—and most of its most powerful elected officials are outside of it—the much more important part?

What made Pence stand apart from Trump, and all the other Republicans doing presidential politics, is that he'd expressed normal, decent, factual ideas about Jan. 6. That this was such big news was the news.

Meanwhile, as he's getting coverage for speaking like a normal person about the insult of Jan. 6, Pence is doing his best to make sure the public stays confused about it. He's refusing to testify under oath on all he knows about what Trump said and did on and before Jan. 6. Trump doesn't want Pence to tell the truth under oath, and Pence is obliging. I'm guessing he knew that very little of the Gridiron coverage would sharply analyze that fact.

"I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable," Pence said, in front of no cameras, no jurors, and no voters.

The indictments are (probably) coming. Sign your friends up for Breaking the Vote!

T.W.I.S.™ Notes

Daniels in the liars' den

Stephanie Clifford, the porn star known as Stormy Daniels, met with Manhattan DA prosecutors this week. It appears to be one of the final steps before Trump is indicted for the $130,000 hush money payment he made to her just before Election Day 2016.

It's not altogether clear whether Daniels has appeared before the grand jury that's considering indicting Trump. But former Trump fixer and cringe TikTok'er Michael Cohen did testify over two days about how he paid Daniels and was then reimbursed directly by Trump.

We don't know exactly when an indictment could come. But it sure feels… real soon. This week Trump's lawyers rejected an offer from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's office for Trump to appear before the grand jury. And, as everyone knows by now, that's a sign things are probably about to pop.

Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina has been road-testing out a bunch of potential defenses in public, while Trump keeps up the rants and denials of the affair on his social media channel. Trump was actually a victim of Stormy's extortion. The payoff wasn't Trump trying to protect his campaign, it was Trump trying to avoid angering his wife.

My personal Tacopina fave: Trump didn't lie in April 2018 when he denied knowing anything about the payment to Daniels, because he wasn't under oath when he said a thing he knew to be false. And even if he knew it to be false, he was forced by an NDA to lie. Totally not his fault! Anyway, I'll stipulate that lying to the media (and voters, and, uh, your wife) isn't illegal. But lying about the purpose of payments in business records in furtherance of campaign finance violations could be. More to come!

- It's Guo time

The feds rolled up on exiled Chinese mogul Guo Wengui at his 5th Ave. apartment in New York on Wednesday. They arrested the real estate magnet and (alleged) social media scammer and charged him with 12 counts of fraud and money laundering.

Remember the Chinese billionaire's super yacht Steve Bannon was sailing on when he was picked up and charged with fraud in August 2021? That was Guo's $37 million Lady May, and it was just seized by the feds as part of his arrest. As you read about Guo's indictment and prosecution, don't forget that he poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into promoting "stolen election" rallies and overturning the 2020 election in Georgia.

While partnering with Bannon on a bunch of online business deals, Guo and his backers also aggressively promoted conspiracy theories that the Chinese government interfered in the 2020 election to hurt Trump.

Now's a great time to watch Isobel Yeung's great VICE on Showtime piece from last year all about Guo, Bannon, and the intricate anti-democratic grift work that fueled their friendship.

- Employee interrogation week

Federal prosecutors investigating the Trump documents case have subpoenaed at least two dozen Mar-a-Lago employees and Trump staffers. Special Counsel Jack Smith is looking for information from anyone who might have heard talk of classified documents, or, more important, know anything about them being moved within Trump's property.

And remember, the feds are also scrutinizing Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran here. If there's evidence he helped Trump conceal documents, that could open up obstruction charges.

- Plural jurors

Fulton County prosecutors have a third recording of Trump pressuring an official as he tried to overturn the 2020 election. Check out this great get from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where five members of the Special Purpose Grand Jury talk about what it was like to sit on the panel. It includes news that, in addition to Trump's recorded calls to Georgia election officials, he's also on tape trying to convince Georgia House Speaker David Ralston to call the legislature back so it could throw the election to Trump.

Jurors talk all about hearing from victims of Trump's lies like Georgia election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, and from allies like Sen. Lindsey Graham. According to one juror: "[Graham] said that during that time, if somebody had told Trump that aliens came down and stole Trump ballots, that Trump would've believed it."

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks to reporters in Ankara, Turkey, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

Tina spirit

Alas, former Mesa County Clerk and convicted government obstructor Tina Peters didn't win her bid to take over the Colorado GOP last weekend. Peters failed to clear 10% in the GOP chair race, but she did have the good grace to break party rules and endorse a notorious election denier who went on to win!

Just how MAGA is the new GOP Chair, state Rep. Dave Williams? He went to court last year for the right to have "Let's Go Brandon" added to his name on Colorado ballots. Here's a good piece on Williams, his hard-right, conspiratorial background, and the slide into extremism that's killing the GOP in Colorado.

Sent in by clowns

Back in November, 2020, Donald Trump claimed that Gov. Ron DeSantis had been about to lose his race until Trump "sent in the FBI and the U.S. attorneys," stopped the "ballot theft," and saved DeSantis' re-election. That raised tons of questions over whether Trump had actually dispatched federal agents to intervene in an election. Reporters investigated…and, take comfort: Trump was lying.

"This is the kinda shit that will kill us." - Fox Vice President and former Trump official Rah Shah, angry that a Fox reporter had debunked part of Rudy Giuliani's infamous press conference on Nov, 19, 2020, in a text message released as part of the Dominion defamation case.

We're half way there — A thousand people have been charged in connection to the riot and insurrection on Jan. 6, and DOJ has warned the courts to expect 1,000 more. It was revealed this week that the feds wrote a letter to the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in DC in late October, 2022, warning the court that prosecutors could charge an additional 700 to 1,200 defendants. "We expect the pace of bringing new cases will increase, in an orderly fashion, over the course of the next few months," US Attorney Matthew Graves wrote to then-Chief Judge Beryl Howell.

Here's a great list of some of the people online sleuths have identified from riot footage but still haven't been arrested. Overall, the pace of Jan. 6 arrests has been slowing down, not speeding up.

Shasta show — Welcome to Shasta County, a rural Northern California enclave where local Republicans are so addled by conspiracy theories that they just voted to void their contract with Dominion Voting Systems. But that's not all! Here's County Supervisor Kevin Crye, who just voted to void the contract, but ALSO just flew on the county's dime to meet with MyPillow CEO and Dominion defamation defendant Mike Lindell! Is this loss of business what Dominion's lawsuits against Fox and (many) others is all about? You betcha.

BTW… stay tuned soon for Liz Landers and VICE News Tonight in Shasta County, bringing you inside one community's struggle to make election policy in an infected political culture.

Gavel nuisance — A few weeks ago I told you about how the North Carolina Supreme Court was using its new GOP majority to rehear two cases on partisan redistricting. The rehearings are extremely rare, and it all points to an effort to give Republicans a massive redistricting advantage in a closely divided state.

Those cases were in oral arguments this week, and while it's hard to predict, enough judges seemed hostile to lawyers arguing for fairer maps that it looks likely the court will overturn its own rulings. That would mean an 11-3 seat GOP gerrymandered advantage delivered by a court overruling a map it approved just last year! Due Monday: the sides are supposed to brief the US Supreme Court on how the rehearings could impact Moore v Harper, the pending case out of North Carolina that could gut what's left of voting rights.

Gosar negligence — Rep. Paul Gosar, who lobbied Trump to blanket-pardon Republicans who objected to election results on Jan. 6, thinks criminal charges are coming… for Liz Cheney! Good stuff.