Mitch McConnell’s Obtuse Defense for the Supreme Court Justices Mired in Scandal

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he doesn’t think the recent Supreme Court scandals, in which multiple justices did not report major financial dealings, are that big a deal.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing Tuesday about ethics reform at the highest court, following a ProPublica report that Justice Clarence Thomas didn’t disclose two decades’ worth of luxury vacations paid for by billionaire Republican megadonor Harlan Crow. Crow also bought Thomas’s childhood home, where his mother still lives, which similarly went unreported.

Justice Neil Gorsuch did not disclose the name of the person who bought property from him in Colorado. The buyer turned out to be the head of a law firm that has argued multiple cases before the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts is also under fire because his wife reportedly made more than $10 million as a headhunter placing attorneys at multiple law firms, including at least one that went on to argue a case before the Supreme Court.

But McConnell hit back at the arguments that Congress should implement an ethics code for the Supreme Court with a shameless display of whitewashing. “The left and some of their media allies want the American people to gasp in horror—in horror—that one Supreme Court justice vacations with his friends,” he said.

McConnell also dismissed the accusations against Gorsuch as just selling his house “when he moved” and the ones against Roberts’s wife as attacks on a modern, empowered woman with a career outside the home.

The Supreme Court has no official code of conduct, and it appears that the justices are exploiting that lack. The Senate has introduced a bill that would require the court to create a code of ethics within a year. So far, Lisa Murkowski, who co-sponsored the bill, is the only Republican to back it.

“If ‘low ratings’ CNN ever went Conservative, they would be an absolute gold mine, and I would help them to do so!”

This is what Donald Trump posted on Truth Social last September. And within a year of the post, while his reputation has tanked even further, CNN took him up on the offer.

Trump has been impeached twice, criminally indicted, and is under investigation for rape. He helped fan the flames of an election conspiracy that led to Fox Corporation forking over three-quarters of a billion dollars to stop further investigation into its own efforts to spread lies surrounding the election. And he still faces numerous other criminal investigations related to his efforts to overthrow our democracy.

And next week, CNN is hosting an exclusive town hall with him.

A video ad for the town hall looks more like a time capsule from 2015 than, for instance, content that would present even remote awareness of every scandal Trump is currently implicated in.

It is no secret that CNN has been on a lurch toward disinterested and lazy journalism, at least on the television side of things, mainly since the ascendance of new network President Chris Licht. He has discouraged reporters from calling Trump’s monumental lies about the 2020 election “the Big Lie.” He has sought to make CNN focus on “straight-news reporting” (as if there is some objective meter that determines what constitutes “straight news” and there is no editorial decision-making as to what does and doesn’t get covered beneath that umbrella, and how any of it is covered). CNN higher-ups have overall reportedly expressed an interest in shifting to the right.

And Licht is only one piece of the puzzle. CNN’s new owner, Warner Brothers Discovery Inc., is headed by David Zaslav, who seems to measure the success of the network’s shift mainly by how many Republicans it gets on air. Zaslav is also very close with Warner Brothers’ leading shareholder, John Malone, a self-described “libertarian” who once held 32 percent of the shares of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and also donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration. Malone has echoed desires for CNN to “evolve back,” suggesting Fox as a role model network, by having “‘news’ news, I mean some actual journalism, embedded in a program schedule of all opinions.”

That formulation tells you all of what the CNN higher-ups mean by wanting to shift to “straight-news” or “objective” analysis—patently right-wing and power-serving programming that platforms the type of conspiratorial lies that may lead to a $787.5 million lawsuit.

Perhaps the worst part of it all is that, despite the right’s perennial wailing, CNN is not in fact a meaningfully left-leaning network. Sure, like other mainstream big-box outlets, it has a liberal tilt. But there ought not be the illusion that the network has served as some bastion for the broader left base—workers, young people, people of color, environmentalists, anti-war voters, to name just a few groups seldom represented by the network’s day-to-day coverage. And let’s not forget how much free press CNN and other big-box outlets gave Trump in the lead-up to the 2016 election, nor how many former Trump officials were allowed to rehabilitate their own careers serving as talking heads and experts on the network’s airwaves.

And after nearly eight years of think-pieces, reflections, and “important conversations” within media circles, CNN is doing exactly what prompted so much reflection in the first place: giving open air to a man who warrants none of it. Only this time, Trump isn’t just coming with the baggage of decades of shady financial dealings, suspicions of sexual misconduct, and even calling for the hanging of the Central Park Five. He’s coming with every despicable act America, and the world, has witnessed since CNN helped manufacture tolerance for him eight years ago.

Buckle up while you’re at it: A Trump adviser has said that the town hall is part of a larger effort “to jumpstart the relationship” CNN and Trump’s team shared in the past.

The United States could default on its debt within a month, all because of concessions Kevin McCarthy made to the House Freedom Caucus to become speaker.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Congress Monday that the government could run out of money to pay its bills as soon as June 1, earlier than initially anticipated, unless the debt ceiling is raised or suspended.

While Yellen acknowledged it’s “impossible” to say exactly when federal funds will run out, “given the current projections, it is imperative that Congress act as soon as possible to increase or suspend the debt limit in a way that provides longer-term certainty that the government will continue to make its payments,” she said in a letter.

Democrats and Republicans are locked in a protracted battle over the debt limit, which the GOP has indicated it’s willing to hold hostage in order to reduce government spending. The government already hit the debt ceiling in January, and Yellen has repeatedly warned of the disastrous consequences should the U.S. default on its debt. “It’s simply a recipe for economic and financial catastrophe to think we can pay some of our bills and not all of them,” she told the Senate Finance Committee in mid-March.

House Republicans passed a bill last week that would raise the debt limit into next year, but only after drawn-out in-party negotiations. The measure is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, and President Joe Biden has already promised to veto it if it does. The bill includes several radical measures put forward by members of the House Freedom Caucus, such as food stamp and Medicaid work requirements, reduced funding for the IRS and climate change initiatives, and an end to Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.

Caucus members were some of the most vocal critics of McCarthy’s debt ceiling bill over the past few weeks. The far-right wing of the House Republicans also was primarily responsible for forcing all of us to sit through seemingly endless rounds of votes for House speaker in January.

McCarthy may have ultimately won the gavel, but only after he made multiple concessions to the House Freedom Caucus that essentially gave them all the power. These include the ability to boot him from the speakership—for instance, if he starts making debt limit deals with Democrats that they don’t like.

Democrats are refusing to compromise on the debt ceiling, and if the battle goes on much longer, the U.S. could be in serious trouble. It’s time for Congress to get a move on, but it’s unclear what McCarthy will do next.

On Monday, a judge temporarily blocked Missouri’s unprecedented ban on gender-affirming care for people of all ages, warning that the rule would cause significant harm if it were to go into effect.

Missouri state Attorney General Andrew Bailey drew widespread condemnation when he introduced an emergency rule in mid-April that would ban lifesaving gender-affirming care for minors and adults. The measure, which would be the first in the United States to ban health care for transgender adults, was set to go into effect on April 27.

The rule would require people to wait three years before they can begin receiving gender-affirming care. They would also have to attend therapy for 18 months before qualifying for health care.

In her ruling, Judge Ellen Ribaudo wrote that the people suing to block the rule would “be subjected to immediate and irreparable loss, damage or injury if the Attorney General is permitted to enforce the Emergency Rule.”

What’s more, “its broad, sweeping provisions were implemented without further fact-finding or evidence,” she said.

Bailey’s rule is stayed until May 11, when Ribaudo scheduled a hearing for the lawsuit, unless she extends her order.

“Today’s ruling marks a win for transgender Missourians over an unprecedented attempt by the Attorney General to unilaterally legislate and harm their right to self-expression, bodily autonomy, and access to lifesaving health care,” Gillian Wilcox, deputy director of litigation for the ACLU of Missouri, said in a statement.

Critics argued that Bailey vastly overstepped his position by implementing the rule instead of letting a bill move through the state legislature. “We don’t allow attorneys general to legislate, and we don’t allow them to play doctor,” Tony Rothert, an ACLU attorney, said at a hearing last Wednesday.

Bailey and many other Republicans backing bans on trans health care have argued that the various restrictions are to protect children. In reality, gender-affirming care decreases the amount of depression and anxiety that trans and nonbinary teenagers feel, and it makes them less likely to consider suicide.

Bailey also doesn’t really have a leg to stand on, considering his measure would have targeted adults too. “He’s essentially attacking the entire trans community at this point,” Robert Fischer, spokesman for the LGBTQ rights group PROMO, told the AP when the emergency rule was first announced. “It’s no longer just about children.”

Tucker Carlson thought that Fox Nation’s website “sucks” and that people don’t even watch it anyway.

In newly leaked footage, the since-ousted right-wing media figurehead is seen complaining about Fox’s subscription service during a phone conversation with an unknown figure, as they appeared to be discussing Carlson’s forthcoming interview with alleged rapist and sex-trafficker Andrew Tate. Tate has been banned from several online platforms while amassing notoriety as a crypto-peddler and proud, self-proclaimed sexist and misogynist.

“I don’t want to be a slave to Fox Nation, which I don’t think that people watch anyway,” Carlson said. “We’re gonna—because, you know, I’m like a representative of the American media now, speaking to an exile in Romania and welcoming him back into the brotherhood of journalists,” Carlson continued, apparently eager to welcome the alleged sexual criminal back into his “brotherhood.”

The phone conversation also included the two interlocutors going back and forth on whether the dress code of the interview could be toned down, to accommodate the “panicking” Tate who perhaps didn’t want to dress how he might in a courtroom, for instance.

Carlson initially resisted the request, as he wanted the interview to look more official, and not “like bro talk,” since it would air on “the nighttime show.”

“Yeah, but the majority of it, like, if we go, like, 45 minutes, it’s going to be for Fox Nation,” the caller on the other end responded.

“But nobody’s going to watch it on Fox Nation. Nobody watches Fox Nation because the site sucks,” Carlson retorted. “So I’d really like to just put the—dump the whole thing on YouTube,” he continued.

Carlson seems to have lost out on the fashion debate; Media Matters notes that in the subsequent interview Carlson warmly welcomed a T-shirt-clad Tate as Carlson toned himself down by wearing a sweater. Carlson, while rumored to have been fired perhaps for his insubordination to executives, was on his best behavior following his marching orders and encouraging viewers to “watch the full Andrew Tate interview on Fox Nation right after this show.”

This footage—which may have been leaked by Fox itself—is now just one more clip within a larger reel of Carlson’s past behavior while at the network. Last week, The New York Times reported on footage in which Carlson is heard discussing his “postmenopausal fans” and whether they will approve of how he looks; in another, Carlson is overheard describing a woman whom he finds “yummy.”