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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
Israeli police brutally cracked down on protests over the weekend, further persecuting a Palestinian community already threatened by Israeli settlers trying to forcibly evict them from their homes.
Meanwhile, the GOP is once again in turmoil, as House leaders move to bench Liz Cheney for criticizing her own party’s entertainment of Donald Trump’s idiotic election conspiracies.
And lastly, a new report reveals that the Trump Justice Department secretly obtained Washington Post journalists’ phone records, and even sought to get their emails.
THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Israeli police have been running rampant throughout the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, savaging protesters and bystanders alike on Friday and Saturday nights.
The recent violence came in response to Palestinian protests over forced evictions sought by Israeli settlers. The first clash came on Friday, which Israeli police stormed a protest at the Al-Aqsa [AL-AKSA] Mosque, catching thousands of bystanders in the melee while they were at their evening prayers.
The mosque is a huge complex. It’s the third most holy site in the world for Muslims, and thousands of people were inside worshipping the final Friday of Ramadan when police stormed in. At least 205 people were injured.
On Saturday night, Police cracked down on protests across the city, injuring at least 90 protesters, including several children, according to Al Jazeera. Israeli police claim 17 of their officers have been injured.
Sunday night was more subdued, but tensions are expected to rise again on Monday, which is known as Jerusalem Day to Israelis to celebrate occupation and later annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967. Al Jazeera reports that right-wing Israelis are expected to march through Palestinian neighborhoods, which will surely do the opposite of calm things down.
GOP Moves to Oust Cheney
House Republicans are once again squabbling amongst themselves, this time over -- you guessed it -- loyalty to former President Donald Trump.
This time it’s Liz Cheney in the hot seat. Cheney has been openly critical of her party’s support of Trump’s stolen election theories, saying that they are quote “poisoning our democratic system.” endquote.
In response, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Fox News on Sunday that he supports removing Cheney from her post. She’s currently the number 3 republican in the House and the party’s highest-ranking woman. McCarthy wants to replace her with New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who has been a staunch Trump loyalist.
Listen, we’re not going to waste any tears over Cheney, the daughter of the most famous Dick to ever hold office, but it is telling that the House GOP still isn’t humoring any critiques of Trump.
According to AP, McCarthy is generally betting that there’s no way the GOP can take back the house in 2022 without running on a strictly pro-Trump line. To be fair, he’s probably right: Trumpism is basically all the GOP has left, but it’s still a powerful ideology.
And because Trump himself is such a sensitive little baby, McCarthy knows he’s got to shut down any criticism well before those midterms hit. After all, we know that Trump’s down there in Mar a Lago glued to the TV, just waiting for people to say his name.
Trump DOJ Snagged Reporter's Cell Records
phone records of some of their journalists while they were reporting on Trump’s connections with Russia in early 2017.
According to the Post, the Justice department sent out letters to the reporters involved on May 3 of this year telling them that they’d had their phone records pulled. A Justice Department spokesperson, in some complicated legalese, effectively admitted that they were trying to figure out who had leaked to the Post during that reporting.
The Justice Department got their hands on some combination of home, cell, and work phone records from three reporters who were involved in Trump Russia reporting. They also got a court order for non-content email records, but never got the actual records themselves.
This isn’t a new thing for the Justice Department, but it is rare and troubling. According to the New York Times, the specific reporting the Justice Department was seeking had to deal with media leaks that infuriated Donald Trump.
Bill Barr was in charge of the DOJ at the time, so you can imagine how quickly he sprang to do Trump’s bidding.
Trump wasn’t the first president to aggressively pursue leakers, of course: Obama did it before him. It remains to be seen how hard Biden will crack down on reporters and their sources when these issues come before him.
AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:
The longest gas pipeline in the U.S. was forced to shut down on Friday after a cyberattack. In a vaguely worded statement, the company that owns the 5500 mile Colonial Pipeline said that it had to shut down to contain the breach, which sounds ominous. Newest reports say it may be shut for days, which could impact the fuel supply on the East Coast.
Afghanistan is still in mourning after a horrific triple bombing outside of a girls’ school in Kabul killed at least 50 people, painting an ominous picture of what the country’s future will look like after decades of U.S. occupation and a newly-resurgent Taliban.
Bo, the Portugese Water Dog adopted by the Obamas in 2009, died at the age of 12. Barack Obama said in a statement on Twitter that Bo “had a big bark but no bite,” which could be interpreted as a dig at Joe Biden’s bitey German Shepherd Major. Who knows!
New York Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang came out strongly against any notion of defunding the NYPD on Sunday, after a shooting in Times Square left three people, including a child, injured. The current number 2 in the polls, Eric Adams, is a former NYPD officer who also opposes that platform, so the nation’s biggest city probably won’t get much in the way of police reform anytime soon.
AM QUICKIE - MAY 10, 2021
HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner
WRITER - Jack Crosbie
PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn