Political Charge Weekly Recap 5/13

By TokyoSand on May 13, 2023 • ( 2 )

Personally, this was quite a week for me. But it sure was one whopper of a week in politics. Let’s get to the good news and the best cartoons!

Good News

A Manhattan jury found Donald Trump liable for the sexual abuse of E. Jean Carroll and awarded her a total of $5 million in damages

Inflation slowed for a 10th straight month in April, good news for American families struggling under the burden of higher costs

CNN’s terrible decision to promote Trump in a townhall at least had terrible ratings — they only garnered 3.1 million viewers; for a comparison, 21.6 million tuned into the 2020 Republican National Convention

A former Navy reservist who the government said expressed admiration for Hitler, among other antisemitic views, was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6 attack

Surprising but I’ll take it: Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) announced that he would call lawmakers back to the state’s Capitol on Aug. 21 for a special session on gun control

In a surprise move days after the Allen mall shooting and hours before a key legislative deadline, a Texas House committee advanced a bill that would raise the minimum age to purchase certain semi-automatic rifles

President Joe Biden’s pick for chief economist, Jared Bernstein, is one step closer to Senate confirmation to a post that will be key to White House efforts to steer the economy away from recession

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said U.S. funding to support Ukraine’s military will continue to flow despite growing calls from isolationist members of his own party to reduce or end aid to Kyiv

Texas state Rep. Bryan Slaton (R) resigned from his seat, one day before his colleagues voted to expel him from the Texas House of Representatives over allegations of sexual misconduct with a 19-year-old aide

A Texas state district judge sentenced Daniel Perry to 25 years in prison for shooting to death a man protesting police brutality (In less good news, this is the man Gov. Abbott has said he plans to pardon)

After meeting with DeSantis, a Republican megadonor, Steve Schwarzman, decided to hold off donating money to DeSantis for the time being

Rep. George Santos (R-NY) surrendered to the authorities at federal court after prosecutors filed 13 criminal charges against him

Fox News was hit on Wednesday with another defamation lawsuit, this one from a woman who said the network promoted lies about her that generated serious threats to her safety

Call to Action

Kevin McCarthy is betting that destroying the American economy is good for Republican politics. I think it’s irresponsible to not pay the federal bills you’ve already agreed to pay. So, let’s put pressure on Congress to pass a bill to lift the debt ceiling. 5 Calls has a great mini-explainer and a script you can use HERE.