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  • Stephen Colbert Can’t Believe Mike Pence’s Own Brother Sold Him Out

    CBSStephen Colbert on Wednesday criticized Republicans who opposed legislation establishing a commission to investigate the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January that then-President Donald Trump helped incite.GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Minority Whip Steve Scalise came out against the bill, even though its components were the result of an agreement struck by Republican Rep. John Katko of New York.Katko, as Colbert pointed out, is one of 29 Republican lawmakers who, along with an equal number of Democrats, make up the Problem Solvers Caucus.“Hey, I thought all members of the House were supposed to be members of the Problem Solvers Caucus. That’s why we send them to Washington,” the late-night host quipped. “Though I guess these days a lot of them go down to Mar-a-Lago to meet with ‘the problem.’”In explaining their opposition to the bill, McCarthy and Scalise for some reason claimed the commission it creates should also investigate Black Lives Matter protests, antifa, and the death of a U.S. Capitol police officer in April.Stephen King on Scary Stalkers, Being ‘Canceled’ by J.K. Rowling, and Navigating Trauma“OK, but it’s the Commission on January 6,” Colbert noted. “That’s like being upset that the movie Halloween doesn’t investigate what happened on Arbor Day.”The bill ultimately passed, with 35 Republicans supporting it and 175 voting against it. One ‘no’ vote came from Indiana Rep. Greg Pence, the brother of former Vice President Mike Pence, whose name was chanted at the Jan. 6 riot by those who wanted him hanged.“That certainly changes the meaning to this text from Greg: ‘Hey bro! Wanna hang this weekend?’” Colbert joked.The bill now heads to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Wednesday asserted that the legislation is “slanted and unbalanced,” even though it gives each party the same number of appointments and subpoena power.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Texas executes Quintin Jones for 1999 murder, says it forgot to let the media witness execution

    Texas executed Quintin Jones, 41, on Wednesday night, for the 1999 beating death of his great aunt, Berthena Bryant. He was pronounced dead at 6:40 p.m. at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The reporters waiting across the street to witness the execution were never called over and only learned of Jones' death 30 minutes after he was pronounced dead, The Associated Press reports. "The previous 570 executions carried out by Texas since capital punishment resumed in 1982 all had at least one media witness," AP reports, and The Huntsville Item noted that state policy guarantees an AP and Item reporter access to witness executions. "The Texas Department of Criminal Justice can only apologize for this error and nothing like this will ever happen again," TDCJ spokesman Jeremy Desel told AP and The Item. "Somewhere in that mix there was never a phone call made to this office for me to accompany the witnesses across the street into the Huntsville Unit," and "my assumption is there will be a thorough investigation." A flurry of appeals were rejected by various courts in the days leading up to Jones' execution, culminating in the U.S. Supreme Court's rejection of a stay Wednesday evening. Supporters of clemency for Jones noted that family members, including his great aunt's only sibling, had pleaded for his sentence to be commuted to life in prison. Jones personally pleaded with Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in an interview with The New York Times. The Texas parole board denied Jones' petition on Tuesday and Abbott declined to step in. Abbott, who said "our creator endowed us with the right to life" earlier Wednesday when he signed one of the nation's most stringent laws limiting legal access to abortion, has granted clemency to only one death row inmate, Thomas Whitaker, since taking office in 2015, out of more than 50 people executed on his watch. The Jones and Whitaker cases are similar, and Jones' lawyers filed a late petition arguing that the parole board had supported clemency for Whitaker, who is white, but denied it for Jones due to race. A judge denied the petition. Prosecutors argued against clemency because Jones had exhibited violent behavior as a youth and admitted involvement in two other murders. The white man convicted of those two murders, Riky Roosa, is serving life in prison and will become eligible for parole in 2039, The Texas Tribune notes. More stories from theweek.comStephen Breyer is delusional about the Supreme CourtKidney donor and recipient meet after a chance encounter onlineMarjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz are more popular among GOP voters than Liz Cheney

  • Michael Cohen said he believes Trump will 'flip on all of them,' including his children, in the New York investigation into his company

    Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer who is cooperating with prosecutors, said: "I really believe that Donald Trump cares for only himself."

  • Rep. Tim Ryan ripped into Republicans from the House floor for voting against Jan. 6 commission, saying they don't live in reality

    "We have people scaling the Capitol, hitting the Capitol police with lead pipes across the head, and we can't get bipartisanship," Ryan shouted.

  • Kawhi Leonard thinks Clippers can win title if they put their minds to it

    Kawhi Leonard says the Clippers must have the right mental approach in order to win their playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks.

  • 35 Republicans Defy Trump and GOP Leaders to Push Capitol Riots Probe

    Alex WongOver the objections of GOP leaders, the House passed a bill Wednesday that would create a bipartisan and independent commission to examine the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.The House voted 252-175, with 35 Republicans joining all Democrats in support of the bill.With 35 House Republicans voting for the commission, there’s a possibility Democrats in the Senate can find enough Republicans there to support the panel, but the odds are long. While the number of GOP defections is a bit of an embarrassment for Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and his leadership team, it’s probably not quite the jailbreak that Democrats needed to convince their Senate colleagues to go against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Democrats would need 10 Republicans to overcome a GOP filibuster for 60 votes in the Senate, otherwise the bill establishing the commission won’t make it to President Joe Biden’s desk.Still, Democrats found themselves surprised at the number of GOP defections. “That’s a good showing,” Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) told The Daily Beast. “It should be everyone. But given the death grip Donald Trump has on his party, I think it’s encouraging.”Debate in the House on Wednesday was mostly one-sided. More Republicans spoke in support of the commission than those who spoke against it. But the GOP arguments against the legislation were particularly divorced from reality.Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) implored Democrats to start being bipartisan and stop using “every tool as a partisan stick to beat Republicans.”“Look, things have changed a lot since the 9/11 commission,” Gohmert said, “because back then, we did not have a problem on both—either side of the aisle condemning anti-semitic remarks.”Fellow Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy argued that an independent commission was unnecessary because Congress already has committees that could subpoena people and investigate Jan. 6.“Let's use the powers that we have and the powers of this body and the committees we have to seek the truth to the information wherever it may lead,” Roy said.But Democrats and some Republicans contended that an independent and high-profile commission—like the one Congress created after 9/11—was an important step toward accountability and future safety.Schiff invoked that example to justify the Jan. 6 commission. He told The Daily Beast that Congress did important work to probe 9/11 but that the commission brought “tremendous added value” because it was outside the political process and was staffed with trusted figures.“That's what we need here, so that the recommendations that come out of the commission will be broadly accepted by the public,” Schiff said.House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) particularly took offense to the GOP contention that the commission ought to broaden its scope to all sorts of political violence, not just the violence that occurred on Jan. 6.“It's vital that Congress establish a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate January 6. Not some other date,” Hoyer said. “That does not absolve any wrongdoing anywhere, any time. But it says that this unique insurrection is a danger to our democracy. Not to Republicans and Democrats. To our democracy. To our Congress. To the people's House and the United States Senate, which was occupied."Rep. John Katko (R-NY)—the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee who brokered the deal—also spoke in support of the bill, saying an independent commission was “critical for removing the politics around January 6.”“The American people and the Capitol Police deserve answers and action as soon as possible to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again,” Katko said. “We must find answers to the many questions surrounding that day.”All of this drama to create a bipartisan commission comes after four months of negotiations and a flurry of recent opposition from GOP leaders.After Katko finalized a deal with Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) last week to create the commission, McCarthy promptly blew it up on Tuesday.And although McConnell said later in the day on Tuesday that he was undecided, he woke up on Wednesday and himself called the proposal “slanted and unbalanced.”The only thing that had seemed to change was that former President Donald Trump issued a statement Tuesday night calling the commission “partisan unfairness.”While McConnell and Republican allies tried to come up with reasons on Wednesday why that was the case, their rationales didn’t seem to match up with the legislation.The bill that the House passed Wednesday would create an independent commission composed of 10 people outside of government—five to be picked by Democratic leaders, and five to be picked by Republican leaders. The commission would have subpoena power, but only if the Democratic chair and GOP vice chair agreed, or absent that agreement, if a majority of the commission approved.The one item of imbalance Republicans focused on Wednesday was the composition of the staff, which also seemed to be a mostly imagined complaint. The language for hiring staff was almost identical to the bipartisan 9/11 commission, as well as a bill from January establishing an independent commission that had more than 30 GOP cosponsors.But not long after McConnell’s speech against the legislation Wednesday, those senators who had been undecided, or even supportive, changed their tune.Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), who said on Tuesday that the insurrection could not be “swept under any rug,” said on Wednesday that he’d changed his mind after hearing directly from McCarthy. “Leadership in the House says it’s not bipartisan in nature,” Rounds said, even though the bill was the product of negotiations between Katko and Thompson—with McCarthy’s backing.After Trump, McCarthy, and McConnell all came out in opposition to the commission, GOP leaders began explicitly laying out a key concern that’s percolated for weeks: that such a commission would damage them politically. “A lot of our members, and I think this is true of a lot of House Republicans, want to be moving forward and not looking backward,” said Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the No. 2 Republican in the Senate. “Anything that gets us rehashing the 2020 elections I think is a day lost on being able to draw a contrast between us and the Democrats’ very radical left-wing agenda.”The 10 Republican votes needed to pass the bill in the Senate, then, will now be much tougher for Democrats to win. Even senators who would be the building blocks of any bipartisan vote, like Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), have said they want to see changes to the commission as it is structured.The Senate GOP’s widespread opposition potentially sets up something momentous: the minority’s first use of the legislative filibuster since Democrats took power in January. The symbolism in such a move is not lost on Democrats. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) told The Daily Beast such a move would be in line with the GOP’s intent to filibuster voting rights legislation. “They’re just interested in blocking,” he said.Democrats on both sides of the Capitol say they will plow ahead though, even if the path to establishing the commission is unclear. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) vowed on Wednesday to put the House’s bill to a vote, no matter what. And Hoyer told reporters that Democrats would find a lane for the review somehow—even if it meant creating a special committee in the House.That would be a far more diminished version of the commission outlined in the bill, however.Republicans have pointed to ongoing reviews of the Jan. 6 attack being conducted by congressional committees and various agencies from the federal government, saying their work would be more than sufficient in uncovering what happened and how to prevent it from happening again.But Rep. Tim Ryan (R-OH), who chairs the House committee that oversees the Capitol Police, said Wednesday that would not be enough. “We're trying to govern the country, so we're trying to set this up,” Ryan said. “If there’s something better, be a part of it.”“If we can’t get Republican votes on this,” Ryan added, “it’s indicative of what’s to come.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Family members kill neighbor in ‘tragic case of mistaken identity,’ Texas sheriff says

    A 29-year-old Texas man was driving home when four family members killed him in a “tragic case of mistaken identity,” officials say.

  • OnPolitics: The stakes get more serious for Trump

    Trump faces criminal investigations on two major fronts — in New York and in Georgia.

  • Capitol Police distances itself from an unofficial statement from officers expressing 'profound disappointment' in GOP leaders' refusal to support January 6 commission

    The unofficial statement said officers had physical and mental trauma and that it's "inconceivable" for lawmakers to"downplay" the insurrection.

  • A complete timeline of 'Real Housewives' star Erika Jayne's divorce and legal troubles

    Erika Jayne, 49, is facing legal issues after her husband Tom Girardi, 81, was accused of embezzling money from plane-crash victims' families.

  • Vice President Harris denounces efforts to restrict Asian American, Pacific Islander voter rights

    The vice president slammed efforts to restrict voting by mail, noting that 64% of Asian Americans vote by mail.

  • Laughing Cops Charged for Violent Arrest of Woman With Dementia

    YouTubeTwo former Colorado police officers face charges after they violently arrested a 73-year-old woman with dementia last summer—and then laughed while watching gruesome body-cam footage of the incident back at the police station.Ex-Loveland Police officer Austin Hopp, 26, has been charged with second-degree assault causing serious bodily injury, attempting to influence a public servant, and official misconduct in relation to the June 26, 2020, arrest of Karen Garner, who was tackled and handcuffed for leaving a Walmart with unpaid goods.The other cop who assisted in Garner’s arrest, 27-year-old Daria Jalali, was charged with failure to report the use of force by a peace officer, failure to intervene, and first-degree official misconduct, according to online court records.Surveillance footage released last month revealed that after the arrest—in which Hopp tackled Garner to the ground and handcuffed her against his cruiser—the officers went back to the station and watched their body-cam footage of the incident as Garner sat in a cell for hours.“Ready for the pop?” Hopp said to Jalali and other officers as they gathered to watch. “What popped?” another officer asked.“I think it was her shoulder,” Hopp replied, before later adding: “I can’t believe I threw a 73-year-old on the ground.”Mollie Tibbetts’ Killer Recalled ‘Covering Her With Corn Stalks,’ Prosecutor Says in Trial OpeningWhile warrants have been issued for both officers, it was not immediately clear if they were in custody as of Wednesday morning. The charges come after the 8th Judicial District Critical Response Team completed a review of the arrest, which elicited national attention. Gordan McLaughlin, the 8th Judicial district attorney, is expected to hold a press conference about the results of the review.In April, Garner filed a federal lawsuit against the city and the officers who arrested her, claiming they broke her arm and dislocated her shoulder during an excessively violent assault.According to the lawsuit, the incident began after Garner left a Walmart without paying for $13 worth of items. While store employees had stopped her at the exit and retrieved the items, they “refused to let her pay” and she began to walk home. Hopp, however, caught up to Garner to arrest her, calling out for her to stop.When she indicated she could not understand him—which is a common side effect of dementia and sensory aphasia—Hopp “violently assaulted her by twisting her arms behind her back, throwing her to the ground and handcuffing her” while Jalali assisted, the lawsuit alleges.“In their efforts to repeatedly and needlessly injure and subdue the terrified Ms. Garner, Officers Hopp and Jalali fractured and dislocated her shoulder in addition to other injuries (scrapes to face, bloody nose, contusions to knees),” the lawsuit states, adding that a concerned citizen even stopped to question the officers’ “aggression” during the arrest.Colorado Hubby Charged With Killing Suzanne Morphew Tried to Influence FBI Agent: Docs“Despite the visible dislocation of her arm from her shoulder, and her repeated cries of pain while on scene and in the several hours she remained in their care and control that followed, neither the defendant officers nor anyone else at the Loveland Police Department sought medical care for Ms. Garner—instead keeping her in extreme pain, in handcuffs, and actively preventing her from access to medical treatment for over six hours,” the suit added.The surveillance footage from the police station showed that the officers were seemingly too preoccupied reliving the assault to help Garner.“It’s like live TV... Body-cams are my favorite thing to watch, I could watch livestream body-cams all day,” Jalali said in the footage.Jalali and Hopp resigned from the Loveland Police Department on April 30 amid an internal investigation. Another officer who was seen watching the footage at the police station also resigned.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

  • Naked woman found tied to ‘heavy equipment’ after sexual assault, Illinois police say

    An Illinois man tied a woman to equipment at his workplace and sexually assaulted her, officials say.

  • China, US argue over naval activity in South China Sea

    China on Thursday issued its second protest in as many days over United States naval activity in the region, drawing an unusually sharp response from the U.S. 7th Fleet, which accused Beijing of attempting to assert illegitimate maritime rights at the expense of its neighbors. A statement from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command said the guided missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur “illegally” intruded into its territorial waters surrounding the Paracel island group in the South China Sea on Thursday. China accused the U.S. of increasing regional security risks, "misunderstandings, misjudgments, and accidents at sea."

  • Obama called Trump a 'corrupt motherf---er,' a 'racist, sexist pig,' and a 'f---ing lunatic,' a new book reportedly says

    While the two have long clashed, the details of Obama's harsher language toward Trump have not been widely reported.

  • Trump releases 909-word statement complaining about New York's criminal investigations into his business

    In the longest statement Trump has released since leaving office, he ranted about investigations and accused prosecutors of political persecution.

  • 100 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine need to be checked for contamination and may need to be thrown out

    The millions of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine doses haven't been distributed to the public and are from a plagued Emergent BioSolutions facility.

  • 2 ex-cops accused of breaking an elderly woman's arm during an arrest and later laughing about it are facing charges

    Austin Hopp and Daria Jalali resigned from the Loveland Police Department last month over the 2020 arrest of Karen Garner.

  • Australian doctors warn vaccine hesitancy makes citizens "sitting ducks"

    Australia's peak medical body on Thursday warned the country's residents were "sitting ducks" for COVID-19, as business leaders call for the international border to be reopened faster despite a sluggish national vaccination drive. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) said it was worried many Australians were delaying getting vaccinated because of the country's success in stamping out the virus, and urged authorities to roll out a more effective advertising campaign. "Seeing what is happening overseas where there is a tsunami of COVID and also the development of variants, we're sitting ducks ... until we get a significant portion of the population vaccinated, particularly those over 50," AMA Vice President Chris Moy told ABC Radio.

  • Explainer: What does new criminal inquiry mean for Trump?

    Donald Trump is facing a one-two punch of criminal investigations in New York, with the state attorney general’s office saying its ongoing civil inquiry into the former president and his businesses is now a criminal matter. The attorney general's office is conducting the probe, confirmed late Tuesday, in tandem with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which has been scrutinizing Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, for about two years. The DA’s office has been scouring Trump’s tax records, hired a former mafia prosecutor to help run its investigation and has been interviewing witnesses including Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.