Cockburn’s Diary

Justice Louis D. Brandeis advocated for “more speech” as the best remedy for falsehood. But how much speech is too much speech? The Republican Party is pushing the upper limits, scheduling even more primary debates in the new year — even without President Trump. CNN is hosting two of them: one on January 10 at Drake University in Iowa and a second on January 21 at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire. Between the two, ABC News and WMUR-TV will host one in coordination with the New Hampshire Republican State Committee on January 18... also at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire. The ABC debate is “subject to RNC guidelines,” rather than being RNC sanctioned. Why?

Thursday night saw a clash for the ages between the governors of the twin territories that sustain America’s pornography addiction. It’s hard to determine a winner of the video nasty on Fox News between Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis: DeSantis endorsers claim that their man won, Trump supporters and Democrats call it for Newsom.One tidbit from NBC suggests that the Florida Man did a better job of getting under his opponent’s skin: the governors were potentially set to run longer, but Newsom’s wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom intervened after DeSantis pointed out that her parents had moved from California to Florida.Per Dasha Burns and Nnamdi Egwuonwu, Siebel Newsom “came into the debate room on at least two occasions to raise some objections.

Ever since the House Ethics Committee released its damning report on George Santos yesterday, the chatter has been non-stop. Yes, it appears the flamboyant fabulist used campaign funds to subscribe to sex workers on OnlyFans — but whose content is Santos paying for?  Two early claimants have emerged on Twitter/X. First, from plus-size porn star Leila Lewis. “THIS GUY WAS SUBBED TO ME HAHAHAHA,” she tweeted, following up with “i rated his dick 😭😭😭.” An unenviable prospect.  The other comes from Twitch streamer Soogz1, who boasts 2.3 million Twitter/followers. “my top spender 🥹🫶,” she wrote yesterday, along with a screenshot purporting to show that a user called George Santos had spent $435,621.13 on her content — $340,752.

Elves and Epstein with Peter Thiel “Peter Thiel has lost interest in democracy,” a lengthy profile from Barton Gellman at the Atlantic announces. The piece reveals that Thiel, the techno-libertarian billionaire behind the Senate runs of Blake Masters and J.D. Vance, has no intention of donating to politicians in the 2024 election cycle.What does Thiel consider to be a better use of his money? Triumphing over death. “He has spent enormous sums trying to evade his own end but feels that, if anything, he should devote even more time and money to solving the problem of human mortality,” Gellman writes. Thiel draws a lot of his vision from The Lord of the Rings:“How are the elves different from the humans in Tolkien?

DC’s black tie season is in full swing — so naturally, Cockburn’s penguin suit is already reeking of stale smoke. This week took him to the National Press Club, for the awarding of the inaugural Dao Prize.  The prize, a $100,000 sum for the winner, followed by two lots of $10,000 for the other finalists, was awarded by the National Journalism Center in partnership with the Daofeng and Angela Foundation. The idea was to reward journalism that’s often overlooked by the Pulitzer Prize committee, who rarely if ever honor right-of-center reporting. There were over twenty nominees, from publications such as Breitbart, the Daily Caller and Townhall. And the big prize went to...

Source: CPAC in trouble? Heavy discounts offered for 2024 conference The next Conservative Political Action Conference isn’t until the end of February of next year, but the organization behind it is already calling past attendees to offer steep discounts, prompting speculation that the conference is experiencing some financial troubles. One longtime attendee shared with Cockburn that someone from the American Conservative Union, the Matt Schlapp-led organization that puts CPAC on every year, called him — offering a discounted price of only $99, a hefty decline from the standard $299. “The last few years I’ve had a badge and haven’t even gone in to hear the speakers. I’ve just hung out at hotel room parties.

Is Peter Thiel a fed? Peter Thiel made billions of dollars working closely with the federal government, selling technologies like Palantir at massive profits. Now, there’s the suggestion that Thiel’s ties to the government may be a lot closer than previously thought — a bombshell report in Business Insider alleges that Thiel has worked as a confidential human source for the FBI starting in 2021, likely about foreign involvement in Silicon Valley. Per Insider, Thiel was recruited by controversial far-right activist Charles Johnson.Thiel’s political involvement has scaled back in recent months; in 2022, he batted 0.500 in getting his former employees elected to the United States Senate, helping get J.D.

With her vote to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker, Nancy Mace has made herself the pariah of the House. And after donning a red, Scarlet Letter-style “A” on her chest to reflect this as she headed into House GOP meetings this week, she caught the ire of the Capitol Hill Fashion Police too. One of her colleagues intimated the “A” must stand for “attention” — and lamented that “there wasn’t enough bling” on it and that “a light-up version would’ve been better.” In a Congress filled with all but literal skeletons, Mace stands out for her relative youth. One staffer had no problem with her choice of outfits this week.

Kristi Noem isn’t playing coy with Donald Trump. The South Dakota governor wants to be the former president’s running mate and she’s sending almost daily thirst traps to catch his eye. Her latest attempt — cowgirl riding. In a move that will doubtless put Corey Lewandowski in heat, Noem dropped a video of herself Wednesday participating in her state’s annual Buffalo Roundup, where she helped round up over 15,000 bison for the state’s conservation efforts. A certified cowgirl in her chaps and wide-brimmed hat, Noem majestically rides the plains, her hair blowing in slow-motion behind her. If that doesn’t turn Trump’s head, Cockburn isn’t sure what will.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been dead for years, but one of his top aides may be haunting Senator Bob Menendez, using his perch as John Fetterman’s chief of staff to do it. Adam Jentleson, a combative former Reid staffer, is a mover and shaker in Fetterman’s office — and the Pennsylvanian was the first Senate Democrat to demand Menendez call it quits this week, in almost personal terms: the statement went as far as to compare the Democrat to Tony Soprano. But why would the sweatshirt-clad gentle giant care so much? It could have something to do with how Jentleson worked for Reid, one of the Iran Deal’s most important proponents.

Rocker and guitar legend Eric Clapton recently held a fundraiser concert for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., raising a whopping $2.2 million for the Democratic presidential candidate. The Cream and Yardbirds alum previously took heat from the media for coming out against the Covid vaccine mandates after claiming to experience adverse reactions that may have prevented him from playing guitar ever again. Cockburn can’t say he's shocked that Clapton found a friend in RFK, who has similarly taken plenty of heat for his position on the jab.  A Democrat in need is a friend indeed Sometimes it helps to have friends in high places — and in this case, control of Congress may hinge on one New Yorker’s push to get his buddy elected.

Jann Wenner: my feelings don’t care about your facts Sometimes it takes a dishonest newspaper to put a lying magazine in its place.   On Friday, the New York Times published an interview with Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner — and the Gray Lady did not hold back. Interviewer David Marchese asked Wenner to defend the magazine’s now discredited University of Virginia rape story, accusing the publication of putting a “juicy story” ahead of the truth.   Wenner was not all too concerned with the accusations. “The University of Virginia story was not a failure of intent, or an attempt to be loose with the facts.

Donald Trump is in the process of setting up the Patriot Legal Defense Fund, a fund to help pay off legal bills for him and his co-defendants in the four indictments he is facing, according to a report in the Messenger. Up until this point, the former president’s legal fees had been paid by his Save America super PAC. “Save America wasn’t really designed as a legal defense fund, so as the legal landscape evolved, so did this effort,” a Trump official told the site’s Marc Caputo. So who can expect to be covered? Rudy Giuliani, presumably, who is named as a co-conspirator in Fani Willis’s Georgia case, and was the beneficiary of a Trump-hosted legal fundraiser at Bedminster last night. Giuliani’s fellow election attorney Jenna Ellis?

Can Barron Trump dunk? That’s the question posed by one opportunistic sportsbook this week, who started taking bets on which college the former president’s youngest son will play basketball at (their top choices I are the U and St. John’s at +300). The company is also offering odds on whether he’ll be drafted by an NBA team and in which round. So could he make it? On the one hand, at 6’7”, he’s the same height as NBA All-Star Luka Dončić — and, through his mother, the same nationality. On the other hand, Barron is on the record as preferring soccer.

It’s finally here: the Donald Trump mugshot, already one of the most iconic images of the twenty-first century. Trump scowls into the camera at the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, clad in his trademark navy suit and red tie, eyes brimming with contempt. And his campaign is well aware of the image’s power. “If you are a campaign, PAC , scammer and you try raising money off the mugshot of  @realDonaldTrump and you have not received prior permission …WE ARE COMING AFTER YOU    you will NOT SCAM DONORS,” Trump 2024 senior advisor Chris LaCivita posted on X Thursday.

Is the Democratic Party trying to be more masculine? An eagle-eyed political observer pointed out recently that the DNC’s official logo has mysteriously changed color without any public fanfare. The logo, which features a “D” inside of a circle, used to be a sky blue. At some point in 2022, the “D” went quite a few shades darker to a royal blue. You can spot the difference in this side-by-side: A graphic design expert tells Cockburn that the change might have been an attempt to make the party’s colors better match its newfound lip service to the working class under Biden. Alternatively, they may be trying to cash in on those “dark Brandon” memes! A tale of two Naomis There are few things more annoying than being mistaken for someone else.

Fumble! Everyone is dropping the ball when it comes to mixing sports and politics. President Joe Biden tried to relate to former Democratic senator Martin Heinrich with a ham-fisted football reference, telling him, “I’m glad I was a flanker back. I’m glad I didn’t have you on the other side as a tight end.”  https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1689355172957323265 Unfortunately, the term “flanker back” is only known to anyone under the age of eighty as a wide receiver. Plus a flanker would never be squaring off against a tight end, since they’re both offensive positions. Oh, Uncle Joe!  Meanwhile, one of Biden’s potential 2024 opponents, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, clearly should have stuck to baseball.

Are you a NATO member, single and ready to mingle? Following former Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin’s split from her husband of nineteen years, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau announced, via a heartbreaking Instagram post, that he and his wife Sophie were set to separate. Rumors that two of the world’s most photogenic leaders could shack up appear to be jumping the gun — but Cockburn is somewhat curious that Sophie, a close pal of Meghan Markle’s from her Suits-taping days in Toronto, is set to ditch her powerful hubby. Needless to say, the leaders of Finland and Canada could have existed in marital bliss had they only considered the very French option of marrying your schoolteacher, as Monsier le President Macron did... Jared Kushner’s uncle donated to... Chris Christie?

South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace has been floated as a potential vice presidential pick for Donald Trump. If her remarks at a prayer breakfast this week are anything to go by, she’d be a great fit, as she shares the Donald’s knack for scandalizing evangelicals. “I woke up this morning at 7,” Mace told the group Thursday morning. “Patrick, my fiancé, tried to pull me by my waist over this morning in bed and I was like, ‘No baby, we don’t got time for that this morning. I gotta get to the prayer breakfast, and I gotta be on time.’” An online furore followed, with some puritans pearl-clutching over the fact that Mace, a divorcée, was bragging about having premarital sex. “I go to church because I’m a sinner not because I’m a saint!

An official guide to covering the White House created by the White House Correspondents’ Association confirms that Karine Jean-Pierre is intentionally selective about which media outlets she calls on at White House press briefings. The document, last updated in March 2023, notes that “the current press secretary has indicated she prefers not to call on people who are standing.” Of course, the seats in the briefing room are assigned by the WHCA and mostly reserved for left-leaning legacy media outlets — particularly the first few rows. Anyone else looking to get a question in is probably better off staying home... Tucking in to Tucker Fox News may have gone cold on him, but Tucker Carlson’s biographer Chadwick Moore sure knows how to put on a spread.