Cockburn gossip

Senator Joe Manchin is eyeing the presidency... of West Virginia University, multiple Mountain State sources tell Cockburn. While Manchin hasn’t publicly expressed interest in the job, the stars may be aligning perfectly for him. Charleston political circles have been abuzz with the rumors of his interest for weeks now.  Seventy-five-year-old Manchin will be weighing all options that don’t entail a near-certain defeat at the ballot box in West Virginia next year, meaning a near-certain defeat at the national ballot box with a quixotic third party presidential campaign is unlikely. The presidency of WVU, which Manchin attended on a football scholarship before an injury derailed his career, makes a lot of sense for both parties.

Has FreedomWorks gone FreedomWoke? FreedomWorks has gone FreedomWoke? That’s the charge of a new campaign by Berman and Co, which says the Koch-funded group’s new COO, Marty Irby, has a history of working with radical animal rights groups with close connections to PETA... and Democrats. FreedomWorks, meanwhile, is a grassroots organization that advocates for free markets, personal liberty and lower taxes.Cockburn notes that Irby’s biography on the FreedomWorks website leaves out these details, instead listing only his lobbyist and consulting work with Republicans. According to his LinkedIn, the last time he worked directly for a member of the GOP was between late 2013 and early 2016, when he served as a communications director for Representative Ed Whitfield.

You’d think Fox Corporation would be sick of lawsuits by now — but there’s life in the old dog yet. The company has sent a letter to Media Matters for America, after the left-wing watchdog spent the week drip-feeding what they’ve brazenly titled “FOXLEAKS.” So far the “scoops” consist of... Tucker Carlson cracking a few jokes between segments.Fox lawyers write that the footage was “unlawfully obtained.” This has ruined Cockburn’s chances of winning $5, because he was sure Fox were the leakers. Cockburn’s second guess was Abby Grossberg, the former Tucker booker suing her old bosses for maintaining a toxic work environment — but a source familiar with the show says they don’t think it’s Abby.

Mood inside Fox ‘ebullient’ after Dominion settlement This week’s biggest surprise was Tuesday’s last-ditch $787 million settlement of the Dominion v. Fox News lawsuit. Despite the eye-watering payout, Fox sources tell Cockburn that the mood internally at the network was “ebullient.” This is perhaps unsurprising, given how Fox’s foes were slavering at the prospect of Rupert Murdoch, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity et al being hauled before the court. Also Cockburn understands that Fox will only end up shelling out around half of the settlement fee, due to insurance liability coverage. Plus, the payout is tax deductible: what a bargain! Cockburn guesses we’ll have to wait for the next trial of the century...

Is the GOP turning on DeSantis? Senate Republicans are annoyed that Florida governor Ron DeSantis parroted Donald Trump's quasi-isolationist take on the Russia-Ukraine war, a congressional insider tells Cockburn. The establishment GOP is apparently worried that the party's shift to a more nationalistic foreign policy could isolate the wealthy East Coast donor base, which is largely supportive of sending aid and weaponry to Ukraine. DeSantis's comments came in response to a query from Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who is trying to get all potential 2024 presidential candidates to go on-the-record with their stance on the conflict.

Tim Scott’s campaign preppers Rumors are flying that South Carolina senator Tim Scott is on track to announce his candidacy for president in 2024. The senator was in Iowa this week — and a tipster has provided Cockburn with more fuel for the fire. Scott's Senate campaign started adding conservative media folks to their supporters' email list this week, as journalists received messages welcoming them to the "team" they never signed up for. [caption id="attachment_45816" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Senator Tim Scott campaign email (Screenshot obtained by The Spectator)[/caption] The forced sign-ups seemingly occurred the same day Scott gave a sweeping speech in Des Moines, in the first caucus state in the Republican primary.

White House correspondents behaving badly Getting President Biden to answer to the press is hard enough. His handlers in the administration make it even tougher. And now it seems journalists are linking arms with them to help the aging president out. Tamara Keith, current head of the White House Correspondents’ Association and its apparent hall monitor, chastised her colleagues in an email a tipster passed to Cockburn about “decorum.” (Cockburn, you will be shocked to hear, is not a WHCA member and so is at liberty) Keith took umbrage when “at least three journalists continued loudly shouting” over a reporter, “making it impossible for the president to hear and answer the question. It didn’t reflect well on our profession.

The Washington Post’s revolving door People are losing their jobs in all sorts of industries — but chances are the layoffs you’ve heard about most in recent weeks are in finance, tech or the media. Squeakiest wheel and all that. This week brought news that the Washington Post was cutting twenty newsroom jobs and shuttering its gaming vertical. Also out at the Post: Margaret Sullivan, who has left to sign as a columnist for the Guardian. It's not all departures at One Franklin Square though: executive editor Sally Buzbee has signed up a slew of names for the Opinion desk, including conservatives Jim Geraghty and Ramesh Ponnuru from National Review and disaffected liberal Ruy Teixeira.

We need to deep-clean the halls of Congress January is a month for shedding the pounds — and the latest fitness fad for Capitol Hill reporters is chasing around disgraced congressman George Santos. In a show of collegiality, the staffers of other representatives have been alerting the press to Santos's whereabouts. Take deputy chief of staff Aaron Fritschner, whose boss Representative Don Beyer, a Democrat from Virginia, shares a hallway with Santos. "I've done it twice now," he told Politico's Huddle newsletter. "I'm gonna keep on doing it for as long as he's there. And it seems like he's not going anywhere." Cockburn is delighted that Fritschner has found a fun new hobby to plug the hole left by his last one: explaining why Don Beyer is inadvertently employing Chinese spies.

The state of Tate Shiny-headed influencer Andrew Tate dominated the headlines over Christmas after being detained in Romania as part of a human trafficking and rape investigation. Of course Cockburn believes in the concept of "innocent until proven guilty." But he is at pains to point out that many facets of Tate's lifestyle come across as rather sinister. Cockburn was recently approached by a former acquaintance of Tate’s, who wanted to recount going for a meeting at his Bucharest property. Naturally Cockburn couldn't confirm every detail, but the account nonetheless paints an interesting picture: Walking into his house was like walking into an IKEA showroom from 2011. We went down this dirt path to get to it on the outskirts of Bucharest.

Shopping Kyrsten Sinema style Kyrsten Sinema has been honing her independent streak during her time in Washington — a noted departure from the progressive activism of her youth. The Arizona senator who left the Democrats last week has filed paperwork to run as an Independent in 2024, a reflection of her state’s purple values. At the same time, Sinema seems to have developed quite an entrepreneurial side hustle. Slate’s Christina Cauterucci discovered that Congress’s most ostentatious dresser has been hawking old clothes on Facebook Marketplace. The user is currently hawking — among other things — a $215 cycling ensemble, a $25 trucker hat, and a $150 stainless steel watch with a silicone strap.