Morning Wonketariat! Here's some of the things we may be talking about today.

ICYMI: Trump doubled down on his overtly racist tirades against four progressive women of color in the House yesterday. During the third annual "Made in America Showcase," Trump said his critics, informally known as "The Squad" on the Hill, "hate our country" and should "go back" to "broken and crime infested places where they came from" (places like The Bronx, Boston, Minneapolis, and Detroit). Trump then accused one of the first two Muslim women in Congress of being an anti-Semite who was sympathetic to al-Qaeda, much as he previously accused former President Barack Obama of being an African-born terrorist who personally founded ISIS. The Washington Post notes that only a fun-sized handful of Republicans have grown a spine and denounced Trump's latest racist shitposting and verbal diarrhea, but most waited 24 hours to issue their half-assed condemnations. A number of other Republican legislators have since appeared on TV to make their own racist comments. Politico details how Trump's minions have been twisting themselves in knots in an attempt to reframe Trump's latest bigoted hate speech, despite photographers capturing images of his handwritten notes. "Alcaida."

Democrats have responded by closing ranks and rallying around the Squad. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a resolution to condemn Trump's weekend shitposting, a political gambit that will force Republicans into putting themselves on the record of just how far their support for Trump goes. Roll Call notes the resolution will cite Ronald Reagan's final speech as president, where he praised immigrants and argued against closing "the door to new Americans."

During a press conference with the rest of "The Squad," Rep. Ayana Pressley condemned Trump's "xenophobia," and implored Americans and the press to "not take the bait." Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stated, "I want to tell children across this country ... No matter what the President says, this country belongs to you, and it belongs to everyone."

That was gross, so here's Lil Bub to cleanse your palate. If you need a little more, here's Stephen Colbert telling Trump to "shut up" and stop complaining about everything. If he doesn't like it here, he could leave.

BUB TELEPORTSwww.youtube.com

In response to Trump's bigoted bullshit, Democratic Rep. Al Green has dusted off his impeachment inquiry resolution. Green's resolution comes amid more calls that the party allow the Judiciary Committee to open an impeachment inquiry. Political nerds note that filing articles of impeachment against the president as a "privileged resolution" triggers a two-day countdown for the House to consider the matter.

Attempts to raise the debt ceiling and reach a budget agreement stalled last night after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to eat a gold plated bowl of dicks. Mnuchin is intent on lifting spending caps to get getting more money for the military, and an extra $22 billion to overhaul the VA health-care system, and even held a presser to say he was "very close" to a deal with Pelosi. For her part, Pelosi says she won't let the White House lead Congress around by the purse strings, adding that she too is intent on reaching a two-year spending deal. It should be noted that we do need to raise the debt ceiling and come to a budget agreement in order to avoid another economic clusterfuck like the Tea Party-led stalemate of 2011.

Member of Congress are trying to pry a memo out of the White House on Trump's secret cyber warfare doctrine. The rare bipartisan move from members of the House Armed Services Committee's "emerging threats" subcommittee is notable because it shows just how pissed Congress is becoming with the White House's refusal to share anything.

Nerds have their remotes set for "stun" in anticipation of the first congressional cryptocurrency hearings later today. The Verge points out that, between his bigot outbursts yesterday, Trump shitposted mean and uncharacteristically well-worded things about crypto, and is begging White House reporters to bring the subject up. In light of all the vitriol against magic internet funny money, Facebook is trying to rationalize it's own crypto scheme, Libra, by saying it'll play by a bunch of rules it wants to create, but US regulators and members of congress aren't buying it.

Yesterday new polling began to show the Democratic primary being shaken up like an Etch-a-sketch! Sen. Kamala Harris is vaulting to first place in a California poll, second place in a New Hampshire poll, and third place in a Missouri poll, just behind Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Of those three polls, it's particularly striking to see support for several candidates, primarily Sen. Bernie Sanders and Beto O'Rourke, plummeting among potential primary voters. Similarly, new national polls released this from Morning Consult and The Hill-HarrisX (no relation) show Warren and Harris continuing to peel away supporters of Joe Biden and Sen. Sanders.

If you're feeling particularly nerdy, 538 has a great data analysis of female candidates. The TLDR is that female candidates have to dodge misogyny, gender bias, assorted stereotypes, and 31 flavors of sexist bullshit, all of which makes it exponentially harder to reach potential voters who SAY they'd vote for a woman (but maybe not that woman).

Political candidates from across the spectrum are slowly beginning to release their fundraising numbers ahead of the FEC Q2 deadline. At the top of the ticket, Trump is leading the money race with $26.5 million, followed closely by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Over on the Senate side, astronaut Mark Kelly leads with $4.2 million, followed by Republican Senators Martha McSally, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and John Cornyn. In the House, Republican Steve Scalise leads, followed by Devin Nunes (and his cows), and Kevin McCarthy, with Democrats Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi tied for a close fourth. Both Politico and The New York Times are reporting a number of lower tier candidates are spending more than they're taking in. Financial support for Beto O'Rourke has fallen off the face of the Earth, causing his digital director, Rob Flaherty, to send email supporters the cryptic message, "Sometimes You're Hootie, and sometimes you're the blowfish." [Politico Infographics]

Politico follows the lead on Trump World's megadonors a little farther down the rabbit hole. The RNC and the Trump Victory Committee are getting massive donations from a couple of super rich people, including the ultra rich Ricketts family and former Small Business Administration chief Linda McMahon. In order to woo other prospective donors to reach deep into their dark money accounts, the campaign has dispatched Mike Pence to do his bobble-head dance.

Similarly, Joe Biden has been pressing donors to max out their donations, a stark contrast from other candidates in the 2020 Democratic field. Biden has been placing an emphasis on small grip 'n' grin fundraisers with influential party bosses over the last few months and it's clearly paid off, but that support can only go so far, and it also opens him up for attacks on his left flank.

If you get a chance, check out this piece from Politico on how Trump broke immigration courts, and this piece from the Wall Street Journal about how the US immigration process actually works.

A judge has recommended Actual Nazi Andrew Anglin pay the victim of one of his Nazi internet troll brigades $14 million in damages after finding Anglin "acted with actual malice" when he doxxed her and told his army of basement dwellers to go after her. The award is still "subject to the approval of the chief judge for the U.S. District Court in Montana," and Anglin is in hiding, so actually getting him to pay anything will be dicey.

Some hippie environmentalist cops in Tennesee are asking area residents to stop flushing meth down the toilet right before they're busted. In a social media post, the Loretto Police Department says the local water treatment facility is just "not really prepared for meth," and warns that if enough meth makes it down stream they could start creating "meth-gators" downstream in Alabama. The post concludes Alabamans have "had enough methed up animals the past few weeks without our help," and residents should call police to make sure their drugs are "disposed of in the proper way."

Trevor Noah thinks New York's neighborhood watch is doing a really shitty job if Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Cosby were neighbors.

Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein Arrested for Trafficking Minors | The Daily Showwww.youtube.com

And here's your morning Nice Time:A SEA LION PUPPER!

Sea Lion Pup's Public Debut!www.youtube.com

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