- Disgraced former president Donald Trump leaning in to influencer culture as legal penalties continue to drain his bank account

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Vladimir Putin is again suspected of having orchestrated the elimination of one of his political enemies. 
 

• Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most high-profile domestic opponent, Alexei Navalny, died on Friday at the penal colony where he was serving a 30-year sentence, according to prison officials. Navalny was a former lawyer who became an anti-corruption crusader and the country’s most prominent opposition leader. The timing is notable as Putin prepares for an “election” (wink) that would keep him in power until at least 2030. 
   

• In a press conference on Friday, President Joe Biden expressed his outrage over Navalny’s death, and joined other Western leaders in holding the Kremlin responsible. Biden was unequivocal, saying: “Russian authorities are going to tell their own story. Make no mistake, make no mistake, Putin is responsible for Navalny's death, Putin is responsible.”
   

• Navalny rose to prominence over a decade ago documenting the vast corruption at the highest levels of Putin’s Russia with extraordinarily well-produced investigative videos. His death leaves a giant hole in Russia’s opposition movement, and makes any dream of an alternative future to Putin even more remote. The Russian president has currently served as the country’s leader for over two decades, longer than anyone since Joseph Stalin. Navalny voluntarily returned to Russia from Germany in 2021, where he had been treated for what lab tests indicated was an attempt to poison him with a nerve agent. He said at the time that he was poisoned in August 2020 in Siberia, which the Kremlin has strenuously denied.

Navalny’s death has far-reaching implications. 
 

• Many Republicans condemned Putin and the Kremlin on Friday, but former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley went one logical step further and took aim at her presidential primary opponent/former boss/the current GOP frontrunner: Donald Trump. Haley wrote on X (Twitter): “Putin did this. The same Putin who Donald Trump praises and defends. The same Trump who said: ‘In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that.’” We’ll remember this if and when Haley inevitably endorses Trump when she is forced to suspend her campaign in a few weeks, but she brings up an important point. 
   

• Trump had an exceedingly warm relationship with the Russian autocrat and often spoke admiringly of him, which seemed to account for the former president’s silence on the death of Navalny. In another post on X, Haley wrote: “Putin murdered his political opponent and Trump hasn’t said a word after he said he would encourage Putin to invade our allies. He has, however, posted 20+ times on social media about his legal drama and fake polls.”

Hundreds of protesters gathered in cities across Europe on Friday to express outrage and grief over Navalny’s death, often congregating outside of Russian embassies. In Berlin, a crowd of some 600 people amassed, chanting—in Russian, German, and English—slogans like “Putin to the Hague.” In Moscow, police looked on as Russians queued to lay flowers at a monument to victims of Soviet repression in the long shadow of what was once KGB headquarters.

So many things happened last week: Democrats won George Santos’s seat back, the House impeached the Homeland Security Secretary instead of addressing the border crisis, and Biden joined TikTok. Listen to this week’s Pod Save America to get up to date on all of the above plus, Lovett gets Chris Christie thoughts on what it will take to finally defeat Trump. Check out the full pod or watch along on the Pod Save America Youtube channel.

Finally, some good news! New York Supreme Court Justice Arthour Engoron ordered disgraced former president Donald Trump to pay $364 million in penalties on Friday after a months-long civil trail. Trump and his Trump Organization associates were charged by Attorney General Letitia James (D-NY) of fraudulently valuing its properties in order to secure more favorable loans and insurance. Trump is also barred from doing business in New York state as an officer or director for three years. Two independently-appointed monitors will oversee the Trump Organization’s operations moving forward. Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr. are also barred from serving as officers in any such companies for two years, and were ordered to pay penalties of $4 million each. Judge Engoron noted the defendants’ “complete lack of contrition” in his decision, which he said, “borders on pathological.” Yep, that’s him alright! So to recap: barred from doing business in New York for three years, but totally fine to continue running for the country’s highest office. Excellent system. No notes!

Speaking of Trump, two sources told the New York Times that he has told his advisers and allies that he likes the idea of a 16-week national abortion ban, which he thinks will satisfy his bloodthirsty base. 

At a speech for the United Jewish Appeal Federation, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) raised eyebrows when she justified Israel’s “right to defend itself” and its overwhelming military campaign in Gaza using the following analogy: “If Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I'm sorry my friends, there would be no Canada the next day…That is a natural reaction.” Uhh…what? That’s some Republican-ass logic if we’ve ever heard it. 

Former Gov. Roy Barnes (D-GA) testified in the Fani Willis misconduct case that he turned down the job of special prosecutor because he didn’t want to “live with bodyguards for the rest of my life,” due to the constant threats from Trump Supporters. Smart man!

Democratic leaders in the House are checking the temperature for potentially forcing a vote on the Senate-passed foreign aid bill. But many progressive lawmakers have raised concerns over supporting more unconditional aid to Israel as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza remains dire. 

The number of Democrats who disapprove of the U.S. government’s handling of the southern border hit the highest level of Joe Biden’s presidency this week, according to a new Pew Research poll. 

A potential witness in the House Ethics Committee investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) claims that she was hired to attend and have sex with people in Gaetz’s circle. She also claims she has the texts to prove it, according to the woman’s attorney, who spoke to The Daily Beast. The House investigation is seeking to find out whether this giant-headed man paid for sex with women and an underage girl.

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Happy reading!

After all that bullshit over the past year, our lump of West Virginia coal, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), isn’t going to run for president as a third-party candidate, after all. 

A Starbucks shareholder who supports the workers union wrote a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday asserting that Starbucks failed to disclose costs from anti-union campaigns, which are estimated to have reached about $240 million. Let’s give it up for this extremely rare showing of solidarity from a shareholder!

Thanks to Promote the Vote Michigan's 2022 ballot initiative, all Michigan voters can now vote early for at least nine days before all statewide and federal elections. Early voting for the Presidential Primary must start no later than tomorrow, Saturday, February 17 and must run through Sunday, February 25. For more information about voting early, visit MichiganVoting.org.