I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality of American politics. If you received this email - or you are a free subscriber - and you’d like to subscribe: you can sign up below.
Ok, let’s get the most important news out of the way first. No, it’s never ok to hit a person because you don’t like a joke. Period.
Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past 15 hours, I’m, of course, talking about what happened at the Oscars last night: actor Will Smith slapping Chris Rock in the face after he told a hair loss joke about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia.
What made last night particularly awful — and maybe the most uncomfortable few minutes of live TV ever — was that about half an hour after the slap heard ‘round the world, Smith received the Oscar for Best Actor. He got up and delivered a teary, cringeworthy speech trying to justify his actions by saying, “love makes you do crazy things” (which is a line that probably has been repeated by every domestic abuser ever). He also apologized to the Academy and his other nominees, but not to the man he hit.
The idea that Smith needed to “protect” his wife’s honor is the height of toxic masculinity — and misogyny. Pinkett Smith can speak for herself. Smith’s actions likely had more to do with his conception of what it means to be a man than it had to do with defending his wife from a joke. The whole concept of protecting a woman’s honor is rooted in misogyny and sexism, which Smith’s actions only serve to perpetuate. And ask yourself: would anyone support Will Smith if he slapped Amy Schumer, Regina Hall, or Wanda Sykes, who co-hosted the Oscar ceremony?
Smith’s actions were also incredibly selfish. The day after a night meant to honor the artistic contributions of talented filmmakers; all America is talking about is an immature man’s impulsive outburst.
And if we’re being honest about what happened, here’s a picture of the Smiths right after Rock told his joke:
Bottom line: Smith got caught.
Usually, I wouldn’t bother with such matters in Truth and Consequences, but there was something unbearably gross in watching Smith’s violent outburst normalized. The Academy should have immediately asked him to leave the proceedings and certainly shouldn’t have allowed him to deliver a speech. Imagine being a comedian and watching one of your fellow jokesters getting hit because of a joke and then that person being feted and celebrated. Instead, the message sent by Hollywood is that Will Smith is simply too big to fail. But as another famous man who doesn't understand accountability either once said, “when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.”
In Other News …
In slightly more important news, a federal judge has concluded that Donald Trump and John Eastman, a lawyer who advised the president during his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, “dishonestly conspired to obstruct the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021” and thus likely committed a felony. “The illegality of the plan was obvious,” said Judge David O. Carter. He embraced the argument of the congressional committee investigating January 6 that Eastman could not invoke the lawyer/client privilege to protect his communication because he and Trump conspired in an illegal scheme (which cancels out the lawyer/client privilege).
Carter was issuing a ruling that Eastman must turn over his emails to the congressional committee investigating January 6. But he went a step further and argued that “Dr. Eastman and President Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history … if Dr. Eastman and President Trump’s plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution.”
This decision will only increase the strength of the January 6 committee’s likely criminal referral of President Trump to the Department of Justice. In short, the odds that Trump gets indicted for his actions on and around January 6 have significantly increased. But even if that indictment isn’t forthcoming, the very fact that a federal judge has concluded that the former president committed a felony — and it will likely have no impact on his support within the Republican Party — does not bode well for the future of American democracy.
Blood On Their Hands
I have a new piece at The Daily Beast looking at the increasing prevalence of permitless concealed carry laws.
Every day in the United States more than 110 Americans are killed with a gun. These are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, husbands and wives—taken too soon from their families and friends. Thanks to the actions of Republican state legislators in Indiana—and the state’s GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb—these daily tragedies will likely rise.
Last week, Indiana became the latest state to make it legal for ordinary citizens to carry a concealed weapon on their person, with no permit and no training.
… States have long allowed gun owners to carry a concealed weapon, but all but Vermont required them to go through a permit process, which often entailed a background check and a mandatory safety class. In many states, police could reject permit applications.
These new laws, however, remove all restrictions. No background check, no training, no shooting exercises. Indeed, in permitless concealed carry states residents can buy a weapon and carry it hidden on their body—even if they have no idea how to use that weapon properly.
Two other states passed such bills earlier this year and six more enacted them in 2021. While we don’t yet have enough data to fully understand the impact of these laws, there’s enough empirical research about the connection between loose firearm laws and gun homicides to conclude that many more Americans will needlessly die as a result.
But then again, simple common sense tells us that putting concealed firearms in the hands of Americans who have had no safety training and no background checks will lead to more misuse of guns. You don’t have to trust me on this: listen to the police. In Ohio and Indiana, police officials uniformly opposed these laws, not the least of which because it will put police in more dangerous situations and could lead to more police shootings. In addition, public opinion polling shows that more than 80 percent of Americans oppose permitless concealed carry. But ultimately, the power of the National Rifle Association and the pro-gun lobby is simply too strong, even for a party that likes to portray itself as pro-police.
It’s worth keeping in mind that these laws are being passed at the same time that firearm deaths have surpassed 45,000—the highest number yet recorded. With these new laws, there will be more tragedies at the hands of a gun in America. It would be nice if the Republican legislators and governors passing these laws cared about the carnage they have unleashed. But they don’t.
Ukraine Update
On Friday, I wrote that the Russian military focus in Ukraine has clearly shifted away from Kyiv and Kharkiv and toward the South, around the surrounded city of Mariupol. That afternoon, Russian officials confirmed that assumption.
A senior U.S. defense official says Russia's top military priority at the moment is to advance in the Donbas region in the east of Ukraine, and ground efforts around the capital of Kyiv appear to be paused. Meanwhile, Ukrainian negotiators said their counterparts' demands were becoming more acceptable.
The Russian Defense Ministry said today that Russia is focused on the Donbas, and the U.S. official says that tracks with the heavy fighting the U.S. has been seeing there for the past several days. The Donbas is the site of two breakaway regions, Luhansk and Donetsk, that have been contested by Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists since shortly after the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
There's also heavy combat in Mariupol, a coastal city to the south of the Donbas. The U.S. official says this is part of a Russian effort to take full control of the region and cut off Ukrainian forces from helping elsewhere, such as Kyiv.
The official also said that, at least for the moment, the Russians have halted their ground offensive for Kyiv.
While before the Russian objective appeared to be the decapitation of the Zelensky government, the focus has shifted to creating facts on the ground that would allow Putin to declare victory. Capturing the Donbas regime and the land bridge between that region and Crimea would, it appears, be enough for Russia to end the conflict. We shouldn’t kid ourselves that this will create a Kumbaya moment between Russia and Ukraine, but at the very least, it might bring an end to the fighting (albeit perhaps only a temporary one).
In other news, President Biden delivered a speech in Warsaw, Poland, about the war and made a rather unfortunate off-the-cuff remark about Putin, “For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power."
Let’s be clear: this was a mistake. How do I know? Because the White House immediately issues a statement walking back the president’s comments. That only happens when the president misspeaks. I’m working on a longer piece for the New Republic about this, but Biden, who, by and large, has brilliantly handled this conflict, screwed up. His words will only feed Putin’s paranoia and make it that much harder for the United States to serve as an honest broker in diplomatic negotiations. Biden’s words also put pressure on other NATO countries, which have not endorsed regime change in Russia.
Indeed, French President Emmanuel Macron obliquely criticized Biden by diplomatically noting, “I wouldn't use terms like that because I'm still in talks with President Putin. Our goal is to stop the war Russia launched in Ukraine while avoiding a war and escalation.” Unfortunately, Biden’s words make that goal more difficult to achieve.
I don’t think this is the end of the world, but Biden’s gaffe was decidedly unhelpful.
What’s Going On
I can’t recommend highly enough this Annie Karni piece on Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who, after running for Congress as a moderate Republican, has gone full MAGA to win Trump’s support. It’s yet another reminder that Trump only corrupts those who allow themselves to be corrupted.
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch has smart thoughts on the Supreme Court’s legitimacy crisis.
Matt Ford of the New Republic makes a few similar points.
Anthony Beevor, who wrote a magisterial history of the Battle of Stalingrad, says Putin doesn’t understand modern warfare.
Musical Interlude
The statement "firearm homicides have surpassed 45,000" is not correct, and you should fix it. The article you linked says that total firearm deaths exceeded 45,000, but that's not the number of homicides. I don't see the article directly stating the number of homicides. Easy access to firearms also increases suicide rates, although gun nuts tend to deny that.