Another day, another Onion-esque headline. How does The Onion stay in business when the Washington Post trumps it on a daily basis for bizarro world stories? Today we learn in the pages of the Post that Mark Meadows is buying up property on Capitol Hill for a sort of MAGA campus, or “Patriot’s Row” as he calls it. Washington Post:
The Conservative Partnership Institute, as the nonprofit is known, now controls four commercial properties along a single Pennsylvania Avenue block, three adjoining rowhouses around the corner, and a garage and carriage house in the rear alley. CPI’s aim, as expressed in its annual report, is to transform the swath of prime real estate into a campus it calls “Patriots’ Row.”
Now bear in mind, they hate the swamp, they think D.C. is Crime City, Donald Trump can’t stop talking about how “dirty” and “disgraceful” it is but they just have to be there. And they’ve been working on establishing this beach head for a while.
[Jim] DeMint, a former Republican congressman from South Carolina, started CPI in 2017, shortly after he was ousted as Heritage’s leader amid criticism that the think tank had become too political under his direction. Meadows joined in 2021, after working as Trump’s chief of staff. He was by Trump’s side during the administration’s final calamitous days, before and after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and as the president’s allies were seeking to overturn election results.
On its 2021 tax returns, CPI reported $45 million in revenue, most of it generated through contributions and grants, and paid DeMint and Meadows compensation packages of $542,000 and $559,000, respectively. Its current offices, a three-story townhouse at the corner of Third Street and Independence Avenue SE, is a hub of GOP activity. During the chaotic lead-up to Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s election as House speaker, dissident Republican lawmakers were observed congregating at CPI.
CPI also provides grants to a cluster of nonprofits headed by Trump allies. Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, for example, leads America First Legal, which received $1.3 million from CPI in 2021 and bills itself as a check on “lawless executive actions and the Radical Left.”
Cleta Mitchell, an attorney who was on the call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger seeking to reverse votes in the 2020 election, runs what the organization bills as its “Election Integrity Network,” which has cast doubt on the validity of President Biden’s 2020 victory.
Cleta Mitchell and Stephen Miller. Now we’re really getting to the MAGA A-list. And Steve Bannon lives within walking distance as well.
Jamie Raskin threw in his two cents worth.
Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), a regular commuter to the Capitol from his home in Montgomery County, sees CPI’s acquisitions in terms more political than geographic.
“It just seems like a massive real estate coming-out party for the extreme right wing of the Republican Party,” Raskin said. “This is a very explicit and well-financed statement of intent. They set out to take over the Republican Party and they’re very close to clenching the power.”
Instead of Patriots’ Row, Raskin suggested an alternative name: Seditionist Square.
“Maybe Marjorie Taylor Greene can be their advisory neighborhood commissioner,” he said.
CPI has a finger in a lot of pies. It’s going to be the Voice of MAGA, if this is any indication.
A CPI-related entity, the Conservative Partnership Center, rented space to two political action committees as of early January, the House Freedom Fund and Senate Conservative Fund, according to campaign finance records. CPI also received $4,000 from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who has recorded his “Firebrand” podcast at the group’s studio, as has the host of the “Gosar Minute,” Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.), according to the group’s annual report. Greene paid CPI $437.73 for “catering for political meetings” in 2021, the records show.
MAGA wants a permanent home in D.C. That’s the long and the short of it. And let’s read the handwriting on the wall, shall we? Trump’s backers, and that is a lot of the Republican party, are rallying behind Trump to get back in the White House. That’s the subtext of all this. They’re establishing a MAGA presence in D.C. and they’re welcoming the cult leader back. They’re not ready to move on from Trump.
Apparently diehards like Mark Meadows and Elise Stefanik believe Trump can win. Maybe they know what voter suppression tactics they’re cooking up in the back room that leads them to believe that. This is going to get ugly.
Uglier than Jan 6th? Merrick! Calling merrick! Car 54…where are you?
So, NOW you’re advocating to arrest people for “thought crimes?”
Trump been proud of your thinking. Don’t bother waiting for “them” to commit a crime; just “lock them up” without any real crime. He kept advocating that for Hillary or have you forgotten that in all your zealous rhetoric?
Pretty sure Meadows has committed crimes as part of the trump cabal. He just hasn’t answered for them yet as there seems to be no will at the federal level to take down the really big fish. Not so far.
I do hope they can nail Meadows for his part in 1/6.
Traitor’s Row fits much better! After all, whether any MAGAt has acted on it or not within each and every MAGAt beats the heart of a TRAITOR!
👍 Beautifully written. Agree 100%.
Joe. Have you been in Antarctica? I believe jan6th committee members who have seen the evidence. Besides ever hear of sarcasm pal? Geez you must be a fucking puritan. Not every goddamn post is literal. Just check that pocket constitution you like to reference. By the way even those entitled assholes only gave white men with property the right to vote. Privileged groups protecting their privilege. Meadows should have been charged with voter fraud here in NC. His ass should be grilled over his burning of documents. Keep making excuses. You’re good at that. Oh, and acting superior. You’re good at that too. I’ll stick with Jamie. His tolerance for fascism is as low as mine. Oh, and he and the committee decided after seeing the evidence people SHOULD BE CHARGED! Now. Cue up your excuse. And don’t forget to give me shit. Have a nice day.
By the way you keep bringing up Hillary. False equivalency. She wasn’t guilty of anything and they spent 7 million dollars and years and had nothing. Trump has been committing crimes his entire adulthood, including trying to overthrow our goddamn democracy in front of us all. We saw witness tampering with his pardons. He has broken many laws in public. If Hillary had done all this and stolen 11,000 documents, including the very top secret files only allowed to be viewed in a secure room, then I would want Mr milktoast to charge her. But she didn’t. I would stop making false comparisons. It doesn’t fly.
Sounds APPROPRIATE to me!
“How does The Onion stay in business when the Washington Post trumps it on a daily basis for bizarro world stories?”
That’s easily answered. Even when the Onion’s stories (and the same applies to Andy Borowitz) stories are at least as plausible as the Post’s, the Onion’s stories make you wish they were true. Reality makes you sau, “Oh, my God, no, not again.”