Weekend Report: What's happening?

What is means if DeSantis is finally toast. Roger Stone on tape calling for assassination of Democrats. Biden IRS crackdown on tax cheats is a huge success, while GOP wants to stop it.

No one knows precisely what will happen in the Iowa Caucuses this week since the entire state is snowed in and in a deep freeze. And caucuses are always hard to predict. But if DeSantis is plummeting like the temperatures and doesn’t make a decent showing—which seems to be the case—that could be the end of the line for him. Back to Florida and off the national stage. And that tells us a lot about the current state of the GOP.

The revelation of an audio tape of Donald Trump’s longtime adviser, Roger Stone, calling for the killing of Democratic House members Eric Swalwell and Jerry Nadler is beyond chilling. When you combine it with Trump’s attorney telling a court the president should have immunity even if he kills his opponents—and Trump backing that up the next day—it tells you all you need to know about another Trump presidency.

And pathetic Mike Johnson, the House Speaker, is crowing that, in the deal with Democrats to avert a shutdown, he got $10 billion of $80 billion allocated for the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act, part of which will go toward the collection of money from millionaires not paying their taxes. But this tiny clawback not only doesn’t come close to placating the MAGA extremists in the House—they’re already calling for his removal—but it came on the same day the IRS, utilizing the new funding, reported it had collected $520 million in back taxes already.