— Cold War Steve (@coldwarsteve) February 7, 2022
Understand protestors were shouting at Starmer about Jimmy Savile & had a noose. This is just days after @BorisJohnson repeated the false claim – regularly used by the far right – that the Labour leader failed to prosecute Savile when he was DPP https://t.co/8GPJpbevW8
— Rachel Wearmouth (@REWearmouth) February 7, 2022
Any politician choosing to weaponise online conspiracy theories against opponents knows fine well that they risk stirring up the kind of hate and abuse that Keir Starmer experienced today. If he has any decency at all, the PM will now apologise unreservedly. https://t.co/PkctiSZL1L
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) February 7, 2022
"It’s an attempt to incite a mob… it’s profoundly dangerous."
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) February 7, 2022
Labour MP Chris Bryant says Boris Johnson’s comment to Sir Keir Starmer about Jimmy Savile was "the same as Donald Trump’s playbook", after the Labour leader was rescued from a mob of protesters by police. pic.twitter.com/U7GmKTtqfe
I am sorry if theLeader of the Opposition thought I talked dangerous, incendiary bollocks… https://t.co/To3SOUQ3fE
— Emma Firth (@EmmaFirth) February 7, 2022
What happened to Keir Starmer tonight outside parliament is appalling. It is really important for our democracy & for his security that the false Savile slurs made against him are withdrawn in full.
— Julian Smith MP (@JulianSmithUK) February 7, 2022
Last Monday. PM makes false slur about Savile against Starmer.
— Brendan May (@bmay) February 7, 2022
This Monday. Mob threatens Starmer with execution on the basis he didn’t prosecute Savile.
This is precisely the sort of thing that happened under Trump.
No minister willing to go on @Channel4News.
Sinister.
For anyone who thinks Johnson is going to apologise in the face of Starmer being taunted by protestors about Jimmy Savile, I have a bag of magic beans for you https://t.co/XEwMnn3REE
— Nish Kumar (@MrNishKumar) February 7, 2022
Dominic Grieve: I was Attorney General when Keir Starmer was director of public prosecutions.. & everyone knew Jimmy Savile was not his responsibility.. & when the PM tells a whopping lie that's put out by fascist right wing websites, that's a disgraceful thing to do#KayBurley pic.twitter.com/LRnqhxD5Es
— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) February 7, 2022
And so, like clockwork, all the invertebrates who failed to condemn the lie, never mind the ones who actually repeated it, become complicit in what happened to Sir Keir Starmer tonight. https://t.co/CbUQKlV5l7
— James O'Brien (@mrjamesob) February 7, 2022
Google Trends results showing searches over the past year for “Starmer Savile”. A masterclass in turning fringy piffle mainstream. pic.twitter.com/3kXONXSW5u
— Arion McNicoll (@arionmcnicoll) February 7, 2022
We only have to look to the United States to know that when a desperate political leader weaponises conspiracy theories, knowing their words will be amplified online, that their actions become a national security threat to our democracy. What happened to the Conservative Party?
— Darren Jones MP (@darrenpjones) February 7, 2022
***
Why is anyone genuinely surprised by any of this?
The National Archives says it recently retrieved 15 boxes of presidential records from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club that were improperly removed from the White House. https://t.co/NETGssupbh
— ABC News (@ABC) February 7, 2022
Among the items Trump took with him to Mar-a-Lago that he had to give back to NARA: that map of Hurricane Dorian that he marked up with a black Sharpie in 2019 that showed his own forecast. w/@maggieNYT @reidepstein https://t.co/1BZ8Ey2XKB
— Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) February 8, 2022
Hope someone is going carefully through all 15 boxes. And were these documents not shredded? Does that mean Trump shredded some but not all documents? Is there a former staffer who can clarify why & what the standard was? https://t.co/tN0x6IsCzV
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) February 7, 2022
The key to the stories about Trump's serial violation of the Presidential Records Act is that he was repeatedly told he was breaking the law, but he kept doing it.
— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) February 7, 2022
Same was true of the Hatch Act. His whole administration's attitude was that obeying the law was optional.
Our only consolation will come when Ron Howard narrates Ken Burns’ Trump documentary.
— Jason Clark (@jasontclark) February 7, 2022
Meanwhile…
BREAKING: Supreme Court allows Alabama voting maps that advocates say disenfranchise Black voters. https://t.co/A3j0sSEhUP
— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 7, 2022
Stop being surprised that the three partisan hacks installed by Donald J Trump behave like partisan hacks
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) February 7, 2022
Never forget that Mitch McConnell killed filibuster to confirm 3 Trump justices to take away voting rights but Manchin & Sinema refused to reform filibuster to protect voting rights
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) February 7, 2022
The Jan. 6 party has little in common save its name with the one I joined in the 1980s. It is no longer a conservative party but a radical nationalist-populist party that poses a dire danger to American democracy – and to the lives of ordinary Americans. https://t.co/ME7iYmGRem
— Max Boot 🇺🇦🇺🇸 (@MaxBoot) February 7, 2022
— Harris Levy (@HarrisL585) February 7, 2022
Ron DeSantis knows what he’s doing:
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) February 7, 2022
“The first rule of the MAGA movement: Never condemn white supremacists.”
https://t.co/iZA4ibUPjG
Two years into pandemic, politicians still getting tripped up over coronavirus restrictions https://t.co/IPJXxP3wmv
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 7, 2022
"These people have been happy to do the right thing…But what they’ve been doing is a sacrifice in service of the greater good…So they rightly bristle when their leaders give the appearance of thinking themselves too important to make that sacrifice."https://t.co/wxOZkOYQqP
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) February 7, 2022
And, elsewhere…
Talks continue, but the two sides are very far apart. pic.twitter.com/VBChbAxAR1
— Damien Owens (@OwensDamien) February 7, 2022
Scoop: Intercepted communications obtained by the US have revealed that some Russian military and intel officials have worried that a large-scale invasion of Ukraine would be costlier and more difficult than Putin realizes. https://t.co/KKFOObQXbp
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) February 7, 2022
BREAKING: President Joe Biden said “it would be wise” for Americans other than essential diplomats to leave Ukraine amid the Russian military threat. The State Department has already authorized nonessential employees to leave. https://t.co/6GTqo8edgd
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 7, 2022
"If Russia makes a choice to further invade Ukraine, we are jointly ready, and all of NATO is ready"
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) February 7, 2022
US President Joe Biden says it "cannot be business as usual" should Russia "violate Ukraine's sovereignty"https://t.co/vbJqxyaNCm pic.twitter.com/gfqUJen5TN
That’s big: alongside German chancellor, Biden says Nord Stream 2 is dead if Russia further invades Ukraine
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) February 7, 2022
Tonight, Sdholz has still not committed publicly to ending Nord Stream 2 if Russia invades.
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) February 7, 2022
Just posted: My exclusive conversation with @SecBlinken about the crisis in Ukraine, Russia, NATO and the future of the international system. https://t.co/iTtAODL7fu
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) February 7, 2022
The Overnight Note 