Trump has “envoys” going around the world: After an anti-corruption crusader unexpectedly won last year’s presidential election in Guatemala, democracy teetered on the edgein the Central American country. Amid law enforcementraids on election offices and threats of violence, the Biden administration worked feverishly to lay the groundwork for a peaceful transfer of power. But not Richard Grenell, a former diplomat and intelligence official in Donald Trump’s administration, who arrived in Guatemala in January, days before the new president was to be sworn in — and threw his support behind aright-wing campaign to undermine the election. Grenell met with a hard-line group that sued to block the inauguration. The group thanked him for his “visit and trust.”He defended Guatemalan officials who had seized ballot boxes in an effort to overturn a vote declared “free and fair” by the United States and international observers,and he attacked the U.S. State Department’s sanctions against hundreds of anti-democratic actors. “They are trying to intimidate conservatives in Guatemala,” Grenell said in a television interview.
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The judges didn’t buy his defense of the coup attempt David Kurtz at TPM: With the Jan. 6 case against Donald Trump ground to a halt and the no real prospect of the Georgia RICO case against him reaching a verdict before November, yesterday’s ruling against Trump co-defendant John Eastman in California may be the closest we get to a taste of a Jan. 6 verdict before Election Day. In recommending that Eastman be disbarred for his role in the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, a state judge issued a blistering ruling that treated the autocoup with the historic seriousness it deserves. It came after a full evidentiary record was developed over months and extensive legal argument, like a full-blown trial. Eastman plans to appeal, and ultimately the state Supreme Court will decide whether he’ll be disbarred, but in the meantime he is suspended from practicing law.
Merchan hit him with a gag order. Not that he cares. But maybe someone should look into a straight jacket. Update:
Those of you who’ve been reading me for 20 years know how I have felt about Joe Lieberman. I’ll just leave this here:
The Very Stable Genius at work.
Is the insurrectionist-in-chief melting? Good does not always triumph. Bad guys don’t always get their comeuppance. Despite all the stories we’ve heard since childhood. Ask a conservative. The world is not fair. Ask Donald Trump. Nobody knows more about unfairness than he does. Our bias toward expecting justice to be done, eventually, and the arc of the moral universe bending toward it, eventually, makes it hard for us to conceive that the former president may exit this life without receiving what he justly deserves. He might. Or his comeuppance might arrive outside the criminal justice system. Simon Rosenberg urges his Hopium readers to do more and worry less: “Donate to and join the Biden-Harris campaign” and “Make an early investment in North Carolina.” Biden has gained ground on Trump in six new polls. But the only polls that really count are the ones open on Election Day.
Health care is still on the ballot. Including reproductive care. Both the president and vice president campaigned in Raleigh, North Carolina on Tuesday (CNN): The Raleigh stop marked a rare joint appearance on the road by the president and vice president, highlighting the emphasis the duo will place on health care as they prepare to face off against former President Donald Trump. It came the same day the Supreme Court heard arguments on access to the abortion medication mifepristone, teeing up a summer decision that could have major implications for abortion rights. Biden’s advisers believed Tuesday’s visit would provide a stark contrast between the Democratic ticket’s vision for health care and reproductive rights and proposals put forth by Republicans. It’s taking place on the heels of a campaign push slamming Trump for threatening to repeal the Affordable Care Act if he’s elected to a second term. “Donald Trump and MAGA friends are nothing if not persistent. They’ve tried to repeal it 50 times, not a joke. Fifty times they’ve tried to repeal it.
Good: A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that Democrats are more likely to report feeling “fearful” or “angry” about the prospects of another Trump term than Republicans are about the idea of Biden remaining in the White House. The emotional reaction Trump inspires may work in his favor too, though, since the poll also found that Republicans are more excited about the prospect of a Trump win than Democrats are about a Biden victory. Seven in 10 Democrats say the words “angry” or “fearful” would describe their emotions “extremely well” or “very well” upon a Trump victory. A smaller majority of Republicans – 56% – say the same about a Biden triumph. About 6 in 10 Democrats cite both emotions when contemplating a Trump victory. Again, that exceeds the roughly 4 out of 10 Republicans who said they would feel both angry and scared about Biden prevailing. The findings are notable in an unusual campaign pitting an incumbent president against his predecessor, with both men facing doubters within their own parties and among independents.
As Tom pointed out this morning, it worked like a charm down in Alabama yesterday just as it’s been working ever since Rove v Wade was overturned. I hope they see just what a huge winning issue this is for them and ride it all the way to November.
It remains to be seen if it’s been done in time The Daily Beast reports on what they call the “quiet” Biden plan to “ambush” Trump. For the first time in a long time, there’s good news for Biden on the polling front. Gradual improvements in the battleground states along with an uptick in his approval rating led one Democratic strategist, Simon Rosenberg, to declare “the Biden bump.” The boost is at the very least correlated with Biden’s fiery State of the Union address on March 7, when he repeatedly went after his “predecessor” and made sure to mix it up with Republicans in the chamber on a few occasions. Since then, Biden’s team has continued the punchy, combative tone on display that night, using press releases to cheekily slam their legally challenged opponent as “Broke Don.” On top of that, the Biden campaign has continued to flex what has always been its core strength: fundraising. With a $53 million haul in February, the Biden campaign built on their already impressive financial advantage over Trump, who brought in only $20 million over the same period.