Hmmm. Trump claimed that he had the “right” to take home documents in a recent Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, who repeatedly tried to help the former president without success. “I’ve known you for decades,” Hannity said. “I can’t imagine you ever saying, ‘Bring me some of the boxes that we brought back from the White House. I’d like to look at them.’ Did you ever do that?” “I would have the right to do that,” Trump responded. “There’s nothing wrong with it.” “But I know you,” Hannity said. “I don’t think you would do it.” “I don’t have a lot of time, but I would have the right to do that,” Trump retorted. “I would do that.” “Remember this,” Trump added. “This is the Presidential Records Act. I have the right to take stuff.” And check this out: Legal experts said new revelations about obstruction evidence collected by special counsel Jack Smith’s team could land former President Donald Trump in deep legal trouble.
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This is a good take on the DeSantis and Trump dynamic at the moment. It’s complicated. Very complicated. Puck’s Tara Palmeri has an excellent interview with Florida politico Peter Schorsch about what DeSantis Land is thinking these days and I have to say . . . it does not inspire confidence in Meatball Ron’s chances. Read the whole thing. Being immune to real-world feedback is not a great trait in a politician. And I agree that the window to attack Trump has closed because of the indictment. But the best line is from the unnamed Trump aide: “DeSantis brought a mercenary army to a holy war.” That perfectly sums up the establishment support for DeSantis. Conservatism Inc. was so eager for someone to rid them of Trump that they jumped behind DeSantis purely because his poll numbers were good. They had no plan. They were never going to confront Trump. They simply believed that they could lecture the rubes about electability and then the unwashed would do what they were told.
This did not happen… This did: He did not lead anyone down the boulevard. He slunk in and out of the courtroom as fast as possible and hightailed it back to his safe space in Maralago. Poor little Eric was just trying to buck up his sad, sad daddy.
Howdya like that border, Vlad? The Russian president’s imperial adventurism has not succeeded in bringing Ukraine back under Kremlin control. What it has succeeded in doing is doubling Russia’s land border with NATO. Except Finland did that for him (Washington Post): Finland is set to formally join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Tuesday, a historic shift for a country that once insisted it was safer outside the military alliance, a dramatic rebuke to Russia and a sign of how President Vladimir Putin’s gamble in Ukraine is upending the post-Cold War order. Finnish membership will double NATO’s land border with Russia, adding more than 800 miles. It will also bolster the alliance’s presence around the Baltic Sea and enhance its position in the Arctic. To justify his unprovoked attack on Ukraine, Putin cited the possibility of NATO expansion. Now, his war has brought a bigger, stronger NATO to his door. Whoops. Putin was this close to gutting NATO when his bootlickin’ apologist occupied the Oval Office. Helsinki was not a NATO member — making it neutral territory — when the two met there in 2018.
Russia should release Evan Gershkovich; if as part of a prisoner swap it should be speedily concluded. Gershkovich was arrested in Ekaterinburg while investigating the Wagner Group. Ekaterinburg is one of Russia’s grimmest, most mafia dominated and least open cities, which I have myself visited specifically to investigate the murders of local Russian journalists. That […]
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MAGites won’t stop until stopped Your regular reminder: State legislative races matter. The war MAGA Republicans are waging is not simply cultural, not simply rhetorical, but potentially deadly. Ruth Madievsky reminds Salon readers: The right’s escalating culture war — with vigorous attacks on abortion and gender-affirming care for minors — incurs ever-evolving collateral damage. In recent months, conservative lawmakers have introduced legislation centered on banning books with LGBTQ+ content, obstructing transgender care in both minors and adults, and removing nationwide access to mifepristone—one of the drugs used to manage both medical abortion and early miscarriage. Recent events suggest that the newest casualty in these battles may be access to HIV care. On Thursday, a federal judge appointed by George W. Bush struck down a key provision of the Affordable Care Act requiring health insurance companies to cover PrEP, the highly effective drugs used for HIV prevention.
Over the past few years there has been a lot of talk about the mainstream media “normalizing” and “mainstreaming” the white nationalist fringe that has risen to prominence under the Trump regime. They have been reasonably successful at providing context for stories about groups like the Proud Boys and have done a decent job of reporting on events like January 6. But they just can’t seem to wrap their minds around how to deal with the insurrectionist caucus in Congress. On Sunday, CBS News inexplicably decided to air Lesley Stahl’s interview with second-term Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia for the venerable “60 Minutes.” If you think it was a tough interview, take a look at this response from Greene and I think you’ll be able to guess how it went: “It was an honor to spend a few days with the legendary icon Leslie [sic] Stahl and talented crew [of 60 Minutes]. Leslie is a trailblazer for women in journalism.
… for Trump Axios recognizes reality: Think about how topsy-turvy Republican politics has become for Trump’s top rivals to defend him after he’s indicted. If that’s the mood of the GOP electorate now, good luck getting past Trump for the nomination. The first poll conducted post-indictment, by Yahoo News/YouGov, shows Trump’s support skyrocketing among Republicans. Trump now holds a 26-point lead over Florida Gov. DeSantis (57%-31%) in the GOP primary — up from just eight points two weeks ago. What’s good for Trump in a primary is unlikely to translate into a general election. Trump had rock-bottom favorability ratings among all Americans before the indictment, and the specter of a presidential candidate facing the prospect of jail time isn’t likely to win over swing voters. The problem for Republicans is that their voters don’t care much about electability. Just look at their 2022 roster of statewide candidates, which was filled with deeply flawed nominees who nonetheless cruised through primaries in which the most extreme rhetoric resonated. Getting them to care about DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov.
This is just sad: Mike Pence might harbor deep-seated resentment toward Donald Trump for his handling of Jan. 6. But it’s Nikki Haley who really gets under the Pence camp’s skin. Inside Pence’s orbit, staffers have begun privately complaining about a presidential contender who, like Pence, is polling in single digits — distressed that Haley is drawing what they view as more favorable media coverage than the former vice president receives. In recent weeks, they fumed about coverage that painted her as a fiscal conservative at a donor retreat in Florida and didn’t fully capture what they described as her tepid reception at CPAC, where Pence previously drew headlines for getting booed. The animosity hasn’t quite reached the level of hostilities between Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar in the 2020 Democratic primary, and Pence staffers appear to spend more time thinking about Haley than vice versa. But the tension surfacing between them has all the makings of the first, real undercard feud of 2024.
I didn’t know they still existed but apparently, the Blue Dogs and the “Problem Solvers” caucus are getting ready to screw up the Democratic strategy for dealing with the debt ceiling by giving away the store. (That’s what they always do — don’t kid yourself.) This is a very bad idea: A group of House Democrats is secretly crafting a fallback plan to avoid an economy-rattling debt default. The White House wants no part of it. The rogue band of moderate Democrats has spent weeks constructing a break-glass deal with centrist Republicans in case the country goes all the way to the brink on the debt ceiling. As the summertime deadline for action approaches, they’re worried a prolonged standoff could lead to fiscal disaster. But Biden officials and party leaders, however, see it far differently and are bristling at the attempts at a compromise, according to four lawmakers familiar with the discussions. Their party’s message to those plotting centrists: Your efforts are unlikely to succeed and risk hurting our goal of a clean debt ceiling increase.