20 Years Later, Political Press Still Falls Hard For Swift Boat Attacks
20 Years Later, Political Press Still Falls Hard For Swift Boat Attacks
INSIDE: Kevin Roberts ... Kamala Harris ... Tim Walz
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Will They Never Learn?
JD Vance launched a spurious and baseless attack on Tim Walz’s military service reminiscent of the Swift Boat attacks in 2004 that targeted one of John Kerry’s key political strengths: his heroism and valor in Vietnam. But instead of using the last 20 years to reflect and reconsider the familiar coverage patterns, some political editors still get played like a fiddle when it comes to covering GOP attack lines.
The WaPo was probably the worst culprit, with this headline: “Tim Walz’s military record, National Guard departure get new scrutiny.” It happily launders the Vance attack line without self-awareness or historical understanding of the last two decades of American politics. “New scrutiny” – like its weasel-word compadres “raises questions about” and “is said to” – confers a miraculous virgin birth to scurrilous political attacks even if they’re launched right out in the open.
To its credit, Politico is much more direct and puts the attack in the broader context with a story headlined: “Vance runs a Swift Boat attack against Walz’s military service.” You might quibble with Politico’s handling of it, but it’s clearly not the same laundering operation the WaPo ran on this one.
The irony of the Vance attack and the media coverage of it is that the originator of the Swift Boat attack against Kerry back in the day was Chris LaCivita, who is now a senior Trump campaign adviser.
Can’t Memory Hole Project 2025 That Easily!
Further undermining Donald Trump’s bogus claims that he knew nothing about Project 2025, the WaPo has discovered a private flight (photo included) that Donald Trump took with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts in April 2022 to a Heritage conference where Trump seemed to reference Project 2025. The work of Project 2025 has been done under the auspices of the Heritage Foundation.
Meanwhile, Roberts has postponed the launch of his new book – with a foreword by none other than JD Vance himself – until after the November election.
On The Trail
Kamala Harris once again tamps down a “Lock him up” chant, this time at her campaign rally in Michigan:
At the same Michigan rally, Harris also shut down hecklers (y’all, that look at the 2:12 mark):
Donald Trump has only one campaign rally this week – and it’s in the deep-red state of Montana.
Quote Of The Day
2024 Ephemera
WaPo: Trump complains about campaign as advisers try to focus on attacking Harris
NYT: Tim Walz’s Sudden Rise in the Democratic Party Was No Accident
WSJ: Tim Walz’s and JD Vance’s Personal Finances Couldn’t Be More Different
Biden Warns Trump Won’t Lose Peacefully
In his first interview since ending his re-election bid, President Biden says he’s “not confident at all” that there will be a peaceful transfer of power if Trump loses the November election:
Arizona Grand Jury Wanted To Indict Trump, Too
The Arizona grand jury that handed down indictments in the state’s fake electors probe was interested in indicting Donald Trump, too, but were discouraged from doing so by prosecutors with the state attorney general’s office, according to a new filing this week defending against attacks that the prosecution was politically motivated. Attorney General Kris Mayes has not publicly addressed the thinking behind that strategy since the filing.
Jan. 6 Defendant Taken Into Custody After Threatening Posts
Prosecutors moved to revoke bail for a Jan. 6 defendant who allegedly posted online threats against Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Attorney General Merrick Garland, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Georgia Judge Scott McAfee.
The 2020 Election Still Isn’t Over In Georgia
The Georgia Election Board voted 3-2 to reinvestigate Fulton County’s handling of the 2020 presidential recount. The three Republican members who voted to ask the state attorney general to reexamine the results yet again have been praised publicly by Donald Trump as recently as this past weekend.
For Legal Nerds …
An unusual sequence of events this week in the legal fight over Texas’ installation of buoys in the Rio Grande, a move the federal government is fighting but recently lost on at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The case is now back to the trial judge. Here’s where things get interesting.
After a status conference two days ago, the Texas attorney general’s office took the unusual step of racing to the appeals court to tattle, basically, on what the trial judge had said in the status conference. That prompted a swift order from the trial judge hauling the parties back into court yesterday for a second status conference in which he lambasted the attorney general’s office.
Politico senior legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein has some choice excerpts from the transcript of the the second status conference.
Astronauts May Be Stranded Until 2025
The two astronauts who departed Earth for a planned eight-day mission aboard Boeing’s Starliner two months ago may not return until 2025 as NASA works on a backup plan to have them hitch a ride on a Space X vehicle. The astronauts have been stuck on the International Space Station because of technical issues with the Boeing craft that have raised safety concerns about using it for the return trip.
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Fact is the media has always held Democrats to a way higher standard than Republicans. The very idea that a man who served 24 years in the National Guard is somehow cowardly next to a guy who served a few years as a journalist. Not only did justdumb never see combat he never helped anybody either the way Walz did in the National Guard. Not to mention cadet bone spurs. Every time media publishes anything about Walz's service they ought to include what justdumb did and for how long and the fact that t***p's daddy bought a doctor's excuse for him.
The headline writer is mistaken. The political press did not fall for the phony swift boat attack. They signed on for it. They are complicit.