A New Trumpian Strategy For Perpetuating The Big Lie
INSIDE: Aileen Cannon ... Juan Merchan ... Jamaal Bowman
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
The Flood Gates Are Opened
One under-appreciated aspect of Donald Trump’s relentless year’s long campaign to promulgate the Big Lie is how it becomes internalized as gospel all the way down the GOP line to the local dog catcher.
We saw a similar dynamic in the decades-long voter fraud bamboozlement effort the GOP was running. Yes, those efforts were smoked out, the worst culprits identified, and some of the most egregious efforts either thwarted or rolled back. But I observed from our reporting on it over the years that the voter fraud bogosity was so prevalent that even reasonable, non-bad-actor Republicans adopted and advanced it unquestioningly. It was in the drinking water. They didn’t even know they’d been sipping it for years.
That was a sobering realization, a corollary to the old aphorism that if you repeat the lie for long enough it becomes true. Which brings us to the Big Lie.
We’ve seen periodic episodes of local officials thwarting the certification of election results on some Big Lie-style pretense. Heroes in their own minds, they’ve been immersed in the Big Lie for long enough for it to have saturated their entire understanding of the election process. That’s not let them off the hook, or to excuse their actions. It’s just a different dynamic than what we saw in 2020.
The Washington Post reports this morning on examples from five battleground states since 2020 where county-level officials have tried to block the certification of the vote. The article frames it up as a potential threat to the sanctity of a Biden win in November, a way for Republicans in the thousands of counties around the country to impede, slow, or undermine the ultimate determination of who won. Or worse, to create and sustain unfounded doubts about the result of the election that could fuel election challenges, delegitimize the result, and mire the election in legal battles.
If the 2020 autocoup attempt was from the top down, led by President Trump from the White House, the 2024 version may look more bottom up, a “grassroots” effort that Trump has seeded with a million lies for a dozen years. Or, as I suspect is most likely, a combination of top-down and bottom-up election denialism that work in sync with each other to maximize disruption.
Let’s Check In On the Georgia RICO Case
Things have slowed to a crawl as Trump et al.’s appeal of the trial judge’s refusal to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis is considered:
AJC: Trump, co-defendants urge Georgia appeals court to disqualify Fani Willis
AJC: A determined judge vows to keep Trump case moving
Speaking Of Georgia …
Georgia is the first state to require its law enforcement officers be trained in the nuances of election intimidation and election interference in order to keep them on the right side of the line, TPM’s Khaya Himmelman reports.
Could Be Worse
After a hearing on the matter yesterday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon does not seem inclined to take Trump’s side and find fault with the validity of the search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago in the classified documents case.
Judge Eases Trump Gag Order
New York state Judge Juan Merchan reluctantly loosened some of the strictures of the gag order he imposed on Trump in the hush-money case. The revised gag order will remain in place until after Trump is sentenced next month.
Insurrectionists Abound
With Steve Bannon due to report to prison July 1, the House GOP is trying to throw him a lifeline with the Supreme Court.
Election Results
NY-16: Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D) lost to Westchester County executive George Latimer (D) in the Democratic primary by double digits.
CO-04: Rep. Lauren Boebert (R) romped to victory in the GOP primary in her new-to-her district, which was vacated by the retiring Rep. Ken Buck (R).
UT-Sen: Rep. John Curtis (R) defeated Trump-endorsed Trent Staggs (R) in the GOP primary to become the presumptive successor to Sen. Mitt Romney (R).
If You’re Ignoring My Recommendation …
… and are dying to read about Thursday’s presidential debate, this Bulwark piece is about as good as it’s gonna get.
SCOTUS Watch
The Supreme Court is scheduled to release its end-of-term decisions at 10 a.m. ET today, tomorrow and Friday. It’s not yet clear whether they’ll issue all of their outstanding opinions by the end of this week or have to push the end of the term into next week.
In the meantime, read Linda Greenhouse on the high court’s gun decision last week.
Assange Now A Free Man
The Wikileaks provocateur entered his guilty plea to violating the Espionage Act in the far-flung U.S. federal court in the Northern Mariana Islands as part of plea deal that sentenced him to time already served in a British prison. Afterwards, he flew on to his home country of Australia.
As folks assess the implications, some reading for you to consider:
Charlie Savage: Assange’s Plea Deal Sets a Chilling Precedent, but It Could Have Been Worse
Marcy Wheeler: The Damaging Precedent Of The Julian Assange Espionage Guilty Plea
Long Time Coming
President Biden will issue a blanket pardon today to gay former service members convicted over a 60-year period of violating the military’s old anti-sodomy laws. Some 2,000 people are covered by the pardon.
Keeping An Eye On This
The two astronauts aboard the first human flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft remain stuck indefinitely at the International Space Station while engineers try to figure out technical problems encountered on the voyage there back in early June.
The spacecraft and its crew were scheduled to return after eight days, on June 18. The return date was initially pushed back until today. But yesterday NASA announced an indefinite postponement until sometime in July.
Never Stop
When I saw her onstage early last summer, Mavis Staples was struggling a little bit with the heat, which is understandable for someone in their 80s. By the end of the summer, she was ready to retire. But that didn’t suit her, and she has since changed her mind. The NYT has a lovely profile of the reinvigorated legend.
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Great compilation this morning and thanks so much for the Mavis Staples link - I thoroughly enjoyed the article. It's a reminder that our world also consists of beauty, enduring friendship and human soul. Thanks David.
Excellent reporting. Thanks. Davis, sorry your mother is not well.