A Searing Weekend Of Political Violence In America
INSIDE: Donald Trump ... ACB ... RFK Jr.
Another Spasm Of Political Violence
Vance Luther Boelter, 57, was captured late Sunday in Minnesota and charged in the assassination of former state House Speaker Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband, Mark, and the attempted assassination of state Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife, Yvette.
One of the debilitating aspects of any violence is how final and definitive it is and how anemic any response to it feels. Capturing and trying the alleged culprit are necessary next steps but nothing unwinds what was done. Nothing sets things right.
The story of who Boelter is and how he did what he did is unsatisfying no matter how many particular details are uncovered and strung together. Piecing together motive, political ideology, and the catalysts that pushed him into unspeakable violence tries to serve our desire for meaning by establishing cause and effect. Maybe it will. Maybe it won’t.
Setting aside for now the particulars in Minnesota, what we do know is that violence and violent rhetoric begets more violence. While political violence has been a recurring feature of American political life, what marks the Trump era and makes it so different is that the president of the United States has immersed himself with almost gleeful fascination in violent threats, themes, urges, and impulses. Trump mythologizes violence.
For a decade now, Trump has feds his supporters with ever more lavish displays of violence – ugly threats and smears, mass deportations, harsh reprisals against foes, an attack on the Capitol. The episodic violence serve as totems of their tribalism. Over time, it takes ever greater shows of violence to feed the hunger for it. The next performative violence must out-do what came before.
It’s not clear where it ends. But it’s not nearly over yet.
The Weekend’s Major Deportation Developments
Under political pressure, the Trump administration abruptly shifted its deportation focus away from enforcement actions in the agricultural industry, hotel, and restaurant industries, the NYT reports.
The Trump administration is considering adding 36 countries to its travel ban list, but countries can avoid being added to the list of they agree to accept third-country nationals deported from the United States, according to an internal memo reviewed by the WaPo.
In an unhinged social media post, President Trump directed federal immigration officials to prioritize deportations from Democratic-run cities:
Posse Comitatus?
Marines in Los Angeles were photographed by Reuters in what was the first known detention of a civilian as part of its deployment in support of mass deportations. The man was quickly released.
Good Read
Inae Oh on The “Delicate, Beautiful, Tiny” Fascism of Kristi Noem
PHOTOS: The No Kings Protests
ICYMI: a collection of photos of the anti-Trump protests gathered from TPM readers and professional photographers.
The New Trump DOJ: Prosecute and Publicize
Reuters: “The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday ordered federal prosecutors to prioritize criminal prosecution of protesters who destroy property or assault law enforcement, and to make sure every case they bring gets publicized, according to an internal email seen by Reuters.”
Inside The Trump DOJ’s ‘Rubber Room’
We’ve known for a few months that some career Justice Department lawyers perceived as insufficiently loyal to the President were consigned to dead-end work on sanctuary cities. Now CBS News goes inside what has been dubbed the “rubber room.”
Judge Blocks Key Parts Of Trump’s Elections EO
In a new preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper of Massachusetts blocked two key elements of President Trump’s executive order on elections: (i) allowing the federal government to require proof of citizenship to register to vote; and (ii) enforcing against states an Election Day deadline for counting mail-in ballots. No other judge had yet blocked the ballot-counting provision. Both provisions will remain blocked while the litigation proceeds.
More Big Law Firm Fallout
Seven partners at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, one of the law firms that struck a deal with President Trump, are leaving to join the Cooley law firm, which represented Jenner & Block in its successful challenge of the Trump executive order that targeted it.
About Trump’s Parade …
TPM’s Hunter Walker offers his account of President Trump’s long-sought strongman-style military parade in DC.
For the perspective of a seasoned major events planner, this thread from Doug Landry is a fun romp through the image-making and planning fails of the parade.
The Corruption: Cryptocurrency Edition
President Trump earned around $57 million from his stake in his family-backed cryptocurrency firm World Liberty Financial last year, according to a new financial disclosure form, when the venture was still in its infancy and hadn’t yet burgeoned after his inauguration.
Quote Of The Day
“They knew that these were losing positions from the beginning and were not actually hoping to win in court, but rather to intimidate firms into settling, as many firms did. Now that they have racked up the four losses in district courts, it is not surprising that they are not appealing, because I don’t think they ever thought these were serious positions.”–Cornell law professor W. Bradley Wendel, on President Trump’s strategy of targeting big law firms with executive orders and not appealing his losses in lower courts
A Deep Dive On Amy Coney Barrett
Two nuggets from the NYT’s well-reported examination of Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s emerging role on the Supreme Court:
“Soon after Justice Barrett arrived at the court she … Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. assigned her to write a majority opinion — among her first — allowing the seizure of state property in a pipeline case, according to several people aware of the process. But she then changed her mind and took the opposite stance, a bold move that risked irritating the chief justice.”
“This spring, on Stephen K. Bannon’s podcast, [right-wing legal activist Mike Davis] tore into [Barrett] in such crude terms, even mocking the size of her family, that Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, for whom Mr. Davis had once clerked, phoned him to express disapproval of his comments, according to people aware of the exchange.”
For Your Radar …
Senate Republicans are moving to replace the provision in the House GOP “big, beautiful bill” that would make it harder for judges to enforce contempt of court violations with a provision that … would make it more costly to sue the federal government.
Only The Best People
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., says one of his new appointees to the vaccine panel that he wholesale fired is a George Washington University professor – but the school says he doesn’t work there.
“The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday ordered federal prosecutors to prioritize criminal prosecution of protesters who destroy property or assault law enforcement, and to make sure every case they bring gets publicized, according to an internal email seen by Reuters.”
If only DOJ were talking about January 6 protestors here.
The targeted shootings of the Minnesota legislators unleashed — to absolutely no one's surprise — a torrent of conspiracy-mongering by the usual far- right suspects on social media, led by — of course — Elno on Twitter/X, but even more despicable the postings of US Senator Mike Lee of Utah. This man has some serious issues, and the vileness of his comment drew huge criticisms across the board, including many from his home state.
Political violence is a problem unto itself, but those who exploit and profit from on-line sensationalism are the very worst, making light of people's deaths, and utterly trivializing murder itself...the MAGA mindset revealed, yet again.