Trump Promises 2024 Is The Last Time We’ll Have To Vote … Wait, Wut?
INSIDE: JD Vance ... Kamala Harris ... Joe Biden
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
How Much More Warning Does Anyone Need?
In his speech Friday to the Christian Right “Believers Summit” in West Palm Beach, hosted by Turning Point Action, former President Donald Trump exhorted the audience of religious believers to vote in November because the stakes are so high but quickly reassured them that this will be the last time they will have to vote:
Trump didn’t merely veer into weird, off-the-cuff remark that can be waved away as idle ramblings. This has been a line he’s used repeatedly in recent speeches. There were still some half-hearted efforts to parse the line into meaninglessness, such as this helpless shrug from the WaPo:
Democrats and others interpreted the comments as signaling how a second Trump presidency would be run, a reminder that he previously said he would not be a dictator upon returning to office “except for Day One.” …
The Trump campaign, however, says the comments, made at the event hosted by the conservative group Turning Point Action, were about how Trump would unite the country.
On the one hand … on the other hand … etc.
When a former president who tried to stay in office via an auto-coup is now the frontrunner to return to that office and is assuring his most diehard supporters that they only have to make the effort to vote one last time, you should take that as the clarion call it is. No excuses.
On High Alert
WaPo: As Harris steps up to face Trump, far-right attacks follow
More From The JD Vance Oppo Files
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B: Inside the powerful Peter Thiel network that anointed JD Vance
Exhibit C:
2024 Ephemera
The reordered presidential race is still settling out, but it’s safe to say that Kamala Harris has already avoided the worst of the plausible scenarios: an immediate widening of the gap into a hard-to-overcome deficit to Trump. On balance, the polls so far are showing her at least holding her own and in several polls narrowing the gap with Trump nationwide.
Kamala Harris’ campaign raised more than $200 million in its first week.
Bernie is bargaining in return for his endorsement of Harris.
Will Harris help down-ballot Dems?
WSJ poll: Trump leads Harris 49%-47% among registered voters nationwide, a smaller gap than the six-point lead the previous found that Trump had over Biden before he withdrew from the race.
Biden Goes Public With SCOTUS Reform Proposal
With an op-ed in the Washington Post and a speech at the LBJ library in Austin commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, President Biden is rolling out his proposal for Supreme Court reform today. His proposal includes 18-year term limits for the justices and a constitutional amendment to reverse the high court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
Trump Shooting Update
FBI confirms bullet or bullet fragment struck Trump’s ear.
NYT: Gunman at Trump Rally Was Often a Step Ahead of the Secret Service
WaPo: Trump team complained they were not told of suspicious-person reports before shooting
Power Projection
Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Trump’s Projection Of Strength After Assassination Attempt Borrows From Authoritarian Playbook
DOJ Settles With Strzok And Page
Former senior FBI special agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page will receive $1.2 million and $800,000 respectively in a settlement with the Justice Department of their claims that their text private messages were leaked in violation of their privacy rights. The revelation of the texts critical of Donald Trump and of the pair’s extramarital affair ended their FBI careers. Both had been part of the separate investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and Hillary Clinton’s email server. Strzok continues to pursue a related claim that his firing was a violation of his free speech and due process rights.
Mark Meadows Goes To SCOTUS In Georgia RICO Case
Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is now asking the Supreme Court to move the Georgia RICO case against him from state to federal court.
Good Read
Rolling Stone talks with the CIA analyst who confirmed Russian meddling in the 2016 election to benefit Donald Trump:
The lead author of the CIA report that would haunt Trump’s presidency wasn’t a Hillary Clinton partisan or a ringer for the CIA leadership’s personal preferences, as MAGA conspiracy theorists have claimed. He doesn’t have a book to sell, he’s not running for office, and you won’t find him in a cable news greenroom.
I Had No Idea The Number Was This Large
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s long-running stunt of bussing migrants to Democratic-controlled cities has now transported nearly 120,000 people over the last two years.
Iowa’s Abortion Ban Takes Effect Today
A new six-week abortion ban, down from the previous 22-week ban, goes into effect today in Iowa, after the state Supreme Court cleared the way for the law last month.
Still Puzzling Over SCOTUS’ Immunity Decision
The NYT’s Adam Liptak takes a stab at the comparing the worst elements of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision with everything the conservative justices claimed as recently as Dobbs were the most egregious overreaches of Roe v. Wade.
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I do like the proposed interval based appointments and standardized 18 year terms for justices. I also think that the Supreme Court's composition needs additional restructuring, including expanding it to at least 13 justices, for 13 circuits. I also think expanding it further to 26 justices and having random assignments to cases would be useful. The DC Court of Appeals has 15 judges, so it is singularly odd that the Supreme Court has so few judges to process so mang cases.
“If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon, but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other.” - Ulysses S. Grant
And here we are.