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Monday, 1 July 2024:
Supreme court Says Trump Has Some Immunity in Election Case. The ruling makes a distinction between official actions of a president, which have immunity, and those of a private citizen. In dissent, the court’s liberals lament a vast expansion of presidential power. The New York Times, Adam Liptak, Monday, 1 July 2024: “The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that former President Donald J. Trump is entitled to substantial immunity from prosecution on charges of trying to overturn the last election, a blockbuster decision in the heat of the 2024 campaign that vastly expanded presidential power. The vote was 6 to 3, dividing along partisan lines. Its immediate practical effect will be to further complicate the case against Mr. Trump, with the chances that it will go before a jury ahead of the election now vanishingly remote and the charges against him, at a minimum, narrowed. The decision amounted to a powerful statement by the court’s conservative majority that presidents should be insulated from the potential that actions they take in carrying out their official duties could later be used by political enemies to charge them with crimes. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, said Mr. Trump had at least presumptive immunity for his official acts. He added that the trial judge must undertake an intensive factual review to separate official and unofficial conduct and to assess whether prosecutors can overcome the presumption protecting Mr. Trump for his official conduct…. In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the decision was gravely misguided. In a rare move and sign of deep disagreement, she summarized her dissent from the bench, making off-the-cuff remarks that underscored her frustration. ‘Today’s decision to grant former presidents criminal immunity reshapes the institution of the presidency,’ she wrote. ‘It makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of government, that no man is above the law.’ In her own dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that ‘the court has now declared for the first time in history that the most powerful official in the United States can (under circumstances yet to be fully determined) become a law unto himself.’… In dissent, Justice Sotomayor wrote that ‘the long-term consequences of today’s decision are stark. The court effectively creates a law-free zone around the president, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the founding,’ she wrote, adding: ‘The president of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution.’ She gave examples: ‘Orders the Navy’s SEAL team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold on to power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.’… In her written dissent, Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Jackson and Elena Kagan, said: ‘The relationship between the president and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law.’ Justice Sotomayor ended her opinion in unusual fashion. ‘With fear for our democracy,’ she wrote, ‘I dissent.’” See also, Highlights of the Supreme Court Ruling on Presidential Immunity. Key excerpts from the decision reveal how the court’s conservative majority views the power of the nation’s leader. The New York Times, Charlie Savage, Monday, 1 July 2024. See also, Supreme Court Immunity Ruling Escalates Long Rise of Presidential Power. Beyond Donald J. Trump, the decision adds to the seemingly one-way ratchet of executive authority. The New York Times, Charlie Savage, Monday, 1 July 2024: “The Supreme Court’s decision to bestow presidents with immunity from prosecution over official actions is an extraordinary expansion of executive power that will reverberate long after Donald J. Trump is gone. Beyond its immediate implications for the election subversion case against Mr. Trump and the prospect that he may feel less constrained by law if he returns to power, the ruling also adds to the nearly relentless rise of presidential power since the mid-20th century. It had seemed like a constitutional truism in recent years when more than one lower-court opinion addressing novel legal issues raised by Mr. Trump’s norm-breaking behavior observed that presidents are not kings. But suddenly, they do enjoy a kind of monarchical prerogative. ‘The relationship between the president and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably,’ Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in an outraged dissent joined by the court’s other two liberals. ‘In every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law.’… The structure of accountability — or lack thereof — for official presidential criminality that the country lives under now, as laid down by Chief Justice Roberts’s majority opinion, has three categories. The first is unofficial crimes that happen to be committed by someone who is president but fall entirely outside the outer perimeter of presidential responsibilities. In theory, a former president can still be prosecuted for those types of crimes. At the other end of the spectrum are crimes that a president commits as part of his ‘core’ constitutional powers and responsibilities. Congress cannot intrude on how a president exercises those powers through criminal law, the majority said. So presidents may freely abuse those powers with absolute immunity from later prosecution. At a minimum, this category clearly includes those listed in the Constitution, like granting pardons or vetoing legislation. But the majority opinion said this category also extends to Mr. Trump’s attempt to get Justice Department officials to gin up inquiries into sham claims of voter fraud. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that a president has ‘exclusive authority over the investigative and prosecutorial functions of the Justice Department and its officials.’ By that measure, he said, the president ‘may discuss potential investigations and prosecutions with his attorney general and other Justice Department officials’ under the constitutional duty to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ This line was particularly notable because since Watergate, there has been a norm of Justice Department investigative independence from White House control. But Mr. Trump already eroded that norm under his administration and has openly vowed, should he return to power, that he would use the Justice Department to exact retribution upon his enemies. Finally, the majority opinion outlined a third, more ambiguous category. This one encompasses official actions a president takes that are not core executive powers, so Congress shares overlapping authority over them and, in theory, criminal laws could apply to them. A president ‘presumptively’ has immunity from criminal prosecution for actions that fall in this category, too, the majority opinion said, but that shield might be overcome if prosecutors ‘can show that applying a criminal prohibition to that act would pose no ‘dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the executive branch.’ In her dissent, however, Justice Sotomayor portrayed that purported distinction as farcical. In practice, she said, it will be essentially impossible for prosecutors to show that there is ‘no’ danger of such intrusion.” See also, Supreme Court justices give presidents immunity for official acts, further delaying Trump’s trial. The justices said unofficial acts have no immunity, sending Donald Trump’s January 6 case back to the D.C. judge to decide which alleged acts are official. The Washington Post, Ann E. Marimow and Devlin Barrett, Monday, 1 July 2024: Donald Trump is immune from prosecution for official acts as president but can face trial for private conduct, a divided Supreme Court ruled Monday, declaring a broad new definition of White House power that may stand for generations and will further delay Trump’s election interference case in D.C. The 6-3 decision along ideological lines makes it highly unlikely that the 45th president will go to trial on charges of trying to subvert the 2020 election before voters cast ballots in this year’s presidential contest, in which Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee. Due to court procedures and the particular way in which the decision was rendered, the lower court will probably not be able to resume work on the case for 32 days; when and if the trial does proceed, it may be with a significantly whittled-down set of evidence. The high court specifically barred prosecutors from using one swath of evidence in any such trial — Trump’s conversations with Justice Department officials after Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. The majority of the court also signaled that other significant parts of the prosecution case could be tossed out. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said a president ‘may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts.'” See also, Read the full text of Supreme Court’s decision on Trump’s immunity. Former presidents are immune from prosecution for their official actions taken while in the White House, but don’t have immunity for unofficial acts, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. The Washington Post, Washington Post Staff, Monday, 1 July 2024. See also, 4 takeaways from the Supreme Court’s Trump immunity decision. The ruling is a win for Trump for a few reasons and is likely to reverberate in the 2024 campaign and beyond. Here’s what it means. The Washington Post, Aaron Blake, Monday, 1 July 2024. “The Supreme Court ruled Monday that former president Donald Trump and other presidents enjoy a significant degree of immunity for actions taken as president, a decision that could reverberate not just in Trump’s criminal cases but also for future presidents. The court split 6-3 along ideological lines in finding that a president is a) absolutely immune for actions taken while exercising his “core constitutional powers” and b) entitled to the presumption of immunity for all official acts.” See also, Supreme Court rules ex-presidents have broad immunity, dimming chance of a pre-election Trump trial, Associated Press, Mark Sherman, Monday, 1 July 2024: “The Supreme Court on Monday ruled for the first time that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, extending the delay in the Washington criminal case against Donald Trump on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss and all but ending prospects the former president could be tried before the November election. In a historic 6-3 ruling, the court’s conservative majority, including the three justices appointed by Trump, narrowed the case against him and returned it to the trial court to determine what is left of special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment. Trump celebrated a ‘BIG WIN’ on X. President Joe Biden said the justices set ‘a dangerous precedent (that) undermines the rule of this nation.'” See also, Trump is immune from prosecution for some acts in federal election case. The opinion leaves much unresolved, sending the case back to trial court for further proceedings. Politico, Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney, Monday, 1 July 2024: “Donald Trump has immunity from criminal prosecution for some actions he took as president while fighting to subvert the 2020 election, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, further complicating efforts to put Trump on trial in Washington on criminal charges that he engaged in fraud to try to cling to power. The largely 6-3 decision, which divided the court along ideological lines, immediately knocked out some of the central allegations that special counsel Jack Smith leveled against Trump, including claims that he attempted to weaponize his Justice Department to concoct or amplify false claims of voter fraud. However, the opinion also leaves much unresolved, sending the case back to the trial court for further proceedings. There, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan must now sift through the allegations to separate Trump’s official acts — those he took in his capacity as president — from private ones, when he was acting as a presidential candidate. That process could further stall the case by months and is likely to push any trial past Election Day.”
Supreme Court Immunity Ruling Further Slows Trump Election Case but Opens Door to Airing of Evidence. The Supreme Court’s immunity decision directed the trial court to hold hearings on what portions of the indictment can survive–a possible chance for prosecutors to set out their case in public before Election Day. The New York Times, Alan Feuer, Monday, 1 July 2024: “The Supreme Court’s decision on Monday about executive immunity makes it all but certain that former President Donald J. Trump will not stand trial on charges of seeking to overturn the last election before voters decide whether to send him back to the White House in the next one. But the ruling also opened the door for prosecutors to detail much of their evidence against Mr. Trump in front of a federal judge — and the public — at an expansive fact-finding hearing, perhaps before Election Day. It remains unclear when the hearing, which was ordered as part of the court’s decision, might take place or how long it would last. But it will address the big question that the justices kicked back to the trial court, which is how much of Mr. Trump’s indictment can survive the ruling that former presidents enjoy immunity for official actions they take in office. And it will be held in Federal District Court in Washington in front of the judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, who was handling the case before it was frozen more than six months ago as a series of courts considered his immunity claims.”
The Supreme Court Gives a Free Pass to Trump and Future Presidents, The New York Times, The Editorial Board, Monday, 1 July 2024: “In a stunning finale to its term on Monday morning, the Supreme Court delivered a gift of inestimable worth to Donald Trump and all future presidents who intend to violate the law and their oaths to the Constitution. In a 6-to-3 ruling, the court’s conservative majority said that official acts that are central to the presidency are given ‘absolute immunity’ from prosecution. Other acts, even those that reach to the outer edge of a president’s official duties, are ‘presumptively immune,’ the court said, making them much harder to be prosecuted. The immediate effect of the decision — one of the most consequential ever produced by the court on the subject of presidential powers and constitutional government — was to delay indefinitely the prosecution of Mr. Trump for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. The vote this fall will now almost certainly move forward with no legal accountability for that act. But the long-term danger to the Constitution and the American government is even more serious, particularly given the real possibility that Mr. Trump, whose recent criminal conviction in New York is only the latest demonstration of his contempt for legal boundaries, could be returned to office in just a few months. As of Monday, the bedrock principle that no one is above the law has been set aside. In the very week that the nation celebrates its founding, the court undermined the reason for the American Revolution by giving presidents what one dissenting justice called a ‘law-free zone’ in which to act, taking a step toward restoring the monarchy that the Declaration of Independence rejected. Presidents can still be impeached for their crimes in office, but it is hard to see how they can ever be prosecuted. They can take once-unimaginable actions, like encouraging an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, with no fear of later going to jail or being held legally accountable.” See also, Biden Warns That the Supreme Court’s Immunity Ruling Will Embolden Trump. The president, under scrutiny since his damaging debate appearance last week, did not stumble or falter during his brief remarks. The New York Times, Michael D. Shear, Monday, 1 July 2024: “President Biden warned on Monday that the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity meant that there were ‘virtually no limits on what the president can do’ and urged voters to prevent former President Donald J. Trump from returning to the White House freed from the constraints of the law. ‘The American people must decide if they want to entrust the president once again — the presidency — to Donald Trump,’ Mr. Biden said during brief remarks, ‘knowing he’ll be more emboldened to do whatever he pleases whenever he wants to do it.'” See also, Biden denounces Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity. Biden says the justices removed restraints on presidents, including Trump, and undermined US principles. The Washington Post, Matt Viser, Monday, 1 July 2024: “President Biden on Monday night issued a blistering attack on the U.S. Supreme Court for its decision earlier in the day declaring that Donald Trump was immune from prosecution for official acts he took during his presidency. In brief but forceful remarks that came in a late addition to his schedule, Biden said that the high court was setting a dangerous precedent that could fundamentally change the world’s most powerful office.’For all practical purposes, today’s decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what the president can do,’ Biden said, adding that he pledges ‘to respect the limits of the presidential powers.'” See also, After Supreme Court immunity ruling, Biden draws sharp contrast with Trump on obeying rule of law, The Associated Press, Colleen Long and Will Weissert, Tuesday, 1 July 2024: “President Joe Biden warned Monday that a Supreme Court ruling granting presidents broad immunity from prosecution would make an unchecked Republican Donald Trump “more emboldened to do whatever he wants” if he regains the White House in November’s election. Biden, under intense pressure after his disastrous debate performance against Trump last week, urged Americans to think carefully about their election decision and signaled he had no intention of dropping out of the race. Criticizing the decision by the court’s conservative majority — which all but guarantees Trump will not face trial in Washington ahead of the November election over his actions during the violent riot on Jan. 6, 2021 — Biden said it now fell to the American people “to do what the courts should have been willing to do but will not. ‘The American people have to render judgment about Donald Trump’s behavior.’ Biden’s efforts to reset his campaign following the debate, which spooked donors and stirred up major Democratic anxiety, has been looking a lot like his past attempts to keep the focus squarely on Trump’s misdeeds and shortcomings. During his brief remarks Monday, he made no mention of last week’s debate or his performance, and did not take questions, delivering an unusually political message from the White House.”
Continue reading Aftermath of the Trump Administration, July 2024:
Trump Amplifies Calls to Jail Top Elected Officials and Invokes Military Tribunals. A post that Mr. Trump circulated on Sunday called for Liz Cheney to be prosecuted by a military court reserved for enemy combatants and war criminals. The New York Times, Chris Cameron, Monday, 1 July 2024: “Former President Donald J. Trump over the weekend escalated his vows to prosecute his political opponents, circulating posts on his social media website invoking ‘televised military tribunals’ and calling for the jailing of President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senators Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer and former Vice President Mike Pence, among other high-profile politicians. Mr. Trump, using his account on Truth Social on Sunday, promoted two posts from other users of the site that called for the jailing of his perceived political enemies. One post that he circulated on Sunday singled out Liz Cheney, the former Wyoming congresswoman who is a Republican critic of Mr. Trump’s, and called for her to be prosecuted by a type of military court reserved for enemy combatants and war criminals.” See also, Trump amplifies posts calling for televised military tribunal for Liz Cheney, CNN Politics, Kate Sullivan, Tuesday, 2 July 2024: “Former President Donald Trump amplified posts on social media calling for a televised military tribunal for former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and the jailing of top elected officials, including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. ‘ELIZABETH LYNNE CHENEY IS GUILTY OF TREASON,’ one post created by another user that Trump amplified on his social media website Truth Social on Sunday reads. ‘RETRUTH IF YOU WANT TELEVISED MILITARY TRIBUNALS.’ Cheney responded on X, ‘Donald – This is the type of thing that demonstrates yet again that you are not a stable adult—and are not fit for office.’ A separate post Trump amplified on Truth Social Sunday includes photos of 15 former and current elected officials and says, ‘THEY SHOULD BE GOING TO JAIL ON MONDAY NOT STEVE BANNON!’ In addition to Biden and Harris, the post includes photos of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Vice President Mike Pence and members of the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.”
Tuesday, 2 July 2024:
Judge Juan Merchan Delays Trump’s Sentencing Until September 18 After Immunity Claim. Donald Trump’s lawyers want to argue that a Supreme Court decision giving presidents immunity for official acts should void his felony conviction for covering up hush money paid to a porn star. The New York Times, Ben Protess, William K. Rashbaum, Kate Christobek, and Wesley Parnell, Tuesday, 2 July 2024: “The judge in Donald J. Trump’s Manhattan criminal case delayed his sentencing until Sept. 18 to weigh whether a new U.S. Supreme Court ruling might imperil the former president’s conviction, the judge said Tuesday in a letter to prosecutors and defense lawyers. The judge, Juan M. Merchan, may ultimately find no basis to overturn the jury’s verdict, but the delay was a surprising turn of events in a case that had led to the first conviction of an American president. With the election on the horizon, the sentencing might be the only moment of criminal accountability for the twice-impeached and four-time-indicted former president whose other cases are mired in delay. Mr. Trump, who was convicted of falsifying business records related to his cover-up of a sex scandal during his 2016 presidential campaign, was initially scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, just days before he is to be formally nominated for president at the Republican National Convention. He faces up to four years in prison, though he could receive as little as a few weeks in jail, or probation.” See also, Trump’s sentencing in New York hush money case is postponed until September. Donald Trump’s lawyers are seeking to vacate his New York hush money conviction based on Monday’s Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. The Washington Post, Shayna Jacobs and Devlin Barrett, Tuesday, 2 July 2024: “Donald Trump’s sentencing in his New York hush money case on Tuesday was pushed back to September, as his lawyers seek to persuade the trial judge that his conviction should be tossed out after a Supreme Court ruling that presidents have immunity for official acts. The much-anticipated sentencing of the former president and presumptive GOP nominee for president in the November election was set to take place next week, following his May conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records. That sentencing is now tentatively scheduled for Sept. 18, and the judge said other proceedings could take place that day instead, if necessary. New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan granted requests by the parties to allow time for legal filings. Merchan said he would rule on those motions Sept. 6.” See also, Judge Juan Merchan delays Trump’s hush money sentencing until at least September after high court immunity ruling, Associated Press, Jake Offenhartz and Jennifer Peltz, Tuesday, 2 July 2024: “In a major reprieve for former President Donald Trump, sentencing for his hush money convictions was postponed Tuesday until at least September — if ever — as the judge agreed to weigh the possible impact of a new Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. Trump had been scheduled to face sentencing July 11, just before the Republicans’ nominating convention, on his New York convictions on felony charges of falsifying business records. He denies any wrongdoing. The postponement sets the sentencing for Sept. 18 at the earliest — if it happens at all, since Trump’s lawyers are arguing that the Supreme Court ruling merits not only delaying the sentencing but tossing out his conviction.” See also, What is an ‘official’ act, and how will a judge interpret Trump’s immunity? What may be considered ‘official acts’ and how will a judge interpret the legal lines drawn by the high court in Donald Trump’s federal criminal election obstruction case in D.C. The Washington Post, Spencer S. Hsu and Rachel Weiner, Tuesday, 2 July 2024: “The Supreme Court has ruled that Donald Trump and other presidents are absolutely immune from prosecution when carrying out their core constitutional powers, but can face trial for private conduct or for official acts under very narrow circumstances. The Supreme Court sent Trump’s federal Jan. 6 case back to a trial judge to decide three questions: Which alleged acts by Trump charged by special counsel Jack Smith fall under the executive branch’s exclusive constitutional authority and are therefore immune from prosecution? Which are official acts but prosecutable because they pose no danger of intruding on the power or function of the presidency? And what acts can be prosecuted because they involve private conduct, such as actions taken by Trump as a candidate, not as an officeholder? Here’s what to know about what may be considered “official acts” and how a judge will interpret the legal lines drawn by the high court in Trump’s federal criminal election obstruction case in D.C.”
Special Counsel Jack Smith Is Said to Be Planning to Pursue Trump Cases Past the Election. Smith plans to continue two criminal cases against Donald Trump until Inauguration Day if the former president wins, according to a person familiar with his thinking. The New York Times, Alan Feuer, Tuesday, 2 July 2024: “The special counsel Jack Smith plans to pursue his two criminal cases against former President Donald J. Trump through the election and even up until Inauguration Day if Mr. Trump wins the presidential race, according to a person familiar with Mr. Smith’s thinking. Mr. Smith believes that under Justice Department regulations, his mandate as special counsel and his authority to keep the cases going do not depend on a change of administration and extend until he is formally removed from his post, the person said. As a practical matter, that means that the special counsel’s office is prepared to push forward for as long as possible on the two indictments it has filed against Mr. Trump. One of those, brought in Washington, has accused the former president of plotting to subvert the 2020 election. The other, filed in Florida, has charged Mr. Trump with holding on to a trove of highly sensitive classified documents after he left office and then obstructing the government’s repeated efforts to retrieve them. Mr. Smith’s decision to keep the cases going, reported earlier by The Washington Post, comes as a landmark Supreme Court ruling on executive immunity this week has effectively postponed the election interference case until after voters go to the polls in November. At the same time, Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who is overseeing the classified documents case in Florida, has declined to set a trial date as she grapples with an ever-expanding constellation of legal issues and court hearings.” See also, Justice Department plans to pursue Trump cases past Election Day, even if he wins. If Donald Trump is elected president, the finish line for federal prosecutors is Inauguration Day, not Election Day, people familiar with the discussions said. The Washington Post, Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein, Tuesday, 2 July 2024: “Justice Department officials plan to pursue the criminal cases against Donald Trump past Election Day even if he wins, under the belief that department rules against charging or prosecuting a sitting president would not kick in until Inauguration Day in January, according to people familiar with the discussions. That approach may become more consequential given this week’s Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity, which probably will lead to further delays to Trump’s election interference trial in D.C. and has already affected one of his state cases. Senior law enforcement officials have long viewed the two federal indictments against Trump — the 45th president and the presumptive Republican nominee in this year’s election — as operating with potential time constraints. That’s because of long-standing Justice Department policy that officials cannot criminally charge a sitting president.”
In a Volatile Term, a Fractured Supreme Court Remade America. Amid signs of dysfunction and disarray, Chief Justice John Roberts reasserted his authority, while the influence of Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito waned. The New York Times, Adam Liptak, Tuesday, 2 July 2024: “Former President Donald J. Trump had a very good year at the Supreme Court. On Monday, the court ruled that he is substantially immune from prosecution on charges that he tried to subvert the 2020 election. On Friday, the court cast doubt on two of the four charges against him in what remains of that prosecution. And in March, the justices allowed him to seek another term despite a constitutional provision barring insurrectionists from holding office. Administrative agencies had a horrible term. In three 6-to-3 rulings along ideological lines, the court’s conservative supermajority erased a foundational precedent that had required courts to defer to agency expertise, dramatically lengthened the time available to challenge agencies’ actions and torpedoed the administrative tribunals in which the Securities and Exchange Commission brings enforcement actions. The court itself had a volatile term, taking on a stunning array of major disputes and assuming a commanding role in shaping American society and democracy. If the justices felt chastened by the backlash over their 2022 abortion decision, the persistent questions about their ethical standards and the drop in their public approval, there were only glimmers of restraint, notably in ducking two abortion cases in an election year. The court was divided 6 to 3 along partisan lines not only in Monday’s decision on Mr. Trump’s immunity and the three cases on agency power, but also in a run of major cases on homelessness, voting rights, guns and public corruption.” See also, The Major Supreme Court Decisions in 2024, The New York Times, Adam Liptak, Abbie VanSickle, and Alicia Parlapiano, updated on Tuesday, 2 July 2024: “In a momentous term that ended in July, the Supreme Court issued major victories for former President Donald J. Trump, a sustained attack on the power of administrative agencies and mixed signals on guns and abortion.”
Biden’s Lapses Are Said to Be Increasingly Common and Worrisome. People who have spent time with President Biden over the last few months or so said the lapses appear to have grown more frequent, more pronounced and, after Thursday’s debate, more worrisome. The New York Times, Peter Baker, David E. Sanger, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, and Katie Rogers, Tuesday, 2 July 2024: “In the weeks and months before President Biden’s politically devastating performance on the debate stage in Atlanta, several current and former officials and others who encountered him behind closed doors noticed that he increasingly appeared confused or listless, or would lose the thread of conversations. Like many people his age, Mr. Biden, 81, has long experienced instances in which he mangled a sentence, forgot a name or mixed up a few facts, even though he could be sharp and engaged most of the time. But in interviews, people in the room with him more recently said that the lapses seemed to be growing more frequent, more pronounced and more worrisome.”
Wednesday, 3 July 2024:
Trump Widens Lead After Biden’s Debate Debacle, Times/Siena Poll Finds. Donald Trump is ahead of President Biden by six percentage points among likely voters in a new national survey. Overall, 74 percent of voters view Mr. Biden as too old for the job, an uptick since the debate. The New York Times, Shane Goldmacher, Wednesday, 3 July 2024: “Donald J. Trump’s lead in the 2024 presidential race has widened after President Biden’s fumbling debate performance last week, as concerns that Mr. Biden is too old to govern effectively rose to new heights among Democrats and independent voters, a new poll from The New York Times and Siena College showed. Mr. Trump now leads Mr. Biden 49 percent to 43 percent among likely voters nationally, a three-point swing toward the Republican from just a week earlier, before the debate. It is the largest lead Mr. Trump has recorded in a Times/Siena poll since 2015. Mr. Trump leads by even more among registered voters, 49 percent to 41 percent. Doubts about Mr. Biden’s age and acuity are widespread and growing. A majority of every demographic, geographic and ideological group in the poll — including Black voters and those who said they will still be voting for him — believe Mr. Biden, 81, is too old to be effective. [The poll does not show a fundamental change in the race, but it adds to longstanding concerns, Nate Cohn writes.] Overall, 74 percent of voters view him as too old for the job, up five percentage points since the debate. Concerns about Mr. Biden’s age have spiked eight percentage points among Democrats in the week since the debate, to 59 percent. The share of independent voters who said they felt that way rose to 79 percent, nearly matching the Republican view of the president.”
Friday, 5 July 2024:
After Supreme Court Immunity Ruling, Trump Seeks Delay of Classified Documents Case. The Former president’s lawyers asked to freeze nearly all proceedings while they sort out whether the Supreme Court decision applies to charges focused on actions after he left the White House. The New York Times, Alan Feuer, Friday, 5 July 2024: “Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump on Friday asked the judge overseeing his classified documents case to put that proceeding almost entirely on hold as they sort through whether Mr. Trump enjoys immunity from the charges based on a landmark Supreme Court ruling this week. On Monday, the Supreme Court granted Mr. Trump broad immunity against criminal prosecution for his official acts as president. The ruling came after months of legal wrangling arising from his other federal case — the one in Washington in which he stands accused of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. His lawyers are now trying to apply that ruling to the documents case. In a 10-page motion, they asked Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who is overseeing the proceedings, to allow them to file additional briefings on immunity and to freeze nearly all pretrial activity until she resolves the issue.”
Varying Treatment of Biden and Trump Puts Their Parties in Stark Relief. Republicans and Democrats live in radically different universes, interpreting the same set of facts through radically different lenses. The New York Times, Peter Baker, Friday, 5 July 2024: “One of America’s political parties has a presidential candidate who is really old and showing it. The other has a presidential candidate who is a convicted felon, adjudicated sexual abuser, business fraudster and self-described aspiring dictator for a day. And also really old. One of the parties is up in arms about its nominee and trying to figure out how to replace him at the last minute. The other is not. The spectacle of the week since the nationally televised debate between President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump has thrown into sharp relief two political parties that agreed to be led by flawed putative nominees whose vulnerabilities have become even more painfully apparent just months before the election. But the distinction of recent weeks has been striking. After Mr. Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies by a Manhattan jury in May — a verdict that came after civil judgments against him for personal and professional misdeeds — there was no significant groundswell within the Republican Party to force him out of the race in favor of a less-tainted candidate. Even though many Republican officeholders and strategists privately loathe him, they fell in line and made clear they would stick with him no matter how many scandals piled up. Until last week, Democrats had also resigned themselves to a candidate many considered far from ideal. Mr. Biden and his allies had effectively squelched any internal dissent, forcing Democrats to stay quiet despite fears that his age would ultimately undercut his campaign. After last week’s debate showcased concerns about his mental sharpness, however, the conspiracy of silence was broken. Suddenly, a wide swath of Democrats concluded that he was no longer viable and mounted an effort to pressure him to step aside for a younger candidate. ‘While Biden had the worst debate performance in all of presidential history, Trump’s was likely the second-worst,’ said Jeffrey A. Engel, director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. ‘Yet we hear crickets from Republicans after their presumptive nominee was incoherent, rambling and utterly divorced from the truth. Oh, and also a convicted felon.'”
A Defiant Biden Says Only the ‘Lord Almighty’ Could Drive Him From the Race. President Biden dismissed concerns about his age, his mental acuity, and pools showing him losing his re-election bid. The New York Times, Michael D. Shear, Friday, 5 July 2024: “President Biden on Friday dismissed concerns about his age, his mental acuity and polls showing him losing his re-election bid, saying in a prime-time interview that his sharpness is tested every day while he is ‘running the world.’ He vowed to drop out only if ‘the Lord Almighty’ told him to. During a 22-minute interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, which aired unedited, Mr. Biden, 81, said there was no need for him to submit to neurological or cognitive testing. He said he simply did not believe the polls showing him losing. And asked how he would feel if former President Donald J. Trump were elected in November, he brushed off the question. ‘I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about,’ Mr. Biden said in an interview that was intended to assuage growing concerns about his age following last Thursday’s debate. But with him speaking in a hoarse voice and remaining defiant throughout, there was little indication that the interview would do much to stanch the bleeding during the deepest crisis of a long political career.” See also, Four Takeaways From Biden’s Post-Debate Interview. In his first television interview since the debate, President Biden tried to reassure supporters, but he spent much of the interview resisting questions about his capabilities. The New York Times, Shane Goldmacher, Friday, 5 July 2024. See also, Read the Full Transcript of President Biden’s ABC News Interview, The New York Times, Friday, 5 July 2024. See also, Defiant Biden doubles down on staying in race, The Washington Post, 9 Live coverage contributors, Friday, 5 July 2024: “In a pair of Friday events — a campaign rally in the battleground state of Wisconsin and a prime-time interview on ABC — President Biden dismissed concerns about his fitness to continue his campaign and stated he intends to remain on the ballot in November. When confronted with calls from Democratic lawmakers, donors and voters for him to withdraw from the race, the president said that only ‘the Lord Almighty’ could make him change his mind. It remains unclear whether his full-throated insistence on continuing his campaign will be enough to allay party concerns.”
Monday, 8 July 2024:
Democrats focus attacks on right-wing Project 2025 pushed by Trump allies. The former president has sought to disavow the plan being touted by former advisers and aides, but Trump has endorsed many of the same ideas. The Washington Post, Josh Dawsey and Hannah Knowles, Monday, 8 July 2024: “President Biden and other Democrats are increasingly focusing their attacks on an aggressive right-wing agenda called Project 2025 that is being pushed by allies of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump — prompting Trump and his team to lash out in recent days at supporters of the effort. Many Democrats have assessed that the best message for their candidate — whether it is Biden, who is trailing in polls and facing calls to drop out after a damaging debate performance, or another candidate — is to focus on what Trump might do in a second term, particularly as it relates to abortion rights, retribution against his enemies, mass deportations and the environment. They hope to make a household phrase of Project 2025, which is designed as a policy and personnel platform for a Republican administration, Democrats close to Biden say. The group’s website, anchored by the Heritage Foundation, includes 30 chapters — written by more than a dozen former Trump appointees and others — that come from dozens of leading conservative groups. The exhaustive plan calls for, among other things, dismantling the Education Department, passing sweeping tax cuts, imposing sharp limits on abortion, giving the White House greater influence over the Justice Department, reducing efforts to limit climate change and increasing efforts to promote fossil fuels, drastically cutting and changing the federal workforce, and giving the president more power over the civil service.”
Wednesday, 10 July 2024:
Democrat warns US leaders about Trump loyalist’s ‘target list’ of people to be detained in live stream raids. Jamie Raskin says report on Ivan Raiklin, who calls himself Trump’s ‘secretary of retribution,’ is ‘deadly serious.’ The Guardian, Martin Pengelly, Wednesday, 10 July 2024: “A senior Democrat called for congressional leaders to denounce a Trump loyalist’s claim to have compiled a ‘deep state target list’ of public figures to be detained if the former president returns to power next year. ‘This is a deadly serious report,’ Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland told Raw Story, regarding its extensive discoveries about Ivan Raiklin, a former US army reserve lieutenant colonel and US Defense Intelligence Agency employee the site said was seeking to enlist rightwing sheriffs while calling himself Donald Trump’s ‘future secretary of retribution.’ Raskin has spoken extensively of his own harrowing experiences on 6 January 2021, when Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol in an attempt to block certification of Joe Biden’s election win. Nine deaths, about 1,300 arrests and hundreds of convictions are now linked to the attack. Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection but escaped conviction when Senate Republicans stayed loyal. Now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Trump leads Biden in polling and has made pardons for January 6 prisoners a key campaign promise. In its report about Raiklin, Raw Story noted Trump’s words at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland last year, when he told supporters: ‘I am your warrior. I am your justice, and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.’ By his own description, in a video posted to X in May, Raiklin wants to implement that retribution with “’live-streamed swatting raids’ against individuals on his ‘deep state target list’”.
Thursday, 11 July 2024:
Donald Trump Is Unfit to Lead. He is dangerous in word, deed, and action. He puts self over country. He loathes the laws we live by. The New York Times, The Editorial Board, Thursday, 11 July 2024: “Next week, for the third time in eight years, Donald Trump will be nominated as the Republican Party’s candidate for president of the United States. A once great political party now serves the interests of one man, a man as demonstrably unsuited for the office of president as any to run in the long history of the Republic, a man whose values, temperament, ideas and language are directly opposed to so much of what has made this country great…. Mr. Trump has shown a character unworthy of the responsibilities of the presidency. He has demonstrated an utter lack of respect for the Constitution, the rule of law and the American people. Instead of a cogent vision for the country’s future, Mr. Trump is animated by a thirst for political power: to use the levers of government to advance his interests, satisfy his impulses and exact retribution against those who he thinks have wronged him. He is, quite simply, unfit to lead.”
Biden Advisers Weigh How to Convince Him to End His Campaign. Close allies of the president are developing a case for why he should step aside. But Mr. Biden is increasingly isolated. The New York Times, Michael S. Schmidt, Katie Rogers, and Peter Baker, Thursday, 11 July 2024: “President Biden found himself increasingly isolated on Thursday as a small group of his longtime aides and advisers have become convinced that he will have to make what they see as the painful but inevitable decision to abandon his campaign for re-election, according to three people who have been briefed on the matter. In recent days, the group has been trying to come up with ways to persuade Mr. Biden to step aside from the campaign. Those discussions were recounted by three people familiar with them who, like others in this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation. There is no indication that any of the discussions have reached Mr. Biden himself, one of the informed people said. The effort comes after a disastrous debate performance in Atlanta two weeks ago plunged Mr. Biden’s candidacy into crisis. He is facing pressure from all sides: Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are vacillating between tepid support and outright calls for him to drop out, and those calls were being echoed by some of the wealthiest donors in the party.”
What Is Project 2025, and Why Is Trump Disavowing It? The Biden campaign has attacked Donald Trump’s ties to the conservative policy plan that would amass power in the executive branch, though it is not his official platform. The New York Times, Simon J. Levien, Thursday, 11 July 2024: “Donald J. Trump has gone to great lengths to distance himself from Project 2025, a set of conservative policy proposals for a future Republican administration that has outraged Democrats. He has claimed he knows nothing about it or the people involved in creating it. Mr. Trump himself was not behind the project. But some of his allies were. The document, its origins and the interplay between it and the Trump campaign have made for one of the most hotly debated questions of the 2024 race. Here is what to know about Project 2025, and who is behind it.”
Trump’s lawyers argued in a motion in Manhattan criminal court that the Supreme Court immunity decision should invalidate Donald Trumps conviction in the hush money trial, The Washington Post, Shayna Jacobs, Thursday, 11 July 2024: “Donald Trump’s legal team has formally asked a judge to toss out the former president’s hush money conviction and the indictment that led to his trial, saying last week’s Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity means some of the evidence prosecutors used should not have been allowed. In a motion made public on Thursday, Trump’s lawyers cited testimony by former White House communications director Hope Hicks about her conversations with Trump when he was president, as well as messages that Trump posted on his Twitter account, which he used to communicate with the public during his term. Both, they argued, should have been considered official presidential acts, and therefore excluded from the grand jury process and the trial.”
Trump claims not to know who is behind Project 2025. A CNN review found at least 140 people who worked for him are involved in the project. CNN Politics, Steve Contorno, Thursday, 11 July 2024: “Donald Trump has lately made clear he wants little to do with Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for the next Republican president that has attracted considerable blowback in his race for the White House. ‘I have no idea who is behind it,’ the former president recently claimed on social media. Many people Trump knows quite well are behind it. Six of his former Cabinet secretaries helped write or collaborated on the 900-page playbook for a second Trump term published by the Heritage Foundation. Four individuals Trump nominated as ambassadors were also involved, along with several enforcers of his controversial immigration crackdown. And about 20 pages are credited to his first deputy chief of staff. In fact, at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in Project 2025, a CNN review found, including more than half of the people listed as authors, editors and contributors to ‘Mandate for Leadership,’ the project’s extensive manifesto for overhauling the executive branch.”
Saturday, 13 July 2024:
A Visual Timeline of the Trump Rally Shooting, The New York Times, Leanne Abraham, June Kim, Elena Shao, Julie Walton Shaver, Anjali Singhvi, Christiaan Triebert, Karen Yourish, Lazaro Gamio, and Amy Schoenfeld Walker, Saturday, 13 July 2024: “Former President Donald J. Trump was whisked off the stage at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday after gunshots were fired toward the area where he was speaking. Mr. Trump could be seen bleeding from his right ear, and officials said that the shooting was being investigated as an assassination attempt. The rally took place on the grounds of the Butler Farm Show in western Pennsylvania, about 35 miles north of Pittsburgh. On Saturday afternoon, tens of thousands of rally attendees started trickling in after the doors opened at 1 p.m. Mr. Trump was set to begin speaking at 5 p.m., but didn’t appear onstage until about an hour later. Here’s how the next 11 minutes unfolded based on footage of the rally.” See also, Trump rally shooting was assassination attempt on ex-president, FBI says. The former president was rushed offstage from a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday evening. Trump said he was shot in his upper right ear and his campaign said he was ‘fine.’ The Washington Post, Isaac Arnsdorf, Hannah Knowles, Meryl Kornfield, and Devlin Barrett, Saturday, 13 July 2024: “Former president Donald Trump was rushed offstage with blood dripping down his face Saturday after a shooting that the authorities called an assassination attempt. One attendee was killed, and two others were critically injured at the campaign rally, the Secret Service said, a shocking turn in a tense election season in which concerns about violence had already been running high. The FBI identified the suspected shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa. Officials did not provide any information about a motive.” See also, Trump survives assassination attempt at campaign rally, Associated Press, Saturday, 13 July 2024: “Law enforcement officials are working to learn more about the 20-year-old who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. In a briefing Sunday, FBI officials told reporters they had yet to determine what motivated the shooter to open fire from a nearby rooftop, killing one spectator and critically injuring two others before he was shot dead by the Secret Service. The FBI believes the shooter acted alone.”
Sunday, 14 July 2024:
‘We Must Never Descend to Violence,’ Biden Says in Address to Nation. The president spoke in the wake of an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Investigators are scouring the gunman’s social media accounts and property as they seek to determine his motive for opening fire on a Trump rally, which the F.B.I. is looking into as possible domestic terrorism. The New York Times, Sunday, 14 July 2024: “President Biden said in an Oval Office address on Sunday that the nation needs to ‘lower the temperature in our politics’ as he deplored the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. ‘We cannot, we must not, go down this road in America,’ he said, speaking in a prime time speech to the nation. ‘There is no place in America for this kind of violence, for any violence ever. Period. No exceptions. We can’t allow this violence to be normalized.'” See also, ‘It’s time to cool it down’: Biden urges unity following Trump shooting. In Oval Office address, Biden says political rhetoric has become too heated and ‘violence is never the answer.’ The Washington Post, Toluse Olorunnipa and Tyler Pager, Sunday, 14 July 2024:President Biden on Sunday urged Americans to unify in the wake of an assassination attempt against his opponent Donald Trump, calling on the country to ‘lower the temperature in our politics’ amid a tumultuous presidential campaign in a time of division and anger. ‘Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy. It’s part of human nature,’ he added during the speech, his third remarks to the nation in the span of less than 24 hours. ‘But politics must never be a literal battlefield, and, God forbid, a killing field.’ Biden has rarely addressed the nation from the Oval Office during his presidency, and he used the solemn setting to signal the seriousness of the moment.” See also, In prime-time address, Biden asks Americans to reject political violence and ‘cool it down,’ Associated Press, Will Weissert and Zeke Miller, Sunday, 14 July 2024: “President Joe Biden on Sunday urged Americans to reject political violence and recommit themselves to resolving their differences peacefully, saying the upcoming presidential election will be a ‘time of testing’ in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. In a prime-time national address from the Oval Office, Biden said political passions can run high but ‘we must never descend into violence.’ The president said his party and the Republicans can compete forcefully over different policy visions — but must do it in a civil fashion. ‘All of us now face a time of testing as the election approaches,’ Biden said. ‘There is no place in America for this kind of violence — for any violence. Ever. Period. No exception. We can’t allow this violence to be normalized.’ Biden spoke for six minutes in his third address to the nation since Saturday evening’s attack by a shooter that left Trump with a bloodied ear, killed one rallygoer and seriously injured two others. His warning came hours after FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said agents have seen increasingly violent rhetoric online since the attack at the Trump rally.”
A Nation Inflamed. After the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, who can heal a country so threatened by menace, violence, and division? The New Yorker, David Remnick, Sunday, 14 July 2024: “On Saturday afternoon, a twenty-year-old man identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks positioned himself on a roof in Butler, Pennsylvania, and attempted to murder former President Donald Trump, who was speaking at a rally of his supporters. From more than a hundred yards away, Crooks allegedly fired off a series of rounds from what has been described as an ‘AR-15-style’ rifle. One bullet grazed Trump’s right ear, he said. Had the shooter’s aim been even infinitesimally more accurate, Trump would have been mortally wounded. As it was, he was left stunned and bleeding from his ear. Before the Secret Service could sweep him off the stage, Trump paused near the steps to pump his fist and, in defiance, mouthed the words, ‘Fight, fight.’ President Joe Biden, who is facing calls from some Democratic leaders, various pundits, and much of the electorate to step aside, did the decent thing. In a statement, he expressed relief that Trump was safe and in good health: ‘I’m praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally.’ Later, he appeared before reporters in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and insisted that ‘everybody must condemn’ the ‘sick’ attack on his opponent, adding that he hoped to reach ‘Donald’ later by phone. Biden momentarily set aside his profound differences with Trump, and his firm belief that the election would decide fundamental questions about the future of the country and its essence. ‘We cannot allow for this to be happening,’ he said…. What must be said … is that Trump has, to say the least, done little to calm or to unify the country he once led and is campaigning to lead again. Unfortunately, it is hard to recall a public voice in living memory who has done more to arouse the lowest passions that so often percolate within individuals and the greater society. Even as one expresses genuine relief that Trump escaped a worse fate on Saturday (and sympathy for the family of the spectator at the rally who was killed), it is legitimate to describe what Trump and his rhetoric have meant to the country. He began his political career with statements like ‘When I was 18, people called me Donald Trump. When he was 18, @BarackObama was Barry Soweto.’ And he went on from there, year after year. After Obama attended a public viewing for Antonin Scalia, but not the funeral, Trump asked, ‘I wonder if President Obama would have attended the funeral of Justice Scalia if it were held in a Mosque?’ With dizzying frequency, he trafficked in the demagogic language of dehumanization, of ‘scum’ and ‘vermin’ and ‘animals’ and ‘enemies of the people.’ And then there was ‘Lock her up!’ and ‘Stand back and stand by.’ In 2016, he deployed familiar bigoted tropes, declaring that ‘Hillary Clinton meets in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty.’ Over and over, he has glorified brutality, whether it was the desirability of police throwing ‘thugs’ into ‘the back of a paddy wagon’ or a congressional candidate body-slamming a reporter because he dared to ask about health-care policy. (‘Any guy that can do a body slam, he’s my type,’ Trump said.) When he heard that MSNBC anchor Ali Velshi had been hit by a rubber bullet during a demonstration in the wake of the death of George Floyd, he called it ‘a beautiful sight.'”
Monday, 15 July 2024:
Judge Aileen Cannon Dismisses Classified Documents Case Against Trump. Cannon ruled that the entire case should be thrown out because the appointment of the special counsel who brought the case, Jack Smith, had violated the Constitution. Mr. Smith’s office said he would appeal. The New York Times, Alan Feuer, Monday, 15 July 2024: “The federal judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s classified documents case threw out all of the charges against him on Monday, ruling that Jack Smith, the special counsel who filed the indictment, had been given his job in violation of the Constitution. In a stunning decision delivered on the first day of the Republican National Convention, the judge, Aileen M. Cannon, found that Mr. Smith’s appointment as special counsel was improper because it was not based on a specific federal statute and because he had not been named to the post by the president or confirmed by the Senate. She also found that Mr. Smith had been improperly funded by the Treasury Department. The ruling by Judge Cannon, who was put on the bench by Mr. Trump in his final year in office, flew in the face of previous court decisions reaching back to the Watergate era that upheld the legality of the ways in which independent prosecutors have been put into their posts. It handed Mr. Trump a major legal victory two days after he was wounded in a shooting at a campaign rally and at the very onset of the political pageant where he is set to formally become his party’s presidential nominee.” See also, Judge Aileen Cannon’s Dismissal of Trump Classified Documents Case Rejects Precedents of Higher Courts. Her decision rejected what the Supreme Court said in its landmark ruling in 1974. The New York Times, Charlie Savage, Monday, 15 July 2024: “Judge Aileen M. Cannon cut against decades of decisions by higher courts in declaring on Monday that the appointment of Jack Smith as a special counsel was illegitimate, throwing out the indictment against former President Donald J. Trump in the classified documents case. A Trump appointee at the U.S. District Court in South Florida, Judge Cannon had previously shocked legal experts by intervening in his favor during the investigation — only to be reversed in two scathing rulings by a conservative appeals court. The question now is whether the appeals court will rule that she got the law wrong — again erring in Mr. Trump’s favor — and whether Mr. Smith, when he appeals the decision, will also gamble on asking for the case to be reassigned to another judge.” See also, Trump’s classified documents case dismissed by Judge Aileen Cannon. Special counsel Jack Smith says he will appeal the judge’s ruling that he was improperly appointed. The Washington Post, Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein, Monday, 15 July 2024: “A judge on Monday dismissed the federal indictment against former president Donald Trump on charges of mishandling classified documents — his second seismic legal victory in less than a month, after a historic Supreme Court decision on immunity. U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s 93-page ruling that special counsel Jack Smith was improperly appointed is a triumph for Trump, even if it is eventually reversed. Smith’s office vowed to appeal the ruling, saying the judge’s legal reasoning was at odds with past decisions on the issue. It came less than 48 hours after Trump survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pa., and as Trump was preparing to be formally nominated as the Republican presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.” See also, Federal judge Aileen Cannon dismisses Trump classified documents case over concerns about the prosecutor’s appointment, Associated Press, Eric Tucker, Monday, 15 July 2024: “A federal judge in Florida dismissed the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump on Monday, siding with defense lawyers who said the special counsel who filed the charges was illegally appointed by the Justice Department. Hours later, special counsel Jack Smith’s office said it would appeal the order, which could result in it eventually being overturned by a higher court. But for now at least, the dismissal by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon brings a stunning and abrupt halt to a criminal case that at the time it was filed was widely regarded as the most perilous of all the legal threats the Republican former president confronted. Though the case had long been stalled, and the prospect of a trial before the November election already nonexistent, the judge’s order is a significant legal and political victory for Trump as he recovers from a weekend assassination attempt and prepares to accept the Republican nomination in Milwaukee this week.”
Ohio Senator J.D. Vance Is Trump’s Pick for Vice President. A political newcomer and former Trump critic turned ally, Senator Vance is an ambitious ideologue who relishes the spotlight and has already shown he can energize donors. The New York Times, Michael Gold, Monday, 15 July 2024: “Former President Donald J. Trump has chosen Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio to be his running mate, wagering that the young senator will bring fresh energy to the Republican ticket and ensure that the movement Mr. Trump began nearly a decade ago can live on after him. Mr. Vance, 39, is a political newcomer who entered the Senate only last year, but he has spent that time methodically ascending the conservative firmament. Once an acerbic Trump critic — attacking Mr. Trump as ‘reprehensible’ and calling him ‘cultural heroin’ — he won Mr. Trump’s backing in his 2022 Senate race by wholly embracing his politics and his lies about a stolen election. The endorsement lifted him above a crowded field, and ultimately to the Senate. Mr. Vance, a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley who became best known for writing the memoir ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ did not forget it. He quickly emerged as a top defender of the former president in the halls of Congress and on television, taking his cues from Mr. Trump while frequently bucking the priorities of Senator Mitch McConnell, the chamber’s longtime Republican leader.” See also, Trump chooses Senator J. D. Vance, a former critic, as his vice-presidential pick. Vance is a rising star in the party who has closely aligned himself with Trump in recent years, after criticizing him forcefully in 2016. The Washington Post, Meryl Kornfield and Marianne LeVine, Monday, 15 July 2024: “Donald Trump has chosen Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate, selecting a rising star in the Republican Party and previously outspoken Trump critic who in recent years has closely aligned himself with the former president…. If elected in November, Vance, 39, would be one of the youngest vice presidents in history. He is a relative political newcomer, winning his Senate seat in 2022 after rising to prominence as an author who wrote a best-selling memoir. His selection adds a staunch defender of Trump’s movement to the ticket and, some Republican observers said, it could help Trump solidify his base of White working-class voters, particularly in the Upper Midwest.” See also, Trump picks Senator JD Vance of Ohio, a once-fierce critic turned loyal ally, as his Republican running mate, Associated Press, Jill Colvin, Steve Peoples, Julie Carr Smyth, and Zeke Miller, Monday, 15 July 2024: “Former President Donald Trump chose Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate on Monday, picking a onetime critic who became a loyal ally and is now the first millennial to join a major-party ticket at a time of deep concern about the advanced age of America’s political leaders…. The 39-year-old Vance rose to national fame with the 2016 publication of his memoir, ‘Hillbilly Elegy.’ He was elected to the Senate in 2022 and has become one of the staunchest champions of the former president’s ‘Make America Great Again’ agenda, particularly on trade, foreign policy and immigration.”
Wednesday, 17 July 2024:
Trump and Allies Forge Plans to Increase Presidential Power in 2025. The former president and his backers aim to strengthen the power of the White House and limit the independence of federal agencies. The New York Times, Jonathan Swan, Charlie Savage, and Maggie Haberman, Wednesday, 17 July 2024: “Donald J. Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands. Their plans to centralize more power in the Oval Office stretch far beyond the former president’s recent remarks that he would order a criminal investigation into his political rival, President Biden, signaling his intent to end the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence from White House political control. Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him. Mr. Trump intends to bring independent agencies — like the Federal Communications Commission, which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies, and the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces various antitrust and other consumer protection rules against businesses — under direct presidential control. He wants to revive the practice of ‘impounding’ funds, refusing to spend money Congress has appropriated for programs a president doesn’t like — a tactic that lawmakers banned under President Richard Nixon. He intends to strip employment protections from tens of thousands of career civil servants, making it easier to replace them if they are deemed obstacles to his agenda. And he plans to scour the intelligence agencies, the State Department and the defense bureaucracies to remove officials he has vilified as ‘the sick political class that hates our country.'”
Representative Adam Schiff of California Calls on Biden to Drop Out of Presidential Race. Schiff, a top House Democrat running for Senate, told The Los Angeles Times that he had serious concerns about whether President Biden could win. The New York Times, Maggie Astor, Wednesday, 17 July 2024: “Representative Adam B. Schiff of California said on Wednesday that President Biden should end his campaign, restarting a drip of opposition within the Democratic Party that had paused after the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump over the weekend. Mr. Biden ‘has been one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history, and his lifetime of service as a senator, a vice president and now as president has made our country better,’ Mr. Schiff, who is running for Senate, said in a statement to The Los Angeles Times. But, he said, ‘A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the president can defeat Donald Trump in November.’ Mr. Schiff had said over the weekend, in a private meeting with donors, that if Mr. Biden remained the party’s nominee, Democrats were likely to lose not only the White House but also down-ballot races. But his public statement on Wednesday was a significant escalation. He emphasized that he would support the Democratic ticket, even if Mr. Biden stayed at the top, but said he believed it would be better for Mr. Biden to ‘pass the torch.'” See also, Biden’s political crisis deepens as Representative Adam Schiff of California calls for him to drop out. Schiff is the 23rd member of Congress from the party to call for Biden’s exit from the race. The Washington Post, Nicole Markus, Wednesday, 17 July 2024: “The most serious political crisis of Joe Biden’s presidency deepened Wednesday as Rep. Adam Schiff, a prominent House Democrat who is a heavy favorite in California’s Senate race in November, called for him to step aside as his party’s nominee against Donald Trump.”
Biden Called ‘More Receptive’ to Hearing pleas to Step Aside. The president has given no indication that he is changing his mind about staying in the race but is said to be more willing to listen to the case for bowing out. The New York Times, Carl Hulse, Michael S. Schmidt, Reid J. Epstein, Peter Baner, and Luke Broadwater, Wednesday, 17 July 2024: “President Biden has become more receptive in the last several days to hearing arguments about why he should drop his re-election bid, Democrats briefed on his conversations said on Wednesday, after his party’s two top leaders in Congress privately told him they were deeply concerned about his prospects. Mr. Biden has not given any indication that he is changing his mind about staying in the race, the Democrats said, but has been willing to listen to rundowns of new and worrying polling data and has asked questions about how Vice President Kamala Harris could win. The accounts suggest that Mr. Biden, privately at least, is striking a more open-minded posture than he did last week when he lashed out at a number of House Democrats who pressed him to step aside. One person close to the president said that it would be wrong to call him receptive to the idea of dropping out but that he ‘is willing to listen.’ But this person emphasized there was no sign that Mr. Biden was changing course at this point.”
Special counsel Jack Smith appeals dismissal of Trump classified documents case, CNN Politics, Tierney Sneed, Marshall Cohen, and Devan Cole, Wednesday, 17 July 2024: “Special counsel Jack Smith said Wednesday that he is appealing a judge’s decision to throw out the indictment against Donald Trump concerning his handling of classified documents. The special counsel team filed a notice of appeal, the initial procedural mechanism that sets the appeal in motion, on Wednesday, just two days after US District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the prosecution and well ahead of the 30-day deadline the prosecutors faced for bringing the appeal. This means the shock ruling would be reviewed by judges from the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals based in Atlanta.”
4 Takeaways From the Night of JD Vance’s Big Introduction at the Republican Convention, Talking Points Memo, Josh Kovensky and John Light, published on Friday, 19 July 2024: “For Vance, a politician who burst into conservative politics thanks in part to support from a Silicon Valley billionaire, Wednesday night was a branding exercise. During his speech, he pointed toward his hardscrabble background to build trust with voters…. As he concluded, he seized on an idea that came up at other times throughout the evening: That America is not just an idea, it’s a place. He took the theme of American identity and ran with it, suggesting America is a nation in the oldest sense of the word. ‘It’s a people with a common history,’ he said. It was a somewhat-quiet, somewhat-obvious dog whistle, gesturing toward the idea there are, as some on the far-right contend, ‘heritage Americans.’ That is, Americans whose ancestors have lived here for generations, and who therefore, the argument goes, have a deeper understanding of what the country means. It’s a view of nationhood that’s long existed everywhere but here, and whose absence has long made our country exceptional. It’s also a means of leaning into what may be a defining theme of a potential Trump second term: ending birthright citizenship and restricting legal immigration.”
Thursday, 18 July 2024:
Trump Struggles to Turn the Page on ‘American Carnage.’ On the last night of the Republican convention on Thursday, Trump promised to bridge political divides and then returned to delighting in deepening them. The New York Times, Lisa Lerer and Michael C. Bender, published on Friday, 19 July 2024: “Donald J. Trump has long been a man undone by himself. He imperiled his presidency and political campaigns with personal grudges, impulsiveness and an appetite for authoritarianism. His casual approach to the rule of law — and unwillingness to accept electoral defeat — resulted in $83 million in penalties, nearly three dozen felony convictions and additional legal trouble ahead. But on Thursday night, with his right ear still bandaged five days after he was wounded by a would-be assassin’s bullet, Mr. Trump attempted a politically cunning transformation. He opened his address by casting himself as a unifying figure, promising to bridge political divides he had long delighted in deepening. He mentioned President Biden by name only once. At brief moments, he struck tones more similar to President Barack Obama’s message of hope and healing than to the dark version of America that Mr. Trump described in accepting his first two Republican presidential nominations…. For a night at least, such open threats and nakedly vicious imagery were largely absent from his address. Still, in a speech designed to place a friendlier face on Trumpism, the former president couldn’t resist a handful of exaggerations and personal attacks on Democrats. He derided former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as ‘Crazy Nancy.’ Less than four years removed from office, he said America was already a ‘nation in decline.’ He waxed hyperbolic about the immigration crisis, calling it ‘the greatest invasion in history’ and compared undocumented migrants to Hannibal Lecter, the fictional serial killer and cannibal from ‘The Silence of the Lambs.'” See also, Fact-Checking Trump’s Speech and More: Day 4 of the Republican National Convention. A team of New York Times reporters followed the developments and fact-checked the speakers, providing context and explanation. The New York Times, published on Friday, 19 July 2024. See also, Transcript of Donald Trump’s Convention Speech. He spoke for just over 90 minutes. The New York Times, published on Friday, 19 July 2024. See also, Trump recounts assassination attempt to galvanize the Republican Party he transformed, The Washington Post, Isaac Arnsdorf and Josh Dawsey, Thursday, 18 July 2024: “Donald Trump accepted his third straight Republican nomination on Thursday by wrapping a fresh gesture toward unity around the same dark view of American decline and loathing for political opponents and immigrants that have defined his nine-year political career and transformed the GOP. The former president dramatically recounted the experience of narrowly missing a would-be assassin’s bullet five days ago, and he opened and concluded with calls for Americans to set aside the rancorous partisan divisions he has played no small role in stoking. In between, he rehearsed his usual themes of framing this election in catastrophic terms, characterizing the current state of affairs with depictions of doom and destruction. Trump also used the banner of unity to return to form in assailing the criminal cases against him, saying the prosecutors should drop the charges and Democrats should stop calling him a threat to democracy. He also returned to his refrain of vilifying undocumented immigrants as dangerous, describing them without evidence as criminals and mentally ill, even cannibalistic. Within a half-hour, the speech started resembling a typical rally, with ad-libbed shout-outs to VIPs and railing against subpoenas and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).” See also, 3 takeaways from Trump’s speech on the final night of the Republican convention, The Washington Post, Aaron Blake, published on Friday, 19 July 2024. See also, Fact-checking Trump on Day 4 of the 2024 Republican National Convention. Trump dusts off familiar falsehoods about tax cuts, inflation, energy independence, EVs, gas prices, crime, undocumented migrants, and more. The Washington Post, Glenn Kessler, published on Friday, 19 July 2024. See also, Fact check: Trump makes more than 20 false claims in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, CNN Politics, published on Friday, 19 July 2024: “Former President Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday with the most dishonest speech of the four-day Republican National Convention, making more than 20 false claims by CNN’s count. Many of the false claims were ones Trump has made before, some of them for years. They spanned a wide variety of topics, including the economy, immigration, crime, foreign policy and elections. Some of them were wild lies, others smaller exaggerations. Some were in his prepared text (like the absurd claim that he left the Biden administration a world at peace), while he ad-libbed others (such as his usual lies that Democrats cheated in the 2020 election and that the US is experiencing the worst inflation it has ever had).” See also, America will never be the same after Milwaukee’s tent revival for the cult of Donald Trump, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Will Bunch, Thursday, 18 July 2024: “I came to the American heartland to cover a political convention, but all I found was a tent revival, Brother Trump’s Traveling Salvation Show…. [B]y 8 p.m. Central, most were sucked by a cosmic force toward the back corner of the floor, iPhones aloft to capture a moment of political transubstantiation. It reaches fever pitch as the Village People’s gay disco anthem ‘Y.M.C.A.’ floods the massive basketball arena, with images of the Leader’s goofball dancing on a big screen. A house band segues into The Romantics’ ‘What I Like About You’ as he finally enters the long tunnel and climbs to his seat, white bandage covering the stigmata of his right ear, which bled from Butler, Pa., to Milwaukee for the salvation of America and this delirious throng. In the minutes that follow, vanquished rivals like Nikki Haley or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis plead for mercy by pledging their undying fealty. The faithful thanked their God for intervening Saturday to save Trump and save America. Eventually, the speeches all start sounding like a riff on The Manchurian Candidate: ‘Donald J. Trump is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.’ But the camera is drawn, like a moth to flame, to Trump — head-cocked, absorbing the adulation, probably hoping the TV talking heads are speculating wildly about this obviously changed man. Here in Milwaukee, the political pundits finally saw the thing they’ve been pleading for — unity — and what that really looks like. It looks a lot like Jonestown.”
People Close to Biden Say He Appears to Accept He May Have to Leave the Race, The New York Times, Michael D. Shear, Peter Baker, and Katie Rogers, Thursday, 18 July 2024: “Several people close to President Biden said on Thursday that they believe he has begun to accept the idea that he may not be able to win in November and may have to drop out of the race, bowing to the growing demands of many anxious members of his party. One of the people close to him warned that the president had not yet made up his mind to leave the race after three weeks of insisting that almost nothing would drive him out. But another said that ‘reality is setting in,’ and that it would not be a surprise if Mr. Biden made an announcement soon endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement. Some people in Mr. Biden’s camp have told Democratic allies that the president’s resolve to stay in the race has been most shaken by three developments: The decision by Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker, to weigh in so strongly, new state polls showing that his path to an Electoral College victory has grown far more remote and the boycott of key party donors.” See also, Pelosi has told House Democrats that Biden may soon be persuaded to exit the race. The former House speaker has stepped up her behind-the-scenes role in working to persuade the president to bow out of the campaign. The Washington Post, Marianna Sotomayor, Jacqueline Alemany, and Paul Kane, Thursday, 18 July 2024: “Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi has told some House Democrats she believes President Biden can be persuaded fairly soon to exit the presidential race amid serious doubts he can win in November, according to three Democratic officials familiar with her private discussions. Following Biden’s halting debate performance last month, and the panic it unleashed among Democrats in and outside of Washington, Pelosi (D-Calif.) has taken a strong, behind-the-scenes role in trying to resolve the political crisis by playing intermediary for upset rank-and-file Democrats and relaying those messages to the White House. The former speaker, who left her leadership post in 2022 but still wields enormous clout, has told California Democrats and some members of House leadership that she thinks Biden is getting close to deciding to abandon his presidential bid, three Democratic officials said. Some Democrats fear that, by staying in, Biden will end up handing the White House to Donald Trump.”
Sunday, 21 July 2024:
Biden Drops Out of Race, Scrambling the Campaign for the White House. The president’s withdrawal under pressure from fellow Democrats cleared the way for a new nominee to take on former President Donald Trump in the fall. He quickly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. The New York Times, Peter Baker, Sunday, 21 July 2024: “President Biden on Sunday abruptly abandoned his campaign for a second term under intense pressure from fellow Democrats and threw his support to Vice President Kamala Harris to lead their party in a dramatic last-minute bid to stop former President Donald J. Trump from returning to the White House. ‘It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,’ Mr. Biden said in a letter posted on social media. ‘And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.’ Mr. Biden then posted a subsequent online message endorsing Ms. Harris. ‘My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President,’ he wrote. ‘And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.’ The president’s decision upended the race and set the stage for a raucous and unpredictable campaign unlike any in modern times, leaving Ms. Harris just 107 days to consolidate support from Democrats, establish herself as a credible national leader and prosecute the case against Mr. Trump. Recent polls have shown her competitive with and even slightly ahead of Mr. Trump.” See also, Biden makes stunning decision to pull out of 2024 race. The president’s decision plunges the Democratic Party into an unprecedented scramble to choose a new nominee at the 11th hour. The Washington Post, Toluse Olorunnipa and Patrick Svitek, Sunday, 21 July 2024: “President Biden abruptly ended his reelection campaign Sunday, sending shock waves through the political world and plunging the Democratic Party into an unprecedented scramble to choose a new nominee to face former president Donald Trump. In a separate social media post Sunday, Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala D. Harris, to replace him as the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer ahead of its national convention Aug. 19-22.” See also, Biden drops out of 2024 race after disastrous debate inflamed age concerns. Vice President Harris gets his nod. Associated Press, Zeke Miller, Colleen Long, and Darlene Superville, Sunday, 21 July 2024: “President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House on Sunday, ending his bid for reelection after a disastrous debate with Donald Trump that raised doubts about the incumbent’s fitness for office. The unprecedented announcement, delivered less than four months before the election, immediately upended a campaign that both political parties view as the most consequential in generations. The president — intent on serving out the remainder of his term in office — quickly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take on Trump and encouraged his party to unite behind her, making her the party’s instant favorite for the nomination at its August convention in Chicago.” See also, Biden Made a Courageous Choice. Democrats Must Seize the Opportunity. The New York Times, The Editorial Board, Sunday, 21 July 2024: “President Biden’s decision to exit the 2024 presidential election is a fitting coda for a man whose life has been devoted to public service. Mr. Biden has served the nation well as its president. By agreeing to step down when his term ends in January, he is greatly increasing the chance that his party is able to protect the nation from the dangers of returning Donald Trump to the presidency. Majorities of Americans have consistently said they did not believe Mr. Biden could lead the nation for another term, citing longstanding fears about his age and fitness that have only grown in recent months. Had he remained at the top of the ticket, he would have greatly increased the likelihood of Mr. Trump retaking the presidency and potentially controlling both houses of Congress as well. Mr. Biden himself has consistently warned that specter presents a profound threat to the nation and its democratic traditions. Mr. Biden has now done what Mr. Trump never will: He has placed the national interest above his own pride and ambition. Mr. Biden’s departure gives Democrats an opportunity to refocus public attention from questions about the president’s fitness to the manifest moral and temperamental unfitness of Mr. Trump — and to the dangers of rearming him with the considerable powers of the presidency. Mr. Trump is a felon who flouts the law and the Constitution, an inveterate liar beholden to no higher cause than his self-interest and a reckless policymaker indifferent to the well-being of the American people. His term in office did lasting damage to the people and the project of America and to its reputation around the world. In a second term he would operate with fewer restraints and more willing enablers, and he and his emboldened advisers have made clear they intend to exercise power ruthlessly.”
Tuesday, 23 July 2024:
Vice President Kamala Harris Rallies Exuberant Democrats in Wisconsin: ‘The Baton Is in Our Hands.’ Harris gave her first speech as the defacto Democratic nominee to a deafening crowd, keeping up her offensive against Donald Trump. The New York Times, Reid J. Epstein and Simon J. Levien, Tuesday, 23 July 2024: “Delivering a jolt of enthusiasm to a party reeling from weeks of infighting, Vice President Kamala Harris rallied Democrats on Tuesday in Wisconsin and laid out a fierce argument against former President Donald J. Trump. Ms. Harris vowed, in her first rally as the de facto Democratic presidential nominee, to defeat Mr. Trump by attacking him as a prosecutor would. She defined herself as a tribune of the middle class fighting against a tool of billionaires and as a champion of abortion rights against a man who would deny such rights to all Americans…. ‘We have earned the support of enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination,’ Ms. Harris said. ‘I am so very honored and I pledge to you I will spend the coming weeks continuing to unite our party so that we are ready to win in November.’… The vice president drew perhaps her largest cheers during the section of her stump speech that compared her biography to Mr. Trump’s. She told of being a local prosecutor and attorney general in California who investigated ‘fraudsters’ and ‘cheaters,’ among other miscreants, and reminded the crowd that Mr. Trump was found liable of sexual assault by a Manhattan civil court. ‘So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type,’ she said. ‘In this campaign, I promise you I will proudly put my record against his every day of the week.'”
Wednesday, 24 July 2024:
Biden Says It Is Time to Step Aside for a Fresh, Younger Voice. In an Oval Office address, President Biden praised Vice President Kamala Harris and said ‘it’s been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years.’ The New York Times, Katie Rogers, Wednesday, 24 July 2024: “President Biden told the American public in an Oval Office address on Wednesday that he had abandoned his re-election campaign because there is ‘a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices — yes, younger voices.’ His words, lasting 11 minutes in all, were the first extensive ones from Mr. Biden since his decision to step aside, and expanded on his initial announcement, delivered in a post on social media on Sunday, that he was dropping out of the race. His tone was wistful and his speech was an early farewell…. Ultimately, Mr. Biden said, he concluded that ‘the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.’ The president praised Vice President Kamala Harris — ‘she’s experienced, she’s tough, she’s capable’ — but warned, as he has for years, that Americans faced a choice between preserving democracy and allowing it to backslide. ‘History is in your hands,’ Mr. Biden said. ‘The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. We just have to keep faith, keep the faith, and remember who we are.'” See also, Biden’s speech: Warnings about Trump without naming him, a hefty to-do list, and a power handoff, Associated Press, Seung Min Kim and Colleen Long, Wednesday, 24 July 2024: “President Joe Biden delivered a solemn Oval Office address Wednesday that laid out in the clearest terms yet why he abandoned his reelection campaign. He wanted to send an unmistakable warning about Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump while anointing Vice President Kamala Harris as his natural successor, without invoking an overtly political tone that would have been out of step in the official setting of the White House. He was determined to show that he would not act like a lame-duck president, outlining an ambitious agenda that underscored his resolve to continue building on his legacy.”
Trump’s Nephew Says Trump Suggested Some Disabled People ‘Should Just Die.’ In a new memoir, Fred C. Trump III claims his uncle, Donald J. Trump, made cruel and racist comments. The New York Times, Shawn McCreesh, Wednesday, 24 July 2024: “Fred Trump’s son was born with a rare medical condition that led to developmental and intellectual disabilities. His care had been paid for in part with help from the family. After Mr. Trump was elected, Fred Trump wanted to use his connection to the White House for good. With the help of Ivanka Trump, his cousin, and Ben Carson, at the time the housing and urban development secretary, he was able to convene a group of advocates for a meeting with his uncle. The president ‘seemed engaged, especially when several people in our group spoke about the heart-wrenching and expensive efforts they’d made to care for their profoundly disabled family members,’ he writes. After the meeting, Fred Trump claims, his uncle pulled him aside and said, ‘maybe those kinds of people should just die,’ given ‘the shape they’re in, all the expenses.’ The remark wasn’t a one-off, according to Fred Trump. A couple of years later, when he called his uncle for help because the medical fund that paid for his son’s care was running out of money, Fred Trump claims his uncle said: ‘I don’t know. He doesn’t recognize you. Maybe you should just let him die and move down to Florida.’ ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised to hear Donald say that,’ he writes. ‘It wasn’t far off from what he’d said that day in the Oval Office after our meeting with the advocates. Only that time, it was other people’s children who should die. This time, it was my son.’ Another scathing anecdote in the book occurred decades earlier, in the 1970s, when the author claims to have heard his uncle use a racial slur after his car had been damaged and he was searching for someone to blame.’ ‘Look what the niggers did,’ Fred Trump writes, quoting his uncle.”
Thursday, 25 July 2024:
Prosecutors Say Immunity Ruling Has No Bearing on Trump’s Conviction on 34 Felony Counts. The Manhattan district attorney’s office argued that a recent Supreme Court ruling did not apply to the type of evidence it had deployed against the former president. The New York Times, Ben Protess and Jesse McKinley, Thursday, 25 July 2024: “Manhattan prosecutors are urging the judge who oversaw Donald J. Trump’s criminal hush-money trial to uphold his conviction, seeking to cast doubt on the former president’s long-shot bid to overturn the case because of a recent Supreme Court ruling. In a court filing made public on Thursday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office argued that the Supreme Court’s decision this month granting Mr. Trump broad immunity for official actions he took in the White House had ‘no bearing on this prosecution.’ Although the high court’s ruling was a blow to a separate criminal case against Mr. Trump in Washington, the Manhattan charges did not hinge on official acts. Instead, the Manhattan prosecutors noted, he was convicted in May of covering up a sex scandal that had threatened to derail his 2016 campaign, a personal and political crisis that did not involve his conduct as president. Mr. Trump’s lawyers, seeking to link the two cases, have mounted a novel argument. In a recent filing to the judge who presided over the Manhattan trial, Juan M. Merchan, they contended that the Supreme Court’s decision had invalidated at least some of the evidence presented in Manhattan, including the testimony of former White House employees and tweets that Mr. Trump sent as president. The Supreme Court, they noted, had held that official acts could be inadmissible as evidence — even if a case concerned private misconduct. But the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, fired back this week, arguing that the former president’s lawyers had missed their window of opportunity to raise the immunity defense and then distorted the Supreme Court’s ruling once it emerged.”
J.D. Vance Denigrated Kamala Harris for Being Childless. Her Blended Family Is Defending Her. Vance’s 2021 insult of ‘childless cat ladies’ has sparked bipartisan outrage at a moment when women’s choices are seen as a galvanizing political force. The New York Times, Katie Rogers, Thursday, 25 July 2024: “In a 2021 interview with Fox News, JD Vance lamented that the United States was being run by ‘childless cat ladies’ like Vice President Kamala Harris, women who he claimed had no ‘direct stake’ in the country’s future. This week, Ms. Harris received a powerful gesture of support from one of her biggest advocates: the mother of her stepchildren. ‘For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I,’ Kerstin Emhoff said in a statement released by the office of the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff. ‘She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective and always present. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it.'” See also, ‘Childless cat ladies,’ Jennifer Aniston and Swifties take on JD Vance. Celebrities including Jennifer Aniston and Whoppi Goldberg cite many reasons women don’t have kids, Others are embracing being a childless cat lady like Taylor Swift. The Washington Post, Niha Masih, Thursday, 25 July 2024: “Three years ago, well before JD Vance was selected as Donald Trump’s running mate, he suggested in a TV interview that some Democrats including Vice President Harris are ‘a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable.’ Those 2021 comments are resurfacing on social media now that Harris is the likely Democratic nominee, sparking a fresh wave of anger from women who say it’s offensive to those struggling with fertility issues — and inaccurate that people without children ‘don’t really have a direct stake’ in the country’s future. At the same time, many on social media are embracing and owning the ‘childless cat lady’ label as a point of pride, with many even pointing to reported billionaire Taylor Swift as a prime example of a highly successful one — seen even on her 2023 Time ‘Person of the Year’ cover with her fluffy ragdoll wrapped around her neck.”
Saturday, 27 July 2024:
Trump Tells Christians ‘You Won’t Have to Vote Anymore’ If He’s Elected. Donald Trump, after lamenting that conservative Christians are not ‘big voters,’ urged the religious right to turn out for him ‘just this time.’ The New York Times, Michael Gold, Saturday, 27 July 2024: “In the closing minutes of his speech to a gathering of religious conservatives on Friday night, former President Donald J. Trump told Christians that if they voted him into office in November, they would never need to vote again. ‘Christians, get out and vote. Just this time,’ he said at The Believers’ Summit, an event hosted by the conservative advocacy group Turning Point Action, in West Palm Beach, Fla. ‘You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.’ Mr. Trump, who never made a particular display of religious observance before entering politics, continued: ‘I love you, Christians. I’m a Christian. I love you, you got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.'” See also, Trump faces backlash for ‘in four years, you don’t have to vote again’ remark. Some Democrats say his comments, directed at a Christian audience, signaled his plans to be a dictator. His campaign says he was talking about ‘uniting’ the country, and experts point to his ‘deliberately ambiguous’ speaking style. The Washington Post, Maegan Vazquez and Sarah Ellison, Saturday, 27 July 2024: “Democratic lawmakers and Vice President Harris’s campaign joined a chorus of online critics in calling out remarks Donald Trump aimed at a Christian audience on Friday, arguing that the former president and current Republican presidential nominee had implied he would end elections in the United States if he won a second term…. 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.'” See also, Trump tells supporters they won’t have to vote in the future: ‘It’ll be fixed.!’ The former president implores Christian supporters to vote ‘just this time,’ then ‘in four years, you don’t have to vote again.’ The Guardian, Ramon Antonio Vargas, Saturday, 27 July 2024: “Donald Trump has ignited alarm among his critics after telling a crowd of supporters that they won’t ‘have to vote again’ if they return him to the presidency in November’s election…. The constitutional and civil rights attorney Andrew Seidel, for instance, replied to video of Trump’s comments circulating on X by writing: ‘This is not subtle Christian nationalism. He’s talking about ending our democracy and installing a Christian nation.’… Trump’s comments on Friday came months after he remarked that he would be ‘a dictator on day one’ if given a second four-year term in the White House. He has repeatedly made known his admiration for authoritarian leaders, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. And a former White House aide reported that Trump once said Adolf Hitler – whose Nazi regime murdered 6 million Jews during the Holocaust amid the second world war – ‘did some good things.’… Experts on authoritarianism warn the public to take Trump seriously when he speaks in that manner.”
Monday, 29 July 2024:
Biden Calls for Overhaul of the Supreme Court, Warning of ‘Extreme’ Agenda. In a speech in Austin, Texas, the president outlined a proposal that included term limits and an enforceable ethics code for the justices but that faces long odds in a divided Congress. The New York Times, Katie Rogers, Monday, 29 July 2024: “President Biden, warning that the country’s courts were being weaponized as part of an ‘extreme and unchecked’ conservative agenda, said on Monday that he would push for legislation that would bring major changes to the Supreme Court, including term limits and an enforceable code of ethics on the justices. Mr. Biden detailed his plans in a speech at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum in Austin, Texas, his first public engagement since announcing his decision to end his presidential campaign last week. His visit was initially scheduled to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. But it quickly became a venue for Mr. Biden to begin buttoning up a 51-year legislative legacy while outlining an election-year intention to try to stop what many in his party feel is the Supreme Court’s ideological drift into conservatism.” See also, How the Supreme Court Would Look Under Biden’s Term-Limit Plan, The New York Times, Elena Shao, Monday, 29 July 2024: “President Biden proposed major changes to the Supreme Court on Monday, including 18-year term limits for justices and a binding code of conduct. Under Mr. Biden’s term-limit plan, presidents would appoint a new Supreme Court justice every two years. If that rule had already been in effect over the past two decades and each justice had served the full 18-year term, the court’s ideological split would be flipped….” See also, Biden, at LBJ Library, blasts Supreme Court and proposes major changes. Biden urges term limits and ethics code, saying they are needed to restore confidence. The Washington Post, Matt Viser, Tyler Pager, and Ann E. Marimow, Monday, 29 July 2024: “President Biden on Monday came to the LBJ Presidential Library to deliver a sweeping indictment of the U.S. Supreme Court, calling its rulings ‘dangerous,’ its ethics code ‘weak’ and its practices in desperate need of reform. Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee who oversaw numerous confirmation battles, said the court has become unmoored from its traditional role. ‘We live in a different era,’ he said during a 25-minute address in an auditorium filled with hundreds of people. ‘In recent years, extreme opinions the Supreme Court has handed down have undermined long-established civil rights principles and protections.’ He proposed several sweeping changes to the Supreme Court, including 18-year term limits for the justices and a binding, enforceable ethics code.” See also, Joe Biden: My plan to reform the Supreme Court and ensure no president is above the law. We can and must prevent the abuse of presidential power and restore the public’s faith in our judicial system. The Washington Post, Joe Biden, Monday, 29 July 2024: “This nation was founded on a simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law. Not the president of the United States. Not a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. No one. But the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision on July 1 to grant presidents broad immunity from prosecution for crimes they commit in office means there are virtually no limits on what a president can do. The only limits will be those that are self-imposed by the person occupying the Oval Office. If a future president incites a violent mob to storm the Capitol and stop the peaceful transfer of power — like we saw on Jan. 6, 2021 — there may be no legal consequences.” See also, Biden decries ‘extremism’ on the Supreme Court and details plan for term limits and an ethics code for justices, Associated Press, Aamer Madhani and Colleen Long, Monday, 29 July 2024: “President Joe Biden said Monday that ‘extremism’ on the U.S. Supreme Court is undermining public confidence in the institution and called on Congress to quickly establish term limits and an enforceable ethics code for the court’s nine justices. He also called on lawmakers to ratify a constitutional amendment limiting presidential immunity. Biden, who has less than six months left in his presidency, detailed the contours of his court proposal in an address at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, where he was marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. His calls for dramatic changes in the court have little chance of being approved by a closely divided Congress with 99 days to go before Election Day.”
Tuesday, 30 July 2024:
Project 2025 Director Steps Down Amid Trump Criticism. Paul Dans oversaw the project for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank behind the proposal to reshape the federal government. Democrats have used the plans to attack Donald Trump, who has sought to distance himself from it. The New York Times, Neil Vigdor and Shane Goldmacher, Tuesday, 30 July 2024: “The director of Project 2025, the right-wing policy blueprint and personnel project prepared for the next Republican president that became a political cudgel used by Democrats, is departing after the effort drew criticism from former President Donald J. Trump. The project, which has been a collaborative effort across the conservative ecosystem led by the Heritage Foundation, has become a lightning rod on the 2024 campaign trail. The group had spent months developing an expansive set of policies, and the president of the Heritage Foundation said on Tuesday it was concluding its drafting of new ideas as planned.” See also, Project 2025 to end policy work after Democratic attacks angered Trump. The Trump campaign grew furious with the Heritage Foundation over media coverage tying the candidate to unpopular policy proposals. The Washington Post, Isaac Arnsdorf and Josh Dawsey, Tuesday, 30 July 2024: “The right-wing policy operation that became a rallying cry for Democrats and a nuisance for Republican nominee Donald Trump is trying to escape the public spotlight and repair relations with Trump’s campaign. Project 2025, a collaboration led by the Heritage Foundation among more than 110 conservative groups to develop a movement consensus blueprint for the next Republican administration, is winding down its policy operations, and its director, former Trump administration personnel official Paul Dans, is departing. The Heritage Foundation also recently distributed new talking points encouraging participants to emphasize that the project does not speak for Trump.” See also, Project 2025 shakes up leadership after criticism from Democrats and Trump but says work goes on, Associated Press, Ali Swenson and Lisa Mascaro, Tuesday, 30 July 2024: “The director of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 vision for a complete overhaul of the federal government stepped down Tuesday after blowback from Donald Trump’s campaign, which has tried to disavow the program created by many of the former president’s allies and former aides. Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said Paul Dans’ exit comes after the project ‘completed exactly what it set out to do.’ Roberts, who has emerged as a chief spokesman for the effort, plans to lead Project 2025 going forward. ‘Our collective efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels — federal, state, and local — will continue,’ Roberts said. What started as an obscure far-right wish list is now a focal point in the 2024 campaign. Democrats for the past several months have made Project 2025 a key election-year cudgel, pointing to the ultraconservative policy blueprint as a glimpse into how extreme another Trump administration could be.”
Trump Declines to Back Away From ‘You Don’t Have to Vote Again’ Line. The former president, in an interview on Fox News, declined to back away from his comments and repeated his argument that if he’s elected, ‘the country will be fixed’ and their votes won’t be needed. The New York Times, Maggie Astor, Tuesday, 30 July 2024: “Former President Donald J. Trump, in an interview broadcast Monday night, repeated his recent assertion that Christians will never have to vote again if they vote for him this November, and brushed aside multiple requests to walk back or clarify the statement. Mr. Trump said last Friday to a gathering of Christian conservatives: ‘I love you. You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.’ His interviewer on Monday, Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, noted that Democrats have highlighted that quote as evidence that Mr. Trump would end elections, and urged Mr. Trump to rebut what she called a ‘ridiculous’ criticism. But Mr. Trump declined to do so, repeating a pattern he frequently employs in which he makes a provocative statement that can be interpreted in varying ways, and makes no attempt to quiet the uproar. This comment was especially striking, given his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his shattering of other democratic norms.”
Trump, with a history of sexist attacks, again faces a female opponent. Strategists and aides from both parties are girding for an election steeped in allegations of sexism and racism. The Washington Post, Ashley Parker, Marianne LeVine and Maeve Reston, Tuesday, 30 July 2024: “Running against former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina in the 2016 Republican primaries, Donald Trump mocked her appearance: ‘Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?’ Running against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race, Trump dismissed her as ‘unbalanced’ and ‘unhinged’ and questioned her ‘strength’ and ‘stamina.’ And running against former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley in the 2024 Republican primaries, Trump attacked his own former U.N. ambassador as a ‘birdbrain.’ In nearly a decade of contests against women, the former president has long deployed sexist and misogynistic attacks — commenting on female rivals’ appearance and engaging in gendered stereotypes….” See also, Trump suggests Harris would struggle with world leaders based on her appearance, The Washington Post, Isaac Arnsdorf, Tuesday, 30 July 2024: “Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested that Vice President Harris wouldn’t be able to stand up to world leaders because of her appearance, adding that he didn’t want to spell it out but viewers would know what he meant. ‘She’ll be like a play toy,’ Trump — who has a history of using sexist attacks and stereotypes in campaigns against women — said in a Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham, a portion of which aired on Tuesday night. ‘They look at her and they say, “We can’t believe we got so lucky.” They’re going to walk all over her.’ Trump then turned to look directly at the camera and added: ‘And I don’t want to say as to why. But a lot of people understand it.'”
Wednesday, 31 July 2024:
Trump Questions Harris’s Racial Identity, Saying She Only ‘Became a Black Person’ Recently. In an appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists, Donald Trump also said his choice of Senator JD Vance as vice president will not matter to voters. The New York Times, Jonathan Weisman, Maya King, and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Wednesday, 31 July 2024: “Former President Donald J. Trump questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’s identity as a Black woman on Wednesday in front of an audience of Black journalists, suggesting his opponent for the presidency had adopted her racial profile as a way to gain a political advantage. ‘She was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she became a Black person,’ he said of Ms. Harris, whose mother was Indian American, whose father is Black and who has always identified as a Black woman. Ms. Harris has long embraced both her Black and South Asian identity. She attended Howard University, a historically Black institution, and pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation’s first sorority established for Black college women. Headlines from her earliest political victories dating back to the early 2000s highlighted both identities. Mr. Trump’s remarks prompted gasps and jeers from the audience at the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago.” See also, Fact-Checking Trump’s Remarks on Race. The former president falsely accused Vice President Kamala Harris of ‘only promoting’ her Indian heritage, among other inaccurate claims. Here’s a fact check. The New York Times, Linda Qiu, Wednesday, 31 July 2024. See also, Video: Trump Questions Harris’s Racial Identity at National Association of Black Journalists Conference, Reuters/The New York Times, Wednesday, 31 July 2024. See also, Trump attacks Harris’s Black identity. Harris says Americans ‘deserve better.’ Donald Trump also berated a Black reporter who questioned him about his record of offensive comments about Black people. The Washington Post, Brianna Tucker and Hannah Knowles, Wednesday, 31 July 2024: “Former president Donald Trump on Wednesday accused Vice President Harris of once hiding Black heritage she has routinely highlighted in her career, escalating his attacks on her racial identity in a combative interview with Black reporters. Trump drew audible gasps and disbelieving laughter over the roughly 35-minute sit-down session as he berated a Black reporter who pressed him about past offensive comments, falsely claimed that undocumented immigrants were ‘taking’ attendees’ votes, and suggested Harris ‘was Indian all the way’ before ‘all of a sudden she made a turn”’and ‘became a Black person.'” See also, Trump issues many falsehoods at Black journalists’ convention. The former president falsely claims nobody was charged for deaths in Black Lives Matter protests. The Washington Post, Glenn Kessler, Wednesday, 31 July 2024. See also, Donald Trump falsely suggests Kamala Harris misled voters about her race, Associated Press, Matt Brown and Michelle L. Price, Wednesday, 31 July 2024. “Donald Trump falsely suggested Kamala Harris had misled voters about her race as the former president appeared Wednesday before the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago in an interview that quickly turned hostile. The Republican former president wrongly claimed that Harris, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president, had in the past only promoted her Indian heritage. ‘I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?’ Trump said while addressing the group’s annual convention. Harris is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, both immigrants to the U.S. As an undergraduate, Harris attended Howard University, one of the nation’s most prominent historically Black colleges and universities, where she also pledged the historically Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. As a U.S. senator, Harris was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, supporting legislation to strengthen voting rights and to reform policing.”
JD Vance’s Links to the Project 2025 Leader Complicate Trump’s Attempts at Distance. Donald Trump disavowed the set of conservative plans after it became a popular target for Democrats, but his running mate, DD Vance, wrote a foreword for a forthcoming book by its principal architect. The New York Times, Charles Homans, Wednesday, 31 July 2024: “Even as Donald J. Trump is trying to distance himself from the Heritage Foundation-led Project 2025, his running mate’s contribution to a new book by the project’s principal architect is complicating his efforts. ‘Dawn’s Early Light,’ a forthcoming book by the Heritage Foundation’s president, Kevin D. Roberts, calling for a ‘second American Revolution,’ features a foreword by Senator JD Vance, the Ohio Republican whom Mr. Trump tapped as his running mate in July. ‘In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon,’ Mr. Vance writes in his introduction, which was obtained and published online by The New Republic on Tuesday. The book is set for publication in September. Mr. Vance announced in June that he had written the foreword for Mr. Roberts, whose think tank became an influential bastion of conservative policymaking during Ronald Reagan’s presidency and enjoyed exceptional influence during Mr. Trump’s time in office, providing a staffing pipeline for his administration. But Mr. Vance’s endorsement of the book became more politically fraught after Mr. Trump publicly disavowed Project 2025, a set of sweeping policy proposals for a hoped-for Republican presidency that the think tank began preparing more than two years ago under Mr. Roberts’s direction. The project, which has been billed by Heritage as an attack on the ‘deep state’ and proposes disbanding multiple federal agencies, excluding abortion from health care and ending an array of climate change programs, has become a popular target for Democrats.”
Even though the Trump administration is no longer in office, I am continuing to post summaries of the daily political news and major stories relating to this tragic and dangerous period in US history. I try to focus on the differences between the Trump administration and the Biden administration and on the ongoing toxic residual effects of the Trump administration and Republicans. I usually post throughout the day and let the news settle for a day or so before posting.
I created Muckraker Farm in 2014 as a place to post muckraking (investigative) journalism going back to the 19th century. I hope to return to this original project soon. You can find these muckraking pieces under the Home Page link at the top of this site. Thanks for reading!