Nicole Lafond

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Nicole Lafond is TPM’s deputy editor, based in New York. She has also worked as the special projects editor and as a senior newswriter for TPM. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and previously covered education in central Illinois.

Where Things Stand: New Details On Lawyer’s Promise That Trump Had Returned Everything
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The New York Times has a new piece out this afternoon focused exclusively on Christina Bobb, the OAN anchor-turned-Trump lawyer who has found herself particularly wrapped up in the Mar-a-Lago records-stashing scandal (and, now, potentially in the DOJ’s crosshairs).

It adds to a similar report yesterday from NBC, and there are a few details from the Times’ new version that are worth noting. Like NBC’s, the Times’ is based on anonymous sources, so take the story — and the perspective from which it is told — with whatever dose of salt you wish.

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Where Things Stand: Trump Wants To Clear Out The National Archives If He Wins In 2024
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If Donald Trump ever grows tired of being faux-bashful about 2024 and actually announces he’s running, we know what at least one item on his agenda will be: purging the “woke and broken” National Archives.

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Walker Faces Yet Another Bombshell In Abortion Scandal
Where Things Stand: Walker Talks An Awful Lot About ‘Redemption’ For Someone Who Doesn’t Need Saving
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Herschel Walker released a new campaign ad this afternoon, two days into his latest scandal’s news cycle. And for someone who’s denied the paid-abortion allegations in the “strongest possible terms,” the born-again Christian talk is really muddying that story.

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Herschel Walker And GOP Scramble To Do Major Damage Control After Explosive Paid Abortion Allegation
Where Things Stand: Trump’s Bad Candidates Ask God For Help
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There’s nothing quite as humbling as begging for divine intervention.

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Where Things Stand: Desperate Michigan GOP Guv Candidate Tells Voters To Try Not Thinking About Abortion
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It’s been an incredibly shameless pivot to the general election season for the current crop of Republican candidates hoping to secure wins in November. As they face the music on the electability of their extreme views, we’ve seen the candidates — some of whom have not only pushed Big Lie propaganda as policy positions, but have launched their entire political careers on the back of Trumpy election denialism — flail around, walking back or entirely reversing their stances on the 2020 election in recent weeks.

Desperate GOPers such as Blake Masters in Arizona have also attempted to completely re-write their views on abortion, as Roe’s overturning has turned out to be incredibly unpopular among Americans, and an energizing rallying cry for Democrats.

But Tudor Dixon’s recent spin might be among the most flagrant yet.

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Where Things Stand: Trump’s Gripes About DeSantis Spill Out Into The Open
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It might very well be strategic.

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Where Things Stand: Sinema Doesn’t Just Love The Filibuster. She Wants To Strengthen It
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One of the two most thorn-in-Democrats’-side senators rather brazenly planted her flag on the filibuster today — and she did it at a … Mitch McConnell event of all places.

Calling Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) the “most effective first-term senator” he’s seen in his decades in the upper chamber, McConnell introduced Sinema ahead of her speech and Q&A at the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville.

“She is, today, what we have too few of in the Democratic Party: a genuine moderate and a deal-maker,” he said.

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Where Things Stand: Most Republicans Are Down To Declare US A Christian Nation
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Politico just put out data from a new poll it conducted a few months back and the results are worth flagging: While most Republicans believe that the idea of Christian nationalism is unconstitutional, most also support declaring the U.S. a Christian nation.

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