A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Feeling Reassured?
At a campaign rally Monday in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump creepily tried to reassure women voters that he’s not only not a threat but will be their “protector”:
- “I always thought women liked me. But the fake news keeps saying women don’t like me.”
- “You will be protected, and I will be your protector.”
- “Women will be happy, healthy, confident and free.”
- “You will no longer be thinking about abortion.”
The president who ushered in the overturning of Roe v. Wade, bragged about sexually assaulting women, and was found liable for sexual abuse now realizes that the legacy of the Dobbs decision that his three Supreme Court nominees made possible could wind up being be his own election defeat in November.
The scramble Trump has been engaged in for months to blur his position on abortion so as to give his women supporters incentive to stay in his column while not alienating his evangelical base is now reduced to a plaintive cry of “I always thought women liked me.”
Quote Of The Day
It’s not just Trump.
GOP Senate nominee Bernie Moreno (OH), at a town hall event last week but first reported yesterday by NBC4 in Columbus:
You know, the left has a lot of single issue voters. Sadly, by the way, there’s a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women that are like, ‘Listen, abortion is it. If I can’t have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else.’ … OK. It’s a little crazy by the way, but — especially for women that are like past 50 — I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think that’s an issue for you.’
Trump Escalates His Jihad Against Immigrants
Trump’s “blood and soil” rhetoric against legal immigrants in Ohio prompted the crowd at his Pennsylvania rally to begin chanting “Send them back.”
In recent days, Trump has broadened his attack on Haitian refugees from his initial focus on Springfield, Ohio, to include the small Pennsylvania town of Charleroi. He repeated those attacks at yesterday’s rally.
Election Security Watch
- Georgia: Anna Bower offers a gentle corrective on how much mischief the MAGAified state election board can really stir up in the post-election phase (the quick-read version is here).
- Arizona: The latest strategy in fighting election skepticism is radical transparency.
- Ohio: A local election board voted not to use the county sheriff for security during in-person absentee voting after his dehumanizing Facebook post in which he said people with Kamala Harris yard signs should have their addresses recorded so that immigrants can be sent to live with them if she wins the presidency.
Nebraska Hangs Tough Against Trump Pressure
It looks like a key state lawmaker in Nebraska won’t budge, potentially spelling the end of Donald Trump’s effort to change the rules late in the game in order to harvest one additional Electoral College vote.
2024 Ephemera
- Hung out to dry: Donald Trump hasn’t given a dime to the cash-strapped National Republican Congressional Committee, which is responsible for holding the GOP’s House majority.
- Melania got paid though: The former first lady was paid $237,500 for a speech at an April event of the Log Cabin Republicans, but the group said it didn’t put up the money and it’s not clear who did.
- Gossip alert: The Long, Strange Saga of Kamala Harris and Kimberly Guilfoyle
Is Iran’s Trump Campaign Hack Still Ongoing?!?
Judd Legum reports that he received Trump campaign internal documents – including a letter dated Sept. 15 – from a conduit named “Robert” who was shopping materials purloined in Iran’s hack of the Trump campaign.
The late date of the letter from an attorney representing Trump to three people at the New York Times (its authenticity was separately confirmed by the newspaper) suggests that the hack has continued past the initial revelations of its existence. The “Robert” who reached out to Legum appears, but is not confirmed, to be the same person who provided hacked materials to other news organizations.
I Miss Run Of The Mill Public Corruption
Back before democracy itself was regularly on the ballot, TPM’s bread and butter was public corruption – an endemic but not existential threat to democracy so long as it’s kept under control. (I grew up in Louisiana and cut my teeth as a journalist there, so I’m familiar with the perils of out-of-control corruption.) Now I have what almost amounts to nostalgia when we get stories like that of former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) or this new revelation about his former New York House delegation colleague Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) involving patronage and sexual peccadilloes:
Shortly after taking the oath of office, the first-term congressman hired his longtime fiancée’s daughter to work as a special assistant in his district office, eventually bumping her salary to about $3,800 a month, payroll records show.
In April, Mr. D’Esposito added someone even closer to him to his payroll: a woman with whom he was having an affair, according to four people familiar with the relationship. The woman, Devin Faas, collected $2,000 a month for a part-time job in the same district office.
Payments to both women stopped abruptly several months later, in July 2023, records show, around the time that Mr. D’Esposito’s fiancée found out about his relationship with Ms. Faas and briefly broke up with him, according to the four people.
It hearkens to a earlier, simpler time, another thing Trump ruined for all of us.
A War Both Sides Hoped To Avoid
David Ignatius: Sadness and dread as the next Lebanon war looms
Love This Kind Of Stuff
A rare original copy of the Constitution discovered in a historic North Carolina home in 2022 is set to be sold at auction this week. One expert told the NYT that it was “probably the most important copy of the Constitution that would exist.”
It was found by appraiser Ken Farmer, of Antiques Roadshow fame, in a home in Edenton that was once owned by Samuel Johnston, who served North Carolina as variously governor (1787-1789), president of the ratifying conventions of 1788 and 1789, and first U.S. senator (1789-1793).
Starting bid: $1 million
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FR!!$$t!!
You can my a copy of the new Trump-brand Constitution for much less. Signed by the man himself!
Because your savings will be worthless, vigilante groups will be roaming the streets, and the temperature will be 120 in the shade?
Gawd, Trump is such a dumbass.
Your neighbours to the south of you. This is worth reading. Gift link….