SCOTUS Has Set Up Tanya Chutkan To Fail In The Jan. 6 Case

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

The High Court’s Cat’s Paw

We have our first glimpse of the mess that the Supreme Court’s abomination of a decision on presidential immunity created in the Jan. 6 case.

Special Counsel Jack Smith and Donald Trump filed a joint status report in the case late Friday that was barely joint at all. They agreed on one peripheral issue that is set by statute and not really disputable. On everything else, they disagreed and set out their respective positions.

The joint status report didn’t provide much clarity to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is going to have to hash out the Supreme Court’s mandate largely on her own. And that, more than the respective positions taken by each side, is really the point here.

The Supreme Court is treating Chutkan like its cat’s paw. In upending our historical and legal understanding of the limits of presidential immunity, the high court gave Chutkan vague instructions on remand, set uncertain legal standards for what she is to decide, and reserved for itself abundant opportunities to second guess her decisions.

Whatever pre-trial arrangements Chutkan comes up with to try to thread the needle on immunity, the Supreme Court will get another chance to bat around. By then, Trump could be president again and none of this will matter if he orders his own Justice Department to dismiss the case against him. In fact, Trump’s proposed pre-trial schedule pushes anything that poses a risk to him past Inauguration Day 2025.

Chutkan has scheduled a status conference for Thursday, when we might begin to get a clearer picture of how she envisions navigating the impossible task that she was given in bad faith.

Quote Of The Day

It’s Getting Worse

• In a Friday incident at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, a man stormed the press section before being detained by security, while Trump declared from the stage: “He is on our side.”

• As his polling lead has slipped away, Trump has fronted his racist appeals more explicitly:

Donald Trump’s racist remarks about immigrants during today’s Moms for Liberty meeting: “Our country is being poisoned … they’re going into the classrooms and taking disease, and they don’t even speak English. It’s crazy.” pic.twitter.com/0ZrocxkYMV

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) August 31, 2024

• WaPo: Trump eyes plan that may give Elon Musk role in auditing U.S. agencies

The GWOT-MAGA Nexus

TPM’s Josh Kovensky: MAGA Looks to Notorious War On Terror Lawyer John Yoo For Trump II Inspiration

2024 Ephemera

• ABC News/Ipsos poll: Harris leads Trump nationally among likely voters 52%-46%.
• Politico: House and Senate Republicans are starting to panic about a huge money gap with Democrats
• WaPo, on Trump’s strategy against Harris: “With little chance of improving Trump’s standing, Trump’s advisers see the only option as damaging hers.”

So Much Is Riding On Montana

TPM’s Kate Riga: “For Democrats to maintain Senate control, Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) needs to win reelection in a state Donald Trump won by 16.4 percentage points in 2020.”

What Ken Paxton Is Up To In Texas

WaPo: Paxton’s election fraud charges upend lives but result in few convictions

MUST READ

Convicted fraudsters Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman have a launched a DC startup under fake names that purports to integrate AI into lobbying, Politico reports.

Axis Of Disinformation

• WSJ: Beijing-Backed Trolls Target U.S. Voters as Election Nears
• NYT: Activists Charged With Pushing Russian Propaganda Go on Trial in Florida

On Gumbo And Chronic Disappointment

A pivotal moment of Kamala Harris’ nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic convention was when she mentioned … gumbo.

On the one hand, it had to have been the first reference to gumbo by a nominee in their convention speech in American history, a thrilling moment for Louisianans everywhere. On the other hand, as a Louisiana friend and I were discussing the next day, what kind of bastardized version of gumbo was Harris exposed to in the Bay area? Ick!

Once you leave the state, or travel north of Ville Platte*, you know better than to order gumbo no matter how much you miss it. It’s a life lesson in chronic disappointment.

I was prepared to to leave it there, but then this happened and now I don’t know what to think:

That’s a real-deal greens recipe. There’s no one right way to prepare greens, but this is an entirely legit method. She’s talking the talk and walking the walk. Plus, she makes a big enough batch that she has to use her bathtub to wash the greens!?! Total respect.

But look, I’ve been down this road before, lured into a false sense of security that an out-of-state restaurant might be able to pull off gumbo. The chef is from Louisiana! The owner was stationed in Louisiana when he was in the military! We fly our ingredients in from Louisiana! And with pangs of wistfulness, I let my guard down, emotion overtakes reason, nostalgia for what was prevails over the hard reality of what is.

What emerges from the kitchen every time is a gloopy mess of a dish that is the wrong color, the wrong texture, the wrong ingredients, and tastes nothing like gumbo at all. You can slap whatever name on it you want, but it’s not gumbo.

Or as my skeptical Louisiana friend put it after watching Harris expound on greens: “Tabasco doesn’t cure gumbo fails.”

I know this game. Harris is Lucy and I am Charlie Brown.

*Editor’s note: It’s possible the cultural boundary line has nudged north since my youth, but when I start to see pine trees I know to expect Southern cooking, not Cajun.

Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!