We are down to under $35,000 $31,000 $12,000 $10,000 before we hit $500,000. We’re in the final countdown. I’m trying to balance my and our excitement that we’re going to hit the goal with whatever encouragement I can give you to help us get past the finish line. But I’ll just say we’re so pumped and also … well, this is a great time to contribute! Just click here.
Will Kevin McCarthy’s Revenge Tour Defeat His Biggest Enemy?
You’d be forgiven for not remembering that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is facing a challenger tonight in the Republican primary election in his home state — with the House out on recess and the 2024 presidential campaign season in full swing, Gaetz hasn’t had much room to troll his way into the news in recent weeks (though he did make some headlines with his … stiff appearance during a speech at the RNC last month).
Continue reading “Will Kevin McCarthy’s Revenge Tour Defeat His Biggest Enemy?”Some Thoughts About Bad Reportage
I’ve been having a series of discussions about press coverage over the last couple weeks and they’ve drawn some seemingly not entirely related issues together in my mind. So this post won’t have a fully linear structure or focused point. It’s more collecting together notes I’ve been keeping in my head.
In a staff discussion several days ago we got to talking about how recently a lot of political press reporting just seems … well, bad. Everyone’s a critic of course. And TPM has always been critical of many things about mainstream media. But it seems worse. So we were discussing, is that really the case? Is it different? And if so, why would that be? We didn’t come up with any answers but we discussed some structural factors that I think play at least some significant role.
Continue reading “Some Thoughts About Bad Reportage”Republican State Officials Do Trump’s Election Denying Prep Work For Him
State-level Republican officials have been making a big show of the work they are doing to boot alleged non-citizens from the voting rolls — an emphasis that echoes the efforts by presidential candidate Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to stoke pre-election panic about the false and dangerous narrative that non-citizens are voting en masse for Democrats.
Continue reading “Republican State Officials Do Trump’s Election Denying Prep Work For Him”With An ‘I Love You,’ Harris Assumes Biden’s Mantle
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Biden Heads Off On Vacation … Literally
President Biden left Chicago early this morning and flew to California, where he and his family will spend the rest of Democratic convention week vacationing in Santa Ynez.
For those who don’t watch or will only see parts of the convention, I want to make it easy to catch up in Morning Memo. So here goes with a few video clips and links to TPM’s deeper coverage:
‘I Love You’
Harris and Doug Emhoff join the Bidens on stage to close out night one of the DNC. Harris appears to tell Biden she loves him. pic.twitter.com/RhkZ5BEYyD
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 20, 2024
The Man Can Preach
Warnock: "I need my neighbor's children to be okay so that my children will be okay. I need all of my neighbor's children to be okay … the poor children of Israel and the poor children of Gaza … those in Ukraine … I need American children on both side of the track to be ok" pic.twitter.com/JmJRYYUBqF
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 20, 2024
History Likes A Little Irony
Democrats are chanting "lock him up" during a Hillary Clinton speech. Need a moment to process this. pic.twitter.com/ur0NuYzAOW
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 20, 2024
Go Deeper
For more complete highlights from TPM:
- Democrats Remind Voters What Normal Looks Like
- Biden Passes The Torch, Capping A Long And Emotional Day One
About The Protests
Monday was expected to see the largest pro-Palestinian protest at the Democratic convention, but the size of the demonstration was well short of what organizers had expected. Farah Stockman was there and took the opportunity to explore the long-running effort to place Palestinians on equal footing with Israel in the eyes of the Democratic Party.
On The Trail
- Spot the racism: At a Pennsylvania campaign rally Monday, Donald Trump ramped up his effort to “other” Kamala Harris, asking aloud: “I wonder if they knew where she comes from, where she came from, what her ideology is.” It’s the oldest play in Trump’s playbook.
- Under his skin: Harris is holding a rally tonight at the Milwaukee arena that hosted the GOP convention, apparently hoping to fill it up as a jab at Trump, who suffers from insecurity about his crowd size.
- On brand: Former Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig, a leading anti-Trump conservative, endorsed Kamala Harris.
It Was Iran
Elements of the U.S. intelligence community issued a joint statement Monday pinning blame on Iran for a hack-and-leak operation against the Trump campaign that also targeted the Biden-Harris campaign:
The IC is confident that the Iranians have through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties. Such activity, including thefts and disclosures, are intended to influence the U.S. election process. It is important to note that this approach is not new. Iran and Russia have employed these tactics not only in the United States during this and prior federal election cycles but also in other countries around the world.
Welp …
As expected, the Georgia Election Board passed that new MAGA-backed rule that makes it easier to delay the certification of election results.
Good Read
ProPublica: Armed and Underground: Inside the Turbulent, Secret World of an American Militia
Santos Pleads Guilty
As TPM’s Hunter Walker first reported last week, ousted Rep. George Santos (R-NY) entered into a plea agreement to resolve the criminal charges against him, pleading guilty yesterday to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft as part of a plea agreement.
Super proud of the TPM team for unearthing elements of the scheme that ultimately led to some of the most serious criminal charges Santos faced.
Didn’t See That Coming
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is not opposing Donald Trump’s request to delay his sentencing in the hush money case for a second time. Rather, Bragg told the the court he would defer to it on whether a delay was appropriate.
Part of what Bragg is trying to anticipate is all of the security measures needed to be in place for the sentencing of a former president; he doesn’t want to go to all of that trouble if Trump successfully appeals to pause sentencing until the immunity issues are resolved.
All of this stems from the Supreme Court’s horrendous ruling on presidential immunity, which potentially implicates some of the evidence used to obtain Trump’s conviction.
What A Mess
On Friday, the Supreme Court blocked the Biden administration’s new rule under Title IX that, among many other things, offers protections for transgender students. But the rule does a lot more than that, including touching on many areas of education that have nothing to do with gender identity. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court blocked it all for now while litigation proceeds. For a deep dive on the many ways the high court, including the dissenting justices, made a mess of this case, Steve Vladeck has you covered.
On Climate Change
I try to strike a balance on climate change coverage among (i) sounding the alarm, which frankly this audience doesn’t really need, (ii) accessible stories about what is already being done on the ground by governments and the private sector; and (iii) how to think smartly about something on this monumental of a scale, both physically and temporally.
Jeff Masters has a deeply written new essay for Yale Climate Connections that combines all three elements as he tried to answer the question: When will climate change turn life in the U.S. upside down?
Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!
Democrats Remind Voters What Normal Looks Like
The Democratic National Committee kicked off the first night of its convention, themed “For The People,” by outlining what a progressive and normal (not weird) vision for America could look like under Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
Democrats who took the stage drew a stark contrast between what could be under the Harris-Walz administration versus what was under Trump’s first presidency — and what would be if he wins the White House again.
Continue reading “Democrats Remind Voters What Normal Looks Like “Biden Passes The Torch, Capping A Long And Emotional Day One
The first day of the convention had pathos baked in: Hillary Clinton walking off the stage to “Fight Song,” once the anthem to her seemingly inevitable election; Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) wiping tears from her eyes as she shared a story of Kamala Harris telling her that she belongs in Congress; survivors recounting harrowing tales of being denied abortions; an incredibly successful incumbent president reduced to the sidelines after being repudiated by his own party.
“I made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you,” Biden paraphrased his favorite song. “I hope you know how grateful I am to all of you.”
Catch up on our live coverage below:
Whether They’re Going After Biden Or Harris, Same Self-Imposed Problems Plague House GOP
You’ve likely seen the reports by now on House Republicans’ embarrassing thud of a report on their finding after a two-year-long effort to find something, anything to impeach President Joe Biden for. Their 291-page report concluded, on cue, that the President had, supposedly, committed impeachable conduct, but it then threw up its hands, leaving the decision on whether to pursue an impeachment to the full House.
Continue reading “Whether They’re Going After Biden Or Harris, Same Self-Imposed Problems Plague House GOP”George Santos Pleads Guilty To Federal Charges
The personal story George Santos told en route to winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives was filled with incredible — and incredibly false — chapters. In Santos’ telling, he was a multimillionaire, a veteran of some of Wall Street’s most elite firms, and a college volleyball star whose family survived the Holocaust. None of that was true, but after Santos accepted a plea deal from federal prosecutors on Monday, he is on track to add a confirmed title to his resume: prison inmate.
Continue reading “George Santos Pleads Guilty To Federal Charges”We’re Almost There, Folks!
Victory, success, publishing salvation is now in reach, folks! You’ve stood with us for four weeks of this year’s annual TPM Journalism Fund drive. And we’re almost at the finish line. We’re just over 9/10ths of the way toward our goal. 4,157 TPM readers have contributed a total of $456,553 dollars, an immense sum. So we’re just $44,000 short of our goal of raising $500,000, which we are now pretty sure we will hit this week. I like to step back at these moments and marvel at this show of support. It’s an immense sum contributed by more than 4,000 of our members over and above their annual subscriptions. (The vast, vast majority of contributors are also members.)
If you’ve been planning on contributing but haven’t gotten around to it, I encourage you to make today the day. Just click right here. It’s super quick and easy.