Trump Is Playing With Absolute Fire In The Carroll Case

Posted on by David Kurtz

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

Is Trump About To Get Rudy’d?

Carroll II, the second trial of Donald Trump for defaming E. Jean Carroll by lying about his sexual assault of her, got underway in Manhattan yesterday, and it’s shaping up to be a colossal financial threat to the former president.

Having lost in Carroll I, where a jury concluded he had raped Carroll, Trump is barred from contesting the fact of the rape in Carroll II. The only question is how big are her damages for his defamation.

While jury verdicts are notoriously difficult to predict, this case has the potential to do to Trump what a DC federal jury did to Rudy Giuliani in the defamation case brought against him by Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. The Giuliani jury reached a verdict against him of $148 million, including punitive damages.

Like Giuliani, Trump has been defiant throughout the two Carroll trials, constantly repeating the defamatory statements with impunity, and persisting in attacking the plaintiff even while the trial was underway.

Trump was in court Tuesday as jury selection got underway, but his social media operation launched what was clearly a pre-planned full-scale attack on Carroll, including repeating the defamation. (It was perhaps not a coincidence that a key Trump lawyer resigned the night before.)

Trump is risking a substantial punitive damages award by continuing to attack his accuser. It does appear to be a calculated risk, not merely shooting from the hip inadvisably. And that should only fuel the arguments Carroll can make to the jury about how severely it should punish Trump for his misconduct.

In opening statements, Carroll’s lawyers seized on the morning’s developments to urge the jury to make Trump pay until it hurt enough to get him to stop defaming Carroll:

Carroll is expected to testify at trial today.

Trump Miscellany

  • In the first E. Jean Carroll case, the Second Circuit Court has rejected Trump’s appeal that he was protected from lawsuit by presidential immunity.
  • The high court in New York denied Trump’s appeal of the gag order imposed on him in the NY civil fraud trial.
  • Politico: Trump signals he will invoke executive privilege to block testimony in Jeff Clark’s disciplinary proceedings in DC.
  • The full DC Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to reconsider the ruling that gave Special Counsel Jack Smith access to Donald Trump’s Twitter account – but all four Republican-appointed judges on the court filed an unusual “statement” (not a dissent) complaining that executive privilege had not been raised on appeal.
  • New filing from Trump in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case seeks to paint Trump as the victim of the intelligence community and a politically motivated prosecution:

While the 68-page filing was formally a request by Mr. Trump’s lawyers to the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, to provide them with reams of additional information that they believe can help them fight the charges, it often read more like a list of political talking points than a brief of legal arguments.

Navarro Bid For New Trial Fails

The trial judge rejected Trump White House official Peter Navarro’s last-ditch bid to avoid being sentenced for contempt of Congress on Jan. 25.

Revisiting Iowa

I noticed an undercurrent of quibbling yesterday that the Iowa caucus is small and irrelevant, that Trump received a minuscule number of votes compared to the size of the national electorate, and that his Iowa caucus win was too thin a reed upon which to rest broad pronouncements about his viability as a candidate.

In isolation, each of those things has an element of truth to it. But they’re not in isolation. They’re in the context of there being no viable opposition to Trump within the Republican Party right now. This is the contest for the GOP nomination, and there’s no one who can dare attack Trump let alone mount an effective challenge to him. Period.

You can conjure up make-believe scenarios where the GOP electorate suddenly sees the light but to whom does Trump’s votes go? At present, no one has proven their ability to stand in for Trump. If Nikki Haley were to somehow pull of the unexpected and defeat Trump in New Hampshire next week … we can revisit this assessment.

2024 Ephemera

  • The Messenger: The Inside Story of How Ron DeSantis Got Crushed by Donald Trump
  • Politico: Trump’s win in Iowa shows big strengths and hidden warning signs
  • Good point:

Texas Border Stunt Is Getting Dangerous

TPM’s Josh Kovensky on the latest developments in Texas and at the Supreme Court:

The confrontation between federal power and an unruly state government came to a head this weekend after Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Texas state lawmakers have spent years laying the groundwork to annex what has, until now, been a core federal responsibility: securing the U.S.-Mexico border.

Now, Texas is physically blocking border patrol agents from accessing parts of the frontier, an extraordinary usurpation of federal authority. …

The entire confrontation is reaching a head in part because of a December injunction from a federal appeals court which bans federal agents from removing barriers placed by the state of Texas. The Biden administration is appealing, and dropped a flurry of filings before the Supreme Court this weekend about the confrontation.

Pay Close Attention To The Supreme Court Today

The Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority gets a chance to take a hatchet to the administrative state in oral arguments today. TPM’s Kate Riga will be covering the threat to the landmark Chevron decision.

Biden Summons Congressional Leaders To White House

The meeting today will focus on the stalled talks over aid to Ukraine and Israel and its unfortunate companion issue: security at the U.S. southern border.

The Price of Netanyahu’s Ambition

The New Yorker’s David Remnick draws on his trip to Israel in late December to assess the post-Oct. 7 landscape through the prism of the Netanyahu family.

Epilogue

This brings it all together: The E. Jean Carroll trial and the willingness to let Trump off the hook to somehow try to wrest his voters away from him without criticizing or confronting him. If Nikki Haley is the last best hope to keep Trump from the GOP nomination, then god help us.

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Hardliners Appear Reluctant To Oust Johnson — For Now

Posted on by Nicole LaFond

House Republicans in the Freedom Caucus have been warning Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for months that his grace period to run the show sans their ire is over — ever since the newly minted speaker first worked with Democrats to pass a two-tiered “clean” continuing resolution to keep the government open last November, just a few weeks after he was elected. As soon as Johnson announced his plan to push the two-tiered proposal that would keep funding the government at current levels, it became clear that Johnson was not the Golden Boy that his most outspoken backers had promised, equipped with some magic power to unite the conference increasingly run by extremists.

Continue reading “Hardliners Appear Reluctant To Oust Johnson — For Now” →

Volcanic Events In Grindavik, Iceland

Posted on by Christine Frapech

Since late last year, Iceland has been experiencing volcanic events that began with the formation of large fissures in the earth that temporarily displaced inhabitants of the town of Grindavik. On January 14, 2024, residents were hurriedly evacuated once again as an eruption began at a fissure on the outskirts of town. A protective berm had been constructed to divert the lava around the town, and it worked remarkably well. But soon, another, smaller, fissure within the protected area began to erupt, damaging three residences. The country’s president, Gudni Th. Johannesson, said in a televised address Sunday that “a daunting period of upheaval has begun on the Reykjanes Peninsula,” where a long-dormant volcanic system has awakened, and that the country was battling “tremendous forces of nature.”

Cracks in the ground causing evacuations in Grindavik, Iceland

Getty Images caption: GRINDAVIK, ICELAND – DECEMBER 21: Cracks in the ground are seen following recent volcanic activity in Grindavík, the town was evacuated due to the eruption that happened four kilometres north on December 21, 2023 in Grindavik, Iceland. After weeks of seismic activity around Grindavik that led to the evacuation of some 4,000 residents, a volcano has erupted on the Reykjanes peninsula, with lava bursting from a crack about 3.5km long. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Hole in the ground caused by volcanic activity

Getty Images caption: GRINDAVIK, ICELAND – DECEMBER 21: Cracks in the ground are seen following recent volcanic activity in Grindavík, the town was evacuated due to the eruption that happened four kilometres north on December 21, 2023 in Grindavik, Iceland. After weeks of seismic activity around Grindavik that led to the evacuation of some 4,000 residents, a volcano has erupted on the Reykjanes peninsula, with lava bursting from a crack about 3.5km long. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Crack in the ground in December 21, 2023

Getty Images caption: GRINDAVIK, ICELAND – DECEMBER 21: Cracks in the ground are seen following recent volcanic activity in Grindavík, the town was evacuated due to the eruption that happened four kilometres north on December 21, 2023 in Grindavik, Iceland. After weeks of seismic activity around Grindavik that led to the evacuation of some 4,000 residents, a volcano has erupted on the Reykjanes peninsula, with lava bursting from a crack about 3.5km long. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

People watching plumes of smoke rising near Grindavik on Janurary 14, 2024

Getty Images caption: People standing near Keflavik, Iceland, watch as the plumes of smoke rise during a volcanic eruption near Grindavik, on January 14, 2024. Seismic activity had intensified overnight and residents of Grindavik were evacuated, Icelandic public broadcaster RUV reported. This is Iceland’s fifth volcanic eruption in two years, the previous one occurring on December 18, 2023 in the same region southwest of the capital Reykjavik. Iceland is home to 33 active volcano systems, the highest number in Europe. (Photo by Sergei GAPON / AFP) (Photo by SERGEI GAPON/AFP via Getty Images)

Emergency crew building a protective wall as lava approaches the town of Grindavik on January 14, 2024

Getty Images caption: Aerial view taken on January 14, 2024 shows emergency personnel using diggers to build a protective wall trying to prevent flowing lava to reach the centre of the southwestern Icelandic town of Grindavik after a volcaninc eruption. Seismic activity had intensified overnight and residents of Grindavik were evacuated, Icelandic public broadcaster RUV reported. This is Iceland’s fifth volcanic eruption in two years, the previous one occurring on December 18, 2023 in the same region southwest of the capital Reykjavik. Iceland is home to 33 active volcano systems, the highest number in Europe. (Photo by Halldor KOLBEINS / AFP) (Photo by HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP via Getty Images)

Diggers fill in the last hole in a protective wall on January 14, 2024

Getty Images caption: Diggers fill in the last hole in a protective wall trying to prevent flowing lava to reach the centre of the southwestern Icelandic town of Grindavik after a volcaninc eruption, on January 14, 2024. Seismic activity had intensified overnight and residents of Grindavik were evacuated, Icelandic public broadcaster RUV reported. This is Iceland’s fifth volcanic eruption in two years, the previous one occurring on December 18, 2023 in the same region southwest of the capital Reykjavik. Iceland is home to 33 active volcano systems, the highest number in Europe. (Photo by Halldor KOLBEINS / AFP) (Photo by HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP via Getty Images)

Lava and billowing smoke near Grindavik on January 14, 2024

Getty Images caption: TOPSHOT – Lava explosions and billowing smoke are seen near residential buildings in the southwestern Icelandic town of Grindavik after a volcanic eruption on January 14, 2024. Seismic activity had intensified overnight and residents of Grindavik were evacuated, Icelandic public broadcaster RUV reported. This is Iceland’s fifth volcanic eruption in two years, the previous one occurring on December 18, 2023 in the same region southwest of the capital Reykjavik. Iceland is home to 33 active volcano systems, the highest number in Europe. (Photo by Halldor KOLBEINS / AFP) (Photo by HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP via Getty Images)

Lava explosions near residential buildings in Grindavik on January 14, 2024

Getty Images caption: Lava explosions are seen near residential buildings in the southwestern Icelandic town of Grindavik after a volcanic eruption on January 14, 2024. Seismic activity had intensified overnight and residents of Grindavik were evacuated, Icelandic public broadcaster RUV reported. This is Iceland’s fifth volcanic eruption in two years, the previous one occurring on December 18, 2023 in the same region southwest of the capital Reykjavik. Iceland is home to 33 active volcano systems, the highest number in Europe. (Photo by Halldor KOLBEINS / AFP) (Photo by HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP via Getty Images)

Lava after a volcanic eruption near Sundhnukagigar, about 4 kilometers northeast of Grindavik

Getty Images caption: REYKJANES, ICELAND – JANUARY 14: An aerial view shows lava after volcano eruption located close to Sundhnukagigar, about 4 kilometers northeast of Grindavik town of Reykjanes peninsula, Iceland on January 14, 2024. (Photo by Iceland Public Defence / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Ariel view of lava approaching Grindavik on January 14, 2024

Getty Images caption: TOPSHOT – Billowing smoke and flowing lava are seen in this Icelandic Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management , January 14, 2024, handout image during an volcanic eruption on the outskirts of the evacuated town of Grindavik, western Iceland. Seismic activity had intensified overnight and residents of Grindavik were evacuated, Icelandic public broadcaster RUV reported. This is Iceland’s fifth volcanic eruption in two years, the previous one occurring on December 18, 2023 in the same region southwest of the capital Reykjavik. Iceland is home to 33 active volcano systems, the highest number in Europe. (Photo by Icelandic Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management / AFP) (Photo by ICELANDIC DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL PROTECTION AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT/AFP via Getty Images)

lava spewing from a volcano on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula on January 14, 2024, near Grindavik

Getty Images caption: GRINDAVIK, ICELAND – JANUARY 14: In this handout photo provided by the Iceland Coast Guard, lava is seen spewing from a volcano on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula after its eruption on January 14, 2024 near Grindavik, Iceland. On Sunday morning, a new eruption happened north of Grindavik in southwestern Iceland, causing residents to evacuate due to increased seismic activity around 03:00 GMT. The alert level is now at “emergency,” indicating a potential threat to people, communities, property, or the environment. (Handout photo by the Icelandic Coast Guard via Getty Images)

Grindavik on January 15, 2024 as the volcanic activity slowed

Getty Images caption: A drone is capturing the town of Grindavik during the eruption in Grindavik, Iceland, on January 15, 2024. On Sunday morning, a new eruption is occurring north of Grindavik in southwestern Iceland, prompting residents to evacuate due to increased seismic activity around 03:00 GMT. The alert level is currently at ”emergency,” indicating a potential threat to people, communities, property, or the environment.

The protective walls near Grindavik worked to divert lava

Getty Images caption: An aerial view taken on January 15, 2024 shows a lava stream near a greenhouse facility of biotechnology company ORF Genetics in Grindavik, southwest of the capital Reykjavik, after a volcanic eruption. Volcanic activity in southwest Iceland appears to have eased, authorities said on January 15, a day after lava from an eruption flowed into the fishing town of Grindavik, engulfing several homes. A volcanic eruption began early on January 14 near Grindavik, southwest of the capital Reykjavik, and two fissures opened up. (Photo by Halldor KOLBEINS / AFP) (Photo by HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP via Getty Images)

View of lava stream engulfing several homes on January 15, 2024

Getty Images caption: An aerial view taken on January 15, 2024 shows a lava stream near houses in Grindavik, southwest of the capital Reykjavik, after a volcanic eruption. Volcanic activity in southwest Iceland appears to have eased, authorities said on January 15, a day after lava from an eruption flowed into the fishing town of Grindavik, engulfing several homes. A volcanic eruption began early on January 14 near Grindavik, southwest of the capital Reykjavik, and two fissures opened up. (Photo by Halldor KOLBEINS / AFP) (Photo by HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP via Getty Images)

A fissure in Grindavik, Iceland that had stopped erupting on Janurary 15, 2024

Getty Images caption: REYKJANES, ICELAND – JANUARY 15: An aerial view of the fissure, which had stopped erupting but claimed three houses in the town of Grindavik in Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland on January 15, 2024. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Texas Sets Up Showdown Over Federal Control of the Border

Posted on by Josh Kovensky

Texas has seized a portion of the U.S.-Mexico border in a bizarre, tragic, and high-stakes bid to claim for itself a power which has long been federal: control of the international border.

Continue reading “Texas Sets Up Showdown Over Federal Control of the Border” →

Now Let’s Talk About Turnout

Posted on by Josh Marshall

Roughly 110,000 voters turned out for last night’s caucuses. That compares to 187,000 in 2016. (2012 and 2008 were closer to last night’s numbers 122,000 and 120,000, respectively.) But that’s still the lowest turnout in more than a decade and dramatically lower than the last contest in 2016. To me the turnout number is much less significant than the result, which I discussed here.

But it’s not insignificant.

There are a few possible explanations. One is that it was incredibly cold last night. But let’s be honest: winters in Iowa are always cold as fuck. They’re used to it. More significant, Republicans could be pretty confident that the outcome of the caucus and the overall nomination battle are both pretty much settled in Trump’s favor. That is a big disincentive to show up. Those explanations, especially the second, get you pretty close to a good explanation.

But not all the way there.

Continue reading “Now Let’s Talk About Turnout” →

Let’s Face It: Trump’s Iowa Result Was Pretty Weak

Posted on by Josh Marshall

For something like a year I’ve been predicting that Donald Trump is absolutely positively going to be the 2024 nominee. I was predicting that back when a lot of people really thought that Ron DeSantis was going to at least give Trump a run for his money. I don’t make confident predictions unless I’m certain there’s little chance of being wrong. But I must tell you that this result simply isn’t the victory most reporting makes it out to be.

The Republican version of the Iowa caucus is simply a vote, carried out by less formal means. Each participant writes down a name and that gets counted — no real caucusing. The final result shows Trump getting 51% of that vote.

That is not just a plurality win, the metric customarily used to judge this contest. It’s actually an absolute majority. Barely. (DeSantis has 21.2% and Haley 19.1%.) But everyone now recognizes that Trump is running as the de facto incumbent. Certainly he’s running as the universally recognized leader of the GOP. And yet he has only barely managed a majority in a state which — unlike, say, New Hampshire — is pretty tailor-made for his politics. To put that characterization into context, while Iowa is today is a fairly red state, it has long had a reputation as a state which has a very liberal Democratic Party and a very conservative GOP. The Iowa GOP caucus electorate especially is made up of a high percentage of conservative evangelical voters. It’s overwhelmingly rural. By any fair measure, 51% of those voters is underwhelming.

Continue reading “Let’s Face It: Trump’s Iowa Result Was Pretty Weak” →

Iowa GOP Embraces Insurrectionist For POTUS

Posted on by David Kurtz

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

Not An Anomaly

Donald Trump is on the verge of becoming the GOP nominee for the presidency for the third straight election. What might have seemed like a historical blip in 2016 that was remedied by Trump’s general election defeat in 2020 is now an eternal black mark on the Republican Party.

Hijacked by Trump, purged of its traditional middle-of-the-road corporate conservatives, and transformed into a cult of personality, the Republican Party is unrecognizable as the party of Lincoln. Gone are the Bushes, Cheneys, and Romneys. In are the worst group of scoundrels, hacks, hangers-on, and would-be authoritarians this nation has ever seen.

Whatever quaint and out-dated notions remained that Iowa’s Midwestern conservatism and its rural and highly educated populace would serve as an important early filter in the nominating process can be put to rest.

A majority of Iowa Republican caucus-goers went for Trump after the travesties of the Trump presidency: the failed response to the COVID pandemic, the indignity of losing to Joe Biden, and the insurrection at the Capitol, among so many others.

The Also-Rans

I’m going to steer clear of the over-analysis of the second and third place finishers, the phantom that is “momentum,” and other tea-leaf reading in the midst of the Trump storm. This is all about Trump, and no other storyline merits more than passing consideration. Semafor put it well this morning, calling it a “dream scenario” for Trump: “A dominant performance, a divided field bitterly fighting for scraps, and little sign of consolidation behind any of them.”

Good Riddance

After his poor showing in Iowa, Vivek Ramaswamy suspended his campaign and endorsed Donald Trump.

2024 Ephemera

  • McKay Coppins: You Should Go to a Trump Rally
  • WSJ: $6 Trillion in Taxes Are at Stake in This Year’s Elections
  • The pro-Democratic group American Bridge 21st Century is planning a $140 million ad campaign using testimonials to remind women and working-class voters why they voted against Trump in 2020.

Quote Of The Day

We Were 100% Warned

  • NBC News: Fears grow that Trump will use the military in ‘dictatorial ways’ if he returns to the White House
  • Ummm …
  • Trump supporters are asked: “Would you rather have four years of Donald Trump as a dictator or four years of President Biden re-elected?”

E. Jean Carroll Gets Another Whack At Trump

The four-times indicted frontrunner for the GOP nomination, fresh off his big win in Iowa, is expected in federal court today in New York for the (second) trial of E. Jean Carroll’s defamation claim against him for denying he raped her. Trump’s liability was already established in the first jury verdict, so this trial will be focused only on Carroll’s damages. In recent days, Carroll implored the judge not to let Trump engage in the kinds of stunts he pulled in the NY state judge-tried fraud case.

Trump made a last-ditch effort to delay the trial for a week, citing the death of his mother-in-law. The judge denied the request, noting that Trump had managed to schedule a campaign stop in New Hampshire tomorrow.

Highly Endorse

It’s time for the courts to stop giving Trump special treatment. To stop walking delicately and gingerly lest he claim foul play when he is merely subjected to procedures anyone else in his position would be held accountable to. The courts, charged with delivering justice, need to stop being afraid of Trump.

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance

Aileen Cannon Is Still At It

In a late-night ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon denied Special Counsel Jack Smith’s motion to impose a deadline on Donald Trump to assert an advice of counsel defense in the Mar-a-Lago documents case. With trial set for May, Cannon said it was premature to force Trump to assert the defense. Smith can refile the motion later, but it’s not clear what time frame Cannon considers proper. All signs point to Cannon abandoning the May trial date and pushing the trial until after the November election. But she’s slowrolling it rather than acting transparently.

Trump Miscellany

  • Oregon Supreme Court declines to rule on Disqualification Clause case against Trump, preferring to wait until the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in.
  • Trump ordered to pay nearly $400,000 in attorney fees to the NYT and three of its investigative reporters over his baseless defamation lawsuit.
  • Joseph Tacopina withdraws as Trump’s lawyer in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.

The Politics Of White Resentment

TPM’s Kate Riga: In Their Quest For Dominance, Republicans Break Government At All Levels

An Interesting Origin Story

Drawing from his new book – The Rebels: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the Struggle for a New American Politics – Josh Green writes for TPM about how power In America shifted in 1978 and laid the groundwork for the current political moment.

Feds Seek Death Penalty For Buffalo Shooter

The Justice Department announced it would seek the death penalty for the man accused of killing 10 Black people in a 2022 shooting spree at a Buffalo grocery story.

Big Step

A Biden administration plan to impose a fee on oil and gas companies for every excess ton of methane emitted would be the first federal price on greenhouse gas pollution.

How The EV Transition Is Going

John Voelcker, my go-to expert on electric vehicles, cuts through the noise to assess the current state of the EV market.

The Icelandic Saga

A new eruptive phase began and then seemed to end over the weekend on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula.

A long fissure opened outside the protective berm hurriedly constructed to protect the town of Grindavík, which was evacuated in November and re-evacuated in haste over the weekend. The berm worked remarkably well at diverting a lava flow around the town. But a few hours later, a second shorter fissure opened inside the protective wall and sent lava to the edge of town, where three houses were destroyed.

You can see the main fissure in the background in the photo below, with lava diverting along a line that runs off the left of the photo. The fissure that opened up nearly in town is the dark slash in the center of the photo:

A drone is capturing the town of Grindavik during the eruption in Grindavik, Iceland, on January 15, 2024. On Sunday morning, a new eruption is occurring north of Grindavik in southwestern Iceland, prompting residents to evacuate due to increased seismic activity around 03:00 GMT. The alert level is currently at ”emergency,” indicating a potential threat to people, communities, property, or the environment.

REYKJANES, ICELAND – JANUARY 15: An aerial view of the fissure, which had stopped erupting but claimed three houses in the town of Grindavik in Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland on January 15, 2024. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Images)

REYKJANES, ICELAND – JANUARY 15: An aerial view of the fissure, which had stopped erupting but claimed three houses in the town of Grindavik in Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland on January 15, 2024. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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Trump Wins Iowa By Predicted Landslide, DeSantis Projected To Win Second

About a half hour after the Iowa caucuses got underway Monday, multiple networks plus the Associated Press had called the race for Trump.

With most of the vote counted, Trump maintains an expected mammoth margin on his competitors. Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley hover within a couple points of each other, DeSantis having the slight edge.

Continue reading “Trump Wins Iowa By Predicted Landslide, DeSantis Projected To Win Second” →

Nota Bene

Posted on by Josh Marshall

Keep an eye on how the national press covers this. The White House, as you know, has been under immense pressure to offer concessions to address the continuing large number of migrants coming to the U.S.-Mexico border. Now there’s a bipartisan compromise bill in the Senate. Last night Majority Leader Steve Scalise said that bill is DOA in the House. But Speaker Johnson said something more specific and revealing. He refused to bring up the bill and according to Jake Sherman of Punchbowl said “Congress can’t solve border until Trump is elected or a republican is back in the White House.”

Continue reading “Nota Bene” →