We now know how Vice President Kamala Harris is going to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
Continue reading “Here’s How The Democratic National Convention Is Going To Work”Barr Pushed DOJ To Publicize Bogus Voter Fraud Claim Before 2020 Election, IG Finds
Senior Trump DOJ officials issued multiple statements weeks before the 2020 election suggesting anti-Trump election fraud in a critical swing state, knowing all the while that no crime had likely been committed and that the main suspect faced a severe mental disability, a DOJ Inspector General report found.
Continue reading “Barr Pushed DOJ To Publicize Bogus Voter Fraud Claim Before 2020 Election, IG Finds”Finally Word from the FBI—About The Trump Story The Press Has Refused To Question
As you know, I’ve been on this story for a while: why there was never any law enforcement briefing or qualified medical report on the Butler, PA shooting incident or information of how Donald Trump was injured. I was especially interested in this because originally Pennsylvania State Police briefed reporters that Trump had been hit by flying debris kicked up by the gunfire. The storyline changed when Trump went on Truth Social and announced that a bullet had hit his ear. From that moment that was the story followed universally in the press.
But yesterday FBI Director Christopher Wray said, ironically in response to a question from Rep. Jim Jordan, that it’s not clear whether Trump was hit by a bullet or debris kicked up by the gunfire. I think in context that’s likely a bureaucratic and gentle way of saying Trump probably wasn’t hit by a bullet. But let’s stick to the precise words. “There’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear.”
Here’s the actual exchange.
Continue reading “Finally Word from the FBI—About The Trump Story The Press Has Refused To Question”At Least We Won’t Have Sleepwalked Our Way Into Authoritarianism
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
History Will Know
Last night President Joe Biden gave what by any measure was an unprecedented Oval Office address warning of the dangers to democracy posed by Donald Trump, without ever mentioning his name. Sitting behind the Resolute desk and invoking the founders, Biden called this moment an “inflection point” in history with the “soul of America” at stake.
It’s not a speech that will be remembered for its eloquence or its delivery. But no one will be able to say that we weren’t warned. For those who remember the ritual of an earlier time of clustering around communal TV sets to watch these set piece presidential pronouncements, it was jarring to see it used to warn of the perils of authoritarian rule coming from within.
In some quarters, Biden’s address might be dismissed as the self-justifications of a man who was on track to lose re-election, gussied up as self-sacrifice on behalf of a grateful nation. But that would be a grave mistake because it was the very threat of Trump that made forcing Biden out of the race even thinkable. Don’t confuse cause and effect.
As the standard-bearer for the broad anti-Trump coalition, Biden’s faltering on the June debate stage put everything at risk. His failure to rebound quickly or sufficiently enough from that setback prompted the coalition, including his own party and many longtime allies, to abandon him precisely because the stakes were so high.
Biden eventually came around, perhaps more under duress than by free will, but he was ultimately able see that his re-election bid was more than about just him: “Nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.”
For reasons that are probably peculiar to me, I have been focused to the point of borderline obsessiveness on helping to create a historical record that we didn’t just sleepwalk our way into authoritarianism. If we end up sliding over the cliff into a uniquely American form of fascism, I want it to be unmistakably clear to historians and everyone who comes after us that we knew what was happening. We saw it. We endeavored to prevent it, to arrest the slide, to warn of the perils. We had eyes wide open. We were not blindsided. If it happens, it happened despite our best efforts.
The warnings have come from sitting federal judges, from highly respected longtime Republicans cast out by their party, from conservatives who were previously villains in the progressive firmament, and now from President Biden sitting in the Oval Office having made a substantial personal sacrifice of his own as a way of further sounding the alarm.
History will show that we knew. Maybe that will erase the smugness of future generations that somehow they are immune. We are not, and neither are they.
The Torch Is Passed
- NYT: How Kamala Harris Took Command of the Democratic Party in 48 Hours
- WSJ: Family, Friends and Longtime Aides Dominate Harris’s Inner Circle
- She’s already in his head:
Trump Shooting Update
- FBI Director Chris Wray provided new details about the Trump rally shooting while testifying before a hostile House committee, revealing that the gunman did a Google search in the days before the attack for “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?”
- Wray offered one of the first law enforcement assessments of Trump’s injury: “With respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear.”
- In a rare unanimous vote, the House voted 416-0 to establish a task force to investigate the assassination attempt. The 13-member task force will be comprised of seven Republican and six Democratic members and have subpoena power.
Trump Era Accountability Fail, Part 986
Because he is no longer with the Justice Department, former Attorney General Bill Barr was able to avoid answering questions from the DOJ inspector general about the 2020 episode in which Barr ordered the retraction of the sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone provided to the court by line prosecutors.
‘I Got Out’
Spoken like an innocent man:
Drenched In Racism
Note the Speedy Gonzalez line at the end:
A Ripple In the Space-Time Continuum
Southwest Airlines is ditching open seating.
I Hold With Those Who Favor Fire
Monday was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth, breaking the old record from … Sunday:
My Earworm Is Now Your Earworm
After reading Kamala Harris’ “We are not going back” line, a Morning Memo reader sent along this 1970s gospel recording by Sara Jordan Powell. “I Won’t Turn Back” has been running on a loop in my brain since midday yesterday:
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In Oval Office Address, Biden Zeros In On The Fight To Save Democracy
President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office Wednesday evening, speaking to the public for the first time since he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris.
In heavy and at times emotional remarks, the President outlined his record, what he hopes to do for the nation in coming months and addressed head on his belief that “nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy.”
“The sacred cause of this country is larger than any one of us. And those of us who cherish that cause, cherish it so much. The cause of American democracy itself — we must unite to protect it. In recent weeks it became clear to me that I needed to unite my party in this critical endeavor,” he said. “I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term. But nothing, nothing, can come in the way of saving our democracy, that includes personal ambition.”
Catch up on our live coverage below:
Thunderdomism’s Last Stand
According to some of the country’s most prominent news publications, the Democratic establishment moved quickly beginning Sunday afternoon to lock down the Democratic presidential nomination for Kamala Harris. Said Axios this morning: “It’s over. The Democratic establishment pushed out Biden and locked in Kamala Harris with astonishing speed and efficacy.” The Times published a piece entitled “How Democrats Learned to Love the Smoke-Filled Room Again.” But the idea that the ‘establishment’ anointed Kamala Harris and locked the nomination down for her turns the whole matter pretty much on its head. What locked in Harris was the overwhelming resistance of Democratic voters and activists to anyone else. It was national columnists and a significant number of Democratic elites who were pushing for the thunderdome primary.
A good bit of this was support for Harris herself. A lot of it was the fact that with the incumbent president and presumed nominee out and no time to run anything other than a fake primary Harris had democratic legitimacy on her side. Eighty million voters literally chose her in 2020 to be the person who took over for Joe Biden if he couldn’t serve. Democratic primary voters in effect reconfirmed that this Spring since Biden and Harris were again running as a package deal. Few things are more embedded in American political culture than the idea that vice presidents succeed presidents.
Continue reading “Thunderdomism’s Last Stand”The Petestakes: Everyone’s Clamoring For The Empty Seat At Harris’ Table
As TPM has previously reported, Vice President Kamala Harris’ team began vetting potential running mates almost immediately after President Joe Biden announced his decision to withdraw from the Democratic ticket. Now that Harris is officially the party’s presumptive nominee, that process is gaining steam — including apparent jockeying for the role from the candidates on the shortlist.
Continue reading “The Petestakes: Everyone’s Clamoring For The Empty Seat At Harris’ Table”Barr’s ‘Highly Unusual’ Involvement in Roger Stone Sentencing Remains Murky
A new DOJ Inspector General report on a bizarre 2020 episode in which the Trump DOJ retracted its sentencing recommendation for Trump impresario Roger Stone reveals in part how much senior officials from that era don’t want to discuss it.
Continue reading “Barr’s ‘Highly Unusual’ Involvement in Roger Stone Sentencing Remains Murky”The Battle Is Joined
As we’ve noted a few times, we’re now in the midst of a race for each campaign to define Kamala Harris. What focus groups have shown in recent weeks is that many swing voters or marginal voters have vaguely negative impressions of Harris but basically know little about her. So she’s largely a blank slate for these and actually many other voters. That was always going to be very different for Biden and Trump. Voters know who they are and tend to have very fixed opinions about them. Not so for Harris.
The Trump campaign – actually one of its allied SuperPacs, as far as I can tell – went on the air last night with a series of attack ads in the Blue Wall states. (They’re probably appearing in other places too. But that’s where I have direct reports of their appearing.) They focus on what I believe is Harris’s key vulnerability. (Ed.Note: I’ve subsequently heard these ads may only be running in the Philly and Detroit metros – more information on that as I learn more.)
Continue reading “The Battle Is Joined”