Grim Look Toward 2028

JD Vance got what he wanted: a bunch of headlines coming out of the GOP midterm convention declaring him Trump’s all-but-assured successor. He achieved this by rolling out his usual schtick as not the second coming of Trump, but something perhaps useful to the movement in a different way: MAGA with an intellectual tinge. A Claremont Institute type of guy. “We were tired of being called racist for noticing that our country was becoming dirtier and poorer and less safe and less prosperous,” he declared, a rallying cry for his iteration of the GOP that is, to my mind, not beating the “racism” allegations. While not explicitly calling to restrict birthright citizenship, his speech dwelled on how Democrats had in his estimation polluted the American “birthright,” a term he returned to eight times.

Earlier in the night, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) hit similar notes, calling out individual Democratic politicians by name.

“When [New York City mayor Zohran] Mamdani says he wants to ‘seize the means of production,’ he means it,” Cruz said.

“He should be shot!” one person in the crowd yelled.

“When [Michigan Democratic Senate nominee] Abdul El Sayed says he has an ‘obligation’ to comply with Sharia law, he means it,” Cruz said.

“He should be shot,” the person cried again.

“And when [Texas Democratic Senate nominee] James Talarico says he wants to ‘dismantle capitalism,’ he means it,” Cruz concluded.

Again, at least one person yelled: “He should be shot.”

Trump himself took the stage to wrap up the evening. “You know what happens if you don’t vote? You go to hell,” he said. “Go out and vote, go out and vote!”

Denny Hoskins Narrowly Dodges Contempt

By now, you probably know at least some details of how Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ big day played out.

• First, as Kate Riga reported for TPM, the same federal district court judge who, on Tuesday, ordered Missouri to use the new, Hoskins-championed, friendlier-to-Republicans maps, on Thursday declined to intervene to block the Missouri state Supreme Court from holding a hearing on whether Hoskins should be held in contempt for not following its order that he not use those maps. “No profit would be gained by upsetting the federalism and comity principles at hand,” U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark wrote.
• Then, the Supreme Court (as Kate also reported) stayed Clark’s Tuesday decision, ordering Missouri to use the new maps. That left the state Supreme Court’s ruling — that Missouri must use the old maps — as the only order left standing. That will probably remain the situation through the midterms, experts predict.
• Hoskins’ contempt hearing got underway. Immediately after, Hoskins finally said he would comply with the state Supreme Court and use the old maps.
• The state Supreme Court put out a decision saying it was going to hold Hoskins in contempt had he not relented.

Tabs

• Republican leaders at the convention reportedly ran though where they feel ok about the Senate, and where they think they’re in trouble. In Alaska, Maine and Michigan, GOP senators reportedly feel they can win, according to Politico. In Georgia and and North Carolina, they have their doubts. They’re leaving Texas — where comically corrupt Attorney General Ken Paxton is facing James Talarico — to Trump to figure out.
• The Wall Street Journal: “Iran has resumed its production of ballistic missiles using stockpiled components and working in underground facilities, officials from the U.S. and Middle East familiar with the matter said, eroding what the U.S. and Israel have touted as a major achievement of the war.”

Man of the Hour

Joe diGenova, the longtime right-wing lawyer who was brought on by Trump’s DOJ to investigate the president’s political enemies — reportedly including a sweeping roster of figures from the Obama administration through the Biden administration — abruptly resigned Thursday. “If you want indictments where there’s no evidence, you have an ethical problem,” he told the New York Post. Its a notable statement coming from a man who worked on Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. Someone else told the Post this is diGenova’s own fault:

Another source added that the diGenova had been sharing “unrealistic expectations” for the probe with the president about what was possible and not possible, leading to a confrontation with Attorney General Todd Blanche.