Abbott’s Only Campaign Strategy
For over two years now, the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas has had facilities to accommodate the Muslim wudu ritual of washing hands, feet and face ahead of daily prayers.
But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is, just now, very concerned about it.
That’s, in part, because of the recently-made-public plans to install similar facilities at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport — and in part because Abbott is running for reelection.
In a letter sent late last week to officials at both the Houston and Dallas airports, Abbott argued that the facilities that accommodate one religious group are discriminatory against people of other religions. How does that logic jibe with the fact that both Texas airports and most airports around the U.S. have chapels to accommodate Christians? Well, those are nondenominational and fine, per Abbott.
“Unlike nondenominational interfaith chapels, these ablution facilities appear designed to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on religion,” he wrote in the letter, which cites a Fox News article that hyped hysteria about the new facility at Dallas-Forth Worth. “I am unaware of either airport installing standalone facilities to meet the particular needs of the many other religious groups represented across Texas.
“That is illegal,” he continued in letting both airport heads know that he has asked the Trump administration’s Department of Transportation to investigate the airports. He also said his office was “reviewing all grants to any local governmental entities involved in these schemes.”
The Washington Post has a great piece here that surveys the opinions of a handful of experts who skewer Abbott’s legal claims of discrimination, which you should read.
But the key thing to take away is that both Abbott and Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton have for months been stoking a new Muslim panic as a campaign strategy, as my colleague Josh Kovensky first reported back in April.
The anti-Islam panic has only spread since then thanks to Republicans in Congress who also do not have anything else to campaign on for the midterms, a phenomenon I’ve been tracking closely in Where Things Stand.
You can read Abbott’s bumbling letter in full here.
Michael Cohen Says They’ve Worked It Out (Somebody Wants a Pardon)
MS NOW was first to report on Wednesday that Michael Cohen planned to bring President Trump on his podcast for an interview that will publish later this evening. The reason this is newsworthy is because the two have been very public enemies for years. Cohen betrayed his longtime boss in 2018 when he pleaded guilty to federal crimes stemming from Trump’s hush money payments to women and admitted everything he did he was told to do by Trump. Cohen also was a witness in Trump’s New York hush money trial back in 2024.
In a Substack post published Thursday, Cohen said the two have repaired their relationship and forgiven each other, citing their unshakable bond after years of history.
“But underneath all of that remained something neither of us could completely erase: history,” Cohen wrote. “Fifteen years doesn’t simply vanish because the relationship becomes toxic. The memories don’t disappear. The good times don’t cease to have existed because the bad times came afterward.”
It’s hard to not assume that this is all about trying to get Trump to issue him a pardon, though. Cohen wouldn’t say one way or the other when Politico asked him about it yesterday.
“We’ll see. Will I make that request down the road? I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not,” he said.
Mike Lindell Is Paying for a Recount
Even though he lost the primary by about 11 percentage points (about 45,000 votes) to Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell is going to privately fund a hand recount and audit of Minnesota’s Republican primary for governor.
Polling did indicate that Lindell had a real chance of securing the nomination in the week leading up to the primary election. But in a statement on Wednesday, the longtime election denier and conspiracy theorist did, of course, make it all about amorphous “irregularities” as he demonized electronic voting machines, Public Enemy No. 1 in his book.
“One of the few good election laws Minnesota does have is that as a candidate, I have the right to completely audit and hand count every ballot in the state,” he said, adding: “Even if this recount and audit does not overturn my election for governor of Minnesota, I believe this is the gateway to getting rid of these electronic voting machines.”
Read This From TPM Today
Josh Kovensky reports on how the Trump administration is deploying investigative authorities — typically granted for operations against dangerous targets of federal law enforcement — against protesters. Take a look: DHS Exempted Itself From Normal Law to Investigate Protesters
Yesterday’s Top Story
Trump Is Using a New, Highly Unusual Census Bureau Report to Claim He Won the 2020 Election
What I’m Reading
Trump Boasts of Declassifying Secrets, but Withholds Key Election Files From Public
D.E.A. Joins Investigation Into Hayden Panettiere’s Death
Elon Musk Is Expected to Point His Money Machine at Texas Politics
Just speculating, I think Abbott might have greatly harmed his reelection by outlawing marijuana so harshly. He’s on the wrong side of popular opinion there. OTOH - I don’t get why he’s there now anyway, so it’s hard to tell.
Comparisons of Natalie Harp with Eva Braun are unfair. Braun had a bunker wedding with her beau. Trump’s still building his bunker!
Is dickhead one word or two, i.e. dick head?
Check you phone book?
“to single out one subset of the population for special treatment based on…”
So rooms for nursing mothers are on their way out, too?