The 2018 Florida governor’s race will go down as one of the great sliding-doors moments in American politics. Ron DeSantis, after “begging” for Donald Trump’s endorsement, eked out a 0.4 percent win over the Democratic mayor of Tallahassee, Andrew Gillum. In the years since, DeSantis became an anti-lockdown Covid champion, a very expensive failed presidential candidate and is now hotly tipped to fill a Trump cabinet vacancy once he leaves the governor’s mansion in November.
Gillum has had a… different trajectory. Police officers found him in a hotel room with a male escort, suffering from a suspected crystal meth overdose in 2020. The married father-of-three checked himself into rehab and came out as bisexual later that year. Then on Thursday, he was taken into custody in Daphne, Alabama, and booked for possession of dangerous drugs, drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana.
Gillum currently cohosts a podcast, Native Land, with political strategists Angela Rye and Bakari Sellers. The three appeared this weekend at Essence Fest in New Orleans, for a live taping with Representatives Jasmine Crockett and LaMonica McIver and State Senator Royce DuPlessis. Presumably, Gillum was on his way to NOLA at the time of his arrest.
This morning, the trio streamed the Essence Fest episode on their YouTube channel. “Is Andrew free already?” asked one commenter in the live chat. “Don’t come in here with that negativity,” another user responded.
On our radar
GREEN GREEN GRASS President Trump said that Greenland “should be controlled by the United States,” at the NATO summit in Ankara.
ZOH-GO Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters at New York City Hall this morning that “I believe that it’s time for [Graham Platner] to drop out of the race,” following yesterday’s Politico story about a past girlfriend who accused him of trespassing and sexual assault.
IT’S FUN TO STAY AT THE… The Belgian soccer team were filmed doing Trump’s trademark dance to “YMCA” in their dressing room after knocking the US out of the World Cup last night.
The mysterious Mitch McConnell
Speculation is swirling about the status of Senator Mitch McConnell. The 84-year-old former Senate majority leader was admitted to hospital on June 14 and was “receiving excellent care.” Since then, his staff have let us know that he wouldn’t be voting and that he “continues to improve” and “appreciates the outpouring of support.”
“Mitch McConnell is officially brain dead,” Laura Loomer tweeted yesterday, citing “a source.” An independent reporter secured audio of the 911 call, later verified by Punchbowl and other outlets, which mentions “cardiac arrest.” McConnell’s wife, former Trump transportation secretary Elaine Chao, made a series of appearances in China at the time of her husband’s hospitalization, prompting former MAGA firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene to call her a “communist spy.”
The uncertainty around McConnell follows a lengthy unexplained absence from Tom Kean Jr., his Republican colleague in the lower house, who later explained he had been undergoing treatment for depression.
“Many of us aren’t speaking about Mitch McConnell’s condition because we know nothing about his condition,” tweeted Senator Mike Lee, in response to a post from a woman wondering why senators weren’t posting about his absence.
Of course, people should be afforded a reasonable amount of privacy when addressing health concerns… but when they’re elected officials missing votes and letting their constituents go unrepresented, a bit of transparency goes a long way.
Media training
Slice-of-life influencers making short-form video content about their experiences as Capitol Hill interns have made the New York Times. An article that appears to have been written by a Times intern calls our attention to Olivia Day, a 21-year-old working for Representative Cory Mills from Florida. (No mention of Mills’s, er, interesting track record with the ladies.) While Day is playing the tried-and-true role of enthusiastic Hilltern in real life, she is performing the same character for an online audience, making videos showing off her work outfits.
“For decades, the public’s view of Congress has been dictated largely by what is captured on C-SPAN… Congressional interns, long a fixture of summertime in Washington, were there to be seen and not heard,” writes Olivia Diaz.
Perhaps the original silence was best for everyone involved?
Alas, Diaz continues: “All of that has changed with the latest generation… On TikTok these days, the main characters on Capitol Hill are often entry-level, college-aged 20-somethings.” This is not the same as the obvious intern-backed post from a politician’s account, or the bleak reality of bosses on the Hill being coached by their staff to make videos on TikTok. It is worse and, Cockburn assumes, impossible to put an end to except through public shaming.
It is going to be interesting 20 years from now when some of these kids are running for office and old videos of them dancing for the camera in seersucker are dug up as evidence of… well, nothing much. The banality of evil.
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