Politics

To call Jack Smith an aggressive prosecutor is an understatement. Smith’s crusade against former president Donald Trump has been nothing less than scorched earth, with a shamelessly transparent goal of doing all he can to stop Trump’s re-election in November. By dismissing Smith’s classified documents prosecution in Florida, District Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling has not so much clipped Smith’s wings as it has tossed him from the nest altogether. And her decision throws both prosecutions into a tailspin from which they may never recover. For two years Attorney General Merrick Garland has been insisting that Smith is operating with complete freedom and discretion, walled off from Justice Department oversight and political pressure from the White House.

Donald Trump loves to repeat this famous line at his rallies: “At the end of the day, they’re not coming after me. They’re coming after you, and I’m just standing in the way.” While his strongest supporters believe it, ever since he descended that escalator, his detractors have depicted him as a self-obsessed, egotistical megalomaniac. After what transpired in Butler, Pennsylvania, last night, when a bloody-faced Donald Trump stood up after almost losing his life, waving his fist in the air, asking his audience to “fight,” there should be no doubt: Donald Trump has a lot of courage and the strong sense that he is fighting for a cause greater than himself.

President Joe Biden offered his detractors, many of whom reside within the progressive activist wing of the Democratic Party (the former Bernie Bros are having a field day with the eighty-one-year-old’s mental decline), an attractive looking carrot this week.Biden made several notable gaffes during the 2024 NATO summit in Washington, DC, referring to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as his enemy of war “President Putin” and mixing up Vice President Kamala Harris with former president Donald Trump during his “big-boy” press conference. But as more Democratic elected officials and commentators admit that Biden ought not to finish out his re-election campaign, the nation’s long-in-the-tooth leader proved he’s still got some political fight left in him.

Welcome to Thunderdome. The dynamics of the current moment for the presidency, the Democratic Party and the country as a whole are absolutely insane and are gaining speed towards a conclusion that is still unknown. Let’s break down the factors as they stand today, understanding that the current direction could alter dramatically based on what happens next — with President Biden’s press conference tonight and Monday interview, the RNC gathering in Milwaukee and former president Donald Trump’s choice for vice president all scheduled in the coming days. So here’s a snapshot of the moment right now, even as the ground shifts under our feet.

Support for President Joe Biden continuing his reelection campaign is polarizing his own party. The Hill reported yesterday that discontent was growing among Democrats, and the publication offered live updates all day from the Democratic National Committee headquarters, where Dem leadership gathered to discuss Biden’s future as their nominee. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer have both expressed their continued support for Biden. They were joined yesterday by Representatives Ami Bera, Jim Clyburn, Lou Correa, Veronica Escobar, Adriano Espaillat, Steny Hoyer, Stephen Lynch, Jerry Nadler, Jan Schakowsky and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Calls for President Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race are reaching a deafening pitch. The eighty-one-year-old appears to be hard of hearing, however — or else attuned only to the whisperings of his power-hungry wife. Either way, Biden is refusing to budge, ignoring pleas from House Democrats — Representatives Jerry Nadler, Joe Morelle, Adam Smith, Jim Himes and Mark Takano among them — and celebrities alike to throw in the towel. Uber-progressive filmmaker Michael Moore labeled Biden’s campaign “elder abuse” and the president’s excuses for his pathetic debate performance “malarkey.

Donald Trump’s 2024 strategy has been one of measured policy moderation: deprioritizing divisive issues and elevating those where he clearly has the lead. Now, in bringing that strategy to the GOP’s official platform, which is set to be unveiled later this month, the former president’s team is seeking to produce a succinct, less-heavy-handed document. This, in turn, has angered many in the conservative activist class, especially already-disgruntled pro-lifers.In a memo that circulated this Thursday, signed by Trump’s leading advisors Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, the case is made for why to shorten the platform — “our policy commitments to the American people [should be] clear, concise and easily digestible.

There’s been a vibe shift in Washington. After Thursday night’s debate debacle and a Biden family meeting at Camp David on Sunday in which it became clear the president was not interested in dropping his re-election bid, Democrats closed ranks around Biden. Excuses were workshopped to the press: the debate was a one-off, Biden was actually over prepared by his debate prep team, the president was tired from his overseas travel and Biden’s cognitive decline is nothing compared to Trump’s lies. Unfortunately for Biden, none of these landed well with the public and Democrats are now putting out smoke signals that it’s time to let it go. Representative Lloyd Doggett became the first Democratic elected official to call on Biden to step aside as the nominee.

Donald Trump’s sentencing in the controversial New York “hush-money” case, which was set for July 11, has been postponed. “The July 11, 2024, sentencing date is... vacated,” reads a letter from Judge Juan Merchan to the former president’s defense team. “The Court's decision will be rendered off-calendar on September 6, 2024 and the matter is adjourned to September 18, 2024, at 10 a.m. for the imposition of sentence, if such is still necessary, or other proceedings.

President Joe Biden is up against a wall following his disastrous debate performance last week, and his family is pulling out all the stops to try and ward off any last-minute intra-party challengers. They’re relying on a famous photographer and top surrogates to convince the Democratic Party that last week’s debacle was a one-off and not how the leader of the free world normally functions.Biden’s family is lashing out at staff for poorly preparing him for the debate, according to reports, rolling out Vogue cover shoots with first lady Jill Biden and and showcasing unwavering endorsements from the Democratic Party’s prime leaders, like former president Barack Obama. For the most part, it’s working.

Chevron is dead. Many will mourn its passing. Forty is too young, they will say, for a doctrine to have done its work in enabling bureaucrats to decide for us the meaning of laws and the nature of reality. But the US Supreme Court has overturned Chevron in a landmark ruling in Loper Bright and Relentless, cases named after fishing boats which regulators drove toward extinction. It is appropriate, as Justice Gorsuch phrases it in his concurrence, that “the Court places a tombstone on Chevron no one can miss.”   The powers of the bureaucracy reined in by the new ruling may seem subtle or benign. The Chevron doctrine was that when the terms of a law are ambiguous, regulators in administrative agencies have the power to define the meaning of the law and its application.

Donald Trump must have that Friday feeling. It’s the morning after the night before, when his Democratic opponent disintegrated live on camera before an audience of millions. The purpose of President Biden agreeing to a first presidential debate so early in the cycle was to head off concerns about his frailty and mental acuity. His energetic State of the Union address in March exceeded admittedly low expectations — but Thursday’s bumbling and feeble performance had the exact opposite effect.The entire op-ed page of the New York Times is begging the president to stand down. “I watched the Biden-Trump debate alone in a Lisbon hotel room, and it made me weep,” writes Thomas L. Friedman.

Welcome to Thunderdome. There’s something that happens when you’re around people with feeble minds that make communication a challenge — whether they’re old, disabled or toddlers — where their inability to find the right word or express themselves isn’t a barrier to understanding what they mean. When my one-year-old toddles around the living room and says “baba,” I know she’s asking for her bottle. But there’s an insulation factor here. You understand them even though others don’t. If you are a White House staffer, I have to tell you: you have been suffering from this same disease. You have become insulated and completely resistant to the signals, the ringing flashing klaxons that indicate Joe Biden cannot do the job of the commander-in-chief any more.

A group of around thirty people gathered on the lawn of the United States Capitol Building to hear speeches from three drag queens on Tuesday. MoveOn Political Action organized the event to champion the Equality Act and the Transgender Bill of Rights. The lobbying day came at the heels of the new polling that a "healthy majority of Americans across the political spectrum support federal legislation protecting LGBTQ+ individuals." Jiggly Caliente spoke first, addressing her gratitude for being on RuPaul’s Drag Race and for the blessing of being able to be your true self. “I have always known that I was living in a shell that didn’t align with my soul,” she said. Jiggly, or Bianca, accused politicians of blocking local and up-and-coming drag queens from making money.

On the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, the Biden campaign is getting aggressive on abortion. While President Joe Biden is mostly locked away at Camp David preparing for Thursday’s first presidential debate against Donald Trump, he released a video blaming Trump for appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, “putting women’s lives in danger.”  “Decades of progress shattered just because the last guy got four years in the White House,” Biden said. “We know what will happen if he gets another four. For MAGA Republicans, Roe is just the beginning. They’re going to try to ban the right to choose nationwide. They’re coming for IVF and birth control next.

Donald Trump is making strides in all the right places, it seems. Polls indicate he’s making moves among black and Jewish voters in New York State as well as with female voters, while also gaining support in crucial battleground states.According to the New York Post:Surveys from Emerson College and the Hill show the 45th president edging out Biden in Arizona (47 percent — 43 percent), Georgia (45 — 41 percent), Michigan (46 — 45 percent), Nevada (46 — 43 percent), Pennsylvania (47 — 45 percent) and Wisconsin (47 — 44 percent).In all six states, Trump’s lead has either remained the same or grown from the outlet’s polls taken last month, before he was convicted by a Manhattan jury on thirty-four business fraud charges.

Cockburn was left scratching his head last week after former Donald Trump prosecutor Nathan Wade’s disaster sit down with reporter Kaitlan Collins. Not having learned his lesson, Wade decided to double down and appeared on The Daily Show on Wednesday for a racy interview that highlighted the dazzling prudence of the Fulton County courthouse.  Comedian Marlon Wayans, who plays the Daily Show character ’Quon, grilled Wade on his affair with Georgia district attorney Fani Willis, even mimicking several sex positions. After his media team interrupted the CNN interview to dodge a question about his affair, it's almost inexplicable that Wade would place himself in such a raunchy situation — except that he’s clearly enjoying his five minutes of fame.