“The White House said Monday that roughly 6,000 Americans have been evacuated from or otherwise left Afghanistan and that a ‘small number’ of U.S. citizens who want to leave remain in the country,” The Hill reports.
USA Today: 24 hours to go.
750,000 Households Face Eviction This Year
“A new report from Goldman Sachs released Sunday estimates that about 750,000 households could face eviction later this year unless Congress acts or rental assistance funds are more quickly distributed,” Axios reports.
CNN: “Goldman Sachs estimates that between 2.5 million and 3.5 million households are significantly behind on rent, owing a combined $12 billion to $17 billion to landlords.”
No, Biden Didn’t Fall Asleep on Israel’s Prime Minister
Haaretz: “Soon after Bennett and Biden’s photo op in the Oval Office, where the two leaders exchanged pleasantries and declarations – and where Bennett in particular spoke at length – a 22-second video clip went viral on social media, appearing to show Biden sound asleep in his armchair as Bennett addressed the media…”
“A review of the full video, however, clearly demonstrates that the video has been manipulated – hardly the first time such a thing has happened to make it appear Biden was nodding off, in accordance with Trump’s nickname for him: Sleepy Joe.”
“Biden was, in fact, wide awake – alert enough to make a cutting remark at the 13:15 mark in the clip, right after he was accused of being asleep, telling Bennett to give former President Barack Obama more credit for the good relationship between the two countries.”
Most Video of Insurrection Remains Secret
BuzzFeed News: “These videos would paint the most complete picture of what happened inside, but the US Capitol Police, backed by federal prosecutors, have strictly controlled who can see them and how much footage can be shared with the public.”
“The full accounting of the movements of key players that this collection of footage would provide — not just of rioters, but also lawmakers and police officers — is exactly why Capitol security officials don’t want them out there.”
GOP Lawmaker Calls Capitol Rioters ‘Political Hostages’
At GOP event in North Carolina, Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) called the January 6 Capitol rioters “political hostages” and spoke of trying to “bust them out.”
When asked when he was going to “call us to Washington again” over the “stolen election,” Cawthorn responded: “We are actively working on that one. We have a few plans in motion that we can’t make public right now.”
He then encouraged attendees to engage in “a little civil disobedience.”
Man Who First Claimed Covid a ‘Hoax’ Died from Covid
“Robert David Steele, a former CIA officer turned conspiracy theorist who claimed to be the first person to call COVID-19 a hoax, has died from COVID-19,” Vice News reports.
“Steele, who was among the earliest QAnon promoters and helped the conspiracy theory move from the fringes of the internet into the mainstream, was hospitalized with symptoms of COVID-19 earlier this month. But he continued to spread anti-vaccine and COVID-denial conspiracy theories until the end.”
Why Is It Taking So Long to Prosecute Trump?
Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe was interviewed by Salon:
“One possible answer is that it’s not easy to get a conviction of a president. What appears compelling to a layperson is going to be difficult in practice. It will also be difficult to put down the riots that the very announcement of an indictment may bring. There may be a great deal of worry about fomenting civil war to no good end, because we will not succeed in holding the president accountable.”
“In the end, all I can do is make the counter-argument that if you’re worried about the consequences of going ahead with this evidence against Trump and perhaps not convicting him, then you had better start worrying about the consequences of not going ahead with this evidence — and telling presidents in the future, including this president, who undoubtedly is going to try to seize power again one way or another, that they can get away with this. If that is the message, then the rule of law has basically been thrown out the window.”
Education Department Probes 5 States Over Mask Bans
The Education Department said that it launched investigations into five GOP-led states — Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah — that banned mask mandates in schools, the New York Times reports.
Axios: “If the states are found to have discriminated against students with disabilities, the Biden administration could issue sanctions that include loss of federal funding.”
Jeff Colyer Ends Bid for Kansas Governor
Jeff Colyer (R) announced he was ending his campaign for Kansas governor and receiving treatment for prostate cancer, the Kansas Reflector reports.
Colyer’s departure from the race clears the way for Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt (R) to win the GOP nomination for governor in next year’s primary election.
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I hope to live to see the day when you become president.”
— California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder (R), quoted by the Los Angeles Times in an email to Trump aide Stephen Miller in 2016.
Hate Crimes Hit 12-Year High
“The number of hate crimes in the United States rose in 2020 to the highest level in 12 years, propelled by increasing assaults targeting Black and Asian victims,” the Washington Post reports.
State Legislatures Increasingly Shape American Politics
New York Times: “Increasingly, state legislatures, especially in 30 Republican-controlled states, have seized an outsize role for themselves, pressing conservative agendas on voting, Covid-19 and the culture wars that are amplifying partisan splits and shaping policy well beyond their own borders.”
“Indeed, for a party out of power in Washington, state legislatures have become enormous sources of leverage and influence. That is especially true for rural conservatives who largely control the legislatures in key states like Wisconsin, Texas and Georgia and could now lock in a strong Republican tilt in Congress and cement their own power for the next decade. The Texas Legislature’s pending approval of new restrictions on voting is but the latest example.”
Children Reportedly Killed in American Drone Strike
Washington Post: “A U.S. drone strike targeting the Islamic State killed 10 civilians in Kabul, including several small children, family members.”
“The dead were all from a single extended family and were getting out of a car in their modest driveway when the strike hit a nearby vehicle.”
Wars Have Beginnings and Ends
Jim Webb: “We should start with a truism. Wars have beginnings and they have ends. The ends for one and sometimes both sides are not always what the combatants initially envisioned. And in the case of Afghanistan, the war that we began was not the same war that we are finally bringing to an end.”
“When we went into Afghanistan in 2001 our national concern was to eliminate terrorist entities who desired to attack us. The common understanding at the time was that we would operate with maneuver elements capable of attacking and neutralizing terrorist entities. It was never to occupy territory with permanent bases or to attempt to change the societal and governmental structure of the Afghan people.”
This ‘mission creep’ began after a few years of successful operations and was obvious in 2004 when I was in the country as an embed journalist. The change in mission eventually increased our troop presence tenfold and sent our forces on an impossible political journey that no amount of military success could overcome.”
How Ballot Access Is Impacted Around the Country
Join now to continue reading.
Members get exclusive analysis, bonus features and no advertising. Learn more.
EU Recommends Halting Nonessential Travel From U.S.
“The European Union recommended halting nonessential travel from the U.S. because of the rise of Covid-19 cases, ending a summer-vacation reprieve for American tourists,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The decision came amid the growing spread of the Delta variant in the U.S., where vaccination rates have also now fallen behind the average rates of shots in EU countries.”
How Facebook Makes Our Politics More Extreme
Mother Jones notes that two-thirds of all Facebook users who join extremist groups are actually guided to them by Facebook itself.
Quote of the Day
“I don’t think it serves any particular purpose to start criticizing others.”
— Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), when asked why he doesn’t call out Republicans who have downplayed the vaccine or opposed masks.
