House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told CNN that he’s been advising Donald Trump to wait until after the midterm election to announce another presidential bid.
He added that he doesn’t know if Trump’s yet made a decision on running again.
GOP Links to Extremism Surface in Primary
“A congressional candidate whose compelling personal story of military valor and unfathomable loss helped him win former President Donald Trump’s support has connections to right-wing extremists, including a campaign consultant who was a member of the Proud Boys,” the AP reports.
“Republican Joe Kent, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state in the Aug. 2 primary, has also courted prominent white nationalists and posed recently for a photograph with a media personality who has previously described Adolf Hitler as a ‘complicated historical figure’ who ‘many people misunderstand.’”
Majority Want Law to Clarify Role of Veep
A new Politico/Morning Consult poll finds 62% of voters — including 52% of Republicans — would support a new law that clarifies that the Vice President cannot reject state-certified electoral votes.
The survey finds President Biden’s approval rate at a dismal 37%, but nonetheless finds Democrats leading the generic congressional ballot by four points, 45% to 41%.
White House Braces for Grim News on Economy
“The White House is scrambling behind the scenes and in public to get ahead of a potentially brutal economic punch to the face that could give Republicans the chance to declare that the ‘Biden recession’ is under way,” Politico reports.
“Wall Street analysts, economists and even some in the Biden administration itself expect a report on Thursday to show the economy shrank for a second straight quarter, meeting a classic — though by no means the only — definition of a recession.”
Associated Press: U.S. economy sending mixed signals.
Washington Post: The coming battle over when a recession is recession.
Chris Cuomo Will Be Back on Cable News
“Veteran TV journalist Chris Cuomo is coming back to cable news with a new prime-time program on NewsNation starting in the fall, less than a year after his messy breakup with CNN,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
One America News Faces a ‘Death Blow’
“The future of One America News, which established itself as a powerful voice in conservative media by promoting some of the most outlandish falsehoods about the 2020 election, is in serious doubt as major carriers drop it from their lineups and defamation lawsuits threaten to drain its finances,” the New York Times reports.
“OAN’s remaining audience will be small. The network will soon be available only to a few hundred thousand people who subscribe to smaller cable providers.”
Justice Department Asking Witnesses About Trump
“Federal prosecutors have directly asked witnesses in recent days about former President Donald Trump’s involvement in efforts to reverse his election loss, suggesting that the Justice Department’s criminal investigation has moved into a more aggressive and politically fraught phase,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump’s personal role in elements of the push to overturn his loss in 2020 to Joseph Biden has long been established, both through his public actions and statements and evidence gathered by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.”
Feds Looking at Trump’s Actions in January 6 Probe
“The Justice Department is investigating President Donald Trump’s actions as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results,“ the Washington Post reports.
“Prosecutors who are questioning witnesses before a grand jury — including two top aides to Vice President Mike Pence — have asked in recent days about conversations with Trump, his lawyers, and others in his inner circle who sought to substitute Trump allies for certified electors from some states Joe Biden won.”
“The prosecutors have asked hours of detailed questions about meetings Trump led in December 2020 and January 2021; his pressure campaign on Pence to overturn the election; and what instructions Trump gave his lawyers and advisers about fake electors and sending electors back to the states.”
Viktor Orbán Will Still Speak at CPAC
“A gathering of US conservatives in Texas next week will still include Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as a speaker despite his recent comments which prompted a long-time ally to resign from his government and compare his comments to Nazism,” Bloomberg reports.
Top Orbán Adviser Trashes ‘Nazi’ Speech in Dramatic Exit
A top adviser to Hungarian primary minister Viktor Orbán resigned after his “mixed race” remarks, Politico reports.
Zsuzsa Hegedüs said in her resignation letter that they were “worthy of Goebbels” and a “pure Nazi text.”
She added: “That you are able to deliver an openly racist speech would not occur to me even in a nightmare.”
U.S. May Need $7 Billion for Monkeypox
The Biden administration privately estimated to Congress this month that it may need nearly $7 billion to mount a response to the nation’s monkeypox outbreak that matches “the scope and urgency of the current situation,” the Washington Post reports.
Horrific Conditions Found at Atlanta Federal Prison
“Widespread drug abuse, substandard medical and mental health care, out-of-control violence and horrific sanitary conditions are rampant at a federal prison in Atlanta, a new congressional investigation into the federal Bureau of Prisons has found,” the New York Times reports.
“The problems plaguing the medium-security prison, which holds around 1,400 people, are so notorious within the federal government that its culture of indifference and mismanagement is derisively known among bureau employees as ‘the Atlanta way.'”
The Latest Theory About the SCOTUS Leaker
David Lat speculates that the person who leaked the draft Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade is unknown even to the Politico reporters who first broke the story.
Trump Calls for Death Penalty for Drug Dealers
Former President Donald Trump “voiced support for imposing the death penalty as punishment for convicted drug dealers as part of a speech in which he laid out a series of drastic measures to curb crime,” The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “The penalties should be very, very severe. If you look at countries throughout the world, the ones that don’t have a drug problem are ones that institute a very quick trial death penalty sentence for drug dealers.”
He also called for police squad cars to be parked on every corner and suggested moving encampments of homeless people out of major cities and to “large parcels of inexpensive land at the outer reaches of the city.”
Big Majority Say Trump Acted Unethically or Illegally
A new CNN poll finds a public consensus has emerged that former President Donald Trump acted at least unethically in trying to hold on to his office after the 2020 election.
Key findings: 79% feel he acted either unethically or illegally, including 45% who believe his actions were illegal, 61% say he encouraged political violence in his public statements ahead of January 6, and 77% said he could have done more to stop the attack once it had begun.
All told, the poll finds that 69% of Americans consider the January 6 attack to be a crisis or major problem for American democracy.
Big Majority of Democrats Don’t Want Biden to Run Again
A new CNN poll finds 75% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters want the party to nominate someone other than President Joe Biden in the 2024 election, a sharp increase from earlier this year.
Merrick Garland Won’t Rule Out Prosecuting Trump
“Attorney General Merrick Garland left open the possibility that former President Donald Trump could be prosecuted in connection with inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection,” NBC News reports.
Said Garland: “Look, we pursue justice without fear or favor… We intend to hold everyone, anyone who was criminally responsible for the events surrounding Jan. 6, for any attempt to interfere with the lawful transfer of power from one administration to another, accountable. That’s what we do.”
He added: “I’ll say again that we will hold accountable anyone who is criminally responsible for attempting to interfere with the transfer — legitimate, lawful transfer of power from one administration to the next.”
Democrats Want to Sideline Secret Service Watchdog
“Two top House Democrats are calling for the Department of Homeland Security inspector general to recuse himself from the investigation into Secret Service text messages, saying they lost confidence after he failed to inform Congress for months that messages around January 6 may have been erased,” CNN reports.
