“No matter what you do, it always comes with an extra layer of gleeful cruelty and dickishness.”
Big Majority Don’t Want to Overturn Roe v. Wade
A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds that 67% of the American public do not want the Supreme Court to overturn the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision that established women’s constitutional right to abortion.”
“The poll finds a slim majority (53%) of Republicans would like to see Roe v. Wade overturned, while large majorities of Democrats (81%) and independents (73%) would not. Similar shares of women (68%) and men (65%) want Roe v. Wade to stand, but among women of reproductive age, three-quarters (74%) want Roe v. Wade to stand.”
Trump Will Name Supreme Court Pick by July 11
President Trump plans on announcing his pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy before he leaves for the upcoming NATO summit on July 11, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Gillbrand Calls for Elimination of ICE
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) told CNN that she doesn’t think U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “today is working as intended.”
She noted that ICE has “become a deportation force,” adding, “I think you should separate the criminal justice from the immigration issues.”
Quote of the Day
“Do not wait for the perfect message, don’t wait to feel a tingle in your spine because you’re expecting politicians to be so inspiring and poetic and moving that somehow, ‘OK, I’ll get off my couch after all and go spend the 15-20 minutes it takes for me to vote.’ Because that’s part of what happened in the last election. I heard that too much.”
— Barack Obama, quoted by Politico, in his first public comments in months.
Inside the Democrats’ Supreme Court Strategy
Playbook: “Look for Senate Democrats to emphasize health care — pre-existing conditions — and abortion rights as they talk about the upcoming Supreme Court vacancy. Democrats are moving away from the idea that it’s not fair that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) gets to confirm another justice after refusing to consider Merrick Garland. They won’t talk much about pushing the vote until after the midterms. Instead, they plan to talk about what they consider to be the real-world impact of another conservative justice on the nation’s highest court.”
Politico: “Senate Democrats want the Supreme Court battle waged on the policy stakes, not the procedural tactics at play. But the party’s outraged base is prodding them to do everything they can to slow down Trump’s nominee, despite their paltry procedural options after the GOP quashed the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations last year.”
Could Trump Pick a Woman for the Court?
Politico: “No matter whom President Donald Trump picks for the Supreme Court this time around, the nominee is almost certain to come under withering liberal attack as a grave threat to women’s rights. Several conservatives close to the White House, however, say they know just how to blunt that looming assault: Pick a woman for the job.”
The Plan to Overturn Roe v. Wade Is Already In Motion
“Now that President Trump has the opportunity to appoint a new justice to the Supreme Court, some abortion opponents hope that Roe v. Wade will end up overturned or gutted — and they have already been working towards that moment,” CNN reports.
“Over the past year, state legislatures in Iowa, Louisiana and Mississippi have advanced strict limits on abortion that some lawmakers believe could trigger a successful challenge to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.”
However, leaders of the antiabortion movement tell the Washington Post “that they are in no hurry to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, saying they plan to stick with their long-standing strategy of pushing for incremental restrictions despite the tantalizing prospect of a more conservative Supreme Court.”
Trump Threatens to Upend Global Trade
“President Trump has repeatedly told top White House officials he wants to withdraw the United States from the World Trade Organization, a move that would throw global trade into wild disarray,” people involved in the talks tell Axios.
“A U.S. withdrawal from the WTO would send global markets into a spiral and cast trillions of dollars of trade into doubt. It would also blow up an institution that for 70-plus years has been a pillar of global economic and political stability.”
“The consequences of a U.S. withdrawal are so profound that, like Trump’s senior advisers, the trade community hasn’t seriously entertained the possibility that Trump would try to withdraw.”
Roberts Poised to Become New Swing Vote
“With the retirement of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and the likelihood that President Trump will choose a more conservative replacement, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is poised to play a pivotal role on the court he has headed for 13 years,” the Washington Post reports.
“Roberts has been content to play the long game, moving the court to the right with incremental steps. But now, with more conservative colleagues on one side and liberals on the other, Roberts will have the ability to supply the deciding fifth vote and dictate the terms of the deal.”
Senate May Finally Pay Interns
New York Times: “The Senate has allocated $5 million to compensate all of its interns. The money — approximately $50,000 per Senate office — will become available if it is approved by the House, and then only at the start of the next fiscal year, Oct. 1. But the Senate measure is the first widespread organized congressional effort in two decades to ensure such payments.”
Trump Is Trying to Break the European Union
Josh Robin: “During a private meeting at the White House in late April, Trump was discussing trade with French President Emmanuel Macron. At one point, he asked Macron, ‘Why don’t you leave the E.U.?’ and said that if France exited the union, Trump would offer it a bilateral trade deal with better terms than the E.U. as a whole gets from the United States, according to two European officials. The White House did not dispute the officials’ account, but declined to comment.”
“Let’s set aside for a moment the point that Trump’s proposal reveals a basic lack of understanding of Macron’s views and those of the people who elected him. This is an instance of the president of the United States offering an incentive to dismantle an organization of America’s allies, against stated U.S. government policy.”
”Trump has been publicly trashing the E.U. and NATO since his campaign, but the pace and viciousness of his attacks have increased.”
Inside the Campaign to Get Kennedy to Retire
“President Trump singled him out for praise even while attacking other members of the Supreme Court. The White House nominated people close to him to important judicial posts. And members of the Trump family forged personal connections,” the New York Times reports.
“Their goal was to assure Justice Anthony M. Kennedy that his judicial legacy would be in good hands should he step down at the end of the court’s term that ended this week, as he was rumored to be considering.”
“There were no direct efforts to pressure or lobby Justice Kennedy to announce his resignation… But in subtle and not so subtle ways, the White House waged a quiet campaign to ensure that Mr. Trump had a second opportunity in his administration’s first 18 months to fulfill one of his most important campaign promises to his conservative followers — that he would change the complexion and direction of the Supreme Court.”
Waters Cancels Events Due to ‘Serious Death Threat’
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), “whose call for public protests of Trump administration officials has triggered a debate over civility in politics, said Thursday that she has canceled events in Texas and Alabama this weekend due to a ‘very serious death threat’ made against her,” the Washington Post reports.
Waters said that after President Trump took aim at her on Twitter on Monday, “even more individuals are leaving threatening messages and sending hostile mail to my office.”
Trump Seeking Replacement for Chief of Staff
President Trump “is consulting with advisers about whom he should tap as his next chief of staff, with John Kelly expected to depart the administration as early as this summer, possibly even this week,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The two front-runners for the job, the people said, are Nick Ayers, who serves as chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, and Mick Mulvaney, who heads the Office of Management and Budget as well as serving as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”
Jonathan Swan: “The pressure to remove chief of staff John Kelly has been building for months, and the chief’s relationship with Trump and many others in the building has been strained. Several people who currently work in the administration have lobbied the president to get rid of Kelly. And many more of Trump’s interlocutors outside the White House have lobbied him to get rid of Kelly, too.”
Planning Underway for Trump’s Parade
“Four months after President Trump directed the Defense Department to organize a military parade, planning is just beginning but no budget has been assigned yet. Pentagon officials told NBC News that they will be able to pull off the extravaganza, but the lack of momentum is notable — and possibly indicative of low enthusiasm for the event outside the Oval Office.”
Said one senior U.S. official: “There is only one person who wants this parade.”
Byrne Mulls Senate Bid In Alabama
Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL) told The Hill that is taking steps to mount a possible Senate bid in 2020 against incumbent Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL).
“The conservative House Republican is reaching out to colleagues in the Alabama delegation and driving around the state to gauge support from voters.”
Support for Immigration Has Grown Steadily
Pew Research: “Since 2001, the share of Americans who favor increased legal immigration into the U.S. has risen 22 percentage points (from 10% to 32%), while the share who support a decrease has declined 29 points (from 53% to 24%).”
“The shift is mostly driven by changing views among Democrats. The share of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents who say legal immigration into the U.S. should be increased has doubled since 2006, from 20% to 40%.”