“I kept my underwear on during the massage. I don’t like massages particularly.”
— Alan Dershowitz, quoted by Crooks and Liars, admitting to getting a massage at Jeffrey Epstein’s residence from a very “old, old Russian woman.”
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Why a Climate Debate Is a Bad Idea
Jonathan Chait: “A singular climate debate only serves its purpose if every faction within the Democratic Party agrees that climate change uniquely merits a dedicated debate. But progressive activists are unlikely to accept this. The nature of the party is that it is divided into activist nodes organized around singular issues or groups. What happens when activists request a debate on racism? Inequality? Health care? Gun violence? Voting rights? Abortion rights? Immigration?”
“Once Democrats have broken the seal, the pressure to expand the number of single-issue debates would be intense and continuous. Saying no to any particular cause after having already agreed to elevating another cause would be untenable. Can you really imagine the party standing behind the position that racism is not important enough to merit its own debate, but climate change is? I cannot. The endpoint would be a proliferation of single-issue debates that negates the entire point of elevating climate change to begin with.”
Trump Won’t Pursue Citizenship Question After All
“President Trump is expected to announce on Thursday that he will not pursue efforts to get a citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. census… after the administration spent weeks seeking a legal rationale for doing so,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“In a news conference at the White House Thursday afternoon, the president is expected to address next steps for obtaining that information through other means.”
Rick Hasen predicted this last week: “As I understand it from people who have been following this more closely than I am, the Census Department is still going to create citizenship data which can then be used for redistricting. Ross ordered the Census Bureau to compile citizenship data through existing administrative records, something bureau experts had told him would be cheaper and more accurate than a question anyway.”
Steyer Proposes National Referendum
Tom Steyer said in a video that as president he would let voters make laws directly through regular national referenda, NBC News reports.
“It’s part of Steyer’s new structural reform plan, which also proposes fairly novel ideas like 12-year term limits on members of Congress, a national vote-by-mail system, public campaign financing, giving the Federal Elections Commission more teeth and different composition, and imposing independent redistricting commissions to tackle gerrymandering.”
Said Steyer: “Here’s the difference between me and the other candidates: I don’t think we can fix our democracy from the inside. I trust the people.”
Trump Doesn’t Want Sessions to Run for Senate
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) told The Hill that President Trump is not on board with a potential Senate bid by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Said Shelby: “I talked to the president about it too… about if Sessions ran, he was not encouraging. How do I say it? He was not on board, OK?”
Warren Proposes Immigration Overhaul
“Elizabeth Warren on Thursday unveiled her plan to reform the nation’s immigration system amid a deepening crisis over detention at the southern border and a fraught debate across the country and within the Democratic Party on the way forward,” Politico reports.
“Among other things, the proposal calls for allowing more immigrants to come into the country legally, lifting the refugee cap from 30,000 under the Trump administration to 125,000 and then 175,000; a revamp of the immigration court system to establish independence from Justice Department leaders; and the creation of an ‘Office of New Americans’ tasked with facilitating integration, including teaching English.”
Five Democrats Are Pulling Away from the Field
Politico: “Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren raised about $100 million in the last three months combined. Together, they share a large majority of the public support.”
“They were already spending millions of dollars more than many lower-polling contenders have even raised. Now, in a powerful compounding effect for their campaigns, these top tier candidates are poised to plow that new money back into their field and digital operations — further reinforcing their fundraising and organizing advantages in the 23-candidate field. It’s too early to be an inflection point, but late enough that the rest of the field needs to start worrying.”
How QAnon Makes People Miserable
Vice: “One of the most disheartening signs of our advancing hellworld are the thousands of people who wholeheartedly believe in the deranged conspiracy known as QAnon.”
“It’s near impossible to summarize the entire QAnon conspiracy theory, as it’s fluid and ever-changing. The nuts and bolts are that a secret government insider, the titular Q, has taken to the internet forum 8chan of all places to drop clues (known in the community as Q Drops breadcrumbs) about how President Trump is taking down the deep state. The conspiracy takes some twists and turns into the occult, an ever-present cabal of pedophiles, possible executions, and the idea JFK Jr. may have faked his own death and is cosplaying as an old guy who goes to Trump rallies.”
“While the QAnon conspiracy often feels like an elaborate troll, an online community of real, actual people has built up around it.”
House Panel Votes to Subpoena Kushner and Sessions
The House Judiciary Committee “voted to subpoena 12 people with connections to President Trump, including his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and former attorney general Jeff Sessions, as part of an ongoing investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice or otherwise abused his office,” the Washington Post reports.
Why Trump Didn’t Pick Christie as Attorney General
According to the new book American Carnage, President Trump told Paul Manafort why he would never pick then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as his attorney general, the Washington Post reports.
Said Trump: “Because that guy would prosecute my own kids and not think twice about it.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Some of you are here to make a beautiful pâté but we’re making sausage most of the time.”
— Speaker Nancy Pelosi, quoted by CNN, addressing the House Democrats.
Five Democrats Lead In the Early States
A new Crooked Media/Change Research poll in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina finds five major Democratic candidates: Elizabeth Warren at 19%, Bernie Sanders at 19%, Joe Biden at 18%, Kamala Harris at 17% and Pete Buttigieg at 15%. No other candidate gets more than 3% support.
Post debate movement: “Of those who said they switched from one candidate to a new one, 55% went to Harris, 22% to Warren. Of those who went from undecided to a new candidate, 38% went to Harris, 20% to Warren, 13% to Buttigieg, and 10% to Sanders. And 42% of those who switched from Biden to another candidate went to Harris, 21% to Warren.”
Trump Lashes Out at House Investigations
“President Trump on Thursday laid into congressional Democrats over their investigations into his administration and 2016 campaign, asking, ‘How many bites at the apple do they get?,'” Politico reports.
“The tweets, which came as part of a larger spree of almost two dozen tweets over the course of the morning, came moments before the House Judiciary Committee gathered to vote on authorizing subpoenas to 12 witnesses in the Mueller investigation.”
Vox: Trump’s latest morning of tweets was off the rails, even by his standards.
Primaries Complicate GOP Effort to Hold Senate
“Republicans are facing an early headache of nightmare primary fights as they plot to keep control of the Senate,” The Hill reports.
“In Alabama and Kansas, two deep-red states that should be safe GOP seats, the party is facing bids from conservatives Roy Moore and Kris Kobach, respectively, who are viewed as unelectable in a general election and have a history of stealing the national spotlight.”
“Republicans say they feel good about their chances to hold onto the chamber in 2020 — when they will be playing defense in mostly red territory — but bloody fights in those two states could help widen Democrats’ path back to the majority.”
Ryan Saw Retirement as an ‘Escape Hatch’
Former Speaker Paul Ryan saw retirement as an “escape hatch” from two more years working under President Trump, according to Tim Alberta’s new book American Carnage, per an early copy obtained by the Washington Post.
Said Ryan: “We’ve gotten so numbed by it all. Not in government, but where we live our lives, we have a responsibility to try and rebuild. Don’t call a woman a ‘horse face.’ Don’t cheat on your wife. Don’t cheat on anything. Be a good person. Set a good example.”
He added: “I told myself I gotta have a relationship with this guy to help him get his mind right… Because, I’m telling you, he didn’t know anything about government.”
American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Alberta, Tim (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 687 Pages - 07/16/2019 (Publication Date) - Harper (Publisher)
Quote of the Day
“These guys have all convinced themselves that to be successful and keep their jobs, they need to stand by Trump. But Trump won’t stand with them as soon as he doesn’t need them. He’s not loyal. They’re very loyal to Trump, but the second he thinks it’s to his advantage to throw someone under the bus, he’ll be happy to do it.”
— Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI), quoted by the Washington Post, on how GOP lawmakers embraced President Trump.
White House Kills Plan to Lower Drug Prices
“The Trump administration pulled one of its key proposals to lower drug prices that would have eliminated rebates to middlemen in Medicare, which President Trump’s top health official had touted as one of the most significant changes to curb medicine costs for consumers,” the Washington Post reports.
“The rule is the second major drug pricing effort to get blocked this week, complicating the administration’s efforts to make lowering prescription medicine costs a key 2020 presidential campaign issue.”
GOP Candidate Refuses Interview by Female Reporter
“A Mississippi Republican gubernatorial candidate on Thursday stood by his decision to deny a female reporter’s request to accompany him on a campaign trip unless she brought along a male colleague,” CNN reports.
Said state Rep. Robert Foster: “I didn’t want to end up in a situation where me and Ms. Campbell were alone for an extended period of time throughout that 15- or 16-hour day, and so out of precaution, I wanted to have her bring someone with her — a male colleague. The other thing I think it’s important to point out is that this is my truck, and in my truck, we go by my rules and that’s my rule.”
