“When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.”
— Richard Nixon, in a 1977 interview with David Frost.
History Has Turned Again
Brian Beutler: “If you’re about my age or older… you’re familiar with this uncanny sensation of living through a moment when history turns. It’s happened every few months or years since Bush v. Gore: First, Bush v. Gore itself. Then 9/11. The Bush torture regime. The collapse of the false case for the war in Iraq. The global financial crisis. The election of Barack Obama. Then of Donald Trump, with control of the Supreme Court again on the line. COVID-19. The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Dobbs. And now this: The Supreme Court’s whole-cloth fabrication of criminal immunity for presidents, just as the incumbent’s path to re-election is closing, and his challenger flaunts dictatorial ambition undisguised.”
“Of all these hinge-point moments, the latter is the grimmest and most ominous.”
‘Nixon Would Have Had A Pass’
Richard Nixon’s counsel John Dean said Monday that the Supreme Court’s decision that Donald Trump has full immunity for “official” actions he took as president — even his attempted coup — likely would have meant that Nixon was immune from his criminal conduct during the Watergate scandal that led to his resignation, the HuffPost reports.
Said Dean: “As I looked at it, I realized Richard Nixon would have had a pass.”
He added: “Virtually all of his Watergate-related conduct… virtually all that evidence falls in what could easily be described as ‘official conduct.’”
Oregon Governor’s Legacy Included Raping Teenager
Former Portland mayor and Oregon Gov. Neil Goldschmidt (D), who set the city’s course for a generation while repeatedly raping a teenager, has died just short of his 84th birthday, Willamette Week reports.
The sexual assault of the girl began when she was 13 or 14 and continued for many years.
Exchange of the Day
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky greeted a D-Day veteran at the 80th anniversary ceremonies:
VETERAN: You’re the savior of the people, you bring tears to my eyes.
ZELENSKY: No no, you saved Europe.
VETERAN: My hero.
ZELENSKY: No, you are our hero.
VETERAN: I pray for you.
Byron Donalds Suggests Jim Crow Era Had an Upside
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) suggested that the Jim Crow era had some virtues for Black people while trying to persuade voters of color to back Donald Trump, the New York Times reports.
Said Donalds: “You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative — because Black people have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively.”
Flashback Quote of the Day
“These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.”
— Thomas Paine, in The American Crisis.
New 9/11 Evidence Points to Deep Saudi Complicity
“For more than two decades, through two wars and domestic upheaval, the idea that al-Qaeda acted alone on 9/11 has been the basis of U.S. policy. A blue-ribbon commission concluded that Osama bin Laden had pioneered a new kind of terrorist group—combining superior technological know-how, extensive resources, and a worldwide network so well coordinated that it could carry out operations of unprecedented magnitude. This vanguard of jihad, it seemed, was the first nonstate actor that rivaled nation-states in the damage it could wreak,” The Atlantic reports.
“That assessment now appears wrong. And if our understanding of what transpired on 9/11 turns out to have been flawed, then the costly policies that the United States has pursued for the past quarter century have been rooted in a false premise.”
“The global War on Terror was based on a mistake.”
What If It’s a Tie?
Politico: “It sounds outlandish. It was literally a plot point in HBO’s political satire, Veep. It hasn’t happened for 200 years, not since the House clawed the presidency from Andrew Jackson, who won the popular vote but didn’t manage to win over the Electoral College, and elected his opponent, John Quincy Adams — prompting a massive populist backlash that remade American politics.”
“And yet it’s an entirely plausible outcome once again, thanks to recent efforts that could lead to a scenario in which neither candidate makes it to that golden number of 270. If that comes to pass, the fallout could be just as existential as it was in 1824.”
Trump and Biden Sideline a Storied Campaign Institution
“The agreement by President Biden and Donald Trump to move ahead with two presidential debates — and sideline the Commission on Presidential Debates — is a debilitating and potentially fatal blow to an institution that had once been a major arbiter in presidential politics,” the New York Times reports.
“But the roots of the commission’s decline go back at least a decade and came to a head in 2020, when the commission struggled to stage a debate with Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden during the pandemic.”
Politico: Why Biden ditched the debate commission.
Jimmy Carter Is ‘Coming to the End’
Jimmy Carter’s grandson said Tuesday that the former president is “coming to the end” in a brief update about the 39th president’s health, CNN reports.
Back to 1968?
William Kristol: “Over three months later, on August 26, 1968, the Democratic party’s national convention assembled in Chicago, and in scenes of riots and disorder, nominated as the party’s candidate a long-time senator and the incumbent vice president, Hubert Humphrey.”
“This year the Democratic convention will come to order on August 19, in Chicago. It will nominate a long-time senator, the former vice president and incumbent president, Joe Biden.”
“In 1968, the Republican party voted to put on their national ticket—for an unprecedented fourth time—Richard Nixon. This capped a remarkable political comeback. After Nixon had not only lost the presidential race in 1960 but the California governorship in 1962, he was widely supposed to be finished.”
“This year the Republicans will nominate for president, for an unprecedented third time in succession, Donald Trump. This will cap a remarkable political comeback. After Trump not only lost the presidential race in 2020 but failed in his attempt afterwards to overturn the results, he was widely supposed to be finished.”
Churchill or Chamberlain?
The impasse over Ukraine aid in the House has triggered a debate about whether lawmakers are facing a “Churchill or Chamberlain moment,” the Washington Post reports.
Specter of 1968 Looms Over Democratic Convention
Politico: “Democrats say they have the convention’s logistics under control and are confident Chicago Police and federal officials will be able to manage the protesters.”
Revisiting Florida 2000 and the Butterfly Effect
Nate Cohn: “We’ll never know what would have happened if the Supreme Court had allowed the recount to continue. But I don’t think it’s always appreciated that we probably do know that Mr. Gore would have won Florida, and therefore the presidency, if it weren’t for the infamous ‘butterfly ballot’ in Palm Beach County.”
“If you don’t remember — it has been a while — the butterfly ballot was very unusual. Candidates were listed on both sides of the ballot, and voters cast a ballot by punching a corresponding hole in the middle. What made it so unusual was that the ordering of the candidates on the ballot didn’t have the same logic as the corresponding punch hole: George W. Bush and Mr. Gore were the first two candidates listed on the left-hand side, but they corresponded to the first and third hole on the punch. The second punch corresponded with the first candidate on the right-hand side of the ballot: the paleoconservative Pat Buchanan, running as a Reform Party candidate.”
“After the election, many voters from Palm Beach claimed they had inadvertently voted for Mr. Buchanan when they meant to vote for Mr. Gore. This is clear in the data.”
Joe Lieberman Is Dead
“Joseph Lieberman, Connecticut’s four-term United States senator and Vice President Al Gore’s Democratic running mate in the 2000 presidential election won by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney when the Supreme Court halted a Florida ballot recount, died on Wednesday in Manhattan,” the New York Times reports.
“His family, in a statement, said the cause was complications of a fall.”
Obama Feared ‘One-Term’ After Health Care Law
New York Times: “The passage of the Affordable Care Act would be his signature legislative achievement, but it propelled Republicans to a sweeping midterm election victory and control of the House. And Mr. Obama thought he might be the next to pay the price at the ballot box.”
Said Obama to an aide in late 2010: “This is shaping up to be a one-term presidency.”
“He turned out to be wrong, but the fatalism Mr. Obama expressed privately that day captured the weighty consequences of one of Washington’s most high-wire legislative battles in modern times.”
“A new set of oral histories released on Friday, on the eve of its 14th anniversary on Saturday, documents the behind-the-scenes struggle to transform the nation’s health care system to cover tens of millions of Americans without insurance.”
Kamala Harris Marks Anniversary of Bloody Sunday
“Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to be among those marking the 59th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the day Alabama law officers attacked Civil Rights demonstrators on the iconic Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama,” the AP reports.
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