The Conversation -- April 29, 2024

Sarah Fitzpatrick of NBC News: "Lawyers for Hunter Biden plan to sue Fox News 'imminently,' according to a letter sent to the network and obtained by NBC News. The letter, dated April 23, puts the Fox News Channel and Fox News Digital on notice for litigation claims arising from the network's alleged 'conspiracy and subsequent actions to defame Mr. Biden and paint him in a false light, the unlicensed commercial exploitation of his image, name, and likeness, and the unlawful publication of hacked intimate images of him.' Biden has hired attorney Mark Geragos and his firm to represent him in the Fox litigation efforts.... An earlier letter was hand-delivered to Fox's counsel two weeks ago, and the network asked for more time to respond.... The network has not yet responded to the letter sent April 23, which included a Friday evening, April 26, deadline to respond...."

Scotland. Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Scotland's first minister, Humza Yousaf, resigned on Monday in a fresh setback for his Scottish National Party, which has been engulfed in a slow-burning crisis over a funding scandal that erupted after a popular leader, Nicola Sturgeon, stepped down last year. Mr. Yousaf's departure had looked increasingly inevitable after he gambled last week by ending a power-sharing deal with the Scottish Green Party."

Judd Legum of Popular Information: "On November 21, 2021, President Biden signed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The new law included the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provided up to $30 per month to individuals or families with income up to 200% of the federal poverty line to help pay for high-speed internet.... The program has particularly benefited 'rural communities, veterans, and older Americans where the lack of affordable, reliable high-speed internet contributes to significant economic, health and other disparities.'... [Tuesday], the program will abruptly end. In October 2023, the White House sent a supplemental budget request to Congress, which included $6 billion to extend the program through the end of 2024. There is also a bipartisan bill, the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act, which would extend the program with $7 billion in funding. The benefits of the program have shown to be far greater than the costs. An academic study published in February 2024 found that 'for every dollar spent on the ACP, the nation's GDP increases by $3.89.' The program will lapse [Tuesday] because Speaker MikeJohnson (R-LA) refuses to bring either the bill (or the supplemental funding request) to a vote. The Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act has 225 co-sponsors which means that, if Johnson held a vote, it would pass." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's stunning the way Bible Mike won't help even the people who support him. As Legum notes, one-third of Johnson's own constituents use the ACP to pay for Internet service. But, see, the winger Republican Study Committee opposes the ACP because it's a "government handout that disincentivize[s] prosperity." Right. Obviously, the Internet is a crucial vehicle for enhancing, not "disincentivizing," prosperity.

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BTW, if there's nothing that would please you more than reading transcripts of Donald Trump's New York criminal trial, the link to three days of transcripts -- April 22, 23 & 25 -- is here. ( https://pdfs.nycourts.gov/PeopleVs.DTrump-71543/transcripts/ )

Presidential Race

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "Almost from the start of his appearance [at the White House Correspondents' Dinner] in what is traditionally a lighthearted evening, [President] Biden took the kind of personal swipes at his opponent that we have rarely heard from him.... And toward the end, Biden chastised the media: 'I'm sincerely not asking you to take sides. I'm asking you to rise up to the seriousness of the moment. Move past the horse race numbers and the gotcha moments and the distractions, the side shows that have come to dominate and sensationalize our politics, and focus on what's actually at stake.... The stakes couldn't be higher.'... Given [the forces against him], the best option for Biden now -- perhaps his only one -- ... is to start drawing a sharper, no-holds-barred contrast with Trump and what it would mean if he is allowed to return to the White House." (Also linked yesterday.)

WTF?? Marie: One headline at the top of CNN's main page this morning reads, "Biden is up against nostalgia for Trump's first term." Another reads, "More than half of voters see Trump's presidency as a success." Oh yeah? Here's a top New York Times story from April 29, 2020: "As the nation confronts one of its worst public health disasters in generations, a moment that demands a leader willing to marshal the full might of the American scientific establishment, the White House is occupied by a president whose administration, critics say, has diminished the conclusions of scientists in formulating policy, who personally harbors a suspicion of expert knowledge, and who often puts his political instincts ahead of the facts."

Donald Trump Has Been Asking, "Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?" Let's Check. Top News in the New York Times, April 28, 2020: "To the surprise of exactly no one, President Trump resumed his daily coronavirus news briefings on Monday, just two days after tweeting that they were 'not worth the time & effort' and just hours after his own White House officially canceled the planned appearance. The lure of cameras in the Rose Garden proved too hard to resist. For a president who relishes the spotlight and spends hours a day watching television, the idea of passing on his daily chance to get his message out turned out to be untenable despite his anger over his coverage. And so he was back, defending his handling of the pandemic and promising to reopen the country soon." (Also linked yesterday.)

Chris Geidner, the Law Dork: "Arguments at the Supreme Court this week were not about law. They were about power and control.... Although each case was different, the men of Supreme Court, in the arguments I attended in person, expressed more unified concern about the hypothetical consequences for future presidents who might be open to carrying out a coup than they did for actual people needing a blanket because they lack a home or actual women who risk the loss of their ability to have children in the future if they cannot get an abortion today." ~~~

~~~ Andrew Weissmann, speaking to Jen Psaki, via Mediaite: "... at the outset, the court had already given Donald Trump the win that he was seeking, which is the delay of the DC trial.... There seem to be four justices who were really taking Donald Trump's claim of criminal immunity seriously.... We are essentially ... one vote away from sort of the end of democracy as we know it with checks and balances.... And that that is what is so shocking is how close we are. And we are really on the razor's edge of that kind of result. But for the chief justice."

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The world's top diplomats are gathering in Saudi Arabia on Monday for the World Economic Forum, with Gaza cease-fire negotiations and regional stability set to dominate discussions on the sidelines. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the foreign ministers of Britain, Germany and France are among the expected attendees.... International pressure is growing to reach an agreement on the release of hostages. This is ahead of a planned major Israeli assault on Rafah, which Israel has said is a remaining Hamas stronghold in southern Gaza. More than a million displaced civilians have sought refuge there."

Tia Goldenberg, et al., of the AP: "The White House on Sunday said U.S. President Joe Biden had again spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as pressure builds on Israel and Hamas to reach a deal that would free some Israeli hostages and bring a cease-fire in the nearly seven-month-long war in Gaza. The White House said that Biden reiterated his 'clear position' as Israel plans to invade Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah despite global concern for more than 1 million Palestinians sheltering there. The U.S. opposes the invasion on humanitarian grounds, straining relations between the allies. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning to the Middle East on Monday. Biden also stressed that progress in delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza be 'sustained and enhanced,' according to the statement." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Monday are here.

Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took aim at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again on Sunday, saying that Israel's actions in Gaza are 'ethnic cleansing.' Sanders reiterated his familiar call on CNN's 'State of the Union' on Sunday to hold Netanyahu responsible for Israel's actions in Gaza, pointing to the staggering death toll and the displacement of Palestinians in the region. He was asked to respond to the ongoing pro-Palestinian protests that have broken out on college campuses across the country...."

Anushka Patil of the New York Times: "The World Central Kitchen said on Sunday that it would resume operations in Gaza with a local team of Palestinian aid workers, nearly a month after the Israeli military killed seven of the organization's workers in targeted drone strikes on their convoy.... The Washington-based aid group said that it was still calling for an independent, international investigation into the April 1 attack and that it had received 'no concrete assurances' that the Israeli military's operational procedures had changed. But the 'humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire,' the aid group's chief operating officer, Erin Gore, said in a statement."

The Conversation -- April 28, 2024

Tia Goldenberg, et al., of the AP: The White House on Sunday said U.S. President Joe Biden had again spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as pressure builds on Israel and Hamas to reach a deal that would free some Israeli hostages and bring a cease-fire in the nearly seven-month-long war in Gaza. The White House said that Biden reiterated his 'clear position' as Israel plans to invade Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah despite global concern for more than 1 million Palestinians sheltering there. The U.S. opposes the invasion on humanitarian grounds, straining relations between the allies. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning to the Middle East on Monday. Biden also stressed that progress in delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza be 'sustained and enhanced,' according to the statement."

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "Almost from the start of his appearance [at the White House Correspondents' Dinner] in what is traditionally a lighthearted evening, [President] Biden took the kind of personal swipes at his opponent that we have rarely heard from him.... And toward the end, Biden chastised the media: 'I'm sincerely not asking you to take sides. I'm asking you to rise up to the seriousness of the moment. Move past the horse race numbers and the gotcha moments and the distractions, the side shows that have come to dominate and sensationalize our politics, and focus on what's actually at stake.... The stakes couldn't be higher.'... Given [the forces against him], the best option for Biden now -- perhaps his only one -- ... is to start drawing a sharper, no-holds-barred contrast with Trump and what it would mean if he is allowed to return to the White House."

Donald Trump Has Been Asking, "Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?" Let's Check. Top News in at NBC News, April 28, 2020: "To the surprise of exactly no one, President Trump resumed his daily coronavirus news briefings on Monday, just two days after tweeting that they were 'not worth the time & effort' and just hours after his own White House officially canceled the planned appearance. The lure of cameras in the Rose Garden proved too hard to resist. For a president who relishes the spotlight and spends hours a day watching television, the idea of passing on his daily chance to get his message out turned out to be untenable despite his anger over his coverage. And so he was back, defending his handling of the pandemic and promising to reopen the country soon.:

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Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: 'Just minutes into his speech at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Saturday, [President] Biden launched into the issues dominating the 2024 election.... 'The 2024 election's in full swing and yes, age is an issue,' Mr. Biden said in a roughly 10-minute speech. 'I'm a grown man running against a 6-year-old.... Donald has had a few tough days lately. You might call it "stormy" weather,' Mr. Biden said.... Outside the gates of the Washington Hilton, however..., many [dinner attendees] were swarmed by pro-Palestinian protesters chanting, 'Shame on you!' Other protesters wearing press vests with the names of more than 100 Palestinian journalists who have been killed in Gaza lay down in front of the dinner venue.... Kelly O'Donnell, a senior White House reporter for NBC News who is also president of the correspondents' association, used her remarks to call attention to journalists who have been captured or killed while doing their jobs.... Colin Jost, the co-anchor of 'Weekend Update' on 'Saturday Night Live' ... spent roughly 23 minutes poking fun at the president.... He ended [his speech] by noting that his grandfather, who recently died, had voted for Mr. Biden in the last election. 'The reason he voted for you is because you're a decent man,' Mr. Jost said." Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ YouTube video of Colin Jost's set is here.

This week is what governing looks like. Here are ten things Biden just did, from banning non-compete agreements to raising overtime pay to promoting steel and solar production to passing the first Federal privacy law to regulating TikTok. https://t.co/4V0rLsUNzX pic.twitter.com/dLug79u4II

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) April 25, 2024

      ~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link.

How Not to Store Top Secret Docs. Alexander Mallin & Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "A coat hanger or 'very tiny screwdriver' could be used to unlock the Mar-a-Lago storage room where ... Donald Trump stored highly classified documents for more than a year, according to a witness in Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation. The account was relayed to FBI agents by an unidentified aide to Trump in January 2023, according to newly released exhibits, and further undercuts claims by Trump that the highly-classified materials he's accused of taking with him after leaving office were secured at all times. The transcript of the interview was released as part of an ongoing effort by Trump and his co-defendants to make additional evidence gathered by Special Counsel Smith public." MB: Just maybe Trump isn't helping himself by insisting on "transparency."

A doctor, a lawyer and a CEO walk into a bar. The punchline: they're all fake electors.

Presidential Race

Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump is sharpening his attacks on the independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as new polls show an overlap between their core supporters. In a series of posts on his Truth Social media platform on Friday night, Mr. Trump ... took aim at both Mr. Kennedy and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, a wealthy Silicon Valley lawyer and investor. 'RFK Jr. is a Democrat "Plant," a Radical Left Liberal who's been put in place in order to help Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the History of the United States, get Re-Elected,' Mr. Trump wrote.... Mr. Trump referred to [Shanahan] as the 'V.P. Candidate that nobody ever heard of' and denigrated her business credentials. 'Her business was doing surgery on her husband's wallet!' Mr. Trump wrote in a post."

Anna Betts, et al., of the New York Times: "Nearly 200 protesters were arrested on Saturday at Northeastern University, Arizona State University and Indiana University, according to officials, as colleges across the country struggle to quell growing pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments on campus. More than 700 protesters have been arrested on U.S. campuses since April 18, when Columbia University had the New York Police Department clear a protest encampment there. In several cases, most of those who were arrested have been released." Includes a map pinpointing where protests have occurred and arrests have been made.

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New Jersey Senate Race. The Talented Mr. Kim. Christopher Maag of the New York Times: Shortly after Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) announced he would not resign from office despite the federal corruption case against him, Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) "posted [an announcement he would seek the seat] on social media...., kicked off perhaps the luckiest Senate campaign in modern New Jersey history. Over the next six months, Mr. Kim went from underdog to front-runner, outmaneuvering Tammy Murphy, the wife of Gov. Philip D. Murphy, who joined the race in November and quickly won the support of New Jersey's powerful Democratic Party machine. In late March, Mr. Menendez said he would not run in the party's primary. Three days later, Ms. Murphy ended her campaign.... [Although there are other candidates in both parties' primaries,] Mr. Kim has now become the odds-on favorite [to win the Senate seat].... Over his six years in Congress, Mr. Kim, 41, has appeared to his constituents as a nerdy and earnest public servant, said Patrick Murray, director of The Polling Institute at Monmouth University in New Jersey. This image went national on Jan. 7, 2021, when he was photographed gathering trash left by rioters in the U.S. Capitol rotunda."

South Dakota. Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post gathers some reactions to Gov. Kristi Noem's boasting that she shot dead both her young dog and a goat on the same day because they annoyed her, the dog because it killed some chickens and the goat because it smelled like a goat. No thumbs-up in the reactions. Gregory Svirnovskiy of Politico also collects condemnations of Noem's killing spree. ~~~

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Russia. Reuters: "U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably didn't order opposition politician Alexei Navalny killed at an Arctic prison camp in February, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.... The Kremlin has denied any state involvement. Last month, Putin called Navalny's demise 'sad' and said he had been ready to hand the jailed politician over to the West in a prisoner exchange provided Navalny never return to Russia. Navalny's allies said such talks had been under way.... [The Journal] said Washington had not absolved the Russian leader of overall responsibility for Navalny's death however, given the opposition politician had been targeted by Russian authorities for years, jailed on charges the West said were politically motivated, and had been poisoned in 2020 with a nerve agent."

The Conversation -- April 27, 2024

The White House Correspondents' Dinner is tonight. Here, via Deadline, are your many options for watching the festivities, which also begins at various times. President Biden will speak, and Colin Jost, "co-anchor" of SNL's "Weekend Update" will host.

A doctor, a lawyer and a CEO walk into a bar. The punchline: they're all fake electors. ~~~

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Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "The Biden administration announced expansive new protections on Friday for gay and transgender medical patients, prohibiting federally funded health providers and insurers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The new rule reverses a policy instituted by the Trump administration and helps to fulfill part of President Biden's vow to restore civil rights protections for L.G.B.T.Q. people that were eliminated by his predecessor."

Michael Birnbaum & Christian Shepherd of the Washington Post: "Chinese and U.S. leaders sought Friday to stabilize their contentious relationship, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken said as he left that there had been no promises on the top U.S. priority of cutting support for Russia's defense industry.... Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China's support, Blinken said. 'If China does not address this problem, we will,' he added, in a possible reference to sanctions against Chinese businesses involved in the trade with Russia." An AP report is here.~~~

~~~ Ana Swanson & Vivian Wang of the New York Times: "Preserving some semblance of cooperation -- and the difficulty of doing so -- was at the heart of a meeting between Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and China's leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Friday. It was the latest effort by the rivals to keep communications open even as disputes escalate over trade, national security and geopolitical frictions. Officials in both countries said they had made progress on a few smaller, pragmatic fronts, including setting up the first U.S.-China talks on artificial intelligence in the coming weeks. They also said they would continue improving communications between their militaries and increase cultural exchanges. But on fundamental strategic issues, each side held little hope of moving the other, and they appeared wary of the possibility of sliding into further conflict." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Trials of Trump, Ctd.

Jesse McKinley & Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: On Friday, witness "David Pecker, who has known Mr. Trump for decades, faced a stern cross-examination from one of the former president's defense lawyers, Emil Bove, who pressed Mr. Pecker about two deals he had reached in 2015 and 2016 with people who were seeking to sell stories about Mr. Trump. Mr. Bove sought to convince the jury of two fundamental points about the stories, which Mr. Pecker bought and then buried: Such arrangements, characterized by prosecutors as 'catch and kill,' were standard for the publisher, and that Mr. Pecker had previously misled jurors about the details of the transactions.... Despite the defense lawyers' aggressive questioning, Mr. Pecker was even-keeled, a small, gray-haired man answering in a quiet monotone.... Rhona Graff, Mr. Trump's former executive assistant ... at Trump Tower, testified about entries from the Trump Organization computer system that contained contact information for Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, and for a 'Stormy.' The day's last witness was Gary Farro, who was [Michael] Cohen's banker when the former fixer executed financial transactions with First Republic Bank to enable the hush money payment to Ms. Daniels." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The consensus among teevee lawyers was that Pecker held his own again Bove, and that during re-direct, the prosecution successfully cleared up any confusion Bove introduced during cross-examination. ~~~

~~~ New York Times reporters live-updated developments Friday in the Trump 2016 election interference case. See yesterday's Conversation for some entries. Justice Juan Merchan did not make any decision regarding the prosecution's assertions that Trump has violated the gag order multiple times (15, as of yesterday), but said he would hold another hearing next Thursday. New York state law allows only two penalties for violations: a $1,000 fine for each violation or incarcerations up to 30 days. So some teevee lawyers are dreaming up ways the judge might try to deter Trump from repeatedly violating the gag order. Andrew Weissmann suggested the judge could task one of Trump's lawyers with monitoring his posts; Weissmann said that Neal Katyal and suggested the judge could tell Trump he would sentence him for the violations at the end of trial, without revealing of course what the sentence would be. And Weissmann said NYU law professor Ryan Goodman suggested the judge tell Trump that if he is convicted in this case, the judge will consider the gag order violations when he sentences Trump. ~~~

~~~ Kate Christobek & Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: "The second week of Donald Trump's Manhattan criminal trial was dominated by four days of testimony by David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer, who detailed his efforts to safeguard Mr. Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.... His testimony also teed up the story of Stormy Daniels, a porn star who claims to have had sex with Mr. Trump in 2006 and received a hush-money payment in the days before the 2016 election, a deal at the center of the case.... Here's what happened during the second week, and eighth day, of Mr. Trump's trial[.]" ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's summary of the week's proceedings, titled "Secrets, Lies & Payoffs Laid Bare...", is here.

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "... while defendants often offer feedback to their lawyers..., [Donald Trump] could hamstring [his lawyers]. Others might concede personal failings so their lawyers can focus solely on holes in the prosecution's evidence.... But that time-honored tactic is not available to a defendant who is also the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, a man who despises weakness and is allergic to anything but praise from the people around him.... The defense team will need to walk a fine line to appease both of its audiences: 12 jurors and a singular defendant. 'Trying the case to your client's vanity, rather than to the jury, is a losing game,' said J. Bruce Maffeo, a former federal prosecutor....

"Mr. Trump is known to be mercurial and prone to outbursts. In private, he has dressed down lawyers in several of his cases, even questioning their entire strategy just minutes before they were set to appear in court, people who have seen him in action say. And inside the courtroom at two recent civil trials, he badgered lawyers, directing them to object at inopportune moments, muttering grievances into their ears and twice storming away from the defense table. Once, Mr. Trump exhorted his lawyer, Alina Habba, to 'get up' as he banged her arm with the back of his hand. Those cases ended in defeat."

Do these justices know that we can hear them? -- Patrick, in yesterday's Comments ~~~

~~~ Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Before the Supreme Court heard arguments on Thursday on ... Donald J. Trump's claim that he is immune from prosecution, his stance was widely seen as a brazen and cynical bid to delay his trial. The practical question in the case, it was thought, was not whether the court would rule against him but whether it would act quickly enough to allow the trial to go forward before the 2024 election. Instead, members of the court's conservative majority treated Mr. Trump's assertion that he could not face charges that he tried to subvert the 2020 election as a weighty and difficult question.

"They did so, said Pamela Karlan, a law professor at Stanford, by averting their eyes from Mr. Trump's conduct. 'What struck me most about the case was the relentless efforts by several of the justices on the conservative side not to focus on, consider or even acknowledge the facts of the actual case in front of them,' she said.... Michael Dorf, a law professor at Cornell, said that 'the apparent lack of self-awareness on the part of some of the conservative justices was startling.' He noted that 'Justice Alito worried about a hypothetical future president attempting to hold onto power in response to the risk of prosecution, while paying no attention to the actual former president who held onto power and now seeks to escape prosecution.'... Sending the case back to the trial judge [as the Court seems prepared to do, Prof. Karlan] said, 'to distill out the official from the private acts in some kind of granular detail essentially gives Trump everything he wants, whether the court calls it immunity or not.'"

Wasn't the whole point [of the American Revolutionary War] that the president was not a monarch and the president was not supposed to be above the law? -- Justice Elena Kagan, during oral arguments on Trump's immunity case

~~~ Jesse Wegman of the New York Times: "The right-wing justices seemed thoroughly uninterested in the case before them, which involves a violent insurrection that was led by a sitting president who is seeking to return to office in a matter of months. Instead, they spent the morning and early afternoon appearing to be more worried that prosecuting Mr. Trump could risk future malicious prosecutions of former presidents by their political rivals. And they tried to draw a distinction between official acts, for which a president might have immunity from prosecution, and private acts, for which no immunity would apply.... The justice system is doing its job by trying to hold to account a former president for subverting the last election before he runs in the next one. That is a very important job! And yet the right-wing justices are saying, essentially, not so fast -- and maybe not at all.... Still, the right-wing justices seemed impervious to the urgency of the matter before them. 'I'm not focused on the here and now of this case,' Justice Brett Kavanaugh said. 'I'm very concerned about the future.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Even the most gullible observer must see that the winger Supremes had two objectives in mind: to act as belated accomplices to the insurrection and to be mighty contributors to Donald Trump's re-election bid. Update: At the end of yesterday's Comments thread, contributor Bill dubbed the Supreme Trump Team the "Supreme Courtesans." Nothing could be more apt vis-a-vis their contributions to the immunity hearing. And I'll be stealing that. ~~~

~~~ Uh, What about the Constitution? Josh Gerstein of Politico: "'The legal approach [right-wing Supremes] seemed to be gravitating toward has no basis in the Constitution, in precedent, or logic,' said Michael Waldman, president and CEO of New York University's Brennan Center for Justice. 'It sure ain't originalism.'... 'There is no immunity that is in the Constitution, unless this Court creates it,' [the attorney for the special counsel Michael] Dreeben declared. 'There certainly is no textual immunity.... I think it would be a sea change to announce a sweeping rule of immunity that no president has had or has needed.'... [Justice Elena Kagan said,] 'The framers did not put an immunity clause into the Constitution. They knew how to. There were immunity clauses in some state constitutions. They knew how to give legislative immunity. They didn't provide immunity to the president.... And, you know, not so surprising. They were reacting against a monarch who claimed to be above the law.'...

"Sometimes, the court has found the absence of such language to be of great import. Writing for five conservative justices in the earth-shaking abortion case two years ago, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Justice Samuel Alito referred to the notion of guaranteed access to abortion as 'an asserted right that is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution.'" MB: Funny, innit? ~~~

~~~ The Last Word. Paul Campos in LG&$: "Donald Trump tried to steal the 2020 presidential election. This is a simple historical fact. It's all anyone knows or needs to know about the matter for the purposes of whether one ought to make him president again.... A criminal trial on the question of whether Trump tried to steal the election is an attempt on the part of the government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump violated certain highly technical federal statutes in regard to election fraud and related issues.... The last thing we need is to set up an interpretive frame in which a verdict, or the failure to reach a verdict, in a criminal trial, has any salience to the actual historical record, which is unambiguous to anyone with eyes and ears." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: This should be the bottom line. Full stop. Instead, we get poll after poll that asks the hoi polloi, "Would you vote for Donald Trump if he was convicted of trying to overturn the last presidential election?" If there's going to be any sort of survey about the insurrection it should be along the lines of, "Would you vote for Donald Trump knowing he tried to stage a coup against his own government?"

Charles Homans of the New York Times in the Times Magazine: "No major American presidential candidate has talked like he now does at his rallies -- not Richard Nixon, not George Wallace, not even Donald Trump himself. Before November 2020, his speeches, for all their boundary crossings, stopped short of the language of 'vermin' and 'enemies within.' When I asked the political historian Federico Finchelstein what he made of the speech, he replied bluntly: 'This is how fascists campaign.'"

Conservative Bill Kristol in the Bulwark throws in the towel: "God, we need a healthy and vigorous liberalism here in America. Conservatism can no longer cut it. American conservatism was once at least in part committed to the defense of liberal democracy. Now conservatism has degenerated into rabble-rousing populism in politics, anti-intellectualism in ideas, and Know-Nothingism in civic life. Accordingly, originalism in the courts has become sophism. A real case for democratic capitalism has become the mere defense of oligarchic power and economic privilege. A necessary critique of mindless progressivism has become hostility to anything emerging from any liberal precinct, reasonable or not. A mostly healthy fighting spirit has become a partisanship that knows no bounds and that acknowledges no enemies to the right. In foreign policy, hostility both to American world leadership and to free nations around the world has replaced a commitment to a tough-minded defense of liberty. Or, to put it more simply: American conservatism has died in Trumpism."

James Pollard, et al., of the AP: "Students protesting the Israel-Hamas war at at universities across U.S., some of whom have clashed with police in riot gear, dug in Saturday and vowed to keep their demonstrations going, faculty at several schools condemned university presidents who have called in law enforcement to remove protesters. As Columbia University continues negotiations with those at a pro-Palestinian student encampment on the New York school's campus, the university's senate passed a resolution Friday that created a task force to examine the administration's leadership, which last week called in police in an attempt to clear the protest, resulting in scuffles and more than 100 arrests."

Presidential Race

Tit for Tat. Sam Stein of Politico: "If Nebraska Republicans changed their electoral college rules to help Donald Trump this November, a top Maine Democrat said her party would try to do a similar move to counteract the impact. The state House majority leader, Maureen Terry, said in a statement on Friday that the Democratic-controlled Legislature would 'be compelled to act in order to restore fairness,' should Nebraska's Republican governor sign legislation that made the state a winner-take-all election in 2024."

Amy Wang, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden said Friday that he will debate ... Donald Trump ahead of their expected November election rematch. Biden made the comment during a lengthy live interview with radio host Howard Stern. 'I am, somewhere,' Biden said when asked if he would debate Trump. 'I don't know when. I'm happy to debate him.' Trump later wrote on social media that he would debate 'ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, ANYPLACE.'" This is a liveblog, dated Friday. A CNN story is here.

Bullying the Bully. Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "This week, one presidential candidate has called the other a loser, made fun of him for selling Bibles, and even poked fun at his hair. That kind of taunting is generally more within the purview of ... Donald J. Trump.... But lately, the barbs have been coming from President Biden, who once would only refer to Mr. Trump as 'the former guy.'... 'We'll never forget lying about Covid and telling the American people to inject bleach in their arms,' Mr. Biden said at a fund-raiser on Thursday evening.... 'He injected it in his hair,' Mr. Biden said. He is coming up with those lines himself [according to a campaign spokesman]." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The difference between Biden's "bullying" and Trump's bullying, which Rogers doesn't address, is that Biden is gently calling attention to a bully's own failings by telling affable jokes about him. Trump, by contrast, viciously picks on people -- often vulnerable people -- by attacking them with lies or by making fun of conditions the people cannot change, like their race or their appearance or their physical limitations.

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "The Republican Party sent a letter to the Secret Service on Friday urging the police agency to keep protesters farther away from the venue for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.... Todd R. Steggerda, counsel to the Republican National Committee..., argued that convention attendees would be forced to pass by the protesters on their way into the venue, raising the potential for confrontations.... The R.N.C. did not propose an alternative location for the demonstration zone in the letter, instead suggesting that the Secret Service expand the security perimeter to move protesters away from the area." The park currently designated as the place protesters may gather is about a quarter mile from the convention arena.

New York Times: "The Wall Street Journal reports that allies of Donald Trump are devising ways of watering down the central bank's independence if he is re-elected president. If true, that change would represent the biggest shake-up in U.S. monetary policy in decades. But it also raises questions about whether such a plan is possible -- or whether Trump's Wall Street supporters would back it.... Among the most consequential would be asserting that Trump had the authority to oust Jay Powell as Fed chair before Powell's term is up in 2025. While Trump gave Powell the job in 2017, he has since soured on his pick for raising rates, and has publicly said he wouldn't give Powell a second term." (Also linked yesterday.)

Donald Trump Has Been Asking, "Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?" Let's Check. Top News in at NBC News, April 26, 2020: "Prescriptions for two antimalarial drugs jumped by 46 times the average when the president promoted them on TV. There's no proof they work against Covid-19.... The extraordinary change in prescribing patterns reflects, at least in part, the outsize reach of the Trump megaphone, even when his pronouncements distort scientific evidence or run counter to the recommendations of experts in his own administration. It also offers the clearest evidence yet of the perils of a president willing to push unproven and potentially dangerous remedies to a public desperate for relief from the pandemic." (Also linked yesterday.)

Marie: A Washington Post article is headlined on the site's front page" "He threatened Marjorie Taylor Greene amid a mental health crisis...." My visceral reading of the headline was that the person suffering the mental health crisis was MTG. Seems reasonable. Then I read a bit of the story itself, and this phrase, too, confused me: "... including several of his two children...." If you have only two children, how can there be several among them? The English language is confusing.

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Michigan Senate Race. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "Peter Meijer, a Republican who voted to impeach ... Donald J. Trump when he was a member of the House, announced on Friday that he was dropping out of the Republican primary race for U.S. Senate in Michigan. 'The hard reality is the fundamentals of the race have changed significantly since we launched this campaign,' Mr. Meijer said in a post on Facebook, adding that he did not have a 'strong pathway to victory.' He was facing a crowded primary field featuring another high-profile Republican: Mike Rogers, who served seven terms in the House and rose to become the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.... The seat is being vacated by Senator Debbie Stabenow, the state's senior senator and a Democrat, who announced last year that she would not seek a fifth term.... The Republican nominee is likely to face Representative Elissa Slotkin, the most prominent Democrat seeking to succeed Ms. Stabenow." CNN's report is here.

South Dakota. Kristi Shoots Her Pets Dead if They Displease Her. Phillip Nieto of Mediaite: "South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), who is being eyed as a potential running mate to Donald Trump, admitted to shooting and killing a puppy she called 'less than worthless' -- along with her 'disgusting' goat -- in her new book." Read on for details. And here Gail Collins was so upset about Mitt's traveling with his dog on the roof of the car.

News Lede

CNN: "Destructive tornadoes gutted homes as they plowed through Nebraska and Iowa, and the dangerous storm threat could escalate Saturday as tornado-spawning storms pose a risk from Michigan to Texas."