The Conversation -- March 30, 2024

A Globe-Trotting Trumpy Traitor. Beth Reinhard, et al., of the Washington Post (March 28): Richard Grenell, a former Trump administration "diplomat," "has carved out ... an extraordinary role ... in the three years since Trump left the White House. From Central America to Eastern Europe and beyond, Grenell has been acting as a kind of shadow secretary of state, meeting with far-right leaders and movements, pledging Trump's support and, at times, working against the current administration's policies.... Grenell's globe-trotting has sparked deep concern among career national security officials and diplomats, who warn that he emboldens bad actors and jeopardizes U.S. interests in service of Trump's personal agenda. In the process, Grenell is openly charting a foreign policy road map for a Republican presidential nominee who has found common cause with authoritarian leaders and threatened to blow up partnerships with democratic allies.... Grenell is in regular contact with the former president and his family, though it's unclear when or if he's acting on Trump's directions."

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "Donald Trump is presenting himself as the Man on the Cross, tortured for our sins.... In January, he put up a video on Truth Social about how he is a messenger from God, 'a shepherd to mankind.'... More and more, Trump is wallowing in his Messiah complex... Weaponizing his martyrdom, Trump is selling $59.99 'God Bless the USA' Bibles.... Just what the world needs: a soul cleanse with a grifter Bible, where the profits could well be going to pay legal costs in trials about breaking commandments -- bearing false witness to try to steal democracy, coveting a porn star, then paying the star hush money to keep quiet about the sex." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump has read neither the Bible nor the U.S. Constitution, which is packaged inside the Trump Bible. Slapping the Constitution in among a series of religious tracts is rather odd, only partly because Trump plans to undo or at least ignore it. The Constitution is such a secular document that it not only guarantees that the Congress will establish no religion, it does not otherwise mention religion. It does not mention God (or Christianity) at all. In fact, the U.S. Constitution stands in stark opposition to Old World governments of the day which centered on God-anointed, heredity monarchs imbued with the "divine right of kings." The Founders came from countries where top-down governance was the rule, yet they claimed in their preamble that "We the People" were the ultimate governors here.

If you're old enough to remember the 2000 presidential election, you probably don't need this reminder: ~~~

Nate Cohn of the New York Times: Al "Gore would have won Florida, and therefore the presidency, if it weren't for the infamous 'butterfly ballot' in Palm Beach County.... 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. Mr. Buchanan fared far better in Palm Beach County than he did on the other side of the county line. Indeed, Mr. Buchanan fared far better in Palm Beach County than any politically or demographically comparable area in the country. Mr. Buchanan also fared much better among Election Day voters -- who used the butterfly ballot -- than among absentee voters, who did not, a pattern not seen elsewhere in the state.... At least 2,000 voters who meant to vote for Gore-Lieberman ended up voting for Mr. Buchanan. All else being equal, that would have been enough to decide the election." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Cohn's written description of the butterfly ballot is even more confusing than the ballot itself. There are some images of the ballot in this Smithsonian Magazine article.

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Trump Stands for Violence, Lawlessness & Treason

Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "Manhattan prosecutors and former President Trump are sparring over the scope of the gag order imposed on the former president in his hush money criminal case less than three weeks out from the start of trial. The former president has continued to direct his rage at Judge Juan Merchan's daughter in social media posts after Merchan this week refused to delay Trump's trial and approved prosecutors' request to gag him. In separate letters made public on Friday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's (D) office and Trump's lawyers argued over whether the gag order's language reaches the families of both the district attorney and the judge." (Also linked yesterday.) The Washington Post's story is here.

Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Lawyers for ... Donald J. Trump and eight of his co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case asked an appeals court on Friday to take up their challenge of a judge's ruling that allowed the prosecutor Fani T. Willis to stay on the case. With their application to appeal, the defendants are once again pressing their argument that Ms. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, created an untenable conflict of interest by having a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case." (Also linked yesterday.)

Federal Judge Rebukes Trump. Shania Shelton & Rashard Rose of CNN: "A sitting federal judge on Thursday harshly criticized Donald Trump's attacks on the judge overseeing the former president's criminal case tied to alleged hush money payments, telling CNN that such statements threaten the viability of the American legal system. US District Judge Reggie Walton spoke with CNN's Kaitlan Collins ... in the wake of Trump's attacks on Judge Juan Merchan, which helped prompt the New York judge to issue a gag order on the former president earlier this week. It is unusual for federal judges to speak publicly, especially about specific political or legal situations. 'It's very disconcerting to have someone making comments about a judge, and it's particularly problematic when those comments are in the form of a threat, especially if they're directed at one's family,' said Walton, who has also faced threats, as has his daughter." MB: Ronald Reagon & George W. Bush appointed Judge Walton. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Walton's remarks came as several federal judges in Washington appointed by Republican presidents have spoken with increasing urgency about Trump's disregard for historical facts and alarmed at his increasingly graphic and at times violent description of defendants prosecuted in the Jan. 6 riot as 'political prisoners' and 'hostages' who did nothing wrong." (Also linked yesterday.)

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump posted a video on Friday to his social media website that features an image of President Biden with his hands and feet tied together.... The video shows two moving trucks decorated with flags and decals supporting Mr. Trump. The tailgate of the second vehicle features the image of Mr. Biden.... Photos of trucks featuring similar images of Mr. Biden tied up have been shared across social media, and online vendors sell vehicle stickers with the image. Mr. Trump's promotion of the video featuring the image reflects the increasingly caustic and personal attacks that he has directed against Mr. Biden ... and it extends a record in which the former president features violent imagery on his social media accounts." The NBC News story is here.

John Annese of the New York Daily News: "The father and brother of Brian Sicknick, the police officer who died during the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol, blasted Donald Trump's appearance at a wake Thursday for slain NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller. Charles and Kenneth Sicknick on Friday both expressed condolences to Diller's family, but they said Trump's appearance, especially the press conference outside a Long Island funeral home, was nothing more than a highly inappropriate political stunt.... 'The fact is [Trump] states he's law and order but he sent a mob that ultimately ended up killing my brother. He has such a lack of self-awareness of what he does. He's using that officer's death as a campaign platform,' [Kenneth Sicknick said]."

Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump ... has made no public statements on Russia's detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been held for one year without formal charges or a trial.... Trump has consistently gone out of his way to avoid criticizing Russian president Vladimir Putin, and Trump himself routinely demonizes reporters with terms such as 'the enemy' and 'criminals.' His silence stands out among bipartisan condemnation of the detention and calls for Gershkovich's release.... President Biden's campaign slammed Trump for accommodating Putin 'It's shameful but unsurprising from Donald Trump, who has made it quite clear repeatedly he would side with Putin over the American people,' Biden-Harris spokesman Ammar Moussa said. 'This is the same guy who told the world he'd let Putin do whatever he wants to our NATO allies -- even if it meant more war and suffering.'"

The Appeal of the Bible Grift. Amanda Marcotte of Salon on why Trump's Bible-hawking works for self-identified evangelical Christians: "It's likely a selling point that Trump's version of 'Christianity' is void of faith and morality.... They can have the identity 'Christian,' and all the power that goes with it, minus the parts they don't like.... No tedious talk about 'compassion' and 'grace,' which only gets in the way of the gay-bashing and racism. And definitely no need to worry about that Jesus guy, with all his notions about 'loving thy neighbor' and 'welcoming the stranger.' Their new lord is Trump himself.... What Trump offers when it comes to Christianity is what he offers his followers in every other aspect: permission to stop pretending to be good people.... Over 40% of self-described evangelicals go to church once a year or less. Instead, as the New York Times reported, MAGA is basically their religion." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: We had some discussion about this in yesterday's Comments.

Kathleen Culliton of the Raw Story: "Conservatives are advocating to repeal the U.S. Amendment that limits presidential terms, prompting President Joe Biden's campaign to warn an election year victory for ... Donald Trump could allow him to remain 'in office forever.' Biden-Harris HQ shared on X Friday an article from the American Conservative, a blog partnered with the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 policy initiative that calls for, among other actions, filling civil service jobs with Trump loyalists."

Marie: Looks as if Rudy wants to move to Florida to be closer to Trump (or, gosh, maybe because Florida bankruptcy laws are more generous to residents than are New York state laws): ~~~

~~~ Brandi Buchman of Law & Crime: "In a motion filed Thursday, [Rudy] Giuliani, who owes election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss $148 million for defaming them, asked a bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York to let him keep his Florida condominium, valued at $3.5 million, as he fights the judgment on appeal. The former New York mayor's attorneys wrote in the 12-page motion that the recommendation by the Committee on Unsecured Creditors that he sell the home since declaring bankruptcy was premature.... The committee told him there was 'no legal basis' for him to keep the property. Giuliani does not oppose the sale of his property in Manhattan, however. That property could be sold so he could make his primary residence in Florida, he contends." MB: Rudy's Florida condo, like Mar-a-Lardo, is in Palm Beach. CNN reported in October 2023 that the Palm Beach condo was "placed under a federal tax lien by the Internal Revenue Service as he owes more than a half-million dollars in unpaid income taxes, according to a court filing."

Chris Hayes on how the Supremes use delays to help Trump and other Republicans. I imagine Chief Justice Roberts is the guy who controls the schedule. Maybe he should have to pay taxes on gifts-in-kind he has given to some of his favorite GOP friends. Or maybe the feds should just swoop in and arrest him for breaking the law on campaign contribution limits. Surely some of his gifts to Republicans are worth millions. (I'd be sad to see our Chief Justice being hauled down the marble steps of the Supreme Court building in cuffs):

Presidential Race

Tyler Pager & Dylan Wells of the Washington Post: "President Biden's reelection campaign launched a digital ad Friday aimed at supporters of Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination this month, part of a broader effort by Biden's team to win over Republicans who may be disinclined to vote for Donald Trump.... The ad features clips of Trump denigrating Haley during campaign rallies and telling reporters that he does not need her supporters to win." ~~~

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "The Very Stable Genius is glitching again. This week, he announced that he is not -- repeat, NOT -- planning to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He apparently forgot that he had vowed over and over again to do exactly that, saying as recently as a few months ago that Republicans 'should never give up' on efforts to 'terminate' Obamacare.... He surely can't be expected to remember what was happening at this point in 2020. 'ARE YOU BETTER OFF THAN YOU WERE FOUR YEARS AGO?' he asked last week The poor fellow must have forgotten all about the economic collapse and his administration's catastrophic bungling of the pandemic. Or maybe he didn't forget. Maybe he's just hoping the rest of us will forget. In a sense, Trump's prospects for 2024 rely on Americans experiencing mass memory loss...." Read on. Milbank reprises some of Trump's -- and his party's -- recent greatest hits, and their plans for 2025.

Billionaires Back to Backing Butthead. Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "As hopes of a Republican alternative [to Trump] have crumbled, elite donors who once balked at Trump's fueling of the Capitol insurrection, worried about his legal problems and decried what they saw as his chaotic presidency are rediscovering their affinity for the former president -- even as he praises and vows to free Jan. 6 defendants, promises mass deportations and faces 88 felony charges. The shift reflects many conservative billionaires' fears of President Biden's tax agenda, which if approved would drastically reduce their fortunes.... 'The billionaire class is really threatened by Biden: These guys are about creating a dynasty of wealth for themselves, and hoarding it for their posterity, at the expense of everyone else in society,' said Steve Rosenthal of the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank."

Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: "The family of labor activist Cesar Chavez sent a letter to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday, warning him to stop referencing the late patriarch in election campaigns or face potential legal action. The letter, signed by Cesar Chavez's eldest son, Fernando, reiterates the family's support for President Biden.... Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the granddaughter of the labor union leader, leads Biden&'s reelection campaign." ~~~

~~~ Ed O'Keefe & Fin Gomez of CBS News: "President Biden is set to be endorsed Friday by members of Cesar Chavez's family -- a mostly symbolic gesture, but one meant to send a signal to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who's trying to invoke his own family's ties to the late union organizer and civil rights leader. Fernando and Paul Chavez, the sons of the late co-founder of the United Farm Workers, are endorsing the president on Friday, the Biden campaign told CBS News.... 'The bonds of affection and respect for a president who by his character and actions consistently reflects the genuine legacy of my father, Cesar Chavez,' Paul Chavez said in a statement."

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Georgia Voter Suppression, Election Interference. George Chidi of the Guardian: "Georgia legislators changed state election laws in the midnight hours of Friday, widening the criteria to challenge a voter's registration, removing bar codes from printed ballots and increasing the documentation local elections officials must produce to certify elections. The proposals will take effect 1 July, assuming the Georgia governor, Brian Kemp [R], signs the legislation into law. Voting rights groups expressed their highest concern about how Senate Bill 189 potentially expands challenges to voter registrations. Conservative advocates have been issuing large-scale systematic challenges to voters -- dozens or hundreds at a time in some districts, like Atlanta's Fulton and DeKalb counties. Each challenge under existing law has to be considered on its individual merits under current law, which can exhaust the resources of local election officials, voting rights advocates argue."

Iowa, Missouri. Mitch Smith & Catrin Einhorn of the New York Times: "A fertilizer spill in Iowa this month wiped out much of the aquatic life across a 60-mile stretch of rivers in two states, officials said, leaving an estimated 789,000 fish dead in one of the region's most ecologically devastating chemical spills in recent years. A Missouri official who surveyed the damage said that the banks of the Nishnabotna River had been lined with fish carcasses, and that dead fish were visible through the water.... The ... die-off started, Iowa officials said, when a valve was left open over a weekend on a storage tank at NEW Cooperative, an agricultural business in Red Oak, in southwestern Iowa. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which learned of the spill on March 11, said this week that 265,000 gallons of liquid nitrogen fertilizer spilled into a drainage ditch and into the East Nishnabotna River, which flows into the Nishnabotna River and then the Missouri River. Iowa officials estimated that more than 749,000 fish died in that state."

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

John Hudson of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration in recent days quietly authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel despite Washington's concerns about an anticipated military offensive in southern Gaza that could threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians. The new arms packages include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, according to Pentagon and State Department officials familiar with the matter. The 2,000-pound bombs have been linked to previous mass-casualty events throughout Israel's military campaign in Gaza."

Ukraine, et al. A Message to Congressional Traitors. Davis Ignatius of the Washington Post: "President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a stark message to Congress in an interview on Thursday as Russian missiles were pounding southern Ukraine: Give us the weapons to stop the Russian attacks, or Ukraine will escalate its counterattacks on Russia's airfields, energy facilities and other strategic targets.... The military has been unable to plan future operations while legislators squabbled for nearly six months. He warned that hard-pressed Ukrainian forces might have to retreat to secure their front lines and conserve ammunition.... 'We are trying to find some way not to retreat,' Zelensky continued."

The Conversation -- March 29, 2024

Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "Manhattan prosecutors and former President Trump are sparring over the scope of the gag order imposed on the former president in his hush money criminal case less than three weeks out from the start of trial. The former president has continued to direct his rage at Judge Juan Merchan's daughter in social media posts after Merchan this week refused to delay Trump's trial and approved prosecutors' request to gag him. In separate letters made public on Friday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's (D) office and Trump's lawyers argued over whether the gag order's language reaches the families of both the district attorney and the judge."

Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Lawyers for ... Donald J. Trump and eight of his co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case asked an appeals court on Friday to take up their challenge of a judge's ruling that allowed the prosecutor Fani T. Willis to stay on the case. With their application to appeal, the defendants are once again pressing their argument that Ms. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, created an untenable conflict of interest by having a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case."

Federal Judge Rebukes Trump. Shania Shelton & Rashard Rose of CNN: "A sitting federal judge on Thursday harshly criticized Donald Trump's attacks on the judge overseeing the former president's criminal case tied to alleged hush money payments, telling CNN that such statements threaten the viability of the American legal system. US District Judge Reggie Walton spoke with CNN's Kaitlan Collins ... in the wake of Trump's attacks on Judge Juan Merchan, which helped prompt the New York judge to issue a gag order on the former president earlier this week. It is unusual for federal judges to speak publicly, especially about specific political or legal situations. 'It's very disconcerting to have someone making comments about a judge, and it's particularly problematic when those comments are in the form of a threat, especially if they're directed at one's family,' said Walton, who has also faced threats, as has his daughter." MB: Ronald Reagan & George W. Bush appointed Judge Walton. ~~~

     ~~~ Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Walton's remarks came as several federal judges in Washington appointed by Republican presidents have spoken with increasing urgency about Trump's disregard for historical facts and alarmed at his increasingly graphic and at times violent description of defendants prosecuted in the Jan. 6 riot as 'political prisoners' and 'hostages' who did nothing wrong."

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Patrick Svitek of the Washington Post: "The federal government updated how it classifies people by race and ethnicity for the first time in over a quarter-century, aiming to better capture an increasingly diverse country and give policymakers a fuller view of the Americans their work impacts. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget announced Thursday it would combine questions about race and ethnicity on federal forms and encourage people to select multiple options if applicable. The government also will add 'Middle Eastern or North African' (MENA) as a new category for the combined question, which will include seven total choices." Politico's report is here. MB: Surely Trump would fire the deep-state bureaucrats who came up with this revised classification system and reduce the number of classifications to two: White and Whatever.

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Republican impeachment managers informed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a letter Thursday that they will send two impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on April 10.... The move will force the Senate to take up the matter, at least formally, and then Schumer will have to decide whether to hold a full trial on the Senate floor, vote to dismiss the charges immediately or to refer it to a special evidentiary committee.... 'If he cares about the Constitution and ending the devastation caused by Biden's border catastrophe, Sen. Schumer will quickly schedule a full public trial and hear the arguments put forth by our impeachment managers,' Johnson said in a statement...."

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "Eleven Republican-led states sued on Thursday to overturn President Biden's new student loan repayment plan, arguing the program is a scheme to provide widespread debt relief that the Supreme Court struck down last year. The federal lawsuit, led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, largely mirrors the claims in the case that brought down Biden's plan to forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loans last year. The states allege the president has again overstepped his authority.... [BUT] Whereas the Biden administration's failed plan used a 9/11-era law to justify providing $430 billion in debt relief during the pandemic, the new Save plan was created using authority from the Higher Education Act that spawned income-driven repayment plans in 1993.... Kobach, like many conservatives, argues broad debt relief is patently unfair to American taxpayers who did not go to college or saved to pay for school because it 'forces them to pay for the student loans for those who ran up exorbitant student debt.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is another instance of stupid. The country's greatest asset is a force of well-educated working people. They pay taxes and provide jobs (often for the less-educated) & services. And they "ran up exorbitant student debt" because states no longer provide the free or nearly-free college tuition they did back in the day. Reducing a burden that the states themselves imposed on these breadwinners is a net-plus for the states.

Presidential Race

Donald Trump, as far as we can tell, has just been trying to win a third championship at his own golf course. My question to you, sir. Can voters trust a presidential candidate who has not won a single Trump International Golf Club trophy? At long last. Sir, have you no chip-shot? -- Stephen Colbert, to Joe Biden at the New York City fundraiser

I told him once before when he came into the Oval before he got sworn in. I said, "I'll give you three strokes if you carry your own bag." -- President Biden, in response ~~~

Lisa Lerer of the New York Times: "The epicenter of the presidential campaign shifted to New York on Thursday, as the incumbent president and three of his predecessors descended on the area for dueling events that illustrated the kinds of political clashes that could come to define the general election. For Democrats, it was a high-profile, celebrity-studded fund-raiser for President Biden in Manhattan. On Long Island..., Donald J. Trump attended a wake for a New York City officer who was killed during a traffic stop on Monday.... Mr. Biden, along with Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, appeared before 5,000 donors at a Radio City Music Hall event that campaign aides said raised $25 million. The eye-popping number set a record for a single political event, according to the aides, and offered a star-studded show of Democratic unity.... The three Democratic presidents spent much of their time in New York City wrapped in the glitz of their celebrity supporters. Tieless and in matching white shirts, they sat for an interview on a celebrity podcast, were roasted by the comedian Mindy Kaling and interviewed by Stephen Colbert.... Both Mr. Obama and Mr. Clinton made the case for re-electing Mr. Biden, praising his work expanding health care coverage, creating jobs, capping insulin prices and navigating the competing demands of the war in Gaza."

Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "When ... Donald Trump visited the wake of fallen New York police officer Jonathan Diller Thursday, he played up his credentials of being the candidate that stands up for law and order. But that smacks of 'cynical hypocrisy,' wrote Michael Daly in a scathing column for The Daily Beast. As he stood with mourners, Daly could hear the 'Justice for All' anthem playing in his head, a tribute to the jailed January 6 defendants that Trump calls patriots -- and that's a big problem[.]... '... An analysis by Just Security found that 17 of the 20 Jan. 6 prisoners in the facility around the time of the recording had been arrested for assaulting law enforcement officers.... Trump was apparently counting on everybody forgetting the 140 officers the DOJ says were assaulted at the Capitol by people he calls "patriots" and "hostages,"' wrote Daly."

Robert Kagan of the Washington Post: "Clearly, people have not been taking Donald Trump's resurrection of America First seriously. It's time they did. The original America First Committee was founded in September 1940 [at the start of World War II].... The leading Republican of his day, Ohio Sen. Robert Taft, ridiculed those who expressed fears of advancing fascism.... American entry into World War II was the victory of a liberal worldview over an anti-interventionism rooted in a conservative anti-liberalism.... Cutting off Ukraine seems like small beer by comparison [to the European war], but behind it lies the same 'America First' thinking. For Donald Trump and his followers, pulling the plug on Ukraine is part of a larger aim to end America's broader commitment to European peace and security.... Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has called for the immediate reduction of U.S. force levels in Europe and the abrogation of America's common-defense Article 5 commitments.... Trump's Republican Party wants to take the United States back to the triad of interwar conservatism: high tariffs, anti-immigrant xenophobia, isolationism."

More about the Orange Jesus Bible. A.J. Willingham of CNN: "'Happy Holy Week!' Trump announced on social media Tuesday.... 'As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless The USA Bible.'... Responses to Trump's social media announcement called the endorsement 'sacrilege,' 'heresy' and 'borderline offensive' and cite lessons directly from the Bible that suggest taking advantage of people's faith for money should be condemned. 'It is a bankrupt Christianity that sees a demagogue co-opting our faith and even our holy scriptures for the sake of his own pursuit of power and praise him for it rather than insist that we refuse to allow our sacred faith and scriptures to become a mouthpiece for an empire,' said Rev. Benjamin Cremer on X." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Of course, co-opting Christianity to promote himself is Trump's reason for hawking a $60 Bible. It's a dictator thing. ~~~

~~~ Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump could be making a big mistake hawking the 'God Bless the USA' Bible to his MAGA supporters. Some of them might actually read it.... They need only read as far as Exodus 20, in which Moses comes down from the mountain and pronounces the Ten Commandments. 'Thou shalt not commit adultery' is an injunction Trump has bragged about habitually violating, as heard on the 'Access Hollywood' tape. In that same recording, he also boasted about violating another commandment -- "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife" -- by saying he 'did try and f---' a married woman. 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor' is yet another commandment Trump routinely ignores. Of the tens of thousands of documented lies he has told, many have been falsehoods about his real or perceived enemies.... The New Testament tells us that we all are sinners -- and that we all can be saved.... That is the theological basis on which Trump's unlikeliest loyal followers -- evangelical Christians and their pastors -- justify looking past the way Trump scoffs at so many of the Bible's instructions." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The fact is that first-century Jews were not looking for a pacifist leader. Rather, most envisioned their messiah as a God-anointed hero who would lead a great uprising to banish Israel's conquerors from the land. Of course Trump would not do that, either, as Robert Kagan illuminates. Trump finds his enemies within: small-"d" democrats, non-whites, journalists, judges, anyone who isn't "loyal" to him. ~~~

Kate Brumback of the AP: "The charges against Donald Trump in the Georgia election interference case seek to criminalize political speech and advocacy conduct that the First Amendment protects, a lawyer for the former president said Thursday as he argued that the indictment should be dismissed. The hearing before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee was on a filing from Trump and on two pretrial motions by co-defendant David Shafer and centered on technical legal arguments. It marked something of a return to normalcy after the case was rocked by allegations that District Attorney Fani Willis improperly benefited from her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor hired for the case. 'There is nothing alleged factually against President Trump that is not political speech,' Trump's lead lawyer, Steve Sadow, told the judge. Sadow said a sitting president expressing concerns about an election is 'the height of political speech' and that is protected even if what was said ended up being false." ~~~

~~~ CNN liveblogged a court hearing yesterday on Trump's effort to dismiss the Georgia election interference case. "In a hearing underway now, a judge is considering whether the Georgia election subversion case against Donald Trump should be dismissed on First Amendment grounds. Trump's lead attorney in the case is arguing in court that the indictment should be thrown out because the former president's political speech is protected. Trump is not attending the hearing." Both CNN & MSNBC currently (10:15 am ET) are airing the hearing live. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As far as I can figure out the Trumpy argument, it goes like this: you and I and anybody can organize, manage & direct any sort of criminal plot -- be it a terrorist attack or murder or a bank heist -- and be adjudged completely innocent because we were just exercising our First Amendment free-speech rights. Update: Well, maybe our criminal plot has to be political in nature, so planning a bank robbery might not be legal (unless we did it to, say, give the proceeds to a Biden PAC).

Betsy Swan of Politico: "Arizona Republicans who falsely posed as electors for Donald Trump in 2020 have appeared before a grand jury in recent days and invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, as state prosecutors near a decision on potential criminal charges against those who helped Trump try to overturn his loss in the state. The prosecutors' decision to require these people to appear in person is the latest escalation of the long-running probe by the state's attorney general, Kris Mayes, into election interference by Trump allies. The tactic is also highly unusual and risks biasing the grand jury against key targets of the probe, according to independent legal experts who have worked as both prosecutors and defense lawyers.... The Justice Department's manual for federal prosecutors says that when subpoenaed targets and their lawyers say they plan to plead the Fifth, those targets should ordinarily be excused from grand jury testimony."

Ken Sweet & Larry Neumeister of the AP: "Crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for a massive fraud that unraveled with the collapse of FTX, once one of the world's most popular platforms for exchanging digital currency. Bankman-Fried, 32, was convicted in November of fraud and conspiracy -- a dramatic fall from a crest of success that included a Super Bowl advertisement and celebrity endorsements from stars like quarterback Tom Brady, basketball star Stephen Curry and comedian Larry David. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan imposed the sentence in the same Manhattan courtroom where, four months ago, Bankman-Fried testified that his intention had been to revolutionize the emerging cryptocurrency market with his innovative and altruistic ideas, not to steal." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times report is here.

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Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "A Georgia Republican official who pushed false claims that the 2020 election was 'stolen' was found to have voted illegally nine times, a judge ruled this week. Brian Pritchard, first vice chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, as well as investigative costs, and be publicly reprimanded. Pritchard had been sentenced in 1996 in Pennsylvania to three years' probation for felony check forgery charges. His probation was revoked three times -- once in 1999, after he moved to Georgia, and again in 2002 and 2004. In 2004, a judge imposed a new seven-year probationary sentence on Pritchard, thus making him ineligible to vote until at least 2011 in Georgia, where state law prohibits felons from voting. Despite that, court documents showed that Pritchard signed voter registration forms in 2008 in which he affirmed that he was 'not serving a sentence for having been convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude.' He then cast ballots in four Georgia primary and general elections in 2008, as well as five special, primary and general elections in 2010.... Pritchard is a conservative talk show host and the owner of fetchyournews.com, which he has described as a conservative political news site." (Also linked yesterday.) An NBC News story is here.

South Carolina, et al. Justice Deferred. Patrick Marley of the Washington Post: "In a scenario that has played out in three states in recent years, a federal court ruled Thursday that time had run out to draw a new congressional district in South Carolina and that the state would have to proceed this fall with an existing election map the court had previously deemed illegal. The ruling echoes redistricting cases in other Southern states where courts found that congressional maps violated the voting rights of Black voters and other people of color but allowed them to be used anyway, at least temporarily. In recent years, that happened in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana. In the latest instance, a panel of three judges decided to let South Carolina use a new map drawn by the Republican-led legislature because the Supreme Court had not yet decided an appeal that will ultimately determine how the district should be drawn. Voting rights advocates decried the ruling, saying it is unjust to hold even one election in districts that are unconstitutional." P.S. Thanks, Supremes!

Texas. Orlando Mayorquín of the New York Times:"In a case that has prompted outrage from voting-rights activists for years, a Texas appeals court reversed itself on Thursday and acquitted a woman who had been sentenced to five years in prison for illegally casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election. The decision came two years after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, ruled that the lower appeals court, the Second Court of Criminal Appeals, had misconstrued the illegal voting statute under which Crystal Mason was found guilty in 2018. Ms. Mason, 49, of Fort Worth, had been charged with illegally voting in the 2016 general election by casting a provisional ballot while she was a felon on probation. That ballot was never officially counted, and Ms. Mason insisted that she did not know she was ineligible to vote and had acted on the advice of a poll worker who said she could cast the ballot." The Guardian's story is here.

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Russia. Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "Since his arrest [a year ago, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan] Gershkovich, 32, has been held in the notorious high-security Lefortovo prison in Moscow, the same facility holding the people accused in the deadly attack at a concert venue in the city this month. The Journal and the U.S. government have vehemently denied that Mr. Gershkovich is a spy, saying he was an accredited journalist doing his job. On Tuesday, Mr. Gershkovich's detention was extended for yet another three months. A trial date has not been set.... Roger Carstens, the Biden administration's special envoy for hostage affairs, said the U.S. government had 'intensive efforts' underway to secure Mr. Gershkovich's release, as well as the release of another detained American, Paul Whelan, a Marine veteran who is also accused of espionage. 'Journalism is not a crime,' Mr. Carstens said in a statement."

News Ledes

The Washington Post's live updates of developments following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore are here: "A crane described by officials as the largest on the Eastern Seaboard is expected to arrive in Baltimore on Friday, as efforts get underway to clean up the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed earlier this week after it was struck by a cargo ship. Officials have emphasized that reopening the Port of Baltimore, where vessel traffic is suspended indefinitely, is their top priority and that teams are needed to finish assessments to determine where to cut the bridge into pieces before they could start extracting it.... Federal transportation officials have approved $60 million in emergency funding for recovery and cleanup efforts. More federal funds will follow, but longer-term funding from Congress could take months. The steps necessary to reopen the Port of Baltimore involve clearing debris from the channel, then moving the cargo vessel that struck the Key Bridge and eventually removing the rest of the bridge debris from the waterway."

New York Times: "Louis Gossett Jr., who took home an Academy Award for 'An Officer and a Gentleman' and an Emmy for 'Roots,' both times playing a mature man who guides a younger one taking on a new role -- but in drastically different circumstances -- died early Friday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 87."

CNBC: "Inflation rose in line with expectations in February, likely keeping the Federal Reserve on hold before it can start considering interest rate cuts, according to a measure the central bank considers its more important barometer. The personal consumption expenditures price index excluding food and energy increased 2.8% on a 12-month basis and was up 0.3% from a month ago, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Both numbers matched the Dow Jones estimates.... Along with the inflation increase, consumer spending shot up 0.8% on the month, well ahead of the 0.5% estimate, possibly indicating additional inflation pressures. Personal income increased 0.3%, slightly softer than the 0.4% estimate."

The Conversation -- March 28, 2024

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "A Georgia Republican official who pushed false claims that the 2020 election was 'stolen' was found to have voted illegally nine times, a judge ruled this week. Brian Pritchard, first vice chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, as well as investigative costs, and be publicly reprimanded. Pritchard had been sentenced in 1996 in Pennsylvania to three years' probation for felony check forgery charges. His probation was revoked three times -- once in 1999, after he moved to Georgia, and again in 2002 and 2004. In 2004, a judge imposed a new seven-year probationary sentence on Pritchard, thus making him ineligible to vote until at least 2011 in Georgia, where state law prohibits felons from voting. Despite that, court documents showed that Pritchard signed voter registration forms in 2008 in which he affirmed that he was 'not serving a sentence for having been convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude.' He then cast ballots in four Georgia primary and general elections in 2008, as well as five special, primary and general elections in 2010.... Pritchard is a conservative talk show host and the owner of fetchyournews.com, which he has described as a conservative political news site."

CNN is liveblogging a court hearing on Trump's effort to dismiss the Georgia election interference case. "In a hearing underway now, a judge is considering whether the Georgia election subversion case against Donald Trump should be dismissed on First Amendment grounds. Trump’s lead attorney in the case is arguing in court that the indictment should be thrown out because the former president's political speech is protected. Trump is not attending the hearing." Both CNN & MSNBC currently (10:15 am ET) are airing the hearing live. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As far as I can figure out the Trumpy argument, it goes like this: you and I and anybody can organize, manage & direct any sort of criminal plot -- be it a terrorist attack or murder or a bank heist -- and be adjudged completely innocent because we were just exercising our First Amendment free-speech rights.

Ken Sweet & Larry Neumeister of the AP: "Crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for a massive fraud that unraveled with the collapse of FTX, once one of the world's most popular platforms for exchanging digital currency. Bankman-Fried, 32, was convicted in November of fraud and conspiracy -- a dramatic fall from a crest of success that included a Super Bowl advertisement and celebrity endorsements from stars like quarterback Tom Brady, basketball star Stephen Curry and comedian Larry David. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan imposed the sentence in the same Manhattan courtroom where, four months ago, Bankman-Fried testified that his intention had been to revolutionize the emerging cryptocurrency market with his innovative and altruistic ideas, not to steal."

Chris Hayes on the MAGA Tax, Trump's brilliant plan to make most consumer goods more expensive. Thanks to RAS for the lead:

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Michael Sisak of the AP: "Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order ahead of his April 15 hush-money criminal trial, making a fallacious claim about his daughter and urging him to step aside from the case. In a social media post, the former president suggested without evidence that Judge Juan M. Merchan was kowtowing to his daughter's interests as a Democratic political consultant. He also made a claim -- later repudiated by court officials -- that she had posted a social media photo showing Trump behind bars. Trump ... complained on his Truth Social platform that the gag order issued Tuesday was 'illegal, un-American, unConstitutional.'... In a statement, a spokesperson for New York's state court system said that claim was false and that the social media account Trump was referencing no longer belongs to Loren Merchan[, Merchan's daughter]. It appears to have been taken over by someone else after she deleted it about a year ago, court spokesperson Al Baker said." ~~~

     ~~~ Jesse McKinley & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "It is hardly the only online hoax that Mr. Trump has promoted over the years, but unleashing apparently false claims concerning the judge's daughter just weeks before the trial begins represents an escalation on his part. It came a day after Justice Merchan imposed a gag order on Mr. Trump, barring him from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, jurors and court staff. Notably, the judge and his family are not included in the gag order." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Well, Donald, this is my account. ~~~

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A judge in California recommended on Wednesday that the lawyer John Eastman be stripped of his law license, finding he had violated rules of professional ethics by persistently lying in his efforts to help ... Donald J. Trump maintain his grip on power after losing the 2020 election. In a 128-page ruling, the judge, Yvette Roland, said Mr. Eastman had willfully misrepresented facts in lawsuits he helped file challenging the election results and acted dishonestly in promoting a 'wild theory' that Mr. Trump's vice president, Mike Pence, could unilaterally declare him the victor during a certification proceeding at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 'In sum, Eastman exhibited gross negligence by making false statements about the 2020 election without conducting any meaningful investigation or verification of the information he was relying upon,' Judge Roland found, adding that he had breached 'his ethical duty as an attorney to prioritize honesty and integrity.' The ruling said Mr. Eastman would lose his license within three days of the decision being issued." ~~~

     ~~~ Katelyn Polantz & Hannah Rabinowitz of CNN: "The opinion serves as a recommendation to the California Supreme Court, which will ultimately decide whether to endorse or reject the punishment. Eastman will have the opportunity to appeal Roland's ruling."

Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "Lawyers for Hunter Biden urged a federal judge on Wednesday to dismiss the nine tax charges filed against him, arguing that prosecutors botched some facts of the case and allowed politics to influence their charging decisions.... [U.S. District Judge Mark] Scarsi did not reveal how he would rule on each of the nine motions that Biden filed but pushed back the hardest on the motion claiming that the indictment is the result of 'selective and vindictive' prosecution. He said he would rule on all the motions by April 17.... 'One of the big hurdles that this motion has it that it's not filed with any evidence,' Scarsi said." MB: Um, I can see where that would be a problem.

Jamie Gangel & Gregory Krieg of CNN: "The Republican operative who accused American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp of sexual assault last year received a significant financial settlement in exchange for dropping his lawsuit against Schlapp, multiple sources familiar with the case told CNN. The $480,000 settlement was paid to Carlton Huffman through an insurance policy, according to a source familiar with the details. Schlapp's legal team did not respond for comment when asked about the financial settlement, but on Tuesday said that Huffman dropped the lawsuit and Schlapp claimed he had been exonerated.... Schlapp initially touted the end of the lawsuit on social media with a link to a Washington Examiner story headlined, 'CPAC's Matt Schlapp cleared in assault case, accuser apologizes.'... The original story is still online, but Schlapp's tweet has since been deleted."

Presidential Race -- Scams Edition

Molly Escobar, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump has spent more than $100 million since leaving office, on lawyers and other costs related to fending off various investigations, indictments and his coming criminal trials, according to a New York Times review of federal records. The remarkable sum means that Mr. Trump has averaged more than $90,000 a day in legal-related costs for more than three years -- none of it paid for with his own money. Instead, the former president has relied almost entirely on donations made in an attempt to fight the results of the 2020 election. Now, those accounts are nearly drained, and Mr. Trump faces a choice: begin to pay his own substantial legal fees or find another way to finance them." The article details how the Big Grifter pulled in cash, where he put it, and how he moved it to pay his lawyers. (Also linked yesterday.)

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Trump Media & Technology Group -- the owner of Truth Social, the site Mr. Trump uses to rally his backers and blast his opponents -- could present a new, fairly straightforward route for foreign leaders or special interests to try to influence him. Should he retain his control of the company while in office, the ethical questions that arose from Mr. Trump's hotels and other properties in his first term as president would only multiply when applied to a publicly traded media company, they said. 'This will be a very easy vehicle for foreign governments that want to curry favor with the president to throw money at him in a way that benefits his financial bottom line,' said Jack Goldsmith..., a top Justice Department official under President George W. Bush. Corporations and other players wanting to sway Mr. Trump could buy advertising on Truth Social, other experts said. They could try to get on his radar by buying shares in the company. As the nation's leader whose every utterance is monitored around the world, Mr. Trump would also be in an extraordinary position to drive traffic -- and ultimately revenue -- by the habitual use of the site. Ethics experts see few legal obstacles to these scenarios."

Michael Scherer, et al., of the Washington Post: "The biggest donors in Republican politics largely shunned Ron DeSantis after his presidential campaign began to falter last summer. So his allies turned to donors the Florida governor still held sway over because of his day job." The reporters provide many examples of the cozy relationships between DeSantolini & his donors who had business before the state. James Uthmeier, Gov. Ron's chief-of-staff, was indignant: "Anybody working closely with the governor, such as I do, knows he is a man of unwavering principle and he would be the last person to grant access or state favor in exchange for political support, as your article suggests." Blah-blah. (Also linked yesterday.)

Other Presidential Race News

Chris Megerian & Colleen Long of the AP: "A fundraiser for President Joe Biden on Thursday in New York City that also stars Barack Obama and Bill Clinton is raising a whopping $25 million, setting a record for the biggest haul for a political event, his campaign said."

Chris Megerian of the AP: "When President Joe Biden needs advice, there are two people he can turn to who know what it's like to sit in his chair. Sometimes he will invite Barack Obama over to the White House for a meal or he will get on the phone with Bill Clinton. The three men share decades of history at the pinnacle of American and Democratic leadership, making them an unusual trio in presidential history.... [Biden also has close ties to former President Jimmy Carter.] Carter's relationship with Biden goes back several decades. When Carter was running for president in 1976 as a little-known former governor of Georgia, Biden took a political risk by becoming the first sitting senator to endorse him.... The display of solidarity is a sharp contrast to Donald Trump's isolation from other Republican leaders.... Not even his own former vice president, Mike Pence, is willing to endorse Trump's bid for another White House term. The only other living Republican president, George W. Bush, is not a supporter, either."

Michael Gold of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump attacked Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate, on Wednesday morning, casting Mr. Kennedy as a liberal Democrat in disguise while also seeming to back him as a spoiler for President Biden's campaign. Mr. Trump ... pointed in particular to Mr. Kennedy's views on climate change and the environment, writing on his social media site that Mr. Kennedy was more 'radical Left' than Mr. Biden. Yet he also professed support for Mr. Kennedy's campaign, claiming that Mr. Kennedy would be likely to siphon votes from Mr. Biden. 'I love that he is running!' Mr. Trump concluded.... Two Trump campaign officials said they had seen polling that showed Mr. Kennedy drawing support from independent voters in a way that could be equally detrimental to both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden."

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s pick for the vice-presidential spot on his ticket is Nicole Shanahan, a 38-year-old philanthropist and tech entrepreneur who has never run for office before.... Whatever Shanahan's other virtues, the most important reason for her selection is that she is worth a fortune as the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who ranks as the 10th richest person in the world on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Their 2023 divorce settlement is confidential, but the Wall Street Journal reported that she was seeking more than $1 billion. Now that Shanahan is on the ticket with Kennedy, campaign finance law allows her to pour unlimited amounts of money into his campaign -- something he badly needs."

Michael Scherer & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie (R) has decided against running as the No Labels candidate for president after spending time and money gaming out the prospects of a centrist third-party bid.... 'While I believe this is a conversation that needs to be had with the American people, I also believe that if there is not a pathway to win and if my candidacy in any way, shape or form would help Donald Trump become president again, then it is not the way forward[,' Christie said in a statement to the Washington Post].... The decision leaves the group with few remaining high-profile options for candidates...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This took guts -- and principle. Christie is a well-known egoist, but he put country before himself. You don't have to like Chris Christie to recognize his rectitude here.

Noah Berlatsky in Public Notice: "All indications are that Tuesday's bridge collapse in Baltimore [was an accident,] but ... the bridge collapse..., for many on the right, [is] an opportunity to spread conspiracy theories, encourage chaos, push bigotry and resentment, stoke fears, and do Donald Trump's bidding by smearing [President] Biden.... The right's go-to response of panic and paranoia makes us all less safe by sowing confusion and promoting a reactionary brand of politics.... Georgia congresswoman and reliable conspiracy theorist goon Marjorie Taylor Greene rushed to her keyboard to call for a 'serious investigation' into what she said might be 'an intentional attack.'... South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace on Newsmax incoherently blamed the collapse on Biden's infrastructure bill, alleging it only devoted '$40 billion for traditional roads and bridges.' (Mace voted against the infrastructure bill but then tried to take credit for it anyway.)... American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp suggested the container ship failure was somehow caused by 'drug-addled' employees and covid lockdowns. Fox host Maria Bartiromo, meanwhile, linked the disaster to 'the wide open border.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Charlie Nash of Mediaite: 'Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott accused his critics of not having 'the courage to say the N-word' after he was branded the 'DEI mayor' following the fatal Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse this week. After Scott was blamed by some social media users for the collapse, with one of Elon Musk's favorite accounts calling him 'Baltimore's DEI mayor' -- an abbreviation for diversity, equity, and inclusion -- [Scott told] MSNBC host Joy Reid..., 'I know, and we know, and you know very well that Black men, and young Black men in particular, have been the bogeyman for those who are racist and think that only straight, wealthy White men should have a say in anything.'"

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Oh My Stars, a Hostile Work Environment. Rachel Bade of Politico: "The ramifications of NBC' decision yesterday to part ways with former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel just two days after her paid network debut on 'Meet the Press' are just starting to shake out. But they could be expensive. McDaniel expects to be fully paid out for her contract -- two years at $300,000 annually -- since she did not breach its terms, according to a person close to McDaniel. That means that her single, not-quite-20-minute interview Sunday could cost NBC more than $30,000 per minute, or $500 per second. That might be just the beginning of the fallout following yesterday's announcement from NBCUniversal News Group Chair Cesar Conde that the deal, first announced on Friday, would be canceled. McDaniel spoke yesterday with Bryan Freedman, renowned lawyer to the estranged cable-news stars, to discuss legal options even beyond recouping the dollar value of her contract.... McDaniel ... is exploring potential defamation and hostile work environment torts after MSNBC's top talent -- momentarily her colleagues -- took turns Monday blasting her on air." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Patrick suggested a way for NBC to deal with Ronna if she forces the network to pay out on her contract: make her fulfill her obligations, too, by giving her a relatively menial job -- like green room hostess. I suppose the contract specifies what she is to do for that $600K, so maybe producers would have to stop by to "interview" her or whatever. And I reckon they should be right friendly so as not to create a "hostile work environment." ~~~

     ~~~ Sarah Ellison & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "MSNBC President Rashida Jones participated in recruiting former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel earlier this month and McDaniel was offered a more lucrative contributor contract after she agreed to appear on MSNBC and not just NBC News, according to people familiar with the matter.... McDaniel was concerned she would face particularly harsh interviews, and the liberal-leaning viewers would not respond to her positively.... In a friendly call between Jones and McDaniel, the two spoke about American politics, their young children and the need to have differing views on the airwaves.... McDaniel agreed to appear on both networks after a series of informal discussions and the improved contract, the people said.... As of Tuesday afternoon, a person close to McDaniel said she still had not been notified of her termination.";

Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "... the question of how to cover Trump is no closer to being solved.... NBC executives indicated that they simply couldn't stand by her given the passionate reaction her hiring produced internally, but defended their intentions while saying they would try to find a new Trump surrogate." MB: I have a newsflash for all news publishers, executives, editors, columnists and reporters: IN A DEMOCRACY, YOU DO NOT GIVE EQUAL TIME TO FASCISTS, LIARS OR OTHERS WHO WORK TO DESTROY DEMOCRACTIC FOUNDATIONS & INSTITUTIONS. YOU FIGHT AGAINST THESE PEOPLE. If this is too difficult for you to grasp, ask yourself, would we hire Joseph Goebbels as a talking head? Would we invite him into Americans' livingrooms? Would we politely nod our heads when he was pushing violent antisemitic extremism & spouting hate? Argumentum ad Hitlerum? Yes, and sometimes that is not a fallacy.

Nothing to See Here, Folks. Climate Change Is a Hoax. Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "The melting of polar ice due to global warming is affecting Earth's rotation and could have an impact on precision timekeeping, according to a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature.... In just a few years it may be necessary to insert a 'negative leap second' into the calendar to get the planet's rotation in sync with Coordinated Universal Time. 'Global warming is managing to actually measurably affect the rotation of the entire Earth,' said study author Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at the University of California at San Diego. 'Things are happening that have not happened before.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "Joseph I. Lieberman, Connecticut's four-term United States senator and Vice President Al Gore's Democratic running mate in the 2000 presidential election, which was won by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney when the Supreme Court halted a Florida ballot recount, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 82." MB: As you may know, I have a general policy of not speaking ill of the dead. Right away, at least.

Eewww! Jennifer Schuessler & Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: "... a 19th-century French treatise on the human soul in a Harvard University library is bound in human skin. "On Wednesday, after years of criticism and debate, the university announced that it had removed the binding and would be exploring options for 'a final respectful disposition of these human remains.'... Harvard also said that its own handling of the book, a copy of Arsène Houssaye's 'Des Destinées de L'Ame,' or 'The Destiny of Souls,' had failed to live up to the 'ethical standards' of care, and had sometimes used an inappropriately 'sensationalistic, morbid and humorous tone' in publicizing it.... A report released in 2022 identified more than 20,000 human remains in Harvard's collections, ranging from full skeletons to locks of hair, bone fragments and teeth. They included the remains of about 6,500 Native Americans, whose handling is governed by the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, as well as 19 from people of African descent who may have been enslaved."

Weaselworld! A Scientific Theory of the Course of Human Events. Ciarán Daly of the (U.K.) Daily Star: "The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is responsible for some of the most groundbreaking scientific discoveries ever made, from the Higg's Boson to quasars.... In April 2016, the £4bn Hadron Collider was forced to shut down for a number of days after a weasel got inside a high-voltage transformer and was 'fried to death'.... Conspiracy theorists on the Internet believe that the weasel's intrusion set off a chain of events which have doomed civilisation as we know it, starting with the death of Harambe gorilla less than two weeks later and culminating in the election of ... Donald Trump." RAS hails this as a conspiracy theory that makes sense. I agree. Any theory that links Donald Trump to a weasel and a violent gorilla can't be wrong (although, admittedly, there's evidence Harambe may have meant no harm, which cannot be said of Trump).

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Arizona. Fredreka Schouten, et al., of CNN: "Kari Lake, a Republican Senate candidate from Arizona who has advanced election conspiracy theories, is asking a judge to decide whether she must pay damages to a top county election official who sued her for defamation -- after opting not to defend her statements in the case. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer last year sued Lake -- who ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor in 2022 -- arguing that her repeated false claims of election malfeasance made him and his family the targets of relentless threats. Richer and Lake are both Republicans, and his lawsuit marked an aggressive step by Richer to confront Lake's election claims -- which have been rejected by the courts.... 'After months of doubling down and defending their lies across Arizona, in the media, and on social media, when push came to shove, the Defendants decided to completely back down and concede that their lies were just that: lies,' [Richer] said." Lake claims she's not conceding that she has been spouting lies. MB: She is.

     ~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "For the second time in eight months, a top Donald Trump ally has, extraordinarily, declined to try to prove that they didn't defame an election worker. Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake (R) has joined former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani in that distinction. The news comes even as Trump owes more than $86 million after losing a pair of defamation cases against E. Jean Carroll, whom he has arguably continued to defame. Throw in the $787.5 million Fox News agreed to pay a voting machine company over bogus theories that it aired bolstering Trump's stolen-election claims and the $148 million judgment against Giuliani, and the combined bill is north of $1 billion -- and potentially growing.... The Trump political movement has long had a truth problem. That has now manifested itself as a very expensive defamation problem. As well as anything, these defamation cases lay bare just how careless and demagogic the MAGA movement has become."

Florida. Edward Moreno & Brooks Barnes of the New York Times: "The Walt Disney Company and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida have reached a settlement over control of a special tax district that includes the Disney World theme park in Orlando, the company said on Wednesday.... In response to Disney's criticism of a Florida education law that opponents called 'Don't Say Gay,' Mr. DeSantis took over the tax district, appointing a new board and ending the company's long-held ability to self-govern Disney World as if it were a county. Before the takeover took effect, however, Disney signed contracts -- quietly, but in publicly advertised meetings -- to lock in development plans worth some $17 billion over the next decade. An effort by Mr. DeSantis and his allies to void the contracts resulted in Disney suing Mr. DeSantis and the tax district in federal court. The new appointees then sued the company in state court." This is a breaking news story & will be updated. The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

New Hampshire Congressional Race. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.), chair of the influential New Democratic Coalition, will not seek reelection this year.... Kuster has led the centrist New Democratic Coalition in a thinly divided House, which gave the group more influence in the chamber." In a statement, Kuster said she was retiring because she was sick of one of her constituents and neighbors, Marie Burns, sending her all those emails urging her not to be such a wuss. (Also linked yesterday.)

Montana. Patrick Svitek of the Washington Post: "Montana's highest court on Wednesday struck down four laws that the state's Republican-led legislature passed in 2021 to restrict voting. The Montana Supreme Court declared the laws unconstitutional, siding with a district court judge who ruled against them in 2022. The laws 'violate the fundamental right to vote provided to all citizens by the Montana Constitution,' according to a summary of the majority opinion that was signed by four of the seven justices. The laws ended same-day voter registration in most cases, eliminated student ID cards as a permitted form of voter ID and sought to curtail paid ballot-collection efforts. They also outlawed absentee ballots for people who would be 18 years old by Election Day."

Virginia. Machine Gun Youngkin. Gregory Schneider & Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Gov. Glenn Youngkin has vetoed an assault weapons ban and a slate of other gun-control bills passed by the Virginia General Assembly, but he signed a pair of firearm-related measures into law: One bans a device that turns a semiautomatic firearm into a machine gun, and the other allows a parent or guardian to be charged with a felony for allowing a child who has been deemed a threat to have access to a gun." (Also linked yesterday.)

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Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office agreed to reschedule a visit by an Israeli delegation to Washington, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, to further discuss U.S. concerns about Israel's planned ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Israel previously canceled the delegation after the United States abstained from a U.N. Security Council vote on a cease-fire resolution, allowing it to pass.... Netanyahu told members of Congress visiting Jerusalem on Wednesday his military has 'no choice' but to plan for a ground offensive into Rafah. Israel says Hamas militants are hiding alongside remaining hostages in Rafah."

News Ledes

The Washington Post's liveblog of developments in the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse is here: "Divers recovered the bodies of two construction workers who died when a massive cargo ship struck and collapsed a Baltimore bridge, as investigators revealed Wednesday that hazardous material was leaking from breached containers on the stranded vessel and state and federal lawmakers rushed to begin the recovery from the disaster that crippled the Port of Baltimore. Rescue crews found the victims shortly before 10 a.m. trapped in a red pickup truck in about 25 feet of water in the Patapsco River near the mid-span of the hulking wreck of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Maryland State Police Secretary Roland L. Butler Jr. said at a news conference. The conditions were treacherous for the divers, so Butler said they were suspending the search for the bodies of four other construction workers who plunged to their deaths when the container ship in distress struck the bridge shortly before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, causing it to fall.

"The workers are believed to be the only victims in the disaster.... The victims recovered were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Md. Other victims identified Wednesday were Maynor Suazo Sandoval, 38, from Honduras, and Miguel Luna, from El Salvador, who was the father of three. The names of the remaining two victims have not been released." ~~~

~~~ CNN's live updates are here.