June 14, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

The New York Times is live-updating Tuesday's primary election results here. CNN's live updates are here.

Liz Cheney provides a fun clip of former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann's interview before the January 6 committee. This is an extension of the clip aired during Monday's hearing:

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: Team Trump descends into vicious, post-hearing infighting.

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved legislation that would extend police protection to the immediate families of Supreme Court justices, clearing the bill for President Biden at a time of rising concern about threats to justices as a potentially momentous abortion ruling looms. The vote was 396 to 27, with all of the opposition coming from Democrats, who tried unsuccessfully to extend the protections to the families of court employees. The action sent the measure to Mr. Biden for his signature."

Zachary Cohen & Whitney Wild of CNN: "US Capitol Police have concluded after reviewing security footage that 'there is no evidence' GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk led a reconnaissance tour with Trump supporters trying to learn more about the Capitol complex the day before the deadly January 6 insurrection. The House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, raised the issue publicly in a letter last month asking Loudermilk to explain the purpose of his January 5 meeting with a group of constituents.... 'There is no evidence that Representative Loudermilk entered the U.S. Capitol with this group on January 5, 2021,' Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger wrote in a letter on Monday to Rep. Rodney Davis, the top Republican on the House Administration Committee. 'We train our officers on being alert for people conducting surveillance or reconnaissance, and we do not consider any of the activities we observed as suspicious.'" The Capitol Police review was done at the urging of Davis.

Washington State. Cashing in on Bigotry. Livia Albeck-Ripka of the New York Times: "The City of Kent, Wash., will pay more than $1.5 million to an assistant police chief to resign after he was disciplined for displaying a Nazi insignia on his office door. The officer, Assistant Chief Derek Kammerzell, taped the symbol of oak leaves and diamonds, signifying the rank of Obergruppenführer, a high-ranking SS officer, to his office door in September 2020, according to the city of Kent, which is south of Seattle.... The settlement follows months of negotiations and an investigation of Chief Kammerzell, conducted by a private law firm, that was ordered by the city.... The Jewish Federation said the payout was the 'best possible outcome' because it ensured Chief Kammerzell would not return to his role in law enforcement."

Four states -- South Carolina, Nevada, Maine & North Dakota -- are holding primary elections today. There is a special election in Texas. ~~~

~~~ Eric Bradner & Gregory Krieg of CNN: "Two South Carolina Republicans will attempt to hold on to their seats in primaries Tuesday after breaking with ... Donald Trump over his lies about the 2020 election and his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol. Nevada, meanwhile, showcases Trump's effort to take over the election machinery in a series of battleground states, as his endorsed candidates attempt to win a slate of statewide primaries. In Texas, voters in the Rio Grande Valley will fill a seat in Congress in a special election. In Maine, they will tee up two midterm races that are expected to be hard-fought battles. And in North Dakota, Republican Sen. John Hoeven is poised to be nominated for another term."

Annie Grayer of CNN: "The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol has postponed its hearing scheduled for Wednesday. The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday afternoon. Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, a member of the committee, told reporters that the reason for the rescheduling was due to 'technical issues' and 'not a big deal.' 'It's just technical issues,' she said. 'You know the staff, putting together all the videos.... It was overwhelming. So we're trying to give them a little room.' Lofgren said Wednesday's hearing topic, which was focused on the Department of Justice, will get moved to another day, and Thursday will still focus on ... Donald Trump's efforts to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the election results."

~~~~~~~~~~

Zoë Richards of NBC News: "The chair of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot said Monday night that the panel will not make any criminal referrals, even though its leaders have previously hinted at the possibility of doing so. 'Our job is to look at the facts and circumstances around January 6 -- what caused it -- and make recommendations after that,' Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters as he left the House chamber after the second day of public hearings by the panel.... 'We don't have authority.' While Democrats have hoped the congressional hearings would lead to criminal prosecutions, making a criminal referral -- instead of simply inspiring the Justice Department to act -- comes with the risk of making the committee's entire investigation appear political." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Ryan Nobles, et al., of CNN: Rep. Bennie Thompson's "statement drew quick reactions from members of the committee, revealing the panel is split over how to handle a potential referral of the former President and his associates for prosecution.... Rep. Liz Cheney, who serves as vice chair of the committee, released a statement contradicting the chairman's comments. 'The January 6th Select Committee has not issued a conclusion regarding potential criminal referrals. We will announce a decision on that at an appropriate time,' the Wyoming Republican tweeted. The comment marked a rare public break between the two leaders of the committee.... Committee member Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, appeared surprised later Monday when asked about the chairman's comments."

Luke Broadwater and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump's attorney general testified that he believed the president had grown delusional as he insisted on pushing false claims of widespread election fraud that he was told repeatedly were groundless, according to a videotaped interview played on Monday by the special committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. 'He's become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff,' William P. Barr, the former attorney general, told the panel, adding, 'There was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts were.' In a hearing focused on the origins and spread of Mr. Trump's lie of a stolen election, the panel played excerpts from Mr. Barr's testimony, as well as that of a chorus of campaign aides and administration officials who recounted, one after the other, how his claims of election irregularities were bogus.... Then the panel laid out how Mr. Trump's initial lie gave way to more falsehoods of election fraud, which grew more outlandish as time wore on.... At one point during his deposition, Mr. Barr could not control his laughter at the absurdity of the claims, which included defense contractors in Italy using satellites to flip votes and a scheme orchestrated by the former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013.... ~~~

~~~ The committee asserted that Mr. Trump used the lie of a stolen election to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, duping his donors and ultimately fooling his supporters into showing up at the Capitol to press his bogus claims of a massive election 'steal.' The committee presented evidence that there was not, in fact, an 'Election Defense Fund' for the Trump campaign, despite the campaign soliciting millions in donations for one. 'The big lie was also a big rip-off,' said Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California, who was leading the presentation on Monday."

Marie: Lofgren knows impeachments. Alex Rogers of CNN (Jan. 22, 2021): "The California Democrat ... is the only member of the House and Senate involved in the three impeachment investigations of the modern era, serving as a staffer to Rep. Don Edwards, a member of the House Judiciary committee, in 1974, before being elected to the same seat two decades later." She was a member of the House during Bill Clinton's impeachment in 1999, and she was an impeachment manager for Trump's second impeachment in 2021.

The Washington Post's top report on the hearing, by Mike DeBonis & Jacqueline Alemany, is here: "Attorney General Merrick Garland, who oversees prosecutors who are evaluating potential federal charges against Trump and other officials, said Monday that the Justice Department is monitoring the hearings closely. 'I'm sure I will be watching all of it, and I can assure you the January 6 prosecutors are watching all of the hearings, as well,' he said. Asked Monday whether [President] Biden supported charging Trump with a crime based on what has come out of the hearings, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said the decision would be up to Garland. 'The president has been very clear,' she said. 'The Department of Justice is independent.'" An NPR story the DoJ's teevee-watching practices is here.

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The Jan. 6 committee used its second hearing to lay out evidence that Donald Trump must have known better: that he was repeatedly informed that his claims of widespread voter fraud were bogus and that he had lost the 2020 election -- and he pressed forward in trying to overturn the result regardless. The question is crucial when it comes to determining whether Trump's effort meets the legal definition of acting 'corruptly.'... Former attorney general William P. Barr featured prominently.... On Monday, [the committee] played video of Barr saying that he had debunked specific allegations to Trump.... Former deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue also [on video] ran through a litany of allegations in significant detail, saying he informed Trump that there was nothing to them.... Donoghue added that 'there were so many of these allegations that when you gave him a very direct answer on one of them, he wouldn't fight us on it, but he would move to another allegation.' That sounds a lot more like a guy who is looking for a pretext to overturn an election than one who is legitimately worried about election integrity." Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien testified (via video interview) that Trump threw "Team Normal" under the bus & replaced them with Rudy & the Irregulars. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michael Shear & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: In the early morning hours on the day after the 2020 election, a "definitely intoxicated" Rudy Giuliani, according to Trump aide Jason Miller, "was spouting conspiracy theories. 'They're stealing it from us,' Mr. Giuliani told the president.... 'Where do all the votes come from? We need to go say that we won.'... Several times that night, Mr. Trump's own family members and closest advisers urged him to reject Mr. Giuliani's advice.... But in the end, Mr. Giuliani was the only one that night who told the president what he wanted to hear. Mr. Giuliani's rantings about stolen ballots fed into the president's own conspiracy theories about a rigged election, nursed in public and private since long before the votes were counted. They helped spark a monthslong assault on democracy and -- in the committee's view -- led inexorably to the mob that breached the Capitol hoping to stop the certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr. as president." ~~~

     ~~~ To summarize: Trump had been advised more than once that the early vote totals would look better for him than the final vote totals because the late-counted votes would likely lean heavily Democratic. All his paid advisors and some family members advised him not to declare victory while votes were still being counted. Trump then turns to the drunk at the end of the bar (hair dye dripping into the bowl of Cheetos) who says, "Go ahead and say you won." Trump goes to the podium, declares himself the winner and says he wants all the vote-counting to stop. ~~~

     ~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post also found Rudy's performance bizarre: "... thanks to the select committee, we now know that people inside the Trump administration and campaign also thought him preposterous -- with one key exception: Trump. The committee relived some of Giuliani's most ludicrous claims, sometimes accompanied by footage of his wild-eyed TV appearances. Votes 'in garbage cans' and in 'shopping baskets' being wheeled in for counting under orders from Frankfurt, Germany. Eight thousand dead people voting in Pennsylvania. A suitcase full of ballots pulled from under a table in Georgia. Votes manipulated via Italy, the Philippines and a deceased communist dictator in Venezuela.... Trump disbanded [Bill Stepien's] Team Normal the second week after the election. Instead, he arranged for 'Mayor Giuliani to be moved in as the person in charge of the legal side of the campaign, and, for all intents and purposes, the campaign.'"

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Donald Trump has been claiming voter fraud for years. In every circumstance where he didn't do well in 2016, it was because of rampant voter fraud. "By early 2020, Trump refocused his claims [on mail-in ballots].... Two days before the election, Axios reported that Trump had a plan: If the election was close enough, he would simply declare victory before the voting was done [and the mail-in votes, which always favored Democrats, were counted].... What all of this reinforces, of course, is that Trump's claims of fraud were independent of the actual votes." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Tim Miller of the Bulwark: "Team Normal. How about that for some self-flattery. Bill Stepien spent 5 years watching Donald Trump's cruelty, pathological duplicity, irrationality, narcissistic personality disorder, buffoonery, and criminality. After that half-decade of evidence, this 'professional' decided to accept a role as the campaign manager for Trump's flagging re-election campaign.... He chose to sit in the big-boy chair as the man-child responsible for getting Trump four more years in power.... Bill said that in the days after the election he 'stepped away' from the crazy because he is 'honest,' and thus couldn't be a part of it.... So what did 'stepping away' entail, exactly, for Stepien? Did he resign in protest? Did he go to the press with all the evidence that his boss was deluded? Did he call cabinet officials to tell them to consider the 25th Amendment? Did he go to Congress, like Chris Krebs? Did he testify against his boss at the impeachment hearings? No. No. No. Nope. Uh-uh." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Stepien "stepped away" from Trump the way he "stepped away" from his girlfriend Bridgit ("Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.") Kelly. Chris Christie tried to save his own butt by firing Stepien from two top New Jersey GOP jobs on account of Stepien's "lack of judgment." (WashPo link) Stepien's judgment has not improved. Ladies & gents, before you make a romantic commitment to a GOP poohbah, bear in mind that your main job as his or her helpmate will be to convincingly utter, "You did nothing wrong, darling."

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Former President Trump on Monday issued a 12-page rebuttal to testimony and evidence presented by a House committee investigating the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, accusing Democrats of seeking to distract from a series of domestic issues facing the country.... In the 12-page document, Trump repeats a handful of disproven claims to assert the 2020 election was stolen from him and rigged in favor of Democrats, including some that were brought up during testimony by former Trump campaign and administration officials. One section of Trump's statement focuses on ballot trafficking claims, for which he cites the Dinesh D'Souza documentary '2000 Mules.' In testimony shown earlier Monday, former Attorney General William Barr laughed at the mention of the film, saying he was 'unimpressed with it' and dismissed the idea that it proved widespread fraud. Another section asserts that President Biden could not have won the states of Pennsylvania, Arizona or Georgia because he got more Black votes and Hispanic votes than former President Obama. ~~~

~~~ "Trump in one section claimed states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan took additional time after Election Day to count ballots because it was part of an elaborate scheme to ship in fraudulent votes so Biden could erase Trump's narrow leads in those states. But former Fox News editor Chris Stirewalt testified in person on Monday to dismiss that very theory, known as the 'red mirage.'" ~~~

~~~ Marie: Super that Trump managed to insert a dollop of racism into his rebuttal.

Jackson Richman of Mediaite: "Former Fox News host and Trump campaign adviser Kimberly Guilfoyle was paid $60,000 for a two-minute-and-thirty-second speech on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, shortly before the attack at the U.S. Capitol, according to a member of the House committee investigating that day. The committee alleged at a hearing on Monday that ... Donald Trump raised more than $250 million from his supporters for an 'official election defense fund' -- a fund that did not exist. CNN anchor Jake Tapper said in an interview with Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) on Monday ... that '... you and the committee members thought that some of Trump's supporters are victims of this, even some of those who got swept up on Jan. 6.'... 'I think the average donation from those email -- false email requests was something like $17. These were people that weren't rich people. They were conned by the president whose was a Big Lie was also a Big Rip-Off,' [Lofgren said]. The money went to fund some fairly pricey expenditures, Lofgren said, including" the $60K that went to Guilfoyle.

Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: "Three days before Congress was slated to certify the 2020 presidential election, a little-known Justice Department official named Jeffrey Clark rushed to meet ... Donald Trump in the Oval Office to discuss a last-ditch attempt to reverse the results. Clark ... had outlined a plan in a letter he wanted to send to the leaders of key states Joe Biden won. It said that the Justice Department had 'identified significant concerns' about the vote and that the states should consider sending 'a separate slate of electors supporting Donald J. Trump.'... In fact, Clark's bosses had warned there was not evidence to overturn the election and had rejected his letter days earlier.... Clark's letter and his Oval Office meeting set off one of the tensest chapters during Trump's effort to overturn the election.... His plan could have decapitated the Justice Department leadership and could have overturned the election.... A reconstruction of the events by The Washington Post ... shows how close the country came to crisis three days before the insurrection."

Amy Gardner & Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "About a third of the way through the 2022 primaries, voters have nominated scores of Republican candidates for state and federal office who say the 2020 election was rigged, according to a new analysis by The Washington Post. District by district, state by state, voters in places that cast ballots through the end of May have chosen at least 108 candidates for statewide office or Congress who have repeated Trump's lies. The number jumps to at least 149 winning candidates -- out of more than 170 races -- when it includes those who have campaigned on a platform of tightening voting rules or more stringently enforcing those already on the books, despite the lack of evidence of widespread fraud."

Mohammed Hadi & Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "On Monday, the S&P fell 3.9 percent, closing the day nearly 22 percent below its Jan. 3 peak and firmly in a bear market -- a rare and grim marker of investors' growing concerns for the economy. A crucial report on Friday showed inflation in the United States was accelerating and creeping into every corner of the economy. Earlier last week, the World Bank issued a dire warning that global growth may be choked, especially as the war in Ukraine drags on. Together, the data undercut optimism that the Federal Reserve, as it raises interest rates, would be able to keep price gains under control without damaging the American economy and sending ripples throughout the globe."

Myah Ward of Politico: "President Joe Biden will travel to the Middle East next month, making stops in Israel, the West Bank and then Saudi Arabia, where he'll seek to rebuild relations after vowing to make the kingdom a 'pariah.' The president's travels will have him in the region July 13-16, and he'll meet with more than a dozen of his counterparts, a senior administration official said."

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "The Air Force has cleared the crew of an American military C-17 cargo plane that took off from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul last August with people hanging onto the wings, during the frenzied days of the Afghanistan evacuation. Twin reviews of the harrowing incident, in which human body parts were later discovered in the wheel well of the plane, concluded that the aircrew was 'in compliance with applicable rules of engagement,' Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokeswoman, said in a statement on Monday."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "What's missing from [Democratic] party leaders, an absence that is endlessly frustrating to younger liberals, is any sense of urgency and crisis -- any sense that our system is on the brink. Despite mounting threats to the right to vote, the right to an abortion and the ability of the federal government to act proactively in the public interest, senior Democrats continue to act as if American politics is back to business as usual.... The current generation of Democratic leaders, including the president and many of his closest allies ... came into national politics in an age of bipartisan consensus and centrist policymaking, at a time when the parties and their coalitions were less ideological and more geographically varied.... Millions of Democratic voters can see and feel that American politics has changed in profound ways since at least the 1990s, and they want their leaders to act, and react, accordingly. Standing in the way of this demand, unfortunately, is the stubborn -- and ultimately ruinous -- optimism of some of the most powerful people in the Democratic Party." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: While I agree with Bouie, I should like to remind him that age is a state of mind. Just look at Bernie Sanders & Elizabeth Warren. They get it.

Frances Sellers of the Washington Post: "Covid is making flu and other common viruses act in unfamiliar ways."

Amanda Coletta of the Washington Post: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus for a second time, days after meeting with President Biden and several other world leaders at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles."

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia Senate Race. Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker falsely claimed at least three times to have served in law enforcement. The Donald Trump-endorsed Republican candidate made the false claims in three speeches delivered before he entered politics, according to a new analysis by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 'I worked in law enforcement, so I had a gun,' Walker said in 2013 at a suicide prevention event for the U.S. Army. 'I put this gun in my holster and I said, "I'm gonna kill this dude.'" Walker was describing a 2001 incident when he took a gun to pursue a man who was late delivering a car, which he later said led him to seek mental health treatment.... 'I work with the Cobb County Police Department,' Walker said five years ago, 'and I've been in criminal justice all my life.' Two years later, in 2019, Walker told soldiers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington that he had been a federal agent." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ohio. Because It's "Impractical" for Teachers to Know How to Handle the Guns They Carry onto Campus. Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "Teachers and other school employees in Ohio will be able to carry firearms into school with a tiny fraction of the training that has been required since last year, after Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill into law on Monday. While employees have for years been allowed to carry guns on school grounds with the consent of the local school board, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that state law required them to first undergo the same basic peace officer training as law enforcement officials or security officers who carry firearms on campus -- entailing more than 700 hours of instruction. That ruling, Mr. DeWine said on Monday, had made it largely impractical for Ohio school districts to allow staffers to carry firearms. Under the new law, a maximum of 24 hours of training will be enough for teachers to carry guns at school, though the local board will still need to give its approval." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Iraq. Jane Arraf of the New York Times: "Efforts to form a new government in Iraq [have descended] to chaos. Seven months of efforts to form a new government in Iraq were in turmoil on Monday, a day after the powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr directed members of Parliament who are loyal to him to resign from the seats they won in an October election. Mr. Sadr, who has become one of the biggest political forces in Iraq since emerging in 2003, has no formal role but commands the allegiance of the single largest bloc in the 329-seat Parliament. The 73 lawmakers of his movement submitted their resignations on Sunday after the collapse of months of negotiations by Mr. Sadr to form a coalition government with Sunni and Kurdish partners." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

U.K. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Britain moved ahead on Monday with plans to scuttle the post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland, risking a clash with the European Union, a rift with neighboring Ireland, and tensions with the United States. But the long-anticipated legislation may be most revealing for what it says about the altered political landscape since Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived a no-confidence vote in his Conservative Party last week. Mr. Johnson faces a tricky path navigating the bill through a Parliament emboldened by the revolt against him. Some of the Tory rebels are expected to oppose the legislation on the grounds that it violates international law. It would unilaterally eliminate border checks on goods flowing from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

U.K. Alex Marshall of the New York Times: "The actor Kevin Spacey was charged with four counts of sexual assault on Monday in London, the city's police force said in a news release. Mr. Spacey, 62, who was also charged with one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without their consent, is scheduled to appear in court in London on Thursday where he will confirm his identity and that he understands the charges. A date for a full trial has not yet been announced." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Zimbabwe. Declan Walsh of the New York Times: "A court in Zimbabwe on Tuesday convicted a freelance reporter for The New York Times on charges of breaching the country's immigration laws, in another blow for the free press in the increasingly authoritarian southern African country. The journalist, Jeffrey Moyo, has been accused of obtaining fake press credentials for two Times journalists who entered Zimbabwe last year on a reporting trip. Mr. Moyo's lawyers said the charges were baseless, and even one lawyer for the government had said the case was 'on shaky ground.' The court fined Mr. Moyo 200,000 Zimbabwean dollars, about $615, and imposed a two-year suspended sentence that could be imposed if he is convicted of a similar offense in the next five years. His lawyers said they would appeal the verdict."

June 13, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The Jan. 6 committee used its second hearing to lay out evidence that Donald Trump must have known better: that he was repeatedly informed that his claims of widespread voter fraud were bogus and that he had lost the 2020 election -- and he pressed forward in trying to overturn the result regardless. The question is crucial when it comes to determining whether Trump's effort meets the legal definition of acting 'corruptly.'... Former attorney general William P. Barr featured prominently.... On Monday, [the committee] played video of Barr saying that he had debunked specific allegations to Trump.... Former deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue also [on video] ran through a litany of allegations in significant detail, saying he informed Trump that there was nothing to them.... Donoghue added that 'there were so many of these allegations that when you gave him a very direct answer on one of them, he wouldn't fight us on it, but he would move to another allegation.'; That sounds a lot more like a guy who is looking for a pretext to overturn an election than one who is legitimately worried about election integrity." Campaign manager Bill Stepien testified (via video interview) that Trump threw "Team Normal" under the bus & replaced them with Rudy & the Irregulars.

The New York Times' live updates of Monday's hearing are here. Marie: I guess my favorite entry is the one by Michael Shear describing how on the early morning after the election, Trump's down-at-mouth advisors were advising him against declaring victory inasmuch as he was not likely to win, but Trump decided to go with the advice of a drunken Rudy Giuliani to just declare victory. In his videotaped testimony, Rudy seems a bit hazy on what-all he might have advised Trump to do. ~~~

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Donald Trump has been claiming voter fraud for years. In every circumstance where he didn't do well in 2016, it was because of rampant voter fraud. "By early 2020, Trump refocused his claims [on mail-in ballots].... Two days before the election, Axios reported that Trump had a plan: If the election was close enough, he would simply declare victory before the voting was done [and the mail-in votes, which always favored Democrats, were counted].... What all of this reinforces, of course, is that Trump's claims of fraud were independent of the actual votes."

Georgia Senate Race. Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker falsely claimed at least three times to have served in law enforcement. The Donald Trump-endorsed Republican candidate made the false claims in three speeches delivered before he entered politics, according to a new analysis by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 'I worked in law enforcement, so I had a gun,' Walker said in 2013 at a suicide prevention event for the U.S. Army. 'I put this gun in my holster and I said, 'I'm gonna kill this dude.'" Walker was describing a 2001 incident when he took a gun to pursue a man who was late delivering a car, which he later said led him to seek mental health treatment.... 'I work with the Cobb County Police Department,' Walker said five years ago, 'and I've been in criminal justice all my life.' Two years later, in 2019, Walker told soldiers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington that he had been a federal agent."

Ohio. Because It's "Impractical" for Teachers to Know How to Handle the Guns They Carry onto Campus. Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "Teachers and other school employees in Ohio will be able to carry firearms into school with a tiny fraction of the training that has been required since last year, after Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill into law on Monday. While employees have for years been allowed to carry guns on school grounds with the consent of the local school board, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that state law required them to first undergo the same basic peace officer training as law enforcement officials or security officers who carry firearms on campus — entailing more than 700 hours of instruction. That ruling, Mr. DeWine said on Monday, had made it largely impractical for Ohio school districts to allow staffers to carry firearms. Under the new law, a maximum of 24 hours of training will be enough for teachers to carry guns at school, though the local board will still need to give its approval."

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here.

Iraq. Jane Arraf of the New York Times: "Efforts to form a new government in Iraq [have descended] to chaos. Seven months of efforts to form a new government in Iraq were in turmoil on Monday, a day after the powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr directed members of Parliament who are loyal to him to resign from the seats they won in an October election. Mr. Sadr, who has become one of the biggest political forces in Iraq since emerging in 2003, has no formal role but commands the allegiance of the single largest bloc in the 329-seat Parliament. The 73 lawmakers of his movement submitted their resignations on Sunday after the collapse of months of negotiations by Mr. Sadr to form a coalition government with Sunni and Kurdish partners."

U.K. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Britain moved ahead on Monday with plans to scuttle the post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland, risking a clash with the European Union, a rift with neighboring Ireland, and tensions with the United States. But the long-anticipated legislation may be most revealing for what it says about the altered political landscape since Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived a no-confidence vote in his Conservative Party last week. Mr. Johnson faces a tricky path navigating the bill through a Parliament emboldened by the revolt against him. Some of the Tory rebels are expected to oppose the legislation on the grounds that it violates international law. It would unilaterally eliminate border checks on goods flowing from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland."

U.K. Alex Marshall of the New York Times: "The actor Kevin Spacey was charged with four counts of sexual assault on Monday in London, the city's police force said in a news release. Mr. Spacey, 62, who was also charged with one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without their consent, is scheduled to appear in court in London on Thursday where he will confirm his identity and that he understands the charges."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

A hearing of the January 6 committee will begin Monday at 10:00 am ET.

Brian Stelter of CNN: "In addition to thorough coverage on cable, the big three broadcast networks -- ABC, NBC, and CBS -- are planning to preempt regular programming for special reports about the hearing. Spokespeople for the broadcast news divisions confirmed that all stations are expected to carry the specials. PBS is lining up live coverage as well.... As LA Times reporter Stephen Battaglio noted here, 'Fox News plans to cover the hearings on its main channel when they resume on Monday.'"

The New York Times' live updates of the January 6 committee's hearing & related issues are here.

Luke Broadwater & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol plans to use the testimony of ... Donald J. Trump's own campaign manager against him on Monday as it lays out evidence that Mr. Trump knowingly spread the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him in an attempt to overturn his defeat. The committee plans to call Bill Stepien, the final chairman of Mr. Trump's campaign, who is expected to be asked to detail what the campaign and the former president himself knew about his fictitious claims of widespread election fraud.... [Mr. Stepien is appearing under subpoena.... A second panel of witnesses will include Byung J. Pak, a former U.S. attorney in Atlanta who resigned abruptly after refusing to say that widespread voter fraud had been found in Georgia." The AP's story is here Politico's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Jeremy Herb, et al., of CNN: "Aides said that the hearing would show how Trump's team pursued legal challenges in court and lost those cases, and that Trump then chose to ignore the will of the courts and continued to try to overturn the election. The hearing will also seek to connect Trump's lies about the election to the violence at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, aides said, including how rioters echoed the former President's baseless allegations that the election was being stolen."

Daniella Diaz of CNN: "Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who is on the House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, said Sunday he believes Attorney General Merrick Garland knows 'what's at stake here' when it comes to a possible indictment of ... Donald Trump from the Department of Justice.... Rep. Adam Schiff, another Democratic member of the select committee, went a step further Sunday, saying he believes the DOJ should investigate potential criminal activity from Trump as it relates to January 6. 'I would like to see the Justice Department investigate any credible allegation of criminal activity on the part of Donald Trump or anyone else,' he said on ABC's 'This Week.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Brad Dress of the Hill: "Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) on Sunday said former President Trump is 'politically, morally responsible' for the Jan. 6 riot last year and called for Republicans to do some 'soul-searching' after the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Hutchinson told 'Fox News Sunday' guest host Bret Baier that while he did not believe Trump was criminally responsible for Jan. 6, he does think the former president shares blame for the insurrection. 'Trump is politically, morally responsible for much of what has happened, but in terms of criminal liability, I think the committee has a long way to go to establish that,' the governor said of the House select panel investigating Jan. 6." See also Patrick's comment in yesterday's thread. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Cheryl Teh of Yahoo! News: "... Steve Bannon melted down on his podcast over the possibility of a Trump indictment in connection with January 6.... [Bannon] raged at the possibility that Trump might face an indictment in connection with the January 6 Capitol riot, and threatened Attorney General Merrick Garland with impeachment.... 'We don't care what you have to say. And I dare Merrick Garland to take that crap there last night and try to indict Donald J. Trump,' Bannon said, referencing the first of six hearings on the January 6 riot. 'We dare you because we will impeach you. We're winning in November and we're gonna impeach you and everybody around you. Fuck -- screw the White House. We're going to impeach you and everybody in the DOJ.'..."

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "... the sedition continues. That should not be lost as the bipartisan House panel lays its case before the American people. Jan. 6 ... was the opening salvo of a movement to undermine democracy. Congress has yet to act on changing the vague language in the archaic Electoral Count Act, which sets the rules for how Congress tallies the electoral votes in presidential elections. The rioters chanting 'Hang Mike Pence' on Jan. 6 believed that the then-vice president had the power to throw out electoral votes at will.... Trump ... has suffused his party, top to bottom, with fealty to the lies and conspiracy theories that ignited his supporters who breached the Capitol.... All around the country, Republicans have not only embraced Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, but are also running on promises to further undermine the electoral process." If these candidates win, they'll pull stunts like this in future elections: ~~~

~~~ Emma Brown & Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "A cybersecurity executive who has aided efforts by election deniers to investigate the 2020 vote said in a recent court document that he had 'forensically examined' the voting system used in Coffee County, Ga. The assertion by executive Benjamin Cotton that he examined the county's voting system is the strongest indication yet that the security of election equipment there may have been compromised following Donald Trump's loss.... In May, The Washington Post reported that former county elections official Misty Hampton had opened her offices to a man who was active in the election-denier movement to help investigate after the 2020 vote. Recounting the incident to The Post, Hampton said she did not know what the man, bail bond business owner Scott Hall, and his team did in her office.... [Cotton did not] explain how he gained access to voting system data from Coffee or provide evidence of his examination...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "On Friday, America will mark the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in. The scandal's ... legacies have shaped the conduct of politics and public attitudes toward government ever since.... Though not a straight line by any means, the links between former president Richard M. Nixon and ... Donald Trump also are clearly identifiable, from their ruthlessness to the win-at-any-cost calculus of their politics. That their presidencies played out differently ... is testament to a more deeply polarized electorate, the erosion in the strength of democratic institutions and the transformation and radicalization of the Republican Party.... Garrett M. Graff, author of the book 'Watergate: A New History,' describes Watergate as a dividing line in history -- the event that moved Washington from a sleepy capital dominated by segregationists, veterans of World War I and print newspaper deadlines to a capital ruled by a new breed of politicians, a more adversarial media now in the digital age and a country deeply skeptical of government and politicians."

Livia Albeck-Ripka of the New York Times: "In the wake of three crashes, two of them fatal, the U.S. Navy has said it will ground all nondeployed aircraft for a day on Monday to focus on safety protocols. The aircraft grounding comes after crashes within a seven-day period in California this month resulted in six deaths. The day will be used to 'review risk-management practices and conduct training on threat and error-management processes,' the Navy said on Saturday."

The Prairie Dog Exception. In my state, they use [assault rifles] to shoot prairie dogs and, you know, other types of varmints. And so I think there are legitimate reasons why people would want to have them. -- Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), Minority Whip ~~~

~~~ Ten GOP Senators Realize They're on the Wrong Side of Public Opinion. Emily Cochrane & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Senate negotiators announced on Sunday they had agreed on a bipartisan outline for a narrow set of gun safety measures with sufficient support to move through the evenly divided chamber, a significant step toward ending a yearslong congressional impasse on the issue. The plan, endorsed by 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats, would include funding for mental health resources, boosting school safety and grants for states to implement so-called red flag laws that allow authorities to confiscate guns from people deemed to be dangerous. It would also expand the nation's background check system to include juvenile records for any prospective gun buyer under the age of 21. Most notably, it includes a provision to address what is known as the 'boyfriend loophole,' which would prohibit dating partners -- not just spouses -- from owning guns if they had been convicted of domestic violence. The framework says that convicted domestic violence abusers and individuals subject to domestic violence restraining orders would be included in criminal background checks. The outline, which has yet to be finalized, falls far short of the sprawling reforms that President Biden, gun control activists and a majority of congressional Democrats have long championed, excluding ban on assault weapons. And it is nowhere near as sweeping as a package of gun measures passed nearly along party lines in the House last week...." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's worthwhile to consider John Thune's logic: "Some people in South Dakota (total state population 880,000) are such bad shots they need an assault rifle to hit a prairie dog; therefore, children, churchgoers, shoppers, and so on throughout America will have to die." 

David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "John R. Allen, the retired four-star general who once commanded American troops in Afghanistan, resigned on Sunday as president of the Brookings Institution, six days after a court filing revealed evidence that he had secretly lobbied for Qatar. His resignation is the latest indication of the seriousness of the federal investigation involving the general. Brookings, a 106-year-old research center and a pillar of Washington's liberal establishment, had placed General Allen on administrative leave last Wednesday." A CNN report is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Alaska Congressional Race. Azi Paybarah of the New York Times: "Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska leads the 48-candidate field in a special primary election for the state's sole congressional seat, according to a preliminary count of ballots on Sunday. The top four candidates in the race will advance to the special election in August. Ms. Palin has nearly 30 percent of the vote tallied so far; Nick Begich, the scion of an Alaskan political dynasty, has 19.3 percent; Al Gross, a surgeon and commercial fisherman who ran for Senate two years ago, has nearly 12.5 percent; and Mary S. Peltola, a former state legislator, has about 7.5 percent.... The special election will be held on Aug. 16, which is also the day of Alaska's primary contest for the House seat's 2023-2025 term. So, voters will see some candidates' names twice on one ballot: once to decide the outcome of the special election and once to pick candidates for the fall's general election for the full two-year term."

New York Gubernatorial Race. The New York Times endorses Gov. Kathy Hochul in the Democratic primary. ~~~

~~~ Jess McKinley of the New York Times: "With the first Republican debate in the governor's race scheduled for Monday night on WCBS-TV, the roster of in-person candidates has shrunk by one, as Andrew Giuliani -- proudly unvaccinated against the coronavirus -- announced on Sunday that he will not be allowed to attend. Mr. Giuliani, the son of ... Rudolph W. Giuliani, said on Sunday that he had been informed late last week that the station would not permit him in the studio unless he sent proof of his vaccination status -- something he said he would not do and suggested might be unconstitutional."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russian forces battering key eastern city Severodonetsk have pushed Ukrainian troops out of the city center, the Ukrainian military said early Monday.... Russia is bombarding the city's Azot chemical plant, where Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai said Monday that hundreds of troops and civilians, including 40 children, are sheltering.... Russia has repeatedly used cluster munitions -- a type of weapon that drops explosives indiscriminately on a wide area -- in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, according to a new report by Amnesty International.... McDonald's in Moscow is no longer McDonald's. It's "Vkusno i Tochka," which translates to 'Tasty and that's it.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Monday are here.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Marie: I never heard of John Cena. (Update: But I thought he looked familiar. I remembered this morning that I had seen him in papertowel ads.) He's a wrestler & an actor, it turns out, and a mensch: ~~~

Misha, a non-verbal teen with Down’s Syndrome, didn’t understand why his family had to flee Mariupol this year.

To placate him, his mother told him they were travelling to meet John Cena.

Cena heard… and went to Amsterdam to oblige.

Just brilliant. pic.twitter.com/vix2OhkXZs

— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) June 11, 2022

U.K. Haroon Siddique of the Guardian: "The multimillionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks has lost his libel action against the Observer and Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr, which was criticised as an attack on free speech. Banks, who funded the pro-Brexit Leave. EU campaign group, sued Cadwalladr personally over two instances in which she said the businessman was lying about his relationship with the Russian state -- one in a Ted Talk and the other in a tweet. Her lawyer Gavin Millar QC had argued the case was an attempt to silence the journalist's reporting on 'matters of the highest public interest', namely campaign finance, foreign money and the use of social media messaging and personal data in the context of the EU referendum."

June 12, 2022

Afternoon Update:

The Prairie Dog Exception. In my state, they use [assault rifles] to shoot prairie dogs and, you know, other types of varmints. And so I think there are legitimate reasons why people would want to have them. -- Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), Minority Whip ~~~

~~~ Ten GOP Senators Realize They're on the Wrong Side of Public Opinion. Emily Cochrane & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Senate negotiators announced on Sunday they had agreed on a bipartisan outline for a narrow set of gun safety measures with sufficient support to move through the evenly divided chamber, a significant step toward ending a yearslong congressional impasse on the issue. The plan, endorsed by 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats, would include funding for mental health resources, boosting school safety and grants for states to implement so-called red flag laws that allow authorities to confiscate guns from people deemed to be dangerous. It would also expand the nation's background check system to include juvenile records for any prospective gun buyer under the age of 21. Most notably, it includes a provision to address what is known as the 'boyfriend loophole,' which would prohibit dating partners -- not just spouses -- from owning guns if they had been convicted of domestic violence. The framework says that convicted domestic violence abusers and individuals subject to domestic violence restraining orders would be included in criminal background checks. The outline, which has yet to be finalized, falls far short of the sprawling reforms that President Biden, gun control activists and a majority of congressional Democrats have long championed, excluding a ban on assault weapons. And it is nowhere near as sweeping as a package of gun measures passed nearly along party lines in the House last week...." Politico's story is here.

Daniella Diaz of CNN: "Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who is on the House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, said Sunday he believes Attorney General Merrick Garland knows 'what's at stake here' when it comes to a possible indictment of ... Donald Trump from the Department of Justice.... Rep. Adam Schiff, another Democratic member of the select committee, went a step further Sunday, saying he believes the DOJ should investigate potential criminal activity from Trump as it relates to January 6. 'I would like to see the Justice Department investigate any credible allegation of criminal activity on the part of Donald Trump or anyone else,' he said on ABC's 'This Week.'"

Brad Dress of the Hill: "Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) on Sunday said former President Trump is 'politically, morally responsible' for the Jan. 6 riot last year and called for Republicans to do some 'soul-searching' after the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Hutchinson told 'Fox News Sunday' guest host Bret Baier that while he did not believe Trump was criminally responsible for Jan. 6, he does think the former president shares blame for the insurrection. 'Trump is politically, morally responsible for much of what has happened, but in terms of criminal liability, I think the committee has a long way to go to establish that,' the governor said of the House select panel investigating Jan. 6." See also Patrick's comment below.

Emma Brown & Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "A cybersecurity executive who has aided efforts by election deniers to investigate the 2020 vote said in a recent court document that he had 'forensically examined' the voting system used in Coffee County, Ga. The assertion by executive Benjamin Cotton that he examined the county's voting system is the strongest indication yet that the security of election equipment there may have been compromised following Donald Trump's loss.... In May, The Washington Post reported that former county elections official Misty Hampton had opened her offices to a man who was active in the election-denier movement to help investigate after the 2020 vote. Recounting the incident to The Post, Hampton said she did not know what the man, bail bond business owner Scott Hall, and his team did in her office.... [Cotton did not] explain how he gained access to voting system data from Coffee or provide evidence of his examination...."

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here.

Marie: Of course I never heard of John Cena. He's a wrestler & an actor, it turns out, and a mensch: ~~~

Misha, a non-verbal teen with Down’s Syndrome, didn’t understand why his family had to flee Mariupol this year.

To placate him, his mother told him they were travelling to meet John Cena.

Cena heard… and went to Amsterdam to oblige.

Just brilliant. pic.twitter.com/vix2OhkXZs

— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) June 11, 2022

~~~~~~~~~~

The Case Against Donald Trump: Opening Arguments. Peter Baker & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "For two hours on Thursday night, the House committee investigating the Capitol attack detailed what it called Mr. Trump's 'illegal and 'unconstitutional' seven-part plan to prevent the transfer of power. The panel invoked the Justice Department, citing charges of seditious conspiracy filed against some of the attackers, and seemed to be laying out a road map for Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to their central target[: Donald Trump]. Several former prosecutors and veteran lawyers said afterward that the hearing offered the makings of a credible criminal case for conspiracy to commit fraud or obstruction of the work of Congress. In presenting her summary of the evidence, Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the committee's vice chairwoman, demonstrated that Mr. Trump was told repeatedly by his own advisers that he had lost the election yet repeatedly lied to the country by claiming it had been stolen. He pressured state and federal officials, members of Congress and even his own vice president to disregard vote tallies in key states. And he encouraged the mob led by extremist groups like the Proud Boys while making no serious effort to stop the attack once it began.... A Justice Department spokesman said Mr. Garland watched the hearing but would not elaborate." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Baker & Benner describe the case as "haunting" Donald Trump. But I would say it's a case that haunts the nation. Trump lacks the awareness to be "haunted." See also Maureen Dowd's column, linked below.

Betsy Swan & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A day before a mob of Donald Trump supporters smashed their way into the Capitol to disrupt the transfer of presidential power, then-Vice President Mike Pence's top lawyer [wrote] a fateful memo. In the three-page document, attorney Greg Jacob concluded that if Pence were to embrace Trump's demand that he single-handedly block or delay the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6, he would be breaking multiple provisions of the Electoral Count Act, the law that has governed the transfer of power since 1887. Such a move, Jacob concluded, would assuredly fail in court. Or worse, he said, the courts would refuse to get involved and leave America in an unprecedented political crisis.... Jacob is scheduled to testify publicly Thursday to the Jan. 6 select committee about Pence's decision to resist Trump's pressure campaign. The panel declined to comment on Jacob's memo. The memo informed Pence's ultimate decision to rebuff pressure from Trump to reverse the outcome of the election." Includes copy of Jacob's memo. ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times story, by Maggie Haberman, is here.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "It never for a moment crossed Donald Trump's mind that an American president committing sedition would be a debilitating, corrosive thing for the country. It was just another way for the Emperor of Chaos to burnish his title.... In his dystopian Inaugural speech, Trump promised to end 'American carnage.' Instead, he delivered it. Now he needs to be held accountable for his attempted coup -- and not just in the court of public opinion."

Theo Zenou in the Washington Post: In 1955, a "group of seven intellectuals published ... an essay collection, ... [titled] 'The New American Right'... [which] has never looked more prescient.... The authors wrote that far-right activists who wrapped themselves in the American flag actually posed a grave threat to the country's core principles. In the name of protecting U.S. democracy, they warned, the radical right would employ the language and methods of authoritarianism.... [Sociologist Daniel] Bell's team of academics revised 'The New American Right' and rereleased it in 1963 as 'The Radical Right.' It would become a must-read for students of modern American history.... [The radical right] blasted free elections and the peaceful transfer of power, lamented the independence of the judiciary and opposed civil rights.... They posed as conservatives but in truth were authoritarians with a nihilistic urge to watch the world burn.... They lived amid what their successors would come to call 'alternative facts.'" ~~~

~~~ Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "Over the past year, parental rights have become a popular cause as Republicans have assailed pandemic measures and the teaching of gender and race in schools.... For Christian home-school advocates..., it's a long-awaited payoff.... Besides laying a foundation for the current wave of parental rights-related policies, conservative Christian home-school advocates are also taking an active role in making these policies law." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What seems to have happened here is that Republicans, who have never had any policy principles beyond "just say no," continue to flail around looking for some "defining" principles. They have always found these "principles" in extremist movements, from Barry Goldwater's "extremism in defense of liberty" to Newt Gingrich's "Contract for America" to Donald Trump's white nationalism. The lunatics will always be with us. The fight to overcome them is a war without end.

Michael Wines, et al., of the New York Times: "... thousands of protesters rallied against gun violence on Saturday in Washington, D.C., and in cities across the country. With their signs, chants and mere presence, they condemned the drumbeat of mass shootings in the United States and renewed a call -- so far, a futile one -- for federal legislation to limit the use of the military-style weapons that have made many of them possible. Many vowed to fight the inaction at the polls. 'I'll be taking your thoughts and prayers to the ballot box,' read a sign carried by Maria Vorel, 67, who demonstrated at the Washington Monument.... The demonstrations [were] organized by [the student group] March for Our Lives...." ~~~

     ~~~ An NBC News report is here. A Washington Post report is here. A Texas Tribune report is here.

Death Comes to the Archbishop. Rick Rojas & Josh Peck of the New York Times: "The day after an 18-year-old gunman massacred 21 students and teachers at an elementary school [in Uvalde, Texas.]..., Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller [of San Antonio, Texas,] ... made a spontaneous and impassioned appeal to some of the many reporters who had swarmed into Uvalde: The nation must overhaul its gun laws, limiting access to weapons designed to maximize carnage and suffering, he said. It must also abandon what he described as an unsettling cultural embrace of violence these weapons represented.... Since the attack, the archbishop, whose vast domain of roughly 796,000 Catholics includes Uvalde, has emerged as one of the most visible and vocal gun control advocates in South Texas. He has delivered sermons, spoken at public gatherings, appeared on national television, and given interviews to local and international journalists."

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Moderna's coronavirus vaccine for children under 6 is effective in preventing symptomatic infection without causing worrisome side effects, the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday night. Advisers to the F.D.A. are scheduled to meet next week to decide whether to recommend that the agency grant Moderna's request for emergency authorization of its vaccine for children ages 6 months to 17 years. They will also consider an application from Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, to clear its pediatric vaccine for children under 5. The F.D.A. is expected to release its analysis of Pfizer's application on Monday."

Beyond the Beltway

Idaho. Daniel Walters of the New York Times: "Dozens of members of a white supremacist group were arrested on Saturday in Idaho before they could act on plans to riot at a local Pride event, the police said. After receiving a tip from a concerned citizen, the police detained and charged 31 people who belonged to a far-right group known as Patriot Front, said Lee White, the chief of the Coeur d'Alene Police Department, at a news conference. They are being charged with conspiracy to riot, a misdemeanor, he said.... 'And they were all dressed like a small army,' Sheriff [Bob] Norris said.... The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks extremist organizations and hate crimes, describes Patriot Front as a Texas-based white supremacist group that formed when members of another white supremacist group, Vanguard America, broke off after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. The members arrested had come to Idaho from several states, the police said, including Texas, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, Illinois, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon and Virginia." An AP report is here.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Fighting in the streets of Severodonetsk continues, with Ukrainian officials claiming Saturday that their forces still controlled a third of the city and a Moscow-backed local official saying Russian troops had encircled hundreds of Ukrainian fighters at a chemical plant.... Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky noted the 'fierce street battles' taking place in Severodonetsk in his nightly address and said that, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's visit to Kyiv on Saturday to discuss Ukraine's E.U. candidacy, 'the final phase of the big diplomatic marathon' had begun. A recommendation from the commission on Ukraine's status is expected next week.... Zelensky on Saturday responded to reports that Russian passports were being handed out in the Russian-controlled city of Kherson, saying, 'It looked like not a queue to get a passport, but an attempt to get a ticket to flee.'... Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue, China's defense minister appeared to play down his country's support of Moscow and said it had never given weapons to Russia in its war against Ukraine." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here.

The New York Times' summary of Saturday's developments in Russia's war on Ukraine are here.

Dan Lamothe & Claire Parker of the Washington Post: "Russia is likely to seize control of the entire Luhansk region of Ukraine within a few weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said, as Ukraine sustains heavy casualties and its supplies of ammunition dwindle. Such a move would leave Russia short of its war aims of capturing all of Luhansk and Donetsk, which together make up the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. But it would still amount to a win for Russian forces and create a new de facto front line that could last for some time."

David Keyton & John Leicester of the AP: "Ukrainian and British officials warned Saturday that Russian forces are relying on weapons able to cause mass casualties as they try to make headway in capturing eastern Ukraine and fierce, prolonged fighting depletes resources on both sides. Russian bombers have likely been launching heavy 1960s-era anti-ship missiles in Ukraine, the U.K. Defense Ministry said. The Kh-22 missiles were primarily designed to destroy aircraft carriers using a nuclear warhead. When used in ground attacks with conventional warheads, they 'are highly inaccurate and therefore can cause severe collateral damage and casualties,' the ministry said."

France. Sylvie Corbet of the AP: "French voters are choosing lawmakers in a parliamentary election Sunday as President Emmanuel Macron seeks to secure his majority while under growing threat from a leftist coalition. More than 6,000 candidates, ranging in age from 18 to 92, are running for 577 seats in the National Assembly in the first round of the election. Those who receive the most votes will advance to the decisive second round on June 19. Following Macron's reelection in May, his centrist coalition is seeking an absolute majority that would enable it to implement his campaign promises, which include tax cuts and raising the retirement age from 62 to 65."