;)
The Commentariat -- June 11, 2020
Afternoon Update:
Jennifer Hansler of CNN: "... Donald Trump on Thursday authorized sanctions and additional visa restrictions against International Criminal Court personnel -- the latest attempt by the administration to strong-arm the international body out of an investigation into a potential war crimes by US military and intelligence officials. Under the new executive order, any individuals who 'have directly engaged in any effort by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any United States personnel without the consent of the United States' or have attempted the same against a US ally without that country's consent may be subject to sanctions. The latest move comes months after the ICC authorized a probe into alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan by US and Afghan forces as well as alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Taliban. It also follows a push by the court's Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to investigate potential crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinians -- a prospect about which Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said they were 'gravely concerned.'" Thanks to Ken W. for the link.
How to Piss off Trumplethinskin, Part 1. Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "The country's top military official apologized on Thursday for taking part in President Trump's walk across Lafayette Square for a photo op after the authorities used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear the area of peaceful protesters. 'I should not have been there,' Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a prerecorded video commencement address to National Defense University. 'My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.... As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from,' General Milley said. He said he had been angry about 'the senseless and brutal killing of George Floyd' and repeated his opposition to Mr. Trump's suggestions that federal troops be deployed nationwide to quell protests.... General Milley called on the military to address issues of systemic racism in the armed forces, where 43 percent of the enlisted troops are people of color but only a tiny handful are in the ranks of senior leadership.... His first public remarks since Mr. Trump's photo op, in which federal authorities attacked peaceful protesters so that the president could hold up a Bible in front of St. John's Church, are certain to anger the White House, where Mr. Trump has spent the days since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis taking increasingly tougher stances against the growing movement for change across the country.... The back and forth between Mr. Trump and the Pentagon in recent days is evidence of the deepest civil-military divide since the Vietnam War -- except this time, military leaders, after halting steps in the beginning, are now positioning themselves firmly with those calling for change." A CNN story is here.
How to Piss off Trumplethinskin, Part 2. Connor O'Brien of Politico: "The Senate Armed Services Committee has approved legislation that would give the Pentagon three years to rename installations and other military assets named for Confederate leaders. The measure was part of the overall $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act, which also includes provisions to block the military from using force against protesters. The committee approved the legislation in a 25-2 vote Wednesday in a closed markup. Senate Armed Services Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) aims to pass the bill before the July Fourth holiday. During markup, the panel adopted an amendment from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) by voice vote to require the Pentagon to rename bases named that honor Confederate generals.... The panel also approved an amendment from Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) that would restrict funding for the use of military force against protesters.... Despite its approval by the committee, Inhofe signaled his consternation with the provision.... It's a rare showing of unity against ... Donald Trump, who on Wednesday tweeted that he 'will not even consider' renaming bases such as Fort Bragg, Fort Hood or Fort Benning.... The White House pledged that Trump would veto legislation to rename the bases, which makes the NDAA more of a dogfight between lawmakers and Trump than anticipated."
Todd Gillman & Gromer Jeffers of the Dallas Morning News: "... Donald Trump heads to Dallas on Thursday for a discussion on race and policing that excludes the three top law enforcement officials in the county -- a police chief, sheriff and district attorney who all are black. The police chief of Glenn Heights, a town of 11,000 south of Dallas, will be part of the discussion." Mrs. McC: The Glenn Heights chief is Vernell Dooley, and he is black.
"Just Trying Not to Die." Sheryl Stolberg & Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "Coronavirus infections were spiking in 21 states on Wednesday, and cases in the United States topped two million -- but Washington had other business.... The coronavirus may not be done with the nation, but the nation's capital appears to be done with the coronavirus. As the pandemic's grim numbers continue to climb -- more than 112,000 dead as of Wednesday and warnings from Arizona that its hospitals could be full by next month -- Mr. Trump and lawmakers in both parties are exhibiting a short attention span.... 'You guys with all your masks, you look very different than you used to,' [Trump'sChief of Staff Mark Meadows] said [to reporters on Capitol Hill], not wearing one himself. 'We;re just trying not to die,' replied Jake Sherman, a reporter for Politico." ~~~
~~~ Ohio. Might Be the "Colored Population's" Fault. Laura Bischoff of the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News: "During a hearing on whether to declare racism a public health crisis, state Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, asked if 'the colored population' is hit harder by the coronavirus because perhaps they don't wash their hands as well as other groups. Huffman, an emergency room physician, asked a witness before the Senate Health Committee on Tuesday why COVID-19 is hitting African Americans harder than white people. 'My point is I understand African Americans have a higher incidence of chronic conditions and it makes them more susceptible to death from COVID. But why it doesn't make them more susceptible to just get COVID. Could it just be that African Americans or the colored population do not wash their hands as well as other groups or wear a mask or do not socially distance themselves? That could be the explanation of the higher incidence?' he said."
Rebecca Shabad & Marianna Sotomayor of NBC News: "Joe Biden said Wednesday night that his greatest concern is whether everyone's votes will be counted in November as he warned that ... Donald Trump may try to 'steal' the presidential election. In an interview on Comedy Central's 'The Daily Show,' host Trevor Noah asked the former vice president what the plan is to ensure everyone has the opportunity to vote without being in a line that's six hours long, as many people in Georgia experienced during Tuesday's primary.... Biden noted that the president has repeatedly cast doubt on the legitimacy of mail-in ballots even though Trump himself took advantage of the process to vote in Florida earlier this year. 'This is a guy who said all mail-in ballots are fraudulent, voting by mail, while he sits behind the desk in the Oval Office and writes his mail-in ballot to vote in the primary,' he said.... He then spoke about the former high-ranking military officials who criticized Trump for how aggressively he responded last week to protests over George Floyd's death, using the National Guard to force peaceful demonstrators from outside the White House. 'I am absolutely convinced they will escort him from the White House with great dispatch,' Biden said if Trump loses the election and refuses to leave."
How One Ex-Dubya Official Found Gainful Employment. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A former head of public affairs for the Drug Enforcement Administration who later worked as a producer for TMZ has admitted to a fraud scheme that involved posing as an undercover CIA operative in order to swindle government contractors out of over $4 million. Details of the complex scam carried out by Garrison Courtney, 44, became public Thursday morning as he pleaded guilty to a felony wire fraud charge in Alexandria, Va., before U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady. In the scheme, Courtney informed various businesses that the CIA or other agencies needed to place individuals on the companies' payroll as part of an undercover operation ... O'Grady explained as he read from an agreed statement of facts in the case. Courtney told the firms the program involved a 'task force' set up by the president, the attorney general and the director of national intelligence, according to the judge. Courtney even drafted fake letters from the attorney general claiming those involved in the operation had legal immunity from prosecution, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Alexandria."
~~~~~~~~~~
Dan Diamond of Politico: "The coronavirus is still killing as many as 1,000 Americans per day -- but the Trump administration isn't saying much about it.... 'We've made every decision correctly,' Trump claimed in remarks in the Rose Garden Friday morning.... Inside the White House, top advisers like Jared Kushner privately assured colleagues last month that the outbreak was well in hand.... Meanwhile, officials in at least 19 states have recorded two-week trends of increasing coronavirus cases, including spikes of more than 200 percent in Arizona and more than 180 percent in Kentucky. Two months after the White House issued so-called gating criteria that it recommended states hit before resuming business and social activities, only a handful of states -- like Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and South Dakota -- currently meet all of those benchmarks, according to CovidExitStrategy.org." (Also linked yesterday.)
Cara Richardson of USA Today: "There are 2 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the United States.... Of those cases, roughly 113,000 of them have been deadly.... A Harvard researcher told CNN that as many as 100,000 additional U.S. deaths could come by September."
Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "For Americans, coronavirus went from being a mysterious affliction that occurred in far-off lands to 1m confirmed cases on US soil within 14 weeks. Now, just six weeks later, the US has broken through the grim milestone of 2m positive tests for Covid-19, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The anguish of life lost, of a severely wounded economy and wrenching political turmoil have taken a harrowing toll upon a fatigued American public. But further, perhaps far greater pain is yet to come, pandemic experts have warned, even as authorities wave people back into reopened shops and offices and the US president's political rhetoric on an epochal crisis dwindles away to near silence."
Clare Foran & Manu Raju of CNN: "George Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, told House lawmakers on Wednesday that his brother 'didn't deserve to die over $20,' and called for police accountability and reform, saying, 'Make the necessary changes to make law enforcement the solution and not the problem.' Philonise Floyd appeared Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee for an oversight hearing on policing and law enforcement accountability." ~~~
Trump Comes Down Hard on the Side of Traitors. John Ismay of the New York Times: "... a Pentagon official said Monday that Secretary of Defense Mark P. Esper and Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy were 'open to a bipartisan discussion on the topic' of removing Confederate names from [ten Army] bases. The announcement, first reported by Politico, came as each of the services have started to contend with many longstanding practices and allegations of racial bias that have gone unaddressed. The Pentagon official said Esper and McCarthy wanted Congress, the White House and other government officials to weigh in, according to CNN, shifting the responsibility onto lawmakers. President Trump on Wednesday was quick to shut down any bipartisan discussions, tweeting, 'my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations.'" ~~~
~~~ Erik Loomis, in LG&$, finds himself agreeing with David Patraeus on "renaming military bases named after traitors. Loomis republishes a big chunk of Patraeus' opinion piece in the Atlantic. "All of this [anti-racism] is making vile racist Andrew Sullivan very sad." ~~~
The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars. -- Donald Trump, in his tweet refusing to allow the renaming of Army bases ~~~
~~~ Fred Kaplan of Slate: "Trump displayed no understanding of just who the namesakes of these bases were -- nor that these bases were given their names after World War I and, in some cases, after World War II.... The valor of an officer can no longer be separated from the criminal depravity of his cause, and many of the still-honored Confederate officers lacked so much as valor."
The Little Man Who Wasn't There. Julie Pace of the AP: "At a moment of national reckoning over racism in America..., Donald Trump is increasingly becoming a bystander. He wasn't in the pews of churches in Minneapolis or Houston to memorialize George Floyd, the black man whose death sparked protests across the country. He hasn't spoken publicly about the ways Floyd’s death during a police arrest has shaken the conscience of millions of Americans of all races. And he's dismissed the notion of systemic racism in law enforcement, repeatedly putting himself firmly on the side of the police over protesters.... Trump is leaning into many of the same personal and policy instincts that helped him draw support from disaffected, largely white, Americans in the 2016 election. Yet he appears to be falling out of step with the growing majority of Americans, including some of his supporters in politics, sports and pop culture, who see Floyd's death as a searing inflection point in America's fraught racial history."
Emily Jane Fox of Vanity Fair: "[T]he incidents of how Ivanka ran on an entirely different track from the most controversial and offensive pieces of her father's administration, of which she is a senior and central member, continued ... on Thursday, when Wichita State University Tech decided it would not air a speech that Ivanka had prerecorded for its virtual graduation ceremony on Saturday.... Ivanka didn't address the [BLM] movement ... in her speech. She had recorded it before the protests started. Of course, she could have rerecorded it to address these ideas.... The Bible stunt -- as with many previous such maneuvers, Trump pulled at Ivanka's suggestion -- was the height of the performative gesture without any kind of substantive change or deep reflection that protesters have been rallying against. It's at that moment that Ivanka, the most powerful and privileged among us, asked students struggling in this moment to listen to her.... Maybe she is more like her father than I thought." --s
Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "More than 1,250 former Justice Department workers on Wednesday called on the agency's internal watchdog to investigate Attorney General William P. Barr's involvement in law enforcement's move last week to push a crowd of largely peaceful demonstrators back from Lafayette Square using horses and gas. In a letter to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, the group said it was 'deeply concerned about the Department's actions, and those of Attorney General William Barr himself, in response to the nationwide lawful gatherings to protest the systemic racism that has plagued this country throughout its history.... In particular, we are disturbed by Attorney General Barr's possible role in ordering law enforcement personnel to suppress a peaceful domestic protest in Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020, for the purpose of enabling President Trump to walk across the street from the White House and stage a photo op at St. John's Church, a politically motivated event in which Attorney General Barr participated,' the group wrote.... The signatories are mostly former career prosecutors, supervisors and trial lawyers who are not household names and worked in both Republican and Democratic administrations."
A Bully AND a Liar. Ryan Lukas of NPR: "U.S. Attorney General William Barr has repeatedly blamed anti-fascist activists for the violence that has erupted during demonstrations over George Floyd's death, but federal court records show no sign of so-called antifa links so far in cases brought by the Justice Department. NPR has reviewed court documents of 51 individuals facing federal charges in connection with the unrest. As of Tuesday morning, none is alleged to have links to the antifa movement." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post offers helpful tips on "how to tell if your grandparent has become an antifa agent.... She belongs to a decentralized group with no leadership structure that claims to be discussing a 'book,' but no one ever reads the book and all they seem to do is drink wine. Is always talking on the phone with an 'aunt' you have never actually met in person. Aunt TIFA???? Always walking into rooms and claiming not to know why he walked into the room. Likely. He 'trips' over and breaks your child's Lego police station when walking through the living room in the dark." And so forth.
Benjamin Siegel of ABC News: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Wednesday called for the removal of nearly a dozen Confederate statues from the halls of Congress, throwing her weight behind efforts to take down the figures linked to racism and the Confederacy following the death of George Floyd. In a new letter to the Joint Committee on the Library, a House-Senate panel that manages the National Statuary Hall Collection, Pelosi asked Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., to direct the Architect of the Capitol to 'immediately' start removing 11 statues of men associated with the Confederacy from display in the Capitol complex.... Pelosi's request comes as Democrats plan to introduce a bill that would take down the statues in the Capitol -- sending them to the states that commissioned them, or to the Smithsonian -- and could yield the same result significantly faster."
Massachusetts, Virginia. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "Statues of Christopher Columbus were targeted by protesters in Massachusetts and Virginia on Tuesday night in an act of solidarity with indigenous peoples. The 8-foot-tall memorial to the explorer in Richmond, Va., was pulled down with ropes and dragged roughly 200 yards to nearby Landing at Foundation Lake, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. It was also reportedly briefly lit on fire.... Another statue of Columbus was beheaded in Boston overnight in the park named after him, according to CBS Boston." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Jack Holmes of Esquire: "When you build a statue of someone and place it at a center of civic life, it's ... a statement that they should be honored, revered, held up as an icon around which we should organize our society. That their deeds, and the values they lived by, should be a source of inspiration for us all in the here and now. And the only way that Christopher Columbus gets that kind of honor is if you teach kids in school that he sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and leave out the murder.... Otherwise, the kids might start asking why there's a statue of a mass murderer in town.... These statues are not constructed to communicate history.... They are the the beneficiaries of false histories, written and rewritten down the decades as much to absolve ourselves as these men.... The destruction of these monuments is an act that strikes a blow on behalf of history, not against it." --s
New Jersey. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "As a peaceful Black Lives Matter march made its way through Franklin Township, N.J., the group protesting against police brutality and systemic racism walked past a white man kneeling on the neck of another white man in a mocking reenactment of George Floyd's death. The men were part of a group of white counterprotesters with flags supporting President Trump and 'Blue Lives Matter' that barked, 'Black lives matter to no one,' and 'Police lives matter,' at those marching on Monday to remember Floyd.... 'This is what happens when you don't comply with the cops!' yelled the man who was kneeling on the other man's neck.... 'Comply with the cops and this wouldn't have happened! He didn't comply!' (Floyd did indeed comply with police, according to the criminal complaint filed against the officers.)... On Tuesday, after the angry encounter was denounced by state leaders and law enforcement, one of the men in the video, a corrections officer, has been suspended, while another was fired from his job at FedEx." A Cherry Hill, N.J., Courier Post story, which includes videos, is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
New York. Holly Yan of CNN: "Martin Gugino is still hospitalized in severe pain almost a week after Buffalo officers pushed him to the ground, causing the elderly man's head to bleed. But after learning President Donald Trump tweeted a conspiracy theory, suggesting Gugino was an 'ANTIFA provocateur,' the 75-year-old just laughed. 'He had a good chuckle out of it,' said his friend Mark Colville, who spoke to Gugino by phone Tuesday." --s
Oklahoma. Tim Stelloh of NBC News: "Newly released body camera footage from an arrest in Oklahoma City last year shows a [black] suspect saying 'I can't breathe' before he died at a hospital. In the May 20, 2019 footage, released this week by the Oklahoma City Police Department, three officers are seen restraining the man, Derrick Scott, 42, who can be heard asking repeatedly for his medicine and saying that he can't breathe. 'I don't care,' one of the officers, Jarred Tipton, can be heard replying at one point. 'You can breathe just fine,' another officer can be heard saying a couple of minutes later. Scott, who appears unresponsive several minutes into the footage, was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. An autopsy obtained by NBC News lists his cause of death as a collapsed lung."
Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "NASCAR said on Wednesday that it would ban the Confederate battle flag from its events and properties, becoming the latest organization to reconsider the emblem's place amid a national reckoning over racism and white supremacy after the death of George Floyd.... NASCAR made the announcement two days after Darrell Wallace Jr., the first black driver in 50 years to win one of its top three national touring series, called on NASCAR to ban the flags outright.... NASCAR began asking fans to stop bringing Confederate battle flags to races in 2015, after photos circulated online of the white man who killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., posing with the flag. But many in NASCAR's predominantly white Southern fan base have ignored the request and brought the flag anyway, hoisting it atop campers and R.V.s on fields around racetracks. NASCAR officials did not immediately respond to messages asking whether the ban would apply to parking lots outside racetracks or to Confederate imagery emblazoned on objects other than flags, such as bumper stickers and T-shirts." Mrs. McC: Kick all of 'em out.
Dominic Patten of Deadline: "Tucker Carlson ... is losing advertisers -- again.... Both Disney and T-Mobile have cut ties with the primetime Tucker Carlson Tonight over the host's polarizing point of view on the Black Lives Matter movement.... Along with Papa Johns and SmilDirectClub..., [Disney & T-Mobile] faced a backlash in recent days for their association with Carlson and his belief that the well attended protests were 'Black Lives Matter riots[.]'... Last week, the host told his ... audience that they weren't 'required to be upset about [George] Floyd's Memorial Day death in broad daylight on the street by cops. This is the same host who last summer pronounced white supremacy a 'hoax' that should be put on the 'conspiracy theory' shelf."
"As Lawless & Corrupt as Ever." Reps. Adam Schiff (Calif.), Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), Zoe Lofgren (Calif.), Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), Val Demings (Fla.), Sylvia Garcia (Tex.) and Jason Crow (Colo.) in a Washington Post op-ed: "Four months ago, we tried President Trump for abusing the power of his office in ways that undermined our country's national security, the integrity of U.S. elections and the constitutional structure of our republic. Trump's efforts to coerce an ally to help him cheat in the upcoming election violated the public trust, went to the heart of his unfitness for office -- and revealed that he prioritizes his interests over those of the nation. The president was not changed by impeachment. He is as lawless and corrupt as ever. But his wrongdoing has far greater consequences given the acute challenges facing the nation, the failure of those around him to curb destructive impulses, and the continued unwillingness of many members of Congress to serve as a meaningful check and balance as the Founders intended.... After the trial concluded, Trump focused on undermining institutions that could provide accountability and transparency.... Trump has targeted an even more foundational element of democracy: the right to vote.... Trump called in troops and sought to use the military against peaceful Americans...."
Charlie Savage & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "A retired federal judge accused the Justice Department on Wednesday of a 'gross abuse of prosecutorial power' and urged a court to reject its attempt to drop the criminal case against Michael T. Flynn, President Trump's former national security adviser, and instead sentence him. The arguments in a 73-page brief by John Gleeson, the retired judge and former mafia prosecutor appointed to argue against the Justice Department's unusual effort to drop the Flynn case, were the latest turn in a politically fraught case that now centers on the question of whether Mr. Flynn should continue to be prosecuted.... 'The reasons offered by the government are so irregular, and so obviously pretextual, that they are deficient, Mr. Gleeson wrote. '... They reveal an unconvincing effort to disguise as legitimate a decision to dismiss that is based solely on the fact that Flynn is a political ally of President Trump.'... Mr. Flynn's lawyers and the Justice Department have sought to bypass Mr. Gleeson and the federal judge in the case who appointed him, Emmet G. Sullivan. An appeals panel will hear arguments on Friday about whether to dismiss the case without allowing Judge Sullivan to conduct his review of the department's request to withdraw the charge against Mr. Flynn." ~~~
~~~ Spencer Hsu & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "In a formal briefing to the judge overseeing Flynn's case, former New York federal judge John Gleeson said Flynn's guilt 'could hardly be more provable.' He issued a sharp rebuke of the Justice Department's move to abandon the long-running case and called out President Trump for refusing to accept 'settled foundational norms of prosecutorial independence.'... Gleeson said the government's 'ostensible grounds' for seeking dismissal were 'conclusively disproven' by its own earlier arguments in the case; contradict the court's prior orders and Justice Department positions taken in other cases; and 'are riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact.'" A Politico report is here. ~~~
~~~ TPM has a facsimile of Gleeson's brief here.
~~~ Paul Waldman of the Washington Post: Barr intervened to help Flynn "because it was what Trump wanted, and because he evidently shares Trump's belief that the government should essentially be run like a mob family, in which those who have the boss's favor need not be held accountable for any crimes they commit.... The case could well go all the way to the Supreme Court. It will be neither the first nor the last time the high court is asked to rule on whether Trump's utter corruption of the U.S. government should be limited or greeted with a smile and a nod, and there's no way to know how they'll rule.... But, at least for now, it's good to hear the truth spoken."
Elections 2020
Richard Fausset & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Georgia was waiting on Wednesday for the results of primary elections riddled with serious problems, as voting machines all over the state malfunctioned and frustrated voters waited in long lines for hours. Still unresolved by early Wednesday evening was whether Jon Ossoff, the 33-year-old Democrat who earned national headlines in 2017 with a spirited but unsuccessful congressional race in the Atlanta suburbs, would capture his party's nomination in a race for a Senate seat. He was well ahead of Teresa Tomlinson, the former mayor of Columbus, Ga., and Sarah Riggs Amico, a former candidate for lieutenant governor, and just over the 50 percent vote threshold needed to avoid a runoff. If he stays over the threshold, he would advance to challenge Senator David Perdue, an incumbent Republican and ally of President Trump's." The story has more primary results for Georgia & other states. (Also linked yesterday, but the story has been updated.) Update 2: The story has been updated to reflect Ossoff's outright primary win. ~~~
~~~ ** Update: Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal Constitution: "Jon Ossoff captured the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, emerging from a crowded field that included two well-financed rivals to win an outright victory in the race to challenge U.S. Sen. David Perdue.... Ossoff's victory was called by The Associated Press as absentee ballots from metro Atlanta, his biggest base of support, steadily boosted his vote total above the 50% mark."
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "The N.B.A. superstar LeBron James and a group of other prominent black athletes and entertainers are starting a new group aimed at protecting African-Americans' voting rights, seizing on the widespread fury against racial injustice that has fueled worldwide protests to amplify their voices in this fall's presidential election.... The organization, called More Than a Vote, will partly be aimed at inspiring African-Americans to register and to cast a ballot in November. But as the name of the group suggests, Mr. James and other current and former basketball stars -- including Trae Young, Skylar Diggins-Smith and Jalen Rose -- will go well beyond traditional celebrity get-out-the-vote efforts. Mr. James, 35, said he would use his high-profile platform on social media to combat voter suppression and would be vocal about drawing attention to any attempts to restrict the franchise of racial minorities.... The new organization represents Mr. James's most significant foray yet into electoral politics." A Deadline story is here.
If a Poll Looks Bad for You, Threaten the Pollster. John Wagner & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump's reelection campaign is asking CNN for an apology and demanding a retraction of a poll this week that shows presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden with a sizable lead, claiming it was designed 'to manufacture an anti-Trump narrative.' CNN said Wednesday that it stands by the poll, which showed Trump trailing the former vice president, 41 percent to 55 percent, or by 14 points, among registered voters in a November matchup.... This is the first known time that he or his campaign have threatened legal action to suppress results.... CNN ... general counsel David Vigilante responded Wednesday afternoon with a letter to the Trump campaign.... 'To the extent we have received legal threats from political leaders in the past, they have typically come from countries like Venezuela or other regimes where there is little or no respect for a free and independent media,' he said, calling the Trump campaign's letter 'factually and legally baseless.'" Mrs. McC: How dare Paul Waldman & others characterize the Trump camp as a mob-type organization. ~~~
~~~ CNN's report is here. "After CNN released the poll earlier this week, Trump tweeted that he had hired Republican pollster McLaughlin & Associates to 'analyze" the survey and others 'which I felt were FAKE based on the incredible enthusiasm we are receiving.' McLaughlin ranks as one of the least accurate pollsters in the industry, as measured by FiveThirtyEight." A Mediaite report is here. It contains a facsimile of the Trump campaign's cease-and-desist letter to CNN, also some Trump conspiracy-theory tweets about how fake the poll was.
Trump to Sicken & Kill Supporters. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "President Trump will return to the campaign trail on June 19 with a rally in Tulsa, Okla., for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak forced most of the country into quarantine three months ago, a campaign official said Wednesday.... Trump campaign officials are unlikely to put into place any social distancing measures for rally attendees, or require them to wear masks, people familiar with the decision-making process said, adding that it would be unnecessary because the state is so far along in its reopening. Mr. Trump has also made it clear he doesn't want to speak in front of gatherings that look empty because of social distancing, or to look out on a sea of covered faces as he tries to project a positive message about the country returning to normal life and the economy roaring back.... On Wednesday, Mr. Trump also said he planned to hold rallies in Florida, Arizona and North Carolina." A Politico story is here. ~~~
... AP: "... Donald Trump is planning to hold his first rally of the coronavirus era on June 19 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.... The rally will take place on Juneteenth, the commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Tulsa has its own troubling history on race. Its once-thriving African American business community was decimated in 1921, when a racist white mob killed hundreds of black residents. Black residents attempted to rebuild in the decades that followed, only to see their work erased during urban renewal of the 1960s...Trump carried Oklahoma by more than 36 percentage points in 2016[.]" --s
~~~ Trump to Crown Jacksonville Coronavirus City. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Republicans expect to move their national convention from Charlotte, N.C., to Jacksonville, Fla., a shift planned after President Trump told officials in North Carolina that he did not want to use social distancing measures aimed at halting the spread of the coronavirus, according to three senior Republicans. The decision could change, the Republicans cautioned, but as of now, officials are on track to announce the new location as early as Thursday. Jacksonville has been Republicans' top choice for days, after Mr. Trump told the governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, a Democrat, that he needed an answer about whether Charlotte could accommodate the convention in August with a promise that there would not be social distancing.Jacksonville is the most populous city in Florida, where Ron DeSantis, a Republican and an ally of Mr. Trump, is the governor. Jacksonville's mayor, Lenny Curry, is a longtime Republican official." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Jacksonville, from I-10 anyway, is a beautiful, sparkling city. It is a hot city in August. But most of all, it is much more a southern city than a Florida city.
Way Beyond the Beltway
Cold Case Solved. Probably. Thomas Erdbrink & Christina Anderson of the New York Times: "Bedeviled for over 34 years by the mysterious killing of Olof Palme, the Swedish prime minister who was shot in the back by an unknown assailant on a quiet Stockholm street, Sweden's judiciary finally made its case on Wednesday. At a news conference in Stockholm, the prosecutor Krister Petersson said that there was 'reasonable evidence' that the assailant was Stig Engstrom, a graphic designer at an insurance company, who killed himself in 2000, at the age of 66. He added that only a court could rule on whether Mr. Engstrom was guilty or not, but that since the suspect is deceased, there would be no court case. But the prosecutor said he could not rule out the possibility that Mr. Engstrom had acted as part of a larger conspiracy.... The ... case was widely considered solved in 2018 by a freelance journalist, Thomas Pettersson, whose reporting led to Mr. Engstrom." Mrs. McC: They should have put Wallander on the case. Oh, wait. He sort of was. (Also linked yesterday.)
Share Article