The Commentariat -- August 6, 2019
Late Morning Update:
Trump Dishes It Out, But He Can't Take It. Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday attacked former President Barack Obama over the latter's statement on the weekend's mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, tweeting edited quotes from Fox News hosts to make his point and again claiming he is 'the least racist person' in the world. '"Did George Bush ever condemn President Obama after Sandy Hook. President Obama had 32 mass shootings during his reign. Not many people said Obama is out of Control,"' Trump wrote online. '"Mass shootings were happening before the President even thought about running for Pres." @kilmeade @foxandfriends'." Mrs. McC: Uh, Donnie, I think you & your Fox Friends missed the point: President Obama never stoked white nationalist wet dreams. Also, Obama didn't name you; you & your Friends clearly decided the shoe fits. For once you-all were right about something.
The Unwelcome, Deadbeat Visitor. Matthew Adams & Robert Garrett of the Dallas Morning News: "Ahead of a Wednesday visit to El Paso..., Donald Trump still owes the city more than $500,000 for his expenses related to his February rally. Trump is scheduled to visit El Paso in the wake of the Aug. 3 shooting that left at least 22 people dead. The Federal Aviation Administration advised pilots of a presidential visit later this week to El Paso and Dayton, Ohio.... The Center for Public Integrity ... reports that the total with late fees is now $569,204, according to a July 18 invoice to the Trump campaign. 'It's ridiculous and unconscionable. The city of El Paso is an economically challenged community,' El Paso County Commissioner Dave Stout said of the Trump camp's failure to pay.... 'He's going to be throwing salt into the wound -- a very, very deep wound. And this community needs healing, not Donald Trump, Stout said.... Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat who represents El Paso [and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke], also said Trump isn't welcome."
Joshua Goodman & Deb Reichmann of the AP: "The Trump administration froze all Venezuelan government assets in a dramatic escalation of tensions with Nicolás Maduro that places his socialist administration alongside a short list of adversaries from Cuba, North Korea, Syria and Iran that have been targeted by such aggressive U.S. actions. The ban, blocking American companies and individuals from doing business with Maduro's government and its top supporters, took effect immediately Monday and is the first of its kind in the Western Hemisphere in more than three decades, following an asset freeze against Gen. Manuel Noriega's government in Panama and a trade embargo on the Sandinista leadership in Nicaragua in the 1980s."
Betsy Woodruff of The Daily Beast: "Just days after mass shootings left at least 31 people dead, a bipartisan group of congressional staffers is set to go on an outing to shoot skeet alongside gun lobbyists. The event comes every year.... According to its website, the event is scheduled for August 6.... A source familiar with the event said the 'associated industry supporters' typically include members of the firearms industry, officials from the NRA, NRA lobbyists, and lobbyists working for gun companies.' They routinely attend the event to socialize with congressional staff. A second source familiar said NRA officials are not expected to attend this year." --s
John Seewer of the AP: "Facing pressure to take action after the latest mass shooting in the U.S., Ohio's Republican governor urged the GOP-led state Legislature Tuesday to pass laws requiring background checks for nearly all gun sales and allowing courts to restrict firearms access for people perceived as threats. Gov. Mike DeWine said Ohio needs to do more while balancing people's rights to own firearms and have due process during a press conference Tuesday. He outlined a series of legislative actions he wants the Legislature to take up to address mental health and gun violence.... Protesters once again shouted 'do something' -- a refrain chanted during Sunday's vigil honoring the victims -- at DeWine at the start of his Tuesday announcement.... His calls for action could be an uphill battle for the Legislature, which has given little consideration this session to those and other gun-safety measures already introduced by Democrats. DeWine's Republican predecessor, John Kasich..., also unsuccessfully pushed for a so-called red flag law on restricting firearms for people considered threats."
Vanessa Grioriadis of New York has a long bio on Ivanka Trump. Some highlights: "In her 20s, she said her favorite book was Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and she had modeled herself on its capitalist heroine, Dagny Taggart.... [T]he No. 1 thing friends from her past say about her: She isn't a 'mean person' or a 'bad person' but is simply afflicted with the same disease of narcissism as her father.... In 2003, when Paris Hilton's sex tape was leaked on the internet, Donald wouldn't stop talking about it, saying, 'Paris is laughing all the way to the bank, she's got the last laugh, she's marvelous.' Ivanka could not believe her father was not only idolizing an airhead heiress caught blowing a guy on a night-vision video but encouraging her to follow Paris's lead.... [According to a friend] 'She really has no idea she's privileged. She genuinely thinks she's earned everything she has. She goes on and on all the time about how hard she works.'" --s
E. A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "A government climate scientist who says the Trump administration buried a groundbreaking report he authored has left the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in protest over the 'political views' top officials allegedly imposed on his work. Politico reported Monday that Lewis Ziska, a plant physiologist who worked at USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) for more than 20 years, quit due to an increasingly political atmosphere at the agency.... USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue has similarly dismissed global warming as 'weather patterns.'... Ziska told Politico that the reason the study was buried is down to political ideology and the administration's unwillingness to embrace established climate science." --s
Reuters: "North Korea has fired two unidentified projectiles into the sea from South Hwanghae province, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.... The [North Korean] foreign ministry said the [U.S./South Korean] military drills were violations of diplomatic agreements and added that North Korea had remained unchanged in its commitment to resolve the issues through dialogue, but 'will be compelled to seek a new road as we have already indicated,' if South Korea and the United States continue with hostile military moves." --s
Vanessa Gera of the AP: "Claims that Russia orchestrated a political scandal that helped bring Poland's right-wing government to power are getting revisited as the country prepares for another election. Five years ago, unflattering recordings of Polish politicians secretly made at two Warsaw restaurants were leaked to newspapers. The resulting 'Waitergate' scandal helped topple a pro-EU government in 2015. An investigative Polish journalist and a formerly fugitive multimillionaire have recently provided fresh fuel for the idea that Waitergate was a prelude to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Reporter Grzegorz Rzeczkowski argues in a new book that Russian intelligence services bugged the restaurants on behalf of the Kremlin." --s
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We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred and normalizes racist sentiments; leaders who demonize those who don't look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people. -- Barack Obama, in a statement, Monday (full statement at the link) ...
... Michael Crowley, et al., of the New York Times: In a speech this morning, President* Trump said, "'In one voice our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy''... But Mr. Trump stopped well short of supporting the kind of broad gun control measures that activists and Democrats have sought for years, instead calling for stronger action to address mental illness, violence in the media and in video games, as well as 'the perils of the internet and social media.'... Mr. Trump took no questions, and did not repeat his call on Twitter earlier in the morning for Republicans and Democrats to work together to strengthen background checks for prospective gun buyers, but his proposal to link new gun control measures with immigration restrictions is likely to leave Democrats sternly opposed." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Several commentators noted that Trump never once in his speech referred to Hispanics or Latinos. ...
... What the Over-the-Hill Gang Is Saying about the Massacres in El Paso & Dayton:
(1) May God bless the memory of those who died in Toledo. -- Donald Trump, 73, in the only ad-lib in his teleprompter speech yesterday: ...
(2) Emily Larsen of the Washington Examiner: "... speaking to donors at a high-dollar fundraiser in San Diego on Sunday night, [Joe] Biden, 76, mistakenly referred to the shootings as 'the tragic events in Houston today and also in Michigan the day before,' but later corrected himself, according to a pool report."
... Jack Mirkinson of Splinter: "On Monday morning..., Donald Trump gave a speech at the White House about the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton which was so at odds with everything he has said and done throughout his political career that it might as well have been coming from an alternate universe. Using the halting somber tones he incongruously adopts when reading off a Teleprompter after mass tragedies, Trump ... plodded through all the phrases presidents are expected to deploy at times like these.... 'America weeps for the fallen,' Trump said in a monotone. For someone who had, just hours earlier, ranted about the 'fake news' media helping cause these atrocities, it felt more than a little hollow.... 'In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy,' said the man who laughed when a person at one of his rallies suggested shooting immigrants. 'Hate has no place in America,' said the man who happily oversaw chants of 'Send her back!' about a black woman he doesn't like." ...
... "Trump Made It Easier for the Mentally Ill to Get Guns." Corky Siemaszko of NBC News: "... Donald Trump responded to the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings by insisting Monday that 'mental illness pulls the trigger not the gun,' but shortly after taking office he quietly rolled back an Obama-era regulation that would have made it harder for people with mental illness to buy guns.... It came after the House and Senate, both of which were Republican-controlled at the time, passed a bill, H.J. Res 40, which revoked the Obama-era regulation.... The Obama rule that Trump nullified had added people receiving Social Security checks for mental illnesses and people deemed unfit to handle their financial affairs to the national background check database." ...
White supremacy is not a mental illness. We need to call it what it is: Domestic terrorism. And we need to call out Donald Trump for amplifying these deadly ideologies. -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Monday
... Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "In his re-election campaign, Mr. Trump has spent an estimated $1.25 million on Facebook ads about immigration since late March, according to data from Bully Pulpit Interactive, a Democratic communications firm that is tracking the digital advertising of presidential candidates. Those ads represent a significant portion of the roughly $5.6 million that Mr. Trump has spent on Facebook advertising during that period. Most of the [2,000+] 'invasion' ads began running between January and March, though a few dozen began running in May. Many of the ads began with a blunt message -- 'We have an INVASION!' -- and went on to say, 'It's CRITICAL that we STOP THE INVASION.'... Mr. Trump, through his speeches, tweets and campaign ads, has elevated the idea of an 'invasion,' once a fringe view often espoused by white nationalists, into the public discourse." ...
... This is a pirated video, so it will probably come down soon. Thanks to PD Pepe for the link.
... Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Surrendering to political necessity, Trump gave a brief speech on Monday decrying white supremacist terror: 'In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy.' He read these words robotically from a teleprompter, much as he did after the racist riot in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.... Back then, it took about a day for the awkward mask of minimal decency to drop; soon, he was ranting about the 'very fine people' among the neo-Nazis.... If history is any guide, it won't be long before the president returns to tweeting racist invective and encouraging jingoist hatreds at his rallies. In the meantime, everyone should be clear that what Trump said on Monday wasn't nearly enough." ...
Bananas! Kevin Draper of the New York Times: "After two mass shootings over the weekend that killed 31 people and wounded dozens more, powerful Republicans, including the president, blamed an old boogeyman: video games.... Researchers have extensively studied whether there is a causal link between video games and violent behavior, and while there isn't quite a consensus, there is broad agreement that no such link exists.... 'The data on bananas causing suicide is about as conclusive,' said Dr. [Chris] Ferguson [who led a group that developed an American Psychological Association statement on the effects of video games on violent behavior]. 'Literally. The numbers work out about the same.' The Supreme Court has also rejected the idea. In striking down a California law that banned the sale of some violent video games to children in 2011, the court savaged the evidence California mustered in support of its law."
The Lonely Republican Truth-teller. Chris Rodrigo of the Hill: "A Republican state senator from Nebraska on Sunday accused the GOP of helping to enable white supremacy. 'The Republican Party is enabling white supremacy in our country,' state Sen. Kevin McCollister (R) tweeted. 'As a lifelong Republican, it pains me to say this, but it's the truth,' McCollister continued. 'I of course am not suggesting that all Republicans are white supremacists nor am I saying that the average Republican is even racist. What I am saying though is that the Republican Party is COMPLICIT to obvious racist and immoral activity inside our party.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Bill Hutchinson, et al., of ABC News: "The suspect in the killing rampage at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, allegedly cased the store, looking for Mexicans to kill before he came back and unleashed a barrage of gunfire that left 22 people dead and more than two dozens injured, law enforcement officials told ABC News. The latest twist in the investigation of the mass shooting came just hours after doctors in El Paso confirmed that two more victims had died from bullet wounds suffered in the Saturday morning massacre -- increasing the death toll to 22. The suspect ... told investigators following his arrest that he allegedly set out to kill as many Mexicans as he could, according to authorities. On Monday, law enforcement officials told ABC News that [Patrick] Crusius case the Walmart, going inside on Saturday without any weapons, apparently to size up the clientele inside the store, which is about 5 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border.... Crusius [then] exited the store and allegedly armed himself."
Ali Soufan in a New York Times op-ed: "I see disturbing parallels between the rise of Al Qaeda in the 1990s and that of racist terrorism today. White supremacists, like their Islamist counterparts, explicitly seek to use violence to create a climate of fear and chaos that can then be exploited to reshape society in their own image. Their recruitment videos share an emphasis on the lifestyle they purport to offer recruits -- one of 'purity,' militancy and physical fitness.... One group for neo-Nazis, founded by a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, has taken the analogy to its logical conclusion, calling itself 'The Base' -- a direct translation of the meaning of the word Al Qaeda. The organization also uses similar black flag imagery. The Base maintains an online library of terrorist manuals; the Al Qaeda publication Inspire taught the Boston bombers how to build pressure-cooker explosives.... Many of our allies have already changed their own laws to allow more robust investigations of domestic terrorists."
Annals of White Nationalist "Journalism." Courtney Hagle of Media Matters: "The shooter who killed 20 people and injured dozens in El Paso, TX, over the weekend first posted online a document outlining the white nationalist 'great replacement' theory to which he subscribed. Fox News has long mainstreamed this theory's rhetoric.... Fox hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, who both have a history of pushing white nationalism and bigotry on cable airwaves, blatantly push the theory that white Americans are being replaced through immigration to the benefit of Democrats. Variations of the white supremacist 'great replacement' theory have also appeared on other Fox programs.... On her Fox show, Laura Ingraham fearmongered that Democrats 'want to replace you, the American voters, with newly amnestied citizens and an ever increasing number of chain migrants.'... On his Fox show, Tucker Carlson fearmongered about immigrants replacing an aging American population. He asserted that he isn't 'against the immigrants' but rather 'for the Americans' because 'nobody cares about them. It's like, shut up, you're dying, we're gonna replace you.'" Hagle cites many similar remarks by Fox hosts & guests.
Daniel Newhauser of Vice News: "Before he killed nine people in a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, early Sunday, Connor Betts was deeply involved in the misogynistic, male-dominated 'goregrind' or 'pornogrind' extreme metal music scene. It has a regional following in the Midwest and is known for sexually violent, death-obsessed lyrics and dehumanizing imagery depicting women. Over the past year, the 24-year-old shooter occasionally performed live vocals in the band Menstrual Munchies, which released albums titled '6 Ways of Female Butchery' and 'Preeteen Daughter Pu$$y Slaughter,' with cover art showing the rape and massacre of female bodies. He also performed with a group called Putrid Liquid.... One of Betts' bandmates, Jesse Creekbaum, 25, is taking the recordings down. He says he's removing them out of fear the vulgar music he produced will make a cult hero out of the murderer...."...
... Michael Biesecker & Julie Smyth of the AP: "High school classmates of the gunman who killed nine people in Dayton, Ohio, say he was suspended years ago for compiling a 'hit list' and a 'rape list,' and questioned how he could have been allowed to buy the military-style weapon used in this weekend's attack. The accounts emerged after police said there was nothing in the background of 24-year-old Connor Betts that would have prevented him from purchasing an AR 15-style rifle with an extended ammunition magazine.... A former cheerleader, the woman said she didn't really know Betts and was surprised when a police officer called her cellphone during her freshman year to tell her that her name was included on a list o potential targets.... The male classmate, who was on the track team with Betts, said Betts routinely threatened violence toward other students. 'Most people avoided him,' the man said. 'He would say shocking things just to get a reaction. He enjoyed making people feel scared.'" ...
... Campbell Robertson & others of the New York Times report more about the Dayton shooter's background & what happened Saturday night. ...
... And That Brings Us to Mitch McConnell. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Monday, a picture appeared on Instagram, apparently taken by a group of young men supporting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at the Fancy Farm, Kentucky political picnic. [The young men are wearing T-shirts that say 'Team Mitch.'] The picture showed them gathered around a cardboard cutout of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), with one of them gripping the cutout's throat to look as if he was strangling her[.]... Other supporters of McConnell set up a display of tombstones depicting both former Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland and Democratic Senate challenger Amy McGrath." Mrs. McC: Ah, boys will be boys and all. Oh, wait. ...
... Matthew Choi of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's campaign tweeted out a photo of satirical tombstones over the weekend..., hours after the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.... The tombstones named Amy McGrath, his main Democratic opponent in the 2020 Senate race for Kentucky, as well as Judge Merrick Garland, whose nomination to the Supreme Court he blocked during the last year of Barack Obama's presidency.... The tweet was shared as details of the El Paso shooting were still developing.... 'Hours after the El Paso shooting, Mitch McConnell proudly tweeted this photo. I find it so troubling that our politics have become so nasty and personal that the Senate Majority Leader thinks it's appropriate to use imagery of the death of a political opponent (me) as messaging,'" McGrath wrote in a tweet featuring the photo of gravestones McConnell tweeted. McConnell's campaign manager Kevin Goldman chastized McGrath for "politiciz[ing] a tragedy." Right. ...
... Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that Republicans are prepared 'to work in a bipartisan, bicameral way to address the recent mass murders which have shaken our nation,' but his statement made no mention of any timeline to do so - and it didn't mention the word 'guns.' Democrats have called on McConnell to call the Senate back in session to take up legislation to tighten background checks.... McConnell issued a statement later in the day that said 'Senate Republicans are prepared to do our part,' but also indicated they were in no rush." AND ...
... Here's Why. Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "The National Rifle Association spent $1.6 million during the first half of the year lobbying members of the House and Senate against laws that would enact stricter background checks for people looking to buy guns, according to disclosure reports. One of the dozens of bills targeted by the NRA is H.R. 8, a bipartisan proposal that passed the Democratic-controlled House in February and has yet to be taken up by the Republican-controlled Senate. The second-quarter filing shows that NRA lobbyists continued their efforts against the bill after its passage in the House. The lobbyists also looked to make changes to the Background Check Expansion Act from Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut.... The NRA's PAC, the National Rifle Association of America Victory Fund, gave the reelection committee of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky $4,950 in June, according to Federal Election Commission documents." ...
... #MassacreMitch. Ewan Palmer of Newsweek: "... Mitch McConnell is receiving criticism in the wake of two mass shootings within less than 24 hours over his apparent failure to help impose stricter gun control laws. More than 120,000 tweets have been sent using the #MassacreMitch hashtag after at least 20 people were killed at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and a further nine people killed in a shooting around 13 hours later in Dayton, Ohio. Many Twitter users expressed their anger towards McConnell for blocking a Senate vote on a bill passed by the House of Representatives in February which would require full background checks to be run against every person who wishes to purchase a gun. Others also accused McConnell of costing people's lives by pandering to the NRA due to the donations he and the Republican party receive from the lobbying group."
Victoria Bekiempis of the Guardian: "Cesar Sayoc, who in March admitted to mailing more than one dozen bombs to prominent critics of Donald Trump before the 2018 midterm elections, was sentenced in New York to 20 years in prison on Monday. A fanatical Trump supporter, Sayoc ... sent 16 crude explosives to 13 intended victims across the US, prosecutors said. None of the bombs, which prosecutors called 'improvised explosive devices', exploded.... As his life declined, [Sayoc's lawyers] argued, the penniless Sayoc turned to spiritual candles and self-help books -- including Trump's writing. 'The books by Donald Trump really resonated with him,' said defense lawyer Ian Marcus Amelkin. 'Then he kind of became obsessed with Donald Trump. Sayoc spent money on 'Trump-branded' suits and ties. 'He looked up to the president, as a father figure,' Amelkin said. 'He watched Fox News ... he was expressing a lot of hateful ideas and conspiracy theories.'"
Trade Wars Are Easy to Win. Fred Imbert of CNBC: "Stock futures tumbled on Monday night, adding to Wall Street's losses from its worst day of 2019 amid intensifying trade-war fears. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures traded 508 points lower, implying a loss of 630.74 points at Tuesday's open. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also indicated sharp losses. If these losses remain, the Dow's two-day decline would amount to more than 1,300 points." ...
... Markets Plunge. Ana Swanson, et al., of the New York Times: "The trade war between the United States and China entered a more dangerous phase on Monday, as Beijing allowed its currency to weaken, Chinese enterprises stopped making new purchases of American farm goods and President Trump's Treasury Department formally labeled China a currency manipulator. The escalation shook world markets as nervous investors looked for safe places to park their money. Wall Street suffered its worst day of the year, with the S&P 500 closing down nearly 3 percent. Selling was especially heavy in the trade-sensitive technology, consumer discretionary and industrial sectors. Yields on United States Treasuries, which fall as prices rise, dropped as investors sought safety in government-backed bonds. Benchmark indexes in Asia and Europe also fell." ...
... Dan Primack & Felix Salmon of Axios: "U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday night declared China to be a currency manipulator, just hours after the Chinese government allowed the yuan to slip below a 7-to-1 dollar ratio for the first time in over a decade.... This is a further ratcheting up of trade tensions between the two countries, and also marks the first time any U.S. president has used the currency manipulator label since 1994." ...
Saleha Mohsin of Bloomberg News: "While the U.S. Treasury Department's determination is largely symbolic, as the potential punishments are a shadow of the steps Trump has already taken against China, it underscores the rapidly deteriorating relationship between the world's two largest economies. The move immediately roiled markets, with S&P 500 Index futures sliding more than 1% Tuesday in Asia. The yuan slid further in offshore trading."
Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "A federal judge signaled Monday he's considering removing the Mueller report's redactions. During more than two hours of oral arguments in Washington, District Judge Reggie Walton appeared on several occasions to side with attorneys for BuzzFeed and the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center, which are seeking to remove the black bars covering nearly 1,000 items in former special counsel Robert Mueller's final 448-page final report.... The judge, an appointee of President George W. Bush, sounded increasingly skeptical of the government's arguments pressing him to leave the redactions untouched." ...
Sometimes the body does what the head wants. -- Judge Reggie Walton, questioning the necessity of all the redactions in the Mueller report ...
... Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "Judge Walton ... suggest[ed] that the DOJ officials tasked with making the FOIA exemptions could have been following directions from higher-ups.... Walton in particular raised concerns about Attorney General William Barr's initial handling of Mueller's report, indicating that he believed there were discrepancies in how Barr characterized the report and the former special counsel's actual findings. 'I do have some concerns because it seems to me difficult to reconcile the contents of the Mueller report and statements made by the attorney general' about the report, Walton said. The judge pointed to a letter authored by Barr weeks ahead of the report's release that said Mueller determined there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election and Barr's suggestion that the president was cleared by the report. Mueller has since stated that his office did not investigate collusion but instead whether any Trump campaign officials conspired with Russians in 2016. And the former special counsel has repeatedly stated that his report does not exonerate President Trump.... [Walton] noted the high level of public interest in the case -- and the inevitable prospect that whatever ruling he issues will be appealed -- in saying h will work to make a decision soon."
Congressional Race 2020. Laura Barron-Lopez of Politico: "Rep. Kenny Marchant announced Monday he will not seek reelection next year, adding another member to the rapidly growing House GOP retirement list and opening a newly competitive Dallas-area seat.... Marchant's seat is a top target for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which plans to invest in flipping a slate of Texas seats occupied by Republicans that have rapidly shifted to the left in recent years. Marchant won reelection last year by only 3 percentage points against a Democratic candidate who spent only $96,000 for the entire cycle.... Marchant, first elected in 2004, is the fourth Texas Republican to decide against running again in 2020 and the 11th House Republican to announce retirement."
News Lede
New York Times: "Toni Morrison, the 1993 Nobel laureate in literature, whose work explored black identity in America and in particular the experience of black women, died on Monday at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, her publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, said in a statement. She was 88."