Malevolence Compounded by Incompetence

 Our new book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics. The second Trump administration is off to an ominous start. Its incompetence extends to current officials and nominees.

Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to Singapore was told to “shape up and do some homework” as he struggled to answer questions about the country.

Read the full story here: https://t.co/ny8TosCYlW pic.twitter.com/tM1uN2UVKT

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) July 10, 2025

Someone tell Education Secretary Linda McMahon it's AI, not A1.... @Lesdoggg pic.twitter.com/tpVINadjwO

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) July 7, 2025

Yes, Hegseth should resign. Glad Sen. Tillis and Rep. Bacon are there now, but it should have happened in April. (Or, more accurately, he should never have been confirmed).https://t.co/2m8XtpHue6

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 10, 2025

Joni Ernst Gaffe

Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics.  It includes a chapter on congressional and state elections. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) might have a competitive reelection race next year.  Yesterday's gaffe will not help.  Alexander Bolton at The Hill

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst (R) pushed back against constituents who shouted out at her recent town hall meeting that cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would cause people to die, responding, “Well, we’re all going to die.”


The awkward moment came at a town hall meeting on Friday in Butler, Iowa, while Ernst defended the spending reforms in a House-passed budget reconciliation package that are intended to stop people who crossed into the country illegally from receiving federal benefits.

JUNE 1 UPDATE: Then she made it worse with a sarcastic video.

 

Absolutely bonkers — Joni Ernst doubles down on her “we are all gonna die” defense of Medicaid cuts while walking through a cemetery pic.twitter.com/tZrhtvODeK

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 31, 2025

Maybe the reference to Jesus was an effort to shore up her evangelical base after this:

#ICYMI: The Air Force revealed earlier this year that a general who oversaw its lobbying before Congress had inappropriate relationships with five women.

Sources say one of the women whose relationship with him was scrutinized was Sen. Joni Ernst.https://t.co/97qos9S9hC

— ProPublica (@propublica) June 1, 2025

Why Americans Hate Politics: Senator J.N. Kennedy

Josh Fiallo at The Daily Beast:

Republican Sen. John Kennedy has been slammed as “tone deaf” after he made a political dig at a reporter while speaking about a terrorist attack in his home state of Louisiana.

The controversial quip came as he and other officials took questions about the Wednesday morning attack—which left at least 15 dead on New Orleans’ iconic Bourbon Street. A 42-year-old Army veteran named Shamsud-Din Jabbar has been named as the suspect, who was killed by officers who opened fire at the scene.

Early on in Tuesday’s press conference, a reporter told Kennedy that NBC News was “here on the right.” The remark was meant to help the 72-year-old identify each journalists’ affiliation as he geared up to answer a question during an afternoon press conference.

That prompted the Republican to remark, “Oh, that’s [an] unusual position.” He moved his hands to the right, seemingly suggesting NBC is a left-leaning outlet.

This appeared to confuse the reporter who had just assisted Kennedy. She called out, “I don’t get it.” Kennedy responded, “You wouldn’t.” He then took over the podium.

Democrats were quick to slam Kennedy—who has a long history of making bizarre comments to get attention—for making such a statement mere hours after dozens of his constituents were mowed down on the street as they celebrated the new year.

“Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana is a useless piece of s--t saying all the wrong things at the wrong time for all the wrong reasons,” wrote the political pundit Keith Olbermann on X. “What a tone deaf, selfish, senile motherf----r.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) malfunctions during a hearing on mass deportations.

KENNEDY: Who in Texas had their knives out for Black immigrants? Give me a name. Give me a name.
AARON REICHLIN-MELNICK: ...My suspicion is Ken Paxton...
KENNEDY: Give me a name. Give me a name.… pic.twitter.com/YpjSOENpT9

— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) December 10, 2024

Disillusioned Trump Staff

 Our most recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.

One thing is certain about the current campaign:  Trump isn't getting any younger.  He is sundowning.

Tim Alberta at The Atlantic:

Entering the final weekend of October, I noticed something in conversations with numerous Trump staffers: resignation. They had long since become accustomed to working in the high-intensity, zero-margin-for-error environment created by Wiles and LaCivita. But this home stretch of the campaign hadn’t just been hard and stressful; it had been disillusioning. Several campaign officials had told me, throughout the spring and summer, how excited they were about working in the next Trump White House. Now those same people were telling me—as paperwork was being distributed internally to begin the process of placing personnel on the transition team and in the prospective administration—that they’d had a change of heart. The past three months had been the most unpleasant of their careers. Win or lose, they said, they were done with the chaos of Donald Trump—even if the nation was not.

Trump Closer: A Mashup of Tom Dewey and Linda Lovelace

Our most recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.

One thing is certain about the current campaign:  Trump isn't getting any younger.  He is sundowning.

Ben Blanchet at HuffPo:

Former President Donald Trump used apparent technical issues during a Friday rally to toy with the idea of attacking people working the event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“You’ve got to be kidding. Do you want to see me knock the hell out of people backstage?” asked the GOP presidential nominee, who called it a “pretty stupid situation” after rallygoers chanted “fix the mic” during his speech.

In 1948, Tom Dewey lost support from railroad workers and other blue-collar voters with a similar comment. Time, 10/25/1948

 A slight misadventure at Beaucoup, Ill. almost spoiled that stop. Engineer Lee Tindle, who improved the time at these railway siding stops by taking on water, had overshot the water tank. Without realizing what he was doing, he backed the Victory Special into a gathering of admirers at the rear end.

The crowd fell back in panic. Dewey, startled, yelled “Whoops!” But the train moved only a few feet and Dewey, smiling wryly, addressed himself to the microphone. “That’s the first lunatic I’ve had for an engineer,” he declared. “He probably ought to be shot at sunrise but I guess we can let him off because no one was hurt.”

Disinhibition is a sign of dementia., Trump also simulated sex acts on a microphone:

 

Wow wtf is he doing pic.twitter.com/TNHFsQF2OH

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 2, 2024

Facts of Life and Death

Our most recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  And neither is the selection of J.D. Vance as its vice presidential candidate.  (Dem oppo folks are doing well.)

Rebecca Falconer at Axios:

Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) made clear in comments Thursday they have very different ideas in how to respond to gun violence in the wake of the Apalachee High School shooting that killed four people and injured nine others.

Driving the news: A CNN reporter asked Vance at a Phoenix, Arizona, event what his policies were on ending school shootings after this week's massacre, which saw a 14-year-old student charged with four counts of felony murder and his father facing charges including second-degree murder.Former President Trump's running mate said it was an "awful tragedy" and called for the bolstering of security in schools.

"If these psychos are going to go after our kids, we've got to be prepared for it," Vance said. "We don't have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality we live in. We've got to deal with it," he added.

"I don't like that this is a fact of life, but if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets. And we have got to bolster security at our schools. We've got to bolster security so if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children, they're not able."

Meanwhile, Trump responded to a question from Fox News host Sean Hannity about the Georgia shooting during a Fox News town hall on Wednesday by saying: "It's a sick and angry world for a lot of reasons and we're going to make it better, and we're going to heal our world."

What they're saying "School shootings are not just a fact of life," Harris wrote on social media Thursday evening. "It doesn't have to be this way. We can take action to protect our children — and we will."

Trump v. Trump

Our books have discussed Trump's low character, which was on display this month At times, his crudeness has helped him appear transgressive.  Lately, it has hurt him

Trump is undercutting his own campaign messages. Sophia Cai at Axios:

Zoom in: This week, his campaign debuted a Pennsylvania mail-in voting website for a program called "Swamp the Vote," aimed at boosting GOP turnout in swing states.The same day, Trump called mail-in voting "terrible" during an interview with "Dr. Phil" McGraw.

"We want to get rid of mail-in voting," Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania on Friday, adding to the mixed messages coming from his campaign. Some Republicans, egged on by Trump, have associated mail-in voting with voter fraud — despite a lack of evidence.

For months, Trump's team has been training field volunteers to get out the Republican vote.But Trump is making clear he doesn't care as much about their efforts as he does "election integrity" — a push aimed in part at justifying his false claims that he lost the 2020 election only because of fraud. "Our primary focus is not to get out the vote — but to make sure they don't cheat," Trump said last week.
...

The ex-president continues to lean into personal attacks, despite his advisers' repeated efforts to get him to focus more on issues.They're writing policy proposals into his speeches, and pushing policy ideas on social media and in a daily campaign newsletter, Palm Beach Playbook.

Trump frequently deviates from prepared remarks to ask those at his rallies which nicknames he should give his opponents. Mispronouncing Harris' first name is a constant feature of his rallies. He's begun calling her "Comrade Kamala."

In North Carolina during the Democratic convention, Trump complained: "They always say, 'Sir, please stick to policy, don't get personal ... You'll win it on the border. You'll win it with inflation. You'll win it with your great military that you built.'"

He then did a "free poll" of the crowd: "Should I get personal, or should I not get personal?" The MAGA crowd roared, wanting more vintage Trump.

"My advisers are fired!" he joked at a time when he's brought back past advisers such as Corey Lewandowski.

Trump Medal

 Our most recent book is Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Less than 48 hours after Biden's withdrawal, Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee.  And in just a few weeks, the race has changed. Trump thought the age issue would be his greatest asset.  Now that he is facing an opponent 18 years younger and increasingly showing his 78 years, it has become one of his greatest weaknesses.

Just as Republican oppo researchers were attacking Tim Walz's accounts of his military service, Trump again disrespected veterans.  Travis Gettys at Raw Story:

Donald Trump sparked an outcry from military veterans and many others by proclaiming that the civilian Presidential Medal of Freedom as "better" than the Medal of Honor for military valor.

The Republican presidential nominee praised Miriam Adelson, the widow of the late GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson, during a speech Thursday evening at his New Jersey golf resort, where he recalled awarding her the civilian honor after the couple had poured millions of dollars into his first campaign.

“I watched Sheldon sitting so proud in the White House when we gave Miriam the Presidential Medal of Freedom," Trump said. "That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian, it’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor."

The Medal of Honor is the highest military honor bestowed for valor in combat, and it's often mistakenly called, as Trump did, the Congressional Medal of Honor.

"But civilian version, it’s actually much better because everyone [who] gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they're soldiers," Trump continued. "They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead. She gets it, and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman, and they’re rated equal, but she got the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and she got it for — and that’s through committees and everything else.”

This might have ended the Trump campaign. A lot of national-level Republican veterans I worked with to help pass the PACT Act are pissed off tonight. The group chat is wild. https://t.co/qWEawaKqrV

— Travis Akers (@travisakers) August 16, 2024

Trump: When we gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom… It’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor— it’s actually much better because everyone who gets the Congressional Medal, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many… pic.twitter.com/a766KxAC2e

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 16, 2024

OMG! Read this statement from the VFW on Trump’s disgusting comments about veterans and service members last night. This is fantastic. Every American needs to see this. pic.twitter.com/F7rBjGbow2

— Harry Sisson (@harryjsisson) August 17, 2024

Trump's Luck Abruptly Ran Out

Our most recent book is Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Less than 48 hours after Biden's withdrawal, Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee.  She also ended his lucky streak.

Brent D. Griffiths at Business Insider:

Trump had the greatest summer of his political life. After years of jokes about Republican infighting, the Democratic Party was truly in disarray as panic spread about President Joe Biden's fitness to lead the ticket.

National polls showed that Trump was in the best position of any Republican presidential hopeful in more than two decades. Many Democrats were worried about a blowout. And to top it all off, Trump finally got the raucous convention coronation he craved. During the lovefest, his two former primary foes, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, urged the party to unite around Trump.

In the middle of it all, Trump survived an assassination attempt. Some thought the moment would change the 78-year-old. It did not.

Natalie Allison and Alex Isenstadt at Politico:

Scrambling to put an end to Kamala Harris’ ascent, Donald Trump’s campaign and outside allies came up with a plan: Hit her on immigration, her record as a “liberal prosecutor” and as a “radical.”

It didn’t last long.

During a 34-minute question-and-answer appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists, Trump questioned Harris’ Black identity. He said he would pardon violent Jan. 6 rioters, and he didn’t directly answer when asked if his vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, would be ready to assume the presidency.

The exchanges overshadowed the attacks his political operation has made against Harris in recent days, while Trump still seems to be searching for an effective message to damage her.


“They don’t have a narrative that they’re comfortable with about how to take down Harris,” said Chuck Coughlin, an Arizona-based political strategist. “He’s grasping around. I think he’s desperately grasping around with his instincts. I don’t think his team has any way to put their handle on this, and so he’s instinctually grasping around for what to say.”

Politico:

THE BIG MO’ — This morning, KAMALA HARRIS’ presidential effort announced that it raised a massive $310 million in July — two-thirds of which came from first-time donors — and has $377 million in cash on hand. More from Elena Schneider

What that means, vis-a-vis DONALD TRUMP:
Harris outraised Trump massively. In July, Trump and his affiliated committees pulled in $138.7 million. Harris and her allied groups more than doubled that.Harris has more cash on hand. Trump and allies have a massive $327 million warchest. But Harris and allies have the edge by $50 million. More on Trump’s haul

The prisoner release elevated Harris and made Trump look petty.  The Independent:

 The United States and Russia completed their biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history on Thursday, with Moscow releasing journalist Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan, along with dissidents including Vladimir Kara-Murza, in a multinational deal that set two dozen people free.

Gershkovich, Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist with dual US-Russia citizenship, arrived on American soil shortly before midnight and were greeted by president Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris, before joyful reunions with their families.

The historic prisoner swap deal has been hailed as a diplomatic victory across the world, with the apparent exception of Donald Trump, who bitterly posted on Truth Social that the US never makes good deals and the negotiators were an “embarrassment”.

Trump was the one to suffer embarrassment, because he had claimed that only he could secure the release:

 

Libertarians Boo Trump

Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.  Neither is the condition of the conservative and libertarian movements.

Brittany Gibson and Peder Schaefer at Politico:

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/25/panderer-libertarians-jeer-trump-at-their-convention-00160023 

If Donald Trump came to the Libertarian National Convention to make peace on Saturday, it could hardly have gone worse.

Within minutes of beginning speaking — and after enduring sustained jeering and boos — the former president turned on the third party, mocking its poor electoral record in presidential elections even as he appealed to them for their endorsement.

“What’s the purpose of the Libertarian Party of getting 3 percent?” Trump asked the crowd, which proceeded to pelt him with jeers. “You should nominate Trump for president only if you want to win.”

The libertarians in attendance didn’t want to hear it, as hecklers chucked insults at Trump all night. “Liar,” they called him. “Panderer,” they shouted. “You crushed our rights,” they belted.

The raucous reception laid bare the difficulties confronting Trump in his effort to expand his base and cut off a third-party threat, not only from Libertarians, but also from independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Despite the Libertarian Party’s relatively small following, its 2020 candidate, Jo Jorgensen, drew more votes in some close states than the margin separating Trump and now-President Joe Biden.

“If we unite, we are unstoppable,” Trump told a crowd split between Libertarians and Trump supporters. “You have to combine with us.”

In response, the Washington Hilton ballroom erupted in boos. Trump was met with a chant to “debate” Libertarian candidates, and every time Trump fans in the room tried to start a “We want Trump” chant, libertarians yelled “End the Fed,” referring to the Federal Reserve.

“If he thinks he is going to win our nomination, he’s more delusional than I thought,” said Chase Oliver, one of the presidential candidates for the Libertarian Party, at a press conference after Trump spoke.

Haley and the Civil War

Our latest book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  The 2024 race has begun.

Meryl Kornfield reports on Nikki Haley's appearance in Berlin, NH, where she answered a question about the origins of the Civil War.

She paused and responded, “Well, don’t come with an easy question.” Then she proceeded to answer.

“I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run, the freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do,” Haley said.

She then turned the question to the man who asked it: “What do you think the cause of the Civil War was?”

The man responded that he is not running for president and wanted to hear her thoughts.

“I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are,” Haley continued. “And I will always stand by the fact that I think government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people. It was never meant to be all things to all people. Government doesn’t need to tell you how to live your life. They don’t need to tell you what you can and can’t do. They don’t need to be a part of your life.”

...

When Haley ran for governor of South Carolina in 2010, she addressed the Civil War during a private meeting with two leaders of Confederate heritage groups. She called it a fight between “tradition” and “change.”

“You see passions on different sides,” she said at the time. during comments that were captured on video and previously reported by The Washington Post. “I don’t think anyone does anything out of hate.”

In February we reported how Haley previously in 2010 defended the Confederate flag, Confederate History Month, the right to secession, and called the Civil War a fight for ‘tradition v. change.’ https://t.co/44yXJi8EEM

— Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE) December 28, 2023

And you can watch the full remarks here: https://t.co/3pCmrCaiAg https://t.co/gAbVdRNimv

— Lauren Fritts (@laurenfritts) December 29, 2023

Donald's Senior Moments

Our latest book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  The 2024 race has begun.

Michael C. Bender and Michael Gold at NYT:

Mr. Trump has had a string of unforced gaffes, garble and general disjointedness that go beyond his usual discursive nature, and that his Republican rivals are pointing to as signs of his declining performance.

On Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa, Mr. Trump wrongly thanked supporters of Sioux Falls, a South Dakota town about 75 miles away, correcting himself only after being pulled aside onstage and informed of the error.

It was strikingly similar to a fictional scene that Mr. Trump acted out earlier this month, pretending to be Mr. Biden mistaking Iowa for Idaho and needing an aide to straighten him out.

In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has also told supporters not to vote, and claimed to have defeated President Barack Obama in an election. He has praised the collective intellect of an Iranian-backed militant group that has long been an enemy of both Israel and the United States, and repeatedly mispronounced the name of the armed group that rules Gaza.

...
During a Sept. 15 speech in Washington, a moment after declaring Mr. Biden “cognitively impaired, in no condition to lead,” the former president warned that America was on the verge of World War II, which ended in 1945.

In the same speech, he boasted about presidential polls showing him leading Mr. Obama, who is not, in fact, running for an illegal third term in office. He erroneously referred to Mr. Obama again during an anecdote about winning the 2016 presidential race.

“We did it with Obama,” Mr. Trump said. “We won an election that everybody said couldn’t be won, we beat …” He paused for a beat as he seemed to realize his mistake. “Hillary Clinton.”

...

 Last week, while speaking to supporters at a rally in New Hampshire, Mr. Trump praised Viktor Orban, the strongman prime minister of Hungary, but referred to him as “the leader of Turkey,” a country hundreds of miles away. He quickly corrected himself.

Mike Allen at Axios:

Why it matters: Trump, 77, often mocks the 80-year-old Biden as feeble and confused — even as some of Trump's foes are highlighting the former president's own gaffes and relatively light campaign schedule.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, trying to cut into Trump's big polling lead in the GOP presidential race, has been targeting Trump's age.

• Last week, DeSantis' campaign revealed a "Trump accident tracker" to compile the former president's verbal slips on the trail, and asked whether Trump had the "stamina" to be president — using a word Trump often has invoked against his opponents, particularly Hillary Clinton in 2016.
• "This is a different Donald Trump than 2015 and '16 — lost the zip on his fastball," DeSantis told reporters in New Hampshire last week.

Trump's campaign has posted many videos of Biden stumbling, while Biden's campaign has answered with ads with Trump looking heavy and sweaty, often while golfing.

DeSantis v. Health

Our most recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. The 2024 race has begun.

DeSantis is doing very very poorly.

Richard Luscombe at The Guardian:

Covid-19 deaths are inevitable in Florida, Democrats are warning, after rightwing Republican governor Ron DeSantis joined the state’s controversial surgeon general in urging residents to ignore public health advice and avoid new vaccines targeting a resurgence of the virus.

The extraordinary advice came at a feisty press conference in Jacksonville this week that was also marred by an unseemly shouting match between DeSantis, a candidate for his party’s presidential nomination, and a Black Air Force veteran.

Lashing out at what he called the “medical authoritarianism” of mask mandates and other anti-Covid measures, DeSantis accused federal health agencies of being “basically an arm of Big Pharma” as they mulled authorizing the vaccines as early as next week.

“Pharma will make more money if this thing is approved and they start pushing it on everybody,” said DeSantis, touting Florida’s “freedom” from vaccine mandates.

DeSantis: Not Very Bright Guys, and Things Got Out of Hand

Our latest book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  The early stages of the 2024 race have begun.

So far, DeSantis keeps stumbling.

Over and over.

David Weigel and Shelby Talcott at Semafor:

Senior aides to Ron DeSantis oversaw the campaign’s high-risk strategy of laundering incendiary videos produced by their staff through allied anonymous Twitter accounts, a set of internal campaign communications obtained by Semafor reveals.

The videos include two that have created recurring distractions for his campaign in recent weeks: an anti-Trump video that featured a fascist symbol, and another that attacked Donald Trump for past comments supportive of LGBT rights.

The meme-filled videos emerged from a Signal channel called “War Room Creative Ideas,” screenshots of which were shared with Semafor and whose authenticity was confirmed by a second source familiar with the campaign.

The chat in Signal, an encrypted messaging app, offers the first clear look into the “war room” that has defined the Florida governor’s candidacy, and is presided over by his high-profile and confrontational director of rapid response, Christina Pushaw. The correspondence obtained by Semafor also offers a glimpse of a strategy that mixes digital aggression and (unsuccessful) attempts to keep the campaign’s own activities secret. The messages were set to disappear after one week.

Screenshots of the “War Room” chat reviewed by Semafor included staffers praising a widely-derided and since-deleted video — originally posted on an anonymous account, “Ron DeSantis Fancams” — that included a version of the Sonnenrad, a symbol associated with Nazi Germany.

DeSantis Screws Up Again ... and Again

Our latest book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  The early stages of the 2024 race have begun.

So far, DeSantis keeps stumbling.

Politico Playbook:

DeSantis said that if elected president, he might pick ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., noted vaccine conspiracy theorist, to lead the FDA or CDC.

It was a statement bound to get media attention. DeSantis knew that; the whole point of saying it was to “own the libs.” But it also left the soft belly of his campaign exposed on the right.

Former VP MIKE PENCE was quick to spot the opportunity with an attack aimed to appeal to the Christian conservative voters whose support DeSantis desperately needs.

"When I am President, I will only consider Pro-Life Americans to lead the FDA, CDC, or HHS,” Pence said. “[P]ro-abortion Democrats like RFK Jr. would not even make the list."

— FIGHT NO. 2: DeSantis’ staff attacked Rep. BYRON DONALDS (R-Fla.), a Trump endorser and the sole Black Republican in the state’s congressional delegation, after he mildly criticized Florida’s widely panned new teaching standards on slavery. Said Donalds: “[T]he attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong & needs to be adjusted.”

Cue DeSantis spox JEREMY REDFERN: “[S]upposed conservatives in the federal government are pushing the same false narrative that originated from the @WhiteHouse.” Not to be outdone, DeSantis aide CHRISTINA PUSHAW compared Donalds to VP KAMALA HARRIS.

Ewan Palmer at Newsweek:

A Ron DeSantis 2024 campaign worker who was reportedly fired for retweeting a fan-made video about the governor which featured a symbol associated with Nazis had previously praised the impact of white supremacist Nick Fuentes.

Nate Hochman, a communications staffer, is said to have allegedly retweeted the controversial meme video from the Ron DeSantis Fancams Twitter account which ended with the 2024 hopeful's face imposed over what appeared to be a circular symbol known as the "sonnenrad."

Hochman, as first reported by Semafor, was let go after allegedly retweeting the since-deleted video featuring the ancient symbol which had been appropriated by the Nazi Party and is still used today by white supremacist groups.

Hochman, Axios reported, not only retweeted the video from his own account but had actually made the clip himself and posted it from the Ron DeSantis Fancams profile. Joey Hannum, a former aide for Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, had also speculated that the Ron DeSantis Fancams Twitter account was being used by Hochman as a "sock-puppet operation."

...

Hochman, a former fellow for the Claremont Institute and the National Review who has previously written for outlets such as The New York Times, was previously seen as a rising star in the conservative movement.

 

 

MTG's Epic Self-Own

Our latest book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  The early stages of the 2024 race have begun. 

I approve this message. pic.twitter.com/f1q5giNM8j

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 18, 2023

DeSantis Is Faring Poorly

Our latest book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  The early stages of the 2024 race have begun.

Nicholas Nehamas at NYT:

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, looking to shift his run for president into a higher gear after an early series of missteps, spent the last two weeks rolling out an immigration policy and holding town halls with voters. But rather than correcting course, he stumbled again this week, raising questions about where his campaign is heading.

First, Mr. DeSantis’s team was forced to battle allegations, including from fellow Republicans, that it had shared a homophobic video on social media. Then, a top spokesman for the main super PAC supporting Mr. DeSantis acknowledged that former President Donald J. Trump was the race’s “runaway front-runner,” while Mr. DeSantis faced an “uphill battle.”

“Right now in national polling we are way behind, I’ll be the first to admit that,” the adviser, Steve Cortes, said in a livestream Twitter event on Sunday. It was an admission notably at odds with the confidence that the governor’s advisers usually project in public.

To top it off — in a visual representation of his recent troubles — Mr. DeSantis got soaked by a rainstorm as he marched in an Independence Day parade alongside several dozen supporters in New Hampshire — the crucial early nominating state where his super PAC, Never Back Down, stopped running television advertisements in mid-May.

House GOP Botches Agenda Rollout

Our most recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses state and congressional elections. 

Steve Benen at MSNBC:

It was 15 months ago when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy first started talking publicly about rolling out a “Commitment to America” agenda. That should’ve given the would-be House speaker and other Republican leaders plenty of time to prepare for a big rollout.

They have reason to be disappointed with how it’s gone.

The first misstep was a couple of days ago, when the House GOP published its blueprint online, only to remove it soon after without explanation, and then republished the whole thing again a day later.

This morning, things got a little worse. The Daily Beast reported:

As he rolled out the first official Republican Party congressional platform in years, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy fittingly invoked the revered father of the GOP: Abraham Lincoln. At the top of a letter to Republican lawmakers thanking them for their contributions to the “Commitment To America” — the policy agenda they are launching near Pittsburgh on Friday — McCarthy included a quote attributed to Lincoln. “Commitment,” reads the quote, “is what transforms a promise into reality.”

It’s a nice quote, but there’s literally no evidence that Lincoln ever said it. The phrase did appear in advertising, however, for Lehman Brothers, a Wall Street giant that collapsed in 2008.

And in case that weren’t quite enough, House Republican leaders this morning also released a video to help promote their agenda, though as HuffPost noted, it had one key flaw.

House Republican leaders on Friday unveiled their “Commitment to America” agenda for 2023 ― and with it, an inspirational video full of scenes presented as exceptional imagery of America that were actually stock footage from Russia and Ukraine.

GOP SIW

Our new book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.

Martin Pengelly at The Guardian:

A swing-state Republican senator denied threatening social security and Medicare, after Democrats accused him of putting them “on the chopping block”.

Ron Johnson, who entered Congress on the Tea Party wave of 2010, is up for re-election in Wisconsin. As they attempt to keep hold of the Senate, Democrats think they have a chance of winning the seat.

In an interview with The Regular Joe Show podcast, Johnson said social security and Medicare, crucial support programs for millions of older and disabled Americans and their dependents, should no longer be considered mandatory spending.

“If you qualify for the entitlement, you just get it no matter what the cost,” Johnson said. “And our problem in this country is that more than 70% of our federal budget, of our federal spending, is all mandatory spending. It’s on automatic pilot … you just don’t do proper oversight. You don’t get in there and fix the programs going bankrupt.”

He added: “What we ought to be doing is we ought to turn everything into discretionary spending so it’s all evaluated so that we can fix problems or fix programs that are broken, that are going to be going bankrupt. As long as things are on automatic pilot, we just continue to pile up debt.”

Democrats pounced. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate majority leader, referred to Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan when he said: “They’re saying the quiet part out loud. Maga Republicans want to put social security and Medicare on the chopping block.”

A Johnson spokesperson said Schumer was “lying”.

...

Democrats see Republican threats to so-called “entitlements” – programs paid for by taxes and relied upon by vulnerable people – as a potent electoral issue. Polls show strong bipartisan support.

From Joe Biden to leaders in Congress, Democrats have seized on a plan published by Rick Scott of Florida, the chair of the Republican Senate campaign committee.

Scott proposed that all Americans should pay some income tax and that all federal laws should expire after five years if Congress does not renew them.

The senator insisted he was “not going to raise anybody’s taxes” – despite saying more people should pay tax. He also said Congress “needs to start being honest with the American public and tell them exactly what we’re going to do to make sure they continue to get their Medicare and their social security”.

Caitlyn Jenner

\Our new book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics.  Among other things, it discusses state elections.

A major 2021 story in state politics is the California recall.

Carla Marinucci et al. at Politico California Playbook:

THE BUZZ — REALITY BITES: That didn’t take long. Reality TV star and political neophyte Caitlyn Jenner was about 24 hours into the rollout of her California gubernatorial campaign this weekend when she posted her first major campaign gaffe on social media.

Jenner, expressing outrage about a San Francisco Chronicle story involving SF DA Chesa Boudin’s record on domestic violence cases (more below), tweeted: “This is horrible and also avoidable. Gavin’s District Attorneys across California are releasing dangerous criminals back on to our streets. Enough is enough. #RecallGavin.’’

The Twitterverse quickly responses, schooling the candidate about what appeared to be her ignorance of the election process involving California district attorneys. In one of the kinder pushbacks, CA GOP operative @RobertJMolnar tweeted: “District Attorneys do not work for Gavin. Politics 101. Lesson is over for today. Good luck!”

Dem strategist @GarrySouth was acid-tongued: “@Caitlyn_Jenner is an uninformed idiot. Watch her expose more of her embarrassing ignorance as the campaign moves on.”

WHY IT MATTERS: Jenner’s entry may herald a parade of other political newbies — who, like her, have never run for office, have a lot to learn about politics, and yet are willing to declare a run to lead the world’s fifth largest economy, as Carla reported in our POLITICO story with Steven Shephard.

THE QUESTION: Can she capture Arnold Schwarzengger’s “lightening in a bottle” run that ended in victory in 2003? Carla and Jeremy, in this POLITICO story Friday, laid out reasons why 2021 will not be a redux of the last historic gubernatorial recall. Aside from the state’s solidly blue stance, her star power doesn’t approach that of the “Terminator.” (Exhibit A: Jenner’s Wheaties box going for just $300 on Ebay…)

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — “The Caitlyn Effect?” Big boost in Gavin’s fundraising: In the 36 hours after Jenner’s entry into the governor’s race, Gavin Newsom’s campaign raised a whopping $300,000 in online contributions, POLITICO has learned.

That comes hours after Newsom, in a Friday morning email pitch to supporters, charged Jenner “is working closely with Donald Trump’s former presidential campaign manager and the person behind his small-dollar fundraising success...So we're going to need help keeping up with Caitlyn's personal wealth and ability to raise money from right-wing donors now that she has Trump's team with her.” Campaign spokesman Nathan Click tells the Playbook that the weekend windfall that resulted shows “our grassroots army is fired up!”

WHAT TO WATCH NOW...

— An East Coast campaign? Didn’t go unnoticed that to announce her run for California governor, Jenner didn’t speak to a single state media or reporter; she dropped the scoop to East Coast-based outlet Axios. One GOP operative explains: “She’s running a national campaign,’’ and she’ll be talking to Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Newsmax and OAN, not the LATimes, the SFChronicle ed board or the SacBee, likely, if her campaign team has any say in it. That’s because they are...…

— The crowd of Trump insiders running the show include former campaign manager Brad Parscale and White House/campaign rapid response guru Steven Cheung. The Washington-based political insiders have little experience in California politics — but are certainly aware of the state’s status as a political ATM. So the potential exists for them to reap a California goldrush from Jenner’s run — when they tap their deep database of Trump donors, and get a generous cut of those checks that come in. As well as any media they place. But you may have noticed....

— She’s Caitlyn Lite on the issues: Currently, the “Caitlyn for California” website is heavy on merchandise and “donate” buttons, with no mention of platform or policy positions. Jenner will now be pressed to deliver details — and a rationale for the run. Interviews? Editorial boards? Debates? Rallies and public events? Or will this campaign echo “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” when it comes to substantive political discussion? Stay tuned.

AND FINALLY, THIS: Will CAGOPers vote for her? “Bass questions whether California Republican