Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Jury deliberations, Ken Burns, and international elections
Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Jury deliberations, Ken Burns, and international elections
Abbreviated Pundit Roundup is a long-running series published every morning that collects essential political discussion and analysis around the internet.
We begin today with Norman Eisen writing for CNN and reading positive tea leaves into the information requested by the jury currently in deliberations for The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump.
In my over 30 years of legal experience, and from sitting in this courtroom during weeks of testimony, I have never seen a more well-educated, attentive and determined jury than this one. I am confident they will lead each other on a meticulous exploration of the evidence and consider carefully how to apply the law to it.
We got proof of that at 2:56 p.m. when the jury sent a four-part note to the judge requesting information about a series of communications involving former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, including his direct communications with Trump, about aspects of the alleged “catch and kill” conspiracy (to pay for and suppress negative stories about Trump) to benefit his campaign. While reading jury notes as if they were tea leaves can be treacherous, the note feels to me like an ominous sign for the former president. [...]
...rather than disregarding the testimony of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen...they are focusing on an independent witness who corroborates him. That is a point the jury seemed to highlight by asking as well for the testimony of both Pecker and Cohen about a key meeting, as if they are seeking the corroboration that the prosecution emphasized. And the actual content of the incidents covered in the note to Merchan — the August 2015 Trump Tower meeting at which the election conspiracy was allegedly formed; the hush money paid to former Playboy model Karen McDougal (who also alleged she had an affair with Trump) to allegedly implement the conspiracy; and Pecker ultimately backing away from seeking reimbursement for the McDougal payment — all tend to incriminate Trump, as prior trial diaries have detailed.
Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post says that the media and nonvoting citizens should pay special attention to historian and documentarian Ken Burns’s commencement speech at Brandeis University.
The choice this election, he explained, boils down to this: “There is only the perpetuation, however flawed and feeble you might perceive it, of our fragile 249-year-old experiment, or the entropy that will engulf and destroy us if we take the other route.” If we choose former president Donald Trump, then we will see what happens when “the checks of conscience are thrown aside and a deformed picture of the soul is revealed.” There is no third choice. [...]
The media should collectively recognize that the pretense that “an unequal equation is equal” amounts to an in-kind gift to authoritarians who crave the appearance of normalcy and respectability. Sharp contrasts and moral judgment are kryptonite to MAGA forces, who would love nothing better than months more of fantasy politics (“What if Biden backed out?”) and poll obsession (that only now begin to reflect the views of likely voters).
The media would do well to focus on the authoritarian threat. A candidate such as Trump, who lies about his crowd size, the results of past elections and the sentiments of certain voters, intends to convey inevitability, strength and the futility of resistance. Trump assiduously follows the totalitarian playbook to demoralize opponents and condition the public to believe only he can possibly win. (He also sets the stage for election denial: How could I lose with such big crowds?). The false premise that President Biden is destined to lose (because Trump says so? because of premature, irrelevant polling?) is not news; it’s Trumpian propaganda. The press can avoid Trump’s manipulation by explaining the playbook and refusing to present his braggadocio as fact.
Kadia Goba of Semafor interviews Speaker Mike Johnson who says that the Republicans are developing big plans in the event Republican control a unified government after the 2024 elections.
Many presidents wish they had a second chance at a first-term agenda with the benefit of experience, but Trump might actually get one. Johnson said he would apply lessons learned since then on Trump’s behalf to legislation that could pass through reconciliation, the budget process that allows the Senate to bypass a filibuster and enact certain types of legislation through a party-line vote.
“We don’t want to make the mistake that we made in the past,” Johnson said. “Back in the 2017 timeframe and in previous years, we Republicans kind of took a single-subject approach to reconciliation. We did one round of health care reform, one round of tax reform. But we’re looking at for [fiscal year 2025], we want to have a much larger scope, multiple issues to address in addition to the expiration of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.”
Johnson has been talking with GOP members about taking a “w
Abbreviated Pundit Roundup is a long-running series published every morning that collects essential political discussion and analysis around the internet.
We begin today with Norman Eisen writing for CNN and reading positive tea leaves into the information requested by the jury currently in deliberations for The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump.
In my over 30 years of legal experience, and from sitting in this courtroom during weeks of testimony, I have never seen a more well-educated, attentive and determined jury than this one. I am confident they will lead each other on a meticulous exploration of the evidence and consider carefully how to apply the law to it.
We got proof of that at 2:56 p.m. when the jury sent a four-part note to the judge requesting information about a series of communications involving former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, including his direct communications with Trump, about aspects of the alleged “catch and kill” conspiracy (to pay for and suppress negative stories about Trump) to benefit his campaign. While reading jury notes as if they were tea leaves can be treacherous, the note feels to me like an ominous sign for the former president. [...]
...rather than disregarding the testimony of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen...they are focusing on an independent witness who corroborates him. That is a point the jury seemed to highlight by asking as well for the testimony of both Pecker and Cohen about a key meeting, as if they are seeking the corroboration that the prosecution emphasized. And the actual content of the incidents covered in the note to Merchan — the August 2015 Trump Tower meeting at which the election conspiracy was allegedly formed; the hush money paid to former Playboy model Karen McDougal (who also alleged she had an affair with Trump) to allegedly implement the conspiracy; and Pecker ultimately backing away from seeking reimbursement for the McDougal payment — all tend to incriminate Trump, as prior trial diaries have detailed.
Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post says that the media and nonvoting citizens should pay special attention to historian and documentarian Ken Burns’s commencement speech at Brandeis University.
The choice this election, he explained, boils down to this: “There is only the perpetuation, however flawed and feeble you might perceive it, of our fragile 249-year-old experiment, or the entropy that will engulf and destroy us if we take the other route.” If we choose former president Donald Trump, then we will see what happens when “the checks of conscience are thrown aside and a deformed picture of the soul is revealed.” There is no third choice. [...]
The media should collectively recognize that the pretense that “an unequal equation is equal” amounts to an in-kind gift to authoritarians who crave the appearance of normalcy and respectability. Sharp contrasts and moral judgment are kryptonite to MAGA forces, who would love nothing better than months more of fantasy politics (“What if Biden backed out?”) and poll obsession (that only now begin to reflect the views of likely voters).
The media would do well to focus on the authoritarian threat. A candidate such as Trump, who lies about his crowd size, the results of past elections and the sentiments of certain voters, intends to convey inevitability, strength and the futility of resistance. Trump assiduously follows the totalitarian playbook to demoralize opponents and condition the public to believe only he can possibly win. (He also sets the stage for election denial: How could I lose with such big crowds?). The false premise that President Biden is destined to lose (because Trump says so? because of premature, irrelevant polling?) is not news; it’s Trumpian propaganda. The press can avoid Trump’s manipulation by explaining the playbook and refusing to present his braggadocio as fact.
Kadia Goba of Semafor interviews Speaker Mike Johnson who says that the Republicans are developing big plans in the event Republican control a unified government after the 2024 elections.
Many presidents wish they had a second chance at a first-term agenda with the benefit of experience, but Trump might actually get one. Johnson said he would apply lessons learned since then on Trump’s behalf to legislation that could pass through reconciliation, the budget process that allows the Senate to bypass a filibuster and enact certain types of legislation through a party-line vote.
“We don’t want to make the mistake that we made in the past,” Johnson said. “Back in the 2017 timeframe and in previous years, we Republicans kind of took a single-subject approach to reconciliation. We did one round of health care reform, one round of tax reform. But we’re looking at for [fiscal year 2025], we want to have a much larger scope, multiple issues to address in addition to the expiration of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.”
Johnson has been talking with GOP members about taking a “whole of government” approach to their first big bill since their retreat in March, with up to nine committee chairs involved in preparing “transformational” wish lists early on and coordinating their efforts across the conference. He promised that “there’ll be a lot of development of those policies in the coming weeks.”
Ryan Tarinelli and Justin Papp of Roll Call report that congressional district offices may be bearing the brunt of the threats against Congress.
While members of Congress have faced an elevated threat landscape in recent years, their staff at congressional district offices across the country can bear the brunt of the vitriol and face potential danger.
Those offices are known for handling issues that fall well outside partisan politics, such as dealing with passport problems or helping with federal benefits.
Staff and lawmakers say occurrences at district offices, which can range in intensity from verbal abuse to phone threats to in-person confrontations, are making the job that much more difficult. [...]
Citing elevated threats to members and staff in recent years, Congress’ law enforcement agencies have moved to tighten security at offices located off the Hill. Capitol Police have opened field offices to address member safety, and the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms have focused their efforts on providing security briefings and site visits to district offices.
Kade Heather of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that a conservative group has filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Evanston because of the city’s reparations plan for some of its long-time Black residents.
The nonprofit organization Judicial Watch filed the federal lawsuit last week on behalf of six residents who are not Black but whose relatives lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969 — the 50-year period of housing discrimination that caused segregation of Black residents in the city.
The residents say in the lawsuit that Evanston’s first-in-the-nation reparations plan violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment because the program uses race as a requirement for eligibility.
Approved by the Evanston City Council in 2021, the program provides up to $25,000 to Black residents with ties to the community between 1919 and 1969. Payments were initially designated only for housing costs, but the city expanded the program last year to include an option for direct cash payments. [...]
An Evanston spokesperson said the city does not comment on pending litigation.
Grace Panetta of The 19th News points out why an Arizona abortion rights group is using the word “abortion” in its group name.
Abortion rights groups have been undefeated on similar ballot measures since June 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the issue to the states. Voters in up to 11 more states could weigh in directly on abortion this fall. Most proposed measures, including Arizona’s, guarantee a right to abortion to the point of fetal viability, which is determined by physicians but is usually around 22 to 25 weeks of pregnancy.
But only one of those ballot measure campaigns, Arizonans for Abortion Access, is using the word “abortion” in its name. [...]
Chris Love, a spokesperson for Arizona for Abortion Access, said the group’s decision to use “abortion” in its name was a deliberate choice.
“We’re intentionally using ‘abortion’ as a word because that was the thing that we’re doing,” she said. “We don’t want to play ‘hide the ball’ with voters. We don’t want to insult voters’ intelligence by using poll-tested terms that don’t really mean anything. We want to say the thing.”
We begin our focus on international elections with yesterday’s elections in South Africa and Farouk Chothia of BBC News reporting that the African National Congress will probably win less than 50% of parliamentary seats (although they will have the most seats of any South African political party).
Many people were still waiting to vote when polls officially closed at 2100 local time (1900 GMT) but the electoral commission said they would all be allowed to cast their ballots.
The first results will start to trickle in on Thursday morning and final results are expected over the weekend.
The ANC has lost support due to anger over high levels of corruption, crime and unemployment. Opinion polls suggest it could lose its majority in parliament. [...]
The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has signed a pact with 10 other parties, agreeing to form a coalition government if they get enough votes to dislodge the ANC from power.
But this is highly unlikely, with the ANC expected to remain the biggest party, putting it in pole position to lead a coalition if its support does drop below 50%.
Nosmot Gbadamosi of Foreign Policy has more information about South Africa’s opposition parties including the ANC’s main opposition, the center-right Democratic Alliance (DA).
The largest opposition party, the center-right Democratic Alliance (DA), led by John Steenhuisen, believes that it will achieve its most significant gains this election. The DA has governed the only province not controlled by the ANC, the Western Cape, and its capital of Cape Town since 2009. A recent survey by the Brenthurst Foundation and the SABI Strategy Group found that about one-third of South Africans believed the Western Cape was the best governed province.
[...]
Steenhuisen’s critics say he has ignored the overwhelming issue of racial inequality in South Africa. He opposes race quotas in the workplace—introduced by the ANC—and has pledged to create new jobs, end power outages through greater privatization, and make labor unions pay a deposit before they can strike.
The DA has also shown support for Israel—an unpopular position that will likely cost it votes at a time when Pretoria’s vocal pro-Palestinian stance at the International Court of Justice has won South Africa praise from many across the globe.
Tara John of CNN says that the former mayor of Mexico City and AMLO ally Claudia Sheinbaum is poised to win big in Mexico’s presidential election this coming Sunday and become the first female president of Mexico.
The former Mexico City mayor is the frontrunner in a landmark election this weekend where Mexico is all but certain to emerge with its first female president – a remarkable achievement in a country known for its patriarchal culture and high rates of gender-based violence, where around 10 women are murdered every day.
Sheinbaum is riding on a wave of popularity with the support of her long-time ally, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and their leftist Morena party. Trailing her in the polls is former senator Xochitl Gálvez, from the conservative PAN party, who is representing a coalition of opposition parties. [...]
But what should have been celebrated as a ground-breaking election has become overshadowed by the bloodiest election campaign in Mexico’s history, and ongoing high levels of violence across the country.
Finally today, as India begins its seventh and final week of casting ballots for its national elections, Amrit Dhillion of the Guardian reports on the record-setting heat wave affecting the world’s most populous country.
Temperatures in Delhi have hit a record high of 52.9C (127.2F), as authorities warned of water shortages in India’s capital.
A heatwave alert has been in place for large parts of India since last week, but on Wednesday the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the temperature in the suburb of Mungeshpur had passed 50C for the first time in the city.
The temperature was more than 9C higher than expected, the IMD said, and came on the second day of record-breaking heat. On Tuesday a high of 49.9C was hit in Mungeshpur and Narela, breaking the 2002 record of 49.2C. [...]
Politicians have been addressing rallies in the blistering heat as part of the current general election. Political parties have urged those coming out to bring wet towels, extra water to wet the towels again once they dry, and packets of oral rehydration salts.
JoriPress
