The Conversation -- March 29, 2024

Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "Manhattan prosecutors and former President Trump are sparring over the scope of the gag order imposed on the former president in his hush money criminal case less than three weeks out from the start of trial. The former president has continued to direct his rage at Judge Juan Merchan's daughter in social media posts after Merchan this week refused to delay Trump's trial and approved prosecutors' request to gag him. In separate letters made public on Friday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's (D) office and Trump's lawyers argued over whether the gag order's language reaches the families of both the district attorney and the judge."

Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Lawyers for ... Donald J. Trump and eight of his co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case asked an appeals court on Friday to take up their challenge of a judge's ruling that allowed the prosecutor Fani T. Willis to stay on the case. With their application to appeal, the defendants are once again pressing their argument that Ms. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, created an untenable conflict of interest by having a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case."

Federal Judge Rebukes Trump. Shania Shelton & Rashard Rose of CNN: "A sitting federal judge on Thursday harshly criticized Donald Trump's attacks on the judge overseeing the former president's criminal case tied to alleged hush money payments, telling CNN that such statements threaten the viability of the American legal system. US District Judge Reggie Walton spoke with CNN's Kaitlan Collins ... in the wake of Trump's attacks on Judge Juan Merchan, which helped prompt the New York judge to issue a gag order on the former president earlier this week. It is unusual for federal judges to speak publicly, especially about specific political or legal situations. 'It's very disconcerting to have someone making comments about a judge, and it's particularly problematic when those comments are in the form of a threat, especially if they're directed at one's family,' said Walton, who has also faced threats, as has his daughter." MB: Ronald Reagan & George W. Bush appointed Judge Walton. ~~~

     ~~~ Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Walton's remarks came as several federal judges in Washington appointed by Republican presidents have spoken with increasing urgency about Trump's disregard for historical facts and alarmed at his increasingly graphic and at times violent description of defendants prosecuted in the Jan. 6 riot as 'political prisoners' and 'hostages' who did nothing wrong."

~~~~~~~~~~

Patrick Svitek of the Washington Post: "The federal government updated how it classifies people by race and ethnicity for the first time in over a quarter-century, aiming to better capture an increasingly diverse country and give policymakers a fuller view of the Americans their work impacts. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget announced Thursday it would combine questions about race and ethnicity on federal forms and encourage people to select multiple options if applicable. The government also will add 'Middle Eastern or North African' (MENA) as a new category for the combined question, which will include seven total choices." Politico's report is here. MB: Surely Trump would fire the deep-state bureaucrats who came up with this revised classification system and reduce the number of classifications to two: White and Whatever.

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Republican impeachment managers informed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a letter Thursday that they will send two impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on April 10.... The move will force the Senate to take up the matter, at least formally, and then Schumer will have to decide whether to hold a full trial on the Senate floor, vote to dismiss the charges immediately or to refer it to a special evidentiary committee.... 'If he cares about the Constitution and ending the devastation caused by Biden's border catastrophe, Sen. Schumer will quickly schedule a full public trial and hear the arguments put forth by our impeachment managers,' Johnson said in a statement...."

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "Eleven Republican-led states sued on Thursday to overturn President Biden's new student loan repayment plan, arguing the program is a scheme to provide widespread debt relief that the Supreme Court struck down last year. The federal lawsuit, led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, largely mirrors the claims in the case that brought down Biden's plan to forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loans last year. The states allege the president has again overstepped his authority.... [BUT] Whereas the Biden administration's failed plan used a 9/11-era law to justify providing $430 billion in debt relief during the pandemic, the new Save plan was created using authority from the Higher Education Act that spawned income-driven repayment plans in 1993.... Kobach, like many conservatives, argues broad debt relief is patently unfair to American taxpayers who did not go to college or saved to pay for school because it 'forces them to pay for the student loans for those who ran up exorbitant student debt.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is another instance of stupid. The country's greatest asset is a force of well-educated working people. They pay taxes and provide jobs (often for the less-educated) & services. And they "ran up exorbitant student debt" because states no longer provide the free or nearly-free college tuition they did back in the day. Reducing a burden that the states themselves imposed on these breadwinners is a net-plus for the states.

Presidential Race

Donald Trump, as far as we can tell, has just been trying to win a third championship at his own golf course. My question to you, sir. Can voters trust a presidential candidate who has not won a single Trump International Golf Club trophy? At long last. Sir, have you no chip-shot? -- Stephen Colbert, to Joe Biden at the New York City fundraiser

I told him once before when he came into the Oval before he got sworn in. I said, "I'll give you three strokes if you carry your own bag." -- President Biden, in response ~~~

Lisa Lerer of the New York Times: "The epicenter of the presidential campaign shifted to New York on Thursday, as the incumbent president and three of his predecessors descended on the area for dueling events that illustrated the kinds of political clashes that could come to define the general election. For Democrats, it was a high-profile, celebrity-studded fund-raiser for President Biden in Manhattan. On Long Island..., Donald J. Trump attended a wake for a New York City officer who was killed during a traffic stop on Monday.... Mr. Biden, along with Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, appeared before 5,000 donors at a Radio City Music Hall event that campaign aides said raised $25 million. The eye-popping number set a record for a single political event, according to the aides, and offered a star-studded show of Democratic unity.... The three Democratic presidents spent much of their time in New York City wrapped in the glitz of their celebrity supporters. Tieless and in matching white shirts, they sat for an interview on a celebrity podcast, were roasted by the comedian Mindy Kaling and interviewed by Stephen Colbert.... Both Mr. Obama and Mr. Clinton made the case for re-electing Mr. Biden, praising his work expanding health care coverage, creating jobs, capping insulin prices and navigating the competing demands of the war in Gaza."

Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "When ... Donald Trump visited the wake of fallen New York police officer Jonathan Diller Thursday, he played up his credentials of being the candidate that stands up for law and order. But that smacks of 'cynical hypocrisy,' wrote Michael Daly in a scathing column for The Daily Beast. As he stood with mourners, Daly could hear the 'Justice for All' anthem playing in his head, a tribute to the jailed January 6 defendants that Trump calls patriots -- and that's a big problem[.]... '... An analysis by Just Security found that 17 of the 20 Jan. 6 prisoners in the facility around the time of the recording had been arrested for assaulting law enforcement officers.... Trump was apparently counting on everybody forgetting the 140 officers the DOJ says were assaulted at the Capitol by people he calls "patriots" and "hostages,"' wrote Daly."

Robert Kagan of the Washington Post: "Clearly, people have not been taking Donald Trump's resurrection of America First seriously. It's time they did. The original America First Committee was founded in September 1940 [at the start of World War II].... The leading Republican of his day, Ohio Sen. Robert Taft, ridiculed those who expressed fears of advancing fascism.... American entry into World War II was the victory of a liberal worldview over an anti-interventionism rooted in a conservative anti-liberalism.... Cutting off Ukraine seems like small beer by comparison [to the European war], but behind it lies the same 'America First' thinking. For Donald Trump and his followers, pulling the plug on Ukraine is part of a larger aim to end America's broader commitment to European peace and security.... Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has called for the immediate reduction of U.S. force levels in Europe and the abrogation of America's common-defense Article 5 commitments.... Trump's Republican Party wants to take the United States back to the triad of interwar conservatism: high tariffs, anti-immigrant xenophobia, isolationism."

More about the Orange Jesus Bible. A.J. Willingham of CNN: "'Happy Holy Week!' Trump announced on social media Tuesday.... 'As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless The USA Bible.'... Responses to Trump's social media announcement called the endorsement 'sacrilege,' 'heresy' and 'borderline offensive' and cite lessons directly from the Bible that suggest taking advantage of people's faith for money should be condemned. 'It is a bankrupt Christianity that sees a demagogue co-opting our faith and even our holy scriptures for the sake of his own pursuit of power and praise him for it rather than insist that we refuse to allow our sacred faith and scriptures to become a mouthpiece for an empire,' said Rev. Benjamin Cremer on X." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Of course, co-opting Christianity to promote himself is Trump's reason for hawking a $60 Bible. It's a dictator thing. ~~~

~~~ Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump could be making a big mistake hawking the 'God Bless the USA' Bible to his MAGA supporters. Some of them might actually read it.... They need only read as far as Exodus 20, in which Moses comes down from the mountain and pronounces the Ten Commandments. 'Thou shalt not commit adultery' is an injunction Trump has bragged about habitually violating, as heard on the 'Access Hollywood' tape. In that same recording, he also boasted about violating another commandment -- "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife" -- by saying he 'did try and f---' a married woman. 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor' is yet another commandment Trump routinely ignores. Of the tens of thousands of documented lies he has told, many have been falsehoods about his real or perceived enemies.... The New Testament tells us that we all are sinners -- and that we all can be saved.... That is the theological basis on which Trump's unlikeliest loyal followers -- evangelical Christians and their pastors -- justify looking past the way Trump scoffs at so many of the Bible's instructions." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The fact is that first-century Jews were not looking for a pacifist leader. Rather, most envisioned their messiah as a God-anointed hero who would lead a great uprising to banish Israel's conquerors from the land. Of course Trump would not do that, either, as Robert Kagan illuminates. Trump finds his enemies within: small-"d" democrats, non-whites, journalists, judges, anyone who isn't "loyal" to him. ~~~

Kate Brumback of the AP: "The charges against Donald Trump in the Georgia election interference case seek to criminalize political speech and advocacy conduct that the First Amendment protects, a lawyer for the former president said Thursday as he argued that the indictment should be dismissed. The hearing before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee was on a filing from Trump and on two pretrial motions by co-defendant David Shafer and centered on technical legal arguments. It marked something of a return to normalcy after the case was rocked by allegations that District Attorney Fani Willis improperly benefited from her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor hired for the case. 'There is nothing alleged factually against President Trump that is not political speech,' Trump's lead lawyer, Steve Sadow, told the judge. Sadow said a sitting president expressing concerns about an election is 'the height of political speech' and that is protected even if what was said ended up being false." ~~~

~~~ CNN liveblogged a court hearing yesterday on Trump's effort to dismiss the Georgia election interference case. "In a hearing underway now, a judge is considering whether the Georgia election subversion case against Donald Trump should be dismissed on First Amendment grounds. Trump's lead attorney in the case is arguing in court that the indictment should be thrown out because the former president's political speech is protected. Trump is not attending the hearing." Both CNN & MSNBC currently (10:15 am ET) are airing the hearing live. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As far as I can figure out the Trumpy argument, it goes like this: you and I and anybody can organize, manage & direct any sort of criminal plot -- be it a terrorist attack or murder or a bank heist -- and be adjudged completely innocent because we were just exercising our First Amendment free-speech rights. Update: Well, maybe our criminal plot has to be political in nature, so planning a bank robbery might not be legal (unless we did it to, say, give the proceeds to a Biden PAC).

Betsy Swan of Politico: "Arizona Republicans who falsely posed as electors for Donald Trump in 2020 have appeared before a grand jury in recent days and invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, as state prosecutors near a decision on potential criminal charges against those who helped Trump try to overturn his loss in the state. The prosecutors' decision to require these people to appear in person is the latest escalation of the long-running probe by the state's attorney general, Kris Mayes, into election interference by Trump allies. The tactic is also highly unusual and risks biasing the grand jury against key targets of the probe, according to independent legal experts who have worked as both prosecutors and defense lawyers.... The Justice Department's manual for federal prosecutors says that when subpoenaed targets and their lawyers say they plan to plead the Fifth, those targets should ordinarily be excused from grand jury testimony."

Ken Sweet & Larry Neumeister of the AP: "Crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for a massive fraud that unraveled with the collapse of FTX, once one of the world's most popular platforms for exchanging digital currency. Bankman-Fried, 32, was convicted in November of fraud and conspiracy -- a dramatic fall from a crest of success that included a Super Bowl advertisement and celebrity endorsements from stars like quarterback Tom Brady, basketball star Stephen Curry and comedian Larry David. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan imposed the sentence in the same Manhattan courtroom where, four months ago, Bankman-Fried testified that his intention had been to revolutionize the emerging cryptocurrency market with his innovative and altruistic ideas, not to steal." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times report is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "A Georgia Republican official who pushed false claims that the 2020 election was 'stolen' was found to have voted illegally nine times, a judge ruled this week. Brian Pritchard, first vice chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, as well as investigative costs, and be publicly reprimanded. Pritchard had been sentenced in 1996 in Pennsylvania to three years' probation for felony check forgery charges. His probation was revoked three times -- once in 1999, after he moved to Georgia, and again in 2002 and 2004. In 2004, a judge imposed a new seven-year probationary sentence on Pritchard, thus making him ineligible to vote until at least 2011 in Georgia, where state law prohibits felons from voting. Despite that, court documents showed that Pritchard signed voter registration forms in 2008 in which he affirmed that he was 'not serving a sentence for having been convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude.' He then cast ballots in four Georgia primary and general elections in 2008, as well as five special, primary and general elections in 2010.... Pritchard is a conservative talk show host and the owner of fetchyournews.com, which he has described as a conservative political news site." (Also linked yesterday.) An NBC News story is here.

South Carolina, et al. Justice Deferred. Patrick Marley of the Washington Post: "In a scenario that has played out in three states in recent years, a federal court ruled Thursday that time had run out to draw a new congressional district in South Carolina and that the state would have to proceed this fall with an existing election map the court had previously deemed illegal. The ruling echoes redistricting cases in other Southern states where courts found that congressional maps violated the voting rights of Black voters and other people of color but allowed them to be used anyway, at least temporarily. In recent years, that happened in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana. In the latest instance, a panel of three judges decided to let South Carolina use a new map drawn by the Republican-led legislature because the Supreme Court had not yet decided an appeal that will ultimately determine how the district should be drawn. Voting rights advocates decried the ruling, saying it is unjust to hold even one election in districts that are unconstitutional." P.S. Thanks, Supremes!

Texas. Orlando Mayorquín of the New York Times:"In a case that has prompted outrage from voting-rights activists for years, a Texas appeals court reversed itself on Thursday and acquitted a woman who had been sentenced to five years in prison for illegally casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election. The decision came two years after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, ruled that the lower appeals court, the Second Court of Criminal Appeals, had misconstrued the illegal voting statute under which Crystal Mason was found guilty in 2018. Ms. Mason, 49, of Fort Worth, had been charged with illegally voting in the 2016 general election by casting a provisional ballot while she was a felon on probation. That ballot was never officially counted, and Ms. Mason insisted that she did not know she was ineligible to vote and had acted on the advice of a poll worker who said she could cast the ballot." The Guardian's story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Russia. Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "Since his arrest [a year ago, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan] Gershkovich, 32, has been held in the notorious high-security Lefortovo prison in Moscow, the same facility holding the people accused in the deadly attack at a concert venue in the city this month. The Journal and the U.S. government have vehemently denied that Mr. Gershkovich is a spy, saying he was an accredited journalist doing his job. On Tuesday, Mr. Gershkovich's detention was extended for yet another three months. A trial date has not been set.... Roger Carstens, the Biden administration's special envoy for hostage affairs, said the U.S. government had 'intensive efforts' underway to secure Mr. Gershkovich's release, as well as the release of another detained American, Paul Whelan, a Marine veteran who is also accused of espionage. 'Journalism is not a crime,' Mr. Carstens said in a statement."

News Ledes

The Washington Post's live updates of developments following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore are here: "A crane described by officials as the largest on the Eastern Seaboard is expected to arrive in Baltimore on Friday, as efforts get underway to clean up the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed earlier this week after it was struck by a cargo ship. Officials have emphasized that reopening the Port of Baltimore, where vessel traffic is suspended indefinitely, is their top priority and that teams are needed to finish assessments to determine where to cut the bridge into pieces before they could start extracting it.... Federal transportation officials have approved $60 million in emergency funding for recovery and cleanup efforts. More federal funds will follow, but longer-term funding from Congress could take months. The steps necessary to reopen the Port of Baltimore involve clearing debris from the channel, then moving the cargo vessel that struck the Key Bridge and eventually removing the rest of the bridge debris from the waterway."

New York Times: "Louis Gossett Jr., who took home an Academy Award for 'An Officer and a Gentleman' and an Emmy for 'Roots,' both times playing a mature man who guides a younger one taking on a new role -- but in drastically different circumstances -- died early Friday in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 87."

CNBC: "Inflation rose in line with expectations in February, likely keeping the Federal Reserve on hold before it can start considering interest rate cuts, according to a measure the central bank considers its more important barometer. The personal consumption expenditures price index excluding food and energy increased 2.8% on a 12-month basis and was up 0.3% from a month ago, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Both numbers matched the Dow Jones estimates.... Along with the inflation increase, consumer spending shot up 0.8% on the month, well ahead of the 0.5% estimate, possibly indicating additional inflation pressures. Personal income increased 0.3%, slightly softer than the 0.4% estimate."

The Conversation -- March 28, 2024

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "A Georgia Republican official who pushed false claims that the 2020 election was 'stolen' was found to have voted illegally nine times, a judge ruled this week. Brian Pritchard, first vice chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, as well as investigative costs, and be publicly reprimanded. Pritchard had been sentenced in 1996 in Pennsylvania to three years' probation for felony check forgery charges. His probation was revoked three times -- once in 1999, after he moved to Georgia, and again in 2002 and 2004. In 2004, a judge imposed a new seven-year probationary sentence on Pritchard, thus making him ineligible to vote until at least 2011 in Georgia, where state law prohibits felons from voting. Despite that, court documents showed that Pritchard signed voter registration forms in 2008 in which he affirmed that he was 'not serving a sentence for having been convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude.' He then cast ballots in four Georgia primary and general elections in 2008, as well as five special, primary and general elections in 2010.... Pritchard is a conservative talk show host and the owner of fetchyournews.com, which he has described as a conservative political news site."

CNN is liveblogging a court hearing on Trump's effort to dismiss the Georgia election interference case. "In a hearing underway now, a judge is considering whether the Georgia election subversion case against Donald Trump should be dismissed on First Amendment grounds. Trump’s lead attorney in the case is arguing in court that the indictment should be thrown out because the former president's political speech is protected. Trump is not attending the hearing." Both CNN & MSNBC currently (10:15 am ET) are airing the hearing live. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As far as I can figure out the Trumpy argument, it goes like this: you and I and anybody can organize, manage & direct any sort of criminal plot -- be it a terrorist attack or murder or a bank heist -- and be adjudged completely innocent because we were just exercising our First Amendment free-speech rights.

Ken Sweet & Larry Neumeister of the AP: "Crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for a massive fraud that unraveled with the collapse of FTX, once one of the world's most popular platforms for exchanging digital currency. Bankman-Fried, 32, was convicted in November of fraud and conspiracy -- a dramatic fall from a crest of success that included a Super Bowl advertisement and celebrity endorsements from stars like quarterback Tom Brady, basketball star Stephen Curry and comedian Larry David. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan imposed the sentence in the same Manhattan courtroom where, four months ago, Bankman-Fried testified that his intention had been to revolutionize the emerging cryptocurrency market with his innovative and altruistic ideas, not to steal."

Chris Hayes on the MAGA Tax, Trump's brilliant plan to make most consumer goods more expensive. Thanks to RAS for the lead:

~~~~~~~~~~

Michael Sisak of the AP: "Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order ahead of his April 15 hush-money criminal trial, making a fallacious claim about his daughter and urging him to step aside from the case. In a social media post, the former president suggested without evidence that Judge Juan M. Merchan was kowtowing to his daughter's interests as a Democratic political consultant. He also made a claim -- later repudiated by court officials -- that she had posted a social media photo showing Trump behind bars. Trump ... complained on his Truth Social platform that the gag order issued Tuesday was 'illegal, un-American, unConstitutional.'... In a statement, a spokesperson for New York's state court system said that claim was false and that the social media account Trump was referencing no longer belongs to Loren Merchan[, Merchan's daughter]. It appears to have been taken over by someone else after she deleted it about a year ago, court spokesperson Al Baker said." ~~~

     ~~~ Jesse McKinley & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "It is hardly the only online hoax that Mr. Trump has promoted over the years, but unleashing apparently false claims concerning the judge's daughter just weeks before the trial begins represents an escalation on his part. It came a day after Justice Merchan imposed a gag order on Mr. Trump, barring him from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, jurors and court staff. Notably, the judge and his family are not included in the gag order." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Well, Donald, this is my account. ~~~

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A judge in California recommended on Wednesday that the lawyer John Eastman be stripped of his law license, finding he had violated rules of professional ethics by persistently lying in his efforts to help ... Donald J. Trump maintain his grip on power after losing the 2020 election. In a 128-page ruling, the judge, Yvette Roland, said Mr. Eastman had willfully misrepresented facts in lawsuits he helped file challenging the election results and acted dishonestly in promoting a 'wild theory' that Mr. Trump's vice president, Mike Pence, could unilaterally declare him the victor during a certification proceeding at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 'In sum, Eastman exhibited gross negligence by making false statements about the 2020 election without conducting any meaningful investigation or verification of the information he was relying upon,' Judge Roland found, adding that he had breached 'his ethical duty as an attorney to prioritize honesty and integrity.' The ruling said Mr. Eastman would lose his license within three days of the decision being issued." ~~~

     ~~~ Katelyn Polantz & Hannah Rabinowitz of CNN: "The opinion serves as a recommendation to the California Supreme Court, which will ultimately decide whether to endorse or reject the punishment. Eastman will have the opportunity to appeal Roland's ruling."

Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "Lawyers for Hunter Biden urged a federal judge on Wednesday to dismiss the nine tax charges filed against him, arguing that prosecutors botched some facts of the case and allowed politics to influence their charging decisions.... [U.S. District Judge Mark] Scarsi did not reveal how he would rule on each of the nine motions that Biden filed but pushed back the hardest on the motion claiming that the indictment is the result of 'selective and vindictive' prosecution. He said he would rule on all the motions by April 17.... 'One of the big hurdles that this motion has it that it's not filed with any evidence,' Scarsi said." MB: Um, I can see where that would be a problem.

Jamie Gangel & Gregory Krieg of CNN: "The Republican operative who accused American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp of sexual assault last year received a significant financial settlement in exchange for dropping his lawsuit against Schlapp, multiple sources familiar with the case told CNN. The $480,000 settlement was paid to Carlton Huffman through an insurance policy, according to a source familiar with the details. Schlapp's legal team did not respond for comment when asked about the financial settlement, but on Tuesday said that Huffman dropped the lawsuit and Schlapp claimed he had been exonerated.... Schlapp initially touted the end of the lawsuit on social media with a link to a Washington Examiner story headlined, 'CPAC's Matt Schlapp cleared in assault case, accuser apologizes.'... The original story is still online, but Schlapp's tweet has since been deleted."

Presidential Race -- Scams Edition

Molly Escobar, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump has spent more than $100 million since leaving office, on lawyers and other costs related to fending off various investigations, indictments and his coming criminal trials, according to a New York Times review of federal records. The remarkable sum means that Mr. Trump has averaged more than $90,000 a day in legal-related costs for more than three years -- none of it paid for with his own money. Instead, the former president has relied almost entirely on donations made in an attempt to fight the results of the 2020 election. Now, those accounts are nearly drained, and Mr. Trump faces a choice: begin to pay his own substantial legal fees or find another way to finance them." The article details how the Big Grifter pulled in cash, where he put it, and how he moved it to pay his lawyers. (Also linked yesterday.)

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Trump Media & Technology Group -- the owner of Truth Social, the site Mr. Trump uses to rally his backers and blast his opponents -- could present a new, fairly straightforward route for foreign leaders or special interests to try to influence him. Should he retain his control of the company while in office, the ethical questions that arose from Mr. Trump's hotels and other properties in his first term as president would only multiply when applied to a publicly traded media company, they said. 'This will be a very easy vehicle for foreign governments that want to curry favor with the president to throw money at him in a way that benefits his financial bottom line,' said Jack Goldsmith..., a top Justice Department official under President George W. Bush. Corporations and other players wanting to sway Mr. Trump could buy advertising on Truth Social, other experts said. They could try to get on his radar by buying shares in the company. As the nation's leader whose every utterance is monitored around the world, Mr. Trump would also be in an extraordinary position to drive traffic -- and ultimately revenue -- by the habitual use of the site. Ethics experts see few legal obstacles to these scenarios."

Michael Scherer, et al., of the Washington Post: "The biggest donors in Republican politics largely shunned Ron DeSantis after his presidential campaign began to falter last summer. So his allies turned to donors the Florida governor still held sway over because of his day job." The reporters provide many examples of the cozy relationships between DeSantolini & his donors who had business before the state. James Uthmeier, Gov. Ron's chief-of-staff, was indignant: "Anybody working closely with the governor, such as I do, knows he is a man of unwavering principle and he would be the last person to grant access or state favor in exchange for political support, as your article suggests." Blah-blah. (Also linked yesterday.)

Other Presidential Race News

Chris Megerian & Colleen Long of the AP: "A fundraiser for President Joe Biden on Thursday in New York City that also stars Barack Obama and Bill Clinton is raising a whopping $25 million, setting a record for the biggest haul for a political event, his campaign said."

Chris Megerian of the AP: "When President Joe Biden needs advice, there are two people he can turn to who know what it's like to sit in his chair. Sometimes he will invite Barack Obama over to the White House for a meal or he will get on the phone with Bill Clinton. The three men share decades of history at the pinnacle of American and Democratic leadership, making them an unusual trio in presidential history.... [Biden also has close ties to former President Jimmy Carter.] Carter's relationship with Biden goes back several decades. When Carter was running for president in 1976 as a little-known former governor of Georgia, Biden took a political risk by becoming the first sitting senator to endorse him.... The display of solidarity is a sharp contrast to Donald Trump's isolation from other Republican leaders.... Not even his own former vice president, Mike Pence, is willing to endorse Trump's bid for another White House term. The only other living Republican president, George W. Bush, is not a supporter, either."

Michael Gold of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump attacked Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate, on Wednesday morning, casting Mr. Kennedy as a liberal Democrat in disguise while also seeming to back him as a spoiler for President Biden's campaign. Mr. Trump ... pointed in particular to Mr. Kennedy's views on climate change and the environment, writing on his social media site that Mr. Kennedy was more 'radical Left' than Mr. Biden. Yet he also professed support for Mr. Kennedy's campaign, claiming that Mr. Kennedy would be likely to siphon votes from Mr. Biden. 'I love that he is running!' Mr. Trump concluded.... Two Trump campaign officials said they had seen polling that showed Mr. Kennedy drawing support from independent voters in a way that could be equally detrimental to both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden."

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s pick for the vice-presidential spot on his ticket is Nicole Shanahan, a 38-year-old philanthropist and tech entrepreneur who has never run for office before.... Whatever Shanahan's other virtues, the most important reason for her selection is that she is worth a fortune as the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who ranks as the 10th richest person in the world on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Their 2023 divorce settlement is confidential, but the Wall Street Journal reported that she was seeking more than $1 billion. Now that Shanahan is on the ticket with Kennedy, campaign finance law allows her to pour unlimited amounts of money into his campaign -- something he badly needs."

Michael Scherer & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie (R) has decided against running as the No Labels candidate for president after spending time and money gaming out the prospects of a centrist third-party bid.... 'While I believe this is a conversation that needs to be had with the American people, I also believe that if there is not a pathway to win and if my candidacy in any way, shape or form would help Donald Trump become president again, then it is not the way forward[,' Christie said in a statement to the Washington Post].... The decision leaves the group with few remaining high-profile options for candidates...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This took guts -- and principle. Christie is a well-known egoist, but he put country before himself. You don't have to like Chris Christie to recognize his rectitude here.

Noah Berlatsky in Public Notice: "All indications are that Tuesday's bridge collapse in Baltimore [was an accident,] but ... the bridge collapse..., for many on the right, [is] an opportunity to spread conspiracy theories, encourage chaos, push bigotry and resentment, stoke fears, and do Donald Trump's bidding by smearing [President] Biden.... The right's go-to response of panic and paranoia makes us all less safe by sowing confusion and promoting a reactionary brand of politics.... Georgia congresswoman and reliable conspiracy theorist goon Marjorie Taylor Greene rushed to her keyboard to call for a 'serious investigation' into what she said might be 'an intentional attack.'... South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace on Newsmax incoherently blamed the collapse on Biden's infrastructure bill, alleging it only devoted '$40 billion for traditional roads and bridges.' (Mace voted against the infrastructure bill but then tried to take credit for it anyway.)... American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp suggested the container ship failure was somehow caused by 'drug-addled' employees and covid lockdowns. Fox host Maria Bartiromo, meanwhile, linked the disaster to 'the wide open border.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Charlie Nash of Mediaite: 'Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott accused his critics of not having 'the courage to say the N-word' after he was branded the 'DEI mayor' following the fatal Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse this week. After Scott was blamed by some social media users for the collapse, with one of Elon Musk's favorite accounts calling him 'Baltimore's DEI mayor' -- an abbreviation for diversity, equity, and inclusion -- [Scott told] MSNBC host Joy Reid..., 'I know, and we know, and you know very well that Black men, and young Black men in particular, have been the bogeyman for those who are racist and think that only straight, wealthy White men should have a say in anything.'"

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Oh My Stars, a Hostile Work Environment. Rachel Bade of Politico: "The ramifications of NBC' decision yesterday to part ways with former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel just two days after her paid network debut on 'Meet the Press' are just starting to shake out. But they could be expensive. McDaniel expects to be fully paid out for her contract -- two years at $300,000 annually -- since she did not breach its terms, according to a person close to McDaniel. That means that her single, not-quite-20-minute interview Sunday could cost NBC more than $30,000 per minute, or $500 per second. That might be just the beginning of the fallout following yesterday's announcement from NBCUniversal News Group Chair Cesar Conde that the deal, first announced on Friday, would be canceled. McDaniel spoke yesterday with Bryan Freedman, renowned lawyer to the estranged cable-news stars, to discuss legal options even beyond recouping the dollar value of her contract.... McDaniel ... is exploring potential defamation and hostile work environment torts after MSNBC's top talent -- momentarily her colleagues -- took turns Monday blasting her on air." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Patrick suggested a way for NBC to deal with Ronna if she forces the network to pay out on her contract: make her fulfill her obligations, too, by giving her a relatively menial job -- like green room hostess. I suppose the contract specifies what she is to do for that $600K, so maybe producers would have to stop by to "interview" her or whatever. And I reckon they should be right friendly so as not to create a "hostile work environment." ~~~

     ~~~ Sarah Ellison & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "MSNBC President Rashida Jones participated in recruiting former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel earlier this month and McDaniel was offered a more lucrative contributor contract after she agreed to appear on MSNBC and not just NBC News, according to people familiar with the matter.... McDaniel was concerned she would face particularly harsh interviews, and the liberal-leaning viewers would not respond to her positively.... In a friendly call between Jones and McDaniel, the two spoke about American politics, their young children and the need to have differing views on the airwaves.... McDaniel agreed to appear on both networks after a series of informal discussions and the improved contract, the people said.... As of Tuesday afternoon, a person close to McDaniel said she still had not been notified of her termination.";

Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "... the question of how to cover Trump is no closer to being solved.... NBC executives indicated that they simply couldn't stand by her given the passionate reaction her hiring produced internally, but defended their intentions while saying they would try to find a new Trump surrogate." MB: I have a newsflash for all news publishers, executives, editors, columnists and reporters: IN A DEMOCRACY, YOU DO NOT GIVE EQUAL TIME TO FASCISTS, LIARS OR OTHERS WHO WORK TO DESTROY DEMOCRACTIC FOUNDATIONS & INSTITUTIONS. YOU FIGHT AGAINST THESE PEOPLE. If this is too difficult for you to grasp, ask yourself, would we hire Joseph Goebbels as a talking head? Would we invite him into Americans' livingrooms? Would we politely nod our heads when he was pushing violent antisemitic extremism & spouting hate? Argumentum ad Hitlerum? Yes, and sometimes that is not a fallacy.

Nothing to See Here, Folks. Climate Change Is a Hoax. Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "The melting of polar ice due to global warming is affecting Earth's rotation and could have an impact on precision timekeeping, according to a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature.... In just a few years it may be necessary to insert a 'negative leap second' into the calendar to get the planet's rotation in sync with Coordinated Universal Time. 'Global warming is managing to actually measurably affect the rotation of the entire Earth,' said study author Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at the University of California at San Diego. 'Things are happening that have not happened before.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "Joseph I. Lieberman, Connecticut's four-term United States senator and Vice President Al Gore's Democratic running mate in the 2000 presidential election, which was won by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney when the Supreme Court halted a Florida ballot recount, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 82." MB: As you may know, I have a general policy of not speaking ill of the dead. Right away, at least.

Eewww! Jennifer Schuessler & Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: "... a 19th-century French treatise on the human soul in a Harvard University library is bound in human skin. "On Wednesday, after years of criticism and debate, the university announced that it had removed the binding and would be exploring options for 'a final respectful disposition of these human remains.'... Harvard also said that its own handling of the book, a copy of Arsène Houssaye's 'Des Destinées de L'Ame,' or 'The Destiny of Souls,' had failed to live up to the 'ethical standards' of care, and had sometimes used an inappropriately 'sensationalistic, morbid and humorous tone' in publicizing it.... A report released in 2022 identified more than 20,000 human remains in Harvard's collections, ranging from full skeletons to locks of hair, bone fragments and teeth. They included the remains of about 6,500 Native Americans, whose handling is governed by the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, as well as 19 from people of African descent who may have been enslaved."

Weaselworld! A Scientific Theory of the Course of Human Events. Ciarán Daly of the (U.K.) Daily Star: "The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is responsible for some of the most groundbreaking scientific discoveries ever made, from the Higg's Boson to quasars.... In April 2016, the £4bn Hadron Collider was forced to shut down for a number of days after a weasel got inside a high-voltage transformer and was 'fried to death'.... Conspiracy theorists on the Internet believe that the weasel's intrusion set off a chain of events which have doomed civilisation as we know it, starting with the death of Harambe gorilla less than two weeks later and culminating in the election of ... Donald Trump." RAS hails this as a conspiracy theory that makes sense. I agree. Any theory that links Donald Trump to a weasel and a violent gorilla can't be wrong (although, admittedly, there's evidence Harambe may have meant no harm, which cannot be said of Trump).

~~~~~~~~~~

Arizona. Fredreka Schouten, et al., of CNN: "Kari Lake, a Republican Senate candidate from Arizona who has advanced election conspiracy theories, is asking a judge to decide whether she must pay damages to a top county election official who sued her for defamation -- after opting not to defend her statements in the case. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer last year sued Lake -- who ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor in 2022 -- arguing that her repeated false claims of election malfeasance made him and his family the targets of relentless threats. Richer and Lake are both Republicans, and his lawsuit marked an aggressive step by Richer to confront Lake's election claims -- which have been rejected by the courts.... 'After months of doubling down and defending their lies across Arizona, in the media, and on social media, when push came to shove, the Defendants decided to completely back down and concede that their lies were just that: lies,' [Richer] said." Lake claims she's not conceding that she has been spouting lies. MB: She is.

     ~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "For the second time in eight months, a top Donald Trump ally has, extraordinarily, declined to try to prove that they didn't defame an election worker. Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake (R) has joined former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani in that distinction. The news comes even as Trump owes more than $86 million after losing a pair of defamation cases against E. Jean Carroll, whom he has arguably continued to defame. Throw in the $787.5 million Fox News agreed to pay a voting machine company over bogus theories that it aired bolstering Trump's stolen-election claims and the $148 million judgment against Giuliani, and the combined bill is north of $1 billion -- and potentially growing.... The Trump political movement has long had a truth problem. That has now manifested itself as a very expensive defamation problem. As well as anything, these defamation cases lay bare just how careless and demagogic the MAGA movement has become."

Florida. Edward Moreno & Brooks Barnes of the New York Times: "The Walt Disney Company and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida have reached a settlement over control of a special tax district that includes the Disney World theme park in Orlando, the company said on Wednesday.... In response to Disney's criticism of a Florida education law that opponents called 'Don't Say Gay,' Mr. DeSantis took over the tax district, appointing a new board and ending the company's long-held ability to self-govern Disney World as if it were a county. Before the takeover took effect, however, Disney signed contracts -- quietly, but in publicly advertised meetings -- to lock in development plans worth some $17 billion over the next decade. An effort by Mr. DeSantis and his allies to void the contracts resulted in Disney suing Mr. DeSantis and the tax district in federal court. The new appointees then sued the company in state court." This is a breaking news story & will be updated. The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

New Hampshire Congressional Race. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.), chair of the influential New Democratic Coalition, will not seek reelection this year.... Kuster has led the centrist New Democratic Coalition in a thinly divided House, which gave the group more influence in the chamber." In a statement, Kuster said she was retiring because she was sick of one of her constituents and neighbors, Marie Burns, sending her all those emails urging her not to be such a wuss. (Also linked yesterday.)

Montana. Patrick Svitek of the Washington Post: "Montana's highest court on Wednesday struck down four laws that the state's Republican-led legislature passed in 2021 to restrict voting. The Montana Supreme Court declared the laws unconstitutional, siding with a district court judge who ruled against them in 2022. The laws 'violate the fundamental right to vote provided to all citizens by the Montana Constitution,' according to a summary of the majority opinion that was signed by four of the seven justices. The laws ended same-day voter registration in most cases, eliminated student ID cards as a permitted form of voter ID and sought to curtail paid ballot-collection efforts. They also outlawed absentee ballots for people who would be 18 years old by Election Day."

Virginia. Machine Gun Youngkin. Gregory Schneider & Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Gov. Glenn Youngkin has vetoed an assault weapons ban and a slate of other gun-control bills passed by the Virginia General Assembly, but he signed a pair of firearm-related measures into law: One bans a device that turns a semiautomatic firearm into a machine gun, and the other allows a parent or guardian to be charged with a felony for allowing a child who has been deemed a threat to have access to a gun." (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office agreed to reschedule a visit by an Israeli delegation to Washington, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, to further discuss U.S. concerns about Israel's planned ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Israel previously canceled the delegation after the United States abstained from a U.N. Security Council vote on a cease-fire resolution, allowing it to pass.... Netanyahu told members of Congress visiting Jerusalem on Wednesday his military has 'no choice' but to plan for a ground offensive into Rafah. Israel says Hamas militants are hiding alongside remaining hostages in Rafah."

News Ledes

The Washington Post's liveblog of developments in the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse is here: "Divers recovered the bodies of two construction workers who died when a massive cargo ship struck and collapsed a Baltimore bridge, as investigators revealed Wednesday that hazardous material was leaking from breached containers on the stranded vessel and state and federal lawmakers rushed to begin the recovery from the disaster that crippled the Port of Baltimore. Rescue crews found the victims shortly before 10 a.m. trapped in a red pickup truck in about 25 feet of water in the Patapsco River near the mid-span of the hulking wreck of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Maryland State Police Secretary Roland L. Butler Jr. said at a news conference. The conditions were treacherous for the divers, so Butler said they were suspending the search for the bodies of four other construction workers who plunged to their deaths when the container ship in distress struck the bridge shortly before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, causing it to fall.

"The workers are believed to be the only victims in the disaster.... The victims recovered were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Md. Other victims identified Wednesday were Maynor Suazo Sandoval, 38, from Honduras, and Miguel Luna, from El Salvador, who was the father of three. The names of the remaining two victims have not been released." ~~~

~~~ CNN's live updates are here.

The Conversation -- March 27, 2024

Nothing to See Here, Folks. Climate Change Is a Hoax. Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "The melting of polar ice due to global warming is affecting Earth's rotation and could have an impact on precision timekeeping, according to a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature.... In just a few years it may be necessary to insert a 'negative leap second' into the calendar to get the planet's rotation in sync with Coordinated Universal Time. 'Global warming is managing to actually measurably affect the rotation of the entire Earth,' said study author Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at the University of California at San Diego. 'Things are happening that have not happened before.'"

Molly Escobar, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump has spent more than $100 million since leaving office, on lawyers and other costs related to fending off various investigations, indictments and his coming criminal trials, according to a New York Times review of federal records. The remarkable sum means that Mr. Trump has averaged more than $90,000 a day in legal-related costs for more than three years -- none of it paid for with his own money. Instead, the former president has relied almost entirely on donations made in an attempt to fight the results of the 2020 election. Now, those accounts are nearly drained, and Mr. Trump faces a choice: begin to pay his own substantial legal fees or find another way to finance them." The article details how the Big Grifter pulled in cash, where he put it, and how he moved it to pay his lawyers.

Noah Berlatsky in Public Notice: "All indications are that Tuesday's bridge collapse in Baltimore [was an accident,] but ... the bridge collapse..., for many on the right, [is] an opportunity to spread conspiracy theories, encourage chaos, push bigotry and resentment, stoke fears, and do Donald Trump's bidding by smearing [President] Biden.... The right's go-to response of panic and paranoia makes us all less safe by sowing confusion and promoting a reactionary brand of politics.... Georgia congresswoman and reliable conspiracy theorist goon Marjorie Taylor Greene rushed to her keyboard to call for a 'serious investigation' into what she said might be 'an intentional attack.'... South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace on Newsmax incoherently blamed the collapse on Biden's infrastructure bill, alleging it only devoted '$40 billion for traditional roads and bridges.' (Mace voted against the infrastructure bill but then tried to take credit for it anyway.)... American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp suggested the container ship failure was somehow caused by 'drug-addled' employees and covid lockdowns. Fox host Maria Bartiromo, meanwhile, linked the disaster to 'the wide open border.'"

Oh My Stars, a Hostile Work Environment. Rachel Bade of Politico: "The ramifications of NBC's decision yesterday to part ways with former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel just two days after her paid network debut on 'Meet the Press' are just starting to shake out. But they could be expensive. McDaniel expects to be fully paid out for her contract -- two years at $300,000 annually -- since she did not breach its terms, according to a person close to McDaniel. That means that her single, not-quite-20-minute interview Sunday could cost NBC more than $30,000 per minute, or $500 per second. That might be just the beginning of the fallout following yesterday's announcement from NBCUniversal News Group Chair Cesar Conde that the deal, first announced on Friday, would be canceled. McDaniel spoke yesterday with Bryan Freedman, renowned lawyer to the estranged cable-news stars, to discuss legal options even beyond recouping the dollar value of her contract.... McDaniel ... is exploring potential defamation and hostile work environment torts after MSNBC's top talent -- momentarily her colleagues -- took turns Monday blasting her on air."

Florida. Edward Moreno & Brooks Barnes of the New York Times: “The Walt Disney Company and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida have reached a settlement over control of a special tax district that includes the Disney World theme park in Orlando, the company said on Wednesday.... In response to Disney's criticism of a Florida education law that opponents called 'Don't Say Gay,' Mr. DeSantis took over the tax district, appointing a new board and ending the company's long-held ability to self-govern Disney World as if it were a county. Before the takeover took effect, however, Disney signed contracts -- quietly, but in publicly advertised meetings -- to lock in development plans worth some $17 billion over the next decade. An effort by Mr. DeSantis and his allies to void the contracts resulted in Disney suing Mr. DeSantis and the tax district in federal court. The new appointees then sued the company in state court." This is a breaking news story & will be updated. The AP's report is here.

Michael Scherer, et al., of the Washington Post: :The biggest donors in Republican politics largely shunned Ron DeSantis after his presidential campaign began to falter last summer. So his allies turned to donors the Florida governor still held sway over because of his day job." The reporters provide many examples of the cozy relationships between DeSantolini & his donors who had business before the state. James Uthmeier, Gov. Ron's chief-of-staff, was indignant: "Anybody working closely with the governor, such as I do, knows he is a man of unwavering principle and he would be the last person to grant access or state favor in exchange for political support, as your article suggests." Blah-blah.

New Hampshire Congressional Race. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.), chair of the influential New Democratic Coalition, will not seek reelection this year.... Kuster has led the centrist New Democratic Coalition in a thinly divided House, which gave the group more influence in the chamber." In a statement, Kuster said she was retiring because she was sick of one of her constituents and neighbors, Marie Burns, sending her all those emails urging her not to be such a wuss.

Virginia. Machine Gun Youngkin. Gregory Schneider & Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Gov. Glenn Youngkin has vetoed an assault weapons ban and a slate of other gun-control bills passed by the Virginia General Assembly, but he signed a pair of firearm-related measures into law: One bans a device that turns a semiautomatic firearm into a machine gun, and the other allows a parent or guardian to be charged with a felony for allowing a child who has been deemed a threat to have access to a gun."

~~~~~~~~~~

** Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "A majority of the Supreme Court appeared deeply skeptical on Tuesday of efforts to severely curtail access to a widely used abortion pill, questioning whether a group of anti-abortion doctors and organizations had a right to challenge the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the medication. Over nearly two hours of argument, justices across the ideological spectrum seemed likely to side with the federal government, with only two justices, the conservatives Samuel A. Alito Jr. and, possibly, Clarence Thomas, appearing to favor limits on the distribution of the pill.... The challenge involves mifepristone, a drug approved by the F.D.A. more than two decades ago that is used in nearly two-thirds of abortions in the country. At issue is whether the agency acted appropriately in expanding access to the drug in 2016 and again in 2021 by allowing doctors to prescribe it through telemedicine and to send the pills by mail."

     ~~~ For details of the hearing, you might want to visit the New York Times liveblog of oral arguments "over the availability of a commonly used abortion pill, raising the possibility that it could sharply curtail access to the drug -- even in states where abortion access remains legal." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's something I learned from the liveblog: Erin Hawley, who represents the anti-abortion doctors, is married to Running Man Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).

Presidential Race

Reid Epstein & Maya King of the New York Times: "President Biden, after being interrupted at an event in North Carolina on Tuesday by protesters angry about his approach to the war in Gaza, told the audience that the demonstrators 'have a point,' adding, 'We need to get a lot more care into Gaza.' Mr. Biden's remark, which drew cheers and applause from the crowd at a community center gymnasium in Raleigh, came after the White House and the Biden campaign had spent weeks trying to keep pro-Palestinian protesters away from the president's events, hoping to keep the spotlight on his domestic agenda. In Raleigh on Tuesday, more than 200 people invited by the White House attended an event where Mr. Biden and Vice President strong> Kamala Harris spoke about the Affordable Care Act and their administration's health care record. The interruption came from a group of about half a dozen people."

M.J. Lee & Jeff Zeleny of CNN: Former President Barack Obama's "engagement with the Biden campaign is expected to intensify as the general election kicks into higher gear, and aides said he has already agreed to several campaign appearances before November as he works to help rebuild [President] Biden's winning coalition from 2020. Obama's biggest embrace of Biden's reelection effort comes Thursday at a star-studded Manhattan fundraiser featuring Biden, Obama and former President Bill Clinton. The three presidents will sit for a rare conversation, moderated by Stephen Colbert."

Michael Gold & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Days before Easter, Mr. Trump posted a video on his social media platform in which he encouraged his supporters to buy the 'God Bless the USA Bible,' named after the ballad by the country singer Lee Greenwood, which Mr. Trump plays as he takes the stage at his rallies. 'All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many. It's my favorite book,' said Mr. Trump, who before entering politics was not overtly religious and who notably stumbled while referencing a book of the Bible during his 2016 campaign. 'It's a lot of people's favorite book.' Though Mr. Trump is not selling the Bible, he is getting royalties from purchases.... Priced at $59.99, plus shipping and tax, the 'God Bless the USA Bible' includes a King James Bible and a handwritten version of the chorus of Mr. Greenwood's song, and copies of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Pledge of Allegiance." The AP story is here.

He Has the Best Words. Colby Hall of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump appeared to announce he supports Obamacare -- or at least is not running to end the ACA -- but that's the least newsworthy part of his latest ALL CAPS rant, which features misspellings and malapropisms.... Trump is blaming President Joe Biden [for claiming Trump wants to end the ACA] or some mythical figure named 'CROOKED JOE BUDEN' in his social media post, whom he claims 'DISINFORMATES AND MISINFORMATES ALL THE TIME.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: No doubt there are many public figures who are bad at grammar & spelling and who otherwise write poorly. Most have the sense to have aides proof their public statements.

Trump: Too Many Tuesdays, Not Enough Crime. Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "President Joe Biden's campaign on Monday released an unusually blunt statement tearing into Donald Trump as 'feeble, confused, and tired' after an appearance marked by verbal stumbles as well as a bizarre social media post in which he likened himself to Christ. 'He spent the weekend golfing, the morning comparing himself to Jesus, and the afternoon lying about having money he definitely doesn't have,' the statement said.... [Trump made] a rambling appearance..., which included several gaffes, including an odd moment when the former president insisted that 'you can't have an election in the middle of a political season.' The former president added: 'We just had Super Tuesday, and we had a Tuesday after Tuesday already.' Trump also vowed to 'bring crime back to law and order.'" MB: Well, he's certainly done that. (Also linked yesterday.)

Only the Delusional Need Apply. Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Those seeking employment at the Republican National Committee after a Trump-backed purge of the committee this month have been asked in job interviews if they believe the 2020 election was stolen, according to people familiar with the interviews, making the false claim a litmus test of sorts for hiring. A group of senior Trump advisers have been in the RNC building in recent days conducting the interviews.... RNC staffers were told en masse in early March that they were being let go but could reapply for jobs, and the application process has included an interview with the Trump advisers. The Trump advisers this week are vetting both former employees and some laid-off employees -- whose last day is Friday -- to decide how many can either return or stay with the RNC."

Meryl Kornfield & Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday that tech lawyer and megadonor Nicole Shanahan would join his independent presidential ticket as his running mate, a move that would provide Kennedy with more ballot access as he pursues his long-shot bid for the White House. Kennedy, 70, announced his pick in her California hometown, miles from the hub of the technology industry. Shanahan, 38, has grown to prominence as a Bay Area lawyer with deep Silicon Valley ties and was previously married to billionaire Google co-founder Sergey Brin.... From 2013 to last year, campaign finance records show Shanahan, who has remained relatively unknown in politics, supported Democrats. She made a $25,000 donation in 2020 in support of Joe Biden. She has contributed up to the maximum limit to his campaign and donated millions to a Kennedy super PAC, including $4 million toward a commercial it ran for him during the Super Bowl."

The Trials of Trump, Etc.

** Ben Protess & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: [Juan Merchan,] "the New York judge presiding over one of Donald J. Trump's criminal trials, imposed a gag order on Tuesday that prohibits him from attacking witnesses, prosecutors and jurors, the latest effort to rein in the former president's wrathful rhetoric about his legal opponents.... Mr. Trump cannot make, or direct others to make, statements about witnesses' roles in the case. Mr. Trump is also barred from commenting on prosecutors, court staff and their relatives -- if he intended to interfere with their work on the case. Any comments whatsoever about jurors are banned as well, the judge ruled....Mr. Trump is not prohibited from attacking [Manhattan District Attorney Alvin] Bragg, who has received numerous death threats in recent months....

In a rambling and angry post on his social media site on Tuesday, Mr. Trump made an ominous reference to [Michael] Cohen..., one of Mr. Bragg's main witnesses..., claiming without explanation that his former fixer was 'death.' He also referred to one of Mr. Bragg's prosecutors in pejorative terms. Both comments would now arguably violate the gag order.... Justice Merchan is just the latest judge to impose a gag order on the former president.... In a separate order Tuesday, Justice Merchan issued a stern warning to Mr. Trump's lawyers as well. He reminded them to behave professionally, or risk being held in contempt." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's report is here. Judge Merchan's order, via the New York court system, is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Marie: Nearly every day of every year since Donald Trump became a candidate for president* in 2015, this depraved mobster has proved again that he is remarkably unqualified to hold any public office, including janitor at a local jail.

"Smart Thermostats." Kyle Cheney of Politico: Donald Trump's deputy White House counsel, Pat Philbin, testified Tuesday in a disbarment hearing for Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ official whom Trump ever-so-briefly made acting attorney general. "It was Philbin's first public testimony about the chaotic final days of the Trump presidency since he left the White House.... Philbin's description of his interactions with Clark shed new light on the frenzied effort by Trump to remake the Justice Department into a tool of his bid to cling to power.... His testimony followed Richard Donoghue, a former acting deputy attorney general.... Philbin, who testified for about two hours on Tuesday, described Clark as wildly misinformed about claims of election fraud -- countenancing a theory about 'smart thermostats' being used to manipulate voting machines -- and not sufficiently cognizant of the havoc it would wreak on the country if his plan succeeded."

Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's social media start-up surged in its first day of trading as a public company Tuesday, a stock-market debut that helped deliver the Republican presidential candidate a multibillion-dollar fortune. The newly merged Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns the social network Truth Social, saw its share price climb roughly 35 percent in its first morning on the Nasdaq exchange.... Trump owns 60 percent of Trump Media, or roughly 78 million shares, a stake now worth more than $5 billion. The company's valuation, however, stands at odds with its business performance." (Also linked yesterday.)

Karla Adam & Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post: "A British court ruled Tuesday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will not be extradited immediately to the United States to face hacking and espionage charges and that U.S. officials must first provide assurances to British authorities that he would be able to rely on free-speech protections and not incur the death penalty in a U.S. trial. The U.K. High Court in London gave U.S. officials three weeks to provide the assurances and said Assange would be able to appeal his extradition if those promises were not forthcoming. A decision on whether Assange will be granted a full appeal hearing has been pushed back to May 20, provided the United States grants the assurances. Assange is expected to remain for now in London's Belmarsh prison, where he has been held since 2019."

Patrick Svitek & Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "A lawsuit accusing Matt Schlapp, the influential leader of the Conservative Political Action Conference, of sexual misconduct is being ended, according to both sides. The lawsuit began last year when a Republican operative, Carlton Huffman, alleged that Schlapp groped him without his consent during a political trip to Georgia in October 2022, then said in the suit that Schlapp also defamed him by denying the allegation and attacking his credibility.... The terms of the resolution were not disclosed."

** Ronna Fired After Working One Day. Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: "Amid a chorus of on-air protest from some of the network's biggest stars, NBC announced Tuesday night that former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel will no longer be joining the network as a paid contributor. In a memo, NBCUniversal News Group Chairman Cesar Conde told staff that he had listened to 'the legitimate concerns' of many network employees.... In his memo to employees, Conde apologized to employees 'who felt we let them down' and said he took responsibility for the botched hiring.... One by one, [MSNBC hosts] took to the airwaves to deliver that message to their bosses in front of their live audiences Monday.... NBC delivered the news of its course correction to its employees before informing McDaniel...." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here. Politico's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Paul Campos, in LG&$, explains why it is impossible for news outlets to employ Republican contributors: "... being a card-carrying Republican means by definition: (1) Supporting Donald Trump. (2) Supporting Trump's claims that his attempts to overthrow the government three years ago were legitimate, as opposed to seditious. (3) Trashing the entire mainstream American news media establishment.... In other words, the problem with Ronna McDaniel is precisely that she is a loyal member of Donald Trump's Republican party, which for those not scoring at home is now exactly synonymous with the Republican party, period."

Zachary Basu & Sara Fischer of Axios: "The overnight collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge drove a surge in online conspiracy theories Tuesday, many of them promoted by "verified" accounts with huge followings on X....Rampant misinformation during mass casualty events is not a new phenomenon. But under Elon Musk's ownership of X, the platform has changed from an essential real-time news source to a breeding ground for conspiracy theories.... Within hours, X accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers were promoting baseless claims that the Dali had been the victim of a cyber-attack or had intentionally rammed into the bridge.... Some verified right-wing accounts speculated that corporate diversity and inclusion initiatives were to blame for the disaster -- a claim also embraced during a spate of recent aircraft safety issues. Several antisemitic accounts with blue check marks claimed that the 'attack' was perpetrated by Israel."

~~~~~~~~~~

Alabama State House Election. Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "Democrat Marilyn Lands on Tuesday decisively won an Alabama state House seat in a long-held Republican district, notching a special-election victory after centering her campaign on promoting access to abortion and in vitro fertilization.... Lands beat Republican Teddy Powell by a wide margin -- about 25 percentage points -- in a politically moderate section of northern Alabama that Donald Trump won by a single percentage point in 2020.... National Democrats including President Biden's campaign weighed in on the outcome, saying Lands's win shows how their candidates can win tough races by highlighting abortion as a focal point. Republicans were quieter." The AP story is here.

Texas. This. Irritates. Me. David Goodman of the New York Times: "Nearly nine years after his indictment on charges of felony security fraud, Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, reached a deal with prosecutors on Tuesday to avoid a criminal trial that had been set to begin next month. The deal, announced by the prosecutors and lawyers for Mr. Paxton during a hearing in Houston, does not involve any admission of guilt but requires Mr. Paxton to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution, take legal ethics classes and perform 100 hours of community service. At the hearing, the judge in the case, Andrea Beall, asked questions but observed that the agreement had been made between the parties and the court could not block it.... For Mr. Paxton, a three-term Republican incumbent, the agreement amounted to another victory over opponents who have long hoped that his legal troubles would lead to his political undoing." (Also linked yesterday.) The Texas Tribune report is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Wednesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin urged Israel to abandon military plans for a ground offensive in Rafah, the southern Gaza city where the majority of Palestinians have crowded to escape fighting in other parts of the enclave. 'The number of civilian casualties is far too high and the amount of humanitarian aid is far too low,' Austin told Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during a meeting in Washington.... Israeli forces are continuing their week-long raid on al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday.... The head of Hamas's political operations, Ismail Haniyeh, met with Iran's foreign minister in Tehran on Tuesday, Iran's Press TV reported. Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari condemned the move as a sign that Iran and Hamas 'want to escalate the region.'"

News Ledes

Washington Post: "As a cargo ship the size of a skyscraper drifted dangerously close to a major Baltimore bridge that carried more than 30,000 cars a day, the crew of the Dali issued an urgent 'mayday,' hoping to avert disaster Tuesday. First responders sprang into action, shutting down most traffic on the four-lane Francis Scott Key Bridge just before the 95,000 gross-ton vessel plowed into a bridge piling at about 1:30 a.m., causing multiple sections of the span to bow and snap in a harrowing scene captured on video.... Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) hailed those who carried out the quick work as 'heroes' and said they saved lives, but the scale of the destruction was catastrophic and will probably have far-reaching impacts for the economy and travel on the East Coast for months to come." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates are here. CNN's live updates are here. ~~~

     ~~~ A Washington Post liveblog of developments is here: "Six people [-- bridge construction workers --] were presumed dead Tuesday evening, authorities announced as they shifted from a search and rescue operation to a recovery effort.... The governor declared a state of emergency, and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) announced that the city has deployed its emergency operations plan. Vessel traffic into and out of the Port of Baltimore was 'suspended until further notice.'"