A new assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump was thwarted over the weekend when a man with a rifle was spotted near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf course while the president was golfing on Sunday.
It was the second time someone tried to pull a gun on the former president, but this time the Secret Service dealt with the threat before the gunman could fire. Happy Monday.
—William Kristol
“I think our people hate the right people,” said a relaxed J.D. Vance. Confided In an interview three years ago.
The “people of our party” Vance was referring to supporters of Donald Trump who were hoping to win his support in Ohio’s Republican Senate primary.
The “right people” Vance is referring to are liberal elites.
But it was also clear that Vance knew that he could not foment hatred against liberal elites without the collateral damage of hatred against immigrants, racial and ethnic minorities, cultural non-conformists, and any other group that these elites allegedly elevate at the expense of “our people.”
But events in recent weeks suggest that it was more than just collateral damage. these Importantly, the failure of liberal elites (such as to close the border or protect manufacturing jobs) has provided a pretext for the attacks on immigrants and minorities we saw under Trump. Therein lies the real political interest.
Let’s go back for a moment to Vance’s memorable sentence: When Vance says “hatred,” he means… hatred. Not disagreement or dislike. Hatred.
Vance’s politics are the politics of hate. Perhaps he once The Education of Henry Adams And he learned that “politics, whatever its discipline, as a practice, has always institutionalized hate.” Or maybe he simply watched Trump’s success and internalized the lesson. Either way, for Vance, it’s all about the hate.
And the attack on Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, represents the culmination of Vance’s, and certainly Trump’s, politics of hate.
This is also the culmination of Vance and Trump’s politics of lies. Vance admitted yesterday on CNN that he had tried to fabricate the Springfield report based on only a few baseless phone calls from constituents: “If I have to fabricate a story to get the American media to actually pay attention to the suffering of the American people, then I’m going to do it.”
The creation of stories. You can call them fiction. Or you can call them lies. Lies to justify and promote hatred towards minority groups. It seems to be common. It’s been common in Europe for the last century. It’s been common in American history, especially in periods on race and immigration.
Donald Trump, of course, is a master of spinning lies to incite hatred, but in his case, the hatred is so intertwined with his own brand of sleaze and conmanship that it sometimes becomes difficult to see the heart of the plot. With Vance, who is not a sleaze or conman, everything is much clearer.
Republican political activists have expressed frustration that Trump and Vance have pivoted from the border, which was supposed to be a winning strategy on immigration. Vice President Harris was tasked with managing immigration at the border. But the border is in chaos, and people are crossing illegally and committing crimes. So there’s plenty of fodder for a more traditional (but still nasty and demagogue) anti-immigration candidate.
But instead, Vance and Trump got “distracted” by a discussion about legal Haitian immigrants who came to Springfield to work legally. Or are they just distracted? Do Vance and Trump know what they’re doing? Is it possible that a pure stoking of racism and nativism is more politically effective than a somewhat complicated discussion about the border, especially in non-border Midwest states after Trump killed a border bill?
Either way, it is striking that Trump and Vance are apparently trying to turn this election into a referendum on nativism and racism.
Such efforts have worked well at other times in American history, and they have been supported by sophisticated allies who, while not joining the campaign, have not gone out of their way to condemn or reject it. Southern Bourbon Those who tolerated and benefited from the unrestrained racism of Southern populists and demagogues.
Today’s Republican establishment and conservative elites have the Southern equivalent of bourbon. In the face of the nasty bigotry and dangerous incitement from their preferred presidential candidate, what voice comes from the establishment and the elites, from their corporate boardrooms and newsrooms? The sound of silence.
—Andrew Egger
During the Donald Trump presidency, the popularRepublican response Story: Trump’s bad behavior had become the norm, and after each morning tirade or outrageous scandal, the question was always how far his congressional allies would go to let him off the hook.
Usually they would profess not to know what was going on. But now, Republican reactions will not be driven by ignorance. Whether it be policy treachery or personal insanity, almost everyone will support the man no matter what. The final gasp here was the aftermath of January 6th, when many Republicans finally woke up. there is nothing Trump might do so, which would destroy his popularity among voters whose widespread criticism of his violent attempts to steal the election has faded entirely into obscurity within months.
Still, there are moments of awed condescension. Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric against Haitian residents of Springfield, Ohio, dramatically escalated tensions there, with bomb threats forcing schools and government buildings to be evacuated twice last week and the local university suspending activities on Sunday. Campus shooting threats The Proud Boys, a violent right-wing group that targets Haitians, marched in Springfield on Saturday.
All of this was enough to draw a rebuke from Haiti’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, who in an interview with ABC News yesterday called the rumor that Haitians eat pets “totally untrue garbage.” Almost none Republicans in Congress are willing to go that far.
It’s not just Springfield. Last week, Trump brought Laura Loomer to not only Tuesday’s presidential debate, but also to the September 11 memorial the next day. Loomer is not just a repulsive conspiracy theorist. September 11 In particular, spreading conspiracy theories Called for attack Share “Insider Job” and other conspiracies about it last week.
“There are 10 Republicans in New York’s congressional delegation.” Huffington Post Reported on Friday:
No one has spoken publicly about Loomer’s false claims about 9/11 or about President Trump taking her to Ground Zero to commemorate those who died on Sept. 11, 2001. Huffington Post All 10 were reached for comment on Friday, and five responded. Only two of them directly criticized Loomer.
And of course, no one thought Trump should be blamed. bring about She. That part of the story, the Republican reaction, should be pretty self-evident by now.
Tying the Doctor’s Hands: Horrifying ProPublica News reports this morning cover the preventable death of Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman who developed a septic infection after taking the abortion pill, but whose doctors delayed treatment for more than 17 hours because they wondered whether her infection was serious enough to qualify for abortion care under Georgia’s narrow “maternal life” exception.
When Georgia’s law went into effect in July 2022, the authors write, “Governor Brian Kemp was ‘elated’ and said he believed the state had found a way to keep women ‘safe, healthy and informed.’ After advocates tried to block the ban in court, arguing that the law put women at risk, Georgia’s lawyers accused them of ‘exaggerated fear-mongering.’ Two weeks later, Thurman died.” Please read it all.
The man who said too much: J.D. Vance caused a stir last month when he said Donald Trump would veto a nationwide abortion ban, putting him at odds with Trump’s strategic stance of generally refusing to discuss the details of national abortion policy during the election campaign. Yesterday, Vance said: I asked the same question Again in an NBC interview, this time knowing full well he could remain vague: “I think I’ve learned my lesson about speaking for the president before I’ve actually discussed the issue with him.” Trump had disparaged Vance on the issue in a debate last week: “To be fair, I haven’t spoken to JD about it. I don’t mind him having a certain view, but I don’t think he was speaking for me.” The Republican candidate’s current position is that he is not committed to vetoing a nationwide abortion ban.
Always the one you least expected: Donald Trump is surrounded by charlatans, and the cryptocurrency industry is also full of charlatans, so it may not come as much of a surprise to you to learn that the guys running the Trump family’s new crypto scam are charlatans of the highest order. “Chase Herro has sold a lot of stuff in his career,” the new article begins. Bloomberg Profile of World Liberty Financial’s head of “data and strategy.” “Marijuana. Colonic cleansing for weight loss. Get rich quick for $149 a month. Now he’s adding another line to his resume: cryptocurrency guru for the Trump family.” Please read it all. Trump To be announced Tonight he talks about his family’s new cryptocurrency venture.
