The 24 Seven: Beta Max Edition
24sight News’ daily newsletter highlighting the seven most important stories shaping the race for the White House
1. Decisive Action
The 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump, called for an extra-constitutional prosecution of one of his political opponents – the latest in a series of promised attacks on his political opponents, should he regain power.
But given the chance to explain what he meant by imprisoning his opponents, as is done in dictatorships, Trump shied away from it with a cleaned up talking point. Later in his answer he said someone else may come after Biden for him.
The answer reflects Trump’s historic first attempt to attack Biden, five years ago, when he lobbied Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden and his family in return for military aid to defend against Russia.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden was just granted dictatorial powers by the Supreme Court – according to some legal experts – and hasn’t exercised this newly endowed power. In the latest example, New York prosecutors (who Trump believes are secretly controlled by Biden) agreed to Trump’s request to delay his sentencing in the 2016 election fraud conviction.
2. Influencers
The president could indeed direct the assassination of a political rival under the expanded powers granted by the Supreme Court, Politico reports, citing constitutional experts. The crux is the Supreme Court’s decision that the president’s “core powers” are immune from prosecution, which includes his role as the commander in chief of America’s military. So Biden and each subsequent president could indeed assassinate one of their domestic opponents using the military, without any check on them.
(Trump’s campaign team raised concerns about this online, also, but the former president himself has yet to weigh in on it.)
But Trump’s supporters have been arguing the decision, even though Trump believes it protects him completely in his multiple current cases, doesn’t really do that much. Former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr, who whitewashed the investigation into Russia’s support for Trump, said that the core power only applies to using the military to kill foreign enemies, not at home, The Hill reports.
Former Trump White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, host of the
Show on Substack and other platforms, joined the 24sight Pod to discuss this and more from the historic Supreme Court decision.Look for the latest episode of the 24sight Pod later today.
Spicer also offered his assessment of the possible Trump running mates and a surprise dark horse pick. (Heads up, Trump did not reveal his running mate last week. You could win some easy money betting that he won’t announce it this week.)
3. Blue wall problems
The political tea leaf readers at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics see two pivotal Midwestern states as being more in play after Biden’s demoralizing debate with Trump.
The continued fallout prompted Crystal Ball scribes to move Michigan from the “Leans Democratic” column to “Toss-up” and shift Minnesota from “Likely Democratic” to “Leans Democratic” in terms of likely Electoral College outcomes.
“Just to be clear, Biden has zero plausible paths to the White House without Michigan (and of course Minnesota),” writes contributor Kyle Kondik, adding that a continued Democratic doom spiral means “the next states to move to a more competitive category would be Maine’s two statewide electoral votes as well as Virginia and New Mexico.”
Trump won Michigan in 2016, but Biden flipped it back with a 2-point margin of victory in 2020. Biden won Minnesota by 6 points in 2020.
538’s aggregate of pollsters show Trump currently leading Biden by 2 points in Michigan while Biden has a 1 point lead in Minnesota.
4. Redo Williamson
Longshot presidential hopeful Marianne Williamson, who dropped out of the contest in February only to jump back in a few weeks later, is rebooting her campaign again by lobbying for an open convention in Chicago.
“The nominating process for the Democratic Party needs to begin again,” she urges in a new video offering herself up as an alternative to debate loss-stung Joe Biden. Williamson argues that her campaign collected roughly 500,000 votes in primary battles by connecting with everyday Americans who are sick of business as usual in Washington.
“We will not win by repackaging the status quo,” she says, pledging to pursue a laundry list of leftwing priorities including “Medicare for All, tuition-free higher education and tech school, affordable housing, and a guaranteed living wage.”
5. Weaponizing the Courtroom
As chatter grows that Biden may step aside and anoint Vice President Kamala Harris, NOTUS (a great new startup outlet stocked with a retinue of talented journalists) reports that Trump’s allies are already heading to court to try and force Biden to stay on the ballot.
The move comes despite Trump’s allies saying they expect Biden to stay on the ticket.
The subtext of this is growing chatter that Vice President Kamala Harris is in line to replace Biden on the ticket following his dismal debate performance.
Erstwhile Trump supporter Matthew Drudge leads his long-running site, The Drudge Report, with this headline: “It’s her party now.”
6. Showstopper
The white nationalist militia named after a broadway tune is back.
reports the “Proud Boys” are active again at Trump events and even running for office, this despite sweeping prison sentences for their members for their role in the January 6th insurrection.Full story here ($$).
7. Total Exoneration
The convicted former president said, again, that he has been cleared of all criminal charges (he hasn’t). He also said that water used to be available in the U.S. (it still is) and he’s good at dealing with shark attacks (no idea on that one).
Love the 7!