The 24 Seven - Criminal Campaign Edition
The 24 Seven - Criminal Campaign Edition
24sight News' twice weekly newsletter collecting the seven most important stories shaping the race for the White House
1 Hunter Convicted
A federal jury convicted Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, on three felony counts related to his 2018 purchase of a gun while under the influence of crack cocaine.
The president’s son, the first ever convicted of a crime while his father is in office, is set to be sentenced in October – placing his case right in the middle of the 2024 race as Americans begin voting. Hunter Biden could face up to 25 years in prison.
Joe Biden has said that he will not intervene in the process on his son’s behalf.
Related, Ronald Reagan’s daughter, Patti Davis, wrote in the New York Times about the possibility that Hunter may indeed have no recollection of the purchase – because she knows about the drug-induced haze of speed and cocaine.
2 Reality, virtually
The first former president convicted of a crime, Donald Trump, sat virtually Monday for a pre-sentencing interview with a New York probation officer, one month before he is set to find out if he will have to serve time in prison or some other punishment for hiding his affair with a porn star in an effort to win the 2016 election.
The probation officer will use that interview, which Trump sat for from his palatial Florida resort, Mar a Lago, to compile sentencing recommendations. Trump, who repeatedly attacked the New York judge who presided over his case and his family, could face time in prison or supervised release.
Trump’s sentencing is set for July 11, just days before he is set to become the first convicted felon to win a major party’s presidential endorsement.
Of note has been the exceedingly gentle treatment Trump has received from the criminal justice system, even as he attempts to self-identify with convicts and criminal defendants in what one Democratic lawmaker said is a clearly racist effort to win more minority voters.
3 No labels, please
Trump will be back in Washington Thursday for a series of meetings with Congressional Republicans, detailing what exactly he would push for if he returns to office. Senate GOP Conference Chair John Barrasso invited Trump to share policy ideas with his colleagues.
“I believe it will be helpful to hear directly from President Trump about his plans for the summer and to also share our ideas for a strategic governing agenda in 2025," the Wyoming Republican wrote to fellow Senate Republicans, according to NBC News.
Trump is also scheduled to speak with House Republicans Thursday morning, per Politico’s Olivia Beavers.
Trump’s campaign has fervently disavowed any formal connection to policy plans being crafted by Trump’s own longtime allies – ranging from Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation to the work of Trump’s longtime speechwriter and ideological adviser Stephen Miller.
But things in Trumpworld are rarely formal and official, and the candidate himself has floated many of the ideas being pushed by his longtime allies.
4 ‘More please’
Steve Schmidt of
commends the Biden campaign for getting under Trump’s skin by turning the former president’s words against him in a new ad dubbed “What Trump Thinks”:
“It is true, brutal and effective. More please. Much more,” Schmidt writes of a 60-second spot highlighting some of the disparaging comments Trump has made about military service over the years.
Schmidt includes a screengrab of the combative response Trump posted on social media, denying that he ever called fallen soldiers “losers” or “suckers” — even though his disdain for casualties of war is well documented.
“Biden must stay big and hit hard,” Schmidt writes, urging the incumbent president to keep hammering this apparent sore spot.
5 Numbers game
Veteran pollster Nate Silver runs through a nightmare scenario for Biden — a 270-268 Electoral College win — in his latest
The “what if” walk-through outlines how things would have to break in various swing states for Biden to eke out the narrowest possible victory on Election Day (or shortly thereafter).
And while the thought experiment may give both candidates pause (for very different reasons), Silver can’t seem to shake the feeling that Biden bolting from the race may be the way to beat Trump.
“If we get to the point where I think replacing Biden would clearly be the better choice — or clearly the worse choice — then trust me, I’ll say that. But for now, I don’t know — I just think it’s close,” Silver writes of the “extremely high-risk” play of Biden bowing out at the Democratic nominating convention in Chicago.
“However, renominating a candidate with a 37.6 percent approval rating … is also extremely high-risk,” Silver warns.
6 Distress Test
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is in hot water again, this time after undercover progressive journalist Lauren Windsor secretly taped him saying that only “one side” can win the ideological battle in America.
Read the whole report at Rolling Stone.
This comes on the heels of a series of stories showing that Alito’s wife flew an upside down American flag — a sign of distress used by the January 6th rioters — at their suburban Washington home and a flag associated at times with the January 6th rioters at their vacation home.
Perhaps more interesting, though, at a time when crazy seems to be the new normal is how positively restrained and moderated Chief Justice John Roberts was when approached by Windsor with the same question.
“The idea that the court is in the middle of a lot of tumultuous stuff, that’s nothing new,” Roberts told Windsor.
The Supreme Court is set to decide later this month on Trump’s claim, in his January 6th criminal trial, that he is “immune” from prosecution for any actions taken while he was president.
7 The race for Second
The New York Times places North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance in the top tier of contenders as the vetting gets underway here. Notably absent from the Times roundup are former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.
If you’ve got questions, post them in our chat by 12p ET tomorrow and we’ll get you answers.
Of note, this is the second time Trump has gone through the process of selecting a running mate. So we have a roadmap for how he makes decisions, or is pushed into decisions.