The 24 Seven: Election ADHD Edition
24sight News’ twice-weekly newsletter highlighting the seven most important stories shaping the race for the White House
1. New old narrative
The Supreme Court is set to decide a critical extent of a president’s power today – or it could punt on the issue. Either way, this is likely to wipe out a fair amount of Biden debate coverage which has dominated (rightly so) coverage since Thursday’s showdown in Atlanta and place the politics spotlight back on former president Donald Trump and January 6th.
Trump fought his criminal charges surrounding his efforts to overthrow the 2020 election all the way to the Supreme Court with an argument that the Second Branch of government, the presidency, is “immune” from prosecution for official acts taken while in office – including spurring an insurrection.
2. News loops
51 million people tuned into the debate, which marks a record for debate-watching this year. (Conversely, 1 trillion people watched it on the platform formerly known as Twitter. Or maybe it was 1 quadrillion.)
Of course, that’s also 30 million less than who tuned into Trump’s battles with Hillary Clinton in 2016 and – also setting a modern record for losing audience.
Veteran media reporter Brian Stelter offers this important piece of context, however, which also tracks with declining news viewership across the from mainstream to partisan outlets. Most papers led their Sunday fronts with non-political stories. Further evidence that politics has returned to its own bubble after having spent a decade or so merged with pop culture
3. Scrap ‘Draft Gretch’
The continued collective freakout from Democrats left reeling by Biden’s debate flop last week prompted Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to let the campaign know she’s not angling to lead the top of the ticket (yet).
Politico reports that Whitmer, the two-term Democratic governor who’s been campaigning for House and Senate hopefuls this cycle as well as hobnobbing in Washington, called Biden campaign chair Jennifer O’Malley Dillon to say she wasn’t leading the “Draft Gretch” movement — an S.O.S. from panicking party members hoping to recruit a candidate capable of replacing Biden at the upcoming Democratic National Convention — and that she still supported the embattled incumbent.
Whitmer also alerted Dillon that post-debate the Great Lakes State, which Biden flipped from red (2016) to blue (2020) the last time he was up against Trump, “was no longer winnable for Biden.”
4. Oustables
The New York Times editorial board writes that Biden should drop out of the race after his disastrous performance because Trump is a clear threat to American democracy and Biden is too much of a gamble going into the election. The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board writes that Trump should drop out because he’s a serious threat to American democracy.
Chris Cillizza
goes the logical next step – even if Trump’s team seems to be ignoring possible alternatives, what would Vice President Kamala Harris look like at the top of the ticket – or in office should Biden depart after winning re-election.5. Beat him to the Martyring
Top nationalist talkshow host, former White House official and longtime presidential adviser Steve Bannon reports to jail today for a four-month prison sentence for refusing to testify about his role in stoking the January 6th insurrection.
That’s 10 days before Trump himself faces sentencing in his New York election fraud conviction. Trump, who has said he is the same as famous martyrs like Jesus, could be in prison as well.
Bannon tells ABC News he’s being martyred and that he’s worried about being in jail with some real nasty people.
Of note, Bannon was charged with contempt of Congress more than two years ago for refusing to testify and provide documents about his role in the violent January 6th insurrection. Bannon trained Trump’s attention after his 2020 loss on January 6th as a last chance to undermine the election.
6. “Black Jobs”
It’s hard to know precisely what Trump means when he floats ideas, but in one lucid moment from Thursday, Trump said that immigrants are stealing “Black jobs” and “Hispanic jobs”. (Biden’s online surrogates had a meme field day with that one.)
But Harvard historian Heather Cox Richardson, author of
, went deeper in pulling together one of the most consistent threads of Trump and his supporters: their nativism. Cox Richardson writes on the longstanding history of anti-immigrant forces in American politics, from the anti-Irish Know Nothings (who ultimately fractured the Whigs) to California populists who said it was Chinese immigrants who would be the ones “stealing” work.7. Chicago’s the new Milwaukee
The Democratic National Convention in Chicago just got way more interesting, perhaps even outshining the inherent bonanza expected in Milwaukee just a few weeks from now at the Republican National Convention.
The last time the Democratic Party held its full scale convention, in Philadelphia in 2016, Bernie Sanders delegates and supporters walked out into the swampy city heat en masse in protest after the Vermont democratic socialist endorsed Hillary Clinton.
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