The 24 Seven: Judgment Week Edition
24sight News' twice weekly newsletter collecting the seven most important stories shaping the race for the White House
1 Endless retribution
The prosecution is scheduled to rest its case this week in the historic first criminal trial of a former president of the United States. Donald Trump is charged with felonies stemming from his alleged payoff of porn star Stormy Daniels in an effort to win the 2016 election.
Trump, who refused to take the stand, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in this case, as well as the other looming criminal trials which could stretch into next year. He repeated his attacks on the judge and others, as he headed into the courtroom Tuesday morning. (Trump’s Memorial Day message centered on an attack on E. Jean Carroll, the former advice columnist he is on the hook for $91 million in civil fines for sexually assaulting her and then defaming her.)
Politico details the possible outcomes this week here.
In almost a decade now of dominating the political scene, Trump has perennially portrayed himself as a victim and promised revenge against his perceived persecutors. And that has become a defining image among his base of nationalist populist supporters. (The latest was claiming he was a target for assassination by the FBI, which, based on his reading of the documents, also makes President Joe Biden a target of assassination by the FBI. There’s no evidence that any of this is true.)
Whether Trump is convicted and sentenced or acquitted, his reaction will be little surprise, as the New York Times notes. And variations of it will continue playing out through the campaign, as he continues assailing politicos and officials he doesn’t like if he gets back in the White House.
The Supreme Court is set to decide next month if presidents are immune from prosecution for actions taken while in office — i.e., above the law.
A trio of other criminal cases are proceeding — even if it seems unlikely they will be tried before the election. Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, including his lobbying of Georgia officials to “find” him an additional 11,780 votes after the election, and rampant lies spread to his supporters — like former top Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark’s accusation that Chinese thermostats went for Biden in 2020 — form the core of Georgia and federal January 6th cases against Trump.
Trump is also charged with obstructing justice and wrongly retaining national defense secrets, after he allegedly hid hundreds of classified documents from federal investigators through the course of 2021 and 2022.
2 Ungovernableville
The slogan for this year’s Libertarian convention was “Become Ungovernable”. We couldn’t find a suitable anarchy “A” for this subhead, so we’ll just consider it implied.
The political world descended on the Washington Hilton, again, last weekend for the Libertarian Party’s nominating convention.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who at one time toyed with aligning himself with the party to win ballot access, lost the nomination in the first round of balloting, garnering just 19 votes of the 800 or so cast.
Trump, who’s increasingly battling with Kennedy Jr. for supporters, told the crowd he’d do whatever they like to get their votes. This was met with boos. He received six votes on the first ballot.
The party, which previously nominated Gary Johnson in 2016 and Jo Jorgensen in 2020, has been influential in tight races in battleground states, eventually nominated Chase Oliver.
3 No more elections
With the prospect of Trump winning a second term — and suggesting he might violate the Constitution and attempt to serve a third term — Democrats are increasingly warning that November’s election could be the country’s last.
“Trump will use violence against anyone who stands in the way of his megalomania and greed. But it's a coward's violence. Do you think Trump ever threw a punch himself or took one?” Actor Robert De Niro said at a Biden campaign press conference Tuesday outside the courthouse. De Niro was flanked by two of the retired police officers who fended off Trump’s violent supporters on January 6th at the Capitol, Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone.
And Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016, said this election may be the last if he retakes the White House.
“This election is existential. I mean, if we don’t make the right decision in this election in our country, we may never have another actual election. I will put that out there because I believe it,” she told the New York Times’ Lisa Lerer and Elizabeth Dias in an interview for their forthcoming book on the fall of federal abortion protections.
Of note, a large number of Trump’s supporters, goaded by Trump, believe that America already is a dictatorship. We spoke about this with pollsters Christine Matthews and Celinda Lake on the 24sight Pod a few weeks ago.
4 Fake news, pt. 1
If Trump’s not flinging rhetorical red meat at his base, there’s no reason for Right Side Broadcasting Network to exist.
That’s the harsh reality RSBN cofounder Joe Seales told the Associated Press he must contend with as his nearly decade-old, MAGA-friendly, media pipeline considers its options after the November election.
“If Trump’s not on the air, we’re not making money,” Seales, who runs the online streaming service dedicated to beaming unfiltered Trump rallies to the embattled former president’s most diehard fans, said of his limited programming.
If Trump wins this fall, Seales suspects he’ll get lost in the mix as world media resumes covering the returning president. And if Trump loses, there’ll be no more long, meandering rallies to sell doomsday prepper ads against. So he’s considering selling the company and getting out of the business of vitriolic politics.
“We have based our entire business model,” Seales said, “around one man doing one thing.”
5 Fake news, pt. 2
Failed 2024 presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy is pressuring BuzzFeed to apologize for previously publishing “politically convenient narratives” and add more far-right voices … or face extinction.
The one-time Trump challenger, who now controls 8% of the flagging media company’s stock, delivered his ultimatum in the open letter to BuzzFeed’s board he posted online. In addition to campaigning for sweeping layoffs, control of three board seats, and a pivot to — wait for it — more video, Ramaswamy urged his latest acquisition to eat crow on behalf of all media for past Trump-related coverage.
“Address your audience directly and candidly admit: We failed in our obligation to tell you the truth. By both omission and commission, we repeatedly lied on issues of national importance, and so did the rest of the media,” Ramaswamy wrote, citing reporting on the Steele dossier (the controversial report alleging Trump had longstanding ties to Russia), and Hunter Biden’s emails (a spin-off of the dizzying Hunter Biden laptop saga) as evidence that a mea culpa is required.
The company should also diversify its talent pool by embracing “bold” voices.
“From Candace Owens to Destiny, Tucker Carlson to Bill Maher, Aaron Rodgers to Charles Barkley, no talent should be off-limits to platform,” Ramaswamy wrote, advocating, among other things, for a woman conservative website the Daily Wire cut loose because of her antisemitic rhetoric.
6 Indoctrination 101
Conservatives’ dreams of overriding the Constitution’s separation of church and state is underway in Florida’s public schools.
While Reaganites fantasized about abolishing the Department of Education outright (and some congressional Republicans are still pushing that),
reports that supporters of the Christian nationalist movement are using cash bonuses and religious-themed curriculum to try and convert school teachers to their cause.The purpose of the civics-related tutorials targeting Florida Department of Education personnel, one critic said, is to promote "the false idea that the country was founded by Christians to privilege Christianity in law and policy."
Focusing on “the mythological founding of the country as a Christian nation, this use of cherry-picked history… is very much a marker of Christian nationalism,” Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty executive director Amanda Taylor told Popular Information. And the experimenting is unlikely to stay confined to the Sunshine State.
Former Trump administration aide Russell Vought is angling to make Christian nationalism a second term priority should the GOP reclaim the White House this fall.
7 Sky Point Bill Walton
NBA legend Bill Walton passed away Monday. The veteran broadcaster and deadhead made a name on-air interspersing the otherworldly with the play-by-play.
Former UCLA teammate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote X.com “He was the best of us.”
Remember to support us here at 24sight News — $10/month, $100/year or $1,000 to become a founding member - read more about our mission here from our launch on Substack last week. We’re bringing courageous reporting with your help.
And a big thanks to our newest supporters, you’re helping to keep us in the field.