We begin today’s roundup with an editorial from The Baltimore Sun, the parent company of the Capital Gazette, and its editorial on yesterday’s horrific shooting at the Capital Gazette newsroom:
Killing like this is nothing but madness, no matter what terms it’s couched in. We can never understand it. We simply know that it must stop.
The fear journalists feel today is no different from the one high school students felt after Parkland or clubgoers felt after the Pulse or people at music festivals felt after Las Vegas. The truth is, nowhere can feel safe anymore. Not churches, not shopping malls, not factories, not office buildings. No one can feel sure that someone won’t target them for some reason, and we can certainly have no assurance that a madman will be stopped from obtaining a gun.
Soon, the nation will begin the ritual of dissecting how today’s murderer obtained his weapon, what type it was and whether any particular proposal for gun control might have stopped him. Enough. Whatever may prove to be the case here, we know our nation is awash in too many guns, that they are too easy to get, that we allow individuals to amass insane amounts of firepower and that our systems to keep them out of the wrong hands are full of holes. We know that with shocking regularity men act out their madness with guns, destroying lives and wounding communities. Even if no law imaginable could have stopped these killings, we know that thousands die every year from gun violence that could have been prevented.
The Baltimore Sun’s Dan Rodricks remembers his colleagues:
We write fast news stories and hone longer features about athletes and artists, teachers and cops, firefighters and farmers. We try to capture moments, try to describe movements, try to make sense of chaos.
And once a year, we take a moment to recognize the good work that goes on at the hyper-local level.
The Capital crew sat near the front of the ballroom, and most of them looked pretty young to me as they were called up to receive awards for their enterprise [...] I want to picture those young staffers from the Capital on that splendid May afternoon in the DoubleTree ballroom, holding their awards, with muted pride, before they headed back to work. I don’t want to imagine them in the horror that took place on Thursday. And Rob Hiaasen among them. God help us.
The Aiken Standard writes on about the resilience of the press in the face of attacks:
Journalists care about their community and show up every day, in spite of an environment that can best be described as polarized, and should not be afraid to sit at their desk and report on the happenings of the day. We are not a threat; we are your neighbors who love this community and have a job to do.
You as readers may not agree with the news or opinions made in this newspaper, but we will continue to deliver always. Even in the face of tragedy.
This is what we do.
The Chicago Tribune:
Shootings are frighteningly commonplace in American workplaces. People in virtually every store, factory, warehouse or office dread what happened Thursday: Blasts of gunfire. Workers dead or wounded. The caterwaul of sirens.
Turning to the issue of the Supreme Court, David Litt explains why Trump should not be allowed to appoint a justice while he’s under investigation:
Discovering that our commander in chief was secretly in cahoots with a foreign government would be unprecedented, but at least the Constitution gives us straightforward next steps when it comes to the executive branch: Impeach the president. If the president and his congressional allies block impeachment, vote them out.
When it comes to the judiciary, however, the options are far messier. What do we make of the judges a compromised president has already seated?
Former Bush ethics chief and candidate Richard Painter brings up a good point about a potential loyalty oath:
In Painter’s view, both the Senate and House Judiciary committees “should have months ago started hearings to investigate the president’s violations of the Constitution, obstruction of justice, abuse of power and other crimes just as they did in 1973 with respect to Nixon. We are well past the point we were with President Nixon.”
Painter was also asked if Trump would look at the upcoming appointment not as an “independent jurist,” but rather as a potential justice who would be “loyal.” Previous reports indicated Trump later questioned whether his first appointment to the court, Justice Neil Gorsuch, would be loyal.
And of course, Trump’s behavior regarding Putin should also continue to sound alarm. Here is The New York Times on the matter:
It’s good for American presidents to meet with adversaries, to clarify differences and resolve disputes. But when President Trump sits down with President Vladimir Putin of Russia in Finland next month, it will be a meeting of kindred spirits, and that’s a problem. [...]
Certainly the president would mention that even the people he appointed to run America’s intelligence services believe unequivocally that Mr. Putin interfered in the 2016 election to put him in office and is continuing to undermine American democracy. Right? But on Thursday morning, Mr. Trump tweeted, “Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!”
Natasha Bertrand at The Atlantic:
Ivo Daalder, who served as the U.S. ambassador to nato between 2009–2013, told me the “biggest worry in Europe” right now is that Trump “makes unilateral concessions” to Putin following “a confrontational meeting at nato, that exposes disagreement and division among allies.” “None of this would be surprising,” he said.
On a final note, don’t miss Eugene Robinson’s latest on the need for Democrats to strategize properly in the Trump era:
Let me get this straight. President Trump and his associates treat politics like a back-alley knife fight but his critics are supposed to pretend it’s a garden party? I don’t think so. Those who see the Trump administration as an abomination have many things to spend their time worrying about — most urgently, turning out a massive anti-Trump vote in the November elections that give Democrats control of one or both houses of Congress. Whether the resistance behaves less than graciously to Trump and his accomplices —including his water-carriers in Congress — is far down the list. [...]
What Democrats need to do is boost their normally anemic midterm turnout, and that means channeling the anti-Trump fervor we’ve seen in massive nationwide demonstrations against racism and in favor of women’s rights, sensible gun control and compassionate immigration policy. Millions of voters are ready and willing to fight for an inclusive, forward-looking vision of America. Democrats have to show they are ready and willing to lead the battle.