Axios:
Cracks emerge in GOP’s Mar-a-Lago response
Republicans are dividing over how or whether to defend former President Trump after the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago — and what to do about some members' heated rhetoric toward law enforcement.
Why it matters: Documents released Friday bolster reports that the search involved highly classified materials believed stored in violation of the law at the ex-president's private residence.
Driving the news: Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee held a press conference on Friday, before the release, in which they continued to cast the search as politically motivated.
- But even some Intelligence Committee Republicans who participated struck a more measured tone in interviews afterward.
- And according to the New York Times, Trump allies have told top Republicans to tone down their criticism of the Justice Department "because it is possible that more damaging information related to the search will become publ
Insider:
Trump's latest defense for Mar-a-Lago documents is everyone 'brings home their work from time to time' and the files were automatically declassified
- Trump's new explanation for Mar-a-Lago documents is that "everyone ends up having to bring home their work from time to time."
- Trump claimed he had a "standing order" to declassify documents "the moment" they left the Oval Office.
- The DOJ is investigating whether Trump broke three laws when he took government records to Mar-a-Lago.
David Rohde/New Yorker:
Exhibit A of Trump’s Recklessness
The classified documents recovered by federal agents at the former President’s Mar-a-Lago estate add to the picture of his out-of-control behavior after he lost the 2020 election.
The political implications for Trump remain to be seen. Trump’s base, of course, will believe that the Justice Department and the F.B.I. are falsely accusing him. But, for everyone else, a sense of exhaustion with Trump’s antics feels inevitable. The credit goes to an unlikely figure—Attorney General Merrick Garland. In an unexpected news conference on Thursday, Garland announced that he was asking for the warrant to be unsealed. It was a way of puncturing Trump’s bluster about the raid. Garland also defended the men and women of the Justice Department and the F.B.I. “I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked,” he said. Garland was measured in his tone. He was balanced and fair. He did not smear Trump, nor did he publicly accuse him of any crimes. It remains unclear if Trump will be prosecuted. But Garland stood up for the rule of law and also respected the rule of law.
Reuters:
The political implications for Trump remain to be seen. Trump’s base, of course, will believe that the Justice Department and the F.B.I. are falsely accusing him. But, for everyone else, a sense of exhaustion with Trump’s antics feels inevitable. The credit goes to an unlikely figure—Attorney General Merrick Garland. In an unexpected news conference on Thursday, Garland announced that he was asking for the warrant to be unsealed. It was a way of puncturing Trump’s bluster about the raid. Garland also defended the men and women of the Justice Department and the F.B.I. “I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked,” he said. Garland was measured in his tone. He was balanced and fair. He did not smear Trump, nor did he publicly accuse him of any crimes. It remains unclear if Trump will be prosecuted. But Garland stood up for the rule of law and also respected the rule of law.
See, it’s one thing to read a story or two. It’s another to see it pounded day after day after day (see Butter Emails or Afghan withdrawal for recent examples of political potency. “National security” is permission structure to put your big boy/girl pants on and be a Very Serious Reporter.)
This story remains a BFD.
Examples of other current politically potent stories:
Roe/Dobbs, gas prices, food prices, job approval, drought/flooding and maybe even pandemics.
Predicting that mix is harder than ever (so a good rule of thumb is don't try. Pundits know even less then usual about who wins this year). What we do know is things change, and nothing's written in stone when you have the unprecedented happen weekly.
Matt Bai/WaPo:
Inside Trump’s chamber of secrets
Let’s get a few things straight. If you’re president, as I understand it, you do have the right to declassify whatever documents you want. But there’s a process for doing so. You’re supposed to submit those documents to the appropriate agencies for review, and then they must be formally categorized as declassified.
This should go without saying, but since we’re not exactly killing it on basic civics these days, let me add that former presidents can’t declassify anything. That would be like Bill Clinton trying to retroactively issue a pardon.
By the way, if you were wondering just how desperate the once intellectually vibrant conservative movement has become, consider one Charles Stimson of the Heritage Foundation, who told NBC News that “there’s a rich debate about whether or not a document is declassified if a president has decided but not communicated it outside of his own head.”
Jill Lawrence/LA Times:
Democrats try a new campaign strategy — getting things done
I’m not saying my new ex-GOP friends should relax, because I understand their trepidation. The stakes, and Trump’s rhetoric, never stop escalating. The FBI execution of a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home has unleashed outright threats of retaliation or violence, some from people who should know much, much better.
At the same time, of the many weird dynamics this year, there is this one: Democrats have been acting like Republicans lately. They’ve been strategic, disciplined and tough — racking up accomplishments that will affect people’s lives, jobs and health; strengthen America, its allies and its institutions; and make historic investments in clean energy as climate change threatens the Earth. They are not performing shock theater. They and President Biden are governing.
In the past few days Democrats have managed a feat that is routine in GOP circles: From moderates to progressives, from Los Angeles to New York City and suburbia to West Virginia, they stuck together on the Inflation Reduction Act once known (and once much more expensive) as Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. It was their last chance before the midterms to pass some of Biden’s social and climate agenda, and even Democrats upset about how it turned out voted for it anyway. It cleared the Senate 51-50 and the House 220-207, and now goes to Biden’s desk with not a single GOP vote for it.
The question is whether this is enough.
Jonathan Chait/New York Magazine:
Joe Biden’s Best Week Ever
The situation has changed with astonishing speed. Biden has salvaged his domestic-policy agenda, his party’s base has snapped out of its torpor, and the economy is showing signs it just might pull through. And while not all these developments are his own doing, nor do they completely extinguish the political danger he faces, they all redound to his benefit. In the span of a few weeks, Biden’s presidency is back from the dead and looking something close to triumphant.
The event that triggered the turnaround was the decision by five Republican Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade. In so doing, the Court’s right wing disregarded the advice of its more cautious chief justice, John Roberts, who reportedly tried in vain to steer his colleagues toward an incrementalist strategy that would avoid a backlash.
Roberts’s fears have been vindicated. One reason midterm elections almost always punish the president’s party is that the public has an instinct to curtail the powers of those in power. The Dobbs decision inverted that calculation, creating a context in which Republicans were responsible for dramatic social change and Democrats could stand for the restoration of the status quo.
And: