We begin today's roundup with David Graham at The Atlantic who writes about Donald Trump’s legal exposure:
One of Donald Trump’s biggest effects on American politics has been bringing ideas that used to be considered fringe into the mainstream. Although the most glaring examples include things like election subversion or cozying up to white supremacists, this summer has seen another previously outré idea become more common: prosecuting a former president. [...] Over the summer of 2022, the conventional wisdom among pundits seems to have shifted from skepticism or agnosticism about criminally investigating Trump to support for investigations and a sense that an indictment is not only ever more likely but possibly even preferable.
Stephen Collinson at CNN on the latest subpoenas served by the DOJ:
A strikingly broad subpoena sweep against more than 30 former officials and campaign aides of ex-President Donald Trumprepresents the clearest sign yet of the seriousness of the Department of Justice’s criminal probe into events surrounding the US Capitol insurrection.
The gambit, revealed on Monday, also shows that while Trump may succeed in slowing a separate investigation into the retention of classified information at Mar-a-Lago, his potential exposure to legal consequences is deep and threatening. Trump has not been charged with a crime in either probe.
But the subpoenas show that the DOJ’s investigation, which has proceeded behind the scenes for months and caused Trump critics to express frustration with Attorney General Merrick Garland, is far more expansive than was previously known. And it appears to be intensifying, with investigators apparently narrowing their focus based on other subpoenas, evidence and witness testimony.
Chris Lehmann at The Nation on the need to curb one aspect of presidential power:
Now that Trump’s lawyers have managed to exploit the corrupt federal judiciary in their client’s favor to force a “special master” review of the classified documents that the FBI collected last month at his Mar-a-Lago compound, his presidency represents a limit test of the long-standing American cult of executive privilege.
Meanwhile, Dana Milbank looks at the Republican ad buying strategy for the fall:
While most of the party has been engaged in an everything-sucks, destroy-the-system campaign that is as dishonest as it is relentless, candidates bankrolled by Thiel have indeed been coming up with new ideas. They’ve floated enacting a federal “personhood” law(which would ban abortion even in cases of rape), privatizing Social Security and even replacing American democracy with something like a monarchy.
Come to think of it, maybe that’s why most Republicans favor pure nihilistic negation.
As Tim Craig reports, a number of Black candidates are running for office:
A record number of Black men and women are running for U.S. Senate and governor this fall, with the potential to increase diversity in the nation’s top elected offices, which are still overwhelmingly held by White men.
Since Reconstruction, voters have elected just seven Black senators and two Black governors. This year, 16 Black candidates — 13 Democrats and three Republicans — are major party nominees, from Florida and across the Deep South to traditional Midwestern battlegrounds like Wisconsin. While many of them face tough odds, some have posted strong poll numbers and fundraising totals, waging credible campaigns that challenge long-held attitudes about whether Black candidates can be competitive in statewide races.
On a final note,
Michael Daly at
The Daily Beast writes about Mike Flynn’s latest antics:
On Thursday evening, Flynn was one of several dozen new members of the local Republican executive committee elected by voice vote at the Morgan Family Community Center in Northport, Florida.
As if that were not scary enough, they also elected James Hoel, a local leader of the Proud Boys. [...]
At the time of the school board and hospital board elections, Flynn was busy with his national efforts to perpetuate the Big Lie and its attendant conspiracy theories.
But when the clipboard was passed around at Thursday night’s meeting, he and his wife both signed up to become poll watchers.