Michael Cohen/”Truth and Consequences” on Substack:
Those Old Impeachment Blues
Republicans are opening an impeachment inquiry against President Biden even though they have no evidence he has done anything wrong.
Think about all the allegations of abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption against Donald Trump that Republicans consistently swept under the rug and refused to investigate. Think about the excuses that GOP leaders constantly made for Trump’s behavior — from his pressuring Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden and his ostentatious violations of the Emoluments clause to his efforts to obstruct the Mueller investigation and, of course, trying to overturn the 2020 election. House GOP members waved every Trump scandal away. Now, without a shred of evidence, they are opening an impeachment inquiry into Biden.
POLITICO:
How Donald Trump’s DOJ gave Biden a major assist in the coming impeachment probe
The department’s 2020 opinion around Trump’s impeachment trial could place some serious constraints on House Republicans now.
Joe Biden has a literal Trump card to play against the House’s new impeachment inquiry.
In January 2020, the Donald Trump-led Justice Department formally declared that impeachment inquiries by the House are invalid unless the chamber takes formal votes to authorize them.
That opinion — issued by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel — came in response to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to launch an impeachment inquiry into Trump without initially holding a vote for it. Not only is it still on the books, it is binding on the current administration as it responds to Tuesday’s announcement by Speaker Kevin McCarthy to authorize an impeachment inquiry into Biden, again without a vote.
Because of the public pressure, the Wisconsin Speaker Robin Vos is scrambling for a way to retain power without impeaching the newest state Supreme Court justice, Janet Protasiewicz. But this proposal is just as crooked as the current gerrymandering.
Noah Berlatsky/”Public Notice” on Substack:
The GOP's impeachment push is an attack on democracy
It's about minimizing Trump's misconduct and degrading an important check on the presidency.
Republicans are absolutely impeachment crazy these days. During the August recess, GOP congressmen and senators regularly went on Fox and talked about impeaching a range of Biden administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, and FBI Director Christopher Wray. They’ve been trying to figure out some reason to impeach President Biden basically since there has been a President Biden — and for that matter before he even took office.
Sen. Joni Ernst claimed in February 2020, before Biden had even won the Democratic nomination, that Republicans would immediately impeach him if he became president. She said the pretext should be the (evidence-less, repeatedly debunked) conspiracy theories about his role in his son Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine.
John Della Volpe/Substack:
The resilient spirit of young America
Analysis of the latest CBS News Poll on the future, Kamala Harris, and the U.S. relationship with Ukraine
The Bottom Line
Even though Gen Z and young millennials have confronted an array of challenges early in their lives, they stand resilient. They’re deeply connected to their country, radiating hope and optimism while offering a unique lens on the world’s events and its leaders.
For those of us in roles of mentorship—whether as parents, coaches, teachers, or leaders—it’s crucial that we not only nurture their optimism but also draw inspiration from their unwavering spirit and vigor.
After all, it’s the least—and perhaps the best—thing we can do.
The Wall Street Journal:
Voters Feel Better About the Economy, but Few Credit Biden, Polls Find
Most Americans disapprove of president’s economic policy, posing a challenge to his re-election
Two-thirds of voters who usually side with Democrats say the economy is in excellent or good condition, up 9 percentage points from December, the latest Journal poll found. Among independents, the share who view the economy favorably also rose 9 points to 36%. Eight percent of Republicans say the same, unchanged from December.
At the same time, roughly three in five voters polled by the Journal disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy, and 63% of voters don’t like how the president has handled inflation.
Donella Cooper, 49 years old, an independent voter who lives in Lincoln, Neb., and works in IT, said she has seen slight improvements in the economy, but she doesn’t think it is because of Biden, whom she supported in 2020. She is undecided on whether she will back Biden again and wants to see him do more to help the economy before making the decision.
Michael Warren/The Dispatch:
Polling on Trump’s Cases Shows Two Different Universes
Republicans are rallying around their guy, but the general electorate thinks the indictments are legit.
Why have the other Republican candidates for president—seemingly falling further and further out of the race with each passing week—proven neither willing nor able to go after the former president for his multiple indictments? The assumption, based on both regular conversations with officials from those campaigns and from observing the obvious, is that Republican primary voters not only don’t care about Trump’s legal woes—they think he’s being unfairly targeted.
The recent Wall Street Journal poll put some more meat on those bones, finding the charges aren’t giving GOP voters any second thoughts. But the survey also spells out how these indictments could cause Trump serious trouble in a general election, because the majority of registered voters think the cases have merit—at least at this point...
In other words, Republican primary voters are well aware of the legal drama unfolding—and they’re largely on Trump’s side.
The breakdown for registered voters overall, however, tells a much different story. Among that group, fewer than 40 percent believe the various cases are meritless, and solid majorities think they’re legitimate, including some who think they are politically motivated: 56 percent in both the New York and Florida cases, and 55 percent in both the D.C. and Georgia cases.
Gabe Rosenberg/Vanity Fair:
Ron DeSantis’s 2024 Team Is Coming Apart at the Seams
The blame game has begun—privately, at least—between the campaign and its super PAC over who’s at fault for the Florida governor’s stumbles. “Ron is telling everyone that the biggest mistake he ever made was hiring Jeff Roe,” says one source.
When Jeff Roe signed on as an adviser to the main pro–Ron DeSantis super PAC in March, it appeared that the Florida governor, fresh off a 19-point reelection victory, was the future of the Republican Party. Roe was the hottest operative in GOP politics, having steered Glenn Youngkin to an upset victory in Virginia’s 2021 gubernatorial election, and his decision to join the Never Back Down PAC was validation that DeSantis had the best chance to wrest the party’s 2024 nomination from Donald Trump. But six months later, DeSantis’s national poll numbers are down about 50%, and his struggling presidential bid is being buffeted by layoffs, infighting, and embarrassing leaks.
According to sources, Roe and the DeSantis campaign are blaming each other for DeSantis’s faltering candidacy. In June, I reported that Roe had complained to people about how the campaign wasn’t getting more press coverage. “Trump defined the election conversation while DeSantis focused on policy,” a GOP operative said, explaining how DeSantis followed an outdated campaign playbook instead of giving GOP voters red meat. Sources say Roe was frustrated that DeSantis waited until early August to replace campaign manager Generra Peck. Peck is a talented operative who gained DeSantis and his wife Casey DeSantis’s support for having overseen the governor’s decisive 2022 reelection campaign. But she had never worked at the presidential level, and a source says Roe blamed her for overspending too early in the race. Peck declined to comment.
Audrey Fahlberg/The Dispatch:
Will Voters Buy What Vivek Ramaswamy Is Selling?
A day in New Hampshire with the entrepreneur-turned-presidential-candidate reveals Republican voters’ questions about his authenticity.
A charitable interpretation of Ramaswamy’s apparent about-faces is that he entertains so many voter questions at campaign events that he genuinely forgets where he’s previously come down on a handful of key issues. The more negative interpretation—the one championed by his political adversaries—is that Ramaswamy is so new to politics that his beliefs aren’t grounded in any coherent political philosophy, and he just spits out whatever phrases or stances he thinks the audience he’s speaking to might find compelling. As he admitted to Hewitt during the conversation about foreign policy, “I didn’t know much of this six months ago.”