Saturday, July 20, 2024. Annette’s News Roundup.
#Joe is always busy.
##Is he or isn’t he?
#Campaign Chair Confirms Biden Staying In.
Following Trump’s worst acceptance speech ever given, Biden campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon confirmed on Morning Joe today that the President is staying in the race.
"Absolutely the president is in this race, you've heard him say that time and time again and I think we saw on display last night exactly why,” she said.
I think that is pretty clear. But there’s more.
O’Malley Dillon continued: “Donald Trump is not going to offer anything new to the American people. He’s the same person he was in 2020, he’s the same person he was at the debate stage, he’s the same person he is that is about himself and not about the American people, and Joe Biden is more committed than ever to beat Donald Trump.”
So, what’s the plan from here?
“We believe on this campaign we are built for the close election we are in, and we see the path forward. The President is the leader of our campaign and of the country, and he is clearly in our impression and what we’ve built and in our engagement with voters, he is the best person to take on Donald Trump and prosecute that case and present his vision versus what we saw last night.”
Senior Advisor to Biden Anita Dunn also confirmed Biden was not dropping out. (Seth Dworkin, The Dworkin Report, Substack).
###Last night.👇
##One more thing.
Senators Sherrod Brown, OH, Jon Tester, MT, Peter Welch, VT, Martin Heinrich,NM have asked the President to step down., as have this list of 27 members of Congress.
Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif.
Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif.
Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo.
Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn.
Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii
Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill.
Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Ill.
Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill.
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass.
Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich.
Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J.
Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash.
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.
Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif.
Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas
Rep. Chuy Garcia, D-Ill.
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.
Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill.
Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Ohio (source. USAToday)
Here is Representative Jamie Raskin’s Letter to the President.
https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/4642d21dd2af028f/43f44435-full.pdf
#Suddenly the New York Times stomps on Trump.
Where have they been?
#DONALD TRUMP’S FIRST TERM IS A WARNING.
This week, Republicans have tried to rewrite the four years of Trump’s presidency as a time of unparalleled peace, prosperity and tranquility: “the strongest economy in history,” as Senator Katie Britt of Alabama put it. The difference between Trump and Biden? “President Trump honored the Constitution,” said Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota. Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia offered Mr. Trump’s first term as an example of “common-sense conservative leadership.”
The record of what Mr. Trump actually did in office bears little resemblance to that description. Under his leadership, the country lurched from one crisis to the next, from the migrant families separated at the border to the sudden spike in prices caused by his trade war with China to the reckless mismanagement of the Covid pandemic. And he showed, over and over, how little respect he has for the Constitution and those who take an oath to defend it.
For Americans who may have forgotten that time, or pushed it from memory, we offer this timeline of his presidency. Mr. Trump’s first term was a warning about what he will do wthe power of his office — unless American voters reject him.
If you want to see the timeline of Trump’s disastrous Presidency, click here and scroll through the Trump years.
#The Chaos of Trump’s First Term in 9 Minutes.
In [the transcript of the] audio essay [posted below 👇], the editorial board member Mara Gay recounts . . . some of the most troubling and undemocratic moments of Trump's first term and makes the case for why the country can't afford another four years with him as president.
##My name is Mara Gay, and I’m a member of the editorial board at “The New York Times.”
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It has been an extraordinary week in American politics. People here in the United States and really around the world witnessed the attempted assassination of a former American president. And now, they’re waiting with bated breath to see whether American democracy can stand up to this perilous moment and survive. At the Republican National Convention, though, spirits are extremely high as this party is coalescing around former President Donald Trump. They are recasting his presidency as an era of peace and prosperity and progress in the United States.
Archived Recording 1 - President Trump honored the Constitution.
Archived Recording 2 - We had the strongest economy in history.
Archived Recording 3 - President Trump proved that common sense conservative leadership works.
##Mara Gay
And they have continued to pretend like Donald Trump is a normal candidate for office. He’s anything but. We should not allow ourselves to be diluted in that. There’s nothing normal about this movement which is anti-democratic. There’s nothing normal about this president who is now a convicted felon. There’s nothing normal about his vision for the United states, which is not one that is shared by the majority of Americans.
So Times Opinion got together and decided that it was important to remind Americans just how dark the Trump presidency was and how aberrant it was from any other presidency in American history. I want to take listeners back through some of the most painful and damaging moments of the Trump presidency year by year to remind Americans what this country suffered through under his presidency.
So in August 2017, in Donald Trump’s first year in office, the country is shocked to see neo-Nazis with tiki torches marching through Charlottesville, Virginia, chanting, “Jews will not replace us” in protest of a movement across the country to remove confederate monuments from public spaces.
This kind of threatening behavior is a form of political intimidation. There’s a long history of that in this country. The president, at the time, took that opportunity not to denounce white supremacy or racism, not to lead the country in mourning for the death of Heather Heyer, a protester who was killed at that counter-march. But instead, to call these neo-Nazis “fine people.”
Archived Recording (Donald Trump) - And you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides.
##Mara Gay
We haven’t seen a president embrace racists that way in a century. And it’s, I believe, additionally extremely concerning when you think about the endorsement of political violence, which, again, has a long history in this country, especially, though, not only in the Jim Crow South.
In November 2018, Donald Trump was meant to visit a World War I era cemetery outside Paris. He was reluctant to do so, according to several sources, because, in his view, us soldiers who died on the battlefield were suckers and losers. Multiple times, Donald Trump insulted John McCain, the former Arizona Senator who spent years in captivity in Vietnam.
Archived Recording (Donald Trump) - I supported him. He lost. He let us down. But he lost. So I never liked him as much after that because I don’t like losers. But Frank, Frank, let me get to it. He hit me. He’s not a war hero.
Archived Recording 4 -He’s a war hero.
Archived Recording (Donald Trump)- He is a war hero.
Archived Recording 4 - Five and half years —
Archived Recording (Donald Trump) - He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, OK? I hate to tell you this.
##Mara Gay
And of course, Donald Trump didn’t serve himself in the military. It’s offensive behavior, and it undermines lines the American military. But it also just shows you how Donald Trump put himself in his own ego above the United States at every turn.
In may 2019, Donald Trump tried to end federal health care protections for transgender Americans, a stunningly cruel measure that targeted some of the most vulnerable people in the United States.
These Americans rely on health care to express their own personal gender identity and to live healthy lives. We know that based on science and based on their own stories. So it was clear at the time that he was using transgender Americans to score political points with the deepest part of his base, and that is not a president that any group of Americans should trust. I think it was a moment to remember that in that moment, it was transgender Americans who were targeted. But it could be any group of Americans that is targeted next by this president.
In February 2020, Donald Trump lied to the American people about the threat posed by the coronavirus. At campaign rallies, including in South Carolina, he began talking about the virus as a new, quote, “hoax” created by the Democrats to harm him politically.
Archived Recording (Donald Trump) - They lost. It’s all turning. Think of it. Think of it. And this is their new hoax.
##Mara Gay
Even as he said those words, downplaying this threat, he knew that the virus was airborne and that it was very dangerous. Ultimately, more than 1 million people would die in the United States alone from the coronavirus. And while, of course, those deaths cannot be all blamed on Donald Trump, it’s clear that he failed to take protections that could have saved lives, and he did so at his own political expediency.
Donald Trump’s horrific mishandling of the COVID pandemic should make clear that he cannot be trusted on issues of public health.
By January 2021, Donald Trump had lost his bid for re-election. Rather than accept the results on January 2, he called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, and tried to get the Secretary of State to overturn the results of the Georgia election, throwing out thousands of legitimate votes of American citizens.
Archived Recording (Donald Trump) - All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.
Mara Gay
I hope that in pouring over some of these darker moments, we can remember that Donald Trump’s first presidency was in so many ways worse than anything and more painful and destructive and harmful to everyday people and to American democracy than we could have ever imagined.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We have to remember in this election that Donald Trump has already told us what he plans to do. He has planned a campaign of political retribution that would, I believe, remake American life as we’ve come to know it over the past generation, and I hope in talking about these moments that we can remember that and take him seriously at his word.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(New York Times).
Trump rambled on in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.
Was 92 minutes ever so filled with lies and rants.
#Trump tramples unity theme in two-act convention speech
MILWAUKEE — The "new" Donald Trump soothed and silenced the nation for 28 minutes last night. Then the old Trump returned and bellowed, barked and bored America for 64 minutes more.
Why it matters: Despondent Democrats were reminded why they had long believed, before President Biden melted down in last month's debate, that Trump is a flawed candidate — and eminently beatable.
Zoom in: A bandaged, somber, subdued Trump opened his nomination speech by recounting his near-death experience last weekend in vivid detail, promising it would be the first and only time he'd do so "because it's too painful to tell."
Inside the Fiserv Forum, the ebullient mood gave way to rapt silence. "I'm not supposed to be here tonight," Trump mused aloud as he described the feeling of a would-be assassin's bullet clipping his ear.
"I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God," he said, echoing a long list of GOP convention speakers who had cited divine intervention for Trump's survival.
Trump went on to pay tribute to his late supporter Corey Comperatore, the retired firefighter remembered as a hero for diving on his family members to shield them from the bullets.
###Trump kisses the helmet of Corey Comperatore. Notice that the Comperatore name is misspelled on his uniform.
As delegates and attendees wiped away tears, Trump pivoted to a message of proposed unity — vowing to be a president "for all of America."
It was a marked departure from dark rally speeches in which Trump has warned of an "enemy from within" and "vermin" living on U.S. soil who pose more of a threat than foreign adversaries.
"We must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreements, which is what's been happening in our country lately at a level that nobody has ever seen before," Trump said.
Zoom out: From there, Trump fell into a familiar stump speech — veering off Teleprompter as he railed against a migrant "invasion," accused Democrats of "cheating" in the 2020 election and praised foreign autocrats.
It was a standard Trump rally performance — but one that most politically unengaged Americans probably aren't used to seeing.
The big picture: All week, speakers at the GOP convention sought to humanize Trump, who seemed to enjoy an aura of invincibility — and inevitability — as Democrats plotted to replace their nominee.
In his prepared remarks, Trump didn't name Biden at all. But in the hall, he slipped up once as he asserted that "the 10 worst presidents" combined didn't do as much damage as Biden.
It was a revealing moment that captured two sides of Trump: the newly disciplined "unifier" whose life was altered by an assassination attempt, and the MAGA agitator who can't help but return to his abrasive instincts.
The bottom line: A week of party unity and energy has Republicans riding high as they depart Milwaukee.
But Trump's speech, which showing stamina, also may have given Democrats the shot in the arm they needed to move on from their own internal chaos — with or without Biden. (Axios).
#The Republican National Convention by the numbers.
Yes, but: Former President Trump's Thursday speech, his first public remarks since the assassination attempt against him Saturday, drew more eyeballs than his 2020 RNC speech, but far fewer than his 2016 remarks.
By the numbers: More than 25 million people tuned in live to the final night of the RNC across 14 cable and broadcast networks, the highest number of viewers across the four nights of the convention.
Viewership on Thursday peaked at 28.4 million from 10:45 - 11:00pm ET, Nielsen said. That's when Trump recounted the assassination attempt against him Saturday evening from his point of view.
Eyeballs tapered on later in the evening, as Trump's speech — the longest televised presidential acceptance speech in U.S. history — dragged on.
Zoom in: Fox News drew the most viewers across all major cable and broadcast news channels all four nights.
On Thursday, it set a new record for the most number of viewers for a single cable channel during a convention, with 10.4 million people watching the network during the 10:00 p.m. ET hour.
During that same hour, Fox News' cable competitors drew far fewer viewers, with CNN and MSNBC drawing roughly 2 million and 1.2 million viewers, respectively.
The big picture: The vast majority of viewers across all four nights, on average, were over 55 years old.
While Nielsen includes data in its tally from those streaming the event on live TV, it does not include viewership data from those who may have watched the program on smaller devices or that tuned in via clips on social media.
What's next: The Democratic National Convention (DNC) will take place from Aug. 19 to Aug. 22 in Chicago. (Axios).
#Tonight is a big night in women’s basketball.🏀
##WNBA All-Star game will showcase Team USA players before Olympics.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
In Phoenix tomorrow, some of America's greatest basketball players will compete against each other in the WNBA All-Star Game. The All-Star team sees favorites like Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark team up to go head-to-head against the U.S. Olympic Team.
###Caitlin Clark(left) and Angel Reese will be on same team at the WNBA All-Star Game.
Sabreena Merchant covers women's basketball for The Athletic, and she joins us from Phoenix. Hi, there.
SABREENA MERCHANT: Hi, there. Thanks for having me.
SHAPIRO: So this game is the first time we're going to see Team USA in action, which includes Kelsey Plum and Brittney Griner, both of whom are former Olympians. What do you make of the team overall?
MERCHANT: The U.S. Olympic team is one of the greatest collection of talents ever assembled. I mean, the U.S. Women's Basketball Team is maybe the greatest Olympic team success story. They're going for their eighth consecutive gold medal. They have multiple former MVPs on their team, including Diana Taurasi, who's competing in her sixth Olympics and has a chance to win a sixth consecutive gold. So it's just an overwhelming abundance of talent. And to think of all the players who are not on the team who could potentially be there...
SHAPIRO: Totally.
MERCHANT: ...American basketball is just an excellent, excellent place.
SHAPIRO: But the team's first game in the Olympics is just 10 days away - July 29 - so how do you think they're going to approach the All-Star Game tomorrow? Is this, like, a warm-up, or what?
MERCHANT: It's interesting because the WNBA put on a similar showcase back in 2021 with the U.S. Olympic Team versus a collection of WNBA All-Stars. And the U.S. Olympic Team took it very seriously as a normal game, and they still lost to the WNBA All-Stars. And it ultimately ended up meaning nothing because they went on to win a gold medal pretty convincingly.
I do think, this time around, with how fast-paced the first half of the WNBA season has been and the fact that three of their projected starters are nursing injuries, it's going to be more of an exhibition-type feel to this game. And the fact that the WNBA players get to take a month off after this game means they have a lot more in the tank. So I wouldn't be...
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
MERCHANT: ...Surprised if the Olympic team experienced another defeat. But, again, it is an incredibly talented team, so either result seems plausible.
SHAPIRO: Tomorrow is also a first for rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, and their rivalry on the court has dominated headlines this season. This game is the first time they're going to play on the same roster. What are you expecting to see?
MERCHANT: I enjoyed that Angel Reese said that everyone can wear their get-along T-shirts tomorrow...
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
MERCHANT: ...'Cause she and Caitlin will be on the court together. Obviously, you know, their dynamic - dating back to Iowa and Maryland, then Iowa and LSU, and now, obviously, with Indiana and Chicago - has been such a great source of momentum for college basketball and professional basketball.
I do hope that they're on the court together as much as possible because, even just attending the open practices today, there is so much excitement for seeing those two rookies here. It's the first time two rookies have been in the All-Star Game in 10 years for the WNBA, so I do hope that they get a chance to play together a little bit. Maybe Caitlin gets to dish an assist to Angel or Angel gets an offensive rebound that leads to a Caitlin three - just something that gets to showcase what both of them are best at.
SHAPIRO: You said that there's a really deep bench here of people who could have been on the Olympic team, but do you find it odd that superstars like Clark and Reese aren't?
MERCHANT: I do find it a little odd. I think part of the goal of USA Basketball is to advance the growth of the sport worldwide. And, to me, a great way to do that would be to bring the biggest stars in the sport onto the biggest stage in the sport, which is the Olympics. I do understand that the goal of winning a gold medal supersedes the popularity aspect of it.
But when you have so many great players on the USA - and you could make an argument that Caitlin Clark's been the second-best guard in the WNBA this season - I think it was a little strange that they opted for such a veteran lineup. But I do think that this is kind of a fun opportunity for Caitlin and Angel to make, you know, an initial case for the 2028 Olympics, let's say, for the USA Basketball Committee.
SHAPIRO: Sabreena Merchant covers women's basketball for The Athletic. Thanks. It's been great talking to you.
MERCHANT: Appreciate it.
(SOUNDBITE OF EL MICHELS AFFAIR'S "UZI (PINKY RING)")
#The WNBA All Star Game happens tonight, broadcast on ABC at 8:30 pm EDT.
Date: Saturday, July 20, 2024
Time: 8:30 p.m. ET
Location: Footprint Center, Phoenix, AZ
TV channel: ABC
Streaming: DirecTV, Fubo, Hulu.
#Your Daily Reminder.
Trump is a convicted felon.
On May 30th, he was found guilty on 34 felony counts by the unanimous vote of 12 ordinary citizens.
The Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump was scheduled to be sentenced on July 11. He will now be sentenced sometime around September 18th.
##Fred Guttenberg’s 14 year old daughter Jaime was murdered at the Parkland High School mass shooting in Florida.
I have two thoughts about last night's speech. First, that is a speech that only a convicted felon trying to stay out of prison could have given. The part where they created a prop of the man killed and Trump kissed his helmet made me truly sick. Everything after that was a…
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) July 19, 2024
I may take tomorrow off. It will depend on what news happens on our shores.
Enjoy the weekend.