Sandbagged 🌻 🌻 🌻

Tick, Tock, Done: Yesterday President Biden won the battle of the debt ceiling but was also sandbagged, literally by a sandbag that he tripped over while jogging back to his seat after giving a speech at the US Air Force Academy graduation.  Naturally, the picture of him sprawled on the stage was displayed far and wide as evidence that he’s too old for the presidency.  Well, he maybe be old but he’s also pretty spry and appears to be fine, we all trip, and more importantly the debt ceiling deal that the “too old” guy struck with Speaker McCarthy easily passed both the House and the Senate and is headed to his desk, a good thing since Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin had already started taking extraordinary measures to keep the government funded and was twisting herself  into knots trying to figure out how to roll the T bills due to mature on Monday. In the House, where only a majority of members are needed to pass legislation, the deal, named the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, passed 314 to 117, with Democrats making up more than half of the yes votes despite their minority status and their reservations about the deal.  In the Senate, where 60 votes were required, the debt ceiling legislation passed by a vote of 63 to 36 with only 4 Democrats, Senators Fetterman, Markey, Warren and Merkley and one independent Bernie Sanders voting no. Republican Bill Haggerty did not vote. The Democrats who voted no were protesting the additional SNAP work requirements provisions, the ones that the CBO says will actually result in more people being eligible to get food stamps without working, and the impact on the environment of the inclusion of Joe Manchin’s West Virginia pipeline and other climate concerns.  The much longer list of naysaying Republicans included those who always vote no, those who wanted to see social programs slashed and burned including presidential wannabe Tim Scott, and those who want more funds spent on defense.  That last contingent, led by Senator Lindsey Graham who at the end of the day also voted no, got a commitment from leadership that a separate defense funding bill will be brought up for a vote at some time soon.      

Red Alert: While the House and Sente were doing their thing and Biden was battling sandbags, Trump and DeSantis who both opposed the debt ceiling legislation were out spreading their messages and attacking each other.  Both were in Iowa, where DeSantis was trying to prove that he can be charming, and Trump was participating in a Sean Hannity hosted town hall.  Though DeSantis didn’t trip over any real sandbags he did trip by snapping “are you blind” at a reporter who had the nerve to ask him why he wasn’t taking any questions from the press.  DeSantis who generally keeps all but the friendliest press outlets out of his Florida press conferences isn’t fond of the concept of the free press. For his part Trump who mocked how DeSantis keeps changing the pronunciation of his own name,  jumped on his run in with the press and also said that he didn’t think that Dee Santis would be around much longer. He prepared the audience for the likelihood that he could face some new indictments soon, telling them that those indictments were just deep state, politically motivated “election interference.”  The likelihood of future Trump indictments combined with a general though maybe premature belief that DeSantis doesn’t have what it takes to go the distance is emboldening more Republican to enter the race.  In addition to Chris Christie, former VP Mike Pence is expected to announce his run soon and it’s not just them.  Liz Cheney has been teasing a third party run and the relatively unknown North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum who recently signed one of the most prohibitive anti-abortion laws is also expected to enter the race.   

Legal Morass:  Trump is probably right about some more indictments being handed down sometime soon, though as we’ve all have learned soon and imminent could also mean next year or never.  The newest news on Trump’s legal morass is that Special Counsel Jack Smith has a recording of Trump discussing one of the purloined documents that he had taken with him to Mar a Lago. On the recording he’s heard admitting that he doesn’t have the ability to declassify the document being discussed because he’s out of office.  A few things about that document and his admission are notable.  First, by admitting he couldn’t declassify it, he contradicts his earlier claims that he declassified everything he took with him before he left office.  Second the document in question is marked “secret” rather than “top secret”. That matters because the FBI is generally reticent about referencing top secret documents in court settings over concerns that doing so puts national security at risk, but “secret” documents fall into what former prosecutor Andrew Weissmann calls a “Goldilocks category,” concerning enough to prosecute over but not something that puts either national security, sources or methods, or agents lives at risk. Third, the document related to plans to confront Iran, something that Chief of Staff Mark Milley had said Trump wanted to do to create a crisis that would justify him refusing to turn the keys over to Biden on inauguration day, and we know he was looking for reasons to stay in office.  Fourth, there are probably more recordings because it turns out that Trump aide, Margo Martin who by the way looks like she came from the same central casting service that provided Hope Hicks and Melania, taped all the interviews he gave to those writing books about their days in his White House.  And fifth, the interview in question was with the ghost writer responsible for former chief of staff Mark Meadow’s book and there has been lots of speculation that Meadows has spent a lot of quality time with Jack Smith’s office.  Though the focus has been on the newly revealed recording, Jack Smith has also been focusing on the firing of Chris Krebs, the respected cyber security chief who was dismissed by Trump after he said that the 2020 election had been fairly and safely conducted.   

The Blue Bird:  Like me, you may be surprised to learn that Twitter actually had a head of trust and safety.  Not anymore, she quit yesterday right after Chief Twit Musk reversed her decision that an anti-trans gender video produced by a far-right personality was too toxic for the increasingly toxic friendly Twitter. Worth noting that Fidelity has written down its position in Twitter, again, now valuing its Twitter holding at $6. 55 million down from the $19.66 million valuation it used when Elon first acquired the bird.