Raising Arizona ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Grand Canyon: On Monday Trump took to his sinking Truth Social platform to announce his abortion position via   video.  He didn’t back a national ban, instead he said that the regulation of abortion should be left to the states. Trump once again took credit for the Dobbs decision, saying he was “proudly the person responsible” for ending Roe v Wade and he thanked the six conservative Justices for “having the courage” to bring the “long-fought battle over Roe” to its end. His prepared statement, likely the result of a lot of handwringing and word smithing by his advisors who are largely as anti-abortion as one can get but who also know that the abortion issue has the potential to ruin Trump’s chance of returning to the Oval Office, pleased almost no one. The anti-abortion crowd wanted to hear Trump back an onerous national ban, the pro-choice crowd would have preferred that he buy a one-way ticket to Moscow and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham who rarely disagrees with him in public repeated his call for a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks.  As they typically do, the mainstream media went all in on a “both sides” narrative, giving Trump the benefit of the doubt, with headlines and ledes that made his statement seem moderate, a nod to the suburban moms he needs to lure back into his tent.  Then Arizona happened.  On Tuesday, the state’s Supreme Court upheld an 1894 law that bans nearly all abortions. That law which was enacted before Arizona was a state and before women could vote had spent the Roe years in a zombie state but within days it will be the law of the land in Arizona. So much for Trump’s “moderate” position. Arizona’s Governor, Katie Hobbs, and its Attorney General, Kris Mayes, both pro-choice Democrats who won their positions in very close elections, announced yesterday that they will not enforce or prosecute anyone under the reawakened law which calls for 2-to-5-year prison sentences for those assisting in abortions, but their power only goes so far. Neither can prevent local district attorneys from going after abortion providers, nor can they force malpractice insurance providers to continue to provide affordable insurance to doctors and clinics. It’s expected that a measure reinstating the right to abortion will be on the Arizona ballot in November but as in Florida, the hurdle for passage, while attainable, is high. The battle over abortion rights could help Biden who barely won the state in 2020 retake it in 2024, well maybe.  It could also help Democratic Senate candidate/Congressman Ruben Gallego beat his Republican opponent, Kari Lake.  Lake, an avid election denier and Trump supporter, who still hasn’t conceded that she lost her gubernatorial run to Governor Hobbs, endorsed the 1894 law, calling it “great” earlier this month.  Now she’s thrashing out, attacking the state court for its decision, and “blaming” Hobbs, saying that the Governor should “get” the Republican controlled state legislature to pass abortion rights preserving legislation. That’s not going to happen, not because Hobbs doesn’t want it to, but because the legislature is Republican controlled.  Lake knows that but she’s got to say something because she’s sees her Senate chances sinking.  As to Trump, he’s now attacking Lindsey Graham on Truth Social, because he’s his favorite punching bag.       

Legally Yours:  It hasn’t been a good week for Trump in the courts.  His hail Mary attempts to get his New York election interference/hush money case put off continue to fail. First a New York appeals court denied his petition to change the venue and/or put off the start of the case, something to do with all the publicity that he’s helped stoke, then the court rejected his attempt to delay his trial, quickly swatting aside an argument that the trial should be postponed while he fights the gag order he earned by spouting nasty stuff about the families of the presiding judge and the prosecutorial team, ruling that while he can continue to fight the gag order, doing so won’t result in a postponement. Trump and his lawyers are still fighting over procedural issues, the latest one involving witnesses, but odds are that his jury selection will begin for his trial next week. Trump’s lawyers are currently so desperate to deliver him a postponement that they inadvertently subpoenaed the wrong Jeremy Rosenberg in an attempt to get some files and then complained to the court when the hapless fellow had no files to share.  Even Eileen “loose” Cannon, the purloined documents case judge, is giving Trump a hard time.  Last night, while once again throwing shade at her nemesis Special Counsel Jack Smith,  she reversed an earlier decision that would have allowed Trump and his lawyers to share the names of witnesses far and wide, ruling instead that those names can stay sealed.    

Presidential Politics:  Cornell West, the third-party candidate/potential spoiler that few are focusing on right now is expected to name his running mate shortly.  Meantime, RFK Jr, the third-party candidate that everyone is concerned about continues to duck, dodge, and prevaricate.  Earlier this week after a video of one of his New York campaign officials telling Republican voters that they should support RFK Jr because doing so is the best way to prevent Biden’s reelection and ensure a Trump victory went viral, he denied that she works for him even though she definitely does. That’s similar to the way he muddies his anti-vaxx position.  He denies that he’s opposed to all vaccines but when asked to name one he’s okay with, he can’t name one because what’s a little polio, measles or whooping cough among friends?.  RFK, who’s also taken to the Trumpian view that those found guilty of storming the Capitol after the last presidential election are really just nice patriotic tourists being unfairly punished, is opposed to Biden because he’s pissed that the Biden administration persuaded Twitter and the other social media websites to take down his conspiracy laden anti-vaccine posts during the height of the COVID epidemic.  Maybe heroin and steroids do weird things to the brain?  On the subject of nepotism,  Jared Kushner’s business ventures are getting some renewed attention, something about all those foreign entities investing billions with him despite his lack of an investment track record. Makes Hunter’s transgressions, well except for the gun thing, look like a nothing burger. Lastly, keep an eye on Ohio and Alabama.  Both states’ election officials are threatening to keep Biden off the ballot, something to do with the Democratic convention, and Biden’s official anointment as the Democratic candidate, being too late to qualify for their state ballots. The timing “problem” has happened before but that was back in the day when state election officials were relatively normal and accommodating.  To state the obvious, times have changed. 

#BringThemAllHomeNow