People overlooked this. But when Rep Mike Simpson, a very senior GOPer, told @playbookdc that he opposes defunding Jack Smith, he also directly undermined the entire Trump/GOP argument that the prosecutions are the illegitimate work of the Deep State. 2/
More evidence that Trump's criminality is becoming a wedge: Vulnerable House Republicans are balking at voting for all the craven things Mike Johnson is offering to shield Trump from the law.
This has happened numerous times now. Evidence below. 5/
Trump's ritual humiliation of Rs like McConnell on the Hill is all about forcing them to *act as if* the politics of Trump's criming favors the GOP/isn't an issue.
This is spin. The real tell is vulnerable Rs not wanting to vote for shielding Trump. 6/
Related and key from @brianbeutler: Dems have an opening to drive a wedge between Trump and the corporate class. The story is that this class has capitulated. But that doesn't *have* to remain true, just as GOP submission to Trump is only half the story. offmessage.net/p/the-gops-fin…
Also watch @SimonWDC on Trump/GOP:
"MAGA has been a failed politics. They're doubling down on a politics that keeps losing."
Dominance/submission rituals are about papering this over. But vulnerable Rs are balking at voting to protect Trump right now.
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Remarkable: Trump's planned migrant prison camps are hitting deep resistance in red areas. In Virginia's partly rural Hanover (+26 Trump) opposition is intense. GOP leaders in other states are opposed.
These vast prison camps would allow for the detention of 80,000 more migrants, doubling Trump/Miller's capacity for deportations. Yet resistance is breaking out in red Virginia, reddish parts of New Jersey, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Utah, and more. 2/
Stephen Miller is employing state terror in service of the open goal of shifting the ethnic mix of the country. In numerous ways he's doing this at the expense of public safety.
First, his grandmother has written an unpublished history of some of his ancestors' immigration to the US. We are publishing it online for the first time. They were attacked in terms similar to those he uses today.
Some news on Trump's doling out of most refugee slots to white South Africans: Two former State Department officials tell us basic protocols designed to determine whether this group actually merits protection have simply been scrapped. It's just whim.
Remarkable how brutal the ruling against Trump on Abrego Garcia truly is: It details malicious abuses of power all throughout. Trump and Stephen Miller were testing their ability to spread lawless state terror. But the court held the line. 1/
News --> The commander who oversaw Pete Hegseth's alleged killing of two boat bombing survivors is now likely to come in and face questions from House Armed Services Committee, ranking Dem Adam Smith tells me.
Pete Hegseth denies he gave the order to kill them all. But even some Republicans now appear to be demanding answers, so Frank Bradley, who oversaw bombings, is in talks with House Armed Services about coming in.
NEWS --> BBC confirms to me that they did edit a line out of historian @rcbregman's speech. It called Trump "the most openly corrupt president in US history."
BBC also confirms this was done on the advice of lawyers. So Trump's threats worked.
Today @rcbregman posted a transcript of his Reith Lecture showing that the version that BBC aired removed the line about Trump's world-historical corruption.
BBC emailed me: "we made the decision to remove one sentence from the lecture on legal advice.”
@rcbregman Trump is the most corrupt president in US history, and the openness of his corruption is an essential feature of it. It's extra bad that this comes as the Defense Department punishes Sen Mark Kelly for correctly warning against breaking illegal orders.
Remarkable: Rep Chrissy Houlahan, one of the Dems Trump called for executing, tells me her office literally filled out a Capitol Police threat report listing "the president" as the person making the threat.
One reason she and other Dems did the video about Trump's illegal orders is that they're hearing from inside the military and intel services of actual live fears that they're being given unlawful commands: