Weekend reading (and listening).

February 23, 2024

Welcome to the weekend, everyone! It was a stressful week, but we are entering the weekend on a strong note. The South Carolina GOP primary will be held on Saturday, and the Michigan Democratic primary on Tuesday, February 27. As for both, I recommend that we not rush to judgment about either primary.

The headlines about the results will almost certainly be clickbait that focus on the “horse race” aspect of the primaries. The deeper significance will take a few days or weeks to understand, so reserve judgment until responsible voices provide their analysis.

A story that is not getting the attention it deserves is a campaign appearance by Trump on Friday filled with nonsense phrases, slurred words, and factual mistakes about historical events. If Biden had made one-tenth of those miscues in a speech, chicken-little voices in the Democratic Party would be talking about invoking the 25th amendment to remove Biden from the presidency. And yet, the story is receiving no coverage in the mainstream press.

Professor Laurence Tribe commented on Trump's latest speech by saying,

I have to believe that, when enough people hear how totally unhinged Trump has become, any worries about Biden not being at the top of his game will just evaporate.

Although Professor Tribe links to a single example, the Biden campaign has tweeted a dozen examples from Trump's speech at the rally.

Trump's lies came so fast that Fox News broke away from Trump’s speech to say,

Even though he’s entitled to his opinion, he’s not entitled to his own set of facts. The market has indeed been going up but it has nothing to do with Trump. There was also no evidence of a rigged election.

Here’s my point: Even though we have experienced a rough patch of speculation about Biden dropping out at the convention, every Trump speech generates substantial evidence of his unstable mental state, dictatorial aspirations, and racist underpinnings. (Among other things, he said, “I got indicted and lot of people said that’s why the black people like me . . . .”)

As the campaign wears on, Joe Biden will continue to be decent, stable, and presidential. Trump, not so much. Sooner or later, even a press corps intent on creating a negative narrative will be unable to ignore Trump's descent into madness and lies—just as Fox News did on Friday.

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US issues new sanctions on Russia.

As promised by President Biden, the US issued a new round of sanctions against Russia following the assassination of Alexei Navalny. See CBS News, U.S. issues hundreds of new Russia sanctions over Alexey Navalny's death and war in Ukraine. Per CBS News,

Friday’s actions include State Department sanctions on three Russian officials the U.S. says were connected to Navalny’s death, as well as sanctions from the State and Treasury Departments on 500 entities linked to Russia’s war effort. Another 90 companies were added to the Commerce Department’s “entity list,” which restricts their ability to do business in the U.S.

Will the sanctions work? Not enough. The real solution is for Speaker Mike Johnson to allow the Ukrainian funding bill to come to the floor for a vote before it is too late.

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Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness is a big deal!

Earlier in the week, I gave Joe Biden a glowing report for his diligence in granting student loan relief despite the opposition by Republicans and the Supreme Court. As noted, Biden has granted 3.9 million borrowers $138 billion in relief (including the new relief granted this week). For those who believe Biden has failed to deliver on his promise, the answer is that he is delivering. . . slowly but surely.

Inexplicably, that story was enough for one reader to post a comment saying that he was unsubscribing because I was constantly “swanning” (I think he meant “swooning”) over Biden and that he wanted to “retch” over the choice of voting between Biden and Trump. I facilitated the reader’s stated desire to unsubscribe. But I digress.

If you believe I was exaggerating the significance of Biden’s achievement, check out this article in Slate, Student loan forgiveness: Biden's new strategy is a massive and improbable success.

As Slate notes, after the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s ambitious plan,

the president has wasted no time making critical changes to existing federal student loan programs to follow through on his campaign promise. As of Feb. 23, these actions have resulted in $136.6 billion in canceled federal student loan debt for 3.5 million borrowers and counting.

A series of seemingly modest changes to the system have, little by little, added up to a head-spinning sum. And more is coming—including another sweeping program that could cancel hundreds of billions in debt for tens of millions of Americans.

As to the millions who have not yet qualified for forgiveness, President Biden is still working on a solution:

But the Biden administration is still working on a solution for them, too: A major new rule by the Education Department could wipe out hundreds of billions of dollars for millions of Americans. After the Supreme Court prevented the Biden administration from using the HEROES Act for this purpose, it pivoted to a different path that runs through the Higher Education Act.

So, even though President Biden has made substantial progress, he is not giving up. That is a success story in progress—not a story of a broken promise as described by clueless reporters and Biden critics intent on spinning a negative narrative. Tell a friend!

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Lawrence O’Donnell sums up the case against Ezra Klein’s argument for Joe Biden dropping out.

Dozens of readers suggested that I link to Lawrence O’Donnell’s commentary rebutting Ezra Klein’s suggestion that Joe Biden consider dropping out of the presidential race at the Democratic convention. The commentary is a tour-de-force and deserves 27 minutes of your time at some point over the weekend. Or even five minutes. O’Donnell is a master craftsman who builds his case slowly and surely over the course of his commentary. Create some time over the weekend to listen to O’Donnell’s rebuttal to Ezra Klein. Lawrence on what they don’t tell you about the Dump Biden ‘fantasy’ (youtube.com)

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Republicans furiously try to backtrack over IVF decision.

Republicans are furiously trying to walk back their support for the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that cryogenically frozen fertilized eggs are human babies. It won’t work. The problem for Republicans is that the result in the Alabama case has been a long-term goal of the Republican Party.

Trump's advisors convinced him to issue a statement saying that he supported “IVF”—which is not the issue. The issue created by the Alabama Supreme Court is not whether IVF is legal but what rights, if any, frozen embryos have. On that issue, fundamentalist Christians believe that “life begins at conception”—an issue Trump did not address in announcing a change in his political position.

The Republican Senate Campaign Committee sent a note to GOP candidates telling them to follow Trump's lead in supporting IVF treatment. But the author of that guidance—GOP Senator Steve Daines—has sponsored legislation in the Senate declaring “that the term “human person” applies to “each member of the species homo sapiens at all stages of life, including [from] the moment of fertilization.” See Talking Points Memo, Senators Now Defending IVF Co-Sponsored Bill to Outlaw It.

So, in their effort to avoid the logical consequences of their position, Republicans will need to confront the underpinning of their fifty-year battle to overturn Roe v. Wade—whether human life begins at conception. As I wrote yesterday, Trump can change his political position—but that political fiat won’t change the religious views of fundamentalists who believe Trump is a tool for achieving a religiously ordained outcome.

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Concluding Thoughts.

My Managing Editor and I met with a small but dedicated group of readers in East Moline, Illinois, on Friday afternoon. Picture below.

At every meeting with readers, someone asks how Democrats can encourage and engage young voters. One of the most effective organizations for registering high school students turning 18 (at which point they are eligible to vote) is The Civics Center. See this special event with Big Tent USA highlighting the great work of The Civics Center—and learn who you can help register young voters!

On Tuesday, February 27th at 12:00 PM ET, BigTent is excited to present a discussion featuring Laura W. Brill, CEO and Founder of The CivicsCenter, and Jake Tapper, CNN Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent. Their conversation will dive into the current state of youth civic engagement and explore strategies for lowering the barriers to registration and voting. Laura and her team are on a mission to make voter registration part of every high school in America.

BigTentUSA is a moderate, inclusive, and collaborative community empowering citizens to take action to protect democracy, defend women’s rights, and protect our children. Join our free educational series of events and our calls to action detailed and updated regularly on our website.

Please use this link to register.

Talk to you on Monday—from St. Louis!