GasBandit
Staff member
Just some recent news wrapup here, most of which we've already been discussing:
Biden called for a constitutional amendment to reform the Supreme Court, pressing Congress to establish 18-year term limits and a binding, enforceable code of conduct for the court’s nine justices. Biden, in an op-ed, said “no one” including “a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States” is above the law. He added: “What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms. We now stand in a breach.” Biden also called for a constitutional amendment to limit the Supreme Court’s “dangerous and extreme” decision to grant blanket immunity to presidents for crimes they commit in office. A constitutional amendment requires two-thirds support from both chambers of Congress, or through a constitutional convention by two-thirds of the states. Ratification requires support from three-fourths of state legislatures. Speaker Mike Johnson called Biden’s proposals an effort to “delegitimize the court,” and said plan “is dead on arrival in the House.” (Washington Post / New York Times / Associated Press / Reuters / NPR / NBC News / Axios / ABC News / Politico / Wall Street Journal / CNN / CBS News)
Trump told Christians “you won’t have to vote anymore” if he wins in November. “You gotta get out and vote. Just this time,” Trump said at the at the Turning Point Believers’ Summit, adding: “It’ll be fixed; it’ll be fine; you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians” because “we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.” Asked to clarify Trump’s threat to free and fair elections, a campaign spokesman said “Trump was talking about uniting this country and bringing prosperity to every American, as opposed to the divisive political environment that has sowed so much division and even resulted in an assassination attempt.” Trump, however, previously refused to rule out abusing power if re-elected and said he would not be a dictator upon returning to office “except for Day One.” Republicans, meanwhile, dismissed Trump’s statement as “a joke,” and just “a classic Trumpism.” Harris campaign responded to Trump’s comments, saying when Harris “says this election is about freedom she means it,” adding: “Our democracy is under assault by criminal Donald Trump.” (The Atlantic / New York Times / CNN / The Guardian / Washington Post / ABC News / Axios / Mother Jones / Daily Beast / HuffPost / NPR / CBS News)
Trump promised to “fire” the Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler “on day one” and make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world” by picking crypto-friendly regulators if he returns to the White House. Trump also proposed a “strategic national bitcoin stockpile” and a policy to keep 100% of the bitcoin the U.S. government currently holds (about 210,000 bitcoins). “If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted, and made in the USA,” Trump said. “If Bitcoin is going to the moon, as they say, ‘it’s going to the moon,’ I want America to be the nation that leads the way.” Bitcoin, meanwhile, fell more than 1% Monday. (Bloomberg / Washington Post / Axios / USA Today / CNBC)
Trump leads Harris 49% to 47%. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 3.1, meaning the race is essentially tied nationally. Trump held a six-point lead over Biden before he exited the race. (Wall Street Journal)
Trump leads Harris 48% to 47% among likely voters. Trump leads Harris 48% to 46% among registered voters. (New York Times)
Harris’s favorability rating increased to 43% from 35% last week, while her unfavorability rating decreased to 42% from 46%. Among independents, her favorability jumped to 44% from 28%, and her unfavorability dropped to 40% from 47%. Trump’s favorability rating, meanwhile, declined to 36% from 40% last week. His favorability among independents also fell, dropping to 27% from 35%. (ABC News)
Trump repeated his assertion that if Christians “vote for me, you’re not going to have to do it ever again – it’s true.” When Fox News’s Laura Ingraham offered Trump an out – saying “You mean you don’t have to vote for you, because you’ll have four years in office” – Trump cut her off and said: “Don’t worry about the future. You have to vote on Nov. 5. After that, you don’t have to worry about voting anymore. I don’t care, because we’re going to fix it. The country will be fixed and we won’t even need your vote anymore, because frankly we will have such love, if you don’t want to vote anymore, that’s OK.” Meanwhile, Trump suggested that he would “probably end up debating” Kamala Harris but that he “could also make a case for not doing it.” His comments come after his campaign said it wouldn’t commit to any future debates until the Democratic Party formally chooses a nominee, prompting Harris to accuse Trump of “backpedaling” on a debate. (New York Times / Media Matters / CNN)
Trump attempted clean up JD Vance’s past comments that Democrats, like Kamala Harris, are “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable,” saying Vance “likes family […] a lot of people like family.” Trump added there isn’t “anything wrong in saying that,” but also said that he thinks not having children is “just as good” as having a family. In a 2021 Fox News interview, Vance complained how “the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.” And those – Harris, Pete Buttigieg, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – without biological children “don’t really have a direct stake” in the country’s future. And in 2020, Vance said those without kids were “more sociopathic” than those with kids and made the country “less mentally stable.” Vance, when given an opportunity to address the comments, said he didn’t mean to criticize “people who, for various reasons, didn’t have kids,” but added: “Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment. I’ve got nothing against cats.” (ABC News / Washington Post / USA Today)
JD Vance confirmed that his feelings are not hurt by Democrats calling him “weird” for his remarks that the country was run by “childless cat ladies,” calling it “the price of admission […] I think it’s an honor.” Over the weekend, Kamala Harris said Trump’s and Vance’s “wild lies about my record […] is just plain weird.” And, in a press release titled “Statement on a 78-Year-Old Criminal’s Fox News Appearance,” the Harris campaign noted that Trump had “Praised dictators because he wants to be one; Trump is clearly worried he made the wrong pick in JD Vance; Trump is old and quite weird?” The line of attack is credited to Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, who first said “these guys are just weird” in response to Trump’s repeated praise of the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter and how – hypothetically – he’d prefer electrocution to a shark encounter if his electric boat sank. Meanwhile, failed Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said “this whole ‘they’re weird’ argument from the Democrats is dumb & juvenile,” to which Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded: “It’s an incel platform, dude. It’s SUPER weird. And people need to know.” Elsewhere, Vance characterized the emergence of Harris’s campaign as a “political sucker punch.” (New York Times / The Hill / Associated Press / CNN / CBS News / USA Today)
Lara Trump, the Republican Party co-chair and Trump’s daughter-in-law, compared Harris to a designer handbag made to look like a “trash bag.” The comment echos Trump’s insult last week that Harris is “real garbage.” Despite Harris raising more than $200 million in her first week, erasing Trump’s lead in the polls and touting a higher favorability rating, Lara Trump nevertheless said, “It’s been incredible to see the way they have tried to prop up Kamala Harris and really sell her as some sort of, this amazing political figure to the American people.” She added: “It reminds me of, there was a bag that a very famous designer designed. This was several years ago, and it literally was a trash bag, but they sold this thing for like $2,000 thinking that people will actually buy it.” (New York Times / The Hill / HuffPost / Daily Beast)
Biden called for a constitutional amendment to reform the Supreme Court, pressing Congress to establish 18-year term limits and a binding, enforceable code of conduct for the court’s nine justices. Biden, in an op-ed, said “no one” including “a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States” is above the law. He added: “What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms. We now stand in a breach.” Biden also called for a constitutional amendment to limit the Supreme Court’s “dangerous and extreme” decision to grant blanket immunity to presidents for crimes they commit in office. A constitutional amendment requires two-thirds support from both chambers of Congress, or through a constitutional convention by two-thirds of the states. Ratification requires support from three-fourths of state legislatures. Speaker Mike Johnson called Biden’s proposals an effort to “delegitimize the court,” and said plan “is dead on arrival in the House.” (Washington Post / New York Times / Associated Press / Reuters / NPR / NBC News / Axios / ABC News / Politico / Wall Street Journal / CNN / CBS News)
Trump told Christians “you won’t have to vote anymore” if he wins in November. “You gotta get out and vote. Just this time,” Trump said at the at the Turning Point Believers’ Summit, adding: “It’ll be fixed; it’ll be fine; you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians” because “we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.” Asked to clarify Trump’s threat to free and fair elections, a campaign spokesman said “Trump was talking about uniting this country and bringing prosperity to every American, as opposed to the divisive political environment that has sowed so much division and even resulted in an assassination attempt.” Trump, however, previously refused to rule out abusing power if re-elected and said he would not be a dictator upon returning to office “except for Day One.” Republicans, meanwhile, dismissed Trump’s statement as “a joke,” and just “a classic Trumpism.” Harris campaign responded to Trump’s comments, saying when Harris “says this election is about freedom she means it,” adding: “Our democracy is under assault by criminal Donald Trump.” (The Atlantic / New York Times / CNN / The Guardian / Washington Post / ABC News / Axios / Mother Jones / Daily Beast / HuffPost / NPR / CBS News)
Trump promised to “fire” the Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler “on day one” and make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world” by picking crypto-friendly regulators if he returns to the White House. Trump also proposed a “strategic national bitcoin stockpile” and a policy to keep 100% of the bitcoin the U.S. government currently holds (about 210,000 bitcoins). “If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted, and made in the USA,” Trump said. “If Bitcoin is going to the moon, as they say, ‘it’s going to the moon,’ I want America to be the nation that leads the way.” Bitcoin, meanwhile, fell more than 1% Monday. (Bloomberg / Washington Post / Axios / USA Today / CNBC)
Trump leads Harris 49% to 47%. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 3.1, meaning the race is essentially tied nationally. Trump held a six-point lead over Biden before he exited the race. (Wall Street Journal)
Trump leads Harris 48% to 47% among likely voters. Trump leads Harris 48% to 46% among registered voters. (New York Times)
Harris’s favorability rating increased to 43% from 35% last week, while her unfavorability rating decreased to 42% from 46%. Among independents, her favorability jumped to 44% from 28%, and her unfavorability dropped to 40% from 47%. Trump’s favorability rating, meanwhile, declined to 36% from 40% last week. His favorability among independents also fell, dropping to 27% from 35%. (ABC News)
Trump repeated his assertion that if Christians “vote for me, you’re not going to have to do it ever again – it’s true.” When Fox News’s Laura Ingraham offered Trump an out – saying “You mean you don’t have to vote for you, because you’ll have four years in office” – Trump cut her off and said: “Don’t worry about the future. You have to vote on Nov. 5. After that, you don’t have to worry about voting anymore. I don’t care, because we’re going to fix it. The country will be fixed and we won’t even need your vote anymore, because frankly we will have such love, if you don’t want to vote anymore, that’s OK.” Meanwhile, Trump suggested that he would “probably end up debating” Kamala Harris but that he “could also make a case for not doing it.” His comments come after his campaign said it wouldn’t commit to any future debates until the Democratic Party formally chooses a nominee, prompting Harris to accuse Trump of “backpedaling” on a debate. (New York Times / Media Matters / CNN)
Trump attempted clean up JD Vance’s past comments that Democrats, like Kamala Harris, are “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable,” saying Vance “likes family […] a lot of people like family.” Trump added there isn’t “anything wrong in saying that,” but also said that he thinks not having children is “just as good” as having a family. In a 2021 Fox News interview, Vance complained how “the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.” And those – Harris, Pete Buttigieg, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – without biological children “don’t really have a direct stake” in the country’s future. And in 2020, Vance said those without kids were “more sociopathic” than those with kids and made the country “less mentally stable.” Vance, when given an opportunity to address the comments, said he didn’t mean to criticize “people who, for various reasons, didn’t have kids,” but added: “Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment. I’ve got nothing against cats.” (ABC News / Washington Post / USA Today)
JD Vance confirmed that his feelings are not hurt by Democrats calling him “weird” for his remarks that the country was run by “childless cat ladies,” calling it “the price of admission […] I think it’s an honor.” Over the weekend, Kamala Harris said Trump’s and Vance’s “wild lies about my record […] is just plain weird.” And, in a press release titled “Statement on a 78-Year-Old Criminal’s Fox News Appearance,” the Harris campaign noted that Trump had “Praised dictators because he wants to be one; Trump is clearly worried he made the wrong pick in JD Vance; Trump is old and quite weird?” The line of attack is credited to Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, who first said “these guys are just weird” in response to Trump’s repeated praise of the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter and how – hypothetically – he’d prefer electrocution to a shark encounter if his electric boat sank. Meanwhile, failed Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said “this whole ‘they’re weird’ argument from the Democrats is dumb & juvenile,” to which Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded: “It’s an incel platform, dude. It’s SUPER weird. And people need to know.” Elsewhere, Vance characterized the emergence of Harris’s campaign as a “political sucker punch.” (New York Times / The Hill / Associated Press / CNN / CBS News / USA Today)
Lara Trump, the Republican Party co-chair and Trump’s daughter-in-law, compared Harris to a designer handbag made to look like a “trash bag.” The comment echos Trump’s insult last week that Harris is “real garbage.” Despite Harris raising more than $200 million in her first week, erasing Trump’s lead in the polls and touting a higher favorability rating, Lara Trump nevertheless said, “It’s been incredible to see the way they have tried to prop up Kamala Harris and really sell her as some sort of, this amazing political figure to the American people.” She added: “It reminds me of, there was a bag that a very famous designer designed. This was several years ago, and it literally was a trash bag, but they sold this thing for like $2,000 thinking that people will actually buy it.” (New York Times / The Hill / HuffPost / Daily Beast)
