Trump flip flops yet again on abortion
Questions persist over Arlington cemetery visit by Trump
Also in today’s special edition of ‘Regular Order’ for August 31, 2024:
Harris tries to stay below the radar.
The FBI sends me a letter.
Democrats very skeptical on Trump’s IVF plan.
ABORTION. Well, that didn’t take long. Not even 24 hours after saying he might vote to enshrine abortion rights in Florida, Donald Trump had to backpedal, under fire from conservative Republicans and abortion opponents. On Friday, he switched again, saying he would vote against an abortion rights ballot measure in Florida, a day after hinting that he would vote for it.
FOG OF WAR. As the Associated Press put it, "Trump has held multiple conflicting positions on abortion over the years." Can’t argue with that. What's at play here is pretty simple - Trump is searching for a winning message on abortion. What's happening right now is not working for him, and he knows it.
FLIPPED. Trump's move came after anti-abortion activists expressed alarm at his opposition to a ban on abortions after 6-weeks of pregnancy - which is the law in his home state of Florida. Trump says he still opposes that 6-week ban, which puts him at odds with many in his own party - but he will evidently vote to leave that ban in place.
DEMS. The reaction among Democrats was what you would expect - they think Trump is a complete fake when it comes to abortion rights. "American women won’t forget this on November 5th," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). "Trump packed the Supreme Court with anti-choice judges for the explicit purpose of making abortion illegal," added Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT).
HARRIS. "Donald Trump just made his position on abortion very clear," Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement. "He will vote to uphold an abortion ban so extreme it applies before many women even know they are pregnant."
IVF. Democrats also took aim at the GOP after Trump's completely out-of-left-field proposal to have the government - or health insurance companies - foot the entire bill for IVF services. "It was MAGA Republicans who blocked the bills Democrats put forward to protect IVF," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
TALLY. Schumer is exactly right. Republicans filibustered a bill back in June to make sure states could not outlaw IVF, as Democrats repeatedly pointed out how the GOP had opposed action on IVF and abortion. "Some of us were born at night," said Rep. John Larson (D-CT), "but not last night."
SENATE. "We literally voted to do exactly this in the Senate and Trump said nothing when nearly every Republican voted to block our bill to protect the right to IVF," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA). You can see that vote at this link.
ARLINGTON. If you find some of the Trump-abortion details above hard to believe then you might not believe what's next. After days of controversy over his campaign posting a video shot at Arlington National Cemetery, Donald Trump on Friday feigned ignorance about the video and seemed to blame the Gold Star parents who invited him to Arlington.
TRUMP. "I really don't know anything about it," Trump said when pressed in an interview about shooting a campaign video at the nation's most important military cemetery. Trump then suggested that the parents of fallen servicemembers might have shot the video and posted it themselves. "It could have been them, it could have been the parents."
REALITY. I think we can pretty much say that didn't happen. It was the Trump campaign which had someone get in a physical altercation with someone at Arlington. He was there to make a campaign video. That was the purpose of the visit.
UNUSUAL. I also want to stress again just how unusual this week’s public rebuke of Trump was from the Army. That is not something normal from the military - and it should tell you that officials at the Pentagon are not pleased with what happened at Arlington, where Trump shot this campaign video.
SETUP. But something else also really jumps out at me, and it was reinforced by a tweet from Fox News yesterday. It looks more and more to me that what the Trump campaign wanted you to think was that Biden and Harris skipped a ceremony at Arlington for soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Check this tweet, which wrongly says Biden ‘skipped’ the Arlington event.
CEMETERY. There was no scheduled ‘event’ at Arlington on Monday. It was a private ceremony which Trump attended - and he reportedly gained access only after House Speaker Mike Johnson leaned on cemetery officials to let him in.
INTERVIEW. The more I go back and watch the CNN interview done with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the more I fully believe that their game plan was *not* to make news. And it takes a lot of discipline to do that, especially on certain things said by Trump.
TURNING BLACK. CNN's Dana Bash brought up the Trump attack line that Harris had only emphasized her Black heritage for political purposes. "Same old, tired playbook," Harris said. "Next question, please," she said immediately.
FORMULA. What's been a big part of Trump's political formula has been the ability to bring up an issue and put his opponent on the defensive - no matter how crazy his statement might be. What we've seen with Harris is that she refuses to take the bait with Trump. And I think that drives him a little mad.
DEBATE. The same thing happened a few weeks ago when Trump was basically trying to bully Harris into accepting more debates - and the way he wanted them to be conducted. Instead of getting into a tit for tat, Harris said little.
MAILBAG. The postman delivered an interesting item from the FBI this week, a Freedom of Information Act rejection letter for something I asked for three years ago in the aftermath of the January 6 attack on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump. "The FBI can neither confirm nor deny the existence of records responsive to your request,” it said.
FOIA. What did I request? I wanted information about what the FBI had found related to the use of Amateur (or HAM) radios for communications and other operational planning dealing with January 6. The FBI cited FOIA exemption (b)(7)(e), which deals with law enforcement records.
JAN. 6. Some of the early indictments and FBI records about those arrested on Jan. 6 showcased people using radios on frequencies adjacent to those used by amateur radio. There are other recordings out there about hams who participated in the events of that day as well. But the feds don't want to talk about it right now.
RADIOS. There were a lot of people inside and outside of the Capitol who had small walkie-talkie type radios with them. That sends a message of broader organization of the attack. Or it could be just a bunch of cosplayers who have money to spend on a fancy little radio.
JAN. 6 TAPES. Speaking of Jan. 6, I had another afternoon in the viewing room this week, looking at the security tapes from that day. After spending several hours getting nowhere, I suddenly had an idea on how to advance my fake GOP electors story from July. I think I will definitely have a new story in September. Stay tuned.
RAP SHEET. A Georgia man was found guilty this week of crimes on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol. Michael Bradley carried a baton in a holster that day, swinging it repeatedly at police officers in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel. How was Bradley caught more than a year later? He bragged about what he did on Jan. 6 and was turned in by an FBI tipster.
MUSE OF HISTORY. August 31, 1888. We hear a lot of complaints about how Congress often uses temporary spending plans to fund the federal government on a short term basis. It's not new. On this date in 1888, the Senate approved a House-passed plan to 'provide temporarily for the expenditures of the Government' through September 15. Kicking the can has been around for a while.
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The House is back for votes on September 9.
The Senate returns on September 9.
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Offhand, I can’t think of a week filled with more unforced errors than this one for the Trump campaign. Then again, we have a long holiday weekend ahead of us. He could still top himself.
Kudos on the “The FBI can neither confirm nor deny the existence of records responsive to your request.” FOIA letter. That tells us a lot about the organized use of radios on Jan. 6. Not sure how an entire committee assigned to investigate Jan. 6 missed that area of investigation in its findings. I’ll look forward to your follow up story from July as well. Hope you get some downtime this weekend. You’ve more than earned it.
Oooh a teaser! Can't wait!