Morning Digest: Utah election law trips up election denier

Daily Kos Elections for Daily Kos Elections

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday May 01, 2024 · 5:30 AM PDT

2024/05/01 · 05:30

Utah state Rep. Phil Lyman, a candidate for governor, addresses nearly 4,000 delegates at the Utah Republican Party Convention, Saturday, April 27, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum) — Utah Republican Phil Lyman, who is running in the primary for governor.

_{The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team.}

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● UT-Gov: State Rep. Phil Lyman announced Monday evening that he would ask the Utah Supreme Court to prevent election officials from booting his running mate, former Trump administration official Layne Bangerter, from the June 25 GOP primary ballot after an outside adviser to Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson concluded that Bangerter did not meet the state's residency requirements. The Lyman-Bangerter ticket is waging an uphill battle to deny renomination to Gov. Spencer Cox and Henderson.

The state constitution says that candidates for both governor and lieutenant governor must have been Utah residents "for five years next preceding the election." Bangerter grew up in Utah but moved away in 1990 and says he did not return until 2021. During the intervening time, Bangerter led Donald Trump's 2016 campaign in Idaho and mulled a bid for the U.S. House there the following year.

Jen Sorensen for Comics

Wednesday May 01, 2024 · 5:00 AM PDT

2024/05/01 · 05:00

Only a few weeks ago, the world was aghast at Israel's killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in three separate vehicles, and an investigation revealed the IDF's AI targeting system that led to enormous numbers of civilian casualties. It's no mystery why students are protesting. By all accounts, the tent encampment at Columbia University was peaceful, yet cops were called in to break it up and the students were suspended. (Since I finished this cartoon, people occupied a building and were arrested -- it's hard to keep up with the news cycle.)

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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: The Trump trial continues to make news

Greg Dworkin for Daily Kos

Community

Wednesday May 01, 2024 · 4:00 AM PDT

2024/05/01 · 04:00

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 30: Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears in court during his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 30, 2024 in New York City. Former U.S. President Donald Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first of his criminal cases to go to trial. (Photo by Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images) — Donald Trump is awake for this shot but fell asleep a few more times during his trial on Tuesday.

Abbreviated Pundit Roundup is a long-running series published every morning that collects essential political discussion and analysis around the internet.

Mark Jacob/”Stop the Presses” on Substack:

Why headlines matter and news outlets fail at them

Out of laziness or fear, some media think small with the big type

David Pecker, the opening witness in Donald Trump’s first criminal trial, explained his top priority when he ran the National Enquirer:

“The only thing that is important is the cover of the magazine.”

Which means the most prominent headlines and photos.

Pecker understands the importance of headlines. Donald Trump does too. That’s why Trump arranged for Pecker’s slimy rag to write headlines during the 2016 campaign such as:

“CRUZ’S 5 SECRET MISTRESSES!”

(with a subhead reading “IT’S OVER FOR PERVY TED”)

and

“HILLARY: 6 MONTHS TO LIVE!”

The dubious claims behind the headlines didn’t matter. The headlines mattered.

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday April 30, 2024 · 5:00 PM PDT

2024/04/30 · 17:00

ORLANDO, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 27: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference held in the Hyatt Regency on February 27, 2021 in Orlando, Florida. Begun in 1974, CPAC brings together conservative organizations, activists, and world leaders to discuss issues important to them. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Donald Trump's first criminal trial kicks off third week

Another day, another chance Trump goes to prison.

Believe it or not, Howard Dean is thinking comeback

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

New poll suggests a Trump conviction could cost him votes

So voters don’t actually want to elect a criminal?

Cartoon: Dogged by controversy

There are no words.

Kristi Noem's story of murdering her dog keeps getting worse

She’s still digging, but the hole isn’t big enough for all the bodies.

If you love dogs, Joe Biden is the only choice in 2024

If how these candidates treat animals is any indication of how they treat people …

keefknight

Tuesday April 30, 2024 · 4:59 PM PDT

2024/04/30 · 16:59

www.patreon.com/keefknight

Rachel Maddow exposes the GOP’s ‘sprawling nationwide scandal’

Walter Einenkel for Daily Kos

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday April 30, 2024 · 4:30 PM PDT

2024/04/30 · 16:30

Rachel Maddow dedicated time during her show on Monday to talking about the extent of the election fraud rot in the Republican Party. Acknowledging that Donald Trump is always going to hoover “up all the oxygen in the room,” Maddow said she wanted to broaden the scope to look at the GOP as a whole.

Kerry Eleveld for Daily Kos

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday April 30, 2024 · 3:45 PM PDT

2024/04/30 · 15:45

Abortion rights activists rally outside the Supreme Court, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) — Abortion rights activists rally outside the Supreme Court, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Washington.

Donald Trump can't stop the abortion policy fallout he kicked into high gear earlier this month when he declared states should be the ultimate arbiters on reproductive freedom and the bodily autonomy of pregnant Americans.

In a new interview with Time magazine's Eric Cortellessa, Trump dodged questions about whether he would sign a national abortion ban, okayed the idea of monitoring pregnant women, and revisited the possibility of prosecuting anyone who gets abortion care.

Asked specifically about the prospect of state governments monitoring women’s pregnancies, Trump was indifferent.

"I think they might do that,” he said. “Again, you’ll have to speak to the individual states.”

Ankle monitors for pregnant women? Sure, why not? It's open season at the state level.

"The states are going to make those decisions," Trump said.

Except, of course, when a draconian law generates really bad press that could kill Trump's presidential bid, like in Arizona.

Stephen Wolf for Daily Kos Elections

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday April 30, 2024 · 3:30 PM PDT

2024/04/30 · 15:30

Louisiana's conservative Supreme Court ruled on Friday that St. George, a wealthy and heavily white suburb southeast of Baton Rouge, could incorporate as a new city.

Residents of St. George had voted for incorporation by a 54-46 margin in a 2019 referendum, but lower courts had blocked it from going forward because of its potentially adverse effects on the finances of both Baton Rouge and St. George. By a 4-3 margin, however, the Supreme Court reversed those previous decisions and allowed incorporation to proceed.

The state capital of Baton Rouge, which consolidated its government with East Baton Rouge Parish following a 1947 referendum, oversees nearly all of the parish aside from a few small towns. According to data from the Census Bureau and VEST presented by Dave's Redistricting App, residents in the consolidated government's jurisdiction are 56% Black, 33% white, and heavily Democratic. By contrast, St. George's 81,000 residents are 67% white and just 18% Black, and the new municipality would be solidly Republican.

Mark Sumner for Daily Kos

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday April 30, 2024 · 2:30 PM PDT

2024/04/30 · 14:30

It would be hard to find an organization more corrupt and incompetent than the NRA, though a few individuals on a certain court sure come to mind. In January, chief executive Wayne LaPierre ended three decades of control when he resigned ahead of a trial over tapping organization funds to treat himself to yacht trips, African safaris, and regular use of a private jet. In February, that trial ended with LaPierre being ordered to pay back almost $4.4 million.

In the wake of LaPierre’s resignation, the organization has reportedly descended into infighting. Finding a new leader has proven so difficult that not even Donald Trump Jr., who spent years talking himself up as the NRA’s next leader, is willing to take the job. Or at least, he says he wouldn’t, though no one has actually asked him to step in.

Leadership aside, the NRA now has only a fraction of the funds they had to sling around in past election seasons. They’ve declined from the $50 million they put into races in 2016 to only $11 million in their PAC and SuperPAC combined as of the last filing. Membership is also down by over a million, to around five million, which is half the goal LaPierre set for 2023 a decade ago.

And that’s not all that’s declined. So have gun sales. So what does that mean for the gun lobby?

Walter Einenkel for Daily Kos

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday April 30, 2024 · 1:15 PM PDT

2024/04/30 · 13:15

Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel had a lot of GOP chicanery from the weekend to cover during his Monday night monologue.

He touched base on Donald Trump’s hush money trial, the “privately” held meeting he had with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the fruitless messaging of Trump’s progeny, Trump’s anxiety over losing some of his wacky voters to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and avowed “puppy killer” Gov. Kristi Noem.

Joan McCarter for Daily Kos

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday April 30, 2024 · 12:00 PM PDT

2024/04/30 · 12:00

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, WEST VIRGINIA - MARCH 13: U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) participates in a discussion at the Greenbrier Hotel on March 13, 2024 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. House Republicans are holding their 2024 House Republican Issues Conference, also known as the annual House GOP retreat, in West Virginia from March 13-15. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) — House Speaker Mike Johnson

House Democratic leadership announced Tuesday that they’ll allow members to block any effort from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her tiny team of nihilists to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, a reminder of where the power sits in the House.

“We will vote to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Motion to Vacate the Chair. If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark, and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said in a statement.

Even among Republicans Greene’s tantrums have been wearing thin for a few weeks now, but since she had Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Thomas Massie of Kentucky as cosponsors, the theoretical threat remained real—Johnson’s margin of error is that small.

Mark Sumner for Daily Kos Liveblogs

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday April 30, 2024 · 11:51 AM PDT

2024/04/30 · 11:51

Former President Donald Trump, followed by his attorney Todd Blanche, exits the courtroom during his trial at Manhattan criminal court , Friday, April 26, 2024, in New York. (Curtis Means/DailyMail.com via AP)

Donald Trump’s trial on 34 counts of falsifying business records to disguise payments made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels kicks off its third week on Tuesday. Prosecutors are expected to resume questioning former managing director of First Republic Bank Gary Farro.

Farro served as a banker for Trump attorney Michael Cohen. His testimony so far has largely focused on laying out the sequence of actions by which Cohen created a shell company to pay Daniels, opened bank accounts for that shell company, and moved funds into those accounts. Through his testimony, prosecutors have entered a series of bank records into evidence.

Farro’s testimony may not be as colorful as that of former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, but the payments to Daniels are at the heart of the charges against Trump, and prosecutors need to obtain information from Farro in a way that makes Trump’s crimes obvious. Based on where things stood with Farro on Friday, his time remaining on the stand may be relatively brief.

When prosecution and defense wrap up with Farro, it’s not clear which witness will testify next. Prosecutors have been reluctant to announce an order of witnesses to help protect those appearing from social media attacks by Trump.

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Morning Digest: Utah election law trips up election denier

Cartoon: Where's the crisis?

Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: The Trump trial continues to make news

ICYMI: Kristi Noem’s dog story gets even worse, how a Trump conviction could really hurt

Cartoon: Noem-ber

Rachel Maddow exposes the GOP’s ‘sprawling nationwide scandal’

Trump says states can decide to monitor pregnant women

Top Louisiana court okays suburb's plan to secede from heavily Black city

The NRA is falling apart, and the gun cult may be going with it

Jimmy Kimmel jabs at Trump and ‘puppy killer’ Kristi Noem

Democrats might stop the House speaker’s ouster—and they won’t let him forget it

Live coverage: Donald Trump's first criminal trial kicks off third week