They Finally Went There: Biden Campaign Throws a Punch

People thought they could control Hitler, thought they could control Mussolini, it didn't happen" - Robert Deniro speaks against Trump outside NYC Court

President Joe Biden's campaign held a press conference this morning outside the courthouse where former President Donald Trump is facing what the media has characterized as a “hush money trial”. In reality, the prosecution has charged the former president with 34 instances of fraud motivated by a desire to protect his campaign from bad press.

Inside the Courthouse, Trump attorney Todd Blanch was presenting closing arguments to the jury, mirroring the “throw everything against the wall and see what sticks” strategy used during witness testimony. My personal favorite was the assertion that the National Enquirer wasn’t capable of influencing a national election; I’m sure former presidential candidate John Edwards would have a contrary opinion on that topic. 

Outside the courthouse, Robert Deniro, along with Jan 6 police officers Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone spoke to the assembled press as a few Trump supporters heckled them from the background.

De Niro told a heckler calling the officers “traitors” that  “you are able to stand here today because of the brave actions” of the two men behind him. 

Biden-Harris Comms Director Michael Tyler: As we speak, Donald Trump is somewhere fighting for himself, maybe taking a power nap. We've seen the ramblings of an unhinged power-hungry, self-centered man. This isn't new for Donald Trump. It's how he spent his four years in the White House. It's how he spent every moment since he lost the 2020 election. And in one month, Americans are going to have an opportunity to witness in primetime the clear contrast between Donald Trump, who's a chaos agent waging a self-obsessed campaign of revenge and retribution, go up against Joe Biden, a leader who fights for Americans every single day

Robert De Niro: Donald Trump doesn’t belong in my city. We New Yorkers used to tolerate him when he was just another grubby real estate hustler masquerading as a big shot. A two-bit playboy lying his way into the tabloids. He’s a clown. But this person can’t run the country. That does not work, and we all know that. It's no surprise that the murder rate and other violent crimes peaked under Trump and are now falling under Biden. And now Trump is promising to use our own military to attack U.S. citizens. That's the tyrant he's telling us he'll be. And believe me, he means it

Via Politico:

• While the speakers did not reference the trial specifically, the press conference marks a notable escalation for the Biden team, who have, so far, largely avoided all of Trump’s legal challenges. It suggests that there may be brewing frustration that the trial has not resonated more broadly with voters.

• When asked why the Biden campaign showed up on Tuesday, “because you all are here,” said Michael Tyler, Biden’s communications director.

• “You’ve been incessantly covering this, day in and day out,” Tyler said. “And we want to remind the American people ahead of the next debate, the first debate on June 27, of the unique, persistent and growing threat that Donald Trump poses to the American people and to our democracy.”

At the Washington Post, Aaron Blake contemplated public response in four scenarios involving the trial, indicating that a guilty verdict would have more impact if the former president was incarcerated. An acquittal –an ending that apparently hasn’t been polled– would solidify MAGA support and provide material for more attention-getting charges coming from their candidate.

Most interesting (and the verdict I’m predicting) would be a hung jury.

• All it takes is one juror to stop a conviction (or an acquittal). The case could be retried, but perhaps not before Election Day, and prosecutors might well decide against it because of the cost and threat of another failed prosecution.

• Trump, of course, would claim that even this outcome would be a “total exoneration,” as he is apt to do. And perhaps voters would come to internalize that message, given that prosecutors would have come at the king and missed.

• Or, perhaps more likely, the vast majority of voters who were rather uninterested in this case to begin with would move on, and a race that hasn’t shifted much for months would proceed apace.

MAGA-world went nuts, filling the social media and talking head cable updates with how the press conference was a bad move for the Biden campaign, especially given Trump's accusation that the president personally was directing the criminal cases against the former president.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung took his turn to speak at the end of the event, calling out the press conference as election interference.

I take this surprise press conference as an encouraging sign from the Biden campaign. The threat to democracy posed by the presumptive GOP nominee should be shouted from the rooftops.

***

On the negative side of my political thinking is deep disappointment that this weekend’s attack on a refugee camp in Gaza hasn’t warranted a strong response worthy of an administration claiming to have a “red line” in that conflict. The world is watching, and opposition to the strategy of eliminating Hamas no matter what the cost is rising, even in Israel. 

Here’s Jill Filipovic:

• This is a strategy bound to fail. Most people want, at the very least, safety for themselves and their families. Israel has shown itself to be the biggest threat to the safety of Palestinians. And while this Israeli government may argue that Hamas is actually at fault, and while I would hope that many Palestinians can see that Hamas does indeed put them at risk in the name of another right-wing ideology, the very obvious truth is that Israeli bombs and bullets are killing Palestinians en masse. No society would come out of what Palestinians are experiencing without carrying deep rage and a desire to see justice done, no matter how crudely. And so I don’t see how this war ends with Israel any safer. 

• I do see how Hamas, even if it is functionally obliterated, still wins in the end: With a peaceful two-state solution further in the rearview than ever, a generation of Palestinians traumatized, vengeful, and potentially radicalized, and a world that has turned against Israel and left the country even more isolated. Hamas wants to make Israel a pariah; they see that as a crucial step in the state’s destruction. They know that brutal retribution in which Israel goes way overboard will shock the conscience of the world. And on that, Israel is fully cooperating.

***

Tuesday’s Other News to Think About

***

 We Must Face Down the Expanding Anti-Reality Industry by Byrn Nelson at Scientific American Opinion

• A 2020 analysis by the climate change-focused journalism site DeSmog revealed that climate denialists share extensive overlaps with those “spreading COVID misinformation, touting false cures, ginning up conspiracy theories and fomenting attacks on public health experts.” Activists affiliated with the Heartland Institute, an oil and gas industry–funded booster of climate denialism, repeatedly attacked COVID public health measures. Some have woven those threads into a wild conspiracy theory about a plot by “eco-radicals” to restrict personal freedoms. Conservative scholars at the even more influential Heritage Foundation, also funded by oil and gas magnates, have misleadingly portrayed COVID and climate models as highly sensitive to “assumptions,” and suggested that climate model advocates “often try to beef them up to satisfy an agenda.”

• With a key assist from dark-money gas industry groups that have refused to reveal their donors, affiliated foundations, and lobbyists, some global warming disinformation has taken the form of outright gaslighting. Ohio and Tennessee, for instance, have passed laws that redefine methane—one of the most potent greenhouse gases—as “clean energy.” In Tennessee, the new law requires public utilities to treat natural gas, primarily made up of methane, as a “permissible source” of clean energy, despite study after study warning that soaring levels of methane in Earth’s atmosphere are contributing greatly to global warming.

• A recent Society of Environmental Journalists workshop on combating climate and science disinformation detailed how largely meaningless terms like “certified” natural gas, redefinitions of existing terms (like expanding what can be called “clean energy”), and ads disguised as editorials have all been designed to deceive and mislead. The idea that we’re each entitled to our own facts benefits bad actors polluting the public discourse, said University of Pennsylvania climatologist Michael Mann, who spoke at the workshop. It’s not that there’s a deficit of information, he said; rather, there’s a surplus of disinformation.

****

Home insurance was once a ‘must.’ Now more homeowners are going without. Via The Washington Post

• Most uninsured homeowners are those who have paid off their mortgage and are no longer required to have insurance. Among those who own their home outright, the CFA estimates roughly 14 percent are uninsured, with low-income and minority homeowners especially at risk. Among mortgage holders, only 2 percent opt to go without coverage.

• Experts say this trend is driven by the escalating threat of climate change — which has forced insurers to make larger and larger payouts — and skyrocketing housing prices. Both trends are pushing the cost of policies up. On average, home insurance policies rose 11.3 percent in 2023, according to S&P Global.

• Compounding the problem, some insurance providers, driven by rising payouts, are pulling out of disaster-prone areas — leaving former policyholders with fewer and more expensive alternatives.

***

UCLA, UC Davis workers strike as union alleges free speech violations in pro-Palestinian protests via The Los Angeles Times

• United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents 48,000 graduate student teaching assistants, tutors, researchers and others at the 10 UC campuses and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, launched the rolling strike last week at UC Santa Cruz. The walkouts unfold at a critical time in the academic year, as classes end and capstone projects, finals and grading are ahead — work in which union members play a key role.

• The expanded strike is one of the biggest actions by an American labor union in support of Palestinians and comes as college leaders face scrutiny for calling in police in riot gear to clear pro-Palestinian encampments. The strike could include up to three more campuses as early as Friday, according to the union.