The (no longer) much too early 2024 election thread

[N.E. Brigand]

Meanwhile, a judge in Illinois has ruled that Trump is disqualified because of the 14th Amendment. Of course, that decision will likely get overturned when the SCOTUS reverses the Colorado Supreme Court.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... 354c6&ei=5

Here's a story about the Illinois ruling.

Edit: You beat me twice! First with the news and then with a link that you added!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Mwahahaha!

ETA: It's even the same story!

[N.E. Brigand]

I've also seen online reports that when speaking to CPAC earlier today, Trump referred to his wife Melania by the name Mercedes. I suspect that may be an error in the reports, because CPAC is run by Matt Schlapp and his wife Mercedes. HIs speech is 80 minutes long, and I haven't listened to the whole thing to check.

OK, I put the CPAC speech on ... So did he refer to his wife Melania as "Mercedes"? I don't think so. That video never cuts from Trump, but this one does have an occasional crowd shot, including a cut to the audience at the moment in question. As far as I can tell, Melania isn't even there. He's apparently expressing to Mercedes Schlapp his reaction to the audience giving the absent Melania a brief standing ovation. It's weird because he never mentions Melania's name at all.

Well, the incorrect notion seems to have stuck. Seth Myers made a joke about this during a monologue last night, and then when Myers questioned President Biden about his age, Biden also joked about it. I think they both would have done better to focus on Donald Trump forgetting his son Eric than on supposedly getting Melania's name wrong. Anyway, here's the interview [video at link].

Donald Trump is right that President Biden misspoke Monday nght, but boy is it funny how mad Trump is about this. I wonder if Melania demanded that he address this issue.



However, Trump is wrong to say that "I made the statement that Melania was very popular because when I mentioned her name, the audience went wild. I then looked at the two people, man and wife, Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, and I said, 'Wow, they really like the First Lady.' So this got taken as the fact that I thought Mercedes was the First Lady. It has nothing to do with that."

1. He never mentioned Melania's name in his CPAC speech.
2. When the audience applauded his reference to "my wife, the great First Lady," he didn't say she was popular, he said "people love her."
3. He didn't say "Wow, they really like the First Lady."
4. He didn't mention Matt Schlapp at that point in the speech. He said, "Oh look at that! Wow! Mercedes, that's pretty good!"

And notice how he goes back tonight to the claim he keeps making in speeches: that the reason he has repeatedly referred to "Barack Hussein Obama" as now being the president is not that he's cognitively impaired but that he's joking about Joe Biden being Obama's puppet. He gets so defensive when his mental fitness is questioned. Compare to President Biden on the night Robert Hur's report was released. Biden was upset that Hur put a reference to the death of Beau Biden in his report, but when he called on Fox News's Peter Doocy, who asked Biden, "How bad is your memory and can you continue as President?", Biden was able to respond with a joke: "My memory is so bad that I let you speak."

And Trump again is manic and sniffing. It's all so over the top I wonder if Biden deliberately brought it up the other night to goad him.

[N.E. Brigand]

In 2019, a former Trump campaign and transition staffer named A.J. Delgado sued Donald Trump and his campaign for discrimination on the basis of sex and pregnancy.

In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court Monday, former senior campaign advisor (and former Mediaite columnist) A.J. Delgado claimed she had an affair and was impregnated by her supervisor, senior communication advisor Jason Miller, according to a Politico report. Delgado alleges that the campaign took adverse action against her soon after she informed senior officials of her pregnancy. The complaint names President Trump, the Trump campaign, Trump’s transition organization, Trump for America, Sean Spicer, Steve Bannon, and Reince Priebus.

“Immediately after Plaintiff Delgado announced her pregnancy, the Campaign and TFA, including Spicer, Bannon and Priebus, Plaintiff’s supervisors, stripped Plaintiff of her job responsibilities and duties throughout for the remainder of her employment from late December of 2016 and through the Inauguration in late January of 2017,” Delgado alleges. “Plaintiff immediately and inexplicably stopped receiving emails and other communications from the Campaign and TFA, including about projects on which she was currently working.”

“Plaintiff was excluded from participating in the communications work of the Inauguration or in any capacity, even though she was still formally part of the Communications Transition team,” the suit continues.

Miller was initially slated to fill the role of White House communications director before withdrawing from the position after it was revealed that he had an affair with Delgado. He then became an on-air contributor for CNN, but left the network amid allegations that he drugged a woman he’d slept with by slipping her an abortion pill without her knowledge. Miller vehemently denied the allegation and filed suit.

The suit is ongoing. And Delgado, in the course of fundraising to pay her legal expenses and griping about the defendants, today noted something about the current Trump campaign: one of its employees is Caroline Wiles, who was hired to work in the Trump White House but couldn't pass a background check due to arrests for driving under the influence and check kiting. Delgado says Wile is a "secretary" who "works from home." The Trump campaign is paying Wiles an annual salary of $220,000.

[N.E. Brigand]

Recently posted in the 2020 thread:

Only one person elected as a Republican, Justin Amash of Michigan [Jan. 2011-Jan. 2021], voted to impeach Donald Trump in his first impeachment proceedings in December 2019. But by that point, Amash had left the Republican Party in response to the release of Robert Mueller's report in May 2019, which Amash believed showed that Trump had engaged in impeachable conduct. He did not run for reelection in 2020, and he was succeeded by Peter Meijer, who's on the list above [of the ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump the second time, in Jan. 2021, his first month on the job; Meijer was not reelected in 2022].

Justin Amash today announced that he's running to succeed retiring U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow in Michigan. The leading Democratic candidate is Rep. Elissa Slotkin. Amash is running as a Republican. Other Republican contenders include his successor in Michigan's third Congressional district, Peter Meijer.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Though I haven't looked at any polling or anything else, I wouldn't imagine that Amash would get much traction amongst the GOP electorate, would he?

Meanwhile, Trump is (of course) appealing the Illinois ruling banning him from the ballot there.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/29/politics ... ce=twitter

[N.E. Brigand]

An employee of the conservative activist group Turning Point USA in Arizona tried to impugn the her local board of elections -- and spread the false notion that there is something amiss with mail-in ballots -- by posting to social media that "Maricopa County at its finest" had sent her "not one but two mail-in ballots."

It did not go well for her from there.

[N.E. Brigand]

Steaks. Why did it have to be steaks?

[N.E. Brigand]

I give credit to Nikki Haley for saying that all Donald Trump's trials should be scheduled so as to conclude "before November" and the election, because "We need to know what's going to happen before it, before the presidency happens, because after that, should he become president, I don't think any of it's going to get heard."

I also think this should be a valid argument for prosecutors to make in court: Trump is hoping to use delay to avoid a trial entirely.

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Apparently I'm not online enough, because I didn't know there was a "right wing freakout about a viral dance video."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The problem is that that is a political argument, not a legal one.

[N.E. Brigand]

Former Trump administration official Michael Flynn, who would probably be appointed to a top role in a second Trump administration, says: "If we are going to have one nation under God which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God and one religion under God."

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Former Trump administration official Steve Bannon says: "Mass deportations are going to start, if you don't like that, then don't vote for President Trump."

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In The New Republic, Greg Sargent chides the media for pretending Trump's aims are normal:

"What percentage of voters know that Trump can cancel prosecutions of himself if he wins back the White House?"

It really doesn't help matters that some news accounts describe Trump's corrupt intent to cancel prosecutions of himself as neutrally and bloodlessly as they might describe his plans to change the decor of the Oval Office. ...

"Remember, sizeable majorities believe Trump committed crimes in trying to overthrow the election and that the prosecutions are holding Trump accountable under the law, as opposed to trying to hurt him politically. Voters do care that Trump committed alleged crimes, and they do think he is being legitimately held accountable. But how many voters grasp that if the trial is delayed, the election itself will decide whether that process runs to completion? How many undertstand that the Supreme Court's handling of this matter will determine whether Trump has the opportunity--should he win the election--to place himself beyond legal accountability in a way no other criminal defendant can?

Sargent also encourages Democrats to follow Liz Cheney's lead:



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Not safe for work: President Bident wants to MAFA?

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Rep. Lauren Boebert, the handsy Republican of Colorado, has announced that she instead of running for reelection in her state's 3rd Congressional district...

CO-4's got a pretty crowded primary field already. Her loyalty to Trump might play well but she did get effectively run out of her previous district because of her poor job performance and embarrassing behavior. I'm sure her opponents will bring that up....

Rep. Lauren Boebert’s 18-year-old son has been "arrested after a rash of robberies in her district [and] faces 22 charges."

Lordy there's a tape.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Marcy Kaptur's Republican opponent, J.R. Majewski, is an election-denying, Trump-endorsed, QAnnon-supporting "U.S. army veteran and rapper," per Wikipedia, who has claimed that his service in the armed forces included a grueling stint in Afghanistan including a stretch of 40 days when he went without even a shower.

The AP reports today that Majewski was never in Afghanistan. Mind you, he did spend six months in Qatar loading planes that were flown to Afghanistan, but most of his military service was in Japan.

Majewski responds!

[Ron Filipowski: "Trump-endorsed Congressional candidate J.R. Majewski today says that the reason why there is no record of him serving in combat in Afghanistan is because it is 'classified.'"]

J.R. Majewski, the fabulist who was the 2022 Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio's 9th District, lost that year to long-serving Democratic incumbent Marcy Kaptur, 56.6%-43.4%. He's trying again this year. Two weeks ago, Majewski said this during a podcast interview:

Shout out to all the Democrats living in Mom's basement that like to talk shit on the Internet. You know, no matter how hard you try, arguing on the Internet, it's like being in the Special Olympics. No matter how good you perform, you still have--you're still fucking retarded at the end of the day.

Majewski has since apologized, but he's staying in the race, saying that to withdraw would be to appease the "Washington Establishment Machine."

Majewski has now dropped out.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/0 ... e-00144564

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Interesting.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I've been looking for this. I thought the court would make this announcement on Friday. I would guess whoever is writing the opinion wasn't sure if it would be ready on time.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Meanwhile here in California we are voting for both the rest of Diane Feinstein's term and a primary for the next six year term. It appears that there is a very good chance that former baseball player Steve Garvey will win the election for the rest of the term as the Democrats split the votes between Schiff, Porter and Lee. The "top two" primary will almost certainly result in a general election race between Garvey and Schiff, which Schiff should win. But even having a GOP senator from California for 9 months would be pretty shocking.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4 ... race-poll/

[N.E. Brigand]

This year, Michigan moved up the dates of both the Democratic and Republican primaries to last Tuesday, February 27th.

This violated a Republican Party rule that the only states allowed to hold nominating contests before March 1st are Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. A state that violates that rule will have 80% of its delegates removed by the RNC.

So the state's Republican Party set up a two-stage event. Only 16 delegates will be allocated based on the results of last Tuesday's primary, in which more than 1.1 million people voted. Another 39 delegates will be allocated based on party caucuses held yesterday, Saturday, March 2nd, in which just 1,600 people participated.

Donald Trump won all 39 delegates yesterday.

[N.E. Brigand]

Meanwhile here in California we are voting for both the rest of Diane Feinstein's term and a primary for the next six year term. It appears that there is a very good chance that former baseball player Steve Garvey will win the election for the rest of the term as the Democrats split the votes between Schiff, Porter and Lee. The "top two" primary will almost certainly result in a general election race between Garvey and Schiff, which Schiff should win. But even having a GOP senator from California for 9 months would be pretty shocking.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4 ... race-poll/

So Laphonza Butler will no longer be a Senator after next week? Is that a recent change in the law? I notice that Sen. Alex Padilla, who was appointed in January 2021 to fill out the remainder of Vice President Kamala Harris's 2017-2023 term as Senator, took part in two different elections in November 2022, defeating the Republican, Mark Meuser, 61.1%-38.9% to win the election for the 2023-2029 term and defeating Meuser 60.9%-39.1% to serve out the remaining seven weeks of Harris's original term. Padilla and Meuser had both advanced in two simultaneous blanket primaries in March, in which Padilla led Meuser in the regular election primary 54.1%-14.9% and in the special election primary 55.0%-22.1%.

Based on all of that, I would have expected Butler to continue serving until the November 5th results are certified. Not so?

Edited to add this link to a page at the California Secretary of State's website, which indicates that the "special vacancy election will be consolidated with the regularly scheduled presidential primary election to be held on March 5, 2024, and the regularly scheduled statewide general election to be held on November 5, 2024."

[Frelga]

Ugh, I forgot about the stupid new primary system. Dang.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Meanwhile here in California we are voting for both the rest of Diane Feinstein's term and a primary for the next six year term. It appears that there is a very good chance that former baseball player Steve Garvey will win the election for the rest of the term as the Democrats split the votes between Schiff, Porter and Lee. The "top two" primary will almost certainly result in a general election race between Garvey and Schiff, which Schiff should win. But even having a GOP senator from California for 9 months would be pretty shocking.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4 ... race-poll/

So Laphonza Butler will no longer be a Senator after next week? Is that a recent change in the law? I notice that Sen. Alex Padilla, who was appointed in January 2021 to fill out the remainder of Vice President Kamala Harris's 2017-2023 term as Senator, took part in two different elections in November 2022, defeating the Republican, Mark Meuser, 61.1%-38.9% to win the election for the 2023-2029 term and defeating Meuser 60.9%-39.1% to serve out the remaining seven weeks of Harris's original term. Padilla and Meuser had both advanced in two simultaneous blanket primaries in March, in which Padilla led Meuser in the regular election primary 54.1%-14.9% and in the special election primary 55.0%-22.1%.

Based on all of that, I would have expected Butler to continue serving until the November 5th results are certified. Not so?

Edited to add this link to a page at the California Secretary of State's website, which indicates that the "special vacancy election will be consolidated with the regularly scheduled presidential primary election to be held on March 5, 2024, and the regularly scheduled statewide general election to be held on November 5, 2024."

I didn't know about the spcial election for the rest of the term either until I voted last week.