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As indictments pile up, Trump’s Senate GOP skeptics multiply
As indictments pile up, Trump’s Senate GOP skeptics multiply, Burgess Everett, POLITICO
His number of upper-chamber Republican endorsers is equal to the number who say they want another nominee — or who voted to bar him from office.

Trump leads the field in Senate GOP endorsements, with 10 officially on board and potentially more on the way. But some Republican senators are quietly making moves: Four have endorsed non-Trump candidates, a couple more say they want a different nominee, several others grimace when asked about his electoral prospects and even some staunch defenders are staying formally neutral so far.

That includes Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), a longtime Trump ally who — as of now — will only say that “I’ve endorsed his policies.”

“An official endorsement, I have not. I’ve been pretty clear I’d like to see someone articulate for the Republican Party what we’re going to do policy-wise,” added Braun, who’s running for governor of his bright-red state. He said he wouldn’t endorse one of Trump’s rivals and is waiting for the former president’s approach to “crystallize.”

In total, the number of senators who say they want someone other than Trump or who voted to bar him from office is equal to the number endorsing him. And while the primary won’t be won in the Senate GOP, Trump’s critics there represent a considerable swath of the party base, including donors, that want a different standard-bearer to take on President Joe Biden.
“Threading the Needle” on Trump Is a Dangerous Game
“Threading the Needle” on Trump Is a Dangerous Game, Jill Lawrence, The xxxxxx
You can protect national security. Or you can protect Trump. You can’t do both.

We have seen that it’s risky to spin and feed paranoid fantasies about federal officials and agencies. We saw on January 6, 2021, what happened when Trump persuaded thousands of people that he had been wronged, that they had been wronged, and that violence against the government—the government Trump himself had sworn to protect and defend—was the answer.

So: Full-on trashing and undermining of the government is being used to cover and distract from relatively mild, conditional critiques of Trump. This is a civic and physical hazard to America, and those with the least to lose are leading the way.
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In Miami, the Only Violence From Trump Supporters Was Rhetorical
In Miami, the Only Violence From Trump Supporters Was Rhetorical, Alan Feuer, The New York Times
Calls for retribution were plentiful after the former president’s indictments, but the demonstrations proved tame, a possible result of the aggressive prosecution of the Jan. 6 rioters.

Both times — first in April in Manhattan and then on Tuesday in Miami — police and civic leaders raised concerns that the angry rhetoric could lead to violent protests when Mr. Trump appeared in court. Both times, in both cities, the crowds that actually showed up for Mr. Trump were relatively tame and fairly small.

But just because the aggressive words did not result in aggressive actions hardly meant they were not corrosive to the fabric or the practice of democracy, scholars of political violence said.

They did, however, note that after the cataclysmic events of Jan. 6, 2021, many Trump supporters have become more reluctant to act on statements by Mr. Trump’s allies suggesting that a second American Revolution might be coming or calling for civil war.
The Radical Strategy Behind Trump’s Promise to ‘Go After’ Biden
The Radical Strategy Behind Trump’s Promise to ‘Go After’ Biden, Jonathan Swan, Charlie Savage and Maggie Haberman, The New York Times
Conservatives with close ties to Donald J. Trump are laying out a “paradigm-shifting” legal rationale to erase the Justice Department’s independence from the president.

“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,” Mr. Trump said at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., on Tuesday night after his arraignment earlier that day in Miami. “I will totally obliterate the Deep State.”

Mr. Trump’s message was that the Justice Department charged him only because he is Mr. Biden’s political opponent, so he would invert that supposed politicization. In reality, under Attorney General Merrick Garland, two Trump-appointed prosecutors are already investigating Mr. Biden’s handling of classified documents and the financial dealings of his son, Hunter.

But by suggesting the current prosecutors investigating the Bidens were not “real,” Mr. Trump appeared to be promising his supporters that he would appoint an ally who would bring charges against his political enemies regardless of the facts.
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Trump and the Fun Factor
Trump and the Fun Factor, Astead W. Herndon, The New York Times
How his legal challenges play into his reputation as an entertainer.

After poring over traditional markers about fund-raising and poll numbers, Nate mentioned another standard I’ve been thinking about over the past few days: Do Trump’s legal challenges make him more (or less) fun?

The question is awkward, as it suggests that the reasons some Americans are drawn to politicians are divorced from the seriousness of their office. But after Trump’s arraignment in federal court in Miami this week, I’m reminded of its importance.
Documents show how conservative doctors influenced abortion, trans rights
Documents show how conservative doctors influenced abortion, trans rights, Lauren Weber, Caitlin Gilbert and Taylor Lorenz, The Washington Post
Despite efforts to invoke the credibility of the medical profession, the American College of Pediatricians is viewed with skepticism by the medical establishment. For years, the group has presented statistics and talking points to state legislators, public school officials and the American public as settled science while internal documents emphasize how religion and morality influence its positions. Meeting minutes from 2021 describe how the organization worked with religious groups to “affect the idea makers through the high courts, professional literature, and legislatures.”

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