- President Biden when asked to respond to Republicans opening an impeachment inquiry into him. 

The flank of the GOP that wanted to remake the Republican Party in Donald Trump’s image has largely gotten its wish, and now the bill’s come due.
 

• Disgraced former president Donald Trump said on Sunday that he did not respect lawyers and members of his campaign who told him he lost the 2020 presidential election. Is everyone okay? We know this is shocking information. On “Meet the Press, Trump said it was his choice to ignore his lawyers and advisers and go two-feet-in on the lie that the election was “rigged.” NBC host Kristen Welker asked why Trump chose not to listen to his White House inner circle and instead called some of his outside lawyers, and pressed, “Why were you listening to them? Were you listening to them because they were telling you what you wanted to hear?” True to form, Trump responded with “You know who I listen to? Myself.” Lol, okay pal. 
   

• Similarly, one of his longtime aides reportedly told federal investigators that the former president repeatedly wrote to-do lists for her on the backs of classified documents. The aide, Molly Michael, told federal investigators who indicted Trump in the classified documents case that more than once she received requests from Trump written on the back of “note cards” that she later recognized as sensitive White House materials. We’re imagining requests like “Restock Diet Coke in Oval Office fridge,” on the back of nuclear-arms briefing materials. This guy simply did NOT give a shit about information security! Lock him up?
   

• It seems that history is repeating itself with the “Never Trump” cohort finding itself backing off its formerly-held positions for political expediency. Just over one month ago, Federalist Society cofounder and Northwestern University law professor Steven Calabresi endorsed an article in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review arguing that Trump was ineligible to even be on a presidential election ballot based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Last week, in a letter to the Wall Street Journal, Calabresi did a neck-straining about-face, saying he had been persuaded by a WSJ op-ed (a section of the paper that has essentially become a MAGA bullhorn) that Section 3 did not, in fact, apply to Trump. Profiles in courage!

Moving on from Trump, let’s check in with Republicans in Congress.
 

• House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is running out of ideas in his efforts to avert a government shutdown, as even poison-pill border-security provisions have not been able to appease the far-right flank in his GOP caucus. McCarthy told his conference that they should be prepared to stay in session through this weekend to pass a continuing resolution—that’s a stopgap measure to keep the government funded past the September 30 deadline. On a Sunday night call with his caucus, McCarthy pitched a Thursday vote on passing a one-month funding bill, which would include a one-percent cut in federal spending from last year with a slew of Freedom Caucus-minded (draconian) border-security proposals. House Democrats, the Senate, and the White House would likely reject being jammed with a partisan continuing resolution, in which case the government would shut down regardless. 
   

• As if the dozen-or-so votes it took for him to become Speaker back in January didn’t tip us off, McCarthy is not good at his job. He has a slim majority of 222 GOP votes in the House, and with that has been able to pass almost nothing. (Say what you will about Nancy Pelosi, but she was able to pass dozens of major bills with the same number of votes.) In a floor speech, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called McCarthy’s House proposal “Slapdash, reckless.” Even Karl Rove, whom you may remember from selling America the lie that led to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, said on Fox News Sunday, “Republicans are responsible for the shutdowns, they seem to eagerly want it, so there’s a reason why they get blamed.” Cue the “Worst Person You Know Made A Great Point” meme.
   

How does this party still have the confidence of half the country? We’ll never know.

6 decades ago, doctors achieved the impossible when they successfully replaced a human kidney with a machine. But since then, the story has turned into one of the nation’s worst healthcare catastrophes. On last week’s America Dissected, host Abdul El-Sayed sits down with Tom Mueller on his book, How to Make A Killing, where they talk about the corporate corruption of dialysis. Listen to this convo and more, only on America Dissected. New episodes drop every Tuesday.

The United States and Iran freed 10 individuals on Monday in a prisoner swap marking a slight thaw in relations between the two longtime adversaries. Five American citizens were released in exchange for five Iranians and the unfreezing of $6 billion in Iranian oil funds held by South Korea. The swap capped off several months of negotiations and marks a major turning point for the countries, which remain perpetual adversaries. It took place just hours after President Biden and Iranian President Ebrahimi Raisi arrived in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. The two men are not scheduled to meet. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that “agents of the Indian government,” carried out the killing of a Sikh community leader on Canadian soil last June, according to intelligence gathered by the nation’s government. 

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced on Monday that he will meet with Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week. 

The Southern Indian state of Kerala is battling its fourth deadly outbreak of the Nipah virus since 2018. 

Kaiser Permanente workers in the Washington, DC, area have authorized a strike if contract negotiations are not resolved by the September 30 deadline. 

More than four months into the strike, Writers Guild of America negotiators and studio representatives will resume negotiations on Wednesday. 

Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) will not seek reelection after she was diagnosed this summer with a rare, incurable neurological condition called progressive supranuclear palsy. 

A bombshell investigation from The Times revealed that four women accuse British comedian Russell Brand of sexually assaulting them. One of the women said she was assaulted by Brand when she was in a relationship with him when she was just 16 and he was 30. In a video statement released Friday, Brand said that his relationships were “always consensual.” 

New security footage showed “anti-grooming” advocate Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) basically going to third base with her date at a performance of “Beetlejuice” (a family musical!) before being asked to leave. 

Rolling Stone magazine cofounder Jann Wenner was removed from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation board after a New York Times interview on Friday in which he spoke about his decision to not include interviews with women and Black artists in his forthcoming book “The Masters.” Wenner said, “Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level,” and made similar comments about Black musicians.

President Biden’s son Hunter sued the IRS on Monday, alleging that agency investigators violated his right to privacy by disclosing details to Congress and the public about his taxes and the investigation into his personal conduct. The suit was filed just days after the Justice Department indicted him on separate charges related to his purchase and illegal possession of a firearm in 2018, when he failed to disclose his drug use on the requisite form. 

This newsletter is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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Illinois will become the first state in the U.S. to abolish cash bail. 

A federal judge in New York rejected Starbucks’ request to dismiss a lawsuit claiming that several of its Refresher fruit beverages were missing the key ingredient of…fruit. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer loosened the dress code in the upper chamber over the weekend, and directed the sergeant at arms not to enforce the informal dress code. Schumer said in a statement that he will continue to wear a suit, but “senators are able to choose what they wear on the Senate floor.” It seems that the dress code hasn’t been enforced in quite some time anyways, but regardless, this is great news for female senators, who are more likely to be criticized or even reprimanded for breaking the dress code, and of course for hoodie enthusiast Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA). The rule change only applies to senators; staff will still be expected to adhere to a business-casual dress code. 

After immense pushback from Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild members, Drew Barrymore decided to delay the return of her daytime talk show until the strike is over, and publicly apologized for her previous decision. We love to see it!