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However you feel about him politically or personally, it’s hard to argue that former National Security Advisor John Bolton doesn’t know a thing or two about Donald Trump. Having served the administration for 17 months, when Bolton says he witnessed Donald Trump commit, at best, serious foreign policy blunders and, at worst, potentially impeachable offenses, I’m inclined to believe him. It all fits the same dangerous pattern we’ve seen over and over with Trump, who has repeatedly used the office to serve himself, even when it threatens the best interests of the country. As voters, it is our responsibility to ensure that we elect leaders who put the interests of the country and the American people first. —Evan McMullin
Top Ten

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1. DOJ seeks emergency order to block Bolton book Federal prosecutors are weighing whether to criminally charge former National Security Advisor John Bolton with disclosing classified information in his upcoming White House memoir, "The Room Where It Happened." While investigating to see whether any laws were broken, the Justice Department is seeking a temporary restraining order to block publication of the 500-page memoir, which by all accounts, is a scathing rebuke of President Trump. —The Washington Post ([link removed])
* — It's pretty obvious why they want to block it. In one of the most startling revelations, Bolton accuses Trump of overtly linking tariff talks with China to his own political fortunes. According to Bolton, Trump asked President Xi Jinping to buy American agricultural products to help him win farm states in the 2020 election, "pleading with Xi to ensure he'd win." ([link removed])
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* — When Xi explained why he was building concentration camps in China, the book says Trump "said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which he thought was exactly the right thing to do." ([link removed])
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* — Bolton also contends that Trump seemed to almost mimic the authoritarian leaders he appeared to admire. "These people should be executed," Trump once said of journalists. "They are scumbags." —The New York Times ([link removed])

2. Graham: Bolton's damning indictment of Trump "Though Ukraine was the case that got Trump impeached, [former National Security Advisor John] Bolton argues that Trump committed plenty of other impeachable offenses. He says Trump repeatedly tried to halt criminal investigations that were troublesome to autocrats in China and Turkey. 'The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life,' writes Bolton, who reported the cases to Attorney General William Barr—apparently naively viewing Barr as a defender of the law rather than a zealous henchman of the president." —The Atlantic ([link removed])

3. Another big ruling from the Supreme Court The Supreme Court extended a life-support line to 650,000 so-called DREAMers this morning, allowing them to remain safe from deportation...at least for now. The court said the administration must pass through a number of legal hoops before ending the program, remanding the case to the Department of Homeland Security so that it may "reconsider the problem anew." ([link removed])
* — Begun in 2012, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program gave temporary protection from deportation to qualified individuals brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Under the program, the DREAMers were allowed to work legally and apply for college loans if they met certain requirements and passed a background check. ([link removed])
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— President Trump sought to end the program shortly after he took office, maintaining that it was illegal and unconstitutional from the start. In a 5-4 vote, Chief Justice John Roberts and the court's four liberal justices said the DHS's decision to rescind DACA was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. ([link removed])
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* — Taking to Twitter, Trump dismissed today's ruling as "politically charged," and turned it into an election rallying cry, urging voters to give him the opportunity to appoint more conservative justices. The DACA decision follows another major ruling earlier in the week that granted employment protections for LGBTQ people. —NPR ([link removed])

More: Anger over Gorsuch ruling spills into nominations hearing (Bloomberg) ([link removed])

4. Murder charges in Rayshard Brooks case ([link removed])

Fulton Co. District Attorney Paul Howard yesterday announced 11 charges, including felony murder, against Garrett Rolfe, the now-fired Atlanta police officer who fatally shot Rayshard Brooks last week. After Rolfe shot Brooks, he exclaimed, "I got him," kicked Brooks as he struggled for his life, and failed to give timely first aid, Howard said. Devin Brosnan, the other officer at the shooting, faces an aggravated assault charge for standing on Brooks in the parking lot. —CNN ([link removed])
* — Blue flu? Atlanta police officers were reportedly walking off the job or calling out sick in protest of the charges against Rolfe and Brosnan. The Atlanta Police Department said it was experiencing a higher than usual number of officers calling out for their shifts yesterday, but that it had "enough resources to maintain operations and remain able to respond to incidents." —USA Today ([link removed])
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— On Capitol Hill yesterday, tensions flared at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on police reform. Rep. Cedric Richmond rejected voting on "side issues," including an amendment Republicans on the committee promoted to investigate Antifa. The Democratic-controlled committee ultimately advanced the legislation in a party-line vote. —The Hill ([link removed])
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* — While Republicans fret about Antifa, a far-right extremist movement born on social media and fueled by anti-government rhetoric has emerged as a real-world threat in recent weeks. The "Boogaloo Bois" have been charged with plotting to firebomb a U.S. Forest Service facility, bringing explosives to a peaceful demonstration, killing a security officer at a federal courthouse, and calling for the shooting of looters at a protest. —The Washington Post ([link removed])

More: Half brother of Palmdale hanging victim Robert Fuller is fatally shot by deputies (Los Angeles Times) ([link removed])

5. Grier: I was a skeptic...until I joined in "In the past few weeks, public opinion has shifted decisively in favor of the Black Lives Matter movement, according to a Pew Research Center poll. This reflects an increasingly transpartisan consensus that police have become too militarized, are tasked with doing too much, and are too immune from consequences when they violate the rights of the people they are supposed to serve and protect. The righteousness of the protests may transcend the polarization that afflicts our politics; as more a libertarian than a progressive, I'm sure I disagree with marchers on any number of issues. But on the one that matters—the dignity of all people and their right to live free from the fear of state-sanctioned violence—there should be no disagreement about the justice of their demands." —The Oregonian ([link removed])

Ed. Note: Jacob Grier is an author and freelance writer.
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6. Mixed messages cause COVID confusion In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity yesterday, President Trump said the coronavirus is "fading away," even as cases increase nationwide. And while Trump refuses to wear a mask, Surgeon General Jerome Adams has done a round of television interviews imploring Americans to do so. Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence says panic over a second wave is "overblown," while Dr. Anthony Fauci says the U.S. is still in the first. The mixed messages are leading to confusion and, ultimately, more unnecessary cases of COVID-19. —The New York Times ([link removed])
* — Regardless of the dangers, Trump also said yesterday that the U.S. will not close businesses again. "We won't be closing the country again. We won't have to do that," he said. —Reuters ([link removed])
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* — Double standards. Top donors at Trump's two recent fundraisers had to have tested negative for the coronavirus, fill out a wellness questionnaire, and pass a temperature check to attend. But thousands of supporters who attend his upcoming rally in Tulsa won't be screened as thoroughly, getting only a temperature check as they enter an arena that holds 19,000 people. —NBC News ([link removed])
* — An impeachment threat in Pennsylvania. Republican State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe has introduced a resolution, with 24 co-sponsors, calling for the impeachment of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. GOP lawmakers, who control the state's General Assembly, argue that Wolf's management of the coronavirus pandemic has crippled the state's economy, and they say he has regularly exceeded his authority. —Penn Live ([link removed])

More: Doss & Ibrahim: Preventing COVID from killing democracy in Africa (The Economist) ([link removed])

7. Bolton: Trump's China non-policy ([link removed])

"In today's pre-2020 election climate, Trump has made a sharp turn to anti-China rhetoric. Frustrated in his search for the big China trade deal, and mortally afraid of the negative political effects of the coronavirus pandemic on his re-election prospects, Trump has now decided to blame China, with ample justification. Whether his actions will match his words remains to be seen. His administration has signaled that Beijing's suppression of dissent in Hong Kong will have consequences, but no actual consequences have yet been imposed. Most important of all, will Trump's current China pose last beyond election day? The Trump presidency is not grounded in philosophy, grand strategy, or policy. It is grounded in Trump. That is something to think about for those, especially China realists, who believe they know what he will do in a second term." —The Wall Street Journal ([link removed])

Ed. Note: John Bolton is a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., and served as national security advisor from April 2018 to September 2019.

More: Trump signs sanctions law over China's treatment of Uighurs (Voice of America) ([link removed])

8. Facebook takes action against Trump After taking a lot of heat for how it handles falsehoods in paid political ads appearing on its platform (which is to say it does nothing), Facebook is attempting to make up for it. It has taken down ads run by President Trump's re-election campaign that describe "Dangerous MOBS of far-left groups" and feature an upside-down triangle. The Anti-Defamation League said the triangle "is practically identical" to one used by the Nazi regime. "We removed these posts and ads for violating our policy against organized hate," Facebook said. —CNN ([link removed])
* — ([link removed]) The social media giant also announced this week that it will launch what it calls "the largest voting information effort in U.S. history," aiming to help 4 million Americans register to vote ahead of the November election. ([link removed])

* — The company will continue to allow false or misleading political ads and allow advertisers to use all its standard targeting tools, but users will now have the option to turn off all advertising related to social issues, elections, or politics. ([link removed])
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* — Facebook will also finally show who paid for a political ad even after it has been shared by another user, and will begin tracking ad spend on a candidate-by-candidate basis. —The Guardian ([link removed])

More: Digital threats to democracy: glass nations, glass people (Center for a New American Security) ([link removed])

9. Lowry: Get over the Confederacy "Statues of Confederate leaders are an unnecessary affront to black citizens, who shouldn't have to see defenders of chattel slavery put on a pedestal, literally. It is impossible to evaluate these monuments without considering the context of why they were created in the first place. Many of them were erected as part of the push to enshrine a dishonest, prettied-up version of the Confederacy—they weren't a testament to our history, but a distortion of it." —Politico ([link removed])

10. An American Story: Pandemic pen pals Rich Vanderweit, an activity aide at Sullivan Co. Health Care in Claremont, N.H., saw the loneliness of his nursing home residents and thought to ease their isolation by pairing them with pen pals at Summercrest Senior Living Community 12 miles away. ([link removed])
* — By the end of April, about 20 residents were participating, but once the project made its way to the local news, hundreds of letters started pouring in from around the country. — The stacks of mail got so large that Vanderweit organized a pen pal club that gathers once a week to read the letters aloud and respond as a group. ([link removed])
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* — "The whole country is suffering because of this, and we're getting stories of people's lives and what their everyday existence is like," Vanderweit said. "It's been really amazing. We have a window on America here." —Associated Press ([link removed])

Ed. Note: We are spotlighting ways that Americans are helping each other through the coronavirus crisis and recent unrest, and promoting American values. Would you like to suggest an "American Story" from your local news? If so, please forward a link to the story to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) . Thank you!
What's Your Take?

De-funding the police is not the answer. It is a good idea to have mental health professionals and social workers paired up with police though. As a current law enforcement officer, I have seen very positive examples where this type of joint team is highly effective. The Child Advocacy Center in Wichita, Kansas, can be studied as a good model for how this can work. —Vance B., Kansas

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The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.

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