Abbreviated Pundit Roundup is a long-running sequence printed each morning that collects important political dialogue and evaluation across the web.
Mark Jacob/”Cease the Presses” on Substack:
Why headlines matter and information shops fail at them
Out of laziness or worry, some media assume small with the massive sort
David Pecker, the opening witness in Donald Trump’s first prison trial, defined his prime precedence when he ran the Nationwide Enquirer:
“The one factor that’s necessary is the quilt of the journal.”
Which suggests essentially the most outstanding headlines and images.
Pecker understands the significance of headlines. Donald Trump does too. That’s why Trump organized for Pecker’s slimy rag to write down headlines throughout the 2016 marketing campaign similar to:
“CRUZ’S 5 SECRET MISTRESSES!”
(with a subhead studying “IT’S OVER FOR PERVY TED”)
and
“HILLARY: 6 MONTHS TO LIVE!”
The doubtful claims behind the headlines didn’t matter. The headlines mattered.
Josh Marshall/Speaking Factors Memo:
NY Decide Holds Trump In Contempt For Attacking Witnesses, Threatens Jail
Merchan mentioned in an order launched Tuesday morning that if Trump continued to violate the choose’s orders, he would “impose incarceratory punishment.”
The risk got here as Merchan held Trump in contempt of court docket, fining him $1,000 per assertion for 9 social media posts that attacked witnesses within the case.
It provides as much as a complete nice of $9,000 for the posts, which included assaults on Michael Cohen and a put up boosting an announcement by Fox Information host Jesse Watters that claimed jurors within the case have been biased.
Merchan made a degree within the contempt order of leaving open the likelihood that he may ship Trump to jail for persevering with to violate the order. New York state regulation limits him to fining Trump $1,000 per violation; Merchan wrote that such a small financial quantity “is not going to obtain the specified end in these situations the place the contemnor can simply afford such a nice.”
Invoice Scher/Washington Month-to-month:
Biden’s Clearest Electoral School Path
The President is working stronger in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin than Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina.
Joe Biden’s clearest path to 270 Electoral School votes is by successful the Rust Belt swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin together with Nebraska’s 2nd congressional district, which encompasses city Omaha.
Including these to the safely blue states yields a 270-268 Biden win.
Sure, Some Republicans in Nebraska are pushing to finish the observe of awarding Electoral School votes by district, so Biden cannot win NE-02 a second time.
But when that occurred, Maine—which additionally awards Electoral School votes by district, and the place Donald Trump has reliably received the agricultural ME-02—would in all probability do the identical, and it will be an Electoral School wash.
Second:
Trial warmth information in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin is roughly monitoring nationwide trial warmth information.
That’s a marketing campaign’s job, to let voters know what the incumbent candidate has achieved. And they’re going to.
Sahil Kapur/NBC Information:
Trump says Republicans all the time wished to depart abortion regulation to states. That is false.
Republicans have persistently pushed for nationwide restrictions on abortion, together with former President Donald Trump himself. The 2024 election may give them the chance
Donald Trump is enjoying down the prospect of nationwide abortion restrictions, falsely saying Republicans have lengthy sought to depart abortion regulation to the states.
“Sending this Problem again to the States was the Coverage of the Republican Occasion and Conservatives for over 50 years, because of States’ Rights and tenth Modification, and solely occurred due to the Justices I proudly Nominated and acquired Confirmed,” Trump wrote on social media. It was one among many posts and statements during which he has made that declare amid nationwide backlash to the ruling the Supreme Courtroom he constructed issued to finish federal abortion rights in 2022 and a current, unpopular Alabama court docket resolution that embryos are youngsters.
Trump’s newest declare is belied by an extended historical past of his occasion’s preventing to limit abortion nationally.
Nicely, liars lie. And that’s one other marketing campaign advert.
Dan Pfeiffer/”The Message Field” on Substack:
The Voters Most More likely to Abandon Trump
A brand new ballot exhibits the fragility of Trumps’ coalition
The third week of Donald Trump’s trial in Manhattan is about to start. The authorized specialists who perceive the ins and outs of Trump’s numerous trials imagine that the testimony of David Pecker, the Nationwide Enquirer writer, was very damaging to Trump’s flimsy protection of his apparent crimes. As a result of I by no means went to regulation faculty (and also you don’t subscribe to this text for authorized evaluation), I’m centered on the politics of the trial. There are questions on how images of Trump on the protection desk have an effect on his public picture, whether or not the revelations are turning off persuadable voters, and the price of being trapped in a courtroom as a substitute of campaigning within the battleground states. After which, after all, there’s the final word query of what influence a conviction would have on the election. To that finish, CNN launched a ballot late final week that provided some very fascinating particulars on the voters who may abandon Trump if convicted. The outcomes are fascinating and supply optimism for Democrats even when Trump is acquitted within the case.
Andrew Egger/The Bulwark:
Hakeem Jeffries’s Mike Johnson Bear Hug
[Rep. Marjorie Taylor] Greene went predictably berserk: “On a regular basis, I battle the Democrat agenda destroying America and I battle for an America First Republican agenda,” she tweeted. “Mike Johnson is formally the Democrat Speaker of the Home. Right here is their official endorsement of his Speakership. What slimy again room deal did Johnson make for the Democrats’ help?”
She went on to name for Johnson to resign and insisted she is going to nonetheless power a (now doomed) vote to take his gavel: “If the Democrats wish to elect him Speaker (and a few Republicans wish to help the Democrats’ chosen Speaker), I’ll give them the possibility to do it . . . Individuals should see the Uniparty on full show.”
Democrats will probably be doing the fitting factor in the event that they protect Johnson from Greene’s burn-it-all-down assaults. However right here’s the odd factor: Each indication has been that Johnson was already outflanking Greene even amongst Republicans.
Brian Beutler/”Off Message” on Substack:
Are Democrats (Lastly) Breaking Up With The Mainstream Media? Years of frustration have begun to boil over, however with few different journalism establishments to show to, Democrats have turned as a substitute to superstar interviewers.
I wish to zoom in on one thing President Biden mentioned throughout his remarks on the White Home Correspondents Dinner on Saturday, which for causes that will probably be apparent, represents a departure from the conventional timbre of the occasion.
[T]he most pressing query of our time is whether or not democracy continues to be the sacred reason behind America. That’s the query the American individuals should reply this yr. And also you, the free press, play a crucial function in ensuring the American individuals have the knowledge they should make an knowledgeable resolution.
The defeated former President has made no secret of his assault on our democracy. He has mentioned he desires to be a “dictator on day one,” and a lot extra.
He tells supporters he’s their “revenge” and “retribution.” When in God’s identify have you ever heard one other president say one thing like that? And he promised a “massacre” when he loses once more. We’ve to take this significantly.
Eight years in the past, you would have written it off as simply Trump speak. However now not. Not after January sixth.
I’m sincerely not asking of you to take sides however asking you to rise as much as the seriousness of the second; transfer previous the horse-race numbers and the gotcha moments and the distractions, the sideshows which have come to dominate and sensationalize our politics; and deal with what’s truly at stake…. Each single one among us has…a critical function to play in ensuring democracy endures—American democracy. I’ve my function, however, with all due respect, so do you.
Emphasis added. No punchline omitted.
.
From Cliff Schecter: