More Than a Feeling – TPM – Talking Points Memo

Hello, it’s the weekend. It’s The Weekender ☕️

In the last week alone, two members of my conservative, pro-Trump Christian family have expressed to me that they think the president has gone too far on this Iran affair.

There are many things obvious about Trump’s actions in Iran that make this moment feel like the ultimate betrayal for some of those MAGA fans who responded positively to his campaign rhetoric, in which he and his allies portrayed him as an isolationist; in 2020, for example, he proclaimed that the United States is not the “policeman of the world.” This is partly how he has brought together anti-imperialists under the umbrella of MAGA alongside other odd bedfellows like the MAHA movement and those who support far-right extremist views like the Great Replacement theory or fetal personality ideology.

It’s not just my family members; Many of Trump’s staunchest supporters are scratching their heads. A new poll this week shows that more than half of Americans oppose U.S. military action in Iran.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for those who admire Trump’s unabashed approach to politics is that he offers few coherent lines of reasoning to cling to as to why we are engaged in this war, how to get out of it, and why Americans are paying the price. Amid soaring gas prices, he has offered confusing and ever-changing justifications for launching a war with Iran — including evidence-free claims that he wanted to stop it from attacking the United States and a lack of clarity about his attempt at regime change, despite killing many of the people Trump thought could replace Ayatollah Khamenei. He ignored the risk of additional deaths among U.S. service members. He told Americans that they should actually thank him for the now insane gas prices, because “when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.” He and his White House have given the American people little information about how long the operation lasted or why he got us involved in this, beyond Trump’s “feelings.” He only doubled that too. In an interview broadcast Friday, Trump told Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade that the war will be over “when I feel it — feel it in my bones.”

—Nicole LaFond

Thune tries to ease his SAVE Act headache

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has been under pressure for weeks from a handful of far-right congressional lawmakers, President Donald Trump and his MAGA base, to bring the SAVE America Act to the Senate floor. Since the bill would be filibustered by Senate Democrats, the far-right base wants Thune to invoke a “talking filibuster” and force Senate Democrats to continually hold the floor on the Senate floor to block passage of the bill.

Thune has been adamant in his refusal to rely on the filibuster, a tactic rarely used in modern times because it can hijack the Senate for weeks. But the bill’s supporters have largely refused to accept the consequences of the filibuster, continuing to pressure the majority leader.

Thune appears to have had enough of the pressure campaign.

He announced this week that he would introduce the GOP bill next week, but not quite the way the far-right base wants.

Instead of a full-blown talking filibuster, Thune reportedly planned several days of marathon sessions, or even one night. This will still require Democrats to stay on the ground and debate the bill for an extended period of time. But at some point, leaders are expected to invoke existing Senate rules and hold a vote requiring a supermajority. This likely means the bill will inevitably fail (due to Democratic filibusters) unless a handful of Senate Democrats change their position.

-Emine Yucel

Arizona officials remind county recorders not to provide voter data to DOJ following new subpoena

In response to Trump’s Justice Department expanding its so-called 2020 election investigation to Arizona, Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes are warning the state’s county recorders that the Justice Department may attempt to use the expanded investigation to access the state’s voter rolls.

They warn county recorders not to give in to pressure to do so.

Earlier this week, the FBI reportedly issued a subpoena to the Arizona State Senate for records from the 2020 election. Fontes and Mayes fear the administration will use the action to continue pressure on Arizona to turn over voter records — part of a broader campaign by the administration to seize sensitive voter information from states across the country.

In a joint letter this week, Fontes and Mayes asked the state’s county clerks not to give in to the administration’s demands, warning that doing so would be a violation of both state and federal law.

“Although Arizona has made clear its opposition to disclosure in ongoing litigation with the DOJ, we reiterate our office’s position here just in case you are considering disclosing. We are writing to advise you that doing so would violate both federal and state law,” they wrote.

Currently, the DOJ is suing 30 states, including Arizona, that have refused to comply with an order to turn over voter rolls data, which includes information such as driver’s license numbers and Social Security numbers. Fontes called the current lawsuit “frivolous” and said the DOJ’s requests are “unprecedented,” reiterating that he has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

“If your office receives a federal grand jury subpoena demanding that you turn over private voter data, we urge you to notify our offices immediately,” the letter added. “The grand jury should not be used to circumvent the ongoing trial in Arizona, and our offices will pursue all available legal actions to prevent the Department of Justice from abusing the grand jury process.”

—Khaya Himmelman

An investigation based on “eccentric” data

As we mentioned above, the Trump administration this week expanded its investigation into the 2020 election to Maricopa County, Arizona, with the FBI apparently subpoenaing a grand jury at the Arizona State Senate for documents related to the 2020 election. This comes weeks after the FBI raided election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, which, like Maricopa County, was also a hotbed of conspiracy theories. conspiracy in the 2020 elections.

But unlike Fulton County, where the FBI seized actual 2020 ballots, in Maricopa a federal grand jury subpoenaed digital records kept by the county’s State Senate as part of its supposed 2020 election “audit,” which we explain in more detail here. And, according to a recent ProPublica report, an investigation based on these digital records would be unreliable.

Despite multiple official audits confirming Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election, Republicans in the Arizona State Senate have demanded an unofficial partisan “audit” of the 2.1 million ballots cast and 400 voting machines in Maricopa County. Arizona Senate Republicans hired a cybersecurity company with a history of promoting false claims of election fraud and no real experience in election security, called Cyber ​​Ninjas, to conduct this so-called audit.

As ProPublica reports in a new article published this week, the “audit” failed to follow standard procedures, made errors, and the company’s CEO, Doug Logan, even admitted that the ballot recount was “messed up.”

—Khaya Himmelman