Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

I should hope so

The Wall St Journal reports:

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team in recent weeks has taken a growing interest in the role of lawyers and other figures involved in legal efforts aimed at reversing Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, people familiar with the matter said.

Prosecutors from Smith’s team have issued subpoenas and asked questions centered on several key figures in those postelection efforts, including Sidney Powell, a pro-Trump lawyer who spread baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. The subpoenas have also requested communications with Emily Newman, a lawyer who worked with Powell, and Mike Roman, a Republican operative who headed Election Day operations for the Trump campaign and dispatched lawyers to swing states before November 2020.

Federal prosecutors also recently interviewed Rudy Giuliani, who served as Trump’s personal lawyer at the time, for roughly eight hours on topics including Powell, people familiar with the testimony said. They were interested, among other things, in a December 2020 meeting in the Oval Office, during which Powell pitched a plan to have the U.S. military seize control of the voting machines. 

The meeting erupted into a shouting match between White House lawyers and Powell and her associates, prompting Trump to call Giuliani, who left a dinner in Georgetown to referee the dispute. Giuliani recounted some details of the episode in his testimony before the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Following the meeting, in the early morning hours of Dec. 19, Trump tweeted: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”

Powell and her defense lawyer didn’t return requests for comment. Giuliani and a spokesman for Smith didn’t return calls seeking comment.

Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election is unfolding as his office prosecutes Trump on separate charges that he retained classified government documents and obstructed efforts to retrieve them.

Giuliani, whose interview was reported earlier by CNN, and others voluntarily spoke with investigators under a so-called proffer agreement, the people said—known colloquially as a “queen for a day” deal—in which a witness provides information to prosecutors, who in turn promise not to use it against them in potential criminal proceedings unless they determine the witness was untruthful.

Roman spoke with prosecutors under a similar agreement for a voluntary interview, a person familiar with the proffer said. In a previous interview with the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Roman invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when asked about his interactions with Giuliani following the 2020 election. He and his lawyer didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Prosecutors have also been asking other witnesses about the involvement of Giuliani and other Trump lawyers, including Jenna Ellis and Kenneth Chesebro, people familiar with the matter said. 

Ellis, who once described herself as part of an elite strike force representing Trump, was formally disciplined by a judge earlier this year after admitting to falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. Powell, too, was sanctioned by a federal judge for widely promoting conspiracy theories that voting machines were hacked by foreign governments or otherwise rigged in now-President Biden’s favor. 

Prosecutors questioned Giuliani about the role of another lawyer, John Eastman, who was the architect of strategies to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s victory and sought to persuade then-Vice President Mike Pence to interfere in the certification of the election results. Giuliani and Eastman were central figures in the so-called war room at the Willard hotel in downtown Washington, where some of Trump’s most loyal advisers worked to overturn the 2020 election results.

Smith’s probe has been focused on whether anyone in Trump’s orbit committed crimes by sending fake slates of electors to Congress. The grand jury has issued subpoenas to local officials in several battleground states seeking communication between election officials and Trump, his campaign and a broad group of his allies.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was questioned recently by Smith’s team in Atlanta. Trump in a 2021 phone call pressured Raffensperger to find 12,000 votes so he could reverse Biden’s victory in that state. An official in Raffensperger’s office confirmed the visit and added that one of the people the team asked about was Giuliani.

Prosecutors on Smith’s team have also scrutinized efforts to fundraise off of false claims of election fraud. Like the inquiry in the fake-elector scheme, the focus on fundraising has raised questions about where political activity might be so detached from the truth that it crosses the line from First Amendment-protected speech to potentially criminal conduct.

I could easily see Rudy taking the fall for Trump. But if he doesn’t he certainly has a lot to share…

Nobody likes him

Former president Donald Trump held his first big rally over the weekend in a little town called Pickens, South Carolina. Reports of the crowd size vary, with Trump claiming 75,000 which is absurd, but it was a large and very enthusiastic crowd. He gave his usual spiel, whining “I am being indicted for you” and he once again delivered his creepy new mission statement, declaring that this 2024 election is the “Final Battle” against the “Communists,,” “globalists” “warmongers” and the “sick people” and “degenerates” who “hate our country.” It was the usual cheery, positive vision of the future we’ve come to expect from him and it was especially uplifting on the 4th of July weekend. It makes you proud to be an American.

He was very well received which isn’t surprising since the district went for him in big numbers in both 2016 and 2020. The weather was very hot but they were ready to party:

Woman at Trump rally is asked what Trump should do on day 1 if elected. She says he should put Biden in jail then round up people in the Deep State and “take them to the train station.” pic.twitter.com/5p0sIFL84e

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 1, 2023

Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared as well, and was her usual ray of sunshine as well. She even inspired a good old fashioned “lock her up” chant, much to the delight of the gathered throng.”

But something very odd and somewhat inexplicable also happened at this rally. The South Carolina crowd turned on their homeboy, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and I’m honestly not entirely sure exactly what it’s all about.

6 minutes of Lindsey Graham being booed in his own state, by members of his own party, is better than coffee. pic.twitter.com/Unum7OqinB

— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) July 2, 2023

It was brutal. Later, when Trump tried to give him a shout-out the jeers started all over again prompting Trump to make this weird statement:

You know, you can make mistakes on occasion. Even Lindsey down here, Senator Lindsey Graham. [more booing] We’re gonna love him. We’re gonna love him.

I know, it’s half and half. But when I need some of those liberal votes, he’s always there to help me get them, OK. We got some pretty liberal people, but he’s good.He’s there when you need him. We know the good ones. We know the bad ones too. We’ve got some real bad ones. But even he makes mistakes on occasion.

Trump seemed surprised by the vehement hostility even laughing and muttering “Jesus” under his breath at one point.

This has happened before. You may recall that Graham suffered a humiliating experience being heckled in an airport. Feelings were running hot in the aftermath of January 6th for his momentary lapse of MAGA supplication in failing to vote to challenge the electoral count after the insurrection.:

https://twitter.com/politico/status/1347631968003960832?s=20

Maybe they’re still harboring a grudge even though Trump himself seems to have forgiven him.

The most often cited reason in the Youtube comments is his support for Ukraine. But is it so important to them that they would boo him through an entire speech — in South Carolina, probably the most historically militant state in the nation? Perhaps, but if you listen to what Trump says on the issue he’s not nearly as anti-Ukraine as some of the more vociferous opponents in the Congress. He evades saying what should be done by accusing Biden of “doing it wrong” and insisting that he has a secret plan that will end the war the day after he’s elected. It’s not as if he’s been railing about the waste of money or proclaiming that it’s all a NATO plot as Rep. Greene does.

This is an interesting question because it exposes how much Trump is influenced by his unruly mob. Graham is probably closer to him than any other Senator and has been with him since the first days of his presidency. It’s true that from time to time he would stray and say something vaguely critical but over the course of Trump’s term he became progressively sycophantic to the point of embarrassing self-abegnation.

William Saletan at The Bulwark recently published a series of essays about Graham’s abandonment of his will and his conscience since 2015 as he dedicated himself to serving Trump called “The Corruption of Lindsey Graham. A Case Study in the Rise of Authoritarianism.” He had once fashioned himself as a “maverick” like his idol John McCain who loathed and despised Trump and during the 2016 campaign Graham breathlessly denounced him in colorful terms —  “hateful,” a “kook,” a “demagogue,” and a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” who “represents the worst in America.” That was just for starters. But once Trump won, Graham turned himself around quickly, seeing an opportunity to school the buffoon on foreign policy. It took some work but he made it into the “inner orbit” over the course of a few months and was soon spending time with him on the golf course and becoming a close confidant.

Over the course of Trump’s four years in office, Graham went through the looking glass, abandoning himself to the emotional appeal of being a Trump courtier. His crucible was the hysterical speech he gave during the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings in which a red-faced Graham seemed to completely come unhinged. The reviews from Trump and the MAGA faithful were rapturous, however, and Graham was hooked.

By the time the 2020 election came around, Lindsey Graham was so deeply attached to Donald Trump that he became one of his strongest surrogates, even involving himself in the attempts to get the election results overturned in the states. He made dozens of appearances on television spreading the Big Lie and stood by his man all the way up until January 6th. At that point, if Graham had simply been an opportunist who was trying to deal with the situation in which he found himself, he could have written Trump off and moved on. He was out of power. Instead he was among the first to tell Trump that he needed to immediately plan his restoration to the throne. He didn’t want to let him go.

Saletan’s piece traces Graham’s evolution from a man who believed that he could manipulate Trump to someone wholly in his thrall, stuck in the Trumpian vortex without any idea of exactly how he got there o any real desire to get out. He serves as a perfect example of how a demagogue, even one as ignorant as Trump, can seduce a party and its voters into authoritarianism. .

It had to smart to hear those boos after all he’s done for their idol Donald Trump. It must be frightening to hear Trump give him such a tepid endorsement, agreeing that he’s only “half and half” and that he’s good for bringing liberals on board Trump’s plans (suggesting that Graham is some kind of liberal symp, which is preposterous.) But that’s how authoritarian systems work. Trump heard those boos and the writing is on the wall for Lindsey Graham. Trump will never respect him again.

Salon

It’s gonna be a summer

Next week I head north to Chicago for Netroots Nation. Hopes for cooler, tamer weather to the north are just that.

Axios:

Torrential rains flooded Chicago’s streets and forced NASCAR officials to postpone a race through the city, as the National Weather Service issued hazardous weather alerts for over 110 million Americans during the extended July Fourth holiday weekend.

State of play: Chicago train services were suspended, buses were temporarily rerouted and Illinois State Police said parts of Interstate highways 55 and 290 were shut due to flooding, per WLS-TV.

MWRD Storm Update

At approx 4 p.m., we began reversing to the lake at the Chicago River locks downtown. We have far exceeded the previous record for July 2 rainfall which was two inches. Final numbers are not in yet but some areas have exceeded five inches of rain already today

— MWRD (@MWRDGC) July 2, 2023

The National Weather Service (a branch of the Commerce Department that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis promises to eliminate as president) reports:

Meanwhile, the heat wave across the South will be less oppressive today, before confining southward even more on Independence Day. Nevertheless, heat indices could approach 105-110 degrees with high temperatures into the mid-90s, which can be dangerous if spending an extended amount of time outdoors. Additionally, heat will be the main story throughout the Desert Southwest and West Coast today and Tuesday. Highs well into the triple digits are forecast throughout the Central Valley region of California and Desert Southwest. A few daily high temperature records could be challenged today, before the record-breaking heat potential shifts up the West Coast into northern California and western Oregon. Here, highs are forecast to reach into the 90s and low 100s on Tuesday.

So far, no smoke here, but….

By the numbers: More than 18 million people were under excessive heat warnings on Sunday night, as dangerously hot weather continued for parts of the Southeast, Gulf Coast, Southwest and interior sections of California northward into Oregon.

• It’s particularly hot in Sacramento, which the NWS noted Sunday had tied the record high for July 2 of 109 degrees Fahrenheit that had stood since 1991.
• Record daily temperature highs for July 2 were set across Northern California — including in Redding (116°F), Red Bluff (114°F), Stockton (110°F) and Modesto (108°F), according to the weather service.

Be careful out there.

Southern Baptists double down on decline

“No one could accuse the Baptists of excessive cheeriness,” David Siders begins in his Politico report from the Southern Baptist Convention conclave in New Orleans:

“We are living in dark and perilous times in America,” read the billing for a night with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, “as our culture descends into a spiritual abyss …”

It is a stark change of mood for hundreds of pastors and church members from their Trump-years triumphalism. The U.S. has been both steadily secularizing and religiously diversifying for decades. This leaves Southern Baptists, once dominant in a region of churches on every streetcorner, unsettled at their declining ability to dictate local culture. Evangelicals of whom Southern Baptists are a fraction, saw Trump, the “thrice-married former casino owner” with his “two Corinthians” pandering as an imperfect champion. At least he was pandering. “Great again” for them meant more than white dominance. He represented renewal of their religious and cultural dominance.

Since then, Siders explains, all seems to have gone to Hell.

The midterm elections had not produced the sweeping conservative victories Republicans promised. The overturning of Roe v. Wade, the signature accomplishment of the religious right, had become a major liability for the GOP, contributing to losses in a series of elections. In December, the Democratic president, Joe Biden, signed legislation codifying same-sex marriage into law — with the support of 39 Republicans in the House and 12 in the Senate.

There was the transgender rights movement, which pastor after pastor complained they saw seeping into their pews. A panel conversation one afternoon entitled “Re-Forming Gen Z: Sexuality, Technology and Human Formation” drew such a large crowd that organizers turned away late-comers and a moderator was forced to combine what he called “a lot of questions related to gender and sexuality” into a few. They included how best to respond to a teenager who insists on a preferred pronoun and how to “navigate conversations with a teen who believes in God but also thinks that same-sex attraction is OK.”

And then there was the temerity of some Southern Baptist churches to allow women to serve as pastors, which had been the focus of feuding within the denomination.

The shrinking denomination doubled down by expelling the Saddleback Church, a megachurch in Orange County, Calif., (and another in North Carolina) for having a female pastor, something other mainline Protestant churches now allow.

The group is now left “trying to hold the line,” one attendee lamented outside.

“It’s almost like Christianity’s being attacked,” said Angela Mathews, a retired high school history and English teacher from Murphy, Texas.

“When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression,” as the expression goes.

Siders has much more on trends within the church that parallel strains within the Republican Party. Particularly, that changing demographics are working against the group’s once-undisputed dominance across the South.

Something these pieces never seems to detect is the interplay between cultural drift and fringe-right activists’ need to “organize discontent.” Culture-war entrepreneurs like Christopher Rufo mine Page 15 stories about critical race theory, gender-affirming care or drag queen story hour, and gin them up into threats of apocalyptic proportions. Thus are Evangelicals already sensitized to their declining influence manipulated by titular allies for political gain. Any accelerant to keep the rubes inflamed, voting, and donating. Conservative politicos make bank on catalyzed discontent. So do the churches.

Moderating a panel before a keynote by [Mike] Pompeo, Trump’s former secretary of state, Ryan Helfenbein*, executive director of Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center, acknowledged the decline of what he called a “biblical world view” in America. But he also said millions of people who regularly attend church do not vote. Those people, perhaps, are reachable.

Reachable not in the come-to-Jesus sense. They already go to church. Reachable in the vote for conservative authoritarians sense.

Toxic codependency is why Siders finds a dearth of “excessive cheeriness” in these circles.

*We last saw Helfenbein referencing Hitler.

There is nothing he could do to push them away:

Right-wing media are standing by Donald Trump in the wake of a leaked tape of the former president admitting that he did not declassify documents taken from the White House and showing that Trump knew he could not retroactively declassify them, which contradicts a key part of his legal defense.

[…]l

OAN played the portion of the tape of Trump saying, “This totally wins my case,” and included his dig at Hillary Clinton and Anthony Weiner before parroting his defense: “Trump blasted the FBI and the DOJ for quote, ‘illegally leaking and spinning the tape.’” [One America News, One America News, 6/27/23]

Fox News host Sean Hannity spun Trump’s words to add plausible deniability: “That does not confirm for me whether or not specifically this document was declassified or not. Was that actually the real document, or was it a story he was telling?” [Fox News, Hannity, 6/26/23]

On his radio show, Hannity claimed Trump’s leaked comments “don’t prove a thing as far as I’m concerned,” adding, “If you’re a conservative, you know, we’ve got a very different system of law.” [Premiere Radio Network, The Sean Hannity Show, 6/27/23]

Real America’s Voice host Charlie Kirk downplayed the tape, saying, “If this is the best piece of evidence that [special counsel] Jack Smith has, this should infuriate you.” Kirk added, “We’re gonna try to put Donald Trump in prison for a hundred years because he ruffled some papers near a writer?” [Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 06/27/23]

On Rumble, Russell Brand downplayed the severity of Trump’s retention of classified materials, stating: “We all basically know that everyone’s corrupt. We all basically know that people look at those censored materials. I’m not surprised by this stuff.” [Stay Free, 6/27/23]

Louder with Crowder host Steven Crowder insinuated that the leak was a distraction from the Hunter Biden case and downplayed the Trump audio, saying, “They want to keep the Donald Trump audio leak at the top of the news — there’s nothing new here.” [Louder with Crowder, 6/27/23]

Newsmax’s Greg Kelly: “When you’re talking about ‘let’s have a few Diet Cokes,’ you don’t think you’re in the middle of a crime, and he was not in the middle of a crime.” [Newsmax, Greg Kelly Reports, 6/27/23]

Right-wing blog The Washington Free Beacon published “FACT CHECK: CNN Trump Audio Reveals Inconvenient Truth About Democrats,” focused entirely on Trump’s comments on Weiner. [The Washington Free Beacon, 6/27/23]

Focusing on the leak itself and not the contents of the audio recording

On Twitter, Kirk attempted to question the legality of CNN’s actions, stating, “Are Jack Smith and DOJ leaking supposed classified info to CNN? Why is Trump’s alleged ‘leaking’ considered a felony, while the DOJ’s constant leaks are just their way of doing business?” [Twitter, 6/27/23]

Newsmax host Shaun Kraisman attempted to point the finger back at CNN, claiming the recording “shows you that the mainstream media will go as far as they can” to smear Trump. [Newsmax, The National Report, 6/27/23] 

On Newsmax, former Trump acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker claimed that the leak was evidence of “Jack Smith and the special counsel trying to try this case in the public opinion,” adding, “I think that is just inappropriate and inconsistent with the principles of federal prosecution.” [Newsmax, Wake Up America, 6/27/23]

Hannity bemoaned the existence of a “two-tiered system of justice” in deflecting to the investigation of Biden’s handling of classified materials, stating, “It’s kind of weird because there are virtually no leaks from Biden’s document investigation, if there even really is one.” [Fox News, Hannity, 6/26/23]

Some did have to admit that it’s a teensy bit legally problematic:

The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro stated that the audio shows that “Donald Trump pretty much admits on tape to doing the thing that he’s accused of doing.” However, Shapiro would go on to malign the prosecution as unjust and politically motivated by Attorney General Merrick Garland. [The Daily Wire, The Ben Shapiro Show, 6/28/23] On her daily show for American Family Radio, former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis claimed the recording “is a problem for President Trump,” adding, “Off the record is not a defense. This is problematic.” [American Family Radio, Jenna Ellis in the Morning, 6/27/23]

Appearing on Fox News’ The Story with Martha MacCallum, Baier asserted that “it doesn’t sound like he’s pointing to newspaper clippings or magazine clippings, it sounds like he’s pointing to something in the tape that he said he could have declassified when he was president but he didn’t and now he can’t.” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 6/27/23]

Your World host Neil Cavuto said that Trump’s comments on the recordings “seem to be damning for the former president.” Politico’s Daniel Lippman pushed back on Trump’s defense, claiming, “I’m sure there were newspapers interspersed, but I don’t think Jack Smith would have just charged based on keeping a lot of newspapers, this is not an episode of Hoarders here.” [Fox News, Your World with Neil Cavuto, 6/27/23]

Axios reporter Josh Kraushaar called the tape “the smoking gun” on Fox News’ Special Report. He added: “Legally, the prosecution has a very good case against Trump. Politically it doesn’t seem like the needle has moved much since the federal indictment against Trump. You look at the latest polling, Trump has only — in the primary at least — expanded.” [Fox News, Special Report, 6/27/23]

In an online article for Fox News, Howard Kurtz pushed back on Trump’s defense, stating, “I don’t quite see how this is an exoneration.” [Fox News, 6/28/23]

Keep in mind that they believe that even if he’s guilty as sin it doesn’t matter because the “Deep State’s” witch hunt is the real problem.

Listening to Trump’s rally, I was struck by the mountain of lies about all of this as all those people just soaked them up as if he is the Oracle of Delphi. He repeats and repeats and repeats until it is true for millions of people. His political (if not his legal) defense is that he had a right to those documents because he was a president and they are trying to rig the election by prosecuting him for it. His followers believe him. And if he is found guilty by a jury of his peers, they will believe the jury was tainted or the judge was on the take or whatever he claims it is.

He seems to be undisciplined and in many ways he is. But let’s face it. He has spent his life repeating self-aggrandizing lies strenuously and constantly and has, in the minds of many, many people, made them true. As a celebrity businessman and a politician it has worked for him. When it comes to creating this alternate reality, he is actually very disciplined.

And now he has a whole party/movement/industry devoted to helping him do it. He may be the most successful demagogue since “you-know-who.”

Trump: Charging a former president of the United States under the Espionage Act of 1917. As Putin said, you are the most vicious president ever. There's never been a president that did this to me. And yet I got along with him. Isn’t that nice? pic.twitter.com/l5yoXt4jSR

— Acyn (@Acyn) July 1, 2023

I don’t know if you have the stomach to watch any of Trump’s rally yesterday but at least read this if you don’t. It’s really gotten Nurembergesque:

Former President Donald J. Trump drew a crowd of thousands on Saturday to a quiet South Carolina town’s Independence Day event, where he assailed the integrity of major American institutions and painted a dark portrait of the country ahead of a holiday meant to celebrate its underpinnings.

Speaking for nearly 90 minutes on Main Street in Pickens, S.C., with at least 20 American flags behind his back, Mr. Trump often eschewed the rhetorical flag-waving and calls for unity that have long been as central to Independence Day as hot dogs, baseball and fireworks.

Instead, the twice-impeached and twice-indicted former president railed against Democrats and liberals, who he said threatened to rewrite America’s past and erase its future. He skewered federal law enforcement, which he accused without evidence of rampant corruption. And he attacked President Biden, enumerating what he saw as his character flaws and accusing him of taking bribes from foreign nations.

“We want to have a respect for our country and for the office” of the presidency, Mr. Trump said. “But we really have no interest in people who are sick.”

Mr. Trump’s comments were largely familiar. But the event highlighted the hold he has on his most fervent supporters — a challenge for his Republican rivals as they seek their party’s presidential nomination from far behind Mr. Trump in the polls.

Despite sweltering humidity and heat, thousands of people swarmed the streets of Pickens — a town of about 3,000 in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains — beginning at dawn.

Sign up for the Tilt newsletter, for Times subscribers only.  Nate Cohn, The Times’s chief political analyst, makes sense of the latest political data. Get it in your inbox.

Pam Nichols, who described herself as an “insurrectionist,” said that she flew from Mundelein, Ill., to proudly support Mr. Trump in person. She had last done so in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, she said, when a mob of Mr. Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol building. She did not talk in detail about her actions that day.

“I was told to lay low after,” Ms. Nichols said, adding that she had watched a number of Mr. Trump’s speeches online since. “But I felt like it’s time to come out now. I’m tired of laying low.”

The event in Pickens was only Mr. Trump’s second full-scale rally since he kicked off his campaign in November. Though such rallies were a hallmark of his past two campaigns, he has so far largely taken the stage at events organized by other groups.

Bryan Owens, the director of marketing for Pickens, said that a representative for the Trump campaign reached out two weeks ago to ask to come to the town for its Independence Day celebration.

South Carolina, an early nominating state, was a key victory for Mr. Trump in the 2016 primaries as he sought to unite the Republican Party behind him. In 2020, he won the state handily, drawing overwhelming support in this region, a conservative swath of 10 counties in the northwest corner known as the Upstate.

Mr. Owens said that the town’s decision was easy. Though he personally would not support Mr. Trump in 2024, he said, the opportunity to bring a former president to Pickens was too good to pass up.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime event for Pickens,” Mr. Owens continued, gesturing behind him to a crowd that packed the streets and stretched for several blocks. “And people that aren’t that familiar with small towns — they’ll get that experience.”

Pickens’s Independence Day festivities began with a 5K race to raise money to repair water fountains on a local nature trail. American flags lined the streets, and signs encouraged visitors to shop local, even as businesses on Main Street were closed because of Secret Service measures.

With parking near the site of the rally limited, residents were charging up to $100 — cash, many were quick to clarify — to let visitors leave cars in their driveways or on their lawns. For another $20, a golf cart might shuttle you from your car toward the rally’s entrance, outside a McDonald’s at the end of Main Street.

Red, white and blue were the wardrobe colors of the day, from hat to boots. Tammy Milligan, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., arrived dressed in a Wonder Woman costume, which she said she started wearing around the time of Mr. Trump’s first impeachment in 2019.

Even as she stood behind Mr. Trump wholeheartedly and called him a patriot, she acknowledged that much of the country felt differently — which she framed as an American ideal.

“Well, everyone’s entitled to think what they want to think,” Ms. Milligan said. “That’s our country.”

Mr. Trump was not so generous. He dwelled on the federal indictment that charged him with illegally retaining national security documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to reclaim them. And even as he denounced the prosecution as an egregious and politically motivated step, he vowed, as he has before, that he would reciprocate in kind if elected.

Outlining a dark vision of America, Mr. Trump called his political opponents “sick people” and “degenerates” who were “running our country to the ground.”

And he threatened the Republicans while he was at it:

He had a good turnout. It was an area that voted 74% for Trump both times and was hyped for weeks, so no surprise. But naturally he has to lie and claim 75,000 people showed up. pic.twitter.com/DSpThCkAZj

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 2, 2023

He’s got not more than a 50/50 endorsee record. That’s another lie. Naturally.

Elon thinks you should STFU

One of the richest men in the history of mankind, casually endorsing the end of voting rights for Americans without children. pic.twitter.com/NYBie5fbyQ

— Joshua Benton (@jbenton) July 2, 2023

I wish we didn’t have to pay attention to this moron. But his influence is huge as twitter owner and he’s making everything even more terrible than it already was.

Yikes:

In another era of politics, Republican presidential hopefuls may have hesitated before hitching their brands to an organization whose members have harassed and threatened opponents, fantasized about enacting gun violence, mingled with known extremist groups, quoted Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in their materials, and earned a designation as an anti-government hate group. It’s safe to say that time is long gone.

Five 2024 candidates traveled to the birthplace of the United States to take turns auditioning for the support of a sold-out crowd of Moms for Liberty activists and rhetorically kissing the rings of the group’s co-founders, former school board members Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice, at their “Joyful Warriors” conference in Philadelphia this week.

It’s little surprise; Moms for Liberty has emerged as a juggernaut in the conservative movement since its inception two years ago. The group claims to fight for “parental rights at all levels of government,” but it’s better known for what it opposes: COVID-19 health precautions, the contents of school libraries, and educational curricula that feature lessons about race, sexuality, and gender. Moms for Liberty has ridden its successes into statehouses across the country, where it hopes to help push anti-LGBTQ bills into law.

The Southern Poverty Law Center added Moms for Liberty to its database of extremist groups last month: a move swiftly rejected by the group as a “political hit job” and frowned upon by many of the group’s conservative media allies. For many speakers, including presidential candidates, that hate group designation was acknowledged via a punchline.

“I’m telling you these people are sick,” former President Donald Trump said, earning laughter from the audience. “Moms for Liberty is no hate group… You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to America.”

Even Nikki Haley, a relative moderate in the current slate of Republican candidates, shrugged off the group’s scandals.

“When they mentioned that this was a terrorist organization, I said, ‘Well, then count me as a Mom for Liberty,’” Haley proclaimed to the sold-out crowd. She was met with roaring applause.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told Moms for Liberty that scrutiny of the group was “a sign that we are winning this fight.”

Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction who has called teachers’ unions “terrorist organizations” and is facing fallout for his handling of federal funds, took his pushback a step further.

“You know who else was called a terrorist group, an extremist group?” Walters rhetorically asked. “Those founding fathers. That’s who you are today. You are the most patriotic, pro-America group in the country right now.”

It’s clear that the SPLC’s hate group designation struck a chord at Moms for Liberty. The joking candor shifted briefly before Trump spoke on Friday, when co-founder Justice teased that her group would be exploring retribution, hinting at possible legal action, against its opponents and critics.

But even with that scrutiny in front of mind, Moms for Liberty made no apparent effort to tamp down on the kinds of extreme rhetoric and far-right affiliations that earned its spot on SPLC’s list to begin with. Even a passing glance at the event’s speakers lineup reveals a wash of far-right ideologues.

One featured speaker was KrisAnne Hall, who has espoused far-right rhetoric and affiliated with less-debatable extremist groups like the anti-government Oath Keepers and neo-Confederate League of the South. Others include James Lindsay, an anti-LGBTQ social media performer who has described the Pride flag as that “of a hostile enemy” and North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, an unabashed Christian nationalist who has declared the transgender rights movement “demonic” and “full of the Antichrist spirit.” Many speakers have publicly accused teachers and officials who promote LGBTQ inclusion in schools of grooming children for sexual exploitation—incendiary rhetoric that has undergirded surges in anti-LGBTQ threats in the US.

That sort of sentiment was mirrored by DeSantis, who maintains a fandom within Moms for Liberty, and the other presidential hopefuls, too. At one point in DeSantis’ speech, he declared that gender-affirming care for transgender youth was “wrong” and “has no place in our society.”

Haley accused transgender rights advocates of “trying to erase” the progress of women in America. Audible groans of disgust could be heard from audience members when Trump bemoaned parents who take their children to drag shows.

The incendiary rhetoric directed toward LGBTQ people and their advocates on stage was certainly hateful, but it also serves to justify a host of behaviors and policies that don’t actually help parents or their children. It also works to cast Republicans’ political opponents not just as people who disagree but as immoral villains who must be defeated by any means necessary, let alone compromised with.

The establishment conservative movement has long sought to undermine public education, and some of its biggest players have predictably rushed to support Moms for Liberty and groups like it. Its founders have discovered allies in a host of conservative movement groups with large bases of support and dollars. Heritage Foundation and Liberty Institute, two of the most powerful and well-funded think tanks in Washington, sponsored Moms for Liberty’s summit this year.

If you believe Trump, all of this debasement is in service of fighting “a cult” of “Marxists and perverts” who are pushing a “poison” of gender ideology on children. Those who believe DeSantis might think of themselves like those who battled for a democratic Berlin after World War II. Whatever it might be, to the true believer, it must be better than the child abuse Democrats supposedly hope to normalize.

The only viable currency in the modern Republican Party is raw power: a fact made self-evident in presidential candidates’ appearances at the Moms for Liberty summit. In their run to the top of the ticket, these Republican candidates have also submitted to a race to the bottom of a barrel, where shame is a benchable injury.

They haven’t submitted. They have eagerly embraced this. They like it. They feel … liberated.

South Carolina, y’all

Yup. Pretty much like this:

Trump rally SC. pic.twitter.com/wS8O0G7Uzt

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 1, 2023

In which a local deploys a metaphor:

Interviewer: What should happen to them [deep state]?

Trump voter: “take them to the train station.” 😳

pic.twitter.com/jX2vooMRg9

— Rachel Bitecofer 🗽💡🔭🦆 (@RachelBitecofer) July 2, 2023

Sen. Lindsey Graham is from Central, SC where he once tended bar. Central is just south of Pickens. (I lived in Central, a former mill village, for a stretch in the mid-1980s.)

Lindsey seems to have outlived his usefulness to local MAGA foot soldiers.

Guy at Trump rally says Trump is working on exposing the Deep State, “and one of the creatures is here – Lindsey Graham.” pic.twitter.com/Sn0Rsa7Vmb

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 1, 2023

Lindsey Graham cuts it short and runs off stage to a chorus of boos after being booed and heckled nonstop by the crowd. pic.twitter.com/WG4eK47xsx

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 1, 2023

Nobody gets indoctrinated around these parts. Hell, no:

11 year old girl at Trump rally says she loves Trump. Asked why, she says, “He only tells the truth.” pic.twitter.com/nloav2Tme6

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 1, 2023

Women at Trump rally say they love Trump because he is the first politician who has opened their eyes to the truth and no other politician is as honest as he is. pic.twitter.com/JYg0opzEkT

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 1, 2023

Back in the day, the weekly Mountain Monitor of Travelers Rest used to document the weekly car wrapped around a tree and feature (IIRC) articles borrowed from The Thunderbolt (Klan), the apparent voice of truth in America. Since then, T.R. (just north of Greenville) has gentrified some. Pickens, less so, apparently.

Let’s poll these platform elements folks. I’m guessing they’re popular among MAGA Republicans . https://t.co/jBml040vqz

— Rachel Bitecofer 🗽💡🔭🦆 (@RachelBitecofer) July 1, 2023

Southern Poverty Law Center on the National Justice Party.

Feels like another big one

Here’s an eye-catching headline: Man cited in Supreme Court LGBTQ rights case says he was never involved.

In 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis on Friday, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of Lorie Smith, a Colorado web designer who objected to building a wedding web site for a gay couple … that did not exist.

Wait, what?!

Washington Post:

Lorie Smith filed her initial case to Colorado district court in 2016, arguing that the state’s anti-discrimination law prevented her from including a message on the webpage for her company, 303 Creative, stating that she would not create wedding websites for gay couples.

In subsequent court documents, her lawyers cited a query that they said was sent by an individual named Stewart with contact information that matches the person The Post interviewed. The request asked for Smith’s services for Stewart’s forthcoming wedding to a person named “Mike.”

“We are getting married early next year and would love some design work done for our invites, placenames etc. We might also stretch to a website,” the message cited in the case read.

A New Republic reporter contacted Stewart last week prior to the ruling. It was the first time Stewart had heard anything about the case (New Republic):

Yes, that was his name, phone number, email address, and website on the inquiry form. But he never sent this form, he said, and at the time it was sent, he was married to a woman. “If somebody’s pulled my information, as some kind of supporting information or documentation, somebody’s falsified that,” Stewart explained. (Stewart’s last name is not included in the filing, so we will be referring to him by his first name throughout this story.)

“I wouldn’t want anybody to … make me a wedding website?” he continued, sounding a bit puzzled but good-natured about the whole thing. “I’m married, I have a child—I’m not really sure where that came from? But somebody’s using false information in a Supreme Court filing document.”

What’s more, it was the first time anyone had contacted him about the case.

The Guardian:

The revelation of a falsified request may not matter much in a strictly legal sense, said Jenny Pizer, the chief legal officer at Lambda Legal, a group that protects LGBTQ+ rights. The court has signaled recently that potential liability is enough to support a legal challenge, she said.

“The bigger impact might well be on the public’s view of the claims by self-identified Christian business owners who claim they are victims of religious persecution when they are expected to follow the same non-discrimination laws that apply equally to all business owners,” she said. “This sort of revelation tends to reinforce to many people that the fundamentalist Christian victim narrative is without foundation.”

The inquiry from Stewart seems to have appeared at a suspicious point in the litigation, the New Republic noted.

The query was sent on 21 September 2016, a day after the Alliance Defending Freedom filed the lawsuit on Smith’s behalf. In the fall of 2016, Smith’s attorneys originally said that she did not need an actual request for services to challenge the law. But months later, in February of 2017, it referenced the request. Smith signed an affidavit saying she received the message.

The Alliance Defending Freedom tells the Washington Post, “Whether Lorie received a legitimate request or whether someone lied to her is irrelevant. No one should have to wait to be punished by the government to challenge an unjust law.”

Harry Litman, former U.S. Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General, tweeted:

This is a bonafide scandal. On the legal level, it means the Court decided a case that wasn’t a real case or controversy as Art III requires. On the political level, it

means that conservative forces in the country have effected a huge change in the law, and inroad on long-established anti-discrimination principles, based on a contrived story that exploited the judicial system and simply did an end-around the requirement of actual facts.

Finally, for the Court majority it’s a huge black eye that they neverthelss will simply ignore, b/c they can, and b/c the case serves their agenda,even though they sh be apoplectic about being taken advantage of. Imagine the hue & cry if Jane Roe had been a man who made it all up

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in his opinion that “the First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands.” 

“All manner of speech – from ‘pictures, films, paintings, drawings, and engravings,’ to ‘oral utterance and the printed word’ – qualify for the First Amendment’s protections; no less can hold true when it comes to speech like Ms. Smith’s conveyed over the Internet,” Gorsuch wrote.

Educators in Ron DeSantis’ Florida and in other states restricting speech and books can taste the bitterness.

Maybe not having an actual request ultimately is irrelevant to this case. But it still raises quite a stink. The fact that teams of Trump supporters after November 2020 submitted slates of fraudulent electors from multiple states seems pretty damned relevant. But what do I know? Law is outside my area.

Conservative activists deploy “voter fraud” as an accusation like Donald Trump does with “Russia, Russia, Russia.” Is it any surprise where the real fraud is coming from?