BY BRIAN BEUTLER, PRIYANKA ARIBINDI

& CROOKED MEDIA

Monday, July 8, 2019

—Trump, taking the revelation that the U.K.’s ambassador thinks he’s stupid as well as expected.

MAKING NO CENSUS

President Trump announced over the holiday that he wants to circumvent a Supreme Court decision that would prevent him from rigging the 2020 Census for Republicans by adding a citizenship question to it. 

Here’s where things stand on the Census scandal as of Monday night:

Late last month, the Supreme Court decided that the Trump administration could not include a citizenship question in the census unless they provided a better justification for doing so. But while you were grilling on the Fourth, President Trump threw his Justice and Commerce Departments into disarray by ordering them to proceed with efforts to include the citizenship question in the Census. The Commerce Department had already begun printing the Census itself, and DOJ had insisted that the 2020 Census would proceed without a citizenship question. 

Then, late on Sunday, DOJ announced that a completely new team of lawyers would be assigned to the Census case.

What’s the problem with the original team of lawyers? Two possibilities:  

1. They want no part in defending Trump’s new rationale for needing a citizenship question in court, and believe that it’s a lie, immoral, or downright illegal. 
2. They’ve already a) defended Trump’s original rationale, which the Supreme Court ruled was a lie, and b) argued that the case needed to be resolved by the end of June or it would jeopardize the Census itself, which under the Constitution must begin next year. They’d completely torch their credibility if they went back to the courts and admitted that was all bullshit. But also c) maybe they all needed a little break! Lawyering is hard!

Why does the administration want to include a citizenship question? A citizenship question would intimidate respondents in households with undocumented immigrants in them, leading to an undercount in their communities. This undercount would give white, Republican communities more representation in Congress and more government funding. 

The good news? For now, the citizenship question can’t legally be included in the Census, and it faces multiple hurdles. One of them is a new legal challenge arguing that the citizenship question is unconstitutionally discriminatory. But Trump is lawless, and Attorney General William Barr claims he’s found a “pathway” to get the question on the Census survey. The threat that the question will end up in the Census is still live, and a very big test for Congress and the courts is upon us. 

Federal prosecutors have charged financier Jeffrey Epstein with operating a sex trafficking ring and sexually abusing dozens of underage girls. When federal agents arrested him this weekend, they also raided his New York City mansion and discovered child pornography. Prosecutors argue Epstein, who owns airplanes and a private island, is a flight risk, and should be detained while he awaits trial. Epstein has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The case has been assigned to the public corruption prosecutors in Manhattan, which has raised eyebrows: Epstein has made many powerful friends over the years, including President Trump and former President Clinton, and public corruption prosecutors handle cases involving public servants. 

Eleven years ago, different federal prosecutors in Florida struck an unlawful deal with Epstein that allowed him to avoid similar charges. The official in charge of that deal was Alex Acosta, who now serves as Trump’s Labor Secretary.

A lot of shoes are likely to drop.

The latest episode of This Land is out! "The Postponement," discusses the Supreme Court's recent punt on a decision on Carpenter v. Murphy to the next term and what this means for the tribes. Listen →

Sudan's military reached a power-sharing agreement with the country’s civilian opposition leaders on Friday, in the hope of calming the unrest that has gripped the country since the military deposed the country’s dictator, Omar al-Bashir, in April. The preliminary deal would create a joint sovereign council to run the country as the military transfers power to civilian rule over three years. It also includes an independent investigation into the June 3 massacre of over 100 pro-democracy protesters, along with violence, rapes, and robberies by Sudan’s security forces.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has faced backlash for speaking dismissively about the four freshmen House Democratic women who voted against the emergency House border bill—Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA): “All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world. But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.” AOC’s response: “That public ‘whatever’ is called public sentiment. And wielding the power to shift it is how we actually achieve meaningful change in this country.” That’s why in 2020 we need to Rock The Public Whatever!

Joe Biden has apologized for his June remarks fondly recalling his work with segregationists in the Senate. “Was I wrong a few weeks ago to somehow give the impression to people that I was praising those men who I successfully opposed time and again?” Biden said at an event in South Carolina on Saturday. “Yes, I was. I regret it. I’m sorry for any of the pain and misconception I may have caused anybody.” 

The United Nations has confirmed that Iran has enriched uranium at levels above limits imposed by the 2015 nuclear agreement the country struck with the U.S. and other global powers. This is the second time Iran has violated the agreement since President Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from it last year, and began trying to sabotage it. 

Eric Swalwell has dropped out of the 2020 presidential race, and plans to seek re-election to his House seat. There are a few other candidates we’re hoping he passes the “drop out” torch to.

Former Kansas Secretary of State/guy who was too white supremacist to work in the Trump administration Kris Kobach launched a Senate candidacy today, but misspelled his own name on a Federal Election Committee form. (Note: Kobach’s whole thing is kicking as many Democrats as he can off of voter rolls for things like typos.) In 2018, Kobach lost his bid to become the state’s governor to Democrat Laura Kelly. Let’s make him lose again!

Several Democratic presidential candidates have released their Q2 fundraising totals. Pete Buttigieg raised the most with $24.8M, followed by Joe Biden ($21.5M), Elizabeth Warren ($19.1M), Bernie Sanders ($18M), and Kamala Harris ($12M). Warren and Sanders both amassed their totals without holding any high-dollar fundraisers. This is a lot of money in total, but, per candidate, it’s chump change compared with the war chest Donald Trump has amassed. Fortunately, that’s why we created the Unify or Die fund →

Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI) left the GOP on July 4 and will soon lose his committee assignments and be ousted from the GOP conference later this week. Amash was the only Republican who had called on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump. 

Black singer and actress Halle Bailey will play Ariel in the live action remake of The Little Mermaid, so naturally racists around the world lost their shit. No word yet on if these people know mermaids are fictional creatures.

That Independence Day fiasco Trump threw last week was all so he could get taxpayers to foot the bill for a re-election campaign ad. Hope everyone had a great holiday!!

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The U.S. Women’s National Team won the World Cup this weekend, and it was great for so many reasons: 

• After defeating the Netherlands 2-0, the crowd in the stadium chanted “equal pay,” lending its support to the USWNT’s demands for pay equity with the men’s team. The U.S. Soccer Federation and the team will begin mediation now that the championship is over. 

• The USWNT has received invitations to the Capitol from Nancy Pelosi along with other lawmakers, and will be welcomed home with a ticker tape parade in New York City on Wednesday. 

• President Trump has yet to extend the team the White House invitation he promised, because he knows they won’t show. 

• Fox News tried to broadcast a live segment about the victory from a bar in France, and it didn’t go so well. 

Honestly, who doesn't love these threads???

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