BY BRIAN BEUTLER, PRIYANKA ARIBINDI

& CROOKED MEDIA

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

—Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) appealing to “fellow teens”

SO OVER OVERSIGHT

President Trump’s abuses of power have escalated in the past week: He’s used your tax dollars to turn his Independence Day event into a campaign ad, sought to rig the 2020 Census in defiance of the Supreme Court, and is protecting a cabinet secretary who helped cover up a child-sex ring. 

What are Democrats doing about all this? It’d be a stretch to say that the cavalry is coming, but there are signs of life in the party’s oversight efforts. 

Here’s the latest: 

Census: House Democrats reportedly intend to vote “soon” (like SO soon) to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress for ignoring subpoenas for documents relating to the administration’s efforts to include a citizenship question in the Census. These citations would have no immediate effect, but could bolster Democrats’ arguments that courts should enforce the subpoenas, and open Barr and Ross up to legal jeopardy. 

The Jeffrey Epstein fallout: The arrest and indictment of Jeffrey Epstein on child-sex trafficking charges has two political ramifications: 1) Trump was once friends with, and partied with, Epstein, and 2) Back when he was a federal prosecutor, Trump’s current Labor Secretary Alex Acosta cut a secret, unlawful deal to protect Epstein. 

Both Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have called on Acosta to resign. Pelosi ruled out trying to impeach him, saying “It’s up to the president, it’s his cabinet. We have a great deal of work to do here for the good of the American people.” Trump, of course, defended Acosta.

Other scandals and crimes: On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee will authorize subpoenas of a dozen of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s witnesses, including Jared Kushner and Jeff Sessions, along with participants in the illegal scheme to pay Trump’s former mistresses hush money before the 2016 election. And, of course, Mueller himself will testify publicly next week. Is this good enough? Nope! But it could draw out more impeachment supporters and set the stage for a more appropriate confrontation with Trump.

Pennsylvania lawmakers passed legislation last month that included a hidden provision to strip power from Philadelphia’s progressive District Attorney Larry Krasner and give it to the state’s attorney general. 

Krasner is one of the most progressive prosecutors in the country, and ran on a platform of reforming criminal justice. As district attorney, Krasner decides who gets charged and prosecuted for criminal offenses, and how severe the charges will be. This new law allows the attorney general to go over Krasner’s head if he chooses not to charge certain firearm offenses. The provision applies to no other DA in the state, and will expire in two years, just after Krasner’s first term ends. 

Upon taking office, Krasner let go of more than 30 prosecutors who’d served under his predecessors. Many of those attorneys now work in the AG’s office, where this power has been redirected. Hell hath no fury like a prosecutor scorned.

Pod Save America is going on tour! Jon, Jon, and Tommy will be in Denver on July 17 and in Salt Lake City on July 18. The shows will be co-hosted by Hysteria's Erin Ryan and include guests like Colorado Governor Jared Polis! Get tickets at crooked.com/events →

A three-judge appeals-court panel heard arguments today in a partisan lawsuit that seeks to wipe the Affordable Care Act off the books. The challenge to the law has been widely condemned as frivolous, even by some of the law’s most-prominent conservative critics, but two of the judges on the panel are Republican appointees, so naturally things aren’t looking so good. At this point, the only consistent Republican position is that they want to take away your health care.

The judge presiding over the Census citizenship question case in New York has refused to allow the Justice Department to replace the lawyers it had assigned to the case, a swap that was critical to the Trump administration's still-unfolding plot to circumvent the courts and rig the Census.

Billionaire/impeachment commercial guy Tom Steyer is the newest Democratic presidential candidate. He apparently plans to spend “at least $100 million” on the race. On a totalllly unrelated note, $100 million could flip a lot of state legislative seats...

A judge has struck down the Trump administration’s new rule that compels drug companies to disclose the prices of prescription drugs in their ads, finding that the administration doesn’t have the legal authority to make this a requirement. It’s a bummer because this was actually not a bad idea.

An appeals court has ruled that Trump violated the First Amendment when he blocked people on Twitter. Big day for everyone with “Blocked by Trump” in their bios.

SunTrust is the latest major bank to refuse to provide future financing to the private-prison industry in response to widespread outrage over the industry’s role in fueling mass incarceration and migrant detention. It joins JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo in severing ties with these companies.  

CNN will hold a live-drawing to determine which night each Democratic candidate will appear during the second Democratic debate, which will air on the network July 30 and 31. Look, this system may be unfair to voters and arbitrary to candidates, but at least it provides large corporate media companies sweet, sweet monetization opportunities. 

Billionaire philanthropist and two-time independent presidential candidate Ross Perot died at 89 after battling leukemia for five months.

A 27-year-old white man in Arizona has admitted to killing Elijah El-Amin, a 17-year-old black boy, because the rap music El-Amin was listening to made him feel “unsafe.” He went on to say he decided to be “proactive, not reactive”—he slit the boy's throat and stabbed him with a pocket knife. Absolutely horrific.

Fed up of ugly running shoes that do nothing to improve your run? We were too. So, we started On and began making shoes that perform and look great. Fusing Swiss-engineering with minimalist design and maximum comfort, On shoes offer Olympic-quality cushioning and (thanks to patented CloudTec technology) a serious spring in your step to push you forward, faster. As pretty as Swiss watches and as tough as Swiss army knives - they’re basically everything you want in a running shoe. Try them yourself: find your perfect pair using our shoe finder, then apply the code TryOnCrooked at checkout and we’ll send you them to test for 30 days. Unimpressed? Return them for a full refund.

Marine Corps veteran and fighter pilot Amy McGrath has launched her campaign to challenge Mitch McConnell for his Kentucky Senate seat. In 2018 McGrath challenged an establishment Democrat in a House primary and won, and though she came up short in her general election bid against Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY), she lost by only three points in a district that Trump won by 15.

She announced her candidacy in a video ad that emphasizes McConnnell’s uniquely destructive role, which includes flooding U.S. politics with special-interest money and creating gridlock on purpose as a partisan weapon. 

There are a bunch of swing-state Senate races in 2020 that threaten to take power away from McConnell by flipping the Senate, but kicking him out of the chamber altogether would be something to savor. 

Did someone forward you this email? Sign up to get What A Day in your inbox!

Want to advertise with us? What are you waiting for?!