Sometimes I wonder how Trump feels about the establishment of his party trying to sabotage primary candidates who Arte too MAGAty. A couple weeks ago he was even part of that sabotage when he administered the coup de grâce to Matt Rosedale’s senatorial aspirations in Montana, despite Rosendale being a much Trumpier candidate than the McConnell recruit.
In Ohio’s 9th district, the state legislature redrew Marcy Kaptur’s district so that it would be impossible for her to win again. Despite the electorate passing anti-gerrymandering constraints, the partisan lean went from a D+16 to an R+6. Hilariously, the Republicans botched it and lost anyway— by nominating a crackpot MAGAt, J.R. Majewski. He was so extreme, he couldn’t even win in a district drawn to be impossible for a Democrat. Kaptur beat him 150,655 (56.6%) to 115,363 (43.4%), winning the 3 most populated counties— Lucas, Erie (won by Trump in 2020) and Wood (won by Trump in 2020), while losing in Sandusky, Ottawa, Fulton, Defiance and Williams. As you can see, Majewski won the red counties with much smaller margins than Trump has won them by:
Looking at that, state and national Republicans decided to undercut Majewski, a stolen valor guy, by creating a groundswell for former state Rep. Craig Riedel, Kevin McCarthy leading the way. But… some MAGA types discovered a recording of Riedel disparaging Trump. Matt Gaetz, J.D. Vance and Max Miller led the anti-Riedel parade and the establishment withdrew its support and found another not-Majewski character, state Rep Derek Merrin.
Now the MAGA Mike-controlled Congressional Leadership Fund is running an ad to make it seem as though he’s the most “rock-solid” conservative candidate in the race. MM endorsed him but, at least do far, Vance is sticking with Majewski, who NRCC Chair Richard Hudson says is unelectable. They started running this ad this week:
MAGA Mike’s endorsement— as Rosendale discovered— doesn’t mean a helluva lot since he’ll eventually do whatever Trump tells him to do. Yesterday, Olivia Beavers wrote MM “invoked God in a GOP presentation on keeping the majority. It didn’t land well... The Louisiana Republican showed slides to the members of his Elected Leadership Committee (ELC) team in a bid to tout the party’s prospects of hanging onto its two-seat majority in November. Johnson, a devout Christian, attempted to rally the group by discussing moral decline in America— focusing on declining church membership and the nation’s shrinking religious identity, according to both people in the room. The speaker contended that when one doesn’t have God in their life, the government or “state” will become their guide, referring back to Bible verses, both people said. They added that the approach fell flat among some in the room. ‘I’m not at church,’ one of the people said, describing Johnson’s presentation as ‘horrible. I think what he was trying to do, but failed on the execution of it, was try to bring us together,’ that person said. ‘The sermon was so long he couldn't bring it back to make the point.’”
Maybe Trump has other stuff on his mind— like half a billion dollars in fines accusing massive interest… and far more serious criminal trials coming up. In fact, last night Alan Feuer and Maggie Haberman noted that the one bright spot for Trump, the MAGA judge in Florida, may be facing a situation where she could be eased out of the case, which woulkd be catastrophic for Trump. “When Judge Aileen Cannon was handed the job last spring of overseeing Donald Trump’s prosecution on charges of mishandling classified documents, she was already under fire,” they wrote. “Many legal analysts as well as Trump critics assailed her for having issued a ruling in an early part of the inquiry that was favorable to him but so legally questionable that an appeals court chided her in overturning it. Now Judge Cannon is facing a series of decisions that will further test her legal acumen and give an indication of how she views the case and its famous main defendant… How much of a delay she decides on — and whether she postpones the trial until after the election — will signal how much she intends to indulge Trump’s strategy of trying to run the clock out.”
It seems increasingly likely that if Judge Cannon rules for Trump on any of these matters, Smith’s team might respond by seeking its first appeal since the indictment in the case was handed up in June. Prosecutors have already shown their frustration with the judge, accusing her in recent court papers of having committed a “clear error” after she initially agreed to let Trump’s lawyers release the witnesses’ names— a move that she quickly put on hold after the government complained.
…It may be worth noting at this point that Trump has spared Judge Cannon the relentless attacks he has directed at most of the jurists involved in his three other criminal cases and in several of his civil trials.
In fact, Trump has barely said a word about her on social media, on the campaign trail or while visiting the courthouse. That is a far cry from the verbal assaults he has made against nearly every other judge handling his cases, whom he has referred to, in various turns, as “corrupt and radical,” “a radical Obama hack” and “a Trump-hating guy.”
Judge Cannon is expected to settle the timing issues for the trial next Friday, when she has scheduled a hearing in Fort Pierce to set a new date for the proceeding. She is waiting to receive a final set of court papers from Trump’s legal team tomorrow before deciding on how to handle the witnesses.
As for the dispute over granting Trump access to the government’s sealed discovery papers, it has been fully briefed and discussed with the defense and prosecution during separate court hearings. She could make a decision at any time.