Day 1: Trump Picks Vance
Plus: J.D. Vance Wants to Take America to a 'Dark Place'
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🫏🎉 2024 CONVENTION COVERAGE 🎭🐘
Starting at 8:45 EDT we’re going live on YouTube🎥
The gang will kick off the night with a preview of the primetime lineup, reactions to the VP announcement and all the latest. We’ll simulcast the proceedings so you all can watch and chat together. Then after the program concludes, we’ll be back online with reactions.
Find us at YouTube.com/@bulwarkmedia
TIM MILLER: J.D. Vance Wants to Take America to a 'Dark Place'
J.D. VANCE, ONE OF MY FELLOW O.G. Never Trumpers, was officially named former President Donald Trump’s second vice presidential nominee. The news arrived via a social media post that focused heavily on Vance’s Yale pedigree and his appeal in the industrial Midwest.
The initial response from myself and many other still-riding Never Trumpers was some deserved mockery. Vance, after all, had fretted that Trump would be “America’s Hitler” and joshed with Chris Matthews on “Hardball” about how the guy who’s now his boss is a lying rapist.
GABRIEL SCHOENFELD: The Truth About Political Violence
THE FAILED ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE former president Donald Trump is a horror show. One person is dead, two are critically injured, and a terrible blow has been struck against American democracy. It cannot be stressed enough: Violence should have no place in American political life.
KIM WEHLE: Rogue Judge Cannon Hands Trump a Huge Gift, Tosses Classified Docs Case
JUDGE AILEEN CANNON’S shocking decision to dismiss the indictment against Donald Trump for having taken classified documents from the White House and then obstructing the FBI’s efforts to retrieve them is more about politics than law. Before today, the only question in the case was whether her string of pro-Trump rulings and inexplicable delays reflected mere incompetence or something more like malice. That question is now settled beyond any doubt.
🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧
Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: Bill Kristol: Not Resigned to a Trump Presidency
The Focus Group: Gambling Our Rights? (with Audie Cornish)
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FROM THE BULWARK ARCHIVES🗄️, J.D. VANCE EDITION
MONA CHAREN: J.D. Vance Joins the Jackals
The question of what will become of the Republican party in the post-Trump era seems to be on everyone’s lips. A New York Times survey found that Republicans themselves have five distinct views of Trump, including 35 percent who are either “Never Trump” or “Post Trump.” But 65 percent fall into the “Die-hard” camp (27 percent), the “Trump Booster” faction (28 percent), or the “InfoWars” segment (10 percent).
CHARLIE SYKES: J.D. Vance Walks Into a Bar...
The ersatz intellectual, formerly known as the author of “Hillbilly Elegy”, wants you to know that Donald Trump is really a deeply underrated wit, and that he — the junior senator from Ohio — is also a pretty damn funny guy.
And that all you folks just don’t get the joke.
CATHY YOUNG: J.D. Vance (R-Moscow)
ATTENDING THE INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CONFERENCE in Munich over the weekend, J.D. Vance continued his criticism of Ukraine’s defensive war against Russia (“there’s no clear end point,” Vance said). Fully embracing his role as a MAGAer-than-thou Republican, the junior senator from Ohio has repeatedly made headlines in recent months for his militant opposition to military aid for Ukraine—and, in particular, for a blatantly misleading memo he sent to every Senate Republican last week asserting that the Ukraine aid bill contained a provision that could lead to a new Trump impeachment in 2025 for trying to negotiate peace. Vance also earned plaudits from Sputnik, the Russian propaganda network, for telling Tucker Carlson that Ukraine needed to be defunded for its own good, since Democrats “want to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian drop of blood.”
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Monday! started off my Monday with some impromptu coffee with Bulwark readers, gabbing about the events of the weekend and the just-announced YOLO ruling from Aileen Cannon in the documents case. It gets worse before it gets better, was my cautionary warning, as the GOP convention just got started.
The Gunman and the Would-Be Dictator… Violence stalks the president who has rejoiced in violence to others, writes David Frum in a must-read Atlantic column.
The Poisoning of the American Mind Available for Pre-Order Now! Friend of the newsletter Dr. Lawrence Eppard of The Connors Institute has a new book coming out, and some of your favorites from The Bulwark are featured.
Marc Caputo on Washington Journal… Tune in to see Marc talk about the news of the day, his newsletter, and take calls from C-SPAN junkies.
Arkansas abortion amendment supporters challenge… Secretary of State’s rejection (Arkansas Advocate)
The old mansion… On the grounds of the CIA.
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