The subhead of this piece is "The Underpants Gnomes Are Coming For Our Elections." I couldn't think of a better way to convey the magical thinking that imagines Trump to be in charge of the elections process ... or a better way to dispel that illusion.

Halligan has no prosecutorial experience. talkingpointsmemo.com/where-things...

It’s not just that the president doesn’t have the legal authority to ban mail-in voting or require voter ID. It’s that he doesn’t have the power to do either. talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/donald-...

In a blockbuster weekend story, MSNBC reported that the Trump DOJ shut down a bribery investigation of Tom Homan, now the White House border czar, which recorded him allegedly accepting $50K in a Cava bag during a sting in the summer of 2024

Ashe County, North Carolina, and thousands of other school districts are preparing to lose some federal money after a freeze on nearly $7 billion in funding over the summer. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/poor-co...

We live in an age of monsters, @joshtpm.bsky.social writes. Elon Musk, Donald Trump, the Ellison family, Peter Thiel. The function of the Trump era has been to wind them all together into a single formation, first by allurement and then by force. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-a...

The South Carolina Supreme Court decided that it has no power to weigh in on the state’s congressional district maps. The only people with the legal power to un-gerrymander the state, it seems, are the Republican lawmakers who gerrymandered it in the first place talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/nancy-m...

While the federal government carries out its deeply unpopular immigration agenda, state lawmakers are confronting masked agents and getting arrested after demanding entry to overcrowded ICE detention cells. talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/state-l...

The House passage leaves the Senate at an impasse similar to what happened last March: Senate Republicans, who are in control of the upper chamber, will either have to negotiate with Senate Democrats to get the votes they need or risk a government shutdown. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/house-p...

It’s all coming together in Trump’s push to bring criminal charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James: the retribution, the denigration of the rule of law, the evisceration of the Justice Department, and the ultimate unbridled unitary executive. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Ranking member Robert Garcia (D-CA), though, said that he and committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) had been talking during the hearing and are “gonna try to work together on an effort to bring in Mr. Carr in front of the Oversight Committee.”

Congress could've pushed back against Trump's inflationary tariffs, but instead House Republicans have repeatedly voted to block their own authority. It's one more way the GOP is ceding more power to the president talkingpointsmemo.com/news/republi...

The Republican CR would at least partially address the hole Congress blew in D.C.'s budget, but the legislation's — and the district's — future remains in limbo. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dc-budg...

A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, @kateriga.bsky.social and @joshtpm.bsky.social discuss the Charlie Kirk killing and its fallout, the Republicans’ stopgap bill and leadership’s refusal to endorse Zohran Mamdami. Head to TPM now! talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/liste...

@joshtpm.bsky.social: Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension by ABC News was a brazen and unabashed attack on free speech in the United States in a way that was unimaginable until a few months ago. So where do we go from here? talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-few...

Republicans voted down the effort to subpoena Carr (led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene) — Garcia, the ranking Dem, said he and Comer are in talks to get Carr to come voluntarily

Republicans in the House have ceded their authority over trade to the president using sneaky legislative maneuvers to avoid voting on one of the administration’s most controversial policies. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/republi...

Comer replies that he's friends with Carr and thinks he'd be willing to come in

In unrelated hearing on DC with DC leadership, Rep. Ro Khanna is introducing a motion to subpoena FCC Chair Brendan Carr to come testify before Oversight Committee after the Jimmy Kimmel cancellation

Morning Memo, your weekday chronicle of the depredations of the Trump II presidency. morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com

As important as the Kimmel gagging last evening was President Trump’s pretend declaration that Antifa is a domestic terrorist organization. Pretend because there is no such designation under U.S. law and because Antifa, such as it is, is a loose affiliation at best.

In the week since Kirk was killed, we seen an astonishing restriction of free expression. The rules of the new game are being written. How far you can go, who gets to decide, who gets to enforce it, and who is exempt from enforcement entirely. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

In the week since Charlie Kirk was killed, we seen an astonishing restriction of free expression. The rules of the new game are being written. How far you can go, who gets to decide, who gets to enforce it, and who is exempt from enforcement entirely. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Cassidy laid into his fellow Republican colleague and said he should retract his line of questioning if there was, in fact, no recording. More here:

It is entirely unclear, however, what Mullin was talking about as he attempted to strong arm the ousted official. A bit later in the day, Mullin told reporters on Capitol Hill that he was actually mistaken and there was no recording of the meeting.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Mullin accused the ousted official of lying about her conversations with RFK Jr. and even suggested during his questioning time that there was some sort of recording of the conversation that would prove she was misleading congress.

"We have to get them off the streets and we have to get them off the internet. We can’t let them communicate with each other. I’m all about free speech, but this is a virus, this is a cancer that’s spreading across this country."

We now have a MAGA congressman using Charlie Kirk to call for taking trans people "off the streets," putting them into institutions, and banning them from the internet. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/texas-c...

It takes a lot for me to think a MAGA politician's comments are so extreme as to be worth highlighting in a story. Ronny Jackson calling trans people "cancer" and saying they should be rounded up is that kind of story. This type of rhetoric cannot be ignored. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/texas-c...

Conservatives are baselessly targeting trans people in the wake of Charlie Kirk's death. Ex-WH physician turned Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) called gender non-conforming people a “virus” and said they need to be institutionalized and barred from the internet. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/texas-c...

That and the rest of the day's essential political news in today's Morning Memo: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com

The revelations come in a splendid bit of reporting this morning from the ABC News team, which includes an account of Martin’s attempt to beef up his little fiefdom within DOJ, which he has dubbed the “Special Attorney Fraud Unit.” The best part is Martin’s recruiting email obtained by ABC.

Ed Martin and Bill Pulte have been pressuring federal prosecutors to indict NY AG Letitia James (D) for bogus mortgage fraud. Prosecutors have resisted not just because they don’t have enough evidence but because they have considerable EXCULPATORY evidence. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

Schumer on Wednesday morning said Democrats want to make sure that “the process that we go through is real” — that the funding agreement they come to will be honored by the White House. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/schumer...

Ed Martin and Bill Pulte have been pressuring federal prosecutors to indict NY AG Letitia James (D) for bogus mortgage fraud. Prosecutors have resisted not just because they don’t have enough evidence but because they have considerable ~exculpatory~ evidence. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

But it is another factor contributing to the unprecedented moment we are in, one in which DOJ officials don’t even try to hide the ongoing erosion of the independence that once existed between the Justice Department and the White House. More on that here:

Obviously, this isn’t exactly some smoking gun, and what Patel sneezes out under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee is inconsequential compared to the daily evidence we see of a compromised FBI and Justice Department that is doing President Trump’s bidding.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) today got FBI Director Kash Patel to confirm a key detail about the extent to which the traditional firewall between the Department of Justice and the White House has collapsed.

Tyler Robinson was charged with seven counts on Tuesday in the killing of Charlie Kirk. In a press conference, the Utah County Attorney read off texts between Robinson and his roommate that capture the period where Robinson allegedly decided to turn himself in. talkingpointsmemo.com/live-blog/ty...

Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old from Utah, is expected to be charged Tuesday afternoon for the fatal shooting of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. Follow along with us. talkingpointsmemo.com/live-blog/ty...

The broadside against Cook speaks to the second Trump administration’s war on the Fed, on the president’s perceived opponents in the federal government, and on sound, independent data. talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/f...

Morning Memo, your weekday roundup of the day's essential political news: morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com

In a 2-1 decision, Biden appointees Bradley Garcia Michelle Childs ruled that Cook was likely to prevail on the underlying appeal. They were especially focused on the lack of due process given to Cook. Trump appointee Gregory Katsas dissented.

A federal appeals court overnight declined to block a lower court order that reinstated Trump-target Lisa Cook to the Federal Reserve. The decision less than 48 hrs before an important Fed meeting Fed, sets up a likely race to SCOTUS by the Trump administration. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

A federal appeals court overnight declined to block a lower court order that reinstated Trump-target Lisa Cook to the Federal Reserve. The decision, less than 48 hrs before an important Fed meeting, sets up a likely race to SCOTUS by the Trump administration. talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo...

This term’s focus on anti-trans cases reveals the extent to which the Supreme Court is walking in ever-tighter lockstep with the cultural right and devoting precious docket space to its current fixations. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/supreme...

Miller took things in a uniquely sinister direction. He announced that there would soon be a formal effort by the federal government to begin rooting out what he claimed was a “domestic terror movement” in the U.S. More here:

It remains unclear who exactly the Trump admin is “already” investigating, beyond the work the FBI is doing to investigate the attack. But Trump and his allies began agitating around the idea that some amorphous liberal blob was to blame for the killing even before a suspect was identified.

In remarks to the media on Sunday, President Trump made it clear he will continue to use the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk as grounds to investigate those he sees as his political foes. In fact, he suggested, that work is already underway.

In the spring of 1996, lawmakers buried a rider in a humdrum bill meant to make life easier for small businesses. Thirty years later, Republican lawmakers are wielding it to quietly upend how the country manages public lands. (edited) talkingpointsmemo.com/news/republi...