Lawfare

• AG Garland’s latest sanctimony: Maybe Attorney General Merrick Garland felt the troops needed bucking up. Or maybe he felt that the sting of a similar harangue he issued three months ago had worn off. In any case, the bitterest non-justice in Supreme Court history was at it again yesterday, decrying the unkind treatment that’s been leveled at his Department of “Justice” in recent months and vowing that his legion of 115,000 employees would remain free from partisanship and innocent of accusations of two-tiered justice. “Our norms,” he said, “are a promise that we will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon. And our norms are a promise that we will not allow this nation to become a country where law enforcement is treated as an apparatus of politics.” Garland also railed against the “conspiracy theories, dangerous falsehoods, [and] efforts to bully and intimidate career public servants.” Woe is the poor, poor, pitiful little DOJ colossus, with all the criticism being heaped upon it from those nasty Trumpers. As The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board rightly suggests, “Mr. Garland can lecture about ‘norms’ all he wants, but he is the man who under political pressure broke a norm that had lasted for more than 200 years,” adding, “He could at least spare the country his righteous indignation.”

Security

• The Secret Service failures are even worse than we thought: Yesterday, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe briefed members of both the House and Senate in a closed-door session about the July 13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. But any sense that the agency has been forthcoming, or that its failures that day were simply a perfect storm of little things that added up to a near catastrophe, were quickly disabused by Connecticut Democrat Senator Dick Blumenthal, who told reporters after the meeting that lawmakers “will have a report very, very soon that I think will absolutely shock the American people about the lapses and lags in protection that was afforded that day and the breakdown in communication, failure, and responsibility.” Blumenthal is a partisan and a Trump-hater, so for him to say such things should indicate the seriousness of the lapses. Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley indicated that the Biden-Harris team doesn’t even want to get to the bottom of all this. Hawley says a whistleblower tells him “the Department of Homeland Security is pressuring the Secret Service not to comply with document requests by Congress about the Trump assassination attempt.”

• Don Lemon mocks Melania Trump: A recent video featuring Melania Trump speaking about the assassination attempt against her husband evidently triggered former CNN host and leftist social media pundit Don Lemon. He played a clip of the video with Melania specifically questioning how the assassination attempt was allowed to happen. “The attempt to end my husband’s life was a horrible, distressing experience. Now, the silence around it feels heavy. I can’t help but wonder, why didn’t law enforcement officials arrest the shooter before the speech?" she said. "There is definitely more to the story, and we need to uncover the truth.” Lemon responded by superimposing a video of himself reacting to Melania, rolling his eyes multiple times, scratching his head, and ending the clip by facepalming. After posting his video on TikTok, Lemon was quickly and repeatedly slammed for his “sick” response. As conservative commentator Paul Szypula posted, “Can you have empathy for a human without considering politics for once in your life?”

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Politics & Policy

• Former top Clinton adviser calls on ABC to launch internal probe into whether debate was rigged (More)

• “There will be no third debate”: Trump ends talk of rematch with Harris (More)

• Two Georgia charges against Trump dismissed: Two more charges in Georgia’s election interference case against Donald Trump have been tossed by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee. The judge had previously dismissed three other charges against the former president and his codefendants. Trump now faces eight remaining charges from the original indictment, but all of them are of a significantly lesser degree and likely more difficult for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to get a conviction. McAfee rejected a motion by the defense to throw out the case, but he left the door open for considering the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity and its impact on the case, saying that it has “not been fully briefed or argued by the parties.”

• Trump adds overtime to no-tax ideas: Kamala Harris has done her best to keep up with Donald Trump, stealing his ideas here and there to make herself appear more moderate and more palatable to the broader electorate. A few weeks ago, she appropriated his “no taxes on tips” idea, and now she has another opportunity. Yesterday, at an event in Tucson, Arizona, Trump told those in attendance, “I’m also announcing that as part of our additional tax cuts, we will end all taxes on overtime. The people who work overtime are among the hardest-working citizens in our country. And for too long, no one in Washington has been looking out for them.” Trump added, “That gives people more of an incentive to work. It gives the companies a lot.” Add to these two tax-cutting pledges Trump’s promise to get rid of taxes on Social Security, and folks might be able to keep more of what they earn. Now, if we as a nation can only cut back on our profligate spending, we might be able to stave off economic ruin.

Culture

• Staff searched for wrong student after frantic call from mother of alleged Georgia school shooter Colt Gray (More)

• Data backs up Trump on crime increase under Biden/Harris: Remember that moment during Tuesday’s presidential debate when ABC News “moderator” David Muir performed a real-time “fact-check” on Donald Trump regarding the crime wave that we see all around us? Remember when Muir said, “As you know, the FBI says overall violent crime is coming down in this country”? Well, as it turns out, that was a false fact-check. As The Washington Times reports, “Crime rates remained elevated last year under President Biden, according to Justice Department data released Thursday that challenges a prevailing media and White House narrative. The data comes from a massive annual government-run survey of crime victims. It found 22.5 of every 1,000 residents reported being the victim of a violent crime in 2023, and 102.2 per 1,000 reported facing a property crime.” Said researcher John Lott: “Violent crime increased by 37% under the Biden administration, compared to a drop of 17% under the Trump administration.” So much for “fact-checks.”

• California governor signs bill bringing back harsh penalties for smash-and-grab robberies (More)

• NYC embraces reparations: On Thursday, the New York City Council passed legislation that enacts a reparations program in the city. It establishes a Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation Commission, including a reparations task force that would “establish facts about slavery in New York City and its ongoing legacies, protect and acknowledge affected persons and communities, and recommend changes for government and institutions to prevent the perpetuation and recurrence of injustices from the legacy of slavery.” In other words, it is the official promulgation of more DEI. As one of the bill’s cosponsors, councilmember Farah Louis, asserted, this is a “crucial step towards justice and equity.” It’s funny how the woke Left promotes more racism today as the solution to racism in the past. Joseph Borelli, minority leader on the city council, voted against the bill, stating, “I’ll move before I’ll pay.” He added, “If they can introduce me to one New Yorker who owned a slave, I’d be happy to consider it. But until then, I am not paying a dime as a reparation for a harm I did not cause, nor condone, nor once participated in.”

• Kamala’s late-term abortion lie: During their first (and likely only) debate on Tuesday, Donald Trump challenged Kamala Harris over her extreme pro-abortion position. He correctly noted that under Roe, late-term abortions were allowed, to which Harris responded, “Not true.” When ABC moderator Linsey Davis asked Harris if she would support any restrictions on abortion rights, Harris responded by dodging the question: “I absolutely support reinstating the protections of Roe v. Wade.” She added, “Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion. That is not happening. It’s insulting to the women of America.” Really? What’s insulting is being lied to. The fact of the matter is that thousands of late-term abortions are performed each year. In 2021 alone, over 6,250 abortions were late-term. The reason Harris didn’t answer the question of whether she would support restrictions on abortion is because she does not. And that is an extreme position.

• Judge strikes down North Dakota’s abortion ban and rules that access is protected (More)

Economy

• Boeing union workers reject contract; 96% vote to strike (More)

• Gas price decreases continue at the pump as 13 states have prices under $3 per gallon (More)

• Under scrutiny, Wall Street says it’ll limit hours (More)

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