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August 15, 2022
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PRESENTED BY
THE TOP
Happy Monday morning.
The House and Senate are out of session. President Joe Biden is in Kiawah Island, S.C. And Vice President Kamala Harris is heading to Hawaii.
Let’s start this morning with the ongoing fallout over the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago.
There have been continued threats of violence against law enforcement officers and government agencies – most notably the FBI – as Trump and his political allies push back on allegations he improperly removed highly classified information from the White House, including nuclear secrets.
CBS News reported on Sunday that “the FBI and DHS have observed an increase in violent threats posted on social media against federal officials and facilities, including a threat to place a so-called dirty bomb in front of FBI Headquarters and issuing general calls for ‘civil war’ and ‘armed rebellion.'” FBI Director Christopher Wray has also publicly denounced threats against FBI agents and other law enforcement agencies.
A pro-Trump veteran was killed on Thursday in a shootout with police after attempting to enter an FBI office in Cincinnati. Armed protesters showed up outside the FBI office in Phoenix. The synagogue where Judge Bruce Reinhart is a trustee – he’s the federal magistrate who approved the search warrant for the Mar-a-Lago raid – canceled services on Friday night following a vicious anti-Semitic social media attack against him.
In Washington, a 29-year-old Delaware man died after ramming his car into a vehicle barrier near the Supreme Court at 4 a.m. Sunday morning. The man – we’re not naming him – died by suicide after firing a gun into the air several times following the crash, according to U.S. Capitol Police. This incident doesn’t appear to be politically motivated, but the Capitol area remains a high-profile target for extremists since the Jan. 6 insurrection by Trump supporters.
Trump has continued to release public statements criticizing the FBI and Justice Department investigation into his refusal to turn over all documents sought by the National Archives and Records Administration and other government agencies.
The former president, his supporters and political allies have offered various – and contradictory – statements on why he was keeping classified and top secret documents in his residence. These explanations range from the documents were already declassified to Trump didn’t pack the boxes himself to the FBI could’ve planted evidence.
On Sunday, Trump alleged that the FBI had removed documents covered by attorney-client privilege as part of the 11 boxes worth of records it seized from Mar-a-Lago. Trump didn’t offer any details on what these allegedly privileged documents included.
The shifting – and sometimes outlandish – explanations have left congressional Republicans twisting themselves in knots as they try to defend Trump and explain why this is different from Hillary Clinton’s email server. There have been some attempts to rein in the rhetoric since the incident in Cincinnati Thursday and Attorney General Merrick Garland’s forceful defense of the FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors involved in the Trump probe.
But then you also have some New Hampshire Senate GOP candidates asked during an event whether the FBI is a “terrorist organization.” And if you really want to be scared, take a look at this thread retweeted by Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Sunday.
Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairs of the House Intelligence and Oversight committees, over the weekend called for the director of National Intelligence to conduct “an immediate review and damage assessment” of Trump’s actions.
“Former President Trump’s conduct has potentially put our national security at grave risk. This issue demands a full review, in addition to the ongoing law enforcement inquiry,” the two wrote in a letter to National Intelligence Director Avril Haines.
Senate Intelligence Committee leaders Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sent a private letter to Haines Sunday requesting to view the classified documents that were found during the raid.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who also serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, applauded the bipartisan request in a statement Sunday night.
“It’s imperative that the Committee receive all classified documents found during the search as well as the FBI affidavit, which would describe in detail any justification for the search,” Collins said.
– John Bresnahan and Heather Caygle
👀
Who we’re watching
| → | Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.): Unless every single public poll is wrong, Cheney is going to lose to Harriet Hageman by a large margin in the Wyoming GOP primary on Tuesday. Yet there’s already speculation that Cheney may run for president in 2024, perhaps as a Republican or an independent. Everyone will be closely watching what Cheney says on election night. |
| → | Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and the Alaska primary: Trump’s vengeance tour hits the Last Frontier this week. Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka, the former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Administration, is primarying Murkowski – as are 18 other candidates. Under Alaska’s “top four” primary system, the four leading vote getters will advance to the general election in November. Ranked voting will be used in that election, which gives Murkowski a really good shot at winning another term. Perhaps Murkowski will even get a majority this time. |
| → | Sarah Palin: The race for the seat held by the late Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) is quite interesting. There will actually be two elections on Tuesday – one to fill the remainder of Young’s current term, the other is the primary for November’s general election. |
In the special, Sarah Palin, the former governor, is trying to win her first political race in 16 years, but she faces Nick Begich. Begich’s grandfather is the late Rep. Nick Begich (D-Alaska), who died in a plane crash with Hale Boggs in 1972. His uncle is former Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska). But this Begich, however, is a lifelong conservative Republican. The Democrat in the race is Mary Peltola. It will take until at least Aug. 31 to know who won this special election due to the use of ranked-choice voting for the first time.
The November primary has a huge field of more than 20 candidates. The top four will make it onto the ballot for the general election. Ranked voting will be used in that election as well. Palin, Begich and Peltola are all in the primary.
– Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan
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One size rarely fits all. That’s why Apollo provides custom capital solutions designed to help companies achieve their ambitious business goals. Think Credit New