What little is left of Trump’s brain is in turmoil. He sat for an interview with Fox News that surpassed even his usual levels of incoherence. The best part was his contention that prosecutors cutting deals with lower-level crooks for dirt on their superiors almost ought to be illegal” because it’s “not fair.” Remember, this is a guy who takes two scoops of ice cream and gives everybody else only one.
Trump also admitted that sure he paid off his mistresses, but not with campaign funds! Several writers pointed out that Trump doesn’t seem to understand that it’s still illegal.
Trump’s uncharacteristically subdued response to Michael Cohen prompted lots of mood-of-the-White House pieces. Among the best is this piece in Politico’s magazine.
Remember when the judge in the Manafort case said he wouldn’t release the names of the jurors because he feared for their safety? One of the jurors said “fuck that shit” and came forward to say that a lone holdout refused to budge on 10 of the charges despite four days of 11 people trying to get her to see reason. UPDATE: The juror who came forward is herself a Trump supporter. She said the Mueller probe is a “witch hunt” but the evidence against Manafort was overwhelming.
The biggest threat to the November blue wave is the vulnerability of voting systems to hacking, and not necessarily by Russians. Read this 17-year-old’s story about hacking a state election — a simulated one employing the same software used by some states. Read this and tell me it wasn’t possible for the Russians to change vote totals.
The second-biggest threat is Democratic incompetence. Despite being the party that appeals to young people, Democrats are spending far less on digital advertising than Republicans are.