Gop Debate Open Thread

Sen. Joe McCarthy opened up hearings against the US Army in 1954, describing them as soft on communism. Sound familiar? Instead of rooting out nonexistent communists, on June 9th of that year, McCarthy was ridiculed by Joseph N. Welch, who was representing the Army at the time. During the infamous Red Scare craze, McCarthy attacked innocent Americans with no proof or accountability was was finally brought to his knees by Welch, which ended his rein of terror. On June 9, 1954, McCarthy again became agitated at Welch’s steady destruction of each of his arguments and witnesses.

Politico: “The Biden team is betting that the subtext won’t be lost on those voters back home who are paying attention. The trip was meant to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day. It also was designed to draw a distinction with Trump. For that reason, it became a major test: not only of Biden’s ability to withstand the scrutiny of his age, but of his capacity to use a grand international setting to reach voters back home.” “Biden barely mentioned his general election opponent.

“Donald Trump stood in blazing heat in a Las Vegas park on Sunday and directly appealed to working-class voters by promising to eliminate taxes on tips for hospitality workers,” the New York Times reports. “But beyond that proposal, little at Mr. Trump’s campaign rally suggested that his new status as a felon had changed his message.

“The wave of state abortion restrictions that began after the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022 has led Democratic-leaning doctors to become an organizing and political force against such laws,” Axios reports. “Doctors driving the backlash say many of the new state laws jeopardize patients’ health and restrict their ability to practice medicine.”

Last week, Donald Trump doubled down with Sean Hannity and tripled down with Dr. Phil signaling his plans to weaponize his Department of Justice to prosecute his political foes if, God forbid, he gets another stay in the White House. Greg Sargent makes a good argument that calling his agenda “revenge” or “retribution” is MAGA spin, not the truth: Whereas Trump is being prosecuted on the basis of evidence that law enforcement gathered before asking grand juries to indict him, he is expressly declaring that he will prosecute President Biden and Democrats solely because this is what he endured, meaning explicitly that evidence will not be the initiating impulse.read more

Democratic strategist Laura Fink turned a Fox News segment about Hunter Biden into an indictment of former President Donald Trump. During the Sunday segment about Biden's trial and related addiction problems, Fink noted that the president's son would be held accountable before shifting the topic to Trump. "The inconsistency, of course, on the right with respect to this issue is wild," she explained.