Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to Register here. On this day in 1991, President George HW Bush nominated then-Federal Court of Appeals Judge Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Dear Readers: After celebrating Independence Day on Monday, The Daily 202 will be back on Tuesday.
Domestic controversies hang over Biden’s successful foreign visit President Biden wrapped up his trip to Germany and Spain on Friday, justifiably bragging about how NATO has emerged stronger since Russia’s war in Ukraine and rich democracies have remained unexpectedly united behind imposing costs on Moscow. But it was the recent Supreme Court decisions, especially the one that was overturned Roe vs. Wadethat dominated his pre-departure press conference, as well as the conservative justices’ unusually harsh denunciation that they were having a “destabilizing” effect on American democracy. Here are four takeaways from his participation in the G7 and NATO summits.
- Domestic reality intruded. Boy, you did it. World leaders are closely watching America’s domestic politics. You never know when a president’s waning powers or a lawmaker’s petulant ego will derail progress on a trade deal or a diplomatic candidate or keeping the US government open, with global consequences. But rarely does the situation at home crowd the marble halls of a world summit to the extent it did this week. Foreign heads of state and government rarely comment on Supreme Court decisions. But many of America’s closest friends – Britain, Canada, France and others – did so to criticize the justice for the overthrow Roe and order that there is no constitutional right of access to abortion. Asked if other leaders might question his “America is backwards” slogan and instead see a country moving backwards, Biden was taken aback. “They don’t think about that. You have not found a single person — a world leader — saying America is going backwards,” he told reporters. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the decision “a big step backwards”. And Politico’s Andrew Desiderio reported this, from a NATO foreign ministers’ dinner this week: “At least four diplomats in the room expressed concern about overturning the Court’s ruling last week Roe vs. Wade and repealing the constitutional right to abortion, according to one of the only two Americans who participated.”
- NATO came out stronger. But there is a but. Biden successfully pressured Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to drop his opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, in one of the biggest European security shakeups in decades. But. First, all 30 NATO members must formally agree to bring the new members under the alliance’s mutual defense umbrella. This takes time, as The Daily 202 explained here. Second, Sweden and Finland made concessions to Turkey, largely based on Erdogan’s demands to hand over Kurdish fighters Ankara considers terrorists. They agreed to process extradition requests “quickly and thoroughly”. Something unclear. But Erdogan now claims they agreed to extradite 73 people and says they must keep their promises or he won’t let them join NATO. Stay tuned.
- Biden really doesn’t want to be seen begging for Saudi oil. “That is not the purpose of the trip,” he insisted yesterday, referring to his upcoming visit to the kingdom. OK, but what if he meets Saudi Arabia’s King Salman or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman? “No, I’m not going to ask them,” Biden said, adding that his request for more oil production was aimed at all Gulf countries, “not particularly the Saudis.”
- He faces a big choice now at the Supreme Court. After days of stressing the limits of his executive power to soften the court’s abortion ruling, Biden pivoted Thursday, saying Congress should pass legislation enshrining Roe and that the Senate would have to repeal the filibuster to make it happen. He called the decision “wrong” and even “destabilizing” and accused the Supreme Court of “outrageous behavior” by abolishing privacy rights. (But his key takeaway remained that Americans should “vote, vote, vote” for Democrats in November.) Liberals, previously disappointed by what they saw as a lackluster Biden response, cheered. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called the criticism “unbecoming and dangerous.” And now what? Is Biden setting aside his instinctive defense of institutions and advancing his attacks on the field? Or does it back off? Some liberals believe he took too long to adopt a voting rights exemption and hasn’t pushed hard enough on that front. In The Atlantic, Ron Brownstein cited an unnamed White House official as saying the president would continue to use the decision to attack Republicans. (An attack on the court itself, though? The official apparently didn’t say.) “What you’re going to see us do is highlight that they want to go in an even more extreme direction, especially a national ban on abortion, especially threats to marriage and contraception, and specifically some of the specific crackdown attempts to force someone who is in a hurry to get pregnant,” the official said. Some liberals worry that Biden is not the right president right now. Now we will see if this is the right time for this president.
Biden to keep abortion power in the spotlight by meeting with Democratic governors “Today, on the back of a six-day trip to Europe, President Biden plans to meet virtually from the White House with a group of Democratic governors who are moving to protect abortion access in their states following last week’s Supreme Court ruling. which was overturned Roe vs. Wade. The meeting will keep in the spotlight an issue that Democrats hope will increase voter turnout in November,” reports John Wagner.
Brittney Griner appears in Russian court on drug charges “A Russian prosecutor on Friday charged WNBA star Brittney Griner with transporting a ‘significant amount’ of cannabis oil, according to Russian media reports at her trial, where she faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted,” Robyn Dixon and Mary Ilyushina report. “Griner, sitting in a cage in the courtroom with a bottle of water and a bag of cookies, said she understood the charges. He did not appeal. Court officials initially barred the media and cameras from the court, according to Russian media, but two journalists were later admitted.”
GW is defending Thomas’ appointment amid calls for him to be removed from the law school “George Washington University rejected calls to remove Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from its law school faculty by students and others dismayed by the justice’s reversal vote Roe vs. Wade and his urging that other landmark civil rights cases be reconsidered,” reports Lauren Lumpkin.
Kyiv reports 20 dead in attack in Odessa “In Ukraine’s Odesa region, a Russian attack killed at least 20 people and wounded 38 in an apartment building and a recreation center, Kyiv said on Friday. While the Kremlin denied hitting civilians, Ukrainian officials said at least one child was killed and others were injured. Rescuers were still searching for victims under the rubble,” report Ellen Francis, Andrew Jeong, Amy Cheng, Julian Duplain and Karina Chui.
At noon it is read from The Post
Trauma doctors have been depressingly prepared for mass shootings “After every school shooting, the nation goes through a grim routine: alerts on cellphone screens, photos of victims dripping onto the nightly news, the familiar cycle of funeral flowers and calls for action, and the ubiquitous outpouring of thoughts and prayers.” Caroline. Anders says. “But before all that is the grim routine that the public doesn’t see as the doctors and nurses stand ready at the hospitals, wait to hear how many victims they’re taking in and wonder if they’ll be able to save them.”
How Trump World pressures witnesses to deny his possible wrongdoing “Evidence in multiple state, federal and congressional investigations shows a similar pattern: Trump and his close allies privately groom potential witnesses with flattery and care, providing vague assurances that staying loyal to Trump would be better than crucifying him ,” by Rosalind S. Helderman, Josh Dawsey and Jacqueline Alemany report. “Meanwhile, Trump publicly blasts those who testify against him in bluntly personal terms, providing a stark example to others of the consequences of stepping out of line.”
The US is phasing out coal. The Supreme Court decision will not change that. “When conservative environmental attorney Jeffrey Holmstead joined the Bracewell firm in late 2006, he represented the full spectrum of power companies, including coal-fired utilities and coal mining companies. Not anymore. Electric utility CEOs, wary of the dangers of climate change, are moving away from coal, as well as other fossil fuels,” reports Steven Mufson.
Who Will Help Care for Texas Babies After Roe? “One in 10 people of reproductive age in America lives in Texas, which will soon join half the states in banning nearly all abortions. Texas’ conservative leadership has spent decades restricting access to abortion while cutting public spending and publicly funded health care. Now, even some anti-abortion advocates say their state is woefully unprepared for a possible surge in births among poor women,” reports Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times.
The ‘wire fraud’ scheme that could nail Trump World “While the Jan. 6 hearings have produced explosive testimony and evidence suggesting that several former administration officials may face criminal liability in connection with the attack on Capitol Hill — possibly up to Trump — there is another potential criminal liability that has largely lost in the news,” reports Roger Sollenberger of the Daily Beast.
