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Rep. Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, is one of Congresss oddest ducks. Shes someone who once positioned herself as a centrist before a remarkably abrupt anti-establishment flip that involved knifing former ally Kevin McCarthy. Shes known for ridiculous gaffes and stunts, like telling a prayer-breakfast crowd shed skipped sex with her fianc to make it on time, or wearing a literal scarlet letter around Capitol Hill. Her reputation as a horrible boss is legendary; her staff turnover unprecedented. Even in a town of attention hogs, her unslakable thirst for the TV cameras stands out.

Anyway, congrats to Nancy Mace on landing Trumps endorsement and sailing through her primary last night! Happy Wednesday.

Can liberals be for law and order?

In a world of terror threats, border turmoil, and ugly mobs on city streets, they need to be. We need to be.

Terror: NBC News reported last night:

Eight men from Tajikistan with potential ties to ISIS out of central Asia were arrested over the weekend in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles . . .

The suspects had been on the FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Force radar and were arrested by personnel with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE . . . .

All eight men crossed through the southern border into the U.S.

This follows on warnings from senior administration officials about an elevated terror threat. Two months ago, FBI Director Chris Wray testified to Congress that Weve seen the threat from foreign terrorists rise to a whole another level after October 7 . . . Looking back over my career in law enforcement, Id be hard pressed to think of a time where so many threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at once.

The border: As we see in poll after poll, immigration is near or at the top of the list of issues Americans say matter most to them. The sense that the border is out of control is so widespread that it led congressional Democrats earlier this year to agree to what once would have been unpalatable border measures, and to President Bidens executive order on the border a week ago.

Mobs in the streets: Meanwhile, weve seen demonstrations and disturbances in major cities by pro-Palestinian (sometimes pro-Hamas) mobs, most recently in New York City, outside an exhibit memorializing the victims of the October 7 massacre. Demonstrators at this event carried Hamas and Hezbollah flags. They held signs reading Long Live October 7 and the Zionists are not Jews and not humans.

As one member of Congress put it, the callousness, dehumanization, and targeting of Jews on display at last nights protest outside the Nova Festival exhibit was atrocious antisemitismplain and simple. That was not said by a Trump supporter or a Republican. It was Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

Terror, immigration, and demonstrations are distinct issues. Sensible policies in each of these areas can be complicated. But in the hands of a skillful authoritarian demagogue, these problemsa border that seems out of control, a genuine terrorism threat, and mobs in the streetsform a toxic political combination.

Its a combination that those who want to defeat the authoritarian demagogue cant wish away.

How to respond to public sentiment while maintaining sound policies in these areas is challenging. But thats what good politicians have to do.

That means they have to recognize and credit those concerns of the public.

Which in turn means, to put it simply: Liberals have to be for law and order.

I know the phrase has a problematic history. And being friendly to law and order doesnt mean you cannot or should not denounce religious bigotry, seek to curb police brutality, defend the First Amendment, and criticize demagogues who exploit public concerns for their own purposes.

It also doesnt mean you cant try to emphasize, as Democrats did in the late 1960s, that youre for law and orderand for justice. I like that modification, and perhaps it can be revived today. But still, the fact remains that in the current political climate, you cannot be a majority party in the country if youre perceived as indifferent to or unfriendly to law and order.

And of course law and order properly understood are things we should be in favor of. In the Preamble to the Constitution, to insure domestic tranquility is the third purpose listed, after to form a more perfect Union and establish justice.

The perceived and conflated threats of out-of-control immigration and terrorism made Donald Trump president in 2016. They could do so again.

Trump understands this. On the campaign trail this year, hes promised to immediately restore and expand the Trump travel ban on entry from terror-plagued countries. If you hate America, if you want to abolish Israel, if you sympathize with jihadists, then we dont want you in our country!

Well be hearing much more along those lines now. Do we have an effective response?

William Kristol

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What to say about a verdict everybody expected?

Jurors needed only three hours deliberation Tuesday morning to convict Hunter Biden on three nonviolent gun felonies.

Federal law prohibits drug addicts from acquiring or owning firearms; the jury was unmoved by the defenses argument that Hunter had not considered himself an addict when he testified he wasnt one in order to buy a gun in 2018.

Like the rest of his family, Hunter has endured unspeakable tragedies, from the deaths of his mother and sister when he was just three to the death of his brother Beau in 2015.

Tragedies can ennoble people; they can also break them. Hunter was no boy scout prior to Beaus deathhed already launched into his scuzzy business dealings in China and Ukraine, and had been discharged from the Navy Reserve after testing positive for cocainebut it was that death that sent him spiraling into an uncontrollable addiction that made him a vector for more family tragedy.

In the depths of that addiction, he bought a gun, falsely attesting as he did so that he was not using illegal drugs at the time.

Many have noted that its rare, if not unprecedented, for these crimes to be charged without being connected to some further crime committed with the gun.

Even so, those laws are just. An addict is by definition someone who has lost a great deal of control over his own actions. If laws trying to keep guns out of addicts hands werent on the books already, wed want them to be.

Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, who served as one of the head lawyers on the Mueller probe into Donald Trump, summed things up well on MSNBC yesterday:

I think that what youre seeing today and what we saw in New York in connection with the Trump criminal case is jurors doing their job . . . In both situations, jurors heard the facts, they weighed credibility, and they made decisions. And it didnt matter if youre dealing with the former president of the United States . . . or youre dealing with the son of the president. These are jurors that did their duty and the rule of law held in both situations.

The verdict has raised awkward epistemic problems for MAGAworld. After all, when they arent imagining Joe Biden to be a senile old fool, theyre picturing him as a cunning mastermind bending the whole Department of Justice to his dastardly ends. If Hunter was found guilty, then, there must have been some reason why his father wanted him to be found guilty.

We could fill a whole newsletter with the mental gymnastics the right is using to try to square this circle: Do you see the op now? senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller tweeted. Charge Hunter with a minor gun violation and NOT his conduct as an unregistered foreign agent or illicit foreign business dealings in order to protect the BIG GUY before the election. DOJ is Bidens election protection racket.

But enough about them. We talk about them plenty. Whats more striking is how the real Bidennot the Biden of MAGA fantasiaresponded. Up at the site today, Jill Lawrence takes a look back at the remarkable way Biden has handled the Hunter affair all along, standing by his son unconditionally on a personal level while refusing to taint the judicial process:

When he took office, Joe Biden retained Delawares Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, David Weiss, to finish an investigation into whether Hunter Biden falsified a gun form and evaded taxes while he was addicted to drugs. Joe Biden did not attack the justice system when a Trump-appointed judgeMaryellen Noreikaquestioned Hunters plea agreement, which ultimately fell apart. Joe Biden didnt comment or intervene when Attorney General Merrick Garlandhis own appointeeelevated Weiss to special counsel status, allowing him broader authority to investigate and bring charges.

When his son went on trial in Wilmington, again in Noreikas courtroom, Joe Biden did not attack the judge. He also said he would not pardon Hunter if he were convicted. After the guilty verdict Tuesday, the president said he was proud of the man he is today and added: As I also said last week, I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal. . . .

It also takes strength and discipline for a president to let the Justice Department do its job without fear, favor, public criticism, or outright meddling.

We wont speculate on how the verdict will affect Bidens reelection chances in November, as theres plausible arguments to be made for it helping him (empathy!), hurting him (family scandal!), or having no difference whatsoever (Hunters baked in!).

But on a personal level, the Biden family isnt through this painful period yet. Hunters other trial, concerning $1.4 million in unpaid back taxes, is due to begin in September.

Andrew Egger

May CPI shows inflation cooling for second straight month: Axios

Trump-endorsed candidates win primaries in Nevada, South Dakota, and South Carolina: NBC News

Trial pulled back curtain on Biden familys dark moments: New York Times

New poll goes deep on Kamala Harriss liabilities and strengths as a potential president: Politico

Is Emmanuel Macron too toxic to win? Politico

For many observers, the most difficult part of following the Hunter Biden trial was the deep family pain it dredged up and dragged into the spotlight. While he was using, Hunter was a messa black hole of suffering for himself and the people around him. But as our friend Molly Jong-Fastherself a recovering addictwrites at MSNBC, he was also a victim of his disease:

Biden and I are not alone in being addicts. Roughly 16% of Americans (but likely more) struggle with alcohol and drug addiction. Thats about 48 million people.

Fox News' The Five co-host Jeanine Pirro reportedly complained about eight jurors who have someone in their family whos had a drug or alcohol addiction problem or someone who died from alcohol or addiction. So they picked a jury who is sympathetic. The Washington Posts Aaron Blake pointed out that 8 of 12 jurors = 66%. Thats exactly in line with the population. . . .

Addiction is a disease. People who struggle with addiction are sick, not bad. Huge swaths of the country are affected by alcohol and drug addiction that affects not just them, but their family members and people who are even tangentially connected to them the parents, grandparents and kids and brothers and sisters and acquaintances of the addict. Alcoholism and drug addiction are a disease with a long tail, a disease that ripples through our society in myriad ways. . .

For years, Republicans have used pictures of Hunter Biden strung out on crack cocaine as some kind of indictment of his father. But when I see those pictures, I see a warning.

Im sober 26 years, but I have the same illness of addiction that Hunter Biden does. Being sober doesnt make me a better person than people who are active in their addiction. It just makes me luckier than they are.

Read the whole thing.

On a lighter note, this is sure worth a watch:

Continued here:
Liberals Shouldn't Give Up On 'Law and Order' - The Bulwark