Attention to the Unseen

Axios reports: The Democratic National Committee is quietly steaming ahead with plans to technically nominate President Biden weeks before the party’s convention next month, Axios has learned. Why it matters: It’s the latest effort by Biden’s team to stamp out the Democratic rebellion that’s been pushing for the president to step aside since his bad performance in the June 27 debate. Once Biden receives votes from a majority of the nearly 4,000 delegates, it will become exceedingly difficult to remove him from atop the Democratic presidential…

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Zack Beauchamp writes: I met Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Donald Trump’s new choice for vice president, in the summer of 2022. I was covering a conservative conference in Israel, and Vance was the surprise VIP attraction. We chatted for a bit about the connections between right-wing movements across the world, and what American conservatives could learn from foreign peers. He was friendly, thoughtful, and smart — much smarter than the average politician I’ve interviewed. Yet his worldview is fundamentally incompatible with…

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NBC News reports: One Democratic strategist who has worked on multiple presidential campaigns and on Capitol Hill said that the physical targeting of Trump robs Biden of his main argument against the former president. Biden, the strategist pointed out, has tried to convince voters that Trump is so extreme that he presents a threat to democracy. “That message is dead,” the strategist said, after a gunman tried to kill the presumptive nominee of one of the two major parties. The…

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Axios reports: Congressional Democrats’ all-consuming angst over President Biden’s candidacy has taken an abrupt backseat in lawmakers’ minds in the wake of an assassination attempt against former President Trump. Why it matters: Democratic lawmakers say their immediate focus is on their personal security and that of their staffs, not on their party’s political woes, helping to allow a crucial cooldown period for the embattled president. “We’re all just focused on expressing condolences … and keeping our teams safe,” said one House Democrat who has been fiercely critical of Biden….

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ABC News reports: Former classmates of the suspected shooter described him to ABC News as a student who was “quiet” and did not have many friends. “He was somebody who came across as lonely a lot,” said Jameson Myers, who said he attended both elementary and high school with the suspect. Myers said that Crooks “tended to be more of an interesting one” and described him as “more socially reserved” and someone who “didn’t have a ton of friends.” But…

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  A U.S. Secret Service report [PDF] on school shootings published while Donald Trump was president found that: Most attackers were victims of bullying, which was often observed by others: Most of the attackers were bullied by their classmates, and for over half of the attackers the bullying appeared to be of a persistent pattern which lasted for weeks, months, or years. It is critical that schools implement comprehensive programs designed to promote safe and positive school climates, where students…

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David Frum writes: When a madman hammered nearly to death the husband of then–House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump jeered and mocked. One of Trump’s sons and other close Trump supporters avidly promoted false claims that Paul Pelosi had somehow brought the onslaught upon himself through a sexual misadventure. After authorities apprehended a right-wing-extremist plot to abduct Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Trump belittled the threat at a rally. He disparaged Whitmer as a political enemy. His supporters chanted “Lock her…

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Jonathan Martin writes: The pictures and film of Trump rallying the crowd will likely be the enduring image of this election and perhaps his entire political career. Even before President Biden’s catastrophic debate last month, Trump had run on a platform of strength, portraying himself as a politically muscular figure against a weak and aging incumbent president. Next week’s Republican nominating convention will deliver Trump a hero’s welcome and an audience to match, befitting a party leader who had a…

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