A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Finders Keepers!
The ex-president took to his fake Twitter app, TRUTH Social, on Sunday to demand that the feds return the White House records he’d stashed away at his Mar-a-Lago resort that the FBI took back in a raid last week:
Trump’s likely referring to this Fox News report claiming that some of the documents the FBI took were, in Fox’s terms, “covered by attorney-client privilege and potentially executive privilege.”
The ex-president’s dumbass request (“By copy of this TRUTH” lol) is almost certainly inspired by Steve Bannon’s “flood the zone with shit” strategy, but you gotta love the “Oh great!” opener. Oh bother, the classified records I pilfered that the FBI seized seems to have been privileged and I want it back! Ah jeez!
House Dems Demand DNI Assess Damage Caused By Trump’s Doc Hoarding
House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) and House Oversight and Reform Committee chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) sent a request to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on Saturday pushing for an “immediate review and damage assessment” after it was discovered that Trump was keeping classified records at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
- Schiff on Sunday bluntly rejected Trump’s “absurd” claim to have retroactively declassified the documents (which definitely isn’t a thing).
Trump Lawyer Claimed In June That MAL Didn’t Have Any More Classified Docs
One of Trump’s attorneys signed a document in June claiming (falsely) that there weren’t any more classified materials stashed at the ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago club, according to the New York Times, CNN and CBS News.
- The written declaration came after Justice Department officials went to Mar-a-Lago on June 3 to meet with two of the ex-president’s attorneys and collect classified documents there, the Times and CBS News report. Those lawyers were M. Evan Corcoran and Christina Bobb, but we don’t know which Trump attorney signed the reported declaration (and those two aren’t Trump’s only lawyers).
- The FBI seized 11 sets of classified documents in the Mar-a-Lago raid last week.
House Passes Historic Climate And Health Care Bill
The House voted to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, aka Democrats’ sweeping reconciliation bill on climate investment, Medicare drug pricing and taxes on Friday among party lines, as expected (and House Republicans ultimately abandoned a scheme to jeopardize the bill with a potential constitutional challenge brought on by them voting by proxy).
Must Read
“Most abortions are done at home. Antiabortion groups are taking aim.” – The Washington Post
“How People Get Caught for Self-Managed Abortions—and Who Tips Off the Police” – Vice
Maloney Says (Again) That Biden Isn’t Running
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), who’s running in the 12th Congressional District Democratic primary, has been all over the place with the question of whether Biden is running for reelection in 2024, but she sounded pretty definitive in an Aug. 1 interview with the New York Times editorial board that was published on Saturday.
- “Off the record, he’s not running again,” Maloney told the board when asked if Biden should go for a second term.
- “On the record? No, he should not run again,” the New York congresswoman said when one of the board members told her, “Not off the record. On the record.”
- Maloney’s NYT interview was held before she publicly asserted during a primary debate that Biden wasn’t running, then awkwardly walked that back and said it was just her “own personal belief” the President wasn’t going to run again.
- FWIW, Biden has maintained that he’s running again.
Iran Denies Involvement In Salman Rushdie’s Stabbing
Responding to the horrific stabbing of novelist Salman Rushdie, the Iranian government on Monday denied accusations of being behind the attack, and blamed it on Rushdie himself and his supporters.
- Rushdie has been taken off the ventilator and is now able to speak, the author’s agent said on Sunday.
- The suspected assailant, 24-year-old Hadi Matar of New Jersey, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault on Saturday.
Man Fatally Shoots Self After Crashing Car Into Barrier Near Supreme Court
An armed man whom authorities have identified as Richard Aaron York drove a car into a barrier about 300 feet away from the Supreme Court early Sunday morning, got out of the car, fired a gun into the air several times then fatally shot himself as the U.S. Capitol Police approached him, according to law enforcement.
- Nobody else was hurt, a spokesperson for the USCP reported.
- A motive has not been established, according to authorities.
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