In this week Elijah v. UNITED STATESour justice correspondent explains how the Democrats should have reacted to Trump’s speech. More: Where have all the African-American baseball players gone?
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures after addressing the nation on July 16, 2026.
(Saul Loeb / Pool – Getty Images) By the time you read this, Donald Trump will have given his big speech in the Oval Office about voter fraud not happening and the SAVE Act not passing. I mean, I’m just guessing. I’m writing this before the speech, and who knows what might happen? Trump could announce that aliens have made contact but will be forced to stay in Mexico because they are chartreuse.
Yet the money of the bet is that he will lie about the upcoming election in a fierce attempt to force the Senate to pass his bill or lay the foundations for sending ICE boots to polling places to intimidate voters – or both.
I wish Democrats would have mounted an organized response. I know the opposition party traditionally responds only after the State of the Union address. But this has only been a tradition since 1966 (of course, it was the Republicans who started it, when Lyndon Johnson was president). There is no reason why Democrats should not demand equal time TV stations and respond to Trump’s lies as soon as he finishes spewing them. Democrats should counter Trump’s speech, then go into detail about everything Trump and the Republican Party are doing to rig the midterm elections — from gerrymandering to purging the government. Election Assistance Commissionhas threatening to send ICE thugs to the polls on Election Day.
Democrats have already done itin 2019, in response to one of Trump’s unhinged rants on immigration during his first term. I can’t think of a more critical time to start again. This should be Hakeem Jeffries’ moment. A prime-time speech from the leader of the Democratic Party telling us how we’re going to stop Trump from stealing the election is something we need now.
Of course, responding would require the Democrats to be an organized political party with an instinct for self-preservation and an ability to think creatively about how best to combat growing authoritarianism. Well, “lmao @ Dems,” as the kids say.
I guess next week I’ll post the 5 billion articles, election law attorney Marc Elias writing on the speech and asks you all to share them in your networks. That’s about all we have left.
Current number
The bully and the ugly
Speaking of things I haven’t watched: Todd Blanche attended his attorney general confirmation hearings this week. Reports indicate that it went as I expected: Blanche believes he has a client, and that client is not the American people. It’s Donald Trump. Blanche is most recently famous for trying to pass a $1.8 billion slush fund for Trump’s January 6 Army. A just judge canceled the settlement that led to that money, claiming that the terms of the deal — which involved the government (the DOJ) forcing the government (the IRS) to pay the government money — are “self-dealing.” Trump finally I had to pay E. Jean Carroll $5 million for defaming her. ICE lawyers admitted the agency lied when it said it had no documents detailing plans to place ICE personnel at polling places during the election. In fact, there may be a “trove” such documents. I once again call for the removal of this agency. ICE Agents continue to murder peopleBesides. This week they killed a Colombian immigrant who had papers and was not subject to any warrants or immigration procedures… I once again call for the abolition of this agency. Inspired Takes
I rarely have anything positive to say about South Carolina. But The nationThat’s what John Nichols does. It turns out that the process South Carolina put in place to replace the recently deceased Lindsey Graham is actually… GOOD. Broken clocks and all that. I don’t talk much about what New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is doing because, frankly, I’m afraid of being happy. It’s hope that kills you. But here is a Nation article on the Rent freeze in Mamdaniwhich, if it existed in my time, would probably have meant I would still be living in the city. And here is a Nation article on his come face to face with the odious New York Post. And here is an article about the New York police union squealing like slaughtered pigs because Mamdani is going to make cops’ disciplinary records public. So basically Mamdani plays the Andy DuFresne on my Red Redding in The Shawshank Redemption. The worst argument of the week
Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett went to Congress this week to ask for money. Specifically, the justices testified in defense of the Supreme Court’s request for an additional $20 million in this year’s budget for additional security for judges. The judges want more police officers assigned to the Supreme Court.
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The justices testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee, which handles intergovernmental budget requests. Judge Barrett revealed details of her personal “swatting” incident, when a SWAT team was sent to her home based on false reports of shots fired and a domestic disturbance. I found his statements compelling, especially because I know Barrett has black children and I know how dangerous cops are to black children. Barrett also talked about how unsettling it was for her to have to explain to her kids why mom had to wear a bulletproof vest to work, a conversation I can also relate to.
BUT…Barret didn’t talk about how the Supreme Court’s extremist gun rulings fuel the culture of violence that forces kids to take bulletproof backpacks to school. She didn’t talk about how the court’s refusal to hold police forces accountable for their violence and brutality makes something like running over so inherently dangerous for innocent targets. She didn’t talk about how the dehumanization and denigration of others — by the Trump regime she supports — gives free rein to the most unstable and violent among us. And she didn’t talk about how the misogyny and patriarchy of the white manosphere makes her, and every woman in power, a target for abuse every time a man gets angry.
No, Barrett hasn’t talked about any of the ways she and her colleagues enable the horrific cultural and political forces that force the Supreme Court to need more security. She didn’t think about her own role in bringing this all about. She simply went to Congress to ask for more money. Or, perhaps more accurately, she was sent to Congress to demand more money from his Republican colleagues on the court who generally view Congress with contempt. Clarence Thomas is the top Republican judge and is apparently happy to go to Congress without telling the public why he is therebut he was not sent to testify. Neil Gorsuch is happy to pontificate on what Congress should and shouldn’t do from his seat, but he hasn’t been tasked with telling lawmakers to fund his private security forces.
The most glaring absence was that of Chief Justice John Roberts. If the Supreme Court faces dangerous security threats that require additional public resources, it would be appropriate for the Chief Justice to make this argument himself, in person and in public. Instead, Roberts sent two women dancing for dollars. And this is where I remind you that Roberts was called to testify before Congress but refused.
Roberts probably knows that asking Congress for money would remind the public that Congress has the power to control the Supreme Court. If I were in Congress, I would use this power. I would not give the Supreme Court its own additional security forces until the Court undergoes real ethical reform. I would tell the judges to let Harlan Crow pay for their bunkers. If they want public funds, they should submit to public accountability and control.
Unfortunately, asking Democrats to play hardball with the Supreme Court is like asking an umbrella to hold strong in the face of a hurricane. Steny Hoyer, the subcommittee’s top Democrat, ran to the cameras after the hearing to say“Congress must provide sufficient funding to ensure the safety of all court personnel. » Other Democrats blamed Trump for “fanning the flames” of violent discord, but did not specifically name the Supreme Court for its role in providing Trump with enough wood and oil to put his country on a funeral pyre. “Orange Man is bad, but we need more cops” might as well be the fucking slogan of the Democratic Party.
Maybe I’m just a bad person, but I would absolutely hold court security funding hostage. I would have looked Barrett straight in the eye and said, “My suggestion, Judge Barrett, is that you accept my ethics reform agenda or learn karate.” “I wouldn’t give these people a US dollar unless they were held accountable to the American people.
What I wrote
Lindsey Graham has died. I had thoughts.
In news unrelated to the current chaos
Major League Baseball had its All-Star Game this week. As I write, the New York Mets are 17 games under .500 and 16 games back in their division, despite having the second-highest payroll and…wait, no, I’m not going to talk about the debilitating fandom I’ve decided to intertwine my life with.
Instead, I want to talk about Jordan Walker, the St. Louis Cardinals right fielder who won the Home Run Derby. Walker happens to be black. A black man born in the United States. And it’s actually a shrinking demographic in baseball.
There are fewer African-American players in Major League Baseball today than in the 1950s. About 6 percent of active MLB roster spots are held by African-Americans. For Put that into context, nearly 9 percent of Major League players Soccer places on the list are detained by black players born in the United States.
Meanwhile, more than 50 percent of the National Football League’s players are black (and almost all blacks in the NFL were born in the United States) and more than 60 percent of the National Basketball Association’s membership is made up of black players born in the United States.
Baseball used to be the sport played by black kids in this country. It’s the sport of the civil rights movement. It used to be “urban” sport: all you need to play is a ball, a stick and a street. And now that’s no longer the case. It’s not even close. He gets beat by a fucking football.
In his press conference after winning the derby, Walker said he wanted to help change that. “I want to be a role model for black kids, you know, and I want there to be more black kids in baseball…And there are a lot of kids who are athletic enough and mentally strong enough – black kids who can play this game – and I want to see them do it.
I want to see them do it too. Baseball is my favorite sport and it is dying out among my people.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get my kids away from their iPads and video games and throw softballs at them until they cry from boredom.
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Élie Mystal Elie Mystal is The nationjustice correspondent and columnist. He is also an Alfred Knobler Fellow at the Type Media Center. He is the author of two books: New York Times bestseller Let me respond: A Guide to the Constitution for Black Men And Bad Laws: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining Americaboth published by The New Press. You can subscribe to his Nation newsletter Elijah v. UNITED STATES here.
