Trump’s Attempt to Rig Midterms Is Dealt a Harsh Blow by Obama Judge

A federal judge has blocked parts of President Trump’s executive order attempting to restrict mail-in ballots as the midterm elections approach.

The order, challenged in court by 23 states as well as the District of Columbia, was struck down Thursday by Obama-appointed Judge Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She argued that the Constitution empowers states and Congress to oversee elections, not Trump.

Trump’s order, signed in March, would force the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Postal Service to create lists of voters eligible for mail ballots, and deny anyone not on the list from receiving one.

“The States alone determine voter-eligibility requirements, subject only to the outer limits of the Constitution,” Talwani wrote in her decision. She also noted the high risk of error involved in the endeavor, writing that the federal government lacked “the ability to create complete and accurate lists of the U.S. citizens residing in every State.”

“Donald Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional Executive Order sought to undermine eligible voters’ ability to make their voices heard in our democracy. Our Constitution is clear: the authority to set our election rules belongs to the states,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro wrote on X after the ruling was announced. “The right to vote is the foundation of our democracy, and I will take on anyone—up to and including the President—who tries to undermine that fundamental right.”

The president has long railed against mail-in ballots as fraudulent, a baseless claim he typically uses whenever his side loses an election. And while Trump’s order was initially allowed to go through in May, this court ruling will be a significant obstacle for his plans, which could disenfranchise thousands of legal voters.

“Trump’s vendetta against mail-in voting, which is safe and secure, is about picking who can vote and avoiding accountability,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “Democrats will continue fighting every day to block all of Trump’s illegal actions and ensure that Americans can freely cast their ballots this year.”

Trump has yet to comment on the ruling.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told the Senate last year that a trip to Samoa in 2019 right before a deadly measles outbreak had “nothing to do with vaccines.” New evidence from The Guardian suggests he may have lied.

In emails between Kennedy’s team and Samoan officials, one of Kennedy’s colleagues said they were on a “mission” to investigate the island’s medical records. There had been a 10-month pause in vaccinations after two infants died due to a tainted MMR vaccine, and anti-vaccine activists gained interest in the island as a potential case study in the health of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children.

“The mission involves health informatics evaluation from medical record data from all hospitals and clinics in Samoa to evaluate outcomes associated with the recent discontinuity in vaccinations,” Dr. Michael Graven, who worked at Kennedy’s anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense, wrote in a 2019 email. “Mr. Kennedy asked me to join this mission as I have performed health informatics initiatives in 48 other countries over 40 years.”

This stands in direct contrast with how Kennedy repeatedly described his work to the Senate. In response to questioning from Senator Ron Wyden during his confirmation hearings last year, Kennedy said, “I went there, nothing to do with vaccines. I went there to produce a medical informatics system with digitalized records in Samoa and make health delivery much more efficient.”

But the emails obtained by The Guardian tell a different story. Graven said in emails that he and Kennedy planned to spend weeks collecting data in Samoa, but the two ended up leaving just a few days after arriving. Antone Greubel, a State Department employee who was stationed in Samoa, sent an email on June 4 to his colleagues: “Based on conversations with my contacts RFK and Dr [Graven] fell far short of their goal to influence Samoan government vaccination policy.”

A few months after Kennedy’s visit, a measles outbreak killed 83 people out of a population of around 200,000, most of them children under five.

President Trump, who definitely has not read all of the media coverage of the weak attendance at his rally on the National Mall on Wednesday night, insists that the event was “packed to the brim.”

“The Crowd was incredible last night, packed to the brim — At least 45,000 people were there, with a huge Television and online audience. I wish we were able to have an even larger area, which we will be able to do on July 4th when I’ll be speaking again,” the president wrote Thursday afternoon on Truth Social. “The airplane flyovers and music were fantastic. Everybody stayed right until the end of my Speech because they loved hearing about a truly successful America.”

Images of the rally, which kicked off the Great American State Fair, show that there was ample space to move around. Footage also shows that multiple people left right in the middle of Trump’s speech and did not stay “right until the end” as the president claimed. At least one person fell asleep.

Trump has long enjoyed inflating his crowd numbers. He has claimed his July 4, 2019 speech and his infamous J6 rally in 2021 were both bigger than the 250,000-person March on Washington in 1963. Neither was true.

Alligator Alcatraz, the infamous Florida detention camp, will be closed, Governor Ron DeSantis said on Thursday.

DeSantis said the detention center, where immigrants described worms in their food, floors flooded with sewage, and enormous bugs, was not meant to be a permanent installation, the AP reported.

“It served its purpose for the time,” DeSantis said at a press conference.

Alligator Alcatraz was hastily erected nearly a year ago, and has been described by many as a concentration camp. The detention center was temporarily closed earlier this month in advance of hurricane season, and lawyers said that they didn’t hear from their clients being held at the facility for over a week. The detainees have since been scattered between South Florida, California, Arizona, Louisiana, and Texas, reported the AP.

Rumors began in May that the detention center would soon be closed, after Florida officials told President Donald Trump that it cost $1 million each day to operate.

Though one symbol of Trump’s inhumane immigration crackdown is disappearing, the mass deportation campaign continues. ICE is still terrorizing neighborhoods, and Trump’s assault on free speech and dissent is well underway.

DeSantis said at the press conference that 21,000 people were deported through Alligator Alcatraz. That’s 21,000 people who had to endure toilets that didn’t flush, bugs in their food, sweltering heat, and freezing cold—treated like “rats in an experiment,” as one detainee told CBS.

Elizabeth Warren had to explain to President Trump’s pick to lead the White House Council of Economic Advisers that 4.2 percent is more than 3.4 percent.

At a confirmation hearing Thursday for Christopher Phelan, the Democratic senator made the point that inflation is outpacing wage growth, and thereby diminishing Americans’ purchasing power.

“You’ve already told me inflation is 4.2 percent, right? What’s the annual wage growth right now?” Warren asked Phelan, an economist at the University of Minnesota.

“I do not have that in front of me right now,” he said.

Warren sighed. “It’s 3.4 percent. So let’s put this one together. Is 4.2 higher than 3.4?” she asked.

“I will repeat what I said, which is: Real wage growth in this administration is positive,” Phelan said, ignoring Warren’s obvious point that inflation was rising faster than wages.

“Right now families are falling behind,” Warren replied. “These are facts that come out of the Trump administration, they’re there for anybody to see. And you can’t bring yourself, as the person who sits there and says, ‘I want to be the head of the Council of Economic Advisors,’ to give objective economic advice. You can’t even say, ‘Yeah, inflation is running higher than wages right now.’

“I think this person has disqualified himself,” she concluded.

Here’s video of the exchange, via The Bulwark: