There’s Been a Little Too Much Civil War Talk for My Liking

Barf Bag: Presidents as kings and a bloodless revolution if the opposition allows it? No, thank you.

By Susan Rinkunas  |  July 5, 2024 | 4:37pm
Photo: Screenshot/YouTube Politics
There’s Been a Little Too Much Civil War Talk for My Liking

Welcome back to Barf Bag. 

Did everyone have a good Fourth of July? I didn’t! I mean, I went to a barbecue and hung out with cool people and a very good little dog, but I couldn’t fully suppress my feelings of dread that we’re beginning to revert to monarchical rule, our escape from which is the literal reason for the holiday.

This week has been extremely depressing, and the Supreme Court kicked it off on Monday by ruling that presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for “official acts”—in effect, making presidents kings. (Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her blistering Trump v. United States dissent that, “in every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”)

Then on Tuesday, Kevin Roberts, a conservative bigwig and the Heritage Foundation president, said that another Civil War is happening right now. “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” Roberts said. Heritage is the think-tank spearheading Project 2025, a terrifying, 900-page blueprint written for a second Donald Trump term; it outlines how political appointees could enact a MAGA agenda without passing bills through Congress. (Yes, the plan includes banning abortion.)

Roberts is basically saying that conservatives want to remake America and no one will be killed if people simply allow it to happen rather than resist. When the Associated Press contacted Roberts for comment, he doubled down, saying Americans “are in the process of carrying out the Second American Revolution to take power back from the elites and despotic bureaucrats.” He added, “These patriots are committed to peaceful revolution at the ballot box. Unfortunately, it’s the Left that has a long history of violence, so it’s up to them to allow a peaceful transfer of power.” Buddy, we all saw the footage of January 6… Meanwhile, North Carolina’s scarily bigoted GOP nominee for governor, Mark Robinson, is out here talking about people needing to die for the good of the country.

After rightful alarm in the media over Roberts’ comments, Trump is now attempting to distance himself from Project 2025. On Friday morning, he wrote on Truth Social: “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

But HuffPost reporter Jennifer Bendery noted that the three men behind Project 2025 all worked in the Trump White House. (Remember when Trump claimed in the September 2020 debate that “there was nothing happening” with Roe v. Wade after the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett? Yeah.)

That President Joe Biden has thus far refused to bow out of the race even after more and more polls show the June debate did actually damage him is alarming. Vice President Kamala Harris is right there, existing in the context of all in which she lives and what came before her.

So yeah, hot dogs and incredible potato salad can’t make me forget about all that.

  • Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) was hit with weapons charges after she tried to bring a gun through Dulles Airport in her carry-on luggage. Her office claimed she forgot the unloaded gun was in her suitcase pocket. [Axios]
  • Spoiler presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—fresh off allegations of sexually assaulting his children’s nanny—said he wouldn’t “take sides” on 9/11 because “it’s hard to tell what is a conspiracy theory and what isn’t.” [Twitter]
  • Petition gatherers helping presidential candidate Cornel West get on the ballot in Arizona have connections to a GOP-linked political firm. A different Republican-linked group was secretly collecting signatures for West in North Carolina. [NBC News]
  • Disgraced former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has been disbarred in New York State for spreading lies about the 2020 election. [NBC News]
  • Brazilian police have reportedly indicted ex-President Jair Bolsonaro over diamonds the far-right leader received from Saudi Arabia. [Associated Press]

This has been your weekly Barf Bag, thanks for reading! 

 
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