A Disturbing Number of Republicans Believe Trump’s Batshit Claim About Being “Reinstated” as President

Earlier this month, we learned that while Donald Trump appeared unhinged as unhinged can be during the years in which he was the leader of the free world, he’s somehow become even more insane since departing the White House in January. And the reason we know this is because, according to multiple reports, he’s told people he’s going to be “reinstated” as president this summer, several years before Joe Biden’s first term is up. And perhaps even scarier than the idea of an ex-president thinking there’s a mechanism in the Constitution to just put him back in the White House after he definitively lost the election is the fact that a wildly disturbing number of Republicans actually believe him.

According to the results of a Politico/Morning Consult poll conducted between June 4 and June 7, 3 in 10 Republican voters think that Trump is going to be back in the Oval Office this year. While 61% of GOP voters (and 84% of Democrats and 70% of Independents) dismiss the idea as the ramblings of a deeply disturbed individual who should’ve been put in a straitjacket a long time ago, one third is an unnervingly high percentage, considering, again, that we’re talking about the prospect of Trump replacing Biden as president with 1,320 days to go in the latter’s term. As the National Review described the scale of the delusion last week:

This is not merely an eccentric interpretation of the facts or an interesting foible, nor is it an irrelevant example of anguished post-presidency chatter. It is a rejection of reality, a rejection of law, and, ultimately, a rejection of the entire system of American government. There is no Reinstatement Clause within the United States Constitution. Hell, there is nothing even approximating a Reinstatement Clause within the United States Constitution. The election has been certified, Joe Biden is the president, and, until 2024, that is all there is to it. It does not matter what one’s view of Trump is. It does not matter whether one voted for or against Trump. It does not matter whether one views Trump’s role within the Republican Party favorably or unfavorably. We are talking here about cold, hard, neutral facts that obtain irrespective of one’s preferences; it is not too much to ask that the former head of the executive branch should understand them.

Just how far out there is Trump’s theory? Consider that, even if it were true that the 2020 election had been stolen—which it is absolutely not—his belief would still be absurd. It could be confirmed tomorrow that agents working for a combination of al-Qaeda, Venezuela, and George Soros had hacked into every single voting machine in the country and altered the totals by tens of millions, and it would remain the case there is no mechanism within the American legal order for a do-over of any sort. In such an eventuality, there would be indictments, an impeachment drive, and a constitutional crisis. But, however bad it got, Donald Trump would not be “reinstated” to the presidency. That is not how America works, how America has ever worked, or how America can ever work. American politicians do not lose their reelection races only to be reinstalled later on, as might the second-place horse in a race whose winner was disqualified. The idea is otherworldly and obscene.

And yet, one third of Republican voters think it’s probably going to happen, which is probably a testament to Trump (and Fox News) scrambling their brains.

In other news re: the ex-president’s industrial-sized lies, NPR reports that lawyers who defended him in his second impeachment trial are now going to bat for his supporters who stormed the Capitol on his behalf after being falsely told the election had been stolen:

Attorneys Michael van der Veen and Bruce Castor defended former President Donald Trump at his Senate impeachment trial over allegedly inciting the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection. Even as van der Veen, Castor and the Trump defense team called the impeachment “political theater” and ultimately secured Trump’s acquittal, they condemned the rioters for bringing “unprecedented havoc, mayhem, and death” to the Capitol. They argued in a legal brief that the rioters’ actions deserve “robust and swift investigation and prosecution.” Now, van der Veen and Castor find themselves on the other side of those prosecutions, defending at least three people charged in connection with the Capitol breach.

It’s a real circle-of-life story.

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Whoever leaked all those billionaires’ tax information should probably avail themselves of legal representation

Or maybe just flee the country:

Attorney General Merrick Garland told lawmakers Wednesday that investigating the source of a massive leak of taxpayer information behind an article by investigative news outlet ProPublica will be one of his top priorities. “I promise you, it will be at the top of my list,” Garland assured Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, during a budget hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee. The former federal judge said that at the moment he knew nothing more than what he learned from reading the sprawling article, which revealed that in some recent years billionaires such as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and businessmen Michael Bloomberg, Carl Icahn and George Soros paid no federal income taxes.

“Senator, I take this as seriously as you do. I very well remember what President [Richard] Nixon did in the Watergate period—the creation of enemies lists and the punishment of people through reviewing their tax returns,” Garland said. “This is an extremely serious matter. People are entitled, obviously, to great privacy with respect to their tax returns.”

The ProPublica article, which the outlet has said will be the first of a series, did not reveal how the tax records were obtained, simply noted that its investigation is based on “a vast trove of Internal Revenue Service data on the tax returns of thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people, covering more than 15 years.” ProPublica also did not accuse the billionaires mentioned of doing anything illegal, though the individuals mentioned are likely nevertheless unenthused about it being confirmed that they pay a pittance in federal income taxes compared to average Americans. Or, in the case of Bezos, that the literal richest man in the world reportedly claimed a $4,000 tax credit in 2011, a benefit intended for families making less than $100,000 a year. (He was worth $18 billion at the time.) On Wednesday, Garland told lawmakers that the IRS’s inspectors are “working on” the matter and that he expects it to be referred to the Justice Department. “This was on my list of things to raise after I finished preparing for this hearing,” he said.

Senate Republicans not down for a world in which women are paid as much as men

Gender equality? No, thank you! Can’t have any of that. Per CNN:

The Senate on Tuesday failed to advance the Paycheck Fairness Act, legislation aimed at addressing the gender wage gap that is a top agenda item for Democrats, but that faces Republican opposition. A procedural vote to move forward with consideration of the legislation failed by a vote of 49-50, falling short of the 60 vote threshold needed to succeed…. The bill would, according to the legislative text, “provide more effective remedies to victims of discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex.” It passed the House in April with a vote of 217–210. One Republican, Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, voted for the bill at the time.

In a statement on Monday, Mitch McConnell insisted Democrats had put forth a “radical” bill “designed to fail,” which, as Chuck Schumer pointed out, it only did because Republicans chose to kill it. “The only way that a bill to provide equal pay to women is designed to fail is if Senate Republicans block it,” Schumer said, adding, “If the Republican leader wants to talk about radical positions, I’d say that opposing legislation to provide equal pay for women supported by a solid majority of voters is a radical position.”

Looking to buy a house? You’re probably SOL

Unless you want to get in a bidding war with a private equity firm that has actual Brink’s trucks of money to spare. Per The Wall Street Journal:

A bidding war broke out this winter at a new subdivision north of Houston. But the prize this time was the entire subdivision, not just a single suburban house, illustrating the rise of big investors as a potent new force in the U.S. housing market. D.R. Horton Inc. built 124 houses in Conroe, Texas, rented them out and then put the whole community, Amber Pines at Fosters Ridge, on the block. A Who’s Who of investors and home-rental firms flocked to the December sale. The winning $32 million bid came from an online property-investing platform, Fundrise LLC, which manages more than $1 billion on behalf of about 150,000 individuals. The country’s most prolific home builder booked roughly twice what it typically makes selling houses to the middle class—an encouraging debut in the business of selling entire neighborhoods to investors.

“We certainly wouldn’t expect every single-family community we sell to sell at a 50% gross margin,” the builder’s finance chief, Bill Wheat, said at a recent investor conference. From individuals with smartphones and a few thousand dollars to pensions and private-equity firms with billions, yield-chasing investors are snapping up single-family houses to rent out or flip. They are competing for houses with ordinary Americans, who are armed with the cheapest mortgage financing ever, and driving up home prices.

“You now have permanent capital competing with a young couple trying to buy a house,” John Burns, whose real estate consulting firm estimates that in many of the nation’s top markets, approximately 20% of houses sold are bought by someone who never moves in, told the Journal. “That’s going to make U.S. housing permanently more expensive.”

There should be a minimum IQ requirement for Congress, part 837,510

Nothing to see here, just elected official and House Natural Resources committee member (!!) Louie Gohmert asking if federal agencies can change the Earth’s orbit.

Elsewhere!

Biden Revokes TikTok, WeChat Bans and Orders Security Review (Bloomberg)

U.S. is in discussions with Moderna on buying COVID vaccine doses for other nations (CNBC)

Former N.Y. judge to serve as “special master” in Rudy Giuliani probe (NYP)

Garland defends Justice Department moves seen as pro-Trump (Politico)

Michigan bet big on public health, mass vaccine sites. It fell short. (USA Today)

You may be paying more for Uber, but drivers aren’t getting their cut of the fare hike (The Washington Post)

Lawyers Get $164,000 Bonuses to Keep Working 100 Hours a Week (Bloomberg)

Arriving in Europe, Biden Vows to Build Alliances and Democracy (NYT)

Jimmy Buffett Has Just What New York Needs Right Now: A $370 Million Monument to Frozen Drinks (Bloomberg)

Luxury brand debuts Crocs stilettos as the future of post-pandemic fashion (WGN)

Man stuck for days inside giant fan at California vineyard (AP)

— The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins
— Ben Crump Is Thriving in Biden’s Washington
— Why It’s Not a Great Time to Be Matt Gaetz
— AOC’s Endorsement Could Change the NYC Mayor’s Race—But It May Never Come
— Trump Has Been Telling People He’s Going to Be President Again
— Is Juan Williams’s Exit From The Five Thanks to a Greg Gutfeld Blood Feud?
— Republicans’ Reason Not to Want to Investigate January 6: They’re to Blame
— Trump’s Inner Circle Is Scrambling at the Likelihood of Criminal Charges
— From the Archive: “60 Minutes Is Going Down”

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