This week, we looked at the ongoing saga surrounding the FBI's Mar-a-Lago search and also the effort to recruit poll workers for the midterms. Plus, the Obamas return to the White House to see their official portraits.
Bottom Line: The GOP’s Trump box
Mary Altaffer/AP
The Justice Department said this week it could file an appeal by Thursday, Sept. 15, to a judge’s ruling in favor of a special master to sift through documents found at former President Trump’s home during an FBI search.
That means either way, special master or not, the saga surrounding the search and whether Trump is indicted for the taking of classified documents and obstruction of the FBI’s investigation will continue potentially for many more months, almost certainly beyond the November midterm elections.
That’s, in one respect, to Trump’s advantage politically, because it pushes off his fate. But if he is indicted eventually, it puts the Republican Party in quite the box, and with each passing day, the clock ticks closer to the 2024 presidential election.
On the one hand, if Trump is indicted, it would be better for the GOP to get it out of the way earlier, potentially giving time to the party to find someone else. But in reality, there’s little appetite among the Republican base for anyone else.
The latest NPR/PBS/NewsHour Marist poll, for example, found that 6-in-10 Republican voters still want Trump to run even if he is charged with a crime. And with two-thirds of independents saying they don’t want Trump to run, it shows the real conundrum for the GOP – there is almost no path for anyone not named Trump to be the nominee, if he wants it, and yet his vulnerabilities as a candidate are glaring.
Poll worker recruitment: High school students, military veterans and lawyers are being recruited across the country to make sure there's enough staff to check in voters, issue ballots and process votes on Election Day for the 2022 midterms. But making a call to serve can be tricky, as election officials and workers in many parts of the U.S. face an unprecedented level of scrutiny and harassment.
Colorado Senate race: As Republicans struggle in some close Senate races, they look to Colorado for an upset. GOP candidate Joe O'Dea is pitching himself as independent-minded in his campaign against Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet. But on the key issue of abortion, Democrats say O'Dea is out of step with the state.
Queen Elizabeth II dies: Queen Elizabeth II, whose seven decades on the throne of the United Kingdom was a longer reign than any other British monarch, died this week at the age of 96. Her reign spanned a remarkable arc in British history and was defined by duty to country and considerable family pain.
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President Joe Biden welcomed Barack and Michelle Obama to the White House on Wednesday for the unveiling of the former president and first lady’s official portraits.
"These portraits have a special significance,” Obama said at the unveiling ceremony, adding that "it was important to find the right people to paint them." (These portraits of the Obamas, unlike those commissioned for the National Portrait Gallery and unveiled in 2018, will hang in the White House.)
Tapped for that assignment were artists Robert McCurdy, for the president, and Sharon Sprung, for the first lady. Obama thanked Sprung for capturing his wife: "Her grace, her intelligence – and the fact that's she's fine," Obama said.
It was the first time in 10 years since the ceremony was last performed with the Obamas hosting former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush for their portrait unveilings in 2012.
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