Saturday News: “Biden Mocks Trump’s Claim He Declassified Mar-a-Lago Documents”; “FBI cites ‘evidence of obstruction’ [by Trump]”; “The GOP has defined down its respect for law and order to a cult”; “If Prosecuting Trump Is ‘Dangerous’—So Is Letting Him Walk”

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, August 27.

President Biden, who declines to comment on the specifics of the unsealed Mar-a-Lago affidavit, mocks Donald Trump’s legal strategy:

“‘I’ve declassified everything in the world. I’m president. I can do it all.’ C’mon …” pic.twitter.com/iOEpf1dWKJ

— The Recount (@therecount) August 26, 2022

• You Have No Idea How Bad Europe’s Energy Crisis Is (“Natural gas prices are 10 times the usual—upending industries, angering consumers, and panicking politicians.”)
• Russia’s gas cuts are forcing Germany to turn to coal to generate power. Here’s why the switch won’t be so easy for other European countries.
• Webb telescope is already challenging what astronomers thought they knew
• Moderna Sues Pfizer and BioNTech Over Covid Vaccine Technology
• Ukraine Weighs a Risky Offensive to Break Out of a Stalemate
• Russia blocks UN nuclear treaty agreement over Zaporizhzhia clause (“Failure to agree a joint statement after weeks of debate at UN marks latest blow to hopes of maintaining an arms control regime
• Inspectors Set to Visit Besieged Ukrainian Nuclear Plant
• Collective punishment or effective sanction? Europe weighs banning Russian tourists (“We are not speaking about punishment, we’re speaking about restrictive measures which are aiming to end the war”)
• Fed chief Powell: Bringing down inflation will require economic pain
• Jerome Powell: US stock markets down after interest rate warning
• Did California Just Do More to Reduce Emissions Than the New Climate Bill? (“Cars are just one piece of the puzzle. But this is still a massive step.”)
• California’s gas car ban will change how everyone drives
• SCOTUS Is on a Collision Course With Democracy (“After destabilizing the nation over abortion, and moving further right on guns, climate, and religion, the conservative justices’ sights are on affirmative action, voting rights, and a fringe legal theory that could empower Trump-friendly state legislatures for future elections.”)
• The reckless rage of the lawless (“The GOP has defined down its respect for law and order to a cult”)
• Jennifer Rubin: How the redacted FBI affidavit reveals the depth of Trump’s legal peril
• The Mar-a-Lago Affidavit Shows Trump Is in Bigger Trouble Than We’d Thought
• The Post’s View: The Trump affidavit shows the Mar-a-Lago search was hardly capricious
• Donald Trump Is Not Above the Law (He’d better not be!)
• The Memo: Trump’s narrative takes big hit with affidavit’s release
• The Unsealed Affidavit Was Fun, But Let’s Not Forget that Whole Coup Thing (“On the list of the FPOTUS’s misdeeds, does criminally sloppy filing even crack the top 5?”)
• If Prosecuting Trump Is ‘Dangerous’—So Is Letting Him Walk (Letting him walk would be an unmitigated disaster for the rule of law in this country. That simply must NOT HAPPEN.)
• FBI cites ‘evidence of obstruction’ in Trump Florida home search
• FBI: Trump mixed top secret docs with magazines, other items
• Here’s what we know and don’t know about the Mar-a-Lago inquiry
• What the Search-Warrant Affidavit Tells Us (“The former president was not giving up top-secret national-security documents. DOJ had no choice but to act. Trump has only himself to blame.”)
• Trump Inquiry Fueled in Part by Concern Over Intelligence Sources
• Mar-a-Lago affidavit says many witnesses interviewed, 184 classified files returned in January
• Trump Mar-a-Lago affidavit reveals ‘handwritten notes,’ highly classified material led to warrant request
• Mar-a-Lago Affidavit Shows Trump Kept Some of America’s Top Secrets, Is In Huge Trouble
• DOJ releases redacted Mar-a-Lago search affidavit
• 3 big things we learned from the Mar-a-Lago affidavit (“Donald Trump’s defenses continue to crumble.”)
• William Barr Rips Trump For ‘Pandering To Outrage’ Over Mar-A-Lago Search
• Possibility of Obstruction Looms Over Trump After Thwarted Efforts to Recover Documents (“Unredacted portions of the affidavit point to possible evidence of efforts to obstruct the recovery of documents from former President Trump’s home. By some measures, the crime of obstruction is a threat to Mr. Trump or his associates that could be more serious than disputes over classified information.”)
• Trump lawyers renew plea for outside supervision of Mar-a-Lago search trove (Trump poses a major national security threat and should be arrested for likely espionage and treason.)
• Inside the 20-Month Fight to Get Trump to Return Presidential Material
• Republicans, Once Outraged by Mar-a-Lago Search, Become Quieter as Details Emerge
• The Affidavit for the Search of Trump’s Home, Annotated
• Biden scoffs at Trump claim he declassified Mar-a-Lago documents: ‘Come on’
• Biden Mocks Trump’s Claim He Declassified Mar-a-Lago Documents
• White House fires back at GOP over student loan plan criticism
• ‘Semi-fascism’: Rhetoric reflects newly aggressive Biden strategy
• White House Twitter Account Tells Republican Hypocrites to Sit Down and STFU
• The arguments against Biden’s loan forgiveness plan are terrible
• Biden decries Republican loyalty to Trump as ‘semi-fascism’
• Biden just used the f-word — and he’s correct
• Abortion issue has deflated Republicans’ hopes for November; question now is how badly
• HHS Takes Action to Strengthen Access to Reproductive Health Care, Including Abortion Care
• Fox News can’t decide whether the FBI should’ve gotten another subpoena for Mar-a-Lago or just ignored the whole thing
• Revealed: leaked video shows Amy Coney Barrett’s secretive faith group drove women to tears (Barrett is a fanatic and theocratic extremist who has absolutely no business being on the US Supreme Court.)
• Everything’s Coming Up Schumer (“His ‘different way of getting things done’ saved Biden’s agenda and maybe their party.”)
• Meet the billionaire who loves Fox News and owns a piece of CNN
• Back to School in DeSantis’s Florida, as Teachers Look Over Their Shoulders (“With new laws against what Gov. Ron DeSantis calls ‘indoctrination,’ many teachers are questioning everything from pride flags to ‘The Great Gatsby.'”)
• DeSantis suspends four Broward County School Board members, appoints replacements (DeSantis is flat-out assaulting democracy. Now he can just overturn elections single-handedly?!?)
• Exclusive: Pennsylvania candidate Mastriano posed in Confederate uniform at Army War College (Of course he did…)
• Doug Mastriano Wore a Confederate Uniform in a Faculty Photo
• Abrams, Georgia Democrats look to prove 2020 wasn’t ‘fluke’
• Senate GOP super PAC cancels ad buys in Arizona, Alaska
• What If Democrats Actually Won the Midterms? (“If Democrats control both Houses of Congress in 2023, including enough senators to kill the filibuster, they better get as much done as possible.”)
• Nevada GOP secretary of state nominee funded by election deniers and QAnon supporters
• Whitmer leads Dixon by 11 points, 67% of likely voters support abortion measure, survey shows (Youngkin/Trumpkin is campaigning for this nutjob today.)
• Document reveals identity of donors who secretly funded Nikki Haley’s political nonprofit (“The roster of supporters who gave undisclosed donations in 2019 also includes Suzanne Youngkin, the wife of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, himself a possible presidential contender”)
• Sen. Mark Warner: “It appears, based on the affidavit unsealed this morning, that among the improperly handled documents at Mar-a-Lago were some of our most sensitive intelligence” (“The Department of Justice investigation must be allowed to proceed without interference.”)
• Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA02) Challenges Jen Kiggans (R) to Series of Debates (“The people of Coastal Virginia deserve to know exactly where Jen Kiggans stands on the most critical issues facing our country today instead of the hollow talking points she espouses”)
• Video: New Ad, “Cheered,” by Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA07) Highlights Extreme, Radical Anti-Abortion Positions of Yesli Vega (“Vega believes God – not a doctor or healthcare provider – should decide the fate of a mother.”)
• Video: Youngkin “asks Fox News viewers not to ‘draw too many conclusions’ about Donald Trump having 184 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.”; “NOW he wants to withhold judgment?!?!” (They don’t come much slimier than Youngkin…)
• Opinion/Editorial: Theocrats’ attack on public schools needs public attention (“We will deal with the ultra-right wing takeover of the Spotsylvania school board in another editorial. Suffice it to say that Christian nationalist disruptions of schools across the state are by no means isolated.”)
• Youngkin wants to shield road contractors from being ‘crushed’ by inflation
• California’s 2035 ban on new gas-powered cars set to apply to Virginia
• Virginia’s on a path to adopt California’s new electric vehicle rules, but some legislators say not so fast (This is an example of an unhelpful, misleading headline. In fact, it’s only Republicans who are saying that, not just the vague “some legislators.” Ridiculous.)
• Schapiro: For debt-phobic Virginia, debt yields big dividends
• Friday Virginia COVID-19 Stats: 10-Day New Cases at 25,926; Hospitalizations at 760 (Near Highest Level Since Early March)
• Inside the ‘wild, wild west’ of Virginia’s marijuana market
• VA State Sen. Scott Surovell Announces New Leadership PAC to Protect Our Progress (“The new map drawn by the Supreme Court of Virginia has created a very competitive battlefield and I intend to defend and grow that majority”)
• Charlottesville’s police oversight board still a work in progress after five years
  
• Fairfax Co. police search for man who grabbed woman on W&OD Trail
• D.C.-area forecast: Near 90 and minimal risk of rain through the weekend