On this day in 1971, operatives working for Republican President Richard Nixon broke into the office of a psychiatrist treating Daniel Ellsberg. They found nothing to use against the Vietnam whistleblower but the discovery of such dirty tricks ultimately saw Nixon resign, ending the Watergate scandal, which JD Vance thinks is now small potatoes.
Good morning! Martin here, with the latest from the Democratic Party circular firing squad in Michigan. Abdul El-Sayed is leading in the polls, but will his fellow Democrats let him keep that lead, especially the fellow Democrat he beat in the primary?
Plus, Donald Trump is hyper-focused on renaming maps and bullying tech companies rather than bringing down prices or ending his war with Iran which will really… help Republicans in the primaries. Right?
Today is also another day on which ‘First Draft’ is published without a paywall, so new readers can see what Zeteo brings to the table: all the reporting and opinion you need, on the political subjects that matter. Upgrade to paid now!
Let’s get into it.
A Case of ‘Salty Grapes’?
The U.S. House of Representatives came back into session this week, after the long summer break. Rep. Haley Stevens had a longer journey to Washington than most, having arrived back from Israel Tuesday morning, as she described in the chamber. Then on Wednesday, the Jerusalem Post published an interview conducted at the five-star Mamilla Hotel in the city, during a visit the congresswoman took with her new fiancé, a Michigan lawyer whose family comes from Haifa.
“I believe that anti-Zionism is a hate movement that has taken over in America and throughout parts of the West,” Stevens told the Post, giving the paper its headline.
“I think that Israel is more than just a punching bag for some of the challenges that America is facing,” the congresswoman added. “There is this bizarre obsession that has reached pitch level with calling out one country, one tiny country in the Middle East.”
According to the Post, as Stevens complained of being “demonized” for her support for that “one tiny country” – which, lest we forget, is committing genocide against the Palestinian people – her voice rose “with a mix of frustration and disbelief.” On reading Stevens’s words, supporters of Abdul El-Sayed, who beat Stevens in last month’s Michigan Democratic Senate primary, might have experienced similar emotions.
Once the primary result was in, Stevens endorsed El-Sayed. “That’s called democracy,” she told Fox then. “You don’t sign up for a Democratic Party to be salty grapes and... just continue to hold a grudge.” To a lot of Democrats, after a bruising campaign, that sounded good. A few weeks on, though, Stevens’s comments in Jerusalem sure didn’t sound a million miles from “salty grapes.”
Certainly, the Michigan contest was brutal, and might’ve left its loser feeling sore. In a state with a significant Muslim population, but also mirroring trends in national public polling, Israel, the aid the U.S. gives it, and the Netanyahu regime’s genocide in Gaza and illegal occupation in the West Bank became central campaign issues. Stevens attracted more than $30 million in spending from AIPAC, the pro-Israel group now a lightning rod in Democratic politics. El-Sayed fought off incessant, baseless accusations of antisemitism from his own party as well as the right. He is fighting off such attacks now, even as he attempts to focus on Mike Rogers, his well-funded, Trump-supporting Republican opponent.
And yet, while complaining of being threatened herself, Stevens decided to tell the Jerusalem Post that El-Sayed’s use of Israel as a campaign subject was “poisonous,” then said of the man she endorsed: “Abdul has done a very good job on the internet, you know, and being anti-Israel is also very popular on the internet.”
Of reasons why Israel might attract such criticism, on the internet or otherwise – including its genocidal violence but also the brutalization of foreign peace activists and violence against American citizens and even an NBC news crew – Stevens did not speak. She had nothing to say about any of that.
But she was keen to say that anti-Zionism has “infected Democrats worse” than any other group, adding: “We have one Jewish state, one teeny tiny Jewish state. Why can’t we have a Jewish state? And there’s become this anti-Zionist hate and this assumption that this is colonial. And it is not. It is just people in their homeland trying to live.”
Her interviewer chose not to point out how ironic that statement might have sounded to Palestinians.
Stevens did say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has been a problem,” adding: “Your current government should not encapsulate a full people.” That echoed her remarks on the House floor Tuesday, when she spoke of visiting Gaza and witnessing “the urgent work of getting food and medicine to innocent people trapped in a war they did not choose,” though she also mentioned meeting World Central Kitchen workers without reference to the deaths of seven in an Israeli strike.
Then Stevens did something really odd: She attacked Bernie Sanders.
“I really don’t know what Bernie Sanders has done for peace in the Middle East, for Palestinian dignity,” Stevens said. “I can’t think of anything he’s totally done. It’s a sickness that needs to end. You know, it’s a linkage towards extremism or Jihad, I don’t know.”
Senator Sanders is not just a senior figure in Congress, twice a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, a senior voice on the left of a caucus supposed to be uniting to fight the most consequential midterm elections in a generation, seeking to hold Donald Trump to account, to reverse his assault on democracy itself. Sanders endorsed El-Sayed. And is Jewish.
With that, Stevens’s comments had gone way beyond mere “salty grapes,” into the outright bizarre – and offensive.
Summing up, Stevens told the Post Israelis should “Believe in yourselves and be proud of who you are.” The Jewish people, she said, “are a strong and resilient group. There will be voices like mine, whether I’m in elected office or not, that will be joining with other voices to stop anti-Zionism. We will continue to call it out.”
Is this a woman really working for a Democratic Senate victory in Michigan in November?
🇮🇷 Iran War Updates
More strikes: Iran fired on U.S. allies and claimed to have killed troops in Jordan and Iraq in vengeance for a U.S. strike on a wedding that killed at least four, including two children, and wounded dozens. U.S. Central Command said it was “looking into” the alleged wedding strike, and said none of its troops had been killed.
Cynical ploys: Trump aides told Reuters the White House doesn’t want to escalate the war before the midterms, given the conflict is deeply unpopular, but said military action could be ramped up after November. The Wall Street Journal said Trump was considering declaring the war over, though Pete Hegseth had extended regional troop deployments into 2027.
Hard words: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said: “The way the president is playing Iran, there haven’t been American deaths; it’s really just an economic choke-out.” Loved ones of 18 dead U.S. service members might disagree.
Paying the penalty: According to the Brown University Iran War Energy Cost Tracker, Trump’s war, including the continuing near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has cost U.S. consumers over $96.4 billion in diesel and gas costs.
Name game: Regardless, the troll in the Oval Office posted: “Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT??? Like America itself, it would be ‘hotter’ than ever before!” In reality, strikes in the Strait continue, with a Saudi company saying two Filipino sailors were killed late Monday.
Leak plug: The Pentagon removed decades of classified records from a secret computer system commonly used by officials and troops after the Washington Post reported military leaders’ concerns about the war, the Post said.
Lebanon latest: Israel’s military said Iran-backed Hezbollah fired two drones at soldiers in southern Lebanon, without casualties. Save the Children said Israel has killed or wounded an average of seven children a day in Lebanon since March.
Apple and Google Bend the Knee to Trump Map Fantasies
Not content with suggesting renaming the Strait of Hormuz for himself, President Donald Trump (or Natalie Harp, typing for him with her somewhat slimmer fingers), heralded what he said was the decisive step in renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America, so far as he’s concerned, a key move in his insane trade war with Canada.
“Apple Maps has just announced that it has changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America,” Trump said, “so now that very important change of names, between Google Maps and Apple Maps, is complete, ratified, and binding.”
No, it isn’t. Apple only made the change for U.S. users, and only after, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Trump intervened directly.
About those U.S. Apple Maps users: If the latest Reuters/Ipsos polling is anything to go by, 63% oppose the renaming outright. Even among Republicans, 43% think renaming Lake Ontario is wrong.
Americans don’t like Trump’s tariffs on Canadian products either, with 57% opposed as Canadian retaliation looms. Asked who they blame for the trade war, 46% of Americans say Trump, to 12% who blame Canada.
Of course, Trump just calls polls he doesn’t like fake, the better to get on with creating his own fake reality, in which he can get on with renaming things for himself or America. Y’know, like authoritarians do.
In the case of Lake Ontario – as in so many such cases, from Sharpiegate to the great data center debate – Trump and his GOP lackeys are pulling a modified Orwell: telling Americans to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears, in this case to distract from or even justify the rocketing cost of hockey sticks and syrup.
To Trump, even on subjects so petty as names on a map, reality is simply what he says it is. It is his final, most essential command.
🗞️ What You Need to Know
House news: Jared Golden and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Democrats who saved Republicans from an embarrassing loss and helped pass a resolution condemning socialism, should lose committee assignments, party sources told Axios. Dems voted down a GOP constitutional amendment to freeze the Supreme Court at nine seats. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Florida Senate candidate Angie Nixon.
Birthright block: A federal judge in Maryland blocked Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to restrict birthright citizenship – the one he issued after losing on the issue even with his own pet Supreme Court. This judge wrote: “The Supreme Court has spoken: Children in the certified class are ‘citizens at birth.’”
Gloria Steinem dies: Trailblazing American feminist campaigner Gloria Steinem died at the age of 92 yesterday, her social media page announced.
Immigration news: Trump’s DOJ blocked a serious charge for an ICE agent accused of shooting a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis, then lied about it. DHS agents are hunting for noncitizens on voting rolls despite no evidence of widespread fraud. A judge threw out a Trump suit against Rochester, New York, over its sanctuary city policies. DHS reinterpreted a 1990s rule to say states using safety net programs must report undocumented immigrants. ICE has not paid for detainee medical care since October.
Eyes in the sky: The FBI asked U.S. Air Marshals to covertly surveil former Rep. and Trump foe Eric Swalwell on a flight, to try to ascertain passcodes to his devices. Swalwell denies allegations of serious sexual misconduct. Experts said FBI tracking of Swalwell and the request to spy on his tech were highly irregular.
New jab: Maine GOP Senator Susan Collins went low against Democrat Troy Jackson, telling Politico: “I’m not going to bring up the fact that the mother of his two children is his second cousin, I don’t know whether people know that or not.” Collins, for her part, married a lobbyist.
Insurance spike: Employee healthcare costs are expected to jump as much as 11% per worker next year, the New York Times said.
Priorities: As Republicans beg for Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., to start spending on key races, the group released an ad that promotes Trump and showcases the $400 million jet the president was gifted by Qatar.
🧠 Pop Quiz!
What was Rep. Jared Golden the first member of Congress ever to do?
Keep your eyes out for the answer below!
🌏 Anywhere But America
🇵🇸 Don’t forget Gaza: Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel was seeking Trump’s approval to begin forced expulsions. “Every country that is willing to take [Palestinians] in wants American backing,” he said. “Trump has not canceled this at the moment. He has frozen it.” Visiting Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli troops would not leave, as required by a Trump-backed peace plan.
🇵🇸 West Bank watch: Two Palestinian teenagers were killed in a raid by settlers and Israeli troops in al-Mughayyir. Netanyahu visited an ultra-nationalist yeshiva where students sang him a settler song about taking revenge on Palestinians.
🇬🇧 BBC bias (for Israel!): Anchor Katty Kay failed to meet editorial standards during a podcast appearance when she referred to Israel committing genocide against Palestinians, the British broadcaster said. The consensus of scholars and human rights groups is that Israel is indeed committing a genocide.
🇨🇳🇳🇵Flood fallout: Symbolic funerals were held in Nepal for people believed lost in huge flash floods last week. More than 1,200 people were confirmed to have died, with over 4,200 missing.
🇨🇩 Ebola update: The death toll in DR Congo from the fastest-growing outbreak on record reached 3,007, from 6,186 confirmed cases.
🙄 WTF?!
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says “data centers don’t need water,” and that people who say they in fact use inordinate and environmentally dangerous amounts are naughty propagandists trying “to slow us down.” The thing is, last year, before data centers started polling really, really badly, Lutnick said… otherwise. Watch above!
🧠 Trivia answer: Win his seat after losing, thanks to Maine’s ranked-choice run-off system in 2018.
ICYMI From Zeteo
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Stevens is a loser and she will never understand why. Good riddance!
What in the actual hell is wrong with that bitch? Is she stupid? She still has supporters that are paying attention to what she says, and they might not vote for him which might put us in a terrible position with Mike fucking Rogers... I guess you really can't fix stupid...