Every tab is lucky, every click is so kind ...
Impressive ignorance. The unitary executive theory is about personnel; it confers no substantive powers on the executive branch that haven’t been delegated by Congress. The whole column is a bizarre non sequitur. https://t.co/mQbglJvTUP
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) July 2, 2026
Supreme Court: The executive gets to lead the executive branch.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) July 2, 2026
Dana Milbank: So now it gets the legislative power, too? I am very smart!
Ed: Milbank's gotta Milbank, I guess, but where are Jeff Bezos' editors? As Charles points out, this isn't difficult to grasp. In fact, the Supreme Court made the point even clearer in Trump v Cook, in which they ruled that Trump had to follow due process that Congress required in statute to dismiss a governor from the Fed board. Why? The Fed does not exercise executive authority in the same way subordinate agencies do. Maybe Milbank needs to practice reading court decisions for comprehension.
===
NBC News: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is throwing her support behind former Wayne County health director Abdul El-Sayed in the hotly contested Michigan Democratic Senate primary.
The move, first reported by The New York Times, marks one of the progressive congresswoman’s most significant endorsements in the midterm cycle so far.
“After watching this campaign unfold for well over a year, it has become clear that Abdul El-Sayed is the strongest candidate to keep this seat in November,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement released by El-Sayed’s campaign. “He is building a winning coalition by putting forward an agenda that speaks directly to working people.”
Ed: I may write more about this tomorrow. My quick thoughts on this are that (a) this is not at all a surprise, (b) it's probably a favor for fellow Squad member Rashida Tlaib, and (c) it will likely damage El-Sayed more than it helps in greater Michigan. El-Sayed is tracking ahead of his primary opponents by about five points, but he and Mike Rogers are running even in head-to-head polling for the general election, and Republicans haven't even begun to define El-Sayed on the campaign trail.
===
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding is slated to begin at 5 p.m. Friday at New York’s Madison Square Garden and could last until 4 a.m. the next morning. The Associated Press is outside, even in a heat wave, to deliver the latest updates on what some are calling "America's… pic.twitter.com/o1q3eO0TY8
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 2, 2026
... "America's royal wedding."
Ed: I guess we should all be grateful that you have nothing better to do than stand outside a private wedding venue and report live from something you can't access. How Very Journalistically Brave of you, and thank you for reminding of us of your courage.
Also: Mind your own business and let your reporting team go home and avoid the heat. Sheesh.
===
Fox News: While majorities have concerns about both major party candidates, the worries about Democratic candidate Graham Platner are more intense. That’s according to a Fox News statewide poll that also suggests voter motivation is helping keep the race competitive.
The new poll finds Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins has a small three percentage-point advantage, receiving 50% to Platner’s 47% among Maine registered voters.
But among the two-thirds of voters who say they are extremely motivated to vote, Platner leads by 9 points, 53-44%
Ed: Six years ago, every single pollster got Collins' race wrong. None showed her with a lead, and yet she won Maine by nearly double digits. This is the first poll that shows Collins on top, which should worry Democrats who are counting on a flip for their path to control of the Senate. The enthusiasm gap is a concern, but wait until Platner gets past the convention and the deadline to swap out the violent Nazi-tatted Kik creeper from the race. Shoes are marching in line to drop in this race.
===
ICYMI - Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pardoned an illegal alien convicted of repeatedly vaginally and orally raping a 10-year-old girl who told police it’s normal in his culture to have sex with prepubescent girls, then suggested the child was also at fault & should be arrested. The… https://t.co/Fj2VVwkXCm
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) July 2, 2026
The pardon may now shield him from his imminent deportation as his record is wiped clean & he can now fight his removal in court easier.
Ed: I'm not so sure this will work. A state pardon does not have any real impact on the status of an illegal alien at the federal level. Trump has said he wants to concentrate on criminal illegal aliens, but that doesn't mean deportation is limited to that class. Furthermore, the government has every right to cite the details of Vang's crimes as an argument about his fitness to remain in the country. Walz' pardon does not vindicate Vang, nor does it erase the evidence of his crime, including his own statements admitting to them. And again, a state pardon only has impact on state-level consequences, not federal consequences. David wrote about this case as well.
===
Bill Glahn at Power Line: The letter from state government to Mr. Vang begins with a “Congratulations!” on his avoiding accountability for child rape.
This case could have been quickly forgotten if not for the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) making a big deal about it. DHS has posted on X (Twitter) many times over the past few days on the case.
The New York Post, the U.K. Daily Mail, and Fox News have all picked up the story, which is well and good. But this case caught the eye of the New York Times.
Minnesota Pardons Sexual Abuser Who Was Set to Be Deported
With the Times picking up the story, other left-wing outlets feel compelled/allowed to file their own reports.
Ed: Perhaps especially when they discover that the pardon won't have much impact on the deportation of a criminal illegal alien.
===
If that’s a cultural difference we don’t want you here. https://t.co/QCzSnYh4zA pic.twitter.com/V7iafywZw0
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 2, 2026
Ed: Tim Walz and Keith Ellison seem to want child rapists walking free in Minnesota. Maybe someone should ask them why.
===
New York Times: Pardons granted by state officials can help immigrants fight a deportation order, but do not guarantee they will remain in the country or attain legal status. They highlight the difficult decisions Democratic governors face in drawing the line between who deserves to remain in the country and who does not.
The process of applying for a pardon is often time-consuming and expensive, but experts say more immigrants are seeking this avenue as the Trump administration has stepped up efforts to expel criminals, including those who have green cards or have been in the country for decades.
Ed: It therefore speaks volumes about the evil of the act of granting this child rapist a pardon at all. This isn't a difficult decision; child rapists should remain in prison forever, and illegal alien child rapists should face deportation, too. Why is Walz setting a child rapist free with the intent to keep him in the US? Does Walz want more children raped? All of a sudden, the rape-gang scandal in the UK seems to have an American cognate.
===
Can someone explain to me why Democrat socialists want to abolish prisons? What’s the line of thinking here - we should just have pedophiles, rapists and murderers open in society around our kids?
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) July 2, 2026
Ed: It's not just Democrat Socialists, clearly.
===
My latest:
— Dennis Lennox (@dennislennox) July 2, 2026
“That a self-professed murderer is poised to be the Republican nominee should alarm anyone who wants the party to be taken seriously.”#colorado pic.twitter.com/dPs1bP1iqd
Ed: Well, Colorado may be more interesting than we thought.
===
Glenn Reynolds: When the Constitution was drafted, and for well over a century afterward, the Senate wasn’t popularly elected. The Constitution provided for the choice of Senators by state legislatures. One did not really campaign for a Senate seat, one lobbied. This was consistent with the Constitutional plan, in which the House of Representatives represented the people, while the Senate represented the states.
The Progressive movement didn’t much like this (a cynic might suggest that they thought it would be easier to demagogue the public than state legislatures made up of cynical politicians.) The 17th was also very much in keeping with the more democracy mood of the era. The franchise had been expanded from a minority of white men with property, to all white men, to all men, and was well on the way (just two amendments later!) to being extended to women.
Voters were impatient, and there was less appreciation of the careful structural compromises that had been made when the Constitution was drafted. By having a house of Congress that was responsive to the concerns of the states as states, the original design of the Senate served as a counterweight to federal ambition. Once the Senate was just a smaller version of the House with bigger districts, that changed. Public passions mattered more (vitiated only somewhat by the Senate’s longer terms) and Senators now had to campaign.
The effect was to make the Senate more, not less, dependent on special interests.
Ed: Or perhaps more accurately, it kept senators more focused on special interests in their home state rather than nationalized special interests. State legislatures also had more room to hold their senators accountable for their performance on behalf of their home states. The Seventeenth Amendment should be repealed and the original constitutional architecture of Congress should be restored.
===
Whether you care about antisemitism or not, there’s no denying it’s heavily third-world coded.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) July 2, 2026
All these DSA politicians are either first or second generation immigrants from third world states with average IQs comparable to a cool spring day. https://t.co/uGoGBvjF7L
Ed: For that matter, so is most of the Squad.
===
Right Scoop: Fox News is reporting that law enforcement prevented a mass casualty attack by another trans-terrorist, this time in Las Vegas, Nevada.
It’s another dude-looks-like-a-lady tranny, and officers found tons of weapons and ammo, along with audio recordings suggesting he’d carry out a mass shooting attack at some point in the future.
Here’s more:
Police say they thwarted what could have been a devastating mass casualty attack after arresting a transgender Nevada suspect accused of plotting a shooting on the Las Vegas Strip and uncovering an arsenal that included machine guns, grenade launchers and more than 50 firearms.
Allison Howlett, 36, who police identify in the arrest report as transgender, was arrested June 27 after Henderson police received a frantic 911 call from the suspect’s spouse reporting a domestic dispute, a stolen vehicle loaded with firearms and threats of both “suicide by cop” and a mass shooting.
Ed: You can find the Fox News report at this link. This morning, I wrote about another trans activist who wants to start a "trans jihad" and encouraged people to murder Republicans in Wisconsin. There seems to be an increasingly strong correlation between transgender individuals and mass-murder impulses.
===
Those of us who have cracked a history book or two can argue that after Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Kim Il-Sung, and others, being an openly declared communist is indistinguishable from being openly very, very, _very_ pro-murder. Being a communist and… pic.twitter.com/VMF0HR57d4
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) July 2, 2026
Being a communist and saying you opposed all the mass murder committed in its name is not all that different than being a Nazi and saying you opposed all the genocide.
Ed: We have more than a century of data showing a very strong correlation between communism, socialism, and mass murder. In fact, we have plenty of evidence to identify it as causal.
===
Wouldn’t it be funny if Taylor’s wedding knocks out power on the entire grid
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) July 2, 2026
Ed: Now I have something to root for!
===
Last night's lyric: "Macho Man" by The Village People, in memoriam of lead singer and co-founder Victor Willis, who passed away this week. RIP and thanks for a lot of fun.
Editor's Note: It’s America’s 250th birthday! Help HotAir celebrate the greatest nation in history by honoring its past, defending its present, and preserving its future with reporting you can trust.
Join HotAir VIP and use promo code AMERICA250 to receive 74% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member