At Least We Won’t Have Sleepwalked Our Way Into Authoritarianism

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.

History Will Know

Last night President Joe Biden gave what by any measure was an unprecedented Oval Office address warning of the dangers to democracy posed by Donald Trump, without ever mentioning his name. Sitting behind the Resolute desk and invoking the founders, Biden called this moment an “inflection point” in history with the “soul of America” at stake.

It’s not a speech that will be remembered for its eloquence or its delivery. But no one will be able to say that we weren’t warned. For those who remember the ritual of an earlier time of clustering around communal TV sets to watch these set piece presidential pronouncements, it was jarring to see it used to warn of the perils of authoritarian rule coming from within.

In some quarters, Biden’s address might be dismissed as the self-justifications of a man who was on track to lose re-election, gussied up as self-sacrifice on behalf of a grateful nation. But that would be a grave mistake because it was the very threat of Trump that made forcing Biden out of the race even thinkable. Don’t confuse cause and effect.

As the standard-bearer for the broad anti-Trump coalition, Biden’s faltering on the June debate stage put everything at risk. His failure to rebound quickly or sufficiently enough from that setback prompted the coalition, including his own party and many longtime allies, to abandon him precisely because the stakes were so high.

Biden eventually came around, perhaps more under duress than by free will, but he was ultimately able see that his re-election bid was more than about just him: “Nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.”

For reasons that are probably peculiar to me, I have been focused to the point of borderline obsessiveness on helping to create a historical record that we didn’t just sleepwalk our way into authoritarianism. If we end up sliding over the cliff into a uniquely American form of fascism, I want it to be unmistakably clear to historians and everyone who comes after us that we knew what was happening. We saw it. We endeavored to prevent it, to arrest the slide, to warn of the perils. We had eyes wide open. We were not blindsided. If it happens, it happened despite our best efforts.

The warnings have come from sitting federal judges, from highly respected longtime Republicans cast out by their party, from conservatives who were previously villains in the progressive firmament, and now from President Biden sitting in the Oval Office having made a substantial personal sacrifice of his own as a way of further sounding the alarm.

History will show that we knew. Maybe that will erase the smugness of future generations that somehow they are immune. We are not, and neither are they.

The Torch Is Passed

• NYT: How Kamala Harris Took Command of the Democratic Party in 48 Hours

• WSJ: Family, Friends and Longtime Aides Dominate Harris’s Inner Circle

• She’s already in his head:

Trump Shooting Update

• FBI Director Chris Wray provided new details about the Trump rally shooting while testifying before a hostile House committee, revealing that the gunman did a Google search in the days before the attack for “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?”

• Wray offered one of the first law enforcement assessments of Trump’s injury: “With respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear.”

• In a rare unanimous vote, the House voted 416-0 to establish a task force to investigate the assassination attempt. The 13-member task force will be comprised of seven Republican and six Democratic members and have subpoena power.

Trump Era Accountability Fail, Part 986

Because he is no longer with the Justice Department, former Attorney General Bill Barr was able to avoid answering questions from the DOJ inspector general about the 2020 episode in which Barr ordered the retraction of the sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone provided to the court by line prosecutors.

‘I Got Out’

Spoken like an innocent man:

Drenched In Racism

Note the Speedy Gonzalez line at the end:

A Ripple In the Space-Time Continuum

Southwest Airlines is ditching open seating.

I Hold With Those Who Favor Fire

Monday was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth, breaking the old record from … Sunday:

My Earworm Is Now Your Earworm

After reading Kamala Harris’ “We are not going back” line, a Morning Memo reader sent along this 1970s gospel recording by Sara Jordan Powell. “I Won’t Turn Back” has been running on a loop in my brain since midday yesterday:

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