Originally published at: The Brief: Trump’s Primetime Address Backfires - TPM – Talking Points Memo
Thanks for reading this last month as we soft-launch what we’re now calling “The Brief.” I’m taking a week off to bring my toddler to the beach. I’ll be back July 27. If you’re enjoying this morning dispatch, we’ll have the option for you to sign up for it as a newsletter by early August.…
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I am confused at what seem to me to be the similarities of The Brief and Morning Memo. What am I missing?
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No one seems to be mentioning the notable omission from Trump’s address: it was rumoured that he was somehow going to allege, with or without specious newly declassified evidence out of the sprawling Georgia election investigation, that Georgia Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock were not properly elected. Nope.
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Yeah, what happened to the big Georgia reveal? It was supposed to be so serious that both Senators would be tossed out of office.
I’ll bet it was planned but cooler heads in the WH inner circle quashed it, because it would have been shot down for lack of evidence even faster than the weak sauce that made it into the speech.
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I’m not sure what TFG’s actual legal exposure would be, but wouldn’t him saying Georgia’s elected officials aren’t legitimate be a huge slander issue?
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I do hope we’ll eventually find out what Tulsi & Co. were up to, but whatever it was didn’t turn up anything useful. Considering the number of audits and recounts in GA, this looked like a fool’s errand from the start like so much of Trump’s nonsense: ominous but dumb.
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IANAL, but I’ve heard that the bar for winning a slander case is high enough for public figures that it isn’t usually worth pursuing. It requires proof of reputational damage for one thing, which isn’t easy to quantify for a politician.
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Re: “Cooler heads in the WH inner circle?”
Facts not in evidence.
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Something has been up for a while now. I’ve been wondering if David Kurtz has gotten burned out with the MM, which he produces on top of his editorial duties. And there’s been increasing emphasis on podcasts and the like. Also, more links to “News” at other sites. TPM reporters being given specific beats. The whole operation seems busier.
Maybe The Brief will free DK to devote MM entirely to legal matters?
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Hey Spiderpig. Morning Memo has become our premier, pre-noon thing at TPM. But we wanted to get a quicker, shorter roundup on the site earlier to give those coming at 8 a.m. ET something to start their day with.
The Brief is more focused on contextualizing things TPM has reported on or will be reporting on — TPM “storylines,” as we say — while Morning Memo sweeps up a far wider pool of stories, including but not limited to the important headlines relating to Trump’s corruption of the rule of law.
The Brief is in some ways also a sibling to Where Things Stand, and I think we intend it to resemble Where Things Stand more than Morning Memo.
Lastly, The Brief, Morning Memo and Where Things Stand each have their own author, and, while we all talk and collaborate, that will necessarily give each a slightly different tone.
So, TLDR, it’s about publishing time, focus and tone. Some readers may like one, some another. We hope most readers like all three.
Dunno if this helps — and it may change. We’re still feeling out what readers would like.
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The audience members look like they had to leave their souls at the door.
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BREAKING NEWS: Cyclosporiasis caused by the cyclospora outbreak has appropriately been deemed “Trumporrhea.” We should all do our patriotic duty and PASS THIS ON.
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Good point, but perhaps {Current Occupant} listened to advisors. Ossoff and Warnock had already gone on the offensive to make that into a massive losing proposition. Continuing on that path would have sent many non-voting Georgians into well and truly pissed off anti-GOP voters.
We think he doesn’t listen, but I’m pretty sure he does. He usually assumes he knows better, but this one probably had people pulling their hair out in front of him.
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Despite fears, he didn’t order anything new, beyond demanding Congress pass the SAVE America Act voter suppression bill — a demand he makes in some form nearly daily.
So, it was a ploy to get his mug on the TV and cull more of that “free advertising.”
Kudos to the networks that wouldn’t cooperate.
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The AP has just posted a detailed investigation into the background of David Brouillette, the recently hired ICE agent who shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine.
Only the best people.
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It does! Thanks for the explanation. 
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Lovely. Would you support the use of his name in place of any fecal reference?
Ie: i have to drop some trumps into my reflecting pool?
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Trumporrhea or RFKakageddon
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If the Chinese or anyone for that matter, interfered with the 2020 election to prevent Trump from winning and they were successful, why didn’t they do it again in 2024?
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