Hello it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender ☕️
It appears that in his quest to find a running mate who might pull in a few Republican voters who aren’t thrilled about voting for him again in 2024, Donald Trump has moved on from the dog killer who lies about meeting with North Korean regime leader Kim Jong Un.
He’s reportedly now considering, among a handful of other options, the senator who thinks those protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza should have their “skin ripped off.”
That’s not the most notably unhinged remark or action from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) in recent years, it’s just the last thing I wrote about him.
According to new reporting from the New York Times, Cotton is on Trump’s shortlist of potential vice presidential candidates. Others include Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), J.D. Vance (R-OH), Tim Scott (R-SC) and his former HUD director Ben Carson. Trump is reportedly interested in Cotton as he seeks out a Veep who “would carry relatively little risk of creating unwanted distractions.”
So the guy who sent President Biden a letter in 2021 warning that Beijing was planning on using the 2022 Winter Olympics as an opportunity to gather and harvest DNA from American athletes to breed “biologically-enhanced soldiers” seems like a good fit.
Here’s what else TPM has on tap this weekend:
- Josh Kovensky prepares us for what is to come during the Trump trial next week.
- Emine Yücel explains the hypocrisy behind Trump’s fumble on contraceptive restrictions this week.
- Khaya Himmelman unpacks a new report on election deniers’ invasion of Congress.
- Emine Yücel questions how clever it actually is to use AI to write legislation that would ultimately regulate the technology.
Let’s dig in.
— Nicole Lafond
What’s To Come
What will possibly be the only criminal trial of Donald Trump will draw to a close this week, as the jury is set to get the case. Here’s what to expect.
Judge Merchan said that closing arguments — also known as summations — will take place on Tuesday. Court will continue on Tuesday for as long as it takes to finish summations that day, he said. At the same time, we don’t expect closing arguments to last an inordinately long amount of time.
From there, Judge Merchan will read the charge to the jury — these are the instructions for how the jury must apply the law, including definitions of key terms to help them do so. Merchan said that this will take around one hour, and will likely take place on Wednesday morning.
Once the case goes to the jury, all bets are off. We could have a verdict in hours; it could be days or weeks of waiting before a hung jury result. There may be notes from the jury to the judge — if so, we’ll keep you updated on what’s being asked. We will have some notification of a verdict in advance, and I will try
