Cameron Joseph

POLITICO Names Cameron Joseph Politics Editor

A little professional news: I'm thrilled to announce I'm joining
@politico.com as Politics Editor with an eye on the midterms and '28. This is gonna be so much fun.

www.politico.com/blogs/politi...

Another wild week really got the going panel today: Jason Dick, Editor-in-chief of CQ-Roll Call, @svdate.bsky.social, Sr. White House Correspondent @huffpost.com and @cameronjoseph.bsky.social, Senior Washington Reporter for the Christian Science Monitor.
bit.ly/Click-2-Listen
youtu.be/9Q7peudRywk

Shutdown dealmaking Dem @shaheen.senate.gov on OMB threat not to give federal workers back pay: "Would be a lot easier to resolve the situation if Russ Vought would stop talking."

MAGA’s “Voter Fraud” Watchdog Votes in a Swing State. He Doesn’t Live There. A long paper trail shows that Jack Posobiec casts a ballot in one state and lives in another.

SCOOP: PA prosecutors were alerted to possible voting irregularities by one of MAGA's leading voices. A long paper trail shows Jack Posobiec has been living in Maryland but voting using his parent's address in Pennsylvania for years. Me with @marisakabas.bsky.social

slate.com/news-and-pol...

Trump threatens mass layoffs as shutdown begins. Can he do that? A government shutdown is underway amid partisan spending disputes. What’s different this time: President Donald Trump is pledging to further reduce the federal workforce.

Trump is threatening more mass gov't layoffs now that we're in the shutdown. He & Vought may have more to say on that today. But they don't have any more power to fire employees than they did yesterday—and actually may face some restrictions. Here come the lawsuits!
www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics...

Quite a line from @duckworth.senate.gov when I asked her earlier about Trump's pocket rescissions and what Democrats' shutdown position should be:
"Frankly, I don't know why we keep playing by the rules when Republicans are shooting referees in the face."

New Jersey is 1/5 Hispanic, and its November gov race is the first big test of whether Trump, who nearly won the Latino vote last fall, has once again become a drag on his party in Latino communities.

Both parties have some clear work to do.

Are Trump’s gains among Latino voters fading? New Jersey is the first big test. Were Donald Trump’s gains among Hispanic voters an anomaly – or the beginning of a more permanent realignment? The New Jersey governor’s race this year will provide an early test.

I spent time over the recess talking to Latino voters in New Jersey about Trump & the upcoming gov race.

Some are feeling buyer's remorse after Hispanic areas swung hard to Trump in '24. Even Trump supporters worried about deporting longtime residents.

www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics...

Another wild week in Trump 2.0. TX Dems Stand-up. CA-NY-IL Dems Fight Back. Selling the BBB. GOP Town Hall Problems. Trump: Obama Committed Treason. Treason Claims=Epstein Distraction. Tariff Price Hikes are Here.
YouTube youtu.be/kD-hH7m6URA
Audio bit.ly/Click-2-Listen

Common Cause Solomon's response:
“This is the first time in modern history that a sitting U.S. president and his political party have moved unilaterally to engineer the outcome of an election ... We are assessing all options on the table to confront this attack on our democracy."

Common Cause led the charge to ban gerrymandering in CA. They're literally the named party in the landmark SCOTUS case Rucho v. Common Cause. This... is a big potential shift.

"It's certainly an inflection point for our organization," one Common Cause staffer told the Monitor.

The group had come out against CA Dems' push.

But on Monday CC's prez emailed telling leaders to avoid press til the board decides.

While independent commissions "remain our gold standard and will continue to be our position, the board is currently considering options as to how we will respond"

Top gerrymandering foe faces internal crisis as Trump pushes to redraw the maps Common Cause has long argued against partisan redistricting. Now the group faces internal pressure to relax its stance in California, amid concerns that democracy confronts bigger challenges.

Scoop: @commoncause.org, the preeminent anti-gerrymandering org, is in the midst of a tense internal fight over whether to change its stance in light of California Dems' push to fire back at Trump/Texas/etc.

Would be a big shift—and telling.

www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics...

Metadata Shows the FBI’s ‘Raw’ Jeffrey Epstein Prison Video Was Likely Modified There is no evidence the footage was deceptively manipulated, but ambiguities around how the video was processed may further fuel conspiracy theories about Epstein's death.

NEW: The metadata of the "full raw" video from the prison nearby Jeffrey Epstein's cell that DOJ released this week appears to have been modified—but nobody would say how, exactly, which will likely further fuel conspiracy theories. @dmehro.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/metada...

Steve Bannon warns Trump against heavy US involvement in Iran MAGA influencer Steve Bannon is warning against the Trump administration getting involved in a lengthy conflict in Iran, lighting into Republicans and conservative talking heads who he describes as be...

Steve Bannon took aim at Fox News and hawkish Republicans and warned Trump against heavy US involvement in Iran.

"The Israelis have to finish what they started. They started this. They should finish it."

More from this morning's @csmonitor.bsky.social breakfast:

www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics...

Thanks I'll check it out! Wasn't assuming it's a perfect measure (not sure how you'd get a perfect measure for something self reported like this though)

An Ohio Dem who holds campaign events in his driveway told us that Gov. Mike DeWine had boosted security for all state reps after MN shooting.

DeWine told me he'd never seen a period where local lawmakers had to worry for their safety like this in his 50 years in office.

IL Republican Nicole La Ha introed a bill in IL to hide lawmakers' home addresses earlier this year. Soon after, a man threatened to kill her.

She's working w/ @bobmorganil.bsky.social (D), who was at the Highland Park 4th of July mass shooting and received death threats for his gun control bill.

As political violence hits home, local lawmakers struggle with how to stay safe Attacks on Minnesota lawmakers are part of a wave of political violence that has local officeholders grappling with how to increase their security.

Local lawmakers in both parties have been facing a huge increase in death threats. In the wake of the Minnesota assassinations, they're scrambling with how to respond to keep themselves safer.

www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics...

Found out while reporting this that @pelosi.house.gov
knew JB Pritkzer's mom "very well"—they were both senior officials in the Northern CA Dem Party at the same time and shared an office. Called her a "lovely woman" who instilled in JB his "commitment to public service."

I asked what "never again" means to him.

“Anybody, if they understand what ‘Never again’ meant about the Holocaust, understands that this is a moment when we should be standing up and speaking out.”

Pritzker worked hand-in-hand with Sam Harris and other Holocaust survivors to open the museum.

Harris: “Anything he says about the Holocaust, he is not just saying it for political purposes. You’ve got to give him the credit. And anyone who doesn’t, doesn’t know."

His dire warnings have put him in the 2028 convo (and helped land him in front of House Oversight GOP yesterday).

"People are having to make decisions about whether they’re going to stand up and speak out, or whether they’re going to try to keep their heads down and not be noticed."

How JB Pritzker’s faith and Holocaust work are powering his dire warnings about Trump Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has long invested in helping Americans understand the ongoing relevance of Nazi-era lessons. He says it’s never been more important.

@jbpritzker.bsky.social spent a decade working with Holocaust survivors. That experience is fueling his alarm about Trump.

I sat down with him at the museum he helped build to discuss how that and his family story of surviving the pogroms shapes his worldview.

www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics...

RIP, Brian Wilson. Losing him and Sly Stone in quick succession hurts.

ICE Taps into Nationwide AI-Enabled Camera Network, Data Shows Flock's automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras are in more than 5,000 communities around the U.S. Local police are doing lookups in the nationwide system for ICE.

SCOOP: ICE, HSI, and DHS are getting side-door access to the nationwide system of Flock license plate cameras by asking local police to perform lookups for them, new public records show.

ICE does *not* have a contract to use this surveillance tool itself.

www.404media.co/ice-taps-int...

Poignant grafs at the start of this @cameronjoseph.bsky.social interview with Ben Crump, the lawyer for George Floyd's family, on the five-year anniversary of his death.

www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/...

He says the Trump DOJ is "a different animal" than anything he's ever seen in decades of work—inc. other GOP administrations.

"Black people in America are used to having our hearts broken by America and the government. But this is really stark – a stark contrast to even things we’ve seen."

George Floyd’s family lawyer thinks the path to justice is ‘more daunting than ever’ Five years ago, the murder of George Floyd by police sparked a nationwide protest movement. Today, Ben Crump, the lawyer who represented Mr. Floyd’s family, says it’s “more daunting than ever to hold ...

Sunday marks the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's murder.

I talked to civil rights lawyer @attorneybencrump.bsky.social, who reps Floyd's family.

"It’s getting more daunting than ever to hold police accountable for excessive force and police brutality."

www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/...