Harris Sits for First Interview Since Becoming Nominee — But Not Solo

Thursday night, Vice-President Kamala Harris sat down with CNN’s Dana Bash for her first media interview since she became the presumed Democrat nominee after President Biden dropped out of the race 40 days ago. She defended her record in the Biden/Harris administration, shared details on her eleventh-hour nomination and answered questions about her policy reversals on issues such as immigration and fracking.

For instance, after having called President Trump’s border “irresponsible,” “stupid,” a “medieval vanity project” and “un-American,” Axios reported Tuesday that Harris now embraces a wall along the southern border of the U.S.

Vice-President Harris also spoke to her defense, and alleged cover-up, of President Biden’s mental decline. She said she had no regrets, and holds that President Biden “is so smart, and loyal to the American people.” In the interview, she voiced her belief that voters are looking for a “new way forward,” away from the last decade in politics. (The interviewer pointed out that her administration has comprised three and a half years of this last decade.)

Vice-President Harris spoke briefly on what some of her administration’s objectives would be, but these did not go beyond what has been previously reported. Vice-President Harris did the interview jointly with her running mate, Tim Walz.

New (Old) Federal Charges Against Trump

Following the Supreme Court’s recent decision on presidential immunity, Special Counsel Jack Smith has re-worked and re-filed the election interference case against former President Trump. The government’s case against the former president details Trump’s alleged schemes involving false electors, pressuring state officials, and his actions leading up to the January 6 Capitol attack.

The DOJ policy is to not bring a charge that may sway or affect an election less than 60 days before the election, making this indictment close to the line.

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment has already been ruled unconstitutional by Judge Cannon. Couple that with the presidential immunity issues with this case, and legal scholars such as Jonathan Turley argue that the Supreme Court will likely have problems with this indictment. But it is another attempt in what critics call a battle of lawfare against the former president.

Free Speech

1. Telegram’s Pavel Durov Arrested in France

Pavel Durov, founder and owner of free speech messaging platform Telegram, was arrested on Saturday in France during a private plane re-fueling stop. Durov was born in Russia and over his career has frequently clashed with Russian authorities over his refusal to comply with government censorship demands. This led to his expulsion from Russia in 2014. He is now a citizen of France, U.A.E. and Russia, among a couple of other countries.

French charges brought against Pavel state that he is held responsible for allowing Telegram users to be able to use the app as an accessory to or facilitator of a variety of crimes. He is also charged with creating encryption that allows for too much anonymity. In short, the allegation is that Telegram allows speech to be too free.

Critics of this arrest allege that the motivation has to do with the war in Ukraine. Telegram is being used by the Ukrainians and their government to plan, execute and distribute propaganda for the war. Telegram is also being used by Russia to distribute their own war propaganda, which is available to the nearly 72% of Ukrainians who now use Telegram.

In March, Ukrainian officials sent Telegram a list of 300 pro-Russian channels they wanted to have banned. In April, under immense pressure from Apple, Durov reluctantly restricted some pro-Russian Telegram channels in order to keep the app in Apple’s App Store in Ukraine.

A May 17 article in Radio Free Europe quoted Ukraine's highest military officials, stating their belief that Telegram is a "tool of Russia" and that it is a strategic military intelligence imperative to change the fact that Ukraine currently has "zero control" of the platform. The U.S. has sent over $300 billion so far to the Ukraine war effort. If Russia were to have a back door into Telegram, as the Radio Free Europe article insinuates, it would be like having “a spy in every Ukrainian’s pocket.” There is not evidence to substantiate this allegation of a Russian back door into Telegram, and a new Wall Street Journal piece quotes Russian officials as being “furious” about the arrest of Durov, stating that the Russian military uses Telegram in ways similar to Ukraine, and are worried about the E.U. gaining a back door to the platform. Most Telegram servers reside in the U.S. and the E.U., and access to those servers by either Russia or NATO would do untold damage to the war efforts of the other side.

In short, the struggle over Telegram seems to be parallel to the fight over Ukraine.

2. Facebook’s Zuckerburg Apologizes for Censorship

Amidst a Republican-led House investigation into free speech and censorship, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, has released a letter detailing and apologizing for censorship on Facebook during COVID and the 2020 election. “In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree… I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.” He also said their temporary suppression of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story was wrong. Finally, he spoke to the $400 million he gave to the Chan Zuckerberg initiative in 2020 for election infrastructure, saying he would not be making any such contributions during this election.

3. Brazil Supreme Court Justice Bans Social Network X

Late Friday afternoon, in an ongoing battle between the Government of Brazil and Elon Musk, Alexandre de Moraes, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice, ordered internet providers to block access to X across the nation of 200 million.

According to the New York Times, “In a highly unusual move, Justice Moraes also said that any person in Brazil who tried to still use X via common privacy software called a virtual private network, or VPN, could be fined nearly $9,000 a day.

"In another uncommon move, Justice Moraes froze the finances of a second Musk business in Brazil, SpaceX's Starlink satellite-internet service, to try to collect $3 million in fines he has levied against X. Starlink — which has recently exploded in popularity in Brazil, with more than 250,000 customers — said that it planned to fight the order and would make its service free in Brazil if necessary.”

This comes as the government of Brazil has demanded X suspend a number of accounts, mostly targeting right-wing supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president. The government warned that if X did not comply, X’s legal representative in Brazil would be arrested. Due to this threat, on Saturday Elon Musk closed the Brazilian office of his social network while continuing to provide the network to the people of Brazil. Now, Justice Moraes has banned X, citing no legal representative for X in Brazil.

Other News

• Israel, Hezbollah Exchange Heaviest Strikes Yet, As Peace Talks Collapse: As last weekend’s negotiations in Cairo for a cease-fire in Gaza collapsed, Israel and Iran-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah exchanged their heaviest strikes to date. Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel as around 100 Israeli warplanes struck targets in Lebanon, including a number of Hezbollah’s rocket-launching sites. Most rockets from Hezbollah were aimed at northern Israel, but some were reportedly aimed at strategic targets in the center of the country, and all of these rockets were intercepted.
• Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) Endorses Trump: Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat presidential candidate from 2020, has endorsed former President Donald Trump for president and is now campaigning with him. Gabbard’s list of accomplishments include 17 years in the Hawaii Army National Guard with a rank of lieutenant colonel, deployment in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 and Kuwait from 2008 to 2009, four-term Democrat congresswoman, and former vice-chair of the DNC from 2013 to 2016. Gabbard and RFK Jr. have also been named to Trump’s transition team.
• Texas Purges 1 Million Voters from Voter Roll: In an effort to clean the voting rolls in Texas, Governor Gregg Abbott announced that 1 million ineligible voters have been purged, including non-citizens, deceased voters, and people who moved to another state.