Today’s edition of quick hits:
* An unfortunate step backwards: “The White House announced Friday it is re-imposing economic and trade sanctions on Iran, starting at midnight on Sunday. The move is intended to change the country’s politics through economic pressure on its ability to sell oil. But the impact is likely to be small on world markets, and even possibly reduced, for now, on Iran itself.”
* An important ruling out of Georgia: “A federal judge said Friday that Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the Republican candidate for governor, must allow new U.S. citizens to vote Tuesday if they can show proof of citizenship at the polls.”
* It’d be nice if Trump didn’t encourage troops to commit crimes: “President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the U.S. military would treat any rocks or stones being thrown by asylum-seeking migrants slowly heading toward the U.S.-Mexico border as firearms.”
* On a related note: “President Donald Trump said in a speech on Thursday that rocks thrown by migrants on the US–Mexico border should be considered as firearms. By Friday, the Nigerian army had already used a video of the speech to justify shooting protesters that a human rights group said were unarmed.”
* New behind-the-scenes insights: “Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, said in an interview published Friday that he has heard the president use racist language in one-on-one conversations on multiple occasions over the years.”
* I’ll have more on this next week: “A federal judge on Friday denied President Trump’s request to stay a lawsuit alleging he is in violation of the Constitution by doing business with foreign governments, a decision that paves the way for plaintiffs to seek information from his business as it relates to his D.C. hotel.”
* I wish he had more credibility: “Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley claimed, citing ‘Law Enforcement Sensitive’ information, that his office has received information that among the thousands of Central American immigrants in a caravan headed for the United States are a child molester and members of the violent MS-13 gang.” * As a rule, when people change their story several times, it’s a bad sign. Aaron Blake reported on the list of things Roger Stone has said about his Russia-related actions that turned out not to be true, “and the list of those things has grown quite long.” * Perhaps it’s time for a conversation about how and why the booklet came to exist in the first place: “The United States Central Command apologized on Thursday for posting racially offensive language in an online welcome booklet for troops deploying to Saudi Arabia, and said it would review other documents posted on its website to ensure that the term — Negro — was deleted.” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
