Today’s edition of quick hits:
* This was a painful press conference to watch: “Police admitted to a stunning string of failures — including driving right by the gunman — in responding to the Texas school shooting while children were being massacred inside, with the head of the state’s Department of Public Safety saying the time for making excuses about the botched response was over.”
* On a related note, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw, commenting on the delay in breaching the classroom where the shooter was, specifically said, “[F]rom the benefit of hindsight where I’m sitting now, of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision.”
* Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, of course, told the public on Tuesday how amazing the police response was to the crisis. Today, the Republican said, “I was misled. I am livid about what happened. … The information I was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate, and I am absolutely livid about that.”
* With the conviction of Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, federal prosecutors still haven’t lost a Jan. 6 case that’s gone to trial: “A New Jersey man with alleged Nazi sympathies who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, tried and failed to convince a jury this week that he didn’t know the Capitol building is where Congress meets.”
* Some apparent progress on inflation: “An inflation gauge closely tracked by the Federal Reserve rose 6.3% in April from a year earlier, the first slowdown since November 2020 and a sign that high prices may finally be moderating, at least for now.”
* This was a longshot: “A federal judge on Friday dismissed former President Donald Trump’s lawsuit to stop the New York attorney general’s office from continuing its sprawling investigation into his company’s business practices.”
* He’s right: “In a speech Friday at the U.S. Naval Academy, President Biden condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ‘brutal’ war in Ukraine, arguing that the Russian leader is working to eradicate Ukrainian identity itself…. Instead of ‘Finlandizing’ all of Europe and making it neutral, Putin’s actions ultimately ‘NATO-ized’ it, Biden said.”
* Executive privilege: “President Biden has authorized the National Archives and Records Administration to hand over yet another tranche of Trump White House documents to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, The Post’s Jacqueline Alemany reports.” * Isn’t he still in office? “A community bank in the Columbus area has tapped Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to be a paid member of its corporate board, according to a company announcement.” * Redactions matter: “The Justice Department has released portions of a previously unseen alternative version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on ties between former President Donald Trump and Russia. However, the 37-page report prepared at the direction of Mueller deputy Andrew Weissmann and released this week under the Freedom of Information Act is heavily redacted.” Have a safe holiday weekend.
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."
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