Prosecutors say that the terror attack was a long-planned attack relying on ISIS videos as a reference point. As the charges are put forth, Donald Trump denounced the American justice system as a “joke.” Meanwhile the truck driver, Uzbek immigrant Sayfullo Saipov, reportedly asked authorities to hang an ISIS flag in his hospital room. Via The New York Times.
ISIS is generally quick to take credit for a terrorist attack — unless the attacker lives and is then arrested. To this point after the New York attack, ISIS hasn’t said a word. Via The New York Times.
On The day after the terrorist attack, Trump calls the terrorist suspect an “animal,” blames Sen. Chuck Schumer for supporting a program that allowed the terrorist to immigrate, says he would consider sending Sayfullo Saipov to Gitmo, calls the American justice system a “laughingstock” and tweets in all caps that Saipov “SHOULD GET THE DEATH PENALTY!” Via ABC News.
From The National Review, Andrew C. McCarthy writes that the issue is not the need for extreme vetting but to determine what exactly we’re vetting for.
Here’s the visa program the terrorism suspect used to come to the United States. It was put in place in 1990 during the George H.W. Bush administration. Via The Los Angeles Times.
All the attention is focused on Trump — where else? — but the divisions in the Democratic Party are growing ever wider. It’s not that they can’t agree on the problem. They just can’t agree what to do about it. Via The New Yorker.
Dana Milbank: There’s another scandal that Bob Mueller unearthed in announcing the first big arrests in the Trump-Russia probe. We begin with a man named Sam Clovis. And if you’ve never heard of him, that’s part of the problem. Via The Washington Post.
George Will: It turns out that Republicans are just like Democrats after all — tax cuts can be as big as you like so long as no one has to pay for them. Via The Washington Post.
Eventually someone will have to pay for the tax cuts. But here’s the real plan: Republicans will wait as long as possible — maybe forever — to tell us who. Via Vox.
The Civil War was not a mistake and a failure to compromise was not its cause. Unfortunately, John Kelly was repeating a common American misconception. The nation had spent its entire history to that point compromising on slavery — until it was forced to do otherwise. Via The Atlantic.
The Houston Astros win the World Series, and Hurricane Harvey victims, many of them in need of some good news, get a welcome escape. Via The Houston Chronicle.
Photo by Supermac1961, via Flickr: Creative Commons
