On this day in 1971, operatives working for Republican President Richard Nixon broke into the office of a psychiatrist treating Daniel Ellsberg.
asserted
operatives → work → Ellsberg
They found nothing to use against the Vietnam whistleblower but the discovery of such dirty tricks ultimately saw Nixon resign, ending the Watergate scandal, which JD Vance thinks is now small potatoes.
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Vance → find → scandal
Abdul El-Sayed is leading in the polls, but will his fellow Democrats let him keep that lead, especially the fellow Democrat he beat in the primary?
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he → lead → primary
Plus, Donald Trump is hyper-focused on renaming maps and bullying tech companies rather than bringing down prices or ending his war with Iran which will really… help Republicans in the primaries.
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which → rename → primaries
Today is also another day on which ‘First Draft’ is published without a paywall, so new readers can see what Zeteo brings to the table: all the reporting and opinion you need, on the political subjects that matter.
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that → publish → subjects
Let’s get into it.
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’s → let → it
The U.S. House of Representatives came back into session this week, after the long summer break.
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House → come → break
Rep. Haley Stevens had a longer journey to Washington than most, having arrived back from Israel Tuesday morning, as she described in the chamber.
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she → have → chamber
Then on Wednesday, the Jerusalem Post published an interview conducted at the five-star Mamilla Hotel in the city, during a visit the congresswoman took with her new fiancé, a Michigan lawyer whose family comes from Haifa.
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family → publish → Haifa
“I believe that anti-Zionism is a hate movement that has taken over in America and throughout parts of the West,” Stevens told the Post, giving the paper its headline.
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Stevens → believe → headline
“I think that Israel is more than just a punching bag for some of the challenges that America is facing,” the congresswoman added.
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congresswoman → think → that
“There is this bizarre obsession that has reached pitch level with calling out one country, one tiny country in the Middle East.”
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that → be → East
According to the Post, as Stevens complained of being “demonized” for her support for that “one tiny country” – which, lest we forget, is committing genocide against the Palestinian people – her voice rose “with a mix of frustration and disbelief.”
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voice → accord → frustration
On reading Stevens’s words, supporters of Abdul El-Sayed, who beat Stevens in last month’s Michigan Democratic Senate primary, might have experienced similar emotions.
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who → read → emotions
Once the primary result was in, Stevens endorsed El-Sayed.
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Stevens → endorse → Sayed
“That’s called democracy,” she told Fox then.
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she → call → Fox
“You don’t sign up for a Democratic Party to be salty grapes and... just continue to hold a grudge.”
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Party → sign → grudge
To a lot of Democrats, after a bruising campaign, that sounded good.
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that → sound → campaign
A few weeks on, though, Stevens’s comments in Jerusalem sure didn’t sound a million miles from “salty grapes.”
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comments → sound → grapes
Certainly, the Michigan contest was brutal, and might’ve left its loser feeling sore.
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contest → leave → loser
In a state with a significant Muslim population, but also mirroring trends in national public polling, Israel, the aid the U.S. gives it, and the Netanyahu regime’s genocide in Gaza and illegal occupation in the West Bank became central campaign issues.
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U.S. → mirror → Bank
Stevens attracted more than $30 million in spending from AIPAC, the pro-Israel group now a lightning rod in Democratic politics.
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Stevens → attract → politics
El-Sayed fought off incessant, baseless accusations of antisemitism from his own party as well as the right.
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Sayed → fight → party
He is fighting off such attacks now, even as he attempts to focus on Mike Rogers, his well-funded, Trump-supporting Republican opponent.
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he → fight → Rogers
And yet, while complaining of being threatened herself, Stevens decided to tell the Jerusalem Post that El-Sayed’s use of Israel as a campaign subject was “poisonous,” then said of the man she endorsed: “Abdul has done a very good job on the internet, you know, and being anti-Israel is also very popular on the internet.”
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being → complain → internet
Of reasons why Israel might attract such criticism, on the internet or otherwise – including its genocidal violence but also the brutalization of foreign peace activists and violence against American citizens and even an NBC news crew – Stevens did not speak.
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Stevens → attract → citizens
She had nothing to say about any of that.
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She → have → that
But she was keen to say that anti-Zionism has “infected Democrats worse” than any other group, adding: “We have one Jewish state, one teeny tiny Jewish state.
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We → say → state
Why can’t we have a Jewish state?
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we → have → state
And there’s become this anti-Zionist hate and this assumption that this is colonial.
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this → become → ?
It is just people in their homeland trying to live.”
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It → try → homeland
Her interviewer chose not to point out how ironic that statement might have sounded to Palestinians.
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statement → choose → Palestinians
Stevens did say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has been a problem,” adding: “Your current government should not encapsulate a full people.”
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government → say → people
That echoed her remarks on the House floor Tuesday, when she spoke of visiting Gaza and witnessing “the urgent work of getting food and medicine to innocent people trapped in a war they did not choose,” though she also mentioned meeting World Central Kitchen workers without reference to the deaths of seven in an Israeli strike.
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she → echo → strike
Then Stevens did something really odd: She attacked Bernie Sanders.
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She → do → Sanders
“I really don’t know what Bernie Sanders has done for peace in the Middle East, for Palestinian dignity,” Stevens said.
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Stevens → know → dignity
“I can’t think of anything he’s totally done.
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he → think → anything
It’s a sickness that needs to end.
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that → ’ → ?
You know, it’s a linkage towards extremism or Jihad, I don’t know.
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I → know → extremism
Senator Sanders is not just a senior figure in Congress, twice a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, a senior voice on the left of a caucus supposed to be uniting to fight the most consequential midterm elections in a generation, seeking to hold Donald Trump to account, to reverse his assault on democracy itself.
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Sanders → suppose → democracy
…and 67 more, not listed.
