Voters in six states cast ballots Tuesday, and the results showed the same old machinery grinding on: party bosses, presidential endorsements, and state power all trying to steer people into neat little lanes ahead of the November midterms.
Who Gets Chosen, Who Gets Managed
In Democratic primaries in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Connecticut, voters leaned toward younger, more progressive candidates who oppose President Trump's immigration policies. Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a progressive candidate, won her U.S. Senate primary over a centrist opponent. In Wisconsin, democratic socialist candidate Rep. Francesca Hong was narrowly defeated by Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley for the gubernatorial nomination. The ballot box offered a choice, sure, but only inside the narrow walls built by the parties and their donors.
Trump-endorsed Sen. Darline Graham got enough support to advance to a runoff election for her late brother Lindsey Graham's Senate seat. But the president's blessing didn't save MyPillow founder Mike Lindell. He lost his primary for governor of Minnesota to the state's Speaker of the House, Lisa Demuth, who was widely seen as the establishment favorite despite lacking Trump's endorsement and that of the state's Republican Party. Clay Masters of Minnesota Public Radio said Minnesota has not gone for Trump in the last three presidential elections, and he said it's important for Republicans in the state to be willing to disagree with the president. That's the polite language of a system where obedience is expected, then sold as strategy.
The White House's Secret Detour
President Trump has confirmed that he was secretly moved from Air Force One to a different aircraft while in Turkey last month because of a threat from Iran. White House staff, military personnel, Secret Service and journalists were aboard the president's regular plane, essentially serving as unknowing decoys. The people doing the actual traveling were kept in the dark while the apparatus protected the man at the top. Everyone else became cover.
NPR's Tamara Keith said the press and the White House have a level of cooperation to ensure the president's movements are independently covered, especially in high-risk situations. She said embargoes are often used to prevent information from being released until the president is safe. Keith said the Trump administration ditched the press entirely and went to great lengths to continue the ruse after the immediate danger had passed, including having the Justice Department send FBI agents to serve subpoenas to journalists covering the security issues related to that flight. The machinery didn't just hide the move. It kept pushing.
White House journalists traveling with the president work to ensure that the American public doesn't have to rely solely on the government's word on what happens, and Keith said that role is even more crucial during times of war and rampant conspiracy theories. That job exists because power lies, withholds, and then asks for trust anyway.
Militias, Payrolls, and the State's Other Hands
Iraq's new prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, has promised Trump that he will disarm Iran-backed paramilitary groups, which are on the Iraqi government payroll but operate independently from the government. The state pays them. They answer elsewhere. Since the start of the U.S. and Israel's war in Iran, these militias have intensified their attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions and military installations in Iraq.
NPR's Jane Arraf spoke with Sheik Kathim al-Fartousi, the spokesman for Kata'ib Sayyid al Shuhada, a militia that refuses to disarm. The U.S. placed a $10 million bounty on the group's leader three years ago, and he's maintaining a low profile. Al-Fartousi told Arraf that KSS considers diplomatic missions to be forbidden targets, arguing that the military and intelligence functions at the U.S. Embassy no longer have protected status. He added that KSS has never targeted the American embassy itself, but rather the military base within the embassy compound.
KSS and some other militias are also promising retaliation against Saudi Arabia for recent attacks on bases, while others are pushing for diplomatic solutions. Even here, the people at the bottom live with the consequences of decisions made by governments, armed groups, and foreign powers that treat their territory like a chessboard.