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Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday that the Israeli Defense Forces would push their campaign against Hamas into Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city that borders Egypt. “We are continuing this operation, and we will also reach the places where we have not yet fought in the central and southern strip, and especially the last center of gravity left in Hamas hands—Rafah,” Gallant said. An estimated one million people, displaced from the fighting, are in Rafah, with many living in makeshift shelters. “Most of the remaining battalions are in the southern Strip and in Rafah, and we will deal with them,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Meanwhile, Hamas responded yesterday to a potential ceasefire and hostage deal brokered by Qatar, maintaining their demand that Israel end the war to secure any hostage release. (As many as 50 of the remaining 132 hostages could be dead, according to reported Israeli estimates.)
• A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously rejected former President Donald Trump’s claim of presidential immunity in special counsel Jack Smith’s 2020 election interference case. “For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant,” the panel wrote in their 57-page decision. “But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution.” Trump’s legal team is expected to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, and has until Monday to do so.
• The bipartisan border and foreign aid bill negotiated in the Senate over the last four months appeared doomed for failure on Tuesday night, as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters yesterday that there was “no real chance here to make a law.” Republican support for the deal fell apart in the wake of Trump’s public opposition. President Joe Biden criticized Republicans in a speech yesterday, arguing they caved to Trump by not moving the legislation forward. “All indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor. Why? A simple reason. Donald Trump,” Biden claimed. “Every day between now and November, the American people are going to know that the only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends.”
• House Republicans failed to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last night, with the chamber voting 214-216 on the resolution, which alleges Mayorkas has “willfully and systematically refused to comply with the law” and “breached public trust.” Three GOP lawmakers defected from their party and voted against the impeachment: Reps. Ken Buck of Colorado, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, and Tom McClintock of California. A fourth, Rep. Blake Moore of Utah, changed his vote to no after it became clear the resolution would fail—a procedural maneuver that will enable House leadership to revisit the impeachment votes in the future. The House also failed to pass a standalone $17.6 billion Israel aid package on Tuesday, with 14 Republicans and 166 Democrats voting against the measure that was supported by Republican leadership and required two-third majority support.
• The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report yesterday on the Alaska Airlines flight that experienced a door plug panel blowout last month. The report found that the bolts holding the panel in place appeared to have not been reinstalled after the panel was opened for repairs to rivets at a Boeing facility in Renton, Washington. FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker told lawmakers yesterday he intended to increase oversight of Boeing. Twenty inspectors have since been added to the Renton facility.

Immigration Deal Breaks Down in the Senate

Consider sparing a thought today for Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma. 

After being tasked by his colleagues with one of the hardest jobs in American politics—fixing the country’s broken immigration system—Lankford spent months negotiating with Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to find a bipartisan compromise. The former president and de facto leader of Lankford’s party came out against the effort before the draft was even finished, leading prominent right-wing commentators to call for his resignation. When the work was finally complete and the negotiators released a 370-page bill, the backlash from his fellow Republicans was so fierce and so quick that Lankford himself is not even sure he’ll vote to advance his own bill today. 

Asked by a reporter on Tuesday how it felt to be run over by a bus, Lankford suggested the reporter’s metaphor was insufficient: “And backed up [over],” he clarified. A tough few days at the office, to be sure.

The bipartisan immigration deal—which had once seemed to be the best hope for immigration reform in almost two decades—was functionally pronounced dead by …

As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,845-word story on the collapse of the latest effort at immigration reform is available in the members-only version of TMD.

Worth Your Time

• Writing for Vox, Rebecca Jennings explored cultural self-promotion and what’s required of artists today in order to be successful. “The internet has made it so that no matter who you are or what you do—from nine-to-five middle managers to astronauts to house cleaners—you cannot escape the tyranny of the personal brand,” Jennings argued. “Authors are writing these incredible books, and yet when they ask me questions, the thing that keeps them up at night is, ‘How do I create this brand?’ says literary agent Carly Watters. It’s not that they want to be spending their time doing it, it’s that they feel they have to. … Under the model of ‘artist as business manager,’ the people who can do both well are the ones who end up succeeding. You can see this tension play out in the rise of ‘day in my life’ videos, where authors and artists film themselves throughout their days and edit them into short TikToks or [Instagram] Reels. Despite the fact that for most people, the act of writing looks very boring, author-content creators succeed by making the visually uninteresting labor of typing on a laptop worthwhile to watch. You’ll see a lot of cottagecore-esque videos where the writer will sip tea by the fireplace against the soundtrack of Wes Anderson, or wake up in a forest cabin and read by a river, or women like this Oxford University student who dresses up like literary characters and films herself working on her novel. Videos like these emulate the Romantic ideal of ‘solitary genius’ artistry, evoking a time when writing was seen as a more ‘pure’ or quaint profession. Yet what they best represent is the current state of art, where artists must skillfully package themselves as products for buyers to consume.”

Presented Without Comment 

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, addressing the media yesterday about a Republican-led resolution declaring that former President Trump did not engage in an insurrection:

When they came to Washington and protested, all of you called it an insurrection, and then when Biden was inaugurated and this entire Capitol complex was surrounded with 30,000 National Guard troops, none of you stood there and called that an insurrection. Oh no, you all stayed silent.

Also Presented Without Comment

Politico: Where’s Biden? A Bit Off Stage From the Main Attraction.

Since those strikes began four days ago, Biden has declined to directly address the nation about his administration’s offensive in the Middle East. He’s been driven by concerns that delivering a major speech could escalate tensions with Iran and spark a larger regional conflict, according to three senior administration officials granted anonymity to speak publicly about internal deliberations.

Also Also Presented Without Comment

New York Times: [Nikki] Haley Outvoted in Nevada Primary by ‘None of These Candidates,’ Without Trump on the Ballot

Toeing the Company Line

• What should we make of the GOP’s DOA immigration package, House Republicans’ attempt to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and the latest in the Middle East? Mike was joined by Mary, Andrew, David (Drucker), James, and Charlotte to discuss all that and more on last night’s Dispatch Live (🔒). Members who missed the conversation can catch a rerun, either video or audio-only, by clicking here. 
• In the newsletters: Nick unpacked (🔒) the Republican about-face on the border deal.
• On the podcasts: Jonah is joined by David Bahnsen on The Remnant to discuss his latest book, Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life, and Grayson sits down with (🔒) Steve Waldman, president of Report, on The Skiff to discuss the decline of local news and efforts to revive the industry. 
• On the site today: Jonah argues the old political rules may no longer apply in 2024, and Erec Smith explains the dangers of “citational justice.”