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Happy Wednesday! Our hearts go out to Derek Myers, a former staffer for Rep. George Santos running for Congress, who not only accidentally announced his concession in Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District primary Tuesday afternoon well before the polls had closed but also made an unfortunate typo in a subsequent release explaining the error.
Also, don’t forget Thursday is the deadline for entering our March Madness bracket pool! To join, click here (you will need a free ESPN account) and select “Join Group.” The password is “TMD2K24!” Anyone is invited to participate, but if you want to be eligible for prizes—including a Lifetime Membership to The Dispatch, a TMD mug, or a gift card to The Dispatch’s merch store—you must a) be an active paying Dispatch member on or before March 21, 2024, and b) fill out this form so we can connect you with your ESPN entry.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- Hong Kong’s legislature approved a broad security law Tuesday providing the government with sweeping authority to crack down on political dissent and protests deemed national security threats. John Lee, the city’s Beijing-aligned chief executive, proposed the law in January, after which international observers and human rights groups swiftly condemned the proposal as a vehicle for authorities to further erode freedoms in the city. The Legislative Council adopted the bill in record time on a vote of 89-0.
- Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng suggested on Thursday that U.S. Special Forces have been deployed to Taiwan’s outlying islands—including an island just 3 miles from mainland China—to help train the island democracy’s troops. U.S. defense officials have not commented publicly on deployments to Taiwan, but Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen first confirmed in 2021 the presence of U.S. forces in Taiwan amid growing threats from China.
- Retired Gen. Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the former head of U.S. Central Command who is also retired, both testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday in a hearing on the Afghanistan withdrawal. They blamed the State Department for delaying evacuation orders, contributing to the chaos of the military’s departure. Milley said the order to proceed with a noncombatant evacuation operation “came too late.” McKenzie agreed. “I believe that the events of mid and late August 2021 were the direct result of delaying the initiation of the NEO for several months,” he said.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson reached an agreement with Democratic leadership Monday night on a second “minibus” spending package to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year—President Joe Biden signed into law a $459 billion package earlier this month funding part of the government, but the remaining portion will run out of money on Saturday. It’s unclear if lawmakers will be able to move the deal through both chambers before the deadline.
- The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a ruling to allow Texas to begin enforcing a state law that empowers local law enforcement to arrest and deport illegal immigrants, rejecting the Biden administration’s attempt to block enforcement. But hours later, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit blocked its implementation again. Earlier this year, U.S. District Court Judge David Ezra issued a preliminary injunction on the law, Texas Senate Bill 4, but the 5th Circuit issued a temporary stay on Ezra’s order, prompting the Biden administration to make an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court. In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that since the 5th Circuit’s stay was temporary, the case should remain in the lower court for now while the proceedings progress. But Justice Amy Coney Barrett, in a concurring opinion joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, noted, “If a decision does not issue soon, the applicants may return to this court.” The 5th Circuit quickly scheduled more oral arguments for Wednesday morning.
- Florida, Ohio, Kansas, and Arizona held their presidential primaries on Tuesday. Biden and former President Donald Trump have already clinched their parties’ nominations, and they each easily won in Tuesday’s primaries. Down ballot, Bernie Moreno won the Republican Senate primary in Ohio. Moreno, the Trump-endorsed candidate in the race, beat out state Sen. Matt Dolan, who was backed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. Moreno will face Democratic incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown in November.
The NATO Leadership Contest Takes Shape
The process of selecting a new secretary-general of NATO is shrouded in mystery, but one thing does seem increasingly likely to be true of the military alliance’s next leader ...
As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,517-word story on the selection of NATO’s next secretary-general is available in the members-only version of TMD.
Worth Your Time
- Classical education is making a comeback, Emma Green wrote in The New Yorker. Green even took a reporting trip to Kenya to see the growth of the movement in Africa. “Classical schools offer a traditional liberal-arts education, often focussing on the Western canon and the study of citizenship,” she wrote. “The classical approach, which prioritizes some ways of teaching that have been around for more than two thousand years, is radically different from that of public schools, where what kids learn—and how they learn it—varies wildly by district, school, and even classroom. … In Texas, enrollment in classical charter schools is growing most quickly among Asian and Hispanic students. In Arizona, a charter-school network called Espiritu, which mostly serves immigrants, recently overhauled its curricula to be more classical. And yet, perhaps inevitably, the movement has also felt the gravitational pull of the culture wars. With many classical schools focussed on moral formation and civics—and, incidentally, white male authors—this educational mode is primed to be co-opted into something that’s not just traditional but reactionary.”
Presented Without Comment
The Hill: Bernie Sanders Launching Podcast
The 82-year-old lawmaker wrote Tuesday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that he would release the project this week. Sanders added he plans to discuss his recent book, “It’s OK to be Angry about Capitalism,” in the first few episodes.
Also Presented Without Comment
Politico: Brazil’s [former President Jair] Bolsonaro Is Indicted for First Time Over Alleged Falsification of His Own Vaccination Data
Toeing the Company Line
- What did Trump mean by his “bloodbath comments”? Who will be the next leader of NATO? Will Congress actually ban TikTok? Mike was joined by Drucker, Mary, and Grayson 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 strange combination of transactionalism and radicalism animating Trump’s candidacy.
- On the podcasts: On the latest episode of The Remnant, Jonah interviewed Civil War historian Allen Guelzo about his latest book Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment.
- On the site today: Michael Sobolik argues that congressional action against TikTok “couldn’t come a minute too soon,” Kevin suggests that one way to fix journalism would be to get rid of journalism school, and Jonah criticizes the media’s response to Trump’s “bloodbath” comments on the grounds that such overreaction allows the former president to call himself a martyr.
James Scimecca is the editorial partnerships manager at The Dispatch, and is based in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the company in 2023, he served as the director of communications at the Empire Center for Public Policy. When James is not busy generating shareholder revenue, he can usually be found running along the Potomac River, cooking up a new recipe, or scoping out a new karaoke bar.
Mary Trimble is a former editor of The Morning Dispatch.
Grayson Logue is a staff writer for The Dispatch and is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the company in 2023, he worked in political risk consulting, helping advise Fortune 50 companies. He was also an assistant editor at Providence Magazine and is a graduate student at the University of Edinburgh, pursuing a Master’s degree in history. When Grayson is not writing pieces for the website, he is probably working hard to reduce the number of balls he loses on the golf course.
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