‘Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses …’ Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney—her dad was George W. Bush’s vice president—says, “I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst: “It’s a big f**kin’ deal.”
‘This format … will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the vice president.’ Harris’ campaign has grudgingly agreed to ABC News’ decision to mute the candidates’ mics when it’s not their turn during Tuesday’s presidential debate.
■ Politico: That’s left the Harris team “somewhat flustered” …
■ … as Trump spewed pants-on-fire nonsense last night in what Politico calls his version of debate prep: An interview with sycophant Sean Hannity on Fox News.
■ Stephen Colbert offers Harris strategy for rattling Trump in the debate: “The most memorable character in Silence of the Lambs is Jodie Foster. Also, birds love windmills, sharks are cool, one toilet flush is enough for anyone.”
■ Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s trouble with talking: “The only sentence Donald Trump can put together is a prison sentence.”
Russian tools. A Justice Department indictment alleges a Tennessee-based company was secretly funded by the Russians to create English-language videos that exacerbated U.S. divisions and weaken opposition to Russia’s interests.
■ Columnist Dan Pfeiffer: Trump’s interviews with MAGA-friendly podcast hosts got “one one-millionth of the scrutiny of Kamala Harris’s much anticipated CNN interview even though they are arguably much more impactful … and certainly seen by more of the persuadable voters who don’t watch cable news.”
■ Popular Information: “Trump’s spurious attacks on crime are working.”
■ A photo of vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz’s second cousins shows them trolling him ungrammatically.
‘Distressing.’ That’s a federal judge’s reaction to WBEZ’s discovery that an election conspiracy peddler exposed birthdates and home addresses online for more than 6 million Illinois voters—including dozens of federal and state judges* whose places of residence are legally protected.
■ The AP: A sprawling series of voting-related lawsuits in multiple states could cloud the outcome of November’s presidential contest.
‘Horrific and appalling.’ That’s how a Cook County Circuit Court judge describes the shooting and killing of four people on a CTA Blue Line train early Monday—a crime for which she ordered the suspect held behind bars.
■ Contrary to early reports, prosecutors say one of the victims was awake when the shooting started.
■ The crime was discovered by a CTA employee doing some routine cleaning when he inadvertently swept up a bullet casing from a car entrance and then looked inside to find the victims’ bodies.
■ The CTA’s surveillance cameras helped catch the suspect within 90 minutes.
■ Columnist Eric Zorn: The Blue Line murders constitute “such a horrific one-off that it should not figure into the debate about concealed-carry on trains.”
There were signs. More than a year ago, online threats of a school shooting prompted police to interview a boy who, they say, yesterday opened fire at his Georgia high school, killing four people—two students and two teachers—and wounding nine others.
■ They interviewed his father back then, too. (Link corrected.)
■ Columnist Charlie Madigan: “Is there no limit to our toleration for murdering schoolchildren?”
■ Law professor Joyce Vance: “Ever since the Supreme Court decided that individual Americans, not just the ‘well regulated militia’ the Second Amendment references, have a right to ‘keep and bear arms,’ our vulnerability to gun violence has exploded.”
■ A Sun-Times editorial: “More guns means more shootings. Many innocent victims have learned that lesson. It’s time the courts did, too.”
■ A coalition of news organizations is tracking every U.S. mass killing since 2006.
You’re gonna have to ask. Under an Illinois law aimed at cutting plastic waste, hotels here as of next July will be forbidden from offering complimentary and disposable little bottles of things such as shampoo and soap.
■ A new study concludes humanity is creating 57 million tons of plastic pollution yearly—enough to fill New York’s Central Park as high as the Empire State Building.
Comedy crackdown. Chicago’s Department of Business Affairs has shuttered an underground comedy and music venue that, for five years, has operated in a residential basement.
■ The enforcement followed posting last month of an Instagram video celebrating the venue.
Hungry for entertainment? Taste of Chicago returns tomorrow, accompanied by what Block Club declares “picture-perfect” weather.
■ Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper gives 3 1/2 stars to “a gorgeously filmed, beautifully cast and darkly funny series that knows exactly when to wrap things up in a shiny package,” Netflix’s murder mystery The Perfect Couple …
■ … and three stars to the sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
‘I apologize to the AP.’ As a number of readers kindly reported, a link in yesterday’s Chicago Public Square—to a Rick Perlstein column for The American Prospect—stopped working for a while. That’s because, as Perlstein explains, the original was based “on incorrect, incomplete and misleading accounts of what had actually taken place.”
■ Square always welcomes reports of bad or broken links—and any other errors.
■ Adrienne Smith made this edition better.
* One of whom is married to your Square columnist.