The Full Belmonte, 6/14/2023
Trump's second not-guilty plea
Trump waves as he exits the Miami courthouse after his plea. Screenshot: CNN
“Former President Trump pleaded not guilty this afternoon at a Miami federal courthouse to 37 charges related to retaining classified information and obstruction of justice.
Why it matters: Trump is the first current or former president in U.S. history to be prosecuted on federal criminal charges.
He's vowed to continue his campaign to return to the White House, even as he faces charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life.
A mug shot was not taken when Trump was booked today, and cameras were banned inside the courtroom.
Reality check: Republican voters remain overwhelmingly loyal to Trump despite these charges and his other legal woes, per recent polls, Axios' Erin Doherty and April Rubin write.
He remains the GOP's 2024 front-runner.
Screenshot: Fox News
Above: Trump made a stop at Miami's iconic Cuban restaurant Versailles after leaving the courthouse. He addressed supporters, and Walt Nauta — the body man was also indicted as Trump's co-conspirator — was there, alongside other staff.
What’s next: Trump will travel to New Jersey for a planned fundraiser. He is expected to deliver remarks around 8 p.m. ET at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.” [Axios]
What to know about Trump’s Florida arraignment
Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
“Tuesday, former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to federal charges related to classified documents he held onto after leaving the White House.” [Vox / Nicole Narea and Li Zhou]
“A federal grand jury indicted Trump on 37 felony counts, including willful retention of national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act, conspiracy to commit obstruction, and making false statements to investigators.”[Vox][Associated Press]
“The indictment alleges Trump not only held onto the sensitive documents, but also kept them in unsecured locations, and shared the details of at least two with people lacking proper security clearances.” [Vox / Andrew Prokop]
“Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon is set to preside over the trial and will influence important decisions like jury selection and what evidence special counsel Jack Smith presents to jurors.” [Vox / Ian Millhiser]
Southern Baptists Move to Purge Churches With Female Pastors
Some conservatives in the evangelical denomination fear a liberal drift, and are set to vote on a strict ban against women in church leadership. Two churches are appealing their expulsions.
“The letter in October came as a shock to Linda Barnes Popham, who had been the pastor of Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., for 30 years, the first woman to lead her congregation. She had served in ministry even longer, since she started as a pianist at age 16.
But now, she read in the letter, officials of the Southern Baptist Convention had received a complaint about her church being led by a woman. The denomination was investigating, it said.
She replied at length, listing her qualifications and her church’s interpretation of the Bible that affirmed her eligibility to lead. Church deacons, including men, rallied to her defense.
Convention officials decided to expel her church anyway, along with four other congregations that have female pastors, including one of the most prominent in the country, Saddleback Church, based in Southern California.
‘I never believed this would happen,’ Ms. Barnes Popham said of the move to expel her church, as she prepared to appeal the expulsion on Tuesday afternoon before thousands of delegates at the annual S.B.C. convention in New Orleans. ‘Why would you want to silence the voices of the faithful churches? Why?’
However the delegates vote on her appeal, the larger message is clear: There is a movement in the Southern Baptist Convention, a denomination that is often a bellwether for evangelical America, to purge women from its leadership.
The right wing of the Southern Baptists, the largest Protestant denomination in America, is now — like conservatives more broadly — cracking down on what it sees as dangerous liberal drift. Most people in the denomination have long believed that the office of head pastor should be reserved for men. But an ultraconservative faction with a loud online presence is going further, pressing for ideological purity and arguing that female pastors are a precursor to acceptance of homosexuality and sexual immorality.
Some ultraconservatives are now pushing for investigations and expulsions of the churches whose practices differ, like Fern Creek.
The fight over the place of women in the church, long contentious, has been escalating as American evangelicalism increasingly fuses with Republican politics and a vocal ultraconservative minority pushes for power….” Read more at New York Times
Inflation fell in May to around half last year’s peak.
“The consumer-price index rose 4% last month from a year earlier, well below the recent peak of 9.1% last June and down from April’s 4.9% increase, the Labor Department said. Don’t start dancing in the streets yet, though. Inflation is still elevated, which means the Fed has cooled price pressures some, but the job isn’t done yet. Central bank officials are meeting today and tomorrow to decide whether to pause interest-rate increases after raising them aggressively. The Fed, which wants inflation at 2%, could signal that even if rates hold steady this month, it is prepared to lift them again this year.” [Wall Street Journal]
“On Monday, Illinois became the first state to outlaw book bans after Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill withholding state funding from libraries attempting to ban books.” [Vox] [The Hill / Sarah Fortinsky]
Smoke hits Congress
Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
“Western lawmakers whose constituencies have long dealt with wildfires are using last week’s smoke crisis to propel new legislation, Axios' Andrew Solender reports.
Why it matters: The smoke enveloping the Northeast made it ever clearer to Congress that climate change — once seen as a regional issue — is quickly becoming a national one.
‘For the first time, non-Western members are proactively engaging us on wildfire policy,’ Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) told Axios.
Peters, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) plan to introduce legislation to help establish public clean-air centers and distribute air-filtration units to certain households in affected areas.
The Cleaner Air Spaces Act, a copy of which was obtained by Axios, directs the EPA to provide grants of up to $3 million to state and local air-pollution agencies and community organizations.” [Axios]
Instant Pot maker seeks bankruptcy protection as sales go cold
“The maker of Pyrex glassware and Instant Pot has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as the company that was already struggling is stung by inflation, with Americans pulling back on spending.
According to a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas this week, Instant Brands, based outside of Chicago, has more than $500 million in both assets and liabilities.
Inflation has buffeted consumers after a pandemic-fueled binge on goods for the home, but spending has also moved elsewhere as people are again able to travel, or go to restaurants and shows.
And Instant Pots, which became a must-have gadget several years ago, have been disappearing from kitchens.
Sales of ‘electronic multicooker devices,’ most of which are Instant Pots, reached $758 million in 2020, the start of the pandemic. Sales had plunged 50% by last year, to $344 million.
Dollar and unit sales have declined 20% from last year in the period ending in April, according to the market research company NPD Group….” Read more at AP News
Can a chatbot preach a good sermon? Hundreds attend church service generated by ChatGPT to find out
By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER
People attend a church service in Nuremberg, Germany, Friday, June 9, 2023. Hundreds of German Protestants have attended a church service in Bavaria that was generated almost entirely by artificial intelligence. The service was created by ChatGPT and Jonas Simmerlein, a theologian and philosopher from the University of Vienna. The ChatGPT chatbot, personified by different avatars on a huge screen above the altar, led the more than 300 people through 40 minutes of prayer, music, sermons and blessings. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
“FUERTH, Germany (AP) — The artificial intelligence chatbot asked the believers in the fully packed St. Paul’s church in the Bavarian town of Fuerth to rise from the pews and praise the Lord.
The ChatGPT chatbot, personified by an avatar of a bearded Black man on a huge screen above the altar, then began preaching to the more than 300 people who had shown up on Friday morning for an experimental Lutheran church service almost entirely generated by AI.
‘Dear friends, it is an honor for me to stand here and preach to you as the first artificial intelligence at this year’s convention of Protestants in Germany,’ the avatar said with an expressionless face and monotonous voice.
The 40-minute service — including the sermon, prayers and music — was created by ChatGPT and Jonas Simmerlein, a theologian and philosopher from the University of Vienna.
‘I conceived this service — but actually I rather accompanied it, because I would say about 98% comes from the machine,’ the 29-year-old scholar told The Associated Press.
The AI church service was one of hundreds of events at the convention of Protestants in the Bavarian towns of Nuremberg and the neighboring Fuerth, and it drew such immense interest that people formed a long queue outside the 19th-century, neo-Gothic building an hour before it began.
The convention itself — Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag in German — takes place every two years in the summer at a different place in Germany and draws tens of thousands of believers to pray, sing and discuss their faith. They also talk about current world affairs and look for solutions to key issues, which this year included global warming, the war in Ukraine — and artificial intelligence….” Read more at AP News
Golden Knights blast Panthers 9-3 in Game 5 to capture first Stanley Cup title
By MARK ANDERSON
Members of the Vegas Golden Knights pose with the Stanley Cup after the Knights defeated the Florida Panthers 9-3 in Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals Tuesday, June 13, 2023, in Las Vegas. The Knights won the series 4-1. (AP Photo/John Locher)
“LAS VEGAS (AP) — Golden Knights games have always been as flashy as any show on the Las Vegas Strip, the sword-fighting mascot taking the ice before what seems like a legion of players marching out through the mirrored entrance into the roar of the crowd.
If this team was ever going to win the Stanley Cup, it was going to do it with Vegas flash.
The Knights delivered just that from dazzling passes to Mark Stone’s hat trick to all-out goal celebrations, capturing the young organization’s first title with a 9-3 romp over the beaten up and exhausted Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.
Coach Bruce Cassidy, in a nod to the Knights’ brief history, started five of the original Vegas players known as the Misfits and put the sixth on the second shift. Cassidy sounded confident the day before the game that his team would play well, and it certainly did, blowing open a one-goal game in the second period to lead 6-1. The nine goals tied the record for the most in a Cup Final….” Read more at AP News
Cormac McCarthy at a premiere for the film adaption of his novel, "The Road," in 2009. Photo: Jimi Celeste/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
“Cormac McCarthy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and an icon in American fiction, died in his Santa Fe home today. He was 89. More from The Washington Post.” [Axios]