Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will

Plus: Fani Willis takes the stand in Georgia.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testifies during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse on February 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Judge Scott McAfee is hearing testimony as to whether Willis and Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade should be disqualified from the case for allegedly lying about a personal relationship. (Photo by Alyssa Pointer-Pool/Getty Images.)

Breaking news this morning: Alexei Navalny, Russia’s foremost critic of the Vladimir Putin regime, has died in prison at the age of 47. After surviving a 2020 poisoning linked to Russian state agents, Navalny was convicted on trumped-up fraud charges in 2021 and had been in a penal colony ever since. In other Russia news, Tucker Carlson informs us the Moscow subways are very clean.

“The murder of Alexei Navalny by Putin reminds us of what is at stake in the struggle between free men and women and those who would crush them,” Bill tweets. “Who would crush us. And who have allies here in the United States who take the side of dictatorship against freedom.”

Happy Friday.

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Grounds for Optimism?

A friend emailed yesterday: “A little depressing so far, your morning missives, but I’ve been enjoying them.”

It’s nice to hear he’s been enjoying these missives. (I kind of like “missives.” Maybe we should call this Morning Missives?) But I was a bit taken aback by his judgment that they’ve been “a little depressing.”

I mean, I’m a cheerful guy. Sometimes even an LOL kind of guy. I wasn’t aiming to be depressing.

Now, I suppose it’s true that on Monday I pointed out Joe Biden could lose. It’s true that on Tuesday I noted that Trump seemed to be paying little political price for being on the wrong side of our two most important challenges–authoritarianism at home and Putin abroad. It’s true that on Wednesday I didn’t interpret the Suozzi special election victory quite as bullishly as some did. It’s true that on Thursday I lamented the debilitating fatalism of our political culture.

It’s also true that this week I recorded a conversation with Democratic strategist Doug Sosnik, in which we focused on the real possibility that Trump will win as well as the deeper dysfunctions of our political system.

And for today I was thinking that I’d highlight a very interesting article in Vox that warns of another impending crisis:

Camembert . . . is on the ‘verge of extinction,’ according to the French National Center for Scientific Research. Other cheeses, including brie and various blues, are under threat, too, the group has warned. This looming cheese crisis stems from a much bigger problem: a collapse in microbial diversity.

Now that is terrible news. I like those cheeses. And we don’t seem to be coming to grips with this crisis . . .

Wait a minute. This is going off track. I was supposed to be pushing back against the claim that I’m being a little depressing, not just reporting another depressing item. So just put that alarming cheese crisis bearing down on all of us out of your mind.

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There are grounds for optimism. And I’ll spend the weekend thinking of some. Alas, I’m running out of my allotted space in this missive.

But I will offer one parting thought, a formulation I’ve always liked credited to the early 20th century Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci: “Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.” One can be realistic and yet hopeful. One can be sober about challenges yet still inspired to take them on.

Of course, I could add that Gramsci died, at age 46, in prison in Mussolini’s Italy, a couple of years before World War II. But I don’t want to end on a note that’s a little depressing!

And of course the United States of 2024 is not the Italy of the 1930s. Yet.

 —William Kristol  

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Fani Willis Takes the Stand

NBC News reports:  

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Thursday lashed out at a defense lawyer as she began testifying before a judge who is considering whether to disqualify her from prosecuting Donald Trump on election interference charges.

On two occasions, Judge Scott McAfee warned Willis that he would have to strike her testimony if she continued to interrupt the questioner.

The D.A.’s extremely tense testimony came hours into a hearing focused on allegations that Willis personally benefited from her romantic relationship with attorney Nathan Wade, one of the top prosecutors in the criminal case.

Willis and Wade have denied that their relationship began prior to November 2021, when Wade became special prosecutor. Before Willis took the stand, however, a witness alleged that the relationship began years before Wade joined the case.

The timeline is key to arguments over whether the prosecutors’ relationship presents a conflict of interest warranting their disqualification from the criminal case.

Kim Wehle, our resident crack legal mind, argues the Willis/Wade sidebar is more smoke than fire: “Although Fani Willis’s relationship with the man she hired for such an important case shows exceedingly poor judgment,” she wrote in The Bulwark last week, “it’s unlikely to get her removed from the case.” Under Georgia law, that would require the defense to be able to demonstrate “an actual conflict of interest” that would make it difficult for Willis to faithfully execute her duties—say, if she had previously represented the defendant herself. 

At Thursday’s hearing, prosecutors initially seemed content to play conservatively, planning to attempt to block Willis from having to testify. Suddenly, though, it seemed Willis herself had had enough: She announced to the court she would oblige the defense and take the stand. “I’m ready to go,” she said.

In a lengthy cross-examination, Willis answered question after question about her own conduct. (More on both the specific allegations and her responses here.) But she also seemed to relish the opportunity, in her role as witness, to finally give defense attorneys an unfettered piece of her mind.

“You’re confused,” she fired at defense lawyer Ashleigh Merchant at one point. “You think I’m on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020.”’

And her scorn was palpable when defense lawyers characterized her as an “adverse witness”: “Miss Merchant’s interests are contrary to democracy,” she sneered, “not to mine.”

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Willis’s contempt for the whole exercise seemed genuine—it may even have been justified. “Folks may not like Fani Willis’ demeanor but this is really a legal question with an audience of one: Judge McAfee,” law professor Anthony Michael Kreis tweeted. “Willis is doing what she needs to right now.”

But it also gave Trump allies the opening they needed to move the conversation of the trial to their preferred playing field—not a legal conversation about whether Trump violated Georgia laws, but a political fight with Trump on one side, Willis on the other.

“They’re talking about the Georgia ‘Fani Scandal’ all over the World,” Trump gloated in a late-night Truth Social post. “In fact, by far, it is trending #1. I can’t believe the Georgia State Judiciary, or the Governor, can be happy about this humiliating embarrassment. It was a FAKE CASE from the start, and now everybody sees it for what it is, a MAJOR LEAGUE SCANDAL!”

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Catching up . . .

• Ex-F.B.I. informant is charged with lying over Biden’s role in Ukraine’s business: New York Times

• Robert Hur, special counsel in Biden documents case, to testify before Congress on March 12: CBS News

• How McConnell and Schumer became Ukraine-aid allies: Politico

• Trump’s first criminal trial set for March in New York on hush money charges: Washington Post

• Antony Blinken’s family is the latest target of Washington’s ugliest protest trend: Politico

• Biden defends deadly Afghanistan withdrawal—doesn’t think anyone made a mistake: Axios

• Federal regulators are probing whether Cash App leaves door open to money launderers, terrorists: NBC News

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Quick Hits

1. Bulwark Principles

Bill and Andrew joined JVL and Heath Mayo on the first Thursday Night Bulwark since their Morning Shots takeover to discuss the news of the week and next week’s Principles First summit. Bulwark Plus subscribers can watch here:

2. A Conversation with Doug Sosnik

Bill alluded above to his Conversations podcast with Democratic strategist Doug Sosnik, which was released yesterday. Sosnik offered a number of insights on the political obstacles ahead for both Biden and Trump, as well as our locked-in partisan divide. Here’s Sosnik: 

I’ll just tell you a quick story. When Trump was president, I used to go speak to Democratic groups, and in the Q&A they’d say, “I don’t understand why these non-college voters are voting for Trump. The economic policies of Trump favor the rich. Why are these idiots supporting him?” Then I’d go to a Republican group, and they would say, “I don’t understand these young college graduates. The economic opportunities have never been greater for them since Trump became president. Why aren’t they supporting Trump?”

And the answer for both groups is the same, which is: This is much more deep-seated, about who you are as a person, what your values are. That does correlate to education, but it’s much deeper than that. And so as a result of that, if you believe that, it shows you why it’s so difficult to get out of this relatively evenly divided country.

Listen to the whole thing.

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3. The Greatest to Ever Do It 

As an Iowa sports guy, Andrew couldn’t get through this newsletter without acknowledging Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, who last night passed Kelsey Plum to become the all-time leading scorer in NCAA women’s basketball history. Here’s the moment, and here’s a nifty video infographic of all her collegiate buckets so far.

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