The Atlantic Politics & Policy Daily: Ready, Set, Joe

What We’re Following Today

It’s Friday, April 19.

(Michael Dwyer / AP)

Done Biden His Time: Former Vice President Joe Biden is running for president, reports Edward-Isaac Dovere. He’ll make it official with a video next week. But the campaign is still making key decisions, such as whether to make the announcement on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art or in Charlottesville, Virginia.

+ The progressive push toward campaign-finance purity is becoming more and more concerning for Democrats who don’t want the party to leave any money on the table ahead of the presidential election.

The Fallout From the Report: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler issued a subpoena to the Justice Department for the full report from Special Counsel Rober Mueller. The report, which came out yesterday, contained many redactions—and, writes Megan Garber, was full of revelations that managed to be simultaneously outrageous and thoroughly predictable.

Mueller’s report details multiple accounts of White House aides resisting President Donald Trump’s directives, often protecting him from his own worst instincts. But all the staffers who once defied him are gone now, and with them went the guardrails that keep Trump out of trouble. Another side effect of the Mueller findings, writes Ronald Brownstein, is that they’re likely to weaken the GOP’s position among college-educated, white-collar white voters.

The Real Immigration Crisis: No wall or fence will stop the largest source of illegal immigration, writes Krishnadev Calamur: People who overstay their visas. In the past 10 years, visa overstays in the U.S. have outnumbered border crossings by about 2 to 1.

Exit Interview: Trump has a point about free trade. John Bolton’s a “real professional.” And Jared Kushner is actually “extremely smart” but has “no guts.” Here’s what else the French ambassador to the U.S., retiring today, told Yara Bayoumy.

— Elaine Godfrey

Snapshot

A cardboard cutout of Attorney General William Barr in front of protest signs at the White House following the release of the Mueller report. (Carlos Barria / Reuters)

Ideas From The Atlantic

Mueller Helped Trump Keep His Most Important Secrets (David Frum)
“After all of Mueller’s hard work, the American people remain as unsure as ever about their president’s fundamental loyalty to this country. Mueller has joined with Trump to shove deeper into the shadows any answer to the most haunting question of the Trump era: What does the president owe, and to whom does he owe it?” → Read on.

What the Mueller Report Reveals About the Presidency (Bob Bauer)
“While it is true that prosecutors should prosecute crimes and not people, they rarely fail to be affected by evidence that the person under investigation routinely hatches criminally questionable schemes. The Mueller report certainly seems to support the proposition that a president can expect the benefit of the doubt in this respect.” → Read on.

(Edmon de Haro / The Atlantic)

Trump’s Second Term (Paul Starr)
“Trump’s reelection would leave the country contending with both dangers under the worst possible conditions, deeply alienated from friends abroad and deeply divided at home. The Supreme Court, furthermore, would be far out of line with public opinion and at the center of political conflict, much as the Court was in the 1930s before it relented on the key policies of the New Deal.” → Read on.

What Else We’re Reading

‣ Pete Buttigieg Fired South Bend’s Black Police Chief. It Still Stings. (Trip Gabriel and Alexander Burns, The New York Times)
‣ Democrats Are Hoping You Don’t Understand What ‘Impeachment’ Means (Alex Pareene, The New Republic)
‣ There Was No Russia Conspiracy. But Trump Is More Dangerous Than Ever. (Andrew Sullivan, New York)

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