It was big news at the time. Shortly after the Aug. 8, 2022, FBI raid to seize classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, the winter home of former President Donald Trump, Democrats in Congress asked the intelligence community to do a "damage assessment." In a letter to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) cited news reports about the classification levels of the documents, including one sensational Washington Post story that Trump held documents concerning nuclear weapons. "At least one report indicates that the FBI's investigation focused in part on highly classified documents 'relating to nuclear weapons,' which are among our nation's most closely guarded secrets," they wrote. "If this report is true, it is hard to overstate the national security danger that could emanate from the reckless decision to remove and retain this material."

This newsletter has written previously about the fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to the crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border. When confronted with more than 2 million illegal border crossers overwhelming U.S. authorities on the border last year — and 250,000 more crossers last month indicates the figure will be even higher this year — Republicans want to find a way to stop, or dramatically reduce, the flow. Democrats want to accommodate it.

On Sept. 23, 2022, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), then the House Minority Leader, traveled to Pennsylvania to unveil the GOP's midterm campaign platform, the Commitment to America. The document was a "plan for a new direction," McCarthy said. "We want to roll it out to you, to the entire country, so you know exactly what we will do if you would trust us and give us the ability to take a new direction for this country."

On Monday evening came one of those stories that seem almost too convenient to be true. CBS News reported that Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a U.S. attorney to investigate classified documents found in an office used by President Joe Biden after he left the vice presidency.

Republicans have spent two years demanding that President Joe Biden visit the U.S.-Mexico border. They wanted Biden to face the real-world consequences of his border policy and the burden it has placed on people not only in the border states but around the country. Now, the GOP has gotten its wish; Biden visited the border at El Paso, Texas, on Sunday. But there is bad news: The president used the occasion of his border visit to make things even worse.