I’m running desperately behind tonight, with election results already coming in for today’s primary elections in four states (New York, Maryland, Utah and runoffs in South Carolina. Noteworthy results on tomorrow’s show!) So, please forgive my terse summary of today’s BradCast! [Audio to full show follows below it.]
Among our stories of note…
- Just another reason why you shouldn’t trust a word that J.D. Vance and the lying Trump Administration tells you regarding ongoing peace talks with Iran unless Iran confirms it first.
- Rather than face the shame of watching another of his endorsed candidates lose (this time in today’s GOP Gubernatorial runoff in South Carolina), Donald Trump endorsed both candidates in the race in a last minute switcheroo. That story, and why the framing of this year’s primary results, to date, based around Trump’s endorsements is actually more important than you might think.
- The activist Republican U.S. Supreme Court majority, in another corrupt 6 to 3 ruling, helped to gut another of the last remaining elements of the Voting Rights Act on Monday. This time, it was the VRA’s Section 208 provision regarding disabled and non-English speaking/reading voters. More troubling: the ruling specifically regards a lower appellate court’s decision against a “private right of action” to enforce the VRA. Despite hundreds (thousands?) of cases brought by private citizen voters and voting rights groups to enforce the Act since its passage in 1965, the High Court has now given the okay to a lower appeals court (the only court in the nation so far to do so!), to completely toss a VRA challenge because it was not brought by the U.S. Attorney General!
- In much better voting news from the courts, also on a Monday: a U.S. District court judge blocked the Administration’s use of the SAVE database for supposedly identifying non-citizens and purging them from the voting roles, as the Trump Administration has unlawfully ordered. The judge found the Administration’s updated SAVE system results in the purging of lawful citizen voters and violates federal privacy laws regarding personal voter information in its combination of personal data from different government databases.
- A Republican dark money political action committee named Conservative America PAC has been spending millions of dollars to influence Democratic primary contests this season by passing money to “pop-up” PACs with left-ish sounding names like Real Change PAC and Lead Left. According to FEC data released late on Saturday night, those groups have been spending millions for or against certain Dems to influence who Republicans will run against in this November’s critical midterm elections.
- Some Senate Republicans — at least those who will soon be out of a job beginning next year, thanks to Trump — are planning to tell Trump during a Senate lunch on Wednesday to knock it off when it comes to his instance on passage of an election bill — a voter suppression bill named the SAVE Act. The votes to pass it don’t exist without killing the filibuster, which Republicans do not wish to do. (Probably smartly, in their case. Doing away with the filibuster would be great news for Dems if they ever win back a Senate majority.)
FINALLY, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, as oil price shocks loom despite ongoing peace talks with Iran; another record, deadly heat wave broils Europe; a huge new clean energy project goes online in New Mexico; the Trump Administration relents on plan to shut down a critical ocean monitoring system after strong bipartisan pushback…
The BradCast
with Brad Friedman
6/23/2026
The Horses Races AND The Track Conditions: ‘BradCast’ 6/23/2026 | The real reason Trump endorsements matter; SCOTUS v. VRA again; Judge blocks Admin vote suppression tool; GOP meddling in Dem primaries; Senate Repubs to finally stand up to Trump?... · · · · · The Horses Races AND The Track Conditions: ‘BradCast’ 6/23/2026 | The real reason Trump endorsements matter; SCOTUS v. VRA again; Judge blocks Admin vote suppression tool; GOP meddling in Dem primaries; Senate Repubs to finally stand up to Trump?...
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