The Daily Wrap Up

9 June, 2026

Sleepy Donald with New York Knicks owner James Dolan at Game 3 of the NBA Finals on June 8. Photo Credit: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

[ Transcript edited for clarity, flow and length]

It was supposed to be one of the most highly anticipated playoff games in New York City history.

Everybody was ecstatic. Thousands of New Yorkers lined up for watch parties or tried to get into Madison Square Garden. The Knicks were appearing in the NBA playoffs for the first time in twenty seven years. They have not won a championship since 1973, when I was a tiny child.

And then, at the last minute, Donald decided he wanted to come to the game.

Granted, the awful owner of the Knicks invited him, but nobody, and I promise you this is an accurate statement, nobody else wanted him there.

Block parties around Madison Square Garden for fans who could not afford tickets were canceled so the Secret Service could secure the area. People who had paid a minimum of $8000 a ticket were forced to wait for hours and go through TSA style checkpoints just to get inside.

To nobody’s surprise except Donald’s, he was booed mercilessly by the New York crowd when his image appeared on the jumbotron during the national anthem.

That is exactly what Donald deserved.

Also, Donald is not an active duty service member and has never served a day in his life. He has no business saluting the flag during the national anthem.

Then, in the middle of the game, as Knicks fans cheered their team on, Donald appeared to settle in for yet another nap. He was clearly riveted.

No, I apologize. Donald was not napping at the Knicks game.

You know what that was?

That was his conscious mind shutting down because he could not bear the deep narcissistic wound of knowing that an entire city he spent his life trying to impress rejected him emphatically and loudly.

His appearance, and yes, I am absolutely going to blame him for this, brought the New York Knicks’ thirteen game winning streak to an end.

So thank you, Donald. And stay out of our city.

---

Now, I want to turn to a story that should be much bigger than it is.

Donald and others in his inner circle are claiming that California’s elections are rigged after his preferred candidate, Republican reality television personality Spencer Pratt, fell behind in the Los Angeles mayoral race and appears headed for a third place finish.

This conspiracy theory is clearly an effort to soften the ground for contesting a potential loss in the 2026 midterm elections.

This is what House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN’s Manu Raju:

I’m not saying it’s rigged. I’m saying it stinks to high heaven and everybody knows that. Let’s remove the appearance of impropriety. Let’s have votes on Election Day. That’s what many states are able to do. I think California is playing around with this.

When asked what evidence existed to support that claim, Johnson responded:

Some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream it is impossible to prove, but I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here and that’s a concern. We need people to believe in the integrity of our election system.

Oh, sure.

We need people to believe in the integrity of elections by lying about how rigged they are whenever Republicans lose. Apparently, we do not need proof. We are simply supposed to trust Mike Johnson’s instincts. Of course, Mike Johnson may be as big a liar as Donald Trump, which is really saying something.

Let’s remember what they would have us believe.

Los Angeles is one of the bluest cities in the country, probably second only to New York City.

Karen Bass, the incumbent mayor, finished first in the primary and would advance to a runoff against the candidate who finished second.

That race was between a progressive Democratic challenger and the aforementioned completely unqualified Spencer Pratt.

According to polling, Bass would have comfortably defeated Spencer Pratt in a head to head race.

Instead, she now trails her Democratic challenger by four points.

It seems pretty ridiculous to suggest that the incumbent mayor somehow wanted to engineer a runoff against another Democrat who has a better chance of beating her in the general election.

Nevertheless, that is exactly what this Republican Party wants people to believe.

Unfortunately, the Speaker of the House is not alone in pushing this nonsense about election integrity.

This is what Senator Ron Johnson said:

There was so much evidence of irregularities in the 2020 election, but all you have to do is say there is no evidence, there is no proof. There are all kinds of irregularities that occur. The fact that California still cannot call the race days after the election...

When challenged on the lack of proof, he continued:

People that do things cover it up. I am getting very tired of this. There is no evidence. There is no proof. There are tons of evidence. There are tons of irregularities. We need to take them seriously because what is absolutely true is Americans on both sides do not have confidence in our elections. That is unsustainable.

Americans on both sides do not have confidence in the integrity of American elections anymore because of people like Ron Johnson.

By the way, Ron, you are losing your Senate seat because Donald endorsed your corrupt opponent. So what exactly are you doing?

We are apparently supposed to trust people like Ron Johnson, who absolutely and unequivocally refuse to show us any proof while simultaneously eroding Americans’ faith in free and fair elections.

JD Vance, remember him? I believe he is still vice president, has also joined the chorus.

Vance: Fundamentally the problem here is that Karen Bass was in first place, Spencer Pratt was in second place and this other woman was in third place. You would expect these mail in ballots to follow that same pattern. But somehow they are still receiving ballots and the way they are coming in just so happens to work out so that the Republican gets kicked out of the final two and it is a Democrat versus Democrat runoff. That seems pretty shady to me.

Okay.

The City of Los Angeles has roughly four million people. Los Angeles County has nearly ten million people. A lot of votes were cast.

The other candidate, Nythia Robin, pulled ahead because the districts reporting later voted for her at higher rates than they voted for Spencer Pratt.

It really is that simple. That is precisely how statisticians can project elections before every vote has been counted. They follow trends.

For JD Vance, Mike Johnson, and Ron Johnson to pretend otherwise simply demonstrates how willing they are to lie to the American people in order to undermine confidence in election results.

So where is all of this coming from? You know the expression, the fish rots from the head.

During an interview with Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press over the weekend, Donald was asked a remarkably simple question.

If California’s election is rigged, where is the evidence?

Rather than respond like an adult, which he is incapable of doing, Donald threw a tantrum. He shouted at Welker, berated her, threw his microphone on the floor, stepped on it, and stormed away like a toddler.

Donald: The election was rigged. It was a dirty election and it is happening again right now in California. Look at what is happening in California. Four days and they are not even close to coming up with the totals. That is how they count the votes. You know why they are doing that? Because they are cheating on the election.

When Kristen Welker asked whether he had any evidence, Donald replied:

All I have to do is look. All I have to do is listen. Let us see what happens.

When she pointed out that looking is not evidence, Donald continued:

They are crooked. You are crooked. Your press is crooked and Meet the Press is crooked.

When Welker attempted to continue the interview, Donald concluded:

You are either crooked or you are stupid. You play right into their hands with this. You know these elections are rigged.

That is now what it means to be presidential.

I think it is time we stop putting up with this nonsense and elect people who take responsibility for their actions and speak a complete sentence without lying.

Clearly we are not there yet.

But there is always hope.