◼ Republicans gathered in Alabama for the fourth and perhaps final presidential debate of the 2024 primaries. The event benefited from having fewer candidates than the previous debates and from the fact that its moderators included Megyn Kelly and NR alum and Washington Free Beacon editor Eliana Johnson—who both knew when to let the participants fight and when to move on. Nikki Haley came under fire early on for her previous call to ban anonymous accounts from social media and for saying that gender transitioning of minors should be allowed with parental consent. She walked back both positions. Chris Christie defended Haley when she was attacked by Vivek Ramaswamy, whom he slammed as “the most obnoxious blowhard in America.” Christie portrayed himself as the most honest about the faults of absent front-runner Donald Trump and the dangers of Trump’s vow to seek retribution in a second term. He smacked Ron DeSantis for being unwilling to say outright that Trump is unfit for office. The Florida governor did argue that Trump is too old. The debate clarified some differences among the four candidates. But once again it was difficult to imagine that all the shouting had any impact on the race when the candidate up 50 points nationally was not on stage.

◼ Two federal courts in Washington, D.C., rebuffed Donald Trump’s claims of immunity from lawsuits concerning his actions leading up to the Capitol riot. An appellate panel ruled that three civil suits brought by some police officers and congressional Democrats can go forward, at least for now. Of greater consequence, Judge Tanya Chutkan held that Trump may be prosecuted criminally for acts taken within the outer ambit of his presidential duties. The Supreme Court has never ruled on this question, but Chutkan, an Obama appointee, reasonably applied the Court’s relevant precedents. Chutkan’s timing was as important as the ruling’s substance. Trump’s strategy is to delay: to string the cases out until after Election Day in hopes that a new Republican attorney general (appointed by him) will dismiss the criminal indictments before they can be tried. Knowing that the immunity issue could be appealed, Chutkan expedited briefing and ruled quickly. Trump will appeal. Unless the Supreme Court intervenes (unlikely), the criminal trial is on track to start March 4—the day before Super Tuesday.

◼ “MSNBC (MSDNC) uses FREE government approved airwaves, and yet it is nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE.” So wrote Donald J. Trump, on his Truth Social. “Our so-called ‘government’ should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity. Much more to come, watch!” Everyone interested in the Bill of Rights, including its first amendment, should indeed watch.

◼ Bipartisan majorities of Congress want to continue funding Ukraine’s defense, but it’s still in doubt that a new aid package will be approved. At issue is the amount of funding, what transparency and accountability provisions are appropriate, and how to satisfy demands that the funding be coupled with policies to address illegal immigration across the southern U.S. border. To dump Ukraine now would be an egregious abandonment of our ally and an act of strategic self-sabotage, in exchange for relatively small fiscal savings. Many Republicans demand that H.R. 2, the strongest immigration-enforcement bill ever passed by a chamber of Congress, be included in any Ukraine package, but Senate Democrats are insurmountably opposed. A more achievable immigration goal would involve serious restrictions on the parole of unauthorized migrants and mandates for more detention space for them. Congress has an opportunity to make progress on two important goals. It would be remarkably short-sighted not to take it, but, since this is Congress, failure is always an option.

◼ With a few short social-media posts declaring that “Obamacare sucks” and that he was “seriously looking for alternatives,” Donald Trump revived the dormant debate over repealing the Affordable Care Act. If they regain congressional control and the presidency, Republicans should not be caught flat-footed on health care as they were in 2017, when they had no clear plan to repeal and replace the law despite having campaigned in four elections on promises to do just that. With parts of Obamacare already repealed and other parts now entrenched, it would be a mistake to frame the conversation in terms of that law alone. Instead, Republicans should seek a health-care system that is more decentralized, patient-centered, and efficient—and be willing to undo aspects of Obamacare that get in the way of achieving those goals. Obamacare herded millions of people into Medicaid and imposed rules on insurance that make it unaffordable for many. A better system would leave more room for market innovation and offer more coverage choices. The debate over Obamacare may be stale, but Washington still doesn’t know best.

◼ Government unions want to turn back the clock in Wisconsin. They filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Act 10, the 2011 law that reformed collective bargaining for most public employees. They argue it violates equal protection because it exempts public-safety unions from its provisions. In principle, there should be no exemptions. But then-governor Scott Walker explained at the time that he wanted to avoid seeing prison guards or police officers go on strike during the battle to pass the law. In 2013, a federal appeals court upheld the law: “Distinguishing between public safety unions and general employee unions may have been a poor choice, but it is not unconstitutional.” Wisconsin’s supreme court also upheld the law in 2014. What changed so that unions are bringing this lawsuit now? Janet Protasiewicz, a progressive who participated in protests against Act 10 and signed the petition that led to Walker’s recall as governor, is now on the court, giving left-leaning justices the balance of power. If the progressive majority uses this lawsuit to invent a right for government employees to collectively bargain, it would be a disaster for Wisconsin’s taxpayers.

◼ When Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland decided they ought to be in NATO, pronto. Finland is already in. Sweden is delayed—blocked so far by Erdoğan’s Turkey and Orbán’s Hungary. In Sweden, there have been instances of Koran-burning, and Denmark has experienced a rash as well. Analysts have long suspected a Russian hand behind these episodes. Finnish media are now reporting that Finnish intelligence has uncovered concrete evidence of a Kremlin plan to foment disruptions. It involves Koran-burning, anti-Islamic and anti-Erdoğan graffiti, etc. The Kremlin’s efforts did not succeed in Finland, but Sweden is still suffering the consequences of them. It is wrong to look for a Russian under every bed. It is equally wrong—stupid, naïve—to ignore the Kremlin’s propensity for machinations, long-standing.

◼ Nicolás Maduro wants, and is pressing forward with, a dangerous campaign to seize the natural-resource-rich Guyanese territory of Essequibo. His government held a referendum recently to drum up popular support for annexing the territory and claimed victory. A successful Venezuelan invasion of Guyana would strip the latter of more than half its territory, throw the region into chaos, and threaten U.S. oil companies in the region. The Biden administration’s accommodation of Maduro—lifting oil sanctions in exchange for empty promises to hold free elections—has only encouraged threats and aggression. And so yet another war may soon begin.

◼ Out-of-context image, snap judgment, mass condemnation: By the time facts show that the whole proceeding was baseless, the damage is already done. It’s grievous for anyone to be subjected to this treatment, and it’s especially unjust for the young. The malicious media-driven contretemps over then–high schooler Nick Sandmann at the 2019 March for Life was illustrative of such injustice. Now we have Holden Armenta. Carron J. Phillips, a senior writer for Deadspin, spotted the nine-year-old dressed in team garb and sporting face paint at a Kansas City Chiefs game. Phillips decided to try to make an example of Armenta as a racist by posting a picture that showed only the half of his face that was painted black. But the other half was red, and the face paint was identical to that of countless Chiefs fans over the years. If it matters, Armenta also has Native American ancestry—for real, not like Elizabeth Warren. Phillips weakly defended himself but, amid a welcome backlash, deleted an accusatory tweet and updated his article. Armenta’s parents are threatening to sue (a respect in which the Sandmann precedent may be useful). Sooner or later, the false-outrage playbook will be played out.

◼ Norman Lear, longtime television producer, was an early contributor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns. In January 1971 his sitcom All in the Family introduced the Bunkers, bigoted Archie and his flighty wife Edith, and their liberal daughter and son-in-law, to the public. What did this have to do with Donald Trump? Nothing—except identifying, and shaming, his future fan base. Archie was the original deplorable: aggrieved, surly, cantankerously right-wing. Many of the show’s many viewers probably sympathized with him, especially since his younger family members, who were the show’s moral mouthpieces, were so dull. But Archie was meant to be a boob. He was presented as America’s underside. This was new for sitcoms: Earlier hits showed American family life as cozy, or zany. Various responses to the liberal indictment are possible; Trump’s is to give the middle finger. Lear produced many more shows; ran a liberal pressure group, People for the American Way; and, admirably, owned an early printing of the Declaration of Independence. Dead at 101, R.I.P.

◼ Sandra Day O’Connor made history in 1981 when Ronald Reagan chose her to be the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. She came a long way in an impressive and inspiring life, from growing up on a cattle ranch without running water or electricity, to entering Stanford at age 16, to rising in the ranks of a profession so closed to women that upon graduating law school she couldn’t get a job in the field. Even her fiercest critics did not have a bad word to say about her personally. Her retirement in 2005 to care for her husband, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s, made history in a different way, leaving the Court for the first time in its history without a justice who had served in elected office (O’Connor had been a state senator in Arizona). There are times when the Court could use that perspective. For all that was admirable about O’Connor, however, she was ultimately a disappointment on the Court, most notably in decisions, such as Planned Parenthood v. Casey and Grutter v. Bollinger, that placed supposedly pragmatic compromise on hot-button issues above fidelity to constitutional text—and made the Court’s job more taxing when it finally stood up for the primacy of the Constitution. O’Connor has died at the age of 93. R.I.P.

◼ General Julius W. Becton Jr., of the U.S. Army, saw combat in three wars: WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. He was on a base in Maryland in the summer of 1948 when President Truman issued his order desegregating the military. (Becton was black.) The base commander announced that the president’s order would change nothing. But things did indeed change. Becton became the first black American to command an Army corps. After he retired from the military, President Reagan made him the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Becton then became president of his alma mater, Prairie View A&M University, in Texas. Still later, he agreed to serve as the superintendent of the Washington, D.C., public schools. He did his best for a year and a half—addressing such basic problems as crumbling school buildings—and then quit in frustration. But General Becton had rendered enough service in his long life. He has died at 97. In an interview, he praised the U.S. Army as a meritocracy. “We worked hard,” he said, speaking of black soldiers. “We knew what we had to do. We had our jobs to prepare for, and we advanced in the ranks and were respected for what we did. Not because we were black, but because we were good at what we did.” R.I.P.