Come for Morning Wire’s Afternoon Update’s straight news, but stay for the Rapid Reactions The following five stories, and more, can be heard on today’s Morning Wire Afternoon Update podcast. Click here to listen. 

1. More Charges For Trump

Special Counsel Jack Smith expanded the charges against former President Trump on Thursday evening in the classified documents case — adding new charges and one additional defendant. Read here.

The new “superseding indictment” accuses Trump of asking a Mar-a-Lago employee named Carlos De Oliveria to delete surveillance footage “to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury.”  The charges allege Trump, Trump aide Walter Nauta, and De Oliveira “did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with each other and with others known and unknown to the grand jury, to engage in misleading conduct.” De Oliveira will be arraigned on Monday in Miami. 

Rapid Reaction: How did Republicans respond to this? Well, after the new superseding indictment came down, the Senate passed a defense bill that still funds abortion tourism with many Republican supporters. As rumors flew that another indictment was coming, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) tamped down expectations that he would impeach President Joe Biden anytime soon:

Kevin McCarthy on possible Biden impeachment: "If [Biden administration] do not provide the information we need, then we would go to an impeachment inquiry." @SpeakerMcCarthy pic.twitter.com/S3n4pyjSPT

— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) July 27, 2023

So in short, the GOP leadership didn’t exactly flex their political muscle in response.

There is at least one GOP senator pushing back. Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio is still pledging to block all Department of Justice nominees until Biden ends the “harassment” of his political opponents.

As Republican strategist Aaron Surabian said, “This is the way.”

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“If the Biden Administration wants to use the DOJ to target their political opponents, then blocking all of Biden’s DOJ nominations is the proper response,” he added. “Glad that there’s at least one Republican Senator who understands how to fight.”

There are other Republicans fighting the weaponization, of course, but Vance’s speech on the topic is worth the watch:

This is the way. If the Biden Administration wants to use the DOJ to target their political opponents, then blocking all of Biden’s DOJ nominations is the proper response. Glad that there’s at least one Republican Senator who understands how to fight – @JDVance1 https://t.co/3Pap2PQ2l2

— Andrew Surabian (@Surabees) July 27, 2023

2. Bud Light Laying Off 400 Workers

Anheuser Busch — the makers of Bud Light — have announced they are laying off 2% of the company’s 19,000 employees, which means nearly 400 workers. The layoffs come months after Bud Light was replaced by Modelo as America’s number one beer as measured by sales (not volume). Since Anhueuer-Busch’s collaboration with Dylan Mulvaney back in April, the corporation has lost $27 billion in market value and has taken a hit on its popularity dropping to 15th — well behind Corona, Guinness, and Samuel Adams, according to a YouGov poll.

Rapid Reaction: There’s a phenomenal Reader’s Pass piece covering how conservatives — not liberals — are the ones who effectively wield boycotts. This is more proof of that thesis. Of course, seeing somebody lose their job is never fun. But, if companies want to continue to push their political views onto the American people, there are going to be consequences to their bottom line.

3. Missouri Sued For Protecting Children

Missouri has been sued over its law that bans sex change procedures from being performed on children, making it the latest Republican-led state to face a challenge over a law shielding children from transgender procedures. The lawsuit, which was filed by left-wing legal groups, including the ACLU of Missouri and Lambda Legal, claims that Missouri’s law is discriminatory. The law prohibits procedures like double-mastectomies on girls who identify as boys, and giving children cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers.

Rapid Reaction: Leftists suing for the “right” to mutilate children. It’s sick and twisted. While supporters of sex-denial surgeries for minors love to claim that it’s about “parental rights,” they forget that those rights have limits. For example, parents cannot abuse their children by burning cigarettes on their skin and claim its discipline. These gender-rejection procedures shouldn’t be an option either.

4. Politicized De-Banking Continues

The chief executive of Coutts Bank has stepped down amid the furor surrounding populist politician Nigel Farage’s complaints that his account was closed because of his political views. CEO Peter Flavel resigned just days after Coutts owner NatWest Group parted ways with its CEO Alison Rose. Rose left after admitting that she had spoken with a reporter regarding Farage’s personal details.

Rapid Reaction: If Farage can be de-banked for his beliefs, it can happen to you. Don’t believe me? Read this story: “JPMorgan Chase Repeatedly ‘De-Banked’ Conservative And Religious Groups, Republican State Officials Say”

5. Allergic To Meat From A Tickbite? Worst Nightmare.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. have developed red meat allergies since 2010 due to a strange syndrome triggered by tick bites.

According to a government report, as many as 450,000 Americans have developed the allergy, which makes it the 10th most common food allergy in the U.S. Health officials said they are not aware of any confirmed deaths, but people with the allergy have described it as bewildering and terrifying. Despite its Texas-themed name, the lone star tick is most common in the eastern and southern U.S. and about 4% of all U.S. cases have been in the eastern end of New York’s Long Island.

Rapid Reaction: This is a “worst nightmare ever scenario.” Not being able to enjoy a steak all because of a tick bite? Oh, the humanity. And on that note, make sure to buy some meat from our good friends over at Good Ranchers.

To listen to the audio version of Afternoon Update, click here. And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.

President Joe Biden’s upcoming beach week can’t come soon enough. The poor guy forgot to sign an executive order that he flew all the way to Maine to sign on Friday. Perhaps the bigger part of the story can be found in the Democrats’ newfound obsession with the GDP.

This morning, Biden flew to Auburn, Maine, to tout his new “Invent It Here, Make It Here,” executive order. Apparently, wanting things to be “Made In America” was only racist when former President Donald Trump was in office. The whole point of the trip was to sign the order in Maine as a way to show his commitment to manufacturing jobs. However, the data indicate that Maine has lost 0.5 percent of its manufacturing jobs between June 2022 and June 2023, per CBS News.

As for the event today, Biden was typical Biden. He left the stage and had to be instructed to return to put his John Hancock on the darn thing. By that point, the crowd was already departing and his exit music was just getting started:

Joe Biden forgot to sign his own Executive Order pic.twitter.com/4PnMuy1ms1

— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) July 28, 2023

While there, he again insulted voters’ intelligence by claiming that “nobody knew what a supply chain” was until the pandemic:

Biden again claims that nobody knew what a "supply chain" was before 3 years ago. pic.twitter.com/CFvYXbFkxt

— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) July 28, 2023

Maine Governor Janet Mills (D) also praised Biden at the event, saying, “I want to thank him for revitalizing our economy — Maine and the nation are seeing an increase in the [Gross Domestic Product], statewide and nationally,” The Maine Wire reported.

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While it is true that America’s GDP grew over the past two quarters, that doesn’t equate to a strong country. Whenever politicians or party hacks rely on the GDP to make their argument for a strong economy, perhaps we should be reminded of what the late Senator Robert Kennedy (D-NY) had to say about the GDP:

…gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials.

It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.

And right now, America’s kids are as unhealthy as ever — mentally and physically. Childhood education was slowed thanks to the lockdowns — and other problems plaguing public schools — and the “joy of their play” is stunted by activists who push wokeness into everything they do.

As for the quality of our public leaders, well, the ongoing scandals of “The Big Guy” and his family should speak to that.

Perhaps because of all those maladies, just 39% of the U.S. adult population says they are “extremely proud” to be American.

Biden should be all too familiar with Kennedy’s words. The guy plagiarized RFK’s exact speech on the GDP way back on the 1988 campaign trail. But maybe he’s blocked that out in the same manner that the Democratic National Committee is blocking out Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the 2024 Democratic Party.