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POLITICO illustration by Jade Cuevas; Photos by Kim Raff for POLITICO | A few days before President Joe Biden’s visit to Salt Lake City, Utah this summer, 75-year-old Craig Robertson posted a less-than-warm welcome on Facebook: “I HEAR BIDEN IS COMING TO UTAH,” he wrote in all caps, as usual. “DIGGING OUT MY OLD GHILLIE SUIT AND CLEANING THE DUST OFF THE M24 SNIPER RIFLE. WELCOME, BUFFOON-IN-CHIEF!” On August 9, the FBI shot him dead in his home. Now, his death has become “a prism, splitting the facts into two divergent narratives about the state of the country,” writes Rowan Moore Gerety in this week’s Friday Read. One of those narratives goes something like this: Craig Robertson was a gunsmith with an arsenal of weapons who publicly threatened to shoot certain enemies of former President Donald Trump, an extremist who — according to the FBI — pointed a firearm at officers after they showed up at his house in a small town south of Salt Lake. The other goes like this: Craig Robertson was an overweight retiree who walked with a cane, slept in a recliner because he had trouble getting out of bed, and posted incendiary but ultimately fanciful rhetoric on social media — rhetoric that the FBI, under a Democratic president, didn’t like. “The tricky question for federal law enforcement in a country awash in both guns and violent political rhetoric is how to figure out which version of Craig Robertson they ought to take seriously,” Gerety writes. The FBI’s National Threat Operations Center sifts through more than 3,000 tips a day. The question is: Was Robertson the hay or the needle? Read the story.
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| “He’s done. It’s over. I killed him.” Can you guess who said this about Republican Rep. and failed House Speaker candidate Tom Emmer this week? Scroll to the bottom for the answer.**
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POLITICO illustration; Photos by Getty Images, AP, iStock | And the New House Speaker Is, Uh, Who? … The unprecedented three-week House speaker vacancy has finally come to an end, with the Republican majority voting unanimously to elect Rep. Mike Johnson. This raises a vital question for the future of American democracy: Who dat? POLITICO Magazine writers have a wealth of answers: Anna Canizales and Michael Kruse share 55 things you need to know about Johnson, Calder McHugh dives into Johnson’s conservative Christian podcast and Katelyn Fossett interviews historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez about how Johnson’s evangelicalism shapes his politics — and how it will shape American politics now that he’s grabbed the gavel.
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| | Your friends are probably as clueless about House Speaker Johnson as you are, but with the deluge of reporting on his career about to pour from our computer screens, they’ll be drowning in details soon enough. So before you find yourself behind the curve this weekend, brush up on these quick talking points (from associate editor Dylon Jones): — You’re not the only one just hearing about Johnson. As Punchbowl News’ John Bresnahan pointed out on X, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell met with him yesterday. Sorry, I meant met him yesterday — as in, for the very first time. Both McConnell and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told POLITICO earlier this week that they’d never met the guy before. — Just about everyone has questions about Johnson — but don’t ask them of House Republicans, who booed reporter ABC News reporter Rachel Scott when she inquired about his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election. My colleagues Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu are much more informative (and civil) in their reporting about how Johnson “led the way in shaping legal arguments that became gospel among GOP lawmakers who sought to derail Biden’s path to the White House.” — Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz — one of the hardline conservative members who ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy — celebrated Johnson’s win, dubbing him “MAGA Mike” on Steve Bannon’s podcast. But some Democrats might also see a reason to celebrate. Johnson is to liberals what Rep. Nancy Pelosi has long been to the GOP: a boogeyman who’ll boost Democratic fundraising and — shoutout to my colleague Charlie Mahtesian, who mentioned this in his sharp analysis for Nightly yesterday — crank up the pressure on the 18 House Republicans representing districts that President Biden won. — Don’t look for the socially conservative, evangelical Christian speaker at Pride: An opponent of LGBTQ rights, he’s written that the Supreme Court’s decriminalization of gay sex “opened a Pandora’s box” and that gay people “all are capable of changing their abnormal lifestyles.”
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Anna Husarska, in Odesa, Ukraine, sits in the back of a Nissan SUV that she purchased in the U.K. and drove to the frontlines near Bakhmut along with other supplies for frontline Ukrainian troops. At the rear is Odesa’s famous Opera House, which has been operating throughout the war. | Photos by Anna Husarska for POLITICO | Delivery Driving on Ukraine’s Frontlines … When Russia invaded Ukraine, journalist Anna Husarska could have joined her fellow Poles in helping refugees by providing pampers and baby formula to parents and children fleeing across the Polish border. But she decided to go a step further: She joined an army of volunteers driving supplies — tourniquets, drones, automobiles, underwear — to Ukrainian forces on the frontlines. In this vivid photo essay, she documents her journeys into war as an amateur “military procurement officer.”
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| |  A 19th century illustration depicting Vitus Bering's expedition wrecked on the Aleutian Islands in 1741. The story of Russia’s imperial designs in North America traces to this instance, when Bering first sighted Alaska’s Aleutian islands. | Wikimedia Commons | What’s Happening in Ukraine? Ask Indigenous Alaska … In the 18th century, Russia brutally colonized Alaska, slaughtering Native people. Now, writes Casey Michel, that little-known history offers invaluable lessons about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and “reframes our understanding of Russia as a colonial power little different from its European counterparts — especially here, in North America.”
| | | **Who Dissed answer: It was former President Donald Trump, who called someone close to him with this message after blasting Emmer on Truth Social and calling members to oppose his speakership bid. Emmer dropped out just minutes later. politicoweekend@email.politico.com
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Zoë Hocker is a professional welder who uses the metaverse to practice his craft and advance his career. A VR training platform created by ForgeFX allows him to gain as much hands-on training as he wants—in a safe and immersive environment.
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