Defend Our Country Weekly: What to Know for the Weekend

This week, threats and acts of violence surged across the country, Trump continued to spout unhinged conspiracy theories, and election deniers won in primaries from Alaska to Wyoming. Those who align with the former president, echo his conspiracies, and support his crimes must be stopped at the ballot box and be held accountable in a court of law. This is the only way to stop the ongoing threat to our country and protect the American people’s most fundamental rights.   

Here’s what you need to know for the weekend: 

Main Points for the Weekend:

1. Law enforcement agencies and the FBI are under attack by MAGA Republicans and conspiracy theorists. MAGA Republicans continue to incite violence against law enforcement and other agencies to push their baseless conspiracy theories and increase the threat against our rights. 

• • Top point to make: MAGA Republicans continue to push violence and their disregard for the rule of law is unacceptable. They must be stopped. Anyone who refuses to condemn them is complicit. 
  • If you read one thing: New York Times, 8/13/22: As Right-Wing Rhetoric Escalates, So Do Threats and Violence. “According to the F.B.I., there are now about 2,700 open domestic terrorism investigations — a number that has doubled since the spring of 2020 — and that does not include lesser but still serious incidents that do not rise to the level of federal inquiry… Still,  the F.B.I. has repeatedly said that extremist violence from right-wing actors is one of the biggest threats confronting the bureau. Moreover, many Republican office seekers have directly incorporated violent language and imagery into their campaigns, including Eric Greitens, who ran an advertisement in his Missouri Senate race showing himself racking a shotgun, accompanied by men armed with assault rifles as they stormed — SWAT-team-style — into a home in search of ‘RINOs,’ or ‘Republicans in name only.’”

2. Election-denying conspiracy theorists who back Donald Trump and his crimes continue to win primary elections across the country. If elected in November, these individuals will work together to enact legislation at the federal, state, and local levels that will impact the way we vote and our ability to choose our elected representatives. 

• • Top point to make: Trump and MAGA Republicans will stop at nothing to override the will of the people in their attempt to overturn elections they lose, including breaking the law and encouraging violence.
    
  • If you read one thing: FiveThirtyEight, 8/16/22: With Cheney’s Loss, Just 2 House Republicans Who Voted To Impeach Trump Are On The Ballot In November. “A question we had going into this primary cycle was just how many pro-impeachment Republicans would still be in the House in 2023. The answer we now know is two at most. Republicans may say in polls that the GOP should accept elected Republicans who disagree with the party, but there is clearly little appetite for those who have rebuked Trump in this way… Looking ahead to November, it’s possible the rebuke continues as only one House Republican out of the 10 who voted to impeach Trump is currently favored to make it to the next Congress.”

3. More members of Trump’s inner circle including Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and others must now testify about their involvement in the attempt to change Georgia’s 2020 election results. Giuliani, Graham, and others had direct involvement in this illegal scheme and can provide essential details to aid the investigation. 

• • Top point to make: Donald Trump and his closest allies engaged in a violent, illegal, and unconstitutional criminal conspiracy to change the results of an election they knew he lost. They all must cooperate with investigations and be held accountable in a court of law. 
  • If you read one thing: CNN, 8/17/22: Rudy Giuliani, a target in Atlanta probe into Trump 2020 election subversion scheme, appearing before grand jury. “The indication that he is a target of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ probe marked an escalation of the investigation and raises questions about Trump’s criminal exposure in the probe. Willis’ office has also informed 16 Trump-supporting operatives who were presented fraudulently as presidential electors in 2020 that they are targets of her investigation, but the focus on Giuliani brings the investigation into Trump’s inner circle… For months, the public activity of the Fulton County probe made it appear as the most significant legal risk for Trump and his inner circle for their gambits to reverse his 2020 defeat. Only recently has it become clear that the US Justice Department is investigating the 2020 election-related conduct of Trump allies as well, but the targets of that investigation are not known.”

Expert voices

Lilliana Mason, associate research professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University: “It’s a good time to remember that the VAST majority of Americans do not think that political violence is acceptable – ever. Acts of violence are deterred by social and community norms. It’s up to leaders and all of us to publicly reject violence as soon as we hear a whisper of it” Tweet 

Joyce Vance, former US attorney: “Gotta say this again. It was not a ‘raid.’ The FBI executed a search warrant that was authorized by a federal judge based on a showing of probable cause.” Tweet 

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a New York University professor who studies authoritarianism and political violence: “‘We are likely to see continued acts of violence and attacks…There is a vast right-wing media and messaging universe, from Fox News to Breitbart to former president Trump to sitting GOP lawmakers like Marjorie Taylor Greene,’ Ben-Ghiat said, ‘that traffics in conspiracy theories and seeks to keep people in a state of agitation and fear sufficient to lead some people to make recourse to violence.’” Washington Post 

Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow in the democracy, conflict, and governance program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: “Still, Ms. Kleinfeld said, there are ways of encouraging the average person to accept violence. If political aggression is set in the context of a war, she suggested, ordinary people with no prior history of violence are more likely to accept it. Political violence can also be made more palatable by couching it as defensive action against a belligerent enemy. That is particularly true if an adversary is persistently described as irredeemably evil or less than human. ‘The right, at this point, is doing all three of these things at once,’ Ms. Kleinfeld said.” New York Times 

Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University: “Why does Trump focus on discrediting institutions?… Attacking the institutions of government and the media serves two main purposes. For a public figure frequently mired in scandal and accused of wrongdoing, this has been a way to turn the tables against the investigators, shifting the national focus on those who are tasked with asking the questions. Whether filing a lawsuit or unleashing wild accusations, Trump can always exploit the attacks against him by playing victim…Discrediting institutions is also a way to paint himself as an outsider — even when that is far from the truth. And by positioning himself in an adversarial stance, he can stoke distrust in institutions and make the case to his supporters that he is still one of them — rather than a part of the establishment.” CNN Op-Ed: Why Trump thinks the FBI search could be a winner for him

Frank Figliuzzi, assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI: “There is no end in sight to the rising body count. That’s because a deliberate far-right strategy of ‘culture warfare,’ which encourages residents to see themselves as warriors in a life or death battle, is perceived as effective in turning out voters. This fact-averse strategy depends upon a steady stream of disinformation designed to spur people to action – even if that action is deadly. If left unchecked, this strategy won’t kill only people but also lead to the demise of the rule of law and our democracy. The dangerous rhetoric and violent actions of last week provide an ominous preview of what might transpire if Trump is eventually indicted in any of the investigations into his behavior.” MSNBC Op-Ed: Yet another person has died in defense of Trump’s lies. When will it end?

Norman Eisen, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Asha Rangappa, senior lecturer at Yale University and former special agent in the FBI, and Dennis Aftergut, former federal prosecutor: “Trump’s groundless caterwauling this past week proves he’s concerned about possible prosecution. He should be. There are just too many ongoing investigations to think that he can dodge them all.” CNN Op-Ed 

Dennis Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor: “Our country could use more Republicans like Bowers, who witnessed Trump’s misdeeds and asked, ‘If I do not stop to help this Constitution, what will happen to it?’” The Hill Op-Ed: Republicans’ response to Mar-a-Lago search shows why we need more like Rusty Bowers

Laurence Tribe, professor emeritus at Harvard Law, re: DOJ request to keep Mar-A-Lago search warrant affidavit under seal: “This suggests DOJ wasn’t just repatriating top secret docs to get them out of Trump’s unsafe clutches but is pursuing a path looking toward criminal indictment” Tweet

Norm Eisen, senior fellow at Brookings Institution and former White House special counsel, re: Donald Trump reportedly asking: “The country is on fire. What can I do to reduce the heat?”: “Former President Donald Trump is ‘dripping with crocodile tears’ as he offers to help reduce the country’s temperature, all while attacking law enforcement for searching his Mar-a-Lago home, Norm Eisen, a former White House special counsel, told Insider…’This is no genuine offer to help’…’If it were he would not be fanning the flames simultaneously. It is pure malice and a threat that he has the power to unleash more violence,’ Eisen said.” Business Insider 

Joyce Vance, former US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, re: Trump’s reported “offer” to DOJ: “‘I view those as threats, not offers of help,’ said Vance. Given Trump’s communications in the past, she said, ‘this really smacks of the suggestion that DOJ should back off if it wants him to tamp down on the violence that’s developing.’” Business Insider

Julian Zelizer, professor of history at Princeton University (Listen): Here & Now’s Scott Tong speaks with Julian Zelizer, professor of history at Princeton University, about former President Donald Trump’s strategy in the wake of the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. Here & Now – WBUR

Barbara McQuade, former US attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan: “[T]here are any number of paths this investigation could take now that Giuliani is a target. But all of them point to danger for Trump.” MSNBC Op-Ed: Why Rudy Giuliani’s Georgia woes are bad news for Trump

Albert W. Alschuler, the Julius Kreeger Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology Emeritus at The University of Chicago Law School: “This article will (1) review Trump’s acts and omissions on January 6; (2) describe the crime of insurrection; (3) consider the legal significance of Trump’s refusal to ask his supporters to end their violence; (4) consider the significance of his mid-riot tweet denouncing Mike Pence; (5) explain why prosecution for insurrection wouldn’t pose the same difficulties as prosecution for seditious conspiracy; and (6) explain why convicting Trump of insurrection would clarify his responsibility for the violence of January 6.” Just Security: Trump and the Insurrection Act: The Legal Framework

Aziz Z. Huq, Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School: “Make no mistake: Mishandling classified documents, particularly ones with allegedly sensitive details, shouldn’t be at all acceptable. No president gets to just filch confidential national security files after he loses. But these are not ordinary times. It is not only the Justice Department but also the president who needs to move with extraordinary care and precise judgment if American democracy is to thrive once again.” Politico Magazine Op-Ed

Michael Hayden, retired United States Air Force four-star general and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, re: assertion that “never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close”: “I agree.  And I was the CIA Director” Tweet 

Norman J. Ornstein, political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute: “Fealty to the law meant nothing to [Donald Trump] him. The country’s interests meant nothing to him. The only oath he has taken is to his own greed and self-preservation.” The Washington Post 

Norman Eisen, co-counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during Trump’s first impeachment hearings, re: Trump taking the 5th as part of NY’s investigation in the finances of his businesses: “there is a ‘bond’ between an official and the people of the nation, which is ‘created by election or appointment and also cemented by the oath of office.’ Just as a civil jury can draw an adverse conclusion from Trump’s refusal to answer questions, ‘it should be disqualifying for Trump if he seeks to run again.’” The Washington Post

Asha Rangappa, former FBI agent, re: Donald Trump amplifying the likelihood of “payback” for the FBI “raid” of Mar-A-Lago:  “I don’t get this. So the claim is that the FBI is unfairly targeting Trump and the response is… ‘ha! we’ll do this back!;? Just spitballing here but it seems like maybe they aren’t actually interested in the rule of law” Tweet 

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, New York University scholar on fascism and authoritarian leaders: “The news that former president Donald Trump was keeping highly classified documents at Mar-A-Lago, his private residence in Florida, sheds light on how strongmen leaders think and operate and why they are such risks to national security. Authoritarian leaders have an entirely proprietary view of governance. They don’t recognize boundaries between public and private. They believe that as head of state it is their right to possess and exploit anything in the nation, from natural resources to economic assets to information—the latter being the most valuable currency, as the former intelligence official Vladimir Putin well knows.” Lucid