Driving the Day:
Donald Trump is not above the law. https://t.co/XOt0MsLodq
— Defend Democracy Project (@DemocracyNowUS) August 26, 2022
Must Read Stories
New York Times: “The Committee Hearings Make It Clear” Trump Knew His Actions Were Illegal.
- New York Times Editorial Board: Donald Trump Is Not Above the Law: Over the course of this summer, the nation has been transfixed by the House select committee’s hearings on the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and how or whether Donald Trump might face accountability for what happened that day. The Justice Department remained largely silent about its investigations of the former president until this month, when the F.B.I. searched his home in Palm Beach, Fla., in a case related to his handling of classified documents. The spectacle of a former president facing criminal investigation raises profound questions about American democracy, and these questions demand answers. Mr. Trump’s unprecedented assault on the integrity of American democracy requires a criminal investigation. The disturbing details of his postelection misfeasance, meticulously assembled by the Jan. 6 committee, leaves little doubt that Mr. Trump sought to subvert the Constitution and overturn the will of the American people. The president, defeated at the polls in 2020, tried to enlist federal law enforcement authorities, state officials and administrators of the nation’s electoral system in a furious effort to remain in power. When all else failed, he roused an armed mob that stormed the Capitol and threatened lawmakers.
President Biden Declares MAGA Republicans A Threat To Democracy
- The Hill: Biden Portrays ‘MAGA’ Republicans As A Threat To Democracy: President Biden portrayed Republicans on the ballot this fall as a threat to democracy itself as he sharpened his midterm rallying cry at a campaign event in Maryland Thursday evening. Invoking former President Trump and his “Make America Great Again” slogan, Biden accused Republicans of seeking to take the country “backward” and warned voters that democracy is under threat from Trump and his allies. “Now you need to vote to literally save democracy again,” Biden told a large crowd at the Democratic National Committee rally in Rockville, Md., just outside of Washington, D.C. “Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans have made their choice — to go backwards full of anger, violence, hate, and division. But we’ve chosen a different path forward, the future, unity, hope and optimism.” “We choose to build a better America,” Biden said.
- Yahoo News: Biden Calls On ‘Mainstream’ GOP To Reject ‘MAGA’: U.S. President Joe Biden called on Republicans to reject ‘MAGA’ and vote Democrat in November at his first political rally ahead of the midterms. At an earlier fund-raising stop on Thursday (August 25), he accused Trump-allied Republicans of edging toward “semi-fascism.” Biden later took the stage in Maryland to appeal to what he called “mainstream Republicans.” “The MAGA Republicans don’t just threaten our personal rights and economic security. They’re a threat to our very democracy. They refuse to accept the will of the people. They embrace, embrace political violence. They don’t believe in democracy. This is why in this moment, those of you who love this country, Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans, we must be stronger, more determined and more committed to saving America than the MAGA Republicans are destroying America.”
MAGA Primary Candidates Are Claiming “Fraud!” Whether They Win Or Lose
- FiveThirtyEight: Election Denying Primary Candidates Are Crying Fraud, Win Or Lose: In the days leading up to the Arizona Republican primary for governor, candidate Kari Lake warned that something was going very wrong. “We’re already detecting some stealing going on,” Lake said at a campaign stop the week before the election. Hours before the polls closed, she hadn’t changed her tune. “If we don’t win, there’s some cheating going on. And we already know that.” But when the race was over, Lake was the new Republican nominee for governor in Arizona. This created a bit of a logical pickle for Lake: How did she win an election that was rigged? “We out-voted the fraud,” Lake said at a press conference the next day, adding that her campaign had evidence of fraud that she would not detail with the media, but would give to “the authorities.” Lake is not the only candidate this primary season who has had to figure out how to — or whether to — unring fraud’s bell. Some candidates have stayed in the safe space of just saying 2020 was rigged. Others have claimed their own race as suspect. Either way, the risks are clear: Every time a candidate says the system is rigged, their supporters are more likely to become convinced the system is rigged. And victory doesn’t always end the candidate’s claims: Many keep at it, win or lose.
A Federal Judge Ordered The DOJ Affidavit Used In Trump’s National Archives Investigation To Be Released By Noon
- New York Times: Judge Orders Redacted Affidavit Used in Trump Search Warrant to Be Unsealed: A federal judge in Florida on Thursday ordered that a redacted version of the affidavit used to obtain a warrant for former President Donald J. Trump’s Florida residence be unsealed by noon on Friday — paving the way for the disclosure of potentially revelatory details about a search with enormous legal and political implications. The decision by Judge Bruce E. Reinhart came just hours after the Justice Department submitted its proposal for extensive redactions to the document, in an effort to shield witnesses from intimidation or retribution if it is made public, officials said. He appeared to accept the requested cuts. Judge Reinhart, moving more quickly than Justice Department lawyers had expected, directed the department to release the redacted affidavit by noon on Friday in a brief two-page order issued from the Federal District Court in Southern Florida. The order said that he had considered the Justice Department’s proposed redactions and found them to be “narrowly tailored to serve the government’s legitimate interest in the integrity of the ongoing investigation.”
- Newsweek: Mar-a-Lago Affidavit May Have ‘Damning Information’ on Trump: Lawyer: The affidavit used to justify the search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home could reveal “damning information” about the former president when it is released, according to a prominent legal expert. Lawyer Neal Katyal, who has argued multiple cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and served as acting solicitor general for the administration of former President Barack Obama, said in a Thursday interview on MSNBC that he thought “the Justice Department won” with the affidavit’s release. Katyal said that he expects the version that is released will still contain damaging information for Trump and show that the former president was scoffing at authorities. “The part that’s not redacted, that we’ll all get to see?” said Katyal. “I suspect it’s going to have some damning information about Donald Trump … I expect in that affidavit to be a good discussion of all of the attempts that the Justice Department and the FBI had to try and retrieve these documents from Mar-a-Lago.” “And that President Trump was thumbing his nose at them,” he continued. “It underscores what [Attorney General] Merrick Garland is doing here. He’s just following the rules, but he’s winning by following the rules.”
In The States
GEORGIA: MAGA Republicans Are Resisting Subpoenas In Fulton County Investigation
- Atlanta Journal Constitution: Breaking: Fulton Grand Jury Seeks Testimony From Meadows, Trump Campaign Lawyers: A Fulton County special grand jury investigating interference in Georgia’s 2020 elections is seeking the testimony of former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell and others next month. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis filed petitions seeking their testimony in Fulton Superior Court on Thursday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has confirmed. Politico first reported the development. Former Trump campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn and James “Phil” Waldron, a Meadows contact and cyber researcher, have also been summoned. The grand jury recently interviewed Trump’s former personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and is fighting for the testimony of another key ally, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Willis hasn’t ruled out subpoenaing Trump himself or others who worked closely with him in the White House.
- CNN: Georgia Gov. Kemp Argues To Block Subpoena To Appear Before Grand Jury Investigating Trump’s Attempts To Overturn The 2020 Election Results: Attorneys for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp argued in court Thursday that their client is “beyond the reach” of a subpoena and should not be forced to testify before a special purpose grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state. Kemp’s attorneys argued that the Republican governor should be protected by sovereign immunity, executive privilege and attorney-client privilege. They added there were concerns about the investigation interfering with his re-election campaign this fall. Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who is overseeing the special purpose grand jury, said he would take the arguments under advisement before he makes a ruling, but did not give a deadline for his decision.
MINNESOTA: GOP SecState Nominee Called Changing The Voting Rules After “The Big Rig” In 2020 “Our 9/11”
- CNN: Minnesota’s GOP Nominee For Top Elections Official Called Changing Voting Rules ‘our 9/11’ After ‘the Big Rig’ In 2020: The Republican nominee to be the top elections official in Minnesota said changing the rules around voting following the 2020 “big rig” was “our 9/11,” invoking the terrorist attacks when discussing proposed changes to election laws in the aftermath of former President Donald Trump’s loss. Kim Crockett is one of the latest candidates to win the GOP nomination for a secretary of state position who has cast doubt on the outcome of the 2020 election, which she has previously described as “lawless” and “rigged.” “We realize people are discouraged and this is still an exceptional nation,” Crockett said during a previously unreported radio appearance in early September 2021. “We are still the American people and I’m betting on us. This is a challenge. Maybe we needed a wake-up call. This is our 9/11.”
What Experts Are Saying
Amy Cooter, Senior Research Fellow at Middlebury College’s Center for Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism: “I do know that violent threats and plots need to be treated seriously – especially those that focus on specific people and their supposed tyranny. It will also be important to observe how militias and related groups respond to these convictions: Claims that the judicial process was corrupt have already surfaced, which could fuel additional mistrust in American political systems as the nation heads into midterm congressional elections.” Tweet | The Conversation
Victoria Bassetti, Senior Counsel with States United Democracy Center: “The election subversion trend in state legislatures is evolving and deepening. …In barely 7 months more than 244 bills that would increase the risk of subversion have been introduced. That’s more than at this time in 2021. The perverse creativity of election subversion is growing.” States United Democracy Center + Protect Democracy Press Briefing
Rachel Homer, Counsel with Protect Democracy: “[T]he Independent State Legislature theory increases the risk of election subversion. It’s not a separate issue from the threats we’ve identified – it’s part of this same trend.” Though she noted, due to federal law, “even under the most expansive version of the theory, it would not directly give state legislatures the authority to determine election winners contrary to the will of the people.” States United Democracy Center + Protect Democracy Press Briefing
Megan Boler Bellamy, Vice President of Law and Policy at Voting Rights Lab: “From Georgia to Texas, in the past two years, we have seen state legislators introduce a range of legislation that has had a chilling effect on both voters and election officials – legislation essentially treating the places Americans vote like crime scenes.” States United Democracy Center + Protect Democracy Press Briefing
Olivia Troye, Founder of The Troye Group and former Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor to Vice President Mike Pence: “[Disinformation campaigns] are profoundly damaging to our democracy, but they also present a serious risk to our national security as we head into the midterms. Adding that, “As someone who has experienced some of the uglier consequences of election lies and conspiracy theories firsthand with threats to my personal safety and who has spent my career dedicated to keeping this country safe, I am deeply concerned for the future of our free and fair elections.” States United Democracy Center + Protect Democracy Press Briefing
Barbara Walter, political scientist at UC San Diego: “Modi and the BJP are to India what Trump and the Republican Party are to the US. It’s impossible to read this article and not see the parallels in how democracy is being consciously destroyed in both places.” NYT Piece | Tweet
Headlines
The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections
Axios: Biden Slams MAGA Republicans For “Semi-Fascism.”
Associated Press: Voting Machine Tampering Points To Concern For Fall Election.
January 6 And The 2020 Election
Vice: This Jan. 6 Rioter Is Posting Death Threats Against the FBI
NBC: Biden Names New Secret Service Director Amid Growing Pressure Over Missing Jan. 6 Text Messages.
Opinion
Washington Post (Greg Sargent): An Expert On The Right Urgently Warns: Beware Of Another Oklahoma City.
Pennsylvania Capitol-Star (John A. Tures): The Trump Team’s Many Claims On Classified Documents At Mar-a-Lago.
In The States
USA Today: Michigan Secretary Of State Nominee Echoes Trump’s Election Denials.
The Arizona Republic: Abe Hamadeh Has Made Election Security An Issue In Attorney General Campaign. But He May Have Committed Voter Fraud.
Missouri Independent: How Election-Denying GOP Governors Could Tilt The 2024 Presidential Election.
