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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — September 19, 2022

By September 19, 2022No Comments

Driving the Day: 

Must Read Stories

Echoing Trump, Republican Candidates Refuse To Accept Potential Election Losses 

  • New York Times: Echoing Trump, These Republicans Won’t Promise to Accept 2022 Results: Nearly two years after President Donald J. Trump refused to accept his defeat in the 2020 election, some of his most loyal Republican acolytes might follow in his footsteps. When asked, six Trump-backed Republican nominees for governor and the Senate in midterm battlegrounds would not commit to accepting this year’s election results, and another six Republicans ignored or declined to answer a question about embracing the November outcome. All of them, along with many other G.O.P. candidates, have pre-emptively cast doubt on how their states count votes. The New York Times contacted Republican and Democratic candidates or their aides in 20 key contests for governor and the Senate. All of the Democrats said, or have said publicly, that they would respect the November results — including Stacey Abrams of Georgia, who refused to concede her 2018 defeat to Brian Kemp in the state’s race for governor. Mr. Kemp, now running against her for another term, “will of course accept the outcome of the 2022 election,” said his press secretary, Tate Mitchell. But several Republicans endorsed by Mr. Trump are hesitant to say that they will not fight the results. Among the party’s Senate candidates, Ted Budd in North Carolina, Blake Masters in Arizona, Kelly Tshibaka in Alaska and J.D. Vance in Ohio all declined to commit to accepting the 2022 results. So did Tudor Dixon, the Republican nominee for governor of Michigan, and Geoff Diehl, who won the G.O.P. primary for governor of Massachusetts this month.
  • Washington Post: Republicans In Key Battleground Races Refuse To Say They Will Accept Results: A dozen Republican candidates in competitive races for governor and Senate have declined to say whether they would accept the results of their contests, raising the prospect of fresh post-election chaos two years after Donald Trump refused to concede the presidency. In a survey by The Washington Post of 19 of the most closely watched statewide races in the country, the contrast between Republican and Democratic candidates was stark. While seven GOP nominees committed to accepting the outcomes in their contests, 12 either refused to commit or declined to respond. On the Democratic side, 18 said they would accept the outcome and one did not respond to The Post’s survey. The reluctance of many GOP candidates to embrace a long-standing tenet of American democracy shows how Trump’s assault on the integrity of U.S. elections has spread far beyond the 2020 presidential race. This year, multiple losing candidates could refuse to accept their defeats.
  • Politico: Why We May Not Know Who Won The Senate On Election Day: It took five days after Election Day 2020 to tally enough votes for media organizations to call the presidential race for Joe Biden. The same thing could happen in some of the country’s most important midterm elections this year. Many of the same factors in the same battleground states are at play in 2022, starting with races that could have very slim margins. Add in the continued popularity of mail voting and state laws in Pennsylvania and elsewhere that can delay processing of those ballots, and the chance of another waiting game is distinct — possibly with control of the Senate up in the air. Then-President Donald Trump used the delays counting mail ballots after Election Day to sow confusion and baseless conspiracy theories about the validity of the vote count, igniting a movement to overturn the results that led to the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Now, Trump-aligned candidates on the ballot have signaled they could mimic the former president and use any delays in 2022 to undermine confidence in the results again.

Rising Threats To Elections Include Data Breaches, Floods Of Spurious Data Requests 

  • Associated Press: Breaches Of Voting Machine Data Raise Worries For Midterms: Sensitive voting system passwords posted online. Copies of confidential voting software available for download. Ballot-counting machines inspected by people not supposed to have access. The list of suspected security breaches at local election offices since the 2020 election keeps growing, with investigations underway in at least three states — Colorado, Georgia and Michigan. The stakes appeared to rise this week when the existence of a federal probe came to light involving a prominent loyalist to former President Donald Trump who has been promoting voting machine conspiracy theories across the country. While much remains unknown about the investigations, one of the most pressing questions is what it all could mean for security of voting machines with the midterm elections less than two months away. Election security experts say the breaches by themselves have not necessarily increased threats to the November voting. Election officials already assume hostile foreign governments might have the sensitive data, and so they take precautions to protect their voting systems. The more immediate concern is the possibility that rogue election workers, including those sympathetic to lies about the 2020 presidential election, might use their access to election equipment and the knowledge gained through the breaches to launch an attack from within. That could be intended to gain an advantage for their desired candidate or party, or to introduce system problems that would sow further distrust in the election results.
  • Associated Press: Voter Challenges, Records Requests Swamp Election Offices: Spurred by conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, activists around the country are using laws that allow people to challenge a voter’s right to cast a ballot to contest the registrations of thousands of voters at a time. In Iowa, Linn County Auditor Joel Miller had handled three voter challenges over the previous 15 years. He received 119 over just two days after Doug Frank, an Ohio educator who is touring the country spreading doubts about the 2020 election, swung through the state. In Nassau County in northern Florida, two residents challenged the registrations of nearly 2,000 voters just six days before last month’s primary. In Georgia, activists are dropping off boxloads of challenges in the diverse and Democratic-leaning counties comprising the Atlanta metro area, including more than 35,000 in one county late last month. Election officials say the vast majority of the challenges will be irrelevant because they contest the presence on voting rolls of people who already are in the process of being removed after they moved out of the region. Still, they create potentially hundreds of hours of extra work as the offices scramble to prepare for November’s election.

Donald Trump Openly Embraces Dangerously Unhinged QAnon Conspiracy Theory 

  • Associated Press: Trump Openly Embraces, Amplifies Qanon Conspiracy Theories: After winking at QAnon for years, Donald Trump is overtly embracing the baseless conspiracy theory, even as the number of frightening real-world events linked to it grows. On Tuesday, using his Truth Social platform, the Republican former president reposted an image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin overlaid with the words “The Storm is Coming.” In QAnon lore, the “storm” refers to Trump’s final victory, when supposedly he will regain power and his opponents will be tried, and potentially executed, on live television. As Trump contemplates another run for the presidency and has become increasingly assertive in the Republican primary process during the midterm elections, his actions show that far from distancing himself from the political fringe, he is welcoming it. He’s published dozens of recent Q-related posts, in contrast to 2020, when he claimed that while he didn’t know much about QAnon, he couldn’t disprove its conspiracy theory.
  • New York Times: ​​Trump Rally Plays Music Resembling QAnon Song, and Crowds React: Former President Donald J. Trump appeared to more fully embrace QAnon on Saturday, playing a song at a political rally in Ohio that prompted attendees to respond with a salute in reference to the cultlike conspiracy theory’s theme song. While speaking in Youngstown in support of J.D. Vance, whom he has endorsed as Ohio’s Republican nominee for the Senate, Mr. Trump delivered a dark address about the decline of America over music that was all but identical to a song called “Wwg1wga” — an abbreviation for the QAnon slogan, “Where we go one, we go all.” As Mr. Trump spoke, scores of people in the crowd raised fingers in the air in an apparent reference to the “1” in what they thought was the song’s title. It was the first time in the memory of some Trump aides that such a display had occurred at one of his rallies. Aides to Mr. Trump said the song played at the rally was called “Mirrors,” and it was selected for use in a video that Mr. Trump played at the conservative meeting CPAC and posted on his social media site, Truth Social. But it sounds strikingly like the QAnon theme song.

Since January 6, Capitol Riot Defendants Have Continued To Commit Crimes 

  • CBS: Some Jan. 6 Defendants Accused Of Other Crimes Since Capitol Attack: The U.S. Capitol attack was a crime unlike any in American history. But for some of the defendants accused of crimes related to the riot, it’s only been the beginning of their legal troubles. A CBS News review of U.S. Justice Department court filings shows a growing number of Jan. 6 defendants have been arrested again, for subsequent crimes involving guns, drugs and domestic abuse. The new charges complicate their ability to secure lenient sentences in their cases related to the rioting on Jan. 6, 2021, and they potentially jeopardize attempts by other Capitol riot defendants to secure pretrial releases in their cases. The Justice Department has charged approximately 870 people with crimes in relation to the Capitol attack. A small percentage — several dozen — are being held in pre-trial detention. Thirty of the defendants are being detained in the Washington, D.C., jail.

In The States 

ARIZONA: As Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin Plans Events Boosting Election Denying Conspiracy Theorist Kari Lake, One Of Arizona’s Top Republicans Blasts “Fascism” And Candidates Who Would Seek To Overturn Future Elections 

  • Politico: Youngkin To Hold Arizona Events Supporting Lake: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is expected to stump for Arizona governor candidate Kari Lake next month, escalating his midterm campaign efforts ahead of a prospective 2024 presidential bid. Youngkin is embarking on the Arizona trip as part of a broader nationwide campaign tour to bolster Republican candidates for governor. In recent weeks, he has traveled to Nevada — an early state on the 2024 GOP nominating calendar — and to Michigan, where Republicans are looking to unseat Democratic incumbents. Youngkin is headed to Kansas later this week. But Lake will be the highest-profile, most MAGA-aligned candidate Youngkin has campaigned for to date. She has embraced Trump’s false claim the 2020 election was stolen, railed against Covid vaccine mandates and turned the media into a punching bag. Polls have shown her in a tight race with Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, in a state that was narrowly won by President Joe Biden.
  • CNN: ‘Welcome to Fascism’: Top Arizona Republican Blasts Trump-Backed Candidates Who Might Try To Overturn Future Elections:  The outgoing Republican speaker of the Arizona House says Trump-backed GOP candidates might send the country “back into the dark ages” if they win key midterm races and help enact laws to make it easier to overturn elections — which he said was tantamount to “fascism.” Rusty Bowers made the comments in an interview for an upcoming CNN special report by Jake Tapper, “American Coup: The January 6th Investigation.” The documentary, which details the major bombshells from Congress’ exhaustive inquiry into the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, premieres on CNN on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET. Bowers was a key witness at one of the public hearings this summer of the US House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. Speaking about an unsuccessful Republican proposal to change how elections are run in Arizona, Bowers expressed alarm over provisions in the bill that would’ve created a pathway for the state legislature to cast aside the popular vote after an election and essentially anoint a winner.

FLORIDA:  Ron DeSantis Features Christian Nationalist Pastor With Antisemitic Beliefs In A Campaign Ad 

  • The Forward: DeSantis Campaign Ad Features Christian Nationalist Pastor With Antisemitic Views: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in a television ad for his reelection bid, featured a controversial pastor who shamed Jews for not converting to Christianity. In the ad, titled “Results,” Pastor Larry Jinks of First Baptist Church of St. James City, Florida, praises DeSantis for protecting the right of religious congregations “to worship together, in person,” during the pandemic. Jinks has a history of inflammatory rhetoric, including saying it’s a “shame” Jews rejected Jesus as their own messiah. “It’s a shame that the Jews, who should know better, reject their own Messiah (who fulfilled everyone of their prophecies) still believe that they need sacrifices and the Temple to sacrifice them in,” Jinks wrote on Facebook in April. “Nonetheless, because of their rejection they will move forward with that plan.” The statement was made in response to a Jerusalem Post op-ed about rebuilding the Temple. Jinks also criticized the pope for advocating for unity between Jews, Christians and Muslims. “We are called to be at odds with any religion that does not acknowledge Jesus as the Prince of Peace and the only way to the Father,” he added.

PENNSYLVANIA: “Election Integrity” Hardliner Doug Mastriano Was Registered To Vote In New Jersey Until 2021 

  • New Jersey Globe: Pennsylvania GOP Gubernatorial Nominee Was Registered To Vote In N.J. Until 2021: New Jersey is serving as an incubator for Republican candidates in Pennsylvania, with two statewide candidates being New Jersey natives and longtime residents. Gubernatorial candidate Douglas Mastriano was a registered voter in New Jersey for 28 years until July 2021 when election officials changed his status to inactive. Records show that Mastriano voted from his family’s Hightstown home from 1982, when he turned 18, through the 2010 general election.  He remained on the voter rolls until a sample ballot was returned roughly six months after the death of his mother last year.

WISCONSIN: Republicans Recruit Election Deniers To Work Midterm Poll Watchers In Wisconsin 

  • Wall Street Journal: In Wisconsin, Election Skeptics Deploy as Poll Watchers for Midterms:  Republicans here are recruiting a fresh batch of poll watchers to monitor voting in November as part of a revamped response to allegations of election fraud that roiled the latest presidential contest. Poll watching, a normally mundane duty where volunteers sit for hours watching for any possible rule violations at voting sites, is emerging as a flashpoint in the fight over U.S. election rules after former President Donald Trump falsely claimed that widespread election fraud cost him the 2020 race. The Republican National Committee said it has launched a multimillion-dollar effort to recruit tens of thousands of poll watchers and poll workers and hire dozens of staff to monitor voting. Many Republican voters are heading into the midterms still skeptical about the results of the 2020 election, and the Republican Party is encouraging them to channel those concerns into activism by volunteering to monitor the polls. Some Republicans view the effort as a way to ensure that Mr. Trump’s fraud claims don’t prompt supporters to skip the election altogether because of doubts about the validity of the process. Democrats are raising concerns that highly partisan volunteers could try to intimidate voters or election officials.

What Experts Are Saying

John Sides, professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, Chris Tausanovitch, associate professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Lynn Vavreck, Marvin Hoffenberg chair of American politics and public policy at UCLA: “The aftermath of the 2020 election also revealed an especially pernicious consequence of this cycle: It increases the incentive for people to countenance their own party’s undemocratic behavior in order to win an election. After his loss, Trump and his allies endorsed baseless claims and even illegal means to overturn that election. If Republicans embrace or appease such measures in future elections, then a national transformation will really be upon us — and our democracy will hang in the balance.” Washington Post Op-Ed: A hard 2020 lesson for the midterms: Our politics are calcified

Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard University: “‘In the past, ‘the system was still antidemocratic, but it didn’t have a partisan effect,’ Mr. Levitsky said. ‘Now it’s undemocratic and has a partisan effect. It tilts the playing field toward the Republican Party. That’s new in the 21st century.’…’By any indication, the Republican Party — upper level, midlevel and grass roots — is a party that can only be described as not committed to democracy’[.]” The New York Times 

Lilliana Mason, a political scientist at  Johns Hopkins University: “When we’re voting, we’re not just voting for a set of policies but for what we think makes us Americans and who we are as a people…If our party loses the election, then all of these parts of us feel like losers.” The New York Times 

Yascha Mounk, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University: “There is the possibility, for the first time in American history, that a legitimately elected president will not be able to take office[.]” The New York Times 

Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, if independent state legislature theory prevails in Moore v. Harper: “You could certainly at that point see legislators being allowed to restrict voting in any way they see fit without courts getting to weigh in on whether those infringe on people’s constitutional rights…I think this is incredibly dangerous to the continued viability of democracy.” The Charlotte Observer 

Headlines

The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections

Associated Press: Biden warns US democracy threatened, but how can he save it?

Axios: Trump’s 2024 triumph

New York Times: ‘A Crisis Coming’: The Twin Threats to American Democracy

New York Times: Rally With Trump? Some G.O.P. Candidates Aren’t Thrilled About It.

Politico: ‘The threat is real’: Dems press big donors to target state races

Roll Call: Panels in both chambers to take up presidential elector overhauls

Votebeat: Voter registration organizations say new laws create legal jeopardy

January 6 And The 2020 Election

The Fulcrum: How vote count mistakes by two rural counties fed Trump’s big lie

New York Times: Trump’s Team of Lawyers Marked by Infighting and Possible Legal Troubles of Its Own

Washington Post: Gaetz sought pardon related to Justice Department sex trafficking probe

Other Trump Investigations 

Associated Press: Phony document lands on court docket in Trump search case

New York Times: As Trump Inquiry Heats Up, Garland Says Divisions Imperil the Rule of Law

New York Times: Trump’s Former Accounting Firm Begins Turning Over Documents to Congress

New York Times: The Story So Far: Where 6 Investigations Into Donald Trump Stand

Politico: Justice Dept. asks appeals court to restore access to Trump raid documents

Washington Post: Trump team claimed boxes at Mar-a-Lago were only news clippings

Opinion

Wall Street Journal (Liz Cheney and Zoe Lofgren): We Have a Bill to Help Prevent Another Jan. 6 Attack

Political Violence

Washington Post: Activist claims Greene kicked her; congresswoman’s office denies incident

In The States 

AL.com: Alabama GOP chair refused to show license to vote. That became a problem for poll workers.

Associated Press: Wisconsin lawsuit asks for federal voter registration form to be declared illegal

Bolts: Iowa Secretary of State Candidate Vows to Fight New Barriers to Voting

DCist: Republican Gov. Candidate Dan Cox Challenges Early Tabulation Of Mail-In Ballots In Maryland

Detroit News: Judge slashes sentence of convicted Whitmer kidnap plotter

Politico: Montana defies order on transgender birth certificates