Defend Our Country Weekly: What to Know for the Weekend

This week, ahead of the next hearing from the January 6th Select Committee, threats from MAGA Republicans against poll workers and elections have exponentially increased. MAGA Republicans are not afraid of using violence to get what they want: control, in order to change the results of elections across the country. Elsewhere, top Trump allies are still trying to avoid accountability for their actions surrounding the attack on our Capitol on January 6th. 

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

Main Points for the Weekend:

1. Election deniers are running for hundreds of positions across the country this November. People who back the former president’s false conspiracy claims of a stolen election are running for positions like Secretary of State, where they will have an essential role overseeing states’ election processes. 

• • Top point to make: The threat to our country is ongoing and growing. MAGA Republicans are doing everything they can to change election processes – and not for the better.
    

• • If you read one thing: USA Today, 10/4/22: Hundreds of elections deniers running for office nationwide in 2022 pose ‘major threat’ to U.S. democracy. “Across the country, more than 300 candidates who have either questioned or renounced the 2020 outcome without providing evidence will be on the ballot in 2022. They are vying for Congress, governor, attorney general, and secretary of state, and a significant number are running in vital battleground states that propelled Joe Biden into the White House. The USA TODAY Network examined seven of those swing states Biden won in 2020 – Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Nevada – representing a total of 84 electoral votes… An analysis by Washington, D.C.-based Defend Democracy Project, a nonprofit group founded by two former Obama campaign and administration officials, lists 308 so-called election deniers who will be on the 2022 ballot… ‘You’ve got conspiracy theorists running for spots that are really clutch positions,’ Rebecca Parks, the project’s research director, told USA TODAY.”

2. States across the country are being forced to tighten rules governing poll watchers, due to an increase in threats from MAGA Republicans. Poll watchers are one of the most essential people to help ensure votes are administered fairly and accurately. States are facing pressure for poll workers to resign and threats of violence.

• • Top point to make: MAGA Republicans will stop at nothing, including threatening violence, to continue to spread the former president’s false claims. 

• • If you read one thing: AP, 10/2/22: Election officials brace for confrontational poll watchers. “But election officials fear that a surge of conspiracy believers are signing up for those positions this year and are being trained by others who have propagated the lie spread by former President Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 presidential election was riddled with fraud… ‘The whole tension that we’re expecting to see at polling places is something we’re talking to election officials about, something we’re talking to law enforcement about,’ said Harvey, who is advising a group of election officials and law enforcement before November… The worries this year are similar to those during the 2020 election, when Trump began railing against mail voting and the Republican National Committee launched its first national operation in decades. It had recently been freed from a consent decree that limited its poll watching operation after it previously was found to have targeted Black and Latino voters.”

3. After Ginni Thomas testified to the January 6th Committee, Trump thanked her for continuing to support his false claims that the election was stolen. The wife of a Supreme Court Justice appeared in front of the House Select Committee and told the committee she believes Trump won the 2020 election.

• • Top point to make: Trump allies from elected government officials, spouses, and everywhere in between are directly involved in the conspiracy to overturn our election and actively inciting others to follow the same conspiracies.

• • If you read one thing: Business Insider, 10/2/22: Trump thanked Ginni Thomas for sticking to his ‘Big Lie’ when she was questioned by the January 6 committee, unlike other ‘weak’ and ‘stupid’ people. “The January 6 committee is looking into Thomas’ role in the effort to overturn the election. As the Washington Post reported, Thomas emailed Arizona lawmakers six days after the election in an effort to get them to set up a ‘clean slate of Electors.’ The day after, she’d also been in communication with Trump’s White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about the election results. In the text messages to Meadows debasing the election, Thomas wrote: ‘Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!’… ‘She didn’t wait and sit around and say ‘well, let me give you maybe a different answer [than what] I’ve been saying for the last two years now,’ Trump said at a rally in Warren, Michigan on Saturday: ‘She didn’t wilt under pressure like so many others that are weak people and stupid people. Because once they wilt, they end up being a witness for a long time.’”

4. Senator Ron Johnson finally admitted his office was directly involved in a plan to deliver false electors to VP Pence. Sen. Johnson admitted to texting with Trump’s attorneys on January 6th. 

• • Top point to make: MAGA Republicans will stop at nothing, including illegal and unconstitutional actions, to try to overturn elections in our country. They must be held accountable.

• • If you read one thing: NBC News, 10/4/22: Sen. Ron Johnson acknowledges texting with Trump attorney on Jan 6. “Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., acknowledged Tuesday that he exchanged text messages with one of Donald Trump’s attorneys before and after Johnson’s staff tried to deliver a package to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021. He added that the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack “smeared” him because it didn’t publicize all the text messages between his and Pence’s aides… Johnson defended his previous remarks about the attack’s being mostly peaceful, saying he said the same of Black Lives Matters protests in 2020. Johnson said that in each case, he condemned violence if it grew out of those protests. ‘To call what happened on Jan. 6 an ‘armed insurrection,’ I just think it’s inaccurate,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry — that’s not what an armed insurrection would look like.’ Johnson argued that few weapons were confiscated but that protesters ‘did teach us how you can use a flag pole’.”

5. The National Archives is still missing documents from Trump. Even after the FBI confiscated over 11,000 documents from the former president’s home, the National Archives, according to a letter they submitted to the House Oversight Committee. 

• • Top point to make: Trump’s blatant disregard for the law continues. We must hold all individuals accountable for their actions, no matter if they are former Presidents, members of Congress, or other federal and state officials. 

• • If you read one thing: ABC News, 10/1/22: National Archives still missing some Trump administration records. “‘We do know that we do not have custody of everything we should,’ Debra Steidel Wall, acting archivist of the United States, said in her letter to Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., suggesting that former officials had still not turned over electronic messages of official business done on personal accounts. Wall’s letter was a response to a Sept. 13 request from Maloney seeking an ‘urgent review’ of ‘whether presidential records remain unaccounted for and potentially in the possession of the former president.’ Wall said the National Archives and Records Administration ‘would consult with the Department of Justice on whether ‘to initiate an action for the recovery of records unlawfully removed.’”

Expert voices

Norm Eisen, Brookings Institution senior fellow (CNN Video): “DOJ will have to prove Stewart Rhodes & the other Oath Keepers agreed to overthrow, attack, or impede the gov by force on ⅙[.] Seditious conspiracy is a rare charge—but the gov has extensive evidence to support it here[.] I joined @CNN @CNNnewsroom w/ @FWhitfield to discuss” Tweet  

Steven Levitsky, Rockefeller professor of Latin American studies and professor of government at Harvard University: “‘Ten years from now, there could be crises that make 2020 look like a garden party,’ said Rockefeller professor of Latin American studies and professor of government Steven Levitsky last night. ‘There could be a fair amount of violence. There could be a stolen election. There may be brief periods of undemocratic rule. I think we’re heading for a period of intense conflict.’” Harvard Magazine 

Daniel Ziblatt, professor of the science of government at Harvard University: “Of Italy, Ziblatt said, ‘This is the first time that a party with roots in the fascist era is running a government….This is a major threat. It’s to be taken seriously.’ ‘There are reasons why these parties are successful: disaffection with politics, disaffection with the economy, a sense that the world is not improving, a general sense of malaise,’ he said. ‘But I think the other important part of the story is how mainstream politicians respond to them. Do they overlook their own internal differences to realize there’s a threat out there?… I think one of the lessons here is that it’s necessary to have a broad coalition against these kinds of parties, but it’s difficult to form them.’ He said in Italy and elsewhere, ‘The challenge of building a multiracial democracy has turned out to be a hell of a lot harder than we anticipated.’” Harvard Magazine 

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history and Italian studies at New York University: “‘A new class of thieves has emerged who want to steal our freedom,’ Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro thundered during a speech last June. The beleaguered leader, who has been trailing badly in recent polls ahead of Sunday’s election, went on to declare that ‘if necessary, we will go to war’ against the offenders…If this sounds familiar, it’s because Bolsonaro – who, like his peer, former US president Donald Trump, has taken political guidance from famed right-wing ideologue Steve Bannon – seeks to make Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ strategy his own, as he faces off Sunday against the popular former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, candidate of the progressive Worker’s Party.” CNN Op-Ed

Michael Luttig, a former federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit: “The Supreme Court will decide before next summer the most important case for American democracy in the almost two and a half centuries since America’s founding. In Moore v. Harper, the Court will finally resolve whether there is a doctrine of constitutional interpretation known as the ‘independent state legislature.’ If the Court concludes that there is such a doctrine, it would confer on state legislatures plenary, exclusive, and judicially unreviewable power both to redraw congressional districts for federal elections and to appoint state electors who quadrennially cast the votes for president and vice president on behalf of the voters of the states. It would mean that the partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts by state legislatures would not be reviewable by the state courts—including the states’ highest court—under their state constitutions. Such a doctrine would be antithetical to the Framers’ intent, and to the text, fundamental design, and architecture of the Constitution.” The Atlantic

Rick Hasen, an election law expert, and director of UCLA Law’s Safeguarding Democracy Project: “‘There are lots of places where people who don’t act in good faith could attempt to subvert election results,’ said Rick Hasen, an election law expert, and director of UCLA Law’s Safeguarding Democracy Project. ‘It could be down to poll workers in a precinct or a governor who signs a bogus certification of electors.’ ‘The point is that our decentralization [of voting], which serves to be a strength in some ways, can also turn to be a weakness.’” Axios 

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, historian at New York University: “‘The secretaries of state are key and no one knows about them,’ said New York University’s Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of ‘Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.’ ‘These are figures who work in the background if democracy is robust.’” Axios 

Harry Litman, former US attorney, re: Washington Post reporting “Trump lawyer Alex Cannon declined in February to say all documents returned”: “Unless I’m mistaken, this is the first direct attribution to Trump of the direction to falsely attest to the docs’ return.  This could be killer testimony.” Tweet 

Joyce Vance, former US attorney: “If this reporting holds up, “Trump himself eventually packed the boxes that were returned in January,” his conduct would have been so egregious that DOJ will have to indict to maintain the rule of law anyone else would be indicted, he must be too.” Tweet

Steve Vladeck, Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Courts at University of Texas Law School: “It’s amazing how many misstatements Trump’s emergency #SCOTUS application fits into the very first paragraph. As one example, the order DOJ appealed from was the district court’s entry of an *injunction,* which is expressly subject to immediate appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a).” Tweet 

Joanna Lydgate, CEO of States United Action: “States United Action, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting U.S. elections, released a study in early September that found that roughly 55% of the entire nation’s population will see at least one election denier on their ballot running for an office to oversee elections. ‘A single election denier winning a statewide office in a single state is a five-alarm fire for our democracy,’ Joanna Lydgate, CEO of States United Action, said. ‘Many of these down-ballot contests had narrow margins in the last midterm election, and voters can’t afford to sit these races out.’” USA Today 

Matthew Dalek, a political historian at George Washington University: “Experts warn that any who win these crucial seats will have various tools that could throw the country into chaos in 2024. ‘The reason that this is a major threat is that if part of the country or half the country believes that their candidate — the person they supported, and the issues they care about — was illegitimately defeated because of a conspiracy, you cannot have a functioning democracy,’ Matthew Dalek, a political historian at George Washington University, told USA TODAY.”  USA Today 

Ryan Goodman, chaired professor at New York University School of Law (CNN Video): “I dissected with @ErinBurnett new reports:
— Trump personally packed boxes for Archives
— Trump lawyer refused to make false statement to Archives on Trump’s behalf
— Trump admitted to @maggieNYT “most of” docs returned to Archives
— Oath Keepers dead-end defense” Tweet 

Barbara McQuade, former US attorney: “‘The lawyer for Stewart Rhodes said in opening statement that Rhodes will testify in his own defense. Court filings indicate that his defense centers around the idea that he was expecting President Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and call up the Oath Keepers to active military duty on Jan. 6. For Rhodes to pursue this defense, he will have to testify or otherwise present evidence about the basis for this belief. It will be interesting to see whether he is able to connect the Oath Keepers to the former president or any of his associates.’ She adds, ‘If so, he may be able to provide the evidentiary link necessary to charge Trump or others with seditious conspiracy.’” Jennifer Rubin Washington Post column 

Michael Li, senior counsel for the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program: “The Supreme Court should resist Alabama’s invitation to take a further knife to the Voting Rights Act. But if it does not, Congress must overcome its nearly decade-long failure to restore and strengthen the protections of the Voting Rights Act. States also will need to step up efforts to ensure representation for communities of color that are driving the country’s population growth in a world where race-conscious remedies may no longer be an option. It won’t be easy, but too much is at stake. Multiracial democracy is literally on the line.”  Boston Globe Op-Ed: Multiracial democracy is under threat at the US Supreme Court

Kathryn Stoner, director of Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL): “‘We can all have many different visions of what America is,’ said Kathryn Stoner, director of Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL). ‘But most would agree that it is — it should be — a democracy, and we’re coming close to it not being so right now. Democracy in the U.S. is in danger.’” The Stanford Daily 

Larry Diamond, senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Hoover Institution: “In many states, ‘election deniers are trying to get into positions that would enable them to subvert free and fair elections,’ said political science professor Larry Diamond ’73 M.A. ’78 Ph.D. ’80, who is a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Hoover Institution. ‘If these candidates are elected, it could mean the end of free and fair elections in those states,’ Diamond said.” The Stanford Daily 

Lynn Vavreck, Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics and Public Policy at UCLA: “The calcification we’re seeing today is born of four factors: The parties are farther apart than ever ideologically, voters within each party are more like their fellow partisans than ever, so many of our political conflicts are based on identity-inflected issues, and there is near balance between people who call themselves Democrats and Republicans right now.  That’s why politics feels both stuck and explosive: The stakes of election outcomes are very high because the other side is farther away than ever, and because of the balance between the parties, victory is always within reach for each side. That balance also means that when one party loses an election, instead of going back to the drawing board to rethink how they campaigned or what they offered, they don’t revamp their packages or strategies — they almost won! — they instead try to change the rules of the game to advantage their side. Preventing parties from changing the rules to erode democratic principles is the ultimate challenge to democracy.” UCLA Newsroom 

Kathleen Belew, researcher and professor at Northwestern University (Video): Dr. Kathleen Belew is a researcher and professor at Northwestern University, and author of “Bring The War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.” She traces the roots of the white supremacist movement in America, and talks with Ken about its ties to today’s Republican Party. Ken Harbaugh’s Burn The Boats podcast | Tweet