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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — November 2, 2023

By November 2, 2023No Comments

Driving the Day

Must Read Stories

Alabama resident faces charges for allegedly threatening Georgia officials over Trump investigation

  • The Hill: Alabama man indicted for allegedly threatening Georgia prosecutor over Trump case: “A federal grand jury indicted an Alabama man for allegedly threatening the sheriff and district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., over their involvement in former President Trump’s criminal case. The indictment, unsealed Monday, charges Arthur Ray Hanson II, 59, with two counts of transmitting interstate threats. Prosecutors say he left voicemails on Aug. 6 threatening the officials.The alleged calls came days before Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) indicted Trump and 18 others in a sprawling racketeering case, accusing them of engaging in a conspiracy to keep Trump in power following the 2020 election. It is one of four criminal indictments Trump faces. He has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to all the charges.”
  • New York Times: Man Indicted Over Threats to D.A. and Sheriff in Trump’s Georgia Case: “A man who threatened a prosecutor and a sheriff involved in the Georgia investigation of former President Donald J. Trump for election interference was indicted in federal court on Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The man, Arthur Ray Hanson II, of Huntsville, Ala., had left threatening messages to Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., and Patrick Labat, the county’s sheriff, for their involvement in the Georgia case over the 2020 presidential election. According to the indictment by a federal grand jury in Atlanta, Mr. Hanson called the Fulton County government’s customer service line and left threatening voice mail messages for Ms. Willis and Sheriff Labat in early August, days before Mr. Trump and 18 of his associates were indicted in the state.”
  • Washington Post: Man charged over threats to Georgia DA who’s prosecuting Trump, says FBI: “An Alabama man has been indicted after allegedly threatening the Georgia district attorney who is prosecuting former president Donald Trump and several of his associates for trying to overturn the 2020 election. Authorities say the man also threatened the sheriff whose jail briefly processed Trump. Arthur Ray Hanson II faces charges of transmitting interstate threats to injure Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Sheriff Patrick Labat, federal prosecutors announced Monday. The 59-year-old Huntsville man’s case is being investigated by the FBI. ‘Threats against public servants are not only illegal, but also a threat against our democratic process,’ said Keri Farley, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Atlanta office.”

House of Representatives votes not to expel Rep. George Santos

  • NBC: Rep. George Santos survives vote to expel him from Congress: “Rep. George Santos, the embattled New York Republican who admitted to lying about his background and has been indicted on federal fraud charges, easily survived a bipartisan effort to expel him from the House of Representatives on Wednesday. The expulsion resolution, which was led by his fellow New York Republicans and says Santos is ‘not fit to serve,’ needed support from a supermajority, or at least two-thirds of the voting lawmakers, to pass. The final tally did not even crest the simple majority threshold: 179 voted in favor of expulsion, 213 against and 19 voting present. Thirty one Democrats voted with 182 Republicans against expulsion, while 24 Republicans voted with 155 Democrats to remove Santos. A defiant Santos spoke with reporters after the House vote, saying that this not a victory for him, but rather a victory for due process. He said a vote to expel him would have been ‘silencing my voters.'”
  • New York Times: With Proposed Censures and Expulsion, House Faces an Agenda of Recrimination: “Using the most severe tools at lawmakers’ disposal, the House is set to consider a trio of disciplinary measures that have divided members, mostly along partisan lines. [Among them]… there is a Republican-written resolution to expel Representative George Santos, the New York Republican who has been indicted on charges of fraud, stealing public funds and identity theft.”
  • Slate: George Santos on Expulsion Vote: “I Don’t Care”: “Embattled fabulist Rep. George Santos is staring down a potential vote to expel him from Congress. One day after newly minted House Speaker Mike Johnson started his new job, House Republicans introduced an expulsion resolution against Santos, citing his 23-count indictment and the many, many lies he told voters during his 2022 campaign as proof that he is unfit to serve. (Santos has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges and faces trial in 2024.) The resolution needs a two-thirds vote to succeed. Asked about what he thought about his colleagues’ efforts to expel him, he painted himself as the victim of an unjust crusade. ‘OK, that’s fine. No, I don’t care if they’re whipping it, that’s fine. Due process is over.’”
  • Axios: House Ethics panel eyes Nov. 17 deadline for Santos probe: “The leaders of the House Ethics Committee on Tuesday signaled that an announcement on the panel’s investigation into Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) could come in a matter of weeks. The update comes as the House is set to vote this week on a Republican-led resolution to expel the embattled Long Island freshman from Congress. Driving the news: In a statement on Tuesday, Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) and Ranking member Susan Wild (D-Pa.) that they will announce the panel’s ‘next course of action’ by Nov. 17.”

In The States

WISCONSIN: Wisconsin County judge blocks Republican leaders from replacing the state’s top elections administrator, Assembly considers a slate of elections bills

  • Wisconsin Examiner: Assembly committee considers election changes, including early absentee ballot processing: “Assembly lawmakers heard testimony on a slate of bills that would address concerns about Wisconsin’s election system on Tuesday, including one that would allow processing of absentee ballots to begin a day early. Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) told the Assembly Campaigns and Elections committee that AB 567, which would allow for “Monday processing” of absentee ballots, could help increase efficiency, while addressing skepticism about the security of elections that have cropped up in recent election cycles. ‘This one thing combats most of the problems we’ve been dealing with here in the state of Wisconsin,’ Krug said. ‘If you think back on the issues of the 2018 elections, the 2020 election, there’s always been this idea of a ballot dump at the end of the day.’ Ryan Retza, chief of staff for bill coauthor Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara (R-Appleton), explained that processing means that inspectors begin to review the envelope for sufficiency, announce the voter’s name and address and input the absent voters ballot into the tabulator. The bill would not allow votes to be counted until the day of the election.”
  • Wisconsin Public Radio: Judge hears arguments in lawsuit seeking to expand Wisconsin absentee voting: “A Dane County judge heard arguments Tuesday as Republicans seek to quash a lawsuit that would expand absentee voting in Wisconsin. Progressives sued the Wisconsin Elections Commission in July to challenge absentee voting requirements in the closely-fought state. That includes a ban on absentee ballot drop boxes that went into effect last year following a 4-3 decision from Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. The lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of the Democratic political action committee Priotities USA, the progressive Wisconsin Alliance for Retired Voters and a retired voter who lives in Dane County, argues such restrictions violate the right to vote as outlined in the state’s Constitution. ‘The provisions challenged in this case make it severely and unjustifiably more difficult for Wisconsinites to cast their votes and to have those votes count,’ said David Fox, an attorney for the plaintiffs, during a motion hearing Tuesday. ‘A burden on absentee voting makes it harder for people to vote. It’s clearly a burden on the right to vote.’”
  • Wisconsin Examiner: Temporary injunction blocks lawmakers from trying to replace elections administrator: “A Dane County judge has blocked Republican leaders in the Legislature from taking any actions to replace Meagan Wolfe as administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC). In a ruling granting a temporary injunction, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Ann Peacock also declared that the state Senate vote in September to fire Wolfe had no legal effect. The ruling came in a case filed on behalf of the commission against the three top officers of the Legislature. ‘The Wisconsin Elections Commission is permitted to recognize Meagan Wolfe as the lawful holder of the Administrator position, vested with the full authority of that office and entitled to the privileges thereof, and employ her in that position, subject to a final decision of this Court,’ Peacock wrote in the decision issued Friday. In addition, the judge wrote, ‘Further official actions by Defendants to remove or attempt to remove Meagan Wolfe from the Administrator position, including appointing an interim Administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, do not have legal effect, subject to a final decision of this Court.’”

MICHIGAN: Trial begins today over the legality of Michigan’s congressional maps under the Voting Rights Act and U.S. Constitution

  • Detroit News: Legality of Michigan’s voting maps, treatment of Black voters goes on trial: “The legality of Michigan’s two-year-old voting district maps will be debated in a federal trial starting Wednesday that could upend Metro Detroit voting boundaries and cause a political scramble among incumbent lawmakers in 2024. A three-judge federal panel will hear arguments in Kalamazoo over whether the architects of the state House and Senate voting districts used in the November 2022 election diluted the Black vote by drawing districts that stretched segments of the majority-Black city of Detroit into majority-White suburbs. The trial will be a major legal test of legislative district maps drawn at the direction of a voter-approved 2018 constitutional amendment that took the power to redraw House and Senate district boundaries out of the hands of politicians and placed it in the hands of a commission of citizens who were selected at random to serve on the panel.”

FLORIDA: State appeals court hears arguments over constitutionality of Florida’s congressional map

  • Tampa Bay Times: Appeals court hears arguments in Florida redistricting case: “An appeals court Tuesday took up a battle about the constitutionality of a congressional redistricting plan that Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through the Legislature last year, with some judges appearing skeptical of a challenge filed by voting rights groups. The 1st District Court of Appeal heard arguments in the state’s appeal of a ruling by a Leon County circuit judge that the plan violated a 2010 state constitutional amendment that set standards for redistricting. The case centers on an overhaul of North Florida’s Congressional District 5, which in the past elected Black Democrat Al Lawson. The voting rights groups and other plaintiffs argue that the overhaul violated part of the constitutional amendment that barred drawing districts that would ‘diminish’ the ability of minorities to ‘elect representatives of their choice.’ The overhaul led to white Republicans getting elected in all North Florida congressional districts in the 2022 elections.”

ARIZONA: Cochise County officials who refused to certify election results subpoenaed by the Arizona Attorney General

  • Tucson Sentinel: Cochise County officials who refused to certify election now under investigation by Arizona AG: “Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is investigating two Cochise County supervisors who refused to certify the county’s midterm election results by the state-required deadline. Supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd, both Republicans, were served subpoenas last week by Mayes’ office explaining that they are under investigation and ordering them to appear before the state grand jury on Nov. 13, according to a Votebeat review of Judd’s subpoena and a Herald Review report of Crosby’s subpoena. Judd’s subpoena has not been previously reported. The subpoenas do not specify the criminal violations that the office is investigating. But Cochise County Supervisor Ann English, the third member of the three-member board and the only Democrat, told Votebeat that she was interviewed Tuesday by an investigator from Mayes’ office who asked her about Crosby and Judd’s refusal to certify the election, along with their push to hand-count all ballots during the county’s post-election audit.”

What Experts Are Saying

Sociologist Phil Gorski, quoted in the New York Times: “[Speaker Mike Johnson] likes to say that the United States is a ‘republic’ and not a ‘democracy.’ By this, he means that the majority does not and should not get its way. That would be democracy. A republic means rule by the virtuous, not the majority. And the virtuous are of course conservative Christians like him.”

Marc Elias for Democracy Docket: “The newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (La.) is no ordinary Republican election denier. He was a ringleader in one of the most dangerous efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. He used his position as a lawyer and member of Congress to legitimize the fringe legal theory underpinning the ‘Big Lie.’ Other than former President Donald Trump, he is arguably the most culpable federal elected official in what transpired on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Extremism scholar Mark Reiff on Trump’s threats, for Salon: “This rhetoric may seem like crazy bluster, which is no doubt why many people appear prepared to ignore it. But put in its historical context, what Trump is doing is echoing views that are part of a long tradition of illiberal and outright fascist thought. For fascists have always seen the use of violence as a virtue, not a vice.”

Joyce Vance, about the calls for Supreme Court ethics reform, on X (Twitter): “Worth noting: conservatives on SCOTUS might have headed this off by adopting ethics reform. Now Democrats are justified in going full speed ahead because they haven’t.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) on expelling George Santos from Congress: “George Santos lied his way here, and his conduct has been unbecoming and embarrassing…You’re talking about fraud. You’re talking about credit card theft. This is not something that a member of Congress should be engaged in.”

Headlines

Extremism

NPR: Wray warns of increased terrorist threat, says U.S. is in a “dangerous period”

Newsweek: MAGA Commentator Wants People to Shoot Charity Workers Assisting Migrants

Trump investigations

Washington Post: Trump grouses that his indictments took years. Here’s why that is

New York Times: Trump’s Sons Set to Take Stand at Fraud Trial

ABC: Trump visits secure facility to view evidence in classified documents case

Rolling Stone: Trump’s Demands for Extreme Loyalty Are Starting to Backfire

January 6 and the 2020 Elections

AP: Expert says Trump could have defended Capitol on Jan. 6 as disqualification case enters new phase

KMOV 4 CBS: Missouri men accused of assaulting police during Jan. 6 Capitol riot

Opinion

New York Times: Thomas Edsall — Christian Nationalism ‘Is No Longer Operating Beneath the Surface’

USA Today: Rex Huppke — The week the Republican Party caved to MAGA and surrendered America’s middle to extremism

In the States

Sacramento Bee: California demands compliance after voting rights’ groups warns about Shasta County election

WABE: Judge rules Georgia’s GOP-drawn political maps push the state further away from equal opportunity

Spotlight PA: Pa.’s voting law is filled with obsolete provisions, troublesome conflicts