Driving the Day:
This has always been his plan: Trump thinks he should have the ultimate say in who leads the country, not voters. https://t.co/MFx6NaW3GY
— Defend Democracy Project (@DemocracyNowUS) August 30, 2022
Must Read Stories
Trump Demands To Be “Declared” The Winner Of The 2020 Election Or For An “Immediate” New Election To Be Held
- Rolling Stone: It’s 2022 and Trump Is Demanding an ‘Immediate’ Redo of the 2020 Election: Former President Donald Trump demanded on Monday that the 2020 presidential election be declared “irreparably compromised” and a do-over be held “immediately!” Trump took to his personal social media platform to complain that the FBI “BURIED THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY BEFORE THE ELECTION knowing that, if they didn’t, ‘Trump would have easily won the 2020 Presidential Election.’” He then wrote that he should be declared the winner of the election — which was decided two years ago — or “and this would be the minimal solution, declare the 2020 Election irreparably compromised and have a new Election, immediately!”
President Biden To Give Prime-Time Address On Threats To Democracy And The “Soul Of The Nation” On Thursday
- NBC: Biden To Give Prime-Time Speech On ‘Soul Of The Nation’ As Voters Prepare To Cast Midterm Ballots: President Joe Biden plans to deliver a prime-time speech this week about how America’s “rights and freedoms are still under attack,” returning to the core message of his 2020 campaign as Americans are getting ready to vote in the November midterm elections. A White House official said Thursday’s address at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia would focus on “the continued battle for the soul of the nation” and show how the president sees the central argument of his 2020 candidacy remains as salient as ever with the midterm elections coming into clearer focus. The president will lay out how America’s standing in the world and its democracy are at stake, the official said. Biden will highlight what he sees as progress over the past two years to protect our democracy, but note that rights and freedoms remain at risk. “He will make clear who is fighting for those rights, fighting for those freedoms, and fighting for our democracy,” the official said.
Secret Service Agent Sought By Investigators For Role In January 6 Abruptly Retires
- The Intercept: Anthony Ornato, Top Secret Service Official Sought By Investigators For Role In Jan. 6, Retires Unexpectedly: Anthony Ornato, a top Secret Service official embroiled in the January 6 investigation, retired today, just two days before his planned interview with January 6 investigators. The Intercept obtained an email Ornato sent to the deputy director of the Secret Service just after 1 p.m. announcing his retirement as of the close of business on August 29. “We can confirm that Anthony Ornato retired from the U.S. Secret Service today in good standing after 25 years of devoted service,” Secret Service spokesperson and special agent Kevin Helgert told The Intercept on Monday evening. Ornato had finally agreed to an interview with Department of Homeland Security investigators on August 31 after multiple attempts to arrange one. According to a memo sent by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General to the head of the Secret Service, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and DHS general counsel, the inspector general had been attempting to interview Ornato since June 29 and spent all of July and much of August following up.
Most Trump Voters See Civil War As Somewhat Likely In The Next Ten Years
- Washington Post (Analysis): Most Trump Voters See Civil War As Somewhat Likely Within A Decade: It is Donald Trump’s fervent hope that, somehow, he should become president again. Maybe it’s in 2025, with his reelection by the American people. Or maybe, he seems to think, it could happen sooner. On Monday, he posited that some theorized bit of FBI nefariousness would warrant “declar[ing] the 2020 Election irreparably compromised” leading to a “new Election, immediately!” Hopefully needless to say, this is both an unfounded demand and an unrealizable one. There is no mechanism for just throwing out a presidential election, even if it were warranted, which here it is not. But what’s important is that Trump believes or is pretending to believe that it could be. That the government of President Biden is illegitimate. This is the message he’s sending to his supporters: that the government should be upended in his favor. This should be considered in the context of a disconcerting new poll finding released by YouGov: Four in 10 Americans think that a civil war may be likely within the next decade. Among those who say they voted for Trump in 2020, it’s more than 50 percent — a group that also expects political violence to increase “a lot” over the coming years. We should stipulate that discussion of civil war is very different from any actual conflict. In fact, experts on civil conflict believe that a full-on armed conflict between political groups is unlikely for a variety of reasons, and that political violence might instead manifest as sporadic flare-ups. Not much consolation, certainly, but some. Of course, that’s assuming that tensions flare up at all. Relying on public opinion as an indicator of what’s likely to happen is understandably fraught. That said, Americans generally see the danger of civil war — whatever that means in practice — as very real. In YouGov’s polling, conducted for the Economist, 14 percent of respondents said civil war was “very likely” within 10 years. An additional 29 percent said it was “somewhat likely.” Among Trump voters, though, those figures were 19 percent and 34 percent, respectively — or 53 percent in total. Among Biden voters, the total was just over a third.
In The States
ARIZONA: Far Right Senate Candidate Blake Masters Scrubs Election Denial Language From His Website
- CNN: Republican Senate Candidate Blake Masters Scrubbed Language On Campaign Website Saying The 2020 Election Was Stolen From Trump: Arizona Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters removed language from his website following his primary win that included the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, along with a section arguing the country would be better off if Trump was still the president. A review of Masters’ website by CNN’s KFile showed he also removed controversial language saying Democrats were trying to “import” a new electorate — language that has drawn fire for mirroring far-right conspiracies that Democrats are trying to weaken the power of native-born Americans of European descent through mass immigration of non-White immigrants. Both stances were on Masters’ website on August 1, the day before he won the Republican primary to take on Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in the closely watched Senate race. The sections were gone by August 26, according to screenshots from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Masters’s new campaign posturing comes as a flurry of Republican candidates nationwide attempt to distance themselves from unpopular or divisive policy positions, particularly about abortion and the legitimacy of the 2020 election, ahead of the midterm election this November.
What Experts Are Saying
Noah Bookbinder, president of CREW, re: Donald Trump’s declaration on “Truth Social” for him to be declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election or “have a new [e]lection, immediately”: “Not only is this post utter nonsense—it’s dangerous. Donald Trump is still trying to overturn an election he lost. So long as he is not held accountable and is given a platform to spread his message, we run the real risk he’ll inspire another insurrection.” Tweet
Juliette Kayyem, Obama administration assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Homeland Security: “[T]error and violent movements grow by the aura of a ‘win’ and a capability to continue that myth. They also weaken when they can no longer convince new recruits or elites that there is anything but violence (in other words, they cannot moderate their stance)…So one way to look at Trump and Graham is that their only remaining response is to go directly to violence. It isn’t good; it is disturbing. But it is also telling, pathetic, obvious. Trump’s success in the past was to be able to hide or obfuscate his violent incitement.” Twitter Thread
Neal K. Katyal, acting solicitor general in the Obama administration, re: recently released by DOJ Barr “memo”: “What Mr. Barr did must be strongly and swiftly repudiated by Republicans and Democrats alike, because otherwise it will enable attorneys general to sidestep prosecution of not just the president who appointed them but also all those who serve that president.” NYT Op-Ed: What Bill Barr Did to Clear Trump Is Still a Danger
Joyce Vance, former US attorney, re: Department of Justice’s search and seizure of classified materials from Mar-A-Lago: “There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to whether DOJ is going to indict the former president. The one clear piece of information we have is that DOJ is treating this as a serious criminal matter that will require a decision on whether to prosecute before it is complete. The case isn’t over just because DOJ has now retrieved the documents…Like always, the outcome will turn largely on the strength of DOJ’s evidence… Expect Merrick Garland’s team to pursue these issues carefully and think them out thoroughly before any charges are brought.” Civil Discourse
Headlines
The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections
Associated Press: Liz Cheney in 2024? Deep skepticism emerges in key states
New York Times: Republicans in Disarray
Politico: ‘There’s enormous frustration’: Trump forces Republicans off-script… again
Washington Post (Analysis): Trumpworld walks a line between predicting violence and threatening it
January 6 And The 2020 Election
Bloomberg: Trump ‘Entanglement’ Weakens Graham Push Against Testifying in Probe, Atlanta D.A. Says
NBC: Proud Boy sentenced to 4.5 years in prison in Jan. 6 case, still says election was stolen
NBC: Ex-NYPD cop who attacked D.C. officer cites PTSD as he seeks to avoid longest Jan. 6 sentence yet
Politico: Secret Service official at center of Jan. 6 committee probe retires
Washington Post: Judge delays Gov. Kemp’s testimony in Ga. probe until after November election
Other Trump Investigations
Associated Press: Trump legal team advances broad view of presidential powers
New York Times: Trump Request for Special Master Could Open Door for Delays to Investigation
Rolling Stone: Trump Bragged He Had ‘Intelligence’ on Macron’s Sex Life
Washington Post: Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents already examined by FBI, Justice Dept. tells judge
Opinion
Daily Beast (David Rothkopf): What’s Behind Trump’s Private War With the Intelligence Community?
New York Times (Neal Katyal): What Bill Barr Did to Clear Trump Is Still a Danger
Rolling Stone (David Sirota): You’re Subsidizing The Threat To Democracy
Washington Post (Greg Sargent): Lindsey Graham’s vile ‘riots’ threat gives away Trump’s game
Washington Post (Ruth Marcus): Trump again summons the mob
In The States
Arizona Republic: Judge slams 3 ‘Stop the Steal’ GOP members, orders them to pay fees in defamation lawsuit
Heartland Signal: Tudor Dixon accepted donations from false elector who attempted to give Michigan’s electoral votes to Trump
Politico: DeSantis election investigation chief told local officials they face ‘no fault’ for felons voting
Texas Tribune: What brought down one Texas county’s entire elections department? It was something in the water.
