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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — February 16, 2023

By February 16, 2023No Comments

Driving the Day: 

Must Read Stories

Trump Chief Of Staff Mark Meadows Subpoenaed By Special Counsel In January 6 Investigation 

  • CNN: Trump Chief Of Staff Mark Meadows Subpoenaed By Special Counsel In Jan. 6 Investigation:  Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows has been subpoenaed by the special counsel investigating the former president and his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. Special counsel Jack Smith’s office is seeking documents and testimony related to January 6, and Meadows received the subpoena sometime in January, the source said. An attorney for Meadows declined to comment. The Justice Department did not respond to CNN’s request for comment on the subpoena. The move to subpoena one of Trump’s most senior aides – in addition to the recent subpoena of former Vice President Mike Pence, as CNN reported last week – marks the latest significant step in the special counsel’s investigation into Trump’s role in seeking to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election.

Nikki Haley Embraces The Far Right In Her 2024 Campaign Kickoff

  • Axios: Haley Channels Christian Nationalism: GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley began today’s launch event with an invocation from Pastor John Hagee, a right-wing televangelist so controversial that former Sen. John McCain rejected his endorsement in 2008. Hagee’s record includes calling Hitler a “hunter” sent by God to drive Europe Jews to Palestine, claiming Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for New Orleans’ Gay Pride parade, and referring to the Catholic Church as “the Great Whore.” “To Pastor Hagee, I still say I want to be you when I grow up,” Haley said with a smile in her opening remarks. Why it matters: Haley’s embrace of Hagee — in contrast with McCain’s repudiation during his presidential run — reflects how far right the Republican Party’s center of gravity has shifted in recent years.
  • Insider: House Republican Who Pushed ‘Marshall Law’ To Keep Trump In Power After January 6 Endorses Nikki Haley’s 2024 Presidential Bid: Nikki Haley has gained what appears to be her first congressional endorsement since launching her 2024 presidential campaign on Tuesday: Republican Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina. A member of the hardline conservative House Freedom Caucus, Norman was a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump throughout his presidency. That support took Norman to lengths that only a handful of other Republicans were willing to go. Following the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol, and just three days before President Joe Biden’s inauguration, Norman texted then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and urged him to declare martial law — which would entail suspending the laws of the United States and imposing order through the military.
  • NH Journal: Bolduc to Endorse Haley At NH Campaign Stop Thursday: Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley received a rousing reception in her home state of South Carolina Wednesday when she formally launched her 2024 campaign for president. And Granite State Republicans say she can expect a warm welcome in New Hampshire when she arrives for a series of campaign events on Thursday — particularly from 2022 U.S. Senate nominee, retired Gen. Don Bolduc, who sources say will be endorsing her candidacy. […] Bolduc bucked the GOP establishment at both the state and national level in his primary victory last year, defeating establishment favorite, former New Hampshire state Senate President Chuck Morse. Morse had the endorsement of Gov. Chris Sununu and the backing of GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell. Bolduc’s endorsement would send a signal to the conservative base that Haley is a candidate they can trust. At the same time, Bolduc’s embrace of election denialism would allow Democrats to turn their “democracy in danger” line of attack against Haley.

Election Deniers Face National Wave Of Pushback 

  • Washington Post: Election Deniers Face A Nationwide Wave Of Pushback: When the new Arizona attorney general took office last month, she repurposed a unit once exclusively devoted to rooting out election fraud to focus on voting rights and ballot access. In North Carolina on Tuesday, the State Board of Elections began proceedings that could end with the removal of a county election officer who had refused to certify the 2022 results even as he acknowledged the lack of evidence of irregularities. And later this week, a group of secretaries of state will showcase a “Democracy Playbook” that includes stronger protections for election workers and penalties for those who spread misinformation. These actions and others reflect a growing effort among state election officials, lawmakers and private-sector advocates — most of them Democrats — to push back against the wave of misinformation and mistrust of elections that sprang from former president Donald Trump’s false claim that his 2020 defeat was rigged.

In The States 

FLORIDA: Bill To Make It Easier To Prosecute Voters Lands On DeSantis’s Desk 

  • Talking Points Memo: State GOP Bill That’ll Make It Easier To Prosecute Voters Lands On DeSantis’s Desk:  A GOP-led bill expanding statewide prosecutors’ jurisdiction in Florida just made it to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk. The proposal aims to make it easier to prosecute those arrested by DeSantis’s sham election crimes police force, and critics worry it could dissuade some residents from voting. On Friday, the Florida Senate approved Senate Bill 4B which, among other things, authorizes the Office of Statewide Prosecution (OSP) to “investigate and prosecute crimes involving voting in an election for a federal or state office” across multiple counties. The bill was proposed after three cases against formerly incarcerated citizens arrested by the task force and accused of voting illegally were dismissed on the grounds that the OSP didn’t have the jurisdiction to prosecute them. While the sponsor of the Florida House version of the bill outright admitted that it was being proposed to help DeSantis act on his political stunt, the sponsor of the Senate proposal, state Sen. Jonathan Martin (R-Fort Myers), argued last week that allowing the OSP to step into cases in multiple jurisdictions would encourage local state prosecutors to make apolitical decisions.

WISCONSIN:  Democrats Meddle In GOP State Senate Primary 

  • New York Times: Democrats Meddle Again in a G.O.P. Primary, This Time Down-Ballot: Last year, Democrats spent millions of dollars elevating far-right candidates in Republican primary contests for governor and Congress — betting, it turned out correctly, that more extreme opponents would lose general elections. Now Wisconsin Democrats are trying to do it again, this time with mail and TV ads before a Republican primary in a special election for a State Senate seat that carries ramifications far beyond the district in suburban Milwaukee. The Democrats are helping a far-right election denier who has become a pariah within her party in her race against a less extreme, but still election-denying, conservative. They hope that with a more vulnerable opponent, Democrats can win a seat held for decades by Republicans and deny the G.O.P. a veto-proof majority in the gerrymandered chamber. “Janel Brandtjen is as conservative as they come,” reads a postcard sent to Republican voters from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, which calls her “a conservative pro-Trump Republican.” The Feb. 21 primary, and the April 4 general election to follow, will serve as the latest test of how much appetite Republican voters have for the flavor of election denialism that fueled the party’s grass roots after former President Donald J. Trump’s 2020 election loss.

What Experts Are Saying

Noah Bookbinder, President for Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington (CREW): “.@CREWcrew has been tracking the number of crimes which Donald Trump has been credible alleged to have committed since he began running for president in 2015. We’re now up to 56. Still no indictments, but that should and likely will change soon.” Tweet | CREW: President Trump’s staggering record of uncharged crimes

Barbara McQuade, former US attorney (MSNBC Video): “‘It allows you to go after the boss, the person who doesn’t get his hands dirty and allows his underlings to do all the dirty work.’ – @BarbMcQuade offers a clear, helpful explanation of what a RICO case is and why Fani Willis might use it in the Georgia election case.” MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Tonight Tweet 

Anthony Michael Kreis, Assistant Professor of Law at Georgia State University: “The law of democracy is foundational. This and the rule of law are being tested in Fulton County, Georgia. It isn’t a spectator sport though it is worth our attention. Justice is not meted out by gleefully hoping someone gets their just deserts. The search of truth isn’t grift. Patience is better than eager anticipation. Facts are better than wishful thinking. Speculation is inevitable, but we have to be measured and honest when we’re trying to read tea leaves and acknowledge the limitations and dangers of that. -fin-” Tweet | Tweet 

Jason Stanley, Jacob Urowsky professor of philosophy at Yale University: “Democracy involves informed decision-making about policy. These laws [like Florida’s Stop Woke Act] are intended to render such deliberation impossible when it comes to minority groups. The United States suffers from immense racial disparities, which result in periodic outbreaks of political protest. Without an understanding of the structural factors that keep schools and cities segregated, and certain populations impoverished, Americans will not be able to react to these outbreaks with understanding – they will find them befuddling. These laws eliminate the knowledge and understanding required to react democratically to Black political protest to structural injustice…It is clear that the chief agenda of the GOP is to advance a set of speech laws that criminalize discussion in schools of anything but the white heterosexual majority’s perspective. The media’s portrayal of these laws as moves in the “culture wars” is an unconscionable misrepresentation of fascism.” The Guardian Op-Ed: Banning ideas and authors is not a ‘culture war’ – it’s fascism 

Headlines

The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections

Associated Press: Study shows ‘striking’ number who believe news misinforms

CNN: DOJ officially decides not to charge Matt Gaetz in sex-trafficking probe

Trump 2024

Wall Street Journal: Donald Trump Changes Tune on Mail-in Voting, Ballot Collection

Wyoming Public Media: Hageman endorses Trump in his 2024 presidential bid

January 6 And The 2020 Election

Associated Press: Messages: Officer often fed information to Proud Boys leader

NBC: Jan. 6 rioter accused of attacking Officer Michael Fanone pleads guilty

Politico: Pence confirms he will fight Justice Department subpoena

Reuters: Fox News must face Smartmatic’s lawsuit over election-rigging claims

Reuters: Group wants Trump-aligned lawyer investigated over Capitol riot testimony

Other Trump Investigations.

New York Times: Prosecutors Seek Trump Lawyer’s Testimony, Suggesting Evidence of Crime

New York Times: Trump’s Offer to Provide DNA in Rape Suit Is Stalling Tactic, Judge Says

In The States

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Democrats are spending money to elevate a pro-Trump Republican primary candidate. Will it help them in a key state Senate race?

Vanity Fair: An Election That Could Spell The Fate Of Democracy Is About To Happen In Wisconsin