Driving the Day:
Must Read Stories
Democracy Is Still At Risk In 2024 As Republicans Rally Around Far Right Election Deniers Again
- NBC: Election Officials Say Democracy Is Still At Risk In 2024: ‘The Gun Is Still Loaded’: The November midterms gave election officials and pro-democracy advocates their first sigh of relief in years: The election system they’d spent years defending and shoring up operated almost seamlessly, and most of the election deniers who threatened to disrupt it were defeated. The respite, however, appears to have been brief, with the new year marked by violent, moneyed and high-profile election denialism A failed Republican candidate claiming fraud orchestrated shootings into local Democrats’ homes in New Mexico, police allege. Former President Donald Trump hit the trail for the first time in his third presidential bid and once again advanced the conspiracy theory that he won in 2020. In Pennsylvania, mostly rural Lycoming County spent three days doing a hand recount of the 2020 election ballots last month after having been being dogged by false fraud claims for years. The recount affirmed the results, growing Trump’s margin of victory by just eight votes. The recount is a part of what election officials say is growing distrust of election machinery, even though hand recounts are typically slower, more expensive and less accurate. In Arizona, Republican Kari Lake continues to challenge her November loss in court and on television, hosting rallies and raking in more than $2.5 million since Election Day, according to an analysis of her campaign finance disclosures after Election Day by the Arizona Mirror. Elsewhere in Arizona, an election official in Cochise County — who was personally sued as she was trying to fend off local officials’ efforts to block certification of election results there — resigned. She is one of a growing number of election officials resigning because of harassment and election denialism.
- Washington Post: Republicans Rally Around Conservatives Who Lost Their Elections: Donald Trump — the former Republican president who lost his 2020 reelection bid — spent last Saturday pinging between New Hampshire and South Carolina in his third effort for the White House. Kari Lake — the former local news anchor who lost her 2022 Arizona gubernatorial bid — attended the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday in Washington as the guest of Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.), and is headed to Iowa later this month. And Jair Bolsonaro — the former president of Brazil who lost his 2022 reelection bid — is scheduled to headline the conservative Turning Points USA’s “Power to the People” event in Miami on Friday. Unlike in previous decades, where losing candidates largely slunk away, many Republicans have increasingly been celebrating political losers, with certain sections of the GOP base lionizing them as wronged warriors and avatars of legitimate grievances.
Trump Campaign Said Staff Would “Fan the Flame” Of Election Lies In Wisconsin In 2020
- Associated Press: Trump Campaign Staff On 2020 Election Lies: ‘Fan The Flame’: A newly released audio recording offers a behind-the-scenes look at how former President Donald Trump’s campaign team in a pivotal battleground state knew they had been outflanked by Democrats in the 2020 presidential election. But even as they acknowledged defeat, they pivoted to allegations of widespread fraud that were ultimately debunked — repeatedly — by elections officials and the courts. The audio from Nov. 5, 2020, two days after the election, is surfacing as Trump again seeks the White House while continuing to lie about the legitimacy of the outcome and Democrat Joe Biden’s win. The Wisconsin political operatives in the strategy session even praised Democratic turnout efforts in the state’s largest counties and appeared to joke about their efforts to engage Black voters, according to the recording obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. The audio centers on Andrew Iverson, who was the head of Trump’s campaign in the state. “Here’s the drill: Comms is going to continue to fan the flame and get the word out about Democrats trying to steal this election. We’ll do whatever they need (inaudible) help with. Just be on standby in case there’s any stunts we need to pull,” Iverson said.
Two Years After The January 6 Attack On The Capitol Trump Is Still Promoting Violent Rhetoric
- Washington Post (Analysis): Two Years After Jan. 6, Trump Is Still Promoting Violent Rhetoric: It has been some 25 months since supporters of Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol. Trump was later impeached for allegedly inciting the mob, with a historic number of Republicans voting to convict, though the Senate acquitted him. And many of those arrested for rioting said Trump’s suggestive language ahead of that date amounted to a call to arms. Trump has shown little remorse and no signs of self-reflection about what happened that day. In fact, he’s making and promoting the same kind of references to political violence that preceded Jan. 6. Perhaps the most pronounced recent example came Tuesday. On his Truth Social platform, Trump shared the message of a user actively encouraging physical violence on his behalf. Discussing a hypothetical effort to disqualify Trump from office, the user said anyone behind such an effort “will have to figure out how to fight 80,000,000 + it’s not going to happen again.” “People my age and old will physically fight for him this time,” the user said. “What we got to lose ? I’ll donate the rest of my time here on this planet to do it. And I know many many others who feel the same. They got my 6 and we Are Locked and LOADED.”
- NBC: Trump Splits With Ally McCarthy Over Ashli Babbitt Shooting On Jan. 6: Former President Donald Trump took a jab at House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a close ally, for defending the Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 riot. Asked about comments from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., that Babbitt had been murdered, McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters on Thursday, “I think the police officer did his job.” That led to a rebuke on social media from Trump, who posted on his Truth Social account, “I totally disagree with the Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy” about the officer who “shot and killed Great Patriot Ashli Babbitt.”
Some January 6 Defendants Are Publicly Recanting Their Guilty Pleas And Apologies
- Associated Press: Sorry, Not Sorry: Some 1/6 Rioters Change Tune After Apology: Appearing before a federal judge after pleading guilty to a felony charge in the deadly Capitol riot, former West Virginia lawmaker Derrick Evans expressed remorse for letting down his family and his community, saying he made a “crucial mistake.” Less than a year later, Evans is portraying himself as a victim of a politically motivated prosecution as he runs to serve in the same building he stormed on Jan. 6, 2021. Evans is now calling the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 prosecutions a “miscarriage of justice” and describes himself on twitter as a “J6 Patriot.” “Some ppl have said I need to apologize and condemn #J6 if I want to win my election as the media will attack me,” he tweeted recently after announcing his bid for a U.S. House seat in 2024. “I will not compromise my values or beliefs. That’s what politicians do. We need Patriots not politicians.” Evans joins a series of Jan. 6 defendants who — when up against possible prison time in court — have expressed regret for joining the pro-Trump mob that rattled the foundations of American democracy only to strike a different tone or downplay the riot after receiving their punishment.
- Politico: Judge Demands Answers After Jan. 6 Defendant Recants Guilt: A Jan. 6 defendant’s boast in an interview this week that he had no regrets about his role in the Capitol riot — just days after he acknowledged his guilt in a federal courtroom — may upend the man’s efforts to resolve the criminal case against him. U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta issued an order Friday instructing defendant Thomas Adams Jr. and prosecutors to explain why the guilty findings the judge entered on Tuesday, following a brief “stipulated” bench trial should not be overturned in light of Adams’ comments to a reporter the following day.
In The States
ARIZONA: Kari Lake Still Won’t Accept Her Gubernatorial Loss, Plans A Senate Run
- New York Times: Kari Lake, Still Refusing to Accept Defeat in One Race, Teases Arizona Senate Run: Kari Lake, the fiery former news anchor who narrowly lost a race for governor of Arizona last year, said in an interview that she is considering a Republican campaign for the U.S. Senate in Arizona next year. She has also scheduled campaign-style events this month in Iowa — home to her party’s first presidential nominating contest — that typically signal White House ambitions. Additionally, she is still contesting her November defeat in the Arizona governor’s race, despite her claims of misconduct being rejected in court. She has continued raising money to help finance legal bills related to her court challenges, and has also given several paid speeches, but declined to say for whom.
FLORIDA: Ron DeSantis’s Crackdown On Voting Rights Continues
- The Guardian: Voters’ Mail-In Ballot Requests Canceled As Florida Passes New Voting Restrictions: Hundreds of thousands of Florida voters had their requests for mail-in ballots cancelled last month, a consequence of a new law championed by Ron DeSantis. The change is part of a suite of new restrictions on voting by mail – including new identification requirements and ballot drop box limits – Republicans passed after the 2020 election. Previously, Florida voters could elect to automatically receive a mail-in ballot for every election for up to four years. The new measure cancelled nearly all of the standing requests on file at the end of 2022. Voters can also now only request to automatically receive a mail-in ballot for up to two years.
- Talking Points Memo: Desantis Couldn’t Net Any Election Fraud Prosecutions, So Florida GOPers Want To Change The Law: Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) tried to get some good press and score points with Donald Trump supporters when he arrested 20 people accused of voter fraud last year, but the stunt hasn’t led to any real convictions. On Friday, Republicans in the state legislature introduced a bill to change that. The stunt came in the form of the Office of Election Crimes and Security, a sham task force DeSantis launched within the Florida Department of State last August as the Big Lie still lingered following the 2020 election. The governor admitted at the time that there was no evidence of widespread fraud in Florida, but he still seized on the opportunity to fight against the phantom menace: On Aug. 18, 2022, he announced that the office had already arrested 20 formerly incarcerated residents —mostly Black, mostly in South Florida— who’d been accused of voting illegally. Most of those arrested didn’t know they weren’t allowed to vote and some were told they could vote by election admistrators. “Today’s actions send a clear signal to those who are thinking about ballot harvesting or fraudulently voting,” he said. “If you commit an elections crime, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” That last part turned out to be harder to execute. To date, three of the arrestees had their cases dismissed while a fourth took a plea deal to avoid jail time. All three dismissals occurred because the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor (OSP) didn’t have the jurisdiction to pursue the voters; statewide prosecutors can only go after crimes that occurred in two or more counties. The arrestees had only voted in one each. Now the state GOP is trying to rectify that through a new bill introduced to the Florida House of Representatives during a special session on Friday. The bill, sponsored by Miami Republican state Rep. Juan Fernandez-Barquin, would expand the OSP’s jurisdiction, including to allow them to “investigate and prosecute crimes involving voting in an election for a federal or state office,” and seeks to do away with a specific Florida statute requiring that the office only try crimes committed in more than one county.
NORTH CAROLINA: New Conservative Majority On The NC Supreme Court To Rehear Recent Voting Rights Cases
- New York Times: On North Carolina’s Supreme Court, G.O.P. Justices Move to Reconsider Democratic Rulings: An extraordinary pair of orders by North Carolina’s Republican-controlled Supreme Court is highlighting how the partisan tug of war has pervaded the state’s courts and, by extension, the nation’s. On Friday, the court moved to rehear two major voting rights cases that it had previously decided, one striking down a gerrymandered map of State Senate districts and another nullifying new voter identification requirements. Such rehearings by the court are exceedingly rare. In fact, North Carolina’s Supreme Court ordered as many rehearings on Friday as it has in the past three decades. What also made the rehearings exceptional was that the cases had been decided less than two months ago — by a court that, at the time, contained four Democratic and three Republican justices. The court that voted to rehear the cases has a 5-to-2 Republican majority, courtesy of the party’s sweep of state Supreme Court races in November. And the potential beneficiary of those reviews is the Republican leadership of the state General Assembly, which had both drawn the political map and enacted the voter ID law that the court struck down in December.
What Experts Are Saying
Joyce Vance, former US attorney: “The insurrection happened. Trump Republicans tried to destroy our democracy. They should never be permitted to return to power; they should not have been there in the first place. Yet here we have Secretary [Mike] Pompeo touting the glorious success on January 6, 2021. And there has been barely a whisper of disapproval, let alone an outpouring of outrage. What can we do? It’s hard to say. But we can spread the word. We can refuse to forget so easily. We can refuse to let this be last week’s news and ensure that we use social media and personal conversations to underline that Pompeo’s lie—that January 6 was a successful, peaceful transition of power—will not be tolerated by decent people in this country.” Civil Discourse
Democracy Docket: “Georgia, Kansas and North Carolina will have litigation developments this month as other lawsuits challenging suppressive voting practices and the results of the Arizona midterm elections (yes, you read that correctly) remain active. Redistricting litigation is also back in full swing as district lines for the 2024 elections come into focus. [Here] we outline cases with courtroom activities or filings to look out for this month. This is not an exhaustive list — new lawsuits will be filed, and pending cases are subject to scheduling conflicts, delays or case developments that change the course of litigation. Keep an eye on our Cases page for any developments in these lawsuits and others.” Litigation Look Ahead: February
Michael Li, Democracy Senior Counsel: “For most Americans, the congressional districts they voted under in 2022 will be the same ones they use in 2024. But changes in a handful of states between now and 2024 could shift the advantage in favor of one party or the other in the battle for a closely divided House. Whether those changes make maps fairer or more gerrymandered remains to be seen.” How Voting Districts Could Change Before 2024
Headlines
The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections
Associated Press: Election skeptics slow to get sweeping changes in GOP states
Associated Press: Electronic pollbook security raises concerns going into 2024
Washington Post: GOP Rep. Clyde hands out assault-rifle lapel pins to House colleagues
Trump 2024
New York Times: Trump Won’t Commit to Backing the G.O.P. Nominee in 2024
January 6 And The 2020 Election
The Intercept: Marines Charged In Capitol Riot Got Highly Sensitive Spy Jobs After Jan. 6
Other Trump Investigations.
New York Times: Former Trump Executive, Already Jailed, Could Face More Fraud Charges
Political Violence
Politico: Pair charged with plotting racially-fueled attack on Baltimore power grid
In The States
Bolts: North Carolina Supreme Court Signals It May Roll Back Voting Rights for Thousands
Politico: The State Where the GOP Would Rather Lose Than Change
