Driving the Day
Must Read Stories
GOP supermajorities dominate governance in Tennessee and Montana legislatures, despite a more evenly divided public
- Washington Post: Inside the Tennessee legislature, where a GOP supermajority reigns: Tennessee is one of an increasing number of states (19 Republican, 9 Democratic) where one party has a “supermajority,” such a lopsided advantage that it can override a governor’s veto without relying on votes from the other party. In 2020, only 22 states had supermajorities. Of Tennessee’s 131 state legislators, 101 are Republicans, as are the governor, both U.S. senators and 8 of the 9 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. But here, as in other states with one-party dominance where representation has been skewed through partisan gerrymandering, the almost-absolute nature of Republican control doesn’t fully reflect the will of Tennessee voters. That means there is often a disconnect between what the public wants and what the legislature does. “The state is conservative, but not as conservative as the state legislature would lead you to believe,” said John G. Geer of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, who has been polling on state attitudes for more than a decade.
- Montana Free Press: How the Montana GOP supermajority wielded its power: Republicans in 2023 held a two-thirds-plus supermajority, 102 of 150 seats across the House and Senate — a high-water mark for the GOP in the state’s modern history. The party also controls the governor’s office and every other partisan statewide position. But a majority of that size can be unwieldy, especially with a $2.4 billion budget surplus on the line. Yet, on most issues, even those that faced bipartisan opposition in the 2021 session, the factionalized Republican Party ultimately closed ranks.
Trump’s town hall troubles: continuation of election misinformation and shattering norms
- NPR: Trump continues lies about election and lashes out after N.Y. verdict in town hall: During the unwieldy, more-than-an-hour long live town hall, in which Trump often talked past and over CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins, whom he called “nasty” while she pressed him on a question, Trump lied repeatedly. He did so on multiple issues in multiple ways, including: 1) continuing to claim the 2020 presidential election he lost was “rigged” (when it was not and that’s been proven over and over), 2) that former Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to send the election back to the states on Jan. 6 (which he did not), 3) that Pence wasn’t under threat that day (which he was), 4) that Trump requested 10,000 troops to secure the Capitol on Jan. 6 (didn’t happen), 5) that he had the right to take classified documents to his Florida home (he didn’t) and more.
- New York Times: Trump’s Goal: Shattering the Norms He Didn’t Already Break: In little over an hour, Donald J. Trump suggested the United States should default on its debts for the first time in history, injected doubt over the country’s commitment to defending Ukraine from Russia’s invasion, dangled pardons for most of the Capitol rioters convicted of crimes, and refused to say he would abide by the results of the next presidential election. The vision Mr. Trump sketched out at a CNN town-hall event on Wednesday would represent a sharp departure from core American values that have been at the bedrock of the nation for decades: its creditworthiness, its credibility with international allies and its adherence to the rule of law at home. Mr. Trump’s provocations were hardly shocking. His time in office was often defined by a the-rules-don’t-apply-to-me approach to governance and a lack of interest in upholding the post-World War II national security order, and at 76 he is not bound to change much.
- USA Today: Anderson Cooper defends CNN’s Donald Trump town hall: ‘I get it’: Anderson Cooper is defending CNN’s decision to host a town hall for former President Donald Trump.The cable news network’s event for the former president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate took place Wednesday in New Hampshire, a day before a jury found Trump liable of defamation and sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll. A crowd of 400 or so Republican and Republican-leaning voters welcomed Trump to Saint Anselm College with a standing ovation. During questioning, the former president declared Carroll’s case against him a “fake story” and called moderator Kaitlan Collins a “nasty person” as she fact-checked his answers. The network faced backlash over hosting the event, which marked the first major television event of the 2024 presidential campaign. CNN defended its decision to hold it as a chance to put Trump in front of a wider audience, outside the conservative media bubble he has largely kept to since early in his presidency.
Proud Boys member convicted of assault, rioting, and obstruction in Jan. 6 Capitol Attack
- Washington Post: ‘Tool’ of the Proud Boys convicted of Jan. 6 police assault, rioting: A Florida Proud Boys member whose medical mistreatment at the D.C. jail led a judge to order his pretrial release and to find jail authorities in contempt of court 19 months ago was convicted Friday of assaulting police, rioting and other charges in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Christopher Worrell, 52, of Naples, Fla., was found guilty after a five-day bench trial on all seven counts, including felony charges of obstructing Congress’s confirmation of the 2020 presidential election results and assaulting police with a deadly or dangerous weapon by spraying three officers with pepper gel.
- Naples Daily News: East Naples ‘Proud Boy’ guilty in attack on Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol: Worrell had pleaded not guilty to all the original charges. He faced 19 counts. Lamberth found Worrell guilty of seven counts: Obstruction of an official proceeding, entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, act of physical violence in the U.S. Capitol grounds or buildings, civil disorder, and assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon.
In The States
SOUTH CAROLINA: SCOTUS agrees to take up South Carolina racial gerrymandering case
- Politico: Supreme Court to hear racial redistricting case from South Carolina: The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a case examining whether South Carolina’s congressional map discriminates against Black voters, the latest high-profile elections law challenge the Roberts court is wading in to. The case — Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP — sees Republican lawmakers in the state challenging a lower court decision, which found that the state’s 1st Congressional District was an unlawful racial gerrymander.The district, which is located in the southeastern part of the state and has historically included Charleston, recently was a rare competitive congressional district in South Carolina. Once solidly Republican, the district flipped to Democrats in an upset in 2018, before the GOP reclaimed it two years later when voters elected Republican Nancy Mace. Then, during the mapmaking process following the 2020 census, the Republican-controlled state legislature redrew the district’s lines to make it more solidly Republican. A lower court ruled that Republicans in the state did so by moving a sizable number of Black voters from Charleston County over to the state’s 6th Congressional District, which is represented by Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, one of the most senior Black members of Congress.
- Washington Post: Supreme Court to consider South Carolina plan that ‘exiled’ Black voters: The Supreme Court will consider South Carolina’s attempt to reinstate a congressional redistricting plan that a lower court found had “exiled” 30,000 Black voters to create a district winnable for a White Republican candidate. The three-judge panel in January said the plan by the Republican-led legislature split Black neighborhoods in the Charleston area to create a “stark racial gerrymander.” After the changes, Rep. Nancy Mace (R) coasted to victory over a Democratic opponent, securing what has become a Republican-dominated 6-to-1 congressional delegation in the state. The judges found that South Carolina’s mapmaker tried to keep the African American population below a certain target in the district, treating Charleston County “in a fundamentally different way than the rest of the state.”
OHIO: Ohio House votes to put issue on August ballot changing constitution
- NBC News: Ohio Republicans pass a measure that could make it harder to enshrine abortion rights: Ohio’s GOP-controlled Legislature passed a series of measures this week that could make it harder to amend the state constitution to protect abortion rights. Ohio voters will now head to the polls on Aug. 8 to decide whether to raise to 60% the threshold of support required for passage of ballot measures that amend the state constitution. Currently, just a majority is needed. Reproductive rights groups contend the move is explicitly designed to make it more difficult for voters to pass a proposed amendment set to be on the ballot in November that would enshrine abortion rights in the Ohio Constitution. Voters will also decide whether groups trying to place ballot measures must obtain signatures from voters in all of Ohio’s 88 counties, instead of the 44 now required. Because the measures were adopted through a joint resolution, they don’t require the governor’s signature. The Republican-led moves came just weeks after reproductive rights groups in the state cleared several key hurdles on their own path to get their measure on the ballot in November.
ARIZONA: Governor and election officials say Kari Lake’s final election misconduct claim should be thrown out
- Associated Press: Kari Lake election challenge shouldn’t proceed, Arizona officials say: The last remaining election misconduct claim by Kari Lake, the 2022 Republican candidate for Arizona governor, is playing out in court as state officials and the Democratic governor asked a judge to throw out the case Friday. Lake was among the most vocal of last year’s Republican candidates promoting former President Donald Trump’s election lies, which she made the centerpiece of her campaign. While most other election deniers around the country conceded after losing their races in November, Lake did not. Courts have dismissed most of the former TV anchor’s lawsuit. On Friday, a judge heard arguments on whether or not Lake’s final claim should move ahead to a trial next week. Attorneys representing Arizona election officials and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs say Lake’s allegation that the election was rigged is based on unsubstantiated speculation.
VIRGINIA: State joins host of Republican-led states leaving ERIC
- NPR: Virginia becomes the latest GOP-governed state to quit a voter data partnership: Virginia on Thursday became the latest Republican-led state to withdraw from a multistate partnership that until early 2022 was considered a widely trusted, bipartisan effort to share voter information. The move makes Virginia the eighth state to leave the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, amid fringe conservative media reports and conspiracy theories attempting to connect the group to liberal donors and activists. Virginia’s departure is notable because the state was a founding member of the compact in 2012, under former GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell. As recently as three months ago, Republican voting officials in other states that have since pulled out were praising it as a “godsend” and “one of the best fraud-fighting tools we’ve got.”
What Experts Are Saying
Maria J. Stephan, co-leads the Horizons Project and is the co-author of Why Civil Resistance Works: “Florida has become the epicenter of a struggle between authoritarianism and those committed to freedom and justice for all. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 election, actively campaigned for election deniers, embraced divide-and-rule politics, and enacted extreme policies that gut fundamental freedoms enshrined in Florida’s and the US Constitution. These policies, grounded in racial resentment, misogyny, homophobia, and the punishment of opponents using state power, come straight from the global authoritarian playbook and are already spreading from Florida to other state legislatures across the country.” Salon
Hakeem Jefferson, political scientist at Stanford University, re: CNN Town Hall and “But do you think staying in your silo and only listening to people you agree with is going to make that person go away?”: “This reflects a lack of imagination. The arg is not that media should not cover Trump or what he does. Instead, media must be more thoughtful in its coverage and platforming of Trump, lest they become the de facto production company for disinformation & anti-democratic rhetoric.” Twitter Thread
Norm Eisen, House Judiciary Committee special counsel in Trump’s first impeachment trial (CNN Video): “The Fulton County DA already had a mountain of evidence that Trump likely interfered w the 2020 election;.’ At last [week’s] @CNN town hall, Trump gave her still more evidence to bolster her likely prosecution: Proof of his criminal intent[.] I explained @NewsCentralCNN w @jimsciutto” Tweet
Adrienne Jones, assistant professor and pre-law adviser at Morehouse College: “Today, conservative power over the federal courts and state legislatures is achieving its goals, restricting the ability of rights seekers to secure constitutional protection and even worse, working to erode the Constitution and reject its ideals…If this trend continues, the possibility of Jim Crow, citizenship for some and none for most, is real. Again, there will be no one to appeal to for constitutional protection. This time, it won’t just be Black people in peril, it will be most folks — poor, working class, elderly, language minority and the youth.” Telegraph Herald Op-Ed: Conservative power in state legislatures eroding constitutional ide
Headlines
The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections
Daily Beast: The GOP Is the Party of ‘Fuck You’
Rolling Stone: Twitter Finally Agrees On Something: Hating Musk’s New CEO
Guardian: ‘So improbable, it’s a novel’: the strange story of Clarence and Ginni Thomas
Trump Investigations
Politico: Supreme Court wades into Trump hotel records fight
AP News: Former Trump prosecutor mostly mum before Congress on details of hush-money investigation
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Could Trump’s town hall remarks help Fulton prosecutors investigating him?
January 6 And The 2020 Election
NBC: Trump says he would pardon a ‘large portion’ of Jan. 6 rioters
Hill: Marjorie Taylor Greene renews call for public release of Jan. 6 tapes
Opinion
Hill: The empty chair at the Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy trials
New York Times: Trump Cannot Be Unseen
USA Today: CNN town hall audience laughs at sexual assault as Trump reminds us how awful he is
New York Times: Trump’s Lesson for the Media and Ron DeSantis
In the States
Tampa Bay Times: Florida leads U.S. in disenfranchised voters. Stop making the problem worse
Detroit Metro Times: Former Republicans seek to create new centrist party and utilize fusion voting in Michigan
Mississippi Today: Judge won’t block law creating separate court district in Jackson
Washington Post: Ahead of 2024 election, several states overhauled voting laws
