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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — October 3, 2022

By October 3, 2022No Comments

Driving the Day: 

Must Read Stories

Donald Trump And Republicans Escalate Threats Of Political Violence 

  • NBC: Trump Intensifies Attacks On Mcconnell With ‘Death Wish’ Remark On His Social Media Platform: Former President Donald Trump raised the specter of political violence Friday with a fresh attack on Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, suggesting that the GOP leader had “a death wish” because he had voted to approve legislation sponsored by Democrats. In a post on his Truth Social website, Trump asked if McConnell had supported the unspecified bills “because he hates Donald J. Trump, and he knows I am opposed to them.” “He has a DEATH WISH,” Trump added. While Trump did not specify which Democratic-sponsored bills McConnell supported, the Senate on Thursday passed a bill to keep the government funded in a 72-25 vote that included support from McConnell and other Republicans. Earlier in the week, McConnell said he would back bipartisan legislation aimed at protecting against election subversion — putting him at loggerheads with Trump.
  • Daily Beast: Marjorie Taylor Greene Says Democrats ‘Have Already Started the Killings’ of Republicans: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) accused Democrats of murdering Republicans in “killings” that the lawmaker claims are underway. “I am not going to mince words with you all,” Greene said at Donald Trump’s rally in Warren, Michigan, on Saturday night. “Democrats want Republicans dead, and they have already started the killings.” To support her claim, Greene cited a recent North Dakota crime story about an intoxicated man who allegedly “had a political argument with [a] pedestrian,” hit the pedestrian with a car, and then later claimed the pedestrian was “part of a Republican extremist group,” according to court documents. During her speech, Greene added that President Joe Biden “has declared every freedom-loving American an enemy of the state.” “But under Republicans, we will take back our country from the Communists who have stolen it and want us to disappear,” Greene concluded.
  • New York Times: Lawmakers Confront a Rise in Threats and Intimidation, and Fear Worse: In Bangor, Maine, an unknown visitor smashed a storm window at Senator Susan Collins’s home. In Seattle, a man who had sent an angry email to Representative Pramila Jayapal repeatedly showed up outside the lawmaker’s house, armed with a semiautomatic handgun and shouting threats and profanities. In Queens, a man who had traveled across the country waited in a cafe across the street from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s office to confront her, part of a near-constant stream of threats and harassment that has prompted the congresswoman to switch her sleeping location at times and seek protection from a 24-hour security detail. Members of Congress in both parties are experiencing a surge in threats and confrontations as a rise in violent political speech has increasingly crossed over into the realm of in-person intimidation and physical altercation. In the months since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, which brought lawmakers and the vice president within feet of rioters threatening their lives, Republicans and Democrats have faced stalking, armed visits to their homes, vandalism and assaults. It is part of a chilling trend that many fear is only intensifying as lawmakers scatter to campaign and meet with voters around the country ahead of next month’s midterm congressional elections.

Election Officials Across The Country Brace For Violence, Intimidation, Misinformation At The Polls 

  • Associated Press: Election Officials Brace For Confrontational Poll Watchers: Poll watchers have traditionally been an essential element of electoral transparency, the eyes and ears for the two major political parties who help ensure that the actual mechanics of voting are administered fairly and accurately. But election officials fear that a surge of conspiracy believers are signing up for those positions this year and are being trained by others who have propagated the lie spread by former President Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 presidential election was riddled with fraud. In Michigan, groups that have spread falsehoods about that race are recruiting poll watchers. In Nevada, the Republican Party’s nominee for secretary of state, Jim Marchant, denies President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory and was a featured speaker at a party poll watcher training. Cleta Mitchell, a prominent conservative lawyer and North Carolina resident, is running a group recruiting poll watchers and workers in eight swing states. Mitchell was on the phone with Trump when the then-president called Georgia’s secretary of state in January 2021 and asked that official to “find” enough votes for Trump to be declared the state’s winner. […] The laws governing poll watchers vary from state to state. Their role is generally to observe, question any deviations from required procedure and, in some states, lodge formal complaints or provide testimony for objections filed in court. The worries this year are similar to those during the 2020 election, when Trump began railing against mail voting and the Republican National Committee launched its first national operation in decades. It had recently been freed from a consent decree that limited its poll watching operation after it previously was found to have targeted Black and Latino voters. But voting went smoothly that November.
  • CNN: Election Workers To Be Trained To Deal With Violence At Polls As Midterms Approach: Federal officials are offering state and local election officials training to “safely de-escalate” confrontations with voters that could turn violent ahead of November’s midterm elections, according to an email to election workers obtained by CNN. The move underlines the level of concern ahead of the upcoming elections and comes in response to a steady stream of violent threats and harassment that election officials have faced since the 2020 election, much of it from people who falsely claim that the vote was marred by fraud. The training includes “non-confrontational techniques” for dealing with angry voters as well as how to determine if an “emergency response” is needed or if law enforcement should be alerted, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in an email this week to election industry workers. CISA encouraged election officials to contact the agency for in-person or virtual training, because “personal safety is paramount.”
  • Votebeat: Trump Allies Have Interviewed Nearly 200 Election Officials To Probe For Weaknesses: Two of Donald Trump’s most prominent allies in his fight to overturn the 2020 election are leading a coordinated, multi-state effort to probe local election officials in battlegrounds such as Michigan, Arizona, and Texas ahead of the November election. The America Project, an organization founded by Michael Flynn, a retired three-star general and former national security adviser, and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, has so far interviewed or attempted to interview officials in nearly 200 counties across eight swing states, according to copies of notes, recordings of the interviews, and other documents Votebeat found on web pages associated with the organization. The survey questions reflect the same debunked conspiracies and misleading information about elections that Flynn and Byrne have been propagating for years.  The survey questions appear intended to detect potential weaknesses in local election systems and gather detailed information about how elections are run. Election experts say the information could easily be used to fuel misinformation campaigns, disrupt voting, or challenge results.

How Voting To Overturn The 2020 Election Became A Political Asset For Republicans 

  • New York Times: They Legitimized the Myth of a Stolen Election — and Reaped the Rewards: Five days after the attack on the Capitol last year, the Republican members of the House of Representatives braced for a backlash. Two-thirds of them — 139 in all — had been voting on Jan. 6, 2021, to dispute the Electoral College count that would seal Donald J. Trump’s defeat just as rioters determined to keep the president in power stormed the chamber. Now one lawmaker after another warned during a conference call that unless Republicans demanded accountability, voters would punish them for inflaming the mob. “I want to know if we are going to look at how we got here, internally, within our own party and hold people responsible,” said Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina, according to a recording of the call obtained by The New York Times. When another member implored the party to unite behind a “clarifying message” that Mr. Trump had truly lost, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, emphatically agreed: “We have to.” More than 20 months later, the opposite has happened. The votes to reject the election results have become a badge of honor within the party, in some cases even a requirement for advancement, as doubts about the election have come to define what it means to be a Trump Republican. The most far-reaching of Mr. Trump’s ploys to overturn his defeat, the objections to the Electoral College results by so many House Republicans did more than any lawsuit, speech or rally to engrave in party orthodoxy the myth of a stolen election. Their actions that day legitimized Mr. Trump’s refusal to concede, gave new life to his claims of conspiracy and fraud and lent institutional weight to doubts about the central ritual of American democracy.

Election Deniers Could Soon Control Election Apparatus In Key States 

  • Reuters: 2020 Election Conspiracists Could Soon Oversee Voting In U.S. Battleground States: Two far-right U.S. politicians who want to upend the way votes are cast and counted are tied or leading in races to become the top election administrators in their states, according to recent polls. Republicans Jim Marchant of Nevada and Mark Finchem of Arizona promote wild conspiracy theories about how the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. A victory in November could allow them, as secretaries of state, to restrict voting access or seek to block certification of results in these two critical battlegrounds for presidential elections. Marchant and Finchem want to curtail or abolish early voting, mail-in voting and ballot drop-boxes, claiming without evidence that they breed fraud. Both advocate banning electronic voting machines and returning to hand-counted paper ballots to secure elections. Election experts and officials of both major parties have said such changes would actually make elections more prone to fraud and error, while making it harder for citizens to vote.

Donald Trump Publicly Thanked Ginni Thomas For Sticking To The Big Lie Before The January 6 Committee 

  • Insider: Trump Thanked Ginni Thomas For Sticking To His ‘big Lie’ When She Was Questioned By The January 6 Committee, Unlike Other ‘Weak’ And ‘Stupid’ People:  Former President Donald Trump on Saturday commended conservative activist Ginni Thomas for clinging to the false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, appeared in front of the House Select Committee investigating January 6th in a voluntary meeting on Thursday. Thomas, a former cult member turned anti-cult activist, told the committee she believes Trump won the 2020 election despite overwhelming evidence certifying President Joe Biden’s victory. Thomas’ steadfast belief sits in stark contrast with the actions or statements made by some other conservative figures. The New York Times reported in June that Mitch McConnell refrained from becoming involved in the idea of the Big Lie, and others, including his daughter Ivanka Trump and his campaign attorneys, have admitted to his loss.  “She didn’t wait and sit around and say ‘well, let me give you maybe a different answer [than what] I’ve been saying for the last two years now,'” Trump said at a rally in Warren, Michigan on Saturday: “She didn’t wilt under pressure like so many others that are weak people and stupid people. Because once they wilt, they end up being a witness for a long time.”

With Opening Statements Set To Begin Today, The Defense In The Oathkeepers January 6 Sedition Trial Plans To Pin The Blame On Trump 

  • Associated Press: Trump At Center Of Oath Keepers Novel Defense In Jan. 6 Case: The defense team in the Capitol riot trial of the Oath Keepers leader is relying on an unusual strategy with Donald Trump at the center. Lawyers for Stewart Rhodes, founder of the extremist group, are poised to argue that jurors cannot find him guilty of seditious conspiracy because all the actions he took before the siege on Jan. 6, 2021, were in preparation for orders he anticipated from the then-president — orders that never came. Rhodes and four associates are accused of plotting for weeks to stop the transfer of presidential power from the Republican incumbent to Democrat Joe Biden, culminating with Oath Keepers in battle gear storming the Capitol alongside hundreds of other Trump supporters. Opening statements in the trial are set to begin Monday. Rhodes intends to take the stand to argue he believed Trump was going to invoke the Insurrection Act to call up a militia to support him, his lawyers have said. Trump didn’t do that, but Rhodes’ team says that what prosecutors allege was an illegal conspiracy was “actually lobbying and preparation for the President to utilize” the law. It’s a novel legal argument in a trial that’s one of the most serious cases coming out of the Capitol attack.

The National Archives Is Still Missing Some Key Trump Administration Documents 

  • ABC: National Archives Still Missing Some Trump Administration Records: The National Archives has still not recovered all the presidential records that should have been turned over at the end of the Trump administration, according to a new letter to Congress from the acting archivist. “We do know that we do not have custody of everything we should,” Debra Steidel Wall, acting archivist of the United States, said in her letter to Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., suggesting that former officials had still not turned over electronic messages of official business done on personal accounts. Wall’s letter was a response to a Sept. 13 request from Maloney seeking an “urgent review” of “whether presidential records remain unaccounted for and potentially in the possession of the former president.” Wall said the National Archives and Records Administration “would consult with the Department of Justice” on whether “to initiate an action for the recovery of records unlawfully removed.”

In The States 

GEORGIA: Investigation Of Voting Data Breaches Expands To Another County

  • Atlanta Journal Constitution: Investigation Probes Effort To Copy Election Data In Another Georgia County: The tech company that copied election data in Coffee County was also considered for similar work in Spalding County, prompting a new investigation in Georgia, State Elections Board Chairman William Duffey said. The company, Atlanta-based SullivanStrickler, communicated with the Spalding County elections board in August 2021 about an agreement to collect information from election management systems, Duffey said during a State Election Board meeting Wednesday. The agreement wasn’t finalized, and unlike in Coffee County, it doesn’t appear that SullivanStrickler actually copied data in Spalding County, Duffey said. Georgia election equipment is supposed to be kept secure from potential tampering, and the GBI is already conducting a criminal investigation into computer trespassing allegations in Coffee County’s elections office. SullivanStrickler was hired by Sidney Powell, a former attorney for then-President Donald Trump, to copy files from Coffee County voting equipment, including the county’s main elections computer, ballot scanners, memory cards and voter check-in tablets on Jan. 7, 2021. The firm also worked for Trump supporters on election data jobs in Michigan and Nevada, and the State Election Board has requested the FBI’s assistance with the GBI’s ongoing investigation.

MINNESOTA: GOP Secretary of State Candidate Kim Crockett Refuses To Commit To Accepting Election Results  

  • Minneapolis Star Tribune: GOP Secretary of State Candidate Kim Crockett Won’t Commit To Accepting November Election Results: DFL Secretary of State Steve Simon and Republican challenger Kim Crockett debated for the first time Sunday night with only one of them promising to abide by the results in November. Asked on WCCO Radio if he was confident in the administration of the 2022 election and whether he would accept the results, Simon said, “Yes and yes.” When asked the same question, Crockett paused and said she’s running because of “real concerns voters have expressed.” She then responded directly to moderator Blois Olson, calling it an odd question, and saying, “We aren’t there yet. We are weeks out and we just have to see what happens between now and the certification of the election.”

WISCONSIN: Sen. Ron Johnson And GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Tim Michels Refuse To Commit To Accepting Election Results 

  • Wisconsin State Journal: Ron Johnson, Tim Michels Won’t Unconditionally Commit To Accepting 2022 Election Results: To the Democrats at the top of the ticket this November, the answer is simple: Win or lose, Gov. Tony Evers and U.S. Senate candidate Mandela Barnes say, they will accept the results. But for their Republican opponents — Tim Michels and Ron Johnson — the question is more fraught, with neither willing to say unconditionally whether he would agree to the outcome once the results are certified. “It is certainly his hope that he can,” Johnson campaign spokesperson Alec Zimmerman said when asked whether the senator would concede if he loses. “He would feel much better about the 2022 election had Governor Evers signed bills the Legislature passed to restore confidence in our election system,” Zimmerman continued. “That said, we are doing everything we can to ensure guidances and election procedures comply with state law. We will be monitoring everything closely.” Evers’ challenger Tim Michels earlier this year said the 2020 election was “maybe” stolen and that decertifying the election’s results would be “on the table” if he’s elected governor. His spokesperson Anna Kelly said Friday Michels would accept the Nov. 8 results, “provided the election is conducted fairly and securely.”

What Experts Are Saying

Norm Eisen, Brookings Institution senior fellow (CNN Video): “DOJ will have to prove Stewart Rhodes & the other Oath Keepers agreed to overthrow, attack, or impede the gov by force on ⅙[.] Seditious conspiracy is a rare charge—but the gov has extensive evidence to support it here[.] I joined @CNN @CNNnewsroom w/ @FWhitfield to discuss” Tweet 

Steven Levitsky, Rockefeller professor of Latin American studies and professor of government  at Harvard University: “‘Ten years from now, there could be crises that make 2020 look like a garden party,’ said Rockefeller professor of Latin American studies and professor of government Steven Levitsky last night. ‘There could be a fair amount of violence. There could be a stolen election. There may be brief periods of undemocratic rule. I think we’re heading for a period of intense conflict.’” Harvard Magazine 

Daniel Ziblatt, professor of the science of government at Harvard University: “Of Italy, Ziblatt said, ‘This is the first time that a party with roots in the fascist era is running a government….This is a major threat. It’s to be taken seriously.’ ‘There are reasons why these parties are successful: disaffection with politics, disaffection with the economy, a sense that the world is not improving, a general sense of malaise,’ he said. ‘But I think the other important part of the story is how mainstream politicians respond to them. Do they overlook their own internal differences to realize there’s a threat out there?…I think one of the lessons here is that it’s necessary to have a broad coalition against these kinds of parties, but it’s difficult to form them.’ He said in Italy and elsewhere, ‘The challenge of building a multiracial democracy has turned out to be a hell of a lot harder than we anticipated.’” Harvard Magazine 

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history and Italian studies at New York University: “‘A new class of thieves has emerged who want to steal our freedom,’ Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro thundered during a speech last June. The beleaguered leader, who has been trailing badly in recent polls ahead of Sunday’s election, went on to declare that ‘if necessary, we will go to war’ against the offenders…If this sounds familiar, it’s because Bolsonaro – who, like his peer, former US president Donald Trump, has taken political guidance from famed right-wing ideologue Steve Bannon – seeks to make Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ strategy his own, as he faces off Sunday against the popular former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, candidate of the progressive Worker’s Party.” CNN Op-Ed 

Headlines

The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections

New York Times: As New Term Starts, Supreme Court Is Poised to Resume Rightward Push

Time: Bolsonaro Brings Trump’s ‘Stop the Steal’ Tactics to the Brazilian Election

Washington Post: Apocalypse now: Democrats embrace a dark midterm message

January 6 And The 2020 Election

New York Times: Jan. 6 and Mar-a-Lago Inquiries Converge in Fights Over Executive Privilege

NPR: Fox’s Jeanine Pirro is back in the hot seat in $1.6 billion election defamation case

Politico: Arizona GOP chair: DOJ has not attempted to enforce false-elector subpoenas

Rolling Stone: Michael Fanone Is Not Your Fucking Hero

Other Trump Investigations 

CNN: Trump deposition in Carroll defamation lawsuit set for October 19 as fate of case remains in limbo

Politico: Feds seek to fast-track appeal in Trump Mar-a-Lago documents fight

Opinion

New York Times (Charles Blow): America Has a Ginni Thomas Problem

Wall Street Journal (Editorial): Trump’s ‘Death Wish’ Rhetoric

Political Violence

Bloomberg: A Jan. 6 Judge Was Targeted in a SWAT Hoax. He Likely Won’t Be the Last

 

In The States 

Associated Press: 2 lawsuits target Wisconsin policy on absentee ballots

Associated Press: Dysfunction In Texas AG’s Office As Paxton Seeks Third Term 

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Judge upholds Georgia election laws on all counts in voting rights case

Chicago Sun Times: Unfounded election fraud accusations pour in to Illinois officials

CNN: GOP congressional candidate Joe Kent’s ties to white nationalists include interview with Nazi sympathizer

Daily Beast: GOP Candidate’s Staffer Has a Murder-for-Hire Past

Nevada Independent: IndyFest Poll: Races for governor and U.S. Senate close, Republicans lead down ticket