Driving the Day:
TONIGHT: President Biden will outline the threat to democracy posed by MAGA Republicans across the country. https://t.co/AFo7PSnNOx
— Defend Democracy Project (@DemocracyNowUS) September 1, 2022
Must Read Stories
Democrat Mary Peltola Defeats MAGA Election Denier Sarah Palin In Special Election For US House
- Anchorage Daily News: Democrat Mary Peltola Wins Special U.S. House Election, Will Be First Alaska Native Elected To Congress: Democrat Mary Peltola is the apparent winner of Alaska’s special U.S. House race and is set to become the first Alaska Native in Congress, after votes were tabulated Wednesday in the state’s first ranked choice election. Peltola topped Republican former Gov. Sarah Palin after ballots were tallied and votes for third-place GOP candidate Nick Begich III were redistributed to his supporters’ second choices. Peltola, a Yup’ik former state lawmaker who calls Bethel home, is now slated to be the first woman to hold Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat. If results are confirmed as expected by the state review board later this week, she will succeed U.S. Rep. Don Young, the Republican who held the office for nearly five decades — since before Peltola was born. The special election was triggered by Young’s death in March.
President Biden To Deliver Prime Time Address On Threats To Democracy Tonight
- Associated Press: Unfinished Business: Biden Sharpens His Attacks On Trumpism: Nearly two years after he defeated Donald Trump, President Joe Biden has some unfinished business he’s aiming to settle with the restive forces of Trumpism. The president is set to use a primetime address Thursday to frame the upcoming midterm elections as part of an ongoing battle for the “soul of the nation” — a reprise of his 2020 campaign theme that he’s now using to cast the current stakes in as dire terms as those that sent him to the Oval Office two years ago. Biden, who largely avoided even referring to “the former guy” by name during his first year in office, has grown increasingly vocal in calling out Trump personally, which White House officials say reflects the urgency with which he views the threat of Trump and his devotees. His speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, less than 10 weeks before the midterms, comes as Biden is feeling emboldened by a series of legislative wins. He is sharpening his attacks on Republicans as the “ultra-MAGA” party — a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan — that opposes his agenda, embraces conservative ideological proposals and spreads Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election.
- Yahoo: ‘MAGA Republicans’ Are A Threat To Democracy, White House Says: With President Biden preparing to deliver a speech on the state of American democracy Thursday evening, the White House intensified its rhetorical attacks Wednesday on what it calls “MAGA Republicans” who support former President Donald Trump and share many of his views. “The president thinks there’s an extremist threat to our democracy,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing in what appeared to be a preview of the president’s remarks, which he will make from Philadelphia’s iconic Independence Hall. The speech will focus on a “battle for the soul of the nation,” according to the White House. The theme is an allusion to Biden’s 2019 announcement that he was seeking the presidency, a campaign that he said in a video was inspired by the white supremacist riot in Charlottesville, Va., two years before.
Michigan Republicans Defy Will Of The People, Attempt To Remove Abortion And Voting Rights Initiatives From The Ballot
- Associated Press: Michigan Election Board Rejects Abortion Rights Initiative: A Michigan elections board on Wednesday rejected an abortion rights initiative after its two Republican board members voted against putting the proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot. The two Democrats on the Board of State Canvassers voted in favor, but getting the measure on the ballot required at least three votes of the four-member board. The Reproductive Freedom for All campaign, which gathered signatures to get the measure on the ballot, is expected to appeal to the Democratic-leaning Michigan Supreme Court in the coming days and expressed confidence it would prevail. The board’s administrative and clerical work on elections was once carried out in obscurity, but it drew national attention in 2020 when Donald Trump pressured Republican members not to certify Joe Biden’s electoral win in the state. Its partisan split was evident on another issue Wednesday, when it deadlocked 2-2 on a measure to expand voting, with Democrats for it and Republicans against.
- Detroit Free Press: Michigan Elections Panel Declines To Send Voting Rights Proposal To Ballot: A sweeping voting rights proposal to make changes to Michigan’s elections – including establishing early voting in the state — failed to land a spot on the ballot this fall after the state’s elections panel deadlocked Wednesday on whether to certify the Promote the Vote amendment for the ballot. Organizers collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, according to the state’s Bureau of Elections. But canvassers debated how to handle a challenge to the proposal alleging that the petition form circulated by organizers failed to note which sections of the Michigan Constitution would be impacted if the proposal was placed on the ballot and adopted by voters. The Board of State Canvassers reached an impasse on a motion to adopt the recommendation handed down from the Bureau of Elections to certify the Promote the Vote proposal. The two Republican members of the Board of State Canvassers – Tony Daunt and Richard Houskamp – voted against placing Promote the Vote on this fall’s ballot while the two Democratic members – Mary Ellen Gurewitz and Jeannette Bradshaw – voted in favor of putting it on the ballot. The vote leaves the Promote the Vote proposal off the ballot for now. Promote the Vote immediately vowed to go to court and expressed confidence that the proposal will ultimately secure a spot on the ballot.
Senator Ron Johnson Has A Wisconsin Fake Elector Working For His Campaign
- NBC: A Wisconsin ‘Fake Elector’ Works For Ron Johnson’s Re-Election Campaign: One of Wisconsin’s “fake electors” has been working as a paid staffer for Sen. Ron Johnson’s re-election campaign. Alexa Henning, a spokeswoman for Johnson, R-Wis., confirmed to NBC News Wednesday the campaign’s employment of Pam Travis, one of 10 Wisconsin Republicans who signed bogus paperwork claiming to be an elector backing then-President Donald Trump in an alleged plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Travis’ LinkedIn page indicates she’s worked for Johnson since March, and Federal Election Commission financial reports show the campaign has paid her just over $10,200 since April, as well as more than $3,500 in reimbursements for mileage costs between May and July. Travis, an active member of the Wisconsin GOP, is serving as the vice chair of the 7th Congressional District.
In The States
WISCONSIN: GOP Candidate For Secretary Of State Wants Control Over Elections
- Associated Press: Wis. SOS Hopeful Wants Election Control, Won’t Say How Much: Wisconsin’s Republican secretary of state hopeful wants lawmakers to hand the office control over elections, but she won’t say how much authority she wants or whether her duties should include unilaterally certifying presidential winners in the key battleground state. Amy Loudenbeck, a state representative from south-central Wisconsin, wants to unseat long-time Democratic incumbent Doug La Follette in November. The Legislature has spent the last few decades stripping La Follette of almost all his responsibilities. Loudenbeck wants to restore some of them, including taking over election oversight from a bipartisan commission. Republicans who control Wisconsin’s Legislature passed bills this year making it more difficult to vote absentee and imposing restrictions on election administration, only to have Democratic Gov. Tony Evers veto them. In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, Loudenbeck repeatedly declined to explain how much control over elections she wants or how she thinks elections should be administered, saying Republicans who control the Legislature would decide what responsibilities to give her.
What Experts Are Saying
David Laufman, former chief of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence and export control section: “Additional info that Trump’s people concealed from gov’t the continued presence of classified docs,and other evidence of obstruction, are the type of ‘aggravating factors’ in a retention case that usually lead to criminal prosecution.” Tweet
Renato Mariotti, former federal prosecutor: “The location of the classified documents (in the drawer in Trump’s desk) and the fact that they were mixed in with other documents (presumably Trump’s personal property) is evidence that Trump was responsible for the willful retention of those documents.” Tweet
Barbara McQuade, former US attorney: “Among the statutes cited in the search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence is one that prohibits obstruction of justice. That offense may sound familiar because it was one of the potential crimes investigated during Trump’s presidency by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. This time, though, this charge could actually stick.” USA Today Op-Ed: This isn’t the Mueller probe. Why Trump charges in DOJ case aren’t out of the question.
Dennis Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor, Philip Allen Lacovara, served as counsel to the Watergate special prosecutor and former deputy U.S. solicitor general: “To have a reasonable chance of imposing effective sanctions, Garland should focus on the relatively straight-forward offenses that prompted the Mar-a-Lago search and on securing an indictment by mid-November, after the midterm election when DOJ might be perceived, falsely or not, as interfering in that race.” Slate: Mar-a-Lago Filing Shows Merrick Garland Must Move Quickly to Indict Trump
Headlines
The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections
CNN: Trump weighs delaying 2024 decision as political and legal troubles grow
Daily Beast: FBI Facing ‘Unprecedented’ MAGA Threats: ‘Time to Hunt Fed Bois’
New York Times: As Republicans Turn to Fall Races, Their Sites Downplay Trump and Abortion
January 6 And The 2020 Election
ABC: Fox News’ Sean Hannity set to be deposed as part of billion-dollar election lawsuit
Politico: Eastman appears before Atlanta-area grand jury probing Trump election scheme
Other Trump Investigations
Bloomberg: DOJ Is Likely to Wait Past Midterms to Reveal Any Trump Charges
New York Times: Trump’s Lawyers May Become Witnesses or Targets in Documents Investigation
New York Times: Trump’s Lawyers Renew Push for Special Master in Documents Inquiry
Politico: Days before Mar-a-Lago subpoena, Trump lawyer claimed she scoured his office, closets and drawers
Opinion
Political Violence
In The States
Arizona Republic: State Senate can keep some election ‘audit’ docs secret, Arizona Supreme Court says
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: As misinformation ‘spreads like wildfire,’ Wisconsin Elections Commission seeks new office of inspector general
Reuters: Michigan sheriff sought to seize multiple voting machines, records show
