This week, while we are preparing for next month’s midterm elections, MAGA Trump-loving Republicans are preparing to follow Trump’s election-denying playbook to a tee. They are preparing to refuse to concede election results, contest votes for their opponents, and are already harassing and threatening poll workers.
Here’s what you need to know for the weekend:
Main Points for the Weekend:
1. As the midterm elections approach, MAGA Republicans are finalizing the first steps in their strategy of attacks in order to try to steal next month’s elections. These steps all start before the election even begins and consist of attacks from their extremist groups – starting at the local level, with local election officials.
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- Top point to make: Trump-loving Republicans are following the first step of Trump’s “undermine elections” playbook: Discredit Election Officials, Especially in Areas of High Voter Turnout for Your Opponent, and Train Supporters to Harass Voters and Election Officials.
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- If you read one thing: Axios, 10/26/2022: Extremist groups are going local to disrupt the midterms. “What extremists are saying: ‘Focus on county over country. Capture your local county, then several of them, then maybe your state,’ McCord said, quoting from a post on right-wing social network Gab. In one tactic, extremists are signing up as poll watchers and workers, trying to use legitimate means to infiltrate and disrupt elections… Election offices are installing bulletproof glass, bulking up on security and conducting active-shooter trainings. Rising threats are prompting a shortage of election workers — which extremists could use to their advantage. The bottom line: Municipal and county leaders have a heavy responsibility to safeguard the upcoming midterms — which could serve as a dress rehearsal for the 2024 presidential election.”
2. Before Election Day has even begun, hundreds of lawsuits have already been filed targeting voting machines, voting methods, counting ballots, and more. All in an effort to slow or stop the counting of legally cast votes and take away our right to vote.
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- Top point to make: Trump-loving Republicans are following the next steps in the election-denier playbook: File Baseless Lawsuits to Slow the Counting and Sow Chaos
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- If you read one thing: AP, 10/27/2022: Election Day is Nov. 8, but legal challenges already begin. “More than 100 lawsuits have been filed this year around the Nov. 8 elections. The legal challenges, largely by Republicans, target rules for mail-in voting, early voting, voter access, voting machines, voting registration, the counting of mismarked absentee ballots and access for partisan poll watchers. The cases likely preview a potentially contentious post-election period and the strategy stems partly from the failure of Donald Trump and his allies to prevail in overturning the free and fair results of the 2020 presidential election that he lost to Joe Biden… Party officials say they are preparing for recounts, contested elections and more litigation. Thousands of volunteers are ready to challenge ballots and search for evidence of malfeasance.”
3. The investigations into Trump’s actions to “find” more votes for himself in Georgia during the 2020 election continue. The January 6th Select Committee is sharing the information they have with the Fulton County Prosecutors.
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- Top point to make: Donald Trump engaged in an illegal conspiracy to change the results of an election he knew he lost. He must be held accountable.
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- If you read one thing: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 10/25/2022: Jan. 6 committee aids Fulton prosecutors in their investigation of Trump. “Legal experts interviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution believe that during its nine public hearings, the Select Committee has presented evidence that could aid Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis should she decide to press charges. ‘These hearings have been a boon for her prosecution,’ said Norm Eisen, an attorney and ethics czar to former President Barack Obama who’s been closely following both investigations. ‘They’ve taken us into places that it might have taken her years to gain access to: the inner sanctum of the Oval Office … the halls of the Department of Justice.’… Shortly after the Select Committee’s final hearing, Trump released a 14-page letter to Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., doubling down on claims of widespread voter fraud in Georgia and other swing states and accusing the panel of overseeing a ‘witch hunt of the highest level.’”
4. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas froze Sen. Lindsey Graham’s order to testify before the Fulton County, GA Grand Jury. The court is investigating the Senator’s involvement in trying to “find” more 2020 presidential votes for Trump. Justice Thomas’ wife, Ginni Thomas, has also testified before the January 6th Committee for her involvement in pressure to overturn election results.
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- Top point to make: Trump allies from elected government officials, judges, their spouses, and everywhere in between are directly involved in the conspiracy to overturn elections and infringe on our right to vote.
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- If you read one thing: New York Times, 10/24/2022: Justice Thomas Briefly Shields Graham From Georgia Elections Inquiry Subpoena. “Justice Thomas’s brief order was an “administrative stay,” meant to give the court some breathing room to weigh the senator’s emergency application asking the Supreme Court to bar the grand jury from questioning him. On Saturday, Justice Thomas, who oversees the appeals court whose ruling is at issue, ordered prosecutors to respond to the application by Thursday. Such a request for a response is almost always a sign that the full court will weigh in on the matter. Prosecutors appear to be particularly interested in any efforts Mr. Graham may have made to urge officials in Georgia, including its secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to address allegations of voting irregularities before Congress was to vote in January 2021 to certify that President Biden was the legitimate winner of the presidential election.”
Expert voices
Michael Beschloss, NBC News presidential historian: “‘50 years after the election of 2022, what a historian is likely to say about this election isn’t how high the inflation rate was, [but rather,] ‘why was democracy teetering on the edge in 2022 and what happened after that?’— @BeschlossDC to @PreetBharara” Tweet | Interview on CAFE’s ‘Stay Tuned with Preet’
Hannah Fried, All Voting Is Local executive director: “Hannah Fried, who runs the voting rights group All Voting Is Local, sees what’s happening in Nevada as part of a proliferation nationwide of ‘efforts to create chaos in our election system in service of undermining election results.’” Dana Milbank’s Washington Post column: In Nevada, election deniers prepare to sabotage the midterms
Heather Cox Richardson, American historian at Boston College: “The presence of armed vigilantes outside of voting places is a scene directly out of the 1876 ‘redemption’ of the South…In 1876, ‘Redeemers’ set out to put an end to the southern governments that were elected in systems that allowed Black men to vote. ‘Rifle clubs’ held contests outside Republican political rallies, ‘Red Shirts’ marched with their guns in parades. Their intimidation worked. Democrats took over the South and created a one-party system that lasted virtually unbroken until 1965. Without the oversight that a healthy multiparty system provides, southern governments became the corrupt tools of a few wealthy men, and the rest of the population fell into a poverty from which it could not escape until the federal government began to invest in the region in the 1930s.” Letters from An American
Joshua Tucker, politics professor and co-director of New York University’s Center for Social Media and politics, re: polarized political rhetoric: “Political scientists at New York University reviewed and corroborated The Times’s findings and said the results underscored a broad shift in Republican rhetoric. ‘We are clearly living in a time in politics where this kind of aversion is increasing, and also where we are seeing the emergence of an extreme faction in the Republican Party,’ said Joshua Tucker, a politics professor, and co-director at the university’s Center for Social Media and Politics.” New York Times
Jennifer Mercieca, a professor at Texas A&M University: “Mr. McCarthy’s rhetoric is in line with that of other Republicans who objected to the election.‘They are using what are called ‘devil terms’ — things that are so unquestionably bad that you can’t have a debate about them,’ said Jennifer Mercieca, a professor at Texas A&M University who studies the history of political rhetoric.” New York Times
Barbara McQuade, former US attorney (MSNBC Video): “Disinformation is fueling political violence. I discussed this threat with @AliVelshi, who was in Detroit this weekend for @VelshiMSNBC. @MSNBC.” Tweet
Joyce Vance, former US attorney: “[I]n many of these investigations, it’s not just Trump who’s on the minds of prosecutors, and certainly not when it comes to the January 6 committee. If the (possibly) final hearing made anything clear, it’s that the committee has a conspiracy’s worth of targets in sight. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise with Obama-era U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy in place as Chief Investigation Counsel for the Committee. And Heaphy onboarded a staff flush with former prosecutors. Prosecutors think conspiracy any time they see two or more people involved in a potential crime. Committee members seem to be thinking conspiracy too. In previous hearings, Liz Cheney invoked specific crimes, like conspiring to obstruct the electoral vote certification, and she squarely rejected the idea that Trump was being led by people around him. Instead, the committee had a laser beam focus on Trump’s central role in events. In the subpoena they sent to him on Friday, they clarified any doubt. In their view of the evidence, he ‘personally orchestrated and oversaw’ the conspiracy.” Civil Discourse
Joyce Vance, former US attorney, re: Clarence Thomas temporarily halting order that Sen. Lindsey Graham testify in Fulton County investigation: “This is only an administrative stay, which means Graham doesn’t have to testify while SCOTUS examines his request. Fulton County DA’s response is due Thursday. It would be shocking if Thomas ruled in Graham’s favor w/out referring this to the full court, given his wife’s activity” Tweet
Steve Vladeck, Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Courts at the University of Texas School of Law: “To be clear, Justice Thomas issued an “administrative stay,” which blocks the Eleventh Circuit ruling only temporarily while the full Court decides whether to block it pending appeal. Such a ruling is *not* predictive of how the full Court (or even Thomas) will vote on the stay…Indeed, there are lots of recent examples of the Circuit Justice issuing such a temporary ruling and then the full Court *declining* to make it permanent…One good recent example is the Yeshiva case. Justice Sotomayor drew a lot of headlines for temporarily blocking the lower court’s order pending full Court review, then was part of the 5-4 majority that ultimately refused to block it pending appeal…The application automatically goes to him [Thomas] in his capacity as Circuit Justice for the Eleventh Circuit, and there’s no mechanism for a non-recusal transfer.” Twitter Thread
John Cohen, former Department of Homeland Security counterterrorism chief: “‘We are now hearing reports of people surrounding ballot drop boxes, some even wearing tactical gear, and questioning people,’ said John Cohen, the former counterterrorism chief at DHS. ‘Are the police prepared for that? They need to be. All of this is being driven by the false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen.’” Politico
Jason Stanley, Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University: “If any one of the GOP candidates for governor in Arizona, Michigan, and Pennsylvania wins they will refuse to certify a win by a Democratic candidate. Dems can’t really win a federal election without at least 2 of these states. The GOP candidate in AZ leads; the one is MI is tied[.] This is the end of American democracy. You wouldn’t know it from our feckless media.” Tweet | Tweet
Alan Rozenshtein, associate professor at the University of Minnesota Law School: “New paper! @jedshug and I argue in a forthcoming @ConstComm essay that the First Amendment would not bar a prosecution of Donald Trump for inciting the January 6 mob. Comments welcome! Unlike others (including Judge Mehta in Thompson v. Trump), we don’t base this conclusion solely on the content of the speech, which we believe is ambiguous and thus plausibly protected under Brandenburg. Rather, we focus on Trump’s *overt acts*. E.g., his order to remove the magnetometers keeping the armed crowd away from the rally stage, and his attempts to lead the mob at the Capitol. These overt acts provide a principled basis for prosecuting Trump without weakening 1A protections for political speech.” Twitter Thread | January 6, Ambiguously Inciting Speech, and the Overt-Acts Solution
REPORT: Protect Democracy, Over Zero, and New America’s New Models for Policy Change Initiative: “[M]ore than 60% of Americans hold stances on accountability or responsibility – including Donald Trump’s perceived lack of responsibility – for January 6 as sacred values. Sacred values are strong, absolutist views or moral imperatives that are acted on as a duty or obligation rather than a choice. Engaging Americans on issues they have sacralized risks provoking a backlash.” Overview | Report
Barbara McQuade, former US attorney: “Litigating privilege issues is some serious effort by DOJ to get to Trump’s conversations with his inner circle. You don’t do this unless you’re determined to turn over every stone.” Tweet
Harry Litman, former US attorney, re: DOJ’s reported efforts to compel Trump WH counsel testimony: “Really important development, and even more important augury for the testimony of [Pat Cipollone] and [Patrick] Philbin. And on deck the biggest prize who has dodged testimony to date based on executive privilege argument: Mark Meadows.” Tweet
Gregory Eady, University of Copenhagen professor; Frederik Hjorth, University of Copenhagen professor; Peter Thisted Dinesen, professor at University College London and University of Copenhagen: “Using day-level panel data from a large sample of US social media users to track changes in the identities expressed in their Twitter biographies, we show that the Capitol insurrection caused a large-scale decrease in outward expressions of identification with the Republican Party and Donald Trump, with no indication of reidentification in the weeks that followed. This finding suggests that there are limits to party loyalty: a violent attack on democratic institutions sets boundaries on partisanship, even among avowed partisans. Furthermore, the finding that political violence can deflect co-partisans carries the potential positive democratic implication that those who encourage or associate themselves with such violence pay a political cost.” American Political Science Review – Abstract | Paper
Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and a former federal corruption prosecutor: “Following the final hearing of the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, the evidence is overwhelming: The Department of Justice must bring criminal charges against Donald Trump and many others for their culpability for the attack. The evidence of criminal conduct by the former president is so strong, and the offenses so consequential to the continued viability of American democracy, that indictment is the only appropriate outcome — and I believe the DOJ will indict.” Salon Op-Ed: Donald Trump must be indicted — and this time, I believe Merrick Garland will act
Harry Litman, former US attorney, re: court order that Mark Meadows testify in Georgia grand jury investigation: “The order to Meadows came from a South Carolina judge. Meadows also argued the special grand jury is civil in nature but Georgia already has ruled otherwise, and in theory that ruling should get applied in other states. Exec priv is big looming issue” Tweet
Joshua Stanton, previously served as public defender in Tennessee; Norm Eisen, served in the White House as special counsel and special assistant to the president for ethics and government reform; E. Danya Perry, former Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division for the Southern District of New York: “As Americans across the country start the early voting process and prepare to return to the polls for the midterms, election officials should do everything possible to encourage one thing: voting. Instead, Florida’s new “election police” appear to be suppressing it by illegally targeting good faith voting mistakes. Fortunately, the Florida justice system is pushing back, and rightly so. This is an important test case for American democracy in the newfound battles over voter suppression.” Just Security: Democracy at Risk: Are The Florida Election Police Violating the Law?
David H. Gans, Director of the Human Rights, Civil Rights & Citizenship Program at Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC): “”The so-called independent state legislature theory is a fabrication that cannot be squared with the Constitution’s text and history.” — @MyConstitution’s David Gans on the brief we filed today at #SCOTUS” Tweet | Press Release | CAC’s Moore v. Harper Case Page
