By Joe Miller
Threats to Democracy Remain As Second Anniversary of January 6th Approaches
As the second anniversary of the attack on our Capitol on January 6, 2021 approaches, our pursuit of accountability for the violence that day continues. Last week, the January 6 Committee released a massive trove of new evidence revealing Trump’s coordinated efforts to overturn an election he knew he lost. In Wisconsin, new documents from the January 6th Committee show that Senator Ron Johnson advocated for the GOP-controlled Legislature to select an alternative slate of Trump electors after the 2020 election. Documents also revealed that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos testified about 10 phone calls he had with Trump after the election.
Though the January 6th Committee’s work has drawn to a close, the impact of an expansive archive of evidence will be felt for months. In Georgia, the Fulton County grand jury investigating 2020 election interference concluded its probe last week. In the coming weeks, the grand jury will issue recommendations for further action and District Attorney Fani Willis will decide whether to press charges against former President Trump and his MAGA allies who were involved in efforts to undermine Georgia’s election process. In Nevada, state Attorney General Aaron Ford told local journalists that investigations into former President Donald Trump and the 2020 fake elector scheme that saw Nevada Republicans attempt to claim the state’s six electoral votes for Trump are “on our radar.”
Even as these efforts move forward, threats to democracy remain salient—and not just in the extremist GOP House, where Trump loyalist, and election denier, Kevin McCarthy continues to fight for the votes of far-right Jan. 6 co-conspirators Andy Biggs, Matt Gaetz, and Jim Jordan (who all, and it bears repeating, requested pardons from the Trump administration in 2021). In Pennsylvania, continued threats to democracy are likely to remain unresolved in the near future with a tenuous bipartisan coalition holding the state government together. The will of voters narrowly overcame repeated GOP attempts to seize control of the State House without a majority this week as the divided House elected an independent Speaker to preside. The outgoing MAGA legislature, which has spent weeks working to impeach democratically-elected District Attorney Larry Krasner, faced another setback earlier this week after a state court ruled that the impeachment inquiry does not meet requirements outlined in the Pennsylvania Constitution, though the court stopped short of abruptly ending impeachment proceedings.
In Florida, a third case of so-called voter fraud brought by Governor Ron DeSantis was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. In August, an elections police unit created by DeSantis arrested 20 people for allegedly voting illegally—after his administration approved voter registration applications for the accused citizens.
Elsewhere, still other election deniers are working to subvert the will of American voters:
In Michigan, a newly-elected MAGA majority on the state’s fastest-growing county Commission abruptly fired a top county administrator and appointed failed House candidate and MAGA conspirator John Gibbs instead.
In Minnesota, a new report found that many of the state’s most prominent election deniers and skeptics—many inspired by former President Trump and far-right MyPillow CEO and Minnesota native Mike Lindell—are still skeptical about voting machines and mail-in voting, even after many worked the polls.
And finally, in Texas, a new report found that a restrictive voting law hindering ballot access that passed almost a year ago has made it harder to vote in the state, particularly for Black and Hispanic Texans.
