This week, Bennie Thompson, the chair of the January 6 Committee, revealed the committee plans on making criminal referrals to the Justice Department for the attempt to overturn the 2020 election. While these latest details are a step in the right direction to protect our democracy, there is more work to be done. MAGA Republicans across the country, and at every level, pose an ongoing threat to our most fundamental rights and ways of life.
Here’s what you need to know for the weekend:
Main Points for the Weekend:
- The January 6 Committee has completed its investigation and plans on making criminal referrals to the DOJ. The committee’s recommendations will be included in its final report, released to the public later this month.
- Top point to make: No one is above the law – including former presidents, members of Congress, and other elected officials.
- If you read one thing: USA Today, 12/06/22. Jan. 6 committee to recommend DOJ pursue criminal charges, but hasn’t yet decided on names. “Norm Eisen, a lawyer who served as counsel to the Democratic House committee leading Trump’s first impeachment, said he expected the recommendations to focus on two allegations: the attempt to defraud the United States through overturning the 2020 election and obstruction of an official congressional proceeding. Despite the Justice Department already investigating aggressively, Eisen said the recommendations would still be important to explain the evidence and allegations. ‘No1, they stiffen the spine of state and federal prosecutors by encouraging them to act,’ Eisen said. ‘No. 2, they provide important information, the roadmap, the evidence. That’s the most critical part.’ He and Debra Perlin, policy director for the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said referrals could target Trump, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump personal lawyer John Eastman, and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark.”
- Arizona has officially certified the state’s election results. MAGA Republicans in the state have claimed election fraud for years in an attempt to change the results of the election when their MAGA Republicans lose.
- Top point to make: MAGA Republicans pose an ongoing threat to our democracy and our most fundamental rights.
- If you read one thing: CBS4, 12/05/22. Arizona certifies 2022 election results amid threat of more GOP challenges. “Election officials have acknowledged mishaps but insist no voter was disenfranchised. Some GOP figures and their supporters claimed officials were lying, unsuccessfully calling on county boards to not certify their canvasses in recent days before turning their ire to Monday’s state-level certification… ‘Arizona had a successful election,’ Hobbs said. ‘But too often throughout the process, powerful voices proliferated misinformation that threatened to disenfranchise voters. Democracy prevailed, but it’s not out of the woods. 2024 will bring a host of challenges from the election denial community that we must prepare for.’”
- After the former president called to terminate the US Constitution, many Republican lawmakers failed to condemn his comments. All who fail to condemn such remarks from the former president are complicit in fueling the fire of casting doubt on our country.
- Top point to make: The threat posed by MAGA Republicans has not subsided; it only grows.
- If you read one thing: ABC News, 12/04/22. Trump’s call to suspend Constitution not a 2024 deal-breaker, leading House Republican says. “Joyce initially declined to respond, saying he didn’t know what Trump said on social media and that the public wasn’t ‘interested in looking backwards.’ But Stephanopoulos pressed further, and Joyce ultimately said that Trump’s comment should be taken ‘in context’ but that it wouldn’t prevent him from supporting Trump if he ends up winning the nomination… ‘That’s a remarkable statement,’ Stephanopoulos said. ‘You just said you’d support a candidate who’s come out for suspending the Constitution.’”
Expert voices
Norm Eisen, a counsel to the Democratic House committee leading Trump’s first impeachment: “said he expected the recommendations to focus on two allegations: the attempt to defraud the United States through overturning the 2020 election and obstruction of an official congressional proceeding. Despite the Justice Department already investigating aggressively, Eisen said the recommendations would still be important to explain the evidence and allegations. ‘No. 1, they stiffen the spine of state and federal prosecutors by encouraging them to act,’ Eisen said. ‘No. 2, they provide important information, the roadmap, the evidence. That’s the most critical part.’” USA Today
Debra Perlin, policy director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW): “He [Eisen] and Debra Perlin, policy director for the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said referrals could target Trump, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump personal lawyer John Eastman and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark…’These are serious minds and serious legal thinkers who believe that the threshold has been met to make criminal referrals, who believe that prosecution is required,’ Perlin said.” USA Today
Elie Honig, former federal and state prosecutor (CNN Video): “You’d have to start with #DonaldTrump. There’s no question that the committee established that all of this happened because of #Trump, with Trump’s knowledge and to some extent with what Trump was hoping to accomplish.” Porter Anderson Tweet
Michael Sozan, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress (Video Explainer): In this video, the Center for American Progress unpacks the arguments in Moore v. Harper, a case with the potential to upend free and fair elections. As explained in the video, if the court’s extreme conservative majority adopts the reckless independent state legislature theory, partisan state legislators could have limitless power to craft election laws and draw rigged congressional maps. CAP: Supreme Court Decision in Moore v. Harper Could Harm Free and Fair Elections | Tweet
Ari Savitzky, Senior Staff Attorney for the ACLU Voting Rights Project: “If the Supreme Court adopts the North Carolina legislators’ proposed rule in Moore, it will make it even easier for state legislatures to suppress the vote and subvert election results, and it will give both political parties the green light to draw gerrymandered election districts. Adopting the legislators’ rule would also require the court to turn its back on principles ostensibly favored by its current majority, like original meaning and federalism, which stand against the legislators’ radical and disruptive legal theory. Moore is an opportunity for the court to reject that radicalism, and to reaffirm the common-sense rule that has been in place since the Constitution was ratified: State legislatures always act subject to the state constitutions that charter them and define their powers. Nothing less than that basic principle of American constitutional government is at stake.” ACLU: Explaining Moore v. Harper, the Supreme Court Case That Could Upend Democracy
Heather Cox Richardson, American historian at Boston College: “On Sunday, December 4, all but one Republican lawmaker who expects to stay in office for the next two years stayed resolutely silent about Trump’s open attack on the U.S. Constitution, this nation’s founding document, the basis for our government.” Letters from an American
Barbara McQuade, former US attorney: “Trump’s attack on the Constitution is straight out of the proverbial authoritarian playbook. I dissected each sentence with @yasminv. If we can spot these tactics, we can defeat them.” MSNBC Video | Tweet
Dennis Aftergut, a former assistant US attorney and former Supreme Court advocate: “Trump writing that we should cancel the Constitution ranks right up alongside John Tyler’s support of the Confederacy as among the most shameful acts of a former president in our nation’s history…Out of his gourd with fear of federal prosecution, Trump does something that helps ensure its success.” The Bulwark: Trump Stands in the Middle of Fifth Avenue and Shoots the Constitution
Joyce Vance, former US attorney: “The independent state legislature theory dramatically misreads the Elections Clause as giving state legislators near-exclusive power over federal elections, along with the ability to prohibit any other branch of state government, the courts or the governor, from operating as a check and balance on the power that legislatures would abscond with. In North Carolina, the argument is that state courts lack the power to stop the state legislature from violating the state’s own constitution when it draws new congressional maps. That’s nonsensical. Imagine a world where state legislatures could exercise that kind of power and no one could do anything about it. The potential for abuse is unlimited. Voters across the country would have no remedy against the baldest of partisan gerrymanders. And of course, confidence in the integrity of our elections would bottom out.” Civil Discourse
