Today's Edition (May 20, 2021)

A moment of clarity.

          On Tuesday, the man accused of inciting an insurrection against the United States commanded congressional Republicans not to investigate the causes of that insurrection. They immediately complied with his demand. Their moral collapse was so sudden and abject that it brought a moment of clarity rarely seen in politics: Congressional Republicans are no longer participants in American democracy. They are the enemy of democracy because they refuse to defend it against a man who seeks to destroy it. It’s not any more complicated than that. We need not wring our hands to plumb the depths of their motivation. They can’t be trusted, and it is a waste of everyone’s time to treat them as stakeholders in the future of our nation’s democracy. Indeed, in seeking to protect the man who actively encouraged the insurrection, they are co-conspirators and collaborators. But we knew that already.

          Here are the facts that matter: Democrats wasted months negotiating with Republicans over a bipartisan commission to investigate the Capitol Insurrection. When Republicans got everything they wanted, they began to stall, inventing new objections to the compromise they helped to fashion. When Trump realized that Republicans might vote for the bipartisan commission, he wrote the following on his website:

          Republicans in the House and Senate should not approve the Democrat trap of the January 6 Commission. . .  . Republicans must get much tougher and much smarter, and stop being used by the Radical Left. Hopefully, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy are listening!

          As Trump expected, Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell were listening with rapt attention and implemented his demands without delay. McCarthy began to whip House Republicans against the bipartisan commission but was unable to prevent nearly three dozen Republicans from voting in favor of the commission. See CBS News, “House approves January 6 commission despite GOP opposition.” (“35 Republicans voting in favor.”) Shortly thereafter, Mitch McConnell said he would not support the “slanted” bill—a flimsy excuse coming from a man who blamed Trump for inciting the insurrection. For a bracing refresher of McConnell’s speech blaming Trump, see the video embedded in The Independent, “McConnell says Trump ‘practically and morally’ to blame for riot in stunning rebuke despite acquittal.”

          The prospects for approval of the commission in the Senate are dim. See USNews, “McConnell Opposes Jan. 6 Commission as Prospects in Senate Fade.” No matter. Schumer should put the resolution to a vote and be done with it—and then never look back. Senate Republicans who vote against the bill can add their names to the list of Trump’s co-conspirators and collaborators. And Democrats should not waste another minute negotiating with Republicans about anything. If they can’t vote to investigate an assault on American democracy, they aren’t going to vote for Biden’s infrastructure bill. Let’s move on.

New York Opens Criminal Investigation into Trump Organization Business Activities

          In a significant development, the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, announced that her investigation of the Trump Organization’s business activities had moved from a civil inquiry into a criminal investigation. See The Guardian, “New York attorney general opens criminal investigation into Trump Organization.” A.G. James issued a statement saying, “We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA.” The move increases the potential that employees of the Trump organization will cooperate with prosecutors—thereby increasing criminal exposure for Trump.

          While we need not follow every twist and turn of the Trump investigations, this disclosure comes from the N.Y. Attorney General’s Office (as opposed to leaks to the press) and should be viewed as an indication that the investigation is serious. On a day when Republicans have effectively insulated Trump from congressional scrutiny, it is good to remember that multiple civil and criminal proceedings may result in Trump being held accountable for his actions. We should be realistic and not entertain false hopes. But if you were a betting person, you would wager in favor of one of the investigations resulting in an indictment against Trump. That may be enough to derail his chances of being the 2024 GOP nominee, while at the same time sidelining other potential contenders pending the outcome of the investigations. Good.

Texas accepts the Supreme Court’s invitation to pass unconstitutional legislation restricting abortion.

          When the Supreme Court granted review of Jackson Women's Health Org. v. Dobbs on Monday, its order said that it would “limit its examination to [the] question” of  whether “all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional.” The Court’s order thus suggested that it would issue a sweeping ruling upholding the constitutionality of “all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions.”

          Texas took the hint from the Court and preemptively enacted a bill that is currently unconstitutional, but which Texas expects will be constitutional under the Court’s expected ruling in Dobbs. See WaPo, “Texas governor signs abortion bill banning procedure as early as six weeks into pregnancy.” We should expect that all states controlled by Republican legislatures and governors will pass similar legislation. It is unlikely that the Court will issue its opinion before the November 2022 mid-term elections—thus putting the question of outright bans on abortion on the mid-term ballots in dozens of states. [Correction: Unless the Court delays its ruling (as it delayed its grant of review), we should expect the ruling by July 2022—in time for the midterms. Thanks to a reader for pointing out the error in my time calculation.]

More corruption in Bill Barr’s Justice Department.

          Long-time readers of this newsletter know that I refer to Bill Barr as the “worst Attorney General in our nation’s history.” The myriad reasons need not be repeated here. On Tuesday, another scandal surfaced that reveals the pervasiveness of the political corruption under Bill Barr’s tenure. The scandal relates to a parody Twitter account that mocked Republican Rep. Devin Nunes by posing as Nunes’s mother who was not happy with her son. The parody account infuriated Rep. Nunes, who filed a lawsuit to discover the identity of his fake mother on Twitter (and of another parody account allegedly run by Nunes’s cow.”) See The Hill (3/18/19), “Nunes sues Twitter, users for more than $250M.”

          Up to this point, the story involves nothing other than Devin Nunes’s fragile ego and thin skin. But then the Department of Justice issued a criminal subpoena to Twitter seeking to unmask the identity of the Twitter user behind “@DevinNunes’Mom.” Twitter objected to the subpoena, saying the user appeared to be engaging in protected speech. The DOJ then dropped the matter. See Salon, “Devin Nunes' new "unmasking" scandal exposes the corruption within Bill Barr's DOJ.”

          At first blush, the story may seem insignificant. But it reveals the use of the Department of Justice by a political ally of Trump to harass his political enemies. That act is a perversion of the mission of the DOJ. The worst part is that the corruption could not have happened without the cooperation, acquiescence, and knowledge of other members of the Department. The guardrails in the Department of Justice crumbled under Bill Barr and Trump. The DOJ must engage in a period of introspection and reckoning to rehabilitate itself—and to ensure that it never again becomes an instrument of political retribution and harassment.

Reflecting on lessons from 2020.

A reader sent a link to report by EveryDistrict.us titled, “The 2040 Project | Continuing to Fight for Control in the Purple States.” The report examines the question of “Why we underperformed in state legislative races in 2020?” The report examines that question in a smart and measured manner. It addresses uncomfortable facts such as the poor showing by Democrats among Hispanic voters in Florida and Texas, and the failure of Biden’s victory to translate into down-ballot success. Key recommendations relate to the need to invest for the long-term and to invest at the right time in state legislative races (early).  I found the report to be forthright but helpful—and ultimately positive. By understanding why Democrats underperformed in 2020, we can avoid repeating that fate in 2022. It’s a good report; I recommend it to your attention.

Concluding Thoughts.

           It’s up to us; we must defend democracy on our own. Let go of false hopes of compromise. To succeed, we must simply overwhelm those who have turned their backs on democracy. The good news is that there are many more of us than there are of them. The only thing we need to succeed is to show up at the polls. While we should fight voter suppression in the legislatures and the courts, we should also fight voter suppression by making sure that voters overcome obstacles erected by fearful Republicans. We are not victims, we are not helpless, and we are not prisoners of history. Turnout matters; the rest is detail. The 2020 election proved that Democrats can turn out in record-setting numbers. Let’s do it again in 2022. We can do that!

          Talk to you tomorrow!