Polarized Courts Side With The Gop
Almost everyone I spoke with told me that, at this point, the election results would be challenged in court. The Trump campaign might sue Democratic-leaning counties for alleged irregularities and ask that judges toss out their results. I can imagine the litigation in Pennsylvania taking the form of saying voting booths in Philadelphia were held open an excessively long time, an unlawfully long time, or the vote counters in some Democratic-leaning county unlawfully refused to count late-filed absentee ballots, Tushnet said. Victory for Trump would mean throwing out the ballots and saying that when those are thrown out, Trump gets the states electoral votes. That, in turn, would allow him to remain president.
This argument, and the many others that the Trump campaign could employ, would almost certainly be specious. But Tushnet cautioned against underestimating the power of creative attorneys and motivated reasoning. The legal justification for challenging the returns would develop, he said, in some ways that we cant really anticipate now but that lawyers will come up with when it matters.
The justices, along with everybody else, seemed to view disputed facts through the lens of the place where they have been ideologically, said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California Irvine School of Law.
How Would The Media Treat This If Trump’s Supporter Had Talked About A Different Demographic Group
To see this and understand why it’s happening, it helps to imagine how this incident would have gone down if it had revolved around a different religious minority group: Jewish Americans.
Here’s how Trump’s exchange with his supporter would’ve looked the word “Jews” were exchanged for “Muslims”:
MAN IN AUDIENCE: We have a problem in this country, it’s called Jews. We know our current president is one. You know he’s not even an American. Birth certificate, man!
DONALD TRUMP: We need this question!
MAN IN AUDIENCE: But anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That’s my question: when can we get rid of ’em?
DONALD TRUMP: We’re gonna be looking at a lot of different things. And you know that a lot of people are saying that, and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there. We’re going to be looking at that and plenty of other things.
Now imagine if the incident was followed with media coverage that ignored the man’s assertion of Jewish “training camps,” ignored his call to “get rid of em,” and focused only on his accusation that Obama were Jewish. Here are those same headlines again, with the same change:
AP: Trump condemned for not correcting statement Obama is Jewish
This would be unimaginable. It is just not possible to imagine the media blithely ignoring a man accusing Jews of organizing secret enclaves to take over American society and calling to “get rid of em.”
The Case For Removing Donald Trump
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One day after a mob incited by Donald Trumpstormed and ransacked the Capitol, disrupting Congresss certification of election results, Chuck Schumer, the soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader, and Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, said the President should be removed from office. Both proposed the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution, with Schumer describing it as the most effective legal means of removal. Under Section 4 of the amendment, which has been a subject of discussion throughout Trumps Presidency, if a majority of the Cabinet were to join with Vice-President Mike Pence to declare to Congress that Trump is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, Pence would immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President. As Schumer said, it can be done today. The Cabinet was said to be considering it, but Pence reportedly opposes it. On Friday, Pelosi announced that the House would begin impeachment proceedings if Trump does not immediately resign. On Monday, at least a hundred and seventy House Democrats plan to introduce an article of impeachment charging Trump with willfully inciting violence against the government of the United States.
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Most Senate Republicans Don’t Want To See Trump Run Again
Senate Republicans, with a few exceptions, are hoping that former President TrumpDonald TrumpRepublicans poised to sweep Virginia, stunning DemocratsFive takeaways from a grim night for DemocratsNew Jersey governor’s race too close to callMORE does not announce his intention to run again for president.
These GOP senators definitely dont want to see Trump announce a bid before the 2022 midterm elections, fearing that could sink their hopes of winning back the Senate.
More broadly, theyre generally reluctant to see him on the ballot in 2024 at all because of his track record with independent and swing voters.
Several Republican senators, who requested anonymity to discuss Trump frankly, said they dont want to see Trump return as the partys standard bearer.
I think were better off when hes not part of any story, said a Republican senator, who said his view is widely shared in the GOP conference.
Hes a clinical narcissist. He threw away the election in the debate with Biden and he threw away the Senate out of spite, the lawmaker added, referring to Trumps first against Biden, which many Republican senators viewed as a disaster, and his influence on Republican voter turnout in the Georgia special election.
One thing is crystal clear: Most GOP senators think Trump announcing a bid before the midterms would hurt them.
McConnell has steadfastly refused to acknowledge Trumps attacks or mention him by name.
Im shocked, arent you? he quipped.
‘standing Up To China’
Saikrishna Prakash is a University of Virginia Law School professor focusing on constitutional law, foreign relations law and presidential powers.
What’s Trump’s key legacy?
The last gasps of his administration are the most consequential, as he exerts a control over his most devoted followers and he’s talking about running again.
He forced people to consider what the presidency has become in a way that wasn’t true I think either during the Bush or Obama administrations. Issues like the 25th Amendment and impeachment hasn’t been thought of since Bill Clinton, really.
It’s possible that people now when they think of the presidency are perhaps going to adopt a different stance going forward, knowing that someone like Trump could come along.
It’s possible that Congress will delegate less to the president and take away some authority.
What else stands out to you?
The president has demonstrated that there’s a constituency who’s opposed to a lot of these trade deals and that there are people willing to vote for those who will either extricate us from these trade deals or “make them fairer”.
The president has also suggested that China has been taking advantage of the United States in ways that are deleterious to our economic and national security – and I think there’s a consensus behind this view. No one wants to be accused of being soft on China, whereas no one cares if you’re “soft” on Canada, right?
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Filmmaker Publishes Guide To Make Republican Leader ‘toast Again’
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Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore has shared a 10-point plan to oust Donald Trump from the White House.
The longtime critic of the Republican leader published the easy-to-follow guide in a bid to make Trump toast again.
Moore argued that Mr Trump was in deep, deep trouble, citing controversy over his administrations ties to Russia and the unpopularity of his travel ban, and urged supporters to capitalise on these controversies.
I’m Voting To Remove Donald Trump Here’s Why:
Today, I announced in an op-ed in the Star Tribune and took to the Senate floor to share why I’m voting to remove President Trump. It’s important to me that Minnesotansand all Americansunderstand how I came to my decision. What follows is taken from my floor speechwhich you can view here.
I was reluctant to go down the path of impeachment. While I strongly disagree with the President on many issues, I see impeachment as a last resort, and I feared that leaping to impeachment would only serve to drive us all even further into our political corners. This changed when I read the Whistleblower report, which alleged nothing less than the President’s corrupt abuse of power, an abuse that had the potential to undermine our election in 2020. For me, this left us no choice but for the House to fully investigate these allegations.
When the House sent the two Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, it became my job to “do impartial justice according to the Constitution and the law.” I take that oath as seriously as anything I have ever done.
You can watch my floor speech here and read my op-ed here.
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Central Park Ice Skaters Outraged At De Blasio For Closing Rinks To Punish Trump
In a statement, Bobby Jones Links, the Georgia-based group that would actually operate the course under the new agreement, said it intends to continue with the elevated service levels and playing conditions at Ferry Point. It also stated it would reduce prices up to 10% and employ citizens from every walk of life. But its city pact requires a $4 surcharge for every round played.
It also appears that in ousting the former president, the city will leave lots of money on the table.
So far in 2021, the acclaimed Trump course has hosted 25,220 rounds of golf and grossed more than $8.2 million double what was made during the pandemic shutdowns in 2020 and $1million more than in 2018 and the course expected to reach $10 million by the end of the year.
Now in the seventh year of the agreement, Trumps base rent rises each year and has percentage rent bumps higher than those in the Bobby Jones agreement. The Post roughly calculated that if revenue rose 5 percent each year, Trump would pay the city $16.2 million through 2035 while Bobby Jones would only fork over $13.9 million a loss of approximately $2.35 million to the city. If Trump later wins in court, the city will pay Bobby Jones $900,000 for improvements, like stripping the words Trump Links from the grounds.
Another wrinkle in de Blasios battle to boot Trump is that Ferry Point boasts legendary golfer Nicklaus Signature Design, a feature that attracts players from all over the world.
Opiniontrump’s Gop Is An Embarrassment Here’s Why Democrats Like Me Can’t Give Up On It
While Romney may be the lone Republican senator to defy Trump at all , many organizations like the Lincoln Project, Republican Voters Against Trump, 43 Alumni for Biden and Right Side PAC are forming. All have Republicans at the helm who are publicly supporting Biden in a grassroots effort to take down Trump at the ballot box in November. The focus of many of these groups are swing states such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, which are full of suburban voters who voted for Trump in 2016.
While these groups are encouraging, Republican lawmakers still need to understand that they are going to hemorrhage support until they disavow the Trump takeover of their party. If they want people to remain Republican voters such as the ones who belong to these newly formed groups, they need to start rebuilding the party and reground it in the principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility and equality for all.
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The Media’s Rules For Islamophobia
This complicity is part of the reason why the media is unwilling to challenge such deep-seated Islamophobia it would mean examining itself, and that’s not a fun idea. But there’s something more going on as well the media has not yet decided that out-and-out Islamophobia is unacceptable, and thus is ill-equipped to cover moments of extreme Islamophobia.
One of the unspoken rules of mainstream political coverage is that certain ideas are considered fair game to debate, such as gun control, whereas other ideas are considered off-limits and taboo.
This latter category includes accusing President Obama of being Muslim or saying that Muslims should be barred from the presidency both are clearly and categorically false, so the media is comfortable criticizing Ben Carson and Donald Trump for saying them.
Most forms of bigotry are considered taboo by the political press, but this was not always the case. In the 1980s and 1990s, during political debates around women and gays in the military or workplace sexual harassment, for example, media coverage of these issues considered it fair game to ask questions that we would now consider off-limits, such as whether same-sex parents can responsibly raise a child or whether women are mentally capable of running a company.
‘contesting The 2020 Election’
What’s Trump’s key legacy?
Contesting a very constitutionally and numerically clear election victory by Joe Biden.
We’ve had plenty of really unpleasant transitions. Herbert Hoover was incredibly unpleasant about his loss, but he still rode in that car down Pennsylvania Avenue at inauguration. He didn’t talk to Franklin Roosevelt the whole time, but there still was a peaceful transfer of power.
Trump is a manifestation of political forces that have been in motion for a half century or more. A culmination of what was not only going on in the Republican party, but also the Democratic party and more broadly in American politics – a kind of disillusionment with government and institutions and expertise.
What else stands out to you?
Trump is exceptional in many ways, but one of the things that really makes him stand out is that he is one of the rare presidents who was elected without having held any elected office before.
Trump may go away, but there is this great frustration with the establishment, broadly defined. When you feel powerless, you vote for someone who’s promising to do everything differently and Trump indeed did that.
A presidency is also made by the people that the president appoints, and a great deal of experienced Republican hands were not invited to join the administration the first go round.
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‘putting Democracy To The Test’
Kathryn Brownell is a history professor at Purdue University, focusing on the relationships between media, politics, and popular culture, with an emphasis on the American presidency.
What’s Trump’s key legacy?
Broadly speaking: Donald Trump, and his enablers in the Republican Party and conservative media, have put American democracy to the test in an unprecedented way. As a historian who studies the intersection of media and the presidency, it is truly striking the ways in which he has convinced millions of people that his fabricated version of events is true.
What happened on 6 January at the US Capitol is a culmination of over four years during which President Trump actively advanced misinformation.
Just as Watergate and the impeachment inquiry dominated historical interpretations of Richard Nixon’s legacy for decades, I do think that this particular post-election moment will be at the forefront of historical assessments of his presidency.
What else stands out to you?
Kellyanne Conway’s first introduction of the notion of “alternative facts” just days into the Trump administration when disputing the size of the inaugural crowds between Trump and Barack Obama.
Trump harnessed the power of social media and blurred the lines between entertainment and politics in ways that allowed him to bypass critics and connect directly to his supporters in an unfiltered way.
