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The Republican National Committee is paying for former President Donald Trumps personal legal bills, which is legal, politically savvy and deeply informative about the future of the Republican Party. The RNC is not spending this up to $1.6 million on competitive federal or state races. It is not spending this money to push policy proposals. It is spending this money to pay for lawyers that Trump had to hire to defend himself in criminal and civil fraud investigations that do not relate to his time as president.

Members of the RNC executive committee overwhelmingly voted to foot the legal bills of a self-proclaimed billionaire whose company is being investigated for possible fraud.

Why would the RNC do this? Because the former president who lost the last presidential election, was impeached twice and appears to have incited an attempted "self-coup" is the favored cause of the RNC. Members of the RNC executive committee, who The Washington Post reported overwhelmingly voted to foot the legal bills of a self-proclaimed billionaire whose company is being investigated for possible fraud, believe this is where their money is best spent. (Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing.)

In the movie All the Presidents Men, the man known as Deep Throat whispers to reporter Bob Woodward, Follow the money. Woodward and his fellow Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein then investigate the Watergate scandal and in so doing bring down the presidency of Richard Nixon. Over more than four decades, this phrase has become a useful shorthand to explain that if people really want to know what is going on in politics, and even uncover political corruption, they should look at money flowing to, and around, politicians.

But sometimes that money flows out in the open, right before our eyes, and it is easy to track and draw lines between politicians, those they owe and those who owe them. The RNC paying Trumps bill is an example.

The promised payments represent the continuation of the RNCs strategy to be the party of Trump, nothing more and nothing less. In 2020, the GOP opted not to introduce a new party platform. Instead, its focus was to re-elect Trump. That desire to put Trump back in the Oval Office explains this decision, as well. Trump, of course, is not a candidate, yet. But that does not matter for this unconventional relationship.

The RNCs decision to help Trumps bottom line didnt begin with payments to Trumps lawyers. Thanks, in part, to RNC patronage, Trump-owned properties raked in millions. Do you have a meeting, retreat or fundraising event? Are you a member of the RNC? You may, as a matter of pure coincidence, choose to hold that event at a Trump property.

The RNCs decision to spend its money for Trumps benefit is, naturally, driven by money. Trump is a fundraising boon for the RNC. He brings with him money the party will need not just in 2024, when it may attempt to put Trump back in the White House, but money it will need ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

The current Supreme Court is plenty hostile to campaign finance restrictions.

So what is the solution to all this? One option is to add restrictions to the federal election laws. Federal law prohibits candidates from spending campaign money on personal expenses, including legal expenses such as these. Should the law also prohibit political parties from paying for the personal expenses of candidates, or even noncandidates, as Trump is now? This brings up plenty of legal and administrative hurdles. Lets remember that the current Supreme Court is plenty hostile to campaign finance restrictions. Even if Congress could craft and pass the proper law, it is unlikely that the Supreme Court would let it stand.

Perhaps the better solution is to do nothing. Maybe it is better to see, out in the open, who is paying for what. With the current arrangement, investigative reporters dont need to find a confidential source to whisper information and implore them to follow the money. We dont even need investigative reporters. As long as these funds are disclosed, the public can draw its own conclusions.

JessicaLevinson, a professor at Loyola Law School, is the host of the "Passing Judgment" podcast. She is also the director of the Public Service Institute at Loyola Law School, co-director of Loyola's Journalist Law School and former president of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission.

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Republican Party paying Donald Trump's legal bills is more proof he owns the GOP - MSNBC

When the 2020 election didnt go Trumps way, Peter Navarro did something dangerous. He began to do his own research.

Navarro, an economist whom Donald Trump tapped to lead his trade war against China, didnt stay in his lane at the White House. Hed already inserted himself in the administrations botched pandemic response, pushing the unproven hypothesis that Covid-19 escaped from a Wuhan lab. And after the 2020 vote, Navarro began compiling a series of inflammatory dossiers on the outcome with names like The Immaculate Deception, The Art of the Steal, and Yes, Trump Won pushing the Big Lie that the election was stolen.

Navarros reports include debunked allegations of outright voter fraud across six battleground states, including the large-scale manufacturing of fake ballots, bribery, and dead voters as well as roundly discredited conspiracy theories alleging sordid connections between voting machine companies, a former Venezuelan dictator, the Clinton Foundation, and George Soros.

Unlike most amateur-hour election sleuths, however, Navarro had direct access to the aggrieved president. In an extended interview with Rolling Stone, Navarro revealed that he personally briefed Trump on his research in the Oval Office and that Trump directed, on the spot, that Navarros findings be distributed to the entire GOP conference on Capitol Hill.

That advocacy by Trump helped Navarro, along with close ally Steve Bannon, prepare for a Jan. 6 plot they hoped could overturn Joe Bidens victory. Together with Bannon, Navarro developed a plan to block the Electoral College vote count, called the Green Bay Sweepafter a daring football play run by the NFLs Packers in the Vince Lombardi era. (Bannon did not respond to a detailed list of questions about his involvement in this effort.)

The ploy called on sitting congressmen and senators, during the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress, to object to the counting of votes from six battleground states, where Navarro had decried fraud and electoral irregularities. Across both chambers, each state challenge would prompt four hours of debate. The intention was to create a 24-hour Republican propaganda blitz that could punch through directly to the public and give Mike Pence, in his capacity as Senate president, cover to delay certification of the Electoral College vote, sending the contested tallies back to the states.

Navarro, Bannon, and their GOP allies on the Hill hoped the contested states would revoke their certifications, deprive either candidate of the required 270 Electoral College votes, and give Trump one last shot victory with the House of Representatives ultimately voting to decide the outcome of the 2020 election, using an arcane protocol that favored Trump.

What follows is an edited transcript of Rolling Stones conversation with Navarro. Misinformation Navarro pushed about election fraud has been omitted.

How did the Green Bay Sweep plan come together?By the time early January was rolling around. Two things are obvious. One is that [Trump campaign manager Bill] Stepien, [deputy manager Justin] Clark and [Trump son-in-law Jared] Kushner, were not prosecuting a challenge [to Bidens victory], and more importantly, they werent providing the logistical or financial support to this very small band of people led by Giuliani and Bernie Kerik to look at things. And the other thing thats happening is the courts were rejecting challenge after challenge, not based on the evidence. But rather on procedural technicalities.

So the whole concept of the Green Bay Sweep was twofold. One was to provide a public forum whereby grievances we had regarding possible fraud and election irregularities could be aired in 24-hours of televised hearings to the American public, and thereby bypass the mainstream medias biased coverage. And then the second part was to have a mechanism, following in the constitution, that would allow those likely illegal [Electoral College] votes to be sent back to the states for further review.

What was the endgame? You get Pence to delay certification of the Electoral College vote, send this to overtime and then what?One of two things could happen. They go back there [to the states], they look at it and they say, Nope. Its certified. [The votes] come back, and that would be it. Fair enough.

But the more likely scenario based on our assessment of the evidence was that states would withdraw any certification. And the election would be thrown to the House of Representatives. And even though the House is controlled by Democrats, the way votes would be counted in a presidential election decided by the House, Trump would almost certainly win.

To clarify for readers: The Constitution allows that if neither candidate receives 270 votes in the Electoral College, the election is decided by the House. But in that scenario, its a unique process: Each states congressional delegation gets to cast a single vote. So while Democrats controlled more House seats, Republicans controlled more state delegations, and Trump would have likely emerged the victor?That was the essence of the plan. Its a well thought-out plan based on sound, constitutional law and existing legislative precedent. And all it required was peace and calm on Capitol Hill for it to unfold. And then you have two things that went awry: Pences betrayal, and, of course, the violence that erupted on Capitol Hill, which provided Pence, McConnell, McCarthy, Pelosi, and Schumer an excuse to abort the Green Bay Sweep, effectively, and certify the election.

Were GOP leaders McConnell and McCarthy read in on this Green Bay Sweep plan?I dont know. I primarily almost exclusively just worked with Steve Bannon. He was the strategist involved. He was the guy who was coordinating the whipping of the votes, right? There were over 100 congressmen both the House of Representatives and senators that were lined up to execute that plan.

It started flawlessly when [Arizona Rep. Paul] Gosar and [Texas Sen.] Cruz promptly at 1 p.m. called on scrutiny of the Arizona vote. Arizona was one of six battlegrounds: They were Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Nevada. And it started flawlessly, but the violence overtook that event. The rest, as they, say is history.

Who were the leaders of this plan on the Hill? Cruz and Gosar?I wasnt really involved in that. Again, that was Steves job. My whole thing all the way through Jan. 6 I continued to work on my research, and that was that was a time-consuming process. My role in the whole thing was basically to provide Congress, via my reports, the analytical material they needed to actually make the challenges. And the president himself had distributed Volume One of the report to every member of the House and Senate a week or so earlier.

What were your communications with President Trump about this effort?The only conversation I had with him was about the reports themselves. There was a couple of times I walked over to the Oval both times after I finished a report and personally handed him one and briefed him on it. In the first case, in front of me, he asked Molly Michael, his assistant, to make sure everybody on the Hill promptly got a copy of it.

You mention in your book that Trump wanted you to talk to Pence, that this was a directive from Trump, that Pence should speak to you.When I was in the Oval briefing the president on the results, I expressed frustration with the fact that Mike wouldnt return my calls. And that it would be useful, as we were moving to Jan 6, if that problem could be fixed. He said, yeah, hed have Mike call me. Which Mike, in fact, did. The only problem was he hung up before he even spoke to me.

To be clear, prior to Jan. 6, I had great love and respect for Vice President Pence. The problem, as I describe it in the book, was he effectively got captured by his own staff. Marc Short and his general counsel, Greg Jacob, who I had had previous run-ins with during the pandemic. Short and Jacob were just bad people. Just bad people. Had no business being in the in the White House. They werent Trump people. They were just bad people. They hurt the president in a lot of different ways, not the least of which is how they handled this particular issue were talking about.

Bannon, obviously, has been subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee. Have you spoken to them or are they seeking information from you?I have gotten no communication whatsoever from them. Its my view that they simply do not want to hear anything I have to say, because it is so contrary to their narrative. Their narrative rests on the premise that President Trump wanted to instigate violence to overthrow the election. My premise which is fact is that President Trump wanted only peace and calm so that we could meticulously implement the Green Bay Packers Sweep play, and thereby remand the votes to the back to the states, and in all likelihood, then move the election into the House of Representatives, because of the substantial fraud that was visible.

Let me stop you there. Youve told me that President Trump wasnt really read in on this plan, and yet you say he backed it?You asked me whether I spoke to him about it. And I said, accurately, no, it wasnt me who briefed him on this. OK.

Are you saying that Bannon briefed him on it?Youll have to track that down. Im not going to speak for Steve or anybody else.

Let me simplify the question: Was President Trump read in on the Green Bay Packers Sweep plan?I dont know that for a fact.

But you just cited his backing of the plan as the reason why Trump was not for the violence that ensued. What do you know and what you are speculating about?You asked me whether he was read in on the Green Bay Packers Sweep plan, OK? He understood what was supposed to happen that day. All you need to do is listen to this speech from the Ellipse that morning. You know, If Mike does the right thing you just have to listen to what he said.

My clear understanding, but not from speaking to him directly, is that he [Trump] understood what the strategy was. The strategy was to challenge the votes with the 100 plus-group of congressmen that day, send them back to the states and let the chips fall where they may. But it wasnt me who sat down and said, Hey, boss, we can run the Green Bay Packers Sweep, we do X, Y and Z. That wasnt my role.

And youre not able to tell me who did that?I actually dont know, factually.

But again: How you know that this thing happened, but you dont know who did it?I know that there were over 100 congressmen ready to implement the plan. I know that. I know what the plan was, right? It all hinged on getting the plan done at the state level. I know that the president met with people like [John] Eastman, and that there was a legal opinion explaining exactly what Pence can do. I know that thats the reason why I wanted to talk to Mike to assure him that there was substantial evidence of fraud and that he should exercise his duty, as president of the Senate, to send these things back to the states for 10 days.

Knowing all that, I think its fair to say that the president clearly understood the strategy. I dont know if he called it the Green Bay Sweep. I doubt that. That was me and Steves description of it. You know: call a play; run the play. Based on what I know, the president understood what was going to happen that day. It required peace and calm. It was well within constitutional law, and we were basically exercising the constitutional right and democratic freedoms to challenge what we believed was a stolen election.

Everything that was done was done honorably and with good intentions. We were fighting what I believe was an attempt at a coup detat. We werent the ones trying to steal the election or engineer a coup. It was clearly the Democrats . These folks bragged about stealing the election. They didnt use the word steal they did say they had to do it in order to save the republic, which I think is as close to an admission of guilt as you can get.

Bannon has been charged with criminal contempt of Congress. There are people who would call what you were plotting very much akin to a coup. Are you concerned about your own legal liability in this case?You think people would call what I did akin to a coup?

I know you dont see it that way, but I assure you there are people in America who see the activity that was taking place and think it was trying to overturn the duly determined democratic outcome of a national presidential election.Yeah, I see. I see that point. But also remember a lot of the people who might hold that point of view were being fed the steady stream of MSNBC and CNN and New York Times and Washington Post lies that the election was fair and absent of any fraud or election irregularities, and that it was all sour grapes. But you know, I went through four years listening to that noise, rather than signal, from the corporate media. And if I had a dime for every time they reported something which I knew on its face to be untrue. I know you have enough money to comfortably retire.

There have been audits in Arizona. There have been court challenges everywhere. There have been studies of whether there were deceased voters in Georgia. None of it has revealed anything that would change the outcome of this election. So as you sit here now, do you feel like your analysis was square?Yeah, I do.

You havent learned any new information since this election took place that has left you chagrined or regretful of the analysis that you created?To the contrary. Lets say that theres two possible states of reality here. One is that history will show that it was a free and fair election, or as with Nixon v. Kennedy history will show that, yeah, it was stolen.

Living in two different realities thats an apt description of where we find ourselves in America. Do you think the American people will find agreement about the 2020 election or what happened on Jan 6?I want to get to the bottom of what happened on Jan 6, just as much as anybody. I want to get to the bottom of it in a nonpartisan way. Kevin McCarthy is an idiot. I mean, hes like a checkers player in the chess world. The fact that there are no legitimate Republicans on that committee, it turned it into a star chamber rather than a proper investigatory body.

Id love to know how that violence erupted. Im telling you I was one of the most crestfallen people on the planet at the end, when that happened, because I knew immediately: This wont end way the we wanted it to.

Read more from the original source:
Peter Navarro: Trump Distributed Bogus Election Fraud Research to Every Congressional Republican - Rolling Stone

Donald Trumps January 2021 coup attempt failed to overturn the election; but Trump has succeeded in transforming the GOP into an ever more radicalized party that rewards extremism, and punishes, or even banishes, those members who fail to support ever more audacious attacks on democracy and the nations electoral process.

The Republican Party is now institutionally oriented to work towards the anti-democratic aims of its charismatic leader, Trump.

As the one-year anniversary of the Capitol insurrection approaches, we are only beginning to gain a picture of the full scope of what can now fairly be described as a coup scheme, intended to void the outcome of a presidential election. The scheme was encouraged, if not planned, by the White House, with Trumps chief-of-staff Mark Meadows serving as field general for the putsch, and encouraging the pursuit of various extreme proposals and bizarre conspiracy theories from a range of co-conspirators, including members of Congress as well as state legislators and freelance neo-fascists such as Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani, and John Eastman.

It is essential that Congress Jan. 6 committee, as well as the Justice Department and other law enforcement agencies, continue to seek out every relevant item of evidence regarding this effort to take down the nations democracy, and identify the role of each of the schemers. The evidence may well establish that individuals, potentially including Trump himself, are guilty of federal crimes arising from the putsch scheme, such as obstruction of the congressional electoral vote counting proceedings.

Yet regardless of what additional facts the congressional and law enforcement investigations establish, we already know that Trump has succeeded in a broader goal of transforming the Republican Party into a vehicle for ever more radical and extreme attacks on the democratic foundations of the nation. His success is reflected in the fact that Trump no longer needs to tell followers inside and outside of government to play their parts in undermining democracythey now take the initiative to anticipate Trumps desire for extreme actions and act upon them.

Historian Ian Kershaw famously described the Third Reichs operating principle as working towards the Fhrer. Party members anticipated the steps its leader wanted, particularly attacks on political opponents and undesirables like Jews, and frequently took them without being asked. Over time, it became clear that those who pursued the most radical, and often violent, steps to serve the party would be met with approbation, while those who hesitated would be met with disfavor or worse.

While Trump is, of course, no Hitler, he and his acolytes have used a similar reward-and-punishment dynamic to relentlessly move the GOP towards a dynamic of ever greater extremism, in which adherence to legal and moral norms is viewed as intolerable weakness.

During 2016, Trumps most devoted acolyte, his namesake son, responded to news that the Russian government was illicitly aiding his fathers presidential campaign by exclaiming I love it in an email, and arranging a meeting in the hope of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton from Russia. In early 2021, after Trump lost the election, Meadows likewise responded to fellow extremists plans to undermine the electoral vote count by replacing duly designated electors with Trump shills by, likewise, declaring I love it.

We do not know if Trump expressly blessed either scheme beforehand, but it is clear that both Don Jr. and Meadows understood that they would risk Trumps ire if they failed to pursue the most extreme attacks on American laws and democratic norms available in Trumps name.

The GOPs dynamic of rewarding extremism, and penalizing restraint, has only strengthened since Trump lost the election. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy disavowed his initial support for an investigation of Jan. 6, and ultimately supported the sanctioning of Liz Cheney for participating in the Congressional inquiry into the coup attempt. Cheney and fellow Jan. 6 committee member Adam Kinzinger are now facing a call for their expulsion from the GOP caucus from prominent party activists and institutions that are now singularly dependent on Trump, such as Matt Schlapp and the Club for Growth, as virtually all of their House colleagues cower in silence. Meanwhile, McCarthy, recognizing that his hope to be elected Speaker depends on maintaining the support of Trumps most radical allies, gives free license to members like Paul Gosar, who recently disclosed evidence establishes was an active participant in the coup effort and who recently joked about murdering a House colleague.

At the state level, the impetus within the GOP to work towards Trump is likewise even more powerful than it was during the weeks following the election. Trumps now-infamous call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, demanding that he find additional votes for Trump, failed to induce Raffensperger to corrupt the election, and Trumps rejection of the election results likely contributed to the runoff losses of both GOP incumbent senatorscosting Republicans control of the senate.

Yet during the succeeding months, Trumps relentless attacks on Raffensperger and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp have induced other Republicans to join in attacking the two for not undoing the outcome of the 2020 election, and to induce opponents who share Trumps extremist agenda to plan primary challenges against them, making radicalism the norm in the party.

The story is the same in many other states, including Wisconsin, where a GOP legislative leader has responded to Trumps loss there by attacking the states bipartisan election commission (including a commissioner he appointed), while some Wisconsin Republican leaders, including Sen. Ron Johnson, are calling for what amounts to a GOP takeover of the administration of elections in the state. In Arizona, an audit that confirmed Trumps loss has nonetheless served as a rallying cry for efforts to undermine voting rights in that state and others. Across the country, people who claim the 2020 election was stolen by Biden are running to take control of the local election machinery to ensure that the next election can be stolen by Trump.

While they rarely direct these actions, Trump and his acolytes have praised these extremists while often threatening retaliation against party members who question such a radical approach.

A case in point is Michigan, where Trump supporters have demanded an Arizona-style audit of the election, despite the fact that a GOP-sponsored probe found no evidence of election fraud. A group of Trump supporters, some of them members of the state legislature, have commenced a campaign to intimidate state party leaders to support this audit, as a sign of support for Trump, declaring that their effort is the first step in a revolution against the electoral system.

This brings us back to Jan. 6. Trumps address to a crowd of supporters that day came after a presidential term in which he openly praised neo-Nazi rioters, encouraged gun-wielding protesters to go to state capitals to liberate them from COVID restrictions, and wielded a Bible in front of a church after a crowd of protesters had been cleared for him by a violent police and National Guard attack. It followed weeks during which Trump himself had waged a relentless campaign to delegitimize the results of the election, commencing even before it was held and using every legal and political lever that he could to get himself reinstalled against the will of the people.

The former president claims that he didnt tell the crowd that gathered for his speech on Jan. 6 to attack the Capitol, but virtually all of the people who did believed they were acting in his interests, and had every reason to believe that their attack would meet with his approbation.

Indeed, evidence that has come to light during recent months has only added further support for their belief. Trump has confirmed that he was wholly unconcerned with Pences safety during the insurrection, and failed even to call him as the siege proceeded. We are also now learning that Trump ignored entreaties from legislators inside the Capitol, and even from Don Jr., and Sean Hannity, to call off his supporters siege, as only he could have done.

It is also becoming increasingly clear that, as the siege proceeded, Trumps acolytes, including Rudy Giuliani, and (as reported by The Daily Beast) possibly Peter Navarro, may well have been employing the disruption in the proceedings as an the opportunity to attempt to encourage more legislators to vote against certificationor to at least to delay it until they could engineer the naming of replacement electors.

We now know that in the weeks before Jan. 6, a group of legislators had been working hand-in-glove with Meadows and other Trump allies to implement the coup scheme. Most GOP members of Congress had not joined the scheme. But the insurrection contributed to making more of them more pliant Trump allies. Freshman GOP Rep. Peter Meijer has recounted that, in the immediate wake of the insurrection, a number of his colleagues who had planned to vote in favor of certifying Bidens election reversed course, some out of fear for their own lives.

Since that time, most GOP politicians have routinely endorsed, or at least chosen not to oppose, the extreme attacks on democracy and the electoral system that have become core tenets of the GOP. As I have previously discussed, appeals to an extremist base are now such a central element of the partys political strategy that GOP leaders fear losing support if they dont support conspiracism and anti-democracy. For example, during a recent Minnesota GOP senate debate, all five of the candidates resisted acknowledging that Biden had won the 2020 election.

Even Trump himself has found that his power as a leader of an extremist movement depends on his own reliably continuous appeals to extremism. This was starkly evident last week when Trump himself faced criticism from some of his most fervent followers for acknowledging that the COVID vaccine saves lives, and admitting that he received a booster dose.

In short, extremism is Trumps calling card, and the force that fuels his movement. Accordingly, whether or not Trump ordered the insurrection, he clearly chose to allow it to continue by his silence, likely because Trump believed the attack on the Capitol served his own ends. And during the months that have followed, GOP activists encouraged by Trump have normalized the goals and even the tactics of the insurrectionistswho are now frequently described by Trumpist Republicans as harmless tourists, or patriots.

The party is working towards Trump.

Originally posted here:
Jan. 6 Was Just the Start of Radicalizing Trump's Republican Party - The Daily Beast

Rep. Devin NunesDevin Gerald Nunes Rep. Mike Turner to replace Nunes in top House Intel spot Members of Congress not running for reelection in 2022 Lowenthal becomes latest House Democrat to not seek reelection MORE (R-Calif.) formally resigned from Congress on Monday, as the California Republicandeparts to run former President TrumpDonald TrumpCheney cites testimony that Ivanka asked Trump to 'please stop this violence' on Jan. 6 McCarthy says Democrats using Jan. 6 as 'partisan political weapon' Biden, Harris to speak on anniversary of Capitol insurrection MORE's new media and technology company.

Nuness resignation letter was read aloud on the House floor during a pro forma session on Monday. It is set to take effect at 11:59 p.m. today.

The honorable, the speaker, House of Representatives, madam, I write to inform you that I have notified California Gov. Gavin NewsomGavin NewsomChicago's 797 homicides in 2021 highest in 25 years, most of any US city 2021's top political celebrity moments Year that broke the recall? Why COVID led to recalls flopping nationwide MORE of my resignation from the U.S. House of Representatives effective today at 11:59 p.m. the letter reads.

It has been the honor of my life to represent the people of Californias San Joaquin Valley for the last 19 years, the letter adds.

GOP Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) officially resigns from Congress to become CEO of former President Trumps media company. pic.twitter.com/h45SjLxIu0

Rep. Debbie DingellDeborah (Debbie) Ann DingellLawmakers in both parties to launch new push on Violence Against Women Act Michigan adopts congressional map that pits two incumbent Democrats against each other House Republican, Democrat say political environment on Capitol Hill is 'toxic' MORE (D-Mich.), who was presiding over the House at the time, then announced that with Nuness resignation the whole number of the House is 433.

In addition to Nuness seat, late Rep. Alcee HastingsAlcee (Judge) Lamar Hastings2021 was another good year for women running for election Carrie Meek, former Florida congresswoman, dies at 95 Florida officials certify 5-vote victory in primary for Alcee Hastings' seat MOREs (D-Fla.) remains vacant following his death in April.

The Chair announced that in light of the resignation of the gentleman from California, Rep. Nunes, the Whole Number of the House is 433.

Nunes announced last month that he was resigning from Congress to become the CEO of Trumps new company, the Trump Media & Technology Group. The company is advertising itself as an alternative to Big Tech.

Nuness plan to depart the House was a shock to many in Washington, as the California Republican was poised to become the chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee if Republicans win control of the House in Novembers midterm elections.

The congressman in his announcement said he was "presented with a new opportunity to fight for the most important issues I believe in.

The news further illustrated Trumps continued influence in the Republican Party, despite his reelection defeat in 2020.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthyKevin McCarthyMcCarthy says Democrats using Jan. 6 as 'partisan political weapon' GOP rep says Republicans have 'no other option' than to back Trump Rep. Mike Turner to replace Nunes in top House Intel spot MORE (R-Calif.) announced last week that Rep. Mike TurnerMichael Ray TurnerSunday shows preview: Omicron surge continues; anniversary of Jan. 6 attack approaches Rep. Mike Turner to replace Nunes in top House Intel spot The Memo: Biden, bruised by Afghanistan, faces a critical test in Ukraine MORE (R-Ohio) will replace Nunes as ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Nunes served in Congress for 10 terms before resigning. California'sredistricting process may have played a role in his decision to leave the House, as an initial proposed map had him shifting from a fairly safe Republican-leaning district to one where Democrats have the advantage.

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Nunes formally resigns from Congress | TheHill - The Hill

2021 was the year that Americas democracy came under attack from within.

Donald Trumps effort to overturn the election results, an endeavor that culminated in the 6 January assault on the Capitol, ultimately failed. But the lies the former president spread about fraud and the integrity of the 2020 results have stuck around in a dangerous way. False claims about the election have moved to the center of the Republican party.

Republican lawmakers have seized on the fears created by those baseless claims and weaponized them into new laws that make it harder to vote. Between January and October, 19 states enacted 33 laws to restrict voting access, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

But Republicans havent stopped there. There is now a concerted effort to take more partisan control of election administration. Trump is supporting election deniers in their efforts to take control of key offices that control the rules of elections and counting of ballots. That effort has elevated fears that Trump is laying the groundwork for another coup in 2024, when supporters in those roles could help overturn the election results.

All these actions are taking place against the backdrop of the once-per-decade redistricting process, which Republicans dominate in many states. Republicans are taking full advantage of that power, drawing districts that will entrench their control of state legislatures and win congressional seats for the next decade.

Joe Biden has described this attack as the most significant test of our democracy since the civil war. But Democrats in the US Senate have been unable to pass two bills with significant voting rights protections. Whether Biden and Senate Democrats can find a way to get those bills through Congress looms as a major test of his presidency.

Here are the ways that voting rights emerged as the most important story in American politics in 2021:

When state legislatures convened at the start of 2021, many moved quickly to enact new laws making it harder to cast a ballot. Many of these new measures targeted voting by mail, which a record number of Americans used in 2020.

One of the most high profile battles was in Georgia, a state Trump targeted with baseless claims of fraud after a surprising loss to Biden there. Republicans enacted a law that requires voters to provide additional identification information on both absentee ballot request forms and the ballot itself. They also restricted the availability of absentee ballot drop boxes, a popular method of returning ballots in 2020. The law also criminalized providing food and water to people standing in line within 150ft of a polling place.

In Florida, Republicans enacted a new law that also restricts the availability of ballot drop boxes, imposes new rules around third-party registration groups, and requires voters to more frequently request absentee ballots.

The fight over new voting restrictions exploded in July, when Democrats in the Texas legislature fled the state for several weeks, denying Republicans the quorum they needed to pass new voting restrictions. Republicans eventually succeeded in passing a law that banned 24-hour voting, established regular citizenship checks for voter rolls, made it harder to assist voters, and empowered partisan poll watchers.

A staggering number of Americans continue to deny the results of the 2020 election. A September CNN poll found 36% of Americans do not believe Biden was the legitimate winner of the election.

Trump has fed that disbelief by continuing to make claims of irregularities that have already been debunked. Republicans in several states continue to call for the decertification of elections, something that is legally impossible.

Republicans in some places have gone even further, authorizing unusual post-election inquiries into election results.

The most high-profile of those reviews was in Arizona, where Republicans hired a firm with no election experience, called Cyber Ninjas, to examine all 2.1m votes cast in Maricopa county, the most populous in the state. That monthslong effort, which included a hand count of every single ballot, was widely criticized by election experts, who noted that the firm had shoddy methodology and its leader had embraced conspiracy theories about the election. Ultimately, the Cyber Ninjas effort affirmed Bidens win in Maricopa county.

Republicans elsewhere have embraced similar reviews. In Wisconsin, Republicans in the legislature have hired a former Republican supreme court justice to examine the election, but that effort has been marked by sloppiness and accusations of partisan bias.

This is a grift, to be clear, Matt Masterson, a former top official at the Department of Homeland Security, who works on election administration, said in December.

These efforts have been coupled with an even more alarming effort in Republican legislatures to empower lawmakers to alter election results. Lawmakers in seven states, including Michigan, Arizona, Missouri and Nevada, introduced 10 bills this year that would empower them to override or change election results, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Some of the bills would allow partisan lawmakers to outright reject election results, while others would allow for post-election meddling in the vote count.

Over the last year, theres been a surge in election administrators who have left their positions because of threats and harassment. Experts are deeply concerned about that exodus and say that it could make room for more inexperienced, partisan workers to take over the running of elections. Ben Ginsberg, a longtime Republican election lawyer, said earlier this month the effort was an attempt to take election administration from the pros and give it to the pols.

Trump has endorsed several candidates who have embraced the myth of a stolen election to be the secretary of state, the chief election official, in many states. So far, hes made endorsements in GOP primaries in Michigan, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada all swing states that could play a determinative role in 2024.

At the start of each decade, state lawmakers across the US draw new congressional and state legislative districts. In 2020, Republicans dominated the down-ballot races that determine who gets to control the redistricting process. And this year, theyve used their power remarkably powerfully.

In Texas, where 95% of the states population growth was from non-white people, Republicans drew maps blunting the political power of minorities. They drew no new majority-minority districts, instead giving Republicans an advantage at winning the states two new congressional seats. Republicans have also moved to shore up their advantage in politically competitive states like North Carolina, Ohio and Georgia. Democrats are gerrymandering the states where they have power, like Illinois and Maryland, but control the redistricting process in far fewer places than Republicans do.

These rigged districts will insulate Republicans from threats to their political power for the next decade.

One of the biggest frustrations of the first year of Bidens presidency has been that Democrats have not been able to pass two crucial pieces of voting rights legislation through Congress. One bill would set a minimum of access across the country, guaranteeing things like 15 days of early voting, as well as prohibiting partisan gerrymandering. The second bill would re-establish a critical piece of the 1965 Voting Rights Act requiring states where there is repeated evidence of voting discrimination to get voting changes approved by the federal government before they go into effect.

There is growing frustration that Biden has not pushed hard enough to get rid of the filibuster, which Republicans have relied on to stall those bills. Democrats have pledged to find a way around the filibuster next year.

Original post:
Democracy under attack: how Republicans led the effort to make it harder to vote - The Guardian