Trump

There are 43 posts filed in Trump (this is page 3 of 5).

Democracy is not a spectator sport

Several weeks ago, I read a Substack post with this same title, as well as a Vox article titled “The courts were never going to save America from Donald Trump”. The bottom line of both articles were that the only way to defeat Donald Trump was going to be at the ballot box. But what else should we do? In my post/podcast earlier this week on “The Resistance”, I also pointed out that “doing something else” meant doing more than writing a blog post or a social media post or a podcast. I did review one of the resources I linked to in my resistance post, and it offered 3 concrete recommendations for taking action:

  • Once a month, show up to either a trigger event protest with game change potential or a small, group-led action.
  • Once a week, put pressure on decision makers with phone calls or at town halls.
  • Vote for and do get out the vote work for movement candidates in local, state, and federal elections.

In addition, the resource gives some good guidance about finding or forming a group to take action. Let’s get out there and win this thing!

There aren’t two sides to facts

Last week, the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Chris Quinn, published a “Letter from the Editor” concerning the paper’s coverage of news concerning Donald Trump (mentioned on PressWatch). He stated that they are receiving a fair amount of mail/email on this topic criticizing the paper. I think these three paragraphs hit the main point of his response:

The north star here is truth. We tell the truth, even when it offends some of the people who pay us for information.

The truth is that Donald Trump undermined faith in our elections in his false bid to retain the presidency. He sparked an insurrection intended to overthrow our government and keep himself in power. No president in our history has done worse.

The facts involving Trump are crystal clear, and as news people, we cannot pretend otherwise, as unpopular as that might be with a segment of our readers. There aren’t two sides to facts. People who say the earth is flat don’t get space on our platforms. If that offends them, so be it.

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2024/03/our-trump-reporting-upsets-some-readers-but-there-arent-two-sides-to-facts-letter-from-the-editor.html

After publishing this column, the Plain Dealer received over 2700 emails, mostly positive, thanking the editor for “…reporting as fact the threat Donald Trump presents to our democracy” (see new editor column on the response). The Plain Dealer also published a sampling of the responses. Perhaps there is hope for us yet…

Lawfare Media: What Justice Scalia Thought About Whether Presidents Are “Officers of the United States” – In a 2014 concurrence and a short letter elaborating on it, Scalia indicated that the president was an “officer of the United States.”

The Big Lie continues in 2024

Kaitlan Collins presses Rep. Norman on 2021 text message calling for martial law

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) about a 2021 text message he sent to Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, pleading for the former president to declare martial law. Norman also references other alleged incidents of voter fraud, which Kaitlan Collins refutes.

Source: CNN

Additional links:

X: Kaitlan Collins post on this video

The New Republic: Republican Rep. Has No Regrets About That “Marshall Law” Text – Years later, Ralph Norman still stands by his infamous text to Mark Meadows after the 2020 election.

South Carolina Public Radio: Leaked 2021 text from SC Rep. Ralph Norman calls for martial law; Congressman says message came from ‘frustration’

The Fulcrum: Scholars unmask Trump election lawyers’ use of falsified evidence – Study finds a cottage industry of bogus claims and statistics – the post links to a working paper (Dropbox link to PDF) analyzing 38 claims of election fraud “…Regardless of the reason why, every claim we analyze fails to provide evidence of illegality or fraud.” (page 3) (via Election Law Blog)

Arizona Republic editorial: Title: “Stay in this race, Nikki Haley, and make Donald Trump set himself on fire” – offers a speech that Nikki Haley could give to really enrage Trump, best quote is this one after the suggested speech: “That should do it. That should ignite the afterburners in Trump’s ears and eye sockets.”

CNN: Jury finds Trump must pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll (Love it!) (link is to CNN live blog of coverage for 1/26/2024, includes a lot of quotes from E. Jean Carroll’s closing statements).