McConnell Backs Bipartisan Bill To Prevent Next Jan. 6

Posted on by Kaila Philo

Wednesday afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) signaled his support for a bill seeking to overhaul the Electoral Count Act of 1887, a century-old election administration law.

The Senate Rules Committee debated on the bill soon afterwards, where the Kentucky Republican gave a speech expressing his support for the legislation.

“After 150 years, the Electoral Count Act needs some modest updates,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. 

The ECA dictates how vote counts are certified in Congress after an election. It fell under the national spotlight after John Eastman, a conservative lawyer who used to work for former President Donald Trump, tried to hijack  the law’s vague language to claim that then-Vice President Mike Pence could call the 2020 election for Trump.

This year, both the House and Senate introduced bills to rewrite the bill to plug holes in its vague language. The House passed its version of the bill last week, and it’s a bit more sweeping than the Senate’s Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA). But as it stands, the Senate bill may be more likely to make its way to President Biden’s desk.

The ECRA was first proposed by Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) back in July after months of behind-the-scenes talks to get the 10 Republicans on board needed to overcome the Senate filibuster. Like the House bill, it clarifies that the vice president’s role in the vote certification process is purely ministerial and raises the threshold required for lawmakers to object to a vote count.

McConnell did include some caveats: Considering the bill as is enabled peaceful transitions of power for generations, “we need to be delicate and careful with any changes,” he said. “But the chaos that came to a head on January 6th of last year strongly suggests that we find careful ways to clarify and streamline the process.”

He also referenced past transitions for Republican presidents-elect as more evidence that the ECA needed reform in a nod to his conservative base.

“For more than twenty years now every time voters have picked a Republican president, we’ve seen some Democrats and Congress resist the people’s decision and try to challenge the electoral count. So the situation obviously called for careful, methodical and bipartisan work to arrive at a careful, methodical and bipartisan product.”

“I look forward to supporting the legislation as introduced in committee,” he finished.

Brazil’s Election Goes Beyond A Battle Between Left And Right. Democracy Is Also On The Ballot

Posted on by Nicole LaFond

This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.

Two very different Brazils could emerge after voters go the polls to elect a president on Oct. 2, 2022.

In one scenario, Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s current president, will manage to stay in power – by either winning the vote or illegally ignoring it – and continue to push the country down an authoritarian road.

Alternately, the country will begin the process of rebuilding its democratic institutions, which have been undermined during Bolsonaro’s four years in power. That project will be the task of a broad center-left coalition led by former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers Party.

As experts on Brazilian politics and modern Latin American history, we have studied Brazil from the ground up. Seen from afar, the dynamics playing out in the Brazilian election are a clear example of the broader crisis of liberal democracy, with right-wing authoritarians in ascent globally. But the high-stakes choice confronting Brazilians in this election has also been shaped by complicated social and political experiences unique to Brazil.

Whatever happened to the ‘pink tide’?

In the first decade of the 21st century, Brazil led a regionwide “pink tide” in which Latin America, governed largely by leftist presidents, experienced unprecedented levels of inclusive growth through democratic politics. Lula’s economic and welfare policies, for example, brought 30 million people out of poverty and provided lower-income, mostly nonwhite Brazilians with new opportunities for upward mobility.

After 2012, however, as Brazil’s economy slowed, traditional elites mobilized in order to resist this progressive path. Their efforts gained ground with an explosive corruption scandal, called “Lava Jato,” or “Car Wash.” Though politicians across the spectrum were implicated, the operation targeted the Workers Party in particular and generated widespread anger toward the party.

Subsequent anti-left sentiment, led by privileged groups and deftly managed through social media campaigns, grew to include voters across the economic and political spectrum. This provided a perfect opening for Bolsonaro, a former military captain and undistinguished congressman, to seize right-wing momentum. Building on the deepened polarization generated by the illegitimate impeachment of Lula’s successor, Dilma Rousseff, Bolsonaro rebranded himself as an outsider poised to overturn a corrupt political establishment.

Bolsonaro, much like Donald Trump in the U.S. two years earlier, won 2018 elections by combining masterful spectacle with derogatory language. Bolsonaro’s campaign rhetoric was explicitly sexist, anti-Black and anti-LGBTQ. His victory was also tied to the fact that Lula, the front-runner then as now, was arrested on trumped-up charges and prevented from competing.

Repositioning Lula

The overturning of Lula’s corruption conviction in 2021 repositioned him as the most viable opposition candidate for the presidency, and he has consistently led Bolsonaro in the polls.

And while Lula is running as a leftist, he is perhaps more accurately seen in this election as the best chance to steer the country back to democratic norms.

As president, Bolsonaro has flaunted his authoritarian bent. He has praised Brazil’s 1964-1985 dictatorship, cultivated nostalgia for military rule – while filling his cabinet with retired and active-duty generals – and disparaged human rights, especially of minorities. Throughout his term in office, Bolsonaro has actively promoted the destruction of the Amazon forest and portrayed indigenous peoples and environmental groups as working against the interests of the nation.

He has also consistently attacked the country’s democratic institutions, particularly Brazil’s Supreme Court.

At the same time, Bolsonaro has made serious policy missteps that have dented his popularity, such as his egregious mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis and the rolling back of popular economic and social policies that improved the lives of ordinary Brazilians.

Around a third of Brazilians continue to support Bolsonaro’s bid for reelection. But the erosion in his polling numbers has opened the path for some moderate conservatives to join ranks with Lula to try to prevent Bolsonaro’s reelection.

Nostalgia for dictatorship … and traditional values

Despite party labels, this election is more complex than a conventional left-right optic would suggest.

Both sides of the political spectrum have become deeply embedded in Brazilian society in crosscutting ways that span religion, race, gender and sexuality, and class.

For example, some lower-income voters who benefited from Lula’s policies support Bolsonaro today, often out of outrage over past corruption scandals and the current economic precarity they themselves face. Meanwhile, nostalgia for a military dictatorship that most citizens never experienced influences some voters, particularly conservative ones.

Brazilians are also experiencing a period of social change marked by the advance of LGBTQ and women’s rights. While embraced by many, some Brazilians feel uncomfortable with new roles for women and with the queer identities increasingly prevalent among the younger generation. Spurred on by evangelical and charismatic Catholic movements, this distress has sparked longing for “traditional” values in family and community life, and has seen some Brazilians call for a return to dictatorship, claiming that life was more orderly and less violent then.

And after the election?

So where does this leave things going into the Oct. 2 election?

So far, Lula stands far ahead in the polls. Strategically choosing a centrist and past presidential candidate as his running mate, Lula has combined progressive commitments with promises to steer a mainstream economic course. In short, he is appealing both to the left and the center.

In turn, Bolsonaro has studied and weaponized Trump’s playbook, saying that he will accept defeat in the upcoming election only if he himself judges that they were fairly held. Many Brazilians worry that by attacking the results before polling day, Bolsonaro is preparing the way to try to stay in power illegally. There is also concern over how the Brazilian military might react should Bolsonaro refuse to accept the election results.

More than just the future of Brazil is at stake in these elections. The current return of the left across Latin America has renewed hopes that gains in cutting poverty, which took off 20 years ago, will resume. So far this year, leftists Gabriel Boric and Gustavo Petro have won elections in Chile and Colombia, respectively. Brazil now seems likely to join this group, swinging the region’s ideological pendulum to the left in an apparent revival of the “pink tide.”

But a Lula victory would do more than tip the left-right balance in Latin America. What links Lula, Boric and Petro is their commitment to progressive agendas and their willingness to negotiate in democratic contexts. Were Lula to win and take office in Brazil, the policies of these leaders could complement those of President Joe Biden in a hemisphere-wide effort to strengthen democracy.

The alternative – a Bolsonaro win, or worse, a coup – would dash these hopes.

Jeffrey W. Rubin is an Associate Professor of History at Boston University and Rafael R. Ioris is a Professor of Modern Latin America History at University of Denver.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

Surprise! Election-Denying Senate Nominee’s Miraculous Reversal Was All An Act

Posted on by Cristina Cabrera

Could it be that when Don Bolduc suddenly declared on Fox News earlier this month that he’d come to realize that the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, it was actually a ploy to pass himself off as a normal guy now that he has to win over normal people in the general election??

Continue reading “Surprise! Election-Denying Senate Nominee’s Miraculous Reversal Was All An Act” →

DeSantis-Appointed Secretary of State Reportedly Worked Closely With Election Denial Activists

Posted on by Kaila Philo

This past May, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appointed state Representative Cord Byrd to serve as Florida’s Secretary of State. Prior to his appointment, Byrd spent six years — two as vice chair — on the state legislature’s Public Integrity and Elections Committee, and self-described as a local “Florida gun lawyer.”

But CNN broke Monday night that the Republican lawmaker was a featured speaker at a conference in Orlando for people who believe that President Joe Biden was elected illegitimately. The summit was overseen by Cleta Mitchell, a conservative lawyer and recurring character in the neverending saga of Trump’s attempts to subvert the 2020 election. In the months since the Jan. 6 insurrection, Mitchell has become a key figure orchestrating conservative activists’ efforts to take over election systems in key states. 

According to audio obtained by CNN, Mitchell introduced Byrd as a supporter of “election integrity,”  then praised him for participating in weekly calls she hosted with other officials.

“You’re going to be our army on the ground monitoring your local [election supervisors] to ensure that they’re doing their job right,” Byrd reportedly said in the recording of the conference obtained by CNN. He was talking to the attendees, many of whom were election security activists trained by Mitchell to take control of the upcoming midterm elections.

Similar to conservative strategist Steve Bannon, Mitchell has used a podcast — hers is called “Who’s Counting?” — to encourage those who have doubts about the legitimacy of the 2020 election to run for office or to get hired counting ballots. Backed in part by the Republican National Committee and the Conservative Partnership Institute, she’s spent the past year riling up a “volunteer army of citizens” across the country to become poll watchers and workers to influence election administration to the detriment of Democrats and their voters, whom she baselessly says cheat to win.

At the Orlando summit, Byrd told the volunteers that Florida election offices can fall victim to “incompetence” by “good people,” but that sometimes it’s “intentional,” CNN reported. He then encouraged them to bring evidence of vote tampering all the way up to the secretary of state’s office, which he now holds.

Byrd was praised as a “staunch advocate for election security” in DeSantis’ press release announcing his appointment back in May. He also expressed his intention to focus on election integrity as SoS.

“As Secretary of State, I will make sure Florida continues to have secure elections and that we protect the freedom of our citizens in the face of big-tech censorship and ever-growing cybersecurity threats,” he said.

Democrats in the state legislature criticized DeSantis’ appointment at the time of the announcement, describing Byrd as a “QAnon conspiracy theorist and promoter of the big lie.” (Byrd’s wife, a DeSantis appointment to the state board of education, has spoken positively about both.) State Senator Randolph Bracy (D) issued a statement warning, accurately,  that the new secretary will “be the first to oversee a new election security force which has unprecedented authority to hunt election and voting violations.”

God On Ron’s Side

Posted on by Josh Marshall

I wanted to flag this passage in Sarah Posner’s piece for TPM today …

In recent political speeches, DeSantis has been using a verse from Ephesians 6 (“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes”), but with a notable substitution: instead of “the devil’s,” he has said “the left’s.” The meaning is not lost on evangelical audiences, who are well familiar with the actual words of the verse. 

Read the piece here.

DOJ Escalates Effort To Get Govt Docs From Navarro’s Private Email

Posted on by Cristina Cabrera

The Justice Department’s starting to play hardball in its bid to take back the government records that ex-White House adviser Peter Navarro continues to clutch onto via his non-official email account.

Continue reading “DOJ Escalates Effort To Get Govt Docs From Navarro’s Private Email” →

Watching Russia

Posted on by Josh Marshall

Over the weekend I started thinking about a hypothetical: is there anyone in the Russian national security apparatus who thinks to themselves, “Yep, decision to pull the trigger on the invasion back in February … great call!”

I emphasize “think” rather than “say” since the mood in Russia doesn’t seem like one where doubts are likely to be expressed openly, at least at the upper levels of the national security establishment. People find ways not to ask themselves these questions, even in the privacy of their thoughts. But it is hard to imagine many managing to say yes. The suffering is overwhelmingly in and to Ukraine; they are the victims. But it is hard to imagine a greater self-inflicted wound than the one Russia brought on itself back in February, entirely at a time and place of its choosing.

I raise this question because, as you likely know, President Putin recently declared a “partial mobilization” in Russia, the first since the Second World War, which gives the state power to draft about 300,000 new recruits, though there are signs on the ground that the mobilization is actually far from partial.

Continue reading “Watching Russia” →

Texas AG Paxton Flees Home To Avoid Subpoena

Posted on by Cristina Cabrera

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.

Cue The Benny Hill Theme Music

A newly filed affidavit describes how Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and his wife fled their home in a truck on Monday morning when a process server tried to serve the attorney general a subpoena in a lawsuit by nonprofits working to help Texans receive out-of-state abortion care.

Here’s how part of the scene played out, according to the process server in the affidavit:

“I walked up the driveway approaching Mr. Paxton and called him by his name. As soon as he saw me and heard me call his name out, he turned around and RAN back inside the house through the same door in the garage.”

  • The process server said he put the documents near the truck on the ground, only for Paxton to drive away–but not before the process server told the official he was being served.
  • Paxton claimed later via Twitter that he ran away out of “concern about the safety and well-being of my family.”

Historic Oath Keepers Trial Begins

Today marks the first day of the criminal trial against Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and four other members of the far-right militia facing seditious conspiracy charges over their roles in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

  • Jury selection in the trial begins today, and opening statements are expected to come on Thursday.
  • All five Oath Keepers have pleaded not guilty. They face up to 20 years in prison.

Oath Keeper Indicted Over Jan. 6 Texted Andrew Giuliani About Election

Kellye SoRelle, the general counsel to the Oath Keepers militia who’s been indicted for participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, texted former White House public liaison staffer Andrew Giuliani (who’s also ex-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s son) in November 2020 about the election, NBC News reports.

  • SoRelle also attempted to text a White House number on Dec. 20 (which couldn’t be delivered because she sent it to a White House switchboard line), according to a new book by former House Jan. 6 Committee adviser Denver Riggleman and reporter Hunter Walker.

Sinema Gets Mavericky With McConnell

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) unrolled the red carpet for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) on Monday at his eponymous McConnell Center at the University of Louisville, where the Arizona senator bragged that not only was she “committed” to keeping the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold, she also had an “incredibly unpopular view” about the threshold.

  • Are you ready to hear it, America? Are you? Okay, here it is: The 60-vote threshold ought to be restored for votes where it’s been eliminated (and now only require a simple majority), like judicial confirmations, because doing so would create “middle ground” in “all parts of our governance,” Sinema argued as McConnell salivated several feet away from the podium.
  • Sinema also boasted that she’s “never really wanted to fit in, not in Washington, and not anywhere else.” In other words:
  • It’s still not clear who exactly Sinema’s trying to win over by proudly stonewalling her own party’s agenda (assuming it has anything to do with running for president or reelection instead of just pleasing donors). According to this new AARP-commissioned poll, her disapproval figures are at double digits across every Arizona voter demographic that got included in the survey (so hey, she’s definitely succeeding in bringing all sides together!):

Must Read

“‘They Have Nothing to Lose’: Why Young Iranians Are Rising Up Once Again” – The New York Times

Putin Grants Russian Citizenship To Snowden

In what’s almost certainly meant to be a troll move aimed at the U.S., Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Monday granted Russian citizenship to ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who’s been living in Russia since 2013 to escape criminal charges after exposing U.S. mass surveillance.

  • Snowden won’t have to go fight in Ukraine under Putin’s partial mobilization order (which applies to dual citizens), according to Snowden’s lawyer, because he hasn’t previously served in the Russian military.
  • Snowden announced in 2020 that he and his wife were applying for Russian citizenship so they could cross borders more freely with their soon-to-be-born son.

Tracking Hurricane Ian

The Washington Post is following Hurricane Ian’s movement as the storm barrels toward Florida.

NASA Spacecraft Successfully Smashes Into Asteroid

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft plowed into an asteroid on Monday, a major breakthrough in scientists’ study of how to defend the Earth from a potential asteroid crash.

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The Key Ingredients Of Christian Nationalism

Posted on by Sarah Posner

Christian nationalism has been all over the news lately, but it is neither a new term nor a new phenomenon in American politics. The label gained greater usage during former President Donald Trump’s presidency because of his mobilization of the Christian right around his strongman politics. Interest in the ideology — and the term — grew even more following the January 6 insurrection, where Christian nationalist rhetoric and symbols were on full display, sometimes violently. As Trump acolytes Michael Flynn and Roger Stone enthrall crowds with their Christian nationalist “Reawaken America” tour, and Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano fuses Trump’s stolen election lie with Christian nationalism, its threat to democracy has never been more vividly apparent.

Continue reading “The Key Ingredients Of Christian Nationalism” →