Here are this week’s SWAJ Research Links, compiled by SWAJ Team Member Mark Kurth.
National Inquiries
How Kari Lake’s Tactical Retreat on Abortion Could Point the Way for the G.O.P.
This week, she made a remarkable shift on the issue as she opened her bid for the U.S. Senate: She declared her opposition to a federal ban.
“Republicans allowed Democrats to define them on abortion,” Ms. Lake said in a statement to The New York Times about her break from the policy prescription favored by many anti-abortion groups and most of her party’s presidential contenders. She added that she supported additional resources for pregnant women, and that “just like President Trump, I believe this issue of abortion should be left to the states.”
'Ominous' sign for Donald Trump? Guilty pleas from Chesebro, Powell raise the stakes in Georgia
Two attorneys, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, pleaded guilty to related crimes this week and agreed to testify against other defendants. They had been charged with playing separate roles in an alleged multi-pronged conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Coming after a third defendant, Scott Hall, pleaded guilty in September, their deals bolster the weapons in prosecutors' toolbox, and may pressure other defendants to flip -- a move that would raise the legal stakes for Trump.
‘I killed him': How Trump torpedoed Tom Emmer’s speaker bid
Trump had signaled to aides last week that he did not support Emmer’s bid for the speakership. The former president complained that Emmer had criticized him following the Trump-inspired Jan. 6 Capitol riot and, among other things, had not forcefully enough defended him against his multiple indictments.
But as of Friday night, it looked like Trump would stay out of the race himself, while leaving it to his allies — such as Steve Bannon, Boris Epshteyn and Roger Stone — to express their strong opposition.
But a sequence of missteps by Emmer changed Trump’s mind.
Trump rages as former acolytes turn against him under legal heat
In a rage-filled stream of consciousness on his Truth Social network on Tuesday night, Trump lashed out at the ABC report about Meadows.
“I don’t think Mark Meadows would lie about the Rigged and Stollen 2020 Presidential Election merely for getting IMMUNITY against Prosecution (PERSECUTION!),” the former president wrote.
“Some people would make that deal, but they are weaklings and cowards, and so bad for the future our Failing Nation. I don’t think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows? MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
After Sidney Powell pleads guilty in Georgia case, Trump claims she was ‘never’ his attorney, despite their past ties
Despite Trump’s claims, Powell was briefly an official member of Trump’s legal team in 2020, and Trump stayed in contact with her on election-related matters even after she was ousted from his campaign.
“Sidney Powell was one of millions and millions of people who thought, and in ever increasing numbers still think, correctly, that the 2020 Presidential Election was RIGGED & STOLLEN, AND OUR COUNTRY IS BEING ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED BECAUSE OF IT!!! MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS. In fact, she would have been conflicted,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Tom Emmer cast doubt on the 2020 election and supported lawsuit to throw election to Trump
Emmer was selected as the GOP’s nominee for speaker of the House Tuesday, but dropped out of the race later in the day after his bid appeared on the verge of collapse amid opposition from the right flank of his conference and fresh attacks waged by Trump.
Speaking with the radio show for the far-right publication Breitbart News 12 days after the election, Emmer baselessly suggested that mail-in ballots might have “skewed” the election against Trump.
“I think that you will see the courts, if nothing else, this president is making sure that he stays focused and his team stays focused on these questionable election practices,” Emmer said. “We’re gonna find out – if it’s accurate – how much they skewed the outcome of the election in Georgia and elsewhere.”
‘Not in our name’: Jewish peace activists across the US call for immediate ceasefire and justice for Palestinians
On Wednesday, thousands of Jews and allies marched on Capitol Hill, where they carried Palestinian flags and rallied in support of Palestinian rights, while Wise led a smaller sit-in with hundreds of activists inside one of the Capitol buildings. The action was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, two of the largest US Jewish groups calling for a just and peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
‘I Mean, Is This My Party?’
In 2012, for instance, Romney agreed to accept the endorsement of Trump — at Trump’s insistence at Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas — because he calculated it would help him beat Barack Obama. And to do that, he needed not just Romney Republicans, of course, but also Donald Trump fans. Some of his advisers — even Nancy Reagan — told him to steer clear. “Romney was quick to rationalize keeping Trump inside the tent,” Coppins writes. “Alienating a guy with a massive bullhorn and a habit of holding grudges seemed risky. And while, yes, Trump was clearly ridiculous and vapid and filled with outlandish ideas, Obama had accepted endorsements and checks from every dolt and crackpot in Hollywood, from Kanye West to Lena Dunham to Adam Levine — why couldn’t Romney have his own silly celebrity surrogate? But the truth, which surprised even Romney himself, was that he liked Trump. Or at least, he liked having him around. Trump was funny and outrageous and talking to him broke up the monotony of the campaign trail.”
Another Trump lawyer who pushed to overturn 2020 election pleads guilty
Ellis is the third Trump-aligned attorney in recent days to plead guilty to crimes stemming from the 2020 election, joining Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, who each accepted deals to admit to aspects of the charges brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
All three lawyers had been charged alongside Donald Trump and many of his other allies with a sprawling racketeering conspiracy. Their pleas may reshape the case against Trump, supplying prosecutors with testimony from some of his closest advisers, who are now admitting for the first time that some of their actions crossed the line into criminality.
‘The man broke my heart’: Biden’s Arab-American boosters begin to leave his side
But after watching how Biden has navigated the Israel-Hamas war over the last two weeks, Zayid said she can no longer vote for him in 2024.
“The man broke my heart,” she said.
As Israel prepares for a likely ground invasion to retaliate against Hamas’ surprise attack on Oct. 7, Zayid is among the many fearful of what’s to come for Gaza. She has a 7-year-old godson in the region.
She wants Biden to push for a ceasefire. She is also scared for Palestinians and Muslims in the United States, some of whom have faced increased hatred and violence since the war began, and feels that Biden has talked about the conflict in a way that has inflamed tensions.
Poland just showed the world how democracy wins
Poland has been at the front lines between democracy and authoritarianism, between freedom and repression — not just in the current era, but arguably throughout modern history. Pomaska’s response was simple: “Don’t let the pro-democracy coalition fracture.”
On Sunday, Polish voters showed the world just how effective that strategy can be.
For the last eight years, Poland has been governed by the authoritarian-nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party. During that time, Poland has sat alongside the United States at the top of the list of backsliding democracies, as PiS gradually but systematically dismantled the rule of law and transformed state broadcasting into party propaganda. Most concerning of all, the government worked to make future elections neither free nor fair, using the power of the state to make it difficult for voters to ever oust the government.
Biden’s Israel-Palestine Policy Could Cost Him the Election
Biden risks labeling himself as a president who is in favor of colonization, and one who will turn a blind eye to ethnic cleansing and war crimes—and those are tough labels to shake once they take hold in communities of color. Voters of color are strategic, and willing to swallow a lot of nonsense and vote for the lesser evil. But there are some who will simply not pull the lever for any president, in any party, who stands aside while an oppressed people is besieged, starved, and bombed into oblivion. Even if you don’t think Israel is a colonial power, or don’t think the Israeli government is violating the human rights of Palestinians as they wage war against Hamas, the Americans who do think those things are voters Biden is losing right now. Those are the kinds of voters who, once lost, Biden will never win back.
You’re Not Imagining It: Support for Political Violence Is Growing
The former president had been fluent in outrageous language well before he ever entered politics. As a first-time candidate in 2016, and then as president, Trump was constantly testing the limits of acceptable speech. Trump’s language by itself can be disturbing. But it’s not only the talk that’s raising alarms. We’re seeing an actual spike in acts of political violence taking place in the U.S.
A Reuters investigation from August found that attacks began to go up in 2016, after Trump first got into politics. Some of these incidents never received national media attention—like the Trump supporter in Ohio who killed his neighbor last year because he was a Democrat. Others were unavoidable. The mass shooter in Buffalo who targeted Black shoppers, leaving 10 dead in 2022. The home invasion and violent attack at Nancy Pelosi’s house in San Francisco. And just this weekend, a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy was stabbed to death in suburban Chicago. The sheriff says that the killing was a hate crime, motivated by ongoing events in the Middle East.
Here’s Why Mike Johnson Is More Dangerous Than Donald Trump
The most dangerous movement in American politics today is not Trumpism. It is Christofascism. With the election of Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the organized effort to impose the extreme religious views of a minority of Americans on the entire country, at the expense of many of our most basic freedoms, took a disturbing step forward.
Despite Speaker Johnson’s claims of being a constitutional “originalist,” via his elevation by a unanimous vote of his Republican colleagues he has moved America closer to having precisely the kind of government America’s founders most feared.
Lock Him Up? A New Poll Has Some Bad News for Trump
A new POLITICO Magazine/Ipsos poll provides some bad news for Trump: Even as he remains the clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination, the cascading indictments are likely to take a toll on his general election prospects.
The survey results suggest Americans are taking the cases seriously — particularly the Justice Department’s 2020 election case — and that most people are skeptical of Trump’s claim to be the victim of a legally baseless witch hunt or an elaborate, multi-jurisdictional effort to “weaponize” law enforcement authorities against him.
‘Get Ready For It’: Political Strategist Issues Dire Prediction About Mike Johnson
Komanduri said extremist Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) kickstarted the ousting of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from the role three weeks ago at “the behest” of Donald Trump because McCarthy “did not shut down the government and create an atmosphere of chaos by which” the former president could win back the White House.
But Johnson will “do Donald Trump’s bidding,” he envisioned.
“Get ready for it. We’ll have a government shutdown,” he predicted. “We’re going to shut down aid to Ukraine to help Trump’s major benefactor, [Russian President] Vladimir Putin. That’s what’s going to occur.”
Senate Finance Committee probe into Clarence Thomas finds that he didn’t disclose loan for RV
The committee said in the memo that documents it reviewed showed Thomas only paid some interest on the loan. The committee also said the omission from the justice’s financial disclosure forms raises fresh questions about whether he “properly reported the associated income on his tax returns.”
‘I’ve prayed for each of you': How Mike Johnson led a campaign of election denial
Until Johnson’s unlikely bid for the speakership, his involvement in Trump’s bid to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election had largely avoided attention, overshadowed by his more visible colleagues — like Reps. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Jordan — who more actively strategized with the outgoing president. Johnson wasn’t among the six Republican lawmakers subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 select committee, and he earned just one passing mention in its final report.
But a review of his closed-door comments and public statements at the time reveal the newly elected speaker as a ubiquitous contact for Trump at key moments, within days of the former president’s defeat at the polls and throughout his increasingly desperate effort to subvert the 2020 election.
Christian Hillsdale College failed students who reported sexual violence, lawsuit alleges
They’re now taking the prominent Christian institution to court in the Western District of Michigan, saying it failed to respond to their attacks and misrepresented how safe they would be. In the lawsuit filed on Wednesday, their attorneys argue the school has “fostered a campus environment that exposes students to an unacceptable and unusually high risk of sexual assault.”
States Fights
Republican victory in Louisiana signals hard-right turn for once bipartisan state
When Louisiana’s attorney general, Jeff Landry, won the open gubernatorial primary on 14 October, it not only ended eight years of relatively productive bipartisan control of the state’s government: it marked a hard-right shift in Louisiana’s politics that could set back environmental policy and human and civil rights for decades to come.
Landry’s outright victory in the jungle primary – a system unique to Louisiana, in which all voters, regardless of party, vote on all candidates at the local, state and federal levels – shocked voters and pundits in the state alike. Landry was long favored to triumph, but it was expected he would be forced into a runoff. Ultimately, the state’s Democratic party offered no meaningful resistance to Landry’s campaign, and he cruised to a win, capturing more than 50% of the votes cast in a low-turnout race.
Ohio Man Admits He Tried to Burn Down Church for Hosting Drag Events
According to court documents, Aimenn Penny, 20, threw two Molotov cocktails at the church on Mar. 25 in response to its plan to host two drag events. Penny was a member of White Lives Matter and claimed to law enforcement that he wanted to protect children from the drag shows. Penny faces up to 10 years in prison for the arson charge and up to 20 years on the obstruction charge for preventing people from exercising their religious beliefs.
Voters soundly reject Gabrielle Hanson, other MAGA candidates in historic Franklin, Tennessee election
Incumbent Mayor Ken Moore easily defeated Gabrielle Hanson, a local real estate developer and first-term city alderman who faced one controversy after another. White supremacists showed up at a candidates forum in a show of support for Hanson, who refused to distance herself from the men despite broad condemnation from fellow aldermen.
The election results also brought a decisive defeat for other MAGA candidates for alderman-at-large that had been supported by the far-right Williamson Families PAC, including Jeff Feldman, Patrick George and Gary Moore.
Redistricting fights in these 10 states could determine which party controls the US House
In North Carolina, the Republicans who control the state legislature are crafting district lines that could flip as many as four Democratic-held seats. Democrats, meanwhile, could pick up seats in legal skirmishes now playing out in New York, Louisiana, Georgia and other states.
In all, the fate of anywhere from 14 to 18 House seats across nearly a dozen states could turn on the results of these fights. Republicans currently hold just a five-seat edge in the US House. That razor-edge majority has been underscored in recent weeks by the GOP’s chaotic struggle to elect a new speaker.
Republican and Democratic Cities Band Together to Blow Up the Death Star Bill
The new statute grants state lawmakers, for the first time in Texas history, exclusive authority over any activities covered by eight state codes: agriculture, business and commerce, finance, insurance, labor, natural resources, occupations, and property. With few exceptions, cities and counties will lose the ability to pass ordinances related to these “fields of regulation.” The law, which represents a major escalation in the state’s war on local control, has sparked outrage from city officials across the political spectrum. Plano and other Republican-led towns have become collateral damage in the GOP’s campaign against Democrat-run cities such as Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. (In Texas, municipal elections are officially nonpartisan—candidates don’t run as Republicans or Democrats—but many mayors acknowledge their party affiliation.)