Here are this week’s SWAJ Research Links, compiled by SWAJ Team Member Mark Kurth.
National Inquiries
Why Trump was charged on secret documents and Clinton, Pence were not
But the Trump indictment itself helps explain the difference between his case and other high-profile probes, like those of Hillary Clinton, President Biden and former vice president Mike Pence — not for what it charges, but for what it doesn’t.
Trump and the Violence Next Time
On March 23, Trump posted an all-caps message on his social media platform saying that Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who may bring charges, is “JUST CARRYING OUT THE PLANS OF THE RADICAL LEFT LUNATICS. OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED, AS THEY TELL US TO BE PEACEFUL!” As “they”—the radical left—“tell us to be peaceful.” It’s giving permission for violence, if not calling for it outright.
The Congressman Telling Trump Supporters to ‘Buckle Up’
We have now reached a war phase,” wrote Representative Andy Biggs on Twitter. “Eye for an eye.” Speaking in Georgia, Arizona’s failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake—continuing her audition for VP on Trump’s ticket—promised that 75 million armed Americans stood between Trump and prosecution. “That’s not a threat,” she smirked. “That’s a public-service announcement.” But Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana, a former sheriff’s deputy, issued the most strident statement of all. He advised followers on Twitter:
Opinion: The bogus Hillary Clinton excuse Republicans are using to defend Trump
They are not in the same universe, namely because the 49-page indictment alleges Trump’s behavior was deliberate and intentional in resisting government efforts to retrieve classified documents after the material was taken to Mar-a-Lago.
Lest we forget, in July 2015, the FBI opened a criminal investigation into Clinton as it examined whether the former secretary of state’s use of a private email server violated any laws concerning the storage of classified information.
After an investigation lasting nearly a year, then-FBI Director James Comey announced that he would not recommend filing any criminal charges against Clinton, who was the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee at the time.
‘I Want Blood’: Heavily-Armed Trump Supporters Say They’ll Protest Trump’s Indictment
“MAGA will make Waco look like a tea party,” a user with the screen name 1776take2 wrote about the planned protest on the pro-Trump messaging board known as The Donald, which was instrumental to the planning of the Capitol riot. “I used to laugh when my mom said that she was afraid if she registered Republican she may be arrested one day. I’m not laughing any more. Just buying more ammo.”
There will be no civil war over Trump. Here’s why
Violence is possible, but there will be no civil war.
Nations don’t go to war over whether they like or hate specific leaders. They go to war over the ideologies, religions, racism, social classes or economic policies these leaders represent.
But Trump represents nothing other than his own grievance with a system that refused him a second term and is now beginning to hold him accountable for violating the law.
Opinion: Before Trump or Viktor Orban, there was Italy’s Berlusconi
Berlusconi, the three-time Italian prime minister who died this week at 86, wrote the script for an authoritarian style of leadership within a democracy.
Often underestimated due to his boorish behavior, Berlusconi exerted strict control over his party, Forza Italia, and brought the far right into government for the first time since 1945 — partnering with the neo-fascist National Alliance party (formerly the Italian Social Movement) as well as the xenophobic Northern League in all three of his coalition governments (1994, 2001-2006, 2008-2011).
He also had a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and promoted Russian agendas forcefully abroad.
Trump pleads not guilty in classified documents case
“Your honor, we most certainly enter a plea of not guilty,” Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche told the federal magistrate judge who presided over Trump’s 48-minute arraignment.
Trump Swears He Planned to Go Through Those Boxes in Fiery Post-Arrest Speech
He said that he had every intention of going through the boxes—claiming that they held everything from memorabilia to abandoned items of clothing, and not the hundreds of classified documents he is accused of hoarding.
“I hadn’t had a chance to go through all the boxes,” he said. “It’s a long tedious job. Takes a long time, which I was prepared to do, but I have a very busy life. I’ve had a very busy life. They make it more busy, because you’re always fighting.”
“These boxes were containing all types of personal belongings. Many, many things. Shirts and shoes and everything,” he added.
Southern Baptists reject Rick Warren’s appeal to reinstate Saddleback
Southern Baptists, the bellwether of White American evangelicalism, took two powerful steps to the right this week, affirming the expulsion of Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church for ordaining women in assistant pastoral roles, and then voting to make it explicit in their constitution that women can’t be pastors at any level.
Tuberville rejects GOP attempts to end military promotions blockade
Tuberville first imposed the blocks in protest of the Defense Department’s new policy to pay travel costs for service members seeking abortion or other reproductive care. He claims that decision from late last year cuts against the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, and vows to maintain the holds until Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin changes course or the senator gets a straightforward vote on the issue.
Move over, evangelicals. Non-churchgoers now rule the GOP.
This non-practicing bloc of the party has grown ever-more powerful — silently driving much of the GOP’s agenda and forcing it to adopt a more populist bent.
Non-churchgoers played a central role in pulling the GOP toward Donald Trump and his brand of populism over the past six years. In the early years of the Trump administration, they were the most likely to support his hard line on immigration.
Feucht communion Capitol
Christian nationalist worship leader Sean Feucht took communion in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol yesterday when he declared "the blood of Jesus over this nation."
Shiny Happy People is a great reminder of why cult documentaries should exist
I’m telling you all of this to say that I finally realized something while watching Shiny Happy People. The documentaries about the Falwells and Hillsong had covered familiar territory to me, but it was The Vow and Keep Sweet that left me most shaken. The absolute fealty to a self-appointed guru-style leader, the amounts of money and hidden influence, the emphases on appearances, the strange rules and tests of loyalty, and, most of all, the insistence on male superiority and dominance over women – these were familiar, because they were Gothard’s tactics, too.
2 California men accused of using a Molotov cocktail to firebomb a Planned Parenthood clinic are arrested
Tibet Ergul, 21, of Irvine, and Chance Brannon, 23, of San Juan Capistrano, an active-duty Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, are charged with using an explosive or fire to damage real property affecting interstate commerce, the U.S. attorney’s office for Central California said in a statement.
Inside a conservative confab for young women, where feminism is a lie
What does it mean to be young, female and conservative in America, 2023?
At the leadership summit, there were answers. It means posing for selfies in a mirror made to look like a magazine cover with a headline that reads, “Birth control is so last year.” It means having it all — but having kids and a husband before trying to get the rest. It means buying tampons and beauty products and other items from companies that market themselves as pro-Christian or anti-“woke.” It means embracing a particular kind of American nostalgia, one where women’s liberation means being free from the complexities of modern gender politics.
Perhaps most of all, it means seeing transgender women as a grave threat to womanhood.
States Fights
Arizona governor vetoes transgender bathroom bill, condemns it as ‘attack’ on children
Hobbs said in her veto message on Thursday that she will veto every bill that “aims to attack and harm children,” as she said when vetoing another bill last month that would have restricted the use of a student’s pronouns consistent with their gender identity.
Florida anti-LGBTQ laws prompt families who feel unsafe to flee
That is the day a slate of new laws signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis targeting the LGBTQ community take effect. Doctors will be allowed to deny care based on their moral beliefs. The use of preferred pronouns will be banned in public schools. And children will be barred from attending drag shows, among other measures. One law that prohibits gender-affirming health care for transgender people under the age of 18 is already being enforced.
DeSantis kicks off feud over College Board’s AP psych class
The latest fracas between Florida and the College Board stems from a recently revamped state rule that expands legislation — panned as the “Don’t Say Gay” law by its critics — to restrict classroom instruction on sexual orientation or sexual identity to all K-12 students, instead of targeting only lessons for children in kindergarten through grade 3.