Here are this week’s SWAJ Research Links, compiled by SWAJ Team Member Mark Kurth.
National Inquiries
Tucker Carlson Turns a Christian Presidential Forum Into a Putin Showcase
Mr. Carlson was given the task of interviewing six Republican presidential hopefuls at the Family Leadership conference in Des Moines on Friday. Consequently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine became the dominant issue of debate, on a day when Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa used the event to sign a near-total abortion ban into law.
The divide in the Republican Party between traditional conservatives who favor the projection of American military might and a new, more isolationist wing that leans toward Russia is nothing new. But the Family Leadership Summit was supposed to be a showcase of Christian values, where social issues like abortion and transgender rights were expected to be center stage.
The Best Way to Find Out If Someone Is a Trump Voter? Ask Them What They Think About Manhood.
Actually, yes. It turns out ideas about gender and masculinity can be reliable indicators of how people vote by party and by candidate, according to a new POLITICO Magazine/IPSOS poll conducted in early May, which surveyed 1,016 respondents, including 267 Republicans, 307 Democrats and 324 independents. (Those who did not have a party affiliation were also included.)
Trump and Allies Forge Plans to Increase Presidential Power in 2025
Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him.
Mr. Trump intends to bring independent agencies — like the Federal Communications Commission, which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies, and the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces various antitrust and other consumer protection rules against businesses — under direct presidential control.
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s explicit visuals at Hunter Biden hearing draw rebuke
The committee was hearing testimony from two Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers involved in an investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes when Greene, during her questioning, produced the graphic poster boards. While the faces of other people in the photographs were blocked with black boxes, what appeared to be Hunter Biden’s face was not censored.
Blue-state doctors launch abortion pill pipeline into states with bans
A new procedure adopted in mid-June by one of the largest abortion pill suppliers, Europe-based Aid Access, now allows U.S. medical professionals in certain Democrat-led states that have passed abortion “shield” laws to prescribe and mail pills directly to patients in antiabortion states.
‘This Is a Really Big Deal’: How College Towns Are Decimating the GOP
“This is a really big deal,” said Mark Graul, a Republican strategist who ran George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign in Wisconsin. “What Democrats are doing in Dane County is truly making it impossible for Republicans to win a statewide race.”
In isolation, it’s a worrisome development for Republicans. Unfortunately for the larger GOP, it’s not happening in isolation.
In state after state, fast-growing, traditionally liberal college counties like Dane are flexing their muscles, generating higher turnout and ever greater Democratic margins. They’ve already played a pivotal role in turning several red states blue — and they could play an equally decisive role in key swing states next year.
Finally, the Trump Case We’ve Been Waiting For
The apparently impending Smith indictment is not like all the other cases. In theory, it will force the question that has cursed the country since the evening of November 3, 2020, when Trump chose to claim victory in an election he had lost: What to do about a President who will do anything to stay in power, even unleash a violent mob of his supporters on the U.S. Capitol? Isn’t that illegal? How can it not be?
States Fights
Veterans quit DeSantis’ Florida State Guard over militialike training
When DeSantis announced in 2021 that he wanted to revive the long-dormant State Guard, he vowed it would help Floridians during emergencies. But in the year since its launch, key personnel and a defined mission remain elusive. The state is looking for the program’s third leader in eight months. According to records reviewed by the Times/Herald and interviews with program volunteers, a number of recruits quit after the first training class last month because they feared it was becoming too militaristic.
Weeks into that inaugural June training, one volunteer, a disabled retired Marine Corps captain, called the local sheriff’s office to report he was battered by Florida National Guard instructors when they forcibly shoved him into a van after he questioned the program and its leadership.
16 Michigan Republicans charged with felonies in 2020 fake elector scheme
It is believed that these 16 individuals from all over the state met in the basement of the Michigan Republican Party’s Lansing headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020, following the election where Joe Biden was elected as president, also winning the majority of Michigan voters.
At this meeting it is believed that these individuals signed a series of certificates as the “duly elected and qualified electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America for the State of Michigan,” sending false documents to the United States Senate and National Archives saying former President Donald Trump had been reelected.
Fulton county prosecutors prepare racketeering charges in Trump inquiry
The racketeering statute in Georgia requires prosecutors to show the existence of an “enterprise” – and a pattern of racketeering activity that is predicated on at least two “qualifying” crimes.
In the Trump investigation, the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, has evidence to pursue a racketeering indictment predicated on statutes related to influencing witnesses and computer trespass, the people said.
Vocal Locals
A Black Man Was Elected Mayor in Rural Alabama, but the White Town Leaders Won’t Let Him Serve
After years of racist harassment and intimidation, Patrick Braxton is fed up, and in a federal civil rights lawsuit he is accusing town officials of conspiring to deny his civil rights and his position because of his race.
Rather than concede, Haywood “Woody” Stokes III, the former white mayor, along with his council members, reappointed themselves to their positions after ordering a special election that no one knew about.
For at least 60 years, there’s never been an election in the town. Instead, the mantle has been treated as a “hand me down” by the small percentage of white residents, according to several residents Capital B interviewed. After being the only one to submit qualifying paperwork and statement of economic interests, Braxton became the mayor.