The Commentariat -- November 11, 2020
Late Morning Update:
The Washington Post's live election updates Wednesday are here: "Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced a hand-counted audit of the vote in his state, where President-elect Joe Biden currently leads by more than 14,000 votes.... The goal is to have the recount completed by Nov. 20, the state deadline for certification. President Trump is projected to win Alaska and its three electoral votes, and Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan is projected to hold onto his seat in the state, according to Edison Research. That means Republicans are ensured 50 seats in the Senate, with the two runoffs in Georgia determining the majority." The page is free to non-subscribers.
CNN projects that Trump will win Alaska. No surprise there.
AWOL. Betsy Klein of CNN: "The President of the United States is absent without leave.... Donald Trump is set to make his first public appearance in six days Wednesday when he visits Arlington National Cemetery to commemorate Veterans Day alongside first lady Melania Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. But as he mounts a fierce battle to remain in office and refuses to concede the election he lost, Trump has shown little interest in the work of being President. Since he vowed to fight the election results in the wee hours after Election Day, Trump ... has made few efforts to show the American people he is still governing. Instead, he is firing off inflammatory and baseless claims on his social media accounts, many of which have been flagged by Twitter as misinformation, and hitting his golf course." Mrs. McC: Yeah, any of those veterans he is supposedly honoring today could have been courtmartialed for being AWOL, but Trump gets atta-boys from the same senators who refused to courtmartial him for attempting to consort with a foreign government. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I thought pence was AWOL, too, but the NYT reports that "Vice President Mike Pence canceled a vacation at the last minute this week as the virus numbers grew worse, but the White House coronavirus task force that he leads has been all but publicly silent."
Crazy Becomes the GOP Norm. David Siders of Politico: "It was just noise when it started — Donald Trump spouting wild, unsubstantiated claims about election fraud, his lawyer seething at an almost comical press conference in the parking lot of a Philadelphia landscaping business. But one week after an election in which Joe Biden received close to 5 million more popular votes than Trump and captured more than 270 electoral votes, the president and top Republican Party officials are nowhere near conceding. And with his posturing -- and statements of Cabinet officials like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo -- Trump is fueling a bonfire that's consuming the GOP anddisrupting the traditional transfer of power.... A majority of Republicans, according to new polling, are convinced the election wasn't fair. Party officials are attacking one another for failing a litmus test of defending Trump's interests.... Many top GOP officials ... often [suggest] to the party rank-and-file that the election was stolen, or that the outcome stands to be reversed."
Stephen Collinson of CNN: "... Donald Trump's administration is taking on the characteristics of a tottering regime -- with its loyalty tests, destabilizing attacks on the military chain of command, a deepening bunker mentality and increasingly delusional claims of political victory. In response, a visibly confident President-elect Joe Biden is going out of his way to project calm amid the deepening chaos, even as Trump and senior Republicans still refuse to acknowledge the President's defeat in a stunning break with America's democratic traditions.... Biden said he had a simple message for all the world leaders: 'I am letting them know America is back.'... But the Trump team only dug itself deeper into a bizarre parallel universe -- one where the President has already secured a second term -- consistent with the embrace of misinformation and alternative facts that has characterized the last four years."
The Confederate Nation of Mississippi. Ted Armus of the Washington Post: "Instead of being governed by President-elect Joe Biden, Mississippi state Rep. Price Wallace (R) reportedly said on Twitter that Mississippi should 'succeed' from the rest of the United States and form its own country." Mrs. McC: Mississippi has found itself another country to be part of:
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "Covid-19 hospitalizations in the United States hit an all-time high of 61,964 on Tuesday, and new daily cases passed 139,000 for the first time, as the raging pandemic continued to shatter record after record and strain medical facilities."
Sheryl Stolberg, et al., of the New York Times: "... as the country enters what may be the most intense stage of the pandemic yet, the Trump administration remains largely disengaged. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is trying to assume a leadership mantle, with the appointment of a coronavirus advisory board and a call for all Americans to wear masks, but until his inauguration on Jan. 20, he lacks the authority to mobilize a federal response.... Mr. Trump is at war with his own health officials. He was furious after the drug maker Pfizer announced Monday that early clinical trial data suggested its coronavirus vaccine was more than 90 percent effective.... White House aides were particularly incensed that Mr. Biden publicly said his public health advisers knew of Pfizer's results on Sunday, before aides said the news had reached the White House.... Meantime, the Strategic National Stockpile, the nation's emergency reserve, has only 115 million N95 masks, far short of the 300 million the administration had hoped to amass by winter.... Governors are once again competing with one another and big hospital chains for scarce gear. Nursing homes are grappling with staff shortages, which have left hospitals unable to discharge patients to their care."
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Fact & Farce
Biden Calls Trump's Mega-tantrum an Embarrassment. Annie Linskey of the Washington Post: “President-elect Joe Biden said Tuesday he is hoping to name several Cabinet-level nominees before Thanksgiving and downplayed the difficulties that his team is having amid a lack of cooperation by President Trump in the transfer of power. 'We're already beginning the transition,' Biden said. 'We are well underway.' Biden said that Republican leaders who are not acknowledging the legitimacy of his victory are 'mildly intimidated by the sitting president' and that Trump's refusal to concede the election is 'an embarrassment.' Speaking to reporters for the first time since declaring victory in the presidential election Saturday night, Biden sought to show that he is hard at work preparing for his new role and is unencumbered by Trump's attempts to block a transfer of power.... Biden was joined by Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris, who spoke briefly when she introduced him and made a point of underscoring his victory." Politico's story is here. ~~~
How can I say this tactfully? ... It will not help the president's legacy. -- President-elect Joe Biden, speaking to journalists Tuesday about Trump's behavior
'How can I say this tactfully?' Those are words you've never heard at a Trump press conference. -- Former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), speaking Tuesday on MSNBC (slight paraphrase)
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Speaking on MSNBC, Frank Figliuzzi, a former top FBI official, described Biden's approach to Trump's antics as just like the initial stages of the FBI's method of dealing with a "barricaded subject": an armed & dangerous (and possibly mentally-ill) individual whom law enforcement officers were trying to safely coax out of a hiding place.
Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. fielded congratulatory calls from European leaders on Tuesday, even as some of President Trump's authoritarian allies maintained a conspicuous silence about the election that could foreshadow coming tensions with the Biden administration. Mr. Biden spoke on Tuesday with President Emmanuel Macron of France, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain and Prime Minister Micheal Martin of Ireland. He offered the leaders messages of support and cooperation, his transition team said in a statement, including expressing to Mr. Macron 'his interest in reinvigorating bilateral and trans-Atlantic ties, including through NATO' and the European Union -- institutions Mr. Trump has repeatedly derided. The conversations offered a clear reaffirmation of U.S.-European ties and a signal of a broader return to normalcy in foreign relations ahead. Coupled with the conspicuous silence of more authoritarian leaders, they also provided early hints of a reordering of American allies and antagonists back to their state before Mr. Trump's disruptive foreign policy sank trans-Atlantic relations to their lowest point since World War II."
Peter Baker & Lara Jakes of the New York Times: "President Trump ... is harnessing the power of the federal government to resist the results of an election that he lost, something that no sitting president has done in American history. In the latest sign of defiance, the president's senior cabinet secretary [Mike Pompeo] fueled concerns on Tuesday that Mr. Trump would resist handing over power to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.... Mr. Trump's attorney general has at the same time authorized investigations into supposed vote fraud, his general services administrator has refused to give Mr. Biden's team access to transition offices and resources guaranteed under law and the White House is preparing a budget for next year as if Mr. Trump will be around to present it. The president has also embarked on a shake-up of his administration, firing Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper as well as the heads of three other agencies while installing loyalists in key positions at the National Security Agency and the Pentagon.... 'What we have seen in the last week from the president more closely resembles the tactics of the kind of authoritarian leaders we follow,' said Michael J. Abramowitz, the president of Freedom House, a nonprofit organization that tracks democracy around the world. 'I never would have imagined seeing something like this in America.'"
Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump's refusal to concede the election to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has already affected Mr. Biden's transition, particularly on national security issues. Mr. Biden has yet to receive a presidential daily briefing, and it was unclear whether his team would have access to classified information, the most important pipeline for them to learn about the threats facing the United States.... No law states that Mr. Biden must receive [the PDB], though under previous administrations dating to at least 1968, presidents have authorized their elected successors to be given the briefing after clinching victory.... In the aftermath of the contested 2000 election, while votes in Florida were being recounted, President Bill Clinton authorized George W. Bush to receive the President's Daily Brief. As vice president, Al Gore already had access to the intelligence.... Like previous presidents-elect, Mr. Biden is receiving Secret Service protection, and a no-fly zone has been established over his home in Delaware. But if Mr. Trump's administration continues its refusal to recognize Mr. Biden as the winner, it could complicate his security until his inauguration." Biden is not receiving the level of Secret Service protection normally afforded to presidents-elect. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Amy Gardner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Six states where President Trump has threatened to challenge his defeat continued their march toward declaring certified election results in the coming weeks, as his advisers privately acknowledged that President-elect Joe Biden's official victory is less a question of 'if' than 'when.' Trump began the day tweeting about 'BALLOT COUNTING ABUSE' as he and his allies touted unproven claims that fraud had tainted the election in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Vice President Pence gave a presentation to Republican senators on Capitol Hill about new litigation expected in Pennsylvania Michigan and Georgia -- imploring them to stick with the president, according to several Republicans in the room.... Trump met with advisers again Tuesday afternoon to discuss whether there is a path forward, said a person with knowledge of the discussions.... The person said Trump plans to keep fighting but understands it is going to be difficult. 'He is all over the place. It changes from hour to hour,' the person said." The story is free to non-subscribers. ~~~
~~~ ** Fred Kaplan of Slate: "President Trump's campaign to challenge the results of the election is not merely a salve to his wounded ego, but a serious attempt to stay in power -- if not from inside the Oval Office for another four years, then through confederates well placed in what he has called the 'deep state.'... Meanwhile, Trump has convinced tens of millions of his followers that the election was 'stolen,' thus delegitimizing Biden's term in their eyes from the get-go. And through his firings and blockings, he is weakening, if not sabotaging, Biden's first few months at an administrative level. Whatever Trump believes happened on Nov. 3, he seems to have decided that if he goes down, he'll do his damnedest to take his successor and much of the country down with him." --s Firewalled. ~~~
~~~ Unfortunately, the people who might be in positions to coax Trump out of his catatonic state for anything other than to fire somebody who is an essential part of the national security apparatus do get this or any other consequences of the Long Trumpertantrum. Ergo, ~~~
~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Speaking about President Trump's and his legal team's myriad and baseless claims of massive voter fraud, an anonymous senior Republican official offered a rhetorical shrug. 'Wha is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time? No one seriously thinks the results will change,' the official said. 'He went golfing this weekend. It's not like he's plotting how to prevent Joe Biden from taking power on Jan. 20. He's tweeting about filing some lawsuits, those lawsuits will fail, then he'll tweet some more about how the election was stolen, and then he'll leave.' Indeed, what's a little undermining of democracy between friends?... The problem, though, is that ... Trump's enablers [like Bill Barr] are breathing life into Trump's and his legal team's haphazard and specious claims of fraud.... Pacification comes with a price. Just because it's difficult to quantify or fully grasp doesn't mean it won't have lasting implications."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Let's Pretend We Won, Ctd. Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House budget office has instructed federal agencies to continue preparing the Trump administration's budget proposal for the next fiscal year, according to multiple administration officials.... The White House budget proposal is typically issued in February, which would be at least two weeks after President Trump is scheduled to depart the White House.... The decision to proceed with Trump's budget for the 2022 fiscal year has rankled and surprised several career staffers given Biden's victory, as well as the fact that the incoming Biden administration is expected to submit its budget plan to Congress early next year. The insistence on budget planning, even though Trump won’t be in office to offer a budget in February, is part of a recent pattern of behavior from White House officials and senior political appointees who have sought to reject the election results. On Monday, the Trump White House also instructed senior government officials to not cooperate with Biden's transition team, igniting a potential legal battle." A Politico story is here. ~~~
~~~ Let's Pretend We Won, Ctd. Harriet Alexander of the (U.K.) Independent, republished on MSN: "The Trump administration is continuing to vet potential nominees for a second term, maintaining the charade of electoral victory despite the election being called for Joe Biden. Two sources told The Daily Beast that the White House Presidential Personnel Office (PPO) was still processing candidates for jobs across the federal government which would be taken up in early 2021.... The PPO has, since February, been headed by John McEntee, a 30-year-old ultra loyalist who joined the Trump team in the early days of the campaign, but was fired by the then-chief of staff, John Kelly, in March 2018 for financial malfeasance.... He was escorted out of the White House without even being allowed to fetch his jacket." ~~~
~~~ U.S. Secretary of State Jokes (Maybe) about a Coup. Nahal Toosi & Quint Forgey of Politico: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday became the latest senior U.S. official to resist accepting the results of last week's presidential election. The chief U.S. diplomat even suggested — falsely, but possibly jokingly -- that ... Donald Trump had defeated Joe Biden. 'There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,' Pompeo said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon. When pressed on whether he and his department are preparing to hand over power to President-elect Biden and his team, Pompeo, who at times grew irritated at the questions, made it clear he didn't see the contest as having concluded. At one point, he referred to the importance of counting 'every legal vote' -- phrasing other Trump allies have used to suggest without evidence that widespread voter fraud helped Biden." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: For all of the Trumpies' claims about Democrats -- and more specifically "urban" Democrats -- stealing the election, this is simply Trumpish projection. Rather than sending in the troops -- so far, anyway -- they are claiming rhetorically & in court that "urban" Democrats across the nation systematically committed voter fraud. Trump & his minions are actively engaged in stealing votes to effect a coup by refusing to engage in the orderly transfer of power from one "administration" to the succeeding administration.
Trump Appointee Shoots Down Trump's Conspiracy Theories. Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "Since Election Day..., Donald Trump and his allies have pushed numerous merit-free allegations of voting irregularities. The Department of Homeland Security's top cyber official [Chris Krebs] is swatting them down in near real-time -- contradicting the president in a way that often ends in a pink slip.... Krebs has been using his agency's 'Rumor Control' website -- and his personal Twitter feed -- to take on the viral conspiracies that are circulating widely in conservative circles, some of which have been promoted by the president and his top allies. Launched prior to the election to help voters navigate domestic and foreign misinformation, the website has now essentially morphed into a post-election fact-checking operation for the outgoing president and his supporters."
Nick Corasaniti, et al., of the New York Times: "Election officials in dozens of states representing both political parties said that there was no evidence that fraud or other irregularities played a role in the outcome of the presidential race, amounting to a forceful rebuke of President Trump's portrait of a fraudulent election. Over the last several days, the president, members of his administration, congressional Republicans and right wing allies have put forth the false claim that the election was stolen from President Trump and have refused to accept results that showed Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the winner. But top election officials across the country said in interviews and statements that the process had been a remarkable success despite record turnout and the complications of a dangerous pandemic.... What emerged in The Times's reporting was how, beyond the president, Republicans in many states were engaged in a widespread effort to delegitimize the nation's voting system.... On Monday, the Trump campaign accelerated their legal efforts, filing a lawsuit in the seven Pennsylvania counties where the president lost that claimed mail voting created an unfair, 'two-tiered' system during the election -- though the system is also in place in counties the president won. The campaign also announced plans to file another suit in Michigan." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Former Solicitor General Neal Katyal, speaking on MSNBC, said Trump's lawsuits, long on accusations & devoid of evidence, amounted to nothing more than "tweets with a filing fee."
Arizona. Colin Kalmbacher of Law & Crime: "... Donald Trump's reelection campaign is fighting a legal battle in Arizona over a number of ballots so infinitesimally small that even were the outcome to go entirely the president's way, those efforts would have no cognizable impact on the outcome of the race whatsoever. According to The Arizona Republic, tabulations from a ballot-counting system show there a total number of 180 ballots at issue in the president's litigation -- out of a 14,746 vote margin for Joe Biden. In other words, the Trump campaign -- along with the Republican National Committee and the Arizona Republican Party -- is hinging its Grand Canyon State legal strategy on less than one percent of Biden's overall victory margin."
Pennsylvania. Experts Say Trump's Suit Is DOA. Kevin McCoy, et al., of USA Today: "... Donald Trump's campaign launched its broadest challenge yet to the results of the election that appears destined to push him from office, accusing Pennsylvania officials of running a 'two-tiered' voting system -- in-person and mail -- that violates the U.S. Constitution. [Nine] legal experts said the case has little chance of succeeding, for a variety of reasons: Courts are wary of invalidating legally cast ballots. The issues raised, even if true, don't represent a constitutional question. And mail voting, used in many states, is both common and constitutional."
Shawn Boburg & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "A Pennsylvania postal worker whose claims have been cited by top Republicans as potential evidence of widespread voting irregularities admitted to U.S. Postal Service investigators that he fabricated the allegations, according to three officials briefed on the investigation and a statement from a House congressional committee. Richard Hopkins's claim that a postmaster in Erie, Pa., instructed postal workers to backdate ballots mailed after Election Day was cited by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) in a letter to the Justice Department calling for a federal investigation.... Republicans held up Hopkins's claims as among the most credible because he signed an affidavit.... The Trump campaign also cited reports of the allegation in a federal lawsuit filed Monday against Pennsylvania election officials that seeks to prevent them from certifying the states' election results.... In a YouTube video [Hopkins] posted Tuesday night, he denied recanting. 'I'm here to say I did not recant my statements. That did not happen,' he said.... Hopkins's allegations, without his name, were first aired last week by Project Veritas, an organization that uses deceptive tactics to expose what it says is bias and corruption in the mainstream media."
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Thousands of ballots continued to stream into U.S. Postal Service facilities Monday, according to newly filed court documents, too late in many states to be counted, even if postmarked by Election Day. According to the new data, compiled as part of a lawsuit to monitor mail voting, ballots arriving Monday included hundreds meant for closely fought contests in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona, where President-elect Joe Biden has held small but significant leads. Those ballots include: 121 in Atlanta, 293 in Philadelphia, 109 in Central Pennsylvania, 171 in Central Arizona and 83 in Detroit. Though the number of ballots is too small to affect the outcome of the election in any of these states they could -- along with hundreds of others that arrived in these states in the days since the election -- affect the margins of victory for Biden. Of these states, only Pennsylvania accepted ballots after Election Day, so long as they were postmarked by Nov. 3. But even Pennsylvania's extension, ordered by the state Supreme Court, expired on Friday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Richard Cowan of Reuters: "Top Republicans in the U.S. Congress for now are supporting ... Donald Trump's attempt to challenge President-elect Joe Biden's victory, but some senior aides said Trump must soon produce significant evidence or exit the stage.... Many [U.S. senators] ... are suggesting limits to their patience in giving Trump the benefit of the doubt. Mrs. McC: This is the kind of targeted "leak" that is supposed to make you step back & think, "Well, I guess Republicans are patriots, after all, and they are so compassionate in allowing Trump "some time to process his loss." ~~~
~~~ Steve M.: "You can argue that Republican senators are backing Trump because they want to rally their voters for the Georgia Senate runoffs and the 2022 midterms, and they're doing this even though they know Trump will lose in court. But what's Barr's motivation? If he assumes Trump's challenges will fail, what does he get out of fighting on? He avoids being fired? He's out of a job in January no matter what.... Unless he thinks his lawyers can gin something up.... But even if that's true, 47% of the country will have an even darker view of Democrats and cities and black voters and 'the Deep State.' Then we'll be even more divided and the right will be even angrier and more paranoid (and better armed...). But these cynics don't care that they're encouraging a state of permanent cold civil war. They're sure they won't be harmed by this." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Bob Mayo of WTAE Pittsburgh: "Republican Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey believes the Trump administration and the federal government should start cooperating with the Biden presidential transition team. 'We're on a path it looks likely Joe Biden is going to be the next president of the United States. It's not 100% certain but it is quite likely. So I think a transition process ought to begin,' Toomey told Pittsburgh's Action News 4 reporter Bob Mayo in an interview Monday via Zoom.... Toomey did not refer to Biden as president-elect during the Pittsburgh's Action News 4 interview."
Oregon. Andrew Selsky of the AP: "Oregon's elections director was abruptly fired in a text message by the secretary of state after he pointed out serious issues with the state's aging and vulnerable technology for running elections. Elections Director Stephen Trout learned in a text message Thursday night -- as his department and county elections officials were still counting votes from the Nov. 3 election -- that he was out.... Election officials in the state were stunned." --s
** Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "As president, Donald Trump selectively revealed highly classified information to attack his adversaries, gain political advantage and to impress or intimidate foreign governments, in some cases jeopardizing U.S. intelligence capabilities. As an ex-president, there's every reason to worry he will do the same, thus posing a unique national security dilemma for the Biden administration, current and former officials and analysts said.... No new president has ever had to fear that his predecessor might expose the nation's secrets as President-elect Joe Biden must with Trump, current and former officials said. Not only does Trump have a history of disclosures, he checks the boxes of a classic counterintelligence risk: He is deeply in debt and angry at the U.S. government, particularly what he describes as the 'deep state' conspiracy that he believes tried to stop him from winning the White House in 2016 and what he falsely claims is an illegal effort to rob him of reelection.... After he leaves office, he still will have access to the classified records of his administration. But the legal ability to disclose them disappears once Biden is sworn in January." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Read on. There has seldom, if ever, been a front-page (online, anyway), major-media story so chilling. The idea that a former president*, even this one, would go to work for international adversaries is stunning. I haven't cared much for any Republican president who served during my lifetime, but I have not once worried about any of them might become a spy for U.S. enemies.
QAnon Has a Massive Sad. Kevin Roose of the New York Times: "These are trying times for believers in QAnon, the baseless conspiracy theory that falsely claims the existence of a satanic pedophile cult run by top Democrats. For years, they had been assured that Mr. Trump would win re-election in a landslide and spend his second term vanquishing the deep state and bringing the cabal's leaders to justice. Q, the pseudonymous message board user whose cryptic posts have fueled the movement for more than three years, told them to 'trust the plan.' But since Mr. Trump's defeat, Q has gone dark. No posts from the account bearing Q's tripcode, or digital user name, have appeared on 8kun, the website where all of Q's posts appear. And overall QAnon-related activity on the site has slowed to a trickle. (On a recent day, there were fewer new posts on one of 8kun's QAnon boards than on its board for adult-diaper fetishists.)... Q's sudden disappearance has been jarring for QAnon believers, who have come to depend on the account's posts, or 'drops,' for updates and reassurance.... And without an enabler in the White House, it remains to be seen whether the movement's days are numbered." ~~~
~~~ Drew Harwell & Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "President Trump's election loss and the week-long silence of 'Q,' the QAnon movement's mysterious prophet, have wrenched some believers into a crisis of faith, with factions voicing unease about their future or rallying others to stay calm and 'trust the plan.' The uncertainty has been compounded by the abrupt public resignation, also last Tuesday, of Ron Watkins, the administrator of Q's online sanctuary on the message board 8kun.... Some QAnon proponents have begun to publicly grapple with reality and question whether the conspiracy theory is a hoax."
Not Guilty! Jones Day Has a Massive Sad. Mrs. McCrabbie: Yesterday, we read this in the Paper of Record: "Now Jones Day is the most prominent [law] firm representing President Trump and the Republican Party as they prepare to wage a legal war challenging the results of the election. The work is intensifying concerns inside the firm about the propriety and wisdom of working for Mr. Trump.... Some senior lawyers at Jones Day ... are worried that it is advancing arguments that lack evidence and may be helping Mr. Trump and his allies undermine the integrity of American elections, according to interviews with nine partners and associates...." Today, we read this Jones Day statement: "Jones Day is not representing President Trump, his campaign, or any affiliated party in any litigation alleging voter fraud. Jones Day also is not representing any entity in any litigation challenging or contesting the results of the 2020 general election. Media reports to the contrary are false." The statement goes on to explain its representation of Pennsylvania's Republican party on a state "constitutional question."
Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "From tearing up documents and hiding transcripts of calls with foreign leaders to using encrypted messaging apps and personal email accounts for government business, the Trump White House's skirting of records preservation rules could limit the incoming Biden administration's visibility into highly sensitive foreign policy and national security secrets.... The Presidential Records Act, which requires a sitting president to preserve and ultimately make public all records relating to the performance of their official duties ... has no real enforcement mechanism and relies on the president's good faith compliance[.]" --s
Jeff Stein of Spy Talk: "Christopher Miller, the counterterrorism expert tapped to lead the Defense Department during a tumultuous presidential transition period, won't help President Donald Trump stay in office with the aid of military troops, a former Green Beret comrade [Jason Amerine] says.... Miller was a Green Beret battalion commander.... Fears are widespread, including among prominent former military officers, that Trump replaced Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Monday in order to grease the skids for him to deploy troops to quell protests or otherwise help keep himself in power. 'Chris would resign' if Trump ordered him to deploy troops to crush protests or otherwise stay in power, said Amerine, who retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2015. 'That's not him at all. He's not a yes man. He's a very principled individual.'" --s
Missy Ryan & Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The top policy official at the Defense Department resigned suddenly Tuesday, a day after President Trump abruptly fired his defense secretary, compounding uncertainty at the Pentagon during a sensitive transition period. Several officials said that James Anderson, who served as acting undersecretary of defense for policy, informed colleagues of his immediate departure just hours after Christopher Miller, an intelligence official, started his first full day as acting defense secretary." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Lara Seligman & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Anthony Tata, a retired brigadier general whose nomination for a top Pentagon job collapsed this summer due to Islamophobic tweets and other controversial statements, began overseeing policy for the Defense Department on Tuesday. The move is part of a high-level civilian leadership shakeup that began on Monday when ... Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper.... Tata's ascension to temporary head of policy is sure to revive deep concerns among members of Congress who opposed his nomination for the job this summer. After the White House announced his nomination, Tata came under fire for tweets calling former President Barack Obama a 'terrorist leader' and for referring to Islam as the 'most oppressive violent religion I know of,' among other controversial statements." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) --safari: Putting radical rightwing idelogues in charge of Pentagon policy seems dangerous. ~~~
~~~ Trump Dispatches a Clown Car to Run DOD. Dartunorro Clark of NBC News: "Several loyalists to ... Donald Trump were promoted to top roles in the Defense Department on Tuesday after officials resigned following the unceremonious ouster of Defense Secretary Mark Esper. The Pentagon confirmed the resignations of the department's top officials for policy and intelligence in a statement. The resignations include those of James Anderson, the acting undersecretary for policy; Joseph Kernan, the undersecretary for intelligence; and Jen Stewart, Esper's chief of staff.... Retired Army Gen. Anthony Tata, a frequent Fox News guest, will replace Anderson. Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who works in the Defense Department and was an aide to the disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, will replace Kernan. Kash Patel, a former National Security Council official and former aide to Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who worked on the controversial House investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, will replace Stewart." Mrs. McC: How better to celebrate Veterans Day than leaving the Defense Department in shambles? ~~~
~~~ Josh Rogin of the Washington Post: "It's becoming clear that President Trump's firing of Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper by tweet Monday was only the first step in an effort to remove the entire top Defense Department leadership team and replace it with officials loyal to the president.... On Tuesday, the purge widened dramatically as the White House asked for the resignations of three more top Pentagon officials: Undersecretary of Defense for Policy John Anderson, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Joseph Kernan and Pentagon Chief of Staff Jen Stewart. All three are being replaced by staffers more loyal to Trump's political agenda. Officials said Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist could be the next White House target for dismissal.... By installing themselves in top jobs, these officials are stalling the transition, settling scores and advancing their own ambitions. Many officials in the agencies they are taking over are also now wondering whether the loyalists' plan includes helping Trump resist leaving office."
AND Still Conning the Schmos. Kate Riga of TPM: "The Trump campaign has been unrelenting in recent days with its all-caps, bold font, exclamation-point-ridden fundraising appeals: 'THE DEMOCRATS WANT TO STEAL THIS ELECTION!' 'We can't allow the Left-wing MOB to undermine our election.' They urge supporters to make donations to ... Donald Trump's election integrity defense, to ensure he has the 'resources' he needs to keep the election from being 'stolen.' In reality, there is no election defense fund; the donations are siphoned into a mix of various committees. Up until Tuesday, some of the money was being used to pay down the Trump campaign's debt. As of Tuesday morning though, the formula was changed to funnel most of the money into Trump's new leadership PAC called Save America.... 'Not a penny is dedicated to a legal expense account unless donors have maxed out their contributions to the first two committees, $5,000 to the leadership PAC and $35,500 to the RNC,' said Paul Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause.... Calling leadership PACs 'notorious' for being abused as slush funds, Ryan predicted that Trump will keep the coffers full by teasing a possible 2024 run, all the while finding ways to funnel money back to his businesses and family members." ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE. Jim Acosta of CNN: "Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle are making moves to expand their influence at the Republican National Committee, three GOP sources, including advisers to the President tell CNN. Some sources say they may seek to take over the party structure themselves.... Donald Trump's eldest son and his girlfriend, a Trump campaign fundraiser and former Fox News host, have made it clear to campaign and White House officials they are unhappy with RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who they view as not having done enough to win a close race. Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle could seek leadership roles at the RNC to position the committee for a comeback run for the President in 2024, the sources said. 'Don Jr. and Kimberly have an eye on the RNC, through themselves taking over or somebody close to them taking over,' a well-placed Republican Party source close to the White House said."
Whitney Kimball of Gizmodo: "Steve Bannon has been outed for his involvement in running a network of misinformation pages on Facebook.... Facebook has talked a big game about monitoring election misinformation, and yet the independent activist network Avaaz said it had to alert the company to the pages before it removed them for coordinated inauthentic behavior.... Last week, Facebook removed two videos posted to Bannon's official page, including one in which Bannon suggested the beheading of Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray. CNN reported that the video had amassed over 200,000 views before Facebook removed it." --s
Bad News. James Arkin of Politico: "GOP Sen. Thom Tillis won a second term in North Carolina, after Democrat Cal Cunningham conceded defeat Tuesday in what was the most expensive Senate election in the country this year. The victory gives the GOP at least 49 senators in the new Congress, with GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska leading his race to become the 50th Republican. Control of the Senate will come down to two Jan. 5 runoffs in Georgia."
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The bulk of the Affordable Care Act ... appeared likely to survive its latest encounter with the Supreme Court in arguments on Tuesday. It was not clear whether the court would strike down the so-called individual mandate, which was rendered toothless in 2017 after Congress zeroed out the penalty for failing to obtain insurance. But at least five justices, including two members of the court's conservative majority, indicated that they were not inclined to strike down the balance of the law. In legal terms, they said the mandate was severable from the rest of the law. 'It does seem fairly clear that the proper remedy would be to sever the mandate provision and leave the rest of the law in place,' said Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. made a similar point."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Robert Barnes, et al., of the Washington Post agree with Liptak: "'I think it's hard for you to argue that Congress intended the entire act to fall if the mandate were struck down when the same Congress that lowered the penalty to zero did not even try to repeal the rest of the act,' [CJ John] Roberts told Kyle D. Hawkins, the Texas solicitor general leading the red-state effort. 'I think, frankly, that they wanted the court to do that. But that's not our job.'" A concurring Politico story by Susannah Luthi is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Joan Biskupic of CNN: "Chief Justice John Roberts twice saved Obamacare, and he appears ready to uphold it again. But Roberts is growing weary of it all. His message to the many parties represented at the court on Tuesday was essentially: Just stop. Stop asking the justices to do the work of Congress. Stop pulling the court into the partisan fracas. And perhaps especially, stop forcing this chief justice to return to the days when, as Roberts said Tuesday, 'we spent all that time talking about broccoli.'... The cautious, strategic Roberts does not want the court to drive someone else's policy agenda, for example, by killing Obamacare when Trump and congressional Republicans failed."
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
** The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here (also linked yesterday): "Covid-19 hospitalizations in the United States hit an all-time high of 61,964 on Tuesday, as the raging pandemic continued to shatter record after record and strain medical facilities. The number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus, tallied by the Covid Tracking Project, has more than doubled since September, and now exceeds the peak reached early in the pandemic, when 59,940 hospitalized patients were reported on April 15. A second peak in the summer fell just short of matching that record. Those spikes in April and July lasted only a few days and quickly subsided, but as winter approaches experts do not expect that this time. The United States, which surpassed 10 million known cases on Sunday, is averaging more than 111,000 new cases a day, a record. As hospitalizations have shot up, deaths have been steadily rising, as the daily U.S. average approaches 1,000."
Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: "El Paso, a border city of 680,000, now has more people hospitalized with Covid-19 than most states -- 1,076 as of Tuesday -- and is more than doubling its supply of mobile morgues, to 10 from four.... Texas recently surpassed one million confirmed cases of the virus, with 19,000 dead. Of the 6,100 patients hospitalized across the state, one out of every six are in El Paso.... The city has brought in more than 1,400 health care workers from around the state, and about 60 more arrived over the weekend in three teams sent by the Defense Department. But new patients have strained even those additional resources.... The situation reflects the broader difficulty of trying to battle a national crisis in the absence of a national strategy.... A pandemic response philosophy focused on local control and personal responsibility, starting with the Trump administration and reinforced by Texas' Republican governor, Greg Abbott, has at times left local leaders at odds over how to deal with the serial outbreaks."
One Good Thing. Danielle Garrand of CBS News: "Veterans and Gold Star families will soon be able to access the country's national parks, wildlife refuges and other public lands for free for the rest of their lives. The program starts on a fitting day -- Veterans Day. 'With the utmost respect and gratitude, we are granting veterans and Gold Star Families free access to the iconic and treasured lands they fought to protect starting this Veteran's Day and every single day thereafter,' Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt said in a statement last month." Mrs. McC: While I'm happy to see veterans getting lifetime free passes, pardon my cynicism, but I suspect Bernhardt's purpose is to further cash-strap the national parks.
Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "When Kyle Rittenhouse allegedly shot and killed two people and seriously wounded another man in August during racial justice protests in Kenosha, Wis., he used an assault rifle that authorities said a friend had bought for him.... Prosecutors have charged that friend, 19-year-old Dominick David Black, with two felony counts of intentionally selling a gun to a minor. Black made his first court appearance on Monday in the Kenosha County Circuit Court." The Hill's summary story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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