This is the next of our series of missives on our unfinished work to restore the promise of our country and its government. Each will focus on a single element of the many opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. Each will provide three steps we can all take to build upon our huge victories winning back the House in 2018 and the Presidency in 2020.
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Throughout the MAGA world, there is outrage that South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem shot her 14-month-old puppy and her goat. Apparently, both had behaved inappropriately. This disclosure and her false claim that she had scolded North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un have now disqualified Noem from being selected as Donald Trump’s vice-presidential candidate. This rejection is based either on her doing these things, or on her getting caught doing these things. Noem’s spokesperson blamed her ghostwriter, but Noem must have read the book because she narrated the audio version.
Two ironies emerge. First, Donald Trump’s delay of aid to Ukraine led to the death of hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers, thus epically overshadowing Noem’s own callousness. If Donald Trump figured he needed to shoot Fido, he would do it in a flash.
Second, Noem obviously didn’t get Trump’s memo on what to do once citizen dismay grows and political damage looms. If she had been paying attention, this is what she would have said:
- I never met that dog. I wouldn’t recognize that dog if he was here barking at me right now.
- As you should know, he is not in any way my favorite type of dog. Who even has this kind of dog?
- This is an obvious hoax.
- Nancy Pelosi/ Nikki Haley shot the dog. Stop telling me they aren’t the same person.
- Joe Biden/ Barack Obama ordered a protesting Secret Service agent to shoot the dog. Then he bragged about it at Thanksgiving dinner, all the while refusing to call it Thanksgiving.
- I have immunity. As Justice Alito said, we can’t be having prosecutors filing random dog-shooting charges.
The disqualification of Kristi Noem says as much about MAGA and Donald Trump as it does about Kristi Noem. Independent voters, if you like what Donald Trump did to reproductive freedom, thank him and support him! If you don’t like it, understand that he was just supporting states’ rights! His strategy is never, ever admit to anything. The January 6 insurrection was tourists visiting the Capitol. People jailed for assaulting police officers are hostages. Denial is everything. After the emergence of the Access Hollywood tape, Trump said “No one has more respect for women.” A man of belief, always consulting Two Corinthians!
Can a con lose its power over time? There is nothing like a court of law to disqualify made up stories. Even now in Manhattan District Court, oath taking witnesses including former aide Hope Hicks are taking apart Trump’s hush money denials. And there is so much more to come. There was no blanket declassification of sensitive documents, no evidence of any rigged election, no standing or justification for Trump certifying false electors.
The law doesn’t catch up with everyone, but it is catching up to Donald Trump. Rather than being a minor case, Alvin Bragg’s hush money charges are a guided tour through a world of sleaze. Trump’s federal court appeal of the E. Jean Carroll defamation award has already been dismissed, and Trump will pay as much as $80 million in damages. Likewise, even though Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron’s $350 million plus interest fine could be reduced, it isn’t going away.
And on come two major federal criminal cases, whose timing depends on the Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling on immunity. The worry is that Supreme Court justices will slow justice’s wheels. That is why Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s line of questioning on the nature of claimed presidential immunity is so significant. Other conservative judges seem to be ignoring their self-declared textualism and appear bent on creating immunity for official duties that our founders never contemplated. Coney Barrett’s questioning of Trump’s lawyer secured the concession that several of Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s charges against Trump were based upon his personal, non-official acts.
This opens the real possibility that rather than simply remanding the entire case to the appellate court for further explication of immunity protection, the Court will permit Federal District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan to proceed with the election fraud trial this late summer or fall. The bulk of the charges and anticipated testimony are focused on actions Trump took outside of his official duties. It is not out of the question that the classified document trial will proceed this year as well.
That’s what Trump opponents are hoping for, anyway. Either way Trump’s days in court are a key part of the narrative of this election. Whatever the Supreme Court does, Stormy Daniels has delivered her testimony. The media continues to downplay the political consequences of Trump’s trials, even though 50% of independent voters and 25% of Republicans tell pollsters that they would find a felony verdict significant in their own decision making. This signals that Trump’s legal troubles still could equal or even surpass abortion rights as a problem for him in November.
These are essential matters and should be spoken of frequently. As we know from experience, there is also the central matter of how we are participating in this election. We are all carrying out an ongoing investigation about how to weigh in, including the best place to send money. Readers know this missive is not shy on this matter, favoring efforts in swing states that organize, help people to register, and gets them to vote. There are a lot of good places to boost, but none better than this one. This time we have just one proposed action step.
| 1) Strengthen Mi Familia Vota | |
 | Two years ago, Mi Familia Vota was selected as Bootstrap Field Campaign of the Year. Hard work at the local level is their hallmark. They work in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Florida, Colorado, California, Texas and now North Carolina, where the Latino population has increased by over a million people in the last two decades. The votes that Mi Familia Vota and other organizers found in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada were instrumental to the 2020 outcome, and will be in 2024. Now that Mi Familia Vota is targeting North Carolina (which Biden lost by 1% in 2020) we can win that state. That outcome and these votes are not to be taken for granted. In previous years, readers of this blog banded together to make timely investments in Mi Familia Vota’s organizing in Arizona and Nevada. Can we come up with $10,000 for the new North Carolina effort in the next week? It would mean a lot. |
If we watch what the courts do, work hard, and keep our dogs close to the house, this could all work out well.
David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington
