A new message from your friends at People For the American Way.
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Friend,

Welcome to our weekly “Trumptastrophe” email series that serves to remind
us of the destructive policies, decisions, and actions we encountered
during the Trump presidency and the threats that he and others in the MAGA
movement still pose – and to keep those moments clear in our memory as we
fight to defeat Republican extremists during the upcoming elections.

This week’s Trumptastrophe focuses on how former President Trump routinely
flouted the law and defied Congress throughout his presidency. And now,
with his MAGA Supreme Court issuing a ruling proclaiming actions performed
as President as essentially above the law, enables him to veer even more
dangerously into uncharted territory if he were to win a second term –
underscoring the need to stop him, as it would put our democracy in deep
peril.

On October 8, 2019, the Trump White House [ [link removed] ]sent a [ [link removed] ]letter to House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and several Democratic committee chairs calling a
congressional impeachment inquiry “an unconstitutional exercise in
political theater” and an effort to “overturn the democratic process.” The
letter, full of Trumpian bluster, delivered a clear message that the
president planned to stonewall the investigation.

“Breathtaking in scope, defiant in tone, the White House’s refusal to
cooperate with the House impeachment inquiry amounts to an unabashed
challenge to America’s longstanding constitutional order,” [ [link removed] ]wrote the
New York Times’ Peter Baker the following day.

While congressional oversight committees had already been conducting
[ [link removed] ]investigations of corruption and wrongdoing by the Trump White House,
the impeachment inquiry was launched after Trump’s attempt to get a
foreign government to help him win an election—not for the first time—and
White House moves to cover it up were revealed to Congress by an
intelligence community whistleblower.

The impeachment inquiry focused on Trump holding up urgently needed
military aid to Ukraine as leverage while he tried to coerce President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy into publicly digging up dirt on Trump’s likely
campaign rival Joe Biden and his son. The House Intelligence Committee
would later summarize Trump’s actions as having “solicited the
interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, to benefit his reelection.”

Democratic congressional leaders [ [link removed] ]pushed back hard on the White House
obstruction.

“They say: they will not cooperate with an impeachment inquiry unless it’s
on their terms. They mean: the president is above the law,” Rep. Adam
Schiff [ [link removed] ]tweeted. “The Constitution says otherwise.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a [ [link removed] ]statement warning that “continued
efforts to hide the truth of the president’s abuse of power from the
American people will be regarded as further evidence of obstruction” and
delivering her own direct message: “Mr. President, you are not above the
law. You will be held accountable.”

Trump’s obstruction of Congress is part of a long pattern of behavior that
suggests he believes he is above the law. MAGA Republicans continue to
enable him, demonstrating that their proclaimed devotion to the rule of
law is little more than political posturing.

When the House Judiciary Committee announced its articles of impeachment
that December, Trump was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of
Congress. The full House voted to impeach Trump on both charges, but
Republicans in the Senate rallied around him and refused to convict him.

Trump would be impeached a second time after inciting the Jan. 6 attack on
Congress as part of his illegal efforts to stay in power after losing the
2020 election; once again, Senate Republicans blocked the effort to hold
him accountable.

Trump’s refusal to cooperate with the congressional inquiry into his
actions is a reminder of how dangerous he would be if he returns to power.
“I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as
president,” he [ [link removed] ]told cheering supporters in 2019.

Since then, Trump’s former aides and political allies have made it clear
in [ [link removed] ]their Project 2025 manifesto that they will encourage his use of a
fringe legal theory to claim virtually dictatorial power over federal
agencies, including the power to turn the FBI and Justice Department into
weapons of revenge against his political opponents and personal enemies.

To make matters worse, the MAGA Justices on the Supreme Court have made it
clear that they’ll have his back. In a stunning ruling this summer, MAGA
Justices created a vast theory of presidential immunity, a signal to Trump
that he won’t be held accountable no matter how many laws he breaks in his
obsessive drive for “retribution” against everyone he believes has wronged
him.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor [ [link removed] ]warned that the MAGA majority’s “[ [link removed] ]utterly
indefensible” decision has effectively made the president “a king above
the law.” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the consequences of the
ruling were “a five-alarm fire that threatens to consume democratic
self-governance and the normal operations of our Government.”

Justice Sotomayor finished the reading of her dissent by saying, “With
fear for our democracy,” I dissent.

Those of us who rightly fear for our democracy if Trump takes power with
the [ [link removed] ]authoritarian J.D. Vance at his side must do more than dissent. We
must do everything we can to help our friends, family, and fellow
Americans understand how much is at stake in this election. Our freedom
and our future is at stake. We have less than a month to defend them!

Please consider volunteering for the Harris/Walz campaign or for a
progressive candidate near you! We’ve compiled a list on our website –
[ [link removed] ]sign up today! >>

Unable to volunteer? A donation goes a long way in powering our efforts to
mobilize voters in battleground states – [ [link removed] ]chip in today! >>

These are just some of the reasons we need YOU in this
fight. So, find your
favorite way to unwind after reading through this week’s recap, and then
make a plan for how you will fight back this week, this month, this
election cycle.

For members who are interested in sharing the weekly Trumptastrophe
series, [ [link removed] ]you can find all previous editions on our website! This post
will be published by Thursday so you can share with your friends and
family and remind them of the importance of ensuring that Trump is
defeated again this November.

[ [link removed] ]If you’d like to opt-out of this series but still continue receiving
our other email content, you can do so here >>

Thanks for all that you do to defeat MAGA Republicans.

– People For the American Way

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Thanks for your support.

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