The Trump era is ending true to form

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Some stunning developments over the last 24 hours included the revelation that the Department of Justice is investigating a bribery scheme that allegedly would funnel money to the White House in return for a presidential pardon. News also broke that the president is mulling a pre-emptive pardon for his three eldest children, presumably for crimes he suspects they may have committed. Moving forward, in addition to reforms needed on the electoral front, we should consider codifying enforceable nepotism laws for presidents and reforming the pardon power. No future executive should be allowed to abuse it for financial gain or by issuing blanket pardons, particularly to family members. —Mindy Finn

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** Pardonnez moi?
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A couple nights ago, Fox News host Sean Hannity suggested that Donald Trump should shift his focus from overturning the election to pardoning himself and his kids. Trump seems to have taken the advice to heart, as he has reportedly discussed with advisers whether to grant pre-emptive pardons to his three eldest children, his son-in-law, and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. He even talked with Giuliani about it as recently as last week. ([link removed])
* — Trump is concerned that a Biden Justice Department might seek retribution against him by targeting Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Ivanka's husband, Jared Kushner, a White House senior adviser. ([link removed])
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* — Giuliani's potential criminal exposure is unclear, although he was under investigation last summer by federal prosecutors in Manhattan for his business dealings in Ukraine and his role in ousting the American ambassador there—the plot at the heart of Trump's impeachment. —The New York Times ([link removed])
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* — There's also a bribery scheme. Because it just wouldn't be the Trump Administration without some corruption, the Justice Department is investigating a potential crime related to funneling money to the White House or a Trump-related political committee in exchange for a presidential pardon. Court records unsealed in federal court yesterday show no one has yet been publicly charged with a crime in the scheme. But stay tuned... —CNN ([link removed])

MORE: Roger Stone turns on 'deep state' attorney general —The Daily Beast ([link removed])


** 'It has all gone too far'
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Gabriel Sterling, Georgia's Republican voting system implementation manager, became another unlikely hero of the 2020 presidential election yesterday. Visibly angry at a news conference, he called out President Trump and other Republicans for not condemning threats targeting state election officials and workers. Sterling cited a 20-year-old tech employee in Gwinnett Co., Ga., who received death threats and was made the subject of a noose image disseminated online. He also brought up comments made by Trump attorney Joe diGenova, who said on Monday that former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Chris Krebs should be shot. "It has to stop," Sterling said. "Somebody's going to get killed." —USA Today ([link removed])
* — The end of a beautiful friendship. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican and close ally of Trump, found himself in the president's Twitter crosshairs this week when he signed off on the state's election certification. Trump tweeted that Ducey had "betrayed" the people of Arizona by not backing the president's false assertion that he'd actually won the state. As Ducey signed the certification, his mobile phone rang to the tune of "Hail to the Chief"—the ringtone he uses for Trump. Ducey muted the call. —NBC News ([link removed])
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* — Flynnsanity. Last night, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn—controversially pardoned by Trump last week—retweeted a call for the White House to declare "limited martial law" and re-run the presidential election. The appeal was made by the Ohio nonprofit We The People Convention in a Washington Times advertisement, and cited President Abraham Lincoln's suspension of Habeas Corpus during the Civil War as precedent. Omg. —Newsweek ([link removed])
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* — All about that grift. There's a method to Trump's madness, and as is usually the case with him, it’s about money. Fighting the election result has been lucrative for the president—he has raised more than $170 million since Election Day. The influx of political donations is one reason that Trump and his allies are continuing their legal onslaught and public relations blitz, even as their attempts have repeatedly failed in court, key states have continued to certify wins for President-elect Joe Biden, and elections officials around the country have faced the unhinged wrath of Trump's supporters. —The Washington Post ([link removed])

MORE: Kayleigh McEnany condemns threats against election workers —The Hill ([link removed])


** Mounk: What's next for the GOP?
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"As long as Trump remains in the White House, he is the indisputable leader of the party. Even Republicans who would much rather see a leader in the traditions of Bush, Romney, or McCain at the party's helm stand by Trump (at least publicly). But this does not mean that they will cheer on his bid for a second term when the party holds an open primary. After all, some of the prominent Republicans now backing Trump want to be president themselves someday. They have every incentive to get in Trump's way. ... And the odds that Americans will grow bored of the ever more histrionic antics of the sore loser they just kicked out of office are pretty good." — ([link removed]) Yascha Mounk in ([link removed]) The Atlantic ([link removed])

Yascha Mounk is an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, and a board member at Stand Up Republic. He is the author of "The People vs. Democracy."

MORE: Trump teases 2024 run at White House event —Politico ([link removed])


** There's a new special counsel in town
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Attorney General Bill Barr revealed yesterday that he appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham as a special counsel in October under the same federal regulations that governed former Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the original Russia probe. Durham has been investigating the origins of that investigation since May 2019. Under the regulations, a special counsel can be fired only by the attorney general and for specific reasons such as misconduct, dereliction of duty, or conflict of interest. ([link removed])
* — Durham's investigation, a criminal probe, began very broadly but has since "narrowed considerably" and now "really is focused on the activities of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation within the FBI," Barr said. He said he expects Durham to detail whether any additional prosecutions will be brought and make public a report of the investigation's findings. ([link removed])
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* — Scrutiny of the FBI personnel who worked on the Russia investigation before the May 2017 appointment of Mueller is in keeping with the findings of the Justice Department inspector general, who identified a series of errors and omissions in surveillance applications targeting former Trump campaign aide Carter Page. ([link removed])
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* — The focus on the FBI, rather than the CIA and the intelligence community, suggests that Durham may have moved past some of the more incendiary claims that Trump supporters had hoped would yield allegations of misconduct, or even crimes, at the highest levels of those agencies. —Associated Press ([link removed])

MORE: Ex-Trump campaign aide sues over Russia probe surveillance —Voice of America ([link removed])
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** Ignatius: White supremacy will outlast Trump
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"Violent white-supremacist groups have formed a connected global movement that rose before Donald Trump's presidency and threatens to continue long after he leaves office. ... The movement is far larger and more violent than many people realize. Numbers collected by the University of Maryland's Global Terrorism Database depict a network that has been growing globally since 2010 and has expanded in tandem with Islamist extremism, its twin in using online media to spread hate." —David Ignatius in ([link removed]) The Washington Post ([link removed])

David Ignatius is a columnist covering foreign affairs.

MORE: The violent white supremacy issue —Jigsaw ([link removed])


** Trump threatens military funding
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President Trump is threatening to veto a defense bill unless a policy that shields internet companies from liability for material posted by their users is terminated. On Twitter last night, Trump took aim at Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which protects companies that can host trillions of messages from being sued by anyone who feels wronged by something someone else has posted—whether their complaint is legitimate or not. ([link removed])
* — The defense measure, which has passed for 59 years in a row on a bipartisan basis, guides Pentagon policy and cements decisions about troop levels, new weapons systems, military readiness, military personnel policy, and other goals. ([link removed])
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* — Trump called Section 230 "a serious threat to our National Security & Election Integrity," adding, "Therefore, if the very dangerous & unfair Section 230 is not completely terminated as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), I will be forced to unequivocally VETO the Bill." ([link removed])

* — The veto threat is another potential roadblock for the passage of the annual measure, which is already being held up in Congress by a spat over military bases named for Confederate officers. —Associated Press ([link removed])


** Steele: Accountable government isn't a left-right issue
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"Trustworthy government is not a Republican or a Democratic issue. Regardless of who wins control of the Senate, the first act of the next Congress must be to fix our democracy. This means ensuring the actions of public officials happen in the full light of day before an American citizenry empowered by free, fair, secure, and open elections." —Michael Steele in USA Today ([link removed])

Michael Steele is the former chair of the Republican National Committee and a senior advisor to the Lincoln Project. He was a featured speaker at the Convention on Founding Principles.

"Shame on every Republican who continues to facilitate Trump's lies to the American people about our election results. They're going to be around after January and will insist on being treated as full partners in the Republic that they've failed to stand up for these last four years." —Joyce Vance, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama (@JoyceWhiteVance)

The problem with Trump is not Trump. There will always be Trumps, and the next version of him may not be a ridiculous clown. The purpose of the current GOP in promoting demagogues as their candidates is that they are adept at herding voters into corrals where they can be utilized to vote for GOP candidates who will support the will of their super donors. As Sen. Whitehouse demonstrated at the Amy Coney Barret hearing, the judicial appointments of Federalist Society-approved candidates often produce judges who rule in favor of their donors at the expense of the best interests of the general public.

The GOP uses social issues to recruit valued voters by telling them, for example, that Democrats are all radical communists. By equating them with Fidel Castro, they convinced Cuban-Americans, who actually have memories of a totalitarian government, that Republican politicians are the saviors of democracy, even as they work behind the scenes to disenfranchise minority voters.

Just as Vladimir Putin uses threads of truth as vehicles to provide traction for lies, the Trump GOP has succeeded in equating fact with fiction. In the minds of what is now a cult-like following for Trump, all news is equal, including dishonest social media content. The much-maligned mainstream media outlets do fact-check stories and make corrections when they make mistakes. Anyone with a Twitter account can say anything that they want.

The sophistry of Republican politicians equates Trump's Biden election victory denial with the proper repudiation of Trump's lies with evidence-based facts. He has exhibited submissive behavior to Putin. Paul Manafort was paid to help Putin install Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine and then offered his services pro bono to Trump's 2016 campaign. In return for Russia's support in 2016, Trump did then try to negate Obama's sanctioning of Russia because of its illegal invasion of Ukraine.

The Trump GOP is succeeding at keeping their herd of voters in their corral by feeding them. But what they are being fed are lies. Why? Because Trump has been a very effective vehicle for the GOP. As of now, there is no cost for broadcasting lies. That needs to be changed. We used to get news from newspapers that had editors to ensure fact-based content. Trump's cult mostly doesn't read or watch legitimate news. They just want to be fed. Feeding someone poison is a crime. We need to find a constitutionally valid means to stop phony media outlets from equating food with poison. —Bill M., Pennsylvania
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** The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.
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