It's an election year, and spurred on by sitting public officials as well as newcomer candidates who openly embrace election falsehoods, some voters aren't waiting for Congress to pass legislation designed to protect our electoral system. In North Carolina, a group of voters is urging state officials to disqualify Rep. Madison Cawthorn from re-election due to his participation in the Jan. 6 rally that directly preceded the Capitol riot. The challenge cites Sec. 3 of the 14th Amendment, which states: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress… who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress… to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.” Bob Orr, a former North Carolina Supreme Court justice who lives in Cawthorn’s district, helped submit the challenge. “While I understand the argument, ‘let the voters decide,’ the Constitution doesn’t say ‘let the voters decide if they are absolutely and irrevocably disqualified from holding office,’” he says. We were honored to welcome Judge Orr to this week’s RAM Chat. If you missed this enlightening discussion, you can find it archived on the Renew America Movement YouTube. Please check it out! —Miles Taylor, Executive Director, Renew America Movement
Covid-19 hospitalizations reach record high, HHS data shows —CNN
Fauci: Sen. Paul's accusations ‘kindles the crazies,’ incited death threats —CNBC
Justice Dept. creating unit focused on domestic terrorism —ABC News
Supreme Court wrestles with indefinite detention for immigrants —USA Today
No progress seen after Russia-US talks over Ukraine tensions —Associated Press
‘I’m tired of being quiet’
President Biden followed up his fiery Jan. 6 speech with an equally spirited speech today in support of voting legislation currently stalled in the Senate. Speaking from the Atlanta University Center Consortium in Georgia, Biden urged lawmakers to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, which would establish national election standards, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would reinstate a core provision of the Voting Rights Act gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013. And despite being a self-described “institutionalist,” the former longtime senator pushed for abolishing or reforming the filibuster to get the legislation passed. “I believe the threat to democracy is so grave that we must find a way to pass these voting rights bills, debate them, vote, let the majority prevail,” Biden said. “And if that bare minimum is blocked, we have no option but to change the Senate rules.” —CBS News
An uphill climb. Biden may not get his way on this. Squeamishness over filibuster reform on the Democratic side of the aisle isn't limited to Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. Sen. Mark Kelly is not yet committed to a change in the Senate rules, saying yesterday he is still undecided on which proposal is best or on whether weakening the filibuster is a smart move at all. “I’ll take a look at it and evaluate it based on what’s in the best interests of the country,” he said. —Politico
How could they not know? As for the event that helped make the passage of voting legislation so urgent, intelligence reports compiled by the U.S. Capitol Police in the days before the Jan. 6 insurrection envisioned only an improbable or remote risk of violence. While other official assessments (and even casual observations on social media) predicted crowds of thousands of pro-Trump demonstrators could converge in Washington and potentially create a dangerous situation, the Capitol Police documents showed muddled intelligence that left the force unprepared, and officers—and ultimately, lawmakers, staffers, and others—in danger. —Associated Press
“Why isn't that a plausible invitation to do exactly what the rioters ended up doing?” Attorneys for Donald Trump and his associates argued at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta yesterday that Trump was acting within his official rights and had no intention to spark violence when he called on thousands of supporters to “march to the Capitol” and “fight like hell” to disrupt the Senate's certification of the 2020 election. The five-hour hearing concerned various civil suits filed against the ex-president that he is attempting to have dismissed. Mehta was skeptical of his attorneys' arguments. Stay tuned. —ABC News
MORE: Congress should refer Trump for prosecution over Jan. 6, say 41% of Americans in new poll —Newsweek
Craig: Mend the cracks before the next storm
“The bad news is that the willingness to assist a political crime of this magnitude, already uncomfortably high in 2020, will probably be higher still in 2024. And precisely because there will be fewer Republican officeholders and legislators holding the line against it, the ones who do will likely face an even more intense campaign of intimidation and harassment than they did in 2020.” —Andy Craig in The Unpopulist
Andy Craig is a staff writer at the Cato Institute and was a campaign staffer for former Gov. Gary Johnson.
Vance: The best option? Reform
“John Adams famously said, ‘there is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.’ Adams and the other founders would have preferred a future without parties, but we now know that is unrealistic. Perhaps what our system needs is more parties and more choices. Maybe the current sickness of our party system will finally move us towards that needed realignment.” —Chris Vance from Niskanen Center
Chris Vance is the former chair of the Washington State Republican Party, an adjunct faculty member in the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, and a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center.
Focus on the Republican Party
Rep. Tom Rice reaffirmed his post-Jan. 6 criticisms of Donald Trump. Sen. Lisa Murkowski mocked his “very bizarre” endorsement in the Alaska governor’s race. The indomitable Rep. Liz Cheney calls out her state party as “radical.” Is something good happening in the GOP? Let's hope so. More evidence came yesterday, when Sen. Mitt Romney defended fellow Republican Sen. Mike Rounds for accurately stating that the 2020 election was fair and that Trump did not win. “Mike Rounds speaks truth knowing that our Republic depends upon it. Republicans like Govs Hutchinson, Baker & Hogan; Sens McConnell, Thune & Johnson; Bush & Cheney; plus 60+ courts and even the right-leaning Wall Street Journal editorial page agree: Joe Biden won the election,” Romney tweeted. Indeed. Now keep going. —Yahoo! News
MORE: GOP staffer says Mo Brooks was 'cheering' as rioters stormed Capitol —Insider
Rubin: The Fulton County threat
“No case is a slam dunk, but given the overwhelming evidence and the availability of so many legal theories, Fulton Co., Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis may well find a basis for prosecution. It will then be up to her judgment whether she has a case she can prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Just as the U.S. attorney general has sworn to enforce the laws of the United States, she has taken an oath to enforce Georgia’s laws—and that oath does not have a ‘but it will set off a political firestorm’ exception. As remarkable as it may be, a single state district attorney may have the best shot to hold Trump criminally liable and deter future failed candidates from trying to overthrow an election again.” —The Washington Post
Jennifer Rubin is an attorney and political opinion columnist at The Washington Post.
MORE: Georgia prosecutor says decision on Trump election interference case likely coming soon —The Hill
Steele & Taylor: We need the spirit of our founders
“U.S. leaders and ordinary Americans must consider serious state-by-state reforms to make our system more competitive, from eliminating the scourge of partisan gerrymandering to making it easier for independent and third-party candidates to get on the ballot, not to mention making voting itself easier and more secure. While these reforms will not happen overnight, such a generational undertaking is necessary if we want America to reach its 300th birthday.” —Michael Steele & Miles Taylor on MSNBC
Michael Steele is an adviser to the Renew America Movement, a former chair of the Republican National Committee, and the former lieutenant governor of Maryland. Miles Taylor is the co-founder and executive director of the Renew America Movement and a former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security.
I read that some folks at Fox News and others were upset that Ashli Babbitt was not mentioned in various speeches made at the commemoration of Jan. 6. For those who may not recall or even know, Ms. Babbitt was one of many who stormed the Capitol as an insurrectionist, was aligned with traitors in the GOP, and objected to our democracy and our Constitution. She was, sadly, shot and killed. Loss of life is not a joke.
But a hero? Objecting to the rules and laws of our nation, attacking the Capitol to turn over our form of government while effectively spitting on our Constitution does not make one a hero.
Following the logic (lack of, actually) and rationale (they can flip on a dime and justify anything) of the supporters of the insurrection, should Osama bin Laden and the hijackers on 9/11 be called heroes as well? I guess for traitors they would be. They had the same goals, just different methods. One plane on 9/11, but for the heroics of the people on board, was headed to the Capitol. They wanted to kill government officials, kill folks in law enforcement, and even kill civilians as necessary to achieve their goals of ending our democracy, our way of life. Sound familiar?
Think about it. —Bill T., Arizona