The Daily Beast
Within Team Trump’s New Conspiracy to Suppress the Voice Under Biden
Brendan Smialowski / Getty Donald Trump has made it clear that he wants election repression to appear as one of the defining legacies of his post-presidency, because he did not hold on to power during the Republican blitzkrieg during and after the 2020 race. And several GOP lawmakers and some of the former president’s leading allies are standing up to help him, while Democrats are watching in horror and strategizing their counter-offensive strategies. These national and state policy battles quickly developed into one of the most critical partisan battles. of Joe Biden’s young presidency, with both parties considering the outcomes more important for their survival and future dominance at the ballot box. Trump has called on Senate allies over the past few days and asked them about HR 1 – Congress Democrats’ signature elections and voting rights – according to two people familiar with the matter. The so-called For the People Act, passed by the House on March 3, contains a national mandate for the registration of voters on the same day, requirements that provide for automatic voter registration, and to make election day a national holiday. . It is also crammed with other measures, including campaign funding and redistribution reforms, and a requirement for presidents to release their income tax returns – all of which will be an anemone for the former president. “Do you think it has a chance?” the former president privately inquired and asked for updates on how united Republicans are in efforts to “kill” the bill. He has been repeatedly assured by IDP senators and other associates that the legislation currently has very little chance of reaching President Biden’s desk. Democrats agree, but within the party, the momentum is growing to change the Senate’s threshold of 60 votes for legislation to a simple majority, explicitly in the name of the passing of HR 1. It may be a while, but it did not stop a certain peak. Trump allies to map out their plans to strike back if the bill ever becomes law [ACLJ] review HR 1 in light of possible legal challenges, if accepted, ”said Jay Sekulow, a personal lawyer for Trump, who also heads the Conservative Center for Law and Justice, in a recent interview. told The Daily Beast. “We are also evaluating the electoral laws of various states to make sure they comply with the US Constitution. Over the past few days, we have been following HR 1 very closely. I assigned a team of lawyers to look at election issues in general. SCOTUS rejects Trump’s final bid to repeal 2020 election results, while Republicans and Team Trump try to advance a major Democratic initiative on Capitol Hill across the country, Democrats and advocates for voters are overwhelmed by an onslaught of bills at the state level to return voting rights to the 2020 election. According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, more than 250 bills have been filed in 43 states in 43 states since the beginning of the year. ” This year certainly stands out in the large amount of these bills that attack suffrage and access to suffrage. “” Eliza Sweren-Becker, a lawyer for voting rights at the Brennan Center, told The Daily Beast. ‘They are driven by years of lies about voter fraud and electoral integrity coming from organizations like [the] Heritage [Foundation] and others, promoted last year by the former president and his allies … This is a widespread national project to suppress the vote. Republicans have been particularly active in states that Trump has determined since his loss. The GOP-led lawmakers in Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania are leading the way with bills to restrict voting rights. The Republican governors of Arizona and Georgia, Doug Ducey and Brian Kemp, were scolded by Trump for apparently not doing enough to overthrow Biden’s victory in their states; both are under significant pressure from their parties to sign new restrictions in the law. At his new home in Florida, former President Trump has told advisers he wants to help gather support for these kinds of state restrictions from the GOP vote through travel and speeches, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said. Trump has hyperbolically argued that if he and his party did not destroy Democratic ambitions on this issue early in the Biden era, “we will never be able to win an election again”, as he put it to several people close to him. And last week, Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, now a fellow at the Conservative Heritage Foundation, posted an opinion piece for the brainstorm in which he claims that ‘election reform is a national necessity, but according to our Constitution, the election reform is undertaken at the state level. “Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), who won a run-off race in Georgia just two months ago thanks to a record turnout, is now watching from Washington, DC, how GOP leaders in his homeland are pushing for legislation that will almost certainly make it harder for Black . people and other minority groups to vote. “I think the legislation on the oppression of voters is flagrant, shameless, shameless, unconstitutional,” Ossoff told The Daily Beast last Wednesday. “The GOP of Georgia must determine how to appeal to voters, and not become their rights, because they are losing.” These developments at the state level make the consideration of democratic legislation in Congress, such as HR 1, feel even more urgent. However, the sense of concern is growing faster than the space for Democrats to counter on Capitol Hill. They can pass all the bills they want in the House, but getting the 60 votes needed in the Senate is anything but impossible in the equally divided chamber unless they fix the filibuster. within their caucus to get rid of the threshold of 60 votes. But the prospect that voting rights bill will die a slow death on their guard could change that. In the aftermath of the section on HR 1, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) – who did not accept the filibuster during her presidential election in 2020 – said she explicitly supported the repeal of the rule so that the right to vote and the reform of democracy measures could succeed. Her home state colleague, Senator Tina Smith (D-MN), quickly followed suit, citing suffrage as a reason why. House Democrats want the Senate to accept the expanded voter protection, and many believe that the bills at state level are simply not going to be reviewed if senators do not overcome their concerns about getting rid of the filibuster. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), a member of the House Judiciary Committee with some jurisdiction over voting laws, represents a state she argued “basically” nationwide tendencies over voter oppression. “HR 1 is so important,” Scanlon told The Daily Beast. “That may be what sinks the filibuster, because if all this stuff goes through in the individual states and there is no other way to counter it other than a federal law, it might be enough to get people on board.” by bringing the laws forward to restrict the votes, rep Mondaire Jones (D-NY) laughed. “No surprise,” he said in an interview. “You can not involve these people who are actors of bad faith and expect a different result from the status quo,” said Jones, also a member of the judicial panel. He cites Klobuchar’s support for ending the filibuster as a clear sign of momentum for HR 1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, a bill named after the late lawmaker and civil rights legend aimed at protecting restore and strengthen the voters for historically rejected groups. “These are all fundamental things,” he added. “Nothing else comes close to being so important.” Many liberals, especially in the House, are struggling to watch HR 1 as Team Trump and the IDP continue their efforts to restrict access to the vote – measures that are explicitly based on the conspiracy of widespread electoral fraud. “Donald Trump and his Republican incumbents, including Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick in Texas, are already using the big lie that the recent election was hampered and stolen around millions of citizens, especially young, black, and Latino voters,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) told The Daily Beast. ” “Let us stay with clear eyes,” Castro added. “If President Biden and Congress cannot protect our election now, I fear for the future of our democracy.” Despite pressure from the GOP and from within, Biden has taken his first action as president to recognize the issue and run an executive branch, and on Sunday ordered federal agencies to investigate ways to expand access to voters. that the Democrats should step up their efforts to fight back, on Capitol Hill, saying he would not allow any media appearance or an interview without mentioning the need for bills like HR 1, and said House Democrats should put pressure on the Senate “absolutely” persists by continuing to pass more bills, such as the QUESTION. “I think we can do more,” Jones said. “These should not be controversial things. This is only controversial because Republicans cannot win the merits of their policy ideas. Instead, they should take advantage of the release of large sections of American voters. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily membership of the beast: Beast Inside goes deeper into the stories that matter to you. Learn more.