This threat by GOP continues
View this email in your browser
**NOV 20 Edition**
The Threat to Democracy continues…
In last week’s issue of —which was my most read in the year plus I’ve been writing this—I made the case that we had done part to protect democracy by defeating Donald Trump’s dangerous democracy deniers in key states. As I wrote, it was now time for Merrick Garland to step up and indict Trump.
What happened since ? Garland has failed us—at least if you wanted a prosecution of Trump in a timely manner. He has appointed a Special Counsel who will run the investigations. Now I’m not saying Trump will never be charged. He may or may not be. But few people reading this would disagree that Trump committed crimes and should have already been charged.
Jack Smith — the special counsel who Garland appointed— is a longtime federal prosecutor and seasoned investigator. He is well respected by people like my friend former Federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner. As Garland noted, Smith was two different cases to oversee: 1. The Jan 6 related one and 2. The Mar-a-Lago documents.
Translation: Smith will take his time to do this right. Robert Mueller took nearly two years from his appointment to report. Even if this investigation takes considerably less--say 13 or 14 months—when completed we will be in the heart of the 2024 GOP primaries which begin in January 2024. The question at that point will be whether Garland would seek charges if recommended in the middle of the GOP primaries—especially if Trump is the leading candidate?! What do you think?
The reality is that despite the results of last week’s election, our democracy is still in danger.
The inspiring news after the election—at least for those who are fans of democracy--is that voters in key battleground states rejected every single Trump backed election denier running for secretary of state. It’s not hyperbolic to say that if these candidates had won, they could’ve morphed from election deniers to potentially democracy killers.
For example, Nevada’s GOP Secretary of State nominee Jim Marchant not only claimed the 2020 election was “rigged,” he created the America First Secretary of State Coalition that brought together the other election denying candidates for that office. As Marchant had boasted, their top priority was “to fix the whole country” election systems to ensure “President Trump is going to be president again in 2024.”
Thankfully, also going down to defeat was Arizona’s dangerous GOP Secretary of State nominee Mark Finchem—a member of the Oath Keepers--who was part of Finchem’s merry band of election deniers.
But here’s the alarming part. As States United Action has detailed—an organization that has been closely monitoring the election denying candidates—while eight GOP election deniers lost their races for secretary of state, three won, including one in Indiana who was part of the America First Secretary of State Coalition.
And it gets more concerning from there. Beyond secretary of state positions, The Washington Post has confirmed that more than 170 of the 291 election deniers who ran for Congress or other statewide elections this year were elected. In the House of Representatives alone, at least 150 GOP election deniers have won—which is more than the 139 House Republicans who voted not to certify the results of Biden’s win after the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol.
Election deniers—as States United Action reports-- have won the election for governor in five states and the attorney general races in six states. While these wins were in red states like Alabama, Idaho, Indiana and Kansas, the question is will these election deniers use their position to ensure that their states can’t follow the path of Arizona and Georgia, which were once solidly red but are now trending blue.
For example, Indiana’s “America First” Secretary of State-elect Diego Morales claimed during the campaign that the 2020 election was a “scam,” pointing to Trump’s election lies to support the need for election “reforms.” Indiana is a state that is winnable for Democrats if there’s a fair election, given Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly was in office through 2018 and in 2008 Barack Obama won that state in his run for President. Will Morales work to implement new voting procedures that he believes will hurt Democrats chances—such as reducing early voting as he vowed during the campaign?
The most concerning statewide race still outstanding that could impact future elections is in Arizona. While queen of election denialism Kari Lake lost her bid for governor, the race for Attorney General in the Grand Canyon State that pits Democrat Kristin Mayes versus the most visible election denier still left standing, Abraham Hamadeh, is currently too close to call.
Mayes is leading by just slightly more than 700 votes over Hamadeh who has campaigned on the fact if he were Attorney General in 2020, he would have not “signed off” on Biden’s win because of alleged massive fraud. What did Hamadeh cite as evidence of this so called “fraud”? The recently released movie “2,000 Mules” directed by Trump loving Dinesh D’Souza. While the allegations in the movie were universally debunked by fact checkers, the person who might just be the next Arizona Attorney General believes it provides credible evidence to disregard the will of the people. That’s frightening.
As President Biden told the nation days before the election when raising alarm bells about the MAGA election deniers on the ballot, “What we’re doing now is going to determine whether democracy will long endure.” Well, Americans answered by overwhelmingly defeating Trump’s allies who embraced his election lies in key statewide races.
But as Biden also warned in that speech, “we can’t take democracy for granted any longer.” And that message must stay with us into 2024 and beyond because the threats posed by MAGA to our democracy are still very much alive—especially with Trump running for president.
Elie Mystal- lawyer/journalist Trump believes Merrick Garland on my SiriusXM show declared Garland was too scared to charge him and so far he's been right
Former Washington DC police officer Michael Fanone stated on my SiriusXM show that not only should Donald Trump be charged for his crimes--but that he wishes he could personally arrest Trump and that Trump resists arrest.
Thanks to all who tune into my SiriusXM show that can be heard Monday to Friday on SiriusXM channel 127 from 6 to 9PMET. If you don’t subscribe to SiriusXM here’s a link for a FREE TRIAL.
Do you have a YouTube account? Then I hope you will check out and subscribe to my channel-it’s 100% free. I’m now uploading more video clips from my SiriusXM show—including some full length interviews. To check out my YouTube page click HERE.
Thanks for signing up for my newsletter—and if you enjoy it please forward to friends and let them know I’d love to have them sign up at Dean@Deanofradio.com or send them the sign up link: eepurl.com/hzionv
Below are my Social media accounts. If you are on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube I hope you will follow me. Thanks!
REMEMBER: If you want DEMOCRACY, STAY ACTIVE!!
Copyright (C) *2021*
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe