Daily Archives: April 2, 2024

Prichard has said he didnt do anything wrong and thought he had completed his probation before voting in Georgia. But that didnt convince the judge in the case.

The court does not find the respondents explanations credible or convincing, Boggs wrote in her 25-page decision. At the very least, even if the court accepts he did not know about his felony sentences, the record before this court demonstrates that he should have known.

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Pritchard declined to comment Wednesday on the judges ruling.

Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called for Pritchard to resign immediately or be removed from his position in the Georgia Republican Party.

Our state party should be the leading voice on securing our elections. ... It is unacceptable for our party to have a man in leadership who has repeatedly committed voter fraud himself, Greene said Thursday.

Pritchard testified in February that he believed his felony sentence ended in 1999, but attorneys for the state showed evidence that his probation had been repeatedly revoked and extended until 2011. Georgia law prohibits felons from voting until theyve completed their sentences.

Pritchard registered to vote in Georgia in 2008 and cast ballots in nine elections before his probation was over, according to election records presented in court.

I felt it ended, Pritchard said after the court hearing. Do you think the first time I voted I said, Oh, I got away with it. Lets do it eight more times?

Pritchard pleaded guilty in 1996 to forgery and theft charges involving $38,000 worth of checks that he deposited while working on a construction job, according to court records from Alleghany County, Pennsylvania.

Pritchard acknowledged that he endorsed and deposited a check made out with someone elses name but said he didnt profit and the construction companies involved were repaid.

His probation initially lasted three years, but Pennsylvania judges repeatedly extended it until 2011 on allegations Pritchard failed to pay restitution, court records showed. Pritchard maintained that he didnt owe money and he thought that case was resolved.

Attorneys for the state said in court that Pritchard knew he was still serving his sentence because records show he appeared in Pennsylvania court for probation revocation hearings in 1999, 2002 and 2004. Pritchard denied that he was present in court in 2002 or 2004.

When he came to Georgia, he was aware that he was registering to vote illegally. He knew when he went in all nine times and signed that voter certificate, he was voting illegally, Senior Assistant Attorney General Russell Willard said during closing arguments in February.

The judge fined Pritchard $500 for each of the nine times he voted illegally, plus another $500 for his illegal voter registration. Pritchard can appeal the decision.

Before becoming a Republican Party official, Pritchard ran unsuccessfully last year for the state House seat that Speaker David Ralston held before he died in 2022.

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Georgia judge rules that Republican Brian K. Pritchard voted illegally - The Atlanta Journal Constitution

The Idaho House of Representatives voted 53-15 on Friday to pass a new immigration bill that includes lengthy passages that were copied and pasted word-for-word from a controversial Texas law that is tied up in legal challenges.

Rep. Jaron Crane, R-Nampa, sponsored House Bill 753, which was fast-tracked in the Idaho House of Representatives after it was introduced on Wednesday.

The bill creates a new crime of illegal entry into the state, which makes it a crime for non U.S. citizens to enter Idaho directly from a foreign country outside of an official port of entry. The bill also allows local law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of individuals and allows for a magistrate judge to order people who violate the bill to return to their country of origin.

There are exceptions in the bill for people who have a legal presence in the U.S. such as through a work visa, people who have been granted asylum and for people who were granted benefits under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program between 2012 and 2021.

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Crane described the bill as a law-and-order bill, designed to enhance the powers of local law enforcement officers and magistrate judges to allow them to enforce immigration laws that have previously been the purview of the federal government.

This is not targeting any demographic; this is targeting people that are here illegally, Crane said in his floor debate Friday. If you are here legally you have nothing to worry about.

But several legislators pointed out that Texas Senate Bill 4, which Idahos new bill is modeled after, has been blocked from taking effect as legal challenges around the Texas law play out.

The first point I would make is that Idaho as a state does not have the authority to do this; this is the job of the federal government, House Assistant Minority Leader Lauren Necochea, D-Boise, said in her floor debate Friday.

Necochea warned legislators that if the Idaho Legislature passes the bill the state will need to expend time and money to defend the inevitable legal challenges that will be brought against the bill.

Crane said any money for defending lawsuits would come from the states constitutional defense fund. Rep. Greg Lanting, R-Twin Falls, then asked Crane for an estimate of how much it would cost to defend the bill in court.

I believe it to be constitutionally sound, and I think we are going to be just fine so zero, Crane told Lanting.

Often, it takes a week or more for a bill to be introduced, scheduled for a full public hearing and then sent back to the floor and taken up for a vote. However, Crane and other Republican legislators worked together to finish that entire process in just over 48 hours.

For several legislators, the apparent rush to advance Cranes immigration bill in what was supposed to be the final week of the 2024 legislative session raised concerns.

I appreciate a lot of whats gone into this bill, and I agree with a lot of things in the bill, Rep. Douglas Pickett, R-Oakley, said in his floor debate. But I am concerned about how the bill has come so quickly, and I think some of what has happened today is evidence of that. The ability to vet these things out in committee fully, to have their time is also very important, but also, and in particular, to involve our friends in the ag community and get as much ownership and buy-in as possible in any of these measures that we take up.

During a public hearing the day before on Thursday, the Idaho Dairymens Association, PODER of Idaho, ACLU of Idaho and American Immigration Lawyers Association all came out against the bill, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. Meanwhile, Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris and a representative of Idaho Tough on Crime came out in support of the bill.

Five Republicans Pickett and Reps. David Cannon, R-Blackfoot; Clay Handy, R-Burley; Steve Miller, R-Fairfield; and Jack Nelsen, R-Jerome joined all of the Democrats who were present in voting against the bill.

House Bill 753 heads next to the Idaho Senate for consideration.

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Republican-controlled Idaho House passes Texas-style immigration bill Idaho Capital Sun - Idaho Capital Sun

A Republican-appointed judge denounced Donald Trumps social media attacks against the judge presiding over the former presidents hush money trial in Manhattan and his daughter, calling them assaults on the rule of law that could lead to violence and tyranny.

When judges are threatened, and particularly when their family is threatened, its something thats wrong and should not happen, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, told CNNs Kaitlan Collins in a live interview Thursday. He added, It is very troubling because I think it is an attack on the rule of law.

The unusual media statement by a sitting federal judge came after Trump blasted New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan and his daughter, Loren Merchan, criticizing her affiliation with a digital marketing company that works with Democratic candidates and erroneously attributing to her a social media post showing Trump behind bars.

Walton, who was appointed by presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush to courts in Washington in 1981 and 1991, said any reasonable, thinking person would appreciate the impact of Trumps rhetoric on some followers, intentional or not. The judge recalled how a disgruntled litigant killed the son and wounded the husband of New Jersey federal Judge Esther Salas at her home in a 2020 shooting.

Since late 2020, as Trump began escalating his attacks on the judiciary, serious investigated threats against federal judges have more than doubled, from 224 in 2021 to 457 in 2023, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, as first reported by Reuters. Federal judges in Washington say at least half of trial judges handling cases arising from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol have received a surge in threats and harassment, including death threats to their homes, with Trumps election obstruction trial judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, placed under 24-hour protection.

The rule of law can only be maintained if we have independent judicial officers who are able to do their job and ensure that the laws are in fact enforced and that the laws are applied equally to everybody who appears in our courthouse, Walton told CNN. He was prompted to speak out of concern for the future of our country and the future of democracy in our country, Walton said, because if we dont have a viable court system thats able to function efficiently, then we have tyranny.

Waltons remarks came as several federal judges in Washington appointed by Republican presidents have spoken with increasing urgency about Trumps disregard for historical facts and alarmed at his increasingly graphic and at times violent description of defendants prosecuted in the Jan. 6 riot as political prisoners and hostages who did nothing wrong.

In my 37 years on the bench, I cannot recall a time when such meritless justifications of criminal activity have gone mainstream, U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth said in a January sentencing. I have been dismayed to see distortions and outright falsehoods seep into the public consciousness.

U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan similarly told a group of Georgetown Law School students in January that false claims that riot defendants were acting like tourists or patriots were destructive rewriting of reality. Theres a danger that is embedded now in our communities across the country, Hogan said.

And we have to wonder where this is going to end up if thats part of our history, this fraudulent story by Trump that the 2020 election was stolen. Hogan spoke shortly after his retirement after completing 40 years on the bench and sentencing 26 Jan. 6 riot defendants.

Hogan and Lamberth were both appointed by Reagan, and both served as chief judges of the U.S. District Court in Washington, where judges have presided over more than 1,350 prosecutions for the riot that resulted after Trump urged his supporters to march to the Capitol where Congress was certifying the results of the 2020 election.

Five people died in the Jan. 6 attack or in the immediate aftermath, as pro-Trump rioters injured more than 100 police officers, ransacked Capitol offices, and forced lawmakers to evacuate. About 486 defendants have been charged with assaulting or impeding officers or employees, including 127 charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury.

Trump has claimed he is a victim of political persecution by the Biden administration as the two men face a 2024 rematch of the 2020 election, and continues to maintain he won the last time, despite repudiation of his arguments by nearly 40 courts, his own White House counsel, attorney general and members of his campaign. He faces a $450 million civil fraud verdict against his businesses, and four separate criminal cases charging him with paying hush money to an adult film actress, mishandling classified documents, and interfering with the 2020 election results.

Several of the 23 D.C. federal judges who have sentenced Jan. 6 defendants have noted Trumps role in events, including judges appointed by presidents of both parties. But the recent statements by appointees of Trumps GOP predecessors is notable in breaking with partisan affiliation. After one Jan. 6 trial last year, Walton called Trump a charlatan who led followers into believing unfounded allegations and falsehoods, and who doesnt in my view really care about democracy but only about power. And as a result of that, its tearing this country apart.

All three judges have warned of a significant increase in the number of threats they and other judges have faced since the Capitol attack, which Walton called very, very very concerning.

Ive been a judge for over 40 years. And, this is a new phenomenon. Im not saying that it didnt happen before, but it was very rare that I would ever receive any type of a threat, Walton said. And unfortunately, that is no longer, the case.

Hogan told law students threats had increased, no question about it, I think encouraged by the prior president, unfortunately.

I would say half our judges have been seriously threatened regarding their handling of cases related to Trump, Hogan said in a Jan. 22 law school talk. It makes you nervous.

A Texas woman was charged with threatening to kill Chutkan shortly after she was assigned Trumps case last August, leaving a voice-mail message in the judges chambers calling Chutkan a racial slur and saying, If Trump doesnt get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly, b----, according to charging papers.

In January, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron received a bomb threat to his Long Island home, hours before closing arguments were set to begin in Trumps civil fraud case over which he was presiding.

Authorities are increasing security at the federal courthouse in Washington at a time when Attorney General Merrick Garland has said that law enforcement has seen a deeply disturbing spike in threats and attacks on public officials, including judges and prosecutors in Trumps cases, even as the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee has predicted bedlam in the country if his criminal cases damage his candidacy.

Lamberth has said he could not deny the facts after presiding over dozens of cases, listening to hundreds of hours of testimony, and receiving thousands of pages of briefing.

The rioters interfered with a necessary step in the constitutional process, disrupted the lawful transfer of power and thus jeopardized the American constitutional order. Although the rioters failed in their ultimate goal, their actions nonetheless resulted in the deaths of multiple people, injury to over 140 members of law enforcement and lasting trauma for our entire nation, Lamberth said in January. This was not patriotism; it was the antithesis of patriotism.

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Judges raise alarm over Trumps attacks - The Washington Post

WASHINGTON (AP) The video shared by former PresidentDonald Trumpfeatures horror movie music and footage of migrants purportedly entering the U.S. from countries including Cameroon, Afghanistan and China. Shots of men with tattoos and videos of violent crime are set against close-ups of people waving and wrapping themselves in American flags.

Theyre coming by the thousands, Trump says in the video, posted on his social media site. We will secure our borders. And we will restore sovereignty.

In his speeches and online posts, Trump has ramped up anti-immigrant rhetoric as he seeks the White House a third time, casting migrants as dangerous criminals poisoning the blood of America. Hitting the nations deepest fault lines of race and national identity, his messagingoften relies on falsehoods about migration. But it resonates with many of his core supporters going back a decade, to when build the wall chants began to ring out at his rallies.

WATCH: Trump under fire again for violent language and dehumanizing anti-immigrant rhetoric

President Joe Biden and his allies discuss the border very differently. The Democrat portrays the situation as a policy dispute that Congress can fix and hits Republicans in Washington for backing away from aborder security dealafter facing criticism from Trump.

But in a potentially worrying sign for Biden, Trumps message appears to be resonating with key elements of the Democratic coalition that Biden will need to win over this November.

Roughly two-thirds of Americans now disapprove of how Biden is handling border security, including about 4 in 10 Democrats, 55 percent of Black adults and 73 percent of Hispanic adults, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in March.

Arecent Pew Research Center poll found that 45 percent of Americans described the situation as a crisis, while another 32 percent said it was a major problem.

Vetress Boyce, a Chicago-based racial justice activist, was among those who expressed frustration with Bidens immigration policies and the citys approach as it tries to shelter newly arriving migrants. She argued Democrats should be focusing on economic investment in Black communities, not newcomers.

Theyre sending us people who are starving, the same way Blacks are starving in this country. Theyre sending us people who want to escape the conditions and come here for a better lifestyle when the ones here are suffering and have been suffering for over 100 years, Boyce said. That recipe is a mixture for disaster. Its a disaster just waiting to happen.

WATCH: Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on the response to Trumps escalating violent rhetoric

Gracie Martinez is a 52-year-old Hispanic small business owner from Eagle Pass, Texas, the border town that Trump visited in February when he and Biden made same-daytrips to the state. Martinez said she once voted for former President Barack Obama and is still a Democrat, but now backs Trump mainly because of the border.

Its horrible, she said. Its tons and tons of people and theyre giving them medical and money, phones, she said, complaining those who went through the legal immigration system are treated worse.

Priscilla Hesles, 55, a teacher who lives in Eagle Pass, Texas, described the current situation as almost an overtaking that had changed the town.

We dont know where theyre hiding. We dont know where theyve infiltrated into and where are they going to come out of, said Hesles, who said she used to take an evening walk to a local church, but stopped after she was shaken by an encounter with a group of men she alleged were migrants.

Immigration will almost certainly be one of the central issues in Novembers election, with both sides spending the next six months trying to paint the other as wrong on border security.

The presidents reelection campaign recently launched a $30 million ad campaign targeting Latino audiences in key swing states that includes a digital ad in English and Spanish highlighting Trumps past description of Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists.

WATCH: How media organizations are facing the task of covering Trumps anti-democratic rhetoric

The White House has also mulled a series of executive actions that could drastically tighten immigration restrictions, effectively going around Congress after it failed to pass the bipartisan deal Biden endorsed.

Trump is a fraud who is only out for himself, said Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz. We will make sure voters know that this November.

Trump will campaign Tuesday in Wisconsin and Michigan this week, where he is expected to again tear into Biden on immigration. His campaign said his event in the western Michigan city of Grand Rapids will focus on what it alleged was Bidens Border Bloodbath.

The former president calls recentrecord-high arrestsfor southwest border crossings an invasion orchestrated by Democrats to transform Americas very makeup. Trump accuses Biden of purposely allowing criminals and potential terrorists to enter the country unchecked,going so far as to claim the president isengaged in a conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America.

He also casts migrants many of them women and children escaping poverty and violence as poisoning the blood of America with drugs and disease and claimed some are not people. Experts who study extremism warn against using dehumanizing language in describing migrants.

There is no evidence that foreign governments are emptying their jails or mental asylums as Trump says. And while conservative news coverage has been dominated by severalhigh-profile and heinous crimes allegedly committed by people in the country illegally,the latest FBI statistics show overall violent crime in the U.S.dropped again last year, continuing a downward trend after a pandemic-era spike.

AP-NORC POLL: More Americans are worried about legal immigration than they were a few years ago

Studies have also foundthat people living in the country illegally are far less likely than native-born Americans to have been arrested for violent, drug and property crimes.

Certainly the last several months have demonstrated a clear shift in political support, said Krish OMara Vignarajah, president and CEO of the immigrant resettlement group Global Refuge and a former Obama administration and State Department official.

I think that relates to the rhetoric of the past several years, she said, and just this dynamic of being outmatched by a loud, extreme of xenophobic rhetoric that hasnt been countered with reality and the facts on the ground.

Part of what has made the border such a salient issue is that its impact is being felt far from the border.

Trump allies, most notably Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have used state-funded buses to send more than 100,000 migrants to Democratic-led cities like New York, Denver and Chicago, where Democrats will hold this summers convention. While the program was initially dismissed as a publicity stunt, the influx has strained city budgets and left local leaders scrambling to provide emergency housing and medical care for new groups of migrants.

Local news coverage, meanwhile, has often been negative. Viewers have seen migrants blamed for everything from a string of gang-related New Jersey robberies to burglary rings targeting retail stores in suburban Philadelphia to measles cases in parts of Arizona and Illinois.

Abbott has deployed the Texas National Guard to the border, placed concertina wire along parts of the Rio Grande in defiance of U.S. Supreme Court orders, and has argued his state should be able to enforce its own immigration laws.

WATCH: Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on Biden vs. Trump on immigration

Some far-right internet sites have begun pointing to Abbotts actions as the first salvo in a coming civil war. And Russia has also helpedspread and amplifymisleading and incendiary content about U.S. immigration and border security as part of its broader efforts to polarize Americans. A recent analysis by the firm Logically, which tracks Russian disinformation, found online influencers and social media accounts linked to the Kremlin have seized on the idea of a new civil war and efforts by states like Texas to secede from the union.

Amy Cooter, who directs research at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, worries the current wave of civil war talk will only increase as the election nears. So far, it has generally been limited to far-right message boards. But immigration is enough of a concern generally that its political potency is intensified, Cooter said.

Non-extremist Americans are worried about this, too, she said. Its about culture and perceptions about who is an American.

In the meantime, there are people like Rudy Menchaca, an Eagle Pass bar owner who also works for a company that imports Corona beer from Mexico and blamed the problems at the border for hurting business.

Menchaca is the kind of Hispanic voter Biden is counting on to back his reelection bid. The 27-year-old said he was never a fan of Trumps rhetoric and how he portrayed Hispanics and Mexicans. Were not all like that, he said.

But he also said he was warming to the idea of backing the former president because of the reality on the ground.

I need those soldiers to be around if I have my business, Menchaca said of Texas forces dispatched to the border. The bad ones that come in could break in.

Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers David Klepper in Washington and Matt Brown in Chicago contributed to this report.

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Why Trump's alarmist message on immigration may be resonating beyond his base - PBS NewsHour

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) bashed the Biden administration for its treatment of Easter, saying Democrats are sexualizing everything.

In an appearance on Fox Business, Tenney denounced the Biden administrations decision to acknowledge Easter Sunday as Transgender Visibility Day, along with the inclusion of 145 days of LGBT recognition. The New York Republican said that effort constituted a war on Christianity and that she is worried about what Democrats are doing.

Look, Ive heard about this all day yesterday, and I have been throughout the district today, and everybodys talking about it, she said, referring to President Joe Bidens declaration that Easter Sunday was Transgender Visibility Day. It may have not surfaced in polls, but people are talking about it, and people are appalled with this.

This is a sacred day, especially celebrated by Christians and respected by all religions, she continued. Thats the point of our country is to respect religious differences. But this is what worries me. This sexualization of everything on the Left and not focusing on the things that are important. Getting to work being prosperous, caring for families, and shouldnt it be about families? You know? And everything from the Left is against families.

Look, I have all the respect in the world for people who are transgender, but do they need 145 days of LGBT recognition? We dont even recognize our veterans that many days a year, Tenney added.

The day has been recognized since 2009 on March 31 each year. It does not normally fall on the same day as Easter, but this year, it did.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Bidens proclamation that Sunday would be Transgender Visibility Day was met with outcry from Republicans, who saw it as a slight against the holy Christian holiday.

Biden later denied he had declared Easter Sunday as Transgender Visibility Day despite his proclamation.

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House Republican condemns Democrats sexualization of everything after Easter controversy - Washington Examiner

By Julie Johansen

The Emery County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner and Convention was very well attended, with over 250 citizens, candidates and guests in attendance.

The event was hosted at the Emery County Recreation Center on Thursday, March 28. The dinner was catered by Gettin Your Smoke On, with tables filling the rec center. Candidates were available at 5 p.m. and the dinner began at 6 p.m.The guest speaker was former State House Chairman Greg Hughes. Following Hughes remarks, County Republican Party Chair Jesse Sloan led everyone in the pledge and anthem. Sloan and Vice Chair Doug Stilson addressed the audience. County Party Treasurer Russell Larsen gave a financial report and Secretary Tammi Gilson read the minutes for approval. The agenda was then adopted.

The three county commission candidates were then introduced by the chair and each was given five minutes speaking time. Travis Bacon stated that he hoped to make a positive change in county government. He outlined three areas of his major concern; economic development, tax mitigation and watching county budgets. Dennis Worwood was next to address the crowd, explaining he had the experience and time to fill the position of county commissioner. David Sebring spoke of the business development he has accomplished and how he hoped to lessen the tax burden of the county.

Once the county delegates completed voting and votes were counted, Dennis Worwood received 61% of the votes and will be placed on the ballot and receive some funding from the local Republican Party.

Two county offices were nominated by acclamation. They were Kris Bell, County Assessor, and Josie Stilson as County Treasurer/Recorder. These two women spoke briefly to the audience, introducing themselves and explaining their responsibilities in their offices.

United States Senate Candidates addressed the audience next. Candidates Jason Watson, Brad Wilson and county resident Chandler Tanner were present at the convention and spoke to the group. Candidate John Curtis stopped by for introductions earlier but, as announced, he had to leave early as he had obligations at the Wayne County Convention.

Congressional District #3 filling Curtis position were next to speak. JR Bird, Zac Wilson, Mike Kennedy, Case Lawrence, Chris Herod and John Dougall came to the podium and presented their platforms and desire for support in the election. Next, it was time for those running for the Governorship of Utah to speak. Governor Spencer Cox was first, followed by Carson Jorgensen and Phil Lyman. Governor Cox hoped to have a second term in office and reminded all of the tax cuts from his administration, state jobs moved to rural Utah and his desire to promote sanctity of life.

Jorgensen stated faith, family, friendships and work ethics top his concerns. Lyman from San Juan County desires to have local control of public lands.

The evening ended with Attorney General and State Auditor candidates being introduced and speaking. Tom Hansen for House District #67 and Dough Heaton for House District #69 also spoke.

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Emery County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner and Convention Hosts Large Crowd and a Full Slate of Candidates - ETV News

This isnt the first time the Court has left Americans waiting and worse off. In Allen v. Milligan, decided in 2023, the Court affirmed that Alabamas congressional map was an illegal racial gerrymanderbut only after it issued an unsigned order in February 2022 that allowed the map to be used in that years midterm elections. Again, there is no reason for the Court to bide its time like that other than to empower Republican lawmakers by excluding Black people from the political process. Republicans went on to win a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, at least in part thanks to the Courts strategic inaction.

The most transparent and disturbing example of the Courts deliberately glacial pace may be its embrace of former president Donald Trumps legal strategy of delay, delay, delay. Trump has been trying to stall various legal proceedings in a bid to avoid prosecution for his litany of crimes, including by making the claim that presidents enjoy categorical immunity from criminal prosecution. Not only did the Court agree to hear his claim, it scheduled oral argument for the very last day of its term. Even if the Court eventually decides that, no, presidents cant have a free pass for crime, there may not be enough time before the 2024 election for Trump to be prosecuted. This is by design: Shielding Trump from legal liability increases the possibility of a second Trump presidency, with even more opportunities for Republican activists to take the bench and reshape the country by judicial fiat.

Theres an old saying, often attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that justice delayed is justice denied. The Supreme Courts conservatives know it to be true. What the Court doesand whether and when it chooses to do anything at allcan significantly impact the legal and political landscape. And its actions and inaction alike are in service of the Republican Party.

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The Republican Justices Are Slow-Walking a Key South Carolina Redistricting Case - Balls & Strikes

Donald Trump's Easter Sunday message to his followers on Truth Social was a simple command: "Never forget."

The former president fumed at retiring House Republicans, specifically sharing a report of Wisconsin Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher's recent decision to not seek another term despite pleas from GOP leadership in the House. Gallagher announced that he will instead step down on April 19, leaving the seat vacant until 2025. Republicans currently only have a four-seat majority in the House.

"Never forget our cowards and weaklings!" Trump wrote Sunday morning. "Such a disgrace."

While trapped in his office during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by Trump's MAGA followers, Gallagher made a direct appeal to Republican members of Congress who objected to certifying the 2020 presidential election.

The objectors, over the last two days, have told me there is no problem having a debate: We know were not going to succeed. So were just going to object. Were going to have a debate, Gallagher said in the video, adding that other Republicans claimed, There will be no cost to this effort.

He continued:This is the cost of countenancing an effort by Congress to overturn the election and telling thousands of people that there is a legitimate shot of overturning the election today, even though you know that is not true.

Gallagher begged his colleagues to call it off. Now the congressman, who was first elected in 2016, is calling it quits as Republicans prepare to nominate Donald Trump, who on Sunday seemingly compared himself to Jesus Christ, for president for a third time.

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"Never forget": Trump unloads on Republican "cowards and weaklings" in Easter Sunday meltdown - Salon

Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election because he was broadly unpopular and running against someone who (at the time) wasnt. He lost handily, trailing Joe Biden by more than 7 million votes out of nearly 160 million cast.

Only by the electoral college was the race considered particularly close; Bidens victory came down to 43,000 votes in three states. But that was enough for Trump to launch a fervent, unrelenting effort to try to once again wriggle his way into the White House by claiming that the election had been stolen from him.

In the 1,200-plus days since the election ended, no evidence has emerged of widespread or even significant electoral fraud. Instead, numerous theories elevated or embraced by Trump have been debunked. No election in American history has been scrutinized as robustly and ceaselessly as the 2020 contest. Nothing to suggest that the results were invalid or artificial has emerged.

But that observation comes from the real world, in which arguments are tested and abandoned when disproved. Donald Trump operates in Trumpworld, where reality is dependent on the views and positions of Donald Trump. And in Trumpworld, the idea that the 2020 election was riddled with fraud is accepted as fact, even though it isnt.

In Washington Post-ABC News polling conducted in September, half of Republicans said that they believed there exists solid evidence of voter fraud, which there doesn't.

New reporting from The Washington Posts Josh Dawsey suggests that fealty to this Trumpworld idea is becoming a litmus test for people seeking (or hoping to retain) jobs with the Republican Party. The effective ouster of Ronna McDaniel as the partys chair and Trumps confirmation as the GOP presidential nominee meant an overhaul of the party itself. Among the changes: quizzing at least some potential employees on their views of the 2020 election.

In recent days, Trump advisers have quizzed multiple employees who had worked in key 2024 states about their views on the last presidential election, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private interviews and discussions. The interviews have been conducted mostly virtually, as the prospective future employees are based in key swing states.

Was the 2020 election stolen? one prospective employee recalled being asked in a room with two top Trump advisers.

A Republican/Trump spokeswoman insisted that the questions were simply aimed at seeking out experienced staff with meaningful views on how elections are won and lost and real experience-based opinions about what happens in the trenches. Its not hard to peel away the veneer here: The party wants their employees to espouse the view and opinion that 2020 was ripped away from Donald Trump.

Theres an obvious immediate utility here. The traditional Republican establishment has struggled for years to accommodate Trump and Trumpism, to exist as respected, credible actors in national politics and political discussions while not alienating the MAGA base. Thats where the the election was rigged narrative came from; it was a way of telling Trumps base that the 2020 results were dubious without having to muss ones hair with a check-the-ballots-for-bamboo tinfoil hat.

By checking for fealty to the false stolen narrative at the outset, Trumps allies arent simply weeding out people who disagree, theyre weeding out people who wont acquiesce to the Trumpian approach to reality. Theyre not just getting rid of people who wont go along on this one subject; theyre getting rid of people who wont go along in general.

Soon after Trump took office in 2017, Xavier Marquez, an expert on authoritarianism, wrote an essay for The Post in which he explained the utility of lies like the one about election fraud to authoritarian leaders.

[L]ies can help ensure the loyalty of subordinates who are forced to repeat them, Marquez wrote, more than three years before the 2020 contest. These kinds of lies need not be credible at all to people outside the regime. The more incredible a lie is, the more it can credibly signal loyalty to a political leader in conditions of low trust. When a subordinate repeats an obviously ridiculous claim he or she is degraded, and bound more closely to the leader.

Trumps takeover of the Republican Party is the first time since he announced his 2024 candidacy that he assumed control of an existing institution. Upon doing so, he and his allies introduced a screening process that included this fealty test. Which is very much what hes proposed doing with the federal bureaucracy should he win reelection.

Many of those looking to work for the GOP will have few qualms about acceding to Trumps version of reality, certainly. Those willing to become party functionaries at this point understand what theyre signing up for. But existing party employees will also probably be disinclined to deviate from any adjustments to their shared worldview. Research published last year found that those who identified their bosses as authoritarian were less likely to correctly spot fake news than people with bosses who encouraged autonomy. More importantly, those with authoritarian bosses were also much less likely to challenge their bosses about false information.

George Orwells famous quote from 1984 comes to mind: The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.

In this case, though, the party isnt telling anyone to reject the evidence. Not really. Theres a reason that half of Republicans think theres solid evidence that the election was riddled with fraud: They arent being presented with the reality that it wasnt. Fox News and right-wing social media arent assiduously policing misinformation about what happened in 2020 for the simple reason that theres no utility for them in doing so.

Instead, the partys just checking to make sure that your eyes and ears didnt somehow come across the evidence that theyd rather have you ignore.

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Analysis | The revamped Republican Party turns Trump's lies into a loyalty test - The Washington Post

Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.

Donald Trumps domination of the primaries made it official: He has successfully routed the GOP establishment.

Some would argue, with ample evidence, that this happened a long time ago. Particularly in Congress, the party is divided into three sometimes overlapping factions: Reaganites, pragmatists and populists, the last being Trumps MAGA faction. Politicians from the non-MAGA factions have been retreating, retiring or reinventing themselves in Trumps image for years now.

If Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida arent fully MAGA in their hearts, you wouldnt know it from their current public personas. Other Republicans, including former Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio, Jeff Flake of Arizona, and Bob Corker of Tennessee, along with former Reps. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Eric Cantor of Virginia, and Liz Cheney of Wyoming, were either shown the door or fled for it themselves. And outside institutions such as the Conservative Political Action Committee, or CPAC, and the Heritage Foundation have repositioned themselves as MAGA organs.

That process has accelerated since Trump effectively locked up the Republican nomination for president for the third time. Over the past few months, non-MAGA Republicans such as Reps. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington have announced that they will be leaving Congress. And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the last actual avatar of the GOP establishment, declared that he would not run to lead the Republican caucus again and went on to endorse Trump.

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The takeover is culminating with the Trumpian captivity of the Republican National Committee. Theres virtually no Republican establishment left that isnt synonymous with the Trump establishment.

Michael Whatley, the former head of the North Carolina GOP, is the new national chairman, having earned Trumps favor as an unrestrained booster of his claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Lara Trump, the former presidents daughter-in-law, is serving alongside Whatley as co-chair. And Chris LaCivita, a top Trump campaign adviser, will run day-to-day operations. On Monday, they began a wholesale purge of staffers deemed insufficiently loyal.

Trumps son Donald Jr. agrees that its official. In an interview with Newsmax Sunday, he said the old GOP establishment no longer exists. People have to understand that America first, the MAGA movement, is the new Republican Party. That is conservatism today.

Now, one can quibble over whether a political philosophy that traces itself back to Edmund Burke and the American founding can be transformed by the installment of Trump apparatchiks at the RNC. Trump himself might even agree with those quibbles.

Trump has previously described himself as a nationalist, and he at least partly rejected the conservative label in an interview with CNBCs Squawk Box on Monday. People say, Youre conservative, Trump said. Im not conservative. You know what I am? Im a man of common sense, and a lot of conservative policies are common sense.

Whatever we call him, whats clear is that Trump thinks his team can go it alone. At a recent Virginia rally, he declared that MAGA represents 96%, and maybe 100% of the GOP. Were getting rid of the Romneys of the world. We want to get Romneys and those (like him) out.

Normally, general election candidates try to expand their coalitions. Primary election exit polls and the actual results belie Trumps claim that the party is now almost pure MAGA.

In each of the six states with entrance and exit polls, a CNN analysis found, a sizable minority of the GOP electorate identified directly as a part of the MAGA, or Make America Great Again, movement, ranging from about one-third in California, Virginia and New Hampshire to nearly half in Iowa. Put another way, between half and two-thirds of those primary-voting Republicans dont identify as MAGA. Most will still likely hold their nose and vote for Trump in November, but thats not proof that the GOP is totally Trumpian.

The national GOP leadership, however, is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Trumpism. That behooves a movement that has often been as concerned with taking over the party as taking over the government. In Republican primaries, Trump has tended to back loyalists with dim general election prospects over more traditional Republicans with a better chance of actually winning House and Senate seats. The MAGA movement seems convinced that a purer party dedicated to Trump is for some reason better than one saddled with the remnants of the old GOP coalition.

For all practical purposes, their wish has been granted. Thats good for the movement if Trump wins in November. But if he loses, theyll have no one to blame but themselves. After all, theyre the establishment now.

First posted March 12, 2024. (C)2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Trump and his MAGA movement stormed the Republican establishment. Now they have become it. - The Fulcrum