Add ‘Can Donald Trump pardon himself?’ to the list of questions Amy Coney Barrett refuses to answer

Amy Coney Barrett went out on a limb far enough to agree with Sen. Patrick Leahy that “no person is above the law.” But agreeing that a president should not and cannot pardon himself was a bridge too far for her. Barrett fell back on her tried and true excuse that she can’t offer any view on any legal issue unless she has gone through the full process of deciding litigation on it.

This is, of course, not a hypothetical question. “President Trump claims he has an absolute right to pardon himself. Now, for 200 years the Supreme Court has recognized the common law principle that no one can be a judge in their own case,” Leahy said. That being the case, “would you agree, first, that nobody is above the law, not the president, not you, not me?”

“I agree, no one is above the law,” Barrett replied. Wow, bold stance! If only we could believe that she really believes it.

“Does a president have an absolute right to pardon himself for a crime? I mean, we heard this question after President Nixon’s impeachment,” Leahy followed up.

“Sen. Leahy, so far as I know, that question has never been litigated, that question has never arisen,” Barrett answered. “That question may or may not arise, but it’s one that calls for legal analysis of what the scope of the pardon power is, so because it would be opining on an open question when I haven’t gone through the judicial process to decide it, it’s not one on which I can offer a view.”

“But you are willing to say that no person, not you, not me, is above the law,” Leahy pointed out. “I find your answer somewhat incompatible, but those are your answers, you have the right to say what you want.”

The bottom line is this: Barrett refused to say that Donald Trump can’t pardon himself for his crimes. She refused to even repeat the basic principle that no one can be a judge in their own case as part of her nonanswer. She said “no one is above the law,” but she gave no indication she actually believes that.

Giuliani Faces Another Foreign Lobbying Mess in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Giuliani Faces Another Foreign Lobbying Mess in the Democratic Republic of CongoABUJA, Nigeria—Civil society groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo are petitioning the country’s government to investigate millions of dollars paid by the administration of then-President Joseph Kabila to an Israeli firm associated with Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. The firm’s goal: to help the Central African nation escape further economic sanctions by the U.S.Giuliani, who served as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York before becoming New York City mayor, had reportedly been negotiating a consulting deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through the Israel-based firm, Mer Security and Communication System. Mer’s work involved an aggressive lobbying and public relations campaign aimed at easing concerns about Kabila, whose government was facing threats of additional sanctions from the Trump administration for human rights abuses and corruption.The Congolese petitioners are primarily asking the government to find out if a fraction of the reported $8 million paid by the Kabila administration to Mer went to “so-called consultants” acting as fronts for corrupt Congolese officials. But a potential investigation could also reveal whether or not Giuliani received payment from the conflict-torn nation through the Israeli firm to act as an intermediary between the DRC and Washington.Rudy Giuliani and His Ukraine Ally Sprint Away from Their ‘Russian Agent’ Pal“We are not asking officials to investigate Rudy Giuliani in particular but to find out if there was any fraud involved, as we’ve been told by our sources in government that certain individuals in the D.R. Congo benefited from the deal with Mer,” Thierry Bolasie, director of the Initiative de Puissance du Congo, or Congo Power Initiative, one of nearly a dozen civil society groups which petitioned the government, told The Daily Beast. “This isn't about the politics in America but about the transparency of officials in the D.R. Congo.”Giuliani did not reply to The Daily Beast’s requests for comment.Giuliani isn’t new to controversies when it comes to dealings between the Trump administration and overseas governments. Last year, he was a main player in the Ukraine scandal that ignited an impeachment inquiry against President Trump. Giuliani had been central to Trumpworld’s attempts to pressure Ukraine to find dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, and he also is reportedly under federal criminal investigation related to his campaign to oust Marie Yovanovitch from her role as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and whether it violated foreign lobbying laws.Giuliani’s relationship with the Kabila administration first became public knowledge in July 2018 when he was spotted in attendance at a swanky cocktail party in Washington, D.C., headlined by the Congolese special envoy to the United States. While the event was presented as a chance for U.S. officials to discuss the “strategic relationship” between the U.S. and African nations, The New York Times reported in December 2018 that it was actually part of Kabila’s aggressive lobbying effort to persuade the Trump administration to drop further sanctions.Mer hired American lobbyists with ties to the Trump administration, including firms owned by former Senator Bob Dole and by the Trump campaign’s onetime liaison to Congress, Adnan Jalil. But two top DRC foreign ministry officials with knowledge of the country’s relationship with Giuliani informed The Daily Beast that the Kabila administration began to speak with the former New York City mayor after it became dissatisfied with the work done by the other lobbyists in getting the Trump administration to take a position on the DRC’s political situation, and after spending months attempting to persuade Washington against punishing Kabila as he sought to extend his stay in office despite reaching his term limit.“Kabila was desperate to reach out to the Trump administration regarding his political future and so he wanted someone very close [to the U.S. president] to work as a liaison,” one of the officials, who worked as a diplomat in the Congolese foreign ministry during the period of negotiations with American lobbyists, told The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity. “What he wanted was for the U.S. government not to impose sanctions on him should he decide to continue to serve as president.”The DRC is one of Africa's poorest and most politically unstable nations, despite boasting vast natural resources. In the heavily populated eastern part of the country, over a hundred militia groups are involved in conflicts that have forced around 4.5 million people out of their homes. The area is also battling with a deadly Ebola outbreak—the second worst in history—that has so far claimed more than 700 lives.Kabila, who became DRC president in 2001 following the assassination of his father and predecessor, had been under huge pressure from the West to relinquish power following accusations of corruption, human rights abuses, and extrajudicial killings during his nearly 18 years as president. The Trump administration had hinted that his close allies might be subjected to new sanctions if he continued in office beyond his constitutional term, which he already had overstayed by two years. His engagement of American lobbyists through Mer was a bid to avoid sanctions from Washington.Just a few weeks after the D.C. cocktail event that Giuliani attended, Kabila announced he was stepping down in January 2019 after a December 2018 vote to elect a successor. His decision to give up on pursuing a third term, The Daily Beast learned, was part of the understanding he reached with Trump administration officials, allegedly with the help of Giuliani.“It was agreed that if Kabila announced that he was stepping down, the U.S. will not go ahead with sanctions and will have no issues with whoever he backs to succeed him,” said the diplomat who worked closely with officials at the DRC embassy in Washington. “We believe that Rudy Giuliani helped make the deal happen.”Not only did the Trump administration not go ahead with its plan to place additional sanctions on the DRC, but it also backed the controversial election of Kabila's secretly anointed successor, Felix Tshisekedi.Tshisekedi, an opposition candidate who was not favored by pundits or polls to emerge as president, is believed by many in the DRC to have cut a corrupt deal with Kabila to become his successor. He was elected in December 2018 through a process that was described by regional election observers and the international community as widely fraudulent but was praised by the Trump administration.Foreign Policy reported early last year that when the results of the presidential election were announced in favor of Tshisekedi, officials from government agencies across Washington worked together and agreed to condemn the process as rigged and vowed to hold those involved responsible. But the statement that emerged from the U.S. State Department on Jan. 23 surprisingly did not condemn the election as “deeply flawed and troubling,” as stated in the original draft, but instead endorsed the results and offered praise for the polls—despite leaked documents made available to the media indicating that Tshisekedi’s main rival, Martin Fayulu, won by a wide margin.Tshisekedi had hired Avenue Strategies, an American firm founded by former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and senior campaign adviser Barry Bennett, on Jan. 21, 2019, two days before the controversial State Department statement was released, to “work to advance the strategic relationship of the President-elect and his government with the United States, support visits of the President-elect and his team to the United States and implement a media and public relations plan to improve understanding of the President-elect and his agenda for the people of the DRC” at the cost $90,000 for the period from Jan. 22 through Feb. 28, 2019, based on documents published on the U.S. Department of Justice’s fara.gov website (PDF). The Daily Beast has learned that this arrangement was the brainchild of the then-outgoing Kabila administration, which wanted the incoming president to immediately win the cooperation of the U.S. government.“Kabila wanted the Trump administration to believe that the incoming president was someone they could easily work with,” said the diplomat. “It was a plan that was conceived long before the elections.”Months before the presidential votes, senior DRC foreign ministry officials were confident that the outcome of the polls would be backed by the U.S. because they believed Trump’s close associates — Giuliani in particular — would do everything possible to ensure that Kabila faced no uncertainty as he leaves office.“What we kept being told by colleagues who dealt with the American lobbyists was that Trump’s lawyer would ensure that Kabila was fine,” another top official from the ministry who also did not want to be named, told The Daily Beast. “It was exactly the assurance the government needed because there was fear that if Kabila rigged the elections for his candidate, the Americans would make sure he is embarrassed.”The manner in which Giuliani, and the lobbyists before him, were allegedly engaged by the Kabila administration was said to not be straightforward. Key officials in the DRC government, including Foreign Minister Léonard She Okitundu, were kept in the dark concerning the deal with Mer as Kabila, who wanted to avoid the risk of sabotage, worked out the details with François Nkuna Balumuene, his U.S. ambassador, and Raymond Tshibanda, his special envoy to Washington at the time.“Most, if not all, cabinet members became aware of his [Giuliani's] involvement when the media reported it a few weeks before the elections,” said the second foreign ministry official, who worked closely with the then-foreign minister. “Kabila and his close men didn't want to risk another Trump scandal.”It is not the first time that Giuliani’s lobbying work has created a huge controversy.The Daily Beast reported last October that despite Giuliani claiming in 2018 he’d never filed a Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) document, questions were raised about his lobbying status, with several Democratic senators appealing to the Department of Justice for information on his FARA filings, a legal requirement for any U.S. citizen making contact with the government or media at the request of foreign politicians or officials. Those questions grew when it was reported that his dealings in Ukraine had come under scrutiny in connection with the arrest of two of his associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who are believed to have worked with him in investigating so-called corruption allegations against former Vice President Biden.The DRC presidential elections may have ended with Kabila and, perhaps, Giuliani having their way, but the spotlight will definitely return to the American as Congolese anti-corruption advocates insist on a probe on the country’s past dealings with Mer.Based on disclosures filed with the Justice Department, the Congolese government agreed to pay Mer $5.58 million between Dec. 8, 2016 and Dec. 31, 2017 for advisory services and support in lobbying senior U.S. government officials and key policy makers in various Congressional committees. The Tel Aviv-based firm admitted in its filings it will engage the services of subcontractors to work with officials of the African nation. But those calling for an investigation into the deal believe the numbers don’t add up.“Someone needs to explain how the money rose from $5.5 million to $8 million,” said Bolasie of the Congo Power Initiative. “Everything about the deal seems shady.”The Daily Beast reached out to Mer for comments on its relationship with Giuliani and for details of its contract with the Kabila administration but it did not get any response from the firm.Meanwhile, since Kabila’s successor, Tshisekedi, took office last year, relations with the U.S. are strengthening. In August, both countries agreed to pursue military cooperation, with America offering to train Congolese officers in the United States despite the fact that the Central Africa nation’s military have a terrible record of human rights violations. The agreement has also led to speculation about a possible relocation of the headquarters of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) to the DRC. AFRICOM had announced in July that it had kick-started plans of moving its headquarters from the German city of Stuttgart, as it looks to reorganize U.S. military forces in Europe.Whether or not the Tshisekedi administration, which came to power through Kabila’s support, investigates the payments made to Mer remains to be seen. The Congolese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comments on the petition sent by the civil society groups who are determined to force a probe on the spending.“We’ll eventually take our protest to the streets if the government fails to carry out an investigation in time,” said Bolasie. “A poor country like the D.R. Congo should not be spending millions of dollars on things that are irrelevant to the vast majority of its citizens.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.


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California Republican Party says it won’t take down illegal ‘ballot boxes’ despite state orders

On Monday, it came to light that the California Republican Party was placing what they called "official ballot drop off boxes" in locations deemed to be Republican-friendly (such as, no kidding, "gun stores") in apparent efforts to make it easier for Republican voters to vote than not-Republican voters.

There are two problems with this. First: It's not legal. California law allows voters to designate a person to drop their ballot off at an official location rather than going themselves; it does not allow the "designated person" to be an unattended cardboard box. (And yes, some of the "official ballot drop off boxes" are merely "simple cardboard boxes with no locking security mechanism.")

The second problem is, yes, ballot security. Voters may not be aware that these very much not official "drop off boxes" are managed by unknown Republican operatives, and there's no guarantee the ballots collected in such boxes won't "accidentally" be, to use a recent Trumpian example, dumped into a river. (I kid. Here in California we don't have rivers. They could be dumped into storm drains, though, which would be problematic because all the aspiring sewer actors do not need more lines to practice.) There's nothing to say the ballots the Republican Party claims to be collecting won't be sorted through, perhaps to weed out non-Republican looking names, or otherwise disposed of. That's why California ballot-harvesting laws require a designee.

California officials have now warned the state Republican Party that what they're doing is illegal and may even result in prison time. The Republican Party has responded in the expected way: They don't care, and won't be complying with state demands to remove the boxes.

More specifically, the California Republican Party intends to continue the operation while daring state officials to do anything about it. Party spokesperson Hector Barajas noted that a 2018 state law prohibits election officials from rejecting a ballot solely because it was returned without the required designee signature or relationship to the voter, signaling that the party intends to collect ballots however they want, handle and turn them in however they want, and dare election officials to throw those votes away. Election officials will almost certainly not do that, so here we are.

It's another case of the party's all-encompassing insistence that laws don't matter if bending the law would benefit the party. See also: Dinesh D'Whateverguy, and literally every member of Donald Trump's inner circles, past and present, indicted and not, and the Republican gutting of the Federal Election Commission, and the nullification of election-related impeachment charges against Dear Leader, and take your pick.

And yes, everyone involved is aware of the dichotomy of the Republican Party going to furious lengths to restrict voting access in Texas and other Republican-led states while bending restrictions that they believe are harmful to their own voters. It's not irony, it's fascism.

What California voters need to know right now, however: Do not use those boxes. Don't. California is mailing ballots to all voters; follow the instructions provided to the letter and mail them back. Do not put your ballot in a cardboard box, or a burlap sack, or into the mouth of a large wooden horse that has appeared, overnight, in the empty parking lot of an abandoned mall. Just mail them in, or turn them in where the state itself tells you to.

There's no guarantee that the local Chuckles' Gun Club and Shoebox Votin' Booth will be handling your vote, as America decides between authoritarian rule and democracy, with anything resembling care. The Republican Party is playing fast and loose with the votes of their own most loyal supporters, and that is not something you want to get involved in.

Navy Vet Joe Collins Attacks Maxine Waters’ Mansion in Campaign Ad

Navy Vet Joe Collins Attacks Maxine Waters’ Mansion in Campaign AdU.S. Navy veteran Joe Collins, a Republican who is running to unseat Democrat Maxine Waters, has released a new campaign ad attacking the California congresswoman for living in a multimillion-dollar mansion outside of her district, which is  one of the state's poorest.“Do you know where I am right now? Maxine Waters’ six million-dollar mansion,” Collins says in the new video ad. “Do you know where I’m not right now? Maxine Waters’ district.”"Maxine does not live in her district, but I do," Collins adds.> Do you know where I am? > Maxine Waters’ $6 Million Mansion.> > Do you know where I’m NOT? > Her District.> > Mansion Maxine Waters doesn’t live in her District — I do.> > My name is Joe Collins and I’m running for Congress against Maxine Waters.> > Help Me WIN: https://t.co/K4OcfhUR0E pic.twitter.com/GgnmvSWSq9> > -- Joe E. Collins III For Congress CA-43 (@joecollins43rd) October 10, 2020Waters lives in a $6 million house that was located in her district until redistricting caused it to now be located in California's 37th District, which is represented by Democratic Rep. Karen Bass.Waters has represented California’s 43rd District since 1991. Before she was elected to Congress, Waters had been a member of the California State Assembly since 1976.The poverty rate is at least 22 percent in Waters's district, with more than 161,000 people living below the poverty line.Collins goes on in his campaign ad to describe his upbringing in South Los Angeles, where he says he survived a drive-by shooting outside his house when he was a child.“Gangs, drugs, violence, that was my upbringing. And where was Maxine Waters?” Collins says."While I was fighting for this country, Maxine Waters could not be bothered to fight for her own district here in America. And when I returned from war, I came back to my community as a war zone," continues Collins, who served 13 years in the Navy and fought in the Iraq War.Collins outlined some of his priorities for change in the district, including combatting the lack of quality education, gang activity, the sky-high crime rate, and homelessness.In recent years, Waters has been outspoken about her opposition to the Trump administration, at one point encouraging her supporters to harass administration officials if they spot them in public. She was also one of the loudest voices calling for the president’s impeachment.


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GOP Rep. Introduces Resolution to Remove Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker

Rep. Doug Collins has introduced a resolution that questions Nancy Pelosi’s mental fitness and calls for her removal as House Speaker.

Collins (R-GA) cited “recent actions” as a reason for her removal, as well as her refusal to adhere to the Constitution of the United States.

“Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s unwillingness to abide by the Constitution, combined with her recent actions, call into question her own mental fitness,” the congressman said in a statement to Fox News.

“Which is why it’s critical that the House of Representatives demand her removal from the line of succession,” he added.

The resolution goes after Pelosi for having “spent the majority of the House of Representative’s time pursuing baseless and fruitless investigations.”

It also points to Pelosi being the architect of a “party-line vote to begin an impeachment inquiry into a president,” the first of its kind in the nation’s history.

RELATED: Pelosi Announces 25th Amendment Bill To Give Commission Power To Remove President

Pelosi Announces New  25th Amendment Bill to Remove Presidents From Power

Collins’ resolution – particularly the part about Pelosi’s “recent actions” – appears to be a direct response to her announcement last week that she wants to create a “bipartisan” commission that could remove the president from power using the 25th Amendment.

Pelosi and Rep. Jamie Raskin, author of the bill, announced the formation of the commission as President Trump was battling COVID and many were speculating about his health – both physical and mental.

“In times of chaos, we must hold fast to our Constitution,” Raskin announced.

“The 25th Amendment is all about the stability of the presidency and the continuity of the office.”

Republicans were not kind in their response to Pelosi’s bill.

RELATED: Voters Overwhelmingly Agree They’re Better Off Now Than They Were Four Years Ago

It’s Not About Trump, But This is Definitely About Pelosi

House Speaker Pelosi argued that the commission regarding the 25th Amendment was not about President Trump.

“This is not about President Trump,” she said at a press conference hours after claiming President Trump was “in an altered state” following his COVID diagnosis.

“He will face the judgment of the voters. But he shows the need for us to create a process for future presidents.”

Trump even argued that it was more about Biden potentially becoming President and replacing him with vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

“Crazy Nancy Pelosi is looking at the 25th Amendment in order to replace Joe Biden with Kamala Harris,” Trump tweeted. “The Dems want that to happen fast because Sleepy Joe is out of it!”

Collins, meanwhile, made it clear his resolution is most assuredly about Pelosi’s mental fitness.

“Over the tenure of her speakership, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has started to demonstrate a decline in mental fitness, calling into question her ability to adequately serve the House of Representatives and the American people,” it states.

The post GOP Rep. Introduces Resolution to Remove Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker appeared first on The Political Insider.

Trump’s Outrageous Pressure Campaign against Bill Barr

Trump’s Outrageous Pressure Campaign against Bill BarrSo, what crime would you charge, Mr. President?The closing weeks of the campaign find President Trump berating William Barr, the attorney general who has served him and the country well. Trump’s increasingly strident complaints relate to the probe of his 2016 campaign, launched by the Obama administration. At Barr’s direction, the genesis and conduct of that probe have been under investigation since early 2019 by Connecticut U.S. attorney John Durham, a well-regarded career prosecutor.Trump is ballistic that Barr and Durham have not prosecuted top Obama-administration officials, not least Vice President Biden, Trump’s opponent in this election, as well as the former president and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Trump’s opponent in the last election.It is increasingly clear that Clinton had a large hand in driving the Trump-Russia narrative, which Obama intelligence and law-enforcement officials inflated into a counterintelligence and criminal probe. She accused Trump of engaging in a cyberespionage conspiracy with the Kremlin to sabotage her campaign. The allegation was based largely on Russia’s suspected hacking of Democratic National Committee emails, to which no evidence tied Trump.Even before the DNC hacking, Obama’s CIA director, John Brennan, had joined Clinton in beating the Trump-Russia “collusion” drum; and after the hacking, Obama’s FBI director James Comey formally leapt in to investigate. The probe relied heavily on bogus political opposition research generated by the Clinton campaign -- specifically, by its retention of Christopher Steele, an incompetent and stridently anti-Trump former British spy, who churned out a “dossier” rife with unverified innuendo, obvious material errors, and, quite likely, Russian disinformation.Attorney General Barr has described the Trump-Russia probe as a “travesty” because it was triggered on the thinnest of predication and carried on long after the lack of proof was manifest. The probe continued well into Trump’s presidency, forcing him to endure the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller and govern under a cloud of suspicion until Mueller finally cleared him, 27 months into his term. Democrats cited the existence of an investigation as grounds against allowing Trump to exercise normal powers of his office, such as nominating Supreme Court justices. To this day, congressional Democrats comb Mueller’s report for grounds for another impeachment.The Obama administration and federal investigators clearly abused their powers in this matter. Yet, abuses of power do not often translate into prosecutable offenses codified by the federal penal code. That fact was illustrated to the president’s advantage during his Ukrainian misadventure in 2019, when he exploited his authority over the conduct of foreign relations to pressure an ally to undertake an investigation politically favorable to him. Congressional Democrats were frustrated in their effort to find a crime that fit the abuse.In “Russiagate,” the Justice Department can’t seem to find one either, at least not fast enough or high enough up the political food chain for Trump. The president ranted on Twitter last week about the “TREASONOUS PLOT,” and inveighed against Barr in friendly talk-radio interviews over the failure to indict Obama officials.Trump’s wayward invocation of treason brings the problem into sharp relief. Besides being unhinged political rhetoric, as a legal matter -- which is what Barr has to consider -- it is sheer nonsense. The presidency is not the nation. A president is a public servant, and a presidential candidate a mere public figure; neither of them is the United States, on whom war must be waged to trigger treason. Under federal law, treason’s close cousin sedition, also touted by Trump supporters as a potential charge, similarly requires proof of conspiracy to use force against the nation and its government.There’s a reason that the checks against abuses of power in our system are predominantly political, not legal. The discretion to exercise government’s police and intelligence-collection powers must necessarily be broad because the potential threats to national security and public safety are infinite. If a presidential candidate actually was conspiring with a hostile nation against vital American interests, an incumbent administration would have not only the legitimate authority but the duty to investigate, regardless of political considerations. Fear of prosecution after the fact would paralyze an administration, to the nation’s peril. If the executive’s awesome powers are abused, the Constitution arms Congress with the means to discipline an administration and even remove wayward officials from office.Prosecution is obviously appropriate only if there have been unambiguous violations of the law. The one official thus far prosecuted by Durham is a former FBI lawyer who tampered with a document critical to the Bureau’s sworn application to the FISA court for a surveillance warrant. Correctly, Barr has insisted that only such “meat and potatoes” crimes will meet the Justice Department’s standards; there will be no extravagant reaches, no prosecutorial “creativity” to sweep Obama officials into the net. Weeks ago, in fact, Barr announced that Obama and Biden are not subjects of Durham’s criminal investigation.Barr, meantime, has vowed that there will ultimately be a narrative report about the Trump-Russia investigation. That is appropriate in accounting for government misconduct, particularly where the Justice Department and FBI are implicated. It is consistent with the attorney general's duty to oversee the conduct of law enforcement, which in the case of the Hillary-email investigation was carried out by DOJ's inspector general in issuing a public report.The attorney general remains admirably mindful of his role within our system of government and determined to honor the norms that inform that system. We wish the same could be said of the president of the United States.


Posted in Uncategorized

Pelosi Announces 25th Amendment Bill To Give Commission Power To Remove President

Nancy Pelosi announced a bill that would use the 25th Amendment to create a “bipartisan” commission that could remove the president from power.

“Bipartisan” Congressional Commission That Could Remove President From Power

The 25th Amendment states that a majority of “such other body as Congress may by law provide” may determine if the President is fit for office.

The bill, authored by Representative Jamie Raskin, would create a bipartisan “Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of the Office.”

Made up of 17 “bipartisan” members, the commission could determine whether the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” if they are physically or mentally incapacitated, and then decide that a transfer of power is needed.

“This is not about President Trump,” Pelosi said at a press conference on Friday, only a day after claiming President Trump is “in an altered state” following his COVID diagnosis.

“He will face the judgment of the voters. But he shows the need for us to create a process for future presidents.”

RELATED: Pelosi Suggests Using 25th Amendment To Remove Trump From Office Before Election

Raskin: “We Need To Act”

“We need to act,” said Raskin, who joined Pelosi at the press conference.

“In times of chaos, we must hold fast to our Constitution. The 25th Amendment is all about the stability of the presidency and the continuity of the office.”

This is the second bill that Raskin has created to set up such a commission.

“For the security of our people and the safety of the Republic, we need to set up the ‘body’ called for in the 25th Amendment,” Raskin said in 2017.

“The president can fire his entire Cabinet for asking the same question tens of millions of Americans are asking at their dinner tables, but he cannot fire Congress or the expert body we set up under the Constitution,” he continued.

“Pelosi Is Just Embarrassing Herself”

The backlash to the bill from Republicans was fierce and immediate.

“Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats still have not accepted the results of the 2016 election,” Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) tweeted.

“Their talk of the 25th Amendment is just a continuation of that.”

Donald Trump Jr. got a good laugh out of it:

The Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee said that Pelosi was “just embarassing herself” with the 25th Amendment bill, and that the bill made Adam Schiff’s “conspiracy theories seem normal.”

Many others weighed in on the bill:

Trump Has A Totally Different View

President Trump had a different take.

Perhaps because Pelosi argued that the bill “isn’t about Trump,” the President saw something else:

Namely, removing Joe Biden from power, and replacing him with Kamala Harris.

It follows comments from the President on Thursday, where he described Senator Harris as “horrible,” “totally unlikeable,” and a “communist,” who would replace Biden as President “within months” if they won the presidential election in November.

Dan McLaughlin of the National Review agreed with Trump:

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If Biden Won’t Tell You Where He Stands on Packing the Supreme Court, He Doesn’t Deserve Your Vote

It is hard to imagine a serious candidate for President refusing to tell you where he stands on the future of the Supreme Court of the United States, but here we are.

On Thursday, former Vice President Joe Biden was – once again – asked whether or not he would support legislation to pack the Supreme Court with additional Justices.

Biden’s response was, “You’ll know my position on court-packing the day after the election.”

RELATED: Biden Refuses To Reveal His Stance On Packing Supreme Court Until After Election

Biden Is Trying To Hide His Views On Court Packing

Biden’s justification for refusing to tell voters where he stands on the future of the Supreme Court until after he is elected is, in his own words, “The moment I answer that question, the headline in every one of your papers will be about that rather than focusing on what’s happening now.”

Court-packing was attempted once before.

In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt proposed expanding the Supreme Court to include as many as 15 justices in response to a series of rulings finding that certain parts of Roosevelt’s New Deal program were unconstitutional.

During the previous two years, the high court had struck down several key pieces of New Deal legislation on the grounds that the laws delegated an unconstitutional amount of authority to the executive branch and the federal government.

Flushed with his landslide reelection in 1936, President Roosevelt issued a proposal in February 1937 to provide retirement at full pay for all members of the court over 70.

If a justice refused to retire, an “assistant” with full voting rights was to be appointed, thus ensuring Roosevelt a liberal majority.

Most Republicans and many Democrats in Congress opposed the so-called “court-packing” plan.

Until very recently, Roosevelt’s court-packing effort was viewed as one of FDR’s most high-profile missteps and almost universally dismissed by historians and legal scholars as a terrible idea.

The current court-packing scheme is supported by liberals who once described court-packing as “institutionally corrosive” and “politically unserious.”

RELATED: ‘Woke’ Politics Poses the First Serious Challenge To Our Constitutional Democracy Since Communism

Why Support Court Packing Now? The Reason Is Simple

What was institutionally corrosive has suddenly become a cause celebre on the left for one reason: conservatives are poised to take control of the Court for a generation.

The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to replace her poses an existential threat to liberals’ control over their favorite and most reliable weapon: the Supreme Court.

With prominent liberals pushing for court-packing and with polling showing that 60% of Democrats support the court-packing scheme, you would think that the Democratic nominee for President would take a position, one way or the other, on the issue.

Alas, Joe Biden refuses to.

Biden’s refusal, and the refusal of his running mate Kamala Harris, to take a position on the future of the Supreme Court is not simply unacceptable.

It is disqualifying.

Democrats are telling voters that the future of same-sex marriage, healthcare, abortion, and the environment all hang in the balance as a result of the vacancy on the Supreme Court.

“You Have To Vote For Joe Biden So You Can Find Out What’s In Him”

They are doing this while their own nominee refuses to even answer the question about whether or not he would support efforts to pack the Supreme Court.

Biden’s outrageous response recalls Nancy Pelosi’s now infamous line about Obamacare:

“We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”

It’s absolutely preposterous. The American people deserve to know where a Presidential candidate stands on the future of the Supreme Court.

RELATED: Kamala Harris Didn’t Make One Mention Of Impeachment During Debate – But Mike Pence Did

By nominating Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump has told the American people exactly what kind of Supreme Court they would get by voting for him.

Joe Biden is refusing to do the same.

If you can’t tell voters where you stand on an issue as critical as this – you don’t deserve to be President.

The post If Biden Won’t Tell You Where He Stands on Packing the Supreme Court, He Doesn’t Deserve Your Vote appeared first on The Political Insider.

Morning Digest: This race could give Texas Democrats their first statewide win in 26 years

The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.

Leading Off

TX Railroad Commission: As Lone Star Democrats seek their first statewide victory in more than a quarter century, their best hope may be Chrysta Castañeda, who's running for a spot on an agency many people haven't heard of: the Texas Railroad Commission.

Campaign Action

Despite the name, the commission doesn't actually oversee trains, but it does have jurisdiction over something even more important in Texas: the state's energy industry (oversight of the rails was handed to the state's Department of Transportation in 2005). The panel, often known as the "RRC," is made up of three members, each elected statewide for six-year terms.

The last time a Democrat won a seat on the board was in 1990, when former Rep. Bob Krueger beat a Republican opponent by 56-40 margin. Krueger wound up resigning to accept an appointment to the U.S. Senate when Lloyd Bentsen became Bill Clinton's Treasury secretary, and Republicans comfortably beat his appointed successor in 1994.

Ever since, the GOP has held all three seats, but Republicans were already preparing for a serious battle this year—which, ironically, might have made their situation even worse. Republican Ryan Sitton, who first won a slot on the RRC in 2014, had stockpiled $2 million in his war chest for the general election, but in March, he lost his primary in an absolute shocker to an unknown named Jim Wright, the owner of an oilfield waste disposal company who had raised less than $13,000.

The 55-45 loss was so inexplicable that some political observers wondered if Wright benefited from sharing a name with the one-time speaker of the House who hailed from Fort Worth, the late Democrat Jim Wright, who died in 2015. It's not such a crazy theory: Perennial candidate Gene Kelly won multiple Texas primaries in the previous decade because voters had him confused with the beloved dancer.

Whatever the explanation, though, Wright's victory has left Republicans with a suddenly open seat and a badly flawed candidate. The RRC—the very body that Wright wants to join—fined him $182,000 for improper storage of hazardous waste in 2017, and he's been sued by his former business partners for fraud stemming from the mess.

Castañeda, an oil and gas attorney, took aim at Wright for his record in her first ad of the race, which went up last month, but the main topic she's focusing on is the issue of "flaring." That refers to the practice of oil producers burning off unwanted natural gas from their wells rather than capturing it for later use, a process that is both environmentally harmful and economically wasteful.

It's also against the law—unless a driller is granted a special permit, of which 7,000 were handed out last year. As Castañeda notes, such permits can only be granted if all three members of the commission agree, meaning she could single-handedly put an end to flaring even if Republicans still hold a nominal 2-1 majority on the board next year.

With this backdrop, The New Republic recently called this race "this year’s most important election for American climate policy." It could also finally put an end to the longest statewide losing streak for Democrats anywhere in the nation, as Texas last voted Democratic for any statewide race in 1994.

3Q Fundraising

IA-Sen: Theresa Greenfield (D): $28.7 million raised

WV-Gov: Jim Justice (R-inc): $890,000 raised, $263,000 cash-on-hand; Ben Salango (D): $564,000 raised, $153,000 cash-on-hand

CA-25: Mike Garcia (R-inc): $3.2 million raised, $2 million cash-on-hand

CA-48: Michelle Steel (R): $1.8 million raised

MN-03: Kendall Qualls (R): $873,000 raised, $538,000 cash-on-hand

MN-08: Quinn Nystrom (D): $650,000 raised

NH-01: Chris Pappas (D-inc): $700,000 raised, $1.35 million cash-on-hand

NY-02: Andrew Garbarino (R): $771,000 raised

TX-10: Michael McCaul (R-inc): $870,000 raised, $1.1 million cash-on-hand

Senate

GA-Sen-A: A pro-Republican group called Georgia Action Fund says it is spending $5 million on digital ads supposedly aimed at swaying undecided voters in the race between Republican Sen. David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff.

LA-Sen: Democrat Adrian Perkins narrates much of his first TV ad, which focuses on his biography, including his graduation from West Point and his service in Afghanistan and Iraq that resulted in an award of the Bronze Star. A voiceover notes that after he fought overseas, "Harvard Law and big job offers came." But, says Perkins, "I chose to come home. To serve my community. Now I'm taking our mission to Washington to get things done for you."

At the end, text appears on-screen noting that Perkins has been endorsed by Gov. John Bel Edwards and Barack Obama, an effort to consolidate Democratic voters to ensure Perkins makes a December runoff against Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy.

NC-Sen: Republican Sen. Thom Tillis' new ad, unsurprisingly, goes after Democrat Cal Cunningham over the intimate text messages he shared with a woman who is not his wife. The spot mostly features clips of newscasters discussing various angles to the story, and during the "I approve this message" segment—not a section we discuss often—Tillis is shown hand-in-hand with his wife. Tillis' allies at the Senate Leadership Fund also recently went up with a similar ad.

Meanwhile, Politico reports that the DSCC is adding $3 million to their existing TV ad reservations for the last two weeks of the race.

Polls: If you click each race tag below, such as "MT-Sen," you'll be taken to the Daily Kos Elections poll aggregator for that race, which displays a trendline for all available public polls and the current polling average.

  • MT-Sen: Data for Progress (D) for Crooked Media and Indivisible: Steve Bullock (D): 48, Steve Daines (R-inc): 46 (49-43 Trump)
  • NC-Sen: Data for Progress (D) for Crooked Media and Indivisible: Cal Cunningham (D): 50, Thom Tillis (R-inc): 39 (51-44 Biden) (Aug.: 49-41 Cunningham)
  • SC-Sen: GBAO (D) for the DSCC: Jaime Harrison (D): 48, Lindsey Graham: (R-inc): 47, Bill Bledsoe (C): 3 (49-44 Trump)
  • TX-Sen: Crosswind Media (R) and Pulse Opinion Research: John Cornyn (R-inc): 48, MJ Hegar (D): 39 (51-44 Trump)
  • TX-Sen: Data for Progress (D) for Crooked Media and Indivisible: Cornyn (R-inc): 45, Hegar (D): 42 (47-45 Biden) (Sept.: 40-38 Cornyn)

MT-Sen: While there hasn't been a ton of polling in Montana—and what we have seen has almost all been very tight—Data for Progress' survey is the first to show Steve Bullock with a lead since an early July poll from PPP that had Bullock ahead 46-44.

NC-Sen: A number of polls taken since Labor Day have shown Cal Cunningham up by double digits, but what's notable about about this Data for Progress poll is that it was in the field from Weds, Sept. 30 through Monday, Oct. 5. That means half of it was conducted after news about Cunningham's affair broke on Friday night, Oct. 2.

SC-Sen: The DSCC's poll included Constitution Party candidate Bill Bledsoe, who dropped out of the race and endorsed Lindsey Graham a few days after the survey concluded. However, Bledsoe's name will still appear on ballots.

Gubernatorial

NC-Gov: Dan Forest is just the latest Republican trying to scare voters with ads showing footage of unrest, even starting his latest spot by saying, "Seems like the only people you see in downtown Asheville these days are rioters." Seems like he should try harder: According multiple local office-holders, including Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, Forest's clips don't show the city at all but instead were shot in other locales. When asked for comment, the Forest campaign didn't dispute the charge.

Polls:

  • WV-Gov: Strategies Unlimited (D) for WV First: Jim Justice (R-inc): 46, Ben Salango (D): 40, Daniel Lutz Jr. (Mountain Party): 5

This is the closest poll of the three we've seen to date in this race. According to the Parkersburg News and Sentinel, WV First is a group opposing Jim Justice's re-election bid, though it does not appear to have any presence the web. The same is true of the pollster, Strategies Unlimited.

House

IN-05: Indiana schools chief Jennifer McCormick has once again stuck her thumb in the eye of her own party by endorsing another Democrat, Christina Hale, who is seeking to flip the open 5th Congressional District. Though elected superintendent of public instruction as a Republican in 2016, McCormick has regularly feuded with the GOP and previously backed Democrat Woody Myers in his bid to unseat Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, as well as Democrat Jonathan Weinzapfel, who is running for state attorney general. McCormick is not seeking re-election this year after Republicans turned her position into an appointed one starting after 2020.

MI-08: Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin's latest ad features footage from a recent debate that went viral after she shredded her Republican opponent, Paul Junge, on healthcare. Junge had sought to make an issue of a lapse in insurance coverage that befell Slotkin's mother, blaming "undue burdens and regulations." Slotkin's scathing response occupies the bulk of the ad:

"Please don't speak about my mother as if you understand what made her health care unaffordable to her. And I think it's crazy that every time we ask you specific details about the thing that really helps people know that they're going to be protected—their kids are going to be protected—you deflect and start attacking me. And raising my mother? Come on, Paul."

NE-02: Former Democratic Rep. Brad Ashford has endorsed vulnerable Republican Rep. Don Bacon, who narrowly booted him after one term in the House in 2016. Ashford sought to reclaim his seat in 2018 but lost a tight the Democratic primary that year to nonprofit executive Kara Eastman, who herself lost a close contest with Bacon later that year—a race in which Ashford supported her.

Eastman sought the Democratic nomination again this year and this time handily defeated Ashford's wife, attorney Ann Ferlic Ashford. Ann Ashford angrily refused to endorse Eastman following the May primary, citing comments Eastman had made blaming Ashford's campaign-trail criticisms of her on "bad blood" stemming from her defeat of Ashford's husband two years earlier.

Bacon's past statements about Brad Ashford, however, have been far harsher. Among other things, Bacon accused Ashford of being soft on the Islamic State during their 2016 race, claiming in an ad, "If Brad Ashford doesn't know ISIS is targeting Nebraska, how can we trust him to keep us safe?"

VA-02: Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria's newest ad stars a COVID survivor named Fred Herrmann who excoriates Republican Scott Taylor for hosting a campaign event over the summer where attendees were maskless and greeted each other—including Taylor—with intimate hugs. Footage of the disturbing gathering rolls as Herrmann pours out his criticism. "Scott Taylor even compared coronavirus to the flu. It's not the flu," he says. "Mr. Taylor, I couldn't see my family while I thought I was going to die, because this virus is dangerous—and sending you back to Congress would be, too."

Polls:

CA-25: Smith's memo didn't include exact figures for the presidential race, but it did say that Joe Biden "is currently beating Trump by 4 points." That would represent the rare district-level poll where Biden's margin is narrower than Hillary Clinton's was in 2016 (she carried the 25th 50-44).

NY-22: Believe it or not, Siena's poll is the very first we've seen of this race, and the findings are a serious whoa-mama-joe moment for the GOP, particularly as regards the presidential race. Upstate New York's 22nd District was one of those rural white areas where the bottom really fell out for Democrats in 2016: While Barack Obama had lost to Mitt Romney by less than a point here, Trump crushed Clinton 55-39.

There's good reason to believe Siena, too. In 2016, the school's polling accurately forecast the district's big shift to Trump, both in late September and just before Election Day, when it had Trump up 14. If Republicans can't beat Brindisi, who exactly can they beat?

Mayoral

Miami-Dade County, FL Mayor: The Democratic firm Bendixen & Amandi International's new poll for the Miami Herald gives Democrat Daniella Levine Cava a 45-35 lead over Republican Steve Bovo in next month's officially nonpartisan race, which is an improvement from the 39-32 edge it found last month. Levine Cava also released a Change Research survey in late September that showed her up 45-32, while Bovo's side has yet to publicize its own numbers.

Levine Cava would be the first Democrat to serve as the chief executive of Florida's largest county since Alex Penelas left office in 2004. Penelas himself waged a comeback campaign this year, but he took third in August's nonpartisan primary.

New York City, NY Mayor: Civil rights attorney Maya Wiley, a former counsel to term-limited Mayor Bill de Blasio, entered next year's Democratic primary to succeed her old boss on Thursday. Wiley, who is Black, would be the first woman mayor in the city's history. In her kickoff, she took several jabs at the unpopular incumbent. "If I am mayor, you will never have to wonder who's in charge," she said. "You will never have to question ... whether the mayor even wants the job." She also ridiculed de Blasio's hapless presidential bid, saying, "You will never have to wonder whether I'm in Iowa."

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