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Tag: john mccain
Don't Let Trump Distract Us From His Disqualifying Criminal Indictment

Don't Let Trump Distract Us From His Disqualifying Criminal Indictment

Within the few days, Trump has made at least five moronic, dangerous or incendiary comments. And if the past is any guide, the press and social media will be all over each of them. Some will decry his vicious allusion to John McCain's disabilities, earned in a war Trump evaded. Others will be outraged by his description of the January 6 defendants as "hostages."

He manipulates our attention and our conversation like a skilled puppeteer. Consider that with only days to go before the first nominating contests, we are not even talking about Trump's greatest legal peril — the sweeping 37-count indictment regarding willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing a document or record, and making false statements.

Admittedly, the Mar-a-Lago classified documents indictment is only the second-most disqualifying crime in Trump's roster — the first being attempting a coup — but it is the most open-and-shut and therefore the most ruinous.

Unlike the Washington indictment for attempting to overturn an election, the Florida indictment does not rely on untested applications of criminal statutes (e.g., was the riot an attempt to obstruct an official preceding?) or inquiries into Trump's state of mind. The questions of law and fact are straightforward.

Trump apologists will point to Biden, Pence and others who were found to have classified documents in offices or homes. But the indictment does not charge Trump for any documents he voluntarily returned after they were requested by the National Archives and Records Administration. No, he is charged only for the documents he hid, moved around, lied about, shared with a number of people lacking security clearances, kept in bathrooms, ballrooms, and bedrooms, and stubbornly withheld — even in defiance of a subpoena — from an increasingly alarmed federal government.

After the search of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, Trump claimed to have declassified all of these documents before absconding with them. A sitting president does have authority to declassify, though not to take documents home as trophies. There are two problems with this justification: 1) There is zero evidence that Trump ever did declassify the relevant documents, and 2) even if he had, "willful retention of national defense information" remains a federal crime under the Espionage Act, which was passed in 1917, long before the current classification system was adopted. Others who've been charged and convicted under this statute include Chelsea Manning, Reality Winner and Edward Snowden. Less famous was Kendra Kingsbury, a former FBI analyst who pleaded guilty to taking classified documents home and was sentenced in June to three years and 10 months in federal prison.

Oh, and there's one other problem with the "Trump declassified everything" argument: His own words. The indictment includes a recording of Trump flaunting one of the documents to a writer (who had no security clearance, far less top-secret) at his Bedminster club. These were "highly confidential" and "secret," he confided, adding ''as president I could have declassified it. ... Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret."

That would be quite enough, but there is so much more. The indictment lays out the manifold maneuvers Trump undertook to obstruct justice. After being asked to return the documents, he instructed Walt Nauta to hide 64 of the boxes in other parts of Mar-a-Lago before letting his lawyer go through the remaining 30 — letting the lawyer believe that he was seeing the complete set. After the lawyer examined the contents and found some classified material, Trump suggested that he make them disappear. He "made a plucking motion."

The superseding indictment details Trump's instructions to several Mar-a-Lago employees to destroy security camera footage — textbook obstruction of justice.

The law is clear and easy to understand. Jack Smith has the receipts. Even Trump's allies have acknowledged that the indictment is devastating. Jonathan Turley admitted that "It's really breathtaking. ... The Trump team should not fool itself. These are hits below the water line. ... It's overwhelming in its details." Bill Barr added, "I do think that ... if even half of it is true, then he's toast. I mean, it's a pretty — it's a very detailed indictment, and it's very, very damming."

This, all by itself, is utterly disqualifying for a presidential candidate. The indictment cites two instances — that Smith can prove — of Trump revealing classified information to people not authorized to have it. God only knows how many times he did it that we have no record of.

Trump got lucky in the selection of Judge Aileen Cannon, who may be a MAGA sympathizer. But let's not lose sight of his flagrant, brazen, criminal contempt for his duty. Let's keep our focus on the people whose lives he put at risk. Let's have enough self-respect to recoil at his reckless endangerment of this country. If convicted, he deserves to do prison time. Cannon notwithstanding, he may well do prison time for this. And that, not his latest stink bomb, should be front of mind as we head into the campaign.

Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the "Beg to Differ" podcast. Her new book, "Hard Right: The GOP's Drift Toward Extremism," is available now.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Ted Cruz

For Ted Cruz, Trump Offers Another Chance To Kill Obamacare

In 2013, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke on the Senate floor for 21 hours and forced a government shutdown in a failed gambit to kill the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Ten years later, he’s still waging that war.

On Nov. 25, when former President Donald Trump suggested he will repeal Obamacare if he returns to the White House, Cruz was one of the first prominent Republicans to endorse that effort.

“I would love to see us revisit it,” Cruz, who is running for a third term, told NBC News on November 29. “Lowering premiums is critically important to Texans.”

This isn’t the first time Trump and Cruz have been allied on an Obamacare repeal push. In 2017, Cruz authored portions of the American Health Care Act, the Trump-endorsed bill that would have eliminated Obamacare. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that 23 million Americans would have lost their health insurance had the AHCA become law. When Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) cast the single vote that blocked that effort, Cruz was incensed.

“Mark my words, this journey is not yet done,” Cruz told reporters after the bill’s failure.

In the ensuing years, Cruz has routinely lambasted the program on social media. In a February 2018 Twitter post he said, “Few things have been more frustrating than seeing Republicans come short on repealing Obamacare.” In October 2020 he wrote, “I think Obamacare is a trainwreck.” On his current campaign website, he continues to advocate for full repeal.

“Since his first day in office, Sen. Cruz has been a leading voice for repealing Obamacare,” the site says. “He authored legislation repealing Obamacare’s individual mandate that was signed into law and remains committed to a full repeal of Obamacare.”

Texas has the second-highest number of Obamacare enrollees of all the states. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports that 2.8 million Texans are insured through the program.

Texas has not expanded Medicaid, which Cruz also opposes. If it did, more than 1.4 million Texans would become eligible for Medicaid.

Cruz’s and Trump’s push is also out of step with public opinion. According to KFF tracking polls, nearly 60 percent of Americans had a favorable view of Obamacare as of May 2023. Another KFF poll found that 59 percent of voters trust Democrats, more than Republicans, to handle the program’s future.

A spokesperson for Cruz did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

Rep. Colin Allred (R-TX), one of the Democrats challenging Cruz in 2024, tweeted on December 1 that it was unconscionable to talk about repealing the Affordable Care Act.

“I want to make sure that every Texan has access to affordable health insurance and affordable prescription drugs,” Allred told Spectrum News 1. “That should be the bare minimum that we can provide in our country.”

Reprinted with permission from AJ News.

Biden Awards Medal Of Freedom To Biles, Rapinoe, Campbell And McCain

Biden Awards Medal Of Freedom To Biles, Rapinoe, Campbell And McCain

By Nandita Bose and Amy Tennery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Gymnastics pioneer Simone Biles and twice World Cup winner Megan Rapinoe were among 17 honorees to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on Thursday from Joe Biden.

The highest U.S. civilian award is given to those who make an "especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

The most decorated American gymnast with a combined 32 Olympic and world championships medals, Biles performed gravity-defying routines and at the Tokyo Games emerged as a champion for athlete wellness and mental health.

"When she stands on a podium, we see what she is: Absolute courage to turn personal pain into greater purpose. To stand up and speak for those who cannot speak for themselves," Biden said.

The youngest-ever Medal of Freedom honoree, the 25-year-old testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that U.S. gymnastics and Olympics officials failed to stop the sexual abuse athletes suffered from former doctor Larry Nassar.

"Today she adds to her medal count - how are we going to find room?" Biden said.

Rapinoe, soccer's fiery, pink-haired leader on and off the pitch, won Olympic gold in 2012 and emerged as a leading advocate for gender pay equity in her national team's legal dispute with their governing body. She has also strongly and publicly advocated for LGBTQ equality.

"Megan is a champion for essential American truth: That everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect," said Biden.

Rapinoe received her medal with a handshake and wink to Biden, in a white suit jacket with the initials "BG" embroidered on the lapel, an apparent nod to WNBA All Star Brittney Griner, who has been detained in Russia since February on a drug charge.

Other recipients included late Senator John McCain, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, a survivor of gun violence and an advocate for gun violence prevention, and Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington. McCain's fellow posthumous honorees included former AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, and Apple's Steve Jobs.

"I am the guy who encouraged John [McCain] to run for office," Biden said. "I knew what incredible courage, intellect and conscience he had."

Honorees also included Sister Simone Campbell, former University of Texas at Brownsville President Julieta García, Father Alexander Karloutsos, Gold Star father Khizr Khan, critical care nurse Sandra Lindsay, civil rights advocates Diane Nash and Fred Gray, former Senator Alan Simpson, Brigadier General Wilma Vaught, and activist Raúl Yzaguirre.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington and Amy Tennery in New York; editing by Howard Goller)

The Twisted Roots Of Republican Insurrection

The Twisted Roots Of Republican Insurrection

With the passing of a year since the attempted coup and insurrection of January 2021, the question that remains unanswered for many Americans is how our country came to its current peril. Why is the nation now confronting such an extraordinary degree of polarization, so many threats to democracy, and the prospect of partisan violence or even civil war? The obvious answer is to pin these woes on Donald Trump alone, who certainly deserves plenty of blame. But that would be wrong.

The former president, whose fascistic tendency was identified in this space when he first announced his presidential candidacy in 2015, didn't suddenly appear from nowhere. Trump was and is the expression of an authoritarian and malevolent spirit that has gained increasing influence within the Republican Party over the past three decades. Although the Nixon administration's antidemocratic excesses were an early warning, the first sign that this would become an irreversible trend could be seen in the rise of Newt Gingrich — now one of Trump's most implacable and aggressive attack dogs.

When Gingrich came to power in the House of Representatives in the early '90s, he first overthrew the old-line Republicans whose worldview permitted cooperation and compromise with Democrats for the nation's good. Nobody in Republican leadership before Gingrich would ever have considered something like defaulting on the national debt — a dishonorable and extremely dangerous tactic — for partisan advantage.

But to Gingrich, such extremist maneuvers were entirely justified by his ultra-right ideology, which depicted Democrats not as political competitors but as blood enemies. To advance that ideology within the GOP he created an organization called GOPAC, which taught right-wing candidates how to deploy a lexicon of slurs describing their Democratic opponents, and liberals more generally, as "sick," "pathetic," "radical," "socialist" and "traitors," among a long list of other insults. His smear campaign bore a distinct resemblance to the Gothic horror mythology of the QAnon cult — as when he blamed a mother's murder of her two children on the Democratic Party. (Actually, she turned out to be the daughter of a "Christian" Republican leader who had sexually abused her.)

It was an extraordinarily destructive and even nihilistic approach to politics, but it worked. As longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone has gleefully noted so many times, hate is the most powerful motivator in politics — and by harnessing hate, the Gingrich Republicans gained control of Congress in 1994, and never looked back.

From that day until today, the Republican attitude toward governance has veered between authoritarian and insurrectionary. It's authoritarian when a Republican occupies the White House, as we observed when the George W. Bush administration declared the "unitary presidency" with unlimited powers during time of war, specifically the war on terror. And it's insurrectionary when a Democratic president is in power, as we saw when Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced that his only purpose was to deny Barack Obama a second term.

No rules or customs that had applied under Bush would be available to Obama, and any underhanded tactic would be employed to regain power. The usual courtesies and decencies were abandoned, as we know from decades of experience. Even respect for wartime service went down the drain, as Republican draft dodgers spit on the decorations of Democratic war heroes like John Kerry and the late Max Cleland. So Trump felt free to mock the sacrifice of the late John McCain and other veterans. This is the legacy of Gingrich and of Karl Rove, the Bush White House political mastermind who conceived a political system so thoroughly controlled by the Republican Party — by whatever means necessary — as to render all opposition merely symbolic.

Indeed, many of the Trumpian tropes that make most Americans retch can be traced back to that earlier era of disgrace. When Trump's evangelical followers proclaim that he was chosen by God to rule, they are merely parroting what they once told us about George W. Bush (whom they now despise). The Republicans and their echoes in media and the pulpit are purveyors of propaganda, without shame or scruple.

Yes, Trump and his minions represent a clear and present danger to democracy, but they didn't emerge from nowhere. Their brand of cancer has been growing in the Republican Party for a generation or more — and with all due respect to brave dissenters like Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), it will not be excised merely by defeating him.

To find out more about Joe Conason and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.