#SCOTUS Justice Samuel A. #Alito Jr. has offered multiple accounts of how politically charged flags [#insurrectionist flags] came to fly outside his homes in VA & NJ — the type of display that is generally off-limits for judges, who must remain #impartial & avoid even the appearance of #bias as they handle cases.
Since the public revelation of the #flags engulfed the nation’s highest court in criticism last month & prompted calls for #Alito’s #recusal from certain cases, the justice has said it was his wife who flew the banners, not him, & that she flew one of them after a neighborhood dispute. But his successive explanations — in a statement, an interview w/ FoxNews & letters to Congress — have raised additional questions, & in some cases #conflicted w/known #facts.
#Alito has yet to fully explain some key aspects of the controversy: How long did an #UpsideDown American #flag fly at the Alitos’ Virginia home? Where did they get the “#AppealToHeaven” flag that flew at their New Jersey beach house? And more. Here are the major discrepancies in Alito’s telling & what he still has not fully answered. Neither he nor his wife, #MarthaAnnAlito, responded to a request for comment.
…#Alito told Fox News …the neighborhood dispute began when his wife went to speak w/their neighbor Emily Baden in Jan 2021. #MarthaAnnAlito was upset the woman was displaying an anti #Trump sign, w/an expletive, “within 50 feet of where children await the school bus,” as Bream put it on…[social media].
But Fairfax County schools were shuttered at the time because of the coronavirus pandemic & had been since March 2020.
‘#Putin Will Do That For Me’: #Trump Drops Campaign Clip Claiming #Russia Will Release @WSJ Reporter Only If He’s Reelected
Trump released a campaign clip on Tues in which he doubled down on the wild claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin will release jailed WSJ reporter #EvanGershkovich if he’s reelected president.
“#EvanGershkovich, the reporter for The Wall Street Journal who is being held by #Russia, will be released almost immediately after the election,” #Trump said in the clip, adding:
“But definitely before I assume office, he will be home. He will be safe. Vladimir #Putin, president of Russia, will do that for me. And I don’t believe he’ll do it for anyone else. And we will be paying nothing. Biden likes to pay massive numbers. We will be paying nothing. Thank you very much.”
…Johnson “has named Reps #ScottPerry PA) & #RonnyJackson (TX) to the House Intelligence Cmte. The #Intel Cmte oversees the entire intelligence community & gets some of the most sensitive intelligence about the #US & its allies.”
Both #ScottPerry & #RonnyJackson have grabbed headlines in recent yrs for all the wrong reasons. Jackson’s on-the-job behavior while working in the WH as #Trump’s physician led to headlines like this: “Rep Ronny Jackson made sexual comments, drank alcohol & took Ambien while working as White House physician, Pentagon watchdog finds.” Jackson was later demoted from retired admiral to retired captain by the #Navy due to the #Pentagon’s investigation into his behavior.
#ScottPerry, who coordinated w/ #Trump allies surrounding the #Jan6th attack on the US Capitol, was involved in his own scandal. “Federal judge orders texts, emails on Rep Scott Perry’s phone be turned over to prosecutors in 2020 election probe,” read a CBS headline from 2023. Perry & Jackson’s past scandals led commentators & journalists to react w/both surprise & scorn at #MikeJohnson’s decision to place them on the #Intelligence Cmte.
A 2nd #Trump admin could #weaponize existing government agencies to dismantle democracy itself.
This article is part of “Project 2025: The Plot Against #America,” a Nation special issue devoted to unpacking the right’s vast & chilling program for a 2nd Trump term.
managing elections to benefit himself & his #Republican allies; gutting public broadcasting & constraining #press#freedom; & undermining civil society. #Trump, who…demanded that the results of #Georgia’s 2020…[election] be “recalculated” to give him a win, wants the trappings of #democracy w/o the reality of electoral consequences. That’s what #propaganda experts Edward Herman & Frank Brodhead described as “demonstration elections,” in which…wins are assured for the #authoritarians….
The outline for such a scenario emerges from a thorough reading of #Project2025’s Mandate for Leadership, which specifically proposes a #Trump-friendly recalculation of the systems that sustain American #democracy. The strategy for establishing an American version of Orbán’s “#illiberal democracy” is not spelled out in any particular chapter of Mandate. Rather, it is woven throughout the whole of the document, w/key elements appearing in the chapters on reworking #DHS, the #FCC, & the #FEC.
In the section on the #DHS …there’s a plan to eliminate the ability of the agency that monitors #ElectionSecurity to prevent the spread of #disinformation about voting & #vote counting.
…Think back to Nov 2020, when #Trump was developing his #BigLie about the #election he’d lost. Trump’s false assertion the election had been characterized by “massive improprieties & fraud” was tripped up by #ChrisKrebs, who served as dir of the #Cybersecurity & Infrastructure #Security Agency (#CISA) in the DHS.
The Republican appointee & his team had established a 24/7 “war room” to work w/ofcls across the country to monitor threats to the #security & integrity of the #election. The operation was so meticulous that #Krebs could announce after the voting was finished: “America, we have confidence in the security of your vote, you should, too.” …his coordinating team declared, “The Nov 3rd election was the most secure in American history.” This infuriated #Trump, who immediately fired…[Krebs].
In Mandate’s chapter on the #DHS, Ken Cuccinelli writes, “Of the utmost urgency is immediately ending CISA’s counter-mis / #disinformation efforts. … #Project2025 document declares that “the entirety of the #CISA#Cybersecurity Advisory Committee should be dismissed on Day One.”
…This is just one way that Project 2025’s cabal of “experts” is scheming to thwart honest discourse about #elections & #democracy.
…This is all part of #Project2025’s …vision for restructuring #DOJ so it can be #weaponized by a new #Trump admin when it comes to election-related issues. In Mandate’s chapter on #Justice, Hamilton…proposes reassigning…prosecuting election-related offenses from the #CivilRights Div to the #Criminal Div. Why? So #Republican-generated claims about “fraudulent voter registration,” “mail-in ballot fraud,” &…the various targets of Trump’s #BigLie claims…are “appropriately investigated & prosecuted.”
Instead of focusing on #VoterSuppression, the manipulation of #election processes by domestic & foreign agents, & other genuine threats to #democracy, Mandate for Leadership’s authors would have these agencies do the bidding of #Trump & his #MAGA movement. That’s a formula for giving Trump the #authoritarian#power he seeks—not through an explicit crushing of electoral democracy, but by “reforming” it in precisely the way that the nonpartisan group Protect Democracy warns is most dangerous.
“The biggest innovation of 21st-century #authoritarians has been to maintain the facade of democratic #elections while at the same time tilting the rules against their opponents,” the group explains in its report, The Authoritarian Playbook. “They do this by suppressing votes & biasing, distorting, falsifying, or even overturning the results—either through capturing the referees or by manipulating the electoral rules in their favor.”