Trump Legal News: Detroit Breakdown

Jack Smith and his team are just full of surprises. Yesterday, the government made a nine-page filing that claims it has evidence that an employee of the Donald Trump campaign was sent to Detroit to try to get some riots going on election night 2020, so as to interfere with the counting of the votes there.

The purpose of the original scheme, if true, is plain. Michigan is one of the swingiest states, and Detroit is where the Black people are (the city was 77.7% Black at the last census). Given the mindset of Team Trump, it was an obvious twofer—Black people are riot-prone, and wrecking the vote count in Detroit would surely deprive Joe Biden of hundreds of thousands of votes (he ultimately won the state 50.6% to 47.8%).

As to Smith, his purpose here is to illustrate a pattern of behavior. One of Trump's defenses in his Washington case—very possibly his only defense—is that he had no idea that his words on 1/6 were going to rouse people to violence. Obviously, if he had previously sent an underling to try to foment a riot, it makes clear exactly what his agenda was, and his claim of being shocked and surprised is pure nonsense.

The identity of the Trump mole is currently a mystery, at least to the general public. Significant chunks of the filing are blacked out, and the individual is referred to only as "Campaign Employee." Frankly, our money is on Kid Rock, but we'd also listen to arguments that it's Ted Nugent. Whatever the case may be, it is likely that the secret will soon be revealed.

The reason we say "likely" is that it's not a 100% slam dunk that Judge Tanya Chutkan will allow this particular bit of evidence. Smith's team has introduced a fair amount of 404(b) evidence, which is evidence of wrongful deeds that were not criminally charged, and that are not directly connected to the case at hand. Put another way, 404(b) evidence is evidence that speaks to longstanding patterns of behavior and/or verbiage. The odds are pretty good that Chutkan will allow most of the 404(b) material that the prosecution has submitted, but only she knows for sure.

On a related point, Trump expended some energy this weekend pushing back at claims that he's a threat to democracy. Speaking to the crowd at yet another one of his rallies, the former president shrieked: "If Joe Biden wants to make this race a question of which candidate will defend our democracy and protect our freedoms, and I say to crooked Joe—and he is crooked, the most corrupt president we've ever had—we will win that fight and we're going to win it very big."

It is interesting that Trump is talking about this, for at least two reasons. First, it means that the former president thinks he's vulnerable on this point (and he's usually right about these things). Second, it means that Trump is having a conversation that Biden very much wants to have. Of course, The Donald is trying to flip the script by turning it into a conversation about how the current president is the real threat to democracy. That's not a line of attack that's likely to land with anyone who's not already part of the base, however, and who has not already been exposed to vast amounts of right-wing propaganda. Meanwhile, as Trump tries to argue that he's the true defender of liberty, justice, and the American way, he doesn't exactly help his case when he refuses to answer the question: "Do you in any way have any plans whatsoever if reelected president to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people?" (Z)

Tuberville Takes a Knee

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) announced yesterday that he would lift his hold on all military promotions of three-star and lower rank. The Senators did not want to give him a chance to change his mind, it would seem, because as soon as he backed down, Tuberville's colleagues approved 400+ promotions. They will do the rest through normal order.

When Tuberville signaled his imminent surrender last week, all the while implying he had a "plan" for doing so, we wrote:

It is hard to imagine what Tuberville's "plan" might be, besides "surrender." That is to say, there's no clever or tricky way that we can think of to say "I'm not going to block the promotions anymore" other than to say "I'm not going to block the promotions anymore." He may come up with some sort of political theater, so he can save face, and pretend that he was the one in control the whole time.

We were right, in the sense that he did surrender. He had a week to think about it, and didn't even come up with a way to save face, other than to say that he's going to bring an end to the situation (which he created), rather than allowing those persnickety, tradition-hating Democrats to do so. Unsaid in Tuberville's bellyaching is that at least 10 (and probably more like 25) of his fellow Republicans were prepared to join the Democrats in cutting Tuberville off at the knees.

Anyhow, now that it appears to be over, here is an exhaustive list of all the valuable things that were accomplished with this promotion blockade:

We hope you appreciate how much hard work went into compiling that.

Tuberville, for his part, said:

We saw some success. We didn't get as much out of it as we wanted. The only opportunity you got to get people on the left up here to listen to you in the minority is to put a hold on something. I think we opened their eyes a little bit. We didn't get the win that we wanted. We still got a bad policy.

First, note the use of the royal "we." Second, exactly what does it mean that he opened the Democrats "eyes a little bit"? Does he really believe that ANY Senate Democrat is going to think about this for even half a second the next time they have to cast a vote on something abortion-related? Our sneaking suspicion is that they give 99.999999% of their attention to polling on abortion access, and to their own consciences, while reserving some tiny fraction of the remainder to temper tantrums thrown by Alabama senators.

Indeed, one of the more conservative-leaning Democrats, and one from a purple state, did a pretty good job of speaking for his caucus. After Tuberville made his announcement, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), sent out this statement: "About damn time." (Z)

More Showboating News

We wouldn't normally pay too much attention to these stories, if not for the Tuberville news, because they're pretty much "dog bites man." But today we will note a couple of them, just as a reminder that nearly every member of Congress performs some silly political theater, at least once in a while, for the benefit of the folks back home. Tuberville's political theater was just particularly noticeable because it was particularly damaging.

Exemplar #1 is Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) who, admittedly, likes to showboat so much his life could be made into a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. Readers who are sports fans will know that there's some controversy in the world of college football right now, as there were six well-qualified teams for four playoff spots, and the undefeated, 13-0 Florida State Seminoles were left on the outside looking in. This is the first time an undefeated champion of a "Power 5" conference (the ACC, in FSU's case) has been excluded.

Scott has noticed that a lot of FSU fans are voters (Donald Trump noticed the same thing, incidentally). And so, the Senator pitched a fit. He also sent a sternly worded letter to Boo Corrigan (what's with these Southern nicknames?), who is chair of the selection committee. In the letter, Scott demands a vast amount of information that would take weeks to compile.

The Senator's letter is written carefully, so as to imply that he's asking for information in an official context, and that his request should be regarded as a subpoena. However, the selection committee has committed no crime and, as a private entity, owes no explanation to a cranky U.S. Senator. Further, the games are less than 4 weeks away, so even if Scott got "satisfaction" (he won't), it would come too late to help Florida State. He will do a bunch more loud complaining, and that will be that.

Moving on to Exemplar #2, Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) has discovered a flaw in the system that must, must, must be fixed. To that end, he has introduced the Congressional Pension Accountability Act, which would cancel the pension of members of Congress who have been expelled. It is one of several pieces of legislation that have been introduced in the last week to try to get some mileage out of the expulsion of "George Santos."

And now, let us remind you that there have been a total of 21 expulsions in the history of Congress; 15 senators and 6 representatives. All but three of those were expelled 150+ years ago, before there was such a thing as Congressional pensions. Michael Myers (PA) and "Santos" were in office in the era of pensions, but did not serve long enough to qualify for one. That means that the new law would apply to a grand total of one person in U.S. history, namely Jim Traficant (OH), who is presently dead.

You might plausibly argue that the list could reach two, depending on what happens with Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ). But note that "Santos" held on to the bitter end, and allowed himself to be expelled, since there was no cost to him to doing so. If Menendez thought he was really in danger, he would promptly resign, if that was the difference between keeping and not keeping his pension. This is the exact same maneuver pulled by Richard Nixon, and for the same reason. So, Nunn's new bill is 100% grandstanding, and he knows it. As we note, we just thought we'd point it out as a reminder that Congress wastes a lot of time with this stuff, and it's not just Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

Oh, and we know that Show Boat was actually written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, but nobody recognizes the phrase "Kern and Hammerstein." (Z)

Johnson Says He Has the Votes for... an Impeachment Inquiry

The budget needs to be hammered out, and there are foreign-affairs problems around the globe. So, naturally, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has to prioritize, and he's decided that the most important thing is... impeaching Joe Biden. And so, he's been whipping votes in favor of an impeachment inquiry, and he thinks he's got them.

Truth be told, we thought there was already an impeachment inquiry underway; wasn't that the bone that former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) threw to the Freedom Caucus to try to save his job? As it turns out, that was only mostly an impeachment inquiry, kind of like the Man in Black was only mostly dead.

When McCarthy did that, he was just trying to distract the FCers, since he knew there was no basis for an impeachment, and that trying it would do the Republicans more harm than good. Johnson could be doing the same, although the enormous speed with which he got to work on the matter suggests he might really believe in this cause. He is, after all, a borderline FCer. In any event, this just might be the kind of nonsense that has Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) heading for the hills (see below). (Z)

McHenry Will Not Seek Reelection

This is a surprise. Not a big surprise, we suppose, but a little one. Patrick McHenry, who was elected to the House at the tender age of 29, and who seemed to be a fellow on the rise, announced yesterday that he will retire at the end of this, his 10th term.

What caused him to go from speaker pro tempore to short-timer in the span of just 6 weeks? Well, he really does seem like a person of clear convictions, and so we are inclined to believe reports that he's disgusted by the infighting in the House Republican Conference. In addition, the faction that McHenry is allied with is no longer ascendant, so his path to greater power may be cut off for a while. That's especially true if Republicans lose control of the House.

McHenry was and is a close ally of deposed speaker Kevin McCarthy. Certainly the retirement of the former has to be interpreted as additional evidence that the retirement of the latter is likely close at hand. McHenry has promised to finish serving out his term; McCarthy might not do the same. The open seat that will be created by McHenry's departure, in NC-10, is R+22. So, it's not at risk of changing hands in 2024. (Z)

Get Ready for another GOP Candidates' Debate

Tonight, a bunch of Republicans who have little to no chance of becoming president will meet in Tuscaloosa, AL, for yet another debate in which they are likely to say nothing of note.

The list of participants keeps shrinking, so at least that's something. Nikki Haley, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Vivek Ramaswamy qualified several weeks ago. Chris Christie got a couple of miracle polls at the last minute, and so he qualified, too. What this means is that we have the cast of Debate #3 minus Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). Scott wasn't going to make the cut, anyhow, and, of course, he dropped out of the race rather than face the indignity of being told he was out of the debate lineup.

Naturally, Donald Trump also qualified to be on stage and, naturally, he won't be there. This time, he's counter-programming with a fundraiser in Florida. (Z) recalls, back in high school, that he was told that someone who makes a point of avoiding popular music and movies and other such things, simply because they are popular, is not the iconoclast they think they are, and is still allowing their behavior to be shaped by what is trendy. This may be relevant here; the fact that Trump always schedules some sort of high-profile event to take place at the same time as the candidates' debates would seem to undermine his argument that they're not important and he doesn't care about them.

The fun (assuming you're someone who's into pain) begins at 8:00 ET. The moderators are NewsNation's Elizabeth Vargas, who's tolerable, Washington Free Beacon editor-in-chief Eliana Johnson, who isn't, and SiriusXM's Megyn Kelly, who really, really isn't. NewsNation is the lead broadcaster, so you can watch the debate on that channel if you have it... and you can find it in your channel lineup. It's also going to be streamed on NewsNation's website, and will be broadcast on many local CW affiliates (though tape-delayed west of the Mississippi). Alternatively, if you are really a glutton for punishment, you can watch it on the far-right social media platform Rumble.

Also, we need to pay off the third debate contest before the fourth debate happens. So, to start, here are the order in which the various phrases showed up:

Attacks on Joe Biden
Word/Phrase	Order in Category	Order Overall	Said By
Age	N/A	N/A	N/A
Border	2	2	DeSantis
Inflation	1	1	DeSantis
Mental State	N/A	N/A	N/A
Hunter	3	7	Ramaswamy
General Attacks on Democrats
Word/Phrase	Order in Category	Order Overall	Said By
Socialism	2	16	Haley
Liberal	3	17	Haley
Deep State	5	20	Ramaswamy
Woke	1	14	Ramaswamy
Anti-LGBTQ	4	19	Scott
Names
Word/Phrase	Order in Category	Order Overall	Said By
Donald Trump	1	3	DeSantis
Barack Obama	3	13	Scott
Hillary Clinton	2	8	Ramaswamy
Current Cabinet member	N/A	N/A	N/A
Current Rep./Sen.	4	15	Christie (Mike Gallagher)
Foreign Affairs
Word/Phrase	Order in Category	Order Overall	Said By
Israel	5	12	DeSantis
Antisemitism	2	5	Haley
Terrorist/Terrorism	1	4	Haley
Hamas	4	11	DeSantis
Ukraine	3	6	Haley
Religion
Word/Phrase	Order in Category	Order Overall	Said By
Prayers/Praying	3	18	Scott
God	2	10	Scott
Bible	N/A	N/A	N/A
Jesus	N/A	N/A	N/A
Christian	1	9	Scott

An exercise like this really does throw into relief the various candidates' brands, doesn't it? Haley is the conservative from generations past, DeSantis is the attack dog, Ramaswamy is the conspiracy theorist, Scott is the evangelical who loves Jesus and hates the gays, and Christie is the wallpaper.

And here are the top 10 scorers (the tiebreaker, recall, was guessing how much speaking time Vivek Ramaswamy would have; he checked in at exactly 17.5 minutes):

1. P.L. in Los Angeles, CA and R.S. in Falmouth, KY (tie): 42 points; 2.5 minutes off on Ramaswamy's speaking time
   
   
2. J.M. in Los Angeles, CA: 42 points; 0.5 minutes
   
   
3. A.C. in Kingston, MA: 44 points; 7.5 minutes
   
   
4. D.R. in Ewing, NJ: 44 points; 2.5 minutes
   
   
5. G.M.L. in Alexandria, VA: 44 points; 1.5 minutes
   
   
6. E.K. in Brignoles, France: 44 points; 0.5 minutes
   
   
7. M.M. in Manahawkin, NJ: 46 points; 13.5 minutes
   
   
8. A.C.W. in Las Vegas, NV: 46 points; 10.5 minutes
   
   
9. M.C. in DeWitt, MI: 48 points; 8.5 minutes
   
   
10. S.A. in Clinton, WA: 48 points; 1.5 minutes

Congrats to S.A. and to all of the Top 10! Oh, and in case you are wondering, the average score was 28.9 points and the average margin of error on Ramaswamy was 10.96 minutes.

We will do something like this again for a future debate; there just wasn't time to pull something together for tonight's affair. (Z)

Burgum Quits His Totally Pointless Campaign

Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) failed to qualify for the debate stage—again—and saw the handwriting on the wall. It said: "Go home." So, he has ended his quest for the presidency, which really never got off the ground. And if he hadn't been passing out $20 gift cards for $1 donations, he wouldn't have even made the first debate. The entire exercise was pointless from the beginning.

Before becoming governor of North Dakota, Burgum founded a software company and eventually sold it to Microsoft for a billion dollars. Rich businessmen always think that because they made a lot of money in some business, they will be hailed as conquering heroes in politics. It happens once in a while (see: Johnson, Sen. Ron) but not that often. Buying a House seat is often doable because House elections normally cost a few million and if you can afford to dump $20 million into the race, you can swamp all your opponents. But for the White House, that usually doesn't work, even if you are very rich, very famous, and even if you have already held elective office (see: Bloomberg, Michael).

Burgum went out with a fine whine. On the way out the door, he said: "The RNC's mission is to win elections. It is not their mission to reduce competition and restrict fresh ideas by 'narrowing the field' months before the Iowa caucuses or the first in the nation New Hampshire primary." Really? So in his view the RNC should allow anyone who wants to be on stage for the debates to be there? What if 50 representatives and 100 state senators think being on stage would give them great name recognition for their next election? Would all 150 of them be allowed there? Doesn't he think the RNC might want to limit the number a bit? Maybe he disagrees that polls and donors should be the criteria for getting on stage, but he didn't suggest any alternatives. Maybe he would have preferred that 10 spots would be auctioned off to the highest bidders, with the bidding starting at $10 million? Somebody back in North Dakota should ask him. And note that he didn't complain about the cutoffs... until he couldn't meet them. He's just an egomaniac and a sore loser. Good riddance.

There is one small matter left to deal with, however, and we've been waiting until this day to deal with it. Recall that we laid claim to one of those $20 gift cards, and then we asked the readership where we should donate the money. The winner, after we worked through the ranked choices, was... the ACLU of North Dakota. To start, we're going to round the donation up to $250. If anyone else has a desire to participate, we will also add any money sent to our PayPal link between now and the end of the year. We know some people don't use Paypal, so you can also send a check made out to Electoral Vote LLC to 1241 S. Bundy Dr. #2 LA CA 90025. The upside here, beyond being a part of the schadenfreude, is that you won't end up on any mailing lists that haunt you until the day you die (and then your descendants after that). As an alternative (which will get you on ACLU's mailing list) is to donate at ACLU North Dakota's Website. (V & Z)

A December to Rhymember, Part IV: Outfoxed

It would seem that yesterday's verse about the media struck a chord, since we got a number of poems on that theme. Today, we'll do a couple that focus on Fox "News," which were undoubtedly also influenced by yesterday's item on why people watch that channel.

Anyhow, here's one from M.S. in Sterling, NY:

The media is the message, as per Mr. McLuhan
Shoveling lies about Dominion was Fox's undoing
Trump lies daily, seeking a sequel
The media thinks this speech is an "equal"
"Let's you and him fight" might make Trump a shoo-in

And one from K.J.O. in Brookdale NJ:

Faux news makes them feel jumpy
Repetition makes them more grumpy
With envy and fear
They cry into their beer
This explains why they're so Trumpy

Two more tomorrow. Maybe three. Your submissions go here. (Z)

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