It’s hard to comprehend that in just a week, we’ve gone from Trump’s embarrassing, weak-kneed meeting with Putin to the execution of search warrants on Trump’s former National Security Advisor and the announcement that the National Guard will be deployed in Chicago.
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| It’s hard to comprehend that in just a week, we’ve gone from Trump’s embarrassing, weak-kneed meeting with Putin to the execution of search warrants on Trump’s former National Security Advisor and the announcement that the National Guard will be deployed in Chicago. Trump shakes off failures and pushes on. This is the modus operandi for this administration. Trump never concedes defeat. If you missed any of this week's columns between summer time off and the press of news, here’s your weekly wrap-up: Trump’s “Truth” About Voting: Trump is moving the Overton Window all the time, trying to change the scope of perceived legitimate policy choices. That’s perhaps more dangerous when it comes to voting than anywhere else. Make sure you’re on top of Trump’s new, and blatantly untrue, claim that the states are just his “agents” when it comes to conducting elections. Conduct Unbecoming: Remember when Trump’s nominees for DOJ and FBI testified at their confirmation hearings that they had no intention of engaging in revenge prosecutions, that there were no enemy lists? This week, it became abundantly clear to anyone who hadn’t already caught on that this is a revenge presidency. I wrote, “One of the most important touchstones at DOJ is exercising judgment and acting with restraint—taking time to assess situations and drawing on the collective expertise of generations of skilled lawyers to find the right solution to difficult problems. Above all, the focus is on justice and fairness, and ensuring that people’s rights are protected. That Justice Department appears to be dead, or at least in a coma.” My Book Tour: My book tour is on, starting—and already sold out for its first stop—October 17 in Birmingham. There are still tickets in most places, especially in bigger cities like New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. and I hope you’ll come out and say hi! Some of these events will also stream online, so if I’m not coming to your city (believe me, my publisher, who is planning this, has been inundated with requests for cities that aren’t included yet), I hope you’ll join me on the interwebs. You can find Giving Up Is Unforgivable here. Investigating the Police: Because Trump’s lie about assuming control of law enforcement in the nation’s capital due to skyrocketing crime, was being called out in every corner, Trump, predictably, announced a federal investigation into how those numbers were being collected. It’s a banana republic move, using the power of prosecution to try and punish perceived enemies. Five Questions with UCLA Law Professor Rick Hasen: One of the areas Rick studies is election law, and I’d been meaning to have a conversation with him about whether he thinks Trump will try to cancel the 2026 elections. He agreed with me that it’s unlikely. But beyond that, I was interested in what he saw as the biggest threats to holding free and fair elections and I think you will be too. This is a thoughtful layout of the risks and what we can do to counter them. Substack Live: We had a great series of conversations this week, starting with Mary McCord and our discussion of the differences between Trump’s legal authorities in the District of Columbia and elsewhere. I joined Jim Acosta at the top of his show last Monday. Katie Phang and I peeled back the curtain on what happens when good friends who are both legal analysts get together for the end-of-the-day chat about everything that’s happening. Andrew Weissmann and I had planned a Saturday morning chat about 1984, our book club book, and we did manage to talk about it, although we signed on just as news John Bolton’s home was being searched by the FBI broke, so we discussed that too. Allison Gill and I discussed the death of the presumption of regularity.
Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I wrote to you about the turkeys we’d seen roaming around, and many of you replied to let me know it was a pack of young toms. A couple of days ago, we noticed that they seem to have found some lady friends. There was a lot of strutting going on. This morning, the boys are back in town, but minus their new friends. We’re watching this saga closely to see what exciting developments come next. I hope you’ll use this week’s posts to stay up to speed and that you’ll share them widely. Civics education has moved out of elementary schools and into the mainstream. We can all help spread critical knowledge about the path our country is on. Thanks for being here with me at Civil Discourse, as we take on the challenges ahead. We’re in this together, Joyce Share | |
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