Why Does Jeffrey Clark Matter?
How the GOP has gone from Bob Dole to Lauren Boebert...
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AMANDA CARPENTER wonders: Who is Jeffrey Clark and Why Does He Matter?
When then-Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen rejected the idea on January 2, Clark told him Trump had offered to make him attorney general, but he would decline if Rosen would agree to sign the letter. Rosen refused. On January 3, Clark told Rosen he was going to accept Trump’s offer to replace Rosen as acting attorney general. But, Rosen quickly organized with others and threatened to resign if Trump did so. Clark’s plan fell apart. But still, it was quite the plan.
Keep in mind that Clark was proposing these steps after Trump’s campaign had lost dozens of cases in court over alleged election fraud and the states had all certified their election results, which makes his actions all the more brazen.
And, that’s the point. There was a plan to delegitimize the election and interfere with the peaceful transfer of power with many people involved. Not just the big, famous people, like Steve Bannon and the Kraken Lady. But also little people. People you’ve never heard of before. Like Jeffrey Clark.
Stacey Abrams sees good odds in the Georgia's governor's race, while the Republican candidates are stuck in the amber of Trump's Big Lie. Plus: Nunes' job change shows that being on Fox is the new path to power. NBC News' Jonathan Allen joins Charlie Sykes on today's podcast.
In defense of—God help us—Lauren Boebert? That’s what CHRIS TRUAX argues about precedent setting.
I want to be absolutely clear: Lauren Boebert is an idiot. That she was elected to Congress is a national embarrassment. But the fact remains that she was elected to Congress and punishing her for her political views, no matter how noxious, has serious implications for American democracy.
The check on a congressional member’s political ideas, even if they are “encouraging bigotry and hatred” is the ballot box, not the moral outrage of the majority. If those views aren’t representative of their constituents’ views, then the offender will lose her seat. (Kevin McCarthy might have taken away Republican and white nationalist Steve King’s committee assignments, but it was Iowa voters who sent him packing.)
But if those noxious views are representative of their constituents’ views, then majoritarian punishments are nothing but shooting the messenger. That isn’t going to shame those constituents into sending someone more reasonable to Congress as their representative. To the contrary.
Partially disenfranchising an entire congressional district because the voters in that district don’t meet your moral standards is a big step towards the end of democracy. That’s not an exaggeration. It’s almost a definition. A democracy where only voters who vote “correctly” get fully represented isn’t really a democracy at all.
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
If you read one piece today… Read this one by Tim Alberta. He is, outside of Matt Labash, one of the best long-form profile writers out there. It’ll take you a while, but I promise you, it’s 100% worth it. Our audience? Custom written for folks like you, trying to understand the few remaining “good ones” on the Republican side.
Alberta’s skill is that he can get people to spill, and does so over a long period of time. Keep in mind, Tim has been collecting anecdotes on this story the better part of an entire calendar year.
Like anonymously sourced with quotes from unnamed “senior officials” that are quick, punchy, and conform to the ever change news cycle? That’s not Tim Alberta. Would it be good to have known a lot of these side stories in the mean time? Yes. Sure. But that’s not how long-form, long-game journalism works. And Alberta is a master of it.
There are a lot of stories that can, and should, be written (were it possible in each instance) resulting from the trail of breadcrumbs that Rep. Peter Meijer, who was very careful not to name names, left us. I’m not going to spoil a single detail. If you don’t have the time, here are a few. But seriously, read the whole thing.
Meijer’s picture of the current state of the GOP is part of why this website exists. And if we want two functioning parties (which we desperately need), let Meijer’s experience serve as further warning that things are not trending in the right direction. Whether he’s a canary in the coal mine, we’ll find out next year, I guess.
Today I learned… Big Bird, and the actor who portrays him, was supposed to be on the ill-fated Challenger flight.
When the moon is in the Seventh House, and Jupiter aligns with Mars… The far-right House GOP is promising the age of Jim Jordan, Marjorie Greene, and Matt Gaetz.
Is Mark Meadows scared?
First, we learn:
Then, we learn this:
Metadata could very well prove to be a problem!
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