A Bad Day for Hate: Rep. Jim Jordan Folds, Trump Lawyer Sidney Powell Flips

Everybody pictured in today’s lead graphic tried to overturn an election.

Round three of the contest to become speaker of the House of Representatives ended this morning, with Cong. Jim Jordan of Ohio canceling a noon vote. Support for his candidacy spiraled down after threats made to GOP colleagues (and their families) who failed to support Jordan in earlier rounds of voting became the subject of news reports.

As Bradley S. Klein and Scott G. Nelson said at Public Notice:

• When threats of violence insinuate themselves into political decision-making on vitally important governing matters, the nation has reached a dangerous crisis point. The phenomenon has gained momentum in recent years, thanks largely to Trump. Now, however, Trump is joined by elected Republicans and news media personalities in the widespread incitement of hate speech that agitates for violent political assault. The immediate aims appear to be to instill fear and paralyze the opposition. But the endgame is far darker than this. 

• Embracing extremist views destroys the capacity of a civil society to function and poisons the political culture. Effectively, it means handing political power over to enraged mobs — incensed followers of would-be autocrats who wish to take matters into their own hands. In a country with such a strong gun culture as the US, the consequences are particularly worrisome.

Now that the use of coordinated  “anonymous” personal threats has produced consequences, perhaps the vitriol associated with MAGA causes will receive further exposure.

Thousands of everyday Americans, from librarians to poll workers to scientists have (mostly) suffered in silence because their complaints were deemed to be singular rather than a widespread tactic. Their crime: disagreeing with a minority extremist point of view.

Here’s Republican Rasputin Steve Bannon, on his podcast, calling out “anonymous” troops to attack:

• "Ladies and gentlemen, we've wanted this fight for at least 12 years since the tea party. We've wanted this fight today's the day, and you're gonna see who governs you" 

• "And they're whining, Oh, this is so terrible. It's counterproductive."

• "Call them and get in their grill. Let them know what you think. Email, call their local office."

• "All of it. Burn it down. That's right."

What might (I’m writing this in the morning) occur in the House will be passage of a resolution extending and expanding the role of North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry as speaker pro tempore to include negotiating a budget deal and an aid package for Israel, Ukraine, and (possibly) Taiwan. 

Republicans are so divided that this alternative may not have the support it needs because McHenry is distrusted by far-right members due to his role in the deal earlier this year to avoid a government shutdown.

From Salon:

• Passing the resolution could serve as an off-ramp for Jordan too, the outlet reported, since it would allow him to effectively end his campaign for speaker without formally dropping out. He could then run again after McHenry’s term is up in January.

• Still, such a move would almost certainly trigger a conservative freakout, the report added.

• One of those conservatives, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, fumed over the plan on Wednesday, arguing that it “represents an unforgivable step to coalition government & likely decimation in 2024.”

Jay Kuo offers up some hope:

• This development carries an important message. While Trump, because of his vast platform and god-like status among his flock, may be able to coerce party members and even stir-up violence in his name to achieve his goals through fear, someone like Jordan could and did fall short in the face of steadfast opposition. A relatively small group of determined and principled members can deny him what he wants, threats be damned.

• I’m not ready to say this is a true inflection point for the GOP. Jordan is still on a mission to claim the Speakership sometime next year (though in the next round of balloting, I predict he will lose even more support as members realize the little emperor has no claws). But if Jordan is finally and utterly defeated, it will be an important victory for the forces of restraint, civility and moderation, even within the chaotic and dishonorable GOP conference.

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Georgia DA Fani Willis' decision to charge former President Donald Trump and allies with violations of the state’s RICO Act hit paydirt today, as Sidney “Release the Kraken” Powell pled guilty and agreed to testify against other co-defendants. 

From the Associated Press:

• Powell, 68, was initially charged with racketeering and six other counts as part of a wide-ranging scheme to keep the Republican president in power after he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. Prosecutors say she also participated in an unauthorized breach of elections equipment in a rural Georgia county elections office.

• The acceptance of a plea deal is a remarkable about-face for a lawyer who, perhaps more than anyone else, strenuously pushed baseless conspiracy theories about a stolen election in the face of extensive evidence to the contrary. If prosecutors compel her to testify, she could provide insight on a news conference she participated in on behalf of Trump and his campaign shortly after the election and on a White House meeting she attended in mid-December of that year during which strategies and theories to influence the outcome of the election were discussed.

Racketeering prosecutions are successful when underlings take plea bargains and agree to assist in bringing the kingpin down. In this case, the individual at the top of the food chain is former president Donald J Trump. 

From the New York Times:

• Ms. Powell was a frequent visitor to the White House after the election and had direct dealings with the highest-profile defendants in the case, including Mr. Trump, who considered naming her a special counsel to review vote fraud. That makes her potentially a valuable witness for the prosecution.

• “I think it’s very bad news for Trump,” said Clark D. Cunningham, a law professor at Georgia State University, noting that her access to Mr. Trump at the White House put her “right in the middle” of the racketeering conspiracy at the heart of the case.

Sidney Powell, was in Trump’s estimation, the last figure standing will to keep up the fight to prove the election was stolen. When the sixty odd cases she’d filed in state courts collapsed, Powell introduced the notion (promising proof later) that the election was stolen by virtue of Dominion voting systems being under the thumb of the Venezuelan government.

Reporter Jonathan Swan’s story Inside the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency gives up Powell’ role in the Trump effort:

• Powell was arguing that they couldn't get a judge to enforce any subpoena to hand over the voting machines because all the judges were corrupt. She and her group repeatedly referred to the National Emergencies Act and a Trump executive order from 2018 that was designed to clear the way for the government to sanction foreign actors interfering in U.S. elections.

• These laws were, in the view of Powell, Flynn and the others, the key to unlocking extraordinary powers for Trump to stay in office beyond Jan. 20.

• Their theory was that because foreign enemies had stolen the election, all bets were off and Trump could use the full force of the United States government to go after Dominion.

• It was remarkable that the presidency had deteriorated to such an extent that this fight in the Oval Office between senior White House officials and radical conspiracists was even taking place.

Powell’s plea bargain has implications beyond the case in Georgia. Special counsel Jack Smith's superseding indictment on the January 6 conspiracy case names her as an unindicted co-conspirator. 

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Meanwhile, in the Rest of the World….

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Red State Politicians Are Killing Their Own Constituents Via The Big Picture:

• In 2022, Warraich headed up a study comparing mortality rates in Republican counties to those in Democratic counties from the years 2001-2019, just before Covid hit. Their findings confirm that while the mortality rate gap between these groups was minimal at the start of that period, by 2019, Democratic death rates had dropped at a significantly steeper rate.

• “Overall, the U.S. mortality rate has decreased in the nearly two decades since then…But the improvement for those living in Republican counties by 2019 was half that of those in Democratic counties—11 percent lower versus 22 percent lower.”

• The study found that the gap in mortality rates between Republican counties and Democratic counties (as identified by presidential vote) widened over that period for 9 out of the top 10 causes of death, among them: heart disease, cancer, lung disease, unintentional injuries, and suicide.

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Texas city settles lawsuit over police response to Trump supporters surrounding Biden bus in 2020 Via the Associated Press:

• A Texas city on Wednesday agreed to a $175,000 settlement with passengers on one of President Joe Biden's campaign buses in 2020, including Democrat Wendy Davis, who accused police of ignoring their calls for help after a caravan of Donald Trump supporters surrounded them on a highway.

• The episode took place days before the November election as the bus approached Austin. Video that circulated widely on social media at the time showed trucks with large Trump flags driving close to the bus, which had campaign surrogates and staffers on board but not the candidates.

• A lawsuit filed by Davis, a former state senator who ran for Texas governor in 2014, and the other passengers accused San Marcos police of ignoring “acts of violent political intimidation” and abdicating their responsibility by not sending an escort despite multiple 911 calls made from the bus.

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Inside the Psychiatric Hospitals Where Foster Kids Are a ‘Gold Mine’  Via Reveal News

• As many lawsuits have documented, child welfare agencies across the country rely on locked psychiatric facilities, many of which use punitive disciplinary tactics, to house difficult-to-place kids. These placements disproportionately affect children of color. Black and Indigenous kids—including Edwards, who is part Yupik—are more likely to enter the foster system and more likely to be sent to residential treatment facilities.

• To understand just how big an impact UHS has on the lives of foster kids, I combed through thousands of pages of court filings and medical records, and interviewed more than 50 former UHS employees, patients, child welfare experts, lawyers, and policymakers. I also filed public records requests to the CPS and Medicaid agencies in all 50 states, asking for the number of foster children sent to the company’s inpatient behavioral health facilities and the amount of money spent on their care. (No national database exists.) 

• The 38 states that provided data sent foster children to UHS facilities more than 36,000 times between 2017 and 2022. Meanwhile, the 31 states that responded to my Medicaid query spent more than $600 million on the treatment of foster children at UHS facilities over the same period.