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Norman Ornstein Profile picture
@NormOrnstein
Aug 26, 2019 • 3 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
No agency is more dysfunctional than the Federal Election Commission, despite the efforts of people like @EllenLWeintraub and former commissioner @AnnMRavel to make it work to enforce campaign laws. Now a resignation means it is entirely powerless. Blame Trump & #MoscowMitch
Corruption and kakistocracy combined; no nominees at all through the entire Trump presidency; the commissioners there are all past their terms and are acting. The Republicans on the FEC have all united to block enforcement of the laws. Now only 3 sit, w 4 needed to do anything
#MoscowMitch would like to keep it that way through 2020, so he can brazenly act in defiance of laws and regulations. Trump is delighted to comply. This is outrageous, unethical, immoral, shameless and totally corrupt.

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More from @NormOrnstein

Norman Ornstein Profile picture
Jan 28
If Trump and his Gestapo defy a court order, which is a real possibility, our only hope is the Senate. We need Senate Democrats to step up and play hardball, using every tactic at their disposal. Put holds on all Trump nominees, use delays for everything. 1
Boycott confirmation hearings that require a member of the minority for a quorum. Insist on no hearings if the Senate is in session. If Senate Republicans bulldoze you by either changing the rules or ignoring them, make sure everyone knows. Force the press to cover. 2
If we have moved to full n dictatorship, with Congress and the Courts either defied or ignored, and a press cowed, you need to do whatever it takes, including civil disobedience, to make sure everyone in the country knows what is happening. 3
Read 4 tweets
Norman Ornstein Profile picture
Jan 22
The biggest question about whether we evolve into a vicious autocracy is whether there are any guardrails of meaning that could put limits on Trump‘s most extreme actions. The reaction of Republican lawmakers to the pardons of cop beaters & killers is especially chilling. 1/
If there is no pushback to that, especially after Trump and his cabinet picks, swore that they would do this on a case by case basis, what makes anyone think that there will be pushback to Trump-generated violence or efforts to shred the constitution. Then there is the press. 2/
Trump shut down NBC’s Peter Alexander when he tried to push him on this issue. What was the reaction from the White House press court? Did they rise up in outrage? Imagine what they would’ve done if Biden had reacted to a reporter in this way. Compliant. Normalizing. Chilling. 3/
Read 4 tweets
Norman Ornstein Profile picture
Dec 29, 2024
Jimmy Carter‘s presidency is extraordinarily underrated. But this is a good time to tell my favorite personal story. I was an advisor to the Carter Baker commission on election reform. At one of the meetings, President Carter asked if I would have lunch with him. 1/
He was gracious and warm. I asked him about River blindness and how he had tackled it, saving literally millions of lives. He explained how he had been in Africa, seen the devastation of so many young people blinded with lives destroyed. 2/
He learned that a simple inexpensive salve could prevent the devastation. He contacted drug companies, got them to donate the medication. He went to the leadership in the countries affected to make sure that the salve would be distributed without corruption and at no charge. 3/
Read 4 tweets
Norman Ornstein Profile picture
Nov 7, 2024
There will be a lot of soul-searching among Democrats, as there should be. Those who criticize Joe Biden for not dropping out earlier, or Kamala Harris for her campaign, are looking in the wrong place. This was a broader rejection ofe ruling elites. 1
Including military leaders like Milley& Kelly, exemplary scientists, more broadly all connected to the federal government. I continue to believe a core is Covid, the disruptions in life caused by it and the response to it, ironically driven by the failures of Trump. 2
What Biden inherited was a broader set of problems, supply chain and others, driven by Covid, including inflation that beset every industrial democracy. That we emerged from it better and stronger than anyone else was not evident to a large swath of Americans. 3
Read 14 tweets
Norman Ornstein Profile picture
Nov 2, 2024
The meme of the election is nauseously optimistic. I am there, for these reasons:
1. Turnout. Ds have a great infrastructure & framework. Rs turned the effort over to Elon Musk after Trump used the RNC $ to pay for his lawyers. Musk has done for R turnout what he did for Twitter
2. The October Surprise. Not Bibi taking reckless action to hurt Harris & help Trump. It is Madison Square Garden. A big backlash after the hatefest should make a difference in PA and other swing states. Late deciders breaking 2-1 for Harris.
3. Women. Women will make up 53% of voters. With the gender gap, that could itself be decisive.
4. New voters. Polling models, based on the last election, have not adequately factored in voters new since then. Many now seeing the Access Hollywood tape for the first time.
Read 4 tweets
Norman Ornstein Profile picture
Oct 31, 2024
The Supreme Court‘s opinion in the Virginia voter purge case is more deeply unsettling than it appears on the surface. It is about only 1600 voters, a significant portion probably perfectly legal. But right wing justices completely blew away the express language of the law. 1
Congress has superseding authority on federal elections. Actions like Youngkin took are expressly forbidden within the 90 day window before the election. Six justices decided that their partisan views are more significant than the law. This is not the first time. 2
Alito has led the way here. He has made it clear, with a majority of allies, that they will rewrite the law and impose their own views. It is an astonishing and deeply disturbing distortion of what the framers intended, and how the Court operated before Roberts took over. 3
Read 6 tweets

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