NEW: Elizabeth Warren just announced plans for an independent DoJ task force to investigate and prosecute Trump administration crimes. This is such a big deal. elizabethwarren.com/plans/after-tr…
"I will direct the Justice Department to establish a task force to investigate violations by Trump administration officials of federal bribery laws, insider trading laws, and other anti-corruption and public integrity laws..."
"... and give that task force independent authority to pursue any substantiated criminal and civil violations. I have also committed to establishing a task force to investigate accusations of serious violations by immigration officials during the Trump era."
Digging out from under the crimes of the Trump administration will require a vigorous commitment to uncovering, documenting, and prosecuting Trump admin malfeasance. Nothing less is acceptable from any Democratic candidate.
Moving forward requires an honest reckoning. Reforming and strengthening our government requires an accounting of the ways power has been abused, and consequences for those abuses.
And crucially, Warren is planning to vest independent authority in the task force. It will not, and must not, be beholden to her control or influence. Its role must be to follow the facts where the evidence leads, and act accordingly.
Worth reading the whole plan, by the way. It goes way beyond criminal prosecutions—she's pledging to remove bad actors, review questionable appointments and contracts, and put new oversight staff in place on a fast track. elizabethwarren.com/plans/after-tr…
"We cannot assume that everything will be fine once Donald Trump leaves office. The next president will need to have the energy, expertise, and vision to safeguard our country, rebuild the government swiftly, and make fundamental changes so that it works for the American people."
Damn straight.
I want to say a bit more about this. We've been talking a lot in recent months about how the next Democratic president will be able to build public support for their legislative agenda, and it seems to me that this task force is a crucial part of doing that.
In order to build support for reform measures, the next president will have to demonstrate the extent of the corruption that now exists, and present case studies of the kinds of malfeasance that their proposals would ban.
This isn't a matter of political retribution, or "lock him up" tit-for-tat. It's about uncovering the rot in the political system, punishing wrongdoing where it's found, and making the case for the measures that are needed to shut it down going forward.
If you want to just bury the last three years and forget they ever happened, Warren's not your candidate. But if you want to right the wrongs of the Trump administration and take concrete steps to make sure they never happen again? Well, she just might be.
A lot of folks in my mentions saying they don't like the idea of presidential candidates campaigning on a promise to investigate their predecessors. Well, I don't like it either. But I like impunity even less.
If a Democrat wins in November, they will have to decide whether to instruct the DoJ to investigate the flagrant misconduct of the Trump administration. Voters have a right to know how the candidates intend to approach that decision, so that they can act accordingly.
If you think Warren's task force is a bad idea, well, good news: She told us about it, and you can factor it into your decisions in the primaries and the general election. Everybody wins.
But if what you don't like is the announcement, then what you're saying is that you'd prefer not to know how the next president intends to handle one of the most critical domestic questions of their presidency. And I don't understand that at all.
This thread has received something like ten times as much attention as anything else I've ever tweeted about a presidential candidate, including a bunch of replies saying the task force plan has tipped them over to being Warren primary voters.
There's a lot of energy here, is what I'm saying. A lot of people really want to see this.
