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Richard Stengel Profile picture
@stengel
Sep 24, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
We can't say we haven't been warned. The opening assumption of this important piece is that Trump will not willingly concede. Under any circumstances. And that he will be aided in this by compliant Republicans. /1
The story suggests that Republicans are planning what might be called a constitutional coup. Trump will dispute the results, allege fraud, and Republican-led legislatures in swing states will assign their own electors regardless of how the state voted./2
Trump will contend he won even though he loses the popular vote and loses the electoral college. The constitution does not say that electors must vote as the majority of voters did. /3
There is no legal precedent or mechanism to end the election and inaugurate a new president if Biden carries the electoral college and Trump refuses to concede. We will have to create one. We need to be ready. /4 #VOTE
In the period between the election and the inauguration, there is no legal umpire, no ultimate authority than can decide the election—that is, except the people. Let's vote in numbers where there is no doubt about the victory. #VOTE

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More from @stengel

Richard Stengel Profile picture
Jul 9, 2023
I read the whole opinion and it reveals a fundamental lack of understanding of both the free speech clause of the First Amendment and how the media world world works. Specifically the relationship between the press and the White House. nytimes.com/2023/07/05/us/…
There were plenty of times when I was editor of Time that I got an angry request from the White House to kill or hold a story. That's their right. And my right was to disagree with them or ignore the request. Which I often did.
The opinion uses the word "censor" over and over. "Censor" is something only a government authority can do. Facebook or Twitter don't "censor" content—they make a decision about content that may or may not violate their terms of service and can then edit or delete it.
Read 5 tweets
Richard Stengel Profile picture
Apr 23, 2020
So, Mitch McConnell wants states to declare bankruptcy and not get what he calls federal "bailouts" for what they're spending to combat the virus. The irony is rich here because one of America's top ten "debtor" states is none other than Kentucky.
Kentucky gets back $2.35 for every $1 it contributes to the federal treasury in taxes. It is also in the top ten of states that get federal money from the SNAP program for "food stamps."
And, Mitch, guess who gives you all that extra money? Blue states like New York, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Minnesota all of whom get back less money from the federal government than they pay in.
Read 4 tweets
Richard Stengel Profile picture
Jan 22, 2020
With all the debate about process, let's point out that even though this is a "trial," it is not a trial like any other in our justice system. As Rehnquist said, the Senate is not the jury, it is the court.
The Senate makes the rules, decides on the evidence, votes to convict or not convict. This doesn't happen anywhere else under any other circumstances but this one.
I would argue that is because the Framers saw an impeachment trial as essentially a "political" one, to use Hamilton's phrase. That is, it's not a court of law, but a court that decides whether a president has over-reached, which is not simply a legal matter.
Read 4 tweets
Richard Stengel Profile picture
Jan 20, 2020
At the Constitutional convention, Madison argued that the impeachment of a president should be tried in the Supreme Court. Hamilton countered that the Court was too small and it was susceptible to corruption as there would be justices appointed by the then sitting president.
Hamilton argued for the Senate, asserting that it was larger, less susceptible to corruption, more independent and impartial. Fair enough. But let's remember how the Senate was elected in 1789: Not by popular vote, but by State legislatures.
They were not members of parties, or "factions" as the Framers called them. They did run for election. They were insulated from politics. I'm all for direct voting, but this elected politicized Senate is very different than what the Framers intended for a trial of a president.
Read 4 tweets
Richard Stengel Profile picture
Jan 1, 2020
Jan. 1, 2020. The Enlightenment model of liberal democracy, as embodied by the American experiment, has had a pretty good run. Longer than the Framers thought it would. Their idea was that human beings—the People—could rule themselves. That was—and still is—a radical idea.
Ever since WWII, we've all pretty much assumed that this liberal world order of pluralistic democracies would continue to grow and expand. We saw it as inevitable. That was naive. Just like the idea that the fall of the Berlin wall was "the end of history." It wasn't.
Now we are in a time where liberal democracy is under threat. That threat comes from without and from within. The threat from within is greater, but it's aided by bad actors around the world who seek to end the American experiment of republican government.
Read 7 tweets
Richard Stengel Profile picture
Dec 20, 2019
--> Extremely important story. Connects the dots behind Trump's obsession with the Ukraine conspiracy theory. washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
Officials believe Putin planted this theory in Trump's ear in their private sessions in Hamburg in 2017. Putin's dream has always been a US president who disdains facts as well as his own intelligence community.
What he could never have imagined was a Republican party that would become a witting asset to discredited Russian disinformation.
Read 5 tweets

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