Good morning! 24 days to go until the election - which means 24 days to think about how you can help make sure it is free and fair, and what you will do if it isn't. I wrote down some ideas here, will attach some to this email and add a few more: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Vote. Here are the rules, in all 50 states, if you have any doubts:
Don't live in a battleground state? Adopt one! Give voter advice, and work a phone bank in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin, with VoteSaveAmerica
Talk to people! Talk to your friends, your family members, people who aren't voting, get them to change their minds. Standup Republic has some ideas on how to discuss the election with Republicans in particular: standuprepublic.com
Join, follow, contribute to Protect Democracy, a bipartisan group of lawyers and others fighting hard for voting rights and citizens' rights. If anything goes wrong, you want to be on their mailing list.
If things do wrong - here are some more suggestions for how to discuss the election with people you disagree with, from More in Common: democracyforpresident.com
if all else fails, Protect the Results will be organizing, communicating, giving you ideas about what to do. Follow them now too
I know many are worried, because I keep hearing from you: channel that anxiety into action. If none of the groups above appeals, call local politicians, election boards, churches that might be driving people to the polls - many of them will have volunteer opportunities. Vote!
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Since I wrote this, Trump had himself photographed "working": signing a blank piece of paper, with a binder photoshopped in afterwards to make it seem more serious. He can't even lie competently. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Do a thought experiment: if Biden were sick, what would happen? Here's my guess: Trump would be openly gloating, Republicans would be loudly celebrating, their campaigns would put out ads trying to raise money on the back of his illness.
This detail: "In 2017, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association paid at least $397,602 to the Washington hotel...during its four-day World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians."
How does $400k spent at a Trump hotel benefit persecuted Christians? nytimes.com/interactive/20…
here's another one: "Together, nine Trump entities have written off at least $95,464 paid to a favorite hair and makeup artist of Ivanka Trump." It can't be easy to rack up nearly $100k in hair and makeup bills...
and another: "$1.9 million" plus "$259,684" used to pay for lawyers defending Don Jr during the Russia investigation and Trump during the investigation into his crooked charity were counted as... "business expenses"
If the vote is close, Donald Trump could easily throw the election into chaos and subvert the result. This is far more likely, writes @bartongellman, than anyone yet realizes theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
"Legal teams on both sides are planning for simultaneous litigation, on the scale of Florida during the 2000 election, in multiple battleground states."
"With Trump we must also ask: What might a ruthless incumbent do that has never been tried before?"
19 years ago today, if you had told me that this cynical grifter would be president and Rudy Giuliani would be working on behalf of a Russian intelligence officer - I wouldn't have believed you.
My interview with Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who led investigations into Clinton's email and the Trump campaign's links to Russia. His book, COMPROMISED, is published next week. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Among other things, Strzok explains why the FBI launched a counterintelligence investigation of Trump - and why he is worried that it was never finished
We also talked about the changing nature of Russian espionage - that was Strzok's area of expertise at the FBI and why counterintelligence has become so much more difficult...