Thread by @MorePerfectUS

BREAKING: Leaked footage of a right-wing donor conference reveals a secretive plot to write and pass an avalanche of voter suppression laws.

"We did it quickly and we did it quietly," they admit.

Footage obtained by @ItsDocumented & published with @MotherJones.

Officials at @Heritage's private annual donor conference in April describe a full-on assault on democracy:

-Secret strategy meetings with GOP lawmakers to carry out voting restrictions. "No leaks."

-Drafting voter suppression bills on behalf of GOP reps

-They directly link their work to Trump's myth about 2020 election fraud

-They admit that they wouldn't be pursuing nationwide voting restrictions if Trump had won

-They acknowledge that stopping HR1/S1, the #ForThePeopleAct, is critical to their anti-democracy strategy

Read @AriBerman and @NickSurgey’s reporting on the donor briefing at Mother Jones.

Below, we'll isolate some key, newsworthy moments from the leaked footage.

motherjones.com/politics/2021/…

Heritage says it’s running a $24 million, 2-year voter suppression plan across 8 states.

They describe a "direct nexus" between passing state voting restrictions and blocking HR1/S1.

"If we don't win this, we lose our republic. Period."

.@Heritage director Jessica Anderson lays out details of their work:
- quietly drafting and astroturfing voter suppression bills
- lobbying GOP governors to pass voting restrictions rapidly
- "literally giving marching orders" to others on the right

Another Heritage official, Hans von Spakovsky, says he has been holding private briefings with top GOP state election officials for years. More recently they’ve included governors, AGs, lawmakers.

Secrecy is critical. "No leaks."

A Heritage director admits that they wouldn't be running a voter suppression strategy if Trump had managed to win.

"If maybe two, maybe three of these 8 states went a different way in November, we would be having a different conversation here today."

They discuss passing their first voter suppression law in Iowa earlier this year.

“We did it quickly and we did it quietly... Little fanfare. Honestly, nobody even noticed. My team looked at each other and we're like, 'It can't be that easy.'"

Heritage says it also helped draft Georgia’s voter suppression bills, with an eye toward avoiding a legal challenge from @marceelias.

They say they spent $1M dollars on an ad campaign on CNBC to try to tamp down the corporate backlash against the bill.

Heritage officials say that the “most important part” of their strategy in passing voting restrictions may be to re-motivate the conspiratorial Trump base to "return to the polls in 2022."

Finally, Heritage says that blocking the #ForthePeopleAct is critical.

They warn that it "voids every voter ID law in the country" & implements same-day and automatic voter registration.

They call the voting rights bill an "ever present problem."