#ELB: The Buried Lede in Jon Karl’s Flattering Bill Barr Story: Mitch McConnell Was Willing to Risk American Democracy to Save the Senate electionlawblog.org/?p=122869
Lots of people are buzzing today about Jon Karl’s piece in the Atlantic in which Bill Barr portrays himself in standing up to Trump and his claims of election fraud. As is typical in pieces where people from Barr world are sources, this paints Barr in the best possible light.
The piece does not even mention how Barr put forward outrageous and ludicrous statements about voter fraud before the election, suggesting that foreign governments would be mailing in thousands of absentee ballots. Barr continues on his rehabilitation tour.
But that’s not the part of the story I want to highlight. It is about how Mitch McConnell utterly failed in squelching the Trump voter fraud claims because he was trying to preserve his Senate majority.
Like George W. Bush, McConnell could have recognized Biden early as the winner of the election, and that would have helped to push down the now-crazy claims about 2020 election fraud.
As I explained at Slate on November 8, after Fox and other networks recognized Biden as the winner...slate.com/news-and-polit…
From that Slate piece: "The one group that has not spoken up yet, and that is crucially important for acceptance of election results, is the rest of the Republican congressional leadership, beyond McCarthy. ...
...For example, on Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declined to weigh in on Biden’s election, pointing to an earlier statement about letting the vote counting and legal process play out."
Here’s what Karl tells us about Mitch McConnell’s calculations after Trump refused to concede:
"Barr told me that Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell had been urging him to speak out since mid-November. Publicly, McConnell had said nothing to criticize Trump’s allegations...
..but he told Barr that Trump’s claims were damaging to the country and to the Republican Party. Trump’s refusal to concede was complicating McConnell’s efforts to ensure that the GOP won the two runoff elections in Georgia scheduled for January 5."
As Quinta Jurecic put it: “Maybe I’m being too critical here or there’s context missing, but this reads like … the senate majority leader asking the attorney general for political help in an upcoming election. Not great!”
But it’s even worse than that. McConnell knew Trump’s claims were bogus and endangering the country. And he refused to speak up because he put politics before country. /END

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More from @rickhasen

21 Jun
#ELB: Coming July 1: The All New ELB: New Contributors, New Layout, and Some Great Content to Come electionlawblog.org/?p=122741
ELB survey results: readers are happy with the mix of news and commentary; want to see more coverage of the voting wars, redistricting, and campaign finance; and want more diversity of opinions and authorship.
Read 7 tweets
17 Jun
So the Supreme Court as it comes to the end of the term has been issuing opinions Mondays and Thursdays. Next week they've moved to Monday-Wed-Friday. That could mean the final opinions come 6/25. But they could still spill over to the week of 6/28. 15 opinions to go!
15 opinion releases over 3 days is 5 per day, which is a LOT, especially in one. Some are more technical and small so it is possible. But 6/29 or even 6/28 and 6/29 seems possible for final SCOTUS opinions of the term.
The big cases I'm watching are about voting rights (Brnovich) and (indirectly) campaign finance disclosure (AFP v. Bonta).

But let's not forget the cursing cheerleader!
Read 6 tweets
2 Jun
Some of my suggestions to counter election subversion:
I will be addressing much of my academic work over the next few years to the issue of the danger of election subversion. Stay tuned.
Read 5 tweets
1 Jun
Coming up on @npratc with @nprAudie at the top of the hour talking about the latest state voting laws and how the federal government might respond. Tune in!
Here's the link to my talk with @nprAudie @npratc about how the federal government can respond to state election laws that make it harder to vote and easier to manipulate election outcomes
npr.org/2021/06/01/100…
When asked what the most important thing Joe Biden could do to protect voting rights and prevent election subversion, I said to get Joe Manchin in a room and figure out what he wants to not only support legislation but blow up filibuster for voting rights.
Read 5 tweets
13 May
No, and you know that's not what I meant Marc.

I meant there were lots of other voting rights groups in the fight before you (that are not associated with the Democratic Party) and that are doing excellent work.
Read 5 tweets
5 May
Here's the link to the full Facebook decision, which requires Facebook to reexamine Trump's "indefinite" expulsion within 6 months and come up with a standard for a "proportionate" penalty. oversightboard.com/decision/FB-69… Perhaps permanent removal IS proportionate in this case.More soon
"If Facebook decides to restore Mr. Trump’s accounts, the company should apply its rules to that decision, including any changes made in response to the Board’s policy recommendations below. ...
"...In this scenario, Facebook must address any further violations promptly and in accordance with its established content policies. "
Read 28 tweets

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