Spare me the make believe indignation from Republicans about the Afghanistan evacuation.
1/ Here's the story of the relentless Republican effort (led by President Trump) to undermine and destroy the programs that help bring Afghan refugees to the U.S.
2/ Over the last decade, Republicans have pushed to intentionally create a massive backlog in the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program - the one we use to bring Afghan partners to America, by putting onerous conditions on the applications.
3/ In 2016, Obama asked to increase the cap for the SIV program. Senate Republicans objected.
Then, the Trump Admin started slowing down SIV processing. When Biden took over, there were 10,000 unfilled visas, despite 17,000 applications in the pipeline.
4/ This dovetailed with the assault by Trump and Republicans to destroy other refugee programs that bring Afghans to the U.S..
Obama admitted over 2,700 Afghan refugees. Trump admitted 400, bc he had dismantled the refugee system. Biden had to rebuild it.
5/ And today Trump Republicans are making it clear they will oppose bringing more Afghan refugees to the U.S..
Steven Miller: "Resettling [Afghans] in America is not about solving a humanitarian crisis; it’s about accomplishing an ideological objective to change America,”
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I went to the Senate floor to tell a story about Trump’s first 100 days - a story of daily, norm shattering corruption.
I laid out 40 different corrupt acts - each one alone could have taken down previous presidents.
1/ A 🧵 of my speech. People need to know this story.
2/ The Trump crypto coin - the biggest scandal in the history of the American presidency.
3/ Trump ends enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, so that his staff can more easily get paid on the side by foreign governments and companies seeking to bribe the Trump Administration.
The Trump-Supreme Court battle is not really the crisis.
The crisis is here now. Trump is enacting an insidious coordinated attack on our institutions of democratic accountability, designed to crater democracy before next fall.
1/ A long 🧵to explain the plan & how we stop it.
2/ First, just know that MAGA has given up on democracy. Wish it weren't true but it is. They would rather MAGA rule forever than run a fair election where a Democrat might win.
2/ Abrego Garcia came to the U.S. over 10 years ago. He married a U.S. citizen and has three U.S. citizen children.
But he put in removal proceedings because he didn't apply for asylum in time and because of alleged ties to drug gangs. He denies any gang affiliation.
3/ You can think whatever you want about the merits of him staying (his U.S. family, his steady job) or being deported (the alleged gang affiliation), there's really only one key fact:
A court ruled he CANNOT be deported to El Salvador bc he would face threat of death there.
In the wake of the stunning news that Trump is planning to take over Columbia University, I hope you’ll watch this speech I gave yesterday.
It details Trump’s plan to destroy democracy’s organs of accountability and dissent: the press, universities and lawyers.
1/ Intro
2/ The press is always the first target of an elected leader who wants to destroy dissent and stay in power forever. But Trump doesn’t just harass journalists; he tries to destroy the very idea of objective truth.
3/ The universities are next. Columbia is just the first target. Trump is trying to suppress student protest by forcing the universities to control campus speech. A key tool of autocrats.
Those trying to understand the tariffs as economic policy are dangerously naive.
No, the tariffs are a tool to collapse our democracy. A means to compel loyalty from every business that will need to petition Trump for relief.
1/ A 🧵 to explain his plan and how we fight back.
2/ This week you will read many confused economists and political pundits who won’t understand how the tariffs make economic sense.
That’s because they don’t. They aren’t designed as economic policy. The tariffs are simply a new, super dangerous political tool.
3/ You see, our founders created a President with limited and checked powers. They specifically put the power of spending and taxation in the hands of the legislature.
Why? Because they watched how kings and despots used spending and taxes to control their subjects.
2/ It started with the endorsement of political violence. By pardoning the Jan 6th protesters, Trump sent a clear signal that violence on his behalf would be protected.
Of course this quells citizens' enthusiasm to join the opposition - if there is a chance they could get hurt.
3/ Trump put his political fixers in charge of DoJ to hunt his political opposition. For instance, the D.C. U.S. Attorney is trolling critics online threatening arrest and pledging to arrest anyone who "interferes" (not a crime btw) with DOGE. newrepublic.com/post/191087/us…