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Greg Sargent Profile picture
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Feb 7 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
All it takes to run Trump's coup scheme in 2024 is one GOP governor sending fake electors and a GOP House counting them.

That's why it's huge that Joe Manchin just revealed that bipartisan ECA reform will likely safeguard against this scheme.

My latest:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
Really important: Reform of the Electoral Count Act is likely to include safeguards against states sending fake electors to Congress.

ON CNN, Joe Manchin said this in an aside that most people missed. But it's pretty much the whole ballgame:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
How do you reform the Electoral Count Act to make it impossible for a governor or state legislature to send sham electors?

It's a complicated challenge. But there are options. Here are two of them, with help from ECA expert @Matt_Seligman:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
@Matt_Seligman Trump himself is a screaming billboard for the need for Electoral Count Act reform.

Trump's candidate for governor in Georgia is running on an implicit vow to send fake electors to Congress. And Speaker Kevin McCarthy would plainly do his part:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
@Matt_Seligman The 1/6 committee is also building a strong case for reforming the ECA.

So I'm puzzled by @DouthatNYT's argument that Susan Collins will save us while the committee chases alarmist/resistance phantoms. The committee is demonstrating need for ECA reform!

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…

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More from @ThePlumLineGS

Greg Sargent Profile picture
Feb 8
This is just repulsive:

Numerous GOP candidates for Senate are not only campaigning on Trump's big lie. They're also going out of their way to emphasize invented vote fraud *in urban centers.*

I've documented a bunch of examples in this new piece:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
Ron Johnson claims that in Milwaukee, votes aren't counted until Dems determine how many they need to win.

Good one, Senator! You know who *actually did* pressure vote counters to "find" precisely the number of votes he needed to overcome his deficit?

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/… Image
This may be the most absurd example of this yet:

Adam Laxalt, who's running for Senate in Nevada, is attacking the integrity of the voting in counties with big cities (Las Vegas, Reno) while explicitly claiming the voting in GOP areas is "legitimate":

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/… Image
Read 6 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Feb 4
We just learned that Trump...

* fully intended to "overturn" the 2020 election

* floated seizing voting machines

* will pardon 1/6 rioters

The RNC's response? To punish the only two Republicans who think this has no place in their party.

New piece:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
An extraordinary quote:

The RNC censure of Cheney and Kinzinger claims the 1/6 committee is engaged in the “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

It has become party dogma that the 1/6ers are martyrs and heroes:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
Let's focus more on the threat a GOP House will pose to democracy.

The more we learn about Trump's true insurrectionist intent, the more pressure Kevin McCarthy is under to whitewash it away, or even stand behind it.

That has ugly implications for 2024:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Feb 2
Trump's ugly admissions of guilt over 1/6 are clarifying. Because he's flaunting his corrupt designs, opposing reform of the Electoral Count Act is now firmly aligned with making a 2024 coup easier.

I looked at the latest emerging ECA reform. It's good:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
Trump's position is now unabashedly that the 1/6 violence was a righteous effort to correct a grievous wrong.

By openly claiming Pence should have overturned the election, he has firmly aligned opposition to ECA reform with enabling a 2024 coup rerun:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
All it would take is one GOP governor and a GOP-controlled House to steal the 2024 election.

A new plan to reform the Electoral Count Act has been released by @SenAngusKing. It deals with this threat.

I took a look at the plan, w/expert @Matt_Seligman:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Jan 31
Simply unreal: A GOP bill in New Hampshire targets "negative" depictions of US history. Its explicit goal: To ensure teachers retain "loyalty" and don't push "subversive doctrines."

This McCarthyite effort could be a model for more to come.

My latest:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
The absurdly vague language of these bills is a feature, not a bug. The idea is to make teachers feel as if they're perpetually on thin ice, treating them like subversive elements that must be rooted out at the slightest deviation from orthodoxy:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
Under the New Hampshire bill, it would be reasonable for teachers to think they must tread carefully when saying positive things about certain abolitionist or civil rights tracts:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Jan 26
Here's an unsettling thought:

If we don't revise the ECA, successfully overturning the 2024 election might only require a single corrupt GOP governor and a GOP-controlled House.

An important new paper spells out this nightmare scenario.

Details here:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
David Perdue is running for governor in Georgia on the explicit claim that he wouldn't have certified Biden's electors.

All it takes is one governor like him, plus House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who's tolerating rampant insurrectionism in his ranks:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
Here's the ultimate point:

We need ECA reform that addresses potential corruption at both ends -- state appointment of electors, and Congressional counting of them.

Relying on a good new paper from @Matt_Seligman.

(This might interest you, @Nate_Cohn)

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
Read 5 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Jan 20
Mitch McConnell told us exactly how his strategy works: Make government look dysfunctional and get the media to blast the Dem president for failing to secure "unity."

It's working. Three new polls show Biden slipping badly with core Dem groups and indys:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
This devious Mitch McConnell quote from 2011 lays out the entire playbook. Every Democrat should carry around a copy of it in their pocket:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
Mitch McConnell's strategy also successfully exploits flawed conventions of political reporting.

McConnell surely chortled with glee during Biden's presser, where Biden was hammered for failing to achieve "unity" while GOP conduct was erased as a factor:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/…
Read 4 tweets

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