John Eastman is the father of the fraudulent electors scheme.
Twenty years ago, before SCOTUS stepped in, the Florida GOP was planning to use it to nullify their citizens' votes if Al Gore won the election.
And Eastman was helping them plan it.
A thread 🧵
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As the 2000 election went into recounts and state Supreme Court battles in FL, the Republican Party was very concerned that Gore might win, and they threw the kitchen sink at stopping it.
SCOTUS eventually stepped in, overriding the FL Supreme Court to stop the count.
But...
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... if SCOTUS had not stepped in, the FL Republican Party was preparing to invalidate the results of the election.
On November 29, they invited speakers to a hearing, where they discussed the possibility of an 'alternate' slate of electors.
And they brought in a ringer.
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At the Nov 29 hearing, citizens urged legislators not to hold a special session. Several lawyers warned that legislative selection of presidential electors would set a dangerous Constitutional precedent.
The GOP-controlled legislature saved the final word for John Eastman.
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Eastman, when asked for his credentials to weigh in on the Electoral College, didn't need to be very convincing.
"The Electoral College is part of that structural foundation... um... that is part of the underlying principle and theory of our whole constitutional system. Um.
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After a lackluster introduction, Eastman begins his hard sell, condescending to the lawmakers, explaining that this is uncharted territory, and they must be nervous, but not to worry, because he was there to let them know they were more powerful than the Supreme Court.
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Interestingly, Eastman cited McPherson v. Blacker, implying that it provides precedent for everything that he was about to tell them that day.
Of course, that isn't true.
It did confirm the plenary power, but that wasn't the argument he was there to make.
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While McPherson did affirm that state legislatures have full control (plenary power) over how the state decides to choose its electors, it absolutely does not state that they can suddenly and unilaterally decide to change those electors in the middle of an election.
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After the fraudulent electors scheme was attempted in 2020, this was clarified by mutiple people - including the Republican House Speaker of Arizona, and the Attorney General of PA in SCOTUS filings.
Eastman's arguments to justify this scheme have no merit - and they never had any merit.
Of course, he knew this even in 2000, which is why he used bluster and a barrage of confusing jargon in an attempt to pave the way for the scheme to proceed under color of authority.
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Eastman closed his blustery statement that day by forcefully telling the FL legislature that no one could stop them from what they wanted to do with their state electors, because they had a plenary 'judging ability' in all matters elector-related.
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This may seem like ancient history, but it is important - for at least two reasons.
First...
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It tells us that the Republican Party's contempt for democracy has nothing to do with Trump - and so it will remain even after he is gone.
David Frum - George W. Bush's speechwriter tried to tell us this in 2018. He would know.
@chantler_jaki @RickPetree As to why the false electors didn’t make the news, well, since they didn’t end up needing to try it (thanks to SCOTUS), hardly anyone even knew about those FL legislative sessions.
Although CNN did include it in their timeline, which is where that screenshot came from.
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The Epoch Times started their money laundering operation sometime in 2020.
After the 2020 election, they began producing more propaganda for Trump and becoming involved in stop the steal efforts.
Somewhat symbiotic. Trump massively boosted them, and they helped him.
The highly polished propaganda video that Holehouse (an Epoch Times alum until 2015) published, seemed custom made for the Trump campaign, and he boosted it four times. 2 million views.
Trump supporters began driving up the company’s stature. 6 million followers on Facebook.
As early as Dec 1 2020, Epoch Times subsidiary NTD began broadcasting the “Kraken” press conferences (Jenna Ellis, Phil Kline, Tony Shaffer).
By March, Lauren Boebert was promoting them as the most trusted source of information when people wanted Dems locked up.
I’ve always said that while there were some normal human bad decisions in Fani Willis’ relationship, they weren’t enough to justify all of this - and what *should* get way more coverage is the crusade against her, and against the rule of law.
I think it’s important for people to see Ben Smith’s interview with Joe Kahn, Executive Editor of the New York Times, so I’m posting screenshots of the full article here.
The fact that he misrepresents and strawmans people’s issues with their reporting is really concerning.
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I appreciate that @semaforben got Kahn to answer questions about this, but I’m also disappointed at the soft touch questions that tiptoe around elephants in the room, which IMO silently confirms that NYT is avoiding real accountability for any of this.
@semaforben At one point in the interview, after claiming that the NYT’s role is to inform the public, Kahn even admits that citizens are woefully uninformed or misinformed about highly important issues.
But then he walks right past it, making clear that isn’t really his priority at all.
I try my best not to weigh in on topics that I’m not well versed on, and don’t weigh in on divisive, emerging events until I can share what I believe is reliable info. The same goes for the Palestine protests.
If anyone cares about my personal views, I will say this much.
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What is happening in Gaza is a humanitarian nightmare. I blame Netanyahu, Likud, and the right wing extremists who control the government.
They are Israel’s Trump and MAGA. Bibi is corrupt. His actions harm Israel on the world stage. An authoritarian who inflames divisions.
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I believe Bibi let the people of Israel down. He shuffled funds to Hamas to keep Gaza & the West Bank divided b/c he wants to undermine the very idea that Palestinians should have their own state.
He pulled resources to help extremists push more settlements, ensuring a 10/7.
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.@greggnunziata apparently doesn’t want anyone to notice the corrupting influence that Citizens United and dark money-funded astroturfing have had - from the Tea Party to Clarence Thomas.
And those who recognize it are “liberals” trying to “recklessly delegitimize” the Court.
@greggnunziata Originalism and textualism were an attempt to create a “denomination” in the legal field that transformed the constitution into a religious text - one that “liberals” (i.e. everyone else) simply aren’t qualified to interpret.