A note on JD Vance's repulsive response to the deportation of a Salvadoran in "error": The whole point of his stunt is to show that Trump feels free to remove people even when the law *doesn't* justify it.
I spoke to the man's lawyer. Hair raising stuff: newrepublic.com/article/193442…
“If nobody can do anything to bring him back once he’s been deported, then the order preventing his deportation in the first place is meaningless,” the lawyer for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported in "error," tells me.
Time to focus on Marco Rubio's role as a chief Trump enabler. Rubio is helping execute some of Trump's worst designs: Terminating program for Ukrainian kids, deporting people to foreign gulags, wrecking USAID, arrests with zero due process.
My new piece: newrepublic.com/article/193064…
First up: Marco Rubio's State Department terminated the program tracking Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.
Rubio has the power to ensure that the underlying data and evidence is transferred to Europol. Why won't he allow this? He won't say.
Horrifying: After the contract tracking Ukrainian children abducted by Russia was terminated, the underlying evidence of these potential war crimes seems to be missing, a bipartisan group of Reps just charged in letter to Rubio. Two GOPers signed. Details: newrepublic.com/article/192924…
Two *GOPers,* Don Bacon and Brian Fitzpatrick, joined this letter, which says underlying info/evidence collected on abducted Ukrainian children has vanished.
They're calling on Rubio to say what happened to this data. State Dept still saying nothing.
Horrific: One of the USAID programs Trump just terminated was set to deliver lifesaving treatment to hundreds of thousands of starving kids abroad. Much of it is now in a Georgia warehouse.
Rubio's promise to preserve urgent assistance was a lie.
New: newrepublic.com/article/192193…
This is one of hundreds of terminated USAID contracts. The full list is appalling: There's tons of the "lifesaving humanitarian assistance" that Rubio promised to protect.
Former USAID official Atul Gawande tells me we'll see a "a massive loss of life."
Awful news --> Delivery of therapeutic food assistance to nearly 400,000 severely malnourished kids is suddenly in doubt due to Trump-Musk firings at USAID, two manufacturers of the product tell me.
"Starving children are waiting," one says.
New from me: newrepublic.com/article/191935…
The product is called Ready to Use Therapeutic Food. It's a paste made mostly of peanuts, milk, and sugar, designed for children to ingest if they're on the edge of starving to death.
It's made in two US factories, one in Georgia, the other in RI.
Remarkable: Trump's own pollster just found that in swing House districts, Dems lead by 5 points and voters want tax policy to prioritize working people, per Politico.
Yet GOP is about to slash the safety net and give the rich huge tax cuts!
New piece: newrepublic.com/article/191841…
Trump's pollster found that in 18 swing House districts, 68% are unhappy about their financial situation. Majorities want ACA's expanded subsidies to continue and oppose corporate tax cuts.
Swing voters want the opposite of what Trump/Rs are set to do.
Scoop --> Trump-Musk cuts just resulted in the firing of numerous top researchers at NIH's center for combating Alzheimer's, sources tell me. They predict big setbacks to fighting dementias.
This cause was once championed by *Republicans.*
Details here: newrepublic.com/article/191702…
These firings just hit the Roy Blunt Center for Alzheimer's and Related Dementias. Yes, you read that right. It's named after a GOP Senator.
Yesterday afternoon employees were informed of layoffs, including its highly-regarded incoming director. Details:
Awful: Internal USAID memo instructs employees to refrain from talking to the media about cuts in aid to the most vulnerable or they may get fired, WaPo reports.
Trumpworld knows this is a big political problem for them. Keep the focus on it.
New piece: newrepublic.com/article/191578…
Given this memo ordering USAID employees not to talk to the press, also recall that Trump fired USAID's IG for revealing that the freezes put $500 million in food aid at risk of spoiling.
Dem strategists warning against talking about this are wrong.
In December, NYT revealed that Elon Musk and SpaceX were failing to meet govt reporting protocol designed to protect state secrets while they haul in billions in Pentagon contracts.
This triggered three reviews, per NYT. One was from the Defense Department inspector general. 1/
It's time to ask: What's going on with those reviews into Musk/SpaceX's failure to meet basic reporting protocol linked to their billions in Pentagon contracts?
Dems tell me they fear these investigations might get killed under Trump. 2/
It gets worse: Trump's Treasury Dept has a new letter spinning Musk's access to payment data as a mere "audit" that expands on work done during Biden admin. It's a sham. The letter simply ignores the biggest Qs about this scandal.
New piece from me: newrepublic.com/article/191191…
For instance, if Musk's access expands on a review started under Biden, why did Treasury Sec Bessent allow a member of DOGE to oversee it, rather than a career official?
Plus, Sen Wyden tells me former officials are unaware of any previous audit:
The awful news that Elon Musk clashed w/top Treasury official in an effort to access govt payment systems raises a crucial question: Did Trump authorize this, or not?
I talked to former officials who explain why this is a key Q, and why it's so alarming: newrepublic.com/article/191014…
I spoke to former Treasury and OMB officials, and they said Elon Musk accessing government payment systems could give him the power to selectively turn off payments. They described what this really means in very clarifying terms. See below:
The ugly celebration of mass deportations by Trump, the WH, and Karoline Leavitt is vile on its own. But it also has a purpose: It's a pretext for Trump to vastly expand his powers. That's what the "invasion" imagery is really about.
New piece from me: newrepublic.com/article/190696…
WH is pumping out imagery of migrants being marched on to military planes while claiming deportations "have begun." But crossings are down, and as @ReichlinMelnick notes, removals by plane go back years. The point is to portray a state of permanent war.
Good piece by @AdamSerwer identifying a key through line of Trumpism: Creating subordinate, inferior classes that are more easily subjected to persecution and abuse 1/ theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Adding to @AdamSerwer, another one of Trump's executive orders also does this: It effectively declares that by pronouncing us under "invasion," Trump is now unbound by Congress or statute in determining what to do w/the "invaders," as I reported. 2/
Scoop --> Republicans didn't intend this, but it turns out the Laken Riley Act gives Steve Bannon a big weapon against Elon Musk. Bannon tells me he'll use it to get MAGA AGs to sue to block H1B visas. Rs created a big mess for themselves here.
New piece: newrepublic.com/article/190405…
What folks have missed is that the Laken Riley Act's provision empowering state AGs gives Bannon a way to block H1B visas.
Bannon says he'll now get friendly AGs to sue to stop HB1s from, say, India. He's right: He absolutely can do this. Details below
Ominous: GOPers are now saying Trump is picking Kash Patel to "clean out" FBI and restore its "integrity." This will be their cover to go along w/Trump's scheme to unleash FBI on enemies. Media already credulously echoing this claim. Awful.
New piece: newrepublic.com/article/189406…
Nobody is required to pretend GOPers actually believe it when they say Trump is picking Kash Patel to "reform" the FBI in any meaningful sense. It's a lie. Rs know Trump is only picking him to target enemies and they should be hounded on this point.
Trump's win confirmed once again that our information ecosystem is a total dumpster fire, and that Dems need a real answer to it.
I asked three leading candidates for DNC chair how they'd fix this.
Here's what they said. 1/
(new piece from me) newrepublic.com/article/189147…
First note that Elon Musk spent $20 million on the RBG PAC, which sought to deceive people into thinking Trump's abortion stance is similar to Ruth Bader Ginsburg's.
This and X becoming a right wing disinfo machine show the depths of the problem. 2/
Striking: In numerous cases, Republicans or GOP-aligned industries are now admitting that mass deportations and rolling back Biden's climate agenda could prove disastrous in their parts of the country.
In my new piece, I've compiled many examples of this: newrepublic.com/article/189054…
In Georgia, some local Republicans are openly saying that repealing green energy investments will result in shuttered factories and job loss.
This shows what a scam Trump pulled by claiming the green transition existentially threatens the working class.
This is a good discussion but on immigration in particular this is not an intellectually adequate frame for understanding what happened. The groups did not dictate the Biden/Harris immigration agenda. If anything they were sidelined/ignored more aggressively than under Obama 1/
At this point someone will note that Harris took left wing positions on immigration in 2019. True, but the vast bulk of GOP attacks concerned the Biden/Harris handling of immigration *while in office,* and there Biden was mostly at odds with the groups all throughout 2/
Nov 27, 2024 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
This is getting overlooked, but the whole premise of Trump's threat of tariffs is based on a lie. He's claiming Mexico must be bullied into stopping migrants. But Mexico is *already* doing this. That's a big reason crossings have dropped. 1/
(new piece) newrepublic.com/article/188854…
Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum's harsh response to Trump went viral for its claim about US guns trafficked to Mexico. But she also noted that Mexico has a comprehensive policy in place for stopping migrants traveling north to the border. That's important. 2/
A Trump-appointed judge just struck down a Biden rule expanding overtime pay to 4 million working people.
It's really surprising how little media coverage this has received. Trump faced no real questions about this issue during the campaign. 1/
(link) newrepublic.com/article/188663…
Remember the media frenzy about "Rich Men North of Richmond," the song MAGA claimed as their anthem? The media spent weeks obsessing over it as a cry of anguish from the blue collar heartland aimed at elites.
Awful: Senate investigations into Trump's solicitation of $1 billion from Big Oil and Jared Kushner's financial dealings with Saudis will now hit a wall with GOP control, Dems tell me. We're headed for unchecked elite corruption under Trump.
New piece: newrepublic.com/article/188467…
For many reasons, conditions are ripe for right wing elites to loot the place from top to bottom. Remember when Trump vowed to give Big Oil execs what they want in exchange for $1 billion in campaign funds? Now we'll likely never get to the bottom of it.
