vox--2020-12-01--Joe Biden should do everything at once

Joe Biden should do everything at once

Joe Biden will become the US president during an extraordinary moment in history , one that could very well prove to be the calm before the storm , a brief prelude to dissolution and illiberalism .
Trump ’ s bid to become a full-on authoritarian failed , but Democrats could easily lose the House in a 2022 backlash .
Biden could face total congressional opposition , even impeachment — as the recent baseless “ stolen election ” narrative has shown , if Republicans don ’ t have any evidence , they ’ ll just make something up .
Or maybe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Senate in 2022 , and legislation will become possible !
Who knows ?
( The Georgia Senate runoffs are another big question mark . )
If there ’ s one thing I ’ ve learned over the past five years , it ’ s that I definitely don ’ t know what is going to happen next , and it doesn ’ t seem like anyone else does either .
What we do know is that Republicans will wage full-on war on Biden from the second he takes office .
They will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ media and social media .
Conservative voters will be told again and again that Biden and Kamala Harris are uniquely dangerous traitors engaged in all sorts of elaborate evil plots .
The entire conservative movement , from top to bottom , will view limiting Biden to one term as its primary strategic objective .
And the movement will engage in misinformation , norm violation , procedural fuckery , and outright lawbreaking , if necessary , to achieve that objective .
The right will be what it is , what it has been becoming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would be madness .
The question is how the Biden administration should behave , knowing all this .
It would be foolish for anyone to claim to have all the answers , or any of the answers really , but in my mind the most pointed lesson about how to behave in a hopelessly partisan environment comes from Donald Trump himself .
Before getting to that ( suspense ! )
, it ’ s instructive to take a look back at some of the experiences of the administration for which Biden was vice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ collect and spend “ political capital ” were mostly for naught When Barack Obama took office in 2009 in a deepening recession , he expected to receive some Republican help bailing out the economy .
It ’ s easy today to look back on that expectation as naive , but at the time it wasn ’ t unreasonable .
The economy was on the brink of disaster , the need was clear , and the depth of conservative backlash was not yet as evident as it would become later .
What happened instead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , built on bad-faith objections about deficit spending and government waste .
With so little room to maneuver , Democrats were forced to negotiate with the tiny handful of moderate Republicans and the large handful of conservative Democrats in the Senate , holding the stimulus bill down to their arbitrary spending caps .
In the end , the stimulus bill passed with zero Republican votes in the House and just three in the Senate .
The result was an inadequate economic boost and a sluggish recovery that hobbled the rest of Obama ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ agreed that “ political capital ” was limited and Democrats could only take on one fight at a time , the question then became what to tackle next .
The answer proved to be health care reform , perceived as a policy better developed and more widely supported in the Democratic caucus .
In July 2009 , Democrats in the House introduced a health care plan based on a system that had been road-tested by Mitt Romney in his recent tenure as governor in Massachusetts .
Many Democrats thought the process would take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could move on to climate change .
Instead , again and again , Republicans lured Democrats into extended negotiations , only to withdraw support at the last minute over some new bad-faith objection ( see : “ death panels ” ) .
That left Democrats negotiating with their most conservative members , who did much the same thing ( Joe Lieberman , may his name live in infamy ) .
In the end , talks dragged on until March 2010 , when Obama finally signed the Affordable Care Act .
It got no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the House .
Then it was finally time for climate change , and the strategy there was yet more clever sequencing .
Obama told Republicans that if they didn ’ t cooperate on climate change legislation , he would regulate greenhouse gases via the Environmental Protection Agency , which would offer less flexibility and less ability to compensate hard-hit communities .
The idea was that the threat of EPA regulations — made inevitable by the Supreme Court ’ s 2007 Massachusetts v. EPA judgment that carbon dioxide is a pollutant subject to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the legislative table , where they could better defend their interests .
Instead , Republicans vowed implacable opposition to all of it .
They would fight furiously against legislation when it was on the table and then fight regulations just as furiously when they came up .
To a cool Vulcan mind like Obama ’ s , it seemed entirely irrational , against Republicans ’ own best interests .
At that point , he had not fully internalized the extent to which the conservative movement has become unleashed id , driven more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , fueled by resentment and organized purely to defeat the libs .
In June 2009 , when the climate bill passed the House , it got eight Republican votes .
By mid-2010 , it was dead in the water , with no hope of any Republican votes in the Senate .
Democrats no longer had their filibuster-proof 60 seats , and there was nothing like the same support in the caucus that health care reform generated , so it never came to a Senate vote .
It ended with a whimper , not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s EPA began slowly rolling out regulations , one at a time .
It wasn ’ t until late in his first term that auto mileage standards were finalized and into his second term before EPA got to power plants .
Republicans were able to keep Obama ’ s Clean Power Plan tied up in court through the end of his second term .
Then Trump took power and began a simultaneous all-fronts assault on Obama ’ s regulations , unrolling them so fast it was difficult to even keep track .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democrats relied on clever sequencing over and over again , imagining some amount of political capital ( “ credibility ” ) that they could husband and spend strategically to get assistance across the aisle , at every juncture underestimating the ferocity and unanimity of Republican opposition .
They kept behaving as though they would find good-faith negotiating partners , as though they were still in the postwar American era of relatively low ( or at least manageable ) polarization .
What too few of them realized was that they were already in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the population sorted into like-minded enclaves , a bifurcated media ecosystem nurturing stacked ( and diametrically opposed ) “ mega-identities , ” and voters motivated primarily by “ negative partisanship , ” which is to say , hatred of the other side .
A fully polarized two-party system really is a zero-sum game .
Any victories or gains by one side come at the other side ’ s expense , even if the victory secures shared goals .
The rational course for the party out of power is to fight with full intensity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s what Republicans did under Obama .
With scarcely any exceptions , from 2010 through 2020 , they pushed in every case for maximal partisan advantage , no matter the stakes or possible cost .
The GOP has failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act , despite a few close calls , but otherwise , its unprincipled pursuit of raw power has paid off handsomely .
The party captured state legislatures in 2010 and was able to gerrymander itself minority rule in several states .
It practically shut down Congress as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s term .
It blocked Merrick Garland ’ s nomination to the Supreme Court and for its efforts got Neil Gorsuch .
It ignored Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’ s dying wishes and for its efforts got a 6-3 conservative Court majority that could last for generations .
Republicans blocked so many Democratic judicial nominations that Senate leader Harry Reid had to get rid of the judicial filibuster to keep the courts staffed .
Then , when the GOP took control of the presidency and Senate , it used the absence of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of hyper-ideological , young , often woefully unqualified judges .
Rather than paying any price for total partisan warfare , Republicans were rewarded in 2016 with the presidency and both houses of Congress .
After carrying the country to the brink of authoritarian crisis , it has now lost the House and the presidency .
But Joe Biden has been left to tackle a virtually uncontrolled pandemic and millions of people out of work and on the verge of homelessness or food insecurity .
The GOP will likely retain control of the Senate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ adequate economic recovery package and none of Biden ’ s ambitious campaign plans will come to fruition .
It has kept control of key state legislatures , so it will be able to gerrymander itself an advantage for another decade .
The elections of 2022 will be another partisan brawl , and the odds are stacked against Democrats ; the president ’ s party has lost seats in every first-term midterm in the past 100 years , save three ( 1934 , 1998 , 2002 ) .
If Republicans gain full control of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , even if conviction is very unlikely .
It ’ s a grim situation , and Biden is starting out behind the eight-ball .
How should he proceed ?
Here we return to the lesson that Trump has to teach Biden about life in hyperpolarized politics .
To wit : blitz .
Do everything at once .
No matter what the Biden administration does , it will be accused of socialism and corruption by the right .
And the past several years have richly demonstrated that conservative parts of the country , particularly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ almost completely captured by right-wing media , from Fox on the TV to AM conservative radio to Sinclair-owned local news to the profusion of shady Facebook sources and groups , where misinformation is rapid and rampant .
Democrats badly need to address this media asymmetry .
Despite what conservatives have convinced themselves , mainstream media outlets like CNN are not analogous to Fox , and Democrats have no comparable radio , local TV , or social media operations to carry their messages and narratives straight to voters where they live .
But that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right around the corner .
The only thing Biden will have real control over is his administration and what it does .
And his North Star , his organizing principle , should be doing as much good on as many fronts as fast as possible .
Blitz .
By constantly blundering forward , Trump has helped chart which US institutions and norms provide real resistance and which don ’ t .
The courts have tangibly restrained Trump ; they have been the primary bulwark against him .
But the chattering of the media @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
Precedent and tradition ?
Civil protest ?
All of these have proven gossamer .
Trump charged right through them like they were cotton candy .
By constantly acting , being on the offensive , generating new stories and controversies , he simply overwhelmed the ability of the system to fasten on any one thing .
Biden should learn the lesson .
All that matters is what gets done , put on paper and into law .
The rest is vapor .
The administration should staff up as rapidly as possible with ambitious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ servant that the next two years are going to be a full sprint .
Start immediately rewriting and reimplementing the environmental , public health , and worker safety regulations Trump has weakened .
Reverse his immigration policies .
Drop his lawsuits .
Reassess the social cost of carbon .
Replace Trump ’ s weak Affordable Clean Energy rule with more stringent carbon rules for the power sector .
Ditch EPA ’ s “ secret science ” rule and restock scientific advisory boards with actual scientists .
Put a moratorium on new oil and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pledge the purchasing power of the federal government — around $ 500 billion a year — toward clean energy technology .
Through the Office of Management and Budget ( OMB ) , direct federal financing toward carbon reduction and clean energy across agencies .
Use the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs ( OIRA ) to reject regulations from any agency that do not include both a climate and equity “ screen ” to ensure that they reduce emissions and help the most vulnerable .
Use the powers conferred by the Dodd-Frank financial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the financial system .
I ’ ve written more about what Biden can do on climate change without Congress .
Vox ’ s Dylan Matthews took a wider policy view with 10 big things Biden can do with executive powers , from forgiving student loan debt to reigning in factory farming .
More ideas can be found here , here , here , and here , among other places .
There ’ s no shortage of ways for Biden to deploy the powers of the presidency , and he should maximize every one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ partisan politics is to act , not react All of these moves will elicit howls of outrage and court challenges from the right .
Many will also infuriate the left , since they will inevitably fall short of Biden ’ s grand campaign promises .
Biden can ’ t control any of that .
Doing less , negotiating more , relying on clever sequencing , chasing after receding promises of cooperation — none of that will solve anything , any more than it did for Obama .
He can reach across the aisle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ open , but he shouldn ’ t wait around for anyone to walk in .
Biden ’ s best chance is to try to overwhelm the system the way Trump did , by doing so much that it ’ s impossible to make any one thing into a lasting story .
He should launch so many simultaneous reforms that there ’ s no time for right-wing media to make up lies about all of them or for the Supreme Court to hear them all .
He should ignore bad-faith attacks and stay relentlessly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ done and what ’ s getting done next .
He should , at every juncture , get caught trying to make government work better for ordinary people .
To succeed , all this must happen alongside Democratic Party efforts to improve messaging and media , get persistent party infrastructure on the ground in communities the party has neglected , and innovate on voter outreach and persuasion .
( Aaron Strauss has some good ideas on that front . )
But Biden has something the rest of the party at the federal level does @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Americans ’ lives in a visible way .
More than anything else , cynicism about government ’ s ability to do that is corroding US politics .
The best thing Biden can do , morally and politically , is act , as much and as fast as possible , and then talk about it , and do more of it , and talk about it more .
( And he should be clear about exactly who stands in the way of bigger , better changes , and why his name is Mitch McConnell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he should ignore : the Washington chatter about the latest Republican accusations or catty infighting among Democratic factions , the cable news story or Twitter drama of the day , the latest offensive thing Trump or some Trump surrogate said , all of it .
Bulldoze through it .
The president has limited ability to control political discourse and drama , but he has an enormous capacity to change policy and direct resources .
Biden should use that power while he has it , without hesitation or apology .

Joe Biden will become the US president during an extraordinary moment in history, one that could very well prove to be the calm before the storm, a brief prelude to dissolution and illiberalism. Trump’s bid to become a full-on authoritarian failed, but Democrats could easily lose the House in a 2022 backlash. Biden could face total congressional opposition, even impeachment — as the recent baseless “stolen election” narrative has shown, if Republicans don’t have any evidence, they’ll just make something up.
Or maybe Democrats will keep the House and take the Senate in 2022, and legislation will become possible! Who knows? (The Georgia Senate runoffs are another big question mark.) If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past five years, it’s that I definitely don’t know what is going to happen next, and it doesn’t seem like anyone else does either.
What we do know is that Republicans will wage full-on war on Biden from the second he takes office. They will generate fake conspiracies and controversies through right-wing media and social media. Conservative voters will be told again and again that Biden and Kamala Harris are uniquely dangerous traitors engaged in all sorts of elaborate evil plots. The entire conservative movement, from top to bottom, will view limiting Biden to one term as its primary strategic objective. And the movement will engage in misinformation, norm violation, procedural fuckery, and outright lawbreaking, if necessary, to achieve that objective.
The right will be what it is, what it has been becoming for decades now; expecting anything else would be madness. The question is how the Biden administration should behave, knowing all this.
It would be foolish for anyone to claim to have all the answers, or any of the answers really, but in my mind the most pointed lesson about how to behave in a hopelessly partisan environment comes from Donald Trump himself.
Before getting to that (suspense!), it’s instructive to take a look back at some of the experiences of the administration for which Biden was vice president.
Obama’s efforts to collect and spend “political capital” were mostly for naught
When Barack Obama took office in 2009 in a deepening recession, he expected to receive some Republican help bailing out the economy. It’s easy today to look back on that expectation as naive, but at the time it wasn’t unreasonable. The economy was on the brink of disaster, the need was clear, and the depth of conservative backlash was not yet as evident as it would become later.
What happened instead was a wall of opposition from Republicans, built on bad-faith objections about deficit spending and government waste. With so little room to maneuver, Democrats were forced to negotiate with the tiny handful of moderate Republicans and the large handful of conservative Democrats in the Senate, holding the stimulus bill down to their arbitrary spending caps. In the end, the stimulus bill passed with zero Republican votes in the House and just three in the Senate. The result was an inadequate economic boost and a sluggish recovery that hobbled the rest of Obama’s presidency.
Since it was widely agreed that “political capital” was limited and Democrats could only take on one fight at a time, the question then became what to tackle next. The answer proved to be health care reform, perceived as a policy better developed and more widely supported in the Democratic caucus.
In July 2009, Democrats in the House introduced a health care plan based on a system that had been road-tested by Mitt Romney in his recent tenure as governor in Massachusetts. Many Democrats thought the process would take a few months, and then Congress could move on to climate change. Instead, again and again, Republicans lured Democrats into extended negotiations, only to withdraw support at the last minute over some new bad-faith objection (see: “death panels”). That left Democrats negotiating with their most conservative members, who did much the same thing (Joe Lieberman, may his name live in infamy).
In the end, talks dragged on until March 2010, when Obama finally signed the Affordable Care Act. It got no Republican votes, in the Senate or the House.
Then it was finally time for climate change, and the strategy there was yet more clever sequencing. Obama told Republicans that if they didn’t cooperate on climate change legislation, he would regulate greenhouse gases via the Environmental Protection Agency, which would offer less flexibility and less ability to compensate hard-hit communities. The idea was that the threat of EPA regulations — made inevitable by the Supreme Court’s 2007 Massachusetts v. EPA judgment that carbon dioxide is a pollutant subject to the Clean Air Act — would frighten Republicans to the legislative table, where they could better defend their interests.
Instead, Republicans vowed implacable opposition to all of it. They would fight furiously against legislation when it was on the table and then fight regulations just as furiously when they came up.
To a cool Vulcan mind like Obama’s, it seemed entirely irrational, against Republicans’ own best interests. At that point, he had not fully internalized the extent to which the conservative movement has become unleashed id, driven more by right-wing media than by Republican politicians, fueled by resentment and organized purely to defeat the libs.
In June 2009, when the climate bill passed the House, it got eight Republican votes. By mid-2010, it was dead in the water, with no hope of any Republican votes in the Senate. Democrats no longer had their filibuster-proof 60 seats, and there was nothing like the same support in the caucus that health care reform generated, so it never came to a Senate vote. It ended with a whimper, not a bang.
As promised, Obama’s EPA began slowly rolling out regulations, one at a time. It wasn’t until late in his first term that auto mileage standards were finalized and into his second term before EPA got to power plants. Republicans were able to keep Obama’s Clean Power Plan tied up in court through the end of his second term. Then Trump took power and began a simultaneous all-fronts assault on Obama’s regulations, unrolling them so fast it was difficult to even keep track.
Two-party partisan politics really is a zero-sum game
The theme of these stories is that Democrats relied on clever sequencing over and over again, imagining some amount of political capital (“credibility”) that they could husband and spend strategically to get assistance across the aisle, at every juncture underestimating the ferocity and unanimity of Republican opposition. They kept behaving as though they would find good-faith negotiating partners, as though they were still in the postwar American era of relatively low (or at least manageable) polarization.
What too few of them realized was that they were already in a new era of near-total polarization, with the population sorted into like-minded enclaves, a bifurcated media ecosystem nurturing stacked (and diametrically opposed) “mega-identities,” and voters motivated primarily by “negative partisanship,” which is to say, hatred of the other side.
A fully polarized two-party system really is a zero-sum game. Any victories or gains by one side come at the other side’s expense, even if the victory secures shared goals. The rational course for the party out of power is to fight with full intensity against everything, always, and that’s what Republicans did under Obama. With scarcely any exceptions, from 2010 through 2020, they pushed in every case for maximal partisan advantage, no matter the stakes or possible cost.
The GOP has failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, despite a few close calls, but otherwise, its unprincipled pursuit of raw power has paid off handsomely. The party captured state legislatures in 2010 and was able to gerrymander itself minority rule in several states. It practically shut down Congress as a legislative body for six years of Obama’s term. It blocked Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court and for its efforts got Neil Gorsuch. It ignored Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wishes and for its efforts got a 6-3 conservative Court majority that could last for generations.
Republicans blocked so many Democratic judicial nominations that Senate leader Harry Reid had to get rid of the judicial filibuster to keep the courts staffed. Then, when the GOP took control of the presidency and Senate, it used the absence of the filibuster to pack the federal courts full of hyper-ideological, young, often woefully unqualified judges.
Rather than paying any price for total partisan warfare, Republicans were rewarded in 2016 with the presidency and both houses of Congress. After carrying the country to the brink of authoritarian crisis, it has now lost the House and the presidency. But Joe Biden has been left to tackle a virtually uncontrolled pandemic and millions of people out of work and on the verge of homelessness or food insecurity.
The GOP will likely retain control of the Senate, which means there will be no adequate economic recovery package and none of Biden’s ambitious campaign plans will come to fruition. It has kept control of key state legislatures, so it will be able to gerrymander itself an advantage for another decade.
The elections of 2022 will be another partisan brawl, and the odds are stacked against Democrats; the president’s party has lost seats in every first-term midterm in the past 100 years, save three. If Republicans gain full control of Congress, impeachment becomes a real possibility, even if conviction is very unlikely.
It’s a grim situation, and Biden is starting out behind the eight-ball. How should he proceed?
Biden should run a blitz
Here we return to the lesson that Trump has to teach Biden about life in hyperpolarized politics.
To wit: blitz. Do everything at once.
No matter what the Biden administration does, it will be accused of socialism and corruption by the right. And the past several years have richly demonstrated that conservative parts of the country, particularly rural areas and low-density suburbs, are almost completely captured by right-wing media, from Fox on the TV to AM conservative radio to Sinclair-owned local news to the profusion of shady Facebook sources and groups, where misinformation is rapid and rampant.
Democrats badly need to address this media asymmetry. Despite what conservatives have convinced themselves, mainstream media outlets like CNN are not analogous to Fox, and Democrats have no comparable radio, local TV, or social media operations to carry their messages and narratives straight to voters where they live.
But that is long-term work, and 2022 is right around the corner.
The only thing Biden will have real control over is his administration and what it does. And his North Star, his organizing principle, should be doing as much good on as many fronts as fast as possible. Blitz.
By constantly blundering forward, Trump has helped chart which US institutions and norms provide real resistance and which don’t. The courts have tangibly restrained Trump; they have been the primary bulwark against him. But the chattering of the media and the political classes? Moral outrage? Precedent and tradition? Civil protest?
All of these have proven gossamer. Trump charged right through them like they were cotton candy. By constantly acting, being on the offensive, generating new stories and controversies, he simply overwhelmed the ability of the system to fasten on any one thing.
Biden should learn the lesson. All that matters is what gets done, put on paper and into law. The rest is vapor.
The administration should staff up as rapidly as possible with ambitious young progressives and tell every single civil servant that the next two years are going to be a full sprint. Start immediately rewriting and reimplementing the environmental, public health, and worker safety regulations Trump has weakened. Reverse his immigration policies. Drop his lawsuits.
Reassess the social cost of carbon. Replace Trump’s weak Affordable Clean Energy rule with more stringent carbon rules for the power sector. Ditch EPA’s “secret science” rule and restock scientific advisory boards with actual scientists. Put a moratorium on new oil and gas drilling leases on public land. Pledge the purchasing power of the federal government — around $500 billion a year — toward clean energy technology.
Through the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), direct federal financing toward carbon reduction and clean energy across agencies. Use the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to reject regulations from any agency that do not include both a climate and equity “screen” to ensure that they reduce emissions and help the most vulnerable. Use the powers conferred by the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill to integrate climate risks into the financial system.
I’ve written more about what Biden can do on climate change without Congress. Vox’s Dylan Matthews took a wider policy view with 10 big things Biden can do with executive powers, from forgiving student loan debt to reigning in factory farming. More ideas can be found here, here, here, and here, among other places. There’s no shortage of ways for Biden to deploy the powers of the presidency, and he should maximize every one of them.
The new rule of partisan politics is to act, not react
All of these moves will elicit howls of outrage and court challenges from the right. Many will also infuriate the left, since they will inevitably fall short of Biden’s grand campaign promises.
Biden can’t control any of that. Doing less, negotiating more, relying on clever sequencing, chasing after receding promises of cooperation — none of that will solve anything, any more than it did for Obama. He can reach across the aisle, make it clear his door is open, but he shouldn’t wait around for anyone to walk in.
Biden’s best chance is to try to overwhelm the system the way Trump did, by doing so much that it’s impossible to make any one thing into a lasting story. He should launch so many simultaneous reforms that there’s no time for right-wing media to make up lies about all of them or for the Supreme Court to hear them all. He should ignore bad-faith attacks and stay relentlessly on message about what’s gotten done and what’s getting done next. He should, at every juncture, get caught trying to make government work better for ordinary people.
To succeed, all this must happen alongside Democratic Party efforts to improve messaging and media, get persistent party infrastructure on the ground in communities the party has neglected, and innovate on voter outreach and persuasion. (Aaron Strauss has some good ideas on that front.)
But Biden has something the rest of the party at the federal level does not have: the power to improve Americans’ lives in a visible way. More than anything else, cynicism about government’s ability to do that is corroding US politics. The best thing Biden can do, morally and politically, is act, as much and as fast as possible, and then talk about it, and do more of it, and talk about it more. (And he should be clear about exactly who stands in the way of bigger, better changes, and why his name is Mitch McConnell.)
The rest of it, he should ignore: the Washington chatter about the latest Republican accusations or catty infighting among Democratic factions, the cable news story or Twitter drama of the day, the latest offensive thing Trump or some Trump surrogate said, all of it. Bulldoze through it.
The president has limited ability to control political discourse and drama, but he has an enormous capacity to change policy and direct resources. Biden should use that power while he has it, without hesitation or apology.


vox--2020-12-01--The high rate of executions during Trump’s last weeks in office, explained

When five Black and Latino teenagers were wrongfully convicted of the rape of a jogger in New York City ’ s Central Park in 1989 , prominent businessman Donald Trump bought newspaper advertisements calling on New York state to “ bring back the death penalty ” in the wake of the attack .
Little did the country know , Trump ’ s views on capital punishment then would inform his presidency decades later : In July , the Trump administration reinstated the death penalty at the federal level after a 17-year hiatus .
The return of federal executions demonstrates an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s legacy in contrast to previous administrations .
The Washington Post ’ s editorial board described it as a “ sickening spree of executions.
” To put it in perspective , only three people had been executed by the federal government in the past 50 years .
Meanwhile , in less than five months , eight people have already been put to death by Trump ’ s Justice Department , with five more executions scheduled to happen before Trump leaves office .
“ The Trump administration ’ s policy regarding a death penalty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Robert Dunham , executive director of Death Penalty Information Center , a bipartisan organization that does not take a position for or against the death penalty , but rather is critical of the way capital punishment is administered .
If the remaining executions in December are carried out — making a total of 10 for 2020 — it will mark more civilian executions in a single calendar year than any other presidency in the 20th and 21st centuries .
“ No one has conducted this number of federal civilian executions in this short @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Dunham added .
Of the five upcoming federal executions during the lame-duck period , four of them are Black men , while the fifth will be the first woman to be executed by the federal government in nearly 70 years .
These federal executions come in concert with the rallying cry for racial justice and an overhaul of America ’ s policing and criminal justice systems that has left a disproportionate number of Black people arrested , jailed , convicted , and dead .
More than 44 percent of the remaining 54 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , according to the Death Penalty Information Center , even though Black people make up only 13 percent of the US population .
“ The fact that we ’ re having a record-high number of federal executions , at the same time that we ’ re near a record low in state executions , in the middle of a pandemic , shows how much the Trump administration is either out of touch or that it can not resist gratuitous acts of cruelty , ” Dunham said , adding that only seven state executions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since states began carrying out executions in colonial times .
“ Nobody needs to carry out an execution during a pandemic.
” Just last week , the Justice Department also published a rule that would allow other methods for capital punishment , such as firing squads , lethal gas , and electrocutions ; Attorney General Bill Barr is currently racing to finalize that rule .
Trump ’ s push for additional methods and a number of federal executions will be part of his presidential legacy and highlights a stark divide between the administration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the death penalty among Americans .
Four Black men are scheduled for federal execution weeks before Trump leaves office On November 19 , Orlando Hall , a Black man sentenced to death for kidnapping , rape , and murder in 1994 , became the eighth and latest inmate to be executed by the federal government since it reinstated federal executions this summer .
He is also the first in more than a century to be put to death during a lame-duck period .
Shortly before Hall was executed by lethal injection , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to stop the execution — with new Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the majority ruling .
While Hall is the second Black man to be executed out of the eight so far since July , the remaining men scheduled to be put to death are all Black .
“ In an apparent effort to forestall criticism that the federal executions were racist , the administration selected white prisoners first , ” Dunham said ; the executions were reinstated as racial justice protests broke out across the country this summer .
“ What ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is that it still tells us a lot about whose lives matter because only one of the people executed so far was convicted for killing an African American.
” Brandon Bernard , convicted of kidnapping and murder , is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on December 10 .
Bernard , who is also Black , was only 18 years old when he committed crimes that resulted in the deaths of a young white married couple in 1999 .
But five of the nine surviving jurors who supported the death penalty at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Even Angela Moore , the federal prosecutor who helped put Bernard on death row , wrote an op-ed in the Indianapolis Star making a case for why the federal government should let him live .
“ I always took pride in representing the United States as a federal prosecutor , and I think executing Brandon would be a terrible stain on the nation ’ s honor , ” Moore wrote .
During his time in prison , Bernard has been a model prisoner , mentoring at-risk youth .
“ Having learned so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the human brain and having seen Brandon grow into a humble , remorseful adult fully capable of living peacefully in prison , how can we say he is among that tiny group of offenders who must be put to death ?
” Moore wrote .
Alfred Bourgeois , a Black truck driver in Texas who was convicted of abusing and killing his 2-year-old daughter in 2002 , is scheduled for execution the day after Bernard .
Bourgeois ’ s execution was originally scheduled for January 2020 but was halted by a federal judge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ early moves to bring back the federal death penalty .
Bourgeois ’ s lawyers then argued to suspend his death sentence on the grounds that he ’ s entitled to an intellectual disability evaluation under the Eighth Amendment .
The next two inmates on death row are scheduled for execution in 2021 just a few days before Biden ’ s inauguration .
Cory Johnson , who was convicted of murdering seven people during a drug trafficking operation in Richmond , Virginia , is scheduled for lethal injection on January 14 .
Like Bourgeois @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there is overwhelming evidence that Johnson has intellectual disabilities .
On January 15 , Dustin Higgs is scheduled to be put to death for a crime committed in 1996 .
The Justice Department claims that Higgs kidnapped and murdered three women , but the Daily Beast reports that while he was present at the scene of the crime , witnesses confirm that Higgs did not kill anyone .
Co-defendant Willis Haynes fired the shots , but the Justice Department argues that Higgs coerced his friend Haynes into committing the crime .
But Haynes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prison , confirmed through a signed affidavit that Higgs did not coerce him , saying , “ the prosecution ’ s theory of our case was bullshit .
Dustin didn ’ t threaten me .
I was not scared of him .
Dustin didn ’ t make me do anything that night or ever.
” The other person on the Justice Department ’ s execution schedule is Lisa Montgomery , the only woman on federal death row and the first woman set to be federally executed in nearly 70 years .
In 2004 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then attempted to pass off the baby as her own .
Montgomery , who Dunham said has severe mental illness due to an abusive past , was initially scheduled for execution by lethal injection on December 8 , but it was delayed due to her lawyers contracting Covid-19 .
The Justice Department is fast-tracking new rules on the death penalty before Biden ’ s inauguration Trump is the first president in 17 years to reinstate federal executions , despite a recent poll showing that a record-low number of Americans consider the death penalty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lines , the death penalty has been a historically contentious issue .
Since the US Supreme Court revived capital punishment in 1976 , state governments have been doing most executions , though those have declined in the past two decades , too .
In addition to pushing through federal executions over the past five months , the Justice Department published a new rule to the Federal Register on Friday that would allow the use of other methods for capital punishment .
The new regulation reintroduces the use of firing squads and electrocutions for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The new rule is set to go into effect in 30 days instead of the generally allotted 60 days .
As it stands for the remaining inmates awaiting execution , only Higgs appears not to have a method of execution stated on the Justice Department ’ s schedule — the rest are marked for lethal injection .
The Trump administration ’ s move , among many others , is another thing President-elect Biden — who has signaled at various times that he would end the federal death penalty — will have to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a political veteran , has repeatedly addressed criticism during his presidential campaign over the role he played in passing the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act , also known as the 1994 crime bill , signed by President Bill Clinton .
The bill allowed the expansion of crimes eligible for the federal death penalty , which aided the conviction of some of the inmates now awaiting execution .
( Hall was only eligible for the death penalty because the crime bill added kidnapping resulting in death to the list of crimes .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ cut corners and fast-track dozens of rules that range from oil-drilling in the Arctic to immigrant restrictions , as well as the death penalty rule , before Biden takes over .
If the rules are finalized , the new administration would have to go through a convoluted process to roll them back .
But since Biden has pledged to abolish the death penalty at the federal level and incentivize states to follow the federal government ’ s example , the new death penalty rule may virtually not be of use in his administration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policies making it more difficult to negotiate on trade or world safety , the Biden administration can take as much time as it wants to undo this regulation , ” Dunham said .
“ Undoing it isn ’ t that difficult .
I believe the regulation is intended to make it easier for the Trump administration to carry out the remaining lame-duck executions.
” The bigger question is how Biden ’ s administration will transform a historically racist criminal justice system while also healing the wounds brought by the Trump administration .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when it comes to criminal legal issues , has been highly political , and mostly out of step with the direction that most of the United States is heading , ” Dunham said .
“ When push came to shove , it reverted to policies that are more extreme in their cruelty and the arbitrariness of their application than anything else we have seen in modern American history.
” The Trump administration ’ s push for federal executions , while the country has been preoccupied with the election and the pandemic , is @ @ @

Editor’s note: Brandon Bernard was executed by lethal injection on Thursday for crimes he committed at age 18. This piece was originally published on December 1.
When five Black and Latino teenagers were wrongfully convicted of the rape of a jogger in New York City’s Central Park in 1989, prominent businessman Donald Trump bought newspaper advertisements calling on New York state to “bring back the death penalty” in the wake of the attack. Little did the country know, Trump’s views on capital punishment then would inform his presidency decades later: In July, the Trump administration reinstated the death penalty at the federal level after a 17-year hiatus.
The return of federal executions demonstrates an unprecedented and grim picture of Trump’s legacy in contrast to previous administrations. The Washington Post’s editorial board described it as a “sickening spree of executions.” To put it in perspective, only three people had been executed by the federal government in the past 50 years. Meanwhile, in less than five months, eight people have already been put to death by Trump’s Justice Department, with five more executions scheduled to happen before Trump leaves office.
“The Trump administration’s policy regarding a death penalty is just historically abhorrent,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of Death Penalty Information Center, a bipartisan organization that does not take a position for or against the death penalty, but rather is critical of the way capital punishment is administered.
If the remaining executions in December are carried out — making a total of 10 for 2020 — it will mark more civilian executions in a single calendar year than any other presidency in the 20th and 21st centuries. “No one has conducted this number of federal civilian executions in this short period of time in American history,” Dunham added.
Of the five upcoming federal executions during the lame-duck period, four of them are Black men, while the fifth will be the first woman to be executed by the federal government in nearly 70 years. These federal executions come in concert with the rallying cry for racial justice and an overhaul of America’s policing and criminal justice systems that has left a disproportionate number of Black people arrested, jailed, convicted, and dead. More than 44 percent of the remaining 54 people on federal death row are Black, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, even though Black people make up only 13 percent of the US population.
“The fact that we’re having a record-high number of federal executions, at the same time that we’re near a record low in state executions, in the middle of a pandemic, shows how much the Trump administration is either out of touch or that it cannot resist gratuitous acts of cruelty,” Dunham said, adding that only seven state executions will occur this year — the lowest since states began carrying out executions in colonial times. “Nobody needs to carry out an execution during a pandemic.”
Just last week, the Justice Department also published a rule that would allow other methods for capital punishment, such as firing squads, lethal gas, and electrocutions; Attorney General Bill Barr is currently racing to finalize that rule.
Trump’s push for additional methods and a number of federal executions will be part of his presidential legacy and highlights a stark divide between the administration’s actions and dwindling support for the death penalty among Americans.
Four Black men are scheduled for federal execution weeks before Trump leaves office
On November 19, Orlando Hall, a Black man sentenced to death for kidnapping, rape, and murder in 1994, became the eighth and latest inmate to be executed by the federal government since it reinstated federal executions this summer. He is also the first in more than a century to be put to death during a lame-duck period. Shortly before Hall was executed by lethal injection, the US Supreme Court had denied his request to stop the execution — with new Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the majority ruling.
While Hall is the second Black man to be executed out of the eight so far since July, the remaining men scheduled to be put to death are all Black. “In an apparent effort to forestall criticism that the federal executions were racist, the administration selected white prisoners first,” Dunham said; the executions were reinstated as racial justice protests broke out across the country this summer. “What’s striking about that, though, is that it still tells us a lot about whose lives matter because only one of the people executed so far was convicted for killing an African American.”
Brandon Bernard, convicted of kidnapping and murder, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on December 10. Bernard, who is also Black, was only 18 years old when he committed crimes that resulted in the deaths of a young white married couple in 1999. But five of the nine surviving jurors who supported the death penalty at the time now believe it is inappropriate. Even Angela Moore, the federal prosecutor who helped put Bernard on death row, wrote an op-ed in the Indianapolis Star making a case for why the federal government should let him live.
“I always took pride in representing the United States as a federal prosecutor, and I think executing Brandon would be a terrible stain on the nation’s honor,” Moore wrote.
During his time in prison, Bernard has been a model prisoner, mentoring at-risk youth. “Having learned so much since 2000 about the maturation of the human brain and having seen Brandon grow into a humble, remorseful adult fully capable of living peacefully in prison, how can we say he is among that tiny group of offenders who must be put to death?” Moore wrote.
Alfred Bourgeois, a Black truck driver in Texas who was convicted of abusing and killing his 2-year-old daughter in 2002, is scheduled for execution the day after Bernard. Bourgeois’s execution was originally scheduled for January 2020 but was halted by a federal judge who blocked the Trump administration’s early moves to bring back the federal death penalty. Bourgeois’s lawyers then argued to suspend his death sentence on the grounds that he’s entitled to an intellectual disability evaluation under the Eighth Amendment.
The next two inmates on death row are scheduled for execution in 2021 just a few days before Biden’s inauguration. Cory Johnson, who was convicted of murdering seven people during a drug trafficking operation in Richmond, Virginia, is scheduled for lethal injection on January 14. Like Bourgeois, Johnson’s lawyers argue that there is overwhelming evidence that Johnson has intellectual disabilities.
On January 15, Dustin Higgs is scheduled to be put to death for a crime committed in 1996. The Justice Department claims that Higgs kidnapped and murdered three women, but the Daily Beast reports that while he was present at the scene of the crime, witnesses confirm that Higgs did not kill anyone. Co-defendant Willis Haynes fired the shots, but the Justice Department argues that Higgs coerced his friend Haynes into committing the crime.
But Haynes, who was sentenced to life in prison, confirmed through a signed affidavit that Higgs did not coerce him, saying, “the prosecution’s theory of our case was bullshit. Dustin didn’t threaten me. I was not scared of him. Dustin didn’t make me do anything that night or ever.”
The other person on the Justice Department’s execution schedule is Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row and the first woman set to be federally executed in nearly 70 years. In 2004, Montgomery killed a pregnant woman and then attempted to pass off the baby as her own. Montgomery, who Dunham said has severe mental illness due to an abusive past, was initially scheduled for execution by lethal injection on December 8, but it was delayed due to her lawyers contracting Covid-19.
The Justice Department is fast-tracking new rules on the death penalty before Biden’s inauguration
Trump is the first president in 17 years to reinstate federal executions, despite a recent poll showing that a record-low number of Americans consider the death penalty “morally acceptable.” Even across party lines, the death penalty has been a historically contentious issue. Since the US Supreme Court revived capital punishment in 1976, state governments have been doing most executions, though those have declined in the past two decades, too.
In addition to pushing through federal executions over the past five months, the Justice Department published a new rule to the Federal Register on Friday that would allow the use of other methods for capital punishment. The new regulation reintroduces the use of firing squads and electrocutions for federal executions in addition to lethal injections. The new rule is set to go into effect in 30 days instead of the generally allotted 60 days. As it stands for the remaining inmates awaiting execution, only Higgs appears not to have a method of execution stated on the Justice Department’s schedule — the rest are marked for lethal injection.
The Trump administration’s move, among many others, is another thing President-elect Biden — who has signaled at various times that he would end the federal death penalty — will have to face once in office. Biden, a political veteran, has repeatedly addressed criticism during his presidential campaign over the role he played in passing the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, also known as the 1994 crime bill, signed by President Bill Clinton. The bill allowed the expansion of crimes eligible for the federal death penalty, which aided the conviction of some of the inmates now awaiting execution. (Hall was only eligible for the death penalty because the crime bill added kidnapping resulting in death to the list of crimes.)
The Trump administration is trying to cut corners and fast-track dozens of rules that range from oil-drilling in the Arctic to immigrant restrictions, as well as the death penalty rule, before Biden takes over. If the rules are finalized, the new administration would have to go through a convoluted process to roll them back. But since Biden has pledged to abolish the death penalty at the federal level and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example, the new death penalty rule may virtually not be of use in his administration.
“Unlike the environmental regulations or policies making it more difficult to negotiate on trade or world safety, the Biden administration can take as much time as it wants to undo this regulation,” Dunham said. “Undoing it isn’t that difficult. I believe the regulation is intended to make it easier for the Trump administration to carry out the remaining lame-duck executions.”
The bigger question is how Biden’s administration will transform a historically racist criminal justice system while also healing the wounds brought by the Trump administration.
“The Trump administration’s conduct, when it comes to criminal legal issues, has been highly political, and mostly out of step with the direction that most of the United States is heading,” Dunham said. “When push came to shove, it reverted to policies that are more extreme in their cruelty and the arbitrariness of their application than anything else we have seen in modern American history.”
The Trump administration’s push for federal executions, while the country has been preoccupied with the election and the pandemic, is no different.


vox--2020-12-01--Trump’s pardon shenanigans are ramping up

Outgoing President Donald Trump kicked off what will likely be the first in a series of pardons of his associates last week , with his pardon for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn .
Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to investigators back in 2017 — but that ’ s not all Trump pardoned him for .
The typical way pardons work is that the recipient is pardoned for specific crimes .
But Flynn ’ s stands out because it also has preemptive aspects — that is , it ’ s written broadly to try to pardon Flynn for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been charged with .
Preemptive pardons aren ’ t unprecedented , but they are unusual , and come far closer to a sort of presidential declaration that the president ’ s associates should be above the law .
And Trump ’ s use of the tactic for Flynn hints at just how far he could go in his final weeks in office .
Several of Trump ’ s former top campaign advisers — Steve Bannon , Paul Manafort , and Roger Stone — have been charged with or convicted of specific crimes , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( Trump already commuted Roger Stone ’ s sentence but has not yet granted him a full pardon . )
The universe of potential preemptive pardons , though , is far broader .
For while many Trump associates have been charged with crimes , an even greater number have been investigated but have not faced any charges .
For instance , there ’ s the president ’ s lawyer Rudy Giuliani .
The New York Times ’ s Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt reported Tuesday morning that , “ as recently as last @ @ @ @ @ @ @ possibility of receiving a pre-emptive pardon ” from Trump ( though Giuliani denied this on Twitter ) .
Federal prosecutors in New York have probed Giuliani ’ s business activities and indicted two of his associates .
And some of Trump ’ s allies are urging him to take preemptive pardons even further .
“ I ’ d tell President Trump to pardon yourself and pardon your family , ” Fox host Sean Hannity said Monday .
It remains unclear whether Trump will try to go that far ( particularly , a self-pardon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can ’ t pardon state crimes ) , but it ’ s clear enough that his lame-duck pardon shenanigans are only getting started .
The Flynn pardon is very broad , and much of it is preemptive In December 2017 , Michael Flynn , Trump ’ s former national security adviser , pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements ( lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador ) .
Since then , his case has become a protracted legal saga — first Flynn tried to withdraw his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ team sought to have the case against Flynn thrown out , and the judge in the case , Emmet Sullivan , has been weighing whether he should permit this latter move .
Last week , Trump announced that he had pardoned Flynn , but no documentation for that pardon clarifying its parameters was released until Monday night .
Here ’ s what it looks like : The pardon begins by listing the crime to which Flynn pleaded guilty : making false statements to federal investigators .
But it covers a whole lot more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for : • “ any and all possible offenses arising from the facts set forth in ” the charging documents in his case ( Flynn also admitted making false statements in Foreign Agents Registration Act filings about his work for the government of Turkey ) • any offenses “ that might arise , or be charged , claimed , or asserted in connection with the proceedings ” in his case ( for instance , there has been some discussion about whether Flynn could be charged with perjury by admitting his guilt under oath @ @ @ @ @ @ @ • “ any and all possible offenses within the investigatory authority or jurisdiction ” of special counsel Robert Mueller , and “ any and all possible offenses arising out of facts and circumstances known to , identified by , or in any manner related to ” Mueller ’ s investigation ( that is , if Mueller found anything else that Flynn could be criminally charged for , the pardon is meant to cover that ) So this is not a typical pardon , targeted at crimes someone has actually been charged with or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ preemptive pardon , designed to shield Flynn from being charged in the future .
In that respect , it ’ s similar to the unconditional preemptive pardon President Gerald Ford granted his former boss and predecessor Richard Nixon — a sweeping pardon for any criminal offenses Nixon may have committed during the course of his presidency .
The Flynn pardon is not quite as broad as that , but it ’ s clearly tailored to try to wipe out the possibility that Flynn will face any further charges connected to the current case @ @ @ @ @ @ @ related to the Mueller investigation .
The New York Times has already confirmed that one preemptive pardon is under discussion — for Giuliani .
Late last year , news broke that federal prosecutors in the US Attorney ’ s Office for the Southern District of New York ( SDNY ) were scrutinizing Giuliani ’ s business and finances , exploring his contacts with former top Ukrainian officials , and investigating a host of potential crimes ( including obstruction of justice , money laundering , serving as an unregistered agent of a foreign government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) .
Two of Giuliani ’ s associates , Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman , were indicted on charges of campaign finance violations that October .
The pair allegedly had been helping Giuliani make connections with Ukrainian officials who claimed to know of scandalous information about the Biden family , that could be helpful to Trump .
( The revelation of Trump and Giuliani ’ s efforts to get dirt on Biden from Ukrainian officials eventually resulted in Trump ’ s impeachment . )
This year , there have been few new developments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the investigation into Giuliani “ was upended by the coronavirus pandemic , limiting prosecutors ’ ability to interview witnesses , collect further evidence , and meet with the grand jury.
” Giuliani has not been charged , but if this investigation is serious and still underway , he ’ d obviously be hoping for a pardon while his client is still in charge of the executive branch .
There has also been some discussion — at least from Sean Hannity — about preemptive pardons for members of the Trump family .
Trump ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Mueller investigation but ultimately wasn ’ t charged .
Trump himself also was probed for obstructing justice , but Mueller opted not to charge him , in part because Trump was the sitting president .
President Trump could attempt to pardon himself , but it ’ s unclear if that would be legal ( a popular theory among the # Resistance is that Trump will resign early and let newly installed President Mike Pence pardon him ) .
One issue here , though , is that the president has no power @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is currently under investigation for potential bank and insurance fraud in New York state .
Now , if Trump truly does plan to run for president again in 2024 , he might have political reasons to hold back on the broadest assertions of his pardon powers .
Then again , he might feel he ’ s appropriately laid the groundwork to defend those moves , having disparaged any investigations of himself or anyone close to him as “ witch hunts.
” Some who want pardons are backing Trump ’ s “ stolen election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been a notable pattern among some who are likely seeking pardons : They ’ ve tended to champion Trump ’ s lies and conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen from him .
Giuliani , of course , has been in charge of Trump ’ s post-election legal fight , spreading false claims of widespread voter fraud while reportedly seeking a preemptive pardon .
Attorney Sidney Powell — Flynn ’ s lawyer — stood up with Giuliani at a press conference two weeks ago making particularly bizarre claims of fraud .
( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dominion rigged the vote against Trump , in part because there was “ communist money ” involved and that the company had ties to the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez . )
Powell has filed lawsuits as well filled with similarly false claims .
( Flynn himself has said “ there is no doubt in my mind ” that Trump won in a “ landslide.
” ) Bannon , too , has been spreading false information advancing Trump ’ s stolen election narrative , and has been advising Giuliani behind the scenes , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or not there was any explicit quid pro quo involved here , it ’ s clear that all these people were interested in pardons ( in Powell ’ s case , for her client ) , and that all these people knew the importance of pleasing the man who could issue those pardons .
Indeed , the main champions of Trump ’ s post-election fraud lies have been people who wanted Trump to pardon somebody — which is revealing of how much bad faith is at play here .

Outgoing President Donald Trump kicked off what will likely be the first in a series of pardons of his associates last week, with his pardon for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to investigators back in 2017 — but that’s not all Trump pardoned him for.
The typical way pardons work is that the recipient is pardoned for specific crimes. But Flynn’s stands out because it also has preemptive aspects — that is, it’s written broadly to try to pardon Flynn for possible crimes he hasn’t even been charged with.
Preemptive pardons aren’t unprecedented, but they are unusual, and come far closer to a sort of presidential declaration that the president’s associates should be above the law. And Trump’s use of the tactic for Flynn hints at just how far he could go in his final weeks in office.
Several of Trump’s former top campaign advisers — Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, and Roger Stone — have been charged with or convicted of specific crimes, for which they could be pardoned. (Trump already commuted Roger Stone’s sentence but has not yet granted him a full pardon.)
The universe of potential preemptive pardons, though, is far broader. For while many Trump associates have been charged with crimes, an even greater number have been investigated but have not faced any charges.
For instance, there’s the president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani. The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt reported Tuesday morning that, “as recently as last week,” Giuliani discussed “the possibility of receiving a pre-emptive pardon” from Trump (though Giuliani denied this on Twitter). Federal prosecutors in New York have probed Giuliani’s business activities and indicted two of his associates.
And some of Trump’s allies are urging him to take preemptive pardons even further. “I’d tell President Trump to pardon yourself and pardon your family,” Fox host Sean Hannity said Monday. It remains unclear whether Trump will try to go that far (particularly, a self-pardon may not be legal and the president can’t pardon state crimes), but it’s clear enough that his lame-duck pardon shenanigans are only getting started.
The Flynn pardon is very broad, and much of it is preemptive
In December 2017, Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements (lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador). Since then, his case has become a protracted legal saga — first Flynn tried to withdraw his plea, then a new Justice Department team sought to have the case against Flynn thrown out, and the judge in the case, Emmet Sullivan, has been weighing whether he should permit this latter move.
Last week, Trump announced that he had pardoned Flynn, but no documentation for that pardon clarifying its parameters was released until Monday night. Here’s what it looks like:
The pardon begins by listing the crime to which Flynn pleaded guilty: making false statements to federal investigators. But it covers a whole lot more than that. Flynn is also pardoned for:
“any and all possible offenses arising from the facts set forth in” the charging documents in his case (Flynn also admitted making false statements in Foreign Agents Registration Act filings about his work for the government of Turkey)
any offenses “that might arise, or be charged, claimed, or asserted in connection with the proceedings” in his case (for instance, there has been some discussion about whether Flynn could be charged with perjury by admitting his guilt under oath in court and then changing course)
“any and all possible offenses within the investigatory authority or jurisdiction” of special counsel Robert Mueller, and “any and all possible offenses arising out of facts and circumstances known to, identified by, or in any manner related to” Mueller’s investigation (that is, if Mueller found anything else that Flynn could be criminally charged for, the pardon is meant to cover that)
So this is not a typical pardon, targeted at crimes someone has actually been charged with or convicted of. It’s a preemptive pardon, designed to shield Flynn from being charged in the future.
In that respect, it’s similar to the unconditional preemptive pardon President Gerald Ford granted his former boss and predecessor Richard Nixon — a sweeping pardon for any criminal offenses Nixon may have committed during the course of his presidency.
The Flynn pardon is not quite as broad as that, but it’s clearly tailored to try to wipe out the possibility that Flynn will face any further charges connected to the current case against him, or in any way related to the Mueller investigation.
Will Trump issue more preemptive pardons?
The New York Times has already confirmed that one preemptive pardon is under discussion — for Giuliani.
Late last year, news broke that federal prosecutors in the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) were scrutinizing Giuliani’s business and finances, exploring his contacts with former top Ukrainian officials, and investigating a host of potential crimes (including obstruction of justice, money laundering, serving as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, mail fraud, and wire fraud).
Two of Giuliani’s associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were indicted on charges of campaign finance violations that October. The pair allegedly had been helping Giuliani make connections with Ukrainian officials who claimed to know of scandalous information about the Biden family, that could be helpful to Trump. (The revelation of Trump and Giuliani’s efforts to get dirt on Biden from Ukrainian officials eventually resulted in Trump’s impeachment.)
This year, there have been few new developments in the matter. CNN reported that the investigation into Giuliani “was upended by the coronavirus pandemic, limiting prosecutors’ ability to interview witnesses, collect further evidence, and meet with the grand jury.” Giuliani has not been charged, but if this investigation is serious and still underway, he’d obviously be hoping for a pardon while his client is still in charge of the executive branch.
There has also been some discussion — at least from Sean Hannity — about preemptive pardons for members of the Trump family.
Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. faced scrutiny in the Mueller investigation but ultimately wasn’t charged. Trump himself also was probed for obstructing justice, but Mueller opted not to charge him, in part because Trump was the sitting president.
President Trump could attempt to pardon himself, but it’s unclear if that would be legal (a popular theory among the #Resistance is that Trump will resign early and let newly installed President Mike Pence pardon him). One issue here, though, is that the president has no power to pardon state crimes — and he is currently under investigation for potential bank and insurance fraud in New York state.
Now, if Trump truly does plan to run for president again in 2024, he might have political reasons to hold back on the broadest assertions of his pardon powers. Then again, he might feel he’s appropriately laid the groundwork to defend those moves, having disparaged any investigations of himself or anyone close to him as “witch hunts.”
Some who want pardons are backing Trump’s “stolen election” lies
Finally, there’s been a notable pattern among some who are likely seeking pardons: They’ve tended to champion Trump’s lies and conspiracy theories that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Giuliani, of course, has been in charge of Trump’s post-election legal fight, spreading false claims of widespread voter fraud while reportedly seeking a preemptive pardon.
Attorney Sidney Powell — Flynn’s lawyer — stood up with Giuliani at a press conference two weeks ago making particularly bizarre claims of fraud. (She asserted that the voting systems company Dominion rigged the vote against Trump, in part because there was “communist money” involved and that the company had ties to the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez.) Powell has filed lawsuits as well filled with similarly false claims. (Flynn himself has said “there is no doubt in my mind” that Trump won in a “landslide.”)
Bannon, too, has been spreading false information advancing Trump’s stolen election narrative, and has been advising Giuliani behind the scenes, according to the Washington Post.
Whether or not there was any explicit quid pro quo involved here, it’s clear that all these people were interested in pardons (in Powell’s case, for her client), and that all these people knew the importance of pleasing the man who could issue those pardons. Indeed, the main champions of Trump’s post-election fraud lies have been people who wanted Trump to pardon somebody — which is revealing of how much bad faith is at play here.


vox--2020-12-02--How Santas are handling a pandemic Christmas season

He ’ s making a list , he ’ s checking it twice — and it ’ s probably going to include hand sanitizer , face masks , and extra gloves .
Not even Santa Claus is exempt from the struggles of 2020 , despite the Trump administration ’ s attempt to get him early vaccine access , and Dr. Anthony Fauci ’ s assurance to American children that he has “ innate immunity.
” While some retailers , like Macy ’ s , have nixed in-person Santa visits altogether , others , from mall operator Brookfield Properties to Bass @ @ @ @ @ @ @ safety guidelines by putting Santa behind plexiglass or offering families the chance to share their Christmas lists with him on video chat .
Pandemic-era Santa visits have even spawned a whole cottage industry , from JingleRing , a new platform designed to simplify virtual Santa visits , to plastic snow globe tents .
The Goods called four Santas — from The Real Black Santa , who ’ s learning a new virtual system in order to reach a wider audience , to an adults-only Santa figuring out how to translate his raunchy humor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they ’ re approaching the 2020 Christmas season .
At Cabela ’ s here — and I believe it ’ s true chain-wide — they have a three-eighths inch , about 6-by-6 foot piece of plexiglass between us and the guests .
Santa wears a face shield as well .
When folks sit down for photos , they can take their masks off .
Since I ’ m behind the plexiglass and a face shield , that makes me feel comfortable .
It ’ s a pretty wide-open space , there ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ every guest , the elves wipe down the seat , and every hour they wipe down the plexiglass .
It hurts when somebody brings up a 4-month-old baby because we can ’ t hold them — that ’ s one of the parts I think we all have difficulty with .
But I ’ ll tell you , last night I had a 5-year-old boy .
As he approached Santa , he started to run , full speed .
And he kind of leapt and smacked into the plexiglass .
As soon as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ put my hand up and I steadied the plexiglass so there was no chance of him knocking it over .
He looked like a cartoon — his nose went a little flat , his eyes were wide open , his hands were out , arms wide open , thinking he was gon na get to Santa .
And he almost slid down a little bit .
Then he shook it off and laughed and sat down and got his picture taken .
Some of the guys are experimenting with baby monitors .
So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ [ the guest ’ s ] side that nobody touches , but we can hear the kids talking .
We ’ re trying that out just to see if we can help because some of the kids are so soft-spoken .
It ’ s a little harder to joke around with the kids , but they get it .
I mean , one of the sad things is watching how comfortable these children are zipping their masks on and off .
I think what people need to focus on is what you can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t do .
If you worry about what you can ’ t do , that ’ ll just ruin the holiday .
The virtual studio for me was not new .
My company , The Real Black Santa , has been in business 19 years now , so it was easy for us to go virtual because we had the backdrop and the lighting , all the things that were necessary , from doing mall visits .
The hardest part about it was learning the computer system OBS , which is what a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it through Zoom or Skype .
With JingleRing , they have a proprietary platform that we ’ re using .
Basically you just need a blue or green screen backdrop , and you get working .
They brought me on as a brand ambassador , so they ’ ve got me doing videos for the company , and I ’ m also trying to get additional Santas to come on board .
[ Online ] , it ’ s still that same greeting that you have when you ’ re in the mall @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is Santa is actually calling you from his workshop .
If they hear noise in the background , those are the elves , making toys .
Mom and Dad have already given us some detailed information about what the kids got for Christmas the year before , how they were performing in school , you know , are they helping at home .
As a Santa , you have to be a better performer , and know how to talk to somebody as if they were standing in front of you .
Most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re a little older .
We ’ re in that category where we ’ re overweight , a lot of the guys are diabetic , have heart problems , and so forth .
It ’ s hard for us not to be in front of the kids .
And though I want to be out there doing events , I don ’ t want to be behind a partition while kids are in front of me .
I think that ’ s more impersonal than not being there .
And I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 20 kids , and I have something or contract something and pass it on to somebody else .
I have a lot of clients that are still calling wanting us to do in-person visits right now .
And as much as I want to , I ’ m shying away from it .
Usually , the day after Christmas I ’ m getting event bookings for the following year .
I had to cancel the ones that we ’ ve already booked .
So yeah , this definitely is a hit on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with my clients to determine what they ’ re expecting from Santa ; some of them want Santa with the mask , some of them don ’ t .
l show up at the residence , we ’ ll social distance , and then when we get ready to take pictures , I ’ ll get seated and then the kids will back up into me so that we ’ re not facing each other .
Once the pictures are over , if they want to have a one-on-one with Santa , then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I ’ ve had 14 different masks made by a local seamstress , with snowflakes and reindeer and that kind of thing .
I ’ ve bought tons of sanitizer , so I ’ m sanitizing before and after each visit .
I bought an extra four dozen gloves , so I ’ ll change my gloves after every visit .
I went ahead and bought two more suits this year , which will give me seven so I can change my suit every day of the week .
I ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a closet , and I can also sanitize them that way .
My business is probably down 50 percent this year , but I ’ m seeing a little bit of an uptick in home visits .
They ’ re around 60-40 indoors-outdoors .
I looked into the Zoom thing , and to be honest with you , there ’ s a pretty good capital outlay .
You have to buy green screens , cameras , and ring lights and backdrops and all that stuff .
And I ’ m more about the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kind of why I don ’ t do the malls , because that ’ s more about the picture .
The weekend after Thanksgiving through Christmas , I ’ ve got 48 visits booked , and I usually run about 70 a year .
I ’ m going to go try to get tested at least 14 days prior to that .
I ’ ve also invested in a thermometer , so that if people would like to check temperatures , we can do that before we get started .
I ’ m @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sense .
And if something gets out of hand , I will stop whatever we ’ re doing .
But I ’ m not too worried about it .
I ’ m probably one of the younger Santas around here , and I don ’ t have any underlying health issues .
If I get it , I get it .
Gigs were starting to come in , and then Washington recently put a moratorium on gatherings larger than five .
It ’ s definitely a big hit .
In a normal year @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 12 [ bookings ] through the holiday season .
It ’ s not a ton , but I can always depend on a good little paycheck in January from it .
But also , it ’ s just super fun .
My Bad Santa is the jolly , drinky uncle that comes to the party — like , you don ’ t want him to sleep over , but for 30 minutes , people love it .
He ’ s fun , he doesn ’ t upset anybody , he tells all the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some very off-color jokes .
I have a lot of clients that come back to me year after year for corporate parties .
Some of these groups have been coming back to me for years .
I ’ ve always felt a little bit like a part of the family coming in on a special party night , like , “ Remember , last year when you made that North Pole joke , and my wife spit up her drink ?
” Usually , depending on the client , I ’ ll get @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I can come prepared to zing people .
I ’ ll probably end up using technology a little bit , maybe some silly virtual backdrops that ’ ll kind of elevate the comedy , ideally .
But nothing beats the live in-person improv in the physical space , right ?
You can still improv , but as we all know , these Zoom things are a little hard to manage , because people want to talk over each other and laugh , so that dynamic tends to be a challenge to kind of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the comedy .
But I think people are so hungry for connection right now .
I think if anything , people will , to some degree , suspend their disbelief and be like , this is as good as we can get right now .
Let ’ s really lean into it and enjoy the togetherness even if it ’ s through a screen .

He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice — and it’s probably going to include hand sanitizer, face masks, and extra gloves. Not even Santa Claus is exempt from the struggles of 2020, despite the Trump administration’s attempt to get him early vaccine access, and Dr. Anthony Fauci’s assurance to American children that he has “innate immunity.”
While some retailers, like Macy’s, have nixed in-person Santa visits altogether, others, from mall operator Brookfield Properties to Bass Pro Shops, are adapting to meet safety guidelines by putting Santa behind plexiglass or offering families the chance to share their Christmas lists with him on video chat.
Pandemic-era Santa visits have even spawned a whole cottage industry, from JingleRing, a new platform designed to simplify virtual Santa visits, to plastic snow globe tents. The Goods called four Santas — from The Real Black Santa, who’s learning a new virtual system in order to reach a wider audience, to an adults-only Santa figuring out how to translate his raunchy humor to Zoom parties — to hear how they’re approaching the 2020 Christmas season.
The Plexiglass Santa: Chip Adams, 62, East Hartford, Connecticut
At Cabela’s here — and I believe it’s true chain-wide — they have a three-eighths inch, about 6-by-6 foot piece of plexiglass between us and the guests. Santa wears a face shield as well. When folks sit down for photos, they can take their masks off. Since I’m behind the plexiglass and a face shield, that makes me feel comfortable. It’s a pretty wide-open space, there’s a lot of air circulation. After every guest, the elves wipe down the seat, and every hour they wipe down the plexiglass.
It hurts when somebody brings up a 4-month-old baby because we can’t hold them — that’s one of the parts I think we all have difficulty with. But I’ll tell you, last night I had a 5-year-old boy. As he approached Santa, he started to run, full speed. And he kind of leapt and smacked into the plexiglass. As soon as I realized what was happening, I put my hand up and I steadied the plexiglass so there was no chance of him knocking it over. He looked like a cartoon — his nose went a little flat, his eyes were wide open, his hands were out, arms wide open, thinking he was gonna get to Santa. And he almost slid down a little bit. Then he shook it off and laughed and sat down and got his picture taken.
Some of the guys are experimenting with baby monitors. So we can put a baby monitor on [the guest’s] side that nobody touches, but we can hear the kids talking. We’re trying that out just to see if we can help because some of the kids are so soft-spoken. It’s a little harder to joke around with the kids, but they get it. I mean, one of the sad things is watching how comfortable these children are zipping their masks on and off. I think what people need to focus on is what you can do, not what you can’t do. If you worry about what you can’t do, that’ll just ruin the holiday.
The Virtual-Only Santa: Dee Sinclair, 56, Covington, Georgia
The virtual studio for me was not new. My company, The Real Black Santa, has been in business 19 years now, so it was easy for us to go virtual because we had the backdrop and the lighting, all the things that were necessary, from doing mall visits. The hardest part about it was learning the computer system OBS, which is what a lot of gamers use, and doing it through Zoom or Skype. With JingleRing, they have a proprietary platform that we’re using. Basically you just need a blue or green screen backdrop, and you get working. They brought me on as a brand ambassador, so they’ve got me doing videos for the company, and I’m also trying to get additional Santas to come on board.
[Online], it’s still that same greeting that you have when you’re in the mall. But the good thing about it is Santa is actually calling you from his workshop. If they hear noise in the background, those are the elves, making toys. Mom and Dad have already given us some detailed information about what the kids got for Christmas the year before, how they were performing in school, you know, are they helping at home. As a Santa, you have to be a better performer, and know how to talk to somebody as if they were standing in front of you.
Most guys who are doing Santa — we’re a little older. We’re in that category where we’re overweight, a lot of the guys are diabetic, have heart problems, and so forth. It’s hard for us not to be in front of the kids. And though I want to be out there doing events, I don’t want to be behind a partition while kids are in front of me. I think that’s more impersonal than not being there. And I’d hate to sit in front of 20 kids, and I have something or contract something and pass it on to somebody else.
I have a lot of clients that are still calling wanting us to do in-person visits right now. And as much as I want to, I’m shying away from it. Usually, the day after Christmas I’m getting event bookings for the following year. I had to cancel the ones that we’ve already booked. So yeah, this definitely is a hit on the pocket.
The Home-Visit Santa: Willie Williamson, 66, Marietta, Georgia
I’ve been working with my clients to determine what they’re expecting from Santa; some of them want Santa with the mask, some of them don’t. l show up at the residence, we’ll social distance, and then when we get ready to take pictures, I’ll get seated and then the kids will back up into me so that we’re not facing each other. Once the pictures are over, if they want to have a one-on-one with Santa, then I’ll put a mask on.
I’ve had 14 different masks made by a local seamstress, with snowflakes and reindeer and that kind of thing. I’ve bought tons of sanitizer, so I’m sanitizing before and after each visit. I bought an extra four dozen gloves, so I’ll change my gloves after every visit. I went ahead and bought two more suits this year, which will give me seven so I can change my suit every day of the week. I’ve got a UVB light set up in a closet, and I can also sanitize them that way.
My business is probably down 50 percent this year, but I’m seeing a little bit of an uptick in home visits. They’re around 60-40 indoors-outdoors. I looked into the Zoom thing, and to be honest with you, there’s a pretty good capital outlay. You have to buy green screens, cameras, and ring lights and backdrops and all that stuff. And I’m more about the personal visit anyway. That’s kind of why I don’t do the malls, because that’s more about the picture.
The weekend after Thanksgiving through Christmas, I’ve got 48 visits booked, and I usually run about 70 a year. I’m going to go try to get tested at least 14 days prior to that. I’ve also invested in a thermometer, so that if people would like to check temperatures, we can do that before we get started. I’m going to be cautious and use common sense. And if something gets out of hand, I will stop whatever we’re doing. But I’m not too worried about it. I’m probably one of the younger Santas around here, and I don’t have any underlying health issues. If I get it, I get it.
The Bad Santa: Rafe Wadleigh, 47, Tacoma, Washington
Gigs were starting to come in, and then Washington recently put a moratorium on gatherings larger than five. It’s definitely a big hit. In a normal year, I personally do about 10 to 12 [bookings] through the holiday season. It’s not a ton, but I can always depend on a good little paycheck in January from it. But also, it’s just super fun.
My Bad Santa is the jolly, drinky uncle that comes to the party — like, you don’t want him to sleep over, but for 30 minutes, people love it. He’s fun, he doesn’t upset anybody, he tells all the ladies they’re pretty and tells some very off-color jokes. I have a lot of clients that come back to me year after year for corporate parties. Some of these groups have been coming back to me for years. I’ve always felt a little bit like a part of the family coming in on a special party night, like, “Remember, last year when you made that North Pole joke, and my wife spit up her drink?”
Usually, depending on the client, I’ll get a little bit of roasting information so I can come prepared to zing people. I’ll probably end up using technology a little bit, maybe some silly virtual backdrops that’ll kind of elevate the comedy, ideally. But nothing beats the live in-person improv in the physical space, right? You can still improv, but as we all know, these Zoom things are a little hard to manage, because people want to talk over each other and laugh, so that dynamic tends to be a challenge to kind of manage the flow of the party in the comedy.
But I think people are so hungry for connection right now. I think if anything, people will, to some degree, suspend their disbelief and be like, this is as good as we can get right now. Let’s really lean into it and enjoy the togetherness even if it’s through a screen.