Tag: Trump weakening American democracy

How a ‘notoriously stupid’ Fox News host inadvertently let slip Trump’s corrupt plan: media reporter

AlterNet logoAlthough President Donald Trump has used Twitter incessantly to promote himself, he has been furious with the social media outlet this week for fact-checking two of his tweets — so furious that on Thursday, he issued an executive order targeting social media companies and claimed that he did so to “defend free speech.” Twitter hasn’t removed any of Trump’s tweets, but flagged or hidden them as inaccurate or violent. While legal scholars have been asserting that the order cannot withstand legal scrutiny, Media Matters’ Matt Gertz stresses that it serves a useful purpose for Trump nonetheless — and that purpose has been identified by the “notoriously stupid” Fox News host Steve Doocy.

“President Donald Trump capped off a multi-day tantrum at Twitter for appending a mild fact-check to one of his false tweets by retaliating with the power of the federal government,” Gertz explains. “The executive order he signed Thursday is slapdash and incoherent, rooted in a false premise, hypocritical and potentially unconstitutional, legally unenforceable yet dangerously authoritarian, with sections that read like a Fox News screed. But to analyze the executive order’s flaws is to miss the point entirely.”

That purpose, according to Gertz, is “raising the cost of defiance until his perceived enemies break” — and the executive order “forces Twitter to expend resources fighting it, but if the company bends to Trump and does what he wants, maybe it will just go away.” Continue reading.

Like A Dictator, Trump Keeps Chopping Away At Democracy

Step by ominous step, Donald Trump is eliminating or blocking every Constitutional check and balance on his administration to evade accountability for corruption.

The only path still open to save America from becoming an autocracy is the ballot box in November. Even there Trump is working to rig the election with help from his secretary of State and various elected Republican leaders.

On national television, he has declared willingness to accept help from Moscow and Beijing, which would violate criminal law. But as Trump dismantles the mechanisms Congress created to ensure Executive branch integrity, who can stop him? Continue reading.

Exclusive: Pence says he’d be “happy” to see Michael Flynn back in government

Axios logoVice President Mike Pence told “Axios on HBO” that he welcomes the idea of bringing Michael Flynn back into government, after the Justice Department moved last week to drop its criminal case against President Trump’s former national security adviser. This episode of “Axios on HBO” debuts Monday at 11pm ET/PT.

Why it matters: Trump said April 30 that he would “certainly consider” bringing Flynn back into the administration. Since Flynn had been accused of lying to the vice president, Pence’s blessing clears an obstacle to him returning to Trump’s inner circle.

  • “I think Gen. Michael Flynn is an American patriot,” Pence said during the interview in Iowa on Friday. “And for my part, I’d be happy to see Michael Flynn again.”

The big picture: Trump lavished praise on the decision by his Justice Department to go to court to drop charges against Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

How Trump is ratcheting up his dangerous war on the First Amendment

AlterNet logoDonald Trump is at war with the First Amendment and the free press. The war is on full display nearly every day in his rage-filled press conferences on the COVID-19 pandemic, in which he regularly condemns the “fake news” media and bashes reporters who dare to ask the slightest probative questions about his handling of the ongoing public-health crisis.

Trump’s war is also longstanding. And it is waged not only on television and in angry tweets and at campaign rallies (which have been put on hold because of the coronavirus), but also in courtrooms across the country in the form of defamation lawsuits designed to shame, silence and punish his critics.

The latest victim of the president’s intimidation-by-litigation strategy is TV station WJFW, an NBC affiliate located in Price County in the rural reaches of northern Wisconsin. On April 13, Trump’s principal reelection campaign committee—Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., headquartered in New York City—sued the station in the county’s circuit court. The suit alleges that the station had libeled the campaign and harmed the reputation of the president by airing an anti-Trump attack ad produced by Priorities USA Action, a pro-Democratic Super PAC. Continue reading.

Biden blasts Trump comments: ‘I am not running for office to be King of America’

The Hill logoFormer Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday ripped President Trump for his assertion that he has the power to make states reopen their economies amid the continuing COVID-19 outbreak.

“I am not running for office to be King of America. I respect the Constitution. I’ve read the Constitution. I’ve sworn an oath to it many times,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee tweeted.
“I respect the great job so many of this country’s governors — Democratic and Republican — are doing under these horrific circumstances,” he said. Continue reading.

President tightens grip on federal watchdogs

The Hill logoPresident Trump is tightening his grip on federal watchdogs, even as the country reels from the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump has gone on the offensive over the past few days, suddenly removing or publicly berating three inspectors general. Trump’s actions and words have led to criticism from Democrats and others that he is purging officials whose chief responsibility is to protect the integrity of government institutions.

Acting Pentagon Inspector General Glenn Fine, who just a week ago was charged with overseeing the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package, was abruptly removed and replaced this week. Continue reading.

Trump throws ‘wrecking ball’ across federal inspectors general

President sets off chain reaction that could weaken government oversight

President Donald Trump in a span of 24 hours has upended the executive branch’s internal oversight of most of the government’s discretionary budget.

In one fell swoop, Trump removed the newly named leader of a watchdog committee overseeing federal pandemic response spending. He then ordered one person to oversee, for the near term, all audits and investigations of military and environmental programs. And he nominated what some consider to be a relatively unqualified official to monitor the Pentagon’s multibillion-dollar enterprise.

The moves come on the heels of the president’s firing on Friday of the intelligence community inspector general who had forwarded to Congress the whistleblower complaint that led to the impeachment inquiry. Continue reading.

Trump Proceeds With Post-Impeachment Purge Amid Pandemic

New York Times logoThe president’s decision to fire the intelligence community’s inspector general under cover of darkness indicated that his hunt for those he considers disloyal continues.

WASHINGTON — Remember the impeachment? President Trump does. Even in the middle of a deadly pandemic, he made clear on Saturday that he remained fixated on purging the government of those he believes betrayed him during the inquiry that led to his Senate trial.

The president’s under-cover-of-darkness decision late the night before to fire Michael K. Atkinson, the intelligence community’s inspector general who insisted last year on forwarding a whistle-blower complaint to Congress, swept away one more official deemed insufficiently loyal as part of a larger purge that has already rid the administration of many key figures in the impeachment drama.

Mr. Trump made no effort at a news briefing on Saturday to pretend that the dismissal was anything other than retribution for Mr. Atkinson’s action under a law requiring such complaints be disclosed to lawmakers. “I thought he did a terrible job, absolutely terrible,” Mr. Trump said. “He took a fake report and he brought it to Congress.” Capping a long, angry denunciation of the impeachment, he added, “The man is a disgrace to I.G.s. He’s a total disgrace.” Continue reading.

Trump to Fire Intelligence Watchdog Who Had Key Role in Ukraine Complaint

New York Times logoThe president notified lawmakers late on Friday, saying he had lost confidence in the inspector general for the intelligence community.

President Trump is firing the intelligence community inspector general whose insistence on telling lawmakers about a whistle-blower complaint about his dealings with Ukraine triggered impeachment proceedings last fall, the president told lawmakers in a letter late Friday.

The move came as Mr. Trump announced his intent to name a White House aide as the independent watchdog for $500 billion in corporate pandemic aid and notified Congress of other nominees to inspector general positions, including one that would effectively oust the newly named chairman of a panel to oversee how the government spends $2 trillion in coronavirus relief.

The slew of late-night announcements, coming as the world’s attention is gripped by the coronavirus pandemic, raised the specter of a White House power play over the community of inspectors general, independent officials whose mission is to root out waste, fraud and abuse within the government. Continue reading.

Trump Suggests He Can Gag Inspector General for Stimulus Bailout Program

New York Times logoIn a signing statement, the president undermined a key safeguard Democrats had insisted upon as a condition of approving $500 billion in corporate relief in the $2 trillion law.

WASHINGTON — When President Trump signed the $2 trillion economic stabilization package on Friday to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, he undercut a crucial safeguard that Democrats insisted upon as a condition of agreeing to include a $500 billion corporate bailout fund.

In a signing statement released hours after Mr. Trump signed the bill in a televised ceremony in the Oval Office, the president suggested he had the power to decide what information a newly created inspector general intended to monitor the fund could share with Congress.

Under the law, the inspector general, when auditing loans and investments made through the fund, has the power to demand information from the Treasury Department and other executive branch agencies. The law requires reporting to Congress “without delay” if any agency balks and its refusal is unreasonable “in the judgment of the special inspector general.”