Election Mulligan?  🌻 🌻 🌻

Weekend Update: The first Republican debate is behind us, but wacko of the moment Vivek Ramaswamy is getting the star treatment, being given the opportunity to spew his nonsense on the Sunday morning news shows. Since he’s probably running to be Trump’s running mate, it’s not surprising that his nonsense includes pontificating on what he would have done had he been in Mike Pence’s shoes on January 6^th.  He says he would have tossed the 2020 election results, unilaterally implemented single day voting and government issued voter IDs, and started a new, presumably short election campaign on January 7, leading to a mulligan presidential election.  Sure, that makes no sense and isn’t in the Constitution but whatever.  By the way Vivek is listed as an unaffiliated voter in his home state of Ohio and didn’t vote in the 2008, 2012, and 2016 elections and though he believes that voters should be required to take a civics exam before they’re allowed to vote, his grasp of how the Constitution works is tenuous at best which obviously makes him the perfect candidate for this Republican party. In other weekend news a crazed, racially motivated shooter with swastikas etched into his legally purchased guns shot up a Dollar Store in Jacksonville, Florida killing three Black people out doing the normal things that people do over the weekend.  He first tried to enter the campus of historically Black college Edward Walters University but was turned away by a security guard who reported his suspicious behavior to the local police. Police have concluded that the shooter acted alone and that is technically accurate but it’s hard not to see that he was spurred on by the racial hatred permeating our current eco system and on social media.  Though similar shootings have and likely will happen elsewhere in the country, it’s worth noting that under Governor Ron DeSantis who is still second to Trump in most Republican polls, Florida now allows permit-less carry and teaching about the history of racial injustice is a no-no because doing so makes some people uncomfortable while getting shot only kills or maims them.     

Scheduling Update:  So many indictments, so little time and so much of it taken up by dueling cases.  Today, Judge Chutkan who is overseeing the election interference case which should not be confused with the Georgia “find me more votes” case or the Mar a Lago purloined documents case is set to consider and may actually select the date of the trial that she is responsible for overseeing. Special Counsel Jack Smith has requested a January 2024 start date while Trump’s lawyers have requested a date in April of 2026. Judge Chutkan has yet to comment on Trump’s inappropriate, witness intimidating social posts but did say that she would accelerate the start of the trial if he misbehaved so we could find out if she meant it today. Judge Chutkan’s case involves only one defendant, albeit the bigly one, but the Fulton County case being prosecuted by DA Fani Willis has 19 defendants, the bigly guy and 18 others. All of the Fulton County defendants have turned themselves in, all but one is out on bond, with one funded by Silk of Diamond and Silk fame and another with a dicey criminal record still stuck in the slammer and Trump has replaced one hip hop lawyer with another one.  A few others including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows are trying to get their cases moved to Federal Court.  Meadows’ argument which is expected to be heard today is that he is immune from state charges because he was just performing his official duties as a federal official when he tried to help overturn election results.  DA Willis’ counter is that he was engaged in political activities during a re-election campaign rather than engaging in formal government responsibilities and in any case election interference does not fall under the category of “official duties.”   It’s not clear if Meadows will testify today but it is likely that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his chief investigator Frances Watson who have been subpoenaed to appear will. As to the start of Fani Willis’ trial, there are going to be multiple starts because last Thursday co-defendant Kenneth Chesebro, architect of the fake electors strategy, who requested a speedy trial, something that he is entitled to do under Georgia law, was granted an October 23 start date. Kraken lawyer Sidney Powell has also requested a speedy trial though her start date hasn’t yet been set.  On the one hand, all these separate trials will tax Fani Willis’ office, on the other hand Willis who took her time about issuing indictments in the first place is thought to have anticipated the requests and may have all her ducks in order.  In any case, the concept of multiple trials with some starting early is thought to be damaging for Trump who wants his trial put off as long as possible and who doesn’t think that Powell and Chesebro won’t try to lay the responsibility for their actions at Trump’s door step?  That’s already happening with a few of the lesser-known co-defendants, the ones who unlike Trump weren’t able to raise $7 million off of their mugshots.  A few of them are already pointing fingers his way and are likely to try to obtain plea deals with Willis in exchange for their testimony.  As to the absurd cavalcade of “official” vehicles that preceded and followed Trump’s mugshot and faux weigh-in, what was that about and how much did it cost?  Wouldn’t a small private jet and two or three cars have sufficed but when you’ve got other people’s money to burn and love the attention, why not go for OJ on steroids?

And:  A Vice Chairman of CPAC, the conservative political action group has stepped down from his position while urging that the CPAC board investigate two other sexual misconduct accusations against Chairman Matt Schlapp.  In an ordinary time, Schlapp would have stepped down by now, but these aren’t ordinary times.  And would you be surprised to learn that candidate of the week Vivek Ramaswamy is trying to avoid testifying in a civil case against his biopharma company by asserting that he’s too busy campaigning for president to show up in court. The perfect Republican candidate.  Lastly, Jim Jordan’s House Judiciary Committee has launched a probe into the motivations for DA Fani Willis’s investigation.  He also wants her to reveal any and all discussions that she’s had with Special Counsel Jack and the DOJ.  That will go no where but it will garner lots of attention on right wing media.  Of more concern for Willis is that utilizing a Georgia law that was recently passed and signed into law by Governor Kemp, Republican Georgia state representatives are calling for a newly formed state commission that was ostensibly created to make it easier to oust “progressive” district attorneys who aren’t prosecuting enough criminals, something that DeSantis has already done twice in Florida, to fire Willis in order to kill the case against Trump and his 18 co-defendants.  To make that go anywhere, they’ll need the help of Governor Kemp who to date has been trying to stay above the fray mostly because Georgia is purple these days rather than ruby red. Kemp who is relatively popular in Georgia is likely to challenge Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff in 2026 and probably has presidential aspirations of his own.  It’s not clear what he’ll conclude is in his best interests to do.