BY BRIAN BEUTLER & CROOKED MEDIA
Friday, March 22, 2019 | Robert Mueller has submitted his report to Attorney General William Barr, effectively ending the work of the special counsel’s office. That is an important milestone, but leaves numerous questions unanswered for now, including what the report says, how many ongoing investigations in other Justice Department components stem from Mueller’s work, and who remains exposed to legal jeopardy because of the Russia investigation. In a letter to Congress, Barr declared that neither he nor anyone else overseeing the investigation ever stopped Mueller from taking investigative steps he sought to take, and noted he anticipates being able to share top-line information from Mueller’s report (about why he decided to charge whom) this weekend, but made no commitment to share the meat of Mueller’s findings. Pressure is mounting swiftly on the Justice Department—particularly from Democratic presidential candidates and congressional leaders—to make the report public immediately. Whatever it says, we must never lose sight of the fact that Mueller has already indicted or secured guilty pleas from 34 people and three companies, and unearthed evidence that the Trump campaign worked with Russia to subvert the 2016 election—even if it turns out he concluded he couldn’t prove a criminal conspiracy in court.
| Several Democratic presidential candidates are fed up with minority rule in America and have ignited a debate over how to fix it. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) got the ball rolling by advocating for the abolition of the electoral college, so that the national popular vote winner becomes president every time. Several candidates have proposed adding seats to the Supreme Court. On Pod Save America, Mayor Pete Buttigieg proposed reforming the Supreme Court by enacting “a policy where you would have five appointees of Republicans and five of Democrats on a 15-member court. And where you get the other five from is a consensus of the other 10 which has to be unanimous.” These are all related ideas, and Democrats are floating them for important reasons. Republicans have only won the popular vote one time in the past seven presidential elections. Nevertheless, they dominate the judiciary at all levels, because in two of those elections (2000 and 2016) Republicans edged out electoral-college victories while losing the popular vote. Democrats’ disproportionately young voters have thus repeatedly seen their candidates denied power despite having more public backing than their opponents, and are now told that the policies they support may be impossible to enact for decades, because judges and justices appointed by presidents who were majority-vote losers will likely nullify them. Many of those voters find the status quo unacceptable. And if you believe in democracy, we’re going to have to address this stuff eventually. The alternative is for the majority of the country to be governed in perpetuity without its consent—by politicians who didn’t win the popular vote and the judges they put on the court. As Joan Biskupic details in her new book, The Chief, George W. Bush appointee John Roberts (a George W. Bush appointee) single-handedly weakened the Affordable Care Act for what look like nakedly political reasons. In the Trump era, states like Mississippi have enacted unconstitutional abortion bans in the hope that the Supreme Court will ignore precedent and uphold them. Under the status quo, a generation of Democrats will find it nearly impossible to right wrongs like these, no matter how many elections they win. That sucks! The right-wing freakout about these proposed democratic reforms tells you everything you need to know. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has introduced a constitutional amendment to cap the number of Supreme Court justices at nine, and conservatives have tripped over themselves to defend the electoral college on ridiculous, ahistorical grounds. For them, the electoral college is a key means of holding on to power without winning over voters, and with that power they can stack the courts with judges who will make their policy regimes permanent. That’s not a democracy, so it can’t stand without a fight. | The House Democrats’ campaign arm has reportedly threatened to cut off business to strategists and vendors who support candidates running primary campaigns against incumbent Democrats. Not only does this kind of heavy handed approach demoralize the progressive grassroots, it also looks pretty bad in the windup to 2020, after primary challenges gave us two impressive new House freshmen, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and progressives are motivated to primary conservative Democrats in blue districts, like Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) | The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on North Korea Thursday, only for President Trump to immediately reverse them Friday because, according to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, “President Trump likes Chairman Kim, and he doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary.” Sounds legit. Trump will nominate Stephen Moore, a notorious crank and Republican hack, who has been wrong about every major economic development for several decades. This is a reckless and dangerous selection, so we look forward to a handful of Republican senators pretending to agonize over the nomination before voting to confirm him. Republicans in the Idaho House have passed legislation to severely restrict Medicaid expansion, which voters in the state adopted without restrictions by a 21 point margin in November. Republicans hate democracy. The European Union has agreed to extend the Brexit deadline until April 12, giving the United Kingdom two extra weeks to desperately flail about. Prime Minister Theresa May and Parliament still have to either agree on a Brexit roadmap, hold a new Brexit referendum, or leave the E.U. without a plan. It’s a bloody mess! A day after several Democratic presidential candidates announced they would not attend AIPAC’s annual summit next week, Trump accused Democrats of being “anti-Jewish.” Bernie Sanders, who is one of the candidates boycotting the summit, is Jewish, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is Jewish. Donald Trump is a reprehensible antisemite, and one of the worst things to happen to Jews in a long time. Charlottesville, VA, closed its schools for a second day in a row in response to a credible threat of white-nationalist terrorism. | Counties that host Trump rallies see hate crimes more than double, and “a considerable number of these reported hate crimes reference Trump.” | Did someone forward you this email? Sign up to get What A Day in your inbox! Want to advertise with us? What are you waiting for?! | If you prefer not to receive these emails, you may unsubscribe. 7162 Beverly Blvd #212, Los Angeles, CA, 90036 © Crooked Media 2018. All Rights Reserved. | | |