This week on POLITICAL MOTIVES we explore the GOP’s inability to break from the toxic lies of Trump as the former President faces the upcoming indictment of the Trump Organization. We will discuss the ongoing legal jeopardy Rudy Giuliani is facing having already lost his license to practice law in the state of New York. We also are going to examine how the Republican platform of small government has life and death consequences for voters in states like Florida and Texas where lack of regulation and enforcement have resulted in vastly different public health threats. Finally, we will wrap up with a discussion on the progress of the American Jobs Act and the fate of a bipartisan infrastructure bill after President Biden’s pronouncement of an agreement with a group of 10 Democratic and Republican Senators.
The Trump Grievance Tour kicked off in Wellington, Ohio this weekend with Trump repeating the Big Lie and claiming that the election was stolen. It’s interesting to note that The Atlantic’s Jonathan Karl wrote an intriguing piece that delved into former Attorney General William Barr’s final days in his role when he broke with Trump. It culminated with AG Barr meeting with the Associated Press’s Will Levi, where Barr went on the record pushing back against Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential election. What was even more intriguing are the reports of multiple calls from Senator McConnell to Barr urging him to come out and publicly state that there was no election interference and to urge the President to move on. Perhaps what is most striking is the significant dissonance in the public and private stances of many Republicans in the weeks after the election.
The GOP is in a death dance with the former guy, unable to quit him for fear of angering his base. What the GOP seems to ignore is that their continued cozying up to the radical right and the Q-Anon conspiracy loving factions that support Trump will alienate the moderate center of their party keeping them in the wasteland. This is part of what is driving the ongoing onslaught on voting rights by the Republican party. Recall that in the 2020 election they did not adopt a party platform, they just acceded to the wishes of Trump and his fly by the seat of his pants approach to governing. The Republican Party don’t have actual policies and they have embraced the same grievance politics and culture wars that fueled Trump’s ascendancy. They have no plans to appeal to voters or to expand their party, the only winning strategy for them is to focus on gerrymandering districts maps and making it as hard as humanly possible for traditional Democratic constituencies to exercise their Constitutional right to vote. It’s craven politics and until the Republican party realizes that Trump’s appeal to the base is dangerous because it is grounded in lies, fear mongering, racism, and white supremacy dog whistles they will have the albatross of Trump tied firmly around their collective political necks.
The Trump Organization’s cabal of lawyers is staring down a looming deadline today to convince New York prosecutors to delay filing criminal charges related to tax fraud. A grand jury has been hearing evidence of the Trump Organization’s financial malfeasance. It appears that Trump submitted misleading valuations to secure loans and ignored the requirement to have taxes paid on fringe benefits that were paid to company employees including the family of Allen Weisselberg, the Chief Financial Officer of the company for decades. It is believed that the NY District Attorney Cy Vance has been aggressively pursuing Weisselberg to flip him. To date it appears that Weisselberg has refused to do so and instead faces significant legal jeopardy that will involve his family.
Perhaps Weisselberg should heed the lessons of Michael Cohen and now Rudy Giuliani, both of whom have lost their law licenses and seen their reputations go up in flames. All within Trump’s orbit are eventually corrupted by his immoral, unethical, and illegal behaviors. Their longstanding loyalty has never been returned as Trump will always protect himself first and turn on those who he believes can shield him from accountability. This week however may be the first time where Trump faces criminal liability that he won’t be able to countersue his way out from underneath. With the NY District Attorney having access to Trump’s tax records and the murky structure of how the Trump organization is built, Cy Vance needed to bring in expert prosecutors who had significant experience with RICO cases. This infers that the NY DA’s office is approaching the prosecution much like building a case against a mafia chieftain. Perhaps the long-awaited indictments will begin as early as this week marking the beginning of the end of the Trump Organization not being held to account for their corruption.
The Republican party has traditionally been the party of small government but increasingly that lack of governance is leading to deadly real-world consequences for voters. Let’s look at the cautionary tales of the states of Texas and Florida as examples of what Republican controlled state governments can destroy in the lives of their constituents.
It has always fascinated me how voters can vote against their self-interest by voting Republican. They believe that the Republican party will protect their wealth, but they fail to realize is that the GOP tax policy only benefits the wealthiest of donors, billionaires, and corporations - not the average voter. The GOP argues for small government railing against regulation. In the past year we have witnessed how a lack of government oversight in the energy industry has left Texans vulnerable to severe winter storms and harsh summer temperatures that have caused numerous deaths across the state. This is due in large part to the unwillingness of the GOP to regulate the energy industry. Not only were thousands of Texans impacted by freezing cold temperatures others faced thousands of dollars in heating bills because of deregulated pricing structures. Many have died.
Now in Florida with the collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida another example of the lack of regulation and enforcement demonstrates how the Republican party is unable to care for the needs of voters. The state has also seen increased anti-Semitic protesters fueled by white supremacist and violent neo-Nazi’s who have been pointedly harassing Florida’s Jewish communities spreading the hate speech under the guise of Free Speech. It’s telling that Governor Ron DeSantis has refused to condemn their rhetoric as he knows that a large part of his voting based comes from the fringes of his party that are attracted to his Trumpy speech.
Last week President Biden welcomed 10 Senators from both the Republican and Democratic parties to the White House to tout the successful tentative deal on an infrastructure bill. He made a pointed statement initially that linked the passing of the bipartisan deal with a separate package of investment that would be advanced through the budget reconciliation process. Republicans were clearly caught off guard by the linking of the two pieces of legislation and were surprised that President Biden was so specific that the other reconciliation bill must be signed at the same time as the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Biden appeared to soften his statements after making a round of phone calls to various GOP Senators and it is believed that the package is on its way to being finalized.
Perhaps Robert Reich said it best when he tweeted:
McConnell’s game plan:
1) Call for bipartisanship.
2) Dangle vague compromise.
3) Back out last-minute.
4) Go on Fox News.
5) Bash Biden and Dems.
6) Repeat.
The goal is to run out the clock. I would suggest that President Biden be prepared to move if the GOP shows the slightest hesitation in passing the bill. We can go it alone and we need to secure this critical investment in the American economy.
Thanks for tuning in to POLITICAL MOTIVES. Join us next week as we discuss the biggest political headlines. You can listen to POLITICAL MOTIVES on Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Feel free to rate our podcast it helps to improve our position in rankings and don’t forget to subscribe or become a long-term financial supporter POLITICAL MOTIVES.
And one final note - I am encouraging everyone to get the Covid-19 vaccine. I received the Pfizer vaccination and had absolutely zero residual issues to either vaccine. So please if you are not yet vaccinated remember to maintain social distance, wash your hands often and finally when indoors, “Wear a Mask to Save a Life.” Thanks for listening to POLITICAL MOTIVES I’m Barb Kittridge. Until next time.