[ad_1]
CNN
—
House Speaker Mike Johnson is scheduled to speak alongside Donald Trump on Friday, likely to amplify the former president’s most damaging falsehood: that America’s democratic elections are catastrophically tainted by fraud. .
The country’s most powerful elected Republican, trying to save his job after threats from pro-Trump members of his own party, is being held at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. I’m planning to travel to meet the real powers. The visit comes as the former president’s allies threaten to eviscerate his authority and even overthrow him.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, will also become the first former president to go on trial as jury selection begins in New York in a lawsuit related to hush-money payments to adult film stars. It will be held three days before the And on Friday, there will be a new twist in the legal drama surrounding President Trump’s trial over the storage of classified documents in Florida. Judge Eileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, will manage pretrial litigation without rushing it, meaning the case is increasingly likely to be decided before the November election. The court will hear a lawsuit filed by two of President Trump’s accomplices seeking to dismiss the lawsuit.
The theme of Friday’s joint public statement from Johnson and Trump was “election integrity.” It’s an umbrella term for the simmering conspiracy theories and lies about the 2020 election that Trump is currently using as the basis for a new 2024 election effort. semester. The cost for Republicans seeking the former president’s support has long been his willingness to promote his fictitious stolen election conceit. So Johnson’s visit to Trump’s residence could signal that the former president is prepared to make a similar down payment if he prevents his ouster from the speakership.
CNN’s Kristen Holmes and Fredreka Schouten reported Thursday that both Republican leaders are expected to focus attention on state proposals and lawsuits that would allow non-citizens to vote. Some cities and jurisdictions allow noncitizens to vote in nonfederal elections, such as school board positions. However, federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, and if they do, they risk fines, imprisonment, and deportation. Given these penalties, many voting rights groups say there are no broader issues to address. Georgia, which has nearly 8 million registered voters, conducted a statewide audit that found 1,634 potential noncitizens attempted to register to vote between 1997 and early 2022, but no one It turned out that it was not possible to register.
But given President Trump’s constant attempts to blur the distinctions and falsely claim that illegal immigrants are voting in large numbers in U.S. elections as part of a Democratic conspiracy, the sensitivity of the issue is clear. The distinction is likely to be confusing to many people who are not familiar with it.
Mr. Johnson’s willingness to lend his office to Mr. Trump’s “election integrity” campaign shows how Mr. Trump’s stolen election conspiracy theory has consumed nearly every pillar of power in the Republican Party.
The Republican National Committee has been campaigning on the false premise that the 2020 election was corrupt since President Trump took over it and installed supporters after he was assured of the Republican presidential nomination. We are working even harder to raise funds.
CNN’s K-Files allege that the RNC sent scripted calls to voters’ cell phones on behalf of the former president’s daughter-in-law and new co-chair Lara Trump, leading Democrats to commit “fraud” in the 2020 election. It was reported that he claimed to have done so. “If Democrats have their way, your vote could be canceled by someone who is not even an American citizen,” the paper warned. President Trump’s election lies also prompted many Republican state legislatures to pass laws in the name of election security that could make it harder to vote and make it easier for political officials to interfere in elections. Ta. Trump’s multiple failed lawsuits and even her own Attorney General William Barr testified that there was no widespread voter fraud in 2020. But Trump remains trapped in a false reality.
A Trump adviser told CNN that Trump and Johnson are expected to discuss the 2020 election again at a press conference on Friday. The House speaker is used to satisfying Trump’s desire to verify the story of a stolen election. After the 2020 election, Mr. Johnson, then a Republican backbencher, asked everyone to sign a court brief in a Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate electoral votes from Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. sent an email to House Republicans.
Trump first raised the lie that noncitizens were corrupting U.S. elections in 2016, when millions of illegal immigrants voted for his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, who won the Electoral College. However, he claimed with zero evidence that it cost him victory in the popular vote.
The 2024 election will see a renewed focus on the idea that non-citizens are polluting the U.S. voter rolls, one of the main themes of President Trump’s campaign. There is a nice synergy of facing an invasion by immigrants. Due to President Joe Biden’s perceived failures on the southern border crisis. The former president also frequently cites the racist “Great Successor Theory” doctrine that Democrats are importing large numbers of foreign nationals to register to vote in the 2024 election. “So that they can vote, vote, vote,” President Trump said on his own Truth social network in December. There are no facts to support these claims by the prospective Republican nominee, who has warned that immigrants are “tainting the blood” of this country.
In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network this week, Mr. Johnson expanded on this theme, explaining an alleged plot by Democrats to revise electoral maps. “It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but I think it’s actually true. The ultimate plan is to convert some of these illegals into voters for their cause and then use the results of the 2030 census to “It’s about changing,” Johnson said. “That sounds like some kind of crazy, criminal design. And in my opinion it is.”
The former president’s stolen election narrative gained momentum on election night 2020 and initially appeared to be a face-saving effort to salvage his ego and cover up the embarrassment of losing to Biden. But within days, it became a full-fledged effort to overturn the results that left Trump with only one term in office. Two days after the election, Trump declared, “If you count the legal votes, I’ll win easily.” If they count illegal votes, they could try to steal the election from us. ”
The conspiracy theory has gone from small beginnings to massive damage, including inciting a mob attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021, in an effort to stop the certification of Biden’s election victory. Ta. With Biden’s election, he was indicted on two of the four criminal charges. Mr. Trump’s campaign of lies convinced millions of his supporters that he had been unfairly removed from office and that his faith in the integrity of American democracy had been undermined. And with President Trump denying efforts to hold him accountable for his alleged crimes as an attempt by Democrats to interfere in the 2024 election, this falsehood has now become part of the new Trump presidential campaign. It is the foundation.
When Trump isn’t renewing his false claims of election fraud, there’s little going on with Trump. So one way for Republicans to build new credibility in his eyes is to lend credence to his conspiracy theories.
Mr. Johnson desperately needs Mr. Trump’s help. His position as a speaker, supported by the smallest of majorities, is in a tricky situation. This week, 19 Republicans, including key allies of President Trump like Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, announced that U.S. intelligence agencies are critical to the fight against terrorism, a surveillance agency for foreign nationals abroad. He was humbled when he blocked a procedural vote on reauthorization. They are acting on orders from President Trump, who claims he was spied on by U.S. spy agencies during his 2016 election campaign. The bill now appears likely to pass after Trump’s leadership shortened the authorization period from five years to two years, assuming he wins the November election and can change it himself. “We just gave President Trump an at-bat,” Gaetz told CNN.
Mr. Johnson faces an even more serious challenge from Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, another Mr. Trump ally. He has threatened to remove the chairman if Biden allows a vote on the long-delayed $60 billion arms and ammunition plan for Ukraine. Greene is in regular contact with Trump and frequently appears at his rallies. Johnson’s tense talks with Greene this week did little to soften her criticism, and he may be hoping that Trump’s influence will help.
But Greene on Thursday insisted that the vote to replace Johnson was an internal matter in the House, even though the former president endorsed Johnson at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, and that her campaign against the speaker was an internal matter. warned that it would continue. “He’s two separate issues, absolutely. I hope we can have a great meeting tomorrow,” Green told CNN’s Manu Raju. Georgia Republicans were asked if they would back down if asked by President Trump, but they balked. “I support President Trump. I’m one of President Trump’s biggest fighters here in Congress. He knows it, I love the president, he loves me too, I We are fighting hard for the president to win, and that’s what matters.”
It was not immediately clear why President Trump would welcome the turmoil of a new power struggle within the Republican House majority, but it would distract attention from his presidential campaign and threaten him and the House of Representatives in the November election. Both Republican prospects could be hampered.
So while Mr. Johnson may have an incentive to stabilize his leadership for now, the former president’s political favors are notoriously fickle, and he is always willing to adjust his political favors depending on his own political needs. That may change. One victim of this is former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted last year in a rebellion by far-right Republicans. The California native has done more than anyone to repair President Trump’s political image, traveling to Florida to meet the disgraced former president weeks after the Capitol riot. . But when Mr. McCarthy, who did everything he could to please Mr. Trump, found himself in a deadly political crisis last year, Mr. Trump did little to save Mr. McCarthy.
Mr. Johnson’s pilgrimage on Friday will have eerie echoes of the former speaker’s visit to Mr. Trump’s ornate Mar-a-Lago mansion.
[ad_2]
Source link
