Monthly Archives: January 2020

Remember the low-speed chase? Former NFL star, actor and TV pitchman O.J. Simpson had just been charged with the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. The two had been found stabbed to death outside Nicole's condominium in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, just after midnight on June 13, 1994. O.J. had quickly come under suspicion for obvious reasons: Nicole was his ex-wife. LAPD detectives were ordered to notify Simpson of Nicole's death and drove to his house on nearby Rockingham Avenue. There they found blood on the door handle of his Bronco and inside his house, and on a right glove which matched a left-hand glove discovered at the murder scene. The gloves were found to have both Simpson's blood and the victims' on them.

Evidence continued to mount against O.J. over the next few days. More blood was found inside his house. A tenant of Simpson's, Brian "Kato" Kaelin, and Simpson's limo driver were questioned and both implicated him. Simpson wrote what amounted to three suicide notes, to the public, his girlfriend and his mother. Police were sent to his house to arrest Simpson but discovered that he had escaped in a white Ford Bronco belonging to his friend Al Cowlings, who was driving. Police would later find $8,000 in cash, a loaded .357 magnum handgun, Simpson's passport, family pictures and a fake goatee and mustache in the Bronco. Simpson was declared a fugitive and an all-points bulletin was issued for his arrest.

A 911 call placed by Simpson was traced to the Santa Ana freeway and an hour later, Simpson was spotted on the freeway in the back of Cowlings' Bronco traveling at 35 miles per hour. Simpson had the .357 aimed at his head. What became known as the "low-speed chase" lasted for hours. Thousands of spectators packed overpasses along the route, and all the major networks, including CNN, interrupted regular programming to carry the chase, which was followed by some 95 million viewers as it dragged on. (Ninety million had watched that year's Super Bowl.) The chase ended 50 miles later at Simpson's estate, where he was arrested, after drinking a glass of orange juice and talking to his mother.

I lived in L.A. at that time and remember watching the chase that afternoon and evening. More than four days had transpired since the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. In L.A., the case had gotten round-the-clock coverage. By the time Simpson's suicide note was read by his lawyer and he was found with a gun to his head in the backseat of Cowlings' Bronco on the 405 freeway, everyone in North America, and possibly the world, knew that O.J. had killed his wife and her friend.

But as we all know, Simpson's "dream team" of lawyers, which included a much younger Alan Dershowitz, got him off. By the end of the trial, everyone knew what the verdict would be, despite a mountain of evidence that he did it. The defense had put the LAPD and prosecution evidence on trial. "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit" was lawyer Johnny Cochran's clever counter to the bloody glove soaked in the DNA of O.J. Simpson, his dead wife and her lover. O.J. Simpson killed them and got away with it.

Now Donald Trump, O.J.'s political doppelganger, is going to get away with it. We have witnessed the Trump low-speed chase over the last four years. It began when he was running for president in 2016. Everyone knows that Trump called out for help from the Russians, and everyone knows they hacked the Democrats' emails and did everything they could to help elect him. Everyone knows that Trump fired FBI Director James Comey because he wouldn't pledge his loyalty and had begun an investigation of Russian influence in Trump's campaign. Everyone knows Trump has done nothing but cozy up to Vladimir Putin since taking office, in an apparent "thank you" for the help Putin gave him. Everyone knows that Trump has lied repeatedly, not only about his corrupt campaign in 2016, but about practically everything else he's done since his inauguration. He has told some 15,413 lies since taking office, through early December, according to the Washington Post.

And now here we are in the midst of the impeachment trial of Donald Trump by the United States Senate not for the help he solicited from the Russians in 2016, which he should have been impeached over, but for the help he solicited from Ukraine for his 2020 re-election campaign! And just like we knew O.J. would get away with it, we all know Trump will too..

O.J.'s lawyers never really bothered to make a case that he didn't do it. How could they? His DNA was all over the place. It was his ex-wife who was dead, stabbed multiple times in the head and upper body and neck. Testimony at the trial would show that after Simpson killed Goldman, he returned to his wife's body, put his foot in the middle of her back and pulled her head up by her hair and slit her throat, nearly decapitating her. Who could have been so enraged he would practically cut her head off? A random guy on the street? No, she was murdered by her ex-husband, and everybody knew it. Everyone knew the motive, too. A restaurant menu was found under her body. She had drawn a bath and surrounded the tub with candles. She and Goldman were going to order a takeout dinner, soak in a romantic bath and make love. Someone was mad enough to kill at the thought of it, and that someone was O.J. Simpson.

Trump's "dream team" won't try to make a case that he didn't do it either. How could they? Trump released the nearly verbatim notes from his call with Volodymyr Zelensky. It's right there in his own words. He asked the Ukrainian president to do him "a favor" by investigating his chief political rival, Joe Biden, and to look into his harebrained conspiracy theory that somehow Hillary Clinton's email server had ended up in Ukraine, and that it had been the Ukrainians, not the Russians, who interfered in the 2016 election.

The House managers took the time on Thursday to establish Trump's motive, showing that he hadn't withheld aid to Ukraine in 2017 or 2018, and in fact waited until polls showed Biden at the head of the Democratic pack to pressure Ukraine to investigate him in 2019. Only then did he withhold nearly $400 million in aid. He didn't bother asking Zelensky to investigate corruption in Ukraine. No, all he wanted from the president of Ukraine was an investigation of Joe Biden.

There were multiple theories why the L.A. jury didn't find O.J. guilty. He had been a star NFL running back, and he was an enormously popular public figure. The LAPD, which O.J.'s lawyers put on trial, was as unpopular as O.J. was popular, and demonstrably racist to boot. The prosecution had been as ham-handed as Simpson's "dream team" was highly skilled. The verdict amounted to jury nullification, according to some legal experts.

This time, it's the House managers, acting as prosecutors, who have been skilled in their presentation of largely irrefutable evidence against Trump, and the defense that has been, to this pointanyway, clumsy and ineffective.

But none of it matters. Donald Trump once said he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and get away with it. He was right. Now we're going to learn that he can kill the Constitution and leave his bloody fingerprints all over it, and the supine Republicans in the Senate will let him get away with it. Donald Trump truly is the O.J. of American politics.

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Donald Trump is the O.J. of American politics and we know how that story ends - Salon

WASHINGTON When President Donald Trump left Minneapolis after holding a rally there in October, he left behind a bill of $542,000.

Thats what local taxpayers paid for extra police protection, security barriers and other costs. And the city still hasnt gotten paid.

The city alone should not bear the costs of keeping residents, visitors and the president safe for a campaign rally, and we will continue to seek reimbursement for the event on behalf of Minneapolis residents and taxpayers, Mayor Jacob Frey said in November.

Minneapolis isnt alone. Several other cities, including El Paso, Texas, and Lebanon, Ohio, also have complained about unpaid rally costs.

Nor is the problem unique to the current president. When President Barack Obama flew into Seattle in August 2012 for a fundraiser, the bill to local law enforcement agencies was close to $100,000.

Wildwood Mayor Pete Byron said he doesnt want to foot the bill for Tuesdays Trump rally.

Do I think that our taxpayers should foot the bill for this? Absolutely not," he recently told NJ Advance Media. I will do my best to get a final tally, and I will certainly pass that on to the local Republican organization, and I hope that we get some sort of reimbursement for the event.

Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said the presidents re-election committee is not responsible for the costs.

The U.S. Secret Service, not the campaign, coordinates with local law enforcement for the protection of the president of the United States," Murtaugh said. "The campaign itself does not contract with local governments for police involvement. All billing inquiries should always go to the U.S. Secret Service.

Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., though, said the Trump campaign should be paying those costs rather than ignoring the bills its receiving from municipalities.

I dont want to call the president a dead beat but hes close to it, said Pascrell, D-9th Dist. Let him pay his bills. The campaign should be paying for it, certainly not the states and the cities.

Last October, Pascrell asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate why the campaign was not reporting those unpaid bills as disputed debts, which he said was required by federal law and would let the public know how much those rallies cost taxpayers.

Donald Trumps presidential campaign may ignore their obligation to reimburse local officials for the significant assistance provided at these political events," he said in a letter to the commission. "But FEC regulations on reporting disputed debts clearly state that these disputes must be reported until the dispute is resolved.

The FEC, though, has only three of six commissioners in place, not enough to move forward on any investigation.

The commission is operating without a working quorum and unable to move forward on newly filed complaints and enforcement matters, spokesman Christian Hilland said.

El Paso billed the Trump campaign $470,417 for its costs stemming from a February rally in the city, then tacked on late fees when it was wasnt paid.

Mayor Dee Margo told NJ Advance Media that the next step was to send a collection notice.

We definitely want to get paid, Margo said.

Any advice for Wildwood?

You need a contract with them," he said.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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Other towns have been left holding the bag for Trump rally costs - NJ.com

President Trumps insight into what captivates the American people, and what draws the attention of the news media, remains remarkable. Consider, for example, how he castthat seems the right wordthe defense team for his impeachment trial, which begins Tuesday, in the United States Senate. There are not many legal celebrities in the United States, but Trump now has two of them: Kenneth Starr, the erstwhile pursuer of Hillary and Bill Clinton as the independent counsel during the Whitewater (and more) matter, and Alan Dershowitz, defender of O.J. Simpson, other famous clients, and, lately, his own conduct. How can we not wonder how Starr, who inveighed against what he called the dishonesty of the Clintons, will contrive to defend this President? What will Dershowitz, a onetime liberal and a civil libertarian, say about his new client, who is openly hostile to the values enshrined in the Bill of Rights? And how did Trump manage to find not one but two famous lawyers who had previously joined forces to defend Jeffrey Epstein, who was a friend of Trumps?

Five of the Presidents eight lawyers have appeared frequently on Fox News, and theyve been hired to put on an entertaining show for the Senate. (Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, Jane Raskin, a member of Trumps legal defense team, and Eric Herschmann are the exceptions.) But the showmanship thats likely to be on display should not obscure whats really going on here. The outcome of the trial is not in doubt; there is no way that sixty-seven senators will vote to remove Trump from office. But there is a real question about whether the trial will involve any fact-findingthat is, the presentation of witnesses and new documentary evidence. Trumps real priority, and that of the Republican leadership in the Senate, is to make sure that never happens.

Dershowitz is likely to be the crucial figure on the Senate floor. He is currently trying to portray himself as more of a neutral constitutional expert, rather than as a full-fledged member of Trumps defense team. That semantic dodge is meant to elevate his core argument: that the two articles of impeachment, even if they accurately describe the Presidents conduct, are not impeachable offenses. Its worth addressing that argument, because its likely to be crucial to the Senate trial, not just on the merits but on the issue of whether the seven House managers named by Nancy Pelosi last week will be allowed to call witnesses.

The first article charges Trump with abuse of his constitutional powers, through his dealings with the government of Ukraine. The claim is a familiar one by now. Trump withheld congressionally authorized funds, and also personal Presidential attention, from Ukraine in an effort to force the announcement of an investigation of former Vice-President Joe Biden, Trumps putative 2020 opponent, and Bidens son Hunter. The second article charges Trump with obstructing Congress, by refusing all demands for witnesses and documents in the Ukraine investigation. Dershowitz says, and all of Trumps lawyers will argue, that neither article charges conduct that is a high crime and misdemeanor, the standard for impeachment established in the Constitution.

Dershowitz does not say exactly that a President must commit a crimean actual criminal offenseto commit a high crime and misdemeanor, but thats what his position comes down to in the real world. He is worried, rightly, about Congress trying to evict a President simply because of policy differences. But neither of the articles refers to any good-faith dispute over Trumps performance in office. Rather, both charge core violations of Presidential duties. What Dershowitzs position misses is that impeachment is designed specifically to police Presidential conductto make sure that a President does not abuse the powers which that office alone possesses under our system of governance. This is why Bill Clintons conduct should not have been impeachable. Lying under oath about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky was likely a crimeperjurybut it was not an abuse of Presidential power, and thus not a high crime and misdemeanor.

What makes Dershowitzs argument so important in the context of Trumps case is that it gives Republican senators an excuse to vote against witnesses. If his view is adopted, it means that Republicans can accept the truth of factual assertions from the House managers, for the sake of argument, and still vote to exclude new witnesses. By this reasoning, the witnesses would not offer anything of value because they would only testify to conduct that is not impeachable, anyway. Thats the real point, and the real danger, of Dershowitzs argument; it gives Republicans cover to cut short the Senate trial.

Trump and his followers (and his enablers, such as Dershowitz) surely recognize that the facts in this case will show how much the President abused his power through his dealings with Ukraine. (The Government Accountability Office just added to those facts by finding that the withholding of funds for Ukraine was illegal.) If the House managers are allowed to call witnesses, those witnesses will likely make the case against Trump even stronger. At some level, the Presidents defenders must know that Trumps conduct is impeachable. Thats why Trump has taken every opportunity to block the facts from coming out. On Tuesday, the Presidents lawyers reveal their true agenda: to persuade the Senate to preserve Trumps incriminating secrets.

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How Donald Trumps Unlikely Legal Team Will Try to Defend Him - The New Yorker

The big difference was the way most people at Davos, including Americans but especially the non-Americans, were responding to this flamboyant but familiar show. The consensus reaction: Whatever.

This years Davos gathering featured several preoccupationssubjects that seem to come up at every panel, in every sidewalk encounterand it is striking that Trump is a marginal figure in all of them.

Some of the American delegates behave as if the world is America, with its 24-hour, 7X-weekly Trump obsession, while much of the rest of the world has simply moved beyond the Trump drama, David Miliband, a former British foreign minister who now heads the International Rescue Committee, said in an interview.

Christian Rhally, an executive at LinkedIn who emphasized he was speaking in a personal capacity, said Trump lacks the aura or the respect that a president might ordinarily command at Davos. Echoing a common refrain, he said Trumps Tuesday address sounded more like a campaign speech, raising the question of whether he was even trying to engage with the global audience. You cant ignore him but its nothing people really talk about.

Conversation was instead dominated by three seething conflicts that many participants see as existential in their long-term implications for the global order.

There is the conflict over the future of capitalism. Business and government leaders here look at polling in nations around the world, and see the tenor of the debate in the Democratic presidential campaign, and acknowledge that deep mistrust of free markets is likely to be an enduring political reality.

There is the conflict over the future of technology. This is partly about how vigorously to regulate U.S.-based giants like Facebook and Amazon. Even more, however, tech policy is being viewed through the prism of long-term competition between the United States and China over who will be more influential in shaping the global tech landscape on artificial intelligence and 5G mobile capacity.

Above all, there is the conflict over the future of the planet. In this case, the climate change debate came with an edge of generational tension. Seventeen-year-old celebrity activist Greta Thunberg commanded the spotlight here, who scolded reckless capitalists and feckless policymakers in her speech: Your inaction is fueling the flames by the hour, and we are telling you to act as if you loved your children above all else.

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo

It seems likely that Thunbergs perspective goes back far enough to realize that her very presenceand the celebratory attention lavished upon herwas an illustration of one of the historic roles of the Davos gathering.

With its mix of public-policy activists side by side with some of the planets wealthiest and most influential peopleall participating in a virtually round-the-clock blur of panels and partiesDavos has long served as a kind of buffering agent between go-go capitalists and do-good social activists.

For the capitalists, the theme of censorious self-criticism was especially pronounced this year. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, wrote in a special Davos issue of Time magazine that Capitalism may be at a tipping point, endangered in part because policymakers and business leaders have done of a poor job of helping those who have been left behind.

An annual survey known as the Trust barometer sponsored by the Edelman public affairs firmcollecting views from 34,000 people in 28 countriescaptured the downbeat assumptions that pervaded many conversations at Davos. Some 56 percent of respondents say they believe that capitalism does more harm than good. Fewer than one in three people in developed markets believe they and their families will be better off in five years time. Nearly 80 percent agree that elites are getting richer while regular people struggle to pay their bills.

Virtually every event or corporate branding project here was designed to associate the sponsor with the message of acknowledging gaps in equalitybetween sexes, between geographical regions, between capitalisms winners and losersand pledging to do something about it. Lets make business the greatest platform for change, read the banner at the Salesforce hub here.

The blas reaction to Trump showed how quickly the Davos crowd has gone through its stages of reaction to a figure who was elected in part with a pledge to halt the kind of economic and social integration that historically has been celebrated by the World Economic Forum.

Three years ago, just as Trump was about to be inaugurated, the general thrust of conversations with business and government leaders about him was one of alarm: What the hell has happened to America and what does this mean?!

Around the time of his first appearance at Davos two years ago, fresh off passing a tax-reform measure that many business leaders liked as pro-growth, people here criticized his divisive style but often added something like, You know, his actual record is not as bad as we feared and we can learn to live with him.

Now, Trumps style and substance seems to have been factored into peoples expectations alreadycreating a new normalthat Trump has become something people dont often associate with him: No longer especially interesting.

It is not that the Davos participants see themselves as simply waiting out Trump. There was lots of chatter here predicting that he would win re-election, though the reasons offered were not any more insightful than something you would hear on a random cable-TV panel (Trumps base is so loyal; Democrats may nominate someone too divisive, etc.).

Still, the general mood here made the self-oriented, rah-rah promotion of Trump seem off-key, irrelevant to the moment.

At his Wednesday news conference before leaving, Trump said he wished he saw Thunbergs speech but that she should turn her attention elsewhere from the United States because our water numbers, our numbers on air, are tremendous.

He is a moron, a European energy executive said of Trump. Do we have time for it? No. We have to change our whole company to get carbon-neutral.

Greta is great, said an executive for a Japanese manufacturer. Even if she cant deliver, she is needed to balance Trump in conversation and that seems to be happening.

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Trump Roars, and Davos Shrugs - POLITICO

Starting this week, an endless number of commentators, including yours truly, will descend on the cable news networks to breathlessly analyze the Senate trial of President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump says his advice to impeachment defense team is 'just be honest' Trump expands tariffs on steel and aluminum imports CNN's Axelrod says impeachment didn't come up until 80 minutes into focus group MORE. We will talk about the law and strategy as we eagerly consume every hour of what will be a clownish but captivating spectacle. We will watch senators from both parties pretend their minds are not made up, when we know exactly how they will each vote. We will pontificate about the sanctity of impeachment, about the Constitution, and how this entire ordeal will eventually be judged in the history books.

But let me clue you in on something. None of this really matters, and not just because we all know how it ends. It does not matter because this trial simply has nothing to do with the law or the Constitution or dealings with Ukraine. This is not oversight by Congress or some principled exercise by serious leaders to protect the system from a corrupt president. It is and has always been about rejecting a president who not only refuses to play by the rules but to acknowledge they even exist. It is and has always been a desperate attempt to stop him from winning reelection this November.

Anyone paying attention in 2016 knew exactly what we were getting with Trump, and nothing he has done as president is a surprise. He is impolite and petulant. He will throw anyone under the bus. He is not judicious in his choice of friends, his actions, or his speech, and he regularly toes the line of legality. He has no use for Washington power structures or respect for freedom of the press. In a town that rewards conformity, Trump is the complete opposite, and his election threw the entire system out of whack.

But you know what? That is all just fine. Ultimately, the system within our democracy was not meant to limit presidential candidates to the vetted members of an aristocratic class. The beauty of our nation is that anyone can be elected to office, whether they are cut out for the job or not, and Americans are entitled to the president of their choice every four years.

For the past few decades most of our presidential candidates fit into one of two molds. One was the career politician who went to an Ivy League, groomed for politics with no experience in the private sector. The other was the product of a dynasty, someone whose success was largely owed to the power and wealth that came from existing bases. When you look at 2016, Trump was an outlier on both sides of the aisle. His election was the resounding rejection of a system that millions of Americans decided was not working for them. They chose to give Trump a chance to do better.

When the Ukraine story broke, despite the efforts by Democrats to sell it as the worst offense, the public did not buy it because this is exactly the kind of behavior they expect from Trump. They were unimpressed with an impeachment case with no real crime and no actual harm to Ukraine, with many convinced this was no worse than how other presidents behave. It revealed the Hunter Biden arrangement with Burisma, exactly the type of deal that Americans so detest yet have come to expect from Washington insiders and their families shamelessly cashing in on all their influence.

Perhaps if Democrats had not spent the last three years calling Trump a Russian stooge and traitor then they would have some credibility today. However, the special counsel investigation and the unceasing march to impeach Trump for whatever they find now makes them impossible to take seriously. Despite their best efforts there was no public outcry for impeachment and no break in the ranks by Republicans. Yet Democrats marched on to hand us a partisan impeachment simply doomed to fail.

The true threat to our democracy is not Trump. It is leaders who are using the system to accomplish what they cannot at the ballot box. For better or worse, Trump is our president. We had the right to elect him the first time, and we have the right to decide if he keeps his job for another term. This impeachment is about taking away that right. Let us have the trial, ensure it is fair, hear from witnesses, and allow the chips to fall where they may. But let us not pretend it is principled. It is a divisive and harmful scorched earth campaign designed to prevent Americans from repeating what the ruling class believes never should have been allowed in the first place.

Joseph Moreno is a former federal prosecutor at the Justice Department and a United States Army combat veteran. He currently practices law in Washington. You can follow him on Twitter @JosephMoreno. The views expressed in this column are his own and are not those of his employer.

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This trial is not about Donald Trump | TheHill - The Hill

Five other states Illinois, Maine, New York, Oregon and Washington have similar laws on the books. But HHS is, for now, only singling out California.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom indicated the state won't change the policy.

"The Trump administration would rather rile up its base to score cheap political points and risk access to care for millions than do whats right," he said. "California will continue to protect a womans right to choose, and we won't back down from defending reproductive freedom for everybody full stop.

California's Attorney General Xavier Becerra tweeted "California won't be deterred. We will fight this by any means necessary."

The move is in line with other Trump administration actions targeting the progressive state over issues including environmental standards, immigration policies and homelessness. It was also timed to coincide with the March for Life on the National Mall, where President Donald Trump will become the first president to address the anti-abortion demonstration in person as he works to shore up support from social conservatives.

Groups opposed to abortion immediately praised the threat to cut funding.

The Family Research Council said the decision shows "just how seriously this administration views its role in protecting conscience rights for all Americans" while the leader of Susan B. Anthony List a group that plans to spend tens of millions of dollars this year to help Trump get re-elected praised him as "the most pro-life president in U.S. history."

While public insurance programs like Medicaid have long been barred from covering abortion services, Fridays announcement also marks an escalation of the administrations efforts to extend the prohibition to private coverage. In December, HHS unveiled a rule requiring private insurers on Obamacare markets to send patients separate monthly bills to separate the portion of the premium that goes toward abortion coverage. The added administrative burden could prompt some insurers to drop abortion care altogether.

"We're sending a message that if any state does what California has done, they should likewise expect to be found in violation," Severino said. "Whatever one thinks of the legality of abortion, the American people have spoken with one voice that they should not be forced to pay for, participate in, or cover someone's abortion."

HHS said a Catholic order that previously and unsuccessfully sued California over the policy the Missionary Guadalupanas of the Holy Spirit filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights that led to the investigation and notice of violation. Severino on Friday compared the issue to the legal challenge filed by another group of nuns challenging the Obamacare's birth control mandate a case the Supreme Court last week agreed to review.

"The parallels with the Little Sisters of the Poor case are clear," he said. "Once again, the government is trying to force nuns to cover abortion for fellow nuns. Why can't they be left alone?"

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Trump threatens to cut California funding over abortion coverage - POLITICO

Trump attracts plenty of ridicule for his promise-mongering about the wall with Mexico, but the unbuilt wall can do the same job in 2020 as the hypothetical wall did in 2016 e.g., Reelect me, I have to finish what Nancy Pelosi prevented me from doing, blah blah blah.

Trumps, harsh, cruelty-first immigration policies havent won him many friends in the commentariat, or in states where immigration and asylum issues arent integrally connected to the local economy, i.e., Massachusetts. But he will run on his record.

A Trump ad aired last fall claims he has cut illegal immigration in half an exaggeration, to put it mildly. Yet The Washington Post recently reported that the number of migrants taken into custody along the US-Mexico border has started to plateau after several straight months of decline.

He grasped the nettle, as he promised to do.

Nobel Prize winners are never going to praise Trumponomics (Paul Krugman on Election Day, 2016: Markets are plunging), but in a presidential campaign, three pocketbook issues matter: (1) Is inflation under control? (2) Is gasoline more expensive? and (3) Do I have a job?

The election is several months away, but for now the answers for most Americans are Yes, No, and Yes. Advantage Trump.

Concerning foreign entanglements, Trumps foreign policy can be politely described as incoherent. American troop deployments overseas have either declined or remained steady, depending on whom you choose to believe. When Trump was elected, my greatest fear was that he would provoke a war on the Korean peninsula. That hasnt happened, which either exposes my poor judgment or means that Trump has acted with more restraint than I thought he would.

Trumpism spawned a spate of wheezy Death of Democracy articles in thought leader publications, e.g., The Atlantics How America Ends or The New York Timess How Democracy Dies. What a charade. Trump loves democracy! American democracy has provided him with a tricked-out Boeing 747 that he can fly down to Florida to play golf, any day he wants. Not just on weekends.

Democracy is grand!

Further proof that Trump loves democracy: He has injected himself into several closely contested state elections since he became president. (Louisiana, Kentucky, and Alabama come to mind.) With mixed results, to be sure. But there is no reason to think he wont contest this next election, and vigorously. Itll be worth it just to keep flying his Golf Shuttle, formerly known as Air Force One.

Ah, I hear you say, but people despise Donald Trump. That is true. In one poll, 69 percent of the respondents said they dislike Trumps admittedly loathsome personality. But the Trump campaign has that angle covered: Hes no Mr. Nice Guy, an ad that ran during the 2019 World Series declared, but sometimes it takes a Donald Trump to change Washington.

Its easy to write off Trump as a psychiatric basket case, or an Adolf Hitler wannabe. The truth is much starker: He is a formidable candidate for reelection to the presidency of the United States.

Alex Beams column appears regularly in the Globe. Follow him on Twitter @imalexbeamyrnot.

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Lets analyze Donald Trumps reelection chances - The Boston Globe

Everyone wants to know how Amazon owner Jeff Bezos got hacked. Not only because its surprising to learn that the tech big-wigs phone wasnt adequately protected against cybercrime, but because it matters in todays political landscape.

A forensic analysis of Jeff Bezos cell phone pointed to a WhatsApp video as the source of the hacking attack. The video was sent to Bezos by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Following reports of the hacking source, the Saudi Arabian embassy issued a statement on Twitter calling the accusations absurd. After all, why would Saudi officials want Jeff Bezos personal information?

There are a few potential answers to that the first and most prominent being to hold it over his head in the wake of Washington Post Journalist Jamal Khashoggis death. Khashoggis murder was called into question by WaPo, and the ordeal soured Bezos relationship with Salman, but was it the reason for Bezos phone hack?

Perhaps, but the timing is questionable. The video in question was sent to Jeff Bezos on May 1 while the two men were having a friendly conversation. Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul five months later.

Some say the fact that the Saudi price was monitoring Bezos device shows how far-reaching the nations cyber surveillance efforts have become. Others claim Salman sent the infected video in hopes of getting some dirt on Bezos if the Washington Posts coverage of Saudi Arabia was unpopular.

Proponents of this theory point to the private text messages published by the National Enquirer nine months later as proof. But while the Saudis are almost certainly responsible for infecting Bezos phone, the why has become increasingly important.

If the Saudi prince was hoping to blackmail Bezos or change the way the Washington Post was reporting, does it make sense to publish damaging personal information posing as someone else? The National Enquirer claims the personal exchanges between Jeff Bezos and girlfriend Lauren Sanchez came from her disgruntled brother.

But her brother tells another story. While he admitted to working with the National Enquirer, Michael Sanchez says he didnt provide the publication with the texts and photographs in question.

Admittedly, there is no concrete evidence linking President Trump to the Jeff Bezos hacking but he is a common thread linking each of the participants. Trump close to the National Enquirers then-owner, David Pecker. The two have been accused of working together to skew media coverage in Trumps favor in the past.

Plus, theres Donald Trumps chummy relationship with Said officials a fact that has been vehemently criticized in the wake of Khashoggis murder. New concerns that the Saudi prince may have been spying on the White House via Jared Kushners phone reveal the president forced [Salmans] security clearance through.

Finally, theres his ongoing conflict with the Washington Post and its owner. Trumps beef with Bezos was rumored to have disrupted a potential deal between Amazon and the Department of Defense. If you subscribe to that theory, is it such a stretch to imagine Trump asking the Saudi Prince to dig up dirt on Bezos?

With Trump currently on trial for abusing his power for his own personal gain, the fact that he has been feuding with Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post for years cant be overlooked. Saudi Arabias bold Twitter post calling for an investigation into claims that Prince Salman is behind the hacking attack are telling. Whether the White House is willing to delve into the matter further is likely dependent on the presidents involvement.

Moving forward, keep an eye on Trumps response and Washingtons willingness to investigate the Saudis cyber-surveillance. While there isnt any evidence linking Donald Trump to the ordeal right now, Id say theres a good chance there will be if the investigation goes further.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.

This article was edited by Sam Bourgi.

Last modified: January 22, 2020 4:49 PM UTC

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Donald Trump May Have Been Behind Jeff Bezos Phone Hack - CCN.com

The enemies of Israel have unleashed a massive air attack on the Promised Land. Hundreds of fighter jets streak across the sky. But before Israel can be destroyed, fire rains from the heavens and the enemy jets explode in mid-air with no explanation. Hailstones the size of golf balls follow the fire. The ground shakes. Birds pick clean the bodies of the fallen attackers. The enemy is vanquished without a single Israeli casualty, and the country is saved.

These are some of the opening scenes of the bestselling 1995 book Left Behind: A Novel of the Earths Last Days, by Jerry B. Jenkins and the late evangelical minister Tim LaHaye. But dont mistake this scenario for a mere action sequence: Its based on the war of Gog and Magog, a biblical conflict prophesied in the Book of Ezekiel. In the Bible, Gog is the leader of Magog, a place in the far north that many evangelicals believe is Russia. According to Ezekiels prophecy, Gog will join with Persianow Iranand other Arab nations to attack a peaceful Israel like a cloud that covers the land. LaHaye, like many evangelicals, believed this battle would bring on the Rapture, the End Times event when God spirits away the good Christians to heaven before unleashing plagues, sickness, and other horrors on the unbelievers remaining on Earth. Meanwhile, the Antichrist reigns supreme.

The story of Gog and Magog is central to the bloody eschatology long embraced by millions of American evangelicals. In recent years, End Times has gained special political currency as believers have seen any number of Middle East conflagrations as fulfilling Ezekiels prophecy, notably the US invasion of Iraq and the war in Syria. Gog and Magog took on fresh relevance earlier this month, when the Trump administration assassinated Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Irans elite Quds Force.

On many levels, President Donald Trumps self-created crisis in Iran seems to have no relationship to any sort of coherent foreign policy or geopolitical plan for the future. The assassination has yielded few if any tangible rewards for the US. But there is an eager constituency for Trumps improvised policy toward the Middle East and Iran in particular: the evangelical Christians who see it as a means of ushering in the return of Christ. Lured by the promise of conservative Supreme Court justices, anti-abortion measures, and a commitment to Christian supremacy under the guise of religious freedom, white evangelicals voted for Trump in higher numbers than any other groupmore than 80 percent.

He desperately needs them if hes going to be reelected. And while some have expressed concern about the administrations inching toward war with Iran, many of those with what were once fringe beliefs have cheered the killing of Soleimani. Iran has this big part to play in biblical history, says religious historian Diana Butler Bass, who grew up in the evangelical church, attended an evangelical college and seminary, and wrote her Ph.D. thesis at Duke University on American fundamentalism. There are these particular prophecies from Ezekiel, where there is talk of a war that will happen at a very important moment in Israels history. And that war is going to kick off the End Times. People in this prophetic community believe Iran is going to be one of these aggressors.

Bass thinks this worldview may be central to understanding Trumps foreign policy. When Iran gets into the news, especially with anything to do with war, its sort of a prophetic dog whistle to evangelicals. They will support anything that seems to edge the world towards this conflagration, she says. They dont necessarily want violence, but theyre eager for Christ to return and they think that this war with Iran and Israel has to happen for their larger hope to pass.

Not all or even most evangelicals believe inthe literal truth of these sorts of prophecies, though nearly 60 percent of white evangelicals, according to one 2010 poll, believe Jesus is definitely or probably going to return by the year 2050. But those who do subscribe to this apocalyptic world view seem to be overrepresented among Trumps religious supporters and advisers. In October, a host of influential evangelical pastors came to the White House to pray with Trump to protect him from impeachment. Among those who laid hands on the president as he stood, head bowed, in the Oval Office, was repeat visitor Greg Laurie, pastor of a California megachurch. A few days after the killing of Soleimani, Laurie made a YouTube video with Don Stewart, author of 25 Signs We Are Near the End, to discuss Iran and the End Times. The scenario that the Bible predicted, seemingly so impossible, Stewart promised, is now falling into place.

From the outset, Trump has surrounded himself with people who hail from the fringes of the evangelical community that is steeped in the language of biblical prophecy, and his administration regularly reflects that language back to them in its messaging. In March 2017, for instance, Trump issued an official White House statement recognizing the Persian New Year in which he misattributed a quote to Cyrus the Great, the libertine pagan leader of the ancient Persian empire who was anointed by God to free Jews in Babylon. Ordinary Americans probably wouldnt have even noticed the announcement, but evangelicals knew that Trump was speaking their language. Many of them believe Trump is like Cyrus, a flawed nonbeliever who nonetheless is chosen by God to work his miracles on Earth.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was reportedly instrumental in pushing for the killing of Soleimani, is also a master of such messaging. In March, during an interview in Jerusalem with the Christian Broadcasting Network (founded by another apocalyptic preacher, Pat Robertson), Pompeo showed his familiarity with another Iran-centric Bible story popular with End Times evangelicals. In the story, a Persian king is urged to slaughter the Jews in his kingdom at the urging of the evil adviser Haman. But his Jewish Queen Esther convinces him not to and saves her people. Asked whether he thought Trump could be a modern-day Esther, saving the Jews from Iran, Pompeo replied, As a Christian, I certainly believe thats possible. The secretary of states End Times beliefs made headlines again after the Soleimani killing, as meme-makers circulated a quote from a speech he made in a Kansas church in 2015. A few days after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, Pompeo said: We will continue to fight these battles. It is a never-ending struggle. until the Rapture.

The State Department did not respond to questions about how Pompeos religious views may affect his foreign policy decisions. But its not hard to see how apocalyptic evangelicalism might be influencing the Trump administration as it seeks to mobilize the millions of evangelicals reached by televangelists and megachurch pastors preaching the End Times. The most blatant appeal to this constituency came when Trump made the controversial decision to move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a long-desired goal of evangelicals who see it as fulfilling a biblical prophecy necessary in securing the Second Coming. What may be less obvious is how Trumps disdain for international governing bodies like NATO also dovetails almost perfectly with End Times theology, whether he realizes it or not.

Matthew Avery Sutton, a Washington State University history professor and author of American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism, says evangelicals who believe the end is near have always been hostile to any sort of international organizations. Thats because they believe biblical prophecies that say that in the last days, a world leader who preaches peace will emerge and move toward a one-world government. In fact, the prophecy goes, that leader will be the Antichrist who will force the world to accept a false religion and persecute people who dont accept him as a Messiah. (In Left Behind, the Antichrist is a Romanian UN secretary-general.) Evangelicals love Trumps talk of pulling out of NATO, his attacks on the UN, and his trashing of the Paris climate change accord. They hate the UN, Sutton says. Trumps unilateralism is also music to their ears.

Trump is not the first president to surround himself with evangelical Christians with an apocalyptic bent. Ronald Reagan was advised by Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell, and personally believed in the End Times and the coming apocalypse, writing about it in his journals. He appointed people like Interior Secretary James Watt, a Pentecostal fundamentalist whose disdain for environmental conservation seemed to be informed by his belief that the end of the world was nigh. In an appearance before Congress, he told stunned lawmakers, I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns.

Apparently George W. Bush was also part of this apocalypse-now group. When Bush was trying to convince French president Jacques Chirac to support an invasion of Iran in 2003, he reportedly told Chirac:Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East. Biblical prophecies are being fulfilled. Chirac had no idea what Bush was talking about and had to consult a biblical scholar.

Trump, who seems unable to distinguish between the New and Old Testaments, doesnt seem particularly fluent in the prophecies of Ezekiel. But he has brought into the White House a host of people who are. Quite a few also hail from what Bass delicately describes as the not respectable charlatan wing of evangelical Christianity. Theyre the prosperity preachers and prophets of the sort depicted by Sinclair Lewis in Elmer Gantry. I have no doubt at all that those people are sitting right next to [Trump], giving him these Bible verses, telling him about these prophecies, Bass says, which means that they are kind of egging him on, [telling him] that hes part of Gods prophetic fulfillment for these last days.

Many of those who have become White House regulars are associated with something known as the New Apostolic Reformation, what Christianity Today describes as a loosely connected group of Pentecostals and Charismatics. Theyre the ones who speak in tongues, scour the news for clues to biblical prophecies, engage in faith healing, and preach prosperity gospelthe notion that faith in God (or, usually, the preacher) will make people wealthy (or at least enrich the preacher). These apostles tend to embrace dominionist theology that implores Christians to take over of all levels of government, media, and education as a way of preparing for the End Times and return of Christ. Influential politicians like former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who has made several visits to the Trump White House, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and former Trump Energy Secretary Rick Perry fall into this camp.

Peter Montgomery, a senior fellow at the liberal nonprofit People for the American Way who has tracked the religious right for many years, says that the network of preachers who come from NAR and Pentecostal media operations are telling people over and over again that Trump was chosen, that God intervened in the election. Some of them say very explicitly that Trump is playing a role in Gods End Time plans to bring about the return of Christ.

One of the most prominent representatives of the Left Behind wing of the evangelical movement is San Antonio televangelist John Hagee, who has been calling for a war with Iran for more than a 15 years. In 2005, Hagee wrote a best-selling book, Jerusalem Countdown, that claimed the Bible predicted a war with Iran. (In 2011, it was turned into a movie of the same title, starring Bionic Man Lee Majors and Randy Travis.) Shortly after the book was published, Hagee created Christians United for Israel, a Christian Zionist organization that now claims to have 8 million members. It lobbies for support for Israeli settlements, military aid to Israel, and for the US to join with Israel to launch a preemptive strike on Iran.

Hagee, now 79, had once been popular with powerful Republicans during the George W. Bush administration, despite some of his more controversial statements. Among other things, he has said that gays caused Hurricane Katrina, referred to the Catholic Church as the great whore, called Hitler a half-breed Jew, and said that Hitler was part of Gods plan to get the Jews back to Israel. His star began to fall in 2008 after he endorsed Sen. John McCain for the GOP presidential nomination. McCain rejected his support, calling Hagees views crazy and unacceptable.

The election of Barack Obama consigned Hagee to his megachurch in San Antonio. But Trump has restored him to the corridors of power in Washington. Hagee endorsed Trump early in 2016. Once Trump was elected, Hagee met with the new president for two hours in 2017 to discuss moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Foreign policy experts feared the embassy relocation would destabilize the region and hamper peace talks, but Trump moved it anyway in May 2018. Israeli troops killed more than 50 people in the protests that followed.

Hagee attended the opening ceremony alongside notables such as Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner, and he gave the closing benediction. Let every Islamic terrorist hear this message: Israel lives, he announced. Let it echo down the marble halls of the presidential palace in Iran: Israel lives. He later told the Texas Observer that he was looking forward to Trump confronting Iran, explaining, The sum of Irans evil is greater than the whole of its parts.

When Christians United for Israel held its annual DC confab and lobbying day last summer, Trump sent no fewer than five top administration officials to address attendees, including Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence (both evangelicals themselves), thennational security adviser John Bolton, a special envoy to the Middle East, and the US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. Pompeo opened the speech by telling the crowd of more than 5,000 people, This is what it must have looked like to be part of the crowd for the fishes and the loaves. What a miracle that was. Once more the story of Queen Esther came in handy, this time as Pompeo compared it to modern-day Iran.

Hagee is one of the most prominent of Trumps evangelical supporters who see a war with Iran as a necessary step towards the End Times, but hes far from the only one. The White House has hosted a steady stream of dominionists and NAR apostles since Trump took office, including Lance Wallnau, author of Gods Chaos President. An evangelical leader with a consulting business in Dallas, Wallnau has become famous as one of the few evangelicals who accurately prophesied Trumps election after receiving divine inspiration to read chapter 45 of the Book of Isaiah. Thats the story of King Cyrus, whom Wallnau and many other evangelicals think Trump resembles. (For $45, Wallnau and ex-con televangelist Jim Bakker now sell a Trump/Cyrus coin that people can use to pray for Trumps reelection.) Dr. Lance, as hes known, has made several visits to the White House, including for a private briefing on Jared Kushners Middle East peace plan.

Facilitating many of these visits is Paula White-Cain, the controversial televangelist associated with the Trinity Broadcasting Network who became Trumps spiritual adviser after he saw her preach on TV in the early aughts. White led a 20,000-strong megachurch in Tampa that was investigated by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) in 2007 for lavish spending on private jets and big houses and possible violations of its tax-exempt status. His report did not find any wrongdoingchurch leaders refused to cooperate with the investigationbut in 2012, Whites church declared bankruptcy. She went on to lead a mostly African American church in Florida where she remained until last spring, when her son took over the ministry.

Now on her third marriage, White has long been at odds with more elite, mainstream evangelicals because of her particular self-help brand of prosperity gospel. Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore called White a charlatan and heretic. Nonetheless, in late October, Trump installed her in an official post at the White House office of public liaison to do outreach to evangelicals, formalizing access for some of the more extreme members of that group. She has referred to Trump as a modern-day Esther and called his enemies demonic.

Bass says that evangelical elites of the sort who associated with President George W. Bush have long looked down their noses at populist preachers like White and her crowd, but Trump has elevated them to positions of power. Its a win-win situation. The evangelicals are at last in the influential positions those who disparaged them once held. And Trumps narcissism is receiving special nourishment by their insistence that he was chosen by God. I think that Trump likes it when people think hes close to Godhe called himself the chosen oneand to think that all of this has some sort of divine backing, Bass says. I dont think theres ever been a president who was quite influenced by this stream of evangelicalism as Trump has been.

Naturally, there are political benefits to all of this. The administration has struggled to provide evidence of any imminent threats from Soleimani, but the timing for the assassination was certainly fortuitous for someone looking to mobilize evangelicals. Not only was Trump embroiled in impeachment hearings, he was still chaffing from a recent editorial in the evangelical publication Christianity Today, founded by Billy Graham, calling for him to be removed from office on moral grounds. Trump announced the killing of Soleimani just hours before appearing at the launch of his campaigns Evangelicals for Trump coalition in Miami.

That event took place at a Pentacostal Latino church headed by Guillermo Maldonado, who speaks in tongues and hosts a TV show called The Supernatural Now. Hes the founder of the King Jesus International Ministry, a Miami megachurch with upwards of 20,000 members and a large TV and radio presence. Maldonado is also another regular White House visitor who has preached that Trump has a role in Gods plans for the End Times. At the 2019 Global Prophetic Summit, he claimed that God told him, America, I have prepared this time, I have raised somebody in office to open the doors for my gospels.

Andr Gagn, a theology professor at Concordia University in Montreal, says the apocalyptic worldview is concerning at such high levels of power, because believers may be rather sanguine about the possibility that assassinating an Iranian general might spur an even bigger war or nuclear confrontation in the Middle East. If it brings the end of the world, it brings the end of the world, Gagn says. Theyre ready. They cant wait for the Rapture to happen. For them its the ultimate reunion with God.

Top image credits: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP; Kenneth Thomas/AP; Sebastian Scheiner/AP; Steve Parsons/WPA Pool/Getty; Getty Images (2)

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Evangelicals Love Donald Trump for Many Reasons, But One of Them Is Especially Terrifying - Mother Jones

In the midst of Donald Trump's impeachment trial, asDemocrats continue to lay out a flawless case demonstrating the president's guilt, Trump is turningto the anti-sex lady-haterbrigade to bolster him. That's right: On Friday, Trump will become the first president to show up in personat the annual March for Life. Other Republican presidents have just phoned in their remarks from a distance, since while they need the votes of anti-abortion fanatics, they have clearly found such people as pleasant to be around as the rest of us do.

But Trump is desperate to shore himself up with his almighty base, and that means maximum pandering to the people who have a fetish for forced childbirth. So he's got to showup and talkdirectly to the fundamentalists and thesquads of high school virgins they bus in, using them to fill out the ranks of marchersbefore those teensstart having sex and drifting away from the anti-choice movement.

That Trump is turning to these people as a comfort blanket and a shield against the political damage of impeachment might seem strange at first: What does punishing women for having sex have to do with blackmailing Ukraine? But in truth, the whole situation makes a lot of sense if we unpack it a little.

That's because thetactics that Trump and his defenders are using to ward off consequences for his crimes are thosethe anti-choice movement has honed for decades: Phony piety, bad-faith arguments, a practiced rejection of facts, nutty conspiracy theoriesand a stalwart belief that neither democracy nor justice should stand in the way of white male domination.

For decades, the anti-choice movement as been the vanguard for the worst kinds of right-wing tactics. Everything that we associate with Trumpism, from the nonstop lying to the rise in violent tactics to intimidate the opposition, was field-tested by anti-choicers before it was spread out into the conservative movementas a whole. And now these tactics are being deployed to protect Trump himself.

The most frustrating aspect for those who are following the impeachment process, but aren't part of the Trumpist cult, has been the factthat Republicans seem to live onan entirely different plane of existence fromthe rest of us. While those of us living in the reality-based plane see quite clearly that Trump is a liar and a criminal facing down a mountain of evidence of his guilt, Republicans claimto seeTrump as an innocent lamb who is being unfairly persecuted. Many Republicans, suchas the infamous Rep. Devin Nunes of California, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, have gone a step further, spinning wild conspiracy theories alleging some fictional plot against Trump being concocted by Ukrainians and Democrats.

For those who have been working in the reproductive rights space for awhile, these tactics are quite familiar. The anti-choice movement, for decades, has organized by encouraging its followers to ignore medical and scientific facts in favor of often-bananas conspiracy theories and urban legends.

For instance, in the real world, abortion is safer than other common outpatient procedures like wisdom tooth extraction and colonoscopies, and 99% of women who get abortions report feeling relief and not regret, even years after the fact. But in the delusional world of anti-choicers, abortion is a super-dangerous procedure and "abortion regret syndrome" is widespread. In the real world, contraception prevents abortion. Anti-choicers, however, believe contraception causes abortion by tricking more people into having lots of sex.

Indeed, what's remarkable about the anti-choice movement is how they lie about everything. They lie about their motives, claiming to oppose "killing babies,"when in fact their opposition to LGBT rights and accessible contraception as well as their opposition to universal health care makes clear that their real motives are controlling people's sexuality and enforcing strict gender norms. They claim to be about "protecting women,"but in fact abortion bans are meant to make women's lives more miserable. They even tryto pass laws forcingdoctors to lie to women by telling them they can "reverse" abortions.

Because of all this, anti-choicers havehelped to normalize and mainstream the practice of relentless lying in Republican politics. For decades, Republicans have been able to get away with jaw-dropping lies such as claiming that doctors deliver babies alive and then murder them, that Planned Parenthood rana secret black market in "baby parts,"that black women are committing self-genocidethrough abortion orthat vaccinating teens against HPV will make them promiscuous largely because the subjects of sex and gender roles make mainstream journalists too squeamish to engage in robust debunking.

The only people who were aggressively fighting back against these lies werefeminists, who tend to be marginalized in mainstream political discourse, too often stuck in the "women's issues" ghetto and not taken as seriously as political figures who discuss more male-centric topics. Even today, with more women in political media, it's difficult to get journalists to prioritize questions about reproductive rights when interviewing politicians or moderating debates.

Republicans have used the world of anti-choice politics as a space to practice lying, sharpen their skills at concocting conspiracy theoriesand test out strategies for getting disinformation into the public discourse, all away fromthe spotlight of "serious" political media. This also helped train Republican politicians in the art of stifling their consciences and lying shamelessly for political gain.

As one compelling example, look at Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. She's becomealightning rod for a lot of outrage, because she has been particularly aggressive in lying to defend Trump, going so far as to repeatedly defame Lt.Col. Alexander Vindman, who testified during the impeachment hearings about Trump's attempts to extort Ukraine's president. Blackburn has been pushing ugly lies about Vindman that seem to originatein the QAnon conspiracy-theory world.

It may be shocking to many people that a U.S. senator is willing to go so far but not to reproductive rights activists, who have long known that Blackburn's political rise came thanksto her radicalanti-choice views, complete with all the lies and conspiracy theories that come with them. She has largelygotten away with it because of mainstream media indifference to anti-choice nuttery. Blackburn, for instance, took the lead in Congress in selling the lie that Planned Parenthood sells "baby parts,"as well as falsely accusing doctors of murdering born infants. She's now applying her well-honed skills at shameless lying and defamation to defending her party's president.

A lot of liberals are confused about the mutual admiration club between Trump and anti-choice activists, believing that it's hypocritical for the anti-sex brigade to be so enthused about a thrice-married chronic adulterer. But it actually makes perfectsense, starting with the fact that anti-sex ideology has always madeexceptions for straight male horndoggery, and that Trump shares themisogynist worldview ofanti-choicers.

But perhaps most importantis the shared commitment of bothTrump and the anti-choice movementto lieall the time about everything. Which, in turn, is rooted in their shared contempt for democracy. After all, just as Republicans plan to acquit a guilty presidentagainst the will of the majority of Americans, anti-choicers have been working to ban abortion against the will of 7 out of 10 Americans. For both Trump and the anti-choice zealots, the end justifies the means andthere's nothing wrong with shameless lying to get their way.

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How the anti-choice movement's lies laid the foundation for Donald Trump's big cover-up - Salon