Category Archives: Donald Trump

Its July 2021, and the former president is still baselessly insisting that he won the 2020 election. Meanwhile, the Republicans who broke with Trump on his voting-fraud claims are still facing consequences.

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Its July 2021, and former President Donald Trump is still baselessly insisting that he won the 2020 election. Meanwhile, the Republicans who broke with Trump on his voting-fraud claims are still facing consequences.

Donald Trump isnt letting it go. Yesterday, at a Conservative Political Action Conference event in Texas, the former president repeatedly told a cheering crowd that the 2020 election had been stolen from him.

Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, that lie, along with other false allegations of voter fraud, forms a centerpiece of Republican strategy.

The conservatives who have broken with the former president on his fraud claims are having trouble finding their place in a Trump-controlled party.

Further reading: Foxs Tucker Carlson is peddling a warped version of patriotism from a fake log cabin.

The news in three sentences:

(1) Cubans are protesting en masse, with President Joe Biden offering his support. (2) A Florida-based doctor is being held as a suspect in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Mose. (3) Israel is offering COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to severely imunocompromised adults.

Tonights Atlantic-approved activity:

Sally Rooneys new novel is due out this fall. While you wait, revisit the Hulu adaptation of her last book, Normal People. The series appeared on our list of 25 great half-hour shows worth your time.

A break from the news:

Snails are helping archaeologists make sense of a 180-foot drawing of a naked man found on a hillside in England.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.

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Donald Trump Isnt Letting It Go - The Atlantic

In one of Donald Trumps many attempts to steal the 2020 election, the former president called on the Supreme Court to take up his cause and fraudulently overturn Joe Bidens victory. Given that Trump, by appointing Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett, established the high courts 63 conservative majority, he presumably hoped the bench would remain loyal to him. But after the court declined to take up cases seeking to invalidate election results in multiple states, Trump channeled his rage at Kavanaugh, according to Michael Wolffs upcoming book, Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency.

Im very disappointed in Kavanaugh, Trump remarked in an interview with Wolff, per an excerpt. He just hasnt had the courage you need to be a great justice. Trump, who stood by Kavanaugh while the latter faced sexual-misconduct allegations during his confirmation process, added, Where would [Kavanaugh] be without me? I saved his life. He wouldnt even be in a law firm. Who would have had him? Nobody. Totally disgraced. Only I saved him.

Wolff also told Britains Channel 4 News this week that people close to Trump thought the former president was losing his mind. Virtually everyone around Trumpwere not talking Democrats here, were talking Trump aides, intimates, and supporterseveryone believes he has gone off his rocker, Wolff said. I mean, lets not put too fine a point here: They believe he is crazy. He continued: At the same time, he commands a, if not a majority of the country, a very, very substantial minority comes to believe that this election is stolen and whose support for him ever hardens.

Wolffs promotional tour has been sweeping, with regular excerpts and interviews shedding light on what the author says are the inner workings of Trumpworld. And it has gone on parallel to another bout of press for a similar Trump book: Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnigs I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trumps Catastrophic Final Year, which, along with a slew of upcoming releases, indicates our collective inability to look away from the train wreck that was the previous administration. In an excerpt from the latter, to be published on Tuesday, Rucker and Leonnig reported that, among other things, some in Trumps circle were concerned about the drinking habits of Trumps former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani: Some people thought Giuliani may have been drinking too much and suggested to [campaign manager Bill]Stepien that he go talk to the former New York mayor.

A similar characterization has come from Wolff, who described the Trump-Giuliani relationship during a Tuesday appearance on CNN. Within days of November 3rd, [Trump] is absolutely alone, and he is fighting this effort to overturn the electionwhich would be one of the biggest legal efforts in the history of American jurisprudence, Wolff said. Its just him and Rudy Giuliani, who ismost of the time, franklydrunk. In Landslide, Trumpworld figures remark on Giulianis drinking. Giuliani was, many around Trump believed, always buzzed if not, in the phrase Steve Bannon made famous in the Trump White House, hopelessly in the mumble tank, writes Wolff, according to an excerpt published by Insider. (Giuliani's longtime personal assistant did not immediately respond to Insiders request for comment.) Many believed [Giuliani] had the beginnings of senility: focus issues, memory problems, simple logic failures. A vast disorganization of papers and files and tech malfunctions followed in his wake.

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Trump Is Very Disappointed in Brett Kavanaugh for Not Helping Him Steal the Election - Vanity Fair

Donald Trump has a long history of suddenly pretending not to know people once its clear they could get him in serious trouble, despite indisputable evidence that he knows them quite well. Campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, who Trump openly praised to The Washington Post? After Papadopoulos was convicted of lying to the FBI about interactions with Russians, Trump told Fox News, I never even talked to the guy. I didnt know who he was.Matthew Whitaker, the guy the then president apparently wanted to do his bidding at the Justice Department (before Bill Barr came along)? Once it became clear that Trump seemingly wanted to use Whitaker to shut down Robert Mueller, Trump claimed, I dont know Matt Whitaker, even though theyd reportedly met more than a dozen times. Campaign manager Paul Manafort? After he was convicted and sentenced to prison, Trump said he didnt know Manafort well. Prince Andrew? I dont know him.Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman? Never even heard of [him]. Lev Parnas? I dont even know who this man is. Anyway, you get the idea.

So really, its not at all surprising that Trump appears to be putting some distance between himself and Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization CFO charged alongside the company this month, given the possibility of Weisselberg suddenly flipping and informing on Trump, or simply making the company look bad with a guilty conviction. Shortly after being terminated as director of Trumps Scottish golf club, Weisselberg has been removed from leadership roles at dozens of Trump Organization subsidiaries. Per The Washington Post:

The changes were made Thursday and Friday, a week after a grand jury in Manhattanindicted Weisselberg on 15felony counts, including grand larceny and tax fraud. Weisselberg was accused by New York prosecutors of helping run a 15-year scheme to evade income taxes by concealing executives salariesincluding more than $1.7million of his own incomefrom tax authorities. [The] subsidiaries included a holding company that owns many Trump businesses, a corporate entity that handles payroll for many Trump employees, and evena Trump project in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that went bust more than a decade ago.

Previously, Weisselberg had shared the leadership of these companies with one of former president Donald Trumps adult sons or, in the case of the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., with Trump himself. Now, records show, the Trump family members are left in charge. The removal of Weisselbergs name from these corporate filings could avoid questions from regulators, lenders, or vendors by leaving out the name of an indicted executive.

As former federal prosecutor Daniel Zelenko told The Wall Street Journal, its not generally realistic for a company to keep a CFO in place after a criminal indictment. How are insurers and lenders going to rely on what the CFO tells them? said Zelenko. It creates a lot of challenges for a company continuing to do business.

For now Weisselberg, who has been accused of evading $900,000 in taxes on more than $1.7 million of income, largely through fringe benefits that were never reported to the IRS, like cars, an apartment, and private school tuition, remains employed by the parent company, and a person familiar with the matter told The Washington Post, hes going to remain there. Weisselberg, who, like the Trump Organization, pleaded not guilty to all the charges, has also indicated that he will not cooperate with prosecutors against the ex-president.

On the other hand, hes facing more than a decade in prison if convicted. And as former federal prosecutorCynthia AlksnetoldMSNBC last week, The jury will hate [Weisselberg]. Hes not going to have a jury of people who go to MAGA rallies, hes going to have a cross section of people who live in Manhattan, who do pay Manhattan taxes, who dont get free Mercedes, who dont have somebody else paying for their childrens education and not have tax ramifications for that. So I think he will be a very hated defendant, Mr. Weisselberg, and Im sure his defense attorneys have told him so. Meanwhile, as former U.S. attorneyPreet Bhararaopined, I am optimistic hell be convicted. The law is fairly clear on what is income & what is taxable. Hes a sophisticated executive; mistake is implausible. The company booked much of it as income. And juries hate rich tax cheats. So its not out of the realm of possibility that Weisselberg is at least considering a scenario in which he cuts a deal, and that Trump will one day, in the not too distant future, claim of a man whos worked for his company for decades: Never heard of him.

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The Trump Organization Desperately Tries to Distance Itself From Its Criminally Indicted CFO - Vanity Fair

President BidenJoe BidenDemocrats reach deal on .5T price tag for infrastructure bill Texas family arrested for role in Capitol riot Key Senate Democrats undecided on Biden's ATF nominee MORE has made a habit of not talking too much about his predecessor, former President TrumpDonald TrumpTexas family arrested for role in Capitol riot Poll: McAuliffe holds 2-point lead over Youngkin in Virginia governor's race On The Money: Inflation spike puts Biden on defensive | Senate Democrats hit spending speed bumps | Larry Summers huddles with WH team MORE.

That changed big time on Tuesday, when Biden gave a spirited voting rights speech in Philadelphia. Biden didnt mention Trump by name but repeatedly criticized the man he unseated as president, slamming him for the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

We continue to see an example of human nature at its worst. Something darker and more sinister, Biden said in remarks from the Philadelphia speech directed toward Trump and his allies.

In America, if you lose, you accept the results. You follow the Constitution. You try again. You dont call facts fake and then try to bring down the American experiment because you are unhappy, he added in some of his more critical remarks toward Trump since he won office.

Thats not statesmanship, thats selfishness. Thats not democracy, thats a denial of the right to vote, he continued, calling the denial of free and fair elections un-American.

It was a rare attack on Trump from Biden, who seemingly has sought to turn the page on his predecessor.

Since taking office, Biden has made a habit of refraining from speaking about Trump, a strategy that some political observers say has been largely effective and on brand for Bidens messaging. But some Democrats say it may be necessary to bring Trump back into the fold as next years midterm elections draw closer.

As much as President Biden may prefer otherwise, theres no choice but to make Trump and the GOP the foil, said Democratic strategist Christy Setzer. Trump and his supporters including the vast majority of congressional Republicans are fighting to take down democracy for good.

There are heroes and there are villains in that story, and unless we create a narrative about it, voters wont know who is whom, she added. Advice for Biden and co.: Take the fight to them square-on. Dont mince words and dont think youll ever get credit for being bipartisan. Just do whats right.

Trump has been a powerful driver and fundraiser for Democrats who ran against him and his policies in both 2018 and 2020. When Biden ran for president, he repeatedly attacked Trump, saying the only reason he was running for the White House was to end the Trump presidency. He also centered his primary campaign on the argument that he was the Democrat best placed to defeat Trump, arguing it was too important a race to pass up and too important a contest for Democrats to nominate a riskier nominee.

But since taking office, Biden has largely sworn off the Trump talk, even generally avoiding the subject during the former presidents second impeachment trial earlier this year.

Last week, on the six-month anniversary of the insurrection on the Capitol, there was also no mention of Trump or even the former president.

Im tired of talking about Donald Trump, Biden said during a CNN town hall in February. For four years, all thats been in the news is Trump. For the next four years, I want to make sure the news is the American people.

The only time the president has talked about Trump is when he is asked about him point-blank by reporters during news conferences, including earlier this month when the former presidents top associate was indicted on tax fraud charges.

Some strategists say Bidens messaging on all things Trump has been pitch-perfect and that he should continue the same tack.

I dont know if he sees the value in giving oxygen to Donald Trump, said Democratic strategist Joel Payne. I know his election was about turning the page of the last four years, and giving additional light to Trump would be at loggerheads with that.

Another Democratic strategist, Jamal Simmons, said Biden should highlight how he has made government function again without mentioning the four tumultuous years of Trump.

Its a long way to 2022, but today Id expect Biden to talk about making government work for all Americans, with vaccines in arms, money in pockets and a growing economy, Simmons said.

Bidens approval rating has remained steady in recent months. A recent Gallup poll found 56 percent of Americans approve of his job performance, up 2 points from May. The approval ratings are largely reflective of his response to the COVID-19 pandemic and his handling of the economy.

Still, one of the lingering questions about the midterms is whether Democrats can hang on to independent and Republican voters, particularly in the suburbs. While Biden defeated Trump in the presidential race, Republicans gained seats in the House indicating ticket-splitting by some voters.

William Howell, a professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, said that Biden likely views talking about Trump as counterproductive to advancing his agenda.

I think hes trying as best he can to fix the publics attention on the work that lies ahead. There are huge challenges that the country faces, and weve got to find ways to productively meet them, Howell said. Stoking Democratic outrage while sticking it in the eye of Republicans, I dont think he sees that as a productive pathway forward.

Philippe Reines, the veteran political operative who served as Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonYoungkin skipping Virginia gubernatorial debate over moderator's donation Jill Biden teaming with 'Sesame Street' to help military families discuss race with children McCarthy, GOP face a delicate dance on Jan. 6 committee MOREs longtime senior adviser, said no decisions need to be made yet because the race is still 16 months away.

So even if the president and his team decide to engage, it likely wont be evident until 2022, he said.

Ultimately, its not a binary choice. Theres a sweet spot somewhere in between, Reines said. The Biden campaign found it in 2020. They will find it again in 2022. And they will have something new they didnt last year: a record of significant and important accomplishments. Whats-his-names accomplishments were pathetic and criminal.

As a result, in 2018 he lost the House, Reines added, signaling his own optimism about 2022.

Morgan Chalfant contributed.

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Biden takes big break from habit of avoiding Trump talk | TheHill - The Hill

To many Americans, Brad Raffensperger is one of the heroes of the 2020 election. Georgias secretary of state, who is a conservative Republican, refused then-President Donald Trumps direct pleas to find the votes that would overturn his defeat in the state. Ive shown that Im willing to stand in the gap, Raffensperger told me last week, and Ill make sure that we have honest elections.

As he bids for a second term as Georgias top election administrator, however, Raffensperger is not so much standing in the gap as he is falling through it. A Trump loyalist in Congress, Representative Jody Hice, is challenging him in a primary with the former presidents enthusiastic endorsement, and the state Republican Party voted last month to censure him over his handling of the election. GOP strategists in the state give Raffensperger no chance of prevailing in next Mays primary.

I would literally bet my house on it. Hes not going to win it, Jay Williams, a Republican consultant in Georgia unaffiliated with either candidate, told me. Another operative, speaking anonymously to avoid conflicts in the race, offered a similar assessment: His goose was cooked the day Georgias presidential-election margin was 12,000 votes and Trump turned on him.

Besides the one at Foggy Bottom, secretaries of state are not supposed to be famous. The job at the state level isnt high-stakes diplomacy but mostly mundane administration. Before Raffensperger, the last secretary of state to find the national spotlight was Katherine Harris, whose handling (or mishandling, depending on ones perspective) of the disputed 2000 election in Florida earned her a few punch lines on Saturday Night Live and two unremarkable terms in Congress.

Yet after Trumps postelection attempt to cling to power last yearand his ongoing and rancorous claims that the election was stolenthe office has taken on added importance. Secretaries of state will be and are the defenders of democracy, Jena Griswold, Colorados secretary of state, told me. Griswold is the chair of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, a national campaign organization that is significantly expanding its operations this year as the party gears up for a handful of crucial elections in 2022. The secretaries elected next year will oversee elections in 2024, and Democrats are prioritizing races in presidential battlegrounds such as Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Arizona, where the incumbent, Democrat Katie Hobbs, is forgoing a reelection bid to run for governor instead. The associations budget in 2020 was about $2 million; next year, its hoping to spend as much as $10 milliona sign of how urgent Democrats believe these races are.

With its higher profile, the secretary-of-state post has become more attractive to ambitious politicians in both parties. The declared candidates in Arizona include a Republican state legislator who was photographed near the Capitol after rioters breached police lines on January 6. Two other GOP contenders have introduced bills to restrict voting options and to make it easier for the state legislature to overturn presidential-election results.

In Georgia, Hice is making the unusual decision to give up a safe seat in the House that hes held for four terms to challenge Raffenspergertaking the opposite path that Harris did nearly two decades ago. A former Baptist pastor and talk-radio host, Hice joined the House Freedom Caucus in Congress but hasnt drawn much of a following beyond his district, east of Atlanta. He told me he had given no thought to running for secretary of state before last fall. This has never, ever, ever been on my radar, he said. It just came about due to the horrendous debacle of our election.

Hice denied that Trump asked him to run, but he has acknowledged that he called the former president before he declared his candidacy, and on the morning he launched his campaign, Trump issued a gushing statement offering his complete and total endorsement. Hice faults Raffensperger for his decision to send every registered Georgia voter an application for an absentee ballot before the primary last yeara decision Democrats viewed as a no-brainer during the pandemic.

Hice, who voted with a majority of House Republicans to object to the certification of presidential-election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania, boasted to me that he had been the tip of the spear in raising alarms about Georgias 2020 election and opposing Democratic efforts to expand voter access. I asked whether he believed that Trump had won the state last year. I certainly have my opinions about that, he replied. Pressed as to what those opinions were, he said, We need to investigate and find out. I do not believe we had fair elections in Georgia. One of Hices supporters, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, was more direct in saying that Trump had won. I believe he did, she told me. Ive lived in Georgia my entire life. I know my state, and it has not turned blue.

Read: Liz Cheneys unforgivable sin

Perhaps the most important question in the primary is how Hice would respond if he were secretary of state in 2024, and Trump, running to reclaim the White House, tried to pressure him to overturn another Democratic win in Georgia. Would he stand firm as Raffensperger did? I do not think Jody Hice is anybodys puppet, Representative Austin Scott, another Georgia Republican who has endorsed Hice, told me. The GOP operative I spoke with wasnt so sure, however. Theres no evidence to suggest that hed be his own man, the strategist said. Theres no evidence to suggest that hed think for himself. When I put the question to Hice, he didnt answer directly. Trump wouldn't need to call me, he said. I will abide by the law and abide by the Constitution, and when there are issues of potential fraud, and mismanagement in elections, we will investigate. That's the job of the secretary of state, which Raffensperger did not do.

If hes elected, Hice may find theres not much he can legally do after ballots are cast. Much of the offices power comes before an election, in overseeing the vote. Afterward, the secretary is merely responsible for certifying ballots counted in local jurisdictions and overseeing recounts if needed. Moreover, as part of Georgias contentious new election law, Republicans in the state legislature have already stripped the secretary of state of some of the offices remaining powers by replacing him as chair of the state election board with a leader appointed by lawmakers.

Democrats, fresh off their victories in the presidential race and Georgias two Senate runoffs in January, are hoping to win the secretary of states office for themselves and foreclose postelection shenanigans. Bee Nguyen, a state legislator who holds the Atlanta seat once occupied by Stacey Abrams, declared her candidacy in May and is seen as a formidable contender. The daughter of Vietnamese refugees, Nguyen would be the first Asian American elected to statewide political office in Georgia; she took the lead in knocking down Trumps false charges about the election late last year. Abrams, who is likely to make a second run for governor, and the newly elected Senator Raphael Warnock could both be on the ballot, helping to juice Democratic turnout.

Hice undoubtedly offers Democrats a richer target than Raffensperger, and his vulnerability in a general election goes beyond the perception that he would do Trumps bidding. The congressman wrote a 2012 book that contains long, derogatory passages about gays and Muslims; he compares the push for same-sex marriage to incest and bestiality and asserts that Islam does not deserve First Amendment protection. In 2014, he told a local newspaper that he didnt have a problem with women running for office as long as the womans within the authority of her husband. More recently, he was one of 21 House Republicans who voted against awarding congressional gold medals to the Capitol Police who protected lawmakers during the attack on January 6.

Raffensperger is trying to get back in his partys good graces by defending the new law that Republican legislators passed in response to an election that he insists was fair and honest. The law bars the secretary of state from sending out mass applications for absentee ballots in the way that he did last year, and even Raffensperger says the provisions stripping power from his office are retribution for how he handled the election fallout. Still, he says he supports the law overall, particularly its requirement of photo IDs for mailed ballots. When theres a bill thats 100 pages, therell be some items that you dont support, Raffensperger told me. Hes criticized the Biden administration for challenging the law in court, joining other Republicans in accusing Abrams and her allies of spreading misinformation and lies.

Im the most conservative secretary of state thats ever been elected in Georgia, he told me, as if to remind the voters who elected him in 2018 of why they did. Raffensperger endorsed Trump early in his bid for the presidency; while serving in the state legislature, Raffensperger was a right-wing irritant of the establishment party leaders.

For the moment, though, none of that matters, and he cuts a lonely figure in Georgia. Targeted by Trump and abandoned by the state party, Raffensperger has no prominent Republicans publicly in his corner, nor even much of a campaign apparatus. When I emailed the address listed on his campaign website to ask for an interview, my inquiry did not go to a volunteer or a spokesperson but to Raffensperger himself, who answered directly. The most revealing part of our half-hour conversation came at the end, when I asked him who else could speak on his behalfsurrogates, allies, etc. Raffensperger paused for a few seconds and then chuckled nervously. His supporters, he explained, are very private people who probably wouldnt want to talk publicly. He produced no names.

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Trump's Revenge on Brad Raffensperger in Georgia - The Atlantic

Cuidado con el coco! This warning about a mythical character, never seen but feared, was a staple of childhood in Cuba. A boogeyman, el coco kept us in line by making us afraid of the unknown. But I was also taught that there was another threatening creature, a real one: The United States was the ultimate el coco, whose big toothy shores wanted to devour our island. Fearing it would keep us in line.

But recently many Cubans have dared to cross that line, gathering for protests over a lack of food and medicine, rising prices and the government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Butthe cries of the community have gone deeper, asking for basic freedoms in a desperate bid for the worlds attention. Artists, writers, musicians and journalists who have dared to speakpublicly have been swiftly taken by security forces, their whereabouts unknown. Internet service has been shut down. The protests, which began in small towns and spread throughout the country, are a rare sight in a country in which unauthorized public gatherings are illegal and have been met with swift crackdowns.

Elementary school in Fidel Castros Cuba was a strange place where history began with Christopher Columbus, moved ahead centuries to Cubas independence from Spain and then moved straight to La Revolucin. Our other subjects included Marxism-Leninism (yes, in elementary school) and rigorous physical exercise in the Soviet model, a propaganda tool on the worlds stage. Our teachers came to school in army fatigues to underscore how under siege our country was from the imperialist power to the north and the dissidents within. Communist party affiliation was required for jobs and disclosed at school by each child. Those who were young communists wore an official blue and white bandana with their school uniformpioneros on the front lines of the fight for a new world order.

I refused and was often sent to the inspector, especially when I dared wear my religious medals. Yet, paradoxically, I was their star pupil trotted out in assemblies to read speeches prepared for me, which I then stomped on when I left the stage. I learned we could not speak of faith, my church was drowned out by loudspeakers while we tried to pray, and Christmas was outlawed, remaining alive only in memories.

This was my childhood. It made me prize critical thought and truth-telling as fundamental human rights. It also made me aware that the extremes meet in the end and that whether on the left (as in Cuba) or on the right (as in Trumpism), extremism for the sake of power results in the erosion of human thought, truth and agency. The Gospel I believe in stands up against lies, wherever they come from, and against anything that assails the common good. These are not values shared by either extreme.

At the height of the pandemic, I asked someone to please mask up or move away, only to hear them cry, Its a free country! People who have no idea what it is to have no freedom under a brutally repressive regime bandy about phrases like this. It is insulting. It is ignorant. It is the outcome of a world in which ideologies no longer mean anything and at the same time have intensified and appear to mean everything. Pope Francis is called a Communist because he dares speak about the poor and the environment. Communist China has one the most virulent forms of capitalism on the planet and victimizes both the poor and the environment.

When young people in Cuba today shout Libertad! (wearing masks and desperate for vaccines, which many free U.S. citizens refuse to take), their cry is about their most basic survival as human beings, the need for food and medicine. It is about being lied to their entire lives, about the grinding reality of being unable to even express ones thoughts for fear of ones life. To protest in the streets is to brave imprisonment or death. As one eloquent young man put it on a widely shared video, We are starving while they build hotels.

It is possible that this man already has been identified and imprisoned, the brutal repression we always knew awaited the person engaging in any act of defiance. But notice the contradiction: They are building hotels while the people starve. This is the truth no one wants to talk about because the powerful on the left and on the right benefit from it. A truly communist country would not build tourist hotelsthats capitalism. A truly democratic country would not pass voter suppression laws like those being sponsored by Republican legislatures; that is undemocratic and dangerous.

We now live in a post-ideological world where improbable ideology reigns supreme as a weapon in building power. The only defense we have against this is truth arrived at by being willing to embrace complexity. Yes, Cuba has a horrible, repressive, left-wing dictatorship. Yes, the right-wing dictatorship that preceded the revolution was also horrible and propped up by the United States, as in many other places. Yes, Cuba imprisons its thinkers and intellectuals for telling the truth. Yes, we in the United States have stopped listening to ours. All of these are yeses.

The majority of Cuban-Americans in the United States sold themselves to Trumpism because he waved el coco of socialism at them. But in 2020, Donald J. Trump lost. The threat of the United States under a Biden administration will not stoke the same fears in Cuba. This is the greatest hope I have. There is no coco to scare the Cuban people with anymore.

When Pope Francis brokered a rapprochement between the United States and Cuba in 2014, he knew exactly what he was doing: Take away el coco, deal a blow to the Cuban propaganda machine, bring about relations people to people. Undo the false ideological labels. Help all. I hope that those of us who live in the world of both/and truth-telling will prevail across the 90 miles that separate us. If we focus on the truth of the common good in Cuba, here and everywhere, then the path is clear. Adis, el coco.

This article has been updated.

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I've lived under Donald Trump and Fidel Castro. Both taught me the importance of defending truth. - America Magazine

Before he died, Davis wrote The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, a two-volume work in which he purported to show that the Southern states had rightfully the power to withdraw from a Union into which they had, as sovereign communities, voluntarily entered and that secession was a righteous response to violations and usurpations of the Constitution.

Stephens similarly sought vindication with a book that framed the Civil War as a fight over opposing principles that lay in the organic structure of the government of the states. It was strife, he wrote, between the principles of federation, on the one side, and centralism, or consolidation, on the other.

Leniency for defeated Confederates did not just give them an opportunity to shape the nations memory of the war; it also contributed to a climate of impunity that fueled violence against Black people and their allies. Contemporary observers blamed the New Orleans massacre of 1866 in which a mob of white rioters attacked a group of mostly Black Unionists, leaving dozens dead and many more wounded on Johnsons permissive Reconstruction policies.

Blood is upon his hands, the blood of innocent, loyal citizens, who had committed no crime but that of seeking to protect themselves against rebel misrule, which he, Andrew Johnson, had foisted upon them, The Chicago Tribune wrote.

To explain Johnsons leniency, the historian Eric Foner notes two factors. The first was Johnsons deep-seated racism, his belief that white men alone must manage the South. The second was his ambition to serve a second term. Thus, as Foner writes in Reconstruction: Americas Unfinished Revolution, Johnson came to view cooperation with the former Confederate elite as indispensable to two interrelated goals white supremacy in the South and his own re-election as president.

Put a little differently, Johnsons willingness to hold former Confederates responsible was tempered by both ideology and the realities of partisan politics. The Southern planter class may have been disloyal, but it still represented the kind of citizen Johnson believed should rule, as well as the kind of voter he hoped to attract.

This is an important point. The United States has never struggled to punish those radicals who stood against hierarchy and domination. Whether you were a labor radical, Black revolutionary or left-wing militant, to attempt to upset existing class and social relations or, at times, to even associate with people who held those ideas was to court state repression. The two Red Scares of the 20th century are evidence enough of this fact.

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Opinion | America Punishes Only a Certain Kind of Rebel - The New York Times

The remarks reflected recent efforts by Trump and his supporters to cast themselves as the aggrieved parties from the Jan. 6 riot, which left five people dead and others injured and, for a brief time, halted the wheels of democracy as President-elect Joe Bidens victory over Trump in the Electoral College was being confirmed by Congress.

Trumps reference to great people was similar to his remarks after the fatal confrontation in Charlottesville. You had some very bad people in that group, he said in August 2017. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides.

In his interview with Bartiromo, Trump said those at the events of Jan. 6 were loving people who wanted to save the nation.

The crowd was unbelievable and I mentioned the word love, the love in the air, Ive never seen anything like it, he said of his rally on the Ellipse. Thats why they went to Washington.

He added: Too much spirit and faith and love, there was such love at that rally, you had over a million people, inflating the size of his rally crowd.

After Trumps speech, the Capitol was invaded by backers of his seeking to disrupt the Electoral College count. On the way in, they battled with police officers; according to the Department of Justice, approximately 140 police officers were assaulted. Hundreds of those who entered the Capitol have been charged with various crimes, including more than 50 who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.

Trump and Bartiromo both expressed outrage over the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt within the Capitol, implying repeatedly that there was a cover-up at work. Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, was fatally shot as she tried to climb through a broken window during the insurrection.

Who is the person that shot an innocent, wonderful, incredible woman, a military woman, right in the head? Trump said. There is no repercussion that were on the other side, it would be the biggest story in this country. Who shot Ashli Babbitt? People want to know and why.

Bartiromo then referred to Babbitt as a wonderful woman fatally shot on January 6 as she tried to climb out of a broken window. Their remarks echoed those of some of Trumps backers, including Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who has claimed Babbitt was executed.

Referring to his remarks to the crowd before they stormed the Capitol as a very mild-mannered speech, Trump also suggested that the blame for any violence that day could be placed on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats because they didnt take the potential for violence seriously.

They are the ones that were responsible, he said.

Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.

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Trump on Jan. 6 insurrection: 'These were great people' - POLITICO

On the morning of Nov. 7, 2020, the Saturday after the presidential election, President Donald Trump had just approached the tee box at the seventh hole of his golf course in Sterling, Va., when an aides phone rang with news from Jared Kushner: All of the major media outlets, including Fox News, were about to call the presidential election for Democrat Joe Biden.

Mr. Trump had tweeted on the way to the course that hed won BY A LOT! But he displayed none of that all-caps energy as he pressed the phone to his ear. Wearing a dark pullover and slacks with white golf shoes and a matching MAGA cap, Mr. Trump calmly listened to his son-in-law as he strolled across the manicured grass under a clear blue sky. He hung up, nonchalantly handed the phone back to an aide and finished the final 12 holes, as more than a dozen golf carts filled with government aides and Secret Service agents trailed behind him.

When Mr. Trump finally pulled up to the clubhouse in his customized cartcomplete with a presidential seal stitched into the seatclub members cheered him on the back patio. Dont worry, Mr. Trump told them. Its not over yet.

But the election was, in fact, over. What wasnt finished was the term hed won four years earlier, and on Nov. 7, one of the most pressing questions for staffers was how to fill his calendar. Lets do all the things we didnt get to do because of all of the distractions, and have fun, Hope Hicks, a longtime Trump aide, said to the presidents team gathered inside campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va.

Mr. Trump had won far more votes than his team projected, with surprising support from Black and Hispanic men. He was immediately the runaway favorite for the partys 2024 nomination, and Ms. Hicks was expressing that vibe with her suggestion for a jaunty curtain call. But around the table in a glass-encased conference room, the eldest Trump sons channeled their fathers reaction. What youre talking about isnt even an option, responded Donald Trump, Jr., who had called into the meeting. Its a nonstarter, Eric Trump added.

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Inside Donald Trumps Last Days in the White House and Plans for a Comeback - The Wall Street Journal

Trumps press team said the two men, Jeffrey Pedersen and his podcast co-host Shannon Shadygroove:, were not welcome, and had registered for the rally with Red State Talk Radio, a network that has sent people who, a Trump aide said, appear to be legitimate to events before.

Pederson and Grooove were later identified as QAnon followers by Alex Kaplan of progressive watchdog group Media Matters, after which Trumps team said they are considering a new policy to verify reporters ahead of events to prevent people like the two men from gaining access. On top of that, they said they will continue efforts to tamp down on the proliferation of swag that promotes the conspiracy at Trump events and rallies.

Rally organizers make a valiant effort to dispel Q merchandise such as t-shirts, flags, and signs at the rallies, said a Trump spokesperson.

Scott Adams from Red State Talk Radio said their network allows show hosts to use our name, image, and likeness to acquire press credentials upon request.

Content of our individual shows and hosts is not necessarily an endorsement of our station. We support and endorse content in line with America First policies, said Adams.

Trump and his aides have made efforts to keep QAnon from becoming a prominent feature of Trump events for years. There had been a longstanding (though not always successfully executed) policy at Trump rallies to remove any signs or slogans relating to non-Trump causes, and QAnon merchandising fell into that blanket policy. But as the web of QAnon falsehoods and supporters continues to grow, Trump allies have increasingly viewed the movement, which holds that a satanic sect of pedophiles is secretly controlling the government, as toxic.

If we let in one Q shirt out of hundreds of shirts, the negative press would be astounding, said one person close to Trump.A picture that's on the cover of New York Times, with a hundred [QAnon] t-shirts behind him, would be worse than him talking about QAnon.

Trump associates also told POLITICO that they had attempted to weed out any QAnon influences both adherents and postings getting close to him. As a larger matter, they have downplayed the impact that QAnon has on the MAGA movement overall.

Look, there have always been crazy people in politics, there always has been, theres always going to be, and who gives a s---? said one Trump adviser.

The attempts at creating distance from QAnon have been complicated, however, by the former president, who has refused to disavow the movement even when described to him as a conspiracy. During the campaign, Trump told NBCs Savannah Guthrie that he knew very little of the group except for their dislike of pedophiles. His non-answer was seen by QAnon adherents as a confirmation of his support. In recent months, he has met with QAnon-supporting figures.

Donald Trump gestures as he speaks to the American Legion National Convention, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016, in Cincinnati. | AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Over the weekend, Trump expressed his support for the January 6 Capitol rioters, calling them great people. That followed several supportive statements for Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran and Trump supporter who was killed during riots inside the Capitol when she tried to storm the Speakers lobby, where lawmakers were running for protection from the mob. Babbitt promoted QAnon conspiracy theories on her social media pages, and has emerged as a Q martyr. Her profile has only risen as Trump has raised questions about why she was killed by a Capitol police officer, who was acting in self defense, and why the officers identity has not been revealed.

The person that shot Ashli Babbitt ... there was no reason for that. And why isnt that person being opened up, and why isnt that being studied? Theyve already written it off. They said that case is closed. If that were the opposite, that case would be going on for years and years, and it would not be pretty, Trump said during a press conference in Bedminster, N.J. on Wednesday.

What has fed Trumps interest in the Babbitt story is unclear. But she isnt the only area of overlapping interest between QAnon and Trump. Instead, a community that once revolved around Satanic ritual-based conspiracies now seems driven by the belief that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump by a vast conspiracy of shadowy elites, assisted by voting machine companies, a slavish mainstream media, secretive government agencies, and, perhaps, the Chinese government.

They are still 100 percent dedicated to believing Donald Trump is the rightful president, so the prophecy of what theyre waiting for has changed, said Mike Rothschild, the author of the recently published book "The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything."

Unlike other QAnon obsessions, their view that the 2020 election was stolen while not supported by any evidence can not be described as fringe. A June poll from Monmouth University found that one third of Americans believe Joe Biden won the election due to voter fraud, and over one in ten Americans will never accept Biden as president. More strident adherents have gone further, attempting to audit state elections and filing lawsuits against Secretaries of State nationwide.

Even further afield, Trumpism adherents like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell have conjured up theories about how the former president will be reinstalled in the West Wing within months.

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell speaks as President Donald Trump listens during a briefing about the coronavirus in the Rose Garden of the White House, Monday, March 30, 2020, in Washington. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo

Lindell said in an interview that by the time of an upcoming election symposium hes throwing in South Dakota on August 13, he would have marshaled enough evidence to prove that China had launched a cyberattack that swung the election to Biden, and that it would be so compelling that the Supreme Court would rule 9-0 to switch the election results to Trump.

I said before, a couple months ago, he should be back in by August. I did say that, he clarified. That's me being hopeful there. It could be September. I don't know. It'll be whenever the Supreme Court protects our country and gets this thing pulled down after they see it really happened.

Some Trump associates said they have been displeased with Lindells appearances at rallies and communications with the former president. They are also fearful that his wild talk of reinstallment will lead to QAnon followers lashing out in August, when Trump does not resume his presidency.

You want to tell people you think the election was stolen? Well thats your opinion, said a former Trump adviser. But if you say in August Trumps coming back to office, thats no longer your opinion, now some crazy s--- is going to happen and you're not offering any proof. And its beyond just saying Hey, Im personally convinced the election is stolen.

But if Lindells continued public appearances are worrying some in Trump World, they dont appear to be bothering Trump himself. Recently, the former president tipped his hat to the conspiracy theories about his imminent reinstallment, by hinting that he would return to the White House in 2024, or before. He has also been closely monitoring the ongoing audit in Arizona that was described by one QAnon expert as the conspiracy theorists Super Bowl, and at a recent rally in Ohio, name-dropped Lindell and called him a patriot.

Lindell said he had not spoken to Trump since he left office, nor had he been in communication with Trumps team, but believed that Trump was watching his news appearances.

They see the same thing you do on TV, he said. I don't call anybody up from there and go What do you guys think? You guys know I haven't done that. I've been my own person. Because you know what, this isn't about them. This is about our country.

The persistence of QAnon has been problematic enough that the Department of Homeland Security recently told members of Congress during a closed-door briefing that they are following discussions about the theory online though they did not have reports of any specific threats. Experts on QAnon say it may just be a matter of time before the threat materializes.

When they dont win, that will work into their sense of grievances that theyve had building up over the past few years and I think that will be a very dangerous moment, said Rothschild. I think there will be QAnon believers who have spent so much time building up to this moment where the dominoes are going to start falling and when they dont people will get upset.

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Trumpworld wants distance from QAnon even as the ex-president winks at it - POLITICO