Democrats Still Don’t Have a Plan to Avoid a Voting Rights Filibuster

Congressional Democrats on Tuesday resumed their quest to pass new voting rights legislation, reintroducing the Freedom to Vote Act. Senate Democrats attempted to eliminate the filibuster last year in order to pass the measure, an effort that was stymied by Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who has since registered as an independent.

The Freedom to Vote Act includes provisions to implement automatic and same-day voter registration, ensure early voting, and establish Election Day as a national holiday. It would also require states to conduct postelection audits for federal elections, provide guidelines for redistricting to avert gerrymandering, and require additional disclosures for certain campaign-related fundraising and spending. Democrats first introduced the bill in late 2021.

Despite the unlikeliness of its passage, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he would designate the bill S. 1, identifying it as a priority for the Senate Democratic majority. “Make no mistake: Democrats are going to keep fighting,” Schumer said. “We have to be ready to pass this legislation right out of the gate, at the soonest possible opportunity.”

Schumer added that Democrats were aware of the “serious challenge” they’re facing regarding passing the measure, alluding to the difficulty of getting sufficient Republican support to pass it in either chamber of Congress. Representative John Sarbanes, a House co-sponsor of the bill, called the effort to pass it a “relay race.”

Manchin was a co-sponsor of the original Freedom to Vote Act and led the unsuccessful effort to convince enough Republicans to sign onto the bill to avoid a filibuster, and is co-sponsoring the bill again this Congress.*

The bill’s reintroduction comes as House Republicans consider their own election-related legislation, the American Confidence in Elections Act, which would encourage states to adopt voter ID laws, overhaul the elections system in Washington, D.C., and restrict federal funding for states that allow noncitizens to vote. That bill is as unlikely to pass in the Democratic-controlled Senate as the Freedom to Vote Act is to pass in the Republican-controlled House.

Democratic Representative Terri Sewell also said on Tuesday that she planned to reintroduce the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, named for the late congressman and civil rights icon, which would restore provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013.

* This post originally misstated Manchin’s role in the bill.

It appears Democrats will have the votes to censure George Santos, after six Republicans confirmed Tuesday that they would move to formally rebuke the congressman known for his serial lies.

New York Democrat Ritchie Torres introduced a resolution on Monday to censure Santos. The resolution is privileged, meaning that when Torres calls for a vote, a vote has to be held within 48 hours. Santos is also under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

New York Representatives Nick Lalota, Marc Molinaro, Anthony D’Esposito, Nick Langworthy, and Mike Lawler, as well as Ohio Representative Max Miller, told Politico they will support the resolution. All six of them are among a surprisingly lengthy list of Republicans who have already called on Santos to resign.

“I was the first to call for his resignation. I’ve said on the floor that he is a stain to our institution and I’d vote to censure,” D’Esposito told Politico.

If these six lawmakers and all the Democrats unite to back the resolution, they will have exactly enough votes needed to pass the measure.

This is the second time Democrats have introduced a privileged resolution on Santos over his many, many lies, moving in May to expel him from Congress. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy managed to convince Republicans to refer the resolution to the Ethics Committee as part of its investigation into Santos.

The new resolution lists more than a dozen of Santos’s many lies, such as his fabricating the bulk of his professional and educational résumé—including that he received a volleyball scholarship for college. The resolution also calls out Santos’s lies that his grandparents were Holocaust survivors, his mother died in the 9/11 attack, and four of his employees were killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting. He also lied about founding an animal rescue charity and producing the disastrous Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

Santos has been federally charged with 13 counts of various types of financial fraud, to which he has pleaded not guilty. He also agreed to a deal with Brazilian authorities investigating him for financial fraud, so that he could avoid prosecution.

Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani, has warned Representative James Comer that his ceaseless investigation into the Biden family’s alleged corruption has “simply no merit.”

Parnas helped Giuliani get in touch with Ukrainian officials during the latter’s efforts to find incriminating evidence on President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Parnas later testified in the congressional investigation into Trump’s involvement. And now, he’s offering to testify under oath that there’s no point to the Republican smears.

“There is no evidence of Joe or Hunter Biden interfering with Ukrainian politics, and there never has been,” Parnas said in a letter sent to Comer late Monday night. “Statements suggesting otherwise have been debunked again and again.”

Parnas explained that he was present for the entirety of Giuliani’s investigation, often acting as an interpreter or go-between for Giuliani, members of Ukraine’s government, and officials at Burisma Holdings, where Hunter Biden served on the board from 2014 to 2019.

“Throughout all these months of work, the extensive campaigns and networking done by Trump  allies and Giuliani associates, including the enormously thorough interviews and assignments that I undertook, there has never been any evidence that Hunter or Joe Biden committed any crimes related to Ukrainian politics,” Parnas said in the letter, which was obtained by The New Republic.

“Never, during any of my communications with Ukrainian officials or connections to Burisma, did any of them confirm or provide concrete facts linking the Bidens to illegal activities. In fact, they asked me multiple times why our team was so concerned with this idea. The truth is that everyone, from Giuliani and the BLT Team to Devin Nunes and his colleagues, to the people at FOX News, knew that these allegations against the Bidens were false.” 

“There has never been any factual evidence, only conspiracy theories spread by people who knew exactly what they were doing,” Parnas warned. “With all due respect, Chairman Comer, the narrative you are seeking for this investigation has been proven false many times over, by a wide array of respected sources. There is simply no merit to investigating this matter any further.”

According to Parnas, Giuliani was hell-bent on finding dirt on the Bidens, continuously demanding more information on what Parnas described as “conspiracy theories.” None of the people they interviewed from Ukraine could produce any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the Biden family.

But Giuliani kept pressing and even tried to get Ukrainian officials to agree to business transactions—such as paying Giuliani a legal retainer—to cement their agreements, Parnas said in his letter.

“These are flagrant examples of Giuliani interfering in Ukrainian politics,” Parnas wrote. “Ironically, the very thing he was desperate to prove that the Bidens were doing in Ukraine—and for which he could find no evidence at all—was what he was guilty of.”

Comer, who chairs the powerful House Oversight Committee, has for months led the charge on investigating the Bidens for corruption. So far, his investigation has produced no concrete evidence, and one of his key informants was just charged by the Department of Justice for spying on behalf of China.

Despite initially saying they would “listen to anyone” with information on the Bidens, Comer said Tuesday, just after news of Parnas’s letter began to break, that the Oversight Committee would “probably not” call on the Ukrainian-born businessman to testify. He argued that if Democrats considered any information from Giuliani to be tainted, then Parnas would likewise be a “tainted witness.”

Ron DeSantis has been plagued by many issues since announcing his campaign for president: everything from the fact that no one seems to like him to the fact that he’s running as a junior varsity fascist, a bench player trying to compete against the real deal. And he can’t seem to free himself from that second issue.

Now—as twice-impeached, twice-indicted, and liable for sexual abuse and defamation former President Donald Trump faces a possible third indictment for his role in the January 6 riots and efforts to overturn the 2020 election—DeSantis is tying himself into pretzels.

On Tuesday, the Florida governor said Trump “should have come out more forcefully” amid the January 6 attack. He did not go further and say anything like Trump should be held criminally liable for inciting the terrorist attack or for attempting to overthrow democracy.

Afterward, a number of Trump surrogates descended upon the extremely bare moment, attacking DeSantis for even suggesting Trump could’ve done things a little differently.

“Ron DeSantis just said that Trump should’ve come out more ‘forcefully’ against ‘what was going on’ on Jan 6!” tweeted Trump-aligned political strategist Alex Bruesewitz. “DeSantis is morphing into Adam Kinzinger! Showing his true colors!”

The tweet came amid scores of other similar tweets from Trump allies and influencers.

And the DeSantis campaign, as per usual, panicked in a frenzy. The infamous DeSantis War Room (which posted that insane and viciously homophobic manosphere ad) tweeted a 638-character tweet clarifying that DeSantis wasn’t actually going after Trump that hard. It tweeted a 1,071-character follow-up tweet showing that DeSantis threw out all the hits: the weaponization of government, Hunter Biden, the FBI and Justice Department … and so, really, DeSantis is on Trump’s side!! We pwomise!

To distill it for you: DeSantis is criticizing Trump. But also criticizing people criticizing Trump. And criticizing Trump’s campaign for not giving him enough credit for not criticizing Trump. Got it?

Donald Trump might be charged with crimes again, and Republicans, again, are coming out to defend him before even seeing the details of what he might be charged with.

On Sunday, the twice-impeached, twice-indicted, and liable for sexual abuse and defamation former president received a letter from the Justice Department, notifying him he was a subject of their investigation into the January 6 riots and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Naturally he would be a subject, given that these were all events Trump was central to.

And Republicans are melting down, furious at the idea of holding someone accountable for inciting a riot on the nation’s Capitol and attempting to subvert the Constitution and overthrow democracy.

“Well, I guess under a Biden administration, Biden America, you’d expect this. If you noticed recently, President Trump went up in the polls and was actually surpassing President Biden for reelection,” Kevin McCarthy said, arguing that the government is only going after Trump because he is polling well. (Trump has a net negative 16 point unfavorability, according to 538’s latest averages.)

In January 2021, McCarthy said the attack on the Capitol “was undemocratic, un-American, and criminal,” and that “the president bears responsibility.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene outright called Justice Department investigator Jack Smith “a weak little bitch.” Remember: class, “civility.”

“Every time they indict him, his numbers go up,” famously do-nothing Representative Tim Burchett said, echoing McCarthy’s sentiments.

“Donald Trump’s the leader of our party,” Representative Troy Nehls started. “And Donald Trump is going to beat Joe Biden, in 2024, for a second time,” he continued, implying that Trump also won in 2020 (and thus perpetuating the lies that helped lead to the riot Trump is now potentially facing criminal charges for).

Former “moderate” Elise Stefanik—who grew to become a leader in defending Trump, from impeachment to election denialism—tweeted, in usual Trump-lackey fashion, “WITCH HUNT!” with the hashtag #StandWithTrump.

How sad, to center your whole life around being the loudest pawn for a player who would throw you to the side in an instant.

Somehow, Republicans—some of whom indeed condemned Trump for his role in the chaos—can’t fathom this basic logic: that Trump might face consequences for his actions.

So much for personal responsibility.