  Friday, May 12, 2023

TODD ZWILLICH

Deputy DC Bureau Chief, VICE News

Washington, D.C. Bureau
@toddzwillich

Live-free or die

CNN's Kaitlan Collins was prepared, fearless, and armed with the facts. And she never stood a chance.

The torrent of lies and disinformation Donald Trump spewed during CNN's live "town hall" in front of an audience of New Hampshire Republicans on Wednesday is already well-documented. Let's talk about the function of a news outlet, and whether what happened on Wednesday should ever happen again.

A few weeks ago, when Trump was indicted in Manhattan then followed it up with a lie-filled diatribe at Mar-a-Lago, NYU media critic Jay Rosen talked to me about coverage choices. Is there value in a news network giving Trump live air time at all? On that day MSNBC declined to carry Trump live, while CNN started with Trump (ostensibly to give him his say about his charges) then cut away when it turned into a familiar campaign speech.

If Trump's indictment speech was the beginning of a conversation, the town hall should be the end of it.

Collins did as good a job as can be expected challenging Trump when he lied about the 2020 election, and Jan. 6, and E. Jean Carroll, and the Mar-a-Lago documents probe, and his record on abortion, and… you see where I'm going. For every lie Collins ably refuted, Trump pumped out half a dozen more. By the end, the zone was flooded, grossly and predictably, with shit.

As Rosen and a growing list of others say, no one is arguing we shouldn't cover Trump. He's newsworthy, and he DID make news at the town hall: He refused to say if he favors a national abortion ban; he refused to pick a side in Russia's invasion of Ukraine; and he urged Republicans in Congress to hurtle the federal government into default, guaranteeing economic calamity if they don't extract a pound of flesh in budget negotiations with Democrats.

So what would have worked better? Monitor (or stage) Trump's events on camera, but not live. Don't let him use your air to continue assailing the electorate and the democratic system with toxic, debilitating attacks. When he makes news, report on it a few minutes later. You'll have the tape to do it.

Otherwise, you get what happened in New Hampshire. The "town hall" allowed Trump to swamp the host and solidify his disinformation about the election; to attack judges, juries and the criminal justice system; to once again defame and belittle his sexual abuse victim, to the delight of his supporters; and to blatantly lie about the attempted coup on Jan. 6.

The risk isn't academic. The mess of a party that's checked out of fair elections in favor of authoritarianism, the violent threats against election workers, the mustering and glorification of the mob of Jan. 6 all point to the consequences of getting coverage wrong as Trump tries to return to the White House.

Trump is using democratic norms like "objective" media coverage and "meeting the voters" to dismantle democracy. When he's live he's a bulldozer of propaganda with a proven track record of destruction, some of it lethal.

So, what is your news channel for?

Sign your friends up for Breaking the Vote!

WHAT'S HAPPENING

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates gives an update about the ballot counting during a news conference at the Maricopa County Recorders Office in Phoenix, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Republican member Bill Gates became the target of Trumpist intimidation and threats when he refused to help subvert the 2020 election in Arizona. This week the Washington Post reported on Gates' struggle with PTSD and family problems thanks to the threats. VICE News' Liz Landers caught up with Gates at an elections conference in D.C., where she had more questions about him and his role in what is arguably America's most important swing county.

On reaction to the WaPo story — "The outpouring of support has been incredible and the number of people who have shared with me their own journey, their own challenges with trauma, and how they've used therapy to help them deal with it," Gates said at a coffee shop near the White House. "It's been really powerful." Gates said he deleted Twitter from his phone to help his mental health.

The biggest challenge for 2024 — Gates said misinformation and disinformation will be the biggest challenges to a smooth 2024 election in Maricopa County. He acknowledged that ballot tabulator malfunctions that caused delays at some Maricopa voting centers caused a "customer service problem" in the 2022 midterms. "We've got to do a better job with that." That includes a $9 million investment in new printers.

The Trump factor — Gates thinks that even if Trump doesn't win the GOP nomination, "election denialism and the conspiracy theories are pretty widespread within the Republican Party in Arizona" and says he's "concerned that we will have to combat those." Gates says he has no plans to leave the GOP.

Oh, and that Elon Musk tweet — Just before we talked, Elon Musk attacked the bipartisan election conference where we met as a "far left conference." "He doesn't know what he's talking about," said Gates. "I'm just so disappointed that people with a large megaphone… would be spreading these conspiracy theories. Let the people in Maricopa County decide what they think of what their elected officials are doing."

To watch a predator

There's lots to parse in the federal jury's verdict that Trump sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll, from the verdict's impact on suburban women in 2024 to what it means for the #MeToo movement (BTW, don't miss Carter Sherman's VICE News piece on the verdict's significance).

What's most important for this newsletter is Trump's lawlessness and the GOP's ongoing support of it. How did Republicans react to the news that a federal jury has branded the leader of the GOP a sexual abuser and a liar and ordered him to pay his victim $5

million?

Remember how the judge ordered an anonymous jury in this case, fearing Trump would attack and intimidate the jury? Surprise! Trump attacked the jury, and the judge, accusing them of corruption. Trump's 2024 rivals, terrified of antagonizing his feral base, pretended not to notice the verdict or argued voters won't care about it (which, in a GOP primary, is probably right). In the House GOP, where subverting justice to help Trump is a party pillar, lawmakers were predictably supportive.

The Senate was a more curious case. Republicans there are more likely to see over the horizon to a post-Trump future. So, how many of them changed their view of Trump now that he's a legally bonafide sexual abuser? Precisely zero. Sen. Marco Rubio called the verdict a "joke"; JD Vance called it "lawfare" (I guess that's warfare, using the law, where, of course, Trump is the victim). Texas' John Cornyn and other GOP leaders were rueful—but not because what Trump did is disgusting, but because it'll make it hard for him to win over suburban women. Cynthia Lummis, of Wyoming, offered a 🤷. And others downright celebrated that Trump is an even better candidate now!

Only a scarce handful of elected Republicans said the verdict makes Trump unfit for office. Republican presidential primary candidate Asa Hutchinson and Sen. Mitt Romney have both staked out anti-Trump political identities from a lonely corner of the party. Add up the rest who think sexual abuse and defamation disqualify someone from being president and you can still count them on one hand.

Bragg bags MAGA gag

Ok, it's not really a gag order. Still, Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan ordered Trump not to post evidence from his 34-felony count case on social media. Trump has a demonstrated history of attacking judges, lawyers, and juries, and he's already done it in this case. D.A. Alvin Bragg received death threats, including a white powder and a threat mailed to his office after Trump attacked him.

Merchan's order allows Trump to view several categories of discovery materials in the presence of his lawyers. But he's specifically barred from posting about the evidence on social media "including, but not limited, to Truth Social, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, Snapchat, or YouTube, without prior approval from the court."

Fani in the heat

Get ready for one steamy summer in Atlanta, because it's looking increasingly likely that D.A. Fani Willis will indict Trump in Fulton County by Labor Day.

Now, Georgia Republicans are making sure Willis and other D.A.s think twice before exercising too much prosecutorial discretion. Gov. Brian Kemp signed a new law giving a new board broad powers to discipline or even remove D.A.s it deems "persistent failures." GOP lawmakers swear this is about enforcing laws against violent or drug crime and not getting Willis to back off prosecuting the coup plot. But Willis is already presiding over a prosecution backlog in Atlanta, so it's very easy to see how these two motivations can magically merge.

Post-Roe goal posts

The Trumpist GOP is not interested in competing in a democracy. That's why they're so interested in things like voter suppression, fringe theories on election law, and, oh yeah, theories that the election wasn't lost, it must've been stolen.

In that frame, it's very, very easy to understand why Ohio's GOP legislature just voted to make it harder to amend the state's constitution. Abortion restrictions sweeping GOP-led states are simply unpopular, and Republicans keep paying for them at the ballot box. Pro-choice forces in Ohio want to put constitutional abortion protections on the ballot for a referendum. So instead of fighting on the merits, Republicans are trying to stop that from happening by raising the threshold to pass a constitutional amendment from 50% to 60%. That's all you need to know; the question will be on the ballot in August.

I SAID WHAT I SAID

"Makes me want to vote for him twice."

— GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville, after a jury ordered Donald Trump to pay E. Jean Carroll $5 million for sexually abusing and defaming her.

ON OUR RADAR

Nevertheless, Clete persisted — Attorney Cleta Mitchell didn't fade into obscurity after helping Trump further his coup plot by urging Georgia election officials to "find" the votes he needed. Instead, she's faded into the shadows, quietly pushing GOP-led legislatures into a long-term strategy of voter suppression.

Mitchell's Election Integrity Network has quietly succeeded in passing voting restrictions like shortening early voting and restricting drop boxes in multiple states. It's a driving force behind getting seven GOP-led states to pull out of the interstate voting project known as ERIC. There are a bunch of new anti-democratic groups on the march too, taking aim at ranked choice voting, college campus eligibility, and other election rules that make it easier for people to participate in clean elections.

Get Kraken — MAGA super-spreader Sidney Powell beat one ethics rap in Texas. But now she has another brewing in Michigan. The state's Attorney Grievance Commission filed a complaint against Powell and a bunch of other Trumpist lawyers, alleging that their post-2020 lawsuits were frivolous and abused the legal profession. Powell was already sanctioned by a federal judge in Detroit for "a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process."

Where's Jenna? — Speaking of disgraced MAGA lawyers… former Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss say they can't get Jenna Ellis to accept a subpoena in their defamation case against Rudy Giuliani. The mother-and-daughter pair, who testified before the January 6 Committee about the death threats and harassment they received after Trump and Giuliani accused them of fraud, say in court filings that Ellis is ducking their lawyers. She's been on Twitter, though, so the lawyers are asking permission to serve her in her DM's.

Prior restraint — An Arizona judge issued a restraining order against a reporter covering White nationalist Trumpist Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers. Camryn Sanchez, who covers the state Senate for the Arizona Capitol Times, was ordered last month to stay away from Rogers after Rogers complained that Sanchez was following her and knocking on her door at home. That's a thing reporters do when they're investigating if you actually live in the district you represent, which is exactly what Sanchez is doing. For those who don't remember Rogers, she has enthusiastically praised antisemitic White nationalist Nick Fuentes, spoken at his conference, and posted images depicting her with a dead rhino emblazoned with a Jewish star. Keep on reporting on this elected official!