Interrupting coverage of the war | ticker VIEWS

… To bring you these under-the-radar political notes from the US

The extraordinarily tragic war in Ukraine has side-lined political news out of Washington and the US. 

Here are a few items worth paying attention to in these very confronting times:

• Virginia Thomas, wife of US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and a forceful conservative political activist in her own right, was in direct touch with Mark Meadows, White house Chief of Staff, throughout President Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 presidential election.  

The text messages were included in Meadows’ provision of his phone records to the House Select Committee on the January 6 insurrection. 

Meadows cooperated for a time with the Select Committee, and then ceased providing materials of record.  Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, who co-wrote PERIL on Trump’s last year in office, broke the story for the Washington Post:

“Virginia Thomas, a conservative activist married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, repeatedly pressed White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in a series of urgent text exchanges in the critical weeks after the vote, according to copies of the messages obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News.

The messages — 29 in all — reveal an extraordinary pipeline

Between Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, and President Donald Trump’s top aide during a period when Trump and his allies were vowing to go to the Supreme Court in an effort to negate the election results.

On Nov. 10, after news organizations had projected Joe Biden the winner based on state vote totals, Thomas wrote to Meadows: “Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!…You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”

Ms Thomas has every right to speak her mind on any issue.  But these texts reveal she was a player in advising Meadows on Trumps strategy to “stop the steal.” 

Those machinations would find their way to the Supreme Court, where her husband would – and did – rule on Trump lawsuits to throw out the election.  Justice Thomas did not recuse himself from those cases.

What to watch for:

Will the House Committee subpoena Ms Thomas to testify on what she did and whether she worked with her husband?  Will Justice Thomas take unilateral steps to recuse himself from any further participation in Trump-related cases before the Supreme Court? Public hearings on all the Select Committee’s work will occur in the next few weeks.  They will be explosive.

• Trump dumps Brooks.  President Trump has endorsed dozens of Republican candidates for House and Senate races in the upcoming midterm elections.  

If Trump-backed candidates win, and if Republicans take control of the House or Senate or both, Trump will claim credit for the Republican wave and further boost his prospects for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Rep. Mel Brooks of Alabama was a huge Trump backer.  He appeared onstage at the rally January 6 that helped incite the Trump mob to attack the Capitol. Trump endorsed Brooks for his run at the open Senate seat in Alabama.  But Brooks has been polling badly, and Trump pulled his endorsement last week.  Brooks is angry, and went public on what Trump expected him to do in return for the endorsement:

“President Trump asked me to rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House, immediately put President Trump back in the White House, and hold a new special election for the presidency. As a lawyer, I’ve repeatedly advised President Trump that January 6 was the final election contest verdict and neither the U.S. Constitution nor the U.S. Code permit what President Trump asks. Period.”

What to watch for:

This is shocking stuff.  First, the only way Biden can be removed as president is by impeachment, and that will not happen. 

Second, there is no way that Brooks or anyone else can put Trump back into the White House – only the American people can do that.  Third, there are no “special elections” in the United States for the presidency.  What this episode shows is how Trump is increasingly fixated on 2020, more than he is in looking beyond the 2024 election – and this obsession of Trump’s is becoming a bigger issue for many rank-and-file Republicans.

• Republicans look very strong heading into the midterms.  New polling shows growing Republican support in 77 key swing districts across the country.  They need a net gain of only five seats to take control of the House.

Politico is reporting:

Republicans lead the generic ballot by 4 points. Biden won these battleground seats by an average of 5.5 points.  In these districts, 75% of swing voters say Democrats are “out of touch” or “condescending.” About two-thirds say Democrats are spending too much money in Washington.  Biden’s net approval rating in these districts is -15. About 40% of voters in these seats approve of the job Biden is doing as president, while 55% disapprove. Among independent voters, his net approval is -32 — a 34-point swing since February 2021 from a group that often dictates which party holds the House majority. And among Hispanic voters, his net approval is -10, a drop of 31 points in the same time frame. Economic concerns substantially advantage the GOP. Voters who identified jobs/the economy as their No. 1 concern favor Republicans by 20 points on the generic ballot. Among those who put “cost of living” at the top, Republicans are at a 24-point advantage. 

What to watch for: 

Continuing Republican pressure on what they believe are the killer issues for them in November:  inflation, gasoline prices, crime in the cities, immigration at the southern border, what woke progressives are teaching children in schools, especially on racial issues, transgender sports, new laws to restrict abortion.  Republicans firmly believe these hot button issues will drive their voters to the polls – and President Biden’s approval remains well under 50%.

• She’s baaack?!  Don Young, Alaska’s solo member of the House of Representatives and the longest-serving member of the current House (elected 1973), died last week at 88.  His seat will be filled in the November election.

It looks like Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor who was John McCain’s incendiary vice-presidential running mate in 2008, and who famously said she could see Russia from her backyard, is positioning to run.  Here’s what she told Sean Hannity on Fox last week:

“I’m going to throw my hat in the ring because we need people that have cajones. We need people like Donald Trump who has nothing to lose like me. We got nothing to lose and no more of this vanilla milquetoast namby-pamby wussy pussy stuff”

What to watch for: 

Whether her pre-formal-entry stunting is enough to scare off other challengers and whether she still has strong appeal in the state.  The special election is likely to be held well before November.

Which is a good note on which to bring this special edition to a close.