The TAKE with Rick Klein
Despite all the delays and drama, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s signing of his state’s election reforms with Republican Party support came with relatively little allusion on Tuesday.
While much of the action has been silent, it is surprising to see how much of the political landscape continues to be shaped by the “big lie” told by former President Donald Trump and his supporters, ten months after Trump lost.
Including Texas, 17 Republican-controlled states have new voting restrictions in time for 2022, through laws inspired at least in part by the falsehoods explained by the former president.
The so-called “audit” of last year’s election results in Arizona has yet to produce formal results. However, it has lasted long enough for some Republican leaders in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to begin copying efforts.
Trump’s steady stream of endorsements and statements has made it clear that buying his lies about the election is a prerequisite for his consideration. A rally that will meet in Georgia later this month will likely include a review of the false claims.
Nor is it just history: The Republican leader in next week’s California withdrawal election warns of “cheaters” who, he says, could pose legal challenges in this race. And the Nevada Republican-approved Senate candidate for Trump has posed potential preventative legal challenges to his campaign, where polls close in just 14 months.
The rhetoric and many of the new laws are meeting with demands and anger among Democrats. But just as Texas Democrats were unable to prevent their state’s law from being enforced, National Democrats are no closer to passing the bills they have offered as the main answers.
The RUNDOWN with Averi Harper
Biden toured neighborhoods in New York and New Jersey on Tuesday that were damaged by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, focusing on the aging infrastructure of the nation, but also on the threat posed by climate change. in communities.
“The evidence is clear. Climate change poses an existential threat to our lives, to our economy and the threat is here, it will not improve,” Biden told Queens. “The question is, ‘can it get worse?’ We can prevent it from getting worse. “
Biden used the trip to defend his infrastructure and economic plan, which includes efforts to address the impact of climate change.
“Climate change is here. We’re experiencing it now,” Biden said at a briefing in New Jersey. “I think we’re at one of those turning points where we act, or we’ll be in real trouble. Our kids will have real problems.”
The trip comes as the administration works to get the bipartisan infrastructure agreement to the president’s table for signature. The $ 3.5 trillion spending bill bigger than Democrats hopes to go through without Republicans through the budget reconciliation process faces an arduous path, as moderate Democrats in the Senate oppose the high price .
Banalities about “listening to scientists” and promises of future investments to bolster infrastructure to withstand the extreme weather can only go so far, while lawmakers do in Washington. Meanwhile, Americans across the country will be forced to continue digging among the rubble left by extreme weather.
The TIP with Quinn Scanlan
Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan has a vision and a warning for the Republican Party.
Duncan imagines an empathetic GOP that plays a civilian tone; this promises policy on slogans; this values the truth and where the norm for inclusion is more than Trump’s “loyalty and submission to”.
“Denialism, misinformation, and out-of-place guilt will not put a Republican back in the White House in 2024,” Duncan writes in his book “GOP 2.0,” on Tuesday. “The Republican Party can choose: stop following this crazy path to nowhere or get used to losing.”
With four statewide competitive races voting in 2022, his purple turf recently is the test case for Duncan’s theory.
Last week, Trump backed state Sen. Burt Jones in the primaries to succeed Duncan. When it comes to elections, Jones and Duncan are polar opposites. Duncan, one of the first Republicans to call Trump’s lies what they are, stripped several senators from his committee presidencies, in part, he writes, for “aggressively spreading false and discredited fraud claims.” Jones was one of them.
Jones winning the primaries, where he faces the three-year Senate president pro tempore, would indicate Trump’s influence among Georgia Republicans. But if he, and other Trump loyalists, lose the general, the party may be better served in the long run by reviewing Duncan’s vision of a GOP 2.0 than following in Trump’s footsteps crying fraud.
ONE MORE
Only 49% of Americans see the United States safer from terrorism than before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, up from 64% a decade ago, according to a new ABC News / Washington poll Post. 41% say the United States has become less secure since 9/11, reflecting renewed party divisions and the tumultuous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
THE PLAYLIST
ABC News’ “Start Here” podcast. Wednesday morning’s episode features ABC News contributor Dr. John Brownstein, in the struggle to protect children from the delta variant. Then ABC News foreign correspondent James Longman reports on the Taliban’s efforts to establish a government in Afghanistan. And, as we approach the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a woman tells her story of the escape from the 73rd floor of the South Tower and the impact it still has on her to this day. http://apple.co/2HPocUL
FiveThirtyEight Policy Podcast. On Wednesday night, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court chose not to block a Texas law that prohibited most abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy, making it the law on the most restrictive abortion in the country. The court did not rule on the constitutionality of the law, but the law is already in place and effectively prohibits most abortions in the state. In this installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, the crew discusses the legal debates that are currently unfolding, what the court’s decision for Roe’s future against Wade could mean, and where Americans maintain restrictions on abortion in general. . https://53eig.ht/2WOaKcg
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