A sickening sendoff

“You will never get the truth out of a Narcissist. The closest you will ever come is a story that either makes them the victim or the hero, but never the villain.”

I began working for Donald Trump in July 2015. Back then I believed in who I thought he was and fought hard to get him into the White House. Almost 10 years later and now that I really know who he is, I am fighting even harder to keep him out for a second term.

Joining Mission: Democracy is, in my mind, one of the most powerful ways I can connect with people across the country to explain why Donald Trump becoming President of the United States can never happen again. It will not be the administration he has been selling to his supporters and Republicans, just as he did in 2016. He will not be fighting for us or for “Making America Great Again.” To use his very words, it will be about consolidating power and “getting retribution.”

I believe our country is the greatest in the world, with the ability to protect her citizens and help them prosper. I was also a true believer in Donald Trump and bought into the things he sold people at rallies and the movement he created. I became close with both him and Melania. Then, over the next six years, I watched behind the scenes as he denigrated his own supporters, became giddy with power, and admired dictators such as Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-Un, and Xi Jinping.

Mission: Democracy is not about litigating the past, vilifying either side of the aisle, or talking down to people. Its mission is saving American democracy, plain and simple, and that can only happen by bringing people together—Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, independent—to fight the extremism that is the MAGA movement. Once that is accomplished, we must be able to have candid conversations about what a second Trump presidency would look like, and how it would affect the citizens of this country. Finger-pointing or leftover anger can wait. The time to unify against extremism and fascism in the name of democracy is now.

There is no better group than Mission: Democracy to tell people the truth about MAGA extremism and demonstrate that Donald Trump is firmly at the helm, which is why I am proud to join the organization. As someone who was once a true believer, I feel a responsibility to share who Donald J. Trump really is: a narcissist, liar, and fraud who does not care about anyone but himself. He does not want to be a president to all of the people, but rather a dictator who will destroy the bedrock of our country—our democracy.

The 2024 presidential election will likely be one of (if not the most) consequential of our time, and our democracy and Constitution must be protected at all costs. —Stephanie Grisham, Senior Advisor, Mission: Democracy

Ed. Note: All of us at Mission: Democracy send our deepest condolences to the loved ones and constituents of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the longest-serving woman in the U.S. Senate. May she rest in peace.

Mirror images

When it comes to MAGA, the Donald Trump wannabes aren’t much different than the genuine article, and often enough, they’re just as bad. Take Rep. Paul Gosar, no stranger to this newsletter. After the former president (and a leading candidate to be the next) implied that Gen. Mark Milley—the outgoing chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—deserves to be put to death, Gosar took it even a step further, if such a thing is possible. In a newsletter entry on Sunday, Gosar wrote that the “homosexual-promoting-BLM-activist Chairman of the military joint chiefs” was “coordinating with Nancy Pelosi to hurt President Trump, and treasonously working behind Trump’s back” on Jan. 6, 2021. “In a better society, quislings like the strange sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung,” he concluded. The response from Republicans to this outright insanity? Crickets.

As Tim Miller notes in The xxxxxx:

“Last week, Nicolle Wallace talked about the blinking red lights signaling danger for our democracy. I’d take it a step further. It’s a damn siren out there. It’s blaring right now for anyone willing to listen. ... I have come to terms with the fact that the souls of those who lead the conservative movement rotted long ago. But that doesn’t make their continued inaction in the face of this imminent threat any less appalling.”

• Buttigieg slams Trump comments on military officer, wounded veterans —USA Today

• Trump accuses media of ‘treason’ in escalation of social media threats —Forbes

• Uncomfortably numb —The Dispatch

Tick tock

Sunday is a little more than a day away as of this writing, and that marks the deadline for Congress to keep the government running. It’s not looking good. Republicans in the House failed to approve a 30-day stopgap funding bill on Friday, and it’s unclear what lawmakers will do next. “I don’t know who’s gonna vote for what anymore,” one GOP aide told The Washington Post. The Democratic-majority Senate is considering a separate bill to keep the government open that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said the House would reject. McCarthy and his leadership team now plan to see if the 21 MAGA holdouts would accept a short-term spending bill to keep the government open for a couple weeks. If not, McCarthy may be forced to accept the Senate bill with no other hand to play. Stay tuned.

• What is a government shutdown and who will be affected? —Al Jazeera

• Hardliners plot to replace McCarthy as government shutdown looms —The Washington Post

Road outrage

This week, commissioners in rural Cochran County, Texas, unanimously approved a policy that effectively outlaws travel on its local roads to seek an abortion. The county borders New Mexico, where abortion is legal. The new ordinance imposes penalties on people using the county’s roads to knowingly transport someone seeking an abortion and would be enforced through private civil lawsuits. Abortion-rights supporters and legal scholars have said the policies are unenforceable and unconstitutional. The decision comes in the same week that a new report from Pregnancy Justice, a legal advocacy organization, revealed that hundreds of Americans were criminalized for their pregnancy outcomes, including miscarriage, even when Roe v. Wade was still in effect.

• Texas lawyer asks abortion funds for details of every procedure since 2021 —The Guardian

• Republican offers new twist on abortion exceptions as issue stays at forefront of Kentucky campaign —Associated Press

• Ohio wants to revive a strict abortion law. Justices are weighing the legal arguments —PBS NewsHour

• Appeals court lifts partial block on Idaho abortion ban —POLITICO

“If you go after me, I’m coming after you!”

Remember when Donald Trump posted that warning last month? Well, some of his followers took it very seriously. They’re taking it upon themselves to threaten the law enforcement authorities, judges, elected officials, and others involved in the prosecutions of the former president. At the federal courthouse in Washington, a woman called the chambers of the judge assigned to the election interference case against Trump and said that if he is not re-elected next year, “we are coming to kill you.” The top prosecutors of the four criminal cases against Trump—two brought by the Justice Department and one each in Georgia and New York—now require round-the-clock protection. And in Colorado, Denver District Court Judge Sarah B. Wallace, considering a protective order as part of a lawsuit against Trump to keep him off the Colorado ballot as an insurrectionist, admitted that she he had concerns about “safety for the parties, for the lawyers, and frankly for myself and my staff, based on what we’ve seen in other cases.”

Here’s what else happened this week:

• Judge rules Donald Trump defrauded banks, insurers as he built real estate empire —Associated Press

• Bail bondsman Scott Hall takes plea deal in Georgia election interference case —Fox 5 Atlanta

• Donald Trump tells judge he will not try to move his Georgia election subversion case to federal court —CNN

• Seven candidates took to the GOP debate stage to stand out from Trump —NPR

• Supreme Court declines to revisit Alabama voting map dispute —The New York Times

One more thing…

The first hearing of the impeachment inquiry against President Biden didn’t work out as well as House Oversight Chair James Comer had hoped. Comer said the hearing would focus on whether the president “engaged in impeachable offenses under the U.S. Constitution,” and implied earlier this week that the panel would present evidence they say they’ve uncovered about “Biden’s knowledge of and role in his family’s domestic and international business practices.” Instead, the panel of Republican-picked witnesses all essentially admitted that no evidence of such a crime exists. One of the panel’s expert witnesses, law professor Jonathan Turley, acknowledged, “I do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment.” —NBC News

If you don’t live in a MAGA extremist’s district, you can’t vote them out, but you can help us demote them. Mission: Democracy is taking back the national narrative from the MAGA extremists. Help us do it with a donation today!

Biden defends democracy in Arizona speech

It’s nice to know that at least one of the two leading party candidates for president in 2024 believes in democracy. In his fourth speech on the topic, President Biden yesterday issued blunt new warnings about ongoing existential threats to American democracy. “There’s something dangerous happening in America now,” Biden said during his speech in Tempe, Arizona, where he was also honoring the late Republican Sen. John McCain. “There’s an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs of our democracy: The MAGA movement.” He continued, “Their extreme agenda, if carried out, would fundamentally alter the institutions of American democracy as we know it.” Biden urged Americans to prioritize the health of U.S. institutions when they vote next year, saying, “We should all remember: Democracies don’t have to die at the end of a rifle. They can die when people are silent, when they fail to stand up.” —CNN

It’s nice to get reminders that, at its best, government can still work for the public interest. Share a story of hope from your community for a future issue of Democracy Defender. Please include your name and state with your submission. Thank you!

Milley stands his ground

“We are unique among the world’s militaries. We don’t take an oath to a country, we don’t take an oath to a tribe, we don’t take an oath to a religion. We don’t take an oath to a king, or a queen, or a tyrant, or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America—and we’re willing to die to protect it.” —Gen. Mark Milley in departing speech as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, September 29, 2023

• Top U.S. general Mark Milley hands over reins after four years —CNBC

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We want to hear from you! Let us know what we’re doing right—or wrong. Send your feedback to Melissa Amour, Editor, at melissa.amour@missiondemocracy.org. Thank you for defending American democracy!