Senate Republicans Roll Out the Red Carpet for Trump to Cheat In 2020

Republicans are preparing to let President Trump off of his impeachment conviction for trying to cheat in yet another election at the same time as they repeatedly block election security bills.

It looks more than shady. It begs the question: Why is it that Republicans have so little faith in the people choosing them that they feel they have to pave the way for the Russians and other foreign interests to help them?

On the eve of Senate Republicans giving President Trump the official go-ahead to cheat again in the next election, it’s time to revisit their constant blocking of election security bills.

From October 22 to December 19th of 2019, Republicans blocked election security legislation:

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– that would give states the funding they need to secure elections and create more transparency around online ads like the Honest Ads Act.

– the Stopping Harmful Interference in Elections for a Lasting Democracy (SHIELD) Act, which would have stopped things like foreign spending in our elections, was designed to “protect our elections from foreign interference and disinformation campaigns.”

Noting the need for the SHIELD Act, House Democrats wrote, “Federal investigators found that President Trump and at least 17 of his campaign officials and advisors had more than 100 contacts with Russians and Wikileaks. Now, the President has solicited foreign interference in the 2020 American elections from multiple foreign governments.”

Senate Republicans blocked that as well, with conservative media buttressing their failure to protect this country by noting that there were no signs of “successful cyber attacks” on the 2018 election, as if Mueller’s report did not indicate that Trump did cheat with the Russians, he just didn’t feel he could prove they knew it was illegal when they did it. (Don’t try this at home unless you are rich, white, male and litigious, because ignorance of the law is not usually a get out of jail free card.)

– like bipartisan bill Defending Elections from Threats by Establishing Redlines (DETER Act), which would have kicked in sanctions against Russia if they inferred in another election but was blocked by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) who claimed it was “anti-Trump” and would hurt Republicans.

“The mechanisms in this bill have been designed more to attack the Trump administration and Republicans than to attack the Russians and those who would attack our country and our elections,” Crapo said, while blocking the bill.

– requiring paper ballots, technology safeguards and helping states beef up election security via the Securing America’s Federal Elections Act (SAFE Act), which was passed by the House but then blocked by Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.

Election security has essentially become a partisan concern even when the bill is partisan, and rather than focus narrowly on that and play incredulous as we breathlessly report on what new attack comes from DC on the people’s rights, why not say what is actually happening.

Republicans are giving Trump the go-ahead to cheat in 2020 by refusing any witnesses and evidence in his impeachment “trial” over his attempt to bribe a foreign power to help him cheat in another election. Republicans are aiding and abetting Trump and their party in cheating.

The message Trump will get tomorrow from Senate Republicans is: ‘There is absolutely nothing you can’t do. You are above every law in this country. We are no longer serving as a check and balance on your power. Do whatever you want to whomever, endanger the lives of our troops and our citizens, undermine democracy, attack the United States in a traitorous move, we have your back.’

Republicans are giving the green light to Trump that they want him to cheat in 2020. They are helping him cheat in 2020. They’ve had multiple chances to amend election security bills to meet their own concerns, but instead they have blocked them one after another after another, when our own intel community warns that Russia did it in 2016 and their 2020 attacks could actually be even more brazen — and why not, Republicans have rolled out the red carpet for the Russians to attack the U.S. elections again.

Sarah Jones

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.

Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

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