FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub: I can't believe I need to say this, but...

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:
Ellen L 😷 Weintraub
@EllenLWeintraub
I can't believe I need to say this, but: Electors are selected based on the popular vote in each state. Any attempt to circumvent that process should be forcefully condemned by every public official who cares at all about democracy. Every. Single. One.
2:14 PM · Nov 20, 2020

[SallyHemmings]

1. How many times has she began a tweet

I can’t believe I need to say this.....


I’m glad she does.

[soldierant]

7. I'm very glad she says it.

I'm not so thrilled that she needs to.

[DENVERPOPS]

17. Not to criticize her

"I can’t believe I need to say this....."

But how many countless times in the past four years have WE all said: "They can't legally do that".........

Just saying......

[Jim__]

2. "Any attempt to circumvent that process should be forcefully condemned by every public official ..."

"... who cares at all about democracy."

Unfortunately, it seems a large number of our public officials don't care at all about democracy - a dangerous sign for our country.

[gratuitous]

5. Yeah that was a "There's your problem right there" loophole

There are a lot of public officials who don't give a damn about democracy except when it works in their favor.

[Cha]

3. Rt! TY, Nd!

[crickets]

4. K&R for visibility.

[CoryTrevor]

6. so it would be condemned by 48 senators then, and three SCOTUS justices

[Karadeniz]

8. This woman has been fighting an uphill battle since Trump time... She deserves a medal!

[plimsoll]

9. I think I've identified the flaw in her logic.

Ellen says that:

Any attempt to circumvent that process should be forcefully condemned by every public official who cares at all about democracy.

I think the GOP has offered up all it can from the "cares about democracy column."

Cynical I am.

[BobTheSubgenius]

10. I have to admit, Ms Weintraub, that you find it necessary to say that...

...is mind-boggling, tragic and outrageous. That you have to say it, however subtly, to high-ranking federal government members is way beyond outrageous.

[Lock him up.]

11. All good, but... where is the "any attempter of such a treacherous act should be either...

IMPEACHED and removed from public service positions or sued in Court for sedition" part?

[pat_k]

12. Too bad she isn't the current chair

Instead we have James E. “Trey” Trainor III

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/fec-chair-trainor-religion-catholic/2020/09/18/d34c643c-f9d6-11ea-89e3-4b9efa36dc64_story.html

The head of the Federal Election Commission chastised Catholic bishops during a pair of interviews this week, accusing church hierarchy of “hiding behind” their nonprofit status and declaring that this year’s election amounts to a “spiritual war” that threatens the country’s “Christian moral principles.”

FEC Chairman James E. “Trey” Trainor III made the remarks during an interview released Wednesday by Church Militant, a controversial conservative Catholic media outlet, and repeated them in a separate phone interview with Religion News Service.

Trainor suggested the bishops try to avoid speaking on politics because they, like many faith-based groups that offer social services, receive funds from the federal government. He described the arrangement as “almost a payoff” by the government to encourage faith groups to stay silent or neutral.

...

Trainor, a Republican lawyer who was nominated to the FEC by President Trump and confirmed by the Senate in May, also told Voris that a 2017 executive order signed by Trump frees churches to endorse political candidates.

But FEC Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub disputed Trainor’s claim that Trump’s executive order allows faith groups to ignore the “Johnson Amendment,” a provision of U.S. tax law that bars nonprofits from endorsing political candidates.

“My colleague is not correct,” Weintraub, a Democrat who has chaired the commission three times since joining it in 2002, said in a statement.

“Though the president’s executive order directs law enforcement authorities to not enforce the Johnson Amendment, that statute remains the law of the land and cannot be undone with an executive order,” she said. “Anyone tempted to violate the statute should keep in mind that a future administration could well decide to enforce the law as Congress wrote it.”

Trump’s FEC nominee has questioned the value of disclosing political donors

. . .

The chairman also agreed with Voris that this year’s election amounts to a “spiritual war.” Trainor expanded on that position in his interview, describing the largely peaceful social justice protests going on around the country as “complete anarchy in places where the rule of law has been completely abrogated.”

[Rhiannon12866]

13. Twitter reply :

Link to tweet

[Azathoth]

14. The GOP stopped caring about being "condemned" years ago

Their operating principle now is simple: we will do anything, without shame, unless there is someone there to physically stop us.

[sandensea]

15. +1

Any notion short of what you just spelled out, is pure self-delusion.

I'm reminded of that scene in the 2008 HBO film Recount where Warren Christopher tells Ron Klain and the other Democratic lawyers: "We must make sure people understand this dispute is legal, not political. Above all, we don't want a street fight."

And they cue to Jim Baker, who tells his Repug lawyers: "This is a street fight people - you better believe it. It don't git more political than this."

Guess who won.

[malthaussen]

16. Welcome to the wonderful world of the difference between "ought" and "is." n/t

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

18. Republicans don't care about democracy; they only care about power.

They should walk through the rows of headstones at Arlington Cemetery and be reminded that each one of those crosses represents a person who gave their life for the democracy the Republicans are so willing to destroy.