A Constiutional Crisis

 

And so, it has happened. The Constitutional crisis has landed.

Two of the most important people responsible for overseeing the security and fairness of our elections during Trump’s first term are officially at risk of going to jail for doing nothing more than acknowledging that there was no fraud in the 2020 election and for pointing out issues within the Trump administration.

 Sebastian Gorka,  Trump’s current Senior Director of Counterterrorism, is calling for jailing any who oppose Trump.

The conservative Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that Trump must facilitate the return to the United States an innocent Marylander who was arrested and packed off to a dangerous prison in El Salvador by ICE. Trump has folded his arms and refuses to comply.  

These are the acts of an authoritarian. This is not just the beginning of a Constitutional crisis, it is a Constitutional crisis

Donald Trump is seeking the arrest and potential imprisonment of two members of his first administration because they had confirmed that they told Trump in 2020 that the election was not rigged; that the election was fair; and that Trump lost to Biden.

Trump’s targets are Chris Krebs, Trump’s Director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security, and Miles Taylor, his former senior aide at the Department of Homeland Security.

It was Krebs’ job in 2020 to oversee the election to make sure it was conducted fairly. After claims by Trump that the election was stolen, Krebs conducted an investigation. Krebs arrived at the following conclusion:

“…in every case of which we are aware, these claims (of fraud) either have been unsubstantiated or are technical incoherent.”

 It particularly infuriates Trump that Krebs testified before Congress during their investigation of the January 6 attack on Congress. Krebs not only repeated that the election was absent of fraud, but he also took public exception to Trump inflaming his supporters with his allegation that it was stolen before he sent them to ascend upon the Capitol. “Republican officials, senior officials, including the former President, lied to the American people about the security of the 2020 election.”

Ouch. Krebs is going to suffer for that candor.

Taylor is facing the same consequences. He not only vouched that in his position at Homeland Security he is positive there was no fraud, but he also later wrote an OpEd and a book highly critical of Trump. You can’t get away with both undermining Trump’s narrative about the election and criticize Trump. That’s more than he can stand. He too must be investigated and punished. Directly referring to Taylor’s criticism, Trump labeled Taylor’s examples as “all lies” and justifying police action against Taylor because “I think he’s guilty of treason.”

Under any authoritarian regime, to be critical of the authoritarian or to challenge that leader’s version of events is a crime. It is in North Korea. It is in China. It is in Russia. It once was in Germany and Italy. It is now in America.

While Krebs and Taylor’s personal liberty are at risk, Kilmar Abrego Garcia has already lost his. Inappropriately arrested and deported under false charges of being a member of the gang MS-13, he sits in the foreign prison under contract by Trump to accept deportees due to – the Trump administration admitted – an administrative error. This should be an easy fix. It would be…if it didn’t turn out that Trump is happy that he subtracted one more Hispanic from our population.

The Supreme Court came to the rescue. A conservative Court consisting of three Trump appointees ruled 9-0 that Trump must facilitate the return of the victim. But Trump won’t comply. Despite Constitutional requirements that he must comply as an essential part of our system of checks and balances, Trump instead is willing to go to war with the Constitution.

Beginning in his first week in office Trump has fired warning shots that a battle with the Constitution was imminent.   Trump threatened the Freedom of the Press by seeking to remove their right to operate, to jail journalists and producers, and filing lawsuits; he began action to end the Right to Assemble for those who demonstrate against his positions; has done away with due process; intimidates and makes threats against attorneys who challenge his positions; and seeks jail for citizens who either dare to be critical of him, release facts that contradict his narrative, or attempted to hold him accountable for crimes that evidence demonstrates that he committed.

But in defying the Supreme Court, he has fired the most devastating shot at our Constitution since the firing at Ft. Sumter. When he goes to war against the Supreme Court, he is going to war against the Constitution. When he goes to war against the Constitution, he has gone to war against our democracy.