A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
- 10 billionaires could pay for most of the Democrats’ social safety net expansion. Democrats say they’re on the verge of an agreement to pass their massive expansion of the social safety net. Democrats could tax the capital gains of billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, the Google founders, Mark Zuckerberg and a few others based on the value of their assets instead of the size of their incomes. Read more about how a billionaires tax may work.
- On the cusp of kids getting vaccines. A key Food and Drug Administration panel voted Tuesday to recommend emergency use authorization for the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for kids ages 5-11. This process is in its final stages now. Follow CNN’s coverage of the FDA panel.
- Advantage Republicans in Texas, again. While White and Hispanic Texans each make up just under 40% of the state’s population, most of the congressional districts (23) in newly drawn maps approved by the state’s governor are majority White. Hispanic voters make up the majority in just seven of the state’s 38 congressional districts. CNN’s Eric Bradner has the full story.
But I’ll focus here on something else: how former President Donald Trump’s effort to deny the 2020 election results has ricocheted in Washington and around the country.
CNN’s Dana Bash reported an hourlong special looking at how Trump’s lies about the election led to new voting laws in key states. I talked to her about what she learned from the project, which airs Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET.
Our conversation, conducted by email, is below.
Pay attention to these laws now
WHAT MATTERS: It is October of an off-year. There are a smattering of elections coming, but most Americans won’t vote for a year. Why make this special now?
BASH: Because what is happening right now in key states across the country will have a huge effect on whether and how voters have access to the ballot, and who oversees the process that counts and certifies the votes that are cast.
There was record turnout in 2020, even though the election came in the middle of a pandemic, before vaccines were available. The reason for the unprecedented participation in a lot of states was because Covid-safe voting measures made it easier for people to vote in general. It turns out that when you make it easier for people to vote — they do so in bigger numbers. And there was no evidence of widespread fraud. Again, there was no evidence of widespread fraud.
But that’s not what conservative voters are being told by President Trump, his allies and like-minded media that amplify the lies. GOP-led legislatures are rolling back access to the ballot for the next elections and this will have an effect on voting in these states, and in turn the balance of power in Congress in 2022 and even the presidency in 2024.
Fighting fraud many admit did not occur
WHAT MATTERS: What’s your bottom-line takeaway from making this special? What’s happened to American democracy since November 2020?
BASH: The short answer from election expert after election expert — including Republicans like veteran GOP lawyer Ben Ginsberg — is that American democracy is in danger. Most of the Republicans we talked to said they believed the 2020 election was free and fair — but said their constituents do not. Some of them basically admitted, in the most careful of terms, that they changed the laws in their states because of pressure from their own base who are being fed lies about 2020.
But the threat is bigger than Donald Trump and the big lie. What we heard repeatedly was GOP-led legislators using it to justify voting changes because of demographic changes that increase minority votes, which tend to support Democrats, and are making the Trump base smaller. They are passing laws that will increase GOP chances of staying in power by restricting access to the ballot and taking more control of the process of counting the votes.
Changes that target communities of color
WHAT MATTERS: The stated reason for these laws is election security, but you talked to Republicans who said there’s a more directly political reason behind them, to drive down the minority vote. Is there enough evidence to make that conclusion?
BASH: Republicans told me that this is what you do after elections — you look at what went right, you look at what went wrong, and you fix it for the next time. But an election law expert I talked to told me point blank: They’re looking at what went right and banning what went right.
Take Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston. It has a huge minority voting population and they came out in record numbers thanks in part to 24-hour voting for shift workers and drive-thru voting — coronavirus-prompted innovations.
Although Donald Trump won Texas, Joe Biden won Harris County thanks in part to easier access to voting. There was no evidence of fraud in Harris County, but the GOP legislature banned drive-thru and 24-hour voting. That will disproportionately affect communities of color and they are the ones who used those methods of voting.
Seeking uniformity in states, obstructing it in the country
WHAT MATTERS: Republicans in states told you they want new, more restrictive voting laws to create uniformity. But at the national level they oppose another kind of uniformity — a national standard — to protect voting rights. Do they acknowledge those conflicting ideas?
BASH: They don’t — and it’s a really interesting question. Because they believe election law and procedure to be a state issue, not a federal one.
One expert I talked to used Texas as an example, where they limit one drop box per county. Harris County — which has about the population of Louisiana — will have one drop box. And a rural county with a few thousand people will get the same treatment. So there’s a bit of an irony in arguing that a state as demographically diverse as Texas should have uniform laws, but the country as a whole should not.
Attacking the underpinnings of democracy
WHAT MATTERS: The great irony of undermining faith in the election system, as Trump has done, is that politicians need people to vote to win elections. How did you see that dichotomy playing out?
BASH: It’s a great observation — and it’s true that by casting doubt on the system, Trump’s big lie is potentially discouraging his supporters from participating. He even said that if we don’t “solve” the problem of election fraud, “Republicans will not be voting in ’22 or ’24.” That’s his not-so-subtle way of pushing Republicans in states that haven’t already succumbed to election law changes to do so.
But he is even pushing states he won — like Texas — to conduct sham audits in Texas’ big cities that he lost. That is the kind of thing that election experts across the ideological spectrum say sows doubt in the voting process — which is the fundamental underpinning of America’s democratic process.
Meanwhile, back in Washington
The other obvious consequence of Trump’s anti-democracy effort is the search for accountability by the January 6 committee on Capitol Hill.
Not all Trump allies are refusing to cooperate. CNN’s Kaitlin Collins reported Tuesday that multiple former White House officials — at least five — have voluntarily given information to the committee.
This is in contrast to those who have ignored subpoenas, like Steve Bannon, the former Trump aide turned election provocateur, and close Trump adviser Dan Scavino.
CNN separately reported the committee is reaching out to former Trump aides including Chad Wolf, who was acting secretary of Homeland Security, and Ken Cuccinelli, an acting deputy secretary. Read more.
New feud over executive privilege. Trump wants to exempt his aides from testifying and protect documents from committee investigators by claiming executive privilege.
There was a new development on that front Monday, when Biden rejected Trump’s claim to privilege on a second batch of documents the committee is seeking from the National Archives.
Republican appointed by Biden to lead DHS election office. Kim Wyman, Washington state’s Republican secretary of state, will lead Department of Homeland Security efforts to protect elections from foreign and domestic interference. She’s refuted Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
Officials who rejected Trump’s election fantasy live in fear, face threats. CNN’s Isaac Dovere and Jeremy Herb report on how secretaries of state — Republicans and Democrats who stood up for the valid election results in their states — have been targeted by election deniers and often fear for their safety.
Arizona’s Katie Hobbs shared vulgar and threatening voice mails with CNN. “I think you should be hunted,” a woman says in one recording. “Die you bitch, die!” says a man, repeatedly, in another.
The reporters also talked to Colorado’s Jena Griswold, who has contracted private security.
