The big Headline - The Attorney General of the United States says he does not know if the

[malaise]

President can cancel elections.

He also is playing iffy on voting by mail.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. He knows damn well that the president can't cancel an election.

Federal elections held every four years are mandated in the Constitution, and their date, which hasn't changed since the 1840s, is set by Congress. He's playing to an audience of one.

[malaise]

3. Of course he knows that the President cannot cancel an election

That was a stunning response - he should be impeached for that alone

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. He knows who's listening.

He doesn't want Fat Nixon to know that he can't cancel or move the election.

[crickets]

52. 👆 Any sitting US AG who claims not to know and understand that basic tenet of the Constitution

should be run out of office on a rail. He's either lying through his teeth, incompetent, or both.

[TheBlackAdder]

32. Can he be asked to come up with a written decision within 10 days?

[malaise]

54. He should be asked to do that n/t

[pandr32]

2. Hair raising stuff!

[RainCaster]

5. So he admits to being an ignorant sumbitch

I would agree with that.

[malaise]

6. Impeach the MoFo

That is all

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

45. He's not ignorant; he knows very well what the law says about elections.

That's Civics 101. He just doesn't want Dear Leader to hear him say that he can't postpone or cancel the election.

[Cha]

64. lol.. yeah, barr is showing Off how GD Stupid he is.

[IcyPeas]

7. mail in voting is okay for "certain" people

but not everyone voting by mail.... because fraud.

[benld74]

8. And so goes the tale of

Hiring only the best

[dalton99a]

9. Barr belongs in prison.

[IcyPeas]

10. he is so smarmy

[malaise]

11. He and the Con are being eaten alive over Covid-19

The worst failure of any president in history

[malaise]

14. Have you noticed that ReTHUGs now refer to the Democratic Party

as the left?

[IcyPeas]

12. Swalwell's great

Barr doesn't read the president's tweets? how convenient. Smarmy mother fu**er

I love how Swalwell called them "Trump and his cronies"

Roger Stone...
Michael Cohen....

[malaise]

13. Swalwell is brilliant

I have loads of time for him

[IcyPeas]

30. Swalwell got important data out of Barr AND rattled him

Rep. Swalwell got important data out of Barr AND rattled him. The only time Barr intervened to reduce a sentencing recommendation was Roger Stone. This is favoritism at its corrupt worst. AND Barr pointed a finger at the line AUSAs. Absolutely shameful.

Link to tweet

[malaise]

15. I love Ted Lieu

Damn he's thorough!

[LiberalFighter]

16. If I was Remo the Destroyer I know what I would do.

[BGBD]

17. Pretty easy since the federal government

doesn't have any control over elections.

If he wants to "cancel" them I'm sure his Red state pals would be cool with it, so we can just hold the election in the other states.

[Thekaspervote]

20. I like your idea...not sure the red states would cancel

They would also lose the chance of changing their fortunes. Doug Jones for one in Alabama

[BGBD]

34. I was mostly joking

Nobody is going to cancel their elections. Nobody wants to go down in history as that guy.

[Thekaspervote]

44. Oh.. sure!! Sorry I didn't pick up on that. The craziness of it all has my usual upbeat demeanor

In a twist

[triron]

18. Thank you for posting this Malaise.

Very very important! Cannot overstate its significance.
Why some of are issuing alarms..

[malaise]

21. I thought so too

That was stunning

By the way i loved the video that David Cicilline showed - the peaceful orotests

[IcyPeas]

19. good question. why are feds using teargas on elected officials

and peaceful protests.

Barr says it's okay. Showed that video clip of army guy being teargassed and beat. excuses, excuses.

generating video clips for solely for president's political ads. Ciciline from Rhode Island

[malaise]

25. Cicilline was excellent

Barr should be impeached

[Thekaspervote]

22. Legitimate question. ...We know fat boy barr is playing to dotard but is this also scare tactics?

Pointed at us, and red meat for the trumplicans?

[IcyPeas]

23. teargas okay

Bill Barr says it's okay to use teargas on peaceful protesters in some circumstances

Bill Barr refuses to categorically condemn video of a Navy veteran who was protesting in Portland being brutally beaten by federal forces

Link to tweet

[kacekwl]

41. There was gas in the area , don't know if it was directed at him.

Is he also blind as well as stupid. Watch it again "sir".

[IcyPeas]

24. Tweet noting that bill Barr misspoke.... lied:

A bit late on this but watching Swalwell's testimony and Barr said he doesn't pay attention to Trump's tweets. Earlier in his testimony he said Trump's tweet on Roger Stone came early in the morning. That seems like a contradiction.

Link to tweet

[malaise]

26. Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Go Cohen - let sleaze deal with sleaze.
Raskin is devouring this asshole

[IcyPeas]

28. ( I don't think it's that michael cohen)

this guy is:

Columnist Boston Globe. Author, Clear and Present Safety https://amzn.to/2VBeB6e

[malaise]

29. Ha

[IcyPeas]

31. I did a double take too when I saw the name. LOL

[malaise]

27. The only thing Raskin forgot to say was

Liberate Michigan, etc. in support of the armed White Supremacists attacks on the Michigan legislature

[malaise]

33. Jayapal covered it

Damn's she's good

[IcyPeas]

35. Swastikas Okay, BLM not okay.

[malaise]

36. He's pissed - twirling the pen

fingers fidgety

[IcyPeas]

38. loved this little correction

the second clip down. say my name

Link to tweet

[malaise]

39. I mentioned it above

It was fabulous

[leftieNanner]

43. Did you notice in the McClintock Clip

That he briefly slipped and said "both sides" meaning Dems and Repubs. He's supposed to be the apolitical DOJ! Not a partisan hack.

I think that was a big oopsie.

[IcyPeas]

37. keep the name of the Honorable John Lewis out of the DoJ's mouth

Link to tweet

[malaise]

40. Thanks for all these great video clips

[IcyPeas]

42. I like to watch certain tweeters during these hearings

they are succinct and specific (I am aware some people don't like or do twitter, but I think (maybe unfortunately) it's a needed resource these days).

[ancianita]

46. And yet Pramila Jayapal proved that FBI mail investigation showed .00006 percent fraud.

[malaise]

48. She was great

[ancianita]

49. I rank Jayapal and Deming the #1 questioners, with Jeffries and Swalwell tied for #2!

[jorgevlorgan]

47. The president CAN cancel the presidential election

...or at least his party can. We need to face the facts on this: state legislatures have full constitutional authority to appoint electors instead of having them elected. And it looks like that is being considered, which is terrifying.

If they attempt it, it will inevitably go straight to the supreme court, and I'm terrified what they might say.

[ancianita]

50. Those look like two different problems. How does the first get influenced by the second?

Or vice versa?

I'm not sure that the president's party can cancel any presidential election. How could they legally do that?

[jorgevlorgan]

56. Well the GOP and trump have become one and the same

Practically speaking. But to answer your question, it is because the constitution gives states legislatures the full authority over deciding electors, and electors , not individual decide the election.

In other words, states, not citizens hold the power to select the presidential electors.

In fact, it wasn’t until 1824 that the popular vote was partially used to elect a president. Even in that election, while 18 states chose presidential electors by popular vote, six states still opted to choose them by a vote of the state legislature.

Under the Constitution, individual states can simply decide to appoint a trove of Trump supporters to cast their electoral votes for him – it is perfectly within their rights

https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article243441296.html

[ancianita]

59. Right. SCOTUS upheld the constitutionality of faithless electors. So Trump can win with or without

a popular vote and state legislators can pass laws to require faithfulness. And yet it really means that any red state that turns blue by popular vote can still be overturned without any specific state law to stop them.

ALSO, given the current COVID fake emergency, no red state that turns blue need even let their population vote. That sounds unconstitutional, and any suits that arise from state cancellation of elections will take months to litigate.

[jorgevlorgan]

65. We are definitely on the same page.

Except are you saying the last supreme court ruling actually gives states more power to override the popular vote? I thought the recent ruling did the opposite.

[ancianita]

66. That's what I read, at least. I've yet to read a clear explanation of the ruling.

Here's the issue about COVID decisions by legislatures.

Some red state legislatures might try to call off their elections -- even after they rushed into reopenings IN SPITE OF COVID.

So while they let their electors decide, they might also immediately face court injunctions because any citizens organization could argue that they'd be denying their citizens the franchise when they don't deny them a tattoo.

Once they warned about possible court injunctions on letting electors decide, but I'm betting that most states won't do it.

This could all happen prior and just after election day, so that state certifications would be based on legal decisions and compel correct elector decisions by December.

Am I missing anything?

[jorgevlorgan]

68. That sounds on par with some of the other articles I've seen on the topic.

That they will basically be trying to use COVID as the emergency to cancel/postpone/override the election using electors in states with trump loyal legislatures. Which some have suspected is why Trump is hellbent on destroying mail voting and the post office: Because if we can all vote by mail, then COVID wouldn't be enough an emergency to stop voting.

[jorgevlorgan]

69. Another thought is that if we get throgh this election, we will need to immediately do what

it takes to take away the power from the state legislatures to appoint electors. State by state if necessary. Preferably through an amendment. Regardless of whether state legislatures are used to bypass elections.

[ancianita]

70. Good point. Absolutely. Which is why winning the Senate is key.

Hell, we could have an entire first year agenda to have Congress undo everything Republicans have done, and laws that strengthen all enforcement need of the courts and Congress.

[jorgevlorgan]

72. Asbsolutely!

We should work to get rid of as many undemocratic facets of our country(like the state legislatures appointing electors to subvert a vote) in case another fascist comes back and tries to abuse them to the fullest extent.

[jorgevlorgan]

75. Also this only applies to the presidential elections. There is so

far no legal way for states or anybody to circumvent the senate and house elections. So that's good news!

[ancianita]

51. Nevermind. I got the answer. He can cancel citizen votes and only take elector votes.

"... All that Trump-biased states would need to do is declare a COVID-19 health emergency and pass a law to take away the presidential selection from the citizens and give it to themselves.

The result would be a canceled presidential election in that state, and a slate of Trump electors, chosen to cast their state’s electoral votes, allowing any state with a close margin to guarantee Trump a victory."

Read more here: https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article243441296.html#storylink=cpy

[jorgevlorgan]

57. Saw your first one before this. Sorry!

Yep! The states where GOP control the legislatures that will make the electoral difference is WI, MI and PA. Now whether the governor can veto these attempts, as each has a democratic governor, is the real question. And of course it will likely go to the supreme court if any of this is attempted.


Also something scary: Bush V Gore had Florida just about to do this to override recounting of ballots, before the supreme court arbitrarily awarded the state to Bush, anyways. They stated the legislatures constitutional power to override the states results by appointing their own electors.

[ancianita]

60. We're good.

See my post #59.

[IcyPeas]

53. chairman nadler was in a car accident this morning

I think that's why he was late.

[malaise]

55. Correct

I had to wait 45 minutes

[IcyPeas]

58. barr is just soooo bored, he is not even listening to the question

[IcyPeas]

61. Gov DeSantis doing a good job????

Link to tweet

.@repdmp: Do you agree that Gov. DeSantis is doing an incredible job?

BARR: I have no reason not to believe that.

REP. MUCARSEL-POWELL: In Florida, we have more cases than most countries combined around the world, so no, he is not doing an incredible job

[LuckyLib]

67. Women are rocking it today!

[mvd]

73. Dean is my representative

Go Madeleine! Barr has been talking over quite a few people.

He’s lying about DeSantis. Being a Trump stooge yet again.

[IcyPeas]

62. adjourned

[malaise]

63. Did you get the clip with the white power sign?

I want to see that again

[IcyPeas]

71. I did notice that. How could you miss it

Smarmy creep.

[Tbear]

74. I missed it

Who, when?
Link?

[IcyPeas]

76. Here's a picture of it

Link to tweet

?s=19