Trying to make sense of events? Trace the history of the decision makers and see how they got their positions.
Jan 6th attack 2021 attack on our democracy. Manufactured outrage to change the results of an election. Overturning Roe v Wade. Take this quiz to check your understanding. (Answers below).
- Which of the current three Supreme Court Justices worked to stop the Florida recount that got Bush Jr. to the White House?
- Which Supreme Court Justice voted to stop the recount?
- Which current Republican Senator worked on the Bush campaign's legal team and helped stopped the recount?
- Who was involved with the riots both at the Florida recount in 2000 and on the Jan 6th insurrection in 2021?
- Which current Republican Senator has strong ties to the Bush family and voted to confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court?
- Who promised to only appoint Supreme Court Justices that would overturn Roe v Wade?
Follow the political payback
Political payback?
Judge for yourself.
- A President nominates a lawyer who helped him get elected to the Supreme Court
- A former President lobbies to get a lawyer from the legal team that got him re-elected confirmed to the Supreme Court
- A Senator organizes resistance to a recount and then resists confirming duly elected President
- A President who pardons someone accused of organizing a criminal conspiracy to let him stay in power
- Justices rule with partisan bias in favor of the President who nominated them
Supreme Court has three lawyers who worked on Bush v. Gore
Justices Clarence Thomas voted to suspend the vote count in Florida that ended up with George Bush Jr. as president. Three other justices worked on the Bush team including John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Comey Barrett. All three were later appointed to the Supreme Court! Roberts was appointed by Bush. Kavanaugh and Barrett by Trump.
- John Roberts flew to Florida in November 2000 to assist Bush's legal team. He helped prepare the lawyer who presented Bush's case to the Florida state Supreme Court and offered advice throughout.
- Brett Kavanaugh was in private practice in 2000 and helped the Bush legal team. He wrote on a 2018 Senate questionnaire that his work related to recounts in Volusia County, Florida.
- Amy Coney Barrett wrote on the questionnaire she submitted to the Senate for her Supreme Court confirmation review, "One significant case on which I provided research and briefing assistance was Bush v. Gore." She said the law firm where she was working at the time represented Bush and that she had gone down to Florida "for about a week at the outset of the litigation" when the dispute was in the Florida courts. - CNN
Brooks Brothers riot
In the 2000 presidential election, Stone played a key role in the recount of ballots in Florida. On November 22, 2000, as ballots were being recounted for the second time in Florida, "a Stone-led squad of pro-Bush protestors stormed the Miami-Dade County election board, stopping the recount and advancing then-Governor George W. Bush one step closer to the White House." - Ballotpedia. Stone claimed he had been recruited by James Baker III, the former secretary of state leading the Bush recount team, and that it was his idea to court protesters via Cuban radio. Stone claimed he ran the Brooks Brothers riot from a Winnebago parked near the election office." - New Yorker
"When New York Congressman John Sweeney, who was working for the Bush campaign, learned that the recount had been moved to another room, he ordered, the troops to "shut it down. The protesters yelled and screamed, accusing the canvassers of trying to steal the election. The chants became fiercer and the demonstration increasingly raucous as they directly confronted the county officials. "Stop the count. Stop the fraud," they chanted.
Brooks Brothers riot. He found the lobby and elections office filled with several dozen protesters — many of them in suit jackets and button-down shirts. Geller had walked into the “Brooks Brothers riot,” a protest organized by Republican campaign operatives, congressional staffers and lawyers. Working with about 20 paid GOP staffers or congressional aides and a small fleet of Republican lawyers — including Ted Cruz." - CNN
Roger Stone and Oath Keepers at Jan 6th Insurrection
"A new video released by ABC News shows longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone standing outside a DC hotel surrounded by members of the Oath Keepers militia group just hours before the deadly Capitol riots on January 6. The footage shows Stone taking pictures and shaking hands with Trump supporters outside the Willard InterContinental hotel, located only a few blocks from the White House. As Stone walks around greeting people, a group of Oath Keepers can be seen following him closely. The men are wearing military-style clothing and other accessories that appear to have Oath Keepers logos on them. At one point in the video, Stone can be seen exchanging a few words with them." - Business Insider
Kavanaugh. Presidential protector.
"Kavanaugh is a former Bush lieutenant who was not only a lawyer in the Florida recount of 2000, but inherited the pivotal job of staff secretary to the president. Legal experts see Kavanaugh as a presidential protector: He has radical views of executive power and privilege and has repeatedly raised doubts about whether presidents are accountable to other branches of government. This deference to presidential power is also a key reason Kavanaugh won the backing of President Trump. In his confirmation hearings, Kavanaugh pointedly refused to comment on whether a sitting president must respond to a subpoena or has the power to pardon himself." - Rolling Stone
Rewarded by George Bush. George Bush nominated Kavanaugh in 2003 for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
TakeAway: Vote and volunteer as a poll monitor to make sure that it is counted fairly.
Deepak
DemLabs
Answers:
1. Roberts, Kavanaugh, Barrett
2. Clarence Thomas
3. Ted Cruz
4. Roger Stone
5. Susan Collins
6. Trump
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