President Trump, who is scheduled to deliver an address to the nation tonight on election integrity and other topics, poses one of the gravest threats in American history to the free and fair elections vital to the survival of our democracy. Even as he falsely claims he wants to protect election integrity, Trump is working to rig elections in favor of his fellow Republicans.
Democrats seeking majority control of the House and Senate in midterm elections should avoid fighting with each other and unify around winners of primaries across the ideological spectrum — whether they label themselves centrists, liberals, progressives or democratic socialists.
As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America’s independence on the Fourth of July, we have much to be proud of and love about our country. But we should acknowledge that our nation — like all nations — isn’t perfect and never has been.
Today, America celebrates our newest federal holiday of Juneteenth — the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation’s full enforcement in Texas. June 19, 1865, marked the effective end of slavery throughout the defeated Confederacy.
Each of us can help heal the wounds of America’s racist past this Juneteenth. Use the holiday to launch a frank, continuing dialogue on race and racism. Work to spread justice, tolerance and equality.
By appointing the dangerously unqualified Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence, President Trump has once again shown he prioritizes his self-interest far more than America’s national security interest.
Led by President Trump, the Republican Party has disgracefully embraced white Christian nationalists and is working to turn back the clock on progress America has made in the struggle against racism and other bigotry.
President Lyndon Johnson’s lies about the Vietnam War created what came to be called a “credibility gap” when millions of people stopped believing him. Today, a credibility gap plagues President Trump because of his whoppers about the war with Iran and much more.
Republicans have denounced Democrats as socialists and communists since the 1930s. President Trump has frequently joined the chorus, such as when he said in 2019: “A vote for any Democrat in 2020 is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of the American Dream.” Yet despite his hyperbolic rhetoric, Trump has abandoned key conservative principles that Republicans have long espoused and instead adopted some socialist positions.
I never thought I’d see the U.S. government side with the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and other violent racist groups against a prominent civil rights organization. But the Justice Department has disgracefully done this, charging the Southern Poverty Law Center with 11 counts of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.