The last few weeks have been very concerning for the future of democracy in the United States. It seems that Trump’s rhetoric continuously translates into concrete actions undermining institutions, without (inexplicably) a reaction from the majority of the Republican leadership in the Senate.
Over a short period, Trump has abused his presidential powers to remove five Inspector Generals (IG) from office, clearly signaling that no person in such positions can use their oversight and comptrollership authority to enforce the law. Furthermore, he is retaliating against those that have exposed his administration’s wrongdoings or missteps by his administration; or simply against those not following his political agenda.
The IG removal process is subjected to congressional oversight and must be for a legitimate reason. In that regard, Democrat lawmakers such as Senator Bob Menendez and Representative Eliot Engel have been outspoken in calling the administration out for this abuse of power. They are not alone. Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, has demanded the President’s justification for the removal of Michael Atkinson (Inspector General for the Intelligence Community). He stated: “A general lack of confidence simply is not sufficient detail to satisfy Congress.”
As if this alone was not alarming enough, Trump recently said he would withhold resources that Congress appropriated for the states’ pandemic response from governors properly implementing vote-by-mail policies to facilitate the right to vote, particularly during this pandemic.
The outrageous statement came jointly with a Twitter rant questioning the State of Michigan, claiming, without any evidence, that the authorities are preparing an electoral fraud for mailing absentee ballot request forms to more than 7 million registered voters, under the law. It is relevant to state that Michigan, a critical battleground in this election (along with the other Midwestern states), is polling favorably for the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden by margins averaging more than five points.
On the other hand, the polling data also indicates that the support for the Governor of Michigan’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is overwhelmingly strong. Moreover, close to 90% of the people in Michigan reject the armed and threatening protests against the governor’s sanitarian measures to address the pandemic. The same demonstrations that Trump echoed with an infamous tweet shouting “Liberate Michigan” (followed by similar tweets to support the same type of protesters in other states like Virginia). It is worth mentioning that the Governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer is said to be among the women shortlisted and currently under vetting by Joe Biden’s campaign to become the vice-presidential nominee.