John Thompson, retired teacher in Oklahoma, knows who Cleta Mitchell is. Her career began in Oklahoma.
Cleta Mitchell sat alongside Trump and Mark Meadows as they made the now famous phone call to Georgia election officials to try to persuade or bully them into “finding” enough votes to reverse the election results in that state. Georgia law enforcement officials are now considering filing criminal charges against Trump for his encouragement of election fraud in that call.
Cleta Mitchell’s law firm, Foley & Lardner, questioned her role in prodding Georgia election officials to “find” enough votes to overturn the result of the state’s election. She “resigned” from the firm. She embarrassed the firm by encouraging Trump’s efforts to undermine the rule of law and the Constitution. I am happy to report that I was one of what must have been many who expressed those views on the firm’s website.
John Thompson writes:
Who is Cleta Mitchell, “a prominent GOP attorney,” who participated in the already infamous telephone call where President Donald Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “to ‘find’ enough votes to overturn his defeat” in the November presidential election? The Washington Post reports that this “extraordinary one-hour phone call” is described by legal scholars “as a flagrant abuse of power and a potential criminal act.”
Mitchell, the former Oklahoma liberal, subsequently justified the call saying Raffensperger’s office:
Has made many statements over the past two months that are simply not correct and everyone involved with the efforts on behalf of the President’s election challenge has said the same thing: show us your records on which you rely to make these statements that our numbers are wrong.
How is it that the previously respected Cleta Deatherage came to participate in the effort to use “debunked conspiracy theories” to overthrow the results of a clearly legal election? What did Cleta Mitchell think when Trump demanded, “I just want to find 11,780 votes?”
Mitchell had been a well-liked, respected state representative, who became the “first woman in the U.S. to chair a state appropriations and budget committee.” But she said that she realized that professional politicians are “like noncustodial parents in a divorce” who “don’t really know” regular citizens who shop at grocery stores.
I wonder what Mitchell would say about how well this week’s fiasco, merely the latest in the Trump experiment where amateurs and zealots replace professionals, is turning out?
The Atlantic’s Jonathan Krohn suggested an alternative explanation of how an advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment joined with conservative organizations to advance a rightwing agenda. Her allies include, Americans Back in Charge, the Bradley Foundation, the National Rifle Association, the American Conservative Union, the Republican National Lawyers Association, as well as Stephen Bannon’s Citizens of the American Republic, Krohn recalls Mitchell’s effort to expel GOProud, a gay rights group, from the Conservative Political Action Conference. He said her efforts “led GOProud’s Chris Barron to once call her “a nasty bigot,” and [Executive Director Jimmy] LaSalvia to accuse her of “personal animosity towards gay people.”
Krohn explains that Mitchell’s actions are “ironic” because her first husband was gay. They divorced in 1982. Her former husband, Duane Draper, later directed the Massachusetts AIDS policy office, and died of AIDS.
Krohn also recalls Deatherage’s 1984 marriage to Oklahoma City banker Dale Mitchell. He then reports:
In late 1992, he (Mitchell) was convicted of five felony counts of conspiracy to defraud, misapplying bank funds and making false statements to banks and ordered to pay $3 million in restitution–something that his wife says convinced her that government had grown too big.The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer also wrote about Cleta Mitchell’s transformation. She quoted Mitchell’s claim that her husband “is the most honest person I’ve ever known.” His conviction convinced her that “overreaching government regulation is one of the great scandals of our time.”
Near the beginning of Mitchell’s post-Oklahoma career, she campaigned for term limits for legislators. She eventually developed a “stepmother theory of government. “Citizen Legislators” would replace politicians; her vision would be “Why not take turns in office like jury duty.”
If that sounds weird, however, wait until Mitchell’s allies more publicly reveal the next step toward undermining representative government.
Mitchell explained that she changed after her pastor warned of the “perils of struggling all one’s life to succeed at what in the end could turn out to be an unworthy pursuit.”
But, Mayer ended her article on how Mitchell became an “outsider” with the lesson, “appealing to the discontent of those outside the system may be the surest path to becoming an important player inside it.”
Since Mayer’s 1996 article, Mitchell’s allies at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have devised a plan that is the antithesis of her previous “Citizen Legislators” approach, and is even more disconnected from reality. Documented’s Jamie Corey reveals that nearly a year ago, Mitchell was one of three attorneys working with ALEC on a path that “legislators can take to question the validity of an election.” It seems impossible to reconcile that tactic with Mitchell’s faith in the people, as opposed to their representatives. And the next ALEC move is even more incomprehensible, unless the goal is to attack American democracy on all fronts.
The Huffington Post’s Mary Papenfuss, in an article about Mitchell entitled Attorney on Trump’s Georgia Call Works with Group Aiming to Eliminate Senate Elections, reports that ALEC is trying to persuade legislatures to the repeal of the 17th Amendment. U.S. Senators would then be chosen by legislators not the voters!
Getting back to The Atlantic piece on Mitchell, Krohn concludes, “Mitchell herself, ironically, offers a clear model of how people can change.” And while on the subject of changing a person’s mind, Law and Crime now cites the McClatchy report that Mitchell (who had worked for the NRA) “‘had concerns about [the NRA’s] ties to Russia’” and the NRA’s ‘”possible involvement in channeling Russian funds into the 2016 elections to help Donald Trump.’” But, I wonder what Mitchell was thinking when she dismissed the report as a “complete fabrication.”
Similarly, as reported by Slate, Mitchell was caught on tape telling a closed door ALEC panel on gerrymandering, “My advice to you is: If you don’t want it [notes from the panel] turned over in discovery, you probably ought to get rid of it before you go home.” Don’t such words raise questions about how she could respect voters over her allies who disenfranchise them?
Above all, I wonder what Mitchell thought when, as Law and Crime explains, the January 2 Trump phone call was “completely undermining Mitchell’s attempts to discuss the matters he raised.” And now, her law firm, Foley & Lardner is distancing itself from Mitchell,So, is it possible that the Cleta Mitchell – who is helping Trump undermine our constitutional democracy – might remember the words of her pastor and distance herself from ALEC’s next unworthy pursuit?
Just what are you poor folks going to obsess about tomorrow once the election is certified for Biden and now that Democrats control both houses? I supposed it’s too much to hope that even a tenth of the past four years’ intense scrutiny and criticism will be directed to the new administration?
Or do you already have all your excuses lined up? “Give them time to settle in!” “Do you realize the damage Trump left behind and how long it will take to correct his mismanagement?” “Republican obstructionism!” “The filibuster!” “Joe Manchin!” “Do you want Republicans to win in 2022?!” “Trump is running again in 2024!!!” Oh, and I’m sure “The Left!” will be in there somewhere. Did I miss any?
Who are “you poor folks?” All the other commenters at the Diane Ravitch blog, including Diane? I guess I am lumped in with “you poor folks,” an amorphous unspecific reference?
In any case, the GOP has become the party of the lunatic fringe, Cleta Mitchell being yet another addition to the enablers of the lunacy of this fringe party.
“You folks” are people who refuse to normalize Trump and his band of democracy-hating neo-Nazis. After all, “you folks” don’t understand that the democrats have always been just as bad.
‘You folks’ don’t respect that democracy means that you only recognize AOC and Bernie when they criticize the Democrats and pretend they don’t exist or are blatant liars when they criticize Republicans or acknowledge that politics involves compromise. At least, it does in a democracy. Sometimes I think that there are a few on the left who believe in the same politics as the far right violent protesters we see today demanding their way.
Before anyone takes the rantings of this commentator seriously, please remember that she has been dead wrong on every issue for more than four years.
dienne77,
You won’t even condemn the Trump-supporting protesters who are being treated with kid gloves by the police.
The photos of military presence blocking the Capitol during the BLM peaceful marches, compared to the white Trump-loving violent and disruptive protestors doing their best to overturn an election.
Do you already have all your excuses lined up? “But Democrats also protested” “Republicans during Obama were not filibustering and they actually secretly begged democrats to be progreessive”. “Lies are the truth and Australian women who are worshipped by right wing fanboys of Trump are far more credible than AOC and Bernie”.
Our democracy has been under siege for 4 years with people like you normalizing it.
What will it take for you to condemn and express even half the hatred for Trump and his racist followers that you do for the democrats?
I’m calling your bluff here. Can you criticize Trump and the Republicans with real criticism (not on their looks or manner)? Or is that forbidden?
Excellent! However, I worked a bit in the ERA campaign. Cleta told a friend of mine that she swore it would never pass, and she made sure it didn’t.
“Professional politicians are “like noncustodial parents in a divorce” who “don’t really know” regular citizens who shop at grocery stores.”
It depends on who the career politician is. Millionaires in Congress.that are trust fund babies may have a hard time relating to the mundane experiences of the working class. I seriously doubt that Bernie Sanders forgets what it was like when his parents argued about money. I know that Biden remembers what it was like to move to Delaware so his father could work in the new job. John Lewis never forgot his civil rights’ struggles and roots. His legacy lives on in Warnock and Ossoff. Warnock was Lewis’ pastor, and Ossoff clerked for Lewis. I doubt AOC will forget the struggles of her immigrant family pulling together to survive in this country. Representatives that are more like the people they represent are more likely to have a better understanding of the issues facing regular working families than wealthy politicians regardless of how long they serve.
Mitchell can take her dose of lithium, collect her paycheck from billionaires and trade in conspiracy theories and political delusion. She will soon be forgotten.
In my 71 years I haven’t noticed that people change that much, certainly not in dramatic ways. You can pretty much trace changes in political position to a common underlying set of principles, or at least a leaning. So I don’t put much store in the idea that Cleta Mitchell turned to the dark side after her husband’s misadventure. You see the things that happen to you through the filter of who you are and what you believe.
Anecdote: my dad ran afoul of the EPA when he drained a pond to begin turning around the marsh proliferating beavers were creating, and to stop its overflow onto the county road where it created icing conditions. The decision was not only unfair, it was absurd, declaring the 30-yo farm pond to have been part of the “national wetlands,” & fining him $20k [crushing for a self-employed contractor in the ‘70’s]. He was bitter, and retreated into the anti-govt attitude he’d been raised with for some years. But this was a guy who’d abandoned his rabidly conservative, racist IN clan when young, eventually settling in a liberal eastern collegetown. He was generous on a personal level, curious, interested in the experiences of people different from himself. Ultimately that naturally liberalizing tendency resumed its course.
I had a counter-example in my grandfather, who was happy enough during the Depression to toil away for the WPA, but spent his adult life cursing FDR & his ilk. He was a resentful person who credited the opportunities that came his way to the sweat of his own brow; the rest could sink or swim and were always trying to steal food off his plate.
She is a member of the American Law Institute. Her collaboration with ALEC is not widly publicized…until now. In her bio for the American Law Institute, note how she is portrayed as if an ethicist. I also think she has just quit or was shoved out of her work at Foley and Lardner.
https://www.ali.org/members/member/147430/
What the hell is going on!!!!!! The Trumpiasta protesters are being allowed to enter the capitol building and they have not been screened according to NBC news!!! This is nuts.
The Trumpistas are carrying Confederate flags and Trump banners. Naturally. It’s a fascist attempt to overthrow the government of the US.
Can we all agree the United States is now officially an ungovernable banana republic?
Here is an example of the what the rest of the word is seeing right now:
https://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/politik-ausland/vor-dem-kapitol-ausschreitungen-bei-demonstration-in-washington-74775634.bild.html
Will any of the objectors change their tune in the next few hours?
Trump is CRAZY.
US Capitol locked down with lawmakers inside as Trump supporters clash with police
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Capitol locked down Wednesday with lawmakers inside as violent clashes broke out between supporters of President Donald Trump and police.
An announcement was played inside the Capitol as lawmakers were meeting and expected to vote to affirm Joe Biden’s victory. Due to an “external security threat,” no one could enter or exit the Capitol complex, the recording said.
Both chambers abruptly went into recess.
The skirmishes occurred outside in the very spot where president-elect Biden will be inaugurated in just two weeks.
Protesters tore down metal barricades at the bottom of the Capitol’s steps and were met by officers in riot gear. Some tried to push past the officers who held shields and officers could be seen firing pepper spray into the crowd to keep them back. Some in the crowd were shouting “traitors” as officers tried to keep them back.
A suspicious package was also reported in the area, Capitol Police said.
The skirmishes came just shortly after Trump addressed thousands of his supporters, riling up the crowd with his baseless claims of election fraud at a rally near the White House on Wednesday ahead of Congress’ vote.
“We will not let them silence your voices,” Trump told the protesters, who had lined up before sunrise to get a prime position to hear the president…
https://www.chicagotribune.com/election-2020/ct-nw-trump-electoral-college-protests-20210106-mv4gtnvkpvgublb3vgvz765lje-story.html
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Tweeted:
Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1346900434540240897?s=20
The president’s lawyer Rudolph Giuliani also called on protestors to “act with respect for all” and “express your opinion peacefully” on Twitter. This morning, at the rally where Trump later spoke, he said, “Let’s have a trial by combat.”
How were these people able to breech the Capitol building? How were they even allowed to get close to the steps? The police and authorities knew there were going to be protests, this makes no sense. When is the last time this happened?
Really think there is something off. Look at the photos of the police presence during the peaceful BLM marches compared to today. Where is the tear gas?
Nothing like this has ever happened in the U.S. The closest I know of is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_United_States_Capitol_shooting
According to huffington post, the police did use pepper spray and those flash bang devices to disperse the mobs. The Trump mobs shut down the government. The mayor declared a curfew and the national guard will be on the scene later in the day. One of Trump’s goons got into the house chamber and go on the dais yelling, “Trump won the election!” Just wow, unreal. Can’t blame anti-fa or “libtards” for this debacle. Mob rule by the right wing fascists.
Trump is proving to be a total disaster for this country. I was afraid some violence would occur. Trump has influenced his believers into doing this horror.
…………………….
2:34 p.m.
Inside the Capitol: A first person account of the chaos as pro-Trump mob storms the building
By Paul Kane
As debate on the first electoral objection lingered on, senators started realizing that the chaos was ensuing, and shortly after 2 p.m. Vice President Pence and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the president pro tempore of the Senate, in the line of succession, were evacuated.
From the second floor, just outside the chamber, protesters could be heard on the first floor, as police screamed back and loud thwacking sound could be heard.
As Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) finished defending her state’s electoral count for President-elect Joe Biden, the Senate went into a quorum call.
Capitol Police circled the Senate chamber, ordering all staff and reporters and any nearby senators into the chamber — which was immediately sealed off, locked down on the second and third floors, sealing off any entry to the chamber.
The Senate adjourned.
I was on the third floor and ordered into one of the VIP suites in the gallery above as the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms staff locked the door behind me, before I climbed over the rails and into the usual press location.
Probably 200 total people were inside, and an officer with an orange POLICE badge across his chest appeared on the floor with what appeared to be a semiautomatic weapon, standing between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).
By 2:15 p.m., the Senate seemed sealed off, and Capitol Police began taking charge of the situation, telling senators to stand away from the doors.
At one point Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) yelled out, as she looked at her phone, “Shots fired.” A veteran Capitol Police officer tried to calm the senators, saying he wasn’t sure if that was accurate. At 2:30 p.m., police ordered an evacuation of the chamber and rushed senators, staff and media to a secure location.
As they rushed away, Senate parliamentarian staff grabbed hold of the boxes containing the electoral college certificates.
No further information is available at this time.
Here is an opinion from Canada.
The Republican party has become an authoritarian party
Shannon Gormley: The GOP faced a test and it failed. Now will the destruction of one major party corrupt the one that remains?
By Shannon Gormley
January 6, 2021
Having supported a president who demanded his political opponents be imprisoned, who publicly attacked independent judges and attorneys general overseeing cases against his business and political dealings, who privately demanded a loyalty oath from the director of the intelligence agency investigating his campaign dealings, who encouraged violence against protesters and members of the free press at rallies, who openly praised and privately met with the leader of an American adversary after intelligence services discovered it interfered with the election he won, who attempted to blackmail the leader of an American ally by threatening to withhold aid unless it gave him information he could use in the next election he wished to win, who hosted foreign dignitaries at his Mar-a-Lago resort and charged them for rooms, who banned people from the United States if they came from Muslim countries, who locked children in cages if they came from Latin American countries, who knowingly lied to the country about the nature and danger of a deadly pandemic, who called to “LIBERATE” states from his rivals as they were terrorized by militias, who disputed the legitimacy of the voting process before it began, who when asked whether he would accept the peaceful transfer of power ordered a white supremacist group to “stand by,” who refused to concede the election he lost by the same number of electoral college votes he described as “a landslide” when he won them, who called for millions of ballots to be discarded, who demanded a state official tamper with ballots lest he be jailed for non-compliance, and who called for citizens to rush the capital and for the vice-president to refuse to certify the election results—having supported the president through all this—it is clear: the Republican party has become an authoritarian party. It backed an authoritarian; it is authoritarian.
READ: Donald Trump’s presidency: A shocking list of things he’s done
In crucial respects it has nothing left in common with any other major political party in any other established democracy in the world, and in these same respects it is indistinguishable from the ruling parties of Russia, Turkey and Hungary: it does not recognize the legitimacy of its political opposition; it attempts to subvert the justice system to its will; it attacks the free press to discredit or prevent any and all criticism; it scapegoats vulnerable minorities to disguise vulnerabilities of its own; it abuses institutions and betrays the country for personal and political gain; it propagates conspiracy theories with abandon and lies without shame; it goes along with all these things and virtually whatever else the leader wants as long as the leader is strong.
In America’s party of the strongman, however, no strongman remains. The president of the United States is a senile old man shouting at his television. He has been this throughout his political tenure, yes, but now he is merely that; now, his long-favoured television station isn’t shouting all of his derangements back at him. The Republican party faced a test—would it support an authoritarian as long as an authoritarian offered it power?—and now that the authoritarian is enfeebled the test is over, and it failed. It went along for the mad ride until it smashed into a tree. It is no credit to the party if it does not follow the president all the way to a coup, because there is no coup attempt viable enough to effectively follow through on. A major democratic party followed a fascist to his end, and there it met its own…
https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/the-republican-party-has-become-an-authoritarian-party/
Biden plans to nominate Merrick Garland for attorney general.
Hurrah, beautiful!
NBC just declared both Democrats winners in Georgia!