GOP, Trump Set About Destroying Our Democratic Institutions

The assault on our democratic institutions has already begun and will continue apace under the kleptocracy of Donald Trump. Under the cover of all the chaos surrounding yesterday's Trump press conference, Obamacare repeal, and cabinet nominee hearings, the Republican House passed a bill that will gut the ability of federal agencies to regulate private enterprise. TPM received a note from Martin Lobel, a Washington lawyer and expert in tax and regulatory policy, about the effects of the Regulatory Accountability Act of 2017 that passed the House yesterday by basically a party line vote of 238-183. Says Lobel, the bill "would amend the Administrative Procedures Act to overturn the deference courts have given to administrative agency decisions." Currently, courts have had to give deference to the rulings of federal agencies and could only overturn those agencies' decisions if the court found them to be "arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion". This bill eliminates the requirement for a court to give any deference to the federal agency, leaving agencyies with virtually no power to enforce the laws they were supposed to protect. As Marshall notes, this threatens the enforcement of everything from the Clean Air Act to the standards prescribed by the Labor Department. Any court could rule against those agencies when private firms bring action against them. And, as we've already seen with Obama's immigration executive order and the Labor Department's overtime rule, there are plenty of courts already out there who would be willing to do this.

While the House was dismantling our federal agencies, Trump and Pence were out there doing their best to begin to whittle away at the freedom of the press. Trump's tweet about the release of an intelligence report summary about his campaign's connection to the Russians was the start of the attack. Trump tweeted, "Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to 'leak' into the public. One last shot at me.Are we living in Nazi Germany?" This was followed by Sean Spicer starting off the press conference by ripping the media, saying, "It’s frankly outrageous and highly irresponsible for a left-wing blog that was openly hostile to the president-elect’s campaign to drop highly salacious and flat-out false information on the internet just days before he takes the oath of office...The fact that BuzzFeed and CNN made the decision to run with this unsubstantiated claim is a sad and pathetic attempt to get clicks. The report is not an intelligence report, plain and simple."

Kevin Drum makes the case that since the intelligence community produced this report and was prepared to present it to the President, that they believe the source was credible, and that they had asked for wiretaps on Trump campaign officials because of it, probably makes it newsworthy enough to be published with the caveat that it contains unsubstantiated allegations. I would tend to agree.

Mike Pence then followed Spicer with an even more troubling comment, saying, "You know, I have long been a supporter of a free and independent press and I always will be. But with freedom comes responsibility. And the irresponsible decision of a few news organizations to run with a false and unsubstantiated report, when most news organizations resisted the temptation to propagate this fake news, can only be attributed to media bias and attempt to demean the president-elect and our incoming administration and the American people are sick and tired of it." I think it is troubling that any official adds a "but" to any comment about a free and independent press. This was followed by rousing applause from the Greek chorus of Trump supporters that had been assembled to apparently cheer the President and critique the news media. Hardly an atmosphere for independent journalism.

Trump then further inflamed the situation by refusing to allow the CNN reporter to ask a question and calling his network "fake news". When the reporter kept pressing, apparently Spicer came over and threatened to expel him from the press conference. So much for Pence's vaunted belief in the "free and independent press". From Nazi references to threatening to throw a reporter out of a press conference for wanting to ask a question, it was not a good day for press freedom.

Today, General James Mattis was supposed to appear before the House Armed Service Committee to discuss civilian control of the military but the Trump transition apparently blocked his appearance. Mattis needs a waiver to serve as Secretary of Defense because he is a military officer and the civilian control of the military is an important constitutional principle. Mattis will also need to be confirmed by the Senate and will need 60 votes for the waiver in that body as opposed to just the majority from the House. So it seems unnecessary to anger not only House Democrats but apparently even some House Republicans by not appearing as it was clear Mattis was going to get the waiver, perhaps with even the support of House Democrats. Now even House Republicans are miffed with Duncan Hunter saying, "It’s a big mistake by the administration not to have him come and talk to us. On something that’s this momentous, where you are making an exemption to the law — it doesn’t change my mind, but he should have come in and talk to the House about it." As Hunter indicated, Republicans will still give Mattis the waiver but without any Democratic support. It may also make some Democrats in the Senate less inclined to give Mattis the waiver even though he does some to be one of the sanest of Trump nominees. While Secretaries sometimes refuse to appear before House committees at specific times due to other conflicts, those hearing are usually rescheduled and they do appear. I can not remember a circumstance where a Secretary refused to appear at all which is apparently what the strategy with Mattis' appearance in the House will be. It is yet another norm of governance that the Trump administration, with complicity from the Republican party, is destroying.

Trump has not yet become President but the Republican majority in Congress is well on their way to destroying the institutions of government as we know them. And when Trump becomes President, he will be right there to assist them. As Martin Lobel wrote, "BEWARE!"