Politics

As a statement from the congressman's office details, Trump's alleged constitutional violations are:

• Obstruction of Justice and Abuse of Executive Power: Including denial of due process, unlawful deportations, defiance of court orders, and misuse of the Department of Justice.
• Usurpation of Appropriations Power: For dismantling congressionally established agencies and impounding federal funds.
• Abuse of Trade Powers and International Aggression: Including imposing economically damaging tariffs and threatening military invasion against sovereign nations.
• Violation of First Amendment Rights: Through retaliatory actions against critics, media, and attorneys exercising constitutionally protected speech.
• Creation of an Unlawful Office: By establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and unlawfully empowering Elon Musk to unilaterally violate the Constitution.
• Bribery and Corruption: Involving dismissing criminal cases, soliciting foreign emoluments, and extortionate settlements for personal and political gain.
• Tyrannical Overreach: Seeking to consolidate unchecked power, erode civil liberties, and defy constitutional limits on presidential authority.

Voters in Gainesville and High Springs, Florida, a rural area north of the city, held empty chair town halls this past week after Cammack declined to hold a town hall after numerous requests.

At a 25 April empty chair town hall in Gainesville, Florida, several constituents, which included retired federal workers and teachers, expressed frustration with a lack of response from Cammack’s office and several cited promises from her office that a town hall would be scheduled in April 2025.

“People are afraid. They’re celebrating when their social security check shows up because they’re afraid it might not,” said Jenn Powell, co-chair of the Alachua County Labor Coalition, and one of the organizers of the town hall. “So while Kat Cammack is not listening to her constituents, we decided to have a town hall without her, and will deliver the forms of questions and video to her office.”

Last week, a federal judge blocked the administration's latest effort to withhold funding from 16 jurisdictions, including San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, St. Paul and New Haven.

"Here we are again," wrote U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco, who found that the Trump administration's actions were likely unconstitutional and granted a preliminary injunction.

"The threat to withhold funding causes them irreparable injury in the form of budgetary uncertainty, deprivation of constitutional rights, and undermining trust between the Cities and Counties and the communities they serve," Orrick wrote.

In fighting Trump’s assaults on democracy, I speak from experience. As the first governor to come out against his Muslim ban, one of the most vocal in speaking out against his Covid negligence, and telling him to his face to stop tweeting and start protecting our children, earning me the honor of being called a “snake”, I know standing up brings the heat. So be it.

But my more important experience is decades watching a courageous citizenry force its federal government to change course. In the 50s and 60s, the government was forced to change, thanks in large part to a woman refusing to sit in the back of the bus. In the 70s, the Vietnam war ended only because thousands marched, including myself, proving the ability of committed people, though unelected, to compel change. In the 80s it was private citizens who forced the federal government to start treating HIV patients like humans.

In each of these decades, small acts of defiance led to national change as courage rippled outwards. The benefit of having lived these decades during the American experiment is learning that leaders in civil society who resist should be exalted, joined, and followed.

Those who believe that this call to action is an overstatement of the threat understand neither the nature of the tyrant-in-chief nor the slow but inexorable nature of how democracies are lost. I witnessed Trump’s cruelty and lack of empathy as I dealt with him during the Covid pandemic, as he willfully withheld help and then consciously spread misinformation that caused so many needless deaths. Anyone who saw this up close would make the call for resistance I am making today. How can anyone not understand that the refusal to follow the law on January 6 continues in full force today? Why would it stop unless it is made to stop?

The U.S. government admitted on Monday that it has “lost” a very, very expensive jet after it slipped off a moving aircraft carrier last week.

The warplane, a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet, somehow tumbled off the USS Harry S. Truman after the ship reportedly came under fire from Houthi rebels. The carrier has been deployed in the region for months as part of the U.S. effort to deter activity by the Yemen-based fighters, the Associated Press reports.

“The F/A-18E was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft. The aircraft and tow tractor were lost overboard,” a U.S. Navy statement says. “Sailors towing the aircraft took immediate action to move clear of the aircraft before it fell overboard. An investigation is underway.” After falling off the ship, the plane, as planes are wont to do, promptly sank, another official told CNN.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said on Monday it has started using polygraph tests to aid investigations aimed at identifying the source of leaks emanating from within the law enforcement agency.

“We can confirm the FBI has begun administering polygraph tests to identify the source of information leaks within the bureau,” the bureau’s public affairs office told Reuters in a statement.

Donald Trump’s administration has been cracking down on people who leak information to journalists since he returned to office in January.

Last week, the Republican US Department of Justice made it easier to subpoena records and testimony from journalists.

In making the request, Gun Owners for Safety cited a ProPublica investigation that detailed how the National Shooting Sports Foundation turned over sensitive personal information on gun buyers to political operatives while presenting itself as a fierce advocate for the privacy of firearms owners. The letter — sent last week to the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — called the NSSF’s secret program that spanned nearly two decades "underhanded.”

“Gun owners’ privacy is not a partisan or ideological issue,” wrote Malcolm Smith, a Gun Owners for Safety member. “No matter the industry, exploiting customers’ private data like their underwear size and children’s ages in a secret scheme is reprehensible and cannot be permitted.”

Gun Owners for Safety has been operated since 2019 by the gun violence prevention organization Giffords, which was co-founded by Gabby Giffords, the Arizona lawmaker who survived an attempted assassination in 2011. It has chapters in nine states and consists of gun owners and Second Amendment supporters who believe in what they call “common sense” measures to reduce gun-related deaths like safety locks and improved background checks on firearm purchases.