Our Mission
Source: Johns Hopkins
University as of 1/20/21
Photo: Al Drago/Getty Images
IMPEACHMENT
The impeachment of Donald Trump was initiated in December 2019, when the House of Representatives approved articles of impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Rep Adam Schiff served as lead Impeachment Manager in the Senate trial.
image: Julio Cortez, AP Photo
OBAMACARE
In the midst of a global pandemic with the presidential election just months away, the DOJ asked the Supreme Court to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, the landmark health care law that enabled millions of Americans to get insurance coverage and that remains in effect despite the pending legal challenge.
image: Pete Souza
ENVIRONMENTAL ROLLBACKS
The Trump administration has dismantled most of the major climate and environmental policies, calling the rules unnecessary and burdensome to the fossil fuel industry and other businesses. These rollbacks will soon affect the air we breathe, the water we drink & our food supply.
image: Wikimedia Commons
RULE OF LAW
Under Barr, the Department of Justice has two objectives: to suppress any investigation of President Trump and his associates, and to aggressively pursue investigations of his political rivals. The attorney general has turned the Justice Department into a law firm with one client: Donald Trump.
image: Getty Images
TRUMP CASUALTIES
406,001 U.S. COVID DEATHS + 24,434,283 U.S. CASES
EMOLUMENTS CLAUSE
Anti-corruption provisions within the constitution, the so-called Emoluments Clauses, prohibit the president from receiving any profit, gain, or advantage from any foreign or domestic government. Impeachment is a political remedy for violations of these prohibitions. Trump is in violation of the emolument clause and is not being held accountable by the US Department of Justice.
image: Steve Parsons, Getty Images
IMMIGRATION
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) implemented a policy that migrants who cross the border without permission, be referred to the DOJ for prosecution. Undocumented asylum seekers were imprisoned, and accompanying children under 18 were shipped miles away from their parents to shelters and other care arrangements across the country by the Dept- of Health and Human Services.
image: Alfredo Estrella, Getty Images
FOREIGN POLICY
Implemented travel bans against Muslim majority countries, pursued funding for a US-Mexico border wall, threatened withdrawal from NATO, withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord, rolled back ties with Cuba, met with Russian President Vladamir Putin privately, with no translator, commenced US-China trade war, withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Agreement, failed North Korea denuclearization efforts.
image: Getty Images
PANDEMIC LEADERSHIP
President Trump received daily intelligence briefings of the potential global impact of the virus. However, the White House downplayed the virus calling it a hoax, discrediting scientists, discouraging mask use, pressuring states to open early, resulting in cases surging nationwide. The economic fallout and rising unemployment rates from his failed leadership will have a reverberating impact.
image: Mandel Ngan, AFP
ECONOMY & UNEMPLOYMENT
With an excess of 4 million cases of coronavirus and over 25 million people being displaced in the workforce, big and small businesses have permanently closed. The Federal Reserve Chair has projected that GDP would contract by a staggering 6.5 percent this year and that the unemployment rate will still be above 9 percent for some time. Significant uncertainty about the timing and strength of the recovery is distressing news for the most vulnerable.
image: Getty Images
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
The Trump administration's withdrawal from the World Health Organization is a major setback to science, public health, and global coordination efforts needed to defeat COVID-19. Experts predict withdrawal is likely to cost lives, by cutting crucial funds to WHO's health emergencies program for testing, contact tracing and vaccine development, and prolonging the pandemic. The decision could roll back years of progress combating diseases such as polio and HIV/AIDS.
image: P Ajello, WHO
AMERICAN SOLDIERS
The NY Times reported in June 2020 that Russia paid Taliban-linked militants to murder U.S. troops, a bounty scheme that U.S. intelligence suggests has led to the deaths of several Americans. Yet steps have yet to been taken to push back against Russia’s blatant and provocative act of aggression. There is reporting of briefings dating back to last year, informing the president and the White House of these threats. Our troops making the ultimate sacrifice are being put at risk.
image: Omar Sobhani, Reuters
TAX BREAKS
The justification for the 2017 tax was that economic growth would be “more than enough” to make up for lost tax revenue from the lower tax rates. Responses from CEOs surveyed at the time were predictors of tax cuts that would not translate to reinvestment in the workforce and capital. Rollbacks in business and personal tax rates delivered the most benefits to corporations and the wealthy, with minimal boost to wages. Middle America has once again been at the losing end.
image: Jacquelyn Martin, AP Photo
ROE VS WADE
A new conservative majority on the Supreme Court has ushered anti-abortion lawmakers and activists in numerous states - Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi - to pass some of the most restrictive abortion policies in the nation with the strategic intent to overturn Roe vs Wade. Some states have declined to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, leaving a large number of pregnant and childbearing aged women without health care. There is a correlation to access to healthcare and the infant mortality rate.
image: Chance Agrella
STOKING RACISM
& DIVISION
Donald Trump began his campaign calling Mexicans “rapists” and proposed a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. He has a long record as a provocateur on matters of race and ethnicity. Trump-owned apartment lease applications were screened by race. He incites violence at his rallies and sided with white supremacists responsible for killing a woman during an alt-right rally. He rebuked four freshman Congresswoman of color asking them to "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came."
image: Samuel Corum / Scott Olson, Getty Images
GUN SAFETY
Despite mass shootings at a high school in Parkland, FL, El Paso, TX, Dayton, OH, and many others in the past four years, no progress on gun safety legislation has been made. Trump suggested arming teachers with guns. The House had passed a bill that included expanding background checks and banning of assault weapons. The NRA, which had invested $30 million into Trump's 2016 election campaign successfully lobbied Trump against new gun control measures. The Washington Post reported Trump was worried it might cost him votes within his base.
image: The Denver Post
JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS
Trump’s transformation of the federal judiciary means the stakes have never been higher for equality, justice and rule of law in America. The Trump administration has brought a laser-like focus to nominating and winning Senate confirmation for 193 judges – two supreme court justices, 51 circuit court judges (a quarter of the total), 138 district court judges and two US court of international trade judges – at a pace unmatched since the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Most disturbing is that appointments are being made based on loyalty to Trump and not their qualifications.
image: Doug Mills, Bloomberg
SEPARATION OF POWERS
The separation of powers in the constitution ensures no branch of government has autonomy over the other. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged that he would be in "total coordination" with the WH on the impeachment trial and AG Barr misrepresented findings in the Mueller report to suit the WH narrative. Trump's withholding of Senate-approved aid to the Ukraine, Trump team's keeping the whistleblower complaint from Congress and Congressional subpoenas issued and ignored were violations.
image: Susan Walsh, AP
SOCIAL CONTRACT
The fourteenth amendment to the constitution says"no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." With the current state of extreme racial, social and economic inequities, the lack of a robust social contract should be examined and addressed.
image: Brendan Smialowski, Getty Images
CONSTITUTION
Constitutional scholars are alarmed by Trump's planned 'surge' of federal agents to major US cities. A New York University law professor points out "the jurisdiction of the federal government is quite limited for domestic policing, and to be doing so aggressively in a jurisdiction where they are not welcomed by local leadership is both inappropriate and unconstitutional." Additional constitution violations earned elaboration in other sections.
image: Doug Brown, ACLU of Oregon
CLIMATE ACTION
President Trump issued an Executive Order that has set back Obama-era policies on climate change. It hinders implementation of the Clean Power Plan and ends the moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands allowing review of oil and gas regulations to expand oil and gas development. With the threat of future climate disasters and conflicts that could lead to large numbers of migrating climate refugees, a threat to national security is posed. Trump's EO ignores this major security threat.
image: Shutterstock
image: reuters
