Democrats should establish and fund a separate committee whose sole function is to investigate and prosecute those individuals who have engaged in criminal and unconstitutional acts. Jack Smith, if willing, should lead it.
It would be better if we had some major changes. A Constitutional Amendment making the President subject to all of the Federal statutes. Then new statutes giving the Congress power to appoint a special prosecutor with subpoena power - completely out from under DOJ. I also think we need to take DOJ and the Inspectors General out from under the Executive Branch and come up with new paradigms for their appointments.
Totally agree. I actually think overturning Citizens United should be the very first major effort, before the public forgets that it benefits Democrats in Congress too. I would love to hear Candidates commit to that process - but I'm being pragmatic and know it will not even be a minor priority come January and the feeding frenzy starts.
The benefits to Democrats are pretty dubious. It has forced them, if they want to be competitive, to make devil's bargains with corporations and oligarchs. Citizens United has corrupted our entire electoral process.
I may have been unclear in my comment. I think keeping Citizens United will benefit Democrats as it has in the past. The corruption is obvious, but I am unsure how we can compel Congress to end it.
"[C]omprehensive fact-finding and truth-telling can combat disinformation and work towards creating a more shared reality; lay the political groundwork for institutional reforms; and generate support for other critical accountability measures, such as criminal prosecutions.”
What would be particularly effective would be researching and reporting to the public of how many policies and actions by the Trump administration directly impacted his own voters: rural, non-college, white people.
Put those statistics out there: closed rural hospitals, farmers with ruined markets and excessive fuel costs and beef imports cutting into their profits, millions cut off from Medicaid and SNAP benefits, or unable to afford insurance due to ACA subsidy cuts.
Perhaps those of us who are protesting on street corners and overpasses with the goal of winning a Pro Democracy Congress should be thinking now about shifting the messages on our signs after November with the goal to broadcast these statistics.
I worry that recovering from this regime’s vast damage is going to be slow. MAGA (or whatever moron-filled group rises from MAGA’s ashes) will try to rewrite the slow, painful pace of recovery as a “see, those Democrats lied to you again—they can’t fix anything”. We should be planning now to transfer our GOTV passion to educating a weary nation about the depths of the hole he dug and each step towards our renewal.
After a well-earned break, of course, to celebrate all our hours spent in successful (fingers crossed) protests against this hideous regime.
I do think some "swing" voters have had their hand burnt so deeply that they will remove it from the MAGA stove for good.
But as you say, there are a lot of Orwellian rewriters out there, including the .01% who will be peddling frantically to shift the narrative (and have a LOT of money and media power).
But tRump controls his corrupt DOJ, so he will just ignore any new laws he doesn't like. This is all based on us winning big majorities in Congress in 2026 and 2028.
Those are all good ideas, and they could be "folded into" the brief that the committee should follow as a "final recommendation(s)" when the investigations wrap up. Also, they would have to wait for a trifecta Democratic administration to push them through. The tricky part is the Constitutional Amendment because of the required 2/3rds majority in the House and Senate and 3/4ths state ratification. Failing that would mean other "work-arounds".
Exactly so, and getting an Amendment through 3/4 of the states is a slow process. Considering the makeup of many of the states' governments, it's unclear that we could even get the three-quarters needed ratification. We need a faster response time than this, so the work-arounds need to be examined.
As usual, Ms. Rubin is spot-on. There is an embarrassment of riches for investigations. My suggestion would be to start with anything related to affordability, such as the attack on Iran and Trump's illegal tariffs. Then there are the massive grifts. It's easier to explain how wrong it is to have a Russian oligarch pay for a wedding reception of the President's son than to explain how wrong it is to accept an airplane from a nominal US ally that will eventually become Trump's personal property. Most people have arranged a wedding; not many people have bought or sold an airplane.
All other presidents put their personal financial assets in a special trust while in office so they couldn't use the power for their own benefit, but not Trump!!!! He has used his influence to amass billions at our expense and must be prosecuted for his crimes and punished no matter what his buddies in the Supreme Court say!
Fully agree, the effort must be comprehensive as Rubin suggests, but start with things people can relate to and will yield results that benefit the most of both parties. Dems must show some results or we will be right back where this all started. And finally, there must be a way to communicate this effectively, that is usually where Dems fall down. Like daily or weekly press conferences where the progress and results are reported.
"They should be prepared, focused, and determined to search out wrongdoing at the highest levels of the Trump regime as soon as they take office."
I would add that Democrats must be prepared to apply the same standard to Congressional Republicans who are all responsible for every wrong doing of the Executive. We cannot play the game of referring charges to the Department of Justice. Democrats must be prepared to use the inherent contempt powers of Congress. Republicans know their gooses are cooked if they loose power. They will not leave office peacefully knowing full well the consequences of being held accountable for their crimes.
I asked my Congressman, Jamie Raskin, just this question about clawing back ill gotten gains and financial restitution for damages done by this regime. He said absolutely.
I wholeheartedly agree with Jen. But to achieve success, newly elected Dems need to be ready to convene their investigations on day 1. Let’s hope that someone in the Party is putting together the infrastructure and the process so we aren’t flailing around for months (in other words, prepare like a Republican). I like the idea of a special investigative committee as it will be critical that we also pass legislation that will begin to bring relief to the country and shore up democracy.
This is exactly correct, Gail. No need to wait until January to begin deliberations. Congress rarely meets in session under this squirrelly speaker Mike Johnson. He is too afraid that even members of his own party will open investigations into the regime’s vast malfeasance. So he recesses and sends members home for extended vacations. Democrats need to use that time to continue to work for the American people and make preparations for all of these trials into Trump’s massive corruption, and Republican’s collusion.
By all means investigate and expose, but at the same time be careful here. If Dems spend all their time chasing Trump regime malfeasance they will lose in 2028 when Trump is no longer on the ballot. Voters will ask, "What did you do for us regarding affordability, immigration, the war etc." and Dems will have nothing to show for it. Look what happened with the January 6 hearings, which were really excellent, but they did nothing to stop Trump from coming back to haunt us.
Democrats can, and must, do both. They cannot be accused of looking away from the massive malfeasance of the Trump regime. That would be complicity. Ending the war against Iran and the insane tariffs will go a long way toward controlling prices. Immediately. Restore healthcare. Immediately. Congress holds the power of the purse. There should be nonstop bills put forward to correct Trump’s many, many abuses. Even if these are not veto proof in the senate, Congress needs to put forth the effort to protect the country and regain trust in the process. Immediately.
If the Democrats take either congressional house, it will be by a slim margin due to gerrymandering in the House and institutional bias in the Senate. Thus, investigations will be about the only thing they will be able to do as the Republicans will no doubt stymie any proposals to ameliorate the average person's financial situation and, in fact, will likely be hoping for a recession so in 2028 they can claim that the Dems did nothing. That's how things are played in this cynical age of politics.
"Let the punishment fit the crime". King Con has killed the reputation of our country and has appropriated its assets to himself and his family. How can we take that back?
Well done, as usual, though it would be provident to quickly begin the task of reforming the supreme court and investigating the department of justice. Both of these "institutions" have failed us egregiously.
That would be a beginning. The ethics policy that guides lower courts and the rest of the federal work force should also apply to the supreme court. They're federal employees too and should have no exception.
So pleased that minds far better than mine (and so many of them) are thinking about the necessary work to undo all the damage done by this administration and prevent it from ever happening again.
Of course, the "lawless Trump gang will refuse to cooperate," but I think there are two larger problems: 1) that this administration has hollowed out and/or coopted so much of the DOJ and the rest of the Civil Service, that it will be a challenge to find enough people to carry out prosecutions, etc.; and 2) that if the Democrats spend all their time trying to right Trump wrongs, and not moving to address the income gap, ending the war, restoring social services supports like SNAP and health care, etc., they will not be able to win the White House in 2028.
Accountability is vital. So is establishing the record of this horrible time in America's history. But the Dems will have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, or no one will care. We have seen far too much of a Congress that does nothing for the people it supposedly represents.
Democrats need to seriously think about the Speaker position in both House and Senate. These positions will need to be held by strong, constitutionally sound people. Might I suggest a few names....Pete Buttegig, Gavin Newsom, or any constitutionally sound retired justice or attorney.
The investigations should start with the most visceral political issues—flagrant self-dealing and the Epstein files. These are the matters that resonate with ordinary people (as opposed to people who write comments on Jen Rubin’s articles). Once those have caught fire (and it won’t be long if done correctly), the Dems will have the political capital to use their majoritarian committee powers to open multiple investigations in multiple committees. Leave nothing out of the mix because it is too irrelevant or too obscure.
Remember that Trump’s only convictions (34 felony counts!) were on grounds that some experts had deemed too novel or abstract. Meanwhile he got off on charges that seemed like slam dunks. Don’t take anything for granted, and don’t let anything go. Trim and his MAGA cultist are a slimy and slippery bunch.
Democrats should establish and fund a separate committee whose sole function is to investigate and prosecute those individuals who have engaged in criminal and unconstitutional acts. Jack Smith, if willing, should lead it.
It would be better if we had some major changes. A Constitutional Amendment making the President subject to all of the Federal statutes. Then new statutes giving the Congress power to appoint a special prosecutor with subpoena power - completely out from under DOJ. I also think we need to take DOJ and the Inspectors General out from under the Executive Branch and come up with new paradigms for their appointments.
An amendment overturning Citizens United would be a great start. That horrifying decision is a major factor in what got us here in the first place.
Totally agree. I actually think overturning Citizens United should be the very first major effort, before the public forgets that it benefits Democrats in Congress too. I would love to hear Candidates commit to that process - but I'm being pragmatic and know it will not even be a minor priority come January and the feeding frenzy starts.
The benefits to Democrats are pretty dubious. It has forced them, if they want to be competitive, to make devil's bargains with corporations and oligarchs. Citizens United has corrupted our entire electoral process.
I may have been unclear in my comment. I think keeping Citizens United will benefit Democrats as it has in the past. The corruption is obvious, but I am unsure how we can compel Congress to end it.
"[C]omprehensive fact-finding and truth-telling can combat disinformation and work towards creating a more shared reality; lay the political groundwork for institutional reforms; and generate support for other critical accountability measures, such as criminal prosecutions.”
What would be particularly effective would be researching and reporting to the public of how many policies and actions by the Trump administration directly impacted his own voters: rural, non-college, white people.
Put those statistics out there: closed rural hospitals, farmers with ruined markets and excessive fuel costs and beef imports cutting into their profits, millions cut off from Medicaid and SNAP benefits, or unable to afford insurance due to ACA subsidy cuts.
It's time to pop the MAGA-delusion balloon.
“Put those statistics out there”.
Perhaps those of us who are protesting on street corners and overpasses with the goal of winning a Pro Democracy Congress should be thinking now about shifting the messages on our signs after November with the goal to broadcast these statistics.
I worry that recovering from this regime’s vast damage is going to be slow. MAGA (or whatever moron-filled group rises from MAGA’s ashes) will try to rewrite the slow, painful pace of recovery as a “see, those Democrats lied to you again—they can’t fix anything”. We should be planning now to transfer our GOTV passion to educating a weary nation about the depths of the hole he dug and each step towards our renewal.
After a well-earned break, of course, to celebrate all our hours spent in successful (fingers crossed) protests against this hideous regime.
Yes, it is a slog and all uphill in the snow!
I do think some "swing" voters have had their hand burnt so deeply that they will remove it from the MAGA stove for good.
But as you say, there are a lot of Orwellian rewriters out there, including the .01% who will be peddling frantically to shift the narrative (and have a LOT of money and media power).
Constitutional Amendments take a long time to get passed. We can't wait that long to protect our democracy.
But tRump controls his corrupt DOJ, so he will just ignore any new laws he doesn't like. This is all based on us winning big majorities in Congress in 2026 and 2028.
Those are all good ideas, and they could be "folded into" the brief that the committee should follow as a "final recommendation(s)" when the investigations wrap up. Also, they would have to wait for a trifecta Democratic administration to push them through. The tricky part is the Constitutional Amendment because of the required 2/3rds majority in the House and Senate and 3/4ths state ratification. Failing that would mean other "work-arounds".
Exactly so, and getting an Amendment through 3/4 of the states is a slow process. Considering the makeup of many of the states' governments, it's unclear that we could even get the three-quarters needed ratification. We need a faster response time than this, so the work-arounds need to be examined.
see above.
There are still more than 2 years of the tRump regime to run. I am betting there will be quite the appetite for preventing anything like it again.
Also start impeachment hearings immediately against Trump and his cabinet cronies.
Let "The Trump Trials" begin and see how many Cannonballs fly from MAGA-Land.
If you can't get a conviction (is that the right term?), impeachment will just look like another exercise in futility. But might work with Hegseth.
The mantra should be: “Compliance Is Complicity”.
As usual, Ms. Rubin is spot-on. There is an embarrassment of riches for investigations. My suggestion would be to start with anything related to affordability, such as the attack on Iran and Trump's illegal tariffs. Then there are the massive grifts. It's easier to explain how wrong it is to have a Russian oligarch pay for a wedding reception of the President's son than to explain how wrong it is to accept an airplane from a nominal US ally that will eventually become Trump's personal property. Most people have arranged a wedding; not many people have bought or sold an airplane.
All other presidents put their personal financial assets in a special trust while in office so they couldn't use the power for their own benefit, but not Trump!!!! He has used his influence to amass billions at our expense and must be prosecuted for his crimes and punished no matter what his buddies in the Supreme Court say!
Fully agree, the effort must be comprehensive as Rubin suggests, but start with things people can relate to and will yield results that benefit the most of both parties. Dems must show some results or we will be right back where this all started. And finally, there must be a way to communicate this effectively, that is usually where Dems fall down. Like daily or weekly press conferences where the progress and results are reported.
"They should be prepared, focused, and determined to search out wrongdoing at the highest levels of the Trump regime as soon as they take office."
I would add that Democrats must be prepared to apply the same standard to Congressional Republicans who are all responsible for every wrong doing of the Executive. We cannot play the game of referring charges to the Department of Justice. Democrats must be prepared to use the inherent contempt powers of Congress. Republicans know their gooses are cooked if they loose power. They will not leave office peacefully knowing full well the consequences of being held accountable for their crimes.
All states with MAGA Senators should call for special elections to oust these traitors!
I would include Fetterman is this category!
I asked my Congressman, Jamie Raskin, just this question about clawing back ill gotten gains and financial restitution for damages done by this regime. He said absolutely.
I wholeheartedly agree with Jen. But to achieve success, newly elected Dems need to be ready to convene their investigations on day 1. Let’s hope that someone in the Party is putting together the infrastructure and the process so we aren’t flailing around for months (in other words, prepare like a Republican). I like the idea of a special investigative committee as it will be critical that we also pass legislation that will begin to bring relief to the country and shore up democracy.
This is exactly correct, Gail. No need to wait until January to begin deliberations. Congress rarely meets in session under this squirrelly speaker Mike Johnson. He is too afraid that even members of his own party will open investigations into the regime’s vast malfeasance. So he recesses and sends members home for extended vacations. Democrats need to use that time to continue to work for the American people and make preparations for all of these trials into Trump’s massive corruption, and Republican’s collusion.
Absolutely! Spot on!
By all means investigate and expose, but at the same time be careful here. If Dems spend all their time chasing Trump regime malfeasance they will lose in 2028 when Trump is no longer on the ballot. Voters will ask, "What did you do for us regarding affordability, immigration, the war etc." and Dems will have nothing to show for it. Look what happened with the January 6 hearings, which were really excellent, but they did nothing to stop Trump from coming back to haunt us.
That is why a special investigating committee should be assigned the Trump fiasco! Other business can then go forward.
Democrats can, and must, do both. They cannot be accused of looking away from the massive malfeasance of the Trump regime. That would be complicity. Ending the war against Iran and the insane tariffs will go a long way toward controlling prices. Immediately. Restore healthcare. Immediately. Congress holds the power of the purse. There should be nonstop bills put forward to correct Trump’s many, many abuses. Even if these are not veto proof in the senate, Congress needs to put forth the effort to protect the country and regain trust in the process. Immediately.
If the Democrats take either congressional house, it will be by a slim margin due to gerrymandering in the House and institutional bias in the Senate. Thus, investigations will be about the only thing they will be able to do as the Republicans will no doubt stymie any proposals to ameliorate the average person's financial situation and, in fact, will likely be hoping for a recession so in 2028 they can claim that the Dems did nothing. That's how things are played in this cynical age of politics.
One of your sharpest essays. May we see the accounting that you highlight!
I appreciate that you refer to the current administration by a different term, “regime” - which is most appropriate.
"Let the punishment fit the crime". King Con has killed the reputation of our country and has appropriated its assets to himself and his family. How can we take that back?
Start with voting and speaking out.
And don't forget the people he has had murdered in boats and in Iran! Not to mention the ICE murders!
Well done, as usual, though it would be provident to quickly begin the task of reforming the supreme court and investigating the department of justice. Both of these "institutions" have failed us egregiously.
Impeach Alito and Thomas!!
That would be a beginning. The ethics policy that guides lower courts and the rest of the federal work force should also apply to the supreme court. They're federal employees too and should have no exception.
So pleased that minds far better than mine (and so many of them) are thinking about the necessary work to undo all the damage done by this administration and prevent it from ever happening again.
Of course, the "lawless Trump gang will refuse to cooperate," but I think there are two larger problems: 1) that this administration has hollowed out and/or coopted so much of the DOJ and the rest of the Civil Service, that it will be a challenge to find enough people to carry out prosecutions, etc.; and 2) that if the Democrats spend all their time trying to right Trump wrongs, and not moving to address the income gap, ending the war, restoring social services supports like SNAP and health care, etc., they will not be able to win the White House in 2028.
Accountability is vital. So is establishing the record of this horrible time in America's history. But the Dems will have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, or no one will care. We have seen far too much of a Congress that does nothing for the people it supposedly represents.
Democrats need to seriously think about the Speaker position in both House and Senate. These positions will need to be held by strong, constitutionally sound people. Might I suggest a few names....Pete Buttegig, Gavin Newsom, or any constitutionally sound retired justice or attorney.
Hear,hear! Continuing the idiocy in any form will do nothing to slow the slide into perpetual “Oligarchy of the Idiots “!
Right--the vital thing to do is to investigate fully and only after doing that decide what punishment to recommend or to take.
The investigations should start with the most visceral political issues—flagrant self-dealing and the Epstein files. These are the matters that resonate with ordinary people (as opposed to people who write comments on Jen Rubin’s articles). Once those have caught fire (and it won’t be long if done correctly), the Dems will have the political capital to use their majoritarian committee powers to open multiple investigations in multiple committees. Leave nothing out of the mix because it is too irrelevant or too obscure.
Remember that Trump’s only convictions (34 felony counts!) were on grounds that some experts had deemed too novel or abstract. Meanwhile he got off on charges that seemed like slam dunks. Don’t take anything for granted, and don’t let anything go. Trim and his MAGA cultist are a slimy and slippery bunch.