Tessera

Trump's speech was a total dud but he's still going to use it as pretext to interfere in midterms. In particular the discredited allegations of Chinese interference are intended to lay groundwork for fake national emergency. That's the real threat www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Trump’s primetime speech was a dud. He could still use it to interfere in the midterms.

The allegations of foreign interference by China are intended to create a fake national emergency.

motherjones.com

Trump claimed in speech DHS found 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote. Turns out that number was 10,716 based on report they just released. Even that # likely wildly inflated due to false positives & inaccuracies in SAVE database

All the ways Trump has gutted efforts to stop foreign election interference: -laid off a third of CISA employees -disbanded FBI task charged with combatting foreign election interference -eliminated DHS teams combatting foreign disinformation -fired all the EAC commissioners

Trump claims 278,000 non-citizens on voter rolls. That’s laughable. Utah recently audited 2 million people on voter rolls and found just 27 noncitizens registered, amounting to .00135% of registered voters

Trump was in charge in 2020 when all the foreign interference he alleges happened

National Intelligence Council 2021 report directly contradicts Trump's lies about alleged Chinese interference: “We assess that China did not deploy interference efforts and considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the US presidential election"

Politico@politico.com · 3w ago

Likely a wildly inflated number, given that none of these states handed over their voter rolls & DHS provided no evidence to support such claims

DHS says it found thousands of non-citizens on voter rolls in four states

Democracy Now!@democracynow.org · 3w ago

A federal judge in Atlanta has quashed a DOJ subpoena seeking the names and personal info of Fulton County's 2020 election workers. “Georgia is just a microcosm of what they're planning to do to interfere in the midterms,” says @ariberman.bsky.social, voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones.

Ari Berman @ariberman.bsky.social · 4w ago

SCOTUS destroying Voting Rights Act Trump openly planning to interfere in midterms DOJ threatening to prosecute election officials I discussed how all these threats to democracy fit together on @nprfreshair.bsky.social today. Please listen www.npr.org/2026/07/08/n...

Do you know where your birth certificate is? Journalist warns of new voting barriers

The rules of the midterms are being rewritten, from redistricting to campaign money. Mother Jones journalist Ari Berman explains why President Trump seems "obsessed with the mechanics of voting."

npr.org

Ari Berman@ariberman.bsky.social · last mo.

"Every major study has shown that mail-in voting is safe and secure, but the fact that four justices signed on to Trump’s crusade to get rid of mail-in ballots is highly disturbing and could embolden the president to attempt to take even more drastic steps to make it harder to vote"

Good news that SCOTUS preserved mail ballot grace periods but very disturbing that 4 justices led by Alito amplified Trump's conspiracies about mail voting, including debunked claims of "voter fraud" www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

In a rare blow to Trump, the Supreme Court just saved mail-in voting—for now

The surprise victory is unlikely to slow down the administration's assault on voting rights.

motherjones.com

Breaking: SCOTUS in 5-4 ruling by Barrett upholds Mississippi law allowing ballots to be counted if postmarked by Election Day but received after. Major disaster averted. A ruling the other way would've disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of voters in 2026 www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

supremecourt.gov

Mother Jones@motherjones.com · 6mo ago

Good day to rewatch this

You need to know about the SAVE Act, which recently passed in the House. So here's a crash course from reporter Ari Berman on how the sweeping voter restriction bill could disenfranchise millions of Americans

Stephen Wolf@stephenwolf.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Politicians who brazenly push to disenfranchise Black voters need to pay a political price everywhere they try it

Big news: Georgia Republicans have dropped their plans to pass new gerrymanders targeting Black Democrats today over fears of energizing Dem turnout this fall. They planned to pass new maps for 2028 in case they lose the 2026 governor’s race. They could still do it in the lame-duck period though

My Mayor is Muslim My Bagel is Jewish My Christian Dior NY State Dems can gerrymander 4

Dems could draw more than 20 new blue districts by 2028, reversing GOP’s redistricting advantage They need to maximize their power everywhere they have it to counteract Trump & SCOTUS destroying VRA I break it down here, citing great research by @stephenwolf.bsky.social @davidnir.com

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 2mo ago

WTF is this NYT headline? What the Alabama + Callais decisions really signal is that Roberts Court will make up whatever the hell rule it wants to maximally help the GOP & prevent Black voters from having any representation

Last night, the Roberts Court once again handed Republicans another shocking gerrymandering win in Alabama. For the second time in three weeks, they green-lit an Alabama congressional map that a lower court has repeatedly found intentionally discrim inates against Black voters.

Ari Berman@ariberman.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Roberts Court now engaged in blatant electoral warfare, doing everything it can to give Republicans as many seats as possible in midterms & completely erase Reconstruction amendments. If Dems don’t reform court when back in power there will be no democracy left to protect

Roberts Court wants to create world where Dems have no legitimate chance to ever take control of Congress, there are no Black members of Congress from the South & no voting rights violations can ever be proven. Their end goal is permanent white GOP minority rule www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

In Alabama, the Roberts Court hands Republicans yet another shocking gerrymandering win

By reinstating a discriminatory map, the justices are once again doing all they can to help the GOP.

motherjones.com

Chris Geidner@chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This is so outrageous. Roberts Court said in Callais finding of intentional discrimination could invalidate gerrymandered maps. Lower court found Alabama intentionally discriminated against Black voters. SCOTUS still allowed map eliminating majority Black district to go through

BREAKING: In an unsigned, per curiam opinion on the shadow docket, the SCOTUS conservatives allow Alabama to use a congressional map held repeatedly by a lower court to have been enacted with discriminatory intent.

At this preliminary stage, the State has shown that it is entitled to interim relief from the District Court's injunc-tion. See Abbott v. League of United Latin American Citi-zens, 607 U. S.
一
(2025) (slip op., at 1-2). The
State is likely to succeed on the merits as to both claims. As to intentional vote dilution, the District Court did not heed the presumption of legislative good faith, see Alexander v.
South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, 602 U. S. 1, 10 (2024), because it interpreted the State's legal disagreement with the court's earlier remedial order as proof of discriminatory animus. Cf. Abbott v. Perez, 585 U. S. 579,
608-609 (2018). And, as to both claims, the District Court's analysis departed from Callais. Under Callais, the District Court was required to deny relief unless the plaintiffs' alternative map performed "just as well" with respect to all of the State's constitutionally permissible districting crite-ria. 608 U. S., at— (slip op., at 29). Yet, the District Court found a violation even though the plaintiffs' alternative map would not perform just as well as to the State's constitutionally permissible criteria of keeping together the Gulf Coast community of interest and avoiding the pairing of in-cumbents. The District Court also failed to follow our instruction in Callais that the mere fact that voters of different races vote for different parties is not relevant to proving racially polarized voting patterns. See id., at _ (slip op., at 30).

Stephen Wolf @stephenwolf.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Big redistricting news: New York Democrats plan to unveil and pass a constitutional amendment by Thursday that would let them redraw the congressional map in 2028 and target up to 4 GOP seats. They will need to pass it again next year and win a November 2027 referendum for it to take effect

New York Democrats push redistricting amendment, joining national battle

The proposed amendment won’t change the Empire State’s House lines in 2026 as local Democrats take a longer-term approach.

politico.com

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 2mo ago

In the wake of Louisiana v. Callais, Republicans are moving to eliminate at least half a dozen majority-Black districts in the Deep South between now and 2028. That would trigger the largest drop in Black representation since the end of Reconstruction.

Breaking: Louisiana legislature gives final approval to new 5-1 gerrymandered map eliminating majority-Black district represented by Dem Rep Cleo Fields Black voters comprise 33% of state population but will be able to elect candidate of choice in only 1 of 6 congressional districts

Republicans are moving to eliminate at least half a dozen majority Black districts in TN, AL, LA, SC, MS, GA between now & 2028. This is what return to Jim Crow looks like www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Republicans are reviving Jim Crow in the old Confederacy

The GOP is moving to eliminate at least half a dozen majority Black districts in the Deep South.

motherjones.com

Ari Berman@ariberman.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Someone tell Lane Kiffin, who praised LSU for its “diversity,” that Louisiana Republicans are dismantling the congressional district of the Black member of Congress from Baton Rouge

Breaking: Louisiana House passes new gerrymandered map eliminating majority-Black district represented by Dem Rep Cleo Fields Black voters comprise 33% of state population but will be able to elect candidate of choice in only 1 of 6 congressional districts