If you thought the anti-Trump hysteria was entertaining prior to the election, you're in for a treat. The level of anxiety and fear coming Democrats this post-election period threatens to put them in a catatonic state.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden "Isn't Shy About Calling it a Coup" in an Atlantic interview.
The Founding Fathers said, “Look, here’s what Congress does. Here’s what the president does.” This is what we have enjoyed for all of these years, and it has been something that has served us well. And now you have somebody in Elon Musk, who basically paid for an election, coming in and saying he runs everything. If you have unelected individuals breaking the law to take power, that about fits the definition of a coup.
Ronnie gets an "A" for effort but falls short when it comes to stating the facts. Biden-Harris raised just less than $3 billion for the 2024 presidential campaign. Trump actually raised less than he raised in 2020, coming in at $1.8 billion for 2024. Musk raised about $252 million for Trump, which is less than half of the $558 million that the Democratic Super Pac Future Forward raised for Harris. Would Wyden have been so concerned about Harris's Super Pac raising a third more money than Trump?
Neither has Musk said "he runs everything." That's a hysterical, politically motivated exaggeration. Nor has Elon Musk "broken the law." Who says that? Not a federal judge. Even the most partisan judges have only said he may have broken the law. Trump's and Musk's executive actions are on hold until a judge makes that determination.
Democratic Sen. John Fetterman is also skeptical of the whole "constitutional crisis" narrative by his fellow Democrats.
"When it was [President] Joe Biden, then you [had] a conservative judge jam it up on him, and now we have liberal judges that are going to stop these things. That’s how the process works," Fetterman told HuffPost, adding, "There isn’t a constitutional crisis, and all of these things — it’s just a lot of noise."
"That’s why I’m only going to swing on the strikes," he also said.
In other words, politics as usual. Fetterman is once again trying to bring his Democratic colleagues back somewhere close to planet Earth.
Meanwhile, the White House is jumping on the "Constitutional Crisis" bandwagon and claiming that judges who disagree with the president are initiating a constitutional crisis.
“We believe these judges are acting as judicial activists rather than honest arbiters of the law," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
I'm sure Barack Obama thought the same thing when conservative judges blocked dozens of his executive orders, including his plan to grant virtual amnesty to 6 million illegal aliens in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). No one on the right was making a stink about "judicial activism" then.
One of the judges who ruled against the Trump administration was nominated by the president during his first term. Two others were placed on the bench by Ronald Reagan, and two more by George W. Bush, both Republicans.
Some judges have occasionally sided with the administration in other cases, refusing to issue immediate blocks in response to challenges over DOGE’s access to the Labor Department, allegations that Musk’s team is using a private email server and the dissolution of the CBP One app for asylum seekers.
Most of these judges are not wild-eyed, radical left-wing nuts. They're performing exactly the way the Constitution intended the third branch of government to perform.
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Fetterman is right. There is no Constitutional crisis because of DOGE nor is there a Constitutional crisis in the courts as Musk and the Trump administration claim. Besides, the courts have not issued a permanent injunction against any executive action by Trump. They have paused executive actions in order to allow both sides to make their case.
Maybe advocates on both sides should simply chill and let the legal system do its thing.
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