Good morning, Early Birds. It's Friday. We plan to spend the weekend mulling whether to pull out of Coachella. Tips: earlytips@washpost.com. See you on Monday.
The campaign
Joceyln Benson says it's ‘shockingly misguided’ not to protect democracy now with federal legislation
Ten questions for … Jocelyn Benson: We chatted with the Michigan secretary of state about the Republicans running for secretary of state with former president Donald Trump's backing, what she's reading and what it might take for the Senate to pass voting legislation. This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
The Early: You wrote a book on secretaries of state more than a decade ago. Did you anticipate at the time that what was once regarded as an uncontroversial office would become so contentious?
Benson: I think we saw in the 2000 election just how important and influential a secretary of state could be in not just a close election, but in a disputed election. As someone who at that point was in the early stages of my career around election law and voting rights, I was planning on just simply working at the federal level, working at the Justice Department, until we began to see how important these state offices are through that election and through [Florida Secretary of State] Katherine Harris.
The Early: Trump has endorsed Republicans running for secretary of state in several states, including in Michigan, who have embraced his false claims about the 2020 election. How do you fear these candidates might abuse the power of the secretary of state's office if elected?
Benson: Putting people in charge of elections who have openly advocated for autocracy and tried to block the will of the people in 2020 — putting them in charge of elections is akin to putting an arsonist in charge of a fire department. It is something that would dramatically harm democracy, not just with regards to a particular ban, but really challenged our ability to uphold the very foundations of our country in several key states.
The Early: Democratic and Republican senators are working on legislation to update the Electoral Count Act and perhaps take some other steps to safeguard elections. What provisions do you think are most crucial to include in such a bill?
Benson: There's really three things we need from the federal government at this point. We need election funding, a sustained source of federal funding. We need protection against the potential for election subversion in the states. And then we need to reauthorize and strengthen the Voting Rights Act. I do think there's opportunities for bipartisan solutions on all three of those fronts. Unfortunately, there's such a toxicity in the environment now that I fear we may see an even greater tragedy in the future with regards to our democracy before we see real sustained federal action on any of those fronts.
The Early: Are you saying you think it might take a greater failure than we saw in the 2020 election to persuade Congress to pass bipartisan election legislation?
Benson: It took tragedies in Selma, Ala., and other tragedies in Mississippi and [throughout] the country to actually lead to the creation of the Voting Rights Act. It took a challenging presidential election in 2000 to enact the Help America Vote Act. So oftentimes meaningful federal legislation is preceded by great crisis in our democracy or a particularly challenging election cycle.
The Early: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that while he wasn’t opposed to revising the Electoral Count Act, he was in “no hurry” to do so: “If this were to become a problem again, it would become a problem in ’24, so there’s no rush." What do you make of that argument?
Benson: There are federal elections this year. Of course, the rules are slightly different than a presidential. But many of the attempts that we endured that were seeking to nullify the will of voters in 2020 can and will likely be attempted again in different forms. So I think it's shockingly misguided to think democracy protection can wait at a time like this.
The Early: What was the last book you finished? And what do you plan to read next?
Benson: I am in the middle of reading a book by Doris Kearns Goodwin, “Leadership: In Turbulent Times,” which is just a remarkable view of leadership during times of crisis from the lens of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, FDR and LBJ.
The Early: Dozens of armed protesters came to your home in the weeks after the 2020 election. Have you continued to experience harassment or threats?
Benson: Yeah. It's really now been going on three years of consistently accepting as a part of this job that there are people who, because they've been lied to by people they trust about the results of an election, want to do you harm or want to harm your family, and it's a very challenging state to be in. I feel prepared and ready to move forward — and emboldened, even, by the threats and challenges to continue doing my work. But I think often of the local election officials, who oftentimes are outside of the spotlight doing enormous work and enduring threats as well on the local level in their communities.
The Early: The Post reported on Wednesday that Rudy Giuliani and other Trump advisers asked James Rossiter, the Republican prosecutor in Antrim County, to get his county’s voting machines and pass them along to Trump’s team. What, if anything, can you do as secretary of state to protect against such efforts?
Benson: It is against the law in Michigan for individuals or third parties to have unauthorized access to our election equipment. And we are in the process of continuing to enforce that provision and perhaps seek stronger mechanisms to enforce that provision. The Antrim County case you mentioned is [an] example not just of people getting unauthorized access but also the potential — and this is still being investigated — coordination between local officials and the Trump campaign. So we've handed over information to the Jan. 6 committee regarding that for further investigation as well as the Justice Department.
The Early: Who is your closest friend on the other side of the aisle?
Benson: Among secretaries, I’ve developed a great working relationship with Frank LaRose, who is the Republican secretary of state from Ohio. And that's something that has, in my view, enabled us to not just share ideas or push back on each other's perspectives but also find ways that we can work together, because so much of election administration is nonpartisan.
The Early: To steal the question that New York magazine used to ask New Yorkers: Who is your favorite Michigander, living or dead, real or fictional?
Benson: There are really three. My first is [the late Sen.] Carl Levin [(D-Mich.)], who was my mentor and someone whose presence and leadership in Michigan was unrivaled. Judge Damon Keith, who was a judge out of Detroit on the Sixth Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals, for several decades after being appointed by LBJ in ‘67, was another mentor who brought me to Michigan. I came here to clerk for him. Third is Viola Liuzzo, who is a Detroiter who I never met. She was killed in Selma, Ala., in 1965 when she left Detroit in her Buick to drive to Selma and be a part of protecting the right to vote for everyone.
From the courts
Some Trump records found at Mar-a-Lago clearly labeled classified
🤫: “Some of the White House documents that Trump improperly took to his Mar-a-Lago residence were clearly marked as classified, including documents at the ‘top secret’ level,” two people familiar with the matter told Jackie, Devlin Barrett, Matt Zapotosky and Josh Dawsey.
- “The existence of clearly marked classified documents in the trove — which has not previously been reported — is likely to intensify the legal pressure that Trump or his staffers could face, and raises new questions about why the materials were taken out of the White House.”
- National Archives and Records Administration “officials asked the Justice Department to look into the matter, though as of Thursday afternoon FBI agents had yet to review the materials … It remained unclear whether the Justice Department would launch a full-fledged investigation. The files were being stored in a sensitive compartmented information facility, also known as an SCIF, while Justice Department officials debated how to proceed.”
In the agencies
How the U.S. zeroed in on Islamic State leader’s hideout
Finding ‘the professor’: “Last fall, a U.S. spy drone moved into position over a house on the edge of an olive grove in northwestern Syria, its camera straining for a glimpse of a bearded man who was said to live inside,” our colleagues Joby Warrick, Dan Lamothe, Matt Viser and Karoun Demirjian write. “The man, who was sometimes called ‘the professor,’ had lost a leg in war and rarely left his third-floor apartment. So the drone fixed its lens on the building’s rooftop terrace and waited.”
- “Other intelligence assets with cameras and remote sensors joined the vigil, above and around the house, and eventually the effort was rewarded. On certain days, weather permitting, the man could be seen hobbling onto the terrace with a mat for his daily prayers. At other times he took along a towel and rinsed off in a rooftop shower. Occasionally he would venture outside for a short walk, or just to stand at the door for some fresh air.”
- “The man’s physical disability stood out. He was missing his right leg. It matched precisely the description of the man who was the subject of the intensive search: Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, leader of the Islamic State.”
The Media
Weekend reeeads:
- How Supreme Court diversity has shaped American life, visualized. By The Post’s Amber Phillips.
- Fight crime or reform policing? As homicides spike, mayors nationwide insist they can do both. By The Post’s Griff Witte, Mark Berman, Shayna Jacobs and Holly Bailey.
- Biden promised not to be a senator-president. But what about mayor-president? By The Post’s Matt Viser.
- Biden warns Americans in Ukraine to leave, says sending troops to evacuate would be 'world war.' By NBC News's Teaganne Finn.
- Trump’s missing call logs present a challenge for Jan. 6 investigators. By the New York Times’s Luke Broadwater, Jonathan Martin, Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt.
- CIA is collecting in bulk certain data affecting Americans, senators warn. By the New York Times’s Charlie Savage.
Super Bowl reeeads:
- Biden dog Commander to make TV debut during ‘Puppy Bowl.’ By AP News’s Darlene Superville.
- How hip-hop inched its way to the Super Bowl halftime stage. By the New York Times’s Rob Tannenbaum.
Viral
💪🏻💪🏼💪🏽💪🏾💪🏿
An all-female front row at the White House briefing today, which was led by a female press secretary. 🔥💪🏽🔥💪🏽 pic.twitter.com/RjRZ0WQiUe
— Vivian Salama (@vmsalama) February 10, 2022
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