December 2, 2024
Resisting weaponization of the FBI, supporting bold use of pardons, rapid response to mass deportations, and more!
Contact all members of Congress:
By phone: (202) 224-3121
By email: democracy.io
By US mail: Representatives / Senators
By fax: Representatives / Senators
By Resistbot: Resist.bot
Contact White House or other federal agencies:
REJECT TRUMP HENCHMAN PATEL AS HEAD OF THE FBI
Donald Trump announced Saturday that he intends to replace current FBI director Christopher Wray with Kash Patel, one of his most loyal henchmen. Wray’s term lasts until 2027, suggesting Trump is preparing to fire Wray or force him to resign, and even by Trump standards, Patel is a frightening pick. He has vowed to purge any FBI employee who does not support the Trump agenda and weaponize the bureau to “come after” those who criticized Trump and stood against his coup attempt in 2020 – including the media, who he would like to make it easier to sue. He is also a conspiracy theorist who has embraced the QAnon cult; fed false information about Ukraine to Trump and false information about military operations to the Pentagon, endangering U.S. troops; attempted to cover for Trump’s mishandling of classified documents; and has publicly endorsed supplements to “reverse” the effects of the COVID vaccine. His appointment portends a dangerous weaponization of federal law enforcement on Trump’s behalf, and it is incumbent on the Senate to say hell no. While we’ve seen several Republicans lining up behind Trump’s machinations as usual, there are early signs we might be able to stop Patel. Let’s tell our senators that our democracy depends on having an FBI that can operate independently and without political bias and demand they publicly reject Patel as a candidate and push Trump to keep Wray in place.ENCOURAGE BIDEN TO USE HIS PARDON POWER TO COMBAT MORE INJUSTICES
Last night President Biden announced he has pardoned his son, Hunter, who was targeted by a politicized prosecution aimed at damaging his presidency. While there is little doubt Hunter was subjected to injustice, he is certainly not the only one, and the President has immense power to address wrongs done to many other people’s children, too. Advocates have urged him to commute the sentences of all those remaining on federal death row and of Leonard Peltier; to issue blanket clemency for women punished for defending themselves against their abusers, those still suffering from unfair sentencing disparities, and the elderly and chronically ill; and to shield from Trump those who he has highlighted as potential targets for prosecution over their criticism of him and his election lies and their efforts to hold him accountable. Let’s contact the White House and urge Joe Biden to use pardon power boldly and aggressively in the final weeks of his presidency to take on the shortcomings of our criminal justice system and protect champions of democracy. (We can also use Resistbot to push him specifically on the federal death penalty, texting PONUOO to 50409 to send this message.)
JOINING THE DIGITAL FIELD TEAM – CALL TODAY AT 4PM
This election made it painfully obvious that we need to fix our broken information environment if we are going to defeat the authoritarians. This task is easier said than done, and we are going to have to get creative as we seek to mitigate the damage of the current system while building new institutions in its place. The crew at
is looking to put the grassroots to work on this mission, continuing their efforts to build a digital field team that can amplify anti-MAGA messages enough to shift social media conversation and attract legacy media attention – letting us speak with one voice. They’ll be hosting an organizing call for this effort TODAY at 4:00 PM Eastern/1:00 PM Pacific, and we can sign up to join them here.
WEBINAR ON ANTI-DEPORTATION ORGANIZING WEDNESDAY
Trump’s proposed mass deportations will ruin lives, break up families, shatter our communities, devastate our economy and threaten the freedom and safety of us all. We need to take advantage of this window before he takes office to prepare to resist them in any way we can. The Detention Watch Network, Cosecha and other advocates for immigrants are coming together to make sure we have the information we need and share best practices for building a rapid response network to deportations. Let’s sign up for their webinar THIS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4th from 3:00PM-4:30PM Eastern here to get ready for the fights to come.
SECURING THE SOCIAL SECURITY FAIRNESS ACT
The Social Security Fairness Act (H.R. 82) has been decades in the making and is very close to becoming law. Passing the act would improve benefits for about 2 million Social Security beneficiaries and nearly 800,000 retirees, who are currently burdened by a provision that reduces Social Security payments to some retirees who also collect a pension from a public service job not covered by the program and to their surviving spouses and family members. It received broad-based, bipartisan support in passing the House over the objections of the Freedom Caucus, and has 62 co-sponsors in the Senate, but the schedule is packed and we only have until the end of this Congress to get it done. Let’s contact our senators and ask them to prioritize this legislation. We can use a tool from the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association to do so here.
STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS
NJ – PRIVACY PROTECTIONS FOR IMMIGRANTS, CALL TOMORROW
Living in a blue state won’t inherently keep us from being complicit in the deportation machine, and our leaders are going to need to show up right now to protect our immigrant friends and neighbors. Here’s one way they can start: the Immigrant Trust Act (S3672/A4987), introduced in October, would limit the state’s involvement with the federal detention and deportation systems – creating new data privacy protections for immigrants who interact with government agencies, strengthening the separation between local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement, barring police from stopping someone due to their perceived immigration status and stopping health care facilities, shelters, libraries, and public schools from asking about someone’s immigration status in most circumstances. This will protect immigrants and ensure they can use public services they’re supposed to be able to use. Let’s contact our legislators and urge them to pass the Immigrant Trust Act ASAP – we can use language from this petition from the ACLU. Let’s also sign up here to join the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice on a mass movement call tomorrow, December 3rd at 5PM to learn more and get specific calls to action.