Is this the end of Sen. Claire McCaskill’s political career? It would be shocking not to see this mentioned by her opponent.
The Missouri Democrat and other congressional Democrats introduced legislation this week making it a federal crime to knowingly share false election information, including bogus claims relating to “the time and place of elections,” “voter qualifications and registration status,” and making false claims of endorsements “within 60 days of a federal election,” according to the Huffington Post.
Anyone caught spreading this sort of misinformation could face a fine of up to $100,000 or five years in jail or both.
The measure was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Democratic Sens. McCaskill, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Doug Jones of Alabama, and Patrick Leahy of Vermont. Democratic Reps. A. Donald McEachin of Virginia and Jerry Nadler of New York also introduced a companion bill in the House.
McCaskill, who’s already fighting for her political life in a tough re-election battle in Missouri, has thrown her full support behind the bill.
“Misinformation campaigns intended only to suppress the vote and disenfranchise Missourians are crimes that run counter to our democratic values, and the punishment for those actions should fit the crime,” the senator said in a statement.
Justin Levitt, a former Justice Department who dealt with voting rights issues, told the Huffington Post that there’s no federal law prohibiting someone from knowingly lying about when and where to vote in elections.
“That’s not currently illegal under most circumstances,” he said. “Most people say that it seems crazy that it’s not illegal to tell somebody they can vote on Wednesday when actually they can’t. And I agree with that.”
This is more insane than the Democratic Party’s toothless “abolish ICE” shtick. Without any hyperbole, this legislation is quite literally a push to criminalize certain speech. More specifically, this is a push to outlaw lying. The irony that such an effort would come from members of Congress should not be lost on anyone.
I agree with Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey when he writes, “This is the equivalent of destroying the free-speech village in order to save it. If passed, this law would quickly become a tool to silence the opposition in the hands of an unprincipled administration.”
This is to say nothing of the fact that there are already laws on the books prohibiting efforts to block citizens from voting. That our Justice Department declines to prosecute some of the more obvious cases of voter intimidation is a separate issue that congressional Democrats may want to address.
“At best, this is a civil tort, not a criminal issue, in which those harmed by the speech can seek recompense for any injury through lawsuits,” Morrissey adds. “Outside an overt and explicit incitement to violence, which is already illegal, the best remedy for bad speech is more speech. If someone lies about anything, it becomes incumbent on others to proclaim the truth more loudly. The founders knew what they were doing when they prohibited Congress from making any law ‘abridging the freedom of speech.’ Clearly, at least a few of their political descendants don’t.”
It blows my mind that Democrats can scream “tyranny!” at the Trump White House and warn that the U.S. is descending gradually into fascism, and at the same time advocate for criminalizing more and more behavior. With their actions, they are pursuing a reality where government has the power to rule whether political speech constitutes a federal crime. That alone implies that with their words, they are … lying, of course.
