Letters from an American - The Writing is Already on the Wall

Episode Date: September 13, 2026

September 12, 2026Judge J. Michael Luttig published a warning about how Republicans could refuse to seat elected Democrats after the midterm elections, Speaker Mike Johnson has the power to replace the current House clerk with a MAGA loyalist who will refuse to list Democrats on the roll of those elected to the 120th Congress, In this scenario, Democrats will have to go to the courts, perhaps eventually the Supreme Court, which would take weeks, leaving the country vulnerable, Trump’s plan to use the US Postal Service to screen mailed-in votes is being tested in Florida, and shows what will likely happen if the Supreme Court lifts its injunction blocking the USPS from implementing new rules, The DOJ under Trump is threatening, without cause, election workers, using harassment and intimidation to force them to put Trump’s election changes into effect, Luttig urged Republicans to decide not to betray their oaths of office and the country, and  wrote that the Republican Party must “loose the chains of its political and moral enslavement to Donald Trump and separate itself from the MAGA political party cult."Watch today's recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/g9TUa1Rwd6U?si=T8_KKcHQZElhpnZ-Get full, free access to Letters from an American here: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribeYou can also find me:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hcrichardson.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/heathercoxrichardson/?hl=enFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathercoxrichardson/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@heathercoxrichardson Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

September 12, 26. On Thursday, in the New Republic, Conservative Judge J. Michael Ludig published a dire warning to the Republican Party and to all Americans. In the piece, Lutig outlined how Republicans could refuse to seat elected Democrats in January after a Democratic victory in the 26th midterm elections of November. The coming crisis, the peace says, would be. the final battle for America's democracy. Lutig spelled out that Trump is fighting a war against America's democracy. While the refusal of Vice President Mike Pence to assist his power grab made it fail in January 2021, Lutig notes, today Trump and his Republican congressional allies are more determined than ever to take over the country. Lutig focuses on the ability of House Speaker Mike

Johnson, a Republican of Louisiana, to prevent the recognition of duly elected Democratic representatives on January 3rd. Johnson has the power, Ludig says, to remove the current House clerk, Kevin McCumber, and replace him temporarily with a MAGA loyalist who will refuse to list Democrats on the role of those elected to the 120th Congress. In this scenario, once Democrats are eliminated, they will have to get a federal court to order the temporary clerk to list their names. If a court does so, another crisis point will arrive if the clerk simply refuses to obey the order. Then it's possible the courts will stay out of the fight until the 120th Congress formally convenes and the Republicans vote not to seat the Democrats. That vote would be reviewable by the courts,

including the Supreme Court. But that review would take weeks, if not months, paralyzing the United States and leaving the country helplessly vulnerable to all the world's evil, as it would have been in January 2021 had Mike Pence not thwarted Donald Trump's plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election. And at that point, how would the current Supreme Court answer the question? Is the United States of America a democracy in which we the people elect our representatives to the Congress and to the presidency, or is it not? As if to illustrate Ludig's warning how Speaker Johnson told attendees at Trump's convention in Dallas on Thursday, we cannot and will not allow them to take the majority in Congress.

We're not going to do it. Trump's attempt to use the United States Postal Service to screen mail-in voting has recently had a test run. Yesterday, Jim Saksa of Democracy Docket picked up a story from Jeff Berlu of the Tallahassee Democrat to report that the United States Postal Service rejected mailed ballots from Leon County in Florida because the words return service requested were only 0.236 inches from the election office's return address. They were supposed to be a full. quarter inch apart. So the delivery of those mail-in ballots came down to a federal complaint about a spacing issue of 14,000th of an inch. It's ridiculous, supervisor of elections Mark Early

told Berlou. But as Saxon notes, the rejection of ballots for such a petty flaw shows what will likely happen if the Supreme Court lifts the injunction blocking the postal service from implementing the new rules and has put in place since Trump ordered such interference in a March executive order. On Thursday, September 10th, Nick Corrasoniti of the New York Times reported that the Department of Justice, or DOJ, under Trump, has sent threatening letters to at least 30 top election officials in the states, warning that those officials are currently under investigation and are subject to ongoing litigation, and so must not destroy any records relating to the 2024 election. As Corrassanidi notes, the administration has sued 30 states for their voter lists

and has lost 23 of the cases and won none. Trump has claimed to be the victim of voter fraud since the 2016 primaries, but has never produced any proof of his claims. In July, Harmeet Dillon, who heads the Civil Rights Division in the DOJ, threatened state election officials with criminal prosecution if any non-citizens cast a ballot in their state, although it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote. And Secretary of Homeland Security, Mark Wayne Mullen, threatened election officials with criminal prosecution if they did not put Trump's election changes into effect. election officials already follow the laws about retaining documents, so the letters seem to be about threatening them. Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, a Democrat, told Corrasoniti, it's the constant flood the zone of harassment and intimidation and threats of legal action, hoping we'd fold at some point. But, he added, we're going to continue to follow the law

and do what's in the best interests of our voters. And what of the MAGA Republicans Trump would like to see in Congress? Liz Goodwin of the Washington Post reported yesterday that 25-year-old Stephen Wojtack, a top campaign staffer for Senator John Hustad, a Republican of Ohio, has recently cultivated a public playlist of songs celebrating the former country of Rhodesia in which a white minority rules. over a black majority, captioning it, homesick for a place that no longer exists.

Rhodesia is a rallying cry for white supremacists who deplore the change that created Zimbabwe. Wojtek also appears to be a historical reenactor, who appears to have both worn Nazi uniforms and used a photo of Nazi soldiers as his Facebook profile picture. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine appointed Houston to the Senate to replace J.D. Vance after Vance was elected to the vice presidency.

And Houston is now locked in a battle for that seat with former Senator Sharon Brown, a Democrat known for his defense of labor. A statement for Houston said that while Wojtek denies negative intent, the campaign was parting ways with him. As Goodwin notes, growing numbers of younger Republicans have been expressing support for white nationalism and the Nazis. Indeed, in his warning, Lutig did not single out Democrats to protect democracy. As he noted in a piece on his substack in August, plenty of people are already fighting. He called out Republicans. There was a time not long ago when virtually every member of Congress could be expected to commit to the peaceful transfer of congressional power in advance of an election, Lutig wrote. But now, in a damning indictment of the president

and today's congressional Republicans, it would be hard to find even one congressional Republican with the integrity, sense of duty to country, honor, and courage to put America above the Republican party, let alone above Donald Trump. He urged Republicans to decide that they are not going to betray their oaths and their country one last time for Donald Trump, and to make it clear to Trump and Johnson that they will not participate in any unconstitutional plan to deny Democrats' seats in the new Congress. He warned them that should Republicans go along with such machinations and the Supreme Court overrule them, the Republican Party would finally meet the fate to which it has been destined since January 6, 2021,

and cement its place in history as the most corrupt political party ever to emerge in the United States of America for its second attempt in six years to defy the will of the American people on Election Day. The writing is already on the wall. Republicans, the conservative jurist wrote. The Republican Party, in particular, must finally loose the chains of its political and moral enslavement to Donald Trump and separate itself from the MAGA political party cult. Today, in Ireland, where he traveled for the Irish Open at his golf club in Dunebag. Trump told reporters, we had a rigged election. As you know, it was totally rigged because I won three times. I didn't win twice. I won three times. Letters from an American

was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, dead in Massachusetts, recorded with music composed by Michael Moss. Thank you.