Latest news with #AlexPadilla
Washington Post
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
What did Sen. Alex Padilla get handcuffed for?
Last week, a Democratic senator walked into a news conference with questions. He left in handcuffs. 'Is this really happening?' Alex Padilla thought to himself. This week, he's thinking about what happened. 'Never did I imagine hands on me, and let alone being put on the ground,' Padilla, California's first Latino senator, said in an interview at an office inside the Capitol this week.
Los Angeles Times
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Letters to the Editor: As concerns arise around ICE and racial profiling, ‘Could it happen to me?'
To the editor: The article about racial profiling fears regarding the Trump administration's immigration enforcement set me to thinking ('Fears of racial profiling rise as Border Patrol conducts 'roving patrols,' detains U.S. citizens,' June 15). Could it happen to me? I'd characterize myself generally as recognizable as Latino. I assure myself that I was born here in a family that has been in California for 125 years. Yet, we hear of Latinos who are U.S. citizens getting detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. I further assure myself that I'm a Stanford law graduate living in an upscale community, and have been a practicing business litigation attorney for 48 years. No matter; if my friend, Sen. Alex Padilla, can be manhandled by law enforcement officials, who am I to think I would be exempt? But I'll be damned if I'll go around carrying my passport 'just in case.' It galls me most of all that I, a Vietnam-era vet, could be subject to having my citizenship questioned simply on the basis of physical appearance under policies promulgated by President Trump and his political advisor, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller — neither of whom ever served in uniform, and neither of whom would even be in this country but for the historical American tradition of chain migration. To cut to the chase, what is a sound basis for determining whether someone on the street might be foreign born without authorization to be in this country? I don't have the answer, but both moral and secular law dictate that it should not be their skin tone or physical appearance. Agustin Medina, South Pasadena .. To the editor: 'Growing concerns of racial profiling,' you think? It really doesn't take much to come to this conclusion. ICE, along with other federal agencies, has been rampaging through neighborhoods in our city where our Latino co-workers and neighbors live and grabbing people off the street, with seemingly no reason other than the color of their skin. This certainly isn't happening in Woodland Hills, where the majority of immigrants are white. And, as this is happening, the president of the United States is calling for 'remigration,' which is a term used by the far-right in Europe calling for ethnic cleansing of nonwhite people through forced or 'voluntary' deportation. This is also against the backdrop of Trump offering asylum to white South Africans. There is no evidence that they face any persecution in the country where, despite the victory of the African National Congress in the '90s, the economy still disproportionately favors white people. Let's call it what it is. This is not about catching and deporting 'violent criminals.' It is about white supremacy, or making America white privileged again. Leslie Simon and Marc Bender, Woodland Hills .. To the editor: It is clearly illegal, not to mention immoral, to stop people and ask for proof of citizenship based on the color of their skin. If ICE wants to catch people who are not supposed to be here, they need to do it neutrally. I suggest they set up checkpoints like the ones used on New Year's Eve to deter drinking and driving. They need to stop every car and ask every person, no matter their age or appearance, for proof of citizenship. And that means birth certificate or passport — driver's licenses don't count. Anyone without the proper documentation would be taken into custody until someone can come down and produce the proper paperwork. And this needs to be done everywhere, including, say, Huntington Beach. After a few days of this, let's see how popular ICE is with the MAGA crowd. Craig Zerouni, Los Angeles
CBS News
9 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Democrats accuse Trump administration of weaponizing law enforcement to silence political foes
Rep. Eric Swalwell is no stranger to fighting legal battles. Swalwell, in his seventh term as a Democrat representing the Bay Area of California, served as an impeachment manager in President Trump's first impeachment trial in 2020. Swalwell is also the plaintiff in a four-year civil lawsuit seeking damages from Mr. Trump for the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. But Swalwell, an attorney and former local prosecutor in Alameda County, is so concerned about legal peril during the second Trump term, he has taken out a liability insurance policy to protect himself. Swalwell confirmed he had done so in a text message to CBS News. In a social media post last month, Swalwell accused the Trump administration of targeting Democratic legislators like his colleague, New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver, who was charged with assaulting law enforcement officers at an immigration detention center. Rep. LaMonica McIver demands the release of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka after his arrest while protesting outside an ICE detention center in Newrk, N.J. on May 9, 2025. Angelina Katsanis / AP Swalwell — who has not been charged with a crime — wrote on X, "A RED LINE has been crossed. Trump is prosecuting his political enemies in Congress. This is just the beginning. We must take whatever we've done before to show dissent and go one rung higher." Last week's handcuffing of Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat who was forcibly removed from a news conference and briefly cuffed by federal agents after publicly questioning Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, has raised criticisms that the Trump administration has broken norms — and escalated tensions — by allowing federal law enforcement to arrest or detain elected officials who dissent. Sen. Alex Padilla, a Democrat from California, is removed from the room after interrupting a news conference with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles on June 12, 2025. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP The Padilla incident occurred weeks after the arrests of McIver and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, also a Democrat, after a May 9 confrontation with federal agents outside the Delaney Hall immigration facility in Newark. Prosecutors dropped the case against Baraka, but McIver faces felony charges and the prospect of a multi-year prison sentence if convicted. She has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors allege McIver struck agents with her arms during the incident. The Department of Homeland Security accused the elected officials of "breaking into" the detention center. McIver responded to her indictment in a statement that said, "The facts of this case will prove I was simply doing my job and will expose these proceedings for what they are: a brazen attempt at political intimidation." In the latest incident, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a Democrat running for mayor, was detained by immigration agents Tuesday at a Manhattan courthouse. New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander is placed under arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and FBI agents outside federal immigration court on June 17, 2025, in New York. Olga Fedorova / AP In a sequence of events captured on video, Lander was seen holding onto a man, whom he identified as Edgardo, following the man's immigration hearing. Video then showed masked immigration agents trying to take the man into custody, and then taking Lander into custody as he asked to see a warrant. Federal law enforcement officials said Lander was arrested "for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer." He was released four hours later, with his wife and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul by his side. No charges were filed against him. The series of arrests began with the case of Hannah Dugan in April. Dugan, an elected Wisconsin circuit court judge, has pleaded not guilty to charges of obstructing federal agents, for allegedly rerouting a criminal defendant from her courtroom to avoid immigration agents. Dugan's July 21 trial date was delayed Wednesday, as a judge considers a motion from Dugan to dismiss the case. Raskin alleges "strong-arm tactics" to "silence and intimidate" The arrests, detentions and handcuffings are inflaming an already toxic political moment and supercharging complaints by Democrats that Mr. Trump is seeking to use law enforcement powers to subdue his opposition. "Trump and his enforcers want to handcuff and jail members of the legislative branch who perform oversight," said Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. Raskin told CBS News, "These strong-arm tactics are meant to silence and intimidate people, but they only strengthen our conviction." Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) speaks with reporters outside the U.S. Capitol on March 31, 2025. Francis Chung / POLITICO via AP Images In a statement to CBS News, a White House spokeswoman said, "Here's the real story: why do so many Democrat officials feel emboldened to brazenly break the law and then complain when they are held accountable?" "It's alarming Democrats think they can obstruct federal law enforcement, assault ICE agents, or physically push law enforcement officers while charging a cabinet secretary, without consequence — it's even more alarming that the media is encouraging and defending this lawless behavior," the spokesperson said. After his case was dismissed, Baraka filed a civil suit against the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Alina Habba, who not only filed the criminal case, but posted about Baraka's arrest on social media. The lawsuit accuses Habba of defamation and seeks damages for what it calls "false arrest and malicious prosecution." The criminal cases are a burden to public officials, who must pay legal costs and expend time on court hearings. Defense attorneys for McIver noted she has juggled initial proceedings in her case in Newark with her duties in the U.S. Capitol, during a busy month in the House since the May 9 incident. In her filing to dismiss her obstruction case, Dugan argued the Justice Department was violating separation of powers and unlawfully exceeding its authority. "The government's prosecution here reaches directly into a state courthouse, disrupting active proceedings, and interferes with the official duties of an elected judge," she argued. The legal battles are separate from the political acrimony that has been fueled by the physical confrontations, including the handcuffing of Padilla last week — which the Department of Homeland Security claims happened after Padilla "lunged toward" Noem. In a tearful floor speech Tuesday, Padilla asked, "How many Americans in the year 2025 see a vindictive president on a tour of retribution?" As part of her statement to CBS News, the White House spokeswoman said, "Democrats are disingenuously characterizing their behavior with the help of the Fake News media. And we look forward to CBS's coverage of Democrat smears against law enforcement officials, including comparing them to Nazis, leading to a 413% increase in assaults against ICE officers." As for Swalwell, he isn't the only congressional Democrat to seek out liability insurance to protect his legal future. According to a report last week by the NOTUS digital news outlet, multiple Democrats have done the same. According to the report in NOTUS, one unnamed House Democrat said, "That's just, unfortunately, the nature of the job right now and it's terrible."
WIRED
10 hours ago
- Politics
- WIRED
How Democrats Are Meeting (and Missing) the Moment
Jun 19, 2025 7:00 AM After the shootings of lawmakers in Minnesota, the weekend's "No Kings" protests, and elected officials being placed in handcuffs, Democrats are searching for the path forward. Photo-illustration: WIRED Staff; Getty Images 'Well,' a senior Democratic strategist tells me, 'my wife and I are having a fight about me going back to the field in the midterms.' 'I would be lying if I said these aren't conversations I've been having with my family every day,' shared a Democratic candidate in a high-profile battleground state midterms race. In a matter of days, the truly unthinkable occurred: On Thursday last week, Senator Alex Padilla of California was forcibly removed from a news conference and handcuffed by officials wearing FBI-identifying clothing when he tried to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on immigration raids in Los Angeles. On Saturday, Melissa Hortman, a Democratic Minnesota state representative, and her husband, Mark Hortman, were shot and killed. State senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman were also shot. On Tuesday, New York City Comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander was violently arrested after accompanying an immigrant from a court appointment. Not to mention the fact that an estimated 4 to 6 million people attended 'No Kings' protests this past weekend against President Donald Trump's administration. How should Democrats be approaching this chaotic and, at times, violent moment? From lawmakers and candidates all the way down to the staff who fuel their operations, a series of events over the past week have made national Democrats reconsider their strategy. Following the shootings of the state lawmakers in Minnesota, a weekend of nationwide protests, and Democratic lawmakers in handcuffs, Democrats are trying to figure out what meeting the Trump moment really means for an out-of-power coalition that's already under fire from constituents for ostensibly rolling over. And for a number of lawmakers and strategists, that answer isn't so simple. 'I think that the hard reality is, a lot of Democrats and a lot of people say, like, why aren't we doing something?' David Axelrod, former President Barack Obama's chief strategist from his 2008 and 2012 campaigns, tells WIRED. 'Well, there are a limited number of ways in a democracy to do something, short of revolution—which I'm not advocating. You win elections, you go to court.' He says Padilla was in the right but that Democrats should exercise caution and not play into the White House's hands by rushing to get arrested or associating themselves too closely with protests that are unpredictable and prone to producing images of disorder. (Padilla's office did not return a request for comment.) Some laws of political gravity, Axelrod argues, still apply: 'As a general rule, don't do what your opponent wants.' The issue isn't just optics though, but expectation. 'I think the last thing Dems want to do is look unhinged or out of control,' a GOP strategist tells me. Right-wing media, certainly, has had a field day: a Fox News prime time segment from Jesse Watters on Tuesday night painted Democratic protesters as hysterical and ineffective. But Democratic voters might just want a strong, 'unhinged' response. 'Democrats are crying out for [a] fight,' the senior Democratic strategist tells me. 'They are crying out for someone who seems like they're fighting.' Democrats have been deeply pessimistic about the future of their own party, according to polling, despite a recent rebound for the party brand in the generic ballot against Republicans, where they now lead by 2 points, their best performance since last August, according to YouGov's latest survey. Pennsylvania state representative Malcolm Kenyatta—a newly elected vice chair of the Democratic National Committee since David Hogg stepped down—tells WIRED optics should not be the primary consideration when it comes to whether lawmakers with oversight abilities should consider risking the chance of an arrest. 'Listen, I think we have a responsibility to do our fuckin' job,' says Kenyatta, the grandson of civil rights leader Muhammad Kenyatta. 'And what Senator Padilla was doing was his job.' House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries of New York has often used the baseball analogy of not swinging at every pitch to explain how he thinks Democrats should respond to President Trump's deluge of executive actions and outlandish statements. For emerging leaders in the party like Kenyatta, the state of play has moved beyond that point. 'Things don't become less important because a lot of them are happening,' Kenyatta says. 'I don't think we have the luxury of ignoring any of the things he does that are going to make life worse for people.' Lander, who was detained outside of an immigration court hearing in New York City on Tuesday, took that exact type of risk. For the senior Democratic strategist fighting with his wife—who requested anonymity to avoid entangling other clients, and their spouse—Lander showed fellow Democrats how it should be done. (A representative for Lander did not return a request for comment.) 'Yes, this is exactly what people should be doing,' they say. 'There are people who are going to say this whole thing is gimmicky, and I get that. Put some fucking skin in the game. We've gotta draw attention to it somehow—look at all of those cameras they had to arrest him in front of.' But there are also very real security considerations. The battleground state candidate, who also requested anonymity to discuss sensitive security conversations, said the increased security posture lawmakers are dealing with has only made it harder to be as up close with voters, as regularly, in as many places. 'It's this ugly reality where you have to look out for your safety. It is going to rob people of access to their elected officials and candidates,' they say. This has happened already: Representative Hillary Scholten of Michigan postponed a Monday town hall in Muskegon after her name ended up on the alleged Minnesota shooter's list of lawmakers to target. (Scholten's office did not return a request for comment.) Even so, the Democratic candidate wants their constituents to know they're not alone, and they have every right to be angry. "I am as angry as you are about our government and our elected officials,' they say. 'I'm doing the hard thing. I'm putting my name on a ballot. I'm being vulnerable. I'm asking for people to support me, which is a fuck-ton harder than buying a gun and going and threatening people." The Chatroom Who stands out to you as a lawmaker or candidate meeting the moment? Leave a comment on the site or send your thoughts to mail@ WIRED Reads Want more? Subscribe now for unlimited access to WIRED. What Else We're Reading 🔗 Inside the Clashes Between Trump and Gabbard: Tulsi Gabbard is in a bind after more than two decades of pushing for an end to forever wars, and a rogue 3-minute video she recently released didn't help. (Politico) 🔗 Comptroller Brad Lander Arrested by Masked Federal Agents While Escorting Immigrant from Court: A comprehensive write-up of how Brad Lander's arrest went down, from an excellent local outlet in New York. (Hell Gate) 🔗 Bid to Protect Lawmakers' Data Gains Momentum: The Minnesota shooter's alleged use of data brokers has revived a bill in Congress that would allow lawmakers to remove personal data from the internet. (Semafor) The Download Our flagship show Uncanny Valley dives into some of the strange and disturbing hallucinations from AI chatbots around the Los Angeles protests—the same ones that would come up blank when users asked for information about the 2024 election. Listen now. Thanks again for subscribing. You can find me on Bluesky or on Signal at Leak2Lahut.26.
The Guardian
13 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘He's moving at a truly alarming speed': Trump propels US into authoritarianism
It reads like a checklist of milestones on the road to autocracy. A succession of opposition politicians, including Alex Padilla, a US senator, are handcuffed and arrested by heavy-handed law enforcement for little more than questioning authority or voicing dissent. A judge is arrested in her own courthouse and charged with helping a defendant evade arrest. Masked snatch squads arrest and spirit people away in public in what seem to be consciously intimidating scenes. The president deploys the military on a dubious legal premise to confront protesters contesting his mass roundups of undocumented migrants. A senior presidential aide announces that habeas corpus – a vital legal defence for detainees – could be suspended. The sobering catalogue reflects the actions not of an entrenched dictatorship, but of Donald Trump's administration as the president's sternest critics struggle to process what they say has been a much swifter descent into authoritarianism than they imagined even a few weeks ago. 'Trump is throwing authoritarian punches at a much greater rate than any of these other cases in their first year in power,' said Steven Levitsky, Harvard political scientist and author, with Daniel Ziblatt, of How Democracies Die. 'But we don't yet know how many of those punches will land or how society will respond.' Five months after Trump's inauguration, seasoned analysts with years of studying one-time stable democracies degenerating into autocracies are voicing alarm at the speed of the Trump administration's authoritarian assault on institutions and constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of expression. They are unnerved by the deployment of masked Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (Ice) agents – dressed in plain clothes and without identifying official insignia – to arrest people on the streets for deportation, a tactic critics say is evocative of dictatorships and designed to provoke fear among the general population. Some voice doubts about the judiciary's capacity to act as a democratic safeguard, despite a wave of legal challenges to the president's executive orders. They cite the 6-3 conservative majority of the US supreme court, which has a history of issuing rulings friendly to the president, who appointed three of its justices to the bench during his first administration. Trump has tried to propel the US in an authoritarian direction with greater intensity than noted autocrats like the late Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, or Viktor Orbán, Hungary's prime minister, according to Levitsky. Eric Rubin, a former US ambassador to Bulgaria and acting ambassador to Moscow, said Trump was outpacing Vladimir Putin, the Russia president for whom he had often voiced admiration. 'This is going faster than Putin even came close to going in terms of gradually eliminating democratic institutions and democratic freedoms,' said Rubin, who witnessed Putin's early years in power at close quarters. 'It took him years. We're not even looking at six months here.' Bright Line Watch, a survey of political scientists, recently gave the US a score of 53 – the lowest since it started collecting data in 2017 – on a spectrum ranging from 0 for total dictatorship to 100, denoting a perfect democracy, according to Brendan Nyhan, a professor at Dartmouth College, one of the institutions conducting the study. Academics commissioned said they expected the country to fall further, forecasting a score of 48 by 2027. 'We're in the range of countries like Brazil and Israel, but well above countries like Russia,' said Nyhan. 'I do expect things to get worse. The potential for further democratic erosion is very real.' Key to whether Trump can tilt America decisively into authoritarianism will be his efforts to assert control over the armed forces, argued Levitsky. 'Trump's ramping up of the effort to politicize the military can still go in multiple directions,' he said. 'It could be really ugly and bad, because the only way that you can get from where we are to real authoritarianism like Nicaragua or Venezuela or Russia is if Trump has the military and security forces on his side, and he's taken steps in that direction.' Padilla's manhandling – after he tried to question homeland security secretary Kristi Noem at a news conference – drew fierce scrutiny. It took place against a backdrop of Trump's deployment of 4,000 national guard troops on to the streets of Los Angeles, later augmented by 700 active marines, against demonstrators protesting against the administration's anti-migrant crackdown, who did not appear to be present an undue challenge to local law enforcement authorities. The decisions took place against the opposition of California's governor, Gavin Newsom, who would normally be empowered to deploy the national guard in the state but whose role Trump usurped as he sought to make an example of a state with a large immigrant population and whose Democratic stranglehold he wishes to break. The deployments, denounced by opponents as an attempt to foment violent confrontation, took place in the run-up to a military parade staged in Washington last Saturday. Ostensibly held to honor the US army's 250th anniversary, the event was held – perhaps not coincidentally – on the president's 79th birthday. Opponents said it was redolent of autocracies like China, North Korea and Russia and reflected a desire by Trump to turn the military into his personal tool. Amid speculation that the parade might be disrupted by an anti-Trump No Kings protest on the same day, the president threatened to use 'very big force' against demonstrators, in apparent contradiction of the US's tradition of tolerance of peaceful dissent. In the event, no clashes between government forces and protesters were reported at the Washington parade on a day when an estimated 5 million demonstrators turned out at 2,100 locations across the US, according to organizers. However, there were sporadic reports of violence elsewhere; in northern Virginia, a man drove his car through a crowd of No Kings protesters, striking one, in what police said was an intentional act. But in a much worse portent for democracy on the same day, Melissa Hortman, a Democratic state legislator in Minnesota, was shot dead at her home along with her husband Mark in what was called a targeted political assassination allegedly carried out by 57-year-old Vance Boelter, whose friends say was a Christian nationalist Trump supporter. Boelter, who is now in police custody, is suspected of then shooting and wounding another politician, John Hoffman – a Democratic member of the Minnesota senate – and his wife, Yvette. He is said to have had a list with more than 45 targets, all of them Democrats, at the time of his arrest. Rubin said the shootings created a climate of fear comparable to that of Weimar Germany before the rise of Hitler. 'Fear is powerful and pernicious,' he said. 'People won't be willing to to be candidates for these positions because they're afraid. The general public is intimidated. I'm somewhat intimidated. 'You can say passivity is immoral in the face of evil, that it is complicity, all the things that were said about Nazi Germany. Well, it's easy to say that. In Nazi Germany, there were some courageous people, but not very many, because they were afraid.' Equally significant, analysts say, is the Trump administration's efforts to expand the legal boundaries of the president's powers – the fate of which will be decided by the supreme court, which issued a ruling last year that effectively granted Trump vast prosecutorial immunity for acts committed in office. 'Has Trump solidified his power? Have we reached a point where we have an out-of-control president who controls all the institutions? No, but we're at the 11th hour,' said Kim Lane Scheppele, a sociology and international affairs professor at Princeton University. 'He's moving at a truly alarming speed and pressing all the authoritarian buttons. We're a few supreme court decisions away from having a president we can't get rid of.' Trump's national guard deployments in Los Angeles may have been aimed at establishing a legal precedent enabling him to deploy troops at will when state authorities tried to defy him. 'He wants to establish that he can disable the governors from fighting back against him [by using] military force,' Scheppele said. 'The Los Angeles deployment was perceived as an escalation but in reality, the military haven't done that much. However, there's a legal infrastructure underneath it all that's scarier.' Levitsky, said the administration – spearheaded by Stephen Miler, the powerful White House deputy chief of staff – had adopted a practice of declaring emergencies to acquire potentially dictatorial powers. 'In the US constitution, almost every existing constraint on executive power can be circumvented in a state of emergency,' he said. 'And it's becoming clear that the administration is learning that emergencies are the easiest route to circumvent the law and not be blocked by the courts. The supreme court is very reluctant to say, 'No, that's not an emergency, Trump, you lied. You made that up.' It's sort of a free pass for circumventing the rule of law.' The White House used economic emergency legislation to impose sweeping trade tariffs, while invoking the 1798 Alien and Sedition Act, passed in anticipation of a war with France, to justify summarily deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members. Miller repeatedly called last week's protests in Los Angeles an 'insurrection', implicitly justifying the invocation of the Insurrection Act, which enables a president to use military forces to quash a rebellion on US soil. Writing in the Atlantic, David Frum, an anti-Trump conservative commentator, warned that the penchant for emergencies could be applied to next year's congressional elections, when the Democrats hope to regain control of the House of Representatives, an outcome that could curtail his authoritarian power grab. 'Trump knows full well that the midterms are coming. He is worried,' Frum wrote. 'He might already be testing ways to protect himself that could end in subverting those elections' integrity. So far, the results must be gratifying to him – and deeply ominous to anyone who hopes to preserve free and fair elections in the United States under this corrupt, authoritarian, and lawless presidency.' Even if Trump were to suffer an election reverse, his ability to wreak further havoc will remain, Nyhan warned, simply because Senate Republicans are unlikely to vote in sufficient numbers to remove him from office in the event of him being impeached by a Democratic-controlled House. 'The Founding Fathers anticipated Trump precisely,' he said, referring to the constitutional provision to try and remove a president and other officials for 'high crimes and misdemeanors'. 'It was just assumed that Congress will jealously guard its prerogatives and impeach and remove any president who exceeded the boundaries of the constitution. But in our current political system, that is a seemingly impossible task. 'So we face the prospect of a lawless authoritarian continuing to act for the next three and a half years, and there's a great deal of damage he can do in that time.'
