Rising This Week: 7 million people
After massive protests, watch out for more pressure on Trump this week, including Epstein-related revelations and reckonings on vindictive prosecution.
Millions of people believed that exercising their First Amendment rights can push back against authoritarianism.
This newsletter recognizes they’re correct and reports actionable information.
Among the images of millions of people in cities and towns around the globe, one photograph from No Kings 2.0 showed a sign on a relatively empty street after the protest had dispersed.
“SMALL ACTS OF DEFIANCE ADD UP,” it read.
Nobody could characterize the estimated 7 million-strong protests as “small.” They took place in more than 2,700 places in the United States and internationally. Organizers in major cities reported that the crowds dwarfed those that gathered during the original No Kings protests in July.
Unable to play down their size, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) tried to vilify them as gatherings of haters and terror-supporters, only to have police departments in several cities describe the protests as completely peaceful. The San Diego Police Department thanked the people of the city for “keeping it classy.” There were no protest-related arrests there or in other major metropolitan areas like Austin, Texas, New York, N.Y. and Washington, D.C.
Before the protests in Los Angeles, I interviewed the 50501 Movement’s national press coordinator
, and he personally observed that the first wave of No Kings protests tamed Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in his city.“After that, the occupation faded,” Dunn said. “The curfews faded away. It got defanged. They tried to make propaganda videos, and it backfired horribly because everyone knew that they were liars.”
With Trump’s troops now under a court order forbidding their involvement in civilian law enforcement in California, Dunn said that National Guard presence is barely noticeable any more in Los Angeles.
In the clip above, Dunn mentioned the arrest of LA-based labor organizer David Huerta in June, and prosecutors were forced to downgrade his felony charge to a misdemeanor on the day of No Kings 2.0. It’s too early to measure the direct effects of the latest wave of protests in terms of political momentum and civilian control of U.S. streets, but the intangible effects shouldn’t be minimized.
Millions of people across the country captured the news cycle, debunked attempts to demonize them as violent mobs, and moved into a new week feeling engaged, mobilized and empowered.
Like the anonymous creator of that street sign, their individual acts add up, too.
More Epstein-related pressure
In the case of Jeffrey Epstein’s victim Virginia Giuffre, the work of her life continues to make an impact after her death earlier this year.
Her posthumously published memoir “Nobody’s Girl” hits bookshelves on Tuesday.
On Friday night, I joined CNN’s Laura Coates to discuss how the fallout from the book apparently already started. Britain’s Prince Andrew gave up his royal titles days before its publication. You can watch that segment below.
Laura and I discussed the House Oversight Committee testimony of Trump’s former Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, who tried to shift blame for Epstein’s extraordinarily lenient 2008 plea deal.
Giuffre’s book is not expected to have significant revelations about Trump, beyond the well-reported fact that Ghislaine Maxwell recruited Giuffre from Mar-a-Lago. The book’s co-author told CBS that Giuffre was a “huge Trump fan because he campaigned on releasing the Epstein files.”
Instead, Trump has spent months fighting the release of the files, and the book is virtually guaranteed to magnify public attention to the story.
Every Sunday, I put out this preview of the week’s stories with a focus on connecting the news cycle to civic engagement.
The court listings include information about how to attend significant court hearings in-person or virtually. That’s because courthouses belong to the public. Everyone has the right to attend, and what happens inside them directly affects our lives.
No Kings 2.0 may have passed, but public protests never stop.
That’s why this newsletter highlights significant demonstrations every week, along with whatever information is available about how people have petitioned public officials about their concerns and grievances. That means conducting time- and labor-intensive research on a weekly basis.
If you can afford to support that work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, which will unlock the listings below.
Below the paywall, find out:
* Three criminal cases where vindictive prosecution may come up this week.
* How No Kings 2.0 organizers are planning the next chapter.
* What drove the most calls to Congress last week on a popular app.
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