AlterNet
Heritage Action and President Donald Trump are coming under fire after the conservative advocacy organization made a claim that the president threatened to defund the state of Indiana should lawmakers not pass legislation to redraw its congressional district maps.
“President Trump has made it clear to Indiana leaders: if the Indiana Senate fails to pass the map, all federal funding will be stripped from the state,” Heritage Action wrote on social media on Thursday. “Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame.”
The post ended with, “#PassTheMap.”
While President Trump has publicly threatened to support primary challengers against lawmakers who oppose his redistricting push, NCRM has not found any news reports confirming Heritage Action’s assertion. It is possible the group is relying on information that has not been reported or made public.
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Should Indiana pass legislation to redistrict, it reportedly could pick up only two more GOP-held seats.
Critics blasted Heritage Action, a sister group to the Heritage Foundation, for appearing to support Trump’s alleged threat, and blasted the president as well.
“The president and one of the most influential conservative groups in the country are threatening to deprive all Indiana residents of paved roads, guard bases, and major projects if they don’t pass an extremely gerrymandered map to deprive voters of choice,” noted Isaac Saul, founder of Tangle News. “Awesome stuff.”
“Heritage sure loves authoritarianism,” remarked Media Matters researcher Zachary Pleat.
Calling it “nonsense,” Joel Griffith, a senior fellow at the conservative group Advancing American Freedom wrote: “Appalling to see @Heritage_Action endorse this unconstitutional threat by @realDonaldTrump. The President does not have power to coerce state legislators to redraw congressional maps.”
Others appeared to aim their ire directly at the president.
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“This is the behavior of a madman,” declared Tim Carney, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
“This isn’t conservative. This is fascist,” commented former Republican U.S. Congressman Joe Walsh.
Mother Jones’ D.C. bureau chief David Corn declared the move “dictatorial.”
“This does not sound like an appropriate or legal use of federal authority or presidential discretion,” observed Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias.
“Nothing about this shakedown is conservative,” noted CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Jacob Stewart, the deputy opinion editor for the IndyStar called the move “illegal.”
Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the conservative online magazine The Dispatch, wrote: “I remember when Heritage cared about federalism, the rule of law, separation of powers, and all that stuff. Now it’s all ‘We love Trump’s musk, do what he says (or what Tucker says).'”
“This is called extortion,” wrote former White House correspondent Sam Youngman, also deeming it “illegal.”
“If this comes to pass,” wrote IndyStar columnist James Briggs, “then the story will be that Trump is punishing Indiana citizens for reasons that have nothing to do with them and so-called Indianans will see the punitive measures for what they are.”
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