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That’s where Mike Davis comes in. Most folks, except for the most politically obsessed, have never heard of Davis, but it’s time for people to learn. The mid-40s-ish Davis takes the abstract warnings that U.S. democracy is on the line in the 2024 election and brings them to life.
Actually, there are two Mike Davises.
The first you might call “resume Mike Davis,” with the Des Moines, Iowa, native hitting all the right marks for rapid advancement in today’s conservative legal movement. A member of the Federalist Society, Davis worked as a consultant to boost the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, then became chief counsel for nominations to the GOP chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, fellow Iowan Chuck Grassley. He served Grassley during the contentious hearings over eventual Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the push by Trump and then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to pack the judiciary with right-wing judges. He now heads two ultraconservative efforts, the Article III Project and the Internet Accountability Project.
On paper, it wouldn’t be a stretch for a Republican president to give someone like Davis a top post. But the attorney’s resume doesn’t tell you about the other Mike Davis — now a verbal pit bull for Trump and his MAGA movement, making increasingly outrageous statements seemingly aimed at getting the attention of the boss and his inner circle.
In late September, Davis appeared on a right-wing podcast, the Benny Johnson Show, and described what he might do given three weeks as an interim attorney general by a victorious Trump in 2025. He joked — perhaps — that the new president would have to grant him a pardon as he left town after what Davis described as “a reign of terror” during which he would “unleash hell on Washington, D.C.”
What came next was an agenda very much in line with Trump’s overheated rally rhetoric, the not-secret Project 2025 blueprint, and recent news leaks. Davis claimed he would demolish the “deep state” of career politicians, indict the current president “and every other scumball, sleazeball Biden,” and help to pardon the Jan. 6 insurrectionists.
“We’re gonna deport a lot of people, 10 million people and growing — anchor babies, their parents, their grandparents,” Davis added. “We’re gonna put kids in cages. It’s gonna be glorious. We’re gonna detain a lot of people in the D.C. gulag and Gitmo.”
Look, we can all agree there’s something about the podcast format and its jokey banter that encourages guests to make outrageous, over-the-top statements (just ask Charissa Thompson, right?). The reality, though, of what Davis told Benny Johnson is that perhaps it should not be taken literally, but seriously. This ambitious right-wing lawyer may or may not be a true believer but he knows how to audition for Trump, and it’s working.
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Read the full article HERE.