News
‘Time to Charge and Arrest Wilbur Ross’: Political Scientist Responds to Report Trump Used Census ‘For Partisan Gain’
A well-known political scientist is responding to news the Trump administration used the 2020 Census for partisan, political gain.
“Time to charge and arrest Wilbur Ross,” says Dr. Norman Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the right wing American Enterprise Institute, a contributing editor for the Atlantic, a former political science professor at Catholic University, and a Democrat who has criticized the Electoral College.
“A new stash of documents obtained by Congress has confirmed that the Trump administration pushed to add a citizenship question to the census to help Republicans win elections, not to protect people’s voting rights, a House committee report concluded on Wednesday,” The New York Times reports.
Wilbur Ross (photo) was Donald Trump’s Secretary of Commerce, the head of the federal government agency that oversees the U.S. Census Bureau which is tasked every ten years with conducting the entire Census operation.
The Census is used to determine how many congressional seats each state is allotted, and how many Electoral College votes each state receives. The 2020 Census results were used to give Texas two additional Electoral College votes. Florida, North Carolina, Oregon, Colorado, and Montana each received one additional vote, while seven other states (California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia) each lost one vote.
The U.S. Constitution specifies counting the “the whole number of persons in each State.” It says “persons,” not “citizens.”
Citing “new findings based on drafts of internal memos and secret email communications between political appointees at the Commerce Department,” The Times adds that those “documents provided the most definitive evidence yet that the Trump administration aimed to exclude noncitizens from the count to influence congressional apportionment that would benefit the Republican Party.”
It also says “the report concluded … that senior officials used a false pretext to build a legal case for asking all residents of the United States whether they were American citizens.”
“Former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had said in congressional testimony that the government decided to add the question because it required more accurate data on citizenship to enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965.”
READ MORE: Trump’s Commerce Secretary Concealed Business Ties with Putin’s Son-in-Law, Leaked Documents Show
The Guardian’s Sam Levine adds that “Wilbur Ross testified to Congress in 2018 that the decision to add the question was based ‘solely on a DOJ request.’ DOJ has declined to prosecute him for lying to Congress.”
In July of 2019 a census outreach activist told ABC News, “Whether the question is on the form or not, the damage has been done.” That damage is an undercounting of people, especially undocumented people fearful of being deported or otherwise negatively affected if they were to fill out the census.
NPR adds that ultimately the citizenship question was not added to the Census.
“Long kept from the public, the Trump administration memos and emails were disclosed by lawmakers following a more than two-year legal fight that began after Trump officials refused to turn them over for a congressional investigation. Citing the ‘exceptional circumstances’ of the case, the Biden administration, which inherited the lawsuit last year, agreed to allow House oversight committee members and their staff to review the documents.”
“The hotly contested question — ‘Is this a person a citizen of the United States?’ — ultimately did not end up on the 2020 census forms. In 2019, the Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration’s unprecedented efforts after finding its use of the Voting Rights Act as the stated reasoning for the question ‘seems to have been contrived,’ as Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.”
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Explaining the “massive shift” he intends to impose on the focus of the Federal Communications Commission, Chairman Brendan Carr announced that he will take America back to the era when local television stations shaped what the American people “think.”
“So again,” Carr told Fox News on Thursday, “we’re going back to that era when local TV stations, judging the public interest, get to decide what the American people think.”
“And again, we’re constraining the power through those actions of Disney, of Comcast. And I think the American public can be much better off. But, yeah, I don’t think this is the last shoe to drop,” he said, appearing to refer to the suspension of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel.
READ MORE: Trump Labels Flag Burning, Organized Protests ‘Incitement to Riot’
“This is a massive shift that’s taking place in the media ecosystem, and I think the consequences are going to continue to flow,” he declared.
On Thursday, speaking aboard Air Force One, President Donald Trump wrongly suggested that broadcast networks, licensed by the FCC, are “not allowed” to criticize him.
“When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do — if you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative one in years, or something — when you go back and take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that,” Trump said.
Carr is one of the authors of The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. President Donald Trump praised Carr as “a warrior for Free Speech,” CBS News reported last year.
There are few “local” television stations left in the U.S., in the sense that nearly all are owned by several major broadcast conglomerates, including Nexstar Media Group, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Gray Television, Tegna, Hearst, and Scripps.
Carr: We’re going to back to that era where local TV stations, judging the public interest, get to decide what the American people think…
I don’t think this is the last shoe to drop… the consequences will continue to flow. pic.twitter.com/UFErQ9ealK
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 18, 2025
READ MORE: ‘Corrupt Abuse of Power’: Dems Rip FCC Chair Over Kimmel Suspension
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump, explaining his controversial decision to attempt to label Antifa a terrorist organization, said burning the American flag is an “incitement to riot,” as are organized protests — which he claimed lead to “death.”
“They have signs and they’re all professionally made,” Trump told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Thursday, apparently referring to those suspected of celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk, NBC News reported. “Real protesters make them in their basement.”
After suggesting without offering any evidence that philanthropist George Soros might be behind organized protests, Trump declared, “it’s incitement to riot. That’s a criminal act. And people are dying because of it. So it’s really, you know, it’s death.”
MacCALLUM: Who’s behind it? Do you have a gut feeling?
TRUMP: You hear Soros. But it’s incitement to riot. That’s a criminal act. pic.twitter.com/P2gtJl8dEn
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 18, 2025
Speaking about his executive order to designate Antifa — which is not an organized group and it does it have leaders — a terrorist group, Trump said, “They are.”
READ MORE: ‘All They Do Is Hit Trump’: President Says Networks ‘Not Allowed to Do That’
Asked, “do you believe that there is a vast terrorist movement in the United States that people need to be aware of, and is it responsible for Charlie Kirk’s killing, for the attempts on your life, for these CEOs that we saw in New York City?” Trump replied, “You never know, and we’ll find out, maybe.”
“But in the meantime, we’re gonna do a big thing with respect to Antifa. It’s a sick group, a very, very sick group.”
“They love burning the American flag. I think it’s terrible that they burn the American flag. And we’re saying it incites riots, and therefore, you go to jail for one year, if you burn the American flag.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it is not illegal to burn the American flag, it is a protected form of free speech.
MacCALLUM: Do you believe that there is a vast terrorist movement in the United States that’s responsible for Charlie Kirk’s killing and the attempts on your life?
TRUMP: You never know, do you. And we’ll find out. In the meantime, we’re gonna do a big thing with respect to… pic.twitter.com/6jmh3ucYoA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 18, 2025
READ MORE: ‘Corrupt Abuse of Power’: Dems Rip FCC Chair Over Kimmel Suspension
President Donald Trump has been claiming that the ABC suspended late night host Jimmy Kimmel because of poor ratings, but he shared a different thought on Thursday about what the future of network television might entail.
“When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump, that’s all they do — if you go back, I guess they haven’t had a conservative one in years, or something — when you go back and take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They’re licensed. They’re not allowed to do that,” Trump said, according to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
The Independent added that President Trump “told reporters on Air Force One as he jets back from his State visit to the U.K. that because he won the election and networks give him ‘wholly bad publicity,’ that ‘I would think maybe their license should be taken away.'”
“It will be up to Brendan Carr. I think Brendan Carr is outstanding. He’s a patriot. He loves our country, and he’s a tough guy,” the president said, referring to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
Trump: You have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump. They’re not allowed to do that pic.twitter.com/lMJA8AHgjs
— FactPost (@factpostnews) September 18, 2025
READ MORE: ‘Corrupt Abuse of Power’: Dems Rip FCC Chair Over Kimmel Suspension
Image via Reuters
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‘All They Do Is Hit Trump’: President Says Networks ‘Not Allowed to Do That’
‘Massive Shift’: FCC Chair Says Local TV Will ‘Decide What the American People Think’
Trump Labels Flag Burning, Organized Protests ‘Incitement to Riot’
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Trump Labels Flag Burning, Organized Protests ‘Incitement to Riot’
‘All They Do Is Hit Trump’: President Says Networks ‘Not Allowed to Do That’
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