So much for that whole “Fani Willis is going to be removed” thing
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp says he will not support a special session of the state legislature to enact an outside panel to consider removing Fani Willis. In other words, this is the non-story that I said it was. Willis was never going to be magically ousted.
This was obvious when the Republican legislature worded its own law such that it would need to jump through all these unrealistic hoops – and ultimately rely on the judgment of an outside panel – to try to get her removed. This was dead on arrival, by design, from the start.
The Georgia Republican legislature simply wanted to make it look like they were trying to save Trump, so they could score political points with Trump’s base. Which they did, since the entire media (including MSNBC) helped them hype the phony narrative that they would remove her.
If the Republican legislature wanted to remove Willis, it would have granted itself that power unilaterally, not in a way that needed a special session, the help of an anti-Trump governor, and the crapshoot of leaving the decision to an outside counsel.
The talking heads who tried to make you think Willis was going to be removed will now spin this as a surprise, an unlikely development, “whew we were almost doomed but thank god for Brian Kemp.” But that’ll just be them covering for the fact that they hyped a scary storyline for ratings while leaving out the part where they knew it was never going anywhere.
I’ve also pointed out along the way that the actions of the people involved with these criminal cases gave away that none of them ever thought there was any chance of Willis being removed. Willis had grand jury time in early 2023, but she chose to wait once the fake electors started flipping. If she felt she were facing a ticking clock over her own removal, she could have brought her indictments back then.
And if there were any chance that Willis were going to be removed, defendants like Powell and Chesebro would be trying to drag out their trials in the hope of outlasting her, instead they’re seeking speedy trials.
The media wanted us to believe that Willis was in danger of being ousted in October, but somehow neither Willis nor the defendants were aware of it? Given how much the media has obsessively hyped this narrative, of course Willis and the defendants heard the story. They just shrugged it off, because it wasn’t a real thing, and they went about their business. When the political media tries to convince us that some simplistic magic wand is about to be waved, yet everyone who’s actually involved in the story is taking actions that make clear they don’t think any such magic wand exists, that’s a dead giveaway that the media is simply milking a non-story for ratings.
Georgia Republicans will still continue going through the motions of acting like they’re going to magically remove Willis, in order to continue scoring political points on their own side, and the media (on both sides) will likely continue to act as their publicist on this. But this was simply never a story – and even if the media continues hyping it, it still won’t be a story.
