Thousands protest against Trump’s firing of Jeff Sessions, but good news in Florida as 1.5m former felons win the right to vote

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Protests against Sessions firing

Across the US, thousands of demonstrators protested against Donald Trump’s firing of attorney general Jeff Sessions. The protests were the result of a longstanding commitment people made through the “Nobody is above the law” campaign.

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Activists signed up to rally to protect Robert Mueller, should Trump do anything that threatened the special counsel’s investigation of Russian election interference, links between Trump aides and Moscow and possible obstruction of justice by the president.

When Trump booted Sessions, people received texts and emails with details on their nearest protests. The campaign was planned as far back as March by more than a dozen organizations including MoveOn, Indivisible and Women’s March.

Activists are hoping to keep the pressure on as Trump ponders a permanent appointment to replace Sessions – and controversy rages over the man he named to fill the role on a temporary basis, Matt Whitaker.

Victory for voting rights in Florida

Confusion reigned in Florida on Friday, over potential recounts in both Andrew Gillum’s campaign for governor and Bill Nelson’s run for Senate. There was, however, one big success in the Sunshine State this week: 1.5 million ex-felons won the right to vote.

Florida voted overwhelmingly in favor of amendment 4 on Tuesday, which reinstates voting rights for nearly all of the state’s former felons. It passed by a 30-point margin, 65% to 35%, and had strong bipartisan support, Jamiles Lartey reported for the Guardian.

Jamiles spoke with Valencia Gunder, who was convicted of a felony after writing a bad check to her university in 2007. She was part of the campaign to reinstate voting rights.

As a United States citizen, as a resident of the state of Florida, as a person who is affected by these leaders that we put into office and the decisions that are being made, I should be able to weigh in,” Gunder said. “I strongly believe that taxation without representation is against my human rights and civil rights as a United States citizen.

Republicans acting blue

House Republicans held a private conference call on Thursday to “take stock of the election results”, according to Politico. It can’t have been that private because Politico got a ton of information on the call including:

Representative French Hill of Arkansas said he would not vote for any candidate to lead the [National Republican Congressional Committee] unless they’ve come up with a way to address ActBlue – the online fundraising platform that funnels millions of dollars to Democrats.

It was not clear what Hill wanted to be done about the fundraising software that allows Democratic campaigns and candidates to easily accept individual donations online. But ActBlue is something Republicans have darkly warned of over the past few weeks, even when they’ve accidentally called it “Code Blue”, which is often.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Democrat Laura Kelly celebrates her victory over Kris Kobach in the Kansas governor’s race. Photograph: Dave Kaup/Reuters

More than $1bn was raised through ActBlue for Democrats in the 2018 midterms, according to Mother Jones.

“That there’s no comparable tool on the right has been a subject of concern among conservatives for a long time,” Mother Jones says. “Since at least 2007, Republicans have talked about building their own ActBlue.”

That hasn’t happened, so maybe Hill is suggesting Republicans do now build their own ActBlue. Or maybe he wants Republicans to investigate this mysterious, shadowy, but-actually-quite-well-known Code Blue.

What we’re reading

Vox interviewed activist and journalist LA Kauffman about her new book, How to Read a Protest: The Art of Organizing and Resistance. The book looks at the 2017 Women’s March and the knock-on effect it had on activism across the US.

Vox’s Sean Illing asked Kauffman about some of the misconceptions around protests, and she explained that protests are sometimes about long-term goals: