Author: Data and Research Manager

Oklahoma Election Board Secretary Shoots Down Republican’s Request For Audit Of 2020 Results

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Saying Oklahoma’s election system is “among the most accurate and secure anywhere in the entire world,” the state’s top election official on Tuesday rejected a call by a Republican state representative to audit the results of the 2020 general election.

“There is no controversy surrounding the 2020 General Election in Oklahoma,” Oklahoma State Election Board Secretary Paul Ziriax wrote in response to a letter from Rep. Sean Roberts (R-Hominy) which requested an investigation into last year’s election despite no evidence of any wrongdoing or inaccuracies. “Because of the strong protections our state has in place for the security and integrity of elections, there is no credible suspicion or evidence of pervasive fraud here. In fact, our state successfully defended a lawsuit against our election integrity laws in 2020. Furthermore, evidence suggests that voter suppression is virtually non-existent in our state.”

Ziriax said such an audit would be unnecessarily time-consuming and expensive, as well as potentially unlawful. Continue reading.

Trump gets caught plagiarizing in his endorsement of an ally’s book

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Former President Donald Trump issued a statement on Wednesday encouraging his fans to buy a recently released book by Fox News host Jesse Watters — and it immediately drew skepticism due to its coherence and post-fifth-grade vocabulary.

The statement, which was flagged by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, promotes Watters’s new book using vocabulary that is highly sophisticated compared to most other Trump statements.

“Interspersed are [Watters’s] thoughtful suggestions for overcoming left-wing radicalism, maintaining American democracy, moving beyond aging hippies (like his long-suffering, loving parents), saving the world from social justice warriors and the deep state — all while smirking his way through life in only the nicest way,” read the former president’s statement.

Haberman immediately wanted to know “who wrote this” statement, as did many of her followers. Continue reading.

Select committee on Capitol attack to hear police testimony July 27

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The special congressional committee investigating the Capitol attack of Jan. 6 will hold its first hearing on July 27, Democratic leaders announced Wednesday.

The much-anticipated public hearing will feature testimony from police officers who defended the Capitol complex from the pro-Trump mob attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The extraordinary episode prompted House Democrats, joined by 10 Republicans, to impeach Trump just a week later for inciting the violence. And last month, the House created the select committee to investigate the causes and security lapses surrounding the rampage. Continue reading.

Tucker Carlson’s first grade teacher busts him for lying about her: ‘That’s the most embellished thing I ever heard’

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Tucker Carlson’s first grade teacher called him out for lying about her.

The Fox News broadcaster blamed the teacher, whom he identified as Mrs. Raymond, for his longtime hatred for liberals, calling the educator “a parody of earth-mother liberalism” who “wore long Indian-print skirts” and was so terrible at her job that his wealthy father was forced to hire a private tutor, but the Washington Post tracked her down for comment.

“Oh my God,” said retired teacher Marianna Raymond. “That is the most embellished, crazy thing I ever heard.” Continue reading.

Anti-vaxxers gain power on right, triggering new fears

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Public health experts are growing increasingly concerned about a rise in anti-vaccination rhetoric among elected officials and right-wing media as a new wave of coronavirus infections begins to wash over Americans who have yet to get vaccinated.

Legislators in more than 40 states have introduced measures to bar vaccine passports, and many Republican governors have signed executive orders or laws barring their use. 

In some cases, Republican governors and legislators are now repeating far-right talking points questioning the safety and effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines, in spite of the overwhelming scientific evidence that the vaccines developed in the past year are some of the safest and most effective ever created.  Continue reading.

WATCH: Marjorie Taylor Greene absurdly rants ‘there were no court cases’ challenging 2020 election results

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Republican Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene falsely claimed “there were no court cases” challenging the results of the 2020 presidential contest, during an “election integrity town hall” in Georgia on Tuesday night.

“Here is the issue I have: Joe Biden was in Pennsylvania today talking about oh, how all these court cases have proven that there was no voter fraud,'” Taylor Greene told attendees at the event in Rome sponsored by Women for America First. “Let’s be real, there weren’t any court cases, were there? No, because they were dropped based on standing, so the evidence has not been heard.”

According to USA Today, Trump and his allies filed 62 lawsuits challenging the results of the election. While some were dismissed due to lack of standing, many were thrown out “based on the merits of the voter fraud allegations.” PolitiFact adds: “More than 60 lawsuits brought by Trump and his allies failed because they were unable to prove their allegations. Some lawsuits were dismissed due to errors in the filings and other procedural issues.” Continue reading.

Opinion: Republicans are dismantling the right to vote. But they’ve enshrined the right to infect.

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In the United States in the year 2021, you, as an American citizen, do not necessarily have the right to vote.

You do not necessarily have the right to teach or to learn about matters of race, gender or anything else state lawmakers consider “divisive concepts.”

But you do have one absolute, sacrosanct, inviolate, God-given, self-evident and inalienable right: the right to refuse a coronavirus vaccine — and to infect as many people as you can.

With the blessing of the Roberts court, legislatures in Republican-run states are rushing to impose new voting restrictions, particularly on non-White voters. A tally by the Brennan Center finds that, as of June 21, 17 states had enacted 28 new laws restricting the ability to vote since the start of this year. Continue reading.

Mike Lindell pushes election fantasies at CPAC — and accuses reporter of destroying the country

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MyPillow CEO turned 2020 election truther Mike Lindell, whom I have interviewed many times by phone, got his first chance to meet me in person on Sunday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) gathering here. He did not waste the opportunity, accusing me of being “evil” and “destroying the country” 

While taking in the carnivalesque sights and of CPAC early on Sunday afternoon, I noticed Lindell by his booth on the conference floor. I approached and introduced myself, beginning to ask some of the questions he has avoided answering during our multiple phone conversations.

Much of the following exchange was captured on video and later posted by Raw Story. “I’m going to tell you something, and I’m going to tell everybody,” Lindell began. “In our country’s history, every single election official, if there’s fraud involved, there’s not a statute of limitations. They take the guy that won, and they put him back in office, and it’s just never happened at the presidential level.” (In fact, cases of courts overturning certified elections at any level are vanishingly rare. At the federal level, it is likely a legal and constitutional impossibility.) Continue reading.

US to evacuate Afghans who assisted US military

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The United States is formally launching “Operation Allies Refuge” to evacuate Afghans who helped U.S. troops during the 20-year war and are facing threats to their lives from the Taliban, the Biden administration announced Wednesday.

Flights out of Afghanistan for those who are already in the process of obtaining special immigrant visas (SIVs) will start in the last week of July, a senior administration official said in a statement.

No further details on when the evacuations will start will be released, the statement said, citing “operational security.” Officials also did not say where the Afghans would be sent. Continue reading.

Conservative legal expert explains why Trump’s latest ‘frivolous lawsuits’ show his ‘appalling constitutional ignorance’

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Last week in a federal court in his adopted state of Florida, former President Donald Trump filed a civil lawsuit against three major tech companies: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, claiming that all them of them have violated the 1st Amendment rights he enjoys under the United States Constitution. Law professor Kimberly Wehle, in an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on July 14, explains why Trump’s “frivolous lawsuits” have absolutely no merit.

Following the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol Building — an insurrectionist attack that Trump incited, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, arch-conservative Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and others who voted to impeach him — Trump’s Twitter and Facebook accounts were suspended. And his YouTube channel was suspended as well.

Wehle, who teaches law at the University of Baltimore and is a former assistant federal prosecutor, explains, “Given his utter ignorance about the U.S. Constitution, it remains shocking that Donald Trump was — as recently as half a year ago! — charged with preserving, protecting and defending it. The latest evidence of his appalling constitutional ignorance comes in the form of a series of frivolous lawsuits that reveal an embarrassingly distorted understanding of our national charter. At least this legal mess has one silver lining: It’s an opportunity for another mini-lesson in basic civics.” Continue reading.