Author: Data and Research Manager

Mo Brooks throws Trump under the bus in response to lawsuit that accuses him of inciting MAGA mob

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Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) claims in a new court filing that he was asked by a White House official to speak at former president Donald Trump’s infamous “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The Alabama Republican was given Trump’s endorsement for the U.S. Senate after making the speech, which a lawsuit alleges helped incite the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol, but Brooks’ attorneys responded by insisting he only took part because the former president wanted him there.

“Brooks only gave the Ellipse Speech because the White House asked him to, in his capacity as a United States Congressman,” the new court filing says. “But for the White House request, Brooks would not have appeared at the Ellipse Rally.” Continue reading.

Trump biographer explains why Ivanka Trump ‘is in peril’ along with Allen Weisselberg

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President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump is in about as much trouble as Allen Weisselberg is, according to biographer Michael D’Antonio.

Speaking to CNN’s Jim Acosta on Sunday, D’Antonio explained that the kinds of things that Weisselberg is accused of are similar to things that Ivanka Trump also did while working for the Trump Organization.

“You know, he really is acting as if he is going to go down with the ship,” said D’Antonio of Weisselberg. “I think this is astounding given Michael Cohen’s example. But there’s another thing that I notice in the president’s — or former president’s complaints. And his idea that, ‘Well, they’re going after really good people, and they would only be going after me because of political motivations.’ Well, the big problem for him is that he invited all of this. He ran for president in the first place as a publicity stunt. He wanted to amp up his visibility and increase his bottom line. He never intended to be elected president, and then when he became president, journalists started digging into the facts of his wealth, which has always been in doubt, and then people that he really hurt, that he steamrollered offer the years leaked documents to The New York Times that gave the truth about his taxes for the world to see. Faced with all of that, the prosecutions had no choice but to go after him. So, the idea this is political is crazy. He brought it on himself. These are practices that have been going on for more than a dozen years, and he’s getting what he deserves.”

Republican lashes out at ‘capitulation’ of GOP to Trump — and says Lauren Boebert clearly knew about Jan. 6

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Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a 43-year-old Air Force veteran, always assumed that there would be a “career-ending” vote he would have to take. But according to a New York Times profile, Kinzinger assumed it would be about Social Security instead. After the attack on the U.S Capitol Jan. 6, it became clear what he would have to do.

“I made the decision early in my career that I would be willing to take a potentially career-ending vote,” he told the Times. “But I thought that vote would be for something like a Social Security reform bill. I never thought it would be for defending democracy.”

He explained that things have changed because there is so much mistrust, and since Jan. 6 not many other Republicans have joined him. Continue reading.

‘Critical Race Theory’ Was Weaponized Against Obama In 2012 — And Flopped

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A few weeks before he died, Breitbart News founder Andrew Breitbart teased his masterplan to take down President Barack Obama ahead of the 2012 election. In part, the plan relied on associating Democrats with the little known academic study of systemic racism called “critical race theory” and rendering it radical and toxic enough to damage them in the upcoming election cycle.

“This election we’re going to vet him from his college days to show you why racial division and class warfare are central to what hope and change was sold in 2008,” Breitbart declared during a speech at Conservative Political Action Conference. “The videos are going to come out.”

The most-hyped video among the ones Breitbart promised was ironically already publicly available and had been reported on during the 2008 election. It finally surfaced after Breitbart’s death in early March 2012. The footage showed a law-school era Obama who was then the president of the Harvard Law Review talking about and hugging an academic named Derrick Bell at a 1990 protest. The video was supposedly evidence of Obama embracing — literally in this case — extreme anti-white views. Continue reading.

FBI launches flurry of arrests over attacks on journalists during Capitol riot

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Nearly six months after the U.S. Capitol riot, the Justice Department has begun arresting a new category of alleged criminals — those who attacked reporters or damaged their equipment as journalists documented the violence perpetrated by supporters of President Donald Trump.

The first such charge came last week, when 43-year-old Shane Jason Woods of Illinois was charged with engaging in violence on the Capitol grounds Jan. 6, as well as assaulting a law enforcement officer. Authorities say Woods was caught on video knocking down a cameraman.

The arrests come at a contentious moment for the Justice Department and First Amendment advocates, who have sharply criticized federal law enforcement for secretly issuing subpoenas of reporters’ phone records during the Trump administration. Continue reading.

Prosecutors say spreadsheets from Trump Organization offer a road map for its indictment. Where the investigation goes now is the question.

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In prosecutors’ telling, the Trump Organization provided a road map for its own indictment.

In documents filed in the New York Supreme Court last week, prosecutors claimed that the company had spent 15 years paying its chief financial officer “off the books,” giving him cars, an apartment, tuition payments and cash that were hidden from income tax authorities.

But at the same time, according to allegations included in the indictment, the Trump Organization also was keeping internal spreadsheets that tallied the payments that were being hidden. Continue reading.

Senate DFL Leader Susan Kent statement on Senate Republicans refusing to adjourn sine die in order to consider commissioner confirmations

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Today, the Senate Republicans refused to adjourn the special session, even though the House adjourned sine die, and all 2of the budget bills have been signed by the governor, including the tax bill. On the Senate floor this morning, it was confirmed that the Republican Majority is planning to take up commissioner confirmations next week and extend the special session indefinitely. 

In response to this news, Senate DFL Leader Susan Kent (DFL-Woodbury) released the following statement:

“The Senate has been in session consistently over the past 18 months. Our members and staff worked tirelessly to create and pass a $52 billion budget for the people of Minnesota and were ready to adjourn sine die, as the House did early yesterday morning. We were surprised to hear that the Senate Republicans plan to keep the Senate in session indefinitely to consider confirmations of commissioners from the Walz administration.” 

Continue reading “Senate DFL Leader Susan Kent statement on Senate Republicans refusing to adjourn sine die in order to consider commissioner confirmations”

Rep. Adam Kinzinger on the Moral Failure of Republicans and the Big Lie

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Since the horrifying events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois has been a consistent, if lonely, Republican voice speaking out against the big lie that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. After the sidelining of Representative Liz Cheney from leadership, Kinzinger, a 43-year-old Air Force veteran who was first elected to the House in 2010, was further entrenched as one of the most influential sitting Republican politicians willing to regularly and publicly denounce that dangerous fiction. Inhabiting that position is just about the last thing Kinzinger ever imagined his job would entail. “I made the decision early in my career that I would be willing to take a potentially career-ending vote,” says Kinzinger, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the attempted insurrection. “But I thought that vote would be for something like a Social Security reform bill. I never thought it would be for defending democracy.”

How does it feel to have your job these days? I could imagine there’s an even greater sense of purpose. I could also imagine it being demoralizing. You pretty much nailed it. The job has changed because there is so much mistrust. Both within the party and between parties. But yes, there is a sense of aggressive purpose. On the one hand, it’s important for me to do what I’m doing and to speak out. On the other hand, you look around since the election and not many more people have joined me in speaking out about the big lie, and that is a little discouraging.

In the Know: July 7, 2021

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DFL Party News
DFL Party Statement on the Resignation of Laura Bishop, DFL Press Release

GovernorTim Walz
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency head resigns ahead of possible firing by Senate, Duluth News Tribune

Minnesota Legislature
Legislature passes rules to end ‘lunch shaming,’ MinnPost
Law change aims to help contain chronic wasting disease in Minnesota, Brainerd Dispatch

Continue reading “In the Know: July 7, 2021”

Far-Right Extremist Finds an Ally in an Arizona Congressman

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Representative Paul Gosar’s association with the white nationalist Nick Fuentes is the most vivid example of the Republican Party’s growing acceptance of extremism.

WASHINGTON — Nick Fuentes, the leader of a white nationalist group, was bemoaning the political persecution he said he was facing from the federal government when he paused during a recent livestream to praise one of his few defenders.

“There is some hope, maybe, for America First in Congress,” Mr. Fuentes said, referring to the name of his movement, a group that aims to preserve white, Christian identity and culture. “And that is thanks to — almost exclusively — to Representative Paul Gosar.”

Mr. Gosar, a five-term Republican and dentist from Prescott, Ariz., emerged this year as a vociferous backer of the “Stop the Steal” movement that falsely claimed that former President Donald J. Trump won the 2020 election and spearheaded the rally in Washington on Jan. 6 that led to the deadly Capitol riot. Continue reading.