3CD DFL

GOP increasingly balks at calling Jan. 6 an insurrection

A growing number of Republican lawmakers are refusing to say that the Jan. 6 insurrection was actually an insurrection.

Nearly two dozen GOP House members voted against legislation this week that would award Congressional Gold Medals to police officers who defended the Capitol that day, in part because it describes the mob of then-President Trump’s supporters who were trying to stop Congress from ratifying the 2020 election results as “insurrectionists.”

“They were protesting. And I don’t approve of the way they protested, but it wasn’t an insurrection,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). Continue reading.

Speaker of the House? These delusional Trump sycophants are giving the former president false hope

Former President Donald Trump departed the White House nearly six months ago and he still cannot accept defeat. To make matters worse, many of his loyal supporters are continuing to give him false hope about his future in politics.

According to Politics USA, there are now rumors circulating about Trump possibly becoming Speaker of the House. The publication laid out a possible path that could get the former president back in a position of power.

“If Trump wanted to, he could easily win a Republican House seat in the state of Florida,” the publication wrote, adding, “And if Republicans won back the House at the same time, Trump could be elected into a leadership position, potentially even Speaker of the House.” Continue reading.

Why G.O.P.-Led States Are Banning the Police From Enforcing Federal Gun Laws

Missouri is the latest state to throw down a challenge to the enforcement of federal firearms laws as Republicans seek to thwart President Biden’s gun control proposals.

Missouri has become the latest state to throw down a broad challenge to the enforcement of federal firearms laws, as Republican-controlled state legislatures intensify their fierce political counterattack against President Biden’s gun control proposals.

A bill signed by Gov. Mike Parson over the weekend — at a gun store called Frontier Justice — threatens a penalty of $50,000 against any local police agency that enforces certain federal gun laws and regulations that constitute “infringements” of Second Amendment gun rights.

At least eight other states — Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia — have taken similar action this year, passing laws of varying strength that discourage or prohibit the enforcement of federal gun statutes by state and local agents and officers. Continue reading.

DOJ releases video of Trump insurrectionist punching federal officer in the face

The U.S. Dept. of Justice has released another video of insurrectionist activity at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. This one appears to show a man in a camouflage jacket shoving and then punching a federal officer in the face, hitting his face-shield.

“Prosecutors say this is NJ gym owner Scott Fairlamb (in the camo jacket) shoving a cop (at 0:28), and then punching him in the face (at 0:31). Fairlamb pleaded not guilty,” CNN’s Marshall Cohen reports (tweet and video below.)

There is a DOJ Criminal Complaint for Fairlamb filed January 21 that lists offenses including “Certain Acts During Civil Disorder,” “Assaulting a Federal Officer,” “Carrying a Dangerous Weapon,” and “Violent Entry and Disorderly Conduct on Capitol Grounds.” Continue reading.

‘As Long as the Party Embraces Trump, It’s Going to Have Trouble’

The Republican collapse in Michigan’s Oakland County, once a stronghold, was a long time coming. Is losing these suburbs a warning light for Trumpism?

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, the Republican National Committee opted not to order an autopsy into what exactly led to the party’s decline in suburban communities that were, until recently, considered deep red.

But if RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel wanted to understand what happened, she could do worse than to look back at the place she was raised: Oakland County, Michigan.

“Oakland County was kind of the quintessential suburban Republican stronghold over the postwar period,” says Jeff Timmer, a longtime GOP strategist who was executive director of the state party from 2005-2009. It was (and is) a huge source of campaign donations for the party and its candidates. It had massive influence in Lansing, and an influential bipartisan delegation in Washington. It was a must-visit locale for every aspiring Republican presidential candidate. Continue reading.

Minnesota House Advances Compromise Commerce and Energy Budget

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, the Minnesota House of Representatives passed the Commerce and Energy budget on a vote of 70 – 60. The compromise bill aims to address the climate crisis and protect Minnesota consumers from those who seek to take advantage of them. It invests in several clean energy initiatives that will reduce Minnesota’s greenhouse gas emissions and create well-paying jobs, ensures Minnesotans who are disproportionately impacted by climate change benefit from the transition to clean energy, tackles catalytic converter theft, and establishes a Student Loan Borrower Bill of Rights to protect students from predatory lending practices.

“As one of the fastest warming states in the country, Minnesota is experiencing impacts to our health, our farms, and our way of life right now,” said Rep. Jamie Long (DFL – Minneapolis), chair of the House Climate and Energy Finance and Policy Committee. “We must rapidly transition to clean energy, and this bill takes important steps to deploy clean energy, promote energy efficiency, and support workers and communities throughout this transition. These initiatives will create well-paying jobs, help those most impacted by climate change, and lower energy costs.”

Opinion: How Democrats are hoping to unmask the latest Trump-DOJ scandal

It had long been expected that the Biden administration might be reluctant to launch a full fumigation of the epic corruption of the Trump years. The refrain that would justify this foot-dragging, many feared, would be the wretched notion that we must look forward, not back.

Yet what we’ve seen has actually defied negative expectations. The Justice Department has taken multiple active steps that are keeping the true scope of former president Donald Trump’s misdeeds buried. While the department has understandable reasons for defending its institutional prerogatives, this lack of transparency simply isn’t tenable.

This week, Democrats made a new move toward opening the books in a key area where the Justice Department has been unduly secretive: the scandal involving the department’s subpoenaing of the phone and communication records of prominent critics of Trump. Continue reading.

With budget still unfinished, action on House Floor grinds to halt during daylong debate

The agenda for Thursday’s floor session called for energy to bat leadoff. The omnibus commerce, climate and energy finance and policy bill was to be the first of the budget bills to be debated by the full House during this special session.

And energy is something House Republicans used in an attempt to keep action from being taken.

After Rep. Tim O’Driscoll (R-Sartell) moved to re-refer the bill back to its committee of origin, 21 other Republicans rose to object to the process that created the bill, and that the bill doesn’t continue funding for the state’s health reinsurance program. Continue reading.

GOP Congressman: FBI ‘participated’ in insurrection to ‘entrap’ harmless protestors and ‘frame the MAGA movement’

U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) is demanding the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Dept. of Justice tell Congress what they know about their own alleged “participation” in Donald Trump’s January 6 insurrection, which led to at least seven deaths. Gohmert falsely claims the attack on the U.S. Capitol – which in reality was an attempted coup designed to overturn a free and fair election – was instead a “monumental entrapment scheme used as a pretext to imprison otherwise harmless protestors” and used to “frame the entire MAGA movement as potential domestic terrorists.”

News organization The Recount calls Gohmert’s assertions “a bullshit baseless conspiracy theory.”

The Texas Republican congressman, explained on Thursday on the floor of the House that his “friend,” Fox News white supremacist host Tucker Carlson “covered this last night,” called the conspiracy theory “really disturbing… because we don’t like to see government agents stirring up trouble or find that there are criminal acts that would not likely have occurred had not the federal government been participating.” Continue reading.