Tag: Donald Trump

In sentencing regretful Capitol protester, federal judge rebukes Republicans

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U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth castigated Republican lawmakers on Wednesday for downplaying the violence of the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, saying in handing down the first sentence to a charged defendant that those who break the law must pay a penalty.

“I’m especially troubled by the accounts of some members of Congress that January 6 was just a day of tourists walking through the Capitol,” he said. “I don’t know what planet they were on. . . . This was not a peaceful demonstration. It was not an accident that it turned violent; it was intended to halt the very functioning of our government.”

The 49-year-old Indiana woman before him, who had just pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of demonstrating inside the Capitol, did not disagree. Continue reading.

Nearly 900 Secret Service members were infected with the coronavirus. A watchdog blames Trump.

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Almost 900 Secret Service members have tested positive for the coronavirus since March 2020, according to a watchdog report, and many of those infected had protection assignments that included the safety of the president and vice president.

The nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington published a report Tuesday detailing how 881 Secret Service employees had tested positive between March 1, 2020 and March 9, 2021. The data, which came from a Freedom of Information Act request to the Secret Service, found that 477 members of the special agent division had been infected. Described by the Department of Homeland Security as “the elite agents you see protecting the President and Vice President,” special agents are also responsible for a number of safety assignments overseas and in the United States, such as protecting the president and vice president’s families, presidential candidates and visiting foreign leaders.

CREW said it’s unclear “whom the special agents who tested positive were assigned to protect or when, exactly, they tested positive.” Continue reading.

Majority of Americans believe GOP ‘election audits’ are a sham designed to undermine election processes

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As Republican lawmakers continue their efforts to conduct audits of the 2020 presidential election, the majority of Americans are raising questions about the integrity of their efforts. 

The results of a new Monmouth University poll offer insight into how Americans view the so-called election audits, like the one underway in Maricopa County, Ariz. According to Truthout, poll respondents were asked if they believed election audits were “legitimate efforts to identify potential voting irregularities” or “partisan efforts to undermine valid election results.”

Based on the poll results, many Americans see the audits as nothing more than a partisan effort to undermine the outcome of the presidential election. Continue reading.

Biden administration removes Rodney Scott as head of U.S. Border Patrol

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The Biden administration has forced out the head of the U.S. Border Patrol, Rodney Scott, clearing a path for a leadership overhaul at an agency strained by a 20-year high in illegal border crossings, and whose top officials were broadly sympathetic to President Donald Trump.

Scott, a 29-year veteran, published a statement on social media Wednesday saying he had received a letter offering him the option to resign, retire or relocate. He said the notice did not provide a rationale for his removal, describing it a pro forma notice “so the new administration can place the person they want in the position.”

Scott’s departure was widely anticipated, with several of his current and former colleagues surprised he remained in the post long after President Biden’s inauguration. During last year’s presidential campaign, Scott appeared several times alongside Trump, eagerly defending his hard-line policies, leading some colleagues to privately express concern that Scott’s enthusiasm occasionally veered into partisanship. Continue reading.

Mike Lindell unloads on critics: ‘We’re going to have a new inauguration and it’s going to be beautiful’

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MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell on Wednesday lashed out at his critics after claiming that The Washington Post is releasing a “hit piece” to disprove his claim that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent.

“The Washington Post is coming out with a hit piece,” Lindell told Steve Bannon during an appearance on Real America’s Voice. “Since we announced the cyber symposium with all the packet captures that we’re going to reveal for the whole election — 37 terabytes of packet captures.”

According to Lindell, the Post “is going to say that what I have is hogwash.”

Trump’s bizarre reason for passing over a top candidate for the Joint Chiefs of Staff revealed in new report

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Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is one of a handful of senior officials to transition from Donald Trump’s presidency to Joe Biden’s.

“He is one of the people who bear the scars of the Trump years,” John Gans, a former Obama administration official told The Washington Post. “That may not be his fault, but that is the fate of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, which was being chairman under Donald Trump.”

The Post’s Missy Ryan published a sprawling profile of Milley this Tuesday, spanning from his climb through the military’s ranks to his current role in the Biden administration. Within the piece, there’s a brief window into Trump’s questionable decision-making process as president. Continue reading.

GOP-led probe finds no evidence of Michigan election fraud — and busts Trump allies for ‘purposefully defrauding people’ with ‘ludicrous’ claims

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A Donald Trump-loving attorney was singled out in a scathing Republican-led investigation that turned up no evidence of widespread fraud in Michigan’s presidential election.

A 35-page report issued by Senate Oversight Committee spends much time debunking conspiracy theories pushed by pro-Trump attorneys Matt DePerno and Patrick Colbeck and recommends the state’s attorney general investigate individuals who made false or misleading claims about Michigan’s election to raise money for themselves, reported Bridge Michigan.

“There is no evidence presented at this time to prove either significant acts of fraud or that an organized, wide-scale effort to commit fraudulent activity was perpetrated in order to subvert the will of Michigan voters,” wrote state Sen. Ed McBroom (R-Vulcan), who led the probe. Continue reading.

Trump issues unhinged new statement about ‘winning’ Georgia — and gets quickly shot down by fact checker

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Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday issued yet another statement falsely claiming to have won the 2020 presidential election in Georgia — but a fact checker for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution quickly shot down his false claims.

In his statement, Trump praised Georgia officials for removing over 100,000 names from their voter rolls — but then demanded to know why those names weren’t removed before the last election, which he narrowly lost to President Joe Biden.

“WHAT ABOUT THE LAST ELECTION?” Trump demanded. “WHY WASN’T THIS DONE PRIOR TO THE NOVEMBER 3RD PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, where they had us losing by a very small number of votes, many times less than the 101,789 figure?” Continue reading.

Trump’s quest for revenge on Republicans who opposed him could soon come back to haunt the GOP: report

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History suggests that Republicans have decent odds of capturing the House, the Senate, or both in next year’s midterm elections. In every modern midterm election except 1998 and 2002, the party out of the White House has gained seats in at least one chamber, and Democrats have only four seats to spare in the House and none in the Senate to preserve their majorities.

But as POLITICO’s Huddle noted on Tuesday, one wildcard could complicate the GOP’s efforts to make gains in 2022: former President Donald Trump’s quest for “revenge” on GOP lawmakers who haven’t shown sufficient loyalty to him.

“Donald Trump is increasingly inserting himself in the primary races of his political enemies as a form of revenge against Republicans who voted to impeach the former president after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — despite warnings from congressional allies that he should be careful about wading into primary races,” reported Olivia Beavers.’ Continue reading.

Trump Pays Legal Fees Of Two Counties In ‘Meritless’ Georgia Election Lawsuit

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ATLANTA — Former President Donald Trump has paid the attorneys’ fees of two metro Atlanta counties in a lawsuit that sought to overturn the presidential election results in Georgia.

Election officials in Cobb and DeKalb counties sought the fees in a Trump lawsuit Cobb called “meritless and legally deficient.” A hearing on those requests was set for this Friday.

But last week Trump paid the Cobb County Board of Elections $15,554 to cover its legal costs through June 1, the county’s attorney confirmed. Trump’s attorney confirmed the former president also has paid fees to DeKalb County, though the amount was not immediately available. DeKalb sought $6,105 in fees in a motion filed in February. Continue reading.