Tag: GOP now the cult of Trump

Watch GOP congressman refuse over and over again to admit Biden won the election

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Rep. Lee Zeldin said ‘it’s a bit ridiculous’ to even ask him.

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) on Thursday refused to acknowledge that President Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. Zeldin’s denial came a day after U.S. intelligence agencies warned that similar rhetoric is fueling ongoing extremist threats in America.

Zeldin made his comments in an interview with Politico as part of the publication’s “Playbook Live” series.

Noting that he was one of several Republicans to vote against certifying the election results, reporter Ryan Lizza asked Zeldin to acknowledge that Biden won. Continue reading.

Momentum of Capitol riot inquiries stalls amid partisan flare-ups

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Momentum is stalling amid congressional efforts to swiftly investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, threatened by logistical delays and deepening partisan disagreement about the scope of an independent inquiry advocated by Democrats.

After initial House and Senate hearings that scrutinized law enforcement and intelligence failures leading up to the insurrection, the pace of such public sessions has slowed to a halt, as lawmakers struggle to determine their next investigative steps. Meanwhile, a fight between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her Republican counterparts over the scope of a Sept. 11-style commission has intensified this week after she announced her plan for how it should be structured.

Now, a looming congressional recess is expected to delay resolution on both fronts until mid-April at the soonest — a pause that threatens to undermine the momentum and spirit of cooperation Democrats and Republicans had exhibited immediately after the riot. Continue reading.

For Voting Rights Advocates, a ‘Once in a Generation Moment’ Looms

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Opposition to restrictive Republican voting laws — and support for a sweeping Democratic bill — fuels a movement like none in decades. But can it succeed?

WASHINGTON — State and national voting-rights advocates are waging the most consequential political struggle over access to the ballot since the civil rights era, a fight increasingly focused on a far-reaching federal overhaul of election rules in a last-ditch bid to offset a wave of voting restrictions sweeping Republican-controlled state legislatures.

The federal voting bill, which passed in the House this month with only Democratic support, includes a landmark national expansion of voting rights, an end to partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts and new transparency requirements on the flood of dark money financing elections that would override the rash of new state laws.

The energy in support for it radiates from well-financed veteran organizers to unpaid volunteers, many who were called to political activism after former President Donald J. Trump’s upset win in 2016. It is engaging Democrats in Washington and voting rights activists in crucial states from Georgia to Iowa to West Virginia to Arizona — some facing rollbacks in access to the ballot, some with senators who will play pivotal roles and some with both. Continue reading.

Trump pressuring GOP allies to crack down on voting rights: ‘We might never win again!’

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Donald Trump is looking to avenge his loss by cracking down on voting rights with the help of his Senate allies.

The twice-impeached one-term president has been calling up Republican allies in the U.S. Senate in recent days, according to two people familiar with the matter, to ask about H.R. 1, a sweeping voting rights bill that passed the Democratic-led House on Thursday, as GOP legislatures have been rolling back access to the polls in states he lost, reported The Daily Beast.

“Do you think it has a chance?” Trump has asked, wondering whether Republicans will unite to spike the bill. Continue reading.

WSJ editorial board gives GOP a reality check: ‘Grievances of the Trump past’ are a losing formula for Republicans

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Anyone who doubts that Trumpism remains the dominant ideology of the Republican Party need only watch the speeches from the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference, which concluded in Orlando, Florida on Sunday, February 28. From Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to former President Donald Trump himself, the event seldom strayed from its Culture War theme. The Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial board analyzes the event in an editorial published on March 1, warning that if Trumpist “grievance” is going to be Republicans’ main focus in the months ahead, the GOP is in trouble.

“The CPAC crowd cheered (Trump’s) speech, which was largely a collection of greatest political hits,” the WSJ’s editorial board observes. “But if CPAC represented America, Mr. Trump would still reside in the White House, not Mar-a-Lago. He lost to Joe Biden, the old Democratic war horse, by 7 million votes. He also lost five states he carried in 2016, even Georgia. That’s the cold GOP reality as the former president seeks to dominate the party from exile and tease a 2024 comeback.”

During his CPAC 2021 speech, the WSJ’s editorial board notes, Trump “laid out his political enemies list and is clearly bent on revenge against anyone who voted to impeach or convict him or disagrees with his election claims” — and those “intra-party fights” will “sap GOP energy and resources when their priority now should be retaking Congress in 2022.” Continue reading.

Trumpism Grips a Post-Policy G.O.P. as Traditional Conservatism Fades

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Despite falling from power in Washington, the Republican Party has done little soul-searching or reflection on a new agenda, instead focusing on attacking Democrats and the news media.

ORLANDO, FLORIDA — For decades, the same ritual took place in the aftermath of Republican electoral defeats.

Moderate, establishment-aligned party officials would argue that candidates had veered too far right on issues like immigration, as well as in their language, and would counsel a return to the political center. And conservatives would contend that Republicans had abandoned the true faith and must return to first principles to distinguish themselves from Democrats and claim victory.

One could be forgiven for missing this debate in the aftermath of 2020, because it is scarcely taking place. Republicans have entered a sort of post-policy moment in which the most animating forces in the party are emotions, not issues. Continue reading.

Rep. Jim Jordan’s false claim that Pelosi denied a request for National Guard troops

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“Capitol Police requested National Guard help prior to January 6th. That request was denied by Speaker Pelosi and her Sergeant at Arms.”

— Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), in a tweet, Feb. 15, 2021

Though the Capitol Hill insurrection was inspired by former president Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and mounted by his followers, some Republicans have tried to pin the blame elsewhere. One prominent target is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), as this tweet indicates.

We were convinced by House Republican staff to hold off on fact-checking this tweet before last week’s testimony by key figures in the Capitol Hill security during the Jan. 6 events. But if anything, that testimony further undermined Jordan’s widely circulated tweet.

(Jordan also tweeted it “took over an hour” to get approval on Jan. 6 for National Guard support from “Pelosi’s team” after a request was made. We will hold off on fact-checking that, because there continues to be a gap between phone records and individual recollections of the calls. But the New York Times reported that video indicates Pelosi approved the request on the spot once the request was passed to her.) Continue reading.

‘Three percenters’ truck at Capitol belongs to husband of congresswoman who said, ‘Hitler was right on one thing’

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An Illinois lawmaker married to a member of Congress, who was herself recently criticized for quoting Hitler, is facing his own rebuke for displaying the logo of an extremist movement on his pickup truck at the U.S. Capitol complex in Washington on Jan. 6.

A photo shared on Twitter on Wednesday showed that Chris Miller, a Republican member of the Illinois General Assembly, had a decal of the Three Percenters anti-government movement prominently displayed on his truck while it was parked at the East Front of the Capitol — an area that was highly restricted Jan. 6.

His wife, Rep. Mary E. Miller (R-Ill.), had been sworn in to her first term in the House just days earlier. Continue reading.

‘It’s Donald Trump’s party’: How the former president is building a political operation to cement his hold on the GOP

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Any lingering doubts about Donald Trump’s primacy in the Republican Party have been settled in recent weeks by the parade of petitioners he has welcomed to his Florida social club.

The party chairwoman, the top two House Republicans, the senior senator from South Carolina and a coterie of other former aides and advisers have all made appearances at Mar-a-Lago, offering their counsel and seeking the favor of a former president who many believe controls the short-term fortunes of GOP candidates up and down the ballot — and has made it clear he plans to use that power.

Over meals and many Diet Cokes, Trump has already started building his post-White House political operation and cementing his role as the party’s de facto leader. He has begun to formalize a structure of political advisers around him and made plans to start a new super PAC — capable of raising donations of any size — to support candidates he favors. His team is looking to formalize a process for vetting endorsement prospects, assessing what candidates have said and done for Trump in the past. Continue reading.

Democrat wins cheers with a passionate rebuke to opponents of LGBTQ rights bill: ‘You used God to enslave’

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If passed by Congress, the Equality Act would amend and expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas gave a passionate speech in favor of the bill during a U.S. House of Representatives session on Thursday, noting some of the ways in which religion was deceptively used to justify segregation and racist Jim Crow laws in the past.

The African-American congressman (not be confused with R&B/gospel singer, the Rev. Al Green) told members of the House, “You used God to enslave my foreparents. You used God to segregate me in schools. You used God to put me in the back of the bus. Have you no shame?”

President Joe Biden has been an outspoken supporter of the Equality Act, but its Republican opponents have claimed that it would discriminate against religion if passed. Green alluded to the fact that the same type of argument was used in defense of segregationist laws during the 1950s and 1960s. Continue reading.