Tag: Trump attempt to steal a second term

‘You’re putting country above party?’ Chris Wallace calls out Roy Blunt’s ‘honesty’ on Jan. 6 commission

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Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) over the weekend declined to say if he is “putting country above party” by opposing a commission to study the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

In a Sunday interview on Fox News, host Chris Wallace asked Blunt why he is trying to prevent a new investigation into the events of Jan. 6.

“Well, I think it’s too early to create a commission,” Blunt explained. “And I believe Republicans in the Senate will decide that it’s too early to create that commission. Commissions often don’t work at all. And when they do work, like the Simpson-Bowles commission produced a good result — nothing happened as part of that result.” Continue reading.

Democrats seize on GOP opposition to Jan. 6 commission

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Democrats are hammering Republicans over their opposition to a Jan. 6 commission as they look to retain control of Congress next year.

Hopes for a bipartisan panel to investigate the deadly riot at the Capitol earlier this year were dashed when Republican leadership came out against the idea, casting it as a partisan maneuver.

But some Democrats believe there may be a silver lining in the recent development, seeing the GOP’s sharp reversal on the issue as a way to bolster support ahead of the midterm elections. Continue reading.

Ron Johnson exposes the real reason why GOP lawmakers would not support the Jan 6 commission

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Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) claims House Republican lawmakers were concerned about becoming “media roadkill” if they had voted against the formation of a January 6 commission to further investigate the Capitol insurrection. 

On Friday, Johnson appeared on Fox News with primetime host Tucker Carlson where he discussed the 35 Republican lawmakers who voted in favor of the bill designed to establish a commission for the investigation into the series of events that unfolded on January 6. According to Johnson, those lawmakers who sided with House Democrats are influenced by the media.

This week, the bill advanced to the Senate after a 252 – 175 vote.  Continue reading.

Why service members charged in the Capitol riot are staying in uniform — for now

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Within days of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, some people who participated were fired from their jobs when images showing them storming the building appeared online.

But the process is playing out differently for service members charged in the riot.

Commanders are waiting for legal proceedings at the Justice Department before they make administrative decisions for charged troops, defense officials have said. Continue reading.

Republicans try but can’t escape Jan. 6

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Republicans would really like to move beyond Jan. 6, but it’s not going very well. 

Four months into the Biden administration, as GOP leaders are racing to shift the focus away from the violent attack by a pro-Trump mob at the Capitol, they’re being forced to confront the rampage at every turn.  

Democrats are charging ahead with plans for deep-dive investigations into the assault. Continue reading.

GOP efforts to downplay danger of Capitol riot increase

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Attempts to whitewash the violence of the Jan. 6 insurrection and cast the rioters as sympathetic characters are becoming increasingly common among Republican members of Congress.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) this week said it was a “false narrative” to say “there were thousands of armed insurrectionists breaching the Capitol,” while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said the rioters charged with crimes were facing overly harsh treatment in jail and questioned why Congress isn’t also investigating liberal protests over racial justice last year that at times turned violent.

Other Republicans in recent days have falsely claimed the rioters weren’t armed and questioned whether people in the mob were really former President Trump’s supporters. One GOP lawmaker compared one image of the Capitol breach to a “normal tourist visit.”

‘The warning signs are all there’: Ex-Reagan aide fears Trump is leading the party to more political violence

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During Donald Trump’s presidency, long-time conservative activist Peter Wehner wrote a series of anti-Trump articles for The Atlantic. And although Trump has been gone from the White House for four months, Wehner remains a vehement critic of the GOP’s current direction. A former speechwriter under three Republican presidents — Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush — he discusses Trump’s unending stranglehold on the GOP in an article published by The Atlantic this week. And he warns that the potential for more political violence continues as long as so many Republicans maintain their unwavering devotion to Trump.

“The GOP remains fully in Trump’s thrall, with its leadership more committed than ever to spreading his foundational lies and conspiracy theories,” the 60-year-old Wehner laments. “Under Trump’s sway, the Republican Party is becoming more fanatical, venturing even further into a world of illusion…. No former president, and certainly no president defeated after only one term, has so dominated his party after he left office.”

The Never Trump conservative points to Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming as an example of a prominent GOP conservative who lost a leadership position for being openly critical of Trump and refusing to indulge his false claim of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Cheney formerly served as House Republican Conference chair, making her the third highest-ranking Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives. But Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, lost that position, Wehner notes, for her “fireable offense” of “refusing to remain silent in the face of Trump’s ongoing efforts to undermine our constitutional system.” Continue reading.

Republicans lose patience with Arizona election audit

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PHOENIX — A growing chorus of Arizona Republicans is calling on the GOP-controlled state Senate to end an audit into Maricopa County’s 2020 election results that is increasingly relying on disproven conspiracy theories to challenge President Biden’s victory here.

The audit, ordered by a state Senate majority that has bought into former President Trump’s big lie about the results of the election he lost handily, is on hold until Monday. It has already dragged on well past the estimated time auditors said it would take to recount the county’s ballots.

But some Republicans say they hope it does not continue after embarrassing revelations that supposedly bombshell allegations by auditors who have perpetuated Trump’s lies were in fact errors made by the auditors themselves. Continue reading.

Proud Boys member who allegedly shouted about taking the Capitol before breach arrested

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U.S. authorities have arrested three more alleged associates of two right-wing groups in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol, including one who allegedly shouted, “Let’s take the f—ing Capitol!” an hour before the assault while marching with a large group of Proud Boys around the building.

Charging papers identified Daniel Lyons Scott, 28, of Bradenton, Fla., as the Proud Boys member nicknamed “Milkshake,” who after allegedly yelling about taking the Capitol was admonished, “Let’s not f—ing yell that, okay?” by a Proud Boys leader on a video live-streamed by the group that day. In the same moments, court documents allege, accused leader Ethan Nordean was recorded saying, “It was Milkshake, man, you know . . . idiot!”

Nordean and three other Proud Boys seen near him that day have pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to obstruct police and the joint session of Congress to confirm the 2020 election results. Continue reading.

Maricopa County will need new voting machines after GOP’s audit, Arizona secretary of state says

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The machines must be replaced because election officials don’t know what was done to them by the Republican auditors, she said.

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said Thursday that the voting machines Republicans turned over to private companies as part of their audit of the 2020 election are no longer safe for use in future elections.

In a letter sent to Maricopa County officials and shared with NBC News, Hobbs, a Democrat, cited security concerns about losing the chain of custody over the equipment when it was handed over to the auditors and urged the county to get new machines. If it does not, her office would consider decertifying the equipment involved in the audit, she wrote. That would remove the machines from service.

State Senate Republicans subpoenaed nearly 400 of Maricopa County’s election machines, along with ballots cast by voters in November’s election, to facilitate an unusual audit of the election results. The GOP hired private firms, led by the Florida-based cybersecurity company Cyber Ninjas, to do the work. Continue reading.