Tag: Trump attempt to steal a second term

What’s Trump’s endgame in his crusade against the election results?

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As far as Trump is concerned, power was taken from him, so power must be returned to him. That’s bonkers, but he doesn’t appear to care.

One of the principal GOP criticisms against House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. is that she’s been preoccupied with telling the truth about the 2020 presidential election. It’s a foolish argument for a variety of reasons, but it’s nevertheless at the heart of the effort to purge Cheney from her leadership post.

It was against this backdrop that Donald Trump — the one many congressional Republicans are desperate to impress and satisfy — published this item last night to his weird new blog.

“The major Michigan Election Fraud case has just filed a bombshell pleading claiming votes were intentionally switched from President Trump to Joe Biden. The number of votes is MASSIVE and determinative. This will prove true in numerous other States. All Republicans must UNIFY and not let this happen. If a thief robs a jewelry store of all of its diamonds (the 2020 Presidential Election), the diamonds must be returned.”

From there, the former president whined a bit about U.S. news organizations that “refuse” to buy into his conspiracy theories about his 2020 defeat. Continue reading.

House Republicans vote to remove Liz Cheney from leadership

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House Republicans ousted Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as conference chair in a voice vote Wednesday, capping months of growing backlash over her criticisms of former President Trump, according to two sources in the room.

Why it matters: The stunning removal of the No. 3 House Republican over her condemnation of Trump’s election lies reflects the influence the former president still retains over the GOP. 

The big picture: The vote marks the most significant turning point in an internal party feud that is unlikely to subside any time soon. Continue reading.

Trump Guilty Of ‘Egging On’ Capitol Riot, Says Facebook Oversight Panel Co-Chair

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Washington (AFP) – Donald Trump encouraged the Capitol rioters and so earned his Facebook ban, but the social media giant’s rules are in “shambles” and need fixing, the co-chair of the network’s oversight panel said Sunday.

The panel agreed just days ago that Facebook was right to oust the ex-president for his comments regarding the deadly January 6 rampage, though it sidestepped an overall decision on whether he will ever be allowed back.

“He issued these statements which were just egging on — with perfunctory asking for peace — but mostly he was just egging them on to continue,” oversight body co-chair Michael McConnell told Fox News Sunday. Continue reading.

Trump loyalists taking over top GOP group after helping to stoke Jan. 6 riot

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Hardline supporters of Donald Trump are driving out more moderate members of a top Republican group in the fallout over the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The fundraising arm for the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) made robocalls encouraging Trump supporters to “stop the steal” by marching on the Capitol, which preceded the riot, and more moderate members of the group are quitting as the former president’s allies take over, reported The Daily Beast.

“During the last several months, it has become clear that there is a significant difference of opinion among members of the RAGA’s executive committee as to the direction this organization should take going forward,” wrote then-chair Chris Carr, who is Georgia’s attorney general, in his April 16 resignation letter. Continue reading.

Capitol rioters make questionable claims about police

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PHOENIX — Joshua Matthew Black said in a YouTube video that he was protecting the officer at the U.S. Capitol who had been pepper sprayed and fallen to the ground as the crowd rushed the building entrance on Jan. 6. 

“Let him out, he’s done,” Black claimed to have told rioters. 

But federal prosecutors say surveillance footage doesn’t back up Black’s account. They said he acknowledged that he wanted to get the officer out of the way — because the cop was blocking his path inside.

Watch: A fake Trump supporter tricks Ted Cruz into bragging about his role in pushing the big lie

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U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) was caught on camera bragging that he “led the objections” on January 6 to try to overturn a free and fair election. Cruz has been highlighted, along with U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), as the top leaders who “amplified claims of election fraud” that “resulted in threats of violence against state and local officials around the country,” according to an ethics complaint filed by seven Democratic Senators.

Lauren Windsor, who describes herself as an undercover reporter for The Undercurrent and runs a site dedicated to helping victims of Project Veritas, pretended to be a far right wing voter and asked Senator Cruz why he “didn’t do more to fight for President Trump on January 6.”

Cruz on camera brags that he “led the objections but the Senate voted it down.” Continue reading.

Liz Cheney secretly organized key move to block Trump from using military to overturn election: report

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Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was the organizer of an open letter by all living former Defense Secretaries against the military intervening in election disputes.

The revelation was made to Susan Glasser of The New Yorker by Eric Edelman, a friend of Cheney’s who served as an advisor to her father.

“Cheney’s rupture with the House Republican Conference has become all but final in recent days, but it has been months in the making. Edelman revealed that Cheney herself secretly orchestrated an unprecedented op-ed in the WashingtonPost by all ten living former Defense Secretaries, including her father, warning against Trump’s efforts to politicize the military,” Glasser reported. Continue reading.

About those voters who left the GOP this year? Things have now normalized.

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In the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot, some news organizations and pundits jumped onto the convenient narrative that large numbers of registered Republicans were suddenly leaving the party. But as others pointed out at the time, it was still too early to draw definitive conclusions.

It turned out that the hesitancy was well founded. As more states published updated voter registration numbers, it became apparent that the predicted flood of voters abandoning the GOP was, at best, no more than a modest stream.

Although reports of the death of the Republican Party were greatly exaggerated (or, really, entirely unfounded), it’s true that the number of Republicans deciding to change their party affiliation was greater than normal — at least briefly. It’s possible they were spurred on by some combination of Donald Trump’s loss, attempted subversion of the 2020 election and some GOP members’ support for the impeachment and removal of the former president. Continue reading.

What? Arizona ‘Audit’ Observers Required To Sign Non-Disclosure Agreements

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Volunteers who observed the Republican-backed audit in Maricopa County, Ariz., were required to sign non-disclosure agreements, according to ABC-15.

The news outlet reports that the terms of the agreement, provided by Cyber Ninjas, Inc., which is overseeing the audit, require volunteers to refrain from sharing details about anything they observed or heard while the audit was taking place. Volunteers are only allowed to speak under one condition: They are given permission to do so by the company.

“I agree that unless I am authorized in writing by Cyber Ninjas, Inc. and the Arizona State Senate, I will not disclose any Confidential Information to any person who is not conducting the Audit…,” the agreement reads. “Furthermore, I agree that during the course of the audit to refrain from making any public statements, social media posts, or similar public disclosures about the audit or its findings until such a time as the results from the audit are made public…” Continue reading.

In Turning on Liz Cheney, G.O.P. Bows to Trump’s Election Lies

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House Republicans were lobbying to replace Representative Liz Cheney, who has vocally called out Donald J. Trump’s lies, with Representative Elise Stefanik, who has embraced them.

WASHINGTON — Top Republicans moved swiftly on Wednesday to purge Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming from their leadership ranks for vocally rejecting Donald J. Trump’s election lies, laying the groundwork to install a replacement who has embraced his false claims of voting fraud.

The move to push out Ms. Cheney as the No. 3 House Republican in favor of Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, a Trump loyalist who voted to overturn President Biden’s victory in key states, reflected how thoroughly the party’s orthodoxy has come to be defined by fealty to the former president and a tolerance for misinformation, rather than policy principles.

“The Republican Party is at a turning point, and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution,” Ms. Cheney wrote in a searing opinion piece published in the Washington Post on Wednesday evening. She framed her fate as a referendum on the party’s future and warned that Republicans must “steer away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality.” Continue reading.