Tag: Trump attempt to steal a second term

Scoop: Comms director for gun-toting congresswoman quits

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The communications director for Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, a firebrand Republican freshman who boasts about carrying a gun to work, has quit after less than two weeks on the job.

Why it matters: Ben Goldey’s resignation cited last week’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, which came amid efforts by Boebert and other Republican lawmakers to block certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. Her rhetoric on the issue mirrored President Trump’s, which has fueled baseless election conspiracy theories and resulting violence.

What we’re hearing: Goldey said in a statement to Axios: “Following the events of January 6th, I’ve decided to part ways with the office. I wish her and the people of Colorado’s Third District the best.” Continue reading.

Impeachment trial tests Trump’s grip on Senate GOP

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President Trump’s relationship with Senate Republicans is facing its biggest test at its lowest point.

Many Republicans blame Trump for their loss of the Senate majority, and are furious that he put their lives in danger after an angry mob filled with people who believed his conspiracy theories about the election stormed the Capitol last week.

Now those Republicans have a chance to vote to convict Trump in an impeachment trial — if they choose to do it. They could also vote to permanently ban him from holding public office.  Continue reading.

Russian media outlets push false claims about who’s to blame for the Capitol riot

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It’s no secret that President Donald Trump’s angry supporters were seen storming the U.S. Capitol but the president’s Kremlin-controlled Russian state broadcasts are still circulating lies the series of events that erupted on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6. According to Russian media, members of Antifa were seen storming the Capitol—not Trump supporters. 

According to The Daily Beast, Russian media outlets claimed “the pro-Trump insurrectionists were merely “peaceful demonstrators” and blamed “Antifa” for the violence that took place in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021.”

Although the (FBI) has announced a series of developments regarding the Capitol riots, including the arrests of more than 100 Trump supporters, Russian media has focused on featuring clips from conservative news networks like Fox News in addition to remarks from widely known conservative public figures including Tucker Carlson, a number of Republican lawmakers, and other Trump allies and apologists. Continue reading.

Lankford Apologizes to Black Voters for Backing Trump’s Election Deceit

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The Oklahoma senator, who is up for re-election in 2022, said he had not realized his objection to the election results would be seen as a direct attack on the voting rights of people of color.

WASHINGTON — Senator James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma, apologized on Thursday to Black constituents who were offended by his decision to join President Trump in trying to discredit the victory of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., saying he had not realized the effort would be seen as a direct attack on the voting rights of people of color.

In a letter addressed to his “friends” in North Tulsa, which is predominantly Black, Mr. Lankford, who is white, acknowledged that his initial efforts to upend Mr. Biden’s victory — which he dropped in the immediate aftermath of the deadly assault on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob — had “caused a firestorm of suspicion among many of my friends, particularly in Black communities around the state.”

“After decades of fighting for voting rights, many Black friends in Oklahoma saw this as a direct attack on their right to vote, for their vote to matter, and even a belief that their votes made an election in our country illegitimate,” he wrote in a letter first published by the news site Tulsa World and obtained by The New York Times. “I should have recognized how what I said and what I did could be interpreted by many of you. I deeply regret my blindness to that perception, and for that I am sorry.”

Scoop: Gina Haspel threatened to resign over plan to install Kash Patel as CIA deputy

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CIA Director Gina Haspel threatened to resign in early December after President Trump cooked up a hasty plan to install loyalist Kash Patel, a former aide to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), as her deputy, according to three senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the matter.

Why it matters: The revelation stunned national security officials and almost blew up the leadership of the world’s most powerful spy agency. Only a series of coincidences — and last minute interventions from Vice President Mike Pence and White House counsel Pat Cipollone — stopped it.

Behind the scenes: Trump had spent his last year in office ruminating over Haspel. Some of the president’s hardcore allies, including Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, were publicly raising doubts in his mind about Haspel. Continue reading.

Episode 1: A premeditated lie lit the fire

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Beginning on election night 2020 and continuing through his final days in office, Donald Trump unraveled and dragged America with him, to the point that his followers sacked the U.S. Capitol with two weeks left in his term. This Axios series takes you inside the collapse of a president.

Episode 1: Trump’s refusal to believe the election results was premeditated. He had heard about the “red mirage” — the likelihood that early vote counts would tip more Republican than the final tallies — and he decided to exploit it.

“Jared, you call the Murdochs! Jason, you call Sammon and Hemmer!” Continue reading.

Federalist Society Leader Helped Foment Capitol Riot

More than 200 judges have been embedded in the federal judiciary by outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. The huge majority of those judges come from the Federalist Society, the right-wing dark money association that has been working for years to erode civil rights, end abortion, oppose LGBTQ equality, stop gun safety laws, and fight regulations protecting the environment, health care, and worker safety—aka everything achieved in roughly half a century of progress. They are responsible for the current makeup of the Supreme Court and most of the Republican Senate. And they also have at least partial responsibility for the insurrection that happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

John Eastman, until this week the chairman of the Federalist Society’s Federalism & Separation of Powers practice group, spoke at the pre-insurrection rally. “Anybody that is not willing to stand up and [vote to overturn the election] does not deserve to be in the office!” Eastman told the crowd. Standing next to Rudy Giuliani at the rally, he broke into a smile when Rudy incited the crowd with “Let’s have trial by combat!”

Those linked tweets are from Slate‘s Mark Joseph Stern, who highlighted Eastman’s role in pushing Trump’s various plots to overturn the election: “As the president’s actual attorneys backed away from his coup, Eastman rushed in to fill the void, attempting to bolster the scheme with incoherent legal theories,” Stern writes. “When Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton urged the Supreme Court to overturn the election by nullifying millions of votes, it was Eastman who intervened on Trump’s behalf to endorse Paxton’s suit.” Continue reading.

Washington Post Photographer Catches My Pillow CEO’s Notes On Martial Law

Michael Lindell, an avid Trump-backer, headed to the White House armed with notes on the “Insurrection Act” and action to “save the Constitution.”

A Washington Post photographer managed to capture a clear, partial image of notes that My Pillow CEO Michael Lindell — otherwise known as the “My Pillow guy” — carried into the West Wing on Friday. They included the chilling words “Insurrection Act” and “martial law.”

Observers have feared that outgoing President Donald Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act to declare martial law and mobilize the military in a coup to override the democratic presidential election.

Based on the notes, Lindell, a multi-millionaire and avid Trump supporter who is also the TV pitchman of My Pillow USA, appeared to be about to discuss that very tactic with the White House. Trump was impeached for a second time on Wednesday, charged with “incitement of insurrection.” Continue reading.

Corporate Media Begin to Acknowledge GOP Coup Attempt

Even though President Donald Trump had telegraphed his intent months in advance to steal the 2020 election, by planning to get judges, state legislators and/or the Electoral College to illegitimately declare him the winner—laying out a pretext by lying about widespread voter fraud—corporate media were slow to accurately convey the reality and significance of Trump’s election theft efforts. I’ve noted twice before (FAIR.org, 9/15/20, 11/5/20) that corporate media betrayed their journalistic responsibilities by refusing to report, outside the context of opinion columns, that Trump has been attempting a coup, despite all the plain evidence.

Yet in the past few days, it seems corporate media have decided to report on Trump’s attempts to subvert the election and overturn its results as a fact, not as a matter of opinion. Here are some recent headlines:

  • Wall Street Journal (11/19/20): “Trump Broadens His Efforts to Overturn Election Outcome”
  • New York Times (11/19/20): “Trump’s Attempts to Overturn the Election Are Unparalleled in US History”
  • NPR (11/20/20): “The Growing Backlash Against Trump’s Efforts to Subvert the Election”
  • Associated Press (11/20/20): “Trump Tries to Leverage Power of Office to Subvert Biden Win”
  • Politico (11/21/20): “Trump Calls on GOP Legislatures to Overturn Election Results”
  • CNN (11/22/20): “Trump’s Attempt to Steal the Election Unravels as Coronavirus Cases Surge” Continue reading.

Trump Stress-Tested the Election System, and the Cracks Showed

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Even in the absence of a questionable outcome or any evidence of fraud, President Trump managed to freeze the passage of power for most of a month.

As President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election have steadily disintegrated, the country appears to have escaped a doomsday scenario in the campaign’s epilogue: Since Nov. 3, there have been no tanks in the streets or widespread civil unrest, no brazen intervention by the judiciary or a partisan state legislature. Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s obvious victory has withstood Mr. Trump’s peddling of conspiracy theories and his campaign of groundless lawsuits.

In the end — and the postelection standoff instigated by Mr. Trump and his party is truly nearing its end — the president’s attack on the election wheezed to an anticlimax. It was marked not by dangerous new political convulsions but by a letter from an obscure Trump-appointed bureaucrat, Emily W. Murphy of the General Services Administration, authorizing the process of formally handing over the government to Mr. Biden.

For now, the country appears to have avoided a ruinous breakdown of its electoral system. Continue reading.