Trump’s bizarre theory of how he’ll be reinstated as president is ‘very, very hard’ to explain: NYT reporter

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New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman on Tuesday told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that former President Donald Trump is still obsessed with being “reinstated” as president, although she struggled in explaining how Trump thinks it’s going to happen.

Haberman started off by saying Trump was “laser-focused” on the widely criticized “audits” that his supporters are conducting in numerous swing states.

Once the results of these “audits” are released, Haberman claims, Trump believes that America will have no choice but to let him back into the White House. Continue reading.

Virginia ‘Bible study’ group was cover for violent militia plans, prosecutors say

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After storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, a Northern Virginia man began forming his own militia-like group in the D.C. suburbs and building up a supply of explosives under the guise of a Bible study group, according to federal prosecutors.

Fi Duong, 27, appeared in court Friday and was released to home confinement pending trial, over the objections of prosecutors who sought stricter terms. According to the court record, at the time of his arrest he had several guns, including an AK-47, and the material to make 50 molotov cocktails. Details of the case — one of the first if not the first in which the government publicly disclosed it had someone undercover to continue monitoring a Jan. 6 defendant — were made public Tuesday.

An attorney for Duong declined to comment. Continue reading.

‘It’s a crime. So is insurrection’: Steve Schmidt slams anti-vax Republican’s ‘BS’ support of not vaccinating military

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Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt blasted U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) for announcing he supports members of the United States military who are threatening to “quit” if they are required to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

“The Army has directed commands to prepare to administer mandatory COVID-19 vaccines as early as Sept. 1, pending full Food and Drug Administration licensure,” Army Times reported late last week.

“I’ve been contacted by members of our voluntary military who say they will quit if the COVID vaccine is mandated,” said Congressman Massie, who has degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has suggested he is a science expert while calling climate change “pseudo science.” Continue reading.

‘JFK Jr. is still alive’: Trump fan says dead Kennedy will take over White House with Trump in 2021

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One of Donald Trump’s supporters explained recently that she believes the former president will take back the White House in 2021 and John F. Kennedy Jr. will be his vice president despite dying in a 1999 plane crash.

The woman made the comment to The Good Liars over the July 4 holiday weekend.

In video posted on social media, Davram Stiefler can be seen asking a woman about her “Trump-Kennedy 2021” T-shirt. Continue reading.

Judge slaps down QAnon shaman’s latest attempt to win a pretrial release

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Despite his attorney’s claim that he’s not a threat and should be released from jail before his trial, Jacob Chansley, also known as the Capitol-storming “QAnon Shaman,” has again been denied pre-trial release.

According to a court document shared by BuzzFeed’s Zoe Tillman, Chansley “has not proffered any new information that has a ‘material bearing’ on whether or not he poses a risk if released.

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Mike Lindell says ‘the morning of August 13’ is when Trump will officially be president again

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MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has set August 13 as the day that former President Donald Trump will officially be the leader of the United States.

For months, Lindell has promised that Trump would be back in office in August following a new inauguration. 

The MyPillow CEO revealed the date for Trump’s takeover in an interview over the weekend. Continue reading.

Mo Brooks throws Trump under the bus in response to lawsuit that accuses him of inciting MAGA mob

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Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) claims in a new court filing that he was asked by a White House official to speak at former president Donald Trump’s infamous “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The Alabama Republican was given Trump’s endorsement for the U.S. Senate after making the speech, which a lawsuit alleges helped incite the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol, but Brooks’ attorneys responded by insisting he only took part because the former president wanted him there.

“Brooks only gave the Ellipse Speech because the White House asked him to, in his capacity as a United States Congressman,” the new court filing says. “But for the White House request, Brooks would not have appeared at the Ellipse Rally.” Continue reading.

Republican lashes out at ‘capitulation’ of GOP to Trump — and says Lauren Boebert clearly knew about Jan. 6

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Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a 43-year-old Air Force veteran, always assumed that there would be a “career-ending” vote he would have to take. But according to a New York Times profile, Kinzinger assumed it would be about Social Security instead. After the attack on the U.S Capitol Jan. 6, it became clear what he would have to do.

“I made the decision early in my career that I would be willing to take a potentially career-ending vote,” he told the Times. “But I thought that vote would be for something like a Social Security reform bill. I never thought it would be for defending democracy.”

He explained that things have changed because there is so much mistrust, and since Jan. 6 not many other Republicans have joined him. Continue reading.

FBI launches flurry of arrests over attacks on journalists during Capitol riot

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Nearly six months after the U.S. Capitol riot, the Justice Department has begun arresting a new category of alleged criminals — those who attacked reporters or damaged their equipment as journalists documented the violence perpetrated by supporters of President Donald Trump.

The first such charge came last week, when 43-year-old Shane Jason Woods of Illinois was charged with engaging in violence on the Capitol grounds Jan. 6, as well as assaulting a law enforcement officer. Authorities say Woods was caught on video knocking down a cameraman.

The arrests come at a contentious moment for the Justice Department and First Amendment advocates, who have sharply criticized federal law enforcement for secretly issuing subpoenas of reporters’ phone records during the Trump administration. Continue reading.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger on the Moral Failure of Republicans and the Big Lie

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Since the horrifying events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois has been a consistent, if lonely, Republican voice speaking out against the big lie that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. After the sidelining of Representative Liz Cheney from leadership, Kinzinger, a 43-year-old Air Force veteran who was first elected to the House in 2010, was further entrenched as one of the most influential sitting Republican politicians willing to regularly and publicly denounce that dangerous fiction. Inhabiting that position is just about the last thing Kinzinger ever imagined his job would entail. “I made the decision early in my career that I would be willing to take a potentially career-ending vote,” says Kinzinger, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the attempted insurrection. “But I thought that vote would be for something like a Social Security reform bill. I never thought it would be for defending democracy.”

How does it feel to have your job these days? I could imagine there’s an even greater sense of purpose. I could also imagine it being demoralizing. You pretty much nailed it. The job has changed because there is so much mistrust. Both within the party and between parties. But yes, there is a sense of aggressive purpose. On the one hand, it’s important for me to do what I’m doing and to speak out. On the other hand, you look around since the election and not many more people have joined me in speaking out about the big lie, and that is a little discouraging.