Tag: Trump big lie

House approves select committee to investigate Jan. 6 Capitol riot

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The House voted 222-190 on Wednesday to create a select committee to investigate the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Why it matters: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi moved forward with the creation of a committee controlled by Democrats after Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would have established a bipartisan 9/11-style commission to probe the Jan. 6 attack.

  • Only two House Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) voted for the select committee, whereas 35 Republicans had previously voted for the bipartisan commission. Continue reading.

Disillusioned MAGA rioter demands Trump pay his legal fees: ‘This all happened because of you!’

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A man arrested this week for participating in the January 6th riots at the United States Capitol building demanded that former President Donald Trump pay his legal bills.

As reported by Reuters legal affairs journalist Jan Wolfe, MAGA rioter Zvonimir Jurlina was arrested in Austin, Texas this week and charged with inciting violence against members of the media who were covering the rioting Trump supporters and with encouraging the theft of media equipment.

In a video posted shortly after his court appearance Jurlina complained about being a “political prisoner” who was being persecuted for being a “patriot.” Continue reading.

D.C. officer says ‘rage’ of former New York officer on Jan. 6 ‘put me in fear of my life’

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A D.C. police officer on Tuesday recalled fearing for his life when he was attacked outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by a man using his fists and a flagpole. The officer also expressed the dismay he later felt on learning that the man charged with assaulting him is a former police officer and military veteran, Thomas Webster.

“Mr. Webster trained for years to show restraint in times of chaos, ensure public safety and protect public order,” the officer wrote in a statement read aloud by Assistant U.S. Attorney Hava Mirell during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington. “He deliberately chose to dishonor himself, as well as fellow former service officers, motivated by what we now know was political ignorance.”

Webster, 55, served in the U.S. Marine Corps and spent 20 years in the New York Police Department, according to court filings. He has been detained since his arrest in February, one of about 50 defendants jailed pending trial of the roughly 500 accused of participating in the riot at the Capitol. Continue reading.

GOP Blocked Bipartisan Jan. 6 Investigation — But Now They Demand One

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One month after congressional Republicans blocked a bipartisan investigation into the January 6 Capitol insurrection, congressional Republicans are demanding a bipartisan investigation into the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

The House in May passed by a vote of 252-175 a bill that would have created a bipartisan commission modeled on the one that investigated the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The bill, the result of a compromise between Republican Rep. John Katko of New York and Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, was nearly identical to a January GOP proposal. It would have established an outside panel with an even number of Democratic and Republican appointees.

But just 35 Republicans joined the Democratic majority in voting for it after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy refused to support it and Donald Trump instructed Republican lawmakers to block the legislation. Continue reading.

Wisconsin GOP leader gushed that Trump’s ‘power’ was on par with ‘Thor’s hammer’ in groveling letter

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The Republican president of the Wisconsin State Senate sent a groveling letter to former President Donald Trump last week after the twice-impeached former president criticized his party for not overturning the results of the 2020 election.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Wisconsin State Sen. Chris Kapenga last week tried to smooth over tensions between the Wisconsin GOP and the former president after Trump accused them of “working hard to cover up election corruption” and “actively trying to prevent a Forensic Audit of the election results.”

“Wisconsin Republican leaders Robin Vos, Chris Kapenga, and Devin LeMahieu, are working hard to cover up election corruption, in Wisconsin,” Trump ranted in a statement last Friday. Continue reading.

It’s a failure’: Arizona audit appears to be backfiring on Republicans – and could haunt them at the ballot box

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A new poll shows that a partisan audit of votes cast in the 2020 presidential election could ultimately backfire on Republicans who appear on future ballots in Arizona, especially if they express support for the bogus effort.

Sean Noble, a top GOP operative in the state, told Politicoof the controversial recount in Maricopa County, “it’s a failure, it’s a joke,” adding that Republicans in other states should “avoid it. The election is long over, time to look forward.”

Fernand Amandi, whose firm conducted the poll, said: “As bloody red meat for the MAGA Republican base, the audit is manna from heaven, but the problem is that Arizona is not a red state anymore. It’s a swing state. The audit may be serving two interests: firing up the MAGA base but giving Democrats the opportunity to make the case to Arizona voters to stick with them.” Continue reading.

Pelosi names Liz Cheney to serve on Jan. 6 select committee

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has named Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to serve on the select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol by a mob of pro-Trump supporters.

The House voted to form the panel on Wednesday despite GOP opposition. Cheney voted in favor of forming it.

Cheney was recently dumped by GOP leadership over her criticisms of former President Trump. 

‘A whole bunch of hooey’: Barack Obama calls out Trump for ‘de-legitimizing our democracy’ with election lies

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When it comes to former President Donald Trump, Barack Obama is an outspoken critic. And when Obama spoke out during a Democratic online fundraiser on Monday, June 28, he slammed Trump for refusing to respect the United States’ peaceful transition of presidential power and continuing to push lies about the 2020 election.

The Guardian reports that Barack Obama said Trump violated a “core tenet” of democracy when he refused to accept the results of the 2020 election and acknowledge now-President Joe Biden as the winner.

Obama said, “What we saw was my successor, the former president, violate that core tenet that you count the votes and then declare a winner — and fabricate and make up a whole bunch of hooey.” Continue reading.

Barr sparks new political firestorm

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Former Attorney General William Barr has created a political firestorm with interviews for a new book that call former President Trump’s claims about fraud in last year’s election “bullshit” and detail how Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pressed him to publicly dispute Trump’s assertions.

Barr has enraged Democrats and liberal commentators who say he is seeking to rehabilitate an image badly damaged by the Trump years, when he was a forceful advocate for the president, particularly during the release of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

They say that Barr contributed to Trump’s narrative undermining confidence in the voting system with his own comments about mail-in ballots in the lead-up to the election.  Continue reading.

McConnell Admits He Tolerated Trump’s Election Lies For Political Expediency

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed in an account published Sunday that he declined to publicly confront former President Donald Trump’s election lies because he did not want to upset Trump and wanted to win Senate elections in Georgia.

The Atlantic‘s Jonathan Karl reported that ahead of two January runoff Senate elections in Georgia, McConnell told then-Attorney General William Barr that he wanted Barr to confront Trump over his lies about the 2020 election results and would not do so himself.

“Look, we need the president in Georgia,” he said. According to Karl’s reporting, McConnell was afraid Trump would “sabotage” the Georgia campaigns if he declared Joe Biden had won the election. “And so we cannot be frontally attacking him right now. But you’re in a better position to inject some reality into this situation. You are really the only one who can do it.” Continue reading.