Trump big lie 20 , CD3 DFL

Trump supporter who led ‘armed fighters’ into the Capitol was just angry about having to wear a mask: lawyers

According to The Daily Beast, an attorney for Russell Taylor, a California man accused of leading a group of “armed fighters” into the Capitol to stop election certification on January 6, insisted in court that he should be released ahead of trial because he is not really a terrorist or an insurrectionist — he’s just an ordinary guy who was driven to do what he did because he was angry about COVID-19 mask mandates.

“‘He’s kind of boring, this is probably the most exciting thing that’ll happen in his life,’ Taylor’s lawyer, Dyke Huish, said during a Tuesday detention hearing,” reported Pilar Melendez. “‘Really he’s kind of a vanilla kind of guy — though admittedly he was upset about the masks.’ Huish describing his client as ‘moderately successful,’ and a religious man who doesn’t drink and went to Brigham Young University. He insisted that Taylor’s actions during the insurrection were unique and spurred by his anger over the state-wide lockdown and mask mandate. He denied that Taylor is a militiaman — just that his documented violent actions were misunderstood. ‘This was a guy who got mad about the masks and so he got wound up and felt like this was an appropriate thing to do,’ Huish said during the hearing.”

Prosecutors, however, outlined evidence that Taylor wasn’t quite the easygoing family man his lawyer characterized him as. Continue reading.

Congressman reveals new photo from the Capitol riot after Republicans try to ‘memory hole’ the insurrection

During a hearing this week, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) questioned FBI Director Christopher Wray over the shooting death of Ashli Babbitt, the QAnon-believing woman who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 along with a mob of Trump supporters, saying that she was “executed.”

“It’s disturbing,” Gosar said. “The Capitol Police officer that did that shooting appeared to be hiding, lying in wait and then gave no warning before killing her.”

But Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) doesn’t see it that way. Responding to Gosar’s comments on Twitter, Gallego posted a photo that he took on Jan. 6, showing the mob outside the door where Babbitt was shot. Continue reading.

21 House Republicans vote against awarding Congressional Gold Medal to all police officers who responded on Jan. 6

Twenty-one House Republicans on Tuesday voted against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to all police officers who responded to the Jan. 6 violent attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

The measure passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support from 406 lawmakers. But the 21 Republicans who voted “no” drew immediate condemnation from some of their colleagues, and the vote underscored the lingering tensions in Congressamid efforts by some GOP lawmakers to whitewash the events of that day.

Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.) called the “no” votes “a sad commentary on the @HouseGOP,” while Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) declared, “How you can vote no to this is beyond me.” Continue reading.

Trump’s last attorney general willing to discuss last-minute efforts to undo election loss

Donald Trump’s final attorney general Jeffrey Rosen may be willing to reveal new details about the former president’s last-minute efforts to remain in office despite his election loss.

Rosen, who served the final month of Trump’s presidency as acting attorney general, is in discussions with the House Oversight Committee to sit down for a transcribed interview about his communications with the ousted president, reported the Washington Post.

“Such an interview could fill in critical details,” wrote Post columnist Greg Sargent. “Among the things Rosen could speak to are whether there were additional communications between Trump and Rosen — including verbal ones, as well as unreleased email communications.” Continue reading.

Why Mike Lindell Can’t Stop

The MyPillow tycoon has lost business pumping up Trump conspiracy theories, and probably lost his chance at a political future. But he believes he’s on a divine mission to overturn the election—and he’s not alone.

CHASKA, Minn.—One day in mid-May, after a rally in South Dakota to promote his new website, Mike Lindell, the pillow magnate and indefatigable election-conspiracy promoter, barreled into his company headquarters, sat himself down at a long table in a conference room he uses as a makeshift office and slid a dropper under his tongue.

The dropper was full of oleandrin, a plant extract that he touts—alarmingly, to scientists—as both a preventative and “miracle” cure for Covid-19. He squeezed.

“Look at this … I can never get the virus,” he said, near the beginning of the roughly six hours I spent with him over two days at MyPillow. “It’s impossible for me to get it.” Continue reading.

Mike Lindell invites Chinese Communist Party to ‘cyber symposium’ for ‘gladiator fight’ on election

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell on Monday said that he would invite the Chinese Communist Party to a cyber symposium to prove that it had attacked the United States by stealing the 2020 election for President Joe Biden.

“We’re in a race against time here,” Lindell told host Steve Bannon on Real America’s Voice. “One of the things that we’re going [to do] is a cyber forensic election symposium. We’re bringing all of our evidence to a big venue I haven’t announced yet.”

Lindell said that “any cyber guy that’s got credentials in the country, we’re going to bring them there.” Continue reading.

Scathing Pennsylvania paper editorial slams far-right Republicans for pushing ‘disgraceful’ election ‘audit’

Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, his campaign had no problem with legitimate bipartisan recounts in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia and other states that he won — and those recounts confirmed his victory. But the partisan, overtly pro-Trump GOP “audits” now being conducted in Arizona and other states are not legitimate recounts, and the editorial board of the York Dispatch in York, Pennsylvania slams State Sen. Doug Mastriano, a far-right Republican, and his allies for pushing for such an “audit” in the Keystone State.

In a scathing editorial published on June 14, the Dispatch’s editorial board writes, “It will come as small surprise to anyone following the 2020 elections and their sorry aftermath that one of the ringleaders is State Sen. Doug Mastriano. The freshman Republican from Franklin County has worked tirelessly this past year to disenfranchise his own constituents in service to disgraced, disgraceful former President Donald Trump.”

The Dispatch’s editorial board continues, “It was Mastriano, recall, who orchestrated a post-election Gettysburg panel last November to trumpet unfounded allegations of voter fraud from Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others; who called for Pennsylvania’s legislature to overturn Trump’s loss in the state; who plotted with Trump more than a dozen times in the weeks after the president’s overwhelming electoral defeat; who was in the nation’s capital on January 6 along with thousands of other Trump-obsessed insurgents; and who has backed a variety of politically motivated, unnecessary voting restrictions.” Continue reading.

‘Exploited the crazies’: How the GOP used Trump’s election lies to hide the fact that they’re losing power

According to a report from the Guardian’s Sam Levine, Republicans who have always dabbled in playing to the red meat crowd are now ramping up their efforts to use that voting bloc to remain in power by disrupting and questioning election results.

Faced with changing demographics and states — – notably Arizona and Georgia — that were once reliably Republican but are now sending Democrats to Congress, Republicans are looking for ways to stop the bleeding as their power melts away.

According to Levine, Donald Trump just gave them the roadmap by blatantly saying the election was stolen from him — which has been well-received by more than just conservative extremists. Continue reading.

Trump-inspired death threats are terrorizing election workers

Election officials and their families are living with threats of hanging, firing squads, torture and bomb blasts, interviews and documents reveal. The campaign of fear, sparked by Trump’s voter-fraud falsehoods, threatens the U.S. electoral system.

Note: This story contains offensive language

Late on the night of April 24, the wife of Georgia’s top election official got a chilling text message: “You and your family will be killed very slowly.”

A week earlier, Tricia Raffensperger, wife of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, had received another anonymous text: “We plan for the death of you and your family every day.”

That followed an April 5 text warning. A family member, the texter told her, was “going to have a very unfortunate incident.” Continue reading.

Minnesota Republicans Continue to Threaten Free and Fair Elections

More than 8 months after the November 2020 election, Republicans are still trying to falsely claim that fraudulent activities took place. These accusations are bogus. And, they’re not holding up in court.

On Wednesday the Minnesota Supreme Court struck down Republican Donna Bergstrom’s election contest suit against DFLer Jen McEwen who won the race by a two-to-one margin. Bergstrom lost the race by more than the votes she received.

Chief Justice Lorie Gildea wrote that Bergstrom’s case is “simply too vague to warrant embarking upon the discovery and trial process she seeks.” This decision also determines that the MN Supreme Court won’t order widespread inspection of ballots, lists of eligible voters, and election materials unless evidence can be reasonably argued in court. As Republicans across the country have exaggerated election fraud claims to an extreme degree, this MN Supreme Court ruling draws a line for how far these accusations can go.

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