Tag: Trump big lie

Watch What’s Happening in Red States

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In states where Republicans control the legislature, American life is rapidly changing.

It’s not just voting rights.

Though this year’s proliferation of bills restricting ballot access in red states has commanded national attention, it represents just one stream in a torrent of conservative legislation poised to remake the country. GOP-controlled states—including Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, Arizona, Iowa, and Montana—have advanced their most conservative agenda in years, and one that reflects Donald Trump’s present stamp on the Republican Party.

Across these states and others, Republican legislators and governors have operated as if they were programming a prime-time lineup at Fox News. They have focused far less on the small-government, limited-spending, and anti-tax policies that once defined the GOP than on an array of hot-button social issues, such as abortion, guns, and limits on public protest, that reflect the cultural and racial priorities of Trump’s base. Continue reading.

On The Trail: Arizona is microcosm of battle for the GOP

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PEORIA, Ariz. — In the last decade, ranch homes have sprouted behind walled communities here like so many flowers after a desert rain. This suburb and its neighbors, some of the fastest growing cities in America, are the definition of urban sprawl, spawning a new multi-lane highway amidst the oases of strip malls anchored by upscale grocery chains.

While parts of the Phoenix metro area are attracting millennials who have helped push Arizona into the swing state column, Peoria has drawn a more conservative set of older voters and retirees.

Former President Trump last year won 61 percent of the vote in the legislative district covering most of the city, a higher share than in all but two other legislative districts in the state. A reporter interviewing voters here on Election Day was unable to find a single person who backed President Biden. Continue reading.

New lawsuit claims Lindell could lose $2B because of ‘conspiracy’ between voting equipment companies

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MyPillow founder says he could lose $2B because of voting-machine makers’ claims. 

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is suing a pair of election machine manufacturers as part of his ongoing legal battle over debunked claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

In an 82-page complaint filed in Minnesota federal court this week and laced with Orwellian and science-fiction references, Lindell accused Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic of “weaponizing the litigation process to silence political dissent and suppress evidence showing voting machines were manipulated to affect outcomes in the November 2020 general election.”

Lindell remains one of the most prominent purveyors of the discredited theory that election machines were rigged and hacked to steal votes from former President Donald Trump in favor of President Joe Biden last year. Continue reading.

Trump called Arizona Senate president to thank her ‘for pushing to prove any fraud’ in election, emails show

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Newly released emails sent to and from Arizona state senators reveal that President Donald Trump and his lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani reached out personally to urge GOP officials there to move forward with a partisan recount of the 2020 election, despite a lack of evidence of widespread fraud or other issues.

Hundreds of pages of emails related to the GOP-ordered audit underway in Maricopa County were obtained by the nonprofit legal watchdog group American Oversight through a records request under the Freedom of Information Act. The group published them Friday, along with a scathing statement that decried the audit as a “sham partisan crusade.”

In one email dated Dec. 2, Arizona state Senate President Karen Fann (R) told two constituents that she had spoken with Giuliani “at least 6 times over the past two weeks.” Continue reading.

Jim Acosta: Trump advisers are trying to talk ‘insane’ Trump ‘off the ledge’

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On Thursday’s edition of CNN’s “OutFront,” correspondent Jim Acosta gave new details about former President Donald Trump’s delusion that he could be “reinstated” as president later in the year.

“How seriously is Trump believing this insane theory?” asked anchor Erin Burnett.

“It’s insane and very disturbing, Erin, but he believes it,” said Acosta. “He thinks that there is some chance that he could somehow be reinstated as president, somehow this year. And what he’s been doing over the last several weeks is reaching out to advisers and allies, and they basically have been trying to talk him off the ledge, Erin, but Trump has been asking, I’m told by one source, what do you think of this theory? And what this one adviser told me is that he’s been told it’s not true.” Continue reading.

Pence: Trump and I may never ‘see eye to eye’ on events of Jan. 6

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Former Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday offered his most extensive comments to date on the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, calling it a “dark” and “tragic” day in history, but accused Democrats of using the events that day to divide the country.

Pence, in a speech in Hillsborough County, N.H., acknowledged he and former President Trump may never agree on what transpired that day, a nod to Trump’s defense of the rioters at the Capitol.

But Pence called for the nation to move on from the attack on the Capitol that left multiple people dead as protesters halted the certification of President Biden‘s electoral victory. Continue reading.

‘Sick and twisted excuse for a human being’: Wisconsin paper slams Ron Johnson for defending Jan. 6 insurrectionists

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Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin not only voted against a bill calling for a commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection — he has also downplayed the violence that occurred that day, insisting that the insurrectionists did not frighten him and claiming that the riot was mostly a “peaceful protest.” The Cap Times, based in Wisconsin’s state capitol of Madison, slams the far-right GOP senator in a blistering editorial published on June 2 — describing his actions as those of a “sick and twisted excuse for a human being.”

Gladys Sicknick, mother of Brian Sicknick — a Capitol Police Officer who died following the violence of January 6 — tried to convince Johnson and other Senate Republicans that a January 6 commission was badly needed. But Johnson was unmoved.

“Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson met last week with the mother of fallen U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died on the day that former President Trump incited an insurrectionist mob to attack the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election,” the Cap Times’ editorial board explains. “She did so despite the fact that Johnson has declared that he was not frightened by the attack on the Capitol because the seditionists were people who ‘truly respect law enforcement.’ Gladys Sicknick wanted to explain to Johnson that what happened on the day her son died was not, as the senator continues to claim, a ‘peaceful protest.'” Continue reading.

Eric Swalwell forced to hire private investigators because Rep. Mo Brooks is so scared of his subpoena

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Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) is so terrified of the lawsuit by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) that he has been hiding from process servers for almost a month, just to avoid being subpoenaed.

Brooks was among many Republicans who spoke at the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally that led to the attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

“Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass,” proclaimed Brooks moments ahead of the crowd attacking Capitol Police and D.C. Metro cops. Brooks is even bragging about his involvement in the Jan. 6 attacks, using it in several Facebook ads for his campaign. But when asked to stand up for his speech and defend his involvement, Brooks is running scared and hiding. Continue reading.

‘Raw political fear’: George Conway torches GOP lawmakers for their ‘dereliction’ on Jan 6 commission vote

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George Conway is displeased with Republican lawmakers’ handling of all things Trump, but he argues that there is one failed effort that tops all of the rest. In a new piece published by The Washington Post, Conway fired off as he voiced his frustrations about Republicans’ efforts to block the Jan. 6 commission which would have established an entity to investigate the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. 

Although they allowed Trump to slide during both impeachment trials, Conway noted that at least they had some form of excuse for their actions regardless of how futile their justifications were.

However, where the Jan. 6 commission is concerned Conway argues: “There was no excuse — none — for what they did last week.” Continue reading.

QAnon leader tells followers she can time travel — and ‘retribution is coming’ for Democrats: report

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A QAnon adherent who claims she can time travel is whipping up her thousands of followers to carry out a plot to oust elected officials in the U.S. and replace them with QAnon followers, VICE News reports.

After months of building a network of groups in all 50 states, Terpsichore Maras-Lindeman promised her followers that “retribution is coming for what she says was the stolen 2020 election. She also claims Donald Trump will be reinstated into office. 

While growing her subscriber base on Twitch, Maras-Lindeman, who streams under the name Tore Says, has raked in tens of thousands of dollars, even convincing her subscriber base to donate over $80,000, so she could buy a new Tesla. Continue reading.