Tag: Trump big lie

Trump supporter who threatened Pelosi goes down in flames after telling judge he was ‘just having fun’

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A judge leveled a Donald Trump supporter who allegedly brought guns to Washington, D.C., and threatened to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Cleveland Meredith made threats against specific elected officials online and drove from Colorado with a Glock 19, 9mm pistol, Taver X95 rifle with a telescopic sight, high-capacity magazines and more than 2,500 rounds of ammunition, but arrived too late to take part in the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to charging documents flagged by Buzzfeed’s Zoe Tillman.

“Hauling ass, 3.5 hours from target practice,” he said in one message, according to prosecutors. “Ready to remove several craniums from shoulders. I’m gonna collect a sh*t ton of Traitors heads.” Continue reading.

Michigan’s top election official and Dominion warn counties about the risks of vote audits by outside groups

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Michigan’s top election official and the company whose voting equipment has been the subject of baseless claims of fraud are cautioning local governments in the state that outside audits of the 2020 election results like the one underway in Maricopa County, Ariz., would be illegal and would void the machines’ security warranties.

The warnings come amid a growing campaign by former president Donald Trump and his supporters to pressure county governments to launch audits reviewing ballots cast in the last presidential election, which they claim without evidence was tainted by large-scale fraud and votes manipulated on equipment purchased from Dominion Voting Systems.

The Arizona recount, which has been denounced by election experts as unprofessional and insecure, is being touted as an inspiration by small cohorts of angry residents across the country. State leaders, Dominion officials and local residents are now trying to block such examinations sought by activists in several Michigan counties. Continue reading.

With Capitol insurrection commission delayed in the Senate, Rep. Phillips calls for filibuster reform

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WASHINGTON, DC — With the Senate vote on the bipartisan commission to investigate delayed, Rep. Phillips issues the following statement:

“I value tradition. Like most Americans, I yearn for the days when Senators debated rather than divided and broke bread rather than our collective trust in government. But here we are, just months removed from an insurrection, merging from a pandemic, witnessing graphic displays of corruption, and at risk of irretrievable erosion of faith in elections – the very foundation of our democratic republic. I believe a bipartisan January 6 Commission and HR1, the For The People Act, are too important to forgo without debate, deliberation and a floor vote in the Senate. So it’s time to call on tradition and return the filibuster to its roots; the talking filibuster. Senators who wish to prevent a bill from a facing a simple majority vote would have to be so committed to obstruction that they’re willing to speak on the floor for as many hours or days or even months as it takes to force the others to concede. I believe in tradition, and tradition dictates Senators should be debating and voting, or have to work a whole lot harder to do nothing at all.”

Arizona secretary of state slams ‘highly partisan,’ ‘fringe’ election audit

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PHOENIX — Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) is raising new concerns about the way auditors hired by the Republican-controlled state Senate have handled more than 2.1 million ballots from the 2020 election that sat for more than a week in hot and humid trailers waiting to be counted.

The auditors, overseen by a Florida firm that has no experience auditing elections, earlier this month left ballots cast in November in Maricopa County in a trailer outside Phoenix Memorial Coliseum, a few blocks from the state capital, after their count took longer than expected.  

Temperatures neared 100 degrees in Phoenix last week as auditors paused the count to allow previously scheduled high school graduation ceremonies to take place in the building.  Continue reading.

They tried to overturn the 2020 election. Now they want to run the next one.

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Trump supporters who back his claim that the 2020 vote was rigged are running to become the top election officials in key states.

Republicans who sought to undercut or overturn President Joe Biden’s election win are launching campaigns to become their states’ top election officials next year, alarming local officeholders and opponents who are warning about pro-Trump, “ends justify the means” candidates taking big roles in running the vote.

The candidates include Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, a leader of the congressional Republicans who voted against certifying the 2020 Electoral College results; Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, one of the top proponents of the conspiracy-tinged vote audit in Arizona’s largest county; Nevada’s Jim Marchant, who sued to have his 5-point congressional loss last year overturned; and Michigan’s Kristina Karamo, who made dozens of appearances in conservative media to claim fraud in the election.

Now, they are running for secretary of state in key battlegrounds that could decide control of Congress in 2022 — and who wins the White House in 2024. Their candidacies come with former President Donald Trump still fixated on spreading falsehoods about the 2020 election, insisting he won and lying about widespread and systemic fraud. Each of their states has swung between the two parties over the last decade, though it is too early to tell how competitive their elections will be. Continue reading.

QAnon Crowd Convinced UFOs Are a Diversion From Voter Fraud

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“They want you talking about aliens because they don’t want you talking about Maricopa,” Newsmax White House correspondent Emerald Robinson tweeted.

It’s never been a better time to believe in UFOs. Barack Obama talked last week about inexplicable footage of unidentified aerial phenomena, and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) wrote about his trip to Area 51 in a recent op-ed. In June, American intelligence agencies are set to release an unclassified report on what the government knows about UFOs.

For “ufologists,” long mocked as tinfoil hat-wearers obsessed with little green men, some measure of vindication may finally be at hand. But for many UFO enthusiasts on the right, this new round of UFO disclosures is nothing to cheer about. Instead, they’re claiming the new videos of possible UFO sightings are meant to distract people from Donald Trump’s baseless voter fraud allegations and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic.

“There’s no doubt that this mainstream UFO disclosure push is offering a convenient distraction for the Deep State to turn our attention away from important issues like the Scamdemic and the election fraud getting exposed,” Jordan Sather, a UFO and QAnon conspiracy theorist, complained on social media network Telegram on May 19. Continue reading.

Man charged with bringing molotov cocktails to Capitol on Jan. 6 has Texas militia ties, contacted Ted Cruz’s office, court papers allege

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An Alabama man charged with bringing five loaded firearms and 11 molotov cocktails with napalm-like properties to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 approached Sen. Ted Cruz’s Washington home and office weeks earlier to discuss “election fraud” and previously joined an armed-citizen camp at the Texas border, new court filings alleged Monday.

The new U.S. allegations came in a federal judge’s ruling ordering the continued detention of Lonnie Leroy Coffman, of Falkville, Ala., citing evidence that he had potential plans to coordinate with others and was prepared for political violence.

The 71-year-old Army veteran is awaiting trial on charges of possessing some of the deadliest unregistered weapons and explosives on the day of the riots that breached the Capitol, led to assaults on nearly 140 police officers and forced the evacuation of Congress. Continue reading.

Long After Trump’s Loss, a Push to Inspect Ballots Persists

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Efforts to review 2020 ballots in Georgia and Arizona reflect the staying power of Donald Trump’s falsehoods, and Democrats fear that the findings could be twisted by Republicans.

Georgia has already counted its 2020 presidential vote three times, with the same result: President Biden defeated Donald J. Trumpnarrowly yet decisively. But now portions of the vote will be inspected for a fourth time, after a judge ruled late last week that a group of voters must be allowed to view copies of all 147,000 absentee ballots cast in the state’s largest county.

The move carries limited weight. The plaintiffs, led by a known conspiracy theorist, will have no access to the actual ballots, Georgia’s election results have already been certified after recounts and audits showed Mr. Biden as the winner with no evidence of fraud, and the review will have no bearing on the outcome.

But the order from Judge Brian Amero of Henry County Superior Court was a victory for a watchdog group of plaintiffs that has said it is in search of instances of ballot fraud, parroting Mr. Trump’s election lies. Election officials in Fulton County, which contains most of Atlanta, worry that if such a review does occur there, it could cast further doubt on the state’s results and give Republican lawmakers ammunition to seek greater power over the administration of elections. Continue reading.

Romney first GOP senator to say he would vote for Jan. 6 commission bill

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Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said on Monday that he would support a House-passed bill to create a commission to probe the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Romney’s comments make him the first GOP senator to say he would vote for the bill, which needs the support of 10 Republicans to pass the Senate.

Asked how he would vote if Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) tried to start debate on the House bill, a move that requires 60 votes to defeat a filibuster, Romney told reporters, “I would support the bill.” Continue reading.

National Guard’s Capitol security mission ends as lawmakers feud over protection needs, costs

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National Guard personnel will fully depart the U.S. Capitol grounds this week, military and congressional officials said Monday, bringing an end to the security mission that began when armed troops were dispatched to help quell the attack by supporters of former president Donald Trump.

The National Guard was deployed Jan. 6 to help beat back a crowd of about 10,000 rioters who had besieged the building and clear out the approximately 800 who had broken inside. Why it took the National Guard more than three hours after the breach to arrive continues to be a matter of contentious discussion on Capitol Hill, where House lawmakers recently grilled Trump’s former acting defense secretary for details about that day.

“These airmen and soldiers protected not only the grounds, but the lawmakers working on those grounds, ensuring the people’s business could continue unabated,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. “They lived out in very tangible ways the oath they took to support and defend the Constitution.” Continue reading.