Tag: Trump election fraud lie

Arizona recount creates backlash in state

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Simmering tensions between Republicans over the ongoing audit of election results in Arizona’s largest county are bursting into the open.

With the audit nearing its one-month mark and the GOP-controlled state Senate driving the process in an increasingly partisan direction, some Republicans have begun more aggressively pushing back against the effort, arguing that it has only served to further undermine confidence in the county’s elections rather than restore it.

The debate over the audit reached a breaking point Monday when the GOP-dominated Maricopa County Board of Supervisors sent a letter to Arizona’s Republican state Senate President Karen Fann demanding an end to the audit, saying that the process had made Arizona a “laughingstock.” Continue reading.

GOP splits open over Jan. 6 commission vote

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The House on Wednesday is set to approve legislation to create a bipartisan investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack in a vote that will re-expose the deep divisions in the GOP over former President Trump’s role in the event and influence in the party.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday announced his opposition to the legislation, which he says puts too much focus on the Jan. 6 attack that interrupted a joint session of Congress’s count of the Electoral College and forced the evacuation of the House and Senate.

McCarthy wants the commission’s scope to be broadened so that it can take in violence in Portland, Ore., and other U.S. cities, as well as the 2017 attack by a gunman on GOP lawmakers practicing for the Congressional Baseball Game and a more recent incident where a Capitol Police officer died. Continue reading.

Trumper On FBI Capitol Wanted List Attends Giuliani Event For GOPer Who Pushed Big Lie

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FBI suspect Sam Lazar posed for photos with Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who backed Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

A militant Donald Trump supporter whose photo is featured on an FBI wanted list because he was caught on video battling with police officers at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 attended a political event last week for a Trump-loving Pennsylvania politician who backed the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The event’s headliner: Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who called for “trial by combat” during his speech on Jan. 6 and whose phones and computers were seized in a Justice Department investigation last month.

Samuel Lazar, who is Capitol suspect No. 275 on the FBI website, posed for photos alongside right-wing Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) at the May 15 event headlined by Giuliani. A tipster sent the photos to HuffPost after spotting them on Facebook. Continue reading.

Rep. Phillips (CD3) Statement on the Vote to Create a Bipartisan Commission on the Capitol Insurrection

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WASHINGTON, DC — Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) issued the following statement on the House bill to create a national commission to investigate the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, which passed on a 252 to 175 vote. 

“I was in the Capitol on Jan 6. I saw it with my own eyes. I walked where blood was spilled and life was lost, and I helped clean up the mess in the early hours of 1/7. I never imagined a single member of Congress would vote against a bipartisan commission to investigate it. I need not shame the 175 who voted in opposition today. Twitter and history will do that just fine. But here’s to the 35 Republicans and 217 Democrats who showed America what patriotism looks like – and votes like.”

McCarthy comes out against bipartisan deal on Jan. 6 commission

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will oppose a bipartisan deal announced last week that would form a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, his office announced Tuesday.

Why it matters: McCarthy’s opposition to the deal, which was negotiated by the top Republican and Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, underscores the internal divisions that continue to plague the GOP in the wake of Jan. 6.

  • The formation of a bipartisan Jan. 6 commission had been delayed for months, after some Republicans insisted that the scope of the investigation be expanded to include violence by far-left protesters last summer. Continue reading.

Arizona Vote Review Is ‘Political Theater’ and ‘Sham,’ G.O.P. Leaders Say

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Leaders in Maricopa County, Ariz., are hitting back at Donald J. Trump and fellow party members in the State Senate over a review of the county’s ballots.

The Republican leaders of Arizona’s most populous county issued a blistering rebuke on Monday to a review of the November election that had been ordered by Republicans in the State Senate, calling it “a grift disguised as an audit” that had spun out of the legislators’ control.

The senior Republican in Maricopa County, Jack Sellers, the chairman of the board of supervisors, said flatly that the county would stop cooperating with the review and suggested that it would challenge in court any of its conclusions that pointed toward improprieties.

“This board is done explaining anything,” Mr. Sellers said at a special meeting of the five-member board, four of whose members are Republicans. “People’s ballots and money are not make-believe. It’s time to be done with this craziness, and get on with this county’s critical business.” Continue reading.

Capitol Police faced equipment shortage during Jan. 6 attack

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Rioters in many cases had more, and better, protective equipment than the officers they were fighting

A Capitol Police officer who fought off rioters for hours in a Medieval-style battle at the Capitol on Jan. 6 returned home ready to crash. But before bed, the officer had to shower off all the chemical irritants the embattled officers were assaulted with that day.

“My body was burning,” the officer said. “The parts of your body that were covered with clothes are now getting this mace water all over you. You have to shower. Your body burns. You lay in bed and you’re just on fire all over.”

Three Capitol Police officers talked to CQ Roll Call under the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the department’s failures regarding equipment for Jan. 6, when hundreds of pro-Trump insurrectionists stormed the Capitol in a violent attempt to prevent the certification of President Joe Biden’s election. Continue reading.

Trump’s comments on Maricopa County election recount are ‘unhinged,’ Arizona Republican official says

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An Arizona Republican who heads up the county elections department that is the target of a GOP audit of the 2020 election results condemned former president Donald Trump for continuing to push false claims of electoral fraud months after his defeat and called his recent comments “unhinged.”

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer on Saturday called on Republicans to stop supporting Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud and slammed the former president for falsely accusing Maricopa County of deleting an elections database.

“This is unhinged,” Richer tweeted, adding that he was “literally looking at our voter registration database on my other screen. Right now. We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party. As a state. As a country.” Continue reading.

Capitol riot fuels debate over domestic terror laws

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The White House’s focus on rising domestic extremism has sparked a debate over whether the U.S. needs new laws to fight it, with some groups concerned that such measures could lead to over surveillance of communities of color and infringe on First Amendment rights.

The Jan. 6 riot that overran the Capitol and left multiple people dead has prompted the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress to prioritize white supremacists and various right-wing anti-government extremists as a top national security concern.

It’s still unclear how much momentum is behind any potential new domestic terrorism statute or what it would ultimately look like, but lawmakers’ focus on the issue is already prompting debate about whether such legislation is needed and if it could do more harm than good. Continue reading.

Ex-Defense Secretary Delivers Damning Takedown Of GOP Spin On U.S. Capitol Riot

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“They’re trying to perform a frontal lobotomy on the American people,” warned William Cohen, the Republican former senator for Maine.

Bill Clinton-era Defense Secretary William Cohen on Friday tore into elected Republicans who are desperately trying to spin the narrative on the deadly U.S. Capitol riot.

“Those members who are trying to say, ‘No big deal on Jan. 6,’ they’re trying to perform a frontal lobotomy on the American people, a side effect which is mental dullness,” Cohen, a Republican former senator for Maine, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

GOP lawmakers on Wednesday tried to depict the riot, in which five people died, as “a normal tour visit” involving “peaceful patriots.” That’s despite the existence of thousands of hours of video footage proving the violence incited by ex-President Donald Trump and his enablers was anything but. Continue reading.