Tag: Trump election fraud lie

Trump on acquittal: MAGA ‘has only just begun’

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Former President Trump declared victory on Saturday after Senate Republicans voted to acquit him for a second time, saying that his political movement “has only just begun” and that he would have more to share in the near future.

Trump thanked his legal team for “upholding justice and defending truth.”

“Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun. In the months ahead, I have much to share with you, and I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all of our people,” he said in the statement. Continue reading.

Lie After Lie: Listen to How Trump Built His Alternate Reality

Lindsey Graham caught saying one thing on impeachment to reporters — but then another to Sean Hannity

Sen. Lindsey-Graham (R-SC) got caught talking out of both sides of his mouth after leaving the impeachment trial on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters, Graham advocated for Capitol police to have shot the protesters and killed more of them. 

“I just can’t believe that we could lose the Capitol like that. I got mad. I mean these police officers had every right to use deadly force, they should have used it,” he said.

But when he appeared on Fox News, Graham had a whole other take perfect for Hannity viewers where he blamed Democrats instead. Continue reading.

The Memo: New riot footage stuns Trump trial

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Shocking new footage of the Jan. 6 insurrection was presented in the Senate chamber Wednesday, dismantling the idea that the second impeachment trial of former President Trump would produce no fresh information.

The presentation packed an enormous emotional punch. Its impact was visceral, even as most Americans need no reminder of a day that was a low point in the nation’s history.

Clips shown by Democratic impeachment managers revealed Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) narrowly escaping the mob and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) breaking into a run in the Capitol’s halls after apparently being urged to change direction by a police officer.

The officer in question was Eugene Goodman of the Capitol Police, who has already won praise for diverting the mob of Trump supporters away from the Senate chamber at considerable risk to himself. Continue reading.

GOP aide’s friends texted her right-wing conspiracy theories as she hid from Capitol rioters

GOP aide Leslie Shedd barricaded herself in her office as pro-Trump rioters breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. But as she prayed for her safety, friends were texting her right-wing disinformation as the attack unfolded, according to an account published by VICE.

“As friends and family texted to make sure she was safe, two claimed in separate conversations that the rioters were really left-wing agitators in disguise, not the Trump supporters who’d flocked by the thousands to a rally where the president claimed the election was stolen from him. A third floated a conspiracy theory involving the Capitol Police,” VICE’s Cameron Joseph reports. 

One friend texted Shedd that the people storming the Capitol were really “BLM and antifa people” disguised as Trump supporters.  Continue reading.

New security video shows harrowing details of Capitol attack

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The House Democrats prosecuting former President Trump‘s impeachment case unveiled harrowing new video footage on Wednesday, lending a new glimpse of just how close the rioters came to former Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. senators as they breached the Capitol on Jan. 6.

The new footage, released on the second day of Trump’s Senate trial, takes advantage of Capitol security cameras positioned around the complex, depicting both the violent intentions of the mob and the heroics of several Capitol Police officers, including Eugene Goodman, who diverted the mob away from senators on the chamber floor. 

“This is now effectively a riot.”

The videos are meant to drive home the Democrats’ argument that the former president purposefully stirred up his supporters with claims of a stolen election and then encouraged them to march on the Capitol to block the vote certifying the victory of his opponent, President Biden.  Continue reading.

Proud Boy charged in Capitol riot slams Trump’s ‘deception’

A member of the right-wing extremist group Proud Boys who was arrested for partaking in the riot at the U.S. Capitol told a court on Wednesday that he was lulled into “deception” by former President Donald Trump and “acted out of the delusional belief” that he was being patriotic by storming the Capitol, POLITICO reports.

Dominic Pezzola was charged with conspiracy last month and is asking a federal court to grant his release pending trial, saying that his membership in the Proud Boys was minimal and that he has no other criminal history. But as POLITICO points out, most notable in Pezzola’s defense is his repudiation of Trump. 

“[D]efendant acted out of the delusional belief that he was a ‘patriot’ protecting his country … He was responding to the entreaties of the-then commander in chief, President Trump,” Pezzola’s lawyer argued. “The President maintained that the election had been stolen and it was the duty of loyal citizens to ‘stop the steal.’ Admittedly there was no rational basis for the claim, but it is apparent defendant was one of millions of Americans who were misled by the President’s deception.” Continue reading.

‘A no brainer’: Expert explains why Trump is in trouble in Georgia

News broke on Wednesday that prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia have launched a criminal probe into former President Donald Trump’sinfamous phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Rick Hasen, a professor of law and political science at University of California Irvine, writes on Twitter that the criminal case against Trump is “a no brainer legally,” and he points to a legal analysis he wrote for Slate earlier this year that makes the case for prosecuting the former president.

In that piece, Hasen zeroed in on Trump asking Raffensperger to “find” the roughly 12,000 votes that he would need to overturn President Joe Biden’s win in Georgia. Continue reading.

In an avalanche of words, there’s no sign of regret from Trump

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The first day of the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump began in silence and dignity. It ended with a tale of grievance and fury told by a team of last-minute lawyers who looked and sounded more than a little worse for wear.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Democratic House managers marched soberly through Statuary Hall and onto the Senate floor. The assembled legislators voted on the rules of the proceedings and then the managers, in their rainbow of tailored gray suits, took to the microphone to analyze, parse and massage a multitude of words focused on interpreting the intent of the Constitution, the mind-set of the former president and the meaning of the noun “person.” They even coined a new phrase for the occasion: January exception.

The House managers spent the bulk of their allotted time explaining precisely why Trump’s impeachment trial was constitutional. And in arguing their case, they quoted from the history books and from modern legal scholars. They appealed to a sense of logic, noting that if a former president could not be held to account by the Senate, then sitting presidents could simply save their most egregious behavior for the final weeks of their administration and then go wild without fear of repercussions. Continue reading.

Trump’s Senate allies Graham, Lee and Cruz huddle with defense team

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After the Senate trial adjourned Thursday, three of Donald Trump’s chamber allies, Sens. Lindsey O. Graham, Mike Lee and Ted Cruz, were seen entering a room to meet with the former president’s attorneys.

After their meeting, Trump attorney David Schoen told reporters the senators were just “talking about procedure,” called them “friendly guys” and said they did not tip him off to questions they would be asking.

They discussed “just how this format goes, you know, the question-and-answer period, all that,” Schoen said. “And then just talking about where they’re from and all that, but it’s just very nice. I said to them it was a great honor to have the opportunity to talk to them.” Continue reading.