Tag: Trump fake voter fraud crisis

As Michigan G.O.P. Plans Voting Limits, Top Corporations Fire a Warning Shot

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State Republicans pushing a new voting law are threatening to use a rarely invoked option to circumvent a promised veto by the governor. And Michigan businesses are trying to get out ahead of the issue.

At first glance, the partisan battle over voting rights in Michigan appears similar to that of many other states: The Republican-led Legislature, spurred by former President Donald J. Trump’s lies about election fraud, has introduced a rash of proposals to restrict voting access, angering Democrats, who are fighting back.

But plenty of twists and turns are looming as Michigan’s State Senate prepares to hold hearings on a package of voting bills beginning Wednesday. Unlike Georgia, Florida and Texas, which have also moved to limit voting access, Michigan has a Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, who said last month she would vetoany bill imposing new restrictions. But unlike in other states with divided governments, Michigan’s Constitution offers Republicans a rarely used option for circumventing Ms. Whitmer’s veto.

Last month, the state’s Republican chairman told activists that he aimed to do just that — usher new voting restrictions into law using a voter-driven petition process that would bypass the governor’s veto pen. Continue reading.

Capitol Police Told to Hold Back on Riot Response on Jan. 6, Report Finds

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Despite being tipped that “Congress itself is the target” on Jan. 6, Capitol Police were ordered not to use their most powerful crowd-control weapons, according to a scathing new watchdog report.

WASHINGTON — The Capitol Police had clearer advance warnings about the Jan. 6 attack than were previously known, including the potential for violence in which “Congress itself is the target.” But officers were instructed by their leaders not to use their most aggressive tactics to hold off the mob, according to a scathing new report by the agency’s internal investigator.

In a 104-page document, the inspector general, Michael A. Bolton, criticized the way the Capitol Police prepared for and responded to the mob violence on Jan. 6. The report was reviewed by The New York Times and will be the subject of a Capitol Hill hearing on Thursday.

Mr. Bolton found that the agency’s leaders failed to adequately prepare despite explicit warnings that pro-Trump extremists posed a threat to law enforcement and civilians and that the police used defective protective equipment. He also found that the leaders ordered their Civil Disturbance Unit to refrain from using its most powerful crowd-control tools — like stun grenades — to put down the onslaught. Continue reading.

DFL Party Leaders Call on Republicans to Correct Election-Related Misinformation Ahead of Biden Inauguration


SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, DFL Party leaders held a press conference calling on Minnesota Republican leaders to correct the election-related disinformation they have spread and say to their base, with no hedging or qualifying, that the 2020 elections were free and fair and that Joe Biden is the President-elect.

A video of the press conference is available here.

“It is imperative that Minnesota Republicans tell their base the truth: the 2020 elections were not stolen, there was not widespread voter fraud, and Joe Biden is the legitimate President-elect of the United States of America,” said Ken Martin, Chairman of the Minnesota DFL Party. “We cannot stand idly by and allow threats of violence to consume our political system. We are better than this. Republican leaders must speak out now, not just to denounce violence but to repudiate the lies fueling that violence.”

Continue reading “DFL Party Leaders Call on Republicans to Correct Election-Related Misinformation Ahead of Biden Inauguration”

Trump Zealots Can’t Hide Behind Economic Anxiety Any Longer

“They’re not expressing economic anxiety. They’re expressing a desire to dominate.”

The mythology that the force compelling Americans to support Donald Trump was their economic anxiety — a fragile myth already called into doubt repeatedly over the last four years — was irrevocably shattered by last week’s raid on the Capitol as Trump beckoned his followers to march.

Rioters chanted, “Hang Mike Pence.” They built nooses. They graffitied “Murder the media.” They repeatedly called Black officers the n-word. One held as his banner the Confederate flag. One man allegedly threatened to kill Nancy Pelosi. The less extreme said they were there as patriots who “bleed red, white, and blue,” fighting to take back what was stolen from them.

These are not the cries of people hungry for economic opportunity. These are furious cries of vengeance against phantom enemies imagined by the president. Continue reading.

Photo raises alarms about a Trump ally still pushing election conspiracies at the White House

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My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell arrived at the White House on Friday for an apparent meeting with President Donald Trump, raising alarms after a press photographer shared a close-up shot of the visitor’s notes.

While the image wasn’t entirely clear — the paper was folded in half, and some of the text was blurry due to the distance at which the photo was taken — it strongly indicated that Lindell planned to bring up with Trump widely debunked conspiracy fictions about the 2020 election. The notes even suggested he would push for personnel changes, the invocation of the Insurrection Act, and the possible declaration of martial law.

This troubling meeting occurred, of course, under the dark shadow of the previous week’s disaster at the U.S. Capitol, where supporters riled up by the president violently overtook the building in order to stop the affirmation of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win. Those events led the House of Representatives to call for Trump’s immediate removal and to impeach him on the charge of inciting and insurrection. Vice President Mike Pence and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, however, both made clear that neither would use their respective powers to facilitate Trump’s removal before his official last day in office, Jan. 20. Continue reading.

Federalist Society Leader Helped Foment Capitol Riot

More than 200 judges have been embedded in the federal judiciary by outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. The huge majority of those judges come from the Federalist Society, the right-wing dark money association that has been working for years to erode civil rights, end abortion, oppose LGBTQ equality, stop gun safety laws, and fight regulations protecting the environment, health care, and worker safety—aka everything achieved in roughly half a century of progress. They are responsible for the current makeup of the Supreme Court and most of the Republican Senate. And they also have at least partial responsibility for the insurrection that happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

John Eastman, until this week the chairman of the Federalist Society’s Federalism & Separation of Powers practice group, spoke at the pre-insurrection rally. “Anybody that is not willing to stand up and [vote to overturn the election] does not deserve to be in the office!” Eastman told the crowd. Standing next to Rudy Giuliani at the rally, he broke into a smile when Rudy incited the crowd with “Let’s have trial by combat!”

Those linked tweets are from Slate‘s Mark Joseph Stern, who highlighted Eastman’s role in pushing Trump’s various plots to overturn the election: “As the president’s actual attorneys backed away from his coup, Eastman rushed in to fill the void, attempting to bolster the scheme with incoherent legal theories,” Stern writes. “When Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton urged the Supreme Court to overturn the election by nullifying millions of votes, it was Eastman who intervened on Trump’s behalf to endorse Paxton’s suit.” Continue reading.

Washington Post Photographer Catches My Pillow CEO’s Notes On Martial Law

Michael Lindell, an avid Trump-backer, headed to the White House armed with notes on the “Insurrection Act” and action to “save the Constitution.”

A Washington Post photographer managed to capture a clear, partial image of notes that My Pillow CEO Michael Lindell — otherwise known as the “My Pillow guy” — carried into the West Wing on Friday. They included the chilling words “Insurrection Act” and “martial law.”

Observers have feared that outgoing President Donald Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act to declare martial law and mobilize the military in a coup to override the democratic presidential election.

Based on the notes, Lindell, a multi-millionaire and avid Trump supporter who is also the TV pitchman of My Pillow USA, appeared to be about to discuss that very tactic with the White House. Trump was impeached for a second time on Wednesday, charged with “incitement of insurrection.” Continue reading.

CNN’s Brianna Keilar Scorches Republicans Who Say Impeachment Is Too Divisive

She called out lawmakers who enabled Trump’s election lies, then complained after an insurrection that impeachment would sow division.

CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Thursday looked back at the divisive rhetoric of Republicans who voted against the second impeachment of Donald Trump because they claimed it would be too divisive.

“The very people who have been saying for months that Trump won an election that he did not ― who are knowingly telling supporters this lie, who have enabled a president who wants to break the system as he tries to harness the rage of extremists and racists for his own self preservation ― are telling people who want accountability to let it go. It’s ‘too divisive.’”

Trump on Tuesday spoke out about the impeachment proceedings, claiming that it was causing “tremendous anger,” after he spent months spreading disinformation about the presidential election and fomenting political unrest that culminated in a violent insurrection on the U.S. Capitol from his supporters, who sought to overturn the election results. Continue reading.

Harvard removes Republican Elise Stefanik from advisory committee

Stefanik was among the 147 House Republicans who voted against certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

BOSTON — The Harvard Institute of Politics removed Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) from its Senior Advisory Committee in the wake of last week’s deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, pointing to her unfounded claims of voter fraud in the November election. 

“Elise has made public assertions about voter fraud in November’s presidential election that have no basis in evidence, and she has made public statements about court actions related to the election that are incorrect,” Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf wrote in a letter released Tuesday. “Moreover, these assertions and statements do not reflect policy disagreements but bear on the foundations of the electoral process through which this country’s leaders are chosen.”

The school initially asked Stefanik to step aside, according to Elmendorf. When the New York lawmaker declined, the school removed her. Stefanik was among the 147 House Republicans who voted against certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory. Continue reading.

Giuliani calls wrong senator in last-ditch effort to delay certification of Biden’s win

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President Trump‘s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani reportedly left a voicemail message for the wrong lawmaker late Wednesday as he was attempting to reach Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) in an effort to stall Congress’s certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election.

According to The Dispatch, Giuliani recorded a voicemail message addressed to Tuberville at approximately 7 p.m., saying that wanted to discuss how congressional leaders were “trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you.”

“And I know they’re reconvening at 8 tonight, but it … the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow—ideally until the end of tomorrow,” he added. Continue reading.