Tag: Trump fake voter fraud crisis

The Inciter-in-Chief

On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln arrived at the East Portico of the Capitol to deliver his first Inaugural Address. The nation was collapsing, the Southern slave states seceding. Word of an assassination conspiracy forced Lincoln to travel to the event under military guard. The Capitol building itself, sheathed in scaffolding, provided an easy metaphor for an unfinished republic. The immense bronze sculpture known as the Statue of Freedom had not yet been placed on the dome. It was still being cast on the outskirts of Washington.

Lincoln posed a direct question to the riven union. “Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric,” he said, “with all its benefits, its memories and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it?” The South, in its drive to preserve chattel slavery, replied the following month, when Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter. Even as the Civil War death toll mounted, Lincoln ordered work to continue on the dome. “If people see the Capitol going on,” he said, “it is a sign we intend the Union shall go on.”

That was the first Republican President. The most recent one woke up last Wednesday in a rage, his powers receding, his psyche unravelling. Donald Trump had already lost the White House. Now, despite his best demagogic efforts in Georgia, he had failed to rescue the Senate for the Republican Party. Georgia would be represented by two Democrats: the Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, the first African-American and the first Jew, respectively, to be elected to the chamber by that state’s citizens. Continue reading.

Minnesota Republicans divided over certifying presidential election results

Once the violent pro-Trump mob was cleared from the nation’s Capitol Wednesday, Minnesota’s Republican members of Congress ended up divided over whether to certify Arizona and Pennsylvania’s electors.

U.S. Reps. Jim Hagedorn and Michelle Fischbach objected to the certification, while Reps. Tom Emmer and Pete Stauber voted to accept them, as lawmakers worked deep into the night to approve the the Electoral College results showing Joe Biden won the presidential election.

By Thursday morning, 121 House Republicans had voted to decertify Arizona’s electors and 138 House Republicans voted to decertify Pennsylvania’s electors. Six senators objected to Arizona’s electors and seven to Pennsylvania’s.  Continue reading.

Dominion sues Sidney Powell for defamation, seeking $1.3 billion in damages

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Dominion Voting Systems on Friday filed a defamation lawsuit seeking $1.3 billion in damages against Sidney Powell, a pro-Trump lawyer who has pushed unfounded conspiracy theories alleging that the company was involved in an international communist plot to rig the election against President Trump.

The big picture: Dominion alleges that Powell acted “in concert with allies and media outlets determined to promote a false preconceived narrative about the 2020 election—caused unprecedented harm.” In an interview with the Axios Re:Cap podcast last week, Dominion CEO John Poulos did not rule out suing Trump himself.

What they’re saying: “As a result of the defamatory falsehoods peddled by Powell … Dominion’s founder, Dominion’s employees, Georgia’s governor, and Georgia’s secretary of state have been harassed and have received death threats, and Dominion has suffered enormous harm,” the lawsuit reads. Continue reading.

Bipartisan Disgust Could Save the Republic

The frightening reality check lawmakers and the public got on Jan. 6 is likely to make things a bit easier for the incoming president.

IT WAS, PRESIDENT-ELECT Joe Biden said solemnly, “one of the darkest days in the history of our nation,” a day when pro-Trump insurrectionists stormed the Capitol and occupied the chamber where both defenders and detractors of the president found themselves jointly threatened by a marauding mob.

But if that day was a low point in a tumultuous five years of a campaign and presidency that served to further divide an already partisan Congress, it may also have been just the jolt lawmakers needed to remember why they were sent to Washington in the first place.

Republicans who just hours before had been defiantly challenging an Electoral College vote count to make Biden the next president backed down, looking shell-shocked as they said this was no longer the best way to go. Trump’s golf pal, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, called on his colleagues to accept the election results and on Thursday tweeted laudatory comments about Biden’s response to what lawmakers called an attempted coup. Continue reading.

Capitol Police rejected offers of federal help to quell mob

WASHINGTON — Three days before supporters of President Donald Trump rioted at the Capitol, the Pentagon asked the U.S Capitol Police if it needed National Guard manpower. And as the mob descended on the building Wednesday, Justice Department leaders reached out to offer up FBI agents. The police turned them down both times, according to senior defense officials and two people familiar with the matter. 

Despite plenty of warnings of a possible insurrection and ample resources and time to prepare, the Capitol Police planned only for a free speech demonstration.

Still stinging from the uproar over the violent response by law enforcement to protests last June near the White House, officials also were intent on avoiding any appearance that the federal government was deploying active duty or National Guard troops against Americans. Continue reading.

Barr: Trump committed ‘betrayal of his office’

“Orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable,” Barr said in a statement obtained by POLITICO.

Former Attorney General William Barr accused President Donald Trump on Thursday of a “betrayal of his office” — the latest rebuke of the president by a former high-ranking administration official after pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol. 

“Orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable,” Barr said in a statement obtained by POLITICO. “The President’s conduct yesterday was a betrayal of his office and supporters.”

Barr’s criticism on Thursday was not his first public comment on the chaos at the Capitol. As the president’s supporters breached the building on Wednesday afternoon, he released a statement through his spokesperson that did not refer to Trump by name. Continue reading.

Rudy Giuliani Called For ‘Trial By Combat’ Before Wednesday’s Violence

But now he seems to have forgotten.

Selective amnesia is spelled R-U-D-Y.

Hours before a terrorizing mob overran the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani clambered on stage and urged the very same crowd that would later turn violent to embrace “trial by combat.”

The Trump supporters, gathered for a “Save America” rally, more than took him up on it. Continue reading.

Trump’s remarks before Capitol riot may be investigated, says acting U.S. attorney in D.C.

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The top federal prosecutor in D.C. said Thursday that President Trump was not off-limits in his investigation of the events surrounding Wednesday’s riot at the U.S. Capitol, saying “all actors” would be examined to determine if they broke the law.

Asked if federal agents and prosecutors will look at the incendiary statements made by speakers at Trump’s rally shortly before a mob of his supporters breached security at the Capitol and wreaked havoc inside, acting U.S. attorney Michael R. Sherwin said: “Yes, we are looking at all actors here, not only the people that went into the building, but . . . were there others that maybe assisted or facilitated or played some ancillary role in this. We will look at every actor and all criminal charges.”

Asked specifically if that included Trump, who had urged the crowd to “fight like hell” before the rioting began, Sherwin replied: “We are looking at all actors here, and anyone that had a role, if the evidence fits the element of a crime, they’re going to be charged.” Continue reading.

Republicans Blame ‘Antifa’ For Capitol Assault By Trumpists

A number of Republican lawmakers and right-wing media personalities are blaming “antifa” for the violent attack by supporters of Donald Trump on the Capitol on Wednesday that led to at least four deaths, ignoring their own responsibility in helping foment the rage underlying the attack.

Some GOP lawmakers did call out Trump and members of their own party for the lies about voter fraud and a stolen election that culminated in Wednesday’s failed coup, placing the blame at their feet.

“What happened here today was an insurrection incited by the President of the United States,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said in an impassioned speech on the Senate floor after the body reconvened to certify President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election. Continue reading.

‘People Are Just Trying to Land the Airplane.’ White House Staff Packs Up as Trump Rages On

As President Donald Trump pushes the limits of his power in a last ditch attempt to overturn the election results, the reality that Trump is leaving the White House on Jan. 20 has already sunk in for many White House officials. Many still working directly under Trump every day are trying to keep their heads down during the President’s antidemocratic antics, finish their jobs, pack up their desks and go home. “People are just trying to land the airplane,” says one White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “A lot of people don’t want to be here. It’s just that you can’t abandon ship when the ship isn’t Trump — it’s the country.”

White House officials are scrambling to finish up long-standing policy changes and implement parts of the latest pandemic relief package and new medical regulations, and follow through with parts of the new defense authorization bill that need to be put in place before Trump’s term ends. Officials from the transition team of President-Elect Joe Biden have been working in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the West Wing to prepare to take over in two weeks. But staff are finding it increasingly difficult to get Trump’s attention as he remains fixated on reversing his election loss and pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to overreach his power during Senate electoral college vote count Wednesday. “He is still consumed with all this kind of stuff, the election, and all that kind of thing,” the official says.

Trump is still signing off on urgent decisions, such as an order over the weekend to turn around the homebound aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and keep it in the Middle East in response to what the Pentagon said were Iranian threats against Trump. On Tuesday, Trump approved a ban on the use of several online payment applications run by Chinese companies over concerns the Chinese government was using the apps to collect valuable economic and national security data on American citizens. But Trump’s public comments and tweets have been focused on overturning the election results, not his final policy goals. “Whenever he speaks publicly it’s about the election,” the official says. “It’s a terrible moment right now.” Continue reading.