Tag: Trump insurrection

This Week in Republican Insurrection Erasure

It will shock you how much it never happened.

In the week following Liz Cheney’s purge for the crime of speaking honestly about the former president’s unprecedented, if buffoonish, attempt to overthrow the election and stay in power against the will of the people, Republicans have taken out their neuralyzer and moved deliberately and unapologetically down the path of January 6 erasure.

  • A witness to the president’s support for a domestic terror assault on the Capitol refuses to testify.
  • A congressman tries to retcon his support for overturning the election on national TV.
  • A Republican campaign committee rewards the members who tried to “Stop The Steal.”
  • A senator who spearheaded the legislative coup is given massive platforms to promote his book about being silenced.

For the GOP, memory-holing the insurrection is the point.

It will shock you how much it never happened. Continue reading.

Sen. Republicans Admit They Don’t Want Jan 6. Commission Because It Could Color Midterms

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Senate Republicans are candidly admitting their political calculus in opposing a January 6 commission: they don’t want it to encroach on the 2022 midterms, during which they worry it would be “weaponized politically.”

In other words, they don’t want voters reminded of the attack their leader and party provoked as they mull over their ballots. 

Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the Senate minority whip, told reporters that he didn’t want the probe “weaponized politically and drug into next year.” Continue reading.

Capitol Police Officers Blast GOP Leaders For Opposing Jan. 6 Commission

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On Wednesday, anonymous members of the United States Capitol Police, in a letter addressed to members of Congress, said they felt “profound disappointment” in the decisions by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to oppose an investigation into the January 6 attack.

The U.S. Capitol Police said on its Twitter account that the letter was not an official statement from the organization.

CNN reported that it had confirmed with the Capitol Police officer who wrote the letter that it represents the views of 40-50 officers. Continue reading.

GOP defections over Jan. 6 commission deliver rebuke to McCarthy

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Ultimately, 35 Republicans joined Democrats in approving the commission.

House GOP divisions were on full display Wednesday as dozens of Republicans broke with their party leadership and former President Donald Trump to support a proposed commission investigating the Jan. 6 siege on the Capitol.

The measure, which would task a bipartisan 10-person commission with delivering a report on the causes and facts of the insurrection by the end of the year, passed the House by a 252-175 vote with every Democrat and 35 Republicans in support.

It now heads to an uncertain future in the 50-50 Senate, where Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says he’ll oppose the legislation. Continue reading.

DFL Party Slams Republicans for Voting Against Commission to Investigate Violent Assault on Capitol

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SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today, Representatives Hagedorn, Emmer, Fischbach, and Stauber voted against bipartisan legislation to establish a commission to investigate the January 6th assault on the United States Capitol. 

In response, DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement:

“It is disgraceful that Representatives Hagedorn, Emmer, Fischbach, and Stauber voted against a bipartisan commission to get to the bottom of the worst assault on American democracy in living memory. To make matters worse, Minnesota’s Republican members of Congress voted against the insurrection commission because they know they propped up the Big Lie that helped inspire the assault on the Capitol in the first place. 

“Instead of forcefully pushing back against the lie that the 2020 election was stolen, Minnesota Republicans perpetuated that lie and allowed it to take root and grow within their party. Now, they are trying to block efforts to establish the truth of the January insurrection and leave our Capitol vulnerable to future attacks in a pathetic and cowardly attempt to avoid bad headlines. 

Continue reading “DFL Party Slams Republicans for Voting Against Commission to Investigate Violent Assault on Capitol”

House approves Jan. 6 commission over GOP objections

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The House on Wednesday passed a bill to establish a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, earning relatively little support from Republicans as GOP leaders sought to quash a bill negotiated by one of their own members.

Lawmakers passed the bill in a 252-175 vote, with 35 Republicans joining all Democrats in support.

The legislation’s chances appear increasingly slim in the Senate after both Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) came out in opposition to the bill. Continue reading.

Trump demanded McConnell and McCarthy oppose Jan. 6 commission. They are dutifully complying

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Donald Trump, the former president, Tuesday night in a blog post called on the top two Congressional Republicans to put an end to “discussions” to form a commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection and attempted coup that he incited.

They are complying.

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Tuesday afternoon had expressed “surprising” opennessto a January 6 commission, several news sources reported, but by Tuesday evening the Senate Minority Leader told reporters he is “pushing the pause button.”

House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has been opposed to the commission since early Tuesday, some say due to his possible involvement in the lead up to the deadly riots that day. Continue reading.

McConnell says he opposes ‘slanted’ Jan. 6 commission bill

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that he doesn’t support legislation that would create a commission to probe the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. 

“After careful consideration, I’ve made the decision to oppose the House Democrats slanted and unbalanced proposal for another commission to study the events of Jan. 6,” McConnell said from the Senate floor. 

McConnell’s speech comes after he informed Senate Republicans of his decision during a breakfast meeting on Wednesday. Continue reading.

‘Coolest thing I’ve ever done in my life’: Rioter who bragged about pushing female cop down Capitol stairs arrested in Florida

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Daniel Paul Gray of Florida was charged today with multiple crimes of violence against police officers at the January 6 Capitol riot. Supporting photographic evidence is a video made by Gray that spells out the goal of “pushing police out the back of the Capitol.”

Gray is accused of having altercations with multiple police, one in which he caused a female police officer to fall down the western rotunda stairs “and became visibly injured.”

Gray bragged about it all in a self-shot monologue, the FBI said. Gray’s pride in having carried out the attack on law enforcement — and the boast that “this is far from over — was captured on his video. 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.