Trump insurrection 17 , CD3 DFL

Trump’s ‘purgatory’: WSJ editorial board rips GOP for nixing Cheney while failing to see the bigger for 2022

The Wall Street Journal editorial board is offering a critical assessment of House Republicans’ vote to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from leadership, warning the move will not nix the party’s problems ahead of the 2022 primary election.

In fact, the board ward the GOP could face deeper consequences in the long term for its failure to address the real problem: the haunting existence of former President Donald Trump, a political nightmare which the publication describes as Trump’s “purgatory.”

In an effort to stay in the former president’s good graces, Republican lawmakers voted in favor of stripping Cheney of her leadership role. But the Wall Street Journal warns that ousting Cheney won’t make lawmakers look better in the eyes of Republican voters. Continue reading.

Capitol insurrection forces military’s extremism problem out of the shadows

Servicemembers and veterans make for prized recruits for extremist organizations

In the late 1980s, Chuck Leek was an aviation electrician stationed at Naval Base San Diego, home of the Pacific Fleet. There, he worked on electrical systems that ran through Navy helicopters. He says he was a “full-on skinhead.”

Leek, now 54, has cut ties with the white supremacist movement and works to bring others out of it. While in the military in California, Leek and two other neo-Nazis he met while in training formed a skinhead gang, rented a house together and began working to recruit other active-duty servicemembers.

Military commanders largely looked the other way. Continue reading.

Reporters fact-check McCarthy for saying he doesn’t ‘think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the election’

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is facing a fierce fact-check from journalists after making another revisionist claim about his party’s response to the 2020 election.

On Wednesday, May 12, McCarthy spoke to reporters after attending a meeting with President Joe Biden. While speaking to reporters, the California lawmaker said, “I don’t think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election. I think that is all over with. We’re sitting here with the president today.”

The perplexing comment quickly caught the attention of reporters who jumped at the opportunity to fact-check McCarthy for his inaccurate claims. On May 7, former President Donald Trump called the election the “Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020” in a message to his supporters. Continue reading.

At hearing, Republicans recast Jan. 6 rioters as victims

At hearing, Republicans recast Jan. 6 rioters as victims

Less than an hour after Republicans ousted Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney from her role in conference leadership for criticizing former President Donald Trump, House Republicans sought to recast the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, with the rioters now assuming the role of victims.

Wednesday’s House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing featured testimony from former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, who were in office on Jan. 6, along with Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., argued that there was something untoward about federal law enforcement seeking the public’s help in tracking down individuals for whom there’s photo and video evidence of potential violations of federal law. Continue reading.

Trump loyalists taking over top GOP group after helping to stoke Jan. 6 riot

Hardline supporters of Donald Trump are driving out more moderate members of a top Republican group in the fallout over the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The fundraising arm for the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) made robocalls encouraging Trump supporters to “stop the steal” by marching on the Capitol, which preceded the riot, and more moderate members of the group are quitting as the former president’s allies take over, reported The Daily Beast.

“During the last several months, it has become clear that there is a significant difference of opinion among members of the RAGA’s executive committee as to the direction this organization should take going forward,” wrote then-chair Chris Carr, who is Georgia’s attorney general, in his April 16 resignation letter. Continue reading.

In Turning on Liz Cheney, G.O.P. Bows to Trump’s Election Lies

House Republicans were lobbying to replace Representative Liz Cheney, who has vocally called out Donald J. Trump’s lies, with Representative Elise Stefanik, who has embraced them.

WASHINGTON — Top Republicans moved swiftly on Wednesday to purge Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming from their leadership ranks for vocally rejecting Donald J. Trump’s election lies, laying the groundwork to install a replacement who has embraced his false claims of voting fraud.

The move to push out Ms. Cheney as the No. 3 House Republican in favor of Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, a Trump loyalist who voted to overturn President Biden’s victory in key states, reflected how thoroughly the party’s orthodoxy has come to be defined by fealty to the former president and a tolerance for misinformation, rather than policy principles.

“The Republican Party is at a turning point, and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution,” Ms. Cheney wrote in a searing opinion piece published in the Washington Post on Wednesday evening. She framed her fate as a referendum on the party’s future and warned that Republicans must “steer away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality.” Continue reading.

Biden sparked outrage calling Jan. 6 ‘the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War’ — he was right

In his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Joe Biden called the January 6 insurrection “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.” This is an apt comparison. The insurrection was the worst attack on our democracy since the shelling of Fort Sumter, because the president of the United States schemed to overturn a free and fair election and remain in power against the will of the people, a high crime for which he was impeached. It was pure luck that the insurgents didn’t assassinate the vice president for refusing the president’s order to steal the election.

Revisionists are already trying to memory-hole the full significance of the attack and cast it as a mere riot rather than as a coordinated assault on American democracy orchestrated by a sitting president. While the out-and-out hacks allege January 6 was a false-flag operation masterminded by BLM, the more intellectually respectable apologists are trying to muddy the waters with spurious historical objections.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Eli Lake tweeted: “The Capitol Hill riot was terrible. All of this is true. At the same time, what happened on January 6 is not the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. Some perspective would be nice here.” Continue reading.

Trump told Facebook board his supporters were ‘law abiding’ during Capitol riot

Former President Donald Trump defended his supporters as “law abiding” the day of the Capitol insurrection, while insisting his social media posts making false claims about the election did nothing to incite violence on January 6, when an angry mob breached the Capitol to stop the count of President Biden‘s Electoral College victory.

The defense by Trump was made to the Facebook Oversight Board, which was reviewing whether his account on the social media platform should be restored.

In comments submitted on the former president’s behalf, Trump said his supporters were “law-abiding” when they stormed into the building and that nothing he posted on Jan, 6 could “reasonably be interpreted as a threat to public safety.” Continue reading.

Trump lawyers up after Capitol cops sue him for inciting MAGA mob

Former President Donald Trump is now retaining legal counsel to defend him in a lawsuit filed against him by Capitol police officers James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby.

The Daily Beast reports that Trump is retaining attorney Jesse Binnall, who is also representing the former president against a civil suit filed by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), in the suit filed by the Capitol officers.

The lawsuit filed by the two officers directly blames Trump for actions that “inflamed, encouraged, incited, directed, and aided and abetted” an angry mob that stormed the United States Capitol building and left five people dead. Continue reading.

Cheney slams Trump on ‘big lie’ over election

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on Monday shot back at former President Trumpover his claims that the 2020 election was stolen, accusing those who spread the claim of “poisoning our democratic system.”

“The 2020 presidential election was not stolen,” Cheney tweeted. “Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”

Cheney’s tweet came in response to a statement earlier Monday morning from Trump, who called President Biden‘s victory in the November 2020 election “the big lie.” Continue reading.

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