Tag: Trump wants to be a dictator

Trump’s Legacy: Voters Who Reject Democracy and Any Politics but Their Own

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The mob attack on the Capitol, and interviews with Trump voters this week, show that the president’s subversion of democratic values will have enduring influence within the Republican Party.

The sight of a violent mob inspired by President Trump smashing its way into the Capitol was more than just a shocking spectacle. It also highlighted one of the most dangerous parts of Mr. Trump’s legacy: the disbelief in democracy that has metastasized among many of his supporters.

While the turmoil on Wednesday has divided Republican officials, with some resigning or calling for Mr. Trump to leave office and others rallying behind him, there are few signs of division among these voters who fervently back Mr. Trump. In lengthy interviews with some of them this week, they expressed sympathy with what they said were the motives of the mob — to stop the counting of Electoral College results in Congress, under the false premise that widespread fraud had deprived the president of re-election.

The adherence of Mr. Trump’s base to his groundless claims of a “sacred landslide” victory, and their rejection of a routine Constitutional process — a position abetted by 147 Congressional Republicans who objected to certifying Mr. Biden’s election — suggests that a core part of the Republican Party, both voters and some officials, is dead-set on rejecting the legitimacy of any politics or party but their own. Continue reading.

Georgia Officials Reveal Third Trump Call Seeking to Influence Election Results

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In a December call, President Trump told a Georgia election investigator that the official would be a “national hero” for finding evidence of fraud. White House officials’ pressure on the federal prosecutor in Atlanta to resign was also revealed.

ATLANTA — More than a week before President Trump called Georgia’s secretary of state, pressuring him to “find” votes to help overturn his electoral loss, the president made another call, this one to a top Georgia election investigator, in which he asked the investigator to “find the fraud” in the state.

The earlier phone call, which came to light on Saturday, along with the revelation that White House officials had pushed the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta to resign, underlined a broader push by Mr. Trump to overturn election results in the state.

Mr. Trump’s phone call, made in late December, was first reported by The Washington Post. The content of the Post report was verified by a state election official who requested anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak about the matter. Continue reading.

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.

‘Find the fraud’: Trump pressured a Georgia elections investigator in a separate call legal experts say could amount to obstruction

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President Trump urged Georgia’s lead elections investigator to “find the fraud” in a lengthy December phone call, saying the official would be a “national hero,” according to an individual familiar with the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the conversation.

Trump placed the call to the investigations chief for the Georgia secretary of state’s office shortly before Christmas — while the individual was leading an inquiry into allegations of ballot fraud in Cobb County, in the suburbs of Atlanta, according to people familiar with the episode.

The president’s attempts to intervene in an ongoing investigation could amount to obstruction of justice or other criminal violations, legal experts said, though they cautioned a case could be difficult to prove. Continue reading.

Federal leaders have two options if they want to rein in Trump

As the world reacts to the Jan. 6 armed attack on the U.S. Capitol encouraged by President Donald Trump, many Americans are wondering what happens next. Members of Congress, high-level officials and even major corporations and business groups have called for Trump’s removal from office. 

Prominent elected and appointed officials appear to have already sidelined Trump informally. Vice President Mike Pence was reportedly the highest-level official to review the decision to call out the D.C. National Guard to respond to the assault on the Capitol. 

Informal actions like this may continue, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s reported request that Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, restrict Trump’s ability to use the nuclear codes. But political leaders are considering more formal options as well. They have two ways to handle it: impeachment and the 25th Amendment. Continue reading.

Trump Signals That His Coup Plotting Isn’t Really Over

The violent mob Donald Trump sent to attack and loot our Capitol receded during the night, but his efforts to overthrow our government continue. Trump signaled in a Tweet that even after he leaves office his criminally seditious behavior will persist.

This is “only the beginning of the fight to make America Great Again!” Trump declared at 3:49 a.m. Thursday. (An aide tweeted his message after Twitter locked Trump’s own account for spreading dangerous lies.)

While Trump’s middle of the night statement also promised a peaceful transition of power when Joe Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20, it came without a critical word about the chaos and violence Wednesday by fanatical Trumpists in California, Kansas, Georgia, Oregon, Washington, and Utah. Continue reading.

‘Murder the media’: Photographers release terrifying video of the mob attack outside the Capitol gates

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As violent Trump supporters terrorized the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, members of Congress were not the only people they were looking to intimidate. These terrorists also targeted journalists and press under Donald Trump’s message of declaring the news and media an “enemy of the people.”

“Murder the media,” was written on a door of the Capitol while terrorists took over and attacked a group of reporters. In one incident John Minchillo, a photographer of the Associated Press, was attacked by a mob of Trump supporters outside the Capitol building. The violent incident was captured on video and shared by another photographer on Twitter. Local photographers and reporters were present at the break of the horrific violence that took place Wednesday. Footage shared on social media depicts the consequences of words bigots like Trump use to incite violence on communities and spaces.

“Please use this moment to reflect on the importance of journalism as a conduit between us. We tell stories. That’s our mission. We have the privilege to shepherd moments over time and space. Please subscribe to your hard working local papers, support their vocation,” Minchillo replied to the video of his attack being shared on Twitter. Continue reading.

‘I want him out:’ Murkowski becomes first Senate Republican to call for Trump to resign

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Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) became the first Senate Republican to call for President Trump to resign, telling the Anchorage Daily News: “I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused enough damage.”

Her comments Friday came on the same day House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told colleagues in a letter that she has spoken to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, about keeping an “unstable president” from accessing the nuclear codes. Pelosi also threatened impeachment if Trump didn’t resign “immediately.”

Her letter came shortly after Trump tweeted that he would not attend the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 20, breaking with a long-standing tradition of outgoing presidents attending the swearing-in ceremony of their successors. Biden told reporters that he agreed with Trump’s decision to skip the ceremony, though he would welcome Vice President Pence. Continue reading.

‘Stop the tape!’: CNBC’s Shep Smith demands producers cut off Trump’s dangerous video live on air

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CNBC host Shep Smith told his producers to stop playing a video clip of President Donald Trump live on air Wednesday, objecting to the fact that the president pushed his disinformation campaign to claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

Trump posted the video on Twitter Wednesday afternoon after a group of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress gathered to count the votes of the Electoral College. The rioters attacked police, broke through barriers, and occupied the federal building, blocking the ceremony and forcing the officials to go into lockdown. At least one person was reported to be shot. The insurrectionists had been stirred up by Trump’s false insistence that the election had been stolen and his delusional belief that somehow Congress could overturn the result during the counting. It was clear, however, that Congress would affirm Joe Biden’s win.

In the wake of the violence, some hoped Trump would speak out to calm the situation. But while Trump did tell the rioters to go home in the video, he spent more time stoking the false claims that the election was stolen, and told those who were supporting him in the assault on the Capitol that he loved them and that they were “special.” It seemed at least as likely to rile up his supporters more than calm them down. Continue reading.

‘The arrogance is breathtaking’: Milwaukee newspaper slams Ron Johnson for defying will of Wisconsin voters

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Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is among the Republican senators who, unlike Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has vowed to contest the Electoral College results when the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives meet for a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, January 6. Wisconsin was among the states that President-elect Joe Biden won in the 2020 presidential election, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s editorial board slams Johnson for failing to respect the will of Wisconsin voters in a scathing editorial published on January 5.

“The arrogance of Ron Johnson is breathtaking,” the Journal Sentinel declares. “Johnson and 12 other Republican senators say they will challenge the tabulation of Electoral College votes in Congress on Wednesday in a dangerous political stunt that will accomplish nothing but may burnish their image with those who would choose outgoing President Donald Trump over democracy. Johnson and his shameful friends are planning to support Trump as he directly opposes the will of the people.”

The editorial board stresses that although Biden will remain president-elect regardless of the “stunt” from Johnson and other GOP senators, that doesn’t make it any less shameless. Continue reading.