Category: Trump Administration

Trump’s big lie about 2020 results suffers legal and political blows in key swing states

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It was a bad week for the Big Lie — former President Donald Trump and his allies’ false claims that widespread fraud is to blame for his 2020 election loss.

In one battleground state, Republican senators issued a report that eviscerated Trump’s lies about voter fraud. In another, a judge undercut Trump’s supporters’ hopes to examine nearly 150,000 mail-in ballots. And one of Trump’s closest allies, Rudy Giuliani, was suspended from practicing law in New York. 

Trump and his conspiracy-minded supporters have eagerly been anticipating the conclusion of the problem-plagued audit of Maricopa County’s results in Arizona, but regardless of its final report, it will have no impact on the 2020 election results, as the election was already certified. Trump repeated his election lies at a rally in Ohio Saturday night, but last week’s blows underscored the reality that their options to continue contesting the 2020 election are narrowing. Continue reading.

Bill Barr on Trump’s election fraud claims: “It was all bullsh*t”

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Former Attorney General Bill Barr said the Justice Department always knew Trump’s claims of election fraud were “bullsh*t,” according to an excerpt from journalist Jonathan Karl’s upcoming book published in the The Atlantic.

Why it matters: Barr’s new comments come as Trump continues to propagate the lie that the 2020 election was “rigged.” Republicans in swing states now are conducting“audits” of election ballots based on false conspiracies about the election. 

Flashback: Last December, Barr told the AP: “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.” Continue reading.

Terrorism expert: Trump remains a major ‘national security’ threat to the United States

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Some Republicans recently accused New York Times reporter Maggie Gallagher of suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome” when she reported that according to her sources, former President Donald Trump believes he will be “reinstated” as president by August. But in fact, Gallagher’s reporting was accurate, and John Cohen— the top counterterrorism official in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — believes that Trump’s delusion could lead to more political violence in the United States. On June 25, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace discussed Cohen’s warning with MSNBC contributor and former FBI counterterrorism expert Clint Watts, who commented on how much of a national security threat Trump continues to be.

Wallace, a Never Trump conservative who served in the George W. Bush Administration, told Watts, “It’s just jaw-dropping that the disgraced, twice-impeached ex-president’s utterances are now a national security threat on an hourly, daily basis — to which Watts responded, “It is remarkable that it continues on.”

Watts told Wallace, “It’s also remarkable because there is still significant online discussion of this, which means —think if you’re a believer in this conspiracy, and you’ve seen everything from QAnon to January 6, the inauguration occurring, ballot recounts failing — and you still are pursuing this fantasy. How would it not lead to violence over time?” Continue reading.

Trump PAC Raising Funds On Facebook Despite His Suspension

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Facebook’s latest policy carve-out for former President Donald Trump, which allows Trump’s political action committees to run ads as long they are not “in his voice,” has permitted Trump to fundraise and promote his events on the platform, even though he is suspended for at least two years. In return, Facebook has earned at least $10,000 in revenue on these ads.

On June 21, Politico reported that Trump’s Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, a joint venture between his Make America Great Again PAC and his newer Save America leadership PAC, had started sponsoring Facebook ads on the Team Trump campaign page. The Team Trump page, which hasn’t run any ads since the 2020 election, is also now managed by the Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, and it was run by the Trump campaign as recently as May.

Media Matters analyzed data from Facebook’s Ad Library and found that Team Trump has run 258 ads since June 16, spending at least $10,200 and earning at least 1.3 million impressions on ads fundraising off Trump’s visit to the border, attacking President Joe Biden, supporting Trump and “the MAGA Movement,” or promoting his upcoming rally in Ohio. At time of publication, 37 of the ads are active. Continue reading.

Opinion: The Real Fraud: Republicans’ Voter-Fraud Scare

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Setting the record straight is our duty to democracy itself.

This week, Senate Republicans in lockstep blocked key reforms of the For the People Actthat would address gerrymandering and big money in politics, plus enhance ethics for federal office holders. The Act would also strengthen voting rights—on which a big battle is now underway across the country.  

While Democrats in more than half the states have lowered barriers to voting, Republicans are pushing them higher, with campaigns for at least 389  restrictive voter laws in 48 states. Already, 17 states have enacted 28 such bills. But now, the Justice Department is suing Georgia over its new voting restrictions.

Republicans often justify their opposition to lowering voting barriers with the argument that it encourages voter fraud. Arizona’s Republican Representative John Kavanagh told CNN earlier this year that Democrats are “willing to risk fraud” because they “value as many people as possible voting.” Republicans, he underscored, “are more concerned about fraud, so we don’t mind putting security measures in that won’t let everybody vote—but everybody shouldn’t be voting.” Continue reading.

Trump warned Wisconsin GOP legislative leaders to support 2020 election audit or be ‘quickly run out of office’

Former President Donald Trump on Friday put Wisconsin GOP legislative leaders on notice, saying that they would be “primaried” if they don’t back an audit of the 2020 presidential election in the critical swing state.

Last November, President Joe Biden defeated Trump in Wisconsin by roughly 20,000 votes out of nearly 3.3 million ballots cast. The results were certified with no verifiable evidence of voter fraud.

However, with Trump continuing to spread debunked claims of malfeasance months after his electoral loss to Biden, Republican leaders are feeling the heat from the former president’s loyalists, many of whom back partisan audits similar to what is occurring in Arizona, another swing state that Trump lost to Biden. Continue reading.

Rudy Giuliani’s New York suspension proves dangers of Trump’s lies

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The court has sent a strong message about the real harm posed by those individuals who continue to push falsehoods about the 2020 election.

Rudy Giuliani’s license to practice law in New York state was suspended on Thursday by a state appellate court. For those who have been following the antics of former President Donald Trump’s former lawyer for the past five years, this may not be shocking. But while in some ways it feels like the predictable culmination of years of questionable and offensive conduct, it’s still a big deal — and good news for anyone who cares about the integrity of the law profession.

It’s probably too much to hope that this finding will pierce the right-wing information bubble, where 56 percent of Republicans still believe the election was stolen from Trump. But it should leave Giuliani’s credibility in tatters with anyone not immune to the truth. And it sends a strong message about the real harm, and indeed danger, posed by those individuals who continue to push falsehoods about the election.

Disbarment — a punishment meted out by a court for code violations — is always devastating to a lawyer. This punishment occurs when a lawyer commits an offense that directly relates to his or her fitness to practice law. Such offenses may include dishonesty and negligent representation. Giuliani, whose license is now suspended, is likely on his way to permanent disbarment, but he does have the opportunity to contest the court’s ruling in a post-suspension hearing. His lawyers indicate they will do this, claiming in a statement that they “believe that once the issues are fully explored at a hearing, Mr. Giuliani will be reinstated as a valued member of the legal profession that he has served so well in his many capacities for so many years.” Continue reading.

Kevin McCarthy met with officer injured in Trump’s insurrection — and it didn’t end well

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) finally met with a police officer who is still out on medical leave after being brutally attacked during Donald Trump’s January 6th insurrection.

“I asked him specifically for a commitment to denounce that publicly. And he said that he would address it at a personal level, with some of those members. But again, I think that as a leader of the House Republican, or I’m sorry, as the leader of the House Republican Party, it’s important to hear those denouncements publicly,” DC Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone said.

When asked how the meeting went after leaving McCarthy’s office, Fanone replied, “I need a drink.” Continue reading.

Emails Show Top Trump Aides Knew Violence Loomed On Jan. 6

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On December 19, President Donald Trump blasted out a tweet to his 88 million followers, inviting supporters to Washington for a “wild” protest.

Earlier that week, one of his senior advisers had released a 36-page report alleging significant evidence of election fraud that could reverse Joe Biden’s victory. “A great report,” Trump wrote. “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”

The tweet worked like a starter’s pistol, with two pro-Trump factions competing to take control of the “big protest.” Continue reading.

Trump Aides Prepared Insurrection Act Order During Debate Over Protests

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President Donald Trump never invoked the act, but fresh details underscore the intensity of his interest last June in using active-duty military to curb unrest.

Responding to interest from President Donald J. Trump, White House aides drafted a proclamation last year to invoke the Insurrection Act in case Mr. Trump moved to take the extraordinary step of deploying active-duty troops in Washington to quell the protests that followed the killing of George Floyd, two senior Trump administration officials said.

The aides drafted the proclamation on June 1, 2020, during a heated debate inside the administration over how to respond to the protests. Mr. Trump, enraged by the demonstrations, had told the attorney general, William P. Barr, the defense secretary, Mark T. Esper, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, that he wanted thousands of active-duty troops on the streets of the nation’s capital, one of the officials said.

Mr. Trump was talked out of the plan by the three officials. But a separate group of White House staff members wanted to leave open the option for Mr. Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act to call in the military. Continue reading.