Category: Trump Administration

Republicans Create the Doubts, Then They ‘Investigate’ Them

Esquire Logo

Wisconsin Republicans are particularly nihilistic, and they have been ever since the arrival of Scott Walker in the state’s politics.

[State Assembly Speaker Robin] Vos in a Wednesday interview said he was giving the investigators a broad mandate to spend about three months reviewing all tips and following up on the most credible ones. In addition to the grant spending, he said they may look into claims of double voting and review how clerks fixed absentee ballot credentials.

“Is there a whole lot of smoke or is there actual fire? We just don’t know yet,” Vos said…Vos said he is hiring three form er law enforcement officers along with an attorney who will oversee them. As contractors with the Legislature, they will have subpoena power. Anyone they subpoena will be immune from criminal prosecution, he said. 

Wisconsin Republicans are peculiarly nihilistic, and they have been ever since the arrival of Scott Walker in the state’s politics. (Thanks again, Charlie Sykes). Wisconsin cops have a history of being particularly biased and violent. So to oversee the farce, Vos is bringing some of these people out of retirement, handing them subpoena power, and turning them loose to ratfck an election result that most of them likely believe was the product of some sort of magical swindle they learned about 1o minutes ago on the radio. Continue reading.

Trump supporter pleads guilty to attacking elderly couple with a golf club over their Biden sign

Raw Story Logo

A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty this Tuesday to attacking an elderly couple over a Joe Biden campaign sign, CBS Minnesota reports.

Mark Anthony Ulsaker took a plea deal, dropping the second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and assaulting a peace officer charge against him. He instead is guilty of two counts of making threats of violence.

On Nov. 8, 2020, Ulsaker allegedly stopped his pickup truck at a street corner in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, where the couple stood with the Biden sign and swore at them. After parking his truck, he ran at the couple with a golf club. Continue reading.

Trump’s Visit To New York For UFC Bout Cost Taxpayers Over $250K

National Memo logo

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s spur-of-the-moment decision to travel to New York for a mixed martial arts fight in 2019 cost taxpayers more than $250,000, as the Secret Service had to scramble to provide security for the president on a particularly busy weekend in the city, according to federal records.

The records, which were obtained by the New York Daily News in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, reveal that the Secret Service was only given a one-week heads up on Trump’s one-night stay in Manhattan for an Ultimate Fighting Championship event at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 2, 2019.

The late notice appears to have caused a logistical headache for the Secret Service, which had to find hotel rooms for dozens of agents protecting Trump on the same weekend as the New York City Marathon. Continue reading.

A whole new level’: Harvard law professor says not even Nixon would have made the legal claims Trump is

Raw Story Logo

In response to a lawsuit from Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), Donald Trump responded that he can’t be sued for anything he did as the president. MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell noted that it sounded a lot like former President Richard Nixon, who said, “when the president does it, it’s not illegal.”

But when Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe reviewed the excuse and explained that not even Nixon would have made the excuses that Donald Trump is. 

In a case involving a civil case against Nixon, the Supreme Court decided that when a president is exercising his/her official duties as president that he/she cannot be liable. It’s hard to claim that Trump’s speech inciting an insurrection because he lost an election is an official duty as president. Continue reading.

Despite little evidence of fraud, Wisconsin Republican leader hires retired police to probe 2020 election

Washington Post logo

A top Republican lawmaker in Wisconsin announced Wednesday that he is hiring retired police officers and an attorney to investigate the November election, joining GOP leaders in several states who have continued to probe election results months after President Biden took office under the cloud of unfounded claims of voter fraud.

Rep. Robin Vos, Wisconsin’s state assembly speaker, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinelthat the investigators would spend three months probing tips about election problems or voter fraud and pursuing the most credible ones.

“A sizable chunk of people believe the election was illegitimate,” Vos told the Journal Sentinel. “And democracy cannot flourish if both sides don’t believe in the end both sides had a fair shot.” Continue reading.

‘They wouldn’t care if I was dead’ — staffer fallout from Jan. 6 continues

Roll Call Logo

Denial of insurrection, always-on work culture piles on trauma

A congressional staffer froze recently when elevator doors opened and there stood a member of the House who has downplayed the violence of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Some congressional employees are shaken by what they see as the whitewashing of the attack, and the denials have reignited lingering trauma.

One House employee who works in the Capitol building and heard the rioters banging on their office door said seeing the lawmakers try to erase the destruction is jarring.

Thirteen staffers interviewed by CQ Roll Call, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly about their mental health and how they are coping, point to comments like those from Rep. Andrew Clyde. Despite helping barricade the House chamber from rioters, the Georgia Republican downplayed the events of Jan. 6 at a hearing earlier this month as“acts of vandalism” and said the rioters were “orderly” and looked like “a normal tourist visit.” Continue reading.

GOP frets behind the scenes over potential Trump 2024 bid

Politico logo

Trump is indicating he plans to run again so long as he still has a good bill of health. But he may face skepticism from surprising conservative corners of the GOP.

Republicans largely oppose forming a commission to examine the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, hoping to block out further Donald Trump-induced chaos while they try to retake Congress next year.

The former president is making clear he isn’t going anywhere.

Trump is confiding in allies that he intends to run again in 2024 with one contingency: that he still has a good bill of health, according to two sources close to the former president. That means Trump is going to hang over the Republican Party despite its attempts to rebrand during his exile and its blockade of a Trump-centric investigation into January’s insurrection. Continue reading.

Trump accused of offering cash to late senator on behalf of New England Patriots to stop investigation of team’s ‘Spygate’ scandal

Donald Trump was accused of trying to influence a 2008 investigation into the New England Patriots’ ‘Spygate’ scandal, according to an ESPN report by Don Van Natta Jr. and Seth Wickersham. 

According to the report, two people close to Republican senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who died in 2012, said Trump offered campaign cash to stop investigating the Patriots’ accusation of videotaping opponents’ defensive coaching signals. 

The NFL ultimately concluded that the Patriots were guilty of taping New York Jets’ defensive signals from a prohibited location during a Sept. 9, 2007 game. The league fined Patriots head coach Bill Belichick $500,000, the Patriots $200,000, and took away a 2008 first-round draft pick. Continue reading.

Trump supporter who threatened Pelosi goes down in flames after telling judge he was ‘just having fun’

Raw Story Logo

A judge leveled a Donald Trump supporter who allegedly brought guns to Washington, D.C., and threatened to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Cleveland Meredith made threats against specific elected officials online and drove from Colorado with a Glock 19, 9mm pistol, Taver X95 rifle with a telescopic sight, high-capacity magazines and more than 2,500 rounds of ammunition, but arrived too late to take part in the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to charging documents flagged by Buzzfeed’s Zoe Tillman.

“Hauling ass, 3.5 hours from target practice,” he said in one message, according to prosecutors. “Ready to remove several craniums from shoulders. I’m gonna collect a sh*t ton of Traitors heads.” Continue reading.

Michigan’s top election official and Dominion warn counties about the risks of vote audits by outside groups

Washington Post logo

Michigan’s top election official and the company whose voting equipment has been the subject of baseless claims of fraud are cautioning local governments in the state that outside audits of the 2020 election results like the one underway in Maricopa County, Ariz., would be illegal and would void the machines’ security warranties.

The warnings come amid a growing campaign by former president Donald Trump and his supporters to pressure county governments to launch audits reviewing ballots cast in the last presidential election, which they claim without evidence was tainted by large-scale fraud and votes manipulated on equipment purchased from Dominion Voting Systems.

The Arizona recount, which has been denounced by election experts as unprofessional and insecure, is being touted as an inspiration by small cohorts of angry residents across the country. State leaders, Dominion officials and local residents are now trying to block such examinations sought by activists in several Michigan counties. Continue reading.