Category: Trump Administration

Lawmakers’ false narratives could fan the flames of extremism, Senate told

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Homeland Security plans review of how extremists have leveraged social media and other online platforms

Two top federal law enforcement officials said Wednesday that politicians who embrace false narratives could help fuel the possibility of violent extremism in America such as the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The testimony came the same morning House Republicans ousted their conference chair, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, for refusing to embrace former President Donald Trump’s continued lies about the 2020 election being stolen or fraudulent.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on domestic violent extremism, testified that false narratives create a lack of confidence in democratic institutions. Continue reading.

U.S. has entered unprecedented climate territory, EPA warns

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The Trump administration delayed the report, which cites urban heat waves and permafrost loss as signs of global warming, for three years

For years, President Donald Trump and his deputies played down the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels and delayed the release of an Environmental Protection Agency report detailing climate-related damage. But on Wednesday, the EPA released a detailed and disturbing account of the startling changes that Earth’s warming had on parts of the United States during Trump’s presidency.

The destruction of year-round permafrost in Alaska, loss of winter ice on the Great Lakes and spike in summer heat waves in U.S. cities all signal that climate change is intensifying, the EPA said in its report. The assessment, which languished under the Trump administration for three years, marks the first time the agency has said such changes are being driven at least in part by human-caused global warming.

As it launched an updated webpage to inform the public on how climate change is upending communities throughout the country, the Biden administration gave the agency’s imprimatur to a growing body of evidence that climate effects are happening faster and becoming more extreme than when EPA last published its “Climate Indicators” data in 2016. Continue reading.

At hearing, Republicans recast Jan. 6 rioters as victims

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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.

Cheney on Trump: ‘I will do everything I can’ to keep him away from the White House

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Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) vowed following House Republicans’ Wednesday vote to remove her as GOP conference chairwoman to do everything she can to keep former President Trump from returning to power. 

Sources inside a closed-door session Wednesday morning said lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to oust Cheney, who had attracted growing pushback from Trump allies in Congress for repeatedly refuting his claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election and blaming him for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. 

In remarks to reporters immediately following the vote, Cheney doubled down on her vow to continue countering Trump’s message, saying, “We must go forward based on truth.”  Continue reading.

The Big Lie That Makes Vladimir Putin Smile

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There’s a word to describe political movements that emphasize ethnic, racial and religious solidarity over citizenship and pluralistic values, but it has unpleasant historical associations. Using it only causes political conversations to end in bitterness and name-calling.

So let us simply observe that what’s going on in today’s Republican Party represents the seeming fulfillment of Vladimir Putin’s ambitions for the Trump presidency. Undermining confidence in elections has long been Job One in the Kremlin: discrediting democracy to promote strongman rule. But Putin’s too cynical to understand America.

It matters not to him that the strongman in question is an incompetent blowhard, a clownish figure in elevator shoes. One of America’s two dominant political parties is in the process of losing its collective mind. Indeed the very preposterousness of Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” about being cheated out of an election he lost by seven million votes—claims rejected for lack of evidence in more than sixty courts of law—only enhances their allure for conspiratorial thinkers. Continue reading.

Rudy Giuliani’s ‘hallucinatory’ Ukraine dossier may come back to haunt him: report

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Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani two years ago began pushing an anti-Biden dossier based on purported information he’d gathered from Ukrainian officials — and now it may come back to haunt him legally.

The Daily Beast reports that prosecutors are looking into whether Giuliani’s dossier was part of a paid lobbying campaign by the former New York City mayor done on behalf of former Ukrainian officials.

Giuliani initially pushed the dossier to Trump administration officials during his campaign to oust former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, but officials who spoke with the Daily Beast say that they were deeply unimpressed by its contents. Continue reading.

Biden administration, House Democrats reach agreement in Donald McGahn subpoena lawsuit

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The Biden Justice Department and lawyers for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have reached an agreement about how to handle a congressional subpoena for testimony from former Trump White House counsel Donald McGahn.

The House Judiciary Committee and the Biden administration announced the deal Tuesday in a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The parties told the court they have “an agreement in principle on an accommodation.” Former president Donald Trump is “not a party to the agreement,” the filing states.

No additional details were provided about the negotiated settlement. Continue reading.

What’s Trump’s endgame in his crusade against the election results?

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As far as Trump is concerned, power was taken from him, so power must be returned to him. That’s bonkers, but he doesn’t appear to care.

One of the principal GOP criticisms against House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. is that she’s been preoccupied with telling the truth about the 2020 presidential election. It’s a foolish argument for a variety of reasons, but it’s nevertheless at the heart of the effort to purge Cheney from her leadership post.

It was against this backdrop that Donald Trump — the one many congressional Republicans are desperate to impress and satisfy — published this item last night to his weird new blog.

“The major Michigan Election Fraud case has just filed a bombshell pleading claiming votes were intentionally switched from President Trump to Joe Biden. The number of votes is MASSIVE and determinative. This will prove true in numerous other States. All Republicans must UNIFY and not let this happen. If a thief robs a jewelry store of all of its diamonds (the 2020 Presidential Election), the diamonds must be returned.”

From there, the former president whined a bit about U.S. news organizations that “refuse” to buy into his conspiracy theories about his 2020 defeat. Continue reading.

Unreleased State Department review blames Trump for ‘delayed’ pandemic response: report

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An unreleased State Department report on the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic reportedly blames the former president for “delayed” warnings to Americans and a “void of U.S. international leadership.” 

According to excerpts of the State Department’s draft COVID-19 Interim Review obtained by Politico, diplomats and other career agency officials expressed frustrations with former President Trump’s response to the virus. 

The draft document reportedly argues that Trump’s withdrawal from international forums weakened U.S. global leadership in responding to the health crisis. Continue reading.

Schumer: ‘The big lie is spreading like a cancer’ among GOP

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Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) offered fiery criticism of Republicans on Tuesday for efforts around the country to tighten voter laws amid unproven claims made by former President Trump that the 2020 election was stolen.

Schumer, speaking at a Senate Rules Committee meeting on a sweeping elections overhaul bill, accused Republicans of trying to act upon the “big lie that the election was stolen” to “placate” and “please” Trump.

“Unfortunately, the big lie is spreading like a cancer among Republicans. It’s enveloping and consuming the Republican Party, in both houses of Congress,” Schumer said. Continue reading.