Monthly Archives: June 2022

We tragically fool ourselves if we believe that the televised hearings of the January 6 committee will change the Republican party or end Trumps attempted coup.

The Republican party is becoming ever more divorced from reality, and Trumps attempted coup continues unabated.

The first four hearings of the committee have demolished the myths of voter fraud repeated incessantly by Trump.

Yet the Republican response to those hearings has ranged from indifference to hostility. Representative Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader of the House, tweeted that the members of the committee will not stop lying about their political opponents, and called the committee despicable.

On Friday, speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Nashville, Trump repeated his big lie as if the hearings never happened.

The lie is now so deeply entrenched in the Republican party that it has become a central tenet of Republican dogma.

It is now the vehicle by which Republican candidates signal their fealty both to Trump and to a broad range of grievances (some imaginary, some derived from the so-called culture wars) that now constitute the Republican brand.

So far, at least 108 Republican candidates who embrace the big lie have won their nominations or advanced to runoffs, and there is no sign that the hearings have reduced the intensity of their demagoguery.

Republican voters have chosen eight big liers for the US Senate, 86 for the House, five for governor, four for state attorney general and one for secretary of state.

These big lie candidates feel no pressure to respond to the findings of the committee because their districts or states already lean Republican, and most voters in them have dismissed or arent paying attention to the committee hearings.

Recall that the 2020 election was mainly about Trump you were either for him or against him. Voters in districts and states that voted largely for him wont easily change their minds.

The cognitive dissonance required to shift from believing Trumps big lie to accepting the reality of what occurred is simply too formidable. In addition, few of their sources of news Fox News, rightwing radio, and rightwing social media have questioned the big lie.

An even more troubling reality is that because these districts or states lean Republican, these big lie candidates are likely to win the offices they are seeking. In an open primary in a safely Republican Georgia district, for example, all nine candidates questioned the 2020 result.

Many of these Republican candidates will hold positions with the power to interfere in the outcomes of future elections to block the certification of election results, change the rules around the awarding of their states electoral votes or to acquiesce to litigation attempting to set aside the popular vote.

Meanwhile, the Republican partys biggest backers such as billionaire Peter Thiel, who has donated tens of millions of dollars to the campaigns of big lie candidates JD Vance and Blake Masters show no sign of reducing their backing in light of the committees findings.

Big corporations continue to write fat checks to big lie candidates. In April alone (the last month for which data is available) Fortune 500 companies and trade organizations gave more than $1.4m to members of Congress who voted not to certify the election results, according to an analysis by the transparency group Accountable.US. AT&T led the pack, giving $95,000 to election objectors.

Money from corporations like Boeing, Koch Industries, Home Depot, FedEx, UPS and General Dynamics continues to flow to politicians who reject the 2020 election results based on the big lie, according to a tally kept by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as Crew.

In his closing statement before the January 6 committee, former US appellate court judge J Michael Luttig one of the most conservative judges in the federal system, whom George W Bush passed over for the supreme court because Bush thought him too conservative called Trump and his allies and supporters a clear and present danger to American democracy.

By not divesting itself of the big lie and embracing the truth of what the January 6 committee is revealing, the Republican party has lost its last shred of moral authority to function as one of Americas two governing parties.

Read more:

When it comes to January 6, Republicans are entirely divorced from reality - The Guardian

Rusty Bowers, the speaker of the Arizona house of representatives, wanted Donald Trump to win the 2020 election. He worked hard to elect him and, when the time came, cast his ballot for the president.

What he wasnt willing to do was cheat for him.

In searing and at turns emotional testimony, Bowers, a rock-ribbed conservative from battleground Arizona, recounted for the House select committee investigating the January 6 assault how he resisted a relentless campaign by the then president of the United States and his allies to do just that.

You are asking me to do something against my oath and I will not break my oath, Bowers said he responded, when pressured repeatedly by Trump and his allies to overturn Joe Bidens victory in the state.

Bowers comments helped reveal how much of a threat to American democracy Trumps attempt to block Joe Bidens win was and how it was defeated by the actions of officials like Bowers. But, amid a continuing attempt by Trump and his Republican allies to peddle lies and control election races in 2024 battleground states, it also revealed the threat to the US is not over.

The presidents lie was and is a dangerous cancer on the body politic, said the California congressman Adam Schiff, who led the hearing. If you can convince Americans that they cannot trust their own elections, that anytime they lose, it is somehow illegitimate, then what is left but violence to determine who should govern.

Trump lost the state of Arizona by less than 11,000 votes votes that were legally cast and fairly counted, Bowers said. But Trump refused to accept his loss and in his denial concocted a plot to try to stop the state from certifying the election results based on groundless conspiracies that Bowers likened to a tragic parody.

In perhaps his most damning disclosure, Bowers recalled a conversation in which Trumps personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani told him: Weve got lots of theories. We just dont have the evidence.

Bowers said the comment was so absurd that he and his staff wondered if it was a gaffe and laughed about it. But he found little reason for levity during Tuesdays hearing.

Bowers was joined in the cavernous Cannon Caucus Room by the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, and his deputy, Gabe Sterling, also a Republican, who testified about the pressure Trump and his legal team put on elections officials in their state.

In a phone call after the November election, Trump asked Raffensperger to find 11,780 votes just enough to flip Bidens election victory in the state.

Their refusal to obey Trumps demands was met with a barrage of online harassment and intimidation. Raffensperger said all of his personal information was made public. His wife began receiving sexually explicit threats and someone broke into the home of his daughter-in-law, a widow with two children. Bowers at the time was caring for his dying daughter who he said was troubled by the menacing crowd that gathered outside his home, pelting taunts and threats. During the hearing, Bowers read a passage from his journal.

It is painful to have friends who have been such a help to me turn on me with such rancor, he wrote in December. I do not want to be a winner by cheating. I will not play with laws I swore allegiance to.

Sterling became a standout figure when he called on Trump to stop riling up his supporters during a televised press conference held in the tumultuous post-election period while Georgia carried out a series of recounts. Death threats, physical threats, intimidation its too much, its not right, Sterling said in his remarks, parts of which the committee showed during the hearing. He told his committee he lost it that day after being told that a young election contractor with Dominion Systems was receiving death threats from purveyors of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

I tend to turn red from here up when that happens. And that happened at that time, he said.

Lives and livelihoods were disrupted and destroyed as a result of Trumps lies, the committee heard. Wandrea Shaye Moss, a former Georgia election worker, testified on Tuesday that she no longer felt safe, secure or confident since becoming the subject of one of Trumps most pernicious fraud claims one involving suitcases that both federal and state officials said was baseless.

Tuesdays witnesses were all that stood between what the chairman of the committee, Congressman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, described as a close call and a catastrophe for American democracy, during its fourth public hearing. It also revealed new details in the brazen, if ill-conceived, scheme to put forward fake slates of electors in seven states as part of a last-gasp attempt to keep Trump in power.

Again and again the committee has sought to show that the violent insurrection on 6 January, horrible as it was, isnt the whole story. Nor is it the end of the story. Its part of a coordinated and continuing plot by the former president and his allies to remain in power by any means possible.

Focus on the evidence the committee will present. Dont be distracted by politics, the committees vice-chair, the Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming, urged viewers. This is serious. We cannot let America become a nation of conspiracy theories and thug violence.

Trumps big lie, the committee said, was a dangerous precursor to the deadly insurrection on 6 January. But it remains an urgent threat to democracy.

Trump continues to claim that he won the 2020 election and polls suggest millions of Republicans believe him. Indeed, before the hearing he claimed Bowers had said the Arizona election was rigged and he actually won the state. Under oath, Bowers said Trumps recollection of their conversation was categorically false.

Nevertheless, embracing the lie has become a requisite for his endorsement, which has delivered mixed results in Republican primaries. In Georgia, Raffensperger overcame a Trump-backed challenger to win re-election as the states attorney general.

But elsewhere, election deniers are winning primaries in an attempt to seize control of elections administration in key states across the country. In Pennsylvania, where the governor appoints the secretary of state, Republicans chose a nominee who helped organize the rally that preceded the attack on 6 January and has openly mused about fraud in future elections.

And across the country, election workers like Moss are being driven out by threats of violence and intimidation. In some instances, election watchdogs have warned, they are being replaced by partisans and conspiracy theorists.

Look no further than New Mexico, Thompson said on Tuesday, where a Republican commission refused to certify the results of the states primary election, citing unfounded claims about the security of the voting machines. The commission ultimately bowed to an order by the states supreme court and certified the election but the committee said it was a blinking red warning sign ahead of the 2022 and 2024 elections.

The system held, but barely, Schiff said. And the question remains, will it hold again.

Link:

A few good Republicans stopped Trump but his threat to democracy isnt over - The Guardian US

On Tuesday the Senate cleared the first procedural step in passing a new gun safety bill, just hours after a bipartisan group of Democrats and Republicans released the 80-page bill text.

The bill, called the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, could become the first gun violence legislation to pass Congress in decades. It was backed in the Senate by all 48 Democrats, two allied independents and 14 Republicans, in a 64 to 34 vote.

These are the 34 Republican senators who voted against the bill:

These two Republican senators did not vote:

The bill was strongly opposed by the National Rifle Association, which said on Tuesday evening that "it falls short at every level" and "does little to truly address violent crime while opening the door to unnecessary burdens on the exercise of Second Amendment freedom by law-abiding gun owners."

Some of the Republican senators who voted against the bill declared to share this sentiment. Sen. Hawley tweeted that the bill "ignores the national crime wave & chips away instead at the fundamental rights of law abiding citizens."

Sen. Cotton said it would "restrict the freedoms of law-abiding Americans and put too much power in the hands of politicians and political officials." Sen. Blackburn also tweeted about opposing the bill because it would "infringe on law-abiding Americans' Second Amendment rights."

Sen. Rubio tweeted arguing that senators were "being asked to vote tonight to begin debate on a gun proposal whose legislative text was only made available less than an hour ago."

These 14 Republican senators voted in favor of the bipartisan gun safety bill:

The bipartisan bill is a tamer version of the measures Democrats have unsuccessfully pushed for for years, but the compromise is still a breakthrough in decades of political stalemate in Congress for passing gun safety legislation.

The new proposed measures aim at toughening background checks for the youngest firearms buyers aged 18 to 21, fixing the so-called "boyfriend loophole" by prohibiting domestic abusers from owning guns, and supporting states that have or will implement "red flag" laws, allowing for the swift, temporary removal of firearms from individuals considered dangerous.

"Some think it goes too far, others think it doesn't go far enough. And I get it. It's the nature of compromise," said Sen. Cornyn of Texas, who voted in favor of the bill on Tuesday.

"I believe that the same people who are telling us to do something are sending us a clear message, to do what we can to keep our children and communities safe. I'm confident this legislation moves us in a positive direction."

Senate Minority Leader McConnell called the bill "a commonsense package of popular steps that will help make these horrifying incidents less likely while fully upholding the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens."

With the support gathered on Tuesday, it's possible that the bill could be passed by the Senate by the end of the week, as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said he expected.

See the article here:

Every Republican Senator Who Voted Against Gun Safety Bill - Newsweek

There might have been a time when fellow Republicans would have shown some restraint about publicly mocking a veteran like Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), who was injured in war. No longer. (Chip Somodevilla / Associated Press)

Many may know that Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) lost his right eye after he was hit by an IED blast in Afghanistan. What may not be as well known is that he also temporarily lost sight in his left eye. Or that once he regained sight on the left, a miracle in and of itself, he returned to military service.

And yet, Tucker Carlson mocks that injury on Fox News with little resistance from its conservative viewers or from elected officials.

What a time: Watching Republicans shift away from a platform defined by support the troops is tripping me up more than Drakes foray into house music. And this isnt just about Crenshaw or even President Trumps rivalry with the late Sen. John McCain, though that was certainly a flashpoint. This is something much bigger: a sign that the Republican Party isnt just in transition. Its lost.

Growing up in the Reagan era wasnt great, but at least most everyone understood what the rules were. Democrats painted Republicans to be the party for some combination of rich, old and white. Conservatives accused liberals of being godless, big spenders and weak on crime. Political absolutes are rarely productive, but they do make for great TV.

Anyway, for the most part since the Reagan era, liberal messaging hasnt changed unfortunately. On the flip side, since the rise of the tea party in 2010 conservatives have been in the midst of the biggest ideological shift since Reagan and the Christian Coalition coalesced their powers 40 years ago.

Before we dig into the substance, I must say the style isnt changing so radically. Even today, as the nation continues to grieve the victims of the mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas, many conservatives employ Reagans brand of disingenuous problem solving to avoid talking about gun laws. Although nearly 12% of the nation was living under the poverty line in 1976, Reagan was out testing his welfare queens rhetoric on the campaign trail. When his conservative heirs are asked about a school shooting in Texas, they say, What about Chicago? in an effort to talk about urban street crime instead. But we all know that hammering Democratic mayors on crime is less about being thoughtful and more about using racist tropes to change the subject.

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The left could borrow that same style to redirect any conversation toward a tempting target. Imagine what that would look like: No matter what the reporters at a news conference asked Biden, hed point out that most of our poorest states are run by Republicans. Mississippi, for example, has more than a fifth of its population living below the poverty line, and conservatives have controlled that state since 2012. Republicans have run South Carolina since 2003, and its in the top 10 as well. I could go on, but that would be petty (Tennessee) and unproductive (Alabama). Besides (Oklahoma, Arkansas and West Virginia), you get the point: Changing the subject and oversimplifying to score cheap points doesnt solve problems.

For Republicans, the reflex to pivot like this has finally turned in on itself. Theyre attacking their own. Even those hailed as military heroes.

Crenshaw faced taunts of eyepatch McCain last week from attendees at the Texas State Republican Convention, echoing the jab Carlson made last month. This is not politics as usual. Neither is the Republican response to the Jan. 6 hearings.

We are not used to seeing conservatives behave so indifferently toward the sound of police officers pleading for help. It was less than two years ago when the countrys largest police union endorsed Donald Trump for president. The Fraternal Order of Police said it was proud to endorse a candidate who calls for law and order across our nation. We now know that on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump called for no such thing, leaving the overwhelmed Capitol police officers to fight for their lives for hours.

Thats not the behavior of someone whos leading the law-and-order party. In fact, congressional Republicans are treating the officers who were wounded in the Capitol attack like pariahs.

Seems like the gender of a gingerbread cookie was met with more concern than the deadly attack on police.

And the outcry against Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) must truly mark the end of Republicans support the troops era. This Air Force veteran dared to back the Jan. 6 investigation and stand up for truth even as his wife and baby are threatened with execution and for that sort of integrity he is accused of treason.

Democrats and Republicans have both consistently supported first responders and the military, but until recently the GOP had made that position central to its identity. Now the party is identifying itself in other ways, and Im not quite sure where thats going. More concerning, I dont think they are either. There is a campaign video featuring a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, Missourian Eric Greitens, and a team of men carrying guns, dressed in tactical gear, breaking down a door and using smoke bombs as they tell you they are hunting faux Republicans.

This feels more substantial than just convenient positions taken by followers of one former president who hope hell have a political future. When the most popular host on Fox News makes fun of a Republican soldier who lost an eye fighting for the U.S., and viewers side with the host, that blue line might as well be fuchsia.

When Trump and McCain exchanged barbs, that seemed unique, perhaps just a little tremor inside the party. What the Capitol Police, Kinzinger and Crenshaw are encountering feels more like shifting and colliding of tectonic plates.

@LZGranderson

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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Granderson: Today's Republican Party is not about 'support the troops' or 'law and order' - Yahoo News

Published

2022-06-21 18:04

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June 21, 2022

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Mayra Flores was sworn in on Tuesday, becoming Texas first Republican Latina to join Congress. Flores victory also sets a new milestone: A historic high of 147 women overall and a record 41 Republican women now hold congressional seats, according to data from the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University.

Born in Mexico to migrant farmworkers, Flores is a first-time candidate who defeated her Democratic opponent this month in Texass 34th congressional district, which is historically Democratic. Flores addition to Congress underscores the growing visibility of Republican Latinx candidates and rising numbers of GOP women in the legislative branch.

That number has seen a sharp increase from 2018, when the number of Republican women in Congress dropped from 23 to 13. The gains women candidates have made since then reflect greater support and investments among Republican party leadership and outside conservative groups, experts told The 19th.

I think 2018 was a bit of a yet another wake-up call to the Republican Party about womens under-representation within the party, CAWP Director Debbie Walsh told The 19th. Republican women are following the playbook in many ways that weve seen on the Democratic side of women raising money for women candidates.

Flores swearing-in comes on the heels of newly elected Republican Rep. Connie Conway, who won the open seat special election to replace former Republican Rep. Devin Nunes in Californias 22nd congressional district. Conway, whose election set the previous record for the number of women in Congress at 146, was sworn in on June 14. The rapid gains Republican women have made in just a few short years could be a signal for this years midterms when historically the presidents party loses seats.

Two groups founded within the last six years Winning for Women and E-PAC, founded by New York Rep. Elise Stefanik have helped to boost conservative women candidates alongside VIEW PAC, a more established organization for Republican women. These groups, in addition to growing enthusiasm from the Republican establishment, are helping Republican women candidates get critical support early on in their races.

After 2018, candidates experienced challenges winning their primaries, but they saw more success in 2020.

In 2020, the party saw that of the seats that they won, especially the seats that they took away from Democrats, most of them were won by a woman, a person of color or both, said Michele Swers, a professor of American government at Georgetown University who focuses her research on womens representation in politics.

Those 2020 victories include Michelle Steel and Young Kim, Korean American women who both flipped House seats in California. That same year Maria Elvira Salazar, the daughter of Cuban immigrants, defeated Democratic incumbent Donna Shalala in Floridas 27th congressional district.

Democratic groups have more robust infrastructure for funding women candidates with organizations like the PAC Emilys List, though Democratic women of color have still struggled to gain access to party and financial support during their political campaigns. Democratic party leaders and voters have also historically demonstrated more interest in diversity among candidates, Swers said.

Flores victory in a Democratic stronghold captures another nuance: an increase in Latinx candidates running as Republicans. Other Republican Latinas are getting national attention in their races, including Monica De La Cruz-Hernandez, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump will compete in November for Texas 15th congressional district, and Cassy Garcia, who is running in the fall for Texas 28th congressional district, facing off against nine-term Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar.

In this cycle, you are seeing more women stepping up, particularly more Latina women that were seeing run on the Republican side, and they have a good amount of party resources behind them, Swers said.

Flores June victory came during a special House election after the 34th congressional seat became vacant when incumbent Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela Jr. resigned in March. Flores significantly outraised her Democratic opponent and focused ads on her marriage to a border patrol agent and the need for border security and legal immigration.

Flores will serve an abbreviated term until January, but she is also the Republican nominee for the 34th district in November the race Vela Jr. would have competed in had he run for reelection. But that race wont be an exact repeat of the special election: In November the 34th congressional district will fall under newly redrawn district parameters that make it much more friendly to Democrats, and Flores will face a different opponent.

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Mayra Flores victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas - The 19th*

Four candidates are running in the Republican primary for governor of Maryland on July 19, 2022. Incumbent Governor Larry Hogan (R) was term-limited and could not run for re-election. As of June 2022, Dan Cox and Kelly Schulz led the primary field in endorsements and media attention.

Cox is an attorney and currently serves in the Maryland House of Delegates representing District 4 since he was elected in 2018. In an interview with OConnor & Company, Cox said he was running to give freedom back to the people. After two years, weve been working to renew a vision of constitutional leadership that our party believes in. Former President Donald Trump (R) endorsed Cox.

Schulz worked in the defense and cybersecurity industries before serving in government. She most recently served as Marylands secretary of commerce from 2019 to January 2022. In an interview with Fox 5 DC, Schulz said she graduated from college and worked in Maryland and her campaign is about offering those same opportunities to Marylanders all across the state that deserve the opportunity to exceed and excel. Schulz was endorsed by Governor Hogan.

Both candidates highlighted education as a key issue of their respective campaigns. Cox said he supported parents rights in schools, and would oppose the use of taxpayer dollars to teach divisive, anti-American Marxism and pit students against one-another, mask requirements in schools, and ban males from competing in female sports.

Schulz said, I introduced a parental bill of rights providing real school choice, record funding and accountability with education transparency. She said she opposed school closures and mask and vaccine requirements in schools.

Robin Ficker and Joe Werner are also running in the primary. Cox is running with lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Gordana Schifanelli, Schulz with Jeff Woolford, Ficker with LeRoy Yegge Jr., and Werner with Minh Thanh Luong.

Maryland has had a Republican governor since Hogans election in 2014. As of June 2022, The Cook Political Report and Inside Elections rated the 2022 general election as Lean Democratic, while Sabatos Crystal Ball viewed the race as Likely Democratic.

More:

Four candidates running in the Republican primary for governor of Maryland Ballotpedia News - Ballotpedia News

Some Illinois Republicans are responding to the death threat against fellow GOP member Adam Kinzinger and his family.

Why it matters: The Illinois GOP candidates speaking out against the threat of violence are risking losing the support of former President Trump just days before the primary.

Driving the news: U.S. Rep Kinzinger posted on Sunday that his family received a death threat because he's on the Jan. 6 select committee.

Context: Kinzinger has been censured by both the national and local Republican parties for working with the panel and voting to impeach Trump. He is not seeking reelection.

What they're saying: "We can disagree on issues, but we will never condone threats of violence," a spokesperson for GOP gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey tells Axios. "It's unacceptable and needs to stop."

Yes, but: Axios didn't hear back from Davis' primary opponent, Rep. Mary Miller. She was recently endorsed by Trump.

The intrigue: The death threat to Kinzinger's family comes as the Jan. 6 select committee continues to make its case that the former president conspired to incite violence at the Capitol.

What's next: Trump heads to Illinois this weekend to stump for Miller at the downstate Adams County Fairgrounds.

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Ahead of Trump visit, some IL Republicans respond to threat against Kinzinger - Axios