Daily Archives: January 7, 2022

More than 1,000 Americans in positions of public trust acted as accomplices in Donald Trumps attempt to overturn the 2020 election result, participating in the violent insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January or spreading the big lie that the vote count had been rigged.

The startling figure underlines the extent to which Trumps attempt to undermine the foundations of presidential legitimacy has metastasized across the US. Individuals who engaged in arguably the most serious attempt to subvert democracy since the civil war are now inveigling themselves into all levels of government, from Congress and state legislatures down to school boards and other local public bodies.

The finding that 1,011 individuals in the public realm played a role in election subversion around the 2020 presidential race comes from a new pro-democracy initiative that launched on Wednesday.

The Insurrection Index seeks to identify all those who supported Trump in his bid to hold on to power despite losing the election, in the hope that they can be held accountable and prevented from inflicting further damage to the democratic infrastructure of the country.

All of the more than 1,000 people recorded on the index have been invested with the publics trust, having been entrusted with official positions and funded with taxpayer dollars. Many are current or former government employees at federal, state or local levels.

Among them are 213 incumbents in elected office and 29 who are running as candidates for positions of power in upcoming elections. There are also 59 military veterans, 31 current or former law enforcement officials, and seven who sit on local school boards.

When the index goes live on Thursday, it will contain a total of 1,404 records of those who played a role in trying to overturn the 2020 election. In addition to the 1,011 individuals, it lists 393 organizations deemed to have played a part in subverting democracy.

The index is the brainchild of Public Wise, a voting rights group whose mission is to fight for government that reflects the will and the rights of voters. Christina Baal-Owens, the groups executive director, said that the index was conceived as an ongoing campaign designed to keep insurrectionists out of office.

These are folks who silenced the voices of American voters, who took a validly held election and created fraudulent information to try to silence voters. They have no business being near legislation or being able to affect the lives of American people, she said.

The project has been set up with legal advice from Marc Elias, one of the most influential election lawyers in the US who was Hillary Clintons top counsel in the 2016 presidential campaign and who successfully led Joe Bidens resistance to Trumps blitzkrieg of lawsuits contesting the 2020 results. Elias told the Guardian that the index was needed urgently to avoid history repeating itself in 2024 or beyond.

We are one, maybe two elections away from a constitutional crisis over election subversion, he said. If we dont recognize who was behind the attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, then next time we will be less prepared and it may succeed.

Elias said he saw the index as an example of the kinds of robust action progressives need to take to combat an unprecedented wave of anti-democratic legislation emanating from Republicans in the past 12 months. While Trump had reshaped the right to be laser-focused on elections and winning at all costs, Democrats are spreading their energies thinly between a number of causes of which protecting democracy was just one, he said.

The central theme of the Republican party today is undermining free and fair elections. Under Trump that has become a credential within the party, and we cant let those folks win without a fight because if we do we lose our democracy.

The individuals recorded on the index who are already in public office include the 147 members of Congress who objected to the certification of the 2020 election result. The list also names many elected officials in state legislatures across the nation, including states like Arizona that were ground zero for Trumps efforts to steal the election from Biden.

Jake Hoffman, a lawmaker who represents Arizonas 12th district, wrote to fellow Republicans a day before the Capitol insurrection urging them to pressure then vice-president Mike Pence into blocking Bidens victory. Vice-President Pence has the power to delay congressional certification and seek clarification from state legislatures in contested states as to which slate of electors are proper and accurate, Hoffman wrote, reflecting a theory embraced by Trump that has been thoroughly rebutted.

The week before the insurrection, 17 Arizona state lawmakers wrote to Pence urging him to block the use of any Electors from Arizona despite multiple counts by then establishing that Biden had won the state by more than 10,000 votes. Among the signatories was Mark Finchem, a member of the Arizona House of representatives who was present at Trumps stop the steal rally in Washington on 6 January and who is now vying to become Arizona secretary of state the top election official who oversees the presidential count.

Among the 59 individuals on the index with military backgrounds is Christopher Warnagiris, who in June became the first active-duty member of the armed forces to be charged in relation with the Capitol assault. Despite facing nine counts of assault and violent entry, he has been permitted to continue serving within the training and education section at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.

Public Wise has drawn on a number of public information sources to compile the index, working in partnership with other pro-democracy groups who have added specialist skills. The partners include American Oversight, a non-partisan organisation that has used freedom of information laws to extract information from government agencies that exposes participants in the big lie.

The goal is to build up a holistic picture so that nothing can fall through the cracks and no one can slip away, said Austin Evers, the executive director of American Oversight. We ask: who is this ccd on this email? What handle is this on a social media account? If we can connect the dots we can ensure accountability can be brought to bear.

Evers said that the most chilling revelation of the research was that the 6 January insurrection was inspired by an ideology that was supported by people in power. State legislators in Arizona were involved in the run-up to January 6 and after January 6 used their positions to drive the big lie. That feels cancerous the attack on democracy has the backing of political, and even governmental, infrastructure.

One likely charge leveled at the new index by rightwing individuals and groups is that it is a form of cancel culture, designed to silence anyone airing uncomfortable views. Baal-Owens dismisses any such criticism.

Our call to action is about voting, not doxing, she said, pointing out that no private information is included on the index. The call to action is not to show up at this persons house or chase their child to school, but to allow every registered voter to have an educated way to cast their vote.

The groups behind the index hope that it will alert voters to the anti-democratic actions of people running for elected office. The value of such a record, they believe, would increase exponentially were the Republicans to take back control of Congress in this years midterm elections, leading almost certainly to an abrupt halt in congressional investigations into the events of 6 January.

Go here to see the original:

More than 1,000 US public figures aided Trumps effort to overturn election - The Guardian

Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Its as good a time as any to check in with Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of former president Donald Trump. What do you think Don Jr. is up to? For one thing, he was subpoenaed on Monday as part of New York States investigation into his fathers business practice. What else? Aside from texting his dad and filming a video inside what may or may not be a gun-lined bunker, it turns out Don Jr. has also spent the past year enjoying life as an engaged man.

According to Page Six, the former presidents oldest son has been engaged to his long-time girlfriend, former Fox News correspondent Kimberly Guilfoyle, for almost a year. The Daily Mail reports that Junior proposed on New Years Eve 2020, and that the couple has kept it hidden from the public since. Maybe he didnt want to outshine his sister Tiffanys iconic decision to get engaged the day before her father left the White House.

Don Jr.s engagement went public thanks to Guilfoyle, who broadcast it not through her impressive vocal athleticism but via an Instagram post in which the diamond ring was featured prominently on her engagement finger. According to one source, the ring is almost 8 carats, which is a very Trumpian way of describing a 7-carat ring. While its not clear if a wedding date has been set, there is no telling what horrors await us during this union. A rehearsal dinner at Four Seasons Total Landscaping? Haunted teddy bears at all the guests tables? Will Guilfoyle make a toast that raises Satan himself from the depths of hell? Maybe marrying one of his fathers top fund-raisers will finally get Don Jr. a kiss from daddy.

Get the Cut newsletter delivered daily

Follow this link:

Donald Trump Jr. Was Secretly Engaged for a Year? - The Cut

If Donald Trump runs for president again in 2024, Robert Palmer, a 54-year-old Florida man, will still be in prison for assaulting U.S. Capitol Police officers during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Palmer, who was sentenced to 63 months, has received the longest sentence of the more than 150 defendants who have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the storming of the U.S. Capitol. He was just one of the hundreds of Trump supporters who rushed law enforcement in an attempt to overturn a free and fair election.

After losing to Democrat Joe Biden in November 2020, Trump spent weeks promoting the lie that the election was stolen from him, culminating in the attack the following January.

Trump incited the riot that left five people dead and dozens of law enforcement officers injured. But while countless people are facing consequences for what they did that day, Trump still hasnt.

Instead, in a darkly ironic twist, Palmer and countless others will watch behind bars should Trump launch his next presidential bid.

The punishments for the insurrection have ranged widely. Texas real estate agent Jenna Ryan, who famously said she definitely wasnt going to jail because she has blond hair and white skin, received 60 days. Paul Hodgkins, a Floridian, was sentenced to eight months in prison for entering the Senate chamber. Hundreds of people have been charged with various crimes, so there are more sentences for defendants on the way. But one year later, its becoming increasingly likely that Trump will not be held accountable.

Ive heard this question from Democrats in my life and seen tweets from large public interest groups: Why isnt Donald Trump in prison?

The answer is simple: People like him rarely end up behind bars.

As his supporters languish, incarcerated, Trumps inner circle will continue plotting to finish destroying whats left of American democracy.

It seems as if the worst thing thats happened to Trump as a result of the insurrection is that hes been banned from Twitter. Although its still early, Trump is still leading among Republicans as a choice for the 2024 presidential nominee. And, more important, according to an AP/NORC poll, only 30% of Republicans believe the U.S. Capitol insurrection was somewhat violent, despite the multitude of videos depicting just how much violence occurred that day. Republican lawmakers are either busy promoting the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen, keeping quiet out of a desire to keep their office or, in the case of Rep. Liz Cheney, being ostracized for embracing reality. Are these the conditions under which Trump is supposed to face consequences for his actions?

Heres how the criminal justice system really functions in this country. Marginalized people, such as people of color, poor people, and religious and gender minorities, are more likely to be swept up in the system. Black people are more likely to receive life in prison and death sentences. Those with fewer resources often face harsher punishments due to insufficient counsel. Meanwhile, whiter and wealthier people often receive more lenient sentences if they are charged at all.

Many of the people facing charges in the insurrection are awaiting their day in court at the federal jail in the District of Columbia, known for its harsh conditions. Trump supporters see the insurrectionists as political prisoners, but nonetheless they dont seem too concerned about the conditions under which they are held. Aside from some camera-ready moments from Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), when they inexplicably linked horrific conditions of the jail to critical race theory, conservatives have paid scant attention to their actual state of incarceration. Instead, the GOP machine is working to change voting laws to circumvent that pesky problem of not having enough votes to win an election outright.

During his inauguration speech, President Joe Biden vowed to combat right-wing extremism, music to the ears of the people who had just witnessed the horror of Jan. 6. But, of course, thats easier said than done. Congress, for its part, has been engaged in an investigation of the insurrection, and though many more details have been brought to light, its unlikely to end in the imprisonment of the former president.

The issue at hand is that there isnt a precedent for this type of crisis. Before Trump, every outgoing president graciously accepted a loss and peacefully handed over power because that was simply the norm; its what every president did before him. As a result, were ill-equipped to handle norm-breakers. I guess the Founding Fathers, beloved as they are to many in the U.S., forgot to write into the Constitution what to do when a president incites an insurrection.

Its important to remember that Trump going to prison would be a long way from solving the countrys current problem. A prison sentence may not even stop him from running for president, and there are plenty of Trumps-in-training waiting in the wings who would be more than thrilled to carry the mantle.

The damage he and his ilk wrought on our democracy is here to stay. Its better to embrace the obvious. Donald Trump is not going to prison. But at least he cant tweet.

More here:

Donald Trump Is Not Going To Prison - HuffPost

Donald J. Trump and his allies are scheduling events and raising money for initiatives intended to make the former president a central player in the midterm elections, and possibly to set the stage for another run for the White House.

He and groups allied with him are planning policy summits, more rallies and an elaborate forum next month at his Mar-a-Lago resort for candidates he has endorsed and donors who give as much as $125,000 per person to a pro-Trump super PAC.

The efforts seem intended to reinforce the former presidents grip on the Republican Party and its donors amid questions about whether Mr. Trump will seek the partys nomination again or settle into a role as a kingmaker.

Taken together, the pro-Trump groups form a sort of shadow political party that could help start another presidential campaign and, if that were successful, shape his administration. They include Mr. Trumps own PACs, which amassed more than $100 million by last summer, employ an overlapping roster of former top officials from his administration and have signaled that they intend to embrace policies and candidates supported by Mr. Trump.

The groups have also helped reinforce his properties as a center of Republican power, holding events at his private Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., and at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. Mr. Trump has welcomed to the clubs a stream of Republicans seeking his political blessing, issuing nearly 100 endorsements to aligned candidates, including challengers to G.O.P. incumbents who voted for Mr. Trumps impeachment or supported the certification of his defeat to President Biden in the 2020 election.

The candidate forum at Mar-a-Lago is being planned for Feb. 23 by a super PAC run by some of Mr. Trumps closest allies called Make America Great Again, Again! Inc., according to an email to donors from Roy W. Bailey, a Texas businessman and Republican fund-raiser.

There will be an all-day candidate forum with back-to-back speeches from the endorsed candidates and familiar faces in the Trump orbit, wrote Mr. Bailey, who was a leading fund-raiser for Mr. Trumps campaigns and inaugural committee, then registered to lobby his administration. We want those who attend to leave thinking that it was the best political event they have ever attended, he wrote.

Donors who raise $375,000 will be invited to a private dinner with Mr. Trump.

Mr. Bailey noted that the PACs national finance director was Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is dating Mr. Trumps son Donald Trump Jr., and that its board included Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general who advised Mr. Trump during his first impeachment; Richard Grenell, who was Mr. Trumps ambassador to Germany and acting head of national intelligence; and Matthew G. Whitaker, who was acting attorney general.

The forum is for federal candidates endorsed by Mr. Trump. It is not clear how many of them intend to attend. But some, including Harriet Hageman, who is mounting a primary challenge against Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, one of Mr. Trumps harshest Republican critics, and Kelly Tshibaka, who is running in the primary against Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, have been asked to hold the date, according to a person familiar with the planning who was not authorized to discuss it.

Still, Mr. Trumps political activities have generated some grumbling within his circle of supporters.

One donor who had supported Mr. Trumps campaigns said he was leery about donating to Make America Great Again, Again! because of concerns that the money would be wasted. Citing events at the former presidents properties as an example, the donor, who insisted on anonymity to avoid antagonizing Mr. Trump and his allies, said he declined invitations to the February candidate forum and to a $125,000-a-plate fund-raising dinner with Mr. Trump held by the super PAC last month at Mar-a-Lago.

Other donors and party leaders worry about the damage that could be done by Mr. Trumps backing of primary challenges to Republicans who pushed back against his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Mr. Trump was impeached twice, including after his supporters stormed the Capitol seeking to disrupt the certification of Mr. Bidens victory. Since then, he has been banned from the social media accounts he had wielded so effectively to generate attention and punish enemies without spending any money.

While Mr. Trump has announced the formation of his own media company, including a new social network to reinsert himself into the conversation, it has yet to launch and its financing has come under scrutiny from securities regulators.

Mr. Trumps team also has continued fund-raising voraciously online for various PACs that he directly controls, which had compiled a war chest of more than $100 million last summer, and his team has continued financing campaign-style rallies. He has plans for one in Arizona this month, and more to follow, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Many of Mr. Trumps rallies in 2021 were paired with private donor round tables to raise money for his super PAC. He is planning more rallies in 2022 at locations chosen to help the candidates he has endorsed, according to people familiar with the plans.

Groups allied with him have stepped up their fund-raising in recent months, indicating they intend to spend funds to promote his causes and endorsements.

A nonprofit group called America First Policy Institute, which was started last year to serve as a think tank for Trump world, has the look of a Trump administration in waiting. It raised more than $20 million last year and has 110 employees, including Ms. Bondi, Mr. Whitaker and a number of former Trump cabinet members, such as David Bernhardt (who ran the Interior Department), Rick Perry (Energy Department) and Andrew Wheeler (Environmental Protection Agency).

The group held two events with Mr. Trump at his properties a fund-raising gala at Mar-a-Lago in November, and an event at Bedminster in July with Ms. Bondi to promote a lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump against tech companies that barred or limited his use of their platforms and it is planning twice-a-year policy summits around the country.

The next summit, planned for April in Atlanta, could feature Mr. Trump, according to the groups president, Brooke Rollins, who served as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under Mr. Trump and says she remains in contact with Mr. Trump about her groups efforts.

She said her groups goal was to persuade Americans to support policies like those Mr. Trump pursued as president, and not about getting anyone re-elected, though she said she hoped the groups efforts would shape the debates around the midterms and the 2024 presidential election.

The metric of a successful policy organization is how much those policies are part of the debate, she said.

A linked nonprofit group called America First Works is promoting policies that comport with Mr. Trumps agenda. They include voting rules that make it hard to cheat, according to a fact sheet that seems to echo Mr. Trumps false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, which his allies have been relying on to reshape election laws in a manner that could favor Republicans.

But the raft of new groups has brought with it some of the drama and infighting that marked Mr. Trumps campaigns and presidency.

A previous iteration of the super PAC behind the Mar-a-Lago forum was replaced after one of its founders, the former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, was accused of sexual misconduct by a donor.

That super PAC, which reported $5.6 million in the bank in mid-August, was supplanted by the new PAC, according to a statement announcing the shift in October that said the assets of the old PAC would be transferred to the new one.

The statement called the new group the ONLY Trump-approved super PAC.

Here is the original post:

As Midterms and 2024 Loom, Trump Political Operation Revs Up - The New York Times

It has been one year since supporters of Donald Trump tried to overturn a free and fair election. Still, the former president is pressing several untrue claims that widespread fraud cost him the election. However, his claims did not stand up to scrutiny then or now. An Associated Press review of every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states disputed by the former president has found fewer than 475, a number that would have made no difference in the 2020 election. Watch the video above to learn more about this story.The map below shows some of the arrests made after the Jan. 6 insurrection.

It has been one year since supporters of Donald Trump tried to overturn a free and fair election.

Still, the former president is pressing several untrue claims that widespread fraud cost him the election.

However, his claims did not stand up to scrutiny then or now.

An Associated Press review of every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states disputed by the former president has found fewer than 475, a number that would have made no difference in the 2020 election.

Watch the video above to learn more about this story.

The map below shows some of the arrests made after the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Read the original post:

Get the Facts: Is there evidence to back up Donald Trump's claims of a 'stolen' election? - WGAL Lancaster

Based on demonstrated public behavior, of course Jan. 6 was a step toward authoritarianism, Mr. Meijer said. But he has tempered such statements with criticism of Democrats, saying, authoritarian populism is alive and well in both parties.

The system is not providing the recourse that we need, Mr. Meijer said, tying together Jan. 6 and racial justice protests in 2020 that sometimes turned violent. Thats the through line between the riots of last summer, Jan. 6 and now. The system itself has been delegitimized.

Ms. Cheney, by contrast, laid the responsibility with Republicans alone.

Our party has to choose, she said. We can either be loyal to Donald Trump, or we can be loyal to the Constitution, but we cannot be both. And right now, there are far too many Republicans who are trying to enable the former president, embrace the former president, look the other way and hope that the former president goes away.

For now, he is very much present. Senate Republicans had an opportunity to banish Mr. Trump permanently from politics; if 17 of them had joined Democrats in voting to convict him at this impeachment trial, it would have yielded the two-thirds majority needed to remove him and paved the way for a separate vote to bar him from office. But only seven Republicans voted to convict.

One of them, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, lamented that in her partys haste to get this behind us, Republicans lost the opportunity to do just that.

Like so many of her House Republican counterparts, Ms. Murkowski is facing a primary challenge this year from a Trump-endorsed candidate.

I am ever the optimist when it comes to the greatness of our country, and I want to continue to have that level of optimism, that when we get too close to the brink, we have the ability to pull ourselves back, she said. Thats one of the reasons that Im signing up to run again because I feel its important to be one of those voices that hopefully can pull us back.

Go here to see the original:

10 Republicans Voted to Impeach Trump. What's Become of Them? - The New York Times

Lawmakers, meanwhile, are barreling toward the midterms with sharply contrasting political narratives about last years violence: Democrats want online companies to do more to stamp out election-related misinformation, while Republicans allege these platforms are seizing on the riot to censor right-wing voices.

"One of the most alarming developments of 2021 since the insurrection has been an effort, especially among influencers and politicians, to normalize conspiracy theories around election denial," said Mary McCord, a former national security official and executive director of Georgetown University's Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.

"They've mainstreamed ideologically driven violence," she added. "An alarming number of Americans now believe that violence may be necessary to 'save the country.'"

Rioters storm the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. | John Minchillo/AP Photo

One major reason policymakers and social media companies still struggle to contain Jan. 6 falsehoods is that the Capitol assault itself has become contested territory.

In the days following the riots, both Republicans and Democrats condemned the deadly violence, with longstanding Trump allies such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) calling for an end to hostilities. Trump himself faced revulsion from many of his supporters and even some of his own appointees immediately after Jan. 6.

That initial bipartisanship gave the social media giants political cover to remove reams of election misinformation and hand over data to law enforcement agencies investigating the attack. The bans of Trump though Googles YouTube platform and Facebook reserved the right to reinstate him before the 2024 presidential election also marked a watershed moment.

"Trump being deplatformed was when the companies crossed a line into a new type of enforcement," said Katie Harbath, a former senior Facebook public policy executive who previously worked for the Senate Republicans' national campaign arm. "After that, they've felt more comfortable about taking down content posted by politicians."

That comfort did not last long.

Instead, GOP voters and politicians have increasingly embraced the falsehoods about the 2020 election that helped stoke the attack, while Congress and many in the country is split along party lines about what really happened on Jan. 6. That has left social media companies vulnerable to partisan attacks for any action they take or fail to take linked to last year's riots.

To Democrats, the companies simply havent done enough.

Its clear that some social media companies have chosen profits over peoples safety, said Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has brought the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Google to testify about their role leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection. These corporations have no intention of making their platforms safer, and instead have taken actions to amplify content that endangers our communities and incites violence.

Republicans, though, have increasingly recast the rioters as freedom fighters raising valid questions about the outcome of the election. Lawmakers including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) have portrayed the Democratic-led investigation into the insurrection as a political witch hunt on Republicans and Trump supporters. (Greene, who made that accusation in a Facebook video that has received 309,000 views since early December, had her personal Twitter account permanently suspended this week for posting Covid misinformation.)

Theyre also rallying around the people who have been kicked off of social media.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has threatened reprisals against the liability protections that online companies enjoy under a law known as Section 230 which shields companies from lawsuits for most user-posted content and allows them to moderate or remove material they find objectionable.

McCarthy warned in a series of tweets on Tuesday, after Greenes suspension, that a future Republican House majority would work to ensure that if Twitter and other social media companies remove constitutionally protected speech (not lewd and obscene), they will lose 230 protection.

Acting as publisher and censorship regime should mean shutting down the business model you rely on today, and I will work to make that happen, he added.

To Democrats, the platforms' failure to stop all Jan. 6 hate speech from circulating online highlights the need for new laws. They hoped to gain momentum from last falls disclosures by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who released internal documents showing the tech giant had struggled to contain insurrectionists' posts in the run-up to Jan. 6.

A Democratic-led bill introduced after Haugens Senate appearance seeks to remove online platforms Section 230 protections if they knowingly or recklessly" use algorithms to recommend content that can lead to severe offline emotional or physical harm. The bill has no Republican backing and has drawn criticism for potentially infringing on free speech.

In multiple briefings, lawmakers and staffers of both parties confronted the large social media companies with accusations that they had played a role in attacks, according to two tech executives who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door meetings. The discussions have often turned personal, with policymakers accusing the companies of playing fast and loose with American democracy.

With little bipartisan agreement, one of the tech executives added, the social networks are increasingly cautious in how they handle Jan. 6-related content that does not categorically violate their terms of service.

Congress has struggled to find an appropriate path forward, Coons conceded when asked about lawmakers role in handling Jan. 6 and election misinformation. We have different views of what's the harm that most needs to be stopped based on our politics and because as a society we're committed to free speech.

Insurrections loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. | (Jose Luis Magana, File/AP Photo)

Since the Capitol Hill riots, the major social networks have removed countless accounts associated with white supremacists and domestic extremists. They've tweaked algorithms to hide Jan. 6 conspiracy videos from popping into people's feeds. The companies have championed investments in fact-checking partnerships and election-related online information centers.

Yet scratch the surface, and it is still relatively easy to find widely shared posts denying the election results, politicians promoting Jan. 6 falsehoods to millions of followers and, in the murkier parts of the internet, coordinated campaigns to stoke distrust about Biden's 2020 victory and to coordinate potential violent responses.

POLITICO discovered reams of posts related to 2020 election and Jan. 6 misinformation, across six separate social media networks, over a four-week period ending on Jan. 4, 2022. The findings were based on data collected via CrowdTangle, a social media analytics tool owned by Facebook that reviews posts on the platform and on Twitter, as well as separate analyses via YouTube and three fringe social networks, Gettr, Telegram and Gab.

The content included partisan attacks from elected officials and online influencers peddling mistruths about Jan. 6 to large online audiences. Within niche online communities on alternative social networks, domestic extremists shared violent imagery and openly discussed attacking election officials.

See the article here:

The online world still cant quit the Big Lie - POLITICO

On Jan. 6, 2021, then-President Donald Trump delivered a pugnacious speech at the "Save America Rally" that became central to his second impeachment, based on accusations that he had incited a crowd to storm the U.S. Capitol with calls to "fight like hell."

But watching the speech itself, Trump could be mistaken for attempting to put on a stand-up comedy show, seeking to elicit laughter as much as he attempted to whip up rage. Gazing at his fans gathered in the Ellipse, Trump mused that Biden had 80 million computer votes and sarcastically panned the president-elect for campaigning brilliantly from his basement. In the manner of a comic, Trump made constant references to the crowd and expressed concern about whether theyd get bored. He reprised recurring bits (Wheres Hunter?); did snarky impressions of party officials; satirized the ballot process (If you signed your name as Santa Claus, it would go through.); and roasted people he disliked, surmising that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was too small to have played high school football.

I say sometimes jokingly, but theres no joke about it, Ive been in two elections, I won em both, and the second one, I won much bigger than the first, said Trump, admitting to the crowd that perhaps even the very reason they had gathered could be a gag.

Was Trump putting on a final show for his rowdy diehard fans, or was he shepherding an insurrection?

While the outward purpose of the gathering was to draw attention to something of grave importance to the nation an allegedly stolen election Trumps instinct was to do what he always does: entertain his followers and couch many of his most extreme ideas in humor. Was Trump putting on a final show for his rowdy diehard fans, or was he shepherding an insurrection?

Jan. 6 marked the culmination of how Trump has profited from operating in a comedic register: It might sound counterintuitive, but the fact that Trump made people laugh both intentionally and unintentionally is key to understanding both his trajectory and potency.

That quality shaped the riot itself. As demonstrators dressed like vikings, patriotic ducks and Captain America began to surround and enter the Capitol, many commentators were struck by the absurdity of the unfolding crisis, calling it a clown show. One political analyst described the invasion as circus performers acting out a dark comedy. Another tweeted, Its like the Storming of the Bastille as recreated by the cast of National Lampoons Animal House. But as news of increasing violence trickled out, it soon became clear that the situation was not funny anymore and not a joke; the volume of quips on Twitter began to dwindle. The clowns were mounting a coup.

Trump, too, has long embraced his own clown costume, even if he's not always been in control of whether people laugh with him or at him. His oratorical identity as an insult comic who was willing to blurt out what no politician could or should say out loud seduced his devoted fan base, who saw his derision of the establishment and taboo-breaking as a badge of authenticity. At the same time, his status as fool both made his critics underestimate him and provided him an escape hatch of plausible deniability: He could always say he was just joking when he crossed one too many lines.

Jan. 6 distilled how Trump's political career always involved disarming and confusing the public by taking reality as a joke. Shrouded in the haze of the question of whether he should be taken seriously or literally, Trump spoke the unspeakable, ridiculing principles essential to the maintenance of multicultural democracy while offering himself as the figure to replace it. In other words, he sought to be both jester and king. And he left behind a world reshaped by his "lol nothing matters" ethos.

Trump framed breaking social taboos a key imperative of the comedian as a requisite for reviving the nation.

Perhaps the pithiest summary of Trumps appeal can be found during his Family Leadership Summit appearance in 2015, not too long after his campaign kickoff speech where he infamously warned of an invasion of Mexican rapists. Interviewed by Republican pollster Frank Luntz, Trump constantly cracked jokes and looked to the audience for validation and he almost always seemed to get it.

At one point, Trump turned his attention to dunking on Sen. John McCain. He elicited chuckles as he said he didnt like McCain as much after his 2008 presidential loss to Barack Obama, before declaring that McCain was only a war hero because he was captured. The laughter mixed with gasps. He then said it was totally fair to mock McCain for his poor academic record:

[McCain] was upset; I said why, for telling the truth? See, you're not supposed to say that somebody graduated last or second to last in their class because you're supposed to be, like Frank says, very nice. Folks, I want to make America great again. We want to get down to brass tacks. We don't want to listen to this stuff with being politically correct. We have a lot of work to do.

Here Trump presented truth-telling and sensitivity as a binary choice. In the process, he framed questioning and breaking social taboos a key imperative of the comedian as a requisite for reviving the nation. And the crowd roared in response.

As we all now know, Trumps instinct for leaning into controversy with relentless and often bigoted put-downs helped him a great deal more than it hurt him. But pundits at the time predicted that Trumps irreverence and disrespect for a beloved veteran would sink him. Mainstream media outlets treated Trumps early presidential campaign as something of a joke. Reporters described his campy campaign kickoff as goofy, absurd and comical.

But the line between laughing at Trump and laughing with him grew blurry over time: Cable news channels across the political spectrum gave Trump campaign rallies wall-to-wall coverage, in part because Trumps ability to entertain and shock was good for ratings. (CNN President Jeff Zucker later expressed regret for his networks volume of Trump coverage.)

The moneys rolling in, and this is fun, Leslie Moonves, then-chairman of CBS, said of Trumps campaign in 2016. Its a terrible thing to say. But bring it on, Donald. Keep going.

What made Trump fun? The man liked to stand behind a podium and make people laugh. He slogged through policy talk at his rallies; it was only when he started mocking and ridiculing enemies that he and his crowds came alive. He wore makeup, did impressions, danced and engaged in crowd work. His scripted remarks were often just a backdrop for casual ad-libbing about topical issues or something irritating he saw on TV the night before. He liked dunking on opponents on Twitter and, in Republican primary debates, tagging rivals with belittling monikers that stuck, like low-energy Jeb Bush.

A New York Times study found that Trump earned roughly $2 billion worth of free media attention during the 2016 campaign six times as much as his closest competitor, Sen. Ted Cruz, and 2 1/2 times as much as Hillary Clinton. The media worlds addiction to the Trump show something it found amusing and profitable but unlikely to alter a presumed-to-be-doomed GOP bid helped him win the White House.

Trump's right-wing populist and white nationalist worldview was embedded in the objects of his mockery. And his humor often sugarcoated an extremism that may not have animated his base in the same way had he presented as an unsmiling, self-serious authoritarian.

Robert Rowland, a scholar of presidential rhetoric at the University of Kansas, pointed out to me last year that Trump had two sets of targets dangerous others and elites and that he used negative humor as a way of protecting status for his core base of working-class whites. Trumps humor was mostly expressed in insults and derision, and often he was punching down: making racist jokes, joking about shooting undocumented immigrants, doing vile impressions of people with disabilities, trafficking in grotesque misogynistic innuendo.

But he also punched sideways when he put down members of American political dynasties, like the Bushes and the Clintons, or made quips about a lawmaker who couldve conceivably replaced him as president. (He also could punch both down and sideways at the same time: for example, deploying sexist attacks against a powerful Fox News host.) Rowland emphasized that the way Trump insulted elites was not policy-centric in the way Sen. Bernie Sanders diatribes against the 1 percent are. Rather, he attacked elites on the basis that they disrespect ordinary Americans i.e., the white working class. Trump's jokes offered no solutions; instead he identified feelings of disenfranchisement among a reactionary set and helped them let off steam.

So Trumps use of humor not only entertained, it created solidarity and the sensation of community with his followers, affirming their worldview, the sense that things were coming apart and that they were the victims of a world changing too quickly. Simultaneously, it constantly allowed him and his followers to circumvent responsibility for his most extreme remarks, often by claiming they were mere jokes.

This is not to suggest that everyone was always fooled by Trumps routine of course his rhetoric and policies caused alarm and received pushback throughout his time in office. But Trumps mode of speaking in caricature and exaggeration complicated the ability of political observers to detect his true intentions, his true goals and precisely how much of a threat he presented throughout his tenure. In the final chapter of his presidency, as journalists and scholars debated how seriously to take Trumps rejection of the 2020 election results, his buffoonishness made a coup attempt seem improbable in the eyes of some.

On Jan. 6, this all played out on a micro scale. Trump sprinkled jokes between blatant election fraud lies to rile up his supporters. He wasnt trying to convince them with data; he was trying to convince them that their feelings that something that belonged to them was slipping away was right, and that the system was a joke. As his army of prankster white nationalists stormed the Capitol, it was unclear to many what was really going on until it was too late.

Ultimately one never needed to choose between Trump as aspiring strongman and Trump as joker these identities were not only not at odds with one another, they were intertwined and fed off each other within his persona. While Trump lacked the competence, resources and institutional environment required to actually disrupt a peaceful transfer of power, the process by which he tried to do it pairing will-to-power politics with nihilistic flippancy has left an irrevocable mark on our polity, and changed the contours of American conservatism.

Trump has created a model, and already we see other Trump-wing Republicans like Rep. Lauren Boebert using jokes about Rep. Ilhan Omar being a terrorist to dodge accountability for mainstreaming Islamophobia. But what may be even more disturbing is the rise of activists and lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who are true believers, parroting Trump's ludicrous vision completely earnestly.

Go here to see the original:

January 6 Capitol riot a reminder that Trump used humor as a weapon - MSNBC

Rep. David CicillinePhoto: Shutterstock

Out Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) discussed with The Hill what it was like working in Congress during the Capitol Insurrection and how the violence inspired him to help lead the second impeachment of Donald Trump.

Cicilline said that his colleague Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) came into my office because he had been evacuated from his office building, and asked whether he could stay in our office, and we of course said yes.

Related: Will the American government apologize for discriminating against LGBTQ people for decades?

And as we were watching the events unfold [on TV] and as the day went on and there were reports of injuries and a death, it was very clear to me that there was no way that we could just sort of say, Well, OK, [Trump] is about to leave, just let it go.

He said that he and Lieu started writing what the article of impeachment would actually look like that day, and they developed the idea of incitement of insurrection.

Cicilline would go on to introduce the articles of impeachment in the House, which led to the successful second impeachment of Trump. After that, he was named one of the impeachment managers, bringing the case to remove Trump from office to the Senate.

Weve seen this back-sliding of democracy and attempted coups in places all over the world, but never imagined it could ever happen in the United States of America, he said. And we were watching it unfold before our very eyes. So it was really clear to me from that very first moment that we had to do something to hold the president at the time accountable for his incitement of this violence.

The president of the United States sided with the insurrectionists, he said during the impeachment proceedings. He celebrated their cause. He validated their attack.

Cicilline was voted LGBTQ Nations 2021 Hero Defending Democracy by the sites readers due to his leadership role in seeking accountability for the attempt to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 election.

Link:

Out Congressman started working on impeaching Donald Trump during Capitol Insurrection - LGBTQ Nation

WASHINGTON Republicans were nowhere to be found at the Capitol on Thursday as President Biden and Democratic members of Congress commemorated the deadliest attack on the building in centuries, reflecting the Republican Partys reluctance to acknowledge the Jan. 6 riot or confront its own role in stoking it.

There are currently more than 250 Republican members of Congress 212 in the House and 50 in the Senate. Not a single one of those senators appeared on the Senate floor to speak about how rioters laid siege to their workplace in the name of former President Donald J. Trump, sending them fleeing for their lives.

And when lawmakers gathered in the House chamber for a moment of silence to commemorate the riot, only two Republicans joined: Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who has been ostracized and marginalized by her party for speaking out against Mr. Trump and his election lies, and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.

The only Republican-led event on Thursday to commemorate Jan. 6 was hosted by two lawmakers on the fringes of the party, Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Seeking to deflect blame from Mr. Trump, they held a news conference to elevate unproven conspiracy theories about the origins of the assault on the Capitol.

I think its a reflection of where our party is, Ms. Cheney told reporters. Very concerning.

Some Republicans cited a scheduling conflict. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, was in Atlanta attending the funeral of former Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia, along with at least a dozen other senators from both parties.

In a statement, Mr. McConnell called Jan. 6 a dark day for Congress and our country in which the Capitol was stormed by criminals who brutalized police officers and used force to try to stop Congress from doing its job.

But he also made clear that he thought Democrats were playing politics with the day, accusing them of trying to exploit this anniversary to advance partisan policy goals that long predated this event. He was referring to plans by Democratic leaders to try to abolish or weaken the legislative filibuster to push through voting rights protections that Republicans have blocked.

Mr. McConnell did not refer to Mr. Trump in his statement.

Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, took the same strategy in an interview on Fox News, calling Jan. 6 a day that nobody wanted to see happen and noting that he had swiftly denounced the rioters. But he quickly pivoted to blaming Democrats, saying they had made the anniversary a politicized day.

Most of America wants Washington focused on their problems like inflation, high gas prices, the Covid resurgence, the border crisis, which President Biden and Speaker Pelosi continue to just let go unanswered, Mr. Scalise said, because they want every day to be about Jan. 6.

Scores of other Republicans said little or nothing one year after they evacuated the Capitol as throngs of Mr. Trumps supporters poured into the building, disrupting the counting of electoral votes to confirm Mr. Biden as the winner of the presidential election.

It was unclear on Thursday how Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House Republican leader, spent the day. Mr. McCarthy invoked the former presidents wrath when he said hours after the Jan. 6 attack that Mr. Trump bore responsibility for the riot; he has since walked back those remarks.

Its not a leadership that resembles any of the folks I knew when I was here for 10 years, said Mr. Cheney, a former House member who served as the Republican whip.

In a separate statement later on Thursday, Mr. Cheney added, I am deeply disappointed at the failure of many members of my party to recognize the grave nature of the Jan. 6 attacks and the ongoing threat to our nation.

Mr. McCarthys tortured attempt at responding to Jan. 6 illustrates why many Republicans have preferred to say as little as possible about the attack, focusing on the valiant efforts by law enforcement officers to protect the Capitol rather than the leader of their party who egged on the rioters.

Representative Tom Rice of South Carolina, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Mr. Trump for inciting an insurrection, was one of the few Republicans who spoke out on Thursday to lay responsibility for the attack at the former presidents feet.

In an unusually blistering statement, Mr. Rice called Jan. 6 the day we nearly lost the country our founders fought for.

Any reasonable person could have seen the potential for violence that day, he said. Yet, our president did nothing to protect our country and stop the violence. The actions of the president on Jan. 6 were nothing short of reprehensible.

In the hours and days immediately following the storming of the Capitol, many congressional Republicans and their aides, who were left to barricade themselves behind desks and doors during the attack, were openly furious. Some appeared to believe or hope that their party would at last break away from Mr. Trump.

Trump and I, weve had a hell of a journey, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a close ally of Mr. Trump, said at the time. He added: All I can say is, count me out. Enough is enough.

In a speech on the Senate floor in February, Mr. McConnell said, Theres no question none that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.

But seeing that their voters still revered Mr. Trump, most of those Republicans have since gone silent, preferring to avoid opining on the events of Jan. 6 and leaving those not in elected office to take up efforts of resistance. The few Republican lawmakers who have not followed that approach, including those who voted to impeach Mr. Trump for inciting an insurrection, have become pariahs in their party.

Mark Meadows. Mr. Trumps chief of staff, who initially provided the panel with a trove of documents that showed the extent of his rolein the efforts to overturn the election, is now refusing to cooperate. The House voted to recommend holding Mr. Meadows in criminal contempt of Congress.

Fox News anchors. Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Brian Kilmeade texted Mr. Meadowsduring the Jan. 6 riot urging him to persuade Mr. Trump to makean effort to stop it. The texts were part of the material that Mr. Meadows had turned over to the panel.

Michael Flynn. Mr. Trumps former national security adviser attended an Oval Office meeting on Dec. 18 in which participants discussed seizing voting machines and invoking certain national security emergency powers. Mr. Flynn has filed a lawsuitto block the panels subpoenas.

John Eastman. The lawyer has been the subject of intense scrutinysince writing a memothat laid out how Mr. Trump could stay in power. Mr. Eastman was present at a meeting of Trump allies at the Willard Hotelthat has becomea prime focus of the panel.

Karl Rove, a top Republican strategist and architect of the modern conservative establishment, used a Wall Street Journal opinion column on Wednesday to rebuke those Republicans who for a year have excused the actions of the rioters who stormed the Capitol, disrupted Congress as it received the Electoral Colleges results and violently attempted to overturn the election.

There can be no soft-pedaling what happened and no absolution for those who planned, encouraged and aided the attempt to overthrow our democracy, Mr. Rove wrote. Love of country demands nothing less. Thats true patriotism.

Stephanie Grisham, who served as White House press secretary for Mr. Trump, said on CNN on Thursday that a group of former Trump administration officials were planning to meet next week in a long-shot effort to try and stop the former president.

But for the most part, Republican lawmakers and operatives at odds with Mr. Trump have found themselves pushed to the margins of todays Republican Party.

Instead, figures like Mr. Gaetz and Ms. Greene have basked in the spotlight and won the approval of Mr. Trumps most ardent supporters, lionizing the rioters and claiming that the former president bears no responsibility for the violence that took place on Jan. 6.

At their news conference at the Capitol on Thursday, Mr. Gaetz and Ms. Greene proposed that if Republicans take control of the House in the midterm elections, they should use the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack to look into whether federal agents stoked the violence against Congress.

There is no evidence that federal agents played any role in the assault, which occurred when supporters of Mr. Trump, who falsely claimed that the election had been stolen from him, stormed the Capitol.

Astead W. Herndon contributed reporting from New York, and Richard Fausset from Atlanta.

Visit link:

Republicans Avoid Jan. 6 Observances at the Capitol - The New York Times