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Cuidado con el coco! This warning about a mythical character, never seen but feared, was a staple of childhood in Cuba. A boogeyman, el coco kept us in line by making us afraid of the unknown. But I was also taught that there was another threatening creature, a real one: The United States was the ultimate el coco, whose big toothy shores wanted to devour our island. Fearing it would keep us in line.

But recently many Cubans have dared to cross that line, gathering for protests over a lack of food and medicine, rising prices and the government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Butthe cries of the community have gone deeper, asking for basic freedoms in a desperate bid for the worlds attention. Artists, writers, musicians and journalists who have dared to speakpublicly have been swiftly taken by security forces, their whereabouts unknown. Internet service has been shut down. The protests, which began in small towns and spread throughout the country, are a rare sight in a country in which unauthorized public gatherings are illegal and have been met with swift crackdowns.

Elementary school in Fidel Castros Cuba was a strange place where history began with Christopher Columbus, moved ahead centuries to Cubas independence from Spain and then moved straight to La Revolucin. Our other subjects included Marxism-Leninism (yes, in elementary school) and rigorous physical exercise in the Soviet model, a propaganda tool on the worlds stage. Our teachers came to school in army fatigues to underscore how under siege our country was from the imperialist power to the north and the dissidents within. Communist party affiliation was required for jobs and disclosed at school by each child. Those who were young communists wore an official blue and white bandana with their school uniformpioneros on the front lines of the fight for a new world order.

I refused and was often sent to the inspector, especially when I dared wear my religious medals. Yet, paradoxically, I was their star pupil trotted out in assemblies to read speeches prepared for me, which I then stomped on when I left the stage. I learned we could not speak of faith, my church was drowned out by loudspeakers while we tried to pray, and Christmas was outlawed, remaining alive only in memories.

This was my childhood. It made me prize critical thought and truth-telling as fundamental human rights. It also made me aware that the extremes meet in the end and that whether on the left (as in Cuba) or on the right (as in Trumpism), extremism for the sake of power results in the erosion of human thought, truth and agency. The Gospel I believe in stands up against lies, wherever they come from, and against anything that assails the common good. These are not values shared by either extreme.

At the height of the pandemic, I asked someone to please mask up or move away, only to hear them cry, Its a free country! People who have no idea what it is to have no freedom under a brutally repressive regime bandy about phrases like this. It is insulting. It is ignorant. It is the outcome of a world in which ideologies no longer mean anything and at the same time have intensified and appear to mean everything. Pope Francis is called a Communist because he dares speak about the poor and the environment. Communist China has one the most virulent forms of capitalism on the planet and victimizes both the poor and the environment.

When young people in Cuba today shout Libertad! (wearing masks and desperate for vaccines, which many free U.S. citizens refuse to take), their cry is about their most basic survival as human beings, the need for food and medicine. It is about being lied to their entire lives, about the grinding reality of being unable to even express ones thoughts for fear of ones life. To protest in the streets is to brave imprisonment or death. As one eloquent young man put it on a widely shared video, We are starving while they build hotels.

It is possible that this man already has been identified and imprisoned, the brutal repression we always knew awaited the person engaging in any act of defiance. But notice the contradiction: They are building hotels while the people starve. This is the truth no one wants to talk about because the powerful on the left and on the right benefit from it. A truly communist country would not build tourist hotelsthats capitalism. A truly democratic country would not pass voter suppression laws like those being sponsored by Republican legislatures; that is undemocratic and dangerous.

We now live in a post-ideological world where improbable ideology reigns supreme as a weapon in building power. The only defense we have against this is truth arrived at by being willing to embrace complexity. Yes, Cuba has a horrible, repressive, left-wing dictatorship. Yes, the right-wing dictatorship that preceded the revolution was also horrible and propped up by the United States, as in many other places. Yes, Cuba imprisons its thinkers and intellectuals for telling the truth. Yes, we in the United States have stopped listening to ours. All of these are yeses.

The majority of Cuban-Americans in the United States sold themselves to Trumpism because he waved el coco of socialism at them. But in 2020, Donald J. Trump lost. The threat of the United States under a Biden administration will not stoke the same fears in Cuba. This is the greatest hope I have. There is no coco to scare the Cuban people with anymore.

When Pope Francis brokered a rapprochement between the United States and Cuba in 2014, he knew exactly what he was doing: Take away el coco, deal a blow to the Cuban propaganda machine, bring about relations people to people. Undo the false ideological labels. Help all. I hope that those of us who live in the world of both/and truth-telling will prevail across the 90 miles that separate us. If we focus on the truth of the common good in Cuba, here and everywhere, then the path is clear. Adis, el coco.

This article has been updated.

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I've lived under Donald Trump and Fidel Castro. Both taught me the importance of defending truth. - America Magazine

Before he died, Davis wrote The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, a two-volume work in which he purported to show that the Southern states had rightfully the power to withdraw from a Union into which they had, as sovereign communities, voluntarily entered and that secession was a righteous response to violations and usurpations of the Constitution.

Stephens similarly sought vindication with a book that framed the Civil War as a fight over opposing principles that lay in the organic structure of the government of the states. It was strife, he wrote, between the principles of federation, on the one side, and centralism, or consolidation, on the other.

Leniency for defeated Confederates did not just give them an opportunity to shape the nations memory of the war; it also contributed to a climate of impunity that fueled violence against Black people and their allies. Contemporary observers blamed the New Orleans massacre of 1866 in which a mob of white rioters attacked a group of mostly Black Unionists, leaving dozens dead and many more wounded on Johnsons permissive Reconstruction policies.

Blood is upon his hands, the blood of innocent, loyal citizens, who had committed no crime but that of seeking to protect themselves against rebel misrule, which he, Andrew Johnson, had foisted upon them, The Chicago Tribune wrote.

To explain Johnsons leniency, the historian Eric Foner notes two factors. The first was Johnsons deep-seated racism, his belief that white men alone must manage the South. The second was his ambition to serve a second term. Thus, as Foner writes in Reconstruction: Americas Unfinished Revolution, Johnson came to view cooperation with the former Confederate elite as indispensable to two interrelated goals white supremacy in the South and his own re-election as president.

Put a little differently, Johnsons willingness to hold former Confederates responsible was tempered by both ideology and the realities of partisan politics. The Southern planter class may have been disloyal, but it still represented the kind of citizen Johnson believed should rule, as well as the kind of voter he hoped to attract.

This is an important point. The United States has never struggled to punish those radicals who stood against hierarchy and domination. Whether you were a labor radical, Black revolutionary or left-wing militant, to attempt to upset existing class and social relations or, at times, to even associate with people who held those ideas was to court state repression. The two Red Scares of the 20th century are evidence enough of this fact.

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Opinion | America Punishes Only a Certain Kind of Rebel - The New York Times

The remarks reflected recent efforts by Trump and his supporters to cast themselves as the aggrieved parties from the Jan. 6 riot, which left five people dead and others injured and, for a brief time, halted the wheels of democracy as President-elect Joe Bidens victory over Trump in the Electoral College was being confirmed by Congress.

Trumps reference to great people was similar to his remarks after the fatal confrontation in Charlottesville. You had some very bad people in that group, he said in August 2017. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides.

In his interview with Bartiromo, Trump said those at the events of Jan. 6 were loving people who wanted to save the nation.

The crowd was unbelievable and I mentioned the word love, the love in the air, Ive never seen anything like it, he said of his rally on the Ellipse. Thats why they went to Washington.

He added: Too much spirit and faith and love, there was such love at that rally, you had over a million people, inflating the size of his rally crowd.

After Trumps speech, the Capitol was invaded by backers of his seeking to disrupt the Electoral College count. On the way in, they battled with police officers; according to the Department of Justice, approximately 140 police officers were assaulted. Hundreds of those who entered the Capitol have been charged with various crimes, including more than 50 who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.

Trump and Bartiromo both expressed outrage over the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt within the Capitol, implying repeatedly that there was a cover-up at work. Babbitt, an Air Force veteran, was fatally shot as she tried to climb through a broken window during the insurrection.

Who is the person that shot an innocent, wonderful, incredible woman, a military woman, right in the head? Trump said. There is no repercussion that were on the other side, it would be the biggest story in this country. Who shot Ashli Babbitt? People want to know and why.

Bartiromo then referred to Babbitt as a wonderful woman fatally shot on January 6 as she tried to climb out of a broken window. Their remarks echoed those of some of Trumps backers, including Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who has claimed Babbitt was executed.

Referring to his remarks to the crowd before they stormed the Capitol as a very mild-mannered speech, Trump also suggested that the blame for any violence that day could be placed on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats because they didnt take the potential for violence seriously.

They are the ones that were responsible, he said.

Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.

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Trump on Jan. 6 insurrection: 'These were great people' - POLITICO

On the morning of Nov. 7, 2020, the Saturday after the presidential election, President Donald Trump had just approached the tee box at the seventh hole of his golf course in Sterling, Va., when an aides phone rang with news from Jared Kushner: All of the major media outlets, including Fox News, were about to call the presidential election for Democrat Joe Biden.

Mr. Trump had tweeted on the way to the course that hed won BY A LOT! But he displayed none of that all-caps energy as he pressed the phone to his ear. Wearing a dark pullover and slacks with white golf shoes and a matching MAGA cap, Mr. Trump calmly listened to his son-in-law as he strolled across the manicured grass under a clear blue sky. He hung up, nonchalantly handed the phone back to an aide and finished the final 12 holes, as more than a dozen golf carts filled with government aides and Secret Service agents trailed behind him.

When Mr. Trump finally pulled up to the clubhouse in his customized cartcomplete with a presidential seal stitched into the seatclub members cheered him on the back patio. Dont worry, Mr. Trump told them. Its not over yet.

But the election was, in fact, over. What wasnt finished was the term hed won four years earlier, and on Nov. 7, one of the most pressing questions for staffers was how to fill his calendar. Lets do all the things we didnt get to do because of all of the distractions, and have fun, Hope Hicks, a longtime Trump aide, said to the presidents team gathered inside campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va.

Mr. Trump had won far more votes than his team projected, with surprising support from Black and Hispanic men. He was immediately the runaway favorite for the partys 2024 nomination, and Ms. Hicks was expressing that vibe with her suggestion for a jaunty curtain call. But around the table in a glass-encased conference room, the eldest Trump sons channeled their fathers reaction. What youre talking about isnt even an option, responded Donald Trump, Jr., who had called into the meeting. Its a nonstarter, Eric Trump added.

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Inside Donald Trumps Last Days in the White House and Plans for a Comeback - The Wall Street Journal

In the early hours of November 4, after one of the most tumultuous presidential elections in US history, then-President Donald Trump rattled off the states that were called in his favor, which included the key electoral prizes of Florida, Ohio, and Texas.

He was optimistic about his chances in swing states like Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin, highlighting election day vote leads that he felt would endure.

However, in a nationally-televised White House speech that he envisioned as a rousing victory message, Trump alleged voter fraud and vowed to go to the Supreme Court to "stop" the counting of additional ballots.

After the speech was over, the president walked into the Map Room, with family members and a tight circle of advisors that soon followed, according to a forthcoming book by Michael Wolff.

It was almost 3:30 a.m., and the campaign began to look hard at Wisconsin, a swing state that Trump narrowly won in 2016 and hoped to put back in his column in 2020.

Trump and then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden had been competitive in the Badger State all night, but the president hoped to put the race away with updated numbers from a 3:30 a.m. data release.

The campaign team wanted the new Wisconsin numbers to provide them with some momentum, but the unfolding situation only left them frustrated, which Wolff describes in "Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency."

At 3:30 a.m. eastern time, Wisconsin did not report any updated figures.

"Everybody waited, without much to say, anxiety ramping up, the president muttering: Why the delay? What was happening? Had they stopped counting? What was going on?" Wolff wrote.

Read more:Where is Trump's White House staff now? We created a searchable database of more than 327 top staffers to show where they all landed

Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer at the time, insisted that the "delay" confirmed his suspicions of electoral wrongdoing.

"They now knew how many Biden votes they needed to offset Trump votes, and they were producing them! That's what the delay was about," Wolff wrote in describing Giuliani's line of thinking.

Trump stuck around for twenty minutes, but eventually became "agitated" and "angry" by the situation before heading to the White House Residence.

Election lawyer Matt Morgan, who was in the Map Room for much of the night, left the White House at 4 a.m.

As Morgan drove home, he realized that Wisconsin is in the central time zone, meaning it was an hour behind the East Coast.

The so-called "delay" was actually a failure to account for the time zone difference, and the updated data was released that morning.

Biden went on to defeat Trump in Wisconsin by roughly 20,000 votes out of nearly 3.3 million ballots cast.

Milwaukee County, the state's most populous jurisdiction and a longtime Democratic stronghold, gave Biden a hefty 183,000-vote margin over Trump, ensuring his victory in the Midwestern presidential battleground.

The Trump campaign, which questioned the results, last year spent $3 million on recounts in Milwaukee County and Dane County, another Democratic stronghold, only to see Biden pick up 132 votesin Milwaukee.

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Trump team waited for Wisc. election updates, had time zones wrong: book - Business Insider

Trumps press team said the two men, Jeffrey Pedersen and his podcast co-host Shannon Shadygroove:, were not welcome, and had registered for the rally with Red State Talk Radio, a network that has sent people who, a Trump aide said, appear to be legitimate to events before.

Pederson and Grooove were later identified as QAnon followers by Alex Kaplan of progressive watchdog group Media Matters, after which Trumps team said they are considering a new policy to verify reporters ahead of events to prevent people like the two men from gaining access. On top of that, they said they will continue efforts to tamp down on the proliferation of swag that promotes the conspiracy at Trump events and rallies.

Rally organizers make a valiant effort to dispel Q merchandise such as t-shirts, flags, and signs at the rallies, said a Trump spokesperson.

Scott Adams from Red State Talk Radio said their network allows show hosts to use our name, image, and likeness to acquire press credentials upon request.

Content of our individual shows and hosts is not necessarily an endorsement of our station. We support and endorse content in line with America First policies, said Adams.

Trump and his aides have made efforts to keep QAnon from becoming a prominent feature of Trump events for years. There had been a longstanding (though not always successfully executed) policy at Trump rallies to remove any signs or slogans relating to non-Trump causes, and QAnon merchandising fell into that blanket policy. But as the web of QAnon falsehoods and supporters continues to grow, Trump allies have increasingly viewed the movement, which holds that a satanic sect of pedophiles is secretly controlling the government, as toxic.

If we let in one Q shirt out of hundreds of shirts, the negative press would be astounding, said one person close to Trump.A picture that's on the cover of New York Times, with a hundred [QAnon] t-shirts behind him, would be worse than him talking about QAnon.

Trump associates also told POLITICO that they had attempted to weed out any QAnon influences both adherents and postings getting close to him. As a larger matter, they have downplayed the impact that QAnon has on the MAGA movement overall.

Look, there have always been crazy people in politics, there always has been, theres always going to be, and who gives a s---? said one Trump adviser.

The attempts at creating distance from QAnon have been complicated, however, by the former president, who has refused to disavow the movement even when described to him as a conspiracy. During the campaign, Trump told NBCs Savannah Guthrie that he knew very little of the group except for their dislike of pedophiles. His non-answer was seen by QAnon adherents as a confirmation of his support. In recent months, he has met with QAnon-supporting figures.

Donald Trump gestures as he speaks to the American Legion National Convention, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016, in Cincinnati. | AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Over the weekend, Trump expressed his support for the January 6 Capitol rioters, calling them great people. That followed several supportive statements for Ashli Babbitt, the Air Force veteran and Trump supporter who was killed during riots inside the Capitol when she tried to storm the Speakers lobby, where lawmakers were running for protection from the mob. Babbitt promoted QAnon conspiracy theories on her social media pages, and has emerged as a Q martyr. Her profile has only risen as Trump has raised questions about why she was killed by a Capitol police officer, who was acting in self defense, and why the officers identity has not been revealed.

The person that shot Ashli Babbitt ... there was no reason for that. And why isnt that person being opened up, and why isnt that being studied? Theyve already written it off. They said that case is closed. If that were the opposite, that case would be going on for years and years, and it would not be pretty, Trump said during a press conference in Bedminster, N.J. on Wednesday.

What has fed Trumps interest in the Babbitt story is unclear. But she isnt the only area of overlapping interest between QAnon and Trump. Instead, a community that once revolved around Satanic ritual-based conspiracies now seems driven by the belief that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump by a vast conspiracy of shadowy elites, assisted by voting machine companies, a slavish mainstream media, secretive government agencies, and, perhaps, the Chinese government.

They are still 100 percent dedicated to believing Donald Trump is the rightful president, so the prophecy of what theyre waiting for has changed, said Mike Rothschild, the author of the recently published book "The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything."

Unlike other QAnon obsessions, their view that the 2020 election was stolen while not supported by any evidence can not be described as fringe. A June poll from Monmouth University found that one third of Americans believe Joe Biden won the election due to voter fraud, and over one in ten Americans will never accept Biden as president. More strident adherents have gone further, attempting to audit state elections and filing lawsuits against Secretaries of State nationwide.

Even further afield, Trumpism adherents like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell have conjured up theories about how the former president will be reinstalled in the West Wing within months.

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell speaks as President Donald Trump listens during a briefing about the coronavirus in the Rose Garden of the White House, Monday, March 30, 2020, in Washington. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo

Lindell said in an interview that by the time of an upcoming election symposium hes throwing in South Dakota on August 13, he would have marshaled enough evidence to prove that China had launched a cyberattack that swung the election to Biden, and that it would be so compelling that the Supreme Court would rule 9-0 to switch the election results to Trump.

I said before, a couple months ago, he should be back in by August. I did say that, he clarified. That's me being hopeful there. It could be September. I don't know. It'll be whenever the Supreme Court protects our country and gets this thing pulled down after they see it really happened.

Some Trump associates said they have been displeased with Lindells appearances at rallies and communications with the former president. They are also fearful that his wild talk of reinstallment will lead to QAnon followers lashing out in August, when Trump does not resume his presidency.

You want to tell people you think the election was stolen? Well thats your opinion, said a former Trump adviser. But if you say in August Trumps coming back to office, thats no longer your opinion, now some crazy s--- is going to happen and you're not offering any proof. And its beyond just saying Hey, Im personally convinced the election is stolen.

But if Lindells continued public appearances are worrying some in Trump World, they dont appear to be bothering Trump himself. Recently, the former president tipped his hat to the conspiracy theories about his imminent reinstallment, by hinting that he would return to the White House in 2024, or before. He has also been closely monitoring the ongoing audit in Arizona that was described by one QAnon expert as the conspiracy theorists Super Bowl, and at a recent rally in Ohio, name-dropped Lindell and called him a patriot.

Lindell said he had not spoken to Trump since he left office, nor had he been in communication with Trumps team, but believed that Trump was watching his news appearances.

They see the same thing you do on TV, he said. I don't call anybody up from there and go What do you guys think? You guys know I haven't done that. I've been my own person. Because you know what, this isn't about them. This is about our country.

The persistence of QAnon has been problematic enough that the Department of Homeland Security recently told members of Congress during a closed-door briefing that they are following discussions about the theory online though they did not have reports of any specific threats. Experts on QAnon say it may just be a matter of time before the threat materializes.

When they dont win, that will work into their sense of grievances that theyve had building up over the past few years and I think that will be a very dangerous moment, said Rothschild. I think there will be QAnon believers who have spent so much time building up to this moment where the dominoes are going to start falling and when they dont people will get upset.

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Trumpworld wants distance from QAnon even as the ex-president winks at it - POLITICO

Pro-Trump candidates are racing to launch gubernatorial campaigns across the country, posing a test for the former presidents political brand in a number of key states going into 2022.

Over the July 4 holiday weekend, former GOP Chairman Allen West became the second primary challenger against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), while Republican Geoff Diehl announced he was running for governor in Massachusetts, potentially sparking a challenge against Gov. Charlie Baker (R), who has yet to announce whether he is running for another term.

Meanwhile, in Maine, former Gov. Paul LePage (R) formally announced his campaign for a third term as governor, while Republican Dan Cox jumped into the gubernatorial race in Maryland.

These candidates join a growing list of Republicans with their sights set on the governors' mansions in Ohio and Georgia.

Youre going to see situations where people are trying to out-Trump each other, said Republican strategist Doug Heye. Ultimately, these candidates are making a bet, and the bet is Trump is powerful enough for them to be a vehicle to move into the governors mansion.

But operatives note that the incumbents and candidates running face very different challenges in uniquely different states.

These are statewide races, and they are specifically for state governments, so the issues are just a little different, said one Republican operative.

But others point out that combative primaries can leave nominees bruised heading into a general election or even future races.

A not-strong-enough showing in the state of Texas can also hamper your standing with donors in the national press when it comes to actually announcing a presidential campaign, said one Republican consultant who has done work in Texas.

Abbott, a potential 2024 presidential contender, faces three primary challengers: West, former Texas state Sen. Don Huffines (R) and conservative political commentator Chad Prather.

A University of Texas-Texas Tribune poll released last month shows 44 percent of Texas voters saying they approve of Abbotts job as governor, while 44 percent say they disapprove. But among Republicans, he enjoys a 77 percent approval rating.

The challengers are working to hit Abbott from the right, citing a number of hot-button conservative issues, notably border security. If elected, Huffines has promised to close all border crossings on the Rio Grande River as a means of pressuring Mexico to deal with the issue of undocumented migrants coming to the U.S.

When it comes to primary rhetoric, its actually pretty good rhetoric, and he knows that Abbott wont be able to go there or go that far, the GOP consultant said.

But Trump, who has been vocal about the border since his 2016 presidential campaign, endorsed Abbott early last month. On top of that, the two appeared together late last month at the southern border,where they hit the Biden administrations handling of the flow of undocumented migrants into the U.S.

He didnt leave any wiggle room for West or anyone else to say that Trump is not with the governor, said the GOP operative.

In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWineMike DeWineGovernors' races see flood of pro-Trump candidates Kyle Kondik: 'Growing trend' is fewer American voters splitting tickets Ohio governor deploys nearly 200 National Guard members to US-Mexico border MORE (R) is facing a challenge from former Rep. Jim RenacciJames (Jim) B. RenacciGovernors' races see flood of pro-Trump candidates Former House Republican to challenge DeWine for Ohio gubernatorial nomination The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - Republicans seek to sink Jan. 6 commission MORE (R). Renacci has aligned himself closely with the former president and even enlisted Trumps former campaign manager Brad ParscaleBrad ParscaleAides tried to get Trump to stop attacking McCain in hopes of clinching Arizona: report MORE as an adviser.

Ohio went for Trump in the 2016 and 2020 elections, and the former president traveled to the state last month to hold his first rally since leaving office. DeWine notably drew the ire of Trump in November after he acknowledged Joe BidenJoe BidenEric Adams to meet with Biden on curbing gun violence: reports Democrats hit crunch time in Biden spending fight US troops in Syria come under 'indirect fire attack' MORE as the president-elect.

Who will be running for Governor of the Great State of Ohio? Trump tweeted, appearing to hint at a primary challenger.

DeWine also faced some pushback from conservatives during the height of the pandemic for the states coronavirus restrictions.

Renaccis allies have pointed to polls showing the former congressman leading the governor, while DeWine said last month hes feeling very, very good about his reelection chances.

DeWines supporters also point to Renaccis 2018 loss to Democratic Sen. Sherrod BrownSherrod Campbell BrownDemocrats hit crunch time in Biden spending fight Governors' races see flood of pro-Trump candidates TIm Ryan raises .28 million for Ohio Senate bid MORE (Ohio), which they say helped to put a major dent in his credibility with Buckeye State Republicans.

There is some rumblings from the base, said one Republican Ohio operative. If it was somebody that was a more credible challenger, like, say, [Rep.] Warren DavidsonWarren Earl DavidsonGovernors' races see flood of pro-Trump candidates 21 Republicans vote against awarding medals to police who defended Capitol Cheney set to be face of anti-Trump GOP MORE [R-Ohio], I think that would be more of a cause for concern.

DeWines allies also argue that Trump is focusing most of his ire in Ohio at Rep. Anthony GonzalezAnthony GonzalezGovernors' races see flood of pro-Trump candidates Cheney, Kinzinger are sole GOP votes for Jan. 6 select committee Trump, GOP return to border to rev up base MORE (R), who voted to impeachthe former president earlier this year.

In Massachusetts, Diehl has appeared to distance himself from the former president. Diehl, who co-chaired Trumps campaign in Massachusetts in 2016, told Politico that hed rather leave national politics out of the race.

I did want people to support the president back in 2016 because he was speaking to me about issues that I was trying to talk about here on Beacon Hill, Diehl told Politico Massachusetts.

At the time, I felt it was important to support him, he added.

There are questions about the future direction of the Massachusetts Republican Party, as some state Republicans have criticized the governor for being too liberal.

"Maybe we're better off without the governorship and we're able to grow the party from the ground up," Republican State Committeeman Steve Aylward said at a state committee meeting last month, according to NBC10 Boston.

Its unclear whether Trump will get involved in the race or if Baker will even seek reelection. Regardless, polls show Baker in good standing with Massachusetts voters. A Suffolk University poll from May shows Baker with a 67 percent approval rating from voters in the state, while 71 percent and 58 percent of voters say they approve of his handling of the pandemic and vaccine distribution, respectively.

Up north in Maine, LePage, who has called himself Donald TrumpDonald TrumpYoungkin releases new ad seeking to tie McAuliffe to Trump in Virginia's governors race Trump says being impeached twice didn't change him: 'I became worse' Lobbyists, moderate Democrats rely on debunked arguments against tax hikes MORE before Donald Trump became popular, is launching his campaign against Democratic Gov. Janet MillsJanet MillsGovernors' races see flood of pro-Trump candidates Equilibrium/Sustainability Presented by NextEra Energy China: Wild pandas no longer endangered The Hill's Morning Report: Afghanistan's future now up to Afghans, Biden says MORE.

Maine Republican Party Chairwoman Demi Kouzounas praised LePage as a proven governor in an interview with WMTW on Wednesday, a sign of the states GOP establishment coalescing around him. LePage is the only major Republicanwho has jumped into the race.

The way LePage governed was kind of Trump in style before there was a Trump, with a lot of what I would politely say are brash statements and getting into similar fights that Trump would, but he won, Heye said, There I dont think its so much of a play for Trumps base per sethan LePage being LePage.

Republicans say they are aware that Maryland will be an uphill battle for them as Gov. Larry Hogan, a noted critic of Trump within the GOP, leaves office.

Cox, a pro-Trump firebrand, gained attention for speaking out against the pandemic shutdowns and organized a bus to bring protesters to Washington on Jan. 6 but later said the group was not in the Capitol and did not take part in any violence.

Cox joins Hogan Secretary of Commerce Kelly Schulz in the Republican primary field.

Its an uphill climb for any Republican, and if youre going down the Trump lane, your path gets very limited, Heye said. If Maryland Republicans want to have a shot at winning, they nominate Kelly Schulz or they lose.

Republicans say the situation that Georgia Gov. Brian KempBrian KempGovernors' races see flood of pro-Trump candidates Stacey Abrams PAC tops 0 million raised The Hill's Morning Report: Afghanistan's future now up to Afghans, Biden says MORE (R) is facing is a category of its own.

Kemp has now long faced the ire of Trump for refusing to overturn Trumps electoral loss in Georgia. Pro-Trump Republican Vernon Jones launched a challenge against Kemp in April and has claimed the presidential results in Georgia were fixed.

Joness campaign said he raised $650,000 in his first 10 weeks as a candidate. And while Trump has yet to endorse him, Jones has received shoutouts from notable Trump allies, including Donald Trump Jr.

Kemps backers warn that the GOP base needs to be united ahead of 2022,when Georgia will see highly contested races for the Senate and governors mansion. His supporters also say that Kemps election legislation that put new restrictions on voting in the state has helped unite the base.

Its kind of shored up the base for Kemp in a way that they see him as fighting for the state, said the GOP operative.

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Governors' races see flood of pro-Trump candidates | TheHill - The Hill

In the early-morning hours of November 4, the day after the 2020 election, Donald Trump held a news conference in the East Room of the White House in which he falsely claimed that the fact that he had been ahead in the early tallying of votes, and then later behind, meant that the election had been stolen from him. This is a fraud on the American public, he declared. This is an embarrassment to this country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election. Obviously that wasnt true at allTrump hadnt won anything because not all of the votes had been counted yet. Still, in some states it had become clear that he was very likely going to lose, hence Fox Newss decision to declare Arizona for Joe Biden. At the time the call from the right-wing outlet, made before any other major network, shocked the countryand according to a new book, it was Rupert Murdoch who gave it the greenlight, with some less-than-charitable things to say about Trump!

Insider reports that Michael Wolffs forthcoming book, Landslide, includes a scene in which Lachlan Murdoch, the nonagenarian billionaires son, got a call from Foxs election desk saying it was ready to announce Biden had won Arizona, which he then took to the top:

The book [notes] that the Murdochswho spearhead a vast right-wing media empirehad every reason to delay calling Arizona at the time, given Foxs steadfast allegiance to Trump and the fact that no other network had made the call yet. Lachlan got his father on the phone to ask if he wanted to make the early call. His father, with signature grunt, assented, adding, F--- him, Wolff wrote. The book [says] that Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer then called Trumps lead social media strategist, Jason Miller, to let him know the network was going to call Arizona for Biden. Miller involuntarily rose from his seat. What the f---? he said out loud, looking around and seeing the still-merry and untroubled faces in the Map Room...Wolff wrote. Hemmer reportedly replied: Thats what theyre doing. Thats what theyre going with.

Who? Miller asked.

The election desk, Hemmer said, adding that the networks decision was going to be aired imminently. The decision to call Arizona for Biden was a pivotal moment on election night, indicating the Democrat was poised to win the traditionally Republican-leaning state and complicating Trumps ability to declare an early victory in the overall race.

In a statement, a Fox News Media spokesperson told the Hive: "This account is completely false. Arnon Mishkin who leads the FOX News Decision Desk made the Arizona call on election night and FOX News Media President Jay Wallace was then called in the control room. Any other version of the story is wildly inaccurate. Regarding Bill Hemmers call to Miller, a Fox News spokesperson insisted This never happened and is completely untrue.

Trump was unsurprisingly livid about the Arizona decision and, as my colleague Gabriel Sherman reported at the time, personally called Murdoch to scream about the call and demand a retraction. Murdoch refused, and the call stood. (Jared Kushner also reportedly tried to convince the Fox News founder to withdraw the call, a desperate plea that fell on deaf ears.)

Biden ultimately won Arizona by roughly 10,000 votes. But if anyone thought Foxs (and Murdochs) decision to momentarily refrain from serving as a right-wing propaganda machine suggested the network had changed its ways, they were deeply mistaken. Chris Stirewalt, the politics editor at the time, was fired in January. And the networks hosts have, of course, perpetuated the lie that Trump won the election, while pushing bullshit conspiracy theories about the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Texas remains committed to turning state into uninhabitable hellhole

Insane open carry laws? A ban on abortions after six weeks? Anti-trans legislation? The potential disenfranchisement of millions of people? Gelatinous tubeworm Ted Cruz? The Lone Star State has got it all. Per The Washington Post:

Republican lawmakers in Texas on Thursday launched their second effort this year to pass new voting restrictions after Democrats blocked them in May with a dramatic walkout at the state Capitol. The legislature convened Thursday for a special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) to enact alaundry list of conservative priorities, including a ban of transgender athletes on youth sports teams and beefed-up border security. But Abbott has made clear that election integrity is a top priority, and Republicans filed bills in the House and Senate that include many of the same voting provisions they sought to enact earlier in the year.

The new election proposals include a number of restrictions championed by former president Donald Trump. The measures would ban several election programs implemented last year to help people vote during thecoronaviruspandemic, including drive-through voting and 24-hour and late-night voting. Voting rights advocates noted that voters of color used these programs disproportionately, meaning they could disproportionately feel the impact of the restrictions.

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F--k Him: Rupert Murdoch Reportedly Made the Call to Bury Trumps Election Night Dreams in a Shallow Grave - Vanity Fair

Former President Donald Trump took credit for the race to space among billionaires Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk by creating the Space Force, reviving NASA and encouraging the private sector to take the lead on exploring the cosmos.

Better him than me. I would rather see Richard in the plane today than me in the spaceship. But if Richard loves it, and Bezos loves it, and a lot of rich guys love space, Trump said onFox News Sunday Morning Futures.

Trumps interview with Maria Bartiromo took place as news stations showed images of Bransons space plane taking off from New Mexico Sunday morning for his successful and historic trip into space.

I made it possible for them to do this. I actually said to my people: Let the private sector do it. These guys want to come in with billions of dollars. Lets lease them facilities because you need certain facilities to send up rockets, and we have those facilities. We have the greatest. And I reopened them because they were, as I told you, they were dead, they were closed, or essentially closed for the most part, the former president said.

So I said, hey look, if Elon wants to stand up a rocket, let him do it. Well charge him some rent. Let him do it. Let these guys do it. And were seeing advancement now that I dont believe we would have ever seen had we done it the old-fashionedway, Trump said on Fox.

Trump launched the Space Force the first branch of military service since the creation of the Air Force in 1947 in December 2019 and also increased NASAs budget.

Branson launched himself and five others into space on a Virgin Galactic rocket, beating the Amazon founder Bezos into space.

The British entrepreneur had been scheduled to make the attempt later this summer but moved up the timetable because Bezos was planning his launch on July 20.

Musk, whose SpaceX rockets have carried crews into orbit, has yet to take one of the flights, but has voiced a desire to travel into space.

Read the rest here:

Trump says he paved the way for billionaires' space race - New York Post

During a press conference to announce that he was filing a lawsuit against several social media giants, former President Donald Trump answered a question about the event that triggered his removal from Facebook and Twitter: the storming of the U.S. Capitol by his supporters on Jan. 6.

A reporter asked Trump, "Because so much of your banning (on social media platforms) has to do with comments you made around Jan. 6, just to clarify further, what did you do to stop the insurrection as some people call it, and why were you not able to stop it?"

In his answer, Trump called the storming of the Capitol an "unfortunate event" and pivoted to the death of Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old San Diego woman who was shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol Police officer when a crowd of rioters was trying to force its way into the House chamber.

"The person that shot Ashli Babbitt boom right through the head just boom there was no reason for that," Trump said. "And why isnt that person being opened up, and why isnt that being studied? Theyve already written it off. They said that case is closed. If that were the opposite, that case would be going on for years and years, and it would not be pretty."

First, we should note that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for Washington, D.C., determined that Babbitt was struck in the front left shoulder, not the head.

Beyond that, Trumps assertion that "there was no reason" for the shooting goes beyond saying that, in his opinion, the shooting was unjustified. Rather, hes saying theres no possible argument to support it.

However, even if one disagrees with the Justice Departments determination not to prosecute the officer for the shooting, video evidence demonstrates that the officer was facing an angry mob near the House chamber. Experts told PolitiFact that the situation involved a risk of serious bodily harm to either law enforcement or lawmakers, which is a longstanding defense made and upheld by the courts in police shootings.

The former presidents office did not respond to an inquiry for this article.

A sign against wearing masks to slow the spread of the coronavirus covers the office door of Fowler's Pool Services and Supply Inc. Ashli Babbitt, listed as an owner of Fowler's, was shot and killed during the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. (AP)

The shooting

Babbitt was a 14-year Air Force veteran who served four tours as a high-level security official, KUSI-TV in San Diego reported. Her husband told the station she was an avid Trump supporter.

Babbitt also sent 21 tweets referencing the QAnon conspiracy beginning in February 2020, according to the Daily Beast. The site reported that Babbitt posted Jan. 5 that the United States would soon see "The Storm," a day of reckoning the conspiracy theorists believed was coming for deep-state pedophiles, sex traffickers and Trump opponents.

On Jan. 5 she flew from her home in San Diego to Washington to attend the "stop the steal" rally where Trump would speak, according to the investigative website Bellingcat. In a video obtained by TMZ, she described "a sea of nothing but red, white and blue, patriots and Trump. And it was amazing, you could see the president talk." She entered the building when other rioters breached the building.

The deadly showdown occurred in a corridor known as the Speakers Lobby; the lobby is a formal, ornately decorated space that leads directly to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Capitol Police had used furniture to barricade a glass door to prevent rioters from getting near the lawmakers.

The Speakers Lobby (U.S. House of Representatives)

Video footage (warning, graphic content) shows a plain-clothes officer standing with a gun drawn in the Speakers Lobby. The officer fired once as Babbitt was climbing through a broken window adjoining the door. (The officers name has not been released, though Babbitts husband has sued seeking to release the name.)

Babbitt fell to the floor, where she was immediately treated by uniformed officers on her side of the barricade. A Jan. 7 news release from the Capitol Police said she was taken to a nearby hospital where she died of her injuries.

A witness account that Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., shared with "Good Morning America" on Jan. 7 fits with this account.

Mullin was in the Speakers Lobby behind the officer who shot and killed Babbitt. He said that "when they broke the glass in the back, the (police) lieutenant that was there, him and I already had multiple conversations prior to this, and he didn't have a choice at that time. The mob was going to come through the door, there was a lot of members and staff that were in danger at the time. And when he (drew) his weapon, that's a decision that's very hard for anyone to make and, once you draw your weapon like that, you have to defend yourself with deadly force."

A Jan. 7 statement by Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund confirmed that Babbitt was shot by a sworn Capitol Police officer who was later placed on administrative leave, in line with agency policy.

"As protesters were forcing their way toward the House Chamber where Members of Congress were sheltering in place, a sworn (Capitol Police) employee discharged their service weapon, striking an adult female," Sund said in his statement, referring to Babbitt.

The decision not to prosecute

On April 14, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia and the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division jointly announced that there was "insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution" against the officer who shot Babbitt. The department said:

"The investigation determined that, on Jan. 6, 2021, Ms. Babbitt joined a crowd of people that gathered on the U.S. Capitol grounds to protest the results of the 2020 presidential election. The investigation further determined that Ms. Babbitt was among a mob of people that entered the Capitol building and gained access to a hallway outside the Speakers Lobby, which leads to the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives. ...

"As members of the mob continued to strike the glass doors, Ms. Babbitt attempted to climb through one of the doors where glass was broken out. An officer inside the Speakers Lobby fired one round from his service pistol, striking Ms. Babbitt in the left shoulder, causing her to fall back from the doorway and onto the floor."

The department concluded that it was unable to find sufficient evidence that a federal criminal civil rights statute was violated.

"Prosecutors would have to prove not only that the officer used force that was constitutionally unreasonable, but that the officer did so willfully, which the Supreme Court has interpreted to mean that the officer acted with a bad purpose to disregard the law," the department said. "As this requirement has been interpreted by the courts, evidence that an officer acted out of fear, mistake, panic, misperception, negligence, or even poor judgment cannot establish the high level of intent required."

Investigators concluded that there was "no evidence to establish that, at the time the officer fired a single shot at Ms. Babbitt, the officer did not reasonably believe that it was necessary to do so in self-defense or in defense of the Members of Congress and others evacuating the House Chamber," the department said.

What do experts say?

We asked several law-enforcement experts whether they saw any justification for Trumps assertion that there was "no reason" for the officer to have shot Babbitt. They agreed that the department made the right decision not to prosecute the officer.

"It is very easy, of course, to play Monday-morning police officer and second-guess quick decisions made at the time," said James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminologist. "There was clearly a risk of serious bodily harm to the officers and everyone they were protecting, justifying the use of deadly force in defense of self and others."

Fox added that its also worth keeping in mind "the high stakes given the important roles of those being protected," even though that is not written into the relevant statutes.

Philip Stinson, a Bowling Green State University criminologist, agreed.

"A police officer is justified in using deadly force when that officer has a reasonable apprehension of an imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death being imposed against the officer or someone else," Stinson said. "Mr. Trump is wrong in stating that there was no reason to shoot Ms. Babbitt."

Greg Meyer, a retired Los Angeles Police Department captain, said that less harmful measures to subdue the rioters, such as pepper spray or warning shots, should be weighed in after-the-fact analyses of how to handle such situations in the future. But he added that any assumption that these alternatives should have been pursued would be "a matter of speculation based on 20/20 hindsight."

"The reason the officer fired at Ms. Babbitt was because a violent mob was taking over the Capitol and causing police to evacuate House and Senate members out of fear for their lives," Meyer said.

Our ruling

Trump said that "the person that shot Ashli Babbitt boom right through the head just boom there was no reason for that."

Babbitt was fatally shot in the shoulder, not the head.

As for Trumps assertion that "there was no reason" for the shooting, this means theres no possible argument to support it. But the angry mob that prompted the shooting was captured on video, and at least one member of Congress directly witnessed it.

Experts said that, according to the video evidence, the situation involved a risk of serious bodily harm to either law enforcement or lawmakers, which is a longstanding defense made and upheld by the courts in police shootings.

We rate the statement False.

Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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Fact-checking Donald Trump on there being 'no reason' for shooting Ashli Babbitt - PolitiFact