Category Archives: Republican

The opening session of the January 6 hearings was narrowly tailored to the tastes of the theoretically persuadable Trump supporter. The argument laid out by the committee did not question the long-standing conservative obsession with pervasive voter fraud that underpinned Donald Trumps refusal to accept the results. Chairman Bennie Thompson even conceded his right to launch a series of absurd legal challenges to the results. Instead it focused narrowly on the element of Trumps autogolpe that is most difficult for the right to swallow: his last-gasp bid to use a violent mob to pressure Mike Pence and Congress to overturn the results.

The committees implicit request was that conservative Republicans who may have voted for Trump at least denounce the most heinous final stage of his coup, when the president was refusing to call in any defense of the besieged Capitol and telling his aides that Mike Pence deserved to be lynched. Their response arrived in real time: They do not believe Trump or his minions should be held accountable.

Fox News, of course, gave the hearings a giant middle finger. It shunted the hearings onto Fox Business and its streaming service, instead using its platform to give Tucker Carlson a commercial-free hour to spew various conspiracy theories. Carlson repeated his debunked false-flag charges, questioned the results of the election, and respectfully hosted flamboyant racist Darren Beattie, who had spent January 6 directing various Black people on Twitter to take a knee to Trump and learn their proper role in our society.

Most of the party messaging apparatus simply dismissed the hearings as dull. The Federalist termed them a show trial, using an elaborate comparison to the Stalin-era proceedings in which officials were tortured into supplying ludicrously false confessions.

The anti-anti-Trump right supplied somewhat more revealing reactions. Anti-anti-Trumpists represent the Republican Partys power center. They consider Trump a poor communicator and strategist and a liability for the party, and they want him to go away while leaving in place the coalition he built to be used by more effective leaders. The role of the anti-anti-Trump right is to give Trump supporters a rationale without making a direct defense of his actions. Faced with using this method to wave away his least defensible behavior, they engaged in their most comic exertions.

Kevin Williamson at National Review what-abouted away the problem by insisting Democrats had committed all the same crimes. Democrats spent the summer of 2020 legitimizing mostly peaceful riots, arson, and murder during the George Floyd riots, he wrote, neglecting to cite any examples of Democrats endorsing violent riots, and also neglecting to mention the many examples of Democrats explicitly denouncing them. The main organizing idea of Democratic politics from 2016 to 2020, Williamson continued, was that the 2016 election was somehow stolen from Hillary Rodham Clinton, who insisted that Donald Trump was an illegitimate president.

Williamson again offered zero examples to support this claim, and ignored the enormous evidence to the contrary from Clinton conceding the morning after the election to Barack Obama meeting with Trump and assisting in the transition. The lack of evidence reveals more than the extraordinary claim itself. For the National Review audience, these untruths are self-evident.

Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberly Strassel fixated on the committees refusal to seat Republicans who were themselves the subjects of the investigation as accomplices. She likened it to a trial without a defense attorney:

Of course, the hearings were not a trial. They were hearings. The 9/11 hearings did not include any representatives of Al Qaeda. Strassel would no doubt reject the notion that there is any comparison between 9/11 and 1/6, but this is just the point. Her premise is that the insurrection should not be treated as an attack on the system but as a dispute between two parties within it.

Perhaps the most fascinating response came from National Reviews Dan McLaughlin. At the end of the day, he wrote, either you want Donald Trump to be the main character in American politics, or you want to marginalize him and promote a post-Trump politics. Those of us on the right who want the latter must crawl over the determined resistance of virtually every Democrat.

Here we see many of the beliefs that have propelled the anti-anti-Trumpists through the current era. The anti-anti-Trump right sees itself as the sensible middle ground between the equivalent extremes of promoting Trump and holding him accountable. They might like Trump to go away, but any accountability mechanism is going to shatter his coalition. They wish to keep it together, which (alas) includes the racists, the fascists, and its swelling paramilitary wing.

McLaughlins personal choice to inherit leadership of this coalition, Ron DeSantis, has insinuated January 6 was an inside job and still has refused to say whether Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election. You can see why it is so imperative to him that the subject go away.

Trump, for his part, is unchastened. January 6 was not simply a protest, he exclaimed last night, it represented the greatest movement in the history of our country to Make America Great Again. January 6 was not the death of his movement but its beginning, and the party is going along with him.

Irregular musings from the center left.

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Republicans Respond to January 6 Hearings by Defending Trump - New York Magazine

A few weeks ago I ran into an old friend, a salt-of-the-earth Christian conservative Ive known for almost 30 years. Hes a lifelong Republican and quite possibly the nicest person youll ever meet, a Trump voter whos about as different from Trump as day is from night. After we caught up on our lives and careers, he asked how I handle covering modern politics, where so many people lie. He specifically brought up Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi.

I joined him in lamenting general political deception, and then asked him what he thought of Trumps lies. What do you mean? he responded, in all sincerity. He genuinely did not perceive Trump as dishonest. Even now. In 2022.

Ive had a version of that exact conversation over and over again for more than six years. I live in a deep-red part of America. According to the New York Times neighborhood political calculator, only 15 percent of my neighbors are Democrats. Thats one reason why I laugh when Beltway Republicans and Acela-corridor conservatives purport to explain Trumps appeal to me. Theyre explaining the actions of my best friends, my neighbors, and many, many members of my family.

I understand it all. Perfectly well. But understanding does not necessitate agreement.

Heres one thing I understandone thing thats directly relevant to the prime-time hearings about January 6: Rank-and-file Republicans are shockingly ignorant of Trumps misdeeds. It is simply not the case that they understand everything that Trump has done and support him anyway. They have far, far more knowledge of Democratic misconduct and media malfeasance than they have of anything Trump has done.

This truth applies to every single one of the worst moments of Trumps campaigns and his presidency. The average Republican has a completely different knowledge base about Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation, the Ukraine impeachment, the election contest, and January 6, and while there are some people (especially on Twitter) who do know everything and either love Trump anyway or love Trump because of his misdeeds, that is not the dominant mindset.

As Ive told countless progressive friends, if you trust or use mainly right-leaning media, youd have a different view of Trump as well. Youd live with a perpetual, exaggerated view of the threat from the left at the same time that youd be bombarded with the extended, passionate defenses of Trump and his supporters. Taken together, that means your average Republican believes that Democrats are worse than they really are, and that Trump is better than he really is.

In fact, the perception gap between belief and reality is a bipartisan phenomenon. In 2020 the group Beyond Conflict released a study called Americas Divided Mind, which studied what Americans think about each other. Heres a key finding:

This finding supplements and complements the findings of the group More in Commons 2019 report on Americans mistaken views of each other:

If you have an exaggerated view of your political opponents hatred and extremism, youre far more likely not just to believe the worst reports about them, but to disbelieve their critiques of your tribe and your movement, too.

Lets put this all together and apply it to ordinary Republican views of January 6. First, theyre going to know a lot less about the Trump teams misconduct than you might think. Mention the John Eastman memos that urged Vice President Pence to reject Joe Bidens electoral-vote majority, and many will shake their heads. Never heard of it.

Bring up Trumps infamous phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and theyre mystified. They simply dont know that the president threatened Georgias top election official with criminal prosecution and demanded that he find the votes necessary to change the outcome of the states presidential election.

I could go on and on. They dont know about Trumps effort to create a slate of shadow electors. They dont know anything about Steve Bannons Operation Green Bay Sweep, the plan he developed with Peter Navarro to leverage the objections of more than 100 GOP members of Congress to delay election certification.

Instead, the narrative runs something like this: The election had lots of problems, and it was legitimate for Trump to bring his multiple legal challenges to the outcome. There was no reason to trust the reported vote totals from heavily Democratic counties. The riot on January 6 was wrong, but the reaction to it has been extreme. The riot never presented a real threat to the election outcome, and the government is treating January 6 protesters far worse than it treated violent Black Lives Matter protesters after the wave of riots that swept American cities in 2020.

Yesterday, Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio made a version of an argument Ive heard many, many times:

Again, if you consume mainly right-wing media, youve seen countless images of the (very real) urban violence that swept America in 2020, and youve likely never seen the worst images of January 6.

This perception gap is precisely why Fox Newss decision not to carry the January 6 hearings live is so pernicious. It relegated the coverage to Fox Business, a network that has a fraction of the prime-time viewers. This means that the community of Americans who most need to learn the facts about January 6 will once again be protected from the truth.

But its worse than that. Through the mockery and spin of the prime-time Fox voices they trust, theyll become even more immune to legitimate concerns about threats to the American republic, and theyll remain open to the idea that Donald Trump should once again occupy the Oval Office.

I share these realities not to excuse ordinary Republicans, but to help us understand what they know and how they think. Of course a citizen in a constitutional republic has an obligation to hear from both sides and not wall themselves off in their own partisan cocoon (this applies to both left and right). How can a good, sensible person have a casual attitude toward January 6? When they dont know what happened.

While the path past Trump requires patient persuasion, I fear that were in a race against the clock. He may announce his 2024 run very soon, and if he does, it might clear the field of potential opponents and cause Republicans to once again rally around the flag. Wed be fools to presume Trump wont win again.

The Trump coalition is broadly built on two categories of Republican votersthose who know exactly who Trump is and either dont care about his flaws or love him precisely because hes so pugilistic and cruel, and those who even now dont know who he is and would very much care if they know the whole truth. Its the latter group that can deny him a second bite at the presidential apple, and its the latter group that most needs to watch the January 6 hearings in prime time.

For our nations sake, we can only hope that some do watch, absorb those facts that are new to them, and reach the conclusion that Republicans have to move on from a man whod rather plunge the nation into a constitutional crisis than relinquish his hold on the presidency. When it comes to January 6 and Trumps effort to steal an American election, casual concern simply isnt enough. Good Republicans have to understand the true scale of the crisis we faced.

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What Ordinary Republicans Think About January 6 - The Atlantic

Rep. Jim Banks:

Again, I can't get past the lines in his speech when he told his supporters to go down to the Capitol and peacefully and patriotic patriotically make your voice heard.

Now, Lisa, what I love about Washington, D.C., the nation's capital, is it's a place where you can go protest and make your voice heard, exercise your constitutional rights. And on that day, there were a lot of people who came to Washington, D.C., from my district, from all over the country who came to support a president who they supported. They felt like the election wasn't conducted in a proper way.

I have those same concerns about the constitutionality of how the election was conducted and states who changed election laws because of COVID leading up to Election Day. And people were upset about it. And they came to Washington to register that.

And that's a very that's very American for people to do that. There were people, on the other hand, who broke into the Capitol, who were violent, who attack Capitol Police officers, and they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And the FBI has arrested hundreds of them, as they should.

And they should be they should be held to a very high standard in the court of law.

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Rep. Banks on GOP opposition to the Jan. 6 panel's findings - PBS NewsHour

The Tennessee Supreme Court today held that the Tennessee Republican Party and its State Executive Committee (Republican Party) did not violate the Tennessee Open Meetings Act (TOMA) when they determined that Mr. Robert Starbuck Newsom a/k/a Robby Starbuck (Mr. Starbuck) would not be added to the ballot in the upcoming primary election for the United States House of Representatives 5th Congressional District.

This case arose after Mr. Starbuck filed a nominating petition to run as a candidate in the Republican primary for Tennessees 5th Congressional District. The Republican Party determined that Mr. Starbuck was not a bona fide Republican. As a result, they directed the Tennessee Coordinator of Elections to exclude Mr. Starbuck from the ballot.

Mr. Starbuck filed suit in federal court seeking an order requiring the Republican Party to restore him to the ballot. However, he later dismissed that lawsuit after failing to obtain injunctive relief from the federal court. Mr. Starbuck then filed suit in the Davidson County Chancery Court (the trial court) alleging, among other claims, that the Republican Party violated TOMA, a law that generally requires meetings of governing bodies to be open to the public. Mr. Starbuck asserted that the Republican Party violated TOMA by determining in a non-public meeting that he was not a bona fide Republican. For this reason, Mr. Starbuck argued that he should be added back to the ballot. The trial court agreed and ordered state officials who were not parties to the Chancery Court action to include Mr. Starbuck on the ballot as a Republican candidate for the 5th Congressional District.

Seeking expedited review of the trial courts order, the Republican Party filed an application for extraordinary appeal in the Court of Appeals, as well as a motion in the Supreme Court asking the Court to assume jurisdiction over the case. The state officials responsible for preparing the official ballot, the Secretary of State and the Coordinator of Elections, also filed a petition requesting that the trial courts injunction be vacated. The Supreme Court granted the Republican Partys request for expedited review and its application for extraordinary appeal.

In a unanimous opinion, the Court held that the trial court erred when it determined that TOMA applied to the Republican Party under these circumstances. The Court concluded that, while TOMA applies to state primary boards, it does not apply to state executive committees. Because, by statute, a partys state executive committee decides whether a candidate is a bona fide member of the party, the Court concluded that the Republican Party was acting as a state executive committee when they determined that Mr. Starbuck was not a bona fide Republican. As a result, the Court vacated the trial courts order granting Mr. Starbuck a temporary injunction requiring him to be placed on the ballot and remanded the case to the trial court to resolve any other remaining claims.

To read the Supreme Courts opinion in Robert Starbuck a/k/a Robby Starbuck v. Tennessee Republican Party, et al., authored by Justice Jeff Bivins, visit the opinions section of TNCourts.gov.

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Tennessee Supreme Court Holds Tennessee Republican Party and Its State Executive Committee Did Not Violate the Tennessee Open Meetings Act Regarding...

Yesterday evening, the leaders of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol opened their public hearingshearings that will show, in the words of vice chair Liz Cheney, that Donald Trump oversaw a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power.

Or, as committee chair Bennie Thompson put it, Donald Trump was at the center of this conspiracy.

Read: Trump gets the January 6 trial he long dodged

The violent assault on the Capitol was the culmination of that effort; Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack, Cheney said. And he reveled in what he had done. The more carnage, the better.

That Donald Trump acted the way he did was hardly a surprise; some of us had been warning about his borderless corruptions and disordered personality since before he became president. Its hard to imagine that theres any ethical line this broken, embittered, vindictive man wouldnt cross, including telling White House staff that Vice President Mike Pence deserved to be hanged by the violent mob that stormed the Capitol, because Pence wouldnt refuse to certify the election.

But the story of the Trump presidency isnt only about the corruptions and delusions of one man; its also about the party he represents. Trump recast the Republican Party, of which I was long a proud member, in his image. His imprint on the GOP is, in important respects, even greater than Ronald Reagans, despite Reagan being a successful two-term president.

Other presidents have been accused of wrongdoing, even high crimes and misdemeanors, Peter Baker wrote in The New York Times, but the case against Donald J. Trump mounted by the bipartisan House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol described not just a rogue president but a would-be autocrat willing to shred the Constitution to hang onto power at all costs.

It was bad enough that many Republicans were complicit in Trumps wrongdoings when he was president; that they continue to be complicit 17 months after Trump left the presidency is an even more damning indictment. Theyve continued to embrace Trump even though hes a loser.

Republicans stayed loyal to Richard Nixon far longer than they should have, but at least they abandoned him after the smoking gun tape was released that proved his involvement in the Watergate cover-up. What Trump has done is worse even than what Nixon did and yet Republicansdespite the case against Trump being far more comprehensive and detailed than we knew in the immediate aftermath of January 6continue to propagate his lies and either defend his seditious conduct or act as if it never happened. Its old news, were told. Nothing to see here. Time to move on.

Not so fast.

The sheer scale of Donald Trumps depravity is unmatched in the history of the American presidency, and the Republican Partythe self-described party of law and order and constitutional conservatives, of morality and traditional values, of patriotism and Lee Greenwood songsmade it possible. It gave Trump cover when he needed it. It attacked his critics when he demanded it. It embraced his nihilistic ethic. It amplified his lies. When House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthya man who for a few fleeting hours after the January 6 insurrection dared to speak critically of Donald Trumptraveled to Mar-a-Lago a few days later to kiss his ring, it was an act of self-abasement that was representative of his party, his morally desolate party.

David Frum: The one witness at the January 6 hearing who matters most

Make no mistake: Republicans are the co-creators of Trumps corrupt and unconstitutional enterprise. The great majority of them are still afraid to break fully with him. They consider those who have, like Liz Cheney, to be traitors to the party. They hate Cheney because she continues to hold up a mirror to them. They want to look away. She wont let them.

Perhaps the most withering sentences of Cheneys extraordinary presentation last night were these: Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.

Those in the Republican Party and on the American right who defended Trump and continue to do sowho went silent in the face of his transgressions, who rationalized their weakness, who went along for the ride for the sake of powermust know, deep in their hearts, that what she said is true. And it will always be true.

Their dishonor is indelible.

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The Moral Desolation of the GOP - The Atlantic

For the first time since 1890, a California gubernatorial candidate in the general election will hail from Northern California. State Senator Brian Dahle (R-Bieber) finished in second place Tuesday night to Gov. Gavin Newsom. Because of the top-two primary system in California, it was good enough to advance to November.

Newsom, fresh off last years recall victory, garnered more than 1.9 million votes or 56.3% of all votes. Dahle, endorsed by the state Republican Party, finished second with 572,505 votes, or 16.8%.

Now Newsom will face a Republican challenger that hails from north of Sacramento, an area that hasnt had a candidate for governor in 132 years.

The senator, who once represented Magalia and Stirling City as part of the state Assembly, now represents 11 Northern California counties, including all or parts of Alpine, El Dorado, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, Shasta, Siskiyou and Sierra counties in the state Senate. His wife Megan Dahle represents his former assembly district that still includes parts of Butte County.

He started his career in politics on the Lassen County Board of Supervisors in 1997. From there, hes gone on to become the Republican Assembly leader and is now the first general election candidate for a governor from this part of the state in 132 years.

Ive never really thought about that. Its not something Im concerned about. Im trying to achieve something good for California. Get that balance, he said on Thursday. So, I never really hadnt thought about it I didnt really know that statistic.

He said his focus is on allowing his children and his neighbors to achieve the California dream.

I got involved in politics, was because, you know, I want to make my community a better place. Twenty-five years of one-party control in California has made it very difficult for my business, my families and the families I represent, he said. And the people in California are struggling right now.

He said the goal is to gain the top seat in California and do so by talking about the things impacting his constituents.

Hopefully, get some balance, thats the goal here, and win and actually govern in a different direction. he said.

While he said that he hadnt thought a lot about where hes from, he does recognize that it does present a challenge as he attempts to claim the governors seat since the three previous Northern California candidates for the highest office in the state failed to do.

I know that I dont come from a real populated area and have a lot of great name ID, and its a struggle for people to know who I am, he said. But I believe once they know I am, they would choose me over Gavin Newsom.

To do that he points out that he has to overcome a juggernaut that is the Newsom campaign that Dahle said has a $40 million war chest thats funded by public unions like the California Teachers Association.

The Republican nominee asserted that its that financial support that allows the governor to control the airwaves.

That takes a lot of money, which is something very hard to gather as well, he said. So, Ive came up with a way to raise money. And its a little bit of a lot of people come up with, I call it the dollar a day program, $1 a day for a year.

He said those who are interested in taking part can find it on his campaign website. And he encourages people to do more than vote arguing that people also need to support their candidates financially.

He also points out that the fact that he has is a farmer and comes from an area that has been impacted by wildfire gives him a unique perspective that even the current governor does not have.

There is a difference between the two of us actually, I am a true environmentalist who actually wants to actually stop fires and build more storage for water, Dahle said, arguing that as a farmer he is a steward of the land.

While he has been in government since 1997, including 16 years on the Lassen County Board of Supervisors, he has also run a business.

Thats the difference between me and Gavin, he calls himself a business owner, but he really doesnt run his business every day, he said. Everything he has done has been handed to him and he hasnt really governed in a way where he hasnt had to work with other people.

And he says thats where his style will be completely different than the current governor in that he will work with people, but right now the current state have affairs in government doesnt require that.

When you have, you have total control, you have a lot of abuse of power, he said. And thats whats happening in California.

Dahle argues the only way to correct that is to start from the top down and remove the current governor.

You want four more years of Gavin Newsom? Vote for him, he said. But if you want balance, change and common sense. You have a choice. Vote for me.

Its a message that he said hes been able to share since Tuesday with more people who are trying to find out who he is and what his experiences are.

A lot of people have been trying to find where the heck Im from, he said.

The last general election candidate or governor who lived north of Sacramento was John Bidwell in 1890. The founder of Chico ran as a member of the Prohibition Party and earned just 4% of the vote. He lost to Republican Henry Markham.

Bidwell also ran for governor in 1875 as a member of the anti-monopoly party according to joincalifornia.combut was listed as an independent. Democrat William Irwin won the seat that year with 50% of the vote.

The first Northern Californian to run for governor in a general election setting was Pierson B. Reading from Shasta County in 1851 for the Whig Party. He lost to Democrat John Bigler by just less than four percentage points.

The city of Redding was named after him as Reading, but in 1880 he renamed the city Redding after Benjamin Redding, who at one point had been the mayor of Sacramento.

The fourth Northern California resident to run for governor in the general election was Hugh Glenn in 1879 as a Democrat. He was one of four candidates that year, of which the winner was George C. Perkins, a Republican. Perkins would win the seat with just 42.4% of the vote while Glenn would finish second with 29.7% of the vote. He would die in 1883 in what is now known as the city of Colusa.

Glenn County was named after Glenn.

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Republican Brian Dahle becomes first gubernatorial general election candidate from north of Sacramento in 132 years - The Mercury News

I think that would backfire on people, if they try to run for something that is not there yet, the House minority leader told POLITICO. McCarthy didnt speak specifically about Ferguson, currently the GOP deputy whip, but took a subtle jab when asked about the only whip contender actively seeking backers: I think what people want to see is people who are doing their job.

Vying privately for a leadership role before a midterm election amounts to the trickiest of tightrope walks in Congress. Members of both parties often do try to make early noise about leadership bids in private, but the appearance of premature campaigning if too overt risks attracting scrutiny or even blowback from colleagues.

Look, Im a former whip. And that job opened up after we won the election, McCarthy recalled. And I think one of the reasons why I was able to win the job as whip, only in my third term, was because we focused on winning the majority. And I think that is a greater attribute that people would look at.

Scalise offered a different view, citing various members who are already having conversations with people about what they would go for if Republicans win the majority this fall, as polling and historical trends indicate is highly likely. The Louisianan summed up his view as all about priorities: Winning the majority has to be the top of the list.

Among the Republicans already laying the groundwork for a whip bid, Rep. Drew Ferguson of Georgia is the only one openly seeking backers.|Alex Wong/Getty Images

When asked about Ferguson, Scalise cited his allys fundraising and travel on behalf of House Republicans before adding that the people that are putting in the work to help us win the majority are what our members are most concerned about. Drews been one of those leaders helping work hard to get us in the majority so that we can then worry about whos going to have which titles.

Scalise declined to say whether hes supporting Ferguson for whip in the next Congress, noting that hes going to wait until after the election to make a determination. But many House Republicans have read a series of recent developments as Scalise all but publicly throwing his support behind his chief deputy for the role.

Those moves include Ferguson hiring on two key staffers from Scalises office, which coincided with the Georgian taking over sending vote wrap-up emails to the conference that Scalises office previously handled. POLITICO first reported that Ferguson was the only candidate in the race asking colleagues for their support, including hosting dinners where he has laid out his vision for the role.

Ferguson, for his part, echoed Scalise that the conferences key focus is winning the majority.

Were going to stay focused on putting candidates and members in the best possible position to win so that we can have the largest majority possible going into the next session, said Ferguson. That is the prize that were fighting for. And we dont take our eyes off the prize.

Meanwhile, some House GOP hands recall that McCarthy and Scalise both followed a similar playbook to Fergusons. One former senior leadership aide, speaking candidly on condition of anonymity, said the current GOP leader and whip both positioned themselves before Election Day while running for whip.

There is precedent for what Drew is doing, the aide added.

But behind the scenes, Ferguson already has formidable potential competition.

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), chair of the Republican Study Committee, is having exploratory conversations with members about the potential of jumping into the race. Asked if he is running for the whip role, Banks replied: Right now, we ought to be focused on winning back the majority and Ill be looking at where I fit in.

National Republican Committee Chair Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) is also viewed as a likely candidate for whip after a GOP takeover, even though he has not started to have such conversations. Doing so would break from the core message the House GOPs campaign chief sent to members: that their attention should stay on winning in November.

And Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the current conference chair, could still pursue the whips spot, though its unclear whether she has redirected her future ambitions to another senior position. Despite some colleagues previously seeing signs of her gearing up for a run for the No. 3 role, the Washington Examiner has reported that shes preparing to step back from a whip run.

Other Republicans now forecast a return to her earlier interest in the Education and Labor Committee chairmanship, which would keep Stefaniks options open if a top contender stumbles after the midterms in other higher-ranked leadership races.

Stefaniks office has repeatedly dismissed questions about her future ambitions, saying she is solely focused on her role as the House GOP messaging chief.

Broadly speaking, the dynamics of the whip race changed significantly after Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) announced earlier this year that he plans not to seek the role in the next Congress, choosing to instead remain on the Financial Services Committee. And despite McCarthys views on early campaigning, Ferguson and potentially Banks will be able to spend months building support in the leadup to the election while Emmer will be hamstrung by November.

But if the two-term NRCC chair can take credit for a sizable majority heading into the new Congress, he could earn a heap of member goodwill and cash in with a run.

That would mark a turnabout from 2010, when then-NRCC chair Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) was interested in becoming whip after leading Republicans back into the majority but ended up losing to McCarthy who had started campaigning earlier.

Sessions said he recalled McCarthy asking members for support, an easier feat for the Californian since, unlike Sessions, he wasnt hamstrung by a different leadership position at the time.

I needed to keep my focus instead of asking people, which puts them in a difficult position. So I chose to wait, Sessions recalled.

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McCarthy issues warning to Republicans openly vying for whip - POLITICO

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FIRST ON FOX: For Republican congressmen targeted in the 2017 mass shooting at a congressional baseball practice, the revelation that a man was arrested and charged with attempting to murder Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has sparked fears that the charged political climate could lead to more assassination attempts.

James T. Hodgkinson, a far-left former volunteer on Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign, opened fire on a group of Republican lawmakers in June 2017 as they practiced for the annual Congressional Baseball Game. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., was shot and critically injured during the attack, requiring surgeries to save his life.

Fresh off a flight from California, police arrested 26-year-old California man Nicholas Roske in the early hours Wednesday after he took a cab to Kavanaugh's Maryland house with a gun in order to kill the justice, authorities said.

For Republicans who survived the baseball shooting, the alleged attempt to kill Kavanaugh, and the surrounding political climate bring back memories and fears of the 2017 attack.

ACTIVISTS VOW TO CONTINUE PROTESTING AT JUSTICES HOUSES, DESPITE ALLEGED ATTEMPT TO KILL KAVANAUGH AT HOME

Rep. Steve Scalise delivers remarks during a Republican-led forum on the origins of the COVID-19 virus at the Capitol on June 29, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

"For weeks, Democrat leaders from President Bidens White House to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer encouraged dangerous protests against Supreme Court justices, including at their homes, to illegally threaten and intimidate them in an attempt to change the outcome of a court decision," Scalise told Fox News Digital.

"How many more times do we need to see political violence motivated by threatening rhetoric before Democrats stop encouraging and condoning this kind of dangerous behavior?" the Republican whip continued.

"Rather than investigating parents at school board meetings as domestic terrorists, President Bidens Justice Department should look into the actual dangerous violence coming from the radical left that continues to put the lives of people in danger for their political views," he added.

MEDIA, DEMOCRATIC RHETORIC TOWARD KAVANAUGH, SUPREME COURT UNDER SCRUTINY AFTER ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

Sen. Rand Paul speaks at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on July 20, 2021. (Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican who was also present at the 2017 shooting, said the protesters who gather outside of Supreme Court justices houses "should be arrested."

"As a victim of politically motivated violence, Ive continually spoken out against threats made against our Supreme Court justices and elected officials something the Biden administration cant even condemn, let alone acknowledge," Paul said. "Those who are threatening these justices and disrupting neighborhoods during the dead of night should be arrested."

Texas Rep. Roger Williams, who was also present at the baseball field that day, told Fox News Digital that every "American should be outraged by this deranged individual attempting to murder a sitting Supreme Court justice."

"His arrest brought flashbacks to that horrific day in 2017 when the Republican baseball team was gunned down by an angry Bernie Sanders supporter," Williams said. "From someone that experienced this sort of political violence firsthand, these incidents have demonstrated what can happen if we keep treating our political opponents as enemies."

Williams said he is "deeply concerned that these types of motivated attacks will continue to happen with Senate Majority Leader Schumer telling his supporters that Justice Kavanaugh will pay the price if he simply does his job, or with Maxine Waters encouraging people to get more confrontational with people that they disagree with politically."

"Instead of acting swiftly, Nancy Pelosi just adjourned the House for the weekend without providing additional security for sitting Supreme Court justices," he continued. "I will continue to pray for the country and we must do all that we can to ensure political differences do not lead to violence against our government officials."

Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital on Thursday that there is always a "component" of American society that believes trying to kill political opposition and take other violent political action "is the right thing to do."

"But I am concerned about what is just going on with the nature of violent acts and especially murderous acts that we're seeing," Wenstrup said, adding that "there is something changing in our society and not for the better."

"And if we aren't honest with ourselves and we don't start looking at what is different and why these types of things are taking place, then I don't think we're going to solve anything," the Ohio Republican continued. "We're not going to solve anything with these laws."

Wenstrup said he believes there are multiple factors affecting the root of the problem and hopes American "law enforcement is out in front and trying to off any potential threats before they happen."

Capitol Police Special Agents Crystal Griner and David Bailey assist U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise to his position at second base at the start of the 57th Congressional Baseball Game at National's Park in Washington, Thursday, June 14, 2018, a year after he was wounded in an assassination attempt. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

The Ohio Republican also said lawmakers who were on the field that fateful June day five years ago do not hold Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., responsible for the actions of his supporter, saying the shooter as well as the people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 are "responsible for their own actions."

Wenstrup also took to the House floor to say that only "by the grace of God were 20 or more of my Republican colleagues and our staff not killed by a crazed terrorist wielding a gun on that baseball field in Alexandria" and that the situation "is not a theoretical exercise for many of us on this side of the aisle."

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"When I reflect on that day, it was not about the weapon. It is about the person the evil on the other side of the weapon," Wenstrup said. "If good men and women with guns, agents David Bailey and Crystal Griner, had not been present, that terrorist would easily have assassinated 20 to 30 members of Congress and staff, myself included."

"Until America is willing to take a long hard look inside ourselves and heal what truly ails us, I fear we are simply doomed to repeat more of the past," he added.

Houston Keene is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to Houston.Keene@Fox.com and on Twitter: @HoustonKeene

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After alleged plot to kill Kavanaugh, Republicans targeted in 2017 shooting fear more assassination attempts - Fox News

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A number of Democrats and Republicans have resoundingly dismissed the idea that Jan. 6 investigation and hearings will have a significant impact the midterm elections.

In exclusive interviews with Fox News Digital, multiple Democratic strategists, as well as Democratic and Republican members of Congress, expelled the notion that voters on either end of the political spectrum might be more motivated to vote as a result of the Jan. 6 Committee's actions, and instead pointed to "much bigger" issues, such as the economy, which they say will be a larger factor come November.

"The January 6th commission is very important for history and protecting our democracy, but we can't ignore the bread and butter economic issues," Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said. "What will win Democrats votes is an economic vision of revitalization and job creation."

The Jan. 6 Committee, made up of 7 Democrats and 2 Republicans, including Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., held its first public hearing late Thursday evening as part of its investigation into what led to the Jan. 6 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna speaks at a climate rally with presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Rashida Tlaib in Iowa City, Iowa, U.S. January 12, 2020. (REUTERS/Scott Morgan.)

TUCKER CARLSON: THE TRUTH OF WHAT HAPPENED ON JAN. 6 IS STILL UNKNOWN

The hearing is expected to be just one of several televised hearings from the committee, with the next already announced for Monday and Wednesday next week, that they're expected to use in an attempt to capture Americans' attention before the midterms.

Khanna's sentiment was echoed by Democratic strategist and Fox News contributor Jessica Tarlov.

"I don't think that it's going to have that much of an impact on the midterms considering how important inflation, gas prices, and the economy are," she said when asked how she thought the ongoing hearings by the Jan. 6 Committee could affect voters' decisions at the ballot box.

"It's the economy, stupid. Carville's always right," she added, referencing a phrase coined in 1992 by veteran Democratic strategist James Carville.

Democratic strategist and Fox News contributor Jessica Tarlov. (Fox News)

REP. BANKS SAYS JAN. 6 HEARING WAS PRIMETIME DUD: THEY WANT TO THROW DONALD TRUMP IN JAIL

"January 6th is not going to be number one on the hit parade," Democratic strategist and Fox News contributor Leslie Marshall said. "I don't think it's going to affect voters."

She added that "much bigger" issues for voters would be the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court, and the debate revolving around guns following the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas last month that killed 19 students and two teachers.

Both Marshall and Tarlov predicted it was "very likely" Republicans would win control of the House of Representatives in November, but split on what that meant for the committee's investigation itself.

Tarlov expressed confidence the committee would have its work complete by November, but Marshall suggested the investigation, if not yet complete, "wouldn't continue" once the House came under Republican control.

Leslie Marshall, Democrat strategist and Fox News contributor (Fox News)

LIZ CHENEY SAYS TRUMP HAS CAUSED PERSONALITY CULT AMONG REPUBLICANS

Despite the gloomy outlook for Democrats' election chances, they each praised the work the committee was doing in conducting the investigation.

"The responsibility of the committee is to show the American people what their findings are," Marshall said. "That's very important for the American people to know the lengths that people went to try and overthrow a free and fair election."

"I think the American people need to have the knowledge whether they vote or not, and they should vote," she added.

Tarlov said the committee "serves a purpose," and that Jan. 6 itself was "a stark reminder of where the Republican Party is today."

"It's not going to be what's getting people to the polls," she added, noting, like Marshall, that Roe v. Wade and guns were "going to be bigger motivators" than the Jan. 6 hearings.

Rep. Mo Brooks speaks to supporters at his watch party for the Republican nomination for U.S. senator of Alabama at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens, Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in Huntsville, Ala. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)

TRUMP-TARGETED CHENEY TOUTS CONSERVATIVE CREDENTIALS IN FIRST TV AD THIS YEAR IN RE-ELECTION BID

Republicans agreed that other issues, particularly the economy, would take center-stage in November, but took a more negative view of the committee itself.

"The socialist Democrats are going to use the witch hunt propaganda committee as best they can to help them and hurt Republicans in the November elections, but I do not believe they'll be successful," said Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., who spoke at Trump's rally outside the White House on Jan. 6.

Brooks, who is running to fill retiring Sen. Richard Shelby's, R-Ala., Senate seat and has not yet complied with a subpoena to appear before the committee, argued that the committee's work amounted to "a propaganda effort," and was "akin to the Russian collusion hoax."

Agreeing with Tarlov and Marshall, Brooks predicted voters care more about high gas prices, inflation, and the potential for a recession than they do about Jan. 6.

Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., argued that Washington, D.C.'s focus on Jan. 6, rather than issues affecting Americans in their everyday lives, could actually drive voters towards Republicans.

"If you're anybody last night, you're coming home from work, you just put a Benjamin in your gas tank, you're spending $300 to $400 more dollars a week on groceries, and you flip on your TV and Washington, D.C. isn't working on fixing those problems," he said. "They're doing a paid political advertisement on ABC and CBS That's literally all it was."

Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., conducts a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center on the eviction of Congressional offices from Veterans Affairs Department facilities on Friday, September 20, 2019. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

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Mast described the committee as "a distraction, a misdirection, and a sleight of hand," before predicting Republicans would win the midterms and stop the "inherently unjust process" of the committee.

"When in Washington do we ever do a hearing at 8:00 p.m.?" he said, mocking what appeared to be the committee's intentional attempt to have their hearing aired on primetime television.

"Americans look at this and say, What are you doing Washington? I'm having to alter what I eat for dinner. I'm having to alter my driving habits. Because of the way this administration broke America and broke my bank account. The result of this is you're not paying attention to what's affecting my life. I'm voting for Republicans,'" he added.

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Brandon Gillespie is an associate editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @brandon_cg.

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Republicans, Democrats dismiss impact Jan. 6 could have on midterms: 'It's the economy stupid' - Fox News

WASHINGTON, D.C. Members of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol on Thursday called the riot an attempted coup by former President Donald Trump and said he devised a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the 2020 election and stop the peaceful transfer of power by spreading lies about election fraud.

Jan. 6th and the lies that led to insurrection have put two-and-a-half centuries of constitutional democracy at risk, said committee chair Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, who likened the insurrectionists defenders to apologists for slavery, lynching and the Ku Klux Klan. The world is watching what we do here.

Committee members outlined the sequence of the hearings theyll conduct this month; showed videos of committee interviews with former Trump White House officials, such as former U.S. Attorney General William Barr; and played a lengthy video of Trump supporters attacking police and swarming the Capitol. The video was cut with statements from Trump at the rally that led to the riot. It juxtaposed footage of rampaging rioters with statements Trump made about how peaceful and unbelievable the crowd was.

The love in the air, Ive never seen anything like it, said Trump.

Members of the committee indicated that some GOP Congress members were key to Trumps efforts to overturn the election, but named just one at the hearing: Pennsylvanias Scott Perry. The committee has subpoenaed testimony from Perry and several of his colleagues, including Ohios Jim Jordan. Jordan, of Champaign County, calls the probe a witch hunt intended to distract the country from problems Democrats have failed to solve, like inflation and rising gasoline prices.

Jordan sent Thompson a letter Thursday arguing their subpoena lacks a legitimate legislative purpose, and asserted it was issued for purposes of harassment, embarrassment, the self-aggrandizement of the Select Committee members, and to weaken my position in the future.

You seem to believe that you have the authority to arbitrate the scope of a colleagues official activities, Jordans letter says. Respectfully, I do not answer to you or the other members of the Select Committee. I am accountable to the voters of Ohios Fourth Congressional District who I have the privilege to represent in the House of Representatives.

The Select Committees hearing aimed to prove the Jan. 6 violence stemmed from Trumps words and deeds. Video they played at the hearing indicated Proud Boys members who breached the Capitol regarded a presidential debate statement by Trump that they should stand back and stand by as a call to arms. After Trump invited supporters to a big protest in D.C. on January 6th that he promised will be wild, they established a command structure in anticipation of occupying federal buildings. Another group called the Oathkeepers deposited arms in Virginia and set up quick-reaction forces so they could be on standby to support Trump.

Videos shown by the committee indicated Trump inflamed the rioters by making repeated rally statements that Vice President Mike Pence should reject the electoral college votes Congress was counting that day. They showed video of Proud Boys members reading aloud a Trump tweet issued during the riot that claimed Pence didnt have the courage to do what should have been done. Crowd members chanted Hang Mike Pence after reading Trumps message.

When the committee reconvenes next week, were going to examine the lies that convinced those men and others to storm the Capitol to prevent the transfer of power, Thompson said at the hearings conclusion. Were going to take a close look at the first part of Trumps attack on the rule of law, when he hit the fuse that ultimately resulted in the violence of Jan. 6.

The committees Republican vice chair, Wyomings Liz Cheney, said the next hearing will show how Trump and his advisers knew he lost the election yet engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information to convince huge portions of the U.S. population that fraud had stolen the election from him. Cheney showed video of Trumps former attorney general, William Barr, telling the committee he repeatedly told Trump he saw no evidence of fraud that would have affected the elections outcome.

Frankly, a year-and-a-half later, I havent seen anything to change my mind on that, Barr said.

Cheney said its third hearing will show how Trump corruptly planned to replace Barr so the Justice Department would spread his false stolen election claims. She said that in the days before Jan. 6, Trump told his top Justice Department officials, Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican Congressmen. She said several congressmen involved in Trumps effort to overturn the election, including Perry, sought presidential pardons from Trump.

A Jordan spokesman said his boss did not seek a pardon because he did nothing wrong.

Cheney said the committees fourth hearing will focus on Trumps efforts to pressure Pence and Pences insistence he had no right to overturn the election. Its fifth hearing will focus on Trumps efforts to pressure state legislators and election officials into changing results, said Cheney, and its last two June hearings will show how President Trump summoned a violent mob and directed them, illegally, to march on the U.S. Capitol. While the violence was underway, President Trump failed to take immediate action to stop the violence and instruct his supporters to leave the Capitol.

Although certain former Trump officials have argued that they did not anticipate violence on Jan. 6th, the evidence suggests otherwise, Cheney said. The White House was receiving specific reports in the days leading up to Jan. 6th, including during President Trumps Ellipse rally, indicating that elements in the crowd were preparing for violence at the Capitol.

Read more:

Jim Jordan unloads on Jan. 6 committee on the day it starts hearings, questions legitimacy of its subpoena to Jordan

Jan. 6 committee starts public hearings, with U.S. Rep. Jim Jordans role to be discussed

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Trump attempted a coup with help from Republican allies, January 6th committee members say in prime-time hear - cleveland.com