Category Archives: Republican

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Jason Crow: We're encountering a domestic extremist movement that wants to use violence09:11

Fmr. Chief of Homeland Security & Intel for DC: Were not looking at the threat in front of us07:41

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Rep. Neguse: Trump has a stranglehold on the Republican Party03:24

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Rep. Pete Aguilar says Jan. 6 committee will clearly articulate case to public10:51

Biden admin. steps up efforts to prevent another Jan. 606:17

Rep. Jamie Raskin: This is a country thats wounded10:42

Kara Swisher: Social media 'is not a public utility'06:38

Neal Katyal: Were all hoping from reassurance from AG Garland on Jan. 607:19

Extremist groups go local in the year since the Capitol riot09:08

Trump endorses right-wing autocrat in Hungary08:15

NYC schools reopen with new "test to stay" strategy03:59

Rep. Bowman calls for a National Day of Healing on Jan. 610:47

Claire McCaskill: Trumps staff know how much he was enjoying the violence06:27

Neil deGrasse Tyson: Science needs better marketing07:23

Trauma felt by Capitol Police officers doesnt illicit any shame in GOP06:41

Dr. Kavita Patel: How can we continue to put young children at risk?07:06

Maxwell faces up to 40 years in prison for sex trafficking minors06:28

Another day, another coup plot revealed this time by Peter Navarro07:21

Marc Elias on Harry Reid: He was a street fighter for a cause03:17

'Enormous victory': Joyce Vance breaks down Ghislaine Maxwell's conviction07:18

Congressman Joe Neguse (D-CO) reflects on January 6th one year later, and how the Republican Party still poses a danger to democracyJan. 6, 2022

Jason Crow: We're encountering a domestic extremist movement that wants to use violence09:11

Fmr. Chief of Homeland Security & Intel for DC: Were not looking at the threat in front of us07:41

Now Playing

Rep. Neguse: Trump has a stranglehold on the Republican Party03:24

UP NEXT

Rep. Pete Aguilar says Jan. 6 committee will clearly articulate case to public10:51

Biden admin. steps up efforts to prevent another Jan. 606:17

Rep. Jamie Raskin: This is a country thats wounded10:42

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Rep. Neguse: Trump has a stranglehold on the Republican Party - MSNBC

The 2020 election was in the words of former President Trump's own department of homeland security "the most secure in American history."

But ahead of that vote, nearly 60% of all Americans said they lacked confidence in the honesty of U.S. elections, according to a Gallup poll from earlier that year.

One year later, two-thirds of all Americans believe U.S. democracy is threatened, according to a CBS News poll. That crisis of trust is bigger than just one party both Republican and Democratic voters have expressed doubt in the system.

As people stormed the Capitol last year, Sharon Story and her husband Victor didn't follow the crowd inside.

The grandmother of 10, who had driven all the way from Gaffney, South Carolina, to be there, firmly believes that the American democracy she used to teach about in her sixth grade classroom is on the edge of collapse.

"I think if they push people too far against the wall, especially the Southerners, they're not gonna take it," Story said when asked if she thought a civil war was possible in her lifetime.

And it's not just Story who worries that. University of California at San Diego political science professor Barbara F. Walter says in her book "How Civil Wars Start," when it comes to actual fighting, "we are closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe."

Story is also "not at all" confident that the 2020 election was the most secure in American history.

That feeling of fraud if only a feeling is what led so many to Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, to, in their minds, defend democracy.

The atmosphere at the Capitol riot was "patriotic, unity, hope," Story said.

"I feel upset," Story said, when asked how she reacts to others describing January 6 as a riot or an insurrection.

Her belief that the election was stolen is shared by millions, and it doesn't seem like anything or anybody can restore their faith.

"Not even Republicans," Story said of who she trusts. "Even Fox News, who we used to have respect for, you know, seems to let us down and called the election early."

What's particularly dangerous about this moment, though, according to Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt in their book "How Democracies Die" is that these feelings of mistrust exist across party lines, albeit for very different reasons.

Alesha Sedasey, recalling how she felt watching Bernie Sanders lose to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary, said, "That was when I lost a good amount of my faith in the system.

Sedasey is a bartender in Brooklyn, New York, who believes the will of the voters was thwarted in 2016 by superdelegates in the primary and again by the Electoral College in the general election.

"I don't think that any part of the election had democracy fulfilled," Sedasey said. "I mean, Trump didn't get the majority of votes, so how is that democracy, right?"

While Sedasey's doubts in the system are different from those expressed at the Capitol last year, the effect is very much the same.

"It's hard to trust Congress," Sedasey said.

Despite their differences, both Sedasey and Story see themselves as defenders of the same underlying principles they both see themselves as patriots.

"I think that I am a patriot because I'm fighting for what our constitutional rights are supposed to be and what this country says it is," Sedasey said.

And both say they'll continue to vote and even organize for their side.

"I still participate in it because I have faith that there is the possibility for change," Sedasey said.

"I vote, because I always vote, but I don't know that I'll trust 'em," Story said.

So, regardless of who wins in 2024, many voters maybe even most could once again doubt the results, raising the question of how our republic can withstand such a crisis.

"I'm very concerned," Story said. "I think we're at a pivotal point. I think that good people can't stand by and do nothing anymore."

When asked if the U.S. would be able to keep its record as the longest continuously operating democracy, Sedasey replied, "All empires fall."

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Democratic and Republican voters share a mistrust in the electoral process - CBS News

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A year after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, one Texas Republican congressman is facing a spirited primary fueled by anger from his right over his vote to investigate the insurrection.

U.S. Rep. Van Taylor, R-Plano, has attracted a group of March primary challengers who are running on his support for a bipartisan independent commission to probe that deadly day, when supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in protest of his reelection loss.

Taylor was one of two Texas Republicans who voted for the commission, though the other, Rep. Tony Gonzales of San Antonio, has not drawn as crowded of a primary. The proposed commission never made it through the Senate, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., later formed a select committee to investigate the Capitol attack.

Taylor voted against that committee and says it was exactly the scenario he was trying to prevent by supporting the independent commission handing the probe over to Pelosi but his opponents are unswayed. They argue the commission still would have enabled Democrats to hound Republicans for months and politically damage them in the midterms.

Taylors vote for the commission is a huge issue, said one of the challengers, former Collin County Judge Keith Self. It is the red line for many people in their vote against Van Taylor.

The contested primary is something of a political whiplash for Taylor, a former state lawmaker with a staunchly conservative record who got to Congress in 2018 and became a target of national Democrats in 2020. He won comfortably, airing TV ads that touted himself as Mr. Bipartisan, and now finds himself in a district that was redrawn this fall to be redder and more fertile territory for primary opposition.

Zach Barrett, president of the Collin County Conservative Republicans, said it remains to be seen whether the commission vote alone is enough to sink Taylor. The local GOP group plans to endorse in the primary but has not made a decision yet.

For us in the little bubble of grassroots, [the commission vote] is a big thing, but I dont know in the grand scheme of things, when it comes to the average even Republican voter how much it matters, said Barrett. Hes voting right when it comes to the policies for the most part but he does piss people off with the Jan. 6 commission.

The insurrection on Jan. 6 came as lawmakers in the Capitol were meeting to certify the 2020 presidential election results. It followed weeks of Trump and other high-profile Republicans using false or misleading information to cast doubt on whether Joe Biden was the legitimate winner, even though there is no evidence of fraud on the level that would have affected the result. Trump supporters stormed the Capitol doors, damaging property and forcing lawmakers from both parties to take cover. Five people were killed in the melee. Hundreds have been criminally charged.

Since then, many conservative politicians have sought to downplay it. Just 35 House Republicans voted in favor of the commission. Two of them, U.S. Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, now serve on a select committee looking into the events and have faced severe backlash from members of their own party and the former president himself.

Taylors opponents have also largely sought to downplay the Jan. 6 attack, arguing it was not as dangerous as Democrats and the media have portrayed it to be.

If that was an insurrection, we dont know how to throw insurrections anymore, Self said in a tongue-in-cheek comment.

Taylor was among only five Texas Republicans who voted that day to accept the 2020 election results, saying it would have set a dangerous precedent. He said the events of the day will haunt our nation for years to come and that the attack was destructive to the democracy I fought to defend as a Marine.

Still, he later joined most House Republicans in opposing Trumps impeachment over his role in inciting the riot.

In addition to Self, Taylors primary foes include Suzanne Harp, a Dallas businesswoman whose son is chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C. Two lesser-known Republicans, Rickey Williams and Jeremy Ivanovskis, are also running against Taylor.

Selfs campaign website says Taylor went Washington by supporting the commission. Harp launched her campaign saying Taylor abandoned Trump with the vote. And Williams lists the vote as a top issue to can Van.

Self was endorsed last month by a daughter of Taylors predecessor in the seat, the late Sam Johnson, who said her dads seat has been compromised.

Taylor is still the favorite in the primary for the 3rd Congressional District, which covers fast-growing Collin County in suburban Dallas. He ended 2021 with over $1.2 million cash on hand, according to his campaign his opponents have not had to disclose their fundraising yet and he has assembled a list of conservative endorsements topped by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

While Trump has sought revenge against some Republicans who have criticized him over Jan. 6, he has stayed out of Taylors primary so far. Among Taylors endorsements is one of Trumps staunchest allies in the House, Rep. Ronny Jackson of Amarillo, the presidents former doctor.

Regardless, no other race in Texas this year seems to more reflect the debate within the GOP over the fallout from Jan. 6.

Harp said a bigger issue is the treatment of those who have been arrested in connection with the riot, which includes a number of North Texans.

What hits us all at the end of the day is that we really care about due process, she said. Its not really a Democratic or Republican thing.

Neither appears particularly concerned with investigating the attack. Asked how Congress should have responded to Jan. 6 if not with the commission that Taylor supported, Harp countered that Congress should have been more responsive to the summer of love, a derisive reference to the racial justice protests in 2020 that turned violent in some cases.

The commission that Taylor voted for would have been equally split between five Democrats and five Republicans. He cited that in explaining his vote at the time, saying he wanted to make sure Republicans would have a seat at the table and that they would not cede the probe to Democrats.

Taylor memorably defended the vote in an interview with Mark Davis, a prominent conservative radio host in Dallas, who expressed skepticism of Taylors reasoning throughout.

Everybody that voted for you is pissed off at you today, Van, Davis said, telling Taylor that he loves him but that it was a bad, bad vote.

While the commission was never created, Pelosis select committee has been up and running since July and making plenty of headlines as it scrutinizes how much of a role Trump and his allies played in the Capitol attack. Taylor opposed the creation of the committee, which he emphasized in a statement for this story.

The continued partisan attacks and unprecedented power grabs from Speaker Pelosi underscore why I voted against her January 6 select committee every time it came up for a vote, Taylor said. In fact, I supported the independent commission, which died in the Senate and was never formed, because it would have been structured with equal Republicans and Democrats so Republicans could block Nancy Pelosi from politicizing the commission in the same way she is doing now.

Self said the distinction between the commission that Taylor supported and the committee that is currently working does not occur to voters. In any case, he said, Taylor was naive because once Nancy Pelosi got a hold of that commission, she was going to and they are going to harass Republicans until November this year.

Whether the commission vote alone is enough to sink Taylor remains to be seen. His primary challengers are also attacking him on other fronts, including being one of five Texas Republicans to vote to remove all Confederate statues from public display at the U.S. Capitol.

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US Rep. Van Taylor faces heat over Jan. 6 investigation vote - The Texas Tribune

Supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. It was an effort to stop the procedural certification of a presidential election that Joe Biden won and Trump lost. The mob was egged on by conspiracies and Trump's lies about that 2020 election.

Those are facts. One year later, and a day after the commemoration on Capitol Hill of that attack, those facts should be indisputable.

And yet millions on the right do dispute them. They've been convinced by Trump, reinforced by right-wing media and enabled by Republican elected officials that his meritless lies about a stolen election are somehow true.

They are not. The independent judiciary, with many judges who were appointed by Republicans and Trump himself, as well as audits in state after state, have rejected Trump's false claims.

How did this happen? A couple of reasons:

The media landscape is fractured. Confirmation bias is real if people believe something, there's likely a link on social media that shows them why they're right (even when they aren't).

There's fertile ground for that landscape, as trust in the media has declined over the last few decades. It hit 32% just before the 2016 election, the lowest ever recorded by Gallup. (As of 2021, it was a similar 36%.)

The decline in mass media coincides with the advent of Fox News, the conservative cable channel. Fox was created in 1996, about when Gallup found a majority of Americans said they had trust in the media.

Now, there are even more and even more extreme voices and outlets on the right, rife with misinformation and disinformation, that are gaining traction.

An NPR/Ipsos poll released this week showed that a majority 54% whose primary source of news is Fox News or conservative media believe falsely that there was major voting fraud in the 2020 election.

When Trump first took office and was still allowed on Twitter, he would write lots of controversial things.

When Republicans in Congress were asked about them, the answer routinely was along the lines of, "I didn't read the tweet."

It became something of a joke. Actually, Paul Ryan, the GOP former House speaker, made the joke himself.

"Every morning, I wake up in my office and scroll Twitter to see which tweets I will have to pretend that I didn't see later," Ryan said in October 2017 at the annual Al Smith Dinner, which includes a political roast.

Six months later, Ryan announced he would not run for reelection.

Ryan and plenty of other Republicans had, during the 2016 presidential campaign, criticized Trump's views and behavior. But when he won, almost all GOP officials swallowed their criticism.

As Trump went largely unchallenged from his party, he demanded fealty from Republicans, they gave it to him, and his hold on the base grew.

So the path was paved early for Trump's lies as outlandish and baseless as they are to speed down the road to rank-and-file Republicans.

A similar trend has emerged this past year, since Jan. 6, as Republicans have largely avoided criticizing Trump's role and response to the insurrection.

"In many ways, except for a number of people who've emerged as true leaders, like [Rep.] Liz Cheney, [R-Wyo.], against their party interest, a lot of this is ink-blot politics," said Kevin Madden, a GOP strategist and former senior adviser on Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. "You see what you want to see on Jan. 6 based on your already-defined political persuasion."

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy didn't mince words in his criticism of Trump days after the Jan. 6 insurrection.

"The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters," McCarthy said plainly a week after the siege. He had even called Trump on the day of the riot telling him to call off the insurrection.

But instead of keeping up the criticism and casting Trump aside, less than two weeks later, McCarthy flew down to Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida residence, and made amends. He released a statement and now-famous photo of the two of them, apparently having reconciled.

McCarthy wants to be the next House speaker and Republicans are favored to take back the House after the 2022 midterm elections.

In May, McCarthy came out against a bipartisan, 9/11-style commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack. This week, in a letter to his GOP conference, McCarthy derided the "actions of that day," and said the "Capitol should never be compromised and those who broke the law deserve to face legal repercussions and full accountability."

But there was no mention of Trump and his responsibility. Instead, McCarthy accused Democrats of using Jan. 6 as a "partisan political weapon to further divide our country," and pivoted to criticizing Democrats for being "no closer to answering the central question of how the Capitol was left so unprepared and what must be done to ensure it never happens again."

McCarthy is just one example. Two weeks after the Jan. 6 attack, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell went right after Trump.

And though McConnell in some instances has kept up his criticism of Trump, drawing attacks from the former president, McConnell's statement Thursday on the Jan. 6 anniversary mentioned nothing about Trump. Instead, he called Jan. 6 a "dark day," a "disgraceful scene" and also criticized Democrats.

"[I]t has been stunning to see some Washington Democrats try to exploit this anniversary to advance partisan policy goals," he said.

For Madden, Trump has this hold on the party base because Republican leaders aren't challenging him en masse.

"I think it's because he's directly communicating with the base and is really the only one," Madden said. "Everyone else is reacting to the Trump factor. ... Every force like Trump, where you to try and counter it, you'd have to do so relentlessly. Name one person who's done that."

Madden rattled off Republicans who might want to run for president in 2024, people like former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.

"No one's taken him on directly," Madden said. "They've all been reactionary, and they've all ceded the rostrum to him."

Now, multiple surveys show Americans are sharply divided by party about what happened on Jan. 6.

For example, a December NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found 9-in-10 Democrats described what happened that day as an insurrection and threat to democracy. Just 10% of Republicans did.

A recent YouGov survey conducted for Bright Line Watch showed only a quarter of Republicans said they believe Biden is the rightful winner of the 2020 election.

During the events commemorating the attack on the Capitol, barely any Republicans showed up. The only ones were Cheney and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.

"I'm deeply disappointed we don't have better leadership in the Republican Party to restore the Constitution," the elder Cheney said.

Let's just pause for a moment. That's Dick Cheney saying this.

On Thursday night, members of Congress gathered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol for a candlelight vigil to remember what happened a year ago.

But it was missing all those Republicans.

Imagine if all 535 members of Congress had been there and the message it would have sent about democracy's resilience.

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The immovable Republican Party and 'ink-blot politics' - Capital Public Radio News

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the January 6 Capitol insurrection, and The Views hosts took some time during todays episode to reflect upon the uncertain future of the Republican Party, and American democracy as a whole.

Sunny Hostin admitted that she doesnt feel that the figures responsible for the Capitol attacks have been held accountable, from Steve Bannon and Mark Meadows defying subpoenas to Attorney General Merrick Garland not criminally charging former President Donald Trump.

The Republican Party is supposed to be the party of law and order, she said. What happened to that? I am really just afraid that Jan. 6 was a test run, which we see all the time in other countries. A test run that may happen again.

As Hostin pointed out, prosecuting cases isnt just about accountability, either.

Its also about sending a message to the community about what will and will not be tolerated in a society, she added. What better message to send not only to our country, but to the world, that trying to attempt a coup is unacceptable in what many have called the greatest democracy in the world?

Guest host Ana Navarro applauded the speech that President Joe Biden gave today, in which he condemned the Capitol rioters and slammed Trump (who he referred to simply as the former president) for the role that his web of lies played in the event.

We cant stop talking about the truth, and about what happened, and erase history because part of America doesnt agree, or doesnt want to see what they saw with their own eyes, she said. I hope this is a day which lives in infamy for the rest of American history.

The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.

Where to watch The View

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'The View' Agonizes Over Republican Party on One Year Anniversary of Capitol Attacks - Decider

The New Hampshire state House has given final approval to new congressional district lines that would virtually ensure a Republican and a Democrat each win one of the Granite States two seats in Congress over the next decade.

In a near party-line vote, the state House approved new boundary lines that substantially redraw the current districts. The existing districts, both of which have been competitive over the past decade, are carved up into new versions that give both parties a strong chance of carrying one district each.

A single House Republican voted against the GOP-drawn maps. They now go to the state Senate, where Republicans also hold a majority. Gov. Chris SununuChris SununuNew Hampshire Republicans advance map with substantially redrawn districts New Hampshire secretary of state, guardian of primary, to retire The 10 races that will decide the Senate majority MORE (R) would likely sign the maps if they win final approval in their present form.

For nearly a century and a half, New Hampshires congressional lines have divided the state into a western and northern district, anchored in Concord and Nashua and stretching to the border with Canada, and an eastern district based in Manchester and the Seacoast. The two districts were initially drawn that way to divide Nashua and Manchester, the states two largest cities and the twin hubs of Catholic voters to deny Catholic voters the right to elect a member to Congress.

In more recent years, Democrats have won nine of the last 10 elections in those two seats, though Republicans won 16 of the 20 elections held under largely similar district lines in the 1990s and 2000s. Former President TrumpDonald TrumpJan. 6 brings Democrats, Cheneys together with GOP mostly absent ProPublica reporter says movement to target government, political opponents had been rising prior to Jan. 6 attack Briahna Joy Gray: Biden going to 'pay the piper' for inaction during midterms MORE carried the Manchester-based district in 2016, though President BidenJoe BidenBiden hopes for big jobs number on Friday Jan. 6 brings Democrats, Cheneys together with GOP mostly absent Equilibrium/Sustainability Climate, democracy emergenciesindivisible MORE won both the 1st and 2nd districts, by a 6-point and 8-point margin respectively, in 2020.

Republicans pointed to those election results as evidence that New Hampshires current district lines disadvantage their party.

While the minority of the committee speaks of fairness of the current districts, they have won 90 percent of the contests under the current map, state Rep. Ross Berry, the GOPs chief redistricting expert, said during debate on Wednesday.

The new maps advanced by the state House would move several more Democratic-heavy communities along New Hampshires eastern border with Maine, including coastal Portsmouth, Dover and Durham, from the Manchester-based district and include them in the Nashua-based seat.

The resulting district lines would likely solidify Rep. Annie Kusters (D) hold on the Nashua-based seat. Data from the nonpartisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project estimates Kusters district would give Democrats an average of 53 percent of the vote in a regular election.

The Manchester-based seat would become a more heavily Republican bastion, where Democrats would average 43.6 percent of the vote, according to Princetons data. That would jeopardize Rep. Chris PappasChristopher (Chris) Charles PappasNew Hampshire Republicans advance map with substantially redrawn districts Chris Pappas launches reelection bid in New Hampshire Top House Democratic group launches six-figure ad campaign to sell infrastructure package MORE (D), who won his seat in 2018. Pappas won reelection in 2020 over Matt Mowers, a former Trump administration official, by 5 percentage points.

Democrats cast the new district lines as a naked gerrymander, one that overturns decades of established practice and eliminates a chance at competitive elections that have been the hallmark of the swing state in recent years.

The pending question sets up districts in order to predetermine the outcome of the election, and therefore deny the voters of this state the opportunity to decide for themselves, state Rep. Marjorie Smith (D) said during the floor debate on Wednesday.

Mowers is one of a handful of Republicans who have already lined up to take on Pappas, who launched a reelection bid last month. He will compete with Gail Huff Brown, the former television news reporter and wife of former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), who served as Trumps ambassador to New Zealand. State Rep. Tim Baxter (R) is also running.

The new maps are one of the most significant departures from tradition that have taken place in this decades redistricting cycle, given New Hampshires long history of an east-west divide. The overwhelmingly white makeup of New Hampshires population likely limits the chances national Democrats would have to sue to undo the newly proposed lines in court.

The maps passed by the New Hampshire House today are clear partisan gerrymanders, said Liz Wester, deputy states director at the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a group run by former Attorney General Eric HolderEric Himpton HolderNew Hampshire Republicans advance map with substantially redrawn districts Michigan redistricting spat exposes competing interests in Democratic coalition Democrats decry gerrymandering unless they control the maps MORE. Instead of adhering to the will of the people, New Hampshire Republicans have decided to join the bandwagon with their partisan colleagues across the country to attempt a power grab by taking competitive districts off the map.

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New Hampshire Republicans advance map with substantially redrawn districts | TheHill - The Hill

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz believes there is a possibility that Republicans in the House of Representatives could try to impeach President Joe Biden after the 2022 midterm elections.

I do think theres a chance of that. Whether its justified or not the Democrats weaponized impeachment. They used it for partisan purposes to go after Trump because they disagreed with him, Cruz said on his podcast, referring to former President Donald Trump.

Cruz was asked about impeachment proceedings under the condition the GOP wins control of the House after the 2022 midterm elections. On several occasions in the interview, Cruz scolded Democrats for, in his view, using impeachment proceedings in recent years as a tool in the partisan war chest.

See also: Manchin says no negotiation happening on Build Back Better

Articles of impeachment have been passed by the House multiple times over the past 40 years, including twice against Trump and once against President Bill Clinton. Neither president was subsequently removed from office by the Senate.

Its worth noting that Cruz is not a member of the House, the chamber of Congress that would start impeachment proceedings. It isnt clear whether Cruzs thoughts have merit with potential members of the House, but impeachment requires a simple majority vote, which is 50% plus one more.

Now read: Biden, Harris to speak on anniversary of January 6 attack on U.S. Capitol

The comments come as a recent USA Today/Suffolk University Poll detailed that 51% of Americans are very worried about the future of Americas democracy in the wake of the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.

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Ted Cruz says there's a 'chance' a Republican House could try to impeach Biden - MarketWatch

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It looks like the rubber is going to meet the road in the Senate on voting rights sometime next week. And almost all of the attention has been directed toward Democratic senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, who are standing in the way of reforming the filibuster. But Id like to direct the spotlight toward five revolting, abject cowards on the other side of the aisle: to wit, Senators Richard Shelby, Richard Burr, Roy Blunt, Rob Portman, and Pat Toomey. All of them are Republicans. All of them have announced that they will not be running for re-election.

In July of 2006, the Senate reauthorized the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by a count of 98-0. Among those 98 votes were the votes of Senators Shelby, Burr, and Blunt. If all three of these people announced that they were voting to restore the protections that they voted for in 2006, then everybody could tell Sinema and Manchin to pound sand and pass the voting-rights bills currently before the Senate. But theres no indication that any of the five retirees plan to do anything else but stand in solidarity with their vote-suppressing brethren.

They have no excuse. None of them is likely to run again for anything, so there is no sanction that the former president* and his agitated base can drop on them. Presumably, after many years in the Senate, theyre all independently wealthy. Theres no financial incentive for them to vote the way they are likely to vote. They literally have nothing to loseexcept their spines, which they apparently put into cold storage in 2017 anyway. All one can conclude is that none of them really supported the VRA in the first place, but none of them wanted to stand out on the previous reauthorization roll calls, all of which were going to be lopsided, so voting against it would be conspicuous and embarrassing.

However, in 2013, in the case of Shelby County v. Holder, Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts declared the Day of Jubilee and led the gutting of the VRA. That gave everybody clearance to let their vote-suppressing freak flag fly, including, apparently, these five under-the-radar chickenshits. I mean, Portmans even supposed to be a moderate, as though that word has any meaning at all anymore. Manchin and Sinema are supposed to be moderates, too. God save us from all of them.

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Retiring Republican Senators Won't Back Voting Rights With Nothing to Lose - Esquire

WASHINGTON (AP) This time last year, the Republican Party was hitting bottom. Having already lost the presidency and House, the GOP would soon squander its Senate majority and watch with horror as thousands of Donald Trumps supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent attack last Jan. 6 that will be forever linked to the Republican presidents legacy.

What a difference 12 months make. Entering a pivotal election year, a resurgent GOP appears poised to reclaim one chamber, or even both chambers, of Congress and retain its lock on dozens of state legislatures and governors offices.

While victory is far from assured, the GOPs confidence is fueled by President Joe Bidens underwhelming poll numbers, a Democratic economic and social agenda thats , intensifying concerns about inflation, and deepening frustration with the pandemic, which is unleashing yet another wave of infections upon an exhausted nation.

Every state that Biden won by less than 10 is now a battleground state.

But at its most basic level, the Republican Partys optimism is born of the same political headwinds that have shaped U.S. politics for decades. The party that controls the White House Democrats, in this case has a tremendous disadvantage in the first election of a new presidency. Adding to that challenge, Democrats are struggling to prevent a far-reaching Republican campaign to make voting more difficult for core Democratic constituents while installing a slate of election officials allied with Trump.

From the archives (August 2021): House Democrats call on McCarthy to apologize for remark about hitting Pelosi

GOP leaders are brimming with confidence.

Were going to have a hell of a year, said Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who leads the national GOPs Senate campaign arm. Every state that Biden won by less than 10 is now a battleground state.

From the archives (January 2021): Kevin McCarthy becomes poster boy for Republicans walking back their recent Trump criticism

Lest there be any doubt, Republicans dominated the off-year elections this fall across Virginia, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, where Democrats in races from governor to county recorder of deeds were defeated or barely held on in regions that Biden had comfortably carried by more than 10 percentage points a year earlier. Perhaps most disturbing for Democrats, suburban voters and independents who fled Trumps Republican Party in recent years to some degree appeared to have shifted back without him on the ballot.

Democratic strategists privately concede that the party will be lucky to hold either congressional chamber in November, although the House may be in the most immediate peril.

They point to the surge of recent Democratic congressional retirements, dozens of Republican-controlled state legislatures that are actively reshaping House districts in the GOPs favor, a struggle to enact all of Bidens campaign promises, and a disengaged political base especially African Americans. Their priorities on policing and voting rights have gone unfulfilled in Democratic-controlled Washington, even after last years supposed national awakening on race.

Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said too many Americans believe the country is moving in the wrong direction. But he attributes the pessimism to lingering anxiety from a pandemic that will soon enter its third year.

With new COVID-19 medication coming onto the market and expanded vaccine access for children, he predicted the country would return to a sense of normalcy by the end of March.

We know that the economy is roaring is some aspects. But its about how you feel at this moment, Harrison said, noting that many people are still grappling with fear and anxiety. I believe in the midst of the first quarter, end of the first quarter, that feeling will start to shift.

Market Extra: The S&P 500 rang up 68 records in Bidens 1st year? Heres how stock-market returns stack up for the 46th president against others.

GOP challenges: While Republicans believe the dynamics work in their favor, they face their own formidable challenges. Democrats believe that GOP efforts to curb access to the ballot, combined with a Supreme Court decision expected next summer that could dramatically erode or dismantle abortion rights, could suddenly galvanize Democrats most loyal supporters.

But for the GOP, perhaps no challenge is bigger than Trump himself.

The former president has waged an unprecedented war against fellow Republicans whom he deems insufficiently loyal, encouraging primary challenges against sitting members of Congress and governors in more than a dozen states. At the same time, some Republican operatives fear that Trumps continued lies about election fraud could depress turnout among the millions of loyalists who believe his baseless conspiracy theories.

See: Trump backs Alaska Gov. Dunleavy for re-election as long as Dunleavy doesnt support fellow Republican Murkowskis re-election to Senate

We just have to limit the damage that hes causing, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who sits on the executive board of the Republican Governors Association.

If we have big battles in primaries, either were going to nominate people who are unelectable in purple states or swing districts, or were going to beat up our incumbents so bad that they lose the general election, added Hogan. He isnt seeking re-election because of term limits but plans to travel the country promoting Republican officeholders in Trumps crosshairs.

That includes Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington State, and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski. The most vulnerable may be officeholders such as Herrera Beutler, who was among 10 House Republicans voting to impeach Trump for inspiring the January attack on the Capitol.

Two of the 10 have already announced theyre not seeking re-election.

Republican officials tasked with leading the GOPs 2022 election efforts are disturbed by Trumps sustained attacks on fellow party members, although few are willing to speak out publicly against him. Instead, Republican candidates in Arizona, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and elsewhere are battling each other in increasingly nasty primary contests for Trumps favor.

We are the tortoise, and [Republicans] are the hare. I dont want to do anything to deprive them of the overconfidence that will lead them to take a nap while we go slowly chugging by them.

With the primary election season running from March through September, GOP infighting is likely to dominate the narrative for months even as Trumps role in national politics probably still continues to grow.

He considers himself his partys kingmaker. Hes expected to play a more active campaign role next year after shying away from high-profile governors races this past fall in Virginia and New Jersey, where hes unpopular among suburban voters.

From the archives (October 2021): Republican gubernatorial candidate skips Take Back Virginia Rally featuring Trump, Bannon and others

Already, Trump has endorsed 60-plus Republican candidates and plans to weigh in on dozens more contests. That including Missouris combative Senate primary in which conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt recently begged Trump not to endorse Eric Greitens, a divisive former governor.

Context: Republicans fear a win by disgraced former Missouri governor Greitens in primary would gift wrap Senate seat for Democrats

Headwinds for Democrats: Even if Trumps politics hurt his party over the coming months, history suggests it may not matter. Just once this century has the party holding the White House not lost congressional seats in the first midterm election of a new presidency. That was in 2002, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Democrats lost 54 seats in the House and eight in the Senate under President Bill Clinton in 1994. They lost 63 House seats and another six Senate seats under President Barack Obama in 2010. In 2018, Republicans lost 40 House seats under Trump, while gaining a pair in the Senate.

Republican-controlled legislatures have aided the GOPs potential House fortunes by drawing new congressional districts that are even more favorable to the party, including in Iowa, Texas and North Carolina, where with legal challenges still pending at least two new districts will be safely Republican.

From the archives (November 2021): I know you dont like me, but thats OK: Republican leader McCarthy holds forth for 8 hours on House floor amid Democratic ridicule

Democratic legislators could pad their own advantages in places such as New York, but the GOP is positioned to help its standing elsewhere far more.

Redistricting will not affect the Senate landscape, where Republicans have to defend 20 seats compared with 14 for the Democrats. Thats a positive for Democrats, but six of the top Senate contests are playing out it states Biden won by no more than two percentage points or lost, including Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina.

Beyond congressional races, the stakes are especially high for Democrats in statehouses. Republican-run legislatures from Texas to Georgia have enacted laws making it more difficult to vote in response to Trumps false claims of voter fraud a shift thats expected to have a disproportionate effect on Democratic-leaning African Americans and Latinos.

Democratic governors will be playing defense in much-watched Michigan and Wisconsin, and trying to hold an open seat in Pennsylvania. All three races are probably Democrats best chance to slow the GOPs years-long ascendancy in the industrial heartland. But the GOP currently controls the governors office in 27 states, compared with Democrats 23, with 36 up nationwide in 2022.

If Republicans win in Michigan, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin while holding those state legislatures, the GOP would take total control of state government in those critical Midwestern battlegrounds that Biden narrowly won. That could give Republicans the power to change voting procedures in the next presidential contest, as their colleagues have in other states.

Prominent Black leaders have become increasingly concerned with the Democratic-controlled Congresss inability to enact federal legislation to supersede restrictive state laws. Senate Republicans have effectively blocked such efforts, while Democrats have resisted calls to bypass Senate rules that require at least 60 votes to advance legislation.

Many Black voters, a group that represents Democrats most reliable supporters, are equally frustrated by the partys inability to enact policing reform in response to the national outcry that followed George Floyds murder more than a year ago.

We have to do more: Yes, we have to do more, and we want it to be faster, said Stacey Abrams, a Democrat making her second bid for Georgia governor. She said Democrats must have deep conversations with the Black community not preaching, but having conversations about whats being done and what its going to take to get more done.

I understand why people are despondent right now. This has been a terrible two years, Abrams said of the broader political landscape. Its been hard for so many. And the promise of hope can be sometimes disappointing. But this is going to take a while. It took four years to get us where we are. Its going to take a little longer than a year to get us out of it.

See: Stacey Abrams calls for congressional voting-rights action ahead of second race for governor in Georgia

At the same time, top national Republicans, including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, his partys only Black senator, are leading a national GOP effort to prioritize electing more women and candidates of color to state-level offices.

Republicans made unexpected gains with Latino voters in many parts of the country in 2020, and Virginia provided hints that some minority voters are sticking with the party even without Trump running. Republican Winsome Sears, who is Black and a former Marine, was the first woman of color elected as the states lieutenant governor. Jason Miyares will become the states first Latino attorney general.

While Democrats will feature far more minority incumbents and candidates on 2022 House and Senate ballots, former NFL running back Herschel Walker, who is Black, has been endorsed by Trump in Georgias Republican Senate primary despite allegations of a violent past, including threatening his former wife with a gun.

The winning formula is getting people who are from Main Street. We look for the best candidates that are out there and we allow the districts that they want to represent select them, said Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, head of the House Republican campaign arm. I think thats whats changed around here, rather than having Washington say, This is the right person for the seat.

Abortion politics: Despite disturbing signs as 2022 begins, some Democrats insist there is cause for optimism. The pandemic, the economy and inflation will be critical factors to the partys success. But no issue may be bigger than a looming Supreme Court decision on abortion rights. The conservative-leaning court is considering whether to weaken or even overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion across America.

Democrats are hopeful that a major shift on the politically charged case would help rally suburban women to their side voters who lifted the party in 2018, though polling this year hasnt been conclusive.

We are the tortoise and they are the hare, said New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, head of the House Democratic campaign arm. I dont want to do anything to deprive them of the overconfidence that will lead them to take a nap while we go slowly chugging by them.

Washington Watch: Bidens biggest challenges in 2022? Convincing Americans the United States is on the right track, winning the economy battle, analysts say.

For now, however, the numbers are daunting for Democrats. Just 33% of Americans say things in the country are on the right track, according to a recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. Sixty-six percent say things are headed in the wrong direction. Thats a stark departure from the first few months of Bidens term, when roughly half said things were going the right way.

About one-third of Americans call national economic conditions good, down from roughly half last March. Only 41% say they approve of Bidens stewardship, down from 60% in March.

See: Consumer confidence shows some resilience in December

Also: U.S. leading economic indicators jump in November signaling growth momentum will continue into next year

Even though the diagnostics are pretty tough for the president and Democrats, its not because they love Republicans. The Republican Party has terrible standing with the American people, said John Anzalone, the pollster for Bidens presidential campaign. This isnt people defaulting to Republicans because they like them. And that can catch up to them as the environment changes.

I have to remind people that there will probably be, what, $6 billion spent on this election cycle, and well spend $3 billion, Anzalone continued. We have something to say.

Read on: Chicago regions economy grows faster in December and points to still-vigorous U.S. expansion

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We just have to limit the damage that he's causing: Republican governor on risk Trump poses to a party that otherwise teems with 2022 confidence -...

The January 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol failed to overturn Donald Trumps election loss to Joe Biden, but it could ultimately prove successful as a galvanizing point for the radical right. In the year since the attack, the rioters have been embraced as martyrs by many in the GOP; Trump allies have made their cause a loyalty test for lawmakers; and insurrectionists methods have grown more sophisticated, with legislators using the Big Lie to enact voter suppression laws across the country and extremists taking their efforts local.

Its going to be a fight, but this is a fight that must be won, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon said on his podcast last spring. Were going to take this back village by village.

In its immediate aftermath, the Capitol attack put the radical right on its heels. According to an Atlantic Council report out Tuesday, domestic extremist movements faced increased scrutiny following the riot, with social media cracking down on dangerous users and content and an ongoing parade of arrests of those who stormed Congress as it sought to certify Bidens victory. But, as the report also found, the right-wing extremist movements didnt go away amid all that pressure. Theyve simply adapted, finding or creating new platforms to spread their message; focusing on the grassroots level; and insinuating themselves into the mainstream of Republican politics. The domestic extremist landscape was battered by January 6, the reports author, Jared Holt, told NBC News. But extremism is dynamic and fluid. It is always trying to adapt to fit the container that its in.

Such adaptations could make the January 6 extremist movement even more insidious; its easy to spot insurrectionists when theyre taking the Capitol by force, but harder, perhaps, when theyre entering with a lawmaker ID badge. Congress is already home to something of an insurrectionist caucus, with figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, and Lauren Boebertthree of the 139 House members who tried overturning the electionusing their national platform to spread conspiracy theories, erode faith in the democratic process, and threaten political opponents. The party has largely swallowed Trumps election lies, with 71% of Republicans telling pollsters that the ex-president was the rightful winner of the 2020 election. In the same Ipsos/ABC News poll, 52% of Republicans said the Capitol rioters were actually protecting democracy, a warped version of the events of January 6 that fits with what CNN's Donie O'Sullivan recently heard from Trump supporters.

As the Atlantic Council report makes clear, extremist groups involved in the January 6 attack are not only working at the national level: Theyre getting involved in local politics, starting nonprofits and PACs, and hosting conferences featuring elected officials like Gosar. In some ways, this reflects the ways in which the outburst of violence last year scattered the coalition of far-right movements that came together to attack Congress. But it may also represent the maturation of those movements into a more effective political force.

We figured out that going to the Capitol and working that particular piece doesnt do anything, because these legislators have already made up their mind, Denise Aguilar, who spoke at a right-wing event in Washington D.C. on January 6, told NBC News last month outside a California school board meeting she was attending to protest vaccine mandates. Its all about local legislation, your school districts, your city council board of supervisorsThese people live in our community. They work here, and theyre going to have to face us every single day.

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The Republican Party Is Now the Party of January 6 - Vanity Fair