January 6 Hearings Live

[TV and credit cards]

surely Trump would lose in a landslide. That didn’t happen.

Yes, it did. He lost by more than 7 million votes and by an electoral margin that Trump himself called a landslide.
The fact that the playing field is tilted toward Republicans so that 43,000 votes could have flipped the electoral college despite a 7 million+ popular vote margin, is a testament to how heavily rigged the system is, not a measure of any enduring popularity of FFvC.

Considering he was the worst goddamn president ever and folks had four years to see the error of their ways, it should have been much worse. It should have been Hooverlike. In that it wasn't should have brought a moment of reflection. For me it was just as much a telling sign of the gross political ignorance of the populace as Sandy Hook was a telling moment of the politicians who run this country.
No one should be surprised, fascinated, or taken aback by anything these people might do or be convinced to do going forward. That is the baseline of what we are dealing with. I wish politicians would bear this in mind.

 

[ZiprHead]

Evaluating the Police Shooting of Ashli Babbitt

A parsing of the legal issues at play in the police shooting in the Capitol on Jan. 6.

www.lawfareblog.com

The formal investigations into the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt by U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd on Jan. 6, 2021, have come to a close. The Department of Justice announced in April that it would not pursue criminal charges, and the Capitol Police have announced that Byrd’s actions were “lawful and within Department policy.” Babbitt’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit, and Byrd has now gone public, sitting for an interview with NBC Nightly News.

 

[lpetrich]

The next US civil war is already here – we just refuse to see it | The far right | The Guardian - "The right has recognized that the system is in collapse, and it has a plan: violence and solidarity with treasonous far-right factions"

"On the eve of the first civil war, the most intelligent, the most informed, the most dedicated people in the United States could not see it coming."

"The United States today is, once again, headed for civil war, and, once again, it cannot bear to face it."

The legal system grows less legitimate by the day. Trust in government at all levels is in freefall, or, like Congress, with approval ratings hovering around 20%, cannot fall any lower. Right now, elected sheriffs openly promote resistance to federal authority. Right now, militias train and arm themselves in preparation for the fall of the Republic. Right now, doctrines of a radical, unachievable, messianic freedom spread across the internet, on talk radio, on cable television, in the malls.

The consequences of the breakdown of the American system is only now beginning to be felt. January 6 wasn’t a wake-up call; it was a rallying cry. The Capitol police have seen threats against members of Congress increase by 107%. Fred Upton, Republican representative from Michigan, recently shared a message he had received: “I hope you die. I hope everybody in your family dies.” And it’s not just politicians but anyone involved in the running of the electoral system. Death threats have become a standard aspect of the work life of election supervisors and school board members. A third of poll workers, in the aftermath of 2020, said they felt unsafe.

Some people say things like “If only more moderate Republicans were in office, if only bipartisanship could be restored to what it was.” -- but that won't mean anything without purges of Trumpists.

The United States has burned before. The Vietnam war, civil rights protests, the assassination of JFK and MLK, Watergate – all were national catastrophes which remain in living memory. But the United States has never faced an institutional crisis quite like the one it is facing now. Trust in the institutions was much higher during the 1960s. The Civil Rights Act had the broad support of both parties. JFK’s murder was mourned collectively as a national tragedy. The Watergate scandal, in hindsight, was evidence of the system working. The press reported presidential crimes; Americans took the press seriously. The political parties felt they needed to respond to the reported corruption.

You could not make one of those statements today with any confidence.

 

[lpetrich]

Then stating that the Right's idea of politics is increasingly the politics of the gun, and that the Left is much slower than that.

In about 20 years, half the population will live in eight states - The Washington Post
noting
Opinion | We’re living in an age of minority rule - The Washington Post
and
Paul Waldman on Twitter: "In the age of minority rule, a Supreme Court justice appointed by a president who got fewer votes is confirmed by a party in the Senate that got fewer votes, to validate policies opposed by most Americans: (WaPo link)" / Twitter
then
Norman Ornstein on Twitter: "I want to repeat a statistic I use in every talk: by 2040 or so, 70 percent of Americans will live in 15 states. Meaning 30 percent will choose 70 senators. And the 30% will be older, whiter, more rural, more male than the 70 percent. Unsettling to say the least (tweet link)" / Twitter

Back to The Guardian.

The right is preparing for a breakdown of law and order, but they are also overtaking the forces of law and order. Hard right organization have now infiltrated so many police forces – the connections number in the hundreds – that they have become unreliable allies in the struggle against domestic terrorism.

Michael German, a former FBI agent who worked undercover against domestic terrorists during the 1990s, knows that the white power sympathies within police departments hamper domestic terrorism cases. “The 2015 FBI counter-terrorism guide instructs FBI agents, on white supremacist cases, to not put them on the terrorist watch list as agents normally would do,” he says. “Because the police could then look at the watchlist and determine that they are their friends.” The watchlists are among the most effective techniques of counter-terrorism, but the FBI cannot use them. The white supremacists in the United States are not a marginal force; they are inside its institutions.

Like Number of Capitol riot arrests of military, law enforcement and government personnel rises to 52 - ABC News -- soldiers and cops were unusually well-represented among the attackers.

Recent calls to reform or to defund the police have focused on officers’ implicit bias or policing techniques. The protesters are, in a sense, too hopeful. Activist white supremacists in positions of authority are the real threat to American order and security. “If you look at how authoritarian regimes come into power, they tacitly authorize a group of political thugs to use violence against their political enemies,” German says. “That ends up with a lot of street violence, and the general public gets upset about the street violence and says, ‘Government, you have to do something about this street violence,’ and the government says, ‘Oh my hands are tied, give me a broad enabling power and I will go after these thugs.’ And of course once that broad power is granted, it isn’t used to target the thugs. They either become a part of the official security apparatus or an auxiliary force.”

Like how the Nazis came to power in Germany. In the late 20's, they had a militia, the SA or brownshirts, who attacked rivals. But when they came to power, the most they did to the SA was purge the leadership and order the ordinary members to join the army. Adolf Hitler's objection to the continued existence of the SA was because it was an extra power base.

Looking the other way at right-wing violence is a long tradition in the US, especially in the South.

Anti-government patriots have used the reaction against Black Lives Matter effectively to build a base of support with law enforcement. “One of the best tactics was adopting the blue lives matter patch. I’m flabbergasted that police fell for that, that they actually support these groups,” German says. “It would be one thing if [anti-government patriots] had uniformly decided not to target police any more. But they haven’t. They’re still killing police. The police don’t seem to get it, that the people you’re coddling, you’re taking photographs with, are the same people who elsewhere kill.” The current state of American law enforcement reveals an extreme contradiction: the order it imposes is rife with the forces that provoke domestic terrorism.

One could see this split in the Jan 6 attacks - some of the attackers claimed to love the cops - "Blue Lives Matter", "Back The Blue" - but they attacked the Capitol Police.

 

[Patooka]

Evaluating the Police Shooting of Ashli Babbitt

A parsing of the legal issues at play in the police shooting in the Capitol on Jan. 6.

www.lawfareblog.com

The formal investigations into the fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt by U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd on Jan. 6, 2021, have come to a close. The Department of Justice announced in April that it would not pursue criminal charges, and the Capitol Police have announced that Byrd’s actions were “lawful and within Department policy.” Babbitt’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit, and Byrd has now gone public, sitting for an interview with NBC Nightly News.

I'm not 100% comfortable with this. Not because of finger pointing or blame taking, but how this is acceptable policy. I don't understand how it isn't policy to have police stationed in areas like the Capitol to operate in pairs.

 

[lpetrich]

There are liberals who retain an unjustifiable faith that their institutions can save them when it is utterly clear that they cannot. Then there are the woke, educational and political elites dedicated to a discourse of willed impotence. Any institution founded by the woke simply eats itself – see TimesUp, the Women’s March, etc – becoming irrelevant to any but a diminishing cadre of insiders who spend most of their time figuring out how to shred whoever’s left. They render themselves powerless faster than their enemies can.

Left-wingers have been squabbling among themselves for over a century. It's the sort of thing that Life of Brian satirized as the Judean People's Front vs. the People's Front of Judea.

"The right has recognized what the left has not: that the system is in collapse. The right has a plan: it involves violence and solidarity. They have not abjured even the Oath Keepers. The left, meanwhile, has chosen infighting as their sport."

 

[lpetrich]

Jamie Raskin, Democracy’s Defender | The New Republic - "How the Maryland representative became the man for this historical moment"

After describing his reading Shakespeare before going to sleep each night,

Yes, he’s “just” a congressman, serving only his third term; in days gone by, when the Old Bulls laid their mighty girths across the House of Representatives, a third-termer like Raskin would still be an unknown, being told (probably by some segregationist) to wait his turn. But the modern Congress makes a bit more room for talent to rise to the top, and so Raskin rather quickly became a star. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, he questioned Robert Mueller; later, during the first Trump impeachment, the Ukraine one, his arguments about the Founders’ rationales for impeachment reflected his history as a constitutional law professor and scholar. It was clear then—this was late 2019—that the guy had some chops. So many members’ questions during main-event hearings are really ill-disguised speeches, delivered for editing and dropping into campaign ads; with Raskin, you could tell he was actually going somewhere. But those performances were mere prelude to the second impeachment, over the January 6 insurrection, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi put Raskin in charge. He and his team of managers are widely considered to have presented a masterful case against Trump and defense of the rule of law, and indeed, even though the Senate did not convict Trump, the vote was the most bipartisan Senate support for conviction in the country’s history.

Much like AOC and Katie Porter.

Then about the suicide of his son at the end of 2020, something very crushing for him, his wife, and his two daughters.

Now, Raskin is out with a book, Unthinkable, which chronicles the impeachment trial, some parts of Raskin’s background, and Tommy’s death (and his life). The congressman is, in addition to everything else, a really good writer. The blow-by-blow of January 6 is riveting. The passages about his son, and his own pain, are sometimes searing: Raskin writes that he had always assumed he’d be cremated, but after they buried Tommy, he and Sarah bought the plots straddling their son’s, so he “could be buried next to [his] boy for eternity,” he explains, so “we could talk philosophy and politics and make jokes forever, starting as soon as I got there to be with him—and sooner rather than later, I hope, I remember adding darkly in my mind.”

In Congress, "there is only one professor of constitutional law" -- him.

Then, what happened on January 6. JR was driven to work by a staffer, and they went by Trump's rally. Lots of MAGA hats, "Don't Tread On Me" flags, Confederate flags, and "Fuck Your Feelings". JR, his daughter Tabitha and son-in-law Hank went to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's "hideaway" office in the Capitol building. Then on 1 PM, JR went to the House floor, with Tab and Hank in the gallery.

 

[lpetrich]

Right around then, two things happened. Mike Pence released his letter affirming that he would certify the count, which was the first moment that Democrats understood that the election would not be stolen; but at the same time, the first rioters breached the barricades on the Capitol’s west front, facing the mall.

Read Pence’s full letter saying he can’t claim ‘unilateral authority’ to reject electoral votes | PBS NewsHour

At 1:10, Trump finished his speech, and a much larger crowd marched toward the Capitol. A short time later, Raskin delivered his speech; some instinct told him not to utter the sentence that goes, “This is the peaceful transfer of power we celebrate and a model for a grateful world.” He sat down. Tragicomically, the next speaker was Lauren Boebert, the QAnon devotee who the people of Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District have decided belongs in the House of Representatives.

She tweeted that that day was like 1776 and she tweeted when Nancy Pelosi was removed from the House chamber.

At right around 2 p.m., Raskin got his first sense that something was amiss from his friend Alyssa Milano, the actress, who was watching it all unfold on television and texted him to ask if he was safe. At 2:09 came another text, this one from the Capitol Police: “All buildings within the Capitol Complex, Capitol: External Security Threat No Entry or Exit.” The text advised members to “shelter in place” and “stay away from exterior windows or doors.” Members started getting texts with photos of the rioters.

Then about someone who brought a Confederate flag into the Capitol.

Chief of staff Julie Tagen, Tab, and Hank stayed in that hideway office for about 3 hours, while JR stayed in the House chamber. “Nobody took out an AR-15 and started mowing everybody down, but that’s what everybody was thinking was going to happen.”

After he was reunited with Tabitha, Hank, and Julie, Raskin went on C-SPAN to assure the country that the certification would continue, but he stopped to note what a hideous moment this was: “Attacks on the Capitol didn’t even happen during the Civil War. You have to go back to the War of 1812 to find something like this, and that was a foreign power that attacked us. There was no Confederate attack on the Congress. So we’re going to complete the count if we have to stay here all night or even all day tomorrow. We’re going to swear in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on January 20th. This violence is intolerable, lawless, and unacceptable, so we have to finish the job we were sent to do.”

 

[lpetrich]

Then about how DC is JR's hometown. He went to Harvard, then after briefly being an assistant attorney general in Massachusetts, he got a job at the American University Washington College of Law, where he taught before he ran for office. His wife Sarah became a staffer in the Senate Banking Committee.

Then in 2005, he decided to run for the Maryland State Senate, challenging long-time incumbent Ida Ruben.

David Moon, who was Raskin’s campaign manager, recalls that the campaign took a poll, “and I remember the poll results came back, and it was like 50–50 on the death penalty, 50–50 on the ICC, a controversial highway project.” That argued for caution. But Raskin, said Moon, “was like, no, that doesn’t make sense to me. That doesn’t make sense for how we’re going to win, or why I’m gonna run.” He was the underdog. Ruben outspent him two-to-one. He won by two-to-one. “He has a touch,” said Hans Riemer, a Montgomery County Council member. “He makes people feel great, and you could see in his candidacy, he exudes enthusiasm and optimism and love and excitement.”

Then in 2015, Chris Van Hollen of MD-08, his district, decided to run for the Senate. JR decided to become his successor. The Democratic primary was crowded.

The favorite was Kathleen Matthews, a well-known and well-liked local TV newsperson, and wife of then-Hardball host Chris Matthews. There was also David Trone, a liquor store magnate who spent millions, and six other candidates. I remember thinking at the time that, because of Matthews’s notoriety and Trone’s money, Raskin might finish third. He got 34 percent to Trone’s 27 and Matthews’s 24. He cruised to victory in the general, but it was of course a bittersweet moment, because Trump won: “It could have been one of the most enjoyable nights of my life, but it became a really despondent night.”

The first two years, in the minority, were tough. But after the Democrats took the House in 2018, Raskin got a subcommittee chair right in his wheelhouse, the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the House Oversight and Reform Committee. The presidential election came; Biden won it, and all of Trump’s despicable-but-hapless legal maneuvering failed. On December 15, the electors met and validated Biden’s win. As 2020 drew to a close, Raskin had many reasons to feel optimistic.

 

[lpetrich]

After discussing JR's son Tommy and his suicide, the article got into a likely scenario of the next few years.

The scenario is pretty straightforward. The Republicans retake the House in the midterms. Immediately, any chance of Biden passing meaningful legislation is dead, but that’s the least of it. The GOP will launch hearing after hearing, issue subpoena after subpoena; they will find some flimsy rationale on which to impeach Biden, and they will stretch it out as long as possible. Trump will run—as Raskin put it, “for psychological, political, and financial reasons”—and he will be the GOP nominee, Raskin has little doubt. Assuming Biden seeks reelection, the election will probably be close, because elections just are these days. If Biden wins by a matter of several thousand votes in a few states, as he did in 2020, the Trump machinery will kick into gear to steal the election. Republican election commissioners and state legislators and even some governors will put forward pro-Trump electors. The House of Representatives will not vote to certify Biden’s win in January 2025, which will toss the election to the House, which will make Trump president. (When a presidential election gets thrown to the House, under the Twelfth Amendment, the vote is by state delegation, so North Dakota has the same voting power as California; Republicans now control, and will likely in 2025 still control, a majority of state delegations, and Liz Cheney will probably be gone, meaning that Wyoming will go pro-Trump.) For the second time in the history of the United States, the other time being 1824, Congress will have installed as the president a candidate who did not win a plurality of votes in either the Electoral College or the popular vote.

 

[lpetrich]

PolitiFact | No proof Trump requested 10,000 Guard troops for Jan. 6 or that Pelosi denied it


Conservative Outlets Advance Unfounded Theory About Capitol Attack - FactCheck.org

Some conservative outlets have concluded or suggested that undercover federal agents or informants helped plan and carry out the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. But there is no evidence that happened.

The unfounded claims largely originated with a so-called “seismic exposé” by the conservative website Revolver News, which encouraged members of Congress to question FBI Director Christopher Wray about the “possibility” that the Capitol riot was orchestrated by individuals working with or on behalf of the government.

About Ted Cruz:
Houston Chronicle on Twitter: "@tedcruz @AP @SenTedCruz @HawleyMO Cruz, a Republican from Houston, supported the objection to the Arizona electoral votes and called for Congress to create a commission to give a 10-day review of the election results before certifying it. (link)" / Twitter
noting
What Sen. Ted Cruz said as he led the Jan. 6 effort to block President Joe Biden’s win


Lindsey Graham on Twitter: "What brazen politicization of January 6 by President Biden.
I wonder if the Taliban who now rule Afghanistan with al-Qaeda elements present, contrary to President Biden’s beliefs, are allowing this speech to be carried?" / Twitter

Jaime Harrison, DNC Chair on Twitter: "It took Lindsey Graham just a couple weeks to go from "humiliated and embarrassed" after the attack on the Capitol to flying down to Mar-a-Lago to golf and bear hug Donald Trump. #MrCountMeOut (link)" / Twitter

I_Am_Chelle on Twitter: "@harrisonjaime “Trump and I, we’ve had a hell of a journey. I hate it to end this way. Oh my God, I hate it. From my point of view, he’s been a consequential president, but today, first thing you’ll see. All I can say is a count me out. Enough is enough.” Lindsey Graham Speech January 6, 2021" / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

This was from nearly a year ago:
New details about Trump-McCarthy shouting match show Trump refused to call off the rioters - CNNPolitics

"Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are." -- Trump to KMC as KMC begged him to call off his supporters

Trump's comment set off what Republican lawmakers familiar with the call described as a shouting match between the two men. A furious McCarthy told the then-President the rioters were breaking into his office through the windows, and asked Trump, "Who the f--k do you think you are talking to?" according to a Republican lawmaker familiar with the call.

The newly revealed details of the call, described to CNN by multiple Republicans briefed on it, provide critical insight into the President's state of mind as rioters were overrunning the Capitol. The existence of the call and some of its details were first reported by Punchbowl News and discussed publicly by McCarthy.

The Republican members of Congress said the exchange showed Trump had no intention of calling off the rioters even as lawmakers were pleading with him to intervene. Several said it amounted to a dereliction of his presidential duty.

"He is not a blameless observer. He was rooting for them," a Republican member of Congress said. "On January 13, Kevin McCarthy said on the floor of the House that the President bears responsibility and he does."

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler:

You have to look at what he did during the insurrection to confirm where his mind was at," Herrera Beutler, one of 10 House Republicans who voted last month to impeach Trump, told CNN. "That line right there demonstrates to me that either he didn't care, which is impeachable, because you cannot allow an attack on your soil, or he wanted it to happen and was OK with it, which makes me so angry."

"We should never stand for that, for any reason, under any party flag," she added, voicing her extreme frustration. "I'm trying really hard not to say the F-word."

Also

"I think it speaks to the former President's mindset," said Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, an Ohio Republican who also voted to impeach Trump last month. "He was not sorry to see his unyieldingly loyal vice president or the Congress under attack by the mob he inspired. In fact, it seems he was happy about it or at the least enjoyed the scenes that were horrifying to most Americans across the country."

 

[lpetrich]

Lindsey Graham is putting the GOP in a 'dangerous predicament': former Trump administration official - Raw Story - Celebrating 17 Years of Independent Journalism

Appearing on MSNBC with host Alex Witt, a former Donald Trump administration official warned that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was painting the Republican Party into a box by enforcing "blind loyalty" to Donald Trump upon his colleagues.

Criticizing LG's assertion that he would be unwilling to support Mitch McConnell's continued leadership of the Senate Republicans if MMC did not have "a working relationship with Donald Trump."

"You cannot have this type of blind loyalty to one individual," he warned. "I think Lindsey Graham making that statement puts the party in a dangerous predicament where we don't necessarily care about the ideology of being a conservative more than we care about the personality of an individual -- that's dangerous."

 

[lpetrich]

More ex-staff participated in anti-Trump meeting than expected — and a former official says they're all worried - Raw Story - Celebrating 17 Years of Independent Journalism

"Speaking to Jim Acosta on Sunday, Troye explained that the discussions were in the early stages, but were about how they could work together to combat the firmer president's lies."


'A big blow': Fox News host mocks Trump after 'his favorite network' OAN is dropped by DirecTV - Raw Story - Celebrating 17 Years of Independent Journalism

 

[lpetrich]

Jan. 6 committee subpoenas Giuliani, Powell, Ellis, Epshteyn : NPR

Giuliani acted as a personal lawyer to Trump and was a key figure in a wave of disinformation spread after President Biden was elected.

In all, the panel issued four subpoenas, including to Sidney Powell, a controversial lawyer who pushed conspiracy theories tied to Trump's last campaign; Jenna Ellis, another member of the Trump legal team who pushed false claims Biden lost, and Boris Epshteyn, a lawyer who was a Trump 2020 campaign adviser.

Why did the committee subpoena them?

"The four individuals we've subpoenaed today advanced unsupported theories about election fraud, pushed efforts to overturn the election results, or were in direct contact with the former President about attempts to stop the counting of electoral votes," Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in a statement. "We expect these individuals to join the nearly 400 witnesses who have spoken with the Select Committee as the committee works to get answers for the American people about the violent attack on our democracy."

They were prominent in the Trump Admin's efforts to litigate away its loss in 2020.

 

[lpetrich]

Trump's own tweets may show he knew of fraudulent 'alternate' elector filings - Raw Story - Celebrating 17 Years of Independent Journalism

It was revealed by a local Michigan county clerk that President Donald Trump's lawyers were behind an effort to get alternate electors shoved into place in key states. Those electors would then try to bring down the legitimately elected slate of electors, but most were blocked from entering the rooms.

Still, those fake electors signed official papers that were filed with the federal government claiming that they were "duly elected and qualified" electors. One attorney who penned an op-ed about the incident said that it's time for those 59 people who signed falsified documents to be prosecuted.

Abject sycophant Jim Jordan can’t lie his way out of Jan. 6 role - Raw Story - Celebrating 17 Years of Independent Journalism

Jim Jordan is a bad liar. The Ohio congressman can’t pull off deceit like the Dear Leader of the MAGA cult. The diminutive Jordan is wont to stammer, backtrack, draw a blank, deny, admit, or squirm like a trapped weasel. Not a good look for Ohio’s 4th U.S. Congressional District Republican who fancies himself a firebrand in shirt sleeves owning the libs. But the former wrestling champ who came to Congress to brawl — not improve lives through constructive legislating — may well lose a looming takedown by the truth.

Jordan is a small-town opportunist who got a taste of fame as the darling of the Tea Party movement and saw scorched earth theatrics as his ticket to the top. Constituents in his gerrymandered district could count on their representative to rail on cue for the television cameras — and nothing else. Jordan’s histrionics shifted into high gear when a voracious cable TV addict occupied the Oval Office. The Urbana Republican shrewdly tailored his tantrums for an audience of one.

For his abject sycophancy, Jordan was singled out by the most powerful man on earth at rallies and heralded as a MAGA prince. ...

Instead, Jordan prostrated himself at the altar of fascism in service to a sore loser.

Complete with being suspiciously calm during the Jan. 6 attacks.

 

[lpetrich]

Here’s how a GOP operative got back in Trump’s good graces by spreading absurd claims about Jan. 6 - Raw Story - Celebrating 17 Years of Independent Journalism

A new exposé by The Bulwark focuses on how Darren Beattie is using Revolver News to spread conspiracy theories about the insurrection by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the 2020 election.

Hundreds of supporters of Donald Trump have been arrested for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, but one disgraced former Trump administration official has gained attention by pushing the conspiracy theory it was actually the federal government responsible for the insurrection.

Even as His Big Conspiracy Theory Crumbles, Darren Beattie’s Star Continues to Rise in Trump World - The Bulwark

Beattie’s ouster from the Trump White House back in August 2018 came in the wake of revelations that he had participated in a conference alongside prominent white nationalists. According to reporting at the time, Beattie was asked to resign but refused on the grounds that he was not racist and had done nothing wrong—forcing the Trump White House to fire him.

...
By May 2020, though, he had founded Revolver.News. The site prides itself on being the “new Drudge”—a comparison Trump himself made in a September 2020 tweet. In October 2020, Revolver.News published a story repeating allegations from an unnamed supposed source claiming to have seen inappropriate photos of underage girls on Hunter Biden’s laptop—part of an intense and bizarre smear campaign that was peaking as election day came nearer. On November 4, 2020, the day after the election, a Revolver article (presumably written by Beattie) claimed that Democrats were on the verge of stealing the election and outlined steps that Trump should take to prevent Biden from coming to office—including the suggestion that Republican-controlled legislatures “seat Trump electors” if there is “clear evidence of electoral fraud.” The article concludes: “American patriots everywhere need marching orders. Game on.” Michael Anton, of “Flight 93” article fame, linked to the piece in one of his own early Claremont Institute pieces about “the Biden coup.”

...
On January 6, 2021, during the insurrection at the Capitol, Beattie put out several repulsive, racist tweets, in which he declared that various black individuals and groups (Tim Scott, Ibram X. Kendi, Kay Coles James, and BLM), must “learn [their] place” and “take a knee to MAGA.” (He has since deleted some but not all of those tweets.)

The best-known black Tim Scott is a Republican Senator from South Carolina, and Kay Coles James is an employee of the right-wing Heritage Foundation.

A handy list, “The Essential Revolver News January 6 Reading List,” shows eight articles about alleged FBI inside involvement in the events of Jan. 6th. Five of them are about “unindicted co-conspirators,” and the other three explore the game-changing impact that Revolver has allegedly had on the unfolding national story.

Beattie’s basic idea is this: Since several individuals were caught on camera promoting the breach of the Capitol, or were otherwise alleged to be involved in organizing the events of Jan. 6 in some way, but hadn’t yet been indicted as of the time of Beattie’s writing, there was obviously something afoot:

quoting

We at Revolver News have noticed a pattern from our now months-long investigation into 1/6 — and in particular from our meticulous study of the charging documents related to those indicted. In many cases the unindicted co-conspirators appear to be much more aggressive and egregious participants in the very so-called “conspiracy” serving as the basis for charging those indicted.

For Beattie, the fact that so many “mostly harmless tourists” and “harmless ‘MAGA moms’” had been treated as insurrectionists is absurd (“That many of these people are being held in prison, without bail, under harsh conditions, amounts to an unacceptable and outrageous abuse of basic human rights”).

Like MTG, Matt Gaetz, and Louie Gohmert, he turns soft on crime when the criminals are his favorite people. Republican lawmakers assail jail conditions for those who attempted coup | Courthouse News Service

 

[lpetrich]

Will false Trump electors’ attempt to hijack the Georgia vote be punished? - Raw Story - Celebrating 17 Years of Independent Journalism

The 16 Georgia Republicans who assembled at noon on Dec. 14, 2020, in the state Capitol and falsely certified that Donald Trump had won the state’s electoral votes were not the nation’s only bogus electors. They made up just one of seven groups falsely claiming Trump was the victor in states where the majority of voters chose Joe Biden for president and Kamala Harris for vice president.

They were joined by like-minded Republicans from Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The likeness may extend to whomever organized this odd form of election fraud.

“Looking at the certificates, there were striking similarities in the language and the formatting between many of them that … points to this not being an original idea,” says Clark Pettig, spokesperson for American Oversight. “These certificates matter because they show in black and white just how far allies of the former president were prepared to go to subvert our democracy. It’s shocking to see it there on the page.”

'Alternate' Michigan elector claims he got marching orders from a Trump lawyer: report - Raw Story - Celebrating 17 Years of Independent Journalism

Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel cited a Detroit News report that said a fake elector admitted that he got his marching orders from former President Donald Trump's campaign.

Republicans in Michigan, as well as other states, attempted to install an alternate slate of electors to replace the ones who would have followed the will of the public vote in the state. Nessel hasn't yet investigated or spoken to the fake elector, but she did turn over all of the evidence and information that her office found relating to the fake electors to the Justice Department.

"It's an open and shut case," said Nessel, saying that they committed the crime in full view of the public.

 

[lpetrich]

'This is really crazy stuff': Michael Cohen eviscerates Trump for trying to change the story on Jan. 6 - Raw Story - Celebrating 17 Years of Independent Journalism

Trump explained that if he had it to do over again, he would have deployed the National Guard to do more on Jan. 6 as his supporters went after the U.S. Capitol.

There's just one problem with that, Cohen said. Trump lies about everything.

...
(About Trump's underlings) He explained that it seems none of them heeded his warnings and now they're all in trouble.

He went on to say that Trump is the one that can't stop lying.

I remember when AOC questioned him about the jumping valuations of some of Trump's property when he appeared before Congress.

 

[blastula]

The Supreme Court denies Trump's bid to block release of records to Jan. 6 panel

The former president's White House records are sought by the Democratic-led House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

www.npr.org