The investigation into a call former President Trump made to Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger after losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden just got a whole lot more real.
Monday, prosecutors from the Fulton County District Attorney’s office will begin choosing residents for a special purpose grand jury. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the jury will comprise 23 Fulton County residents and three alternates.
Although the special grand jury can’t approve indictments, it will assist Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis in building her case, as the group will have the power to issue subpoenas for documents and testimony. Ultimately, she will present her full case to a regular grand jury.
More than 30 witnesses have refused to testify voluntarily since the investigation opened in Feb. 2021—including Raffensperger—and that won’t change until June 1, Willis told the AJC, in order to avoid any conflict with the May 24 primaries.
Former Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter told the AJCMonday’s special jury selection is a “significant legal step.”
“I think (Trump) probably should be concerned in that now, instead of just investigators poking around the edges, he’s got a grand jury that can go directly to the heart of it and compel testimony… They may be able to compel his testimony.”
In addition to the call from Trump to Raffensperger, AJC reports that Willis will probe the resignation of U.S. Attorney Byung “BJay” Pak, who has testified he felt pressured to investigate bogus election fraud allegations; Sen. Lindsey Graham’s call to Raffeensperger to request he trash legally cast ballots in the state; erroneous statements from Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani during a Georgia Senate Judiciary Committee, and finally, the forged election docs falsely claiming that Trump won in 2020.
Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert C.I. McBurney will oversee the special grand jury and the DA’s entire investigation will be kept secret. The panel could meet for up to a year and at the end of their service, the group makes recommendations for the case.
“Anything’s possible because they don’t just sit there and listen to two sides present a case. They get to ask questions, they get to get involved,” Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia told the AJC. “They can break out in committees if they want to look at different things, and then come back and report to the full body.”
Willis has remained steadfast in her investigation into Trump’s call to Raffensperger, vowing to hold him to account.
In early February, Willis, who is Black, was forced to ask for additional security from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after Trump lashed out at her during a rally in Texas.
The veteran DA alleged that since Trump’s speech, in which he called her a “racist,” she began receiving threats.
“If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protests we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta, and elsewhere, because our country and our elections are corrupt,” Trump said at the rally.
Good morning— a big day in Georgia— today, Fani Willis will empanel a special grand jury to investigate whether Donald Trump et al violated state law in the aftermath of the November 2020 election. A quick primer 🧵 about what’s at stake in Fulton County court today. #gapol
— Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) May 2, 2022
Staryy Saltov, sometimes translated as Stariy Saltiv, lies east of Ukraine, and has been in Russian hands for much of the war.
The city lies on the eastern bank of a long bridge over the Pechenihy Reservoir, created by a dam over the Donets river. You might remember this old video from early March on the horrendous losses Russia suffered while taking that region. Today, it was announced liberated by … the Twitter account of a purported local. Translation:
Old Saltov is ours! Ours control the territory right up to the Rubezhansky bridge. The orcs completely blew up the bridge during the retreat. Behind the dam, in the direction of Volchansk, they burned a bunch of orc equipment, but the territory is still behind them. An armored personnel carrier of the Horde drove through my apiary during the retreat, there are losses in evidence
I don’t know why, but the detail about the apiary makes it more believable! Staryy Saltov is around 15 kilometers from yesterday’s front lines, which would suggest a collapse in Russia’s lines (and likely a strategic retreat). But of course, no one is hanging their hats on this one tweet. Ukrainian general staff announced yesterday:
Russian occupiers suffered losses near the settlement of Stary Saltiv – General Staff of the Armed Forces
“Suffered losses” isn’t the same as “liberated.” Nor is another report from Ukrainian General Staff that the town was “fired upon.” Meanwhile, this Russian video, recorded at least several days ago, shows the bridge already destroyed. It would’ve been impossible for anything to retreat through that bridge, so that tweet above isn’t correct that the bridge was blown during the retreat. It’s got clear previous combat damage (artillery/rocket craters), and a significant segment seems long-blown. That local tweeter is, at best, a little confused. Fog of war and all. Meanwhile, a pro-Russia Telegram channel posted the following (run through translator):
APU=Armed forces of Ukraine.
LPR=Luhansk People’s Republic (one of the two separatist regions in Donbas).
Lnrovtsky=not sure, but presumably soldiers from the LPR.
Again, all of this is unconfirmed. I’m just giving you guys a taste of what it’s like sifting through the fog of war, looking through both pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian sources, trying to find video of the area, and attempting to parse official proclamations from official channels. What we do know for sure is that Ukraine was targeting the town as part of its broad-based offensive in the region. We’ll know within the next 24 hours if it has been officially liberated. And if it has been? Woah.
The city of Vovchansk to the northeast is one of just two major railways from Russia toward Kupiansk, the logistical hub of the entire Izyum effort in the northern Donbas region. Even more importantly, it is the major rail and highway line from Belgorod, the Russian logistical hub for the entire war effort.
Staryy Saltov is around 30 kilometers away, or 19 miles from Vovchansk. The range of M777 artillery, currently en route to the front? For regular dumb rounds, it is 30 kilometers.
It also gives Ukraine some options as they continue to roll up Russian forces around Kharkiv: They can push toward Vovchansk itself, or with their northern flank secured, head toward Kupiansk. Either one would deal a severe logistical blow to the war effort in the eastern Donbas front, which has already ground to a halt because of severe attrition of Russia’s forces and logistical woes.
Russia has to respond, right? Ukraine is pushing closer to the international border. Vovchansk is only around 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Belgorod—at the end-range of dumb artillery, but well within range of smart rounds, which can hit up to 40 kilometers (24 miles). That’s why I still don’t believe claims that Russia will invade Moldova, joining two previous implausible claims: an amphibious assault on Odesa, and a Belorussian invasion of western Ukraine.
Right now, Russia is stuck in Donbas, with zero territorial gains in the last three days. Down in the south, near Kherson, they are inexplicably trying to push toward Mykolaiv and Kryvyi Rih. They are losing ground around Kharkiv, putting their own city of Belgorod at risk of Ukrainian artillery. Mariupol still stands. And despite all that, they’re going to invade another country, far from their supply lines, and with no broader strategic value to the Ukraine war effort?
Russia is stupid enough to want to do it, especially if Vladimir Putin is calling the shots with incomplete information (no one is telling him the truth on the ground). But do they have the means and troops to actually pull it off? I’m not buying it.
Ukrainian firefighters have helped to rescue a cat that was stuck on the 7th floor of a completely destroyed building in Borodianka.pic.twitter.com/vaY2okdPKY
NEW: U.S. will have finished training 200 Ukrainians on M777 howitzer artillery by the end of the day: senior U.S. defense official The U.S. also continuing with a weeklong course for Ukrainians on Phoenix Ghost loitering drones.
Donald Trump was in Nebraska on Sunday rallying support for his chosen candidate in the Republican gubernatorial primary there. And go figure, Trump’s man in Nebraska was recently reported to be a serial groper.
Eight different women, including a Republican state senator, have said Charles Herbster touched them inappropriately at public events. According to Trump, Herbster is “innocent,” and a “very good man” who’s been “maligned” with what Trump says are “despicable charges.” Trump himself has been accused of groping and worse by dozens of women.
Trump’s defense of Herbster was so heartfelt he even broke out a “sir” story.
“I defend people when I know they’re good,” Trump said. “A lot of people, they look at you and say: ‘You don’t have to do it, sir.’ I defend my friends.”
Herbster has insisted the allegations are a political ploy by outgoing Gov. Pete Ricketts, who has endorsed a rival primary candidate and placed himself squarely in a lineup of Republican men who’ve faced credible sexual misconduct allegations and triumphed.
“It’s a playbook from the past,” Herbster said on Steve Bannon’s podcast. “Look what they did to Clarence Thomas. Look what they did to Donald J. Trump. Look what they did to Brett M. Kavanaugh. Now, it’s Charles W. Herbster.”
”They” being women who objected to having been harassed or assaulted?
Republican State Sen. Julie Slama has confirmed to the Nebraska Examiner that Herbster reached up her skirt and touched her inappropriately at a 2019 event. A witness to that was also one of three who saw Herbster grope another woman’s buttocks at the same event. A total of six women describe Herbster using photo ops or hellos and goodbyes as an opportunity to grab—not graze or brush—their butts. Another woman says Herbster once cornered her and kissed her against her will.
”Being a conservative Republican woman in politics, you just expect to be treated with respect. To be treated in that way in a public event, in front of everyone, just to prove, I believe, that he could get away with it, and not having recourse, it’s terrifying,” one woman told the Examiner.
“I’m scared for any young women that he would be dealing with in the future. Don’t send your daughters to work for this guy,” she added.
In addition to his endorsement from fellow groper Trump, Herbster at one point hired former Trump campaign aide Corey Lewandowski to help run his campaign … until Lewandowski was accused of sexually harassing the wife of a major Republican donor. It’s almost like there’s a pattern with these guys.
And in addition to the Thomas-Trump-Kavanaugh list Herbster was so eager to associate himself with, Trump’s endorsements “include Herschel Walker, a U.S. Senate candidate in Georgia who has been accused of threatening the lives of two women, as well as Sean Parnell, who ended his U.S. Senate campaign in Pennsylvania last year amid domestic abuse allegations, and Roy Moore, a 2017 candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama who was accused by two women of initiating unwanted sexual encounters when Moore was in his 30s and they were 16 and 14,” as The Washington Post summarizes.
Many Republican voters have decided that they just don’t care. “I don’t really think it matters. I don’t think there’s any body to it,” one Nebraska voter at the rally told the Post, while his wife agreed, “People are going to say whatever they’re going to say, no matter who it is.”
Today’s Republican Party: the party of coup attempts and repeatedly shrugging off sexual misconduct allegations.
Evangelical Christian and Growing Pains actor Kirk Cameron showed off every bit of white privilege he has in a video promoting his upcoming documentary, The Homeschool Awakening. In a YouTube video posted on Saturday, Cameron included a trailer for the documentary promoting homeschooling as an alternative to traditional public school. After that trailer played, he went on to describe what he considered to be failings of the public education system. I know what you’re thinking if you haven’t seen the video yet: Why, it must be an analysis of the funding inequities that have for decades led to fewer resources for schools serving Black and brown students. That would be a worthy critique. Cameron, however, didn’t even attempt to broach the subject. Instead, he went on a rant about perceived immorality in public school education.
“Since the pandemic, we’ve been made grossly aware of the inaccurate and the immoral things that the public school system has been teaching our children and our grandchildren,” the actor said. “And it’s up to us as parents to cultivate the hearts and minds and souls of our children toward what is good, toward what is right, beautiful, and true.”
Cameron never mentioned critical race theory by name. But given he recently gave evangelical podcast host Josh Daws a platform to critic the framework as in “conflict with the gospel,” it’s not difficult to read between the lines of Cameron’s latest video.
“And the public school system, unfortunately, has not been working with us, but actively working against us,” the actor said. “In my opinion, the public school system has become public enemy No. 1.”
“We need to take back the education of our children because whoever controls the textbooks controls the future. Whoever’s shaping the hearts and minds and souls of our children will determine whether or not we live in a free country and we have freedom of speech, and economic freedom, and educational and political freedom, and religious freedom.”
Actor Kirk Cameron on his new movie ‘Home School Awakening:’ “We’ve become grossly aware of the inaccurate and immoral things that the public school system has been teaching our children .. The public school system has been public enemy number one.” pic.twitter.com/y0GWnqt7kG
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) May 1, 2022
It’s quite interesting that the response to Black people demanding an end to racial profiling, racism, and white supremacy is Republicans asserting that their freedom is being threatened. That presumed freedom to treat others as less than is as direct of an admission of white supremacy as we’re going to get.
Of course white supremacists would consider critical race theory a threat. That framework for interpreting law maintains racism has an undeniable effect on the legal foundation of American society. As such, the framework threatens to expose the white supremacists hiding among us.
Still, it was never widely taught in K-12 classrooms, and it would be pretty exclusively confined to law schools if not for Republicans redefining it to mean anything that reveals the truth of racism or prejudice in America. Their push has been to ban that redefinition in classrooms, which has often translated to districts attempting to water down the already bland representation of Black history in K-12 education. And it hasn’t stopped at Black history.
After Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the disgusting Don’t SayGaybill into law, which in effect bans educators from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity, copycat legislative proposals followed in more than a dozen other states, NPR reported.
To name a few: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Stopping to think about what your neighbors really mean when they hang the American flag is simply frightening. I can only pray that everyone doesn’t homeschool their children because in some cases, public school is a child’s only chance to interact with those of us who are kind, loving, and liberated.
A recent court filing included urgent texts sent by Jordan Fuchs, then Georgia’s deputy secretary of state, to Mark Meadows, then the White House chief of staff, during the phone call on which Donald Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes needed to flip the state to Trump.
”Need to end this call,” Fuch texted Meadows. “I don’t think this will be productive much longer.” She made the stakes clear when she added, “Let’s save the relationship.” But Trump was not interested in saving the relationship. He was interested in overturning his election loss.
That phone call is at the dead center of Willis’ investigation, but there are lots of other things for her to look into when a special grand jury, which will exist to investigate rather than issue indictments, is convened this week. Willis has said she won’t call witnesses who are currently candidates for office until after the May 24 primary, but she’s not going to wait until November’s general election. This is more urgent than that.
One of the candidates in that primary is David Perdue, the former senator defeated by Sen. Jon Ossoff in the January 2021 runoff election. Perdue is Trump’s chosen vehicle to challenge Gov. Brian Kemp because of Kemp’s refusal to participate in the effort to overturn Trump’s loss. Perdue is all in on Trump’s Big Lie now, and investigations are turning up evidence that he was active in the coup attempt at the time.
Texts Meadows turned over to the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol show Perdue reporting on his efforts to lobby Georgia officials to do Trump’s dirty work.
“Carr won’t be any help with SOS,” Perdue texted Meadows on Dec. 13, 2020, referring to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr. “I have a call into the Governor’s general counsel now to see if they might help.”
On Dec. 29, Perdue texted Meadows, “I’m trying to set up this call with state legislature leaders and Rudy [Giuliani]. I just want to make sure I’m doing what you and the president want.”
So Perdue has definitely earned a spot in the Georgia investigation, along with many others. In April, Willis told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that at least 50 people had voluntarily testified, while she planned to subpoena at least 30 more, including some of Trump’s inner circle. Raffensperger has told CNN he will cooperate if subpoenaed, and members of his staff have voluntarily testified. Raffensperger, Carr, Kemp, and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan have all received document preservation requests, but have been informed by Willis that they are likely not targets of the investigation.
As selection for the special grand jury is held Monday, officials are closing roads around the courthouse and dramatically increasing security, while prosecutors have been issued bulletproof vests. These measures come after a string of racist threats.
”I’ll tell your viewers and any other viewers: It does not offend me to call me Black. It just doesn’t. They’re wasting their time,” Willis on CNN in February. “However, they continue to send those very nasty messages. I’ve never been called the N-word so much in my life.” How surprising that the people opposing an investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election would go to racism in their threats. Nobody could have predicted.
A federal judge has ruled in favor of the Jan. 6 committee and has found that the Republican National Committee (RNC) cannot hide information about marketing materials it used to further ex-President Donald Trump’s lies about fraud in the 2020 election.
The decision was handed down by Trump appointee U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly and stems from a lawsuit that the party apparatus filed in response to a subpoena for records from investigators in February.
Not only did Kelly find that the RNC must soon part with some of its records barring a successful appeal, but critically, Kelly also tore asunder the most often used legal arguments by opponents to the investigation by affirming that the Jan. 6 committee is properly constituted and that its subpoenas have full legal effect.
The RNC, according to the 53-page opinion, will have a chance to appeal by May 5, so the records will not be transmitted immediately.
Investigators were specifically after materials the RNC sent out through massive software vendor Salesforce from Election Day 2020 through Jan. 6, 2021. They argued that reviewing this would give the panel a chance to determine the breadth and depth of the RNC’s push to its supporters about Trump’s “Big Lie.”
In March, a spokesman for the committee, Tim Mulvey, defended the panel’s lawsuit succinctly.
“These emails encouraged supporters to put pressure on Congress to keep President Trump in power,” Mulvey said.
The RNC sued to stop the subpoena issued to Salesforce, claiming gross overreach. They argued that compliance would give the Jan. 6 probe an “all-access pass” to confidential party strategies, fundraising appeals, and other sensitive member information.
In fact, he wrote, the Jan. 6 committee is not asking them to go about “producing any disaggregated information about any RNC’s donors, volunteers, or email recipients, including any person’s personally identifiable information.
“Moreover even the RNC’s own confidential information that is undeniably at issue is relatively narrow in scope,” he continued.
The suggestion that the initial subpoena from investigators exploring the Jan. 6 attack is little more than a bald attempt to expose competing inner party workings was shot down, too.
Kelly did acknowledge, however, that those sentiments may very well be reasonable “given the obvious political dynamics involved” of the day and the “unusual” circumstances and demands now present in this “exceedingly rare spectacle of a congressional committee subpoenaing the records of one of our country’s two major political parties.”
Nonetheless, there are still several conflicts within the RNC’s attempt to stop the transfer of records and discredit the panel.
In short, Kelly explained that the Jan. 6 committee is properly authorized and rightfully constituted to do its work because its members were lawfully appointed and are valid representatives on a special committee that operates within the confines of the legislative branch.
There was also an explicit win tucked into the ruling for Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who has borne seemingly endless political attacks since disavowing Trump’s incitement of an insurrection at the Capitol.
In the myriad reasons the RNC claimed the subpoena was unenforceable, it cited a line from the select committee’s authorizing resolution, or in simpler terms, what amounts to its founding charter.
The authorizing resolution notes that Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, when issuing a subpoena, must consult with the body’s “ranking minority member.” The RNC argued that Cheney, despite being the most senior Republican on the probe, was not officially given the title of “ranking minority member,” therefore making the subpoenas bunk.
But again, Kelly found otherwise.
“True, for whatever reason the select committee did not give her—or anyone else—the formal title ‘ranking member.’ But to the extent there is any uncertainty about whether she fits the bill, on this record the Court must defer to the select committee’s decision to treat Representative Cheney as the ranking minority member for consultation purposes,” he wrote.
Sunday’s ruling is important for the committee because it further dilutes most contentions put forward by a wide array of Jan. 6 investigation critics and targets alike, from Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy who has blasted the committee since its inception, to former Trump administration officials like Peter Navarro who have dubbed the body a partisan witch hunt comprising “domestic terrorists.”
One month after trundling out of Washington, D.C., with nothing but a few Ted Cruz photo ops under their belt, the “People’s Convoy” protest—a sort of rolling roadshow of far right-wing “Patriot” grievance, modeled after the truckers’ protest that shut down Ottawa in February—is still going, sort of, and can’t figure out when to call things quits.
The whole affair took on ominous undertones this weekend when, upon reaching the Pacific Northwest, shots were fired after protesters attempted harassing them from a freeway overpass. A badly organized rally in Olympia the next day was just a circus of far-right conspiracism and extremism. And at its end, the convoy organizers announced they intend to return to D.C., and this time they “mean business.”
The convoy, as it announced when it left Washington, headed to California so it could travel to Sacramento and protest the state Legislature over health mandates and “critical race theory”—which it did, to relatively little effect. It kept going after that, attempting to harass individual legislators by traveling to the home of a California Democratic leader in Oakland.
However, that protest turned into a fiasco for the convoy when they found themselves stuck on narrow streets in the middle of neighborhoods, leaving them sitting ducks for teenagers who began pelting them with eggs. One video showed a trucker getting out of his cab to confront his tormentors and being forced to flee back inside.
The protest then turned north and passed through the Portland area on Friday, which is where it encountered protesters along Interstate 205 northbound, as Vishal P. Singh reported for Kos. Videos recorded on livestreams show that about four or five people—one of whom draped a banner over the railing—threw objects at the trucks, in response to which someone from within the convoy fired gunshots directed at them; the same livestreams showed shots being fired at an overpass several miles farther north as well.
The first encounter occurred in Portland near the intersection of Interstates 205 and 84 at the overpass on Glisan Street, which cannot be accessed from the freeway. Video shows three or four people tossing objects—which appear mostly to be eggs and paint-filled balloons—in the direction of the trucks, which have stopped in a line across the three lanes of the freeway.
At one point, a fire truck participating in the convoy got out a water cannon and sprayed it in the direction of the protesters—but to no effect, since its range was too short. Eventually, as the protesters appeared to be leaving, one of the convoy participants could be seen pulling out a pistol, and several gunshots could be heard.
Then, 18 miles farther north on I-205, across the Columbia River near its junction with Interstate 5 in Vancouver, Washington, members of the convoy again apparently opened fire on people standing on the 134th Street overpass. One livestreamer claimed they were throwing objects, but their video showed the person standing on the overpass above them was waving a flag and appeared to be a supporter; nonetheless, in another video of drivers approaching that scene, multiple gunshots can be heard coming from the convoy.
Finally, in a video collected by antifascist activist @Johnthelefty, a police officer catches up with the caravan in Vancouver and, rather than inquire about the gunfire, chats with the activists agreeably and shakes their hands.
The convoys’ supporters thought the gunfire was justified. On Twitter, one of them posted:
What SHOULD people do if gangs of transvestite communist ninjas organize to try to cause accidents by throwing paint-bombs at Semi-truck windshields?
Well… These guys decided “Shoot the Bastards” is the appropriate response.
Pretty sure society is all reaching this conclusion.
The next morning, the convoy headed north to Olympia, where the plan was to hold a rally at the state Capitol. The “People’s Convoy” group arriving from the south were met by smaller convoys arriving from northern parts of Puget Sound (including Whidbey Island) and the Seattle Eastside. The majority of these vehicles were four-wheelers festooned with banners.
But after pulling up their big rigs and parking along the avenues to the east of the Capitol, the convoy participants got out to discover that the 1 p.m. rally they were supposed to be attending was barely in motion. The livestreamer who operates 1st Responders Media, Josue “Big Joe” Felix, could be seen wandering the grounds in search of the rally venue, muttering: “I do not know where the rally’s gonna be at!”
It turned out to be a very small affair involving a few dozen people, taking place under and around some red portable shelters near the Tivoli Fountain, about 1/8 mile from the Capitol itself. And as it got underway under a drenching downpour, it became clear that its chief organizers—a group called We The People Against Communism (WTPAC)—were extremist conspiracy theorists of the first rank.
The first speaker was a woman from WTPAC who launched into a rant claiming that “democracy is socialism”:
We’re all sitting around waiting for voting to change what’s going on, and I need to tell you guys it’s not gonna change it. You guys have voted and voted and voted and voted and voted and where has it got us? Communism! Communism!
The next thing you guys need to figure out is you need to ask all your political candidates why do they support democracy? Democracy is socialism, socialism is communism, and that is how we got here! Democracy is not for the Republic!
America was founded upon God, and it is a Republic, not a democracy! And we need to remember that, and it is time that we stand up and defend! Our! Country!
We own it! The government does not own it! It is ours! We! Pay! Them!
Reverting to a bullhorn, she continued to rant that “we are going to take on the hospitals and the pharmacies,” and urged the rain-drenched audience: “And if you still have kids in school, get! Them! Out! These schools are just Communist government-ran camps! Get your children out of public school! Collapse the system! That’s how we win!”
One speaker defended Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, the Proud Boy currently in prison awaiting trial on charges involving his participation in protest violence in Portland in August 2020; another was a trucker who urged the Olympia gathering to get out larger crowds.
But the most striking speaker was a woman, apparently a member of WTPAC, who told the crowd she was born and raised in China and served in its military before coming to the United States after the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989, and had brought to the rally a sign proclaiming: “Stop CCP [Chinese Communist Party] Infiltration”.
“The CCP is the root of all evil,” she claimed. “They helped Joe Biden steal President Trump’s presidency.”
She went on to claim that COVID-19 was a Chinese bioweapon: “This time, so-called COVID-19, the Wuhan virus, we call it the CCP virus,” she said. “It unleashed a virus to attack the United States. Lock you down, into your house, wherever, so that you are not allowed to get together like this, we are today.”
She also claimed that Zoom and TikTok were part of a Chinese plot to collect facial-recognition data on everyone, “what you do, what is your social circle. This is a planned attack, planted by the CCP.” She also claimed that the Biden administration is releasing Chinese spies, and now Chinese intelligence is attacking “me and my colleagues here,” and that she and her family have been threatened. She then launched into a rant claiming that Biden is a puppet of Chinese Communists:
Biden is the biggest traitor I have ever seen in the United States! Biden, his brother James Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden, under this so-called fake president! He is not what we voted! He stole the position! But under the help of the Chinese Communist Party, CCP. We must not give up. And Biden is treason, and Biden is a traitor. That’s why, when we welcomed him, the slogan I had on the red curtain, banner, it said: ‘Impeach Traitor Joe Biden.’
One of the final speakers was a convoy leader named David Riddell, from Lebanon, Ohio, known among the truckers and their online fans as “Santa,” thanks to his beard and portly appearance. Riddell appeared to be taking on the role of convoy spokesperson, announcing that they were next taking their roadshow to Post Falls, Idaho, where the owners of a speedway had offered to host them, and they planned to spend at least week figuring out their next step.
But Riddell also made clear that their convoy protest would not end. Rather, they planned to return to Washington, D.C., in part because it was clear they felt humiliated:
You made fun of us, you placated us with cute little words, and you came out and had your little photo op meetings with us, that’s going to happen no more.
When we go back to D.C., we are not the same convoy that went there the first time. We are not the same convoy that left there. We are coming back with teeth and a backbone! That’s all there is to it! We are going there and we will be heard!
I don’t think they understand the sincerity and the hearts of American Patriots today! We are totally fed up with tyranny!
However, there never was a point in the event when it was clear exactly what they were protesting in Olympia—since most mandates in Washington state have been or are being rescinded—or what their demands might be. Instead, it was just Patriot movement angst:
So we’re going back to D.C. We want you to join with us. Come from wherever you are. Start forming your convoys. We’re doing the same thing we did before, but this time we’re serious about it. We’ve learned some stuff since last time. We’re going back there, and we’re going to be heard. How many’s gonna go with us?
We’re going in to do business. We don’t need 100 trucks. We don’t need 200 trucks. We don’t need 500 four-wheelers. We need tens of thousands of all you to get in your vehicles, join with us, and come to Washington, D.C.
You’ve taken our money and put it back into special interest groups that does not represent the people, and we’re coming to make sure that you understand that we’re not happy with that! We’re tired of that. The American people are fed up—we’re fed up with that nonsense. You’re struggling from week to week and trying to pay your bills, so some fat cat in Washington sells off his special-interest group and they buy him a house and give him a plane ticket to a great vacation somewhere, where you’re hoping just to go to an amusement park somewhere with your family! They tax you to death and do not represent you.
Just as their demands and their entire purpose is unclear, the “People’s Convoy” is also unclear about how it is able to keep operating, especially for people who claim to be barely able to live paycheck to paycheck. That fundraising income must be a powerful incentive to just keep going and going anyway.
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Daniel Donner, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
●GA-Gov: As he always does when one of his endorsees starts to falter, Donald Trump is now inching away from his choice to unseat Gov. Brian Kemp in the May 24 GOP primary. “Remember, you know, my record is unblemished,” Trump told the New York Times‘ Reid Epstein on Thursday. “The real story should be on the endorsements—not the David Perdue one—and, by the way, no race is over.”
Of course, Trump’s record is very, very blemished, with dozens of failures under his belt, including some high-profile debacles this cycle (check in with Susan Wright and Sean Parnell for more). But Trump’s approach is even more confused than usual, since as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution‘s Greg Bluestein notes, he simultaneously appears to be amping up his efforts on behalf of Perdue, with a “tele-rally” set for Monday and continued spending to boost Perdue from Trumpworld.
There’s still plenty of time, though, for Trump to disavow Perdue before the primary, but given the lack of alternatives—Trump actually helped ease Kemp’s other challenger, former state Rep. Vernon Jordan, out of the race in February—and his towering hatred of the incumbent, he may just stick with the ex-senator until the very end. That end may come pretty soon: A new poll from SurveyUSA, taken for WXIA, gives Kemp a commanding 56-31 lead over Perdue, which makes it the fourth poll in a row to show the governor winning the majority he needs to avert a runoff.
Redistricting
●NY Redistricting: The New York trial court judge now tasked with implementing new congressional and state Senate districts following a decision by the state’s top court to strike down both maps has postponed affected primaries from June 28 to Aug. 23. If this order stands, then unless lawmakers act, the state will host two separate primaries, with all other races on the ballot on the original date in June.
Judge Patrick McAllister also issued a separate order giving Carnegie Mellon’s Dr. Jonathan Cervas, the special master who will actually draw new maps, until May 16 to submit his proposals; the order says the court will issue final maps by May 20. The court will hold a hearing on the matter on May 6.
Senate
●OH-Sen: Protect Ohio Values has dropped one more poll from Fabrizio, Lee & Associates that shows its man, venture capitalist J.D. Vance, beating Josh Mandel 31-19 in Tuesday’s Republican primary, which is an improvement from his 25-18 edge a week before. The Peter Thiel-funded group, though, is still treating the former state treasurer as a threat, as it’s launched a new ad that essentially goes after Mandel for being involved in pre-Trump Republican politics.
The spot features footage of John McCain, Mitt Romney, and then-Gov. John Kasich praising Mandel, with the late McCain calling him a “centrist.” The narrator also twice uses one of Mandel’s favorite insults against him by dubbing him a “squish.”
●OK-Sen-B: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who perhaps thinks he has far more appeal in Oklahoma than he actually has, stars in a new $750,000 ad buy from Protect Freedom PAC in support of Republican state Sen. Nathan Dahm in the June 28 primary. Paul tells the audience, “Nathan Dahm will join me in demanding that Fauci is fired and removed from office,” which may have sounded tougher on the page than it does out loud.
Democratic incumbents are currently defending Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and New Hampshire, while Wisconsin has a GOP incumbent and Pennsylvania is a Republican open seat. The DSCC’s reservations follow on the recent news of both main super PACs in Senate races, Senate Majority PAC for Democrats and the Senate Leadership Fund for Republicans, placing their initial fall ad reservations, each of which were significantly higher at more than $100 million. However, the DSCC’s initial reservations almost certainly will grow as the cycle progresses. The DSCC’s GOP counterpart, the NRSC, has yet to reveal its fall ad reservation plan.
Notably, the DSCC is the first of the three groups with reported reservations that included New Hampshire, where Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan is seeking a second term, while both they and SMP omitted North Carolina, a state Trump won by less than two points with a Republican-held open seat that SLF included on their defense list.
Governors
●AZ-Gov: The August Republican primary got a little smaller and perhaps significantly less expensive on Thursday evening when wealthy businessman Steve Gaynor, who narrowly lost the 2018 general election for secretary of state, dropped out. While Gaynor, thanks to significant self-funding, ended March with a significant cash-on-hand edge over the rest of the field, he said he’d concluded his “chance of winning is low enough to be unrealistic.”
●GA-Gov, GA-Sen, GA-SoS: SurveyUSA’s new poll for WXIA finds a split decision in Georgia’s marquee contests this fall. The GOP comes out on top in the race for governor, with Gov. Brian Kemp leading Democrat Stacey Abrams 50-45 and former Sen. David Perdue sporting a slightly smaller 49-46 edge. In the race for Senate, however, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock enjoys a 50-45 advantage over former football star Herschel Walker, his likely GOP opponent.
In addition to their general election numbers, SurveyUSA also tested several primaries a bit further down the ballot (as well as the Kemp-vs.-Perdue matchup we mentioned in our top item). Interestingly, the firm diverges with the University of Georgia when it comes to the GOP’s contest for secretary of state. SurveyUSA shows incumbent Brad Raffensperger leading Trump’s endorsed candidate, Rep. Jody Hice, 31-20, while UGA recently had Raffensperger ahead by a considerably smaller 28-26; still, both polls have him well below the majority he’d need to avoid a second round in June, and many voters undecided.
The pollster also takes a look at the Democratic contest, finding that even fewer voters have made up their minds. They show state Rep. Bee Nguyen beating Michael Owens, who unsuccessfully sought the 13th Congressional District in the 2014 and 2020 primaries, by just a 12-9 margin, with 60% undecided. Nguyen, though, has widespread backing from the party establishment and recently began running ads, so her lead is only likely to grow.
●MD-Gov: Former nonprofit head Wes Moore has earned the endorsement of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who is a longtime congressman from the D.C. suburbs, for the July Democratic primary. Hoyer’s boss, the Baltimore-born Speaker Nancy Pelosi, previously backed former DNC chair Tom Perez.
●NE-Gov: University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen has released an internal from WPA Intelligence that shows him narrowly edging out wealthy businessman Charles Herbster 24-23 in the May 10 GOP primary, with state Sen. Brett Lindstrom at 20%.
A recent survey from Data Targeting for Neilan Strategy Group, which said it wasn’t working on behalf of any candidate or allied group, found things comparably close, though the order of the candidates was different: That firm gave Lindstrom a 28-26 advantage over Herbster, while Pillen took third with 24%. These are the only two polls we’ve seen since the Nebraska Examiner published an April 14 story where Republican state Sen. Julie Slama and seven other women accused Herbster of groping and other forms of sexual assault.
●PA-Gov: The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Andrew Seidman reports that “most Pennsylvania Republican insiders” are fretting that state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who recently addressed a QAnon-aligned conference, could win the May 17 primary and jeopardize the party’s chances in the fall, but it remains to be seen if there will be any organized attempt to stop him. A newly established group called Pennsylvania Patriots for Election Integrity has launched a TV buy in rural areas that, improbable as it sounds, tries to out-Big Lie the Big Lie fanatic by claiming Mastriano “failed to audit the 2020 election,” but so far only $250,000 is going to the effort.
Mastriano has also been taking hits on TV from former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain for supporting what his campaign calls “the unconstitutional mail-in voting law” that the Republican-run legislature passed in 2019 before Trump and his allies started to wage war on vote-by-mail. (Pennsylvania Patriots also hit Mastriano over mail-in voting.) The former prosecutor himself got some incredibly bad news weeks ago when his old boss, Donald Trump, implored Republicans not to vote for him, but McSwain is still strong in one area: Seidman writes that he has $3.4 million in TV ads reserved for the primary, more than many of his numerous intra-party rivals.
One of those other candidates is former Rep. Lou Barletta, who is now under attack by a group ostensibly set up to help him. Fellow Inquirer reporter Chris Brennan writes that an organization called the 1776 Project Committee registered in the state back in February as a pro-Barletta group, and it went on to set up a website bashing McSwain. Now, though, the 1776 Project has started running digital ads against Barletta dubbing him “Lobbyist Lou.” Brennan writes that the group, which as of Friday still lists itself as supporting Barletta, has not explained its apparent betrayal.
●RI-Gov: Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea has publicized a Lake Research Partners poll that shows her beating Gov. Dan McKee 30-24 in the September Democratic primary, with former Secretary of State Matt Brown taking 10%. This is the first survey we’ve seen of this race all year.
House
●FL-15: Political consultant Gavin Brown has announced that he’ll seek the Democratic nomination for this new 51-48 Trump seat in the northeast Tampa suburbs, arguing that it’s vital to have “candidates who can compromise in the middle.” Brown, who would be the star’s first LGBTQ member of Congress, joins a primary that includes comedian Eddie Geller. The GOP side pits former Rep. Dennis Ross, who represented a previous version of the 15th District, against state Rep. Jackie Toledo.
●FL-23: While Democratic state Sen. Gary Farmer expressed interest earlier this year in campaigning to succeed retiring Rep. Ted Deutch, he’s instead filed to run for a local judgeship.
●OH-11: Rep. Shontel Brown earned an endorsement from President Joe Biden on Friday just ahead of her May 3 Democratic primary rematch against former state Sen. Nina Turner.
●TX-28: AIPAC’s new United Democracy Project is spending at least $333,000 against attorney Jessica Cisneros ahead of her May 24 Democratic runoff against conservative Rep. Henry Cuellar, with its TV ad arguing she would jeopardize Border Patrol jobs.
Ad Roundup
Dollar amounts reflect the reported size of ad buys and may be larger.
Good morning, and welcome once again to our revered Monday C&J series: Is This Bipartisan Enough For Ya, Senators?
With the midterm primary season finally upon us, we thought we’d revisit the pulse of the For the People Act, which would include “15 days of early voting, same-day registration, and limiting the ability of states to curb the use of mail voting and ballot boxes. It would also rewrite federal campaign finance rules and establish nonpartisan redistricting commissions to end partisan gerrymandering.”
Two things we know for sure. 1) Republicans are now hellbent on passing a blizzard of laws that legally take away voting rights from Democrats while rigging the system so that we lose even if we get the most votes, and 2) a pair of Democrats—one from West Virginia, one from Arizona—refuse to make even a small carve-out exception to filibuster rules so that the FTPA can be passed to stop Republicans from their power grab. So let’s remind everyone what Republican voters in West Virginia and Arizona think of all this.…
Continued…
Polling shows that Republicans in Arizona and West Virginia overwhelmingly support the sweeping election bill. […] In West Virginia, 76 percent of registered GOP voters support the For the People Act. In Arizona, the bill has support from 78 percent of registered Republicans and 75 percent support from voters who backed Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
The End Citizens United/Let America Vote Action Fund survey, first shared with Newsweek, found HR 1—also known as the For the People Act—to be extremely popular among all voters in both states.
In West Virginia, respondents supported the bill by 79 percent. In Arizona, 84 percent of likely voters supported the bill, and 73 percent “strongly” backed the voting rights legislation.
Ding Ding Ding!!! Americans love it! Get on it, Senate—the For the People Act is still a bipartisan winner!
Join us next time for another exciting edition of Is This Bipartisan Enough For Ya, Senators?
And now, our feature presentation…
–
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, May 2, 2022
Note: I have good news: I just purchased Twitter for $50 billion dollars. I also have bad news: You’re all co-signers. I’m Bill in Portland Maine…and this concludes my Contract Signature Forgery 101 Master Class.
CHEERS to May! The month of flowers, Mom’s Day, Teachers Day (the 3rd), Armed Forces Day, Victoria Day, Lost Sock Memorial Day, National Pet Week, “End of the Middle Ages” Day (May 29—for Republicans a day of mourning), and Cinco de Mayo. Midterm primaries break out, with Democrats choosing between candidates who love their country, and Republicans choosing between candidates who don’t.
Also this month: the Russki Turret Frisbee Olympics continue.
It’s National Hamburger Month for carnivores and National Salad Month for vegetarians. The Webby Awards (and their famous 5-word acceptance speeches) will be awarded on the 16th, a week after the Pulitzer Prizes are announced on the 9th. Memorial Day weekend kicks off the summer season in 25 days, but not before we celebrate Star Wars Day (i.e. “May the Fourth Be With You”) and mark the 52nd anniversary of the Kent State shootings. Full moon arrives on the 16th, so make a note to look up, think of Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins, and give it a wink. As for new movies and streaming stuffs, lots of what looks like forgettable murder, horror, and mayhem, but they all pale to the bantha in the room: the premiere of Obi-Wan Kenobi on the 27th on Satan’s Channel, aka Disney Plus.
And after a two-year pandemic-related hiatus, we’re happy to report that the Daily Kos contributing editors will once again dress in their frilly best this afternoon to dance around the Maypole. Also once again, they’ll end up with a bent pole, a huge granny knot, and a great big pile of phone-cams with their memories erased. Vive le return to normalcy.
JEERS to election skullduggery. Everybody heard our previous president try to coerce election officials in Georgia to “find” thousands of non-existence votes for him in order to cheat his way to a second term. I’m not sure if you know this, but—[whispers]—election fraud is illegal. Like, really, really illegal. And that’s why all eyes are on Fulton County today, where members of a special grand jury are being selected in anticipation of the Trial Of The Century:
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis asked a panel of judges in January for the special grand jury because of “information indicating a reasonable probability” that the election “was subject to possible criminal disruptions.”
Guilty!!!
Willis has said in interviews that the investigation includes a January 2, 2021 phone call in which Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, “I just want to find 11,780 votes.” Trump lost the state to Joe Biden by that margin—an outcome that was affirmed by several recounts. […]
Trump said in a January 20statement that “My phone call to the Secretary of State of Georgia was perfect.”
If charges end up being filed and Trump loses at trial, he could spend up to three years in prison. Perfect.
CHEERS to the days of lollipops and surpluses. On May 2, 1997, President Clinton and congressional Republicans came to terms on a plan to balance the budget over five years. Said Newt Gingrich of the bipartisan agreement: “This is a great moment for our children and our grandchildren and our country, and we are proud to be part of that.” Fourteen years later, as a presidential candidate, Gingrich foolishly raised his hand when asked if he would veto a budget with ten dollars in cuts for every 1 dollar in revenue increases. But in fairness, he did also offer jobs to our children and grandchildren. As janitors. On the moon. Amazingly, he didn’t become president.
CHEERS to redemption. It doesn’t happen often enough, but it does happen. A leader in the American Nazi movement has seen the error of his ways, burned his swastika armband, snapped his tiki torch in two, donated his khaki pants and polo shirt to Goodwill, moved to Norway, and embraced the reality-based left:
Evan McLaren, who played a pivotal role in the American white supremacist “alt-right” movement and attended a deadly fascist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, published a surprise statement Thursday renouncing his past racist and anti-Semitic activism.
McLaren’s conversion from the dark side was confirmed when he no longer broke down in tears of sadness while being shown a photo of the liberation of Paris.
“I am not and never will be connected to the far-right again,” McLaren wrote in the statement, published on Substack. “My revulsion for conservatism and the political right wing is total. I reject and disavow my past actions, views, and associations.” […]
It makes him one of the most high-profile defectors from right-wing extremism in recent memory. In his statement, McLaren, 37, said he is sorry for his white nationalist activism―which he described as “a desperate, foolish mistake, damaging to others, to myself, and to society”—but says he doesn’t expect, and isn’t asking for, any kind of absolution.
McLaren says he now listens to liberal podcasts like The Majority Report. Wow—from Hitler to Sam Seder. I hope his brain has supplemental whiplash insurance.
CHEERS to a memorable growth spurt. 91 years ago this week, in 1931, the Empire State Buildingwas dedicated. It was the tallest building in the pleasant village of New York until 1972, when the World Trade Center rose above it. It regained its “tallest” status in the worst possible way 28 years later. But today it plays third fiddle to the new One World Trade Center tower and the luxury apartments of 432 Park Avenue. There, there, Empire State—if it’s any consolation, King Kong always liked you best.
–
Ten years ago in C&J: May 2, 2012
JEERS to my Alma Mater. Yeah, I graduated from Otterbein University (Class of ’86) in the lovely dry town of Westerville, Ohio. Yeah, they invited Mitt Romney to speak there last week. Yeah, he said something stupid:
If you’re young and you want to start your own business, Mitt Romney’s has some advice from you: Borrow money from your parents. At a “lecture” for students at Otterbein University in Ohio today, Mitt Romney told students that, his friend, Jimmy John, started a business by borrowing $20,000 from his parents at a low interest rate. Romney suggested anyone in the audience could do the same.
These days it’d be pretty easy: Mom and Dad can have the dog take the check downstairs to the basement where Junior will be crashing on an air mattress because Republicans destroyed the economy and our employment outlook. I hope the kid figures out why it’s made of rubber before he tries to cash it.
–
And just one more…
CHEERS to blowing this popsicle stand. Whenever the shit gets too deep here on the bluish-brown marble, I head over to NASA’s site to see if our new Space Force—still a thing under the iron-fisted rule of Darth Biden—is conquering every ball of gas and rock in the known galaxy. Sorry to say the answer is no (although that little helicopter on Mars is still doing cool stuff) so we’ll just have to spend our days and nights gazing yonward and dreaming. This month’s major celestial events are a lunar eclipse and lots of hot planet-on-planet action. Here’s NASA with your monthly preview:
