Independent News

This post was originally published on this site

There were weeks of discussions drumming up support for so-called election fraud claims. There was strategy and gaming-out of unconstitutional theory in support of a president who was willing to usurp the will of over 80 million voters in order to remain in the White House. And when the mob finally arrived—as incited—there was fear. Then, long after they left, there was talk of invoking martial law. 

These are just shades of what was exposed Monday when CNN exclusively obtained and published a portion of some 2,319 text messages that former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows turned over to the Jan. 6 committee before abruptly ending his cooperation last year. 

RELATED STORY: Former Trump aide says Meadows was warned about violence coming to D.C. on Jan. 6

The messages stretch from Election Day through the inauguration of President Joe Biden and come from a wide cast of high-ranking White House officials as well as Trump’s closest family members, attorneys, and allies in and outside Washington. 

There are heaps of messages from sitting Congress members and Trump’s reelection campaign staffers, too, as well as organizers who planned rallies for Jan. 6. in D.C. 

Meadows is presently battling the committee to keep any further testimony and records hidden. And while the Justice Department idles on an indictment for Meadows following his criminal contempt of Congress referral from the House, the committee is aggressively pursuing access to key information through the courts—and airing out damning witness testimony it has received in the process. 

RELATED STORY: Texts show they were all in for Trump overturning the election—until a lack of key evidence got in the way

Election Day and through November

Before Monday’s dump of text messages, it was already established by the committee that Meadows was effectively ground zero for grievances about Trump’s defeat in 2020. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., just 48 hours after the election and as votes were still being counted, messaged Meadows: “We have operational control Total leverage. Moral High Ground POTUS must start 2nd term now.”  

And it was already revealed that in the days right after the election others, like Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, flooded Meadows with texts. Though they privately sought guidance from the White House on how to promote Trump’s conspiracy theories and effectively overturn the election results, in public they acknowledged Biden as the rightful victor.

According to the new messages made public Monday, from Nov. 3 to Nov. 22, Meadows was fielding texts from people like Fox News personality Sean Hannity and American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, husband to former Trump White House aide Mercedes Schlapp.

Hannity wanted Meadows to give him guidance about which states to discuss on air. Schlapp told Meadows to get “4 or 5 killers” to make the case in remaining battleground counties and states. 

“Need outsiders who will torch the place. Local folks won’t do it. Lawyers and operators. Get us in these states. Worried that ronna not in mi,” Schlapp wrote, appearing to refer to Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. [Text message punctuation and abbreviation original]

Meadows replied: “I may need you and Mercy to go to PA.”

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona also pitched Meadows right after the election, suggesting to Trump’s chief of staff that states’ legislatures should step in and appoint new electors. 

“If I understand right most of those states have Republican Legislature’s. It seems to be comport with glorified Bush as well as the Constitution. And, well highly controversial, it can’t be much more controversial than the lunacy that were sitting out there now. And It would be pretty difficult because he would take governors and legislators with collective will and backbone to do that. Is anybody on the team researching and considering lobbying for that? [Spelling, grammar original]

Meadows was thrilled.

“I love it,” he wrote. 

Before Thanksgiving, others like Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Trump spokesman Jason Miller shared their strategies and conspiracy theories. Perry, according to one text sent less than one week after the election, told Meadows that he had the “silver bullet” to prove fraud. 

“Pam Bondi has seen and agrees,” Perry said. 

Perry has denied sending the texts but CNN says they route back to his number and name.

It was revealed in 2016 that the Trump Foundation illegally donated $25,000 to a group that supported Bondi’s run for Florida Attorney General. 

As for Jason Miller, he, like many others in Trump’s orbit, pumped Meadows with Soros-based conspiracies. Ginni Thomas, the Republican activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was also lighting up Meadows’s phone. 

On Nov. 22, Thomas asked Meadows why it seemed that distance was being created between the Trump administration and Sidney Powell. 

“She doesn’t have anything or at least she won’t share it if she does,” Meadows said of Powell. 

RELATED STORY: Nothing to see here says pro-Trump election lie advocate, Ginni Thomas

A frantic December

By December, Trump was enduring defeat repeatedly in the courts and, in reality, the doors to his pathway to victory had long slammed shut. 

Meanwhile, meetings at the Willard Hotel with administration officials and attorneys like Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis were rolling, according to records and depositions already obtained by the committee.  

One of the self-professed coordinators of those meetings, former New York Police Department Commissioner Bernie Kerik, told Meadows he was on the way from the battleground state of Michigan to Arizona on Dec. 1.

“We’re going to need a hotel for the team and two vehicles to pick us up,” Kerik said. 

It is unclear if Meadows responded. 

That same day, Trump’s spokesman Schlapp sent a text saying he was prepared to walk the attorney general through the evidence. 

Attorney General Bill Barr would resign two weeks later after a blowout with Trump over their divergent views on election fraud; Barr found none. 

Interestingly, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, texted Meadows four days later with a link to a site fact-checking a presentation by Giuliani in Georgia suggesting, falsely, that suitcases were stuffed with bogus ballots at a Georgia polling center.  

Kelli Ward, the Arizona GOP chairwoman, also sent Meadows semi-regular texts through December and purported to have the goods and sources of election fraud in her state. Ward told Meadows she reached out to Trump’s executive assistant with the proposals and a person in her state that could help advance their agenda.

“I will call him,” Meadows wrote on Dec. 9.

Mere days before Christmas, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell also reached out in a rambling message, writing to Meadows that he heard talk of plans to seize voting machines.

“Everything Sidney has said is true!” Lindell wrote of attorney Sidney Powell’s voting machine conspiracy theory. “We have to get the machines and everything we already have proves the President won by millions of votes! I have read and not validated yet that you and others talked him out of seizing them… If true .. I pray it is part of a bigger plan... I am grateful that on the night of the election the algorithms of the corrupt machines broke and they realized our president would win in spite of the historical fraud!” Lindell wrote. [Emphasis original] “I look for deviations every day in my business … when I find one I investigate relentlessly until I know why it happened and how it happened… ( this is my gift from God that has made my business so successful) From 11:15 pm on the night of the election I have spent all my time running impossible deviations and numbers from this election… I also was blessed to be able to get info and help Sidney Lin General Flynn and everyone else out there gathering all the massive evidence! I have been sickened by politicians ( especially republicans ) judges, the media not wanting to see the truth ( no matter what the truth would be!) This is the biggest cover up of one of the worst crimes in history! I have spent over a million$ to help uncover this fraud and used my platform so people can get the word not to give up! The people on both sides have to see the truth and when they do …. there will not be no civil war , people ( including politicians!) are fearing! The only thing any of us should fear is fear of the Lord! Every person on this planet needs to know the truth and see the evidence!!! Mark .. God has his hand in all of this and has put you on the front line… I will continue praying for you to have great wisdom and discernment! Blessings Mike”

“Thanks brother. Pray for a miracle,” Meadows responded. 

Powell was sued for defamation by Dominion Voting Systems after claiming that the company used rigged machines manipulated by foreign entities. When pressed in court and facing high fines, Powell chalked up her own statements to opinion and said “reasonable people” would not accept what she said as fact. She lost the suit and was ordered to pay damages. 

As for members of Congress, in December, Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama called on Meadows for advice on how to handle press calling his office about the GOP’s strategy for Jan. 6. 

“Does the White House want me to reply or be mum? Also, it is one thing to discuss (in general terms) our meeting beforehand. It is another to discuss afterwards. If you believe discussion is a positive, I suggest message should be: 1. Progress is being made. 2. More are joining our fight. 3. We can’t allow voter fraud & election theft occur if we are going to be a republic. Your choice. Let me know,” Brooks wrote.

Energy Secretary Perry followed up on his texts to Meadows a few days after Brooks reached out, noting that time was running out until Jan. 6. There were just 25 days until inauguration, he noted. 

“We gotta get going,” Perry wrote on Dec. 26. 

Then, he urged Meadows to call “Clark” multiple times over the next two days, making a reference to Jeffrey Clark, Trump’s pick at the Department of Justice. Clark, according to testimony already provided to the committee, was preparing a scheme to oust the current leadership at the Justice Department at Trump’s behest. 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia buzzed Meadows on New Year’s Eve. 

“Good morning Mark, I’m here in DC. We have to get organized for the 6th. I would like to meet with Rudy Giuliani again. We didn’t get to speak with him long. Also anyone who can help. We are getting a lot of members on board. And we need to lay out the best case for each state. I’ll be over at CPI this afternoon,” she wrote. 

January

As the nation careened toward the day Congress would meet to certify electors, Meadows was also at the fore of messages around the planning of the Jan. 6 rally at the Ellipse. 

In one message, Trump adviser Katrina Pierson appeared exasperated and worried about the event ahead. 

On Jan. 2, she texted Meadows: “Good afternoon, would you mind giving me a call re: this Jan 6th event. Things have gotten crazy and I desperately need some direction. Please.”

Tension was dogging the ranks of rally organizers at the time. ProPublica reported last summer that text messages it obtained indicated organizers knew threats of violence were possible on Jan. 6 and that local law enforcement would be taxed if things got out of hand. There was also the growing issue of more extreme right-wing allies and conspiracy theory peddlers who wanted in on Trump’s event at the Ellipse. 

To keep the optics clean, Pierson reportedly led a plan to have certain speakers deemed “too extreme” to instead speak at events scheduled for Jan. 5. Alex Jones and ‘Stop the Steal’ rally organizer Ali Alexander would end up speaking to Trump’s supporters that night. Ali Alexander led a group of protesters that night in a chant of “Victory or death!”

Pierson and Women for America First chair Amy Kremer were in agreement over the decision but on Jan. 3, Pierson texted Meadows again and told him to “scratch” her earlier request for help. 

“Caroline Wren has decided to move forward with the original psycho list. Apparently Dan Scavino approved??” Pierson wrote.

She added: “So I’m done. I can’t be part of embarrassing POTUS any further.”

A few days later, Jim Jordan texted Meadows. 

It was 24 hours before certification and Jordan sent a message saying Pence, as president of the Senate, should object to votes he believed were unconstitutional. 

Jordan has chalked up that message to a forward he sent from the inspector general at the Pentagon, Joseph Schmitz.

The message read:

”On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all — in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence. ‘No legislative act,’ wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 78, ‘contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.’ ‘The court in Hubbard v. Lowe reinforced this truth: ”That an unconstitutional statute is not a law at all is a proposition no longer open to discussion.’ ‘226 F. 135, 137 (SDNY 1915), appeal dismissed, 242 U.S. 654 (1916). ‘ Following this rationale, an unconstitutionally appointed elector, like an unconstitutionally enacted statute, is no elector at all.

Meadows appeared to reply to Jordan on Jan. 6. 

”I have pushed for this not sure it is going to happen,” he wrote. 

As the mob breached the Capitol, according to the record published by CNN, a series of rapid-fire texts from lawmakers, officials, and media personalities alike flew into Meadows’s phone. 

Rep. Greene of Georgia texted Meadows: “Mark I was just told there is an active shooter on the first floor of the Capitol Please tell the President to calm people This isn’t the way to solve anything.”

A few weeks later, on Jan. 17, Greene would text Meadows again, this time telling him that after a “private chat with only Members,” the predominant belief they shared was that martial law should be invoked to stop Biden’s inauguration. 

”In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall law. I don’t know on those things. I just wanted you to tell him. They stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next. Please tell him to declassify as much as possible so we can go after Biden and anyone else!” Greene wrote.

Two days later, on Jan. 19, Hannity was in despair. Biden would be inaugurated. And Mitch McConnell, then the Senate Majority Leader, was on the floor of the Senate saying the attack was “provoked by the president and other powerful people.”

“Well, this is as bad as this can get,” Hannity wrote. 

Hundreds of police officers were brutalized during the Capitol assault and five people died. 

According to The Washington Post, McConnell told Jonathan Martin, author of the book This Will Not Pass, that he was partially relieved about what Trump had wrought on the nation. 

“I feel exhilarated by the fact that this fellow finally, totally discredited himself,” McConnell said.“He put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. Couldn’t have happened at a better time.”

This post was originally published on this site

Republican censorship at school libraries is making its way to censorship at public libraries—as predicted—with “don’t say gay” language forcing the cancellation of a romance book club and a sexual assault awareness display at a library in Enid, Oklahoma.

The recent policy from the city’s library board says that library programs and exhibits “will not make as their object the study of sex, sexual activity, sexual perversion, sex-based classifications, sexual preferences, sexual identity, gender identity, or subjects that are of a sexual nature.” Books can stay on the shelves (so far), they just can’t be highlighted by the library for things like, say, sexual assault awareness or reading the most popular genre of fiction in the country.

RELATED STORY: Here comes the wave of copycat ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills in red states

“In light of recent changes to program and display policies at the Public Library of Enid and Garfield County,  2 programs have been canceled for the month of April,” the library posted on Facebook. “The Sexual Assault Awareness program/display and the Shameless Romance book club discussion have been canceled.  Displays or programs that focus on sexual content are not allowed at the library.  The library respects the authority of the library board to set library policies.”

Vivian Topping, director of advocacy and civic engagement at the Equality Federation, and Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights

Cindy Nguyen, policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, pointed out to CNN that the library board’s language appears to be borrowed directly from a bill introduced in the state legislature but currently stalled. That bill focuses on schools and school libraries and would ban “books that make as their primary subject the study of sex, sexual preferences, sexual activity, sexual perversion, sex-based classifications, sexual identity, or gender identity or books that are of a sexual nature that a reasonable parent or legal guardian would want to know of or approve of prior to their child being exposed to it.”

Theri Ray, the Enid Public Library’s interim director, said at a public meeting that the policy might prevent the library from posting Mother’s Day or Father’s Day displays since they speak to sex-based classifications and gender identity.

That is, so far, a hypothetical, but the cancellation of the sexual assault awareness is not. A library has been banned from a display educating the public about a very common crime. Words fail here.

Romance novels constitute 18% of adult fiction sales, and while the genre has diversified dramatically, I’m going to hazard a wild guess that the library in Enid, Oklahoma, was not having its romance book club read Alyssa Cole’s How to Find a Princess, Courtney Milan’s Hold Me, Olivia Waite’s The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics, Chencia Higgins’ D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding, or other LGBT romance.

The cancellation of the romance book club and the sexual assault awareness display are really top-notch examples of just how far these broad bans on content can go in practice. Liberals are routinely mocked for warning that things like this can happen, because obviously that’s an exaggeration that wouldn’t really happen. Yet here we have real-life direct effects of such a policy, in a public library for everyone in a community, after a piece of Republican legislation that is just starting to take off at the state level as applied to schools made the jump over to local policy on public libraries, with instant and significant effects.

Censorship is a very real part of the Republican agenda, and it’s extremely unpopular. It’s malpractice for Democrats not to run hard against book-banning in general, with cases like this as example No. 1.

RELATED STORIES:

Polls show book banning is hugely unpopular, but that’s not stopping lawmakers from doing it

2021 swept in an ‘unprecedented campaign to remove books’ from libraries

Florida is on the attack again, this time targeting math books they claim contain CRT content

This post was originally published on this site

We noted earlier this month that a number of Republican states didn’t waste any time in suing over the Biden administration’s just decision to end use of Stephen Miller’s Title 42 order by the end of next month. That was not surprising, but what was surprising was that Texas—which has steadily used the courts to sabotage the administration’s immigration actions—was not among them.

But that changed last Friday when the state’s very corrupt attorney general sued. Ken Paxton, who has yet to go to trial for felony securities fraud charges, touted the lawsuit as his 10th immigration-related suit against the administration.

RELATED STORY: GOP states waste no time suing over Biden admin’s termination of anti-asylum Title 42 policy

Paxton’s statement is chock-full of anti-immigrant imagery and makes no secret of the fact that Miller’s policy has never been about public health and the pandemic, but rather about blocking vulnerable people from their U.S. asylum rights. “The suit adds that if the Biden administration follows through with lifting the order, Texas will have to pay for social services for the migrants who enter the country,” The Texas Tribune reported. 

Listen and subscribe to Daily Kos Elections’ The Downballot podcast with David Nir and David Beard

But it’s been Texas Gov. Greg Abbott who has been using taxpayer funds to bus asylum-seekers to Washington, D.C., as a disgusting fuck you to President Joe Biden. Thankfully, local advocates have pledged to aid families despicably used as human props by the governor. More recently, the Biden administration has urged a judge to deny the initial lawsuit brought on by the Republican attorneys general of Arizona, Louisiana, and Missouri. CNN reports that since they launched their lawsuit earlier this month, more than a dozen states have joined them in the litigation.

Back in Texas, Paxton had asked the GOP judge who last month ruled that the president can’t exempt unaccompanied children from Title 42 to amend that lawsuit in light of the administration’s recent move to end use of the policy. That judge, appointed by the insurrectionist president, surprisingly declined to do so. Texas has again sued.

“They’ve sued the administration over everything from mask mandates to blocking the Keystone XL Pipeline, but Paxton’s favorite target is immigration,” America’s Voice Legal Adviser David Leopold has previously said. “The Republicans start by attacking Biden’s immigration policy before Trump appointed judges in Texas, all the while knowing that whatever happens they’re all but guaranteed a warm reception in the 5th circuit court of appeals.” Republicans truly believe that Democrats have no right to govern.

The lawsuits and court proceedings come as LGBTQ migrant advocacy groups recently reminded people of the farcical nature of the Title 42 policy. Immigration Equality Executive Director Aaron Morris told the Los Angeles Blade that the order was “the brainchild of Stephen Miller long before COVID-19 even existed.” The New York Times reported nearly two years ago that Miller had already decided he would use public health as his excuse to deport vulnerable people back to danger, he just needed a virus.

Paxton was also quick to go to court when needed even as he’s managed to delay his own trial for years.

“The initial criminal case dates back to 2015,” Texas Standard reported last year. “Paxton is accused of duping people in a McKinney, Texas,-based investment scheme. He was indicted and released on bond, but thanks to a range of delays, the case has yet to face trial. The case has been transferred from Collin County to Harris County and then back to Collin, after Hurricane Harvey forced courts to close at the time.” He’s faced other accusations of misconduct since then. So that’s just one reason why Paxton would rather talk about immigrants.

RELATED STORIES: Texas’ corrupt attorney general is using the courts to sabotage Biden’s immigration agenda

Border state advocates say they’re ready to welcome asylum-seekers following Title 42 announcement

LGBTQ advocates remind us that Stephen Miller was scheming policy ‘long before’ COVID ‘even existed’

This post was originally published on this site

On Monday morning, after spending nearly three years confined, human rights attorney Steven Donziger held up the release papers he’d been waiting 993 days for and sent a brief video message to followers of his social media accounts proclaiming “it’s over.” Donziger served an excessive sentence for refusing to compromise attorney-client privilege in the face of an order filed by Chevron to obtain devices like his computer and cellphone because, the company alleged, they believed Donziger had engaged in conspiracy and criminal conduct. To those new to Donziger’s personal legal saga, the thought of a multibillion dollar super-polluting company using all its might against a single individual seems absolutely ridiculous. What’s even worse is Chevron has vowed to spend a “lifetime” waging war against Donziger and the clients he represented—all because they challenged the company for dumping 16 billion gallons of contaminated water into waterways in Ecuador that include parts of the Amazon rainforest.

Donziger first took up the case in 1993 and ultimately won those impacted by Chevron’s actions an $18 billion judgment against Chevron, the amount of which was reduced to $9.5 billion but still stood. For holding Chevron accountable, the fossil fuel company’s legal team mounted a defense that included alleging Donziger had bribed the judge who oversaw the case in Ecuador. That judge was, for a time, paid a $10,000 monthly salary by Chevron and later admitted to rehearsing his testimony with Chevron’s team dozens of times. Chevron was relentless in its attacks on Donziger. The polluter filed RICO charges against him and found a sympathetic judge who once had ties to the tobacco industry to hear the case. The back-and-forth led to Donziger’s law license being suspended in 2018; he was eventually disbarred in New York in 2020. The judge ordered Donziger to submit his electronic devices to Chevron, Donziger refused to do so and appealed, and the judge charged him with six counts of contempt of court. This is just a brief summary of the harassment Donziger’s endured and the havoc Chevron has wreaked against him, which has been condemned by the U.N., U.S. lawmakers, environmentalists and activists across the world, and Nobel laureates.

RELATED: Lawmakers urge release of human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, who took on Chevron in Ecuador

Days before his release, Donziger released a video message thanking supporters but shifting the focus on the Ecuadoreans he represented, vowing to continue the fight to hold polluters like Chevron accountable. This echoes statements from his newly launched Substack, Donziger on Justice, which the lawyer is hoping continues driving the community built in support of his release toward the sustained goal of environmental justice. Donziger, a former journalist, said he’s eager to return to writing as a means of further the cause. “I love journalism and I can’t wait to begin writing in this space on regular basis,” Donziger said, though he admitted that mainstream media coverage of cases like his are rarely covered with the same fervor as with “the governmental persecution of human rights lawyers in other countries.”

“In fact, Attorney Ted Boutrous of Gibson Dunn both represents the New York Times on media issues while trying to destroy my life on behalf of Chevron, work for which he bills $1,200 per hour,” Donziger continued. He had more charges against the paper but also concluded by vowing not to “turn my back on my clients in Ecuador nor on the larger battle for human rights and judicial accountability around the world.” Indeed, Donziger hasn’t given up the fight, just as Chevron has stuck to its company goals of raking in as much cash as possible—consequences to the planet and the vulnerable be damned. Also on Monday, Accountable.US released a report on the drastic uptick in compensation Big Oil CEOs received in 2021 compared with 2020. On that list? Chevron’s Mike Wirth, who got a $4.5 million bonus last year for god knows what, moving his total compensation well above $22 million for 2021. In contrast, Donziger’s entire way of life and primary career have been crushed by the company.

But his spirit certainly hasn’t. Donziger will be attending and celebrating his release at a block party in Manhattan later this evening.

This post was originally published on this site

When former Sen. David Perdue of Georgia had his chance at Sunday night’s debate to make an opening argument for his 2022 gubernatorial bid, he bypassed offering Peach State voters a vision for the future.

“First off, let me be very clear tonight, the election in 2020 was rigged and stolen,” Perdue began his second debate with sitting GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, carried by Atlanta’s WSB-TV. Perdue said Democratic control of the federal government resulted because Kemp “caved” and allowed “radical Democrats to steal our elections.”

In fact, numerous investigations and multiple recounts all concluded that Joe Biden was the rightful 2020 winner, as were Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock.

But Perdue’s opening salvo kicked off nearly 25 minutes of bare-knuckle brawling between the two GOP rivals over who bore responsibility for the historic losses last cycle of both Donald Trump and the two incumbent Republican senators—one of whom was Perdue.

This portion of the debate, centered entirely on 2020, included a series of barbs and recriminations.

Perdue pummeled Kemp for failing to call a special session to overturn the election following Trump’s loss and claimed he had asked the governor to do so repeatedly.

But Kemp, who spent hours on Perdue’s bus campaigning for his reelection, blasted Perdue for failing to ever ask for a special session. “Folks, he never asked me,” Kemp told the audience.

Kemp also turned Perdue’s loss back on him. “You have a candidate that is going to attack my record, unfortunately, all night tonight, because they didn’t have a record there to beat Jon Ossoff in 2020,” he said.

Perdue offered, “Weak leaders take credit when things go well, and blame someone else when it doesn’t.”

Kemp retorted, “Weak leaders blame everybody else for their own loss instead of themselves.”

Kemp, who is comfortably ahead in the polls and has vastly outraised Perdue, also sought to focus some of his energy on Democrat Stacey Abrams, who will face off against whichever Republican prevails in the primary.

“Looking in the rearview mirror,” Kemp said, isn’t the key to defeating Abrams in the general election.

But both GOP candidates offered disparaging views of why their rival would fumble a matchup with Abrams. Kemp said Perdue’s loss against Ossoff was proof positive that he wasn’t up to the task of defeating Abrams.

But Perdue said Kemp “barely beat Stacey Abrams in ’18,” after Kemp eked out a victory by a 1.4% margin. In that matchup, Perdue added, he had secured Trump’s endorsement for Kemp, who no longer enjoys Trump’s backing now.

“He has divided us,” Perdue charged of Kemp. “He will not be able to beat Stacey Abrams. And if we want to protect our freedom and our values, we have to vote and we have to make sure that Stacey is never our governor.”

On that point, the candidates agreed—making sure Abrams would “never” become Georgia’s governor or “your next president,” as Kemp put it.

But if there’s was one person in Georgia who thought the entire spectacle was simply peachy, it was Abrams.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the very first ad that aired on WSB following the hour-long GOP slugfest was an Abrams spot featuring her small business with her conservative entrepreneur partner.

Georgia Democrats also got in on the action, tweeting out video of the two Republicans bickering and saying they had shown “they are bad for each other — and worse for Georgia.”

Georgia is quickly turning into the most crucial of swing states. Not only do GOP hopes of retaking the U.S. Senate majority increasingly run through Georgia, it will also be a pivotal battleground in the 2024 presidential election. Having a Democratic governor in place to blunt the GOP-dominated state legislature could literally be the difference between a Democratic White House and a Republican one.

And frankly, nothing could be better for Democrats than Perdue’s fixation on 2020 and the notion that Kemp betrayed Trump and, by extension, his MAGA base. The more Kemp nauseates Trumpers, the better. Kemp will likely prevail in the GOP primary, and a deflated MAGA base is exactly the type of boost that could help Democrats Abrams and Sen. Warnock prevail in the general election. 

This post was originally published on this site

Across the country, minorities seem to be facing one similar issue: an increase in hate. Data released by the FBI has indicated that hate crimes against all minority races and ethnicities have seen a rise nationally. Multiple reports have indicated the large impact on Black folks and Asian Americans; the latest report focuses on bias against Muslims.

According to a report released by the largest Muslim American advocacy organization in the country, the Council on Islamic-American Relations (CAIR), Muslim Americans in the United States filed at least 6,720 complaints last year. These complaints were only filed with 25 CAIR offices, so the number of actual reported bias-based incidents is expected to be higher.

According to the report, titled “Still Suspect: The Impact of Structural Islamophobia,” the complaints increased by 9% when compared to 2020. Complaints included incidents of bullying in schools, freedom of speech concerns, hate crimes, physical assaults, workplace discrimination, incarceration rights, or placement on a federal terrorist watchlist.

“These complaints clearly indicate that government discrimination and bias continue to have a disproportionate effect on American Muslims and further demonstrate that our communities continue to be viewed with suspicion,” CAIR authors wrote in the report.

Researchers noted a 28% rise in hate and bias incidents involving the forcible removal of hijabs, harassment, mosque vandalism, and physical assault.

About 2,823 complaints filed with the organization were related to immigration and travel, while 679 complaints were filed in relation to police or government overreach. CAIR’s report argued that many people are wrongfully added to federal watchlists due to the flawed process in place.

It also noted the ages and demographics of those impacted. Even popular public officials like Ilhan Omar have not been safe from Islamophobia. 

“These complaints clearly indicate that government discrimination and bias continue to have a disproportionate effect on American Muslims and further demonstrate that our communities continue to be viewed with suspicion,” the report read. 

Citing the report, CAIR called for the government to take action on “systemic Islamophobia [that] continues to threaten our community.”

“Although American Muslims are making historic progress and important contributions at all levels of our society, our 2021 civil rights data shows that systemic Islamophobia continues to threaten our community,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.

“The federal government must address structural anti-Muslim bigotry in its own policies and the civil rights challenges facing Muslim communities. Everyone in our nation must be able to worship, work, travel, and attend school freely and safely.”  

While Islamophobia is not a new phenomenon, bias and crimes against Muslims significantly rose after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Previous reports indicated hate crimes against Muslims rose by 500% in the years 2000 to 2009.

According to CNN, this was in addition to the detention of thousands on the state and federal level as a result of surveillance programs like the Bush administration’s registry of people from Muslim-majority countries.

This post was originally published on this site

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy reportedly spent the weekend doing damage control after audio leaked of him telling fellow Republicans he was thinking about telling Donald Trump he should resign after the Jan. 6 insurrection. Because, in retrospect, Republicans have decided that they’re all pretty much okay with the attempted violent overthrow of the government in which they serve and a physical attack on their workplace.

Trump already said he’s fine with McCarthy—and McCarthy wants to make sure that all his colleagues know it, since adherence to the Big Lie remains essential for all of them, from Utah Sen. Mike Lee to McCarthy. They’re counting on the traditional media to let them get away with it, and it will probably work. Because it usually does. McCarthy even now is glossing over his part in the insurrection by distracting the traditional media with a tried and true shiny object for a distraction: the border.

RELATED STORY: Dear reporters: Please don’t parrot back whatever noted liar Kevin McCarthy says at the border today

McCarthy is at the border Monday, with Marjorie Taylor Greene, no less. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) is another attendee. His texts to Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, trying to gin up false fraud stories to undermine the election were leaked along with Lee’s. Given the attendees (the truly odious Conference Chair Elise Stefanik [NY] is there, too) this is nothing more than a gross stunt, but it will probably work, both to distract the traditional media and to smooth any Republican feathers that his very brief Trump apostasy might have ruffled.

Listen to Jennifer Fernandez Ancona from Way to Win explain how Democrats must message to win on Daily Kos’ The Brief podcast with Markos Moulitsas and Kerry Eleveld

Take Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He was on “Fox News Sunday” and touted the very “strong support” McCarthy is getting from Republicans. Asked if McCarthy will remain leader, McCaul said, “Absolutely. I think Kevin is in very good shape. In fact, [Trump] came out saying that this is not going to endanger his relationship with Kevin, that he’s strongly supportive.”

And then turned to the week’s talking points. “Putin invaded Ukraine,” McCaul said. “We have an invasion in my home state right on the border, every day.” As Daily Kos’ Gabe Ortiz writes, ”Because when in doubt, blame immigrants.”

It’s all going back to the Big Lie and we, unfortunately, can’t count on the traditional media to hold any of them accountable for keeping it alive. How ironic is it that they are using Putin’s invasion of Ukraine this way, equating it with the U.S. border situation, where thousands of people displaced by the threat of violence are looking for a safe place to land? When the Big Lie has it roots in Trump extorting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to manufacture lies about Joe Biden for the 2020 election.

The play here is to keep the base riled up on immigration, on all the culture war issues, on white supremacy, and on top of all that the Big Lie. It’s stunningly, horrifyingly ridiculous, and transparent that you can only imagine they’re doing it because they think it will work.

They think it will work because they have very good reason to—it always has. The traditional media is only too happy to follow the Republicans to the extremes and broadcast every bit of it because it’s easy and it’s guaranteed clicks. Trump always has been, and they’ll just keep going back to that well, regardless of the damage being done to the nation.

RELATED STORIES

This post was originally published on this site

In an apparent act of protest on Earth Day, a Colorado Buddhist and climate activist set himself on fire in front of the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C., on Friday.

Wynn Alan Bruce, 50, of Boulder, Colorado, died of his injuries Saturday. The U.S. Capitol Police tweeted about the event and Fox News reporter Chad Pergram posted a tweet with video showing the National Park Service helicopter as it landed to airlift Bruce to a local hospital.

Dr. K. Kritee, a Zen Buddhist priest and senior scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund, wrote on Twitter Sunday that Bruce’s self-immolation was “not suicide.”

“This guy was my friend. He meditated with our sangha. This act is not suicide. This is a deeply fearless act of compassion to bring attention to climate crisis. We are piecing together info but he had been planning it for at least one year. #wynnbruce I am so moved,” Kritee tweeted.

RELATED STORY: Georgia governor signs bill protecting farms from suits filed by neighbors, environmental groups

In an interview with The New York Times, Kritee said that “people are being driven to extreme amounts of climate grief and despair… what I do not want to happen is that young people start thinking about self-immolation.”

The modern-day version of self-immolation as an act of protest came into world view on June 11, 1963, in South Vietnam.

“An elderly monk called Thich Quang Duc sat down in the lotus position, crossing his legs. Some other monks poured petrol over him and then he set himself on fire and burned to death while sitting in this position,” Oxford University sociologist Michael Biggs told ABC.

The Buddhist monks were protesting their discrimination by the South Vietnamese government. The act was meant to capture the attention of the many foreign journalists working to cover the Vietnam War.

The act of setting oneself on fire to protest, although uncommon, remains a stunning event nonetheless.

In 2016, Arnav Gupta, 33, committed self-immolation in the Ellipse Park, just steps from the White House. And in the same year, Gulf War veteran Charles Richard Ingram III set himself on fire outside the New Jersey Veterans Affairs clinic, The Washington Post reports.

In 2013, according to NPR, over 100 Tibetans set themselves on fire in protest of Chinese rule.

And in 2018, David S. Buckle, 60, a prominent LGBTQ attorney known for his role as lead counsel in Brandon v. County of Richardson, the case portrayed in the film Boys Don’t Cry, set himself on fire with gasoline in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, The New York Times reports.

In an email to the Times, Buckle wrote:

“Pollution ravages our planet, oozing inhabitability via air, soil, water and weather… Most humans on the planet now breathe air made unhealthy by fossil fuels, and many die early deaths as a result—my early death by fossil fuel reflects what we are doing to ourselves.”

In an op-ed for The Washington Post titled “Self-immolation can be a form of protest. Or a cry for help. Are we listening?” author Petula Dvorak writes:

“Self-immolation near the White House or on the steps of a government building is not the final, selfish rage of someone committing a mass shooting. And it is not a lonely suicide by someone who simply wants to disappear.

These acts are an unmistakable protest, the loudest, most spectacular cry that people in pain can come up with. And we owe it to them to listen.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis, help is available. Speak with someone today.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255. (After July 2022, this emergency number will change to 988.)

This post was originally published on this site

While we already knew that House GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is a big giant liar, the last couple days have never made it more clear. McCarthy trumpeted the trademark McCarthy dramatics to publicly deny a report that he planned to urge the insurrectionist president to resign over the Jan. 6 insurrection. But audio tapes showed McCarthy lied, and had in fact planned to do just that.

There was never any reason to believe the words coming out of McCarthy’s mouth before. There definitely isn’t any reason now. So what’s he up to the Monday back from being majorly exposed as a fraud? McCarthy “is set to lead a group of fellow Republican lawmakers to the southern border in Texas on Monday,” CNN reports. Because when in doubt, blame immigrants.

RELATED STORY: If it seems like Republicans sound like hate group, it’s because they are sounding like hate group

We know this is a very serious visit because accompanying him are very serious individuals like Marjorie Taylor Greene, as well as noted southern border lawmakers Blake Moore of Utah and Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee. 

Listen to Jennifer Fernandez Ancona from Way to Win explain how Democrats must message to win on Daily Kos’ The Brief podcast with Markos Moulitsas and Kerry Eleveld

Taylor Greene has also been in the news in the last couple days, facing a court challenge on her eligibility for reelection to her district due to her pro-insurrection stance. Like McCarthy, Taylor Greene is a prolific liar, but during the hearing she just couldn’t seem to remember many of her bold claims. There were lots of “I don’t recall” and “I don’t remember” statements, Rebekah Sager reported for Daily Kos. Perhaps Taylor Greene should see someone about that.

We have a feeling that none of these people will have trouble speaking at the border on Monday, where they’ll have nothing to offer when it comes to policy ideas, but plenty from the “wow, that’s some racist shit” department. But this is the GOP stance. The Washington Post’s James Downie noted that Texas’ Michael McCaul went onto Fox News Sunday this past weekend to compare asylum-seekers at the border to Russians invading Ukraine. “We have an invasion in my home state right on the border, every day,” he claimed.

“Invasion” is the same racist wording used by the white supremacist terrorist who shot up McCaul’s state in 2019, Downie notes. It is a fact that this awful anti-immigrant rhetoric is no longer solely a product of the fringe right-wing, it is the Republican mainstream, and McCarthy isn’t just leaning into it, he’s pinning his electoral hopes on it, Downie continues.

”McCarthy and his fellow Republicans aren’t holding political stunts outside gas stations or supermarkets. And they’re barely even gesturing at ideas for lowering prices. Yet they’re hammering border politics. Why? Because while immigration might not sway the electorate as a whole, it fires up the GOP base that McCarthy wants to keep on his side.” 

America’s Voice and Immigration Hub had earlier this year noted more than 700 anti-immigrant ads launched by Republicans. That’s likely much, much higher now. America’s Voice had late last year also noted racist ads from House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik and Rick Scott, who heads the National Republican Senate Committee. Even Lindsey Graham, once a Republican champion of comprehensive immigration reform, has echoed racist “invasion” rhetoric.

Downie said that “whether they admit it or not,” Republicans like McCarthy “recognize that the easiest way to protect their standing in the Republican Party is to embrace the hate and stoke the same bigoted fury that led a man to open fire in a store.”

Whether they actually believe in it or are just parroting it to win elections, it is their official stance. And anything to not talk about their lies and efforts to overturn American democracy. It’ll also be up to reporters to not parrot back whatever outlandish claims McCarthy makes at the border since he’s already on the record as lying to them, but knowing what we know, keep your expectations low.

RELATED STORIES: GOP officials use white supremacist rhetoric in pushing Arizona governor to attack asylum-seekers

There are lies about migrants and the border, and then there’s Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko

GOP teeing up racist ads going into midterms. Democrats can fight back by championing immigrants

This post was originally published on this site

A warning was delivered to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that threats of violence were swirling around Washington, D.C., in the days leading up to Jan. 6, a onetime aide to former President Donald Trump told investigators on the Jan. 6 committee. 

This testimony from Trump’s special assistant for legislative affairs, Cassidy Hutchinson, was tucked into the pages of a hefty 248-page court filing from the probe as it again pushes for Meadows to cooperate following a months-long stalemate. There is no indication yet that the Justice Department will charge Meadows with contempt of Congress four months after the House voted to advance the referral. 

Hutchinson told investigators she didn’t know if Meadows perceived the warning as genuine or speculative, but she recalled Anthony Ornato, the Secret Service agent-turned-Trump-White-House-political-adviser, approaching Meadows at least once with “intel reports saying that there could potentially be violence on the 6th.” 

What Meadows did with that information next was unclear to Hutchinson, she testified, but she remembered Meadows’ response to Ornato was, “All right, let’s talk about it,” before heading into Meadows’ office privately with Ornato for a few minutes. 

RELATED STORY: Jan. 6 warnings held back by officials at DHS, watchdog finds

This detail is just another part of what is pushing investigators to get Meadows on the record about Jan. 6. 

Meadows insists he is protected by executive privilege. The committee insists he is applying that theory falsely and too broadly. In the meantime, public hearings are coming in June. Investigators say the evidence keeps stacking up that Trump was actively engaged in an attempted coup against the former vice president and Congress in order to install himself into the White House for another four years.

RELATED STORY: ‘Prepare to be mesmerized’: An interview with Jan. 6 probe investigator Jamie Raskin

The committee wants a judge to compel Meadows’ testimony now on seven discrete categories of questions. They acknowledge they are tailoring their request despite the fact that Trump himself has not invoked privilege over his former chief of staff. 

20220422 Motion for Summary… by Daily Kos

The proposed categories would cover questions about his correspondence with members of Congress like Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, among others. Both Jordan and Perry received requests for voluntary compliance. Both have so far refused to cooperate.

When Hutchinson testified before the panel, she also told them that during a planning call before Congress met to certify the electoral votes, Perry verbally supported the idea of “sending people to the capitol” on Jan. 6.

She also named Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado as some of the chief proponents inside Congress pushing the unconstitutional theory that Pence had the authority to stop the count on Jan. 6.

“I’m sure there were other individuals involved, but those are ones that I remember specifically being involved that Mr. Meadows had outreach to,” Hutchinson told the probe. 

RELATED STORY: Witness: Meadows and Jan. 6 rally organizers had deliberate scheme in place

In that same vein, if the committee gets its way, Meadows could also face questions about a Dec. 21, 2020 meeting hosted by the White House. 

At that meeting, members of the ultra right-wing House Freedom Caucus and other Republicans met to discuss their plan for “alternate electors.”

The safe harbor deadline for the Electoral College to finalize its count had passed at this point and a whole host of courts had already ruled against Trump’s claims of rampant election fraud. 

But Hutchinson told the committee that lawmakers like Jordan, Greene, and others—including Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar and Debbie Lesko of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, and Jody Hice of Georgia—were still all in. 

“They felt that he had the authority to, pardon me if my phrasing isn’t correct on this, but, send votes back to the States or the electors back to the States, more along the lines of the [John] Eastman theory,” Hutchinson testified. 

Investigators said in their subpoena to Hutchinson last November that she reportedly traveled with Trump to the Ellipse for the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 and may have accompanied Meadows for a Dec. 30 trip to Georgia for an election audit. 

Under questioning, Hutchinson said she did not go with Meadows to Georgia in late December, a partial transcript included with Friday’s filing shows. 

Investigators also want the judge to compel Meadows to answer questions about the scheme that unfolded at the Justice Department involving Jeffrey Clark.

Clark was held in contempt of Congress after refusing to cooperate with the probe. Notably, it was Perry who introduced Trump to Clark.

Just after Christmas Eve, Clark reportedly met with Trump in secret. After the meeting, Clark launched a pressure campaign to have then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Rosen’s then-deputy, Richard Donoghue, tell key swing state legislatures they should install alternate electors.

RELATED STORY: Jan. 6 committee approves criminal referral for Trump DOJ official

Within days of speaking to Rosen about the alternate electors scheme, Clark drafted a letter for Rosen to approve instructing Georgia state officials to say publicly that the Department of Justice was aware of election fraud and that a special legislative session was required.

When Hutchinson was asked if she could remember any times in which Meadows, Trump, or Clark met to discuss “alternate” electors, her memory was fuzzy. 

“I remember the ideas—that concept being discussed, broadly speaking. I remember Mr. Meadows mentioning it in meetings and once or twice in passerby conversation with me, but nothing that would indicate his opinion on it, just as something that, you know, was outlined in this letter and, you know, was the topic of conversation at the time,” she said.

When asked whether Trump advocated for the Justice Department to get involved, Hutchinson said she wasn’t sure.

The committee would also compel Meadows to cough up information related to Trump instructing, directing, or trying to persuade then-Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally refuse to count the votes on Jan. 6, especially in light of Ornato’s warning.

“But despite this and other warnings, President Trump urged the attendees at the January 6th rally to march to the Capitol to ‘take back your country,’” the motion states.

A Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General report published on March 10 noted that several warnings about impending violence heading to D.C. for Jan. 6 were often kept internal. 

The agency said in its report that happened frequently because staff were poorly trained and inexperienced and worried that overreporting threats would put them under the magnifying glass following a tumultuous summer of protests throughout the country in the response to the police killing of George Floyd.

According to the watchdog report, on Dec. 21, 2020—the same day that Republicans and House Freedom Caucus members were strategizing how to overturn Trump’s loss—a field agent shared a tip with fellow analysts at the Department of Homeland Security.

It was open source and warned of a person who threatened to shoot and kill protesters at upcoming rallies tied to the presidential election. It wasn’t reported to higher ups however, the inspector general found, because it “slipped away” from the analyst after she had trouble locating follow up information.

She did not write up a report about the incident. 

But, the inspector general said, those Department of Homeland Security officials never took their concerns any higher because they considered “true threats of incitement because they thought storming the U.S. Capitol and other threats were unlikely or not possible.”

Meadows provided the committee with some 2,319 text messages before ending his cooperation last year. Some of those texts have been made public but the batch newly obtained by CNN on Monday reveal new insights into the inner workings of Trump’s White House before Jan. 6.

(This story is developing.)