Snowflake.
How are you proving your party affiliation? Also, I thought the Mike Johnson told Republicans not to hold town halls any more, because they were getting so much citizen backlash at them.
At any rate, I hope the Republicans give him hell anyway.
UPDATE 07:43 pm:
Good, now let's see that applied to the people who instigated the insurrection. Or in those words, "contributed to delaying Congress's election certification proceedings."Couy Griffin, one of three commissioners in Otero county in southern New Mexico, was immediately removed from his position and cannot hold elected office again, Francis Mathew, a district judge in Santa Fe, wrote in his ruling.
The 14th amendment to the US constitution bars anyone who has participated in an insurrection from holding elected office. In June, Griffin was sentenced to 14 days in jail and a $3,000 (£2,604) fine for misdemeanor trespassing during the Capitol attack.
[...]
Earlier this year, Griffin sought to block Otero county, which voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2020, from certifying its official primary election results, citing concerns – which have been debunked – about voting machines.
The state supreme court eventually ordered the three-member commission to certify the election, which it ultimately did with a 2-1 vote. Griffin was the lone holdout.
“My vote to remain a no isn’t based on any evidence, it isn’t based on any facts. It’s only based on my own gut feeling, my own intuition, and that’s all I need,” he said at the time.
[...]
“Mr Griffin aided the insurrection even though he did not personally engage in violence. By joining the mob and trespassing on restricted Capitol grounds, Mr Griffin contributed to delaying Congress’s election certification proceedings.”
Guardian
Try again.“This decision makes clear that any current or former public officials who took an oath to defend the US Constitution and then participated in the January 6th insurrection can and will be removed and barred from government service for their actions,” Noah Bookbinder, [CREW's] executive director, said in a statement.
[...]
An effort to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Georgia congresswoman, from the ballot failed earlier this year. A similar effort seeking the removal of Arizona representatives Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar, as well as Mark Finchem, a Republican running to be Arizona’s top election official, also failed.
Four criminal referral counts against "Trump and others."The referrals, unlike the committee’s contempt of Congress recommendations, do not need the approval of the full House. Like the contempt referrals, they cannot force prosecutors to charge or even start an investigation against anyone. Publicly known subpoenas and witness appearances, though, suggest that Trump and anyone else likely to be referred by the committee are already under active criminal investigation.
[...]
The committee’s last act is likely to be the release of its final report this week, possibly on Wednesday. It plans to release an executive summary of the report Monday, following the hearing.
MSN
A live-blog report is at that MSNBC link.The House Jan. 6 committee has decided to recommend the Justice Department pursue criminal charges against former President Donald Trump, including obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiring to make false statements, and insurrection.
MSNBC
He lost anyway. So it's maybe unlikely that this will be taken to the Supreme Court where it might be expected the appeal decision will be overruled.People who take part in insurrections against the US government can be barred from office, an appeals court said on Tuesday, reversing a ruling in favor of Madison Cawthorn, an extremist Republican politician from North Carolina.
[...]
The challenges cited the the 14th amendment to the US constitution, passed after the civil war.
It says: “No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath … to support the constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
Guardian
I await appeals.Hailing a “major victory”, Free Speech For People, the group which brought the case, said: “This ruling cements the growing judicial consensus that the 1872 Amnesty Act does not shield the insurrectionists of 6 January 2021 – including Donald Trump – from the consequences of their actions.”
[...]
It also brought cases against Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, two Arizona Republicans, Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs, and an Arizona state representative, Mark Finchem. All have been unsuccessful.
And they did.[House Minority Leader Kevin] McCarthy (R-Calif.), along with Reps. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) received subpoenas.
It marks the first time the select committee has sent subpoenas to its own House colleagues.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the Jan. 6 panel, said the committee decided to issue subpoenas after the GOP lawmakers refused the opportunity to speak with the lawmakers voluntarily
[...]
GOP members could try to challenge the subpoenas with lawsuits, as at least a dozen other potential witnesses have done, raising the possibility that the partisan battle over the select committee’s work will spill into court.
So far, federal courts have largely upheld the panel’s investigative demands and its authority to issue subpoenas in the face of various legal challenges. But any legal challenge from the GOP lawmakers is sure to be tied up in court for months as the panel races to complete its work ahead this year’s midterm elections.
[...]
Brooks in May, after the Jan. 6 committee requested voluntary testimony from him, wrote on Twitter that the panel should subpoena him if it wants to speak.
“I wouldn’t help Nancy Pelosi and Liz Cheney cross the street. I’m certainly not going to help them and their Witch Hunt Committee. If they want to talk, they can send me a subpoena,” Brooks wrote.
The Hill
Exactly the list you would predict.[S]ome of the planners of the pro-Trump rallies that took place in Washington, D.C., have begun communicating with congressional investigators and sharing new information about what happened when the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Two of these people have spoken to Rolling Stone extensively in recent weeks and detailed explosive allegations that multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.
Rolling Stone separately confirmed a third person involved in the main Jan. 6 rally in D.C. has communicated with the committee. This is the first report that the committee is hearing major new allegations from potential cooperating witnesses. [...] The two sources also claim they interacted with members of Trump’s team, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who they describe as having had an opportunity to prevent the violence.
[...]
“I remember Marjorie Taylor Greene specifically,” the organizer says. “I remember talking to probably close to a dozen other members at one point or another or their staffs.”
[...]
These two sources also helped plan a series of demonstrations that took place in multiple states around the country in the weeks between the election and the storming of the Capitol. According to these sources, multiple people associated with the March for Trump and Stop the Steal events that took place during this period communicated with members of Congress throughout this process.
[...]
[In addition to Greene,] the pair both say the members who participated in these conversations or had top staffers join in included Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).
Rolling Stone
Planning the protests against the election isn't illegal. The problem is with planning the break-in.Gosar, who has been one of the most prominent defenders of the Jan. 6 rioters, allegedly took things a step further. Both sources say he dangled the possibility of a “blanket pardon” in an unrelated ongoing investigation to encourage them to plan the protests.
“Our impression was that it was a done deal,” the organizer says, “that he’d spoken to the president about it in the Oval … in a meeting about pardons and that our names came up. They were working on submitting the paperwork and getting members of the House Freedom Caucus to sign on as a show of support.”
[...]
The rally planner describes the pardon as being offered while “encouraging” the staging of protests against the election. While the organizer says they did not get involved in planning the rallies solely due to the pardon, they were upset that it ultimately did not materialize.
[...]
Rolling Stone has separately obtained documentary evidence that both sources were in contact with Gosar and Boebert on Jan. 6. We are not describing the nature of that evidence to preserve their anonymity
[...]
Nick Dyer, who is Greene’s communications director, said she was solely involved in planning to object to the electoral certification on the House floor. Spokespeople for the other members of Congress, who the sources describe as involved in the planning for protests, did not respond to requests for comment.
[...]
In another indication members of Congress may have been involved in planning the protests against the election, Ali Alexander, who helped organize the “Wild Protest,” declared in a since-deleted livestream broadcast that Gosar, Brooks, and Biggs helped him formulate the strategy for that event.
“I was the person who came up with the Jan. 6 idea with Congressman Gosar, Congressman Mo Brooks, and Congressman Andy Biggs,” Alexander said at the time. “We four schemed up on putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting so that — who we couldn’t lobby — we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body hearing our loud roar from outside.”
That needs to be done ASAP, or perhaps - for the most political impact - closer to the 2022 elections.The two potential witnesses plan to present to the committee allegations about how these demonstrations were funded and to detail communications between organizers and the White House. According to both sources, members of Trump’s administration and former members of his campaign team were involved in the planning. Both describe Katrina Pierson, who worked for Trump’s campaign in 2016 and 2020, as a key liaison between the organizers of protests against the election and the White House.
[...]
Both sources also describe Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, as someone who played a major role in the conversations surrounding the protests on Jan. 6.
[...]
“Meadows was 100 percent made aware of what was going on,” says the organizer. “He’s also like a regular figure in these really tiny groups of national organizers.”
[...]
While it was already clear members of Congress played some role in the Jan. 6 events and similar rallies that occurred in the lead-up to that day, the two sources say they can provide new details about the members’ specific roles in these efforts. The sources plan to share that information with congressional investigators right away. While both sources say their communications with the House’s Jan. 6 committee thus far have been informal, they are expecting to testify publicly.
Republicans and autocrats don't like it when people are able to vote.Both of the sources made clear that they still believe in Trump’s agenda. They also have questions about how his election loss occurred. The two sources say they do not necessarily believe there were issues with the actual vote count. However, they are concerned that Democrats gained an unfair advantage in the race due to perceived social media censorship of Trump allies and the voting rules that were implemented as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
I'm guessing the latter reason is a real one, while the former is B.S.Despite their remaining affinity for Trump and their questions about the vote, both sources say they were motivated to come forward because of their concerns about how the pro-Trump protests against the election ultimately resulted in the violent attack on the Capitol. Of course, with their other legal issues and the House investigation, both of these sources have clear motivation to cooperate with investigators and turn on their former allies.
Naturally.And both of their accounts paint them in a decidedly favorable light compared with their former allies.
No argument there.“The reason I’m talking to the committee and the reason it’s so important is that — despite Republicans refusing to participate … this commission’s all we got as far as being able to uncover the truth about what happened at the Capitol that day,” the organizer says. “It’s clear that a lot of bad actors set out to cause chaos. … They made us all look like shit.”
I'd like to know what the fuck they expected. It's Trump.“The breaking point for me [on Jan. 6 was when] Trump starts talking about walking to the Capitol,” the organizer says. “I was like. ‘Let’s get the fuck out of here.’ ”
“I do kind of feel abandoned by Trump,” says the planner. “I’m actually pretty pissed about it and I’m pissed at him.”
The organizer offers an even more succinct assessment when asked what they would say to Trump.
“What the fuck?” the organizer says.
If true, that puts Trump squarely in play for urging the Ellipse crowd to march on the Capitol.Heading into Jan. 6, both sources say, the plan they had discussed with other organizers, Trump allies, and members of Congress was a rally that would solely take place at the Ellipse.
Thank Trump.A senior staffer for a Republican member of Congress, who was also granted anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation, similarly says they believed the events would only involve supporting objections on the House floor. The staffer says their member was engaged in planning that was “specifically and fully above board.”
“A whole host of people let this go a totally different way,” the senior Republican staffer says. “They fucked it up for a lot of people who were planning to present evidence on the House floor. We were pissed off at everything that happened.”
“Conquer the Hill to return Mr. Trump to the presidency." Sounds like straight up insurrection to me. You're not allowed to serve in office if you incite insurrection. When will Gosar be thrown out of Congress?[In] signaling either overt or tacit support, a small but vocal band of Republicans now serving in the House provided legitimacy and publicity to extremist groups and movements as they built toward their role in supporting Mr. Trump’s efforts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election and the attack on Congress.
[...]
Nearly 150 House Republicans supported President Donald J. Trump’s baseless claims that the election had been stolen from him. But [Arizona Rep Paul] Gosar and a handful of other Republican members of the House had deeper ties to extremist groups who pushed violent ideas and conspiracy theories and whose members were prominent among those who stormed the halls of Congress in an effort to stop certification of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory.
Their ranks include Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, who like Mr. Gosar was linked to the “Stop the Steal” campaign backing Mr. Trump’s effort to overturn the election’s outcome.
Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado has close connections to militia groups including the so-called Three Percenters, an extremist offshoot of the gun rights movement that had at least one member who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory, whose adherents were among the most visible of those who stormed the building, and she appeared at a rally with militia groups.
Before being elected to Congress last year, Ms. Greene used social media in 2019 to endorse executing top Democrats and has suggested that the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., was a staged “false flag” attack. The liberal group Media Matters for America reported on Thursday that Ms. Greene also speculated on Facebook in 2018 that California wildfires might have been started by lasers from space, promoting a theory pushed by followers of QAnon.
Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida appeared last year at an event also attended by members of the Proud Boys, another extremist organization whose role in the Jan. 6 assault, like those of the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, is being investigated by the F.B.I.
It is not clear whether any elected officials played a role in directly facilitating the attack on the Capitol, other than helping to incite violence through false statements about the election being stolen from Mr. Trump. Officials have said they are investigating reports from Democrats that a number of House Republicans provided tours of the Capitol and other information to people who might have gone on to be part of the mob on Jan. 6. So far, no evidence has surfaced publicly to back up those claims.
[...]
An examination of many of the most prominent elected Republicans with links to right-wing groups also shows how various strands of extremism came together at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
[...]
Few Republicans have been more linked to extremist groups than Mr. Gosar.
“He’s been involved with anti-Muslim groups and hate groups,” said Mr. Gosar’s brother Dave Gosar, a lawyer in Wyoming. “He’s made anti-Semitic diatribes. He’s twisted up so tight with the Oath Keepers it’s not even funny.” Dave Gosar and other Gosar siblings ran ads denouncing their brother as a dangerous extremist when he ran for Congress in 2018. Now they are calling on Congress to expel him.
[...]
In the days after the 2020 election, Mr. Gosar and Mr. Biggs helped turn Arizona into a crucible for the Stop the Steal movement, finding common cause with hard-liners who until then had toiled in obscurity, like Ali Alexander. The two congressmen recorded a video, “This Election Is A Joke,” which was viewed more than a million times and spread disinformation about widespread voter fraud.
Mr. Alexander has said he “schemed up” the Jan. 6 rally with Mr. Gosar, Mr. Biggs and another vocal proponent of Stop the Steal, Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama. Mr. Alexander’s characterization of the role of the members of Congress is exaggerated, Mr. Biggs said, but the lawmakers were part of a larger network of people who helped plan and promote the rally as part of Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the will of the voters.
[...]
After the election, Mr. Alexander emerged as a vocal proponent of the president’s stolen election claims, setting up a Stop the Steal website on Nov. 4 and making incendiary statements. On Dec. 8, he tweeted that he was willing to give up his life to keep Mr. Trump in office.
The Arizona Republican Party followed up, retweeting Mr. Alexander’s post and adding: “He is. Are you?” Mr. Alexander has since been barred from Twitter.
Ten days later, Mr. Gosar was one of the headliners at a rally in Phoenix that Mr. Alexander helped organize. Mr. Gosar used the rally to deliver a call to action, telling the crowd that they planned to “conquer the Hill” to return Mr. Trump to the presidency.
[...]
To some degree, the members of Congress have been reflecting signals sent by Mr. Trump.
During a presidential debate in October, he made a nod toward the Proud Boys, telling them to “stand back and stand by.” Two months earlier, Mr. Trump described followers of QAnon — several of whom have been charged with murder, domestic terrorism, planned kidnapping and, most recently, storming the Capitol — as “people that love our country,” adding that “they do supposedly like me.”
NYT
What the everloving fuck? Soliciting martyrs, just like Islamic extremists.THE HEAD OF the House Freedom Caucus, Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, helped plan the January 6 event that culminated in a storming of the Capitol, according to Ali Alexander, a lead organizer of the gathering. Alexander, a pro-Trump personality, was an early founder of the “Stop the Steal” movement and helped bring together various right-wing factions around a mass event on January 6, aimed to coincide with objections to the counting of Electoral College votes.
Alexander made his claim in three separate livestreams in late December, adding that Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama were also involved. “We’re the four guys who came up with a January 6 event,” Alexander said. On December 8, the Arizona Republican Party boosted Alexander, asking supporters if they were willing to give their lives in the fight over the results of the presidential election.
The Intercept
And if it had gone the way they wanted it to, he'd be crowing about being a part of it.Biggs’s connection to Alexander was reported on Sunday by the Arizona Republic, which quoted his spokesperson, Daniel Stefanski, denying any connection to Alexander. “Congressman Biggs is not aware of hearing of or meeting Mr. Alexander at any point — let alone working with him to organize some part of a planned protest,” Stefanski said.
Did he think Congressmen were going to own up?In a statement to The Intercept following publication, Brooks’s office denied the congressman incited violence, writing in part: “Congressman Brooks has no recollection of ever communicating in any way with whoever Ali Alexander is. Congressman Brooks has not in any way, shape or form coordinated with Ali Alexander on the January 6th ‘Save America’ rally. Congressman Brooks spoke at the ‘Save America’ rally at the invitation of the White House (the invitation was extended the day before), not anyone else.”
[...]
Alexander, who adopted a new name after pleading guilty to felony property theft in 2007 and felony credit card abuse in 2008, has been suspended from Twitter and other platforms for his role in organizing the January 6 event. As the Daily Beast reported, he has said he has been unfairly blamed for the violence on January 6, and has gone underground.
They itended a mob scene to threaten/intimidate Congress people. Thank god it blew up in their faces.On December 21, Alexander made the same claim on a livestream. “We’re working closely with Congressman Mo Brooks, we’re working closely with Congressman Andy Biggs, and closely with, obviously, Congressman Paul Gosar, my great friend,” Alexander said. “I believe that the president should do something brave, I think the vice president should do something brave. I believe that that’s how we maintain the White House. … It’s a moral imperative to maintain the White House.”
[...]
“I’m the guy who came up with the idea of January 6 when I was talking with Congressman Gosar, Congressman Andy Biggs, and Congressman Mo Brooks. So we’re the four guys who came up with a January 6 event — #DoNotCertify — and it was to build momentum and pressure, and then on the day change hearts and minds of congresspeoples who weren’t yet decided, or saw everyone outside and said, ‘I can’t be on the other side of that mob,’” Alexander said a week before the event he predicted would bring more than a million people to Washington, D.C.
Do it.AT THE December 19 rally, two days before that claim, Alexander more clearly delineated the different roles Biggs and Gosar were playing. “Congressman Gosar has been the spirit animal of this movement, and he’s helped out where he could. He’s offered to call donors. We actually had our first D.C. march because he called me and he said, ‘You need to go to the Supreme Court.’ I said, ‘All right, my captain,’” Alexander told the audience at the Arizona State Capitol.
“One of the other heroes has been Congressman Andy Biggs. Now, when the good doctor Paul, now a friend, has been concentrating on the movement, Andy Biggs has been running ahead of him and whipping votes in Congress.
[...]
At the December 19 rally, Alexander also thanked Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward. “I want to thank Chairwoman Kelli Ward and the Arizona Republican Party. I work in seven states, and there is no party like the Arizona GOP Party, so let’s thank Kelli Ward,” Alexander said. Ward spoke at the rally.
“Let me tell you an open secret. The president watches these rallies, and he’s watching you today,” Alexander said, leading the crowd variously in “Fight for Trump,” “1776,” and “Christ is King” chants.
That day, Donald Trump posted to his since-suspended Twitter account: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
Gosar tagged Alexander on Twitter twice on January 6, and tagged him repeatedly in his posts throughout November and December.
[...]
Alexander’s contemporaneous claims have taken on new relevance as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has floated the possibility of expelling members of Congress who are found to have been involved in the riot.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, ratified after the Civil War, reads:No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
The right-wing political activist Ali Alexander says that Arizona Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs worked with him to plan pro-Trump rallies, including the one that ended with an attack on the Capitol.
At the time the mob was making its move on Wednesday, Alexander, a national “Stop the Steal” organizer, posted a video of himself saying, “I don't disavow this. I do not denounce this.”
[...]
[I]n late December Alexander told followers on Periscope that he, Biggs, Gosar and Mo Brooks of Alabama, three Republican members of Congress, were planning something big.
The CNN article noted that while Alexander did not call for violence, he said, “It was to build momentum and pressure and then on the day change hearts and minds of Congress peoples who weren’t yet decided or who saw everyone outside and said, ‘I can't be on the other side of that mob.’ ”
[...]
Gosar called Alexander “a true patriot.”
Biggs responded to the CNN article, saying through a spokesperson, “Congressman Biggs is not aware of hearing of or meeting Mr. Alexander at any point – let alone working with him to organize some part of a planned protest. He did not have any contact with protestors or rioters, nor did he ever encourage or foster the rally or protests.”
[...]
Biggs and Gosar constantly called into question the integrity of the election, in spite of the evidence, in spite of the affirmations by election officials from both parties, in spite of the certification of ballots by all 15 Arizona counties.
[...]
Biggs was among the hardcore Trump loyalists who met with the president prior to Jan. 6 to talk about challenging the Electoral College.
Arizona Central
Meanwhile...Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) introduced a House resolution Thursday calling on lawmakers to ban organizations or political groups that have historically supported the Confederacy or slavery in the U.S., a list he said includes the Democratic Party.
“A great portion of the history of the Democratic Party is filled with racism and hatred. Since people are demanding we rid ourselves of the entities, symbols, and reminders of the repugnant aspects of our past, then the time has come for Democrats to acknowledge their party’s loathsome and bigoted past, and consider changing their party name to something that isn’t so blatantly and offensively tied to slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination, and the Ku Klux Klan,” Gohmert said in a statement.
The resolution is co-sponsored by GOP Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Jody Hice (Ga.), Randy Weber (Texas) and Andy Harris (Md.)
[...]
Gohmert also cited examples of racist policies within the Democratic Party’s history, including former President Woodrow Wilson’s endorsement of racial discrimination.
The Hill
I'm not sure "honors" is the appropriate word.Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) has introduced a bill to prohibit the use of federal funds to teach the 1619 Project in public schools.
“The New York Times’s 1619 Project is a racially divisive, revisionist account of history that denies the noble principles of freedom and equality on which our nation was founded. Not a single cent of federal funding should go to indoctrinate young Americans with this left-wing garbage,” said Cotton in a release.
Published last year, the 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that honors the year the first African slaves were brought to an English colony.
The Hill
Irony in the GOP party died a long time ago. It's corpse is stinking."The goal of The 1619 Project is to reframe American history by considering what it would mean to regard 1619 as our nation’s birth year. Doing so requires us to place the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are as a country," said Jake Silverstein, editor in chief of the New York Times Magazine, in a letter.
The "Saving American History Act of 2020" would require the Department of Education to determine the cost associated with planning and teaching the 1619 Project in schools in order to reduce federal funding by that amount.
Did he capitalize "we"?Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is calling on House GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (Wyo.) to step down or be removed from her leadership role following a heated confrontation during a House GOP conference meeting on Tuesday morning.
Gaetz accused Cheney, the third-ranking House GOP member, of working behind the scenes and in public against President Trump, making the charges on Twitter and on his podcast.
[...]
Gaetz, along with Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Chip Roy (R-Texas), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) got into an argument with Cheney during the conference meeting.
[...]
The lawmakers criticized Cheney for her decision to initially back Massie’s primary opponent, Todd McMurty. Cheney later retracted her endorsement and rescinded her donations to McMurty after racist tweets made by the challenger to Massie emerged.
[...]
The lawmakers also took aim at Cheney for breaking with Trump on Afghanistan policy, and for supporting Anthony Fauci, a leading infectious disease expert and a member of the White House task force on the coronavirus.
[...]
Cheney during the conference meeting defended herself, telling Jordan she “looks forward to the lecture about being a team player when we have the majority back,” according to multiple sources in the room.
Jordan was frequently seen as a thorn in the side of past GOP leaders when their party had the House majority.
[...]
“I do suspect that Liz still has a substantial amount of support within the Republican Conference because We got a lot of people in the Republican Conference who aren't the biggest supporters of the president," Gaetz added.
The Hill
Ooops. But she doesn't suck up publicly like Gaetz does.Cheney has voted with President Trump 96.5 percent of the time to Gaetz’s 85 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight’s ratings.
This little asshole isn't even supposed to be involved in politics, according to his pledge when his daddy was installed in the White House.Donald Trump Jr. joined in criticizing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on Twitter, [...] calling for Cheney to step down as House Republican Conference chairwoman.
“We already have one Mitt Romney, we don’t need another…” he said. “We also don’t need the endless wars she advocates for.”
The Hill
He got it out of his supersized ass.Dr. Anthony Fauci pushed back on President Trump's claim that 99% of coronavirus cases are "totally harmless," and confirmed that a post-viral syndrome associated with Covid-19 has incapacitated some patients for prolonged periods.
[...]
Fauci said, "I'm trying to figure out where the president got that number," before confirming "that's obviously not the case."
Forbes
An idiot in the White House will do that."If you look anecdotally, there is no question that there are a considerable number of individuals who have a post-viral syndrome that in many respects incapacitates them for weeks and weeks following so-called recovery," Fauci said at a news conference organized by the International AIDS Society on Thursday.
Fauci explained that the syndrome's symptoms, including brain fog, difficulty concentrating, and exhaustion, resemble those seen in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis (once referred to as chronic fatigue syndrome).
[...]
Fauci stated he last saw Trump in person at the White House on June 2, and has not briefed the president for at least two months.
[...]
The U.S. reported nearly 60,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, setting a single-day record for the sixth time in 10 days. America sped past a somber signpost on Wednesday, surpassing 3 million confirmed cases.
[...]
Trump has recently chosen to focus solely on the mortality rate associated with the virus, falsely claiming America has "the lowest Fatality (Mortality) Rate in the World." Yet, on Thursday, California, Texas and Florida, all reported new record daily highs for deaths. A combined total of 374 American lives were lost in those three states alone within a single 24-hour span. In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Thursday night, Trump publicly criticized Dr. Fauci, saying that he "has made a lot of mistakes."
[...]
Earlier this month, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he would stop listening to Fauci. "He has been wrong every time on every issue," Patrick told Fox News. "I don't need his advice anymore."
[...]
Rep. Andy Biggs, a Republican from Arizona, has accused Fauci of attempting to "corral our freedom." Last week, Biggs called for the White House's Covid-19 task force to be disbanded so that "Trump's message is not mitigated or distorted," claiming it is "imperative" the president is "not undermined in his mission to return our economy to greatness." Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has also aggressively questioned federal health experts' guidance, stating, "We shouldn't presume that a group of experts somehow knows what's best for everyone."
They should just die and get out of the way of Trump's goals.Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, is calling for the White House coronavirus task force to be disbanded to prevent health officials from causing President Trump's message about the economy to be "distorted."
"Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx continue to contradict many of President Trump's stated goals and actions for returning to normalcy as we know more about the COVID-19 outbreak," Biggs said in a statement Thursday.
[...]
Biggs's statement comes one day after Vice President Pence and members of the task force arrived in Arizona to meet with Gov. Doug Ducey (R) following a spike in COVID-19 cases throughout the state.
Maricopa County, a portion of which Biggs represents, has recorded a surge in new cases, with more than 52,000 total cases and 817 deaths, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
The Hill
Disgraceful.Led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican known for his long history of made-for-TV antics, the band of about two dozen lawmakers entered the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), an area where members can review classified information and hold private hearings. It’s a wild escalation after weeks of complaints — from Republicans who aren’t on the committees investigating impeachment — about being cut out of the impeachment process.
Notably, according to a list provided by Gaetz's office of the Republicans who RSVP'd to join the protest, 12 of them are members of the Oversight or Foreign Affairs committees — including Rep. Jim Jordan, the ranking member on the Oversight Committee — meaning they have been allowed to sit in on all depositions held in the SCIF in recent weeks.
Buzzfeed
Can it be he actually believes that?Rep. Fred Keller, an Oversight member who joined the protest, "was acting in solidarity with those members of Congress who are not allowed in the hearings, to review testimony, or read transcripts of this secret inquiry. ... [He] believes the way this inquiry is being conducted is unfair and it needs to stop," according to a spokesperson.
President Donald Trump knew in advance that Republicans planned to occupy the space and supported their plan, “saying he wanted the transcripts released because they will exonerate him,” Bloomberg reported, citing four sources familiar with the conversation.
As they should have, you idiot. You took your phones into a secure room, violating the rules and destroying security.Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly, who was inside the SCIF at the time, said he saw 20 Republicans facing down just two security guards. He said that rather than try to eject the members, House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff and the House sergeant-at-arms decided to wait them out so as to not escalate the situation.
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Rep. Alex Mooney, a Republican from West Virginia, made an audio recording while in the SCIF, which he tweeted just before 2 p.m. In it, he says he is calling from a secure line within the SCIF and that about 30 Republicans, including Rep. Steve Scalise, the number two House Republican, were sitting inside with him. All Democrats, Mooney said, had left.
"The moment we walked into the room, Chairman Adam Schiff saw us, took the witness, and walked out of the room because they refuse to have a hearing in a transparent way," he said.
I doubt it. I think it was a show for Trump and Trump supporters.The protest Wednesday is the latest in a line of complaints from GOP lawmakers, who have argued that they are being cut out of the impeachment inquiry and that Democrats are holding hearings in secret. That’s not the case.
While the hearings have not been public, they have not been “secret.” Members of both parties on the committees holding the hearings — Oversight, Intelligence, and Foreign Affairs — have been able to attend the depositions and ask questions.
Rep. David Cicilline, a Democrat, told reporters he believed the move by Republican lawmakers was an effort to stop the interview with Cooper in the SCIF on Wednesday.
There you go.“It’s not a coincidence that [Republicans] met with the president, [who] complained, ‘You’re not doing enough.'”
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.“It’s a bunch of Freedom Caucus members having pizza around a conference table pretending to be brave,” Rep. Tom Malinowski, a Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters Wednesday. “All they basically did here was to storm a castle that they already occupied.”
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An Intelligence Committee official said in a statement that Republicans bringing in their phones was a “major security breach,” adding, “They engage in this circus-like behavior because they can’t defend the President’s egregious misconduct.”
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Rep. Kathleen Rice, a Democrat and former prosecutor, said in an interview with BuzzFeed News on Tuesday that she wanted the public to know the process is standard. “This rhetoric coming out of the White House about the procedure that's being followed right now being irregular is complete garbage,” she said. “Ken Starr did not hold public hearings when he was doing the investigation into Bill Clinton. Everything was done the way most investigations are done, in private away from the public.”
A group of Republican members of the House of Representatives, chanting “Let us in”, barged into a secure, in-camera hearing room in the bowels of the US capitol where Laura Cooper, a top Pentagon official who oversees Ukraine policy, was due to testify before the committees in charge of the inquiry.
The chaos and confusion temporarily shut down the proceedings as Republicans tweeted live updates of the disruption from their cellphones, which are not typically permitted in classified areas. Their presence in the chamber reportedly erupted into yelling matches with committee members.
“BREAKING: I led over 30 of my colleagues into the SCIF where Adam Schiff is holding secret impeachment depositions. Still inside – more details to come,” tweeted Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican congressman and one of Donald Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, referring to secured areas of the Capitol known as Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities, or SCIFs, and Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee leading the Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry.
Guardian
Obviously they don't give a shit.The Republicans who led the protest do not sit on the three committees involved in the impeachment inquiry and are not permitted to attend. Members of those committees already include Republican members of Congress, as well as Democrats, and both parties attend and ask questions at the hearings, whether public or, as in this case, closed to the public and the press.
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The invading Republicans remained in the hearing room into the early afternoon and even ordered pizza.
“Reporting from Adam Schiff’s secret chamber,” Republican congressman Andy Biggs began, in a series of tweets from inside the room. Biggs has accused Democrats of conducting a “Soviet-style” impeachment inquiry and demanded the testimony be made available to all lawmakers.
“When Republican members were in the SCIF, Chairman Schiff immediately left with the witness,” he tweeted. Biggs later clarified that he had “transmitted” to aides for publication, as the use of electronic devices in the secure area violates security protocols.
More than five hours after the standoff began, committee members were recalled to the room and Cooper’s deposition began. Democrats were furious. “This is a stunt that corresponded very specifically to the president’s complaint that they weren’t fighting hard enough for him, and in direct response to devastating testimony yesterday from Ambassador Taylor,” Democratic congressman David Cicilline, a member of the House foreign affairs committee, told reporters.
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Meanwhile a report emerged noting that as early as 7 May the newly elected Zelenskiy told senior aides he was already worried about pressure from the Trump to investigate his Democratic rivals.
Zelenskiy’s group of advisers spent most of a three-hour meeting talking about how to navigate the insistence from Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, for such an investigation, and how to avoid becoming entangled in the American elections, according to three people familiar with the details of the meeting.
Cooper was also the first Defense Department witness to defy a directive not to testify, a sign that Trump’s blockade of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry has continued to erode. Several senior State Department officials and a former National Security Council official have already taken the same route.
Politico
My god. What did she do?REPUBLICANS ON THE House Science Committee are accusing Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, of lobbying. In letters sent to the Inspector General and acting secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Reps. Lamar Smith and Andy Biggs wrote that they were “conducting oversight” of Birnbaum’s activity in response to a editorial she wrote in a scientific journal.
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Biggs and Smith, who have both received money from Koch Industries, Exxon Mobil, and other companies that have a financial interest in limiting research on the environmental effects of chemicals, noted that their “committee suspects this activity may be a violation of the anti-lobbying act.” The two Republican members of Congress also called on the DHHS Inspector General to analyze their concerns so that he might “launch a full-scale review of the situation.”
The Intercept
Scandalous! Investigate that woman!Birnbaum’s editorial, which the journal PLOS Biology published in December, addressed the gaps in the regulation of toxic chemicals. Though there are more than 85,000 chemicals approved for use in commerce, she noted in the piece, “U.S. policy has not accounted for evidence that chemicals in widespread use can cause cancer and other chronic diseases, damage reproductive systems, and harm developing brains at low levels of exposure once believed to be harmless.”
Birnbaum called for more research on the risks posed by chemicals and, in the sentence that the representatives appear to consider lobbying, noted that “closing the gap between evidence and policy will require that engaged citizens — both scientists and non-scientists — work to ensure that our government officials pass health-protective policies based on the best available scientific evidence.”
I think that's the point.This isn’t the first time the House Science Committee has gone after Birnbaum for bringing attention to environmental science that raises the need for increased regulation. In 2013, then-committee Chairs Larry Bucshon and Paul Broun, expressed outrage about a 2012 article, in which she described the harms of endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
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[Smith, a] Texas representative, who has also aggressively attacked climate science and climate scientists, has promoted legislation that would essentially replace independent scientists with industry representatives on Environmental Protection Agency advisory boards; the EPA has since implemented that policy.
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Smith’s committee has also taken aim at a program at the heart of EPA’s ability to regulate chemicals – holding a hearing in September about the Integrated Risk Information System, or IRIS, a division of the EPA that evaluates the toxicity of substances. The 2018 Senate Appropriations Bill has since proposed eliminating IRIS and giving its workload to another division of the EPA, a move that some environmental scientists fear would weaken seriously undermine the program.
Dig up Rachel Carson and ask her.Scientists have a responsibility to speak up in such cases, the author, Leonardo Trasande, argued. But his encouragement to his colleagues came with a warning: “Scientists who raise their voices should be prepared to face criticism from those who have substantial vested interests.”
