The Meadows texts

TPM published a trove of texts across a series of articles that then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows exchanged between the 2020 election and Biden’s inauguration with prominent Republicans, including 34 members of Congress.

  Aaron Rupar

Ten more than worked with a German Nazi in a coup attempt during WWII.

Headline-grabbing new revelations include Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) suggesting Republican state legislatures in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin just “intervene and declare Trump winner,” as well as Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) pushing Meadows on January 17 (just three days before Biden’s inauguration) to have Trump invoke “Marshall Law.”

(Norman’s misspelling of “martial” was the same as Marjorie Taylor Greene’s in another nakedly pro-coup text Meadows received that same day.)

These people represent in Congress. Who said Republicans aren't sending their best?

Following are comments by Hunter Walker, the TPM reporter writing the series about Meadows' texts.

I think the number one thing is just how alarming it is to see these things coming out of the phones of members of Congress and people who aren’t in Congress but are high-ranking associates of the then-president of the United States.

This is not just about political disagreements. We’re talking about violent rhetoric — fighting, kicking ass. The lack of basic information literacy — you’re seeing members of Congress treat YouTube videos from foreign countries as if they’re gospel.

[...]

You’re seeing people unspool. In some cases, the messages are thousands of words long, which is not normal. They have no editing. They have completely unhinged conspiracy theories. The thread that goes through it is it’s all in service of this authoritarian goal, which is completely disregarding a democratic election.

[...]

Nearly 20 percent of these messages are coming from members of Congress, and really all of those people just got a promotion in terms of Republicans taking over the majority [in the House].

[...]

I also think there’s a lot in the media about the MAGA wing versus the institutional Republican Party, and these messages really give the lie to that. This is the institutional Republican Party.

And, from the Talking Points Memo article itself:

The texts are part of a trove Meadows turned over to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack that was obtained by TPM. For more information about the story behind the text log and our procedures for publishing the messages, read the introduction to this series. Meadows’ exchanges shed new light on the extent of congressional involvement in Trump’s efforts to spread baseless conspiracy theories about his defeat and his attempts to reverse it. The messages document the role members played in the campaign to subvert the election as it was conceived, built, and reached its violent climax on Jan. 6, 2021. The texts are rife with links to far-right websites, questionable legal theories, violent rhetoric, and advocacy for authoritarian power grabs.

[...]

Reached via cell phone on Monday morning, [Ralph\ Norman asked TPM for a chance to review his messages before commenting.

“It’s been two years,” Norman said. “Send that text to me and I’ll take a look at it.”

TPM forwarded Norman a copy of the message calling for “Marshall Law!!” We did not receive any further response from the congressman.

[...]

Meadows received at least 364 messages from Republican members of Congress who discussed attempts to reverse the election results with him. He sent at least 95 messages of his own.

[...]

The members who messaged Meadows about challenging the election included some of the highest-profile figures on the right flank in Congress, such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), all of whom are identified as playing leading roles in the effort to undo Trump’s defeat.

One message that was dated Dec. 30, 2020 and was identified as coming from Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller described Brooks as a “ringleader” of the effort to block the electoral certification.

[...]

Meadows’ messages also provide an indication of the support the election objection received from right-wing dark money groups. The text log shows how the Republican efforts to fight the electoral certification at the Capitol became more organized and gained steam in the days after Biden’s victory. On Nov. 9, Edward Corrigan, the president and CEO of the Conservative Partnership Institute, wrote Meadows to say Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) would be holding a meeting about legal strategies with his colleagues at the organization’s Capitol Hill townhouse.

“Mike Lee has about a dozen Senators coming over to CPI tonight and they wanted to hear from a legal expert on what’s going on with the campaign,” Corrigan wrote.

[...]

CPI, which would go on to employ Meadows after Trump left office, is a dark money group that has been described by NPR as “among the most powerful messaging forces in the MAGA universe.”

[...]

CPI was not the only conservative dark money group that aided the push to overturn the election. On Dec. 2, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) wrote Meadows and indicated he was participating in Georgia rallies organized by Club For Growth.

[...]

While some of the more than 450 texts that Republican members of Congress exchanged with Meadows indicate they were disturbed by the violence of Jan. 6, the messages also show in colorful detail how the same members of Congress played a direct role in ratcheting up opposition to the election result and in stoking Trump’s baseless claims of fraud. (Officials at every level of government including Republicans and members of the Trump administration have confirmed there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election.)

  TPM

The 34:
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ)
Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA)
Rep. Billy Long (R-MO)
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH)
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX)
Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX)
Rep. Mark Green (R-TN)
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC)
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ)
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC)
Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX)
Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA)
Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC)
Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN)
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH)
Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC)
Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA)
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA)
Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA)
Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH)
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL)
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA)
Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA)
Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL)
Rep. Fred Keller (R-PA)
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC)
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA)
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI)
Sen. David Perdue (R-GA)
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND)

UPDATE:  The 36

In an open letter first shared with The Hill, the group — which includes 36 former House members from both parties — is calling on sitting lawmakers in the lower chamber to “demand that the Office of Congressional Ethics thoroughly investigate” members linked to the Capitol riot. If necessary, the ex-lawmakers write, they also want the House to “exercise its disciplinary functions.”

“As is now clear, January 6th was only one event among many that together constituted an extraordinary campaign to overturn an election,” the letter reads. “The scale and audacity of the campaign is profoundly troubling.”

“Among the most alarming findings is that various members of Congress participated in it,” the former lawmakers added.

[...]

“We now know, for example, that sitting lawmakers corresponded and met with White House officials and allies to plot various prongs of the campaign, including to advocate that the president declare martial law; that states submit false certificates of electoral votes to Congress; that the vice president, in contravention of his constitutional duties, interfere with the counting of electoral votes; and that federal law enforcement authorities be enlisted to interfere with the election; among other startling facts. We also now know that various sitting lawmakers sought presidential pardons,” the letter reads.

At its hearing in June, the Jan. 6 select committee named six House Republican lawmakers who requested pardons or contacted officials regarding pardons after voting to overturn election results in states the day of the riot: Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Mo Brooks (Ala.), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Scott Perry (Pa.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.).

[...]


The signatories of the letter are former Reps. John Barrow (D-Ga.), Steve Bartlett (R-Texas), Robert E. Bauman (R-Md.), Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), Lois Capps (D-Calif.), Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.), M. Robert Carr (D-Mich.), Rod Chandler (R-Wash.), Tom Coleman (R-Mo.), Mickey Edwards (R-Okla.), David F. Emery (R-Maine), Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.), Paul Hodes (D-N.H.), Elizabeth Holtzman (D-N.Y.), Bob Inglis (R-S.C.), Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio), Mike Kopetski (D-Ore.), Larry LaRocco (D-Idaho), John LeBoutillier (R-N.Y.), Mel Levine (D-Calif.), Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), Matthew F. McHugh (D-N.Y.), Glenn Nye (D-Va.), Thomas Perriello (D-Va.), Reid Ribble (R-Wis.), Scott Rigell (R-Va.), Claudine Schneider (R-R.I.), Philip Sharp (D-Ind.), Peter Smith (R-Vt.), Alan Steelman (R-Texas), Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), Peter G. Torkildsen (R-Mass.), David Trott (R-Mich.), James T. Walsh (R-N.Y.) and Joe Walsh (R-Ill.).
  

UPDATE:

Oops

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Mo Brooks looking for immunity

Demands such as he gets immunity from prosecution?  I don't know if the committee could grant him that anyway.

No matter.  They can just subpoena him if he doesn't "agree to appear."

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Cawthorn update

Cawthorn, of course, was already voted out.  Let's see if the Supreme Court takes this up.  

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

January 6 committee issues subpoenas

[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

And they did.

Also...

Jan 6 committee "requesting" cooperation from Trump admin members

So, apparently they assumed they were breaking laws.  I suppose they could argue that they thought anyone who stole the election would prosecute innocent people.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Someone tell Mr. Brooks that he can be subpoenaed if he prefers and be charged with contempt of Congress when  he refuses to appear.

Oh yeah, there's not much to worry about there.  

The McCarthy hits just keep on coming

Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, feared in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack that several far-right members of Congress would incite violence against other lawmakers, identifying several by name as security risks in private conversations with party leaders.

[...]

But Mr. McCarthy did not follow through on the sterner steps that some Republicans encouraged him to take, opting instead to seek a political accommodation with the most extreme members of the G.O.P. in the interests of advancing his own career.

  NYT

Well there's a surprise.

In the phone call with other Republican leaders on Jan. 10, Mr. McCarthy referred chiefly to two representatives, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Mo Brooks of Alabama, as endangering the security of other lawmakers and the Capitol complex. But he and his allies discussed several other representatives who made comments they saw as offensive or dangerous, including Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Barry Moore of Alabama.

[...]

After Jan. 6, Mr. Gaetz went on television to attack multiple Republicans who had criticized Mr. Trump, including Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, a member of the leadership team.

Those comments by Mr. Gaetz alarmed Mr. McCarthy and his colleagues in leadership — particularly the reference to Ms. Cheney, who was already the target of threats and public abuse from Mr. Trump’s faction in the party because of her criticism of the defeated president.

[...]

“He’s putting people in jeopardy,” Mr. McCarthy said of Mr. Gaetz. “And he doesn’t need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know, and these people came prepared with rope, with everything else.”

Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, suggested that Mr. Gaetz might be crossing a legal boundary.

“It’s potentially illegal what he’s doing,” Mr. Scalise said.

[...]

Speaking about rank-and-file lawmakers to his fellow leaders, Mr. McCarthy was sharply critical and suggested he was going to tell them to stop their inflammatory conduct.

“Our members have got to start paying attention to what they say, too, and you can’t put up with that,” he said, adding an expletive.

And yet, now they're all giving everybody a pass.

On Jan. 10, he urged his fellow G.O.P. leaders to keep a close eye on members like Mr. Brooks and Mr. Gaetz and asked them to alert him if they saw any potentially dangerous public communications.

Mr. McCarthy said it was particularly unacceptable for lawmakers to attack other lawmakers with whom they disagreed about the outcome of the 2020 election: “That stuff’s got to stop.”

“The country is too crazy,” Mr. McCarthy said. “I do not want to look back and think we caused something or we missed something and someone got hurt. I don’t want to play politics with any of that.”

And then he went down to Mar-A-Lago.

During the Jan. 10, 2021, phone call, Mr. McCarthy was speaking with a small group of Republican leaders, including Mr. Scalise, Ms. Cheney and Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, as well as a number of aides.

It was on this G.O.P. leadership call that Mr. McCarthy told his colleagues he would call Mr. Trump and tell him, “it would be my recommendation you should resign.”

[...]

The House minority leader has in recent days lied about and tried to downplay his comments: Last week, after The Times reported the remarks, Mr. McCarthy called the report “totally false and wrong.” After Mr. McCarthy’s denial, a source who had confidentially shared a recording of the call with the book’s authors agreed to let The Times publish parts of the audio. In the days since that recording has been made public, the Republican leader has repeated his denial and emphasized that he never actually carried out his plan to urge Mr. Trump to quit.

About time to admit this was not leaked by Liz Cheney, who has been getting the blame for it since the audio clip only has her and McCarthy on it.

On the leadership call, Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Scalise and others discussed several other lawmakers who had made provocative comments around Jan. 6, including Mr. Moore and Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas. Ms. Cheney, who was on the call, suggested Ms. Boebert was a security risk, pointing out that she had publicly tweeted about the sensitive movements of other lawmakers during the Jan. 6 evacuation.

[...]

On the Jan. 10 call, Mr. McCarthy said he planned to speak with Mr. Gaetz and ask him not to attack other lawmakers by name. The following day, in a larger meeting for all House Republicans, Mr. McCarthy pleaded with lawmakers not to “incite” but rather to “respect one another.”

Does he know his colleagues?

But in his determination to become speaker of the House after the 2022 elections, Mr. McCarthy has spent much of the last year forging a closer political partnership with the far right, showing little public concern that his most extreme colleagues could instigate bloodshed with their overheated or hateful rhetoric.

In recent months Mr. McCarthy has opposed punishing Republican members of Congress who have been accused of inciting violence, including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and, most recently, Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona, who posted an animated video on social media that depicted him killing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the left-wing Democrat.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

It was a good week for (news about) Trump

In the span of just a week, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) revealed the former president pressured him to intervene to unwind the election even after Jan. 6. Texts from Ginni Thomas to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows have also surfaced, showing the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas urged him to find a way to keep the president in office. And a federal judge found it “more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6.”

[...]

A Monday meeting to weigh contempt of Congress charges against two former Trump aides seemed to be almost a dress rehearsal for the public hearings, which could kick off as early as May.

The committee departed from its practice of having only the chair and vice chair speak.

[...]

The panel has weighed holding their [public] hearings at night — bucking the practice of daytime hearings in the hopes of captivating those who may have a better opportunity to watch from home in the evening.

[...]

[Committee chair Bennie] Thompson hinted it’s not just [Ginni] Thomas’s status as the spouse of a Supreme Court justice that is problematic, but the sheer amount of work left for the committee and whether her actions justify additional scrutiny.

“We’re continuing to talk about [that] as a committee, and hopefully within the not-too-distant future, we’ll decide one way or the other,” Thompson told reporters Wednesday.

  The Hill

Hopefully indeed.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) has said the committee should call Thomas and also expressed an openness to having [Congressman] Brooks speak with the committee’s investigators.

“The significant thing about Mo Brooks’s statement was that he told us that former President Trump continues to try to rescind the election and install himself as president. So you know, I have never felt that the insurrectionists and coup plotters have accepted the Biden presidency, and it’s an important warning to us that this is a continuing emergency,” Raskin said.

[...]

“Well, you know, Mo Brooks was on one side until he got dis-endorsed, so he could just be a rejected endorsed person, and why should we get drawn into the Mo Brooks-Donald Trump disagreement?” Thompson asked.

[...]

“I’m not sure yet how to evaluate what Mr. Brooks has said. But I think that based on the former president’s efforts to obstruct the joint session of Congress, based on his actions in Georgia, among other places, I think there is ample cause for the Justice Department to investigate,” [Rep. Adam Schiff] told reporters this week.

True, but the DOJ has its hands quite full right now. They probably wouldn't get to Brooks until after the mid-terms, and if (when?) the GOP retakes control of the House, they'll be doing everything they can to turn the news into pro-January 6th disinformation. So maybe the committee should take every opportunity it has now to inform the citizenry of the corruption and the extent of the coup attempt.

A federal judge ruled that there was a reasonable likelihood that Trump and his legal adviser John Eastman committed at least two felonies, saying there was enough evidence to undermine their claims of attorney-client privilege in the face of a select committee subpoena.

“The illegality of the plan was obvious,” Judge David Carter wrote in his decision.

“Dr. Eastman and President Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history,” he added later. “Their campaign was not confined to the ivory tower — it was a coup in search of a legal theory.

Thompson called it a “powerful ruling.”

And also an issue for the DOJ, but the committee seems likely to bring that up in its hearings.

Nearly every member of the committee used their time Monday night to reference the decision, with the panel said in an official statement calling it a warning sign and that “a failure to pursue accountability could set the stage for a repeat of Jan. 6.”

True, but I think more likely the GOP is putting in place voting suppressive legislation and candidates in positions to control vote counting so there won't be a need for a repeat of January 6.

Schiff went further, noting that the responsibility of getting to the bottom of the attack cannot just rest with the committee.

“I think when you have a federal judge state that the former president of the United States likely engaged in crime or fraud, and that he believes there’s sufficient evidence to justify that conclusion, it’s something that the Justice Department needs to pay very strong attention to,” he said.

Yes, and good luck with that.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Feud!

After Mo Brooks seems to be losing, Trump has withdrawn his endorsement.  Brooks slaps back.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) on Wednesday issued a blistering response to former President Trump's decision to unendorse him in the Alabama Senate race, accusing Trump of asking him to remove President Biden from the White House following the 2020 election despite his protests.

[...]

While Brooks in his statement criticized Trump’s efforts after Jan. 6, he was reportedly involved in planning leading up to the day.

  The Hill

There'll soon be a January 6 Committee request (or subpoena) for Brooks' testimony.

"President Trump asked me to rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House, immediately put President Trump back in the White House, and hold a new special election for the presidency," Brooks said in a statement. "As a lawyer, I’ve repeatedly advised President Trump that January 6 was the final election contest verdict and neither the U.S. Constitution nor the U.S. Code permit what President Trump asks. Period."

[...]

"I took a sworn oath to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution. I honor my oath. That is the way I am. I break my sworn oath for no man," Brooks said. "I’m still the most conservative candidate in the race."

[...]

[T]two sources who spoke to [Rolling Stone] detailed multiple meetings with members of Congress to coordinate contesting the election results and planning the rallies that preceded the attack.

They outlined “dozens” of planning briefings, listing Brooks among those who either participated or sent top staffers.

And Ali Alexander, a Stop the Steal founder who secured a permit to protest on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, has been vocal about his alleged coordination with lawmakers, posting live streams saying he had discussions with Brooks along with two other GOP lawmakers.

Inquiring minds want to know

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Here's your answer to why the GOP is so against the Jan 6 investigation

They're complicit.

He's not the only one.  Bet on it.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Looking forward to getting some info from this lawsuit, too.

Lunacy

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The "organizers"

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

What the everloving fuck?  Soliciting martyrs, just like Islamic extremists.

Any and all congress people should be censured at the least, and removed, more appropriately, for fighting the election results. This is insane.

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.

And if it had gone the way they wanted it to, he'd be crowing about being a part of it.

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.

Did he think Congressmen were going to own up?

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.

They itended a mob scene to threaten/intimidate Congress people. Thank god it blew up in their faces.

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.

Do it.

Otherwise, they're going to pin this on Alexander and get away with it.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

More blowback please

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told members of his GOP conference on a call Monday that the riot at the Capitol was not caused by antifa, urging lawmakers not to further spread misinformation about the pro-Trump mob that stormed the House and Senate last week.

“McCarthy told all members on the call that he has been receiving FBI briefings and it is clear that antifa was not behind this,” one source familiar with the call said. “That it was in fact right-wing extremists and QAnon adherents, and he urged members to stop spreading false information to the contrary.”

  The Hill

McCarthy must be afraid of serious blowback, but it's a certainty that MAGAts aren't. They won't believe him. I'm not even sure they'd believe Trump if he told them the same thing, which he won't.

McCarthy’s comments come in the wake of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who made the unsubstantiated claim on the House floor that antifa was behind the violence that broke out at the Capitol on Wednesday after the riot took place in an attempt to delay the official count of Electoral College votes.

Other GOP lawmakers, including Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), doubled down on the claim on Twitter.

"Evidence growing that fascist ANTIFA orchestrated Capitol attack with clever mob control tactics," Brooks wrote at the start of a Twitter thread the day after the riot.

Shameless. They should be run out of town.

McCarthy told his members it was determined to be right-wing extremists and supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which revolves around the idea that President Trump is working to expose an elite group of Democrats and media who are running an international child trafficking ring and controlling the government to try to undermine the president.

The FBI said on Friday that it determined that no members of the left-wing movement antifa were involved in the storming of the Capitol.

Clearly a smarter group than the MAGAt insurrectionists.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) has been removed from an advisory committee to Harvard University's Institute of Politics as a result of her peddling false claims about voter fraud, the school announced on Tuesday.

"Over the past several days, [director] Mark Gearan and I have spent a good deal of time considering the role at the Institute of Politics of our colleague Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, whom I have included in this message," dean Douglas Elmendorf wrote to the committee. "Mark and I have read public materials, listened to students and alumni, and consulted with colleagues at Harvard on this important matter."

So sad. She was well on her way to being a bright star in the Trump orbit after the first impeachment.

Elmendorf asked Stefanik to resign from the advisory committee, which he said she refused to do.

[...]

After the riots, hundreds of Harvard students, faculty and alumni petitioned the school's Institute of Politics to disaffiliate with the congresswoman from New York's north country who graduated from Harvard in 2006.

[...]

"My request was not about political parties, political ideology, or her choice of candidate for president. Rather, in my assessment, Elise has made public assertions about voter fraud in November’s presidential election that have no basis in evidence, and she has made public statements about court actions related to the election that are incorrect," Elmendorf said. "Moreover, these assertions and statements do not reflect policy disagreements but bear on the foundations of the electoral process through which this country’s leaders are chosen."

In a statement to The Hill, Stefanik said the decision to remove her from the committee shows a willingness from Harvard to "cower and cave to the woke Left."

The evergreen excuse. 

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Uh-oh

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

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Mo Brooks picks the prick spot for himself

Some asshole was going to do it. Mo claimed the honors.

Republican Rep. Mo Brooks (Ala.) on Wednesday told reporters that he plans to challenge the Electoral College votes when Congress meets to certify the election for President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 6.

[...]

“I'm doing this because in my judgment this is the worst election theft in the history of the United States. And if there was a way to determine the Electoral College outcome using only lawful votes cast by eligible American citizens, then Donald Trump won the Electoral College,” he told The Hill in an interview.

[...]

The Alabama Republican said he believes the issue extends beyond the court cases filed by the Trump campaign, arguing that Congress is better suited to look into the matter.

“It is extremely difficult in a court of law to determine how many illegal votes were cast and who they were cast for. And that is one of the reasons why the FBI, the Justice Department and the federal judiciary are wholly inadequate for handling this issue,” he said.

  The Hill

Apparently only Trump fanatics are qualified to do that.

“Number one is the 1993 national voter rights act that was rammed through Congress by a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate and signed by a Democratic president over the objection of Republican congressmen and Republican senators,” he said.

“The chief evil in that legislation is that it makes it illegal for voter registrars to require proof of citizenship before allowing someone to register to vote. So that in and of itself opens the floodgates for illegal aliens and other noncitizens to register to vote,” he added.

Brooks also said he sees voter ID laws as an area that needs to be strengthened.

[...]

"There’s zero evidence of even dozens, let alone millions, of non citizens voting in this or any other election," David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, told Politifact.

[...]

Brooks would not disclose “any direct or indirect communications” with senators or their staffs but is actively seeking a lawmaker in the upper chamber to join his efforts.

[...]

The congressman said he may still object to the vote if no others decide to join him, acknowledging it would serve as a symbolic protest rather than a forceful challenge to the election result.

[...]

The news comes as Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, told reporters Wednesday that he found it unlikely that someone would object to elector certification.

“I can’t imagine that that would ever happen,” Thune said, adding that while a Republican “could” stand up and object, he doubted “that goes anywhere.”

John Thune doesn't know his own people.

Norman Ornstein from Washington, D.C.-based think tank American Enterprise Institute told reporters on a call Wednesday that while he thinks there is a likelihood that at least one House member and one Senator will come forward to challenge a slate of electors, he does not believe it will have any substantial impact on the election result.

“What happens is the House and Senate meet together, and if there’s a challenge, they go back to their respective chambers and resolve the issue,” Ornstein explained. “That can happen pretty quickly. I would think it would not have significant debate, although it could have some debate before you get votes.”

I wouldn't bet my life on it. Not if I wanted to live. 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Look over there

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Interesting defense of Trump: He doesn't have time to understand

Amid questions over whether President Donald Trump understands how a short-term continuing resolution to fund the government works, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) defended the President, saying Trump doesn’t have time to fully understand the “weeds” of the 30-day budget bill the House is set to vote on Thursday.

  TPM

He doesn't have time, because he's too busy watching Fox & Friends and tweet-whining when he doesn't get enough positive publicity. Reports are that Trump doesn't go to work until around 11 am, and then quits around 6 pm. And we all know that he goes golfing most weekends.

“He’s got nuclear missile threats out of North Korea that he has to pay some attention to. He’s got the potential of a nuclearized Iran he has to pay attention to.”

He didn't seem to be paying attention when Hawaii falsely pushed an incoming missile threat. He hasn't tweeted anything about Iran in a very long time, and his attention to North Korea has been in the form of throwing out insulting names at Kim Jong Un. Busy, buys, busy.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The universe sometimes speaks loudly enough to hear

I hope Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) is listening.

“My understanding is that it will allow insurance companies to require people who have higher health care costs to contribute more to the insurance pool that helps offset all these costs, thereby reducing the cost to those people who lead good lives, they’re healthy, you know, they are doing the things to keep their bodies healthy,” [Brooks] said. “And right now, those are the people who have done things the right way that are seeing their costs skyrocketing.”

  TPM

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) revealed in an emotional House floor speech on Wednesday that he has prostate cancer.

  The Hill

Should have been doing "things the right way".

Unlike poor people, though, he has good insurance.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.