Trump lashes out at Gov. Doug Ducey following certification

Re: Trump lashes out at Gov. Doug Ducey following certificat

Postby admin » Sat Feb 13, 2021 7:42 am

Renowned GOP Lawyer Ted Olson: “I Would Vote to Convict [Trump]”
by Amanpour and Company
Feb 12, 2021

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The second impeachment trial of former President Trump is causing some major soul-searching among traditional conservatives. Former solicitor general Ted Olson, a veteran Republican who worked in the Bush and Reagan administrations, was horrified by the Capitol riots on January 6. Olson tells Walter Isaacson why he believes senators who don't vote to impeach are complicit in Trump's wrongdoing.
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Re: Trump lashes out at Gov. Doug Ducey following certificat

Postby admin » Sun Feb 14, 2021 1:17 am

Nancy Pelosi slams Mitch McConnell for ‘disingenuous’ Trump impeachment speech
by The Independent
Feb 13, 2021

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned Republicans who voted to acquit Donald Trump for his role inciting an insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January, following a months-long campaign to undermine election results that fuelled his supporters to riot.

Nancy Pelosi's comments at a press conference came after Republican Mitch McConnell said Donald Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking” the 6 January insurrection.

McConnell said this despite minutes earlier leading Republicans in acquitting him of inciting it in his second impeachment trial.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4946118/ ... epublicans
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Re: Trump lashes out at Gov. Doug Ducey following certificat

Postby admin » Sun Feb 14, 2021 3:19 am

Contradicting defense lawyers, sources say Trump put Pence's life in danger and didn't check in after the riot
by Sarah Al-Arshani
Business Insider
February 12, 2021

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Sources close to former Vice President Mike Pence contradicted statements made by defense lawyers for former President Donald Trump who said he was never aware that Pence was in danger.

GOP Senators Mitt Romney and Susan Collins asked Trump's lawyer Michael van der Veen whether or not Trump knew that Pence was in danger when he criticized Pence in a tweet as he was being evacuated on January 6 at 2:24 p.m. Vox report

"The answer is no," van der Veen responded.

He added: "At no point was the president informed the vice president was in any danger."

Trump is currently facing an impeachment trial in the Senate for a charge of "incitement of insurrection" for his role in the January 6 Capitol attack.

Trump supporters breached the US Capitol and clashed with law enforcement. The riot resulted in the deaths of five people, including a police officer.

On Wednesday, Sen. Tommy Tuberville said he told Trump that Pence had been evacuated for his safety as rioters were nearing the Senate floor, Politico reported.

"I said 'Mr. President, they just took the vice president out, I've got to go,'" Tuberville told Politico.

The phone call occurred at the same time as Trump tweeted out criticizing Pence for not stopping the certification for President Joe Biden's victory.


Additionally, a senior administration official told The Washington Post that he finds it "inconceivable" that Trump and his team would not have been told that Pence was evacuated. The White House security team is normally told of any abnormal movement that involves the vice president.

Sources told Post told that Pence and his Chief of Staff, Marc Short, had on multiple occasions explained to Trump that he did not have the power to alter the election results. A Pence ally also said that while the former vice president hasn't publically attacked Trump, he is furious that Trump called the mob against him.

The Post added that Trump never called Pence to make sure he was okay after the attack and it was Short, who called Trump's Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, to let them know they were okay.

Short also told Meadows that after the building was secured that they would move forward with certifying the vote, and Meadows did not object, the Post reported.
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Re: Trump lashes out at Gov. Doug Ducey following certificat

Postby admin » Sun Feb 14, 2021 9:13 am

Trump Found Not Guilty at Impeachment Trial, McConnell is Grim Reaper of Justice. What Now?
by Glenn Kirschner
Feb 13, 2021

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When the impeachment votes were cast, 57 Senators voted that Donald Trump is guilty of inciting an insurrection but 43 Senators voted not guilty, falling short of the two-thirds required to convict Trump and ban him from holding office in the future.

The political process has failed to hold Trump accountable. It's now time for the DOJ and the courts, as well as state attorneys general, state prosecution offices and state courts to step up and show a true fidelity to the rule of law by investigating and prosecuting Trump's criminal offenses. Justice is not dead. In fact, lady justice is just getting warmed up . .
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Re: Trump lashes out at Gov. Doug Ducey following certificat

Postby admin » Tue Feb 16, 2021 1:25 am

57 GOP State And Local Officials Were At The Capitol Insurrection: And a month after the riot, few of the Republican political figures have been held to account.
by Christopher Mathias
Huffington Post
02/13/2021 05:45 am ET Updated 10 hours ago

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Image

At least 57 state and local Republican officials attended the Jan. 6 rally in Washington that turned into a deadly insurrection, according to an updated HuffPost tally. Almost all of them are resisting calls to resign.

They traveled from 27 states for the “Stop the Steal” demonstration near the White House. A couple of officials even gave speeches, warming up the crowd for then-President Donald Trump, who took the stage and regurgitated lies about the election results before instructing the “Make America Great Again” mob to march on the U.S. Capitol.

Late last month, after identifying an initial 21 state and local GOP officials at the rally — among them a QAnon conspiracy theorist, a self-described member of a far-right militia and a man who once declared that “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat” — HuffPost received emails from readers across the country identifying the additional 36 officials in this new tally.

Some of the reader emails were urgent — “PLEASE, PLEASE REVISE YOUR ARTICLE TO REFLECT THESE INSURGENT SEDITIONISTS PLEASE!” read one — underscoring how communities across the country are still grappling with the fallout from the siege of the U.S. Capitol. Many are hoping that these officials will somehow face consequences for their actions.

Nearly all 57 are facing calls to resign. Yet only two men, both of whom were arrested for their role in the riot — a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates and a secretary of the California Republican Assembly — have actually stepped down.

Elsewhere, a Virginia state senator was censured and stripped of committee assignments. Two other censure attempts — of a city councilwoman and a school board member in California — were voted down. In Texas, a Pizzagate-conspiracy-theory-believing field organizer was fired.

In most cases, the GOP officials have brushed aside calls to resign. “For a call to go out seeking my resignation is beyond the pale and reeks of cancel culture,” said Rob Socha, a city councilman in Hillsdale, Michigan. (Incidentally, at least four of the 57 GOP officials invoked “cancel culture” or being “canceled” while dismissing calls that they step down.)


All across the country, accountability feels hard to find, including in Washington itself, where a Senate impeachment trial against Trump for inciting the insurrection is all but assured to end in a party-line vote for acquittal. (Trump’s lawyers have also invoked “cancel culture” during the proceedings.)

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Supporters of President Donald Trump gather at the west entrance of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 after busting through barriers manned by U.S. Capitol Police officers. STEPHANIE KEITH/REUTERS

In the mob on Jan. 6, according to HuffPost’s analysis, were, at least, 16 Republican members of state houses or assemblies, four state senators, a state attorney general, six county commissioners, seven city council members, two mayors, three school board members, two state GOP chairs, two prosecutors and a slew of other officials and party functionaries. The group also included an extremist sheriff from Oklahoma who discussed harming members of Congress, a town council member from Massachusetts who is closely affiliated with the violent neo-fascist gang the Proud Boys and a county commissioner from Florida who once discussed beheading liberals.

Only a few breached the Capitol property itself, with four GOP officials having since been arrested on charges including “knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds” and disorderly conduct. The rest of the officials have since largely condemned the violence that occurred that day, insisting they were nowhere near the chaos or claiming they’d already returned to their hotels or boarded buses home before the rioters started ransacking the seat of American democracy, leading to the deaths of five people.

Many have since sought to avoid responsibility for their part in it all. Of the 57 GOP officials identified as being at the rally, afterward at least 20 pushed the false conspiracy theory that “antifa,” or leftist anti-fascists, actually started the violence — a claim that’s been rendered increasingly absurd with the arrests of about 200 Trump supporters since Jan. 6.

Meanwhile, Republicans continue to cast the Capitol rioters as a lunatic fringe who do not represent the party. But the party’s complicity comes into clearer focus each day, as do the demographics of those who traveled to Washington on Jan. 6: It was an overwhelmingly white, heavily armed, petit bourgeois and middle-aged mob marching alongside dyed-in-the-wool white nationalists and other extremists, as well as dozens of cops, all with a single-minded focus on keeping their perceived political enemies — Democrats — from acquiring power.

It was a perfect representation of the GOP.


Here are the 57 state and local Republican officials who were at the Jan. 6 rally, including one official whose attendance had previously gone unreported. (This list does not include the federal lawmakers in attendance.)

The following list is not comprehensive, and HuffPost will be reporting further on officials who participated in the Jan. 6 rally. Know an elected official or party functionary who should be on this list? Email christopher.mathias@huffpost.com.

Ken and Angela Paxton

Image
Ken Paxton
January 7
Those who stormed the capitol yesterday were not Trump supporters. They have been confirmed to be Antifia. Violence is not the answer.
Paul Sperry
@paulsperry_
BREAKING: Former FBI agent on the ground at U.S. Capitol just texted me and confirmed that at least 1 "bus load" of Antifa thugs infiltrated peaceful Trump demonstrators as part of a false Trump flag ops
[[False Information
The same information was checked in another post by independent fact=checkers.
See Why See Photo]]

A Facebook post about the Jan. 6 insurrection from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was labeled "False Information" by the social media company.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, shared a stage with Trump at the rally that spawned a riot.

“What we have in President Trump is a fighter,” Ken Paxton told the crowd, adding: “We will not quit fighting.”

The next morning, after the carnage at the Capitol was well known, Attorney General Paxton wrote on Facebook: “Those who stormed the capitol yesterday were not Trump supporters. They have been confirmed to be Antifa. Violence is not the answer.”

Those who stormed the Capitol were absolutely not confirmed to be antifa. (Paxton still has not deleted the post, which Facebook labeled “False Information.”)

That same day, according to The Dallas Morning News, Democratic Texas state Rep. Chris Turner called for the state Legislature to “thoroughly investigate” Attorney General Paxton’s role in fomenting the riot.

“From filing a fraudulent lawsuit that fueled unhinged conspiracy theories about a free and fair election, to egging on the crowd of insurrectionists in Washington, DC, Paxton has played a major role in creating the national crisis that culminated with the first breach of our nation’s capital since the War of 1812,” Turner said in a written statement.


A spokesperson for the attorney general called Turner’s statement “utterly unhinged and absurd.”

(The FBI, meanwhile, is investigating Paxton for unrelated accusations that he committed bribery and other crimes.)

Jorge Riley

Like many of the Capitol rioters who have since been arrested, Jorge Riley — who served both as corresponding secretary of the California Republican Assembly and as president of its Sacramento chapter — appears to have confessed to his alleged crimes on social media.

“I’m here to see what my President called me to DC for,” he wrote on Facebook the morning of Jan. 6, according to federal prosecutors. “There’s 100’s of thousands of people marching on the Nation’s Capitol!!!” he wrote in another.

Thirty minutes later, Riley wrote: ‘Hey We’re storming the Capitol…. What are you doing?’”

Federal prosecutors also allege Riley gave an interview on camera upon leaving the Capitol in which he further described his actions. ’We broke windows, we went into the door, we pushed our way in, and then we just kept going further and further.” he said, adding: “We pushed our way to [Democratic House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi’s office … and then we were sitting in there yelling, ‘Fuck you, Nancy Pelosi!’”

Riley is charged with obstructing an official proceeding, illegally entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct. He has resigned from his positions in the California Republican Assembly.


Joe Mullins

“It started out real peaceful, like a typical Trump rally,” Flagler County Commissioner Joe Mullins told Florida’s Palm Coast Observer about his trip to D.C. “When [former Vice President Mike] Pence did what he did, the crowd went berserk. People started storming the Capitol. When we started hearing shots fired, we got up and left.”

What Pence “did” was refuse to heed Trump’s directive to stop Congress from counting the electoral votes that certified Democrat Joe Biden won the election. (The rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” when they stormed the Capitol.)

Mullins had sponsored buses to transport Trump supporters to the Jan. 6 rally. In the days leading up to the event, he stated on a pre-recorded radio program (which the station refused to air) that “maybe there are some liberals I’d like to see their heads cut off.”

One of Mullins’ fellow commissioners, Ken Bryan, harshly criticized him upon his return to Florida, noting in a speech that Mullins had “created an intentional insurgency while serving under the oath of office,” which was a “clear violation of that oath to uphold the Constitution” and that he “should not be holding office today.”

Mullins has not resigned
.

Chris West

Chris West is the sheriff of Canadian County, Oklahoma, and is affiliated with a far-right and anti-immigrant network of sheriffs across the U.S.

He says he traveled to D.C. as a private citizen and did not enter the Capitol building. “I rebuke all of that, every bit of it,” he told reporters in Oklahoma of the violence in D.C.

A short time later, however, KFOR reported that some alarming social media posts from a since-deleted Facebook account belonging to West had emerged showing the sheriff using explicitly insurrectionist rhetoric.

“If they’re okay rigging an election and foreign help to steal the white house and control of WeThePeople, then I’m okay with using whatever means necessary to preserve America and save FREEDOM & LIBERTY,” West allegedly wrote in one post.

When another Oklahoman on Facebook wrote “I want several in Congress… in prison,” West wrote back: “or worse.”

West made headlines in 2020 when he announced he was forming an armed “sheriff’s posse” to respond to Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

“The anarchists, thugs and self-identified Marxists are focused on the destruction of the United States of America,” he wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post at the time. “They want to eliminate the US Constitution, take all your money, take your job, take your house, and control every thought, action and aspect of your life. That makes them domestic enemies of the country in my book.”


Suzanne Ianni

Image
SuperHappyFunAmerica
@SuperHappyFunA
Bus 1 of 11 coming to Washington DC. See you there!
8:53 PM Jan 5, 2021

Suzanne Ianni, a member of the Town Meeting in Natick, Massachusetts, left, aboard a bus headed to Washington for the Jan. 6 “March to Save America” rally. She was arrested for breaching the Capitol.

Suzanne Ianni, a member of the Town Meeting in Natick, Massachusetts, was arrested last month on charges of disorderly conduct and knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, according to federal authorities.

She was allegedly photographed inside the Capitol during the insurrection.

Ianni is actively involved in the far-right, anti-LGBTQ group Super Happy Fun America, infamous for organizing a series of “Straight Pride Parades” in Boston.

According to a criminal affidavit, Ianni organized busloads of supporters to travel to D.C. for the Jan. 6 rally. A photograph taken from one bus shows Ianni smiling while standing with a man in a Proud Boys T-shirt. The Proud Boys are a violent neo-fascist gang closely aligned with Super Happy Fun America.


Linda Menk

Linda Menk, a school board member in Coweta County, Georgia, is facing calls to resign after attending the Jan. 6 rally.

“Just FYI. I’m here in DC for the Trump March,” Menk posted to Facebook from the insurrection. “These people you’re seeing on TV who supposedly stormed the capitol do NOT look like the peaceful marchers who are 99% NOT wearing masks, And their attire does not look like that people I’ve been interacting with.”

“This smells like a false flag,” Menk added, insinuating that another group was responsible for the violence on Jan. 6.

Community members started a petition to remove Menk from office upon her return to Georgia. Menk, the petition stated, “is not only entrusted with the education of our children, but also expected to be a pillar of the community.”

“As a community,” the petition continued, “we feel that she does not represent the values of this body, our community, or our democracy.”

WXIA-TV in Atlanta also found alarming Facebook posts made by Menk, including one in which she showed support for Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenage vigilante charged with fatally shooting two anti-racism demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer.

“Kyle Rittenhouse-justified shooting,” Menk wrote in one post. “Please donate to Kyle’s defense,” she wrote in another.


Kyle Biedermann

Texas state Rep. Kyle Biedermann said he marched on the Capitol but did not participate in the violence. “It was unfortunate that some used this gathering to sow discord and promote violence,” he told the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung in a statement.

Only two days later, Biedermann stated his belief that Texas should secede from the United States.

“The politicians in DC are out of touch with the voices of God fearing Americans and with the radical nature of the Democrat Party, it only renews my resolve to fight to give Texans the right to vote on #Texit,” he tweeted.

Biedermann announced last year that he plans on introducing the Texas Independence Referendum Act, which would have Texans vote on whether the state should become “an independent nation.”


As noted by The Dallas Morning News, Texas cannot legally secede from the United States.

“You can’t claim to be patriotic and file a bill for Texas to secede from the union,” quipped Abhi Rahman, a spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party.

Rahman also said Biedermann “must resign from the Texas Legislature immediately, and short of that, be expelled. It’s time for Texas Republicans to put up or shut up. They either support domestic terrorists or they don’t.”

Biedermann has not resigned.


Thad Lichtensteiger

Thad Lichtensteiger is a county commissioner in Van Wert County, Ohio. A HuffPost reader sent a photo purportedly showing Lichtensteiger at the Jan. 6 rally.

Although Lichtensteiger didn’t return multiple HuffPost voicemails requesting comment on his attendance at the insurrection, an employee at the county commission confirmed that Lichtensteiger had traveled to D.C. for the event.

Here are the rest of the GOP officials who traveled to D.C. on Jan. 6.

Aaron Carpenter, city councilman in Marysville, Ohio
Alfie Oakes, Florida Republican state committeeman
Alfonso Cirulli, deputy mayor of Barnegat Township, New Jersey
Amanda Chase, Virginia state senator
Angie Jones, treasurer of Horry County, South Carolina
Annie Black, Nevada assemblywoman
Anthony Kern, Arizona state representative
Brian Hobbs, mayor of Newkirk, Oklahoma
Cathy Lukasko, auxiliary chair of Trumbull County, Ohio, Republican Party
Charles Ausberger, city councilman in Mansfield, Connecticut
Chris Miller, Illinois state representative
Christian Ziegler, county commissioner in Sarasota County, Florida, and vice chair of the Republican Party of Florida
Couy Griffin, county commissioner in Otero County, New Mexico
Dan Cox, member of the Maryland House of Delegates
Dave LaRock, member of the Virginia House of Delegates
David Baker, assistant district attorney general in Greene County, Tennessee
David Eastman, Alaska state representative
Derrick Evans, member of the West Virginia House of Delegates
Doug Mastriano, Pennsylvania state senator
Doug Mclinko, county commissioner in Bradford County, Pennsylvania
Frank Eathorne, Wyoming Republican Party chairman
Gerri McDaniel, Republican state executive committeeman for Horry County, South Carolina
Gloria Lee Snover, Northampton County Republican Party chair
Greg Stuchell, city councilman for Hillsdale, Michigan
James Hoak, school board member for the Sierra Unified School District in Fresno County, California
Jenni White, mayor of Luther, Oklahoma
Jessica Martinez, city councilwoman in Whittier, California
Justin Hill, Missouri state representative
Justin Price, Rhode Island state representative
Kevin Whitt, Republican field organizer in Texas
Kirsten Hill, member of the Ohio Board of Education
Leandra Blades, member of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified Board of Education in California
Lynn Deddens, prosecutor in Dearborn County, Indiana
Mark Finchem, Arizona state representative
Matt Maddock, Michigan state representative
Melvin Adams, chair of Virginia’s 5th District Committee
Meshawn Maddock, co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party
Mike Azinger, West Virginia state senator
Nathan Martin, city councilman for Shelby, Ohio
Paul Henderson, chairman of the District 10 Republican Party in Calvin, North Dakota
Richard Champion, Colorado state representative
Rob Socha, city councilman in Hillsdale, Michigan
Ron Hanks, Colorado state representative
Sandy Adams, district director for the 5th Congressional District in Virginia
Shannon Grady, incoming president of the Horry County Republican Women’s Caucus in Horry County, South Carolina
Sue Solloway, county commissioner of Hunterdon County, New Jersey
Terri Lynn Weaver, Tennessee state representative
Vernon Jones, Georgia state representative

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misidentified the state where Charles Ausberger is a city councilman, and misstated the county where Christian Ziegler is a commissioner. It also incorrectly listed Montana state Sen. Theresa Manzella as having attended the rally.
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Re: Trump lashes out at Gov. Doug Ducey following certificat

Postby admin » Tue Feb 16, 2021 5:50 am

Conservative Lawyer Bruce Fein: Trump’s Acquittal Gives Future Presidents License to Break the Law
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow!
FEBRUARY 15, 2021

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GUESTS

Bruce Fein, constitutional lawyer and former associate deputy attorney general and general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission under President Ronald Reagan. He previously served as counsel to Republicans on the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran.

As the Senate votes to acquit former President Donald Trump for inciting the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, we speak with constitutional lawyer and former Reagan administration official Bruce Fein, who says the insurrection was not just an attack on the U.S. Capitol, but “an effort, basically, to destroy the rule of law and the Constitution itself.” Fein says failure to convict Trump will give license to future presidents to break the law. “It really is quite frightening that now we have a precedent that says a president has the right to do anything he wants, that he wishes to, without sanction,” he tells Democracy Now! “That is no longer the rule of law.”

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We are joined now by Bruce Fein. He was associate deputy attorney general and general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission under President Reagan. He previously served as counsel to Republicans on the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran. He’s a constitutional lawyer who’s testified on countless occasions before Congress and author of the book American Empire Before the Fall.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Bruce Fein. It’s great to have you with us. Can you start off by responding to the acquittal of Donald J. Trump on Saturday?

BRUCE FEIN: First, I think I would recharacterize the nature of the charge. It wasn’t insurrection against the Capitol alone. It was a stab in the back of the United States Constitution and 230 years of unbroken peaceful transitions of presidential power, because the purpose of the storming wasn’t just to defile the Capitol or even threaten lives. It was to prevent Mike Pence, the vice president, from executing his constitutional duty under the 12th Amendment and the Electoral Count Act to count state-certified electoral votes that would pronounce Joe Biden the winner by having captured a majority. It was an effort, basically, to destroy the rule of law and the Constitution itself. It would put us in the same situation that Russians find with Mr. Putin and his elections or President Xi in China. That was what this was about. It wasn’t some kind of garden-variety just riot. It was an effort to undo 230 years of heroic sacrifices of our Founding Fathers, of those who fought at Cemetery Ridge, Omaha Beach and otherwise. That was what was at stake here. And to characterize it as an insurrection is, I think — vastly downplays the importance of the issue.

The second thing that I want to underscore is that it’s conceptually wrong to think of impeachment as an after-the-fact sanction for misconduct. Impeachment was designed as a prophylactic, something that would prevent someone from remaining in office if they created a clear and present danger to our constitutional dispensation. And whatever else you can say about Mr. Trump’s speeches and exhortations, incendiary words, whether or not they in fact caused the insurrection, because there’s certainly evidence of some planning by some in advance, it clearly shows a huge danger to our constitutional system, especially when you think about the background of this president saying on July 23rd, 2019, in the manner of a monarch, “Then, I have Article II, where I have the right to do anything I want as president.” And he was as good as his word. He flouted the Constitution virtually daily. He turned the White House into a crime scene by Hatch Act violations and using government property and employees to promote his 2020 campaign. He flouted hundreds of congressional subpoenas for testimony and information. He issued executive orders in view of legislation. He continued unconstitutional wars. On and on and on. That is not a clear and present danger to our constitutional system, I don’t know what is. And it really is quite frightening that now we have a precedent that says a president has the right to do anything he wants, that he wishes to, without sanction. That is no longer the rule of law.

AMY GOODMAN: So I want to go to this issue of the witnesses. Let’s go to the lead House impeachment manager, Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland, speaking on Meet the Press Sunday, defending the decision not to call witnesses during the trial.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN: We have no regrets at all. We left it totally out there on the floor of the U.S. Senate, and every senator knew exactly what happened. And just go back and listen to McConnell’s speech. Everybody was convinced of the case we put forward. But, you know, as the defense lawyers said, just pick any one of these phony constitutional defenses, and then you can justify it. It could be First Amendment. It could be bill of attainder. It could be due process. All of them are nonsense. I thought that I successfully demolished them at the trial. But, you know, there’s no reasoning with people who basically are, you know, acting like members of a religious cult and, when they leave office, should be selling flowers at Dulles Airport.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s lead House impeachment manager Jamie Raskin. Bruce Fein, your response?

BRUCE FEIN: I think Jamie — and he’s a professional and at least a semi-personal friend. I think he misconceived the nature of the audience of an impeachment trial. It’s not just the senators. It’s all the American people, everyone who voted. The president is a nationwide election. And he needs to convince not only the senators. If this is going to work and have lasting effect, he needed to have a case that convinced the American people. They don’t live inside the Beltway — most of them don’t — and aren’t immersed of this every day, like he is and perhaps the senators.

And that was the need for the witnesses. Now, also, he overlooks the fact that the defense raised the issue that Congresswoman Beutler’s exchange with Kevin McCarthy made relevant. They argued that Mr. Trump was calling for peace during the storming, during the insurrection, that he wanted them to stop. It’s obviously not true, if Mr. McCarthy is correct and Ms. Beutler is. And there’s other evidence, as well, that he spoke to Senator —

AMY GOODMAN: So, I want to go to Jamie Raskin on this issue of Beutler. This was Saturday, before the impeachment trial concluded, senators voting in favor of allowing witnesses, which threatened to extend the proceedings. The development came after a Republican congressmember came forward — we’re talking about Jaime Herrera Beutler — about comments Trump made during his assault to Kevin McCarthy.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN: But last night, Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state issued a statement confirming that in the middle of the insurrection, when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called the president to beg for help, President Trump responded — and I quote — “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election then you are.” Needless to say, this is an additional critical piece of corroborating evidence. … For that reason and because this is the proper time to do so under the resolution that the Senate adopted to set the rules for the trial, we would like the opportunity to subpoena Congresswoman Herrera.

AMY GOODMAN: So, the request by the House impeachment managers to introduce new witnesses prompted this tense debate between the lead House impeachment manager, Jamie Raskin, and Trump defense attorney Michael van der Veen.

MICHAEL VAN DER VEEN: The only thing that I ask, if you vote for witnesses, do not handcuff me by limiting the number of witnesses that I can have.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN: There’s only one person the president’s counsel really needs to interview, and that’s their own client. And bring him forward, as we suggested last week, because a lot of this is matters that are in his head. Why did he not act to defend the country after he learned of the attack? Why was he continuing to press the political case? But this piece of evidence is relevant to that.

MICHAEL VAN DER VEEN: For the House managers to say we need depositions about things that happened after, it’s not — just not true. But — but if he does, there are a lot of depositions that need to be happened. … And not by Zoom. None of these depositions should be done by Zoom. We didn’t do this hearing by Zoom. These depositions should be done in person, in my office, in Philadelphia. That’s where they should be done.

AMY GOODMAN: Yes, Michael van der Veen is a personal injury lawyer in Philadelphia, who actually sued Donald Trump last year. He filed a lawsuit against Trump accusing him of making repeated claims that mail voting is “ripe with fraud,” despite having “no evidence in support of these claims.” That’s just a side note. But if you can talk about this interaction, and then the attorney — the House impeachment manager getting the right to have witnesses and then going back on it, not wanting to extend the trial?

BRUCE FEIN: Well, this is my deduction, having spent most of my life here in Washington, D.C., approaching 50 years. It may sound cynical, but I think the Democrats, in some sense, did not want a conviction, which would relieve Mr. McConnell and his cohorts who were opposed to Mr. Trump of the headache for four years trying to confront a very divided and splintered Republican Party, because the conviction clearly would have been followed by a vote to disqualify Mr. Trump from the 2024 presidential elections, and that would mean he would be out of the Republican Party and politics probably. And now the Republicans are the ones that are facing the headache. As your show already indicated, those who voted in favor of conviction are already confronting censure votes back home. Clear, clear divisions in the party.

Because, otherwise, I think what happened is that even though Mr. Raskin and the other House managers wanted witnesses, I think the leadership, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, made a different political calculation and said, “Why should we do that? We probably won’t get a conviction anyway. Let’s just leave Mitch McConnell and Liz Cheney to fight their own battle, internecine warfare, and we’ll move forward and have better prospects for reelection in 2024.” Because, otherwise, it makes no sense for Jamie Raskin, on the one hand, to ask for witnesses, after he had earlier asked that Mr. Trump be a witness, and then turn around and accept something that’s no witnesses at all, after he had only engaged with the defense counsel — nothing more. And his argument, I say, that, well, he already had the evidence — if that were true, then why did he even ask for adding the statement of Congresswoman Beutler? So I think this was a deal that was cut at the top levels between the Democratic leadership, believing let the Republicans be at each other’s throats for the next four years.

AMY GOODMAN: And there was a lot of talk about, for example, Chris Coons, who is considered one of the Biden whisperers, the senator from his home state of Delaware, walking in on the House managers and saying, “The jury is ready to vote,” which was sort of sending the message that Biden wanted to move on, wanted to deal with COVID relief and other things, the concern that Mitch McConnell could somehow say that if this trial is going to continue, he wouldn’t allow any other Senate work to happen, which would prevent essential bills like that from moving forward.

But I wanted to ask you about what’s next for Trump. You have a number of possible criminal investigations — the Manhattan DA probe of Trump’s finances; the Atlanta DA probe of Trump election schemes, like interfering with the secretary of state, demanding to find more than 11,000 votes; the Georgia secretary of state’s probe of Trump’s calls. And then you have, in D.C., both the attorney general and the D.C. U.S. attorney possible incitement of violence charge around that very January 6 insurrection. Civilly, you’ve got the New York attorney general investigating the Trump Organization. You’ve got the two defamation suits against Trump for abusing and, in one case, raping women: Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit and Summer Zervos’s defamation lawsuit.

BRUCE FEIN: Well, the most, I believe, important is the potential for federal criminal prosecution. Under the incitement of insurrection prohibition — for those who are interested, it’s in Title 18 U.S. Code 2843 — it provides as a punishment for having incited an insurrection to prevent the execution of the laws of the United States, including properly counting electoral votes, a disqualification from holding future office in the United States. And that would be the equivalent of the same punishment that would have ensued if he was convicted of an impeachable offense.

Now, the big issue is going to be the resolution of Joe Biden, his new attorney general, Merrick Garland, to pursue that. This issue of moving forward on Mr. Trump is not going to be made by low-level civil servants in the Department of Justice. It’s going to be made at the highest levels. And I’m worried, because if I think back about President Obama coming in on the heels of Mr. Bush and stating, and his attorney general stating, “Oh, yes, the enhanced interrogation program was torture,” which is an international law crime, as well as a crime under U.S. law, and they did absolutely nothing to pursue those who openly and notoriously conceded they were doing waterboarding hundreds of times, that was defined by Mr. Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder as torture.

And the politics is going to — at least it threatens to interfere with the obligation to do justice, which I think would be a tragedy, because, after all, the law lives by precedence. And if we don’t have accountability for this terrible, terrible gentleman, Mr. Trump, who basically wanted to turn the country back to a monarchy, then that precedent will lie around like a loaded weapon ready to be used by any other successor in the White House to destroy the country completely and say, “Well, I’m just doing what Mr. Trump did. He got away with it. No double standards for me.” They have to look beyond the politics of the moment to our posterity, so they can inherit freedom, liberty, government by the consent of the governed, as we did because our forefathers also made sacrifices for the long term, rather than their immediate self-interest.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Bruce Fein, the AP reports bipartisan support appears to be growing for an independent, September 11-style commission into the deadly insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol. And let’s just say, seven people died. Not only the police officer, the Capitol Police officer, Sicknick, but two officers also took their own lives afterwards. That’s the total seven. But what about this independent commission and what that would mean?

BRUCE FEIN: Well, there’s nothing in concept that I would oppose about an independent commission. But I think it’s too slow. And moreover, the Constitution creates the independent commissions. It’s called the Congress of the United States, where every member is sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution. We didn’t need an independent commission to investigate Watergate. It was able to be done fairly. The American people saw it. We saw the witnesses. They have the subpoena power. They have more authority than an independent commission, because Congress, unknown to most members and the American people, has the authority to detain people if they don’t appear in response to subpoenas. They can find people. They don’t need to go to court and wait hour after year, day after day, year after year, in litigation. And the Watergate is the model.

We need to have the Congress — they need to be accountable for the decisions, the witnesses. We’ve gone too long where Congress runs, flees away from any decision that requires them to be accountable for their actions, just as we witnessed on the impeachment vote, where we had some members, like Senator Thom Tillis, saying, “Well, he should be convicted because he committed a crime, but I didn’t want to vote, because I don’t want to have to confront the voters.” That’s not acceptable. If you don’t want to comply with your oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, don’t serve in Congress.

AMY GOODMAN: Though I said “finally,” one more: Is it possible that still the Congress could vote to prevent Donald Trump from running for federal office? It was always said, after the Senate trial, if he were convicted by two-thirds vote, which he wasn’t — he was short by — they were short 10 votes — then a majority could vote to strip him of the right to run. But is there still a chance they could invoke the 14th Amendment and do that?

BRUCE FEIN: No. You’re referencing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. That clearly would be a bill of attainder. The precise issue that you’ve described, Amy, was raised right after the Civil War, and it’s a case in the U.S. Supreme Court called Ex parte Garland, where the Congress sought to prevent anyone who had engaged in the Confederate States against the Union from practicing law. And the Supreme Court said, “You’re clearly trying to impose punishment. That can be only done with the trappings of due process in a court of law. It can’t be done by legislative decree.” The Constitution’s prohibition of bill of attainder would prohibit going down that path.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you for being with us, Bruce Fein, associate deputy attorney general at the FCC under President Reagan. He previously served as counsel to Republicans on the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran, constitutional lawyer, has testified on countless occasions before Congress, author of American Empire Before the Fall.

Next up, as the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 approaches half a million, a new report says nearly 40% of those who died, those deaths were avoidable. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: “My Spanish Heart” by the legendary jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea. Chick Corea died on February 9th at the age of 79.
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Re: Trump lashes out at Gov. Doug Ducey following certificat

Postby admin » Tue Feb 16, 2021 6:16 am

Second Impeachment Trial Cold Open - SNL
by Saturday Night Live
Feb 13, 2021


Fox News host Tucker Carlson (Alex Moffat) interviews senators Lindsey Graham (Kate McKinnon), Ted Cruz (Aidy Bryant) and Mitch McConnell (Beck Bennett) on former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.
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Re: Trump lashes out at Gov. Doug Ducey following certificat

Postby admin » Wed Feb 17, 2021 12:20 am

After the Speech: What Trump Did as the Capitol Was Attacked: New evidence emerged in the impeachment trial about what President Donald J. Trump did from roughly 1 to 6 p.m. the day of the Capitol attack. But many questions remain unanswered.
by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Martin
New York Times
Feb. 13, 2021

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The impeachment trial of former President Donald J. Trump largely focused on his actions leading up to the violent attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6. But there was a crucial period that day of nearly five hours — between the end of Mr. Trump’s speech at the Ellipse urging his supporters to march to the Capitol and a final tweet telling his followers to remember the day forever — that remains critical to his state of mind.

Evidence emerged during the trial about what Mr. Trump was doing during those hours, including new details about two phone calls with lawmakers that prosecutors said clearly alerted the president to the mayhem on Capitol Hill. Prosecutors said the new information was clear proof of Mr. Trump’s intent to incite the mob and of his dereliction to stop the violence, even when he knew that the life of Vice President Mike Pence was in danger.

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader who on Saturday voted to acquit Mr. Trump but offered a sweeping endorsement of the prosecutors’ case, backed them up: “There’s no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it.”

Still, many crucial questions remain unanswered about the president’s actions and mood from roughly 1 to 6 p.m. Jan. 6. Here is what is known so far:

Mr. Trump concluded his incendiary speech on the Ellipse at 1:11 p.m. He had repeatedly told the crowd that the election was stolen from him and urged his supporters to march to the Capitol in a last-ditch effort to stop President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory from being certified. Mr. Trump said twice that he would go with them. And days before the march, he had told advisers that he wanted to join his supporters, but aides told him that people in the crowd were armed and that the Secret Service would not be able to protect him.

Six minutes later, Mr. Trump’s motorcade began heading back to the White House. He arrived there at 1:19 p.m. as the crowd was making its way up Pennsylvania Avenue and beginning to swarm around the Capitol. Television news footage showed the mob as it moved closer to the doors.

At some point, Mr. Trump went to the Oval Office and watched news coverage of a situation that was growing increasingly tense.

At 1:34 p.m., Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington made a formal request for assistance in a phone call with the Army secretary, Ryan D. McCarthy.
At 1:49 p.m., as the Capitol Police asked Pentagon officials for help from the National Guard, Mr. Trump tweeted a video of his incendiary rally speech.

It was around this time that some of Mr. Trump’s allies publicly called on him to do something. Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, told ABC News that Mr. Trump needed to say something to stop the rioting.


At 2:12 p.m., the same moment that the mob breached the building itself, Mr. Pence — who had defied the president by saying he planned to certify Mr. Biden’s victory — was rushed off the Senate floor. A minute later, the Senate session was recessed. Two minutes after that, at 2:15 p.m., groups of rioters began to chant, “Hang Mike Pence!”

Nine minutes later, at 2:24 p.m., Mr. Trump tweeted a broadside at Mr. Pence for moving ahead to certify Mr. Biden’s win: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”

At 2:26 p.m., after Mr. Pence had been whisked away, a call was placed from the White House to Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, according to call logs that the senator provided during the impeachment proceedings.

The president had made the call, but he was actually looking for Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama. Mr. Lee gave the phone to Mr. Tuberville, who has told reporters that he informed Mr. Trump that Mr. Pence had just been escorted out as the mob got closer to the Senate chamber.

“I said, ‘Mr. President, they just took the vice president out, I’ve got to go,’” Mr. Tuberville recounted to Politico.

This was a significant new piece of information. House prosecutors used it to argue that Mr. Trump was clearly aware that the vice president was in danger and that he had a callous disregard for Mr. Pence’s safety. On Friday, Mr. Trump’s defense team had insisted that Mr. Trump was not aware of any peril facing Mr. Pence.


Back at the White House, advisers were trying to get Mr. Trump to do something, but he rebuffed calls to intercede, including those from people wanting to see the National Guard deployed. The president, several advisers said, was expressing pleasure that the vote to certify Mr. Biden’s win had been delayed and that people were fighting for him.


“According to public reports, he watched television happily — happily — as the chaos unfolded,” Mr. McConnell said on Saturday. “He kept pressing his scheme to overturn the election. Even after it was clear to any reasonable observer that Vice President Pence was in serious danger, even as the mob carrying Trump banners was beating cops and breaching perimeters, the president sent a further tweet attacking his own vice president.”

“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”


Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a close Republican ally of the president’s, told The Washington Post that he called Ivanka Trump, Mr. Trump’s eldest daughter, to try to get her to reason with her father. Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, also called Ms. Trump to see if she could talk to her father. A short time later, she arrived in the Oval Office, urging Mr. Trump to issue a statement.

The White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, hammered at Mr. Trump to understand that he had potential legal exposure for what was taking place.

Finally, at 2:38 p.m., Mr. Trump tweeted, “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”

A short time later, at 3:13 p.m., Mr. Trump added a note, “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!”

Ms. Trump quoted her father’s tweet when she sent out her own, telling “American Patriots” to follow the law. She quickly deleted it and replaced it when she faced blowback on Twitter for appearing to praise the rioters as “patriots.”

Around 3:30 p.m., Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House Republican leader and another ally of Mr. Trump’s, told CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell that he had spoken that afternoon with Mr. Trump as the Capitol was under siege.

“I told him he needed to talk to the nation,” Mr. McCarthy said. “I told him what was happening right then.”

The call became heated, according to a Republican congresswoman, Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington State, who said that Mr. McCarthy told her that Mr. Trump had sided with the mob as the Capitol attack unfolded, suggesting he had made a choice not to stop the violence.

In a statement on Friday night that was admitted into evidence in the trial on Saturday, Ms. Herrera Beutler recounted that Mr. McCarthy had a shouting match with Mr. Trump during the call.

Mr. McCarthy had told Mr. Trump that his own office windows were being broken into. “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Mr. Trump said, according to a report by CNN that the congresswoman confirmed.

“Who do you think you’re talking to?” Mr. McCarthy fired back at one point, CNN reported, including an expletive.

Meanwhile, the violence continued. At 4:17 p.m., Mr. Trump posted a video on Twitter of him speaking directly to the camera in the Rose Garden. “I know your pain,” Mr. Trump said. “I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us, it was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now.”

He added, “We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt.”

The violence continued. Well before the Capitol Police announced at 8 p.m. that the building had been secured, Mr. Trump put out a final tweet at 6:01 p.m.: “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”

The Trump Impeachment: What You Need to Know

A trial was held to decide whether former President Donald J. Trump is guilty of inciting a deadly mob of his supporters when they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, violently breaching security measures and sending lawmakers into hiding as they met to certify President Biden’s victory.

The House voted 232 to 197 to approve a single article of impeachment, accusing Mr. Trump of “inciting violence against the government of the United States” in his quest to overturn the election results. Ten Republicans joined the Democrats in voting to impeach him.

The Senate acquitted Mr. Trump of the charges by a vote of 57 to 43, falling short of the two-thirds majority required for a conviction.

Without a conviction, the former president is eligible to run for public office once again. Public opinion surveys show that he remains by far the most popular national figure in the Republican Party.


Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent. She joined The Times in 2015 as a campaign correspondent and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on President Trump’s advisers and their connections to Russia. @maggieNYT

Jonathan Martin is a national political correspondent. He has reported on a range of topics, including the 2016 presidential election and several state and congressional races, while also writing for Sports, Food and the Book Review. He is also a CNN political analyst. @jmartnyt

A version of this article appears in print on Feb. 14, 2021, Section A, Page 21 of the New York edition with the headline: After the Speech: What Trump Did While the Capitol Was Attacked.


********************************

Trump tweeted Pence lacked ‘courage’ as VP was running for his life from Capitol rioters: Impeachment trial managers showed previously unreleased surveillance footage from inside the Capitol on the day of the violent insurrection
by Namita Singh
UK Independent
February 11, 2021

Minutes before Mike Pence was being ushered out of the Senate chamber, narrowly escaping a mob that wanted to “hang” him, Donald Trump tweeted that the former vice president did not have the “courage” to agree to his demand of stopping the Congressional certification of Joe Biden's presidential victory.

Timestamped at 2:26:02 pm, the previously unreleased security footage from inside the US Capitol during the 6 January insurrection showed Mr Pence and his family being rushed out of the chamber as rioters got within 100 feet of him.

Just two minutes earlier, at 2:24 pm Mr Trump tweeted from his now-suspended account, saying: "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!"

Capitol police officer Eugene Goodman steered the mob away from the chambers shortly after insurrectionists in tactical gear, including at least one person carrying a baseball bat, while others carried flagpoles, broke through windows on the Senate side of the Capitol.

While it is unclear at the moment whether Mr Trump knew about the direct security threat to his deputy at the time of the tweet, Deseret News previously reported that he misdialed senator Tommy Tuberville and called senator Mike Lee instead during the insurrection.

Mr Lee had recounted to the paper about the call from Mr Trump that he had passed to Mr Tuberville and that lasted for about five to ten minutes. Mr Lee reportedly said that he stood nearby because he didn’t want to lose his cellphone in the commotion.

But during the impeachment trial on Wednesday, when the House impeachment managers cited the Deseret News account, Senator Lee objected to the portrayal of the accidental phone call from the then-President and demanded that it be struck out.

“They are not true. I never made those statements. I ask that they be stricken,” Senator Lee demanded.

Eventually, representative Jamie Raskin, the lead House manager agreed to withdraw the anecdote, which was cast as another piece of evidence that Mr Trump attempted to undermine the election results.
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Re: Trump lashes out at Gov. Doug Ducey following certificat

Postby admin » Wed Feb 17, 2021 3:07 am

Yes, Jan. 6 Capitol assault was an “armed insurrection”: Ron Johnson stated on February 15, 2021 in a radio interview: Says Jan. 6 Capitol riot “didn’t seem like an armed insurrection.”
by Eric Litke
Politico
February 15, 2021

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Image

IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT

Police stopped only a fraction of the violent protestors Jan. 6, but we still know of guns and explosives seized in and around the Capitol. And we know rioters brought knives, brass knuckles a stun gun and other weapons.

Just as notable, video plainly shows the mob using all manner of makeshift weapons to attack police and force their way in, including hockey sticks, flagpoles, fire extinguishers and a police shield stolen from an officer.

Our Sources

WISN radio, "The Jay Weber Show," Feb. 15, 2021

NPR, The Capitol Siege: The Arrested And Their Stories, Feb. 12, 2021

OMNY.fm, The Regular Joe Show, RJS-02/15/21-Segment 4, Feb. 15, 2021

NBC News, Stun guns, 'stinger whips' and a crossbow: What police found on the Capitol protesters, Jan. 13, 2021

Reuters, Arrested Capitol rioters had guns and bombs, everyday careers and Olympic medals, Jan. 14, 2021

The Hill, Police seized alarming number of weapons on Capitol rioters, court documents show, Jan. 16, 2021

WHYY, Retired Delco firefighter charged with assault for hurling fire extinguisher at Capitol Police, Jan. 14, 2021

NBC Washington, Capitol Rioter Beat DC Officer With Pole Flying American Flag, Jan. 12, 2021

New York Times, ‘They Got a Officer!’: How a Mob Dragged and Beat Police at the Capitol, Jan. 11, 2021

CNN, Trump’s second impeachment trial: Day 2, Feb. 10, 2021


Five people died Jan. 6, 2021, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer, when a mob violently invaded the U.S. Capitol in protest of the November 2020 election results.

Few arrests were made that day, but our understanding of the day’s events and the rioters’ motivations has grown over time, as more than 230 people have now been identified and charged, according to a database maintained by National Public Radio.

But U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, still claims accounts of the day’s events are being exaggerated. He made his case Feb. 15, 2021, in an appearance on "The Jay Weber Show" on WISN radio.

"The fact of the matter is this didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me. I mean armed, when you hear armed, don’t you think of firearms?" Johnson said. "Here’s the questions I would have liked to ask. How many firearms were confiscated? How many shots were fired? I’m only aware of one, and I’ll defend that law enforcement officer for taking that shot."

Johnson made a nearly identical claim later that morning on another Wisconsin radio show.

Johnson is couching this as an opinion, but he’s attempting to make a factual case that Jan. 6 wasn’t an "armed insurrection."

So let’s review the evidence on that point.

Breaking down the claim

Johnson prefaced this comment by claiming that Democrats are painting a picture of every Trump voter being a violent rioter. Certainly not everyone in the crowd was armed. And many clearly came intending only to peacefully protest.

But claiming this was not an armed insurrection goes well behind this line of thinking.

Many in the crowd attacking the Capitol have said their intent was to stop the vote confirmation and keep Trump in office despite the election results. That’s an insurrection.

That leaves us with his objection to the word "armed."

Yes, carrying a gun would constitute being armed. But the definition of the word is much more broad, referring simply to carrying a weapon. So the question is whether this insurrection involved people carrying weapons.

And it certainly did.

Reports detail an array of weapons, many makeshift

First off we’ll note that any reports of weapons at the Capitol will greatly understate the quantity that was likely there. Only 75 people were arrested that day, and police weren’t doing any widespread searches that would have identified weapons on others present, NBC News notes.

"The cops weren't searching people," Mark Jones, a former agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with 20 years of counterterrorism experience told NBC News in a Jan. 13, 2021, story. "I'd speculate that there were many, many more firearms that were there that were not uncovered."

But news and official reports are filled with accounts of armed people at the Capitol.

Fourteen people tied to the Jan. 6 attack are facing federal charges related to bringing or using dangerous weapons inside the building and two are facing firearms-related charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

NBC News reported that within a week after the attack a dozen guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition had been found on seven people arrested before and after the Capitol riot.

Cleveland Grover Meredith, drove to Washington from Colorado with an assault-style Tavor X95 rifle with a telescopic sight, a Glock 9 mm with high-capacity magazines and more than 2,500 rounds of ammunition, including at least 320 rounds of armor-piercing bullets, NBC reported. Reuters said Meredith texted "War time" after hearing Vice President Mike Pence would count electoral votes from states Trump lost.

In the trunk of Lonnie Coffman’s vehicle, police found an AR-15-style rifle, a shotgun, a crossbow, several machetes, smoke grenades and 11 Molotov cocktails, Reuters reported. Another man, Christopher Alberts of Maryland, was stopped as he left the Capitol grounds after a police officer spotted a loaded handgun on his hip.

Many more people armed themselves by more unorthodox means, causing damage and injury.

Robert Sanford, 55, of Pennsylvania, was allegedly caught on video throwing a fire extinguisher at a group of police officers. David Blair, 26, was seen hitting officers with a lacrosse stick, NBC said. Others had pepper spray, brass knuckles, a pipe and pocket knives, and one man was carrying a "stinger whip," a tool with blunt and whip-like edges marketed for self-defense and escaping a locked vehicle.

One rioter was caught on video beating a police officer with a flagpole bearing an American flag, NBC Washington reported. The New York Times reviewed video that showed people using stolen police shields, sticks and crutches as weapons.

And the man photographed with his feet on the desk of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was carrying a 950,000-volt stun gun walking stick, House impeachment manager Stacey Plaskett revealed Feb. 10.

Not to mention pipe bombs were found near the Capitol at Republican and Democratic party headquarters.

Johnson’s staff did not immediately return an email seeking evidence or explanation of his claim.

Our ruling

Johnson said the Jan. 6 Capitol riot "didn’t seem like an armed insurrection."

That’s ridiculous revisionist history.

Overwhelmed police arrested and had direct contact with only a fraction of the mob that day, but we still can identify accounts of numerous weapons found in and around the Capitol, brought there in some cases by people who saw themselves as soldiers in a war. And many other rioters used whatever hard objects they could find to attack police and force their way into the Capitol.

A majority of senators, through the impeachment vote, put the blame on Trump for stirring up the riot, though others debate the "why" question for the events of Jan. 6. But the "what" question shouldn't be debated. It was an armed insurrection.

We rate this claim Pants on Fire.

***********************************

'Asinine': Keilar blasts GOP senator's Capitol riot claim
by Brianna Keilar
CNN
Feb 16, 2021


CNN's Brianna Keilar reacts to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) stating that the Capitol riot on January 6th didn't seem like an "armed insurrection."
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Re: Trump lashes out at Gov. Doug Ducey following certificat

Postby admin » Sat Feb 20, 2021 1:43 am

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan on the future of the Republican Party, the insurrection, and COVID
by Katie Couric
Feb 18, 2021

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Maryland Governor Larry Hogan talks with Katie about whether the future of the Republican Party lies with Donald Trump and his droves of followers, and if so, whether a moderate like Hogan will survive. Hogan also talks about the actions he took on January 6th when the U.S. Capitol was overrun by Trump supporters, as members of congress certified the 2020 election results and cemented Joe Biden's administration.

Governor Hogan discusses the vaccine rollout and his disappointment over the coordination of vaccine dose distribution from manufacturers leading to nationwide supply shortages.
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