With brazen assault on election, Trump prompts critics to warn of a coup

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During four years in office, President Trump has trampled political norms, attacked democratic institutions, sought to discredit government agencies, peddled baseless conspiracy theories and been impeached by the House.

Since his defeat in the November election, Trump’s critics have warned that his scorched-earth effort to invalidate the outcome amounts to a new level of danger: the first attempted coup d’etat in U.S. history to illegally maintain power.

The chorus of alarm grew this week after the disclosure that Trump bullied and threatened Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in an hour-long private phone call Saturday, during which the president demanded that Raffensperger find thousands of votes for Trump that do not exist. Continue reading.

Pence declares Biden winner of the presidential election after Congress finally counts electoral votes

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Vice President Pence declared Democrat Joe Biden the winner of the presidential election at the end of a violent and deadly day at the Capitol. Pence also announced that Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) had won the vice presidency, after the Senate and House rejected Trump loyalists’ challenges to Biden’s win in Pennsylvania and Congress finally counted the electoral votes.

Shortly thereafter, President Trump — who had defiantly told supporters at a rally that he would “never concede” — said in a statement that “there will be an orderly transition on January 20th.” Continue reading.

AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s false claims, fuel on a day of chaos

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump pressed his hopeless case for overturning the election to a crowd of supporters Wednesday, fueling the grievances of a mob that then stormed the Capitol and disrupted the confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

Drawing on baseless conspiracies, Trump unleashed a torrent of misinformation to supporters already convinced that his defeat was unfair, unswayed by the sweeping verdict of election officials, judges and justices and Trump’s own officials in the departments of Justice and Homeland Security that the Nov. 3 election was cleanly run and fairly counted.

Pro-Trump protesters then marched to the Capitol and some bulled their way inside, making for a scene of violent clashes with law enforcement and lawmakers huddling in lockdown. Continue reading.

Justice Dept. Seeks to Pare Back Civil Rights Protections for Minorities

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A late move by the Trump administration would stop enforcement of protections against discriminatory practices that have a “disparate impact” on protected groups.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has embarked on an 11th-hour bid to undo some civil rights protections for minority groups, which could have a ripple effect on women, people with disabilities and L.G.B.T. people, according to a draft document, in a change that would mark one of the most significant shifts in civil rights enforcement in generations.

The Justice Department has submitted for White House approval a change to how it enforces Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits recipients of federal funding from discriminating based on race, color or national origin. The regulation covers housing programs, employers, schools, hospitals, and other organizations and programs.

Under the change, the department would continue to narrowly enforce the law’s protections in cases where it could prove intentional discrimination, but no longer in instances where a policy or practice at issue had a “disparate impact” on minority or other groups. Continue reading.

Trump’s DOJ just gave up the game: Court filing admits Trump lost 2020 election

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In a court filing submitted in late December as part of a lawsuit contesting the status of Trump administration officials serving unconfirmed in “temporary” positions, lawyers with the U.S. Justice Department argued the case should be tossed out because the issue would soon “be moot” given that President Donald Trump lost the 2020 elections and would soon leave the Oval Office.

The admission by the DOJ flies in the face of incessant false claims by Trump that he won in November and continued vows that he will fight to the bitter end to prove—against all evidence and reality—the election was rigged, fraudulent, or otherwise illegitimate.

“They’re not going to take the White House. We’re going to fight like hell,” Trump declared Monday night during a campaign rally in Georgia. “When you win in a landslide and they steal it and it’s rigged, it’s not acceptable.” Continue reading.

US intel agencies blame Russia for massive SolarWinds hack

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A group of U.S. intelligence agencies on Tuesday formally accused Russia of being linked to the recently discovered hack of IT group SolarWinds that compromised much of the federal government.

The FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) attributed the effort to Russia. The group had set up a cyber unified coordination group in December after the compromise of SolarWinds was revealed.

“This work indicates that an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor, likely Russian in origin, is responsible for most or all of the recently discovered, ongoing cyber compromises of both government and non-governmental networks,” the agencies said in a joint statement around their investigation into the cyber incident. Continue reading.

Rep. Vang Accepts Position as Deputy Pro Tempore


SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — On Tuesday, Rep. Samantha Vang (DFL – Brooklyn Center) accepted the position of Deputy Speaker Pro Tempore where she will preside over the House should Speaker Hortman and Rep. Olson the Speaker Pro Tempore be absent. Representative Vang is the Vice Chair of the Agriculture Finance & Policy Committee and the Chair of the People of Color and Indigenous Caucus. She is serving her second term as a State Representative.

“I’m excited to take on this leadership role for the DFL House Majority,” said Rep.Vang. “As we begin the new year, the House DFL will work tirelessly to lift all Minnesotans, especially workers, families, and small businesses, up from the hardships this pandemic has brought upon us in the past year.”

The Daily 202: Conservatives fear Trump’s plot to overturn loss will ‘imperil the electoral college’

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Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) was Sen. Ted Cruz’s chief of staff before winning a House seat in 2018. This week, he has emerged as a leader of the conservatives who are fighting back against an effort to block the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory – spearheaded in the Senate by his former boss – that they see as a radical, cynical and myopic. 

Roy, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, persuaded six of the most committed conservatives in the House to sign onto a statement he drafted Sunday that makes a blunt case for counting all the electors submitted by the states. The centerpiece of his argument is that failing to do so will create dangerous precedents and open a Pandora’s box that would eventually doom the electoral college.

“From a purely partisan perspective, Republican presidential candidates have won the national popular vote only once in the last 32 years,” Roy wrote in his statement. “They have therefore depended on the electoral college for nearly all presidential victories in the last generation. If we perpetuate the notion that Congress may disregard certified electoral votes — based solely on its own assessment that one or more states mishandled the presidential election — we will be delegitimizing the very system that led Donald Trump to victory in 2016, and that could provide the only path to victory in 2024.” Continue reading.

Trump tells rioters ‘go home,’ repeats claims that election ‘fraudulent’

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President Trump on Wednesday urged his supporters who laid siege to the Capitol to “go home in peace,” hours after they first forced their way into the building. 

In a one-minute taped video released on social media, Trump urged his supporters to disperse. But he reiterated his false claims that his election defeat was “fraudulent,” which was the basis for the protest in the first place.

“You have to go home now. We have to have peace,” Trump said. “We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt.” Continue reading.

Trump bypasses top career prosecutor to replace US attorney in Atlanta

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President Trump has named Bobby Christine, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, as the new acting attorney in Atlanta, bypassing a top career prosecutor to fill the role. 

Christine’s office announced the news Tuesday, writing that he was named acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia on Monday “by written order of the President.”

The news comes after Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak abruptly resigned from the role, effective immediately, on Monday after holding the position for three years.  Continue reading.