Category: Republican Reality

GOP downplays Jan. 6 violence: Like a ‘normal tourist visit’

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Republican after Republican on Wednesday repeatedly sought to downplay the violence of the Jan. 6 insurrection, with one Georgia lawmaker likening the mobs overwhelming Capitol Police and vandalizing Capitol offices to a “normal tourist visit.”

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) made the tourist comment, saying that calling what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6 an insurrection “is a boldfaced lie.”

“Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes taking videos and pictures,” the first-term lawmaker said. “You know, if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from Jan. 6, you’d think it was a normal tourist visit.” Continue reading.

Lawmakers’ false narratives could fan the flames of extremism, Senate told

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Homeland Security plans review of how extremists have leveraged social media and other online platforms

Two top federal law enforcement officials said Wednesday that politicians who embrace false narratives could help fuel the possibility of violent extremism in America such as the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The testimony came the same morning House Republicans ousted their conference chair, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, for refusing to embrace former President Donald Trump’s continued lies about the 2020 election being stolen or fraudulent.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on domestic violent extremism, testified that false narratives create a lack of confidence in democratic institutions. Continue reading.

At hearing, Republicans recast Jan. 6 rioters as victims

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At hearing, Republicans recast Jan. 6 rioters as victims

Less than an hour after Republicans ousted Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney from her role in conference leadership for criticizing former President Donald Trump, House Republicans sought to recast the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, with the rioters now assuming the role of victims.

Wednesday’s House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing featured testimony from former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, who were in office on Jan. 6, along with Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee. 

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., argued that there was something untoward about federal law enforcement seeking the public’s help in tracking down individuals for whom there’s photo and video evidence of potential violations of federal law. Continue reading.

How America’s partisan divide over pandemic responses played out in the states

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Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, a partisan divide has existed over the appropriate government response to the public health crisis. Democrats have been more likely to favor stricter policies such as prolonged economic shutdowns, limits on gathering in groups and mask mandates. Republicans overall have favored less stringent policies.

As political scientists and public health scholars, we’ve been studying political responses to the pandemic and their impacts. In research published in the summer of 2020, we found that “sub-governments,” which in the U.S. means state governments, tended to have a bigger impact on the direction of pandemic policies than the federal government. Now, as data on last year’s case and death rates emerge, we’re looking at whether the political party in the governor’s office became a good predictor of public health outcomes as COVID-19 moved across the country.

Looking at states’ COVID-19 case and death rates, researchers are finding the more stringent policies typical of Democratic governors led to lower rates of infections and deaths, compared to the the pandemic responses of the average Republican governor. In preparation for future pandemics, it may be worth considering how to address the impact that a state government’s partisan leanings can have on the scope and severity of a public health crises. Continue reading.

Cheney on Trump: ‘I will do everything I can’ to keep him away from the White House

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Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) vowed following House Republicans’ Wednesday vote to remove her as GOP conference chairwoman to do everything she can to keep former President Trump from returning to power. 

Sources inside a closed-door session Wednesday morning said lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to oust Cheney, who had attracted growing pushback from Trump allies in Congress for repeatedly refuting his claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election and blaming him for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. 

In remarks to reporters immediately following the vote, Cheney doubled down on her vow to continue countering Trump’s message, saying, “We must go forward based on truth.”  Continue reading.

The Big Lie That Makes Vladimir Putin Smile

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There’s a word to describe political movements that emphasize ethnic, racial and religious solidarity over citizenship and pluralistic values, but it has unpleasant historical associations. Using it only causes political conversations to end in bitterness and name-calling.

So let us simply observe that what’s going on in today’s Republican Party represents the seeming fulfillment of Vladimir Putin’s ambitions for the Trump presidency. Undermining confidence in elections has long been Job One in the Kremlin: discrediting democracy to promote strongman rule. But Putin’s too cynical to understand America.

It matters not to him that the strongman in question is an incompetent blowhard, a clownish figure in elevator shoes. One of America’s two dominant political parties is in the process of losing its collective mind. Indeed the very preposterousness of Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” about being cheated out of an election he lost by seven million votes—claims rejected for lack of evidence in more than sixty courts of law—only enhances their allure for conspiratorial thinkers. Continue reading.

Rudy Giuliani’s ‘hallucinatory’ Ukraine dossier may come back to haunt him: report

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Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani two years ago began pushing an anti-Biden dossier based on purported information he’d gathered from Ukrainian officials — and now it may come back to haunt him legally.

The Daily Beast reports that prosecutors are looking into whether Giuliani’s dossier was part of a paid lobbying campaign by the former New York City mayor done on behalf of former Ukrainian officials.

Giuliani initially pushed the dossier to Trump administration officials during his campaign to oust former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, but officials who spoke with the Daily Beast say that they were deeply unimpressed by its contents. Continue reading.

Senate panel deadlocks in vote on sweeping elections bill

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A key Senate panel deadlocked Tuesday on sweeping Democratic legislation to overhaul elections after an hours-long, often heated debate.

The Senate Rules Committee evenly split 9-9 on the For the People Act, the top legislative priority for Democrats heading into the 2022 election.

Though the tie means Democrats aren’t able to formally advance the bill to the floor, that won’t stop the party from moving forward with it. Continue reading.

Watch: Ted Cruz walks out of gun violence hearing after Democrat stops him from hijacking the agenda

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On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on gun violence, including discussion of “ghost guns” — which are illegal firearms that are made at home and don’t have a serial number. But Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, during the hearing, wanted to change the subject — and instead of addressing gun violence and “ghost guns,” the far-right senator obsessed over Democrats he claimed were trying to “abolish the police.”

The slogan “defund the police” was used by some protesters following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis almost a year ago on May 25, 2020. But the term is by no means universally embraced by advocates of criminal justice reform, including those in the Democratic Party. MSNBC’s the Rev. Al Sharpton, for example, has said that he opposes defunding the police and favors “reforming the police” instead. But far-right Republicans have been harping on that “defund the police” slogan to scare people, and Cruz takes it a step further by claiming that Democrats want to “abolish the police.

During the hearing, Cruz asked Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, “If you don’t support abolishing the police, why do you keep voting for nominees who advocate abolishing the police?” The nominees Cruz was trying to smear were Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta and attorney Kristen Clarke, who President Joe Biden has nominated for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Continue reading.

‘Completely incorrect’: Rand Paul gets obliterated after accusing Fauci of helping to ‘juice up’ viruses

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Sen Rand Paul (R-KY) once again attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, with another grandstanding performance during a Senate hearing on the COVID-19 health crisis.

Taking up conspiracy theories spread by former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, the Kentucky Republican spoke over Fauci after accusing him of helping to fund Chinese research into viruses that led to COVID-19.

Paul claimed that Dr. Ralph Baric, a virologist in the U.S., has been collaborating with scientists at a Wuhan virus laboratory, and that the research was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Continue reading.