Category: Republican Reality

Schumer: ‘The big lie is spreading like a cancer’ among GOP

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Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) offered fiery criticism of Republicans on Tuesday for efforts around the country to tighten voter laws amid unproven claims made by former President Trump that the 2020 election was stolen.

Schumer, speaking at a Senate Rules Committee meeting on a sweeping elections overhaul bill, accused Republicans of trying to act upon the “big lie that the election was stolen” to “placate” and “please” Trump.

“Unfortunately, the big lie is spreading like a cancer among Republicans. It’s enveloping and consuming the Republican Party, in both houses of Congress,” Schumer said. Continue reading.

Grievance, rebellion and burnt bridges: Tracing Josh Hawley’s path to the insurrection

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From his teenage writings to his incendiary support for false 2020 election claims, the Missouri senator is staking out a place in today’s far-right Republican Party

LEXINGTON, Mo. — Joshua Hawley was 13 years old, living comfortably as the son of a bank president, when his parents gave him a book about political conservatism for Christmas.

Hawley became enamored with the ideology. He began writing columns for the local newspaper that seethed with resentment against the political power structure. Even domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of a federal building, killing 168 people, sparked him to speak up for groups that express anger toward the government.

“Many of the people who populate these movements are not radical right-wing pro-assault weapons freaks as they were stereotyped in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing,” he wrote.

Reports: More than 100 Republicans threaten to form 3rd party over Trump

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More than 100 Republicans will sign a letter Thursday threatening to create a third party if the GOP doesn’t “break” with former President Trump, Reuters first reported.

Why it matters: Per Axios’ Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, Trump’s grip on the GOP has gotten stronger since the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The Republican Party’s “allegiance to Trump” as he continues to make false claims about his 2020 election loss has “dismayed” the group, according to Reuters.

  • Per the New York Times, the letter’s preamble will state, “When in our democratic republic, forces of conspiracy, division, and despotism arise, it is the patriotic duty of citizens to act collectively in defense of liberty and justice.” Continue reading.

Fox Promotes Disgraced Trump CDC Appointee Who Minimized Covid Crisis

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In the last few months, Fox News’ Laura Ingraham has repeatedly hosted Paul Alexander, former science adviser at the Department of Health and Human Services under President Donald Trump and key aide to Trump loyalist and former HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Michael Caputo. While working for Caputo at HHS, Alexander sought to politicize public health guidance from inside the government bureaucracy, seeking to alter reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which reflected poorly on the Trump administration.

Politico reported in September 2020 that Alexander “was effective at delaying the famed Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports and watering down guidance” from the CDC. (The reports are a key CDC communications product that provides updates on the state of the pandemic, among other things.) In one email reported by Politico, Alexander wrote, “Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected.” This strategy is deadly flawed, to say the least.

The erroneous political hackery of Alexander makes him the ideal guest for Ingraham, Fox’s worst COVID-19 misinformer. In fact, Alexander has pushed misinformation during every one of his seven appearances on The Ingraham Angle: Continue reading.

Major corporations are funding lawmakers behind anti-democracy bills: report

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Numerous corporations have funded the political action committees of state lawmakers backing the recent spate of anti-voter and anti-protest bills, even as many of the companies have spoken out in defense of voting rights and democracy, a report published Monday by Greenpeace USA revealed

The report (pdf)—entitled Dollars vs. Democracy: Companies and the Attack on Voting Rights and Peaceful Protest—says that 44 state lawmakers sponsored at least one anti-protest bill and one anti-voter bill in the past year. It also reveals that 53 of the 100 top corporate donors to lawmakers sponsoring anti-voter bills also rank among the top 100 contributors to anti-protest measures.

According to the report, the top 10 corporations that have invested the most money in lobbying for anti-protest bills since 2017 are all fossil fuel companies. Continue reading.

Republican Complaint: Workers Don’t Flock To Poverty-Wage Jobs

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Republican lawmakers are blaming disappointing jobs numbers on unemployment benefits they claim incentivize employees to avoid returning to work — all while ignoring pleas for a higher minimum wage that might solve the supposed problem.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated on Friday that employers added 266,000 jobs in April — significantly less growth than the previous month — with the unemployment rate remaining almost unchanged at 6.1 percent.

Though administration officials say there is no evidence of a connection, Republicanlawmakers were quick to blame this slowdown on the emergency unemployment benefitsthat were passed as part of President Joe Biden’s COVID relief package, the American Rescue Plan. Because the federal government is giving jobless Americans an extra $300 a week, they argued, it must mean people are finding unemployment more lucrative than the jobs available to them. Continue reading.

Lindsey Graham says the quiet part out loud on Trump — again

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Say what you will about Lindsey Graham; he has a knack for saying enlightening — and subtly honest — things about why the official Republican Party remains in Donald Trump’s grip.

It’s because it has no idea how to do anything else.

The most recent episode came when the Republican senator from South Carolina weighed in on Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-Wyo.) impending excommunication from House GOP leadership. Continue reading.

Kevin McCarthy’s and the GOP’s nonsensical justification for ousting Liz Cheney

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Republicans would very much like you to know that they are not punishing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) because she said mean things about former president Donald Trump. It’s not about that! What it is about is focusing on the future, rather than the past.

Since that became the talking point, though, Republicans including Trump have set about reinforcing its speciousness.

“I think you saw Congresswoman Cheney giving a press conference and talking about the last election when all of us — the vast majority of members — are talking about the next election,” the No. 2 House Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise (La.), has said. Continue reading.

‘We could lose our country’ because GOP politicians won’t ‘hurt Trump’s feelings’: DC insider

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Democracy in America could end and the cause could be the refusal of Republicans to hurt Donald Trump’s feelings.

At a campaign rally in October, Trump worried about what would happen if he lost to Joe Biden.

“Could you imagine if I lose?” Trump said at a rally in Georgia. “My whole life, what am I going to do? I’m going to say, ‘I lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics.’ I’m not going to feel so good. Maybe I’ll have to leave the country. I don’t know.” Continue reading.

House Republicans vote to remove Liz Cheney from leadership

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House Republicans ousted Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as conference chair in a voice vote Wednesday, capping months of growing backlash over her criticisms of former President Trump, according to two sources in the room.

Why it matters: The stunning removal of the No. 3 House Republican over her condemnation of Trump’s election lies reflects the influence the former president still retains over the GOP. 

The big picture: The vote marks the most significant turning point in an internal party feud that is unlikely to subside any time soon. Continue reading.