Tag: GOP no longer supporting democracy

Donald Trump finally has the obsequious press he always wanted

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It’s an ecosystem in which his false election claims spread unchecked

Fox News didn’t carry Donald Trump’s speech in Arizona this weekend. It’s not hard to figure out why. One could easily have predicted that the former president would say all of the false and potentially lawsuit-spawning things that he ended up saying, and, given that it unfolded on Saturday evening, it’s not as though it was going to yield billions of viewers.

But the speech didn’t need to air on Fox. Before it began, his newly appointed spokeswoman, Liz Harrington, hyped the fact that the speech would instead be carried on the small galaxy of Trump-loyal networks that have emerged in the past few years. For those interested in hearing Trump say the same things he’s been saying for nine months but with a new set of incorrect or misleading details, there was plenty of opportunity to do so.

This is how it works now. Trump has a relatively small footprint in the mainstream media and conversation, including on Fox News. But on the remote media fringes where accuracy dies in obsequiousness, Trump’s message is as loud as it has ever been. Continue reading.

Two men charged in alleged plot to firebomb California Democratic Party headquarters

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Two men have been charged in an alleged plot to firebomb the California Democratic Party’s headquarters in Sacramento, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.

Ian Benjamin Rogers and Jarrod Copeland were “prompted by the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election” and believed their attack would spark a “movement,” according to federal prosecutors, who said the men were members of a militia group.

Law enforcement officers seized five pipe bombs, thousands of rounds of ammunition and “between 45 and 50 firearms, including at least three fully-automatic weapons” during a January search of Rogers’s home and business, according to the indictment. Continue reading.

John McCain adviser explains why the Trumpified GOP has become ‘the greatest threat since 9/11’

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Although MSNBC has a liberal slant, some of its hosts have very conservative backgrounds — including “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough (a former GOP congressman) and Nicolle Wallace, who served as White House communications director under President George W. Bush and was a senior adviser to the late Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. But the 49-year-old Wallace is a scathing critic of former President Donald Trump, and she slams the modern-day GOP as a hotbed of Trumpist authoritarianism in an op-ed published by MSNBC’s website on July 16.

Wallace, who hosts MSNBC’s weekday afternoon show “Deadline: White House,” warns, “I never thought I’d cover the demise of democracy in my own country, but here we are…. The attack on our democracy, spearheaded by the ex-president and enabled by the GOP, represents the greatest threat since 9/11.”

The former Bush official and McCain adviser goes on to say that in one sense, the United States is facing a more perilous national security threat in 2021 than it did after al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. There were no prominent Republicans or Democrats defending al-Qaeda after 9/11, Wallace argues — whereas apologists for the bloody January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol Building by Trump supporters are plentiful in the Republican Party. Continue reading.

Mike Lindell pushes election fantasies at CPAC — and accuses reporter of destroying the country

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MyPillow CEO turned 2020 election truther Mike Lindell, whom I have interviewed many times by phone, got his first chance to meet me in person on Sunday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) gathering here. He did not waste the opportunity, accusing me of being “evil” and “destroying the country” 

While taking in the carnivalesque sights and of CPAC early on Sunday afternoon, I noticed Lindell by his booth on the conference floor. I approached and introduced myself, beginning to ask some of the questions he has avoided answering during our multiple phone conversations.

Much of the following exchange was captured on video and later posted by Raw Story. “I’m going to tell you something, and I’m going to tell everybody,” Lindell began. “In our country’s history, every single election official, if there’s fraud involved, there’s not a statute of limitations. They take the guy that won, and they put him back in office, and it’s just never happened at the presidential level.” (In fact, cases of courts overturning certified elections at any level are vanishingly rare. At the federal level, it is likely a legal and constitutional impossibility.) Continue reading.

‘Warning lights are blinking red’: Pollsters sound the alarm on shocking data on GOP voters

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Polling data is showing that Republican base voters are radicalizing against democracy, and two polling experts are sounding the alarm on what it means for the United States.

The Economist’s G. Elliot Morris pointed to polls showing that a plurality of Republican voters think that state legislatures should have the right to overturn the results of presidential elections, while supermajorities believe that former President Donald Trump really won the 2020 election and that President Joe Biden is illegitimate.

In fact, Morris said that the most recent polling numbers show that 74 percent of Republican voters do not believe Biden’s presidency is legitimate. Continue reading.

Nullification is the true threat to voting rights in America

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As Republican lawmakers continue their efforts to prevent voting expansion across the United States, it appears there are bigger issues than just voter suppression. In a piece published by The Bulwark, the author Linda Chavez explained how and why the bigger problem actually centers on nullification. 

“The biggest threat to democracy now is less that voting laws are too restrictive than it is that votes, once lawfully cast, are counted and the results accepted by losers as well as winners,” she wrote.

Expressing concern about Republican efforts to reconstruct the Voting Rights Act (VRA) she touched on how dangerous their efforts are to democracy. “Instead of trying to re-write the VRA to overturn court decisions that were anything but radical, democracy advocates should concentrate on limiting the power of partisan losers to overturn the will of the people.” Continue reading.

FBI launches flurry of arrests over attacks on journalists during Capitol riot

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Nearly six months after the U.S. Capitol riot, the Justice Department has begun arresting a new category of alleged criminals — those who attacked reporters or damaged their equipment as journalists documented the violence perpetrated by supporters of President Donald Trump.

The first such charge came last week, when 43-year-old Shane Jason Woods of Illinois was charged with engaging in violence on the Capitol grounds Jan. 6, as well as assaulting a law enforcement officer. Authorities say Woods was caught on video knocking down a cameraman.

The arrests come at a contentious moment for the Justice Department and First Amendment advocates, who have sharply criticized federal law enforcement for secretly issuing subpoenas of reporters’ phone records during the Trump administration. Continue reading.

CNN reveals that a man from the Capitol riot joined House Republicans on a border trip

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Anthony Aguero, a far-right YouTuber and ally of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, was reportedly among the group at the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, though at this point he has not been charged with any crime related to the insurrection. And his proximity to the shocking attack, apparently, isn’t preventing some House other Republicans from associating with him. According to CNN reporters Andrew Kaczynski, Em Steck and Drew Myers, Aguero “accompanied Republican members of Congress” on a visit to the U.S./Mexico border earlier this week and served as a translator for them.

“During his livestream of the Tuesday visit,” the CNN journalists explain, “Aguero interviewed and chatted with Reps. Tom. Tiffany of Wisconsin, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Chris Jacobs of New York, Michael Cloud of Texas, John Rose of Tennessee, Ronny Jackson of Texas and Mary Miller of Illinois.”

During the livestream, Aguero can be seen getting Cawthorn’s last name wrong and saying, “Hi guys, Congressman Hawthorn is behind me. That is freaking awesome. That is freaking awesome. I’ll tell you that.” Continue reading.

Georgia GOP lawmakers’ flaws could be exposed in DOJ lawsuit

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The U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Georgia could place the state’s Republican lawmakers under a microscope to unveil their biased intent where voting restrictions are concerned. 

A new piece published by The Daily Beast outlines the details of the complaint, the DOJ’s options, and the legal path it could take. On Friday, June 25, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the DOJ filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of Georgia.

The lawsuit, which was also filed before Trump-appointed Judge J.P. Boulee, alleges that some provisions of the Georgia law SB-202 “violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.” Continue reading.

‘Blatant projection’: Mitch McConnell blasted for calling voting rights a ‘craven political calculation’

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday accused Democrats of “craven political calculation” because they are trying to pass S.1, a Senate bill that would fortify voting rights.

During a speech on the Senate floor, McConnell mischaracterized the intent of the legislation.

“It would let Democrats take a red pen to election law in each of the 50 states neutering popular components like voter ID while legalizing shady practices like ballot harvesting,” McConnell said. “It’s a recipe for undermining confidence in our elections, for remaking our entire system government to suit the preferences of one far end of the political spectrum.” Continue reading.