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Category: Insurrection

  • Damning Leaks Provide Grim Preview of Thursday’s January 6 Congressional Hearing

    The highly anticipated congressional hearings into the January 6, 2021, assault on the United States Capitol are slated to begin this Thursday evening. Member of the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack, Rep. Jamie Raskin, stoked the rising anticipation on Monday by reporting, “The select committee has found evidence about a lot more than incitement here. We’re going to be laying out the evidence about all of the actors who were pivotal to what took place on January 6.”

    It seems, however, that some are worried enough about gathering an audience for the event that they are allowing some heavy bricks to fall early, or perhaps someone is merely not willing, after 17 months, to wait a minute longer. Whatever the reason, the leaks that began on Monday have become a torrent.

    “The Georgia email has not been disclosed publicly until now,” reported CNN on Monday morning. “It was sent by Robert Sinners, [former President Donald] Trump’s election day operations lead in Georgia on December 13, 2020, 18 hours before the group of alternate electors gathered at the Georgia State Capitol, according to multiple sources familiar with it. ‘I must ask for your complete discretion in this process,’ Sinners wrote. ‘Your duties are imperative to ensure the end result — a win in Georgia for President Trump — but will be hampered unless we have complete secrecy and discretion.’”

    This email is in the hands of the January 6 committee; the Justice Department’s investigation into the attack; and the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney’s office, where they have been investigating Trump’s direct effort to have Georgia elected officials “find” more than 11,000 votes after the election was over.

    It is altogether ominous on its face; the scheme to send alternate electors to Congress could have badly fouled the election process had it been carried out with a modicum of competence. The same tactic worked all too well in 1876. At a bare minimum, the demand for “complete secrecy” betrays the fact that the actors here knew full well they were operating well outside the parameters of good faith and the law in search of a different election result.

    Later on Monday, former Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor dropped a tweet for the ages:

    Leaving aside the bracing need for someone to sit these folks down and teach them how to spell “martial law,” (paging Marjorie Taylor Greene) is the fact that, if Taylor’s account is accurate, we now have two distinct tracks to follow: 1.) The initial plan behind the mob action was to force then-Vice President Mike Pence into overturning the election results during the certification hearing; 2.) failing that, the vivid violence of the insurrection itself could be used as justification for imposing martial law, which would at least temporarily have imperiled the election results.

    Thursday better hurry up, lest all the cats bolt the bag before the show even begins. “The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack will unveil new evidence at Watergate-style public hearings this week showing Donald Trump and top aides acted with corrupt intent to stop Joe Biden’s certification,” reports the Guardian. “As the Justice Department mounts parallel investigations into the Capitol attack, the select committee is hoping that the previously unseen evidence will leave an indelible mark on the American public about the extent to which Trump went in trying to return himself to the Oval Office.”

    Not content to let the evidence do the talking on its own, the committee has enlisted the help of James Goldston, former president of ABC News and master documentarian for “Nightline” and “Good Morning America.” According to Axios, “Goldston is busily producing Thursday’s 8 p.m. ET hearing as if it were a blockbuster investigative special. He plans to make it raw enough so that skeptical journalists will find the material fresh, and chew over the disclosures in future coverage. And he wants it to draw the eyeballs of Americans who haven’t followed the ins and outs of the Capitol riot probe.”

    The Brookings Institute was kind enough to assemble a highly detailed primer for Thursday’s events. “The report covers key players in the attempt to overturn the election, the known facts regarding their conduct, and the criminal law applicable to their actions,” according to the executive summary. For those who wish to be fully prepared for Thursday, it is an indispensable document.

    This moment arrives freighted with extreme tension. On Monday, four members of the hard right militia group Proud Boys — leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and lieutenants Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs and Zachary Rehl — were indicted in federal court on charges of seditious conspiracy: “opposing the lawful transfer of presidential power by force.” According to The Washington Post, “The charges show prosecutors pulling together a wider picture of organization within extremist groups that shared overlapping if not common goals. The investigations have exposed hints of coordination among groups, even as the FBI and Justice Department are expanding their investigations into the political orbit of former president Donald Trump.”

    The Proud Boys and groups like it are the fascist fist within Trump’s insurrectionist glove, the implicit promise of extreme violence if the will of the maximum leader is thwarted. How that group, and the others, will react to these indictments remains to be seen. Some have cooperated with investigators, but the others, the ones still free? I assume security at the Thursday hearings will be tight.

    Only days ago, a retired judge in Wisconsin named Jack Roemer was found in his home, zip-tied to a chair and shot to death. His assassin, who shot himself but survived, carried a hit list that included Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The killer could very well have been a rogue element, but then again, so was George Wallace assassin Arthur Bremer. In a country enduring an upward spiral of political violence, the fear of returning to an age of assassinations is all too present.

    Many today are exhausted, dispirited, more than a little afraid and altogether out of patience. The people have been led on snipe hunts leading nowhere since the Iran-Contra hearings and the Great Big Nothing that was the Robert Mueller investigation, combined with a pair of deliberately futile impeachment proceedings, were awfully damned close to the last straw. I have not spoken to a single person who expects anything to come from these hearings. In my capacity as journalist, I am required to keep an open mind… but I, too, share in that collective exhausted despair.

    The building thunderclouds are impressive, at least. We shall see if they bring the rain, or just more empty wind.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene May be Affected by Insurrection Court Ruling

    A federal appeals court has overturned a lower court’s ruling regarding a challenge to Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s (R-North Carolina) candidacy, which could influence challenges against other candidates who have been accused of aiding an insurrection against the U.S. due to their attempts to keep former President Donald Trump in power.

    A federal district judge previously ruled that Cawthorn’s eligibility to run for office couldn’t be challenged due to the Amnesty Act of 1872, which granted amnesty to former members of the Confederacy who had been barred from holding office due to conditions listed in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. But that rationale was rejected on Tuesday in a ruling from a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

    “We hold only that the 1872 Amnesty Act does not categorically exempt all future rebels and insurrectionists from the political disabilities that otherwise would be created by Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the opinion from the court, written by Judge Toby Heytens, said.

    Although the court made it explicitly clear that it was not directly ruling on Cawthorn’s eligibility, leaving that to lower courts to decide upon, its decision does mean that the Amnesty Act cannot be used as a means of defense against such challenges. The appeals panel also ruled that the challenge to Cawthorn wasn’t moot, even though he lost in a primary election to another Republican candidate earlier this week.

    The ruling is only legally binding in jurisdictions overseen by the Fourth Circuit Court, which include the states of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. But the ruling could still influence decisions in other courts where Republicans are facing 14th Amendment challenges.

    Five voters in Georgia, for example, are challenging the candidacy of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), a Trump loyalist who pushed for his administration to consider using martial law in order to keep the former president in power following his loss to now-President Joe Biden.

    Earlier this year, Georgia Administrative Law Judge Charles Beaudrot ruled against the challenge from the voters on Greene’s candidacy, improperly shifting the responsibility of proving whether Greene was eligible to run to the voters, despite Georgia precedent saying that the onus should lie on the candidate. Beaudrot also claimed that the challengers hadn’t presented enough evidence, and that therefore, he wasn’t obligated to make any decision regarding the 1872 law.

    Those voters filed an appeal arguing that Beaudrot’s ruling rested on faulty logic, and that Greene’s advocacy for the use of martial law and her vote against the certification of the 2020 presidential election should render her ineligible.

    “Greene’s defense rested almost entirely on her claimed lack of memory,” the appeal states, adding that Greene “answered ‘I don’t recall’ or some version thereof more than 80 times during the hearing.”

    It’s possible that the Amnesty Act question could come about during the appeal in Greene’s case within the 11th Circuit Court system, which Georgia is a part of. The ruling in the Cawthorn case could be cited as a legal precedent in Greene’s case.

    The Cawthorn decision could also impact other Trump-loyalist Republicans. Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar of Arizona are currently facing similar challenges based on 14th Amendment eligibility questions.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • ‘Traitors Get Shot’

    On Jan. 6, 2021, Jackson Reffitt watched the Capitol riot play out on TV from his family home in Texas. His father, Guy, had a much closer view. He was in Washington, armed with a semiautomatic handgun, storming the building. 

    When Guy Reffitt returned home, Jackson secretly taped him and turned the recordings over to the FBI. His father bragged about what he did, saying: “I had every constitutional right to carry a weapon and take over the Congress.”

    Guy Reffitt was the first person to stand trial for his role in the riot, and the case has divided his family. 

    This week, Reveal features the story of the Reffitt family by partnering with the podcast Will Be Wild from Pineapple Street Studios, Wondery and Amazon Music. Hosted by Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, Will Be Wild’s eight-part series investigates the forces that led to the Jan. 6 insurrection and what comes next.

    This post was originally published on Reveal.

  • Georgia Voters Continue Push to Disqualify Marjorie Taylor Greene From Office

    A group of voters in Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Georgia) congressional district is appealing a previous finding from an administrative judge saying that she is an eligible candidate for office — and that she wasn’t in violation of the “insurrection” clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

    The five voters appealing that decision, led by the organization Free Speech for People, argue that their original complaint was not decided on fairly or in accordance with Georgia’s laws on such matters.

    The appeal to the original order was filed on Monday.

    The original complaint against Greene earlier this year alleged that her involvement in plans to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election — including her advocating for former President Donald Trump to consider using martial law to keep now-President Joe Biden from being rightfully inaugurated — violated the 14th Amendment, which bars any person who has previously taken an oath of office to a political position in the U.S. from running for office in the future if they’ve engaged in “insurrection” or “rebellion against” the country.

    A person who has been deemed an insurrectionist against the U.S. can only retain the ability to run for office through a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress.

    The original complaint was sent to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who forwarded it to Georgia Administrative Law Judge Charles Beaudrot. Greene was compelled to testify during the daylong hearing on the matter, but said she couldn’t recall or confirm many of her own past statements.

    “Greene’s defense rested almost entirely on her claimed lack of memory,” the new complaint from the five voters says, noting that “she answered ‘I don’t recall’ or some version thereof more than 80 times during the hearing.”

    Beaudrot eventually sided with Greene, stating that the voters did not provide a compelling enough argument for why she should be barred from running. But in their new complaint, the five voters note that, according to precedent established by state Supreme Court rulings, the burden of proving whether a candidate is eligible to run is on the candidate, not the voters filing the challenge.

    By shifting the onus onto those making the complaint against Greene, Beaudrot erred in his final judgment, those voters say in their appeal, which was filed in Fulton County Superior Court.

    Primary elections for congressional races in Georgia are set to commence later this month.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • How the 2024 Election Is Being Stolen

    More than a year after the 2020 election, roughly a third of Americans continue to believe, without evidence, that the results of the election were illegitimate. And now, GOP candidates are tapping into the “Big Lie,” campaigning for office on the promise to change how future elections are run.

    We zero in on Michigan, a key swing state where Republicans are aiming to shape the future of elections. Reporter Byard Duncan talks with the Antrim County clerk, who was flooded with ugly calls and threats after her office accidentally assigned votes meant for Donald Trump to Joe Biden. While the error was quickly fixed, many in the GOP, including Trump, have used the county to sow doubt about the entire election’s results. Duncan reports on the race for secretary of state, Michigan’s top election official, and how the leading GOP candidate has repeatedly referenced Antrim County to question the integrity of elections. The Trump-endorsed candidate has outraised her Republican opponents by at least tenfold. 

    There was no meaningful election fraud in Michigan in 2020. But some local election officials who voted to certify the election have paid a price. Reporter Trey Bundy tells the story of Wayne County official Monica Palmer, a Republican who was kicked off the local canvassing board after certifying the election. And she’s just one of many: Republicans have now placed new election officials on boards in eight of Michigan’s largest counties. At least half of them have cast doubt on the integrity of the 2020 election.

    Finally, looking to the future, Republicans in Michigan are making it harder to vote. Since the 2020 election, the Michigan Senate, led by Republicans, has introduced nearly 40 bills to change its election laws, all of which propose new barriers to voting. Guest host Shereen Marisol Meraji talks with Branden Snyder, co-executive director of Detroit Action, a local activist group that organizes working-class Detroiters, about how his group is mobilizing against efforts to undermine the vote.

    This post was originally published on Reveal.

  • State Board Asserts Right to Decide If Cawthorn Is Eligible to Run in Midterms

    Rep. Madison Cawthorn is seen in the U.S. Capitol on November 18, 2021.

    The North Carolina State Board of Elections has asserted that it has the right to determine whether Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-North Carolina) is disqualified from running for office based on his role in the plot to overturn the 2020 election.

    A group of 11 state residents who reside in North Carolina’s newly-created 13th congressional district, where Cawthorn intends to run, filed a complaint with the state elections board last month. The complaint contends that Cawthorn is ineligible to compete in this year’s midterm races and cites the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which bars any individual who has taken an oath as a member of the U.S. Congress from serving if they have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the country.

    Cawthorn’s involvement in the attempted overthrow of the 2020 presidential election fits those parameters, the 11 residents said.

    After Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, Cawthorn attended dozens of meetings with members of the Trump administration and other lawmakers, discussing ways that the then-outgoing president could overturn the results. Cawthorn also spoke at a rally outside the White House on January 6, 2021, directly before the attack on the U.S. Capitol building; in his speech, he urged Trump loyalists to “lightly threaten” lawmakers and to demand that they back so-called “election integrity.”

    “Say [to members of Congress certifying the election results], ‘if you don’t support election integrity, I’m coming after you. Madison Cawthorn’s coming after you. Everybody’s coming after you,’” Cawthorn told Trump loyalists briefly before they breached the Capitol building.

    After the complaint from North Carolina residents was submitted to the state elections board, Cawthorn sued the panel, alleging that they did not have the authority to weigh in on the issue and that doing so would violate his First Amendment rights.

    On Monday, the North Carolina State Board of Elections responded to Cawthorn’s complaint, asserting that they had the ability to rule on the matter.

    The panel did not indicate how it planned to rule, but noted that it had the right to decide whether or not Cawthorn is eligible to run for office based on the 14th Amendment’s parameters. Cawthorn’s claims of “burden” were “dubious,” the panel said, and were ultimately “outweighed by the interest of the state and its people.”

    If the residents’ challenge moves forward, it could mean that Cawthorn will have to testify under oath before the state board to prove that he wasn’t “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” despite his role in the plot to overturn the 2020 election.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • North Carolina Voters Challenge Madison Cawthorn’s Candidacy

    Rep. Madison Cawthorn speaks to Trump supporters from the Ellipse at the White House in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021.

    A group of voters in North Carolina has filed paperwork seeking to disqualify Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-North Carolina) from appearing on the ballot as a congressional candidate in this year’s midterm elections, citing the lawmaker’s incendiary comments in the hours leading up to the January 6 Capitol breach.

    Cawthorn has filed to run in North Carolina’s newly-created 13th congressional district this fall. However, some voters from the state believe that he shouldn’t be allowed to run due to his activities on the day the U.S. Capitol building was attacked by a mob of loyalists to former President Donald Trump. These voters have asserted that a provision within the Constitution prevents him from qualifying for candidacy.

    Cawthorn, an ardent Trump loyalist, spoke at the former president’s rally outside of the White House that morning. During his speech, the North Carolina Republican repeated many of Trump’s lies regarding the election, wrongly claiming that Democrats committed “fraud” in the 2020 presidential race to secure a win for President Joe Biden.

    Democrats and Republicans who refused to stand with Trump “are trying to silence your voice,” Cawthorn told the crowd that day. “Make no mistake about it, they do not want you to be heard.”

    Cawthorn also appeared to encourage the crowd’s violent behavior, lauding the fact that Trump’s loyalists “had some fight” in them. Hours later, many of those loyalists attacked Congress during its certification process of the 2020 presidential race.

    Because Cawthorn played a part in encouraging the attack on the Capitol, a group of eleven voters filed paperwork this week seeking to disqualify him from serving in Congress, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. That provision, ratified in 1868, bars any person from serving in Congress (among other roles) if they’ve previously taken an oath as a federal lawmaker or officer and later “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the United States, “or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

    The voters’ challenge asserts that the events of January 6, 2021, “amounted to an insurrection,” and that Cawthorn’s speech demonstrating support for Trump and false allegations of fraud provide a “reasonable suspicion or belief” that he helped those who sought to interfere in the election certification process, thereby breaking his oath to the Constitution.

    The challenge is calling for the North Carolina Board of Elections to establish a five-member panel, representing each of the five counties that the 13th district encompasses, to consider the case against allowing Cawthorn to run again.

    “The importance of defending the bedrock constitutional principle that oath breakers who engage in insurrection cannot be trusted in future office is essential to maintain,” said Ron Fein, legal director of Free Speech for People, a group backing the challenge to Cawthorn’s candidacy.

    The voters’ bid is a longshot, as the provision was included in the amendment primarily to deal with the aftermath of the Civil War. Following the Capitol breach on January 6, however, several legal scholars suggested that the provision could potentially apply to Trump loyalists in Congress who helped encourage the attack.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Explosive Report Says GOP Congress Members Helped Plan Jan. 6 Capitol Attack

    Capitol rioters riot at the u.s. capitol

    “Jan. 6 Protest Organizers Say They Participated in ‘Dozens’ of Planning Meetings With Members of Congress and White House Staff,” roared the late-Sunday Rolling Stone headline. The report describes two January 6 protest insiders who claim they worked “back to back to back” with several Republican House members — Representatives Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert, Mo Brooks, Madison Cawthorn, Andy Biggs, Louie Gohmert and Marjorie Taylor Greene — and their senior staffers, who they allege were “intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.”

    These two Jan. 6 organizers “have begun communicating with congressional investigators and sharing new information about what happened when the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol,” according to Rolling Stone. “This is the first report that the committee is hearing major new allegations from potential cooperating witnesses. While there have been prior indications that members of Congress were involved, this is also the first account detailing their purported role and its scope. The two sources also claim they interacted with members of Trump’s team, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who they describe as having had an opportunity to prevent the violence.”

    If confirmed, this report would put the word “bombshell” to shame, and would also go a long way toward explaining why Trump’s congressional allies have been turning themselves inside out trying to change the subject. An unfortunate grain of salt must be taken with this, however. Rolling Stone’s journalistic reputation took a hit over its reporting on the Duke University rape scandal seven years ago. Because of this, confirmation by other news outlets is essential. As of this writing, it appears only The Hill has chosen to pick up the Rolling Stone story.

    There is good reason to believe the Stone report is sound. First and foremost, it reveals that these two sources have been actively cooperating with the Jan. 6 committee, providing specific details on who was involved with which aspects of the insurrection. Such a claim could and likely would be debunked by members of that committee if it weren’t accurate.

    The Rolling Stone report comes in tandem with a damning Washington Post report detailing how space within the Willard Hotel in Washington D.C. was used as a war room for efforts to overthrow the 2020 election. “They called it the ‘command center,’” reports the Post, “a set of rooms and suites in the posh Willard hotel a block from the White House where some of President Donald Trump’s most loyal lieutenants were working day and night with one goal in mind: overturning the results of the 2020 election…. Their activities included finding and publicizing alleged evidence of fraud, urging members of state legislatures to challenge Biden’s victory and calling on the Trump-supporting public to press Republican officials in key states.”

    Central to this effort was the enormous pressure brought to bear against Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the election results on the same day as the insurrection took place. While Pence wobbled badly under the strain, seeking advice at one point from fellow former Indiana Senator Dan Quayle, he ultimately chose to certify the election results. At the peak of the day’s violence, Pence was whisked from the building by the Secret Service as a mob of furious Trump supporters stormed the halls of the Capitol demanding his head. The Willard operation was so serious, in fact, that its members brought in a retired Army colonel named Phil Waldron, who specialized in psychological operations, to aid in the overall effort.

    Multiple witnesses are set to testify under subpoena before the committee about what they knew of pre-meditated plans for violence on January 6, and how high up the chain that premeditation went. One of them, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon — who said on his podcast the day before the violence that “all hell is going to break loose” and “tomorrow is game day” — is ignoring his subpoena. By a vote of 229-202, the House approved a measure holding Bannon in contempt of Congress, and his legal fate now rests in the strangely quiescent hands of Attorney General Merrick Garland.

    There are many moving pieces to this, but a sense is growing that those involved in planning and executing the attempted overthrow of the election on Jan. 6 may be running out of room to maneuver. Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the Jan. 6 investigation committee, told CBS News on Sunday there is “no question” the attack that day was premeditated. One wonders if Thompson is among the committee members who have spoken to the sources in the Rolling Stone report. It sure sounds like it.

    Thirty years ago this week, the remnants of Hurricane Grace were engulfed by a powerful nor’easter in the waters off the Mid-Atlantic states. The combined system, jostled by a barometric ridge and a cold front, charged north as a subtropical cyclone before becoming a wildly atypical hurricane itself. The “No Name Storm,” or the “Halloween Storm,” as it came to be called, raged for days and killed 13 people. Not long after it passed, a National Weather Service forecaster named Robert Case and an adventure author named Sebastian Junger gave it a name that stuck: The Perfect Storm.

    Thirty years later, another perfect storm is brewing over Washington, D.C. If it comes together just so, the obedient minions of Donald Trump, along with Trump himself, could be exposed as active practitioners of treason within the halls of the very government they purported to serve.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • 21 Million Americans Say Trump Should Be Restored to the Presidency by “Force”

    Supporters of former President Donald Trump hold a flag as he hosts the Holyfield vs. Belford boxing match live with commentary at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida on September 11, 2021.

    A recent Washington demonstration supporting those charged with crimes for the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol fizzled, with no more than 200 demonstrators showing up. The organizers had promised 700 people would turn out — or more.

    But the threat from far-right insurrectionists is not over.

    For months, my colleagues and I at the University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats have been tracking insurrectionist sentiments in U.S. adults, most recently in surveys in June. We have found that 47 million American adults — nearly 1 in 5 — agree with the statement that “the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president.” Of those, 21 million also agree that “use of force is justified to restore Donald J. Trump to the presidency.”

    Our survey found that many of these 21 million people with insurrectionist sentiments have the capacity for violent mobilization. At least 7 million of them already own a gun, and at least 3 million have served in the U.S. military and so have lethal skills. Of those 21 million, 6 million said they supported right-wing militias and extremist groups, and 1 million said they are themselves or personally know a member of such a group, including the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.

    Only a small percentage of people who hold extremist views ever actually commit acts of violence, but our findings reveal how many Americans hold views that could turn them toward insurrection.

    A Solid Survey

    In June 2021, our group commissioned a survey done by the independent, non-partisan researchers at NORC at the University of Chicago, seeking to discover how widespread insurrectionist sentiments are among U.S. adults.

    The research methods meet the highest standards in the polling industry — a random sample of a representative sample. It’s the same process NORC uses to conduct polling for The Associated Press, the federal government and other major institutions.

    First, NORC pulls together a panel of 40,000 people, called AmeriSpeak, who are representative of the entire U.S. population on dozens of characteristics, such as age, race, income, location of residence and religion. From that representative sample, NORC drew a random sample — in our case, 1,070 people.

    Extreme Beliefs

    This polling found that 9% of American adults say they agree with the statement that “Use of force is justified to restore Donald J. Trump to the presidency.” And 25% of adults either strongly or somewhat agree with the statement that “The 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president.”

    Overall, 8% of the survey participants share both of those views.

    The margin of error of this survey was plus or minus 4 percentage points. So when calculating the number of the 258 million adult Americans who hold these views, we looked at the range of between 4% and 12% — which gave us between 10 million and 31 million. The best single figure is the middle of that range, 21 million.

    People who said force is justified to restore Trump were consistent in their insurrectionist sentiments: Of them, 90% also see Biden as illegitimate, and 68% also think force may be needed to preserve America’s traditional way of life.

    The Fringe Moving Into the Mainstream

    Combined with their military experience, gun ownership and connections to extremist groups and militias, this signals the existence of significant mainstream support in America for a violent insurrection.

    This group of 21 million who agree both that force is justified to restore Trump and that Biden is an illegitimate president has two additional views that are also on the fringes of mainstream society:

    Some people with insurrectionist sentiments hold one of these political views but not the other, suggesting there are multiple ways of thinking that lead a person toward the insurrectionist movement.

    Broader Support

    This latest research reinforces our previous findings, that the Jan. 6 insurrection represents a far more mainstream movement than earlier instances of right-wing extremism across the country. Those events, mostly limited to white supremacist and militia groups, saw more than 100 individuals arrested from 2015 to 2020. But just 14% of those arrested for their actions on Jan. 6 are members of those groups. More than half are business owners or middle-aged white-collar professionals, and only 7% are unemployed.

    There is no way to say for sure when — or even whether — these insurrectionists will take action. On Jan. 6, it took clear direction from Donald Trump and other political leaders to turn these dangerous sentiments into a violent reality. But the movement itself is larger and more complex than many people might like to think.

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Republican Reaction to 1/6 Hearing Was an Explosion of Denial

    From left, Representatives Bob Good, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Andy Biggs, Matt Gaetz and Louie Gohmert hold a news conference outside the U.S. Department of Justice on July 27, 2021, in Washington, D.C.

    For a moment, put yourself in a pair of Republican shoes. The news today is dominated by testimony given by four police officers about the gruesome beatings they absorbed at the hands of a furiously violent tide of red-hatted Trump lovers on January 6.

    You’re a Republican today. How do you react to that?

    “Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham had a decidedly sarcastic reaction to the harrowing Tuesday testimonies of police who defended the Capitol from pro-Trump supporters on January 6,” reports Business Insider. Ingraham accused the officers of acting, and Carlson scolded one of the officers who compared his experience at the Capitol with his time as a soldier in Iraq. “It’s not Fallujah,” said Carlson, while Fox aired a conveniently mellow portion of the riot that merely showed people wandering around the building.

    Over at the laboriously far right One America News Network (OAN), they didn’t even bother to air the testimony beyond a 20-second clip they talked over as it played. They did, however, give detailed coverage of an early GOP press conference where House Speaker Pelosi was blamed for the calamity because she is somehow in charge of the Capitol Police (she isn’t).

    Later, OAN played another GOP press conference featuring Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who claimed the people under arrest for sacking the Capitol were “political prisoners.” That protest was broken up by someone blowing a whistle, which was apparently so unnerving that one of the cars carrying the lawmakers sped the wrong way down 9th St. NW in order to escape. “It swerved in front of oncoming traffic onto Pennsylvania Avenue amid a hail of honking horns,” reports The Washington Post.

    If you reacted like that, you’re doing it wrong. You can take those shoes off now. They pinch, I know.

    This sort of desperately bizarre poo-slinging was not relegated to a couple of shameless “news” outlets and the Goofball Caucus of Gaetz and Greene. “I have yet to meet a Republican in Congress who has minimized and doesn’t believe that what happened on January 6 was serious,” serial denialist Rep. Jim Banks — who along with Jim Jordan was blessedly bounced from the committee by Pelosi — told CNN yesterday.

    Banks has clearly never met Sen. Ron Johnson, who calls 1/6 a “peaceful protest.” Banks likewise ignores Rep. Andrew Clyde, who called the insurrection a “normal tourist visit,” after screaming in terror during the attack. In fact, there appears to be only two Republicans in Congress — Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney — willing to call this thing what it was in public, and both of them now sit on the select committee investigating that day. Only 35 House Republicans voted to create the committee in the first place, and almost all of them have been keeping their heads down ever since.

    The unreality of all this denial serves to underscore the broader surrealist landscape we find ourselves in. The testimony of the four officers was deeply compelling — one of them, Michael Fanone, had a death threat called into his cell while he was testifying — but there were also police officers participating in the insurrection, and law enforcement’s support for Donald Trump is notorious. Cheney and Kinzinger comported themselves well yesterday, but on balance, their voting records make me want to hide under the bed. These are the heroes today?

    Finally, and fundamentally, the idea that Republican officeholders and their supporters can somehow be reached took a mighty blow yesterday. Almost to a person, congressional Republicans bore witness to the horrors of 1/6 while inside the building that day, and then again yesterday as captured on camera and described in testimony. They either turned on their heels and called it no big deal, or they said nothing at all.

    I guess I understand why. The last thing House Republicans want is to have these hearings on their backs as they prepare for the 2022 midterms. It’s bad enough that Trump is still lurking out there, waiting to smash and sabotage his own party at any given opportunity. The video and testimony from yesterday will become fodder for 10,000 Democratic campaign commercials next year, if not sooner, and that is bad news for the faithful.

    Every Trump-backing Republican making money off the MAGA crowd’s fathomless credulity can perceive a reckoning because of that fealty not too far down the line. It is uncertain when the next 1/6 hearing will be taking place, but when it does, Republicans would do well to try and stave off a similar backlash reaction once confronted by the consequences of their deeds. Of course, they won’t. I’m really not sure they can.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Know Your Enemy: The Afterlife of January 6

    Was the January 6 breaching of the Capitol a genuine coup attempt by an extra-parliamentary faction of the Trump movement? Or was it a disorganized and pathetic act of desperation?

    This post was originally published on Dissent MagazineDissent Magazine.

  • “He wants us to make it WILD”

    The former president not only inspired his supporters to fight for him; he urged them to send money to defend his election in the courts. Continue reading

    The post “He wants us to make it WILD” appeared first on BillMoyers.com.

    This post was originally published on BillMoyers.com.

  • GOP Clinging to Their January 6th Lie

    The events of January 6 left several people, including three police officers, dead, and more than 100 law enforcement officers wounded. Hundreds of people have been charged with crimes. Continue reading

    The post GOP Clinging to Their January 6th Lie appeared first on BillMoyers.com.

    This post was originally published on BillMoyers.com.

  • On January 6th, the U.S. Became a Foreign Country

    Just about everyone was shocked by what happened at the Capitol building on January 6th. But as a former soldier in America’s forever wars, horrifying as the scenes were, I also found what happened strangely familiar, almost inevitable. Continue reading

    The post On January 6th, the U.S. Became a Foreign Country appeared first on BillMoyers.com.

    This post was originally published on BillMoyers.com.

  • Reality Check: COVID, Russia and Biden’s High Approval Rating

    The vaccines will come none too soon for people in Texas, where Governor Greg Abbott announced he will end the statewide mask mandate and permit all businesses to reopen without coronavirus restrictions. Continue reading

    The post Reality Check: COVID, Russia and Biden’s High Approval Rating appeared first on BillMoyers.com.

    This post was originally published on BillMoyers.com.

  • The For the People Act

    In the face of voter suppression legislation in Republican legislatures around the country, Democrats in Congress are trying to pass a law, called the For the People Act, to stop partisan gerrymandering, limit money in politics, and expand voting access. Continue reading

    The post The For the People Act appeared first on BillMoyers.com.

    This post was originally published on BillMoyers.com.

  • Biden Administration Working Hard on COVID

    Vaccinations rates are picking up, and now nearly 1 in 5 adults have had their first shot. Continue reading

    The post Biden Administration Working Hard on COVID appeared first on BillMoyers.com.

    This post was originally published on BillMoyers.com.

  • Heather Cox Richardson: A Bat-Fax Kind of Day

    Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, who encouraged the rioters by their willingness to challenge the counting of the certified ballots, are now questioninglaw enforcement officials about their actions during the insurrection. Continue reading

    The post Heather Cox Richardson: A Bat-Fax Kind of Day appeared first on BillMoyers.com.

    This post was originally published on BillMoyers.com.

  • Dangerous Deep Freeze in Texas

    With climate change expected to intensify extremes of weather, the crisis in Texas indicates that our infrastructure will need to be reinforced to meet conditions it was not designed for. Continue reading

    The post Dangerous Deep Freeze in Texas appeared first on BillMoyers.com.

    This post was originally published on BillMoyers.com.

  • This is Not Going to Fade Away

    The House impeachment managers have given Republican senators multiple ways to justify a vote for conviction to their constituents. Continue reading

    The post This is Not Going to Fade Away appeared first on BillMoyers.com.

    This post was originally published on BillMoyers.com.

  • The Difference Between Yelling Fire and Setting One

    The House managers tried to make it possible for Republican senators to convict Trump. They focused on him alone, leaving untouched the fact that some of the senators in the chamber had themselves spread the lie that the election had been marred by massive fraud. Continue reading

    The post The Difference Between Yelling Fire and Setting One appeared first on BillMoyers.com.

    This post was originally published on BillMoyers.com.

  • Who Had the Best Presentation?

    Bruce Castor and David Schoen seemed badly outmatched, rambling and unprepared. While the Democrats’ presentations were clear, organized, and illustrated with slick videos and graphics, the defense had none of that. Watching from Florida, the former president was allegedly irate. Continue reading

    The post Who Had the Best Presentation? appeared first on BillMoyers.com.

    This post was originally published on BillMoyers.com.

  • Impeachment Round 2

    Trump’s lawyers are teeing up the idea that the former president is a victim of Democratic obsession and that the Democrats are wastrels. The Democrats are setting up the idea that the Republicans are a danger to the nation and its people. Continue reading

    The post Impeachment Round 2 appeared first on BillMoyers.com.

    This post was originally published on BillMoyers.com.

  • Is the Outcome a Sure Thing?

    Pundits are saying that the Senate will vote to acquit former President Donald Trump at the end of his second impeachment trial, set to start on Tuesday. I’m not so sure. Continue reading

    The post Is the Outcome a Sure Thing? appeared first on BillMoyers.com.

    This post was originally published on BillMoyers.com.

  • Trump’s Big Lie

    Trump’s argument has been dismissed in more than 60 court cases, so there is plenty of evidence to conclude that it is false. But he is doubling down on what scholars of authoritarianism call a “big lie:” that he was the true winner of the 2020 election, and that the Democrats stole it. Continue reading

    The post Trump’s Big Lie appeared first on BillMoyers.com.

    This post was originally published on BillMoyers.com.

  • Going Big on the Coronavirus Relief Bill

    If Biden gets this bill passed and Americans feel that it relieves the economic crunch, it will go a long way toward erasing people’s distrust of government action to regulate the economy. Continue reading

    The post Going Big on the Coronavirus Relief Bill appeared first on BillMoyers.com.

    This post was originally published on BillMoyers.com.

  • A Transfer of Power

    Rage, chaos and conspiracies defined Donald Trump’s last days as president. As the nation swears in Joe Biden, we look at the long shadow cast by the White supremacist and anti-immigrant forces that brought Trump to power.

    Don’t miss out on the next big story. Get the Weekly Reveal newsletter today.

    This post was originally published on Reveal.

  • As Joe Biden becomes president, US still reels from deadly consequences of ‘alternative facts’

    ANALYSIS: By Jennifer S. Hunt, Australian National University

    Every four years on January 20, the US exercises a key tenant of democratic government: the peaceful transfer of power. This year, the scene looks a bit different.

    If the last US presidential inauguration in 2017 debuted the phrase “alternative facts”, the 2021 inauguration represents their deadly consequences.

    After conspiracy-theory inspired violence laid siege to the Capitol Building where lawmakers met to confirm the election results, more than 20,000 troops now patrol the US Capitol to ensure the transition goes ahead smoothly against calls for insurrection.

    The threat of disinformation and alternative facts has taken many forms over the past several years, from conspiracy theories about climate change to covid-19, culminating in a 2019 FBI memo warning about the threat of “conspiracy-theory driven domestic extremists”, particularly around elections.

    It follows years of warnings from national security practitioners and scholars about the growing risk of domestic extremists. More recently, as reported by the FBI and ASIO, these groups have used the global pandemic to recruit and radicalise new members, seizing on the isolation and uncertainty to offer a sense of community and clarity of purpose.

    The conspiracy theory that drove the violence at the Capitol Building has been building for the past four years. During this time, US President Donald Trump has decried any contest he does not win as fraudulent.

    More recently, he has called his supporters to action, warning that there will be “no God” and “no country” without him as president. Though the attack only lasted a few hours, the consequences will linger for years.

    As Joe Biden prepares to become the 46th president of the United States, managing the fallout from it will be one of his gravest challenges.

    The long-standing threat of right-wing extremists
    This threat appears to have been taken seriously by long-standing national security experts and scholars. But action against it was hindered under the Trump administration.

    Starting in 2017, federal funding for tackling white nationalist and other far right extremist activity was cut, including university research and non-profit deradicalisation organisations such as Life After Hate

    Last year, a whistleblower report from the Department of Homeland Security alleged senior intelligence officials were instructed to modify intelligence assessments to match Trump’s rhetoric and modify the section on White Supremacy in a manner that made the threat appear less severe.

    During 2020, diverse groups stormed state legislative buildings to evade covid-19 mitigation efforts and intimidate lawmakers at the behest of Trump.

    Despite these public signs of growing extremist violence, even some lawmakers appeared to be caught unaware by the Capitol insurrection. In an opinion piece just after the event, Republican Senator Susan Collins wrote she first assumed the attack was coming from Iran.

    Breach of US Capitol
    Trump supporters breached the Capitol on January 6, claiming the election result was fradulent. Image: AAP/AP/ John Nacion/STAR MAX/IPx

    Trump has demonstrated that conspiracy theories can drive electoral and fundraising success. Having started his political campaign with the “birther” conspiracy theory, challenging the citizenship and eligibility of American-born Barack Obama, Trump also cast shadows over his Republican rivals, including Ted Cruz, by accusing Cruz’s father of being linked to the man who killed JFK.

    Similarly, Trump will end his administration on a conspiracy theory, one that has already cost five lives. Despite recent backlash from business leaders in America, Trump fundraised more than $200 million after election night on the basis of his refusal to concede defeat.

    Recent Congressional races have further demonstrated the success of Trump’s template. Holocaust-deniers in three states ran for office in 2018 (all as Republicans). Two of the newest members of Congress are members of QAnon, the inheritor of the “pizzagate” conspiracy theory, in which all who oppose Trump are deep state members of a international child sex trafficking cabal.

    The challenge ahead for Biden
    Where then, does this leave policy-making on national and global issues that require sober reflection and good judgement?

    Alternative facts have no place in good governance. Their purpose is only to destroy and divide. This is why disinformation has been pursued so aggressively by hostile foreign actors against the US, with Russian active measures detailed extensively by the Republican chaired Senate Intelligence Committee reports.

    Voter fraud, one of the key narratives of Russian efforts in election interference in 2016, has now become mainstreamed in the Republican base, with nearly half of respondents expressing doubt about Biden’s win.

    Public assurances by Republican secretaries of state have had limited impact, culminating in Trump’s taped conversation in which he asks the Georgia Secretary of state to “find” 11,000 votes for him (to win).

    Joe Biden should focus on repairing Americans’ frayed trust in institutions and rehabilitate America’s battered reputation. At the same time, he should lead with science and fact, most immediately in tackling the nation’s covid crisis.

    Joe Biden
    One of Joe Biden’s first priorities should be repairing trust in American institutions. Image: Matt Slocum/AAP/AP

    Where conspiracy theories go hand in hand with corruption (such as Trump soliciting an election official to tamper with results), state authorities should pursue charges. Where disinformation has proven lucrative, tools should be explored to remove financial rewards.

    For instance, non-profit organisations that participated in or fundraised what the Joint Chiefs of Staff declared as “sedition and insurrection” could be stripped of protective tax status.

    Some of these remedies lie firmly with Congress. Impeachment proceedings are already underway which could remove Trump’s ability to run in 2024. The 14th Amendment could be applied to expel or bar current office holders who participated in the insurrection from running for election again.

    Trump has recently condemned the violence done in his name. But he has not disavowed the rationale for it. His supporters within the Republican base, media and elected ranks continue to repeat his conspiracy theories on Fox “entertainment” shows, on AM radio, and now the halls of Congress.

    More than 100 US Representatives voted against certifying the ballots on which they themselves were elected.

    The next few years will see investigations, commissions and reports detailing the failures that led up to the Capitol attacks. Any delay in accountability could see even more lives lost to conspiracy theories and those who profit from them.The Conversation

    By Dr Jennifer S. Hunt, lecturer in national security, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • As Joe Biden becomes president, US still reels from deadly consequences of ‘alternative facts’

    ANALYSIS: By Jennifer S. Hunt, Australian National University

    Every four years on January 20, the US exercises a key tenant of democratic government: the peaceful transfer of power. This year, the scene looks a bit different.

    If the last US presidential inauguration in 2017 debuted the phrase “alternative facts”, the 2021 inauguration represents their deadly consequences.

    After conspiracy-theory inspired violence laid siege to the Capitol Building where lawmakers met to confirm the election results, more than 20,000 troops now patrol the US Capitol to ensure the transition goes ahead smoothly against calls for insurrection.

    The threat of disinformation and alternative facts has taken many forms over the past several years, from conspiracy theories about climate change to covid-19, culminating in a 2019 FBI memo warning about the threat of “conspiracy-theory driven domestic extremists”, particularly around elections.

    It follows years of warnings from national security practitioners and scholars about the growing risk of domestic extremists. More recently, as reported by the FBI and ASIO, these groups have used the global pandemic to recruit and radicalise new members, seizing on the isolation and uncertainty to offer a sense of community and clarity of purpose.

    The conspiracy theory that drove the violence at the Capitol Building has been building for the past four years. During this time, US President Donald Trump has decried any contest he does not win as fraudulent.

    More recently, he has called his supporters to action, warning that there will be “no God” and “no country” without him as president. Though the attack only lasted a few hours, the consequences will linger for years.

    As Joe Biden prepares to become the 46th president of the United States, managing the fallout from it will be one of his gravest challenges.

    The long-standing threat of right-wing extremists
    This threat appears to have been taken seriously by long-standing national security experts and scholars. But action against it was hindered under the Trump administration.

    Starting in 2017, federal funding for tackling white nationalist and other far right extremist activity was cut, including university research and non-profit deradicalisation organisations such as Life After Hate

    Last year, a whistleblower report from the Department of Homeland Security alleged senior intelligence officials were instructed to modify intelligence assessments to match Trump’s rhetoric and modify the section on White Supremacy in a manner that made the threat appear less severe.

    During 2020, diverse groups stormed state legislative buildings to evade covid-19 mitigation efforts and intimidate lawmakers at the behest of Trump.

    Despite these public signs of growing extremist violence, even some lawmakers appeared to be caught unaware by the Capitol insurrection. In an opinion piece just after the event, Republican Senator Susan Collins wrote she first assumed the attack was coming from Iran.

    Trump supporters breached the Capitol on January 6, claiming the election result was fradulent. Image: AAP/AP/ John Nacion/STAR MAX/IPx

    Trump has demonstrated that conspiracy theories can drive electoral and fundraising success. Having started his political campaign with the “birther” conspiracy theory, challenging the citizenship and eligibility of American-born Barack Obama, Trump also cast shadows over his Republican rivals, including Ted Cruz, by accusing Cruz’s father of being linked to the man who killed JFK.

    Similarly, Trump will end his administration on a conspiracy theory, one that has already cost five lives. Despite recent backlash from business leaders in America, Trump fundraised more than $200 million after election night on the basis of his refusal to concede defeat.

    Recent Congressional races have further demonstrated the success of Trump’s template. Holocaust-deniers in three states ran for office in 2018 (all as Republicans). Two of the newest members of Congress are members of QAnon, the inheritor of the “pizzagate” conspiracy theory, in which all who oppose Trump are deep state members of a international child sex trafficking cabal.

    The challenge ahead for Biden
    Where then, does this leave policy-making on national and global issues that require sober reflection and good judgement?

    Alternative facts have no place in good governance. Their purpose is only to destroy and divide. This is why disinformation has been pursued so aggressively by hostile foreign actors against the US, with Russian active measures detailed extensively by the Republican chaired Senate Intelligence Committee reports.

    Voter fraud, one of the key narratives of Russian efforts in election interference in 2016, has now become mainstreamed in the Republican base, with nearly half of respondents expressing doubt about Biden’s win.

    Public assurances by Republican secretaries of state have had limited impact, culminating in Trump’s taped conversation in which he asks the Georgia Secretary of state to “find” 11,000 votes for him (to win).

    Joe Biden should focus on repairing Americans’ frayed trust in institutions and rehabilitate America’s battered reputation. At the same time, he should lead with science and fact, most immediately in tackling the nation’s covid crisis.

    Joe Biden
    One of Joe Biden’s first priorities should be repairing trust in American institutions. Image: Matt Slocum/AAP/AP

    Where conspiracy theories go hand in hand with corruption (such as Trump soliciting an election official to tamper with results), state authorities should pursue charges. Where disinformation has proven lucrative, tools should be explored to remove financial rewards.

    For instance, non-profit organisations that participated in or fundraised what the Joint Chiefs of Staff declared as “sedition and insurrection” could be stripped of protective tax status.

    Some of these remedies lie firmly with Congress. Impeachment proceedings are already underway which could remove Trump’s ability to run in 2024. The 14th Amendment could be applied to expel or bar current office holders who participated in the insurrection from running for election again.

    Trump has recently condemned the violence done in his name. But he has not disavowed the rationale for it. His supporters within the Republican base, media and elected ranks continue to repeat his conspiracy theories on Fox “entertainment” shows, on AM radio, and now the halls of Congress.

    More than 100 US Representatives voted against certifying the ballots on which they themselves were elected.

    The next few years will see investigations, commissions and reports detailing the failures that led up to the Capitol attacks. Any delay in accountability could see even more lives lost to conspiracy theories and those who profit from them.The Conversation

    By Dr Jennifer S. Hunt, lecturer in national security, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Democracy Under Siege

    A mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, aiming to block the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. How did we get here? We examine President Donald Trump’s rhetoric over the last four years, as he stoked conspiracy theories, coddled White supremacists and laid the groundwork for inciting violence. 


    Don’t miss out on the next big story. Get the Weekly Reveal newsletter today.

    This post was originally published on Reveal.