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      Republican party calls January 6 attack ‘legitimate political discourse’

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      Republican party calls January 6 attack ‘legitimate political discourse’Party censures Cheney and Kinzinger, the only Republicans on the Capitol attack House panel, as Pence says ‘Trump is wrong’ In an extraordinary move, the Republican party officially said Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat and the deadly attack on the US Capitol were “legitimate political discourse”.Revealed: Trump reviewed draft order that authorized voting machines to be seizedRead moreA leading Democrat on the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection said historians would be “aghast”.The move by the Republican National Committee (RNC) came at its winter meetings in Salt Lake City on Friday, as part of the formal censure of Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, the only Republicans on the January 6 panel.A resolution approved unanimously said Cheney and Kinzinger were engaged in the “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse”.On January 6, 2021, two weeks before the inauguration of Joe Biden, the US Capitol in Washington was attacked by Trump supporters who the former president had told to “fight like hell” in service of his lie that his defeat was the result of electoral fraud.The Confederate battle flag was carried into the halls of Congress. Rioters smeared feces on walls. Property was stolen, windows smashed. Members of Congress were hurried to safety. Some rioters sought lawmakers to capture and possibly kill. Some chanted for the hanging of Mike Pence, Trump’s vice-president who resisted pressure to refuse to certify electoral college results.Seven people died. More than 100 police officers were hurt. More than 700 people have been charged. Eleven members of a far-right militia face charges of seditious conspiracy.Steve Bannon, a close Trump adviser, has pleaded not guilty to criminal contempt of Congress. Mark Meadows, Trump’s White House chief of staff, could face the same sanction.Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection but acquitted by Republican senators. He has repeatedly promised pardons for January 6 rioters if he is president again. He has openly stated that his goal was to “overturn” the election.Revelations concerning his involvement in events prior to and on January 6 keep coming.On Friday, the Guardian revealed that Trump personally reviewed a draft executive order concerning the seizure of voting machines in key states and came close to approving the appointment of Sidney Powell, a lawyer and conspiracy theorist, as a special counsel to investigate electoral fraud.CNN, meanwhile, reported that Trump spoke to Jim Jordan of Ohio, a leading ally House ally, for 10 minutes on the morning of January 6.What did Jim Jordan know about the insurrection and when did he know it? | Sidney BlumenthalRead moreWhat Jordan knew about the Capitol attack and when he knew it remains a central part of the House investigation. Jordan has refused to co-operate. Many expect him to play a prominent role in moves for vengeance should Republicans retake the House in November’s midterm elections.Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker and candidate for the presidential nomination now advising Republican leaders, has said the party could seek to jail members of the January 6 committee.Some establishment Republicans have stood up to Trump. Pence, who faces a difficult balancing act ahead of a likely presidential run in 2024, spoke on Friday at a Florida event staged by the conservative Federalist Society.“President Trump is wrong,” he said. “I had no right to overturn the election.”Pence also said: “The truth is there’s more at stake than our party or our political fortunes. If we lose faith in the constitution, we won’t just lose elections – we’ll lose our country.”Mitt Romney, meanwhile, was one of seven Republican senators who voted to impeach Trump in 2021 over the Capitol attack – and the only one to vote to convict in Trump’s first impeachment in 2019, over approaches to Ukraine for dirt on Biden. On Friday, the Utah senator condemned the decision to censure Cheney and Kinzinger.“Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol,” Romney wrote. “Honour attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost.”Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee for president, did not mention that the RNC chair, Ronna McDaniel, is his niece. McDaniel stopped using Romney in her name after Trump took power.Other Republicans in Congress, media reported, sought to avoid discussion of the RNC resolution. Democrats excoriated it. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a member of the January 6 committee who led Trump’s second impeachment, told the New York Times: “The Republican party is so off the deep end now that they are describing an attempted coup and a deadly insurrection as political expression.“It is a scandal that historians will be aghast at.”Rick Wilson, a former Republican strategist now part of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, said the resolution showed his old party was now a “cult”. Republicans, he said, “don’t get to retcon 1/6”.The RNC seems determined to try, though it has not yet gone further and kicked Cheney and Kinzinger out of the party, a goal of many Trump supporters.Kinzinger will leave Congress in November, among Republicans who voted for impeachment who have said they will retire.He said he had been censured for upholding his oath of office by a party which had “allowed conspiracies and toxic tribalism to hinder their ability to see clear-eyed”.Cheney, the daughter of the former congressman, defense secretary and vice-president Dick Cheney, faces a Trump-backed challenger endorsed by her own state party.She said: “The leaders of the Republican party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon January 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy.“I’m a constitutional conservative and I do not recognise those in my party who have abandoned the constitution to embrace Donald Trump. History will be their judge. I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic. No matter what.”McDaniel told the Washington Post: “We’ve had two members engage in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse. This has gone beyond their original intent. They are not sticking up for hard-working Republicans.”TopicsRepublicansUS Capitol attackUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Revealed: Trump reviewed draft order that authorized voting machines to be seized

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      Revealed: Trump reviewed draft order that authorized voting machines to be seized Then president, during contentious December 2020 meeting, also agreed to appoint Sidney Powell as special counsel to investigate fraud

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      Weeks after the 2020 election, Donald Trump reviewed a draft executive order that authorized the national guard to seize voting machines and verbally agreed to appoint Sidney Powell, a campaign lawyer and conspiracy theorist, as special counsel to investigate election fraud.Trump considered blanket pardon for Capitol insurrectionists – reportRead moreThe two previously unreported actions of the former president – which is certain to interest the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack and Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat – came during a contentious White House meeting on 18 December 2020.Trump never followed through with issuing a formal executive order authorizing the seizure of voting machines or appointing a special counsel. But four sources with detailed knowledge of what transpired during the 18 December meeting described to the Guardian how close he came to doing so.The draft executive order Trump reviewed was one of the final versions Powell had prepared. An early version of the document was published by Politico. Another version, obtained by CNN, empowered the Department of Homeland Security instead of the Department of Defense.But all versions included language that would have allowed Trump to appoint a special counsel to investigate claims of foreign interference in the 2020 election, which the Department of Justice had already determined were without foundation.The draft executive order seen by Trump was retained automatically by the White House as a presidential record. It was recently turned over to the select committee by the National Archives after the supreme court rejected Trump’s appeal to block its release.Trump was handed the document when he sat down with four informal advisers – Powell, Trump’s former national security advisor Michael Flynn, former Trump aide Emily Newman and former Overstock chief executive Patrick Byrne – who had arrived at the White House unannounced.The group had not scheduled an audience with Trump, but after Byrne messaged an acquaintance, they were cleared to enter the White House by Garrett Ziegler, a policy aide to former Trump advisor Peter Navarro, and Patrick Weaver, an aide with the National Security Council.It is understood that the four were not registered in the West Wing guest access system as meeting with the former president, which may have violated national security protocols.In a statement, Byrne said Trump had called the group into the Oval Office after he saw Flynn, his former national security adviser, with the rest of the group about 25ft from the room. Eric Herschmann, a White House senior adviser, slipped in behind them.Trump first reviewed the draft executive order and documents brought by Powell, including a physical copy of Trump’s executive order 13848 that authorized sweeping powers in the event of foreign election interference, as she ran through the supposed legality of suspending normal law.Powell and Newman told Trump that he could rely on that order and classified National Security Presidential Memoranda 13 and 21 – cyber-security memos referenced in Powell’s draft executive order – to have the national guard seize voting machines.That prompted pushback from the former White House counsel Patrick Cipollone, who had joined the meeting with former White House staff secretary, Derek Lyons, who supported Cipollone’s claim that Trump lacked the constitutional authority to take such measures.Byrne made another attempt to convince Trump to appoint Powell as special counsel and have Flynn act as “field marshal” to coordinate her efforts. The draft executive order said Flynn would be “direct liaison” to coordinate the “applicable US departments and agencies”.Byrne claimed Trump had a range of options. He could decide whether to investigate election fraud in six, 12 or 31 states; whether to “image” hard drives in voting machines or seize them; and whether to have that done by the national guard, DHS or the FBI.Trump appeared open to such advice. Late that Friday night, two of the sources said, he told Cipollone he would just make Powell special counsel. When Cipollone said Powell would need a security clearance, which he said was probably impossible, Trump said he would grant it.But after nearly all of Trump’s formal advisers shot down Powell’s suggestions, Trump did not sign the draft executive order. Instead, he instructed Powell to coordinate with his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, about seizing voting machines or appointing a special counsel.That posed a problem for Powell, who had been ejected from the Trump campaign’s legal team a few weeks beforehand at Giulaini’s behest.The group then tried again to cajole Trump into issuing some sort of executive order, since Trump still appeared intrigued. But when Trump summoned Giuliani, the former president’s attorney said the gambit would work only in the event of clear foreign interference.Powell, who had spent the previous weeks filing lawsuits alleging that Iran and China hacked into voting machines, sprang up and announced both to everyone in the room and a coterie of aides who had been dialled in on a conference call, that she had a file full of such evidence.Giuliani looked at the documents but told Trump that Powell’s evidence was worthless, accusing her of producing one witness who was willing to testify about foreign election interference and around 10 who had simply signed affidavits saying they agreed.Top advisers including Cipollone and Lyons have told associates they did not think the exchange about making Powell special counsel was serious. But Trump continued for days to mull the special counsel and voting machine ideas.A spokesperson for Trump and a spokesperson for Cipollone did not respond to requests for comment. Powell, Giuliani and Lyons did not respond either. A spokesman for the select committee declined to comment on how the meeting might feature in its investigation.Powell told associates she believed Trump made a decision to authorize her to be a special counsel of some nature. The following day, she called the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, saying she needed office space and a security clearance as the new special counsel.Meadows did not refute Powell’s claim but told her he was working on logistics, and then called Giuliani to tell him Powell was trying to secure another audience with Trump. Giuliani told Meadows that Trump had barred Powell from the White House.But while Meadows and other advisers had refused to grant Powell a “hard pass” that would have allowed her unfettered access to the complex, she returned to the White House on Sunday and Monday with documents on alleged Iranian threats to US election websites.Meadows had revoked Ziegler’s access to the system for permitting White House access but Powell was cleared on a temporary “appointment” pass by another aide. She was, however, blocked from meeting the former president.TopicsDonald TrumpRepublicansUS elections 2020US politicsUS Capitol attacknewsReuse this content More

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      Joe Biden on crime: ‘The answer is not to defund the police’ – live

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      Key events

      Show

      3.48pm EST

      15:48

      Russia plans ‘very graphic’ fake video as pretext for Ukraine invasion, US claims

      3.28pm EST

      15:28

      Trump Israel ambassador spills beans on embarrassing meeting

      1.48pm EST

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      ‘The answer is not to defund the police’ – Biden

      1.39pm EST

      13:39

      Joe Biden considering executive order to implement police reform – White House

      12.30pm EST

      12:30

      Today so far

      12.18pm EST

      12:18

      Russia plans staged attack to justify invasion of Ukraine – reports

      10.40am EST

      10:40

      Isis leader detonated bomb to avoid US capture, Biden says

      Live feed

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      4.37pm EST

      16:37

      The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, became similarly defensive earlier today when a reporter pressed for more details about the deaths of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi and his family members.
      Joe Biden said that Qurayshi detonated a bomb to avoid capture by the US troops who carried out a special forces raid last night, and the explosion killed the Islamic State leader and several of his family members.
      NPR reporter Ayesha Rascoe asked Psaki whether the White House would present evidence to substantiate Biden’s claims that a suicide bomb killed Qurayshi and his family.
      “Obviously, these events just happened overnight. And so, I’m going to let the Department of Defense do a final assessment, which I’m certain they will provide additional detail on once it’s finalized,” Psaki said.
      Rascoe continued to press the issue, telling Psaki, “The US has not always been straightforward about what happens with civilians. And, I mean, that is a fact.”
      The US military initially described a Kabul drone attack carried out last year as a “righteous strike,” but Pentagon leaders were later forced to admit that the attack had actually killed 10 civilians and no Islamic State combatants.
      “The president made clear from the beginning, at every point in this process, that doing everything possible to avoid civilian casualties was his priority and his preference,” Psaki said.
      “Given these events just happened less than 24 hours ago, we’re going to give [the Pentagon] time to make a final assessment. And they’ll provide every detail they can.”

      4.14pm EST

      16:14

      The State Department spokesperson, Ned Price, clashed with a reporter at his press briefing after the journalist demanded evidence to substantiate US claims of Russia’s plans to stage an attack to justify an invasion of Ukraine.
      “You’ve made an allegation that they might do that. Have they actually done it?” AP reporter Matt Lee asked Price.
      “What we know, Matt, is what I just said, that they have engaged in this activity,” Price said. “We told you a few weeks ago that we have information indicating Russia also has already pre-positioned a group of operatives to conduct a false-flag operation in eastern Ukraine. So that, Matt, to your question is an action that Russia has already taken.”

      The Hill
      (@thehill)
      Reporter: “It’s an action that you say they have taken, but you have shown no evidence to confirm that. […] This is like – crisis actors? Really? This is like Alex Jones territory you’re getting into now.”Must-watch exchange between @APDiploWriter Matt Lee and @StateDeptSpox. pic.twitter.com/RPIPb2zwf5

      February 3, 2022

      Lee pointed out that the administration has not presented evidence to support the allegation of a planned false-flag operation either, and he pressed for concrete proof of Russia’s schemes in Ukraine.
      Specifically on the allegation of a planned fake video to justify an invasion, Lee said, “This is like – crisis actors? Really? This is like Alex Jones territory you’re getting into now.”
      Pointing to his decades of experience covering US foreign policy, Lee noted that the Pentagon has previously made wrong assertions about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the potential of Kabul falling to the Taliban.
      Price became defensive, telling Lee, “If you doubt the credibility of the US government, of the British government, of other governments and want to, you know, find solace in information that the Russians are putting out, that is for you to do.”

      3.48pm EST

      15:48

      Russia plans ‘very graphic’ fake video as pretext for Ukraine invasion, US claims

      The Guardian’s Julian Borger and Shaun Walker report:
      US officials claim they have evidence of a Russian plan to make a “very graphic” fake video of a Ukrainian attack as a pretext for an invasion.
      The alleged plot would involve using corpses, footage of blown-up buildings, fake Ukrainian military hardware, Turkish-made drones and actors playing the part of Russian-speaking mourners.
      “We don’t know definitively that this is the route they are going to take, but we know that this is an option under consideration,” the deputy national security adviser, Jonathan Finer, told MSNBC, adding that the video “would involve actors playing mourners for people who are killed in an event that they would have created themselves”.
      Finer added: “That would involve the deployment of corpses to represent bodies purportedly killed, of people purportedly killed in an incident like this.”
      The Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, said the video would have purported to show a Ukrainian attack on Russian territory or Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine and would be “very graphic”. He added that the US believed that the plan had the backing of the Kremlin.
      “Our experience is that very little of this nature is not approved at the highest levels of the Russian government,” Kirby said.

      3.28pm EST

      15:28

      Trump Israel ambassador spills beans on embarrassing meeting

      Martin Pengelly

      Meeting then-Israeli president Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem in May 2017, Donald Trump stunned advisers by criticising the then-prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for being unwilling to seek peace while Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, was “desperate” for a deal. More

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      Trump charges $250,000 for midterms forum – to boost his own Super Pac

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      Trump charges $250,000 for midterms forum – to boost his own Super PacFebruary event notionally focused on 2022 midterms Former president has amassed huge war chest of $122m Donald Trump will charge top-paying guests $250,000 to attend a “Take Back Congress Candidate Forum” at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida this month – with proceeds going to his own Super Pac, rather than Republicans who will actually try to take back Congress.Nor is the top price tag, which guarantees a private dinner and picture with Trump as well as VIP seating at the forum, necessarily the full cost for any couple who chooses to pay it. On Twitter on Wednesday, the New York Times reporter and Trump watcher Maggie Haberman said: “$250k lets you pay for a Mar-a-Lago guest room.”Trump and his enablers unwittingly offer Democrats the best hope in the midterms | Robert ReichRead moreFurther down the menu, a couple paying $100,000 will get a photo with Trump and seating at a private dinner with endorsed candidates, with comments from Trump. For $50,000, guests will get the dinner and the Trump comments, but a picture only with “endorsed candidates”.Price tags descend to $5,000 per couple, for attendance – but presumably less than primo seating – at the dinner with comments from Trump.Emphasising Trump’s grip on the Republican party, Haberman pointed out that the former president “is spending almost no money on other Republicans so far. But he’s trying to raise for his group using congressional Republicans.”The Mar-a-Lago event is notionally aimed at the midterm elections in November this year, when Republicans are favoured to take back the House and possibly the Senate.A House takeover would see Trump well positioned to dictate to loyalists in party leadership, under Kevin McCarthy, the current minority leader.They are expected to pursue aggressive investigations of the Biden administration including a revenge impeachment and even, should the former speaker and McCarthy adviser Newt Gingrich be believed, the attempted jailing of members of the committee currently investigating the January 6 insurrection.Trump has his eyes on the 2024 presidential election, when he has strongly hinted he will run for the White House again.At a rally in Texas last week, he promised to pardon January 6 rioters and urged supporters to stage huge protests against prosecutors in New York and Georgia investigating his business affairs and election subversion.Trump has amassed a huge campaign war chest, of $122m.In a statement this week, spokesman Taylor Budowuch said the former president had “built a political organisation that continues to capture and define the future of the Republican party.“There is no question that the Make America Great Again (Maga!) wave is set to crash across the midterms and carry forward all the way through 2024.”But Trump’s leadership committee, Save America, this week declared donations of just $205,000 to endorsed candidates in the second half of 2021 – $45,000 less than the tag for a top-priced ticket to the dinner and forum at Mar-a-Lago on 23 February (not including guest room).CNN also reported that Trump’s Make America Great Again, Again! committee has spent around $1.7m on legal expenses as Trump fights investigations and congressional oversight. It has been widely reported that the Republican National Committee has helped to pay Trump’s legal bills.Trump’s Super Pac includes among its officers Pam Bondi, a former attorney general of Florida to whom Trump once controversially donated; the former ambassador to Germany and controversial former acting director of national intelligence Ric Grenell; and Matt Whitaker, briefly and controversially acting attorney general in the Trump administration.Kimberley Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr’s fiancee, is national finance chair.TopicsDonald TrumpRepublicansUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Trump and his enablers unwittingly offer Democrats the best hope in the midterms | Robert Reich

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      Trump and his enablers unwittingly offer Democrats their best hope in the midtermsRobert ReichThe former president and his allies may doom the Republicans by reminding the public of their attempted coup The midterm elections are just over nine months away. What will Democrats run on? What will Republicans run on?Trump reportedly directed Giuliani to press officials to seize voting machinesRead moreOne hint came at a Houston-area Trump rally Saturday night. “If I run and if I win,” the former guy said, referring to 2024, “we will treat those people from January 6th fairly.” He then added, “and if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons, because they are being treated so unfairly.”Trump went on to demand “the biggest protest we have ever had” if federal prosecutors in Washington or in New York and Atlanta, where cases against him are moving forward, “do anything wrong or illegal”. He then called the federal prosecutors “vicious, horrible people” who are “not after me, they’re after you”.Trump’s hint of pardons for those who attacked the Capitol could affect the criminal prosecution of hundreds now facing conspiracy, obstruction and assault charges, which carry sentences that could put them away for years. If they think Trump will pardon them, they might be less willing to negotiate with prosecutors and accept plea deals.His comments could also be interpreted as a call for violence if various legal cases against him lead to indictments.But if Trump keeps at it – and of course he will – he’ll help the Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections by reminding the public of the attempted coup he and his Republican co-conspirators tried to pull off between the 2020 election and January 6. That would make the midterm election less of a referendum on Biden than on the Republican party. (Don’t get me wrong. I think Biden is doing a good job, given the hand he was dealt. But Republicans are doing an even better job battering him – as his sinking poll numbers show.)Last week, Newt Gingrich, who served as House speaker from 1995 to 1999, suggested that members of the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol should face jail time if the Republican party returns to power. “The wolves are gonna find out that they’re now sheep, and they’re the ones who – in fact, I think – face a real risk of jail for the kind of laws they’re breaking,” Gingrich said on Fox News.Gingrich’s remark prompted Representative Liz Cheney, Wyoming Republican and vice-chair of the select committee, to respond: “A former speaker of the House is threatening jail time for members of Congress who are investigating the violent January 6 attack on our Capitol and our constitution. This is what it looks like when the rule of law unravels.”Trump and Gingrich are complicating the midterm elections prospects for all Republicans running or seeking reelection nine months from now.Many Republican leaders believe they don’t need to offer the public any agenda for the midterms because of widespread frustration with Biden and the Democrats. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, recently asked what the Republican party’s agenda would be if it recaptured Congress, quipped “I’ll let you know when we take it back.”But if Republicans fail to offer an agenda, the Republican party’s midterm message is even more likely to be defined by Trump and Trumpers like Gingrich: the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen along with promises to pardon the January 6 defendants, jail members of the select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol, and other bonkers claims and promises.This would spell trouble for the GOP, because most Americans don’t believe the big lie and remain appalled by the attack on the Capitol.House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (who phoned Trump during the attack on the Capitol but refuses to cooperate with the House’s January 6 committee investigation) will have a central role in defining the Republican message for the midterms. And whom has McCarthy been consulting with? None other than Newt Gingrich. The two have been friends for years and McCarthy’s chief of staff in his leadership office, Dan Meyer, served in the same role for Gingrich when he was the speaker.McCarthy knows Gingrich is a master huckster. After all, in 1994 Gingrich delivered a House majority for the Republicans for the first time in 40 years by promising a “contract with America” that amounted to little more than trickle-down economics and state’s rights.But like most hucksters, Gingrich suffered a spectacular fall. In 1997 House members overwhelmingly voted to reprimand him for flouting federal tax laws and misleading congressional investigators about it – making him the first speaker panned for unethical behavior. The disgraced leader, who admitted to the ethical lapse as part of a deal to quash inquiries into other suspect activities, also had to pay a historic $300,000 penalty. Then, following a surprise loss of Republican House seats in the 1998 midterm election, Gingrich stepped down as speaker. He resigned from Congress in January 1999 and hasn’t held elected office since.I’ve talked with Gingrich several times since then. I always come away with the impression of a military general in an age where bombast and explosive ideas are more potent than bombs. Since he lost the House, Gingrich has spent most of his time and energy trying to persuade other Republicans that he alone possesses the strategy and the ideas entitling him to be the new general of the Republican right.Gingrich has no scruples, which is why he has allied himself with Trump and Trump’s big lie – appearing regularly on Fox News to say the 2020 election was rigged and mouth off other Trumpish absurdities (such as last week’s claim that members of the House select committee should be jailed).Gingrich likes to think of himself as a revolutionary force, but he behaves more like a naughty boy. When he was Speaker, his House office was adorned with figurines of dinosaurs, as you might find in the bedrooms of little boys who dream of becoming huge and powerful. Gingrich can be mean, but his meanness is that of a nasty kid rather than a tyrant. And like all nasty kids, inside is an insecure little fellow who desperately wants attention.Still, as of now, the best hope for Democrats in the midterms lies with Trump, Gingrich and others who loudly and repeatedly remind the public how utterly contemptible the Republican party has become.
      Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
      TopicsDonald TrumpNewt GingrichRepublicansDemocratsUS politicscommentReuse this content More

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      Republicans to field more than 100 far-right candidates this year

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      Republicans to field more than 100 far-right candidates this yearAnti-Defamation League list includes at least a dozen with links to white supremacists, anti-government extremists and Proud Boys More than 100 far-right candidates are running for political office across the country as Republicans this year according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a non-profit that monitors hate groups.Aside from those expressing extremist rhetoric and far-right views, the ADL has found at least a dozen of the candidates had explicit connections to ‘“white supremacists, anti-government extremists and members of the far-right Proud Boys”. It includes primary challengers running to the right of some sitting Republicans.‘The most dangerous man in Congress’: how Paul Gosar became a darling of the far rightRead moreIn Arkansas’s third district Neil Kumar, who the ADL found has written for white supremacist publications, is challenging the incumbent congressman, Steve Womack, who broke with Republicans in voting in favor of creating the January 6 commission to investigate the Capitol attack. The openly racist views of Kumar prompted the Arkansas state Republican party to take the unusual step of declaring him a “non-recommended candidate” in the upcoming primary.The wave of far-right candidates includes sitting legislators like the Arizona state senator Wendy Rogers, who has admitted to being a member of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia with 11 members currently under federal indictment for seditious conspiracy.Other militia groups have candidates running or already in local office. The Washington Three Percent militia claims members in dozens of elected offices throughout the Pacific north-west, the Washington Post found, “including a mayor, a county commissioner and at least five school board seats”.In Idaho the far-right anti-government activist Ammon Bundy – who led an armed standoff against federal agents at Malheur wildlife refuge in 2014 – is running for the governor’s office. Bundy’s group, the People’s Rights network, has now increased its national membership to 33,000 members and has at least 398 activists in 39 states, according to a report by Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights.Many far-right candidates have no direct links to violent extremist groups, but do support a range of far-right views. The ADL tracked at least 45 candidates running for office this year that have “lent credence in some way” to the QAnon conspiracy theory movement. Many more hold on to Donald Trump’s “big lie” – the false belief that the 2020 election was stolen.Nationwide there are 207 current elected officials who aided former president Trump in efforts to overturn the 2020, according to data compiled by the Insurrection Index, a project of the voting rights group Public Wise. The index includes senators like Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, who voted against certifying the 2020 election and spread misinformation including suggesting that the January 6 attack was carried out by “fake Trump voters”.While many candidates are seeking local or national legislative seats, some are purposely running for bureaucratic offices whose chief responsibility is to certify elections. Thirty are standing in contests for attorney general, according to tracking by the States United Democracy Center, a non-partisan group that monitors election races nationwide.Fringe political candidates are a part of every US election cycle, but while these 2022 candidates hold far-right views they are also part of a wave within the Republican party that is no longer fringe but increasingly represents a powerful – even dominant – wing in the party.“The real danger is not just the wave of extreme candidates, it’s their embrace, their mainstreaming by the Republican party,” said Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard University and the co-author of How Democracies Die. “The United States has always had nutty, extremist, authoritarian politicians around the fringe. What is new and really dangerous for democracy is that they’re increasingly running as Republican candidates.”Levitsky added: “At first you had a flirtation and tolerance with a handful of extremists at the fringes. We’re now seeing an army of extremists embraced by the former president. They’re marching in and taking over the Republican party at the state and local level.”In Oregon, Daniel Tooze, a prominent associate of the Proud Boys who has participated in street brawls with anti-fascists in Portland, is running for Oregon’s state legislature in the 40th district. Tooze ran for the same seat in 2020, failing to secure the Republican nomination in the primary, but he received 40% of the Republican vote in the primary. This year Tooze is the only Republican who has filed to run again.“When mainstream parties take onboard figures who deny the legitimacy of elections, refuse to accept electoral defeat, condone or even engage in political violence, you are putting democracy at risk,” said Levitsky.Tooze declined to be interviewed for this article but stated in correspondence: “I’m just a regular guy.”A review of Tooze’s campaign website and filing statement show no mention of affiliation with the Proud Boys. Tooze campaign messaging uses the language of mainstream Republican talking points. The Guardian has previously reported on far-right groups shifting their focus to local communities. Since the Capitol attack members of groups such as the Proud Boys have shown up to local venues including school board meetings to stand alongside mainstream conservatives, especially around issues such as Covid-19 restrictions.This month Tooze tweeted a video of Thomas Renz, a far-right anti-vaccine influencer, speaking at a panel convened by Senator Johnson that promoted misleading information about Covid-19 and vaccines. The video of Renz went viral in alt-tech platforms but also within mainstream social media. Tooze wrote of the video: “It’s time to hold the government accountable for what they’ve done to the people.”TopicsThe far rightRepublicansUS politicsUS midterm elections 2022newsReuse this content More