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      Trump ally vows to block ‘the left’ from overseeing key Georgia elections

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      Trump ally vows to block ‘the left’ from overseeing key Georgia electionsFormer senator David Perdue, now running for Georgia governor, repeats false election fraud claims on campaign trail A Republican candidate for governor in Georgia has said he would not let “any of the left” run elections in his state, adding repeatedly that it would happen “over my dead body” and underscoring the violent tone that has come to shape discourse around democracy in America.Former Senator David Perdue railed against his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, in a video of a speech given on 4 February in Fayette county. Abrams, a voting rights activist, would be the first Black governor in the state’s history if elected. Perdue, who has been endorsed by Donald Trump, told his supporters: “My vision for Georgia is this: over my dead body would I ever, ever turn an election process over to Stacey Abrams or any of that woke mob ever again.”At another campaign event in Alpharetta, Georgia, Perdue repeated the “over my dead body” line,saying: “Over my dead body will we ever turn over an election to any of the left that we saw happening in 2020.”The Purdue campaign did not respond to a Guardian request for comment.The Georgia governor’s race is among the most closely-watched elections this year and a likely key battleground in the upcoming 2024 election. It played a vital role in president Joe Biden’s 2020 victory as he flipped the state, and it was also crucial to winning Democratic control of the senate when the party won two run-off elections there.That outsized role has seen Georgia become a ground zero for the national fight over voting rights and for Republicans’ baseless claims that the state’s election process was somehow fraudulent. It has also sparked a fierce fight for the office of the secretary of state, which helps run Georgia’s elections. The seat is currently held by Republican Brad Raffensperger. Perdue is one of 51 election deniers running for governor in 24 states, according to tracking by the States United Action , a non-partisan organization that monitors elections.Perdue lost his Senate seat in a runoff to Democrat John Ossoff last January. Now Perdue is running in the Republican primary against the incumbent Republican governor, Brian Kemp, who earned Trump’s ire after certifying Georgia’s election results, a process he was legally bound to uphold as governor.Perdue has earned Trump’s endorsement by expressing fierce loyalty and echoing the former president’s baseless claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election. In December Perdue went further and told Axios he wouldn’t have certified the state’s 2020 election results if he had been governor at the time.The same month, Perdue joined a lawsuit in Fulton county, Georgia, reviving unfounded allegations of voter fraud and seeking to review absentee ballots that he claimed would prove Trump won the 2020 election.Several recounts of the presidential vote affirmed Biden’s victory in Georgia. Raffensperger had also resisted pressure by Trump in an hour-long phone call in 2020 to “find” enough votes to overturn the election. Trump has now endorsed Raffensperger’s Republican opponent for secretary of state.Perdue is promising voters that if elected he will create “an election law enforcement division of the Georgia bureau of investigation”, the state’s criminal investigation agency, to ensure that only legal votes are counted.Trump falsely claimed 5,000 dead people voted in 2020 in Georgia, but a state review found only four cases of dead people voting. Perdue is already outlining how he would change the way elections are certified if he was elected. “I believe that before you can certify an election, whether it’s a president or a US senator, or a statewide basis, you have to have an outside third-party entity audit the results. Not the secretary of state,” Perdue told voters in Fayette, adding that he believed allowing the secretary of state to certify and audit elections was “sort of like you grading your own homework”.Perdue’s use of violent rhetoric comes on the heels of an unprecedented campaign of intimidation against election officials. A Reuters investigation found more 100 threats of death or violence to US election workers.It also comes as the Republican party increasingly embraces Trump’s “big lie” of a fraudulent election. In a recent poll only 21% of Republicans said they believed Joe Biden’s election was “legitimate”.Last week the RNC voted to declare the January 6 attack “legitimate political discourse’ and censured the Republican representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for participating in the House’s investigation into the attack.TopicsUS politicsRepublicansStacey AbramsGeorgianewsReuse this content More

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      ‘Gazpacho police’: Nazi gaffe lands Republican congresswoman in the soup

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      ‘Gazpacho police’: Nazi gaffe lands Republican congresswoman in the soupMarjorie Taylor Greene appears to confuse Hitler’s secret police with popular Spanish cold tomato soup The extremist Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene triggered a wave of viral jokes on Wednesday after ranting about the “gazpacho police” patrolling the Capitol building in Washington DC.Greene was apparently mixing up the famously cold Spanish soup gazpacho with the Gestapo – the brutal Nazi-era secret police in Germany.Marjorie Taylor Greene apologizes for comparing House mask rule to the HolocaustRead moreThe Georgia congresswoman has made numerous bigoted statements and her spreading of Covid misinformation has seen her ousted from Twitter. She made the most recent comments in an interview on Real America with Dan Ball, produced by the rightwing One America News Network television channel.“Not only do we have the DC jail which is the DC gulag, but now we have Nancy Pelosi’s gazpacho police spying on members of Congress, spying on the legislative work that we do, spying on our staff and spying on American citizens,” she said, referring to the Democratic speaker of the House.Greene did not explain why she thought Pelosi would form a police force inspired by gazpacho soup, nor why it would then carry out such extensive surveillance at the heart of American democracy.Predictably, Greene’s apparent gaffe prompted a wave of internet hilarity and jokes.“Gazpacho is a cold tomato soup. Gestapo is the Nazi police force. Neither of these things are right,” tweeted political journalist Jake Sherman.“How dare MTG blame Gazpacho, when we all know that Vichyssoise Violence is the real culprit,” quipped podcast host Emily Brandwin.Sarakshi Rai, a senior journalist at the Hill, added: “I was wondering why everybody in DC was tweeting about gazpacho and now I’m just craving some for dinner.”TopicsRepublicansUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Mitch McConnell rebukes RNC for censuring party members investigating ‘violent insurrection’

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      Mitch McConnell rebukes RNC for censuring party members investigating ‘violent insurrection’The Republican National Committee chastised Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, irking the Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell criticized the Republican National Committee for censuring Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger over their work for the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol, which he characterized as a “violent insurrection”.The Senate minority leader said it was not the party’s place to single out members over their views. Speaking with reporters outside Senate Republicans’ closed-door weekly lunch, McConnell rebuked the RNC for its characterization of the deadly riot at the Capitol as “legitimate political discourse”.“Let me give you my view of what happened on 6 January,” McConnell said. “It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next.”.@LeaderMcConnell on RNC censure of Reps. Cheney and Kinzinger: “The issue is whether or not the RNC should be sort of singling out members of our party who may have different views from the majority. That’s not the job of the RNC.” pic.twitter.com/BMCmRYrjV5— CSPAN (@cspan) February 8, 2022
      Asked whether he had confidence in the leadership of the RNC chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, who supported the censure resolution, McConnell said he did.“But the issue is whether or not the RNC should be sort of singling out members of our party who may have different views from the majority,” McConnell said. “That’s not the job of the RNC.”His use of the word “insurrection” – the act of rising up against established authority – is significant. Many in his party have insisted that it was not an insurrection, downplaying the attack or trying to portray it as a peaceful protest.A few prominent Republicans have pushed against the RNC’s decision to censure the two GOP members of the House committee investigating the attack. Mitt Romney, a Republican senator of Utah and McDaniel’s uncle, told reporters that the censure “could not have been a more inappropriate” message from the party.McConnell, who blocked initial efforts to create an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 attack, has signaled that he sees the party’s focus on defending Donald Trump and the insurrection his supporters staged following the 2020 elections as a distraction. He and some fellow Republican lawmakers have aimed to shift the focus to the midterm elections this year.Maine senator Susan Collins said rioters who “broke windows and breached the Capitol were not engaged in legitimate political discourse” and characterized time “spent re-litigating a lost election or defending those who have been convicted of criminal behavior” as a wasted opportunity to focus on the midterms when the Republicans have a chance to re-take a majority in congress.But other Republicans have stood by the RNC’s move, with House minority leader Kevin McCarthy telling CNN that the censure was meant to condemn the committee’s questioning of conservatives “who weren’t even here” when the attack occurred.The Associated Press contributed reportingTopicsUS Capitol attackUS SenateRepublicansUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Romney won’t criticise niece for calling Trump lies and Capitol riot ‘legitimate political discourse’

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      Romney won’t criticise niece for calling Trump lies and Capitol riot ‘legitimate political discourse’Senator says he has texted with ‘terrific’ Ronna McDaniel, RNC chair who oversaw censure of Cheney and Kinzinger Mitt Romney and his niece, Ronna McDaniel, exchanged texts after the Republican National Committee she chairs called Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his election defeat and the Capitol riot “legitimate political discourse”.Trump’s incendiary Texas speech may have deepened his legal troubles, experts sayRead moreRomney, the Utah senator, 2012 presidential nominee and only Republican to twice vote to convict Trump at his impeachment trials, told reporters on Monday he “expressed his point of view”.The RNC used the controversial language in censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the only Republicans on the House committee investigating January 6.Romney was one of few Republicans to scorn the move, saying: “Shame falls on a party that would censure persons of conscience, who seek truth in the face of vitriol. Honor attaches to Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for seeking truth even when doing so comes at great personal cost.”But he did not mention his personal connection to McDaniel, who stopped using “Romney” in her name after Trump took over her party – according to the Washington Post, at Trump’s request.Romney also said the censure “could not have been a more inappropriate message … so far from accurate as to shock and to make people wonder what we’re thinking”.On Monday, he told reporters he and his niece had since “exchanged some texts”.“I expressed my point of view,” he said. “I think she’s a wonderful person and doing her very best.”He also said McDaniel was “terrific”.Amid criticism, McDaniel claimed “legitimate political discourse” pursued by Trump supporters in service of his lie that his defeat was the result of electoral fraud “had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol” – language not in the formal censure.She also said she had “repeatedly condemned violence on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, this committee has gone well beyond the scope of the events of that day.”That day, 6 January 2021, Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol – after Trump told them to “fight like hell” – did so in an attempt to stop the vice-president, Mike Pence, certifying electoral college results.Seven people died, more than 100 police officers were hurt and more than 700 people face charges. Eleven members of a far-right militia are charged with seditious conspiracy.Trump has promised pardons for rioters if he is elected again and admitted his aim was to overturn the election.On Friday, Pence reflected prevailing opinion among constitutional scholars when he said Trump was “wrong. I had no right to overturn the election.”Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who led Trump’s impeachment for inciting the insurrection and who sits on the 6 January committee, said: “It’s official. Lincoln’s party of ‘liberty and union’ is now Trump’s party of violence and disunion.“His cultists just called sedition, beating up cops and a coup ‘legitimate political discourse’. They censured Cheney and Kinzinger for not bowing to the orange autocrat. Disgrace.”TopicsMitt RomneyRepublicansUS politicsUS Capitol attackDonald TrumpUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesnewsReuse this content More

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      Peter Thiel, PayPal founder and Trump ally, to step down from Meta board

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      Peter Thiel, PayPal founder and Trump ally, to step down from Meta boardThiel, a major donor to the Republican party, was seen by critics as part of the reason why Facebook did not censor Trump Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, is stepping down from the board of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, after 17 years.Finally, Facebook can say it’s not the most toxic social network | Marina HydeRead moreThiel, Facebook’s longest-serving board member and a major donor to the Republican party, plans to focus on backing Donald Trump’s allies in the November midterm elections, according to the New York Times. He recently donated $10m each to the Senate campaigns of Blake Masters, who is running for a seat in Arizona, and JD Vance, who is running in Ohio. Masters is the chief operating officer of Thiel’s family office and Vance used to work at one of Thiel’s venture funds.Thiel has long been a controversial figure on Facebook’s 10-person board, particularly as one of a few major tech figures who vocally supported Trump. Thiel, who donated millions of dollars to Trump’s campaign and served on the ex-president’s transition team, was seen by critics as a part of the reason Facebook did not take down Trump’s posts that violated its community standards. Thiel is a close confidant of Zuckerberg’s. He accompanied him to a private dinner with Trump in 2019 and has successfully advocated he withstand pressure to take political speech and ads off the platform.But recently he has publicly criticized Facebook’s content moderation decisions, saying he’d “take QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theories any day over a Ministry of Truth”.Thiel joined Facebook’s board in 2005, a year after the company was founded and seven years before its made its debut on Wall Street. The company said on Monday that he would stay on until Meta’s next shareholder meeting later this year, where he would not stand for re-election.“Peter has been a valuable member of our board and I’m deeply grateful for everything he’s done for our company,” said Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Meta, in a statement. “Peter is truly an original thinker who you can bring your hardest problems and get unique suggestions.”In a statement on Monday, Thiel called Zuckerberg “one of the great entrepreneurs of our time” and praised his “intelligence, energy and conscientiousness”.The Associated Press and Reuters contributed reporting.TopicsFacebookMetaSocial networkingPeter ThielRepublicansDonald TrumpUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Governor Glenn Youngkin accused of ‘toxic culture’ after aides attack teen on Twitter

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      Governor Glenn Youngkin accused of ‘toxic culture’ after aides attack teen on TwitterYoungkin’s campaign named and posted photo of Ethan Lynne, 17, on Twitter after he criticized the Republican The Virginia governor, Glenn Youngkin, was accused of creating “a culture of toxicity” in his first months in office, after campaign aides attacked a high-school student, naming and picturing the boy, for sharing a news story about the Republican official.On Saturday, Ethan Lynne, 17 and according to his Twitter biography a Democrat, posted an article which suggested Youngkin could be trying to stop work to highlight the history of enslaved people at the Virginia executive mansion.In response, Youngkin’s campaign account posted a picture of Lynne with the former governor Ralph Northam, next to a picture from Northam’s medical school yearbook of two men in racist costumes: one in Blackface and one in a Ku Klux Klan costume.“Here’s a picture of Ethan with a man that had a Blackface/KKK photo in his yearbook,” Team Youngkin tweeted.In 2019, Northam admitted being one of the men in the photograph, an admission he later recanted.Glenn Youngkin’s campaign Twitter account attacked a Hanover County high school student, @ethanclynne, last night after he shared my story. The Tweet was deleted after blowback and I’ve asked Youngkin’s team for an explanation. Ethan says he hasn’t heard anything from them. pic.twitter.com/YWMmLCOQys— Ben Paviour (@BPaves) February 6, 2022
      Virginia governors cannot serve consecutive terms. Youngkin beat the Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a former governor, in a bitter 2021 election in which the Republican made teaching about race and racism in US history a key campaign issue.Amid outrage at an attack on a minor, the Team Youngkin tweet was deleted.Speaking to the Washington Post, Lynne said: “A governor’s campaign account has attacked a minor – to me that was a new low … it was up for over 12 hours. I received no apology, no communication, nothing.”On Monday, Youngkin said: “On Saturday night, an unauthorized tweet came from a campaign account. I regret that this happened and it shouldn’t have. I have addressed it with my team. We must continue to work to bring Virginians together. There is so much more that unites us than divides us.”Lynne said: “While he acknowledged the situation, Governor Youngkin did not apologize and did not condemn what happened over the weekend. I still hope he does, and that he will take time to recognize the culture of toxicity he has created within his first month of office.”A Youngkin campaign spokesman, Matt Wolking, said the tweet was deleted when it was realised Lynne was a minor.Lynne’s Twitter biography reads: “Virginian. HS Senior. Democrat.”“It was brought to [our] attention that this Democrat party official repeatedly elevated by [state] senator Louise Lucas as a source of official Democrat party communications is actually a minor, so the tweet was removed,” Wolking said.The article Lynne posted was from VPM, a public radio station in Richmond, the state capital. It alleged Youngkin was converting a classroom in the executive mansion, used to educate on ties between the building and slavery, into a family room.The article also said an archeologist and historian who worked with the two previous governors had her office cleaned out.Lynne tweeted: “NEW: The historian tasked with teaching about slavery at the Virginia Governors Mansion just resigned after finding Youngkin converted her classroom into a family room – and emptied her office.”He added: “Shameful.”Corrections were later posted, saying Youngkin had not converted the classroom and the historian had resigned, but did seem to have had her office cleaned out. Lynne retweeted the correction. Nonetheless, the Youngkin campaign team attacked. Lynne said he did not notice their tweet for hours.“In school, we are taught how to spot bullying, and their tweet last night perfectly fit that description,” Lynne wrote on Sunday, also thanking people who offered support.“It is disgusting, disturbing, and unbecoming of the commonwealth to see the governor and his office stoop this low, especially on a public platform.”TopicsVirginiaUS politicsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      ‘Let’s do it’: John McCain knew Palin VP pick was a huge gamble, new book says

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      ‘Let’s do it’: John McCain knew Palin VP pick was a huge gamble, new book saysReporter says 2008 Republican nominee mimed rolling dice and said ‘Fuck it’ before picking hard-right Trump precursor Deciding to pick the inexperienced and extreme Sarah Palin as his running mate – a choice many say facilitated the rise of Donald Trump, threatening US democracy itself – John McCain mimed rolling a pair of dice and said: “Fuck it. Let’s do it.”Reuse this content More