Republicans

Subterms

    More stories

    • 175 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘It’s time to take action’: faith leaders urge Biden to pass voting rights legislation

      by

      ‘It’s time to take action’: faith leaders urge Biden to pass voting rights legislationA letter organized by Martin Luther King III and his wife comes after Republicans successfully filibustered bills four times this year More than 800 faith leaders have called on the Biden administration and Senate Democrats to pass voting rights legislation next year.“We cannot be clearer, you must act now to protect every American’s freedom to vote without interference and with confidence that their ballot will be counted and honored. Passing comprehensive voting rights legislation must be the number-one priority of the administration and Congress,” faith leaders said in a letter addressed to the president and Senate members on Wednesday.The letter, organized by Martin Luther King III and his wife, Arndrea Waters King, was signed by various faith organizations, including the African American Christian Clergy Coalition, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action and Faith in Public Life.Signatories include those who come from Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities, including Reverend Canon Leonard L Hamlin Sr of the Washington National Cathedral and Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg of National Council of Jewish Women.“The communities we represent will continue to sound the alarm until these bills are passed. While we come from different faiths, we are united by our commitment to act in solidarity with the most vulnerable among us,” the letter added.The letter comes after Republicans successfully filibustered voting rights bills on four different occasions this year. Most recently, on 3 November, Republicans in the Senate blocked the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Acts – one of two major pieces of voting rights legislation that Democrats have championed in Congress in attempts to prevent Republicans from eroding easy access to the vote.Republicans blocking the key voting rights bill in November was a move seen by many as a breaking point in the push to eliminate the filibuster, the Senate rule that requires 60 votes to advance most legislation.Despite numerous Democrats calling for the elimination of the filibuster, they lack the votes to end the rule due to not only a slim majority but also opposition within their own party. Two Democrats, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, are strongly opposed, arguing that the rule forges bipartisan compromise.Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, described the filibuster on 3 November as a “low, low point in the history of this body”.In Wednesday’s letter, faith leaders said, “Nothing – including the filibuster – should stand in the way of passing the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, both of which have already passed the House and await Senate action and leadership.”According to a tally by the Brennan Center for Justice, nineteen states have enacted nearly three dozen laws between January and the end of September that make it more difficult to vote.Wednesday’s letter is a reflection of the growing pressure on Democrats to pass voting rights legislation that aims to outlaw excessive partisan gerrymandering and would require early voting, no-excuse mail-in voting, in addition to automatic and same-day registration.“It’s time to stop lamenting the state of our democracy and take action to address it,” the letter said.TopicsUS voting rightsBiden administrationMartin Luther KingRepublicansUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in US Politics

      Republicans woo Joe Manchin as senator clashes with Democrats

      by

      Republicans woo Joe Manchin as senator clashes with DemocratsCentrist senator has rejected the idea of joining GOP but has indicated openness to being an independent For many Democrats, Joe Manchin has become an unshakeable problem. The centrist senator is at odds with other Democrats on everything from filibuster reform to climate policy, and he recently announced his opposition to the Build Back Better Act, the lynchpin of Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.But Republicans think Manchin now represents an opportunity to boost their numbers.As Democrats have leveled fierce criticism at the West Virginia senator in the past few days, Republicans have resurrected their campaign to recruit him to their party.The stakes of this charm offensive could not be higher. With the Senate split 50-50, Manchin’s party change would give Republicans the majority. If Republicans take control of the Senate, they would have the ability to block Biden’s nominees and quash Democratic bills.Speaking to the New York Times on Tuesday, the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, reiterated his invitiation to Manchin to join the Republican caucus. “Obviously we would love to have him on our team,” McConnell said. “I think he’d be more comfortable.”Why the collapse of Biden’s Build Back Better would be a major blow to the climate fightRead moreThe Republican senator John Cornyn said he also texted Manchin on Tuesday to tell him: “Joe, if they don’t want you we do.”Cornyn told the NBC affiliate KXAN that he had not heard back from Manchin, but he said a change in Senate control would be “the greatest Christmas gift I can think of”.Manchin has not given any indication that he is seriously considering switching parties. In a Monday interview with West Virginia Radio, Manchin said he believed there was still room in the Democratic party for someone with his views.“I would like to hope that there are still Democrats that feel like I do,” Manchin said. “I’m socially – I’m fiscally responsible and socially compassionate.” He added: “Now, if there’s no Democrats like that, then they’ll have to push me wherever they want me.”Manchin has been even more pointed in the past when asked about his party identity. After a report emerged in October that he was seriously considering leaving the Democratic party, he dismissed the news as “bullshit”.But he acknowledged he had previously offered to change his party affiliation to “independent” if his views ever became an “embarrassment” for Biden or other Senate Democrats.“I said, me being a moderate centrist Democrat — if that causes you a problem, let me know and I’d switch to be independent,” Manchin said in October.At the time, none of Manchin’s Democratic colleagues took him up on the offer, although some may now be tempted to do so. When Manchin announced he would oppose Build Back Better, after he had already demanded major changes to the spending package to limit its size and scope, some congressional Democrats sounded ready to abandon their colleague.“It’s unfortunate that it seems we can’t trust Senator Manchin’s word,” Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said on Monday. “We’re not going to wait for one man to decide on one day that he’s with us, and on the other day that he’s not.”For McConnell, that is an opening to try to wrest back control of the Senate.“Why in the world would they want to call him a liar and try to hotbox him and embarrass him?” McConnell told the Times. “I think the message is, ‘We don’t want you around.’ Obviously that is up to Joe Manchin, but he is clearly not welcome on that side of the aisle.”TopicsJoe ManchinDemocratsRepublicansUS politicsUS SenateUS CongressfeaturesReuse this content More

    • 113 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      Republican congressman refuses to cooperate with Capitol attack panel

      by

      Republican congressman refuses to cooperate with Capitol attack panelScott Perry is first sitting member of Congress to get request for interview as Trump announces 6 January press conference Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican and the first sitting member of Congress to be requested to provide documents and sit for an interview with the committee investigating the Capitol riot, said on Tuesday he would not comply with the panel.Why Trump appears deeply unnerved as Capitol attack investigation closes inRead moreThe news came shortly after Donald Trump provocatively announced that he will hold a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on 6 January, the first anniversary of the deadly attack on Congress.Perry’s refusal to appear sets up a potentially fraught battle if the panel decides to subpoena him and he – like other Trump allies – decides to ignore that too.The committee has already recommended other no-shows, such as Trump aide Steve Bannon, be prosecuted for their non-compliance.Perry claimed the 6 January committee was “illegitimate, and not duly constituted under the rules of the US House of Representatives”.Successive court rulings have said that the committee was properly formed and does have the investigative powers it is using.The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, rejected an attempt by the minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, to put Republicans including Jim Jordan of Ohio – a close Trump ally and a subject of investigation regarding the Capitol attack – on to the 6 January committee. Only two Republicans, Trump critics Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, are now part of its work.Trump announced his press conference in a statement replete with familiar invective and lies about supposed electoral fraud and the House committee.“I will be having a news conference on 6 January [2022] at Mar-a-Lago to discuss all of these points, and more,” he said.“Until then, remember, the insurrection took place on 3 November, it was the completely unarmed protest of the rigged election that took place on 6 January.”Five people, including a Trump supporter shot by law enforcement and a Capitol police officer, died around the events of 6 January 2021, when a pro-Trump mob stormed Congress after he told supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden.More than 700 people have been charged with offenses connected to the riot. Most rioters were not armed with guns but attacked police with other weapons. Guns and explosives were found and bombs planted. On Monday, one rioter who attacked police was sentenced to more than five years in jail.Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection but acquitted at his Senate trial when enough Republicans stayed loyal.His continued presence in national politics and apparent intention to run for president again has stoked jagged divides which some observers fear point the US towards serious discord or even civil war.On Monday night the disgraced former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, with whom the former president has staged an arena tour, said Trump was “gonna run again”.“I’m trying to tell President Trump, run on your record,” O’Reilly told NewsNation. “He’s gonna run again. I said, Run on your record, because your record’s pretty darn good.’”Trump seems determined to run, or merely to retain control of the Republican party, through stoking division and anger with false claims about the election and the most serious attack on the US Capitol since the war of 1812.In stark contrast, Pelosi has announced that Congress will mark the first anniversary of 6 January in a spirit of “solemn observance”.“Preparations are under way for a full program of events,” she said, “including a discussion among historians about the narrative of that day; an opportunity for members to share their experiences and reflections from that day; and a prayerful vigil in the evening.”The 6 January committee also expects to stage events in the new year, with public hearings as it closes in on Trump’s role in the riot. On Sunday, Kinzinger said the panel would determine if Trump committed a crime.“Nobody is above the law,” he said. “He’s not a king. Former presidents, they aren’t former kings.”Trump has sued, so far unsuccessfully, to stop the committee accessing White House documents from his time in power. Two of his closest aides are in serious legal jeopardy for taking similar stands.Bannon has pleaded not guilty to contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the 6 January committee. He faces a fine and jail time if convicted.The House has recommended the same criminal charge for Mark Meadows, Trump’s last chief of staff and a former congressman.US ‘closer to civil war’ than most would like to believe, new book saysRead moreOn Monday, citing sources close to Trump, the Guardian revealed his deepening fear as the 6 January committee continues its work.“The former president’s anger largely mirrors the kind of expletives he once directed at the Russia inquiry and the special counsel investigation [led by Robert Mueller] when he occupied the White House,” the Guardian reported.“But the rapidly accelerating investigation into whether Trump and top aides unlawfully conspired to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory at the 6 January joint session appears to be unnerving him deeply.”On Twitter, Peter Strzok, a former FBI agent and member of the special counsel’s team, wrote: “Almost as if – what did he say about Mueller? – ‘I’m fucked.’”TopicsUS Capitol attackRepublicansUS CongressDonald TrumpUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

    • 113 Shares119 Views

      in US Politics

      US Capitol attack panel seeks interview with Scott Perry

      by

      US Capitol attack panel seeks interview with Scott Perry Republican pushed Justice officials to overturn election and met Trump before attack, say investigators The House panel investigating the US Capitol insurrection on 6 January has requested an interview and documents from Scott Perry, the Republican representative of Pennsylvania, marking the first time the committee has publicly sought to interview a sitting member of Congress.The latest request launches a new phase for the lawmakers on the committee, who have so far resisted reaching out to one of their own as they investigate the insurrection by former president Donald Trump’s supporters and his efforts to overturn the election.Why Trump appears deeply unnerved as Capitol attack investigation closes inRead morePerry and other congressional Republicans met Trump before the attack and strategised about how they could block the results at the 6 January electoral count.In a letter to Perry, Mississippi Rep Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the panel, said the panel had received evidence from multiple witnesses, including the then-acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, and the then-acting deputy attorney general, Richard Donoghue, that Perry had “an important role” in efforts to install Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general.The letter requests an interview with Perry, who pushed the Justice Department to overturn the election and met Trump ahead of the violent attack, according to investigators. The panel also asked for any documents and correspondence between Perry and Trump, his legal team or anyone involved in the planning of the events of 6 January.A request for comment left with Perry’s office was not immediately returned.The lawmaker representing Pennsylvania’s 10th District was cited more than 50 times in a Senate Judiciary report released in October outlining how Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat brought the Justice Department to the brink of chaos and prompted top officials there and at the White House to threaten to resign.Perry, who has continuously disputed the validity of Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania, has said he obliged Trump’s request for an introduction to Clark, then an assistant attorney general whom Perry knew from unrelated legislative matters. The three men went on to discuss their shared concerns about the election, Perry has said.The Justice Department found no evidence of widespread fraud in Pennsylvania or any other state, and senior Justice officials dismissed Perry’s claimsThe recent Senate report outlined a call Perry made to Donoghue last December to say the department was failing to do its job with respect to the elections. Perry encouraged Donoghue to elicit Clark’s help because he’s “the kind of guy who could really get in there and do something about this”, the report said.Perry had previously said his “official communications” with Justice Department officials were consistent with the law.The letter sent on Monday night is the first time the panel has publicly released a request to a fellow member of Congress as it investigates Trump’s communications with his Republican allies. But the panel notably did not subpoena Perry, as it has other witnesses close to Trump whom lawmakers believe have relevant information.In his letter to Perry, Thompson added that the panel “has tremendous respect for the prerogatives of Congress and the privacy of its members. At the same time, we have a solemn responsibility to investigate fully all of these facts and circumstances.”The panel voted in November to hold Clark in contempt after he showed up for a deposition yet declined to answer questions. But Thompson has said he will hold off pursuing the charges and allow Clark to attend another deposition and try again. Clark’s lawyer has said Clark intends to assert his fifth amendment right not to incriminate himself, but the deposition has been repeatedly postponed as Clark has dealt with an unidentified medical condition.The panel has already interviewed about 300 people as it seeks to create a comprehensive record of the attack and the events leading up to it.Trump at the time was pushing false claims of widespread voter fraud and lobbying the vice-president, Mike Pence, and Republican members of Congress to try to overturn the count at the 6 January congressional certification. Election officials across the country, along with the courts, had repeatedly dismissed Trump’s claims.An angry mob of Trump supporters were echoing his false claims as they clashed with Capitol police and broke into the building that day, interrupting the certification of Biden’s victory.In his request for a meeting with Perry, Thompson wrote: “We would like to meet with you soon to discuss these topics, but we also want to accommodate your schedule.”TopicsUS Capitol attackUS politicsRepublicansDonald TrumpDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

    • 175 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      US ‘closer to civil war’ than most would like to believe, new book says

      by

      US ‘closer to civil war’ than most would like to believe, new book saysAcademic and member of CIA advisory panel says analysis applied to other countries shows US has ‘entered very dangerous territory’

      Robert Reich: Beware the big lie, big anger and big money
      The US is “closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe”, a member of a key CIA advisory panel has said.The analysis by Barbara F Walter, a political science professor at the University of California at San Diego who sits on the Political Instability Task Force, is contained in a book due out next year and first reported by the Washington Post.Why Trump appears deeply unnerved as Capitol attack investigation closes inRead moreIt comes amid growing concern about jagged political divisions deepened by former president Donald Trump’s refusal to accept defeat in the 2020 election.Trump’s lie that his defeat by Joe Biden was caused by mass electoral fraud stoked the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, over which Trump was impeached and acquitted a second time, leaving him free to run for office again.The “big lie” is also fueling moves among Republicans to restrict voting by groups that lean Democratic and to make it easier to overturn election results.Such moves remain without counter from Democrats seeking a federal response but stymied by the filibuster, the Senate rule that demands supermajorities for most legislation.In addition, though Republican presidential nominees have won the popular vote only once since 1988, the GOP has by playing political hardball stocked the supreme court with conservatives, who outnumber liberals 6-3.All such factors and more – including a pandemic which has stoked resistance to government – have contributed to the divide Walter has studied.Last month, she tweeted: “The CIA actually has a taskforce designed to try to predict where and when political instability and conflict is likely to break out around the world. It’s just not legally allowed to look at the US. That means we are blind to the risk factors that are rapidly emerging here.”The book in which Walter looks at those risk factors in the US, How Civil Wars Start, will be published in January. According to the Post, Walter writes: “No one wants to believe that their beloved democracy is in decline, or headed toward war.But “if you were an analyst in a foreign country looking at events in America – the same way you’d look at events in Ukraine or Ivory Coast or Venezuela – you would go down a checklist, assessing each of the conditions that make civil war likely”.Capitol attack panel will determine if Trump committed crime – RepublicanRead more“And what you would find is that the United States, a democracy founded more than two centuries ago, has entered very dangerous territory.”Walter, the Post said, concludes that the US has passed through stages of “pre-insurgency” and “incipient conflict” and may now be in “open conflict”, beginning with the Capitol riot.Citing analytics used by the Center for Systemic Peace, Walter also says the US has become an “anocracy” – “somewhere between a democracy and an autocratic state”.The US has fought a civil war, from 1861 to 1865 and against states which seceded in an attempt to maintain slavery.Estimates of the death toll vary. The American Battlefield Trust puts it at 620,000 and says: “Taken as a percentage of today’s population, the toll would have risen as high as 6 million souls.”On Sunday, Sidney Blumenthal, a former Clinton adviser turned biographer of Abraham Lincoln and Guardian contributor, said: “The secessionists in 1861 accepted Lincoln’s election as fair and legitimate.”The current situation, he said, “is the opposite. Trump’s questioning of the election, which was at first rejected by Republican leaders after the attack on the Capitol, has led to a crisis a genuine crisis of legitimacy.”With Republicans’ hold on the levers of power while in the electoral minority a contributing factor, Blumenthal said, “This crisis metastasises, throughout the system over time, so that it’s possible any close election will be claimed to be false and fraudulent.”Blumenthal said he did not expect the US to pitch into outright civil war, “section against section” and involving the fielding of armies.If rightwing militia groups were to seek to mimic the secessionists of the 1860s and attempt to “seize federal forts and offices by force”, he said, “I think you’d have quite a confidence it would be over very, very quickly [given] a very strong and firm sense at the top of the US military of its constitutional, non-political role.“… But given the proliferation of guns, there could be any number of seemingly random acts of violence that come from these organised militias, which are really vigilantes and with partisan agendas, and we haven’t entered that phase.“The real nightmare would be that kind of low-intensity conflict.”Among academics, Walter is not alone in diagnosing severe problems with US democracy. In November, the International IDEA thinktank, based in Sweden, added the US to a list of “backsliding” democracies, thanks to a “visible deterioration” it dated to 2019.Republicans are shamelessly working to subvert democracy. Are Democrats paying attention? Read moreIt also identified “a historic turning point … in 2020-21 when former president Donald Trump questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election results”.Polling has revealed similar worries – and warnings. In November, the Public Religion Research Institute asked voters if they agreed with a statement: “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”The poll found that 18% of respondents agreed. Among Republicans, however, the figure was 30%.On Twitter, Walter thanked the Post for covering her book. She also said: “I wish I had better news for the world but I couldn’t stay silent knowing what I know.”TopicsUS politicsRepublicansDonald TrumpUS Capitol attackUS crimeAmerican civil warnewsReuse this content More

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      Why Trump appears deeply unnerved as Capitol attack investigation closes in

      by

      Why Trump appears deeply unnerved as Capitol attack investigation closes in Flurry of recent revelations raises the specter that the committee is swiftly heading towards an incriminating conclusion

      6 January panel will say if Trump committed crime – Kinzinger
      Donald Trump is increasingly agitated by the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, according to sources familiar with the matter, and appears anxious he might be implicated in the sprawling inquiry into the insurrection even as he protests his innocence.Republicans are shamelessly working to subvert democracy. Are Democrats paying attention? Read moreThe former president in recent weeks has complained more about the investigation, demanding why his former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, shared so much material about 6 January with the select committee, and why dozens of other aides have also cooperated.Trump has also been perturbed by aides invoking the Fifth Amendment in depositions – it makes them look weak and complicit in a crime, he has told associates – and considers them foolish for not following the lead of his former strategist Steve Bannon in simply ignoring the subpoenas.When Trump sees new developments in the Capitol attack investigation on television, he has started swearing about the negative coverage and bemoaned that the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, was too incompetent to put Republicans on the committee to defend him.The former president’s anger largely mirrors the kind of expletives he once directed at the Russia inquiry and the special counsel investigation when he occupied the White House. But the rapidly accelerating investigation into whether Trump and top aides unlawfully conspired to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory at the 6 January joint session appears to be unnerving him deeply. The portrait that emerges from interviews with multiple sources close to Trump, including current and former aides, suggest a former president unmoored and backed into a corner by the rapid escalation in intensity of the committee’s investigation.A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to requests for comment.But as Trump struggles to shield himself from the select committee, with public hearings next year and the justice department said to be tracking the investigation, the path ahead is only likely to be more treacherous.The former president is especially attuned to his potential for legal exposure, even as he maintains he did nothing wrong in conferring about ways to overturn the 2020 election and encouraging supporters to march on the Capitol. He has expressed alarm to associates about repeated defeats in court as he seeks to stop the select committee obtaining some of the most sensitive of White House documents about 6 January from the National Archives, on grounds of executive privilege.The reality is that with each passing day, the committee seems to be gathering new evidence about Trump’s culpability around the Capitol attack that might culminate with recommendations for new election laws – but also for prosecutions.“I think that the justice department will keep a keen eye on what evidence the committee has accumulated, as well as looking out for witnesses for a potential case,” said Ryan Goodman, a former special counsel at the Department of Defense now a law professor at New York University.“One of the outcomes of the committee’s work and the public hearings will be to demonstrate individuals who might be wanting to come forward as witnesses and that’s got to be very important to justice department prosecutors,” Goodman said.House investigators are expected to soon surpass more than 300 interviews with Trump administration officials and Trump political operatives as part of a process that has yielded 30,000 documents and 250 tips via the select committee’s tip line.The flurry of recent revelations – such as the disclosure of Meadows’s connection to a powerpoint outlining how Trump could stage a coup, as first reported by the Guardian – raises the specter that the select committee is swiftly heading towards an incriminating conclusion.Trump’s associates insist they are not worried, at least for the moment, since the select committee has yet to obtain materials covered by executive privilege either through Meadows or the National Archives that could ensnare Trump personally.The former president’s defenders are correct in that respect – the committee does not have messages that show Trump directing an attack on the Capitol, one source said – and Trump has vowed to appeal the National Archives case to the supreme court.House panel gathers mountain of evidence in Capitol attack investigationRead moreBut no one outside the select committee, which is quietly making progress from a glass office on Capitol Hill with boarded-up windows and electronically secured doors, knows exactly what it has uncovered and whether the inquiry ends with a criminal referral.The material Meadows turned over alone depicts an alarming strategy to stop Biden’s certification on 6 January, involving nearly the entire federal government and lieutenants operating from the Willard hotel in Washington.One member on the select committee described the events around 6 January as showing a coalescence of multiple strategies: “There was a DoJ strategy, a state legislative strategy, a state election official strategy, the vice-president strategy. And there was the insurrection strategy.”The text messages Meadows received on his personal phone implicate Trump’s eldest son, Don Jr, and Republican members of Congress. Texts Meadows turned over to the committee might also be used by an enterprising prosecutor as evidence of criminal obstruction to stop a congressional proceeding if the White House knew election fraud claims to be lies but still used them to stop Biden’s certification.While Meadows never testified about the communications, a cadre of top Trump officials, from former acting national security adviser Keith Kellogg to Pence’s former chief of staff Marc Short, have moved to cooperate with House investigators.The trouble for Trump – and part of the source of his frustration, the sources said – is his inability, out of office, to wield the far-reaching power of the executive branch to affect the course of the inquiry.The limited success of strategies he hoped would stymie the committee – ordering aides to defy subpoenas or launching legal challenges to slow-walk the release White House records – has been jarring for Trump.“I think what he’s finding is that as the ex-president, he has a lot less authority than he did as president. But his playbook doesn’t work if he’s not president,” said Daniel Goldman, former lead counsel in the first House impeachment inquiry into Trump.In a reflection of dwindling legal avenues available to undercut the investigation, Trump has returned to launching attacks-by-emailed-statement on the select committee, stewing over his predicament and what he considers an investigation designed only to hurt him politically.“The Unselect Committee itself is Rigged, stacked with Never Trumpers, Republican enemies, and two disgraced RINOs, Cheney and Kinzinger, who couldn’t get elected ‘dog catcher’ in their districts,” Trump vented last month.Trump tested positive for Covid few days before Biden debate, chief of staff says in new bookRead moreIn private, Trump is said to have reserved the brunt of his scorn for Meadows, furious with his former White House chief of staff for sharing sensitive communications on top of all the unflattering details about Trump included in his book this month.Trump’s associates, however, have focused more on questioning the legitimacy of the select committee and its composition, arguing the fact that the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, appointed both Republican members reduces the investigation to a partisan political endeavor.They also argue that none of the revelations to date – like the Guardian’s reporting on Trump’s call to the Willard hotel, during which he pressed operatives to stop Biden’s certification from taking place entirely – amounts to criminal wrongdoing.But in the meantime, Trump is left with little choice but to wait for the committee’s report.“The justice department seems to be more reactive than proactive,” Goodman said. “They might be waiting for the committee to wrap up its work to make criminal referrals.”TopicsDonald TrumpUS Capitol attackUS politicsRepublicansHouse of RepresentativesUS CongressDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in US Politics

      Capitol attack panel will determine if Trump committed crime – Republican

      by

      Capitol attack panel will determine if Trump committed crime – Republican
      Kinzinger promises to determine if criminal statute violated
      ‘He’s not a king. Former presidents, they aren’t former kings’
      Robert Reich: Beware the big lie, big anger and big money
      Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the House committee investigating the deadly 6 January Capitol attack incited by Donald Trump, said on Sunday he was not “yet” ready to declare the former president guilty of a crime – but that the panel was investigating the likelihood that he is.Mark Meadows was at the center of the storm on 6 January. But only Trump could call it offRead more“Nobody is above the law,” the Illinois congressman told CNN’s State of the Union. “And if the president knowingly allowed what happened on 6 January to happen, and, in fact, was giddy about it, and that violates a criminal statute, he needs to be held accountable for that.”The committee has been picking up pace in recent weeks with dozens of subpoenas issued, some to close Trump aides. The waters lapped at the doors of Trump’s Oval Office this week when his fourth and final chief of staff, Mark Meadows, became a focus of the investigation over tweets he received on and around the day of the insurrection.The committee voted unanimously to refer Meadows for criminal prosecution for contempt of Congress, after he withdrew his cooperation.Kinzinger, who alongside fellow Republican Liz Cheney has drawn the ire of Trump allies for serving on the committee, said he had no qualms about scrutinising how Trump incited supporters to try to overturn his election defeat by Joe Biden, which he says was the result of massive electoral fraud, which it was not.“He’s not a king,” Kinzinger said, “Former presidents, they aren’t former kings.”Kinzinger added that he feared the events of 6 January were “trial run” for Trump and his allies to attempt another coup.“We will get every bit of detail that we can possibly get on that, so that’s important for the president’s role,” he said. “I want to hold the people guilty accountable but I want to make sure this never happens again.“Otherwise, 6 January will have been, yes, a failed trial run, but, sometimes, a failed trial run is the best practice to get one that succeeds, a coup that would succeed in toppling our government.”Kinzinger’s comments are the strongest to date about the depth of the inquiry into Trump’s role.At a “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on 6 January, the then-president urged supporters to march on the Capitol and “fight like hell [or] you’re not going to have a country any more”.He was impeached a second time for inciting the insurrection that followed, but though Kinzinger, and nine other House Republicans and seven GOP senators voted with Democrats, Trump was acquitted in his Senate trial and remains free to run for office again.Pressed on whether he thought Trump was guilty of a crime, Kinzinger said: “I don’t want to go there yet, to say, ‘Do I believe he has’. But I sure tell you I have a lot of questions about what the president was up to.”Earlier this month at a sentencing hearing for one of the rioters, a district court judge, Amy Berman Jackson, said she believed Trump stoked the riot and should be held accountable. Jackson was one of a growing number of federal judges to speak out.Trump is also in legal jeopardy from investigations of his business affairs, with authorities in New York looking at tax issues in particular.Trump spoke to Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures but was not asked about the 6 January inquiry, instead riffing on subjects including the Taliban’s hatred of dogs and how Biden’s chief medical adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, struggles to pitch a baseball. Bob’s Burgers bans actor over alleged involvement in Capitol attack – reportRead moreTrump also weighed in on a conspiracy theory popular on Fox News which says Biden is not running the country, based on an apparent gaffe in which he called his vice-president, Kamala Harris, “president” in a university commencement speech this week.On CNN, Kinzinger acknowledged the 6 January committee was working to complete its work before next year’s midterm elections, in which Republicans are likely to take back control and thereby kill the investigation.The Ohio congressman Jim Jordan, a Trump loyalist whose text messages were included in those released this week, was one of the Republicans rejected by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, for a place on the 6 January panel.Regardless, Jordan has been tipped as a possible judiciary committee chair – who would therefore act to close the investigation of the Capitol attack.“He could not credibly head the [judiciary] committee,” Kinzinger said. “But he certainly could head the committee.”TopicsUS Capitol attackUS politicsUS elections 2020Donald TrumpTrump administrationRepublicansHouse of RepresentativesnewsReuse this content More

    • 125 Shares179 Views

      in US Politics

      Johnny Isakson, former Republican senator from Georgia, dies at 76

      by

      Johnny Isakson, former Republican senator from Georgia, dies at 76Conservative senator was known as a consensus-builderRetirement in 2019 preceded GOP losses in both Senate seats Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican who earned a reputation for bipartisan co-operation as a US senator from 2005 to 2019, has died. He was 76.The Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, confirmed the death on Sunday.In a statement, the Republican said: “Georgia has lost a giant, one of its greatest statesmen and a servant leader dedicated to making his state and country better than he found it.“Johnny Isakson personified what it meant to be a Georgian. Johnny was also a dear friend … as he was to so many.”Isakson, whose real estate business made him a millionaire, spent more than three decades in Georgia political life.In the US Senate from 2005, he became known as an effective, behind-the-scenes consensus builder. His views on flashpoint issues such as abortion became more conservative, however, as Georgia politics moved right.In 2015, Isakson disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He remained in office until the end of 2019, retiring two years before the end of his term.That year, the Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, a ruthless political warrior, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “If you had a vote in the Senate on who’s the most respected and well-liked member, Johnny would win probably 100 to nothing. His demeanor is quite different from what most people expect of politicians.”On Sunday, announcing Isakson’s death, the Associated Press called him “affable”. The Washington Post went for “courtly”.Ross Baker, a congressional scholar at Rutgers University in New Jersey, told the Post Isakson was “a transitional figure … the person who set the tone for debate, who was a facilitator rather than a legislative innovator.“His bipartisan brand of politics harks back to a different era in American politics. With his leaving the Senate, a very important link to the past [has been] lost.”Isakson was succeeded in the Senate by Kelly Loeffler, another Republican. But she lost the seat to Raphael Warnock in 2020, as Georgia turned Democratic blue in an election which cost the GOP control of the Senate and provoked political apoplexy in Donald Trump, the loser in the presidential contest.On Sunday the other serving Georgia US senator, the Democrat Jon Ossoff, said: “Senator Isakson was a statesman who served Georgia with honor. He put his state and his country ahead of self and party, and his great legacy endures. Alisha and I will keep [the former senator’s wife] Dianne and the Isakson family in our prayers.”TopicsGeorgiaRepublicansUS politicsnewsReuse this content More