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GOP Watch Keeping an Eye on Republicans for You - Page 15

“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.” ― Theodore Roosevelt Welcome to GOP Watch keeping an eye on Republicans for you. The Republican Party is using lies, hate, fear, alterative facts and whataboutism to stay in power and protect a comprised and corrupt Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party and Putin. The GOP is a danger to America and Americans.
Andrew SolenderJonathan SwanLachlan Markay

Far-right Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) are untouchable inside the House Republican conference.

Why it matters: Greene and Gosar can attend as many white supremacist conferences as their hearts desire, safe in the knowledge there's nothing they need from leadership — and nothing left for leadership to take from them.

   They've already been stripped of their committees. They have zero need or interest in leadership's endorsements or money. And their power actually comes from offending Republican leadership in Washington. "They literally have nothing tangible [to punish them] in terms of the traditional congressional levers," a GOP leadership source told Axios. more...
By Eva McKend, Melanie Zanona and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN

CNN — Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming called out two members of her conference who spoke at an event organized by White nationalist Nick Fuentes. “As Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rep Paul Gosar speak at this white supremacist, anti-Semitic, pro-Putin event, silence by Republican Party leaders is deafening and enabling,” Cheney tweeted Saturday. “All Americans should renounce this garbage and reject the Putin wing of the GOP now,” she added. more...
John Wright

Republican Party canvassers tricked more than 100 South Florida voters — many of them elderly and/or immigrants — into switching their party affiliation to the GOP last year, according to a bombshell investigative report published Friday by the Miami Herald. The newspaper sent a team of reporters to eight low-income housing projects in Hialeah and Little Havana, where voter registration data showed unusually high numbers of switching from one party to another. "The reporters knocked on every door where someone’s party affiliation had changed," according to the Herald. "Four out of every five voters who spoke to the Herald — 141 in total — said that their party affiliation had been changed without their knowledge. In all but six cases, records show they were registered as Republicans by canvassers from the Republican Party of Florida." more...
Rebecca Falconer

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) called out fellow House Republicans on Tuesday for criticizing President Biden's response to Russia invading Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) criticized former President Trump, saying by calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a genius, he "aids our enemies."

Driving the news: House Republicans tweeted a screenshot of Biden walking away with the comment: "This is what weakness on the world stage looks like."

What he's saying: Kinzinger retweeted the post with the comment: "As still 'technically' a member of house Republicans, let me, with all my might, condemn this damn awful tweet during this crisis. You can criticize policy but this is insane and feeds into Putins narrative. But hey, retweets amirite?" more...
Bob Brigham

Republicans in Arizona were blasted for attacking public school teachers in a new column by E.J. Montini of The Arizona Republic. He noted that Republican state Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita called teachers “educational terrorists" and Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Salmon said they are "a scourge on our society." Salmon, a former Republican congressman, vowed a "confrontational" relationship with the Arizona Education Association if elected governor. "So, teachers are the problem? Has Salmon not been paying attention to what the Arizona Legislature and lawmakers like Ugenti-Rita have done to the state’s public school system over the past several years?" he asked. "As in, wreck it." more...
Donald Trump’s baseless claims of a rigged election are tearing Wisconsin Republicans apart.
By David Siders

MILWAUKEE — Timothy Ramthun’s entry into Wisconsin’s gubernatorial primary last weekend was the car wreck no one could look away from. His campaign is built around the preposterous idea the 2020 election could still be overturned — something even sympathetic Republicans here acknowledge is impossible. His campaign website went live, only to be deactivated. His three-hour campaign kickoff featured the appearance of Mike Lindell, the pillow salesperson and conspiracy theorist. “It’s Tim time,” Ramthun, a state lawmaker, told supporters, while political professionals in Wisconsin cringed. more...
Republicans are trying to Whitewash American History

Northwest Moinfo.com

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri is talking about what he wants to see in public schools. He introduced his so-called “Love America Act” last year. It would require first-graders to read and be able to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, fourth graders to read the U.S. Constitution and be able to recite its preamble and tenth grade students to read and be able to identify the Bill of Rights, among other rules. It would also block federal funds to schools that teach issues such as white supremacy and racism, including Critical Race Theory. more...
Basically, they were just some dudes chit-chatting about the affairs of the day
By Leonard Pitts Jr. | Opinion | Miami Herald

They stormed through police barricades, these “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.” They shattered windows and chanted death to the vice president, these “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.” They smeared their own feces on the wall, “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.” Over the past 13 months, we’ve heard Republicans offer all sorts of rationalizations for the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. We’ve heard the white-nationalist thugs who perpetrated it called patriotic and good and likened to tourists. We’ve borne repeated insults to intelligence, memory and the service of police who defended against these gangsters as they tried to overthrow an American election. But even that was scant preparation for the resolution the party adopted last week. It accused the Jan. 6 Select Committee — the one Democrats in the House impaneled after Republicans refused to support a full Congressional probe — of “the persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.” Mind you, that “legitimate political discourse” gouged eyes and broke bones, erected a gallows and paraded a traitor’s flag through the people’s house. more...
If Republicans really wanted to stop the steal, they should have told Trump and his minions to stop trying to steal the election.

The Beat with Ari

In a bombshell statement, Donald Trump has admitted that he wanted Pence to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Trump said “Pence did have the right to change the outcome… Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!” At the same time, Trump is also saying he will consider pardoning the Jan. 6 rioters if he wins the 2024 election. video...
By Gabby Orr, CNN

Salt Lake City (CNN) Republican National Committee members voted Friday to formally censure GOP Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois for their involvement with the House investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. The unprecedented move marks the first time the national party has rebuked an incumbent congressional Republican -- much less two -- with a formal censure backed by its members. Prior to its passage, RNC members pushed to have the resolution watered down to remove language calling for Cheney and Kinzinger's expulsion from the House GOP Conference -- a strictly symbolic measure given that the party does not have the authority to decide who does or does not serve in Congress. Cheney and Kinzinger have both played active roles in the House select committee's probe of former President Donald Trump's activities before and during the riot at the Capitol last January. Their status as the lone Republicans on the panel has drawn scorn from fellow GOP lawmakers and party officials who believe they are enabling an unfair investigation led by congressional Democrats. more...
Since last summer, the conservative campaign against vaccination has claimed thousands of lives for no ethically justifiable purpose.
By Kurt Andersen

In the early phases of the pandemic, as the coronavirus spread in the United States and doctors and pharmacists and supermarket clerks continued to work and risk infection, some commentators made reference—metaphorical reference, fast and loose and over the top—to ritual human sacrifice. The immediate panicky focus on resuming business as usual in order to keep the stock market from crashing was the equivalent of “those who offered human sacrifices to Moloch,” according to the writer Kitanya Harrison. That first summer, as Republicans settled into their anti-testing, anti-lockdown, anti-mask, nothing-to-worry-about orthodoxy, Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, said it was “like a policy of mass human sacrifice.” The anthropology professor Shan-Estelle Brown and the researcher Zoe Pearson wrote that people who continued to do their jobs outside their homes were essentially victims of “involuntary human sacrifice, made to look voluntary.” Meanwhile, people on the right likewise compared the inconvenience of closing down public places to ritual sacrifice. more...
Ed Pilkington

More than 1,000 Americans in positions of public trust acted as accomplices in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election result, participating in the violent insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January or spreading the “big lie” that the vote count had been rigged. The startling figure underlines the extent to which Trump’s attempt to undermine the foundations of presidential legitimacy has metastasized across the US. Individuals who engaged in arguably the most serious attempt to subvert democracy since the civil war are now inveigling themselves into all levels of government, from Congress and state legislatures down to school boards and other local public bodies. The finding that 1,011 individuals in the public realm played a role in election subversion around the 2020 presidential race comes from a new pro-democracy initiative that launched on Wednesday. more...
Lloyd Green

An illiberal democracy, similar to Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, is increasingly the model for Republicans
The first anniversary of the invasion of the Capitol approaches, our cold civil war grows hotter by the day, and the numbers tell the story. A majority of Republicans view the attack as a defense of freedom (56%) and just under half (47%) cast it as an act of patriotism. For good measure, one in six Americans approve of the events of 6 January 2021, including nearly a quarter of Republicans.

America’s Reichstag fire continues to smolder. A staggering 64% of Americans believe democracy here is “in crisis and at risk of failing”. Beyond that, two-thirds of Republicans agree that “voter fraud helped Joe Biden win the 2020 election”. Disturbingly but not surprisingly, the Republican party’s credo is now “heads I win, tails you lose”.

Then again, the last time a non-incumbent Republican won the presidential popular vote was George HW Bush in 1988. The fact that recent Republican-backed post-election “audits” have failed to yield a different outcome, has not dulled the party faithful’s devotion to the false and Trump-driven proposition that the election was stolen. more...
Newsroom

Former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) were the only two Republicans on the House floor during a remembrance of the January 6th riot. CNN's Manu Raju reports. video...
The GOP wants to ban books there is nothing more cancel culture than banning books.

by Rebekah Sager, Daily Kos Staff

An Oklahoma state senator is pushing for two bills that would give parents the power to remove any book in a public school library they find objectionable. Meaning any book mentioning sex or the “study of sex, sexual preferences, sexual activity, sexual perversion, sex-based classifications, sexual identity, or gender identity,“ or books “that are of a sexual nature.” Republican state Sen. Rob Standridge, who is championing Senate Bill 1142, says it addresses the “indoctrination in Oklahoma schools.” “Our education system is not the place to teach moral lessons that should instead be left up to parents and families. Unfortunately, however, more and more schools are trying to indoctrinate students by exposing them to gender, sexual and racial identity curriculums and courses. My bills will ensure these types of lessons stay at home and out of the classroom,” Standridge said in a statement. more...
The same lawmakers who obsessed over Benghazi are downplaying the attack on the Capitol.
By William Saletan

Nine years ago, terrorists attacked U.S. diplomats and contractors in Benghazi, Libya. Four Americans died, and Republicans spent years investigating why. Those investigations found no wrongdoing by President Barack Obama or then–Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but they succeeded in painting Clinton as soft on terrorism, thereby damaging her 2016 presidential campaign. Now the same Republicans who decried Benghazi are downplaying President Donald Trump’s culpability—and their own—in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The Republican frenzy over Benghazi spanned two presidential elections. In October 2012, Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, opened hearings on the Obama administration’s “security failures.” In a letter issued two weeks before that year’s presidential election, Issa and a fellow Republican lawmaker accused the administration of “endangering American lives” by ignoring the “escalating violence” that had preceded the attack. The letter also criticized Obama’s team for blaming the attack, erroneously, on unrelated protests over an anti-Muslim video. more...
By Dominick Mastrangelo

A leading North Caroline newspaper is blasting former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, calling the Republican who previously served in Congress an embarrassment to the state. "When will the N.C. Republican Party censure Mark Meadows?" The News and Observer asked in an editorial published on Wednesday. "The answer, of course, is never. But that won’t hide the embarrassment that Meadows is for his party or for the state he represented in Congress for seven years." more...
Sen. Graham’s false claim about Build Back Better adding $3 trillion in deficits
Jon Greenberg, Louis Jacobson

Republicans have been highlighting a recent government estimate of what they say is the true cost of the Democrats’ Build Back Better bill, which includes major spending on child care and child tax credits. On Fox News Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told departing host Chris Wallace that the bill is far more expensive than Democrats claim, and the money it raises falls trillions short of covering the cost. "The Congressional Budget Office says it's not paid for," Graham said Dec. 12. "It's $3 trillion of deficit spending." Graham is incorrect. The bill passed by the House and now in the Senate’s hands costs about $1.75 trillion, and, according to CBO figures, would add $158 billion to the deficit over 10 years, not $3 trillion. (President Joe Biden and other Democrats say even that smaller deficit would evaporate thanks to IRS crackdowns on tax evaders.) more...
Fox News, right wing media and the GOP blamed Antifa and BLM even though they knew it was Trump supporters who attacked the capitol.

House investigators held Mark Meadows in criminal contempt after releasing a trove of messages aimed at getting President Trump to take stronger action amid the Capitol riot.
By NICHOLAS WU and KYLE CHENEY

As rioters swarmed the Capitol, President Donald Trump’s eldest son pleaded with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to get his father to do more to end the violence. “He’s got to condemn this [shit] Asap. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough,” Donald Trump Jr. texted, one of a series of messages Meadows provided to the Jan. 6 select committee investigating the former president’s effort to overturn the election. The text message was one of a handful described and released by the committee on Monday from the trove shared by Meadows that showed lawmakers, aides and even Fox News hosts pleading with Meadows to press Trump to take stronger action. After they described the messages, the panel held Meadows in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to testify to investigators. The matter now goes to the full House, which is expected to refer Meadows to the Justice Department on Tuesday. more...
Travis Gettys

The Missouri Republican grossly distorted the facts during a Senate hearing on the ongoing harassment of school board members around the country over COVID-19 safety measures and anti-racism lessons, and the "Morning Joe" host piggybacked off Hawley's grandstanding remarks to calling for his prosecution. "I've got to say, frankly, I can't believe Josh Hawley's sitting there because he should be in jail," Scarborough said. "Why is Josh Hawley not in jail? A guy that committed sedition against the United States of America, he churned up the rioters when they were coming up there, a guy who still voted with the seditionists and the rioters, voted with the anarchists, voted with the people who were smearing excrement all over the walls of the Capitol." more...
By Andrew Stanton

Critics slammed Kentucky Senator Rand Paul for requesting federal aid to help his state recover from devastating tornadoes after he previously voted against relief when other states were struck by natural disasters. Tornadoes swept across several midwestern and southern states Friday night and Saturday morning, leaving a trail of devastation in their paths. More than 70 people across Kentucky—one of the hardest hit states—were feared to be killed during the storm. Videos and photos of towns like Mayfield show the extent of the catastrophic damage. more...
Once again Republicans showing they are against the America way of life.

By Jason Lemon

Former White House adviser Steve Bannon and GOP Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida want some "4,000 shock troops" to get ready to take control of the federal government if Donald Trump decides to run for president again and wins in 2024. Although Trump has not formally announced his intention to seek office, he has repeatedly hinted at the possibility. Several recent polls have suggested that Trump would be well positioned to defeat President Joe Biden, who has said he expects to run for reelection. more...
Jerod Macdonald-Evoy, Arizona Mirror

Republican Congressman Paul Gosar tweeted out a video meme last week, which he later deleted, that has roots in neo-Nazi and white nationalist culture. The since-deleted tweet, which was saved by the internet archive, begins with a cartoon image of a man looking dismayed as a number of headlines are displayed while the song “Little Dark Age" by MGMT plays. Before the song crescendos, a buff cartoon with Gosar's head superimposed on it appears in a doorway before the cartoon character, and a montage of Gosar is played before another photoshopped image of the congressman's head on a muscular man is shown while a spinning “America First" logo is shown around his head. more...
Tom Boggioni

According to a report from the Daily Beast's Noah Kirsch, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) is trying to turn himself into a national player in the Republican Party by ramping up the "nuttiness quotient" and embracing far-right conspiracies. As Kirsch notes, Ricketts previously kept his distance from former president Donald Trump but is now "embracing" the way the former president gained a mass audience while using the president's extremist playbook. more...
ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Republicans fighting President Joe Biden's coronavirus vaccine mandates are wielding a new weapon against the White House rules: natural immunity. They contend that people who have recovered from the virus have enough immunity and antibodies to not need COVID-19 vaccines, and the concept has been invoked by Republicans as a sort of stand-in for vaccines. Florida wrote natural immunity into state law this week as GOP lawmakers elsewhere are pushing similar measures to sidestep vaccine mandates. Lawsuits over the mandates have also begun leaning on the idea. Conservative federal lawmakers have implored regulators to consider it when formulating mandates. more...
Tom Boggioni

According to a report from the Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger, a dark money nonprofit with ties to the Koch family has been funneling millions of dollars into organizations promoting white supremacy as well as supporters of Donald Trump linked to the Jan 6th insurrection. Based upon an IRS filing from Donors Trust, reported upon by CNBC, the Beast explains that the nonprofit took in $360 million last year to disperse as it sees fit. According to the report, beneficiaries of donations have been linked to the organizers of the Jan 6th rally -- that turned into a riot at the U.S. Capitol -- as well private universities. more...
Republicans will try to gerrymander their way to power across the South (again) — are Democrats ready to fight?
By Igor Derysh

Republican control over redistricting in key Southern states, along with Supreme Court decisions that gutted protections for voters of color, could result in historically unfair congressional maps after the next round of gerrymandering, according to a new report from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School. The redistricting that followed the 2010 census resulted in "some of the most gerrymandered and racially discriminatory maps" in history but the next cycle of redistricting could be even more fraught with abuse in Southern states, according to the report. Florida, Texas and North Carolina, all of which are expected to gain House seats following the 2020 census, as well as Georgia, pose the highest risk of producing maps that are racially discriminatory and favor Republicans. more...
Rep. Gosar worries he'll be censured for his anime video. But why? Republicans don't care
Opinion: Nine days after Rep. Paul Gosar's anime video depicting the murder of @AOC, Republicans still won't chastise him, Meanwhile, Gosar has now recast himself. moving from anime hero to victim.
Laurie Roberts | Arizona Republic

It has now been 10 days since Rep. Paul Gosar posted an anime video of himself killing a fellow member of Congress and flying toward President Joe Biden with swords swinging. AsHouse Democrats prepare to vote on a resolution to censure Gosar, let's check in, shall we, with the condemnation flowing forth from his fellow Republicans, both here in Arizona and across the nation. Rep. Andy Biggs? Nope. Rep. Debbie Lesko? Nope. Rep. David Schweikert? Gov. Doug Ducey? Attorney General Mark Brnovich? Nope, nope, nope. more...
CNN

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) criticized House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Republicans for their response to Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) sharing a video to his Twitter and Instagram depicting violence and the apparent killing of Ocasio-Cortez. video...
Republican hate cancel culture except when they use it.

'Something we haven't seen before': Haberman on state GOP's move against Liz Cheney
CNN

The Wyoming Republican Party voted over to no longer recognize Rep. Liz Cheney as a member of the party, the Casper Star-Tribune reported, a new instance of GOP blowback as Cheney continues to speak out against former President Donald Trump. CNN's Maggie Haberman discusses. video...
Republican hate cancel culture except when they use it.

Wyoming GOP votes to no longer recognize Liz Cheney
By Caroline Linton, Aaron Navarro  

The Wyoming Republican party voted this weekend to no longer recognize Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who represents the state, as a member of their party. Cheney, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach former President Trump, is one of two Republicans on the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Jeremy Adler, a spokesperson for Cheney, said in a statement that it is "laughable to suggest Liz is anything but a committed conservative Republican" "She is bound by her oath to the Constitution," Adler said. "Sadly, a portion of the Wyoming GOP leadership has abandoned that fundamental principle, and instead allowed themselves to be held hostage to the lies of a dangerous and irrational man." more...
Amanda Marcotte, Salon

Despite weeks of worrying that Attorney General Merrick Garland didn't have the guts, the good news finally came down: Former Donald Trump advisor and current fascist propagandist Steve Bannon is under indictment for refusing to honor a subpoena to testify before Congress. Additionally, the announcement appears to have empowered the January 6 commission to enforce its other subpoenas. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., says Congress will "move quickly" to do the same to former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, who is similarly refusing to answer questions about his role in Trump's efforts to invalidate the 2020 election and the violent insurrection on the Capitol that ensued. more...
Louis Jacobson
By Louis Jacobson

The notion that just 10% of the infrastructure bill is “actual infrastructure” is a version of a Republican talking point that was inaccurate months ago and has been rendered even more inaccurate by changes to the bill. Because Biden and congressional Democrats split their agenda into an infrastructure-only bill and a second bill that dealt with social safety net spending, the bill that passed the House is virtually all infrastructure spending. more...
Paul Gosar pulled his controversial anime video, but that's done little to calm the political backlash.
By Steve Benen

Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona created a new controversy for himself this week, releasing an altered anime video in which his character kills a character with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's face and attacks a different character with President Joe Biden's face. Twitter added a warning label to the Republican's tweet, describing it as "hateful content." The congressman's office acknowledged that it was responsible for the creation of the video. Not surprisingly, a political backlash is underway. The Washington Post reported: more...
Republicans hate cancel culture except when they are the ones using it.

Tom Porter

Republican leaders in the US House of Representatives are expecting a bid to punish the 13 Republicans who voted for President Joe Biden's $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill by stripping them of committee assignments, according to a report. Punchbowl News reported that some Republican lawmakers were determined to take action against the 13, several of whom are ranking members or senior Republicans on House committees or subcommittees. The report did not detail what level of support the move might have as of Tuesday morning. more...
A quarter of a century after Newt Gingrich went after funds for public broadcasting, some Republicans are apparently ready for Round Two against Big Bird.
By Steve Benen

Shortly after Republicans made dramatic gains in the 1994 midterm elections, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich was eager to get to work on his plans to balance the budget. High on the Republican's list was eliminating federal funds for public broadcasting.

The move was not well received. In fact, it led to headlines such as, "Are Newt and His Cronies Afraid of Big Bird?" When the Clinton White House prevailed in budget talks, and support for public broadcasting survived, there were related headlines such as, "Big Bird Taken Off Death Row." In other words, Republicans picked a fight with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — and Big Bird won. more...
Sarah Elbeshbishi | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that the House approved late Friday passed with the help of several Republicans, who faced a swift backlash Saturday from their GOP colleagues. Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York was one of 13 Republicans who voted for the bipartisan bill, which passed 228-206, with some progressive Democrats voting against it.

“After months of being held hostage by Progressive Democrats, the House was finally able to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill,” Garbarino said on Twitter. “Make no mistake, tonight’s vote was about roads, bridges, and clean water. It was about real people, and the tangible actions Congress could take to better their lives by rebuilding and revitalizing our nation’s crumbling infrastructure. more...
By Matthew Stanmyre | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Hours after Edward Durr seemingly solidified his stunning election victory over state Senate President Steve Sweeney, xenophobic and anti-Muslim social media messages have surfaced that were posted from his accounts. The posts came to light shortly after the Associated Press projected Durr’s victory over Sweeney on Thursday morning in the 3rd legislative district, putting him on the verge of one of the biggest upsets in New Jersey political history. With 100% of precincts reporting, Durr led Sweeney 32,742 votes to 30,444 — 51.8% to 48.2%. more...
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was the only Republican to join Democrats on the voting bill named for the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).
By MARIANNE LEVINE and ZACH MONTELLARO

Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a fourth Democratic attempt to begin considering elections and voting legislation on the floor, casting fresh doubt on the majority party's ability to enact any type of reform this Congress. In a 50-49 vote, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) joined Democrats to move forward on legislation that would restore a requirement that certain jurisdictions receive a green light from the Justice Department or a D.C.-based federal court before changing voting laws or procedure. more...
Troubling statistics show the post-election rancor that led to the US Capitol attack on 6 January is still very much in place
Adam Gabbatt

Almost a third of Republicans believe violence may be necessary to “save” the US, according to a new poll. Researchers at the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit, found that 30% of Republicans agreed with the statement “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country”. Among Americans who believe the 2020 election was “stolen” from Donald Trump, which it was not, 39% believe violence may be required. more...
Travis Gettys

The U.S. Department of Justice must investigate reports that members of Congress and their staffers had extensive contacts with two organizers of the "Stop the Steal" rallies that preceded the Jan. 6 insurrection. The organizers claim they met directly with Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and staffers for Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Madison Cawthorne (R-NC) and Louie Gohmert (R-TX), and justice correspondent Elie Mystal wrote in The Nation that the Justice Department must determine what role any of them might have played in coordinating the deadly riot. more...
Two sources are communicating with House investigators and detailed a stunning series of allegations to Rolling Stone, including a promise of a “blanket pardon” from the Oval Office
By Hunter Walker

As the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack heats up, some of the planners of the pro-Trump rallies that took place in Washington, D.C., have begun communicating with congressional investigators and sharing new information about what happened when the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Two of these people have spoken to Rolling Stone extensively in recent weeks and detailed explosive allegations that multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.

Rolling Stone separately confirmed a third person involved in the main Jan. 6 rally in D.C. has communicated with the committee. This is the first report that the committee is hearing major new allegations from potential cooperating witnesses. While there have been prior indications that members of Congress were involved, this is also the first account detailing their purported role and its scope. The two sources also claim they interacted with members of Trump’s team, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who they describe as having had an opportunity to prevent the violence. more...
Susan J. Demas, Michigan Advance

Michigan Senate Oversight Committee Chair Ed McBroom (R-Vulcan) was on a call with hundreds of GOP lawmakers days before the Jan. 6 insurrection with President Donald Trump and his legal advisers, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

Trump was on the call along lawyers John Eastman — who wrote a memo outlining how Vice President Mike Pence could disregard the 2020 Electoral College vote and install Trump for another term — and Rudy Giuliani, who Michigan House Republicans allowed to lead a long post-election hearing airing myriad baseless right-wing election conspiracy theories. more...
By Xander Landen

The editorial board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch sharply criticized House Republicans Saturday after the majority of them voted against approving a criminal contempt referral against Steve Bannon, an ex-White House adviser to former President Donald Trump. "For anyone who still needs it, most Republican House members last week provided more evidence that the GOP—once the 'law-and-order' party—is now the party that coddles criminals," the editorial board wrote in a piece published Saturday afternoon. more...
Azmi Haroun and Joseph Zeballos-Roig

All House Republicans voted against a bill on Tuesday that allowed for a two-month debt limit hike to stave off a default on the US's debt. The party-line vote was 219-206 in the House. House Republicans slammed it as a step that would unlock a wave of Democratic spending in the near future. The debt limit deals with the US's ability to pay its bills and doesn't authorize any fresh spending by Congress. more...
Former secretary of state says US is in midst of well-funded efforts to undermine American democracy
Oliver O'Connell

In a TV appearance on Monday, Hillary Clinton spoke about the prospect of Donald Trump running again for the presidency in 2024. “If he wants to be the [Republican] nominee, he will be the nominee,” the former secretary of state told the panel of ABC’s The View. Ms Clinton spoke about a range of political issues during the discussion, including saying that the US is still “in the midst of a concerted, well-funded, effort to undermine American democracy”. more...
By Bill McCarthy

Fox News host Will Cain falsely claimed the COVID-19 vaccines are more dangerous for children than COVID-19, citing an open-system database that is frequently misused to promote anti-vaccine misinformation.

"We know from VAERS reporting — Vaccine Adverse Effects Reporting — and although it's imperfect, we know from that, the risk to children from the vaccine outweighs the risk to COVID," Cain said on "Fox News Primetime" Oct. 1. "This comes in the form of hospitalizations." more...
By David Horsey | Seattle Times cartoonist

The latest and, perhaps, last James Bond movie with Daniel Craig portraying the legendary British spy is smashing box-office records as it gets a rolling opening across the world. That pretty much guarantees that, with or without Craig, the franchise will continue into its 26th iteration.

If the Bond writing team is running out of fresh ideas for an amoral, ruthless villain who wears expensive suits, has a strange appearance and hides out in a distinctive lair, they should consider casting Mitch McConnell, the U.S. Senate Republican leader from Kentucky. He’s got the tailored clothes. He’s got a face that reminds many people of a turtle. And his headquarters is right inside the U.S. Capitol — a perfect place to plot global chaos. more...
Republicans claim cap must be lifted to pay for Biden’s economic agenda – a sign of party’s approach to once non-partisan issues
Hugo Lowell in Washington

Top Republicans in the Senate are advancing a campaign of disinformation over the debt ceiling as they seek to distort the reasons for needing to raise the nation’s borrowing cap, after they dropped their blockade on averting a US debt default in a bipartisan manner.

The Senate on Thursday passed a bill to allow the debt ceiling to be raised by $480bn through early December, which the treasury department estimates will be enough to allow the government to temporarily avert an unprecedented default on $28tn of debt obligations. more...
Sarah K. Burris

As part of an epic takedown of Fox News host Tucker Carlson for his COVID conspiracy theories, MSNBC host Chris Hayes nailed the host for being a coward because he won't go after his own company for the mask and vaccine mandates. Carlson, along with Laura Ingraham, have raged against the vaccine, but refuse to say whether or not they are personally vaccinated. It is likely because Fox News has one of the strictest vaccine mandates and if people aren't vaccinated, they require people to be tested daily.

When Fox and other networks were in lockdown for safety, their hosts were doing shows from their own homes to protect themselves. "The calls are coming from inside the house," said Hayes. "Tucker Carlson, who works in news, doesn't seem to care one way or the other," if a report is true, said Hayes. "Do not underestimate how many lies are being pumped into people watching these shows." more...
By Arlette Saenz and Betsy Klein, CNN

(CNN) President Joe Biden on Wednesday is set to ramp up the pressure on Republicans as the nation's nears the deadline to raise the debt ceiling on Wednesday, as he looks to argue the GOP is putting the country at risk of a possible debt default by standing firm against raising the nation's debt limit. "The President will also reiterate the cost of any delay -- with each day of Republican obstruction and political games increasing the risk that even a near-miss default would result in more costs for middle-class families higher interest rate on auto and home loans, as well as credit cards," a White House official said. more...
By Melanie Zanona and Lauren Fox, CNN

(CNN) Republicans don't want the nation to default on its debts and they support more funding for roads and bridges. Yet they're fully prepared to oppose bills that would achieve both those goals.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is doubling down on his months-long threats to block any efforts to hike the debt ceiling, arguing Democrats control all the levers of power in Washington and have a responsibility to raise it on their own -- even though Republicans did so numerous times under former President Donald Trump with the help of Democrats.

Meanwhile, Republicans in the House are growing more entrenched in their opposition to a bipartisan infrastructure package that was crafted by members of the Senate GOP, warning its passage would pave the way for Democrats' massive economic and social spending bill. more...
The West Virginia and Arizona senators’ resistance threatens to upend Biden’s entire presidency – is self-preservation to blame?
Richard Luscombe

Donald Trump’s favorite insult for political opponents inside his own party is “Rino” – Republican in name only. By such logic, Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona are the epitome of Dinos, two elected Democrats whose dogged resistance to Joe Biden’s social agenda threatens/threatened to upend his entire presidency.

Their standoff with the party’s progressive wing over the price tag of Biden’s ambitious reform package has become almost more of a hazard to his legacy than anything the Republicans, currently in a narrow minority in both chambers of Congress, can throw at it. more...
Ben Winck and Joseph Zeballos-Roig

Republicans are blocking attempts by Democrats to renew the US's ability to pay its bills, pushing the US closer to the precipice of default. Congress has just 16 days to raise or suspend the debt ceiling to dodge what could be a catastrophic hit to the economy, ranging from delays in Social Security checks to seniors, turmoil in financial markets, and cuts to safety net programs like unemployment insurance and Medicaid. The world's trust in the dollar would fade. Interest rates would soar, lifting mortgage, car loan, and credit card payments. Ratings agency S&P would cut its rating to the worst-possible rank of D. more...
“These aren’t leaders of a political movement, they’re leaders of a cult. And they kill,” progressive PAC MeidasTouch says about its #TrumpCultKills spot.
By Lee Moran

Progressive PAC MeidasTouch calls out the “malignant force” of the GOP in its blistering new ad. The 2 1/2-minute spot, released Wednesday, slams the Republican Party for becoming a “misguided personality cult” in honor of ex-President Donald Trump.

The video highlights Trump’s catastrophic mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, noting how some GOP governors continue to “recklessly” ignore facts and sacrifice lives “in the callous pursuit of votes.” more...
TIM O'DONNELL

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) has suggested that his police reform talks with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) fell apart primarily because Democrats sought to defund the police by making departments ineligible for funding if they failed to meet certain criteria.

But a pair of prominent police organizations, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Fraternal Order of Police, appeared to push back against Scott's argument in a statement on Tuesday, though the senator wasn't mentioned by name. "Despite some media reports, at no point did any legislative draft propose 'defunding the police,'" the statement reads. "In fact, the legislation specifically provided additional funding to assist law enforcement agencies in training, agency accreditation, and data collection initiatives." more...
MSNBC

After the Senate failed to pass a key procedural vote to fund the government and avert a shutdown, Joe Scarborough and Jonathan Lemire discuss the "hypocrisy" of every Republican who refused to vote for the measure. "They're telling Americans they're going to let the country default on its debt, which would be economically devastating, because they're not going to pay their own bill," Scarborough says. video...
Jacob Pramuk

Congress is running out of time to prevent a shutdown and a default. Senate Republicans on Monday blocked a bill that would fund the government and suspend the U.S. debt ceiling, leaving Democrats scrambling to avoid a possible economic calamity.

The House-passed legislation would have funded the government into December and suspended the U.S. debt ceiling into December of next year, after the midterm congressional elections. more...
Democrats lack the necessary 10 GOP votes to avoid a filibuster on legislation that would keep the government doors open past Thursday.
By BURGESS EVERETT and MARIANNE LEVINE

Senate Republicans are poised to sink Democrats’ plans to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling on Monday evening, sending congressional leaders scrambling to avoid a government shutdown that would kick in Friday morning.

The GOP is set to reject a proposal to fund the government into December and lift the debt ceiling past next year’s midterms, a vote that needs the support of 10 Republicans to advance over a GOP filibuster. But only a handful of GOP senators are even considering it, presaging its immediate doom. more...
Republicans say the debt limit must be extended. They support the contents of the bill to which that extension is attached. And they're promising to block that vote. Here's why.
By Sahil Kapur

WASHINGTON — When the Senate votes Monday afternoon on legislation to fund the government and avert a catastrophic default on the debt, it is likely to be blocked by a Republican-led filibuster. As the U.S. hurtles toward an October deadline, Republicans have taken an unusual — if not unprecedented — position.

They support the contents of the bill, with the exception of the debt limit increase. They also say the debt ceiling must be extended, yet they promise to use the 60-vote threshold power to block it. They insist Democrats do that on a partisan basis. But top Democrats emphatically reject that. They say the debt ceiling has historically been raised on a bipartisan basis, and they won't let Republicans off the hook this time. more...
By Madeline Heim

Although Wisconsin Republicans passed a two-year budget that included $2 billion in tax cuts, they were quick to pounce on Democratic Gov. Tony Evers when he signed the measure in July.

The centerpiece of the $87.3 billion two-year spending plan was a reduction of the state’s third tax bracket to 5.3%, affecting about half of Wisconsin residents. At the time Evers signed the budget, he said it delivered on his campaign promise of a tax cut for middle-class families.

But GOP lawmakers weren’t happy with that characterization — because they’d written the tax cut-centered budget themselves, after throwing out Evers’ proposed version in the spring. more...
Ayelet Sheffey and Joseph Zeballos-Roig

As the White House stressed the urgency of raising the debt ceiling to avoid a government default, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday that the House would pass legislation to fund the government that includes a debt-limit suspension through the end of next year.

It was a dare to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who would need to lend ten Republican votes for it to avert the filibuster and clear the Senate. The Kentucky Republican was unfazed. more...
By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Monday unsealed criminal charges against two longtime Republican Party operatives, accusing them of illegally funneling a foreign campaign contribution to former President Donald Trump in 2016.

According to an indictment unsealed in federal court in the District of Columbia, Jesse Benton and Doug Wead "conspired to illegally funnel thousands of dollars of foreign money from a Russian foreign national into an election for the Office of President of the United States of America." more...
Opinion: The California recall offers more proof that Republicans will accept elections as legit only if they win. That's a sure way to destroy democracy.
Elvia Díaz | Arizona Republic

Republicans, like totalitarians, believe in elections. But only if they always win. New case in point? California, where voters on Tuesday appeared inclined to keep Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in a recall election.

Cue Larry Elder, the leading Republican to replace him, who started dropping unsubstantiated claims that the election was rigged against him. The only proof Elder offered was the fact that California voters were poised to pick Newsom over him or anyone else on the long list of possible replacements. more...
By Christina Zhao

Republican candidate Larry Elder, who has the best chance of unseating Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom in California's gubernatorial recall election, is already preparing to dispute the results with escalating talks of "voter fraud" in the days leading up to election day.

Ahead of Tuesday's recall election, Elder's campaign has created an election fraud section on its website where supporters can join a petition to demand a special session of the California legislature to investigate the results. The website also contains a link for supporters to report any alleged election fraud. more...
Republicans are the anti-American party now they want to control how a company runs it business.

By Kathryn Watson

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has signed a bill that aims to stop social media companies from banning users or nixing posts based solely on political opinions — the latest salvo by Republicans, who claim that these tech giants are censoring conservative users.

The new law requires social media companies with more than 50 million monthly users to disclose their content moderation policies and institute an appeals process. It would also require such social media companies to remove illegal content within 48 hours. more...
By Mark Niquette

Without ever mentioning Donald Trump by name, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie gave a stinging critique of the Republican Party the former president leads, saying it must focus on the truth and not conspiracy theories and false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

“Pretending we won when we lost is a waste of time, and energy and credibility,” Christie said in a speech on Thursday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, part of a speaker series on the future of the GOP. more...
By Elliot Hannon

President Joe Biden informed the country Thursday that the administration was about to get far more aggressive in combating the continued surge in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, all of which have been fueled by the delta variant and a *certain* segment of the American population’s unwillingness to get vaccinated. That will mean mandatory vaccinations (or weekly testing) for all federal employees and a so-called employer mandate that will apply to American businesses with more than a hundred employees. The mandates could impact as many as 80 million American workers or roughly two-thirds of the American workforce. Many companies, such as McDonalds and Delta Airlines, have already required their employees be vaccinated; now, companies that fail to adhere to the mandate could face penalties up to $14,000 per infraction. more...
Opinion: Gov. Doug Ducey is upset at President Biden's 'dictatorial approach' on COVID-19. Funny, I hear the same thing every day from cities and schools ... about Gov. Ducey.
Laurie Roberts | Arizona Republic

Gov. Doug Ducey is pushing back hard against President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate, saying the president has no business mandating vaccines or telling companies how to run their operations.

“This dictatorial approach is wrong, un-American and will do far more harm than good,” Ducey tweeted. “How many workers will be displaced? How many kids kept out of classrooms? How many businesses fined? The vaccine is and should be a choice. We must and will push back.” Ducey ... fuming about a “dictatorial approach” on COVID-19? OK, now that's sorta funny. more...
What is McCarthy and Republicans trying to hide?

House leader Kevin McCarthy threatened retaliation against tech companies that share records with the committee
Hugo Lowellin

Top Republicans under scrutiny for their role in the events of 6 January have embarked on a campaign of threats and intimidation to thwart a Democratic-controlled congressional panel that is scrutinizing the Capitol attack and opening an expanded investigation into Donald Trump.

The chairman of the House select committee into the violent assault on the Capitol, Bennie Thompson, in recent days demanded an array of Trump executive branch records related to the insurrection, as members and counsel prepared to examine what Trump knew of efforts to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win. more...
What is McCarthy and Republicans trying to hide?

By Myah Ward

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday threatened to use a future GOP majority to punish companies that comply with the House’s Jan. 6 investigators, warning that “a Republican majority will not forget.”

McCarthy called out Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for what he called “attempts to strong-arm private companies to turn over individuals’ private data.” He asserted that such a forfeiture of information would “put every American with a phone or computer in the crosshairs of a surveillance state run by Democrat politicians.” more...
David Edwards

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) was caught on camera admitting that President Joe Biden received "7 million more popular votes" to defeat former President Donald Trump. The admission was made as part of a recording that was released on Wednesday by Lauren Windsor. In the video, Johnson says that there's nothing that Republicans could have done on Jan. 6 to stop the election from being certified.

"What the president should have done," Johnson explained, "and he'd be in a much better position today, had he just, when the Electoral College voted, said, 'I don't agree with it, I think there's still fraud, but I accept the results of the constitutional process and the Electoral College vote, OK?" more...
The Republican Party is the party of the KKK they are using the same tactics the KKK used to prevent people of color from voting.

Benjamin Swasey

Months of partisan battles in Texas concluded late Thursday as Republican House members passed new voting restrictions, moving the legislation closer to the governor's desk. The vote in the Texas House on the nearly 50-page bill, SB1, was 79-37 (mostly on party lines) and follows historic efforts by Democrats to block it. more...
Why should Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott have all the fun?
By Bess Levin

Over the past few months there’s been a lot of focus on the COVID situations in Florida and Texas, and for good reason: Not only are cases surging in those states, but their respective governors, Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott, are seemingly doing everything in their powers to ensure their constituents contract the highly contagious virus, from banning local mask mandates to insane new rules like the one wherein Texas schools no longer have to conduct contact tracing or let parents know if a student has tested positive. more...
Stunning charges against a top donor and the state GOP chair’s resignation have left the party in turmoil.
By DAVID SIDERS and PAUL DEMKO

Less than a year ago, Minnesota looked every bit a swing state. Donald Trump was pouring millions of dollars into his campaign there, after nearly flipping the state in 2016, Republicans were making inroads in the ancestrally Democratic Iron Range. In the Twin Cities suburbs, nervous Democrats feared protests following the police murder of George Floyd could turn some voters to the GOP.

That all fell apart with Joe Biden’s victory in November. And nine months later, the resignation of the Minnesota Republican Party’s embattled chair, Jennifer Carnahan, on Thursday night marked a new low for a state party in decline. more...
Dan Patrick refuses to apologise for false claim while Texas experiences highest hospitalisation rates since January
Martin Pengelly

Dan Patrick, the Republican lieutenant governor of Texas, has refused to apologise for blaming rising Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths on unvaccinated African Americans, comments one Black Houston official called “racist and flat out wrong”. Doubling down on his remarks to Fox News, Patrick blamed “Democrat social media trolls” and said “Democrats continue to play politics with people’s lives”. Sylvester Turner, the Democratic mayor of Houston, who is African American, said Patrick’s comments were “offensive and should not be ignored”. more...
CNN

CNN's Laura Coates and Dr. Cedric Dark discuss Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's false claim during a recent interview on Fox News that Black people were to blame for the recent wave of coronavirus cases. video...
Kelsey Vlamis

A former national security official blamed the Trump administration and Stephen Miller's "racist hysteria" for impeding the visa application process for Afghans who worked with the US.

Olivia Troye worked as the homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to Vice President Mike Pence. In a Twitter thread Friday, she blasted the Trump administration for its handling of the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) programs that provide a path to US residency for locals who worked with the US government in Afghanistan. more...
DeSantis is sanctioning schools for protecting students and teachers. Instead of protecting students and teachers, DeSantis is putting them at risk.

The DeSantis administration contends the Alachua and Broward county public schools do not allow parents to opt their children out of the mask mandate.
By Allan Smith

The Florida Board of Education voted Tuesday to sanction two public school districts for defying Gov. Ron DeSantis' order banning mask mandates in schools. The actual penalties by the board, which comprises DeSantis appointees, are yet to be determined, but the votes marked the first punishments for districts that chose to mandate masks amid a surge in Covid cases from the delta variant of the coronavirus as the school year gets underway. The DeSantis administration contends that the Alachua and Broward county public school districts do not allow parents to freely opt their children out of the mask mandate, instead requiring doctor's notes for students to bypass masking. more...
Newt Gingrich, Stephen Miller, Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene, among others, all keep alluding to the same vicious, violent idea.
Wajahat Ali

The hoods are off, and Republicans are embracing the white supremacist “replacement theory.” If you’re dismissing this as fear-mongering or click-bait, you probably missed Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House and renowned adulterer, espousing replacement theory rhetoric on Fox News earlier this week while talking to host Maria Baritromo, who always has time to offer a platform to dangerous conspiracy peddling. Speaking about Mexican immigrants coming to America during the pandemic, Gingrich said the “radical left” wants to “get rid of the rest of us” and would “love to drown traditional, classic Americans with as many people as they can who know nothing of American history, nothing of American tradition, nothing of the rule of law.” more...
The voting machine company filed suits against Newsmax, OAN, and Patrick Byrne.
By Olivia Rubin

Dominion Voting Systems on Tuesday morning filed three $1.6 billion defamation lawsuits against two pro-Trump media networks and an outspoken Trump ally, the latest in a string of suits from the company against those it says pushed false accusations that the company helped rig the 2020 election. The complaints were filed against Newsmax and One America News Network, as well as against former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, who is an outspoken supporter of the former president. more...
Lies, lies and more lies from the party of lies and alternative facts.

By Barry Saunders

One of my favorite bumper stickers — and a personal philosophy — says If at first you don’t succeed – blame whoever ain’t here. That seems to be the motto of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican leaders when it comes to the resurgence of COVID-19 and its variant strains. The re-emergence of a new strain of the disease that a few short months ago seemed en route to eradication couldn’t possibly have anything to do with their refusal to follow CDC guidelines and implement mask mandates or, with some, discouraging people on vaccinations, could it? more...
Ron DeSantis is putting American lives at risk.

Cheryl Teh

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is threatening to withhold school board members' salaries who dare to defy his mask ban. The governor's threat follows an executive order he signed on July 31, saying that mask mandates are prohibited in Florida schools. The executive order went into effect immediately and noted that schools run the risk of losing funding if they choose to impose face-covering requirements. Now DeSantis is taking it a step further. On August 9, he released a statement to local CBS affiliate CBS Miami, saying that school board members and superintendents who defy his executive order will face "financial consequences." more...
Some party leaders blamed the former president in the charged moments after the insurrection – but are now embarking on a campaign of revisionism
Hugo Lowell

Top Republicans in Congress are embarking on a new campaign of revisionism seven months after the attack on the Capitol, absolving Donald Trump of responsibility and blaming the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, for the 6 January insurrection perpetrated by a mob of Trump supporters. Some House and Senate Republican leaders stated in the charged moments immediately following the attack that Trump was squarely to blame, and amid blood and shattered glass at the US Capitol, some even considered his removal. “The president bears responsibility,” the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, said of Trump at the time, demanding that he “accept his share of responsibility”. more...
H. Scott Apley’s Facebook page was filled with anti-mask, anti-vaccine content until he was suddenly hospitalized on Sunday.
Justin Rohrlich

A GOP official from Texas who regularly espoused anti-vaccine and anti-mask views online has died from COVID-19, five days after posting a meme on Facebook questioning the wisdom of getting inoculated against COVID. Dickinson City Council member and State Republican Executive Committee member H. Scott Apley, 45, died in a local hospital around 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help Apley’s family with expenses. He was admitted to the facility in Galveston on Sunday with “pneumonia-like symptoms,” and was hooked up to a ventilator as his condition worsened. His wife was also infected, the family said. more...
By Independent TV

Jamie Raskin corners GOP congressman who said Capitol rioters looked like normal tourists in fiery clash. Maryland Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin cornered GOP Georgia congressman Andrew Clyde, calling him out on his statement that some Capitol rioters looked like tourists, in a heated exchange. During a hearing of the rules committee in the House on Tuesday night, Mr Raskin brought up Mr Clyde’s statement from May, in which he said that if you looked at the footage from 6 January, “you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit”. more...
Yahoo!News

The top Republican in the US House of Representatives faced calls to apologize or resign Sunday after joking about hitting speaker Nancy Pelosi in the head with a gavel. It was the latest round in a nasty spat between the Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy and Pelosi, the chamber's top Democrat. Last week Pelosi called her Republican counterpart a "moron" for opposing mask mandates to fight the Covid-19 pandemic as the Delta variant causes a surge in cases in America. At a fundraising dinner Saturday night in Tennessee, McCarthy spoke with optimism about prospects for his party retaking the House in mid-term elections next year. more...
Andrew Solender Forbes Staff

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Sunday said there is “no doubt” former President Donald Trump instigated the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, making her one of just a handful of Republicans still willing to highlight Trump’s culpability in the incident. more...
By Scott Wong

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Thursday repeated his claims that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats should be faulted for the violent insurrection carried out by a pro-Trump mob. It's an argument McCarthy and Republicans have kept going back to this week as four police officers have publicly called them out for not accepting responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack, which led to five deaths and 140 officers injured. The four officers testified on Tuesday that reckless words and actions by former President Trump and his GOP allies were to blame for the Jan. 6 attack. more...
Many Republicans don't see the difference between Democrats, Liz Cheney, and Adam Kinzinger. It says a lot about the state of the contemporary GOP.
By Steve Benen

It's been a couple of days since the bipartisan House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack held a gripping hearing, hearing testimony from police officers who shared their terrifying experiences during the insurrectionist riot. For most congressional Republicans, the hearing was irrelevant and better left ignored. What rank-and-file GOP lawmakers cared far more about was the members of their conference who participated in the process. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) invited Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) to serve on the investigatory panel, and the House Republicans agreed. more...
Analysis by John Blake, CNN

(CNN) If you're trying to figure out why so many conservatives despise critical race theory, here's some historical context you should remember: White conservatives oppose critical race theory -- only when it's applied to Black people. But many have no problem adopting some of CRT's language and core insights when complaining that contemporary America discriminates against White people. This is the audacious double standard that's often overlooked in the current debate over critical race theory. Many White conservatives roll their eyes when Black people claim that systemic racism exists, that racism is baked into the nation's policies and legal system, and that it can't be reduced to individual prejudice -- all key CRT concepts. more...
House Freedom Caucus wants to cancel Cheney and Kinzinger for trying to get the truth about Jan 6 2021.

The effort to remove the lawmakers comes after the two Republicans accepted appointments from Pelosi to be on the Jan. 6 select committee.
By Teaganne Finn

WASHINGTON — The conservative House Freedom Caucus is calling for the removal of Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois from the Republican caucus, an effort to punish the pair for joining the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Cheney and Kinzinger were added to the committee by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a bid to ensure some Republican voices. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy initially named five additional Republicans to join the committee, but when Pelosi rejected two of them because of their past remarks, McCarthy withdraw all his picks, leaving only Cheney and Kinzinger. more...
How many people have died because of Republican governors? How many more will die because of Republican governors Why do Republicans continue to put American lives at risk? Do they hate Americans?

By Reid Wilson

Republican governors are rejecting new mask recommendations the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued Tuesday, casting the health guidance as a step back amid a push to vaccinate millions of Americans that is already struggling in their states. In statements and public comments, governors said their states would not return to the mask orders issued in 2020. “The CDC’s new guidance suggesting that vaccinated people wear masks indoors flies in the face of the public health goals that should guide the agency’s decision making,” Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) said in a statement. “The State of Nebraska will not be adopting their mask guidance.” more...
By Holmes Lybrand, Tara Subramaniam, Marshall Cohen and Daniel Dale, CNN

Washington (CNN) On the day a House select committee held its first public hearing to glean facts about the January 6 attack at the US Capitol, some Republican lawmakers continued to deceive the public about both the attack and its aftermath. Republican members of Congress made false or misleading claims at press conferences and in TV appearances on Wednesday, all part of their counterprogramming for the nationally televised House hearing that featured searing, emotional testimony from four police officers who responded to the attack. One GOP press conference was held by the party's House leadership and a second was held by a group of right-wing members of the House caucus. more...
“I think it's a disgrace,” Cheney said of Republican leaders who now aren't acknowledging what happened during the Capitol insurrection.
Kadia Goba Buzz Feed News Reporter

WASHINGTON — The two Republicans on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection railed against leaders in their own party on Tuesday after four police officers testified about their experiences. In their remarks and questioning, Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, while repeatedly insisting that Congress needs to determine what exactly happened that day and who was responsible so it doesn’t happen again, castigated Republicans who have downplayed the insurrection. more...
By Holmes Lybrand, Tara Subramaniam and Janie Boschma, CNN

Washington (CNN) When the House Select Committee investigating the events of January 6 convenes for the first time, it will be against a backdrop of Republican objections and falsehoods. After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's picks to serve on the committee, leading McCarthy to pull his five GOP members from the committee, several Republicans have characterized the investigation as a partisan attack, attempting to cast the narrative in their favor much like many of their colleagues have tried to do about January 6 itself. The false narratives about the events of January 6 have evolved over the past few months, with different politicians adding new, more wild conspiracy theories to the mix and trying to use congressional hearings meant to investigate the riot instead to promote their rewriting of history. more...
Once again, republicans show their love hate relationship with cancel culture, they love to cancel, but hate when they are canceled.

By Ryan Nobles and Melanie Zanona, CNN

(CNN) A growing group of rank-and-file House Republicans wants House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and GOP leadership to punish Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for accepting a position from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve on the select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. The push to seek punishment rose to a new level on Sunday, after Pelosi announced that Kinzinger had accepted her invitation to join the committee. Initially, most rank-and-file Republicans were content to let Cheney serve without much of a fight, but Kinzinger's addition has changed the conversation and has put a new level of pressure on McCarthy. more...
Christina Wilkie, Kevin Breuninger

WASHINGTON – A key procedural vote on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan failed to pass the full Senate on Wednesday, after Republicans united in opposition to moving ahead with an unfinished bill. The vote failed 49-51, with all Republicans lined up against it. The measure, a placeholder for the eventual bill, needed 60 votes to clear a key procedural hurdle. In an evenly split Senate, Democrats needed 10 GOP votes to advance it. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., changed his vote to “no” in order to be able to bring the vote up again. more...
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