Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Liz Cheney explains how Trump was told his claims were lies — but wouldn't stop pushing

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) told reporters outside of the House Select Committee hearing room on Tuesday that the testimony heard was "compelling" and that all of those who testified were trying to simply do their jobs to uphold the election.

"I think that you've seen throughout the hearings that we are putting forward very clearly, a number of instances, in which there are serious questions about the actions of the former president," Cheney explained. "We'll continue to do so."

She then noted that the testimony on Tuesday was "clearly compelling," and included both Republicans and Democrats "being in a position to say that they did their duty. They did what was right, in the face of — you know, Donald Trump had been told multiple times by his attorney general, by his deputy attorney general, by his campaign officials, that what he was saying was not true, that these were lies. Yet, he continued to push them."

Cheney spoke at the top of the hearing saying that former President Trump "did not care about these threats of violence" and said, "we cannot let America become a nation of conspiracy theories and thug violence."

At the close of the hearing, Cheney called the United States a "nation of laws" and that institutions don't defend themselves. "Individuals do that," she said.

We also had been reminded what it means to take an oath under God to the Constitution," Cheney continued.

She also called out former White House officials who continue to refuse to cooperate and testify before Congress despite orders to do so.

"Mark Meadows has hidden behind President Trump's claims of executive privilege and immunity from subpoenas," Cheney said. "We are engaged now in litigation with Mr. Meadows."

She named former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, who has yet to speak to the committee.

https://www.rawstory.com/liz-cheney-trump-election-lies/

[Rick Plant]

Georgia election worker tears up as she describes her grandmother being attacked by Trump supporters

Wandrea "Shaye" Moss was among the election workers who were targeted by former President Donald Trump and his allies who lied about her and her mother trying to change the election.

Through tears and at times shaking, Moss talked about what her mother and grandmother experienced as supporters of Trump knocked on their door at all hours of the day and night.

Her mother, "Lady Ruby" Freeman, talked about her efforts as a small business owner of "Lady Ruby's," which she has on t-shirts that come in many colors. She said she's now scared to wear the shirts saying her name.

"Now I won't even introduce myself by my name anymore. I get nervous when I bump into someone I know in the grocery store who says my name," Freeman said I'm worried about who is listening. I get nervous when I have to give my name for food orders. I'm always concerned of who is around me. I've lost my name and I've lost my reputation, I've lost my sense of security, all because a group of people starting with number 45 and his ally Rudy Giuliani decided to scapegoat me and my daughter Shaye to push their own lies about how the presidential election was stolen."

For Moss, it's turned her life upside down.

"It's turned my life upside down. I no longer give out my business card. I don't transfer calls. I don't want anyone knowing my name," said Moss. "I don't want to go anywhere with my mom because she might yell my name out over the grocery aisle or something. I don't go to the grocery store at all. I haven't been anywhere at all. I've gained about 60 pounds. I just don't do anything anymore. I don't want to go anywhere. I second guess everything that I do. It has affected my life in a major way. In every way, all because of lies. Me doing my job. Same thing I've been doing forever."

At one point, she recalled Trump's supporters trying to push into her grandmother's house to do a citizen's arrest claiming she was harboring Moss. She was sent dozens of pizzas in the middle of the night, which then delivery people expected her to pay for.

"I received a call from my grandmother. This woman is my everything. I've never even heard her or seen her cry ever in my life," said Moss. "And she called me screaming at the top of her lungs like, 'Shaye! Oh, my God, Shaye!' Just freaking me out, saying that people were at her home and they -- you know, they knocked on the door and of course, she opened it and saw who was there, who it was. And they just started pushing their way through claiming that they were coming in to make a citizens arrest, they needed to find me and my mom, they knew we were there. And she was just screaming and didn't know what do. And I wasn't there, so, you know, I just felt so helpless and so horrible for her. And she was just screaming. I told her to close the door, don't open the door for anyone.'

Ruby Freeman sobbed in the final moments of the testimony saying that she was targeted by the president of the United States and asking if people truly understand how horrible that is.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Republican gets emotional at Jan. 6 hearing as he recounts horrendous attacks from Trump supporters

Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican, explained the harassment and intimidation he and his family endured during the fourth public hearing over the Jan. 6 insurrection on Tuesday.

Bowers testified about the pressure he faced from Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani to reverse his state's results. He mentioned that he has been targeted by Donald Trump's supporters and QAnon after refusing to go along with the scheme.

Bowers said they called him "a pervert and a corrupt politician and blaring loudspeakers in my neighborhood and leaving literature both on my property and arguing and threatening with neighbors and with myself." That has become a key accusation by the right, which has begun falsely alleging anyone they don't like is either a pedophile or is somehow "grooming" children.

He went on to recall a man with a gun who was threatening his neighbor. The man had "three bars on his chest," which indicates he was a member of the Three Percenter militia.

Bowers mentioned that at the time his daughter was "gravely ill" and was very upset about what she was seeing her parents handle. It was at that point, as he also mentioned his wife, that Bowers began to tear up.

"And my wife was and is a valiant person, very strong, quiet. Very strong woman," he said with a pause. "So, it was disturbing." He paused again. "It was disturbing."

Bowers is a sculptor by trade, according to an article on him. He's also a beekeeper and orchardist, but most enjoys spending time with his grandchildren.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

"He targeted me...a proud American citizen."

Former Fulton County, Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman testifies to the Jan. 6 committee of being the target of former Pres. Trump and his allies' false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election.

[Rick Plant]

Here's another right wing Republican trying to gaslight us again.

Aren't they pathetic? 

1,292 pounds of fentanyl was seized at our southern border in April. That's a good thing because those drugs never made it in the United States.

Bill Hagerty is trying to gaslight us calling the seizing of drugs a "crisis". That's not a "crisis". President Biden's border policies are working to keep dangerous drugs out of America. That's exactly what we want.

What's his ridiculous argument? He says the seizing of drugs in 2022 is a 420% increase compared to April 2020 under Criminal Donald. That means Criminal Donald was failing to keep these dangerous drugs out of America. So in this absurd tweet, Hagerty managed to show the world that Criminal Donald failed to seize fentanyl with his disastrous policies.

President Biden is getting the job done by not allowing these dangerous drugs to enter into America. That also debunks the phony "open border" lie that the radical right pushes each day in the right wing media.   

This is right wing propaganda. All these right wingers push similar talking points like this to gaslight Americans. It's very similar to the official GOP Twitter account that tweeted the same gaslighting lie. The only goal of the GOP is to falsely attack Biden when he's getting the job done.

Absolutely pathetic.       

Senator Bill Hagerty @SenatorHagerty

1,292 pounds of fentanyl—which killed more than 100,000 Americans last year—was seized at our southern border in April—a more than 420% increase compared to April 2020. This is a crisis, and Biden needs to address it now

https://twitter.com/SenatorHagerty/status/1533608821985271810



Trump administration struggles to confront fentanyl crisis
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/fentanyl-epidemic-trump-administration/

[Rick Plant]

Arizona official details threats from Trump supporters: ‘They set up a guillotine for me’

CNN's Erin Burnett interviewed to election official who received threats for failing to go along with Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Burnett interviewed Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) and Maricopa County Board of Supervisor's Chair Bill Gates (R).

Benson argued that election officials were emboldened to fight for democracy in the face of the threats.

"We took oaths of office to support and defend the Constitution. We know the truth and law and history of this country is on our side. We know standing up for democracy is what every American needs to do right now so I'm proud to join my colleagues on the front lines even with the threats," Benson said. "In times like this, that is what protecting and preserving democracy requires."

"Look. here's the situation," Gates said. "We got a job to do. We got important elections to run in 2022 and we cannot let these people intimidate us."

"We have to be safe, but the threats have come in. You mentioned many of them before. They set up a guillotine for my colleagues and at the Arizona state capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and we got to press forward," he explained. "I agree with Secretary Benson, I think a lot of us are as inspired and emboldened as ever and seeing new people, young people, who want to get involved in the business of running elections. It's inspiring."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Ron Johnson tried to hand fake elector info to Mike Pence on Jan. 6, panel reveals

A top aide said the Wisconsin Republican senator wanted to give Pence the list of pro-Trump electors as he prepared to certify the 2020 election.



A top aide to Sen. Ron Johnson attempted to arrange a handoff of false, pro-Trump electors from the senator to Mike Pence just minutes before the then-vice president began to count electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021.

The aide, Sean Riley, told Pence’s legislative director Chris Hodgson that Johnson wanted to hand Pence lists of the fake electors from Michigan and Wisconsin for Pence to introduce during the counting of electoral votes that certified Joe Biden’s win. The attempt was revealed in text messages obtained by the Jan. 6 select committee during its fourth public hearing on Tuesday.

“Do not give that to him,” Hodgson replied.

The attempted handoff shows just how much former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to lean on Pence to introduce false slates of electors that could have thrown the 2020 election from Biden to Donald Trump. The committee laid out an intense pressure campaign, led primarily by Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani, to push state legislatures to appoint pro-Trump electors and override the will of voters in their states.

In video and live testimony, state legislative leaders in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Michigan — all Republicans — described repeated, sometimes daily pressure from Trump and his allies in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Michigan State Senate leader Mike Shirkey recalled in video testimony how, after Trump tweeted out his phone number, he received thousands of messages from Trump supporters asking him to appoint Michigan’s electors through the legislature.

Arizona State House speaker Rusty Bowers rejected similar pressure from Trump.

“You are asking me to do something that is counter to my oath,” he recalled saying.

The panel drew a direct connection between the events of Jan. 6 and the months-long effort by Trump and Giuliani to browbeat state legislative leaders. Even without the compliance of those lawmakers, Trump pushed the Republican National Committee to help identify and coordinate false slates of electors in the states.

In fact, Trump had called RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel and handed the phone to attorney John Eastman, an architect of Trump’s plan to remain in power, according to newly revealed video of her testimony to the committee. Eastman urged her to help identify false electors to meet and cast votes for Trump on Dec. 14, 2020, when the legitimate members of the Electoral College were required to meet and vote.

“He turned the call over to Mr. Eastman, who then proceeded to talk about the importance of the RNC helping the campaign gather contingent electors in case legal challenges that were ongoing change the result,” McDaniel said in video testimony.

Under Trump’s plan, Pence would be presented with competing slates of electors — the official results certified by the governors and those certified by state legislators — and he would assert the extraordinary power to choose which slates to count. But no state legislature responded to Trump’s demand, and Pence, without any genuine controversy, rejected the scheme as illegal.

The legality of the plan was at the heart of Tuesday afternoon’s hearing, led in part by panel member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

“The system held, but barely,” Schiff said in his opening remarks.

During the hearing, another theme emerged: State legislative leaders pleaded with Trump and Giuliani for any evidence to support their sweeping claims of fraud and irregularities. But Giuliani, while insisting the evidence existed, never provided it. Trump attorneys Cleta Mitchell and Eastman discussed the absence of such evidence in emails on Jan. 2 and Jan. 3.

Asked about the text messages displayed by the select committee, Johnson called it a “non-story.”

The senator said he was “aware” that his office had received a package but had “no idea” who delivered it. Nevertheless, he said his office attempted to facilitate the delivery of the package from Johnson to Pence, but ultimately did not after Pence’s team rejected it.

“I was aware that we got this package and that somebody wanted us to deliver to the vice president,” Johnson said. “We reached out. They didn’t want it, we didn’t deliver it.”

Johnson said his chief of staff “did the right thing” by attempting to arrange the delivery, adding that it all “took place in a span of a few minutes.”

Notably, Johnson held his own hearing on purported election fraud in mid-December 2020 and was accused by Democrats of spreading misinformation.

Trump-aligned lawyers concocted the effort, leaning on fringe constitutional theory and the guidance of Eastman. He acknowledged in emails obtained by the select committee that the Pence plan would be “dead on arrival” without the backing of state legislatures — yet he pushed ahead anyway, suggesting that the confusion around alternate electors would give Pence enough cover to act.

Trump’s own White House counsel’s office also raised doubts about the plan, according to testimony released by the select panel in court filings. And in the days before Jan. 6, Pence’s chief counsel Greg Jacob engaged in an intense debate with Eastman, contending that not a single justice of the Supreme Court would back his plan — a point he said Eastman reluctantly conceded.

Other witnesses testified about Trump’s pressure on Tuesday, including Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whom Trump famously told on Jan. 2, 2021, to help him “find” the 11,000 votes he needed to win the state. Neither Raffensperger nor GOP legislators in Georgia complied with Trump’s push, and his effort in Georgia triggered an ongoing investigation by the Fulton County district attorney.

Members of Trump’s inner circle began contemplating the notion of turning to state legislatures even before the election was called for Biden. On Nov. 5, 2020, Mitchell — who had been leading preelection preparations for Trump’s legal team — reached out to Eastman with a request.

"John — what would you think of producing a legal memo outlining the constitutional role of state legislators in designating electors?” Mitchell wondered. “Rather than governors, the US Constitution vests that responsibility with state legislators. … why couldn’t legislatures reclaim that constitutional duty, and designate the electors — rather than delegating to governors.”

Eastman wrote a memo later that month, which was then forwarded to the Oval Office by Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, according to documents obtained by the Jan. 6 select committee. As Trump’s legal challenges to the election began to fail and states began certifying Biden’s victory, Eastman began consulting directly with state legislators, encouraging some to simply retabulate their popular votes in order to show Trump in the lead.

The goal was ultimately to present Pence with an apparent controversy: competing slates of electors certified by different government bodies — governors and legislators. Jacob, Pence’s chief counsel, told the vice president at the time that had any state legislatures certified an alternative slate the outcome might’ve been different.

"A reasonable argument might further be made that when resolving a dispute between competing electoral slates, Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution places a firm thumb on the scale on the side of the State legislature,” he wrote in a memo obtained by POLITICO.

Even as rioters swarmed the Capitol on Jan. 6 and sent Pence, Jacob and lawmakers into hiding, Eastman leaned on Pence to single-handedly delay the count of electoral votes, citing the possibility that the Pennsylvania legislature would reconvene and adopt an alternative slate. But Pence and his team came to view the delay as a violation of the law that governs the transfer of power and the counting of electoral votes.

Eastman’s correspondence throughout the post-election period, including with another pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, shows the two grappling with the challenge of convincing state legislatures to adopt Trump slates of electors and building it into their plans. The two men helped contemplate the Trump campaign’s effort to assemble pro-Trump electors to meet on Dec. 14, 2020, and cast ballots as though they were the true electors from their states. Those false certificates have drawn scrutiny from federal prosecutors. Eastman and other Republicans have contended that those meetings were necessary in case any courts sided with Trump and tipped the outcome in his favor.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/21/jan-6-panel-trump-overturn-2020-election-00040816