Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Conservative columnist recognizes weaponizing Christianity in the GOP might not have been the best idea



Conservative columnist Gary Abernathy has a history working in Republican politics, but as he sees the GOP's new holy war he writes that he sees emerging into a movement for Christian nationalism.

Writing in the Washington Post Wednesday, Abernathy talked about the small church he went to as a child with about 75 people on an average Sunday. The sermons were about the message of Christianity with a touch of fire and brimstone for good measure. He noted that only on occasion was there a commentary on the Christian "underpinnings" of the country with quotes of Founding Fathers saying the word "God." It wasn't about rage over a political party or policies being good or evil.

"But in the wake of Roe v. Wade and other perceived attacks on that Old-Time Religion by an increasingly liberal world, Christianity had by the 1980s become politically weaponized, with 'Christian soldiers' mostly aligning with the GOP. That war rages today," he wrote.

In retrospect, Abernathy realizes that turning Christianity into a conservative political movement perhaps wasn't the best idea. It hasn't done well for Christianity either, with a large number of Americans leaving the religion, according to the Pew Research. The columnist thinks this is likely due to the most vocal practitioners weaponizing a faith that was once based on compassion, peace and love.

"It’s natural for Christianity to exist in a state of tension within an inclusive democracy," he wrote. "Consider Jesus’ Great Commission to 'go and make disciples of all nations,' which includes, of course, this nation. By scripture, Christians are not encouraged to just live and let live. But our Constitution says otherwise."

He went on to say that Christians struggle with how to impact the world they live in, deciding whether to attend the school board meetings or home school children. What continues among right-wing nationalists is that the United States has "a special spiritual purpose." He claimed that Black churches fighting for civil rights in the 1950s and 60s employed ministers that would today be considered "Christian nationalists" and dangerous.

What he neglects to understand is that civil rights activists fought for themselves to be included as equals just as they are under God. Christian Nationalism today doesn't say that, far from it. It's a holy war to force the will and beliefs of a bastardized version of Christianity onto others.

"For many White Republicans, who are typically identified as the movement’s drivers," Abernathy continued, "the recent focus on Christian nationalism is the latest way to call their very existence a threat, close on the heels of accusations of racism, fascism and being 'MAGA Republicans,' defined in changing ways but always negatively, by President Biden." Biden is a devout Catholic and a Christian who implements much of the morality and values of his faith in expressing compassion for others.

He cited Republicans like Doug Mastriano, who was shown in a Rolling Stone video praying officials would "on the sixth of January … rise up with boldness." Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) proclaimed herself a Christian nationalist on a podcast.

Abernathy advocated, however, that "what is asked in prayer or otherwise invoked of heaven should never disturb anyone. God often answers, 'No.' An individual’s personal belief system, whether based on religion or other guiding principles, informs their political actions. That will never change. But because Christianity is and will long be the predominant religion in the United States, it is important that Christians constantly remind themselves not to impose their beliefs on others by weight of law or strength of numbers. The deal we made long ago for the freedom to worship as we see fit was to guarantee that same right to people of all religions — or no religion at all."

Read the full column at the Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/14/christian-nationalism-religious-politicization/

[Rick Plant]

Trump calls into pro-January 6 rally at DC jail — and gets interrupted by heckler



January 6 attackers and militia members are being treated as martyrs by supporters of Donald Trump as well as the former president himself, The Washingtonian reported.

A rally at the jail for those awaiting trial for sedition and the violent beatings of police officers drew small crowds on Tuesday evening. The group appeared to be around six people contained in barricades.

The mother of Ashli Babbitt, who was shot after breaking through the doors into the Speaker's chambers, was on hand to take the call from the ex-president. He was able to interrupt speaker "John aka DJ Jerome, the MAGA muscleman" who was making jokes about Prince Andrew adopting the dogs he'd given to Queen Elizabeth before her death.

Babbitt's mother held a microphone to the speaker of her cell phone as the group listened to Trump talk about the Jan. 6 suspect being "a terrible thing that has happened to a lot of people that are being treated very, very unfairly” and attacked the fact that video of U.S. Capitol Police officer who shot Babbitt as she climbed through the barricaded door after breaking the window appeared on television. He called the television video "disgraceful," but did not appear to be referencing the actual death.

“We’re with you," Trump promised conspiracy theorists who still believe he's the rightful president. "We’re working with a lot of different people on this and we can’t let this happen, this has never happened before." The remark appeared to be a reference to the Jan. 6 prisoners and not that political violence garners prison time. “It’s a disgrace to our country and it just cannot be allowed to happen.”

A heckler then interrupted the call and they quickly ended it.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

New York MAGA election official arrested by FBI on 12 counts of voter fraud



MAGA Republicans all over the United States have been falsely accusing Democrats of committing widespread voter fraud and stealing elections, and many of them are, in the 2022 midterms, campaigning on the false and thoroughly debunked claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump — including gubernatorial nominees such as Arizona's Kari Lake and Pennsylvania's Doug Mastriano. But in upstate New York, according to the New York Daily News, a Republican elections board commissioner, Jason T. Schofield, was arrested on Tuesday, September 13 "on charges of" allegedly "carrying out a brazen ballot scheme that allowed him to cast votes in voters' names."

The New York Daily News' Tim Balk reports, "Jason Schofield applied for absentee ballots for voters who did not want to vote, and, in some instances, personally pushed voters to sign absentee ballot envelopes, positioning himself or his associates to commit voter fraud in primary and general elections in 2021, according to court papers. The 12-count indictment charging Schofield said ballots were counted from at least four voters who were instructed to sign ballot envelopes but were not allowed to complete them."

The court papers, according to Balk, allege, "Schofield was able to vote — or have other people vote — in the RVs' names."

Schofield is an elections board commissioner in upstate New York's Rensselaer County, which is near the state capital of Albany and includes Troy, NY. Balk notes that Schofield "faces up to five years in prison on each of 12 counts of unlawful possession and use of a means of identification, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Albany."

According to Balk, "The Albany Times Union reported that Schofield was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday morning outside his home, and entered a not guilty plea at court in the afternoon. Schofield was released pending a trial scheduled before Judge Mae D'Agostino. He declined to comment as he left his arraignment hearing, according to the Times Union. The Times Union reported that he was subpoenaed earlier this year in connection with a sweeping ballot probe that has also led a Troy city councilwoman to plead guilty to a count of identity theft."

Read More Here:

https://www.timesunion.com/state/article/Rensselaer-County-s-Republican-elections-17438122.php?IPID=Times-Union-HP-CP-spotlight

[Rick Plant]

The GOP is now run by 'your crazy uncle' — and is spreading 'mass psychosis': conservative



On Wednesday's edition of MSNBC's "The ReidOut," conservative analyst Charlie Sykes warned that former President Donald Trump's brand of conspiracy theories and attacks on democracy have metastasized into the entire Republican Party, from the bottom up.

Sykes, a longtime Trump critic who has repeatedly called out the modern GOP's double standards, said that there is no longer much safe harbor for any Republicans who want to govern reasonably, or engage constructively with their right-wing constituents.

"We've both been in talk radio and there were some real gems, so we know they're out there," said anchor Joy Reid. "Could you have ever imagined that the people who used to call in on the radio are now the mainstream — not just the base of the party, they're the candidates. Your thoughts?"

"What a strange and wild ride," said Sykes. "It is like your crazy uncle that you kept in the basement has now suddenly appeared and is running the show ... it's almost as if we've gone post-Trump here, where the craziness has morphed into this mass psychosis where it's not just a few scattered anecdotes anymore, it is state after state where you are seeing, you know, some of the most extreme election deniers, not people running on some conservative or right-wing agenda, but people who have embraced the most bizarre conspiracies."

Among the factors inflaming things further, Sykes noted, are Trump increasingly endorsing the QAnon movement directly and calling into a D.C. jail rally for the high-level January 6 offenders. Meanwhile, he argued, Republican primary voters are consistently choosing "complete kooks" over "reasonably rational Republicans" — something that most recently happened this week in New Hampshire, where voters chose an election denier to run for Senate over Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's preferred candidate.

"If this is really an existential threat, we ought to act like it. But it is bizarre," said Sykes. "I've been pessimistic for some time. I've been amazed over and over again how the craziest voices have become dominant, and unfortunately it's getting worse."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

DOJ is investigating Jeffrey Clark for conspiracy, obstruction and false statements



Donald Trump loyalist Jeffrey Clark, allegedly one of the top people inside the Department of Justice seeking to overturn the 2020 election, is being investigated for felony violations of false statements, conspiracy, and obstruction.

"Clark’s legal team wrote that on June 20 'approximately a dozen armed agents of the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General executed a criminal search warrant at [Mr. Clark’s] home at around 7 a.m. and seized his electronic devices' as part of an investigation into violations of laws concerning false statements, conspiracy and obstruction, according to a report published Wednesday by a committee of the DC Bar’s Board on Professional Responsibility," CNN reported. "This is the first time a document has named the specifics of what the Justice Department is considering as possible crimes, as it looks at the top circle of political players around then-President Donald Trump before January 6."

The disciplinary hearing in front of the DC Bar is separate from the criminal investigation into Clark.

"The attorney discipline committee’s report released Wednesday quoted an assertion Clark made in a still-confidential filing where he discloses the details of the search of his home. He had argued to the ethics authorities that his proceedings there should be on hold while the DOJ and other authorities investigate him," CNN reported. "Trump toyed with the idea of firing the Justice Department’s top leadership and installing Clark, after Clark tried to push the department toward questioning the former President’s election loss."

Clark was also separately subpoenaed by the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"According to a report released last week by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, there is credible evidence that, while serving as an official at the Department of Justice, Mr. Clark was involved in efforts to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power," the select committee wrote. "Mr. Clark proposed delivery of a letter to state legislators in Georgia and others encouraging to delay certification of election results. Moreover, he recommended holding a press conference announcing that the Department was investigating allegations of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence that such fraud was present. Both proposals were rejected by Department senior leadership for lacking a factual basis and being inconsistent with the Department’s institutional role."

Read More Here:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/14/politics/jeffrey-clark-doj-false-statements-conspiracy-obstruction-investigation/index.html



'Shocking' new book claims Trump offered West Bank to Jordan’s King Abdullah II

Former President Donald Trump caused panic when he offered to give away one of the most contested pieces of land in the Middle East.

On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported, "President Trump once offered what he considered 'a great deal' to Jordan’s King Abdullah II: control of the West Bank, whose Palestinian population long sought to topple the monarchy. 'I thought I was having a heart attack,' Abdullah II recalled to an American friend in 2018, according to a new book on the Trump presidency being published next week. 'I couldn’t breathe. I was bent doubled-over.'"

The book also documents Trump's difficulties with his own cabinet.

"Several top officials 'were on the verge of quitting en masse,' according to the book, citing an October 2018 message Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, wrote to a top aide over the encrypted app Signal," the newspaper reported. "Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke 'all' wanted to quit, Nielsen wrote, according to the book."

The book also details Trump's efforts to punish his perceived enemies, including CNN, Jeff Bezos, James Clapper, John Brennan, and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Let’s just cancel it,” Trump reportedly told Nielsen.

Read More Hsre: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/14/trump-book-jordan-abdullah/

[Rick Plant]

Trump is 'unhappy and displeased' someone in his inner circle is cooperating with the DOJ: reporter



Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig and former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal explained that it was almost certain based on the information that was included in the Justice Department court filings that they most likely had an inside source.

Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Thursday, Leonnig said it might be the reason that folks reportedly said Trump was "unhappy and displeased" while he was at his Virginia golf course this week.

"While there are a lot of conspiracy theories floating around about why he was there, his mood is pretty obvious," Leonnig explained. "He is on multiple fronts under investigation. And he knows, based on all the subpoenas flying around, and some were returned, including Mark Meadows, the request by DOJ for texts, all these things flying around have given the Department of Justice a lot of information. He must know by now as well, Nicole, that somebody in his inner circle, somebody close to him, close to him at Mar-a-Lago, close to him in his White House has been cooperating with the Department of Justice to make clear that there was a high degree of certainty that they would find classified records. Still at Mar-a-Lago after Donald Trump's lawyers insisted they had done a diligent search and none were to be found."

She went on to say that based on what legal analysts have said and the activity of the Justice Department, they may refer it to potential obstruction of justice, potential retention and concealment of government records.

"They are at the place where there's a lot of subpoenas flying around, and that is was Donald Trump or some of his aides and allies engaged in a seditious conspiracy to start that pretty frightening insurrection at our Capitol on January 6th?" she asked.

Katyal agreed with Leonnig, noting that it's clear that Trump is scared, referring to Betsy Woodruff Swan's reports saying that Trump has paid his lawyer at least $3 million from the "Save America PAC."

"$3 million is extraordinary, extraordinary money to do a case," said Katyal. "If you talked to the general counsel of any large company, they'll say maybe a couple of times we've done that and paid that much for a case. But that's a lot. That means there's one of two possibilities. Possibility one is that this lawyer, who was the former Florida solicitor general is demanding a super premium because he's never going to work again."

The second option is that he's overwhelmed with the legal work to do.

"I do think it's remarkable that Trump does at the end of the day manage to find new legal counsel when virtually every attorney that has gone near him thus far wound up the source of a federal probe or ethics violations or this and that," Katyal said. "But $3 million evidently he's talked to at least one person."

The host went on to ask about the possibility of the insider giving the DOJ all of the info.

"It would seem that [the DOJ] is aided by someone who can point them to surveillance footage, by someone who could say, 'There's still more,' or 'It's not all in the storage room, check the office,'" Wallace noted.

Katyal said that the obstruction case was "very strong" against Trump after the search. If it turns out there are more documents he hasn't turned over despite the subpoena and the search warrant, it's guaranteed.

"I think most people that worked at the Justice Department have said, Nicole, they must have a source or sources on the inside," he continued. "It's just too hard to think they would have known to go in, know where exactly to go in, and get these documents. So, I certainly think there is a source or sources on the inside. I also think that Donald Trump himself recognizes it.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

'Most worried Trumpworld has ever been' -- and they're waiting for 'another shoe to drop': MSNBC's Lemire



The Jan. 6 Committee has received thousands of new pieces of evidence from the U.S. Secret Service, and MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire said the latest developments in that investigation has struck fear into Trumpworld.

Committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said Wednesday that investigators had received text messages, radio traffic and other "significant" evidence from the agency, and panel member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) agreed lawmakers had received a "large volume of information" the Secret Service fought against releasing.

"Yeah, for most of Trump's time in office and even in his first months out of office, those around him felt like he was almost bulletproof, that he could get by any scandal here," Lemire told "Morning Joe." "Whether it was the Mueller probe or some congressional investigations, even impeachment, that he emerged largely politically unscathed."

"That has changed and in this story," said Lemire, the White House bureau chief for Politico. "We talked to a number of people in the former president's orbit who have been downright spooked by recent developments in Atlanta, D.C., the Jan. 6 committee and, the last few days, dozens of Trump aides received subpoenas. Some had their phones seized, including Mr. Pillow, and there's a sense here, there's paranoia in Trumpworld as to who might be cooperating, text chains have gone silent. There are worries about who might be talking to investigators, and they worry that aides tell us they could be next."

The Department of Justice has not given any indication whether Trump will be charged criminally, or when that might potentially happen, but Lemire said that uncertainty has sent a chill through the former president's orbit.

"DOJ is working quietly, but even the sight of the former president arriving in Washington the other day sparked fears in his orbit that perhaps he was being called in by the Department of Justice," Lemire said. "Turns out he was visiting his golf course in suburban Virginia. The sense from Trumpworld, each and every day, there's a bad headline, another shoe is set to drop, and they do worry that there's more below the surface they're not seeing it. This is the most worried the Trumpworld has ever been, I would say, of the possibility of legal peril for the former president."

Watch: