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Author Topic: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2  (Read 290554 times)

Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5456 on: June 28, 2022, 02:23:12 AM »
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Clarence Thomas' gun decision ensures that the next January 6 will be much deadlier

Ginni Thomas worked the coup's inside game — then her husband made it easier for insurrectionists to use firearms



You have to hand it to Clarence and Ginni Thomas: Their marriage is an exemplar of spousal teamwork. Ginni Thomas worked hard on the inside game for Donald Trump's coup: exchanging emails with Trump co-conspirator John Eastman, pressuring state legislators to throw out electors that President Joe Biden won and blitzing Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows with potential coup strategies. Meanwhile, her husband just handed the Trump's volunteer street fighters, the sort of folks that stormed the Capitol on January 6, a Supreme Court decision that will make it much easier for them to arm themselves with heavy firepower in the future.

The radical implications of Thursday's Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, in which the Supreme Court struck down New York's strict regulations on who can carry guns in public, are only starting to be understood. As Slate's legal expert Mark Joseph Stern wrote, this decision doesn't just strike down restrictions on concealed carry in some of the largest states in the country, it's "a maximalist opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas that renders most of the nation's gun control laws presumptively unconstitutional." The gun safety bill that President Joe Biden signed Friday is frustratingly limited in scope, but even its modest efforts to keep guns out of the hands of unstable people may not pass this new court test laid out by Thomas.

In threatening huge swaths of existing gun safety law, the Thomas decision also imperils the gun law that kept the Jan. 6 insurrection from being much deadlier than it already was. In doing so, Thomas opens the door for right-wing terrorists to plot more schemes and more violence in Washington D.C. and elsewhere — only this time with more firepower.

Thomas made it very hard, if not impossible, for lower courts to uphold most gun restrictions, including bans on unlicensed carry.

There were some folks who brought guns into the Capitol on January 6, but by and large, they didn't. Even though groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers carefully planned the attack, the weapons they brought were mostly not firearms. They were bear spray, clubs, knives, that sort of thing. The melee led to the deaths of five people and injuries to over 100 Capitol Police officers, but it would have been significantly worse if the insurrectionists had mounted an gun-powered incursion. There would have been firefights with Capitol Police. The insurrectionists might have been able to get past police barriers. They may have even successfully reached members of Congress and Vice President Mike Pence, whose murder they were openly braying for.

None of that happened, however, and the reason is simple: Washington D.C.'s strict law banning most people from carrying arms in public.

At first blush, that may not seem to make a lot of sense. Groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers came to town with the explicit intention to overthrow the election, which is a crime. So then why would a bunch of people planning a serious crime — many have been charged with seditious conspiracy — be worried about breaking more minor laws about carrying guns in public?

Again, the answer is simple: They didn't bring guns because they were afraid of being arrested before they had a chance to riot.

Oath Keeper text messages obtained by federal investigators demonstrate that the group's leader, Stewart Rhodes, was deeply concerned about keeping his people out of jail before they had a chance to storm the Capitol. Rhodes warned them not to violate D.C.'s gun laws.

"DO NOT bring in anything that can get you arrested," he texted. "Leave that outside D.C. THEY HAVE SEARCHED VEHICLES IN GARAGES. And four so far, to our knowledge, have been arrested."

In the ensuing exchange, Rhodes and other Oath Keepers plot out what weapons they can smuggle in that are legal in D.C.: utility knives, collapsible batons, and heavy flashlights were recommended. And no doubt those weapons, as well as improvised ones such as bike racks and flagpoles, did serious damage to the police who defended the Capitol that day. But only one person was actually shot that day: Ashli Babbitt, an insurrectionist who was lawfully killed by an officer to prevent her from leading a charge of insurrectionists to chase down fleeing members of Congress. As the text messages from the Oath Keepers make clear, the only thing that kept insurrectionists from storming the Capitol with guns was the D.C. ban on carrying guns. Indeed, the group had a huge weapons cache stashed at a nearby hotel, right outside the city limits. As reported by Politico, "Three 'quick reaction force' teams set up at the hotel, prepared to ferry weapons into Washington to support the effort to prevent Congress from finalizing Biden's victory."

As Ian Millhiser of Vox explained, laws similar to the New York law "exist in five other states — California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey — plus the District of Columbia." In the short term, there won't be a huge change, since carrying without a license is still illegal. But, as Stern notes, the writing is on the wall: Thomas made it very hard, if not impossible, for lower courts to uphold most gun restrictions, including bans on unlicensed carry. And, by writing this decision, Thomas has invited such future litigation, so there is likely to be a massive flood of lawsuits against all manner of gun laws now.

While the rest of us have to live in the increasingly violent society caused by loosening gun laws, Supreme Court justices get taxpayer-funded elite security protection.

It's not a coincidence that the justice who just made it a lot easier for right-wing terrorists to operate is married to one of the most prominent cheerleaders for Trump's coup. It's long been an article of faith on the right that the Second Amendment's purpose was as some kind of check on government overreach, an especially ironic stance as they are the side that is currently installing the undemocratic tyranny they always claim to be armed against. It's a claim that never made sense, as the the very first president, George Washington, put down an anti-tax rebellion. In reality, the Second Amendment was written mostly so that Southern states could swiftly put down slave rebellions.

Today's gun nuts are more in line with their slave-owning predecessors than they are with the empty "freedom" rhetoric that they espouse. The insurrection and the Big Lie are all about enforcing white supremacy. Thomas likely knows this and doesn't care, secure in the knowledge that his usefulness to the cause means he's personally spared the racist abuse and violence that his wife's beloved and ongoing coup is fomenting. After all, while the rest of us have to live in the increasingly violent society caused by loosening gun laws, Supreme Court justices get taxpayer-funded elite security protection.

Thomas is no idiot. He knows that right-wing groups across the country are arming themselves heavily and that, with Trump's cheerleading, they intend to keep using violence to aid the very same anti-democratic efforts his wife Ginni is still engaged in. So Thomas' radical anti-gun control opinion cannot be read in a vaccum. It should instead be seen as part of a larger push by the Thomases and their right-wing allies to destory democracy so that an authoriarian, paranoid, and well-armed minority can rule over the rest of us.

https://www.salon.com/2022/06/27/clarence-thomas-decision-ensures-that-the-next-january-6-will-be-much-deadlier/

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5456 on: June 28, 2022, 02:23:12 AM »


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5457 on: June 28, 2022, 10:09:35 PM »
'Mike deserves it': Aide claims Trump said rioters seeking to hang Pence weren’t doing anything wrong

Cassidy Hutchinson continued to provide bombshell testimony after a short recess during Tuesday's hastily scheduled hearing by the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Hutchinson described a conversation in the White House with her boss, chief of staff Mark Meadows and White House counsel Pat Cipollone after Meadows spoke on the phone with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).

"I remember Pat saying something to the effect of, 'Mark, we need to do something more, they're literally calling for the vice president to be f*cking hung.' And Mark had responded something to the effect of, 'You heard him, Pat. He thinks Mike deserves it. He doesn't think they're doing anything wrong.' To which Pat said something -- 'This is f*ckng crazy. We need to be doing something more,'" she testified.

"Let me pause here on this point," Vice-Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) said. "The rioters chanted 'hang Mike Pence.' The president of the United States, Donald Trump, said that, 'Mike deserves it' and that those rioters were not doing anything wrong."

Cheney noted that Trump had expressed that opinion multiple times.

Cassidy also testified about Trump allegedly trying to strangle his top Secret Service agent and that Trump was not worried about the armed mob because he did not think they were there to hurt him.

Watch the testimony below:


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5458 on: June 28, 2022, 11:07:42 PM »
White House aide details Trump's attack in Secret Service car on Jan. 6: He 'lunged!'

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified under oath on Tuesday to the House Select Committee revealing what happened on Jan. 6, 2021 as the U.S. Congress was under attack.

According to Hutchinson, after Trump told his supporters that he was going to the Capitol with them, the Secret Service said that it was impossible. What was discussed after the team returned to the White House was what struck the members visually during the hearing.

"When I returned to the White House, I walked upstairs toward the chief of staff's office, and I noticed Mr. [Anthony] Ornato lingering outside of the office and once we made eye contact, he quickly waved me to go into his office, which was just across the hall from mine," she said. "When I went in, he shut the door, and I noticed Bobby Engel, the head of Mr. Trump's security detail, sitting in a chair just looking somewhat discombobulated and a little lost. I looked at tony, and he had said, did you f'ing hear what happened in the beast? I said, no, tony, I just got back. what happened?"

According to Hutchinson, he proceeded to say when the president got in the beast, he was under the impression from Mr. [Mark] meadows that the off-the-record movement to the capitol was still possible and likely to happen, but that Bobby had more information. So once the president had gotten into the vehicle with Bobby, he thought they were going up to the Capitol, and when Bobby had relayed to him, we're not, we don't have the assets to do it, it's not secure, we're going back to the West Wing, the president had a very strong, very angry response to that."

"Tony described him as being irate," she continued. "The president said something to the effect of, I'm the f'ing president, take me up to the capitol now. To which Bobby responded, sir, we have to go back to the West Wing. The president reached up toward the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm and said, sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We're going back to the West Wing. We're not going to the Capitol. Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel and when Mr. Ornato had recounted the story to me, he had motioned towards his clavicles."

See the testimony below:


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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5458 on: June 28, 2022, 11:07:42 PM »


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5459 on: June 28, 2022, 11:28:52 PM »
The electors cast their official vote for the winner of each state and that officially declares the Electoral College win and the winner of the presidency. The illegal scheme that Trump in his cohorts planned was to install fake electors which would vote for Trump in the key states he lost declaring him the winner even though he lost. That is clear treason and he must go to prison for it.

'A uniquely serious threat': Legal expert claims Trump's 'fake elector scheme' will lead him to jail



In a column for the conservative Bulwark, longtime attorney Philip Rotner explained that, based upon recent events, the most likely reason Donald Trump might serve time in jail will be due to his "fake elector scheme."

Noting a recent flurry of subpoenas that were issued in the past week to officials in multiple states who were part of the scheme to replace their states' actual electoral votes with their own based on fraudulent election claims, the attorney said the Department of Justice is following the correct trail if they want to indict the former president.

As Rotner wrote, it seems like Trump has continually avoided paying for his crimes, but, if he had to put money on it, that streak will end with charges over the election theft gambit.

"The phony elector scheme is now looking more each day like—wait for it—Trump’s Watergate. Yes, Nixon was an incumbent while Trump is out of office, but consider the parallels: Federal investigators are aggressively on the case, once again assisted by a relentless press, and public congressional hearings are again generating one stunning revelation after another," he wrote. "Over a two-day period last week, at least nine people in four different states reportedly received federal grand jury subpoenas in connection with the fake elector investigation. The recipients included not only some of the phony electors themselves but also 'aides to Mr. Trump’s campaign.' Federal agents also executed search warrants directed at the chairman of the Nevada Republican party and the party’s secretary."

The attorney added that these developments, combined with the focus on Trump attorney John Eastman, who was recently on the receiving end of a pre-dawn raid by the FBI, are extremely bad news for the former president.

As he notes, recent testimony from GOP officials undercuts the ability of Trump to say he had no knowledge of the scheme.

"First, he can’t convincingly argue that he didn’t know about the scheme or that he didn’t participate in it. Ronna McDaniel’s testimony has foreclosed that potential defense. Second, assuming that future evidence corroborates Trump’s knowledge of and participation in the scheme, none of his standard defenses will work here," he wrote before adding, "Perhaps Trump will try, as Rolling Stone reported last week that he is considering whether to throw John Eastman under the bus. But the facts, at least as they have come to light so far, suggest that Trump was himself aware of and involved in the scheme. And he can’t seriously argue that he relied on legal advice from Eastman or others that forging election certificates and passing them off as official documents wasn’t illegal. That’s absurd on its face."

"Trump’s all-purpose master defense — 'But I truly believed the election was stolen' — won’t work here either. Belief that an election was tainted by fraud, no matter how deeply held, wouldn’t excuse the crime of forging election certificates and attempting to pawn them off as official government documents. To the contrary, it would only establish that Trump had a strong, if tortured, motive to commit the crime," he added before concluding, "Nobody has ever made any money betting that the long arm of the criminal law will finally reach out and grab Donald Trump. But if Trump is eventually indicted for any crime in connection with his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, odds are this will be the one."

You can read his entire analysis here:

https://www.thebulwark.com/could-trump-face-justice-over-the-fraudulent-electors/

Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5460 on: June 29, 2022, 05:56:40 AM »
CNN analyst explains the big mistake the Trump White House made with Cassidy Hutchinson

Discussing the highly anticipated testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, who previously served as the chief aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Axios editor Margaret Talov explained that the Donald Trump administration made a grievous -- but common -- error in how they treated her.

Hutchinson, who has already given over 20 hours of testimony under oath to the House Jan 6th Committee, is expected to be the central figure in the surprise hearing that will be televised on Tuesday, and, as Talov explained, she probably has some bombshells to drop under questioning.

Speaking with host Poppy Harlow, the journalist explained that staffers like Hutchinson are often taken for granted -- and in the case of the former Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) intern, it could prove deadly for Donald Trump and his inner circle.

"I think we don't know at this point what she is prepared to testify to, what she is prepared to testify about," Talev told the CNN host. "When you have a person like Cassidy Hutchinson, you know, White Houses are filled with young people who are the eyes and ears in the room, and the principles, chief of staff, president, lawyers, sometimes forget about these people."

"They just take for granted that these are the people who are there every day, that they're staffing or just keeping the wheels turning and they also take for granted that there is almost kind of lukewarm permanent loyalty baked in," she added. "January 6th, I think, tested some of the most diehard supporters of the president in terms of who they felt they served and who they had a responsibility -- and that's -- I think that's what we're going to see and hear today."

Watch below:


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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5460 on: June 29, 2022, 05:56:40 AM »


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5461 on: June 29, 2022, 12:52:38 PM »
WATCH: Many Trump supporters carried firearms on Jan. 6, police transmissions reveal

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Tuesday shared radio transmissions from police identifying supporters of former President Donald Trump who were carrying firearms including AR-15s, rifles and Glock pistols on the National Mall on the morning of the insurrection.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, testified on June 28 and in an earlier deposition that former President Donald Trump and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows were aware that rioters were armed.

Hutchinson said she witnessed Tony Ornato, the former deputy chief of staff of operations who was responsible for security, brief Meadows about the number of weapons present among the crowd.

The hearing was unexpectedly announced a week after the Jan. 6 committee said they were taking a break until the month of July. In the year since its creation, the committee has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, seeking critical information and documents from people witness to, or involved in, the violence that day.


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5462 on: June 29, 2022, 12:57:12 PM »
WATCH: Trump lunged at agent who said he couldn't go to Capitol amid Jan. 6 violence, aide says

Upon hearing that his security detail could not authorize a trip to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 after his speech on the Ellipse, former President Donald Trump lunged at the Secret Service agent in charge of his security that day, according to testimony on June 28 from a former senior aide.

Cassidy Hutchinson, who worked for former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, told the House Jan. 6 committee that the Secret Service, advisers and lawyers to the president had all warned him about traveling to the Capitol with rioters that day during Congress' official count of Electoral College votes.

Security reports from that morning indicated protesters along the National Mall had weapons, including knives, guns, pistols and rifles, body armor, spears and flag poles. Hutchinson said security officials warned multiple times they could not make a trip to the Capitol happen, guidance she relayed to Meadows both before and after Trump's speech, in which he told rallygoers he would join them in a march toward Congress.

On the way to Trump's vehicle, Meadows told the president that the head of his detail, Bobby Engel, had more information about the trip to the Capitol.

When Trump got into the car, Engel told him they didn't have the assets for the trip and that it wasn't secure. Trump became "irate," Hutchinson said White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato recalled to her after she returned to the White House.

Trump said something to the effect of, "I’m the f***ing president, take me up to the Capitol now." After Engel relayed they had to return to the White House, Trump reached up to the front of the vehicle to grab the steering wheel. Engel grabbed the president's arm and said "Sir, you need to let go," Hutchinson recalled. Trump then used his free hand to lunge toward Engel's neck, Ornato reportedly told Hutchinson.


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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5462 on: June 29, 2022, 12:57:12 PM »


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #5463 on: June 29, 2022, 01:03:35 PM »
WATCH: 'Extremely angry' Trump threw lunch at wall after AG said election fraud claims insufficient

Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to the former White House chief of staff during the administration of President Donald Trump testified on June 28 that the former president became “extremely angry” after then-Attorney General Bill Barr gave a news interview in Dec. of 2020 saying fraud had not changed the outcome of the 2020 election.

Hutchinson's testimony came during the sixth public hearing on June 28 by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. She testified that she had been working in the White House when she heard noise down the hallway. She looked out and a valet approached her, saying that Trump wanted to speak to his chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

After Mark visited Trump, Hutchinson went to the dining room and saw a valet changing the tablecloth.

“He motioned for me to come in and then pointed towards the front of the room near the fireplace, mantle and the TV where I first noticed there was ketchup dripping down the wall, and there's a shattered porcelain plate on the floor,” Hutchinson said.

“The valet had articulated that the president was extremely angry at the attorney general's AP [Associated Press] interview and had thrown his lunch against the wall.”

Hutchinson said that the valet warned her that Trump was “really ticked off" and she should stay clear of him.

This was not the first time Trump had thrown dinnerware, according to Hutchinson. She said she was aware of several times this had happened while she was at the White House.