Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Matt Grantham]

 Contempt for congressional subpoenas, lying ti the FBI, constant looming indictments, a continued faith in Russiagate lies Six years of delusion and counting

[Rick Plant]

Trump Faces Triple Threat as Three Investigations Ramp Up in Same Week

Donald Trump faces a particularly turbulent week as significant developments are expected in a number of investigations surrounding him.

Over the next seven days, criminal, civil and Congressional panels investigating incidents where Trump is implicated will all hear key testimonies as part of ongoing proceedings.

On Tuesday, the House Select Committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021 is set to stage its latest hearing on the events leading up to the Capitol riots. The committee's seventh live televised hearing is set to focus on connections between the Trump administration and far-right extremist groups such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.

Members of the Congressional committee have already previewed it will be looking into how Trump's "Be there, will be wild!" tweet on December 19, 2020 urging his supporters to attend the election protest on January 6 was seen as an invitation by the militia groups.

Several leading members of the Proud Boy and Oath Keepers have been charged in connection to the January 6 riot, including those accused of seditious conspiracy.

It is also believed that testimony from former White House counsel Pat Cipollone will also be played at Tuesday's hearing.

Cipollone is said to have expressed fears to former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson that if Trump marched with his supporters to the Capitol on January 6 that the administration was "going to get charged with every crime imaginable."

The lawyer also frequently pushed back on the former president's attempts to overthrow the government.

Cipollone sat for a closed-door deposition with the January 6 panel on Friday, July 8.

Also on Tuesday, a British filmmaker behind the three-part docuseries Unprecedented is scheduled to testify to a grand jury in Georgia investigating if Trump and his inner circle committed a crime in their attempts to overturn the election results.

Alex Holder was subpoenaed by prosecutors who asked for "all video footage and other materials related to Unprecedented," which detailed the Trump family in the final few weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign, as well as the aftermath of the January 6 attack.

Holder's lawyer, Russell Smith, previously confirmed to the Associated Press that the filmmaker will appear before the special grand jury in Atlanta on July 12.

The investigation, led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, originally looked into Trump's phone call in which he asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" 11,780 votes to help him beat Joe Biden.

Trump has frequently denied any wrongdoing, describing the January 2021 call with Raffensperger as "perfect."

The probe is also looking into what prosecutors call "a multi-state, coordinated plan" by the Trump campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.

On Friday, Trump and two of his adult children—Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr.—will finally testify under oath as part of the New York Attorney General's civil probe into alleged tax fraud carried out by the Trump Organization.

Letitia James' long-running probe is looking into allegations the family business exaggerated the value of assets in order to obtain better loans, tax breaks and other financial benefits.

Following a number of failed appeals and legal hearings, Trump and his two children agreed to answer questions under oath from July 15, unless there is an intervention from the Court of Appeals.

In February, New York judge Arthur Engoron ruled that the Trumps should be forced to comply with their subpoena issued to them by James as part of the probe, ruling the attorney general has a "clear right" to investigate the fraud claims.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the probe he also calls a "witch hunt." The former president has repeatedly accused James, who is Black, of conducting a politically motivated and "racist" inquiry into him and his family.

Finally, former White House adviser Steve Bannon will begin his trial for contempt of court allegations on July 18.

Bannon was charged in November for refusing to comply with the subpoena issued to him by the January 6 committee.

Bannon is reported to be now willing to testify to the panel after Trump vowed to waive executive privilege, which shields communications from the president and his executive branch from becoming public.

The Department of Justice has since said Trump never invoked the privilege and that it couldn't have been used anyway as a "total noncompliance" for Bannon to not comply with the subpoena in the first place.

The department added that Bannon still has not produced documents requested as part of the subpoena issued last September and that his apparent willingness to testify is merely a "last-ditch attempt" to avoid accountability.

Newsweek has reached out to Trump for comment.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-investigations-jan-6-bannon-georgia-1723465

[Rick Plant]

You just can’t make this b.s. up….

Faux "News" is now saying that gas prices are "falling too fast", with a host saying that this decline is “historically faster than usual” which is causing “independently-owned mom-and-pop gas stations” to “struggle.”

So, this propaganda network was falsley attacking Biden for high gas prices and now they are whining about gas prices "falling too fast" and are upset about "mom and pop gas stations struggling". What a joke.


Fox News Pivots to Concern for Gas Stations as Prices Drop

Fox News on Monday noted that the recent drop in fuel costs is “historically faster“ than usual and poses a risk to “mom-and-pop gas stations.”

Days after spinning June’s strong jobs report as “America’s employment crisis,” Fox News is now concerned that the month-long drop in sky-high fuel costs could potentially be a bad thing for “mom-and-pop gas stations.”

As gas prices surged during the first half of the year, Fox News relentlessly blamed the White House for the increased pain at the pump, claiming it was due to President Joe Biden deliberately harming the oil industry and his decision to shut down the uncompleted Keystone XL pipeline. (The actual reasons for the sharp increase were, of course, a bit more complicated.)

While the network was all over the price increases, it was slow to acknowledge the steady price drop at the pump over the past month. According to both GasBuddy and the American Automobile Association, the price average national price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas has dropped nearly 40 cents since hitting its peak of $5.02.

During Monday’s broadcast of America Reports, co-anchor John Roberts finally broke the news to Fox News viewers that the price of gas was “creeping back down” near his home. His colleague Sandra Smith, however, suggested that this may not be entirely a good thing.

“It is. It is,” she noted. “And the point was made over the weekend, I believe it was the Wall Street Journal, that gas prices are actually coming back down historically faster with the price of oil than usual.”

Smith continued: “And it just goes to show you what an incredible risk-reward calculation has to happen on the part of those small—independently owned, most of them—mom-and-pop gas stations. It’s a struggle for all of them!”

The WSJ article that Smith referenced reported that gasoline prices quickly falling is “creating new headaches for the mom-and-pop entrepreneurs and other independent operators who run roughly half of U.S. gas stations,” adding that station owners risk “losing money on every new fuel order” they place.

Roberts, for his part, noted that “we’re still a long way from $3.55 a gallon” but that perhaps the nation is starting to “move in that direction.”

Smith’s gas commentary came just a week after she and fellow Fox anchor Charles Payne took Vice-President Kamala Harris to task for seemingly laughing off the “gas price crisis.”

Watch video in link below:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-pivots-to-concern-for-gas-stations-as-prices-drop

[Rick Plant]

DC insider explains why Lindsey Graham latched onto Donald Trump after trashing him



Appearing on CNN's " New Day" to promote his new book "Thank You for Your Servitude: Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission," journalist Mark Leibovich was asked to explain why Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has become such an ardent defender of the former president after memorably warning the Republican Party to keep their distance from him.

Speaking with host John Berman, Leibovich was asked what Republican party lawmakers actually think about Trump when they can speak anonymously before the conversation turned to Graham who tweeted on May 3. 2016: "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it."

Now that Graham is being forced to appear before a special grand jury in Georgia investigating the South Carolina Republican's attempt to help Trump tamper with the 2020 election results, Berman asked why Graham chose the path of becoming a Trump believer.

"We have 45 seconds left," Bermans said as the interview was concluding. "You addressed one of the giant questions of the last six years [which] is what happened to Lindsey Graham and your answer, I think, is unique compared to others i've seen. In some ways, you say this is really about Lindsey Graham."

"Yeah, it's a universal apply-all for politics," Leibovich began. "Lindsey Graham has been about being in the mix, being relevant, to use his word whether it was next to John McCain, or John McCain's arch-enemy, Donald Trump. It makes him relevant, puts him in the frame, keeps him well-fed, keeps him at the dice table, as he would say."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

‘Hot-blooded, contentious, deranged’: J6 hearing to reveal details about ‘craziest meeting in Trump presidency’: report



Tuesday's televised public hearing held by the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack will include details about former President Donald Trump's “hot-blooded, contentious, deranged” meeting late last year, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told NBC News.

Committee members were told by a witness Raskin has yet to name that a December 18, 2020 meeting was “the craziest meeting in the Trump presidency.”

Rep. Raskin described "it as 'hot-blooded, contentious, deranged' when the president met with outside and internal legal advisers for a 'Hail Mary desperation ploy' to subvert an election they had lost, including possibly seizing state election machines and appointing Trump ally Sidney Powell as a special counsel," NBC adds.

Raskin, a former constitutional law professor who lead the second Trump impeachment, is also leading Tuesday afternoon's hearing, along with Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL).

Raskin also revealed that former Trump White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, who testified before the Committee last week, "corroborated almost everything that we’ve learned from the prior hearings."

“I certainly did not hear him contradict Cassidy Hutchinson," Raskin also said. "He had the opportunity to say whatever he wanted to say, so I didn’t see any contradiction there.”

Tuesday's hearing, the seventh the Committee has held, is scheduled to begin at 1:00 PM ET.

Watch live below:

[Rick Plant]

'He wants to be a fascist': Dem rep. says committee has proven Trump was the facilitator of the Jan. 6 attack



Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) told Raw Story that he believes the House Select Committee has outlined enough to prove that former President Donald Trump could be charged with seditious conspiracy.

"Trump was the facilitator of the Jan. 6 insurrection," he explained. "He knows that people responded to his tweets and what he says, and he knows how the far-right feel about him and feel about his leadership. I mean, everything from the Tiki Torch March after he first got into another white nationalist event when they essentially identified him as their president."

He went on to recall other incidents of racism from Trump, like the time he referred to African countries as "sh**hole nations" and that Mexicans are "rapists."

"He has been dancing a two-step with white nationalists and the Great Replacement Theory from his campaign even," said Bowman, noting that the testimony about the right-wing militia groups is even more damning. Trump was advised that he'd lost the election, and he continued to lose his cases in court, so he had to "bring in people like Sidney Powell and others to affirm his false beliefs, and that's what happens with people like that when logic is out the window and you lose the support of the people. You bring in other people to support you whether it's true or false."

Bowman also noted that after the Buffalo shooting, Congress passed a resolution that denounced the ideology that the shooter promoted, the Great Replacement Theory. But, no Republican voted to support their bill condemning that kind of racism.

"These are the same Republicans who moved forward with challenging the Electoral College votes, and many of them asked for pardons," Bowman continued. "Trump has always flirted with [Vladimir] Putin and that's because he wants to be Putin. He wants to be a fascist. He wants to be a dictator. And if he was going to go down in history books storming the Capitol with his people and ultimately taking over Congress, that would be his legacy, and it seems he was fine with it."

He went on to explain how important it is to speak out about it and that it's essential for the committee to peel back the layers of the incident so that Americans can see what truly happened.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-fascist-2657655873/

[Rick Plant]

Here are the 10 GOP members of Congress implicated in Tuesday’s Jan. 6 hearing



Multiple Republicans currently serving in Congress where named during Tuesday's televised hearings by the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack at the U.S. Capitol.

"Another part of the president's strategy involves certain members of Congress who amplified his unsupported assertions that the election had been stolen," Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) said. "In the weeks after the election, the White House coordinated closely with President Trump's allies in Congress to disseminate his false claims and to encourage members of the public to fight the outcome on Jan 6. We know that the president met with various members to discuss Jan. 6 well before the joint session."

"The president's private schedule for Dec. 21, 2020 shows a private meeting with Republican members of Congress," Murphy said. "We know Vice President Pence, chief of staff Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani also attended the meeting."

She then started naming Republicans currently serving in Congress.

"At this point, you may recall testimony given in our earlier hearing by Richard Donoghue who said that the president asked the Department of Justice to say 'that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen,'" Murphy said. "According to White House visitor logs obtained by the committee, members of Congress present at the White House on Dec. 21 included Congressmen Brian Babin (R-TX), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Andy Harris (R-MD), Jody Hice (R-GA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Scott Perry (R-PA)."

"And Congresswoman-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was also there," she added.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Former campaign manager: Trump's rhetoric killed Ashli Babbitt

During their hearing Tuesday, the Jan. 6 committee presented evidence showing that Donald Trump's former campaign manager Brad Parscale expressed remorse in exchanged texts with former Trump adviser Katrina Pierson.

Parscale said that he felt "guilty" about helping Trump win in 2016 in light of events that took place on Jan. 6, namely the killing of Trump supporter and Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt.

Parscale referred to Trump as “a sitting president asking for civil war,” in regards to his efforts to overturn the election.

Pierson replied, “You did what you felt right at the time and therefore it was right.”

“Yeah, but a woman is dead,” Parscale said, later adding, “If I was Trump and I knew my rhetoric killed someone.”

Pierson replied, “It wasn’t the rhetoric.”

“Katrina,” Parscale said. “Yes it was.”

The assault on the Capitol left at least five people dead and 140 police officers injured, and followed a fiery speech by Trump to thousands of his supporters near the White House.

Trump was impeached for a historic second time by the House of Representatives after the riot -- he was charged with inciting an insurrection -- but was acquitted by the Republican Senate.

"if I was Trump and knew my rhetoric killed someone" -- a Brad Parscale text from January 6



Watch Video: https://twitter.com/i/status/1546937971605135362