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Election - Biden / Trump III
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 Election - Biden / Trump IIIAt the request of other members of this group I will oblige. "The Biden-Trump thread is full. Can you please start a 3rd one. We REALLY need to discuss the tape of the call between Trump and GA Sec't of State that was just held. It is so bad they are talking about potentially impeaching Trump [a second time] which would prevent him from ever holding office again. We are talking threats, extortions, and yet another quid pro quo. Great stuff!" Please note: This is the sole active non chess related thread, aside from one other on the German election opened for a team captain who subsequently left this club. If this subject is not of interest to you, please check the "unfollow" box. Many of our captains hail from foreign nations--to whom the US is a foreign nation. There's no need for US politics to dominate all the clubs, but we reserve this one continued thread for such discussion here. |
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Bombshell News: Trump had a 1 Hour Call Yesterday Attempting to Extort GA Sec'y of State In a phone call on Saturday, President Trump insisted he won the state and threatened vague legal consequences. Here are excerpts from the call. (Obtained by The Washington Post) By Amy Gardner Jan. 3, 2021 at 12:59 p.m. EST President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that election experts said raised legal questions. The Washington Post obtained a recording of the conversation in which Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue his false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking “a big risk.” Throughout the call, Raffensperger and his office’s general counsel rejected Trump’s assertions, explaining that the president is relying on debunked conspiracy theories and that President-elect Joe Biden’s 11,779-vote victory in Georgia was fair and accurate. Trump dismissed their arguments. “The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry,” he said. “And there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated.” Raffensperger responded: “Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.” At another point, Trump said: “So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.” The rambling and at times incoherent conversation offered a remarkable glimpse of how consumed and desperate the president remains about his loss, unwilling or unable to let the matter go and still believing he can reverse the results in enough battleground states to remain in office. “There’s no way I lost Georgia,” Trump said, a phrase he repeated again and again on the call. “There’s no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes.” Several of his allies were on the line as he spoke, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and conservative lawyer Cleta Mitchell, a prominent GOP attorney whose involvement with Trump’s efforts had not been previously known. In a statement, Mitchell said Raffensperger’s office “has made many statements over the past two months that are simply not correct and everyone involved with the efforts on behalf of the President’s election challenge has said the same thing: show us your records on which you rely to make these statements that our numbers are wrong.” The White House, the Trump campaign and Meadows did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Raffensperger’s office declined to comment. On Sunday, Trump tweeted that he had spoken to Raffensperger, saying the secretary of state was “unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more. He has no clue!” Raffensperger responded with his own tweet: “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true.” The pressure Trump put on Raffensperger is the latest example of his attempt to subvert the outcome of the Nov. 3 election through personal outreach to state Republican officials. He previously invited Michigan Republican state leaders to the White House, pressured Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) in a call to try to replace that state’s electors and asked the speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to help reverse his loss in that state. His call to Raffensperger came as scores of Republicans have pledged to challenge the electoral college’s vote for Biden when Congress convenes for a joint session on Wednesday. Republicans do not have the votes to successfully thwart Biden’s victory, but Trump has urged supporters to travel to Washington to protest the outcome, and state and federal officials are already bracing for clashes outside the Capitol. Growing number of Trump loyalists in the Senate vow to challenge Biden’s victory During their conversation, Trump issued a vague threat to both Raffensperger and Ryan Germany, the secretary of state’s general counsel, suggesting that if they don’t find that thousands of ballots in Fulton County have been illegally destroyed to block investigators — an allegation for which there is no evidence — they would be subject to criminal liability. “That’s a criminal offense,” he said. “And you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer.” Trump also told Raffensperger that failure to act by Tuesday would jeopardize the political fortunes of David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, Georgia’s two Republican senators whose fate in that day’s runoff elections will determine control of the U.S. Senate. Trump said he plans to talk about the fraud on Monday, when he is scheduled to lead an election eve rally in Dalton, Ga. — a message that could further muddle the efforts of Republicans to get their voters out. “You have a big election coming up and because of what you’ve done to the president — you know, the people of Georgia know that this was a scam,” Trump said. “Because of what you’ve done to the president, a lot of people aren’t going out to vote, and a lot of Republicans are going to vote negative, because they hate what you did to the president. Okay? They hate it. And they’re going to vote. And you would be respected, really respected, if this can be straightened out before the election.” Trump’s conversation with Raffensperger put him in legally questionable territory, legal experts said. By exhorting the secretary of state to “find” votes and to deploy investigators who “want to find answers,” Trump appears to be encouraging him to doctor the election outcome in Georgia. But experts said Trump’s clearer transgression is a moral one. Edward B. Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University, said that the legal questions are murky and would be subject to prosecutorial discretion. But he also emphasized that the call was “inappropriate and contemptible” and should prompt moral outrage. “He was already tripping the emergency meter,” Foley said. “So we were at 12 on a scale of 1 to 10, and now we’re at 15.” Throughout the call, Trump detailed an exhaustive list of disinformation and conspiracy theories to support his position. He claimed without evidence that he had won Georgia by at least a half-million votes. He floated a barrage of assertions that have been investigated and disproved: that thousands of dead people voted; that an Atlanta election worker scanned 18,000 forged ballots three times each and “100 percent” were for Biden; that thousands more voters living out of state came back to Georgia illegally just to vote in the election. “So tell me, Brad, what are we going to do? We won the election, and it’s not fair to take it away from us like this,” Trump said. “And it’s going to be very costly in many ways. And I think you have to say that you’re going to reexamine it, and you can reexamine it, but reexamine it with people that want to find answers, not people who don’t want to find answers.” Trump did most of the talking on the call. He was angry and impatient, calling Raffensperger a “child” and “either dishonest or incompetent” for not believing there was widespread ballot fraud in Atlanta — and twice calling himself a “schmuck” for endorsing Kemp, whom Trump holds in particular contempt for not embracing his claims of fraud. “I can’t imagine he’s ever getting elected again, I’ll tell you that much right now,” he said. He also took aim at Kemp’s 2018 opponent, Democrat Stacey Abrams, trying to shame Raffensperger with the idea that his refusal to embrace fraud has helped her and Democrats generally. “Stacey Abrams is laughing about you,” he said. “She’s going around saying, ‘These guys are dumber than a rock.’ What she’s done to this party is unbelievable, I tell you.” The secretary of state repeatedly sought to push back, saying at one point, “Mr. President, the problem you have with social media, that — people can say anything.” “Oh this isn’t social media,” Trump retorted. “This is Trump media. It’s not social media. It’s really not. It’s not social media. I don’t care about social media. I couldn’t care less.” At another point, Trump claimed that votes were scanned three times: “Brad, why did they put the votes in three times? You know, they put ’em in three times.” Raffensperger responded: “Mr. President, they did not. We did an audit of that and we proved conclusively that they were not scanned three times.” Trump sounded at turns confused and meandering. At one point, he referred to Kemp as “George.” He tossed out several different figures for Biden’s margin of victory in Georgia and referred to the Senate runoff, which is Tuesday, as happening “tomorrow” and “Monday.” His desperation was perhaps most pronounced during an exchange with Germany, Raffensperger’s general counsel, in which he openly begged for validation. Trump: “Do you think it’s possible that they shredded ballots in Fulton County? ’Cause that’s what the rumor is. And also that Dominion took out machines. That Dominion is really moving fast to get rid of their, uh, machinery. Do you know anything about that? Because that’s illegal.” Germany responded: “No, Dominion has not moved any machinery out of Fulton County.” Trump: “But have they moved the inner parts of the machines and replaced them with other parts?” Germany: “No.” Trump: “Are you sure? Ryan?” Germany: “I’m sure. I’m sure, Mr. President.” It was clear from the call that Trump has surrounded himself with aides who have fed his false perceptions that the election was stolen. When he claimed that more than 5,000 ballots were cast in Georgia in the name of dead people, Raffensperger responded forcefully: “The actual number was two. Two. Two people that were dead that voted.” But later, Meadows said, “I can promise you there are more than that.” Another Trump lawyer on the call, Kurt Hilbert, accused Raffensperger’s office of refusing to turn over data to assess evidence of fraud, and also claimed awareness of at least 24,000 illegally cast ballots that would flip the result to Trump. “It stands to reason that if the information is not forthcoming, there’s something to hide,” Hilbert said. “That’s the problem that we have.” Reached by phone Sunday, Hilbert declined to comment. In the end, Trump asked Germany to sit down with one of his attorneys to go over the allegations. Germany agreed. Yet Trump also recognized that he was failing to persuade Raffensperger or Germany of anything, saying toward the end, “I know this phone call is going nowhere.” But he continued to make his case in repetitive fashion, until finally, after roughly an hour, Raffensperger put an end to the conversation: “Thank you, President Trump, for your time.” |
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More to come! Huge thank you to Lord_Shiva for starting a new thread! |
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Threats, Lie & Extortion: Trump Broke Federal & Georgia Laws-A Pardon Wouldn't Protect Him in GA Jennifer Rubin Columnist Jan. 3, 2021 at 4:56 p.m. EST When President Trump allegedly tried firing special prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III, refused to respond to lawful subpoenas during the investigation into the 2016 election and committed the other acts to obstruct justice documented in the Mueller report, he arguably violated his oath, broke the law and committed impeachable conduct. When he tried to extort Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (“I would like you to do us a favor though …”) to create dirt to use against now President-elect Joe Biden and stonewalled Congress’s demands for evidence, he again violated his oath, engaged in impeachable conduct and broke the law. In neither case did Republicans recognize the facts before them. In neither case did they act to remove him. That prologue brings us to his telephone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday. The Post reports: “President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to ‘find’ enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that election experts said raised legal questions.” In the call, Trump asked Raffensperger to change the certified vote that was subject to multiple recounts: “So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.” In fact he threatened him. The Post reports, “During their conversation, Trump issued a vague threat to both Raffensperger and Ryan Germany, the secretary of state’s general counsel, suggesting that if they don’t find that thousands of ballots in Fulton County have been illegally destroyed to block investigators — an allegation for which there is no evidence — they would be subject to criminal liability.” Trump, sounding like a mobster as he often does, said, “That’s a criminal offense. And you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer.” Nice career, there Brad. Shame if anything happened to it. Laughably, Trump also tried to use the Senate runoff election to pressure Raffensperger. In an incoherent tirade, he insisted, “You have a big election coming up and because of what you’ve done to the president — you know, the people of Georgia know that this was a scam.” He continued: “Because of what you’ve done to the president, a lot of people aren’t going out to vote, and a lot of Republicans are going to vote negative, because they hate what you did to the president. Okay? They hate it. And they’re going to vote. And you would be respected, really respected, if this can be straightened out before the election.” I have no idea what “vote negative” means or how voters’ anger would jeopardize the Republican Senate contenders. In any event, now that the tape has been revealed, Trump’s conduct will, we should hope, undercut the Republicans. I have never favored prosecuting Trump for his conduct in office. But pressuring a campaign official to change the vote tally is a federal offense, as former Justice Department inspector general Michael Bromwich tweeted Sunday, citing Title 52 U.S. Section 20511. That law states: “A person, including an election official, who in any election for Federal office … knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds, or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by … the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held” is subject to imprisonment of up to five years. Threatening Raffensperger with criminal consequences is also arguably extortion. Title 18 Section 875 of the U.S. Code reads: “Whoever, with intent to extort from any person, firm, association, or corporation, any money or other thing of value, transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to injure the property or reputation of the addressee or of another or the reputation of a deceased person or any threat to accuse the addressee or any other person of a crime, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.” Alternatively, the state attorney general of Georgia might investigate and bring applicable charges under state law. That would have one clear advantage: Trump cannot receive a federal pardon for state crimes. There must be a response to a president who exploits his office for the purpose of overthrowing an election. The evidence is on tape. The next attorney general should move forward, if for no other reason, to deter further attempts at such reprehensible conduct. I would suggest impeachment as well, which could include a ban on holding office in the future, but we know already Republicans will defend anything Trump does. |
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Impeachment The drawback is that Pence would then have ample opportunity to pardon him. |
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Can Trump Be Prosecuted by Feds or the State For Try to Extort Election Official?: YES to Both The president’s demand for action to overturn the result of the election in the state raised questions about whether he violated election fraud statutes, lawyers said, though a charge is unlikely. The New York Times By Eric Lipton Jan. 3, 2021 Updated 10:21 p.m. ET The call by President Trump on Saturday to Georgia’s secretary of state raised the prospect that Mr. Trump may have violated laws that prohibit interference in federal or state elections, but lawyers said on Sunday that it would be difficult to pursue such a charge. The recording of the conversation between Mr. Trump and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of Georgia, first reported by The Washington Post, led a number of election and criminal defense lawyers to conclude that by pressuring Mr. Raffensperger to “find” the votes he would need to reverse the election outcome in the state, Mr. Trump either broke the law or came close to it. “It seems to me like what he did clearly violates Georgia statutes,” said Leigh Ann Webster, an Atlanta criminal defense lawyer, citing a state law that makes it illegal for anyone who “solicits, requests, commands, importunes or otherwise attempts to cause the other person to engage” in election fraud. At the federal level, anyone who “knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds or attempts to deprive or defraud the residents of a state of a fair and impartially conducted election process” is breaking the law. Matthew T. Sanderson, a Republican election lawyer who has worked on several presidential campaigns — including those of Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Rick Perry, the former Texas governor — said that while it did appear that Mr. Trump was trying to intimidate Mr. Raffensperger, it was not clear that he violated the law. That is because while Mr. Trump clearly implied that Mr. Raffensperger might suffer legal consequences if he did not find additional votes for the president in Georgia, Mr. Trump stopped short of saying he would deliver on the threat himself against Mr. Raffensperger and his legal counsel, Ryan Germany, Mr. Sanderson said. “You know what they did and you’re not reporting it,” the president said during the call, referring to his baseless assertions of widespread election fraud. “That’s a criminal — that’s a criminal offense. And you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer. And that’s a big risk.” Lacking additional clear evidence of Mr. Trump’s intent to follow up on any apparent threat, including the potential criminal charges he suggested Mr. Raffensperger or his office might face, Mr. Sanderson said, “Ultimately, I doubt this is behavior that would be prosecuted.” Michael R. Bromwich, a former Justice Department inspector general and lawyer who represented clients that have been critical of Mr. Trump, said he believed Mr. Trump violated federal law. But the meandering nature of the phone call and the fact that the president made no apparent attempt to conceal his actions as other call participants listened could allow Mr. Trump to argue that he did not intend to break the law or to argue that he did not know that a federal law existed apparently prohibiting his actions. The federal law would also most likely require that Mr. Trump knew that he was pushing Mr. Raffensperger to fraudulently change the vote count, meaning prosecutors would have to prove that Mr. Trump knew he was lying in asserting that he was confident he had won the election in Georgia. “It is unlikely federal prosecutors would bring such a case,” Mr. Bromwich said. “But it certainly was god awful and unbelievable. But prosecuting a federal crime is obviously a very different thing.” David Worley, a Democrat and a supporter of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. who is a member of the State Election Board in Georgia, wrote Sunday evening to Mr. Raffensperger and other members of the board asking the secretary of state, who is the board chairman, to open an investigation into the phone call to see if it violated state law, including a provision prohibiting conspiracy to commit election fraud. If the board concludes a law has been broken, Mr. Worley said, it could ask state law enforcement authorities to consider filing criminal charges or a civil case against Mr. Trump. “To say that I am troubled by President Trump’s attempt to manipulate the votes of Georgians would be an understatement,” Mr. Worley, who is the sole Democrat on the five-member board, wrote in the email. “Once we have received your investigative report, it will be the board’s duty to determine whether probable cause exists to refer this matter.” State officials in Georgia might also face a challenge in bringing a case against a federal official, or even a former federal official, said Ms. Webster and Ryan C. Locke, a second Atlanta criminal defense lawyer. Trevor Potter, a Republican former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, said the question would largely be up to the Justice Department in the Biden administration. “There is a good argument that Trump is seeking to procure a fraudulent vote count by stating that he needs exactly 11,780 votes and is threatening the secretary of state if he does not produce them,” Mr. Potter said. “But even if the Biden Justice Department thinks they have a good case, is that how they want to start off the Biden presidency? That is a policy decision.” Congressional Democrats suggested they would examine the legal implications of the call. Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the call raised new legal questions for Mr. Trump even if it was not a clear violation of the law. “In threatening these officials with vague ‘criminal’ consequences, and in encouraging them to ‘find’ additional votes and hire investigators who ‘want to find answers,’ the president may have also subjected himself to additional criminal liability,” Mr. Nadler said in a statement. |
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Here is a Link to the Call Transcript and the Audio Recording Trump said a lot of some really shameful stuff in this call. What a criminal! |
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it was presumed Warren would be the president elect. Preparing for a Disputed Presidential Election: An Exercise in Election Risk Assessment and Management Edward B. Foley lawecommons.luc.edu This is not slanted either way. |
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www.dailyitem.com |
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I listened to the whole thing over night. Trump sounds like a mafia boss making one lie after another, requesting one illegal action after another. Telling the secretary of state it would be okay if he just “recalculated” the vote tally to find him the 11,000+ votes he needed to win the state. He threatened the Secretary of State several times. And, he kept making repeated lies about equipment and ballots that the Secretary of State had to continually correct. He was trying to strong arm and coerce him multiple times. He kept asking about various allegations and he was told no every time by the Secretary of State and his staff. It was a disgusting abuse of power. I have a strong feeling that if he did this with Georgia it is likely he did it with the other swing states too because just trying to get Georgia to lie about their results would not net him the 270 electoral college votes that he needs. It was totally disgraceful. An embarrassment to this nation and our democracy. |
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to actually access the WP site. |
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Trump, and His Surrogates, Are Purposefully Inciting and Promoting Violence & Weapons in DC Tomorrow By Craig Timberg and Drew Harwell Jan. 5, 2021 at 12:57 p.m. EST Far-right online forums are seething with references to potential violence and urging supporters of President Trump to bring guns to Wednesday’s protests in Washington — in violation of local laws — as Congress meets to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Many of the posts appear to be direct responses to Trump’s demands that his supporters pack the nation’s capital in support of his bogus claims that November’s national vote for Biden resulted from election fraud. Congress’s largely ceremonial role in confirming Biden’s victory has emerged as a catalyst for expected unrest that has D.C. police and the National Guard deploying on city streets to quell potential trouble. Talk of guns and potential violence is rife on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, the conservative social media site Parler and on thedonald.win, an online forum that previously operated on Reddit before the company banned it in June after years of racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism and calls for violence. Trump’s tweet last month pushing baseless fraud claims and promoting the “big protest” on Jan. 6 — “Be there, will be wild!” — has become a central rallying cry. It was the top post on thedonald.win Tuesday morning, and anonymous commenters saw it as a call to action: “We’ve got marching orders,” the top reply said. Discussion in the thread followed about how most effectively to sneak guns into Washington, laced with occasional references to using them. D.C. has some of the nation’s strictest gun laws: Openly carrying guns is banned, concealed-carry licenses from other states aren’t recognized, and all firearms in the District must be registered with local police. Of carrying guns in D.C., one poster in the thread wrote, “Yes, it’s illegal, but this is war and we’re clearly in a post-legal phase of our society.” Wrote another: “LIVE AS A FREE AMERICAN AND BRING YOUR ARMS!” More than half of the top 50 posts on thedonald.win’s homepage Monday related to Wednesday’s certification featured calls of violence within the top five comments, according to research by Advance Democracy, a group headed by former FBI analyst and Senate investigator Daniel J. Jones, who lead the review of the CIA’s torture program. The group said thedonald.win had more than 18 million visits in November, and the recent posts with calls for violence had more than 40,000 engagements. One particularly troubling post said protesters should travel in groups that should “not let [anyone] disarm someone without stacking bodies.” It added that protesters should be “ARMED WITH RIFLE, HANDGUN, 2 KNIVES AND AS MUCH AMMO AS YOU CAN CARRY.” In one thread promoted by moderators Tuesday morning, titled “GOOD LUCK PATRIOTS, THE EYES OF THE WORLD LOOK UPON YOU NOW!!!,” posters shared tactical guides on how to avoid police blockades and D.C. gun laws, including: “If you plan on carrying concealed, don’t tell anyone you have a gun.” One commenter responded, “We The People, will not tolerate a Steal. No retreat, No Surrender. Restore to my President what you stole or reap the consequences!!!” Moderators for thedonald.win did not respond to requests for comment. Researchers expressed concern that the roiling political atmosphere is being fueled by Trump’s unfounded claims about the integrity of the election that have swirled on far-right online forums for two months. “You have what disinformation researchers have worried about for years, which is people becoming motivated to action by lies,” said Joan Donovan, the research director at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. References to guns and potential violence also have become routine on Telegram and Parler, according to the Coalition for a Safer Web, a nonprofit group that advocates for technologies and policies to remove extreme content from social media. It cited a Parler post from last week, by an account touting the QAnon conspiracy theory, that said, “To all the Patriots descending on Washington DC on #jan6 ....come armed....” A number of posts on Parler and thedonald.win voiced anti-police messages and slammed “Coptifa” — a combination of “cop” and “antifa,” the far-left protest movement. “WE THE PEOPLE … are through with you,” said one expletive-filled post on Parler. “To all our enemies high and low you want a war? Well your asking for one. … To the American people on the ground in DC today and all over this great nation, be prepared for anything. … Now we are here. Now they get what they want.” Parler’s chief operating officer, Jeffrey Wernick, declined to comment. The arrest of Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio on Monday, for charges related to the burning of a historically Black church’s Black Lives Matter flag in a protest last month, has further inflamed far-right conversations online, said Eric Feinberg, vice president for content moderation for the Coalition for a Safer Web. “You don’t know who’s going to get radicalized by this,” Feinberg said. “The next three days, I’m really worried about what could happen.” |
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ci.criticalimpact.com March to Save America Event PROHIBITED ITEMS LIST Aerosols Alcoholic beverages Backpacks, bags, roller bags, suitcases bags exceeding size restrictions (12”x14”x5”) Balloons Balls Banners, signs, placards Chairs Coolers Drones and other unmanned aircraft systems E-Cigarettes Explosives of any kind (including fireworks) Glass, thermal and metal containers Laser lights and laser pointers Mace and/or pepper spray Noisemakers, such as air horns, whistles, bullhorns, etc. Packages Poles, sticks and selfie sticks Spray containers Structures Supports for signs/placards Tripods Umbrellas Appliances (i.e. Toasters) And any other items that may pose a threat to the security of the event as determined by and at the discretion of the security screeners SECURITY All guests must undergo United States Secret Service screening prior to entering the venue. Please see below for prohibited items per United States Secret Service protocol. |
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The weapon concerns are not in the Ellipse area; that area can be sectioned off. This concerns are when these alt right groups, white supremacy groups, organizations like the Proud Boyz, and the typical MAGA nut jobs start roaming the streets of DC with the weapons they were encouraged to bring. They already started catching some of these losers Tuesday night and they arrested the leader of the Proud Boyz for his crimes in December, and when they had a similar rally last month in DC these crazies were stabbing people all over DC and they arrested many of them. So, you have Trump repeatedly tweeting to his supporters to attend and promising a “wild” time, the various group leaders telling their followers to bring weapons, you rile these whackos up with lies and conspiracy theories, and then they are set loose to run the streets of DC while Congress certifies the votes they want to overturn... what could possibly go wrong? It is quite obvious that Trump and company are trying to create a violent situation because Trump is looking for any reason to bring the military. He is both creating the problem and proving his “solution.” |
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As Projected, Trump Creates Violent Insurrection--HE is Responsible for What he Created Mitt Romney, on his way to a secure location, says, ‘This is what the President has caused.’ As the entire Senate was hustled into the Capitol basement by uniformed police officers, Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah and a prominent critic of the president’s, summoned a reporter as he was ushered with other lawmakers into a secure location. “This is what the president has caused today, this insurrection,” Mr. Romney said. |
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Violent Protest Forces Evacuation of Congress While most military staff oppose the president's declaration of martial law, wise advice has never stopped him from doing what was wrong before. |
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Many Demands for Trump to be Immediately Impeached and Jailed for Creating This Insurrection! |
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www.youtube.com Twitter: Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump · 1h I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you! A few bad operators raked havoc. Antifa infiltrators? |
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At least 2 of the TV networks have said they probably should not have aired Trump's half-@sssed video because he made the focus on him and his fake grievances and his request to his mob to go home lacked any conviction or sincerity. The only one who has show leadership here is President-Elect Biden. They should speed up the transition and have Biden take over immediately. This country can't stand one more minute of Trump's shit-show. |
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Antifa & BLM I like the comment below Classica's tweet. "This claim of election fraud is disputed, and this Tweet cannot be replied to, retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence." Why do people act as though they believe any of Groper's lies? There is no future in falsehood. |
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Impeachment Others had pointed out that anyone not a complete buffoon conducting operations the way Groper has been would have succeeded in breaking our democracy now. You KNOW the hotline between here and Moscow has to be humming. The back channel communications Kushner set up with Putin is working overtime. The real question is to what extent will Groper follow Putin's advice. He rarely listens to any wiser council. Mark Esper was fired for not supporting the invocation of the Insurrection Act. |
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@paulsperry_ · 2h BREAKING: Former FBI agent on the ground at U.S. Capitol just texted me and confirmed that at least 1 "bus load" of Antifa thugs infiltrated peaceful Trump demonstrators as part of a false Trump flag ops |
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Antifa & BLM Twitter locked Groper's account after he posted a string of false and inflammatory tirades. A US trade group is asking that the 25th amendment be invoked. Unfortunately no one in Groper's cabinet is capable of taking that kind of determined, positive action. "Mr. Trump’s account will be permanently suspended if he continues violating Twitter’s policies against violent threats and election misinformation, the company added." From a letter from friends: Today is a dark day in our country’s history. The world watched as armed terrorists stormed the U.S. Capitol Building as a means to protest the results and certification of the United States Presidential Election. Governor Inslee’s mansion has now been infiltrated by these domestic terrorists as well. This is a widespread widespread (sic) effort. The term “terrorism“ is used so often in incorrect circumstances that the term has become hackneyed. Terrorism is not a term reserved for peaceful protestors or people of color engaging in the political process, nor is it reserved for foreign extremists. It's reserved for insurgents who violently take over a government building in an attempted coup. These armed insurgents are domestic terrorists, and will be referred to as such. Today, our country faced a coordinated domestic terrorist attack. Network and cable news appear shocked that this horrendous and violent coup would take place, but as Democrats, we saw the writing on the wall for quite some time. Let’s first take a look at Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary: Sedition (n): Incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority For months, Republican leaders have been inciting resistance among their supporters. Until today, Cathy McMorris-Rodgers vowed to oppose the Electoral College results. She joined a litany of political leaders who made the same pledge, all while decrying the “stolen election”- the same stolen election, whose results they gladly accepted for their own victories. |
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The Hill's Coverage of the Seditious Riot Incited by Trump That Resulted in a Death BY JONATHAN EASLEY,MORGAN CHALFANT AND BRETT SAMUELS - 01/06/21 06:42 PM EST A day that President Trump saw as a last stand for him and his supporters descended into one of the ugliest scenes in American political history, as a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol shortly after Trump spoke to it, forcing the evacuation of Congress. The episode led to broad condemnations of Trump for inciting the riots, with some calling for his immediate impeachment and removal. The fury and outrage did not only come from Democrats. The National Association of Manufacturers, a conservative business group, said the 25th Amendment should be invoked for Trump’s removal. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said a video the president released, in which he repeated his baseless claims about having won a landslide election before telling his supporters to go home, was insufficient. She said the day’s events will be remembered by history as a “part of his legacy.” The chaotic day also further revealed the deep divide within the Republican Party over Trump’s behavior since losing the election and the efforts by dozens of Republicans to challenge the Electoral College vote count on Wednesday despite a lack of evidence of meaningful voter fraud. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who found out his party had officially lost the majority in the upper chamber while the riots were taking place, opened the day by warning that if the election were overturned “our democracy would enter a death spiral.” Less than one hour later, Vice President Pence had to be evacuated from the Senate and the Capitol was under siege, with police firing tear gas into crowds of protesters and one person fatally shot. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) was forced to implement a 6 p.m. citywide curfew and all 1,100 D.C. National Guard troops were activated to respond to the protests. “Lies have consequences,” said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.). “This violence was the inevitable and ugly outcome of the President’s addiction to constantly stoking division.” Trump has for weeks inaccurately insisted to his supporters that he won the presidential election, calling it “fraudulent,” “rigged” and “stolen.” The president has long had his eye on Jan. 6, believing that Vice President Pence and Congress could somehow block the certification of electoral votes affirming Joe Biden as the next president. Thousands of demonstrators flocked to the capital as a result, with many prepared for clashes and to confront lawmakers who did not support Trump’s objections. It resulted in a humiliation for America on a international stage just more than two weeks before Trump will leave office. Trump explicitly urged the protesters to march on Congress after the rally. The mob clashed with police, climbed the walls, broke windows, ran roughshod through the Speaker’s office and the House and Senate chambers, and hung Trump flags outside. “This is how election results are disrupted in a banana republic - not our democratic republic,” said former President George W. Bush. “I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions, and our law enforcement. The violent assault on the Capitol — and disruption of a Constitutionally-mandated meeting of Congress — was undertaken by people whose passions have been inflamed by falsehoods and false hopes,” he said. Biden, who will take office in two weeks, implored Trump to forcefully condemn the chaos after it unfolded, describing the events as an assault on the rule of law and close to an act of treasonous “sedition.” “The words of a president matter no matter how good or bad that president is. At their best, the words of a president can inspire. At their worst, they can incite,” Biden said in an afternoon address. “Therefore, I call on President Trump to go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege.” But Trump showed little interest in pressing his crowds of supporters from stopping their behavior, releasing a video that asked them to go home in “peace” but that continued to stoke his baseless claims about the election, which have repeatedly been tossed from court and led directly to Wednesday’s stunning scenes. Trump’s speech to supporters at the White House Ellipse just prior to the joint session of Congress was littered with attacks on members of his own party, including Cheney and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R). Trump also used the speech to elevate many falsehoods about the election, including that he won in a “landslide,” claims he continued to make in the video message. The president, enraged after Pence said he did not have the authority to unilaterally reject the election results as Trump had hoped, said little as the violence unfolded, even as those close to him issued searing denunciations of the chaos and pleaded for him to intervene. As Pence was being evacuated, Trump took to Twitter to incite the siege, saying the vice president “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.” Only later did he urge supporters in a few tweets and a video message to be peaceful. Several former White House aides, including former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and recently departed communications director Alyssa Farah, implored Trump to more forcefully condemn the actions of his supporters. “I need you to hear me: the Election was NOT stolen. We lost,” Farah tweeted. GOP lawmakers, including staunch allies like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), phoned into live cable news broadcasts from hiding at the Capitol to denounce the protests as “un-American” and urge the president to intervene. But Trump has struggled throughout his time in office to explicitly speak out against those who back him. He was panned for praising “both sides” of the Charlottesville, Va., clashes of 2017, he hailed followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory as people “who love our country” last year; and he was chastised after one of last year’s presidential debates when he refused to clearly denounce a fringe white supremacist group. Trump was widely scrutinized for his response to protests against racial injustice over the summer. As riots broke out in Minneapolis over George Floyd’s death, he invoked the racially charged phrase, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The same habit plagued his recorded video address on Wednesday, where Trump further fanned the flames of the conspiracy that the election was “fraudulent” and portrayed those who initiated violence as victims. “This was a fraudulent election, but we can’t play into the hands of these people,” Trump said in the one-minute video. “We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace.” The president’s address did little to quell the unrest or undo what had already transpired. Instead, it largely added to what some in the GOP viewed as a final, lasting stain on Trump’s legacy. “The president of the United States’ statement now, in my view, was completely inadequate,” Liz Cheney said. “What he has done and what he has caused here is something that we've never seen before in our history. “This will be part of his legacy, and it is a dangerous moment for the country,” she added. Later, Trump seemed to excuse if not condone the chaos. “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long,” he tweeted. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and other Democrats called for Trump’s impeachment, a scenario some party leaders have tamped down, noting Trump’s term will expire in two weeks. But others took the view that Trump is a threat to public safety and democracy and that he should be removed from office immediately. “This is chaos. It is mob rule. It is dangerous. This is sedition and should be treated as such,” the manufacturers group said. “Vice President Pence, who was evacuated from the Capitol, should seriously consider working with the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to preserve democracy.” |
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Twitter and Facebook Locked Trump's Account After He Incited Riot & for Peddling Lies The president has fanned flames of unrest, putting new pressure on Big Tech to clamp down on his divisive online rhetoric. By Tony Romm, Elizabeth Dwoskin and Drew Harwell Jan. 6, 2021 at 9:22 p.m. EST Twitter locked President Trump out of his account for the first time late Wednesday, the most punitive step the social media giant has taken so far against the president on a day of social unrest and violence in Washington. The lockout, which will last for 12 hours, also included the removal of three tweets and a warning that Trump could be subject to a permanent suspension if he continues tweeting baseless conspiracy theories about the election and inciting violence. Facebook followed, blocking the president’s account for the first time for 24 hours for what it said was two policy violations, although it didn’t threaten permanent suspension. It also said it was blocking his Facebook-owned Instagram account. The social media giants’ actions were the strongest volleys after a year of heightened tension between Silicon Valley and Trump, after months of struggling to combat baseless allegations of a stolen election long stoked by Trump and his allies. Trump belatedly called for calm on Twitter as the riot at the Capitol earlier Wednesday halted a process to certify Joe Biden as the next president of the United States. But his plea came in a now-removed video that was itself laced with disinformation, and he shared the message only after most of the mob had been pushed outside the building — leaving a trail of online and offline discord in his wake. As the mob of Trump supporters stormed the House and Senate, their compatriots online celebrated the chaos, cheering the violence across a wide array of social media sites and calling for bloodshed in the days ahead. The real-world violence forced lawmakers into a lockdown and raised new questions about whether social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, have acted swiftly and aggressively enough to rein in the dangerous rhetoric from Trump and his allies at a critical juncture for the future of U.S. democracy. Amid the onslaught of criticism, Facebook took the rare step of removing Trump’s video after hours of internal debate about the president’s actions, before blocking his account entirely. YouTube also removed the video, while Twitter similarly took aim at Trump throughout the day, flagging tweets that sent mixed messages about the events that had unfolded. “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long,” Trump said in a tweet since removed. “Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!” The saga began in the morning, when Trump urged his followers to march to the Capitol at a rally during which his attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, earlier called for a “trial by combat.” Trump later took to social media to attack his own vice president, Mike Pence, for failing to overturn the results of the election on Trump’s behalf. The president’s online and offline rhetoric ultimately emboldened a supportive mob later to breach the building, halting the House and Senate’s work and forcing Pence’s evacuation. The president soon returned to Twitter to encourage his supporters to stay “peaceful” — but he did not ask them to leave until in a video uploaded to the site later in the afternoon. “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement,” he tweeted. “They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!” The president’s words also reverberated far beyond Twitter, where he boasts more than 88 million followers, and other more traditional social media platforms. Trump supporters on lesser-known sites have spent months egging on what they’ve called a “second civil war” against Democrats and the so-called deep state. Many have boosted QAnon and other conspiracy theories suggesting that an uprising of covert military forces or civilian militias could help secure Trump’s presidency. The storming of the Capitol on Wednesday led many of those accounts to celebrate — and call for further violence. As the jarring images of the rioting appeared on television, the pro-Trump forum TheDonald.win hosted an online “watch party,” with thousands of commenters providing commentary and sharing live-stream video links of the blitz. “THIS IS WHY TRUMP CALLED US TO DC TODAY! STORM THE [expletive] CAPITOL!!!” said the top-voted comment from user RedWhiteBlue15. “You fight now or get thrown into a camp later. … They are going to take EVERYTHING FROM YOU INCLUDING YOUR HUMANITY!” On Parler, a social media site popular with Trump supporters, some posters encouraged more violence. “Disappointing. Pelosi, Schiff, Nadler, Schumer, Romney all got away,” wrote one poster. “DC is a target rich environment. Hope to see some of the DemonRat residences getting torched. Antifa knows how to do it. Learn from them.” The episode marked Trump’s latest attempt to weaponize Twitter in the days after his defeat. Since Election Day, the president has attacked Biden, rejected his victory, floated widely disproved allegations about voter fraud and stirred his supporters to act. The antagonism — much of it meted out with few repercussions from social media companies — culminated in the dramatic confrontation Wednesday at the Capitol, which forced the District of Columbia to mandate a curfew and summon the National Guard. It’s not the first time Trump’s social media activity has threatened to incite real-world violence. Seven months ago, for example, the president responded to racial justice demonstrations in Minneapolis by attacking those in attendance as “thugs” and predicting that looting might lead to “shooting.” That tweet prompted Twitter to discipline the president by blocking the tweet from view, believing he essentially glorified conflict. In the run-up to the election and its aftermath, the company covered up hundreds of tweets from high-profile accounts, including dozens from Trump. Critics including Democratic lawmakers soon called on the company to suspend the president’s account, repeating their long-held belief that Silicon Valley should stop Trump from spreading harmful misinformation at viral scale. But Twitter at the time said its policies allow world leaders to share their views unfettered, a view the company has maintained even as Trump has intensified his rhetoric. The company’s refusal to remove Trump on Wednesday prompted Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, to blast Trump for having “promoted sedition and incited violence.” He also called on Twitter and other social media companies to “suspend his accounts ASAP as they would do for anyone else advocating disinformation and promoting violence.” On Wednesday alone, Twitter labeled eight of Trump’s tweets as in “dispute.” In the face of growing pressure, it escalated its response by blocking retweeting and liking of the labeled tweets, as well as the ability to reply to them. Twitter then outright blocked two of Trump’s tweets. At Facebook, meanwhile, employees earlier in the day began pressuring company leaders to take action. They tagged Facebook executives in posts on the company’s internal chat system, asking for a statement from leadership and for the video to be taken down. “Do we really want Facebook to be a platform that enabled the second civil war,” an employee asked, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Several pro-Trump accounts on Twitter sought to blame the chaos on “antifa,” sharing baseless theories that followers of the far-left protest movement were “dressed as Trump supporters and causing havoc everywhere.” One message retweeted more than 3,000 times said, “Now who ACTUALLY wears all black and attacks law enforcement?? ANTIFA ACTORS!!! These are NOT Trump supporters attacking Capitol Police!!” Other Twitter accounts that promote Trump and QAnon voiced glee over the Capitol breach. “Wow, this movie is getting better and better. My popcorn is running out already! I need more!” said one QAnon-backing account. Joan Donovan, the research director at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, said the breach at the Capitol followed weeks of online agitating from Trump’s supporters who peddled the idea that they needed to “Stop the Steal” — and disrupt vote-tallying efforts nationwide. “This is the consequence of calling for a very wild protest,” as Trump had tweeted last month, and “it’s going to lead to some serious harm,” she said. Much of the online fury Wednesday centered on Vice President Pence, whom some Trump supporters had hoped would deliver an implausible saving grace by refusing to certify Biden’s victory. After Pence said he would not intervene, Lin Wood, the Trump-allied attorney who has pushed to overturn the election, tweeted a baseless allegation that Pence “is a TRAITOR, a Communist Sympathizer & a Child Molester. Lock him up.” The tweet, which has not been flagged by Twitter, has been retweeted 15,000 times. QAnon believers also shared images and video clips of Trump supporters smashing glass and storming the police surrounding the Capitol. One well-known QAnon figure, a shirtless man known as the Q Shaman, could be seen in photos of the crowd inside the building after it had been breached. On Parler, a site that prides itself for its lack of content moderation, the extremist group known as the Proud Boys celebrated the mayhem in Washington. “Doesn’t look like they’re destroying the capital,” one user affiliated with the group wrote. “Looks like they’re liberating it. God bless America and all her patriots.” Users on 4chan, another online message board popular among Trump supporters, similarly cheered the mobs that overtook the Capitol. Users there described the mayhem as the “American Revolution 2.0″ and threatened what they described as “tyrannical” Democrats and “traitors.” “[I hope] they are all dragged outside and executed one by one in front of the camera, after being forced to admit their [sic] wrong doing for the world to see. Hanging is too good for demons,” read one post, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks right-wing extremism. Craig Timberg contributed reporting. |
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Insanity Utterly insane. Completely unreal. |
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