Trump's world....

[DBP66]

Here you go Steve/Don....the laughs keep coming!............🤡

 

Giuliani ordered to testify in Georgia 2020 election probe

 

FILE - Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani speaks during a news conference June 7, 2022, in New York. The Georgia investigation into potential criminal interference in the 2020 election is heating up. Prosecutors are trying to force allies and advisers of former President Donald Trump to come to Atlanta to testify before a special grand jury. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

 

KATE BRUMBACK

Wed, July 20, 2022 at 11:15 AM

 

 

ATLANTA (AP) — A judge in New York has ordered Rudy Giuliani to appear next month before a special grand jury in Atlanta that's investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 general election in Georgia.

New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber on July 13 issued an order directing Giuliani, a Trump lawyer and former New York City mayor, to appear before the special grand jury on Aug. 9 and on any other dates ordered by the court in Atlanta, according to documents filed Wednesday in Fulton County Superior Court.

Giuliani's lawyer did not immediately return a call and email seeking comment Wednesday.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis began her investigation early last year, and a special grand jury with subpoena power was seated in May at her request. In a letter requesting the special grand jury, she said her team was looking into “any coordinated attempts to unlawfully alter the outcome of the 2020 elections in this state.”

 

Earlier this month, she filed petitions to compel seven Trump associates, including Giuliani and U.S. Sen Lindsey Graham, to testify before the special grand jury.

Because they don't live in Georgia, she had to use a process that involves getting a judge in the state where they live to order them to appear.

Giuliani had been summoned to appear in court in New York on July 13 to present any reasons why a subpoena should not be issued for him to testify in Atlanta, but he failed to show up for the hearing, Farber wrote in his order.

In a court filing Wednesday, Willis informed the judge overseeing the special grand jury that Giuliani had been served with Farber's final order instructing him to appear before the special grand jury.

It’s possible that Giuliani could file a motion with the court in Atlanta to try to avoid testifying.

Graham, who has denied any wrongdoing, reached an agreement with Willis yesterday that said he would file any challenge to the attempt to compel his testimony in Georgia, either in Fulton County Superior Court or in federal court in Atlanta, rather than in South Carolina or Washington, where Willis was planning to try to get a judge to issue a subpoena.

U.S. Rep. Jody Hice filed a challenge to a subpoena issued for his testimony in federal court in Atlanta. He has argued that his actions after the election were done in his role as a member of Congress and are shielded from legal proceedings and inquiry. A judge is set to hear arguments on that next week.

Georgia's lieutenant governor and a former state lawmaker also challenged subpoenas. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who's overseeing the special grand jury, declined to quash the subpoenas but did set guidelines for the questions they could be asked based on their status as members of the General Assembly.

In the petition for Giuliani’s testimony, Willis identified him as both a personal attorney for Trump and a lead attorney for his campaign.

As part of those efforts, she wrote, he and others presented a Georgia state Senate subcommittee with a video recording of election workers that Giuliani alleged showed them producing “suitcases” of unlawful ballots from unknown sources, outside the view of election poll watchers.

Within 24 hours of the hearing on Dec. 3, 2020, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office had debunked the video and said that it had found that no voter fraud had taken place at the site. Nevertheless, Giuliani continued to make statements to the public and in subsequent legislative hearings claiming widespread voter fraud using that debunked video, Willis wrote.

“There is evidence that (Giuliani’s) appearance and testimony at the hearing was part of a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere,” the petition says.

[Wildcat Will]

They are all going down. We are living in historic times and many are taking it with no concern for it. There is no interest in looking forward on certain issues.

[concha]

 

 Biden Job Approval Falls to All-Time Low in RCP Average to 37.1%

 

[concha]

Biden’s six favorite lies about inflation and the economy

BY STEPHEN MOORE AND EJ ANTONI, OPINION CONTRIBUTORS - 07/20/22 9:30 AM ET
 

Every modern president has stretched the truth now and then, and the media loved to torch Trump nearly every other day for lying. But Biden’s routine misstatements about money and the economy seem to go unchallenged.  

In recent months, as the economy has slipped into a soft recession and with inflation at 9.1 percent the Biden whoppers keep coming fast and furious.

Here are six of the most economically consequential deceptions of the Biden administration.

1. Nobody making under four hundred thousand bucks will have their taxes raised. Period. 

This one was reminiscent of the infamous George H.W. Bush claim in 1988 “read my lips: no new taxes.” Biden didn’t say he wouldn’t raise taxes on the middle class once or twice, but routinely throughout the campaign — and he even STILL says it. 

Except that inflation is a tax that hits the middle class and the poor hardest and over the past year, prices have outpaced wages and salaries by roughly four percentage points. With the average worker wage and salary at roughly $60,000 per year (that’s a lot less than $400,000) this means a $2,400 per worker Biden inflation tax and as much as double that for families with husband and wife both working.

2. Inflation is worse everywhere but here. 

Biden claimed this most recently in a speech in Philadelphia as an excuse for high inflation here at home. It is hogwash. Inflation is lower in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and many other countries.

3. The economy had stalled when I entered office.

The reality is that Biden was bequeathed an economy with robust growth coming out of the pandemic. In the second half of 2020, the economy grew more than $1.5 trillion at an annualized rate. The growth rate for the second half of 2020 even with COVID was almost 15 percent. 

Moreover, when Biden entered office, the economy was prepped for an enormous tail winds gust because of the Trump “operation warp speed” vaccine that was just hitting the market and allowing businesses to reopen and workers to return to the job.  

4. I am responsible for the strongest job creation economy in modern times.

This is more an exaggeration than a bold-faced lie.  

On jobs, we will give the president his due. This has been an impressive hiring spree over the past 14 months and the jobs are out there for those who want them. But this is NOT the strongest period for job creation. That hiring record was set in 2020 under Trump who presided over the initial recovery following the government-imposed lockdowns. 

Job growth under Trump from May 2020 to Jan 2021 averaged 1.4 million jobs per month, for a total of 12.5 million people returning to work. But under Biden, average job growth per month has been cut by more than half, down to 542,000 with 8.7 million people returning to work. That means Biden has added 31 percent fewer jobs in 16 months than Trump did in nine.

5. Since I took office, families are carrying less debt, their average savings are up. 

This is a strange and oft-repeated White House claim.  

The amount families are able to save each month has utterly collapsed, falling 74 percent since Biden took office, while the personal savings rate has plummeted from 19.9 percent to just 5.4 percent. Likewise, the claim about declining debt is equally untrue. Household debt has risen by $1.29 trillion in just the first 15 months of Biden’s presidency. Credit card debt, which decreased over $100 billion during the pandemic, is now exploding at the fastest rates on record as families run out of savings and fall into debt. 

Put simply, they cannot afford to live in Biden’s America. Biden also ignores a stock market selloff that has evaporated some $10 trillion of Americans’ wealth and savings.  This is one of the greatest periods of savings disappearing. 

6. I’m doing everything I can to lower gas prices.

We wonder if ANYONE actually believes this claim. 

The folks at Institute for Energy Research have identified 100 separate Biden executive orders, regulations, and laws that have impeded oil and gas production and raised prices at the pump. These range from killing pipelines, to expanding EPA regulations on oil and gas drilling and refining, to taking hundreds of thousands of acres of prime oil and gas lands on public lands and in areas like the Gulf of Mexico off-limits for drilling. Economist Casey Mulligan of the University of Chicago estimates that these policies have reduced oil and gas drilling by 2 to 3 million barrels a day. That increased production would bring gas prices down at the pump. 

Perhaps none of these half-truths and outright fibs should be too surprising. What should we expect from the administration that first denied inflation, then said inflation was transitory, then claimed it was only a high-class problem? Biden has done another about-face, decrying inflation as bad but now it is Russia’s fault or greedy businesses, like meatpackers or oil companies and even mom-and-pop gas station owners.

C’mon Joe. We’re not that dumb. Give us a little more truth. 

 

 

[DBP66]

In Harvard study of Jan. 6 rioters, top motivation is clear: Trump

 

Win McNamee

 

Ben Collins and Ryan J. Reilly and Jacob Ward

Wed, July 20, 2022 at 4:27 PM

 

 

Researchers at Harvard University who conducted the largest study yet of what motivated Jan. 6 rioters say the data is clear: The most common responses focused on former President Donald Trump and his lies about the election.

The study, which was shared with NBC News ahead of its publication, logged and analyzed the motives of 417 Capitol rioters, all of whom have been charged in relation to Jan. 6. The motives were derived from 469 documents filed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, including charging documents and sentencing memoranda.

The researchers from the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University wrote that the documents make clear that Jan. 6 committee member Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., “was mostly correct in her assessment” that “Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack.”

“Far and away, we find that the two most commonly-cited reasons for breaching the US Capitol were a desire to support Trump on January 6th in DC and concerns about election integrity,” the report reads.

 

The report adds to evidence from thousands of court documents in the more than 840 cases brought forward so far that many of those who stormed the U.S. Capitol and committed violent acts were motivated by their support for Trump and their belief in lies about the 2020 election.

A plurality of rioters cited either their support for Trump (20.6%) or Trump’s false belief that the election had been stolen (also 20.6%) as their primary motivation for their actions that led to charges on Jan. 6.

The third most frequently listed reason defendants gave to law enforcement for entering the Capitol was their belief that they were participating in “revolution, civil war, or secession.”

About the same number of defendants in the study claimed they were at the Capitol to “peacefully protest” (7%) as those who claimed they were there because of a “general interest in violence” (6.2%).

The report, written by Joan Donovan, director of Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, and Kaylee Fagan and Frances Lee, research assistants at Shorenstein, is an analysis of “the largest and most far-reaching publicly available archive of social media posts, private messages, and direct quotes attributed to the members of the mob: their court documents.”

The report includes specific social media posts from rioters in the days before Jan. 6 that pinpoint Trump as a primary cause of mayhem. The Harvard study also notes the most-shared links among the more than 400 Capitol rioters included in the analysis.

The second-most-shared link by defendants was a Dec. 22, 2021, Facebook video posted by then-President Trump, in which he makes baseless accusations of voter fraud for over 14 minutes.

“When we were crafting a research question, we really wanted to answer, ‘What motivated Jan. 6 defendants to go inside the Capitol?’” Donovan said.

The documents were produced by either FBI agents or law enforcement and include both people’s stated motivations for going to the Capitol that day, as well as some of their social media history that the officers believed was relevant to their arrest.

Kelly Meggs, a member of the far-right militant group The Oath Keepers, cited then-President Trump’s tweet on Dec. 18 telling fans to “be there, will be wild!” in a Facebook post the same day.

“Trump said It’s gonna be wild!!!!!!! It’s gonna be wild!!!!!!!” Meggs wrote. “He wants us to make it WILD that’s what he’s saying. He called us all to the Capitol and wants us to make it wild!!! Sir Yes Sir!!!”

Meggs was later charged with seditious conspiracy by the Department of Justice for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Daniel “D.J” Rodriguez, the California Trump supporter who was captured on multiple videos driving a stun gun into the neck of D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Mike Fanone, admitted to the FBI that he did what was shown on video.

After Rodriguez was arrested by the FBI in late March 2021, he waived his Miranda rights and gave the FBI an in-depth view into how he ended up committing a violent act on an officer. (After he confessed, Rodriguez’s attorneys unsuccessfully attempted to get his confession suppressed from a potential trial. He has entered a not guilty plea in his case, but remains held until trial because of the overwhelming evidence against him.)

“It’s very stupid and ignorant, and I see that it’s a big joke, that we thought that we were going to save this country, we were doing the right thing and stuff,” Rodriguez explained.

Rodriguez said that he’d knocked on doors in support of the Trump campaign, attended numerous rallies, and even attempted to sign up for the Army after Trump became president, walking into a recruitment station while wearing a Trump shirt.

“Trump called us. Trump called us to D.C.,” Rodriguez told the FBI, explaining why he went to D.C. on Jan. 6. “If he’s the commander in chief and the leader of our country, and he’s calling for help — I thought he was calling for help, I thought he was I thought we were doing the right thing.”

The sizable trove of evidence released in connection with Jan. 6 criminal cases illustrates the motivations of Capitol riot defendants in other ways. Recently released police body camera footage, presented as evidence in connection with Jan. 6 case, shows members of the mob chanting “Fight for Trump” inside the Capitol as they try to fight past police officers attempting to remove them from the building after the mob broke through the door on the eastern side of the Capitol.

Additional footage filmed by Capitol rioter Nolan Cooke, recently released following a request from NBC News, shows the mob chanting “Stop the steal” and “We want Trump!” after breaking a police line and chasing overwhelmed cops up the stairs of the Capitol.

Donovan said she hopes her research can help show social media companies and authorities when they need to act before a similar flash point occurs in the future.

“What we’re trying to understand is really the new potent forms of political violence that can come from agitation online, that creates this kind of fervor. And then, once the match is lit by a politician, we have to have appropriate responses by other actors, including not just law enforcement, but journalists and technologists,” Donovan said.

“I do believe that the only way to come at this problem of networked incitement is with a whole of society solution.”

[concha]

[concha]

[DBP66]

Trump spent most of the January 6 attack watching TV in the White House dining room, according to new video from House committee

 

 

Jake Lahut

Thu, July 21, 2022 at 10:40 AM

 

 

 

Former President Donald Trump.Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

• Trump watched TV during the Capitol siege, according to new video testimony.

• Rep. Adam Kinzinger tweeted out a compilation of video depositions from former Trump officials.

• Thursday night's House Select Committee hearing will focus on Trump's reaction to the attack.

Former President Donald Trump was watching TV in the White House dining room for the bulk of the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, according to a new compilation of video depositions from former officials given to the House Select Committee investigating the siege.

Ahead of Thursday night's hearing on how Trump reacted to the storming of the Capitol, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a member of the House Select Committee, shared a video compilation of the depositions on Twitter.

Former White House officials such as Kayleigh McEnany and Pat Cipollone said Trump was holed up in the dining room next to the Oval Office as the attack unfolded. According to Cipollone, who served as White House counsel, images of the violence unfolding were on the screen as Trump watched.

Other officials said Trump did not move to the Oval Office or the Situation room to coordinate a response.

On the one year anniversary of the attack, former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham told CNN that Trump "gleefully" watched his supporters storm the Capitol.

"All I know about that day was that he was in the dining room, gleefully watching on his TV as he often did, 'look at all of the people fighting for me,' hitting rewind, watching it again — that's what I know," Grisham told CNN's "New Day."

[DBP66]

She's an American hero who put her country ahead of her deranged Republican party. Talk about her running for Pres.??...you go Liz!

[concha]

 

And Liz's dumb ass will be shit-canned in November, to great celebration.

[DBP66]

33 minutes ago, concha said:

 

And Liz's dumb ass will be shit-canned in November, to great celebration.

celebration??...LOL..yea, from the Trump Kool-Aid gang....people who sold their souls...like you Don...🤡

[DBP66]

Jan. 6 committee shows video of Sen. Hawley running down hall of Capitol during siege

Dylan Stableford and Christopher Wilson

Thu, July 21, 2022 at 9:38 PM

 

 

On Jan. 6, 2021, before a violent mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., was photographed with his fist raised in solidarity with the pro-Trump protesters who had gathered outside the security gates.

During the House select committee’s primetime hearing on Thursday night, the panel showed surveillance video of Hawley running down the hall inside the Capitol as the rioters stormed the building.

Laughter could be heard in the hearing room as the committee showed footage of Hawley running.

He was also shown briskly walking down steps with other lawmakers as they were evacuated shortly after the joint session of Congress had been convened to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

 

An image of Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., showing support for pro-Trump protesters on Jan. 6, 2021. (Getty Images)

 

Surveillance camera footage of Hawley running down a hall inside the Capitol on Jan. 6. (House TV)

Hours later, Hawley was one of eight Republican senators to vote in favor of overturning the results in Pennsylvania and one of seven senators who voted to overturn the results in Arizona. Counting members of the House, 147 total Republican legislators voted against certification, perpetuating Trump’s false conspiracy theory that the election was stolen from him, one now shared by a majority of Republicans.

Hawley was criticized for his actions on Jan. 6 from both sides of the aisle, including being disowned by his mentor, former Missouri Sen. John Danforth, who called supporting Hawley “the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.” Hawley stood by his actions and pulled in a massive fundraising haul for his efforts.

“I will never apologize for giving voice to the millions of Missourians and Americans who have concerns about the integrity of our elections,” Hawley said in a Jan. 7, 2021, statement. “That’s my job, and I will keep doing it.”

[DBP66]

 

Liz Cheney says Trump is 'preying' on his supporters by pushing 2020 election lie

Jon Ward

·Chief National Correspondent

Thu, July 21, 2022 at 11:46 PM

 

 

The patriotism of many Americans was turned into a “weapon” during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, by a former president who continues to prey on his supporters, Rep. Liz Cheney said Thursday night.

Cheney, the vice chair of the Jan. 6 House select committee investigating the attack, delivered a forceful and sober final statement at the conclusion of a nearly three-hour hearing on Capitol Hill.

The Republican congresswoman from Wyoming addressed her comments to those who are skeptical of the committee’s work, which includes many voters in her own home state.

“The case against Donald Trump in these hearings is not made by witnesses who were his political enemies. It is, instead, a series of confessions by Donald Trump’s own appointees, his own friends, his own campaign officials, people who worked for him for years, and his own family,” Cheney said.

 

US Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) delivers a closing statement during a hearing by the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the US Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC, on July 21, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Cheney made a distinction between Trump and his supporters, noting that many who voted for the former president would eagerly defend the country with their own lives. “Donald Trump knows that millions of Americans who supported him would stand up and defend our nation were it threatened. They would put their lives and their freedom at stake to protect her,” she said.

But, she said, on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump “turned their love of country into a weapon against our Capitol and our Constitution.”

Trump is even now “preying on their patriotism” by continuing to insist he somehow won the 2020 election, despite no evidence to support his baseless claims, Cheney said.

The nine hearings so far, Cheney said, have shown that “Donald Trump's plan to falsely claim victory in 2020, no matter what the facts actually were, was premeditated.”

 

A video of former President Donald Trump played on a screen during a hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., US, on Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The hearing Thursday showed evidence that Trump did nothing to stop the violence on Jan. 6, that former Vice President Mike Pence called in police and military units to shut down the riot, and that Trump rejected calls from his family and aides to call off the mob until he knew the attack would be repelled by law enforcement.

Cheney closed her comments by asking Americans to consider the gravity of allowing Trump back into power again.

“Every American must consider this – can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of January 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?" she said.

Cheney is facing the possibility of losing her seat in Congress if she loses the Aug. 16 primary back in Wyoming to a Republican challenger who has parroted Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. But her words Thursday demonstrated a resolve on her part to continue waging a battle for the soul of the Republican party.

 

US Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) shakes hands with Sandra Garza, partner of deceased US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, following a hearing by the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the US Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC, on July 21, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

When Cheney was stripped of her leadership position in the House Republican Conference over a year ago, she vowed then to stop Trump from being reelected. “I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office,” Cheney said.

If Cheney loses her congressional seat, and even if she wins, she’s likely to run for president in 2024 in order to keep making the case that Trump is unfit to lead the GOP, much less the nation, according to conversations with Republicans close to the matter.

Cheney ended the hearing Thursday by making clear that the committee’s work is not done, and there will be more hearings after Labor Day.

“Ronald Reagan’s great ally, Margaret Thatcher, said this: ‘Let it never be said that the dedication of those who love freedom is less than the determination of those who would destroy it,’” Cheney said. “Let me assure every one of you this: Our committee understands the gravity of this moment, the consequences for our nation. We have much work yet to do, and will see you all in September.”

[DBP66]

 

Key takeaways from Thursday’s primetime Jan. 6 hearing on the Capitol attack

Caitlin Dickson

·Reporter

Fri, July 22, 2022 at 1:29 AM

 

 

Thursday’s primetime hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol shined an unflattering light on then-President Donald Trump’s reaction to the violent riot waged by his supporters.

Committee members Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., walked viewers through a minute-by-minute recap of how Trump spent the hours that the riot raged, relying heavily on testimony from a variety of witnesses who were in the White House that day, including former national security adviser Matthew Pottinger and former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews, both of whom testified in-person on Capitol Hill.

The gripping presentation focused on the 187 minutes between the end of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech at the Ellipse, south of the White House, at around 1:10 p.m., and when he finally released a videotaped statement at 4:17 p.m. in which he grudgingly urged his supporters to leave the Capitol.

Kinzinger and Luria made the case that the violent attack on the Capitol was the culmination of Trump’s multi-step effort to remain in power despite having lost the 2020 election, and that his failure to call off the mob intent on blocking the certification of the Electoral College votes showing Joe Biden had won, was a deliberate choice.

By effectively delaying the electoral vote count by several hours, Kinzinger said, “The mob was accomplishing President Trump’s purpose, so of course he did not intervene.”

“On Jan. 6, when lives and our democracy hung in the balance, President Trump refused to act because of his selfish desire to stay in power,” said Luria.

Using a combination of live and videotaped testimony, text messages sent by Trump allies, and phone transcripts from those demanding that Trump call off his supporters, the committee filled in the gaps on how Trump had spent that fateful afternoon on Jan. 6. Here are some of the most shocking revelations.

 

A video of former President Donald Trump is played on a screen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Al Drago/Pool via AP)

Inaction at the Capitol

Luria said the committee’s investigation found that Trump knew the Capitol was under attack within 15 minutes of leaving the stage following his rally at the Ellipse. And yet, she said, from 1:25 p.m. until shortly after 4 p.m., he remained in the White House dining room watching the siege unfold on Fox News.

Witnesses who were at the White House during that time period described how advisors, allies on Capitol Hill, and the president’s own children repeatedly urged Trump to make a statement condemning the violence and telling his supporters to leave the Capitol.

But instead of heading to the White House briefing room to record such a message, Luria said that Trump was busy making calls to Senators, encouraging them to object to the electoral college certification.

It was only after the Defense Department had mobilized the entire National Guard, elected officials had been moved to secure locations and the failure of the insurrection was apparent that “Trump finally relented” and tweeted a video at 4:17pm telling the rioters to go home, Luria said.

 

A video of retired Washington Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Mark Robinson being interviewed is played as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Witnesses refuted a number of Trump’s key talking points

Trump has repeatedly insisted, without evidence, that prior to Jan. 6 he offered to send 20,000 National Guard troops to secure the Capitol that day but that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to accept the offer. Hours before Thursday’s hearing got underway, Trump repeated that assertion on his social media platform Truth Social. But the select committee swiftly knocked down the claim, showing clips from interviews with multiple former White House staffers, including former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Gen. Kieth Kellogg, who served as national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence. Both stated definitively that they were not aware of Trump issuing orders to send the National Guard or any other law enforcement personnel to the Capitol on Jan. 6.

The committee also introduced testimony from two new witnesses who corroborated key details from the testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who previously testified that she was told about an alleged altercation between Trump and his Secret Service detail after the former president was told that it would not be safe for him to join his supporters at the Capitol following his speech at the Ellipse on Jan. 6.

Hutchinson said she heard about the altercation, which involved Trump grabbing for the steering wheel of his presidential vehicle and lunging at Secret Service agent Robert Engel. Trump has forcefully denied the account, but on Thursday Luria revealed that the panel has since obtained “evidence from multiple sources regarding an angry exchange in the presidential SUV, including testimony we will disclose today from two witnesses who confirmed that a confrontation occurred.”

One witness, who Luria described as “a former White House employee with national security responsibilities,” said they also were told by Engel and former White House deputy chief of staff Anthony Ornato that Trump was “irate” when he was told he could not go to the Capitol.

The other witness, retired D.C. Metropolitan Police Sgt. Mark Robinson, was assigned to Trump’s motorcade on Jan. 6, and sat in the lead vehicle with a Secret Service agent, also known as a “T.S. agent.” In a filmed interview played at the hearing, Robinson also told the committee that the T.S. agent told him that “the president was upset,” that he’d been “adamant about going to the Capitol” and that “there was a heated discussion about that.”

 

A slide from the video presentation during the House Select Committee hearing on July 21, 2022. (House TV via Reuters Video)

Trump’s supporters reacted to his tweets in real time

Throughout the hearing, Kinzinger and Luria wove together testimony about Trump’s inaction at the White House, the efforts by others to convince him to issue a statement condemning the rioters, and video footage of the violence unfolding at the Capitol to show how all of these aspects influenced the others.

Some of the starkest examples of this were video and audio clips showing how members of the mob reacted in real time to tweets Trump sent that day, demonstrating, as Matthews said, “the impact that his words have on his supporters.”

In particular, the committee showed footage of rioters reacting angrily to Trump’s 2:24 p.m. tweet criticizing Pence for refusing to go along with the illegal plot to block the certification of some Biden electors. Later, they played a recording of walkie-talkie communications between members of the far right group the Oath Keepers, some of whom were inside the Capitol, reading a subsequent tweet in which Trump urged the mob to “stay peaceful” and to “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement.”

“He didn’t say not to do anything to the congressmen,” a person on the recording is heard saying in response to Trump’s tweet. “He didn't ask them to stand down.”

Trump’s supporters were similarly receptive when he finally did issue the video statement at 4:17 telling them to go home. In footage shot at the Capitol shortly after that tweet was sent, the rioter known as the QAnon Shaman is seen yelling: “I’m here delivering the president’s message. Donald Trump is asking us to go home,” as others in the crowd watch the president’s video statement on their phones.

The committee also played a clip of testimony given last week by Stephen Ayres, an Ohio man who was charged with participating in the riot, who said that he and others at the Capitol began to disperse as soon as Trump's video message from the Rose Garden came out.

 

A slide

Trump refuses to stick to the script

Even after Trump finally gave in to his allies' pleas to call off the mob and condemn the violence at the Capitol, he struggled to stick to the scripts staffers had written for him to read on camera. The committee played never-before-seen outtakes from two video messages — one filmed on Jan. 6 in the Rose Garden and a second shot on Jan. 7 in the White House. In both, Trump veered from the script, struggled to condemn those who had stormed the Capitol and continued to perpetuate his false claims of a stolen election.

In a particularly telling outtake from the Jan. 7 message, Trump refuses to acknowledge that his options for staying in power have been exhausted.

“This election is now over. Congress has certified the results,” Trump said before stopping. “I don’t want to say the election is over. I want to say Congress has certified the results without saying the election is over, OK?”

 

This exhibit from video released by the House Select Committee, shows President Donald Trump recording a video statement at the White House on Jan. 7, 2021, that was played at a hearing by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Thursday, July 21, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (House Select Committee via AP) More

Pence’s Secret Service detail feared for their lives

The committee played chilling testimony from an anonymous White House security official who described hearing “disturbing” radio communications from members of Vice President Mike Pence’s Secret Service detail while the Capitol was under siege, before Pence and his family had been moved to a secure location.

“Members of the VP’s detail at this time were starting to fear for their own lives,” said the official, whose voice and identity were shielded to protect his identity. “They're screaming , saying things like, ‘say goodbye to family’.”

 

Representative Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, center, speaks during a hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., US, on Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

There will be more hearings to come

Thursday’s presentation marked the eighth in the recent series of public hearings the select committee has held this summer to share the findings of its ongoing investigation into the attack on the Capitol. Though the primetime hearing had previously been billed as a “finale” of sorts, the committee’s leaders confirmed Thursday that the panel plans to reconvene again in September to share more of the findings it has continued to uncover since it began this latest round of hearings last month.

“Our committee understands the gravity of this moment and the consequences for our nation,” the panel’s vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in her closing statement Thursday. “We have much work yet to do and we will see you all in September.”

_____

[DBP66]

Trump's awkward Jan. 7 video outtakes reveal his behavior behind the scenes as he argued with Ivanka, slammed the podium, and fumbled over his words

 

 

Cheryl Teh

Fri, July 22, 2022 at 4:31 AM

 

 

 

The January 6 panel revealed a new video showing how Trump melted down while recording a message on January 7, 2021.January 6 House Select Committee

• A new video from the January 6 panel shows Trump's anger and frustration while recording a message.

• The recording from January 7, 2021, showed Trump banging on the podium and gesturing angrily.

• He was also heard debating with his daughter Ivanka about the content of the nationwide address.

A series of video clips shown by House committee investigating the Capitol riot gave shocking insight into former President Donald Trump's behavior behind the scenes.

The video from January 7 last year — around 24 hours after rioters swarmed the Capitol in an effort to overturn the election — was played during the January 6 panel's eighth public hearing on Thursday.

In the video, Trump was seen taking more than 10 seconds after being cued to adjust his posture and facial expression, before beginning with his statement: "I would like to begin by addressing the heinous attack yesterday."

 

Trump looked around uncertainly and spent 10 seconds appearing to adjust his posture, strike a pose, and steel himself before launching into his address.Januay 6 Select Committee

However, this was but one of multiple takes Trump went through to record his nationwide address. Right after the first pause, Trump appeared to signal for a do-over.

 

In the second video shown by the panel, Trump stopped in the middle of recording after appearing to struggle with disavowing the violence during the riot.

"You can't say that," Trump remarked, highlighting the phrase "you broke the law," which was presumably displayed on the teleprompter at the time.

"I'm not gonna — I already said 'you will pay,'" he said in the clip.

In another video, the former president was seen banging on the podium in frustration after failing to say the word "defiled."

"Demonstraters who infiltrated the Capitol — have defied the seat — it's defiled, right?" Trump said. "See, I can't see it very well. Ok. I'll do this! I'm gonna do this. Let's go."

 

The former president stopped recording his statement during one take because he had trouble saying the word "yesterday."January 6 Select Committee

In the fourth clip played by the panel, Trump paused partway through his address and began debating the language with his daughter Ivanka. He refused to say four words suggested by aides: "The election is over."

Trump read off the teleprompter: "But this election is now over. Congress has certified the results."

He then paused and backpedaled.

"I don't want to say the election is over," Trump said. "I just want to say Congress certified the results announcing the election is over, OK?"

 

On more than one occasion, Ivanka Trump interjected to give suggestions on what her father should say.January 6 Select Committee

His daughter Ivanka was then heard prompting him: "But, Congress has certified…"

"Now — I didn't say over — Go to the paragraph before," Trump said.

The panel's fifth video clip showed Trump flapping his arms and puffing up his chest. This time, however, he stumbled on the word "yesterday."

"I wanna begin by addressing the heinous attack yesterday," Trump said, before stopping again.

"Yesterday's a hard word for me," he commented.

"Just take it out," Ivanka said.

 

Ivanka Trump suggested that her father simply omit the word "yesterday," which he had trouble saying in the video.January 6 Select Committee

"Good, take the word 'yesterday' out. Cause, it doesn't work with — the heinous attack — on our country. Say, 'on our country.' Wanna say that?" he said.

"No, keep it," Ivanka said in the video.

In the committee's sixth clip, Trump grimaced while attempting to make it through a line stating that his goal was to "ensure the integrity of the vote." And in the following video, he slammed the podium in frustration after failing to get through the same line again.

 

Trump was seen grimacing, frowning, and signaling abruptly for a re-take of his speech after fumbling lines.January 6 Select Committee

The former President eventually did make it through the entire speech, which ended up being a two-and-a-half minute address.

 

The January 6 panel revealed a new video showing how Trump melted down while recording a message on January 7, 2021.January 6 House Select Committee

The panel also showed two clips of Trump struggling to make it through a speech in the Rose Garden on January 6. According to testimonies from former Trump staffers, Trump had gone off-script when he called the Capitol protesters "very special" while asking them to "go home."

These videos of Trump struggling with reading from a teleprompter underscore the hypocrisy of the attacks by Trump and other right-wing figures on President Joe Biden's own teleprompter gaffes.

Trump has repeatedly insulted Biden's mental faculties with his campaign ads, calling him "sleepy Joe" and baselessly accusing him of using performance-enhancing drugs on the campaign trail.

The January 6 committee has played testimony of several former Trump staffers recounting his unhinged behavior before, during, and after the Capitol riot.

For instance, former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Trump had once thrown his lunch against the wall in a fit of anger. She also said that Trump had a physical altercation with a Secret Service agent after his request to visit the Capitol during the riot was denied.

Trump has denied both claims, saying that hurling his food in anger was "not my thing" and that it would have been very hard for him to attack a Secret Service agent because they can "lift 350 pounds."

Trump's post-presidential press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

[DBP66]

Trump rails against Jan. 6 committee during Arizona rally

 

Jared Gans

Sat, July 23, 2022 at 1:35 AM

 

 

Former President Trump attacked the work of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at a rally supporting several candidates in Arizona on Friday.

Trump held a rally in Prescott Valley to support his endorsed candidate for governor, Kari Lake, and his endorsed candidate for Senate, Blake Masters. During his speech, he said he was watching the committee’s most recent hearing on Thursday, which focused on Trump’s actions as the riot took place at the Capitol building, and called it a “hoax.”

Trump also denied testimony that Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, gave to the committee last month.

Hutchinson said Tony Ornato, Trump’s deputy chief of staff at the time, told her about an incident in the presidential vehicle on Jan. 6 in which Trump became heated when he was told he could not go to the Capitol following his speech at the Ellipse that day. She said Ornato told her that Trump attempted to grab the steering wheel of the vehicle and lunged at a Secret Service agent.

 

Hutchinson testified that Robert Engel, the agent that Trump allegedly lunged at, was present when Ornato told her of the incident and Engel did not dispute any details.

Trump denied Hutchinson’s account, saying he would not have done that and could not physically have. He praised the Secret Service for denying the account.

Ornato and Engel have said they would be willing to testify to dispute Hutchinson’s testimony on the incident.

But the House Jan. 6 committee showed additional witnesses at its hearing on Thursday that seem to support Hutchinson’s testimony.

Video testimony of a retired Washington, D.C., police officer who was part of the presidential motorcade on Jan. 6 showed him saying that he was told Trump was “adamant” about going to the Capitol and engaged in a “heated discussion” about it. An unidentified former White House employee said Trump was “irate” at not being able to go to the Capitol.

Trump criticized members of the committee, specifically Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), as well.

He said what the “corrupt establishment” is doing to him is about preserving their power. He claimed his opponents will damage him in any way they can.

Trump also attacked Arizona state House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R), who testified at a Jan. 6 committee hearing last month. Bowers testified that Trump and his former attorney Rudy Guiliani pressured him to overturn President Biden’s victory in Arizona, but Bowers refused and rejected Trump’s false claims of voter fraud.

Bowers is currently running for a seat in the Arizona state Senate, and Trump has endorsed his opponent state Sen. David Farnsworth (R).

Trump said Bowers is a “RINO coward,” meaning Republican in name only. He said Bowers “disgraced” the state of Arizona and “did nothing” on election integrity.

Trump said if he renounced his views, agreed to stay silent and said he would not run for any future political office, “the persecution of Donald Trump would immediately stop.” But he said he cannot do that.

Trump’s speech comes over the same weekend that former Vice President Mike Pence will be in Arizona to campaign for his endorsed candidate in the governor’s race, Karrin Taylor Robson

[concha]

 

[DBP66]

1 hour ago, concha said:

 

no...not that simple or silly Don....just in case you turned away from Fox news for a minute Thursday night you would have seen what most Americans saw....evidence of the clown you love twiddling his thumbs while people died....but it was no big deal and no one really cares...right Don?....🤡

[DBP66]

1 hour ago, concha said:

 

Mary is talking about you Don...😉

[concha]

[DBP66]

3 hours ago, concha said:

[DBP66]

Donald Trump ‘Unworthy to Be This Country’s Chief Executive Again,’ Murdoch-Owned New York Post Declares

 

Rosemary Rossi

Sat, July 23, 2022 at 5:49 PM

 

 

In a short but scathing Saturday op-ed, The New York Post editorial board has said there “is no defense” for Donald Trump’s “refusal to stop the violence” on Jan. 6, adding that the former president “has proven himself unworthy to be this country’s chief executive again.”

The 262-word piece in the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid cuts through the many layers of information brought to the surface by the Jan. 6 committee and gets right to the point, as they see it: Trump’s lack of action as he “sat in his private dining room, watching TV, doing nothing” for “three hours, seven minutes” while the US Capitol was stormed by his followers was “incitement by silence.”

“There has been much debate over whether Trump’s rally speech on Jan. 6, 2021, constituted ‘incitement,’” the editorial staff wrote. “That’s somewhat of a red herring. What matters more — and has become crystal clear in recent days — is that Trump didn’t lift a finger to stop the violence that followed.”

The outlet noted that Trump was the only person who could have stopped what was happening because he was the only one the crowd was listening to.

“It was incitement by silence,” The Post wrote. “Trump only wanted one thing during that infamous afternoon: to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to decertify the election of Joe Biden. He thought the violence of his loyal followers would make Pence crack, or delay the vote altogether.”

Yet, while he was being advised by aides, advisers and even family to tell the out-of-control crowd to go home, Trump instead “further fanned the flames” by condemning Mike Pence for not overturning the election results.

“His only focus was to find any means — damn the consequences — to block the peaceful transfer of power,” the outlet wrote. “There is no other explanation, just as there is no defense, for his refusal to stop the violence.”

It concluded: “It’s up to the Justice Department to decide if this is a crime. But as a matter of principle, as a matter of character, Trump has proven himself unworthy to be this country’s chief executive again.”

[DBP66]

Pretty funny huh Don?.....🤡

WSJ editorial board: ‘Trump utterly failed’ his Jan. 6 trial

•  

   

Caroline Vakil

Sat, July 23, 2022 at 2:46 PM·2 min read

 

 

 

 

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board criticized former President Trump for refusing to take action on Jan. 6, 2021, as a mob of Trump supporters ransacked the Capitol, saying in an editorial published Friday that his vice president passed his “Jan. 6 trial” while Trump “utterly failed his.”

“Mr. Trump took an oath to defend the Constitution, and he had a duty as Commander in Chief to protect the Capitol from a mob attacking it in his name. He refused. He didn’t call the military to send help. He didn’t call [then-Vice President Mike Pence] to check on the safety of his loyal VP. Instead he fed the mob’s anger and let the riot play out,” the editorial board wrote.

“Character is revealed in a crisis, and Mr. Pence passed his Jan. 6 trial. Mr. Trump utterly failed his,” the editorial board added.

The Journal’s editorial came one day after the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot held its final summer hearing, which focused on the 187 minutes between Trump finishing his remarks at his “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 and a tweet he sent in the late afternoon telling his supporters to go home.

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Using footage of taped depositions from officials like former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and in-person testimony from Trump White House officials Sarah Matthews and Matthew Pottinger, the committee accused the former president of dereliction of duty as they described how for hours he did nothing to stop the violence that ensued that day.

“President Trump did not fail to act during the 187 minutes between leaving the Ellipse and telling the mob to go home,” committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said during the hearing. “He chose not to act.”

The Journal’s editorial board made clear that it did not agree with the committee on all fronts of its investigation — arguing it “lacks political balance” and was “trying to make a criminal case that might be hard to prove and might tear the country apart.”

However, the editorial board also acknowledged that “the facts it is laying out in hearings are sobering” as it condemned Trump’s inaction on the day of the riot.

The editorial comes as The New York Post’s editorial board also offered strong words against the former president in its own editorial on Friday.

“It’s up to the Justice Department to decide if this is a crime. But as a matter of principle, as a matter of character, Trump has proven himself unworthy to be this country’s chief executive again,” the Post editorial said.

[concha]

Polling Data

Poll	Date	Sample	MoE	Trump (R)	Biden (D)	Spread
RCP Average	6/28 - 7/20	--	--	44.5	42.5	Trump +2.0
Emerson	7/19 - 7/20	1078 RV	2.9	46	43	Trump +3
Trafalgar Group (R)	7/11 - 7/14	1085 LV	2.9	48	43	Trump +5
NY Times/Siena	7/5 - 7/7	849 RV	4.1	41	44	Biden +3
Harvard-Harris	6/28 - 6/29	1308 RV	--	43	40	Trump +3

 

 

 

[concha]

POLITICS

President Biden’s job approval rating hits new low in public poll

PUBLISHED WED, JUL 20 20223:09 PM EDTUPDATED WED, JUL 20 20223:28 PM EDT

Dan Mangan@_DANMANGAN

SHAREShare Article via FacebookShare Article via TwitterShare Article via LinkedInShare Article via Email

KEY POINTS

• More Americans now think President Joe Biden is doing a bad job than at any prior point in his presidency, according to a major public opinion poll.
• Just 31% of American adults said they approve of the way Biden is handling his job, while 60% disapproved of it, the Quinnipiac University poll found.
• More than 70% didn’t want Biden to seek a second term in the White House, compared to 60% of people who said they did not want to see former President Donald Trump run in 2024.