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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — September 28, 2022

By September 28, 2022No Comments

Driving the Day: 

What To Watch For Today: 

Today’s January 6 committee hearing has been postponed due to Hurricane Ian 

Must Read Stories

Republican Party Continues To Appease The Trump Base On Election Lies 

  • CNN: GOP Leaders Still Strive To Appease Trump’s Base On Election Denialism: As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis stumps for some of this year’s midterm candidates ahead of what looks increasingly like a showdown with former President Donald Trump in 2024, he’s seemed to be more nimble than most on the Trump tightrope. […] But DeSantis has flirted with election conspiracy theories and installed a state elections chief who appeared committed to the aggressive tactics of activists who have embraced those theories, as described in new CNN reporting Monday. All of that underscores just how many GOP leaders still try to appease a base that fervently believes Trump’s myth that he won. There is no evidence of widespread election fraud in the 2020 presidential results. DeSantis has carefully skirted the issue in his public comments – avoiding a definitive declaration of whether he believes Joe Biden was rightfully elected president, but never making that topic central to his message – while campaigning for midterm candidates who have trumpeted the former President’s election lies. And yet, CNN’s reporting shows how DeSantis is letting the dangerous falsehoods that threaten this country’s democratic institutions flourish inside his administration in a key swing state. The Florida governor elevated Cord Byrd, a Republican state lawmaker who has entertained election conspiracy theories, to be Florida’s secretary of state this spring, CNN’s Steve Contorno reported, and records obtained by CNN show that officials within DeSantis’ administration repeatedly met with Florida activists aligned with Trump lieutenants who sought to overturn the 2020 presidential results, including one of Trump’s election lawyers, Cleta Mitchell. Shortly before taking the job as the state’s elections chief, Byrd addressed a gathering of activists in Orlando who embraced Trump’s election theories, telling them they were going to be “our army on the ground” monitoring local election supervisors “to ensure that they’re doing their job right,” according to leaked recordings obtained by CNN. When DeSantis addressed the same group – the Orlando summit organized by the Conservative Partnership Institute – he echoed flimsy concerns that Trump has raised about the way elections are run in Georgia, a state the former President narrowly lost where efforts to overturn the results are now the subject of a grand jury investigation. That unwillingness of GOP leaders to challenge Trump’s election mirage comes as the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol has meticulously unraveled how Trump pushed his election lies despite being told repeatedly that his claims were false – essentially punctuating the conclusion of the courts, which had tossed out dozens of attempts by Trump’s team to challenge the 2020 results.
  • Politico: ‘Afraid Of Losing Their Power’: Judge Decries Gop Leaders Who Back Trump Election Claims: A federal judge delivered a blistering rebuke of Republican Party leaders Tuesday for what she said was a cynical attempt to stoke false claims of election fraud of the kind that fueled the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said former President Donald Trump had turned his lies about the election into a litmus test for Republican candidates and that “high-ranking members of Congress and state officials” are “so afraid of losing their power” that they won’t contradict him. That fealty, she said, comes even as law enforcement and judges involved in cases related to the former president are facing unprecedented threats of violence. It’s up to the judiciary, she added, to help draw the line against those dangers. “The judiciary … has to make it clear: It is not patriotism, it is not standing up for America to stand up for one man — who knows full well that he lost — instead of the Constitution he was trying to subvert,” said Jackson, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama. In addition, Jackson said, Trump and his allies are using rhetoric about the multiple criminal probes connected to Trump that contain dangerous undertones. “Some prominent figures in the Republican Party … are cagily predicting or even outright calling for violence in the streets if one of the multiple investigations doesn’t go his way,” Jackson said.

Millions Of American Would Support The Use Of Force To Return Trump To Office 

  • CBS: Millions Of Americans Believe Force Justified To Restore Trump To White House, University Of Chicago Study Finds: More than 18 months after the rioting at the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, an estimated 13 million U.S. adults, or 5% of the adult population, agree that force would be justified to restore former President Donald Trump to the White House and an estimated 15 million Americans believe force would be justified to prevent Trump from being prosecuted , should he be indicted for mishandling classified documents, according to a new study from the University of Chicago.  “We have not just a political threat to our democracy, we have a violent threat to our democracy,” Dr. Robert Pape, the director of the University of Chicago’s Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST) told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan on Sept. 18. “Today, there are millions of individuals who don’t just think the election was stolen in 2020; they support violence to restore Donald Trump to the White House.” The 13 million estimated in the early September survey represents a reduction since June 2021, when an estimated 23 million Americans had insurrectionist sentiment. CPOST researchers extrapolated data from over 3,000 nationally representative survey participants who responded to surveys in June and September of 2021, and April and September of 2022, to reach their conclusions in the study.

Roger Stone Promoted Violence After The Election, Then Sought A Pardon From Donald Trump For His Crimes 

  • New York Times: Roger Stone Promoted Violence, Then Sought Pardon After Jan. 6, Evidence Shows:  Shortly after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, as authorities began arresting people across the country in connection with the violence, the political operative Roger J. Stone Jr. started texting with a lawyer representing President Donald J. Trump in his second impeachment trial, seeking a pardon. “There will be mass prosecutions,” Mr. Stone wrote to David I. Schoen, the lawyer. “Mark my words.” Could Mr. Schoen “plug” his pardon request the next time he spoke to the president? The text messages are part of a trove of video evidence Danish filmmakers have turned over to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, which also shows Mr. Stone threatening violence and spelling out plans to fight the election results. Some of the material was expected in the panel’s next hearing, which had been planned for Wednesday but was postponed abruptly on Tuesday afternoon, with committee members citing the impending impact of Hurricane Ian. “At this point I’d be happy if he pardoned me and Kerik again,” Mr. Stone wrote to Mr. Schoen, referring to Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner and longtime ally of Mr. Trump who had repeatedly challenged the results of the election. “He’s already pardoned both of us so he would take no heat for it whatsoever.” Mr. Schoen answered: “If he can be the only president impeached twice maybe you should be the only person pardoned twice.” The footage shows Mr. Stone using bellicose language and laying out plans to create and exploit uncertainty about the election results to help Mr. Trump cling to power. “Fuck the voting,” he says at one point with a laugh. “Let’s get right to the violence. Shoot to kill.”

Election Workers Inundated By Voter Challenges And Misinformation From Election Deniers 

  • New York Times: Activists Flood Election Offices With Challenges:  Activists driven by false theories about election fraud are working to toss out tens of thousands of voter registrations and ballots in battleground states, part of a loosely coordinated campaign that is sowing distrust and threatening further turmoil as election officials prepare for the November midterms. Groups in Georgia have challenged at least 65,000 voter registrations across eight counties, claiming to have evidence that voters’ addresses were incorrect. In Michigan, an activist group tried to challenge 22,000 ballots from voters who had requested absentee ballots for the state’s August primary. And in Texas, residents sent in 116 affidavits challenging the eligibility of more than 6,000 voters in Harris County, which is home to Houston and is the state’s largest county. The recent wave of challenges have been filed by right-wing activists who believe conspiracy theories about fraud in the 2020 presidential election. They claim to be using state laws that allow people to question whether a voter is eligible. But so far, the vast majority of the complaints have been rejected, in many cases because election officials found the challenges were filed incorrectly, rife with bad information or based on flawed data analysis.
  • Los Angeles Times: Election Workers Train For Battle Against Conspiracy Theories And Misinformation Before Midterms: Across the country, election clerks have spent the last two years waging an information and public relations battle to restore faith in elections. They’re doing more TV interviews, giving more office tours and retooling their social media presences. They’re keeping up with legislation to overhaul elections and conspiracy theories spreading online. And they’re redoubling their efforts to explain the exhaustive steps they take to prevent fraud and run secure elections. But as the 2022 primaries showed, some of the key personnel involved — poll workers and poll challengers — still actively doubt the results of the 2020 presidential race, believing baseless allegations of fraud perpetuated by former President Trump and his allies.

Longest January 6 Sentence Yet Handed Down To Rioter Who Assaulted Office Mike Fanone 

  •  NBC: Trump Fan Who Assaulted Officer Fanone On Jan. 6 Sentenced To More Than 7 Years In Prison: A Donald Trump fan who took his teenage son along as he assaulted Mike Fanone, then a Washington, D.C., police officer, and another officer at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison Tuesday. Kyle Young, 38 — an HVAC worker from Iowa whose lawyer said he was “injected” with lies about the 2020 election and who had asked his Facebook followers to join him at the “stop the steel,” referring to the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 — pleaded guilty in May to a felony count of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers. Young admitted that he used a strobe light to disorient police, helped throw a large audio speaker at police, grabbed Fanone’s wrist when the mob abducted Fanone and made contact with another officer abducted by the mob. Young’s 86-month sentence matched what federal prosecutors sought. They argued that Young took part in the assault at the lower west tunnel of the Capitol, where “some of the most barbaric violence” took place on Jan. 6. As discovered by online sleuths, the government argued that Young handed a Taser to Danny Rodriguez, a MAGA fanatic who used it to electroshock Fanone in the neck on Jan. 6.

In The States 

GEORGIA:  January 6 Rioter Is A “Captain” For The Herschel Walker Campaign 

  • Atlanta Journal Constitution: Activist Charged In Jan. 6 Attack Is Among Herschel Walker’s Campaign ‘Captains’:  Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Herschel Walker’s campaign recently listed a woman who was arrested in March on charges of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as one of his “county captains.” The former football star’s campaign included Mandy Robinson-Hand in an August press release that named dozens of other grassroots supporters. Robinson-Hand, the chairwoman of Taylor County’s GOP, was listed as a campaign “captain” for the rural Middle Georgia county. Robinson-Hand and her husband, Charles Hand III, were arrested about 14 months after supporters of then-President Donald Trump staged the insurrection at the Capitol. They are scheduled for a status conference in federal court next month in Washington. Walker’s aides didn’t immediately comment on the list of activists backing his bid, which was intended to show the campaign’s organizational strength. The webpage that listed the grassroots county captains was deactivated late Monday and routed to a campaign fundraising site. Among the other “captains” on the list is Kay Godwin, a Pierce County activist who was among the fake GOP electors who were part of a plot to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. She and others on the phony slate could face criminal charges linked to an ongoing Fulton County investigation.

NEVADA: Conspiracy Fueled Push To Hand Count Ballots Gains Traction 

  • Nevada Current: A Conspiracy-Fueled Push To Count Ballots By Hand Gains Traction: Nye County has positioned itself as the epicenter of a Donald Trump-fueled conspiracy about the security of electronic vote tabulators.  The Nye County Commission voted in March to make the county one of the first to act on the false narrative that machines that count votes are rigged, and recommended long-time elections clerk Sandra Merlina switch to hand-counting paper ballots. Merlino, who retired in August months before her term was slated to end after working 20 years in the elections office, warned commissioners at the time that hand-counts were prone to “a lot of error.”  Newly appointed County Clerk Mark Kampf, who has falsely claimed that Trump won the 2020 election, plans to incorporate a hand-counting method. He told commissioners in September that volunteer voters there will hand count the roughly 30,000 ballots expected in the November election. Across the country, Republicans aligned with Trump have directed ire at electronic voting machines, with Republicans in at least six states introducing legislation this year to ban the use of ballot tabulators (Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, New Hampshire, Washington and West Virginia). Over 90 percent of U.S. election jurisdictions currently use electronic tabulators, with only the smallest counties opting to count votes by hand.

What Experts Are Saying

Frank Figliuzzi, former assistant director for counterintelligence at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, re: reported phone calls between Roger Stone and leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers before and after the January 6 attack: “There are Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who are cooperating. Roger Stone will have some decisions to make” Tweet

Harry Litman, former US attorney: “We’ve been expecting some bridge between [Roger] Stone  and the rest of the Willard war room gang from On the ground marauders to the White House. Sure stands to reason he’s part of that bridge” Tweet

Lara Putnam, professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh: “I spend alot of time worrying about the ways false claims of election fraud are generating future risks in Pennsylvania. This new frameworkd👇 for anticipating spread is super smart & really helpful. Intended audiences incl. election officials, analysts, crisis communication teams LINK” Tweet 

Joshua Tait, historian of American conservatism: “The 2016 election, Trumpism in the United States, Orban, Law & Justice in Poland, and to a lesser extent Brexit in the United Kingdom have validated the intellectual right in the America that long held some or all illiberal positions. Moreover, Trump in particular obliterated right-wing respectability politics and revealed the conservative and Republican establishments had no capacity to discipline views that had previously been beyond the pale — the result of changes in the way the right-wing media ecosystem worked, and the nature of party primaries.” Thomas B. Edsall NYT Column: Seven Years of Trump Has the Right Wing Taking the Long View

Arlie Hochschild, a professor of sociology at University of California, Berkeley: “The right believes that it is the left, not the right, that is moving toward fascism. Inside the right wing mind today freedom is threatened ‘by the left.’ Political correctness a form of ‘thought control.’ The left controls the media. The F.B.I. is scanning Facebook to hunt down patriots in Washington. So, ironically, they see themselves as brave upholders of freedom, democracy, civil liberties. They aren’t saying we want strong totalitarian control so we get to impose our values on others. They see themselves as the victims of this control and Trump as their liberator from that control.” Thomas B. Edsall NYT Column: Seven Years of Trump Has the Right Wing Taking the Long View

Headlines

The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections

Daily Beast: MAGA Media Salivates Over Italy’s Most Far-Right Leader Since Mussolini

New York Times: McConnell Endorses Electoral Count Overhaul, Lifting Chances of Enactment

Politico: Dems light up airwaves in key secretary of state races

January 6 And The 2020 Election

Axios: Jan 6. committee postpones hearing, citing Hurricane Ian

Washington Post (Analysis): Roger Stone wants to have his tough-guy bluster and deny it, too

Other Trump Investigations 

Bloomberg: Trump May Avoid Defamation Suit by Rape Accuser

CNN: Newest addition to Trump’s legal team sidelined in Mar-a-Lago search case

Opinion

New York Times (Tom Edsall): Seven Years of Trump Has the Right Wing Taking the Long View

Washington Post (Greg Sargent): Liz Cheney’s harsh takedown of Trump’s 2022 candidates draws blood

In The States 

AL.com: Alabama GOP chair’s family believed voter ID was mark of the beast, brother said in deposition

CNN: DeSantis privately elevates election deniers while publicly staying mum on 2020

Detroit Free Press: DePerno hits Nessel for no probe of alleged voting machine breach, never filed a criminal complaint

Los Angeles Times: Jan. 6 still has the power to shock. But will it move California voters?

Tallahassee Democrat: Gadsden County commissioner appointed by Gov. DeSantis resigns after KKK costume photo emerges

Wisconsin State Journal: Attorney: Wisconsin election review records to be posted online ‘for all to see’