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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — April 27, 2022

By April 27, 2022No Comments

Driving the Day:   

Must Read Stories

New Audio Shows Kevin McCarthy Worried GOP Members of Congress Would Incite Further Violence – And Then Did Nothing 

  • New York Times: McCarthy Feared G.O.P. Lawmakers Put ‘People in Jeopardy’ After Jan. 6: Representative Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, feared in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack that several far-right members of Congress would incite violence against other lawmakers, identifying several by name as security risks in private conversations with party leaders. Mr. McCarthy talked to other congressional Republicans about wanting to rein in multiple hard-liners who were deeply involved in Donald J. Trump’s efforts to contest the 2020 election and undermine the peaceful transfer of power, according to an audio recording obtained by The New York Times. But Mr. McCarthy did not follow through on the sterner steps that some Republicans encouraged him to take, opting instead to seek a political accommodation with the most extreme members of the G.O.P. in the interests of advancing his own career.
  • The Hill: Jan. 6 Panel Mulls Second Invitation To McCarthy:  The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack may again seek to speak with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in light of a slew of comments he made in a series of audio recordings released by The New York Times. The committee in January issued an invitation — but not a subpoena — to McCarthy, an offer he has since rebuffed. “We’ve invited him to come earlier before the latest revelation that was reported on tapes. So in all probability, he will be issued another invitation to come just like some other members,” Select Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said, noting a decision will be made “soon.”

More Details Emerge About The Role Of Rep. Scott Perry In The Conspiracy To Overturn The Election 

  • CNN: Meadows’ Texts Reveal New Details About The Key Role A Little-Known Gop Congressman Played In Efforts To Overturn Election:  Newly obtained text messages and recent court filings fill in significant gaps about the key role a little-known Pennsylvania Republican congressman played at almost every turn in scheming to reverse or delay certification of the 2020 election. The texts, which were among those selectively provided by Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to the House select committee, show Rep. Scott Perry pushing to have the nation’s top intelligence official investigate baseless conspiracy theories and working to replace the US acting attorney general with an acolyte willing to do Trump’s bidding. “From an Intel friend: DNI needs to task NSA to immediately seize and begin looking for international comms related to Dominion,” Perry wrote to Meadows on November 12, just five days after the election was called for Joe Biden. In the text, which has not been previously reported, Perry appears to be urging Meadows to get John Ratcliffe, then-Director of National Intelligence, to order the National Security Agency to investigate debunked claims that Dominion voting machines were hacked by China. Perry, a five-term congressman, is a retired Brigadier General with nearly 40 years of military service, including flying combat missions in Iraq. Given his extensive background, he is likely familiar with the inner-workings of government intelligence. Perry has thus far declined to voluntarily cooperate with the House select committee, and in a previous statement has called the committee illegitimate.
  • Politico: Congress’ Jan. 6 Investigators Face An Inevitable Reckoning With Their GOP Colleagues:  As congressional investigators accelerate their probe of Donald Trump’s 2020 election challenges that culminated on Jan. 6, one thing is clear: All roads run through a handful of their GOP colleagues. And getting those Republicans to testify could get ugly. The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack has so far avoided directly roping in fellow lawmakers, even as it homes in on Trump’s inner circle. Yet each of its investigative steps so far has further underscored the roles that Trump’s staunchest House GOP allies played in his bid to throw out the election results. Those Republicans connected the former president to willing partners in the Justice Department who might fuel inflated claims of fraud. They huddled with Trump to deliver counsel. And they spoke with Trump by phone on Jan. 6 as he watched his own “Stop the Steal” rally morph into a violent riot that overtook the Capitol. Veterans of recent high-profile congressional inquiries say the committee’s seven Democrats and two Republicans will soon reckon with the importance of direct testimony from GOP colleagues.

Pence Advisor And Retired Federal Judge Michael Luttig Lays Out “The Republican Blueprint To Steal The 2024 Election.” 

  • CNN (Michael Luttig):  Opinion: The Republican Blueprint To Steal The 2024 Election: Nearly a year and a half later, surprisingly few understand what January 6 was all about. Fewer still understand why former President Donald Trump and Republicans persist in their long-disproven claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Much less why they are obsessed about making the 2024 race a referendum on the “stolen” election of 2020, which even they know was not stolen. The Republicans’ mystifying claim to this day that Trump did, or would have, received more votes than Joe Biden in 2020 were it not for actual voting fraud, is but the shiny object that Republicans have tauntingly and disingenuously dangled before the American public for almost a year and a half now to distract attention from their far more ambitious objective. That objective is not somehow to rescind the 2020 election, as they would have us believe. That’s constitutionally impossible. Trump’s and the Republicans’ far more ambitious objective is to execute successfully in 2024 the very same plan they failed in executing in 2020 and to overturn the 2024 election if Trump or his anointed successor loses again in the next quadrennial contest. The last presidential election was a dry run for the next.

In The States 

Michigan 

Republican Member Of the Board Of Canvassers Resigns From GOP Committee Citing “Delusional Lies” 

  • Detroit News: Michigan Republican Resigns From GOP Committee Citing ‘Delusional Lies’: Tony Daunt, a longtime Michigan Republican insider, resigned Tuesday night from the GOP’s state committee, saying party leaders had made the coming election a test of “who is most cravenly loyal” to former President Donald Trump. Daunt, who is one of two Republican members of the Board of State Canvassers, made the comment in an email addressed to Judy Rapanos, chairwoman of the 4th Congressional District Republican Committee. The message was obtained by The Detroit News. For five years, Daunt has been one of about 100 members of the Republican Party’s state committee, a panel that helps guide the party’s decisions. But that ended Tuesday with his immediate resignation, three days after a contentious GOP convention in Grand Rapids. Instead of focusing on Democrats’ “myriad failures,” Daunt wrote that “feckless, cowardly party ‘leaders’ have made the election here in Michigan a test of who is the most cravenly loyal to Donald Trump and re-litigating the results of the 2020 cycle.” Daunt described Trump as a “deranged narcissist.”

Wisconsin’s GOP “Investigation” Of The 2020 Election Will Continue 

  • Associated Press: Wisconsin’s GOP-Ordered Election Investigation Will Continue: The Republican-ordered investigation into the 2020 election in Wisconsin that was supposed to wrap up this week will continue just as Donald Trump urged, but with no more taxpayer money to pay for it, the state’s top Republican said Tuesday. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ announcement that the probe into President Joe Biden’s win in the battleground state will go on beyond Saturday, when the contract with the investigator was scheduled to end, came a day after Trump issued a not-so thinly veiled threat to Vos if he shut it down. Vos referenced several ongoing lawsuits related to the investigation, but not Trump, in explaining the extension. “The Office of Special Counsel will remain open as we guarantee the legal power of our legislative subpoenas and get through the other lawsuits that have gridlocked this investigation,” Vos said.

Headlines

The Ongoing Campaign To Undo The 2020 Election

ProPublica: Building the “Big Lie”: Inside the Creation of Trump’s Stolen Election Myth

The January 6 Conspiracy 

Axios: Jan. 6 leaks undermine committee’s plans for made-for-TV hearings

Politico: McCarthy’s Trump tape was a ’nothingburger.’ Can the House GOP shrug off more audio?

Washington Post: Biggs says McCarthy’s comments on Trump, Jan. 6 are ‘huge trust issue’

In The States 

Colorado Sun: Ron Hanks, who questions 2020 election results, beats 5 other candidates to make Colorado’s Republican U.S. Senate primary ballot

Washington Post (Analysis): Republicans want to break up Maricopa County, Jim Crow-style

Opinion

The Bulwark: The Insurrectionists Are Coming

Washington Post (Greg Sargent): A leading Trump sycophant may soon get the humiliation he deserves