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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — June 14, 2022

By June 14, 2022No Comments

Driving the Day: 

What To Watch For Today: 

Primary elections in Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, and South Carolina.  Special election for US House in TX-34. 

Must Read Stories

Key Takeaways From Yesterday’s January 6 Committee Hearing 

  • New York Times: Jan. 6 Panel Tracks How Trump Created and Spread Election Lies: The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol made a wide-ranging case on Monday that former President Donald J. Trump created and relentlessly spread the lie that the 2020 election had been stolen from him in the face of mounting evidence from an expanding chorus of advisers that he had been legitimately defeated. The committee, in its second hearing this month, traced the origins and progression of what it has described as Mr. Trump’s “big lie.” It showed through live witness testimony and recorded depositions how the former president, defying many of his advisers, insisted on declaring victory on election night before the votes were fully counted, then sought to challenge his defeat with increasingly outlandish and baseless claims that he was repeatedly informed were wrong. “He’s become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff,” William P. Barr, the former attorney general, said of Mr. Trump during a videotaped interview the panel played on Monday, in which he at one point could not control his laughter at the absurdity of the claims that the former president was making. “There was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts were,” Mr. Barr said.
  • Washington Post: Trump’s Inner Circle Warned Him Election Fraud Claims Were False: The House Jan. 6 committee aired videotaped testimony Monday from a parade of insiders in Donald Trump’s White House describing how they each told Trump in the wake of his 2020 loss that there was no credible evidence the election had been stolen. But they said they were ignored, ridiculed and sidelined by the former president as he persisted in making baseless claims that laid the groundwork for the violent attack on the Capitol two months later. Monday’s hearing of the select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection focused on Trump’s efforts to spin a narrative of massive voter fraud that had no basis in reality and, in fact, cut directly against the counsel he was getting from some of his most senior advisers. They included former campaign manager Bill Stepien, who has not spoken publicly about the Trump campaign before or after the February deposition, portions of which were shown Monday. In the clips, Stepien described advising Trump and his deputies both before and after the election about his narrow path to victory — concluding by mid-November that Trump’s chances were “very, very, very bleak.”
  • Axios: Jan. 6 Committee Zeros In On Trump Fundraising Emails Tied To Fraud Claims: The House Jan. 6 committee made its clearest attempt yet at Monday’s hearing to establish potential criminal liability by people in former President Trump’s inner circle. Driving the news: Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Amanda Wick, the committee’s chief investigative counsel, zeroed in on what the Trump campaign’s fundraising emails described as its “Official Election Defense Fund.” Those emails were central to a Trump fundraising operation that brought in about $250 million after the 2020 election, in part by promising the money would fund legal challenges and other efforts to overturn the election. In reality, the committee alleged, millions of dollars were funneled to vehicles like Save America — a leadership PAC set up by Trump after the election — and other political and advocacy groups with ties to top Trump aides. What they’re saying: “The select committee discovered no such fund existed,” Wick revealed in a pre-recorded video, citing taped depositions with two Trump campaign staffers. “Not only was there the ‘Big Lie,’ there was the Big Ripoff,'” Lofgren said. “It’s clear that [Trump] intentionally misled his donors, asked them to donate to a fund that didn’t exist and used the money raised for something other than what he said,” she added in comments after the hearing.

False Election Claims Loom Large In Today’s Primaries 

  • ABC: The ‘Big Lie’ Looms On Tuesday’s Primaries In Nevada And South Carolina: As the House Jan. 6 committee’s latest hearings ramp up, they overlap with a set of primary races on Tuesday featuring a slate of Donald Trump-endorsed candidates who support the same “big lie” about the 2020 election that investigators say fueled last year’s insurrection at the Capitol. The first primary held during the much-watched investigation into last year’s pro-Trump rioting will feature races for Senate, House and gubernatorial seats in Nevada, South Carolina, North Dakota and Maine. Texas will hold a special election for its 34th Congressional District seat. Many of the races in Nevada include candidates that support the former president’s evidence-free claims that the 2020 election was stolen, while two House candidates in South Carolina who were critical of Trump’s role in Jan. 6 or supportive of his impeachment afterward are now up for competitive races against targeted, Trump-endorsed opponents. 

More Than 100 Republican Election Conspiracy Theorists Have Already Won Primaries 

  • Washington Post: More Than 100 GOP Primary Winners Back Trump’s False Fraud Claims: About a third of the way through the 2022 primaries, voters have nominated scores of Republican candidates for state and federal office who say the 2020 election was rigged, according to a new analysis by The Washington Post. District by district, state by state, voters in places that cast ballots through the end of May have chosen at least 108 candidates for statewide office or Congress who have repeated Trump’s lies. The number jumps to at least 149 winning candidates — out of more than 170 races — when it includes those who have campaigned on a platform of tightening voting rules or more stringently enforcing those already on the books, despite the lack of evidence of widespread fraud. The analysis offers a fresh portrait of the extent to which embracing Trump’s false claims has become part of a winning formula in this year’s GOP contests, and what it means for the immediate future of American democracy. The majority of the election-denying candidates who have secured their nominations are running in districts or states that lean Republican, according to Cook Political Report ratings, meaning they are likely to win the offices they are seeking. Many will hold positions with the power to interfere in the outcomes of future contests — to block the certification of election results, to change the rules around the awarding of their states’ electoral votes or to acquiesce to litigation attempting to set aside the popular vote.

Inside The GOP Scheme To Control Elections 

  • ABC: Inside The Trump-Backed Effort To Take ‘control’ Of Elections Ahead Of 2022 And 2024: In late April, after a year and a half of former President Donald Trump and his associates pushing false claims of election fraud, a few hundred attendees gathered at a golf resort in Williamsburg, Virginia, for an “Election Integrity Summit” organized by Trump allies who were at the forefront of his effort to overturn the 2020 election. Inside a ballroom at the Kingsmill Resort, Cleta Mitchell, a longtime conservative lawyer who played a key role in the former president’s efforts to hold onto power, took the microphone and urged summit attendees to recruit and create election “task forces” in their communities ahead of the upcoming midterms to avoid a repeat of the last presidential election. “Imagine if we had had local task forces in these counties? What if we had citizens like you in 2020, overseeing this?” Mitchell said at the private summit, which ABC News attended by purchasing a ticket. “We could have stopped it,” Mitchell told the crowd. “That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing here tonight.” The Virginia event is one of the latest in a blitz of summits being held in swing states across the country, led by Mitchell and organized the “Election Integrity Network,” a project of the Conservative Partnership Institute, a right-wing nonprofit organization that is spearheaded by Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who is a senior partner, and Mitchell, who serves as a senior fellow. The series of summits comes after Trump, who continues to spread false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, made donations amounting to $1 million from his political action committee’s war chest to CPI — one of his largest donations in the current election cycle. 

In The States 

Concern Grows That New Florida Secretary Of State Is Politicizing The Office 

  • NPR: Critics Worry Florida’s New Elections Chief Will Make The Office More Partisan: Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, recently tapped one of his allies in the Florida House to become the new secretary of state. The new elections chief, Cord Byrd, has a history of sparring with Democrats and, when asked, he has refused to say Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. Voting rights advocates and some Democrats in the state say they are worried that Byrd’s appointment could make the office less independent. Before his selection for the new role, Byrd was one of the more right-wing members of the Florida House. And Abdelilah Skhir, with the ACLU of Florida, says Byrd sponsored some of the most divisive legislation in the past few years. “This is someone who has sponsored in the past the anti-protest bill HB 1 in 2021, sponsored the anti-voter bills that passed in 2021 and 2022 — he sponsored the House versions of those bills — the trans athlete ban, anti-immigrant legislation,” he says. Skhir says Byrd also sponsored Florida’s controversial Parental Rights in Education legislation, which has been derisively dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by opponents. He also sponsored a 15-week abortion ban, as well as legislation prohibiting schools and employers from discussing race.

Trump Lawyer Jenna Ellis Joins Mastriano Team In Pennsylvania

  • Reuters: Trump Lawyer Jenna Ellis Joins Legal Team For Penn. GOP Hopeful: Jenna Ellis, who was among the most high-profile attorneys involved in the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, has joined Pennsylvania Republican Doug Mastriano’s gubernatorial campaign as a senior legal adviser, the campaign said Monday. Ellis, along with Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, was part of the Trump campaign legal team that promoted false allegations of voter fraud after former President Donald Trump refused to concede the 2020 election. Mastriano in a statement said Ellis’ legal expertise “will be an important factor” in the election fight against Democratic nominee and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Ellis, in a statement provided by the campaign, said Mastriano will “restore integrity to our elections.”

What Experts Are Saying

Elizabeth Wydra, Constitutional Accountability Center president: “It was really just an avalanche of evidence that the election fraud claims that President Trump kept making repeatedly after the election were, in the words of Attorney General Bill Barr, ‘complete nonsense,’ ‘silly,’ ‘bogus,’ ‘not meritorious.’ Over and over again, these very clear statements that President Trump’s lies about the election were just that, lies.” Fox Live Now 

Ryan Goodman, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz professor of law at New York University: “Key mens rea evidence #January6thCommitteeHearings: Barr on Trump: ‘NEVER AN INDICATION OF INTEREST in what the actual facts were’ in assessing fraud allegations. Barr later: “After the election [Trump] didn’t seem to be listening” to advisors with facts of no fraud.” Tweet 

Barbara McQuade, former US Attorney: “While it’s important for J6C to tell the whole story, a criminal case could be as simple as this: Trump knew he lost the election and pressured Pence to steal it for him. That’s conspiracy to defraud US, 18 USC 371, and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, 18 USC 1512.” Tweet 

Laurence Tribe, legal scholar at Harvard University: “It’s counterintuitive to fit the biggest crime in our 246-year history into conspiracy to defraud the US (18 USC 371) +  conspiracy to obstruct a proceeding (18 USC 1505), but that’s probably the shortest, surest path to handcuffs for Trump. Small is beautiful if it does the job:” Tweet 

Laura Coates, former federal prosecutor: “Every time you heard about… him claiming fraud or searching for fraud against all rational thought, he was essentially committing overt acts and furtherance of fraud – defrauding the United States by deceptive action. There is every inference he was aware that he was no longer the president of the United States…They have laid out the basic tenets of establishing defrauding the government of the United States. Trying to stop an electoral college certification by deceit and corrupt means.” CNN’s Hearing Special Coverage 

Joyce Vance, former US Attorney: “Prosecutors don’t have to prove motive but it can help make the evidence more compelling: Trump continued with the big lie after repeatedly being advised he’d lost & there wasn’t fraud because he made money off of it. & he funneled that money to people & businesses close to him.” Tweet 

Harry Litman, former US Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General: “Here you go:  normally no litigation would occur past 12/14, but they continued to do it b/c they were able to raise millions of dollars from it.  b/t Election Day and jan 6, campaign sent up to 20 emails/day to supporters. soliciting to a non-existent fund. Raised $250 million!” Tweet 

Heather Cox Richardson, professor of history at Boston College: “Across the country, Republicans have rewritten election laws to prevent another “stolen” election, even though they know there was no such thing. As leading Republican election lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg said today, “The 2020 election was not close.” Nonetheless, leading Republicans are willing to embrace the Big Lie in order to skew our election system to keep those like Trump in power.” Letters from An American 

What Pundits Are Saying

Bill Kristol, editor-at-large of The Bulwark and chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle:  “There are many ways to try to make clear the shape of the present forest—but this is the simplest I’ve been able to come up with:

Trump lost.

Trump lied.

Trump conspired to overturn the election.” The Bulwark 

George Conway, former attorney and conservative commentator: “I think deep down he knows it’s a lie…the fact of the matter is, his knowledge, the fact he was told by credible people who work for him and who were loyal to him that he had lost is going to be critical evidence in criminal investigations not only from the Justice Department but also in Georgia. Because of all of this, even If it relates to other states, in addition to Georgia, it goes to his state of mind and his criminal intent of him to commit fraud.” CNN’s Hearing Special Coverage 

David Axelrod, senior strategist to Barack Obama and CNN senior political commentator: “Barr’s testimony is devastating.” Tweet 

Claire McCaskill, former Missouri Senator and MSNBC/NBC Analyst : “Weird that the people who called themselves ‘Team Normal’ in Trump’s inner circle NEVER spoke up. NEVER told the country that they KNEW that he had lost and that Trump was spouting the biggest, most damaging lie, in American history.” Tweet  

Marie Harf, former State Department spokesperson and Fox News contributor: “We saw a portrait of a president today who is increasingly at odds with reality, and that is according to his own advisors, including people like Bill Barr…That is what is so extraordinary. The testimony this morning paints the picture of a president who is hearing from all of his top advisors — not all, but many of his top advisors, the ‘normal team,’ as Bill Stepien called them – that his claims are outrageous, they were B.S., not based in any fact. And yet he went out to his supporters and told them they were true, encouraged them, lit this match, encouraged people to believe these B.S. allegations.  He asked them for money to help in his legal cases. He gave them a false sense of hope, and that culminated…in what we saw on January 6th.” Fox News’ Hearing Special Coverage 

Headlines

The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections 

The Guardian: ‘Ultra-Maga’: the Trump-backed Ohio Republican candidate who attacked the Capitol

HuffPost: ​​The Races Where Democrats Are Rooting For Election Deniers

Politico: Death threats and epithets: The lonely primary of one Republican who impeached Trump

Washington Post: Trump shunned Nancy Mace. Can she survive a GOP primary anyway?

Washington Post: Bill Stepien broke with Trump after 2020 — but not all his candidates did

January 6 And The 2020 Election

CNN: Thompson’s claim that Jan. 6 committee won’t criminally refer Trump or others to DOJ meets resistance from committee

CNN: 7 Takeaways From Monday’s January 6 Hearing

Mediaite: Kimberly Guilfoyle Paid A Whopping $60K For Her Two-Minute Speech at Trump’s Jan. 6 Rally

New York Times: Lawmaker’s Capitol Complex Tour on the Eve of Jan. 6 Was Innocent, Police Say

New York Times: Officer Eugene Goodman Recounts How He Held Off Mob on Jan. 6

New York Times: The Fractious Night That Began Trump’s Bid to Overturn the Election

NPR: Fired Fox News politics editor: Trump’s ire at election night call led to ‘panic’

Politico: ‘Apparently inebriated’ Rudy Giuliani told Trump to declare victory after Election Day 2020

Politico: Jan. 6 panel makes case election fraud claims were Trump vs. ‘Team Normal’

Washington Post: As hearing’s star witness, Barr says Trump was ‘detached from reality’

Republican Response To The January 6 Hearings 

The Hill: Trump releases 12-page response to Jan. 6 hearing

HuffPost: ‘Theater’: Senate Republicans Tune Out Jan. 6 Hearings About Capitol Riot

Opinion 

CNN (Norm Eisen, Noah Bookbinder, and Fred Wertheimer): The January 6 committee is methodically building the case for a criminal conspiracy

Washington Post (Gary Abernathy): The Jan. 6 committee proved that Biden won, but is that really the point?

Washington Post (Eugene Robinson): Trump and Fox News told the ‘big lie’ for profit

Washington Post (Jennifer Rubin): The Jan. 6 committee exposed Trump’s lies — and indicted the GOP in the process

Washington Post (Greg Sargent): Why today’s Jan. 6 revelations will be dangerous for Trump

Political Violence 

Washington Post: Man accused in Kavanaugh plot texted sister before surrender, police say

In The States 

Bolts: “The Truth Was On My Side”: Election Official Beats Back Fraud Conspiracies