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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — June 30, 2022

By June 30, 2022No Comments

Driving the Day: 

Must Read Stories

Cassidy Hutchinson And The January 6 Committee Stand By Her Bombshell Testimony 

  • CNN: Cassidy Hutchinson Stands By Her Testimony Amid Pushback:  Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, released a new statement Wednesday provided exclusively to CNN standing by her blockbuster testimony delivered in a hearing with the House select committee investigating January 6, in light of some pushback on her testimony. “Ms. Hutchinson stands by all of the testimony she provided yesterday, under oath, to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,” Hutchinson’s counsel Jody Hunt and William Jordan said in the statement. Hutchinson testified for nearly two hours on Tuesday as well as gave recorded depositions in advance of the hearing, where she vividly described her experience at the White House close to Meadows and then-President Donald Trump during the days leading up to and including the Capitol Hill riot. Hutchinson described how Trump and Meadows had been repeatedly warned in advance and on the day of the attack about the possibility of violence including from armed individuals at the rally. While officials with the Secret Service as well as close to Trump have not disputed the overall characterization of Hutchinson’s testimony, some are rebutting specific claims and descriptions. Unlike Hutchinson’s testimony, the limited denials were not made under oath.
  • ABC: Rep. Liz Cheney ‘Confident’ In Cassidy Hutchinson’s Testimony: Republican Rep. Liz Cheney told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl in an exclusive interview that she has full faith and confidence in the testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, the 26-year-old former Trump White House aide who delivered explosive testimony about the Capitol riot during a highly publicized hearing this week. “As you know, there’s an active campaign underway to destroy her credibility. Do you have any doubt at all in anything that she said to you?” Karl asked Cheney. “I am absolutely confident in her credibility. I’m confident in her testimony,” Cheney told Karl in a wide-ranging interview set to air in full on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” on Sunday. “I think that what Cassidy Hutchinson did was an unbelievable example of bravery and of courage and patriotism in the face of real pressure,” said Cheney, who is vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee.

Testimony Paints Mark Meadows As Unreliable And Unwilling To Act As January 6 Unfolded 

  • New York Times: Testimony Paints Mark Meadows as Unwilling to Act as Jan. 6 Unfolded:  Ms. Hutchinson’s account of a chief of staff who was at best disengaged and at worst overwhelmed by the events around him was a key part of her public appearance on Tuesday  at a hastily scheduled hearing by the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot, and what led to it. […] When he hired Mr. Meadows in March 2020, Mr. Trump gleefully told allies that he had found his James A. Baker III, a White House chief of staff under President Ronald Reagan and the person many successors have tried to emulate as the gold standard for running a West Wing. Yet within months, as the coronavirus pandemic raged and the economy that Mr. Trump prided himself on cratered, Mr. Meadows became known among many of his colleagues as someone who spoke out of both sides of his mouth. He encouraged Mr. Trump’s disgust with calling for increased mandates for masks, mocked the scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and, according to former colleagues, waged petty fights internally with aides he believed were not following his authority. But instead of playing the role of gatekeeper and bringing order to a chaotic West Wing, Mr. Meadows was often criticized by associates as terrified of Mr. Trump’s temper and eager to please him. After the election, Mr. Meadows played a key role in encouraging House Republicans to look at ways to subvert Mr. Biden’s victory.

In Searing Reagan Library Speech Liz Cheney Calls Trump “A Domestic Threat That We Have Never Faced Before” 

  • New York Times: Liz Cheney Calls Trump ‘A Domestic Threat That We Have Never Faced Before.’:  Representative Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican and vice chairwoman of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, described former President Donald J. Trump in stark terms on Wednesday night as a threat to the republic who had “gone to war with the rule of law.” “At this moment, we are confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before — and that is a former president who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic,” Ms. Cheney said in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., where her address was met with a sustained standing ovation. “He is aided by Republican leaders and elected officials who made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man,” she said, continuing, “Even after all we’ve seen, they’re enabling his lies.” Ms. Cheney spoke at a moment when Mr. Trump is potentially on the verge of announcing a presidential campaign for 2024, according to his advisers, raising the prospect of a front-running candidate in early polls who is also facing active civil and criminal investigations. Mr. Trump has also continued to repeat lies about his 2020 election loss, maintaining that the contest was “stolen” from him.

What’s Next For The Investigation 

  • Washington Post: Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone:  The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection issued a subpoena Wednesday evening to former White House counsel Pat Cipollone after blockbuster testimony from a former aide identified the lawyer as having firsthand knowledge of potential criminal activity in the Trump White House. The decision followed extensive negotiations between Cipollone and the committee, as well as sharply escalating pressure on him in recent days to come forward and testify. Committee members have come to believe that the former counsel’s testimony could be critical to their investigation, given his proximity to Donald Trump and presence during key moments before, during and after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The subpoena is likely to trigger a lengthy legal battle. Cipollone sat for an informal interview with the committee on April 13, according to a letter from the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), but he has declined to cooperate further.
  • New York Times: Jan. 6 Panel Explores Links Between Trump Allies and Extremist Groups:  In their relationships with President Donald J. Trump in recent years, Roger J. Stone Jr., his longtime political adviser, and Michael T. Flynn, who was briefly his national security adviser, have followed a similar trajectory. Both were either convicted of or pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the investigation into the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia. Both were pardoned by Mr. Trump after the 2020 presidential election. And both supported Mr. Trump in his relentless, multilayered efforts to reverse its outcome and remain in power. The two were, in a sense, together again on Tuesday, when both were mentioned within an instant of one another at the House select committee hearing by Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s final chief of staff. Ms. Hutchinson told the panel that on Jan. 5, 2021, a day before the Capitol was stormed, Mr. Trump had directed Mr. Meadows to reach out to Mr. Stone and Mr. Flynn. Ms. Hutchinson acknowledged that she did not know what her boss may have said to the men. But her testimony was the first time it was revealed that Mr. Trump, on the eve of the Capitol attack, had opened a channel of communication with a pair of allies who had not only worked on his behalf for weeks challenging the results of the election, but who also had extensive ties to extremist groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, who were soon to be at the forefront of the violence. The question of whether there was communication or coordination between the far-right groups that helped storm the Capitol and Mr. Trump and his aides and allies is among the most important facing the Jan. 6 investigators.

In The States 

ARIZONA:  Republican Candidates Deny 2020 Election Results, Boost Conspiracy Theories In Gubernatorial Debate 

  • Associated Press: Republicans Square off in Raucous Arizona Governor Debate:  Development attorney Karrin Taylor Robson called for leaving behind the 2020 election and focusing on the future while former news anchor Kari Lake doubled down on the lie that former President Donald Trump lost because of fraud as the Republican candidates for governor squared off in a raucous debate Wednesday. Robson gave a nod to the widespread belief among Republican primary voters that something was amiss in 2020 and refused to say whether she would have certified the results, but she stopped short of saying the election was fraudulent. She said Democrats are focused on the future, and Republicans should be too. “I believe the elections weren’t fair,” Robson said. She accused “liberal judges” of changing the rules late in the cycle and the media and big tech of suppressing conservative voices. “But I am focused on 2022 because the left is 10 steps ahead of us,” she said. “I will do everything I can to ensure Arizona is in Republican hands for the 2024 election when we can take back the White House.” Lake, who was endorsed by Trump and has focused much of her campaign on the lie that the 2020 election was marred by fraud, said she would not have certified what she called a “corrupt election.” President Joe Biden “lost the election and he shouldn’t be in the White House,” Lake said. Lesser-known candidates Scott Neely and Paola Tulliani Zen agreed with Lake that the election was “corrupt.”

GEORGIA: Elections Investigation Focused On Voting Machine Breach In South Georgia 

  • Atlanta Journal Constitution: Elections Investigation Focuses On Alleged Breach In South Georgia:  Subpoenas sent this month are seeking evidence of whether election conspiracy theorists gained unauthorized access to Georgia voting equipment and copied sensitive files in Coffee County after the 2020 election. The subpoenas demand documents including ballot images, election data, computer software and the identities of who funded the endeavor. The subpoenas, obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, were issued by plaintiffs in an ongoing election security lawsuit against Georgia. In addition, the secretary of state’s office recently opened a separate investigation into allegations of a breach in Coffee County, located about 200 miles south of Atlanta. The Georgia allegation is the latest example of attempts to gain access to voting computers after Republican Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, similar to incidents in Colorado, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

WISCONSIN: Wisconsin Supreme Court Validates Republican Scheme To Hold Power Even When Not Elected  

  • New York Times: Wisconsin Court Validates a Republican Strategy to Preserve Power: The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday effectively handed the Republican-controlled State Senate broad authority over the composition of state boards and commissions, three and a half years into the term of a Democratic governor whose duties include naming board members. The ruling allows a Republican member of the state Natural Resources Board whose term expired in May 2021, Frederick Prehn, to keep his position. Dr. Prehn had refused to step down, arguing that a replacement to his post has not been confirmed. The court’s 4-3 opinion, which fell along ideological lines, turned on a technical question of when the seat on the board would be legally vacant. But its practical effect was to affirm a strategy devised by the State Senate to keep Republican board members in office simply by refusing to confirm replacements nominated by Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat. A similar move by the Senate has allowed Republicans who refused to resign to remain on the board that oversees the state’s 16 public technical colleges, which enroll 250,000 students annually. The Senate also has refused to confirm Mr. Evers’s appointees to the Board of Regents that governs the public university system. He appointed regents to replace ones who resigned when their terms expired. But the Senate could remove them should a Republican win the governor’s race in November. The decision marked the continuation of a political environment in which Republicans have found a way to dominate, even without control of the governor’s office, through their entrenched control of the State Legislature.

What Experts Are Saying

Norm Eisen, special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the first impeachment of Donald Trump: “In each hearing, the committee has skillfully built on a foundation of fact…Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that the hearings seem to be having an impact. That is what polls suggest[.].” New York Times’ Op-Ed: Cassidy Hutchinson Changes Everything

Joyce Vance, former US attorney (Video): “From a prosecutorial point of view, if you’re talking about charging a conspiracy… Prosecutors have to prove the agreement… Hutchinson gave a piece of testimony in this regard that I suspect is so influential” Tweet from MSNBC’s Deadline WH with Nicolle Wallace

Heather Cox Richardson, American historian at Boston College: “There is no doubt that [Trump WH counsel Pat] Cipollone holds powerful information about what happened in the White House during that crucial time, and his testimony likely could put people in jail.” Letters from an American 

Michael Beschloss, presidential historian for NBC News (Video): “We’re living through a time where I can’t predict to you whether we’ll be living in a democracy five years from now or not. I hope we are.” Tweet from MSNBC’s Deadline WH with Nicolle Wallace 

Erica Chenoweth, Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at Harvard Kennedy School: “[T]he Blue Wave was directly responsible for allowing Congress to hold the line on the peaceful transfer of power in 2020, certifying the election on January 6th despite a coup attempt by Trump, which a sizable number of GOP Congresspeople supported. Had Trump succeeded in either winning the election or seizing power, it is likely that we would now have a nationwide abortion ban signed into law and perhaps upheld or affirmed by the Supreme Court. (Indeed, this is one of the primary campaign promises of GOP candidates running for the House and Senate in 2022 and the presidency in 2024.)” Harvard Kennedy School 

Headlines

The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections 

Associated Press: Cheney to debate Wyoming GOP foes after Jan. 6 hearings

Daily Beast: Indicted Election Denier Tina Peters Loses Her Own Election—and Denies She Lost

Politico: Republicans who backed Trump Jan. 6 probe face fierce backlash at the polls

NBC: Most House Republicans who backed a Jan. 6 commission have won primaries so far

January 6 And The 2020 Election

NBC: Ginni Thomas’ lawyer wants ‘better justification’ for her giving testimony to Jan. 6 panel

New York Times: Hutchinson Testimony Exposes Tensions Between Parallel Jan. 6 Inquiries

New York Times: The C.E.O. Silence on the Jan. 6 Hearings

New York Times: Heated Debate Erupts Over What Happened Inside Trump’s Vehicle on Jan. 6

New York Times: Key Questions Posed by Cassidy Hutchinson’s Testimony

Politico: Bannon seeks trial delay, citing House Jan. 6 hearings

Politico: Secret Service: Jan. 6 committee didn’t reach out before Hutchinson’s explosive Trump testimony

Republican Response to January 6 Hearings 

Associated Press: Ratings show Fox News viewers tuning out Jan. 6 hearings

Daily Beast: Republicans in Congress: Hearings? What Hearings?

CNN (Analysis): Journalists are unflinching as they cover explosive 1/6 testimony. Meanwhile, MAGA Media spins for Trump

Opinion

New York Times (Norm Eisen): Cassidy Hutchinson Changes Everything

Washington Examiner (Editorial): Trump proven unfit for power again

Washington Post (Henry Olsen): Tuesday’s primaries were a great sign for non-Trumpian Republicans

Political Violence 

Bloomberg: New Zealand Designates the Proud Boys as a Terrorist Group

In The States 

Kansas City Star: Former Jan. 6 committee counsel to run as independent in Missouri

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Michael Gableman sued after comments about deleting public records linked to the 2020 GOP election review

New York Times: Missouri Enacts Strict New Voter Rules and Will Switch to Caucuses