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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — May 10, 2022

By May 10, 2022No Comments

Driving the Day: 

What To Watch For Today:

GOP primaries in Nebraska and West Virginia feature a slate of Trump-backed candidate who support the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. 

Must Read Stories

How Trump’s Conspiracy Theories Transformed Nebraska Into “A Toxic Political Wasteland”  

  • New York Times (Ted Genoways): How Trump Helped Transform Nebraska Into a Toxic Political Wasteland: Yes, whoever emerges with the nomination will most likely become the next governor. And it would appear that Mr. Herbster retains the inside track, thanks to Mr. Trump — just as the former president has buoyed Mehmet Oz and Herschel Walker to the top of their primary Senate races in Pennsylvania and Georgia and lifted J.D. Vance from a packed Republican field in the Senate primary in Ohio. But it doesn’t matter whether these candidates actually win or not, because their conspiratorial and inflammatory rhetoric has overtaken the discourse, pushing all Republican candidates further and further toward the fringe. Regardless of how the final balloting turns out in Nebraska on Tuesday, the real victor will be Donald Trump. 

Oath Keepers Are Telling The FBI About Their Efforts To Overturn The Election And Communicate With The Trump Team 

  • CNN: Oath Keepers Sharing With January 6 Investigators Their Efforts To Find Election Fraud, Communications With Trump Allies:  Top leaders in the Oath Keepers, the far-right extremist group, have been turning over phones and digital files and sitting for interviews with the FBI — and detailing how they worked to benefit Donald Trump’s campaign and communicated with others in the former President’s orbit, according to court records and multiple sources familiar with the federal investigation. Kellye SoRelle, a lawyer working with the Oath Keepers, told CNN that she has met with the FBI several times and handed over phones.  She declined to say more about what she’s shared with investigators, but her ties to the group have come up in court filings, including a virtual meeting a week after the 2020 presidential election when Oath Keepers talk about heading to Washington, DC, and SoRelle briefs them about the campaign’s legal fight.

In The States

Pummeled By Conspiracy Theorists, Colorado Election Officials Receive Active Shooter Training 

  • ABC: Colorado Voting Officials Adopt Safety Measures As State Becomes Target For Election Conspiracists: Considered by many experts to be a leader in election security due to its up-to-date voting machines, its policy of recording every vote on a paper ballot, and its rigorous post-election audits, Colorado has been described by some election experts as the “gold standard for elections.” Yet despite its strong reputation, the state has recently been targeted by election denial groups as a center for baseless accusations that election workers helped steal the 2020 election from Donald Trump. As a result, election officials and poll workers in several Colorado counties have donned bulletproof vests and undergone active shooter training for their own safety.

What Experts Are Saying

Jeff Sharlet, Professor of English at Dartmouth College: “‘That US fascism is racist and white supremacist is a given. That it is all-white is not. The assumption of static fascism blinds one to fascism organizing small but significant numbers in communities of color, particularly through Christian nationalism,’ says Dartmouth professor Jeff Sharlet, who has written extensively about Christian fundamentalism in America. (The quote comes from an extended Twitter conversation that helped inspire this column.)” Perry Bacon Jr. Column in The Washington Post 

Rachel Kleinfeld, Senior Fellow at Carnegie Endowment: “Colorado is offering election officials “active shooter” training and advising them to take different routes driving home to stay safe. These are our neighbors, of both parties, just regular people who are being targeted” Tweet 

May 16 @ 7:00 pm EDT: BigTentUSA: Virtual Event: Spotlight Speakers: Ambassador Norm Eisen (Ret.) and Joyce White Vance: “We are on the eve of one of the primary vehicles our nation has for addressing the wrongs of the former president: the upcoming January 6th hearings, which will begin in June. These two distinguished attorneys and analysts of Trump’s wrongdoing will also address other ways to hold Trump accountable, including pending criminal investigations. They will also discuss Norm’s new book, Overcoming Trumpery: How to Restore Ethics, the Rule of Law, and Democracy.” LINK 

Headlines

The Ongoing Threat To Elections 

Daily Beast: OAN Finally Admits ‘No Widespread Voter Fraud’ After Settling Defamation Suit

Insider: Mark Esper says the Trump campaign’s months-long effort to challenge the 2020 election was ‘a national embarrassment’: book

January 6 Investigation

CNN: Oath Keepers sharing with January 6 investigators their efforts to find election fraud, communications with Trump allies

Opinion

MSNBC (Hayes Brown): Tom Rice voted to impeach Trump — and he isn’t going down without a fight

In The States

Axios: Inside Raffensperger’s campaign to combat misinformation

Politico: ‘Ultra-MAGA’ longshot roars into contention in key Senate race