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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — September 26, 2022

By September 26, 2022No Comments

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Must Read Stories

This Week’s January 6 Hearing Will Address Key Unanswered Questions 

  • The Guardian: January 6 Panel To Take Up Key Unanswered Questions In Final Hearing: The House January 6 select committee is expected to hold its final public hearing next Wednesday, with the congressional investigation into the US Capitol attack nearing its conclusion as staff counsel prepare to produce an interim report of its findings before the 2022 midterm elections. The specific topic of the final hearing that the panel’s chairman, Congressman Bennie Thompson, will convene starting at 1pm is unclear. But the select committee is expected to make headway on some of the most pressing questions about January 6 that remain unanswered since the panel last convened in July and made the case that Donald Trump violated the law by refusing to take action to call off the Capitol attack, sources said. The principal issues at play include whether there was a concrete through-line from the former president to political operatives like Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, who were in close contact with the far-right extremist groups – including the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers – that stormed Congress. The select committee has found some circumstantial evidence about such ties and previously revealed that Trump directed his then White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to call both Stone and Flynn the night before January 6 as the extremist groups finalized their plans for the day. Another issue for House investigators is whether Trump’s ouster of former defense secretary Mark Esper was an effort to install in his place a loyalist who might have had no objection to using the national guard to seize voting machines or delay their deployment to stop the Capitol attack.

New Mark Meadows Texts Show The White House In Direct Communication With Operative Who Planned To Seize Voting Machines 

  • CNN: Meadows Texts Reveal Direct White House Communications With Pro-Trump Operative Behind Plans To Seize Voting Machines: As allies of then-President Donald Trump made a final push to overturn the election in late-December 2020, one of the key operatives behind the effort briefed then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about his attempts to gain access to voting systems in key battleground states, starting with Arizona and Georgia, according to text messages obtained by CNN. Phil Waldron, an early proponent of various election-related conspiracy theories, texted Meadows on December 23 that an Arizona judge had dismissed a lawsuit filed by friendly GOP lawmakers there. The suit demanded state election officials hand over voting machines and other election equipment, as part of the hunt for evidence to support Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud. In relaying the news to Meadows, Waldron said the decision would allow opponents to engage in “delay tactics” preventing Waldron and his associates from immediately accessing machines. Waldron also characterized Arizona as “our lead domino we were counting on to start the cascade,” referring to similar efforts in other states like Georgia. “Pathetic,” Meadows responded. The messages, which have not been previously reported, shed new light on how Waldron’s reach extended into the highest levels of the White House and the extent to which Meadows was kept abreast of plans for accessing voting machines, a topic sources tell CNN, and court documents suggest, is of particular interest to state and federal prosecutors probing efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Election Deniers Are Attempting To “Pivot” For The General Election And Raking In Millions In Koch Brothers Funding 

  • New York Times: Election Deniers Are Pivoting to November. Will Voters Buy It?: As post-primary pivots go, Don Bolduc’s overnight transformation from “Stop the Steal” evangelist to ratify-the-results convert could land him in a political hall of fame. It was an about-face so sudden and jarring that it undermined the tell-it-like-it-is authenticity with which he’d earned the Republican nomination for Senate from New Hampshire. But Mr. Bolduc was hardly the only Republican candidate to edge away from his public insistence, despite a lack of evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald J. Trump, or that 2020 had undermined the integrity of American elections. Blake Masters in Arizona, Tiffany Smiley in Washington State and Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania have all made pivots — some artfully, some not — as the ardent, Trump-loyal voters who decided the Republican primaries shrink in the rearview mirror, and a more cautious, broader November electorate comes into view. These three Senate candidates haven’t quite renounced their questioning of the 2020 election — to right-wing audiences of podcasts, radio shows and Fox News, they still signal their skepticism — but they have shifted their appeals to the swing voters they need to win on Nov. 8. The real question now is: Can they get away with it?
  • The Guardian: Alarm As Koch Bankrolls Dozens Of Election Denier Candidates: Fossil fuel giant Koch Industries has poured over $1m into backing – directly and indirectly – dozens of House and Senate candidates who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s win on 6 January 2021. Koch, which is controlled by multibillionaire Charles Koch, boasts a corporate Pac that has donated $607,000 to the campaigns or leadership Pacs of 52 election deniers since January 2021, making Koch’s Pac the top corporate funder of members who opposed the election results, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks campaign spending. In addition, the Super Pac Americans for Prosperity Action to which Koch Industries has given over $6m since January 2021, has backed some election deniers with advertising and other communications support, as well as a few candidates Donald Trump has endorsed who tried to help him overturn the 2020 election, or raised doubts about the final results. A top official with AFP Action told Politico after the January 6 insurrection by Donald Trump supporters that it planned to “weigh heavily” future spending and back “policy makers who reject the politics of division”. Altogether, 139 House members and eight senators voted against certifying Biden’s win in Arizona or Pennsylvania. Election and campaign finance watchdogs say that the financial support for candidates who were election deniers by Koch’s Pac and the Super Pac AFP Action is very disturbing given the threats to democracy posed by election deniers.

The Continued MAGA Search For Voter “Anomalies” From 2020 Is Creating Chaos And Distrust Ahead Of The Year’s Election 

  • NBC: Groups Seeking Voter ‘Anomalies’ 2 Years After Trump’s Loss Raise Concerns Ahead Of Midterm Elections: In the nearly two years since Trump lost the 2020 election, groups searching out election fraud have reportedly been knocking on voters’ doors in at least 11 states — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington — raising concerns among civil rights watchdogs, some elections officials and even the Department of Justice. With the 2022 midterm elections around the corner, voting rights advocates like Diaz worry that canvassers knocking on doors, asking intrusive questions, and suggesting there could be issues with people’s voter registrations or ballots could confuse voters — or even intimidate them enough to stay home on Election Day.
  • Washington Post: As More States Create Election Integrity Units, Arizona Is A Cautionary Tale: Republicans across the country have embraced an aggressive tactic this year as they seek to tout baseless claims that voter fraud is a serious threat: arming state agencies with more power and resources to investigate election crimes. Virginia’s Republican attorney general earlier this month announced a new election integrity unit staffed with more than 20 attorneys and investigators “to increase transparency and strengthen confidence in our state elections.” Georgia legislators recently empowered the statewide police agency to launch election probes. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) last month described the arrests of 20 people for alleged illegal voting as the “opening salvo” of a new elections police force. But a Washington Post examination of an earlier endeavor in Arizona to systematically ferret out voter fraud found it has turned up few cases — and that rather than bolster confidence in elections, the absence of massive fraud has just fueled more bogus theories and distrust.

Trump Rallies Are Increasingly Dominated By QAnon Conspiracy Theorists 

  • CBS: Trump Signals Affinity With QAnon Followers In Social Media Post, At Rallies: Former President Donald Trump is again signaling an affinity with believers of the QAnon conspiracies — on Thursday evening he reposted a video originally shared by a QAnon follower containing catch phrases and that integrated Trump into imagery affiliated with the conspiracy movement. The video includes edited images of Trump that made it appear as if he is holding a playing card with a “Q” on it and holding an American flag encircled by the letter Q. There’s also a slide with the QAnon slogan “WWG1WGA,” an acronym for “where we go one, we go all,” and a man wearing Trump’s signature red tie with a “Q” pin on his lapel.  The former president is central to QAnon and its ideology, which envisions him as a savior. The conspiracy theory includes the unfounded belief that a cabal of famous Democratic politicians and liberal elites run a child sex trafficking ring, and that Trump will arrange for mass arrests and military tribunals of corrupt politicians, among other outlandish ideas. The FBI has warned that conspiracy theories like QAnon pose a growing domestic terrorism threat.
  • CNN: QAnon Fans Celebrate Trump’s Latest Embrace Of The Conspiracy: Supporters of QAnon on former President Donald Trump’s social media platform have celebrated what they see as his renewed embrace of the conspiracy theory over the past week after he shared a meme that was viewed as one of his most brazen nods to QAnon yet. The meme Trump shared on Truth Social included an illustration of him wearing a “Q” on his lapel and two QAnon slogans — “The storm is coming” and “WWG1WGA” (Where we go one, we go all). A few days later, he held a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, where he delivered some of his speech to music that sounded almost exactly like a song associated with QAnon. As he did that, a group of his supporters in the crowd began pointing in unison toward the sky. “Once we saw that, we realized we might have a problem,” a Trump aide told CNN. The former President’s team spent hours online after the rally trying to understand what the salute meant and where it might have come from, sources said.
  • Washington Post: How a QAnon Splinter Group Became A Feature Of Trump Rallies:  Julie McDaniel can’t say for sure who started it. It might even have been her. McDaniel was in the front section at a Trump rally earlier this month in Youngstown, Ohio, when the former president started wrapping up his speech by playing an instrumental score embraced by followers of the QAnon online conspiracy theory. She felt moved to raise her right hand and point to the sky — to God, she said. Soon everyone around her was doing it, too. […]  The group on the floor was an offshoot of the QAnon community called Negative48, a name that they say stands for the opposite of evil. They’ve become a fixture at Trump’s rallies this year. Numbering about 100, they can be spotted by their lanyards sporting as many as 16 commemorative buttons from each rally they have attended. Or see them wrap their arms around each other to sway to Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” blasting over the loudspeakers. Or lining up to take selfies in front of the stage with their leader, a man in American flag pants named Michael Brian Protzman. The FBI has warned that extremist movements such as QAnon — which loosely revolves around the baseless belief that the world is secretly run by Satan-worshipping child sex traffickers — is likely to motivate some people to criminal and violent acts. The ideology has already been implicated in multiple crimes, including several people arrested in the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and a recent murder in Michigan.

In The States 

ARIZONA:  Leadership Of The AZ GOP And Candidates For Key Elected Positions Are Embroiled In Investigation Of January 6 

  • ABC: In Heated Debate, Arizona Secretary Of State Candidate Mark Finchem Reveals He Sat For Jan. 6, DOJ Interview: Arizona Republican secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem revealed during Thursday’s debate that he has been interviewed by both the Justice Department and Jan. 6 committee about his alleged involvement in the Capitol attack. This was the first time Finchem has publicly confirmed speaking on the matter with federal officials. “They asked me, why was I there? I said, ‘Well, I think you already know. I was there to deliver an evidence package to Representative Paul Gosar,'” Finchem, who was subpoenaed by the committee earlier this year, told reporters after the debate. The four-term, far-right Arizona lawmaker, who continues to espouse the “Big Lie” and is running to be the state’s chief election officer, revealed the Jan. 6 interview and Justice Department involvement in a back-and-forth on the debate stage with his opponent, Democrat Adrian Fontes.
  • Arizona Republic: Judge Rules Jan. 6 Committee Can See Phone Records Of Arizona Republican Party Head Kelli Ward: A federal judge ruled Thursday that the select Congressional committee investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, may subpoena the phone records of the head of Arizona’s Republican Party. The Select Committee, in January, sent a subpoena asking for phone records of Kelli Ward, the chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, that would have covered activity from November 2020 through January 2021. That span of time would include when Ward convened an uncertified and unauthorized slate of electors to grant Donald Trump the state’s electoral votes even though he lost Arizona. Those fake electoral votes were sent to Congress for members to consider counting during its Jan. 6, 2021, session, which was interrupted for hours after the U.S. Capitol was breached by rampaging Trump supporters.

GEORGIA: Voting Equipment To Be Replaced In Coffee County After Breach By Trump Allies 

  • Atlanta Journal Constitution: Election Equipment To Be Replaced In Coffee County After Outsiders Gain Access: Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Friday that he will replace voting equipment in Coffee County after supporters of then-President Donald Trump and their computer analysts copied confidential data following the 2020 election. The decision comes after tech experts hired by Trump attorney Sidney Powell visited restricted areas of the county’s elections office to copy information from an election server, voter check-in tablets, ballot scanners and other voting equipment on Jan. 7, 2021. Replacing the equipment could cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, but Raffensperger said it’s necessary to avoid “distraction and misinformation” before this year’s elections.

NEVADA: NV Secretary Of State Jim Marchant Voted By Mail Multiple Times, But Wants To Eliminate Access For Nevada Voters 

  • CNN: Nevada’s GOP Nominee For Top Election Post Wants To Eliminate Mail Voting But Voted By Mail Multiple Times: The Republican candidate aiming to run Nevada’s elections has called to end mail voting by falsely claiming the voting method is rife with fraud. But public voting records reviewed by CNN’s KFile show he voted by mail multiple times, including while living in one state and voting in another. Jim Marchant, the GOP nominee for secretary of state, voted absentee by mail in Florida in three separate elections — 2006, 2008 and 2010 — while he was living in Nevada. He moved to the Silver State in 2005, according to his secretary of state campaign biography, and did not vote there until 2012, according to public records. It is not illegal to vote in one state while living in another. But the practice stands in contrast with Marchant’s stance against mail voting, which he has aggressively campaigned to eliminate. The Trump-endorsed nominee heads the America First Secretary of State Coalition, a group of election deniers seeking state election posts who regurgitate election conspiracies. Their platform calls to eliminate mail voting, implement an “aggressive voter roll clean-up” and move to single-day voting.

MICHIGAN: GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Tudor Dixon Spends Weekend Ridiculing Governor Whitmer Over Far-Right Kidnapping Plot 

  • Michigan Advance: Dixon Spends The Day Ridiculing Whitmer Over 2020 Far-Right Kidnapping Plot:  Republican gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon’s repeated comments mocking the foiled plot to kidnap and assassinate Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have drawn widespread condemnation. On Friday morning, the Republican appeared at a pro-Dixon superPAC event in Troy with former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway and criticized Whitmer’s business record as governor. Standing in front of a sign that said, “Forging A Family Friendly Michigan,” Dixon then unexpectedly brought up the 2020 militia-tied plot against Whitmer — in which multiple people have been convicted — as an apparent punchline. “The sad thing is that Gretchen will tie your hands, put a gun to your head and ask if you’re ready to talk,” said Dixon, a Muskegon County former right-wing commentator. “For someone so worried about being kidnapped, Gretchen Whitmer sure is good at taking business hostage and holding it for ransom.” Four men have been convicted in the 2020 domestic terrorism plot that sought to kidnap Whitmer from her summer residence in retaliation for her efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19.

MICHIGAN: Secretary Of State Candidate Kristina Karamo Has A Plan To Dismantle Michigan’s Elections  

  • Bolts: Kristina Karamo Has Plans to Unwind Michigan Elections:  For decades, over 1,600 local offices have combined to run Michigan elections in a sort of harmony. Arguably the most decentralized voting system in the country is held together by the secretary of state, who ensures that votes are counted with enough synchronicity that the public trusts the results. This delicate network could soon be thrown into upheaval if the office is occupied by the Republican candidate for secretary of state after the 2022 midterms. Kristina Karamo, the challenger to Democratic incumbent Jocelyn Benson, has echoed former President Donald Trump’s lies that he won the 2020 election against Joe Biden. She has attacked Democrats, the media, and even members of her own party that acknowledged Joe Biden’s win as traitors, calling them “evil and wicked people.” And now she is running on making sweeping changes to the system—some of which she legally would not even have the power to enact.

What Experts Are Saying

Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism and has tracked extremist movements for more than 20 years: “I think that we are facing the biggest threats to democracy in the United States that we ever have. I can’t think of any time in my lifetime where there were so many people who don’t believe that election results are what they say they are. There are people running for office right now, some of them are actually QAnon adherents. They deny the election and some of them are running for offices like secretary of state and if they win, their plans are to make the elections partisan, to manipulate the vote for the outcome that they want, not the outcome that comes from the election. This stuff is real scary. There’s other things to remember, like how a large percentage of Americans believe that violence may be necessary for politics. I mentioned earlier the fact that this white supremacist idea, ‘the great replacement,’ is being spread by candidates and influencers like Tucker Carlson. These are frightening and disturbing portents that are occurring right now.” Politico 

Rick Hasen, director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project and law professor at UCLA: “With @maggieNYT’s upcoming book in the news, a reminder that I’ll be in conversation with her for a free webinar on “Trump, Trumpism, and the Future of American Democracy,” 10/27 12 pm PT for the @UCLA_Law http://SafeguardingDemocracyProject.org. Free registration: LINK” Tweet  

Barbara McQuade, former US attorney: “Oath Keepers trial begins Tuesday. Sometimes seditious conspiracy can be hard to prove. Not this time. When you attack the Capitol while Congress is certifying an election, it seems that neither sedition nor conspiracy can be in any real doubt.” Tweet 

Headlines

The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections

Michigan Advance: Why experts say the fall of abortion rights is a key sign of a troubled democracy

NBC: The American right’s future involves waging a ‘religious battle’ against the left, leaders say at a conservative conference

New York Times: Top State Judges Make a Rare Plea in a Momentous Supreme Court Election Case

Politico: Italy on track to elect most right-wing government since Mussolini

Politico: GOP readies political heartburn for an FBI it won’t defund

Semafor: The US is investigating Smartmatic over allegations of bribery in the Philippines

Texas Tribune: Liz Cheney says she will do whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump from the White House, even if it means leaving the GOP

Votebeat: Push for hand-counting ballots overlooks needs of disabled voters

Washington Post: How a Trump soundtrack became a QAnon phenomenon

January 6 And The 2020 Election

The Guardian: Trump claimed ‘I was not watching television’ on January 6, book says

NBC: Jury convicts QAnon believer who thought he was storming the White House during the Capitol riot

New York Times: Trump Lawyers Push to Limit Aides’ Testimony in Jan. 6 Inquiry

Washington Post: Ex-staffer’s unauthorized book about Jan. 6 committee rankles members

Other Trump Investigations 

Politico: National security risk review of material Trump kept at Mar-a-Lago resumes after appeals court ruling

Opinion

New York Times (Editorial): This Threat to Democracy Is Hiding in Plain Sight

New York Times (Chris Geidner): Even in Blue States, Election Denial Can Cause Serious Damage

Washington Post (George Will): Why Mastriano’s candidacy presents a special danger to the nation

In The States 

American Independent: Kari Lake has ties to several fake electors who tried to overturn 2020 election results

Bridge MI: In Antrim County, economic worries replace election conspiracies among voters

Votebeat: Boisterous agitators disrupt election machine test, badger secretary of state in Hays County