In his opening statement of the first public hearing, Jan. 6 committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) reminded listeners of the different, and likely more toothless, version of the panel he and his fellow Democrats were clamoring for around this time last summer.
Continue reading “How Republicans Screwed Themselves With The Jan. 6 Committee: A Retrospective”Where Things Stand: In Shock Of The Century, Trump Is Using His Off-Brand Twitter Site To Hype QAnon Content
The online QAnon movement and many of its Donald Trump-adjacent conspiracy theorists have found a happy home on Trump’s glitch-ridden, generic Twitter app, TRUTH Social.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: In Shock Of The Century, Trump Is Using His Off-Brand Twitter Site To Hype QAnon Content”Bill Barr Can’t Flee The Stench Of What He Did For Trump
Attorney General Bill Barr revealed many things at the Jan. 6 Committee hearing on Monday.
But for me, the biggest impression his testimony left was the depths he reached in serving Trump.
Continue reading “Bill Barr Can’t Flee The Stench Of What He Did For Trump”5 Points On The Flock Of White Nationalists Arrested In A U-Haul Saturday
Saturday brought some rare news in the world of racist extremism: A U-Haul box truck full of white nationalists was pulled over by police in Idaho, and its passengers were arrested on misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to riot. The men — members of the well-known neo-fascist group Patriot Front — were allegedly on their way to a pride event in Coeur d’Alene, where police say they planned to riot.
Here’s what we know about what happened.
Continue reading “5 Points On The Flock Of White Nationalists Arrested In A U-Haul Saturday”Jan. 6 Public Hearings: Round Two
Less than a week after House Jan. 6 Committee’s first blockbuster public hearing on Thursday, the panel is set to hold its second hearing around 10:45 a.m. ET today.
Watch a livestream of the hearing here and follow our live coverage below:
Team Normal: The Vanishing Cadre Of Anti-Coup Trumpers
As he tells it now, Bill Stepien saw Trump campaign staffers begin to sort themselves in the days following the 2020 election. There was “Team Normal” — in touch with the reality that Trump’s path to winning the election was increasingly slim, and then impossible.
Then there were the other guys.
Continue reading “Team Normal: The Vanishing Cadre Of Anti-Coup Trumpers”Jan. 6 Committee Zeroes In On Trump’s Big Lie Fundraising
The Jan. 6 committee spent most of its second hearing Monday picking apart Trump’s relentless lies about the 2020 election outcome — lies he pursued despite findings from both his campaign staff and government investigators that the election results were legitimate.
Continue reading “Jan. 6 Committee Zeroes In On Trump’s Big Lie Fundraising”Awkward
There was quite a bit of subtle storytelling and repositioning going on through this morning’s testimony. Perhaps especially from Bill Barr. But there was one moment from Barr that struck me as revealing. During his testimony, Barr was describing the run-up to one visit to the White House when it was clear that Trump wasn’t going to acknowledge he had lost. Barr said that it was getting a bit “awkward.” That’s probably an understatement.
Continue reading “Awkward”What Does Trump Believe?
I was about to respond to this email from TPM Reader JR. But I decided it made more sense to respond here.
Lots being written about the importance of establishing whether Trump “knew” he lost. Greg Sargeant this morning, Slate over the weekend (does Trump really ever “know” anything”) etc etc. I don’t touch criminal law but it seems to me that focus is too narrow. I would think Trump could have had the requisite criminal intent to use illegal means to overturn an election even if he “believed” the election was being stolen from him. That is, if he knew or was wilfully blind to the fact that he or his team were using unlawful means to “contest” the election, wouldn;t that be enough? If he had warnings his words and actions would incite the violence1/6 or were in coordination with plans for the assault on the Capitol, why does it matter whether he “knew” he lost or not?
Like JR, I’m not a lawyer. So I can’t speak to the internal logic of particular case law or legal standards about mens rea and consciousness of guilt. But I think the way to approach this question is to work it from the other side, as it were.
Continue reading “What Does Trump Believe?”Something Doesn’t Fit
Here’s an interesting nugget that puts an added context to Bill Stepien’s appearance before the Jan 6th committee. Stepien is working as an advisor/consultant to the campaign of Wyoming Republican Harriet Hageman, the woman running against Liz Cheney in the House primary in Wyoming. (Wyoming has a single representative in the House.)
Normally this wouldn’t be surprising. A top Republican operative might be working with any number of Republican candidates. But Hageman isn’t any Republican. Her candidacy is inextricably tied to the Big Lie. In fact, it’s run almost entirely as a Trump campaign proxy. And of course, Cheney is literally front and center in the committee’s work.
Continue reading “Something Doesn’t Fit”