Browsed by
Category: Politics

Unidentified lawmakers led ‘reconnaissance’ tours ahead of Capitol attack, colleagues say

Unidentified lawmakers led ‘reconnaissance’ tours ahead of Capitol attack, colleagues say

Politico reports: Rep. Mikie Sherrill said Tuesday that she witnessed colleagues escorting people through the Capitol on Jan. 5 for what she described as “reconnaissance” ahead of the next day’s violent insurrection that left five dead. In a 13-minute Facebook video billed as an address to her constituents about the House’s efforts to hold President Donald Trump accountable for inciting the riot, Sherrill (D-N.J.) included the allegation as part of a call to hold Trump’s allies in Congress accountable as…

Read More Read More

Online police communities are rife with conspiracies and support for the Capitol riot

Online police communities are rife with conspiracies and support for the Capitol riot

HuffPost reports: In the week since a mob laid siege to the Capitol in a stunning display of violence, police officers in D.C. and beyond have struggled to make sense of what happened. The Jan. 6 attack, which claimed the life of one responding officer and preceded the suicide of another, pitted law enforcement against one of its most loyal allies: Trump supporters. Gruesome footage shows rioters in MAGA hats brandishing “Stop the Steal” signs and Trump flags dragging an…

Read More Read More

Invoking the 14th Amendment would hold Trump accountable

Invoking the 14th Amendment would hold Trump accountable

Max Burns writes: There’s a better way to stop President Donald Trump than impeachment and the 25th Amendment — and it’s one that even has some Republican support. Though rarely used and often overlooked, the 14th Amendment could be the key to preventing a president who contributed to a domestic terrorist attack from ever receiving a position of public office again. The president of the United States meets all the criteria for being permanently barred from public office under even…

Read More Read More

‘This isn’t the final chapter’: Analyst warns, again, about rise of right-wing extremists

‘This isn’t the final chapter’: Analyst warns, again, about rise of right-wing extremists

NBC News reports: In April 2009, a senior Homeland Security intelligence analyst named Daryl Johnson wrote an internal report warning that right-wing extremism was on the rise in the United States and that it could lead to violence. The report leaked, and the backlash was swift. Republican lawmakers were furious. Veterans advocates criticized a section raising concerns about service members returning with post-traumatic stress. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano apologized for parts of it, and the unit ultimately was dissolved….

Read More Read More

Biden’s Covid-19 team reconsiders pandemic plan in light of more infectious coronavirus variants

Biden’s Covid-19 team reconsiders pandemic plan in light of more infectious coronavirus variants

STAT reports: President-elect Biden will address growing concerns about new, more transmissible coronavirus variants as he lays out his plans to speed up the sluggish U.S. vaccine rollout in a press conference this week, two of his top Covid-19 advisers confirmed to STAT. Biden was briefed on the variant that first appeared in the United Kingdom, known as B.1.1.7, soon after his Covid-19 advisory board convened an emergency meeting on Christmas Eve to discuss the new strains and the threat…

Read More Read More

McConnell said to be pleased about impeachment; a ‘vote of conscience,’ says Rep. Liz Cheney

McConnell said to be pleased about impeachment; a ‘vote of conscience,’ says Rep. Liz Cheney

The New York Times reports: Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has told associates that he believes President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him, believing that it will make it easier to purge him from the party, according to people familiar with his thinking. The House is voting on Wednesday to formally charge Mr. Trump with inciting violence against the country. At the same time, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California,…

Read More Read More

How white evangelical Christians fused with Trump extremism

How white evangelical Christians fused with Trump extremism

The New York Times reports: Before self-proclaimed members of the far-right group the Proud Boys marched toward the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, they stopped to kneel in the street and prayed in the name of Jesus. The group, whose participants have espoused misogynistic and anti-immigrant views, prayed for God to bring “reformation and revival.” They gave thanks for “the wonderful nation we’ve all been blessed to be in.” They asked God for the restoration of their “value systems,” and for…

Read More Read More

The alt-right is now the mainstream Republican Party

The alt-right is now the mainstream Republican Party

Benjamin Parker writes: Remember the alt-right? The sludge of white supremacists, misogynists, neo-Nazis, and various chauvinists leaked out of the putrid corners of the internet in the years leading up to Donald Trump’s election. Although their various hatreds, grievances, and conspiracy theories were old, they saw themselves as something new. Their very name placed them in opposition to the status quo. They weren’t the American right, the coalition that included politicians like then-House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sens. Jeff Flake…

Read More Read More

House Democrats briefed on three terrifying plots to overthrow government

House Democrats briefed on three terrifying plots to overthrow government

HuffPost reports: Capitol Police briefed Democrats on Monday night about three more potentially gruesome demonstrations planned in the coming days, with one plot to encircle the U.S. Capitol and assassinate Democrats and some Republicans. On a private call Monday night, new leaders of the Capitol Police told House Democrats they were closely monitoring three separate plans that could pose serious threats to members of Congress as Washington prepares for Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration on Jan. 20. The first is…

Read More Read More

The Capitol rioters weren’t ‘low class’

The Capitol rioters weren’t ‘low class’

Adam Serwer writes: They were business owners, CEOs, state legislators, police officers, active and retired service members, real-estate brokers, stay-at-home dads, and, I assume, some Proud Boys. The mob that breached the Capitol last week at President Donald Trump’s exhortation, hoping to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, was full of what you might call “respectable people.” They left dozens of Capitol Police officers injured, screamed “Hang Mike Pence!,” threatened to murder House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and set…

Read More Read More

FBI report warned of ‘war’ at Capitol, contradicting claims there was no indication of looming violence

FBI report warned of ‘war’ at Capitol, contradicting claims there was no indication of looming violence

The Washington Post reports: A day before rioters stormed Congress, an FBI office in Virginia issued an explicit internal warning that extremists were preparing to travel to Washington to commit violence and “war,” according to an internal document reviewed by The Washington Post that contradicts a senior official’s declaration the bureau had no intelligence indicating anyone at last week’s pro-Trump protest planned to do harm. A situational information report approved for release the day before the U.S. Capitol riot painted…

Read More Read More

Extremists move to secret online channels to plan for Inauguration Day in D.C.

Extremists move to secret online channels to plan for Inauguration Day in D.C.

NBC News reports: Right-wing extremists are using channels on the encrypted communication app Telegram to call for violence against government officials on Jan. 20, the day President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated, with some extremists sharing knowledge of how to make, conceal and use homemade guns and bombs. The messages are being posted in Telegram chatrooms where white supremacist content has been freely shared for months, but chatter on these channels has increased since extremists have been forced off other platforms…

Read More Read More

Yes, it was a coup. Here’s why

Yes, it was a coup. Here’s why

Fiona Hill writes: Since last Wednesday, people have been arguing what to call what happened at the U.S. Capitol – was it a riot? An uprising? An insurrection? I’ve been public in calling it a coup, but others disagree. Some have said it’s not a coup because the U.S. military and other armed groups weren’t involved, and some because President Donald Trump didn’t invoke his presidential powers in support of the mob that broke into the Capitol. Others point out…

Read More Read More

Two Capitol Police officers suspended and 10-15 more under investigation for alleged roles in riot

Two Capitol Police officers suspended and 10-15 more under investigation for alleged roles in riot

CNN reports: Two US Capitol Police officers were suspended and up to 15 more are under investigation for their behavior during last week’s assault on the Capitol, and federal agents will look at whether current and former law enforcement officers played a role in the riot. One of the Capitol police officers took a selfie with someone who was part of the mob that overtook the Capitol and the other wore a “Make America Great Again” hat and started directing…

Read More Read More

Does Trump face legal jeopardy for his incendiary speech before the riot?

Does Trump face legal jeopardy for his incendiary speech before the riot?

The New York Times reports: Scrutiny increased on Monday on how President Trump sought to foment anger at a rally of his supporters and then dispatched them to the Capitol shortly before they rioted last week, as House Democrats on Monday unveiled an article of impeachment accusing him of inciting an insurrection. Here is an overview of some of the broader forms of legal jeopardy the president may be facing. What criminal laws might apply? If a grand jury were…

Read More Read More

Storming the U.S. Capitol was about maintaining white power in America

Storming the U.S. Capitol was about maintaining white power in America

Hakeem Jefferson writes: It is not by chance that most of the individuals who descended on the nation’s capital were white, nor is it an accident that they align with the Republican Party and this president. Moreover, it is not a coincidence that symbols of white racism, including the Confederate flag, were present and prominently displayed. Rather, years of research make clear that what we witnessed in Washington, D.C., is the violent outgrowth of a belief system that argues that…

Read More Read More