Noting Mike Johnson's appointment of Scott Perry and Ronnie Jackson to the House Intelligence Committee, Maegan Vazquez writes,
"The appointments of Jackson and Perry come a day after Johnson, a staunch Trump ally, broadly outlined a 'three-pronged approach' on how the Republican majority can target the Justice Department, New York and other jurisdictions for investigating Trump — using, among other things, House oversight powers."
"TO PROTECT DONALD TRUMP, the Republican party has turned against every institution that stood in his way: the press ('the enemy of the people'), the civil service ('the Deep State'), presidential elections ('rigged,' 'stolen'), courts (for refusing to overturn the 2020 election),"
A 2nd #Trump admin could #weaponize existing government agencies to dismantle democracy itself.
This article is part of “Project 2025: The Plot Against #America,” a Nation special issue devoted to unpacking the right’s vast & chilling program for a 2nd Trump term.
In the section on the #DHS …there’s a plan to eliminate the ability of the agency that monitors #ElectionSecurity to prevent the spread of #disinformation about voting & #vote counting.
…Think back to Nov 2020, when #Trump was developing his #BigLie about the #election he’d lost. Trump’s false assertion the election had been characterized by “massive improprieties & fraud” was tripped up by #ChrisKrebs, who served as dir of the #Cybersecurity & Infrastructure #Security Agency (#CISA) in the DHS.
…This is all part of #Project2025’s …vision for restructuring #DOJ so it can be #weaponized by a new #Trump admin when it comes to election-related issues. In Mandate’s chapter on #Justice, Hamilton…proposes reassigning…prosecuting election-related offenses from the #CivilRights Div to the #Criminal Div. Why? So #Republican-generated claims about “fraudulent voter registration,” “mail-in ballot fraud,” &…the various targets of Trump’s #BigLie claims…are “appropriately investigated & prosecuted.”
De Berg quotes George Burns: “The most important thing in acting is honesty. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” Both: pol performance artists -speak only vaguely about policies. “Extremist statements -meant to provoke a reaction -get them into the press. Concept of the #BigLie is that if an untruth is sufficiently extreme, ppl likely to accept it if only bc they cannot bring themselves to believe that anyone could lie in such an outrageous-." https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/03/donald-trump-hitler-similarities
As Parker Molloy notes, Washington Post (further) disgraces itself by running a mendacious headline about this story stating that Trump "agreed" with chants from his mob calling for Hillary to be locked up.
But as Peter Wade notes, there's Trump right there on video in 2020 telling his mob,
“Lock up the Bidens, lock up Hillary. Lock them up.”
"Now it turns out that a flag representing the idea that the 2020 election was stolen, that the people should engage in armed revolution against tyranny, and that the United States should be a nation based in Christian theology has been flying over the home of Justice Alito, who is supposed to be defending the United States Constitution impartially."
"The unfortunate truth is that Republicans, under Trump’s influence, no longer accept that Democrats can legitimately win elections. This isn’t a run of the mill ideological difference between the parties. It’s the ruin of American democracy."
"Let’s be clear about what this means. Alito is giving our entire democracy the finger. He has expressed public allyship with the enemies of our Constitution instead of upholding his oath of office. And he’s also a coward and a liar, unwilling to speak his traitorous words aloud, yet ready to throw his wife under the bus the moment he’s questioned about these displays."
"If Alito refuses to recuse himself from cases involving Trump, Congress should impeach and convict him of no less than tending to prostitute the high judicial character with which he was invested, to the low purpose of blatant partisanship. That is, of violating the basic tenets of impartial justice, on which public trust for the high court is based."
"A new report released Tuesday by States United Action, a group that targets election deniers, said nearly one-third of the lawmakers in Congress supported in some way Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 results or otherwise cast doubt on the reliability of elections. Several more are hoping to join them, running for election this year to the House and Senate."
"IN THE FIRST WEEK OF HIS CRIMINAL TRIAL, Donald Trump raised about $5.6 million online by warning his small dollar-donors that the 'Deep State' was out to lock him up."
Trump sent out an email when jury selection began, saying Biden's attacking him, and his disciples responded by sending $1.6 million in response to the email. He took in another $1 million the rest of the week, mostly from small donors.
"Trump seems aware that his power is waning. Early yesterday, he called for supporters to 'RALLY BEHIND MAGA,' but only a handful of people gathered outside the courthouse. Today he claimed that the turnout was low because police had 'completely CLOSED DOWN' the streets around the courthouse. That was a lie: the streets, the sidewalk, even the courthouse have remained open to the public."
“A top leader of the national conservative group Turning Point Action [Austin Smith], which has amplified false claims of election fraud by former president Donald Trump and others, resigned Thursday after being accused of forging voter signatures on official paperwork so that he could run for reelection in the Arizona House.”
"When RNC co-chair and Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump blasted out a robocall last week claiming 'massive fraud' in the 2020 election, it was a continuation of one of the great long cons in history. Four years and counting …
The Big Lie is a criminal conspiracy, a long con, a grift, and essentially a Trump family business opportunity."