Originally Posted by Orema (Post 1279932)

In Capital, a G.O.P. Crisis. At the R.N.C. Meeting, a Trump Celebration.
Party members at a gathering of the Republican National Committee endorsed President Trump as the man to lead the party forward, ignoring the turmoil in Washington.

By Jonathan Martin
Jan. 8, 2021

https://i.postimg.cc/vZ4qzFSQ/merlin...uper-Jumbo.jpg
Ronna McDaniel was re-elected as chair of the Republican National Committee despite the party’s loss of the presidency and the Senate. Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York Times

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — In Washington, Republicans were dealing with a burgeoning crisis in their ranks, with high-profile resignations and bitter infighting over how to deal with an erratic and isolated president. But at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting on Friday, most party members were operating in a parallel universe.

In a chandelier-adorned ballroom at the seaside Ritz-Carlton here, there was no mention of President Trump’s disruption of the coronavirus relief package or his phone call to the Georgia secretary of state demanding that he help steal the election, both of which contributed to Republicans’ losing control of the Senate.

And while the R.N.C. chair, Ronna McDaniel, condemned the attack on the Capitol, neither she nor any other speaker so much as publicly hinted at Mr. Trump’s role in inciting a mob assault on America’s seat of government.

Even as the president faces a possible second impeachment proceeding, this collective exercise in gaze aversion was not the most striking part of the meeting. More revealing was the reason for the silence from the stage: Party members, one after another, said in interviews that the president did not bear any blame for the violence at the Capitol and indicated that they wanted him to continue to play a leading role in the party.

“I surely embrace President Trump,” said Michele Fiore, the committeewoman from Nevada, where Republicans have lost two Senate races and the governorship since 2016. Ms. Fiore, who was sporting a Trump-emblazoned vest, said the president was “absolutely” a positive force in the party.

The fealty to Mr. Trump was made plain on Friday when the state chairs and the committeemen and women who make up the R.N.C.’s governing board unanimously re-elected Ms. McDaniel, Mr. Trump’s handpicked chair. They also reappointed her co-chair, Tommy Hicks, who was first appointed to his post because of his friendship with the president’s eldest son.

Mr. Trump is the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over the loss of the White House, the House and the Senate in a single term and will be the first since Andrew Johnson to boycott his successor’s inauguration. That hasn’t yet fazed the Republican rank and file.

“This room, they’re in denial, and that’s on the record,” Bill Palatucci, a committeeman from New Jersey, said during a break in the Friday session, acknowledging the “damage done to the country” and the Republican “brand” this week.

But Mr. Palatucci was a lonely voice of dissent, at least in public.

Privately, a group of Republican officials, mostly those from the pre-Trump establishment wing of the party, said that they were appalled by the president’s conduct and that Ms. McDaniel had been candid about the party’s difficulties behind closed doors.

These Republicans predicted with more hope than confidence that once Mr. Trump was out of office, the ardor for him in the conservative base would cool.

Yet for now, the flames still burn.

“I would love to see him go into states that have some House seats we can flip in ’22,” said Terry Lathan, the Alabama G.OP. chair, who said “absolutely not” when she was asked if Mr. Trump bore any blame for the attack on the Capitol.

When a committee member took an informal survey on whose closed-door speech on Thursday members had liked better, that of Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota or of Nikki R. Haley, the former United Nations ambassador, the response was clear. The party officials preferred Ms. Noem’s, because she had not criticized Mr. Trump as Ms. Haley did in her remarks, a Republican familiar with the sampling said.

Earlier in the day on Thursday, when the president briefly called into a breakfast meeting, he was greeted by applause. And when the Missouri national committeeman, Gordon Kinne, said at the breakfast that he was a supporter of the president but had been upset by his comments about the violence at the Capitol, he was met with a generally frosty response, according to another committee member in the room.

The loyalty to Mr. Trump results in part from the turnover on the committee during his term. The president’s top political lieutenants intervened to install loyalists in state and local G.O.P. conventions ahead of 2020. The goal was to prevent any party rule changes that could have made it easier to mount a primary challenge against Mr. Trump, but the end result was to leave the committee heavy with Trump devotees.

The changes also accelerated a trend that pre-dated Mr. Trump’s rise: the evolution of the committee from a body filled with canny political professionals and power brokers in their states to one dominated by dogmatic partisans well-marinated in Fox News and Facebook memes.

Perhaps more significant, the president has fostered a new wave of activism on the right — and many longstanding G.O.P. leaders fear alienating these newcomers to party politics.

“We can’t exist without the people he brought to the party — he’s changed the direction of the party,” said Paul Reynolds, the Republican committeeman from Alabama. “We’re a different party because of the people that came with him, and they make us a better party.”

Reta Hamilton, a committeewoman from Arkansas, said Mr. Trump should play “a leading part” in the G.O.P. in the future for just that reason — “to bring his voters,” she said.

Ms. Hamilton and other R.N.C. members also sought to rationalize questions about the damage to the Capitol and the images of Trump banners and Confederate flags littering the building.

“What was your reaction to Black Lives Matter looting and robbing and killing people?” she shot back brazenly before walking away.

Steve Scheffler, a committeeman from Iowa, was equally quick to invoke last summer’s at times destructive protests over racial justice and the news media’s coverage of them.

“Why doesn’t the press condemn the violence that happened in Portland and Seattle?” said Mr. Scheffler. “It’s a double standard.”

Asked if he felt there was an equivalence between the left-wing protests of 2020 and the violent attempt to subvert the election this week, he said: “Two wrongs don’t make a right. It’s all bad.”

In her remarks to the committee, Ms. McDaniel, the niece of Senator Mitt Romney, thanked Mr. Trump for his faith in her and never directly acknowledged that Mr. Trump had been defeated, only referring to her frustration at “losing critical elections.”

As for the president’s own denial about his loss, she did not rebut the conspiracy theories he has pushed, and that the party’s base has echoed.

Addressing the Republican “grass roots,” she vowed to work with state legislatures to “make sure what we saw in this election never happens again.”

Ms. McDaniel went on to criticize the effort by House Democrats to withdraw gender-specific words like “wife” and “husband” from the rule book governing the chamber.

The standing ovation she received was a reminder that disdain for the left’s perceived excesses is the most animating, and unifying, force on the right. This brand of oppositional politics could help paper over Republicans’ challenges when they run as the out-of-power party next year.

Indeed, much of Ms. McDaniel’s speech was Republican red meat. There were warnings against socialism, attacks on the four liberal congresswomen known as “the squad” and boasting about the diverse class of lawmakers who helped the party gain House seats in November despite Mr. Trump’s broad unpopularity. “Candidates matter,” she said, alluding to new lawmakers.

David Bossie, one of Mr. Trump’s advisers and the Maryland committeeman, insisted that the party’s losses had been on the margins.

“You don’t have to throw out everybody when there’s nothing fundamentally wrong,” Mr. Bossie said.

A handful of committee members, however, believe more reflection is desperately needed, particularly after this week. “We’re whistling past the graveyard,” said Henry Barbour, the Mississippi committeeman, who called Mr. Trump’s conduct before the riot “totally unacceptable.”

Few of his counterparts, though, would criticize the president.

Asked if Mr. Trump was still the effective leader of the G.O.P., the Wyoming Republican chair, Frank Eathorne, said, “The way Wyoming sees it, yes.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/u...gtype=Homepage

Originally Posted by Cin (Post 1279942)

This is quite disturbing. Although I don't know why I'm surprised. This is the Republican Party. This is who they are.

Apparently they are not at all concerned that Trump will be impeached.

All the clutching of pearls by members of the GOP, it's all for show. I guess there will be no price to pay for all the elected officials of the Republican party who participated in this attack on the Capitol or publically supported the riot.

This is all too disheartening. People don't change their minds. People believe what they believe at their core. We all think the other would change their minds if they just understood the truth. The line between fact and fiction has been so blurred that truth is considered a matter of opinion.

Originally Posted by homoe (Post 1279938)

~~
Voss, Chao, Mulvaney, the list goes on and on...

Really, now after 3 years and 50 weeks, you've finally saw what an idiot you've been ass kissing and brown nosing?! OR perhaps just now you're realizing soon you'll be out of a job and are trying to cover your ass!

Originally Posted by homoe (Post 1279956)

Freshman lawmaker hit with colleagues’ fury after Hitler comments.

CHICAGO — Rep. Mary Miller served less than a week in Congress before moving Illinois Democrats to call for her resignation after she referenced Adolf Hitler in a speech not long before Donald Trump supporters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

“She’s been on this earth long enough to know that invoking the beliefs of Hitler as being right in any respect is inappropriate and wrong. It’s wrong enough that she should not be in Congress,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said in an interview.

During a rally for the conservative Moms for America, Miller, an Illinois Republican said conservatives would lose unless "we win the hearts and minds of our children. This is the battle. Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’”

Miller, the wife of Illinois GOP state Rep. Chris Miller, issued a statement Friday saying "I sincerely apologize for any harm my words caused" and she "[regrets] using a reference to one of the most evil dictators in history." But she blasted critics for “intentionally trying to twist my words.” Miller spokesperson Erin O’Malley considered an interview request with the congresswoman Friday but didn’t respond further.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), an Iraq War veteran, said Miller should resign and be replaced with “someone who better understands the sacrifices our brave service members made during World War II.” Illinois' Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who also is Jewish, called Miller’s comment at the rally “disgusting.” And Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the first Republicans to press for Trump's removal from office after Wednesday's riots, called the Hitler comments “garbage.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/0...omments-456596

Originally Posted by Cin (Post 1279992)

While Trump is very much responsible for what happened at the Capitol on January 6, and it's hard to imagine that responsibility for this terrorist attack goes beyond the highest office in the land, but it does and it's important that we, the people, understand that clearly. Their was collusion at the highest levels and I don't just mean the presidency.

Excerpt from https://www.commondreams.org/views/2...m_medium=Email

A few things are clear.

One is that the Washington, D.C. mayor, and other D.C. public officials, explicitly requested that the federal government coordinate law enforcement efforts in the city and on the scene, and that these requests, made weeks ago, were ignored.

A second is that orders were given in advance by federal authorities that federal national guard forces should stand by but not deploy, should not be armed, and should not engage any violence if deployed, etc. In other words, someone in the Executive Branch, presumably the Secretary of the Army, clearly anticipated the possibility of deployment and sought to forestall it, and limit its effectiveness, in advance.

A third is that, as Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan has very publicly stated, when the Pentagon was phoned by him, as per procedure, to authorize the deployment of Maryland National Guard, he received no response for almost two hours, and then received a rushed response outside of normal channels.

In short, while the insurrection was going on, and Hogan had National Guard troops ready to deploy, and requested proper authorization, he was denied authorization. The Pentagon refused to authorize National Guard deployment for almost two hours while the Capitol building was being rampaged by rioters. There were decisions taken to produce this “nondecision.” There are authorities, and institutions, who were clearly responsible for non-action in the protection of the Congress and the enforcement of federal law.

There is complicity here at the highest level. And a kind of collusion, between the relevant Pentagon officials and, on the one hand, their insurrection-instigating boss, and on the other hand the rampaging mob, who were allowed free reign on federal property by federal forces.

This must be addressed because at this moment the county is in the hands of people who colluded with these terrorist groups.

Originally Posted by Kätzchen (Post 1279997)

I agree: TP didn't do this alone. He had help and key GOP/Retrumplican's aided and abetted TP each day he has been in office.

Originally Posted by Cin (Post 1280029)

I am concerned why the request by the Capitol Police to have the National Guard at the ready on Jan 6 was refused because of optics.

I'm really concerned with finding out why the Department of Defense did not respond to requests for help when the Capitol was attacked.

The Department of Defense is responsible for national security. Why did they do such a piss poor job? Why did they refuse to respond to requests for assistance from the former Capitol Police Chief, the DC Mayor and the Governor of Maryland?

If we don't hold them accountable and figure out who the traitors are in the Pentagon how can we feel our capitol is safe when these people attack again.


https://news.yahoo.com/former-capito...144732071.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ot/6618084002/

Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said he requested that the National Guard be placed on standby in the days before the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, but House and Senate security officials turned him down.

Sund, who resigned his post the day after the riot, told The Washington Post he had been concerned that the protest planned for Jan. 6 would be larger than expected. Sund said he asked House and Senate security officials for permission to request that the National Guard be placed on standby.

Sund said House and Senate sergeants at arms told him they were not comfortable with the “optics” of declaring an emergency days before the protest and suggested Sund should informally ask Guard officials to be on alert. Both have since resigned.

Sund said he pleaded for help five more times as the riot unfolded. A crowd of several thousand quickly overran the Capitol Police contingent of 1,400 officers at the scene.

“If we would have had the National Guard, we could have held them at bay longer, until more officers from our partner agencies could arrive,” Sund told the Post.

Sund said the crowd breached the Capitol just before 2 p.m. A half-hour later, he was on the phone with the Pentagon, he said. Sund and others said Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt, director of the Army Staff, balked at recommending that his boss, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, approve the request. Again, optics were cited.

National Guard troops arrived around 5:40 p.m., after the riot had been quelled.

Under federal law, the mayor of the District of Columbia does not have authority over the Guard. Neighboring Maryland must gain approval from the Pentagon to send its troops across the border into the District of Columbia.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said he received a call Wednesday afternoon from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., saying the Capitol had been overrun. Hogan said he authorized the mobilization of the Maryland National Guard and was ready to deploy them to the Capitol.

"However, we were repeatedly denied approval to do so," Hogan said.

“I can't speak as to what was going on on the other end of the line back at the Pentagon or in the White House,” Hogan said. “I was in the middle of a meeting when my chief of staff came in and said the Capitol was under attack. ... We were in contact with the mayor's office, who requested assistance. We immediately sent police assistance. I immediately called up the National Guard.”

“All I know is that we were trying to get answers and we weren't getting answers,” Hogan said.

Pentagon officials on Sunday downplayed Hogan’s assessment, arguing that even if the authorization had been granted, it would have taken several hours for troops to assemble at their armory and equip themselves to join the effort to control the rioters. Guardsmen generally require four hours to leave their jobs or homes for their armories.

Originally Posted by GeorgiaMa'am (Post 1280049)

How did I not hear about this?

Apparently it has been a "thing" for radical right-wingers to invade government buildings and threaten federal workers for years. They are rarely charged with any crime, or they are arrested and later let off the hook. T***p has pardoned several of these repeat agitators. Other politicians pander to them as well.

No wonder the rioters last week thought they could get away with insurrection. Here's a brief overview from NPR's _All Things Considered_. https://www.npr.org/2021/01/11/95572...in-western-u-s

Originally Posted by nhplowboi (Post 1279367)

Originally Posted by Cin (Post 1280106)

REPUBLICAN ATTORNEYS GENERAL DARK MONEY GROUP ORGANIZED PROTEST PRECEDING CAPITOL MOB ATTACK

The Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a 501(c)(4) arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), helped organize the protest preceding the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol that took place on January 6, 2021.

As a 501(c)(4), RLDF is not required to reveal its donors. RLDF has received at least $175,000 from the Koch-backed Freedom Partners. Other RLDF donors include Judicial Crisis Network, the Rule of Law Project, and the Edison Electric Institute.

RAGA is a 527 political organization that helps elect Republican attorneys general and can accept unlimited contributions from wealthy individuals and corporations. As previously reported by Documented, RAGA received significant funding from numerous corporations in 2020, including Koch Industries ($375k), Comcast Corporation ($200k), Walmart ($140k), Home Depot ($125k), Amazon ($100k), TikTok ($75k), 1-800 Contacts ($51k), Chevron ($50k), The National Rifle Association ($50k), Monsanto ($50k), Facebook ($50k), Fox Corporation ($50k), Uber ($50k), Coca Cola ($50k), Exxon ($50k), and Google ($25k).

RLDF appeared in a list of groups “Participating in the March to Save America” on the March to Save America website alongside entities including Stop the Steal, Turning Point Action, Tea Party Patriots and others. (MarchtoSaveAmerica.com has been taken down

RLDF also sent out a robocall detailing where and when the protest would take place.

“I’m calling for the Rule of Law Defense Fund with an important message,” the robocall stated. “The march to save America is tomorrow in Washington D.C. at the Ellipse in President’s Park between E St. and Constitution Avenue on the south side of the White House, with doors opening at 7:00 a.m. At 1:00 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on congress to stop the steal. We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue to fight to protect the integrity of our elections. For more information, visit MarchtoSaveAmerica.com. This call is paid for and authorized by the Rule of Law Defense Fund, 202-796-5838.”

RLDF’s role in organizing the protests, which turned into a violent mob attack inside the Capitol, is ironic given its 2020 election campaign warning of “lawless liberal mobs” burning down buildings and committing violence. The campaign, dubbed “Lawless Liberals”, came in the aftermath of the largely peaceful protests following the murder of George Floyd by police and the shooting of Jacob Blake.

“The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA)’s five-month Lawless Liberals video campaign repeatedly warned Americans about the dangerous reality of lawless liberals run amok in cities across the country,” RAGA said in a statement.

Republican attorneys general have been heavily involved in efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election. Shortly after Joe Biden was declared the winner, Republican attorneys general filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court that sought to reject some mailed ballots in the state of Pennsylvania. Republican attorney general Ken Paxton–who has been embroiled in bribery, abuse of office and other criminal allegations–filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court regarding four battleground states and alleging unconstitutional changes to their voting laws before the 2020 election. Prior to the protests, Paxton appeared on Fox News and said he hoped to be at both rallies.

RAGA and Republican attorneys general issued statements denouncing the violence. “The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) and the Republican attorneys general (AGs) stand together to condemn the violence, destruction, and rampant lawlessness occurring at the U.S. Capitol today. These actions are an affront to the rule of law, our Constitution, and our American political discourse.”

After Documented published the robocall, RAGA issued a statement to reporters: “Republican Attorneys General Association and Rule of Law Defense Fund had no involvement in the planning, sponsoring, or the organization of Wednesday’s event.”

The Democratic Attorneys General Association revealed in a tweet RAGA originally appeared on the March to Save America website under “Coalition Partners”. The website later took out RAGA and put in the Rule of Law Defense Fund under “Participating in the March to Save America”.

https://documented.net/2021/01/repub...ol-mob-attack/

Originally Posted by Kätzchen (Post 1280139)

Cin? Is the article I found today on ABC news (link) speaking to the same nature of events, mention in your article link?

If this is true, then I hope this becomes part of the resultant investigation into crooked members of the GOP and further implicates them so charges can be filed. Maybe all this horrible stuff they've been doing all along will force their political party to 'clean house' and rid themselves of rogue members of their party.

Originally Posted by Kätzchen (Post 1280155)

I like Clyburn's idea for our National Anthem: Lift Every Voice & Sing (James Weldon Johnson poem).

Link: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/act-...ry?id=75221927

I also think it is high time we change the name of the WH because White Supremacy just needs to go. Maybe change the name to somthing more reflective of the diversity of race present in our country: maybe, House of the People.

Originally Posted by Cin (Post 1280158)

QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene Threatens Joe Biden With Impeachment
https://truthout.org/articles/qanon-...h-impeachment/

Originally Posted by Cin (Post 1280158)

Who knew so many elected officials are members of militant groups looking to overthrow the government. Isn't that a conflict of interest?
. . .
QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene Threatens Joe Biden With Impeachment
https://truthout.org/articles/qanon-...h-impeachment/

Originally Posted by GeorgiaMa'am (Post 1280184)

Marjorie Taylor Greene is from Georgia, unfortunately. She's a nut job, and a totally wasted voice in Congress on our behalf.