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Dems urged to deny committee seats to Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley for inciting 'deadly insurrection'
January 23, 2021
Progressive advocacy group MoveOn is calling on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to deny committee seats to Sens. Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and other Republicans who attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and incited the violent siege of the U.S. Capitol Building earlier this month."Elected officials like Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and other senators who sought to use their power to promote the big lie to overturn the results of the 2020 election—and who incited a deadly insurrection—have no place in the U.S. Senate and most certainly should not be rewarded for their deadly attacks on democracy with seats leading important committees in the next Congress," Rahna Epting, MoveOn's executive director, said in a statement late Thursday.
"Senate Majority Leader Schumer must work to ensure that any power-sharing agreement with Mitch McConnell keeps these insurrectionist senators from committee positions where they can use their influence to further undermine our democracy," Epting continued. "Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and their allies in the Senate must be held accountable for their attacks on our democracy."
<p>Schumer and McConnell have yet to reach an agreement on so-called organizing resolution that establishes the rules and committee assignments of the new session. As <em>Common Dreams</em> <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/22/basically-trying-overturn-senate-election-mcconnell-delaying-democratic-takeover" target="_blank">reported</a> Friday, the Kentucky Republican is holding up the measure in an effort to preserve the legislative filibuster, an archaic 60-vote rule that <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/06/kill-filibuster-senate-democrats-urged-act-quickly-end-era-gop-obstruction" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">progressives are urging Democrats to eliminate</a>.</p> <iframe src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?creatorScreenName=commondreams&creatorUserId=14296273&dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1352427075538460672&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2021%2F01%2F22%2Fschumer-urged-deny-committee-seats-hawley-cruz-and-other-republicans-who-incited&siteScreenName=commondreams&siteUserId=14296273&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 774px; flex-grow: 1;" title="Twitter Tweet"></iframe> <p>MoveOn's demand came amid <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/11/7000-lawyers-law-students-demand-hawley-and-cruz-resign-inciting-violence-and-terror" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">growing calls</a> for the immediate resignation or expulsion of Cruz and Hawley, the most prominent <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/07/co-conspirators-sedition-here-are-names-every-republican-who-voted-overturn-election" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Republican senators</a> to vote against the certification of Biden's Electoral College victory earlier this month. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the number three Democrat in the Senate, is among those who have demanded that Cruz and Hawley step aside for inciting the January 6 invasion of the halls of Congress.</p><p>"Any senator who stands up and supports the power of force over the power of democracy has broken their oath of office," Murray <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/08/top-senate-democrat-patty-murray-hawley-and-cruz-should-resign" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement two days after the attack. "Senators Hawley and Cruz should resign."</p><p>On Thursday, as <em>Common Dreams</em> <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/21/good-first-step-senators-file-ethics-complaint-over-cruz-and-hawleys-role-capitol" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reported</a>, a group of Senate Democrats demanded that the Ethics Committee launch a "thorough and fair investigation" into Cruz and Hawley and "consider any appropriate consequences."</p><p>"Cruz and Hawley continued to amplify the claims of fraud that they likely knew to be baseless and that had led to violence earlier that day," reads the Democrats' ethics complaint against their GOP colleagues. "Violent action provoked by false fraud claims remains a persistent threat."</p>
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On Saturday, Axios reported on the beliefs of a focus group of voters who backed former President Donald Trump in 2016, then switched to President Joe Biden in 2020.
One of the key takeaways: they considered the election of Biden a "relief" — and a majority of them wanted Congress to use the impeachment process to bar Trump from ever holding office again.
<p>Another finding was that most of them had made up their minds to abandon Trump even before his widely-criticized failure to control the pandemic.</p><p>"Coronavirus was not the reason most turned against Trump," said the report. "Rather than one tipping point, voters mentioned his moral failings, weaponizing social media, acting unpresidential, bullying, firing Cabinet members for sport, antagonizing racial and partisan divisions in society and separating children and parents at the Mexico border. Some felt duped for thinking he was a savvy businessman who could get things done that career politicians hadn't. 'I was just so over it,' said one voter, Matt S. from Georgia."</p><p>Trump has lost support from Republicans since the election, but still <a href="https://morningconsult.com/2021/01/08/trump-approval-rating-capitol-riot-poll/" target="_blank">commands a large majority</a> of them, according to Morning Consult — which could help him seek the nomination again in 2024 if he desires.</p>
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NYPD commissioner says MLK day racial justice protesters wanted to 'destroy our way of life'
January 23, 2021
New York Police Department commissioner Dermot Shae has said that racial justice protesters who marched across the city on Martin Luther King Day were trying to "destroy our way of life."
It was a curious way for a white policeman to characterize Black racial justice activists, to say the least, especially as the state Attorney General Letitia James is in the process of suing the NYPD for excessive force against racial justice demonstrators during the George Floyd protests during the summer of 2020.
<p>On Martin Luther King Day 2021, the national holiday commemorating Black civil rights leader, NYPD officers arrested 29 protesters with a Black Liberation March for racial and social justice. The group marched from Brooklyn to City Hall.</p><p>Police claimed that protesters began lobbing bottles at a bystander recording the protests after police formed a protective ring around the bystander. Police also claimed that protesters tried to block traffic over one of the city's roads and tried to spray graffiti. However, <a href="https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2021/01/19/nypd-confirms-over-two-dozen-arrested-after-mlk-march-turns-violent-">NY1 reports</a> that video shows police officers arresting protesters at random.</p><p>https://twitter.com/NewYorkStateAG/status/1351565613811036160</p><p>"When you march from Brooklyn over a bridge, you try to shut down the traffic on the bridge. You're bringing bottles. You're bringing graffiti. You're spray painting our city. This is our city. You're spray painting to burn our city down," Shea said. “This isn't actions that are caused by police officers so that's a news flash for the AG. This is actions caused by people that want to destroy our way of life and our city and we're not going to let it happen."</p><p>Isabelle Leyva, an NYC resident who recorded video of the police attacks (below) <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nypd-commissioner-defends-police-response-mlk-march-n1254765">told NBC News</a> a completely different story. She said that the police played an audio recording ordering the protesters to stop marching in the streets and then police began rushing anyone who dared step off of the sidewalk. She said police rushed protesters at least six times.</p><p>“At that point, a small group broke away from the crowd and was standing on the roadway a few feet off of the sidewalk," Leyva said. “Riot police then charged the crowd and ran onto the sidewalk to beat and arrest people. [Police] continued this pattern for the rest of the night, grabbing anyone who stepped off of the sidewalk and then charging the entire group."</p><p>https://twitter.com/isabelle_leyva/status/1351340004841283590?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1351342376959225857%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theroot.com%2Fajax%2Finset%2Fiframe%3Fid%3Dtwitter-1351342376959225857autosize%3D1</p><p>Eleven officers received minor injuries and 21 protesters were charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, while seven received a desk appearance ticket.</p><p>Considering the long history of police using intimidation and force to beat back racial justice protesters, Shae's characterization of protesters seeking to "destroy our way of life" is telling.</p><p><a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-polices-tepid-response-to-the-capitol-breach-wasnt-an-aberration/">Researchers have said</a> that the police's tepid response to the white insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 was quite permissive and friendly compared to the violent beatdown that Black Lives Matter protesters experienced at the same site the summer before—and it <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/interactive/2021/blm-protest-capitol-riot-police-comparison/">fits a larger pattern of police</a> allowing white protesters to riot while stomping down on Black protesters who dare challenge police authority.</p>
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