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    Defeated Donald Trump is already tearing our government apart

    David Cay Johnston, DCReport @ RawStory
    November 08, 2020

    Thanks for your support!

    This article was paid for by reader donations to Raw Story Investigates.

    AFP photo of Mike Pence and Donald Trump.

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    David Cay Johnston, DCReport @ RawStory

    America is entering a very dangerous time. For his next 11 weeks in office, Donald Trump will be in a position to exact revenge, a word that by his own account is his entire life philosophy. We should all hope that he goes into one of his down emotional periods for an extended time so that lethargy, not blind rage, dominates his behavior until Jan. 20.


    Through phony charges of ballot-box stuffing, firing officials, issuing pardons to friends and family and other acts Trump can do great damage between now and Inauguration Day, when his shield against criminal prosecution vanishes. He can also hobble the transition to a Biden administration.

    Trump’s first act of post-election political vandalism came in the wee hours Wednesday morning. He claimed the election was being stolen (video at 8:00) through “a major fraud on our nation.” He has yet to show a scintilla of evidence to support that lie.

    One of the most destabilizing things Trump could do is refuse to release, or severely limit, funds to pay for the transition to a Biden administration.

    That’s the kind of immoral rhetoric that damages faith in democracy and furthers the goals of Vladimir Putin who aims to undermine every major democracy because he considers self-governance a joke.

    Three Firings

    On Friday, while the election outcome was still uncertain, Trump abruptly removed three high-level officials, two women, and a man of color.

    In a reckless move, Trump forced the resignation of Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, who since 2018 had run the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency whose duties include keeping high-grade radioactive elements, known as fissile material, out of the hands of terrorists and rogue states. Trump’s Energy Secretary, Dan Brouillette, wanted to cut the budget for this work while Gordon-Hagerty sought increased funding.

    Senator James Inhofe, a far-right Republican from Oklahoma, criticized the Trump administration for going soft on keeping nuclear materials from rogue states and terrorist groups. “People who should be doing all they can to support the critical work of the NNSA are instead trying to undermine it,” Inhofe said in September.

    After Gordon-Haggerty was ousted, Inhofe challenged the competency of Energy Secretary Brouillette, a rare break with the obsequious deference to Team Trump by Republican lawmakers over the past four years. The firing, "demonstrates he [Brouillette] doesn't know what he's doing in national security matters," Inhofe said.

    Trump also fired Bonnie Glick, deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, in what appears to be a move to ensure that Islamophobes exercise greater power in the agency.

    The third appointee, Neil Chatterjee,  was demoted, from the chairmanship of the powerful Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to being just one of the five commissioners. Running diversity training, which Trump generally banned by executive order, was behind the demotion, Chatterjee told the Washington Post. "Guilty as charged," he told EE News.

    However, it wasn’t diversity, but Trump’s love of dirty coal that was behind Chatterjee’s demotion, both Green Tech Media and  The Wall Street Journal reported. Chatterjee had supported a tax on carbon, which economists across the spectrum have said for years would be the most efficient way to create incentives that speed the shift away from fossil fuels.

    Spewing More Pollution

    In his remaining weeks, Trump can also speed his many actions to spew more pollution under the guise of ending overly burdensome regulations. That’s an issue DCReport has covered intensely for the last four years.

    One of the most destabilizing things Trump could do is refuse to release, or severely limit, funds to pay for the transition to a Biden administration.

    The General Services Agency is charged with funding the office needed to prepare for a new administration, including hiring hundreds of temporary workers, many of whom will end up working in the Biden administration.

    And he could really hobble the new administration by refusing to provide or limit the availability of FBI agents and other investigators to run background checks on the roughly 4,000 political appointees of the incoming Biden administration.

    Let’s hope the next 70 some days are marked by golf, lazily watching Fox and Trump’s now well-known executive incompetence so that the vandalism he does commit is random and repairable come 2021.

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

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    Survey: Should Donald Trump be prosecuted after he leaves office?

    BUSTED: Republican caught trying to bring gun onto the House floor

    Bob Brigham
    January 21, 2021

    One of the Republicans in Congress who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election after the deadly insurrection of Trump supporters was shown to be a security risk on Thursday.

    "New security measures outside the U.S. House chamber prevented a Republican lawmaker from bringing a gun onto the House floor Thursday. Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), who has repeatedly flouted the magnetometers that were installed near the House chamber after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, set off the metal detectors while trying to enter. When an officer with a metal detector wand scanned him, a firearm was detected on Harris's side, concealed by his suit coat. Police refused to let Harris in, and the officer signaled a security agent that Harris had a gun on him by motioning toward his own firearm," HuffPost correspondent Matt Fuller reported Thursday.

    "HuffPost witnessed the interaction and later confirmed with a Capitol official that Harris was carrying a gun. HuffPost watched Harris try to get another member to take the gun from him so he could go vote. The member, Rep. John Katko (R-NY), told Harris he didn't have 'a license' and refused to hold the weapon for him," the publication reported. "Harris then left on the elevators and 10 minutes later returned to the House chamber. He placed his cellphone and keys on a desk to the side, did not set off the magnetometer and was allowed to enter the House floor to vote on a waiver to allow retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin to serve as President Joe Biden's defense secretary."

    Harris isn't the only Republican who may be a security risk.

    "During a security briefing with Democratic members early last week, some lawmakers suggested that members should have to go through a metal detector to get on the House floor. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has said she'll carry a gun around D.C., which does not allow the open carrying of a firearm, and Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) told his local paper that he was armed when insurrectionists stormed the Capitol," HuffPost reported. "On Thursday, HuffPost saw Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Rick Allen (R-GA) and Boebert all refuse to be wanded down after setting off the magnetometer."


    Anyway, I’ll also note that Andy Harris almost got into a fight with some Democratic members on the House floor the… https://t.co/7mbWX5I4I1
    — Matt Fuller (@Matt Fuller)1611276087.0


    Shocking new analysis reveals the extensive military experience of Capitol insurrectionists

    Matthew Chapman
    January 21, 2021

    In an analysis on Thursday, NPR revealed the extent to which current and former military were embedded in the invasion of the U.S. Capitol.

    "NPR compiled a list of individuals facing federal or District of Columbia charges in connection with the events of Jan. 6," reported Tom Dreisbach and Meg Anderson. "Of more than 140 charged so far, a review of military records, social media accounts, court documents and news reports indicate at least 27 of those charged, or nearly 20%, have served or are currently serving in the U.S. military. To put that number in perspective, only about 7% of all American adults are military veterans, according to the U.S. Census Bureau."

    "Some veterans who allegedly stormed the Capitol are still serving in some capacity," continued the report. "Jacob Fracker, 29, was an infantry rifleman in the Marine Corps and deployed to Afghanistan twice, according to the Pentagon. He now serves in the Virginia National Guard, according to widespread news reports, though he was not among the service members deployed to Washington ahead of the inauguration. He is also a police officer in Rocky Mount, Va. With him at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was his colleague from the Rocky Mount Police Department, Thomas Robertson, 47, who is an Army veteran also facing charges."

    The rioters appear to have ties to groups like the Oath Keepers, a far-right paramilitary group that includes many retired military and law enforcement personnel. Some of those arrested from a military background are being investigated as domestic terrorists.

    The riot, which left five people dead and grew out of a pro-Trump rally protesting the certification of the election, has resulted in the impeachment of former President Donald Trump. The Senate has not yet determined when the trial will start.

    Baseball Hall of Fame voters ask to rescind votes for Curt Schilling after he applauds Capitol insurrection

    Matthew Chapman
    January 21, 2021

    On Thursday, Matt Spiegel reported that several Baseball Hall of Fame voters are asking to rescind their vote for former pitcher Curt Schilling after he proclaimed his support for the Capitol insurrection.

    Schilling, who pitched for the Boston Red Sox during their historic 2004 World Series win, has been a subject of debate over Hall of Fame status for years due to his far-right political views.

    He endorsed former President Donald Trump, has dabbled in the QAnon conspiracy theory, has claimed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting was a false flag, and has posted vile invectives against transgender people and Muslims. He also flirted with the idea of a pro-Trump congressional run in 2019, but ultimately didn't go through with it.

     
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