Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) was shut down on live television Wednesday by a CNN anchor who repeatedly interrupted his "Biden crime family" monologue with fact checks and rebuttals.
Tiffany faced off against Boris Sanchez, who took Tiffany to task over his public statement on the criminal conviction of President Joe Biden's son Hunter, was found guilty on gun charges in Delaware federal court this week.
"This is just the beginning of holding the Biden Crime Family accountable," Tiffany wrote. "Now, let's do Joe Biden."
"Congressmen," Sanchez asked. "What specific charges would you like brought against the president?"
Tiffany pointed toward the Oversight Committee's more-than-a-year-long investigation into Biden's finances and his son's business partners that has yet to provide the evidence of corruption House Republicans still contend exists.
The Republican lawmaker said Hunter Biden's conviction was "the least of the crimes," but hedged his response with the conditional tense.
"That actually was the least of the crimes that may have happened here when you look at all this money that's flowing in from foreign countries," Tiffany said. "We still have the record out there of 20 shell companies...and over $20 million that flowed through those shell companies."
Sanchez had a fact check.
"There are some details there that don't reflect the record," Sanchez said. "In fact, it wasn't $20 million, it was $15 million that went to Biden family associates and there's no evidence in any of the documents put out by the Oversight Committee that a single dollar went to President Biden when he was in office."
Sanchez then doubled down with a reminder that Rep. James Comer's committee had yet to find evidence of the claims he investigated.
"There is no evidence that he did anything illegal, that he abused his power or that he abused his power in office to help his family members or friends get wealthy," Sanchez said.
Tiffany tried to lay suspicion on a check with Biden's name on it for $200,000, but Sanchez was ready for him.
"I actually have that check here," Sanchez said, picking up a copy from his desk. "It's from 2018 when he was not Vice President." Sanchez then pointed with his pen. "This was a loan repayment of his brother."
"Oh sir!" Sanchez said. "That has been debunked, that prosecutor was unanimously disliked by both Republicans and Democrats and even E.U. officials said that he was corrupt and they wanted him out."
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Wednesday celebrated Donald Trump's upcoming visit to Washington, D.C. to meet with House and Senate Republicans, barely blocks away from where the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and on democracy itself took place. Many hold the-then president and his "Big Lie" responsible for the insurrection, and he has been indicted on charges related to it.
Johnson was asked if the ex-president is committed to and respects the peaceful transfer of power.
The Speaker's response has angered some critics.
Johnson has a tenuous grip on his gavel and on the House GOP majority. He has already faced one vote to remove him, and survived it thanks to House Democrats. To shore up his power, Johnson has traveled to Mar-a-Lago to appear with the indicted and now criminally-convicted ex-president, and has promoted several pieces of legislation critics say only serve as messaging vehicles to please Trump.
Pointing out that this will be the first time Trump has met with both House and Senate Republicans in D.C. since the January 6 insurrection, a reporter Wednesday morning asked the Speaker, "are you committed or have you spoken about basically not doing anything like that again and committing to respecting the American tradition of peaceful transfer?"
Johnson, whose emotions are often on view, repeatedly frowned and looked irritated as the reporter spoke.
"Of course he respects that," Johnson said frustratedly. "And we all do and we've all talked about it ad nauseam."
"We're excited to welcome President Trump back and he'll be meeting with the Senate Republicans of course, after he has a breakfast with us. And there's high anticipation here and great excitement."
Ahead of Johnson's remarks CBS News congressional correspondent Scott MacFarlane had posted where Thursday's meeting with House Republicans and Donald Trump will take place.
If there were no question about Donald Trump's commitment to the peaceful transfer of power – and there is given to this day he calls insurrectionists, "warriors," "victims," “hostages,” and “patriots” – the Speaker would not need to be discussing it "ad nauseam."
As a backbencher before being elevated to Speaker, Johnson was not just a little-known congressman, he was an architect of Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Johnson spread election fraud conspiracy theories and lies, as a CNN investigation published in April confirmed.
Also back in April, Johnson tried to rewrite history, whitewashing the role of insurrectionists and those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, saying some of them were "innocent, you know, people who were there and just happened to be walking through the building.”
Highlighting those remarks, The New Republic reported, "the Republican leader seemed to suggest that the 2,000 people who charged the halls, destroyed federal property, and interrupted the peaceful presidential transfer of power—1,265 of whom have been charged by federal authorities—were actually mere innocent bystanders."
Critics were quick to call out Johnson's remarks.
Veteran journalist John Harwood responded, saying, "by lying here, Johnson shows he understands that what he and House GOP helped Trump do in Jan 2021, and what Trump intends to do again if necessary, is wrong."
He added, "if he weren't ashamed of it, he'd tell the truth."
Award-winning CNBC/NBC News reporter Carl Quintanilla responded to Johnson's remarks with a 4-second clip of a someone who appears to be attacking law enforcement with the American flag on January 6.
"Bullshit," declared former Tea Party Republican U.S. Congressman Joe Walsh. "Trump is humanly incapable of accepting an election loss. He will NEVER respect the peaceful transfer of power. And Mike Johnson knows that."
The Biden campaign reposted the video and remarked, "(No, he clearly does not)."
Media critic and former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob responded with: "Mike Johnson is a lying traitor."
Mother Jones D.C. bureau chief David Corn wrote: "Given that Trump has promised to pardon the 1/6 insurrectionist rioters who attacked the Capitol, he’s not showing much respect for the rule of law or the peaceful transfer of power. Johnson is lying for Trump. That’s not very Biblical."
Watch Johnson's remarks below or at this link.
See the video and social media posts above or at this link.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) defended snubbing a House committee after he was subpoenaed to testify about the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021.
Raskin accused Republicans of sending former President Donald Trump's felony conviction "down the Orwellian memory hole to save someone hurt feelings."
"So what's left to do now?" Raskin said. "Well, let's hold the Attorney General of the United States, Merrick Garland, in contempt, of course."
The contempt charge against Garland came after Republicans demanded an audio tape of Biden recorded during special counsel Robert Hur's investigation of mishandled classified documents. The attorney general said he could not turn over the recording because the White House had exerted executive privilege.
Raskin suggested Jordan was guilty of hypocrisy because he had also refused to comply with a subpoena from the January 6 Committee.
"It's rich beyond measure, like a billionaire rich, to be asked to hold the attorney general in contempt by people who themselves received subpoenas to testify before the January 6th Committee, who never rendered a single document nor a single minute of testimony to the January 6th Committee," Raskin said.
Jordan quickly defended himself.
"First of all, I never said I wouldn't testify in front of the January 6th Committee," the Ohio Republican insisted. "I just want to know what the parameters at that testimony were going to be, so I never did say no to that."
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg says he hopes Americans can see the difference between an LGBTQ Pride flag representing love, like the one Martha-Ann Alito lamented she has to look at daily, and flags that symbolize the January 6, 2021 insurrection, two of which she flew at the homes she and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito live in.
"I'm often reminded that the most important thing in my life, which is my marriage, and my family and the two beautiful children that my husband Chasten and I are raising that that marriage only exists by the grace of the single vote on the United States Supreme Court," said Secretary Buttigieg, responding to a question during a CNN interview Wednesday morning about secretly-recorded remarks Mrs. Alito made. "That expanded our rights and freedoms back in 2015 and made it possible for somebody like me to get married."
"And, you know, Supreme Court justices have an unbelievable amount of power and, and by the nature in the structure, the Supreme Court, there's no supervision over that power. They are entrusted with it literally for as long as they live. And part of that trust is we expect them to enter into those enormously consequential decisions that that shape our everyday lives with a sense of fairness," Buttigieg continued, appearing to acknowledge the tremendous drop in perceived credibility the Supreme Court has suffered in recent years. Last summer Pew Research reported the court's favorability rating had dropped to a "historic low."
"I also hope that most Americans can understand the difference between a flag that symbolizes you know, love and acceptance and signals to people who have sometimes feared for their safety that they're going to be okay. And insurrectionists symbology, I'll just leave it at that."
CNN's Berman played audio of Martha-Ann Alito before asking the Secretary to offer his remarks.
"I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag, because I have to look across the lagoon at the pride flag for the next month," Mrs. Alito can be heard saying in the secretly-recorded audio. "And he's like, 'Oh, please don't put up a flag.' I said, 'I won't do it. Because I'm deferring to you but when you are free of this nonsense, I’m putting it up and I’m gonna send them a message every day.' "
Although CNN did not play the full clip of Mrs. Alito's remarks, she continued, saying, "I’ll be changing the flags. They’ll be all kinds. I made a flag in my head. This is how I satisfy myself. I made a flag. It’s white and has yellow and orange flames around it. And in the middle is the word ‘vergogna.’ ‘Vergogna’ in Italian means shame — vergogna. V-E-R-G-O-G-N-A. Vergogna.”
She also said, “I’m German. I’m from Germany. My heritage is German. You come after me, I’m gonna give it back to you. And there will be a way — it doesn’t have to be now — but there will be a way they will know. Don’t worry about it. God — you read the Bible. Psalm 27 is my psalm. Mine. Psalm 27, the Lord is my God and my rock. Of whom shall I be afraid? Nobody.”
Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) faced heavy criticism from one Democrat who called him an "abomination" after he defended former President Donald Trump's felony convictions.
During Wednesday's Washington Journal program on C-SPAN, a woman named Ann called in with reaction to Tiffany.
"Mr. Tiffany, do you realize you are an abomination?" the caller from Maryland said. "Your Judicial Committee is a disgrace. You have ruined America."
"So get in line behind your convicted felon and have a ball," she concluded.
For his part, Tiffany insisted that Democrats were using Trump's status as a convicted felon as a political talking point.
"I'm hearing it back in the District," he said. "It's all about the convicted felon. So you can see what Democrats were attempting to do here."
"They want to change the subject," Tiffany added. "And that is why the Department of Justice, through all these cases against President Trump, they were hoping one would stick and they were able to manipulate it in a court in New York City to be able to get this guilty plea."
There is no evidence that the Department of Justice was involved in prosecuting Trump in New York.
CNN reporter Hadas Gold on Wednesday took a hatchet to Trump allies' claims that the criminal conviction of President Joe Biden's son were part of a broader plot by Biden to cover up even worse crimes.
Many observers have said that Hunter Biden's conviction massively undercuts former President Donald Trump's claims that President Biden has "weaponized" the Department of Justice against him.
Because of this, many Trump allies have claimed that Biden essentially sacrificed his own son in order to justify his true goal of jailing his Republican rival.
"You go further into the right-wing media sphere and you get... what they say is essentially a larger conspiracy here even though this was a guilty verdict," explained Gold. "This goes to show how the far fringes of the pro-Trump media world, they have drifted into sort of 'automatic conspiracy theories,' where the default is conspiracy theory when the news does not justify their talking points."
Host Brianna Keilar laughed at this analogy and imagined Trump supporters pressing an "automatic conspiracy button" whenever world events don't go their way.
Donald Trump has been found guilty on 34 felony counts and penalized nearly a half billion dollars for fraud, sexual abuse and defamation, and he's made clear that he wants retribution if he returns to the White House.
Since his conviction, the former president and presumptive Republican nominee has sat down for interviews with Sean Hannity and Dr. Phil, and he declined in both instances opportunities to back away from his threats of revenge against his political enemies and prosecutors, which the "Morning Joe" host said should make clear his intentions for a potential second term.
"When somebody tells you who they are, you're supposed to believe them," Scarborough said. "When somebody tells you what they're going to do, especially Donald Trump, who seems more unhinged than ever, it's as everybody has been saying, it's important to believe them. Rachel Maddow came out a couple of nights ago and said she was concerned that she might be sent to a camp. It sounds crazy, but it's not, because of what Donald Trump's been saying. He's been accusing this network and its parent company of being traitors that need to be banned from the air. Steve Bannon and Kash Patel, who many people believe will be his next CIA director, look straight in the camera and said that they were coming after 'Morning Joe' and warned us, as well as our producers, watch out, we're coming after you. Kash Patel agreed with Steve Bannon. It doesn't get anymore direct than that."
"This is is same guy that accused me of being a murderer a dozen or so times, wanting me to be arrested, tried, executed," Scarborough added. "That was in his first term! Right? So it's a pretty direct threat to generals who don't bow down to him, he says should be found guilty of treason and executed. He said he'll fire any U.S. attorneys that don't go after his political enemies. We can go on and on and on, but as [co-host] Mika [Brzezinski] said, people need to believe what he's saying. They need to hear what he's saying and understand that a second Donald Trump term takes America into a very, very dark place."
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who could gain tremendous power if Donald Trump is elected president in November, explained to reporters his belief that Tuesday's jury conviction of Hunter Biden on three federal felony gun charges was absolutely legitimate while Donald Trump's conviction on 34 state felony charges was not.
"Every case is different," Johnson told CNN's Manu Raju (video below) when asked if "the president's son being convicted on three counts" undercuts the Republican Speaker's claims of a "two tier system of justice."
Johnson added, "clearly the evidence was overwhelming" in the Hunter Biden prosecution, one which some legal experts said should not have been brought and at least one member of the jury who spoke to CNN said was a waste of the taxpayers' dime.
"I don't think that's the case in the Trump trials, and all the charges that have been brought" against Trump "have been obviously brought for political purposes. Hunter Biden is a separate instance."
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) issued a strong response to the Johnson's claims.
"We should be very very worried that Republicans are so brazen in their belief that convictions of Democrats are fine but convictions of Republicans are illegitimate. This is a political party TELLING US OUT LOUD that they plan to use the justice system to persecute opponents."
Speaker Johnson and Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and members from both their GOP conferences will be meeting with Donald Trump on Thursday, reportedly to create a game plan to pass major right-wing legislation if the convicted ex-president wins back the White House on November, NBC News reports.
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough urged president Joe Biden to take on Donald Trump directly over his son's felony conviction on firearms charges.
The president and his Republican challenger are scheduled to face off June 27 in a debate, and the "Morning Joe" host encouraged Biden not to back down if Trump attacked his son Hunter Biden's conviction for lying about his drug use on a federal background check form and possessing a gun while addicted to, or using, illegal drugs.
"If I'm Joe Biden and I'm on the debate stage with Donald Trump and he starts talking about Hunter Biden as some sort of retort against his own 34 felonies, I would stop, I would turn, look around the stage and say, 'Excuse me, hold on, hold on – I don't see Hunter Biden up here,'" Scarborough said. "'Hold on, Donald, let me check, I don't see Eric over there – wait, wait, Eric's not here, so, I'm not running against Eric, I'm running against you, Donald, and you're not running against Hunter Biden or the ghost of Hunter Biden, who's not here, you're running against me, and up here, the two people that are going to run this country for the next four years, of the two of us, only one has been convicted of a felony – and you've been convicted of 34 felonies, Donald! So let's leave our kids out of this, let's leave our family out of this. You don't want me to start talking about what you and your kids and your in-laws did in your name to get rich off of your back during the presidency.'"
"Boom! That's it, ends it, ends it, and you know what, he shouldn't take any crap from Trump and he needs to be ready because Donald Trump has 34 felony convictions, Joe Biden, none," Scarborough added. "Those are the two people on stage. Biden's people should double down right now and go harder at Trump than ever before on the fact that he's a convicted felon."
In what case litigants are calling the first time an American jury has held a U.S. corporation legally liable for atrocities abroad, federal jurors in Florida on Monday found that Chiquita Brands International financed a Colombian paramilitary death squad that murdered, tortured, and terrorized workers in a bid to crush labor unrest in the 1990s and 2000s.
The federal jury in West Palm Beach, Florida found the banana giant responsible for funding the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) and awarded eight families whose members were murdered by the right-wing paramilitary group $38.3 million in damages.
EarthRights International, which first filed the case—Doe v. Chiquita—in 2007, called the verdict "a milestone for justice."
"The jury's decision reaffirms what we have long asserted: Chiquita knowingly financed the AUC, a designated terrorist organization, in pursuit of profit, despite the AUC's egregious human rights abuses," the group said.
"By providing over $1.7 million in illegal funding to the AUC from 1997 to 2004, Chiquita contributed to untold suffering and loss in the Colombian regions of Urabá and Magdalena, including the brutal murders of innocent civilians," EarthRights added. "This historic verdict also means some of the victims and families who suffered as a direct result of Chiquita's actions will finally be compensated."
One of the plaintiffs in the case called the verdict the "triumph of a process that has been going on for almost 17 years, for all of us who have suffered so much during these years."
Plaintiffs' attorney Agnieszka Fryszman said that "the verdict does not bring back the husbands and sons who were killed, but it sets the record straight and places accountability for funding terrorism where it belongs: at Chiquita's doorstep."
The U.S. labor reporting site More Perfect Unioncalled the verdict "an unprecedented win against corporate violence, which could [be] the first of many."
A Chiquita spokesperson toldFruitnet that the company plans to appeal the verdict.
The AUC was formed in 1997 via the union of right-wing paramilitary groups battling leftist guerrillas—mainly the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN)—in the South American nation's civil war. Closely linked to Colombia's U.S.-backed military, the AUC—some of whose members were trained by Israelis—was designated a terrorist organization in 2001 by the U.S. State Department, which cited its "massacres, kidnappings of civilians, and participation in the trafficking of narcotics."
In 2007, Chiquita pleaded guilty in federal court to funding the AUC and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. The company admitted to paying the AUC via its wholly owned Colombian subsidiary, Banadex, which was also its most profitable operation. Chiquita recorded these transactions as "security payments" or payments for "security" or "security services" in its corporate records.
Chiquita said that it began making the payments after Carlos Castaño, who led the AUC at the time, implied that Banadex's employees and property could be harmed. However, despite—critics say because of—the payments, AUC members brutally targeted Banadex workers in what victims and their advocates say was an effort to suppress labor unrest.
An earlier lawsuit described the fate of one victim, who is identified by the pseudonym "Pablo Pérez":
In the early morning hours of November 1, 1997, a group of heavily armed paramilitaries dressed in camouflaged uniforms stormed Pablo Pérez's home in the village of Guacamayal, in the banana zone of Magdalena, while he was sleeping. The paramilitaries broke down the door to the home, found and seized him, tied him up, and forced him to accompany them at gunpoint, beating him as they kidnapped him. His corpse was found the following morning with signs of torture and two gunshots, one to the head and one to the body.
According to plaintiffs in that case, in 2001 a ship carrying 3,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 5 million rounds of ammunition left Nicaragua and, instead of heading to its declared destination in Panama, dropped off the arms at a Banadex-run port in Turbo, Colombia. Castaño called the procurement "the greatest achievement by the AUC so far."
The earlier lawsuit states that in addition to using the money provided by Chiquita to "drive the leftist guerrillas out of the Santa Marta and Uraba banana-growing regions," AUC militants would "resolve complaints and problems with banana workers and labor unions."
"Among other things, when individual banana workers became 'security problems,' Chiquita notified the AUC, which responded to the company's instructions by executing the individual," the document states. "According to AUC leaders, a large number of people were executed on Chiquita's instructions in the Santa Marta region."
Chiquita has a long history of deadly repression against workers. Formerly the United Fruit Company (UFC)—the infamous "Octopus"—the New Orleans-based behemoth monopolized land and markets throughout Latin America in the 20th century. Through slick marketing campaigns, UFC introduced the previously unknown banana to consumers in North America and beyond. The company propped up so-called "banana republics"—extraction economies characterized by state repression, severely stratified social classes, and compliant local plutocracies—throughout the region.
UFC stopped at nothing, including participation in U.S.-backed coups, to protect its property and profits. By the 1930s, UFC controlled around 90% of the U.S. banana import business. It owned or controlled nearly half of Guatemala's land in the 1940s.
In Colombia, where UFC workers earned the approximate equivalent of $1 per month, UFC refused to negotiate with workers who went on strike in 1928 in Ciénaga, near Santa Marta. U.S. and UFC officials falsely portrayed the strike as communist subversion and Colombia's right-wing government deployed 700 troops to crush the labor action. The U.S. Embassy subsequently informed then-Secretary of State Frank Kellogg that "I have the honor to report... that the total number of strikers killed by the Colombian military exceeded 1,000."
Violence against Colombian banana workers continued into the 21st century, often with impunity for the perpetrators. Litigants in Doe v. Chiquita said Monday's jury decision marked the beginning of a new era of accountability.
"This verdict sends a powerful message to corporations everywhere: profiting from human rights abuses will not go unpunished," EarthRights International general counsel Marco Simons said in a statement. "These families, victimized by armed groups and corporations, asserted their power and prevailed in the judicial process."
A former prosecutor criticized Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's wife, saying she distorted and perverted religion to justify a "petty" desire to fly an anti-LGBTQ flag in response to a Pride flag in her neighborhood.
Justice Alito's wife, Martha Ann, was outed on a recording Monday in which she railed against her perceived foes and complained about the backlash over the flags that she and her husband hung at their homes. A photo of the Alito home after the 2020 election was spotted flying an American flag upside down, which was adopted by the "Stop the Steal" movement. Another flag was spotted over Alito's beach home saying, "An Appeal to Heaven." It is another flag brought to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, The New York Times reported.
In the recording, Mrs. Alito warned that she was eager to create her own flag with the word "shame" spelled out in Italian and surrounded by flames.
"You know what I want?" Mrs. Alito asked activist Lauren Windsor undercover at an event. "I want a sacred heart of Jesus flag, because I have to look across the lagoon at the pride flag for the next month. And he's [Justice Alito], like, 'Oh, please don't put up a flag.' I said, 'I won't do it because I'm deferring to you. But when you are free of this nonsense, I'm putting it up, and I'm gonna send them a message every day, maybe every week, I'll be changing the flags.' I made a flag in my head. This is how I satisfy myself. I made a flag. It's white, and it has yellow and orange flames around it. In the middle is the word 'vergogna,' in Italian, which means shame."
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace pointed to the discrepancies in Justice Alito's comments. He alleged that his wife managed the flags without consulting him, while Mrs. Alito said she was "deferring to you," meaning her husband.
"We should be looking into this, and we should be troubled," she said.
Beyond that, however, Greenberg suggested that Mrs. Alito look more closely at the messages of her faith.
"She should really think about spending less time flying flags and more time actually heeding what she claims to be her religion," said Greenberg. "She's a Catholic. Well, she should learn to maybe 'love thy neighbor' and stop spewing this kind of hate. It's just so troubling to hear someone have this kind of hate just for seeing someone flying a flag."
She explained, "It really tells you kind of where the level of our public discourse is in this country."
"I also think her citing the Bible and scripture, again, to what? To justify her need for revenge?" Greenberg asked. "It's so petty. It is, again, a way of, sort of, owning religion in a way that I think really distorts and perverts what religion is. I think she has done that pretty much on every issue."
Greenberg cited recent comments from Pope Francis on homosexuality and charity toward each other.
Watch the comments in the video below or at the link here.
Mrs. Alito should spend more time on her religion and less time on flags: legal expert
www.youtube.com
Many conservatives are now claiming that President Joe Biden either orchestrated or quietly sanctioned the criminal conviction of his own son by the United States Department of Justice as a ruse to add legitimacy to the purported political prosecutions of former President Donald Trump.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) tore this conspiracy theory to pieces on Tuesday and expressed incredulity that Republicans could really think Biden would sacrifice his own son just to put Trump in jail.
"As usual, the only 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' going on here is on the other side of the aisle," McGovern said during a congressional hearing. "I mean, people are saying that Biden orchestrated the conviction of his own son in order to justify the criminal charges against Trump. That is how you think when you're in a cult!"
McGovern went on to excoriate the GOP for being unwilling to see Trump — who was impeached twice during his first term, who has been criminally indicted in four different jurisdictions, and who has now been found guilty on 34 felony counts — for who he really is.
"Republicans just can't wrap their heads around the idea that their presidential candidate, your presumptive nominee, is a convicted felon," he said. "That is not the result of a sham process or some vast conspiracy by the Biden administration. That is a result of the truth. And these attacks on the justice system have to come to a stop."
McGovern went on to accuse Republicans of concocting conspiracy theories about the justice system "to try to excuse the actions of a former president."
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said he wanted to "pull the switch" to execute Dr. Anthony Fauci and other people who "lied" to Donald Trump.
During a rant on his Tuesday broadcast, Jones initially said Trump's foes should be imprisoned instead of being executed.
"It needs to be dealt with," he explained. "The criminal gang leaders, the big heads of the central banks, Pfizer head, Fauci, all of them that lied to Trump, we know, created the disinfo, already had the vaccine ready years before they released the virus."
"They all need to go to prison for the rest of their lives," he continued. "It sounds sexy to say they need to be executed... You don't turn them into martyrs. You don't execute them."
Jones, however, fantasized about possible executions.
"It is the right thing to do that they be executed," he insisted. "And if the juries decide to hang them, I'm not a wimp. I will volunteer. I think it should be public. I will pull the lever."
"If they're convicted by a jury of treason, I would personally on national TV be there and pull the switch to break their necks at the end of a rope," Jones concluded.
