Former Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL) on Wednesday delivered an excoriating assessment of former President Donald Trump's actions in the wake of his loss in his 2020 election.
During a panel discussion, Rooney was asked about revelations that Trump campaign officials created phony electors that would be used to overturn the certified results in states he lost to President Joe Biden.
"That tells me that they would go to any length to destroy our American institution of democracy," Rooney said. "This reminds me so much of Chavez in Venezuela when 80 percent of his precincts reported exactly the same vote. I mean, that's not what our country is all about. It's about respecting the elections and process win, lose or draw."
Rooney was also asked about Sen. Ron Johnson's involvement in the fake electors scheme, and he said that he wasn't convinced by his denial of having knowledge of the plot.
"Part of the problem with the people who serve in those jobs is they throw the staff under the bus to protect themselves," he said. "I think it's absurd that he denied that he knew about it and sent the poor staffer to take that over to Pence's office."
On Tuesday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Associated Press projected that former Georgia state Sen. Vernon Jones has lost his bid for the Republican nomination for Georgia's 10th Congressional District.
Jones, a former Democrat who left his party after proclaiming his support for former President Donald Trump, lost the nomination for the safely Republican seat to businessman Mike Collins — despite the former president's glowing endorsement for the seat.
Trump made the endorsement in February, saying “When it comes to Georgia’s 10th Congressional District, I have only one choice, and the man’s name is Vernon Jones, a very special person.”
Jones, a controversial figure who also faces a rape allegation, had originally planned a run for governor, attacking incumbent Republican Brian Kemp for not throwing out President Joe Biden's win in the state.
However, Trump pushed him out of that race in return for endorsing him in the congressional race, preferring instead to back former Sen. David Perdue for the gubernatorial contest.
Perdue, who also ran on Trump's conspiracy theories that the election was stolen, lost his bid as voters renominated Kemp for a second term in late May.
When Virginia “Ginni” Thomas sent an email to Arizona lawmakers in November 2020 asking them to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state, she did so using an advocacy platform that a Republican legislator-elect would go on to own, the Arizona Mirror has discovered.
FreeRoots, the email campaign service that makes it easy for people to send pre-written emails to elected officials that are created and promoted by activist groups was used by Thomas to encourage 29 Arizona lawmakers to use their “plenary powers” to choose Donald Trump over Joe Biden, according to reporting by the Washington Post.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are continuing to press Thomas to testify about her role in pressuring lawmakers to overturn the results of the election which included emails from the FreeRoots platform. Queen Creek Republican Jake Hoffman, who sent a letter to Vice President Mike Pence asking him on January 5 to not accept the election results and was one of Arizona’s fake Trump electors, now seems to operate a website built on FreeRoots and has connections to the old platform’s owner.
The company is owned by Eric Berger, who has previously worked at the Heritage Foundation and is an operative of the secretive and powerful political Christian group, Council for National Policy.
But Berger is not the only one who is an operative of the group.
FreeRoots doesn’t send out emails like it once did, it just shows you a landing page that states they and their parent company GPX LLC are looking to “secure SaaS (software as a service) offerings.”
Enter AlignAct.com.
The campaign pages for AlignAct and FreeRoots look nearly identical when put side by side. Both companies offer the same service, an easy way for constituents to reach out to policymakers via email and phone and share the campaign on social media.
While FreeRoots appeared to try to court people from across the political spectrum at one point in time, with people like Chris Cuomo sharing campaigns aimed at pandemic assistance, AlignAct is aimed directly at conservatives.
The main landing page for AlignAct has campaigns directed at hot topics in the conservative ecosphere such as alleged vaccine passports, alleged grooming in schools and unfounded claims of election fraud.
A review of Hoffman’s financial disclosure statements for 2022 shows that the lawmaker lists AlignAct LLC along with two other “Align” related entities as a controlled business, meaning he owns 50% or more of the company. Hoffman did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The visual similarities on the website are not the only connections, the Mirror has found.
On AlignAct’s website, users can download a worksheet to help them craft their campaign prior to creating one. Metadata on the Microsoft Word document lists Eric Berger’s email address under the author section.
After the Mirror reached out to both Hoffman and FreeRoots about the metadata contained within the document, the worksheet was changed to a .pdf and all metadata was scrubbed.
It is unclear how long Hoffman has been involved with FreeRoots and AlignAct. On his most recent financial disclosure statement, he lists “n/a” when asked what type of business activity AlignAct conducts, only describing it as “Public Engagement Software.”
Hoffman has a track record of using technology for conservative political activism. His company, Rally Forge, was found to have created “troll farms” alongside Turning Point USA ahead of the 2018 midterms, operating Facebook accounts that appeared to be Democrats but were in fact pushing conservative political messaging and disinformation.
Hoffman still lists the company in his financial disclosure statements.
While AlignAct is not a “troll farm” like Hoffman’s other venture, it is connected to a number of organizations that have been spreading disinformation on a variety of subjects.
The email sent by Thomas came from a campaign organized by Act for America which initially started its life as an anti-Muslim group founded in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. It’s founder, Brigitte Gabriel, has said that any practicing Muslim “cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States.”
Thomas’ email to Arizona lawmakers came from an Act for America campaign that linked to a video urging lawmakers to use their “plenary powers” to overturn Joe Biden’s electoral victory and instead declare that Donald Trump won. Arizona law does not allow the legislature to take such an action.
Other organizations with ties to extremism have continued to use Hoffman’s new platform, such as America’s Frontline Doctors, whose members continue to push conspiracy theories and false treatments for COVID-19 as well as being embroiled in Jan. 6.
The anti-feminist, anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ Eagle Forum also has a presence on the site, as do a number of Tea Party organizations. Their advocacy ranges from including border security to alleged election fraud to stopping the United Nations.
The Mirror created an account to better understand campaigns and their creation on the platform.
AlignAct allows for users to choose if they want to target federal, state, school board or “any other government figure.” The site also allows for “advocates” to add .csv files or choose from lists to “send their message to a strategic group of lawmakers in Congress!”
A donation feature is listed as coming soon. In his financial disclosure, Hoffman reported owning “AlignPay,” which he described as a “Payment Processing Solutions” business.
Those setting up a campaign can also check a box to ask “advocates” for their phone numbers so the campaign organizer can send them text messages at a later date.
Hoffman did not respond to questions about what exactly his role is in AlignAct, what his involvement is in the day-to-day operations and if he was involved with FreeRoots when Thomas sent her emails. However, a letter signed by Hoffman and others lists him as the “President and CEO” of another Align related initiative called “Align for Freedom.”
Berger also did not respond to a request for comment.
Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and Twitter.
Taiwan scrambled jets on Tuesday to warn away 29 Chinese aircraft in its air defence zone, including bombers that flew to the south of the island and into the Pacific, in the latest uptick in tensions and largest incursion since late May.
Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has complained for the past two years or so of repeated missions by the Chinese air force near the democratically governed island, often in the southwestern part of its air defence identification zone, or ADIZ, close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands.
Taiwan calls China's repeated nearby military activities "grey zone" warfare, designed to both wear out Taiwanese forces by making them repeatedly scramble, and also to test Taiwanese responses.
The latest Chinese mission included 17 fighters and six H-6 bombers, as well as electronic warfare, early warning, antisubmarine and an aerial refuelling aircraft, Taiwan's defence ministry said.
Some of the aircraft flew in an area to the northeast of the Pratas, according to a map the ministry provided.
However, the bombers, accompanied by an electronic warfare and an intelligence gathering aircraft, flew into the Bashi Channel which separates Taiwan from the Philippines and into the Pacific before turning back to China on the route they came in.
Taiwan sent combat aircraft to warn away the Chinese aircraft, while missile systems were deployed to monitor them, the ministry said, using standard wording for its response.
It was the largest incursion since Taiwan reported 30 Chinese aircraft in its ADIZ on May 30. The largest to date this year occurred on Jan. 23, involving 39 aircraft.
There was no immediate comment from China, which has in the past said that such moves were drills aimed at protecting the country's sovereignty.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Reuters in an email that Beijing should "cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure and intimidation against Taiwan".
China launched its third aircraft carrier on Friday, the Fujian, named after the province opposite Taiwan.
China's military said last month it had conducted an exercise around Taiwan as a "solemn warning" against its "collusion" with the United States.
That came after U.S. President Joe Biden angered China by appearing to signal a change in a U.S. policy of "strategic ambiguity" on Taiwan by saying the United States would get involved militarily if China were to attack the island.
China has stepped up pressure on Taiwan to accept its sovereignty claims. The Taipei government says it wants peace but will defend itself if attacked.
No shots have been fired and the Chinese aircraft have not been flying in Taiwan's air space, but in its ADIZ, a broader area Taiwan monitors and patrols that acts to give it more time to respond to any threats.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei and Michael Martina in Washington; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Mark Heinrich)
On Tuesday, CNN congressional reporter Manu Raju said that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) confirmed to him that he received the package of fake electors from Michigan and Wisconsin to hand to former Vice President Mike Pence on January 6 — and that his office inquired with Pence's office about taking it.
However, he claimed, he has "no idea" who gave him the package and wanted him to deliver it.
"I was aware that we got this package and that somebody wanted us to deliver it, so we reached out," he said to Raju.
The news that Johnson tried to further the fake electors scheme has triggered an uproar, with Democratic Lt. Gov. and Senate candidate Mandela Barnes calling on him to resign.
The fake elector scheme, outlined in an infamous memo by pro-Trump attorney John Eastman, would have involved Pence using the electors to claim there was a "dispute" about the results in states President Joe Biden won, and throw out the votes from those states altogether, tilting the race to Trump.
Legal experts have broadly blasted this plan as illegal, and even Eastman himself privately admitted there was no basis for it in the Electoral Count Act.
The office of GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin was implicated in Donald Trump's phony electors scheme during Tuesday's public hearing of the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson wanted to hand then-Vice President Mike Pence official-looking documents falsely affirming former President Donald Trump won in Wisconsin and Michigan as Pence prepared to confirm Joe Biden's win in January 2021, according to text messages revealed at a U.S. House hearing Tuesday," the Wisconsin State Journalreported. "The Wisconsin document, signed by 10 Republicans who convened in the state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, was filled out on the same day the Democratic slate of Wisconsin electors met in the same building to deliver the state's 10 electoral votes to Biden. The meeting of Republicans occurred after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Biden had won the election."
Leigh Ann Caldwell of The Washington Post reported it was the first time the actions of a senator have been highlighted by the select committee.
"The evidence presented Tuesday once again showed that Wisconsin — one of seven states Biden won where groups of Republicans gathered as false presidential electors — was at the center of efforts to overturn the election," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. "A text message from state GOP executive director Mark Jefferson also presented Tuesday indicated Trump's campaign team wanted the elector paperwork flown to Washington D.C."
"Ron Johnson actively tried to undermine this democracy. He literally tried to hand Mike Pence a slate of fake electors. Ron Johnson is a danger to democracy," said Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who is challenging Johnson in the 2022 midterms.
"Trump and his MAGA allies planned, promoted, & paid for a seditious conspiracy to overturn an election they lost. And Ron Johnson attempted to deliver it to DC on a silver platter" wrote Democrat Alex Lasry, who is also challenging Johnson.
He called Johnson "a seditious traitor and danger to our democracy."
Tom Nelson, who is also running, said, "Ron Johnson is a traitor. He must resign."
While the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol presented evidence of Donald Trump's role leading the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election, those surrounding him who took part in his attempted coup are drawing increased scrutiny.
" Trump is surrounded by his own team of grifters willing to boost his lies in return for his benevolence—people like lawyer John Eastman, longtime adviser David Bossie, and spokesperson Liz Harrington, all of whom worked tirelessly to spread his lies. But, since late 2020, outside of Trump’s core group, a shadow army of grifters and hucksters has joined in to (supposedly) substantiate his unfounded claims," David Gilbert reported for Vice News. "This underground group of grifters is not composed of lawmakers or election officials but of ex-military members, teachers, businessmen, former surfers, and in one case, a time-traveling cryptographer. Members of this motley MAGA crew call themselves 'election integrity experts,' and all claim to have found evidence to back up Trump’s conspiracy theories."
Gilbert detailed how the effort was funded not just by small-dollar donors, but by millions from MyPillow's Mike Lindell and Overstock.com founder Patrick Byrne.
He went on to detail the roles of former Gen. Michael Flynn along with Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani. He also listed former Army Captain Seth Keshel, former New Mexico State University professor David Clements, "Lone Raccoon" Jeff O’Donnell, and former pro surfer Conan Hayes, among others.
"Terpsichore Maras-Lindeman claims to be many things: time traveler, cryptographer, crypto linguist, podcaster, election integrity expert, a grifter. Known to her followers as Tore, she first appeared in the election-denying world as an anonymous military intelligence expert in one of Sidney Powell’s 'Kraken' lawsuits, claiming to have knowledge of foreign interference in the 2020 election. Weeks later she was unmasked by the Washington Post, revealing that the sum total of her military experience amounted to a single eight-month training stint in the Navy that ended in August 1997," Gilbert reported.
Also listed were Ohio high school teacher Doug Frank, "Lady" Draza Smith, and former Fox Nation journalist Lara Logan.
"It’s been 19 months since President Joe Biden won the 2020 election by a wide margin, and despite their best efforts, these grifters and charlatans have yet to produce any concrete evidence of widespread election fraud. But rather than disappearing, as the midterm elections approach, the number of people boosting these lies are growing rather than dwindling and soon some of them may be elected as their state’s top election officials," he wrote.
A similar warning was posted by authoritarian expert Sarah Kendzior.
"The most dangerous framing of 1/6 is that it was about one man and one day. It was a violent attack organized by criminal elites who have been working for the demise of US democracy for over forty years, using demagoguery and bribes to get their pawns to carry out violence," she wrote in a thread posted to Twitter on Tuesday.
"Trump is a symptom. Elite criminal impunity is the disease," she argued. "Accountability is the road forward. Accountability means holding the enablers to task as well. Officials who look the other way. Rotting institutions that long ago abandoned the American people and still do so now."
She also urged scrutiny of Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, former Attorney General Bill Barr and former White House senior advisor Jared Kushner.
"Be VERY suspicious of those who refuse to follow the money esp insurrectionist funding, who won’t name the most wealthy and powerful organizers (Stone, Bannon, Flynn), or who rehab criminal elites like Barr or Kushner. They’re not exposing the plot. They’re part of the plot," she alleged. "Any attempt to limit this inquiry to Trump alone instead of the criminal network surrounding him means that this network will simply regroup and align around another candidate to pursue the same dangerous goals."
Speaking on his podcast Common Sense, Rudy Giuliani slammed the Jan. 6 hearings, calling them a politically-motivated spectacle that's designed to help Democrats win upcoming elections.
According to Giuliani, the hearings are "completely political and intended to affect the 2022 and 2024 elections."
"...and a further extension of the 'kill Trump' program by any means possible," Giuliani continued. "I call this, 'Russian collusion 2,' or 'Russia collusion Ukrainian corruption 3' because this is the third attempt to try and destroy [Trump] with false evidence."
"We've gotta let the American people know because it's being hidden from them and it's like we live in a communist state."
While speaking under oath before the committee this Tuesday, Arizona Republican House Speaker Russell "Rusty" Bowers said that Giuliani admitted to not having any evidence of mass voter fraud despite repeatedly claiming he did.
"My recollection, he said, 'We've got lots of theories, we just don't have the evidence,'" Bowers said.
The committee said in its fourth hearing that Trump and his allies were personally involved in pushing Republican-controlled legislatures to flip the results in several swing states, away from Joe Biden and into Trump's column.
Rusty Bowers, speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, testified about pressure to reverse his state's results, from Trump and Giuliani.
Bowers said Trump demanded a hearing at the Arizona State Capitol to investigate allegations of election fraud but Bowers responded that the evidence didn't warrant a hearing, "and I did not want to be used as a pawn."
"You are asking me to do something against my oath, and I will not break my oath," Bowers told Trump, according to his testimony.
Bowers said he asked Giuliani "on multiple occasions" for evidence of his stolen election claims.
He told committee members Giuliani said "we've got lots of theories, we just don't have the evidence."
In my nearly 30-year career in the nation’s capital with the National Association of Evangelicals, it was my privilege to watch the give and take of politics and religion. The Founders’ brilliance has sought to balance “liberty and justice for all” by creating a society where strong religious convictions and strong political civility could go hand in hand.
Not anymore.
In a recent speech to a Colorado Springs church, Rep. Lauren Boebert joked that Jesus needed an AR-15 to avoid crucifixion. The laughter and some applause is a disturbing sign some Christians may be buying into bad theology, following someone other than Jesus, and led by a different spirit.
And someone ought to tell the congresswoman that praying for the death of the president (supposedly joking) as she did of President Joe Biden recently is dangerous. When a Southern Baptist leader publicly prayed God “smite (Al Haig, Reagan’s Secretary of State) hip and thigh,” it has been considered bad form and what C.S. Lewis called the “devil’s lie,” namely that politics is not just something, but everything. The Bible warns us not to be “held captive” by any worldly philosophy, and empty deceit (Colossians 2:8), and that would include political parties, it seems.
What our country needs are leaders who set aside their own political ideologies and empty deceits, to pursue truth. The best illustrations of that today are former Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
Be under no illusions, it is an expression of fear, not wisdom, and a sign of weakness, not strength.
Indicted seditionists and insurrectionists wanted to literally hang Pence by the neck on the mall on Jan. 6, but he didn’t cave. Cheney risks her job for standing up to the “big lie.” We now know from the January 6th Committee that even former President Donald Trump knew he was peddling a lie, but sought millions of dollars to perpetuate it. G.K. Chesterton described the madman as the person who, “far from losing his mind, has lost everything except his reason.”
Members of Congress, such as Boebert, who believe and purvey the big lie become, whether they realize it or not, a threat to democracy and ultimately to the churches that buy into this lie as well.
Why do I say that?
Jesus said (John 8:32), “If you remain in my word you are truly my disciples and you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” I can’t think of many things more constraining than “Christian nationalism,” which has crept into evangelical churches.
Be under no illusions, it is an expression of fear, not wisdom, and a sign of weakness, not strength.
When members of Congress, especially those known for their sarcasm and heretical theology, go to church to peddle their ideology, joking or not, they become the best argument for their opponents, the most powerful factor in their own rejection at the ballot box, and a prime reason for repudiation of religious values in society.
Is that what followers of Jesus should want? I think not.
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.
The US Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that public funds can be used to support families sending their children to religious schools, in a case that challenged longstanding principles of separation of church and state.
The case was brought by two evangelical Christian families in the northeastern state of Maine who sued to be able to use state-provided education subsidy funds to send their kids to schools with religion as the basis of their teachings.
In a 6-3 ruling, the court said religious schools cannot be excluded from the tuition assistance program.
"There is nothing neutral about Maine's program," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in an opinion joined by the other five conservative justices.
"The State pays tuition for certain students at private schools -- so long as the schools are not religious. That is discrimination against religion," Roberts said.
As Maine is sparsely populated, more than half of its school districts have no publicly funded high schools.
So families receive subsidies that allow them to send their children to schools of their choice, including privately-run schools.
But schools where religious beliefs are at the core of instruction are not covered in the aid program, because, under the regulations for the program -- and those similar in other states -- the teaching is "sectarian."
One of the families wanted to send their children to a school that was disqualified because, local authorities argued, it "teaches children that the husband is the leader of the household" and encourages kids to recognize "God as Creator of the world."
The school chosen by the second family in the case makes use of the Bible in all academic subjects.
And both schools do not accept LGBTQ students or employees.
The parents who sued -- with the backing of Republican senators, 20-odd conservative-led states and many religious institutions -- argued that the Constitution's First Amendment freedom of religion clause gives them the right to choose a school that reflects their values.
If they are denied the subsidies, they claimed, they are suffering discrimination because of their religious views.
The state of Maine argued that under the Constitution government funds cannot be used to support religious schools that discriminate, for example, against LGBTQ students.
'Social conflict'
The administration of President Joe Biden, Democratic-run states and teachers and human rights associations backed Maine.
The three liberal justices on the Supreme Court dissented with Justice Stephen Breyer saying there would be an "increased risk of religiously based social conflict when government promotes religion in its public school system."
Sonia Sotomayor, another liberal, said "what a difference five years makes.
"In 2017, I feared that the Court was 'leading us ... to a place where separation of church and state is a constitutional slogan, not a constitutional commitment," she said.
"Today, the Court leads us to a place where separation of church and state becomes a constitutional violation."
The case is a part of a much wider US debate on the role of parents and school choice in education, and how tax funds dedicated to schools are allocated.
Issues of Covid-19 policies, acceptance of transgender students, and teaching about African-American history have deepened divides and encouraged some parents to look to private and religious schools for their children.
President Joe Biden's administration is set to announce a new policy requiring cigarette producers to reduce nicotine to non-addictive levels, US media reported Tuesday -- a move that would deal a powerful blow to the tobacco industry.
If successful, the policy could save millions of lives by the end of the century, and shape a future where cigarettes are no longer responsible for addiction and debilitating disease.
The initiative could be announced as soon as Tuesday, the Washington Post said, quoting a person familiar with the matter.
It would require the Food and Drug Administration to develop and then publish a rule, which could then be contested by industry, added the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the issue.
The entire effort is expected to take several years and could be delayed or derailed by litigation, or reversed by a future administration unsympathetic to its aims.
Nicotine is the "feel good" chemical that hooks millions to tobacco products. Thousands of other chemicals contained in tobacco and its smoke are responsible for diseases such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes and more.
Though smoking is less prevalent in the United States than Europe and has been declining for years, it is still responsible for 480,000 deaths a year in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Some 13.7 percent of all US adults are current cigarette smokers, according to CDC data.
Reducing the nicotine content of cigarettes has been a topic under discussion for years among US authorities.
Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb in 2017 announced he wanted to move forward on the issue, and funded a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2018 that found "reduced-nicotine cigarettes versus standard-nicotine cigarettes reduced nicotine exposure and dependence and the number of cigarettes smoked."
The FDA found that if the policy were enacted in 2020, it would prevent eight million premature deaths from tobacco by 2100.
The tobacco industry rejects the findings and says people would in fact smoke more.
Biden has made a "cancer moonshot" a centerpiece of his agenda and nicotine-reduction policy would fit within its goals, at minimal cost.
The total economic cost of smoking is more than $300 billion a year, according to the CDC, including more than than $225 billion in direct medical care for adults, and more than $156 billion in lost productivity due to premature death and exposure to secondhand smoke.
Lawmakers investigating the January 2021 assault on the US Capitol are due to focus at a hearing Tuesday on the pressure that former president Donald Trump mounted on state officials to overturn the 2020 election.
The presentation launches a third week of summer hearings in which the panel has set out its initial findings that Trump led a multi-pronged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election, culminating in the insurrection in Washington.
Committee aides say they have evidence that Trump and his allies were personally involved in pushing Republican-controlled legislatures to flip the results in several swing states, away from Joe Biden and into Trump's column.
The hearing begins at 1:00 pm (ET). Watch live video below:
WATCH LIVE: Jan. 6 Committee hearings - Day 4
www.youtube.com
The panel will hear from several top Republican state officials who found themselves cajoled by the Trump campaign to thwart the will of millions of voters based on bogus claims of election fraud.
"Donald Trump knew that there was no widespread fraud -- he knew that those claims were baseless, he knew that the numbers simply weren't there to potentially overturn the election -- and he continued to drive these campaigns anyway," a committee aide said.
"He knew they were false and it became increasingly clear that this pressure campaign could lead to violence, and he continued to do it anyway."
- 'Fake electors' -
US presidents are not elected directly by citizens, but chosen by "electors" named to a body called the electoral college.
Each state gets as many electors as it has members of Congress and there are 538 in total.
The parties in each state pick their own slate of potential electors and, in almost every part of America, the winning side in the statewide tally for president gets all the electoral votes for that state.
The committee says a key plank of the plot to subvert the 2020 election was getting pro-Trump Republicans in swing states won by Biden to submit official-looking but fake certificates claiming they were the legitimate electors.
The committee says it will demonstrate that the former president pressed his vice president Mike Pence to accept these "fake electors" when he was overseeing certification of Biden's victory on January 6, 2021.
Pence ultimately refused to recognize the pro-Trump slates and the president's supporters rioted for hours at the Capitol in unprecedented scenes of brutality that led to at least five deaths.
The committee will hear from Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, whom Trump infamously pushed to "find" enough votes to overcome Biden's lead in the battleground state in a phone call that is the subject of a state-level criminal probe.
Rusty Bowers, speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, is expected to testify about pressure to reverse his state's results from Trump, Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
- 'Death threats' -
The committee has asked to speak with Ginni Thomas, who indicated to a conservative news outlet that she was looking forward to the opportunity to "clear up misconceptions."
Also appearing in person will be Shaye Moss, a former Georgia election official who processed ballots in 2020.
Trump and Giuliani falsely accused Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman of "rigging" the presidential election count in Georgia with "suitcases" full of ballots for Biden.
Moss and Freeman -- who received death threats after Trump publicly named them -- are suing Giuliani in federal court.
A committee aide said that Moss would detail how "being targeted by the former president has upended her life and that of her mother."
"They were called professional vote scammers, they were subjected to death threats, intimidation, coercion, forced to go into hiding," the aide said.
He added that the panel would show that threats to election workers continue and the danger to democracy posed by "lies about the 2020 election and lies about future elections" is ongoing.
Trump continued to rail against the committee "of political thugs who have criminalized justice to a level never seen before in our country" on his social media platform Tuesday, reprising debunked conspiracy theories about voter fraud and spying on his 2016 campaign.
On Tuesday, CBS News' Scott MacFarlane reported that defense counsel representing Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio are trying to garner sympathy for him in a new court filing.
Tarrio, the filing says, is "locked up, broke, [and] jobless" and ready to "tell his side of the January 6 story."
Tarrio, who was denied jail release last month, was recently slapped with seditious conspiracy charges for his role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. This comes after leaders of the paramilitary group the Oath Keepers were hit with similar charges.
They played a key role in the effort to storm the Capitol, believing that they could prevent the certification of President Joe Biden's electoral win if they disrupted Congress from counting the electors.
Documents have revealed the extent of the Proud Boys' plan to invade the Capitol complex, including using a "covert sleeper" to set up an appointment and block traffic to keep police out.
