Democrats in the House of Representatives are plotting to put their Republican colleagues from swing districts on the spot this week by forcing a vote to censure scandal-plagued Rep. George Santos (R-NY).
The New York Times reports that Democrats are planning to push the resolution to get Santos' GOP critics on record to see if they will really back up their tough talk about the New York congressman, who was hit with a 13-count indictment earlier this year and who has been exposed as a serial liar who fabricated his academic history, work history, and family history.
"“If you are a member of Congress who has informally condemned Mr. Santos, then you should have no trouble formally censuring him,” Rep. Richie Torres (D-NY), who crafted the censure resolution, tells the Times. “He has disgraced the institution, and the institution should speak with one voice against his misconduct.”
Republicans earlier this year voted to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) for making misleading claims about inside knowledge he implied he had about former President Donald Trump's efforts to secure Russian help to win the 2016 presidential election.
Schiff, however, has never been formally accused of a crime like Santos has, and Torres argues that the congressman's actions are serious enough to warrant a full expulsion.
"At a minimum, we should hold him accountable to public censure," he said.
The White House on Monday took on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) after she accused President Joe Biden of working to improve the country.
During a Turning Point Action Conference on Sunday, Greene compared Biden to President Lyndon B. Johnson.
"His big socialist programs were the Great Society," Green told the crowd. "The Great Society were big government programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and welfare, the Office of Economic Opportunity, and big labor and labor unions."
"Now, LBJ had the Great Society, but Joe Biden had Build Back Better, and he still is working on it," she added. "The largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs that is actually finishing what FDR started that LBJ expanded on, and Joe Biden is attempting to complete, socialism."
Their feud triggered the expulsion of Greene from the right-wing Freedom Caucus after she called Boebert a "little b*tch" to her face, but other GOP lawmakers say the acrimony is palpable, reported The Daily Beast.
“A fistfight could break out at any moment,” said Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who made clear he was serious, but compared the situation to "professional wrestling." “I am friends with both of them. It’s entertaining to think that a fistfight could break out at any movement. I kind of dig that."
Another GOP lawmaker close to both women said the situation wasn't sustainable and that one of them would destroy the other -- but couldn't predict the outcome.
“They will be nailing that coffin shut and one of them is still in there kicking and screaming,” that lawmaker said.
Greene has refused to accept a phone call from Freedom Caucus chairman Scott Perry (R-PA) notifying her of the expulsion, and instead has suggested a conversation on the House floor, according to multiple sources, but the Georgia Republican is apparently upset that her expulsion came in a hastily called meeting.
“We were advised that there was an unscheduled meeting being scheduled, but there was no — I didn’t receive any kind of specific advisement on what was going to be discussed at that meeting,” said Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), a Greene ally.
Other caucus members declined to comment on the meeting or discuss whether Greene had been given an opportunity to defend herself.
“I’m not interested in that bullsh*t,” said Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO).
A lawmaker familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast that Boebert had initially seconded a motion at that meeting to allow Greene to remain in the caucus, but she later voted for her expulsion along with an “overwhelming” number of Freedom Caucus members.
Boebert refused to comment, while Greene declined to discuss specifics and bristled at the line of questioning.
“Dude, do you do anything besides report on complete drama and bullsh*t?” Greene said. “No, I’m serious.”
The speech by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) at the Turning Point Action conference left some progressives scratching their heads after her attacks on President Joe Biden appeared to be more like compliments.
Ranting at the far-right crowd, Greene attacked programs like Social Security, Medicare and other programs started by the late Democratic presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson.
She began by warning Joe Biden is trying to "finish what FDR started" by trying to address problems related to "education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and welfare."
It was revealed this week that "Bidenomics," the new attack phrase from the GOP, has done more to help red states with higher incomes than blue states, The New Republic cited.
"How will Dark Brandon ever recover from this?" mocked "Did Nothing Wrong" podcaster Jay McKenzie, referring to Biden.
Issuing a "'warning' that Joe Biden is going to create things like Medicare and Medicaid — both wildly popular programs — seems like an odd way to attack him, but have at it," said historian Kevin M. Kruse said, citing Kaiser Family Foundation data showing the popularity of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) knocked her too for saying Democrats and Biden want to "finish what FDR started."
"Yes," he agreed. "Guilty as charged."
"Did not have “Marjorie Taylor Greene doing campaign ads for Biden” on my election bingo card but here we are," influencer Shauna W. said.
The modern far-right GOP and its obsession with 'culture war' issues can be compared to trying to fight desegregation efforts, argued former Bill Clinton Secretary of Defense William Cohen on CNN Saturday.
Cohen, who has previously said that former president Donald Trump's disrespect for the security of classified information really amounts to a disrespect for the men and women behind that classified information who put their lives on the line for the country, was asked on CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta about the "far-right Republicans" who argue that culture war add-ons recently passed in the House as part of a military budget "will help rid the military to what they describe as wokeness."
Cohen said he expects that the Senate will either reject the amendments, or water them down enough to get the support needed to pass.
"We are, after all, trying to make sure that we fund our military, so it is dragging the military through the cultural wars," he said.
When asked what he says to the far-right Republicans who says the military has a "wokeness problem," Cohen suggested he would ask for a definition.
"What is wokeness? What does it mean? I said earlier today that it was Harry Truman, was he woke when he said we can no longer tolerate and accept the segregation of our military? That black men and women have an absolute equal right to serve in our military and serve together and not segregated?"
Scandal-ridden far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos has seemingly settled up — financially — with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
Yiannopoulos reimbursed Greene’s campaign $7,020.16 on May 12 for “use of campaign credit card for personal use,” according to a new Federal Election Commission filing reviewed by Raw Story.
In November, Yiannopoulos had purchased a campaign website domain for Kanye West’s yet-to-be-launched 2024 presidential campaign using Greene’s campaign credit card.
Yiannopoulos, who is known for online harassment and making bigoted and controversial statements, including comments seemingly defending pedophilia, worked for Greene as an unpaid intern in 2022, Insider reported.
The reimbursement amount matches the GoDaddy expense on Nov. 22, 2022, for “domain registration and hosting” that Greene previously reported, according to The Daily Beast.
Yiannopoulos’ initial transaction was for the purchase of ye24.com and occurred on the same day that West, who now goes by Ye, dined with former President Donald Trump and white nationalist Nick Fuentes, The Daily Beast reported.
Shortly afterward, West and Fuentes, a Holocaust denier, appeared together on right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s show where West made anti-Semitic comments praising Hitler and Nazis, Politico reported.
West reportedly fired Yiannopoulos, who took credit for setting up the dinner at Mar-a-Lago, in December but rehired him as “director of political operations” in May, according to The Daily Beast. West ran for president in 2020 but hasn’t officially announced a 2024 run.
Greene’s campaign and congressional office did not respond to Raw Story’s requests for comment by publication time.
Author and right-wing firebrand Ann Coulter, who is anti-abortion and supported the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, has been warning fellow Republicans that passing ultra-severe abortion bans is hurting them politically in key swing states. And she reiterated that warning in April after liberal Janet Protasiewicz enjoyed a double-digit victory over far-right Christian nationalist Dan Kelly in a Wisconsin Supreme Court election.
Coulter tweeted, "Pro-lifers: WE WON. Abortion is not a 'constitutional right' anymore! Please stop pushing strict limits on abortion, or there will be no Republicans left."
But for Republican lawmakers, the pressure to go along with draconian abortion bans can be intense — so intense that, according to Politico's Daniella Diaz, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) privately raged against a GOP-sponsored anti-abortion measure only to end up voting for it later.
House Republicans proposed reversing the Biden Administration's policy on reimbursing women serving in the U.S. Armed Forces for travel costs they incur when seeking abortions. Mace, according to Diaz, was overheard slamming the bill in an elevator on Thursday, July 13, saying, "We should not be taking this f—--g vote, man. F—…. It's an a—--e move, an a—--e amendment."
Coulter isn't the only one on the right who believes abortion has become a major liability for her party. Diaz notes that Mace "has long been at odds with her own party over its attempts to go further right on abortion, complaining that the party is alienating moderate voters after the overturning of Roe v. Wade and potentially endangering its House majority in the process."
The conservative Mace, who has had a bitter feud with far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), has been willing to buck the MAGA wing of her party on occasion. But she easily caves into pressure, and The Bulwark's Joe Perticone called her out for her abortion vote in a July 14 tweet. Responding to Diaz's reporting, Perticone wrote that Mace was "quickly shaping up to be one of the most disingenuous members of Congress."
Attorney Robert Courie saw Perticone's tweet and wrote, "Who controls your primary and how safe is their gerrymandered district? That's all that matters. Unintended consequences of reducing competition for elected office."
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has been thrown out of the far-right House Freedom Caucus. But according to the Wall Street Journal, she is defiant — and even publicly saying it's a good thing for her.
“I think I enjoy being a free agent a lot better,” Greene told reporters, adding that while she agreed with the Freedom Caucus ideologically, she is “interested in getting accomplishments done, not doing things just to disrupt and fight leadership. And that’s a major difference.”
Notably, while Greene is saying she is happy about the expulsion now, her behavior over the previous few days suggests otherwise. She told reporters earlier this week she had not been told anything about being ousted from the Freedom Caucus, but other reports suggested she was actually avoiding calls from other members of the Freedom Caucus so that they wouldn't be able to deliver the news to her and make it official.
This comes as the Freedom Caucus, which was founded nearly a decade ago as an insurgent group that challenges GOP leadership to move as far right as possible, is fractured and divided over its purpose and goals under House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
Greene's removal from the group was triggered in part by her escalating feud with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), which escalated in recent weeks to Greene calling Boebert a "b*tch" on the House floor.
But there appear to be other factors that drove the decision too. Greene is close to McCarthy, having helped him secure the votes to become Speaker in the first place. According to previous reporting from CNN's Melanie Zanona, the Freedom Caucus distrusted her closeness to House leadership, to the point that some members even held secret meetings without her to make sure she wouldn't report on what they were planning to McCarthy's team.
The three leading Democrats in the House said in a joint statement late Thursday that they will vote no on an annual military policy bill that typically passes with overwhelming bipartisan support, citing Republican amendments restricting abortion access for service members and barring the Pentagon from covering gender-affirming care.
"Extreme MAGA Republicans have chosen to hijack the historically bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act to continue attacking reproductive freedom and jamming their right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) said following hours of votes on mostly Republican-authored amendments.
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) Screen Grab
One Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), voted with Republicans to attach an amendment to roll back the Pentagon's policy of reimbursing service members who travel to obtain abortion care. The amendment was sponsored by Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), who previously served as former President Donald Trump's chief medical adviser.
Cuellar also backed Rep. Matt Rosendale's (R-Mont.) amendment to block the Department of Defense from covering gender-affirming care.
“House Republicans have turned what should be a meaningful investment in our men and women in uniform into an extreme and reckless legislative joyride," Jeffries, Clark, and Aguilar said Thursday. "The bill undermines a woman's freedom to seek abortion care, targets the rights of LGBTQ+ service members, and bans books that should otherwise be available to military families."
In opposing final passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the top Democrats are joining progressive lawmakers who usually vote no on the annual military policy bill due to its sky-high and ever-rising topline. The NDAA for the coming fiscal year would authorize $886 billion in total military spending, with $842 billion going to the Pentagon.
"I was the only person to vote no on committee out of 59 on the bloated defense bill," Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) tweeted Thursday, referring to the House Armed Service's Committee's vote last month. "After amendments attacking abortion rights and trans rights, looks like my Dem colleagues may join me. Sometimes, it's okay to stand alone on principle."
Mounting Democratic opposition to the NDAA means Republicans will likely have to secure enough votes to pass the bill out of the House along party lines, a potentially difficult task given the intransigence of far-right members. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said Thursday that she intends to vote no after her amendment to strike $300 million in Ukraine aid from the NDAA failed to pass.
Another amendment led by Greene—a proposal to ban the U.S. government from selling or transferring cluster munitions to Ukraine—also failed Thursday, though it did receive the support of 49 Democrats, including Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and Jim McGovern (D-Mass.).
The failure of Greene's cluster bombs amendment came after Republicans on the House Rules Committee blocked consideration of a broader proposal led by Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) and Omar that would have prohibited the U.S. from transferring cluster munitions worldwide.
The Pentagon said Thursday that U.S. cluster munitions have arrived in Ukraine, days after President Joe Biden approved their transfer in the face of protests from human rights groups and members of his own party.
"Kevin McCarthy may be the MAGA ringmaster, but it is clear that the clowns have taken over the circus."
A final House vote on the NDAA is expected Friday. The Senate still needs to pass its version of the bill, and the two chambers must reconcile the differences.
Progressives voiced outrage over House Republicans' decision to turn the NDAA into another vehicle for their broader war on reproductive rights and LGBTQ people.
"They showed their complete disregard for our LGBTQ+ service members by adopting amendments that strip medically necessary care from transgender service members and their families, censor LGBTQ+ service members by prohibiting the display of Pride flags, and ban books that include transgender people or discuss gender identity," said Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus. "These riders cannot stand, and my colleagues and I will use every tool to get them removed during conference."
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) noted on Twitter that Rules Committee Republicans prevented a House vote on her proposals to cut the Pentagon budget by $100 billion, rein in rampant price gouging by defense contractors, and repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force in Iraq as they advanced their attacks on abortion access, gender-affirming care, diversity programs, climate action, and more.
In scathing remarks on the House floor ahead of Thursday's votes, McGovern—the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee—blasted "MAGA wingnuts" who "threw a fit and hijacked" the NDAA to advance their far-right agenda.
"It's outrageous that a tiny minority of Republicans is getting to dictate exactly what amendments come to the floor," McGovern said. "Kevin McCarthy may be the MAGA ringmaster, but it is clear that the clowns have taken over the circus."
Less than two weeks into her term, new Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade has become a target of a national campaign to keep former President Donald Trump from appearing on ballots in 2024.
Two advocacy groups, Free Speech For People and Mi Familia Vota Education Fund, sent Griffin-Valade and top election officials in eight other states letters this week calling on them to disqualify Trump from running for federal office. Ben Morris, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office, confirmed that the office received the letter.
“The agency will review it, as we do all suggestions from the public, but we have no comment on their request at this time,” Morris said.
Free Speech For People and Mi Familia Vota Education Fund invoked a rarely-used section of the Fourteenth Amendment intended to prevent former Confederates from holding federal office after the Civil War.
The Fourteenth Amendment, one of a trio of constitutional amendments adopted during the Reconstruction Era, is best known for its first section, which declares that everyone born or naturalized in the U.S. is a full citizen and deserves equal protection under the law. Section 3 of the amendment prohibits anyone who previously took an oath to support the U.S. Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof” from holding any federal office. A two-thirds vote of Congress could allow such a person to take office.
“This clause applies to Donald Trump,” the letter to Griffin-Valade said. “Having sworn an oath to support the Constitution as an officer of the United States, then ‘engaged’ in the January 6 insurrection as that term is defined by law and precedent, Trump is now ineligible to hold any ‘office … under the United States,’ including the presidency, unless and until he is relieved of that disqualification by two-thirds of both chambers of Congress.”
The advocacy groups want to block Trump from even appearing on ballots. Election officials routinely determine whether candidates are qualified to run – people who are too young for offices with age limits or don’t meet residency requirements don’t appear on ballots.
“Secretaries of state and state election officials are well within their authority to bar former President Donald Trump from the ballot,” Mi Familia Vota National Programs Manager Irving Zavaleta said in a statement. “We all know that Donald Trump incited an insurrection to stop the certification of the 2020 election. Under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment, anyone who has taken the oath of office to defend the Constitution and then engages in an insurrection is disqualified from holding future public office. Trump is disqualified, and we strongly urge election officials to bar him from the ballot.”
In Oregon, candidates file a two-page form declaring their candidacy and swearing that they meet qualifications for that office. State or local election staff then review those forms and determine whether a candidate is qualified.
Whether Trump appears on ballots in Oregon ultimately wouldn’t make much of a difference. The state’s presidential primary in May is among the last in the nation, and parties typically know their nominees before Oregon voters cast their ballots.
The last Republican to win a presidential election in Oregon was Ronald Reagan in 1984, and the state’s Democratic voting record isn’t expected to change anytime soon.
Free Speech for People and Mi Familia Vota sent similar letters in 2021 to top election officials in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The latest batch of nine letters went to secretaries of state or election board chairs in Oregon, California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Some letters address specific issues
The new letters were largely identical, but the groups provided additional examples in Oregon, Michigan, North Carolina and Georgia.
The letter to Griffin-Valade cited former Secretary of State Shemia Fagan’s decision last year to prevent New York Times columnist Nick Kristof from running for governor as a Democrat because he hadn’t met a requirement to live in the state for the three years prior to election. The state Supreme Court upheld Fagan’s decision and reiterated that the secretary of state is responsible for determining whether candidates are qualified to appear on ballots.
“The January 6, 2021 attack and its facts are well documented for the secretary to know and thereby ‘take action’ to remove Trump from the ballot,” the letter said.
The Michigan letter cited a former secretary of state’s decision to leave a Libertarian Party candidate for president, Gary Johnson, off the general election ballot in 2012 because he had lost a Republican primary election earlier that year. Michigan, like Oregon, has a so-called “sore loser law” that blocks candidates who lose a primary election from running as an independent or with another party in the general election.
Letters to Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and the North Carolina State Board of Elections cite the state’s 2011 decisions to disqualify a naturalized citizen, Abdul Hassan, who filed to run for president in several states to challenge the constitutional requirement that presidents be citizens at birth.
The North Carolina letter also cites the board’s 2022 attempt to hold a hearing on a challenge to former U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s re-election bid because he promoted and spoke at a Jan. 6, 2021, rally that devolved into an attack on the U.S. Capitol. A federal district court blocked the board from holding such a hearing. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted that injunction, but by that point Cawthorn had already lost his primary and the case was moot.
A letter to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger cited a 2022 challenge from some Georgia voters who tried to keep U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from running for re-election. They argued that she engaged in insurrection by saying on Jan. 5, 2021, that Jan. 6 would be “our 1776 moment,” referring to the American colonies declaring independence from Britain.
Greene filed state and federal lawsuits over the challenge before Raffensperger could make his decision. A Georgia administrative law judge concluded that Greene was eligible for election because her statements were protected by the First Amendment. The judge left the ultimate decision up to Raffensperger, who allowed her to appear on the ballot and said voters would decide whether her political statements were disqualifying.
Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lynne Terry for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on Facebook and Twitter.
Speaking to both Capitol reporter Garrett Haake and former GOP Speaker aide Branden Buck, Jansing said that the feud hasn't yet made it to the celebrity gossip pages.
"This is a very kind of high school cafeteria storyline, as it has been for the last week or so now," quipped Haake. "The freedom caucus doesn't publish their membership, and they have been trying to not talk about this too much."
But it's a fact that Raw Story confirmed on Wednesday when known Freedom Caucus members outright yelled at reporters to "mind your own business.
"It's clear they have become fed up with some of the activities of Marjorie Taylor Greene that, frankly, frustrated Democrats in the last Congress," Haake continued.
Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), a Freedom Caucus member, told MSNBC that Greene has "consistently" been a problem for the caucus by attacking several members, not only Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO).
Haake said Democrats are quietly nodding as if to say, "I told you so."
That might be why Buck doesn't see any changes on the horizon.
"In some ways, she's bigger than the Freedom Caucus," he said. "What I'll be curious to see, though, is her entire brand is about being controversial. It's not being the teacher's pet. She's going to have to break out a little bit of that, and see if it comes back to bite Kevin McCarthy. The Freedom Caucus is going to be a problem with McCarthy. They exist to do that. It only takes four or five to cause a real headache. I expect the road ahead is going to be quite difficult with or without her on his side."
"She said I don't have time for the drama club, but drama is her stock in trade," Jansing zinged.
Meanwhile, Greene has been pressing her amendments to the defense reauthorization to remove any funding for gender-affirming care for American soldiers and withdraw Ukraine funding.
WASHINGTON — Since December, when the U.S. House’s Jan. 6 select committee released its damning final report, its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), has attempted to resume his usual low profile.
But in an exclusive interview this week with Raw Story, the quiet-tempered lawmaker said his special committee “forced” the Department of Justice to finally investigate the role then-President Donald Trump and his closest associates played in fomenting the failed insurrection.
“The work of the committee kind of forced DOJ to get engaged, because a lot of what we did we passed on to them,” Thompson told Raw Story just outside the Capitol on a muggy summer day.
Thompson — with a scraggly gray beard and the unhurried gait of a 75-year-old Southern gentleman — walks alone these days. Gone is his security detail and phalanx of staffers. No more idling SUV ready to whisk him away at a moment’s notice. The gaggle of Capitol Hill reporters that used to flock about him now professionally-stalks Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), George Santos (R-NY) or the other GOP political flavors of the week.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who served as chairman of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Everything changed when Republicans took over control of the House at the start of this 118th Congress.
Instead of investigating those who stormed the Capitol, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) introduced a censure resolution against Thompson last month, which – after more than 30 days of being public now – has only garnered one cosponsor, Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC).
Greene and Gaetz also held a hearing into the J6 attack where the FBI, DOJ and Capitol Police were portrayed as guilty or culpable parties. The hearing took place at the very moment federal officials were arranging Trump in Miami on 37 felony charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified and other sensitive government documents.
“They're trying to normalize the abnormal,” Thompson said. “And so if that's how they see democracy at working, then that's who they are.”
Thompson told Raw Story his committee’s work speaks for itself — no matter how much Republicans try and rewrite history.
“The notion that somehow you can change the material facts in this situation, is just not the way it is,” Thompson said. “So I thought they would really legislate, come with their agenda, but their whole agenda is to undo everything that Democrats did. You gotta be in favor of something. It's like, okay, what are you gonna do? Wait until one of your wild cards say something stupid again?”
Thompson says he is proud the Jan. 6 special committee’s work is now being used by prosecutors who are convening a special grand jury in Fulton County, Ga., to investigate whether Trump attempted to illegally affect the outcome of the state’s 2020 presidential vote. The Jan. 6 committee, Thompson added, laid out an airtight case in its 800-plus page final report.
“There's no question in my mind, he knew everything that was going on. There was nothing that went on in Georgia that Donald Trump didn't know,” Thompson says.
Thompson says Georgia is key to it all, because of the recording of Trump’s call where he allegedly pressured Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to overturn the will of his people and fraudulently tilt the election against Democrat Joe Biden, who narrowly won the state.
"I just want to find 11,780 votes,” Trump said on the Georgia call.
“He got caught,” Thompson said.
“How’d he get caught? What’s the smoking gun?” Raw Story asked.
“The Raffensperger call. And now I think there’s a couple calls out in Arizona,” Thompson said, referring to a newly revealed attempt by Trump to seemingly pressure then-Gov. Doug Ducey to overturn election results in Arizona, which Biden also won.
While Thompson thinks the Georgia case is airtight, he says that doesn’t mean it’s a lock.
“I would say based on the fact that, [Trump’s] role talking to the Georgia secretary of state, him having other people serving as his surrogates go talk to people, him promoting the electors who were not duly elected — all that is part of his orchestration,” Thompson said. “Now how the district attorney presents that [evidence] and on what charges?”
Thompson is the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee where he’s been busy this year defending Biden from attacks over his handling of security on the southern border.
Thompson doesn’t hold press conferences and generally remains silent these days. He points back to the Jan. 6 committee’s body of work and findings.
“Under no circumstances can anybody say, ‘No, we’re gonna erase it, because what you saw with your own eyes, wasn’t what you saw.’ So the work on the committee was tremendous,” Thompson told Raw Story. “Not only did we save our democracy, but in the long run, I think we strengthened it.”
WASHINGTON — Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) compared Donald Trump's two impeachments to some of the greatest atrocities in American history Wednesday.
Speaking to Raw Story at the U.S. Capitol, Issa said that the impeachments were "wrong" and they should be made right – in the same way that the nation should have apologized for the extermination of Native Americans and the interment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Talking about the push to erase the impeachment, spearheaded by Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, he went on to falsely claim, "There is a track record of expunging impeachment, so it wouldn't be inconsistent."
Only three presidents in history were impeached: Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. None of them were convicted, but none of the impeachments have been expunged. Issa didn't give examples.
Greene told Raw Story that she's pushing forward with the attempt to expunge an impeachment involving a call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump attempted to solicit a bribe. Meanwhile, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is seeking to expunge Donald Trump's impeachment for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and the alleged attempts to overthrow the 2020 election. The latter issue may ultimately result in further indictment by the Justice Department.
Issa said, "Why should we apologize for imprisoning the Japanese during World War II? Because it was wrong and we want to make sure it's said. Why do we deal with what we did to Native Americans? Because it was wrong. Why are we looking at Medal of Honor candidates from decades ago? Because they were overlooked."
"It's never too late to right a wrong."
While there aren't exact figures, it is estimated that "European settlers killed 56 million indigenous people over about 100 years in South, Central and North America."
During the Japanese internment, 125,284 people were registered to be imprisoned because they were considered a threat to the security of the U.S. Of them 1,862 people died due to medical issues.
In a conversation with Newsweek, Georgetown University Professor Joshua Chafetz explained, "an impeachment cannot be expunged because it has effect outside of the House."
The House passes the impeachment, and the trial is in the Senate. While the House might vote to expunge the impeachment vote, it wouldn't remove the impeachment trial in the Senate unless there were 60 votes supporting it.
When asked about the expungement, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) told Raw Story there are important challenges that the country is facing, and implied rewriting Trump's record isn't one of them.
"Focusing on things that make no difference — suggesting that Logan Roy had a point, 'These are not smart people,'" Romney said, quoting the fictional character from "Succession," based on News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch.
"It's a classic Trump move," he continued. "There's nothing unusual about it. You ain't seen nothin' yet. There's no bottom to this pond."
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) Screen Grab
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), who served as chairman of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Drew Angerer/Getty Images