By the middle of the afternoon, January 6, 2021, had become one of the most shameful days in the history of the United States. There have been many deadlier days, but few have featured more grievous injury to the country’s sense of itself as a beacon of constitutional democracy. At times, watching Wednesday’s livestreams from the Capitol felt like witnessing the Visigoths’ sack of Rome—a sensation heightened by the common understanding that it probably wouldn’t be the last time such a blow was struck. There were actually two tragedies. In Congress, a majority of the House Republican Caucus (including sixteen from the Texas delegation, more than any other state) and a handful of senators voted repeatedly to overturn lawful and transparently obtained electoral college results,…View Original Post
"Simon & Schuster says it has decided not to publish a forthcoming book by Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, citing the lawmaker’s role in fomenting this week’s ‘disturbing [and] deadly insurrection’ at the U.S. Capitol. Hawley quickly fired back at the publisher, calling the move ‘Orwellian’ and an “assault on the First Amendment.’” – NPR, 1/7/21
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This could not be more Orwellian. Simon & Schuster is refusing to publish my unsolicited submission of CSI Miami erotic fan fiction. It’s a direct assault on the First Amendment.
The publisher returned my manuscript, noting that it was “amateurish” and “barely intelligible drivel.” They said that my writing was “filled with unnecessary scientific jargon and sexual innuendo,” adding, “we must once again insist, please stop.” It’s their right to think what they think, but they need to respect my First Amendment right to free speech. Who do they think they are, an independent company that can just print the works they want? I thought America was a free market capitalist state, not a totalitarian dystopia.
My novel, Horatio ‘Hornblower’ Caine: Criminally Sexy Investigator, tells the story that network television was afraid to tell. It’s 1,300 pages of graphic sexual encounters and witty one-liners. Is it art? I don’t know. Pornography? Perhaps. A blatant violation of CBS’s intellectual property rights? Most certainly. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that by refusing to stand behind me, by refusing to invest in the publication and distribution of my work, Simon & Schuster is denying my constitutional right to free speech and denying the public their constitutional right to a sexual reimagining of the greatest Miami-based cop show of the 2000s.
We are now living in an Orwellian world in which only approved speech can be published. I mean, sure, I could just self-publish my book. Heck, I could reach out to my thousands of Twitter followers to deliver my message. And well, I guess you’re reading this right now. But freedom of speech isn’t just the freedom to say what I want. It’s an entitlement to a platform. A respected platform! A big-five national publisher! Hardcover editions! Prestige!
The framers of the constitution didn’t envision people self-publishing BDSM-themed police procedural novels. They expected every American to have access to a major publisher who would distribute the erotic adventures of Miami’s sexiest science cop. They wouldn’t expect me to release an ebook. Can you imagine Benjamin Franklin doing the 18th-century equivalent, just printing pamphlets without government interference? Of course not. He was entitled to have his words published by a major publisher. I’m sure that a lot of his works were erotic too. He worked to ensure that a contract with a large publishing house was a constitutional right of every American (well, every white, property-owning male American at least).
The Left will cancel anything they disapprove of. CSI Miami., Regular CSI. The New York one. The Ted Danson one. Not Becker. I’m talking about CSI. The one about cybercrimes. James Van Der Beek was in it as well. But Becker too. Liberals hate Ted Danson’s remarkable staying power in television. Well, I will fight this cancel culture with everything I have — namely, a lengthy manuscript in need of copyediting about a Miami cop by night who transforms into a leather daddy a little later on in the night.
I’ll see you in court, Simon & Schuster! And when I do, you better believe I’m going to address the court personally. I’ll look down, pausing for dramatic effect before saying, “If my legal arguments are wrong — I don’t wanna be right.” Sunglasses on. That song by The Who kicks in. “Yeeeeeeeeeeah!” Case closed. Freedom of speech is protected. “U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”
by Ben Parker, Stephanie Steinbrecher, Kelsey Ronan, John McMurtrie, Sophia DuRose, Rachel Villa, and Amy Sumerton
To download a PDF of this entire list, click here.
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Early in President Trump’s term, McSweeney’s editors began to catalog the head-spinning number of misdeeds coming from his administration. We called this list a collection of Trump’s cruelties, collusions, and crimes, and it felt urgent then to track them, to ensure these horrors — happening almost daily — would not be forgotten. This election year, amid a harrowing global health, civil rights, humanitarian, and economic crisis, we know it’s never been more critical to note these horrors, to remember them, and to do all in our power to reverse them.
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Various writers have compiled this list during the course of the Trump administration. Their work has been guided by invaluable journalistic resources, includingWTFJHT, NPR, theNew York Times, theWashington Post, and other sources, to whom we are grateful.
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ATROCITY KEY
– Sexual Misconduct, Harassment, & Bullying – White Supremacy, Racism, Homophobia, Transphobia, & Xenophobia – Public Statements / Tweets – Collusion with Russia & Obstruction of Justice – Trump Staff & Administration – Trump Family Business Dealings – Policy – Environment
– February 10, 2011 – In 2011, Donald Trump stoked false claims that Barack Obama had lied about his education. During a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump said, “Our current president came out of nowhere. Came out of nowhere. In fact, I’ll go a step further: The people that went to school with him, they never saw him, they don’t know who he is. It’s crazy.” This is false. Numerous accounts from Obama’s college classmates refute Trump’s claim, including Obama’s Columbia roommate, Phil Doerner.
– March 30, 2011 – Donald Trump was a vocal proponent of the “birther” myth, claiming Barack Obama was not born in the United States. In 2011, Trump told Bill O’Reilly, “If you are going to be president of the United States you have to be born in this country. And there is a doubt as to whether or not he was… He doesn’t have a birth certificate. He may have one, but there’s something on that, maybe religion, maybe it says he is a Muslim. I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t want that. Or he may not have one. But I will tell you this. If he wasn’t born in this country, it’s one of the great scams of all time.” In response to the “birther” conspiracy theory, the State of Hawaii released Barack Obama’s short- and long-form birth certificate.
– August 6, 2012 – Over a year after the White House released Obama’s long-form birth certificate, Donald Trump again promoted the “birther” myth, tweeting, “An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud.” President Trump has publicly attacked media outlets for citing anonymous sources, but has himself cited anonymous sources numerous times to support the claim that Barack Obama lied about his biography.
– December 12, 2013 – Years after first stirring controversy about Barack Obama’s birthplace, Donald Trump implied a conspiracy surrounding the death of the Hawaiian State Official who had released Obama’s long-form birth certificate in 2011. Trump tweeted, “How amazing, the State Health Director who verified copies of Obama’s “birth certificate” died in plane crash today. All others lived.”
– May 27, 2015 – Continuing to build on the debunked “birther” conspiracy, Donald Trump said Barack Obama could have claimed Kenya as his birthplace for special treatment from colleges. Trump said, “There are three things that could happen. And one of them did happen. He was perhaps born in Kenya. Very simple, OK? He was perhaps born in this country. But said he was born in Kenya because if you say you were born in Kenya, you got aid and you got into colleges. People were doing that. So perhaps he was born in this country, and that has a very big chance. Or, you know, who knows?"
– June 16, 2015 – In his speech announcing his candidacy for President of the United States, Donald Trump said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
– June 16, 2015 – In the same speech announcing his candidacy, Donald Trump said, “I will build a great wall—and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me—and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.” Trump’s belief that Mexico should finance construction for the wall led Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to cancel a meeting with Trump in June 2017, and again in February 2018. Peña Nieto has repeatedly said that Mexico will not fund the border wall.
– July 18, 2015 – Donald Trump insulted the military service of Senator John McCain, a decorated Vietnam War veteran who endured torture and solitary confinement as a POW in Hanoi. Trump said in a speech at the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa, "He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” Trump’s comments drew boos from his audience in Iowa, as well as widespread condemnation from Republicans and Democrats alike. Donald Trump himself was exempted from military service after receiving four student deferments between 1964 and 1968, and a medical deferment for a “bone spur in his foot” after graduating from college.
– August 7, 2015 – During the first Republican primary debate in 2015, Donald Trump clashed with moderator Megyn Kelly regarding his many controversial statements against women. In one exchange, Trump claimed his disparaging remarks about women were limited to comments about Rosie O’Donnell, to which Kelly responded, “Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?” The next day, Trump told a CNN interviewer that Kelly had been “off-base” in the way she treated him. “She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions,” Trump said. “You know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”
– November 25, 2015 – At a campaign rally in South Carolina, Trump mocked New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis, a congenital joint condition. “Now, the poor guy, you ought to see this guy,” Trump said, imitating Kovaleski by flailing his arms about. Trump’s ridicule of Kovaleski came after the journalist disputed Trump’s claim that he had seen thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center — a claim that has been discredited by officials.
– April, 2016 – Jill Harth accused Donald Trump of sexual assault. In a 1997 lawsuit, Harth stated in court documents that Trump harassed and groped her in 1993. She later dropped the suit but stood by her story.
– May 5, 2016 – For the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo, Donald Trump posted a photo of himself eating a taco bowl to Facebook and Twitter, captioned, “Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!”
– May 31, 2016 – Donald Trump attacked Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge who presided over the Trump University fraud case, saying that Curiel’s assignment to the case represented "an absolute conflict because the judge was “of Mexican heritage.” “I’m building a wall,” said Trump, “It’s an inherent conflict of interest.”
– June, 2016 – Cassandra Searles, Miss Washington 2013, accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct at the Miss USA pageant. Searles posted a photo of contestants with Trump on Facebook, saying, “One guy treated us like cattle,” and “proceeded to have us lined up so he could get a closer look at his property.”
– July 30, 2016 – Donald Trump belittled Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a Muslim American soldier who had been killed while serving in the Army, for their speech at the Democratic National Convention. In his speech at the DNC, Khizr Khan had addressed Trump’s stringent anti-Muslim immigration policies, saying, “Have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document, look for the words liberty and equal protection of law.” In response to the speech, Trump suggested that Khan had “no right” to criticize him.
– October 7, 2016 – In the 2005 Access Hollywood tape, Donald Trump bragged to Billy Bush about grabbing women by their genitals without consent. In the video published by the Washington Post, Trump said, “I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it, you can do anything… grab them by the pussy.” Trump said his statements were “locker room banter” and apologized “if anyone was offended.” He later issued a further response to the tape’s release, saying, “I’ve never said I’m a perfect person.”
– October 7, 2016 – Donald Trump reiterated his false claim that the young men known as the “Central Park Five” were guilty of sexually assaulting a jogger in 1989, despite DNA evidence that exonerated them.
– October 11, 2016 – Tasha Dixon, a former Miss Universe contestant, accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct. Dixon asserted that Trump walked into their changing room in 2001 while contestants were changing. On the Howard Stern Show in 2005, Trump said about the pageant, “I’ll go backstage before a show and everyone’s getting dressed and ready and everything else. And you know, no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. And therefore, I’m inspecting it. You know they’re standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that.”
– October 12, 2016 – Rachel Crooks claimed Donald Trump sexually harassed her. Crooks said that when she met Trump for the first time in 2005 while working as a receptionist for a company in Trump Tower, Trump would not let go of her hand and inappropriately kissed her.
– October 12, 2016 – Jessica Leeds alleged Donald Trump made inappropriate sexual advances towards her. Over 30 years ago Leeds sat next to Trump on a plane, where he lifted the armrest, grabbed her breasts, and put his hand up her skirt. She described him as an “octopus,” saying, “his hands were everywhere.”
– October 12, 2016 – Mindy McGillivray accused Donald Trump of groping her. McGillivray alleged that Trump touched her without her consent while she was attending a concert at Mar-a-Lago in 2003.
– October 12, 2016 – Jennifer Murphy, a former contestant on the television show “The Apprentice,” said that Donald Trump kissed her without her consent after a job interview in 2005. She claimed that he had made multiple inappropriate comments to her while she was on the show and when she met with him later about job opportunities.
– October 12, 2016 – Natasha Stoynoff, a journalist, accused Donald Trump of sexual harassment. Stoynoff said that Trump insisted on giving her a tour of his Palm Beach estate while she was interviewing him and his wife, Melania. Trump pinned her to a wall and kissed her. Trump called her a “liar” and responded to Stoynoff’s story, saying, “Look at her… I don’t think so.”
– October 13, 2016 – Lisa Boyne accused Donald Trump of sexual misbehavior. Boyne asserted that at a dinner in 1996, Trump and modeling agent John Casablancas paraded women in front of their table, looking under their skirts to determine whether each woman was wearing underwear.
– October 14, 2016 – Kristin Anderson claimed Donald Trump groped her in the early 1990s. Anderson was at a club in Manhattan with friends when, she asserted, Trump reached into her skirt and touched her without consent, leaving her and her friends “very grossed out.”
– October 14, 2016 – Samantha Holvey described Donald Trump’s sexual misconduct at the 2006 Miss USA pageant. While participating in the competition, Holvey noted that Trump inspected each contestant before the event. She noted, “He would step in front of each girl and look you over from head to toe like we were just meat, we were just sexual objects, that we were not people.”
– October 14, 2016 – Summer Zervos, a former contestant on The Apprentice, accused Donald Trump of sexual assault. Zervos claimed that Trump assaulted her on several occasions, kissing and grabbing her, and during one business meeting, “began thrusting his genitals.”
– October 15, 2016 – Cathy Heller accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct. Heller said she was having Mother’s Day brunch in 1997 at Mar-a-Lago when Trump grabbed her, tried kissing her, and became angry when she twisted away.
– October 21, 2016 – Karen Virginia accused Donald Trump of groping her. Virginia described how she’d seen Trump with a group of men at the U.S. Open in 1998, and overheard him say about her “Hey look at this one!” and “Look at those legs.” After his comments, Trump approached Virginia, grabbed her by the right arm, and touched her breast. The incident lingered with Virginia for years, and she came forward with her story alongside Gloria Allred: “I now understand that I was not to blame. Mr. Trump, perhaps you do not remember me or what you did to me so many years ago, but I can assure you that I remember you and what you did to me as though it was yesterday," she said. "Your random moment of sexual pleasure came at my expense and affected me greatly.”
– October 27, 2016 – Ninni Laaksonen, a former Miss Finland, alleged that Donald Trump had sexually harassed her. Laaksonen described an incident in which Trump groped her from behind in 2006.
– November 18, 2016 – One week after Trump’s election, 100 foreign diplomats gathered at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. to drink champagne and tour the building. One diplomat told the Washington Post, “Why wouldn’t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, ‘I love your new hotel!’ Isn’t it rude to come to his city and say, ‘I am staying at your competitor?’” This indicated a conflict of interest that could have violated the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which forbids government officials from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
– November 27, 2016 – Without citing evidence to support his claim, Donald Trump tweeted, “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally”. This claim has been repeatedly debunked.
– January 10, 2017 – Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Donald Trump approached him about leading an investigation into “Vaccine Safety.” The prospect that vaccination can lead to autism has been repeatedlydebunked by long-running, peer-reviewed studies. Trump had supported the anti-vaccination theory on stage at the 2015 presidential debates. In September 2015 he publicly stated, “We had so many instances, people that work for me, just the other day, two years old, a beautiful child, went to have the vaccine and came back and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic.”
– January 11, 2017 – Donald Trump’s lawyer Sheri Dillon stated that Trump would “voluntarily donate all profits from foreign government payments made to his hotel to the United States Treasury.” Two months into his presidency, no evidence existed that Trump had followed through with this promise. If Trump did accept payments from foreign states through his businesses, as his lawyer claimed, he may have been in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. This clause forbids government officials from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
– January 11, 2017 – Donald Trump refused to divest from his real estate companies or place his assets in a blind trust, as encouraged by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. The United States Government designates a “Qualified Blind Trust:” for executive branch employees as one where the trustee has no relation whatsoever to the government official. Contrary to this, President Trump opted to entrust...
Good morning. Today’s post will be fairly brief, as I went in depth rather significantly on weekend snow chances yesterday, and we will be keeping you posted this weekend. To be quite frank, not much has changed since yesterday’s post, although trends overnight were slightly warmer. But still, let’s jump in.
Today & Saturday
Not much weather to speak of over the next 24 to 36 hours. Today will see a bit of low cloud cover in parts of the area this morning give way to mostly sunny skies. Look for highs in the mid-50s. Tonight will see clear to partially cloudy skies with lows in the 30s and 40s. High clouds may dim the sun a bit tomorrow, but otherwise, it will be a mainly nice day with highs once again in the mid-50s.
Sunday
So the forecast for Sunday looks mostly on track with the big picture details being cloudy skies to start with rain developing from west to east through the late morning and afternoon. The thought right now is that basically the entire area from the coast through Conroe (Highway 105) will begin as rain. As the atmosphere cools later Sunday afternoon and evening and the rate of precipitation increases, that’s when we’ll start to likely see some snow reports begin to trickle in from places like Huntsville or Lake Livingston or College Station. It’s possible a few locations farther south closer to Houston see snow mix in if it rains hard enough Sunday afternoon.
One model (Canadian) depiction of what might be falling at 6 PM on Sunday, with rain for most of Harris County and south of I-10, but mixed rain and snow as you go north of Harris County, and mostly snow perhaps north of Highway 105. (Weather Bell)
As we go deeper into Sunday evening, watch for more snow reports to come in from places even farther south, more into Conroe or The Woodlands or Tomball out into Cleveland and Liberty. Rain may turn to mostly snow in some of those places before ending after midnight. And perhaps the rain will end as some light snow in Houston also after midnight.
Will snow accumulate? As of right now that seems very unlikely in the city of Houston and most of Harris County and surrounding counties to the west, south, and east. For Montgomery County and points north from there, yes, snow might accumulate a bit. Right now I wouldn’t expect more than an inch or two, mostly on grassy surfaces and trees, but we could see more in spots depending on how things come together. Slick road conditions are indeed possible up that way Sunday night and Monday morning.
As of Friday morning, the snowfall forecast for Texas shows a wide band of 4 to 8 inches of snow to the north and west of about Waco, with snow totals dropping into the 1 to 3 inch range east of I-35. Again, this too could change.
The current snowfall forecast calls for 4 to 8″ of snow over a wide swath of West Texas, with totals dropping to 1 to 3 inches as you get east of I-35. (NOAA)
Once more, we have to underscore that because storm tracks matter a lot and a few miles can make a world of difference, there is still substantial uncertainty surrounding this forecast. Much may change by Sunday morning. We’ll keep you posted this weekend. I mean, can you tell that I’m excited by this? Has it shown at all?
Again, in addition to the snow aspect of things, there will be locally heavy rain (up to an inch in spots, more perhaps near the coast) but probably no serious flooding. Thunderstorms are possible. And coastal issues, such as rip currents, rough seas, strong winds, and even some tidal flooding will be possible also.
Monday and next week
Look for clouds to hang tough on Monday behind the storm, with cold and windy conditions. Clouds clear for Tuesday, Wednesday, and probably Thursday. Look for temps to rebound into the 50s and eventually 60s. Morning lows in the 30s Monday morning (and perhaps a freeze north of the city) will rebound into the 40s by midweek.
The Adventures of Punk Bird Issues 2 & 3 are black and white US quarter-sized comic zines about Punk Bird adventures in drunkenness and trying to find a new place rent.
I think the biggest thing I personally take from Punk Bird is that I really need to chill out.
Whether it’s getting drunk and stealing a police car, apologising to friends for drunk behaviour, or going through hell to find a new rental, Punk Bird is doing it all in style. Issues two and three continue on with the ‘day in the life’ feel and style of the first issue with each focusing on a particular event/point in time.
I haven’t had any alcohol-fuelled adventures anywhere near the level of Punk Bird (issue two), but I absolutely related to the ridiculousness of trying to find a rental (issue one) – including holes in the floor!
Punk Bird is a comic series I feel like I can relax and have a laugh with. (And be reminded I need to chill out, as I mentioned.) They’re a reminder that life is a mess and so are we, but it can still be fun and work out in the end.
Paxton, like other Republicans in Texas and across the nation, whipped up thousands of Trump supporters into a deluded frenzy, claiming falsely that the election had been stolen from them.
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune
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On Wednesday morning, Ken Paxtonstood in front of a roaring crowd, reminding a sea of President Donald Trump’s supporters that the president “is a fighter” and his backers must be, too.
“We’re here. We will not quit fighting,” he said, slamming Republican officials in Georgia who have stood by President-elect Joe Biden’s victory there. “We are Texans, we are Americans, and we’re not quitting.”
But by the evening — after members of the crowd he had invited to Washington, D.C., stirred up with false claims about election fraud, resorted to violence, smashing windows and scaling walls to breach the nation’s Capitol in a mob that forced members of Congress to flee and left at least one woman dead — he had claimed they were not his ilk at all.
The untenable pivot provides an insight into a remarkable day in American history: Paxton, like other Republicans in Texas and across the nation, whipped up thousands of Trump supporters into a deluded frenzy, claiming falsely that the election had been stolen from them. When that frenzy reached its violent conclusion, he blamed someone else.
In an interview early Thursday with Fox News, Paxton disavowed the violent actors and said they should be prosecuted. But he also seemed resigned to the anger that fueled Wednesday’s events.
“There is a lot of frustration in this country from people who do think the election wasn't done appropriately…. It is going to create dissension in our country,” said Paxton, a co-chair of the Lawyers for Trump coalition. “And that’s just where we’re at.”
When asked by The Texas Tribune what evidence Paxton had that antifa protesters had attacked the U.S. Capitol while posing as Trump supporters, a spokesman for Paxton said he was merely sharing a tweet from a journalist. The person whose claims he promoted was Paul Sperry, a former reporter for the right-wing website WorldNetDaily, who “has a long record of promoting anti-Muslim conspiracy theories," according to research from Georgetown University.
Spokesman Ian Prior said in a text message that Paxton condemns violence but encourages citizens “to ‘keep fighting’ for their rights at the ballot box, in the courts and through their First Amendment right to peacefully protest.”
There is no evidence that the rioters who breached the U.S. Capitol were members of antifa; in fact, photo evidence shows known right-wing agitators. And Trump himself acknowledged the rioters were there to support him, telling them, “we love you, you are very special.”
Paxton’s critics said his rhetoric and his leadership on the election fraud issue have contributed to real harm — as have other Texas Republicans including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who objected to certifying vote counts in several states.
“We know that Ted Cruz and Ken Paxton both know that Joe Biden won this election, yet they are deciding to score points with their violent base in a cynical attempt to garner extremist, right-wing support,” said Abhi Rahman, a spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party.
On Thursday, Grand Prairie state Rep. Chris Turner, chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, called for an investigation into Paxton’s role in Wednesday’s riot, leaving the door open to curbing the power of his office, restricting its budget, even censure and impeachment.
“From filing a fraudulent lawsuit that fueled unhinged conspiracy theories about a free and fair election, to egging on the crowd of insurrectionists in Washington, D.C., Paxton has played a major role in creating the national crisis that culminated with the first breach of our nation’s capital since the War of 1812,” Turner said. “Even today, Paxton has used social media to spread lies about yesterday’s acts of violence and insurrection.”
In December, Paxton’s support for Trump took the form of a widely panned, and ultimately rejected, lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to toss the election results in four battleground states that had handed the White House to Joe Biden. The lawsuit leaned on discredited claims of election fraud in the battleground states.
Paxton finds himself in a precarious political position, even before Wednesday’s disastrous events. Since October, he has been embroiled in a scandal after eight of his top aides in the attorney general’s office told authorities they believed he was breaking the law by doing a series of favors for a political donor.
Paxton has been in hot water before, and often escaped it only to climb higher politically, galvanizing support from the Republican party’s right flank. He alienated some with a long shot run for Texas House speaker, then got elected to the state Senate. He has characterized long-running felony securities fraud charges as a political witch hunt, much as Trump did in Washington.
Still, Paxton may have fewer defenders now than ever before.
At a low point in his rollercoaster political career, Paxton is betting on the Trump base to bring him back up the hill, lending the legitimacy of office to debunked claims that have motivated violence.
Paxton has long been a close Trump ally, greeting the president when Air Force One touches down in Texas, lining up with the administration in legal proceedings and vocally backing the president’s most controversial policies, including a ban on travel from several Muslim-majority countries. And he often talks about Trump in public appearances, an easy applause line for Paxton’s own political base, which includes the right flank of the Republican party.
One favorite is the story of Trump calling while Paxton was in the shower. At an event in September, Paxton described a conversation he’d had with Trump, saying, “he asked me about my legal stuff, I asked about his legal stuff.”
“We kind of bonded,” Paxton joked. “It was kind of weird.”
Now, his backing of the president has expanded into increasingly dangerous territory — to the point that some have publicly speculated that Paxton may be angling for a pardon.
The Supreme Court election challenge looked “like a fella begging for a pardon filed a PR stunt rather than a lawsuit — as all of its assertions have already been rejected by federal courts and Texas’ own solicitor general isn’t signing on,” U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said last month.
Prior dismissed that as “an absurdly laughable conspiracy theory.”
In an interview Thursday morning on Fox, Paxton was asked whether he’d been in touch with Trump since the riot on Wednesday.
He had not spoken to the president, he said. But he hoped to before Trump leaves office.
Disclosure: Facebook has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
I spent yesterday quite numb watching the events unfolding in Washington DC, in which an angry mob of insurrectionists -- egged on by the President of the United States, a few key Senators, and certain news media personalities -- literally stormed the US Capitol to try to block the formality of Presidential vote counting or, worse, to overthrow the government. I couldn't write anything. I couldn't take care of other work happening. I was witnessing the kind of history I never thought I would witness. I was angry. I was scared. I was frustrated. But most of all I was disappointed. What can you say after a day like yesterday? Most of what I could say would be covered by everyone else. Indeed, this morning I got to my desk to find that our own Tim Geigner had written the kind of post I originally thought I would write.
So this post will be a little different. It is clear by now that there is no redeeming our President even in his last days in office. He has shown that everything is about him. He literally said "we love you!" to the mob storming the Capitol. It has long been obvious that the only thing he cares about is himself -- and that he views everything through the lens of "does this person like me or not." He does not care about America. He does not care about its people. He cares about people who like him, and those storming the Capitol did so in his name, and he obviously loved it. Because, as stupid and illegal as what they did was, they were showing that they would do stupid and illegal things for him.
However, the real anger needs to be directed as his enablers. His many, many enablers. And it has become obvious that, for many of them, this is a game. This is not about governing. This is not about representing people's interests. This is about red team v. blue team, and doing whatever it takes to win. This is not new, of course. This has been the nature of politics going back centuries. But, in the US, there were at least some limits. Some small bit of idealism, often hidden away in the back corner of the attic, highlighted by the regular peaceful transfer of power even among political enemies, that said: in the end, the greater good is more important than just winning the game.
But, for too many, that has gone away. And winning the game is all that matters -- even if it destroys the entire nation. And for all the complaints I have about the Democratic Party, this is entirely on the Republican Party and its leadership. As I said on Twitter the other day, I actually prefer a divided government that can work on compromise. Despite regular accusations from people that I am whatever they are not, I've never been a member of either party, and I have always tried to support policies that I think will be most effective -- not based on ideology, but on understanding the policy and its likely impact. That's the way governing should work.
But the events of the last few years has shown that for too many in the Republican Party it is 100% about winning. It's not even based on ideology -- as the last four years has shown that their ideology will shift on a dime if they think it will help them win. The party of free trade flipped to be the party of trade wars. The party of small government became a huge supporter of government interference in business operations. Because it was not about ideology, it was about the game. About helping the red team win.
Much of the anger at this approach to "governing" needs to be directed at Mitch McConnell, who made it clear 12 years ago that his single driving ethos was making sure his team won and the other team lost -- and then made all sorts of unprecedented moves to make that happen. But, at least when on the brink, he recognized the pointlessness of continuing to push the myth that Trump actually won when it mattered yesterday. His last minute attempts to stuff that genie back in the bottle yesterday are no excuse, but the true scorn must be reserved for those who couldn't even do that much: Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz. Respected conservative commentator George Will got this part right in his Washington Post column today. Hawley and Cruz should forever be branded as seditionists after egging on and encouraging the events of yesterday, even as they came out late in the day with weak "we didn't mean violence!" statements:
Trump lit the fuse for the riot in the weeks before the election, with his successful effort to delegitimize the election in the eyes of his supporters. But Wednesday’s explosion required the help of Hawley (R-Mo.) and Cruz (R-Tex.).
Hawley announced his intention to object to the certification of some states’ electoral votes, for no better reason than that there has been an avalanche of “allegations” of election irregularities, allegations fomented by the loser of the election. By doing so, Hawley turned what should have been a perfunctory episode in our civic liturgy of post-election civility into a synthetic drama. He turned this moment into the focus of the hitherto unfocused fury that Trump had been stoking for many weeks.
And Cruz, by organizing support for Hawley among other Republican senators and senators-elect gave Hawley’s grotesque self-promotion an ersatz cloak of larger purpose. Shortly before the mob breached the Senate chamber, Cruz stood on the Senate floor. With his characteristic unctuousness, he regretted the existence of what he and kindred spirits have not only done nothing to refute but have themselves nurtured — a pandemic of suspicions that the election was “rigged.”
“I want to take a moment to speak to my Democratic colleagues,” said Cruz. “I understand your guy is winning right now.” Read those weasely words again. He was not speaking to his “colleagues.” He was speaking to the kind people who were at that instant assaulting the Capitol. He was nurturing the very delusions that soon would cause louts to be roaming the Senate chamber — the fantasy that Joe Biden has not won the election but is only winning “right now.”
Here's the important point: we know Trump doesn't understand or care about any of this. That's not true of Hawley or Cruz. They know. They know that Trump is off his rocker. But both of them see this as a game. It's a game they both want to win. They're both famous for their levels of naked greed and ambition to get to the top spot. And both have made the political calculus that the way to win is to egg on a mob of insurrectionists in the hopes that the same mob will support them in the future.
They both know that they are selling out America, harming the public, spreading disinformation, and helping to lead on a mob of insurrectionists. Because they think it's a game and they need to win.
And that's exactly why neither of them should be anywhere near positions of power ever again.
Both were given the biggest tests of their lives yesterday: do you make the right choice? Stand up for the Constitution? Stand up for that buried, hidden, dusty, abandoned-in-the-back-of-the-attic ideal of what America is supposed to be? Or do you take the ambitious but cowardly position of egging on the mob in the hopes that one day they will be your mob? I've criticized both Senators many times over the years because their actions and statements have long predicted this moment.
And, yet... in the back of my head, I still had that slight tinge of optimism that maybe, just maybe, one or both of them might look at what they had wrought and recognize that it's not just a game and that people's lives are at stake, and the very nature of our country is at stake, and come back from the brink and admit that perhaps they had gone too far.
This is what real leadership is about. Real leadership is about making the hard choices. The choices that are right in the face of deluded people telling you to go the other way. Real leadership is about recognizing when you are wrong, admitting it, and understanding why you made that mistake.
But neither Hawley nor Cruz did that. Both continued to attack. Cruz, bizarrely, accused Beto O'Rourke (his vanquished Senate opponent from a few years ago) of pushing for division. That is not reality. Hawley, after giving a now-famous raised fist gesture to the insurrectionist mob, stayed silent for hours before having his press team put out a weak tea statement about how he doesn't support violence. And, as Nilay Patel correctly noted, Hawley issued a much more forceful condemnation of... infinite scrolling apps than he did of the insurrectionist mob that he helped to encourage.
And then, after the invaders were removed from the Capitol, after so much damage had been done, they both had another chance. A chance to admit that America is more than a game to them. They had a chance to show that politics is not just about winning and losing, but about governing and leading and doing the right thing. And they both failed again. They both continued to object to the results of the election that they both absolutely know are legitimate.
And, yes, there remained an astounding number of idiot House Members who also objected -- often spewing debunked conspiracy theories and lies about election fraud that did not happen, and demanding investigations that already happened and proved the conspiracy theories were false -- and they all deserve criticism as well (including the GOP House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy). But the Senate is supposed to be different and better than that. And beyond that, Hawley and Cruz both know better. Neither are stupid. Both have long and well documented careers. Both attended Ivy League universities. Both clerked at the Supreme Court.
The FBI is asking the public to help identify people involved in the attack. D.C. Metro police is offering a reward of up to $1,000 to anyone who provides information leading to an arrest.
The images of the rioters racing through the Capitol building this week stood in sharp contrast to the handling of anti-racism protests near the White House a few months ago.
Pat Fallon was sworn in Sunday as a freshman member of Congress. On Wednesday, the Republican found himself ripping a tall wooden pole topped with a white hand sanitizer dispenser from the House floor and transforming the modern totem of pandemic precaution into a weapon. A frenzied mob of Donald Trump supporters had breached the Capitol and were approaching one of the most sacred spaces of American democracy. Fallon, who represents a northeast Texas district, estimated that some two hundred members of Congress—well more than were supposed to be gathered in close proximity at any one time under COVID restrictions—were on the House floor or nearby when the rioters tried to break in. “We hear the mob and we don’t know if it’s 20 people…View Original Post
Pro-Trump rioters used metal bars and tear gas to over take Capitol Police and breach the building. | Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
Police failed to stop a mob from storming the halls of Congress. Lawmakers want to know why.
The Capitol Police are supposed to protect Congress.
But on Wednesday, Americans watched in horror as a mob of Trump supporters streamed into the building, forcing Congress to evacuate and leaving a woman dead. And now everyone from ordinary Americans to members of Congress is asking the same question: How did the police let this happen?
For weeks, President Trump and his supporters had been publicly voicing plans for a “wild” protest in Washington on January 6. And ahead of Wednesday, Capitol Police had told members of Congress that they had a plan for enhanced security. In late December, Capitol Police spokesperson Eva Malecki told Roll Call that the department “has comprehensive security plans in place and we continuously monitor and assess new and emerging threats.”
But as Trump supporters smashed windows and stormed the Capitol, it soon became clear the building’s police force was severely outmatched. Save for a midnight shift change, the entire Capitol Police force — around 1,500 officers — was on duty Wednesday, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), who chairs the Legislative Branch Appropriations Committee, the panel with oversight over Capitol Police, told Vox in a Thursday interview. Additionally, 1,000 DC police officers were on duty near the Capitol area Wednesday.
“Look, I’m going to be as critical as anyone else for the blunder and the epic fail” of police leadership, Ryan told Vox. “But make no mistake, these were violent people who were swinging lead pipes at the cops. These were people armed with pepper spray, spraying at cops.”
In a statement on Thursday, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said more than 50 Capitol Police and DC Metropolitan police had sustained injuries — some of them serious. Ryan said 15 officers were hospitalized and one is in critical condition.
One video in the Capitol filmed by HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic showed a single police officer attempting to hold off intruders walking freely through the Capitol complex. At one point, the officer picked up what appeared to be a stick or a thin baton to ward them off. Soon after, he ran from the crowd, shouting into his walkie-talkie for backup.
Here’s the scary moment when protesters initially got into the building from the first floor and made their way outside Senate chamber. pic.twitter.com/CfVIBsgywK
Sund said in his statement that the department would investigate its response to the riot. But the statement also said Capitol officers “and our law enforcement partners responded valiantly when faced with thousands of individuals involved in violent riotous actions.”
However, some lawmakers were furious that the nation’s Capitol could be so easily invaded.
“I had a number of conversations with the sergeant at arms, Capitol Police, as recently as yesterday — as last night. There was not supposed to be anybody near the Capitol,” Ryan said Wednesday. Talking to reporters on Thursday, Ryan added he wanted to know why Capitol Police weren’t able to get immediate backup from the DC National Guard when they needed it.
Ryan added he had been told that the DC National Guard, DC Metro police, and SWAT teams would all be engaged in preparation for the day. (The Capitol Police are separate from the DC police that patrol the rest of the city.)
In reality, there were videos of police standing by or reacting slowly as Trump supporters got closer to the Capitol. It was a stark contrast to the show of force from police during this summer’s protests against police brutality in the wake of the George Floyd killing — or even Capitol Police arresting peaceful protesters with disabilities during a 2017 health care bill negotiation on the Hill.
The answers for what went wrong are likely to be the subject of investigation in the weeks and months to come. Ryan told reporters flatly that he expected people to be fired over the incident.
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
A single police officer uses what looks like pepper spray to keep a violent mob of Trump supporters from entering the Capitol building.
Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
Trump supporters enter the Capitol.
“It’s pretty clear there’s a number of people who are going to be without employment very, very soon,” Ryan said. “This is an embarrassment both on behalf of the mob, the president ... and the attempted coup — but also the lack of professional planning and dealing with what we knew was going to occur. There was a strategic breakdown, for sure. You can bet your ass we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”
Lawmakers echoed the shock of many Americans at the apparent collapse of law enforcement authority over what is usually one of the country’s most heavily guarded buildings. “I cannot believe this is happening in the US Capitol,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) told reporters on Wednesday, speaking from a secure and undisclosed location where she and other senators were being kept safe.
Duckworth added she had also been told there would be enhanced security for the election certification vote.
“We were told there would be increased security and we’d have extra time to get to a place,” she said.
Now the question before Congress and America is not just what went wrong on Wednesday, but how to prevent it from happening again.
The failures started long before Wednesday
Far from a surprise, the insurrection on Wednesday had been in the works for a long time, with support from the president himself. On December 19, he tweeted, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” His supporters took the name Wild Protest, as ProPublica reports, and began publicly planning an occupation. “We came up with the idea to occupy just outside the CAPITOL on Jan 6th,” movement leaders wrote on December 23.
Meanwhile, DC officials had begun tracking incoming bus reservations in the days leading up to Wednesday and realized “this could be a stadium-sized crowd,” one official told the Washington Post. On Monday, Mayor Muriel Bowser began warning DC residents to stay away from downtown, the Post reported.
But despite clear warning signs from Trump and his supporters — and the fact that city officials were on high alert — Capitol Police did not prepare for the size or violence of the crowd. Relaying conversations he’d had with police officials, Rep. Ryan told reporters the threat assessment done by law enforcement seriously underestimated the potential threat.
“Initially, it was that there wasn’t going to be any kind of violence anticipated,” Ryan said. “First Amendment protests, pretty vanilla, maybe some dust-ups ... but absolutely nothing like this.”
Police set up only low barriers around the perimeter of the building and were wearing ordinary uniforms instead of riot gear, the Post noted. As many pointed out, this was in stark contrast to the law enforcement response to Black Lives Matter protests this summer, when members of the National Guard formed an intimidating phalanx outside the Lincoln Memorial, clad in military-style gear.
“Being candid, I think if there were Black people out there, I think there would’ve been a different response in what they did,” Ryan told reporters Thursday.
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
Police use tear gas around the Capitol building in an attempt to control the violent mob of Trump supporters.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Members of the DC National Guard stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial monitoring Black Lives Matter demonstrators during a peaceful protest against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, on June 2, 2020.
And while police are trained to set up multiple layers of barriers far from any potential target, the Post reported, Capitol officers apparently did not try to stop rioters until they were actually on the Capitol steps.
From there, police were unable to prevent rioters from entering the building — or, in some cases, did not even try. One officer appeared to take a selfie with a Trump supporter as the mob roamed the building.
And even after insurrectionists stormed the Capitol, making abundantly clear the seriousness of the moment, police appeared to let many of them simply leave of their own accord rather than making arrests. That’s in part because there simply weren’t enough personnel on hand to both ensure the safety of members of Congress and make arrests, officials told the Post. Around 52 people had been arrested as of Thursday morning, out of a crowd of thousands that gathered around the Capitol. (The exact number of rioters who entered the Capitol is unclear.)
By contrast, more than 150 people were arrested by Capitol Police after demonstrations against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in October 2018. And last summer, more than 400 people were arrested over the course of a few days in connection with protests against police violence.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
In 2018, Capitol Police arrested more than 100 protesters after they occupied the steps of the east side of the US Capitol to demonstrate against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
In all, officials described an unprecedented failure to plan for and respond to what should have been an entirely predictable event: angry Trump supporters, stoked by the president’s tweets and his speech on Wednesday urging them to “walk down to the Capitol,” descending on the seat of Congress to incite mayhem. The fact that they succeeded — resulting in the death of one woman at the Capitol and reportedly three others in the course of the riot — will be the subject of questions and investigations for months to come.
Now lawmakers and Americans want answers
It’s not clear why Capitol Police were so unprepared for Wednesday’s obvious threat. The department has not responded to requests for comment from Vox or the Washington Post. In his statement on Thursday, Sund said that the department “had a robust plan established to address anticipated First Amendment activities. But make no mistake — these mass riots were not First Amendment activities.”
Indeed, some speculate that despite repeated public warnings, law enforcement just couldn’t believe Trump supporters would really storm the Capitol. “Would you imagine people were going to break into the Capitol and go into the chambers?” David Carter, director of the Intelligence Program at Michigan State University, remarked to ProPublica. “That failure of imagination sometimes makes us drop the ball.”
Others say that law enforcement might have been trying to use a lighter touch after criticisms of the way the summer’s protests were handled. “I’m pretty sure the Capitol Police were trying to do something a little softer, as we try to welcome protesters up there, but it got out of hand,” Terrance Gainer, former chief of the Capitol Police, said on CNN Thursday.
And while there were a few National Guard troops posted around the city, DC officials had reportedly asked them to maintain a limited presence, not wanting a repeat of the events of the summer, like the gassing of protesters in Lafayette Square, according to the Post.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Rioters who breached the Capitol building posed for photographs with stolen property.
Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images
Trump supporters in front of the US Capitol building.
However, some suggest that perhaps Capitol Police also had little interest in stopping the rioters, some of whom carried pro-police “thin blue line” flags. “The police might have been complicit because many sympathize with President Trump’s cause, or because many of the insurrectionists are the same people that support the ‘blue lives matter’ counter-movement,” Sabrina Karim, a professor of government at Cornell who studies security, said in a statement to media on Wednesday’s events. “They have been supportive of the police, and thus arresting ‘allies’ may not be in the larger interests of the police.”
And while police might have been trying a “softer” approach, it’s impossible to ignore the differences in law enforcement response with protests earlier this year.
On Wednesday, a group of mostly white Trump supporters were allowed to take selfies and roam freely in the Capitol because they falsely believed the election was rigged. This summer, a diverse group of protesters were subject to military-style control when they gathered to demonstrate against police brutality. Especially glaring is the contrast between the intentions of the two groups.
“There was zero intelligence that the Black Lives Matter protesters were going to ‘storm the capitol,’” Washington Attorney General Karl Racine said on CNN Wednesday. “Juxtapose that with what we saw today, with hate groups, militia and other groups that have no respect for the rule of law go into the capitol. ... That dichotomy is shocking.”
And as lawmakers investigate what went wrong on Wednesday — and why — the events of the day raise serious questions about the security of the Capitol not just now but in the future, and about what happens the next time Trump decides to whip supporters into a frenzy. With President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration coming up on January 20, those concerns couldn’t be more urgent.
As images from Wednesday’s riot by pro-Trump extremists at the U.S. Capitol filled our TV screens and social media feeds, one thing was notably absent: the kind of confrontation between police and protesters that we saw during the Black Lives Matter protests last summer. Even though the Capitol mob was far more violent — and seditious — than the largely peaceful BLM demonstrators, police responded far less aggressively toward them than toward BLM protesters across the country. Researchers who track this sort of thing for a living say that fits a pattern.
“It feels really unbelievable,” said Roudabeh Kishi, director of research and innovation with the nonprofit Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. But, she said, it’s also totally unsurprising.
That’s because the discrepancies we saw Wednesday are just another example of a trend Kishi’s team has been tracking for months as they collect data on protester and law enforcement interactions across America. “We see a different response to the right wing,” she said.
While protesters themselves have long perceived that police tend to crack down on left-wing protesters and align with those on the right wing, there hasn’t really been data to demonstrate that effect before, said Ed Maguire, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Arizona State University and an expert on police and protester interactions.
But in 2020, Kishi’s ACLED — a data-reporting project that began documenting armed conflicts and protests in African nations — extended its work into the United States. Using information gathered from local media, NGOs, individual journalists and partner organizations, ACLED researchers have catalogued months of detailed information about protests, including when clashes with law enforcement have happened and the type of force used by police. “We don’t necessarily have information on the number of Black vs. white protesters … but we do have a larger view,” Kishi said. “How is law enforcement responding to demonstrations associated with the Black Lives Matter movement versus demonstrations by the right wing … in support of [a] president that may or may not involve organized armed illegal groups?”
What they have found is striking.
Between May 1 and November 28, 2020, authorities were more than twice as likely to attempt to break up and disperse a left-wing protest27 than a right-wing28 one. And in those situations when law enforcement chose to intervene, they were more likely to use force — 34 percent of the time with right-wing protests compared with 51 percent of the time for the left. Given when this data was collected, it predominantly reflects a difference in how police respond to Black Lives Matter, compared with how they respond to anti-mask demonstrations, pro-Trump extremists, QAnon rallies, and militia groups.
The differences in intervention weren’t because BLM protests were particularly violent. ACLED found that 93 percent of the protests associated with BLM were entirely peaceful. “Even if we were to put those [7] percent of demonstrations aside and look purely at peaceful [BLM protests], we are seeing a more heavy handed response [compared with right-wing protests],” Kishi said.
It is also in keeping with how different groups of protesters perceive the situation themselves, Maguire said. In his years spent traveling to protests and embedding in crowds to observe and document police and protester interactions, he has interviewed protesters extensively. “Protesters on the left virtually universally believe that police are rougher on them. And protesters on the right almost universally believe police are on their side,” Maguire said. Some of that sentiment was evident yesterday:
“This is not America,” a woman said to a small group, her voice shaking. “They’re shooting at us. They’re supposed to shoot BLM, but they’re shooting the patriots.” https://t.co/XN2pSct54i
Even absent statistical evidence, those beliefs have consequences, Maguire told me. “I think protesters on the right, because they view the police as in their corner, they feel a sense of tacit permission,” he said. This is only exacerbated when police live up to those expectations. But, while it is true that law enforcement responded with far less force to Wednesday’s storming of the Capitol than to Black Lives Matter protests, there was some force, which resulted in one woman being shot and killed by police.
And Maguire says this represents a jarring breach between the treatment right-wing extremists expect and the reality. The consequences of that worry him. He’s been watching this year as those extremists’ beliefs about themselves and their relationship with police grew increasingly religious and apocalyptic. “[They told me] that leftists are godless and they hate god and hate America. That’s what I heard from folks on the right. [But] they were god fearing moral people and police would always back them for that reason,” he said. Now, you have a situation where police are giving these people more leeway and, at the same time, right-wing groups may perceive their relationship with police being undermined. “I can … see the possibility that people who feel the police have broken some type of implicit or imagined pact may try to outmaneuver police and behave destructively,” he said.
The police, meanwhile, he worries, are likely to see criticism of a lack of force in D.C. and respond with more force elsewhere — whether that be against right-wing or left-wing groups. “Every other police department facing an angry crowd will be concerned about being overrun, and overcorrecting in response to that concern may lead to overly forceful, unconstitutional responses.”
Violence, as they say, begets violence. And disparities in police force may well beget more disparities.
One silver lining of the MAGA mob’s refusal to wear masks: the fact that there are now so many videos and photos circulating of Wednesday’s rioters that clearly show their faces as they commit acts of violence and vandalism inside the U.S. Capitol. The FBI is seeking tips and digital media from the public that […]
The entire world watched a bunch of QAnon Duck Dynasty rejects storm our nation’s capital, but at least we did our part and confirmed the whitest judiciary since the Nixon era. Hooray for the GOP!
A confederate flag was flown in the Senate on the day that Georgia’s first Black senator was elected, but our judges will erode Black voting rights for decades to come, so that’s a win-win for us Trump Republicans!
Trump’s “stop-the-steal” armed gang of thugs fought with police, toppled barricades, broke windows, hunted lawmakers, trashed offices, and proudly posted selfies, but we sure owned the libs by giving lifetime appointments to a bunch of unqualified, homophobic, misogynistracists. So much winning!
Explosive devices and Molotov cocktails were found on Capitol grounds, but our excellent Trump judges will always side with the NRA to ensure this definitely happens again!
A woman was shot dead in the Capitol and 360,000 Americans died of Coronavirus because our president and his party have been busy with other things, like confirming all these fabulous 1950s cosplay judges and trying to overthrow a democratic election. On the bright side, the federal government can murder people again!
The way police handled Wednesday's onslaught showed that "some people are ... given certain kinds of leeway or space, and other people are not," says African American studies professor Eddie Glaude.
(Image credit: Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)
“Fearful that Trump could take actions resulting in further violence and death if he remains in office even for a few days, senior administration officials were discussing Wednesday night whether the Cabinet might invoke the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to force him out.” — The Washington Post, 1/7/21
- - -
It’s finally here. That glorious moment we’ve all been waiting for. You’ve wanted it for four years; I’ve wanted it a hell of a lot longer. Since 1967 when lawmakers were like, “Damn, we forgot to make a plan if the president goes bonkers.” And since then, it has been a real snoozefest. It was kind of exciting when Nixon resigned, but that’s like watching paint dry compared to this.
I know I’ve been a real cock tease up until now. There have been so many “almost moments.” When Trump got into a nuclear pissing contest with North Korea. When he fired Comey. When he tried to bribe the Ukrainian president. All of it — bupkis. And just when we thought we’d never get that sweet release — BAM! A bunch of MAGA-hat-wearing numbnuts bum-rushed the Capitol like it’s the goddamn WWE Thunderdome. Flying their shitty homemade flags and busting through windows like ex-boyfriends ignoring restraining orders. And what did Trump say? WE LOVE YOU. Valentine’s Day came early for this Amendment. And just in time because I’ve had blue balls for 54 years.
I get that I can be a real hassle to invoke. I’m also super confusing. “Unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” could mean anything. But I have to believe it includes inciting terrorists to commit treason, or why am I even here?
I know Trump could be like, “I’m sane, the sanest man in the world.” And then two-thirds of Congress has to nut up and say, “Bitch, sit down and shut up.” I get it, it’s a lot. But you know what else is a lot? Watching a bunch of idiots take over the seat of government like it’s Spring Break on South Padre Island.
These are unprecedented times. In the building where we pass our laws, a shirtless man rocking horns and face paint wandered around the halls, spouting crackpot QAnon conspiracy theories.
The word “surreal” has lost all meaning. But I’ve never felt more alive!
Even Mitch McConnell warned that our country could enter a "death spiral.” And you know all that dude wants to do is throw a tantrum because Georgia smacked him across the face and sent him back down to the minor leagues. But instead, he’s gotta put on a mask and stand in front of Congress and pretend that he’s sensible and duty-bound. He’s ready to put this bad acid trip behind him forever.
This is what I’ve been training for my entire life. Put me in, coach!
I know, Trump’s only got two weeks left in office, and a lot of people think he’s just going to shut himself up in the White House, Grey Gardens style. OR he could wage an entire war. The Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 only lasted 40 minutes. This means Trump could fight 504 wars before this nightmare is over.
Remember when we impeached him and it was such a letdown? This would be SO MUCH BETTER.
Sure, it’s a long shot. Yes, it will require Republicans to be like, “Sorry, we were dicks who let this other dick do whatever he wanted, and then he pissed on the Constitution.” But remember when the U.S. hockey team beat Russia in the 1980 Olympics, and everyone was like “Democracy Won!” I was only 13 years old, but I still remember it. Because that day, I was proud to be an American. It could be like that again.
Look, I don’t have much. Please, just give me this. The last time anyone used me was in 2007 when Bush had a colonoscopy, and Cheney got to be president for about two hours. Don’t let that be my legacy. A couple of hours that a pretty terrible guy got to be president because another guy had a camera up his ass. I’m better than this. We’re better than this. AMERICA is better than this.
So, let’s do this! And then hope that on January 20 things calm down, so we can all get some fucking rest.
U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert was among many Texas Republican political leaders who spent Wednesday afternoon condemning the violence at the Capitol without connecting it to their own rhetoric both before and after the 2020 election.
Credit: Gripas Yuri/ABACA via REUTERS
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When a federal court tossed U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert’s far-fetched lawsuit asking Vice President Mike Pence to challenge Joe Biden’s legitimacy as president-elect, the Texas Republican appeared to propose violence in response.
“Basically, in effect, the ruling would be that you got to go to the streets and be as violent as Antifa and [Black Lives Matter],” he told Newsmax, a hyperpartisan, pro-Donald Trump media company, last Friday.
The comments drew quick criticism that Gohmert was advocating for violence, which he later denied. U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, called for a formal congressional censure. “We live in a time where words can cause hurt and harm to people’s livelihoods and their very lives,” Wasserman Schutlz said at a news conference covered by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Less than a week after Gohmert’s comments, a mob of pro-Trump rioters clashed with police, scaled the U.S. Capitol walls, and violently forced their way into lawmakers’ offices and onto the floors of the House and Senate. The insurrection happened the same day that Trump again falsely claimed at a rally in the nation’s capital that he had won a second term.
Gohmert was among many Texas Republican political leaders who spent Wednesday afternoon condemning the violence without connecting it to their own rhetoric both before and after the 2020 election.
Texas lawmakers and elected officials have taken the lead on baseless lawsuits that sought to dismiss the results of elections in states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin. Embattled Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was at the forefront of one such long-shot legal challenge, cheered on by both Trump supporters and the president himself.
On Wednesday morning, Paxton spoke at the pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C.
“What we have in President Trump is a fighter. And I think that’s why we’re all here,” Paxton said to attendees Wednesday morning. “We will not quit fighting. We’re Texans, we’re Americans, and the fight will go on.”
“Those storming the Capitol need to stop NOW,” he wrote on Twitter. “The Constitution protects peaceful protest, but violence—from Left or Right— is ALWAYS wrong. And those engaged in violence are hurting the cause they say they support.”
Days earlier on the campaign trail in Georgia, Cruz tried to rally voters to keep the Republican majority in the Senate.
“We won’t go quietly into the night,” Cruz told the crowd. “We will defend liberty.”
As Cruz’s and Gohmert’s colleagues sheltered in place in their offices and were evacuated wearing gas masks Wednesday afternoon, the longtime representative for Texas’ 1st Congressional District struck a different tone than he did after his failed lawsuit.
“Please people; no violence. That only hurts our cause,” Gohmert tweeted Wednesday afternoon. “Those leading the charge like the guy in yellow with the communist hammer & sickle tattoo: stopping the violence applies to you too.”
Some Texas Democrats, local leaders and a few left-leaning organizations in the state responded to the violence by criticizing their Republican colleagues, Cruz in particular.
Beto O’Rourke, who unsuccessfully challenged Cruz for his Senate seat in 2018, accused Cruz on Twitter of inciting the Trump supporters with a “self-serving attempt at sedition."
But Cruz immediately countered with his own accusation that O’Rourke was using “malicious rhetoric (such as false & reckless charges of ‘sedition’)” to create more division.
Cruz previously condemned those who criticized him for launching his challenge to Wednesday’s vote, saying they used “angry language.”
“I think everyone needs to calm down,” Cruz told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News on Sunday morning. “I think we need to tone down the rhetoric. This is already a volatile situation”
“The only thing that makes the violent attacks on our democracy and our Constitution worse today is that two of our state’s highest elected officials helped fuel them with their conspiracy mongering,” Val Benavidez, president of the Texas Freedom Network, said in a statement. “They have lit the road to sedition by undermining faith in our democracy to promote their personal and political agendas. Doing so is especially appalling when it incites violence from those who seek to subvert a legal election.”
But it wasn’t just Democrats who were critical Wednesday.
“So many hyped up this day as this day of reckoning, this big win would happen,” Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Houston told Fox News on Wednesday evening. “So many people said, ‘This would be the last stand.’... ‘It’s our 1776.’ When you use that kind of language, you should not be surprised when people tend to believe it.”
Crenshaw's comments come after he signed an amicus brief supporting Paxton's lawsuit to throw out votes in four battleground states.
In December, his campaign had also released a three minute movie-style ad where he portrayed the Georgia run-off election as a wartime mission against Democrats and anti-fascists. The so-called "Georgia Reloaded" campaign is paid for by a PAC called the "Spirit of 76."
Republican former President George W. Bush, also from Texas, derided Wednesday’s siege.
“This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic – not our democratic republic,” he said in a statement. “I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions, and our law enforcement.”
The Texas GOP, which has been a fierce supporter of Trump, also said on Twitter that it condemned the violence in Washington, D.C. The party removed its sergeant-at-arms, Walter West II, from his post after he appeared to endorse the attacks on the nation’s Capitol building. “You Accepted ANTIFA burning down your cities...Now Deal with them taking back OUR HOUSE!” he wrote on Facebook as the caption to a photo of the protests.
Two days earlier, Texas GOP Chair Allen West said in a weekly message that if Americans can’t trust the electoral process, then “we cannot keep this Republic.”
“Americans will be watching on January 6th — this Wednesday — for those who will stand in opposition and say to the deviants who seek to undermine our national election: ‘Come and Take It!’” he wrote.
Allen West did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump supporters enter the Capitol building during a joint session of Congress in Washington, DC on Jan. 6, 2021. The joint session of the House and Senate was sent to recess after the breach as it convened to confirm the Electoral College votes cast in November's election.
Credit: Chris Kleponis/Sipa USA via Reuters
Trump supporters enter the Capitol building during a joint session of Congress in Washington, DC on Jan. 6, 2021. The joint session of the House and Senate was sent to recess after the breach as it convened to confirm the Electoral College votes cast in November's election.
Credit: Chris Kleponis/Sipa USA via Reuters
Donald Trump supporters entered the Capitol building Wednesday during a joint session of Congress in Washington, D.C. The mob delayed Congress' certification of President-elect Joe Biden's electoral win.
Credit: Chris Kleponis/Sipa USA via Reuters
As the protests continued into the afternoon, Paxton continued to share unsubstantiated claims on social media. He alleged on Twitter that the people who stormed the Capitol were not actually Trump supporters but offered no information to support the claim. Many of the rioters wore caps with Trump’s campaign slogan, sported T-shirts calling for another term for the ousted president and carried flags bearing his name.
As lawmakers prepared to resume the vote to certify election results Wednesday evening, at least one Texas lawmaker said he was “disgusted” with the siege — but that he also still planned to oppose certification.
Disclosure: Facebook and Texas Freedom Network have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
Yesterday, an attempted coup d’état was thwarted in Washington D.C. — the capital of the globe’s largest military power. Once considered the shining beacon of free and fair elections, the United States’ veneer as the world’s greatest democracy has long lost its shine.
Two months ago, the former American Vice-President Joseph R. Biden defeated the incumbent American President, Donald J. Trump, in a hotly contested election that saw the disgraced real estate mogul lose in an electoral college landslide. A racist political neophyte, Donald Trump faces the ignominy of being one of only three presidents in the nation’s history to have faced impeachment for launching an illegal and unfounded investigation into his political opponent.
Despite his electoral college defeat by a 306-232 margin, the dictatorial Trump has repeatedly lied to the American people about the election results. Instead, Trump has directed his ire at long-suppressed African American and Native American voters who tipped several crucial “swing-states” in Biden’s favor.
Trump’s lies finally came to a head yesterday, as “Make America Great Again” cultists stormed the National Capitol building at the behest of their leader and his political sycophants, including Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley. Threatening the lives of America’s highest-ranked Democrats — Trump’s sworn political opponents — armed supporters of America’s regressive MAGA Faction interrupted the procedural certification of U.S. election results and took control of the Capitol Rotunda.
In a half-hearted attempt to prevent the riots from spiraling further, President Trump continued to call the validity of the election into question while asking his “very special” supporters to go home. Making matters worse, it is speculated that President Trump delayed the deployment of military forces under his purview despite urgent requests for assistance from local officials. To quell further insurrection, the capital’s neighboring states of Virginia and Maryland — led by vocal critics of the president — chose to deploy their own military units into the field.
Though tensions since last night seemed to have simmered after massive military intervention, the city and its residents remain on edge. This is a developing story.
The chaotic breach of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump on Wednesday was met with swift condemnation by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, with some observers blaming the president for inciting the riot, and others suggesting he be impeached.
Twitter has temporarily suspended Donald Trump after the president tweeted his support for a violent mob that descended on the nation’s Capitol as Congress met to certify the results of the November election.
The company says it has locked Trump’s account for 12 hours and that the president will be required to remove three tweets that it had previously labeled for inciting violence.
“As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy,” the company wrote. “This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked.”
This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked.
The company added that future rule-breaking “will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.”
For Twitter, the suspension is a step the company had previously avoided, citing a “public interest policy” that tweets from world leaders should be allowed to remain up to allow scrutiny and public dissemination. Now, the company said that policy has reached its limit.
Our public interest policy — which has guided our enforcement action in this area for years — ends where we believe the risk of harm is higher and/or more severe. https://t.co/ZcbhDEAYjH
“Our public interest policy — which has guided our enforcement action in this area for years — ends where we believe the risk of harm is higher and/or more severe,” Twitter said. “We’ll continue to evaluate the situation in real time, including examining activity on the ground and statements made off Twitter. We will keep the public informed, including if further escalation in our enforcement approach is necessary.”
Earlier in the day, Twitter had added new labels to three tweets from Trump, including a video in which he praised those responsible for the riots, warning the messages posed a “risk of violence.” Facebook and YouTube subsequently removed the video from their platforms
"We can't allow him to remain in office, it's a matter of preserving our Republic and we need to fulfill our oath," wrote the Minnesota Democrat, as Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today that Canadians are "deeply disturbed and saddened" by the violent actions of Trump supporters in Washington D.C. and that democracy in the United States "must be upheld."
Twitter has suspended Donald Trump and locked the president out of his account for the next 12 hours, after warning that his tweets posed a “risk of violence.”
The company had originally slapped new warning labels on Trump’s tweets, which stated that “his claim of election fraud is disputed, and this Tweet can’t be replied to, retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence.” The labels were applied to a one-minute video that told his supporters to “go home now” and praised the rioters as “very special” people, as well as a separate message urging his followers to “remember this day forever.” It was also added to a tweet criticizing Mike Pence.
screenshot / twitter
The labels came amid mob violence in Washington D.C. as rioters stormed the Capitol as Congress met to certify the results of the election. Twitter said the president’s words could incite further violence, and cited its civic integrity policy. The company said on its @TwitterSafety account that it was “significantly restricting engagement with Tweets labeled under our Civic Integrity Policy due to the risk of violence,” and that it was “exploring other escalated enforcement actions.”
Hours later, the company clarified just what “escalated enforcement actions” would look like. First, the three previously-labeled tweets from Trump appeared to have been removed, with notices that “this Tweet is no longer available.” The company later confirmed that it was requiring the tweets to be removed and that it had temporarily suspended Trump from its platform for 12 hours.
screenshot / Twitter
The move was a major departure for Twitter, which had previously cited a “public interest policy” that provided special protections to world leaders, even if their messages may otherwise violate the company’s policies. But faced with violence in Washington D.C., and mounting pressure to do more than label, Twitter said the policy had reached its limit. “Our public interest policy — which has guided our enforcement action in this area for years — ends where we believe the risk of harm is higher and/or more severe,” Twitter said.
Furthermore, the company said that future violations of its civic integrity policy could result in a permanent ban for Trump. (The company had previously confirmed that it would no longer give Trump special consideration once he left office.)
Facebook and YouTube also removed Trump’s video from their platforms, though the company cited different reasons for doing so. YouTube said the video, which called the 2020 election results “fraudulent” broke its election policies, while Facebook stated “it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”
By the middle of the afternoon, January 6, 2021, had become one of the most shameful days in the history of the United States. There have been many deadlier days, but few have featured more grievous injury to the country’s sense of itself as a beacon of constitutional democracy. At times, watching Wednesday’s livestreams from the Capitol felt like witnessing the Visigoths’ sack of Rome—a sensation heightened by the common understanding that it probably wouldn’t be the last time such a blow was struck. There were actually two tragedies. In Congress, a majority of the House Republican Caucus (including sixteen from the Texas delegation, more than any other state) and a handful of senators voted repeatedly to overturn lawful and transparently obtained electoral college results,…View Original Post
– Sexual Misconduct, Harassment, & Bullying
– White Supremacy, Racism, Homophobia, Transphobia, & Xenophobia
– Public Statements / Tweets 
– Collusion with Russia & Obstruction of Justice
– Trump Staff & Administration
– Trump Family Business Dealings
– Policy
– Environment
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Pat Fallon was sworn in Sunday as a freshman member of Congress. On Wednesday, the Republican found himself ripping a tall wooden pole topped with a white hand sanitizer dispenser from the House floor and transforming the modern totem of pandemic precaution into a weapon. A frenzied mob of Donald Trump supporters had breached the Capitol and were approaching one of the most sacred spaces of American democracy. Fallon, who represents a northeast Texas district, estimated that some two hundred members of Congress—well more than were supposed to be gathered in close proximity at any one time under COVID restrictions—were on the House floor or nearby when the rioters tried to break in. “We hear the mob and we don’t know if it’s 20 people…
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