Category Archives: National

Jamie Raskin Grills Andrew Clyde for 1/6 ‘Tourist’ Remarks

Officer Hodges reads U.S. Code definition of domestic terrorism to explain why he calls Capitol rioters “terrorists”

His response to Republicans comparing them to tourists: “If that’s what American tourists are like, I can see why foreign countries don’t like American tourists”
— Read on www.mediaite.com/tv/excuse-me-jamie-raskin-confronts-gop-rep-andrew-clyde-for-calling-rioters-tourists-in-fiery-10-minute-clash/

DOJ announces it won’t shield Trump veterans from testifying on January 6th insurrection

The DOJ has announced it will not use its powers to try to shield Trump administration veterans from testifying to Congress about the January 6th insurrection and Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. MSNBC’s Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber is joined by Obama veteran Neal Katyal to discuss how this reduces the veterans’ ability to duck accountability and what this means for citizen Trump himself.
— Read on www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari/watch/doj-announces-it-won-t-shield-trump-veterans-from-testifying-on-january-6th-insurrection-117486661554

Trumpist gaslighting and downplaying of 1/6 shattered by committee testimony, factfinding

At its first hearing, the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attacks made clear its intention to conduct serious business and get real answers, standing in stark contrast to Trump-supporting Republicans trying to rewrite the history of an event that Americans saw with their own eyes. 
— Read on www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trumpist-gaslighting-and-downplaying-of-1-6-shattered-by-committee-testimony-factfinding-117497413815

U.S. Declines to Defend Trump Ally in Lawsuit Over Jan. 6 Riot

Law enforcement officials determined that Representative Mo Brooks, Republican of Alabama, was acting outside the scope of his duties in an incendiary speech just before the attack, according to a court filing. Mr. Brooks had asked the department to certify that he was acting as a government employee during the rally; had it agreed to defend him, he would have been dismissed from the lawsuit and the United States substituted as a defendant.
— Read on www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/us/politics/mo-brooks-justice-department-lawsuit.html

First 1/6 Hearing Reveals What We Already Know: It Was a GOP Riot

The first four witnesses in today’s opening hearing into the 1/6 Capitol attack — DC Metropolitan Police Officers Daniel Hodges and Michael Fanone, alongside Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell — took their seats a little after 9:00 am Eastern time. A few minutes before, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan and a handful of other congressional Republicans had just finished a press conference in which they blamed Speaker Pelosi for what went down last January.
— Read on truthout.org/articles/first-1-6-hearing-reveals-what-we-already-know-it-was-a-gop-riot/

Fox News brings on Republican guest to falsely attack Speaker Nancy Pelosi before its January 6 committee coverage

In its news coverage right before the first hearing of the House select committee on the January 6 insurrection, Fox’s America’s Newsroom brought on Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) to spread false talking points blaming Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for the attack on the Capitol by a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters.
— Read on www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/fox-news-brings-republican-guest-falsely-attack-speaker-nancy-pelosi-its

Climate Denial Shows How the Covid-19 Anti-Vax Movement Will Go

The incoherent arguments of covid-19 anti-vaxxers mirror the climate denial movement.

“The doubt mongers have a much easier job than scientists because they don’t have to prove anything,” Naomi Oreskes, a science historian at Harvard who authored a definitive book on climate denial called Merchants of Doubt, told the McGill Reporter in 2020. “All they have to do is raise a little doubt. … We’ve seen that with climate change, as well, and we are seeing it with covid-19, with people who took the early mixed messages about masks as an excuse to say, ‘The government doesn’t even really know anyway, so I’m not going to bother wearing a mask because it’s irritating and annoying.’”
— Read on gizmodo.com/we-know-how-this-ends-1847369876