Arizona"s Republican governor congratulated his Democratic successor despite her Trump-backed opponent refusing to concede

Though there are some notable holdouts, most Trump-endorsed election deniers conceded after their races were called. Donald Trump at a rally in Minden, Nevada, on October 8, 2022.José Luis Villegas/AP The run-up to Election Day 2022 was marred by fears of chaos and refusals to concede. A slew of Trump-backed candidates who rejected the legitimacy of the 2020 election were on the ballot. But those fears turned out to be overblown: there were few voting-related glitches and many Trump-endorsed candidates have conceded. Late into the night on Election Day 2020, then-President Donald Trump took to the White House podium and declared victory against the advice of his own campaign manager."Frankly, we did win this election," Trump said, despite the fact that millions of votes were still being counted and his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, had taken the lead in several key states.Trump spent the next two months whipping his base into a frenzy that culminated in thousands of angry Trump supporters laying siege to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. At least five people died as a result.This year, there were fears of renewed chaos as Trump — banished from social media in the wake of the Capitol riot but still very much the focus of national attention — positioned himself as GOP kingmaker, handing out endorsements to candidates he viewed as promising, many of whom echoed his false claims that the 2020 election was illegitimate.Concerns that Election Day 2022 would be marred by disputes and denials multiplied as many of those candidates either lost their races or were locked in races that were too close to call. Trump himself fanned the flames by taking to his social media site, Truth Social, on Tuesday to spread bogus claims of voter fraud in Michigan.But it turns out fears of widespread election-related chaos and violence were overblown.Election Day went smoothly, and while there were minor issues in places like Maricopa County, Arizona, they were quickly identified and resolved and there were no broader infrastructure problems. Taking a lesson from the 2020 election, cybersecurity and election security officials also stepped up efforts to combat disinformation related to this year's midterms.And as CNN reported, even the judiciary played a role when a federal judge issued a ruling earlier this month cracking down on an election-monitoring group's activities around polling centers in Arizona that were criticized as intimidating voters.Crucially, many of Trump's handpicked candidates conceded defeat when their races were called.On Wednesday, Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon's campaign put out a statement saying she had called Democratic incumbent Gretchen Whitmer "to concede and wish her well." She went on to thank her supporters and said that "we came up short, but we will never stop fighting for our families."Matthew DePerno, the Republican candidate for Michigan attorney general whose platform included "[prosecuting] the people who corrupted the 2020 election and allowed fraud to permeate the entire election system," also conceded to Democratic incumbent Dana Nessel on Wednesday."Although I may be conceding to Dana Nessel today, I refuse to concede that Michigan is a blue state," DePerno wrote on Twitter.Over in Pennsylvania, Mehmet Oz, the celebrity doctor and political neophyte who landed Trump's endorsement in his bid for a Senate seat, conceded to his Democratic opponent, John Fetterman, after the race was called for Fetterman."This morning I called John Fetterman and congratulated him," Oz said in a statement Wednesday morning. "I wish him and his family all the best, both personally and as our next United States Senator."There are still some key holdouts, however, and several races have yet to be called.Doug Mastriano, the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate for Pennsylvania governor, has not conceded as of Thursday morning despite losing by nearly 15 percentage points to Democratic candidate Josh Shapiro.Kristina Karamo, the Republican who mounted a bid to unseat Jocelyn Benson in Michigan's secretary of state election, also hasn't conceded and instead made vague and unsupported claims of voter fraud. She lost to Benson 42% to 55%.In Arizona, the GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake — one of the most vocal and prominent 2020 election deniers — lambasted the "cheaters and crooks" in charge of running elections and expressed confidence that she would win. Roughly 77% of the votes have been counted so far, and Katie Hobbs, the Democratic candidate and Arizona's former secretary of state, is ahead by less than one percent, or a little over 13,000 votes.Concerns about voter intimidation and mob violence increased in the days leading up to midterms and reached a critical point after last month's attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband.Paul Pelosi was asleep at the family's home in San Francisco, California when a man broke in demanding to know "Where is Nancy?" according to court documents. The suspect, David DePape, is facing federal charges of assault and attempted kidnapping. He also faces state charges of attempted homicide, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, and burglary.An FBI affidavit accompanying the federal complaint against DePape said investigators believe he "was prepared to detain and injure Speaker Pelosi when he entered the Pelosi residence" on October 28. He had "zip ties, tape, rope, and at least one hammer with him that morning," it said.A look at DePape's internet and social media activity showed racist and antisemitic rants, as well as conspiracy theories related to the 2020 election, QAnon, the so-called global elites, the death of Jeffrey Epstein, and COVID-19.His shouts upon entering the Pelosis' home — "Where is Nancy?" — also echoed those of the pro-Trump rioters who overran the US Capitol on January 6. And in the immediate aftermath of the attack, far-right figures continued pushing conspiracy theories that were proven false by DePape's own statements to law enforcement officials.Though midterm results are still coming in for some of the tightest races and control of both the House and Senate is undetermined, in the 48 hours since Election Day kicked off, there have been few apparent acts of violence or intimidation.That said, experts warn that it may be too soon to say the US is entirely out of the woods.Indeed, political scientists told Insider's John Haltiwanger that the far-right wing in the US has vilified political opponents to the point that they've become targets of violence and that creates lasting damage."I think it would be a mistake to assume that the threat of violence stops after the midterm elections," Kurt Braddock, an American University professor who studies far-right extremism," told Insider.Chris Krebs, the former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who was fired by Trump after the 2020 election, struck a similar tone but expressed optimism about this year's elections."The coming days and possible weeks will provide plenty of opportunity for domestic and foreign actors to continue to undermine our elections and manufacture chaos," Krebs told CNN. "It'll be a real test of our mental toughness, but I'm much more confident today than I was yesterday in our ability to cut through the nonsense and defend democracy."Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

It remains too early to see how widespread it will be as Doug Mastriano and other notable holdouts continue to delay conceding their defeats. A composite image of Republicans Dr. Mehmet Oz of Pennsylvania, Tim Michels of Wisconsin, and Tudor Dixon of Michigan.AP Images Some high-profile Trump-backed midterm hopefuls are conceding their election defeats. Their response to apparent failures comes amid worries about how they handle such setbacks. Not every candidate has conceded. Pennsylvania Republican Doug Mastriano is a notable holdout.   A trio of high-profile candidates backed by former President Donald Trump offered quick concessions in key midterm races after they spent months stoking fears about the 2020 presidential election. But it remains to be seen whether some of the highest-profile election deniers such as Arizona Republican Kari Lake will go quietly if their races do not go their way."This morning I called John Fetterman and congratulated him," Dr. Mehmet Oz said in a Wednesday statement announcing his concession. "I wish him and his family all the best, both personally and as our next United States Senator."—Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) November 9, 2022 Oz was just one of the hundreds of pro-Trump candidates that raised doubts about the 2020 election. Trump gleefully cited their allegiance in a litany of endorsements for everything from the US Senate to state legislatures. It was and remains an open question how many of them will follow his lead and cast doubts on the 2022 midterms.Lake has already stoked doubts about the election. She told supporters Wednesday night that her race was "like Groundhog Day." While in Pennsylvania, Republican Doug Mastriano has still not conceded his defeat even after every major network projected that Attorney General Josh Shapiro will become the commonwealth's next governor. For his part, Trump was already stoking discord before polls closed. Election officials quickly rushed out statements debunking his claims or putting them in the proper context of the normal kerfuffles that arise during every election.To classify election deniers, Insider relied on an extensive Washington Post report that classified a candidate as a denier if they did one of a series of actions, including questioning Biden's victory, opposing the counting of Electoral College votes, or signing onto a lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 election.Republicans Chris Cox, Paul LePage, Lee Zeldin, Tim Michels, Tudor Dixon, and Scott Jensen lost gubernatorial races in Maryland, Maine, New York, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, respectively. All of them conceded their projected defeats.But the record is far more mixed for secretaries of state hopefuls, who in many states wield would significant power over elections. Kristina Karamo, Kim Crockett, and Audrey Trujillo are projected to have lost their campaigns in Michigan, Minnesota, and New Mexico, respectively. But none of the three women appears to have offered an explicit concession. "We ran an honest race and fought hard for New Mexico with little money and little support from the party," Trujillo wrote in a Facebook post that did not concede the race or congratulate her opponent.Legally speaking, concessions hold no weight, as elections are not over until results have been canvassed and certified which can take weeks.Trump's refusal to concede the 2020 presidential election reminded Americans that admitting defeat is not just a sign of basic grace and decency. When candidates only accept the results when they win, it undermines faith in elections across the board. It is worth noting that before Trump candidates from both parties readily conceded races. They did so from the presidential level on down. Sometimes candidates, such as Vice President Al Gore, did so after protracted legal challenges.Not since Andrew Jackson has an American political figure made defeat such a singular part of their future. And it should be noted Jackson actually received more votes than the ultimate winner John Quincy Adams.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Extinction Itself Authored by James George Jatras A version of this presentation was given to the Ron Paul Institute's Scholars Seminar on Sept. 1st in Washington, DC. Today it’s hard for anyone under the age of 50 to appreciate how genuine and pervasive was fear of a nuclear holocaust during the Cold War between the US- and Soviet-led blocs. Books, movies, and TV both reflected and stoked popular anxiety about the possible “end of civilization as we know it.” The heyday for this was in the 1950s and 1960s, with books like The Long Tomorrow(1955) and On the Beach (1957, with a 1959 film adaptation), and films like Fail Safe, Seven Days in May, Dr. Strangelove (all in 1964, while the real-life scare of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was fresh in people’s minds). There appeared to be a bit of a lull during the 1970s era of US-Soviet détente under Nixon, Ford, and Carter, perhaps also reflecting elite sympathy for socialism and an expected future convergence between the ideological groupings, which on a basic level shared the same globalist, materialist values. But nuclear terror returned with a vengeance in the 1980s – for example, The Day After (1983) and the animated When the Wind Blows (1986). And who can forget (certainly no male person!) the delightful Nena’s 1983 music video Neunundneunzig Luftballons. The Left, both in the United States and worldwide, was unanimous that Ronald Reagan, a self-confessed anti-communist, was a reckless cowboy who wanted to blow up the planet. As that great philosopher, Sting, put it in his 1985 song, “The Russians”: There is no historical precedent To put the words in the mouth of the president? There's no such thing as a winnable war It's a lie we don't believe anymore Mister Reagan says, "We will protect you" I don't subscribe to this point of view Believe me when I say to you I hope the Russians love their children too The irony is that Reagan’s own views were hardly different from the ones the song sought to promote. As he stated jointly with Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev that very same year, 1985: “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” a view that prevailed until the USSR imploded just a few years later. We live in a very different world now, where the prospect of nuclear annihilation barely registers with anyone. Just as big earthquakes are often preceded by foreshocks, major wars are frequently heralded by smaller conflicts. Before World War One: the Franco-German Morocco crises (1906 and 1911), the Italo-Turkish War (1911-12), the two Balkan Wars (1912, 1913). Before World War Two: the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935-37) and, the most famous pre-conflagration rumble of them all, the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Today, we are looking at a possible regional war in West Africa, centering on American and French demands that “democracy” be restored in Niger. (As one Indian publication put it, “Death follows Victoria Nuland”) Then, of course, there’s China/Taiwan. But the obvious Spanish Civil War-rank conflict of the moment is Ukraine. I don’t think we need to go into all the details of how we got here, but just in brief: Relentless NATO expansion after 1991; The 2014 US- and EU-backed coup that overthrew Victor Yanukovich, followed by the Russian annexation of Crimea and the new Kiev regime’s launch of a war to repress rebellions in the Russian-speaking east and south of the country;   The 2015 Minsk agreements, which provided for Ukraine’s neutrality and decentralization, and for reintegration of the rebellious areas with protections of their language and culture – agreements that both Ukrainian and European former officials have admitted they never intended to implement, seeing them only as a delaying ruse for building up a force capable of conquering the Donbas;   A relentless program of Ukraine’s NATO-ization in all but name under Obama, Trump, and Biden; and   Washington’s peremptory rejection of Moscow’s 2021 ultimata to the United States and NATO to resolve the conflict diplomatically, with the hope that Russia, baited into an incursion into Ukraine, would be bled white in an Afghanistan-style insurgency and by crushing sanctions that would “turn the ruble into rubble,” pancake Russia’s economy, and lead to regime change in Moscow. Oops. Russia’s expected ruin didn’t happen. Even the mainstream media cheerleaders of only a fortnight ago now admit that Ukraine is losing, assigning the blame not to the geniuses that thought up this strategy (if it can be called that) but to Ukraine’s being too “casualty averse” – even as that country is turning into one vast graveyard. There’s speculation that some in Washington and other western capitals are seeking an “off-ramp” – if for no other reason than the need to focus on the really big show, a looming war with China. Some suggest that in the end, we’ll just walk away, consigning Ukraine to the Memory Hole along with Afghanistan. All that’s left then is for GOP neocons to whine that the Biden Administration was too stingy with their aid and “lost Ukraine” while they gear up for the main event in the western Pacific. Personally, I don’t think that will happen. Nobody cares about Afghanistan but the Afghans, but if Washington walks away from Ukraine it’s effectively conceding that the US, through NATO, no longer is the security hegemon of Europe. That means the effective end of NATO, in fact if not in name; and where NATO goes, its concubine, the European Union, won’t be far behind. More to the point, though, the notion that this will soon end with a whimper misses the whole point. None of this is really about Ukraine, which is just an expendable tool to hurt Russia. (Maybe the Poles or Lithuanians or Romanians are eager to volunteer for the job once we’re fresh out of Ukrainians.) Ukraine is just a variable; the constant is Ruthenia delenda est. Russia must be destroyed. Gilbert Doctorow, a noted observer of Russian affairs, likens the current situation to that of Napoleon’s 1812 Russian campaign depicted by Leo Tolstoy in War and Peace. Today as then, what happens next will be less due to this or that policymaker making this or that bad decision. Rather, “the precondition for war is the near universal acceptance of the logic of the coming war.” What is that logic today? It’s simple: the ruling circles in the United States (needless to add, with their sock puppets in western capitals) are utterly, unselfconsciously convinced that they are the living embodiment of all virtue, truth, and progress in what Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described as the “replication of the experience of Bolshevism and Trotskyism” – to cite Reagan, morphing ourselves into a new Evil Empire in place of the old one. As neocon kingpins William Kristol and Robert Kagan put it in their 1996 manifesto, the policy of the United States in the coming era must be one of “benevolent global hegemony” intended to last – well, forever. Its moral content is exemplified, on the one hand, by US support for subjugation of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and, on the other, the spectacle of a transgender US serviceperson acting as a PR official for the Ukrainian military declaring that “we’re human,” and the Russians “most definitely aren’t.” As I like to say: there’s no Transatlanticism without transgenderism. Unsurprisingly, regarding their alleged lack of human-ness, the Russians disagree. But who cares what they think? Our leaders see not only Putin but Russians in general as an obstacle to the radiant future, where every knee will bow before the sacred rainbow flag. Sun Tzu says “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” The Russians more or less know themselves. They kind of know us, but not as well as they think they do, with rather a tendency to project normalcy onto fundamentally abnormal people. On the other hand, our rulers – dangerous people whose levels of arrogance and ignorance defies description: monkeys with nuclear hand grenades – know neither themselves nor the Russians. On top of that, as Doctorow further observes, the mechanisms that lent some stability and restraint to the US-Soviet standoff are now all but gone, rendering the once-“unthinkable” of the 1950s’ nuke horror films all-too-thinkable today: ‘… no one wants war, neither Washington nor Moscow. However, the step-by-step dismantling of the channels of communication, of the symbolic projects for cooperation across a wide array of domains, and now dismantling of all the arms limitation agreements that took decades to negotiate and ratify, plus the incoming new weapons systems that leave both sides with under 10 minutes to decide how to respond to alarms of incoming missiles—all of this prepares the way for the Accident to end all Accidents.  Such false alarms occurred in the Cold War but some slight measure of mutual trust prompted restraint. That is all gone now and if something goes awry, we are all dead ducks.’ “No one wants war.” A similar thought was expressed by Hermann Göring, when he was on trial at Nuremberg: Of course the people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. … But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger. So I guess Doctorow is a bit off the mark in suggesting that “no one wants war.” Clearly, somebody wants war. A lot of very important “somebodies” wanted this war in Ukraine. They wanted war in the Balkans in the 1990s. They wanted war in Afghanistan, Iraq (twice!), Libya, Yemen, Syria, and a dozen places in Africa where we have almost no idea what’s going on. “All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked…” I can’t help but think of the meme with two blank-face NPCs, one wearing a pink knit hat mindlessly repeating “Russia! Russia! Russia!,” the other with a red MAGA hat chanting “China! China! China!” Between them is the seal of the CIA with the eagle saying, “Yes, yes, my pretties. That’s it. That’s it.” Here we are, 60 years after the fact, with the growing recognition by even the most spoon-fed normies that the CIA had something to do with the assassination of Jack Kennedy. In fact, we have here today perhaps the foremost authority on the topic, Mr. Jacob Hornberger. Yet doubting our rulers’ truthiness still is treated as a thought crime. A little while ago, Vivek Ramaswamy was the target of a media hate fest for (in the words of The New Republic) “spout[ing] conspiracy theories about January 6 and 9/11.” Oh no! “Conspiracy theories”! (Or, as they are known when they turn out to be true, “spoiler alerts.”) The heretic Ramaswamy evidently believes – shocking as this sounds – that our government has not been entirely honest about these matters. He must be a dupe for the Russians! Or for the Chinese! – which The New Republic also implies. You may have heard some people compare the “lawfare” being directed against Donald Trump, with the evident aim of eliminating the likely opponent next year of the desiccated-husk-of-Hunter-Biden’s-dad (assuming ol’ Joe will be the Democratic nominee, which I don’t), to the behavior of a banana republic. This is a gratuitous insult to the friendly spider-infested nations to our south! I recently suggested to a sober observer of public affairs that the strategic goal is keeping Trump off the ballot in one or more must-win states for him, like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, to which he responded: “That’s a recipe for civil war.” (I tried to imagine what Republicans taking to the streets would look like. A mob of decrepit Boomers rolling their motorized wheelchairs down to the corner and burning down the post office?) Anyway, taking him out via lawfare seems to be Plan A. If that fails – well, Plan B would get us into Mr. Hornberger’s area of expertise. The term “cold” civil war, a war that might possibly turn “hot,” has become a commonplace in American discourse. So has the expression “national divorce.” In 1861 Americans both North and South worshipped the same God, read the same Bible, honored the same Founding Fathers, claimed fidelity to the same Constitution. In today’s America, we can’t even agree on our pronouns or on what a “woman” is, much less on what it means to be an American. We are moral aliens to one another, indeed enemies. What actually holds the former American republic together? “Muh Constitution”? “Muh democracy”? Keep in mind, we’re not talking about a mere political crisis that will get solved in an election or two. Not even about political and constitutional collapse, or even a financial and economic calamity – that’s coming too, in part because of the impact of the Ukraine war on the dollar-denominated global system – but a fundamental challenge to the social fabric itself, and not just in the United States. A watershed was passed with covid and the measures – the lockdowns, the masks, social distancing and monitoring, the clot shot, censorship of dissent, all combined with a pervasive, inescapable external and internal panopticon: as the troubadour of transhumanism Yuval Harari writes, “we are seeing a change in the nature of surveillance from over the skin surveillance to under the skin surveillance” – supposedly intended to deal with a virus, accomplishing within a few short months what decades of climate hysteria could not, summed up under the moniker “the Great Reset” and its ubiquitous slogan “Build Back Better.”’ Taken together what we’re experiencing has all the appearance of a controlled demolition of all established human interactions in anticipation of their replacement by something we are assured by our betters will be an improvement. The contours of the “new normal” in the post-American America hurtling in our direction have already become so familiar as to need little elaboration: Infringement of traditional liberties based on “keeping us safe”;   “Cancel culture”;   Blurring of the lines between Big Government, Big Finance, Big Pharma, Big Data, etc., amounting to corporate state capture; and, not directly based on supposed anti-virus measures but closely tracking with them,   Joint government and corporate promulgation of socially destructive, historically counterfeit ideologies (“intersectionality,” LGBTQI+++, feminism, multiculturalism, “critical race theory,”), with principal targeting of children subject to sexualization and predation by those expressing what were once quaintly known as abnormal appetites and identities. These so-called “values” – which, remember, are effectively the official ideology of the West, which we seek “benevolently” to impose on the rest of the world, by force if necessary – in turn accelerate longstanding trends towards infertility and demographic collapse pointing to thinning the human herd and replacement via post-human society, transhumanism, and bio-engineering. This is not just “political” but a strike at the heart of human existence: the spiritual, moral, and even biological basis for marriage, family formation, and production of the next generation. In a word: depopulation. A few years ago, His Royal Highness, the late Prince Philip of the United Kingdom, perhaps half in jest delivered this thigh-slapper: “In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, to contribute something to solving overpopulation.” Some of you may have heard of groups like Extinction Rebellion and BirthStrike: “Are you terrified about the future that lies ahead for contemporary and future youth? Do you want to maximize your positive impact on the Climate Change Crisis? You can protect children while fighting climate change and systematic corruption by refusing to procreate!” Makes perfect sense: preserve a better planet for future generations by eliminating future generations. It reminds me of Otto von Bismarck’s comparing the idea of preventive war to committing suicide out of fear of death. (That’s not as abstract as it might sound. Recently a young woman in Canada seeking help for depression and suicidal ideation was advised by hospital staff that she might be interested in their tried and Trudeau-ed “Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID)” euthanasia program. Tempted to kill yourself? Let us help you!)  But why stop at half measures? The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, VHEMT (pronounced “vehement,” according to their website): “We’re the only species evolved enough to consciously go extinct for the good of all life, or which needs to. Success would be humanity’s crowning achievement. May we live long and die out.” Maybe they’re on to something! In his landmark work The Socialist Phenomenon, the late Russian mathematician and student of history Igor Shafarevich took note of what he believed is a collective human death impulse: The idea of the death of mankind—not the death of specific people but literally the end of the human race—evokes a response in the human psyche. It arouses and attracts people, albeit with differing intensity in different epochs and in different individuals. The scope of influence of this idea causes us to suppose that every individual is affected by it to a greater or lesser degree and that it is a universal trait of the human psyche. This idea is not only manifested in the individual experience of a great number of specific persons, but is also capable of uniting people (in contrast to delirium, for example) i.e., it is a social force. The impulse toward self-destruction may be regarded as an element in the psyche of mankind as a whole. [ … ] In the Freudian view (first expressed in the article “Beyond the Pleasure Principle”), the human psyche can be reduced to a manifestation of two main instincts: the life instinct or Eros and the death instinct or Thanatos (or the Nirvana principle). Both are general biological categories, fundamental properties of living things in general. The death instinct is a manifestation of general “inertia” or a tendency of organic life to return to a more elementary state from which it had been aroused by an external disturbing force. [“Dust thou art, unto dust shalt thou return.”] The role of the life instinct is essentially to prevent a living organism from returning to the inorganic state by any path other than that which is immanent in it. Marcuse [Shafarevich refers here to Herbert Marcuse, theorist of the Frankfurt School, known for his adaptation of the theory of class conflict in classical Marxism to other social divides, notably in the area of sex, setting the stage for “intersectionality”] introduces a greater social factor into this scheme, asserting that the death instinct expresses itself in the desire to be liberated from tension, as an attempt to rid oneself of the suffering and discontent which are specifically engendered by social factors. With the failure of the Ukrainian offensive, Moscow now faces a dilemma. Do they move decisively to impose a military solution that ends the war, or do they continue to show restraint in the hopes that somebody, somewhere – Kiev, Washington, London, Brussels – decides it’s time to sue for peace? Keen not to take a precipitous step that might bring about a direct clash of NATO and Russian forces, so far they’ve opted for the latter – I repeat: so far. The West faces its own dilemma. Do our rulers concede defeat, which effectively means the end of the Global American Empire (the GAE)? Or do they drag things out as long as possible, hoping Moscow will fall for another Minsk-type ceasefire, with the Kremlin playing the part of Charlie Brown taking another run at kicking the football, having been promised that this time we’ll keep our word? Or, mistaking Russian restraint for weakness, do they push the envelope by inserting a “coalition of the willing” into western Ukraine, challenging Russian naval forces in the Black Sea, encouraging and equipping the Ukrainians to step up attacks on Moscow and other Russian cities, staging some sort of false flag of the type that has proved so effective in other conflicts? In other words, do we double down? That’s in addition to opening up other asymmetrical theaters in the Balkans, Syria, Iran, the Taiwan Strait, and elsewhere. In mistakenly projecting a rational actor mentality onto their opponents, the Russians seem to be acutely aware of the legitimate concern that decisive military action on the ground could panic NATO and trigger an uncontrolled escalation. They seem oblivious to the contrary concern, that, by holding back and waiting for a reasonable dialogue that will never take place, they are in effect encouraging their adversary to stage one reckless provocation after another – in the sustained belief that some deus ex machina can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat – resulting in the very uncontrolled escalation that Moscow seeks to avoid. Even these speculations assume that the miserable specimens of humanity calling the shots in Western capitals would only risk a direct conflict but would not deliberately choose it. But is that assumption correct? As Doctorow notes, the old Cold War restraints have broken down. Maybe demonstration of a teeny-tiny, low-yield nuke is just the thing to show that non-human Vladof Putler that the GAE is serious! What could possibly go wrong? Recently on his podcast Judge Andrew Napolitano showed part of a computer simulation of a US-Russia nuclear exchange in which the initial toll on the US population was only (“only”!) about nine percent, while on Russia it was around 62 percent. (Given that Russia has more warheads than we do, I don’t know how they came up with that, but I didn’t conduct the simulation.)  Is it so impossible that somewhere, somebody might look at those data and decide it’s a tolerable tradeoff? (Later on, the simulation has pretty much everyone on earth starving to death from nuclear winter, with agriculture in the northern hemisphere unviable for several years. Now there’s a way to resolve both global warming and supposed overpopulation with one stroke! Hey, VHEMT, have we got a concept for you!) Whether or not these dolts manage to kill us all, either by deliberate action or through sheer incompetence, it’s hard to escape the notion that we are approaching the edge of some profound historical moment that will have far-reaching, literally life and death consequences, both domestically and internationally. In the period preceding World War I how many Europeans suspected that their lives would soon be forever changed—and, for millions of them, ended? Who in the years, say, 1910 to 1913, could have imagined that the decades of peace, progress, and civilization in which they had grown up, and which seemingly would continue indefinitely, instead would soon descend into a horror of industrial-scale slaughter, revolution, and brutal ideologies? Which brings us to my parting admonitions to your predecessors in this seminar, which I see no need to change: My young friends, the impact any one of us can expect to have in the face of world-historic trends before which the fates of nations and empires fly like leaves in the autumn winds is vanishingly small. Already baked into the cake will be, I believe, hardships for you that we’ve become accustomed to think only happen to “other people” in “other countries” far away, not seen here since the Revolution and the Civil War, or maybe in isolated instances during the Great Depression: financial and economic disruption and, in some places, especially in urban areas, collapse; supply chains, utilities, and other aspects of basic infrastructure ceasing to function (what happens in major cities when food deliveries stop for a week?), even widespread hunger; rising levels of violence, both criminality and civil strife. These will be combined, paradoxically, with the remaining organs of authority, however discredited, desperately cracking down on the enemy within – no, not on murderers, robbers, and rapists, but on “science deniers,” “religious fanatics,” “haters,” “conspiracy theorists,” “insurrectionists,” “gun nuts,” “purveyors of “medical misinformation,” Russian or Chinese “stooges,” and, of course, “racists,” “sexists,” “homophobes,” and so forth. It’s the late Samuel Francis’ “anarcho-tyranny” nightmare come to life with a vengeance. Nevertheless, for what it is worth, I put before you three practical tasks for your consideration. Firstly, be vigilant against deception, in a day when assuredly evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. Admittedly, this is a tough one, given the ever-present lying that surrounds us and the suppression of dissent. Try to sift truth from falsehood but don’t become obsessed because, in many cases, you won’t be able to be sure anyway. Focus most on what’s proximate to you and on the people most important to you. … Be skeptical – about everyone. … There may be a cost. As Solzhenitsyn said, “He who chooses the lie as his principle inevitably chooses violence as his method.” Secondly, as stewards of every worldly charge placed on us by God and by other people—as fathers and mothers, as husbands and wives, as sons and daughters, as neighbors, as students, as workers, as citizens, as patriots—we must prudently care for those to whom we have a duty within the limited power and wisdom allotted to us. Start with yourselves. Be as self-sufficient as possible. Get involved in your community; that leftist slogan is actually a good one: think globally, act locally. Befriend your neighbors. Learn a real skill – electricity, plumbing, carpentry. Farm! Don’t go to law school, for goodness’ sake. Get in shape. Eat and sleep right. Have plenty of the essentials: food, fuel, gold, ammunition. Learn to shoot. Limit computer and phone time. Experience nature. Cultivate healthy personal relationships – real ones, not virtual ones. Marry young, have kids, lots of them – especially women, don’t get seduced by all that “career” nonsense. Nobody on his or her deathbed ever said, “Gosh, I wish I’d spent more time at the office.” Read old books. Cultivate virtue. Go to church. Simply being what used to be considered normal and leading a productive life is becoming the most revolutionary act one can perform. With that in mind, find the strength to be revolutionaries indeed! In the face of the culture of death and extinction, choose to affirm life. You’ve seen the meme: Hard times create strong men; Strong men create good times; Good times create weak men; Weak men create hard times. Well, take it from the weakling Boomer generation that brought them to you: the hard times, they is a-coming. But they won’t last forever. If you live through them – and some of you will not – we’ll see what possibilities, as of now literally unimaginable, might then exist. But you will need to be personally fit to take advantage of them. You will also need to be part of some kind of sustainable community of likeminded people. Thirdly, for those of you who are believers, particularly Christians, we must pray without ceasing, firm in faith that, through whatever hardships may lie ahead, even the very hairs of our head are all numbered, and the final triumph of Truth is never in doubt. Thank you, and good luck. You’re going to need it. Tyler Durden Wed, 09/06/2023 - 23:45.....»»

Russian pilots are not as well trained as their Western counterparts, and the country is quickly running out of them. A Russian pilot at Kubinka military training ground in Moscow in August.avel Pavlov/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Despite being bigger and more advanced than its enemy, Russia's air force has struggled in Ukraine. Those difficulties raise new questions about the quality of Russia's aircraft and pilot training. On March 14, two Russian Su-27 Flanker fighter jets were attempting to harass an unmanned American MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea, when one of them — seemingly accidentally — crashed right into the drone's rear propeller.In the days that followed, memes and internet jokes about just how poorly trained Russian fighter pilots are flooded social media, spurred initially by a rather professional burn delivered by Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder in a press conference held that same day:"This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional," the general said.It's commonly said that Russian fighter pilots are not as well trained as their Western counterparts, particularly those from the United States. But after conspiracy theories began to surface on social media about the Russian pilot colliding with the MQ-9 on purpose so Russian vessels in the Black Sea could recover it, the question of pilot competency within the Russian armed forces became more important.Russian forces have almost certainly already gotten their hands on a number of downed MQ-9 Reapers over the drone's two-plus decades of service. MQ-9s have been shot down or crashed due to other issues, over Syria, where Russian forces operate, and over Yemen, and Libya on multiple occasions. So, dredging a broken Reaper up from the bottom of the Black Sea may not be the intelligence windfall many have made it out to be.But even if the intelligence value of downing the Reaper was likely minimal, preventing it from continuing to gather intelligence about the conflict in Ukraine could (arguably) be motive enough for the Russian pilots to be given the order to engage the drone in a way that allowed for plausible deniability — causing a crash seemingly by accident to avoid American retaliation. Of course, in doing so, Russian leaders would be willingly risking not only a $37 million Su-27 in the midst of an ongoing war, but a valuable pilot as well. That's a big risk to take for a dated drone.In order to assess the likelihood of such a conspiracy, we'll need to delve into how Russia trains its pilots and just how much experience they tend to have. For context, we'll often use the US Air Force as a basis for comparison, thanks to its reputation for fielding highly skilled aviators and the availability of data.But however ineffective you may think Russian pilot training is compared to the West, the truth seems to be … much worse. In fact, based on the available data, Russia seems to be experiencing a catastrophic shortage of well-trained and experienced aviators.Much more than offering insight into the recent collision over the Black Sea, this shortage also explains a great deal about the Russian performance in the skies over Ukraine to date and suggests Russian aviation will continue to struggle for many years to come as a result of this conflict.How does Russia's air force funding really compare to America's?Russian Su-34, Su-30SM, and Su-35S jets over Red Square during the Victory Day parade in May 2021.Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesPrior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia's entire defense budget has averaged between $61 and $69 billion per year since 2014. During that same span of time, the US Air Force's annual funding alone averaged around $193.7 billion.Depending on your source, the US Air Force operates around 5,200 aircraft, while the Russian military operates around 4,200.Based on these available figures and in very simplified terms, the budget for America's Air Force by itself averages around double that of Russia's entire military on an annual basis.But that's a sizable oversimplification that doesn't take things like purchasing power parity (PPP) into account. The idea behind calculating PPP is evening the economic playing field — weaker economies like Russia's may have less money to pour into defense, but goods and services also cost less for a weaker economy.As one simplified example, the United States government may pay a skilled carpenter $60 to build a table based on the standard pay for a carpenter in the US. The Russian government, however, would likely pay a carpenter far less for the same table, based on the significantly lower pay scale for carpenters within the nation — say, $30 instead.To put a fine point on it, poorer nations can accomplish more per dollar than wealthier ones.When you adjust Russia's budget for purchasing power parity, it gets better … but not muchA Russian Su-35S fighter jet taking off in Kubinka.Artyom Anikeev/Stocktrek Images via Getty ImagesIn 2021, the purchasing power parity conversion factor for Russia was 27.3, basically meaning that Russia can accomplish the same by spending one American dollar as the United States can by spending $27.30. When people ask why the US spends so much on defense, this is one of the bits of context that often goes undiscussed.With PPP considered, Russia's average of $65 billion on defense inflates to a much more respectable $193 billion in equivalent US dollars — just about on par with what the U.S. invests into its Air Force alone.However, according to a 2019 Rand Corporation analysis of Russia's military entitled, "Trends in Russia's Armed Forces: An Overview of Budget and Capabilities," Russia allocates only about 10.9% of its annual defense expenditures to its air forces.In other words, the fairest and most objective direct comparison of Russian spending on its air forces versus American spending on just the US Air Force alone, when adjusted for purchasing power parity and converted into US dollars, breaks down as such:Russia spends an adjusted average of about $21.03 billion per year on its air forces. The US spends an average of $193.7 billion on the US Air Force alone.If you spread those funds out across the size of each respective fleet, you get an average Russian expenditure of about $5 million (adjusted for PPP) per aircraft per year, and an American average of about $37.1 million per aircraft per year. And while the quality and type of aircraft play a significant role in the cost of operation, that higher expenditure per aircraft still gives the United States a significant edge in terms of the cost of maintenance and operation inherent to ensuring its pilots get the hours they need in their respective cockpits.Of course, in reality, not all of these funds go directly to aircraft operation, but this comparison does still give us a sense of scale. (In terms of true dollars spent, the comparison is even more significant: Russia invests just around $6.7 billion per year into its airpower apparatus.)How much training do Russian pilots get before reaching their units?A Russian air force pilot prepares to take off in an Su-35 fighter jet at Hemeimeem air base in Syria in September 2019.AP Photo/Alexander ZemlianichenkoThis budget disparity also affects training. The United States invests a great deal into its pilots, particularly those tasked with flying fighters or bombers. From start to finish, the United States spends nearly $11 million to train a fighter pilot to fly the F-22 Raptor, for instance.But these costs are spread out over years of recruiting, training, and sustainment, and it's difficult to discern similar overall costs for Russian pilots in the nation's own top-of-the-line (for them) platforms.Russian fixed-wing pilots often train at the Krasnodar Higher Military Aviation School for Pilots, where in 2021 it was reported that pilots graduate and move on to their respective units after an average of 140 hours of beginner flight training and then an additional 60 or so flight hours in an advanced flight training program.Now, this is a significant increase since the early to mid-2000s, which coincides with Russia's significant uptick in military funding starting at around the same time, but this combined total of an average of 200 hours in the cockpit before heading to a combat-ready unit is still well short of their American counterparts.Fighter pilots in the US Air Force start out by attending initial flight screening (ISF) in Pueblo, Colorado, where they'll accumulate 25 hours of flight time in aircraft like the prop-driven Diamond DA-20. Once through ISF, pilots begin Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training (SUPT), where they'll couple more classroom instruction with approximately 90 more flight hours behind the stick of another prop-driven aircraft, usually a Beechcraft T-6 Texan II.Only after completing Phase 2 of SUPT, and after already having accumulated about 115 flight hours, are Air Force pilots assigned the type of aircraft they'll be flying in service. During Phase 3, fighter and bomber pilots, which are made up of the top students in each class, go on to accumulate another 100+ hours in jet-powered aircraft like the T-38 Talon.Upon completion of Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training (SUPT), Air Force fighter pilots will have already accumulated an average of 215 to 250 hours of flying time … and they still haven't even climbed into the cockpit of their fighters yet.These graduated pilots then move on to the Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF) course, where they'll rack up another 20 or so hours, before advancing yet again to their respective MWS Replacement Training Unit (RTU) to train extensively in their assigned aircraft for another six months to a year before getting a squadron assignment.As a result, Air Force fighter pilots reach their first unit with around twice the cockpit experience of their Russian counterparts on average.And the training gap only widens from thereA Pilot Training Next student and instructor prepare for a training flight at an airport in Texas in June 2018.US Air Force/Sean M. WorrellThe next important basis for comparison is continuous seat time in the aircraft themselves. All pilots need initial flight training, but even the best initial training can't compensate for a lack of seat time as one's career progresses.Just like a Navy SEAL needs to continually train on the various firearms and equipment they might leverage in a fight to consistently perform at a high level, pilots need to fly their planes as often as possible to accumulate experience, grow comfortable, and be prepared to do their jobs when the sky is literally exploding all around them.According to the International Review, Russian fighter pilots average somewhere between 70 and 120 hours of flight time per year, or around 5.8 to 10 hours of cockpit time per month. These figures, however, may be a bit artificially inflated, as some fighter units were reportedly congratulated in 2018 for reaching an average of 70 hours per year across their roster.American fighter pilots have struggled to log what the Air Force considers to be sufficient seat time in recent years as well, particularly since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Heritage Foundation's in-depth analysis of US military power assessed that American fighter pilots accumulated an average of 131 flight hours in 2020 or approximately 10.9 hours per month.However, other outlets, like Air and Space Forces Magazine, reported far worse figures, with 2020 reflecting an average of just 8.1 hours and an even more troubling 6.8 hours per month in 2021. However, it may be worth noting that neither of these figures includes simulator time, which the US has placed a growing emphasis on in recent years.Using these broad averages, taking the best possible Russian training regimens and comparing them to the worst possible US Air Force figures offers us a reasonable comparison in terms of cockpit experience.Assuming the best possible Russian training figures and the worst available American ones, a Russian fighter pilot who has been with their combat unit for four years would have accumulated an average total of 680 flight hours, whereas an American pilot with their unit for the same amount of time would have a minimum of 726 hours.But when assuming more realistic figures, that comparison becomes more one-sided, with the Russian fighter pilot likely accumulating just 480 total flight hours four years after unit assignment, and American pilots at the same point in their career closer to the 924-hour mark.In other words, one could argue that the average American fighter pilot likely has about twice the cockpit experience of their Russian counterparts.How about the realism of air combat training?An immersive training device used to recreate the flight experience to enhance US Air Force undergraduate pilot training.US Air Force/Mary CrumpBeing able to effectively leverage the capabilities of your aircraft in a fight is obviously about more than chalking up seat time in the cockpit.As the United States came to learn (the hard way) in the air battles over Vietnam, realistic combat training has a huge effect on pilots' performance the first time they find themselves in a fightt. The fact of the matter is, hours behind the stick matter, but the types of training conducted while behind the stick matter just as much.American fighter pilots struggled in the skies over Southeast Asia for a litany of reasons ranging from the poor performance of air-to-air missiles to rules of engagement that eliminated any advantage pilots could press. But perhaps the most egregious American failing came not during the conflict itself, but in the training leading up to it.For years prior to the Vietnam War, fighter pilot training was so overwhelmingly risk-averse that it allowed for nothing even close to a realistic fight.And to make matters worse, air-to-air training for F-4 Phantom pilots, for instance, almost always pitted them against other F-4s, despite the fact that the MiGs they'd be squaring off against over Vietnam were substantially slower and tighter-turning opponents with very different weapons and tactics.By 1969, the US Navy saw the error in their ways, and they went about establishing the United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program, later renamed Navy Fighter Weapons School (but most of us know it today, as Top Gun). And in 1975, the US Air Force took realistic air combat training to the next level with the establishment of Red Flag — a massive air combat exercise that forces a variety of aircraft to coordinate with one another in a realistic setting against dissimilar aggressor aircraft and pilots trained specifically in emulating the behavior and tactics of opponent nations.Today, allied nations from around the world send their aviators, aircraft, and support crews to participate in Red Flag, ever broadening both the scale and realism of this intense training environment. According to the US Air Force, it's not uncommon for more than 29 or more different types of aircraft to participate in any given Red Flag exercise, alongside a laundry list of ground-based defense systems and more.Both of these training environments have helped to reshape the way America leverages its airpower, turning the largest air force in the world into arguably the most capable and effective one to boot — but doing so isn't cheap. According to some reports, each of the three Red Flag exercises held per year costs Uncle Sam between $20 and $60 million in ordnance, operating, and personnel costs.And this is one of those places where the funding disparity between Russian and American air forces becomes perhaps most evident.As Guy Plopsky, a defense analyst who specializes in Russian military affairs, explained to Hushkit back in 2021, Russian fighter pilots do train in a variety of simulated combat scenarios, but rarely in coordination with other military assets and almost never in truly combined arms, large scale exercises."Larger VKS [Russian Aerospace Forces] exercises can include two or more different types of aircraft, including supporting platforms such as airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft and tankers, giving crews the opportunity to practice aerial refueling and train with/against other platforms." Plopski wrote.Now, it's important to note that Russia does hold occasional joint force training exercises that may see wider participation, but certainly not with the scope or regularity of American exercises like Red Flag. This training shortcoming creates real issues for Russian forces in a large-scale conflict like Ukraine.How this training disparity manifests in combatAn image of a crashed Russian Sukhoi jet in Ukraine shared by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.Ukrainian Defense MinistryRussian forces invaded Ukraine just over a year ago now, and despite the nation's massive technological and numerical advantage in the skies, Ukraine's airspace remains broadly contested.In fact, according to American defense officials, Ukraine — armed with a much smaller and less modernized Air Force and even more dated air defense systems — has been more successful in downing enemy aircraft than Russia to date (though Russia's superior numbers may offer something of a target-rich environment for Ukrainian Surface to Air Missile systems).We've delved into how Russia's failure to secure air supremacy may have as much to do with flawed doctrine as training and operational shortcomings, but where a lack of training becomes most evident is when considering Russia's struggle to deconflict Ukrainian airspace.In other words, Russia's got a bad habit of shooting its own planes down when there's a lot going on."Running joint engagement zones in which combat aircraft and SAM systems can engage enemy forces simultaneously in a complex environment without friendly-fire incidents is hard; it requires close inter-service cooperation, excellent communications and regular training to master. So far, Russian forces have shown extremely poor coordination across the board, from basic logistics tasks, to coordination of airborne assaults with ground forces activity and arranging air defence cover for columns on the move." "The Mysterious Case of the Missing Russian Air Force," by Justin Bronk for RUSITo be clear, it's difficult to be certain about friendly fire incidents among Russian forces in Ukraine for a number of reasons, including both the fog of war and the Kremlin understandably refusing to publicly acknowledge them. But independent expert analysis paints a grim picture.On the ground, at least one Russian-backed commander, Alexander Khodakovsky, has claimed that as much as 60% of Russian combat losses between May and November of 2022 came from friendly fire alone.And in the sky, things aren't much better. In just the initial days of fighting, numerous reports of Russian aircraft being downed by their own air defense systems permeated the web, and while hard numbers may never emerge, US defense officials have substantiated a number of these stories as they surfaced.It was also discussed in a 69-page RUSI analysis of the conflict released last July:"Fratricide has been a widespread problem for the Russian forces during their invasion of Ukraine. This has been across all systems. Russian air defences have regularly engaged friendly aircraft." "Preliminary Lessons in Conventional Warfighting from Russia's Invasion of Ukraine: February–July 2022," by Mykhaylo Zabrodskyi, Jack Watling, Oleksandr V Danylyuk and Nick Reynolds for RUSI.Arguably the highest profile of these incidents came in July 2022, when video surfaced of Russian air-defense systems shooting down what was believed to be a Ukrainian aircraft … only to find out later that it was actually one of just 10 or fewer advanced new Su-34Ms in existence.This modernized fourth-generation fighter-bomber could be compared in some ways to America's F-15E Strike Eagle and is among the most capable jets in the Russian arsenal. The $50 million aircraft was shot down over Ukraine within just days of the Russian forces taking delivery of it.And as RUSI explained, these fratricidal failings can be directly attributed to a lack of realistic training."This speaks to a lack of C2 and control measures during operations. It likely reflects Russian troops largely conducting scripted exercises rather than free-play force-on-force activity where they are used to dealing with the ambiguities that arise on the battlefield." "Preliminary Lessons in Conventional Warfighting from Russia's Invasion of Ukraine: February–July 2022," by Mykhaylo Zabrodskyi, Jack Watling, Oleksandr V Danylyuk and Nick Reynolds for RUSI.Comparing 1991's Gulf War air campaign to Russia's air campaign over UkraineUS Air Force F-15Es, F-16s, and an F-15C over burning Kuwaiti oil wells during the Gulf War.APNow, it's important to note that no nation with a sizeable air force is immune to fratricide, or friendly-fire incidents, and the United States is no exception.In 2003, for instance, American MIM-104 Patriot Air Defense Systems were responsible for the downing of two friendly aircraft — one American and one British. In September 1987, a US Navy F-14 Tomcat shot down a US Air Force RF- 4C reconnaissance jet over the Mediterranean Sea. These are not exactly isolated incidents, but they are exceedingly rare.The rarity of fratricide incidents between American and allied forces can be directly attributed to continuous investment into new technologies aimed at quickly deconflicting complex battlespaces, but certainly also to large-scale combined-arms training like Red Flag.The coalition's Gulf War Air Campaign, despite being more than three decades ago, offered a clinic in deconflicting far more combat aircraft in a much smaller space than Ukraine.Some 2,780 coalition fixed-wing aircraft flew over 116,000 combat sorties in Iraq over the span of just 37 days. This breaks down to approximately 3,135 combat sorties per day during the air campaign. Of course, there was also a reported 1,114 fixed-wing Iraqi aircraft flying in the same region, and countless air defense systems from all nations also in play.Between coalition and Iraqi forces combined, there were more than 4,000 fixed-wing assets, along with many more rotorcraft, operating within less than 170,000 square miles of Iraqi territory during that 37-day span. Despite this density of platforms within a confined space, the coalition lost just 52 fixed-wing aircraft, with one air-to-air loss to an enemy fighter and the remainder from Iraqi ground-based anti-aircraft fire.While the Gulf War did see friendly-fire incidents that involved aircraft firing on ground troops, not a single aircraft was lost to fratricide (but in the interest of disclosure, one Navy A-6E pilot reported being fired upon by a friendly surface-to-air missile that missed).Now, compare that to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in which far fewer aircraft are operating over an even larger area — a bit more than 233,000 square miles.It's difficult to ascertain exactly how many combat aircraft Russia has committed to the fight, particularly because many don't actually cross the border into Ukraine, opting for the safety of launching long-range cruise missiles into the embattled nation from Russian airspace instead. But according to Russian state-controlled media, the nation flew some 34,000 combat sorties between the onset of the war on February 24 and mid-October 2022, breaking down to approximately 150 sorties per day.And while Iraqi forces operated more than a 1,000 fixed-wing aircraft in 1991, Ukraine's Air Force started the war with just 125 fixed-wing assets.Put simply, the Gulf War air campaign creates a damning juxtaposition when compared directly to Russia's air campaign over Ukraine. Russian aircraft are flying about 5% as many sorties in an area that's 37% larger against an air force just 11% the size of Iraq's in 1991, but while the coalition lost a total of just 52 fixed-wing aircraft in combat and none to fratricide, Russia has already lost a confirmed 352 fixed-wing aircraft, with even Russian propagandists highlighting that an appreciable but unconfirmed percentage of these losses were the direct result of friendly fire."Insufficient levels of interaction with other branches and types of troops, along with an inoperative identification system, has more than once led to 'friendly fire' to the point that almost all Su-34, Su-35S and Su-30M aircraft lost since spring, as well as part of the Ka-52 helicopters, are 'on account' of Russian air defence," wrote Pro-Kremlin analysis outlet Rybar.And while many Russian platforms are still flying with dated systems not too dissimilar from those employed by coalition forces in 1991, even those carrying more advanced systems onboard have demonstrated an inability to effectively leverage them, either due to inexperience or issues with their design."The Khibiny EW pod, mounted to a number of Russian aircraft, automatically detects radars and disrupts them. Unfortunately for the Russians, it tends to also do this to other Russian aircraft. Pairs of Russian strike aircraft mounting this system have therefore had to choose between having a functional radar or EW protection. They have often been ordered to prioritise their radar.""Preliminary Lessons in Conventional Warfighting from Russia's Invasion of Ukraine: February–July 2022," by Mykhaylo Zabrodskyi, Jack Watling, Oleksandr V Danylyuk and Nick Reynolds for RUSI.The shortage of well-trained Russian pilots is only going to get worse as this conflict continuesA Russian Su-30SM pilot inspects an R-27 missile during training in June 2018.Yevgeny Polovodov/Russian Ministry of Defense/Mil.ruThroughout this (now quite long) analysis of Russian and American pilot training, we've omitted one more vital point of comparison: volume. While we've compared training flight hours between American and Russian flight schools, for instance, the volume of students who pass through these schools is also a vital metric to assess.The number of pilots Russia is able to push through training has been negatively affected for years by a lack of modern and serviceable training aircraft, which creates one of several training bottlenecks for VKS aviators.According to the aforementioned RUSI analysis, Russia's Aerospace Forces may have entered into the Ukrainian conflict with as few as just 100 fully trained combat pilots, forcing the rest of its aviators into the fight without completing the full breadth of instruction required. But that's not the full extent of Russia's pilot shortage problem … it's only the beginning.Russia's military culture dictates that the most dangerous missions be assigned to the most skilled and competent aviators. This philosophy seems logical at first glance, but leads to higher attrition (or losses) among the force's most qualified pilots.In order to address these losses within Russia's elite pilot corps, the VKS has reportedly begun mobilizing pilot instructors out of flight schools like Krasnodar, putting these highly skilled pilots directly into front-line formations. This has resulted in a shortage of trainers, creating further bottlenecks in the pilot pipeline and further reducing the number of new aviators entering service to replace those lost in combat.This shortage of experienced pilots has resulted in an influx of inexperienced new pilots bolstered by older retirees brought back into service after years away from the cockpit, and that's forced a shift in how Russia executes air operations."The Ukrainian military has noted a rise in both very young and very old pilots in the VKS, with ageing pilots returned to frontline service. This has corresponded with a significant reduction in the scale and complexity of VKS air operations over Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict." "Preliminary Lessons in Conventional Warfighting from Russia's Invasion of Ukraine: February–July 2022," by Mykhaylo Zabrodskyi, Jack Watling, Oleksandr V Danylyuk and Nick Reynolds for RUSI.This experiential deficit manifests in a number of other areas of Russia's air campaign as well. As early as March 9, 2022, Russian air forces attempted to transition to low-altitude night operations, as they were losing more aircraft to Ukrainian defense during the day.But because only Russia's Su-34s are properly equipped for these flights and there are so few pilots capable of conducting them, these night operations quickly degraded into simple bombardments of besieged cities like Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Mariupul using the same tactics leveraged by Russian aviators in Syria.This approach proved ineffective enough, despite the relative safety offered by night-flying, for Russia to pivot back away from these operations within just a month or so.Russian pilots are poorly trained, poorly equipped, poorly supported, and poorly utilizedA Russian weapons crew with an R-27 missile during training in June 2018.Yevgeny Polovodov/Russian Ministry of Defense/Mil.ruTo make things worse for inexperienced Russian pilots, their aircraft are also being maintained and serviced by inexperienced ground crews, exacerbating technical limitations and further reducing survivability. In a separate analysis from RUSI, these training issues are further explored."Modern encrypted radio sets have been found without the encryption keys needed to use them, and in others the radar and other sensors have been found either in the stowed position or with pins or covers still fitted that prevent them from working." "The Russian Air War and Ukrainian Requirements for Air Defence," by Justin Bronk with Nick Reynolds and Jack Watling for RUSIWhen you consider the full scope of serious and far-reaching issues facing Russian combat pilots, the lack of Russian airpower throughout much of this conflict makes a great deal of sense. In fact, based on these challenges, it's somewhat impressive that Russia's aircraft losses haven't been worse.And while there are lots of conclusions we can draw about the effective use of airpower in a 21st-century conflict or the importance of a training infrastructure that mirrors the complexity of modern warfare, the most glaring conclusion may be the one that's been well-tread since the first Russian troops crossed over into Ukraine last February: Russia did not expect this to become a protracted fight, and as such, they were utterly unprepared for one.But damning as this analysis of Russian airpower may truly be, it's essential that we not lose sight of Russia's continued combat capacity. While the above-discussed shortcomings may have allowed Ukraine to fend off its larger and more powerful opponent for better than a year now, this war is not over, and lives are being lost every day.The Russian military's strategic, doctrinal, and cultural failings have created the opportunity for a heroic Ukrainian defense, but they aren't enough to ensure Russia's defeat. Ukraine still has one hell of a fight ahead of it.But, to come full circle, let's close by addressing the recent influx of conspiracy theories about Russia's Su-27 potentially crashing into America's MQ-9 Reaper on purpose … while anything is possible, it seems there's more than enough evidence to comfortably view this interaction through the lens of Hanlon's Razor:"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by neglect, ignorance or incompetence."Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

"As in the US, a central grievance of Brazil's far-right protesters was that the elections were somehow 'stolen' from them," one expert told Insider. US President Donald Trump (L) speaks with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro during a dinner at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on March 7, 2020.JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images The attack on Brazil's capital came after Bolsonaro closely followed Trump's election playbook.  Like Trump, the Brazilian leader riled up his supporters with baseless claims of election fraud. One Brazilian security expert described the attack as "an insurrection foretold." Just over two years after a deadly assault on the US Capitol, supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro — incensed over his election defeat and refusing to accept the results — stormed the Congress, presidential palace, and Supreme Court in Brasília. Though security forces regained control of the buildings, January 8 is being described as one of the worst assaults on Brazil's democracy in nearly four decades. The attack in Brazil's capital came after Bolsonaro followed a near-identical playbook to that of former US President Donald Trump in the lead-up to the fatal January 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C. in 2021.Bolsonaro, like Trump, spread baseless claims of voter fraud ahead of Brazil's presidential election — sowing doubts about the integrity of the electoral process. And, much like Trump, Bolsonaro refused to concede after he was defeated and would go on to skip the inauguration of his successor. Bolsonaro's supporters have also been protesting since election day, with some calling for military intervention.In the run-up to Brazil's election, pundits and experts warned that Bolsonaro's rhetoric was setting the stage for the South American country to see its own version of the January 6 riot. "The storming of Brazil's democratic institutions by a violent mob was an insurrection foretold" and "telegraphed in advance," Robert Muggah, co-founder of the Igarape Institute, a Rio de Janeiro-based think tank, told Insider. "The parallels between this week's violent protests in Brazil and the US insurrection two years ago are anything but coincidence," he added, characterizing Bolsonaro as a "fawning admirer" of Trump. "As in the US, a central grievance of Brazil's far-right protesters was that the elections were somehow 'stolen' from them," Muggah said. "Their claims may have no substance, but they hardly come as a surprise: former president Jair Bolsonaro, his three elected sons, and a clutch of advisers and influencers spoon-fed supporters a steady diet of disinformation and misinformation for years."Many of those involved in the mayhem in Brasília on Sunday behaved similarly to the pro-Trump insurrectionists on January 6, he said, describing them as "rank amateurs.""They spent much of their time trashing offices and taking selfies, including with several state military police officers who seemed reluctant to intervene," Muggah said. There were also key differences between January 6, 2021 in the US and the tumultuous events in Brazil's capital on January 8, including the fact Bolsonaro was not physically present in Brasília on the day of the attack and was no longer president. The former Brazilian president is currently in Orlando, Florida. Trump was still in office during the January 6 riot and delivered a speech filled with falsehoods about the 2020 election right before his supporters stormed the Capitol building.The January 6 events also occurred as US lawmakers met to certify the 2020 election results — prior to US President Joe Biden's inauguration. When Bolsonaro's supporters rioted on Sunday, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had already been sworn in as Brazil's new president the week before. But there are still clear connections between the two days of political violence and the circumstances surrounding them, raising concerns about the increasingly global nature of the far-right movement and its anti-democratic activities.Valentina Sader, the associate director at the Atlantic Council's Latin America Center, said that the attack in Brazil's capital on all three branches of government was "inspired by the United States' January 6 riots" and that the US and the West "should see what happened in Brazil as yet another failed attempt by the extreme right to undermine democracy."Pro-Trump protesters gather in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.Jon Cherry/Getty ImagesSupporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro clash with security forces as they raid the National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, 08 January 2023. Groups shouting slogans demanding intervention from the army broke through the police barrier and entered the Congress building, according to local media. Police intervened with tear gas to disperse pro-Bolsonaro protesters. Some demonstrators were seen climbing onto the roofs of the House of Representatives and Senate buildings. (Photo by Joedson Alves/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)Joedson Alves/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images"The links between Bolsonaro and Trump are really direct and obvious," Brian Klaas, a political scientist and expert on authoritarianism at University College London, said Monday in a social media post. "Steve Bannon and Eduardo Bolsonaro, Jair's son, are clear conduits for sharing strategies and talking tactics. And they don't even hide it. It was in plain sight." Indeed, there have for years been close ties between Trump and Bolsonaro, who is often referred to as the "Trump of the Tropics."Eduardo Bolsonaro, a federal congressman and the former Brazilian president's son, traveled to Florida after Brazil's presidential election and met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort. He was also advised by former Trump aides Steve Bannon and Jason Miller during the visit to Florida, according to reporting from the Washington Post. Bannon, among the most incendiary and controversial voices on the US far right, has cast doubt on the results of Brazil's election and referred to the Bolsonaro supporters involved in Sunday's violence as "freedom fighters.""One of the many lessons emerging from the Brazilian protests is that democracy can and should not be taken for granted," Muggah said. "The very buildings that were ransacked by protestors on Sunday were the settings for a jubilant inauguration less than a week earlier.""Too often, democracies start unraveling when large segments of the population lose faith in institutions and mistrust elected authorities," he added, underscoring threats to democracy and how the degradation of democratic institutions can be accelerated not just by political leaders but also by disinformation — as was also the case on January 6.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

A recap of election results and news on hundreds of campaigns, including every House, Senate, governor, and state legislative race in the US. iStock; Insider 2022 General Embeds function receiveMessage(event) { if (event.data.id && event.data.height) { document.getElementById(event.data.id).style.height = event.data.height + "px"; } } window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false); Democrats held control of the US Senate and could even gain a seat depending on a run-off race in Georgia. A few outstanding races in the 2022 elections will determine control of the House. The results were a disappointment for Republicans, who had hoped to win many seats in both chambers. Washington Democrat Marie Pérez defeats Trump-backed Joe Kent, who ousted a pro-impeachment RepublicanRachel La Corte/ AP PhotoDemocratic Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez defeated Republican Joe Kent to win the US House race for Washington's 3rd Congressional District. Pérez's win will flip the district from Republican to Democrat, a first in 12 years.Control of the House still hangs in the balance, with only a handful of outstanding races yet to be called.Read Full StoryDemocrats hold US Senate with win in NevadaDemocratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto has won one of the nation's closest-watched Senate races in Nevada, deciding the fate of Senate control for the next two years. Read Full StoryCatherine Cortez Masto defeats Adam Laxalt in Nevada Senate electionInsiderDemocratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto defeated Republican Adam Laxalt to win the Nevada senate election.Read Full StoryResults: Rep. Kim Schrier defeats Republican Matt Larkin in Washington's 8th Congressional District electionMatt Larkin's campaign; Elaine Thompson/AP Photo; InsiderDemocratic Rep. Kim Schrier defeated Republican Matt Larkin in Washington's 8th Congressional District.Read Full StoryResults: Sen. Mark Kelly defeats Republican Blake Masters in critical Arizona Senate contestUS Senate; AP; Marianne Ayala/InsiderFreshman Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona defeated newly-minted Republican candidate Blake Masters in a highly charged race for the state's US Senate seat. Read Full StoryTrump-endorsed Republican Joe Lombardo defeats Gov. Steve Sisolak in Nevada's gubernatorial electionInsiderDemocratic Gov. Steve Sisolak was defeated by Republican Joe Lombardo in Nevada's gubernatorial election. Once one of 14 Democratic trifectas in the country, Lombardo's win overturned this status. Read Full StoryDemocratic Rep. Steve Horsford defeats Republican Sam Peters in Nevada's 4th Congressional District electionBill Clark/CQ Roll Call; InsiderDemocratic Rep. Steve Horsford defeated Republican Sam Peters in Nevada's 4th Congressional District. It marks the second critical house race taken by Democratic candidates Friday evening, along with Democratic Rep. Susie Lee, who defeated April Becker in Nevada's 3rd Congressional District election. Read Full StoryDemocrat Trone holds his seat in MarylandRep. David Trone seen speaking during the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference in Washington, DC.Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesDemocratic Rep. David Trone held off a challenge from Republican Neil Parrott in Maryland's 6th Congressional District in a rematch.Trone — the millionaire owner of Total Wine & More retailers — is one of Congress' wealthiest members.He is also among dozens of members of Congress found since last year to have violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 for failing to properly disclose financial investments.His victory shores up another seat for Democrats as control of the House remains too close to call.Control of the Senate and the House remains too close to callA view of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. November 19, 2019Aurora Samperio/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesAs of Friday morning — three days after Election Day — neither party has taken control of the Senate or House just yet.Democrats have amassed victories in 48 Senate races and need to eke out wins in two more states to keep power in the Senate with 50 senators and Vice President Kamala Harris serving as a tiebreaker.Republicans, meanwhile, need to win two of those races to flip control.As it stands, Senate races in Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada haven't been resolved.Georgia's race between Republican Herschel Walker and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is going to a December runoff election, making Nevada and Arizona the two most important states to watch at the moment.In Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt leads Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto by about 9,000 votes — less than 1% of the overall vote — with 6% of votes still left to be reported, according to Insider's data partner, Decision Desk HQ.In Arizona, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly holds a 5% lead, or about 115,000 votes, over Republican challenger Blake Masters with 84% of all votes reported so far.On the House side, there are still 31 races that DDHQ has yet to call, many of which are in California and New York. As it stands, Republicans have netted 210 seats in the House so far, besting the Democrats' 194.Either party needs 218 seats to have a majority.That the election remains so close is a stunning result considering economic headwinds and historic trends of the party in power losing seats in Congress during midterm elections. The GOP had hoped for a "red wave" of victories, but Republicans have been held to only a few pickups in razor-tight races.A Maryland Republican who lost his race by 300K votes says he won't concede. Most Republicans who lost have conceded.Michael Anthony Peroutka, the Republican nominee for Attorney General of Maryland in 2022, speaks at a Towson University event on October 3, 2022Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesThe GOP's nominee for Maryland's attorney general has refused to concede, despite trailing his opponent by more than 300,000 votes.Right-wing candidate Michael Peroutka emailed his supporters suggesting without evidence that election fraud had taken place.Meanwhile, the Maryland State Board of Elections said Marylanders can be "confident" in the result, according to a statement seen by the Washington Post.Though many high-profile election deniers ran in the 2022 midterm elections, most Republicans who lost have quickly conceded their races.Read Full Story Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., attends a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Facebook's Libra.Tom Williams/CQ Roll CallA New York Congressman who lost his seat in the midterm elections criticized New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saying she didn't do enough to help.Sean Patrick Maloney has represented New York's 17th congressional district in the House of Representatives since 2013 but lost to his Republican rival this week, a stunning defeat for the party.When asked who was to blame for Democrats' poor performance in the usually safe blue state, Maloney said of Ocasio-Cortez: "I didn't see her one minute of these midterms helping our House majority" — noting that she endorsed a candidate who tried unsuccessfully to unseat him in the primaries.Read Full StoryIn a series of irate posts, Trump bashes DeSantis as an 'average' governor who is 'playing games' around his intention to run in 2024Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Dayton International Airport on November 7, 2022 in Vandalia, Ohio.Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesFormer President Donald Trump ripped Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a flurry of posts on Truth Social on Thursday, calling him an "average Republican governor with great Public Relations."In a public statement also posted on Truth Social, Trump unleashed on his one-time ally, offering a taste of the potential insults to come if the two face off in 2024. The Florida governor is seen as a potential 2024 presidential hopeful, which could challenge the former president's hold on the GOP should DeSantis decide to run for president.Read Full StoryTrump also raged against DeSantis and said he unnecessarily chose to "close up" Florida during the pandemicTrump appeared to criticize Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's COVID-19 response, which was widely praised and held up as a model by many on the right.Trump made the comment in a statement provided to Insider and in a series of Truth Social posts in which he raged against DeSantis and the news media. The statement came after some Republicans blamed Trump for the GOP's disappointing midterms performance, although DeSantis easily coasted to reelection.Read Full Story Republicans say they're skeptical whether the party will abandon Trump after underperformance in midtermsSpencer Platt/Getty ImagesRepublicans have been publicly souring on former President Donald Trump after candidates he endorsed underperformed in the midterm elections, but whether that drumbeat grows loud enough to drive him out as the party's leader remains uncertain."There's an old Frank Sinatra song where he says, 'I've heard that song before.' — We've heard this song before," Doug Heye, a veteran GOP strategist, told Insider on Thursday. "What we don't know is: what is that second verse going to be, and are Republicans going to actually stick to it?"Read Full StoryBoebert shares meme, opponent urges voters to fix ballots in tight raceColodaro Rep. Lauren Boebert gained 18,679 follower in the 24 hours before Elon Musk took over Twitter.Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesGOP Rep. Lauren Boebert broke two days of Twitter silence on Thursday morning as leads her race by just under 400 votes — a stunningly close situation for the incumbent Congresswoman who was widely expected to trounce her opponent in a heavily Republican district.Her opponent, Democrat Adam Frisch, has tweeted a handful of times since polls first closed in Colorado.His most recent update came Thursday night around 9 p.m. ET, when he urged Coloradans to cure their ballots — meaning fix errors that will allow the vote to be counted, as per state law — if needed. Read Full StoryAs of early Thursday, it was still too early to call either the Senate or the House.Thousands of Trump supporters gather on the National Mall near the Washington Monument for President Donald Trumps speech from the Ellipse at the White House in Washington on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, as the Congress prepares to certify the electoral college votes.Photo By Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesAs of 7 a.m. ET on Thursday, 34 House seats were uncalled.Republicans would need to pick up eight more House seats to retake the chamber, and have plenty of chances to do so even in the absence of an overwhelming "red wave" for the party.Three still-live races were also uncalled in the Senate, which will decide control of that chamber.Arizona and Nevada remained open for either party, while in Alaska the race is between two Republican candidates, with the Democratic candidate way behind.The Senate race in Georgia ended in a stalemate after neither party's candidate exceeded 50% of the vote. That race will be decided in a runoff vote in December. Republican Ryan Zinke defeats Democrat Monica TranelMatthew Brown/AP Photo; William Campbell/Getty Images; InsiderRepublican Ryan Zinke defeated Democrat Monica Tranel in Montana's 1st Congressional District.Read Full StoryThe Murdoch-owned New York Post, which long championed Donald Trump, mocks 'Trumpty Dumpty' for failing to put the GOP 'back together again'The New York Post's Thursday issue will invoke a large question mark around Donald Trump's future in the Republican party — and it comes in the form of an old nursery rhyme."Don (who couldn't build a wall) had a great fall — can all the GOP's men put the party back together again?" Thursday's cover read, referencing "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall" by Mother Goose. The cover was shared by New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman.—Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 10, 2022 Read Full StoryDemocrat Yadira Caraveo defeats Republican Barbara KirkmeyerBarbara Kirkmeyer's campaign; Yadira Caraveo's campaign; InsiderDemocrat Yadira Caraveo defeated Republican Barbara Kirkmeyer in Colorado's new 8th Congressional District. Caraveo scored a narrow victory with 48.4% of the vote to Kirkmeyer's 47.7%. Read Full StoryRepublican Rep. Yvette Herrell defeated by Democrat Gabriel VasquezBill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images;InsiderRepublican New Mexico Rep. Yvette Herrell lost her bid for reelection against Democrat Gabriel Vasquez in New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District.Vasquez beat Herrell by less than a 1 percentage point margin. Read Full StoryTrump will be told to delay announcement of his 2024 campaign until after the Georgia senate runoff, his campaign advisor said.Former President Donald Trump's campaign advisor Jason Miller said Wednesday that he'll be directing Trump to delay the announcement of his 2024 presidential campaign after the midterms failed to manifest the blowout Republicans hope to receive in Congress.Miller said in an interview with Newsmax that the campaign launch should be delayed until after Georgia's impending Senate runoff election in December between Herschel Walker and incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock. Just two years ago, the state had to hold another separate election for the same seat because none of the candidates received a majority vote.Read Full StoryWhile some of Trump's picks lost or underperformed, Gov. Ron DeSantis dominated in Florida — heating up talks about who the GOP nominee should be in 2024Ron DeSantis.James Gilbert/Getty ImagesAs the anticipated "red wave" failed to fully materialize on Tuesday, one Republican in Florida was having an exceptionally good night.Gov. Ron DeSantis handily won reelection in a state that has long been considered a swing state, defeating Democrat Charlie Crist with a roughly 20-point lead as of Wednesday. By comparison, DeSantis in 2018 won the governorship by less than a percentage point, in a state that twice voted for former President Barack Obama.DeSantis' dominating performance is all the more noteworthy compared to the underwhelming results delivered by Republicans elsewhere, including some of former President Donald Trump's most ardent supporters and endorsees. The drastic difference has already led Republicans to turn to DeSantis for 2024 hopes, a prospect that now seems all the more likely."Certainly DeSantis's overwhelming victory just puts more wind in his sails," Kevin Kosar, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies Congress and US politics, told Insider. "The failure of various Trump pick candidates is a blow against him."Read Full StoryJoe Biden said he'll do 'nothing' differently after the midterm elections because he's 'confident these policies are working'President Joe Biden delivers remarks on preserving and protecting Democracy at Union Station on November 2, 2022 in Washington, DC.Michael A. McCoy/Getty ImagesPresident Joe Biden on Wednesday projected confidence in the country's direction after the midterm elections, responding "nothing" when asked what he will do differently in the next two years."The more they know about what we're doing, the more support there is," Biden said of voters during a nearly hour-long news conference after midterm election results exceeded expectations for Democrats.With many race results still pending, Republicans are likely to capture control of the House and the Senate is still in play for both parties. But Democrats dodged a so-called "red wave" as midterm elections have historically punished the president's party two years after his first election."It was a good day, I think, for democracy," Biden said, later adding: "I know you were somewhat miffed by my obsessive optimism, but I felt good during the whole process."Read Full StoryLive Results: Voters in 5 states cast ballots on marijuana legalization. Here's where the pot initiatives stand.Getty Images; InsiderFive states had marijuana legalization initiatives on their ballots in 2022.On Tuesday, Maryland and Missouri joined the ranks of the growing number of states where cannabis is legal, while le.....»»

Democracy Wasn't On The Ballot, Extremism Was Authored by Michael Shellenberger, Democracy was on the ballot, argued Democrats in the run-up to yesterday’s elections. If voters elected Republican governors and a Republican majority in Congress, Democrats and media pundits warned, we could soon see the end of the American system of republican democracy. Those Republicans who denied the outcome of the 2020 election would use their position to help Donald Trump steal the 2024 election, tear up the Constitution, and install himself as dictator-for-life. Or something. But many Democratic candidates have themselves denied the results of past elections. In November 2002, Al Gore said he “would have won” the presidency had all the votes in Florida been counted, even though in 2001 The New York Times conducted a comprehensive review of all uncounted Florida ballots and found that George W. Bush would have won even had the United States Supreme Court allowed a manual recount of the votes to go forward. In 2005, Democratic Senate and House members objected to the certification of Ohio’s electoral college votes for George W. Bush claiming “numerous, serious election irregularities,” while the losing Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry, claimed that voters were “denied their right to vote; too many who tried to vote were intimidated.” In 2017, House Democrats objected to the 2016 electoral votes, 67 Democrats boycotted the inauguration claiming his election was “illegitimate” and in 2019, Hillary Clinton said the election was “stolen” from her and that Trump “knows” he stole the election and was “an illegitimate president.” It’s true that election denialism is much more widespread among Republicans than it is among Democrats. Where seven Democratic House members objected to the certification of their states’ votes for Trump in 2017, 139 Republican House members and eight Republican senators objected to the certification of their states’ votes for Biden in 2021, notes Cathy Young at The Bulwark. At the state level, 19 Republican attorneys general coordinated with Trump’s legal team to invalidate the results of the vote and involved fraudulent electors sending phony certificates to Washington depicting Trump as the winner. And Trump encouraged a mob of his supporters to storm the Capitol Building on January 6 in an effort to stop the certification of Biden’s election. But if Democrats were really so worried that America’s democracy was on the brink of collapse, then why did they help Trump-backed election-denying Republicans defeat their moderate Republican opponents during the primaries? To be sure, it proved to be effective. “All eight Democratic candidates who benefited from the strategy,” notes Reuters, “were projected to win their races as of Wednesday morning.” But if it was a smart strategy in the short term it also undermines the credibility of the claim that Democrats care more about democracy than Republicans. If they did, why would they risk electing election deniers? Why would they put a risky political strategy above protecting American democracy? And if Democrats are so concerned about protecting democratic norms, then why did they spend 2016 to 2019 arguing that Trump stole the 2016 election with the help of Vladamir Putin? Not only Democrats but the mainstream news media for nearly three years prosecuted the notion that Trump was a foreign agent. They even awarded themselves Pulitzer Prizes for their misleading reporting. As a result, many Democrats, including most if not all of my progressive friends, still believe that Trump stole the 2016 election with the help of the Russians. They argue that just because Mueller didn’t find conclusive proof that the Trump campaign conspired with the Russians didn’t prove that Trump didn’t conspire with the Russians. The most ridiculous element of Democratic election denialism isn’t the notion that Trump accepted help from Russia but rather that the things Russia did to interfere in the 2016 election changed the outcome. Democrats are right to suspect that Trump and his campaign team would have accepted Russian help to become president. Everything about Trump’s past behavior suggests that he would have, and indeed may have, if he felt that doing so would help him and that he would get away with it. Far less plausible is the notion that the things the Russians did, namely spreading fake news articles on social media, and hacking John Podesta’s emails, had much if any impact on voters. The Mueller Report found that the Russians spent $100,000 for 3,500 Facebook advertisements from June 2015 to May 2017, an utterly insignificant sum compared to the $81 million Clinton and Trump spent on Facebook ads. Even most liberal analysts, including Hillary Clinton herself, crediting many factors other than Russian interference for Trump’s 2016 victory. Without a doubt, we should fight foreign interference in American elections, reject election denialism, and protect elections from fraud, but we should also recognize that those things aren’t determining factors in what wins or loses elections. Progressives have rightly noted for decades that election fraud is exceedingly rare and, to the extent it occurs, is almost always too small to change an election. But that same argument applies to Russian interference. Democrats can’t, on the one hand, dismiss concerns over election integrity when it comes to collecting ballots and, on the other, hype concerns over election integrity when it comes to $100,000 in Facebook ads. The failure of U.S. Capitol Police to prevent January 6 protesters from entering the Capitol building was disturbing, but it hardly constituted a near-coup. There is little reason to believe a secretary of state could change an election’s result for the simple reason that voting is far too closely monitored and decentralized for it to be stolen. “It’s really hard to rig an election in America because it’s so decentralized,” confessed one advocate to The Washington Post. It’s true that various means exist for someone to undermine our democratic system. The Electoral Count Act is, say, experts, too vague. A sitting vice president could point to voting irregularities, invoke the 12th Amendment, and let state delegations in the House vote on the manner. A sitting president could declare a national emergency, or the Insurrection Act, rule unilaterally, and deploy the military, without the authorization of Congress, to put down mass protests. And a secretary of state could simply refuse to sign off on election results that she doesn’t like. But none of those constitute a significant threat. Even if a rogue secretary of state refused to certify election results, “there are nationwide, built-in protections to stop rogue actors from taking over,” admits The Post, which has done more to exaggerate the threat Trumpism poses to the republic than any other publication. Those protections are other elected officials, like the governor, and the courts. It might make sense to reform the Electoral Count Act, but even if that doesn’t happen, the Supreme Court still exists to play the role of interpreting vague and confusing laws in light of the constitution. In truth, state governments are constantly making decisions about elections aimed at favoring one party or another, from 100% mail-in ballots in California, which allow for legal ballot harvesting, to the need to show identification before voting, such as in Georgia. One might argue that such rules undermine democracy, but there are legitimate differences of opinion about what the requirements should be to vote. There are always some barriers to voting if only the work of reading and filling out a ballot and stuffing it into an envelope. Whatever one thinks of such barriers, they are hardly the end of our republic. When you read through various articles and reports raising the alarm about the threat to the American republic, most come down to vague concerns about things like “endless audits,” “distrust in results,” and “politicians hacking away at people’s confidence in democracy.” While I agree it’s important for the public to support our democratic system, there’s no evidence that such support is weakening. The widespread belief among many Republicans that the election was stolen from Trump expresses concern about the integrity of our electoral system, not a desire to get rid of it. And even were a president to declare an emergency, or an Insurrection Act that postponed an election, that would hardly constitute the end of the Republic, as new elections would simply be held later. In the end, the main concerns most Democrats appear to have about election-denying Republicans center around the behavior of America’s last president. “Trump has never acknowledged defeat,” a friend of mine writes. “Yes — there has been a lot of bitching and moaning on the part of the Democrats, but most importantly, [Al] Gore not only conceded, but he, as vice-president, validated the results of the election, declaring that he lost.” The problem, I responded, is that the First Amendment gives people, including former presidents, the right to say all sorts of stupid things. There’s nothing that we can or should do about it. It’s better to just argue over the evidence and, after it’s clear that nobody’s mind is changing, move on. But what if a president refused to leave office? The answer is clear: the U.S. Supreme Court would order the U.S. military to remove him. There has been story after story of U.S. military leaders who allegedly refused to do what Trump asked them to do. Whether or not they are true, it’s clear that America’s military leaders continue to see themselves as serving the U.S. Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, over this or that president. Could that change? Could there be a military officer in the future who, in effect, overthrows the government? Of course. But there’s no evidence that such officers exist in any significant number today, much less that their numbers are growing. The mirrored obsession of the Right with election fraud and of the Left with election denialism are undermining America’s ability to confront the most important issues facing the country. Extremes on the Left and Right are using false, exaggerated, and hypocritical allegations of fraud and denialism to stoke anger and fear, in a shortsighted effort to attract attention, drive Internet clicks, and mobilize voters. The good news is that voters have, as a collective, rejected the extremism of both the Right and Left, and elected a divided government. Tyler Durden Thu, 11/10/2022 - 19:00.....»»

Election results and news on hundreds of campaigns, including every House, Senate, governor, and state legislative race in the US. iStock; Insider 2022 General Embeds function receiveMessage(event) { if (event.data.id && event.data.height) { document.getElementById(event.data.id).style.height = event.data.height + "px"; } } window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false); Results are coming in from the 2022 midterm elections.  The outcome of the election will determine the balance of power in both the House and the Senate.  Insider is reporting real-time election results on thousands of races across the country.  Trump is 'livid' and 'screaming' his head off after disappointing midterm elections for the GOP, advisor saysFormer US President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on the eve of Election Day at the Dayton International Airport on November 7, 2022, in Vandalia, Ohio.Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesAn advisor to Trump told CNN that the former president is "screaming at everyone" after many Republican candidates backed by him underperformed in the midterm elections."Candidates matter," the Trump advisor, who was not named, told CNN on Wednesday. "They were all bad candidates."Read Full StoryDemocrat Hillary Scholten defeated Trump-backed John Gibbs in Michigan's 3rd Congressional District electionSarah Burnett/AP Photo; Will Weissert/AP Photo; InsiderGibbs had ousted incumbent Rep. Peter Meijer, who supported impeaching President Donald Trump, in a primary before Tuesday's election.Gibb's win and redistricting in the state had Democrats optimistic that the seat could be flipped.Read Full StoryDemocratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham defeats Republican Mark Ronchetti in New Mexico's gubernatorial raceMichelle Lujan Grisham, Eddie Moore/AP; InsiderGrisham is the 32nd governor of New Mexico, and she previously represented the 1st Congressional District in the US House for three terms.Ronchetti, a certified meteorologist who worked as the chief meteorologist for Albuquerque's CBS and FOX affiliates, conceded to Grisham on Tuesday night.Read Full StoryTudor Dixon concedes to Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan's gubernatorial raceMichigan Republican gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon.AP Photo/Paul Sancya"I called Governor Whitmer this morning to concede and wish her well," Dixon said in a statement."Michigan's future success rests not in elected officials or government, but all of us," she added. "It is incumbent upon all of us to help our children read, support law enforcement, and grow our economy."Dixon had previously pushed conspiracies around the 2020 presidential election, MLive reported earlier this year.—Mark Cavitt (@MarkCavitt) November 9, 2022 Republican analysts blamed Trump for the GOP's disappointing midterm resultsDonald Trump speaks during an election night event at Mar-a-Lago on November 08, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida.Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesThe former president had endorsed hundreds of candidates in the midterm elections as he sought to cement his control over the party. But as of early Wednesday many were performing poorly.In a CNN interview, former Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin blamed the failures on the poor quality of the candidates Trump championed. "If you want the Republican Party to thrive, we've got to just finally speak out and say, 'This man is a loser, he lost 2020, he's losing a seat that is winnable this time," she said.Scott Jennings, a conservative analyst and former advisor to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said the results showed that Trump's hopes of winning back the presidency were a non-starter. "How could you look at these results tonight and conclude Trump has any chance of winning a national election in 2024?" he said. Read Full StoryFormer Trump White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney says the former president 'is not doing very well' in the midtermsFormer President Donald Trump (R) and his then-acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney (L) at the White House on December 5, 2019.Mark Wilson/Getty Images"Between being Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis tonight, you want to be Ron DeSantis," Mulvaney told CBS News, NBC reported. "DeSantis wins tonight and Trump is not doing very well."His comments came after DeSantis, largely seen as Trump's biggest rival, pulled off a huge victory over Charlie Crist in Florida on Tuesday night, which could potentially set him up for a Republican presidential primary in 2024. Meanwhile, numerous Trump-backed candidates, including Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Tudor Dixon in Michigan, have underperformed or lost the mid-term races, Insider and its election partner DDHRead Full StoryTrump midterm results-night party at Mar-a-Lago fell flat as candidates he endorsed fell short of victoryDonald Trump mingles with supporters during an election night event at Mar-a-Lago on November 08, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida.Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesFormer President Donald Trump's plans to claim credit for Republican Party wins in the midterms at triumphant party held at Mar-a-Lago party fell flat as an anticipated "red wave' of GOP success never appeared. Trump had hoped to cement his place as the Republican Party's king maker at a glitzy party in his resort in Palm Beach, Florida.He invited influential supporters and members of the media to join him and watch on giant TVs as results flowed in, reports said.But major GOP successes never came, and results as of Wednesday morning were mixed. A slew of candidates Trump had endorsed fell short.Trump's remarks at the event were muted, as results early Wednesday suggested a bleak outlook for his party.Read Full StoryThe House Rep. who received Elon Musk's first ever vote for a Republican lost her seat after only 5 monthsElon Musk (L) and Mayra Flores (R)Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Getty Images / Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesThe GOP House Rep. who got Elon Musk's first Republican vote earlier this year was booted out of Congress in the midterms just five months later.Texas GOP Rep. Mayra Flores lost her seat in the state's 34th Congressional District to Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez by a wide margin. As of early Wednesday, 96% of the votes were counted, leaving Flores trailing by almost nine percentage points.When Flores won in June, Musk predicted big gains for the Republicans that failed to materialize as results came in late on Tuesday."I voted for Mayra Flores – first time I ever voted Republican," he said in June, adding: "Massive red wave in 2022."It's unclear who Musk voted for in this election, though on Monday he tweeted to advocate voting Republican in Congressional races.Read Full StoryDemocrat John Fetterman wiped back tears in an emotional speech after winning key Senate race in PennsylvaniaDemocratic Senate candidate John Fetterman speaks to supporters during an election night party in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 9, 2022.Jeff Swensen/Getty ImagesDemocrat John Fetterman beat Republican Mehmet Oz in a tense face-off for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania on, Insider and its election partner DDHQ projected early on Wednesday.After the race was called, a stunned-looking Fetterman addressed cheering supporters at a concert venue in Pittsburgh, telling them: "I'm not really sure what to say right now, my goodness."He wiped away tears as he spoke."We jammed them up. We held the line ... I never expected that we were going to turn these red counties blue, but we did what we needed to do," Fetterman continued.Read Full StoryGOP Sen. Ron Johnson clings to seat in nailbiterScott Olson/Getty; InsiderIncumbent Republican Senator Ron Johnson barely held off Democrat Mandela Barnes to hold his seat, winning a surprisingly close election by mere thousands of votes.The election was an unexpected nailbiter for Johnson, a two-term senator.GOP Rep. blames voters for staying home after she lost a competitive House seatS Republican Representative Mayra Flores of Texas, who is running for reelection, speaks at a campaign event on October 10, 2022 at the University Drafthouse in Mcallen, Texas.Photo by ALLISON DINNER/AFP via Getty ImagesTexas GOP Rep. Mayra Flores wasted no time in ripping her voters after she lost a competitive House seat during Tuesday's midterm elections."The RED WAVE did not happen. Republicans and Independents stayed home," Flores said on Twitter. "DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE RESULTS IF YOU DID NOT DO YOUR PART!"Read Full StoryJohn Fetterman defeats Mehmet Oz, dealing huge blow to the GOP's Senate hopesInsiderDemocrat John Fetterman has won Pennsylvania's Senate seat over Trump-backed TV show host Mehmet Oz, dealing a serious blow to Republicans' hopes of taking control of the US Senate."We bet on the people of Pennsylvania - and you didn't let us down," Fetterman wrote on Twitter as he declared victory. "And I won't let you down. Thank you."The win is the first Democratic pickup in the Senate.Fetterman, who had a stroke shortly before winning the Democratic primary, eeked out a victory after an uneven debate performance gave new life to Oz's campaign. Fetterman has insisted that the stroke affected only his hearing, not his cognition and that he is fit for office.Oz — who has never held office — faced accusations that he didn't really live in Pennsylvania as well as criticism of his embrace of Trump and anti-abortion rhetoric. Oz has not spoken at his election night event. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wins re-election in MichiganAP Images; InsiderMichigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has won re-election, fending off a challenge from Trump-backed Republican Tudor Dixon.Republicans began this cycle eager to knock out Whitmer over her management of the COVID-19 pandemic.But the targeting of Whitmer wasn't just at the ballot box.In 2020, federal law enforcement arrested 13 men suspected of engineering a terrorist plot to kidnap Whitmer and attempt to overthrow Michigan's government. The subsequent cases against them have resulted in a mixture of convictions, acquittals, and plea deals. Republican Tudor Dixon says Michigan governor's race is too close to call, despite outlets projecting her loss: 'We don't accept that Fox is calling this'Michigan Republican gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon.AP Photo/Paul SancyaAt a party for campaign supporters, Michigan's Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon said she refused to accept that her race had been called for her opponent."This race is going to be too close to call, despite what Fox thinks," Dixon told attendees after Democrat Gretchen Whitmer had been declared the projected winner by some outlets, including Fox News. "We don't accept that Fox is calling this."Fox News projected that Whitmer had defeated Tudor, a Trump-backed candidate, with approximately 48% of votes tallied.Read Full Story Chuck Grassley — the oldest US senator — just won re-electionSen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from IowaTom Williams-Pool/Getty ImagesGOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, the oldest current US senator, won re-election at age 89.He is the serving president pro tempore emeritus of the Senate and represents a generation of political leaders who have held on to power despite their advanced ages.An Insider investigation into gerontocracy — the term for a government run by old people — found that young officials feel blocked by those clinging to power and that their issues are being downplayed.(Aside: Grassley was born five years before the chocolate chip cookie was invented. The beloved cookie first appeared in Ruth Wakefield's 1938 cookbook "Tried and True."Grassley was born in September 1933.)  Democrats are winning the House seats they need to winOn a night when Republicans hoped to secure toss-up districts and make headway into blue districts, Democrats have racked up wins in key toss-up races.Democratic Ohio State Rep. Emilia Sykes defeated former Donald Trump campaign staffer Madison Gesiotto Gilbert in Ohio's 13th Congressional District.The 13th district had drawn national attention and millions of dollars in spending.Chris Pappas defeated Karoline Leavitt in New Hampshire's 1st District US House election, another toss-up district.Democrats also won in Ohio's 1st Congressional District, New Hampshire's 2nd District, and Kansas' 3rd District. Lindsey Graham: It's 'definitely not a Republican wave — that's for darn sure'Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesRepublican Sen. Lindsey Graham weighed in on his party's midterms performance as election results began trickling in on Tuesday evening, declaring, it's "definitely not a Republican wave — that's for darn sure.""I think we're gonna be at 51, 52 when it's all said in done in the Senate," the South Carolina senator said during an interview with NBC News, holding out hope for the GOP's chances.Read Full StoryThe House is too close to call. That's a great sign for Democrats and concerning for the GOPAmericans are lining up to vote in the midterm elections. All 435 House seats and 35 of 100 Senate seats are on the ballot this year.ReutersControl of the House remains too close to call, a shocking scenario that raises the possibility Democrats' could escape the midterms with little damage.As of 11:45 p.m. EST, Decision Desk HQ and Insider are unable to project which party will control either house in Congress. While the Senate was always expected to be close, few, if any, pundits foretold of a House contest that would be this narrow.—Walter Hickey (@WaltHickey) November 9, 2022 Republicans began the cycle giddy with excitement. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy even poised that his party could flip 60 seats. Instead, fury over the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade appears to have not only dampened a possible wave election but may even lead to Democratic gains.There have only been two times since World War II that a president's party has gained seats in a midterm election, one of which occurred in the months after the September 11th attacks.—Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 9, 2022  Republicans hoped to turn New York's governor's seat red. They didn't.Joshua Bessex/AP Photo; Mary Altaffer/AP Photo; InsiderTrump-backed GOP candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin made a huge push in the final weeks of the race for New York governor, pushing concerns about crime as his opponent flagged in the polls and insisting the wedge issue would flip the Democratic stronghold red.It didn't.Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul defeated Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin after an unexpectedly strong challenge in New York's gubernatorial election. Appointed governor following the resignation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Hochul is the first woman to be governor of New York.If elected, Zeldin would have dismantled New York's Democratic trifecta, where Democrats hold the governorship and majorities in both legislative chambers.Mehmet Oz is underperforming Trump in some of Pennsylvania in early returnsDr. Mehmet Oz.AP Photo/Laurence KestersonIf Oz wants to win Pennsylvania, he'll need to outperform former President Donald Trump's results in 2020, when he lost the state by just over 80,000 votes.So far, Oz is falling short."This is Western Pennsylvania, small county ... but again Trump ran up huge numbers in Western Pennsylvania. Mehmet Oz is going to win Clarion County overwhelmingly but it's five points less than Trump got," MSNBC's Steve Kornacki said as he ticked off results across the Keystone State.Kornacki pointed out that Oz is underperforming compared to Trump elsewhere too. In Bedford County, a rural county near the Maryland border, Oz received 80.7% of the vote compared to Lt. Gov. John Fetterman's 17%. But Oz's commanding performance is still not enough to match Trump's mark of 83.5%.Read Full StoryRight-wing firebrand Lauren Boebert is in a fight for her seatRep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 8, 2022.J. Scott Applewhite/APGOP Rep. Lauren Boebert is in a tight race in her bid for reelection on the same night when Republicans appear to be poised to take control of the US House.Boebert is facing off against Democrat Adam Frisch, a businessman and former city councilman.DeSantis cruised to victory despite Trump attacking him days before the electionAp Images; InsiderRepublican Gov. Ron DeSantis won reelection in Florida by historic margins on Tuesday, flipping the state from purple to red and doing it all without former President Donald Trump's help.Trump has continually teased the prospect of another presidential run, and could announce soon after the midterms. DeSantis has consistently polled behind the former president as a 2024 GOP favorite, and hasn't said whether he plans to serve out all four years as governor.Trump, who is now a Florida resident, cast his vote for DeSantis on Tuesday but told reporters he didn't think the governor should run against him. "If he did run, I will tell you things about him that won't be very flattering," he told the Wall Street Journal. "I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign."Read Full StoryGOP's Karoline Leavitt loses NH race that would have made her youngest woman ever elected to CongressCharles Krupa/AP Photo; Cheryl Senter/AP PhotoDemocratic Rep. Chris Pappas defeated Republican Karoline Leavitt in New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District.Leavitt — a 25-year-old former White House staffer for President Donald Trump — would have been the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.J.D. Vance wins competitive Ohio Senate seatAP Images; InsiderRepublican author J.D. Vance defeated Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan in Ohio, holding a Senate seat for the GOP as they seek to flip one Democratic seat and regain control of Congress' upper chamber.The race was among the most expensive in the country, with Ryan's holding a large financial lead and forcing Republicans to spend big to win.Trump endorsed Vance ahead of the primaries despite the candidate previously comparing the former president to "America's Hitler" in private messages.Abbott wins governor's race in Texas; Beto O'Rourke suffers another lossIcon Sportswire/Getty, InsiderIncumbent Texas Gov. Greg Abbott fended off a challenge from Democrat Beto O'Rourke, leaning on a right-wing base energized by policies that have antagonized liberals.Abbott pushed his state into the forefront of numerous national fights, from slashing abortion rights to shipping migrants from the southern border to Democratic cities as a protest of Joe Biden's border policies.Abbott's win marked the second statewide loss for O'Rourke, who failed to unseat Ted Cruz in 2018. Democrats had hoped to flip Texas blue, but fell short again.Democrat Josh Shapiro beats election-denier Doug Mastriano for Pennsylvania governorGetty Images; InsiderA Trump-backed election denier has lost the race for Pennsylvania governor.Democrat Josh Shapiro has defeated Republican Doug Mastriano in the consequential open race. The election determined not just who controls the governor's house, but also who will ultimately oversee the 2024 election in a key swing state. Wes Moore wins governor's race in MarylandGetty Images; InsiderDemocrat Wes Moore made history, winning the Maryland gubernatorial election and becoming the first Black governor in the state's history.Moore —  a combat veteran in the US Army and a small business owner — defeated Cox, a state representative endorsed by former President Donald Trump.Polls close in Nevada, Montana and UtahThe polls have closed in key swing state Nevada, as well as Montana and Utah.Democrat wins a key Rhode Island raceDemocrat Seth Magaziner has defeated Republican Allan Fung in Rhode Island's 2nd Congressional District, a seat that Republicans had targeted.The victory is a key win for Democrats as the GOP worked to expand the map in House races and keep Biden's party on the defensive in the midterms.GOP Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp defeats Democrat Stacey Abrams againParas Griffin/Getty, InsiderIncumbent Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has won re-election, defeating Stacey Abrams in a rematch of their race in 2018.Kemp was openly insulted by former President Donald Trump for not backing his election lies in 2020.He's held off Abrams, a Democratic star whose get-out-the-vote efforts were credited with flipping Georgia blue in 2020 but who has failed to win statewide office herself.Moderate Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger is in a tight race in Virginia. It's a seat Democrats need to hold.Abigail SpanbergerPhoto by Samuel Corum/Getty ImagesA consequential bellwether House race is coming down to the wire in Virginia.Both parties have targeted the seat held by Democrat Abigail Spanberger.It's the kind of district that — if the Democrats were to lose it — would bode ill for their chances for the rest of the evening and would hint that they'd have a difficult path to retain the majority in the House.(Aside: the origin of the word "bellwether" has nothing to do with rain, but comes from the Middle English word "bellewether," which refers to the bell put on a castrated ram's neck to help shepherds keep track of their flocks.)Judge denies Republicans' emergency request to keep Maricopa County polling sites open for 3 more hoursIn this Nov. 3, 2020, file photo, voters deliver their ballot to a polling station in Tempe, Ariz.AP Photo/Matt York, FileA judge on Tuesday evening rejected Republicans' request to keep polling centers in Maricopa County, Arizona, open for three more hours, until 10 p.m. local time. The ruling came after the Republican National Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee, Blake Masters campaign, and Kari Lake campaign filed an emergency complaint asking to extend voting hours in the county amid news that dozens of vote tabulating machines had glitched and refused to accept ballots. County officials put out a press release in the afternoon saying the problem had been identified and technicians were working on it. They added that it was unclear how many ballots had been affected but that all of them would be counted. Election officials also noted that the problem wasn't that vote tabulating machines were incorrectly reading ballots but that they weren't reading them at all."Everyone is still getting to vote," Bill Gates, the chairman of the Maricopa County board of supervisors, said at a news conference in Phoenix amid reports of the voting machine issues."We do not believe that anyone has been disenfranchised because no one has been turned away," he added.But Republicans still pounced on reports of the glitch."The RNC is joining a Republican coalition to file an emergency motion to extend poll hours in Maricopa County because voting machines in over 25% of voting locations have experienced significant issues," RNC chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel said in a statement. "The widespread issues — in an election administered by Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs – are completely unacceptable, especially as Republicans flock to the polls to vote in-person on Election Day."Polls close in another batch of states, including Arizona, Michigan, and TexasVoting has closed in Texas, Kansas, Michigan, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.Mississippi Secretary of State website downThe website for the Mississippi Secretary of State's Office had a "sustained outage" after hackers overloaded it with web traffic, NBC News reported.The site informs residents about voting but does not handle vote counting.NBC News reported that a Russian hacker group called for attacks on that website shortly before they began.Reporter Kevin Collier tweeted that Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency officials confirmed that Mississippi has been under a "sustained" denial of service attack all day. Other states were targeted, but there have been no sustained outages, he wrote.Gov. Mike DeWine defeats Democrat Nan Whaley in Ohio's gubernatorial electionRepublican incumbent Gov. Mike DeWine has defeated Democrat Nan Whaley in Ohio's gubernatorial election.GOP firebrand and Trump ally Matt Gaetz wins re-election in FloridaRep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., addresses attendees during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit on July 23, 2022, in Tampa, Florida.Phelan M. Ebenhack/APRepublican Rep. Matt Gaetz — a longtime Trump ally and outspoken member of the right-wing GOP House — has won re-election in Florida. Sarah Huckabee Sanders elected Arkansas governorSarah Huckabee SandersSteven Ferdman/Getty ImagesRepublican Sarah Huckabee Sanders defeated Democrat Chris Jones in Arkansas' gubernatorial race.Sanders, a former Trump administration official, is the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.She will be the first woman governor of Arkansas.Democratic state Attorney General Maura Healey defeats Trump-backed Geoff Diehl in Massachusetts' gubernatorial electionAP Images; InsiderMassachusetts' Attorney General Maura Healey has won the state's gubernatorial election against Trump-backed Reublican Geoff Diehl.The current governor, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, decided against seeking a third term.Healey has now flipped the Massachusetts governor's office. She makes history as the first openly gay person and first woman elected governor.Republican Laurel Lee, Florida's former secretary of state, defeats Democrat Alan Cohn in Florida's newest 15th Congressional District electionSteve Cannon/AP photo; Alan Cohn's campaign; InsiderRepublican Laurel Lee defeated Democrat Alan Cohn in Florida's newest congressional district, which was added based on 2020 Census results. Republican Cory Mills defeats Democrat Karen Green in open seat for Florida's 7th Congressional district electionCory Mills' campaign; Karen Green's campaign; InsiderRepublican Cory Mills won an open seat in Florida's redrawn 7th Congressional District against Democrat Karen Green. The seat was open following Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy's decision to not seek re-election after serving three terms. Incumbent Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a national Republican star, wins re-electionInsiderFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a rising Republican star and possible 2024 challenger to Donald Trump, is projected to win re-election.DeSantis defeated Democrat Charlie Crist, who resigned his congressional seat in August after his primary victory. DeSantis cruised to a historic victory — despite catching heat from Trump in the days before the election.. Read Full StoryRepublican Sen. Marco Rubio defeats Democratic Rep. Val Demings in Florida Senate raceAndrew Burton/Getty, InsiderSen. Marco Rubio is projected to have beaten Democratic Rep. Val Demings.Decision Desk HQ and Insider project Rubio will win his third term in the Senate as of 8 pm EST.Read Full StoryPolls close in a handful of states, including Florida and PennsylvaniaPolls have closed in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island.Polls close in North Carolina, Ohio, and West VirginiaVoting closed in three states at 7:30 p.m. EST: North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia. In Ohio, Republican author J.D. Vance is facing off against Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan for a US Senate seat.These are the Donald Trump endorsements to watch on election nightArizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake embraces former President Donald Trump at a rally on October 09, 2022.Mario Tama/Getty ImagesDonald Trump ensured he was on the ballot Tuesday night even if all he could do was wait for the election results like everyone else.The twice-impeached former president has put great effort into continuing to rebrand the Republican Party while in his Mar-a-Lago home. He made more than 250 general election endorsements, according to Ballotpedia. Many of his endorsees have echoed his lies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.Keep ReadingPolls close in 6 states, including pivotal swing state GeorgiaPolls have closed in six states — including Georgia where a tight Senate race between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and GOP candidate Herschel Walker could determine control of the US Senate.Polls closed at 7 p.m. in Kentucky, Indiana, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia, as well as Georgia.The US' top cybersecurity agency said there have been no credible threats to election security or integrity.The US' top cybersecurity agency warned against making the 'normal out to be nefarious' as conservatives are crying foul over election glitches on Election Day."When you have 8,800 individual election jurisdictions, you're going to see a few issues," tweeted Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. "We have seen a few of these today as happens every Election Day."Easterly's warning comes as conservatives have raised questions about election integrity. Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday baselessly claimed that a "large" amount of absentee voter fraud was underway in Detroit, Michigan.Read Full Story Philadelphia Republican blames GOP for forcing election results delay: 'Republicans targeted Philadelphia'Poll workers process ballots at an elections warehouse outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 8, 2022.ED JONES/AFP via Getty ImagesPhiladelphia's last-minute decision to reinstate a policy requiring poll workers to check for double votes during — not after — the election-night tallying of ballots will further delay final results, a fact that a local Republican election official blames squarely on the GOP."I want to be very clear that when there are conversations that occur later this evening about whether or not Philadelphia has counted all of their ballots that the reason that some ballots would not be counted is that Republicans targeted Philadelphia — and only Philadelphia — to force us to conduct a procedure that no other county does," City Commissioner Seth Bluestein said Tuesday morning, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.Bluestein is the sole Republican on Philadelphia's elections commission.Keep ReadingThe first polls of the midterm elections have closedVoting has closed in the first states in a pivotal US midterm election that will determine the balance of power in the House and Senate.Polls closed in Indiana and Kentucky at 6 p.m. EST.Top federal election official: 'I have a high level of confidence in the integrity of the election'Thomas Hicks, chairman of the Election Assistance Commission.Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesTens of millions of Americans are casting their ballots freely and fairly, and tens of thousands of poll workers across the nation are doing their duties "with high integrity and working truly hard to make sure votes are counted fairly and accurately," US Election Assistance Commission Chairman Thomas Hicks told Insider."If someone is eligible to cast their vote, they should be able to do so free and without any encumbrance, and those who put those encumbrances up there to harass or intimidate should be prosecuted," Hicks said.Read Full StoryVoting machines in a Pennsylvania county ran out of paper and will remain open an extra 2 hoursPolling places will remain open an additional two hours until 10 p.m. in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, a judge has ruled, after some voting machines ran out of paper.Some voters received provisional ballots until more paper could be delivered. The experience is frustrating some voters, WNEP reported."They ran out of paper. Why? I don't know," said Dominic Bechetti from Harveys Lake.Atlanta voters have their final say in the 2022 midterms, rejecting misinformation and the state of modern politicsVoters cast ballots at a precinct in DeKalb County, Georgia, on November 8, 2022.AP Photo/Ben GrayAcross the Atlanta area on Election Day, voters came out to cast ballots in the highly-consequential Georgia US Senate and gubernatorial races, with the results likely to determine the trajectory of the state for years to come.On Tuesday, citizens had their final say in the race, and whether it was a rejection of the GOP or simply pursuing a civic duty, a range of voters in Cobb and DeKalb counties told Insider that they came out to the polls not dissatisfied with the candidates themselves but the state of politics.Read Full Story A man armed with a knife at a Wisconsin polling place demanded election workers 'stop the voting,' local police saidA man armed with a knife was arrested after he showed up at a Wisconsin polling station and demanded election workers shut down the vote, local police said on Tuesday.Police said cops took a 38-year-old man into custody, and that voting was paused for 30 minutes while law enforcement officials investigated the location. No one was hurt and there isn't any other threat against the community, police added.Read Full StoryTrump says he should 'get all the credit' if Republicans win big in the 2022 elections — and 'should not be blamed at all' if they loseThreats to federal judges increased significantly during Donald Trump's administration.Evan Vucci/APFormer President Donald Trump said in a new interview on Tuesday he should "get all the credit" if the slew of GOP candidates he endorsed win big in the 2022 midterm elections — but also said he shouldn't be blamed if they don't come out on top."I think if they win, I should get all the credit, and if they lose, I should not be blamed at all," Trump told NewsNation during an interview on Tuesday when asked how much he thinks Republicans' victories or losses in the midterms will be because of him.Trump has endorsed more than 330 GOP candidates running for both state and federal office in this election cycle, including Georgia Senate hopeful Herschel Walker, Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance, and Arizona Senate hopeful Blake Masters.Keep Reading DeSantis' administration won't allow Justice Department monitors inside Florida polling placesRon DeSantis.James Gilbert/Getty ImagesThe DeSantis administration said DOJ-appointed election monitors aren't allowed inside Florida polling places.A letter from Florida Department of State General Counsel Brad McVay said the federal monitors aren't legally allowed inside.McVay said Florida's own inspectors will monitor the three locations — all Democratic strongholds. The Justice Department will still send observers to the three polling sites, but they will remain outside.Read Full Story Trump amplifies baseless claims of voter fraud in Michigan that a judge already dismissed as a 'false flag'Donald Trump arrives at a Make America Great Again rally in Cape Girardeau, Missouri on November 5, 2018.JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty ImagesFormer President Donald Trump claimed without evidence that a "large" amount of absentee voter fraud was underway in Detroit, Michigan on Tuesday.Trump's baseless post appeared to echo claims that Kristina Karamo, the Republican candidate running for secretary of state in Michigan, made earlier Tuesday after her lawsuit challenging absentee voting in only Democrat-heavy Detroit was thrown out of court.Judge Timothy Kenny issued a scathing opinion saying she had "raised a false flag of election law violations and corruption concerning Detroit's procedures for the November 8th election."Read MoreIn DeSantis' small Florida hometown, voters see a 'scumbag' or a 'hometown hero' as they head to the pollsDunedin, Florida, has an arch in the center of town that reads, "Defending Freedom." Dunedin is the town where Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spent most of his youth.Kimberly Leonard/InsiderFlorida Governor Ron DeSantis is up for reelection Tuesday and could seek the White House in 2024.Insider interviewed voters from his small hometown of Dunedin, Florida. Republican voters said they were thrilled that the man who played baseball just up the street could have a shot at the White House someday. Democratic voters said it was hard for them to believe the governor spent most of his youth in this town, one they said they don't see as a red stalwart.Read Full StoryGeorgia county removes poll workers after social media posts emerge showing them at the Capitol riotIn this Jan. 6, 2021 file photo rioters supporting President Donald Trump storm the Capitol in Washington.AP PhotoTwo Georgia poll workers in Fulton County were removed from their duties on Tuesday after Facebook posts were discovered showing them at the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, the Washington Post reported.The poll workers — a mother and son — were removed shortly before voting started.One of the Facebook posts shared with the Post echoed former President Donald Trump's false claims about the 2020 election.According to the report, the Facebook post said: "I stood up for what's right today in Washington DC. This election was a sham. Mike Pence is a traitor. I was tear gassed FOUR times. I have pepper spray in my throat. I stormed the Capitol building. And my children have had the best learning experience of their lives."Keep ReadingOne prominent political force had a little less cash to spend during the Election 2022 homestretchInsider's Dave Levinthal reports that the American Hospital Association PAC told federal regulators on Monday that it lost more than $12,000 from "fraudulent activity" involving fake checks.The PAC reported the matter to police but has only been able to recoup some of the money it's lost.Read Full StoryTuesday's midterm election is playing out against the backdrop of heightened threats to lawmakers serving in CongressNancy Pelosi and Paul Pelosi walk the red carpet during the 27th Annual Kennedy Center Honors at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on December 7, 2014 in Washington, DC.Kris Connor/Getty ImagesAs Insider justice correspondent C. Ryan Barber wrote: "In the five years since former President Donald Trump's election, the number of reported threats against lawmakers increased tenfold — to more than 9,625 in 2021, according to the Capitol police.""That rise has mirrored a similar increase in threats to other public figures and officials, including federal judges, who faced a surge in threats during the Trump administration," Barber added.Read Full StoryArizona's GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters says he's going to 'grind' Biden's 'agenda to a halt' if electedGOP Senate candidate Blake Masters chief operating officer of Thiel Capital and president of the Thiel Foundation.Gage Skidmore via Creative Commons/Wikimedia Commons"By taking back Congress, we're going to send Biden the message. We're going to bear hug his whole administration," Masters told Fox Business during an interview on Tuesday morning as voters across the country headed to the polls. The Republican Senate hopeful added, "I'm going to grind his agenda to a halt unless and until we get border security. Period.""I'm not going to vote for a single thing — not a single continuing resolution, not a single appointee — unless Joe Biden actually does something to secure our border," Masters said. Read Full StoryTrump said he voted to re-elect Florida Gov. Ron DeSantisSpencer Platt/Getty ImagesWhen asked whether he voted for DeSantis after he cast his vote at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump replied: "Yes, I did," according to a video shared on Twitter.Former first lady Melania Trump was alongside him. "No matter who you vote for, you have to vote," Trump told reporters gathered outside the polling site.Read Full StoryArizona's Maricopa County says it's having issues with voting tabulation machinesA sign marks the entrance to a voting precinct on the first day of early voting in the general election in Phoenix, Oct. 12, 2022.AP Photo/Ross D. FranklinThe Wall Street Journal reported that voting tabulation machines in about 20% of Maricopa County's 223 voting centers were malfunctioning on Tuesday.Maricopa County said on Twitter that in one instance, a password was entered too many times, causing built-in security measures to lock a ballot scanner."If you're at a polling place experiencing an issue with a tabulator, you have three options & your vote will be counted in each. 1) stay where you are and wait for tabulator to come online 2) drop your ballot in the secure slot (door 3) on tabulator 3) go to a nearby vote center," Bill Gates, chairman of the county board of supervisors said on Twitter.Thomas Galvin, Maricopa County Supervisor, said on Twitter that election operations were "going well.""But I've been fielding some complaints & concerns from constituents about issues at polling booths. I'm here to listen, to get to the bottom of ALL issues," he said. "Please email me at District2@Maricopa.gov. My team & I will reach out to you ASAP."A few members of Congress up for re-election are tied to billionaire Elon MuskElon Musk.Susan Walsh/APThese are lawmakers who invest, or who've recently invested, in one of Musk's publicly traded companies — Tesla, and until recently, Twitter — either on their own or through a spouse.In all, there's a dozen of them, reports Insider's Madison Hall.One name is particularly notable: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who's husband, Paul, who earlier this year exercised 25 call options (2,500 shares) of Tesla stock at a strike price of $500, with the trade valued at between $1 million and $5 million.Read Full StoryThis week's Powerball lottery jackpot stood at a cool $1.9 billion — but that's a pittance compared to the 2022 midterm election's price tagAmerican flag over US moneySTILLFX/Getty ImagesAs Insider's Madison Hall reported, nonpartisan money-in-politics research organization OpenSecrets has estimated that all federal- and state-level contests will together be worth $16.7 billion."For perspective: the states of Iowa, Oklahoma, Nebraska North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Vermont, New Hampshire, Wyoming, Rhode Island, Maine, Delaware, Alaska, Hawaii each have annual state budgets that are around, or in some cases, much less than, $16.7 billion," Hall noted.Read Full StoryWealthy, self-funded candidates have a terrible track record of winning in politicsSure, some do just fine: Billionaire Democrat JB Pritzker will almost certainly cruise to re-election as Illinois' governor, and Republican Mehmet Oz might — maybe, possibly? — become Pennsylvania's newest US senator.But as Insider senior reporter Brent D. Griffiths explains here, the 2022 midterm election is littered with the shattered political dreams of Richie Rich candidates who flat flamed out despite pumping crazy money into their respective races.Many never emerged from their partisan primaries, no matter their millions.Others, such as Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine, who's running for US Senate in Missouri behind more than $14 million of her own fortune, are all but assured defeat tonight in their general elections.As Griffiths notes: "Despite its self-evident benefit of instant cash, self-funding a political campaign is risky. Candidates who raise gobs of money from donors, instead of their own bank account, receive the added benefit of engaging with and energizing an electorate — something that's critical to actually getting people to vote for you."Something that won't appear in black-and-white on any ballot today, but make no mistake, it's there: ageGetty; Rebecca Zisser/InsiderCongress has never been older than it is today, Insider's "Red, White, and Gray" project revealed in September.And the results of the 2022 midterms could very well keep what's been a 20-year trend toward gerontocracy very much in motion.Age and experience have factored into a number of US House and Senate races, but two stand out.First is Iowa's US Senate race, where Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley is seeking another six-year term that'd keep him on Capitol Hill until he's 95 years old.Then there Ohio's 9th District race, where Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur is facing the strongest challenge of her 40-year congressional career by Republican J.R. Majewski in what's become one of the more wild House races this election cycle.Insider's Dave Levinthal and Kimberly Leonard spoke about some of the biggest votes to watch in the midterms on 'The Refresh'Listen to Insider's "The Refresh" here.Trump aides scrambled to stop him announcing his presidential candidacy on the eve of the midterms and upending the election: ReportFormer president Donald Trump at a campaign event at Sioux Gateway Airport on November 3, 2022 in Sioux City, Iowa.Stephen Maturen/Getty ImagesAides to former President Donald Trump persuaded him not to announce his 2024 presidential campaign on Monday, fearing it could upend the midterm elections, The Washington Post reported.According to three sources who spoke to the Post on condition of anonymity, Trump had touted the idea of formally announcing his bid for the 2024 presidency at a rally for GOP Senate candidate JD Vance in Ohio on Monday night. The suggestion prompted a scramble by top Republicans and Trump some aides to stop any announcement, two of the sources told the publication. Other aides, it reported, wanted Trump to go ahead.Read Full StoryWhat to watch for on Election Day 2022"I Voted" stickers are displayed at a polling place in Cheyenne, Wyo. on Aug. 16, 2022.Thomas Peipert/AP PhotoToday America will vote on the midterm elections, with the consequences of results poised to reverberate across the government for years to come.Insider will have real-time live election results on thousands of races across the country, including every House, Senate, Governor, and State Legislative election happening in the United States.The most significant story is unfolding in dozens of House races across the country, as the Democrats' tenuous control of the chamber is being challenged by the GOP. Midterms tend to be disastrous for the incumbent president's party, and this election has control of the House very much up for grabs. Insider is tracking close to 90 of the most consequential races. The Senate is currently split 50-50, and each party wants to get control of the upper chamber. Senators serve for six years, which means the impacts of this election will reverberate through at least 2028. The contest for control of the Senate might not be decided on election night, as it'll likely come down to just a few individual races and counting could continue for several days.There are also dozens of gubernatorial elections. These races are full of potential contenders for 2024, and, more consequentially, whoever wins the governor's race in a number of key swing states will have control over the levers of power around elections. Lastly, with the Dobbs decision at the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, a number of gubernatorial races will end up functionally deciding the legality and availability of abortion in any number of states.This is why this cycle has a number of critically important state legislative races. As power to regulate the right to choose has been turned over to individual states, the battles over legislative chambers are of significant importance this cycle.Lastly, many states will have ballot referenda for their citizens to consider. These run the gamut, with some potentially legalizing marijuana, others establishing or stripping citizens'  right to abortion access, and others opening up multi-billion dollar gambling markets.Insider will be closely monitoring the coverage on all of this today, tonight, and through the final calls of the races. The first polls close at 6 p.m. EST, come along and follow all the critical races of this election here.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Moore, who served in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan, told Insider that patriotism and service aren't proprietary to any one group. Maryland Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wes Moore.Bryan Dozier/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Maryland gubernatorial nominee Wes Moore is seeking to reshape how patriotism and service are discussed in the public arena. Moore, a Democrat, told Insider he won't cede the definition of patriotism to any one group or movement. The former nonprofit executive has proposed a service-year option for high school graduates. FREDERICK, Maryland — In the banquet hall of Asbury United Methodist Church, one of the oldest Black churches in the historic city roughly an hour's drive west of Baltimore, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wes Moore last week began his message to the party faithful with a focus on service.Moore — who served as a captain and paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division of the US Army and was deployed to Afghanistan from 2005 to 2006 — told attendees it's imperative that all Marylanders benefit from progress in the state, a driving tenet of his campaign."There was something that they taught us on our first day of military training, whether you were Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard ... It was simple. Leave no one behind, ever," Moore told the crowd. "If you get one of my people, I will send a battalion to go get them if I have to. We leave no one behind."As Moore spoke alongside his lieutenant governor running mate, former state Del. Aruna Miller, he connected this theme to fighting child poverty and reducing disparities in health care, reaffirming that their potential administration would be one shaped by tackling some of the most enduring issues affecting citizens of the state.Across much of the country, Democratic candidates have campaigned against the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, while also touting the impact of President Joe Biden's bipartisan infrastructure bill in their respective states and emphasizing the need to safeguard free and fair elections in the United States.But Moore has crafted a deeply personal campaign pitch, with the first-time political candidate speaking forcefully about patriotism in a way that can appeal to voters across the ideological spectrum while also refusing to cede ground to the GOP on the issue — especially in the wake of the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. As we rode on the campaign bus from Frederick County, a new swing area, to Hagerstown, a city in Republican-leaning Western Maryland, Moore noticed a property featuring both an American flag and a flag touting the "Make America Great Again" movement personified by former President Donald Trump."Here you've got a guy with an American flag and a Trump flag, and for so many people in our society, they think those two things are synonymous with each other. Right?" Moore, 44, told Insider. "That's what we're pushing back against right there. The idea that somehow we've allowed this MAGA movement to control this idea of patriotism and try to define what it means to be a patriot and what it means to defend your country.""And I'm like, and I'm sorry, you mean the people who tried to destroy it?" he continued. "They're the patriots? The ones who are claiming that they are the defenders of freedom?"Over the course of the general election campaign, Moore — a Valley Forge Military College and Johns Hopkins-educated Rhodes Scholar who wrote the best-selling 2010 book "The Other Wes Moore" — has tied his commitment to service with policies that he said would improve the lives of Marylanders.Moore's opponent, GOP state Del. Dan Cox, is a Trump-backed conservative who represents parts of Frederick County and chartered three buses to Washington, DC, to attend the "Stop the Steal" rally on January 6; he tweeted that day that then-Vice President Mike Pence was a "traitor." Cox later denounced the violence that occurred at the Capitol and said he did not march to the building, and also apologized for his comment about Pence.Both men are running to succeed two-term Gov. Larry Hogan, an anti-Trump Republican who won in both 2014 and 2018 by positioning himself as a consensus builder who could provide political balance in the solidly Democratic state. Hogan, who is eyeing a potential 2024 presidential campaign, has declined to endorse Cox's gubernatorial bid.Moore, who would be Maryland's first Black governor if he is elected next month, believes it is critical for the next leader of the state to articulate that no one political party or movement holds a monopoly over service to the country."We are going to have to address some very real generational challenges — economic, educational, housing," he told Insider. "But I also believe one of the prerequisites of the next chief executive is we've got to step up and put to rest this idea that a fringe group has taken claim and grabbed a hold of the mantra of patriotism of a country.""I refuse to let anybody try to wrestle that away," Moore continued, "or claim that they have a higher stake or some higher claim to it than I or my family or people who I served with or my community members."Moore helps at a food distribution center at the Ruth M. Kirk Recreation and Learning Center in Baltimore, Md., on September 16, 2022.Win McNamee/Getty Images'We have to fix this rupture of divisiveness'After winning a competitive multi-candidate Democratic primary that featured Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot and former Labor Secretary Tom Perez, Moore honed in on his message of patriotism, proposing a year of service that could afford critical job training and mentorship opportunities for Maryland high school graduates. He has envisioned the service-year option as something that could potentially be funded in partnership with federal, state, and local government entities.Moore, the former chief executive of the Robin Hood Foundation, an anti-poverty nonprofit organization, said "those who serve together will generally stay together," alluding to the stark divides that have come to define many aspects of modern American culture."I'm a big believer that part of government's job is to find what works, to make sure that it's supported, and then to scale it out," he said. "We have to fix this rupture of divisiveness and this vitriol that we have in our society. Why not actually address both of those two things at the same time?""Give them an opportunity to be able to be part of something bigger than themselves. And the reason that I know that it worked is it's exactly what I saw in the military," Moore added. "We all had very different backgrounds. But when you gave us a collective bond, it's amazing how that changed the perception and oftentimes many prejudices that we had walking into the situation."For Moore, traveling to western Maryland is a reflection of how he'd need to govern if elected, by listening to residents in places where Democratic candidates don't always perform well.During the ride, Moore delved into a state-level child tax credit program that he hopes to implement that will be similar to the one that lapsed at the federal level last December; it's a policy proposal that could potentially attract some Republican support.A September poll cosponsored by Goucher College, WYPR public radio, and The Baltimore Banner found that Moore led Cox by 22 points (53%-31%) among likely voters.And in the latest Washington Post-University of Maryland survey, Moore held a commanding 60%-28% lead among registered voters, attracting the support of 86% of Democrats and 22% of Republicans — a reversal from 2018 when it was Hogan who was garnering sizable crossover support.Mileah Kromer, an associate professor of political science and the director of the Sarah T. Hughes Center for Politics at Goucher College, told Insider that Moore's conversations about patriotism and service have been "an incredibly effective message for him.""If you look back at 2018, Hogan was so successful because he was able to attract a broad cross-section of voters that included the full support from his base, but also a ton of Democrats and robust support from independents," she said. "Wes Moore's campaign in so many ways is so different from the last Democratic nominee, who really focused on the progressive wing of the party. And he has talked about patriotism and his military service in a way that has helped him get the attention of independents, older voters, and more conservative Democrats who may have voted for Hogan in the last two cycles.""From a political standpoint, it has also insulated Wes Moore against Dan Cox trying to say he's some sort of far-left socialist. None of those attacks have stuck in any significant way because that's not who he is," Kromer added.Moore emphasized that, if elected, he would put together a government that resembled the state."I want all Marylanders to be able to look at the administration that we're going to build, from Cabinet secretaries, agency heads, and everything to look up and say, 'I see myself around the table,'" he said. "I mean that."Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

As Biden struggles with mediocre approval ratings and voters sour on Trump, celebrities are mulling potential independent or third-party presidential bids. Win McNamee/Getty , Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty , Saul Martinez/Getty , Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty , Photosynthesis/Getty , Tyler Le/Insider Neither Joe Biden or Donald Trump are particularly popular. Their mediocre poll numbers are making room for other potential presidential hopefuls, including celebrities. Notable politicians such as Liz Cheney and Andrew Yang are also in the third-party mix. First came Ronald Reagan. Then Donald Trump. Could Americans see another entertainer trade red carpets for the marbled hallways of the White House?It's plausible. Six out of 10 voters would consider a moderate independent candidate for president in 2024 if President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and Trump, a Republican, end up staging a re-run of Election 2020, according to a recent Harvard CAPS-Harris poll.Recently, the case for nontraditional, third-party candidates received a boost with the launch of the Andrew Yang-fronted Forward Party, established by dozens of former Democratic and Republican officials. And several celebrities have openly flirted with making an independent presidential run.Here are 14 notable celebrities and would-be politicians to watch ahead of the 2024 presidential race:Elon MuskPatrick Pleul/APWhen Elon Musk began angling to buy Twitter, Musk superfans encouraged him to do more — run for president in 2024."Shoulda bought shares in Twitter a month ago," one Twitter user tweeted. "Either way I support #ElonMusk taking it over. Elon for President 2024."—Mike, a person (@mike_dangola) April 14, 2022 The billionaire has been making the headlines recently for his alleged affair with Google co-founder Sergey Brin's wife, termination of his Twitter acquisition plans, and twins he had with one of his top executives.   But because of Article II of the US Constitution, Musk can't run for president because he was born in South Africa, not on American soil.Only a natural-born citizen can be president, which disqualifies Musk from the presidential race — although he could run for other public offices such as US senator or governor. (Think of Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger, who served as California's governor from 2003 to 2011.).Musk has also been vocal in his support of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, for a potential 2024 presidential run.Oprah WinfreyGetty Images/Getty Images for Global CitizenOne of the most influential women in the world, Oprah Winfrey's presidential ambitions have long been a subject of celebrity-watching chatter.Winfrey's 2018 acceptance speech at the Golden Globes — she was awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement — set off speculation about her possibility to run for president. The speech, which opened with a personal anecdote of her growing up as a Black girl in Milwaukee, pivoted to politics and social issues, such as the #MeToo movement. "I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon," she said. "And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say 'Me Too' again."Stedman Graham, Winfrey's longtime partner, told the Los Angeles Times, that Winfrey running for president is "it's up to the people," and "she would absolutely do it." But three weeks before her speech, the media magnate herself told Laura Brown, then the editor-in-chief of InStyle, that she has no interest in occupying the presidency. Winfrey said she had met with someone who offered to help with a political campaign, but she declined. "I've always felt very secure and confident with myself in knowing what I could do and what I could not," Winfrey told Brown. "And so it's not something that interests me. I don't have the DNA for it. ... That's not for me." But it may be too early to completely rule out her name appearing on the ballot. In an interview with David Rubenstein, Winfrey said at first she felt as if she didn't have the experience to run for president, but is thinking otherwise after Donald Trump's election. "I thought, oh gee, I don't have the experience, I don't know enough, and now I'm thinking, 'Oh, oh?'" she said. And even if she doesn't run, her endorsement — if one is forthcoming — could certainly help the recipient.Kanye WestGotham/GC ImagesWest, the rapper and entrepreneur who last year officially changed his name to Ye, has expressed interest in running for president again, in 2024.With just weeks left before the 2022 midterm election, Ye told ABC News he "absolutely" has future political aspirations. "That time wasn't in God's time," he said of his first stab at the presidency. But with company after company cutting ties with him after his anti-Semitic comments and behavior, his political future seems murky at best. The rapper was recently was locked out of his Twitter account for ranting about Jewish people in a tweet that was removed by the social media platform for violating its guidelines.West tweeted that he was "going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE," adding, "I can't be anti-Semitic because black people are actually Jew also."At the time, he had already been under fire for antisemitism following his comments during a Fox News interview with Tucker Carlson accusing Jared Kushner, who is Jewish, of brokering the Abraham Accords to "make money." Adidas, which had manufactured and sold sneakers under West's Yeezy brand, cut ties with the rapper in October after a delay for which it was roundly criticized.The company is expected to lose $246 million in profit this year.West, meanwhile, has already fallen off Forbes billionaire list. Clothing company Gap also severed ties with West, stating that it had shut down YeezyGap.com, and would take "immediate steps to remove Yeezy Gap product" from stores. Balenciaga, Vogue, JPMorgan Chase, talent agency CAA, film and TV studio MRC, are among a potentially growing list of companies to sever ties with West.  —Marlow Stern (@MarlowNYC) October 9, 2022 In 2020, after an unsuccessful run for office, West tweeted, "KANYE 2024" with a picture of his side profile in front of a graphic of the 50 states.—ye (@kanyewest) November 4, 2020West was effectively a non-factor in the 2020 presidential race. He appeared as a presidential candidate on the ballot in just 12 states and received just under 60,000 votes. His strongest support came from Tennessee, where he received more than 10,000 votes. Trump, on the other hand, secured over 1.84 million votes in the state. West again hinted at a second attempt in his new song, "Keep It Burnin."In the first verse, he raps: "When you run for '24, I bet your spouse gon' be with you / Who put this together? Me, that's who."But now that he is effectively "canceled," West might just have to be content with presiding over the "Yecosystem" or "Yeezyverse," the rapper's vision for a "self-sustained enterprise." Andrew YangDrew Angerer/Getty ImagesThe 47-year-old former presidential candidate is no stranger to the political arena, although his efforts have yet to translate into electoral victory.Yang ran unsuccessfully for president in 2020 as a Democrat, and then, lost in a crowded field for mayor of New York in 2021.As part of his political platform, Yang promoted a universal basic income and Medicare for all. The son of Taiwanese immigrants, his bid was also a significant moment for Asian Americans.Yang, who is at the helm of the newly formed national political third party, the Forward Party, hinted at his second attempt at running for the presidency, should a Trump-Biden rematch take shape. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Yang said, "One thing I will say is that if that matchup is unappealing to you, then go to ForwardParty.com and let's make sure that Americans have more choices in your community but also in 2024."Bob Shrum, former political strategist and director of the Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California, believes Yang's bid could backfire and give more votes to Trump. "Andrew Yang, if he wants to start a new party or run as an independent, it could help the Republicans or it could help Trump in 2024," he told Insider.Dwayne "The Rock" JohnsonSamir Hussein/Wire Images/Getty ImagesProfessional wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson's presidential bid overtures have not been nearly as subtle as Winfrey's.Nicknamed "The Rock," the 50-year-old actor has been asked about his presidential ambitions on multiple occasions. His answers hinted at a 2024 bid, until now. In a preview clip from "CBS Sunday Morning," Johnson told Tracy Smith that running for president is "off the table.""I love our country and everyone in it," Johnson said. "I also love being a daddy. And that's the most important thing to me is being a daddy number one." But he left the door open to a future presidential run. He told CNN's Jake Tapper, "the No. 1 job, and my No. 1 title, that I love right now is daddy." But when asked if that meant he was ruling out a future presidential run, Johnson responded, "I have seriously considered it. You have to." Johnson's flirtations with politics began several years ago when, in 2016, he floated the idea of him occupying the Oval Office via Twitter."Cool piece on why I should run for President. Maybe one day. Surely the White House has a spot for my pick up truck," Johnson tweeted, linking to a now-deleted Independent Journal story that laid out why he should be president.Then, in 2017, he said in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres that he'd "seriously considering running." The same year, Johnson told USA Today that, that as the former World Wrestling Entertainment "people's champ," he would probably run in 2020 "to serve the people."He then told Variety that "the realistic consideration would be 2024."And more recently, in 2021, Johnson kept his political options open."I think that poll of almost half of Americans being in favor of me running for president is so humbling. It sits me down and I don't know any other way to describe it," he told CNN.It may be too early to rule out Johnson completely, as Trump's former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told Politico earlier this year that "The Rock" is one of the few people who could realistically challenge Trump in 2024, if Trump decides to run.Liz CheneyWin McNamee/Getty ImagesPerhaps the most prominent anti-Trumper in the GOP, Cheney is now actively considering a 2024 presidential bid. Cheney's potential pursuit of the nation's highest office follows her defeat by Trump-backed opponent Harriet Hageman in Wyoming's Republican congressional primary.In an interview with Savannah Guthrie of NBC News,  the soon-departing Wyoming congresswoman said, "I'm not going to make any announcements here this morning, but it is something that I'm thinking about and I'll make a decision in the coming months."She added: "I will be doing whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office."Speaking at the Texas Tribune Festival in September, Cheney didn't directly answer a question about whether she'd run for president but reiterated she would do "whatever it takes to make sure Donald Trump isn't anywhere close to the Oval Office," and that she would no longer be a Republican if Trump gets the party's nomination in 2024. "I'm going to make sure Donald Trump, make sure he's not the nominee," Cheney said. "And if he is the nominee, I won't be a Republican."Just hours after her loss, Insider reported that Cheney converted her congressional campaign committee to a political action committee — a move that will give her increased freedom to raise and spend money to advance her political agenda. She's calling it "The Great Task." Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is at war with many of her Republican Party colleagues as she serves as vice chair of the US House's January 6 select committee, which is investigating Trump. In her concession speech, Cheney remarked that she could have easily won the primary if she went along Trump's false claims about the 2020 election. "Two years ago, I won this primary with 73% of the vote. I could easily have done the same again. The path was clear, but it would have required that I go along with President Trump's lie about the 2020 election," she said. Cheney was defeated by a 37.4 percentage point margin. If Cheney does run for president as a Republican, she'd likely face stiff opposition from any of several others: Trump, DeSantis, and former Vice President Mike Pence, as well as several other notable Republicans. Moreover, her ability to generate interest among hard-core Republican presidential primary voters would be inherently limited — as her defeat in her own congressional primary made evident. Therefore, there's always the possibility — although Cheney has not publicly indicated this — that she'd quit the Republican Party altogether and seek political fortunes with another party or as an independent, where she could potentially appeal to a wider swath of the electorate. Adam KinzingerChip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesKinzinger, the other Republican on the January 6 committee who is distancing himself from Trump and the GOP establishment, said he would love to run against Trump in 2024."I would love it. I really would," he said in an interview with the Huffington Post. "Even if he crushed me, like in a primary, to be able to stand up and call out the garbage is just a necessary thing, regardless of who it is. ... I think it'd be fun."During an interview with the Washington Post, Kinzinger said he felt "dirty" after voting for Trump in the 2020 presidential election. He did it to "have credit" with the GOP base, he added."It's not something I can square away in my soul fully," he said.Green Party and Libertarian PartyHarry Hamburg/NY Daily News Archive via Getty ImagesAccording to Ballotpedia, there are five Green Party and 13 Libertarian Party candidates who have already filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for president in 2024. Likely none of them have a shot. In 2020, Libertarian nominee Jo Jorgensen received just over 1% of the national vote, and Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins clocked in 0.31%. But "they can determine the outcome by draining votes away," Shrum said.If Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader had not run in 2000, for example, there's almost no question that Democrat Al Gore would have become president instead of Republican George W. Bush, Shrum said. "It would have, without doubt, have carried Florida by the margin of thousands of votes," he said.In addition, some argue that Jorgensen and the Libertarian Party siphoned crucial votes from Trump and ultimately elected Biden. But neither party has ever earned a single electoral vote, except in 1972, when Libertarian candidate John Hospers received the first and only electoral vote in the party's history — even if it wasn't entirely earned.Libertarians have also shown the ability to get on all 50 state ballots, a feat the Green Party hasn't achieved yet.Nevertheless, Green Party National co-chair Ahmed Eltouny is confident that a third-party candidate will emerge victorious in 2024.   "Trump got a lot of these people who felt disenfranchised to go out and vote, and it wasn't important how qualified Joe Biden was, because these were all votes against Trump," he told Insider. "But I do think that in 2024, it will definitely revert back to finding someone who's anti-establishment." Tom HanksPascal Le Segretain/Getty Images"Run, Forrest, run!" The beloved American actor who portrayed the main character in the comedy-drama film "Forrest Gump" would have instant name identification if he sought the highest office in the land. In 2013, a Reader's Digest poll named Hanks the most trusted person in America.Hanks, 66, has always been outspoken about his political views. He has donated to Democrats, endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2008 and subsequently for reelection in 2012, and publicly supported Joe Biden against Trump in 2020. Hanks even narrated Biden's presidential inauguration festivities.Filmmaker Michael Moore reportedly twice asked Hanks to run for president in the past, but was turned down both times. But some people are hoping for a Dwayne Johnson/Tom Hanks ticket after the duo in 2017 joked about a White House bid on Saturday Night Live. And since Johnson said he'll run if "the people want it," there could be at least some truth beneath their comedy bit.Angelina JolieGuillermo Legaria/Getty ImagesActress, film director, and social activist Angelina Jolie is yet another celebrity who might set her sights on winning the presidency in 2024. Earlier this year, Jolie attended an event at the White House where Biden signed the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act legislation — she is a vocal proponent. The 47-year-old Academy Award winner is a noted philanthropist and has served as a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees special envoy.In 2018, the actress and humanitarian hinted that she might run for president.  "I don't know if I'm fit for politics, but then I've also joked that I don't know if I have a skeleton left in my closet — I'm pretty open and out there, and I can take a lot on the chin," she said. "So that's good. But I honestly will do whatever I think can really make change."Brock PierceJoe Raedle/Getty ImagesCryptocurrency — a mere buzzword just a couple years ago — is undoubtedly mainstream.In 2024, voters may find Bitcoin entrepreneur Brock Pierce's name on the ballot. Again.Pierce ran for president in 2020 as an independent but attracted little attention. He received 49,700 votes nationwide, with not quite half coming from voters in New York, according to records compiled by the Federal Election Commission."We get divided into making a fear-based decision to vote for red or blue, and I want to show people there's another way," he in 2020 told Insider."I can summarize why I'm running for office in one word: love. Love for this country, love for the American people at a time where that's what we need," he in 2020 told Darren Paltrowitz, host of the "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" podcast. Pierce is now running for election to the US Senate to represent Vermont. But that doesn't mean he no longer has ambitions for the presidency. He told Paltrowitz in the same interview that he will run for office again."I'm running all the way through to 2024," he said.Howard SternKevin MazurThe self-described "king of all media" said if Trump becomes the Republican nominee in 2024, he'll "beat his ass."On his SiriusXM show, Stern acknowledged his plans to run for president, adding that once elected, he'll work to eliminate the Electoral College. "I'm actually gonna probably have to run for president now," Stern said. "I went into a long-winded speech over the weekend to Robin [last name, his co-host] about how I am going to do the very simple thing that'll set the country straight: One vote, one person, no more of this Electoral College."If he files to run for president in 2024, it wouldn't be Stern's first time running for public office.Stern previously ran for governor of New York in 1994 as a Libertarian but dropped out of the race after refusing to disclose his personal finances — something that the multi-millionaire would have to do as a presidential candidate.Dave SmithBobby Bank/WireImageSmith, a comedian and staunch Libertarian, is setting his sights on a 2024 presidential bid. If elected, he'd be the first professional comedian to occupy the Oval Office.The 40-year-old host of "Part of the Problem" podcast is a prominent member of the Mises Caucus, which won control of the Libertarian Party in May at the party's national convention in Reno, when board member Angela McArdle won the Libertarian National Committee chair election with over 69% of the vote. Smith regularly appears as a political commentator on Fox News and The Joe Rogan Experience. "I really don't want to, but a lot of people here want me to and I understand why they do," he told libertarian magazine Reason. "I like what I'm doing. But I think I could do something and create something really cool. A cool moment for this cause."This article was originally published on August 6, 2022, and updated to include new developments.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Top Republicans running for US Senate and governor declined to say if they'd accept the results of their races, per new NYT and WaPo reports. Rep. Liz Cheney in a CNN special report on the January 6 investigation.Screenshot via CNN/Politico Playbook Rep. Liz Cheney told CNN she's "very worried" about election deniers running for office in 2022. 43 election-denying candidates are seeking statewide office in 27 states, one report found.  "I think those people have all got to be defeated," Cheney said.  GOP Rep. Liz Cheney said she's "very worried" about election-denying candidates running for office and said "they must be defeated" in the 2022 midterms in an interview for a CNN special report on the House January 6 Committee's investigation. Cheney, the vice-chair of the House panel probing January 6, lost the Republican primary for another term in Congress representing Wyoming to a Trump-backed challenger in August."I'm very worried. I think those people must be defeated." Cheney said in a clip of the interview, hosted by CNN's Jake Tapper and set to air in full at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, obtained by Politico Playbook. "The responsibility that we all have to make sure that we make sure we defend our republic and defend our institutions has to be above politics." In all, 43 Republican candidates for governor, attorney general, and secretary of state who have denied the outcome of the 2020 election will be on the November ballot in 27 states, a recent report from the nonpartisan group States United Action found. Arizona, Michigan, and Alabama have such candidates running for all three of those offices in November. "It doesn't matter what party someone belongs to," Cheney added. "If they are running on the basis that they will, for example, refuse to certify legitimate election results in the future, they've got to be defeated."Cheney warned of the candidates positioning themselves to deliver a victory to former President Donald Trump if he runs again in 2024 in key states like Arizona, Michigan, and Nevada. "That's obviously, fundamentally, a threat to the survival of the republic, and I think those people have all got to be defeated," Cheney said. In addition to election deniers making the ballot, the 2022 primary elections have seen several Republican candidates, including ones who lost their races by wide margins, refusing to concede their losses, baselessly claiming fraud, and in, some cases, seeking recounts. And even more could follow in former President Donald Trump's model of refusing to concede defeat in November. Trump was the highest-profile candidate to break from that norm in 2020, when he refused to concede his loss to President Joe Biden even after his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6.  In a New York Times report published Sunday, the outlet surveyed 20 Republican candidates running for US Senate and governor, and found that six, all endorsed by Trump, declined to confirm that they would accept the results of their elections. A similar Washington Post report, also published Sunday, found that a dozen top GOP Senate and gubernatorial candidates would not commit to accepting the results of their races this fall or did not respond, with several of those who did casting doubt on the security of their states' voting systems.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Republican party members are backing Democrat PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro over state Sen. Doug Mastriano in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat running for governor, has sought to portray his opponent Doug Mastriano as out of step with the mainstream.Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images Seven more Republican leaders have announced their endorsement for Democrat Josh Shapiro. This comes one month after nine Republicans called his GOP opponent Doug Mastriano an "extremist." A photo obtained by Reuters showed Mastriano posing in a Confederate military uniform. Seven more Republican leaders have announced their endorsement for Pennsylvania's Democratic candidate for governor Josh Shapiro, following photos of GOP state Sen. Doug Mastriano wearing a Confederate military uniform.This comes one month after nine Republicans vowed to support the Democratic candidate and called Mastriano an "extremist" who threatens American democracy.According to a statement released by the Shapiro campaign on Tuesday, the group includes Michael Chertoff, the former US Secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush, and Mario Civera, a former staterepresentative.Shapiro, the state's attorney general said he was proud to receive the endorsement from these GOP leaders "who are putting our Commonwealth ahead of partisan politics in order to come together and move Pennsylvania forward."In the press release, Chertoff, the former US Secretary of Homeland Security said while he's a long-standing Republican, he is "deeply troubled by Doug Mastriano's embrace of dangerous extremism." "Josh Shapiro, on the other hand, is a staunch defender of our democratic institutions and will lead Pennsylvania with honor and integrity. I am proud to support his campaign for Governor," Chertoff said. Other Republicans backing Shapiro include former Pennsylvania House Speaker Denny O'Brien of Philadelphia, former PA state Rep. Dave Steil of Bucks County, and current Lawrence County Commissioner Morgan Boyd.A photo obtained last week by Reuters, showed Mastriano posing in a Confederate uniform for a faculty photo at the Army War College three years before retiring from the US Army in 2017.Retired Army colonel Doug Mastriano, a Republican state senator from Pennsylvania who is running for governor, poses at left in a Confederate uniform in a 2013-14 faculty photo at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, U.S. April 9, 2014. The photo was released by the Army War College to Reuters on August 26, 2022 under the Freedom of Information Act. Mastriano retired from the Army in 2017.Army War College/Handout via REUTERSThe Donald Trump-backed candidate was first elected in 2018 and has become popular among right-wing activists for mocking herd immunity and falsely suggesting the COVID-19 vaccines are not true vaccines.Mastriano's campaign did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Harriet Hageman, who won the Wyoming GOP primary, said she only got a short message from Cheney that didn't include a concession. Rep. Liz Cheney speaks to supporters during the Wyoming primary election at Mead Ranch in Jackson, Wyoming.PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images Liz Cheney's primary opponent told Fox News she only got a "two-second" message with no concession. A Politico reporter shared audio of Cheney conceding and congratulating Harriet Hageman. The reporter said Hageman's team then sent her the message they received, which appeared to be cut off. Audio shows Rep. Liz Cheney calling Harriet Hageman, her Wyoming primary opponent, to congratulate her on her victory after Hageman said Cheney only left a "two-second" message that didn't include a concession.The audio was obtained and shared by the Politico reporter Olivia Beavers.Cheney can be heard saying: "Hi Harriet, Liz Cheney calling. It's about 8:13 on Tuesday the 16th. I'm calling to concede the election and to congratulate you on the win. Thanks. Bye bye."Hageman told Fox News' "Hannity" on Wednesday night — before Beavers shared the audio — that Cheney had only left her a two-second message and that Cheney did not concede the election.Host Sean Hannity noted that Cheney said in her concession speech on Tuesday that she had called Hageman, but Hannity said: "I didn't hear in that sentence that she congratulated you and wished you well. How did the call go?"Hageman replied: "Well there wasn't a phone call. While I was going in and getting ready to do my acceptance speech last night, and had just arrived at the watch party,  she called and left a very brief two-second message on my cellphone."That's the extent of it. I haven't had any other contact with Liz Cheney, she only made the one effort and all she said was 'Hello Harriet' and then that was the end of it."So she didn't call and discuss with me any kind of concession or anything else, it was just the one phone call. I was obviously extremely busy with family and friends."Hannity then asked: "She just said 'Hello Harriet' and then hung up?"Hageman replied: "That was the end of the call, yes. That was the only time, it was about 8:15 last night and I was just getting ready to go on stage with my acceptance speech."Beavers, the Politico reporter, said that Hageman's campaign sent her a video that showed the message they received from Cheney.Beavers tweeted it showed "that the voicemail audio only got "Howdy Harriet." The voicemail had more time on it but that's all the audio that got through to Hageman. Perhaps technical / cell service issues at play over Cheney concession message."Representatives for Hageman and Cheney did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.Hageman, who was backed by former President Donald Trump, had backed Trump's baseless election-fraud claims.Cheney had vocally pushed back against them, voted to impeach him over the Capitol riot, and joined the House committee investigating the insurrection — moves that alienated her from the rest of the congressional GOP. In her concession speech, Cheney said she could have "easily" won against Hageman if she went along with Trump's election-fraud claims, but that she was not willing to do that.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

As Joe Biden's approval ratings plummet and voters sour on Trump, celebrities are mulling potential independent or third-party presidential bids. Win McNamee/Getty , Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty , Saul Martinez/Getty , Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty , Photosynthesis/Getty , Tyler Le/Insider Joe Biden and Donald Trump are watching their approval ratings tank. Their low numbers are making room for other potential presidential hopefuls, including celebrities. Notable politicians such as Liz Cheney and Andrew Yang are also in the third-party mix. First came Ronald Reagan. Then Donald Trump. Could Americans see another entertainer trade red carpets for the marbled hallways of the White House?It's plausible. Six out of 10 voters would consider a moderate independent candidate for president in 2024 if President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and Trump, a Republican, end up staging a re-run of Election 2020, according to a recent Harvard CAPS-Harris poll.Recently, the case for nontraditional, third-party candidates received a boost with the launch of the Andrew Yang-fronted Forward Party, established by dozens of former Democratic and Republican officials. And several celebrities have openly flirted with making an independent presidential run.Here are 14 notable celebrities and would-be politicians to watch ahead of the 2024 presidential race:Elon MuskPatrick Pleul/APWhen Elon Musk began angling to buy Twitter, Musk superfans encouraged him to do more — run for president in 2024."Shoulda bought shares in Twitter a month ago," one Twitter user tweeted. "Either way I support #ElonMusk taking it over. Elon for President 2024."—Mike, a person (@mike_dangola) April 14, 2022 The billionaire has been making the headlines recently for his alleged affair with Google co-founder Sergey Brin's wife, termination of his Twitter acquisition plans, and twins he had with one of his top executives.   But because of Article II of the US Constitution, Musk can't run for president because he was born in South Africa, not on American soil.Only a natural-born citizen can be president, which disqualifies Musk from the presidential race — although he could run for other public offices such as US senator or governor. (Think of Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger, who served as California's governor from 2003 to 2011.).Musk has also been vocal in his support of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, for a potential 2024 presidential run.Oprah WinfreyGetty Images/Getty Images for Global CitizenOne of the most influential women in the world, Oprah Winfrey's presidential ambitions have long been a subject of celebrity-watching chatter.Winfrey's 2018 acceptance speech at the Golden Globes — she was awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement — set off speculation about her possibility to run for president. The speech, which opened with a personal anecdote of her growing up as a Black girl in Milwaukee, pivoted to politics and social issues, such as the #MeToo movement. "I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon," she said. "And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say 'Me Too' again."Stedman Graham, Winfrey's longtime partner, told the Los Angeles Times, that Winfrey running for president is "it's up to the people," and "she would absolutely do it." But three weeks before her speech, the media magnate herself told Laura Brown, then the editor-in-chief of InStyle, that she has no interest in occupying the presidency. Winfrey said she had met with someone who offered to help with a political campaign, but she declined. "I've always felt very secure and confident with myself in knowing what I could do and what I could not," Winfrey told Brown. "And so it's not something that interests me. I don't have the DNA for it. ... That's not for me." But it may be too early to completely rule out her name appearing on the ballot. In an interview with David Rubenstein, Winfrey said at first she felt as if she didn't have the experience to run for president, but is thinking otherwise after Donald Trump's election. "I thought, oh gee, I don't have the experience, I don't know enough, and now I'm thinking, 'Oh, oh?'" she said. And even if she doesn't run, her endorsement — if one is forthcoming — could certainly help the recipient.Andrew YangDrew Angerer/Getty ImagesThe 47-year-old former presidential candidate is no stranger to the political arena, although his efforts have yet to translate into electoral victory.Yang ran unsuccessfully for president in 2020 as a Democrat, and then, lost in a crowded field for mayor of New York in 2021.As part of his political platform, Yang promoted a universal basic income and Medicare for all. The son of Taiwanese immigrants, his bid was also a significant moment for Asian Americans.Yang, who is at the helm of the newly formed national political third party, the Forward Party, hinted at his second attempt at running for the presidency, should a Trump-Biden rematch take shape. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Yang said, "One thing I will say is that if that matchup is unappealing to you, then go to ForwardParty.com and let's make sure that Americans have more choices in your community but also in 2024."Bob Shrum, former political strategist and director of the Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California, believes Yang's bid could backfire and give more votes to Trump. "Andrew Yang, if he wants to start a new party or run as an independent, it could help the Republicans or it could help Trump in 2024," he told Insider.Dwayne "The Rock" JohnsonSamir Hussein/Wire Images/Getty ImagesProfessional wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson's presidential bid overtures have not been nearly as subtle as Winfrey's.Nicknamed "The Rock," the 50-year-old actor has been asked about his presidential ambitions on multiple occasions.His answers hint at a 2024 bid. Johnson's flirtations with politics began several years ago when, in 2016, he floated the idea of him occupying the Oval Office via Twitter."Cool piece on why I should run for President. Maybe one day. Surely the White House has a spot for my pick up truck," Johnson tweeted, linking to a now-deleted Independent Journal story that laid out why he should be president.Then, in 2017, he said in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres that he'd "seriously considering running." The same year, Johnson told USA Today that, that as the former World Wrestling Entertainment "people's champ," he would probably run in 2020 "to serve the people."He then told Variety that "the realistic consideration would be 2024."More recently, in 2021, Johnson kept his political options open."I think that poll of almost half of Americans being in favor of me running for president is so humbling. It sits me down and I don't know any other way to describe it," he told CNN.Trump's former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told Politico earlier this year that "The Rock" is one of the few people who could realistically challenge Trump in 2024, if Trump decides to run.Kanye WestGotham/GC ImagesThe American rapper and entrepreneur who last year officially changed his name to Ye, has expressed interest in running for president again, in 2024.In 2020, after an unsuccessful run for office, West tweeted, "KANYE 2024" with a picture of his side profile in front of a graphic of the 50 states.—ye (@kanyewest) November 4, 2020West was effectively a non-factor in the 2020 presidential race. He appeared as a presidential candidate on the ballot in just 12 states and received just under 60,000 votes. His strongest support came from Tennessee, where he received more than 10,000 votes. Trump, on the other hand, secured over 1.84 million votes in the state. West again hinted at a second attempt in his new song, "Keep It Burnin." In the first verse, he raps: "When you run for '24, I bet your spouse gon' be with you / Who put this together? Me, that's who."Liz CheneyWin McNamee/Getty ImagesPerhaps the most prominent anti-Trumper in the GOP, Cheney is now actively considering a 2024 presidential bid. Cheney's potential pursuit of the nation's highest office follows her defeat by Trump-backed opponent Harriet Hageman in Wyoming's Republican congressional primary.In an interview with Savannah Guthrie of NBC News,  the soon-departing Wyoming congresswoman said, "I'm not going to make any announcements here this morning, but it is something that I'm thinking about and I'll make a decision in the coming months."She added: "I will be doing whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office."Just hours after her loss, Insider reported that Cheney converted her congressional campaign committee to a political action committee — a move that will give her increased freedom to raise and spend money to advance her political agenda. She's calling it "The Great Task." Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is at war with many of her Republican Party colleagues as she serves as vice chair of the US House's January 6 select committee, which is investigating Trump. In her concession speech, Cheney remarked that she could have easily won the primary if she went along Trump's false claims about the 2020 election. "Two years ago, I won this primary with 73% of the vote. I could easily have done the same again. The path was clear, but it would have required that I go along with President Trump's lie about the 2020 election," she said. Cheney was defeated by a 37.4 percentage point margin. If Cheney does run for president as a Republican, she'd likely face stiff opposition from any of several others: Trump, DeSantis, and former Vice President Mike Pence, as well as several other notable Republicans. Moreover, her ability to generate interest among hard-core Republican presidential primary voters would be inherently limited — as her defeat in her own congressional primary made evident. Therefore, there's always the possibility — although Cheney has not publicly indicated this — that she'd quit the Republican Party altogether and seek political fortunes with another party or as an independent, where she could potentially appeal to a wider swath of the electorate. Adam KinzingerChip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesKinzinger, the other Republican on the January 6 committee who is distancing himself from Trump and the GOP establishment, said he would love to run against Trump in 2024."I would love it. I really would," he said in an interview with the Huffington Post. "Even if he crushed me, like in a primary, to be able to stand up and call out the garbage is just a necessary thing, regardless of who it is. ... I think it'd be fun."During an interview with the Washington Post, Kinzinger said he felt "dirty" after voting for Trump in the 2020 presidential election. He did it to "have credit" with the GOP base, he added."It's not something I can square away in my soul fully," he said.Green Party and Libertarian PartyHarry Hamburg/NY Daily News Archive via Getty ImagesAccording to Ballotpedia, there are five Green Party and 13 Libertarian Party candidates who have already filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for president in 2024. Likely none of them have a shot. In 2020, Libertarian nominee Jo Jorgensen received just over 1% of the national vote, and Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins clocked in 0.31%. But "they can determine the outcome by draining votes away," Shrum said.If Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader had not run in 2000, for example, there's almost no question that Democrat Al Gore would have become president instead of Republican George W. Bush, Shrum said. "It would have, without doubt, have carried Florida by the margin of thousands of votes," he said.In addition, some argue that Jorgensen and the Libertarian Party siphoned crucial votes from Trump and ultimately elected Biden. But neither party has ever earned a single electoral vote, except in 1972, when Libertarian candidate John Hospers received the first and only electoral vote in the party's history — even if it wasn't entirely earned.Libertarians have also shown the ability to get on all 50 state ballots, a feat the Green Party hasn't achieved yet.Nevertheless, Green Party National co-chair Ahmed Eltouny is confident that a third-party candidate will emerge victorious in 2024.   "Trump got a lot of these people who felt disenfranchised to go out and vote, and it wasn't important how qualified Joe Biden was, because these were all votes against Trump," he told Insider. "But I do think that in 2024, it will definitely revert back to finding someone who's anti-establishment." Tom HanksPascal Le Segretain/Getty Images"Run, Forrest, run!" The beloved American actor who portrayed the main character in the comedy-drama film "Forrest Gump" would have instant name identification if he sought the highest office in the land. In 2013, a Reader's Digest poll named Hanks the most trusted person in America.Hanks, 66, has always been outspoken about his political views. He has donated to Democrats, endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2008 and subsequently for reelection in 2012, and publicly supported Joe Biden against Trump in 2020. Hanks even narrated Biden's presidential inauguration festivities.Filmmaker Michael Moore reportedly twice asked Hanks to run for president in the past, but was turned down both times. But some people are hoping for a Dwayne Johnson/Tom Hanks ticket after the duo in 2017 joked about a White House bid on Saturday Night Live. And since Johnson said he'll run if "the people want it," there could be at least some truth beneath their comedy bit.Angelina JolieGuillermo Legaria/Getty ImagesActress, film director, and social activist Angelina Jolie is yet another celebrity who might set her sights on winning the presidency in 2024. Earlier this year, Jolie attended an event at the White House where Biden signed the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act legislation — she is a vocal proponent. The 47-year-old Academy Award winner is a noted philanthropist and has served as a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees special envoy.In 2018, the actress and humanitarian hinted that she might run for president.  "I don't know if I'm fit for politics, but then I've also joked that I don't know if I have a skeleton left in my closet — I'm pretty open and out there, and I can take a lot on the chin," she said. "So that's good. But I honestly will do whatever I think can really make change."Brock PierceJoe Raedle/Getty ImagesCryptocurrency — a mere buzzword just a couple years ago — is undoubtedly mainstream.In 2024, voters may find Bitcoin entrepreneur Brock Pierce's name on the ballot. Again.Pierce ran for president in 2020 as an independent but attracted little attention. He received 49,700 votes nationwide, with not quite half coming from voters in New York, according to records compiled by the Federal Election Commission."We get divided into making a fear-based decision to vote for red or blue, and I want to show people there's another way," he in 2020 told Insider."I can summarize why I'm running for office in one word: love. Love for this country, love for the American people at a time where that's what we need," he in 2020 told Darren Paltrowitz, host of the "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" podcast. Pierce is now running for election to the US Senate to represent Vermont. But that doesn't mean he no longer has ambitions for the presidency. He told Paltrowitz in the same interview that he will run for office again."I'm running all the way through to 2024," he said.Howard SternKevin MazurThe self-described "king of all media" said if Trump becomes the Republican nominee in 2024, he'll "beat his ass."On his SiriusXM show, Stern acknowledged his plans to run for president, adding that once elected, he'll work to eliminate the Electoral College. "I'm actually gonna probably have to run for president now," Stern said. "I went into a long-winded speech over the weekend to Robin [last name, his co-host] about how I am going to do the very simple thing that'll set the country straight: One vote, one person, no more of this Electoral College."If he files to run for president in 2024, it wouldn't be Stern's first time running for public office.Stern previously ran for governor of New York in 1994 as a Libertarian but dropped out of the race after refusing to disclose his personal finances — something that the multi-millionaire would have to do as a presidential candidate.Dave SmithBobby Bank/WireImageSmith, a comedian and staunch Libertarian, is setting his sights on a 2024 presidential bid. If elected, he'd be the first professional comedian to occupy the Oval Office.The 40-year-old host of "Part of the Problem" podcast is a prominent member of the Mises Caucus, which won control of the Libertarian Party in May at the party's national convention in Reno, when board member Angela McArdle won the Libertarian National Committee chair election with over 69% of the vote. Smith regularly appears as a political commentator on Fox News and The Joe Rogan Experience. "I really don't want to, but a lot of people here want me to and I understand why they do," he told libertarian magazine Reason. "I like what I'm doing. But I think I could do something and create something really cool. A cool moment for this cause."This article was originally published on August 6, 2022, and updated to include new developments.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

How Mario Draghi Broke Italy Authored by Thomas Fazi via UnHerd.com, Mario Draghi’s defenestration has left the Italian — and indeed international — establishment reeling in horror. This is not surprising. When he was nominated as Italy’s prime minister at the beginning of last year, Europe’s political and economic elites welcomed his arrival as a miracle. Virtually every party in the Italian parliament — including the two formerly “populist” parties that won the elections in 2018, the Five Star Movement and the League — offered their support. The tone of the discussion was captured well by the powerful governor of the Campania region, Vincenzo De Luca (PD), who compared Draghi to “Christ” himself. Everyone agreed: a Draghi government would be a blessing for the country, a final opportunity to redeem its sins and “make Italy great again”. Draghi, they said, simply by virtue of his “charisma”, “competence”, “intelligence” and “international clout”, would keep bond markets at bay, enact much-needed reforms, and relaunch Italy’s stagnant economy. Alas, reality hasn’t exactly lived up to expectations: Draghi leaves behind a country in tatters. The latest European Commission macroeconomic forecast predicted that Italy will experience the slowest economic growth in the bloc next year, at just 0.9%, owing to a decline in consumer spending due to rising prices and lower business investment — a result of rising borrowing and energy costs, as well as disruptions in the supply of Russian gas. Italy is also experiencing one of the fastest-growing inflation rates in Europe — which is currently at 8.6%, the highest level in more than three decades. Interest rates on Italian government bonds have also been steadily climbing ever since Draghi came to power, rising four-fold under his watch; today they stand at the highest level in almost a decade. And this “polycrisis” has taken its toll on Italian society: 5.6 million Italians — almost 10% of the population, including 1.4 million minors — currently live in absolute poverty, the highest level on record. Many of these are in work, and that number is bound to increase as real wages in Italy continue to fall at the highest pace in the bloc. Meanwhile, almost 100,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are at risk of insolvency — a 2% increase compared to last year. So much for “Super Mario”, then. Of course, one could argue that other countries are experiencing similar problems, but it would be a mistake to let Draghi off the hook. He has been one of the staunchest supporters of the measures that led to this situation, having been a driving force in pushing for tough EU sanctions against Moscow — sanctions that are crippling Europe’s economies, while leaving Russia largely unscathed. Draghi even boasted about the bold measures adopted by Italy to wean the country off Russian gas — the result being that Italy is now the country that pays the highest wholesale electricity prices in the entire EU. The absurdity of these policies becomes apparent when we consider his attempt to reduce Italy’s dependence on Russian gas by reviving several coal-fired power plants — coal that Italy largely imports from Russia. Worse still, Draghi did little or nothing to shield wage-earners, households and small businesses from the impact of these policies. Indeed, the few “structural” measures enacted by his government have all been aimed at promoting privatisation, liberalisation, deregulation and fiscal consolidation — such as opening up for privatisation those few public services that had remained outside of the scope of the market, further “flexibilising” labour, putting private beaches up for public tender for the first time in decades, or attempting to expand taxi services to include ride-sharing operators like Uber, sparking massive protests. For anyone who has an inkling of Draghi’s ideology, this is hardly surprising. As I’ve argued before, Mario Draghi is the bodily incarnation of “neoliberalism”. Neither is it surprising that those policies haven’t delivered, given that the EU’s neoliberal logic, based upon privatisation, fiscal austerity and wage compression — which Draghi has played a crucial role in implementing since the early Nineties — is the main reason Italy is in such a mess to begin with. Draghi also further strengthened the EU’s stranglehold over the Italian economy by relentlessly peddling the narrative that Italy desperately needed the European Covid recovery funds to kickstart its economy, and that in order to access those funds it needed to diligently implement the reforms demanded by Brussels. Yet in macroeconomic terms, the funds in question are a pittance, and nowhere close to what would be needed to have a meaningful impact on Italy’s economy. But they come with very strict conditionalities. This is ultimately what the EU’s Next Generation EU “recovery fund” is all about: increasing Brussels’s control over the budgetary policies of member states and strengthening the EU’s regime of technocratic and authoritarian control. And who better than Draghi could be trusted with locking such measures in place? As he himself noted, the “reform path” laid down by his government meant that “we have created the conditions for the [EU recovery] work to continue, regardless of who is [in government]” — thus ensuring that future governments wouldn’t stray from the path of righteousness. Draghi, however, doesn’t just leave behind him a scorched economy but also a deeply fractured and divided society. He is the man responsible for devising the most punitive, discriminatory and segregational mass vaccination policies in the West, which not only excluded millions of unvaccinated people — including children — from social life, by extending vaccine passports to practically all public spaces, but also restricted many people from working. He also helped make the unvaccinated the target of institutionally sanctioned hate speech, such as when he infamously claimed: “You don’t get vaccinated, you get sick, you die. Or you kill.” All this might offer an indication of why a recent poll showed that 50% of Italians weren’t happy with the government’s work. And yet, in spite of these rather unimpressive results, when Draghi initially announced his intention to resign, the Italian establishment went into an apoplectic fit. In what will go down in history as one of the most pathetic demonstrations of the sycophantic conformism of Italian society, almost every professional category you can think of rushed to launch their own appeal begging Draghi to stay on — not only wealthy businessmen, as was to be expected, but also doctors, pharmacists, nurses, mayors, university deans, NGOs, progressive intellectuals and even the CGIL, the country’s largest union. Even more pitiably, the Italian media gave massive coverage to several “pro-Draghi demonstrations” — numbering not more than a few dozen people. Perhaps most comically, one of the country’s largest news agencies, Adnkronos, even spoke of how several homeless people had come out to show their support for Draghi. One of these was quoted saying: “Draghi is making the difference. Italy has regained prestige and credibility thanks to him. As a homeless person I can testify to the fact that there’s a greater attention to us now and that’s thanks to Draghi.” The Western international establishment also threw all its weight behind Draghi. Everyone from the Financial Times to the Guardian to the EU Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni came out to explain what a tragedy losing Draghi would be for Italy — and indeed for Europe as a whole. Gentiloni went so far as saying that “a perfect storm” would sweep over the country if Draghi were to leave; while the Guardian limited itself to instructing Italy’s MPs that Draghi “should stay for now”. The New York Times unironically claimed that Draghi’s departure would put an end to the “brief golden period” he ushered in for Italy. Talk of foreign actors meddling in Italy’s affairs. So why, in spite of such massive pressures, did three parties effectively pull the plug on his government last week? Part of the explanation lies in the extent to which Draghi had managed to alienate parties such as the Five Star Movement and the League — refusing to engage with them on hardly any of his government’s policies, or to acknowledge even the most timid criticism. On more than one occasion, Draghi made very clear what he considered to be parliament’s role: that of rubber-stamping the decisions taken by government. This is evident also in Draghi’s abuse of the instrument of the confidence vote. In his Senate speech last week, Draghi was even more explicit: after saying that he had decided to reconsider his resignation because “that is what the people want”, he essentially told Parliament that he was willing to stay on as premier only so long as the parties would agree not to interfere with any of the government’s future decisions. For many of those present in Parliament, the arrogance and megalomania of Draghi’s speech went a step too far — and moreover some say that Berlusconi was waiting for the right moment to avenge the time he was unseated by Draghi, in 2011, when the latter was president of the ECB. However, one shouldn’t overstate the importance of Parliament’s anti-Draghi revolt. Ultimately, Draghi did little more than spell out an uncomfortable truth to the parties: “You have no real power, just accept it.” But that is a truth the political parties aren’t ready to accept. Ultimately, they are unwilling to face the fundamental contradiction between the country’s formal institutional architecture — that of a parliamentary democracy — and what we may call its “actually existing” institutional architecture, in which Parliament and by definition the political parties have almost no power whatsoever, because government itself, in the context of the eurozone, has little if any economic autonomy. The parties know this but are unwilling to admit it (to themselves but most importantly to voters). This leaves them in a state of permanent cognitive dissonance, leading to what we may call “the political cycle of the external constraint”. As in “normal” countries, parties vie for consensus on the basis of different electoral platforms — and as often happens, the parties promising “change” happen to win. However, unlike in “normal” countries, the parties that get into government soon find out that they lack the “normal” instruments of economic policy necessary to really change anything in socio-economic terms. In fact, they have little choice but to go along with what Brussels and Frankfurt say, and if they don’t play ball the ECB is always ready to turn up the heat. At that point, if the government doesn’t back down, the ECB will engineer a full-blown financial crisis (think Italy in 2011 or Greece in 2015) — which usually leads the political parties to turn to EU-backed technocrats to fix a problem the EU created in the first place. Yet even if the government yields, the growing tension between the requirements of the external constraint and the demands of citizens, which the parties lack the tools to remedy, leads them to turn to technocrats to resolve the impasse, by having them implement the measures the parties don’t want to take responsibility for. Then, at a certain point, usually as new elections approach, political parties feel the need to re-legitimise themselves in the eyes of voters and thus  put the technocratic genie back into the lamp — until the next crisis, which sets a new cycle in motion. This is largely the story of what happened between 2018 and Draghi’s ouster, as the Five Star Movement and League went from anti-EU populism to Draghi over the course of just a few years. And the next elections will set in motion a new cycle, possibly hailed by a centre-right Giorgia Meloni-led government. But as the social and economic situation continues to worsen, these cycles are also bound to grow shorter and shorter. A future centre-right government — “populist” or not — would have little or no ability to resolve the crises left behind by Draghi. As always, the shots will be called in Brussels and Frankfurt. With the launch of its recent Transmission Protection Instrument (TPI), the ECB has provided itself with a tool that technically allows it to do “whatever it takes” to close euro spreads, thus potentially averting future financial crises. Such intervention, however, is conditional on compliance with the EU’s fiscal framework and with the “reforms” outlined in each country’s “recovery fund” plans — already locked in place by Draghi. But these will do nothing to end the unfolding social and economic crisis; in fact, they are certain to worsen it. In other words, the next Italian government, if it wants to stay financially afloat, will have little choice but to follow the economic diktats of the EU — or else. In such a context, how long before the last remnants of democratic legitimacy in countries such as Italy break down? And what then? Ultimately, the next euro crisis is much more likely to break out on the streets of Europe than on financial markets. Tyler Durden Tue, 07/26/2022 - 02:00.....»»

The GOP candidate for governor of Pennsylvania is facing criticism from both Republican and Democratic Jewish groups to cut ties with Gab. Left: Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, speaks at a Save America Rally prior to former president Donald Trump speaking Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022, in Florence, Arizona. Right: Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano speaks during a campaign rally at The Fuge on May 14, 2022 in Warminster, Pennsylvania.Left: (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File) Right: (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano has endorsed Arizona Republican Wendy Rogers in her reelection bid. Rogers is a far-right conspiracy theorist who recently spoke at a white nationalist conference. Mastriano, who is running for governor, has been criticized by Jewish leaders for his own embrace of antisemites. Doug Mastriano, the Pennsylvania Republican facing criticism for refusing to cut ties with a social media platform popular with Christian nationalists, has endorsed the reelection bid of an Arizona Republican who has welcomed the support of white nationalists and is herself a member of the far-right Oath Keepers militia.In a video posted on her Telegram, Wendy Rogers, a state senator who was censured by her party after appearing at a white nationalist conference earlier this year, touted the endorsement from Mastriano, who is himself running for governor."Thank you, Colonel, for your endorsement!" Rogers wrote. "We are rooting for you in Pennsylvania, too!"Mastriano, in the video posted Monday evening, described the state senator as a "good friend.""We need more champions for freedom like her in office," he said. "She's tough and courageous. She's a brave leader."Rogers, who was also endorsed by former President Donald Trump, is fighting to keep the seat she first won in 2020. On August 2, GOP primary voters will pick between her and state Sen. Kelly Townsend, an ultra-conservative lawmaker who says she launched her primary challenge due to Rogers' open embrace of white nationalists.In February, Rogers spoke at a conference organized by far-right streamer Nick Fuentes, who the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as a "white nationalist live streamer" and "outspoken admirer of fascists." The Anti-Defamation League likewise describes him as a "white supremacist leader." Fuentes, among other things, has claimed the Republican Party "is run by Jews, atheists, and homosexuals."Speaking to Insider's Bryan Metzger, Townsend said she watched a compilation of Fuentes' views after Rogers' participation in the conference was publicized and was "horrified" by what she saw. Previously, Metzger wrote describing Fuentes as "a 23-year-old far-right political commentator who the FBI has identified as a white supremacist and with an online following known as 'Groypers.'"Rogers, far from distancing herself, has embraced so-called "groypers" — deeming her white nationalist audience "patriots" while describing Fuentes as "the most persecuted man in America" — and doubled down on controversy.After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, for example, she attacked President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, as a "globalist puppet for Soros," along with further antisemitic tropes: "I stand with the Christians worldwide not the global bankers who are shoving godlessness and degeneracy in our face.""I will not apologize for being white," she added the next day.Rogers later suggested that a white man's mass killing of Black shoppers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, was a "false flag" attack staged by the federal government.In its censure, the Arizona state Senate, which is led by Republicans, said Rogers had engaged in conduct "unbecoming of a senator, including publicly issuing and promoting social media and video messages encouraging violence."Rogers' membership in the Oath Keepers has also come under increased scrutiny since the paramilitary group's leadership was charged with a seditious conspiracy over their role in the January 6 insurrection.Mastriano criticMastriano, who won a plurality in the GOP primary to become his party's Trump-backed candidate for governor, has himself been criticized for cozying up to far-right extremists and antisemites. His opponent, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, is Jewish.In a statement, the Shapiro campaign attacked Mastriano for "plunging his campaign deeper into toxic extremism and conspiracy theories.""It's appalling to see Mastriano team up with an out-of-state politician who spends her time with white nationalists and peddles horrific antisemitism, but it's unsurprising – they're two peas in a pod," Manuel Bonder, a spokesperson for the Shapiro campaign, told Insider.Earlier this year, HuffPost reported, Mastriano paid $5,000 in a "consulting" fee to Gab, a social network popular with extremists that was used by the man who murdered 11 Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Mastriano also sat down for an interview with the site's founder, Andrew Torba, a self-described Christian nationalist who has frequently posted antisemitic tirades."Jewish voters expect candidates to condemn antisemitism, whether it comes from the far left or the far right — and to shun those who espouse it," Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said in a statement reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer. "We strongly urge Doug Mastriano to end his association with Gab, a social network rightly seen by Jewish Americans as a cesspool of bigotry and antisemitism."Mastriano did not respond to a request for comment.Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.comRead the original article on Business Insider.....»»

The House select committee is investigating the Capitol riot and the role Donald Trump and his allies played in trying to overturn the 2020 election. Lawmakers listen as an image of a Trump campaign donation banner is shown behind them during a House January 6 committee hearing.Susan Walsh/AP Thursday's hearing in the Jan. 6 probe is focusing on Trump's actions as his supporters stormed the Capitol. Two administration officials — national security adviser Matthew Pottinger and deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews — are testifying. The panel plans to keep digging through August and with more hearings to come in September. Jan. 6 panel has summertime plansJan. 6 Committee vice-chair Liz CheneySaul Loeb/AFPThe January 6 Committee leaders kicked off Thursday's hearing by outlining their plans for more summertime work as their panel continues its investigation of the 2021 insurrection at the Capitol.Rep. Bennie Thompson, the panel's chairman, said via video that there'd be more hearings in September. A few moments later, Rep. Liz Cheney, said the panel plans to spend the August recess "pursuing emerging information on multiple fronts" before turning to additional hearings."The damn has begun to break," Cheney said.   Latest hearing will focus on Trump's reaction to the Capitol riot — and his alleged inaction to stop it.Former President Donald Trump gives the keynote address at the Faith and Freedom Coalition during their annual conference on June 17, 2022, in Nashville, Tennessee.Seth Herald/Getty ImagesThe House panel investigating the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021 will hold its eighth hearing on Thursday night.The hearing — scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET — will focus on Trump's actions during the deadly insurrection at the Capitol building.Committee members have argued that Trump knew of the violence and refused to take actions to prevent or stop it, despite the pleas from advisors in his inner circle.Former national security adviser Matthew Pottinger and Sarah Matthews, former deputy press secretary in the Trump administration, are expected to testify.The committee is expected to add to the public's understanding of the critical 187 minutes between when Trump stirred up a crowd of his supporters at the Ellipse to when he posted a video to Twitter asking them to "go home."READ FULL STORYRep. Kinzinger says Trump acted like an angry child during January 6 attackRepublican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois during a hearing on Capitol Hill on March 10, 2021.Ting Shen-Pool/Getty ImagesGOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who is expected to play a leading role in Thursday's primetime hearing, will focus on Trump's mindset and actions as he watched his supporters assault law enforcement and desecrate the Capitol.In an interview with The Bulwark, Kinzinger said Trump "was someone who knew exactly what he was doing."Read Full StoryTrump spent most of the January 6 attack watching TV in the White House dining room: new videoFormer President Donald Trump speaks during a "Save America" rally in Anchorage, Alaska, on July 9, 2022.Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesTrump spent the bulk of his time during the Capitol attack watching reports of the insurrection on TV, according to video testimony given to the January 6 House panel.Ahead of Thursday night's hearing on how Trump reacted to the storming of the Capitol, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a member of the House Select Committee, shared a video compilation of the depositions on Twitter.—Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) July 21, 2022Read Full StorySecret Service may have violated federal law by deleting messages around January 6The leaders of the January 6 hearings say the Secret Service may have violated federal law by undergoing a process that led to text messages from the time of the Capitol riot to be deleted."The procedure for preserving content prior to this purge appears to have been contrary to federal records retention requirements and may represent a possible violation of the Federal Records Act," a letter from Reps. Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney said.So far, the committee had received one text message from the agency.Jan. 6 hearings are 'undoubtedly starting to take a toll' on Trump's popularity, former ambassador saysFormer White House counsel Pat Cipollone is seen on a video display during the seventh hearing held by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol on July 12, 2022.Sarah Silbiger-Pool/Getty ImagesA former ambassador who served during the Trump administration says the former president's popularity is taking a hit as more revelations about Trump's actions before and during the Capitol riot come out.Attorney Randy Evans, who was ambassador to Luxembourg, said the hearings' "steadiness, the repetitiveness, has had a corrosive effect."Evans added it's "all undoubtedly starting to take a toll — how much, I don't know. But the bigger question is whether it starts to eat through the Teflon. There are some signs that maybe it has. But it's too early to say right now."Read MoreSecret Service has only submitted 1 text to the Jan. 6 committee: panel memberThe House panel investigating the Capitol riot has received just one text message from the Secret Service in response to a subpoena, Rep. Zoe Lofgren said."In their letter they gave no indication that they have secured the phones in question and done some forensic work with them. That's something we want to know," Lofgren told MSNBC on Tuesday."Obviously, this doesn't look good ... Coincidences can happen but we really need to get to the bottom of this and get a lot more information than we have currently."Read Full StoryJan. 6 panel subpoenas Secret Service for text messages as DHS watchdog accuses agents of deleting them after being askedA US Secret Service agent takes position outside the White House in November 2020.J. Scott Applewhite/AP PhotoThe House committee investigating the Capitol riot has issued a subpoena to the US Secret Service after the Department of Homeland Security inspector general accused the agency of deleting text messages after being asked.Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee's chairperson, said in a Friday letter to Secret Service director James Murray that the panel was seeking text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021.Thompson mentioned three previous requests for information, sent in January, March, and August of last year, pertaining to all communications between DHS officials and then-President Donald Trump about the Capitol riot.Read Full StoryThe Jan. 6 witness Trump tried to call is a White House support staffer, reports sayThe Jan. 6 committee witness whom former President Donald Trump is alleged to have tried to contact is a White House support staffer, reports say. At Tuesday's hearing, committee member Rep. Liz Cheney claimed that Trump sought to contact a witness who had not appeared publically, in what she characterized as a form of witness tampering. CNN first reported, citing two sources, that Trump made the call to the witness after the June 28 testimony by another witness, the former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson.According to the report, the support staffer was in a position to corroborate parts of Hutchinson's testimony, and had been providing evidence to the committee. NBC News later said it had confirmed CNN's reporting. Neither outlet named the person.Read Full StoryWatergate star witness predicts criminal charges after latest Jan. 6 testimony: 'Trump is in trouble'Former White House Counsel John Dean testifying on Capitol Hill on June 10, 2019.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty ImagesJohn Dean, a key witness in the Watergate investigation, said that former President Donald Trump and others will likely face legal repercussions from evidence presented at Tuesday's January 6 committee hearing. In an interview with CNN, Dean highlighted testimony by former members of extremist group the Oath Keepers, who were part of the mob that stormed the Capitol.Dean described them as "really classic authoritarian followers, following the leader."He argued that the testimony proves the extent to which the rioters believed they had been sent by Trump, which he said could be used by prosecutors were they to bring charges against the former president.Read Full StoryTrump 'liked the crazies' and wanted Alex Jones and Ali Alexander as Jan. 6 rally speakers despite red flags raised, former spokesperson saysKatrina Pierson, a former campaign spokesperson for Donald Trump and one of the organizers of the January 6 "Stop the Steal" rally, said Trump wanted Alex Jones and Ali Alexander to speak at the event despite the "red flags" they raised.On Tuesday, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a member of the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot, played a video of Pierson's testimony to the panel in which Pierson commented on Trump's love for "crazies" like Jones and Alexander."Yes, I was talking about President Trump. He loved people who viciously defended him in public," Pierson said in her deposition.Read Full StoryPhoto shows Mark Meadows escorting Rudy Giuliani from the White House following 'UNHINGED' West Wing meeting about 2020 election resultsA photo that Cassidy Hutchinson took of Mark Meadows leading Rudy Giuliani away from the Oval Office.Courtesy of CSPANFormer Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had to escort former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani from the Oval Office following a chaotic, late-night December 2020 West Wing meeting about the election results, according to new January 6 testimony.Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump White House aide whose explosive testimony stunned Washington last month, shared with the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot a photo she took of Meadows leading  Giuliani away from the Oval Office following the turbulent gathering, which was the site of a face-off between Trump's legal allies and White House lawyers over efforts to promote the then-president's baseless claims of election fraud, according to testimony.The January 6 panel shared the photo alongside real-time text messages Hutchinson was sending from the meeting during its seventh live hearing on Tuesday. READ FULL STORYFormer Twitter employee feared people were going to die on January 6A former Twitter employee told the House committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol that activity on the platform raised concerns that there would be deadly violence in Washington on January 6.The former employee, whose voice was obscured in a recording played during Tuesday's hearing, testified about trying and failing to get the company to intervene as former President Donald Trump's extremist supporters used the platform to repeat his statements about the upcoming protests to the 2020 election results.On the night of January 5, the employee testified about slacking a colleague, a message to the effect of, "When people are shooting each other tomorrow, I will try and rest in the knowledge that we tried."The former employee was on a team responsible for platform and content moderation policies during 2020 and 2021.READ FULL STORYOath Keepers attorney used the 'Queer Eye' loft kitchen from Season 3 as her video background before the January 6 committeeOath Keepers attorney Kellye SoRelle.C-SPANTestifying remotely before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, the Oath Keepers' attorney and acting president used a green screen background from the Netflix show "Queer Eye."Erin Ryan, host of Crooked Media's "Hysteria" podcast, tweeted out a screenshot of the remote deposition from Oath Keepers acting president Kellye SoRelle alongside an image from the third season of the streaming series, which Ryan said she found from a reverse Google image search.READ FULL STORYRep. Liz Cheney ends hearing with bombshell: Donald Trump called a witness in the House January 6 investigationFormer President Donald Trump called a witness in the congressional inquiry into the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, Rep. Liz Cheney said Tuesday, prompting House investigators to notify the Justice Department. "After our last hearing, President Trump tried to call a witness in our investigation. A witness you have not yet seen in these hearings. That person declined to answer or respond to President Trump's call and, instead, alerted their lawyer to the call," said Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, in a bombshell revelation that concluded the House January 6 committee's seventh public hearing."Their lawyer alerted us, and this committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice," she added. "Let me say one more time: We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously."READ FULL STORYThe January 6 investigators obtained a video of Roger Stone reciting the Proud Boys' 'Fraternity Creed,' the first step for initiation to the extremist groupAn image of Roger Stone is shown on a screen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.Doug Mills/Pool via APNew details emerged at Tuesday's January 6 committee hearing on the close ties between Roger Stone and extremist groups, including that the longtime Donald Trump confidante was recorded reciting the Proud Boys' so-called "Fraternity Creed." Rep. Jamie Raskin, who co-chaired the public hearing, described reciting the creed as "the first level of initiation" into the far-right group, five members of which are scheduled to be tried on seditious conspiracy charges in December.  "Stone's ties to the Proud Boys go back many years," Raskin said. "He's even taken their so-called "Fraternity Creed," required for the first level of initiation to the group."Video then played showing Stone in a crowded outdoor setting, saying, "Hi, I'm Roger Stone. I'm a Western chauvinist, and I refuse to apologize for the creation of the modern world." READ FULL STORYTrump planned to call on his supporters to march to the Capitol on January 6, according to a draft tweetThe House committee investigating the Capitol riot on Tuesday revealed a draft tweet in which President Donald Trump called on his supporters to go to the US Capitol after his speech on January 6, 2021."I will be making a Big Speech at 10AM on January 6th at the Ellipse (South of the White House). Please arrive early, massive crowds expected. March to the Capitol after. Stop the Steal!!" Trump wrote in the draft tweet, which is undated.Trump never sent the tweet, but its existence, along with other messages exchanged between rally organizers, offer proof that the march to the Capitol was premeditated, the January 6 committee said.Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida presented the evidence during Tuesday's hearing, and said: "The evidence confirms that this was not a spontaneous call to action, but rather it was a deliberate strategy decided upon in advance by the president."READ FULL STORYTrump's ex-campaign manger Brad Parscale said in private texts that Trump is to blame for Capitol rioter's deathIn a series of texts revealed at the 7th hearing of the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, President Donald Trump's former campaign manger Brad Parscale suggested in a message to former Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson that Trump's words led to the death of a capitol rioter.Messages show Pierson tried to push back, writing that "it wasn't the rhetoric.""Katrina," Parscale wrote back. "Yes it was."Read Full StoryPat Cipollone suggested Pence should get the Presidential Medal of Freedom for refusing to block the Electoral Collage count certificationA video of Pat Cipollone, former White House counsel, is shown as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.Doug Mills/Pool via AP"I think the vice president did the right thing, I think he did the courageous thing," Cipollone said in testimony revealed at the House January 6 committee's seventh public hearing on Tuesday. "I have a great deal of respect for Vice President Pence."Cipollone added that he didn't think Pence had any "legal authority" to do anything other than refuse to give into President Donald Trump's pressure campaign and interfere with the Electoral College certification on January 6, 2021.Read Full Story  11 House Republicans met with Trump to strategize overturning the election results on January 6, and 5 of them later asked for pardonsAccording to Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida, a member of the January 6 committee, several Republicans met at the White House on December 21, 2020, as part of an effort to "disseminate his false claims and to encourage members of the public to fight the outcome on January 6."Vice President Mike Pence, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and Rudy Giuliani were all at the meeting, along with President Donald Trump.According to White House visitor logs, Rep. Brian Babin of Texas, Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, Rep. Paul Gosar of Florida, Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, and Rep-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia all attended the meeting.Read Full StoryFormer Twitter employee tells January 6 committee that Trump received special treatment from TwitterAn evidence tweet is shown on a screen during a full committee hearing on "the January 6th Investigation," on Capitol Hill on July 12, 2022, in Washington, DC. - The House committee probing the 2021 assault on the US Capitol is examining connections between associates of former US President Donald Trump and far right-wing extremist groups at its seventh hearing on Tuesday.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images"I believe that Twitter relished in the knowledge that they were also the favorite and most used service of the former president and enjoyed having that sort of power within the social media ecosystem," the former Twitter employee told investigators in testimony aired in Tuesday's hearing of the congressional committee investigating January 6.The employee, whose identity was kept secret, was introduced by Rep. Jamie Raskin as having worked on Twitter's content moderation team from 2020 to 2021.Read Full StoryCassidy Hutchinson texted a fellow White House aide 'the west wing is UNHINGED' as Oval Office meeting almost devolved into a brawlCassidy Hutchinson, a top former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testifies during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee on the January 6th insurrection in the Cannon House Office Building on June 28, 2022 in Washington, DC.Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty ImagesAccording to messages released by the House January 6 committee, Hutchinson texted the message to another top aide, Anthony Ornato.It was sent amid the scene of a December 2020 Oval Office meeting as Trump attorney Sidney Powell and White House lawyers clashed over efforts to push Trump's debunked election fraud claims. Read Full Story Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone 'set a new land speed record' trying to break up a meeting between Trump, Michael Flynn, and Overstock's CEO, Sidney Powell saidDemocratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, one of the committee members leading Tuesday's January 6 hearing, said former President Donald Trump, election lawyer Sidney Powell, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, and Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock.com, had met to discuss an ongoing effort to reverse the results of the 2020 election.Powell told investigators in previously recorded testimony, however, that the group had "probably no more than 10 or 15 minutes" with Trump before Pat Cipollone, then the White House Counsel, intercepted the meeting."I bet Pat Cipollone set a new land speed record," Powell quipped.Rep. Jamie Raskin says the 'oldest domestic enemy' of US democracy' is 'whipping up mob violence to destroy fair elections'Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., left, listens as Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., speaks as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite"The problem of politicians whipping up mob violence to destroy fair elections is the oldest domestic enemy of constitutional democracy in America," Raskin said in his opening statement during Tuesday's January 6 hearing.He mentioned a time during Abraham Lincoln's presidency, when an 1837 racist mob in Alton, Illinois, during which rioters broke into an abolitionist newspaper's office and murdered the paper's editor, Elijah Lovejoy."If racist mobs are encouraged by politicians to rampage and terrorize, Lincoln said, they will violate the rights of other citizens and quickly destroy the bonds of social trust necessary for democracy to work," Raskin said.Read Full StoryConvicted Capitol rioter testifying in front of the committee warned that a 'Civil War will ensue' if Trump got robbed in 2020Stephen Ayres, who pleaded guilty last month to disorderly conduct in connection to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, is set to testify in from to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack.His testimony is expected to underscore how Trump summoned supporters to Washington DC on the day Congress was scheduled to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.On December 26, 2020, Ayres posted to Twitter: "If the [deep state] robs president Trump!!! Civil War will ensue!" It was posted days after Trump called for a "big protest" in his own tweet.Read Full StoryEx-White House counsel Pat Cipollone was against Trump naming Sidney Powell special counselA video of former White House counsel Pat Cipollone is shown as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteIn previously unseen footage from his deposition to the House Select Committee last Friday, Cipollone spoke about Powell being Trump's pick to be special counsel for the Department of Justice to investigate repeatedly disproven wide spread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election."I was vehemently opposed," Cipollone said when asked about Powell being made special counsel. "I didn't think she should've been appointed to anything."Read Full StoryRep. Jamie Raskin says Trump 'electrified and galvanized' his extremist supporters with a tweet calling for a 'big protest'Jamie Raskin listens as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteRaskin, a Maryland Democrat, referenced a December 19, 2020, tweet from Trump during the House's January 6 committee hearing on Tuesday."Big protest in D.C. on January 6th," Trump's tweet said. "Be there, will be wild!" Raskin said that Trump's tweet spurred on "the dangerous extremists in the Oathkeepers, the Proud Boys and other racist and white nationalist groups spoiling for a fight against the government.""Here were thousands of enraged Trump followers, thoroughly convinced by the Big Lie who traveled from across the country to join Trump's wild rally to 'stop the steal,'" he added. "With the proper incitement by political leaders, and the proper instigation from the extremists, many members of this crowd could be led to storm the Capitol, confront the vice president in Congress and try to overturn the 2020 election results."Read Full Story  Ivanka Trump told the House January 6 committee that she believed her father lost re-election 'probably prior' to a formal Electoral Collage vote in December 2020Ivanka Trump.Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesIvanka Trump told the House January 6 committee that she believed her father lost the 2020 presidential election likely before a formal Electoral College vote on December 14, 2020."Was that an important day for you? Did that affect your planning or your realization as to whether or not there was going to be an end to this administration?" an attorney for the committee asked Ivanka Trump in video taped testimony."I think it was my sentiment, probably prior as well," Ivanka Trump said in response.Read Full StoryPat Cipollone's testimony 'met our expectations," Cheney saysFormer White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesJanuary 6 committee vice chair and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone testified before the panel — and that his testimony "met our expectations."The House committee then aired several clips of Cipollone's sworn testimony at the start of their seventh hearing on Tuesday.Cipollone told the January 6 committee that he agreed Trump should concede the 2020 election and that he lost to Democratic nominee Joe Biden fair and square.  Read Full StoryCheney: Trump is 'not an impressionable child'GOP Rep. Liz CheneyAP Photo/ Andrew Harnik)GOP Rep. Liz Cheney pushed back on excuses for former President Donald Trump's actions during the Capitol riot, saying he was not simply misled about his election lies but knew they were false."President Trump is a 76-year-old man," Cheney said as the January 6 committee began its hearing on Tuesday. "He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices."Cheney said evidence shows Trump was warned "over and over" that there was no sign of widespread election fraud."No rational or sane man in his position could disregard that information and reach the opposite conclusion," she said, "and Donald Trump cannot escape responsibility by being willfully blind."Read Full StoryJan. 6 committee's next hearing expected to link Trump even more closely to the Capitol attackLawmakers on the House January 6 committee will air the inquiry's findings during a public hearing Thursday.Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesFrom its very first hearing, the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol made a point of connecting former President Donald Trump to the violence of that day.A month later, the House panel is poised to delve even deeper. At its next public hearing, set for 1 p.m. ET Tuesday, the committee is expected to focus on how the violent pro-Trump mob coalesced on January 6 and the involvement of far-right groups, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.Committee aides said Monday during a background call with reporters that the panel's seventh hearing would underscore how a single tweet from Trump mobilized his supporters, proving a "pivotal moment that spurred a chain of events, including pre-planning by Proud Boys.""Big protest in D.C. on January 6th," Trump tweeted on December 19, 2020. "Be there, will be wild!"READ FULL STORYCassidy Hutchinson's testimony jolted the DOJ into focusing on Trump in its Jan 6 investigation, report saysCassidy Hutchinson testifying before the Jan. 6 committee on June 28, 2022.Jacquelyn Martin/AP PhotoTestimony by Jan. 6 witness Cassidy Hutchinson sparked debate among top Justice Department officials about Donald Trump's potential criminal culpability for the Capitol riot, The New York Times reported. The June 28 testimony by the former White House aide prompted officials to discuss Trump's actions on January 6, 2021, and questions about potential legal ramifications for the former president, sources told The Times. Present at some of the discussions were Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, the report said. Read Full StoryCassidy Hutchinson and Rep. Liz Cheney have forged an 'unlikely bond' amid January 6 testimony process, per reportCassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump White House aide whose explosive January 6 testimony stunned Washington last month, has found a friend and ally in Rep. Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who has been ostracized from the GOP for criticizing the former president and serving as vice-chair on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot, according to The New York Times.The two Republican women — both on the outs with the party's overwhelming Trump faction — have developed an unlikely bond in recent weeks as the January 6 panel riot zeroes in on increasingly damning testimony against former President Donald Trump.The congresswomen admires Hutchinson's dedication to country over personal power, according to The Times. "I have been incredibly moved by young women that I have met and that have come forward to testify in the Jan. 6 committee," Cheney said in a recent speech at the Reagan Library.Read Full Story A bad day for Steve BannonSteve Bannon asked to delay his mid-July trial by at least three months.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesMonday was not a good day in court for Steve Bannon.The former Trump aide lost on several key pre-trial motions ahead of his upcoming July 18 federal trial on contempt of Congress charges.U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, ruled from the bench that Bannon's defense attorneys couldn't use several of their planned arguments. Nichols also denied Bannon's bid to have the trial date delayed.Insider's Ryan Barber was at the courthouse in Washington, DC, and has more in his dispatch linked below. Read Full Story'That mob on the Mall'An Oath Keeper from Idaho in Bozeman, Montana.William Campbell/Corbis via Getty ImagesWe've got a handy preview for you on Tuesday's next big House January 6 hearing, which will focus on the right-wing extremist groups that in the words of Rep. Adam Schiff helped lead "that mob on the Mall." Laura Italiano breaks down the five potential bombshells she'll be looking out for when the panel convenes at 1 pm. Check out what those are here:Read Full Story The most shocking revelations from the January 6 committee's first hearings on the Capitol attackCassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2022.Jacquelyn Martin/AP PhotoThe next January 6 committee hearing is scheduled for July 12, at 10 a.m. ET.Catch up on the biggest revelations from the public hearings thus far.Read Full StoryTeasing new witnesses, Rep. Adam Kinzinger says of Trump and his allies: 'They're all scared. They should be.'Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL).Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty ImagesIn a series of Sunday tweets, Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Donald Trump and his allies, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, are "scared" following last week's testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson before the Jan. 6 select committee. "This BIPARTISAN committee has been able to find out things that up until recently were denied by the Jan 6th truthers, so they are left with trying to discredit a young woman with more courage than they could muster in a lifetime. Except… that isn't working," Kinzinger tweeted."Cassidy doesn't seek the limelight, but she is compelled with honor. She didn't even have to swear an oath to the constitution like Kevin, Elise, Kristi Noem and others did. But she volunteered to come under oath to tell what she knows. She is a better person than them all. "Read Full StoryLiz Cheney says the January 6 panel won't 'stand by' and let 'men who are claiming executive privilege' attack Cassidy Hutchinson's characterCassidy Hutchinson, a top former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, arrives to testify during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee on the January 6th insurrection in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2022.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesRep. Liz Cheney in an interview that aired on Sunday reaffirmed her confidence in former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony and said that the House panel investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol wouldn't sit by idly and let her endure anonymous attacks.While sitting down with ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., the Wyoming Republican expressed confidence in Hutchinson and the credibility of future hearings."What Cassidy Hutchinson did was an unbelievable example of bravery and of courage and patriotism in the face of real pressure," she said."The Committee is not going to stand by and watch her character be assassinated by anonymous sources and by men who are claiming executive privilege. And so we look forward very much to additional testimony under oath on a whole range of issues," she added.Read Full StoryKinzinger says new witnesses have been coming forward to the Jan. 6 committee since Cassidy Hutchinson's 'inspiring' testimonyRep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesRep. Adam Kinzinger says that more witnesses have come forward since Cassidy Hutchinson's blockbuster testimony during the Jan 6. hearings last week.  "She's been inspiring for a lot of people," Kinzinger said Sunday on CNN's  "State of the Union." "Every day, we get new people that come forward and say, 'hey, I didn't think maybe this piece of the story that I knew was important, but now that you guys are talking' — I do see this plays in here."Hutchinson, an ex-aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, revealed in front of the Jan. 6 committee shocking details of former president Donald Trump's behavior on the day of the Capitol attack, including that he attempted to grab the steering wheel of his SUV and lunged at one of his Secret Service agents, as Insider's Grace Panetta previously reported. "I mean, look, she is going to go down in history," Kinzinger said, referring to the 25-year-old. "People can forget the names of every one of us on the committee. They will not forget her name. And, by the way, she doesn't want that. She doesn't want to be out in the public spotlight."Read Full StoryLiz Cheney says the Jan. 6 committee could potentially make multiple criminal referrals, including one against TrumpU.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) Vice Chairwoman of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, delivers remarks during a hearing on the January 6th investigation on June 9, 2022.Win McNamee/Getty ImagesRep. Liz Cheney in an interview broadcast on Sunday said that the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol could potentially make multiple criminal referrals, including one against former President Donald Trump.During an interview on ABC's "This Week," Cheney — who serves as the vice-chair of the panel — was asked by correspondent Jonathan Karl if the work conducted by its members has shown that Trump's conduct warrants prosecution."Ultimately, the Justice Department will decide that," the Wyoming Republican said. "I think we may well as a committee have a view on that."She continued: "If you just think about it from the perspective of what kind of man knows that a mob is armed and sends the mob to attack the Capitol and further incites that mob when his own vice president is under threat — when the Congress is under threat? It's just very chilling. And I think certainly we will continue to present to the American people what we've found."Read Full StoryDOJ wants a DC judge to reject Steve Bannon's request to delay his contempt-of-Congress trial over January 6 hearings' publicity, saying that he has 'barely been mentioned'Steve Bannon argued in April that his criminal prosecution should be dismissed.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesThe Department of Justice asked a DC judge on Friday to reject Trump ally Steve Bannon's request to delay his contempt-of-Congress trial, arguing that the January 6 hearings have not revolved around him to the point of distraction.On Wednesday, Bannon's lawyers asked a DC judge to delay his July 18 trial, citing a "media blitz" from the public January 6 committee hearings and saying the request was "due to the unprecedented level of prejudicial pretrial publicity."DOJ lawyers said that Bannon is not as popular as he thinks he is."The Defendant's motion gives the false impression — through general statistics about the volume of viewership of the Committee's hearings and overall media coverage of the Committee's hearings — that all of the Committee's hearings and the attendant media coverage is about him," DOJ lawyers wrote in a filing on Friday. "The truth is just the opposite — the Defendant has barely been mentioned in the Committee's hearings or the resulting media coverage of them."Read More2 Secret Service sources told CNN that Trump angrily demanded to be taken to the Capitol on January 6, partly confirming Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive testimonyFormer President Donald Trump.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty ImagesTwo Secret Service sources told CNN on Friday that they heard about former President Donald Trump lunging at the driver of his presidential SUV on January 6, 2021.The pair of sources, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, backed up much of former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive testimony on the altercation in the motorcade vehicle known as "the Beast" after Trump found out he wouldn't be driven to join his supporters at the Capitol."He had sort of lunged forward – it was unclear from the conversations I had that he actually made physical contact, but he might have. I don't know," one of the Secret Service sources told CNN. "Nobody said Trump assaulted him; they said he tried to lunge over the seat – for what reason, nobody had any idea."Read Full StoryMichael Cohen says Trump uses a 'mob boss' playbookMichael Cohen, Donald Trump's former personal attorney, compared the former president to a "mob boss" amid allegations that Trump allies sought to intimidate Jan. 6 witnesses."Donald Trump never changes his playbook," Cohen told The Washington Post. "He behaves like a mob boss, and these messages are fashioned in that style. Giving an order without giving the order. No fingerprints attached."Read Full StoryTrump allies paid legal fees for multiple Jan. 6 witnesses, including Cassidy Hutchinson, sparking witness-influencing concerns, report saysCassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testifies before the January 6 committee in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2022.Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesFormer President Donald Trump's allies and supporters paid the legal fees for multiple people who had provided testimony to the January 6 committee, including the former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, The New York Times reported.Hutchinson eventually fired the lawyer who was paid for a pro-Trump group, and went on to provide damning testimony about Trump, the report said. Two sources familiar with the committee told The Times that they believe Hutchinson's decision to part ways with the lawyer — who had been recommended by Trump allies and paid for by a pro-Trump PAC — likely played a role in her decision to provide new evidence. There are no laws against a third party paying for a witness' legal representation in a congressional inquiry, but the situation may raise some ethical concerns, according to the report.Read Full StoryFormer Secret Service agent said he, too, would have defied Trump's request to be taken to the Capitol on January 6Former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.PhoPhoto by Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty ImagesFormer Secret Service agent Jonathan Wackrow said in an op-ed that he also would not have taken then-President Donald Trump to the Capitol on January 6, 2021.In an op-ed published by Newsweek, Wackrow said he was shocked by Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony to the January committee regarding Trump's actions on the day of the Capitol riot. Hutchinson, a former aide in the Trump White House, claimed that Trump had gotten into a physical altercation with the head of his security detail while demanding to be brought to the Capitol."If I had been working on Trump's security detail on January 6, I would have made the same decision as Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Robert Engel to not go to the Capitol based on the known escalating threats," Wackrow wrote.He added, however, that he believed Trump still respects the Secret Service because he probably has seen "first-hand what they're willing to do to protect him and his family." Read Full StoryGOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger says Cassidy Hutchinson is a 'hero' and has 'more courage than most' Republicans after January 6 testimonyCassidy Hutchinson testifies during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee on the January 6th insurrection.Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty ImagesGOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois on Thursday applauded Cassidy Hutchinson for her testimony to the January 6 committee, saying the former top aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has "more courage" than most of his Republican colleagues. "Cassidy Hutchinson is a hero and a real patriot (not a faux 'patriot' that hates America so much they would attempt a coup.)," Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, said in a tweet."Of course they will try to bully and intimidate her. But she isn't intimidated. More courage than most in GOP," Kinzinger added of Hutchinson.Read Full StoryGOP Sen. Pat Toomey says Trump's chances of winning the party's 2024 presidential nomination are 'much more tenuous' following the January 6 committee's hearingsRepublican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania at the White House with Trump in February 2018.AP Photo/Evan VucciRepublican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania suggested Thursday that public hearings from the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, had damaged former President Donald Trump politically, even among Republicans.At the end of a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg that focused on the Supreme Court's recent ruling on the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Reserve's approach to tackling inflation, the retiring lawmaker was asked whether he believed the hearings would preclude Trump from seeking a second term as president in 2024."I don't know that it means that. I mean he gets to decide whether he's going to run," said Toomey, who was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump on a charge of incitement of an insurrection after the Capitol riot."Look, I think he disqualified himself from serving in public office by virtue of his post-election behavior, especially leading right up to January 6," Toomey said. "I think the revelations from this committee make his path to even the Republican nomination much more tenuous."Read Full StoryCheney 'absolutely confident' that former White House aide's explosive testimony is credibleRepublican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, vice-chair of the select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol, speaks during a business meeting on Capitol Hill on December 13, 2021 in Washington, DC.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesRepublican Rep. Liz Cheney, who serves as vice-chair of the House's January 6 committee, said she is "absolutely confident" that a former White House aide's damning testimony is accurate."I am absolutely confident in her credibility. I'm confident in her testimony," Cheney told ABC News's Jonathan Karl about the allegations made by top Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson this week.Cheney said that Hutchinson showed "an unbelievable example of bravery and of courage" by testifying.Read MoreBannon wants his contempt trial to be delayed because of Jan. 6 hearingsSteve Bannon outside of the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse on June 15, 2022 in Washington, DC.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesTrump ally Steve Bannon has asked for his contempt-of-Congress trial to be delayed because the hearings on the Capitol riot are getting so much publicity.A federal grand jury indicted Bannon in November 2021 on two counts of contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Capitol riot.In a Wednesday court filing, Bannon's lawyers argued that the coverage of the committee's hearings would make his trial unfair.Read More January 6 panel subpoenas former White House counsel Pat CipolloneFormer White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said he would testify about Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ official who outlined ways for Trump to challenge the 2020 election.Alex Wong/Getty ImagesThe House's panel investigating the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, has subpoenaed former White House counsel Pat Cipollone.The demand for Cipollone to appear before the committee comes after explosive testimony from a former top White House aide in the Trump administration, who described Trump and his inner circle's actions before and during the insurrection.Read Full StoryFormer Secret Service agent says Trump's 'girth' would have made it impossible to attack driverOutgoing US President Donald Trump waves as he boards Marine One at the White House in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2021.MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty ImagesA former White House aide testified that former President Donald Trump grabbed the steering wheel of his SUV and lunged at a Secret Service agent on January 6, 2021, after they refused to take him to the Capitol building.But former Secret Service agents told Insider they have doubts about the story."Trump's not a little guy, right? And the space to actually be able to lunge towards the wheel is not that big," one former agent said, speaking on background to Insider.  "I don't mean to sound disparaging to the former president, but just his girth would prevent him from actually getting to the steering wheel."Keep ReadingHouse Republican who led rioter on tour before insurrection could oversee Capitol policeRep. Barry LoudermilkBill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty ImagesRepublican Rep. Barry Loudermilk — who led a Capitol rioter on a tour of the building the day before the insurrection — could end up overseeing Capitol police.If Republicans regain control of the House, Loudermilk would be next in line to lead the committee that has oversight over the police force attacked by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.Loudermilk has faced backlash from Democrats after video showed him taking a group on a tour of the Capitol building, showing them hallways, security areas, and stairwells. The next day, members of the tour flaunted a sharpened flagpole bearing the American flag as they marched near the Capitol.It remains unclear whether the group entered the Capitol building itself during the riot.Read Full Story Former Jan. 6 committee investigator announces run for SenateSenior investigative counsel John Wood questions witnesses during the third public hearing of the January 6 committee on June 16, 2022.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesJanuary 6 committee investigator John Wood is launching an independent Senate campaign in Missouri in an effort to stop GOP nominee Eric Greitens.Wood told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he believes Greitens — the former Missouri governor — is likely to win the Republican nomination, and that voters deserved an alternative.Wood, a Republican, said he will run as an independent.Read MoreTrump ally says Hutchinson's testimony was a 'campaign commercial' for Ron DeSantis in 2024Florida Gov. Ron DeSantisPhelan M. Ebenhack/AP PhotoExplosive testimony by a former Trump White House aide could be a boost to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to replace Trump on the presidential ticket in 2024, CNN reported.One Trump adviser said the hearings — which painted as Trump as violent and volatile — were "basically a campaign commercial" for DeSantis. Another told CNN that "no one is taking this lightly."DeSantis has flirted with larger political ambitions and is a rising Republican star who would be poised to fill the leadership vacuum if Trump is forced aside.Read Full StorySecret Service agents willing to dispute Hutchinson's claims about Trump's outburst, reports sayFormer President Donald TrumpSAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty ImagesSecret Service agents are willing to testify before the January 6 House panel to refute former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's claim that Trump tried to grab the steering wheel when he demanded to be taken to the Capitol on the day of the insurrection, according to multiple reports.The driver of the car and the head of Trump's security are ready to testify under oath that the former President never lunged for the wheel or physically assaulted the driver, according to CBS News.Read More Hutchinson's testimony could lead to legal trouble for Trump: reportCassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2022.Jacquelyn Martin/AP PhotoFormer aides to Donald Trump worry the explosive testimony by a former White House aide could put Trump in legal jeopardy, according to the New York Times."This hearing definitely gave investigators a lot to chew on," former Attorney General Bill Barr told the Times after testimony from top White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson detailed Trump's behavior on the day of the Capitol riot.Hutchinson's testimony painted Trump as a volatile man who knew his supporters were armed on January 6, 2021. Trump also demanded to be taken to the Capitol building, but his security staff refused, Hutchinson said.Mick Mulvaney, who was once Trump's White House Chief of Staff, said evidence of possible witness tampering could open his orbit up to charges.Keep Reading  Former Trump press secretary shares text that appears to show Melania Trump to condemn Capitol riot violenceMelania Trump speaks at the White House on October 09, 2019Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesFormer Trump Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham shared a text exchange on Tuesday that purportedly showed former First Lady Melania Trump refusing to condemn the violence during the Capitol riot. The apparent screengrab of a text exchange was between Grisham and a person named "MT." "Do you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American, but there is no place for lawlessness & violence?" read the message. "No," the person replied.Representatives for Melania Trump at Trump's post-presidential press office did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.Read Full StoryJohn Eastman drops lawsuit blocking his phone records from January 6 committeeJohn Eastman testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 4, 2013.Charles Dharapak/APIn a late Tuesday filing, John Eastman dropped a lawsuit he'd filed to prevent the Jan. 6 committee from accessing his phone records."Plaintiff brought this lawsuit primarily to protect the content of his communications, many of which are privileged," the latest filing read. "The Congressional Defendants represented in their motion to dismiss that they were not seeking the content of any of Plaintiff's communications via the subpoena they had issued to Defendant Verizon."The former Trump lawyer's phone was seized by federal agents on June 22, according to a separate suit he filed on Monday, seeking the return of his property. Of interest to investigators are call logs from Eastman's personal device, and the search warrant indicates investigators will not review any additional content from his phone without a court order. Read Full StoryTrumpworld shocked by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive January 6 testimony, calling it the 'most damning day' and 'insane'Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2022.Jacquelyn Martin/AP PhotoIt took six hearings for the January 6 select committee to finally break through to embattled former President Donald Trump's inner circle.Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified during a surprise hearing Tuesday that Trump was determined to go to the US Capitol with his armed supporters on January 6, 2021, as Congress was certifying the election results. Hutchinson's additional revelations about that day came crashing down on Trumpworld during the two-hour hearing. Among them were that Meadows told Hutchinson "things might get real, real bad" on January 6, that Trump knew his supporters were armed when they flooded the Ellipse to attend his "Stop the Steal" rally, and that Trump said "Mike deserves it" when rioters chanted "hang Mike Pence." "Definitely most damning day of testimony," one former White House aide told Insider. READ MOREFox News host says it's not 'wholly out of character' that Trump 'might throw his lunch' after January 6 testimony on ketchup dripping down the wallFormer President Donald Trump and Fox News Chief Political Anchor Bret Baier.Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty ImagesMoments after a colleague referred to Tuesday's January 6 committee testimony as "stunning," Fox News host Martha MacCallum downplayed new revelations about former President Donald Trump's violent outbursts surrounding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Trump threw a plate in the White House dining room after he found out former Attorney General Bill Barr publicly said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud, leaving "ketchup dripping down the wall.""I mean, I'm not sure that it really shocks anybody that the president just — knowing what we've seen, observing him over the years — if he got angry then he might throw his lunch," MacCallum said. "I'm not sure. It's obviously a very dramatic detail, and the way that she describes it, um, is. But I'm not sure if this is wholly out of character with the Donald Trump and the President Trump that people came to know over the years."READ MOREHere are all the people who sought preemptive pardons from Donald Trump after the Capitol riot, per January 6 committee witnessesRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., joined from left by Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., speaks at a news conference about the treatment of people being held in the District of Columbia jail who are ch.....»»

The House select committee is investigating the Capitol riot and the role Donald Trump and his allies played in trying to overturn the 2020 election. Lawmakers listen as an image of a Trump campaign donation banner is shown behind them during a House January 6 committee hearing.Susan Walsh/AP Thursday's hearing in the Jan. 6 probe will focus on Trump's actions as his supporters stormed the Capitol. Two administration officials — national security adviser Matthew Pottinger and deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews — are expected to testify. The panel has also called for the Secret Service to turn over text messages sent around the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. Latest hearing will focus on Trump's reaction to the Capitol riot — and his alleged inaction to stop it.Former President Donald Trump gives the keynote address at the Faith and Freedom Coalition during their annual conference on June 17, 2022, in Nashville, Tennessee.Seth Herald/Getty ImagesThe House panel investigating the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021 will hold its eighth hearing on Thursday night.The hearing — scheduled to start at 8 p.m. ET — will focus on Trump's actions during the deadly insurrection at the Capitol building.Committee members have argued that Trump knew of the violence and refused to take actions to prevent or stop it, despite the pleas from advisors in his inner circle.Former national security adviser Matthew Pottinger and Sarah Matthews, former deputy press secretary in the Trump administration, are expected to testify.Trump spent most of the January 6 attack watching TV in the White House dining room: new videoFormer President Donald Trump speaks during a "Save America" rally in Anchorage, Alaska, on July 9, 2022.Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesTrump spent the bulk of his time during the Capitol attack watching reports of the insurrection on TV, according to video testimony given to the January 6 House panel.Ahead of Thursday night's hearing on how Trump reacted to the storming of the Capitol, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a member of the House Select Committee, shared a video compilation of the depositions on Twitter.—Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) July 21, 2022Read Full StorySecret Service may have violated federal law by deleting messages around January 6The leaders of the January 6 hearings say the Secret Service may have violated federal law by undergoing a process that led to text messages from the time of the Captiol riot to be deleted."The procedure for preserving content prior to this purge appears to have been contrary to federal records retention requirements and may represent a possible violation of the Federal Records Act," a letter from Reps. Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney said.So far, the committee had received one text message from the agency.Jan. 6 hearings are 'undoubtedly starting to take a toll' on Trump's popularity, former ambassador saysFormer White House counsel Pat Cipollone is seen on a video display during the seventh hearing held by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol on July 12, 2022.Sarah Silbiger-Pool/Getty ImagesA former ambassador who served during the Trump administration says the former president's popularity is taking a hit as more revelations about Trump's actions before and during the Capitol riot come out.Attorney Randy Evans, who was ambassador to Luxembourg, said the hearings' "steadiness, the repetitiveness, has had a corrosive effect."Evans added it's "all undoubtedly starting to take a toll — how much, I don't know. But the bigger question is whether it starts to eat through the Teflon. There are some signs that maybe it has. But it's too early to say right now."Read MoreSecret Service has only submitted 1 text to the Jan. 6 committee: panel memberThe House panel investigating the Capitol riot has received just one text message from the Secret Service in response to a subpoena, Rep. Zoe Lofgren said."In their letter they gave no indication that they have secured the phones in question and done some forensic work with them. That's something we want to know," Lofgren told MSNBC on Tuesday."Obviously, this doesn't look good ... Coincidences can happen but we really need to get to the bottom of this and get a lot more information than we have currently."Read Full StoryJan. 6 panel subpoenas Secret Service for text messages as DHS watchdog accuses agents of deleting them after being askedA US Secret Service agent takes position outside the White House in November 2020.J. Scott Applewhite/AP PhotoThe House committee investigating the Capitol riot has issued a subpoena to the US Secret Service after the Department of Homeland Security inspector general accused the agency of deleting text messages after being asked.Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee's chairperson, said in a Friday letter to Secret Service director James Murray that the panel was seeking text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021.Thompson mentioned three previous requests for information, sent in January, March, and August of last year, pertaining to all communications between DHS officials and then-President Donald Trump about the Capitol riot.Read Full StoryThe Jan. 6 witness Trump tried to call is a White House support staffer, reports sayThe Jan. 6 committee witness whom former President Donald Trump is alleged to have tried to contact is a White House support staffer, reports say. At Tuesday's hearing, committee member Rep. Liz Cheney claimed that Trump sought to contact a witness who had not appeared publically, in what she characterized as a form of witness tampering. CNN first reported, citing two sources, that Trump made the call to the witness after the June 28 testimony by another witness, the former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson.According to the report, the support staffer was in a position to corroborate parts of Hutchinson's testimony, and had been providing evidence to the committee. NBC News later said it had confirmed CNN's reporting. Neither outlet named the person.Read Full StoryWatergate star witness predicts criminal charges after latest Jan. 6 testimony: 'Trump is in trouble'Former White House Counsel John Dean testifying on Capitol Hill on June 10, 2019.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty ImagesJohn Dean, a key witness in the Watergate investigation, said that former President Donald Trump and others will likely face legal repercussions from evidence presented at Tuesday's January 6 committee hearing. In an interview with CNN, Dean highlighted testimony by former members of extremist group the Oath Keepers, who were part of the mob that stormed the Capitol.Dean described them as "really classic authoritarian followers, following the leader."He argued that the testimony proves the extent to which the rioters believed they had been sent by Trump, which he said could be used by prosecutors were they to bring charges against the former president.Read Full StoryTrump 'liked the crazies' and wanted Alex Jones and Ali Alexander as Jan. 6 rally speakers despite red flags raised, former spokesperson saysKatrina Pierson, a former campaign spokesperson for Donald Trump and one of the organizers of the January 6 "Stop the Steal" rally, said Trump wanted Alex Jones and Ali Alexander to speak at the event despite the "red flags" they raised.On Tuesday, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a member of the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot, played a video of Pierson's testimony to the panel in which Pierson commented on Trump's love for "crazies" like Jones and Alexander."Yes, I was talking about President Trump. He loved people who viciously defended him in public," Pierson said in her deposition.Read Full StoryPhoto shows Mark Meadows escorting Rudy Giuliani from the White House following 'UNHINGED' West Wing meeting about 2020 election resultsA photo that Cassidy Hutchinson took of Mark Meadows leading Rudy Giuliani away from the Oval Office.Courtesy of CSPANFormer Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had to escort former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani from the Oval Office following a chaotic, late-night December 2020 West Wing meeting about the election results, according to new January 6 testimony.Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump White House aide whose explosive testimony stunned Washington last month, shared with the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot a photo she took of Meadows leading  Giuliani away from the Oval Office following the turbulent gathering, which was the site of a face-off between Trump's legal allies and White House lawyers over efforts to promote the then-president's baseless claims of election fraud, according to testimony.The January 6 panel shared the photo alongside real-time text messages Hutchinson was sending from the meeting during its seventh live hearing on Tuesday. READ FULL STORYFormer Twitter employee feared people were going to die on January 6A former Twitter employee told the House committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol that activity on the platform raised concerns that there would be deadly violence in Washington on January 6.The former employee, whose voice was obscured in a recording played during Tuesday's hearing, testified about trying and failing to get the company to intervene as former President Donald Trump's extremist supporters used the platform to repeat his statements about the upcoming protests to the 2020 election results.On the night of January 5, the employee testified about slacking a colleague, a message to the effect of, "When people are shooting each other tomorrow, I will try and rest in the knowledge that we tried."The former employee was on a team responsible for platform and content moderation policies during 2020 and 2021.READ FULL STORYOath Keepers attorney used the 'Queer Eye' loft kitchen from Season 3 as her video background before the January 6 committeeOath Keepers attorney Kellye SoRelle.C-SPANTestifying remotely before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, the Oath Keepers' attorney and acting president used a green screen background from the Netflix show "Queer Eye."Erin Ryan, host of Crooked Media's "Hysteria" podcast, tweeted out a screenshot of the remote deposition from Oath Keepers acting president Kellye SoRelle alongside an image from the third season of the streaming series, which Ryan said she found from a reverse Google image search.READ FULL STORYRep. Liz Cheney ends hearing with bombshell: Donald Trump called a witness in the House January 6 investigationFormer President Donald Trump called a witness in the congressional inquiry into the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, Rep. Liz Cheney said Tuesday, prompting House investigators to notify the Justice Department. "After our last hearing, President Trump tried to call a witness in our investigation. A witness you have not yet seen in these hearings. That person declined to answer or respond to President Trump's call and, instead, alerted their lawyer to the call," said Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, in a bombshell revelation that concluded the House January 6 committee's seventh public hearing."Their lawyer alerted us, and this committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice," she added. "Let me say one more time: We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously."READ FULL STORYThe January 6 investigators obtained a video of Roger Stone reciting the Proud Boys' 'Fraternity Creed,' the first step for initiation to the extremist groupAn image of Roger Stone is shown on a screen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.Doug Mills/Pool via APNew details emerged at Tuesday's January 6 committee hearing on the close ties between Roger Stone and extremist groups, including that the longtime Donald Trump confidante was recorded reciting the Proud Boys' so-called "Fraternity Creed." Rep. Jamie Raskin, who co-chaired the public hearing, described reciting the creed as "the first level of initiation" into the far-right group, five members of which are scheduled to be tried on seditious conspiracy charges in December.  "Stone's ties to the Proud Boys go back many years," Raskin said. "He's even taken their so-called "Fraternity Creed," required for the first level of initiation to the group."Video then played showing Stone in a crowded outdoor setting, saying, "Hi, I'm Roger Stone. I'm a Western chauvinist, and I refuse to apologize for the creation of the modern world." READ FULL STORYTrump planned to call on his supporters to march to the Capitol on January 6, according to a draft tweetThe House committee investigating the Capitol riot on Tuesday revealed a draft tweet in which President Donald Trump called on his supporters to go to the US Capitol after his speech on January 6, 2021."I will be making a Big Speech at 10AM on January 6th at the Ellipse (South of the White House). Please arrive early, massive crowds expected. March to the Capitol after. Stop the Steal!!" Trump wrote in the draft tweet, which is undated.Trump never sent the tweet, but its existence, along with other messages exchanged between rally organizers, offer proof that the march to the Capitol was premeditated, the January 6 committee said.Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida presented the evidence during Tuesday's hearing, and said: "The evidence confirms that this was not a spontaneous call to action, but rather it was a deliberate strategy decided upon in advance by the president."READ FULL STORYTrump's ex-campaign manger Brad Parscale said in private texts that Trump is to blame for Capitol rioter's deathIn a series of texts revealed at the 7th hearing of the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, President Donald Trump's former campaign manger Brad Parscale suggested in a message to former Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson that Trump's words led to the death of a capitol rioter.Messages show Pierson tried to push back, writing that "it wasn't the rhetoric.""Katrina," Parscale wrote back. "Yes it was."Read Full StoryPat Cipollone suggested Pence should get the Presidential Medal of Freedom for refusing to block the Electoral Collage count certificationA video of Pat Cipollone, former White House counsel, is shown as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.Doug Mills/Pool via AP"I think the vice president did the right thing, I think he did the courageous thing," Cipollone said in testimony revealed at the House January 6 committee's seventh public hearing on Tuesday. "I have a great deal of respect for Vice President Pence."Cipollone added that he didn't think Pence had any "legal authority" to do anything other than refuse to give into President Donald Trump's pressure campaign and interfere with the Electoral College certification on January 6, 2021.Read Full Story  11 House Republicans met with Trump to strategize overturning the election results on January 6, and 5 of them later asked for pardonsAccording to Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida, a member of the January 6 committee, several Republicans met at the White House on December 21, 2020, as part of an effort to "disseminate his false claims and to encourage members of the public to fight the outcome on January 6."Vice President Mike Pence, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and Rudy Giuliani were all at the meeting, along with President Donald Trump.According to White House visitor logs, Rep. Brian Babin of Texas, Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, Rep. Paul Gosar of Florida, Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, and Rep-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia all attended the meeting.Read Full StoryFormer Twitter employee tells January 6 committee that Trump received special treatment from TwitterAn evidence tweet is shown on a screen during a full committee hearing on "the January 6th Investigation," on Capitol Hill on July 12, 2022, in Washington, DC. - The House committee probing the 2021 assault on the US Capitol is examining connections between associates of former US President Donald Trump and far right-wing extremist groups at its seventh hearing on Tuesday.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images"I believe that Twitter relished in the knowledge that they were also the favorite and most used service of the former president and enjoyed having that sort of power within the social media ecosystem," the former Twitter employee told investigators in testimony aired in Tuesday's hearing of the congressional committee investigating January 6.The employee, whose identity was kept secret, was introduced by Rep. Jamie Raskin as having worked on Twitter's content moderation team from 2020 to 2021.Read Full StoryCassidy Hutchinson texted a fellow White House aide 'the west wing is UNHINGED' as Oval Office meeting almost devolved into a brawlCassidy Hutchinson, a top former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testifies during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee on the January 6th insurrection in the Cannon House Office Building on June 28, 2022 in Washington, DC.Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty ImagesAccording to messages released by the House January 6 committee, Hutchinson texted the message to another top aide, Anthony Ornato.It was sent amid the scene of a December 2020 Oval Office meeting as Trump attorney Sidney Powell and White House lawyers clashed over efforts to push Trump's debunked election fraud claims. Read Full Story Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone 'set a new land speed record' trying to break up a meeting between Trump, Michael Flynn, and Overstock's CEO, Sidney Powell saidDemocratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, one of the committee members leading Tuesday's January 6 hearing, said former President Donald Trump, election lawyer Sidney Powell, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, and Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock.com, had met to discuss an ongoing effort to reverse the results of the 2020 election.Powell told investigators in previously recorded testimony, however, that the group had "probably no more than 10 or 15 minutes" with Trump before Pat Cipollone, then the White House Counsel, intercepted the meeting."I bet Pat Cipollone set a new land speed record," Powell quipped.Rep. Jamie Raskin says the 'oldest domestic enemy' of US democracy' is 'whipping up mob violence to destroy fair elections'Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., left, listens as Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., speaks as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite"The problem of politicians whipping up mob violence to destroy fair elections is the oldest domestic enemy of constitutional democracy in America," Raskin said in his opening statement during Tuesday's January 6 hearing.He mentioned a time during Abraham Lincoln's presidency, when an 1837 racist mob in Alton, Illinois, during which rioters broke into an abolitionist newspaper's office and murdered the paper's editor, Elijah Lovejoy."If racist mobs are encouraged by politicians to rampage and terrorize, Lincoln said, they will violate the rights of other citizens and quickly destroy the bonds of social trust necessary for democracy to work," Raskin said.Read Full StoryConvicted Capitol rioter testifying in front of the committee warned that a 'Civil War will ensue' if Trump got robbed in 2020Stephen Ayres, who pleaded guilty last month to disorderly conduct in connection to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, is set to testify in from to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack.His testimony is expected to underscore how Trump summoned supporters to Washington DC on the day Congress was scheduled to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.On December 26, 2020, Ayres posted to Twitter: "If the [deep state] robs president Trump!!! Civil War will ensue!" It was posted days after Trump called for a "big protest" in his own tweet.Read Full StoryEx-White House counsel Pat Cipollone was against Trump naming Sidney Powell special counselA video of former White House counsel Pat Cipollone is shown as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteIn previously unseen footage from his deposition to the House Select Committee last Friday, Cipollone spoke about Powell being Trump's pick to be special counsel for the Department of Justice to investigate repeatedly disproven wide spread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election."I was vehemently opposed," Cipollone said when asked about Powell being made special counsel. "I didn't think she should've been appointed to anything."Read Full StoryRep. Jamie Raskin says Trump 'electrified and galvanized' his extremist supporters with a tweet calling for a 'big protest'Jamie Raskin listens as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteRaskin, a Maryland Democrat, referenced a December 19, 2020, tweet from Trump during the House's January 6 committee hearing on Tuesday."Big protest in D.C. on January 6th," Trump's tweet said. "Be there, will be wild!" Raskin said that Trump's tweet spurred on "the dangerous extremists in the Oathkeepers, the Proud Boys and other racist and white nationalist groups spoiling for a fight against the government.""Here were thousands of enraged Trump followers, thoroughly convinced by the Big Lie who traveled from across the country to join Trump's wild rally to 'stop the steal,'" he added. "With the proper incitement by political leaders, and the proper instigation from the extremists, many members of this crowd could be led to storm the Capitol, confront the vice president in Congress and try to overturn the 2020 election results."Read Full Story  Ivanka Trump told the House January 6 committee that she believed her father lost re-election 'probably prior' to a formal Electoral Collage vote in December 2020Ivanka Trump.Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesIvanka Trump told the House January 6 committee that she believed her father lost the 2020 presidential election likely before a formal Electoral College vote on December 14, 2020."Was that an important day for you? Did that affect your planning or your realization as to whether or not there was going to be an end to this administration?" an attorney for the committee asked Ivanka Trump in video taped testimony."I think it was my sentiment, probably prior as well," Ivanka Trump said in response.Read Full StoryPat Cipollone's testimony 'met our expectations," Cheney saysFormer White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesJanuary 6 committee vice chair and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone testified before the panel — and that his testimony "met our expectations."The House committee then aired several clips of Cipollone's sworn testimony at the start of their seventh hearing on Tuesday.Cipollone told the January 6 committee that he agreed Trump should concede the 2020 election and that he lost to Democratic nominee Joe Biden fair and square.  Read Full StoryCheney: Trump is 'not an impressionable child'GOP Rep. Liz CheneyAP Photo/ Andrew Harnik)GOP Rep. Liz Cheney pushed back on excuses for former President Donald Trump's actions during the Capitol riot, saying he was not simply misled about his election lies but knew they were false."President Trump is a 76-year-old man," Cheney said as the January 6 committee began its hearing on Tuesday. "He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices."Cheney said evidence shows Trump was warned "over and over" that there was no sign of widespread election fraud."No rational or sane man in his position could disregard that information and reach the opposite conclusion," she said, "and Donald Trump cannot escape responsibility by being willfully blind."Read Full StoryJan. 6 committee's next hearing expected to link Trump even more closely to the Capitol attackLawmakers on the House January 6 committee will air the inquiry's findings during a public hearing Thursday.Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesFrom its very first hearing, the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol made a point of connecting former President Donald Trump to the violence of that day.A month later, the House panel is poised to delve even deeper. At its next public hearing, set for 1 p.m. ET Tuesday, the committee is expected to focus on how the violent pro-Trump mob coalesced on January 6 and the involvement of far-right groups, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.Committee aides said Monday during a background call with reporters that the panel's seventh hearing would underscore how a single tweet from Trump mobilized his supporters, proving a "pivotal moment that spurred a chain of events, including pre-planning by Proud Boys.""Big protest in D.C. on January 6th," Trump tweeted on December 19, 2020. "Be there, will be wild!"READ FULL STORYCassidy Hutchinson's testimony jolted the DOJ into focusing on Trump in its Jan 6 investigation, report saysCassidy Hutchinson testifying before the Jan. 6 committee on June 28, 2022.Jacquelyn Martin/AP PhotoTestimony by Jan. 6 witness Cassidy Hutchinson sparked debate among top Justice Department officials about Donald Trump's potential criminal culpability for the Capitol riot, The New York Times reported. The June 28 testimony by the former White House aide prompted officials to discuss Trump's actions on January 6, 2021, and questions about potential legal ramifications for the former president, sources told The Times. Present at some of the discussions were Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, the report said. Read Full StoryCassidy Hutchinson and Rep. Liz Cheney have forged an 'unlikely bond' amid January 6 testimony process, per reportCassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump White House aide whose explosive January 6 testimony stunned Washington last month, has found a friend and ally in Rep. Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who has been ostracized from the GOP for criticizing the former president and serving as vice-chair on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot, according to The New York Times.The two Republican women — both on the outs with the party's overwhelming Trump faction — have developed an unlikely bond in recent weeks as the January 6 panel riot zeroes in on increasingly damning testimony against former President Donald Trump.The congresswomen admires Hutchinson's dedication to country over personal power, according to The Times. "I have been incredibly moved by young women that I have met and that have come forward to testify in the Jan. 6 committee," Cheney said in a recent speech at the Reagan Library.Read Full Story A bad day for Steve BannonSteve Bannon asked to delay his mid-July trial by at least three months.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesMonday was not a good day in court for Steve Bannon.The former Trump aide lost on several key pre-trial motions ahead of his upcoming July 18 federal trial on contempt of Congress charges.U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, ruled from the bench that Bannon's defense attorneys couldn't use several of their planned arguments. Nichols also denied Bannon's bid to have the trial date delayed.Insider's Ryan Barber was at the courthouse in Washington, DC, and has more in his dispatch linked below. Read Full Story'That mob on the Mall'An Oath Keeper from Idaho in Bozeman, Montana.William Campbell/Corbis via Getty ImagesWe've got a handy preview for you on Tuesday's next big House January 6 hearing, which will focus on the right-wing extremist groups that in the words of Rep. Adam Schiff helped lead "that mob on the Mall." Laura Italiano breaks down the five potential bombshells she'll be looking out for when the panel convenes at 1 pm. Check out what those are here:Read Full Story The most shocking revelations from the January 6 committee's first hearings on the Capitol attackCassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2022.Jacquelyn Martin/AP PhotoThe next January 6 committee hearing is scheduled for July 12, at 10 a.m. ET.Catch up on the biggest revelations from the public hearings thus far.Read Full StoryTeasing new witnesses, Rep. Adam Kinzinger says of Trump and his allies: 'They're all scared. They should be.'Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL).Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty ImagesIn a series of Sunday tweets, Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Donald Trump and his allies, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, are "scared" following last week's testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson before the Jan. 6 select committee. "This BIPARTISAN committee has been able to find out things that up until recently were denied by the Jan 6th truthers, so they are left with trying to discredit a young woman with more courage than they could muster in a lifetime. Except… that isn't working," Kinzinger tweeted."Cassidy doesn't seek the limelight, but she is compelled with honor. She didn't even have to swear an oath to the constitution like Kevin, Elise, Kristi Noem and others did. But she volunteered to come under oath to tell what she knows. She is a better person than them all. "Read Full StoryLiz Cheney says the January 6 panel won't 'stand by' and let 'men who are claiming executive privilege' attack Cassidy Hutchinson's characterCassidy Hutchinson, a top former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, arrives to testify during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee on the January 6th insurrection in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2022.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesRep. Liz Cheney in an interview that aired on Sunday reaffirmed her confidence in former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony and said that the House panel investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol wouldn't sit by idly and let her endure anonymous attacks.While sitting down with ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., the Wyoming Republican expressed confidence in Hutchinson and the credibility of future hearings."What Cassidy Hutchinson did was an unbelievable example of bravery and of courage and patriotism in the face of real pressure," she said."The Committee is not going to stand by and watch her character be assassinated by anonymous sources and by men who are claiming executive privilege. And so we look forward very much to additional testimony under oath on a whole range of issues," she added.Read Full StoryKinzinger says new witnesses have been coming forward to the Jan. 6 committee since Cassidy Hutchinson's 'inspiring' testimonyRep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesRep. Adam Kinzinger says that more witnesses have come forward since Cassidy Hutchinson's blockbuster testimony during the Jan 6. hearings last week.  "She's been inspiring for a lot of people," Kinzinger said Sunday on CNN's  "State of the Union." "Every day, we get new people that come forward and say, 'hey, I didn't think maybe this piece of the story that I knew was important, but now that you guys are talking' — I do see this plays in here."Hutchinson, an ex-aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, revealed in front of the Jan. 6 committee shocking details of former president Donald Trump's behavior on the day of the Capitol attack, including that he attempted to grab the steering wheel of his SUV and lunged at one of his Secret Service agents, as Insider's Grace Panetta previously reported. "I mean, look, she is going to go down in history," Kinzinger said, referring to the 25-year-old. "People can forget the names of every one of us on the committee. They will not forget her name. And, by the way, she doesn't want that. She doesn't want to be out in the public spotlight."Read Full StoryLiz Cheney says the Jan. 6 committee could potentially make multiple criminal referrals, including one against TrumpU.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) Vice Chairwoman of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, delivers remarks during a hearing on the January 6th investigation on June 9, 2022.Win McNamee/Getty ImagesRep. Liz Cheney in an interview broadcast on Sunday said that the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol could potentially make multiple criminal referrals, including one against former President Donald Trump.During an interview on ABC's "This Week," Cheney — who serves as the vice-chair of the panel — was asked by correspondent Jonathan Karl if the work conducted by its members has shown that Trump's conduct warrants prosecution."Ultimately, the Justice Department will decide that," the Wyoming Republican said. "I think we may well as a committee have a view on that."She continued: "If you just think about it from the perspective of what kind of man knows that a mob is armed and sends the mob to attack the Capitol and further incites that mob when his own vice president is under threat — when the Congress is under threat? It's just very chilling. And I think certainly we will continue to present to the American people what we've found."Read Full StoryDOJ wants a DC judge to reject Steve Bannon's request to delay his contempt-of-Congress trial over January 6 hearings' publicity, saying that he has 'barely been mentioned'Steve Bannon argued in April that his criminal prosecution should be dismissed.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesThe Department of Justice asked a DC judge on Friday to reject Trump ally Steve Bannon's request to delay his contempt-of-Congress trial, arguing that the January 6 hearings have not revolved around him to the point of distraction.On Wednesday, Bannon's lawyers asked a DC judge to delay his July 18 trial, citing a "media blitz" from the public January 6 committee hearings and saying the request was "due to the unprecedented level of prejudicial pretrial publicity."DOJ lawyers said that Bannon is not as popular as he thinks he is."The Defendant's motion gives the false impression — through general statistics about the volume of viewership of the Committee's hearings and overall media coverage of the Committee's hearings — that all of the Committee's hearings and the attendant media coverage is about him," DOJ lawyers wrote in a filing on Friday. "The truth is just the opposite — the Defendant has barely been mentioned in the Committee's hearings or the resulting media coverage of them."Read More2 Secret Service sources told CNN that Trump angrily demanded to be taken to the Capitol on January 6, partly confirming Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive testimonyFormer President Donald Trump.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty ImagesTwo Secret Service sources told CNN on Friday that they heard about former President Donald Trump lunging at the driver of his presidential SUV on January 6, 2021.The pair of sources, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, backed up much of former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive testimony on the altercation in the motorcade vehicle known as "the Beast" after Trump found out he wouldn't be driven to join his supporters at the Capitol."He had sort of lunged forward – it was unclear from the conversations I had that he actually made physical contact, but he might have. I don't know," one of the Secret Service sources told CNN. "Nobody said Trump assaulted him; they said he tried to lunge over the seat – for what reason, nobody had any idea."Read Full StoryMichael Cohen says Trump uses a 'mob boss' playbookMichael Cohen, Donald Trump's former personal attorney, compared the former president to a "mob boss" amid allegations that Trump allies sought to intimidate Jan. 6 witnesses."Donald Trump never changes his playbook," Cohen told The Washington Post. "He behaves like a mob boss, and these messages are fashioned in that style. Giving an order without giving the order. No fingerprints attached."Read Full StoryTrump allies paid legal fees for multiple Jan. 6 witnesses, including Cassidy Hutchinson, sparking witness-influencing concerns, report saysCassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testifies before the January 6 committee in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2022.Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesFormer President Donald Trump's allies and supporters paid the legal fees for multiple people who had provided testimony to the January 6 committee, including the former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, The New York Times reported.Hutchinson eventually fired the lawyer who was paid for a pro-Trump group, and went on to provide damning testimony about Trump, the report said. Two sources familiar with the committee told The Times that they believe Hutchinson's decision to part ways with the lawyer — who had been recommended by Trump allies and paid for by a pro-Trump PAC — likely played a role in her decision to provide new evidence. There are no laws against a third party paying for a witness' legal representation in a congressional inquiry, but the situation may raise some ethical concerns, according to the report.Read Full StoryFormer Secret Service agent said he, too, would have defied Trump's request to be taken to the Capitol on January 6Former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.PhoPhoto by Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty ImagesFormer Secret Service agent Jonathan Wackrow said in an op-ed that he also would not have taken then-President Donald Trump to the Capitol on January 6, 2021.In an op-ed published by Newsweek, Wackrow said he was shocked by Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony to the January committee regarding Trump's actions on the day of the Capitol riot. Hutchinson, a former aide in the Trump White House, claimed that Trump had gotten into a physical altercation with the head of his security detail while demanding to be brought to the Capitol."If I had been working on Trump's security detail on January 6, I would have made the same decision as Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Robert Engel to not go to the Capitol based on the known escalating threats," Wackrow wrote.He added, however, that he believed Trump still respects the Secret Service because he probably has seen "first-hand what they're willing to do to protect him and his family." Read Full StoryGOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger says Cassidy Hutchinson is a 'hero' and has 'more courage than most' Republicans after January 6 testimonyCassidy Hutchinson testifies during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee on the January 6th insurrection.Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty ImagesGOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois on Thursday applauded Cassidy Hutchinson for her testimony to the January 6 committee, saying the former top aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has "more courage" than most of his Republican colleagues. "Cassidy Hutchinson is a hero and a real patriot (not a faux 'patriot' that hates America so much they would attempt a coup.)," Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, said in a tweet."Of course they will try to bully and intimidate her. But she isn't intimidated. More courage than most in GOP," Kinzinger added of Hutchinson.Read Full StoryGOP Sen. Pat Toomey says Trump's chances of winning the party's 2024 presidential nomination are 'much more tenuous' following the January 6 committee's hearingsRepublican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania at the White House with Trump in February 2018.AP Photo/Evan VucciRepublican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania suggested Thursday that public hearings from the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, had damaged former President Donald Trump politically, even among Republicans.At the end of a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg that focused on the Supreme Court's recent ruling on the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Reserve's approach to tackling inflation, the retiring lawmaker was asked whether he believed the hearings would preclude Trump from seeking a second term as president in 2024."I don't know that it means that. I mean he gets to decide whether he's going to run," said Toomey, who was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump on a charge of incitement of an insurrection after the Capitol riot."Look, I think he disqualified himself from serving in public office by virtue of his post-election behavior, especially leading right up to January 6," Toomey said. "I think the revelations from this committee make his path to even the Republican nomination much more tenuous."Read Full StoryCheney 'absolutely confident' that former White House aide's explosive testimony is credibleRepublican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, vice-chair of the select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol, speaks during a business meeting on Capitol Hill on December 13, 2021 in Washington, DC.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesRepublican Rep. Liz Cheney, who serves as vice-chair of the House's January 6 committee, said she is "absolutely confident" that a former White House aide's damning testimony is accurate."I am absolutely confident in her credibility. I'm confident in her testimony," Cheney told ABC News's Jonathan Karl about the allegations made by top Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson this week.Cheney said that Hutchinson showed "an unbelievable example of bravery and of courage" by testifying.Read MoreBannon wants his contempt trial to be delayed because of Jan. 6 hearingsSteve Bannon outside of the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse on June 15, 2022 in Washington, DC.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesTrump ally Steve Bannon has asked for his contempt-of-Congress trial to be delayed because the hearings on the Capitol riot are getting so much publicity.A federal grand jury indicted Bannon in November 2021 on two counts of contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Capitol riot.In a Wednesday court filing, Bannon's lawyers argued that the coverage of the committee's hearings would make his trial unfair.Read More January 6 panel subpoenas former White House counsel Pat CipolloneFormer White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said he would testify about Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ official who outlined ways for Trump to challenge the 2020 election.Alex Wong/Getty ImagesThe House's panel investigating the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, has subpoenaed former White House counsel Pat Cipollone.The demand for Cipollone to appear before the committee comes after explosive testimony from a former top White House aide in the Trump administration, who described Trump and his inner circle's actions before and during the insurrection.Read Full StoryFormer Secret Service agent says Trump's 'girth' would have made it impossible to attack driverOutgoing US President Donald Trump waves as he boards Marine One at the White House in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2021.MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty ImagesA former White House aide testified that former President Donald Trump grabbed the steering wheel of his SUV and lunged at a Secret Service agent on January 6, 2021, after they refused to take him to the Capitol building.But former Secret Service agents told Insider they have doubts about the story."Trump's not a little guy, right? And the space to actually be able to lunge towards the wheel is not that big," one former agent said, speaking on background to Insider.  "I don't mean to sound disparaging to the former president, but just his girth would prevent him from actually getting to the steering wheel."Keep ReadingHouse Republican who led rioter on tour before insurrection could oversee Capitol policeRep. Barry LoudermilkBill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty ImagesRepublican Rep. Barry Loudermilk — who led a Capitol rioter on a tour of the building the day before the insurrection — could end up overseeing Capitol police.If Republicans regain control of the House, Loudermilk would be next in line to lead the committee that has oversight over the police force attacked by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.Loudermilk has faced backlash from Democrats after video showed him taking a group on a tour of the Capitol building, showing them hallways, security areas, and stairwells. The next day, members of the tour flaunted a sharpened flagpole bearing the American flag as they marched near the Capitol.It remains unclear whether the group entered the Capitol building itself during the riot.Read Full Story Former Jan. 6 committee investigator announces run for SenateSenior investigative counsel John Wood questions witnesses during the third public hearing of the January 6 committee on June 16, 2022.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesJanuary 6 committee investigator John Wood is launching an independent Senate campaign in Missouri in an effort to stop GOP nominee Eric Greitens.Wood told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he believes Greitens — the former Missouri governor — is likely to win the Republican nomination, and that voters deserved an alternative.Wood, a Republican, said he will run as an independent.Read MoreTrump ally says Hutchinson's testimony was a 'campaign commercial' for Ron DeSantis in 2024Florida Gov. Ron DeSantisPhelan M. Ebenhack/AP PhotoExplosive testimony by a former Trump White House aide could be a boost to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to replace Trump on the presidential ticket in 2024, CNN reported.One Trump adviser said the hearings — which painted as Trump as violent and volatile — were "basically a campaign commercial" for DeSantis. Another told CNN that "no one is taking this lightly."DeSantis has flirted with larger political ambitions and is a rising Republican star who would be poised to fill the leadership vacuum if Trump is forced aside.Read Full StorySecret Service agents willing to dispute Hutchinson's claims about Trump's outburst, reports sayFormer President Donald TrumpSAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty ImagesSecret Service agents are willing to testify before the January 6 House panel to refute former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's claim that Trump tried to grab the steering wheel when he demanded to be taken to the Capitol on the day of the insurrection, according to multiple reports.The driver of the car and the head of Trump's security are ready to testify under oath that the former President never lunged for the wheel or physically assaulted the driver, according to CBS News.Read More Hutchinson's testimony could lead to legal trouble for Trump: reportCassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2022.Jacquelyn Martin/AP PhotoFormer aides to Donald Trump worry the explosive testimony by a former White House aide could put Trump in legal jeopardy, according to the New York Times."This hearing definitely gave investigators a lot to chew on," former Attorney General Bill Barr told the Times after testimony from top White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson detailed Trump's behavior on the day of the Capitol riot.Hutchinson's testimony painted Trump as a volatile man who knew his supporters were armed on January 6, 2021. Trump also demanded to be taken to the Capitol building, but his security staff refused, Hutchinson said.Mick Mulvaney, who was once Trump's White House Chief of Staff, said evidence of possible witness tampering could open his orbit up to charges.Keep Reading  Former Trump press secretary shares text that appears to show Melania Trump to condemn Capitol riot violenceMelania Trump speaks at the White House on October 09, 2019Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesFormer Trump Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham shared a text exchange on Tuesday that purportedly showed former First Lady Melania Trump refusing to condemn the violence during the Capitol riot. The apparent screengrab of a text exchange was between Grisham and a person named "MT." "Do you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American, but there is no place for lawlessness & violence?" read the message. "No," the person replied.Representatives for Melania Trump at Trump's post-presidential press office did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.Read Full StoryJohn Eastman drops lawsuit blocking his phone records from January 6 committeeJohn Eastman testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 4, 2013.Charles Dharapak/APIn a late Tuesday filing, John Eastman dropped a lawsuit he'd filed to prevent the Jan. 6 committee from accessing his phone records."Plaintiff brought this lawsuit primarily to protect the content of his communications, many of which are privileged," the latest filing read. "The Congressional Defendants represented in their motion to dismiss that they were not seeking the content of any of Plaintiff's communications via the subpoena they had issued to Defendant Verizon."The former Trump lawyer's phone was seized by federal agents on June 22, according to a separate suit he filed on Monday, seeking the return of his property. Of interest to investigators are call logs from Eastman's personal device, and the search warrant indicates investigators will not review any additional content from his phone without a court order. Read Full StoryTrumpworld shocked by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive January 6 testimony, calling it the 'most damning day' and 'insane'Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2022.Jacquelyn Martin/AP PhotoIt took six hearings for the January 6 select committee to finally break through to embattled former President Donald Trump's inner circle.Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified during a surprise hearing Tuesday that Trump was determined to go to the US Capitol with his armed supporters on January 6, 2021, as Congress was certifying the election results. Hutchinson's additional revelations about that day came crashing down on Trumpworld during the two-hour hearing. Among them were that Meadows told Hutchinson "things might get real, real bad" on January 6, that Trump knew his supporters were armed when they flooded the Ellipse to attend his "Stop the Steal" rally, and that Trump said "Mike deserves it" when rioters chanted "hang Mike Pence." "Definitely most damning day of testimony," one former White House aide told Insider. READ MOREFox News host says it's not 'wholly out of character' that Trump 'might throw his lunch' after January 6 testimony on ketchup dripping down the wallFormer President Donald Trump and Fox News Chief Political Anchor Bret Baier.Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty ImagesMoments after a colleague referred to Tuesday's January 6 committee testimony as "stunning," Fox News host Martha MacCallum downplayed new revelations about former President Donald Trump's violent outbursts surrounding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Trump threw a plate in the White House dining room after he found out former Attorney General Bill Barr publicly said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud, leaving "ketchup dripping down the wall.""I mean, I'm not sure that it really shocks anybody that the president just — knowing what we've seen, observing him over the years — if he got angry then he might throw his lunch," MacCallum said. "I'm not sure. It's obviously a very dramatic detail, and the way that she describes it, um, is. But I'm not sure if this is wholly out of character with the Donald Trump and the President Trump that people came to know over the years."READ MOREHere are all the people who sought preemptive pardons from Donald Trump after the Capitol riot, per January 6 committee witnessesRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., joined from left by Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., speaks at a news conference about the treatment of people being held in the District of Columbia jail who are ch.....»»

The House select committee is investigating the Capitol riot and the role Donald Trump and his allies played in trying to overturn the 2020 election. Lawmakers listen as an image of a Trump campaign donation banner is shown behind them during a House January 6 committee hearing.Susan Walsh/AP Rep. Cheney said at Tuesday's Jan 6. hearing that Trump tried to contact a witness. CNN reported that this was a White House staffer who hadn't appeared publicly but is able to corroborate testimony. The Tuesday session focused on Trump's role in galvanizing far-right groups that stormed the Capitol. Jan. 6 panel subpoenas Secret Service for text messages as DHS watchdog accuses agents of deleting them after being askedA US Secret Service agent takes position outside the White House in November 2020.J. Scott Applewhite/AP PhotoThe House committee investigating the Capitol riot has issued a subpoena to the US Secret Service after the Department of Homeland Security inspector general accused the agency of deleting text messages after being asked.Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee's chairperson, said in a Friday letter to Secret Service director James Murray that the panel was seeking text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021.Thompson mentioned three previous requests for information, sent in January, March, and August of last year, pertaining to all communications between DHS officials and then-President Donald Trump about the Capitol riot.Read Full StoryThe Jan. 6 witness Trump tried to call is a White House support staffer, reports sayThe Jan. 6 committee witness whom former President Donald Trump is alleged to have tried to contact is a White House support staffer, reports say. At Tuesday's hearing, committee member Rep. Liz Cheney claimed that Trump sought to contact a witness who had not appeared publically, in what she characterized as a form of witness tampering. CNN first reported, citing two sources, that Trump made the call to the witness after the June 28 testimony by another witness, the former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson.According to the report, the support staffer was in a position to corroborate parts of Hutchinson's testimony, and had been providing evidence to the committee. NBC News later said it had confirmed CNN's reporting. Neither outlet named the person.Read Full StoryWatergate star witness predicts criminal charges after latest Jan. 6 testimony: 'Trump is in trouble'Former White House Counsel John Dean testifying on Capitol Hill on June 10, 2019.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty ImagesJohn Dean, a key witness in the Watergate investigation, said that former President Donald Trump and others will likely face legal repercussions from evidence presented at Tuesday's January 6 committee hearing. In an interview with CNN, Dean highlighted testimony by former members of extremist group the Oath Keepers, who were part of the mob that stormed the Capitol.Dean described them as "really classic authoritarian followers, following the leader."He argued that the testimony proves the extent to which the rioters believed they had been sent by Trump, which he said could be used by prosecutors were they to bring charges against the former president.Read Full StoryTrump 'liked the crazies' and wanted Alex Jones and Ali Alexander as Jan. 6 rally speakers despite red flags raised, former spokesperson saysKatrina Pierson, a former campaign spokesperson for Donald Trump and one of the organizers of the January 6 "Stop the Steal" rally, said Trump wanted Alex Jones and Ali Alexander to speak at the event despite the "red flags" they raised.On Tuesday, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a member of the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot, played a video of Pierson's testimony to the panel in which Pierson commented on Trump's love for "crazies" like Jones and Alexander."Yes, I was talking about President Trump. He loved people who viciously defended him in public," Pierson said in her deposition.Read Full StoryPhoto shows Mark Meadows escorting Rudy Giuliani from the White House following 'UNHINGED' West Wing meeting about 2020 election resultsA photo that Cassidy Hutchinson took of Mark Meadows leading Rudy Giuliani away from the Oval Office.Courtesy of CSPANFormer Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had to escort former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani from the Oval Office following a chaotic, late-night December 2020 West Wing meeting about the election results, according to new January 6 testimony.Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump White House aide whose explosive testimony stunned Washington last month, shared with the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot a photo she took of Meadows leading  Giuliani away from the Oval Office following the turbulent gathering, which was the site of a face-off between Trump's legal allies and White House lawyers over efforts to promote the then-president's baseless claims of election fraud, according to testimony.The January 6 panel shared the photo alongside real-time text messages Hutchinson was sending from the meeting during its seventh live hearing on Tuesday. READ FULL STORYFormer Twitter employee feared people were going to die on January 6A former Twitter employee told the House committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol that activity on the platform raised concerns that there would be deadly violence in Washington on January 6.The former employee, whose voice was obscured in a recording played during Tuesday's hearing, testified about trying and failing to get the company to intervene as former President Donald Trump's extremist supporters used the platform to repeat his statements about the upcoming protests to the 2020 election results.On the night of January 5, the employee testified about slacking a colleague, a message to the effect of, "When people are shooting each other tomorrow, I will try and rest in the knowledge that we tried."The former employee was on a team responsible for platform and content moderation policies during 2020 and 2021.READ FULL STORYOath Keepers attorney used the 'Queer Eye' loft kitchen from Season 3 as her video background before the January 6 committeeOath Keepers attorney Kellye SoRelle.C-SPANTestifying remotely before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, the Oath Keepers' attorney and acting president used a green screen background from the Netflix show "Queer Eye."Erin Ryan, host of Crooked Media's "Hysteria" podcast, tweeted out a screenshot of the remote deposition from Oath Keepers acting president Kellye SoRelle alongside an image from the third season of the streaming series, which Ryan said she found from a reverse Google image search.READ FULL STORYRep. Liz Cheney ends hearing with bombshell: Donald Trump called a witness in the House January 6 investigationFormer President Donald Trump called a witness in the congressional inquiry into the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, Rep. Liz Cheney said Tuesday, prompting House investigators to notify the Justice Department. "After our last hearing, President Trump tried to call a witness in our investigation. A witness you have not yet seen in these hearings. That person declined to answer or respond to President Trump's call and, instead, alerted their lawyer to the call," said Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, in a bombshell revelation that concluded the House January 6 committee's seventh public hearing."Their lawyer alerted us, and this committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice," she added. "Let me say one more time: We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously."READ FULL STORYThe January 6 investigators obtained a video of Roger Stone reciting the Proud Boys' 'Fraternity Creed,' the first step for initiation to the extremist groupAn image of Roger Stone is shown on a screen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.Doug Mills/Pool via APNew details emerged at Tuesday's January 6 committee hearing on the close ties between Roger Stone and extremist groups, including that the longtime Donald Trump confidante was recorded reciting the Proud Boys' so-called "Fraternity Creed." Rep. Jamie Raskin, who co-chaired the public hearing, described reciting the creed as "the first level of initiation" into the far-right group, five members of which are scheduled to be tried on seditious conspiracy charges in December.  "Stone's ties to the Proud Boys go back many years," Raskin said. "He's even taken their so-called "Fraternity Creed," required for the first level of initiation to the group."Video then played showing Stone in a crowded outdoor setting, saying, "Hi, I'm Roger Stone. I'm a Western chauvinist, and I refuse to apologize for the creation of the modern world." READ FULL STORYTrump planned to call on his supporters to march to the Capitol on January 6, according to a draft tweetThe House committee investigating the Capitol riot on Tuesday revealed a draft tweet in which President Donald Trump called on his supporters to go to the US Capitol after his speech on January 6, 2021."I will be making a Big Speech at 10AM on January 6th at the Ellipse (South of the White House). Please arrive early, massive crowds expected. March to the Capitol after. Stop the Steal!!" Trump wrote in the draft tweet, which is undated.Trump never sent the tweet, but its existence, along with other messages exchanged between rally organizers, offer proof that the march to the Capitol was premeditated, the January 6 committee said.Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida presented the evidence during Tuesday's hearing, and said: "The evidence confirms that this was not a spontaneous call to action, but rather it was a deliberate strategy decided upon in advance by the president."READ FULL STORYTrump's ex-campaign manger Brad Parscale said in private texts that Trump is to blame for Capitol rioter's deathIn a series of texts revealed at the 7th hearing of the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, President Donald Trump's former campaign manger Brad Parscale suggested in a message to former Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson that Trump's words led to the death of a capitol rioter.Messages show Pierson tried to push back, writing that "it wasn't the rhetoric.""Katrina," Parscale wrote back. "Yes it was."Read Full StoryPat Cipollone suggested Pence should get the Presidential Medal of Freedom for refusing to block the Electoral Collage count certificationA video of Pat Cipollone, former White House counsel, is shown as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.Doug Mills/Pool via AP"I think the vice president did the right thing, I think he did the courageous thing," Cipollone said in testimony revealed at the House January 6 committee's seventh public hearing on Tuesday. "I have a great deal of respect for Vice President Pence."Cipollone added that he didn't think Pence had any "legal authority" to do anything other than refuse to give into President Donald Trump's pressure campaign and interfere with the Electoral College certification on January 6, 2021.Read Full Story  11 House Republicans met with Trump to strategize overturning the election results on January 6, and 5 of them later asked for pardonsAccording to Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida, a member of the January 6 committee, several Republicans met at the White House on December 21, 2020, as part of an effort to "disseminate his false claims and to encourage members of the public to fight the outcome on January 6."Vice President Mike Pence, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and Rudy Giuliani were all at the meeting, along with President Donald Trump.According to White House visitor logs, Rep. Brian Babin of Texas, Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, Rep. Paul Gosar of Florida, Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, and Rep-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia all attended the meeting.Read Full StoryFormer Twitter employee tells January 6 committee that Trump received special treatment from TwitterAn evidence tweet is shown on a screen during a full committee hearing on "the January 6th Investigation," on Capitol Hill on July 12, 2022, in Washington, DC. - The House committee probing the 2021 assault on the US Capitol is examining connections between associates of former US President Donald Trump and far right-wing extremist groups at its seventh hearing on Tuesday.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images"I believe that Twitter relished in the knowledge that they were also the favorite and most used service of the former president and enjoyed having that sort of power within the social media ecosystem," the former Twitter employee told investigators in testimony aired in Tuesday's hearing of the congressional committee investigating January 6.The employee, whose identity was kept secret, was introduced by Rep. Jamie Raskin as having worked on Twitter's content moderation team from 2020 to 2021.Read Full StoryCassidy Hutchinson texted a fellow White House aide 'the west wing is UNHINGED' as Oval Office meeting almost devolved into a brawlCassidy Hutchinson, a top former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testifies during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee on the January 6th insurrection in the Cannon House Office Building on June 28, 2022 in Washington, DC.Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty ImagesAccording to messages released by the House January 6 committee, Hutchinson texted the message to another top aide, Anthony Ornato.It was sent amid the scene of a December 2020 Oval Office meeting as Trump attorney Sidney Powell and White House lawyers clashed over efforts to push Trump's debunked election fraud claims. Read Full Story Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone 'set a new land speed record' trying to break up a meeting between Trump, Michael Flynn, and Overstock's CEO, Sidney Powell saidDemocratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, one of the committee members leading Tuesday's January 6 hearing, said former President Donald Trump, election lawyer Sidney Powell, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, and Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock.com, had met to discuss an ongoing effort to reverse the results of the 2020 election.Powell told investigators in previously recorded testimony, however, that the group had "probably no more than 10 or 15 minutes" with Trump before Pat Cipollone, then the White House Counsel, intercepted the meeting."I bet Pat Cipollone set a new land speed record," Powell quipped.Rep. Jamie Raskin says the 'oldest domestic enemy' of US democracy' is 'whipping up mob violence to destroy fair elections'Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., left, listens as Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., speaks as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite"The problem of politicians whipping up mob violence to destroy fair elections is the oldest domestic enemy of constitutional democracy in America," Raskin said in his opening statement during Tuesday's January 6 hearing.He mentioned a time during Abraham Lincoln's presidency, when an 1837 racist mob in Alton, Illinois, during which rioters broke into an abolitionist newspaper's office and murdered the paper's editor, Elijah Lovejoy."If racist mobs are encouraged by politicians to rampage and terrorize, Lincoln said, they will violate the rights of other citizens and quickly destroy the bonds of social trust necessary for democracy to work," Raskin said.Read Full StoryConvicted Capitol rioter testifying in front of the committee warned that a 'Civil War will ensue' if Trump got robbed in 2020Stephen Ayres, who pleaded guilty last month to disorderly conduct in connection to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, is set to testify in from to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack.His testimony is expected to underscore how Trump summoned supporters to Washington DC on the day Congress was scheduled to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.On December 26, 2020, Ayres posted to Twitter: "If the [deep state] robs president Trump!!! Civil War will ensue!" It was posted days after Trump called for a "big protest" in his own tweet.Read Full StoryEx-White House counsel Pat Cipollone was against Trump naming Sidney Powell special counselA video of former White House counsel Pat Cipollone is shown as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteIn previously unseen footage from his deposition to the House Select Committee last Friday, Cipollone spoke about Powell being Trump's pick to be special counsel for the Department of Justice to investigate repeatedly disproven wide spread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election."I was vehemently opposed," Cipollone said when asked about Powell being made special counsel. "I didn't think she should've been appointed to anything."Read Full StoryRep. Jamie Raskin says Trump 'electrified and galvanized' his extremist supporters with a tweet calling for a 'big protest'Jamie Raskin listens as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteRaskin, a Maryland Democrat, referenced a December 19, 2020, tweet from Trump during the House's January 6 committee hearing on Tuesday."Big protest in D.C. on January 6th," Trump's tweet said. "Be there, will be wild!" Raskin said that Trump's tweet spurred on "the dangerous extremists in the Oathkeepers, the Proud Boys and other racist and white nationalist groups spoiling for a fight against the government.""Here were thousands of enraged Trump followers, thoroughly convinced by the Big Lie who traveled from across the country to join Trump's wild rally to 'stop the steal,'" he added. "With the proper incitement by political leaders, and the proper instigation from the extremists, many members of this crowd could be led to storm the Capitol, confront the vice president in Congress and try to overturn the 2020 election results."Read Full Story  Ivanka Trump told the House January 6 committee that she believed her father lost re-election 'probably prior' to a formal Electoral Collage vote in December 2020Ivanka Trump.Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesIvanka Trump told the House January 6 committee that she believed her father lost the 2020 presidential election likely before a formal Electoral College vote on December 14, 2020."Was that an important day for you? Did that affect your planning or your realization as to whether or not there was going to be an end to this administration?" an attorney for the committee asked Ivanka Trump in video taped testimony."I think it was my sentiment, probably prior as well," Ivanka Trump said in response.Read Full StoryPat Cipollone's testimony 'met our expectations," Cheney saysFormer White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesJanuary 6 committee vice chair and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone testified before the panel — and that his testimony "met our expectations."The House committee then aired several clips of Cipollone's sworn testimony at the start of their seventh hearing on Tuesday.Cipollone told the January 6 committee that he agreed Trump should concede the 2020 election and that he lost to Democratic nominee Joe Biden fair and square.  Read Full StoryCheney: Trump is 'not an impressionable child'GOP Rep. Liz CheneyAP Photo/ Andrew Harnik)GOP Rep. Liz Cheney pushed back on excuses for former President Donald Trump's actions during the Capitol riot, saying he was not simply misled about his election lies but knew they were false."President Trump is a 76-year-old man," Cheney said as the January 6 committee began its hearing on Tuesday. "He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices."Cheney said evidence shows Trump was warned "over and over" that there was no sign of widespread election fraud."No rational or sane man in his position could disregard that information and reach the opposite conclusion," she said, "and Donald Trump cannot escape responsibility by being willfully blind."Read Full StoryJan. 6 committee's next hearing expected to link Trump even more closely to the Capitol attackLawmakers on the House January 6 committee will air the inquiry's findings during a public hearing Thursday.Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesFrom its very first hearing, the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol made a point of connecting former President Donald Trump to the violence of that day.A month later, the House panel is poised to delve even deeper. At its next public hearing, set for 1 p.m. ET Tuesday, the committee is expected to focus on how the violent pro-Trump mob coalesced on January 6 and the involvement of far-right groups, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.Committee aides said Monday during a background call with reporters that the panel's seventh hearing would underscore how a single tweet from Trump mobilized his supporters, proving a "pivotal moment that spurred a chain of events, including pre-planning by Proud Boys.""Big protest in D.C. on January 6th," Trump tweeted on December 19, 2020. "Be there, will be wild!"READ FULL STORYCassidy Hutchinson's testimony jolted the DOJ into focusing on Trump in its Jan 6 investigation, report saysCassidy Hutchinson testifying before the Jan. 6 committee on June 28, 2022.Jacquelyn Martin/AP PhotoTestimony by Jan. 6 witness Cassidy Hutchinson sparked debate among top Justice Department officials about Donald Trump's potential criminal culpability for the Capitol riot, The New York Times reported. The June 28 testimony by the former White House aide prompted officials to discuss Trump's actions on January 6, 2021, and questions about potential legal ramifications for the former president, sources told The Times. Present at some of the discussions were Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, the report said. Read Full StoryCassidy Hutchinson and Rep. Liz Cheney have forged an 'unlikely bond' amid January 6 testimony process, per reportCassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump White House aide whose explosive January 6 testimony stunned Washington last month, has found a friend and ally in Rep. Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who has been ostracized from the GOP for criticizing the former president and serving as vice-chair on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot, according to The New York Times.The two Republican women — both on the outs with the party's overwhelming Trump faction — have developed an unlikely bond in recent weeks as the January 6 panel riot zeroes in on increasingly damning testimony against former President Donald Trump.The congresswomen admires Hutchinson's dedication to country over personal power, according to The Times. "I have been incredibly moved by young women that I have met and that have come forward to testify in the Jan. 6 committee," Cheney said in a recent speech at the Reagan Library.Read Full Story A bad day for Steve BannonSteve Bannon asked to delay his mid-July trial by at least three months.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesMonday was not a good day in court for Steve Bannon.The former Trump aide lost on several key pre-trial motions ahead of his upcoming July 18 federal trial on contempt of Congress charges.U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, ruled from the bench that Bannon's defense attorneys couldn't use several of their planned arguments. Nichols also denied Bannon's bid to have the trial date delayed.Insider's Ryan Barber was at the courthouse in Washington, DC, and has more in his dispatch linked below. Read Full Story'That mob on the Mall'An Oath Keeper from Idaho in Bozeman, Montana.William Campbell/Corbis via Getty ImagesWe've got a handy preview for you on Tuesday's next big House January 6 hearing, which will focus on the right-wing extremist groups that in the words of Rep. Adam Schiff helped lead "that mob on the Mall." Laura Italiano breaks down the five potential bombshells she'll be looking out for when the panel convenes at 1 pm. Check out what those are here:Read Full Story The most shocking revelations from the January 6 committee's first hearings on the Capitol attackCassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2022.Jacquelyn Martin/AP PhotoThe next January 6 committee hearing is scheduled for July 12, at 10 a.m. ET.Catch up on the biggest revelations from the public hearings thus far.Read Full StoryTeasing new witnesses, Rep. Adam Kinzinger says of Trump and his allies: 'They're all scared. They should be.'Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL).Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty ImagesIn a series of Sunday tweets, Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Donald Trump and his allies, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, are "scared" following last week's testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson before the Jan. 6 select committee. "This BIPARTISAN committee has been able to find out things that up until recently were denied by the Jan 6th truthers, so they are left with trying to discredit a young woman with more courage than they could muster in a lifetime. Except… that isn't working," Kinzinger tweeted."Cassidy doesn't seek the limelight, but she is compelled with honor. She didn't even have to swear an oath to the constitution like Kevin, Elise, Kristi Noem and others did. But she volunteered to come under oath to tell what she knows. She is a better person than them all. "Read Full StoryLiz Cheney says the January 6 panel won't 'stand by' and let 'men who are claiming executive privilege' attack Cassidy Hutchinson's characterCassidy Hutchinson, a top former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, arrives to testify during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee on the January 6th insurrection in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2022.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesRep. Liz Cheney in an interview that aired on Sunday reaffirmed her confidence in former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony and said that the House panel investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol wouldn't sit by idly and let her endure anonymous attacks.While sitting down with ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., the Wyoming Republican expressed confidence in Hutchinson and the credibility of future hearings."What Cassidy Hutchinson did was an unbelievable example of bravery and of courage and patriotism in the face of real pressure," she said."The Committee is not going to stand by and watch her character be assassinated by anonymous sources and by men who are claiming executive privilege. And so we look forward very much to additional testimony under oath on a whole range of issues," she added.Read Full StoryKinzinger says new witnesses have been coming forward to the Jan. 6 committee since Cassidy Hutchinson's 'inspiring' testimonyRep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesRep. Adam Kinzinger says that more witnesses have come forward since Cassidy Hutchinson's blockbuster testimony during the Jan 6. hearings last week.  "She's been inspiring for a lot of people," Kinzinger said Sunday on CNN's  "State of the Union." "Every day, we get new people that come forward and say, 'hey, I didn't think maybe this piece of the story that I knew was important, but now that you guys are talking' — I do see this plays in here."Hutchinson, an ex-aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, revealed in front of the Jan. 6 committee shocking details of former president Donald Trump's behavior on the day of the Capitol attack, including that he attempted to grab the steering wheel of his SUV and lunged at one of his Secret Service agents, as Insider's Grace Panetta previously reported. "I mean, look, she is going to go down in history," Kinzinger said, referring to the 25-year-old. "People can forget the names of every one of us on the committee. They will not forget her name. And, by the way, she doesn't want that. She doesn't want to be out in the public spotlight."Read Full StoryLiz Cheney says the Jan. 6 committee could potentially make multiple criminal referrals, including one against TrumpU.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) Vice Chairwoman of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, delivers remarks during a hearing on the January 6th investigation on June 9, 2022.Win McNamee/Getty ImagesRep. Liz Cheney in an interview broadcast on Sunday said that the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol could potentially make multiple criminal referrals, including one against former President Donald Trump.During an interview on ABC's "This Week," Cheney — who serves as the vice-chair of the panel — was asked by correspondent Jonathan Karl if the work conducted by its members has shown that Trump's conduct warrants prosecution."Ultimately, the Justice Department will decide that," the Wyoming Republican said. "I think we may well as a committee have a view on that."She continued: "If you just think about it from the perspective of what kind of man knows that a mob is armed and sends the mob to attack the Capitol and further incites that mob when his own vice president is under threat — when the Congress is under threat? It's just very chilling. And I think certainly we will continue to present to the American people what we've found."Read Full StoryDOJ wants a DC judge to reject Steve Bannon's request to delay his contempt-of-Congress trial over January 6 hearings' publicity, saying that he has 'barely been mentioned'Steve Bannon argued in April that his criminal prosecution should be dismissed.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesThe Department of Justice asked a DC judge on Friday to reject Trump ally Steve Bannon's request to delay his contempt-of-Congress trial, arguing that the January 6 hearings have not revolved around him to the point of distraction.On Wednesday, Bannon's lawyers asked a DC judge to delay his July 18 trial, citing a "media blitz" from the public January 6 committee hearings and saying the request was "due to the unprecedented level of prejudicial pretrial publicity."DOJ lawyers said that Bannon is not as popular as he thinks he is."The Defendant's motion gives the false impression — through general statistics about the volume of viewership of the Committee's hearings and overall media coverage of the Committee's hearings — that all of the Committee's hearings and the attendant media coverage is about him," DOJ lawyers wrote in a filing on Friday. "The truth is just the opposite — the Defendant has barely been mentioned in the Committee's hearings or the resulting media coverage of them."Read More2 Secret Service sources told CNN that Trump angrily demanded to be taken to the Capitol on January 6, partly confirming Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive testimonyFormer President Donald Trump.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty ImagesTwo Secret Service sources told CNN on Friday that they heard about former President Donald Trump lunging at the driver of his presidential SUV on January 6, 2021.The pair of sources, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, backed up much of former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive testimony on the altercation in the motorcade vehicle known as "the Beast" after Trump found out he wouldn't be driven to join his supporters at the Capitol."He had sort of lunged forward – it was unclear from the conversations I had that he actually made physical contact, but he might have. I don't know," one of the Secret Service sources told CNN. "Nobody said Trump assaulted him; they said he tried to lunge over the seat – for what reason, nobody had any idea."Read Full StoryMichael Cohen says Trump uses a 'mob boss' playbookMichael Cohen, Donald Trump's former personal attorney, compared the former president to a "mob boss" amid allegations that Trump allies sought to intimidate Jan. 6 witnesses."Donald Trump never changes his playbook," Cohen told The Washington Post. "He behaves like a mob boss, and these messages are fashioned in that style. Giving an order without giving the order. No fingerprints attached."Read Full StoryTrump allies paid legal fees for multiple Jan. 6 witnesses, including Cassidy Hutchinson, sparking witness-influencing concerns, report saysCassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testifies before the January 6 committee in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2022.Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesFormer President Donald Trump's allies and supporters paid the legal fees for multiple people who had provided testimony to the January 6 committee, including the former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, The New York Times reported.Hutchinson eventually fired the lawyer who was paid for a pro-Trump group, and went on to provide damning testimony about Trump, the report said. Two sources familiar with the committee told The Times that they believe Hutchinson's decision to part ways with the lawyer — who had been recommended by Trump allies and paid for by a pro-Trump PAC — likely played a role in her decision to provide new evidence. There are no laws against a third party paying for a witness' legal representation in a congressional inquiry, but the situation may raise some ethical concerns, according to the report.Read Full StoryFormer Secret Service agent said he, too, would have defied Trump's request to be taken to the Capitol on January 6Former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.PhoPhoto by Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty ImagesFormer Secret Service agent Jonathan Wackrow said in an op-ed that he also would not have taken then-President Donald Trump to the Capitol on January 6, 2021.In an op-ed published by Newsweek, Wackrow said he was shocked by Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony to the January committee regarding Trump's actions on the day of the Capitol riot. Hutchinson, a former aide in the Trump White House, claimed that Trump had gotten into a physical altercation with the head of his security detail while demanding to be brought to the Capitol."If I had been working on Trump's security detail on January 6, I would have made the same decision as Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Robert Engel to not go to the Capitol based on the known escalating threats," Wackrow wrote.He added, however, that he believed Trump still respects the Secret Service because he probably has seen "first-hand what they're willing to do to protect him and his family." Read Full StoryGOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger says Cassidy Hutchinson is a 'hero' and has 'more courage than most' Republicans after January 6 testimonyCassidy Hutchinson testifies during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee on the January 6th insurrection.Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty ImagesGOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois on Thursday applauded Cassidy Hutchinson for her testimony to the January 6 committee, saying the former top aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has "more courage" than most of his Republican colleagues. "Cassidy Hutchinson is a hero and a real patriot (not a faux 'patriot' that hates America so much they would attempt a coup.)," Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, said in a tweet."Of course they will try to bully and intimidate her. But she isn't intimidated. More courage than most in GOP," Kinzinger added of Hutchinson.Read Full StoryGOP Sen. Pat Toomey says Trump's chances of winning the party's 2024 presidential nomination are 'much more tenuous' following the January 6 committee's hearingsRepublican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania at the White House with Trump in February 2018.AP Photo/Evan VucciRepublican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania suggested Thursday that public hearings from the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, had damaged former President Donald Trump politically, even among Republicans.At the end of a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg that focused on the Supreme Court's recent ruling on the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Reserve's approach to tackling inflation, the retiring lawmaker was asked whether he believed the hearings would preclude Trump from seeking a second term as president in 2024."I don't know that it means that. I mean he gets to decide whether he's going to run," said Toomey, who was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump on a charge of incitement of an insurrection after the Capitol riot."Look, I think he disqualified himself from serving in public office by virtue of his post-election behavior, especially leading right up to January 6," Toomey said. "I think the revelations from this committee make his path to even the Republican nomination much more tenuous."Read Full StoryCheney 'absolutely confident' that former White House aide's explosive testimony is credibleRepublican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, vice-chair of the select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol, speaks during a business meeting on Capitol Hill on December 13, 2021 in Washington, DC.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesRepublican Rep. Liz Cheney, who serves as vice-chair of the House's January 6 committee, said she is "absolutely confident" that a former White House aide's damning testimony is accurate."I am absolutely confident in her credibility. I'm confident in her testimony," Cheney told ABC News's Jonathan Karl about the allegations made by top Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson this week.Cheney said that Hutchinson showed "an unbelievable example of bravery and of courage" by testifying.Read MoreBannon wants his contempt trial to be delayed because of Jan. 6 hearingsSteve Bannon outside of the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse on June 15, 2022 in Washington, DC.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesTrump ally Steve Bannon has asked for his contempt-of-Congress trial to be delayed because the hearings on the Capitol riot are getting so much publicity.A federal grand jury indicted Bannon in November 2021 on two counts of contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Capitol riot.In a Wednesday court filing, Bannon's lawyers argued that the coverage of the committee's hearings would make his trial unfair.Read More January 6 panel subpoenas former White House counsel Pat CipolloneFormer White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said he would testify about Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ official who outlined ways for Trump to challenge the 2020 election.Alex Wong/Getty ImagesThe House's panel investigating the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, has subpoenaed former White House counsel Pat Cipollone.The demand for Cipollone to appear before the committee comes after explosive testimony from a former top White House aide in the Trump administration, who described Trump and his inner circle's actions before and during the insurrection.Read Full StoryFormer Secret Service agent says Trump's 'girth' would have made it impossible to attack driverOutgoing US President Donald Trump waves as he boards Marine One at the White House in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2021.MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty ImagesA former White House aide testified that former President Donald Trump grabbed the steering wheel of his SUV and lunged at a Secret Service agent on January 6, 2021, after they refused to take him to the Capitol building.But former Secret Service agents told Insider they have doubts about the story."Trump's not a little guy, right? And the space to actually be able to lunge towards the wheel is not that big," one former agent said, speaking on background to Insider.  "I don't mean to sound disparaging to the former president, but just his girth would prevent him from actually getting to the steering wheel."Keep ReadingHouse Republican who led rioter on tour before insurrection could oversee Capitol policeRep. Barry LoudermilkBill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty ImagesRepublican Rep. Barry Loudermilk — who led a Capitol rioter on a tour of the building the day before the insurrection — could end up overseeing Capitol police.If Republicans regain control of the House, Loudermilk would be next in line to lead the committee that has oversight over the police force attacked by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.Loudermilk has faced backlash from Democrats after video showed him taking a group on a tour of the Capitol building, showing them hallways, security areas, and stairwells. The next day, members of the tour flaunted a sharpened flagpole bearing the American flag as they marched near the Capitol.It remains unclear whether the group entered the Capitol building itself during the riot.Read Full Story Former Jan. 6 committee investigator announces run for SenateSenior investigative counsel John Wood questions witnesses during the third public hearing of the January 6 committee on June 16, 2022.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesJanuary 6 committee investigator John Wood is launching an independent Senate campaign in Missouri in an effort to stop GOP nominee Eric Greitens.Wood told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he believes Greitens — the former Missouri governor — is likely to win the Republican nomination, and that voters deserved an alternative.Wood, a Republican, said he will run as an independent.Read MoreTrump ally says Hutchinson's testimony was a 'campaign commercial' for Ron DeSantis in 2024Florida Gov. Ron DeSantisPhelan M. Ebenhack/AP PhotoExplosive testimony by a former Trump White House aide could be a boost to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to replace Trump on the presidential ticket in 2024, CNN reported.One Trump adviser said the hearings — which painted as Trump as violent and volatile — were "basically a campaign commercial" for DeSantis. Another told CNN that "no one is taking this lightly."DeSantis has flirted with larger political ambitions and is a rising Republican star who would be poised to fill the leadership vacuum if Trump is forced aside.Read Full StorySecret Service agents willing to dispute Hutchinson's claims about Trump's outburst, reports sayFormer President Donald TrumpSAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty ImagesSecret Service agents are willing to testify before the January 6 House panel to refute former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's claim that Trump tried to grab the steering wheel when he demanded to be taken to the Capitol on the day of the insurrection, according to multiple reports.The driver of the car and the head of Trump's security are ready to testify under oath that the former President never lunged for the wheel or physically assaulted the driver, according to CBS News.Read More Hutchinson's testimony could lead to legal trouble for Trump: reportCassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2022.Jacquelyn Martin/AP PhotoFormer aides to Donald Trump worry the explosive testimony by a former White House aide could put Trump in legal jeopardy, according to the New York Times."This hearing definitely gave investigators a lot to chew on," former Attorney General Bill Barr told the Times after testimony from top White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson detailed Trump's behavior on the day of the Capitol riot.Hutchinson's testimony painted Trump as a volatile man who knew his supporters were armed on January 6, 2021. Trump also demanded to be taken to the Capitol building, but his security staff refused, Hutchinson said.Mick Mulvaney, who was once Trump's White House Chief of Staff, said evidence of possible witness tampering could open his orbit up to charges.Keep Reading  Former Trump press secretary shares text that appears to show Melania Trump to condemn Capitol riot violenceMelania Trump speaks at the White House on October 09, 2019Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesFormer Trump Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham shared a text exchange on Tuesday that purportedly showed former First Lady Melania Trump refusing to condemn the violence during the Capitol riot. The apparent screengrab of a text exchange was between Grisham and a person named "MT." "Do you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American, but there is no place for lawlessness & violence?" read the message. "No," the person replied.Representatives for Melania Trump at Trump's post-presidential press office did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.Read Full StoryJohn Eastman drops lawsuit blocking his phone records from January 6 committeeJohn Eastman testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 4, 2013.Charles Dharapak/APIn a late Tuesday filing, John Eastman dropped a lawsuit he'd filed to prevent the Jan. 6 committee from accessing his phone records."Plaintiff brought this lawsuit primarily to protect the content of his communications, many of which are privileged," the latest filing read. "The Congressional Defendants represented in their motion to dismiss that they were not seeking the content of any of Plaintiff's communications via the subpoena they had issued to Defendant Verizon."The former Trump lawyer's phone was seized by federal agents on June 22, according to a separate suit he filed on Monday, seeking the return of his property. Of interest to investigators are call logs from Eastman's personal device, and the search warrant indicates investigators will not review any additional content from his phone without a court order. Read Full StoryTrumpworld shocked by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive January 6 testimony, calling it the 'most damning day' and 'insane'Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2022.Jacquelyn Martin/AP PhotoIt took six hearings for the January 6 select committee to finally break through to embattled former President Donald Trump's inner circle.Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified during a surprise hearing Tuesday that Trump was determined to go to the US Capitol with his armed supporters on January 6, 2021, as Congress was certifying the election results. Hutchinson's additional revelations about that day came crashing down on Trumpworld during the two-hour hearing. Among them were that Meadows told Hutchinson "things might get real, real bad" on January 6, that Trump knew his supporters were armed when they flooded the Ellipse to attend his "Stop the Steal" rally, and that Trump said "Mike deserves it" when rioters chanted "hang Mike Pence." "Definitely most damning day of testimony," one former White House aide told Insider. READ MOREFox News host says it's not 'wholly out of character' that Trump 'might throw his lunch' after January 6 testimony on ketchup dripping down the wallFormer President Donald Trump and Fox News Chief Political Anchor Bret Baier.Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty ImagesMoments after a colleague referred to Tuesday's January 6 committee testimony as "stunning," Fox News host Martha MacCallum downplayed new revelations about former President Donald Trump's violent outbursts surrounding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Trump threw a plate in the White House dining room after he found out former Attorney General Bill Barr publicly said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud, leaving "ketchup dripping down the wall.""I mean, I'm not sure that it really shocks anybody that the president just — knowing what we've seen, observing him over the years — if he got angry then he might throw his lunch," MacCallum said. "I'm not sure. It's obviously a very dramatic detail, and the way that she describes it, um, is. But I'm not sure if this is wholly out of character with the Donald Trump and the President Trump that people came to know over the years."READ MOREHere are all the people who sought preemptive pardons from Donald Trump after the Capitol riot, per January 6 committee witnessesRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., joined from left by Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., speaks at a news conference about the treatment of people being held in the District of Columbia jail who are ch.....»»

The House select committee is investigating the Capitol riot and the role Donald Trump and his allies played in trying to overturn the 2020 election. Lawmakers listen as an image of a Trump campaign donation banner is shown behind them during a House January 6 committee hearing.Susan Walsh/AP The House Jan. 6 committee held a hearing on Tuesday afternoon. It focused on Trump's role in galvanizing far-right groups that stormed the Capitol. The Watergate witness John Dean said the latest testimony could warrant charges against Trump and his circle. Watergate star witness predicts criminal charges after latest Jan. 6 testimony: 'Trump is in trouble'Former White House Counsel John Dean testifying on Capitol Hill on June 10, 2019.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty ImagesJohn Dean, a key witness in the Watergate investigation, said that former President Donald Trump and others will likely face legal repercussions from evidence presented at Tuesday's January 6 committee hearing. In an interview with CNN, Dean highlighted testimony by former members of extremist group the Oath Keepers, who were part of the mob that stormed the Capitol.Dean described them as "really classic authoritarian followers, following the leader."He argued that the testimony proves the extent to which the rioters believed they had been sent by Trump, which he said could be used by prosecutors were they to bring charges against the former president.Read Full StoryTrump 'liked the crazies' and wanted Alex Jones and Ali Alexander as Jan. 6 rally speakers despite red flags raised, former spokesperson saysKatrina Pierson, a former campaign spokesperson for Donald Trump and one of the organizers of the January 6 "Stop the Steal" rally, said Trump wanted Alex Jones and Ali Alexander to speak at the event despite the "red flags" they raised.On Tuesday, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a member of the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot, played a video of Pierson's testimony to the panel in which Pierson commented on Trump's love for "crazies" like Jones and Alexander."Yes, I was talking about President Trump. He loved people who viciously defended him in public," Pierson said in her deposition.Read Full StoryPhoto shows Mark Meadows escorting Rudy Giuliani from the White House following 'UNHINGED' West Wing meeting about 2020 election resultsA photo that Cassidy Hutchinson took of Mark Meadows leading Rudy Giuliani away from the Oval Office.Courtesy of CSPANFormer Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had to escort former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani from the Oval Office following a chaotic, late-night December 2020 West Wing meeting about the election results, according to new January 6 testimony.Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump White House aide whose explosive testimony stunned Washington last month, shared with the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot a photo she took of Meadows leading  Giuliani away from the Oval Office following the turbulent gathering, which was the site of a face-off between Trump's legal allies and White House lawyers over efforts to promote the then-president's baseless claims of election fraud, according to testimony.The January 6 panel shared the photo alongside real-time text messages Hutchinson was sending from the meeting during its seventh live hearing on Tuesday. READ FULL STORYFormer Twitter employee feared people were going to die on January 6A former Twitter employee told the House committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol that activity on the platform raised concerns that there would be deadly violence in Washington on January 6.The former employee, whose voice was obscured in a recording played during Tuesday's hearing, testified about trying and failing to get the company to intervene as former President Donald Trump's extremist supporters used the platform to repeat his statements about the upcoming protests to the 2020 election results.On the night of January 5, the employee testified about slacking a colleague, a message to the effect of, "When people are shooting each other tomorrow, I will try and rest in the knowledge that we tried."The former employee was on a team responsible for platform and content moderation policies during 2020 and 2021.READ FULL STORYOath Keepers attorney used the 'Queer Eye' loft kitchen from Season 3 as her video background before the January 6 committeeOath Keepers attorney Kellye SoRelle.C-SPANTestifying remotely before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, the Oath Keepers' attorney and acting president used a green screen background from the Netflix show "Queer Eye."Erin Ryan, host of Crooked Media's "Hysteria" podcast, tweeted out a screenshot of the remote deposition from Oath Keepers acting president Kellye SoRelle alongside an image from the third season of the streaming series, which Ryan said she found from a reverse Google image search.READ FULL STORYRep. Liz Cheney ends hearing with bombshell: Donald Trump called a witness in the House January 6 investigationFormer President Donald Trump called a witness in the congressional inquiry into the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, Rep. Liz Cheney said Tuesday, prompting House investigators to notify the Justice Department. "After our last hearing, President Trump tried to call a witness in our investigation. A witness you have not yet seen in these hearings. That person declined to answer or respond to President Trump's call and, instead, alerted their lawyer to the call," said Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, in a bombshell revelation that concluded the House January 6 committee's seventh public hearing."Their lawyer alerted us, and this committee has supplied that information to the Department of Justice," she added. "Let me say one more time: We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously."READ FULL STORYThe January 6 investigators obtained a video of Roger Stone reciting the Proud Boys' 'Fraternity Creed,' the first step for initiation to the extremist groupAn image of Roger Stone is shown on a screen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.Doug Mills/Pool via APNew details emerged at Tuesday's January 6 committee hearing on the close ties between Roger Stone and extremist groups, including that the longtime Donald Trump confidante was recorded reciting the Proud Boys' so-called "Fraternity Creed." Rep. Jamie Raskin, who co-chaired the public hearing, described reciting the creed as "the first level of initiation" into the far-right group, five members of which are scheduled to be tried on seditious conspiracy charges in December.  "Stone's ties to the Proud Boys go back many years," Raskin said. "He's even taken their so-called "Fraternity Creed," required for the first level of initiation to the group."Video then played showing Stone in a crowded outdoor setting, saying, "Hi, I'm Roger Stone. I'm a Western chauvinist, and I refuse to apologize for the creation of the modern world." READ FULL STORYTrump planned to call on his supporters to march to the Capitol on January 6, according to a draft tweetThe House committee investigating the Capitol riot on Tuesday revealed a draft tweet in which President Donald Trump called on his supporters to go to the US Capitol after his speech on January 6, 2021."I will be making a Big Speech at 10AM on January 6th at the Ellipse (South of the White House). Please arrive early, massive crowds expected. March to the Capitol after. Stop the Steal!!" Trump wrote in the draft tweet, which is undated.Trump never sent the tweet, but its existence, along with other messages exchanged between rally organizers, offer proof that the march to the Capitol was premeditated, the January 6 committee said.Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida presented the evidence during Tuesday's hearing, and said: "The evidence confirms that this was not a spontaneous call to action, but rather it was a deliberate strategy decided upon in advance by the president."READ FULL STORYTrump's ex-campaign manger Brad Parscale said in private texts that Trump is to blame for Capitol rioter's deathIn a series of texts revealed at the 7th hearing of the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, President Donald Trump's former campaign manger Brad Parscale suggested in a message to former Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson that Trump's words led to the death of a capitol rioter.Messages show Pierson tried to push back, writing that "it wasn't the rhetoric.""Katrina," Parscale wrote back. "Yes it was."Read Full StoryPat Cipollone suggested Pence should get the Presidential Medal of Freedom for refusing to block the Electoral Collage count certificationA video of Pat Cipollone, former White House counsel, is shown as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.Doug Mills/Pool via AP"I think the vice president did the right thing, I think he did the courageous thing," Cipollone said in testimony revealed at the House January 6 committee's seventh public hearing on Tuesday. "I have a great deal of respect for Vice President Pence."Cipollone added that he didn't think Pence had any "legal authority" to do anything other than refuse to give into President Donald Trump's pressure campaign and interfere with the Electoral College certification on January 6, 2021.Read Full Story  11 House Republicans met with Trump to strategize overturning the election results on January 6, and 5 of them later asked for pardonsAccording to Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida, a member of the January 6 committee, several Republicans met at the White House on December 21, 2020, as part of an effort to "disseminate his false claims and to encourage members of the public to fight the outcome on January 6."Vice President Mike Pence, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and Rudy Giuliani were all at the meeting, along with President Donald Trump.According to White House visitor logs, Rep. Brian Babin of Texas, Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, Rep. Paul Gosar of Florida, Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, and Rep-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia all attended the meeting.Read Full StoryFormer Twitter employee tells January 6 committee that Trump received special treatment from TwitterAn evidence tweet is shown on a screen during a full committee hearing on "the January 6th Investigation," on Capitol Hill on July 12, 2022, in Washington, DC. - The House committee probing the 2021 assault on the US Capitol is examining connections between associates of former US President Donald Trump and far right-wing extremist groups at its seventh hearing on Tuesday.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images"I believe that Twitter relished in the knowledge that they were also the favorite and most used service of the former president and enjoyed having that sort of power within the social media ecosystem," the former Twitter employee told investigators in testimony aired in Tuesday's hearing of the congressional committee investigating January 6.The employee, whose identity was kept secret, was introduced by Rep. Jamie Raskin as having worked on Twitter's content moderation team from 2020 to 2021.Read Full StoryCassidy Hutchinson texted a fellow White House aide 'the west wing is UNHINGED' as Oval Office meeting almost devolved into a brawlCassidy Hutchinson, a top former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testifies during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee on the January 6th insurrection in the Cannon House Office Building on June 28, 2022 in Washington, DC.Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty ImagesAccording to messages released by the House January 6 committee, Hutchinson texted the message to another top aide, Anthony Ornato.It was sent amid the scene of a December 2020 Oval Office meeting as Trump attorney Sidney Powell and White House lawyers clashed over efforts to push Trump's debunked election fraud claims. Read Full Story Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone 'set a new land speed record' trying to break up a meeting between Trump, Michael Flynn, and Overstock's CEO, Sidney Powell saidDemocratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, one of the committee members leading Tuesday's January 6 hearing, said former President Donald Trump, election lawyer Sidney Powell, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, and Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock.com, had met to discuss an ongoing effort to reverse the results of the 2020 election.Powell told investigators in previously recorded testimony, however, that the group had "probably no more than 10 or 15 minutes" with Trump before Pat Cipollone, then the White House Counsel, intercepted the meeting."I bet Pat Cipollone set a new land speed record," Powell quipped.Rep. Jamie Raskin says the 'oldest domestic enemy' of US democracy' is 'whipping up mob violence to destroy fair elections'Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., left, listens as Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., speaks as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite"The problem of politicians whipping up mob violence to destroy fair elections is the oldest domestic enemy of constitutional democracy in America," Raskin said in his opening statement during Tuesday's January 6 hearing.He mentioned a time during Abraham Lincoln's presidency, when an 1837 racist mob in Alton, Illinois, during which rioters broke into an abolitionist newspaper's office and murdered the paper's editor, Elijah Lovejoy."If racist mobs are encouraged by politicians to rampage and terrorize, Lincoln said, they will violate the rights of other citizens and quickly destroy the bonds of social trust necessary for democracy to work," Raskin said.Read Full StoryConvicted Capitol rioter testifying in front of the committee warned that a 'Civil War will ensue' if Trump got robbed in 2020Stephen Ayres, who pleaded guilty last month to disorderly conduct in connection to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, is set to testify in from to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack.His testimony is expected to underscore how Trump summoned supporters to Washington DC on the day Congress was scheduled to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.On December 26, 2020, Ayres posted to Twitter: "If the [deep state] robs president Trump!!! Civil War will ensue!" It was posted days after Trump called for a "big protest" in his own tweet.Read Full StoryEx-White House counsel Pat Cipollone was against Trump naming Sidney Powell special counselA video of former White House counsel Pat Cipollone is shown as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteIn previously unseen footage from his deposition to the House Select Committee last Friday, Cipollone spoke about Powell being Trump's pick to be special counsel for the Department of Justice to investigate repeatedly disproven wide spread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election."I was vehemently opposed," Cipollone said when asked about Powell being made special counsel. "I didn't think she should've been appointed to anything."Read Full StoryRep. Jamie Raskin says Trump 'electrified and galvanized' his extremist supporters with a tweet calling for a 'big protest'Jamie Raskin listens as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2022.AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteRaskin, a Maryland Democrat, referenced a December 19, 2020, tweet from Trump during the House's January 6 committee hearing on Tuesday."Big protest in D.C. on January 6th," Trump's tweet said. "Be there, will be wild!" Raskin said that Trump's tweet spurred on "the dangerous extremists in the Oathkeepers, the Proud Boys and other racist and white nationalist groups spoiling for a fight against the government.""Here were thousands of enraged Trump followers, thoroughly convinced by the Big Lie who traveled from across the country to join Trump's wild rally to 'stop the steal,'" he added. "With the proper incitement by political leaders, and the proper instigation from the extremists, many members of this crowd could be led to storm the Capitol, confront the vice president in Congress and try to overturn the 2020 election results."Read Full Story  Ivanka Trump told the House January 6 committee that she believed her father lost re-election 'probably prior' to a formal Electoral Collage vote in December 2020Ivanka Trump.Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesIvanka Trump told the House January 6 committee that she believed her father lost the 2020 presidential election likely before a formal Electoral College vote on December 14, 2020."Was that an important day for you? Did that affect your planning or your realization as to whether or not there was going to be an end to this administration?" an attorney for the committee asked Ivanka Trump in video taped testimony."I think it was my sentiment, probably prior as well," Ivanka Trump said in response.Read Full StoryPat Cipollone's testimony 'met our expectations," Cheney saysFormer White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesJanuary 6 committee vice chair and Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone testified before the panel — and that his testimony "met our expectations."The House committee then aired several clips of Cipollone's sworn testimony at the start of their seventh hearing on Tuesday.Cipollone told the January 6 committee that he agreed Trump should concede the 2020 election and that he lost to Democratic nominee Joe Biden fair and square.  Read Full StoryCheney: Trump is 'not an impressionable child'GOP Rep. Liz CheneyAP Photo/ Andrew Harnik)GOP Rep. Liz Cheney pushed back on excuses for former President Donald Trump's actions during the Capitol riot, saying he was not simply misled about his election lies but knew they were false."President Trump is a 76-year-old man," Cheney said as the January 6 committee began its hearing on Tuesday. "He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices."Cheney said evidence shows Trump was warned "over and over" that there was no sign of widespread election fraud."No rational or sane man in his position could disregard that information and reach the opposite conclusion," she said, "and Donald Trump cannot escape responsibility by being willfully blind."Read Full StoryJan. 6 committee's next hearing expected to link Trump even more closely to the Capitol attackLawmakers on the House January 6 committee will air the inquiry's findings during a public hearing Thursday.Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesFrom its very first hearing, the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol made a point of connecting former President Donald Trump to the violence of that day.A month later, the House panel is poised to delve even deeper. At its next public hearing, set for 1 p.m. ET Tuesday, the committee is expected to focus on how the violent pro-Trump mob coalesced on January 6 and the involvement of far-right groups, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.Committee aides said Monday during a background call with reporters that the panel's seventh hearing would underscore how a single tweet from Trump mobilized his supporters, proving a "pivotal moment that spurred a chain of events, including pre-planning by Proud Boys.""Big protest in D.C. on January 6th," Trump tweeted on December 19, 2020. "Be there, will be wild!"READ FULL STORYCassidy Hutchinson's testimony jolted the DOJ into focusing on Trump in its Jan 6 investigation, report saysCassidy Hutchinson testifying before the Jan. 6 committee on June 28, 2022.Jacquelyn Martin/AP PhotoTestimony by Jan. 6 witness Cassidy Hutchinson sparked debate among top Justice Department officials about Donald Trump's potential criminal culpability for the Capitol riot, The New York Times reported. The June 28 testimony by the former White House aide prompted officials to discuss Trump's actions on January 6, 2021, and questions about potential legal ramifications for the former president, sources told The Times. Present at some of the discussions were Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, the report said. Read Full StoryCassidy Hutchinson and Rep. Liz Cheney have forged an 'unlikely bond' amid January 6 testimony process, per reportCassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump White House aide whose explosive January 6 testimony stunned Washington last month, has found a friend and ally in Rep. Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who has been ostracized from the GOP for criticizing the former president and serving as vice-chair on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot, according to The New York Times.The two Republican women — both on the outs with the party's overwhelming Trump faction — have developed an unlikely bond in recent weeks as the January 6 panel riot zeroes in on increasingly damning testimony against former President Donald Trump.The congresswomen admires Hutchinson's dedication to country over personal power, according to The Times. "I have been incredibly moved by young women that I have met and that have come forward to testify in the Jan. 6 committee," Cheney said in a recent speech at the Reagan Library.Read Full Story A bad day for Steve BannonSteve Bannon asked to delay his mid-July trial by at least three months.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesMonday was not a good day in court for Steve Bannon.The former Trump aide lost on several key pre-trial motions ahead of his upcoming July 18 federal trial on contempt of Congress charges.U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, ruled from the bench that Bannon's defense attorneys couldn't use several of their planned arguments. Nichols also denied Bannon's bid to have the trial date delayed.Insider's Ryan Barber was at the courthouse in Washington, DC, and has more in his dispatch linked below. Read Full Story'That mob on the Mall'An Oath Keeper from Idaho in Bozeman, Montana.William Campbell/Corbis via Getty ImagesWe've got a handy preview for you on Tuesday's next big House January 6 hearing, which will focus on the right-wing extremist groups that in the words of Rep. Adam Schiff helped lead "that mob on the Mall." Laura Italiano breaks down the five potential bombshells she'll be looking out for when the panel convenes at 1 pm. Check out what those are here:Read Full Story The most shocking revelations from the January 6 committee's first hearings on the Capitol attackCassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2022.Jacquelyn Martin/AP PhotoThe next January 6 committee hearing is scheduled for July 12, at 10 a.m. ET.Catch up on the biggest revelations from the public hearings thus far.Read Full StoryTeasing new witnesses, Rep. Adam Kinzinger says of Trump and his allies: 'They're all scared. They should be.'Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL).Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty ImagesIn a series of Sunday tweets, Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Donald Trump and his allies, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, are "scared" following last week's testimony by Cassidy Hutchinson before the Jan. 6 select committee. "This BIPARTISAN committee has been able to find out things that up until recently were denied by the Jan 6th truthers, so they are left with trying to discredit a young woman with more courage than they could muster in a lifetime. Except… that isn't working," Kinzinger tweeted."Cassidy doesn't seek the limelight, but she is compelled with honor. She didn't even have to swear an oath to the constitution like Kevin, Elise, Kristi Noem and others did. But she volunteered to come under oath to tell what she knows. She is a better person than them all. "Read Full StoryLiz Cheney says the January 6 panel won't 'stand by' and let 'men who are claiming executive privilege' attack Cassidy Hutchinson's characterCassidy Hutchinson, a top former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, arrives to testify during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee on the January 6th insurrection in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2022.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesRep. Liz Cheney in an interview that aired on Sunday reaffirmed her confidence in former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony and said that the House panel investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol wouldn't sit by idly and let her endure anonymous attacks.While sitting down with ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., the Wyoming Republican expressed confidence in Hutchinson and the credibility of future hearings."What Cassidy Hutchinson did was an unbelievable example of bravery and of courage and patriotism in the face of real pressure," she said."The Committee is not going to stand by and watch her character be assassinated by anonymous sources and by men who are claiming executive privilege. And so we look forward very much to additional testimony under oath on a whole range of issues," she added.Read Full StoryKinzinger says new witnesses have been coming forward to the Jan. 6 committee since Cassidy Hutchinson's 'inspiring' testimonyRep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesRep. Adam Kinzinger says that more witnesses have come forward since Cassidy Hutchinson's blockbuster testimony during the Jan 6. hearings last week.  "She's been inspiring for a lot of people," Kinzinger said Sunday on CNN's  "State of the Union." "Every day, we get new people that come forward and say, 'hey, I didn't think maybe this piece of the story that I knew was important, but now that you guys are talking' — I do see this plays in here."Hutchinson, an ex-aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, revealed in front of the Jan. 6 committee shocking details of former president Donald Trump's behavior on the day of the Capitol attack, including that he attempted to grab the steering wheel of his SUV and lunged at one of his Secret Service agents, as Insider's Grace Panetta previously reported. "I mean, look, she is going to go down in history," Kinzinger said, referring to the 25-year-old. "People can forget the names of every one of us on the committee. They will not forget her name. And, by the way, she doesn't want that. She doesn't want to be out in the public spotlight."Read Full StoryLiz Cheney says the Jan. 6 committee could potentially make multiple criminal referrals, including one against TrumpU.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) Vice Chairwoman of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, delivers remarks during a hearing on the January 6th investigation on June 9, 2022.Win McNamee/Getty ImagesRep. Liz Cheney in an interview broadcast on Sunday said that the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol could potentially make multiple criminal referrals, including one against former President Donald Trump.During an interview on ABC's "This Week," Cheney — who serves as the vice-chair of the panel — was asked by correspondent Jonathan Karl if the work conducted by its members has shown that Trump's conduct warrants prosecution."Ultimately, the Justice Department will decide that," the Wyoming Republican said. "I think we may well as a committee have a view on that."She continued: "If you just think about it from the perspective of what kind of man knows that a mob is armed and sends the mob to attack the Capitol and further incites that mob when his own vice president is under threat — when the Congress is under threat? It's just very chilling. And I think certainly we will continue to present to the American people what we've found."Read Full StoryDOJ wants a DC judge to reject Steve Bannon's request to delay his contempt-of-Congress trial over January 6 hearings' publicity, saying that he has 'barely been mentioned'Steve Bannon argued in April that his criminal prosecution should be dismissed.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesThe Department of Justice asked a DC judge on Friday to reject Trump ally Steve Bannon's request to delay his contempt-of-Congress trial, arguing that the January 6 hearings have not revolved around him to the point of distraction.On Wednesday, Bannon's lawyers asked a DC judge to delay his July 18 trial, citing a "media blitz" from the public January 6 committee hearings and saying the request was "due to the unprecedented level of prejudicial pretrial publicity."DOJ lawyers said that Bannon is not as popular as he thinks he is."The Defendant's motion gives the false impression — through general statistics about the volume of viewership of the Committee's hearings and overall media coverage of the Committee's hearings — that all of the Committee's hearings and the attendant media coverage is about him," DOJ lawyers wrote in a filing on Friday. "The truth is just the opposite — the Defendant has barely been mentioned in the Committee's hearings or the resulting media coverage of them."Read More2 Secret Service sources told CNN that Trump angrily demanded to be taken to the Capitol on January 6, partly confirming Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive testimonyFormer President Donald Trump.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty ImagesTwo Secret Service sources told CNN on Friday that they heard about former President Donald Trump lunging at the driver of his presidential SUV on January 6, 2021.The pair of sources, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, backed up much of former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive testimony on the altercation in the motorcade vehicle known as "the Beast" after Trump found out he wouldn't be driven to join his supporters at the Capitol."He had sort of lunged forward – it was unclear from the conversations I had that he actually made physical contact, but he might have. I don't know," one of the Secret Service sources told CNN. "Nobody said Trump assaulted him; they said he tried to lunge over the seat – for what reason, nobody had any idea."Read Full StoryMichael Cohen says Trump uses a 'mob boss' playbookMichael Cohen, Donald Trump's former personal attorney, compared the former president to a "mob boss" amid allegations that Trump allies sought to intimidate Jan. 6 witnesses."Donald Trump never changes his playbook," Cohen told The Washington Post. "He behaves like a mob boss, and these messages are fashioned in that style. Giving an order without giving the order. No fingerprints attached."Read Full StoryTrump allies paid legal fees for multiple Jan. 6 witnesses, including Cassidy Hutchinson, sparking witness-influencing concerns, report saysCassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testifies before the January 6 committee in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2022.Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesFormer President Donald Trump's allies and supporters paid the legal fees for multiple people who had provided testimony to the January 6 committee, including the former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, The New York Times reported.Hutchinson eventually fired the lawyer who was paid for a pro-Trump group, and went on to provide damning testimony about Trump, the report said. Two sources familiar with the committee told The Times that they believe Hutchinson's decision to part ways with the lawyer — who had been recommended by Trump allies and paid for by a pro-Trump PAC — likely played a role in her decision to provide new evidence. There are no laws against a third party paying for a witness' legal representation in a congressional inquiry, but the situation may raise some ethical concerns, according to the report.Read Full StoryFormer Secret Service agent said he, too, would have defied Trump's request to be taken to the Capitol on January 6Former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.PhoPhoto by Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty ImagesFormer Secret Service agent Jonathan Wackrow said in an op-ed that he also would not have taken then-President Donald Trump to the Capitol on January 6, 2021.In an op-ed published by Newsweek, Wackrow said he was shocked by Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony to the January committee regarding Trump's actions on the day of the Capitol riot. Hutchinson, a former aide in the Trump White House, claimed that Trump had gotten into a physical altercation with the head of his security detail while demanding to be brought to the Capitol."If I had been working on Trump's security detail on January 6, I would have made the same decision as Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Robert Engel to not go to the Capitol based on the known escalating threats," Wackrow wrote.He added, however, that he believed Trump still respects the Secret Service because he probably has seen "first-hand what they're willing to do to protect him and his family." Read Full StoryGOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger says Cassidy Hutchinson is a 'hero' and has 'more courage than most' Republicans after January 6 testimonyCassidy Hutchinson testifies during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee on the January 6th insurrection.Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty ImagesGOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois on Thursday applauded Cassidy Hutchinson for her testimony to the January 6 committee, saying the former top aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has "more courage" than most of his Republican colleagues. "Cassidy Hutchinson is a hero and a real patriot (not a faux 'patriot' that hates America so much they would attempt a coup.)," Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, said in a tweet."Of course they will try to bully and intimidate her. But she isn't intimidated. More courage than most in GOP," Kinzinger added of Hutchinson.Read Full StoryGOP Sen. Pat Toomey says Trump's chances of winning the party's 2024 presidential nomination are 'much more tenuous' following the January 6 committee's hearingsRepublican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania at the White House with Trump in February 2018.AP Photo/Evan VucciRepublican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania suggested Thursday that public hearings from the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, had damaged former President Donald Trump politically, even among Republicans.At the end of a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg that focused on the Supreme Court's recent ruling on the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Reserve's approach to tackling inflation, the retiring lawmaker was asked whether he believed the hearings would preclude Trump from seeking a second term as president in 2024."I don't know that it means that. I mean he gets to decide whether he's going to run," said Toomey, who was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump on a charge of incitement of an insurrection after the Capitol riot."Look, I think he disqualified himself from serving in public office by virtue of his post-election behavior, especially leading right up to January 6," Toomey said. "I think the revelations from this committee make his path to even the Republican nomination much more tenuous."Read Full StoryCheney 'absolutely confident' that former White House aide's explosive testimony is credibleRepublican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, vice-chair of the select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol, speaks during a business meeting on Capitol Hill on December 13, 2021 in Washington, DC.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesRepublican Rep. Liz Cheney, who serves as vice-chair of the House's January 6 committee, said she is "absolutely confident" that a former White House aide's damning testimony is accurate."I am absolutely confident in her credibility. I'm confident in her testimony," Cheney told ABC News's Jonathan Karl about the allegations made by top Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson this week.Cheney said that Hutchinson showed "an unbelievable example of bravery and of courage" by testifying.Read MoreBannon wants his contempt trial to be delayed because of Jan. 6 hearingsSteve Bannon outside of the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse on June 15, 2022 in Washington, DC.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesTrump ally Steve Bannon has asked for his contempt-of-Congress trial to be delayed because the hearings on the Capitol riot are getting so much publicity.A federal grand jury indicted Bannon in November 2021 on two counts of contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Capitol riot.In a Wednesday court filing, Bannon's lawyers argued that the coverage of the committee's hearings would make his trial unfair.Read More January 6 panel subpoenas former White House counsel Pat CipolloneFormer White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said he would testify about Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ official who outlined ways for Trump to challenge the 2020 election.Alex Wong/Getty ImagesThe House's panel investigating the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, has subpoenaed former White House counsel Pat Cipollone.The demand for Cipollone to appear before the committee comes after explosive testimony from a former top White House aide in the Trump administration, who described Trump and his inner circle's actions before and during the insurrection.Read Full StoryFormer Secret Service agent says Trump's 'girth' would have made it impossible to attack driverOutgoing US President Donald Trump waves as he boards Marine One at the White House in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2021.MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty ImagesA former White House aide testified that former President Donald Trump grabbed the steering wheel of his SUV and lunged at a Secret Service agent on January 6, 2021, after they refused to take him to the Capitol building.But former Secret Service agents told Insider they have doubts about the story."Trump's not a little guy, right? And the space to actually be able to lunge towards the wheel is not that big," one former agent said, speaking on background to Insider.  "I don't mean to sound disparaging to the former president, but just his girth would prevent him from actually getting to the steering wheel."Keep ReadingHouse Republican who led rioter on tour before insurrection could oversee Capitol policeRep. Barry LoudermilkBill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty ImagesRepublican Rep. Barry Loudermilk — who led a Capitol rioter on a tour of the building the day before the insurrection — could end up overseeing Capitol police.If Republicans regain control of the House, Loudermilk would be next in line to lead the committee that has oversight over the police force attacked by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.Loudermilk has faced backlash from Democrats after video showed him taking a group on a tour of the Capitol building, showing them hallways, security areas, and stairwells. The next day, members of the tour flaunted a sharpened flagpole bearing the American flag as they marched near the Capitol.It remains unclear whether the group entered the Capitol building itself during the riot.Read Full Story Former Jan. 6 committee investigator announces run for SenateSenior investigative counsel John Wood questions witnesses during the third public hearing of the January 6 committee on June 16, 2022.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesJanuary 6 committee investigator John Wood is launching an independent Senate campaign in Missouri in an effort to stop GOP nominee Eric Greitens.Wood told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he believes Greitens — the former Missouri governor — is likely to win the Republican nomination, and that voters deserved an alternative.Wood, a Republican, said he will run as an independent.Read MoreTrump ally says Hutchinson's testimony was a 'campaign commercial' for Ron DeSantis in 2024Florida Gov. Ron DeSantisPhelan M. Ebenhack/AP PhotoExplosive testimony by a former Trump White House aide could be a boost to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to replace Trump on the presidential ticket in 2024, CNN reported.One Trump adviser said the hearings — which painted as Trump as violent and volatile — were "basically a campaign commercial" for DeSantis. Another told CNN that "no one is taking this lightly."DeSantis has flirted with larger political ambitions and is a rising Republican star who would be poised to fill the leadership vacuum if Trump is forced aside.Read Full StorySecret Service agents willing to dispute Hutchinson's claims about Trump's outburst, reports sayFormer President Donald TrumpSAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty ImagesSecret Service agents are willing to testify before the January 6 House panel to refute former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's claim that Trump tried to grab the steering wheel when he demanded to be taken to the Capitol on the day of the insurrection, according to multiple reports.The driver of the car and the head of Trump's security are ready to testify under oath that the former President never lunged for the wheel or physically assaulted the driver, according to CBS News.Read More Hutchinson's testimony could lead to legal trouble for Trump: reportCassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2022.Jacquelyn Martin/AP PhotoFormer aides to Donald Trump worry the explosive testimony by a former White House aide could put Trump in legal jeopardy, according to the New York Times."This hearing definitely gave investigators a lot to chew on," former Attorney General Bill Barr told the Times after testimony from top White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson detailed Trump's behavior on the day of the Capitol riot.Hutchinson's testimony painted Trump as a volatile man who knew his supporters were armed on January 6, 2021. Trump also demanded to be taken to the Capitol building, but his security staff refused, Hutchinson said.Mick Mulvaney, who was once Trump's White House Chief of Staff, said evidence of possible witness tampering could open his orbit up to charges.Keep Reading  Former Trump press secretary shares text that appears to show Melania Trump to condemn Capitol riot violenceMelania Trump speaks at the White House on October 09, 2019Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesFormer Trump Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham shared a text exchange on Tuesday that purportedly showed former First Lady Melania Trump refusing to condemn the violence during the Capitol riot. The apparent screengrab of a text exchange was between Grisham and a person named "MT." "Do you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American, but there is no place for lawlessness & violence?" read the message. "No," the person replied.Representatives for Melania Trump at Trump's post-presidential press office did not respond to a request for comment from Insider.Read Full StoryJohn Eastman drops lawsuit blocking his phone records from January 6 committeeJohn Eastman testifies before the House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 4, 2013.Charles Dharapak/APIn a late Tuesday filing, John Eastman dropped a lawsuit he'd filed to prevent the Jan. 6 committee from accessing his phone records."Plaintiff brought this lawsuit primarily to protect the content of his communications, many of which are privileged," the latest filing read. "The Congressional Defendants represented in their motion to dismiss that they were not seeking the content of any of Plaintiff's communications via the subpoena they had issued to Defendant Verizon."The former Trump lawyer's phone was seized by federal agents on June 22, according to a separate suit he filed on Monday, seeking the return of his property. Of interest to investigators are call logs from Eastman's personal device, and the search warrant indicates investigators will not review any additional content from his phone without a court order. Read Full StoryTrumpworld shocked by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive January 6 testimony, calling it the 'most damning day' and 'insane'Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, testifies as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2022.Jacquelyn Martin/AP PhotoIt took six hearings for the January 6 select committee to finally break through to embattled former President Donald Trump's inner circle.Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified during a surprise hearing Tuesday that Trump was determined to go to the US Capitol with his armed supporters on January 6, 2021, as Congress was certifying the election results. Hutchinson's additional revelations about that day came crashing down on Trumpworld during the two-hour hearing. Among them were that Meadows told Hutchinson "things might get real, real bad" on January 6, that Trump knew his supporters were armed when they flooded the Ellipse to attend his "Stop the Steal" rally, and that Trump said "Mike deserves it" when rioters chanted "hang Mike Pence." "Definitely most damning day of testimony," one former White House aide told Insider. READ MOREFox News host says it's not 'wholly out of character' that Trump 'might throw his lunch' after January 6 testimony on ketchup dripping down the wallFormer President Donald Trump and Fox News Chief Political Anchor Bret Baier.Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty ImagesMoments after a colleague referred to Tuesday's January 6 committee testimony as "stunning," Fox News host Martha MacCallum downplayed new revelations about former President Donald Trump's violent outbursts surrounding his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Trump threw a plate in the White House dining room after he found out former Attorney General Bill Barr publicly said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud, leaving "ketchup dripping down the wall.""I mean, I'm not sure that it really shocks anybody that the president just — knowing what we've seen, observing him over the years — if he got angry then he might throw his lunch," MacCallum said. "I'm not sure. It's obviously a very dramatic detail, and the way that she describes it, um, is. But I'm not sure if this is wholly out of character with the Donald Trump and the President Trump that people came to know over the years."READ MOREHere are all the people who sought preemptive pardons from Donald Trump after the Capitol riot, per January 6 committee witnessesRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., joined from left by Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., speaks at a news conference about the treatment of people being held in the District of Columbia jail who are ch.....»»