June 9, 2022
Today promises to be a huge day in the story of the January 6, 2021, insurrection. The Committee investigating it will go live, tonight, with its findings and evidence.
Every major network, except for Fox (which is just pathetic on their part) will run it live. So will C-SPAN. The committee is set to go on the air at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, 6:00 Mountain Standard.
How many Wyomingites, however, will tune in to see it, and to see a story that many simply do not wish to?
June 10, 2022
The first hearing was held, featuring the chairman and the co-chairman, Liz Cheney, delivering powerful opening statements.
It's clear that the committee, over a series of hearings, intends to demonstrate that:
Last prior edition
The editorial noted Meadow's behavior on January 6 and how his lack of action may have contributed to the events of that day.
January 15, 2021
Our first thread on this was too darned long, right from the onset.
That's because, of course, it incorporated a speech.
There have been some recent NPR Politics episodes of interest:
In more local news, a Wyoming man has been charged with sedition for his participation in the insurrection.
January 21, 2022
The committee investigating the insurrection has asked Ivanka Trump to voluntarily appear before it. Rudy Giuliani has also been subpoenaed.
January 24, 2022
The Guiliani story turns out to be considerably worse than first supposed, at least here. He apparently was part of an effort to send fake electors to Vice President Pence.
If this bears out, it's undoubtedly sedition.
Even more disturbing, perhaps, there was a plan that was circulating to use an executive order to require the military to seize ballot boxes. This appears to have been drafted just prior to a speech that Trump delivered, and it obviously was never signed, but the full story of the draft, who drafted it, and how far it was circulated, is not yet known.
The use of the military to seize ballot boxes is, it might be noted, a classic move in a coup.
January 30, 2022
Even though there's 0 indication of any voting fraud in Wyoming, the Secretary of State felt compelled to put on a 45-minute presentation disproving the "myths" of voting fraud in Wyoming, which don't really exist, for the Republican Central Committee.
Some counties are going to be audited, at state expense, to disprove that myth here. I.e., nobody, at least in wider circulation, is really saying there's voting fraud in Wyoming, no such myth, to the extent it exists, has any credibility, but we're going to audit some counties just to show that.
The really scary thing here is that apparently in some GOP circles the concept of voter fraud has sunk in so deep that some even in this state, although they must be a tiny minority, believe it happened here. Oddly, if it happened here, what would that mean? That Biden won?
January 31, 2022
Former President Trump indicated that if he's elected in 2024 he'll consider pardoning those convicted for their role in the insurrection.
This assumes, which isn't a safe assumption, that he hasn't been indited and convicted for a role himself.
February 3, 2022
Impeachment witness Lt. Col. Alexander Vidman is suing Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr. and others over what he claims was a conspiracy to silence him prior to his impeachment testimony.
Trump has been lumping some surprising characters into the "RINO" category recently, including Lindsey Graham who criticized Trump's statement about pardoning insurrectionists. Whatever a person thinks of Graham, he's not a "RINO".
Trump has also criticized Vice President Pence.
Of note, recent Trump rallies are getting very little attention and next to no press, which may indicate a state of waning interest in the former President.
In other news, it appears likely that the Electoral Count statute, which is confusing and antiquated, will be amended.
February 5, 2022
Former Vice President Trump came strongly out for democracy and decried President Trump's claim that he could have overturned the election in a speech to the Federalist Society yesterday.
There are signs that the wheels are finally coming off the post election Trump train. He's not drawing crowds to his gatherings any longer, and there are finally some who are coming out and speaking the truth on the events from November to January, including Pence, who was once close to the President.
None of this has stopped party leadership, however, from diving in deeper, as the censure in Salt Lake City against Cheney and Kinzinger demonstrates.
February 8. 2022
It's being reported that President Trump ripped up documents continually that were covered by the Presidential Records Act, an illegal act. He was repeatedly warned to stop doing this.
Additionally, records had to be retrieved from Mar-a-Lago.
The use of the phrase "legitimate political discourse" in the Republican Central Committee's condemnation of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger has caused a firestorm of criticism that the Committee is trying to walk back, although it looks unlikely that it will be able to do so.
February 9, 2022
In a sign of part of the GOP pulling away from the Trump wing, powerful Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell criticized the Republican Central Committee, stating that it's not the job of the RNC to single out individuals with views different from the majority. He also called the January 6 insurrection just that.
In doing this, he joined openly a group of Republican leaders who have been strongly reacting to the Committee's censure of Cheney and Kinzinger, although some have done it privately. McConnell's statements are the strongest yet, and the first to outright state that the January 6 insurrection was an attempt to prevent the lawful transfer of power.
ABC Reporter Rachel Scott tried to ask House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy if he agreed with the RNC's statements about "legitimate political discourse" and he practically sprinted down the hall to avoid answering her question. This is a sign too that Republicans, who should be focusing on the issues presented by the current administration's policies, are struggling to deal with a former President who is getting, if anything, more extreme in his claims.
The weekend news shows, which came out before McConnell's statement, are also evidence of the tension. Various Republicans who are pretty clearly of the mind that January 6 was an insurrection were asked about the RNC statement and struggled to deflect or qualify their answers to it, not very successfully as a rule.
Ronna McDaniel, a member of the Romney family and a niece of Mitt Romney, who is head of the RNC defended the censure, claiming it had been misreported. At the same time, her uncle, Utah Senator Mitt Romney, praised Cheney and Kinziger for their bravery and characterized the censure as shameful.
While it might be too early to tell, a person has to start wondering if this is a "have you no decency" moment for the RNC.
February 10, 2022
The National Archives have asked the Department of Justice to look at possible violations of the law, as among the things retrieved from Mar-a-Lago are documents that were possibly classified.
Additionally, it's being reported that during the Trump Administration, White House staff would occasionally find wads of printed paper clogging a toilet which they believed Trump had attempted to flush.
This presents an interesting topic, and is apparently revealed in a book that those close to Trump have been dreading. Trump boosted the "lock her up" mantra in regard to Hilary Clinton for her supposed violations of the law, and now clear violations of the law, if they occurred, are being directly attributed to him. This would presumably cause his supporters to reconsider their loyalty to him, but as he himself has noted, seemingly nothing actually does that.
Also, Trump has apparently remained in contact with the dictator of North Korea since leaving office.
February 11, 2022
In an example of reducto ad absurdum, former President Trump, in reaction to Mitch McConnell, accused him of being in league with RINOS and "so against what Republicans are about".
McConnell is a lifelong conservative and, no matter what a person thinks of him, not only loyal to those principles, but highly intelligent. To accuse him of being against what Republicans are about may be, however, frighteningly close to true right now.
Gaps in phone calls for President Trump for January 6 have shown up.
February 28, 2022
Former Trump Administration Bill Barr has written a memoir, in which he has reportedly stated the former President lacked the temperament and persuasive powers to be an effective leader. He reiterates that Trump lost the election and that it was not stolen, but feels that Trump's actions after the election don't meet the legal definition of incitement.
He goes further, however, and states that Trump went off the rails after the election, and that:
He surrounded himself with sycophants, including many whack jobs from outside the government, who fed him a steady diet of comforting but unsupported conspiracy theories.
He's urging the GOP to pick somebody else for the 2024 Presidential campaign.
March 3, 2022
The January 6 Committee has indicated that there may be enough evidence to prefer charges against Donald Trump for a criminal conspiracy associated with the effort to overturn the election.
This has been speculated upon for a long time. My guess is that criminal charges will in fact be made, probably within the next thirty days. It'll create a firestorm of controversy, but it will also start to further define the positions of those now running in the GOP as to the extent to which they're willing to continue to be Trump fellow travelers.
March 12, 2022
Adam Kinzinger tweeted yesterday:
March 18, 2022
The House Oversight Committee is commencing an investigation into the New Mexico election audit.
March 29, 2022
U.S. District Court Judge David Carter has stated that "Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021". He further termed Trump's actions and that of his lawyer as a "coup in search of a legal theory".
The court cannot refer Trump for prosecution, but this is one more step that makes it likely that Trump will be facing inditement. My prediction is that this will occur by mid summer.
March 30, 2022
Seven hours of Trump phone calls from January 6 are missing in some fashion.
April 22, 2022
In the category of, when you are in public, presume somebody is recording something category, audio has been released demonstrating that Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy stated after the insurrection that he was going to recommend to Donald Trump that he resign from the Presidency. McCarthy, through a spokesman, attempted to deny it, but the denials fell flat under the circumstances.
The New York Times, playing the teasing cat, hinted that they have more damaging audio, which probably inspires those like McCarthy who initially wanted the President to step down, to hold their tongues, as they now don't know what the Times has.
Liz Cheney, who can be heard on the tape, has denied being the recording party.
Matt Gaetz has already turned on McCarthy.
April 22, 2022, cont:
And also this news, from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library:
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY AT HOME AND ABROAD
For the first time ever, the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award will honor five individuals — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.S. Representative Liz Cheney, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Arizona Representative Russell “Rusty” Bowers, and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss — each for their courage to protect and defend democracy in the United States and abroad.
Regarding Cheney, they state:
Prior to the election in 2020, Representative Liz Cheney was elected by her colleagues to be chair of the House Republican Conference, making her the third-ranking Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the highest-ranking Republican woman in the history of the House. She has been one of the most conservative members within the Republican Conference. After the election, however, when President Trump falsely claimed that the election was stolen, she repeatedly called on the President to respect the rulings of the courts and his oath of office, and to publicly support the peaceful transfer of power. When the President instead rejected the lawful, certified outcome of the election, she broke with most in her party, urged fidelity to the Constitution, and stood her ground with honor and conviction. She stood against the lawlessness and violence of January 6th, and voted to impeach President Trump, concluding: "The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing.” Cheney received numerous death threats after casting her vote in favor of impeachment, and yet refused to take the politically expedient course that most of her party embraced. Because she would not remain silent or ignore the events of January 6th, Cheney's congressional colleagues stripped her of her leadership position in the GOP caucus. She now serves as the Vice Chair of the Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, and remains a consistent and courageous voice in defense of democracy.
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