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Capitol Insurrection GOP U.S. Senate

Ted Cruz Gets Hit With Blowback For Fundraising Email Claiming The FBI Orchestrated January 6

You probably recall that back during the 2016 race for the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump routinely insulted Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz and members of his family, insinuating that Cruz’s wife, Heidi, was ugly compared to Melania Trump and that his Cuban-born father had played a role in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Cruz was outraged by those attacks on his family, but later paid homage to Trump at the Republican National Convention and has been a subservient lapdog for the Donald ever since.

As a matter of fact, Cruz has now adopted Trump’s tactics and is trying to raise money from a conspiracy theory that has been circulating all over right-wing media suggesting that the FBI planned and carried out the January 6 attack on the U.S.Capitol.

David Corn of Mother Jones reports:

A few days ago, Cruz sent out a fundraising email embracing the right-wing crackpot notion that the insurrectionist January 6 attack on the US Capitol was orchestrated by the FBI or another government agency. Hardcore Trumpists, most notably Fox host Tucker Carlson, have pushed the fact-free idea that the Deep State engineered the assault on Congress to discredit Trump and his political movement. And Cruz has rushed to the front of the loony train. 

The email reads:

Did ANY FBI agents or confidential informants actively participate in the events that day? We know the FBI has been misused in the past to target President Trump and our conservative movement and run interference for the Democrats.”

We know that? Actually, we don’t, because there’s not a sliver of actual evidence to support such an absurd notion. But hey, who needs facts when you’re shearing cash from the gullible right-wing sheep that populate today’s Republican Party? Facts would only get in the way of the overall grift.

Later in that same email, Cruz adds more layers to the complex conspiracy theory he’s spinning in order to get as many greenbacks as possible:

“What are they trying to hide now about the events of January 6, 2021? I’m working hard to expose the full truth and shine a light on whether there was any FBI involvement on that day… and the liberal media can’t stand it!”

Got that? Cruz now has the FBI and the “liberal media” in the same wild fantasy he’s concocted for the sole purpose of getting people to shill out tens and twenties for his crusade against the evil enemy, even though that enemy consists of other Americans, some of whom work night and day to keep this country safe.

But Cruz didn’t get away with his ruse unscathed. He received plenty of blowback for his complex web of lies. Take a look:

Ted Cruz needs to be subpoenaed by the House Select Committee on Jan. 6. If he refuses to comply, that will prove he’s one of the insurrectionists and needs to be charged with multiple federal crimes.

 

Categories
Elections GOP Racism U.S. Senate WTF?!

Unearthed Video Shows McConnell Bragging: ‘My Party Does Really Good With White People And I’m Proud Of That’

Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) got caught in a controversy of his own making while discussing the issue of voting rights, telling reporters:

“The concern is misplaced because if you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans.”

As the AP reported, that set off a wave of criticism for obvious reasons:

The comment implied that Black voters are somehow not American and underscored the concerns of voting rights advocates that Republicans in state legislatures across the country are explicitly seeking to disenfranchise Black voters. The timing was also notable, coming the same day that McConnell engineered a filibuster to block voting legislation that Democrats and civil rights leaders say is vital to protecting democracy.

Mitch tried to walk back his remarks as the full fury of the online shitstorm hit him:

McConnell addressed the controversy at a news conference in Kentucky, calling the criticism an “outrageous mischaracterization of my record as a result of leaving one word out inadvertently the other day, which I just now have supplied to you, is deeply offensive.”

Now, however, Patriot Takes has unearthed a video of McConnell circa 2015 in which he proudly brags that Republicans do well with white voters:

“My party does really good with white people and I’m proud of that.”

During the same 2015 Aspen Institute forum where McConnell expressed pride in being popular with white Americans, he mused on why blacks don’t want to join the GOP, according to Mediaite:

He accused Black voters of being “locked down against Republicans,” and the only hope he expressed for making inroads was the existence of some Black Republicans.

But perhaps most strange was McConnell’s assertion that “it certainly hasn’t been helped by having the first African-American president be a Democrat. I mean, that didn’t do us much good on that front” — as if Barack Obama just fell to Earth and into the Oval Office in a stroke of misfortune for the GOP.

Republicans love to say they’re not bigoted, racist, or opposed to civil rights for minorities in the United States. But that’s just another lie they tell along with all the others.

 

Categories
GOP U.S. Senate Viral Video Voting Rights

Viral Video Shows Democratic Senator Slamming Susan Collins For Her Hypocrisy On Voting Rights

Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff took all he could take during a debate of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and slammed his Republican colleague, Susan Collins of Maine, accusing her of being a hypocrite when it comes to what she says versus what she does when it’s time to move legislation forward.

On Wednesday evening, shortly before Collins joined her GOP colleagues to keep a filibuster in place that prevented voting rights legislation from moving forward, Ossoff stood and excoriated Collins for voting to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act in 2006 but now shirking her responsibility to the memory of John Lewis:

“Abraham Lincoln must be turning in his grave to hear the senators from the Grand Old Party, the party of abolition and emancipation and reconstruction, echoing the states’ rights rhetoric of Dixiecrat segregationists to oppose federal voting rights legislation.

“I speak for the state of Georgia when I say do not invoke Congressman Lewis’ name to signal your virtue while you work to erode his legacy and defy his will.”

It quickly became clear that Ossoff had struck a nerve, as Collins suggested the Georgian might have violated a rule that bans senators from imputing “to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.”

Collins also tried to suggest that the length of the John Lewis Act makes her unable to support it, which begs the question: Is Sen. Collins, at age 69, unable to read more than a page or two without dozing off?

Here’s what Collins said on the matter:

“I’m not sure that the senator from Georgia was even born in 1965. I voted enthusiastically and I did say that about the Voting Rights Reauthorization in 2006, and surely my colleague is not confusing that bill, which was five pages long … with the bill that is before the Senate tonight, which is 735 pages long.” 

What a pathetic excuse for wimping out. But it shouldn’t surprise anyone because this is the very same Susan Collins who believed Brett Kavanaugh when he assured her would protect a woman’s right to choose. Now Kavanaugh and his five right-wing extremist buddies on the Supreme Court are preparing to render Roe v. Wade a thing of the past, leaving women unable to make their own reproductive choices.

So spare us the whining and outrage, Sen. Collins. You sold what was left of your soul a long time ago.

 

Categories
Donald Trump GOP U.S. Senate

Steve Bannon Calls Lindsey Graham A ‘MAGA Traitor’ As The GOP Begins To Implode

Former Trump administration adviser Steve Bannon is furious with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and is accusing him of being a traitor to the MAGA movement and failed, one-term former President Donald Trump.

On his “War Room” podcast Wednesday, Bannon referenced remarks made by President Joe Biden that there were five Republican senators who support him but fear saying so because they believe they would face primary challenges from pro-Trump candidates:

“The five traitors — and this is the scumbags and slimeballs you have here in the nation’s capital — he got five Republican senators have told him they agree with what he’s doing. They agree with what he’s doing and they would vote and support him, but they’re afraid of, wait for it, the War Room Posse.”

Bannon then urged the five senators to identify themselves, taking direct aim at Graham:

“Have enough guts to step up and tell us, Lindsey Graham, who you are. We need you guys to step up to the plate, Lindsey Graham!”

Wow! Sounds like the GOP is starting to implode. And with Trump facing the very real possibility of being indicted in New York, Georgia, and by the Justice Department for his role in the January 6 Capitol insurrection, we could see the Republican Party in a full-scale civil war long before the 2022 midterm elections.

Categories
GOP Social Media U.S. Senate

Ron Johnson’s Twitter Poll About Ending The Filibuster Backfires On Him In Spectacular Fashion

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) thought he had a surefire way to prove that the majority of Americans don’t support reforming the Senate filibuster so that voting rights legislation can be voted on, so he decided he’s post a poll on Twitter.

But it didn’t take long before Johnson found out his poll only succeeded in making him look like a complete fool.

This could be a crucial week in the fight to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has made it clear he intends to call a vote and make very member of the upper chamber cast a vote for or against expanding the right to vote, according to The Hill:

Schumer, from the Senate floor, moved to formally end debate on voting legislation that combines the Freedom to Vote Act, which overhauls federal elections and campaign finance laws, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which strengthens the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

That is expected to set up a vote on Wednesday, though it could be delayed until Thursday, where the legislation will need 60 votes to advance in the Senate. Republicans are expected to block the bill, and once that happens Schumer is vowing to bring up a vote on changing the Senate’s rules.

That led to Johnson’s Twitter poll.

But the senator didn’t get the response he was expecting, as over 95% of those who responded said they want to see the filibuster booted and voting rights legislation passed:

Oops! How embarrassing for Sen. Johnson, who recently announced he’d be seeking a third term in office in the 2022 midterm elections. Many of his fellow Republicans are said to be apoplectic and “having a heart attack” about his reelection campaign, which insiders believe is doomed to fail.

Quite clearly, Ron Johnson is out of touch with voters. Here’s hoping they take that out on him in spectacular fashion come November.