Could the United States already be seeing a second insurrection much like the one that took place on January 6, 2021?
That’s the contention of MSNBC host Chris Hayes, who noted on his show Friday evening that he fears that former president Donald Trump “is very clearly planning to run the same playbook from last time.”
“We are watching a slow-motion insurrection,” Hayes said. “In these final weeks of the campaign, Trump and his allies are laying all the groundwork, getting ready to reject the free and fair result of this election if he does not win, that’s plain as day – we all know it.”
Hayes then played a video of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) steadfastly refusing to admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.
“Today J.D. Vance said he would help his running mate in another coup attempt after refusing to acknowledge that Trump lost in 2020, over and over again,” Hayes added. “The 2020 lie is about protecting Donald Trump’s fragile ego.”
“But also, more seriously, we have to take J.D. Vance and Donald Trump seriously. Every day they are telling us how they are approaching this. They are openly plotting to steal this election because while we may be used to the lies and anti-democratic rhetoric, we are headed to a very dangerous and precarious moment.”
The United States is at an inflection point in its history. We will either reject the lies and violence of Republicans or slide further into autocracy and fascism. If the latter happens, this nation is doomed.
Over the next week, Donald Trump will hold campaign rallies in three states that are longtime Democratic strongholds: California, Colorado, and New York.
Why would a candidate seeking to win a national election waste resources and time in states that have been dark blue for decades and are trending further to the left yearly?
According to an illuminating article from Heather Digby Parton in Salon, it appears Trump is chasing crowds to satisfy his massive ego and give the appearance that he’s winning, even though most polls show otherwise.
Parton cites this comment from a Trump adviser as proof:
“Choosing high-impact settings makes it so the media can’t look away and refuse to cover the issues and the solutions President Trump is offering. We live in a nationalized media environment and the national media’s attention on these large-scale, outside-the-norm settings increases the reach of his message across the country and penetrates in every battle ground state.”
Trump is an egomaniac. We’ve always known that. But there could also be darker forces at work behind the scenes that involve Republican plans to steal the 2024 election even if Vice President Kamala Harris winds up winning more votes than the disgraced ex-president.
All of this is to say that Trump seems to have a Plan B in mind if he loses the election again and he wants to make sure he’ll have a Republican House and Senate on January 6, 2025 just in case they want to contest the transfer of power again. It’s almost as if he’s looking forward to it.
Remember, his campaign manager Chris LaCivita made it clear that they were prepared to contest all the way. He said, “It’s not over until he puts his hand on the Bible and takes the oath…. It’s not over on Election Day. It’s over on Inauguration Day, ‘cause I wouldn’t put anything past anybody.” I assume the Democrats understand this and are prepared for everything, right?
If the GOP manages to maintain control of Congress, they would then have the power to refuse certification of the vote and throw the election into the House of Representatives, which would choose the next president. And if the House and Senate remained in GOP hands, that would mean Republicans would no doubt choose Trump, despite what voters have said with their ballots.
The 2024 would be stolen. But legally, and likely with the blessings of the Supreme Court, which would cite the Constitution as mandating the electing of the head of state by Congress. Yes, that would disenfranchise millions of voters, but the high court did exactly that in 2000 when they handed the White House to George W. Bush.
What we need is a genuine Blue Wave, an overwhelming show of support for Kamala Harris and Democrats up and down the ballot that cannot be denied or overturned without the risk of a national uprising. We cannot risk letting a far-right Supreme Court install Trump. The power is in our hands, but we have to use it.
At a jampacked campaign rally in support of Vice President Kamala Harris Thursday evening in Pittsburgh, former President Barack Obama commented on the man who followed him in the White House that went viral in less than an hour and continues to be shared on social media this morning.
Obama praised a proposed tax credit of $6,000 for new parents that’s part of Harris’ economic plan, noting, “She wants to make it easier to afford stuff like a crib, or a car seat or diapers.”
“I remember changing diapers,” he added. He then asked the rallygoers, “Do you think Donald Trump ever changed a diaper?”
The room erupted in laughter when someone in the crowd yelled, “His own!”
“I almost said that but decided I shouldn’t say it,” Obama replied as the audience began laughing and applauding again.
Obama: Or diapers. I remember buying diapers. Do you think Donald Trump ever changed a diaper?
Obama added, “Instead of giving more tax breaks to billionaires and raising prices on working families, Kamala will give a tax cut to 100 million middle-class and working people here in America.”
The former president’s remarks in Pittsburgh clearly struck a nerve with the Trump camp as campaign communications director Steven Cheung fired off an angry response.
“Barack Hussein Obama couldn’t even make a coherent defense of Kamala Harris’ record because even he knows she represents a disastrous four years of skyrocketing inflation, an out-of-control border, and rampant crime that terrorizes communities across the country.”
Nice try, Steven, but that’s not going to make the diaper comment disappear, and it’s likely to increase the damage inflicted by Obama, who remains incredibly popular with the American electorate.
Obama’s remarks were hailed online.
That might be the second best line of this campaign after Kamala said “81 million Americans fired Donald Trump in 2020.”
According to failed one-term and twice-impeached former president Donald Trump, no one has bigger crowds than he does at his campaign rallies. The venues are always packed to the gills with thousands more assembled outside wishing they could have had the honor of getting in.
However, photographic evidence from a rally Trump held Wednesday in Reading, Pennsylvania, suggests that like everything the Donald says, the opposite is almost always true.
Trump told the audience in Reading, “We do a lot of these beautiful rallies, and it’s so great. We never have an empty seat, never have, look at it.”
However, photos of the event prove otherwise, as sections closest to the stage where Trump was speaking were indeed full, other parts of the arena certainly weren’t.
Here’s a photo from Alex Brandon of the Associated Press:
Libbey Dean of NewsNation also provided a video that contradicted Trump’s no empty seat claim.
📍Trump’s rally in Reading, PA. A lot of open seats in the back. The arena capacity is over 7,000. pic.twitter.com/JXRKNpGsZs
That was all it took to set off a wave of well-deserved mockery aimed directly at the disgraced ex-head of state.
“OMG!!! Look at all of the empty seats at Trump’s rally in Reading, Pennsylvania! This is so humiliating for the Trump campaign. Nobody shows up to his rallies anymore!”
OMG!!! Look at all of the empty seats at Trump’s rally in Reading, Pennsylvania! This is so humiliating for the Trump campaign. Nobody shows up to his rallies anymore! pic.twitter.com/APhMGSrjqg
“BREAKING: As Donald Trump talks about his sellout crowds, this video clearly shows empty seats. Americans are sick and tired of Donald Trump’s BS. Retweet to make sure every American knows Trump’s rallies have low energy and low attendance.”
BREAKING: As Donald Trump talks about his sellout crowds, this video clearly shows empty seats. Americans are sick and tired of Donald Trump’s BS. Retweet to make sure every American knows Trump’s rallies have low energy and low attendance. pic.twitter.com/TTYA03N55Y
“My kid’s had their high school graduations at this same arena as Trump’s rally tonight in Reading, Pennsylvania. There were not as many empty seats there for their graduating classes of 335 and 352 students. The arena can hold 8800 for concerts.”
My kid’s had their high school graduations at this same arena as Trump’s rally tonight in Reading, Pennsylvania. There were not as many empty seats there for their graduating classes of 335 and 352 students. The arena can hold 8800 for concerts. https://t.co/dMxuXUJgY6
CNN host Kate Bolduan laid a brutal (and much-needed) fact-check on Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt this morning, even going so far as to tell Leavitt that she needed to talk less and listen more.
The topic of discussion was failed president Donald Trump’s lies about the FEMA response to Hurricane Helene, which devastated areas of the Southeast when it roared through late last month.
Boulduan began by asking Leavitt, “Things that the former president has said is FEMA funds were stolen to be used to house illegal migrants, that no one from FEMA was on the ground in North Carolina, that funds were being withheld from Republican areas of the state on purpose.”
“None of that is true. The head of FEMA says that worse than it not being true, it is dangerous that if this is pushed and circulated for the people who are most in need of help.”
“With that knowledge, is the former president going to stop saying this?”
Leavitt responded, “Well, first of all, Kate, let me just express our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in western North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and now Florida who are bracing for another devastating hurricane. The bottom line is that FEMA spent $1 billion on funding for illegal immigrants that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden let into the country. CNN and many mainstream media outlets reported that more than a month ago.”
“Now, today, we find ourselves in a predicament where Americans are in dire situations in need of food and of water. And Secretary Mayorcas last week said that FEMA does not have sufficient funding to get through this crisis and through the rest of hurricane season.”
Leavitt continued talking as Boulduan tried to ask questions, finally leading the host to insist, “No, no, no. But first on that, let’s let’s get let’s get to let’s keep to the facts, which is on that suggestion that Donald Trump did make, that they were stealing money from FEMA and using it, and it’s all gone because they’re using it to house migrants. That’s not true. There’s no disaster relief fund money that was going in that was going to house migrants.”
“I don’t think the American people care which pocket the money came from…” Leavitt snidely remarked.
“What you’re now saying is that you think it is–. You don’t you don’t think American people care where the money comes from. It is– You think it is bad that they’re using FEMA money to house migrants. Ironically, Donald Trump attempted something very similar to what he falsely now is claiming about them in 2019. Trump used–.” Bolduan noted. And when Leavitt tried to interrupt her, the host more than held her own.
“I’m talking! Let me finish! Trump used money from FEMA’s disaster fund for migrant programs at the southern border. He told Congress that he was intending at the time in 2019 to shift $271 million from DHS, including $155 million from FEMA’s disaster relief fund to pay for detaining and transporting undocumented immigrants.”
“Less than that was transferred from less than the 150 million was transferred. But money was transferred by Donald Trump in 2019 and the Trump administration from the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund to house migrants. So is he is he then okay with moving disaster relief funds for dealing with migrants, but now is not? Is that what you’re saying?”
When Leavitt continued to spout fact-free talking points from the Trump campaign, Boulduan curtly ended the interview.
“We’re going to leave it there, because I offered you three times to give me the answer and I’m not getting it!”
Well done, Kate! Trump and his GOP colleagues love to try and do everything other than answer the questions they’ve been asked. The only way to deal with them is end the discussion and move on. Letting them spin their lies serves no productive purpose.
