Follow Voice of America - US Politics, filter it, and define how you want to receive the news (via Email, RSS, Telegram, WhatsApp etc.) https://follow.it/voanews15 Thu, 30 Jun 2022 02:56:58 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFva24z9KNv0Bw8b1naedg1wr New details on Trump’s encouragement of January 6 rioters]]> Wed, 29 Jun 2022 09:16:36 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFva24z9KNv0Bw8b1naedg1wr https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvY1hHeZNy8innn9ye8UNv30 The midterm primary season entered a new, more volatile phase on Tuesday as voters participate in the first elections since the U.S. Supreme Court's decision revoking a woman's constitutional right to an abortion jolted the nation's politics. In Colorado's Republican U.S. Senate primary, voters are choosing between businessman Joe O'Dea and state Rep. Ron Hanks. O'Dea backs a ban on late-term abortions but is otherwise the rare Republican who supports most abortion rights. Hanks backs a ban on the procedure in all cases. Meanwhile, in the Republican race for governor in Illinois, Darren Bailey, a farmer and state senator endorsed by former President Donald Trump over the weekend, wants to end the state's right to abortion except for instances in which the mother's life is in danger. He doesn't support exceptions for rape or incest. His opponent, Richard Irvin, the first Black mayor of Aurora, has said he would allow abortions in instances of rape, incest or when the mother's life is at risk. Both races are unfolding in states where abortion remains legal. Democrats have sought to elevate both Hanks and Bailey, betting that they have a better chance of winning the fall campaign if they're competing against Republicans they could portray as extreme. In Colorado, Democrats have spent more than $2 million boosting Hanks' candidacy. In Illinois, the sums have been vastly higher, with Democrats spending at least $16 million against Irvin and to boost Bailey as the nominee against Gov. J.B. Pritzker. The strategy carries risks, especially if the magnitude of the GOP's expected gains this fall becomes so significant that Democrats lose in states such as Illinois and Colorado, which have become strongholds for the party. But at a moment when Democrats are confronting voter frustration over inflation and rising gas prices, the focus on abortion may be their best hope. "It's a very inviting target, to go after a Republican candidate whose position is no exceptions," said Dick Wadhams, a former chairman of the Colorado GOP who has worked for anti-abortion candidates in the past. "I do think the repeal of Roe v Wade may embolden more candidates to go in that direction." "A lot of opportunity, but a lot of peril" Beyond Colorado and Illinois, elections are being held in Oklahoma, Utah, New York, Nebraska, Mississippi and South Carolina. Tuesday marks the final round of multi-state primary nights until August, when closely watched races for governor and U.S. Senate will unfold in Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Missouri and other states And while Tuesday's primaries are the first to happen in a post-Roe landscape, they will offer further insight into the resonance of Trump's election lies among GOP voters. In Oklahoma, one of the nation's most conservative senators, James Lankford, won his primary challenge from evangelical pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, amid conservative anger that Lankford hasn't supported Trump's election claims. In Utah, two Republican critics of Trump are targeting Sen. Mike Lee, accusing the two-term senator of being too preoccupied with winning the former president's favor and helping him try to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In Mississippi, Rep. Michael Guest, a Republican who bucked Trump to vote for an independent Jan. 6 commission, faces a challenge from Michael Cassidy, a former Navy pilot. Also in Colorado, indicted county clerk Tina Peters, who has been barred by a judge from overseeing elections in her home county in the western part of the state, is running for the GOP nomination for the state's top elections post by contending she's being prosecuted for uncovering a grand conspiracy to steal the 2020 election from Trump. She faces Pam Anderson, a former county clerk and critic of Trump's election lies, for the nomination to challenge Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold in November. Republicans worry that Peters, who is being prosecuted by a Republican district attorney for her role in a security breach in her county's election system, would drag down the entire ticket if she becomes the nominee. The GOP has lost almost every statewide race since 2014 but hopes public disenchantment with President Joe Biden gives them an opening. "There's a lot of peril on June 28 for Republicans," Wadhams said. "A lot of opportunity, but a lot of peril as well." Other GOP opportunities in the state come in the newly created congressional swing seat north of Denver, where four Republican candidates are competing to face state Rep. Yadira Caraveo, the only Democrat running in the primary. Heidi Ganahl, the lone statewide elected Republican as a member of the University of Colorado's board of regents, faces Greg Lopez, a former mayor in suburban Denver, in the contest for the GOP nomination to face Democratic Gov. Jared Polis. Also in Colorado, firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert faces moderate state Sen. Don Coram in the Republican primary in the western part of the state. In Colorado Springs, Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn, who faces regular primary challenges, this time is fighting back state Rep. Dave Williams, who failed to get the phrase "Let's Go Brandon," code for an obscenity against President Joe Biden, added to his official name on the ballot. Voter seeks candidate who shares "our values" Other than the governor's race primary, Illinois also features two, rare incumbent vs. incumbent congressional primaries as a result of House districts being redrawn during last year's redistricting. Democratic Reps. Sean Casten and Marie Newman will compete in a Chicago-area seat. And GOP Rep. Rodney Davis, one of the last moderates in the Republican caucus, faces Trump-backed Rep. Mary Miller, who at a rally with the former president this weekend described the Supreme Court decision as "a victory for white life." A spokesman said she meant to say "right to life." In the smaller towns of Illinois, conservative voters were hankering for a change. Toni Block, 80, of McHenry, about 45 miles northwest of Chicago, voted for Bailey in the gubernatorial primary. "He's got all the good things that we need to get back to," Block said. "Not only is he a Trump supporter, he has our values." In New York, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who became the state's chief executive last fall when Andrew Cuomo resigned during a sexual harassment scandal, is fighting off primary challenges from the left and center. New York City's elected public advocate, Jumaane Williams, contends Hochul hasn't been active enough on progressive issues while Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi blasts her for being too liberal on crime. On the Republican side, Rep. Lee Zeldin is the frontrunner in a crowded gubernatorial primary field that includes Andrew Giuliani, the son of former New York mayor and Trump confidant Rudolph Giuliani. Trump has not made an endorsement in the race.]]> Wed, 29 Jun 2022 06:57:33 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvY1hHeZNy8innn9ye8UNv30 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZtHTa13XOOHylmFkX7M1Jw Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson told U.S. lawmakers Tuesday that then-President Donald Trump became increasingly angry and volatile about his 2020 reelection loss, testifying that he agreed with rioters at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 last year when they called for then-Vice President Mike Pence be hanged for refusing to block the election outcome.    Hutchinson said that as some of the thousands of Trump supporters at the Capitol chanted "Hang Mike Pence!" Trump told her boss, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, "Mike deserves it."     She quoted Meadows as saying that Trump "doesn't think (the anti-Pence protesters were) doing anything wrong."    Trump supporters had erected a gallows on the National Mall within eyesight of the Capitol, although Pence's security detail rushed him to safety as the mayhem raged. Some rioters came within about 12 meters of reaching him.    Later, Trump tweeted that "Mike Pence didn't have the courage" to block Congress from certifying that Democrat Joe Biden had defeated Trump in the 2020 election. But it was not until more than an hour later that Trump finally told his supporters in a video message to leave the Capitol, after earlier ignoring pleas from family members, including his daughter Ivanka, a White House aide, and other advisers to publicly call off the riot.     WATCH THE HEARING: Hutchinson, who worked in an office just steps from Trump's Oval Office, said she learned from Anthony Ornato, a Meadows aide responsible for coordinating Trump's security detail, that the then-president, after a rally near the White House before the mayhem at the Capitol, attempted to grab the wheel of his limousine from a Secret Service agent and demanded to go to the Capitol to join his supporters.  Trump had told thousands of supporters at the rally that he would join them in walking to the Capitol, but his security detail had determined it was too dangerous and instead drove him back to the White House.    Hutchinson said she was told by Ornato that, once in the limousine, Trump was "under the impression … he thought they were going to the Capitol" and was "very, very angry" when he realized they were not.    "I'm the 'effing' president, take me to the Capitol," Trump demanded, according to Ornato's recounting of the incident to Hutchinson.    She testified that Ornato told her Trump grabbed the steering wheel but was pushed away by his chief security agent, Bobby Engel.    "Sir, you need to take your hand off of the steering wheel, we're going back to the West Wing, we're not going to the Capitol," Hutchinson said, quoting Ornato's retelling of what Engel told Trump.    "Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge toward Engel and when Mr. Ornato recounted the story to me, he motioned to his clavicles," Hutchinson testified.  Earlier that day, according to Hutchinson, Trump had been informed that many of the supporters whom he was urging to march to the Capitol were armed and equipped with body armor. Hutchinson said the president was angered that the Secret Service was using magnetometers to check for weapons at the entrance to the rally and confiscating those it found. Trump reportedly said he wasn't in any danger and complained that keeping people out of the rally made the crowd look smaller.    More than a month before, on Dec. 1, 2020, then Attorney General William Barr, the country's top law enforcement official, had told the Associated Press that Justice Department investigators had not found evidence of election fraud sufficient to overturn Biden's victory. Trump lost more than five dozen election lawsuits claiming fraud.    Hutchinson said Trump was furious when told of Barr's remark to the AP reporter. She learned of his anger when she encountered a White House valet cleaning Trump's private dining room next to the Oval Office.    Trump, she said, had thrown his lunch against a wall, shattering a plate and splattering ketchup on the wall.    Hutchinson said that both Meadows and a Trump attorney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, sought pardons for their roles in trying to keep Trump in power.     But Trump, while pardoning other aides for their possible crimes before leaving office, did not act on the requests from Meadows or Giuliani, nor on similar demands from a half-dozen Republican congressmen Hutchinson said had requested pardons.      Hutchinson's testimony came in the House of Representatives committee's sixth hearing this month, with two more set for mid-July.    One of those hearings is set to detail the involvement of right-wing extremists in the insurrection at the Capitol and the other to explore what Trump was doing at the White House as he watched the riot unfold on television for more than three hours, ignoring all entreaties to tell the rioters to leave the Capitol.    Previously, an array of witnesses, in taped testimony and in person before the panel, have described how Trump and his allies sought to pressure Pence, the Justice Department and state officials to upend the congressional certification of the election results on January 6, 2021.     At the rally before the insurrection at the Capitol, Trump urged his supporters to "fight like hell" to block congressional approval of Biden's victory.      About 2,000 of Trump's supporters stormed past law enforcement officials into the Capitol, ransacking congressional offices, vandalizing the building and scuffling with police. More than 800 have subsequently been charged with offenses and more than 300 have pleaded guilty or been convicted in trials. Sentences have ranged from a few weeks in prison to more than four years.     In the United States, presidents are effectively chosen in separate elections in each of the 50 states, not through the national popular vote. Each state's number of electoral votes is dependent on its population, with the biggest states holding the most sway. The rioters who stormed the Capitol tried to keep lawmakers from certifying Biden's eventual 306-232 victory in the Electoral College.      At the heart of Trump's effort to stay in power was an audacious plan espoused by Giuliani and conservative lawyer John Eastman to get legislatures in states Trump narrowly lost to appoint new electors supporting him to replace the official ones favoring Biden.    While the House committee cannot bring criminal charges, the Department of Justice is closely monitoring the hearings to determine whether anyone, Trump included, should be charged with illegally trying to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.  Last week, FBI agents raided the Washington-area home of a former assistant attorney general, Jeffrey Clark, who wanted Trump to name him attorney general in the last month of his presidency so he could advance Trump's erroneous claims of vote fraud, which were at odds with Barr's conclusion.     Trump appeared willing to make the Clark appointment but backed off when top Justice Department officials said Clark, an environmental lawyer, was not qualified to be the country's top law enforcement official and threatened to quit en masse if he were named.     In addition, FBI agents, in a separate encounter in the southwestern state of New Mexico, seized the cell phone of Eastman.     A prosecutor in Atlanta, the capital of the state of Georgia, has convened a grand jury to probe Trump's effort to overturn the vote in that state. Trump asked the state's top election official, Brad Raffensperger, to find him 11,780 votes — one more than Biden defeated him by — out of 5 million ballots.        The investigative panel has heard testimony that key Trump aides told him he had lost the election and that there were minimal voting irregularities, not enough to overturn Biden's Electoral College victory.        In addition, Trump was told it would be illegal for Pence to unilaterally block Biden's victory as Pence presided over the congressional Electoral College vote count. Trump privately and publicly demanded the vice president block certification of Biden's victory and to this day contends he was cheated out of another White House term. ]]> Wed, 29 Jun 2022 01:33:16 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZtHTa13XOOHylmFkX7M1Jw https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZbUp-GsnzwnSlmFkX7M1Jw The congressional panel investigating the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol last year is set to hear testimony Tuesday from Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former President Donald Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, who was privy to key White House conversations as Trump sought to upend his 2020 election loss. Watch the hearing live: Hutchinson's testimony is shrouded in secrecy and was hastily scheduled Monday, with the House of Representatives panel declining to identify her publicly and saying only that a surprise hearing would be held "to present recently obtained evidence." Multiple U.S. news outlets identified her as the new public witness, although the panel has previously shown snippets of her videotaped testimony from three private depositions she gave to the committee's investigators. In one brief segment, she testified that a half dozen Republican congressmen sought pardons against possible criminal prosecution from Trump before he left office. All had played roles in promoting his debunked claims that vote-counting fraud had cheated him out of a second term in the White House. Trump pardoned a handful of political aides as left office but not the House Republicans. The investigative panel, after five hearings earlier this month, had previously said its next public hearings would not be held until mid-July. One of those hearings is set to detail the involvement of right-wing extremists in the insurrection at the Capitol and the other to explore what Trump was doing at the White House as he watched the riot unfold on television for more than three hours, ignoring entreaties from family members and associates to tell the rioters to leave the Capitol. Previously, an array of witnesses, in taped testimony and in person before the panel, have described how Trump and his allies sought to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence, the Justice Department and state officials to upend the congressional certification of the election results on January 6, 2021. Trump staged a rally near the White House shortly before the mayhem at the Capitol, urging his supporters to "fight like hell" to block congressional approval of Democrat Joe Biden's victory. About 2,000 of Trump's supporters stormed past law enforcement officials into the Capitol, ransacking congressional offices, vandalizing the building and scuffling with police. More than 800 have subsequently been charged with offenses and more than 300 have pleaded guilty or been convicted in trials. Sentences have ranged from a few weeks in prison to more than four years. Some of the rioters shouted, "Hang Mike Pence!" in protest of the former vice president's refusal to block certification of the election results in several states Trump narrowly lost. Trump wanted the official results sent back to those states so state legislators could then name electors supporting Trump rather than Biden. During one of the hearings last week, the committee played a video clip of Hutchinson testifying that Meadows and a Trump attorney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, held conversations about putting together fake slates of electors supporting Trump, part of the former president's broad effort to change the election outcome. News outlets have also reported that during one of her interviews with the committee, Hutchinson said Trump had approved of the "hang Mike Pence" chants from the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol and was dismayed that Pence's security detail had rushed him to safety as the rioters came within 40 feet (12 meters) of reaching him. Trump supporters erected a gallows on the National Mall within view of the Capitol. In the United States, presidents are effectively chosen in separate elections in each of the 50 states, not through the national popular vote. Each state's number of electoral votes is dependent on its population, with the biggest states holding the most sway. The rioters who stormed the Capitol tried to keep lawmakers from certifying Biden's eventual 306-232 victory in the Electoral College. While the House committee cannot bring criminal charges, the Department of Justice is closely monitoring the hearings to determine whether anyone, Trump included, should be charged with illegally trying to reverse the outcome. Last week, FBI agents raided the suburban Virginia home of a former assistant attorney general, Jeffrey Clark, who wanted Trump to name him attorney general in the last month of his presidency so he could advance Trump's erroneous claims of vote fraud. Trump appeared willing to make the appointment but backed off when top Justice Department officials said Clark, an environmental lawyer, was not qualified to be the country's top law enforcement official and threatened to quit en masse if he were named. In addition, FBI agents, in a separate encounter in the southwestern state of New Mexico, seized the cell phone of conservative lawyer John Eastman, a Trump supporter who pushed for the plan to name bogus electors supporting Trump in the states where Trump narrowly lost the vote counts. A prosecutor in Atlanta, the capital of the state of Georgia, has convened a grand jury to probe Trump's effort to overturn the vote in that state. Trump asked the state's top election official, Brad Raffensperger, to find him 11,780 votes — one more than Biden defeated him by — out of 5 million ballots. The investigative panel has heard testimony that key Trump aides told him he had lost the election and that there were minimal voting irregularities, not enough to overturn Biden's Electoral College victory. In addition, Trump was told it would be illegal for Pence to unilaterally block Biden's victory as Pence presided over the congressional Electoral College vote count, as Trump privately and publicly implored the vice president to do.]]> Tue, 28 Jun 2022 19:26:41 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZbUp-GsnzwnSlmFkX7M1Jw https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvYjzKSZ2vB-s5s0ohxaO6Yr Here is a summary of Native American-related news around the U.S. this week: Mohegan chief announced as new US treasurer For the first time in U.S. history, a Native American’s signature will appear on all U.S. currency: U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced the new U.S. treasurer: Marilynn “Lynn” Malerba, the lifetime chief of the Mohegan Tribe in Connecticut. As treasurer, Malerba will oversee the U.S. Mint, the Bureau of Printing and Engraving and the storage of about $270 billion worth of gold at Fort Knox. "With this announcement, we are making an even deeper commitment to Indian Country," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said during a visit to the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, home of the Sicangu Lakota. In her first official visit to Indian Country, Yellen also announced the establishment of a new Office of Tribal and Native Affairs that will coordinate the Treasury Department’s relations with tribes across the nation. Treasury Applauds Appointment of Chief Lynn Malerba as Treasurer of the United States Utah tribes to co-manage Bears Ears National Monument Federal officials and leaders of five tribal nations — Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and the Pueblo of Zuni — on June 21 signed a joint government agreement, formally reestablishing the Bears Ears Commission, which will oversee land management of the 5,500-square-kilometer (2,125-square-mile) Bears Ears National Monument. “Today, instead of being removed from a landscape to make way for a public park, we are being invited back to our ancestral homelands to help repair them and plan for a resilient future,” said Carleton Bowekaty, Bears Ears Commission co-chair and lieutenant governor of Zuni Pueblo. “What can be a better avenue of restorative justice than giving Tribes the opportunity to participate in the management of lands their ancestors were removed from?” In 2021, President Joe Biden restored two sprawling national monuments in southern Utah — Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante — reversing a decision by President Donald Trump that opened up Bears Ears for mining and other development. BLM, Forest Service and Five Tribes of the Bears Ears Commission Commit to Historic Co-Management of Bears Ears National Monument New California law honors tribal naming traditions California Governor Gavin Newsom Wednesday signed a bill giving Native American families more time to register the births of their babies. Previously, families had 10 days to register with the state health department. But many Native families in California, as elsewhere, wait until the 10th day to name babies as part of a traditional ceremony. Gavin Newsom Signs Jim Wood Bill Extending Birth Registration Deadline Native pro cyclist sets alpine record Neilson Powless, a member of the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin, on June 19 became the highest-ranked American in the pro-cycling world rankings after finishing fourth in the Tour de Suisse, a grueling nine-day, 1,300-kilometer staged race through the Swiss Alps. See his remarks at the finish line, below.   The Tour de Suisse is considered the warm-up to the Tour de France, just a few weeks away. In 2020, Powless made headlines by becoming the first Native North American to ride in the Tour de France; he has not yet confirmed whether he’ll be on the starting list for this year’s event, which begins July 1. Neilson Powless, Oneida, Becomes Highest Ranked American in the World of Pro-Cycling  ]]> Sun, 26 Jun 2022 09:05:54 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvYjzKSZ2vB-s5s0ohxaO6Yr https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvb0l9yHgNxTeuT5HJgy6HUf The Senate easily approved a bipartisan gun violence bill Thursday that seemed unthinkable a month ago, setting up final approval of what will be Congress' most far-reaching response in decades to the nation's run of brutal mass shootings. After years of futile Democratic efforts to curb firearms, 15 Republicans joined with them as both sides decided inaction was untenable after last month's rampages in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas. It took weeks of closed-door talks but senators emerged with a compromise embodying incremental but impactful movement to curb bloodshed that has come to regularly shock -- yet no longer surprise -- the nation. The $13 billion measure would toughen background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders and help states put in place red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people adjudged dangerous. It would also fund local programs for school safety, mental health and violence prevention. “Families in Uvalde and Buffalo, and too many tragic shootings before, have demanded action. And tonight, we acted,” President Joe Biden said after passage. He said the House should send it to him quickly, adding, “Kids in schools and communities will be safer because of it.” The election-year package fell far short of more robust gun restrictions Democrats have sought and Republicans have thwarted for years, including bans on the assault-type weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines used in the slayings in Buffalo and Uvalde. Yet the accord let leaders of both parties declare victory and demonstrate to voters that they know how to compromise and make government work, while also leaving room for each side to appeal to its core supporters. “This is not a cure-all for the all the ways gun violence affects our nation,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., whose party has made gun restrictions a goal for decades. “But it is a long overdue step in the right direction.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in a nod to the Second Amendment right to bear arms that drives many conservative voters, said “the American people want their constitutional rights protected and their kids to be safe in school.” He said “they want both of those things at once, and that is just what the bill before the Senate will have accomplished.” The day proved bittersweet for advocates of curtailing gun violence. Underscoring the enduring potency of conservative cIout, the right-leaning Supreme Court issued a decision expanding the right of Americans to carry arms in public by striking down a New York law requiring people to prove a need for carrying a weapon before they get a license to do so. McConnell hailed the justices' decision and Senate passage of the guns bill as “complementary victories that will make our country freer and safer at the same time.” The Senate vote on final passage was 65-33. A cluster of House Democrats who watched the vote in the chamber's rear included Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., whose 17-year-old son was shot to death in 2012 by a man complaining his music was too loud. In the key roll call hours earlier, senators voted 65-34 to end a filibuster by conservative GOP senators. That was five more than the 60-vote threshold needed. The House planned to vote Friday and approval seemed certain. On both votes, 15 Senate Republicans joined all 50 Democrats, including their two allied independents, in backing the legislation. Yet the votes highlighted the risks Republicans face by defying the party's pro-gun voters and firearms groups like the National Rifle Association. Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Todd Young of Indiana were the only two of the 15 up for reelection this fall. Of the rest, four are retiring and eight don't face voters until 2026. Tellingly, GOP senators voting "no" included potential 2024 presidential contenders like Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Tim Scott of South Carolina. Some of the party's most conservative members voted "no" as well, including Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah. Cruz said the legislation would “disarm law-abiding citizens rather than take serious measures to protect our children.” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, hailed senators who supported the measure for “coming together and putting the safety of the American people ahead of gun lobby priorities.” While the Senate measure was a clear breakthrough, the outlook for continued congressional movement on gun curbs is dim. Less than one-third of the Senate's 50 GOP senators backed the measure and solid Republican opposition is certain in the House. Top House Republicans urged a “no” vote in an email from the No. 2 GOP leader, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, that called the bill “an effort to slowly chip away at law-abiding citizens' 2nd Amendment rights.” Both chambers -- now narrowly controlled by Democrats -- could well be run by the GOP after November's midterm elections. Senate action came one month after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde. Just days before that, a white man was accused of being motivated by racism as he allegedly killed 10 Black grocery shoppers in Buffalo. Both shooters were 18 years old, a youthful profile shared by many mass shooters, and the close timing of the two slaughters and victims with whom many could identify stirred a demand by voters for action, lawmakers of both parties said. The talks were led by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C. Murphy represented Newtown, Connecticut, when an assailant killed 20 students and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, while Cornyn has been involved in past gun talks following mass shootings in his state and is close to McConnell. Murphy said the measure would save thousands of lives and was a chance to “prove to a weary American public that democracy is not so broken that it is unable to rise to the moment.” “I don't believe in doing nothing in the face of what we saw in Uvalde” and elsewhere, Cornyn said. The bill would make the local juvenile records of people age 18-20 available during required federal background checks when they attempt to buy guns. Those examinations, currently limited to three days, would last up to a maximum of 10 days to give federal and local officials time to search records. People convicted of domestic abuse who are current or former romantic partners of the victim would be prohibited from acquiring firearms, closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole.” That ban currently only applies to people married to, living with or who have had children with the victim. The compromise bill would extend that to those considered to have had “a continuing serious relationship.” There would be money to help states enforce red flag laws and for other states without them that for violence prevention programs. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have such laws. The measure expands the use of background checks by rewriting the definition of the federally licensed gun dealers required to conduct them. Penalties for gun trafficking are strengthened, billions of dollars are provided for behavioral health clinics and school mental health programs and there's money for school safety initiatives, though not for personnel to use a “dangerous weapon.”]]> Fri, 24 Jun 2022 07:40:37 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvb0l9yHgNxTeuT5HJgy6HUf https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZLeBTnle9wxl1cWWor9YPv In the fifth public hearing this month examining the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, congressional investigators detailed how former President Donald Trump pressured the nation’s highest law enforcement officials to declare the 2020 election results invalid. As VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, those fraudulent election claims were also pushed by Republican members of Congress who later sought pardons. Producer: Katherine Gypson]]> Fri, 24 Jun 2022 06:13:48 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZLeBTnle9wxl1cWWor9YPv https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZrn44XjmY4-yejEQ2Mq9rY The congressional panel investigating the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol heard testimony Thursday that former President Donald Trump pushed Justice Department officials to investigate voter fraud allegations even though he had been assured there were no widespread irregularities that would upend his reelection defeat. The panel focused its questions on the efforts of Jeffrey Clark, a former assistant attorney general specializing in environmental law, to be named attorney general in the last month of Trump’s presidency so he could pursue claims that Trump had been cheated out of a second four-year term. Such claims have been found to have no merit; state and federal judges have dismissed more than 60 lawsuits presented by Trump and his allies challenging election results. Clark repeatedly pushed other Justice Department officials to investigate election fraud claims and to press some states to decertify their election results showing Democrat Joe Biden had defeated Trump. But as Clark lobbied Trump to be named to head the Justice Department, other top agency officials told Trump that Clark was unqualified to lead the department, according to Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republican members of Congress on the investigative committee. Ultimately, after other Justice Department officials threatened to resign immediately if Trump named Clark as their boss, Trump dropped the plan to promote Clark. Clark's home searched Early Wednesday, FBI agents conducted a predawn search at Clark’s house in suburban Virginia outside Washington. Russ Vought, president of the Center for Renewing America, where Clark now works, said in a statement that the searchers forced Clark to stand outside "in the streets in his pajamas, and took his electronic devices." Unnamed sources told The New York Times that the search was linked to the Justice Department's investigation of efforts to reverse Trump's 2020 election loss. As the hearing started, House Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said Trump’s efforts to pressure the Justice Department were “a brazen attempt” to “help legitimize his lies” that he had been cheated out of winning in November 2020. Thursday’s hearing was the fifth this month as the investigative panel explores Trump’s role in fomenting the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, where lawmakers had gathered to certify Biden’s presidential victory in the Electoral College. About 2,000 Trump supporters, urged by Trump at a rally shortly beforehand to “fight like hell,” stormed into the Capitol past law enforcement officials, scuffling with police, vandalizing the building and ransacking congressional offices. More than 800 of the protesters have been charged with an array of offenses, with 300 of them pleading guilty or being convicted at trials and imprisoned for terms ranging from a few weeks to more than four years. Trump has derided the investigative panel, comprising seven Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans, saying its presentation is biased against him. He continues to contend that he was cheated out of another term in the White House. More evidence, more hearings The investigative panel’s hearings were originally set to end with Thursday’s session, but with the panel collecting more and more evidence, it is now planning at least two more public hearings in July before releasing its findings in late summer. One of the July hearings is expected to explore how right-wing groups adopted Trump’s erroneous election fraud claims to help plan the rampage at the Capitol, while the other hearing will touch on what Trump was doing at the White House for more than three hours while the rioters took over much of the Capitol. Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, a committee member, told reporters earlier this week, “We are picking up new evidence on a daily basis with enormous velocity, and so we're constantly incorporating and including the new information that's coming out.” “There is evidence coming in from diverse sources now," he said, "and I think that people have seen that we're running a serious investigation that is bipartisan in nature, that is focused just on getting the facts of what happened, and a lot of people are coming forward now with information.” Some key officials in the Trump administration have cooperated with the committee’s investigation. But others have balked, repeatedly invoking their constitutional right against self-incrimination and refusing to answer questions about Trump’s actions and their own in the post-election period and on January 6. Two former Trump advisers, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, refused to cooperate and were indicted on contempt-of-Congress charges. Electoral College count At the center of Trump’s post-election efforts was a campaign to overturn the vote counts in states where he lost or to have fake electors supporting Trump named in states where Biden narrowly won. In the United States, presidents are effectively chosen in separate elections in each of the 50 states, not through the national popular vote. Each state’s number of electoral votes depends upon its population, with the biggest states holding the most sway. The rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 tried to keep lawmakers from certifying Biden’s eventual 306-232 victory in the Electoral College. While the House committee cannot bring criminal charges, the Justice Department is closely monitoring the hearings to determine whether anyone, Trump included, should be charged with illegally trying to reverse the election outcome. A prosecutor in Atlanta, the capital of the state of Georgia, has convened a grand jury investigation of Trump’s actions to overturn the vote in that state. Trump asked the state’s top election official, Brad Raffensperger, to find him 11,780 votes — one more than Biden defeated him by — out of 5 million ballots. The investigative panel has heard testimony that key Trump aides told him he had lost the election and that there were a minimal number of voting irregularities, not enough to overturn Biden’s Electoral College victory. In addition, Trump was told it would be illegal for then-Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally block Biden’s victory as he presided over the congressional Electoral College vote count, as Trump privately and publicly implored Pence to do.]]> Fri, 24 Jun 2022 00:00:04 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZrn44XjmY4-yejEQ2Mq9rY https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvaBuFZaMUFS011cWWor9YPv The congressional panel investigating the causes of last year’s Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol is hearing testimony Thursday about how former President Donald Trump pushed Justice Department officials to investigate allegations of fraud in the 2020 election that he hoped would upend his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. House Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said the panel would examine Trump’s "attempt to corrupt the country's top law enforcement body,” much as state officials in Arizona and Georgia testified Tuesday that Trump unsuccessfully sought to get them to appoint bogus electors to help him stay in office for another four years or overturn votes showing Biden had defeated him. In part, the Thursday hearing is expected to focus on the alleged efforts of Jeffrey Clark, a former assistant attorney general, to repeatedly push Justice Department officials to investigate election fraud claims and to force some states to “decertify” their election results showing Biden had won. Associates say Trump considered naming Clark attorney general over acting attorney general Jeff Rosen, who, like his predecessor, former attorney general William Barr, said there was no evidence of fraud substantial enough to overturn Biden’s victory. In a short video clip shown at the end of Tuesday’s hearing, Richard Donoghue, who served as acting U.S. deputy attorney general from December 2020 to January 2021, said he would have immediately quit if Trump had named Clark attorney general in the waning weeks of his administration. Thursday’s hearing is the fifth this month as the investigative panel explores Trump’s role in fomenting the attack on the Capitol as lawmakers gathered to certify Biden’s presidential victory in the Electoral College. About 2,000 Trump supporters, urged by Trump at a rally shortly beforehand to “fight like hell,” stormed into the Capitol past law enforcement officials, scuffling with police, vandalizing the building and ransacking congressional offices. More than 800 of the protesters have been charged with an array of offenses, with 300 of them already pleading guilty or convicted at trials and imprisoned for terms ranging from a few weeks to more than four years. Trump has derided the investigative panel, comprised of seven Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans, saying its presentation is biased against him. To this day, he has claimed erroneously that he was cheated out of another term in the White House. The investigative panel’s hearings were set to end with Thursday’s session. The committee is set to release its findings in late summer. But Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, a committee member, told reporters, “We are picking up new evidence on a daily basis with enormous velocity, and so we're constantly incorporating and including the new information that's coming out.” “There is evidence coming in from diverse sources now," he said, "and I think that people have seen that we're running a serious investigation that is bipartisan in nature, that is focused just on getting the facts of what happened, and a lot of people are coming forward now with information.” Some key officials in the Trump administration have cooperated with the committee’s investigation. But others have balked, repeatedly invoking their constitutional right against self-incrimination and refusing to answer questions about Trump’s actions and their own in the post-election period and on Jan. 6. Two former Trump advisers, Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, refused to cooperate and were indicted on contempt of Congress charges. Republican Representative Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice chair, called on Pat Cipollone, Trump’s former White House counsel, to answer more questions than he already has. At the center of Trump’s post-election efforts was an audacious scheme to overturn the vote counts in states where Trump lost or to have fake electors supporting Trump named in states where Biden narrowly defeated him. In the United States, presidents are effectively chosen in separate elections in each of the 50 states, not through the national popular vote. Each state’s number of electoral votes is dependent on its population, with the biggest states holding the most sway. The rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 tried to keep lawmakers from certifying Biden’s eventual 306-232 victory in the Electoral College. While the House committee cannot bring criminal charges, the Department of Justice is closely monitoring the hearings to determine whether anyone, Trump included, should be charged with illegally trying to reverse the election outcome. A prosecutor in Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, has convened a grand jury investigation to probe Trump’s actions to overturn the vote in that state. Trump asked the state’s top election official, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” him 11,780 votes — one more than Biden defeated him by — out of 5 million ballots. The investigative panel has already heard testimony that key Trump aides told him he had lost the election and that there were a minimal number of voting irregularities, not enough to overturn Biden’s Electoral College victory. In addition, Trump was told it would be illegal for then-Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally block Biden’s victory as he presided over the congressional Electoral College vote count, as Trump privately and publicly implored Pence to do.]]> Thu, 23 Jun 2022 06:29:52 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvaBuFZaMUFS011cWWor9YPv https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZBTFE0yu-muyejEQ2Mq9rY The war in Ukraine is causing disruptions around the world, from what President Joe Biden terms a “Putin price hike” for American petroleum consumers to an impending global food crisis. On Wednesday, Biden said he was taking steps to try to offset the effects, something he said he’ll be focusing on ahead of two key summits and a Mideast trip. Anita Powell reports from the White House.]]> Thu, 23 Jun 2022 03:27:28 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZBTFE0yu-muyejEQ2Mq9rY https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvb360ofFdMu5qCY3L745TL_ The House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6 , 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol will hold its next hearing Tuesday. The committee has sought to make its case against former President Donald Trump, saying his baseless and repeated claims of a stolen election incited his followers to violence. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports,]]> Sun, 19 Jun 2022 22:36:48 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvb360ofFdMu5qCY3L745TL_ https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvYtUJdchQVnHOT5HJgy6HUf Former U.S. President Donald Trump Friday sharply criticized the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, in his first appearance since the committee began its public hearings. Speaking to a gathering of religious conservatives in Nashville, Tennessee, Trump said, "Let's be clear, this is not a congressional investigation -- this horrible situation that's wasting everyone's time.” “This is a theatrical production of partisan political fiction that's getting these terrible, terrible ratings and they're going crazy," he added. The hearings have laid out how the attack on the Capitol occurred and Trump’s role in it by inviting his supporters to come to Washington and “fight like hell” to keep him in office. In the latest day of hearings, on Thursday, witnesses presented testimony that Trump repeatedly pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to thwart Congress from certifying that Democrat Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, even after being repeatedly advised that it was illegal to do so. Pence was presiding over Congress as lawmakers were in the initial stages of the state-by-state count of Electoral College votes to verify Biden’s victory when about 2,000 Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to disrupt the proceeding. Trump, in private and publicly at a rally near the White House just before Congress convened, implored Pence to reject the electoral count from states where Biden narrowly won and send the results back to the states so that Republican-controlled legislatures could order another election or submit the names of Trump electors to replace those favoring Biden. Pence, a Trump loyalist during their four years in the White House, refused Trump’s demands, saying his role was limited by the Constitution to simply open the envelopes containing the Electoral College vote counts from each state. Trump criticized Pence again on Friday for failing to stop the vote certification, saying, "Mike Pence had a chance to be great. He had a chance to be, frankly, historic.” However, he said, "Mike did not have the courage to act." The House committee investigating the attack showed a brief video clip Thursday of Marc Short, who served as Pence's chief of staff, saying that Pence told Trump “many times” that he did not have the authority to overturn the Biden victory. Pence counsel Greg Jacob described to the committee how a conservative Trump lawyer, John Eastman, tried to convince Pence that he had the legal authority to unilaterally upend the election. But Jacob said Eastman eventually conceded that the  Supreme Court would likely unanimously reject his legal theory. Earlier this week, the House panel showed videotaped testimony from numerous White House and political aides saying they told Trump on election night to hold off on declaring victory, advice he ignored when he declared victory in the early hours of Nov. 4, 2020. Former Attorney General William Barr and numerous aides have told the committee that in the weeks between the election and the insurrection, they told Trump his election fraud claims were baseless and that he had lost the election. Trump continued to assert Friday that he won the 2020 election and insisted that he did nothing wrong after the vote. He hinted that he would again run for president, asking the cheering crowd “Would anybody like me to run for president?" On Monday, Trump issued a 12-page statement calling the Jan. 6 investigation an attempt by Democrats to prevent him from running again for president in 2024. Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.]]> Sat, 18 Jun 2022 05:11:02 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvYtUJdchQVnHOT5HJgy6HUf https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZ7aZ6AO4skZcb1naedg1wr A Republican-controlled county commission in New Mexico that refused to recognize election returns this month after citing unfounded conspiracy theories about voting machines bowed to legal pressure on Friday and certified the results.  Otero County commissioners voted 2-1 to certify the county's June 7 primary election results, but only after the New Mexico Supreme Court ordered them to do so and after threats of legal action by the state's Democratic attorney general.  The commissioner who still voted against certifying the results, Couy Griffin, did so hours after being sentenced for breaching the U.S. Capitol during the January 6, 2021, riot.  Griffin, an election-fraud conspiracist and founder of "Cowboys for Trump," avoided jail time, was fined $3,000 and was given one year of supervised release with the requirement that he complete 60 hours of community service.  Election falsehoods Former Republican President Donald Trump has continued to push falsehoods that Democratic President Joe Biden stole the 2020 election. Many Republicans believe Trump even after revelations in a congressional hearing this month that the former president's own daughter and other close allies rejected the falsehoods.  There are fears of more election turmoil ahead because of the hold that unfounded conspiracy theories about voting machines and vote counts now have on many Republican lawmakers and grassroots Republican voters.  Otero County's initial move not to certify its votes comes ahead of the November midterm elections that will decide control of the U.S. Congress, with both chambers now narrowly held by Democrats, as well as the 2024 presidential election, in which Trump has indicated he could seek a second White House term.  U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger, one of 10 House of Representatives Republicans who voted to impeach Trump on a charge of inciting the deadly January 6 attack, said Otero's initial refusal to certify was a worrying harbinger of election turmoil ahead.  "Wake up America and GOP, this will destroy us," Kinzinger, a member of the congressional commission investigating the January 6 attack, tweeted on Wednesday.  New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who had previously said the county commission was acting illegally, expressed relief that the elections results had been certified.  "The voters of Otero County and the candidates who duly won their primaries can now rest assured that their voices have been heard and the general election can proceed as planned," Toulouse Oliver said in a statement. ]]> Sat, 18 Jun 2022 03:21:58 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZ7aZ6AO4skZcb1naedg1wr https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvah6Kw32ZN8RZVjH6qdYdAk Former U.S. President Donald Trump raised $250 million in donations in the weeks after the November 2020 presidential election for an organization ostensibly intended to fund court challenges in support of his false claims that the election was fraudulent. Instead, he directed that money to an unrelated political action committee, or PAC, according to congressional investigators. In its second hearing about its findings, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol made the case that the former president knew that he had lost the election but continued raising money from his supporters by sending out appeals for donations to an Election Defense Fund. The committee played recordings of depositions given by former employees of Trump's campaign, one of whom said, "I don't believe there is actually a fund called the Election Defense Fund." Another former Trump campaign staffer said the fund was simply a "marketing tactic." Money went to leadership PAC The committee said some of the money Trump's campaign raised in the weeks after the election went to paying down campaign debt and into the coffers of the Republican National Committee. A large amount also went to a new leadership PAC called Save America, which was formed three days after the election. Under law, politicians with leadership PACs have broad latitude to spend the money they collect as they see fit. Created in the 1970s, leadership PACs were originally intended to let political candidates raise money that they could use to support other candidates and political causes. But according to Robert Maguire, research director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), vagueness in the law has meant the PACs are often used for other causes. "What they've become, in many cases, are essentially slush funds," Maguire told VOA. "We've had problems for years with members of Congress using leadership PAC money to pay for luxury hotel stays, private jet flights, rounds of golf and exclusive membership-only golf courses," he said, all within the bounds of the law. Spending connected to Trump allies Amanda Wick, a senior investigative counsel with the Jan. 6 committee, said in a recorded statement that the new PAC "made millions of dollars of contributions to pro-Trump organizations." She said they included a $1 million contribution to the Conservative Partnership Institute, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows' charitable foundation; $1 million to the America First Policy Institute, an organization employing "several former Trump administration officials"; $204,857 to the Trump Hotel Collection, and more than $5 million to Event Strategies Inc., the organization that managed Trump's rally on the morning of Jan. 6. "Throughout the committee's investigation, we found evidence that the Trump campaign and its surrogates misled donors as to where their funds would go and what they would be used for," said Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren, who serves on the committee. Calling the contributions a "big rip-off," Lofgren added, "Donors deserve to know where their funds are really going. They deserve better than what President Trump and his team did." Unethical but not illegal Campaign finance experts say Trump's solicitation of funds for a nonexistent Election Defense Fund, and subsequent direction of that money to his leadership PAC was unethical, but probably stopped short of outright illegality. "There's certainly a long list of examples of politicians and political committees stretching the truth or using inflammatory messaging in order to raise money," campaign finance expert Brendan Fischer told VOA. "But I think what the Trump campaign was doing in the wake of the 2020 election brought it to another level." Fischer, an attorney and the deputy executive director at Documented, an investigative watchdog group, said donors were told their money was going to support a legal challenge. "But in reality, the money raised went towards paying down the Trump campaign's debt, funding the Republican Party and financing Trump's newly created PAC, Save America. So, it was extremely messy. It went beyond the typical tenor of misleading fundraising appeals into something close to outright fraud." Maguire of CREW said there were "very clear" ethical problems with how Trump raised the money. But he said the fundraising effort was probably legal. "These kinds of statements and fundraising appeals are pretty well lawyered," he said, noting that the appeals appeared to contain fine print that left the Trump campaign the leeway to use the money as it saw fit. Other groups focused on the ethical problems with Trump's approach. "It was grift, pure and simple, but on a massive scale," said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, in a prepared statement. "Donald Trump was not content to just ignore the will of the American people and attempt to steal the 2020 election in a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy. He was determined to make a lot of money doing it." Trump comments Trump did not comment on the $250 million the committee claims he raised after the election. But he issued a 12-page statement June 13 criticizing the committee, which he characterized as a "Kangaroo Court." "Seventeen months after the events of January 6th, Democrats are unable to offer solutions," he wrote. "They are desperate to change the narrative of a failing nation, without even making mention of the havoc and death caused by the Radical Left just months earlier. Make no mistake, they control the government. They own this disaster. They are hoping that these hearings will somehow alter their failing prospects."]]> Fri, 17 Jun 2022 09:00:43 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvah6Kw32ZN8RZVjH6qdYdAk https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZSQ2l-osRQv5s0ohxaO6Yr In the third day of congressional hearings on the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, U.S. lawmakers alleged former President Donald Trump waged a multiweek pressure campaign on his vice president, Mike Pence, to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.]]> Fri, 17 Jun 2022 05:32:06 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZSQ2l-osRQv5s0ohxaO6Yr https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZlI0i-ZcD7iaCY3L745TL_ The House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol has asked Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, for an interview, the panel's chairman said Thursday afternoon.  Thomas, a conservative activist, communicated with people in President Donald Trump's orbit ahead of the attack and on the day of the insurrection, when hundreds of Trump's supporters violently stormed the Capitol and interrupted the certification of Joe Biden's victory.  "We have sent Ms. Thomas a letter, asking her to come and talk to the committee," Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the panel, told reporters after a three-hour public hearing Thursday. He didn't specify a time or date for an interview.  The chairman said her name could also come up at some point in the panel's hearings that are being held throughout June.  Earlier in the day, Thompson and committee vice chair Liz Cheney had both said it was time for her to come in voluntarily and provide testimony to the nine-member panel after investigators discovered information that refers to Thomas — known as Ginni — in communications they have obtained relating to one of Trump's lawyers, John Eastman.  'Can't wait' In response, Thomas told the conservative news site Daily Caller on Thursday that she "can't wait to clear up misconceptions," suggesting she would comply with a request to testify.  Eastman, who was advising Trump in the weeks and days ahead of the attack, was a central figure in the committee's third public hearing Thursday. Lawmakers laid out their case regarding the pressure campaign Trump waged, with a legal assist from Eastman, against then-Vice President Mike Pence to try to get him to object or delay Biden's certification on January 6.  On his blog, Eastman posted a single email from Thomas on December 4, 2020, in which she asks Eastman for a status update for a group she describes as "grassroots state leaders."  "OMG, Mrs. Thomas asked me to give an update about election litigation to her group. Stop the Presses!" the headline on the blog post reads.  Eastman also said he never discussed with either of the Thomases "any matters pending or likely to come before the Court."  Thomas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.  It is not the first time that members of the panel have said they want to talk to Thomas.   In March, lawmakers on the committee said they were considering inviting her for a witness interview about text messages with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on the day of the attack. But she still has not spoken to the panel.  Critical of panel She has been critical of the January 6 committee and signed a letter with other conservatives calling on House Republicans to expel Cheney and Representative Adam Kinzinger from the GOP conference for joining the panel.  Thomas also urged Republican lawmakers in Arizona to choose their own slate of electors after the 2020 election, arguing that results giving Biden a victory in the state were marred by fraud.  She has acknowledged she attended the January 6 "Stop the Steal" rally on the Ellipse but left before Trump spoke and his supporters later stormed the Capitol.  Justice Thomas was the only member of the Supreme Court who voted against the court's order allowing the January 6 committee to obtain Trump records that were held by the National Archives and Records Administration. The court voted in January to allow the committee to get the documents.  The court on Thursday did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the justice.  The emails between Eastman and Thomas were first reported by The Washington Post.  ]]> Fri, 17 Jun 2022 01:45:46 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZlI0i-ZcD7iaCY3L745TL_ https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvaNtkXHCmMEknn9ye8UNv30 Joe Biden plans to visit the Middle East in July, with stops in Israel, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia. It will be the first time an American president flies directly from Israel to an Arab state that doesn't recognize the country. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports.]]> Wed, 15 Jun 2022 03:32:25 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvaNtkXHCmMEknn9ye8UNv30 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZwhP8_LQ72r-zdsCmHakzH The House of Representatives panel investigating last year’s January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol says it has postponed Wednesday’s planned hearing. No reason was given and the panel will still hold Thursday’s planned hearing. Monday’s hearing featured videotaped testimony by former U.S. Attorney General William Barr and numerous other White House and political aides to then-President Donald Trump who said they had repeatedly told him that his allegations of fraud in the 2020 election were baseless and that he had lost reelection. Barr said that many of Trump's claims of election irregularities were "completely bogus and silly." "I told the president the claims of fraud were bullshit," Barr said, recalling one of his several White House meetings with Trump before resigning in late 2020. "He was indignant about that," Barr recalled, saying he left the meeting thinking, "He's become detached from reality if he really believes" he was defrauded out of reelection.   "There was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts were," Barr said of Trump. To this day, Trump claims he legitimately won the election two years ago, and that Democrat Joe Biden became president through fraudulent vote counts in several states. Recount after recount in those states, however, showed that Biden had narrowly defeated him, and that any minor irregularities uncovered would not have been enough to upend the outcome. Polls show that many of Trump's supporters continue to believe his false claims that he won the election. "Obviously he lost the election," Barr said of Trump. "There was zero base of evidence sufficient to overturn the election." The investigative panel showed several videos of officials in several key states debunking Trump's claims, including that a truckload of Biden votes had been delivered to vote counters after the election, that thousands of dead people had voted, and that a ballot box of votes had suddenly been pulled from beneath a table as workers counted votes in the Southern state of Georgia. "I told him lots of information he's getting is bogus," Richard Donoghue, a former acting deputy attorney general, testified in another video clip shown by the committee. Former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien had been scheduled to testify Monday but bowed out after his pregnant wife had gone into labor. The committee instead played clips from his earlier testimony in which he told investigators he and others had cautioned Trump on election night to not declare victory while millions of mail-in ballots, which went heavily for Biden, had yet to be counted. Instead, Trump listened to his longtime lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, described by witnesses as inebriated on the night of the election, who persuaded him to declare victory. Trump, in the early hours of November 4, 2020, told supporters at the White House, "Frankly, we did win this election," and claimed that the ongoing vote counting was "a fraud on the American people." Stepien said he did not mind being characterized as "Team Normal" for urging caution in declaring victory, compared with Giuliani and other Trump lawyers, who pushed the president's fraud claims in the weeks after the election. In another video, committee investigator Amanda Wick alleged that the Trump campaign used his election fraud claims to raise nearly $250 million to fight the election outcome before January 6, when some 2,000 of his supporters stormed the Capitol to block lawmakers from certifying Biden's victory. But she said much of the money went to other Trump-favored political pursuits. One member of the House panel, Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren, contended, "Not only was there the 'Big Lie'" about purported election fraud, "but the 'Big Rip-off'" raising the money. Trump rebuttal In a 12-page response to the hearings released on Monday, the former president continued his false claims of election fraud and said the Democrats were using the hearings to distract from a series of economic issues facing the country. “They are desperate to change the narrative of a failing nation, without even making mention of the havoc and death caused by the Radical Left just months earlier. Make no mistake, they control the government. They own this disaster. They are hoping that these hearings will somehow alter their failing prospects,” Trump said in a statement. The committee is holding a series of hearings this month to uncover how the January 6 insurrection occurred and what role Trump played in fomenting it. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who is deciding whether the Department of Justice should prosecute Trump, said Monday of the hearings, "I am watching." "And I can assure you the January 6 prosecutors are watching all of the hearings, as well," he told a press briefing. Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.   ]]> Tue, 14 Jun 2022 16:21:27 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZwhP8_LQ72r-zdsCmHakzH https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvYnlNvDTAHmwJs0ohxaO6Yr The probe into the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol resumed Monday, as congressional investigators alleged former President Donald Trump falsely advanced claims of fraud in the 2020 election despite warnings from his advisers. VOA congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.]]> Tue, 14 Jun 2022 09:26:07 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvYnlNvDTAHmwJs0ohxaO6Yr https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZv8WIObznTTpVjH6qdYdAk The panel investigating the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol last year holds its second public hearing Monday, with former President Donald Trump’s campaign manager among those testifying in a session focusing on Trump’s unfounded allegations of election fraud.  Committee members said Sunday much more evidence will emerge in upcoming hearings that Trump knew he had lost his bid for reelection and yet fomented the mayhem by telling supporters he had been cheated out of another four-year term.  Trump “absolutely knew he had lost,” U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, told CNN’s “State of the Union” show. “Any reasonable person had to know he was spreading a big lie” by claiming, as he does to this day, that he won the November 2020 election over Democrat Joe Biden, who assumed the presidency two weeks after the attack on the Capitol.  Raskin described Trump’s actions as encouraging “a massive attack on our democracy,” while California Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, in a separate interview on ABC’s “This Week” show, said, “While this attack was going on, he did nothing to stop it” until hours after it started.  Schiff contended that Trump engaged in a “dereliction of duty (by his) inactions that day” in not trying to call off the riot for more than two hours as his supporters rampaged through the Capitol, ransacking congressional offices and forcing lawmakers to flee the Senate and House of Representatives chambers for their own safety.  Raskin and Schiff said the committee’s chairman, Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson, and the panel’s vice-chairman, Republican Liz Cheney, only spelled out the broad outlines of the House investigative committee’s findings at last week’s opening hearing televised during prime-time evening hours.  At least six more public hearings are planned over the next two weeks.  “There’s no question the president formed the mob, the president incited the mob, the president addressed the mob. He lit the flame,” Cheney said in her opening statement last Thursday accusing Trump of illegally trying to upend the election result to stay in power and urging supporters to block lawmakers from certifying Biden’s victory.  Trump, posting on his own TRUTH Social platform, called the committee hearing Thursday night a "one sided, totally partisan, POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!" He dismissed a brief videotape of his elder daughter Ivanka testifying that she agreed with former Attorney General William Barr that there was no broad evidence of political fraud in the election and that Biden had won fairly.  Trump said his daughter, a White House adviser to him, had "checked out" by the time vote recounts were being conducted.  Cheney outlined the case against Trump much like a prosecutor might do in an opening statement at a criminal trial although the House committee can only spell out the case to the public, not bring charges against anyone. The panel could, if it chooses to do so, refer its findings and transcripts of the thousand or so witnesses it has interviewed to the Justice Department for its consideration on whether to charge anyone, including Trump, for planning and carrying out the riot.  “The rule of law needs to apply equally to everyone,” Schiff said of Trump. “They need to be investigated if there is credible evidence and I believe there is. The president’s big lie (that he won the election) was in fact a big lie.”  More than 800 supporters of Trump have already been charged in the mayhem inside the Capitol and more than 300 have pleaded guilty or been convicted, with the remaining cases still unresolved. Judges have sentenced some of the rioters facing such minor charges as trespassing to a few weeks in prison, but those who attacked police to barge into the Capitol have been imprisoned for four years or more.  Raskin and Schiff said multiple Republican members of Congress sought pardons from Trump before he left office January 20, 2021, because they had supported his efforts to stay in office. Cheney said Congressman Scott Perry of Pennsylvania was one of them, but he denied it after she mentioned his name in her Thursday night statement.  Raskin said the fact the lawmakers sought a Trump pardon, which he did not grant, showed “evidence of guilt or a fear they were culpable. The details will surface.”  “Everything is based on facts,” Raskin said of the information that has yet to be made public by the investigative committee.]]> Mon, 13 Jun 2022 08:15:13 +0200 https://api.follow.it/track-rss-story-click/v3/UJzttpUCFvZv8WIObznTTpVjH6qdYdAk