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Trumpist Diehards Still Question Biden’s Victory in House Oversight Hearing

Trumpist Diehards Still Question Biden’s Victory in House Oversight Hearing

This article was produced by Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

Pro-Trump Republican congressmen repeatedly questioned Joe Biden's victory in Arizona's 2020 presidential election in a hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Thursday -- despite testimony from Maricopa County's top elected Republicans that their election results were accurate and that 2020 saw the best-run presidential election in years.

"I was asked who won [the presidential election] in Arizona. I don't know," said Rep. Andrew Biggs (R-AZ) "We've not resolved the issues that took place."

"It's somehow wrong for Republicans to raise legitimate questions when we had an election that was fraught with irregularities and potential fraud," said Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA).

The House hearing was called to discuss the "audit" of the 2020 presidential election results in Arizona and "threats" to American democracy by copycat efforts in other battleground states. It yielded little new information about the review sanctioned by the Arizona state Senate but did highlight the voices of locally elected Republicans who rejected Trump's stolen-election claims.

"I want to start by saying that the election of November 3, 2020, in Maricopa County, was free, fair, and accurate," said Jack Sellers, who chairs the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. "They executed a secure, accurate, and efficient election… during a worldwide pandemic."

Sellers also observed that "a small yet loud minority" had pushed the state's Senate to launch an outsourced review led by pro-Trump contractors with no prior election auditing experience. The Senate's investigators went looking for problems that would somehow validate and perpetuate Donald Trump's unproven claims of a stolen election, said Sellers, and Arizona's legislative leaders would not listen to facts.

"During the last 10 months, I've learned a lot about people," Sellers continued. "I was naive in thinking I could sit down with our state Senate leadership and explain the answers to their questions and accusations, and we could put this uncertainty behind us and move on."

Bill Gates, a Republican election lawyer and Maricopa County Board of Supervisors vice chair, expanded on Sellers' remarks and noted the corrosive effect of the "audit" on democracy.

"It was the most scrutinized election [result] in the history of Maricopa County," Gates said. "Election experts said that. Machine counts confirmed it. Hand counts confirmed it. The court system reconfirmed it, and our residents were happy, too. We did a poll of 80,000 of our voters and 90 percent of them said that they were satisfied or very satisfied with the election."

"Unfortunately, some in our party see it differently," Gates continued. "They have attacked the work that was done by our elections workers in Maricopa County, and they have fanned the flames of conspiracy. And this willingness to do so, unfortunately, is what led to the first non- peaceful transfer of power in our country's history [on January 6]. And unfortunately, Arizona has been at the center of this attack on our American ideals."

Gates noted that events since Election Day have led to a national pattern where many Republicans, led by Trump supporters, have cast doubt on contests that the party lost. Those attacks, Democrats on the House panel said, have become a pretext for altering state laws to make voting harder, and to try to give state officials new authority to overturn the popular vote.

"Even though Joe Biden won Arizona, by 45,000 votes [in Maricopa County], 20 members of the Arizona legislature signed a resolution asking Congress to disregard those results and seat a slate of Trump electors," Gates recounted. "That was, without a doubt, a staggering refusal to follow the will of the voters."

"The problem we have [is] Donald Trump refused to accept the results," said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). "And unfortunately, we have one of the world's great political parties which has followed him off of this ledge of this electoral lunacy. And it's dangerous for democracy."

The House hearing disclosed few new details about the Arizona Senate's review led by the Cyber Ninjas, whose CEO, Doug Logan, was invited to speak but did not appear. The Cyber Ninjas also have not complied with the panel's demands for documentation related to the review.

On September 24, the Cyber Ninjas' team told Arizona legislators that Biden won the election, and even gained votes, while Trump lost some votes. However, the investigators released little documentation of their vote counts, and also raised many questions about technicalities that they claimed called into question tens of thousands of votes.

The hearing became a spectacle where congressional Republicans repeatedly ignored the Cyber Ninjas' conclusions about Biden's victory, and instead cited bureaucratic issues that the only speaker defending the Senate's review said would not have changed the election's result.

"It would not change that outcome—correct," said Ken Bennett, the Arizona Senate's liaison to the audit and a former Arizona secretary of state. "Did the audit show that Mr. Biden got more votes than Donald Trump in Maricopa County? Yes, the audit shows that."

Steven Rosenfeld is the editor and chief correspondent of Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He has reported for National Public Radio, Marketplace, and Christian Science Monitor Radio, as well as a wide range of progressive publications including Salon, AlterNet, The American Prospect, and many others.

Suddenly, Republicans Are Upset Over A President Leaving The White House

Suddenly, Republicans Are Upset Over A President Leaving The White House

Reprinted with permission from American Independent

After four years of tolerating Donald Trump's frequent golf vacations, Republicans are now attacking President Joe Biden for not spending every moment at the White House.

"Biden goes on vacation," Trump's handpicked Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel tweeted on Wednesday, "after leaving hundreds of Americans stranded in Afghanistan."

She was referencing an Associated Press news item that Biden plans to spend Labor Day weekend in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.

In recent weeks, several congressional Republicans have also attacked Biden for spending part of August working from home or from Camp David, the official presidential country residence.

"American troops are dying. And Joe Biden is still hiding on vacation," falsely claimed House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik last Thursday.

"Biden has spent just 4 of the last 15 days in DC," complained Georgia Rep. Jody Hice. "No wonder his Administration is in chaos!"

"American citizens are still in danger, and our President went on vacation refusing to do ANYTHING," Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson baselessly charged. "Biden is INCOMPETENT!"

But Republicans stood by then-President Donald Trump for four years as he frequently left Washington, D.C., for his golf courses and other resorts.

Despite campaign promises to "rarely leave the White House" and to not "have time to play golf," Trump made spent nearly 300 days on golf courses during his term, at an estimated cost to taxpayers of about $148 million.

According to a Washington Post count, Trump spent 428 days of his lone term in office visiting one of his own Trump Organization properties — an average of more than two days out of each week.

Trump claimed these were really "working" trips — though he played hundredsof rounds of golf on those visits.

"I go to Bedminster, which is a beautiful place, but it's never a vacation. It's working, mostly," he told reporters in July 2019, plugging his Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey.

Republicans did not attack Trump for these trips. McDaniel frequently praised him as "working hard" for the American people.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) retweeted McDaniel's tweet on Wednesday. In February, he made national news for taking a vacation to Cancún, Mexico, with his family in the midst of massive winter storms in his state. Millions of his constituents were left without safe drinking water or electricity as he traveled to a Ritz-Carlton luxury resort.

Trump is not the only former president who spent much of his presidency out of Washington, D.C.

A 2014 FactCheck.org analysis noted that George W. Bush spent more than 875 days at Camp David or at his Texas ranch. He spent much of that time clearing brush.

Ronald Reagan also spent hundreds of days in California at his "Western White House" ranch.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Rep. Chip Roy

As Virus Surges, Republicans Throw ’Temper Tantrum’ On House Floor

Reprinted with permission from American Independent

Republican lawmakers repeatedly tried to adjourn the House of Representatives on Wednesday, preferring to head home rather than comply with new coronavirus safety measures.

On Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that "masks will be once again be required in the Hall of the House," for all members and staff, except while members are recognized to speak.

The change came due to an order from Dr. Brian Monahan, Congress' attending physician, deeming masks necessary to keep members and their employees safe.

It followed new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance on Tuesday warning that the delta variant can be caught and transmitted by some fully vaccinated people and urging some face mask use in indoor public places, even among those who have been inoculated.

At 11:26 a.m., Texas Rep. Chip Roy made the first motion to adjourn. He had just completed an angry floor speech in which he argued that the "institution is a sham and we should adjourn and shut this place down," because the Democratic majority had reinstituted a mask requirement in response to the spread of the delta variant.

Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, a staunch opponent of COVID-19 safety measures, who reportedly threw a face mask at a House staffer who had urged her to comply with the rule earlier in the day, tweeted, "If the threat of the Biden Border variant is truly so dangerous in the U.S. House of Representatives, we should adjourn."

After 38 minutes of voting, Roy's motion failed — but 197 House Republicans backed his attempt to leave work for the rest of the day and head home.

At 1:31 p.m., Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) proceeded to the floor and made another motion to adjourn. After a 34-minute vote, his motion too was defeated, 174-216.

Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) described the motions in a tweet as a "mass temper tantrum over Covid guidance."

In total, more than an hour was wasted on the two motions, on a busy day when the House was considering funding bills for several branches of the federal government.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) slammed the stunts, tweeting that the Republicans "want to go home instead of working for the people," and noting that "anyone else trying to leave work in the middle of [the] work day would be fired."

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) mocked his GOP colleagues for throwing a "temper tantrum" just because representatives "were asked to do what the rest of the country has been asked to do: wear a mask."

The attempts to adjourn, rather than comply with COVID-19 safety requirements, are at odd with Republican leaders who accused the Democratic majority over a year ago of dereliction of duty for opting to let some members work from home, rather than coming to the Capitol during a pandemic.

"Across our nation, Americans of all stripes are making sacrifices and doing their part to defeat this virus — and they expect Washington to do the same," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois — the ranking member of the Committee on House Administration — and Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the ranking member of the Committee on Rules, wrote in a May 2020 joint statement.

"Unfortunately, far from being 'captains of this ship' as Speaker Pelosi recently proclaimed, the Democrats' proposal calls for the House of Representatives to abandon ship — potentially for the remainder of the session," they claimed at the time.

In just the past 10 days, two House Republicans have announced that they have tested positive for COVID-19.

Florida Rep. Vern Buchanan said last Monday that he contracted the virus despite being fully vaccinated. Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins revealed Sunday that he and his family also have COVID-19, even though they had it previously.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Rep. Paul Gosar

VIDEO: At Jan. 6 Hearing, Republicans Praise Rioters And Push Lies

Reprinted with permission from American Independent

House Republicans on Wednesday spent a hearing intended to address the January 6 riots at the Capitol lionizing the insurrectionists, deflecting blame from Donald Trump for fueling the attacks, and advancing conspiracy theories on the subject.

The House Oversight Committee held a hearing titled "The Capitol Insurrection: Unexplained Delays and Unanswered Questions" to discuss the attack on the Capitol and the events leading up to it.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), who was recently criticized for headlining a conference of white nationalists back in February, described the people who breached the Capitol — a group mostly made up of Trump supporters — as "peaceful patriots" who were now being harassed by the Justice Department, which is conducting ongoing investigations into those who participated in the insurrection.

To date, more than 440 people have been charged for taking part in the unprecedented breach, which forced lawmakers and former Vice President Mike Pence to flee for their lives and barricade themselves in safe rooms and offices, to avoid the rioters, who were there to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's election victory.

"Outright propaganda and lies are being used to unleash the national security state against law-abiding U.S. citizens, especially Trump voters," Gosar complained on Wednesday.

Gosar also brought up Ashli Babbitt, the pro-Trump rioter who broke into the building during the attack and was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer as she attempted to climb through a broken door frame, referring to her as "a veteran wrapped in an American flag" and describing her death as an execution.

In April, federal prosecutors cleared the officer who shot Babbitt of criminal wrongdoing and determined that it was reasonable for him to believe he fired at her in self-defense or in defense of the lawmakers and their aides.

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX), meanwhile, argued at Wednesday's hearing that the attack on January 6 was not an act of insurrection, but instead the work of a "mob of misfits."

"Was January 6 an insurrection or could it more accurately be described as a mob of misfits committing disorderly conduct, violent entry, civil disorder, vandalism, unlawful entry, etcetera?" he asked.

Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) complained that the media had "put forth a narrative" about Donald Trump's speech ahead of the attack and insisted Trump had called for "peaceful" protest.

The claim is one that has been made frequently by Republicans, who insist Trump did not incite his supporters to violence, despite his calls for them to march on the Capitol to "stop the steal," a reference to his baseless accusation that the election was stolen from him. Trump also memorably told his supporters that day, at a rally prior to the attack, "We will not let them silence your voices," suggesting he would march with them to the Capitol.

"You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong," he said.

Hice also quoted an anonymous individual during the hearing, someone who was purportedly in attendance at the Capitol and described it as a "beautiful day of peaceful, faith-filled support for free elections."

Hice said the source claimed that "agitators rolled in" and disrupted the events.

"We've heard reports of buses of these individuals rolling up. Who were they?" asked Hice.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) made a similar argument, complaining that the official timeline of the attack referred to "a mob of Trump supporters" breaching the Capitol.

"I don't know who did the poll to say that they were Trump supporters," said Norman. "We're just going through the motions to blame a president who has no — had no reason — he had thousands of people there... those that breached the Capitol were intend[ing] to do damage."

Republicans have repeatedly sought to redirect blame from Trump's supporters, advancing on multiple occasions the conspiracy that the violence on January 6 was stoked by anarchists or "antifa" activists. Testifying to the Senate in March, however, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the agency had seen no evidence that "anarchist violent extremists or people who subscribe to antifa" were involved in the riot.

While questioning a witness during Wednesday's hearing, Wisconsin Rep. Glenn Grothman (R) claimed he had spoken to a member of the Capitol Police and said "they told me a lot of people were just milling around" in the building during the breach.

Grothman later exhorted listeners in unrelated comments to "research the three founders of Black Lives Matter," saying, "It is something that concerns me so greatly that somebody who, apparently, were trained as Marxists have gained such influence in our country."

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), for his part, sought to cast blame on Democrats for purportedly inspiring other acts of violence.

"I would argue that many Americans have come to believe that Congress has become a disturbing faction in America," said Higgins. "My colleagues are referring to the actions of January 6, but they completely ignore the language and influence that their own members caused across the country."

Quoting Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Reps. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) — who have all called for peaceful protest against police brutality and spoken out against violence — Higgins claimed, "The hypocrisy of this body is indeed disturbing."

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.