Britain’s Mark Cavendish competes during the 33 km individual time-trial and eleventh stage of the 100th edition of the Tour de France cycling race on July 10, 2013 between Avranches and Mont-Saint-Michel, northwestern France. Tour de France leader Chris Froome came to the defence of Cavendish on Wednesday and hit out at the spectator who threw urine at the British sprint star. (AFP Photo/Jeff Pachoud)
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Reprinted with permission from Alternet
Donald Trump, the twice-impeached former president, on Thursday issued what is being called a "chilling" statement on the election and the insurrection he incited.
"The insurrection took place on November 3, Election Day. January 6 was the Protest!" Trump said in a statement released Thursday afternoon.
Former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh simply and clearly calls it an "act of war."
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) during debate on the House floor has "repeatedly" been "calling on Republicans to denounce the Trump statement," according to reporter Jamie Dupree.
"All my colleagues were elected on November 3," McGovern said. "If you believe that Election Day was an insurrection, then your election results are illegitimate."
McGovern is not the only one to blast the Trump statement:
Some journalists are also slamming the former president's latest remarks.
S.V. Dáte, the White House correspondent at HuffPost weighed in, saying, "Donald Trump tried to overthrow American democracy after he lost his election by 7 million votes, but nearly a year later, he's still lying. About all of it."
Washington Post national political reporter Felicia Sonmez called it a "chilling statement … that makes clear his stance on peaceful democracy vs. violent insurrection."
Washington Post White House bureau chief Ashley Parker pointed to the statement and said: "In which Trump's shamelessness continues to be his political super power."
ProPublica senior reporter Peter Elkind says: "This is the position of the widely embraced leader of the GOP. Republicans all behind that?"
More:
Reprinted with permission from Alternet
Although Florida is a swing state, it has become a hotbed of MAGA extremism — from Gov. Ron DeSantis and Rep. Matt Gaetz to former President Donald Trump's operation at a Mar-a-Lago. But not everyone in Florida politics appreciates Trumpism or the Big Lie. And the bipartisan Florida Supervisors of Elections, according to Politico's Gary Fineout, are sending out a message urging political candidates to "tone down the rhetoric and stand up for our democracy."
Fineout notes that "the association is made up of members of both parties, and (its) current president is a Republican: Marion County Supervisor of Elections Wesley Wilcox."
Without actually mentioning Trump by name, the Florida Supervisors of Elections stated, "During and after the 2020 Presidential Election, the integrity of our democracy has been challenged by misinformation, disinformation and malinformation that sows discord and undermines trust in America's electoral process. Many of us have been threatened by our fellow citizens who have been led astray by these deceptions."
The association went on to say, "False claims of fraud do not strengthen our elections. Instead, they degrade confidence in the institutions, and discourage citizen participation in our democracy."
Gaetz, Fineout observes, has "refused to say if President Joe Biden legitimately won the election." And DeSantis' campaign, promoting the Big Lie in a fundraising e-mail, claimed, "In the 2020 election, Democrats tried every trick in the book. They used the pandemic as an excuse to change election laws in ways that are unconstitutional and ripe for fraud and abuse in our elections. This included the mass sending of unsolicited mail-in ballots, bans on voter ID, ballot harvesting, and unattended ballot drop boxes in states across the country."
