Month: February 2021

Pelosi planning a 9/11-style inquiry into the Capitol siege

Posted on by Kerry Eleveld

In a letter to her colleagues Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised the formation of an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and the security failures surrounding it.

In the interest of safeguarding the nation's security, Pelosi said a 9/11-type commission must be established to “investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol complex” as well as “the interference with the peaceful transfer of power.” Establishing such a commission will likely require legislation in the vein of how the 9/11 Commission was formed. Pelosi also said a supplemental appropriations bill would be necessary to fund increased security measures for the Capitol and congressional members in the near term. 

“It is clear from his findings and from the impeachment trial that we must get to the truth of how this happened,” Pelosi wrote. 

Pelosi isn't the only congressional lawmaker who wants to know what the heck happened on Jan. 6 to make the Capitol breach possible. Even the likes of Trump sycophant Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told Fox News Sunday, "We need a 9/11 Commission to find out what happened and make sure it never happens again." Of course, Graham could turn on a dime if Donald Trump is somehow implicated in the security failures—which he surely will be. The only question concerning Trump's (non)involvement in the flagging law enforcement presence is to what extent Trump helped hobble the response.

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who ultimately voted to convict Trump of the impeachment charges, also expressed genuine interest in getting to the bottom of the breach and security failures. 

“Why was there not more law enforcement, National Guard already mobilized, what was known, who knew it, and when they knew it, all that, because that builds the basis so this never happens again in the future,” Cassidy said Sunday on ABC News’ This Week.

Naturally, House Republicans have already established themselves as a part of the problem. The latest conspiracy theory of the tinfoil hat caucus appears to be that Pelosi herself kneecapped the Jan. 6 response. They ask a series of probing questions in their latest letter to Pelosi and then complain that they haven't been adequately consulted on the latest security measures being taken at the Capitol, including the installation of magnetometers at entrances to the House chamber.

Anyway, if the tinfoil hat caucus is really on to something, then Pelosi's independent commission will ultimately be an investigation of ... herself. Genius.

Dem Congressman Files Lawsuit Against Trump For His Alleged Role In Capitol Riot

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Representative Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, filed a federal lawsuit against former President Donald Trump for his alleged role in inciting a riot at the Capitol on January 6th.

The Mississippi lawmaker claims Trump conspired with attorney Rudy Giuliani and extremist groups to stop Congress from certifying President Biden’s Electoral College win, which in turn led to violence.

The suit accuses Trump of violating the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act which was passed in an effort to address the KKK and prohibits violence or intimidation meant to prevent members of Congress or other federal officials from carrying out their constitutional duties.

“January 6th was one of the most shameful days in our country’s history, and it was instigated by the president himself,” Thompson said in a statement.

“His gleeful support of violent white supremacists led to a breach of the Capitol that put my life, and that of my colleagues, in grave danger. It is by the slimmest of luck that the outcome was not deadlier.”

RELATED: Pelosi Wants ‘9/11-Type Commission’ To Investigate Capitol Riot

Trump Adviser Denies Allegations in Capitol Riot Lawsuit

The Associated Press reports that Thompson’s lawsuit is the first “of an expected wave of litigation over the Jan. 6 riot.”

A clear indication that, while Donald Trump is no longer in office, the Democrat party has no intention of working to make the lives of the American people better, and will continue to instead focus on the former President.

Jason Miller, a Trump adviser, dismissed the allegations being made in the lawsuit, pointing out that Trump had no role in organizing the rally.

He “did not incite or conspire to incite any violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6th,” Miller succinctly explained.

“President Trump has been acquitted in the Democrats’ latest impeachment witch hunt, and the facts are irrefutable,” Miller added.

RELATED: Lindsey Graham Says Mitch McConnell’s Anti-Trump Speech May Come Back To Bite Republicans

No Basis in Reality

Rep. Bennie Thompson’s lawsuit against Trump regarding the Capitol riot has little basis in reality, as there has been absolutely no proof that the rally and march in early January were inspired or motivated by white supremacy.

The problem is that Democrats link all Trump supporters to white supremacy and thus, in their minds, it must have been the motivating factor.

It simply couldn’t have had anything to do with opposing the electoral votes.

This, incidentally, is something Democrats have done over and over again both in 2017 and 2005.

Where were the lawsuits then against Democrats? Weren’t they, by this standard, clearly trying to prevent members of Congress from carrying out their constitutional duties and disenfranchising black supporters of Donald Trump and George W. Bush?

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is doing her part to continue harassing Trump, announcing she plans to create an “outside, independent 9/11-type Commission” to investigate the Capitol riot.

These actions were practically inspired by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who in a post-impeachment tirade, suggested the former president “didn’t get away with anything, yet.”

“We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation,” McConnell said.

The post Dem Congressman Files Lawsuit Against Trump For His Alleged Role In Capitol Riot appeared first on The Political Insider.

Trump stays mostly quiet after impeachment acquittal, sticks to tight script

Posted on by Paul Steinhauser
Since Donald Trump was acquitted on Saturday in his Senate impeachment trial, he’s stayed mostly under the radar.

Assistant House speaker: Capitol riot commission needed for ‘truth and accountability’

Posted on by By Daniel Payne

Assistant House Speaker Katherine Clark said Tuesday that no option is off the table for further addressing former President Donald Trump's role in last month's Capitol riot — including a 9/11-style commission or invoking a constitutional amendment to block Trump from running again.

Though Trump was ultimately acquitted in his impeachment trial by the Senate, Clark (D-Mass.) said she thought a commission would be important in not only getting granular information about the Jan. 6 riot but also in holding Trump accountable. Such a commission could could also consider larger issues like domestic terrorism and its link to racism in the United States, she said.

“I think there will be bipartisan support [for the commission] because Americans understand what is at stake here, and this is the next step to getting to truth and accountability,” Clark said in a POLITICO Playbook Live interview Tuesday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for a commission similar to the one that probed the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, which left five people dead. The 9/11 Commission took two years to complete and yielded a 561-page report on the 2001 attacks, their origin and recommendations for the future.

The assistant speaker said a commission could take the conversation around the riot, which occurred after Trump delivered an incendiary speech to supporters who later marched to the Capitol, out of the political realm and into the hands of fact-finding experts who would formulate guidance to avoid future attacks.

“This is far more than about a former president,” Clark said, adding that she believed American democracy was in danger. “It was a message to future presidents about what we consider conduct that is worthy of the office of the president of the United States.”

Asked if Democrats might turn to the Constitution's 14th Amendment — which contains language barring individuals who have "engaged in insurrection or rebellion against" the United States from holding certain offices — to bar Trump from holding office again, Clark said "we haven’t taken any of our tools off the table" but that it was too early to know which processes would be used to pursue accountability.

Whether the 14th Amendment could be used against Trump remains an open constitutional debate. The amendment, adopted in 1868 after the emancipation of enslaved Americans, granted citizenship and equal protection to everyone born or naturalized in the U.S., though such rights would take a century or more to be fully realized. But the amendment also contains language — aimed at the time at former Confederate officials — barring individuals who "engaged in insurrection or rebellion against" the United States specifically from serving as a senator, House member or member of the Electoral College.

The amendment makes no specific mention of the office of the presidency but does bar individuals who engaged in insurrection from holding "any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state."

As assistant house speaker, Clark said she has worked with freshman lawmakers to work through the insurrection and its aftermath, including helping them find therapists or set up security systems for their houses.

“Three days into their congressional careers, their very lives were threatened,” she said, adding that people of color in that cohort emphasized the themes of racism that were linked to the insurrection.

Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Clark said, was told to take off her pin identifying her as a representative while being evacuated from the Capitol. Rochester was hesitant to take it off, fearing that without that identification, she might not be seen by law enforcement as a person needing protection.

“These are the real issues members of Congress are dealing with and processing,” Clark said.

Posted in Uncategorized

Democrat Lawmakers Slam Cuomo, Accuse Him Of Lying As He Tries To Defend Administration’s Handling Of Nursing Home Scandal

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Several Democrat lawmakers lashed out at Andrew Cuomo after the New York Governor attempted to defend himself in the middle of an explosive nursing home scandal.

During a press conference over the holiday weekend, Cuomo sought to clarify bombshell remarks made by Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor, in which she admitted in a conference call that the administration hid information on COVID nursing home deaths from federal investigators.

The New York Post first reported that DeRosa told leading Democrats that the administration feared the data could “be used against us” by the Justice Department.

After former President Trump directed “the Department of Justice to do an investigation into us,” the Cuomo aide said, “basically, we froze.”

“We were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation,” DeRosa added.

RELATED: GOP Rep. Calls For Cuomo To Be Prosecuted For Withholding Alleged COVID Nursing Home Deaths

Democrats Call Out Cuomo as a Liar Over Nursing Home Defense

The New York Times reported that attorney general Letitia James, a Democrat, accused Cuomo and his administration, particularly officials at the State Health Department, of undercounting COVID deaths at nursing homes by as much as 50%.

State officials had originally given a figure of about 8,677.

WWNY News reports that the number was actually well over 15,000 seniors who died in nursing homes.

Governor Cuomo famously issued an executive order in March forcing nursing homes to take on patients that had tested positive for coronavirus.

In the midst of his defense, Governor Cuomo claimed that the DOJ and state legislature had both requested data and that he simply chose to prioritize the information finding-task to address the federal matter.

This statement ruffled some feathers: “We gave precedence to the DOJ. We told the assembly that, we told the Senate that and that’s what we did.”

But multiple Democrats said that isn’t true.

New York State Sen. Jessica Ramos replied to Cuomo’s claim by calling it “trash.”

“At no point did the Administration notify the legislature about a DOJ investigation,” she added in another tweet. “People died and Cuomo lied then he had the gall to write a book.”

Democrat New York state senator Alessandra Biaggi also suggests Cuomo was lying.

“No, [Governor Cuomo], you did not tell the *entire* Senate or Assembly that there was a DOJ investigation, as the reason why you didn’t share the nursing home numbers,” she tweeted.

“I found out about a DOJ investigation with the rest of NY’ers in the [New York Post] story Thursday night.”

And there were plenty more who called out the lie on social media.

RELATED: GOP Congressman Reed Announces Plan To File Criminal Complaint Against Cuomo Aide Over Nursing Home Deaths

Calls For Criminal Investigation Continue

Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean, one of the few voices to continually hound Governor Cuomo over the nursing home scandal for months on end, said “people should go to jail” over the cover-up.

Dean’s in-laws were victims of COVID-19, where nursing homes in New York played a part.

She reiterated that call by describing Cuomo as a “criminal.”

She wasn’t the only one, as several lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle demanded subpoenas be submitted in getting to the bottom of the cover-up.

“I reiterate my call for [Cuomo] and his administration to be subpoenaed for all pertinent information,” Ramos tweeted. “We need answers and grieving families deserve justice. Enough with the spin.”

Cuomo has continually denied that his office withheld or misrepresented data relating to nursing home deaths.

“New York State DOH fully and publicly reported all COVID deaths in nursing homes and hospitals,” he said at the press conference, a direct contradiction of Democrat AG James’ findings.

It looks like even his own party isn’t buying into the spin any longer.

The post Democrat Lawmakers Slam Cuomo, Accuse Him Of Lying As He Tries To Defend Administration’s Handling Of Nursing Home Scandal appeared first on The Political Insider.

McConnell says he was defending Constitution, not Trump, with impeachment acquittal vote

Posted on by Brooke Singman
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday said he was defending the U.S. Constitution, and not Donald Trump, by voting to acquit the former president of an impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection.

Pelosi Wants ‘9/11-Type Commission’ To Investigate Capitol Riot

Posted on by John Hanson

On Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she plans to create an “outside, independent 9/11-type Commission” to investigate January’s Capitol Hill attack. 

In her weekly letter to colleagues, Pelosi told her House colleagues that the commission will “investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex.”

RELATED: House Republicans Send Brutal Message To Pelosi – Demand Answers From Her On Security Decisions Before Capitol Riot

Pelosi’s Call For 9-11-Style Commission Comes Two Days After Trump Acquittal

Pelosi added that the query will also delve into anything “relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power.”

This call from the Democrat leader comes only two days after former President Donald Trump being acquitted on impeachment by the U.S. senate.

That vote was 57-43, with seven Republicans voting against Trump and for a conviction.

Democrats can’t seem to give up Trump. Pelosi isn’t the only Democrat calling for an independent commission.

Democratic Senator Chris Coons has signaled support for such an investigation, saying, “There’s still more evidence that the American people need and deserve to hear and a 9/11 commission is a way to make sure that we secure the Capitol going forward.”

Coons added, “And that we lay bare the record of just how responsible and how abjectly violating of his constitutional oath President Trump really was.”

Democrats And Media Still Obsessing Over Trump

Before Trump was acquitted on Saturday, Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Republican senators that he too would vote to acquit Trump.

But McConnell also blasted Trump, claiming the former president was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day,” meaning the January 6 Capitol Hill riot.

And while McConnell also argued that the impeachment trial was unconstitutional now that Trump is no longer president, such a high ranking Republican making those comments was easy fodder for the Democrats.

Democratic Congresswoman Madeleine Dean said of McConnell and the Republicans, “It was powerful to hear the 57 guilties and then it was puzzling to hear and see Mitch McConnell stand and say ‘not guilty’ and then, minutes later, stand again and say he was guilty of everything.” 

“History will remember that statement of speaking out of two sides of his mouth,” Dean added.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer reminded followers in a tweet on Monday that in addition to Pelosi’s commission, other happenings regarding Trump will make sure we “learn a lot more” about the final days of his administration.

In other words, the media will not give up their addiction to all things Trump.

RELATED: Whoopi Goldberg Gushes Over Biden – ‘We Finally Have A President In Office Who We Are Honored To Celebrate’

CNN’s Blitzer: ‘Bottom line: we are going to learn a lot more’

“The Trump trial is over but local, state & federal investigations continue,” Blitzer tweeted. “There might be a 9/11-type commission.”

“News organizations continue to investigate,” Blitzer continued. “And @realBobWoodward is working on a book on Trump’s final days in office.”

“Bottom line: we are going to learn a lot more,” the CNN host finished.

Donald Trump might be gone from the White House but don’t expect the Democrats or their media spokespeople to stopped being obsessed with him anytime soon.

The post Pelosi Wants ‘9/11-Type Commission’ To Investigate Capitol Riot appeared first on The Political Insider.