Category: Donald Trump

MAGA Victory: Trump-Endorsed Kari Lake Wins Contentious Arizona GOP Gubernatorial Primary

Posted on by Becky Noble

Former President Trump’s track record of endorsing winning candidates kept going this week, as former news anchor and journalist Kari Lake won a close race in Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial primary. The race between Lake and Karrin Taylor Robson remained too close to call until Thursday, two days after election day, when the Associated Press called the race for Lake.

Lake will now go on to face Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in the general election in November. 

RELATED: Whoopi Goldberg Claims God Giving People ‘Freedom Of Choice’ Shows He Supports Abortion

Razor Thin Race

While mail-in ballots coming in prior to election day gave Robson an early lead, election day polling place results and Maricopa County releasing the results of their mail-in ballots gave Lake the win.

The race became a referendum of sorts between Lake, a Trump-endorsed candidate, and Robson, who was endorsed by former Vice President Mike Pence, current Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Trump candidates were victorious in many Arizona races including Senate, Secretary of State, Attorney General, U.S. House seats, and State House seats. Arizona was a crucial spot in the 2020 election, and will certainly be again in 2024.

Lake has been very outspoken on her views of the 2020 election. She has stated that she would decertify Joe Biden’s 2020 win in Arizona, saying, “He lost the election, and he shouldn’t be in the White House.”

Lake has also not been afraid to dish back to left leaning media outlets what they attempt to dish out.

RELATED: After Getting Verbal Lashing From Comedian-Turned-Activist Jon Stewart, Senate Passes Veterans Burn Pit Legislation 86-11

Latest Round Of Primaries Go Well For Trump Candidates

Tuesday night’s latest round of primaries was a good one for Trump endorsed candidates. In addition to Arizona, candidates in Michigan did well.

Rep. Peter Meijer, one of a handful of House Republicans to vote to impeach President Trump, lost his primary race to former Trump administration official John Gibbs. 

Those who voted for impeachment are being picked off one by one with Meijer being the latest. Trump took to his own social media platform Truth Social and wrote, “Not a good time for Impeachers – 7 down, 3 to go!” Tudor Dixon won the GOP gubernatorial primary and will face Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November.

Nationwide, it was a good night to be a Trump candidate. Of the 42 endorsements Trump gave in this most recent round of primaries, 32 won their respective races, and some may still be pending. 

RELATED: DeSantis Suspends State Attorney For Refusing To Prosecute Violations Of Florida’s 15-Week Abortion Ban

Democrats Bracing Themselves For November

For Democrats, election night this fall could look a lot like Tuesday. Democrats have pinned their hopes on things like the overturning of Roe vs. Wade and the Jan. 6 hearings, however those are not priorities for Americans. Soaring inflation and high gas and food prices are.

Joe Biden’s consistently low approval numbers have Democrats saying out loud that they do not want him to run again in 2024, and many shy away from inviting him on the campaign trail with them. 

Another takeaway from Tuesday night’s primaries: while Democrats and the media try to downplay Donald Trump’s influence over the Republican Party, there is no mistaking that it is very much in play. Biden’s unpopularity coupled with Trump’s winning track record could be a lethal combination for Democrats.

Several more states have primaries in the coming weeks, including Wyoming, where Liz Cheney trails her opponent, Harriet Hageman by roughly 20 points. “Number 8” for Trump could be waiting in the wings.

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No Surprise: New Study Says Cable News More Biased Than 10 Years Ago, Especially After Trump Elected

Posted on by Becky Noble

A new study out is showing what anyone who has been alive for more than five minutes was already well aware of, that cable news networks are biased, and that bias has grown much more pronounced in the last ten years especially after the election of Donald Trump.

The study, just published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” is called, “Measuring Dynamic Media Bias.” The level of network bias was based on guest appearances.

RELATED: Trump Celebrates Defeat Of Rep. Peter Meijer, Who Voted For Impeachment: ‘7 Down, 3 To Go!’

How The Study Was Conducted

Researchers took a look at who came on networks like the Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, as guests for more than 10 hours between January of 2010, and August of 2020. Those guests were rated on a bias scale which was based on their political views.

The bias scale, dubbed “visibility bias” by researchers, showed what has been apparent to most Americans for years. Fox News was more right leaning, and CNN and MSNBC were more left leaning. However, this visibility bias also determined, based on the guest list, that CNN programs like “Anderson Cooper 360,” and “CNN Tonight,” were even more liberal than MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

Those conducting the study noticed what they believed to be an interesting detail. While Fox News has always been more conservative than either CNN or MSNBC, at one point during the time period being studied, CNN seemed a tad more conservative than MSNBC. After 2015 though, the researchers say that changed.

While each network catered to either a more conservative or liberal audience, the ideological bent of all three networks became more definitive in 2016.

Yphtach Lelkes is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communication, and one of the co-authors of the study. He explained, “For many years, Fox News was to the right of MSNBC and CNN, but they used to track each other. When Fox moved to the right, so did MSNBC and CNN. They all flowed together. After Trump came into office, they responded to events in the news by leaning away from each other and more strongly toward their respective ideologies.”

The Big Disconnect

What is also becoming more pronounced is the disconnect between those who report the news, and the average viewer who is watching them. The Political Insider reported back in June that a Pew Research Center poll found that 65% of journalists believe they are doing a good and accurate job of reporting news. 

That is not what a large portion of the American people think. Only 35% said journalists were actually doing their job the right way. Of the five different areas of journalistic integrity the poll surveyed,  journalists gave their overall performances a thumbs up. The reading, listening, and viewing public on the other hand, gave them a hearty thumbs down.

Back in April, during a Q&A session at a University of Chicago forum entitled, “Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy,” CNN’s Brian Stelter was part of a panel to whom students posed questions.

It was college freshmen Christopher Phillips who gave those who heard his question to Stelter, hope for future generations. He addressed Stelter’s implication that Fox News was the sole purveyor of misinformation and listed a series of, what turned out to be false stories, that were pushed by CNN. Phillips then asked the money question.

“All the mistakes of the mainstream media, in particular, seem to magically all go in one direction,” Phillips stated. “Are we expected to believe that this is all just some sort of random coincidence or is there something else behind it?”

RELATED: Gaetz Introduces Bill To Ban IRS From Acquiring Ammunition

Death Of Journalism?

For many viewers of cable news, Professor Lelkes and his colleagues have only verified what they have long know to be true. In fact, they have the date— 2016.

It was then New York media columnist Jim Rutenberg, who stated that when covering then candidate Donald Trump, his fellow journalists were essentially justified in breaking every journalistic rule of objectivity they had been taught. The reason why, because Trump was a Republican, and therefore, the enemy.

Even now, names like Joy Reid, Lester Holt, and Don Lemon have said things such as conservatives and Republicans being a threat to freedom, fairness is overrated, and that, “Republicans are doing something that is very dangerous to our society and we have to acknowledge that.” 

This study may be attempting to blame Donald Trump and the 2016 election for more obvious bias among cable news networks, but average Americans who knew it was there all along are thanking Trump for verifying it.

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Trump Celebrates Defeat of Rep. Peter Meijer, Who Voted For Impeachment: ‘7 Down, 3 to Go!’

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Representative Peter Meijer lost his Michigan primary battle against John Gibbs Tuesday, leading former President Donald Trump to celebrate the defeat of yet another Republican who voted in favor of his impeachment.

Meijer, who voted in favor of establishing a bipartisan commission to investigate the Capitol insurrection and said prior to the primary that he does “not for a second” regret his impeachment vote, conceded to Gibbs early Wednesday morning.

Gibbs, an official who served within the Trump administration, had the backing of the former President and received a congratulatory phone call following the victory.

“I’ll see you soon,” Trump told him. “I’m very proud of you. That’s a great job.”

RELATED: Three Republicans Who Voted to Impeach Trump Over Capitol Riot Fight For Their Political Lives in Tuesday’s Primaries

Peter Meijer Suffers Defeat, Trump Celebrates

Gibbs had described the primary defeat of Peter Meijer as “a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican party,” noting that the Republican congressman “betrayed his voters” by voting in favor of impeachment just days after being sworn into Congress.

Nobody could have been happier about the result than Trump.

“Fantastic night in Michigan! Tudor Dixon will be a great Governor. John Gibbs WON with a big surge in the end,” he wrote on his Truth Social media platform. “Not a good time for Impeachers – 7 down, 3 to go!”

Dixon also earned an endorsement from the former President and will now face Democrat incumbent Gretchen Whitmer in the gubernatorial race in Michigan following her primary win.

“Endorsements don’t get any more powerful or conclusive than the Endorsements of last night,” Trump wrote in another post. “I wonder if anyone will write or report that? Just asking?”

Meijer joins Representatives Tom Rice, who was soundly defeated in the Republican primary for South Carolina’s 7th District in June, and Adam Kinzinger (IL), Anthony Gonzalez (OH), Fred Upton (MI), and John Katko (NY), who all decided to flee Congress after voting to impeach Trump, as six of the “7 down” referenced by the former President.

Trump may be counting on Liz Cheney’s (WY) ouster as well, as she trails her opponent by 22-points in a primary scheduled less than two weeks away.

RELATED: Liz Cheney’s Primary Opponent Harriet Hageman Mocks Her For Support From ‘Pretend Rancher’ Kevin Costner

Trump Still Holds Power in the GOP

While the rate of impeachment voters being ousted from Congress is fairly high, it hasn’t been perfect.

Representative David Valadao (R-CA) fended off a primary challenge in June, though Trump did not endorse any candidate in the race.

Meanwhile, Representatives Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) and Dan Newhouse (R-WA) managed to earn a place amongst the top two in their district’s crowded fields, besting their Trump-backed opponents and meaning they will survive and advance to the general election.

Still, as Fox News reports, Tuesday’s results show Trump’s “immense grip over the Republican Party remains firm.”

They cite as further evidence victories by Blake Masters, who won the GOP Arizona Senate primary, and Mark Finchem, who won the Republican nomination for Arizona Secretary of State.

Masters moves on to Democratic Senator Mark Kelly in November in a key battleground state race that may determine if Republicans are able to win back the Senate majority.

Kari Lake, the Trump-backed former TV news anchor leads her primary for Governor of Arizona, though the results are still too close to call.

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Three Republicans Who Voted to Impeach Trump Over Capitol Riot Fight For Their Political Lives in Tuesday’s Primaries

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Three Republican lawmakers who voted in favor of impeaching Donald Trump for his alleged role in the January 6th riot at the Capitol will face primary challenges on Tuesday.

Representatives Peter Meijer (R-MI), Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), and Dan Newhouse (R-WA), will all be fighting for their political lives against primary opponents who have the backing of the former President.

Meijer, who voted in favor of establishing a bipartisan commission to investigate the Capitol insurrection and said he doesn’t regret his impeachment vote, “Not for a second,” will face off against Trump-endorsed John Gibbs in Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District.

“This is a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican party,” Gibbs told the Washington Post. “What’s happening in my race is similar to what’s going on in the rest of the country. People feel the party isn’t representing what they want.”

 

RELATED: Pelosi Considering More Anti-Trump Republicans For January 6 Committee After Rejecting GOP Picks

Republicans Who Voted to Impeach Trump Face Difficult Primaries

Beutler and Newhouse, who also voted to impeach Trump, will be facing difficult primaries as well Tuesday. The two, like Meijer, voted in favor of establishing an independent commission to investigate the January 6 riot at the Capitol.

Beutler will be going up against several opponents in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District primary, including Army Special Forces veteran Joe Kent who received the endorsement of the former President.

Kent claims momentum in his race because “people are still furious” that she voted to impeach Trump.

 

Newhouse meanwhile, said his impeachment vote was due to Trump’s “inaction” during the riot and added that “our country needed a leader, and President Trump failed to fulfill his oath of office.”

He faces former police chief Loren Culp in Washington’s 4th Congressional District primary. Culp also received an endorsement from the likely 2024 Republican presidential nominee. The two will be facing six other nominees (5 Republicans and 1 Democrat).

“Having the endorsement of President Trump is huge,” Culp said.

 

RELATED: Here’s The List: The 9 Republicans Who Joined Democrats In Voting to Hold Steve Bannon In Contempt

Bad Track Record For Those Who Voted to Impeach

If history is any indicator, those Republicans who voted to impeach President Trump are going to struggle in their respective primaries.

Just over one month ago, Representative Tom Rice was soundly defeated in the Republican primary for South Carolina’s 7th District. Rice lost to Russell Fry, the South Carolina State House’s majority whip who earned Trump’s endorsement, doubling up his votes.

 

Another impeacher, Wyoming’s Liz Cheney, is trailing her primary opponent, Harriet Hageman, a Wyoming attorney who has the backing of Trump, by a whopping 22 percentage points.

 

Never Trump Republican Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) announced months ago that he was leaving Congress.

Representatives Anthony Gonzalez (OH), Fred Upton (MI), and John Katko (NY) have also decided to flee Congress after voting to impeach Trump.

The post Three Republicans Who Voted to Impeach Trump Over Capitol Riot Fight For Their Political Lives in Tuesday’s Primaries appeared first on The Political Insider.

Liz Cheney Says She’ll Make a Decision on Running For President in 2024 ‘Down the Road’

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Representative Liz Cheney, the rabid anti-Trump vice chair of the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot, says she hasn’t made a decision on running for president in 2024 but would do so “down the road.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper asked the Wyoming congresswoman if she was “willing to run for President to try and stop” former President Donald Trump.

“At this point, I have not made a decision about 2024,” Cheney replied. “I’ll make a decision on 2024 down the road.”

Cheney suggests she is more focused on her work with the select committee, something she believes is “the single most important thing I’ve ever done professionally.”

 

RELATED: Report: Never Trumpers Kinzinger, Hogan, And Cheney Could All Run Against Trump In 2024

Will Liz Cheney Run For President in 2024?

The entire segment discussing Liz Cheney’s 2024 prospects is unintentionally amusing. Sure, the dueling sad eyes battle – meant to convey just how serious they both are between Tapper and Cheney – is hilarious.

But the concept that Cheney would run for President after being ousted from her leadership position by her own party due to her antics, and now facing a huge polling deficit in the upcoming primary for Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat in three weeks, is equally outrageous.

 

She’s about to get slaughtered at the ballot box for her congressional seat but she’ll somehow use that to catapult into the White House in 2024?

Cheney might get a handful of Democrat voters dismayed with their own party and unwilling to switch sides but it’s not going to be enough to even make a dent.

She’s been banking on that segment of the vote in Wyoming, The Political Insider has previously reported. But trailing by 22% seems to indicate it’s not nearly enough to propel her to victory.

Democrats don’t care about the anti-Trumpers – Cheney and Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) – except to create the illusion that their pursuit of the January 6 investigation is ‘bipartisan.’

Kinzinger had to learn that the hard way as well when announcing his retirement after Illinois Democrats used redrawn district lines to eliminate him from contention, despite his time serving as their puppet for the J6 committee.

 

RELATED: Cheney Must Count On Anti-Trump, Democrat Votes For Re-election After Wyoming GOP Abandons Her

Cheney’s Folks Like Her ‘Prospects’

An Associated Press report from March indicates that both Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are sending out feelers regarding a White House run in 2024.

Kinzinger, they write, is “considering a rough timeline for a potential presidential announcement,” while associates of Cheney are “openly talking up her White House prospects.”

 

“Their goal would not necessarily be to win the presidency,” the AP added. “Above all, they want to hinder Trump’s return to the White House.”

A noble cause… in their own minds.

The Political Insider reported back in April that Cheney refused to rule out a future run for President of the United States when asked.

“I’m not ruling anything in or out — ever is a long time,” she said.

Trump, who just overwhelmingly won a straw poll conducted by the conservative student activist group Turning Point USA on who they’d like to see represent the GOP in 2024, has little to worry about should Cheney mount a campaign.

Cheney’s most prolific voices of support appear to be Democrats on the select committee, Kinzinger, and noted Republican squishes John Boehner, Paul Ryan, and George W. Bush.

The post Liz Cheney Says She’ll Make a Decision on Running For President in 2024 ‘Down the Road’ appeared first on The Political Insider.

Trump To Head To Alaska To Stump For Palin And Tshibaka, Could Add To Endorsed Candidate Wins

Posted on by Becky Noble

Former President Donald Trump will head to Alaska on July 9 to headline a campaign rally that Saturday afternoon for former Alaska Gov. and congressional candidate Sarah Palin, current Gov. Mike Dunleavy, and Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka.

Tshibaka is running against incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski, who made Trump’s target list when she joined Democrats in voting to convict him in his impeachment trial over the Capitol riot. 

RELATED: Dr. Ben Carson Defends Clarence Thomas From Attacks By Hillary: For Liberals ‘Only Thing worse Than Satan Is A Black Conservative’

Special Election

Palin and a whopping 48 other candidates were in the original running for Alaska’s lone House seat, which was left vacant by the death in March of Rep. Don Young (R-AK), who held the seat for 49 years.

Palin, as a former Governor, has of course already won a statewide election in Alaska, and has the star power and name recognition of having been the Republican Party’s candidate for Vice President in 2008.

The top four finishers from the special primary election will now go on to the special election on August 16. The winner will serve out the rest of Young’s term. 

Murkowski has accused the Trump-endorsed Tshibaka of being a “rubber-stamp Republican,” and seemingly does not regret her impeachment vote. She said of Tshibaka:

“I may be the last man standing. I may not be reelected. It may be that Alaskans say, ‘Nope, we want to go with an absolute, down-the-line, always, always, 100-percent, never-question, rubber-stamp Republican.”

RELATED: Willful Blindness: Feds Ignore Massive Illegal Alien ID Theft Plaguing Americans As U.S. Coffers Fill

Racking Up Wins

Establishment and never-Trump Republicans wish the former President would just go away, but that is not what candidates who are vying for his endorsement seem to be saying. Trump-endorsed candidates have been racking up primary wins all over the country, and this past Tuesday’s slate of primaries was no exception.

In Colorado, Lauren Boebert won with 65% of the vote. In Illinois, State Senator Darren Bailey won and will go up against incumbent Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Democrat machine there.

Also in Illinois, Reps. Mary Miller (R-IL) and Rodney Davis (R-IL) went up against each other for a redrawn district. Trump-endorsed Miller emerged the winner in that race.

In Oklahoma, Gov. Kevin Stitt won with 69% of the vote. and in Utah, Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Burgess Owens both won primaries each garnering 61% of the vote in their respective races.

So far, 30 Trump endorsed candidates have won their primaries. Others do not take place until August.

RELATED: Biden On How Long Americans Can Expect To Pay High Gas Prices – ‘As Long As It Takes’

Many Who Voted To Impeach Won’t Be Back

Three of the ten House members who voted to impeach Donald Trump are not running for reelection in 2022. Rep. Tom Rice (R-NC) recently lost his primary race to Trump-backed challenger Russell Fry. House Select Committee member Adam Kinzinger’s district will disappear due to redistricting. 

Perhaps the most-watched of those upcoming primaries will be in Wyoming, where Liz Cheney is being challenged by attorney Harriet Hageman, who was endorsed by Trump.

Currently, Hageman is ahead in the polls over Cheney by 30 points. CNN recently gave Cheney a 10% chance of winning reelection.

Doors open at 11 a.m. (AKDT) on rally day. Trump is scheduled to speak at 4 p.m. (AKDT).

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GOP Rep. Who Voted To Impeach Trump Gets Clobbered in Primary, Days After Paul Ryan Endorsed Him

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Representative Tom Rice, one of only 10 Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump over his alleged role in inciting the January 6 riot at the Capitol, was soundly defeated in the Republican primary for South Carolina’s 7th District.

Rice lost to Russell Fry, the South Carolina State House’s majority whip, who earned Trump’s endorsement. Fry, according to the latest numbers, more than doubled the vote attained by Rice.

Rice called Fry to concede the race Tuesday.

Fry’s victory was so resounding he was able to avoid a runoff by winning 51% of the vote.

RELATED: Paul Ryan Campaigns For GOP Rep. Who ‘Had the Guts’ To Impeach Trump

Tom Rice Vote to Impeach Cost Him

The sad showing for Tom Rice comes roughly 17 months after he shocked observers by becoming only one of 10 Republicans to join Democrats in their vote to impeach Trump over the Capitol riot.

“He sat there and watched the Capitol get sacked and took pleasure in that. He said: ‘Look what I created! Look how rabid these people are to follow me.’” Rice recalled. “That pushed me over the edge. That’s what a dictator would do.”

The congressman did not shy away from the vote either, repeatedly leaning into it as a sign of his being a stand-up guy.

Unfortunately, now that Rice is soon to be out of a job, he’ll be doing a lot more sitting down.

RELATED: ‘Never Trumpers’ Paul Ryan, John Boehner, And Adam Kinzinger Supporting Liz Cheney’s Reelection Bid

Not the Future of the Republican Party

Ironically, Tom Rice, on the day of the primary, told voters Trump is “not the future of the Republican Party” and predicted his vote to impeach the former President would be “advantageous to me politically.”

“Oh, I think it’s advantageous to me politically. I think I’m just telling the truth,” Rice said of his vote to impeach. “You know, the truth will set you free. And I think that Donald Trump is not the future of the Republican Party.”

“I think he is the past, and we need to move on,” he added.

The former President has said Rice is a “coward who abandoned his constituents by caving to Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Left.”

One of the few people supporting Tom Rice and perhaps inadvertently solidifying his defeat was former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who heralded the lawmaker as a hero for voting to impeach Trump.

“There were a lot of people who wanted to vote like Tom but who just didn’t have the guts to do it,” Ryan claimed at a campaign stop.

It takes absolutely no ‘guts’ as a Republican to have been on the same side of Democrats and the entire national media.

Other impeachers, like Wyoming’s Liz Cheney, is trailing her primary opponent, Harriet Hageman, a Wyoming attorney who has the backing of Trump, by a whopping 30 percentage points.

Fellow Never Trump Republican Kinzinger announced months ago that he was leaving Congress in part due to Democrats in Illinois rewarding his fealty by unveiling a new congressional map that significantly impacted his chances of winning in 2022. After all he has done for them!

Representatives Anthony Gonzalez (OH), Fred Upton (MI), and John Katko (NY) have also decided to flee Congress after voting to impeach Trump.

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Trump Pens Epic 12-Page Response To Jan. 6 Hearings, Hints At Announcing 2024 Campaign

Posted on by Kathleen J. Anderson

Former President Donald Trump issued a massive 12-page rebuttal to the ongoing January 6th Congressional hearings that have accused him of inciting an insurrection, and the product is pure Trump.

The bulk of Trump’s response focused on his continued allegations of election integrity issues, but includes revealing passages on what he believes are the Democrats’ real intentions behind the hearings.

President Trump asserts that the Democrats on the “Unselect Pseudo-Committee” are merely trying to distract the American people from the dining room table issues affecting voters leading up to the midterms. He also claims these hearings are primarily an attempt to subvert his ability to run for President again in 2024. 

Let’s look at what else the former President had to say in this unprecedented action from a former leader of the free world.

RELATED: Newly Released Jan. 6 Documents Reveal Officer Never Filed Report In Shooting Death of Ashli Babbitt

Smoke and Mirrors

It’s no secret that the expectation is the Democrats are poised to receive a severe whipping during the coming 2022 midterms. The chances they will lose the majority in at least one if not both houses of Congress are high.

Trump states in his dissertation:

“They (the Democrats) 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.”

An homage to the state of the union today and the summer riots in 2020, he goes on to state:

“They (the Democrats) are hoping that these hearings will somehow alter their failing prospects.”

Trump and other GOP members claim that the hearings are meant to distract from economic issues such as inflation and skyrocketing gas prices. Additionally, the idea is to refocus the American voter on what happened on January 6th instead of what is happening now with rising crime and increased divisive rhetoric surrounding various social issues.

RELATED: One Of The January 6 Committee’s Conspiracy Theories About Riot Debunked By Capitol Police

An Eye Towards 2024

Since Biden’s inauguration, the former President has hinted that he is contemplating another run at the highest seat in all the land. With Trump endorsing candidates polling well and polling quite well himself, this has got to have the Democrats worried.

Trump states it plainly:

“This is merely an attempt to stop a man that is leading in every poll, against both Republicans and Democrats by wide margins, from running again for the Presidency.”

So how does the committee accomplish that alleged goal? That remains to be seen. The plan seems to be to link Trump and his allies to the claim that they deliberately lied to Americans about election fraud which then spurred the events that transpired at the Capitol on January 6th.

READ MORE: Trump’s full 12-page statement here.

Testimony from some of Trump’s former closest confidants, including his daughter, reveals that, for the most part, people were not supporting the President’s election fraud claims. Furthermore it appears they repeatedly said as much to the President. Therefore there doesn’t seem to be clear evidence that the President didn’t and, for that matter, still doesn’t believe his claims. 

The fact that he spends the bulk of his rebuttal attempting to convince Americans of his claims points to the probability that he still believes them regardless of the evidence. So then the next question is, did he purposely incite the violence?

Again, the hearing’s ability to prove intent to incite remains to be seen. Even if the committee believes they can prove anything, the decision to prosecute the former President lies with the Justice Department.

Will It Move The Needle?

According to Pew Research Poll from January, a minority believe Trump has “a lot” of responsibility for the Capitol riot. That’s down from a majority in January, 2021.

Those numbers make it hard to see how pursuing further than these hearings could help the Democrats. Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens of Michigan says the value of these hearings is to have “more honest conversations” regarding the events of January 6th.

There is an argument that some of us would like to have an honest conversation. I, for one, have been curious as to why there wasn’t more security on-site before the planned demonstration.

Will the hearings cover some of the security questions that have come up? I guess we will have to stay tuned.

Drama is what the Democrats are hoping for and why they hired James Goldston, the former President of ABC News, to produce the hearings as if it were a Hollywood production rather than a Congressional hearing. The hope is that it would grip the American people like a real-time documentary drama.

CNN’s Brian Stelter said about 20 million people tuned into last Thursday’s hearing. It seems like a lot but pales compared to the 38 million that tuned into the State of the Union.

RELATED: AOC Tears Up Having To Relive January 6 Footage: ‘I Am So Angry’

Following His Own Beat

The former President isn’t known for ‘falling in line.’ However, the GOP has tried very hard to have a united effort to focus on the economy and other areas where Democrats and the Biden administration are in the doghouse with the American public.

Trump’s 12-page paper focusing mainly on claims he won the Presidency goes against the GOP narrative at large. A former Trump White House aide put it:

“I think it’s fine to correct the record…but I think the vast majority of the energy should be spent on the economic issues.”

I feel this won’t be the last we hear of the former President. With more hearings scheduled, it’s sure to make for must-see TV if you can afford your cable bill or streaming subscription by then.

Read Trump’s full 12-page statement about the January 6 Committee here.

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Lindsey Graham Cuts Deal With Bernie Sanders To Oppose ‘Election Deniers’ And ‘Defund The Police’ Candidates

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Lindsey Graham offered to rein in pro-Trump Republican candidates who question the integrity of the 2020 election if Bernie Sanders would do the same regarding anti-police Democrats going forward.

The proposed compromise came about as the two Senators engaged in a debate as part of The Senate Project on Fox Nation.

Socialist Sanders (I-VT), during one exchange, started hammering Graham for his association with and promotion of Republicans who side with former President Donald Trump in questioning the legitimacy of the last presidential election.

“We have a former President whose name is Donald Trump. Goes around the country telling people, ‘Hey, I won the election. In fact, I probably won it by a landslide but they – they stole it. They took it away from me,’” Sanders argued.

“Now, that happens to be what we call a big lie,” added the socialist curmudgeon. He later lamented that the so-called ‘big lie’ casts doubt on the “entire system” and suggested it represents a slide to “authoritarianism.”

RELATED: New White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Claimed the 2016 and 2018 Elections Were ‘Stolen’

Lindsey Graham Compromises With Bernie Sanders

Lindsey Graham took the bait from Bernie Sanders and offered to rein in pro-Trump Republicans who cast doubt on the 2020 election.

Graham (R-SC) insisted he “voted to certify the election” and, despite there being “some mail balloting chicanery” declared that Biden won the election.

“But what about all of the candidates out there who are trying to say that he didn’t?” Sanders chimed in. “Your Republican candidates you want people to vote for?”

“Well, I, you know … what about the people saying defund the police? You talk to them, I talk to that crowd,” Graham replied.

RELATED: Marjorie Taylor Greene Demolishes Lindsey Graham For Helping Democrats On Gun Control

Bernie’s Own Big Lie

Bernie Sanders responded to Lindsey Graham by saying, “But your crowd is a lot larger than my crowd.”

This is a statement that underscores Graham’s fumble in going the false equivalency route. He didn’t have to compare ‘defund the police’ Democrats to Republicans who call into question election results. No, that’s a whole different segment of extremists on the left.

Graham simply had to challenge Sanders to denounce Democrats who … have questioned election results.

Like White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre who said the 2016 presidential election was “stolen.”

Trump’s opponent in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, spent years claiming the election was stolen from her by the Russians and anybody else she could point a finger at.

“I was the candidate that they basically stole an election from,” she said.

Jean-Pierre’s boss, President Biden, cast his own doubts, agreeing with a woman at a campaign rally who said Trump was an “illegitimate president in my mind.”

“I absolutely agree,” Biden replied.

Former President Jimmy Carter believed Trump lost saying, “I think a full investigation would show that Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016.”

Democrats, in fact, objected to the election results in 2016 officially and during the proceedings certifying electoral votes 11 separate times.

So many ‘big lies’ right there.

And Lindsey Graham didn’t even need to bring up all those Democrat election deniers. He could have just challenged Bernie Sanders himself in the debate.

Sanders, you see, claimed the 2016 nomination was stolen from him by a system “rigged” to favor Clinton. Well, he used the ‘some people are saying’ play.

When asked if he would commit to supporting Hillary in 2016, Sanders replied: “Some people say that maybe if the system was not rigged against me, I would have won the nomination.”

Democrats, dating back to Al Gore’s refusal to accept defeat in 2000, have been the party of election skepticism. They haven’t suddenly turned a corner.

And they don’t get to play the ‘big lie’ card just because they think voters are too stupid to remember what they have done over the years.

Republicans like Graham need to stop playing defense on this and point to how Democrats were discrediting elections long before Donald Trump ever did.

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