Tag: Republicans

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GOP Senator: Capitol Building Invasion Was ‘By And Large A Peaceful Protest’

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Fox News viewers last night the January 6 invasion of the Capitol Building was

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Fox News viewers last night the January 6 invasion of the Capitol Building was "by and large a peaceful protest" During an appearance on Fox News’s Ingraham Angle, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) continued to rewrite history regarding the invasion of the U.S. Capitol building on January 6. “By and large, it was a peaceful protest except for there were a number of people, basically agitators that whipped the crowd and breached the Capitol, and that’s really the truth of what’s happening here,” said Johnson. “But they like to paint that narrative so they can paint a broad brush and basically impugn 75 million Americans, call them potentially domestic terrorists and potential armed insurrectionists as well,” he added. Last week, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) claimed “if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.” If only there was a way to form an investigation into what actually happened…

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Liz Cheney Removed From GOP House Leadership Over Trump

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was voted out of her leadership position in the House Republican caucus today

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was voted out of her leadership position in the House Republican caucus today Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was removed from her leadership position in the House Republican caucus today because she refused to promote the idea that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. From NBC News:

“We must be true to our principles and to the Constitution,” Cheney, R-Wyo., told fellow House Republicans before the closed-door vote, according to a source in the room. “We cannot let the former president drag us backward and make us complicit in his efforts to unravel our democracy. Down that path lies our destruction, and potentially the destruction of our country.”

After the vote, Cheney said that if Trump tries to run again, “I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office.”

According to reports, Cheney addressed her colleagues before the vote this morning and was booed by some in the room. Last night, in advance of the impending vote, Cheney gave a full-throated speech defending her choice to speak truth to power. While Cheney and I would probably disagree on practically everything in terms of political policy, I admire and respect her holding fast to the truth here.

Trump took a ‘victory lap’ of sorts after her ouster today calling her “a bitter, horrible human being” in a statement. “I watched her yesterday and realized how bad she is for the Republican Party,” said Trump. “She has no personality or anything good having to do with politics or our Country.” And Rep. Madison Cawthorn, the newly-elected 25-year-old from North Carolina, demonstrated what happens when you elect a 12-year-old to office:

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News Round-Up: April 11, 2021

Sebastian Lletget (image via Instagram)
Some news items you might have missed: • Pink News: Major League Soccer has launched an investigation into LA Galaxy’s Sebastian Lletget (above) over a homophobic slur in a video he posted to Instagram. • Washington Blade: President Biden called for ramping up funds in the first year of his administration to beat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States. In his initial budget request to Congress, he signaled he would continue the PrEP-centric initiative that began in the previous administration. • Metrosource: The new hardcover book, On Fire: The Firefighters of France, is a curated collection of the best portraits and smoking shots from the wildly popular French firefighter calendars, personally selected by creator Fred Goudon. https://www.instagram.com/p/CL2IgpiM8g5/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link • AP News: After promoting doubt about the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine made using the previously experimental messenger RNA, or mRNA, process, a top Chinese health official publicly admitted Chinese COVID-19 vaccines aren’t very effective saying they “don’t have very high protection rates.” • Wichita Eagle: Kansas Senate Republicans ousted Sen. Gene Suellentrop as majority leader Friday after he was charged with leading police on a drunken 90 mile an hour, wrong-way chase down Interstate 70. • HIVPlus Mag: A potential HIV vaccine is showing very promising results in Phase I human trials. The vaccine works by stimulating the production of rare immune cells that generate HIV-resistant antibodies. Such a result was found in 97 percent of human participants administered the potential vaccine.

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MLB Announces All-Star Game Moved To Colorado

Logo for Major League Baseball

Logo for Major League Baseball Major League Baseball has announced it will hold its annual All-Star Game in Denver, Colorado, after Georgia changed its voting laws in March which could potentially restrict voting access for people of color. Of course, MLB has the right to hold its game anywhere it wants in an environment that it deems appropriate.

But Republicans are still mad at MLB for pulling its game from the Peach State, so they are now trying to compare Georgia’s new voting laws to those in Colorado. One issue Repubs tried to press today was that Georgia now allows for 17 early voting days while Colorado has 15 early voting days. They also point to the idea that Colorado has a voter ID requirement as does Georgia.

But… it’s not that simple. Colorado’s voter ID law for in-person voting (sometimes referred to as “non-strict”) allows for a variety of IDs including ones without photos. If voters don’t have ID on them at the time of voting, they can cast a provisional ballot and elections officials are charged with verifying their eligibility. But Georgia’s in-person ID requirement is a “strict” law, requiring photo ID. And if a voter doesn’t have one with them at the polls, they can cast a provisional ballot, but the voter has to show a photo ID at a county registrar’s office within three days. More importantly, though, Colorado votes almost universally via mail-in ballot. All registered voters there receive an absentee ballot and almost 99% of voters there cast their votes via mail. So, the in-person ID requirement – and the number of early in-person voting days – is practically moot since the vast majority of ballots are cast by mail. Also, as White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted today when asked about the “comparisons” by Fox News’s Peter Doocy, Colorado allows citizens to register to vote on election days which Georgia does not.

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Survey: 71% Of Republicans Oppose Making Voting Easy

According to a new survey by Pew Research Center, the number of Republicans who say “everything possible” should be done to make voting easy has dropped precipitously since 2018. Of course, this comes after their candidate lost the 2020 presidential election thanks to record-breaking voter participation. As a response, state legislatures have introduced over 360 voter restriction bills this year. Many election experts say the new laws will disproportionately affect voters of color, as well as those with disabilities. Georgia, whose close elections for president and U.S. Senate drew national attention, has already passed a bill that effectively suppresses the vote in the Peach State. Some aspects of the Georgia law include reducing the time period voters have to request absentee ballots, limiting the use of ballot drop boxes, and making it illegal to hand out water to voters standing in line for hours. Crunching the Pew Center’s data:

• 59% of U.S. adults overall say everything possible should be done to make it easy for every citizen to vote, while 39% say citizens should have to prove they want to vote by registering ahead of time.

• 85% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents say everything possible should be done to make it easy for every citizen to vote, while 14% say citizens should have to prove they really want to vote by registering ahead of time.

• 28% of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents say everything possible should be done to make it easy for all citizens to vote, while 71% say American citizens should prove they really want to vote by registering ahead of time.

It’s worth noting that prior to the 2018 mid-term elections, 48% of Republicans said everything possible should be done to make it easy to vote, while 51% said citizens should have to prove they really want to vote by registering ahead of time. That shows a clear 20 point shift in Republican attitudes on voting in less than 3 years. Broken down by race, 84% of Black adults and 69% of Hispanic adults say everything possible should be done to make it easy to vote, only 51% of white respondents said the same. On the issue of election security:

• 61% of U.S. adults overall say it would not make elections less secure if election rules were changed to make it easier to register and vote.

• 82% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents say the same.

• 37% of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents say the same.

Read the full report from Pew Research here.

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NY Republican Congressman Apologizes For Sexual Misconduct

Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY)

Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY)
Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY)
A congressman from New York, who believes businesses can refuse to serve LGBTQ people based on religious beliefs and has called for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to be impeached over sexual impropriety allegations, has apologized for his own sexual misconduct. Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY), a six-term congressman who represents New York’s 23rd District, has addressed allegations that he unhooked a woman’s bra and then began to slide his hand up the woman’s thigh in 2017. From the Washington Post:

In the story that published Friday, Nicolette Davis, a former lobbyist for Aflac insurance, said that Reed rubbed her back and unhooked her bra during a gathering with other lobbyists at a Minneapolis pub in 2017. She was 25 years old at the time and on her first networking trip. He was 45.

Reed last week declined to answer detailed questions about the incident, saying only, “This account of my actions is not accurate.”

But on Sunday, Reed apologized profusely to Davis as well as to his family, constituents and other supporters.

“Even though I am only hearing of this matter as stated by Ms. Davis in the article now, I hear her voice and will not dismiss her,” he said in the statement. “In reflection, my personal depiction of this event is irrelevant. Simply put, my behavior caused her pain, showed her disrespect and was unprofessional. I was wrong, I am sorry, and I take full responsibility.”

Reed blamed the incident on his struggles with alcohol. Reed also announced that while he won’t resign, he will not be seeking reelection in 2022 which is a rather empty statement since he declared when he was first elected he wouldn’t serve more than six terms. Read more at the Washington Post.

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Poll: 49% Of GOP Men Don’t Plan On Getting COVID Vaccine

Image of a vaccine shot

Image of a vaccine shot The latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, which surveyed 1,227 American adults, shows 49% of Republican men say they don’t plan on getting vaccinated against the coronavirus compared with just 6% of men who identify as Democrats. Overall, 67% say they either plan to get their shot or already have, while 30% say they will not be getting the vaccine. More from NPR:

Among those who responded to the survey, 73% of Black people and 70% of White people said that they either planned to get a coronavirus vaccine or had done so already; 25% of Black respondents and 28% of white respondents said they did not plan to get a shot.

Latino respondents were slightly more likely to say they would not get vaccinated at 37%, compared with 63% who either had or intended to get a vaccine.

Read the full article.

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Polls: 40 Point Gap Between Those Who Will Or Won’t Get Vaccinated

The FDA has approved updated versions of COVID-19 vaccines

At this point, the most powerful weapons in science’s arsenal to contain the COVID-19 pandemic are the vaccines approved to combat the virus. But will Americans take it when it becomes available to them? From CNN:

In an average of Axios/Ipsos polls taken in January and February, 74% of Democrats said they’d either been vaccinated, or were extremely or very likely to get vaccinated as soon it’s available to them. Just 51% of Republicans said the same thing. Independents were in the middle of these two groups at 61%.

When Gallup asked respondents whether they would agree to get vaccinated if the vaccine were available to them right now, the partisan gap stood at 40 points (91% for Democrats and 51% for Republicans) in their most recent poll.

CNN goes on to report that those partisan differences could be dangerous for Republicans since friendships have become filtered by political leanings more than ever. A 2020 Pew Research Center poll showed 59 percent of Trump supporters said a lot of their close friends voted for Trump, 30 percent said some of their close friends did, and only 10 percent of Trump backers said few or none did. If Democrats get vaccinated but Republicans choose not to, it could lead to breakouts in those communities that lean conservative. Read the full report here. At this writing, there have been 27,428,733 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. and 475,786 COVID-19 related deaths. There are currently 67,023 people hospitalized due to the virus. In related news, Politico reports that doctors, nurses, and public health groups are trying to build confidence in Covid-19 vaccines on social media using coordinated campaigns to combat anti-vaccination disinformation.

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Dems Announce Surprise Call For Impeachment Witnesses Then Backtrack

Well, here on the west coast, we woke up to the surprise news that the House Managers prosecuting the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump were going to call witnesses. Five Senate Republicans voted with Democrats to hear witnesses at Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

And, suddenly, it appears they’re now folded and the two legal teams are moving to closing arguments with a possible vote by the entire Senate today. From ABC News:

After an 11-hour scramble, the Senate has determined it will be calling no witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial.

The written testimony of Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., — one of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump — was admitted into evidence, instead of moving further with the process for hearing from witnesses.

Neither the Trump legal team nor the House impeachment managers made any further motions. The parties mutually came to the agreement to admit Herrera Beutler’s statement and not request further witnesses.

Closing arguments are underway, for which each side is allotted two hours.

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News Round-Up: November 23, 2020

L-R Ben Lewis, Blake Lee in ‘The Christmas Setup’ (screen capture)
Some news items you might have missed: • OUT: A new poll from GLAAD shows only 14% of LGBTQ voters cast their ballot for Trump, while 81% voted for the projected president-elect Joe Biden. • The Hill: Sixty-six percent of Republican voters support President Trump running for president again in 2024, according to a new survey.  Also in the poll: 86% would support Trump calling for national unity, 38% would support Trump refusing to give up power and remain in the White House, and 46% would support Trump starting his own TV network. • Lifetime Channel: Check out the first trailer for Lifetime’s The Christmas Setup (lead photo above) – the cable network’s first-ever holiday movie centered on an LGBTQ romance. The film stars real-life couple Blake Lee and Ben Lewis, and The Nanny star Fran Drescher. Looks super-cute! Premieres December 12 at 8 pm ET.

• New York Times: More than one million people were screened by the TSA on Sunday – more than on any day since the pandemic took hold in March. That number is about half of what it was in 2019, but experts are concerned that people flying to visit their families for Thanksgiving could increase the spread of the coronavirus. • Mediaite: Far-right nutjob Dan Bongino floated on his podcast Monday that he would consider running for president of the United States in 2024. Bongo has previously run for Congress three times – in Maryland and Florida – and failed each time. • Twitter: Donald Trump Jr., currently quarantining in a private cabin somewhere due to testing positive for the coronavirus, is becoming more and more erratic on social media. In this recent tweet, he asks about burning down the house for Thanksgiving…? #NotFunny