We need a comprehensive, honest reckoning of how we got to this moment when a mob of people are willing to invade the Capitol to overturn the democratic process. While there are many different factors, a key one is the lengthy GOP campaign of lies about voter fraud.
This is a phenomenon that I and many other journalists have been tracking for years. Trump’s job as coup leader would have been more difficult w/o his party & numerous allied groups spreading propaganda about nonexistent fraud, suing against state voting laws, scaring their base.
For years the GOP, aided by outside legal & advocacy groups & think tanks, have fearmongered about allegedly fraudulent voters, attacking voting laws, passing voter ID bills, suing states to purge their voter rolls, even fighting things like high school civics programs.
It is baffling to me that people WHO WERE THE TARGETS OF THE INSURRECTION, LITERALLY THE PEOPLE WHOSE LIVES WERE JUST AT RISK can possibly argue *against* holding the ringleader accountable. How are these people like this? How?
Interesting how the Republican politicians who inspired the deadly, fascist coup attempt spent the year trying to get antifascists—the ones who challenge the types of people who ransacked the Capitol & killed a cop—classified as terrorists.
This is classic fascist propaganda tactics. You inspire violent acts on behalf of your leader and then blame them on the opposing side. Cruz went to far as to sponsor the bill & hold a hearing on nonexistent antifa violence. All of this is meant to exonerate the actual criminals.
Cruz & other Republicans (& rightwing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation) have embraced and promoted white nationalists’ biggest propagandist, Andy Ngo, whose job it is to invent antifa violence as his extremist allies terrorize communities.
I'd like to recount how my governor, @andrewcuomo, has led New York during the pandemic:
1. Didn't act while the virus initially took hold & made New York the global epicenter of the virus. propublica.org/article/two-co…
2. He then one-upped himself, forcing nursing homes (you know, the places filled with fragile, elderly people who are most likely to die from COVID) to take in COVID patients. More than 6,700 nursing home residents died of COVID in those facilities. apnews.com/article/virus-…
3. Cuomo proceeded to lie about what happened after he required the homes take COVID-positive patients back from hospitals. cnn.com/2020/10/01/pol…
.@RepublicanAGs, which spent the year spewing unhinged propaganda about allegedly violent anarchists & BLM protesters to scare voters, played a key role in organizing yesterday's march to the Capitol, which ended w/ the deadly coup attempt. documented.net/2021/01/republ…
@RepublicanAGs They funded a robocall: "We will march to the Capitol building and call on congress to stop the steal."
.@NYGovCuomo scrapped the statewide plan to administer the vaccine at local health departments, only allowing distribution at hospitals, and now he's yelling at & threatening the hospitals for being slow. Such an awful person & governor.
@NYGovCuomo It's unconscionable that you have a plan in place, a strategy you've already tested, counties are begging you to greenlight it, and you're refusing. timesunion.com/news/article/N…
Remember that after condemning thousands of seniors to their deaths in nursing homes, then shielding the execs from liability, Cuomo wrote a book about his COVID success & received an Emmy award. Great meritocracy we've got here.