People outside of the right wing media bubble need to understand how off-the-rails insane this party has become.
What kind of a mind can even think that up?
After the insurrection, they mede the decision to shield Trump because he controls the "base" and without his "base" they can't win primaries.
Some of them believe every word of this.
Others have made a cynical and ugly political calculation.
I agree. There is evidence that he might not.
Another way to see it is that once they've shielded Trump in any manner whatsoever, they're stuck because the anti-Trump people will never accept them, so they have no choice but to double down on crazy.
It's also bad news for Trump, who no doubt planned to make the same argument.
(The defense is that the speech these guys gave on Jan. 6 was within the scope of their employment so they're entitled to the DOJ defending them. The DOJ said nope.)
Here's the document: s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2101…
The DOJ is calling his activities "campaigning and electioneering," which isn't part of his duties as a Congressman.
Also "it is no part of the business of the United States to pick sides among candidates in federal elections."
🔥
Actually, Trump did make the same argument in this case.
The 14th Amendment (which says that any elected officials who incite insurrection can not run again for office) creates an interesting loop.
If they are guilty of what they're charged with, the DOJ can't defend them.
1/ I’ll post a transcript shortly. (Having technical difficulties.)
Republican crimes (and criminology in general) is a huge topic, but here are a few thoughts.
I’ve been tweeting about a lot of this, but I think laying it out this way helps me explain it better.
2/ Putting the blame where the blame belongs: Turns out, it wasn't a technical difficulty. It was me being a computer dork. (No! It was keyboard gremlins making mischief!)
What a coincidence! Thomas Barrack, another Trump “advisor” and chair of the Presidential Inaugural Committee has been arrested and charged with acting as a foreign agent.
This isn't actually a FARA violation. It's worse.
1/
22 USC 611 (FARA) is a documentary requirement and (if you lie) can carry a 5-year sentence.
Barrack was charged with the "espionage lite" statute for people working on behalf of a foreign power: law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18…
This one carries up to a 10-year penalty.
2/
One reason I said, "what a coincidence" is that this week I'm writing about Republican lawbreaking.
I haven't really wanted to weigh into this, but the idea that people commit crimes because they think (or know) they won't be held accountable does not hold up to the research on deterrence and punishment.
Here I expanded on some ideas I tweeted about this week:
🔹Are we too far gone?
🔹Will the GOP succeed in unraveling 100 years of progress?
🔹Sadopopulism
I did something different in this video. I’m not on the screen; instead, you can read the text.
You don’t get to see my pretty green office, but this was a lot easier for me to put together.
I expanded on this thread, adding more reasons people (well, Democrats and people left-of-center) who are following politics closely often feel panic and despair.