Ron Johnson Has NO IDEA How He Wound Up In The Middle Of This Fake Elector Coup Plot!
You know how it is when some rando hands you an envelope of fake documents to hand to the VP? You kind have to do it, right?
Yesterday the House January 6 Select Committee dropped Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson in the coup soup with these texts between his top aide Sean Riley and Vice President Mike Pence's legislative director Chris Hodgson.
"Johnson needs to hand something to VPOTUS, please advise," wrote Riley at 12:37 p.m. on January 6, 2021, as Congress had convened to certify Joe Biden's electoral vote win.
"What is it?" Hodgson asked.
"Alternate slate of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn't receive them," Johnson's aide responded.
As Politico's Kyle Cheney notes, that was bullshit. The National Archives had received all seven slates of fake electors from the swing states Biden won weeks before, but probably didn't pass them on to Pence because they were totally bogus and not certified by the appropriate state officials. Johnson was trying to help their little coup plot along by putting the cosplay elector slates in Pence's hand directly.
In the event, Pence's people gave Johnson the brush off.
"Do not give that to him," Hodgson shot back immediately.
So, no harm, no foul, right? Nothing to see here, just a Republican senator directly involved in the potentially criminal plot to submit fraudulent electors and obstruct the orderly transition of power. Move along, people!
\u201cThe Vice President\u2019s office said not to give it to him and we did not. There was no further action taken. End of story.\u201d— alexa henning (@alexa henning) 1655838437
Alexa Henning is Johnson's spox, and she'd like us all to accept that her boss had nothing to do with the fake electoral certificates he tried to pass to the vice president. "The senator had no involvement in the creation of an alternate slate of electors and had no foreknowledge that it was going to be delivered to our office. This was a staff to staff exchange. [...] The Vice President's office said not to give it to him and we did not. There was no further action taken. End of story." They tried to mount a coup, it didn't work out, end of story.
So where did the fraudulent electoral certificates for Michigan and Wisconsin come from? Well, it's kind of a funny story!
"We didn't know — literally don't — it was a staff to staff — somebody from the House, some staff intern, you know, said we got to, the vice president needs this or whatever. I wasn't involved," Senator Johnson told CNN's Manu Raju after another reporter busted him pretending to talk to a locked phone. "I don't know what they said. But ... somebody from the House delivered to a staff member in my office. My chief of staff called the vice president, 'Hey, we got this.' And the vice president said, 'Don't deliver it,' and we didn't."
\u201cAsked Johnson if he\u2019d ask his aides to ID person who gave them fake names: \u201cWe didn\u2019t know -- literally don't \u2013 it was staff to staff \u2013 somebody from the House, some staff intern said \u2026 the Vice President needs this or whatever. I wasn't involved. I don't know what they said\u201d\u201d— Manu Raju (@Manu Raju) 1655849815
The fugazi documents just materialized out of thin air from "somebody" in the House. Coulda been an intern. Or maybe the stork delivered them. Have any of you gumshoes considered the possibility that Santa Claus dropped them down the chimney?
Does the senator have any curiosity about the origin of these immaculately conceived documents? He does not!
"There's no conspiracy here. This is a complete non-story, guys. Complete non-story," he repeated, as if it was a magical incantation that wards off reporters and stops them asking any more pesky question, adding several times for good measure that the mysterious exchange was "Staff to staff!"
But soon enough he fell back on GOP platitudes.
"Listen, if this were a real committee, they'd be asking why wasn't the Capitol secured. You know, who was in charge of that security? This is a total partisan witch hunt" — DRINK! — "and I was not involved in this at all."
Cool, cool. Say it under oath, fella.
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Oh, So 'Crime Backlash Crushes Dems' Turns Out To Be A Canard? The Duck You Say!
The conventional wisdom is neither.
As you may have seen, the Pundit Class had a fine time pontificating over the June 8 elections in California. San Franciscans voted overwhelmingly to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin, and the early returns in the Los Angeles mayoral primary had billionaire developer (real estate, not apps) Rick Caruso leading Rep. Karen Bass, herself a Known Progressive and advocate for reforming America's criminal justice system. The day after the election, Caruso, who pushed a Get Tough on Crime and Homelessness agenda, led the race, with 42 percent of the vote, to Bass's not-quite 37 percent.
That was all it took for the New York Times to run a very thoughtful bit of tut-tutting about how Even Progressive California was yearning for more Law-n-Order, with the headline "Progressive Backlash in California Fuels Democratic Debate Over Crime." So much for your crazy talk of undoing the carceral state, progressives! Even you want the cops to arrest all the bad guys, you see? The protestations of the literal leader of the recall campaign, who said San Franciscans still support reform, tended to get lost in all the pontificating by thoughtful analysts. No, little lady, you want Frank Rizzo's Philadelphia, is what you want, and don't say otherwise.
But as David Dayen points out at The American Prospect, that narrative was half-baked, because the votes were only half-counted (look, I'm not going to check the actual percentages and ruin my lovely lazy metaphor). Things looked very different once all the votes were actually in.
East Coast media once again neglected an enduring fact about California elections: Votes are counted slowly and deliberately. All state voters receive ballots via mail, and mail ballots can come into registrar offices up to a week later and still be counted, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. Hundreds of thousands of votes have been and will be counted after the Times and others wrote their trend pieces.
Hey-presto-reverso! As of June 14, those first-day tallies had pretty much reversed, and Bass is in first, with 41.05 percent of the vote, and Caruso behind by not quite three points at 38.29 percent, with 10 other candidates splitting the rest of the primary vote. Bass and Caruso will go on to November's general election, and the best Caruso might be able to claim is that he rode his Git Tuff platform — and $40 million in campaign funds, 12 times as much as Bass spent — to a second-place finish against the popular progressive.
Some widespread rethinking of reform, huh?
As Dayen points out, spending all that money and not breaking 40 percent of the vote in a 12-candidate field not only isn't a win, it suggests a broad rejection of Caruso's fearmongering about crime and homelessness.
In fact, most of the tough-on-crime narratives told on election night are faltering as votes come in. Authoritarian L.A. sheriff Alex Villanueva is down to 31.86 percent in the first round, a shockingly bad result against no-name challengers. The city attorney race is trending away from the law-and-order candidates in the field, with one reformer likely in the runoff and a second close to it. Progressives are now winning key city council races. Nothing in the actual election results suggests that Angelenos have driven a backlash on criminal justice reform.
Even that supposedly crushing defeat of Boudin has become less absolute, although his recall is certain. At the time the race was called, the margin was 60-40 in favor of recall, but as of the 16th, the "yes" vote on recall has evened out a bit, at 55 percent compared to 45 percent of voters who wanted to keep Boudin. Still a definite loss, but not quite a whomping. And as we noted, it's not for nothing that Boudin's perceived insensitivity to crimes against Asian Americans led to a lot of AAPI folks joining the recall campaign.
As for the notion that progressives long to bring back thumbscrews and tough sentencing, the evidence simply isn't there:
In larger counties like Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, progressive district attorneys and sheriff candidates were victorious. The tough-on-crime prosecutor in Sacramento who ran for state attorney general is deep in fourth place with only 7.5 percent of the vote. I won’t make the same mistake as these reporters and say there will be no backlash amid an uptick in violent crime; it’s just that it’s not really to be found in California’s election results.
Gosh. Next we'll find out that Democrats aren't really in all that much disarray.
[American Prospect / Photo: Norbert Nagel, Creative Commons License 3.0]
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Nice Time: John Fetterman Beating Stuffings Out Of Dr. Oz In PA Senate Race!
Now, let’s up those numbers for Josh Shapiro!
Here’s some good news for a change! A Suffolk University/USA TODAY network poll of likely midterm voters in Pennsylvania shows Lt. Gov. John Fetterman up a whopping nine points over snake oil hustler Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Will Bunch at the Philadelphia Inquirer links this thumping to the “millions spent in (the) GOP primary driving up (Oz’s) negatives.” Bunch suggests that “Fetterman’s lead reflects Dems wanting a fighter.”
\u201cSo Fetterman is up by 9 over Oz (pretty good) while Shapiro leads Mastriano by just 4 (too close!) in 1st major PA poll, Suffolk/USA\n\nA lot going on, including the millions spent in GOP primary driving up Oz negatives\n\nBut I think Fetterman's lead reflects Dems wanting a fighter\u201d— Will Bunch (@Will Bunch) 1655292007
I'm not quite sure voters want a pugilist so much as an otherwise normal Democrat who’ll unequivocally advance the party’s agenda. He’s running as a team player, which is what Democrats want most after so much Joe Manchin/Krysten Sinema-generated heartache. It doesn’t hurt that Fetterman seems like a normal guy and Dr. Oz is Dr. Oz. (He should’ve just run as "Mr. Oz" and pretended TV’s Dr. Oz was his weirdo quack cousin.)
Fetterman’s lead is impressive considering he’s not fully campaigning yet. He had a stroke last month and now has a pacemaker. He’s expected to make a complete recovery as long as he doesn’t take medical advice from Dr. Oz.
I was a little annoyed that Fetterman aired his first general election ad on Fox News. I’m not convinced persuadable voters watch the Tucker Carlson network. However, let’s take a look at what folks are seeing in the Pittsburgh, Scranton, and Johnstown media markets.
The ad hits the somewhat tiresome “outsider takes it to Washington DC” themes that admittedly connects with voters. Army veteran Braxton White, who’s also a local school board member, claims DC has "attacked towns” like Braddock (where Fetterman was mayor) with “bad deals that sent away our jobs” and "drugs that kill our kids.” (I assume the latter wasn’t intentional.)
The ad blares, “Washington doesn’t care,” but it’s actually Republicans who’ve screwed working people. Collective cynicism about Washington in general only benefits Republicans. Most Democrats without the last name "Sinema" go to Washington to help people, and what do you know, Fetterman is one of them!
White says that Fetterman has lived for "20 years in a place like [Braddock], building, pushing, fighting.” He supports a $15 minimum wage and more "American jobs” with higher wages. That would probably trigger any Fox News viewers’ socialist sense.
The ad wraps up with a photo of Fetterman seated between two Black men. He’s not pointing a gun at either of them. It’s like the “Ebony and Ivory” video.
Hey, if this gets Fetterman a nine-point lead and keeps Dr. Oz out of the Senate, keep it coming.
I’m less enthused about the polling numbers for the governor’s race. Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro is only leading GOP insurrectionist and Christian nationalist Doug Mastriano by four points. I’ll take a narrow win over a fascist instead of a narrow loss any day of the week and twice on Sunday, but the October 2020 Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll had Joe Biden up seven points. His actual margin of victory was 1.2 points. If this poll is equally generous to Democrats, then we could end up with a comfortable Fetterman win but a painfully close Shapiro loss.
Mastriano would steamroll over abortion rights once Roe is overturned. He’s repeatedly said he wouldn’t have certified Biden’s election win in the state, so we can safely assume he’d baselessly cry “fraud!” and reject any Democratic victory in 2024 — and the Pennsylvania governor appoints the secretary of state. This is a key race and Shapiro absolutely must win. We need to get him up to Fetterman’s numbers, even if it means he has to air ads on Fox News and sit on more benches with Black people. These are desperate times.
OPEN THREAD!
[Politico]
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Republican Braingeniuses Won't Certify New Mexico Primary Results Because Screw You Is Why!
We’re gonna see a lot more of this.
A rogue band of Republicans voted unanimously Monday against certifying election results from New Mexico’s June 7 primary. The three-member Otero County commission, defying County Clerk Robyn Holmes, provided no specific evidence of discrepancies. Instead, the GOP commissioners offered repeatedly debunked Big Lie conspiracies about Dominion voting machines.
“I have huge concerns with these voting machines,” Otero County Commissioner Vickie Marquardt said Monday. “When I certify stuff that I don’t know is right, I feel like I’m being dishonest because in my heart I don’t know if it is right.”
We’ve all seen the Terminator and Matrix movies. We have reason to distrust machines, but there is no compelling evidence that Dominion voting machines are generating corrupted elections results or want to kill us all.
PREVIOUSLY:
Dominion Voting Systems To Rudy Giuliani: F*ck Around And Find Out.
Dominion Voting Releases The Kraken On Sidney Powell
Smartmatic Voting Machine Company Sues OANN And Newsmax For PAY UP BITCHES
New Mexico’s Dominion machines have been disparaged repeatedly by David and Erin Clements of Las Cruces in their review of the 2020 election in Otero County and voter registration rolls at the request of the commission. The Clements are traveling advocates for “forensic” reviews of the 2020 election and offer their services as election experts and auditors to local governments. Election officials including County Clerk Robyn Holmes say the Clements are not certified auditors nor experts in election protocols.
A notable member of the Otero County commission is Cowboys for Trump co-founder and Big Lie promoter Couy Griffin. Griffin was recently convicted of illegally entering US Capitol grounds — although not the building itself — on January 6, 2021. He is scheduled for sentencing later this month.
Griffin acknowledged that the commission’s nonsense could delay the outcome of local election races, which would potentially deny candidates access to the general election ballot in November.
Democratic Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver has asked the state Supreme Court to order the scofflaw board to do its job. County canvassing boards have until Friday to certify election results. The canvassing boards can request that voting precinct boards address specific discrepancies, but “voting machines are the devil” is not an issue rooted in reality.
Toulouse Oliver said in a statement: "The post-election canvassing process is a key component of how we maintain our high levels of election integrity in New Mexico and the Otero County Commission is flaunting that process by appeasing unfounded conspiracy theories and potentially nullifying the votes of every Otero County voter who participated in the primary.”
She also accuse the commission members of willfully violating the state election code, which is probably a crime, we guess.
Last week, the Otero County commission voted to recount ballots from the statewide primary election by hand, remove state-mandated ballot drop boxes because absentee voting is also the devil, and summarily end the use of Dominion voting machines in the general election. Holmes is a Republican, but she nonetheless pointed out that the commission’s directives conflict with both state and federal law. She said she’d only perform a hand recount under a court order: "The election law does not allow me to hand tally these ballots or to even form a board to do it. I just can’t. And I’m going to follow the law.”
Holmes noted that the state-owned vote tabulation machines from Dominion are tested by Otero County officials in public view and that the machines also are independently certified in advance. Griffin said he and fellow commissioners don’t see the process as trustworthy.
“That’s a source that we don’t have any control or influence over,” he said.
There’s absolutely zero reason for us to care what a convicted insurrectionist has to say about anything. Why is Griffin even still on the board? He wasn’t busted for unpaid parking tickets.
Although Joe Biden won New Mexico, Donald Trump carried Otero County with 61 percent of the vote. The commission seemingly trusts the county results but has less faith in the state’s audited vote count. County Commissioner Marquardt literally laughed at the possibility of the state Supreme Court intervening in this dispute: “And so then what? They’re going to send us to the pokey?”
She said “pokey.” I don’t think the election deniers are afraid of us.
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