The picture above is of my creation. I altered a headline from our local conservative news source on the "dishonest presidential election."
Three days after being sworn in to Congress August Pfluger (R-TX) and many of his peers plan to vote against the certification of President Elect Joe Biden. This act should be much harder after WaPo released President Trump's phone attempt to strong arm Georgia election officials. However almost none of Trump's egregious conduct has come back to bite him in our nation's capital.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney offered the following response:
“The congressional power to reject electors is reserved for the most extreme and unusual circumstances. These are far from it. More Americans participated in this election than ever before, and they made their choice. President Trump’s lawyers made their case before scores of courts; in every instance, they failed. The Justice Department found no evidence of irregularity sufficient to overturn the election. The Presidential Voter Fraud Commission disbanded without finding such evidence.”
“This has the predictable potential to lead to disruption, and worse. I could never have imagined seeing these things in the greatest democracy in the world. Has ambition so eclipsed principle?”
Republican Senator Ben Sasse criticized the move.
"Let’s be clear what is happening here: We have a bunch of ambitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without doing any real, long-term damage," Sasse said. "But they’re wrong – and this issue is bigger than anyone’s personal ambitions. Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government."
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan warned:
"All our basic rights and freedoms flow from a fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law. This principle is not only fundamentally American but a central tenet of conservatism. Under our system, voters determine the president, and this self-governance cannot sustain itself if the whims of Congress replace the will of the people. I urge members to consider the precedent that it would set.
"Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden’s victory strike at the foundation of our republic. It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans. The fact that this effort will fail does not mean it will not do significant damage to American democracy.
"The Trump campaign had ample opportunity to challenge election results, and those efforts failed from lack of evidence. The legal process was exhausted, and the results were decisively confirmed. The Department of Justice, too, found no basis for overturning the result. If states wish to reform their processes for future elections, that is their prerogative. But Joe Biden’s victory is entirely legitimate."
Trump was the champion in 2016. Voters reversed his earlier landslide. He can't handle the truth and the truth is he lost in a free and fair election.
Rep. August Pfluger need not listen me, a constituent who has voted for candidates from both the Red and Blue teams. However, he might listen to elected Republican officials who've remained independent of the Trump mob, which has at least one Congressman espousing violence..
Update 1-4-20:
John C. Danforth, a former Republican senator and paragon of the party establishment, denounced the electoral challenge, calling it part of a “populist strategy to drive America even farther apart by promoting conspiracy theories and stoking grievances.”“Lending credence to Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen is a highly destructive attack on our constitutional government,” Danforth, a mentor to Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, the instigator of the effort in the Senate, said in a statement. “It is the opposite of conservative; it is radical.”
Pfluger spent decades in the U.S. Military as a fighter pilot. Ten living Defense Secretaries sent a warning letter against use of the military to change election results.
“Efforts to involve the US armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory,
“Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.”
Pfluger is brand spanking new to Congress and taking the most radical act against a President Elect in the last 140 years.
Update 1-6-21: Local conservative news source reported on the Trump riot at the U.S. Capital.
During the debate over Arizona a recess was called after a crowd of President Trump supporters who were outside of the building gained access inside.
The story did not mention our new Congressman August Pfluger or his need to flee with other members of Congress from the Trump mob.
Former President George W. Bush gave the following statement regarding today's disturbing developments:
I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions, and our law enforcement. The violent assault on the Capitol -- and disruption of a Constitutionally-mandated meeting of Congress -- was undertaken by people whose passions have been inflamed by falsehoods and false hopes.
Insurrection could do grave damage to our Nation and reputation. In the United States of America, it is the fundamental responsibility of every patriotic citizen to support the rule of law. To those who are disappointed in the results of the election: Our country is more important than the politics of the moment. Let the officials elected by the people fulfill their duties and represent our voices in peace and safety.
May God continue to bless the United States of America."
Update 1-7-21: An administration official described Trump’s behavior on Wednesday as that of “a monster,” while another said the situation was “insane” and “beyond the pale”. Our local conservative news source had nothing more to say about the Trump inspired insurrection at the U.S. Capital yesterday. It did offer this on a small Trump rally in Midland, TX:
"As chaos overtook the nation's capital on Wednesday Trump supporters in Midland had a much calmer and lawful approach."
One wonders if Yantis Green made the trip to D.C. for the "Stop the Steal" sedition event. Pfluger condemned the violence from a protected area during yesterday's insurrection. Our brand new Representative found fault with Arizona and Pennsylvania's election handling. The U.S. Constitution grants states the rights to manage their elections.
White House aides were astonished at Trump's slow response to the violence he incited, with the official calling the president a "total monster."
Monster Trump incited the death of Capital Police officer.
At approximately 9:30 p.m. this evening (January 7, 2021), United States Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick passed away due to injuries sustained while on-duty.
Officer Sicknick was responding to the riots on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol and was injured while physically engaging with protesters.
Some of Trump's patriots killed a police officer during their rampage..
Update 1-9-21: Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz are under fire for their roles in inflaming the violent Capital mob. Rep. August Pfluger, an Air Force veteran, followed Ted Cruz in objecting to vote counts in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
A viral photo of Hawley entering the Capitol before the riot, showing the senator in a slim-fitting suit, hair perfectly coiffed and raising his fist toward the gathered crowd, has already become a lasting image of a day that won't soon be forgotten.
"It was like a Dukakis-on-the-tank moment," one Republican strategist told NBC News in reference to a famous attack ad on the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, "in that he just looked phony and out of place and like a doofus."
Josh Hawley's Republican mentor says his biggest mistake was helping Hawley
Update 1-10-21: Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) had this to say about his Republican peers who lied to constituents. Those lies and President Trump's incitement caused death and destruction on 1-6-21.
“They’ve been lying to people, lying to millions,” Crenshaw added. “They’ve been lying that January 6th was going to be this big solution for election integrity, and it was never going to be. It was never going to solve anything and it was always unconstitutional.”
The former Navy SEAL also told the Houston Chronicle on Thursday that he believes “people have been lied to en masse by the millions.”
“In the sense that they were led to believe Jan. 6 was anything but a political performance for a few opportunistic politicians to give a five-minute speech. That is all that it ever was,” he said. “People were lied to.”
Update 1-11-21: Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) said:
Cruz and Hawley were “going to have a lot of soul searching to do and the problem is they were complicit in the big lie, this lie that Donald Trump won the election in a landslide and it was all stolen.
“They compounded that with this notion that somehow this could all be reversed in the final moments of the congressional proceedings. So that’s, that’s going to be, that’s going to haunt them for a very long time.”
Meanwhile President Trump has revenge on his mind. Our local conservative news source has been silent on post riot revelations, other than one opinion piece and a story about a lady from Midland who videoed the Speaker of the House office breakin.
Update 1-12-21: Our local conservative news source ignored the many Republican voices speaking out and ran a story defending new Rep. August Pfluger's bad week. The piece stated "What happened next no one could predict. A crowd of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol." It was highly predictable.
In the lead up to January 6th, in the days and weeks ahead of the riots at the Capitol, is they (threats of violence) moved from becoming aspirational and a little bit more cryptic to very specific.”
"There was a ‘Patriots watch party’ on ‘TheDonald.win,’ a website that is obviously pro-Donald Trump. We saw commands to ‘start shooting, patriots’ and ‘kill these … traitors.’
The FBI's Norfolk, VA office found the following on 1-5-21 and shared the information with D.C. officials:
‘Be ready to fight. Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in, and blood from their BLM and Pantifa slave soldiers being spilled. Get violent. Stop calling this a march, or rally, or a protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die. NOTHING else will achieve this goal.”
I was so shocked by Trump's playing Elton John's "Staturday Night is Alright for Fighting" song between speakers at this Save America rally that I took a screenshot of the crowd. Exhortations of "Kick Ass", "Trial by Combat", "Fight for Me" were based on bald faced lies.
As blowback builds, the question is whether Hawley – now an overnight pariah in Washington – will suffer politically for his wild gamble to pander to a minority of Americans who are diehard Trump supporters, and include Qanon conspiracy theorists. His decision to cast his lot with would-be insurrectionists, if only indirectly, may have been a bridge too far for many Americans.
August Pfluger followed Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley. That contributed greatly to his really bad week.
Update 1-14-21: Rep. Pfluger lost corporate donor ATT for his votes against certifying President Elect Biden in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy plays a major role in raising money for the NRCC and CLF and Florida Sen. Rick Scott is the chair of the NRSC. Both men voted to overturn the results of the election.
Update 1-15-21: Pfluger stands to lose more financial support as Amazon and Walmart cut off donations to Republicans voting against the Biden certification.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Walmart family members made large contributions to the With Honor Fund that provided major support to Pfluger.
Open Secrets reported:
Another candidate supported by With Honor Fund is August Pfluger, a former fighter pilot and Air Force lieutenant colonel. Pfluger is running in Texas’s open 11th Congressional District, following the retirement of Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas). Pfluger was endorsed by President Trump, and has significantly outraised his opponents. So far he has raised over $1.2 million, and has roughly $900,000 more in cash on hand than any other candidate. With Honor Fund has spent about $214,000 supporting Pfluger.
Big donors to With Honor Fund include Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who gave more than $10 million in 2018; members of the Walton family, who are heirs to the Walmart fortune; and Abigail Wexner, who is married to Les Wexner, the founder of fashion company L Brands. Billionaire Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg also contributed to the group in 2018.
It remains to be seen how much funding Pfluger will lose due to following President Trump's lies.
Update 1-21-21: Many corporations stopped political donations post Capital insurrection.
Rep. Pluger said he could "wake up tomorrow to Socialism" in a piece titled, "Socialism begins today." He didn't say why he wants your Social Security Number on your next federal ballot.
Update 1-27-21: Add Google to the list of companies not donating to Pfluger and his ilk. Post Capital Riot more Republicans dropped their party affiliation, over 30,000 in six states.
Update 1-29-21: Republican group asks for resignation of Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley for their role in pushing Donald Trump's big lie. After endangering members of Congress by his participation in the Big Lie Congressman Pfluger was appointed to two national security committees.
Update 2-1-21: Dozens of former Bush officials (W.) quit the Republican Party calling it a Trump cult
Update 2-8-21: Former Senator John Danforth said the Republican Party is "a grotesque caricature" of its former self. Former Senator Jeff Flake said the Trump fever is slowly breaking.
Update 3-1-21: Former Liar-in-Chief Donald Trump continued his string of dishonest statements at the Trump Cult PAC.
Update 3-5-21: It turns our Republican super-spreaders caused many to believe the big lie. Trump and his offspring are the biggest of liars.
Update 3-8-21: According to Senator Lindsey Graham former President Trump is a combination of Jesse Helms (racist), Ronald Reagan and P.T. Barnum (conman). Graham said Trump has "magic." Is that of the warlock kind? Former CPAC head called Republican Party "a cult whose members are living in an alternate reality."
Update 3-11-21: "As for the Republicans, they have a moral cancer, and are likely beyond redemption."
Update 3-20-21: Former President George W. Bush gave a blunt "No" to the question of whether he thought the election was stolen from Trump.
Update 3-29-21: Former President Donald Trump's relentless lie of a stolen election has inspired an avalanche of bills nationwide, as GOP lawmakers around the country seek to add restrictions to mail voting and other electoral practices. By all accounts, the 2020 election was secure and the results accurate. One of the lie spinners was Trump attorney Sidney Powell. In her $1.3 billion Dominion defamation suit Powell’s own lawyers claimed that “no reasonable person” would believe the conspiracy theories spun by Powell. Those unreasonable conspiracy theories were of Trump's "stolen" election.
Update 3-30-21: The mother of Capital Hill Policeman Michael Fanone said this of Trump's enablers. “For me to say anything to Trump would be — it wouldn’t matter because he just can’t hear. It’s all the other people that are so complicit in this. That’s who I would speak to,” Fanone said. “How dare you? How dare you? How dare you take advantage of these people who were defending and fighting for their lives that day, to save these people, preserve democracy, civility, to restore the Capitol to what it’s supposed to be? Where are you? With all of these officers stood with you, why don’t you stand with them?”
Update 4-12-21: Corporate CEOs gathered by conference call to strategize how best to fight voter suppression bills proffered by the Red Team.
Update 5-12-21: Congresswoman Liz Cheney said “Today we face a threat America has never seen before. A former president, who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort to steal the election, has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. He risks inciting further violence.” For telling the truth she was removed from her House Leadership position on the Red Team. Former Liar-in-Chief Donald Trump continued to distort reality in his attack on Cheney. Trump boot-lickers win.
Update 5-16-21: Congressman Adam Kinzinger said “Standing up and being sane in the Republican party, that’s not anything heroic. That’s just what people expect of us and unfortunately there’s not many of us doing that at the moment.”
Update 6-3-21: Facebook will keep former President Trump banned until January 7, 2023. The former president blasted the tech giant's move while repeating his false claims that the 2020 election was "rigged," claims that social media platforms have repeatedly condemned. “Facebook’s ruling is an insult to the record-setting 75M people, plus many others, who voted for us in the 2020 Rigged Presidential Election,” Trump said.
Update 6-13-21: A Florida Red team operative said “In the past, party elders, party leaders … exploited the crazies in order to win elections and then largely ignored them after the elections,” he said. “What has happened since then is that Trump opened Pandora’s box and let them out. He not only let them out, he affirmed them and provoked them. And so now they’re running wild and they are legitimatizing these delusions.”
Update 10-21-21: Pathological liar Trump sold Trump Media Technology Group and its TRUTH Social to an SPAC, Digital World Acquisition Company. Watch founders and ex-President Trump mine it for cash. Start countdown to bankruptcy.
Update 10-24-21: TRUTH Social prohibits any unwanted information about pathological liar Donald Trump. By doing so it may be in violation of the terms of the open software it is based upon.
Update 11-10-21: Rep. August Pfluger touted his endorsement from former President Trump. Former aides privately compared the Presidential Personnel Office under President Donald Trump to the Gestapo in Nazi Germany or the East German Stasi. That's not a great endorsement.
Update 1-4-22: Trump intends to lie about January 6th, his national disgrace. Trump's ego maintenance is endangering our democracy. The Red Team is all in.
Update 1-16-22: Trump's Red Meat Arizona Rally threw raw lies to his rabid followers. He said the FBI was behind the Jan. 6th insurrection. So the FBI said to the crowd "If you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore"? Did the FBI pick the rally music too? Elton John could not have been happy with Trump's use of "Saturday night is alright for fighting" to whip up the crowd.
Update 1-16-22: Chief political garbageman and former President Donald Trump offered a bunch of nonsense to his fans on the Red Team in Arizona. Did people actually pay for that?
Update 2-13-22: Pormer Fresident Tonald Drump's picture book sold 300,000 copies to date. He characterized the book as "glamorous" and reflecting a "romantic period". Glamor and romance did not make the list of people's expectations of leaders. Drump is a whimsical liar.
Update 2-14-22: Mazars USA, the Trump Organization’s trusted outside accounting firm ditched its client, explaining that the former president’s family company has a decade of financial statements that can’t be trusted.
Update 3-5-22: I can't imagine any elected official endorsing Roger Stone's tactics on behalf of Trump which included violence and overturning an election.
Update 5-16-22: Trump told Texas rallygoers he would write a book about the election in which he lost. His title? The Crime of the Century. That would be serial perjury from a disgraced former President.
Update 5-29-22: Trump called the insurrection "a hoax" at a Wyoming rally. Seven people died as a result of Trump's right wing middle-aged wilding.
Update 6-13-22: Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said calls of voter fraud on 2020 election night were not "honest." Stepien also described the events that unfolded after 2020 election night as unprofessional. Dishonest and unprofessional, that's our Donald.
Update 6-15-22: Trump wanted to promote to U.S. Attorney General a man who said China changed votes with thermostats.
Update 6-16-22: Retired conservative Judge Luttig said this of Trump:
“For the past six years, I have watched and listened in disgust that not one single leader of ours with the moral authority, the courage and the will to stand up and say, ‘No, this is not who we are, this is not what America is and it’s not what we want to be,’ has done so.”
That more Republicans aren’t standing up to “this nonsense, this utter madness,” he said, is “the definition of failed leadership.”
Update 6-19-22: Rep. Adam Kinzinger said the Red Team isn't delivering truth to the American people.
Update 6-29-22: A young White House staffer had the courage to tell the truth about Trump's role in the January 6th insurrection. Every person who has publicly testified before the committee is on the Red Team. August Pfluger hung his political hat on a horrific person.
Update 8-10-22: Pfluger remains tied to a most unethical former President. An informant clued the FBI that President Trump had classified documents from his Presidency at Mara Lago in violation of federal law. Red Team officials are not calling for Trump to be locked up.
Update 8-12-22: The FBI searched Trump's home for classified nuclear weapons documents.
Update 8-14-22: Trump’s style of handling White House documents has been described by people who worked for him as slapdash and ad hoc. “It worried people all the time,” John Bolton, one of Trump’s former national security advisers. A close Trump insider informed the FBI on the presence of confidential and top secret documents at Mara Lago. This occurred after a Trump lawyer signed a document saying all classified documents had been turned over.
More verbal heat for the Trump snake came from Red Team Senator Rick Scott:
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan described the comparisons of the FBI to Nazi Germany’s secret police, made by Florida senator Rick Scott, as “very concerning to me, it’s outrageous rhetoric.”
Update 8-16-22: Trump's history of abusing national security information is long. Trump vowed to prosecute national security violators like himself.
Update 8-22-22: The final episode of Reliable Sources highlighted the "accelerated decline of local media." It stated that local media had been hollowed out by the likes of hedge funds and private equity underwriters (PEU). A guest said without good local journalism local politicians run wild as there is no accountability.
Update 8-25-22: A former FOX News editor acknowledged the network deceived viewers in catering to the Insane Red Team.
Update 9-1-22: A columnist painted Trump as a flailing liar surrounded by lackeys. He fits the bill perfectly.
Update 9-2-22: Trump and his legal time are throwing multiple defenses against the wall, however contradictory. Their aims are to confuse the public and hope one of the legal defenses will find a friendly judge and stick. It's not hard for Trump to defend the defenseless, the unethical, the corrupt.
Update 9-10-22: Trump's former White House lawyer Ty Cobb said former President Donald Trump risks not just prosecution, but disqualification from office under the 14th Amendment over the January riots.
Update 11-19-22: Some evangelical leaders found their discernment skills regarding former President Donald Trump, often the least observable Christian in any room.
Update 2-12-23: Trump claimed election fraud after "a team of professional researchers he paid to try and find evidence of fraud came up empty-handed." He got the report before January 6th.
Update 2-17-23: Fox News Tucker Carlson called Trump a "demonic force"
Update 3-10-23: There's a long list of people who supported Trump's election lies and got promoted for doing so.
Update 5-13-23: The Insane Red Team won't speak about their titular leader's cascade of lies, scandals and legal jeopardy. Head down, say nothing.
Update 6-9-23: Donald Trump informed the public via social media that he has been indicted for his handling of classified documents.
Update 6-18-23: Two former Trump cabinet members said the former President's handling of classified documents problematic. Former Attorney General Bill Barr eviscerated Trump calling him a consummate narcissist. Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper branded Trump a security threat.
Update 6-28-23: Continual liar Trump characterized his recently released recorded confession of holding classified documents as "bravado." Recall his taped description of sexually assaulting women as "locker room talk." Boys will be boys, especially the selfish, spoiled ones.
Update 9-24-23: A former White House staffer said of Trump:
“He is dangerous for the country. He is willing – and has showed time and time again willingness – to proliferate lies, and to vulnerable American people, so he could stay in power.
“To me, that is the most un-American thing that you can do.”
Update 9-28-23: People standing behind Trump as he gave a speech at a nonunion auto parts plant held signs that misrepresented, i.e. lied about their actual status.
Update 10-7-23: Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said of President Chump:
"I believe political leaders should strive to be honest, ethical and moral people and should try to set a standard for the rest of the country. Donald Trump doesn’t do any of that. He frankly does the opposite of that. That’s one of the reasons why I think he’s unfit for office.”
