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Nancy Mace gives Republicans 'hard truth' they 'don't want to hear'

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who is leaving Congress to run for governor of South Carolina, is firing some parting shots at her Republican colleagues.

In a Monday op-ed for the New York Times, Mace called out her party's leadership for failing to effectively govern despite having majorities in both the House and Senate. She accused the GOP of promoting members to leadership based on politics, rather than how effective they were at passing legislation. And she railed against leaders keeping bills secret from members until it was time to vote.

"A small number of lawmakers negotiate major legislation behind closed doors and spring it on members with little notice or opportunity for input," she wrote. "Leadership promises members their provisions will be in a bill, then strips them out in final drafts. Every must-pass bill is loaded with thousands of pages of unrelated policies, presented as take-it-or-leave-it. The House has abdicated control of appropriations, which the Constitution says must originate here, to the Senate."

The South Carolina Republican pointed to the latest effort to ban members of Congress from trading stocks as a way in which leaders "have systematically silenced rank-and-file voices." She noted that despite a broad majority of Americans being in favor of a stock trading ban and imposing term limits on lawmakers, leaders have refused to listen to members and the constituents they represent.

"These are bipartisan supermajority positions. The House cannot hold a simple up-or-down vote on any of them," she lamented.

Mace even heaped praise on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). The outgoing congresswoman held her up as an example of a leader who was able to use a House majority to her party's advantage by prioritizing passing legislation.

"Here’s a hard truth Republicans don’t want to hear: Nancy Pelosi was a more effective House speaker than any Republican this century," Mace wrote. "I agree with her on essentially nothing. But she understood something we don’t: No majority is permanent. When Democrats hold the majority, they ram through the most progressive policies they can. They deliver for the coalition that elected them while they are in power."

Click here to read Mace's full op-ed in the New York Times (subscription required).

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This hero offered to punch Trump out

Two days after her beloved Democratic Party showed it still has plenty of fight left by battering Donald Trump’s Republicans at the polls all over the country, Nancy Pelosi, 85, announced her retirement from Congress Thursday.

There ought to be monuments erected in Washington D.C., to honor this great woman. You can wipe the damn smirk off your face.

I’m dead serious about this.

After raising her five children to adulthood, because the children — ALL children — always came first with Pelosi, she served in Congress for 38 years where she would become the first woman ever to ascend to Speaker of the House.

She was without a doubt the most powerful person to ever hold this lofty position, and if you don’t believe me, let former Republican Speaker John Boehner tell it:

“Nancy Pelosi had a killer instinct and may be the most powerful Speaker ever. She understands power, knows how to use it, and rarely leaves fingerprints.”

Can somebody point to one person like Pelosi in our nation’s history who has book-ended and deftly turned the pages on two ugly chapters of Republican filth, incompetence and destruction?

Can somebody point to just one person who hung in for America’s sake and led the charge to help rescue her not once, not twice, but three times from the abyss?

In 2006, George Bush, the Far, Far Stupider One, was in the middle of his patented, daily drooling while hundreds and thousands of our nation’s finest were being killed and wounded every month in Iraq thanks to a war predicated by his singular ability to lie through his crooked teeth.

As caskets draped in flags were brought back to our country and hidden from plain sight by the Cheneys, Roves and Rumsfelds, we were quietly steaming toward what would be the most horrific financial crisis since the Great Depression. Making matters potentially worse, just moments away from hundreds of thousands losing their homes and jobs, Bush was snorting and cackling about Social Security reform, because, well, shouldn’t everybody have the ability to invest in the stock market? Yes, had that ghastly GOP reform gone through, the Great Recession could have actually been far, far worse.

Imagine that.

Well, not a moment too soon, the 2006 Midterms happened and the Democrats seized control of the House and Senate and set about restoring order to Bush’s odious, corrupt Republican animal House.

And, say, is this ringing any bells …?

Anyway, in the Democrats’ wisdom back in ’07 they nominated Pelosi, the firebrand from San Francisco, to become the face of the party and the first woman ever to grab the Speaker’s gavel.

And an aside: I still get chills down my spine and a lump in my throat typing about this. I was not prepared for that moment. To see a woman finally rise to these new heights in American politics meant my daughters and other daughters could do it, too. In short, I became a blubbering fool and my love and respect for Nancy Pelosi started.

Because I am telling you again: Nobody has ever done her job better.

From 2007 to 2011, Pelosi ran the House with style, integrity and a champion arm-wrestler’s strength. She was key in helping elect the first Black man to the U.S. presidency. And when you think about it, have we ever been better off than with Barack Obama and Pelosi at the helm of our government?

Sigh …

Pelosi’s 111th Congress was one of the most productive ever. Some say it was the most productive. Who am I to quibble? She tirelessly rammed through life-changing and -saving legislation. She didn’t suffer fools lightly, but really she was just smarter and savvier then what she was messing with — and she wasn’t messing around.

Pelosi’s Congress passed Wall Street reforms, got rid of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” committed our country on a course toward clean energy, and twisted enough arms to get something called the Affordable Care Act passed by a whisker. Hell, those are just a few headlines. I could type 30 more column inches on what this titan accomplished during her historic, four-year term.

In short: SHE-HANDLED-THIS.

So with order restored and our nation on its way back from the abyss, the Democrats did what they absolutely do best: took a big, damn nap.

The Radical Right Tea Party blew a hole through truth and decency in the 2010 Midterms, and after four years of restoring order to the House, Pelosi was done as Speaker.

Six years later, the Democrats still in a Van Winkle slumber sat out the 2016 elections and the repulsive Trump, replete with a Republican Senate and Congress, was elected president.

The Democrats awoke from their nap in a panic and started sifting through the rubble for answers while tripping all over themselves in the darkness.

Again, is this ringing any bells?

It was going to be a long, terrifying two years.

In fact, it was a long, terrifying two years. But something magic was happening … While the orange beast terrorized the countryside, he was being met with real resistance. I’m talking get-out-on-the-street-and-do-something resistance.

If the Democrats were completely outraged by Trump and his GOP, they were even more outraged at themselves for letting it happen in the first place. A resolve to clean up that mess gripped the Left.

Then, just like in 2006, the 2018 Midterms came along and hopefully in the nick of time.

The Democrats demolished the GOP at the polls that year, casting nearly nine millions more votes. Despite being gerrymandered to the point of suffocation, the Dems seized 40 seats in Congress. They were back in charge, but who would lead them?

What?! Are you kidding?! Who would lead them?!?!

Nancy Pelosi would lead them, that’s who, dammit.

You got a mess to clean up? You need order restored? You need a titan to stand up to a bully? You need strength and honor staring down the crooked face of evil and corruption?

You call on the strongest leader in the world.

Pelosi rebuilt committees brick by brick, tore in to the ghastly Trump and tore up his slobbery speeches. Nobody, I mean NOBODY publicly took it to Trump like she did. He had no idea what to do with a strong woman, who was half his size, and better than him in every, single way.

Pelosi and her Democratic Congress put the brakes on Trump and his odious presidency, and helped Joe Biden run the madman out of office in 2020 — but not before his appalling attack on America just months after that election. Pelosi, of course, was in our Capitol that day, while Trump’s anti-America MAGA filth were hunting her down.

She took charge, and was caught on camera saying of Trump:

“I want to punch him out, and I’m going to go to jail, and I’m going to be happy.”

Instead, and unfortunately, Trump slithered away from his violent attack because Biden’s Justice Department lacked even half of Pelosi’s strength and resolve.

With Biden in office, Pelosi did what she does best and got the votes to pass the historic Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS bill and the bipartisan infrastructure law.

In 2022, Republicans reclaimed the House and Pelosi stepped aside from formal leadership, tossing the baton to New York’s Hakeem Jeffries.

These days, the weak and grotesque Republican Speaker Mike Johnson has rammed through one bill of significance and it helps only the billionaires in this country, who helped install his rancid party in office.

Johnson replacing Pelosi as Speaker is the flea replacing the lion.

And if you are reading all this, and still have the inclination, to start with some, “Yeah, buts …,” concerning Pelosi you’ve missed the entire point of this column and her career.

You can attach “yeah buts” to Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, King, or Kennedy … but they are all recognized as iconic figures.

Like these men, Nancy Pelosi is a singular person in American history. Her tirelessly work in service to this country, has made it a better, safer, healthier, and smarter place to live.

So how do you honor this woman’s sacrifice and leadership?

You thank her.

You build monuments to her.

Morning Joe rips far-right reporters 'spouting lies' to 'people too stupid to know the truth'

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough on Thursday blasted Mike Lindell’s Lindel TV, OAN and other Republican subsidiaries for broadcasting lies to the American public under the cover of “real news.”

Scarborough’s “Morning Joe” rant began with a clip of a LindellTV entertainer asking Sen. Nancy Pelosi (R-Calif.) why she agreed to do a thing she never did.

“Are you at all concerned about the new Jan. 6 Committee finding you liable for that day?” the reporter asked Pelosi. “Why did you refuse the National Guard on Jan. 6?”

In truth, Pelosi did not deny National Guard troops during the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. As Speaker of the House, Pelosi does not have the authority to direct or deny National Guard deployment. Multiple sources, including fact-checks by the Associated Press and PolitiFact, confirm that Pelosi was not involved in rejecting any requests for National Guard assistance. Instead, records show Pelosi, along with then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, called for military assistance.

However, President Donald Trump and MAGA reporters purport the debunked argument that she did.

Pelosi, apparently tired of the false claim, told the LindellTV reporter to “shut up.”

“I did not refuse the National Guard," she said. "The president didn't send it. Why are you coming here with Republican talking points as if you're a serious journalist?”

“The American people want to know,” the reporter said. “We still have questions.”

“What the American people want to know is why so many people are too stupid to know the truth. That's what the American people want to know,” Scarborough said. “They're fed disinformation by Lindell network and by all these other right-wing networks, like this lie [that] Nancy Pelosi refused? No, that's a lie. But it's amazing how these lies become truth. And that’s in part because more Democrats don't do what Nancy Pelosi just did right there. The lies are everywhere on the far right, and they’re all around Jan. 6.”

“And the lies continue,” Scarborough added. “[The Republicans] are doing investigations where there are lies. We're going to see the president talking about investigating the investigators again after they spent years with [special counsel for the United States Department of Justice] John Durham doing the same thing, spending millions and millions of taxpayers pursuing lies.”

“This is the American people know,” Scarborough concluded. “The American people know there are a group of people who intentionally want to believe lies on the MAGA right. It's like.Jesus said: 'There are people who could go into the light, but they choose the darkness instead.'"

"So they keep spouting lies to Nancy Pelosi and other people about Jan 6th, when they know the truth," Scarborough said. "They've even tried to erase the attempt to throw out a presidential election from their minds.”

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White House bubble shielding Trump 'from cold hard facts': Morning Joe

A “Morning Joe” panel says President Donald Trump is blind to Americans’ pain because of a bubble of ignorance shielding him from facts.

“Every time Trump says, ‘no, [the economy’s] not so bad,’ it's reminding me what [former President Joe] Biden’s big mistake was,” said brand and marketing expert Donny Deutsch. “Not only was the economy not going well, not only were prices high, but [Biden] was not acknowledging it. He was saying, ‘no, no, no, you're not feeling it this way. You're really not.’ You can’t tell people what they can think. You can't tell people what they feel, and they feel the things are not going their way.”

Show host Joe Scarborough agreed that Trump and Biden share the same disinformation bubble.

“People said they tried to get to Joe Biden and tell him about polls. We heard it most famously from [then House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi, who … was whisked over to the White House and told … Biden, when he tried to say, ‘my polls are great,’ she said, ‘you're not being told the truth now. Your polls aren't good.’ But there was a bubble and he was kept from those cold, hard facts,” said Scarborough. “And now you have Donald Trump. He's the same thing.”

“Donald Trump will tell you ‘I've got the highest poll numbers ever,’” Scarborough added. “‘The economy is doing better than ever before. I've got affordability. There's no such thing as an affordability crisis.’ And he'll go down the list of things because there is literally no one … in the White House that's going to come in and say, ‘Mr. President, you have a problem.’”

The Rev. Al Sharpton suggested Trump’s ego made the bubble even more impregnable.

“I think the problem is the price of admission to this president, as you must come in and bow and sing hosanna to the highest,” said Sharpton. “When talking about him, someone needs to say to him, ‘we're approaching the holidays. We're a week from Thanksgiving, so affordability is real to people.’ People are in grocery stores and seeing the prices have gone up. He promised day one, he was going to deal with these things … [but] there's no one that goes in there that doesn't have to genuflect in front of him. That will tell him that.”

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Only the 'crazies' and 'lizard people' left after Trump purges the press corps: analysis

When Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth demanded journalists agree not to report anything without formal authorization from the Defense Department, he sent a mass evacuation of legitimate media from the press corps.

What’s left, writes Slate reporter Molly Olmstead, is … really something.

“The Pentagon has remade its press corps, and we’re starting to get an understanding of which people now are allowed access to the halls of power,” said Olmstead, who included a list of the “top hits” that Hegseth’s considers “valid journalism of interest to the public.”

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell “peddled his 2020 election conspiracy theories through a number of avenues, including his video streaming site,” wrote Olmstead. “As a result, LindellTV has been subject to the same defamation lawsuits that Lindell himself courted, but it carries on with a host of right-wing shows, including the signature Mike Lindell Show.”

LindellTV’s reporters frequently pester Democrats with MAGA lies dressed up as legitimate questions, prompting Nancy Pelosi to publicly snap at them for churning nonsense and MSNBC hosts to blast them for spreading lies to a LindellTV audience that is “too stupid to know the truth.”

And when their reporters are not spouting lies, Olmstead says they’re fawning over President Donald Trump’s “fitness plan” and asking press secretary Karoline Leavitt when Trump plans to go public with it.

Another sycophantic organization still hanging around is The One America News network, which Olmstead describes as “about as extreme as it gets without tipping fully into Alex Jones lizard-people territory.”

“It has promoted hydroxychloroquine as a ‘miracle cure’ for COVID; spread ominous conspiracy theories about George Soros; speculated that Michael Cohen, not Donald Trump, had an affair with Stormy Daniels; and declared that Roy Moore was innocent and actually won his election,” said Olmstead. “It has also hired Matt Gaetz as a host.”

“Human Events” is another example of the lingering press corps flotsam, said Olmstead.

“This is the latest home for Jack Posobiec, a content creator so inflammatory that being seen as cozy with him — as Hegseth was, in inviting Posobiec on an overseas trip — can lead to major scandal,” said Olmstead. “Posobiec, who has connections to various hate groups, is known primarily as the man behind Pizzagate. … He remains extreme: “Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely,” he said at last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference.

The Navy revoked Posobiec’s security clearance as a U.S. naval intelligence officer on reserve, after his involvements with the Unite the Right white supremacist rally.

The list continues with spurious far-right networks like the National Pulse, whose leader was so inflammatory that Australia’s Labor Party asked to ban him from the country, Olmstead reports. Another is The Epoch Times, which Olmstead points out has been charged with money laundering and is “a dedicated promoter of right-wing conspiracy theories, going so far as to create a network of YouTube channels amplifying hoaxes and election misinformation.

The list goes on, and Olmstead said all will “inevitably benefit from a veneer of legitimacy from the credentialing and from the ‘scoops’ they’re given.”

Read the Slate report at this link.

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Trump turned whimsical event into a 'political mess' with historic 'screw up': analysis

Donald Trump took part in the traditional presidential turkey pardoning ceremony on Tuesday, lacing a typically light-hearted and apolitical affair with his typical grievances. Writing for MS NOW about the event, commentator and producer Steve Benen said Trump was "struggling" and "flubbing" his way through the event, turning the simple and fun ceremony into a "political mess."

The turkey pardon event involves the president being presented with a live turkey -- or two, as was the case this week -- to which they issue a "pardon," sparing the bird from being killed and eaten at a Thanksgiving feast. Dating back to around the 1940s, these annual Thanksgiving ceremonies became an accepted yearly White House tradition during the presidency of George H.W. Bush.

"It’s not easy for a president to screw up a Thanksgiving turkey pardon," Benen, a producer for MS NOW host Rachel Maddow, wrote for the outlet's blog. "This is supposed to be a fun little tradition. As White House events go, the events are harmless and easy. And yet, over the course of roughly 19 minutes, Trump somehow found a way to turn this whimsical gathering into a political mess."

As Benen explained, Trump began his speech at the event by boasting about his controversial decision to pave over the White House Garden, claiming that “If this were grass today, you’d be sinking into the mud like they’ve done for many years.”

Then, he proceeded to attack his political enemies, joking that former President Joe Biden's turkey pardons were invalid due to the alleged use of an autopen, and slamming Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) as a "fat slob." Elsewhere in the address, he took time to attack former GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and outgoing Democratic House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). He also layered in falsehoods about the crime rates in Washington, D.C., and the notoriously violent CECOT prison in El Salvador, where his ICE agency sent many non-violent deportees as part of its mass deportation agenda.

Taken altogether, Bene surmised that Trump's handling of the turkey ceremony reasserted how unfit for the presidency he is.

"In the grand scheme of things, Trump turning a Thanksgiving turkey pardon into an opportunity to lie and air petty grievances is par for the course in this White House, but it was also a timely reminder," he wrote. "This president isn’t just failing at his key governing responsibilities — he’s also making it clear that he can’t handle his ceremonial duties, either."

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'I will kill him': Trump-pardoned Jan. 6 rioter arrested for 'terroristic threat' against top Dem

After the fatal shooting of Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk, President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other far-right MAGA Republicans claimed that the majority of political violence in the United States was coming from the left. But critics of the Trump administration, from Democrats to Never Trump conservatives like MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, were quick to cite numerous examples of far-right violence against Democrats — including a militia plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, an arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, an assault on Paul Pelosi (former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband) with a hammer and the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building.

Now, a MAGA supporter and January 6 rioter is facing criminal charges for allegedly threatening to murder House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York).

CBS News' Scott MacFarlane reports that on Sunday, October 19, Christopher Moynihan was arrested and "faces a felony charge of making a terroristic threat." Along with other January 6 rioters, Moynihan received a presidential pardon nine months ago.

"According to a court filing by prosecutors in the New York State criminal case, Moynihan wrote, 'Hakeem Jeffries makes a speech in a few days in NYC I cannot allow this terrorist to live,'" MacFarlane reports. "Moynihan also allegedly stated: 'Even if I am hated, he must be eliminated, I will kill him for the future.'"

Moynihan, according to MacFarlane, is scheduled to appear in court this Thursday, October 23.

"Moynihan was found guilty in August 2022 of obstructing an official proceeding, and pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor charges," MacFarlane notes. "He was sentenced, in February 2023, to 21 months in prison. Prosecutors described Moynihan as among the first rioters to breach police barricades and enter the Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021."

The CBS News reporter adds, "Moynihan was also among a smaller group of riot defendants who were on the Senate floor during the siege. Prosecutors argued in Moynihan's sentencing memorandum: 'While inside, Moynihan rifled through a notebook on top of a Senator's desk, saying 'There's gotta be something in here we can f–– use against these scumbags.'"

Read the full CBS News article at this link.

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'Scumbags': GOP digital team in epic collapse following party's humiliating remarks

Bulwark editors Sam Stein and Andrew Egger took on the epic collapse of the RNC social media team after humiliating remarks from RNC Chair Joe Gruters threatened to diminish donations and curb GOP voter turnout.

Gruters said out loud this week that the Republican Party is likely headed to “almost certain defeat” in the upcoming mid-terms, which sent the RNC’s digital team into an obscenity-laced panic with accounts insulting and name-calling critics about the claims.

The reason this sort of matters is because it can deflate your donors,” Stein told Egger. “It can deflate members of your own party.”

Stein then cited Obama White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs telling Sunday show, “Meet the Press,” that “no doubt there are enough seats in play that could cause Republicans to gain control.”

“It caused a multi-day crisis for Democrats,” said Stein. “Nancy Pelosi was p------. … Members were hot, hot, hot about it. He had to backtrack it. It was just bad. Again, this is not a normal utterance from a committee chairman.”

“But the funnier part of the story,” said Stein, “is how the RNC's digital team has handled it, which is not well.”

“You're a lying piece of s——,” RNC Research told Democrat influencer Harry Sisson. “Here's the full quote: ‘I LIKE OUR CHANCES IN THE MIDTERMS but let me put in perspective only three times in the last hundred years has the incumbent party been successful winning a midterm. We're facing almost certain defeat. The only person who can bring the nose up and help us win is the President of the United States Donald J. Trump.’ F—— loser.”

The same account then attacked the Democratic Party X account, beginning with: “Here’s the full quote you, (sic) scumbags … ”, and they responded to Stein’s own post about Gruters’ statement, starting with “Hey, Jack--- …,” before citing Gruter’s full quote, which Stein says was not a denial.

Then they went after CNN political reporter Aaron Blake, saying “This is fake news — here’s the full quote, scumbag.”

“They really like ‘scumbag,’” Stein added. “Oh, Bill Kristol. They went after Kristol. This is a good one: ‘How much does Harvard charge these days to learn how to report b——? Is Bill being paid by Harvard still? He's a graduate.’”

“I liked what Town Hall did,” said Stein, referring to another Trump subsidiary on X that went into defense mode after Gruters’ admission. “They accused you (Egger) of misstating or misgiving no context to chairman Joe Grutter's quotes, but then they mangled the quote.”

“Yeah, they themselves actually then did mangle the quote,” said Egger.

See the Bulwark podcast at this link.

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GOP leaders 'should get another job where they can be as powerless as they want': congressman

U.S. Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill) razed House Speaker Mile Johnson and veteran Sen. John Thune (R-N.D.) for abdicating Congressional power to the White House in the ongoing government shutdown.

Most Americans are aware the federal government is shut down and they expect it to hurt them personally. But they’re also blaming Republicans and President Donald Trump, according to multiple polls and surveys.

On a Politico panel, Casten suggested Republicans join Democrats in passing a simple bipartisan continuing resolution (CR) “that’s consistent with the funding levels that were set the last time Congress did a full appropriations process,” but he added that Johnson takes issue with the fact that the last time Congress passed a full appropriations package “Nancy Pelosi was House Speaker.”

“So, you’ve got this scenario where the Johnson and Thune Congress has completely abdicated any responsivity in funding by letting the Trump White House rescind funds, letting DOGE cut funds and is now saying we want to provide a continuing resolution where you will sign off on what we’ve done,” Casten said.

“That ain’t the way to get it done,” Caste said. “They’ve always known they needed 60 votes in the Senate and I, for one— there is no scenario where I say I would like to not only strip people’s healthcare away but also ignore any oath to the Constitution and any Congressional power over appropriations.”

“If Johnson and Thune want to do that, they should go get another job where they can be as powerless as they want to be,” Casten said. “But Congress is at an important place that demands serious people, and I am furious that there’s not a serious person in the Republican Party who gives a damn about defending Congress’ power of the purse.”

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This debunked right-wing conspiracy theory just resurfaced — and MAGA is all over it

After the fatal shooting of Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were quick to claim that most of the political violence in the United States is coming from the left. But MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, a Never Trump conservative, easily debunked that claim and detailed countless examples of far-right violence — including the hammer attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-California) husband Paul Pelosi; the militia plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer; the arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's home; the murder of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman; and the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building.

When Nancy Pelosi's January 6 Select Committee was holding hearings, many MAGA Republicans promoted the conspiracy theory that the January 6 insurrection was really carried out by leftists in an effort to smear Trump and the MAGA movement. Now, eight months into Trump's second presidency, that conspiracy theory is making a comeback.

The New Republic's Edith Olmsted, in an article published on September 26, explains, "Republicans have revived an old conspiracy theory that the so-called Deep State staged the January 6 insurrection, after failing to correctly read and understand a batch of documents. The GOP-led House Select Subcommittee on January 6 announced, on X Friday, that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had 'finally' revealed that it had deployed 276 agents to the Capitol on January 6, 2021. A closer look at the document revealed that the agents were responding to the rioters, not inciting them. 'This number includes agents that responded to the Capitol grounds as well as inside the Capitol, the pipe bombs, and the red truck that was believed to contain explosive devices as well as CDCs/ADCs.'"

Olmsted adds, "Crucially, Republicans have still provided no evidence that those working with law enforcement were involved in planning the deadly riot, or instigating violence that day."

The fact that the conspiracy theory has zero basis in fact, Olmsted observes, isn't preventing MAGA Republicans from promoting it — including Trump, the Just the News website, and Kari Lake (who lost gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races in Arizona). In a September 26 post on X, formerly Twitter, Lake wrote, "They staged a riot on January 6 to frame patriotic Americans and cover-up a stolen election. Justice is coming."

"But Republicans have never needed any proof to fuel this particular conspiracy theory," Olmsted warns. "In July 2023, Trump shared a meme on Truth Social claiming 'JANUARY 6 WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE DAY THE GOVERNMENT STAGED A RIOT TO COVER UP THE FACT THAT THEY CERTIFIED A FRAUDULENT ELECTION.'"

Read Edith Olmsted's full article for The New Republic at this link.

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Trump snub at Cheney memorial will keep top Republicans away 'out of fear of angering' him

In a time of deep partisan divisions, Thursday's memorial service for former Vice President Dick Cheney will be revealing — not for who does show up, but for who does not, reports Peter Baker in The New York Times.

Cheney, who died earlier in November at the age of 84, was the architect of America's "aggressive response to terrorism" after September 11, 2001, and then "championed the invasion of Iraq, making him a hero to Republicans and a villain to many Democrats who thought he went too far," Baker writes.

But it was Cheney's late-in-life decision to join his daughter and former Wyoming Republican representative Liz Cheney in speaking out and eventually voting against President Donald Trump that "left him isolated from his own party and re-examined by some of his most vocal critics."

Former president George W. Bush, under whom Cheney served as VP, will deliver the eulogy at Thursday's service at the Washington National Cathedral, and former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who "assailed Mr. Cheney in a successful campaign to succeed him, will attend to honor his predecessor," Baker writes.

"So will former House Speakers John A. Boehner, a reliable Republican ally during the Bush-Cheney years, and Nancy Pelosi, a staunch Democratic adversary at the time," he adds.

Also expected to be in attendance: former Vice President Kamala Harris, a year after "Mr. Cheney stunned many Americans by announcing that he would vote for her against Mr. Trump," Baker writes.

“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney said, adding that because of Trump's “lies and violence,” he could “never be trusted with power again.”

“We have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris," Cheney said.

Three other former vice presidents will be on hand as well: Al Gore, a Democrat, and Mike Pence and Dan Quayle, both Republicans.

Conspicuously left off the list: Trump, which, Baker notes, "is hardly a surprise." Vice President JD Vance, however, was invited, but hasn't said if he would attend even though it's custom for the sitting VP to "honor the service of someone who once held the same office," Baker notes.

"Trump ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff after Mr. Cheney’s death, as required by law, but issued no statement and has refrained from commenting publicly," Baker says.

Other Trump administration officials are also staying away, as are those "incumbent Republican members of Congress who still want a political future may stay away as well, out of fear of angering Mr. Trump, who considers Ms. Cheney one of his chief nemeses," Baker writes.

"Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are not planning to attend, although both released respectful statements after Mr. Cheney’s death praising his service and patriotism," Baker notes.

Following Cheney's endorsement of Harris, Trump lashed out on social media, calling him “an irrelevant RINO,” meaning Republican in Name Only. “He’s the King of Endless, Nonsensical Wars, wasting Lives and Trillions of Dollars, just like Comrade Kamala Harris."

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