Opening Argument Notices are In

Anatomy of a Coup by Eric Blair  

The prime-time broadcast of the January 6 Congressional hearings surpassed expectations- and fears. The first session easily could have devolved into an exercise of histrionics and tedious grandstanding. But instead of Kabuki theater, the American public received what could be our version of the Nuremberg trials, except that in this case, half of the Reichstag is still controlled by the Gestapo and Goebbels is still alive to craft the propaganda and disinformation on one particular cable news channel. Names of those who have no shame will be helpful, but better still will be indictments and convictions of those complicit in the cabal. 

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A Smash Opening Act by Ken Zino

Opening night of the January 6 public hearings consisted of the opening arguments to a seven-part plan to be covered in subsequent hearings. Despite the understandable misgivings of one of our estimable conservative columnists, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol got it right. The committee  of seven Democrats and two Republicans will hold at least six more performances of an American tragedy this month. The chair, Rep. Bernie Thompson of Mississippi, opened with a dark warning that January 6 and the lies that led to the insurrection continue to put American Democracy at risk. 

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) provided the groundwork for using Trump’s own appointees, inner circle and supporters to show the hearings are not a political theatre, but rather the House panel intends to provide evidence that Donald Trump was at the center of a vast conspiracy to stop the peaceful transfer of power after Trump lost at the ballot box and then lost in the courts about false charges of election fraud (Trump lost 60 cases via his then-personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who had been a leader of the 45th president’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election results and is now disbarred in New York State). The only option left to Trumpsters was to stop counting of the votes so Trump could remain in office. 

The MMO: Trump had the motive, had the means as he attempted to use the Department of Justice, the U.S. military and the states to overthrow the duly elected president, and he seized the opportunity to abuse his powers as president. The case is the murder of democracy and the shredding of the Constitution. 

Opening statement to the jury: Trump, against the advice of his appointees and own Justice Department, set in motion a plan that ultimately spurred an organized mob led by the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to attack the capital to stop the count of electoral votes by using violence in Washington and fraud in the States where Biden won with false slates of pro-Trump electors.

A lot of nefarious activity was afoot in November before the election, when Trump’s own campaign officials told him he would lose. Attorney General William Barr  -- Trump’s lapdog who successfully spun the Mueller Report -- would meet with Trump on November 23,  December 14 and resign on December 23 because the fraud case was “bullshit.” Barr did not agree that the election was stolen and “did not want to be part of the unsupported view that the election was stolen.”

The cast of characters that will ultimately perform or support the prosecution includes thousands of witnesses comprised of senior White House officials, Trump family members, military and Homeland Security officials. 

Next week: Trump’s second act in the seditious plan, using the Department of Justice and attempting to remove the acting attorney general. Act Three: Pressure on Vice President Pence to go along with the plan. Act Four: Pressure state officials. Act Five: When states balk, instruct Republicans to lie with false slates of electors. Act Six: Trump surrounded and encouraged by so-conspirators to the horror of many senior Republicans. Act 7: Do nothing on 1/6 to stop the violence and sedition despite entreaties from senior Republicans and his own family. 

Curtain: Trump bows out as the Justice Department considers a superseding indictment of Trump arising from the Proud Boys and Oath Keeper legal matters. Documentary filmmaker Nick Quested was embedded within the Proud Boys and provided devastating footage and testimony. Now will Republican barons abandon the king? Stay tuned.

Curtain Call: It’s clear to me that more people, who were or are now in Congress, will be charged. There is a version of Aristotelian logic in play here. Thus far no evidence has been produced to support Trump’s defense or hypothesis that the election was stolen. Much evidence already exists against it. 

The unanswered problem: We are dealing with a totalitarian state of mind existing within Trump supporters, some of whom support the violent overthrow of our governments. As for upcoming elections, we can’t dissolve these people and elect a new one as Bertolt Brecht satirically suggested in a poem written after the 1953 East German uprising against an oppressive government. However, we can pressure existing government, law enforcement and courts to protect and preserve our Constitution. Is this the sequel? 

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Another View to the Coup

(FRI 6/10/22)

By Todd Lassa

It wasn’t the Senate Watergate Committee of 49 years ago, though no reasonable Washington pundit should have expected as much. What we got in the House Select Committee’s first public hearings on the January 6 Capitol insurrection was a reminder of how assiduous and rather pathetic former President Trump was in his attempt to hold on to power … and how he is still trying to do so.

“January 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup,” the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said in his opening remarks.

The vice chairwoman, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said the hearings will remind the country that “on the morning of January 6, Donald Trump’s intention was to remain president of the United States, despite the outcome of a fair election” … . 

Thompson and Cheney introduced videotaped testimony made to the House panel including Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, and former Attorney Gen. William Barr, who warned the former president that his claims of November 2020 ballot fraud “were bullshit.”

“And that was one of the reasons I left when I did,” Barr said – December 23, just two weeks before the insurrection – the attempted coup – and with just four weeks left in the Trump administration. 

In this their opening argument, Thompson and Cheney began to build a case that Trump and a close circle of supporters conspired to overturn the election and that their conspiracy engaged with the brute force of the Proud Boys (“stand down and stand by”) and Oath Keepers. They provided testimony that it was Vice President Mike Pence, holed up in the Capitol for the Electoral Vote count, and not President Trump, who called Joint Chief of Staff Chair Mark Milley and the Pentagon to try to get backup support to Capitol police that day.

And as the lame-duck president remained at the White House, watching the rioters chant; “Hang Mike Pence,” Trump said, “Maybe our supporters have the right idea. Maybe he deserves it.”

Documentary filmmaker Nick Quested, who embedded with the Proud Boys, including leaders Enrique Tarrio and Joseph Biggs (who were indicted along with three other members on federal charges of seditious conspiracy earlier this week) testified he was surprised that the group – about 250 to 300 men – did not stick around long enough to listen to Trump’s speech the morning of January 6. Rather, they left for the Capitol to check out the number of police in-wait. 

In her testimony before the panel, Caroline Edwards of the U.S. Capitol Police spoke of finding herself in a “war scene.”

“I was slipping in people’s blood. I was catching people as they fell. It was carnage. It was chaos. I never thought as a police officer I would find myself in the middle of a battle.” 

Far too many of those who believe Venezuelan voting machines threw the election to Joe Biden and that those Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were tourist to the Capitol that day were on Thursday night watching Tucker Carlson Tonight. For the rest of us, the next House Select panel’s public hearing is next Monday, June 13, at 10 a.m.

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Whether you watched CNN, MSNBC, ABC-News, CBS News or Fox News Thursday evening, and whether you're left, never-Trumper right or full-on MAGA, we seek your civilly expressed comments on the House Select Committee's first public hearings. Click on one of the Comment tabs in these columns or email us at editors@thehustings.news and tell us whether you identify as "right" or "left" in the subject line.

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We Didn’t Start the Fire

By Stephen Macaulay

Part of the pushback on the televised January 6 hearing from people like Lindsey Graham is that it is “political,” having to do more with the midterm elections than anything else.

Let’s consider the absurdity of that.

  1. The attack on the Capitol and the apparent conspiracy leading up to it was meant to undermine the Constitution of the United States. Definitionally, that is a political document. The objective of the attack was to prevent the transfer of power from the man who lost the election — a political activity — to the man who had won the election. So how could this not be political?
  2. The attack on the Capitol took place on January 6, 2021. The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol was established on July 1, 2021. The midterm elections will be conducted on November 8, 2022. Were it not for the attack on the Capitol there would be no Select Committee. The Committee didn’t establish the timeline. “But wait!” some Grahamist might say. “This televising of the Committee is sensationalism.” Were it not for the attack on the Capitol there would have been, as Mark Meadows apparently said when informed by an attorney that there was nothing to change the outcome of the election, “no there there.”

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Former attorney general William Barr carried Trump’s water from Valentine’s Day 2019 to nearly the day he resigned, December 23, 2020. He was said to have undermined the understanding of the Mueller Report, thereby, arguably, providing substance to Trump’s repeated claims of it being a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.” So because of Barr, there were many people who thought: “Gee, there was going to be a report showing collusion with the Russians and all manner of other bad things, but it turns out that there was no there there.” Which led to many of those same people believing what has come to be known as the “Big Lie.”

Barr literally called “bullshit” on Trump’s election-being-stolen claim.

Is it any more believable because Barr was once the water boy?

Or is this simply a sign that any reasonable person would recognize that it was, and is, bullshit?

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She is the “former Senior Advisor to the President of the United States.”

Her qualification for the job? Probably not the series of failed businesses she ran. It was nothing more than DNA.

Ivanka Trump said to the Committee that she heard what Barr said and she believed it. Clutch those pearls from Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry. 

Let’s face it: No one thought she was up for being the senior advisor to the President, so whatever she said when she was was largely discounted. (Sort of like the line of clothes and shoes she had produced in China.)

The argument goes: to believe Barr is to disbelieve her dad.

Does that really matter?

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“As you will see, Representative [Scott] Perry [Republican representing Pennsylvania’s 10th] contacted the White House in the weeks after January 6th to seek a Presidential Pardon. Multiple other Republican congressmen also sought Presidential Pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.”—Vice-chair Liz Cheney

“A pardon is the use of executive power that exempts the individual to whom it was given from punishment. The president's pardon power is based on Article II of the Constitution which says, “…he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.”—Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School

Someone who has done nothing wrong will not ask for a pardon. What would be the point?

So obviously Perry and some of his colleagues knew full well that they did something wrong.

They are admitting it by their acts.

And it is not merely wrong, but illegal.

Not because of what Cheney or anyone else says. But because what they did.

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The president-elect says this:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

The vice president-elect says this:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God."

Maybe Trump simply didn’t think that he needed to defend the Constitution against “enemies, foreign and domestic.” He didn’t swear to it.

"Not only did President Trump refuse to tell the mob to leave the Capitol, he placed no call to any element of the U.S. government to instruct that the Capitol be defended. He did not call his Secretary of Defense on January 6. He did not talk to his Attorney General. He did not talk to the Department of Homeland Security.

 “President Trump gave no order to deploy the National Guard that day, and he made no effort to work with the Department of Justice to coordinate and deploy law enforcement assets. But Vice President Pence did each of those things.”—Vice chair Liz Cheney

Perhaps if Congress does anything it ought to make the president-elect swear the same oath as the vice president.

Clearly Trump didn’t see protecting the Capitol in his job description.

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“Those who invaded our Capitol and battled law enforcement for hours were motivated by what President Trump had told them: that the election was stolen, and that he was the rightful President. President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack.”—Vice chair Liz Cheney

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Prep for the Hearings

Pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay has a tip for the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection in the right column. Hit one of the comment tabs or email us at editors@thehustings.news with your opinions, and let us know whether you are “left” or “right.”

The Brookings Institution has a 100-page guide to the public hearings, which are to be broadcast live Thursday at 8 p.m. Eastern/5 p.m. Pacific. You can find the guide here: https://www.brookings.edu/research/trump-on-trial/

Our three-column debate on the coming 1/6 hearings may be found on page 2. 

On Tuesday the House will discuss two pieces of gun legislation; Raising the minimum age to purchase an assault rifle from 18 to 21, and federalized “red flag” laws. Scroll down this page to read commentary by Ken Zino on gun regulation in the left column, and by Stephen Macaulay on the right.

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…meanwhile…

(THU 6/9/22)

It’s 1/6 House panel day … Tune in at 8 p.m. Eastern/5 p.m. Pacific Thursday on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and Fox Business to watch the House of Representatives’ Select Committee’s first public hearing on the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Tune in to Fox News to watch counter-programming on Tucker Carlson Tonight, where its host will likely try to cast the violent attack on the Capitol meant to force then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject the Electoral College vote for Joe Biden for president as some sort of populist “tourism.” 

•••

House approves raising age to buy assault rifle … But it’s not likely to go anywhere in the Senate. 

The House voted 223-204 to raise the age required to buy an assault rifle from 18 to 21 years old and to ban high-capacity magazines, NPR’s Morning Edition says. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) attacked the measure as an effort “to destroy the Second Amendment,” according to The Washington Post.

The vote followed wrenching testimony to Congress by survivors and relatives of victims of the Robb Elementary school attack in Uvalde, Texas, and the attack on Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York, last month. An 11-year-old girl who smeared blood from classmates at Robb Elementary to make the shooter think she was dead gave video testimony. 

And Dr. Roy Guerrero, of Uvalde, described seeing children so “pulverized” and “decapitated” by bullets “that the only clue as to their identities was their blood-splattered cartoon clothes still clinging to them” (WaPo). 

Meanwhile: President Biden took advantage of his attendance at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles Wednesday to appear on ABC-TV’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, where he told the host that gun regulation will be the primary argument Democrats candidates use against Republicans candidates in the midterm elections this November.

“You’ve got to make it clear you say it’s going to determine whether I vote for you,” the president told Kimmel.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

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(WED 6/8/22)

Motorcade to 1/6 … Secret Service agents tried to secure a motorcade for then-President Trump so he could accompany his rally of 30,000 supporters to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, The Washington Post reports, quoting “two people briefed on witnesses’ accounts” to the House Select Committee investigating the insurrection. 

“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol,” Trump told his supporters before their 1/6 march. The lame duck president had hoped to convince resistant Republican Congress members to overturn the Electoral College vote for Joe Biden.

District of Columbia police refused to block intersections for a Trump motorcade, WaPo says, and the president’s Secret Service detail leader determined that the request was “untenable and unsafe.”

Buckle your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy Thursday.

•••

Four of five Republicans who favored 1/6 panel win … Five of 35 House Republicans who voted to establish the Select committee to investigate the January 6 Capitol insurrection were up in Tuesday’s primaries, and four won outright, Politico reports. The fifth, Mississippi’s Rep. Michael Guest trailed challenger Michael Cassidy, 45.4% to 48.5%, and with neither reaching 50% will face each other in a runoff. The four winners are …

•South Dakota – Rep. Dusty Johnson, who took 59% of the vote in a race against Taffy Howard.

•New Jersey – Rep. Chris Smith, who took 58% of the vote.

•California – Rep. David Valadao won his primary.

•Iowa – Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks ran for the primary uncontested.

In Iowa’s Democratic primary for Senate, Michael Franken easily beat the presumed favorite, Abby Finkenauer, 55.1% to 40% to face seven-term Republican incumbent Chuck Grassley, who beat challenger Jim Carlin 73.4% to 26.4%. 

•••

California centered … San Franciscans voted 61.3% to 38.7% to recall progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin, Politicoreports. Former public defender Boudin took office following other progressive San Francisco district attorneys, but faced a campaign heavily financed by police unions that blamed him for an increase in the crime rate during the pandemic, according to NPR’s Morning Edition, while The New York Times notes that Boudin’s progressive initiatives included elimination of cash bail, a vow to hold police accountable and efforts to send fewer people to prison.

Mayor of Los Angeles: Republican billionaire developer-turned-Democrat Rick Caruso led the race for Los Angeles mayor with 41% to progressive Democratic U.S. Rep. Karen Bass’ 38%, the Associated Press reports. L.A. Councilman Kevin de Leon was a distant third with 7%, followed by nine other candidates. Caruso and Bass face off in a runoff this fall.

Governor: Incumbent Democrat Gavin Newsom, who easily survived a recall last year after Boris Johnson-like pandemic partying, led 10 candidates in the non-partisan primary for governor, with 61.2% of the vote. This November Newsom will face Republican Brian Dahle, who scored 15.1% Tuesday, Ballotpedia reports.

U.S. Senate: Democrat Alex Padilla, appointed to fill Kamala Harris’ seat last year when Harris became vice president, will face Republican Mark Meuser in November. Padilla received 57.3% of the non-partisan primary vote to Mark Meuser’s 13%, according to Ballotpedia.

•••

FBI probes former general … The FBI has seized electronic data of former four-star Marine Gen. John R. Allen in connection with an investigation into efforts to help Qatar influence U.S. policy when the country faced a diplomatic crisis with its Middle-Eastern neighbors in 2017, the AP reports. Allen led U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan before leaving to become president of the Brookings Institution, also in 2017. Last week, Richard G. Olson, former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the case, and political donor Imaad Zuberi is already serving 12 years in federal prison on corruption charges in the case, AP says.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

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(TUE 6/7/22)

Proud Boys, Proud Boys, whatcha gonna do … Lead members of far-right group the Proud Boys are in federal custody on charges of seditious conspiracy for their planning of and participation in the January 6 Capitol insurrection (per NPR’s Morning Edition). Those charged include the group’s chairman, Enrique Tarrio, who did not attend the riot, but allegedly led planning on the effort to halt Congress’ certification of Joe Biden as 46th president. 

The 33-page indictment, unsealed Monday, also charges Proud Boys members Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola who allegedly used a group chat called “MOSD Leaders Group,” which Tarrio described as a “national rally planning committee,” and produced a document to occupy “crucial buildings” entitled “1776 Returns” (per The Guardian).

A hint of what’s to come?: The charge of seditious conspiracy is said to be very rare and very difficult to prove. Meanwhile, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said Monday that the House Select Committee investigating the insurrection and scheduled to begin public hearings Thursday evening has found evidence against ex-President Trump of “a lot more than incitement.”

‘Discrete’ in Georgia: The Washington Post Tuesday scoops it has uncovered a December 13, 2020, email from the Trump campaign elections operations director for Georgia Robert Sinners that instructed fake Republican electors planning to cast votes for the former president to operate in “complete secrecy.” 

•••

Weaponizing food … Russian ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya stomped out of a Security Council meeting Monday after European Council President Charles Michel accused the Kremlin of sparking a global food crisis with its invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reports. Russia and Ukraine normally supply nearly one-third of the world’s wheat supplies, and prices for grains, cooking oils, fuel, and fertilizer have skyrocketed since Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Michel also accused Russia in the meeting of the 15-member Security Council of war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to Reuters. Speaking directly to Nebenzya as he stormed out, Michel said; “You may leave the room, maybe it’s easier not to listen to the truth.” 

•••

Democratic candidate on Fox News … Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee running for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Patrick Toomey, who is retiring, will air his first campaign advertisements on Fox News, Politico reports. Fetterman casts himself as a “political outsider who has pushed for pro-working-class policies,” according to Politico, which has previewed the ads. 

Facing a potential midterm slaughter, the hapless Democratic Party has otherwise shunned political ads on the right-wing news and commentary cable channel. Fetterman faces Dr. Mehmet Oz, Donald J. Trump’s candidate, in November after Oz’s primary opponent, David McCormick, conceded the razor-thin race last week.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

When the Cameras Go Live: A Suggestion for the 1/6 Committee

By Stephen Macaulay

After the word About, there are 2,410 more.

That is the length of the self-description of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

Readers of The Hustings aren’t going to read all that (e.g., “Notwithstanding clause 3(m) of rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the Select Committee is authorized to study the sources and methods of entities described in clause 11(b)(1)(A) of rule X insofar as such study is related to the matters described in sections 3 and 4.”)

Writers for The Hustings (at least this one) aren’t going to read all that. (I nearly slipped into a snooze just inputting those words above.)

This coming Thursday night, at 8 p.m., the House 1/6 panel will be on prime time. The people on MSNBC are so excited that I’m afraid that some of them will pop a vein.

“Finally!” they and others think, “The American people are going to see and hear the Truth after months and months of the Big Lie.”

If only.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the committee’s chair said last month that the panel’s TV presentation will "use a combination of witnesses, exhibits, things that we have through the tens of thousands of exhibits we've [...] looked at, as well as the hundreds of witnesses we deposed or just talked to in general."

Here’s the thing: If this is orchestrated in any way, shape or form like either of the impeachment procedures for Donald J. Trump were, then the Committee’s show, in the parlance of entertainment, will be a stiff.

There is probably a thought among the Committee members that they must appear to be above reproach.

There’s nothing wrong with that.

But guess what?

They are never going to convince the people who embrace the Big Lie.

They are not going to dissuade the people who saw what happened — probably on TV — on January 6, 2020 and recognized that this wasn’t a group of wayward tourists in any way. And Fox News will not be covering it live.

The objective should be to go as hard at it as those who will be decrying the hearing.

Make it clear. Make it obvious. Make it something that simply states what happened without any whys and wherefores.

Don’t be any more complex than “Here are the dots. Here’s how they are connected.” Period.

The American public isn’t stupid. But the American public needs a simple explanation: Lay it out without trying to be prim, proper and ass-covering.

The Big Lie isn’t based on some Aristotelian logic. Just simple statements, their veracity notwithstanding.  

The 1/6 Committee gets one opportunity because if they don’t get it right the first time, the subsequent shows will be overshadowed by any number of infomercials about products no one has any interest in. 

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Left to You

Scroll down this column for …

•“Protect Us from the NRA” by Ken Zino.

•“Let’s Start with the Facts,” page 2, Ken Zino on expectations for the House Select Committee on the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

Hit the comment button, this column, or email editors@thehustings.news to comment on these or any other recent issues. 

We have just followed the advice of Charlie Sykes at The Bulwark to download The Brookings Institution's 100-page guide, Trump On Trial: A Guide to the January 6 Hearings and the Question of Criminality, by Norman Eisen, Donald Ayer, Joshua Perry, Noah Bookbinder and E. Danya Perry. Find it here: https://www.brookings.edu/research/trump-on-trial/

Watch the 1/6 panel’s public hearings this Thursday, and comment via the above.

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British PM Hangs On

(MON 6/6/22 PM)

Johnson wins no-confidence vote ... British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has won a no-confidence vote of his party's parliament members, 211-148, which means he remains in office despite scandals involving crowded, alcohol-infused parties and cover-up of the same during England's COVID-19 shutdown. The Guardian notes however that the vote means a full 40% of British Parliament's Tories failed to back Johnson. After three years as PM Johnson's short-term future is less than solid. (6/6/22 PM UPDATE.)

•••

Day 103 of Russia’s invasion … President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Ukrainian troops in the city of Lysychansk Sunday in the eastern Donbas region, just south of the fiercest fighting on the main battlefield of Sievierodonetsk, The Guardian reports. Zelenskyy spoke to Ukrainian soldiers and handed out awards, saying “What you all deserve is victory – that is the most important job. But not at any cost.”

•••

U.S. and G.B. … The Senate returns from Memorial Day recess Monday, the House of Representatives comes back to the Capitol on Tuesday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces a no-confidence vote by his party’s members of parliament to be held 6-8 p.m. London time (1-3 p.m. Eastern U.S.). Johnson, who has lost much of his party’s confidence over parties he attended during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, needs 180 of 359 of Conservative Party MPs’ confidence to retain his job, the BBC says.

•••

Tuesday primaries … this week are in California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota.

Two-term Rep. Chris Jacobs (R-NY) said Friday he will not run for a third term, fearing a primary challenge from the GOP’s hard-right after he said he’d support a ban on assault weapons and limits on high-capacity magazines following the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, Roll Call reports. Jacobs believes he could not win an August primary challenge in his re-drawn 23rd District, though he will remain in office to the end of his term in January, and thus will vote on gun regulation legislation expected on the floor of the House next week.

•••

Summit of the Americas … President Biden and Vice President Harris travel to Los Angeles Wednesday to attend the Summit of the Americas, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Biden has banned Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua from attending because of their anti-Democratic regimes, which has prompted Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador to boycott the summit.

•••

Prime Time Thursday … The much-awaited -- in some circles -- public hearings of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection begin at 8 p.m. Eastern (5 p.m. Pacific). The committee hopes to break through to a wide swath of Americans to show how close all The Donald’s men (and women) came to bringing down our democracy that day. 

ICMYI: The Justice Department announced last Friday it will not issue contempt of Congress charges against Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows or former aide Dan Scavino, prompting 1/6 panel chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and ranking Republican Liz Cheney (WY) to issue a statement that the decision is “puzzling” and asking for more clarity.

Also Friday former Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro was charged by federal prosecutors on contempt charges and arrested by the FBI before he could get on a plane to Nashville. 

This came three days after a Washington jury quickly acquitted attorney Michael Sussman of making a false statement to the FBI under Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation of the 2016 Trump-Russia “witch hunt.” Durham was appointed by Trump Attorney Gen. William Barr days before the 2020 presidential election to overturn the narrative on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s influence on Trump’s presidential election victory. 

Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX) reacted to all this with this in an appearance on Newsmax (per Newsweek): “If you’re a Republican you can’t even lie to Congress or lie to the FBI or they’ll come after you.”

--Todd Lassa

COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Right at You

Scroll down this column for …

•“Guns & Money,” and “A Bullett Doesn’t Acknowledge Political Affiliation,” by Stephen Macaulay.

•“Time to Move On” by RJ Caster and “Servant Cheaters” by Stephen Macaulay, page 2, on expectations for the House Select Committee on the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

Hit the comment button, this column, or email editors@thehustings.news to comment on these or any other recent issues. 

We have just followed the advice of Charlie Sykes at The Bulwark to download The Brookings Institution's 100-page guide, Trump On Trial: A Guide to the January 6 Hearings and the Question of Criminality, by Norman Eisen, Donald Ayer, Joshua Perry, Noah Bookbinder and E. Danya Perry. Find it here: https://www.brookings.edu/research/trump-on-trial/

Watch the 1/6 panel’s public hearings this Thursday, and comment via the above your opinion.

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From Left

Scroll down with the trackbar on the far right to read the latest political news aggregate and commentary from our pundits on the left and right.

Thursday, June 9 at 8 p.m. Eastern/5 p.m. Pacific the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection will begin public hearings. Watch this space for coverage and commentary.

In this column…

•Ken Zino’s commentary on the latest mass shootings and the latest Democratic efforts at gun legislation, “Protect Us from the NRA.”

•Page 2: Zino on the House 1/6 panel investigation, “Let’s Start With the Facts.”

READER COMMENTS on these issues or other recent political news items to: editors@thehustings.news and tell us in the subject line whether your comments belong in the left or right column.

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…meanwhile…

Payroll employment adds 390,000 jobs in May … Nonfarm payroll rose by 390,000 jobs in May, as the unemployment rate remains unchanged at 3.6%, giving the White House an economic counterpoint to the high inflation rate, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports Friday. 

•••

The power of the NRA … loomed over President Biden’s impassioned speech reacting to mass shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde and Tulsa Thursday evening, as he called for changes to the nation’s gun laws, including banning assault weapons and limiting high-capacity magazines. It would be a claw-back to the U.S. assault weapon ban of 1994-2004. But without skipping a beat and in conceding that Senate Democrats would find 10 Republicans to join them in passing such a ban Biden said he would settle for raising the minimum age to buy an assault rifle from 18 to 21. 

Meanwhile, the Judiciary Committee advanced a gun control bill combining eight individual laws into one Thursday. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) argued the bill would be the first step toward stricter gun laws. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will bring the bill to the full House next week.

From Tulsa: The 45-year-old man who police say shot four people including his doctor before shooting himself at St. Francis Hospital purchased a semi-automatic rifle about three hours before his attack Wednesday, The Washington Post reports.

--Todd Lassa

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To Right

Scroll down with the trackbar on the far right to read the latest political news aggregate and commentary from our pundits on the left and right.

Thursday, June 9 at 8 p.m. Eastern/5 p.m. Pacific the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection will begin public hearings. Watch this space for coverage and commentary.

In this column…

•Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s columns on the latest mass shootings and the fight over gun control legislation, “Guns & Money” at the top, and “A Bullet Doesn’t Acknowledge Political Affiliation.” [NOTE to gun rights activists: Our right and left columns are pro-regulation on this issue. We welcome your thoughtful, civil responses to their opinions.]

•Page 2: RJ Caster, “Time to Move On,” and Stephen Macaulay, “Servant Cheaters,” providing two right-column conservative points of view on the House 1/6 panel investigation.

READER COMMENTS on these issues or other recent political news items to: editors@thehustings.news and tell us in the subject line whether your comments belong in the right or left column.

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Protect Us from the NRA

By Ken Zino

It’s time to take action to protect our children and ourselves from the Gun Lobby.

Journalists are not immune to trauma, especially ones covering disasters – man-made or natural. It is with a heavy, wounded heart that I have been contemplating Ulvade and how we continue to endure such mass murders. However, my heart is not broken and it’s time to use the full human heart and our brains to address what is in my view our single most dire public health problem. Sure, the news about the killings is still developing. There is a glimmer of bipartisan cooperation in the House and Senate to do something, or make it look like Congress is doing something until it bumps up against the Senate filibuster.

No matter. Let’s act now.

I have a personal, glancing experience with firearms in a place they don’t belong. It happened when my daughter's high school was locked down and the kids sent home when a shell from a weapon was found inside the school, near the students’ lockers. 

While this was going on, a public relations professional for the automotive industry was touting himself on Facebook as an NRA member. When I confronted him, he repeated the organization’s slogan, without a trace of human emotion; “Proud to be a member.”

I was far luckier than other parents in Michigan. That anguishing episode only lasted hours, but by then my tolerance of the NRA was long gone. This episode occurred years-upon-years ago, when the NRA was proudly fighting a ban on bullets that could pierce ballistic vests used by law enforcement. 

Should be selling weapons of war to anyone? 

Of course not.

Should we doing background checks and mental health monitoring as we do in other areas, i.e., a pilot's or driver’s, or commercial driver’s licenses, which can require a medical examination and random drug testing? 

Of course. 

What political organizations who support the majority of Americans in favor of gun control do is run ads through the midterms against all the members of Congress who are running pro-gun or NRA endorsement commercials. These ads should juxtapose pictures of gun violence victims, including children, if the survivors are willing. 

All this to ensure background and mental health checks, and tougher, much tougher gun laws. If you want a military weapon, join the National Guard and prove that you are mentally and physically qualified to use one. Until then, the weapons of war should stay with the armed forces, not the forces of evil. 

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On the Gun Control Debate

(MON 5/30/22)

In center column analysis we describe our panic over ex-President Trump’s NRA convention speech and what it might mean for the future of our democracy. 

In the right column, our pundit-at-large, Stephen Macaulay examines what the NRA convention is trying to sell. 

Whether you are left or right, moderate or MAGA or progressive, we want to hear your opinion. Keep it civil and respectful, and please tell us in the subject line whether you consider yourself “right” or “left.” Email us at editors@thehustings.news or leave a comment in one of these three columns.

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…meanwhile…

(THU 6/2/22)

Gun debate begins … The House Judiciary Committee began debate Thursday on a bill that combines six gun control provisions into one, Roll Call reports, including:

•Increase the minimum age to buy some rifles.

•Limit magazine sizes.

•Codify regulations banning bump stops and ghost guns.

•Provide standards for safe gun storage.

“Do we have the courage, right here in this body, to imagine the phone call parents across Uvalde received last week?” said Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA), whose 17-year-old son was killed by a gunman in 2012. “The phone call that confirms our fear, our singular fear, that my child is dead and I was unable to protect them? Because I know that phone call.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) counter-proposed more school security investments and repealing gun-free school zones, and Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) argued the bill could “run afoul” of the Constitution, citing a federal appeals court ruling against a California law that sought to raise the minimum purchasing age for guns at 21, and the Supreme Court’s 2008 District of Columbia v. Hellerdecision that mentioned home gun storage. 

Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) plans to finish the bill’s markup by the time the full House returns from its Memorial Day week recess next week.

--TL

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The Latest

Nine days after the last mass shooting, which was 10 days after the one before that, four people plus the suspected shooter are dead at a medical center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The suspect, who apparently shot himself, reportedly carried a handgun and a rifle, The Washington Post reports. As for that fatal shooting 18 days earlier of 10 Black people at the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, suspect Payton Gedron, 18, was indicted by a federal grand jury on 25 counts including domestic terrorism and murder as a hate crime (WaPo).

The House Judiciary Committee, in a special session Thursday, is scheduled to vote on the Protect Our Kids Act Thursday, as a bipartisan group of Senators continues to work to try and get the 10 Republicans necessary to pass compromise legislation. The compromise legislation centers on background checks and “red flag” laws, per The Guardian. Ten Republican Senators – don’t hold your breath.

Meanwhile, our latest commentary on gun violence, by Ken Zino, is in the left column. 

Join the conversation with an email to editors@thehustings.news, and list yourself as “left” or “right” in the subject line.

--TL

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...meanwhile... (WED 6/1/22)

More advanced rockets to Ukraine … The U.S. will send Ukraine long-range rockets that can more precisely strike Russian targets on the battlefield, President Biden writes in a guest essay for The New York Times. [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/31/opinion/biden-ukraine-strategy.html]

These new weapons come in addition to the $39.8 billion package approved by Congress last month. Germany also will send an advanced air defense system, the BBC reports. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been asking for such weaponry for weeks.

In his essay, “What America Will and Will Not Do in Ukraine” Biden wrote; “We want to see a democratic, independent, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine with the means to deter and defend itself against further aggression.”

The U.S. will send rocket systems carried on a truck chassis that can precisely hit targets 40 miles in the distance, according to NPR’s Morning Edition. 

The U.S. does not “seek a war between NATO and Russia,” Biden wrote for the NYT. “As much as I disagree with Mr. Putin, and find his actions an outrage, the United States will not try to bring about his ouster in Moscow.”

Upshot: Despite Ukraine’s success in pushing Russian forces back from Kyiv, Russian forces have taken over most of Severodonetsk, The Washington Post reports, a key city in the Luhansk region. It’s another case of whether such powerful, precise weaponry will come in time to reverse Russia’s success in Ukraine’s eastern region.

•••

Disturbing RNC Election Day plan … Politico reporter Heidi Przybyla has uncovered disturbing Republican National Committee plans to take control of the November midterm elections. She has obtained video recordings of GOP operatives assembling a “disturbing multipronged network of party loyalists” with plans to disrupt the elections to gain an advantage in the elections consisting of…

•Poll workers adherent to 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories who are being trained to contest votes, especially in Democratic-heavy areas.

•GOP lawyers the above poll workers can quickly contact to document alleged voter fraud.

•”Party-friendly” district attorneys who can intervene to block vote counts in certain precincts.

•Installation of GOP loyalists on the Board of Canvassers, which is responsible for certifying the election.

Read Przbyla’s special report here: [https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/01/gop-contest-elections-tapes-00035758]

Note: According to Politico, a version of the anti-democratic plan “has been discussed for months by prominent Trump loyalists,” including Steve Bannon and Trump himself. Even if they are not chalking up wins in all the key primaries – see Georgia -- these authoritarian forces continue to run the Republican Party.

--Todd Lassa

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(TUE 5/31/22)

Orbån and Russian Oil … European Union leaders have agreed to ban 90% of Russian oil by the end of 2022, though the ban largely covers Russian oil brought in by sea, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Oil delivered via pipeline remains exempt.

It’s a sort of victory for Hungary’s authoritarian president, Viktor Orbån, the lone ally among 27 EU nations of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Orbån, as we’ve noted before, is a critic of Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelenskyy, who is fighting Putin’s army to preserve his country’s democracy. A week before the NRA convention in Houston, Orbån hosted a CPAC meeting in Budapest.

•••

Handgun ban comes to Canada … Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal liberals in Ottawa have introduced Bill C-21, to freeze the import, sale and transfer of handguns, though current owners would be able to keep their guns, The Globe and Mail reports. Asked why not propose an absolute ban, Trudeau told a news conference that C-21 would provide “significant tools” to protect Canadians from gun violence.

“This is a concrete and real national measure that will go a long way to keeping Canadians safe,” he said.

Canada’s ongoing reaction to the killing of 22 people at the First United Church in Nova Scotia in 2020, its worst-ever mass shooting, is being compared with New Zealand’s strict gun laws enacted after the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings.

Upshot: Canada has no equivalent of the Second Amendment, and its lingering issue will be how to stem the smuggling of guns from across the world’s longest international border. Less than two weeks after the Nova Scotia shootings, Trudeau’s government banned more than 1,500 models of assault weapons. 

•••

Meanwhile, back in the U.S. … Though the House and Senate are officially on recess this week, the House Judiciary Committee has scheduled Thursday to mark up a package of eight gun-control bills under the umbrella Protecting Our Kids Act, Punchbowl News scoops Tuesday. 

According to the scoop, the package would:

•Raise the minimum age for buying semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21.

•Ban the import, sale, manufacture, transfer or possession of high-capacity ammunition magazines (though grandfathering existing possession). 

•Require existing bump stocks be registered under the National Firearms Act and bar new manufacture for civilian use.

•Amend the definition of “ghost gun” to require background checks in all sales.

•Beef up federal criminal penalties for gun trafficking and ‘straw’ purchases.

•Establish new requirements for storing guns at home, including a tax credit for purchase of storage devices.

House Democrats need to argue out whether to bring the provisions to the floor individually or as a package, which they plan to do next week. 

Upshot: It’s all an exercise in futility because virtually no one inside the Beltway expects significant gun control has any chance of gaining the 10 necessary Republican votes in the Senate, despite some bi-partisan discussions in that chamber. Instead, Democrats hope to use Republicans’ opposition, along with the abortion issue, as a political weapon in the November midterms.

--Todd Lassa

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(Memorial Day 2022)

Democracy Under Threat?

Analysis by Todd Lassa

The National Rifle Association convention in Houston this Memorial Day weekend appears to have been something of a success. Yes, there were huge crowds protesting the members-only confab across the street from the convention center, but the NRA expected those anyway even before the tragic shooting by assault rifle of 19 children and two teachers, just 300 miles away in Uvalde. 

And several key headliners and entertainment acts cancelled their appearances at the convention, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) as well as ‘70s two-hit wonder Don McLean and Gatlin Brother Larry. This gave the former president, Donald J. Trump, the opportunity to tell his adoring audience; “Unlike some, I didn’t disappoint you by not showing up,” according to NBC News.

But it was something else Trump said that was even more disturbing, if slightly more subtle, than his reading off the names of the 21 Ulvade victims at the beginning of his speech – an introduction that recalls his holding up a bible at St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C., during protests over the murder of George Floyd. 

It was not Trump’s solution that the federal government “should take back every penny of unused COVID relief” funds from the states to “quickly establish impenetrable security at ever school all over our land” that made us take notice. (After all, what second grader doesn’t want to go to a school that’s locked down every day like a prison?) 

It was Trump’s argument, “If the United States has $40 billion to send to Ukraine, we should be able to do whatever it takes to keep our children safe at home.”

This was subtle, for the ex-president at least, because he didn’t flatly suggest we stop giving Ukraine military and humanitarian aid in its fight for democracy against Vladimir Putin’s totalitarian plans for the country.

But you can see how this will become a major talking point for Tucker Carlson, if not throughout the Fox News broadcasting day. Already, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, who called Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke “a sick son of a bitch” for interrupting Gov. Abbott’s press conference on the shootings last week, has echoed Trump’s mental health vs. aid to Ukraine aid argument.

This comes about a week after the Conservative Political Action conference held a meeting in Budapest, where Hungarian President Viktor Orbån has close ties to the Kremlin and has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy an “opponent.” 

The upshot is there is already plenty of white nationalist support in this country for Putin. 

Is this just an over-panicky reaction? Just Trump being Trump, putting the interests of Americans ahead of everybody else? Or is it another warning sign that American democracy is under siege, that it’s preparation for coup’ attempt part II, coming to a voting booth near you in 2024?

As Tucker Carlson might say, “hey, just asking the question.”

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Guns & Money

By Stephen Macaulay

One of the things that tends to be overlooked when the NRA convention is discussed is that it is also a tradeshow, with an expo center packed with a variety of companies showing their wares. There was a panoply of products, from companies offering gator hunts to ammo to magazines (print and otherwise) to scopes to guns to knives to the NRA Cigar Club, “the premier way for NRA Members to support the organization” by signing up for a stogie subscription service.

This is big business.

No, this is BIG BUSINESS.

According to the NSSF: The Firearm Industry Trade Association, “The total economic impact of the firearm and ammunition industry in the United States increased from $19.1 billion in 2008 to $70.52 billion in 2021, a 269 percent increase, while the total number of full-time equivalent jobs rose from approximately 166,000 to over 375,819, a 126 percent increase in that period.”

A 269% increase in 13 years. 

And that jobs number is nothing to sniff at.

It is easy to lose sight of the fact that the NRA isn’t just a group of individuals who are interested in their right to bear arms led by a group of high-paid functionaries who get wet-kissed by venal politicians who somehow imagine there are heirs to James Madison, who wrote the Second Amendment, it is a large cog of a big industry. Like all industries, it has representatives that work hard to maintain smooth running for its operations. 

What’s somewhat unlike all other industries is that even a speed bump—the slightest thing that could cause a restriction—is considered to be nothing but a comprehensive attack on all aspects of operations. And what is also unlike other industries is that the lack of sensible actions has as a consequence the multiple deaths of innocent children.

Children.

Any regulations that might inconvenience a prospective customer — merely inconvenience those for whom gun purchase and ownership is not a matter of concern (and ideally would prevent those for whom it is a bad, bad idea) — is considered to be a liability, something that could affect the bottom line.

The probable fear is that should there be measures put in place that in any way inhibit the purchase of guns that are best handled by a well-regulated militia there will be still more regulations, and that would be bad for business. Never mind the corpses of children.

The leadership of the NRA. The politicians that slavishly carry their water. These people aren’t stone stupid.

They undoubtedly know that the multiple, continual mass shootings are abhorrent.

But they are afraid to take the risk that if there are any additional laws, before you know it there will be every additional law. And that could impact their paydays.

Let’s not be naïve about this.

This is business.

Certainly those who are in favor of regulations should do their utmost to vote the tone-deaf toadies out of office when they are up for reelection and to take every opportunity to remind those people that they have blood on their hands every day on the way up to election day.

But there need to be other pressures. The investment community needs to stand up. Make it less lucrative for those associated with the firearms industry. It is one thing to make rifles and ammo for recreational hunting. It is fully another to make rifles and ammo that are likely to be used for killing cops. And children.

The legal community needs to find every possibility they can to make it problematic for those who don’t want to have common-sense regulations. The Second Amendment isn’t going to be amended. But presumably there are other ways to strengthen protection.

Plenty of those NRA expo exhibitors are straight-shooters, both literally and figuratively. Many of the companies that are part of the NSSF are organizations that are simply making products for recreational purposes. 

Presumably they are as horrified as anyone at what happened in Uvalde.

The goal isn’t to put them out of business. Responsible commerce is the goal.

But there are those whose pictures could accompany the dictionary definition of “oleaginous” whose efforts must be absolutely stymied.

They know who they are. We do, too.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news