Category Archives: House Committee to Investigate Attack on Capitol

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Are Trump and His Republican Party Going Down?

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The walls are closing in on Donald Trump. It’s now clear that Republicans in at least five states won by Joe Biden conspired to fraudulently overturn the 2020 presidential election. In one of those states, the Michigan “Republican Party Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock said that the Trump presidential campaign directed Republicans in Michigan to seat fake GOP Electoral College delegates.”[1] No doubt Trump’s campaign directed the other states to do the same.

This effort was led by Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer.[2] It’s inconceivable that Giuliani would have implemented such a scheme without his client’s knowledge and approval.

At the same time, the New York Daily News has reported that NY “state Attorney General Tish James reveal(ed) that the cheating conman (Trump) we’ve known all these long decades cheated and conned in illegally misrepresenting the finances of his real estate firm.”[3] The Daily News editorial board called Trump “this miserable insipid democracy-threatening horror of a man.”[4]

Meanwhile, “a district attorney in Atlanta on Thursday asked a judge to convene a special grand jury to help a criminal investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.”[5]

And it does not appear that the conservative U.S. Supreme Court is ready to come to Trump’s rescue either. On Wednesday, in an 8 to 1 decision, the Court refused Trump’s request to block the release of White House records to the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.[6]

In the coming weeks how all these pieces fit together will most likely become abundantly clear when the House Select Committee conducts nationally televised hearings regarding the Jan. 6 insurrection. What will take longer to decipher is the American public’s response to what these hearings reveal. Specifically, how will the committee’s revelations affect next November’s elections?

We know that Republican members of Congress met with some of the rioters before January 6th. Reports indicate that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows also interacted with them.[7] In fact, 147 Republican members of the House and Senate voted to overturn Biden’s election.[8]

Americans are about to learn who really tried to steal the 2020 election. Once they understand the extent to which Trump and the Republican Party went to unlawfully overturn the election will they be willing to trust them with the reins of power and vote them into office? While the Democrats recently lost the battle over voting rights, it appears they still may have a pretty good shot at winning the struggle for the soul of America.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.yahoo.com/news/michigan-gop-co-chair-says-004310038.html

[2] https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/20/politics/trump-campaign-officials-rudy-giuliani-fake-electors/index.html

[3] https://www.yahoo.com/news/digging-donald-trump-comeuppance-coming-090000451.html

[4] Ibid.

[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/us/politics/georgia-trump-election-investigation.html

[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/us/politics/trump-supreme-court-jan-6.html

[7] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/exclusive-jan-6-organizers-met-congress-white-house-1245289/

[8] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/07/us/elections/electoral-college-biden-objectors.html

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Focus on January 6th Committee to Save Our Democracy

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The chances of the Democrats enacting voter protection bills to safeguard our elections now seem all but dead. Since Sens. Manchin and Sinema are unwilling to alter the filibuster in order to pass the Freedom to Vote and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement bills, the Democrats must find another path to winning next November’s elections and saving our democracy.

Clearly that path will be uphill. The first mid-term elections after a new president enters the White House most often are won by the opposing party. With Biden’s approval ratings polling around 40% or below and his party’s legislative agenda stalled, it’s more than likely that the Republicans will take back the House and very possibly the Senate as well.

But there is still one promising prospect which could turn the November elections in the Democrats’ favor. In the next three to six months, the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol will hold televised hearings to provide the nation with the full story regarding what happened and who was responsible for the insurrection.

From the evidence made public to date, it now appears that the attack on the Capitol was part of a larger, coordinated conspiracy, quite possibly criminal, to overthrow the 2020 presidential election and install Trump as president. In the latest development, Republican electors from seven states that went for Biden submitted fraudulent Electoral College certificates to Congress and the National Archives certifying that Trump won in their states. The fact that these seven certificates were all identical, including using the same typeface, indicates their submission was coordinated, perhaps by the Republican Party or the Trump White House.[1]

No doubt more about how this all transpired will be revealed by the House Select Committee during its televised hearings. The Committee may be able to connect the dots to demonstrate a conspiracy to put the outcome of the election in those seven states in question. Submitting the fraudulent Republican Electoral College certificates to Congress alongside the legitimate certificates would put the outcome of the election in those states in question. That, in turn, would give Vice President Pence a basis for throwing out the results in those states, all of which voted for Biden, when he conducted the Electoral College count in Congress on January 6th.  Without those states’ electoral votes for Biden, Trump could be declared the winner of the election. This scenario also bolsters Trump’s claim of massive election fraud.

The Select Committee hearings may very well give a great many Americans reason not to vote to put a bunch of corrupt Republicans who supported or participated in this scheme in charge of Congress. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a member of the committee, recently claimed that the hearings “will blow the roof off the House.”[2] Stay tuned.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/fake-electoral-college-certificates-january-6-investigation-20220113.html; https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/12/politics/trump-overturn-2020-election-fake-electoral-college/index.html

[2] https://news.yahoo.com/jan-6-hearings-are-going-to-blow-the-roof-off-the-house-rep-raskin-says-221500327.html

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Signs of Hope in the New Year

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While 2021 was a very challenging year in many respects, the new year is bringing some hopeful signs of better days ahead for restoring our democracy. When times look bad, it’s good to have reason for hope to keep us all going.

It has been a full year since the violent attack on our nation’s Capitol which killed five people and seriously injured over 100 police officers. More and more Americans are wondering whether those who conspired to overthrow our government will ever be held accountable.

Hope in the Department of Justice

On Wednesday, the day before the first anniversary of the insurrection, Attorney General Merrick Garland assured the nation that, “The Justice Department remains committed to holding all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law, whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy. We will follow the facts wherever they lead.”[1] That means Donald Trump, the conspirator-in-chief, is not out of the woods and may very well be prosecuted and brought to justice.

Hope in President Biden

The next day, President Biden “ripped into Trump’s subversion of democracy and the refusal of most Republicans to stand up to the former president’s lies. In what was by far the most passionate, forceful and effective speech of his presidency, he moved democracy to the center of the nation’s political debate,” according to Washington Post political columnist E. J. Dionne Jr.[2]

Biden declared, “You cannot love your country only when you win…You can’t be patriotic when you embrace and enable lies.” And he placed the responsibility on “all of us…to stand for the rule of law, to preserve the flame of democracy…(and) keep the promise of America alive.”[3] Hopefully, Americans of all political stripes will respond to Biden’s call. And it appears that they are doing just that.

Hope in Former Trump Administration Officials

A growing number of Republicans are working to prevent both another Trump presidency as well as more political violence undermining our democracy. Stephanie Grisham, former press secretary in the Trump White House, is helping to organize this effort. In the White House on January 6th, she observed that Trump was “gleeful” watching his supporters attacking the Capitol.[4] Another key organizer, former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff, Miles Taylor, also co-founded the Renew America Movement, a group to support candidates across the political spectrum that identify as being in favor of reforms to strengthen democracy.[5]

Meanwhile, numerous members of former Vice President Pence’s staff are cooperating with the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection. They include former chief of staff, Marc Short, as well as his former national security adviser, Keith Kellogg. In addition, “multiple tiers of Pence’s staff who were at the White House on Jan. 6 have been “integral” in helping the committee flesh out what happened.”[6]

The committee, of course, is the House Select Committee investigating the insurrection. The nation is being well served by its members and their work. Just think where the committee might be now due to Republican obstructive tactics, if House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had kept the rest of his Republican picks on the committee after Speaker Pelosi refused to accept Trump allies Reps. Jim Jordan and Jim Banks.[7]

Hope in former Republican officials

Staunch conservative, Bill Kristol, a former adviser to President Reagan, has formed Defending Democracy Together with other Never-Trump Republicans. The organization is dedicated to defending America’s democratic norms, values, and institutions. It recently hired lobbyists in an attempt to rein in presidential emergency powers, refine the federal government’s war powers and clarify Congress’s subpoena authority.[8]

Even ruthless Republicans like Karl Rove are denouncing the attack on the Capitol and demanding justice. He recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal:

To move beyond Jan. 6, 2021, we must put country ahead of party…There can be no soft-pedaling what happened and no absolution for those who planned, encouraged and aided the attempt to overthrow our democracy. Love of country demands nothing less. That’s true patriotism.[9]

Hope in Liz and Dick Cheney

The only Republican official who participated in the Capitol commemoration of the January 6th attack this past Thursday was Rep. Liz Cheney, Vice-chair of the Select Committee. Ironically enough, she brought her dad, Dick Cheney, along with her. The former vice-president, you may remember, was the mastermind of the Bush Administration and its fabricated justification for the immoral Iraq War.

Here’s what the elder Cheney had to say:

I am deeply disappointed at the failure of many members of my party to recognize the grave nature of the January 6 attacks and the ongoing threat to our nation.[10]

Hope for Democracy

A pro-democracy movement is growing across the political spectrum. The struggle for the soul of America is far from over. Hopefully, this movement will prevail and, as Lincoln pronounced in the midst of the bloody Civil War, our nation “shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”[11]

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4994302/attorney-general-pledges-january-6-attack-perpetrators-held-accountable

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/06/biden-tells-truth-best-speech-his-presidency/

[3] Ibid.

[4] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/stephanie-grisham-trump-gleefully-watched-jan-6-1280113/

[5] https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/06/former-administration-officials-block-trump-526623

[6] https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/mike-pence-staff-giving-goods-021846346.html

[7] https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/21/politics/nancy-pelosi-rejects-republicans-from-committee/index.html

[8] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/07/anti-trump-group-led-by-bill-kristol-hires-lobbyists-to-push-presidential-power-reform.html

[9] https://www.wsj.com/articles/republicans-jan-6-responsibility-anniversary-riot-storm-capitol-trump-protesters-investigation-11641417707

[10] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/06/dick-cheney-surprise-visit-capitol-jan-6-riot/9122457002/

[11] https://legacyneuro.com/gettysburg-address/

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Will Liz Cheney and the House Select Committee Bring Trump Down?

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(Please note: I’m taking a holiday break. This is my last post of the year. I’ll be back the first week of January. Happy Holidays!)

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the Capitol is alive and well. Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader of the Senate, recently added bipartisan credibility to the committee’s work when he said, “…what they are seeking to find out is something the public needs to know.”[1]

In fact, the committee is uncovering some very damning evidence regarding Trump and his cohorts’ involvement in the attack on the Capitol. Trump administration officials, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, possessed a PowerPoint that pressed for “the Trump administration to ‘declare electronic voting in all states invalid,’ as well as to declare a national emergency and seize ballots.” The document “called for then-Vice President Mike Pence to seat alternate electors from swing states Trump lost, reject electors from those states or delay the formal count.”[2]

The January riot was a means to that end. The purpose of the violent attack was to stop the Congress from counting the Electoral College vote confirming the result of the 2020 presidential election.[3] After months of falsely claiming that massive voter fraud cost him the election, Trump urged his supporters to march on the Capitol and “fight like hell.”[4] When they did, he was “loving watching the Capitol mob” do his bidding by disrupting Congress’s confirmation of the election results.[5]

But Rep. Liz Cheney, Republican co-chair of the House Select Committee, thinks Trump may have broken the law. Along with her colleagues on the committee, Cheney is now contemplating whether Trump criminally obstructed Congress.[6] If the committee so finds, it would likely refer the case to the Department of Justice for prosecution. And, if Trump were charged and found guilty, the Fourteenth Amendment could prevent him from ever holding public office again. Under the Amendment, Congress has the power to disqualify anyone who has already held a public office from holding any office if they participate in an “insurrection or rebellion” against the United States.[7]

Until very recently, Trump appeared to be gathering steam for another run at the Oval Office in 2024. But a funny thing happened on his way back to the White House. Conservative Liz Cheney, of all people, daughter of that dastardly Republican, former Vice-president Dick Cheney, stood up for the Constitution. Finally, a Republican with moral principles may just help save the nation from the ugliest of Americans, Donald Trump.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/mcconnell-says-jan-6-committee-s-findings-are-something-public-n1286194

[2] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/jan-6-powerpoint-what-we-know-what-we-don-t-n1285910

[3] https://ballotpedia.org/Breach_of_U.S._Capitol_during_electoral_vote_count_(January_6,_2021)

[4] https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/01/06/metro/heres-what-trump-told-his-supporters-before-many-them-stormed-capitol-wednesday/

[5] https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-was-loving-watching-the-capitol-mob-white-house-official-2021-2

[6] https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-criminal-prosecution-charges-liz-cheney-january-6-obstruction-congress-2021-12?r=US&IR=T

[7] https://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment14/annotation15.html