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Undated:Modern
republicanism[1]
is a guiding political
philosophy
of the United States that has been a major part of American civic thought since
its
founding.[2]
It stresses
liberty and
unalienable individual rights as central values, making people
sovereign as a whole; rejects
monarchy,
aristocracy and inherited political power; expects citizens to be virtuous
and faithful in their performance of civic duties, and vilifies
corruption.[3]
American republicanism was articulated and first practiced by the
Founding Fathers in the 18th century. For them, "republicanism represented
more than a particular form of government. It was a way of life, a core
ideology, an uncompromising commitment to liberty, and a total rejection of
aristocracy."[4]
Republicanism is not the same as
democracy.
Republicanism includes guarantees of rights that cannot be repealed by a
majority vote.[7]
Alexis de Tocqueville warned about the "tyranny
of the majority" in a democracy, and suggested the courts should try to
reverse the efforts of the majority of terminating the rights of an unpopular
minority.[8]
July 22: ... it’s no surprise that a
majority of
Republicans believe that “deep down, Obama is a Muslim,” or that a
significant chunk of Republicans think it’s likely that Obama is not a
citizen.
But, to this chunk of the American electorate, there is another way in which
Obama is demonstrating that he is not really “one of us”—it’s his support for
comprehensive immigration reform, where Trump’s incendiary rhetoric has been a
key fuel behind his rise to the top of the polls. Quite apart from the
legitimate questions about immigration, the embrace of Trump’s portrait of an
immigrant group that is peopled by drug traffickers and rapists fits perfectly
with the idea that Obama is the champion of foreign ideas, foreign religions and
foreign people. To understand how this dynamic works, we need to understand just
how “different” Obama is from his predecessors, and how that difference
resonates with a long, ignoble American tradition: the fear of “The Other.”
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/donald-trumps-birther-strategy-120504 -- 2017 --
Back to top February 23:“Bill Kristol: Hill
Republicans asking if they can survive four years of Trump” “I
think if you talk privately to Republicans on the Hill, it’s like, ‘Oh my God,
what is going on? Can we survive this for four years?'” Kristol told David
Axelrod on “The Axe Files” … A well-known proponent of a muscular US foreign
policy, Kristol also expressed a deep concern with Trump’s “America first”
philosophy, which Kristol said signals America’s withdrawal from an unstable
world in need of its leadership.
http://jewishinsider.com/10758/daily-kickoff-david-magerman-confronts-boss-over-trump-support-ellison-clarifies-past-comments-norpac-defends-menendez-sous-vide-gefilte-fish/
March 24: The rag-tag rabble-rousing House Freedom
Caucus [considered the most far-right flank of the Republican conference] may
be the linchpin to repeal and replace Obamacare at this point. Its members,
however, are Public Enemy No. 1 on Capitol Hill.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/23/politics/what-is-the-freedom-caucus/
April 13: An Oklahoma lawmaker had a heated exchange with his
constituents at a town hall event Tuesday, prompting him to tell the crowd that
it was “bullcrap” to claim they were the ones paying his salary.
April 13:
A Republican congressman on Wednesday called for the resignation of the White
House press secretary after comparing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Adolph
Hitler during his daily breifing.
Spicer was widely criticized for saying Hitler "didn't even sink to using
chemical weapons."
April 12: Republican
Congressman Joe Wilson was slammed Monday by an angry crowd in South Carolina
with his own infamous line that he used against former President Barack Obama
during his speech to Congress in 2009. The crowd shouted "you lie" after he was
confronted on the issue of Obamacare.
Wilson was addressing the crowd at the Aiken Technical College in Graniteville
for nearly 40 minutes when he was questioned on Obama's signature health care
law. His response was eventually drowned with a 20-second chant of the same
accusation he hurled at Obama when the latter had said the health reforms he was
proposing would not apply to those in the country illegally.
http://www.ibtimes.com/who-joe-wilson-constituents-scream-you-lie-congressman-who-did-same-obama-2524284
June 1: Donald Trump’s white nationalist
campaign attracted anti-immigrant, pro-Russia politicians from across Europe. In
particular “Brexit” leader Nigel Farage, the proudly racist and sexist former
head of the nationalist UK Independence Party, made an unprecedented
trans-Atlantic push for Trump. Farage attended the Republican convention, did
media appearances to support Trump, joined in raising the rabble at Trump
rallies, and even defended Trump’s ugly Access Hollywood statements as
just the bragging of an “alpha male.” Farage is also an admirer of Trump adviser
Steve Bannon, with a Breitbart-friendly relationship that extends back at least
three years. And now Trump and Farage have
something else in common:
Nigel Farage is a “person of interest” in the US counter-intelligence
investigation that is looking into possible collusion between the Kremlin and
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, the Guardian has been told.
Farage says he’s never even been to Russia … though he refuses to say if he’s
received payment from RT or other Russian state media. Farage has met with
Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, with Assange-friendly whackadoodle Roger
Stone, and seems to have just incidentally been involved with a lot of people
whose names keep showing up on the FBI radar.
“He’s right in the middle of these relationships. He turns up over and over
again. There’s a lot of attention being paid to him.”
Farage has some recent FBI experience. In July, the FBI
nabbed Farage’s top aide, for laundering drug money through the dark net.
July 17:
Diana Orrock, the Republican national committeewoman for Nevada, shared an
article on Monday calling for the death of Sen. John McCain for his hawkish
foreign policy views.
August 17: Bernstein: Washington 'Consensus'
Questioning Trump's Abilities ... "There's considerable evidence that there's a
consensus developing in the military, at the highest levels, in the intelligence
community, among Republicans in Congress, including the leaders in the business
community that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, is unfit to be
the president of the United States" ... "That's the undercurrent."
https://www.newsmax.com/Politics/carl-bernstein-donald-trump-unfit-president/2017/08/17/id/808136/
August 31: Milwaukee County Sheriff David A.
Clarke Jr. — the controversial, Stetson-wearing official who rose to national
prominence with his
no-holds-barred conservative rhetoric — resigned his office Thursday.
October 16:Ayers [Nick Ayers, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence]
warned that the Republican
Party is on track for a repeat of the massive electoral backlash that came after
President Barack Obama was elected and the GOP took control of Congress and
statehouses across the country.
“Not because anything that the president or the vice president has done or
hasn’t done, but we’re on track to get shellacked next year,” Ayers said....
http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/2017/10/
October 24: Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican
who has been one of the harshest intraparty critics of President Trump,
announced on Tuesday that he would not seek reelection to his seat next year.
October 24: [Jeff Flake] I rise today with
no small measure of regret. Regret because of the state of our disunion, regret
because of the disrepair and destructiveness of our politics. Regret because of
the indecency of our discourse. Regret because of the coarseness of our
leadership. Regret for the compromise of our moral authority, and by our, I mean
all of our complicity in this alarming and dangerous state of affairs. It is
time for our complicity and our accommodation of the unacceptable to end.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/24/16536990/key-quotes-flake-speech-trump
October 24: [Jeff Flake] We must never
regard as “normal” the regular and casual undermining of our democratic norms
and ideals. We must never meekly accept the daily sundering of our country – the
personal attacks, the threats against principles, freedoms, and institutions,
the flagrant disregard for truth or decency, the reckless provocations, most
often for the pettiest and most personal reasons, reasons having nothing
whatsoever to do with the fortunes of the people that we have all been elected
to serve.
None of these appalling features of our current politics should ever be regarded
as normal. We must never allow ourselves to lapse into thinking that this is
just the way things are now. If we simply become inured to this condition,
thinking that this is just politics as usual, then heaven help us. Without fear
of the consequences, and without consideration of the rules of what is
politically safe or palatable, we must stop pretending that the degradation of
our politics and the conduct of some in our executive branch are normal. They
are not normal.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/read-the-full-transcript-of-jeff-flakes-fiery-speech-on-the-senate-floor/
October 24: [Jeff Flake] “Reckless,
outrageous, and undignified behavior has become excused and countenanced as
‘telling it like it is,’ when it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and
undignified,” Flake said on the Senate floor. “And when such behavior emanates
from the top of our government, it is something else: It is dangerous to a
democracy. Such behavior does not project strength—because our strength comes
from our values. It instead projects a corruption of the spirit, and weakness.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/jeff-flake/543843/
October 24: [Jeff Flake] We must dedicate
ourselves to making sure that the anomalous never becomes the normal. With
respect and humility, I must say that we have fooled ourselves for long enough
that a pivot to governing is right around the corner, a return to civility and
stability right behind it. We know better than that. By now, we all know better
than that.
https://www.scpr.org/news/2017/10/24/76976/arizona-sen-jeff-flake-a-trump-critic-will-not-see/
October 24: [Jeff Flake]
If I have been critical, it not
because I relish criticizing the behavior of the president of the United
States. If I have been critical, it is because I believe that it is my
obligation to do so, as a matter of duty and conscience. The notion that one
should stay silent as the norms and values that keep America strong
are undermined and as the
alliances and agreements that ensure the stability of the entire world are
routinely threatened by the level of thought that goes into 140 characters - the
notion that one should say and do nothing in the face of such mercurial behavior
is ahistoric and, I believe, profoundly misguided.
https://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=5BA26227-82BA-406A-B5F3-3683A7619086
October 24: [Jeff Flake] When a leader
correctly identifies real hurt and insecurity in our country and instead of
addressing it goes looking for somebody to blame, there is perhaps nothing more
devastating to a pluralistic society. Leadership knows that most often a good
place to start in assigning blame is to first look somewhat closer to home.
Leadership knows where the buck stops. Humility helps. Character counts.
Leadership does not knowingly encourage or feed ugly and debased appetites in
us.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/10/24/read-flakes-bombshell-senate-speech-mr-president-rise-today-say-enough/796351001/
October 24: [Jeff Flake] "The principles that underlie our politics, the
values of our founding, are too vital to our identity and to our survival to
allow them to be compromised by the requirements of politics. Because politics
can make us silent when we should speak, and silence can equal complicity. I
have children and grandchildren to answer to, and so, Mr. President, I will not
be complicit."
https://www.npr.org/2017/10/24/559875570/transcript-sen-jeff-flake-announces-he-wont-seek-re-election
October 24: [Jeff Flake] We were not made
great as a country by indulging in, or even exalting, our worst impulses
—turning against ourselves, glorifying in the things that divide us, and calling
fake things true and true things fake.
And we did not become the beacon of freedom in the darkest corners of the world
by flouting our institutions and failing to understand just how hard-won and
vulnerable they are. This spell will eventually break. That is my belief. We
will return to ourselves once more. And I say the sooner, the better. Because we
have a healthy government, we must also have healthy and functioning parties. We
must respect each other again in an atmosphere of shared facts and shared
values, comity and good faith.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/24/read-sen-jeff-flakes-full-speech-from-the-senate-floor.html?view=story&$DEVICE$=native-android-mobile
October 24: Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of
Virginia left the floor in tears following Flake's speech, calling it
"depressing."
October 24:Donald
Trump threatened to spend millions of dollars of his
own money against a Republican who criticised him, two sources familiar with the
comments have claimed.
October 24: [Bob Corker] "I think the things
that are happening right now that are harmful to our nation, whether it's the
breaking down of — we are going to be doing hearings on some of the things that
he purposely is breaking down — relationships we have around the world that have
been useful to our nation,"
Corker told CNN's Manu Raju, and other reporters, in a
Capitol Hill hallway interview.
"But I think at the end of the day, when his term is over, I think the debasing
of our nation, the constant non-truth telling, just the name-calling . . . I
think the debasement of our nation will be what he'll be remembered most for,
and that's regretful," he added.
https://www.newsmax.com/headline/trump-corker-feud/2017/10/24/id/821729/
November 16: The Democrats Really Can Win
the House in 2018 ... But you win elections in particular places and one at a
time, and at the level of individual races, Republicans retain a lot of
advantages that could keep them in control of the House even if they lose the
national popular vote.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/11/the-democrats-really-can-win-the-house-in-2018.html -- 2018 --
Back to top January 12: Two Republican senators who
attended yesterday’s meeting in which President Trump reportedly disparaged
immigrants from “shithole countries” seem to have come down with a case of
amnesia.
In a joint statement this afternoon, Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and David Perdue
(R-GA)
wrote that they “do not recall the President saying those comments
specifically” — but conspicuously didn’t outright deny that he said them.
Since Trump’s comments were confirmed by multiple other sources who attended the
meeting or quickly heard about it, Cotton and Perdue’s statement doesn’t pass
the laugh test. Indeed, it seems to be an unusually craven attempt to deny
reality and curry favor with the president.
https://www.vox.com/2018/1/12/16885312/trump-shithole-countries-denial
January 14: Former Defense Secretary Chuck
Hagel called President Donald Trump "an embarrassment" and said he "is doing
great damage to our country internationally" in a newspaper interview Saturday.
Hagel's remarks come amid uproar over Trump's reported remarks during a
closed-door immigration meeting with lawmakers last week, during which he is
said to have
called certain African countries "shitholes."
January 27: Steve Wynn has resigned from his
position as finance chairman for the Republican National Committee
amid controversy over sexual misconduct allegations.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said she accepted Wynn's departure on Saturday.
"Today I accepted Steve Wynn's resignation as Republican National Committee
Finance Chair," she said in a statement.
January 26: In the week after the
Harvey Weinstein scandal broke last October, Republicans blasted Democrats
for taking money from an accused sexual predator.
On Friday, the Democratic National Committee returned fire, this time over
casino mogul
Steve Wynn.
The Wall Street Journal
reported on accusations of a “decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct” by
Wynn, based on the accounts of dozens of current employees.
January 27: When Harvey Weinstein was
accused of sexually assaulting women nearly four months ago, Republicans called
on Democratic lawmakers and committees to return contributions from the
Hollywood mogul and major donor.
Now the GOP is being forced to answer for its own scandal-engulfed donor and
fundraiser: Steve Wynn, the Las Vegas casino giant.
January 27: Billionaire casino mogul Steve
Wynn was accused of widespread sexual misconduct — here are the major
politicians and groups he helped fund
According to The Journal report, Wynn was described as having regularly
intimidated casino employees into performing sex acts. In one instance, Wynn
paid a $7.5 million settlement to a manicurist who accused him of forcing her to
have sex with him in 2005.
The 75-year-old has denied all of the allegations, calling them
"preposterous."
Wynn joined the RNC as its top fundraiser after Trump was elected president, and
the magnate donated $729,217 to
Trump's inauguration through his company, Wynn Resorts. A former business rival,
Trump called Wynn "a great friend" in 2016.
http://www.businessinsider.com/who-did-steve-wynn-donate-to-2018-1
January 31:FBI, White House conflict
over memo spills into public view ... White House
chief of staff Kelly said the document would be "released here pretty quick, I
think." Within a few hours, the FBI was publicly pushing back.
A simmering conflict between the FBI and Republicans in the White
House and Congress erupted into public view Wednesday, as the bureau sharply
criticized a classified GOP memo that is critical of investigators looking into
Russia's interference in the 2016 election.
In a rare public statement, the FBI said it had "grave concerns" about the
accuracy of the memo, written by Republicans on the House Intelligence
Committee.
February 2: Rep. Devin Nunes, who led the
release of the memo,
admitted to Fox News' Bret Baier that he hadn't read the FISA documents that
made up the basis of the memo.
Why it matters: The memo is largely based on the argument that there
were FISA abuses within the FBI, particularly relating to former Trump campaign
adviser Carter Page. As chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, some are
criticizing Nunes for not reading these pertinent documents himself before
releasing the memo.
https://www.axios.com/nunes-response-to-the-memo-fisa-applications-f61bcd38-5bd7-458b-8781-e726e34d9fec.html
February 13: GOP official resigns in
Michigan: I could 'no longer remain silent' about Trump ... The chairman of the
Republican Party in Bay County, Mich., announced last week he was resigning from
his position, saying he could "no longer remain silent" about
President Trump.
"I have not seen a leader, I've only seen more of the same," Brandon DeFrain,
who has served in his post since 2014, wrote in a Facebook post,
according to MLive.
He said he has seen more racism in the streets, on social media and in schools
and more hatred between family members.
"I'm tired of attempting to defend a machine that does not defend the people I
love," he wrote.
March 4: President Donald Trump’s threatened
trade war has opened a rift within the Republican Party that some lawmakers and
strategists believe could undermine their effort to keep their majorities in
Congress.
Republicans plan to brag about the economy in midterm campaigns in hopes of
countering Trump’s unpopularity, touting a strong stock market, low unemployment
rate and — most importantly — their increasingly popular tax legislation. But
Trump’s suggestion Saturday that he might slap penalties on European cars, in
addition to the tariffs on aluminum and steel he already promised, could upend
that strategy completely, Republicans say.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/04/trump-tariffs-republicans-backlash-midterms-435476
March 16: Arizona's junior senator delivered
a blistering attack on President Trump and
the general degradation of politics in a Friday speech to business leaders in
the state that hosts the first-in-the-nation presidential primary.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., introduced himself to the influential Granite State as
a conservative in the tradition of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater who now
finds himself maligned on the right in the Trump era as a
Republican-In-Name-Only.
March 18: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, says
he plans to "do everything to stop" the confirmation of President Trump's picks
for secretary of state and CIA director, but conceded that he doesn't have the
power to stop them. Paul opposes the nomination of Gina
Haspel, the current deputy director of the CIA and Mr. Trump's choice
to head the agency, over concerns about her involvement in the CIA's
interrogation program in the early 2000s.
"There's enough votes. She'll eventually win. But there are a few things in life
where it is worth standing up and saying, 'Enough is enough. This is wrong. This
is, you know, this is beneath contempt,'" Paul said on CBS News' "Face the
Nation."
March 18: Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff
Flake, a chief GOP critic of President Donald Trump, said Sunday he expects
pushback from his colleagues over Trump's increased attacks on special counsel
Robert Mueller.
"We can't in Congress accept that," Flake said on CNN's "State of the Union,"
adding, "I would expect to see considerable pushback in the next couple of
days."
Trump over the weekend tweeted that the Mueller probe into Russian meddling in
the 2016 election never should have begun, and on Sunday morning, continued to
rail against the ongoing investigation. Trump attorney John Dowd
said in a statement on Saturday that he hopes Deputy Attorney General Rod
Rosenstein, who appointed the special counsel, will end the investigation.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/18/politics/jeff-flake-robert-mueller-cnntv/index.html
March 18: “I don’t think you really want
people who are eager for war to be running the State Department. You want a
diplomat,” Paul said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” explaining why he opposes
the nomination of
Mike Pompeo.
March 19: Congressional Republicans sounded
alarm Sunday over President Donald Trump’s increasing belligerence toward
special counsel Robert Mueller, but they offered no hint about what actions they
might take if Trump attempts to fire him.
“I’m not sure the House can do a lot,” said Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) on “Fox
News Sunday.” Gowdy urged the president to give Mueller the space and resources
to finish his probe unimpeded, but he noted that the Senate has more leverage
over Trump on this issue because it has a say in his senior administration
appointments.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/18/congress-trump-mueller-republicans-fired-470062
May 18: President Donald Trump's
administration plans to propose a new rule Friday that would bar abortions at
facilities receiving federal family planning funds, according to two people
familiar with the plans -- a move aimed squarely at Planned Parenthood, which
accepts some federal money for non-abortion services.
Long sought by conservatives, the step would take the administration's push to
curtail abortions further. There are already laws in place that prevent federal
money from directly funding abortions, but groups like Planned Parenthood still
accept federal dollars for services like annual screenings and checkups.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/17/politics/trump-planned-parenthood-funds/index.html
May 24: Trump on collision course with
Congress on ZTE, the Chinese telecommunications giant sanctioned for doing
business with Iran and North Korea.
Trump has publicly signaled his desire to ease the restrictions on ZTE as he
seeks China's cooperation on North Korea talks and hammering out a trade deal.
June 1: Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell joined the calls of his congressional colleagues in asking President
Donald Trump to reconsider a fresh round of tariffs levied against US allies in
Mexico, Canada and the European Union.
"I hope we pull back from the brink here because these tariffs will not be good
for the economy, and I worry that it will slow, if not impeded significantly,
the progress we were making economically for the country," he said.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/01/politics/mcconnell-trump-tariffs/
June 16: Leading Brexit Campaigner
Apparently Passed Documents on U.S. Probe into George Cottrell to the Russians
A top Brexit campaigner, who met repeatedly with Russian officials, appeared to
share details of the indictment of George Cottrell, a dark web operator working
for the campaign.
The papers, which detailed a probe into dark web money laundering, were
apparently shared with the Russian embassy in London by Leave.EU executive Andy
Wigmore. They concerned the arrest of Brexit financier George Cottrell, who was
seized at an airport on the way home from the Republican convention in 2016
where Donald Trump had just been nominated as the presidential candidate.
June 20: A Republican congressional
candidate in New York said Tuesday that the sounds of crying immigrant children
separated from their parents at the border were the "same exact" sounds heard at
any daycare when a parent leaves for work.
"I think it's extremely unfortunate. But what people are forgetting -- they just
want to listen to those tapes -- I can take you to any nursery and you're going
to hear the same exact things as a mother leaves to go to work and has to leave
her child at daycare. You're going to hear those same exact things," Michael
Grimm, who is running for the Republican nomination in New York's 11th
Congressional District, told NY1.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/20/politics/grimm-comments-on-kids-at-border/
July 24: Attorney General Jeff Sessions
chuckled and repeated "Lock her up" after the familiar Trump campaign rally
chant rang out during his speech at a conservative conference for high school
students on Tuesday.
July 24: GOP lawmaker in Georgia drops
pants, uses racial slur in Sacha Baron Cohen TV series
Rep. Jason Spencer's on-camera conduct horrified fellow Republicans, some of
whom called for his immediate resignation.
Spencer repeatedly shouts a racial slur for black people after Cohen tells him
the tactic is useful for drawing bystanders' attention to an unfolding attack.
He also drops his pants, then his underwear, before backing his exposed rear end
toward Cohen while shouting "USA!" and "America!"
July 27: Republican Rep. Jason Lewis has
repeatedly demeaned recipients of welfare and government assistance, calling
them "parasites" and "scoundrels," and said the black community had "traded one
plantation for another."
Lewis made the comments on a conservative radio show he hosted, "The Jason Lewis
Show," from 2009 to 2012. CNN's KFile previously
reported that Lewis made racist comments about African-Americans and
lamented not being able to call women "sluts" on his program.
The Minnesota congressman's extreme rhetoric in his previous job, which he
described as rooted in libertarianism, also included calling the part of the
1964 Civil Rights Act that applied to private businesses "unconstitutional" as
well as calling the Americans with Disabilities Act "one of the worst" laws and
suggesting that it might be the cause of workplace shootings. He also said
religious freedom laws didn't "go far in enough in allowing discrimination."
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/27/politics/kfile-jason-lewis-government-assistance/index.html
July 30: Frustrated with Republican
lawmakers and recent policy developments out of Washington, the juggernaut Koch
network appears poised to rethink or scale back its involvement in GOP politics
in what would be a surprising shift as the midterm elections near.
In a rare question-and-answer session with reporters Sunday, the network's
billionaire founder Charles Koch expressed "regret" over his network's past
support for some candidates, who he believes have not done enough in office to
defend its libertarian principles and policy priorities.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/29/politics/koch-network-warns-gop-accountable/
August 27: A panel of three federal judges
in North Carolina ruled Monday the state's congressional map is an
unconstitutional partisan gerrymander that favors Republicans, and said it may
require districts to be redrawn before the November elections.
Republicans hold 10 of the state's 13 seats in the House of Representatives, and
a redrawn map could put more seats in play for Democrats -- potentially
affecting control of the House.
The judges acknowledged primary elections have already occurred, but said they
were reluctant to let voting take place in districts that courts twice found had
been unconstitutionally drawn.
The same decision was reached by the court in January, but the Supreme Court
declined in June to hear the case and it was sent back for reconsideration. The
Supreme Court has never ruled a partisan gerrymander to be unconstitutional,
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/27/politics/north-carolina-gerrymandering-court/
August 31: Republican Lobbyist Steered
Foreign Money to Trump’s Inaugural Committee
September 2: Mollie Tibbetts disappeared
during an evening jog in Brooklyn, Iowa, on July 18. After her body was
discovered last month, authorities identified the
suspect in her killing as an undocumented immigrant.
September 7: Obama's campaign season debut
launches his midterm effort to rally Democrats to the polls and end Republicans'
grip on power in Congress. The former president warned Friday that the stakes
are high and the consequences of staying on the sidelines “dire.”
September 7: In the battle for control of
Congress, President Donald Trump's weapon of choice is fear.
At a rally for Republican Senate nominee Matt Rosendale in Billings, Montana, on
Thursday night, the president warned his faithful that Democrats would raise
their taxes, take their guns, block his wall, abolish the Immigration and
Customs Enforcement agency, open U.S. borders, end Social Security and cut
Medicare.
He's also warned supporters this summer that the outcome in November could spell
trouble for freedom of speech and religion and the First Amendment — and that if
the GOP loses, violence could follow.
September 22: A press adviser helping lead
the Senate Judiciary Committee’s response to a sexual assault allegation against
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has stepped down amid evidence he was
fired from a previous political job in part because of a sexual harassment
allegation against him.
September 24: [From "why do people love -or
hate- Trump? Here Are The 20 Top Reasons "]
18. He gives the Republicans full control of Washington again.
This means that the gun-toting, Bible-thumping, woman-hating, anti-gay,
anti-minority, anti-government, pro-war loons have full control of not only the
presidency, but also the House and Senate, allowing them to gleefully and
sadistically erase all the progress of the past few generations.
https://thoughtcatalog.com/jeremy-london/2018/07/why-do-people-hate-trump/
November 13: A recent survey of more than
3,000 Americans found that Democrats view Republicans largely as racist, bigoted
and sexist.
The survey, conducted by Axios, showed that 61 percent of Democrats saw the
GOP in a negative fashion, and a combined 9 percent saw Republicans as "fair,"
"thoughtful" or "kind."
November 21: President Trump’s embrace of
Saudi Arabia has exposed a foreign policy rift in the Republican Party, as some
of his GOP colleagues warn that not punishing the kingdom for its role in
killing a U.S.-based columnist will have dangerous consequences.
Many Republicans – even Sens. Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul, who share their
views on the matter with the president – have denounced Trump’s decision not to
levy harsher penalties on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the death
and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
December 6: 'This is a disgrace': Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez slams her future colleagues in Congress for employing unpaid
interns and failing to pay staffers a 'living wage'
December 14: Arizona will soon have another
new senator, with Republican Jon Kyl — who accepted a temporary appointment in
the wake of
GOP Sen. John McCain's death — stepping aside.
Kyl, who first retired from the Senate in 2013, had indicated he never planned
on sticking around long, committing to serve through the end of the current
congressional term. Kyl's resignation is effective Dec. 31. Arizona Gov. Doug
Ducey, who has won reelection since Kyl's appointment in September, will now
name another replacement to serve until a special election is held in 2020.
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/14/671727813/arizona-sen-jon-kyl-to-step-down-leaving-mccains-seat-vacant-again -- 2019 --
Back to top February 28:Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.,
was observed discussing his threatening tweet about Michael Cohen with President
Trump Wednesday evening.
According to Edward-Isaac Dovere, a staff writer at the Atlantic, Gaetz spoke to
the president, who was in Hanoi, Vietnam for talks with North Korean leader Kim
Jong Un, over the phone.
"I was happy to do it for you. You just keep killing it," Gaetz was overhead
saying.
The night before Cohen's testimony before the House Oversight Committee on
Wednesday, Gaetz asked Cohen on Twitter, "Do your wife & father-in-law know
about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I
wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a
lot..."
May 29: Republican Group Will Run Ad on 'Fox
& Friends' Urging Congress to Hold Trump Accountable: Mueller Did His Job... Now
Do Yours
Republicans for the Rule of Law (RRL), a conservative group whose stated purpose
is “defending the institutions of our republic,” will advertise on Fox &
Friends next week to urge members of Congress to hold President Donald
Trump accountable for the findings in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
Chris Truax, a spokesperson and legal adviser for RRL, told Newsweek that
Congress must properly investigate Mueller’s findings in order to address the
“corruption of our Constitution from within.”
"Everybody — Republicans and Democrats but especially Republicans — need to step
up and say, 'Look, this is bigger than the politics of the day, this is about
our democratic institutions.' If we don't defend them, that will have an impact
on our country for decades to come," he said. "President Trump still does not
want to admit that this happened and that's wrong, absurd and dangerous.
Republicans need to stop enabling this behavior."
GOP members should be “appalled at their casual disregard for the law, the
Constitution and everything that makes America great,” Truax added. “Americans
of all political affiliations should recoil at the plain fact that senior
members of the administration put their own interests above the national
security of the United States.”
https://www.newsweek.com/republican-group-will-run-ad-fox-friends-urging-congress-hold-trump-1438843
June 12:Trump Tells ABC: Sure, I’d
Collude Again
In a new interview released this afternoon by ABC News, President Trump tells
George Stephanopoulos that he’d take information from a foreign government if
one offered dirt on his 2020 opponent. “I think you might want to listen, there
isn’t anything wrong with listening.”
President Trump rejected the idea that such foreign government interventions
amounted to election interference. “It’s not an interference, they have
information — I think I’d take it. If I thought there was something wrong, I’d
go maybe to the FBI — if I thought there was something wrong. But when somebody
comes up with oppo research, right, they come up with oppo research, ‘oh let’s
call the FBI.’ The FBI doesn’t have enough agents to take care of it. When you
go and talk, honestly, to congressman, they all do it, they always have, and
that’s the way it is. It’s called oppo research.”
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-tells-abc-sure-id-collude-again
June 13:Pelosi: At Best, Trump Doesn’t Know ‘Difference Between Right And Wrong’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Thursday chalked up President Trump’s
foreign dirt remark to the President simply not knowing the difference
between right and wrong.
“What the President said last night shows clearly once again, over and over
again that he does not know the difference between right and wrong. And that’s
probably the nicest thing I can say about him,” she said. “If he doesn’t know
the difference, it could explain some of this ridiculous behavior.”
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/pelosi-trump-right-wrong
June 13:
Republicans lash Trump for being open to foreign oppo
GOP senators vowed they would immediately turn to the FBI if approached with
foreign dirt.
Soon after Donald Trump sparked his latest all-consuming controversy, Lindsey
Graham spoke to the president and urged him to rethink his willingness to use
foreign opposition research against his political opponents.
