Trump cultists

The Washington Post reports: Protests planned in support of President Trump on Jan. 6 are multiplying by the week. Formal rallies are planned most of the day and will draw pro-Trump demonstrators to the Washington Monument, Freedom Plaza and the Capitol. But online forums and encrypted chat messages among far-right groups indicate a number of demonstrators might be planning more …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: Fred Piccolo, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ communications director, has resigned from the governor’s office, a move he said was planned before he deleted his Twitter account shortly after his controversial Christmas Eve tweet about COVID-19 victims. Piccolo, who was named DeSantis’s chief spokesman in July, said he will move over to the state Department of Education …

Law & Crime reports: Attorney L. Lin Wood may believe himself to be a vessel of the second coming, and he’s not referring to another Donald Trump presidential term. That’s what Wood’s former law partners wrote in a legal brief quoting what they describe as recorded conversations proving that the lawyer gunning to overturn the 2020 election has a habit …

NPR reports: Michael Pack’s stormy tenure over the federal agency that oversees government-funded broadcasters abroad — including Voice of America — appears to be coming to a close. Yet President Trump’s appointee has sparked an internal outcry by taking bold steps to try to cement his control over at least two of the networks and shape the course of their …

Politico reports: Sen. Lindsey Graham on Thursday urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to allow a stand-alone vote on $2,000 stimulus checks after the new Congress is sworn in next week. The remarks from the South Carolina Republican break with the public posture of his party’s top Washington lawmaker and come just a day after McConnell rejected the proposed payment …

Fox News host Mark Levin writes for The Blaze: January 6 is the day we learn whether our Constitution will hold and whether congressional Republicans care. Win, lose, or draw, on January 6, the Republicans must not act as if “the people have spoken” and be cowered into passivity or worse, such as joining the Democrat Party and media hecklers, …

The Washington Post reports: The Secret Service is making some staff changes in the presidential detail that will guard President-elect Joe Biden, amid concerns from Biden allies that some current members were politically aligned with President Trump, according to two people familiar with the changes. Some in the Secret Service also came under criticism during Trump’s tenure for appearing to …

Fox host Tammy Bruce writes for the Washington Examiner: The more than 74 million votes Mr. Trump won in the Nov. 3 election was the most received by an incumbent president running for reelection ever. The president continues to assert that he won that election, and this columnist, like tens of millions of other Americans, agrees with him. As we …

The Daily Beast reports: Pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood ramped up the crazy on Wednesday night by suggesting Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was somehow involved in Justice Antonin Scalia’s death and part of a child-sex cult. Wood, alongside on-again-off-again Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, has been at the forefront of President Donald Trump’s hopeless attempt to overturn President-elect Joe …

Mediaite reports: This week Cobb County completed a signature audit that found only two mismatches out of thousands, and concluded there were no fraudulent absentee ballots. Rudy Giuliani, who has thrown out conspiracy after conspiracy in the ongoing election fight, called the audit a “joke.” Kemp fired back: “That’s a joke. He doesn’t know the Georgia Bureau of Investigation very …

CBS News reports: A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld a district judge’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Florida conservative political activist and media figure Laura Loomer, who alleged a Muslim civil-rights organization helped engineer her removal from Twitter. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals backed a November 2019 decision by U.S. District Judge …

The Associated Press reports: New Hampshire’s Republican governor said Wednesday that he is canceling his outdoor inauguration ceremony next month because of public safety concerns — namely, armed protesters who have been gathering outside his home in the weeks since he issued a mask order. “My first responsibility is ensuring the safety of my family and our citizens” Gov. Chris …

The Atlantic City Press reports: Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd, will raise objections to accepting the Electoral College’s vote counts from states that did not follow their own laws in setting rules for the Nov. 3 election, he said Wednesday. “I won’t be voting to certify the electors,” Van Drew said in a phone interview Wednesday. “It’s what I’ve talked …

The sister of a bloodthirsty mercenary writes for Fox News: This pandemic has laid bare a number of things about American education, not the least of which is that it’s not entirely American; in too many places, students are taught outright anti-American material. Look no further than the infamous 1619 Project launched by The New York Times. It’s a debunked …

Politico explains the process: The least-understood aspect of Congress’ electoral vote certification occurs days before the main event. On Jan. 3, the first day of the new congressional session, the House and Senate will adopt a set of rules that govern the Jan. 6 meeting. The so-called “concurrent resolution” usually originates in the Senate, where the rules committee — chaired …

Axios reports: Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said in a statement Wednesday that he will object to the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory during the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, alleging that some states failed to follow their election laws and that Big Tech interfered on behalf of Biden. Hawley is the first senator to say …

The Daily Beast reports: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) needs your help to keep the U.S. Senate in Republican hands. So blared a handful of Facebook’s ads that Cruz’s campaign committee purchased this month. But none of them were actually raising money for the Republican candidates in Georgia. Instead, every penny donated went directly to…Cruz. The Cruz campaign bought 15 separate …

NPR reports: A significant number of Americans believe misinformation about the origins of the coronavirus and the recent presidential election, as well as conspiracy theories like QAnon, according to a new NPR/Ipsos poll. Forty percent of respondents said they believe the coronavirus was made in a lab in China even though there is no evidence for this. Scientists say the …

CBS New York reports: A Staten Island bar cited for numerous social distancing violations is set to reopen Wednesday. This comes as one of the owners, Danny Presti, is scheduled for a court case on Jan. 11. Presti allegedly hit a sheriff officer with his car earlier this month, dragging him 100 yards and breaking both of his legs. Indoor …

The Washington Examiner reports: The Michigan Supreme Court rejected a Wayne County resident’s bid to revisit the certified electoral outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Robert Davis, a Detroit-area activist who previously sued former Gov. Rick Snyder, claimed Michigan Secretary of State Joyce Benson exceeded her legal purview by mailing absentee ballot applications to all residents. In a 6-1 ruling …