Shut down....

A New Year's party raged at Mar-a-Lago. Florida rep. wants Trump's resort fined, shut down

Devoun Cetoute

” It was party-time at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort on New Year's as videos show a large, maskless crowd. Florida Rep. Omari Hardy is not happy and is calling for a shutdown of the entire resort.

On Friday, Hardy sent an email to the Assistant County Administrator of Palm Beach County Todd Bonlarron regarding a video on social media showing maskless partygoers at Mar-a-Lago, represents Florida District 88.

Hardy had tweeted two videos showing this New Year's party. On one, he commented, "My constituents live here. This is their home, and they're going to have to deal with the consequences of a potential super-spreader party at Mar-a-Lago long after Junior [Donald J. Trump Jr.3/8 and wife leave here on their private jet."

In his letter to Bonlarron, Hardy is asking for fines and a possible shutdown be applied to the resort just like what would occur for other businesses that violate Palm Beach's mask mandate.

"Mar-a-Lago is a club. A club is a business. Businesses must comply with Palm Beach County's mask order," Hardy said. "I recognize that the President is a powerful person and that his business, Mar-a-Lago, is a daunting target for enforcement, but the law is the law."

Miami-Dade County also had its own brush with a possible super-spreader event during the New Year's holiday.

On Thursday night, the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hosted an indoor concert by the rapper Nelly. According to seating charts the concert could have brought about 800 people to the hotel.

Miami Beach city officials denied the hotel's application for a special event permit to host the publicly advertised concert in the outdoors area of its property. So the hotel moved the party indoors. City Manager Raul Aguila said because the event is private and indoors, the hotel was not required to follow local COVID laws.

Guard activated

D.C. National Guard activated to respond to pro-Trump protests

“We will not allow people to incite violence, intimidate our residents or cause destruction in our city,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said.

By JACQUELINE FELDSCHER

The D.C. National Guard has been activated to respond to protests expected this week in the capital when Congress certifies that President-elect Joe Biden has defeated President Donald Trump, city officials said at a news conference on Monday.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser requested that city’s National Guard support local police in handling the influx of people expected in D.C. on Tuesday and Wednesday. D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee III said the National Guard has committed to helping law enforcement “through the life cycle of this event.” Bowser said about 100 members are being called up.

“We will not allow people to incite violence, intimidate our residents or cause destruction in our city,” Bowser said.

About 340 personnel will be activated to assist police with controlling crowds at metro stations and enforcing street closures, the National Guard said in a release.

Context: Weeks of protests erupted in the capital this summer following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. While some of the early protests did include looting and damages to local businesses, Bowser never called in the National Guard.

Against the mayor's wishes, Trump ordered Guard personnel to the city, where the military faced backlash for using overly aggressive crowd control tactics against peaceful protesters, including flying helicopters low over the city to create rotor wash, an action used in overseas conflicts.

This week: Congress on Wednesday will certify Biden’s Electoral College win, though several Republican lawmakers have said they plan to object to the results in their states after the president falsely claimed that he lost the election because of widespread fraud. The efforts on Capitol Hill are unlikely to change the outcome of the election.

Protests coming: Four rallies are planned throughout the city on Wednesday and online chatter has indicated that the protests could turn violent, NPR reported.

Trump tweeted that he “will be there” for at least one of the rallies in the White House Ellipse set to begin Wednesday at 9 a.m. Other gatherings are expected at the Washington Monument, Freedom Plaza and the Capitol, CNBC reported. Permit requests to the National Park Service predict thousands of people will attend, according to USA Today.

No guns: Bowser ordered that the National Guard personnel not be armed when responding to the protests and that they will not perform surveillance, searches or seizures of protesters.

They should shoot her...

D.C. Police to contact GOP Rep. Boebert about plans to bring Glock to work

"That Congresswoman will be subjected to the same penalties as anyone else that’s caught on the D.C. streets carrying a firearm," said police chief Robert Contee III.

By KYLE CHENEY

Washington, D.C.'s police chief said Monday he intends to reach out to GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert about her intention to carry a Glock handgun in the city, which has strict limits on carrying concealed firearms.

Chief Robert Contee III, asked during a press conference about the newly elected Colorado lawmaker’s plan to carry a gun to the Capitol, said he wants to ensure that "she is aware of the what the laws of the District of Columbia are."

"That Congresswoman will be subjected to the same penalties as anyone else that’s caught on the D.C. streets carrying a firearm," Contee said.

Boebert has made no secret of her intent to bring a handgun to the Capitol complex, where lawmakers are exempt from otherwise strict prohibitions on firearms, so long as they're stored in the members' offices and transported safely and unloaded. Democrats considered a change to the rules that would have barred even members of Congress from bringing guns to the Capitol, but the rules package introduced by House leaders last week included no change to the policy.

The current guidelines for weapons in the Capitol is set by the Capitol Police Board, which includes the sergeants-at-arms of the House and Senate, the architect of the Capitol and the chief of the Capitol Police. Lawmakers have been exempted by the board from the restrictions for decades.

Boebert drew attention to her plans for carrying a weapon on Sunday, when she posted a video on social media declaring her intention to carry her gun in Congress.

"Government does NOT get to tell me or my constituents how we are allowed to keep our families safe," she said.

Boebert, who ran a gun-themed restaurant called Shooters before her bid for Congress, has made Second Amendment rights a centerpiece of her platform.

A spokesperson for Boebert did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The fucking absolute complicity of those fucking GOP shits...

House Republicans rush to Trump's defense over Georgia call as Democrats prep censure resolution

By Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb

Many conservative House Republicans defended President Donald Trump in the aftermath of his phone call demanding Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger "find" the votes needed for him to win the elections in his state -- as Democrats began drafting a resolution seeking to censure Trump over the matter.

After House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy downplayed Trump's stunning demand, other Republicans rushed to his defense -- and some refused to take issue with the President's actions.

"I wasn't involved in the call," said Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, who chairs the House GOP's campaign arm.

Rep. Paul Gosar, a conservative Arizona Republican who is joining his colleagues' effort to overturn the election results on Wednesday, contended that Trump's call was a simple expression of "enormous frustration."

"Politically correct speech doesn't run well," Gosar said when asked about Trump.

Trump's call with Georgia's secretary of state, audio of which was reported by CNN, the Washington Post and others on Sunday, comes ahead of a Republican effort to object to President-elect Joe Biden's victory when Congress counted the Electoral College votes on Wednesday. At least 140 House Republicans and a dozen Senate Republicans are preparing to vote against Biden's victory in a push to overturn the election results despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud, though the effort has divided Republicans, with some Republicans openly criticizing their colleagues for an effort they charge is dangerous to democracy.

Trump has attacked those Republicans not joining with his push to overturn the election results, tweeting Monday at Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, one of Trump's typical Senate GOP allies, after Cotton announced he wouldn't support the objections.

Rep. Lee Zeldin, a New York Republican, criticized the press when asked if he had any concerns about Trump's hourlong call, which was recorded on tape and leaked to the media.

"I wish the reporting on it was a full and honest discussion -- as opposed to the one-sided, biased take," Zeldin said.

But some Republicans expressed concerns, including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the No. 3 in GOP leadership who is also urging her colleagues to steer clear of the effort to subvert the will of voters when Congress meets Wednesday to count electoral votes that made Biden the winner of the race.

"I think it was deeply troubling," Cheney told CNN of the call. "I think it was deeply troubling, and I think everybody should listen to the full hour of it."

Democrats also began discussing how to respond to Trump's call on Monday.

Rep. Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, circulated a letter Monday to collect support for a resolution he plans to introduce to censure and condemn Trump for seeking to overturn the election results in Georgia, Democratic sources told CNN on Monday. It remains to be seen whether the chamber would vote on the resolution, which would amount to a symbolic rebuke of the President.

The debate comes amid a growing GOP rift ahead of Wednesday's joint session of Congress when House Republicans are expected to object to the counting of the electoral votes that Biden the President-elect. If they are joined by at least one Republican senator, which is expected, each chamber will have to debate the objections for up to two hours before a vote on whether to affirm the objection. The votes are destined to fail, but the moves could prolong the debate since House members plan to push objections to six states Trump lost -- and it's already putting many Republicans in a difficult spot.

Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman, who is up for reelection in 2022, said Monday he would support certifying the election on Wednesday and oppose some of his GOP colleagues' effort to challenge the vote.

"I plan on honoring that oath by supporting the state certifications and the will of the people. I will vote to certify in accordance with my duty under the Constitution," Portman said in a statement. "I cannot support allowing Congress to thwart the will of the voters."

While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has urged his colleagues to avoid going down the road of questioning the election results, McCarthy has quietly given his blessing to the effort and has told the President he's on his side, according to several conservatives involved in the push. On Monday, McCarthy ignored questions about whether he does indeed support the effort.

"What I read about -- the President has always been concerned about the integrity of the election," McCarthy said on Fox when asked about the Georgia call.

It remains possible that a majority of House Republicans will join the effort to challenge the election. Emmer, for one, would not say if he backs the challenge.

"I understand some senators are going to object -- we will see how the debate goes," Emmer said, adding that he'd take stock of how the floor debate goes. "I'll listen."

New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a former-Democrat-turned-Republican, said he would join the effort to object to the election results.

"Any time when just about 50% of the American public does not believe that the elections are valid, there's something wrong," Van Drew said. Told that many voters don't believe the elections were valid because Trump has refused to accept the results, Van Drew said: "They don't listen to every single thing he says. They're doing it because they believe it."

10 living former defense secretaries

All 10 living former defense secretaries declare election is over in forceful public letter

By Paul LeBlanc

All 10 living former US defense secretaries declared that the US presidential election is over in a forceful public letter published in The Washington Post on Sunday as President Donald Trump continues to deny his election loss to Joe Biden.

The letter -- signed by Dick Cheney, James Mattis, Mark Esper, Leon Panetta, Donald Rumsfeld, William Cohen, Chuck Hagel, Robert Gates, William Perry and Ashton Carter -- amounts to a remarkable show of force against Trump's subversion efforts just days before Congress is set to count Electoral College votes.

"Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived," the group wrote.

Since Election Day, Trump has falsely claimed that a second term is being stolen, even as there have been no credible allegations of widespread voting issues as affirmed by dozens of judges, governors, and election officials, the Electoral College, the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the US Supreme Court.

Still, a wide swath of congressional Republicans are siding with the President and plan to object to Biden's win during Electoral College counting on Wednesday -- even though their efforts will only delay the inevitable affirmation of Biden's win.

The former Defense secretaries, who collectively represent decades of tenure in the position, wrote that presidential transitions "are a crucial part of the successful transfer of power."

"They often occur at times of international uncertainty about U.S. national security policy and posture. They can be a moment when the nation is vulnerable to actions by adversaries seeking to take advantage of the situation."

The letter follows Trump's removal of Esper in November as part of a set of sweeping changes atop the Defense Department's civilian leadership structure that included the installation of perceived loyalists to the President.

The shakeup put officials inside the Pentagon on edge and fueled a growing sense of alarm among military and civilian officials.

And while America's top military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, told Congress in August that the military won't help settle any election disputes, the group of former Defense secretaries reiterated in their letter that such an effort "would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory."

"Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic," the letter states.

Cohen, a Republican who served as Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton, told CNN's Ana Cabrera on "Newsroom" shortly after the letter was published that the "highly unusual" step was warranted given the "unconstitutional path" Trump has taken the country.

"It was really our attempt to call out to the American people. We believe all of them are patriotic. They've been led down a path by President Trump, which is an unconstitutional path. And so we felt it was incumbent on us as having served in the Defense Department to say: Please all of you in the Defense Department, you've taken an oath to serve this country, this Constitution, not any given individual," he said.

Perry, a Democrat who also served as secretary of defense under Clinton, said in a tweet Sunday evening that the idea for the statement came from Cheney, a Republican who was secretary of defense under President George H.W. Bush before becoming vice president to President George W. Bush.

"Each of us swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution; that oath does not change according to party designation," Perry said.

The former Defense secretaries ended their letter urging the Defense Department to "refrain from any political actions" that could undermine the election results or harm the transition to a new administration.

"We call upon them, in the strongest terms, to do as so many generations of Americans have done before them," the letter states.

"This final action is in keeping with the highest traditions and professionalism of the U.S. armed forces, and the history of democratic transition in our great country."

Deranged.........

Trump's deranged phone call with Georgia secretary of state reveals a desperate man

Opinion by Michael D'Antonio

The latest turn in loser Donald Trump's campaign to overturn the 2020 election reveals a desperate man willing to say almost anything to get what he wants but instead getting rebuffed by officials who are made of finer stuff. As he pressures them to abandon their duty and come over to the dark side of politics, their refusal makes Trump's corrupt methods all the more obvious.

Heard on an audio recording with Georgia election officials obtained by CNN, and first reported by the Washington Post, Trump sounds more like a dictator than an American president. He is by turns bullying, flattering, and repugnant, frantically trying to close the biggest deal of his life.

"I just want to find 11,780 votes," says the President in a rambling one-hour telephone call with Georgia's secretary of state and others. In another moment he argues, "And the people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry," he said. "And there's nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you've recalculated."

If people are angry, it is mainly because Trump and his allies have been careering around the country, and social media, insisting the 2020 election was marred by massive fraud that stole victory from him. No such fraud has been discovered, and some 60 lawsuits pressing the claim have gone down in flames. Nevertheless, the idea of fraud has been so animated by repetition that polls have found a substantial majority of Republican voters believe the election was stolen.

One Republican who clearly disagrees with the majority in his party is Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who can be heard telling Trump, "Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong." He was supported by his office counsel Ryan Germany who clearly tells the President his claim that the state's election was fraudulent is just wrong.

When you listen to Trump attempt to bulldoze the facts you can hear a man who is either completely detached from reality or cravenly devoted to the destruction of democracy in order to retain power. "There's no way I lost Georgia," says Trump, repeatedly. At another point he insists, "We won by hundreds of thousands of votes."

In trying to bring the state officials into his plot to overturn the election, Trump often sounded like a high pressure salesman determined to prevent his mark from walking away. Among the discredited notions he raised were claims that votes have been shredded, voting machines had been moved or tampered with, Joe Biden votes have been counted numerous times over, and people who had moved from the state had returned to vote.

It's hard to imagine that Trump hasn't been told that the fraud theories are wrong. Certainly, dozens of courts have indicated as much by dismissing legal efforts to overturn the election results. Thus, it shouldn't have surprised him that the folks in Georgia refuted the claims.

Blocked by the facts, Trump reversed field to tell Raffensperger that he and his attorney was were in legal peril because he wasn't acting as the President demanded to find fraud. "That's a criminal offense," he said. "And you can't let that happen. That's a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer."

To his enormous credit, Germany put on a master class in standing up to Trump as the President insisted that a voting technology company called Dominion monkeyed with machines. Shot down when he tried one angle, the President pivoted to ask, "But have they moved the inner parts of the machines and replaced them with other parts?"

"No," replied Germany.

"Are you sure, Ryan?" said Trump.

"I'm sure. I'm sure, Mr. President," said Germany.

We know that both men held their ground because someone recorded the call and it was obtained by the media. At this late stage in Trump's game, everyone knows that it's a good idea to record any conversation with him. In this case the recording reveals men who are committed to the American ideal of democracy and to the ethical fulfillment of their duties. They are also courageous.

In the past, little courage was required of those who oversaw our elections and the peaceful transfer of power. But in the Trump years, thanks in part to the President's incitements, officials have been subjected to threats, and armed protesters showed up at the Michigan secretary of state's home. And still they have held firm.

Thousands of those whom the president referred to when he spoke of angry people are expected in Washington DC this Wednesday, as Congress conducts what is typically a proforma certification of the election. Thanks to Trump we live in very atypical times. His prediction that the day will be "wild" has officials in the capital on edge.

To their shame, nearly a dozen Republican senators and senators-elect and more than 100 House Republicans say they are going to challenge the vote certification. This will not alter the result but it will, like that call Trump made to Georgia, affirm what we already knew: Trump is a corrupting force who will reveal a politician's character.

Failed across the board....

Trump's Iran policy has failed across the board

Opinion By Samantha Vinograd

Outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's barrage of tweets on Friday was inaccurate and insensitive. In fact, they were incredibly undiplomatic for our nation's supposed chief diplomat.

Pompeo's claim that "we're so much safer today than four years ago" as Americans are dying daily by the thousands from Covid-19, while we are under cyberattack, as tensions with Iran are rising -- and so much more -- is beyond false and tone deaf. For Pompeo to write that his foreign policy approach was defined by humility while tweeting out his supposed greatest accomplishments is cringe-worthy.

As Pompeo tries to manufacture a personal legacy that does not track with reality -- perhaps to lay the groundwork for a presidential run in 2024 -- his tweets expose a brutal reality confronting President-elect Joe Biden after his January 20 inauguration: American national security has been degraded across the board under President Donald Trump.

America's ability to project power globally depends in no small part on what's happening at home. With havoc in the homeland, our adversaries and our allies alike know that we are distracted. The toll of Covid-19, our damaged economy and deep political divisions limit our ability to promote an image of competence abroad.

This reality makes us look vulnerable to exploitation. That's why one of Biden's primary challenges will be stabilizing the state of our union as the bedrock of any strategy to enhance US national security over the next four years. While Pompeo tweets about how the United States got its "swagger" back under Trump, the truth is a lot of other countries got more swagger in their step because of how weakened we look. Too many adversaries have had good reason to feel empowered under the Trump administration because Trump has given them a free pass -- like in North Korea -- or because the Trump administration has been wracked by incompetence - as is the case with Iran.

Trump's Iran strategy -- or lack thereof -- has been a failure. That is clearly evidenced by the ratcheting up of tensions between the US and Iran ahead of the January 3 anniversary of the US assassination of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani last year.

The days leading up to the anniversary of Soleimani's assassination were particularly tense: the US flew B-52 bombers to the Middle East in a show of force and defense officials told CNN new intelligence showed Iran has been moving short range ballistic missiles into Iraq possibly in advance of an attack on US personnel or assets. This macabre assassination anniversary -- and its concomitant risk factors -- just highlight how badly Trump's Iran strategy has performed. While assassinating Soleimani removed one bad actor from the field, his assassination did not stem Iran's support for terrorism nor its attacks against the US and its allies.

Trump took a go-big-or-go-home approach with Iran and it didn't work -- probably because it was unrealistic and ill-conceived. After the President withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPOA) nuclear deal in 2018, Pompeo laid out 12 demands Iran would have to meet in areas unrelated to the nuclear program before the US would return to the negotiating table. To pressure Iran to meet those demands, the Trump administration also increased sanctions. It's clear that approach just didn't work -- Iran did not meet those demands and negotiations didn't resume. Instead the threats from Iran worsened.

Iran's nuclear capabilities have increased under Trump and the country has reportedly decreased its breakout time to a bomb -- a threat that reappeared because of Trump's irresponsible decision to withdraw from the Iran deal. Iran has blown through the deal's nuclear safeguards, and Iran recently said that it would increase uranium enrichment to 20%, which is well above the 3.67% enrichment ceiling in the nuclear deal. Without a viable negotiating track, the situation has become more volatile as reported covert operations hit an Iranian nuclear facility. along with other targets, last July and an Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated in November.

Conventional attacks also have not abated. Iranian-backed proxies in Iraq are believed to be behind a 2019 rocket attack that killed an American contractor and an attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad last month. Earlier in December, the State Department reportedly drew down personnel at the embassy as part of a "de-risking" ahead of the anniversary of Soleimani's assassination and potential Iranian attacks. While the impact of US sanctions and Covid-19 have affected Iran's funding for proxies, these groups have been at work across the region -- on land and at sea.

Iran has increased its aggression in cyberspace too. Officials said that Iran was using "online influence, such as spreading disinformation on social media and recirculating anti-U.S. content" to spread divisions in the US ahead of the November election. The director of National Intelligence says Iran stole voter registration data and targeted Democratic voters with threatening emails. Last month, the FBI said Iran put together an online "Enemies List" of US officials involved in election certification and targeted voting machine companies as part of an online campaign.

Clearly, Trump's failed Iran policy has raised tensions across the board. But Trump's incompetence does not give Iran a free pass -- the regime engages in dangerous malign activity that President-elect Biden will have to consider as he assumes office.

When it comes to foreign policy, Biden is not driven by political talking points or promises. The incoming president. doesn't need a bogeyman like Trump does. Instead, Biden can be expected to develop an Iran strategy based on the actual intelligence he gets from security officials -- not the kind you get on Fox News -- to try to neutralize the threat Iran poses, starting with their renewed nuclear program.

Getting Iran back into compliance with the JCPOA will not magically get Tehran to behave like a responsible, international law-abiding actor. But it will remove one of the burgeoning threats posed by the regime so that the Biden administration -- working in close concert with US allies -- can dial down the temperature in a region that has become more dangerous during the Trump years.

Complicit

Trump's bid to steal Georgia exposes GOP election ruse

Analysis by Stephen Collinson

Astonishing new evidence of a desperate President Donald Trump caught on tape trying to steal the election exposes the depth of his corruption and makes his Republican Capitol Hill allies complicit in his bid to thwart the will of voters.

In a fresh abuse of power, Trump tried to bully a top Georgia GOP official into finding votes to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's win in the state. The staggering telephone call, audio of which was obtained by CNN and first reported by The Washington Post, amounted to the most serious threat yet posed by his authoritarian instincts to American democracy.

Even before the latest outrage, this week already marked a watershed moment for Biden's coming presidency, a ruptured Republican Party and the integrity of the US political system.

A GOP attempt, for example, to block Congress' certification of Biden's win based on lies and false conspiracy theories about fraud on Wednesday has no chance of succeeding because of the Democratic majority in the House and the lack of a majority to overturn the results in the Senate. But it will further convince millions of Trump voters that the election was rigged. Scores of GOP lawmakers plan to choose the vanquished President and his voters over the cherished principles of free elections in a fracturing that will have lasting consequences for the GOP and the nation.

On Tuesday, two Georgia runoff elections will decide whether Republicans will hold their Senate majority and retain the power to block Biden's sweeping agenda and hopes of swiftly confirming a Cabinet at a time of national crisis.

All of this is coming to a head as Trump incites protests in Washington in a bid to disrupt the election certification effort, amid fears of violence, while ignoring a worse-than-ever pandemic and the consequent deaths of 350,000 Americans.

In fact, the President blasted the world-leading US death toll as "fake news" on Sunday, while disregarding growing evidence his White House has botched the rollout of crucial new vaccines just as it did earlier stages of the pandemic.

But Surgeon General Jerome Adams contradicted Trump's false claim on CNN's "State of the Union," telling Jake Tapper: "From a public health perspective, I have no reason to doubt those numbers."

'I just want to find ... votes'

The release of the stunning telephone conversation between Trump and Georgia's GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger escalated the constitutional crisis Trump started stoking even before his election loss.

"So look, all I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state," Trump said in a comment that at best was an abuse of power and could raise legal questions.

Trump had repeatedly pushed his staff to get him on the phone with Raffensperger and other Georgia officials, according to two people familiar. This was a weeks-long effort, CNN is told. Between the election and Saturday's phone call, there were 18 attempted calls from White House to the Georgia secretary of State's office, a source with knowledge and a Georgia state official told CNN.

Throughout the hour-long call, the President repeatedly prods Raffensperger to agree to his false claims that thousands of votes were illegally cast, that some ballots were destroyed or came from dead people or out-of-state voters. The Georgia secretary of state tells the President that he has false information.

In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" Monday, Raffensperger said "the truth matters" and complained of facing a "rumor whack-a-mole" for the last two months.

A string of recounts, audits and legal cases have affirmed Biden's narrow victory in Georgia in November in one of the clutch of swing states he won on the way to 306 electoral votes and a clear victory over the President.

The tape recalled the kind of coercive, corrupt behavior that led to Trump's impeachment over a call with Ukraine's President, but that all Republican senators, with the exception of Mitt Romney, decided last year did not merit his ouster from office.

In the latest smoking gun call, Trump is heard trying to convince Raffensperger to announce that he had recalculated the vote totals and that the President won, and threatening criminal reprisals if his fellow Republican failed to act.

"At the very least it's an abuse of presidential power, which in a normal time would be impeachable," said CNN presidential historian Timothy Naftali.

John Dean, a former White House legal counsel in the Watergate scandal, told CNN's Fredricka Whitfield that Trump was at "the edges of extortion."

Biden senior legal adviser Bob Bauer said in a statement that the tape offered "irrefutable proof of a president pressuring and threatening an official of his own party to get him to rescind a state's lawful, certified vote count and fabricate another in its place."

"It captures the whole, disgraceful story about Donald Trump's assault on American democracy."

Call heaps pressure on Trump's GOP backers

Trump's call with Raffensperger suddenly heaped new scrutiny on Republican members of the House and Senate who have pledged to challenge the normally pro forma certification of the election result in Congress.

As they criticize results already ratified by Republican-appointed judges and the conservative majority Supreme Court, as well as state officials, many of whom are Republicans, they must now decide whether they stand by Trump's flagrant attempt to overturn the rule of law in Georgia.

A total of 12 Republicans, including Missouri's Josh Hawley and Texas' Ted Cruz, have said they will seek to disrupt the certification on Wednesday. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, has signaled support for a move that may be supported by a majority of his members in the House, CNN reported.

"Do ... Republicans want to be on the side of an abuse of power or a criminal conspiracy?" Naftali asked.

In a sign that the revelations of Trump's conduct in Georgia may be hurting the President and further splitting the Republican Party, Sen. Tom Cotton, a possible 2024 presidential hopeful, announced he would not oppose the election results. While saying he sympathized with concerns over "irregularities," the Arkansas senator warned in a statement against taking away the right of states to run elections.

"If Congress purported to overturn the results of the Electoral College, it would not only exceed that power, but also establish unwise precedents," Cotton said.

The shallowness of the Republican effort is revealed in lawmakers' arguments that it is being pursued not on the basis of new evidence of fraud but on the grounds that millions of Trump voters believe the election was corrupt.

"We have an unsustainable state of affairs in this country where we have tens of millions of people who do not view this election result as legitimate," Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, one of the senators who plans to support an objection, said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

But Trump and his acolytes have spent months making false claims about election fraud, aided by conservative media organizations and White House officials who have blatantly lied about an election that Trump's Justice Department and other appointees have said was free and fair.

The corruption revealed on Trump's call to Georgia, meanwhile, removes any doubt that the President is trying to steal the election. That makes it harder for Republicans to argue they are replicating symbolic objections to election results in Congress adopted by isolated Democrats in previous years.

A Republican breach

Sunday's staggering developments sharpened the divide in the GOP after Hawley's decision to challenge the results burst open a breach that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had tried for weeks to mend.

The challenge to the certification and demand for a commission on false claims of voter fraud is just the latest in a long list of efforts by Capitol Hill Republicans to appease an unchained and lawless President who threatens to back primary challenges against those who cross him.

But several GOP senators, including Utah's Romney, Maine's Susan Collins and Nebraska's Ben Sasse have registered frustration with their colleagues.

"The egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our democratic Republic," Romney said in a statement Saturday. "I could never have imagined seeing these things in the greatest democracy in the world. Has ambition so eclipsed principle?"

His 2012 running mate, former House Speaker Paul Ryan, vocalized his concerns in a rare public statement Sunday, saying, "Efforts to reject the votes of the Electoral College and sow doubt about Joe Biden's victory strike at the foundation of our republic."

Republican leaders are angry that Hawley — a potential 2024 presidential candidate — has effectively forced his colleagues into a vote on the election that is doomed to fail but leaves them to chose between democracy and a GOP President who is popular with the base.

"I think that if you have a plan, it should be a plan that has some chance of working. And neither of the two proposals that have been advanced will produce a result," said Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of GOP leadership.

While McCarthy is backing the challenge, the third-ranking Republican in the House, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, sent a memo to colleagues on Sunday warning that it set a "dangerous precedent" that threatened to snatch away the responsibility of states for running their own elections.

"This is directly at odds with the Constitution's clear text and our core beliefs as Republicans," she wrote.

Another group of seven House Republicans -- including a couple in the conservative House Freedom Caucus -- also spoke out Sunday, calling on their colleagues to "respect the states' authority here" even "though doing so may frustrate our immediate political objectives."

Trump heads to Georgia

Trump's bombshell call could affect what are shaping up as two tight races in Georgia, where GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are facing voters. Republicans need just one of them to prevail to retain their Senate majority. If Democrats welcome both Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock as new senators, they will split the chamber 50-50, allowing Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to cast deciding votes on tied legislation.

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who earned credit for helping engineer Biden's victory in the state, said on "State of the Union" that it could take several days for the results to become clear.

But she said she believed that strong turnout among Democrats casting mail-in votes had put the party in a strong position.

"This is going to be a very tough battle, but it is absolutely within the realm of possibility, in fact, the realm of likelihood, that Democrats can win," Abrams told Tapper.

Republicans need a strong Election Day turnout to compete. But there are fears among local activists that Trump's relentless assault on the probity of the presidential election in Georgia will convince his supporters that their votes will not count in the senatorial runoff races.

The President will seek to rally his base when he travels to Georgia for an election eve rally on Monday. Based on the contents of his call with Raffensperger, though, it is not clear whether his intervention will help.

It's CRIMINAL!

There were 18 attempted calls from the White House to GA secretary of state's office, sources say

By Kristen Holmes, Jim Acosta and Kaitlan Collins

There were 18 attempted calls from the White House to the Georgia secretary of state's office between the election and Saturday's phone call, a source with knowledge and a Georgia state official confirmed to CNN.

In a recorded phone call, first published by The Washington Post on Sunday, President Donald Trump pushed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" votes to overturn the election results after his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, according to an audio recording later obtained by CNN.

In excerpts of the stunning one-hour phone call that took place on Saturday, Trump lambasted his fellow Republican for refusing to falsely say that he won the election in Georgia and repeatedly touted baseless claims of election fraud.

"The people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry. And there's nothing wrong with saying that, you know, um, that you've recalculated," Trump said in one part of the call. Raffensperger responded, "Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong."

In another part, Trump said: "So look, all I want to do is this, I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state."

"You should want to have an accurate election. And you're a Republican," Trump said at one point.

"We believe that we do have an accurate election," Raffensperger said in response, to which Trump replied, "No, no, you don't. ... Not even close. You're off by hundreds of thousands of votes."

Trump had repeatedly pushed his staff to get him on the phone with Raffensperger and other Georgia officials, according to two people familiar. This was a weeks-long effort, the sources said.

"He pushed -- pushed his staff and called. We're in a litigation mode with the President's team against the state of Georgia. Whenever you say anything, you have to have your advisers there. They had to have their advisers there. I preferred not to talk when we were in litigation. We let the lawyers handle it. We took the call and had a conversation. He did most of the talking. We did most of the listening," Raffensperger said when pressed on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Monday about the reporting that there had been 18 incoming calls from the White House switchboard to his office in recent months, first reported by The Washington Post.

Raffensperger said that this was his first call on the matter with Trump personally.

Several senior White House officials were unaware the call happened until Trump tweeted about it.

That included White House counsel Pat Cipollone, a source familiar with the situation told CNN. Cipollone was not aware of the call and not on it, the source said. The counsel's White House influence has waned in recent weeks as he has argued that Trump's efforts driven by conspiracy theories to overturn the election results are futile.

Wouldn't know the truth even if it grabbed her flabby pussy...

Kelly Loeffler Blows All the Dog Whistles at Once

Will this race ever end?

BECCA ANDREWS

In the final days of campaigning for reelection to her US Senate seat, Kelly Loeffler is not going to let little things like “the truth” inform her remarks on the trail. 

At a rally in Cumming, Ga., an exurb of Atlanta, Loeffler on Saturday managed to stuff her mouth full of dog whistles and blow them all at once. She told attendees that her opponent in the Senate runoff, Rev. Raphael Warnock, “has been involved in child abuse, domestic abuse. He’s hiding out. And now, now we’ve learned this morning that the lawyer for Harvey Weinstein has been contributing to his campaign. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.” 

Let’s take this step-by-step. Loeffler has repeatedly invoked vague allegations that Warnock “has been involved in child abuse,” a wink to the conspiracists of QAnon. She’s referring to a 2002 incident in which Warnock, at the time a pastor at Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore, and a youth minister were arrested and charged with trying to prevent a state trooper from interviewing teen counselors during an investigation into alleged child abuse at the church’s camp. Neither Warnock nor the youth minister was a suspect. Politifact notes: 

Warnock said he was charged when he asserted that lawyers should be present during the teens’ interviews.

On Oct. 30, 2002, a judge dismissed the charges. The dismissal came at the request of a prosecutor, who said: “What we decided was there was some miscommunication that had occurred with them. They were very helpful with the continued investigation. It would not have been a prudent use of resources to have prosecuted them.”

So the child abuse “involvement” Loeffler likes to invoke is simply that Warnock did not want teens interviewed by the police without someone there to represent them, which makes sense, given the power dynamics.

The domestic abuse allegations Loeffler is referring to did get some extra pickup a couple weeks ago, when Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, the great furrowed brow of white grievance, aired a video from last March in which Warnock’s ex-wife, Ouleye Warnock, called her former husband “a great actor” in police footage that was taken in the aftermath of a domestic dispute. In March, Warnock’s ex-wife has alleged, the pastor ran over her foot with his car after an argument over whether he would allow her to apply for passports and take their two children to West Africa to attend her grandfather’s funeral. (The two were estranged at the time; they would divorce in May.) Warnock told police that she refused to close the right rear passenger door of his car so that he could leave, and so he began to “slowly” drive forward when he heard her exclaim that he had driven over her foot.

According to the police report, she was taken to the hospital but first responders were not able to find any sign of injury. 

As far as “the lawyer for Harvey Weinstein” stuff goes, Loeffler is referring to David Boies, whose firm, yes, has defended some monsters, Weinstein included. The donation is $6,000, made to the Georgia Federal Elections Committee, a PAC that supports Warnock and Jon Ossoff’s run for US Senate. In the general election, Boies’ law firm donated $16,000 to…Matt Lieberman, who was criticized for potentially splitting the Democratic vote and forcing Warnock into a runoff with Loeffler. 

Meanwhile, a record 3 million Georgia voters cast ballots in early voting. According to an analysis by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “more ballots have been cast so far by groups and in areas that tend to favor Democrats.”