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Jim Jordan texted Mark Meadows argument for Mike Pence to reject Biden electoral votes

Jim Jordan texted Mark Meadows argument for Mike Pence to reject Biden electoral votes

Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

Saul Loeb | Pool via Reuters

Republican MP Jim Jordan conveyed a message to then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows arguing that Vice President Mike Pence should reject certain Electoral College votes on Jan. 6 during the confirmation of Joe Biden’s presidential win over Donald Trump.

The text, which NBC News confirmed Wednesday was broadcast from Jordan, was one of several messages to Meadows a House special committee publicly shared this week as it pursued criminal disdain for Trump’s former chief of staff.

The text was written by Joseph Schmitz, a former Pentagon inspector general and former Trump campaign aide, and passed on to Meadows by Jordan, a source told NBC News. Schmitz could not be reached immediately to comment.

The message said that on Jan. 6, Pence was due to “cast all votes which he believed to be unconstitutional as there were no votes at all,” alleging that such an act would be consistent with “judicial precedence” and “guidance from.” Founding father Alexander Hamilton “stand. “

The legally questionable argument that Pence could unilaterally invalidate or deny a state’s votes was rejected by Pence himself, despite Trump urging him to do so.

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Schmitz’s argument, relayed by an incumbent member of Congress to the president’s chief adviser, reveals how Trump’s allies at all levels exchanged ideas about how the outcome of the democratic elections could be changed.

Jordan is a staunch ally of Trump who worked alongside Meadows in the conservative House Freedom Caucus. The Ohio legislature was one of dozen of Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted to challenge election results that favored Biden after the rioters were evacuated from the Capitol.

Jordan spokesmen did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request to comment on the text sent to Meadows.

The special committee is tasked with investigating the facts and causes of the deadly invasion of January 6, when hundreds of Trump supporters forcibly stormed the Capitol and forced Congress to flee their chambers. Many of the rioters were spurred on by Trump’s false claims that the 2020 elections had been “rigged” against him by widespread electoral fraud.

The House of Representatives voted Tuesday night to hold Meadows for disregarding Congress for defying the summons of the selected panel to request dismissal. The committee says Meadows created thousands of pages of records and agreed to answer questions before abruptly pulling back. Meadows has sued the selected panel for invalidating two of his subpoenas, arguing, in part, that Trump exercised executive privilege over his testimony.

The committee this week revealed some of Meadows’ records, including texts he received from Jordan and other lawmakers. They also shared messages sent to Meadows by Donald Trump Jr. and several pro-Trump Fox News presenters, who panicked over the Capitol uprising as it unfolded.

“He must condemn this s — as soon as possible. The Capitol Police’s tweet is not enough, ”Trump Jr. wrote to Meadows on Jan. 6, said Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Vice chair of the special committee, during a meeting Monday night.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Read part of Jordan’s message to Meadows at the meeting without naming Jordan as the sender.

“On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, was supposed to call all votes that he deems unconstitutional because there were no votes at all,” reads the text, which was sent to Meadows by a person who only described Schiff as “Legislator”.

An accompanying graphic displayed this quote as a full sentence. Jordan’s office argued to NBC that Schiff misrepresented the message because it omitted some of the language Jordan sent to Meadows.

A select committee spokesman told CNBC that the graphic “accidentally” added a period to the end of the quote Schiff read during the meeting. “The special committee is responsible for the mistake and regrets the mistake,” said the spokesman.

The spokesman sent the full text messaging record “in the interests of transparency” to CNBC.

It states: “On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call all votes that he deems to be unconstitutional, as there are no votes at all – according to the instructions of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and ‘No legislative act,’ wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 78, ‘may be valid against the Constitution.’ The Hubbard v. Lowe affirmed this truth: “That an unconstitutional law is not a law at all is no longer up for discussion.” 226 F. 135, 137 (SDNY 1915), appeal dismissed, 242 US 654 (1916). Because of this, an unconstitutional elector, like an unconstitutional law, is not a voter at all. “

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Republicans Reject Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal

Republicans Reject Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration sent Senate Republicans on Friday an offer for a bipartisan infrastructure deal that cut off more than $ 500 billion from the president’s original proposal. A move that White House officials hoped would fuel talks but Republicans were quick to reject.

The lack of progress encouraged Liberals in Congress to re-urge Mr Biden to abandon his hopes of compromise with a Republican conference that has labeled his $ 4 trillion economic agenda too expensive and undirected. Instead, they urged the president to begin an attempt to postpone his party line plans through the same process that spawned his economic incentive legislation earlier this year.

Mr Biden has repeatedly said that he wants to postpone his infrastructure plans with bipartisan support, which the main centrist Democrats in the Senate have also called for. But the president has insisted that Republicans spend far more than they say they are ready to spend.

He also says the bill must include a broad definition of “infrastructure” that includes investments in combating climate change and providing home health care that Republicans have termed overly expansive.

The sides stay wide apart. Mr Biden’s most recent offer includes spending of $ 1.7 trillion, a decrease of more than $ 500 billion from its original proposal. It includes building or repairing roads, bridges, water pipes, broadband Internet, the electrical grid, and a national network of EV charging stations, as well as investing in home care for the elderly and disabled.

The Republicans have countered with a $ 568 billion plan, though many Democrats consider that offer to be even smaller as it includes expanding some federal infrastructure spending to expected levels. In a memo to Republicans received by the New York Times on Friday, Biden administration officials rated the Republicans’ offer as no more than $ 225 billion, “above current levels that Congress has traditionally funded “.

The President’s new offer makes no effort to resolve the even more difficult problem that divides the parties: how to pay for these expenses. Mr Biden wants to levy taxes on companies that Republicans speak out against. Republicans want to use money from Mr Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion economic aid package, signed in March, for other purposes, including levying usage fees such as the president’s rejected gas tax.

Mr. Biden “fundamentally contradicts the approach of increasing the burden on working people through increased gas taxes and usage charges,” administrative officials wrote in their memo to Republican negotiators. “As you know, he has made a commitment to the American people not to levy taxes on those who earn less than $ 400,000 a year, and he intends to honor that commitment.”

Still, the new proposal shows some movement from the White House. It cuts out an important provision of Mr. Biden’s “American Jobs Plan”: hundreds of billions of dollars in advanced manufacturing, research and development efforts to enable the United States to work with China for supremacy in emerging industries such as advanced batteries to compete. Legislature has incorporated some, but not all, of the government’s proposals in these areas into non-partisan law currently going through the Senate.

Mr Biden’s counter offer would also reduce the amount he would like to spend on broadband internet as well as on highways and other road projects. He would essentially take on the Republicans’ $ 65 billion broadband offer of $ 100 billion and cut his highway spending plans by $ 40 billion to meet them halfway through. And what is known as an infrastructure bank would emerge, trying to leverage private infrastructure investments with public seed capital – and which the Republicans have been pushing for.

Updated

May 21, 2021, 6:50 p.m. ET

Republican senators, who were introduced to the offer on a conference call with administration officials on Friday, expressed disappointment despite vowing to continue the talks.

“During today’s call, the White House came back with a counteroffer that is well beyond what Congress can pass with bipartisan support,” said Kelley Moore, a spokeswoman for West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito who oversees the Republican negotiations leads group.

“There are still big differences between White House Republicans and Senate Republicans when it comes to defining infrastructure, proposed spending and how they are paid,” Ms. Moore said. “After today’s meeting, the groups seem further apart after two meetings with White House staff than they did after meeting President Biden.”

The White House’s updated offer was also immediately pushed back by the progressives, showing the extent to which the forces opposed to a deal are bipartisan. Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, urged his party not to waste time haggling with Republicans over details that do not share their vision for what the country needs.

“A smaller infrastructure package means fewer jobs, less justice, less climate change and less investment in America’s future,” Markey said in a press release.

Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have been skeptical of the talks, fearing that Republicans will waste precious time on the legislative calendar and ultimately refuse to agree to a deal big enough to please Liberals. While giving the White House Senator and Republicans leeway to pursue an alternative, party leaders are increasingly under pressure from progressives to unilaterally pass a bill through the Senate budget reconciliation.

They have taken quiet steps to make this possible in case the conversations break down. Advisors to Senators Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and majority leader, and Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont and chairman of the Budget Committee, met with the Senate MP on Thursday to discuss options for a Republican-free trial under the rules.

Biden administration officials were frustrated that Republicans failed to approach the president in a new offer they made in negotiations on Capitol Hill this week. They made it clear to Republicans on Friday that they expect a significant move in the next counteroffer and that the negotiating timetable is getting shorter and shorter, said a person familiar with the discussions.

The administration could soon negotiate with several groups of senators. Another bipartisan group plans to meet on Monday evening to discuss the amount of expenses and proposals for their payment. Members of the group – including Mitt Romney from Utah, Susan Collins from Maine, Bill Cassidy from Louisiana and Rob Portman from Ohio, all Republicans as well as Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona and Joe Manchin III from West Virginia, both Democrats – helped draft a non-partisan coronavirus Aid law in December.

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Rep. Liz Cheney urges Republicans to reject Trump ‘cult of character’

Rep. Liz Cheney urges Republicans to reject Trump 'cult of personality'

Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Speaks during a press conference following a House Republican meeting in Washington on Tuesday, April 20, 2021.

Caroline Brehman | CQ Appeal, Inc. | Getty Images

The GOP must “turn away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump personality cult,” argued Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 Republican in the house, on Wednesday.

“The Republican Party is at a turning point and Republicans have to choose whether to vote for truth and allegiance to the Constitution,” Cheney wrote in the Washington Post.

The Cheney clear-up call came as a flurry of House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Minority Whip Steve Scalise, saying they are done with serving as Chair of the House Republican Conference.

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But in the statement, Wyoming’s Cheney appeared to be addressing concerns about her status in the party.

“History is watching. Our children are watching. We must be brave enough to defend the fundamental principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process. I am determined to do so regardless of the short-term political consequences.” Cheney wrote.

Cheney was the only member of the Republican leadership to vote for the impeachment of former President Donald Trump following the January 6th invasion of the Capitol by a crowd of his supporters. Trump “called this mob, gathered the mob and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney said at the time.

Trump was acquitted in the Senate for instigating a riot.

Since Trump left office, Cheney has set himself apart from many of her Republican counterparts in her willingness to continue speaking out against Trump, who continues to falsely insist on beating President Joe Biden and spreading unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about widespread electoral fraud.

On Tuesday, McCarthy reportedly said of Cheney, “I’ve had it with her. You know, I’ve lost confidence.” A Scalise spokeswoman said the whip had pledged its support to Rep. Elise Stefanik, RN.Y., who emerged as a passionate defender of Trump during his first impeachment.

Trump and other Republicans also supported Stefanik.

Cheney’s comment claimed that it was not enough to simply look away from Trump’s unsubstantiated election claims.

“Trump is trying to unravel critical elements of our constitutional structure that make democracy work – confidence in the outcome of elections and the rule of law. No other American president has ever done this,” Cheney said.

“While accepting or ignoring Trump’s statements may seem attractive to some for fundraising and political causes, this approach will cause profound damage to our party and our country in the long term,” she wrote.

She noted that after the attack on the Capitol, McCarthy said Trump “was responsible” for the attack and “should have denounced the mob as soon as he saw what was going on”.

McCarthy has now “changed his story,” said Cheney.

Cheney rejected Trump’s persistent claims about a “rigged” election that cast doubt on US institutions. “This is immensely harmful as we are now on the world stage against communist China and its claims that democracy is a failed system,” she wrote.

Republicans, Cheney said, should support the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into the Jan. 6 invasion. More than 400 people are now charged with the attack.

The GOP should also support a “parallel bipartisan review” of the invasion “by a summoning commission to seek and find facts,” she said.

After all, Republicans must “stand up for truly conservative principles and turn away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump personality cult,” Cheney said.

Citing the memory of former President Ronald Reagan, a Republican icon, she said he had “formed a broad coalition from across the political spectrum to bring America back to its senses, and we must do the same now”.

“But that will not happen if Republicans choose to abandon the rule of law and join Trump’s crusade to undermine the foundation of our democracy and reverse the legal outcome of the last election,” she said.

Read the full comment The Washington Post.

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Politics

The Virginia G.O.P. Voted on Its Future. The Losers Reject the Outcomes.

The Virginia G.O.P. Voted on Its Future. The Losers Reject the Results.

On the second front, how a convention would work, Republicans are grappling with a state ban on most gatherings of more than 10 people. As a result, the party cannot hold a personal meeting of several thousand people. Party leaders are trying to change their rules to allow for a congress that will be held in dozens of locations in Virginia.

This requires the approval of three-quarters of the members of the state central committee – a threshold that has not yet been reached, as 31 of the 72 members of the committee are campaigning for a primary school. In other words, these Republicans are trying to block the possibility of a convention in the hope that eventually a primary will have to be held.

“The fact that there is a minority faction that has lost and is standing in the way of a safe convention to try to get the primary that they can’t win fair – that says a lot about them,” said Patti Lyman, who Republican national committee woman for Virginia. “All of their arguments can be reduced to the following: We have lost and we don’t like it.”

Ms. Chase, who still argued with less than a week in Mr. Trump’s presidency that he could still be inaugurated for a second term, said Thursday that she “does not trust conventions” to which she is wrongly restricting electoral access Members of the military and others who cannot make it to a personal website.

“If we’re going to win as Republicans, we have to get more voters, who vote Republicans, rather than fewer,” she said. “Stop creating so many barriers for people who would normally choose.”

Some proponents of a convention advocate ranking voting, a system promoted by progressives elsewhere. The dispute threatens to undermine the already tough Republican struggle in this year’s elections and to extend democratic control of the state.

At the center of the party’s argument is a crowded group of Republican gubernatorial candidates, each with a candidate from the Trump and Establishment wings of the GOP and two wealthy wildcards. The main candidates are Ms. Chase; Kirk Cox, a former State House Speaker who is the party’s elected legislature favorite; Pete Snyder, a technology millionaire who lost an offer for lieutenant governor nomination at a party conference in 2013; and Glenn Youngkin, an even richer former private equity executive who is new to politics.

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Trump’s Legacy: Voters Who Reject Democracy and Any Politics however Their Personal

Trump’s Legacy: Voters Who Reject Democracy and Any Politics but Their Own

Mr Hanna, 19, was an election worker in his rural community not far from Mr Biden’s native Scranton, and he cannot accept that Mr Biden won honestly.

“We were crowded, we had over 250 people in line,” he said, confidently adding that there were few Biden supporters. “It’s mind-boggling to believe that we go to bed and wake up 800,000 votes ahead, and after those magical ballots are dumped overnight, we kind of lose.”

This disinformation, which has spread widely online, has been exposed by election analysts who explain that mail-in ballots were counted more slowly over several days, greatly benefiting Mr Biden after the president made their use toxic to his supporters.

Robert Fuller of Georgia was so furious with the election that he foresaw an America would push off its deepest berths. “We’ll be lucky if we have another country after that,” he said, citing false allegations of electoral fraud that the president teased over the weekend during a taped call to Georgia’s top electoral officer, a Republican.

“I foresee a civil war, Republicans versus Democrats,” said Fuller. “You know as well as I do that you put the ballots in the states of Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, and Michigan.”

In Tuesday’s Georgia Senate runoff election, 65-year-old Fuller supported Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who both lost. The winners – Rev. Raphael Warnock, who will be the first black Senator from Georgia, and Jon Ossoff, who will be the youngest member of the Senate – secured control of the Democratic Chamber.

Mr. Fuller believes none of the winners are legitimate. Not because they didn’t win the most votes, but because of their political views, which were caricatured far left of the center during the race.

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Battleground states urge Supreme Courtroom to reject Texas’ bid to overturn Biden wins

Battleground states urge Supreme Court to reject Texas' bid to overturn Biden wins

The battlefield states, whose results of the Texas presidential election are being challenged in the Supreme Court, urged judges Thursday not to take up the case.

The four states to which the lawsuit pertained warned in unusually harsh briefs that granting Texas’s unprecedented demand for “violence against the constitution” and “disenfranchises millions of voters”.

These states – Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia – all confirmed their election results, with Democrat Joe Biden defeating President Donald Trump.

Almost simultaneously, Washington, DC Attorney General Karl Racine filed a brief in the court on behalf of the District of Columbia and 22 states and territories in defense of the four states targeted by Texas.

This court friend was joined by California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Guam, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon. Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, US Virgin Islands, and Washington.

The flood of important briefings related to the case – including Trump’s own request to intervene – recalled the dramatic and ongoing polarization in the US just weeks after one of the most controversial elections.

Pennsylvania called Ken Paxton’s long-term attempt to overturn elections in other states “legally unreasonable” and “a violation of the principles of constitutional democracy” in his letter.

“Texas is trying to invalidate elections in four states to get results it disagrees with,” says Pennsylvania.

Dana Nessel, the Michigan attorney general, in her state’s statement, urged the court to immediately dismiss the Texas case.

“Otherwise this court would become the arbiter of all future national elections,” wrote Nessel.

“The basis of Texas’ claims rests on the allegation that Michigan violated its own electoral laws. Not true,” added Nessel. “That claim has been dismissed in Michigan federal and state courts, and just yesterday the Michigan Supreme Court denied a final attempt to move for review.”

Christopher Carr, the Georgia attorney general, told the court that Texas was “transferring Georgia’s electoral powers to the federal judiciary.”

“Respect for federalism and constitutionalism prohibits this transfer of power, but this court should never reach that issue,” he wrote.

The answers came a day after Trump asked the Supreme Court to let him intervene on the case. The president, who refuses to admit Biden, has hyped the Texas case as “the big one” – but electoral law experts say there’s little chance the court will allow it.

So far, the judges have not taken any action in this case. Despite Trump’s frequent appeals, the court has shown unwillingness to enter into any litigation related to the presidential election.

For example, the judges have not yet said whether they will hear a GOP challenge to postal ballot papers received in Pennsylvania after election day. On Tuesday, they rejected an appeal from a Trump ally who attempted to reverse the findings on that state in a one-line order with no disagreement noted.

Even so, Paxton’s case has raised hopes among Trump’s supporters, desperate for a full court order to cancel Biden’s planned victory. Large sections of the electorate are convinced by the President’s repeated, unproven, and often debunked claims that widespread electoral fraud influenced the election of Biden.

Seventeen states where Trump won the referendum fueled those views on Wednesday when they filed a pleading with the Supreme Court in support of the Texas case.

On Thursday afternoon, 106 Republican members of Congress, led by Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., Signed their own letter in support of Paxton’s lawsuit.

This mandate was written by Phillip Jauregui, an attorney for the Judicial Action Group, who states on his website that he is working for the “renewal of justice” and is calling for “a third great awakening”.

Trump and his electoral team have filed dozens of lawsuits in court to invalidate election results, and state lawmakers have appointed pro-Trump voters.

Many of these cases have already been dismissed – but Trump is still pursuing legal challenges in key states, even with less than a week left before voters meet to cast their votes.