claim no evidence

2 23

merri ok

see ronjohn. comer

SEE VOTER FRAUD BS NOEM MIKE J

aha i note many times GOP dude X "stated without evidence that..."

MANY DOJ FAIL

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John Knefel is a senior writer at Media Matters for America, a progressive research center that monitors the U.S. media.

Right-wing media’s coverage of this June’s Los Angeles mayoral primary election unsurprisingly went heavy on voter fraud conspiracy theories and presented essentially zero real evidence. Their reactions offer a warning of how MAGA is likely to respond if Republicans suffer significant losses in November’s midterms, considering that the Trump administration and its outside allies spent the summer laying groundwork to undermine voting rights using flimsy claims of foreign election interference.

After lining up behind Spencer Pratt for L.A. mayor, conservative pundits began crying foul in June as the votes were still being counted. Challenger and L.A. councilmember Nithya Raman overtook Pratt after an early “red mirage,” triggering outbursts from the right.

On his radio show, Fox’s Sean Hannity said: “President Trump rightly is calling out Democrats, saying they’re probably cheating, trying to steal” the race. MAGA media influencer Benny Johnson said, “You can already see that they’re stealing and they’re cheating.” YouTube streamer Tim Pool alleged that “it appears, with new information coming in, we can now say the Democrats are cheating in the California race.”

As is so often the case, these figures were operating symbiotically with President Donald Trump, who wrote that it was “not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the L.A. runoffs after the big lead he had,” decrying “Rigged Elections!”

There was no evidence of voter fraud in the L.A. mayoral primary, and it isn’t surprising in the least that Pratt would lose in a cit y where former Vice President Kamala Harris won 70% of the vote in 2024. But it is now a matter of faith on the right that, in the words of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, “if Democrats can’t steal elections, they can’t win.”

My Media Matters colleague Matt Gertz has characterized MAGA’s reaction as a signal that right-wing media are entering a period of “post-proof election denial.” Whereas in the aftermath of 2020, an entire cottage industry arose on the right to produce a simulacra of evidence to allege that allies of former President Joe Biden had rigged the outcome, no similar effort emerged on Pratt’s behalf.

Instead, these figures relied on nothing but vibes, especially olfactory metaphors. “It smells to high heaven,” said radio show host Megyn Kelly. “I don’t like the way any of this smells,” said Fox News co-host Lisa Kennedy Montgomery. “I can tell you it stinks to high heaven when you have a drop of 24,000 votes and Spencer Pratt gets zero,” said Hannity.

These pundits opened up a permission structure for others to make similarly outlandish accusations. Case in point: Two recent guests on Bannon’s “War Room” podcast claimed that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s victory last November was rife with fraud. (It was not.)

A screenshot of a political streaming show that shows a split screen of two people talking to one another. The screenshot includes lower-third graphic that reads in part, "Real America's Voice" and "Follow us on Social Media."

A segment of Real America’s Voice’s War Room on Aug. 6, 2026. Screenshot via MediaMatters for America

Ubiquitous, reflexive election denial in conservative media presages the MAGA strategy for 2026 and beyond. In early July, I laid out the broad strokes of an emerging plot to subvert the midterms that was hidden in plain view if you knew where to look.

The basics: First, a White House task force that included right-wing media figure John Solomon — who spread misinformation related to Trump’s first impeachment — would declassify documents that purportedly showed China interfered in the 2020 election. Trump undertook this step in a primetime address on July 16, although the released files provided more evidence that Russia — not China — attempted to influence the election to weaken Biden’s campaign, not Trump’s.

The second step would be for the Trump administration to issue a “national emergency” declaration based on the supposed threat posed by China, thereby unlocking “king-like powers” over election systems.

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// ANTI-SEM HARVARD WHISTLEBLOWER 8 26

RWW

Lance Wallnau Praises Trump For Attacking Reporters

08/21/2026

Kyle Mantyla

Nick Corasaniti @ The New York Times: Homeland Security Made a Big Claim About Noncitizen Voting. Now It Can’t Prove It.

The Department of Homeland Security told Nevada election officials that it identified 185 “potential” noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls, not the nearly 16,000 it claimed last month.

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RARE ACCTability? sounds like lawyers made her

MMA

June 26, 2026, edition of Fox Business' Mornings with Maria Bartiromo

MARIA BARTIROMO (ANCHOR): Meanwhile there's this, Kevin O'Leary appeared as a guest on this program back on May 11 and discussed the ongoing controversy surrounding his planned data center project in Utah. Now, he made certain claims relating to the opponents of that project. Mr. O'Leary has now corrected the record and explained that he has no evidence that the Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Josh Kanter, Taylor Knuth, or Gabrielle Finlayson are funded by China or the Chinese Communist Party. Fox News Media is likely — likewise aware of no evidence that they are funded by or acting at the direction of or in coordination with Chinese interests in opposing Kevin O'Leary's project. Fox News Media apologizes for the error.

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MMA

Nick Shirley rebooted James O’Keefe’s debunked voter fraud myths for a new audience

Shirley’s new California video is little more than a rehashing of O’Keefe’s bogus claims from over a decade ago

Written by John Knefel & Sophie Lawton

Published 02/18/26

Citation

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

A new video by MAGA provocateur Nick Shirley purports to expose voter fraud in California, but in fact it’s little more than a repackaging of false narratives spread over a decade ago by right-wing operative James O'Keefe. In both cases, the right-wing influencers suggest that fraud could exist without actually exposing any, relying on innuendo and hypotheticals rather than evidence.

O’Keefe created the template for undercover videos meant to expose and embarrass liberal organizations and causes. His old videos, like Shirley’s new ones, were frequently debunked in real time, but they nevertheless served a role in providing fuel to conservative content creators hungry to stoke outrage about perceived liberal excesses. Shirley’s repackaging shouldn’t be surprising given the incentives for young, MAGA-aligned influencers to make a name for themselves in a crowded field. But the original claims didn't provoke any policy changes — reasonably so, given that they were bogus — so Shirley's repackaging has little to offer beyond a hope that new consumers take the bait.

Shirley gained prominence in recent months following a so-called investigation into fraud in Minneapolis day care centers. Although there were some real instances of fraud within the city’s social services, local news and prosecutors had already exposed and investigated many instances of wrong-doing. Still, The New York Times referred to Shirley as having “spurred the federal crackdown on Minneapolis.”

Once the right-wing’s most identifiable creator of sting-style — often deliberately misleading — exposés, O’Keefe’s star has since somewhat fallen. In 2010, O’Keefe founded Project Veritas, and over more than a decade the organization produced videos meant to discredit perceived liberal organizations, often through tactics such as manipulation and deceptive editing. According to Rolling Stone, in 2023 O’Keefe “either left or was pushed out of his own company … depending on whom you ask.” He has since tried to reestablish himself in the right-wing media ecosystem, including by creating an award in 2025 for the so-called citizen journalists who have followed in his footsteps. The first recipient was Nick Shirley.

Shirley, like O’Keefe, is promoting the possibility of fraud that he hasn't actually found

Shirley’s is one of many from right-wing influencers, such as Benny Johnson, decrying supposedly rampant voter fraud in California, and it includes many examples and myths that have already been debunked. One of the most prominent narratives in Shirley’s video, which was already debunked when Johnson spread it, is that voters whose registrations list central locations, like an abandoned building, as an address are a clear sign of fraud. However, as Democracy Docket notes, California law “gives people experiencing homelessness the flexibility to use any location to register to vote. As long as unhoused residents can describe the place where they spend most of their time — whether it’s an address, a cross street or a vacant lot — they can legally list it as their address on their voter registration form.”

Another one of Shirley's key examples of “fraud” in the video is a previously reported story about a woman who registered her dog to vote and cast two ballots for him in 2021 and 2022, only one of which was counted. The woman, a registered Republican, self-reported her crimes and is facing six years in prison.

The premise of Shirley’s 20-minute video is that there could be fraud in California without stricter voter ID laws and “with the state receiving millions of illegal migrants, the opportunities for fraud now are even higher.” California does require a valid ID or Social Security number when registering to vote or when voting for the first time after registering by mail, and extensive research has shown that noncitizen voting in U.S. elections is exceedingly rare and extremely unlikely to impact elections. Yet Shirley’s video has been picked up by others in right-wing media, including livestreamer, former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, and conspiracy theory website The Gateway Pundit.

Had someone just awoken from a decadelong coma, they might find these types of claims quite familiar. In 2012, O’Keefe attempted to show how easy it was to commit voter fraud in a state without strict voter ID laws via a video titled “Dead people receive ballots in NH primary,” which claims that conspirators could use the names of the deceased to cast fraudulent ballots to steal an election. But, as Media Matters noted at the time, the video “actually demonstrates just how difficult it would be to pull off such a plot.”

Although it’s true that making sure ballot rolls are accurate is important, O’Keefe’s stunt only showed that without knowing how many votes were needed, the conspirators would need to engage in a massive plot and subsequent cover-up to make sure they had covered the spread. It would be an enormous undertaking. O’Keefe provided no evidence that such a scheme existed for the simple reason that there was no such plot.

In another one of O’Keefe’s “gotcha” videos on voter fraud, a Project Veritas employee almost obtains a ballot meant for registered voter Eric Holder, then the U.S. attorney general. Project Veritas marketed the video as a slam dunk, claiming it had “proven” fraud occurred while in reality no vote was cast and no fraud occurred. The manufactured stunt, like Shirley’s escapades in California, was another senseless attempt to rally people behind more restrictive voter ID laws.

Though Shirley’s claims about California include some different details from O’Keefe and Project Veritas’ claims, the gist is the same: Both attempt to prove “voter fraud” and fail to show any actual fraud being committed. Such right-wing misinformation has been debunked for years while the truth is still that fraud is just not happening at the scale they claim.

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AN 2 26

When Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem spoke at a press conference in Scottsdale, Arizona on February 13, she echoed President Donald Trump's claim that the Grand Canyon State is a hotbed of voter fraud. But when a reporter asked her for specific examples, Noem couldn't provide any and remarked, "Oh, I'm sure there's many of them."

In an opinion column published on February 17, MS NOW's Steve Benen emphasizes that MAGA Republicans have a pattern of making voter fraud claims but never offer concrete proof to back them up.

"The point of her trip to Arizona was to advance Republican conspiracy theories related to voting and election administration," Benen explains. "In fact, the South Dakotan insisted, during her trip, that Arizona is 'an absolute disaster' when it comes to elections…. When a reporter asked whether she was aware of any examples of voter fraud actually happening in the state, the secretary pointed to nothing."

Benen continues, "This led to ample pushback from state officials, who explained in detail that the state's system of elections is already secure and that they're already doing what Noem says needs to be done…. When a powerful federal official travels across the country to accuse a state of having a system of elections that's become 'an absolute disaster,' she really only has one job: Prove it. The very least Noem could have done is to offer one example of fraud."

The MS NOW columnist and "Rachel Maddow Show" producer notes that similarly, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) claims that undocumented immigrants are voting in U.S. elections in big numbers but never offers substantial proof to support his claims.

"It's worth emphasizing that after the 2020 election," Benen recalls, "Republicans thought they'd finally come up with a real example of voter fraud: A Nevada man named Donald Kirk Hartle claimed that someone had cast a ballot in the 2020 election on behalf of his late wife, who'd died three years earlier…. Except they were wrong."

Benen adds, "Hartle had lied and ultimately pleaded guilty to having cast the ballot himself. The single best example Republicans could come up with wasn't real. Six years later, Noem is 'sure' there are 'many'” such examples — but she just can't tell you about a single one."

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BAD BEAT 3 STATES AND PA SCOTUS

AN 11 25

'Kamikaze pilots': Trump says Democrats will 'take down the country' after big wins

-->

AN 11 25

President Donald Trump is drafting an executive order aimed at rolling back voting rights, a measure that may include attacks on mailed ballots, a top administration official said Tuesday.

“The White House is working on an executive order to strengthen our elections in this country and to ensure that there cannot be blatant fraud, as we’ve seen in California with their universal mail-in voting system,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

“Like any executive order, of course, any executive order the president signs is within his full executive authority and within the confines of the law,” she added.

Asked by a reporter what is her evidence of electoral fraud in California, Leavitt replied without evidence that “it’s just a fact.”

Leavitt’s remarks came hours after Trump baselessly attacked California’s vote-by-mail system in a post on his Truth Social network.

IFrame Content

“The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED,” Trump alleged without evidence. “All ‘Mail-In’ Ballots, where the Republicans in that State are ‘Shut Out,’ is under very serious legal and criminal review. STAY TUNED!”

Trump has previously vowed to ban mail-in ballots, a move legal experts say would be unconstitutional.

The White House’s announcement also came as Americans voted in several high-stakes elections, including California’s Proposition 50 retaliatory redistricting proposal; the New York City mayoral race between progressive Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and Republican Curtis Sliwa; gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia; and a crowded contest for Minneapolis mayor highlighted by democratic socialist state Sen. Omar Fateh’s (D-62) bid to unseat third-term Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey.

The announcement also followed a federal judge’s permanent blocking of part of Trump’s executive order requiring proof of US citizenship on federal voter registration forms.

Democracy defenders have repudiated Trump’s attacks on mailed ballots and claims of voter fraud—a longtime right-wing bugaboo unsupported by facts on the ground.

“Voting by mail as permitted by the laws of your state is legal,” ACLU Voting Rights Project director Sophia Lin Lakin says in a statementon the group’s website about Trump’s order from March.

“In his sweeping executive order, Trump tried to bully states into not counting ballots properly received after Election Day under state law by threatening to withhold federal funding,” she continues. “A federal court has temporarily blocked this part of the executive order.”

“Trump’s effort to target mail-in voting is a blatant overreach, intruding on states’ constitutional authority to set the rules for elections,” Lin Lakin adds. “It threatens to disenfranchise tens of millions of eligible voters and would no doubt disproportionately impact historically excluded communities, including voters of color, naturalized citizens, people with disabilities, and the elderly, by pushing unnecessary barriers to the fundamental right to vote.”

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OMFG

note temp

MMA 7 25

Fox News’ America Reports hosted Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Energy Secretary Chris Wright to discuss the Trump administration's proposal to repeal the EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding, which affirmed that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare and which has served as the legal foundation for regulating emissions under the Clean Air Act.

Zeldin and Wright used the appearance to frame the repeal as a return to scientific integrity and regulatory restraint, ignoring the harms that this repeal would have on vulnerable communities. Fox anchor Sandra Smith did not challenge the claims and made no mention of the public health implications or regulatory consequences of revoking the finding. The exchange typified Fox’s pattern of amplifying Trump administration narratives about climate and energy while downplaying their real-world impacts.

Video

Citation

From the July 29, 2025, episode of Fox News' America Reports

The segment typified Fox’s role in obscuring the consequences of climate deregulation

During their appearance, Zeldin and Wright were not pressed on the public health, environmental, or legal implications of the proposal to reverse the endangerment finding. Instead, the host framed the discussion around economic themes and legal processes, asking whether repeal would make it easier to “undo a lot more of the Biden-Obama era climate rules.” Viewers heard nothing about the policy’s real-world impacts, but they did hear climate advocates characterized as ideological or extreme. Zeldin referred to them as “climate zealots,” while Wright framed the repeal as a return to “rationalism” — signaling to Fox’s audience that those who defend public protections are unserious.

This approach mirrors Fox’s longstanding pattern of covering regulatory actions through the lens of efficiency, growth, and personal freedom, while sidelining the communities most affected by the Trump administration's harmful actions. The result is a consistent minimization of climate risk and a distorted narrative in which climate and environmental outcomes are treated primarily as a political liability rather than a public necessity.

By allowing unchallenged repetition of misleading claims, and by omitting the central consequences of the policy under discussion, Fox News once again advanced a message strategy that serves to normalize and obscure the dismantling of basic climate and environmental protections.

Zeldin and Wright advanced a series of unsupported or misleading claims

During their appearance on the July 29 episode of Fox News' America Reports, Zeldin and Wright made a series of unsupported or misleading claims about the endangerment finding and what its repeal would mean for Americans.

Zeldin, for example, asserted that repealing the endangerment finding would yield “$1 trillion in savings”—a figure with no grounding in published EPA analyses or historical regulatory assessments. In contrast, EPA data has consistently shown that rules issued under the endangerment finding and the broader Clean Air Act generate substantial net benefits.

The agency’s Second Prospective Study of the Clean Air Act found that “the central benefits estimate exceeds costs by a factor of more than 30 to one," with most benefits stemming from reduced mortality linked to particulate pollution. By 2020, Clean Air Act programs were projected to prevent over 230,000 premature deaths, as well as millions of asthma attacks, heart attacks, and lost workdays annually.

More recently, the EPA’s Regulatory Impact Analysis for vehicle greenhouse gas standards projected net societal benefits of $272.7 billion between 2022 and 2050, with annualized gains of more than $14 billion, driven by fuel savings, reduced emissions, and avoidance of climate damages. These figures underscore that, far from being a financial burden, regulations grounded in the endangerment finding generate substantial and enduring public and economic value.

Similarly, Wright’s claim that the repeal reflects a return to scientific rigor collapses under scrutiny, relying on a report authored by a small group of contrarian scientists, including Steven Koonin and John Christy, who reject the well-established conclusion that greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are driving global warming and endangering public health. Their views stand in opposition to the broader scientific community, which includes the consensus positions of federal agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as the Fifth National Climate Assessment, which was produced by the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

Beyond economic distortions and scientific misrepresentation, Zeldin and Wright also ignored the far-reaching legal consequences of repeal — including for the fossil fuel industry itself.

As Grist reported, rescinding the endangerment finding would not only eliminate the federal government’s core authority to regulate greenhouse gases, it could also expose fossil fuel companies to a wave of climate liability lawsuits previously blocked by federal preemption. Some industry groups have reportedly urged the administration not to proceed, warning that repeal could unravel their legal defenses and leave them vulnerable to a patchwork of state regulations and courtroom challenges.

Fox viewers heard nothing about how repeal would harm the very communities most at risk

Zeldin and Wright also failed to mention what rescinding the endangerment finding would mean for public health, environmental protection, or the EPA’s ability to respond to pollution that threatens the air we breathe, the water we rely on, and the land we depend on to live and work. Viewers were not told that the standards targeted for repeal are central to reducing industrial emissions that worsen heat, flooding, and wildfire risk — or that dismantling these protections would increase illness, displacement, and hardship for older adults, children, low-income households, and rural communities, including many in Fox’s own audience.

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note crm conspir echo escalator

:{:{6 24 an}:

"Real Time" host Bill Maher recently noted that when Republicans and right-wing media outlets find a new talking point, they work it to death regardless of its merits. And he cited the claim that President Joe Biden is using some type of drug or stimulant ahead of his first 2024 debate with presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump as a prime example.

Right-wing media outlets have been claiming that if Biden performs well against Trump in the June 27 debate that CNN is hosting in Atlanta, it will be because he is getting an unfair advantage via a stimulant. But there is no proof or evidence to support that baseless claim.

In an op-ed published on June 26, the Washington Post's Aaron Blake details how that claim took off in right-wing media.

"When Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo asked Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) about the just-announced presidential debate last month," Blake explains, "she prefaced the question oddly. 'So, let me get you to put your doctor's hat on for a second, given the (GOP) Doctors Caucus that you are leading'…. What did being a doctor have to do with handicapping the debate?.... Murphy quickly took the cue, though, launching into a baseless suggestion that Biden might take something to enhance his performance."

Blake continues, "He said Biden 'must have been jacked up' during his State of the Union address in March — that 'they gave him something.' Murphy gave no evidence but said he could provide proof for his claim to Bartiromo 'offline.'"

The Washington Post columnist notes that "a little more than 40 days" after that Bartiromo/Murphy conversation, "such evidence still hasn't seen the light of day." But Trump and allies like Fox News hosts Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity, Blake adds, continue to promote their claim anyway.

"Responsible journalists don't just accuse people of drug use based upon suspicion," Blake argues, "and there's still no actual evidence."

*Aaron Blake's full Washington Post column is available at this link (subscription required).

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Former President Donald Trump's advisors are asking him to pivot away from personal attacks and to focus more on policy. But those policy discussions are frustratingly light on details, according to a Washington Post columnist.

In her latest essay, the Post's Catherine Rampell argued that the Republican presidential ticket is being unjustly rewarded by the media for claiming to discuss policy without actually delving into the meat and potatoes of how their proposed changes would be made. She lamented that the ex-president "has so degraded the state of policy discourse that few politicians are even trying to come up with real solutions anymore."

"The Republican presidential nominee often promises fantastical outcomes, without any plausible mechanism for how, as president, he would deliver them," she wrote. "Most recently, Trump promised to cut prices, with energy prices specifically falling by 50 percent. How? No explanation necessary. He simply declares it will happen, and the media and his allies amplify his claims."

When Vice President Kamala Harris became the sudden presumptive Democratic nominee following President Joe Biden's exit from the 2024 race, Trump immediately started belittling her and insulting her intelligence. This prompted some of his top advisors and surrogates to encourage him to "please stick to policy" in order to avoid looking like a bully. But during an Asheville speech supposedly focused on the economy, Trump quickly devolved into lobbing personal attacks on Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Rampell noted that when Trump does actually does discuss policy, it's usually accompanied by "bureaucratic pageantry." One example she cited was his promise to "sign an executive order directing every Cabinet secretary and agency head to use every tool and authority at their disposal to defeat inflation and bring consumer prices rapidly down," calling for "results within the first 100 days, or much sooner."

"[A] preposterous promise on a 100-day timeline is still preposterous. (Arguably more so.) Yet seemingly, the entire Republican Party — and much of the media — have chosen to treat such nonsense as though it were a Very Serious, Big-Brained policy treatise," she wrote.

One major obstacle toward talking about legislation on the campaign trail is the low popularity of traditional Republican policies. Rampell pointed out that the more GOP candidates talk about what ideas they would implemented once elected that "voters might realize just how bad they are."

"For instance, nearly all of Trump’s major economic policies would worsen inflation (mass deportations, devaluing the dollar, politicizing the Federal Reserve, imposing new global tariffs of 10 percent or higher)," she wrote, adding that Trump embracing the Republican "policy bible" of Project 2025 is electoral kryptonite. "Of 28 major Trump proposals YouGov asked about in June (on both economic and noneconomic issues), only six were favored by most respondents. For example, 6 in 10 Americans oppose his proposals to cut corporate taxes and to abolish the Education Department."

Rampell didn't spare Harris from criticism either, observing that the Democratic nominee still doesn't have an "issues" or "policy" section in her campaign website. Though she attributed this to the media's general overall failure to hold Trump to a high enough standard regarding how he would actually govern in a second term.

"There’s always been a temptation for politicians to under-plan and overpromise, to pledge outcomes without detailing the inputs," she wrote. "But just as Trump has lowered the bar for politicians’ character and ethics, he’s degraded our expectations for governing, too."

Click here to read Rampell's column in full (subscription required).

READ MORE: [Paul Krugman: Trump’s 'crank economic doctrines' would make inflation much worse

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aha

he gets away b/c of 1 demonization 2 tammany daly machine holdover BS 3 everybody does it, all politics is corrupt/crooks 4 endless rep of lie Big Lie is tribal signifier

an 12 23

Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski is calling for Republican Bob Spindell to be removed from the Wisconsin Election Commission for being one of the fake electors who, in 2020, tried to help former President Donald Trump overturn the election results in that state. When Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) appeared on CNN on Monday night, December 11, host Kaitlan Collins asked if he favored removing Spindell from the Commission in light of his role in the "fake electors scheme."

Johnson, in response, accused Democrats of using fake electors and told Collins, "These folks did nothing different than what many Democrats have done in many states. It has happened repeatedly."

Collins asked Johnson to back up his claim, and The New Republic's Ella Sherman notes that he was "left flabbergasted" when he couldn't offer any evidence.

POLL:Should Trump be allowed to hold office again?

Johnson told Collins to "just check the books" for examples of Democratic fake electors, but when she asked, "Which books?," the Wisconsin senator had no specific examples to offer.

Sherman notes, "Johnson is right that fake elector schemes have been found across the country — but they were all backing Trump. In addition to Wisconsin, Nevada, Michigan, and Georgia have all charged fake electors in their states. There is yet another investigation into a similar scheme in Arizona. Meanwhile, Trump faces separate charges in Georgia for the whole plot."

*Watch the video below or at this link.

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'Give me some specifics': Missouri Republican unable to back up Biden allegation during testy interview - Alternet.org

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'Have to assume': GOP senator again claims without proof Iranian 'sleeper cells' may be in US - Alternet.org

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an 5 23

no lnx vid

'This is real': House Republican suggests sprawling 'Biden family tree' conspiracy with no evidence

Brandon GageMay 16, 2023

United States Representative Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) on Tuesday suggested that virtually any person whose last name is Biden committed some kind of corrupt criminal act amid growing skepticism of the validity of House Republican investigations into President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

"So it's just important that, that we look at it from every angle and we show the American people what's truthful and what's not," Mace, who sits on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, said of the probes.

"But we haven't seen any direct connection from the Committee so far," CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins rebutted. "We didn't see it last week in that press conference. I know you were there speaking as well directly to President Biden so it doesn't clear, appear clear that you're anywhere near referring charges to the Justice Department. I just wanna make sure that's clear. Is that right?"

READ MORE: 'Somebody send out an Amber Alert': House Republican mocked over 'missing' Hunter Biden 'whistleblower'

Mace conceded nothing, opting instead to double down on as-yet unsubstantiated accusations.

"Well, we're, yeah, we're within a hundred days of having subpoena power. This is just the tip of the iceberg, and I will tell you, none of this happens without Joe Biden. I mean, we're talking about tens of millions of dollars, up to nine Biden family members now, including one grandchild, nieces, and nephews. None of these people are foreign agents, Current wives, ex-wives, a brother, a son —and it, you know, it just, when you look at it from the outset, if it's not illegal, it should be — enriching themselves," Mace alleged.

"Looking at the revolving door in the White House, with meetings with Hunter Biden's business associates and colleagues and those sorts of things. Even The Daily Beast came out a couple of days ago saying this should be investigated and follow the facts wherever they lead us, which is what we need to do with an unbiased hand. And I call the balls and strikes Kaitlan, as you know, on both sides of the aisle. And this is real," Mace insisted.

"But is there any evidence that President Biden had any knowledge of this that your Committee has so far?" Collins pressed again.

READ MORE: Fox News host reminds House Republican how Ivanka and Jared made $640 million in office

Mace declined to respond directly.

"Well, he, he's, he denied that there was any communist China money coming into these shell companies. And that was, that was untruthful. That was a lie. He said that during the 2020 election. But again, the, the, this is his family tree, They were enriching themselves off of him. Some of his family members appeared to possibly be paying, uh, Joe Biden's bills in the past," Mace asserted. "But it doesn't happen without Joe Biden."

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an 2 23

United States Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) on Wednesday blasted House Republicans over their opposition to improving the Internal Revenue Service, which has been plagued by staff shortages and antiquated technology.

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. They complain about delay at the IRS, and then they oppose funding to assist the overwhelmed workforce at the IRS, which is staggering under the weight of all of these obligations," Raskin said.

GOP lawmakers have proposed legislation aimed at ending President Joe Biden's COVID-19 emergency powers and vaccine mandates for federal employees. Representative James Comer (R-Kentucky), the House Oversight Committee chair, argued that "Biden's unnecessary expansion of telework has crippled the ability of agencies to get their jobs done." Comer further stated that telework has "created massive backlogs," adding that "seniors have experienced delays with the Social Security Administration, American taxpayers have struggled to get help from the IRS during tax filing season andveterans have been unable to access the records."

Raskin noted in his floor speech that Comer has not provided any evidence to support his assertions.

"So, you know, this is the first time I've heard that telework was the source of the problem,but apparently that's what it is this week. Of course, we haven't had a real hearing, so we've had no witnesses on it. So somebody has apparently just dreamed that up. It's just been linked to the debt ceiling," he said. Raskin also knocked Republicans for their hypocrisy regarding that very issue.

"Interesting that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle voted to lift the debt ceiling three different times under Donald Trump, who increased the debt of the United States by single-handedly by more than 20 percent," he recalled. "All of the debt of the United States under one president – more than 20 percent."

Watch below or at this link.

{{===

to be fair, when i see rt linked to LC i assume fuckery

https://www.alternet.org/just-believe-our-lies/

no lnx twit

Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) declared to Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday that all of the purported evidence against President Joe Biden and his son Hunter that Republicans have supposedly amassed over the last three years is something to "infer" and that "you're not necessarily going to get hard proof" of criminal activity.

"So [House of Representatives Oversight Committee Chairman] James Comer [R-Kentucky] walked us through this web of LLCs that the Biden family created and money came from China and other adversarial countries, by the way, not just China. But going into these LLCs and then from there the money went from the LLCs to, to various Biden family members. What can you tell us about that? What were they getting paid for?" Bartiromo asked Johnson.

:{:{}:

"Well, again, on, on the bank records, you're not gonna see bribe to change this policy. You have, you have to infer what's happening here. You, you have to take a look at the, the bulk of the evidence. You have to file the money and realize what, so what did this Biden family member do to earn that amount of money? I mean, that's what we did with, with Hunter Biden in Ukraine," Johnson said.

READ MORE: 'Show the goods': Fox News host calls out House Republican over lack of Hunter Biden evidence

"I mean, what did he know about oil and gas to be on the board of Burisma and knocked down about $4 million over the course of a number of years when his father was the point person in Ukraine, that, that corrupt system," Johnson continued. "So again, you, you have to infer these things. You're not going to get necessarily hard proof, but there's such a huge body of evidence. We had it in September 2020. It was all ignored. It was all denigrated. It was all called Russian disinformation. It's the same playbook of the Democrats, the same playbook of the media that wants to prop up and cover up for the Bidens."

Johnson's remarks did not play well on social media.

MeidasTouch: "I'm going to 'infer' that Ron Johnson and his corrupt Republican friends are liars engaging in defamation the day after their dear leader was held liable for defamation in court."

Ford News: "Senator Ron Johnson on Fox News just admitted we will never get hard proof regarding the GOP probe into bank transfers from a foreign country to Hunter Biden's LLC."

READ MORE: House GOP Oversight warns DOJ: 'Do not indict Hunter Biden before Wednesday'

Kelly D: "Ron Johnson said live on Fox there is no evidence and we just need to infer that the entire Biden family is guilty. Of what, I’m not sure. But also, we don't infer sh*t in this country. Bring the evidence to the DOJ or S T F U."

Jamison Foser: "I mean I can pretty easily infer all kinds of crimes Ron Johnson has committed if this is how we're going to do things."

Art Martin: "Judge Ron Johnson: I find Joe Biden guilty beyond an unreasonable inference!"

Devin Duke: "When Trump refuses to criticize Putin on any topic ever, should we infer what's happening there?"

McSpocky™: Of course there isn't going to be 'hard proof.' Biden did nothing wrong!

Kaloyan: "Infer? You mean insinuate, right, right?"

Jo: "So, these clowns are gonna impeach President Biden because they've 'inferred' crimes? Based on something other than… EVIDENCE?!? F*cking clown show."

Outspoken: "'Just believe our lies.'"

Watch Johnson below or at this link.

READ MORE: Federal prosecutor close to a decision in Hunter Biden probe: report

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