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Republican Rep. Scott Perry helped former President Donald Trump plot to oust acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen so he could place a loyalist who would help him overturn the election, The New York Times reported Saturday evening.

Perry introduced Trump to Jeffrey Clark, the Justice Department lawyer who was working with the ex-president to find ways to stir up doubts about the election results. Rosen had not cooperated with Trump's alleged plan, prompting him to consider replacing him with Clark.

Trump reportedly only backed down from his plan to fire Rosen after top leaders at the department threatened to resign. The former president was worried that news of several Justice Department leaders resigning all at once would take the spotlight away from his baseless voter fraud claims.

Perry, a little-known member of the House was one of several Republicans giving Trump false hope that he could overturn the election results. But, as The Times reported, Trump's reliance on him highlights just how desperate he was to change the outcome, as many senior Republicans refused to go along with his claims.

Clark and Perry reportedly hatched the plan to have the department send Georgia officials a letter that falsely said the department was investigating the state for voter fraud and that they should overturn Biden's win. They also told Trump of this idea. But Rosen and deputy attorney general, Richard Donoghue denied the request.

There has no proof of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Trump and Republican allies lost several dozen lawsuitsattempting to overturn election results.

Read more:SCOOP: Trump taps his former chief of staff and impeachment lawyers as the gatekeepers to his papers during his post-presidency

Trump's unfounded claims of election fraud have been criticized as the spark that fueled the violent insurrection on January 6 at the US Capitol. Trump supporters breached the buildingand clashed with law enforcement, halting the joint session of Congress as lawmakers were set to formalize Biden's victory in the 2020 election. The riot lead to the deaths of five people.

The HouseimpeachedTrump on a charge of inciting an insurrection. The Senate will soon hold a trial and vote on whether to convict the former president. This is the second impeachment Trump faced in his four years in office.

Last month, The Times also reported that Perry was one of the 126 Republicans who filed a failed lawsuit to the Supreme Court to overturn the election. He also at one point objected to certifying his home state of Pennsylvania electoral votes, the Times added.

There's also been criticism towards Republican lawmakers who touted Trump's claims and even disputed the Electoral College votes. Seven Democratic senators have called for a probe into Republican Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz's role in the Capitol siege. Others have called on them to resign.

It's not yet clear what action will be taken against Perry in light of the recent revelations, but earlier in January after he faced calls to resign as a result of his support for the baseless allegations of fraud, he issued a one-word statement: "No."

Insider was unable to reach Perry for comment at the time of publication.

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Rep. Perry helped Trump in plot to oust acting attorney general - Business Insider - Business Insider

Other Trump allies hoping to reclaim the mantle of respectable Republican might choose to follow the Lindsey Graham model. The senators turn from truth-telling Trump critic to loyal acolytetimed for his reelection bid last year in South Carolinaearned him a rash of savage headlines in the political press. But hes already begun his post-Trump rebrand, starting with a speech on the Senate floor after the Capitol riot earlier this month.

Trump and I, weve had a hell of a journey, Graham said in the characteristically cheerful drawl that scans to so many inside the Beltway as candor. I hate it to end this way. Oh my God, I hate it. From my point of view, hes been a consequential president. But today all I can say is, count me out. Enough is enough. Ive tried to be helpful.

Peter Wehner: Some Republicans have finally found a line they wont cross

Grahams implication was that hed cozied up to Trump only to advise him on issues of grave national importand that he was now breaking with the outgoing president on moral grounds. This version of events conveniently ignores the senators hyper-partisan defenses of Trump (he called the first impeachment a lynching in every sense), or his sycophantic sucking up (He beat me like a dog in 2016), or any number of dignity-sapping acrobatics hes performed to stay on the presidents good side. By deciding to denounce Trump after the riot, Grahamlike many of his colleaguescould try to claim that he put country before party (even if it wasnt until the final days of Trumps term).

Terry Sullivan, who ran Marco Rubios presidential campaign in 2016, told me he was unimpressed by this sudden rush to righteous indignation. The newfound outrage from former Trump supporters rings a bit hollow, given how quiet most were during Charlottesville and countless other escapades, he said. Forty-seven months of blind loyalty followed by one month of conscience doesnt earn you much more than the Mick Mulvaney profile-in-courage award.

Sullivan was less certain, though, about whether the revisionism would work. I dont expect the voters will treat them any more kindly than the historiansbut Ive been wrong before. After all, some predicted that the Republicans who worked for George W. Bush, especially the architects of the Iraq War, would be shunned once he left office. Instead, many of them have settled into respectableand lucrativeperches as commentators, lobbyists, and elder statesmen. As long as the cable-news bookers keep calling, redemption is always available.

Like many of the more high-profile figures who worked for the Trump administration, Isgur, the former Justice Department spokesperson, has spent the years since she resigned publicly repenting. She regularly criticizes the president on CNN and in The Dispatch, a publication founded by Never Trump conservatives. Last month, she published an essay in The Washington Post grappling with how she and her colleagues had obscured the reality of a Trump presidency from the public.

Original post:
Republicans Are Already Rewriting the Trump Years - The Atlantic

Americans who have tend to hold it in an unfavourable light

Jan 19th 2021

WHO INSPIRED the mayhem at Americas Capitol on January 6th? Donald Trump played his part, invigorating his supporters before the riot with a baseless claim that Novembers presidential election was stolen. But Q, the person (or persons) behind the QAnon conspiracy theory, also bears much of the blame. The anonymous online figure, whose cryptic posts allege that Mr Trump is waging a covert war to save America from an elite cabal of cannibalistic paedophiles, had inspired an alarming number of the most prominent protesters. Among them was Jake Angeli, better known as the QAnon Shaman. On the day of the insurrection in Washington, DC, a shirtless Mr Angeli was seen wearing a fur hat adorned with horns and holding a sign saying Q sent me!

Yet QAnon is less well known in Trumpworld than might be expected. Although it is generally thought of as a far-right cultits adherents tend to hold dim views of prominent liberals such as Barack Obama and George Sorospolling from YouGov shows that Democrats are more aware of it than Republicans are (see chart). This is true even after controlling for differences in education. Still, the minority of Republicans who are familiar with QAnon seem to be much more supportive of it than their Democratic counterparts. Around 30% of those Republicans say they view the online movement favourably, compared with just 5% of Democrats. (The FBI has an opinion too. It has labelled QAnon a domestic terror threat.)

Facebook seems to be especially fertile ground for QAnon. YouGov also asked Americans where they got their news on election fraud. Around 25% of respondents who said their main source was Facebook also said they hold a favourable opinion of QAnon, against only 12% of people who mainly get their election-fraud news from Twitter. Facebooks design may be partly to blame. Its users primarily see posts from friends and other like-minded people, creating information bubbles where fringe views can spread. Twitter, by contrast, is somewhat closer to a public forum where users are exposed to diverse views from people they may not know or agree with. Social-media firms have recently cracked down on Q-Anon-related content. But purging the conspiracy theory entirely will be no easy task.

See more here:
Daily chart - Democrats are more likely than Republicans to have heard of QAnon | Graphic detail - The Economist

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming is one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach President Trump on Wednesday. Samuel Corum/Getty Images hide caption

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming is one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach President Trump on Wednesday.

Ten Republicans crossed President Trump on Wednesday and voted to impeach him for "incitement of insurrection."

It was a historic vote and one that came exactly a week after a pro-Trump mob laid siege to the U.S. Capitol after attending a Trump rally on the Ellipse outside the White House. The Capitol was ransacked and occupied for hours, and, in the end, five Americans died and many others were injured as a result.

The 10 House members who voted to impeach Trump don't cut a singular profile. They come from a range of districts, from coast to coast, some representing places Trump won handily in 2020, while others are in more moderate seats.

This vote could expose some of them to potential primary challenges from the right as well as possible safety threats, but for all of them Trump had simply gone too far. Multiple House Republicans said threats toward them and their families were factors weighing on their decisions on whether to impeach this president.

Ten out of 211 Republicans in the House is hardly an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, and clearly, most Republicans' sympathies still lie with Trump and his ardent base of followers. But the 10 represent something significant the most members of a president's party to vote for his impeachment in U.S. history.

Here they are in order of the most pro-Trump districts:

1. Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyoming's at-large district: Trump won Wyoming 70% to 27%, and she's the third-ranking leader in the House. So for her not just to vote in favor of impeachment but also issue a stinging rebuke is quite the step. Cheney was unequivocal in her statement, saying Trump "summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack." She called what Trump did the "greatest betrayal" of a U.S. president ever.

2. Rep. Tom Rice, South Carolina's 7th Congressional District: This is one no one saw coming. The congressman, who has served since 2013, comes from a pretty pro-Trump district (Trump won it 59% to 40%), and there was no indication he would do so beforehand. Even during his vote, Twitter was alight with speculation that Rice had cast the wrong vote. Turns out, he cast it exactly as he wanted to. Later Wednesday, Rice explained: "I have backed this President through thick and thin for four years. I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But, this utter failure is inexcusable."

3. Rep. Dan Newhouse, Washington's 4th: Trump won this central Washington state district by a handy margin, 58% to 40%. But for Newhouse, who has served since 2015 and has not been a prominent member, it was clear: "The mob was inflamed by the language and misinformation of the President of the United States. ... A vote against impeachment is a vote to validate unacceptable violence" and "to condone President Trump's inaction."

4. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Illinois' 16th: Kinzinger's decision was probably the least surprising on this list. Despite coming from a district Trump won 57% to 41%, the Air Force veteran has been outspoken recently against Trump's behavior. He said Trump "incited this insurrection" and "if these actions the Article II branch inciting a deadly insurrection against the Article I branch are not worthy of impeachment, then what is an impeachable offense?"

5. Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, Ohio's 16th: Gonzalez, a former NFL wide receiver, is in his second term in Congress. Trump won his district by 15 points, but Gonzalez was unequivocal: Trump, he said, "helped organize and incite a mob that attacked the United States Congress in an attempt to prevent us from completing our solemn duties as prescribed by the Constitution." He added that during the attack, Trump "abandoned his post ... thus further endangering all present."

6. Rep. Fred Upton, Michigan's 6th: Upton has been in office since 1987. He comes from a district that is more moderate. Trump won it just 51% to 47%. Upton has good relationships with Democrats, including President-elect Joe Biden, and even has #WearYourMask in his Twitter bio. Upton said he would have preferred a bipartisan censure that would not interfere with the business of the next administration, "but," he said, "it is time to say enough is enough." He also cited Trump's efforts "to impede the peaceful transfer of power from one President to the next."

7. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, Washington's 3rd: Herrera Beutler was swept in with the Tea Party wave in 2010, but her district is a moderate one. Trump won it 51% to 47%. Herrera Beutler gained prominence several years ago for giving birth to a child three months early, born without kidneys and a rare syndrome. Her daughter, Abigail, became the first to survive the often-fatal condition. The now-mother of three and congresswoman from southwest Washington state declared on the House floor her vote in favor of impeachment: "I'm not choosing sides, I'm choosing truth."

8. Rep. Peter Meijer, Michigan's 3rd: Meijer is a freshman, who won his seat with 53% of the vote. He represents a district that was previously held by Justin Amash, the former Republican-turned-independent who voted in favor of Trump's impeachment in 2019. Meijer, a Columbia University grad who served in Afghanistan, is a social conservative in favor of restrictions on abortion rights and against restrictions on gun rights and religious freedoms. But he said Trump showed no "courage" and "betrayed millions with claims of a 'stolen election.' " He added, "The one man who could have restored order, prevented the deaths of five Americans including a Capitol police officer, and avoided the desecration of our Capitol, shrank from leadership when our country needed it most."

9. Rep. John Katko, New York's 24th: Katko is a moderate from an evenly divided moderate district. A former federal prosecutor, he said of Trump: "It cannot be ignored that President Trump encouraged this insurrection." He also noted that as the riot was happening, Trump "refused to call it off, putting countless lives in danger."

10. Rep. David Valadao, California's 21st: The Southern California congressman represents a majority-Latino district Biden won 54% to 44%. Valadao won election to this seat in 2012 before losing it in 2018 and winning it back in the fall. He's the rare case of a member of Congress who touts his willingness to work with the other party. Of his vote for impeachment, he said: "President Trump was, without question, a driving force in the catastrophic events that took place on January 6." He added, "His inciting rhetoric was un-American, abhorrent, and absolutely an impeachable offense."

The 10 who voted with Democrats to impeach Trump could give a degree of cover and open the door a little wider for Republicans in the Senate to vote to convict Trump. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah was the sole Republican senator to vote to convict Trump in 2020.

This time, there will be more. Some Republican senators have called on Trump to resign, and even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he is undecided at this point.

Trump's impeachment won't lead to his removal even if he is convicted because of the timeline. The Senate is adjourned until Tuesday. The next day, Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president. But there's another penalty the Constitution allows for as a result of a Senate conviction that could be appealing to some Republican senators banning Trump from holding "office" again.

While there is some debate as to the definition of "office" in the Constitution and whether that would apply to running for president or even Congress, that kind of public rebuke would send a strong message that Republicans are ready to move on from Trumpism.

Some ambitious Republican senators have never been as on board the Trump train as the more feverish GOP members in the House, and the former might be open to convicting Trump. But their ambition cuts two ways on the one hand, voting to ban Trump opens a lane to carry the Republican mantle in 2024 and be the party's new standard-bearer, but, on the other, it has the potential to alienate many of the 74 million who voted for Trump, and whose votes they need.

It's a long shot that Trump would ultimately be convicted, because 17 Republicans would need to join Democrats to get the two-thirds majority needed for a conviction. But it's growing clearer that a majority of the Senate will vote to convict him, reflecting the number of Americans who are in favor of impeachment, disapproved of the job Trump has done and voted for his opponent in the 2020 presidential election.

Read the rest here:
These Are The 10 Republicans Who Voted To Impeach Trump - NPR

President Trump speaks to supporters on Jan. 6 before pro-Trump extremists launched a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump's role in encouraging the siege over false claims of election fraud has hardened divisions in the Republican Party. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

President Trump speaks to supporters on Jan. 6 before pro-Trump extremists launched a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump's role in encouraging the siege over false claims of election fraud has hardened divisions in the Republican Party.

In a matter of hours on Jan. 6, the Republican Party went from shrugging off its loss of the White House to a party in crisis.

It was becoming clear just before the violent insurrection at the Capitol that the party had lost two Senate runoff elections in Georgia, making President Trump the first president since Herbert Hoover whose party lost the White House, the House and the Senate in one term. And plenty of Republicans blamed Trump for the Democrats' success in Georgia.

Trump's own defeat means the GOP has failed to get a majority of votes in seven of the last eight presidential elections.

Now, Trump leaves office as the only president to be impeached twice, and the House vote against Trump over the Capitol insurrection marked the most bipartisan impeachment in U.S. history.

The Republican fault lines go in every direction: between the grassroots and the establishment, between big donors and aspiring presidential candidates, between House leaders and Senate leaders.

Republican pollster Frank Luntz says he has seen intraparty battles before, "but this one is so deep and so polarizing and people are so passionate about it I don't know how you heal it. I don't know how you bring these people together."

The biggest internal division right now, says Luntz, is between Republicans who voted for impeachment and voters who opposed it. He found in research this week that 43% of Trump voters say they would definitely vote against any lawmaker who supports impeachment.

"That makes it impossible for Republicans to put together a majority by 2022, and in fact, that's a direct threat to the existence of the Republican Party overall," Luntz said.

Trump's red line

At the Jan. 6 rally, Trump and his son, Don Jr., went even further, threatening a primary election defeat for any Republican who failed to back Trump's effort to have Congress overturn President-elect Joe Biden's election.

"This isn't their Republican Party anymore," the president's son said. "This is Donald Trump's Republican Party."

And that's one of the reasons that, even after the violent insurrection at the Capitol, two-thirds of House Republicans and a total of eight senators voted to throw out some of the election results.

Those votes show an even deeper, more fundamental rift in the party says Stuart Stevens, a former Republican consultant and current adviser to the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. He thinks the big divide is between authoritarians and those who believe in democracy.

"I think it's just a straight-up red line," said Stevens. "This is so much greater than any differences over tax policy or trade policy. It's a fundamental belief in whether or not you want to continue the American experiment. A large portion of the Republican Party has decided they are for democracy if that means they win, and they're against it if it means they lose. Which is to say, you don't believe in democracy."

These splits are playing out not just on Capitol Hill but among Republicans all over the country.

Jean Evans, the former executive director of the Missouri Republican Party and previously a state legislator, resigned at the end of last year partly due to pressure from within the GOP to back Trump's efforts to overturn the election.

"The demands that we stand up and support Trump and facilitate these sorts of actions became increasingly hostile and frightening," Evans said. "And then when I saw the president tweeting for everyone to come to D.C. on the 6th, I thought, 'What is he doing?' "

In Missouri, just like nationally, polls show vast majorities of Republicans believe the lie that the election was stolen from Trump.

The party is split between those who accept reality and those who don't, a problem that Evans thinks only Trump can fix.

"For the party to move forward, the best thing that could happen really would be for Trump to speak to his supporters and tell them that he accepts the results [and] they should, too," she said.

Survival mode

Trump has condemned the violence at the Capitol, but he hasn't acknowledged that Biden won legitimately. Barring that, Stevens thinks, the only solution is for voters to reject Republicans just like they rejected Trump.

"You have to beat them," he said. "The United States Capitol was taken over by a terrorist gang of cop killers, and the Republican Party still has not come to grips with what that means. If you can be president of the United States, incite a riot to oppose a legal election and take over the Capitol, and that's not a high crime and misdemeanor, I'm not sure what is."

But other Republicans think the party can heal itself.

Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, says the party has and will continue to reject violent actors, but that it has to work with those who believe the lie that the election was stolen.

"They're going to have to be accommodated, and they're going to have to find a way, if they want to be effective, to hewn off some of the rough edges," Reed said. "But our attitude needs to be one of welcoming, not pushing them away."

Pushing away those who are supremely loyal to Trump would seem to be out of the question, since they represent such a big chunk of the party's base. But Reed thinks the party can address their concerns and convince them that in a democracy, it's possible for the Republican Party to lose a legitimate election.

"Political parties have a very strong instinct for their own preservation. So, when a political party is taking a position that marginalizes it, it tends to self-correct," he said. "It evolves, it adapts, it becomes what it has to become in order to win and therefore survive."

Regardless of how, or whether, the Republican Party resolves its internal splits, the process will take time, says Frank Luntz: "You have a segment of American society that does not accept the election outcome and is going to continue to speak up, is going to continue to agitate. And that's going to make this a very unstable period for months and perhaps even years."

That means a long, unstable period not just for the Republican Party, but for the American political system as a whole.

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Republicans Wonder How, And If, They Can Pull The Party Back Together - NPR