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If anyone thought that the Jan. 6 committee was going to confine itself to exposing the actions Donald Trump and his accomplices undertook to overturn the election of 2020,today's public hearingwill set them straight. The committee is going straight after the Big Lie itself.

While a scheduled appearance by Trump's 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien today was canceled "due to a family emergency," his lawyer will still make a statement on the record. Meanwhile, former Fox Newspolitical editor Chris Stirewalt, GOP election lawyer Ben Ginsberg, former U.S. Attorney for North Georgia B.J. Pak, who abruptly quit his position in Atlanta during Trump's quest to overturn the election, and former Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt are all set to testify today. All of them will testify about the truth of the 2020 election and Trump's knowledge of that truth. Every one of them is a Republican.

It is a smart strategy to tell this story through Republicans. It should quell some of the mistrust that's been sown by Trump and his allies over the fact that the committee only has two GOP members after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy refused to agree to the bipartisan independent commission and pulled all of his members from the committee when he was not allowed to put Trump's personal henchmen on the panel. Republicans have since sought to smear committee Vice Chairman Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinsinger of Illinois, both Republicans, as traitors and sell-outs. So whatever credibility the two had to persuade rank and file Republicans is gone. Independents probably don't know what to think.

RELATED:2022 GOP primaries prove that MAGA is now bigger than Donald Trump

Having something on the record from both an important Trump campaign insider about what Trump was told about the election results and a respected Republican election lawyer like Ginsberg testify aboutthe integrity of the voteis harder to ignore. Stirewalt worked for Fox News, the flagship Trump network, and was fired for calling the election for Biden after Trump and his rabid fans had a fit over it. He can testify tothe accuracy of the datathey used to call the election.Trump forced Pak to resignwhen he found no evidence of massive voter fraud in Georgia, andSchmidt was the lone Republicanon the Philadelphia election board and was hounded out of the job when he attested to the integrity of the vote count. Both of them can testify that there was no voter fraud in their jurisdictions.

I'm sure Trump will say they are all Republicans In Name Only and not to be believed, but for at least a few GOP voters it must be a little bit difficult to buy thatallofthese Republicans are liars.

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Politico recentlyreportedon a study done by researchers at the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin who interviewed 56 people who believed the election was stolen to get an idea why they think so. Perhaps surprisingly, they found that quite a few were not stuck in "tightly sealed, right-wing echo chambers," and a majority "did not seem to subscribe to multiple conspiracy theories." Instead, some believed that Trump's rally sizes indicated that he couldn't have lost the election and that the "visuals" they saw on election night in which the vote count changed as more votes were tallied was suspicious. Further, Trump's portrayal of himself as a victim made them believe that "actors on the left would go to extreme and illegal lengths to see that he was out of office." The researchers suggest that the news media should change the way they report election results but I think that misses the point: Trump primed them to doubt the election results long before it was held.

Trump is the one who made the case that rally sizes indicate that he couldn't possibly have lost the election. (This is silly, of course, because the campaign happened during the pandemic and Joe Biden made the prudent decision not to hold super spreader events and kill his own voters.) And a week before the election, Jonathan Swan of Axiosreportedthat Trump was telling associates that he planned to declare victory on election night if it looked like he was "ahead" knowing that mail-in votes, which they expected would be heavily Democratic, would be counted later. Trump told Swan:

"I think it's a terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election. I think it's a terrible thing when states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over." He continued: "I think it's terrible that we can't know the results of an election the night of the election. ... We're going to go in the night of, as soon as that election's over, we're going in with our lawyers. We don't want to have Pennsylvania, where you have a political governor, a very partisan guy. ... We don't want to be in a position where he's allowed, every day, to watch ballots come in. See if we can only find 10,000 more ballots."

(That last quote is rich considering thathe'sthe guy who called up the Georgia Secretary of State and asked him to"find" 11,780 votes.)

RELATED:Cult expert Steven Hassan sees 95% chance of worsening pro-Trump violence

Trump and his henchmen were preparing to challenge the validity of the election and suggest that vote that were counted later we illegitimate from the very beginning. Those Republican voters may not know why they were suspicious, but if they had been listening to Trump for months leading up to the election it's not hard to figure it out.

In a bit of hopeful news, the researchers did find that some of these people might be open to new information. One said "a lot of people were expressing uncertainty as they were sharing their thoughts with me, and they were saying that this felt so complicated to them." Respondents also didn't feel as if they had anyone they could trust to help them sort out the questions they still had but were interested in learning more, researchers noted. If a few of them take the initiative to tune in to the hearing today, they aren't going to see a typical partisan food fight but rather a sober inquiry featuring cooperating Republican witnesses laying out the facts. And what they will learn is that Donald Trump's story about the stolen election is a Big Lie and everything else that happened was a fraud to illegitimately hold on to power.

The committee starting with Trump's lies about the stolen election is necessary to understand everything that came next. He was laying the groundwork long before even one vote was cast. Trump knew he would never concede no matter what. In fact, he told us so all the way back in 2016. Why would wehave ever thought otherwise?

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Bigger than Trump: Republicans will expose how the Big Lie took control of the GOP - Salon

Former President Donald Trump wields a powerful spell over Illinois Republicans with a majority declaring him as their top choice for the White House in 2024 and even more believing legally he should still be there.

More than two-thirds of the states GOP voters believe Trump actually won the 2020 election. And nearly nine out of ten still like the combative former president.

Those are some of the conclusions of a new Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ Poll that takes the political pulse of a state GOP eagerly trying to regain its political footing in Springfield but facing a split between its rising Trump-allegiant wing and its longtime establishment wing seeking to avoid being clipped.

Trump lost Illinois by 17 percentage points in 2020. But Republicans here arent bailing on him, despite that reelection drubbing, his double impeachment or bipartisan congressional hearings aimed at highlighting his bellicose role in the fatal Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.

President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a rally Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington

Those undeniable and historic stains on Trumps record seem virtually unnoticed by some of the Republicans polled by the Sun-Times and WBEZ.

In fact, its almost like none of it happened or matters. Large numbers of Illinois Republicans still put Trump on a pedestal alongside arguably the partys most revered president of the 20th Century, Ronald Reagan, a product of downstate Tampico.

One of the big stories from this poll is it really shows Trumps continued hold on Republican primary voters, said Jim Williams, a polling analyst with Public Policy Polling, the North Carolina-based pollster that conducted the Sun-Times/WBEZ survey on June 6 and 7.

Nationally, Trumps grip on the Republican Party has come under question, particularly after he whiffed in his high-profile primary endorsements in Georgia, Nebraska, Idaho and North Carolina, where he failed to secure reelection for controversial Rep. Madison Cawthorn.

But the Land of Lincoln is solid Trump turf for Illinois Republicans, the Sun-Times/WBEZ Poll suggests.

I know theres been some speculation over the past several months as these primaries have played out whether or not Donald Trump and those Republican primary voters are still in lockstep with each other, Williams said. I think at least on the results of this poll, were seeing a lot of indications that they are.

The survey of 677 likely Republican primary voters also found an overwhelming majority fall into the election-denier category with 67% saying they do not believe the results of the 2020 presidential election were legitimate. Only 18% thought President Joe Biden actually won, while 15% were unsure.

Thats after more than 60 lawsuits were filed by Trump loyalists in state and federal courts around the country alleging fraud in the 2020 presidential election and all failed to yield any evidence to prove it. In February 2021, a series of election-challenge cases were rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court a court on which Trump placed three justices.

In opening hearings Thursday by the House January 6th committee, recorded testimony from former Attorney General William Barr revealed Trumps loyal Cabinet official calling the former presidents claims of a stolen election b----. Trumps own daughter, Ivanka, said she accepted Barrs assessment that her father lost the election in additional recorded testimony presented by the committee.

Yet, what does the poll suggest Illinois Republicans believe?

The 2020 election was bogus case closed.

I mean, theres multiple, multiple cases of evidence that this was not a fair election, and nobody wanted to look into it. None of the judges wanted to take the case or anything, and its just really sad, said Diana Kint, a 60-year-old homemaker from south suburban Crete who participated in the poll.

Supporters of former President Donald Trump protest on East Higgins Road in October, hours before President Joe Biden was scheduled to speak at a nearby construction site in Elk Grove Village.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file

I think that the reason [Biden] is so unpopular is because nobody wanted him in the first place well not nobody, but you know what Im saying, not enough.

Even though Trumps loss is indisputable, his appeal is off the charts among Republicans statewide 86% view him favorably, according to the poll. And a majority said theyd be more likely to vote for candidates for other offices who had supported him in the past.

Additionally, those answering the poll said the largest group victimized by racism and bigotry is white people, echoing the theme of white grievance that Trump has championed as a candidate and as president.

Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed believed Trump should run again for president in 2024, with 28% suggesting it was time for the party to move on to another candidate.

But other Republicans considered potential presidential candidates would likely have a tough time beating the former president in an Illinois primary.

Just over half of the states GOP voters chose Trump as their choice in a theoretical 2024 Republican primary.

Considering the way everything is turning out now, how Joe Biden was going to be the savior and unifier and thats not happening, I think [Trump] definitely will run, and hell have my support, said Joe Turkos, a 52-year-old South Loop resident who participated in the Sun-Times/WBEZ poll.

Hes probably in my opinion one of the better presidents that weve had at least in my lifetime, said Turkos, who manages a gym and came around and voted for Trump in 2020 after initially supporting Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Aside from Ronald Reagan, I think he was the most effective Republican president because he governed more as a conservative, his America First platform. Its great. I liked how he was tough on China. He was tough on Russia. He was tough on Iran.

The poll found Trumps next closest rival among the states GOP voters is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom 23% identified as their top choice for president. Trumps past running mate, former Vice President Mike Pence, drew support from only 6% of Illinois Republicans.

Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, Cruz, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott and Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio drew only single-digit support as top 2024 presidential candidates in the poll. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley received no support.

Thats in contrast to a presidential election straw poll conducted last weekend at the Western Conservative Summit in Colorado that showed DeSantis topping Trump, 71% to 67.7%. The next closest was Cruz with 28%. DeSantis also topped Trump in the same poll last year, in a convention dubbed the largest gathering of conservatives in the Western United States.

Those results notwithstanding, the former president still carries robust approval ratings among Illinois Republicans, the poll found.

Eighty-six percent said they either had a very or somewhat favorable opinion of Trump with only 12% indicating any kind of unfavorable view. And the majority of those voters really liked Trump 58% viewed him very favorably.

Biden has just totally destroyed our economy, our border, pretty much everything else hes touched, said Joseph Sikora, a 60-year-old semi-retired home builder from downstate Collinsville, who participated in the poll.

Thats enough for Sikora to once again root for a Trump comeback.

A deeper look at Trumps popularity among Illinois Republicans shows he continues to have what can only be seen as massive support in all corners of the state with his strongest showing in the collar counties, where 88% view him favorably. Among downstate and suburban Cook Republicans, his favorability stands at 86% and in Chicago at 74%.

Whether that popularity rubs off on other candidates has been a hit-or-miss proposition. Trump has mostly stayed out of Illinois politics since leaving the White House, though he has endorsed downstate Rep. Mary Miller in her primary against fellow Republican Rep. Rodney Davis.

In the Republican gubernatorial primary, state Sen. Darren Bailey has made no secret of his efforts to curry favor with the ex-president, visiting Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for a Miller fundraiser in late April. No endorsement has materialized, but that hasnt seemed to harm Bailey, who is up 15 percentage points over Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin in the Sun-Times/WBEZ poll.

The same poll also found that Illinois Republicans embraced some of the same white grievance ideology that Trump championed while in the White House.

Illinois GOP voters were asked to identify who suffers the most from racism and bigotry from a list of different segments of the population. Thirty-six percent of respondents chose white people. The next closest groups were African-Americans with 15%, Jews at 8%, Asian Americans and gay, lesbian and transgender people at 4% and Muslims at 2%.

Kint, the Crete homemaker who participated in the poll, attributed those results to the teaching of critical race theory, a concept built around the idea that racism isnt simply the result of personal prejudices but instead something long woven into the law. Several Republican-led states have taken steps to ban critical race theory teaching in public classrooms.

This critical race theory stuff is teaching people that white people are just automatically the bad guys, she said. I have three children. One of them one time came home from public schools, saying, White males are the bane of society or something like that. They teach that stuff in school. She didnt learn that from me.

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Most Illinois Republican voters dont believe Trump really lost in 2020 - Chicago Sun-Times

The truth is that Heritage and other Republican institutionsand leaders downplaying or reversing their stances on interventionism areresponding to other things besides economic priorities. Republicans areaccommodating themselves to realities overseas. Chinas rise the last twodecades while the United States was preoccupied with failed military adventuresin Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, alongside the hundreds of thousands ofAmerican veterans and contractors killed or wounded in the war on terrorallthis has helped turn the conservative base against once prominent notions aboutAmerican indispensability in world affairs. These developments,more than fiscal worries,are whatsdriving a foreign policy rethink among Republicans.Its about much more than that, says Trumps former Office of Management andBudget director Russ Vought, who heads a think tank called the Center forRenewing America.

Under Voughts leadership, the CRA campaigns to end endless wars, in those exactwords. Over the last several decades, the United States has abandoned aprincipled, clear-headed approach of realism and restraint to interventionism,reads the organizations website, using the type of language that used to bemarginal in the conservative moment and Republican Party. The CRA opposesexpanding NATO to include Finland and Sweden and rejects providing further aidto Ukraine. More ominously for progressives hoping to ally with conservatives skepticalof militarism, there is the whiff of nativism in the centers warning that Americas plan to accept refugees from Afghanistan means importinghundreds of thousands of people who do not share American cultural, political,or ideological commonalities [and] poses serious risks to both nationalsecurity and broader social cohesion.

Trump succeeded in making this combination of militaryprudence and xenophobia a permanent (for now, anyway) fixture of conservativepolitics, in ways that have yet to be fully incorporated by the RepublicanParty leadership. There is a movement to build on where the Trumppresidency was, says Vought. Trump remains deeply popular with GOP voters, and hisforeign policy worldview has been adopted by people like Tucker Carlson, theinfluential Fox News host who has called for President Joe Biden to push foran end to the war in Ukraine instead of single-handedly prolonging it.

Read more here:
Theres a Big War Brewing Among Republicans Over Well, War - The New Republic

I think that would backfire on people, if they try to run for something that is not there yet, the House minority leader told POLITICO. McCarthy didnt speak specifically about Ferguson, currently the GOP deputy whip, but took a subtle jab when asked about the only whip contender actively seeking backers: I think what people want to see is people who are doing their job.

Vying privately for a leadership role before a midterm election amounts to the trickiest of tightrope walks in Congress. Members of both parties often do try to make early noise about leadership bids in private, but the appearance of premature campaigning if too overt risks attracting scrutiny or even blowback from colleagues.

Look, Im a former whip. And that job opened up after we won the election, McCarthy recalled. And I think one of the reasons why I was able to win the job as whip, only in my third term, was because we focused on winning the majority. And I think that is a greater attribute that people would look at.

Scalise offered a different view, citing various members who are already having conversations with people about what they would go for if Republicans win the majority this fall, as polling and historical trends indicate is highly likely. The Louisianan summed up his view as all about priorities: Winning the majority has to be the top of the list.

Among the Republicans already laying the groundwork for a whip bid, Rep. Drew Ferguson of Georgia is the only one openly seeking backers.|Alex Wong/Getty Images

When asked about Ferguson, Scalise cited his allys fundraising and travel on behalf of House Republicans before adding that the people that are putting in the work to help us win the majority are what our members are most concerned about. Drews been one of those leaders helping work hard to get us in the majority so that we can then worry about whos going to have which titles.

Scalise declined to say whether hes supporting Ferguson for whip in the next Congress, noting that hes going to wait until after the election to make a determination. But many House Republicans have read a series of recent developments as Scalise all but publicly throwing his support behind his chief deputy for the role.

Those moves include Ferguson hiring on two key staffers from Scalises office, which coincided with the Georgian taking over sending vote wrap-up emails to the conference that Scalises office previously handled. POLITICO first reported that Ferguson was the only candidate in the race asking colleagues for their support, including hosting dinners where he has laid out his vision for the role.

Ferguson, for his part, echoed Scalise that the conferences key focus is winning the majority.

Were going to stay focused on putting candidates and members in the best possible position to win so that we can have the largest majority possible going into the next session, said Ferguson. That is the prize that were fighting for. And we dont take our eyes off the prize.

Meanwhile, some House GOP hands recall that McCarthy and Scalise both followed a similar playbook to Fergusons. One former senior leadership aide, speaking candidly on condition of anonymity, said the current GOP leader and whip both positioned themselves before Election Day while running for whip.

There is precedent for what Drew is doing, the aide added.

But behind the scenes, Ferguson already has formidable potential competition.

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), chair of the Republican Study Committee, is having exploratory conversations with members about the potential of jumping into the race. Asked if he is running for the whip role, Banks replied: Right now, we ought to be focused on winning back the majority and Ill be looking at where I fit in.

National Republican Committee Chair Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) is also viewed as a likely candidate for whip after a GOP takeover, even though he has not started to have such conversations. Doing so would break from the core message the House GOPs campaign chief sent to members: that their attention should stay on winning in November.

And Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the current conference chair, could still pursue the whips spot, though its unclear whether she has redirected her future ambitions to another senior position. Despite some colleagues previously seeing signs of her gearing up for a run for the No. 3 role, the Washington Examiner has reported that shes preparing to step back from a whip run.

Other Republicans now forecast a return to her earlier interest in the Education and Labor Committee chairmanship, which would keep Stefaniks options open if a top contender stumbles after the midterms in other higher-ranked leadership races.

Stefaniks office has repeatedly dismissed questions about her future ambitions, saying she is solely focused on her role as the House GOP messaging chief.

Broadly speaking, the dynamics of the whip race changed significantly after Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) announced earlier this year that he plans not to seek the role in the next Congress, choosing to instead remain on the Financial Services Committee. And despite McCarthys views on early campaigning, Ferguson and potentially Banks will be able to spend months building support in the leadup to the election while Emmer will be hamstrung by November.

But if the two-term NRCC chair can take credit for a sizable majority heading into the new Congress, he could earn a heap of member goodwill and cash in with a run.

That would mark a turnabout from 2010, when then-NRCC chair Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) was interested in becoming whip after leading Republicans back into the majority but ended up losing to McCarthy who had started campaigning earlier.

Sessions said he recalled McCarthy asking members for support, an easier feat for the Californian since, unlike Sessions, he wasnt hamstrung by a different leadership position at the time.

I needed to keep my focus instead of asking people, which puts them in a difficult position. So I chose to wait, Sessions recalled.

Continued here:
McCarthy issues warning to Republicans openly vying for whip - POLITICO

If Republicans take back some control of Congress in Novembers midterm elections, what could a divided Washington end up delivering?

GOP and Democratic politicians may feel like they have to do something about inflation, so you might see a move to suspend or reduce the federal gas tax, said Yuval Levin, an expert at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

The White House previously has said that a gasoline RB00, -1.66% tax holiday is an option under consideration as the Biden administration seeks to give Americans relief from high prices, though analysts have cautioned that monkeying with that tax would take away funds that were supposed to be needed for major infrastructure PAVE, -3.30% projects.

The annual rate ofinflation rose to 8.6% in May, topping forecasts and marking a fresh 40-year high. High gasoline and food prices as well as rising rents helped drive up the latest reading for the consumer price index, or CPI.

There may be room for compromise on family policy, Levin also said, with his remarks coming Monday during a Bipartisan Policy Center event titled Previewing a Potential Republican Congress.

GOP Sen. Mitt Romneys child benefit proposal won some support from Democrats as well as from Republicans, and I think it might be an area where you could think about a reform or transformation of the child tax credit along the lines that he proposed.

The Biden White House in December expressed openness to working with Romney on child tax credit payments, as the Utah lawmaker called for a bipartisan approach on the issue. Romney has proposed a program similar to the monthly CTC payouts that ended last year due toopposition from Democratic Sen. Joe Manchinof West Virginia, who criticized other parts of President Joe Bidens Build Back Better plan as well.

Levin noted the bipartisan deal on new gun-safety measures that was reached over the weekend involves empowering local and state authorities, and that type of approach could get further traction after the midterm elections.

On crime, we may see some action, because crime is an area where again its possible to operate by empowering local authorities and giving them options, and it may be that theres room for compromise there, said Levin, whose title at AEI is director of social, cultural, and constitutional studies and Beth and Ravenel Curry chair in public policy.

And actually President Biden has real experience on that front as a legislator himself in advancing ideas that did win a lot of Republican support in the 1990s.

To be sure, Levin said its tough to predict what a divided Washington could accomplish and he sees a strong likelihood of little action next year as both parties start to focus on the 2024 presidential election.

Youre also going to see a lot of posturing and a lot of messaging bills where Republicans just try to put Democrats in a tough place looking to 2024. Its hard to avoid thinking that thats a lot of what a Republican Congress would end up doing, he said.

Republicans are widely expected to regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the midterm elections, and the GOP is getting good odds for taking back the 50-50 Senate, too.

See: Republicans may win not just House but also Senate in midterm elections here are 2022s Senate races to watch

And read: Biden talks up his efforts to tame high prices, as analysts see rough midterm elections for him unless inflation abates

U.S. stocks SPX, -3.12% DJIA, -2.26% traded sharply lower Monday as financial markets continued to reel from a surprise acceleration in inflation just days ahead of a Federal Reserve interest-rate decision.

Read more from the original source:
If Republicans win in midterm elections, watch for action on gas tax holiday, child tax credit and crime, expert says - MarketWatch