Arizona Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) Gave Trump A Powerful, Perhaps Mortal, Blow
Aside from Trump vowing he would never ride a bicycle, something no one could possibly ever doubt-- he said something else that made some news today. On Saturday, the Texas Republican Party convention met in Houston and exposed itself as a domestic terror and hate group. Trump tweeted on his neo-Nazi twitter rip-off social media platform: "Look at the Great State of Texas and their powerful Republican Party Platform on the 2020 Presidential Election Fraud. After much research and study, they disavow the national result for President."
The Texas Tribune reported that "the Great State of Texas and their powerful Republican Party Platform" also elucidated lots of other indications of what the Great State of Texas and their powerful Republican Party Platform is all about. It declared that Biden "was not legitimately elected" and formally rebuked Sen. John Cornyn for taking part in bipartisan gun talks. They also voted on a platform that declares homosexuality "an abnormal lifestyle choice" and calls for Texas schoolchildren "to learn about the humanity of the preborn child."
The convention reinforced the extent to which former President Donald J. Trump’s unfounded claims of a stolen election continue to resound among the party faithful — even though his claims have repeatedly been debunked, including by many of his own former aides, and after a week of televised hearings about the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The denunciation of Cornyn represented a remarkable rebuke to a Republican who has served in the Senate since 2002. The hall at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston filled with boos on Friday as he tried to explain the legislation, which would allow juvenile records to be incorporated into background checks for gun buyers younger than 21 and encourage “red flag” laws that would make it easier to remove guns from potentially dangerous people, along with more funding for school safety and mental health.
Meanwhile, the party platform vote on Saturday by roughly 5,100 convention delegates would argue that those under 21 are “most likely to need to defend themselves” and may need to quickly buy guns “in emergencies such as riots.” It also would say that red flag laws violate the due process rights of people who haven’t been convicted of a crime.
The new platform would call for:
Requiring Texas students “to learn about the humanity of the preborn child,” including teaching that life begins at fertilization and requiring students to listen to live ultrasounds of gestating fetuses.
Amending the Texas Constitution to remove the Legislature’s power “to regulate the wearing of arms, with a view to prevent crime.”
Treating homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle choice,” language that was not included in the 2018 or 2020 party platforms.
Deeming gender identity disorder “a genuine and extremely rare mental health condition,” requiring official documents to adhere to “biological gender,” and allowing civil penalties and monetary compensation to “de-transitioners” who have received gender-affirming surgery, which the platform calls a form of medical malpractice.
Changing the U.S. Constitution to cement the number of Supreme Court justices at nine and repeal the 16th Amendment of 1913, which created the federal income tax.
Ensuring “freedom to travel” by opposing Biden’s Clean Energy Plan and “California-style, anti-driver policies,” including efforts to turn traffic lanes over for use by pedestrians, cyclists and mass transit.
Declaring “all businesses and jobs as essential and a fundamental right,” a response to COVID-19 mandates by Texas cities that required customers to wear masks and limited business hours.
Abolishing the Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank, and guaranteeing the right to use alternatives to cash, including cryptocurrencies.
Meanwhile, far right activists were chasing elected Republican Party officials around the convention center screaming at them and threatening them, including Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Dan Crenshaw. Watch this video-- recorded live at the convention-- of "the Great State of Texas and their powerful Republican Party Platform."
During the hearings this afternoon, CNN reported that Trump was basically sitting at his golf club in Bedminster, NJ fuming and ranting (not bike riding)-- against his fellow Republicans. "Tucked away at his Bedminster golf club, Trump has spent the past week venting his frustrations to nearly anyone who will listen. He has also taken his complaints about the committee on the road, lashing out at the congressional panel during a speech to conservatives in Nashville last Friday. 'I don’t understand why Kevin didn’t put anyone on the committee,' Trump has recently griped to those around him."
Trump’s growing frustration with the absence of any hard core supporters on the select committee-- which has given the panel uninterrupted air time and deprived Republicans of the ability to cross-examine witnesses in real time-- is just the latest example of how the public hearings have gotten under his skin. The former President has previously complained about his lack of allies on the committee, though he has become especially exasperated over the last week with his inability to preemptively respond to the committee’s findings without knowing what the panel plans to reveal during each hearing.
Trump has also publicly and privately lashed out at former Vice President Mike Pence, whose chief of staff Marc Short and former top White House lawyer Greg Jacob have both been featured prominently in the select committee hearings, putting an unflattering spotlight on the pressure campaign Trump directed at Pence and others as he desperately attempted to stay in power.
...Stuck in this high pressure atmosphere, Trump has started to direct his anger at people both inside and outside his orbit, from McCarthy and Pence to his former chief of staff Mark Meadows and Attorney General Bill Barr.
...Trump was caught off guard by seeing his daughter, Ivanka Trump, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner appear in a video clip during the first televised hearing, even though he knew they had both spoken with the committee. The former President complained to aides at the time that his daughter’s testimony was taken out of context and deliberately included to embarrass him, according to a person close to Trump.
...Pence isn’t the only White House veteran caught in Trump’s line of fire.
The former President has also complained to allies about the content of text messages that Meadows provided to the committee before halting his cooperation. Messages to Trump’s then-chief of staff from his own adult children, on-air allies at Fox News, and some of his staunchest supporters on Capitol Hill have revealed just how desperate some were for Trump to condemn the violence at the US Capitol in a timely manner-- and their absolute exasperation with his initial response.
Testimony from at least two former Meadows aides, Cassidy Hutchison and Alyssa Farah, has also proved critical in the ongoing January 6 probe, with Hutchison reportedly revealing in her closed-door deposition that Meadows burned papers in his office following a meeting with Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania where the two men discussed efforts to reject the 2020 election results. Perry was the first person to connect the then-President with Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark, who Trump considered putting in charge of the top law enforcement agency to help implement plans to overturn his defeat.