You may have seen the PBS-Marist poll yesterday that found 1 in 5 Americans— primarily MAGAts of course— are willing to embrace political violence. The pollsters wrote that “Common ground exists among many Americans on the issues dominating the political discourse. Most Americans acknowledge having friends with different political beliefs than their own (81%). Americans are also united in their agreement that corporate greed is a major cause of inflation (72%), Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election (71%), and the American Dream is still attainable (68%). Consensus also exists in Americans’ opposition to legal action against those who have had an abortion (84%), to the use of violence to get the nation back on track (79%), the granting of immunity to a president for crimes committed during his Presidency (75%), and the influence of religion on government policy (75%).”
Unfortunately, these violent MAGAts vote and this year some of them have an opportunity to vote for like-minded candidates— insurrectionists who participated in the J-6 riot. As far as I know, there is just one current member of Congress who was elected after participating in the riot— Wisconsin crackpot Derrick Van Orden. With Trump pledging to pardon the insurrectionists found guilty— mostly of violence against law enforcement and serving time in jail— his party is running participants in the failed coup for various offices around the country. “Kimberly Dragoo,” reported Diana Paulson, “who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, is running for a seat on the St. Joseph Board of Education in Missouri. Michele Morrow won the Republican primary for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Education and will face democrat Mo Green in November. Morrow has said publicly that she attended the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally on Jan. 6 but that she did not enter the Capitol building… Morrow has recently gained national prominence for past social media posts in which she called for violence against prominent Democrats, including calls for the execution of President Joe Biden and then-President Barack Obama… Jason Riddle pleaded guilty to entering the Capitol and theft of government property and was sentenced to 90 days in prison. Now, he is running for Congress in New Hampshire’s Second District.”
There are more. “Anthony Kern [who should have been executed for treason] is a current member of the Arizona Senate who signed a document falsely ‘certifying’ the Arizona election for Trump as a fake elector. Kern attended the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally and was outside the Capitol while rioters entered it; multiple news outlets identified him in video of the day posted online. Kern tweeted on Jan. 6 that he was in Washington for ‘D-Day,’ using the hashtag #StopTheSteal… Kern had an ethics complaint filed against him for allegedly using campaign funds for his travel expenses to attend the Jan. 6 rally, but he has not responded to requests for a reply, the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office said. He is currently the subject of a state criminal investigation for his role as a fake elector. He has denied all wrongdoing. Kern is running for Congress in Arizona’s 8th District, where he faces several opponents in the race to replace retiring Republican Debbie Lesko.” Crackpot Jacob Chansley, the ‘QAnon Shaman,’ claims he’s running in the same district but on the Libertarian Party line.
Paulsen also noted that “Derrick Evans, a former West Virginia state lawmaker, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three months in prison on a felony charge for his role on Jan. 6. Now, he is running for Congress in the state’s 1st District. He will face incumbent Republican Carol Miller in a May 14 primary.”
On Tuesday, Just Security posted that Señor Trumpanzee “has made the January 6th defendants central to his campaign. It is ‘most likely,’ Trump has said, that he would pardon ‘a large portion of them.’ One of his ‘first acts’ in office, Trump wrote last month, would be to ‘Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongly imprisoned!’ It can be difficult for journalists and the public to isolate which January 6th defendants Trump has in mind. However, Trump has taken a particular interest in the January 6th defendants held in Washington, D.C.”
On Mar. 22, Trump posted on Truth Social a flier advertising a nightly vigil for the inmates held by the D.C. Department of Corrections. “Stand in solidarity with our January 6th Political Prisoners in the DC jail as we honor their bravery,” the flier reads. “At 9:00pm, everyone stops what they are doing to stand in solidarity as we all sing the National Anthem together.” Trump captioned the flier with his own announcement of the vigil.
The vigil is organized by Micki Witthoeft, the mother of Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter and QAnon adherent who was shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol Police officer on Jan. 6, 2021. Babbitt was attempting to climb through a broken window in a door leading to the Speaker’s Lobby of the U.S. Capitol at the time. Rioters broke the glass and pounded on the doors as members of Congress were evacuating just feet away.
Witthoeft said that Trump called her that same day (Mar. 22) to discuss “setting these guys free when he gets in.” According to the Washington Post, Witthoeft added that Trump “said to pass that on to the guys inside that they’re on his mind, and when he gets in they’ll get out.”
…January 6th D.C. inmates include individuals with known far-right extremist beliefs or ties. One of them is a member of the Proud Boys, while another has been identified as an associate of the group. (Trump has said he would consider pardoning senior leaders of the Proud Boys who have been convicted of seditious conspiracy for their actions leading up to and on January 6th.) The Department of Justice describes still another January 6th D.C. inmate, who pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement with a dangerous weapon, as associate of the Wolverine Watchmen, an extremist group comprised of individuals convicted in the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.” Other D.C. January 6th inmates expressed their disdain for the U.S. government, with one writing: “F— ALL THESE GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS.” Still another stood in front of a gallows constructed outside the U.S. Capitol and allegedly said that lawmakers “need to hang from these motherfuckers.”
Only 2 of the 29 January 6th D.C. inmates have not been charged with assaulting law enforcement officers. One of them allegedly engaged in other disturbing behavior, including stalking then House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and former President Barack Obama. He allegedly aired a video about January 6th at an elementary school in Raskin’s neighborhood. And when Donald Trump posted what he thought was Obama’s address in Washington, D.C., this January 6th defendant drove his van, along with firearms and ammunition, to Obama’s neighborhood, looking for ways to gain access to the former president.
This morning, Max Cohen wrote a little update on the vicious primary between two fascists— Virginia incumbent Bob Good and challenger John McGuire. It would surprise no one if either came to work one morning sporting a Hitler mustache. Many people were surprised that the hatred for Good was so intense that the Main Street Caucus’ PAC endorsed McGuire, who many of the members have pointed out, isn’t exactly your typical “governing conservative” type. Cohen wrote that “In conversations with top Main Street members, there’s befuddlement about the decision to meddle in Good’s primary. To be clear, the political wing of the Main Street Caucus— the Defending Main Street PAC— operates independently from the official group. But the group’s Hill leaders nevertheless expressed a notable amount of suspicion over the move directed by their off-campus allies. ‘I’m certainly not going to give John McGuire any money, I’ll tell you that,’ Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), the Main Street chair, told us.”
Like nearly all the violent insurrectionists with electoral aspirations who were caught at the J-6 insurrection, McGuire claims he neither entered the Capitol through a broken window nor struck a law enforcement officer over the head with a deadly weapon. But, judging by the support he’s gotten from Marjorie Traitor Greene, few believe he was “just passing by.” Several people claim the former marine was in the midst of the violence and changed his story when the coup failed. I guess Traitor Greene thinks he'd make a great minority whip next year.
