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This year, Pence has taken on a new persona among the crowda Trump era castoff who is probably better off not showing his face. And he seems to know it. The former veep was invited to the conference but decided not to attend. It was the first time Pence had missed the conference in five years.

I was such a big fan of his but that part of the Republican Party is the educational elites the old horses are on their way out, said Mary Obersteadt, the immediate past president of Nashville Republican Women. She wore rhinestone Trump and DeSantis pins on her conference lanyard. I respect him for what he did and how he served this nation but hes so disappointing when he - he should have communicated and stayed with Trump with Jan. 6, they should have been on the same level.

Pences absence from this years conference was due to a scheduling conflict, according to the conference organizers and Pences team. On Thursday, he attended a roundtable with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.

But while he still is rooted in the Christian conservative community, having attended an event with the Coalition in North Carolina to engage Chrisitan voters in the Charlotte area, his decision to skip the Faith & Freedom gathering underscores the crossroads he currently finds himself in politically.

I think hes seeking Gods direction for his decision on what to do next, said Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor at First Baptist Dallas, who is close to both Pence and Trump, and sits on the advisory board for Pences political group, Advancing American Freedom.

At a time when Pences main ideological causes are on the cusp of historic successwith the Supreme Court set to overturn the landmark abortion rights case, Roe v. Wade he finds himself in the thick of intra-party drama. This week, the House select committee investigating the riots on Capitol Hill zeroed in on Pences decision to resist Donald Trumps pressure for him to block certification of the Electoral College vote count.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump points to the crowd after giving the keynote address at the Faith & Freedom Coalition during their annual "Road To Majority Policy Conference" on June 17, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee.|Seth Herald/Getty Images

While Pence has, so far, dodged discussing the committees proceedings, Trump used his own appearance at the Faith & Freedom conference to attack his veep.

Mike Pence had a chance to be great, he had a chance to be frankly historic, Trump said. But Mike did not have the courage to act.

It was a remarkable moment for a conference that in past years served as a celebration for the former vice president as a top conservative Christian leader. But things have changed since Trump left office. Last year, in the shadow of Jan. 6, Pence was jeered by the crowd and called a traitor while on stage. Now, when asked about what they think of Pence or how they view his political future, attendees sighed or visibly shrugged.

Thats a good question, said Sandi McGuire, a Christian minister from Raleigh, North Carolina. I havent seen him much. I dont like speaking adverse toward anyone, he did great work. He came here last year and a percentage booed him. Im not sure in fairness where he is. I wish him the best but he hasnt been anywhere to be found.

Its kind of hard, its a hard one, said Emily Hinojos from Rutherford, N.C. when asked about Pences political future. I dont know where hes at since Jan 6. Its hard to tell youre not in their shoes but we would have liked him to support Trump better.

The mood of the crowd at Faith & Freedom reflected the degree to which Republican politicians are judged not so much by their ideologies but by their relationship to Trump. Ralph Reed, a Republican strategist and founder of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, is close with both Trump and Pence. But when asked if he was surprised by Trumps attacks, he would only say he consulted with Trumps speechwriters yesterday.

If Mike Pence wanted to come and wanted to offer a rejoinder to these folks, he could have done it. Im not saying he should have done it. I told him when I saw him a couple weeks ago, no harm no foul, but I said I want you here next year and hell be there, Reed said to a small group of reporters after Trumps speech.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump exits the stage after giving the keynote address at the Faith & Freedom Coalition during their annual "Road To Majority Policy Conference" on June 17, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee.|Seth Herald/Getty Images

Pences own relationship with Trump is deeply complicated. For a few months after leaving the White House, the two would occasionally speak. But they havent talked for a year now even though their paths have occasionally crossed, including when both men addressed top Republican donors at a retreat in New Orleans in March. Trump continues to admonish his former vice president in public, while Pence has remained firm in his decision to certify the election.

In recent months, Pence has turned his focus to the midterms. Hes offered endorsements in key midterm races like Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and held a fundraiser for incumbent Rep. Steve Chabot on Thursday. On Monday, he is set to deliver a speech on the economy at the University Club of Chicago.

Our path is a little bit different than everybody else is at this point, said a person close to Pences political operation, who defended Pences decision to not go to the Nashville cattle call. And whether he decided to do this thing or not, he doesnt have to go there to get coverage.

But its unclear how Pence can build up a national profile if he were to lose the full support of his bedrock constituency: Evangelicals. Not everyone in his camp is worried. Aides to Pence say he holds appeal across the Republican party.

Vice President Pence checks the hawk lane. He checks the traditional GOP lane. And obviously probably the biggest one is the Evangelical lane, said the Pence ally.

And Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of The Family Leader, a conservative Christian parent organization for the Iowa Family Policy Center, said Pences support remains strong among social conservatives and Evangelicals in Iowa, especially as support of Trump wanes.

Not to play Bob Seger on you, but I think theyre looking to turn the page, Vander Plaats said of Iowa voters he talks to. Take the best of Trump, and lets see if Ron DeSantis can carry on that fightor Mike Pence or Mike Pompeo or Ted Cruz or whoever you throw into that match.

But among those in Nashville this weekend, Pence seemed more a relic of the past than an element of the future. None of the merchandise stalls that lined the entrance to the conference ballroom featured Pences name, while there were piles of red, white, and blue Trump and Trump 2024 t-shirts and hats for sale.

I feel like he was mistreated so long he wanted to give his soul a break and his family. I dont think its political, its personal he doesnt want to get attacked right now, said Krista Kiepke from Clarksville, Tenn. Jesus himself removed from the disciples to refresh so he could do his job so I look at it as that.

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Pence skips Faith & Freedom conference. Is attacked by Trump anyways. - POLITICO

Mick Foley believes former United States President Donald Trump should be removed from the WWE Hall of Fame.

Today seems like a good day to remove Donald Trump from the#WWEHOF

Foley was seemingly reacting to Thursdays hearing on the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitol, which focused on then-Vice President Mike Pences refusal to comply with Trumps scheme to overturn the 2020 United States elections. During the hearing, Pences aides testified that his refusal never wavered under immense pressure from Trump and that he was targeted during the January 6 riots. Following the hearing, the congressional panel led by Bennie Thompson accused Trump of an attempted coup to remain in power.

Former WWE Superstar Tatanka, meanwhile, disagreed with Foleys take, as seen below.

This isnt the first instance of Foley imploring WWE to remove Trump from its Hall of Fame. Soon after pro-Trump protestors stormed the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021, Foley sent out the following tweet directed at WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon.

Incidentally, Foley and Trump were both inducted together into the WWE Hall of Fame, as part of the class of 2013. While Foley was inducted by longtime rival and friend Terry Funk, Trump was inducted into the celebrity wing by Vince McMahon.

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Mick Foley Calls For Donald Trump To Be Removed From WWE Hall Of Fame - Wrestling Inc.

Fox News host Sean Hannity claimed former president Donald Trump is "the one person that looks good" after the first January 6 committee hearing on Thursday.

Hannity, a longtime Trump ally, sought to frame the riot as a security failure for which Congress was responsible.

"This is now about a security failure of incredible magnitude and they don't even seem to want to talk about it. The one person that looks good is Donald Trump," he said.

Hannity repeated a widely debunked claim that Trump had called for up to 20,000 National Guard troops to secure the Capitol before the insurrection.

The myth originates in a claim previously made by Trump that he asked for 10,000 National Guard troops to be at the Capitol, which he claimed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected.

Pelosi's spokesperson has said that her office did not receive any requests for the National Guard ahead of January 6, per PolitiFact.

Hannity and other Fox News hosts have since apparently inflated the number of troops that Trump allegedly requested to 20,000, without any evidence, according to Media Matters.

During Thursday's hearing, lawmakers said that Trump took no action on January 6 to deploy law enforcement to protect the Capitol.

"Not only did President Trump refuse to tell the mob to leave the Capitol, he placed no call to any element of the United States government to instruct that the Capitol be defended," Rep. Liz Cheney said.

Fox News' prime-time shows chose not to air the hearing on Thursday, even as text messages between Hannity and former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany were read out as evidence.

In the texts, Hannity advises McEnany that there should be "no more stolen election talk" and "no more crazy people."

The January 6 committee previously released panicked text messages from Hannity to Trump's inner circle before, during, and after the Capitol riot.

In the texts, Hannity expressed concern about Trump's actions and urged Trump's then-chief of staff, Mark Meadows. to get him to make a statement asking the rioters to leave peacefully.

Despite his apparent private concern, Hannity has maintained support for Trump on the airwaves and has sought to downplay his role in the Capitol riot.

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Fox News' Sean Hannity: Donald Trump 'Looks Good' After Jan. 6 Hearing

The primary in Nevada is another reminder of the unusually high stakes in this years campaigns for election administration positions longtime political backwaters that have gotten little attention in the past. But followers of former President Donald Trump and his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him have poured into secretary of state races in 2022, especially in the battleground states that will play a key role in deciding the next presidential contest.

Election integrity proponents were relieved when Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who stood up against Trumps demands to find more votes, survived a reelection challenge last month from a Trump-backed challenger.

But secretary of state contests still to come demonstrate that the Trump movements drive to control election offices is far from over.

In Pennsylvania, where the governor appoints the secretary of state, Trump-backed Doug Mastriano won the GOP primary last month. Trump has endorsed secretary of state contenders in other battlegrounds, Arizona and Michigan, as well. And a number of candidates like Marchant are not endorsed by Trump but they have adopted and amplified Trumps false claims about the 2020 election.

If we get just a few of the candidates that we have in our coalition, we save our country, Marchant told Bannon on a podcast earlier this month. Marchant did not respond to an interview request.

Despite his alignment with Trump, who has not endorsed in the Nevada primary but commands broad support in the GOP, Marchant is hardly a lock for Republicans secretary of state nomination on Tuesday.

Public polling has been sparse in this race, but a survey from The Nevada Independent/OH Predictive Insights published on Friday had Marchant deadlocked with developer Jesse Haw at 21 percent each. A plurality of GOP voters, 36 percent, were unsure, with other candidates or none of these combining for another 22 percent.

Haw, who briefly served in the state Senate, has flooded the race with his own cash. As of March 31, the last campaign finance report due, he raised more than $660,000 including more than $450,000 of his own money. That well outpaced the $43,000 that Marchant reported bringing in during the same time period.

Between the two, its kind of a bit of a tossup, said Mike Noble, the chief of research at OH Predictive Insights, noting the high number of undecided voters.

Haw has spent nearly $460,000 on television ads in the contest, according to data from the ad tracking firm AdImpact. Haws ads promote voter ID and say he will make ballot harvesting the practice of a third party collecting and returning voters mail ballots a felony. The spending is nearly double what Marchant and the PAC arm of his coalition Conservatives for Election Integrity have put on the airwaves.

And Haw has also gotten a major assist from a mysterious group called Americans for Secure Elections. That organization has pumped more than $1.7 million into TV ads either boosting Haw or attacking Marchant since the beginning of May, according to AdImpact.

Little is known about Americans for Secure Elections money or motives. In federal disclosures, the group reported receiving $1.15 million from a trio of dark money groups in March, but there is no indication where the funds came from originally. People listed as contacts for the group on state and federal campaign finance documents did not answer requests for comment.

Americans for Secure Elections had previously spent money in Ohios primary to boost Secretary of State Frank LaRose who has defended the 2020 election as fair in the past and easily defeated a challenger who said the election was stolen. (LaRose, however, shifted how he talked about voter fraud outside of Ohio, as he got Trumps endorsement for reelection.)

Haw, who also did not respond to an interview request, said in an email to The Nevada Independent that he too believed that the 2020 election had a lot of shenanigans and potential fraud. Nevertheless, Marchant has sought to cast himself as the true MAGA option in the Republican primary. Looking pretty good in the primary, but I just need to keep working hard and keep up with my cabal Republican establishment opponent who is spending double what I am spending, Marchant told Bannon recently.

Marchant, Haw and others are competing to succeed Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, who was term-limited. Cegavske defended the security of the 2020 election in Nevada, earning a censure from the state Republican Party.

Democrats will nominate Cisco Aguilar, an attorney and former staffer for the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is unopposed in his primary.

Heading into Marchants primary election on Tuesday, his America First Secretary of State Coalition has had a mixed record in primaries. The coalitions biggest victory so far was in Pennsylvania, where Mastriano, a state senator, won the GOP gubernatorial nomination. If he wins the governorship, Mastriano would be able to appoint Pennsylvanias secretary of state.

Mastriano is among the most prominent election deniers in the country, and has highlighted the role his pick to run Pennsylvania elections could play in the future.

I get to appoint the secretary of state, whos delegated from me the power to make the corrections to elections, the voting logs and everything, Mastriano said on a local station in March, according to audio clipped by a Democratic opposition research group. I could decertify every machine in the state with the stroke of a pen.

Mastriano has also repeatedly said he has someone in mind for that role should he win in November, but he has not yet publicly named that person.

Mastrianos campaign did not return a request for comment.

Other successes for the group include Kristina Karamo, the Trump-endorsed secretary candidate in Michigan who effectively won the GOP nomination there in April, and Audrey Trujillo, who ran unopposed in last weeks New Mexico Republican secretary of state primary.

But the coalitions candidates have also lost in a handful of primaries so far including in Nebraska, Idaho and, most notably, Georgia, where Raffensperger defeated the Trump-backed Rep. Jody Hice in a primary.

Later this year, another prominent coalition member facing a GOP primary for secretary of state is Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem.

The Trump-endorsed Finchem is running for the open secretary of state office there, after whipping up support by pushing the much-maligned election review in Maricopa County and urging the decertification of the 2020 election, among other conspiracy theories. Finchem has been much more successful at fundraising than Marchant.

Another prominent candidate is Mesa County, Colo., Clerk Tina Peters, who is looking to challenge Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold. Peters has been indicted for her role in allegedly facilitating unauthorized access to election equipment, and she has been barred from overseeing this years elections in her county.

While the statewide chief election officer positions have drawn the most headlines, Marchant and his alliance have also turned their attention to county-level administrators as well races that garner even less attention than the under-the-radar secretary contests.

I have been recruiting clerks and registrars out here also, Marchant told Bannon on an April show. And Ive encouraged all of our candidates in our coalition to do the same thing.

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Trump backers unbowed in push to overtake state election offices - POLITICO

House Jan. 6 committee says there was no Trump election defense fund even though the campaign fundraised off of it

A screen displays statistics on former President Trump's fraud claims cases for the 2020 election during a hearing by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building on June 13, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol said it discovered that former President Donald Trump's election defense fund never existed.

"The select committee discovered no such fund existed," said Amanda Wick, a member of the committee's senior investigative counsel looking into the insurrection.

The new video evidence presented to the public during the hearing showed two former Trump campaign staffers disputing during testimony that the fund ever existed.

"I don't believe there is a fund called the Election Defense Fund," Hanna Allred, identified by the committee as a former Trump campaign staffer, said in a recorded statement. Gary Coby, a former Trump campaign digital director, told the committee that the defense fund was part of a marketing tactic.

The Trump campaign was regularly trying to raise money after the former president lost the Nov. 2020 election, encouraging donors to give to what fundraising pitches called the "official election defense fund." The committee discovered that the Trump campaign and its allies raised nearly $100 million in the first week after the election.

Brian Schwartz

Former Philadelphia city commissioner Al Schmidt, testifies during a hearing by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building on June 13, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

Former Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt told the select committee that threats against him became "much more graphic" and began to include details about his family after then-President Donald Trump criticized him in a tweet.

Schmidt, a Republican official in charge of overseeing the 2020 election in Philadelphia, had pushed back on some of Trump's fraud claims in a "60 Minutes" interview days after the election.

Trump responded in a tweet: "A guy named Al Schmidt, a Philadelphia Commissioner and so-called Republican (RINO), is being used big time by the Fake News Media to explain how honest things were with respect to the Election in Philadelphia. He refuses to look at a mountain of corruption & dishonesty. We win!"

Schmidt said that he had already received threats as part of his job. But after Trump called him out by name, "the threats became much more specific, much more graphic and included not just me by name, but included members of my family by name, their ages, our address, pictures of our home, just every bit of detail that you can imagine," Schmidt told the select committee.

"That is what changed with that tweet," he said.

Kevin Breuninger

Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr is seen on video during his deposition for the public hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 9, 2022.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Former Attorney General William Barr repeatedly, and colorfully, dismissed the wide array of voter-fraud conspiracies being floated by Trump and some of his allies after his 2020 election loss, video from his interviews with the committee shows.

Barr ripped some of those conspiracy theories as "bulls---," "nonsense," "idiotic" and "crazy stuff," and said he told Trump to his face after the election that that the claims are "not panning out." He ran the Department of Justice from Feb. 14, 2019 to Dec. 23, 2020,

The panel played a clip of Barr recounting an Oval Office meeting a few weeks after the Nov. 3, 2020, election, in which he had to tell Trump that the DOJ "is not an extension of your legal team" and can't be used to "take sides in elections" by investigating fraud claims.

"We'll look at something if it's specific, credible, and could have affected the outcome of the election, and we're doing that and it's just not meritorious, they're not panning out," he said.

After seeing Trump spread those claims on Fox News, Barr on Dec. 1, 2020, told an Associated Press reporter that the DOJ has not seen fraud on scale that could affected outcome of election. When he next met with Trump, Barr said he thought he was going to be fired, telling the committee, "the president was as mad as I've ever seen him." The then-president accused him of making the statement "because you hate Trump."

Elsewhere, Barr recalled, "I told him that the stuff that his people were shoveling out to the public was bulls---. I mean, that the claims of fraud were bulls---. And he was indignant about that."

"I reiterated that they'd wasted a whole month on these claims on these Dominion voting machines, and they were idiotic claims." Barr said he found those claims, that Dominion voting machines were rigged to flip votes to Joe Biden, were "disturbing" in that "I saw absolutely zero basis" for them.

"But they were made in such a sensational way that they were obviously influencing a lot of members of the public," even though they were "complete nonsense," Barr said.

"I told him that it was crazy stuff and they were wasting their time on that and it was doing a grave disservice to the country," Barr said.

Kevin Breuninger

Video from an interview with former President Trump campaign manager William Stepien (L), and his attorney Kevin Marino, is played during a hearing by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building on June 13, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Former Trump campaign chief Bill Stepien told the committee that he and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., met with Trump to convince him that mail-in ballots weren't at a high risk of fraud as the former commander-in-chief discouraged voters from using them.

"We made our case for why we believed mail-in balloting, mail-in voting, not to be a bad thing for his campaign but, you know, the president's mind was made up," Stepien said in new testimony presented at the hearing.

The meeting with Trump took place in the summer of 2020 as the president publicly ripped the idea of mail-in ballots being used to vote during the coronavirus pandemic.

"Mail ballots are a very dangerous thing for this country, because they're cheaters," Trump said at a White House briefing that year.

Brian Schwartz

Former Trump campaign Lawyer Rudy Giuliani, is displayed on a screen during a hearing by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol on June 13, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was "definitely intoxicated" on Election Night 2020 when he said at the White House that then-President Donald Trump should simply declare victory over Joe Biden, ex-Trump campaign aide Jason Miller said.

Miller said that he noticed Giuliani was inebriated when he and other officials, including former campaign manager Bill Stepien and then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, gathered at the White House to listen to what Giuliani wanted to tell Trump to say.

"The mayor was definitely intoxicated, but I did not know his level of intoxication when he spoke with the president, for example," Miller said as part of an interview with the select committee, clips of which were played in the hearing.

"There were suggestions by, I believe it was Mayor Giuliani, to go and declare victory and say that we'd won it outright," Miller said. He said he recalled saying at the time that Trump shouldn't declare victory until the numbers were more clear.

Giuliani was effectively saying, "'We won it, they're stealing it from us, where'd all the votes come from, we need to go say that we won,' and essentially anyone who didn't agree with that position was being weak," Miller told the investigators.

In a separate interview, Stepien told the committee it was "far too early" to make any such pronouncement.

Trump, in the early hours of Nov. 4, 2020, falsely claimed, "frankly, we did win this election."

Kevin Breuninger

U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) speaks during the second public hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol, at Capitol Hill, in Washington, U.S. June 13, 2022.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif, a member of the January 6th House Select Committee, says they plan to show how the Trump campaign ripped off their supporters by convincing them to contribute to their legal fight against the 2020 election results.

Lofgren says donors were deceived and much of those contributions weren't actually used in the eventual legal fight.

"We'll also show how that the Trump campaign used these false claims of election fraud to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from supporters who were told their donations were for the legal fight in the courts," Lofgren said. "But the Trump campaign didn't use the money for that. The big lie was also a big ripoff."

Brian Schwartz

The select committee will explain how Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, but instead of conceding, he "decided to wage an attack on our democracy," Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said at the start of the hearing.

"The numbers don't lie," Thompson said of election outcomes. If those don't add up, you can go to court and "that's the end of the line," he said.

Trump "didn't have the numbers. He went to court. He still didn't have the numbers. He lost," Thompson said.

In Tuesday's hearing, "we'll tell the story of how Donald Trump lost an election" and "knew he lost," but decided to wage an attack on our democracy," the chairman said.

Kevin Breuninger

Video from an interview with former President Trump campaign manager William Stepien (L), and his attorney Kevin Marino, is played during a hearing by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building on June 13, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Former Trump 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien's wife went into labor Monday morning, keeping him from testifying under subpoena before the Jan. 6 select committee in its second public hearing, NBC News reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.

The panel announced the scheduling shake-up less than an hour before the hearing was initially slated to begin. The news delayed the scheduled 10 a.m. ET start of the hearing by 30 to 45 minutes.

The panel intends instead to play video of Stepien's taped deposition, sources told NBC.

Kevin Breuninger

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Trump's former Attorney General Barr repeatedly dismisses claims of voter fraud as 'nonsense' to House investigators - CNBC