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Summary

Confidence in the Supreme Court is at a new low with polling finding 57 percent of Americans believe the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was mostly based on politics, not law. You have to travel far from Washington to find a Republican politician who is willing to admit what the Supreme Court has done to the victims of rape and incest and what is going to happen now to 12-year-old-girls who are forced to give birth. Vladimir Putin, the man Donald Trump called a genius for invading Ukraine, ordered the bombing of a crowded shopping mall in central Ukraine this week, killing at least 20 people. Cassidy Hutchinson`s testimony fully justified the subpoena to Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone that the committee issued today. Interview with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD).

LAWRENCE O`DONNELL, MSNBC HOST: History made in more ways than one at 12:00 noon tomorrow.

ALI VELSHI, MSNBC HOST, "VELSHI": Yeah.

O`DONNELL: And another reminder, Ali, of why we vote for president. No matter what their issues are, no matter where your concerns are about specific legislative ambitions, most voters do have a preference for a Supreme Court justices being nominated by a Republican, or by a Democrat. And if you are prepared to live with Supreme Court justices from either party, then you are a very unusual voter.

So this is the product of all of those votes, all of those people who went out and voted for Joe Biden, that is how this has happened tomorrow.

VELSHI: A little piece of good news, I`m looking forward to your show tonight, Lawrence. Have a good one.

O`DONNELL: Thank you. Thank you, Ali. Thank you.

Well, tonight, we have a new reason -- I knew apparent reason -- why the January 6th committee rushed into that special session yesterday, to hear the public testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson. They want the White House counsel. They want him. And that`s why they had to have that hearing yesterday, because Cassidy Hutchinson`s testimony fully justified the subpoena to Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone that the committee issued today.

The last time a president was destroyed by a congressional investigation, the White House counsel was a key witness. Richard Nixon`s White House counsel, John Dean, helped bring down the Nixon presidency, with his testimony in the Watergate hearings. And now it looks like Pat Cipollone could be the witness who locks in Donald Trump`s guilt for the January 6th committee.

When presidents break the law, the White House counsel knows. The White House counsel`s job is to prevent presidents from breaking the law, among other things. That is to say, prevent them from breaking the law intentionally or, as can happen, unintentionally.

When someone in the White House has a bright idea, like banning all Muslims from entering the country, it is the White House counsel`s job to say, we can`t do that, that`s unconstitutional. The White House counsel is not the president`s personal lawyer. The White House counsel does not represent the president as a lawyer. The White House counsel represents the Constitution.

The White House counsel is the defender of the Constitution, the principal defender of the Constitution, in the White House. The White House counsel is the Constitution cop in the White House.

The White House counsel also has other duties, like advising on judicial appointments. But there is nothing in the White House counsel`s work that is protected by the attorney-client privilege with the client being the president. Some of the communication between the president and the White House counsel could, arguably, the protected by executive privilege, as long as that president is still in office.

But that executive privilege does not outlive the presidents term in office. That does not mean that Pat Cipollone will not try to hide behind those privileges and response to the committee`s subpoena. He`s being ordered to testify exactly one week from now. And he has no legal right not to show up for that testimony.

In response to certain questions, he might try to claim attorney-client privilege or executive privilege. Those will be legally false claims. But the committee doesn`t really have the power to force him to answer those questions on the spot if he claims as false privileges.

The privilege that Pat Cipollone does have, and that he might need to invoke, is the Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself in a possible crimes that he may have committed. And here is one passage in Cassidy Hutchinson`s testimony yesterday that gives Pat Cipollone a fully valid claim of his Fifth Amendment right now to answer the question that I would ask him about this testimony.

[22:05:05]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASSIDY HUTCHINSON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE AIDE: On January 3rd, Mr. Cipollone had approached me knowing that Mark had raised the prospect of going up to the Capitol on January 6th. Mr. Cipollone and I had a brief private conversation where he said to me we need to make sure that this doesn`t happen. This would be a legally a terrible idea for us. We`re -- we have serious legal concerns if we go up to the Capitol that day.

And he then urged me to continue relaying that to Mr. Meadows, because it`s my understanding that Mr. Cipollone thought that Mr. Meadows was indeed pushing this, along with the president.

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): And we understand, Ms. Hutchinson, that you also spoke to Mr. Cipollone on the morning of the 6th as you were about to go to the rally on the Ellipse, and Mr. Cipollone said something to you like make sure the movement to the Capitol does not happen. Is that correct?

HUTCHINSON: That`s correct. I saw Mr. Cipollone right before I walked out onto West Exec that morning, and Mr. Cipollone said something to the effect of please make sure we don`t go up to the Capitol, Cassidy. Keep in touch with me. We`re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: What do you mean we? We? We are going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen? We are going to get charged.

Mr. Cipollone, what do you mean, we are going to get charged? What were you going to get charged with if Donald Trump went to the Capitol on January 6th?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUTCHINSON: In the days leading up to the sixth, we had conversations about potentially leading up to obstructing justice or defrauding the electoral count.

CHENEY: Let`s hear about some of those concerns that you mentioned earlier in one of your interviews with us.

HUTCHINSON: Having a private conversation with Pat late in the afternoon of the 3rd or 4th that Pat was concerned it would look like we were obstructing justice or obstructing the Electoral College count. And I apologize for probably not being so very clear with my legal terms here, but that it would look like we were obstructing what was happening on Capitol Hill.

And he was also worried that it would look like we were inciting a riot or encouraging a riot to erupt on the Capitol -- at the Capitol.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: The committee wants to talk to Mr. Cipollone about more than that, much more than that. And their letter today to Pat Cipollone, the committee told him that they have questions about, quote, the submission of fake electoral ballots to Congress and the executive branch, the attempted appointment of Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general, and efforts to interfere with the congressional certification of the Electoral College results on January 6th, 2021.

The committee also revealed that Cipollone, quote, previously set for an informal interview with the select committee on August 13th, 2022.

Cipollone`s father came to this country as an immigrant from Italy who Donald Trump was would have prevented from entering the United States, had Trump been in power at the time.

Pat Cipollone`s father worked at a factory. His mother was a homemaker. He lived in the Bronx as a child before his family moved to Kentucky, where he attended a Catholic high school and then Catholic college. He was a leader of the right-wing Federalist Society at the university of Chicago law school when he served as one of three clerks to a federal judge on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

He helped to create the least intellectual atmosphere I`ve ever heard of in a federal appeals court judges chambers. "The New York Times" reported in 2019, a fellow clerk, Jennifer Hall, we called sitting in Judge Boggs`s bookshelf lined chambers between Mr. Cipollone and another clerk, Steven Vaughn, now trade lawyer in Washington. They would yell at each other over me, she recalled, listening to Rush Limbaugh.

Pat Cipollone and his wife were close friends with Fox`s Laura Ingraham, have ten children. He was making a few million dollars as a lawyer a year before joining the Trump White House and he is surely making at least that much now.

The good news is, Pat Cipollone is a lawyer, which means he knows that fighting the subpoena in court is hopeless.

[22:10:05]

But the bad news is, he is a ditto head. Rush Limbaugh fondly called his devoted audience ditto, meaning they just said ditto to everything, every crazy thing Rush Limbaugh said. Pat Cipollone is as hard-core conservative as anyone who worked in the Trump White House. He was part of the defense team when Donald Trump`s first impeachment trial in the United States Senate. He saw nothing wrong with Donald Trump trying to extort Ukraine`s President Zelenskyy by asking President Zelenskyy to smear Joe Biden in exchange for Donald Trump sending military aid to Ukraine.

Pat Cipollone agreed with Donald Trump that his extortion phone call to President Zelenskyy was a perfect phone call. We learned today that Ali Alexander, who was involved in organizing the Trump rally on January 6th that occurred before the attack on the Capitol testify to a Washington D.C. grand jury on Friday, which is just about six months after he testified in an eight hour deposition to the January 6th Committee.

So, Pat Cipollone knows that the Washington, D.C. grand jury is operating about six months behind the January six committee`s investigation. So, if he tries to fight this subpoena, he might be facing another one. Six months from now, with no way out from that one.

Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland. He`s a member of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol. He served as lead impeachment manager in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

Thank you very much for joining us tonight.

It seemed to me the speed of the Cipollone subpoena, the day after that testimony yesterday -- seems to indicate that this was a plan, that you would get this testimony where Pat Cipollone`s in the thick of it, all the way through the testimony, which clearly justifies the subpoena sent today.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Well, Pat Cipollone is a material witness. He has a huge volume of relevant evidence. And he was there at every level of each of these assaults on democracy and the rule of law. So, he would know a lot about the president`s attempt to stage a mini coup at the Department of Justice.

He may know something about the counterfeit elector plot. He may know something about the -- Trump`s attempts to shake down different election officials, like Secretary of State Raffensperger. He certainly knows about the effort to force Mike Pence to step outside of his constitutional role and reject Electoral College votes. And, as we heard just yesterday, from Cassidy Hutchinson, undoubtedly he knew a lot about what was going on with armed followers of the president in the crowd. And the formation of a mob that came to storm the Capitol, to try to interference excessively did interfere with the counting of Electoral College votes.

So as the White House counsel, he has a lot to tell us. And I`m hopeful that we will be able to hear from him soon.

O`DONNELL: Did he say anything in his discussion with the committee back in April that contradicts anything we heard from Cassidy Hutchinson yesterday?

RASKIN: I can`t reveal anything about anybody`s private conversations with the committee at this point. But when anything is ready to be revealed, you will know it, obviously. And anything that`s relevant and significant, I think we will make public.

But at this point, I`ve not seen anything that has contradicted, on the record, anything that Cassidy Hutchinson said. I know there are now anonymously sourced allegations about what someone is saying or what someone might say. That`s very different from someone going under oath and contradicting it.

I found her to be an entirely credible witness, who spoke with great candor and honesty to the committee. But if other people have other interpretations of particular incidents or events I would love to hear from them as well. But nobody has contradicted the central important evidence that came out yesterday.

Donald Trump knew that he had heavily armed followers in the crowd and in fact wanted to waive them in and take down the metal detector so they could blend in with the rest of the crowd, swelling the size of the crowd before the march on the Capitol.

[22:15:17]

Nobody has contradicted that. And that to me is the central and most important thing that we learned yesterday.

O`DONNELL: You showed additional witnesses on the video today saying that they knew that Donald Trump wanted to go to the Capitol on January 6. One witness knew it before January 6th. Another knew it on January 6th.

Have there been any witnesses testifying saying the opposite? Saying that, no, I know Donald Trump did not want to go to the Capitol on January 6?

RASKIN: No. I have seen multiple accounts that he wanted very much to go, and to be part of it. And, of course, he said he would be part of it. He said he was going to go with the rally. We are going to march to the Capitol, we will go to the Capitol, and I will be there with you.

In fact, there are a lot of rioters who later stated that they thought that Trump was somewhere in the crowd. You can see lots of visual evidence of people saying to the officers, Donald Trump invited us here. Your boss told us to come here, and they thought that they somehow how the participation on the sanction of Donald Trump in everything that they were doing, because he led them to believe that. Of course, both the House and Senate had majority votes finding that Trump had incited the insurrection, but now we have so much more evidence to show that he not just incited the insurrection, but he actually helped to form, it someone the mob, to create the event, and to stage the whole arrangement for the march.

O`DONNELL: Congressman Jimmy Raskin, thank you very much for leading off our discussion tonight.

RASKIN: You bet.

O`DONNELL: Thank you.

And joining us now is Edward Caspar. He was one of lawyers representing eight Capitol police officers who have filed a civil lawsuit against Donald Trump for the attack on the Capitol.

Thank you very much for joining us tonight.

It seemed to me as I was watching the hearing yesterday that this was the most important discovery session that you have had so far. You know have evidence that the president knew that the mob that he was encouraging to go to the Capitol was equipped with weapons, weapons to go into battle with Capitol police officers.

What did you learn from the hearing tomorrow that you think affects your case -- the hearing yesterday?

EDWARD CASPAR, LAWYER REPRESENTING CAPITOL POLICE SUING DONALD TRUMP: That`s right, Lawrence. What`s the hearing did yesterday was bringing into sharp focus would lot of the public evidence already was suggesting. But the hearing yesterday made that concrete.

There can be no doubt now that the president intended to unleash a violent mob on the Capitol to use force to stop Congress from doing its job to certify the election. We heard yesterday how the president knew that the crowd that he assembled at the very time thought Congress was gathering to certify the election, they knew that the mob, the crowd, was armed and dangerous. And he knew that he wanted the crowd to go to the Capitol.

You know, we cannot lose sight of the fact that there was not only the Capitol that he was sending the crowd to. He was sending the mob to the U.S. Capitol police officers who where they are doing their job to protect it. They were brutally attacked by this crowd that the former president sent, and he needs to be held accountable for it.

O`DONNELL: It seems to me that a Washington, D.C. jury hearing this case, and seeing this evidence, they don`t need the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. That is a criminal standard. In a civil standard, it is a more reasonable belief.

Do you believe that this is the way it was. It seems easy to see them returning $100 million dollar verdict for each one of these plaintiffs, $700 million, $800 million verdict against Donald Trump. This is the kind of case that could absolutely bankrupt him.

CASPAR: Well, one reason the Capitol police officers whom I represent are bringing this case is to see that this kind of thing doesn`t happen again. And for that to happen, the president has to be held accountable, because accountability is the deterrence that is going to pull this country back from the brink of authoritarianism. Once people see that he can be held accountable for engaging in this kind of political violence, we hope that this kind of violence will not be likely to happen again.

O`DONNELL: What more evidence do you need in terms of what you would need to present to a jury?

[22:20:04]

You have Cassidy Hutchinson`s testimony that will be available to you by the time you get to a jury. You would presumably have the full report of this committee.

CASPAR: Lawrence, yes, I think that is right. I think the committee report is going to be incredibly important to aligning the kinds of evidence thought it is going to prove our claims. I think it is undeniable now, though, that the president intended to use force to stop Congress from doing its job. That alone is enough for us to hold the president accountable.

O`DONNELL: Edward Caspar, thank you very much for joining us tonight, really appreciate it.

CASPAR: Thank you, Lawrence.

O`DONNELL: And coming up, Congressman Jamie Raskin`s law professor was also Attorney General Merrick Garland`s constitutional law professor, and he was also Barack Obama`s constitutional law professor, and he is our next guest. Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe joins us next, and when he speaks, I take notes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:25:43]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHENEY: It`s undeniable. It`s also painful for Republicans to accept. And I think we all have to recognize and understand what it means to say those words and what it means that those things happened.

But the reality that we face today as Republicans, as we think about the choice in front of us, we have to choose, because Republicans cannot both be loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to the Constitution. At this moment --

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: That is a largely Republican audience at the Reagan Library tonight, in California, where Liz Cheney was speaking. Here is more of what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHENEY: At this moment, we are confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before. And that is a former president who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic. And he is aided by Republican leaders and elected officials who made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man.

Now, some in my party are embracing former President Trump. And even after all we have seen, they are enabling his lies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: Joining us now is Laurence Tribe, constitutional law scholar and university professor of constitutional law emeritus at Harvard Law School.

Thank you very much for joining us tonight.

I want to get an answer, if you have one, to what you think Pat Cipollone was worried about if Donald Trump went to the Capitol. He seems to think that that would have gotten, we -- he said we -- we will be charged with everything, if that happens. But it`s not clear to me what is added to the criminality, by Donald Trump actually going up to the Capitol.

LAURENCE TRIBE, HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR: Well, that puts him in the middle of the action. He`s not just inciting. But he is aiding and abetting and participating in a violent insurrection, one whose violence he knows about.

When Pat Cipollone uses the word we, like you, I wondered whether that was the royal we. Whether he thought perhaps he should have acted sooner, perhaps he was involved with Donald Trump and his planning of these events. It was obvious that it was no surprise to Trump. It was a happy (ph) thing but no surprise, that the people who came to be with him were armed and dangerous.

In fact, he specifically said, take down the magnetometers so that these guys can come in with their ar-15s. I know they are not going for me. That was the most stunning and astonishing thing. Who would they be going for? Might it be Mike Pence, the very guy that Trump tried to get into trouble by saying that he was a coward after it looked like this mob had gone after pence, perhaps around the same time they had erected a gallows?

So, I don`t blame Mr. Cipollone. He may have some Fifth Amendment privileges to assert when he sits down. There`s no Fifth Amendment privilege to just stay home. And the idea that he has executive privileges triply defeated -- you know, it`s defeated by the fact that the current president holds the privilege. It`s the defeated by the fact that there`s crime fraud exception. It`s defeated by the large swaths of waiver that already seem to have occurred.

I could throw in another one. A lot of the conversations were not with the president. So, he has no legitimate basis for staying away and he surely doesn`t want to be a coward when he`s -- you know, somebody like this young woman, who was a real patriot, had the spine to show up and answer questions even though she was a loyal Trumper.

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Transcript: The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, 6/29/22 - MSNBC

THE VIEW FROM HERE - While Sen Howard Bakers June 1973 Watergate question, What did the President know and when did he know it?, is pertinent to Trump, that question may be more relevant to associates like Mark Meadows, his Chief of staff, and to Pat Cipollone, White House Counsel to the President.

What did they know about the plans of Rudolph W. Giuliani, Gen. Michael Flynn, and attorney John Eastman to have Trump claim the Presidency from inside the Capitol?

Mark Meadowss assistant, Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Giuliani had said to her: Were going to the Capitol. Its going to be great. The presidents going to be there. Hes going to look powerful. Hes -- hes going to be with the members. . .The senators . . . Talk to the Chief [her boss Meadows]. He knows about it.

When Hutchinson told Meadows what Giuliani had said, Meadows confirmed that he already knew by replying, I dont know, Cass. Things might get real, real bad on January 6. When Giuliani said that Trump was going to be with the members, it meant that Trump was going to go inside the Capitol to the joint session where The House and Senate would be certifying the winner of the Nov 2020 election. The President may not appear before Congress unless Congress has formally invited the President. The US Constitution does not provide for the President to arrive after a mob has rampaged through the halls seeking to hang the Vice President, even if Trump thinks that is a good idea.

On January 6th before Hutchinson left with the Trump entourage to go to the Ellipse, a 52-acre park south of the White House fence, where the Stop the Steal rally was being held, Pat Cipollone hold her not to let Trump go to the Capitol. Clearly, both Mark Meadows and Pat Cipollone knew that Trump had plans to go, uninvited, to the Capitol. It defies belief that they would tell a 24 year old female assistant not to let the President to do something unless they had already failed to dissuade Trump from going to the Capitol.

Do Either Men Have a Privilege Not to Testify under Oath

Until this far right wing Supreme Court was seated, the Jan 6th Committee could legally force Meadows and Cipollone to testify. Legally, neither has a legal ground to refuse. Their strongest defense would be the attorney client privilege, but it is void when a client enlists his attorneys assistance to commit a crime. Pat Cipollone, however, may not assert the attorney-client privilege because Cipollone is not Trumps personal attorney, but rather he is White House Counsel. Trumps subverting the US Constitution would be outside any confidentiality with the White House Counsel.

While Meadows, as chief of staff, would assert executive privilege, the same logic applies to Meadows. Privileges fall in face of being part of a criminal undertaking.

Because there is no privilege, their next fall back would be the Fifth Amendment. The Jan 6th Committee, however, can grant immunity and compel them to testify.

The Political Problem of Meadows or Cipollones Testifying

Future Chiefs of Staff and White Counsel may feel hamstrung if there is precedent that they can be forced to divulge what they told the President and what the President said, did, or knew. Thus, the Jan 6th Committee realizes that it is dealing with Separation of Power issue. It cannot allow a President to force others to conceal his criminal, treasonous and/or delusional behavior, but Congress should not be able to invade the thought processes of Executive Branch.

We do not know if Meadows, Cipollone and others will testify that Trump knew that he had lost the election or that Trump believed that the election had been stolen. Was Trump a criminal or mentally ill detached from realty as Attorney General William Barr implied?

What Did Trump Believe Would Happen on Jan 6 and Why Did He Believe It?

Rudy Giulianis saying that Trump would look very powerful at the Capitol is bizarre. Why would Trump be at the Capitol? Why would he look powerful . . . with the members? Watching his supporters being beaten back by the Capitol police would not make Trump look powerful. Bidens certification as President would not make Trump look powerful.

Trump always has to be the center of attention since that is part of his Histrionic Personality Disorder. The image which Trump must have had in his mind was his standing before the Joint Session in the House Chamber and being declared winner of the November 2020 election. In brief, Meadows and Cipollone knew that Trump was delusional.

Pences Refusal to Violate His Oath of Office Called for Plan B -- A Violent Insurrection

As Pence was refusing to violate his oath of office, Trump supporters devised a back up plan an armed insurrection to take over the Capitol. Thats why Trump did not care that his crowd had AK-15's and body armor. They would need guns to stop the steal.

The incident in the Beast, the Presidents SUV, conclusively proves that Trump intended to go to the Capitol with an armed mob. After Trump was physically returned to the White House against his will, he was gleeful at the violent insurrection. Did he think that as soon as the mob breached the Capitol and the traitor Pence was dead, then he would go down to The Capitol to claim the Presidency?

NOTE: Meadows and Cipollone likely had told the Secret Service not to take Trump to the Capitol. Cipollones telling the same thing to Cassidy Hutchinson indicates that he wasnt confident that the Secret Service would bring Trump back to the White House. Thus, Meadows and Cipollone wanted a 24 year old woman to prevent a coup of the US government. Their valor shall be Chapter I in the Profiles of Cowardice!

Again, What did Trump Believe?

Did Trump believe that he had won both the electoral college and the popular vote? Did he believe himself to be the nations savior? Paranoia has been described as symptomatic delusions of persecution and/or grandeur. What could fit the description more perfectly than Trumps falsely believing that he had won the US Presidency? More grandiose would be his belief that as the leader of an armed insurrection, he could stride into the House Chamber and force Congress to certify him as President.

(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. You may email him at[emailprotected])

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What Did Trump Know and When Did He Know It? - City Watch

You may have missed the recent story on the resignation of Washoe County Registrar of Voters Deanna Spikula, who departed after 15 years on the job.

Prior to her announcement, Spikula had taken a leave of absence after receiving threats at her office from promoters of baseless claims of voter fraud. The pressure faced by Spikula and other county registrars and clerks responsible for election security in Nevada has been intense and continues even as Donald Trumps big lie continues to collapse in scandal.

In a week that saw a former White House insider calmly tell the House Jan. 6 committee that former President Trump knew many of his supporters were armed on the day they stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, the departure of a respected protector of one Nevada countys election didnt rate as a top-line news event.

Maybe it should have.

It was one more troubling reminder that Trumps big lie about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election continues to take a toll in Nevada. Its a fever that shows little sign of breaking as the 2022 campaign grinds on.

Not when sour grapes also-ran candidates can still attract crowds for their angry laments about how the primary vote was tainted. Not when Republican Party candidates for Nevadas top offices continue to tout their Trump endorsements and fail to distance themselves from a parade conspiracy of enablers.

Nor can we expect a better day when Nevadas role in Trumps fake electors scandal continues to hit close to home. Beyond Republican State Party Chairman Michael McDonald recently having his cell phone confiscated by federal investigators in connection with the Jan. 6 investigation, fellow phony elector signatory Durward James Hindle III managed to get elected clerk-treasurer in Storey County. That means one of the promoters of Trumps voter fraud scheme will be in charge of that countys election security.

Other imbibers of potent conspiracy swill include Jim Marchant, who sees a ghost in every Dominion voting machine and yet easily prevailed in his partys primary for secretary of state. He continues to campaign on the big lie throughout the rurals.

Say that Hindle represents a county populated by fewer voters than fit into a busy Walmart, that nearly empty Esmeralda Countys recent ballot hand count was kind of quaint, and that Marchant has canaries circling his head, but admit these numbers are adding up.

Its easy to laugh at super Trumper gubernatorial candidate and former boxer Joey Gilbert declaring I wuz robbed due to voter fraud and demanding a self-funded recount in the recent Republican primary. He lost to Joe Lombardo by only 26,000 votes!

Democrats seem confident its a sign that Lombardo is struggling to rally the partisans. Nevada Democratic Victory spokesperson Mallory Payne: With Joey Gilbert dead set on overturning the election, Lombardos own party is ensuring he faces a brutal general election.

That makes sense. But just remember Gilberts continued whimpering about fraud also keeps the fires of conspiracy stoked in the GOPs big lie base. And when candidates are constantly jawing about rigged elections, it erodes faith in the system and as weve seen makes grievance litigation no matter how specious a lot more likely.

Perhaps it was all to be expected from a party that ate one of its own when it censured Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske for displaying the courage of her convictions by not going along with the GOPs voter fraud charade. Surely Cegavske feels Spikulas pain.

Maybe this shouldnt be surprising at a time Nevadas top-of-the-ticket Republicans continue to trumpet their Trump endorsements even as his criminal behavior comes into sharp relief.

As if U.S. Senate candidate Adam Laxalts unwavering fealty toward Trump werent enough, the state GOPs super star doesnt appear to have distanced himself from the endorsement of big lie soldier Mike Flynn. Thanks to the efforts of the Jan. 6 committee, weve learned Flynn repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in connection with the failed coup attempt.

Flynns endorsement of Laxalt was a dog whistle to all those who still imagine the election was stolen and that the violent attempted insurrection was a price paid in the name of liberty. Or some such hogwash.

Somewhat perplexing is the political holding pattern of gubernatorial nominee Lombardo, who is in the awkward position of being endorsed by Trump and embraced by former cop McDonald, the walking ethics scandal. So far top lawman Lombardo has, politically speaking, invoked his own right to remain silent. Well see how long he can keep smiling while holding his nose.

Deanna Spikula will move on, and I hope enjoy brighter days when right-wing extremists and gutless social media trolls tire of menacing her.

We owe her and others who professionally secure our elections a debt of gratitude and a promise to stand up for them.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his familys Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in Time, Readers Digest, The Daily Beast, Reuters, Ruralite and Desert Companion, among others. He also offers weekly commentary on Nevada Public Radio station KNPR.

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Big lie harassment continues to take its toll in Nevada The Nevada Independent - The Nevada Independent

President Joe Biden announced that womens soccer player Megan Rapinoe will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor for individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.

Rapinoe, an Olympic gold medalist and two-time Womens World Cup champion is a prominent advocate for gender pay equality, racial justice, and LGBTQI+ rights, the White House said. More famously, she has repeatedly kneeled in protest during the playing of the National Anthem.

President Biden has long said that America can be defined by one word: possibilities. These seventeen Americans demonstrate the power of possibilities and embody the soul of the nation hard work, perseverance, and faith, the statement continued. They have overcome significant obstacles to achieve impressive accomplishments in the arts and sciences, dedicated their lives to advocating for the most vulnerable among us, and acted with bravery to drive change in their communities and across the world while blazing trails for generations to come.

Another controversial pick for the medal is late AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, who took the Fifth Amendment to not incriminate himself in his role in the 1996 Teamster election, which was tainted with corruption.

Trumka in 2010 in Anchorage said that there was something just not right with former Gov. Sarah Palin.

Trumka said Palin would go down in history like McCarthy, a reference to Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

Palinism will become an ugly word, Trumka said at an AFL-CIO convention in Anchorage. Who is this woman, anyway? What happened to her?

She used to have a job, your governor. You knew her. Or thought you did. I know I thought I did. She seemed like a decent person, an outdoorswoman. Her husbands a steelworker. She seemed to take some OK stands for working families.And then things got weird. After she tied herself to John McCain and they lost, she blew off Alaska. I guess she figured shed trade up shoot for a national stage. Alaska was too far from the Fox TV spotlight, Trumka said in Anchorage.

Instead, shes hanging out on cable TV, almost a parody of herself, coming out with conspiracy theories about Obama and his death panels. Talking about the real America. Talking about building schools in our neighboring country of Afghanistan. Writing speech notes to herself on her hands. Sometimes about Sarah Palin you just have to laugh. But its not really funny, he said.

He also attacked those who supported Palin: To me, it just doesnt seem OK to go where shes going. It sits wrong with me. The Mama Grizzlies, Sarah Palin says, just sense when somethings not right. Well I wonder if those Mama Grizzlies can sense somethings just not right with her.

He then blamed Palins crazy magnet for pulling Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski to the right.

The National Right to Work Foundation issued a fact sheet about Trumkas history with violent strikes.

As president of the United Mine Workers (UMW) union, Trumka led multiple violent strikes. Trumkas fiery rhetoric often appeared to condone militancy and violence, especially against workers who dared to continue to provide for their families by working during a strike. As a Virginia judge ruled in 1989, violent activities are being organized, orchestrated and encouraged by the leadership of this union,' NRTW wrote.

Take the murder of Eddie York, a nonunion contractor, who was shot in the back of the head and killed while leaving a worksite in 1993. Trumka and other UMW officials were charged in a $27 million wrongful death suit by Eddie Yorks widow. After fighting the suit intensely for four years, UMW lawyers settled suddenly in 1997 just two days after the judge in the case ruled evidence in the criminal trial would be admitted.

Later, as Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, Trumka pleaded the Fifth Amendment before Congress and a court-appointed election monitor over his role in an illegal fundraising schemeto benefit the Teamsters president Ron Careys re-election. Trumka has remained in his position ever since despite an AFL-CIO rule (adopted in 1957) which held that union officials who plead the Fifth have no right to continue to hold office in the union umbrella organization, the group wrote.

Read more about Trumkas history of condoning union violence and corruption in the FoundationsFact Sheet.

The others being awarded the medal, as described by the White House, are:

Simone Biles

Simone Biles is the most decorated American gymnast in history, with a combined total of 32 Olympic and World Championship medals. Biles is also a prominent advocate for athletes mental health and safety, children in the foster care system, and victims of sexual assault.

Sister Simone Campbell

Sister Simone Campbellis a member of the Sisters of Social Service and former Executive Director of NETWORK, a Catholic social justice organization. She is also a prominent advocate for economic justice, immigration reform, and healthcare policy.

Julieta Garca

Dr. Julieta Garca is the former president of The University of Texas at Brownsville, where she was named one ofTimemagazines best college presidents. Dr. Garca was the first Hispanic woman to serve as a college president and dedicated her career to serving students from the Southwest Border region.

Gabrielle Giffords

Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was the youngest woman ever elected to the Arizona State Senate, serving first in the Arizona legislature and later in the U.S. Congress. A survivor of gun violence, she co-founded Giffords, a nonprofit organization dedicated to gun violence prevention.

Fred Gray

Fred Gray was one of the first black members of the Alabama State legislature since Reconstruction. As an attorney, he represented Rosa Parks, the NAACP, and Martin Luther King, who called him the chief counsel for the protest movement.

Steve Jobs(posthumous)

Steve Jobs (d. 2011) was the co-founder, chief executive, and chair of Apple, Inc., CEO of Pixar and held a leading role at the Walt Disney Company. His vision, imagination and creativity led to inventions that have, and continue to, change the way the world communicates, as well as transforming the computer, music, film and wireless industries.

Father Alexander Karloutsos

Father Alexander Karloutsos is the former Vicar General of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. After over 50 years as a priest, providing counsel to several U.S. presidents, he was named by His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as a Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Khizr Khan

Khizr Khanis a Gold Star father and founder of the Constitution Literacy and National Unity Center. He is a prominent advocate for the rule of law and religious freedom and served on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom under President Biden.

Sandra Lindsay

Sandra Lindsayis a New York critical care nurse who served on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic response. She was the first American to receive a COVID-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials and is a prominent advocate for vaccines and mental health for health care workers.

John McCain(posthumous)

John McCain (d. 2018) was a public servant who was awarded a Purple Heart with one gold star for his service in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam. He also served the people of Arizona for decades in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate and was the Republican nominee for president in 2008.

Diane Nash

Diane Nash is a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee who organized some of the most important civil rights campaigns of the 20thcentury. Nash worked closely with Martin Luther King, who described her as the driving spirit in the nonviolent assault on segregation at lunch counters.

Alan Simpson

Alan Simpson served as a U.S. Senator from Wyoming for 18 years. During his public service, he has been a prominent advocate on issues including campaign finance reform, responsible governance, and marriage equality.

Wilma Vaught

Brigadier General Wilma Vaughtis one of the most decorated women in the history of the U.S. military, repeatedly breaking gender barriers as she rose through the ranks. When she retired in 1985, she was one of only seven women generals in the Armed Forces.

Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington is an actor, director, and producer who has won two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, two Golden Globes, and the 2016 Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also served as National Spokesman for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America for over 25 years.

Ral Yzaguirre

Ral Yzaguirre is a civil rights advocate who served as CEO and president of National Council of La Raza for thirty years. He also served as U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic under President Barack Obama.

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News Editorial Board

Americans who love their country have something both frightening and reassuring to contemplate today, as the nation celebrates the 246th anniversary of its unlikely birth. Playing out before them in dramatic fashion is clear and credible evidence of both the fragility of our democracy and of the kind of steadfast courage that has rallied patriots for almost 2 centuries.

From the violence of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection to the hearings of the Jan. 6 House committee, Americans with open minds are being shown how the democracy won by the soldiers of 1776 can be swept away by an authoritarian who cares only for himself.

But they are also seeing the extraordinary determination of Americans who are in a position to stand up for the country and who then do it. Those individuals are risking their careers, their safety and, in some cases, their reputations, as former President Donald Trump attempts to smear them. Some, as the committee revealed last Tuesday, are telling their truth, despite intimidation by Trumps pack of wolves.

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Look at the courage of Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trumps chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Shes 26 years old and, last Tuesday, was the committees first live witness who was inside the West Wing on Jan. 6. She brought viewers of last Tuesdays hearing into the White House, to the edge of the insurrection and to its immediate aftermath.

She told the committee and the country that Trump knew the crowd at the Jan. 6 insurrection was armed before he sent it streaming to the Capitol, pumped up with lies about a stolen election. She heard Meadows tell White House Counsel Pat Cipollone that Trump agreed with protesters calling to hang Vice President Mike Pence, who had enraged the president by refusing to illegally block the certification of electors for Joe Biden.

She testified that she saw Trumps incendiary tweet attacking Pence at 2:24 p.m., in the midst of the riot. As a staffer that works always to represent the administration to the best of my ability to showcase the good things he had done for the country, I remember feeling frustrated, disappointed ... I was really sad, she told the committee.

As an American, I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic. It was un-American. We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie.

Thats a patriot. Imagine the pressures she set aside to do her duty, not as a Republican or a White House staffer or a defender of Trump, but as an American. Anyone paying attention to the committee has seen that kind of courage before from others who worked for, or were smeared by, the former president. They saw it in two Georgia poll workers whose lives were upended by Trump and his acolytes. Any of them maybe all of them could face new threats because they had the courage and the patriotism to tell the world what they know.

Thats what defending a democracy takes, when the president cares nothing for the democracy. Not everyone has been as brave. Some are too cowardly even to appear. Others show up only to invoke their right against self-incrimination. Among them was Trumps former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

Once a general in the United States Army, Flynn couldnt even bring himself to say that he believed in the peaceful transfer of power. As he did with questions about whether the violence on Jan. 6 was morally or legally justified, he pleaded the Fifth Amendment. OK, but not even the peaceful transfer of power? Thats fundamental to the U.S. Constitution. Flynn swore fealty to it in his oath as a soldier. We fought a revolution so we could have it.

This is how our democracy one for which millions have laid down their lives can be lost. Its how this one can still be lost, with the former president continuing to command the loyalty of millions who are willing to be misled willing to support a would-be American despot who lied in an effort to illegally maintain power, who was reluctant to call off the mob that surged into the Capitol and who was content to see his vice president threatened with murder. It was a dark moment in our history.

Thankfully, Americans are also seeing how a democracy can be preserved: by public airing of evidence; by a determined effort to peel back layers of lies and deception; by courageous devotion to the Constitution.

Thats what Americans are seeing in the members of this bipartisan committee and especially among the witnesses who are brave enough and patriotic enough to testify truthfully before an audience of millions, despite the threats many of them have reported.

With them, Americans are being reminded this Independence Day of who they are, where they came from and what they should be celebrating.

Whats your opinion? Send it to us at lettertoeditor@buffnews.com. Letters should be a maximum of 300 words and must convey an opinion. The column does not print poetry, announcements of community events or thank you letters. A writer or household may appear only once every 30 days. All letters are subject to fact-checking and editing.

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The Editorial Board: There are patriots among us this Independence Day - Buffalo News