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Theres a lot thats terrible about Russian strongman Vladimir Putins brutal attempt to erase Ukraine from the map of Europe.

From the incalculable humanitarian disaster that has seen millions of Ukrainians flee their home country, to the appalling carnage on the streets of Mariupol that was devastatingly humanized with the death of a pregnant woman and her unborn baby, the costs of Putins unjustified war of conquest will be with us for decades to come.

But the truth also has become collateral damage these last weeks, as Putin has twisted language beyond meaning to justify his atrocities. Russian officials and conspiracy theorists have, for instance, promoted the baseless claim that the attack on the maternity hospital in Mariupol was staged, USA Today reported.

This week, Russian television news producer Marina Ovsyannikova was detained and fined for interrupting a broadcast, and accurately describing Putins action for what it is: A war. She could be imprisoned for saying whats obvious to the entire planet.

Republicans, suddenly realizing that democracy is worth defending, have stepped up to denounce Putin and defend the same democratic institutions they tried to undermine on Jan. 6.

Speaking at a closed-door fundraiser last week, former Vice President Mike Pence reportedly said there was no room in the GOP for Putin apologists. While he didnt mention his old boss, former President Donald Trump, by name, it was hard to escape who he was was talking about.

Trump has yet to explicitly condemn Putin, saying at a recent rally in South Carolina that Putin happens to be a man that is just driven, hes driven to put it together.

But by failing to step up to denounce Trump, and by failing to condemn the violence perpetrated at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Republicans are abetting the same war on truth at home that theyre rightfully slamming Putin for conducting abroad.

And with their silence, they are allowing a pernicious rewriting of history to take root.

I didnt have to look further than my own inbox for proof.

One reader, taking exception to my description of the Capitol insurrectionists as a murderous horde, demanded to know how many people did the murderous horde murder?

When I pointed out the well-documented chants of Hang Mike Pence, (which the former president has defended), the presence of a gallows at the Capitol, and that intent mattered as much, if not more than, the actual act, he dismissed it, arguing, Nobody was going to hang anyone.

Federal prosecutors did not feel the same, alleging in the days after the attack that rioters intended to capture and assassinate elected officials. and certainly the law enforcement agents who transferred Pence to a secure location on the Capitol grounds, where he remained for four hours, were not being cavalier about the clear and present danger the former vice president and other lawmakers faced on that horrible day.

Another correspondent questioned my decision to refer to the events of Jan. 6 as the sacking of the Capital (sic).

The definition of sacking is looting, raiding, plundering and robbery. What recent events does that more accurately describe? Did any of those actions take place there? the reader asked, attempting the inevitable But Black Lives Matter deflection.

In fact, yes, all of that happened, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office in Washington, D.C., which has been prosecuting cases related to the insurrection.

The government continues to investigate losses that resulted from the breach of the Capitol, including damage to the Capitol building and grounds, both inside and outside the building, the office said in a statement posted to its official website. According to a May 2021 estimate by the Architect of the Capitol, the attack caused approximately $1.5 million worth of damage to the U.S. Capitol building.

More than 725 people were charged in the insurrection, according to federal prosecutors. Of that number, more than 225 people were charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, including over 75 individuals who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer, prosecutors said, adding that approximately 140 police officers were assaulted Jan. 6 at the Capitol including about 80 U.S. Capitol Police and about 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department.

A further 10 people were arrested and charged with allegedly assaulting journalists and destroying their equipment; roughly 640 people were charged with entering or remaining in a restricted federal building or grounds; 45 were charged with destruction of government property, and more than 30 were charged with theft of government property.

All of which sounds a whole lot like looting, raiding, plundering and robbery to me.

Again, thats what silence in the face of an attack on facts gets you. Thats what complicity in an assault on the very foundations of our democracy gets you.

The GOP cant have it both ways. If theyre going to attack Putins war on facts, they have to step up and stop the one at home.

Read more:
John L. Micek: Republicans can't have it both ways in the war on facts - Daily Citizen

That is happening already, as administration officials discuss speeding up visas for religious minorities and thousands of people who already have relatives in the United States, a process that normally takes years. Some Ukrainians are making a roundabout journey to reach Mexico, where they hope to cross over, and others are attempting to secure appointments at U.S. consulates in Europe to request tourist visas.

The federal government announced early this month that it would extend Temporary Protected Status to Ukrainians, enabling some 30,000 people who were in the United States as of March 1 to remain legally in the country for 18 months. But that does not help people waiting in makeshift shelters in countries neighboring Ukraine.

Refugee resettlement is a drawn-out bureaucratic process. It begins when a person is officially designated a refugee by the United Nations. Once assigned to the United States, applicants must pass interviews, background checks and medical exams. Winning approval and ultimately being relocated can take years, and former President Donald J. Trump downsized the refugee program, prompting arrivals to plunge precipitously.

For decades, the United States resettled more refugees than all other countries combined. About 3.5 million refugees have been admitted since 1975, though only a few thousand of those have come in the past five years. With conflicts brewing around the world, Democrats and Republicans have been at odds over whether the country should bear responsibility for people fleeing strife, and, if so, how many people to admit and from where.

Anti-refugee sentiment has been bubbling, and as a result, our refugee program is unable to meet this moment, said Ali Noorani, president of the National Immigration Forum, an advocacy organization.

In 2015 and 2016, Germany received about 800,000 Syrians seeking asylum after Angela Merkel, who was then the chancellor, made the decision to admit people escaping the war, and policymakers introduced measures to bolster the efficiency of refugee processing.

Around the same time in the United States, 31 governors most of them Republicans tried to block the resettlement of Syrians in their states, citing security concerns. Among them was former Vice President Mike Pence, when he was Indianas governor.

Continue reading here:
Ukrainians Are Trickling Into the U.S. to Warm Welcomes - The New York Times

He also made a second, subtler, but no less significant change to the script on Jan. 6, 2021, according to newly released documents and testimony. This previously unreported adjustment, further illustrating his pushback to the Trump-led gambit, involved a simple question that he asked each time a states electoral vote results were introduced: Are there any objections?

What sounded like boilerplate lingo actually served as an intentional emphasis by Pence on the federal law that lets members of Congress challenge presidential results the exact element of certification that Trump and attorney John Eastman sought to undercut.

Pences job that day was to oversee the counting of electoral votes before a joint session of Congress. The Constitution and the Electoral Count Act, the federal law thats governed the Electoral College process since 1887, required that Pence lead the crucial meeting of the House and Senate in his capacity as vice president.

During the lengthy session, which was interrupted for hours by a violent mob attack, Pence punctuated every states electoral votes with a question to lawmakers: Are there any objections? No vice president had added those words since Al Gore presided over his own defeat in 2001. Notably, Gore was the only one to have done it since at least 1937.

Pence embraced the long-dormant rhetoric in part as a rebuttal to Eastman, a close Trump ally, Pences counsel Greg Jacob told congressional investigators.

According to Jacobs testimony, as well as contemporaneous emails released by the Jan. 6 select committee, Eastman had spent several days before Jan. 6, 2021, pushing Pence and Jacob to embrace a fringe legal theory: That Pence could simply refuse to count some of Joe Bidens presidential electors. When it became clear that Pence would not go along, Eastman fell back on another proposal. Pence, he said, should declare the election in dispute and recess the session for 10 days, giving Republican-led state legislatures a chance to appoint new electors. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) assembled 10 GOP colleagues to embrace a similar push.

Mike Pences decision to craft and employ his own unprecedented language as he presided over the final step of the 2020 election reflected his resistance to a pressure campaign by then-President Donald Trump to subvert the process.

But Jacob pushed back, arguing that sending the election to the states to select new electors would violate the Electoral Count Acts provisions giving federal lawmakers the chance to decide which ones to count. In no previous election, he noted, even in ones with some disputed states, had Congress sought the input of state legislators to resolve disputes.

The Electoral Count Act, Jacob noted, says the vice president shall call for objections after each state, and Pence made the decision to explicitly add those calls to articulate his disagreement with Eastmans theory.

Jacob told the select committee last month that he debated this point with Eastman in the days before Jan. 6.

The Electoral Count Act says: You shall call for objections, Jacob told the committee. [T]he shalls were important to us, which was one of the reasons we had made sure that the transcript or the scripts for Jan. 6 had the call for objections because that was one of the things that the statute specifically required.

Matthew Seligman, an election law expert and Yale University fellow, said Pences decision to revive the objection language was prudent because for the first time in the statutes history, the ECAs procedures were under assault.

Prior vice presidents may not have felt the need to explicitly say out loud that members of Congress could object, Seligman said.

Out of every Electoral College session since 1937 the first one after the 20th Amendment moved the presidential inauguration from March to January Gore and Pence were the only vice presidents to call for objections after each state, according to a review of the Congressional Record.

Emails released by the select committee showed that Eastman and Jacob continued to debate the validity of congressional objections deep into the morning of Jan. 6. Jacob eventually accused Eastman of supporting made up legal theories that would never hold up in court, an exchange that grew heated as the pro-Trump mob closed in on the Capitol.

Pence had foreshadowed his plan to call for objections during public remarks meant to rally Trump supporters in the days before Jan. 6. While Trump was increasingly dialing up pressure on Pence, the then-vice president heartened Trump allies by assuring them that Well have our day in Congress. Well hear the objections.

Republican lawmakers aligned with Trump had worked on a plan to challenge the electors from a handful of states. The insurrection disrupted the proceedings just as an objection to Arizonas electors was being debated, and after the riot was contained, only one other challenge to Pennsylvanias electors was advanced for debate.

Before that day, Pence had strenuously avoided tipping his hand publicly about whether he would embrace any of Eastmans extreme proposals, though hed signaled it within the White House. He made his intentions public in a letter he issued moments before the Jan. 6 session began, in which he repeatedly referenced his plan to call for objections.

As presiding officer, I will ensure that any objections that are sponsored by both a Representative and a Senator are given proper consideration, and that all facts supporting those objections are brought before the Congress and the American people, Pence said. Those who suggest that raising objections under the Electoral Count Act is improper or undemocratic ignore more than 130 years of history.

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Another Jan. 6 mystery revealed: Pence's second script rewrite - POLITICO

Facilitating the loosening of former President TrumpDonald TrumpGOP talking point could turn to Biden's 'underwhelming' Russia response House Oversight Committee opens investigation into New Mexico 2020 election audit Hunter Biden paid off tax liability amid ongoing grand jury investigation: report MOREs iron grip on the Republican Party are cumulative sets of actions and statements emanating from spheres of GOP influence. Meanwhile, elected leaders fear of Trump backlash and name-calling is diminishing signaling the post-Trump era has begun. Trumps unraveling is akin to a decline by 1,000 cuts. Lets examine it.

The players are prospective 2024 presidential candidates, officeholders, the Republican National Committee (RNC), former high-ranking Trump officials, a conservative think tank and a mega-donor kingmaker who owns a jet.

We begin on March 4 at the RNCs major donor retreat in New Orleans, attended by former Vice President Mike PenceMichael (Mike) Richard PenceThe post-Trump era has begun The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - What now after Zelensky's speech? The Hill's Campaign Report: Democrats look for a reset MORE. His appearance proves that Trump could not prevent Pence from addressing this high-roller crowd. Indirectly, Pence spoke critically of Trump, saying, "There is no room in this party for apologists for PutinVladimir Vladimirovich PutinRepublican senators introduce bill to ban Russian uranium imports Hillicon Valley Invasion complicates social media policy Defense & National Security Blinken details Russia's possible next steps MORE. There is only room for champions of freedom." Pence boldly countered Trumps earlier praise of the Russian dictator he infamously called savvy and a genius in the war's opening days.

Upon leaving the RNC, Pence felt confident because he was embarking on a secret, potentially game-changing trip that could challenge Trumps supremacy.

On March 5, Trump also spoke at the retreat, generating news that will long be re-quoted. He joked that the U.S. should "put the Chinese flag" on F-22 fighter jets and "bomb the shit" out of Russia. You can imagine the audience gasping.

Later that Saturday night (but not reported until March 9),Trump was heading home aboard an unnamed donors plane when engine failure forced an emergency landing. The harrowing incident unleashed several news cycles of Trump plane drama.

Suspiciously starting on March 9, Trump supporters received an email solicitation titled "Update: Trump Force One."It stated, "My team is building a BRAND NEW Trump Force One," which appeared to be seeking donations.

Then watch Trumps airspace since he has lost altitude with that previously mentioned mega-donor kingmaker who owns a jet. Ironically (also first reported on March 9), Mike Pence had boarded the kingmakers jet bound for Israel and later the Ukraine-Poland border.

Here is why Pences trip could be perceived as a flashing red signal that the post-Trump era has begun. The plane is owned by Miriam Adelson widow of Sheldon Adelson a GOP donor extraordinaire who died in January 2021. Mr. Adelson was a casino empire multibillionaire, a personal friend of Donald Trump and the force behind the American Embassy in Israel moving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018. By the way, reportedly, the Adelsons contributed $220 million to the Republican Party during the 2020 election cycle.

Continuing her husbands legacy, earning Miriam Adelsons support is the political equivalent of winning the Mega Millions lottery. Is Mike Pence the 2024 lottery winner? Watch his airspace.

While in Israel, Mrs. Adelson, Pence and wife Karen prayed over Sheldons grave and dined with former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin NetanyahuBenjamin (Bibi) NetanyahuMORE. Then the Pences joined Samaritan's Purses refugee relief mission at the Ukraine-Poland border.

Beyond Miriam Adelsons financial resources, her support for Pence signals that Trump may not be a viable 2024 candidate, and that it may be time to move on.

Years earlier, Trump had been Adelsons golden boy. On March 13, 2016, a Hill headline read, Gingrich: Adelson signal is big for Trump. After Sheldon Adelson publicly endorsed Trump, the signal was that Trump had entered the Republican mainstream worthy of support by GOP elites. Former House Speaker Newt GingrichNewton (Newt) Leroy GingrichMORE (R-Ga.), an early Trump supporter, disseminated the signal. (Note: In 2012, Adelson contributed $20 million to keep Gingrichs presidential campaign afloat.)

Although Pence was aboard Miriam Adelsons plane and is likely a contributor to Pences advocacy groups recent $10 million ad buy against House Democrats Mrs. Adelson alone can not usher in the post-Trump era.

Suffice it to say, the Russia-Ukraine war has weakened Trump with self-inflicted wound-like statements and his previous anti-NATO stance while emboldening GOP leaders to denounce the twice-impeached former president. Then, on cue, a name-calling bombshell dropped on Saturday night after a Trump rally in South Carolina.

Continuing his feud with Trump, Rep.Tom Rice(R-S.C.) called the former president a would-be tyrant. At the rally, Trump was harder on President BidenJoe BidenRepublican senators introduce bill to ban Russian uranium imports Energy & Environment Ruling blocking climate accounting metric halted Fauci says officials need more than .5B for COVID-19 response MORE than on Putin. Trumps harshest words for the ruthless dictator were, Hes driven to put it together. It [the invasion] shouldve never of happened if he respected our president.

Also from the House was the recent headline, McCarthy breaks with Trump on Putin: Russian leader not 'savvy,' 'genius.' That was uncharacteristically anti-Trump criticism from House Minority LeaderKevin McCarthyKevin McCarthyHouse eyes advantages of proxy voting beyond pandemic The post-Trump era has begun Zelensky challenges conscience of Congress MORE (R-Calif.). Usually, he courts and counts on Trumps support (dreaming of his future title House Speaker McCarthy should the GOP win control of the House in the midterm elections).

In another cut, Trumps social media app Truth Social is underperforming and off to a rocky start even Trump is not an active user.

And like sharks smelling blood while circling the waters of Mar-a-Lago, there are an increasing number of 2024 anti-Trump presidential candidates who are envisioning a primary challenge. Furthermore, many highly touted Trump-endorsed primary candidates are struggling with fundraising and momentum.

Then last week, in what was a blatant Trump snub, the prestigious conservative American Enterprise Institute did not invite him to its annual World Forum attended by other GOP leaders.

And dont forget the blow-up with his former Attorney General William BarrBill BarrThe post-Trump era has begun Democrats urge DOJ to address 'insider threats' from candidates who deny 2020 results Barr says dealing with Trump, advisers like 'wrestling an alligator' MORE, prompting Trump to send a childish name-calling letter to NBC's Lester Holt after Holt interviewed Barr. The letter is a window into Trumps mindset.

Besides all the cuts, the most severe knife wounds could result from various legal actions pending in New York and Georgia. Most watched will be the House Jan. 6 committees conclusions and ultimately whether Attorney General Merrick GarlandMerrick GarlandGOP senators seek probe of 'egregious' conditions at NJ nursing home The post-Trump era has begun Biden signs reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act MORE indicts Trump for criminal conspiracy or defangs the politically explosive matter.

The post-Trump era has been born (though Donald still rocks the cradle).

Myra Adams writes about politics and religion for numerous publications. She is a RealClearPolitics contributorand served on the creative team of two GOP presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2008. Follow her on Twitter @MyraKAdams.

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The post-Trump era has begun | TheHill - The Hill

And Pences choice started off like his predecessors and would have sounded like parliamentary jargon to most people watching the session on Jan. 6, 2021: Vice presidents begin the counting of electoral votes by indicating that votes will be counted after ascertaining that the certificates are regular in form and authentic. But Pence added another line to this explanation that the preceding vice presidents did not.

Not only would each certificate he introduced be regular in form and authentic, he said at the time, but they would be the ones that the parliamentarians have advised me is the only certificate of vote from that state, and purports to be a return from the state, and that has annexed to it a certificate from an authority of that state purporting to appoint or ascertain electors.

It was a mouthful with a purpose. Pence was incorporating the specific legal language of the Electoral Count Act the 1887 law that, along with the 12th Amendment, governs the counting of electoral votes. The law requires that any electoral votes counted by Congress be submitted by official state authorities, like governors and secretaries of state.

The Jan. 6 select committee has been keenly interested in the mystery of Pences added words, too. The panels top investigator, Tim Heaphy, earlier this year asked Short about Pences decision to change the language and even played a video clip comparing Pences remarks to those of previous vice presidents, according to a partial transcript of Shorts testimony to the committee that was released in court filings last week.

So, obviously, Vice President Pence in 2021 alters, amplifies, adds language to the script that had been read by Vice Presidents reaching back 20 or 30 years, Heaphy said. Tell us about the decision, the purposeful decision by Vice President Pence to add that language to the ascertainment script.

[T]he predominant reason was that the Vice President wanted to be as transparent as possible, Short replied. But the transcript was curtailed mid-sentence.

Short explained in an interview that the added words were designed to clearly address Pences views of Trump allies push for false slates of presidential electors. Supporters of the then-president would be wondering why Pence refused to consider those slates during the Jan. 6 session.

Another source familiar with discussions among the then-vice president and his allies in those days said Pences decision to revise the wording had another audience: Members of Congress aligned with Trump who also espoused the view that Pence could introduce alternate electors. Pence, the source said, intended to preempt potential points of order or other procedural challenges those members might have made by laying out his thinking.

Indeed, top Trump allies like Stephen Miller and John Eastman pointed to these alternate electors as a way to keep the former presidents election challenge alive. Eastman built them into his last-ditch strategy to pressure Pence to overturn the election himself.

So the language Pence used had to explain his rationale for saying no.

The former vice president hasnt stopped subtly critiquing Trump in the year since he resisted the election subversion push. Pence told donors last week that there is no room in this party for apologists for Putin, viewed as a deliberate if delicate reference to Trump. Pence also recently declared that Trump was wrong for claiming he could unilaterally determine the outcome of the election.

The select committee is continuing to probe the involvement of Trump and his network in the submission of false elector slates to Congress in late 2020.

Under the Electoral Count Act, electors picked by the party of the winning candidate in each state are required to meet in mid-December to formally cast their ballots. In seven states won by Biden, however, the Trump campaign worked with state Republican parties to assemble their own elector meetings and cast ballots for Trump. Those false electors then signed certificates and mailed them to Washington.

Eastman urged Pence to introduce the dual slates on Jan. 6 and claim the outcome was in dispute. Then, per Eastman, Pence could adjourn the legally required session of Congress and urge state legislatures to resolve the so-called disputes, even though the Electoral Count Act prohibits adjournments during the count.

Pences counsel Jacob also testified to the Jan. 6 select committee; a partial transcript of his comments filed in federal court described Eastmans repeated efforts to convince Pence to introduce the alternate elector slates. Those comments formed the core of the select committees recent suggestion that it believes Eastman may have criminally conspired to obstruct Congress certification of the 2020 election.

Eastman has rejected that assertion, claiming he thought his efforts had a legitimate legal basis. Hes fighting to shield some of his emails from the select committee by claiming attorney-client privilege.

When Pence refused to entertain the alternate electors during Congress session certifying Biden as the next president, Trump supporters encroaching on the Capitol became furious. Within an hour, hundreds had breached the building, with some chanting hang Mike Pence.

Amid the chaos, Eastman exchanged tense emails with Jacob. Pences counsel accused Eastman, in one remarkably blunt missive, of being a serpent in the ear of the president of the United States.

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How Pence used 43 words to shut down Trump allies' election subversion on Jan. 6 - POLITICO