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Ali Alexander, the organizer of the Stop the Steal movement promoting President Trumps baseless conspiracy theory that widespread voter fraud cost him the 2020 election, tweeted on Dec. 7, that he was willing to give [his] life for this fight. The next day, the Arizona Republican Partys official account retweeted Alexander, with the note: he is. Are you?

Less than a month later, on Jan. 6, pro-Trump rioters overtook the U.S. Capitol by force, smashing windows and forcing lawmakers into hiding in a violent insurrection that resulted in the death of five people, including a Capitol Hill police officer. In the aftermath of the violence, Republicans have scrambled to distance themselves from the mob. The Republican National Committee condemned the attack and on Jan. 13, 10 Congressional Republicans voted to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the riot.

But the vocal backlash belies a much more uncomfortable reality: the Republican Party including local, state and federal lawmakers and elected officials, and dozens of local Republican Party chaptersactively supported the Jan. 6 rally, both logistically and by leveraging their institutional platforms to promote falsehoods and encourage Trump supporters grievances. More than two dozen Republican lawmakers and other elected officials personally attended the rally, and at least one was caught on video storming the Capitol building during the riot. Many of these Republican Party members remain fervent Trump supporters and continue to repeat and amplify his baseless claims.

Dozens of local Republican Party chapters used their social media platforms to promote bus trips to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, according to reviews conducted by TIME and social media posts collected by media watchdog group Media Matters for America. Numerous posts encouraged Trump supporters to go to their state and federal capitol buildings to fight, take America back, and even occupy the government.

Several official Republican Party accounts, for example, posted a promotional flyer that referred to the Jan. 6 rally as Operation Occupy the Capitol and included slogans like #WeAreTheStorm, which are used by QAnon conspiracy theorists. The same flyer was found in fringe rightwing internet circles where the term Operation Occupy the Capitol had become something of a rallying cry, says Julie Millican, the vice president of Media Matters for America.

A screenshot, captured Jan. 15, illustrating a post on one local Republican Party chapter's Facebook page

This is a call to ALL patriots from Donald J Trump for a BIG protest in Washington DC! TAKE AMERICA BACK! BE THERE, WILL BE WILD! read Dec. 28 posts on both the Facebook page of the New Hanover County GOP in North Carolina and the public group for the Horry County Republican Party in South Carolina, promoting a bus trip from Willmington, N.C. to Washington, DC.

FIGHT BACK! Stop the Steal MAGA Bus Trip Tell Congress DO NOT CERTIFY THIS VOTE, also read a Jan. 4 Facebook post from the Bergen County Republican Organization in N.J. The post encouraged supporters to contact the Lodi Republican County Committeewoman to join a group bus trip to the Capitol on Jan. 6. Tickets were $65.00.

Republican lawmakers and other elected officials, including state senators and representatives, state school board members, mayors, town councilors and sheriffs from at least 18 states, also traveled themselves to D.C. on Jan. 6, where they tweeted and posted on social media in front of the Capitol. Just before the protests turned violent, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona tweeted, Biden should concede. I want his concession on my desk tomorrow morning. Dont make me come over there, with a photo of the thousands of Trump supporters on the national mall.

Republican state Sen. Amanda Chase of Virginia, who is also a gubernatorial candidate, gave a calm but conspiracy-laden speech to a crowd assembled outside the Capitol ahead of the rally. In previous days, shed shared contact information for groups helping Virginians travel to D.C., according to a screenshot of her now-suspended Facebook page collected by Democratic super PAC American Bridge.

A few hours later, just as rioters were ransacking Congressional offices, Republican state lawmaker Daniel Cox of Maryland tweeted, Pence is a traitor. Cox also helped organize buses for his constituents to attend, according to local news site Maryland Matters.

In perhaps the most extreme example, newly-elected Republican State Del. Derrick Evans of West Virginia live streamed himself on Jan. 6 gleefully pushing into the Capitol building, surrounded by a group of other cheering Trump supporters. And while Evans resigned on Jan. 9 after he was arrested for his part in the riot, plenty of other Republican officials have defended their attendance on Jan. 6 and fought back against attempts by colleagues to censure them this week, signaling that they will continue to be an important part of the Republican Party even after Trump leaves office on Jan. 20.

Like some prominent national Republican lawmakers, many of the state and local Republican party officials who promoted the Jan. 6 event later denounced the violence. In interviews with TIME, they claimed they did not know about, or approve of, plans to breach the Capitol building.

Vincent Sammons, the county chairman of the Republican Central Committee of Cecil County in Maryland, who promoted what became a 15 bus trip to attend the Jan. 6 rally through a post on Cecil County Republican Clubs Facebook page, says he did not intend to fuel a riot. It wasnt something that was supposed to be acidic, he told TIME. It was something that was supposed to be a rally to motivate people to get their voices heard you know, trying to express your freedom of speech.

A view of Pro-Trump rioters in front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021.

Christopher Lee for TIME

Other local Republican leaders also emphasized that their Republican Party social media platforms were only used to help grassroots organizers efforts to support the President. Several Republican officials denied offering financial support to the protesters and described their role as simply helping to fill buses.

In Greenville, S.C., Kaaren Mann asked a friend with the Greenville County Republican Party to promote her bus trip on the partys Facebook page and email list. In Ohio, Cathy Lukasko, auxiliary chair of the Trumbull County GOP, posted a flyer seeking attendees for a private bus trip that was shared on the Facebook pages for at least three counties GOP chapters before she combined forces with another Ohio Republican activist to fill a bus. The Northern Kentucky Tea Party, which advertised a bus trip that left from a local church, according to a since-deleted web page saved by American Bridge, filled two buses in a similar manner. Jane Brady, the Chairwoman of the Delaware Republican Party, posted about what became a three bus trip on the partys official Facebook page. In more than half a dozen interviews, local Republican party members and Republican organizers maintained that they were not aware of anyone in their groups committing violence.

But many other Republican officials have either stopped short of condemning the rioters actions, or attempted to walk a fine rhetorical linecondemning the violence, while continuing to promote the same false grievances that incited it in the first place. Many have doubled down on their support for Trump himself.

Virginia Sen. Chase, for instance, publicly denied participating in the riots, but refused to criticize the Trump supporters who did until pressed in an interview with TIME on Jan. 14. Ive always condemned any type of violence, no matter what rally youre at, Chase told TIME. She then added that she understand[s] the frustration of the people and that they believe the insurrection honestly occurred back on Election Day. Chase also repeated the baseless claim, circulated by far-right extremists and conservative media, that at least some of those who stormed the Capitol were members of antifa, the loosely organized movement of anti-fascist activists.

The Arizona Republican Party has amplified the same baseless claim. Several dozen, including members of Antifa, made the reprehensible decision to riot, the Arizona Republican Party tweeted Jan. 11. Punish the perps, stop gaslighting the innocents. The tweet is now pinned to the top of the partys timeline.

Maryland delegate Cox also denied participating in the riots and denounced the mob violence in a statement to TIME. But in a letter to Maryland General Assemblys Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics that was published by the Washington Post, Cox maintained that Pences decision to confirm Bidens victory was a betrayal of us his voters.

These elected officials political two-step is likely a reflection of their Republican constituents beliefs. A Vox/Data for Progress poll conducted Jan. 8-11, just days after the riots, found that 72% of likely Republican voters said they still do not trust the 2020 election results. And an Ipsos-Axios poll conducted Jan. 11-13 and focused on the Capitol riots found 63% of Republicans said they support Trumps recent behavior.

It doesnt surprise me at all that MAGA has kind of taken over Republican held seats in legislatures or in certain governorships, in large part because theyre reflecting what the base is, says Elizabeth Neumann, who resigned from leading the Department of Homeland Securitys office overseeing responses to violent extremism last April. She explains that local officials often play an especially crucial role in shaping their constituentss beliefs, since people tend to trust local representatives more than national ones.

Somebody whos already on that radicalization pathway, Neumann says, and you have a trusted voice, like your local legislator, or councilman or governor kind of endorse this path that theyre on, theyre more likely to continue on that path.

Pro-Trump rioters attempt to push through a barrier outside of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

Christopher Lee for TIME

The Jan. 6 riot was not a standalone event. It marked the culmination of more than a year of growing frustration and increasingly virulent ideas.

The rally brought together people from across the country who believe in a host of typically separate conspiracy theories, noted Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. As Trump encouraged supporters to oppose coronavirus-related lockdowns last year, the liberate movement and protests at state capitols throughout 2020, provided an elastic reservoir to meet others with grievance against the government, Levin says. That helped bring more establishment Republican activists on the ground into contact with QAnon supporters, Proud Boys and white supremacists.

Far-right extremists talking about violence, and even civil war, is not a new phenomenon, says Lawrence Rosenthal, chair of the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies, but it didnt have a significant impact at the national level until Trump. In the past, theres always a sense of a spark that would start the violence, he adds. Whats different today is that the spark is the leadership of the President of the United States.

Several right wing groups, including Women for American First, Turning Point USA and Phyllis Schlafly Eagles also helped promote the rally. Women for American First was granted a permit for the event on Jan. 4, per ABC News. It also hosted a multi-state bus tour across the U.S. encouraging people to attend the rally.

Pro-Trump rioter uses a Capitol Police shield to break a window of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Christopher Lee for TIME

Phyllis Schlafly Eaglesa group launched by the former president of Schlaflys longtime group Eagle Forum amid infighting in 2016promoted the event on its website and social media, likening the rally to D-Day in one post, according to research provided by American Bridge. And Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA and Students for Trump, claimed, in a since deleted tweet, that he sent more than 80 buses to the event, according to Kristen Doerer, the managing editor of Right Wing Watch. (A Turning Point spokesman later told the New York Times that the organization sent just seven buses to DC.)

The leaders of those organizations belong to the highly influential conservative political organization the Council for National Policy, which has close ties to the Trump administration and whose past members include former Trump White House staffers Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon.

The Trump Administration will come to an end next week, but security officials say the threat presented by the Presidents fanning of conspiracy theories and anti-democratic fury will remain. The extremism that leaders in Washington now say threaten American democracy have permeated all levels of the Republican Party. The concern that we have from a security perspective is that this problem doesnt go away with Trump, says Neumann.

State and federal law enforcement officers are preparing for potential violence from rightwing extremists and militant Trump supporters before and during Joe Bidens inauguration.

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Write to Abigail Abrams at abigail.abrams@time.com and Madeleine Carlisle at madeleine.carlisle@time.com.

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The Republican Party Has Distanced Itself From The Capitol Riot. But Local GOP Officials Fueled Supporters' Rage Ahead of Jan. 6 - TIME

The modern Republican Party doesnt end on January 20, 2021. The grand finale of Donald J. Trumps tumultuous presidency wont fundamentally change the nature of the GOP. While many Republicans were shocked and scared by how far out of control the situation became during the insurrection on January 6, that horrible moment in our democracy has been building for decades. Indeed, even after authorities were able to clear Capitol Hill, some Senate Republicans continued to challenge the election resultsthe animating issue that had driven the rioters who flooded into D.C.

The Trump presidency was a product, not the cause, of the new Republican Party. President Trumps success was only possible because of the transformation that the party underwent since the 1980s. So deeply rooted is the dysfunction that shapes the GOP that even the shock and awe of a presidentially incited mob storming Capitol Hill wont fundamentally shift what the party is all about.

If there is one idea that is most useful in assessing our current situation it is the concept of asymmetric polarization. This argument has been developed by political scientists and journalists covering contemporary politics. Asymmetric polarization stipulates that political polarization does not explain what has happened in Washington since the 1960s. While it is true that Democrats and Republicans have moved further apart, with the number of moderates having vastly diminished, the GOP has become much more radicalized than the Democrats. As a whole, Republicans have shifted further to the right than Democrats, as a whole, have moved to the left. Just as important, Republicans have embraced a much more extreme approach to partisan warfare, proving more willing to damage institutions and shatter norms than their opponents. Democrats come prepared for a pillow fight, as Trumps advisor Steve Bannon argued, Republicans for the head wound.

The shift within the GOP began during Ronald Reagans presidency. The locus of change was not the Oval Office but Capitol Hill. There, a cohort of young Republicans flocked to the leadership of Georgia Congressman Newt Gingrich, who blazed a path for the party that privileged partisan power over the demands of governance or the health of our democratic institutions. Promoting a vision of populist, anti-establishment politics, Gingrich persuaded fellow Republicans that all was fair when it came to bringing down the Democrats. In a series of high-takes battles during the 1980s, Gingrich used the floor of the House to unleash toxic rhetoric about Democrats and their concerns for national security and he brought down Speaker of the House Jim Wright by criminalizing his reputation as the most corrupt Speaker in American history. Rather than distancing themselves from his tactics, as Republicans attempted to do with Joe McCarthy in the 1950s, they voted him into a leadership position in 1989, as House Minority Whip.

Ultimately, Republicans took control of Congress in the 1994 midterms and made Gingrich their Speaker. With endless investigations of President Clinton and two major government shutdowns, Speaker Gingrich institutionalized his smash-mouth partisanship at the highest levels of congressional power, culminating with the impeachment of President Clinton for perjuring himself about a sexual affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In the realm of political campaigns, Gingrich was joined by figures such as Lee Atwater and Roger Ailes who promoted vicious take-down politics that involved race-baiting and character assassination.

Rupert Murdoch shakes hands with Roger Ailes after naming Ailes the head of Fox News in New York City, Jan. 1996

Allan TannenbaumGetty Images

The new Republican Party also built a foundation in the news media. After the Federal Communications Committee abandoned the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, a rule which required radio and television shows to present both sides of a political issue, there was a massive proliferation of conservative talk radio between 1988 and 1994. Right-wing hosts such as Bob Grant and Rush Limbaugh filled the airs with poisonous tiradesin dialogue with angry callersabout the dangers of politically correct and unpatriotic liberals who were destroying the country. During Clintons presidency, the airwaves veered into conspiratorial directions with false allegations that the president and First Lady had been involved in the murder of Vince Foster, a top aide and friend who had committed suicide. The conservative media gained new muscle in 1996 when Rupert Murdoch brought conservative operative Roger Ailes on board to run his new Fox News channel. The station, while promising to be fair and balanced, emerged as a clearinghouse for polemical hosts who went to war with liberalism and touted the virtues of Republicanism by airing sensational stories and conspiratorial claims about what Democrats were up to.

Essential to the process of radicalization was that the entire Republican coalition would be comfortable as extremism took hold. President George W. Bush helped ensure this bargain by strengthening the policies that almost every Republican wanted, enough that the emerging right-wing forces would not scare anyone away. The Bush administration, working with congressional Republicans, delivered big on key items in the conservative agenda. The president moved forward in aggressive fashion with conservative court appointments nurtured by the Federalist Society. He pushed for restrictions on reproductive rights and limited scientific research that angered the Religious Right. The president obtained two major supply side tax cuts and dismantled key regulations, trafficking in disinformation about issues such as climate change to achieve his goals.

After 9/11, the White House undertook a massive expansion of executive-based national security programs, including torture and war against Iraq. President Bush ran up against the way that his party was veering sharply to the right on social and cultural question, such as when nativist forces in the GOP stifled a grand bargain on immigration, but his delivering so many core domestic policies kept the entire coalition comfortable. In 2008, Republican candidate Senator John McCain tried to pull back as his vice-presidential pick, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, galvanized these forces. At her rallies, supporters would yell out Terrorist! and Kill Him! when Obama was mentioned. The lamestream media was one her favorite targets.

The radicalization of the Republican Party entered a new phase after Barack Obamas inauguration in January 2009. The new generation of Republicans, many of whom had come of age during the Gingrich era, went after the new president hammer and tong. In the Senate, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell mobilized his caucus to obstruct the new president at every turn. Everything was fair game under Senator McConnell, even refusing to participate in an economic stimulus bill in the middle of a massive recession or refusing to fill a Supreme Court vacancy toward the end of his term.

The 2010 midterms brought in a second generation of Gingrich Republicans into the House of Representatives, a fiery group that called themselves the Tea Party and who were willing to do anything to represent the causes of the right. When President Obama wouldnt agree to a draconian budget, the Tea Party went to the political mat by threatening to not raise the debt ceilingan action which would have sent the country into default. Starting in 2011,, the party took a deep dive into extremism with the Birther movementchallenging the legitimacy of Obamas presidency with false claims that Obama wasnt born in this country. It was through Birtherism that Trump emerged on the national political stage.

The dynamic only accelerated. By the time Trump announced that he was running for president, what many in the pundit class didnt understand was that Florida Governor Jeb Bush no longer represented the party establishment. Trump did. It was because of how radicalized the party had become that GOP support grew so fast and remained so strong for him regardless of what he did or how much instability he brought to the White house. Other than trade, Trump stuck very closely to the party line on most key issues, such as deregulation and tax cuts as well as immigration. He used his Twitter feed as an public hot line to far-right groups that had surfaced in the past decades and found platforms in the conservative media. The party had come off the rails, but it had been a long-time coming.

Republicans wont change anytime soon. They cant. This is what the party is. In order to enter a new era, the party has to do much more than move beyond Trump. They need a new generation of leaders who reject the style of partisanship that has shaped the party and they need to create a wall against extremist organizations. Until that happens Trumpism will live onnot because of his hold on the party but because of what the party had become long before he came to town.

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What Impeachment Won't Change: How the GOP Became the Party of Trump Over Several Decades - TIME

The Lorain Chronicle-Telegram, which first reported Kirsten Hills rally involvement, quoted her saying no members of the Ohio bus group entered the Capitol.

COLUMBUS, Ohio A state Board of Education member organized a bus trip to Washington D.C. to participate in a Stop the Steal event, which descended into a chaotic, seditious mob raid on the U.S. Capitol as Congress voted to affirm the presidential election.

Kirsten Hill, who was elected to a four-year term in 2018, organized for a bus to travel from Elyria, Ohio (departing at 3 a.m. Jan. 6) to arrive in Washington, D.C., to join the event, according to an online event page hosted by a group she runs.

The site, ran by the TEA Party of Lorain County, hosts links to the now-defunct site http://www.wildprotest.com in encouraging signups. It lists Hill specifically as the organizer.

#DoNotCertify #Jan6 #StopTheSteal #WildProtest, an event graphic states. President Trump wants you in DC January 6.

The Ohio Education Association is now calling on Hill to provide answers about her role in organizing the trip to the Capitol and the association wants her to denounce the violent actions that took place there.

The event and riot are inextricably tied to the untrue assertion that President Donald Trump won the November election, not Biden. Supporters of this theory have baselessly alleged election fraud in several states Biden won despite a lack of evidence, increasingly unhinged theories of fraudsometimes linking state governors to Hugo Chavez, or dozens of courts rejecting the claims.

Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Chris Krebstold 60 Minutes the election wasthe most secure in American history. Trump then fired him.

On Jan. 6, a day likely to live in infamy in U.S. history, a crowd of hundreds, if not thousands, rushed the U.S. Capitol. Five people died, including Brian Sicknick, a Capitol police officer who was reportedly struck in the head with a fire extinguisher, and Ashli Babbitt,a woman shot by police trying to breach a door within the Capitol. Dozens of police officers were injured in the raid.

The insurrectionists assaulted officers, destroyed historical property within a beacon of American democracy, and delayed a Congressional certification of electoral college votes by a few hours via brute force as lawmakers were evacuated.

Its unclear what role the Ohio bus patrons played in the riots, if any. Hill did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails Monday.

The Lorain Chronicle-Telegram, which first reported Hills participation in the rally, quoted her saying no members of the Ohio bus group entered the Capitol.

Were not damaging property, she told the outlet. Thats high on our list. We respect peoples property and the public property.

A link on the TEA Party of Lorain Countys homepage directs users to another website, http://www.OHpatriots.org which states it is possibly organizing a trip to Washington D.C. for President-Elect Joe Bidens inauguration Jan. 20.

If by chance (or design) President Trump will be the one getting inaugurated on the 20th, our fleet of buses is ready to go, it states.

The sites Who We Are page states it is a declaration of independence from New World Order written Dec. 20. The site is rife with conspiratorial misinformation.

We recognize that our country is LITERALLY AT WAR and the enemy has penetrated behind our lines of defense, through the means of corruption an over an extended period of several decades, it states. This war is first ideological, as much as it is political, economic, technologic, biologic, and cybernetic. It is a silent war with the most devastating effects of take-over and control masked by the misinformation campaign unleashed by the globalist media empire.

Hill is also one of several plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against the Ohio Department of Health challenging the absolute tyranny of state health orders like the mask mandate issued to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The lawsuit is predicated upon conspiracy theories related to COVID-19, including that the government is knowingly suppressing the relative harmlessness of COVID-19 compared to other diseases.

Republican Parties in some Ohio counties promote bus trips

Several other bus trips transporting Ohioans to the nations capital on Jan. 6 were promoted by county Republican Party organizations.

The Republican Parties in Ashtabula, Portage and Trumbull counties shared a flyer for one overnight trip costing $219. The flyers name the trip organizer as Cathy Lukasko, identified in various 2020 news reports as the auxiliary chair of the Trumbull County Republican Party.

In a separate post, the Ashtabula County page noted Jan. 6 as the date of a Wild Protest in D.C.

The Republican Party in Geauga County shared sign-up information at the http://www.OHpatriots.org link, while the Republican Party in Van Wert County offered details of a trip originating in northwest Ohio. On New Years Eve, the Jefferson County Republican Party asked supporters interested in taking a trip leaving from Steubenville to contact the party by email, so it can be determined if there are enough people.

The Hocking County Republican Party shared this flyer in December advertising a gathering at the nations capital on Jan. 6 reading BE THERE WILL BE WILD.

We are posting this, but it is not being sponsored by the Jefferson County Republican Party. We will forward your information to the organizer, the post states, noting a cost of approximately $50-75 per person.

The Hocking County Republican Party shared its own flyer advertising a gathering on Jan. 6 in the capital with the header TAKE AMERICA BACK.

BE THERE, the flyer reads. WILL BE WILD.

Ohio Capital Journal's Tyler Buchanan contributed to this report.

Excerpt from:
Ohio Board of Education member organized bus trip to D.C. for 'Stop the Steal' rally - WKYC.com

Jake Zuckerman| Ohio Capital Journal

A state Board of Education member organized a bus trip to Washington D.C. to participate in a Stop the Steal event, which descended into a chaotic, seditious mob raid on the U.S. Capitol as Congress voted to affirm the presidential election.

Kirsten Hill, who waselected to a four-year term in 2018, organized for a bus to travel from Elyria, Ohio (departing at 3 a.m. Jan. 6) to arrive in Washington D.C. to join the event, according to anonline event pagehosted by a group she runs.

The site, ran by theTEA Party of Lorain County, hosts links to the now-defunct site http://www.wildprotest.com in encouraging signups. It lists Hill specifically as the organizer.

#DoNotCertify #Jan6 #StopTheSteal #WildProtest, an event graphic states. President Trump wants you in DC January 6.

The event and riot are inextricably tied to the untrue assertion that President Donald Trump won the November election, not Biden. Supporters of this theory have baselessly alleged election fraud in several states Biden won despite a lack of evidence, increasingly unhinged theories of fraudsometimes linking state governors to Hugo Chavez, ordozens of courts rejecting the claims.

Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Chris Krebstold CBS' "60 Minutes" the election was the most secure in American history.Trump then fired him.

On Jan. 6, a day likely to live in infamy in U.S. history, a crowd of hundreds, if not thousands,rushed the U.S. Capitol. Five people died, including Brian Sicknick, a Capitol police officer who was reportedlystruck in the head with a fire extinguisher, and Ashli Babbitt, a womanshot by police trying to breach a door within the Capitol. Dozens of police officers were injured in the raid.

The insurrectionists assaulted officers, destroyed historical property within a beacon of American democracy, and delayed a Congressional certification of electoral college votes by a few hours via brute force as lawmakers were evacuated.

Its unclear what role the Ohio bus patrons played in the riots, if any. Hill did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails Monday.

The Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, whichfirst reported Hills participation in the rally, quoted her saying no members of the Ohio bus group entered the Capitol.

Were not damaging property, she told the outlet. Thats high on our list. We respect peoples property and the public property.

A link on the TEA Party of Lorain Countys homepage directs users to another website,www.OHpatriots.orgwhich states it is possibly organizing a trip to Washington D.C. for President-Elect Joe Bidens inauguration Jan. 20.

If by chance (or design) President Trump will be the one getting inaugurated on the 20th, our fleet of buses is ready to go, it states.

The sites Who We Are page states it is a declaration of independence from New World Order written Dec. 20. The site is rife with conspiratorial misinformation.

We recognize that our country is LITERALLY AT WAR and the enemy has penetrated behind our lines of defense, through the means of corruption an over an extended period of several decades, it states. This war is first ideological, as much as it is political, economic, technologic, biologic, and cybernetic. It is a silent war with the most devastating effects of take-over and control masked by the misinformation campaign unleashed by the globalist media empire.

Hill is also one of several plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against the Ohio Department of Healthchallenging the absolute tyranny of state health orders like the mask mandateissued to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The lawsuit is predicated upon conspiracy theories related to COVID-19, including that the government is knowingly suppressing the relative harmlessness of COVID-19 compared to other diseases.

Several other bus trips transporting Ohioans to the nations capital on Jan. 6 were promoted by county Republican Party organizations.

The Republican Parties inAshtabula,PortageandTrumbullcounties shared a flyer for one overnight trip costing $219. The flyers name the trip organizer as Cathy Lukasko, identified in various 2020 news reports as the auxiliary chair of the Trumbull County Republican Party.

In a separate post, the Ashtabula County page noted Jan. 6 as the date of a Wild Protest in D.C.

The Republican Party inGeauga Countyshared sign-up information at the http://www.OHpatriots.org link, while the Republican Party inVan Wert Countyoffered details of a trip originating in northwest Ohio. On New Years Eve, theJefferson CountyRepublican Party asked supporters interested in taking a trip leaving from Steubenville to contact the party by email, so it can be determined if there are enough people.

We are posting this, but it is not being sponsored by the Jefferson County Republican Party. We will forward your information to the organizer,the post states,noting a cost of approximately $50-75 per person.

TheHocking CountyRepublican Party shared its own flyer advertising a gathering on Jan. 6 in the capital with the header TAKE AMERICA BACK.

BE THERE, the flyer reads. WILL BE WILD.

Tyler Buchanan contributed to this report.

See original here:
Ohio Board of Education member Kirsten Hill organized bus trip to DC for 'Stop the Steal' rally - The Columbus Dispatch

Published: 1/16/2021 12:01:35 AM

Its frightening to know there are not one but two viruses infecting Americans. One, of course, is COVID-19 and the other is known today as the Trump virus.

This strain, the outbreak of which is relatively new to the United States has been documented previously under different names in Germany, Italy, and Spain in the 1930s, Russia in the 1950s, Iran in the 1970s, Iraq in the 1980s, North Korea and other lesser known countries in this century.

The COVID virus affects the respiratory system in a deadly way but the Trump flu affects the brain. The first one could be eradicated by a vaccine. The second one will be more difficult to cure.

In the United States scientific research has pinpointed the first signs of this new flu to Election Day, 2008. People with underlying conditions, such as racism and xenophobia contracted it first. Highly contagious, it spread rapidly among the populous. The talking heads were super-spreaders.

Unlike COVID-19, the Trump flu doesnt incapacitate people physically but it causes a declining mental state, a tendency to deny reality, and a strong desire to congregate with other infected people to spread their illness across the country, with innocent-sounding names like The Tea Party, Proud Boys, American Freedom Party, and the like. There are even many infected people in Congress.

A roadmap to a cure begins with the simple act of voting. Let those of us who havent been infected fight this flu with vigilance.

RUSS GRAHAM

Manchester

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Letter: The Trump virus - Concord Monitor