Extremists emboldened by Capitol siege pose ongoing threat

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When we think of the fundamental ideals on which the American republic is based, we tend to think of liberty and justice for all, equality under the law, and representative government. We don't often think of accountability. But in a sense, accountability underlies and supports all the others. First and foremost, we're accountable to ourselves in a system of self-rule. It's on us to make the most of our natural rights, hopefully to build a good life for ourselves, our families, and our communities. If we fail to do so, there are consequences. We must demand the same of our elected leaders. Our failure to hold them accountable, under the flimsy guise of "healing" and "moving on," endangers our national well-being no less than our personal failures endanger our own. Americans have taken different paths to realizing that the Republican Party, in its current state, is largely bereft of accountability. No matter how or when we reached that conclusion, we need to work together with all who are
now committed to a new direction based on principles and the national interest. —Evan McMullin

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** 'Heightened threat environment'
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Yesterday's alert from the Department of Homeland Security, warning of an ongoing threat of domestic terrorism from far-right extremists, was sobering but not surprising. Various militia groups, helped along by Donald Trump's rhetoric, have been radicalizing and prepping adherents for violence for months. Just yesterday, three self-styled militia members, all U.S. military veterans, were charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. They began soliciting and training recruits within days of the 2020 presidential election, later organizing travel to Washington, D.C., for the insurrectionists as well as trucks of weapons. —The Washington Post ([link removed])
* — "Inexcusable." The U.S. Capitol Police Union blasted the department's leadership yesterday following congressional testimony by acting Police Chief Yogananda Pittman, who said the department knew two days before Jan. 6 that there was a "strong potential for violence and that Congress was the target." Union Chair Gus Papathanasiou said, "The disclosure that the entire executive team knew what was coming but did not better prepare us for potential violence, including the possible use of firearms against us, is unconscionable." —ABC News ([link removed])
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* — "I did not have that authority." The commander for Washington, D.C.'s National Guard said this week that the Pentagon restricted his ability to respond to the insurrection. Maj. Gen. William Walker said his authority as a commander, which typically allows him to deploy National Guard troops in an emergency, was essentially removed prior to the riot. —Independent ([link removed])
*
* — An arrest in D.C. A man was charged with numerous weapons violations yesterday after being detained by Capitol Police in the middle of an intersection near the Rayburn House Office Building, just steps away from the U.S. Capitol, where members of the House of Representatives maintain their offices. The West Virginia man had a gun and 20 rounds of 9mm ammunition in his possession. —Independent ([link removed])
*
* — "We can attack Twitter or the Democrats. You pick." Federal prosecutors have charged a California man found with five pipe bombs, 49 guns, and thousands of rounds of ammunition who was targeting California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the offices of Facebook and Twitter in the wake of the social media platforms banning Trump's accounts. —The Hill ([link removed])
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* — Militiaman folds. One of the terrorists accused of conspiring to overthrow the Michigan state government, kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and put her on trial for "treason" has pleaded guilty and agreed to "fully cooperate" with federal authorities. Eight others linked to the Wolverine Watchmen militia group have been charged with terrorism offenses for allegedly taking part in the foiled plot. —The Daily Beast ([link removed])

MORE: Catherine Buni & Soraya Chemaly: The science that explains Trump's grip on white males —Scientific American ([link removed])


** Sargent: The delicate balance of dealing with domestic terrorism
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"With the new administration preparing to focus on domestic extremist activity, doing this right will mean taking extraordinary care not to overreach and/or radicalize people further. This means intelligence and law enforcement absolutely cannot in any way be used to denigrate or target legitimate political activity. Such overreach is a serious danger with a long history in the United States, and we need to guard against it strenuously. What this latest bulletin hints at is how incredibly complex and difficult getting this balance right is going to be." —Greg Sargent in The Washington Post ([link removed])

Greg Sargent is a Washington Post opinion columnist covering national politics. He is the author of "An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics."

MORE: Extremists emboldened by Capitol attack pose rising threat, Homeland Security says —The New York Times ([link removed])


** An 'alternative' to impeachment?
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Sens. Tim Kaine and Susan Collins are drafting a proposal to censure Donald Trump and may introduce the resolution on the Senate floor next week. As it appears increasingly unlikely that 17 Republicans would vote to convict Trump in an impeachment trial, the censure would impose "a similar consequence but it does not require a trial and it does not require a two-thirds vote," Kaine said. ([link removed])
* — The censure resolution would declare that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was an insurrection against the Constitution—an effort to stop Congress from "undertaking its constitutional duty to count electoral votes," according to Kaine. ([link removed])
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* — It finds that Trump "gave aid and comfort" to the insurrectionists by "repeatedly lying about the election, slandering election officials, pressuring others to come to Washington for a wild event, and encouraging them to come up to Congress." ([link removed])
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* — The language of the censure is pulled from Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Kaine said if Trump is found to have violated the amendment, he could be barred from holding office again. —Axios ([link removed])

MORE: Democratic House staffers draft letter to senators on impeachment: Convict Trump 'for our sake, and the sake of the country' —CNN ([link removed])


** 'Her very presence in office represents a direct threat'
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Rep. Jimmy Gomez of California announced yesterday that he will introduce a resolution to expel Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia from Congress after reports surfaced that Greene had previously called for violence against Democrats on social media. The measure is one of the starkest rebukes yet against the freshman congresswoman, who has flouted congressional coronavirus guidelines, denied the presidential election results, actively spread QAnon conspiracy theories, called the Parkland school shooting a "false flag" operation, and made racist, Islamophobic, and anti-Semitic comments. —Politico ([link removed])

MORE: Republicans back away from confronting Trump and his loyalists after the Capitol insurrection, embracing them instead —The Washington Post ([link removed])
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** Douglas: Don't let election losers make voting harder
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"State-level attacks on the right to vote call for a bipartisan commitment to democracy, which means full participation in our elections. We should strive for high turnout and determine our leaders based on who receives the most votes, not which party's voters have the easiest path to the ballot box. We must eliminate gerrymandering and manipulation of Electoral College rules that entrench minority control." —Joshua Douglas on CNN ([link removed])

Joshua Douglas is a law professor at the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law. He is the author of "Vote for US: How to Take Back Our Elections and Change the Future of Voting."

MORE: State GOP introduces controversial election reform bill —The Badger Herald ([link removed])


** Focus on election interference
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An arrest in Florida yesterday marks a potentially tectonic shift in how the federal government enforces laws against election interference. Douglass Mackey, known better as his alter ego, Ricky Vaughn, has been charged with election interference for running a voter disinformation campaign during the 2016 presidential election. ([link removed])
* — Mackey is accused of creating and sharing memes and hashtags on Twitter to mislead voters into casting their ballots via text or social media. An analysis by MIT's Media Lab determined Mackey to be among the top 150 influencers of the election. ([link removed])
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* — Outside of election misinformation, Mackey was a well-known figure in the alt-right movement and a prolific poster of anti-Semitic content. He was banned from Twitter for "targeted harassment" in 2016. ([link removed])
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* — "There is no place in public discourse for lies and misinformation to defraud citizens of their right to vote," Seth DuCharme, the acting U.S. attorney for Eastern New York, said in a news release. "With Mackey's arrest, we serve notice that those who would subvert the democratic process in this manner cannot rely on the cloak of Internet anonymity to evade responsibility for their crimes." —NBC News ([link removed])

MORE: How much did COVID-19 affect the 2020 election? —FiveThirtyEight ([link removed])


** Ibrahim: Time for democracies to get tough
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"[T]he West is doing nothing but playing defense and poorly at that. All that happens is the West occasionally pointing out that some Facebook page or other was maintained by Russia's troll farms—giving no incentive to them and other enemies to stop. To end assaults on democracy from outside—and to give the space to concentrate on attacks from within—Western governments must impose proportional costs on foreign actors." —Azeem Ibrahim in Foreign Policy ([link removed])

Azeem Ibrahim is a director at the Center for Global Policy in Washington.

MORE: World leaders are worried Trump 'permanently' damaged democracy, EU chief says —Business Insider ([link removed])
I have made the decision that if the Republicans in the Senate do not vote for impeachment, I will not consider voting for any Republican candidate. To borrow an overused cliche, the Republican Party will be dead to me. That does not mean I will necessarily vote for the Democrat, but that I will only consider independents or candidates from parties other than the Republican Party. I cannot vote for a candidate that puts party above the country. I am so hoping that a new conservative party will form that will follow what it says—something the Republicans have not done for a long time. A party that will honor the Constitution and work for the people. —Thomas A., Oregon

Perhaps we—you, with your platform—should now push the 45 "Republican” U.S. senators who voted "against" Trump's impeachment trial to ultimately not vote on the "unconstitutional" conviction. —Mickey D., Oklahoma
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** The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.
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