People For Supporter,
Yesterday’s prime time hearing of the January 6 Select Committee was riveting – exposing critical new information not only about how close we were to a coup d’etat on that day of infamy, but also about the grave and growing threat we’re up against right now and going into the elections this fall.
Trump’s dereliction of duty was startling – and his inaction was a direct part of the effort to stop the certification of the election results. The disgraced former president was ready and willing to let his own vice president be captured by the mob – and they came frighteningly close to doing so. Congressional leaders of both parties feared for their lives, and Trump simply refused to take any action to quell the violence.
Rachel Maddow and others noted in their post-hearing coverage that Trump wasn’t refusing to call off the mob because he was overwhelmed; he was essentially leading the operation he had called his supporters to Washington to execute, and with every minute he refused to call off the mob, he was in fact actively encouraging it. Trump was told repeatedly and KNEW that he was the one person who could get the mob to stand down, but he wanted the mob to be successful in stopping Congress’s certification. If not for the determination of congressional leaders of both parties to do their constitutional duty and certify the election results, it might have worked.
And he still won’t let go of the Big Lie. We all saw the outtakes where he simply could not bring himself to admit that he lost. Tragically, the Big Lie has metastasized down to the state and local levels, and its proponents are headed to general election ballots this fall all around the country:
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Dan Cox, who the outgoing Republican governor has called a “Q-Anon whackjob,” was chosen by Republican voters as their nominee for Maryland’s gubernatorial race. Additionally in Maryland, neo-Confederate and Christian nationalist Michael Peroutka, who believes the only legitimate role for government is enforcing his view of God’s law, secured the Republican nomination for Attorney General.
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Arizona Republicans voted for Mark Finchem, a member of the violent extremist Oath Keepers group, to be their nominee for Secretary of State; the Trump-endorsed Finchem was part of the mob just outside the Capitol on January 6th.
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Trumpist candidates for Senate – such as Herschel Walker in Georgia, JD Vance in Ohio and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania – have also touted the Big Lie and won their primaries; if these candidates win in November, all hopes of passing any progressive legislation in the next Congress are likely to vanish.
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In Pennsylvania, election denier Doug Mastriano mobilized QAnon conspiracy theorists, hard-core Christian nationalists, and die-hard Trumpists on his way to winning the Republican nomination for governor.
Here are four things you can do right now.
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Take action to spread the word to community members and local elected officials near you about the threat to our democracy – our activist toolkit is here.
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Work with pro-democracy elected officials in your area to pass resolutions putting local governments on record in support of honoring the bedrock foundation of our democracy: respecting the will of the voters. Our local elected official toolkit is here.
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Sign up with Vote Forward for the Big Send project and send letters to boost voter turnout this November.
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Write a letter to the editor and push journalists to do their job this election season by getting candidates on the record either supporting or refuting the Big Lie, and denouncing (or not) the mob violence of January 6.
I’m not going to sugarcoat things – this is not going to be an easy fight. But it’s one we all must engage in now, before it’s too late. So I hope you’ll get involved, and I thank you in advance for your efforts to preserve truth, justice and the American Way – for all.
Sincerely,
Ben Jealous, President
P.S. Even Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the two Republicans on the Jan 6 committee, noted last night that the attempted overthrow of our democracy by Trump and his supporters didn't end on January 6. It continues to this day, with Trump still trying to convince state lawmakers to decertify their states' 2020 election results. And, as our Right Wing Watch project noted last month, far-right movement leaders are laying out plans for when they "take the reins of power" following the 2024 presidential election -- which they fully expect to "win" once they're able to seize control of elections in key states via this year's midterms.
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