Background Briefing: July 27, 2021

On By gram

 

Trump’s GOP is Turning Traitors and Seditionists Into Martyrs and Patriots

We begin on this first day of testimony before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection and speak with Will Sommer, who covered the events on that day. He is a reporter covering tech and conservative media for The Daily Beast and is the co-host of the podcast FEVER DREAMS and is currently writing a book on QAnon. We discuss his latest article at The Daily Beast, “Republicans Recast Jan. 6 Riot Defendants as “Political Prisoners” and the extent of trolling coming from Republicans in lockstep with Trump as they try to create an alternative version of reality and cast these white supremacists, neo-Confederates and QAnon seditionists as martyrs and patriots. Congressman Matt Gaetz and the QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene went to the steps of the Department of Justice today in support of those in jail for the many crimes committed on that day and we assess how their protest went.

 

Today’s Testimony and the Role of Jim Jordan in the Insurrection

Then we speak with Sidney Blumenthal, the former senior White House aide now a biographer of Abraham Lincoln whose latest book is All the Powers on Earth, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln 1856-1860. He joins us to discuss his article at The Guardian, “What did Jim Jordan know about the insurrection and when did he know it?” and today’s powerful testimony from two Capitol Police Officers and two DC Metro Policemen who faced the raging and murderous mob of Trump supporters.

 

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment Bars Trump and Other Insurrectionists From Running Again

Then finally we speak with John Bonifaz, the co-founder and President of Free Speech For People who previously served as Executive Director and General Counsel of the National Voting Rights Institution. His organization along with a group of constitutional lawyers contacted election officials in 50 states to remind them that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars formerly elected officials like Donald Trump who engaged in insurrection from again holding public office.