RIGHT WING EXTREMISM
Trump Has Been Strategizing With GOP House Leaders to Plan How Republican Lawmakers Can Defend Him in Public
Donald Trump spent part of Tuesday on the phone with top House GOP leaders, including Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, mapping out ways Republican lawmakers can publicly, including using the power of their taxpayer-funded government offices, defend him. The former president announced Tuesday morning he has been told he is a target of the Special Counsel’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump “has reached out to some of his top allies on Capitol Hill to strategize how they’re going to defend Trump & go on offense against the special counsel probe,” CNN Capitol Hill reporter Melanie Zanona said on social media Tuesday afternoon.
Later, CNN online called it, “the latest example of Republicans racing behind the scenes to use their power and platforms to shield the former president without knowing details yet about the criminal investigation.”
“One source described the call with Stefanik as ‘a long conversation,’ and said the two went over her plans to go on offense through her role on the House subcommittee on alleged weaponization of the federal government, as well as her overall efforts to rally support from the House GOP conference around the former president and attack special counsel Jack Smith.”
Those efforts apparently have been successful.
McCarthy, unlike his remarks immediately after the January 6, 2021 insurrection, on Tuesday falsely declared that Special Counsel Jack Smith sent Trump a “target” letter because his poll numbers went up.
The two faces of Kevin McCarthy
January 2021: Donald Trump bears responsibility for the undemocratic, unAmerican, criminal attack on the Capitol on January 6.
July 2023: Biden’s Justice Department is weaponizing government by holding Trump accountable for that criminal attack. pic.twitter.com/z41n7kvnUl
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) July 18, 2023
Before noon Rep. Stefanik also posted a statement attacking Smith and defending Trump.
My statement on the unprecedented and corrupt witch hunt against President Trump: pic.twitter.com/PVz8NnvBEY
— Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) July 18, 2023
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) also posted a statement in support of Trump.
There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.
– Montesquieu@ErikaDonalds & I STAND WITH DONALD J. TRUMP. pic.twitter.com/7jlmeC11Mk
— Byron Donalds (@ByronDonalds) July 18, 2023
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who reportedly is once again under the microscope of the House Ethics Committee investigating his relationship with a 17-year old, Tuesday afternoon announced he is filing legislation to defund Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations into Donald Trump.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) announces he will be introducing a bill to defund Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/0WFVR5J2a5
— The Recount (@therecount) July 18, 2023
READ MORE: ‘Biggest Threat to Our Survival’: Experts Blast No Labels and Third Party Candidates as Manchin Tests the Waters
On her official congressional Twitter account, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called the Special Counsel “a weak little bitch for the Democrats.”
Jack Smith is a lousy attorney.
His career is filled with mistrials, overturned cases, and judicial rebukes.
He only targets Republicans because he’s a weak little bitch for the Democrats.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) July 18, 2023
Greene called Smith’s efforts “absolute bullshit.”
“It’s absolute bullshit.”
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) reacts to Trump claiming he is a target in the DoJ’s January 6th investigation. pic.twitter.com/lPv6XIKKAx
— The Recount (@therecount) July 18, 2023
And she falsely claimed Smith “is abusing his power to arrest President Trump.”
“The Communist Democrats are trying to win the ‘24 Presidential election by arresting the People’s president, President Trump in order to cover up Joe Biden’s REAL CRIMES,” Greene claimed.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, who also heads the “Weaponization” subcommittee, last week used the power of his office to send a letter to House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger, CNN had reported, “calling on Congress to stop funding what he describes as ‘politically sensitive’ investigations until the DOJ ‘establishes a policy requiring non-partisan career staff to oversee such investigations.'”
Jordan also called for appropriations bills to “eliminate any funding for the FBI that is not absolutely essential for the agency to execute its mission.”
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