Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Another MAGA conspiracy theory implodes: Arizona man was not an FBI plant to stage Jan. 6 attack after all



On Thursday, The New York Times revealed new evidence debunking a longtime conspiracy theory among Trump supporters about the January 6 Capitol insurrection: that an Arizona man named Ray Epps was deputized as an FBI informant to instigate the attack.

"The claims, made in congressional hearing rooms, on Fox News and at Mr. Trump’s political rallies, have largely been based on a video taken just before violence erupted at the Capitol, showing Mr. Epps at the barricades outside the building whispering into the ear of a man named Ryan Samsel," reported Alan Feuer.

"Within moments of the brief exchange, Mr. Samsel, a Pennsylvania barber, can be seen moving forward and confronting the police in what amounted to the tipping point of the riot. Despite lacking proof for their claims, many Republicans have surmised that Mr. Epps instructed Mr. Samsel to antagonize the officers. They have also pushed the notion that because Mr. Epps has not been arrested, he must have been working for the government."

However, according to the report, not only is there no evidence that Epps was acting on orders from the FBI, he did not tell Samsel to attack officers either. In fact, he did the opposite.

"Just two days after the attack, when Mr. Epps saw himself on a list of suspects from Jan. 6, he called an F.B.I. tip line and told investigators that he had tried to calm Mr. Samsel down when they spoke, according to three people who have heard a recording of the call. Mr. Epps went on to say that he explained to Mr. Samsel that the police outside the building were merely doing their jobs, the people said," said the report. Samsel himself corroborated this story, telling FBI agents, "He came up to me and he said, 'Dude' — his entire words were, 'Relax, the cops are doing their job.'"

The January 6 Committee itself provided evidence against this conspiracy theory earlier in the year. It has been pushed even by some members of Congress, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).

More broadly, claims that the attack on the Capitol was instigated by "agent provocateurs" has been pushed, without any evidence, by Sen. Ron Johnson.

Read more here: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/us/jan-6-ray-epps-evidence.html

[Rick Plant]

Trump attorney faces disbarment complaint for 'knowingly spreading falsehoods' about 2020 election



On Thursday, The Denver Post reported that an organization has filed a complaint against Jenna Ellis, the Colorado-based attorney who helped former President Donald Trump try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, that could result in her disbarment.

"The bipartisan watchdog group States United Democracy Center filed a complaint against Ellis Thursday with the Colorado Supreme Court’s Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, asking for an investigation into whether she violated her ethical obligations as an attorney," reported Conrad Swanson. "After the election Ellis 'knowingly spread falsehoods' about its results; helped Trump try to persuade former Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the election results by providing 'misleading legal advice;' and 'amplifying false theories of voter fraud.'"

"Using her law license in Colorado, Ellis advised Trump and his team on how to 'overturn the will of the American people in 2020,' Aaron Scherzer, senior counsel at the States United Democracy Center, said," the report continued.

"'Ms. Ellis made numerous public misrepresentations alleging fraud in the election,' the SUDC complaint says. 'Even as federal and state election officials repeatedly found that no fraud had occurred that could have altered the outcome (of the election) and even as Mr. Trump and his allies brought and lost over 60 lawsuits claiming election fraud or illegality.' The complaint also cites two memos by Ellis claiming Pence could stop Biden’s victory."

Before working on Trump's legal team, Ellis previously worked as a prosecutor in the Weld County District Attorney's office, but was fired from that role for "unsatisfactory performance," including failure to properly follow the procedures in Colorado's Crime Victim Rights Act. She now works as a commentator for the far-right cable network Newsmax.

Ellis is not the only pro-Trump attorney facing administrative action for their behavior around the 2020 election. Sidney Powell, who also tried to get state results thrown out, faces ethics investigations and legal action for defamation by Dominion Voting Systems, an elections equipment company she accused of rigging votes; meanwhile, John Eastman, the architect of the legal theory Pence could disqualify electors, is under investigation by both the California Bar and the House Select Committee on January 6.

There is no evidence to support the idea that the 2020 presidential election was stolen or illegitimate in any way.

Read more here: https://www.denverpost.com/2022/05/05/colorado-jenna-ellis-ethics-election-insurrection/

[Rick Plant]

Trump suggested 'secret' missile strike on Mexico in 2020: Former Pentagon chief



The forthcoming book by Trump-era Secretary of Defense Mark Esper reveals a discussion of attacking Mexico late in the administration.

"Former President Donald J. Trump asked Mark T. Esper, his defense secretary, about the possibility of launching missiles into Mexico to 'destroy the drug labs' and wipe out the cartels, maintaining that the United States’ involvement in a strike against its southern neighbor could be kept secret, Mr. Esper recounts in his upcoming memoir," Maggie Haberman reported for The New York Times. "Those remarkable discussions in 2020 were among several moments that Mr. Esper described in the book, A Sacred Oath, as leaving him all but speechless when he served the 45th president."

The book says Trump asked at least twice if the military could "shoot missiles into Mexico to destroy the drug labs."

Esper served as secretary of defense until Nov. 9, 2020 when Trump announced in a tweet he had been "terminated."

"Mr. Esper, the last Senate-confirmed defense secretary under Mr. Trump, also had concerns about speculation that the president might misuse the military around Election Day by, for instance, having soldiers seize ballot boxes. He warned subordinates to be on alert for unusual calls from the White House in the lead-up to the election," the newspaper reported. "Mr. Esper describes an administration completely overtaken by concerns about Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign, with every decision tethered to that objective. He writes that he could have resigned, and weighed the idea several times, but that he believed the president was surrounded by so many yes-men and people whispering dangerous ideas to him that a loyalist would have been put in Mr. Esper’s place."

Esper says Trump even knew the exact missile he wanted to use, although he listed one from America's missile defense system. And Trump also suggested just brazenly lying about the military strike.

"When Mr. Esper raised various objections, Mr. Trump said that 'we could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly,' adding that 'no one would know it was us.' Mr. Trump said he would just say that the United States had not conducted the strike, Mr. Esper recounts, writing that he would have thought it was a joke had he not been staring Mr. Trump in the face," the newspaper reported. "Mr. Esper writes that he never believed Mr. Trump’s conduct rose to the level of needing to invoke the 25th Amendment. He also strains to give Mr. Trump credit where he thinks he deserves it. Nonetheless, Mr. Esper paints a portrait of someone not in control of his emotions or his thought process throughout 2020."

The book is scheduled to hit bookstore shelves on Tuesday.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/us/politics/mark-esper-book-trump.html

[Rick Plant]

'Unbleepingbelievable': Experts weigh in on shocking Trump revelations from Mark Esper



Trump-era Secretary of Defense Mark Esper received harsh criticism on Thursday after The New York Times published a story with quotes from his forthcoming book.

"Former President Donald J. Trump asked Mark T. Esper, his defense secretary, about the possibility of launching missiles into Mexico to 'destroy the drug labs' and wipe out the cartels, maintaining that the United States’ involvement in a strike against its southern neighbor could be kept secret, Mr. Esper recounts in his upcoming memoir," Maggie Haberman reported for The New York Times. "Those remarkable discussions in 2020 were among several moments that Mr. Esper described in the book, A Sacred Oath, as leaving him all but speechless when he served the 45th president."

Esper, who was fired by tweet in November of 2020, reports Trump wanted to fire Patriot missiles into Mexico.

"Mr. Esper, the last Senate-confirmed defense secretary under Mr. Trump, also had concerns about speculation that the president might misuse the military around Election Day by, for instance, having soldiers seize ballot boxes," the newspaper reported. "Mr. Esper writes that he never believed Mr. Trump’s conduct rose to the level of needing to invoke the 25th Amendment. He also strains to give Mr. Trump credit where he thinks he deserves it. Nonetheless, Mr. Esper paints a portrait of someone not in control of his emotions or his thought process throughout 2020."

Esper, a former chief of staff at the Heritage Foundation and Raytheon lobbyist, received harsh criticism for not warning America sooner, among other complaints. Here's some of what people were saying:

"Thank goodness for a robust publishing industry that lets us hear of these grave risks to the republic years after they happened," Georgia State Law Prof. Jeffrey Vagle posted on Twitter.

Retired U.S. Naval War College Prof. Tom Nichols wrote, "Your reminder that Mark Esper should have told everything he knew to Congress and the American people a lot go**amned sooner than this."

"Another Trump appointee warns 'he is an unprincipled person who, given his self-interest, should not be in the position of public service.' But Republicans don’t care," conservative Washington Post columnist Max Boot posted.

Conservative attorney George Conway described the story as "unbleepingbelievable" and said, "personally I think that a president 'not in control of his emotions or his thought process' should be deemed unable to carry out the powers and duties of his office under section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment."

Retired 3-star Gen. Mark Hertling noted a problem with Trump's plans to use Patriot missiles.

"Launching 'Patriot' missiles (an air defense missile, ground-to-air) against a ground target, and thinking no one will know. Stable genius material," he wrote.

"Why are we hearing about this two years later in a book?" Rep. Don Breyer (D-VA) asked. "As with so many revelations about awful things Trump did or tried to do, this is something Congress and the country should have known about long ago."

Attorney Ken White wrote that Esper "realizing that the candy being served to a group children is laced with rat poison: 'Wow, wait until I reveal this in my book.'"

Politico reporter Max Tani said Trump's scheme was "basically the plot" of the 1989 Tom Clancy book Clear and Present Danger, which was adapted into the 1994 movie starring Harrison Ford.

"Anyone who worked for Trump knows he is a maniac," wrote former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

Reporter Josh Wingrove summed it up as, "Happy Cinco de Mayo, I guess?"

60 Minutes @60Minutes

"We had developed a plan, initial concept of how [sending 250,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border] might happen. And I was just flabbergasted," former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper tells @NorahODonnell.

Mark Esper speaks with 60 Minutes, Sunday. https://cbsn.ws/3MT7vVd

Watch clip here: https://twitter.com/i/status/1522346842666766341


CNN hosts shocked by Mark Esper's stories of 'Medieval' Trump foreign policy ideas



CNN host Brianna Keilar on Friday expressed shock at former Defense Secretary Mark Esper's stories about former President Donald Trump pushing to launch missiles into Mexico.

During a segment on Esper's upcoming book, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman was asked about the plan to attack Mexican drug labs with American military force, which she said was one of many ideas that he would regularly "pop off" to military advisers who would then work to block such plans from ever taking effect.

Keilar then asked about Trump's plan to send hundreds of thousands of American troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.

"Trump did deploy troops to the U.S./Mexico border, which was nuts because legally they couldn't do anything there," she said. "Nonetheless, the actual plan is even more nuts."

Haberman replied that the most notable thing about the plan was that Trump adviser Stephen Miller tried to execute it by shutting Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley out of the process.

"This kind of thing happened a lot," she said. "Not just with DoD, but a number of agencies where the White House would direct some parallel process or side endeavor to have something happen and secretaries would find out about it."

Haberman was also asked about a "fairly Medieval" plan to parade around the severed head of a dead terrorist leader that would supposedly serve as a warning to other would-be terrorists.

"The idea went nowhere," Haberman explained. "It was something that Stephen Miller said. Esper writes that he said it was a war crime."



Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Trump profanely fumed at Mike Pence after military leaders refused to shoot protesters: book



Former President Donald Trump raged at former Vice President Mike Pence and other senior administration officials after military leaders refused to shoot down protesters following the police murder of George Floyd.

The former president suggested shooting protesters "in the legs or something" in the summer of 2020, according to a new book by former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who said Trump angrily berated him and other senior officials when they refused to go along with his proposition, reported The Guardian.

“‘You are losers!’ the president railed. ‘You are all f***ing losers!’"

Esper said the president often used that type of language, but he said the episode stood out because he had never seen Trump that angry or direct such venom at people in the same room -- which at the time included Pence, attorney general William Barr and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“He repeated the foul insults again, this time directing his venom at the vice-president as well, who sat quietly, stone-faced, in the chair at the far end of the semi-circle closest to the Rose Garden," Esper wrote. "I never saw him yell at the vice-president before, so this really caught my attention.”

Barr described the same "tantrum" in his own book, but did not include the details about Pence or the proposal to shoot protesters.

Trump did not order the shootings, but he made clear that's what he wanted to be done.

“[He was] waiting, it seemed, for one of us to yield and simply agree," Esper wrote. "That wasn’t going to happen.”

Esper book details Trump rage at Pence and proposal to hit Mexico with missiles
Memoir from ex-defense chief Mark Esper details extraordinary outbursts he says he helped to defuse

In the heated summer of 2020, thwarted in his desire for a violent crackdown on protesters for racial justice, Donald Trump included his vice-president in a complaint that senior advisers were “losers”.

Trump’s second defense secretary, Mark Esper, details the Oval Office outburst in a new book. A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Defense Secretary in Extraordinary Times, will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.

Esper’s account of an extraordinary presidential question in the same meeting – “Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something” – has already been reported. Pence’s inclusion in Trump’s invective has not.

Amid such revelations from the book, the New York Times related Esper’s claim that Trump once proposed launching “missiles into Mexico to destroy the drug labs”.

According to Esper, Trump said “no one would know it was us”, because he would simply deny responsibility. Esper said he would have thought Trump was joking, had he not been looking at the president as he said it.

Trump did not immediately comment.

Esper writes that he helped block other such ideas from the president and his aides, among them proposals from the policy adviser Stephen Miller that the US should send 250,000 troops to the Mexico border.

Miller is also alleged to have suggested severing the head of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an Islamic State leader killed by the US, dipping it in pig’s blood and parading it as a warning to other terrorists.

Esper says he told Miller that would be a “war crime”. To the New York Times, Miller denied the episode and called Esper a “moron”.

The former defense secretary’s full account of the meeting at which Trump suggested shooting protesters, as Washington and other US cities were convulsed by protests inspired by the police murder of George Floyd in late May 2020, is equally remarkable.

Esper’s account of Gen Mark Milley’s attempts to explain to Trump the role of the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff echoes others, including by the reporter Michael Bender in a book published last year and by William Barr, Trump’s second attorney general, who was present but recounts a slightly different lineup of Trump aides.

Like Barr in his own memoir, Esper does not stint when describing how he says Trump reacted when he was told Milley had no command authority over active duty or national guard forces Trump wanted to deploy.

According to Esper: “‘You are losers!’ the president railed. ‘You are all f***ing losers!’

"I never saw him yell at the vice-president before, so this really caught my attention.”

Pence was loyal to Trump until 6 January 2021, the day of the deadly Capitol riot, when he refused to attempt to block certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. Like Trump, Pence is now eyeing a run for the presidency in 2024.

The former defense secretary then details the question about whether protesters could be shot.

Esper says Trump did not attempt to order the shooting of protesters.

Instead, Esper says, the president was “waiting, it seemed, for one of us to yield and simply agree. That wasn’t going to happen.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/05/trump-aides-pence-losers-2020-protests-book-mark-esper

[Rick Plant]

Trump's inner circle draws scrutiny as observers wonder 'who was the inside man?'



Legal filings that suggest armed political extremists had an intermediary to Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021 are drawing increased attention to the inner circle still surrounding Trump on day of the Capitol attack.

"We now have the closest evidence yet that the president was possibly just one degree of separation from the violent armed insurrection," MSNBC's Chris Hayes reported. "But before we get to that, to understand what this means, it's important to keep in mind just how many people had access, of course, to the inner workings of the Trump White House, particularly in the last two months."

"We know from Mark Meadows' text messages that fringe conspiracy theorists had a direct line of communication to the Oval Office. The wife of sitting Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Ginny, was texting Meadows about overturning the 2020 election, as well as all sorts of crazy Qanon conspiracy theories about Trump's enemies being rounded up and held prisoner at Guantanamo Bay," Hayes reported. "Mike Lindell, the pillow man, of course, was also texting Meadows about the election, including a rambling rant about God and rigged voting machines. He got Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade all texting Meadows, either before or during the insurrection."

He noted Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio visited the White House in the days leading up to Jan. 6.

"We also know the Proud Boys, including Tarrio, appeared in a 'stop the steal' event with the longtime adviser to Donald Trump, Roger Stone, in the days leading up to the insurrection. So we know lots of fringe figures had access to Trump's inner circle and we may be learning about one more," Hayes explained. "And his name, we've said before on the show, his name is Elmer Stewart Rhodes, II. He's the head of another far-right gang, known as the Oath Keepers."

Hayes noted a DOJ filing on Oath Keeper William Todd Wilson.

"At the Phoenix Hotel, [Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes] gathered Wilson and other co-conspirators inside of a private suite. Rhodes then called an individual over speaker phone," the DOJ alleged. "Wilson heard Rhodes repeatedly implore the individual to tell President Trump to call upon groups like the Oath Keepers to forcibly oppose the transfer of power. This individual denied Rhodes's request to speak directly with President Trump. After the call ended, Rhodes stated to the group, 'I just want to fight.'"

Hayes offered his analysis.

"So there's a lot we don't know here," he noted. "This could've just been bluster from Rhodes. It's not implausible, though, that he had connections in the White House. The morning of the insurrection, for example, the Oath Keepers were providing security to none other than Roger Stone, Trump's longtime advisor, that's established."

"So if Rhodes truly was on the phone with someone close to Trump, imploring the president to tell armed far-right extremist groups to oppose the transfer for power by force, that's a pretty big deal," he noted. "Among other things to consider, just imagine for example would've happened if Rhodes had gotten through to the president, the man who had already incited insurrection was reportedly watching the violence unfold on TV with glee and was desperate to stop the certification of Biden's election by any means."

Watch the clip below:

[Rick Plant]

Trump slammed by former Pentagon chief: 'He believes he has Putin-esque like powers'

Former Defense Secretary Bill Cohen said Friday that he was not surprised by new claims from former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who is alleging in his book that former President Donald Trump once proposed launching a missile attack on Mexico.

“I must say I'm not surprised," Cohen said during an appearance on MSNBC. "We saw evidence of this, that former President Trump has no respect for the rule of law. He believes he has Putin-esque like powers.”

Cohen added, citing what he described as "high-level sources," that one of Trump's advisors had informed the president that his plans were illegal. "And he said, 'So what?' And the individual said, 'Well, you could be prosecuted." And he said, 'By whom?'"

"So the attitude is I can do anything," Cohen continued, "and I have absolute power. So this doesn't surprise me, that he would even talk about this."

According to excerpts cited by the New York Times, Trump believed the United States could pretend it wasn't responsible for launching missiles across its southern border, Esper, who was Pentagon head between July 2019 and November 2020, writes.

In 2020, Trump reportedly asked twice if the military could "shoot missiles into Mexico to destroy the drug labs," Esper writes in his book titled "A Sacred Oath."

According to the Times, Esper was left "speechless" at the requests.

Trump dismissed Esper in November 2020, just days after the results of the US presidential election were announced, in which President Joe Biden won.

Watch video in link: https://www.rawstory.com/trump-bomb-mexico/

[Rick Plant]

These people are absolutely nuts.

Georgia Republican's campaign focuses on a QAnon war against Satan



While the country is focusing primarily on Republican Gov. Brian Kemp's attempt at reelection in Georgia and his Donald Trump-endorsed opponent former Sen. David Perdue. But other than the top two candidates capturing the media is Kandiss Taylor, who is running a campaign focused on Satan. She's not talking about a euphemism or a metaphor for evil, she truly believes she is fighting a holy war against Satan in the Georgia gubernatorial election.

The Daily Beast cited Taylor's draft executive order to help voters understand why she would eliminate the Georgia Guidestones, a set of rocks in Elberton. They're nothing more than granite stones that say ten guidelines in eight modern languages and shorter messages in four ancient languages. It's a tourist stop like the world's biggest ball of twine, the PEZ museum or Foamhenge, a version of Stonehenge made out of stylophone.

"I am the ONLY candidate bold enough to stand up to the Luciferian Cabal," Taylor wrote on her Telegram channel. She opposes the Guidestones because the text says something about an "age of reason" and "leave room for nature."

The QAnon conspiracy theory is that no one knows who put the stones up, so therefore it's linked to Satan. Likely it was a donor who had a penchant for poetry on stone, but it made it ripe for the start of a conspiracy.

"The New World Order is here, and they told us it was coming," Taylor said in a video in front of the Guidestones. She then describes as a symbol for human sacrifice. “This is a battle."

She goes on to alert her followers that the Guidestones are 666 miles from the United Nations in New York, which isn't a coincidence. It's also 666 miles from the shore of Lake Huron on the Michigan coast. It's 666 miles from Texarkana, a city that is on the exact border between the states of Texas and Arkansas and the city spans both sides of the border. It's 666 miles from the small Illinois town across the river from Davenport, Iowa, which reportedly had an after-school Satan Club in Moline.

There are 22 locations in the state of Connecticut that begin with the name Devil, but Ms. Taylor has yet to announce anything about whether under her administration anyone would be allowed to travel from Connecticut to Georgia. There’s a town on the Utah border called Beezlebub. Michigan has a city named Hell. Minnesota has a Devil's Lake. There is a higher density of things named after the Devil in eastern Tennessee, southern Missouri, and places like Oregon and the California Central Valley, a Satan density map shows. Designer Jonathan Hull plotted all of these dark places on a map in a 2013 project.

Read the full report about the Guidestones conspiracy candidate at the Daily Beast.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kandiss-taylor-georgia-candidate-for-governor-builds-campaign-on-demolition-of-satanic-tablets