Millions of Americans have been sold a fraud that the election was stolen. Republicans have a duty to tell the American people that this is not true. Perpetuating the Big Lie is an attack on the core of our constitutional republic.Aaron Rupar @atrupar
Steve Scalise on Fox News Sunday repeatedly refuses to acknowledge that the 2020 election was not stolen from Donald Trump https://t.co/EME1lBK1vA
Scalise also refused to say whether he would vote to hold in contempt of Congress Trump advisers, such as Steve Bannon, who are resisting subpoenas issued by the January 6 Committee. Bannon is invoking executive privilege, at Trump's request an absurd position because by the 2020 election Bannon hadn't worked in the White House for years. January 6 Committee Chair Bennie Thompson and Cheney say they "will not allow any witness to defy a lawful subpoena or attempt to run out the clock, and we will swiftly consider advancing a criminal contempt of Congress referral."
This means even more of an ongoing focus on Trump and his attempted coup. Before Congress can refer a criminal contempt to the Justice Department for prosecution, the full House has to vote on it. So you can expect a near party-line vote, which will put Republicans further on record as supporting Trump and, by implication, others who instigated the insurrection.
The criminal contempt of Congress statute, enacted in 1857 and only slightly modified since, provides that any person who willfully fails to comply with a properly issued committee subpoena for testimony or documents is punishable by a substantial fine and imprisonment for up to one year. Once the House votes in favor of criminal contempt, the Speaker is required to report it to the Department of Justice, which then determines whether to prosecute. (Unfortunately, Attorney General Merrick Garland so far has not distinguished himself for holding Trump or his cronies accountable for anything.)
House Republicans could soon find themselves in an even more awkward position as the January 6 Committee investigates the roles several of them played in the insurrection. Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin has asked the committee to investigate the help Rep. Scott Perry gave Trump in pressuring the Justice Department to overturn the election, as well as Rep. Jim Jordan's contacts with the White House before and during the insurrection. (You may remember that in the 2016 presidential election, Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, dug into allegations of impropriety at the FBI and Justice Department, and defended the power of the subpoena to compel testimony from executive-branch officials.)
The January 6 Committee also issued a subpoena last week to Ali Alexander, the leader of the pro-Trump "Stop the Steal" organization, who has claimed he worked on the pre-insurrection rally with several GOP lawmakers, including Reps. Paul Gosar, Mo Brooks, and Andy Biggs.
Much of this is likely to overshadow ongoing negotiations between Joe Manchin and the White House over Biden's shrinking social and climate bill, and how to reduce its price tag from $3.5 trillion to $2.3 or $2.4 trillion an exercise that will require shortening the duration of some programs while limiting others to lower-income beneficiaries. The problem is that some measures in the bill such as those aimed at reducing fossil-fuel emissions depend on altering corporate incentives, which becomes harder when programs don't last very long. Several other measures depend on matching funds from states, which are less likely to provide them for shorter programs. Add to this the perennial problem of administering programs tied to income levels and you're in a briar patch.
To make matters worse, Arizona's Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema is now saying she wants to cut at least $100 billion from climate programs in the package. No one I've spoken to on the Hill has any idea what's in her head, what she wants, or why.
Overall, the calendar is working against Biden and the Democrats. They need to get their infrastructure and the social and climate legislation passed before the holidays because American politics thereafter will succumb to the gravitational pull of the midterms.
Trump's speech in Iowa Saturday night suggests we're already in that gravitational field. Ironically, though, in making that speech mostly about himself, Trump may have given Democrats more leeway to do what Americans -- including most Trump supporters -- need them to do.
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