While Brooks initially received Trump’s endorsement in the Senate race, the former president rescinded his support this spring as Brooks’ campaign floundered, eventually endorsing Britt, the frontrunner, after the state’s May 24 primary went to a runoff.
The race has left some of Trump’s staunchest loyalists bewildered by his decision to support Britt, whom he described less than a year ago as the “assistant” of “the RINO Senator from Alabama,” saying Britt was “not what our Country needs.”
Amy Kremer, chair of Women for America First, a key organizer for Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021 rally, who traveled to Alabama to assist the Brooks campaign in recent days, has remained committed to Brooks despite Trump’s decision to rescind his endorsement.
“Donald Trump is disconnected from the base,” said Kremer, who was an early supporter of Trump and prior to that, a leading activist in the tea party movement. “I don’t know what has happened there. I think he’s getting bad advice from the people around him, and I think it’s unfortunate, but it’s time for those of us in the movement to get back to basics, back to our first principles.”
“We were here long before President Trump came along, and we’re going to be here long afterward,” Kremer said.
Even after Trump put his weight behind Britt in the runoff — and as public and internal polling showed Brooks’ prospects as weak — top conservative commentators like Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Mark Levin and Charlie Kirk declared their support for Brooks up to the final day of the campaign. Kirk, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Reps. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Mark Green (R-Tenn.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward spent Monday night on a tele-town hall in support of Brooks, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) also continued to lend their support.
Such a split among conservative leaders who typically kowtow to Trump – but have been willing to speak out against his endorsed candidate – has been a recurring phenomenon in this year’s Republican primaries. Longtime Trump allies found themselves opposing the former president in primaries in Ohio and Pennsylvania last month, bitter races that resulted in some Trump loyalists arguing that he was wrong in his endorsements of J.D. Vance in Ohio and Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania.
Throughout the runoff campaign, Britt continued to rack up her own endorsements from high profile Republicans, including Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). In the final weeks, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the GOP nominee for governor in Arkansas, and commentator Steve Cortes have also put out statements and videos in support of Britt’s campaign. That follows several other incumbent senators endorsing her earlier this year.
Paul has remained a steadfast supporter of Brooks, visiting the state on Friday to campaign for the congressman. He told callers to a Monday night tele-town hall that Trump has “made some big whopper mistakes.”
“Many of us were conservative, slash libertarian, slash constitutionalists well before there was a Donald Trump,” Paul said to potential voters on the Monday night call. “We were glad Donald Trump was with us on so many things, but it doesn’t make him the end-all of everything.
“I would say, without question, Mo Brooks is probably the most loyal person to Donald Trump than probably all of the congressmen I can think of, and there’s certainly a sense of bad irony that the president didn’t repay that loyalty. And I’ll never understand it, and never justify it.”
Britt is the preferred candidate of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a Trump nemesis, while Brooks is an adversary of the Senate minority leader. Adding to Britt’s significant spending advantage in the race was at least $2 million from the McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund, which gave to a pro-Britt super PAC. SLF said their involvement was part of an anti-Brooks effort.
Brooks, who was first elected to Congress in 2010 after spending a combined 25 years as a state legislator and member of the Madison County Commission, led efforts in Congress to oppose the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory — including speaking at Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, rally. But Trump blamed Brooks’ decline in support throughout the winter on comments the congressman made last year encouraging Republicans to move on from 2020 and focus their efforts on winning elections in 2022 and 2024.
Britt, however, did not champion Trump’s stolen-election narrative, instead carefully answering questions about the issue by suggesting there should be a “nationwide forensic audit,” but stopping short of declaring that Biden’s victory was fraudulent.
The former president of the Business Council of Alabama, Britt veered right as the campaign progressed, including unveiling her own restrictive immigration plan and criticizing Congress’ spending on Ukraine aid, something Shelby — and Brooks, for that matter — voted last month to support.
She has still managed to earn and keep the endorsements of more than a dozen business and industry groups in Alabama. Meanwhile, Britt and several super PACs supporting her spent more than $5 million on television advertisements during the four-week runoff, compared to less than half a million by Brooks and the Club for Growth, which endorsed him in the race.
“She has got the support of McConnell, she’s got the support of Shelby, she’s got the support of the Chamber, and yet she is supposed to be Tom Cotton on immigration and Rand Paul on foreign policy,” said Ryan Girdusky, a Republican operative supporting Brooks, who was also involved in a super PAC backing Vance in Ohio. “I will hold my breath.”
Alabama is a state unlikely to prove consequential to the Senate map this year. Unlike in 2017, when Republican Roy Moore cost the party a seat as he faced sexual misconduct allegations, the GOP nominee is all but guaranteed a general election win.
A handful of other safe seats are in play for Republican primary voters Tuesday night in Alabama and other states. The race to replace Brooks in the House is pitting Madison County Commission Chairman Dale Strong against former Assistant Secretary of the Army Casey Wardynski in a GOP primary runoff.
Republicans in Georgia are also choosing nominees for a pair of safe red seats. Trump endorsed candidates in both seats — Jake Evans in the 6th District and Vernon Jones in the 10th — but both primaries have been hard-fought nonetheless.
And in Virginia, Republicans are choosing nominees to take on a pair of Democratic members of Congress in major battleground districts. The race to face Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) in the 2nd District is one of the GOP’s top House targets in the country, and Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) may also have a tough race on her hands in the redrawn 7th District.
Rep. Adam Schiff delivers remarks during a hearing by the House select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol attack on Tuesday in Washington.
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Rep. Adam Schiff delivers remarks during a hearing by the House select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol attack on Tuesday in Washington.
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As Rep. Adam Schiff reminded listeners, every four years Americans cast their votes not directly for presidential candidates but for electors pledged to those candidates to the Electoral College.
In December, electors in each state meet, cast their votes and send those votes to Congress, which meets in January to count those votes, and the winner becomes president.
Schiff spent several minutes detailing how, as he put it, former President Donald Trump and his campaign “were directly involved in advancing and coordinating the plot to replace Biden electors with fake electors not chosen by the voters.”
He said that entailed convincing fake electors to cast and submit votes through fake certificates that said they would only be used in the event that Trump won his legal challenges — but continued the scheme even after courts rejected those lawsuits. Even Trump’s own lawyers doubted the legal basis of the plan and some walked away rather than participate, he added.
He then played a video showing Casey Lucier, investigative counsel for the committee, outlining the details of that plan. She said the committee heard testimony that people close to Trump hatched a plan to organize fake electors for Trump in states that he lost in the weeks after the election.
Video clips captured testimony from former Trump staffers who were involved in or knew of the plot, lawyers who warned against it and Republican Party officials. They also detailed the lengths the Trump campaign and fake electors took to carry out the scheme.
Lucier said one group of fake electors even considered hiding overnight to ensure that they could access the state capitol in Michigan. In one state, fake electors asked for a promise that the Trump campaign would pay their legal fees if they were sued or charged with a crime.
Fake electors did ultimately meet on Dec. 14, 2020, in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Nevada, and Wisconsin, she said. At the request of the Trump campaign, the electors signed documents falsely asserting that they were the “duly elected” electors then submitted them to the National Archives and to Vice President Mike Pence in his capacity as president of the Senate.
The committee also obtained documents showing that the Trump campaign took steps to ensure the physical copies of those votes from two states were delivered to Washington, D.C., for Jan. 6, the day the vote was to be certified.
Lucier cited text messages between Republican Party officials in Wisconsin showing that on Jan. 4, the Trump campaign asked for someone to fly the fake electors’ documents to Washington.
She also displayed a screenshot of a text that a staffer for Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson sent to a Pence staffer just minutes before Congress began its joint session on Jan. 6. The Johnson staffer — identified as Sean Riley, the senator’s chief of staff — said Johnson needed to hand something to Pence, explaining that they were an “alternate slate of electors for MI and WI because archivist didn’t receive them.”
Pence’s aide, Chris Hodgson, instructed Riley not to deliver them to the vice president.
Shortly after the testimony, a spokesperson for Johnson, Alexa Henning, said the senator had no involvement in the creation of an alternate slate of electors and didn’t know that they would be delivered to his office.
“This was a staff to staff exchange. His new Chief of Staff contacted the Vice President’s office,” Henning tweeted. “The Vice President’s office said not to give it to him and we did not. There was no further action taken. End of story.”
Lucier said: “Even though the fake elector slates were transmitted to Congress and the executive branch, the vice president held firm in his position that his role was to count lawfully submitted electoral votes.”
But both Senate leaders swiftly issued statements of public support, suggesting that public sentiment in favor of toughening gun laws, particularly in the wake of recent mass shootings, had finally broken through in Congress. Mr. McConnell called the bill “a common sense package of popular steps that will help make these horrifying incidents less likely while fully upholding the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.”
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said he expected the legislation to pass by the end of the week.
“This bipartisan gun safety legislation is progress and will save lives,” he said ahead of the vote. “While it is not everything we want, this legislation is urgently needed.”
The flurry of negotiations was spurred by two mass shootings in the last two months: a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two teachers dead, and a racist attack that killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket. The human devastation brought the issue of gun violence back to the forefront on Capitol Hill, where years of efforts to enact gun restrictions in the wake of such assaults have fallen short amid Republican opposition.
Since 10 Republican and 10 Democrats announced their agreement on a bipartisan outline less than two weeks ago, lead negotiators — Senators Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both Democrats, and John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, both Republicans — have spent hours hammering out the details and toiling to keep their fragile coalition together.
“Today, we finalized bipartisan, common sense legislation to protect America’s children, keep our schools safe, and reduce the threat of violence across our country,” the four senators said in a statement. “Our legislation will save lives and will not infringe on any law-abiding American’s Second Amendment rights. We look forward to earning broad, bipartisan support and passing our common sense legislation into law.”
Three people were injured when an airplane’s landing gear collapsed and the plane caught fire Tuesday, a spokesperson for Miami International Airport said.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews works at the scene of an aircraft fire at Miami International Airport, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Authorities said a plane carrying 126 people caught fire after landing, though no serious injuries were reported.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue via AP
As the Red Air flight, which was arriving from Las Américas International Airport in the Dominican Republic, approached the runway Tuesday evening, the landing gear “collapsed,” the Federal Aviation Administration said. The issue with the landing gear caused the fire.
Erika Benitez, of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, said officials responding to the scene found one of the wings was on fire. Foam trucks were used to extinguish the flames.
There were 126 people onboard, and three were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, Miami-Dade Aviation Department communication director Greg Chin said. The rest of the passengers were bussed to the terminal.
A video shows a plane at Miami International Airport after an emergency landing, in this screengrab obtained by Reuters from a social media video, June 21, 2022.
REUTERS
Videos posted online showed the flames, which have since been extinguished, Chin said.
The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.
Ruby Freeman, the mother of Shaye Moss, both former election workers in Fulton County, Georgia, sat behind her daughter in the hearing room Tuesday as Moss detailed “racist” and “hateful” threats to their lives after Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani falsely accused them of “smuggling” ballots in suitcases.
Both women told the committee they are now scared to use their names, and Freeman was told by the FBI she had to leave her home for two months because of threats. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said that in Trump’s call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, he mentioned Freeman’s name 18 times.
“I’ve lost my name and I’ve lost my reputation,” Freeman, a 62-year-old grandmother, said in taped testimony. “I’ve lost my sense of security, all because a group of people starting with No. 45 and his ally Rudy Giuliani decided to scapegoat me and my daughter Shaye, to push their own lies about how the presidential election was stolen.”
“I can’t believe this person has caused this much damage to me and my family,” she added. “It was horrible.”
Asked how the false attack espoused by the president and his allies affected her, Moss said it has “in every way.”
“I haven’t been anywhere at all. I’ve gained about 60 pounds. I just don’t do nothing anymore. I don’t want to go anywhere,” she said. “All because of lies — for me doing my job, same thing I’ve been doing forever.”
Stephen Colbert wasted no time in addressing news about his own show on Monday evening. The host of CBS’ Late Show said hello and then asked the audience “Quick question, how was your weekend? I certainly had an interesting one, because some of my staff had a memorable one.”
Colbert was referring to news that came out on Friday that members of his staff and crew were arrested on Capitol Hill as they tried to film a segment featuring Triumph The Insult Comic Dog, a puppet voiced by Robert Smigel. The segment was focused on the Jan. 6 committee hearings.
“Democratic and Republican congresspeople agreed to talk to Triumph,” Colbert said. “He’s a bipartisan puppy. He’s so neutral, he’s neutered.”
The production crew already had filmed for two days in congressional offices.
“They went through security clearance, shot all day Wednesday, all day Thursday, invited into the offices of the congresspeople they were interviewing,” Colbert said.
After the interviews on Thursday, the crew was filming some “last-minute puppetry” in a hallway at the Longworth House Office Building when they were approached and detained by the Capitol Police. They were processed and later released.
Actor and comedian Robert Smigel performs as Triumph the Insult Comic Dog in the hallways of the Cannon House Office Building on Thursday.
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Actor and comedian Robert Smigel performs as Triumph the Insult Comic Dog in the hallways of the Cannon House Office Building on Thursday.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Colbert didn’t appear upset by what happened with the police and said it “actually, isn’t that surprising.”
“The Capitol police are much more cautious than they were, say,18 months ago, and for a very good reason,” Colbert said, referring to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
He added that “If you don’t know what that reason is, I know what news network you watch,” Colbert added. Fox News chose not to air the initial Jan. 6 committee hearing.
Overall, though, Colbert said the “Capitol Police were just doing their job,” and that everyone was professional and calm throughout the entire thing.
Colbert called it “a fairly simple story,” or at least it was “until the next night when a couple of the TV people started claiming that my puppet squad had quote ‘committed insurrection’ at the U.S. Capitol Building.”
The “TV people” that Colbert referenced included Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who called the CBS team “saboteurs” and falsely said that they breached the Capitol.
“They weren’t in the Capitol building,” Colbert said Monday night. “And I’m shocked I have to explain the difference — but an insurrection involves disrupting the lawful actions of Congress and howling for the blood of elected leaders, all to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
“This was first-degree puppetry. Hijinks with intent to goof. Misappropriation of an old Conan bit.”
Colbert said the false narrative about his team was a predictable move by the conservative TV media.
“They want to talk about something other than the Jan. 6th hearings on the actual seditionist insurrection that led to the deaths of multiple people, and the injury of over 140 police officers,” Colbert said. “But drawing any equivalence between rioters storming our Capitol to prevent the counting of electoral ballots and a cigar-chomping toy dog, is a shameful and grotesque insult to the memory of everyone who died. And it obscenely trivializes the service and the courage the Capitol Police showed on that terrible day.”
To make his point about how ludicrous it would be to call the segment filming an insurrection, Colbert joked about “the long history of puppet lawlessness” including the Jim Henson classic, The Great Muppet Caper.
“But, in this case, our puppet was just a puppet doing puppet stuff,” Colbert said. “And sad to say, so much has changed in Washington that the Capitol Police do have to stay at high alert at all times because of the attack on Jan. 6th. And as the hearings prove more clearly every day, the blame for that actual insurrection all lies with Putin’s puppet.”
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Former President Donald Trump’s sway over the Republican Party is on the line on Tuesday in a Republican Senate primary runoff election in Alabama and two GOP congressional runoffs in neighboring Georgia.
The biggest prize is in deep red Alabama, where the primary run-off winner will be the heavy favorite in November’s general election in the race to succeed Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, who’s retiring after nearly 45 years in Congress.
Katie Britt, a former longtime Shelby aide who served as the senator’s chief of staff from 2016-2018 and who later became the first female president and CEO of the Business Council of Alabama, is considered the favorite in the Alabama runoff, against Rep. Mo Brooks, who was one of Trump’s top allies in the House.
Trump backed Brooks last year when the congressman was the front-runner in the race, but the former president took back his endorsement earlier this year as Brooks struggled in the polls. And after criticizing Britt last year, Trump praised her as he endorsed her a week ago, after new polls indicated Britt surging.
Senate candidates Katie Britt (L) and Mo Brooks (R) (Andi Rice, Bloomberg via Getty Images / AP Photo, Vasha Hunt)
The winner of the runoff election will be considered the clear front-runner in November’s midterms against Democratic nominee Will Boyd, a pastor and former Democratic Party county chair who’s considered a perennial candidate.
In the 6th Congressional District, which covers mostly rural regions north of Atlanta, the former president is backing Jake Evans, a former chairman of the Georgia Ethics Commission and son of Randy Evans, who served as ambassador to Luxembourg during the Trump administration. The former president headlined a tele-rally for the younger Evans on the eve of the primary.
The other candidate in the race, physician Rich McCormick, is supported by conservative firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, as well as the Club for Growth, a fiscally conservative outside group that spends heavily in Republican primaries.
This is the third high profile Republican primary showdown the past two months where Trump and Cruz — who could become potential rivals in the 2024 GOP presidential nomination race — have backed rival candidates in Republican primaries.
The winner of Tuesday’s GOP primary runoff will face off in November against Democratic nominee Bob Christian, a veteran. The current incumbent, Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath, is running for re-election this year in Georgia’s 7th Congressional District, after the seat was redrawn in the once-in-a-decade redistricting process to heavily favor Republicans.
In Georgia’s 10th Congressional District, Trump is supporting Vernon Jones, a former state lawmaker and Democrat turned Republican who was a top Black surrogate for the then-president in the Peach State during the 2020 election. Jones is facing off on Tuesday against Mike Collins, the owner of a trucking company.
Either Collins or Jones will be considered the favorite against the winner of the Democratic primary runoff in the district, in the race to succeed Republican Rep. Jody Hice, who launched an unsuccessful campaign for Georgia secretary of state rather than seek re-election.
Collins was endorsed last week by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, just three weeks after Kemp crushed former Sen. David Perdue, who was primary challenging the conservative governor with heavy support from Trump. Kemp topped Perdue by more than 50 points in last month’s Republican gubernatorial primary, which was a stinging defeat for Trump. Kemp had raised Trump’s ire for certifying the then-president’s razor-thin electoral defeat to now-President Biden in Georgia in the 2020 election.
Perdue wasn’t the only high-profile Trump-backed candidate to go down to defeat in Georgia’s primary. Hice lost by double digits to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whom Trump had also repeatedly attacked. And Trump backed GOP attorney general challenger John Gordon was demolished by incumbent Chris Carr.
Jones was originally running for governor this cycle, in hopes of landing Trump’s endorsement in the primary against Kemp. But after he endorsed Perdue, the former president convinced Jones to end his gubernatorial bid and instead run for Hice’s open congressional seat. Trump endorsed Jones as he launched his House bid.
The District, which is reliably red, stretches from the exurbs east of Atlanta through rural areas east to the outskirts of August and to the South Carolina border.
“Trump’s ire has outweighed his influence in Georgia,” veteran Georgia based Republican consultant Dan McLagan said. And pointing to the large slate of candidates Trump endorsed in Georgia’s primary, he noted “if you bet on six horses to win the Kentucky Derby, you’re guaranteed to lose five of them. And Trump wasn’t strategic picking his horses.”
“Vernon’s about to learn that if you shoot at the king, you better not miss,” McLagan argued. “Kemp’s stock in Georgia is a lot higher than Trump’s right now.”
It’s also primary day in Virginia, where Republican candidates in the state’s 2nd and 10th Congressional Districts are vying to face off in November with two House Democrats who face challenging reelections as their party up against historical headwinds and a very difficult political climate.
Four Republicans — who are all veterans — are running in the very competitive 2nd District, a seat in southeastern part of the commonwealth that’s anchored by Virginia Beach. Among them is state Sen. Jennifer Kiggans, the only one to have held elected office.
The winner will face off in November against Rep. Elaine Luria, a former U.S. Navy commander turned two-term Democratic congresswoman. Luria has been very visible this month, as the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol has been holding high profile hearings that have grabbed national attention. Luria is the only endangered Democrat sitting on the panel.
In the newly drawn 7th District, which was heavily shifted by redistricting and will now stretch from the Fredericksburg area north toward Washington D.C.’s southern suburbs — including portions of heavily populated Prince William County — six Republicans are vying to challenge former CIA officer turned two-term Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger.
Among the GOP candidates is Yesli Vega, a military wife, mother and law enforcement officer born to Salvadoran immigrants after they fled civil war.
In the heavily blue 8th Congressional District – located in the Virginia suburbs of the nation’s capital — former lt. governor and four-term Rep. Don Beyer’s facing a primary challenge from progressive Victoria Virasingh.
And in the deep red 6th Congressional District, which covers much of the west-central portion of Virginia, GOP Rep. Ben Cline is facing a primary challenge from former Navy officer and political newcomer Merritt Hale.
Fox News’ Jessica Loker contributed to this report
The fight: A slowly regenerating Russian army is making incremental gains in eastern Ukraine against valiant but underequipped Ukrainian forces. The United States and its allies are racing to deliver the enormous quantities of weaponry the Ukrainians urgently need if they are to hold the Russians at bay.
“I think that, as the president has said, every single vote needs to be counted and needs to be heard, and he campaigned for the voiceless,” Ms. Trump replied. “And I think a lot of Americans feel very, very disenfranchised right now, and really, question the sanctity of our elections, and that’s not right, it’s not acceptable.”
She went on, “And he has to take on this fight. Look, you fight for what you love the most and he loves this country and he loves this country’s people, and he wants to make sure that their voice is, is heard and not muted.”
She said that he “will continue to fight until every legal remedy is exhausted and that’s what he should do.”
An aide to Ms. Trump did not respond to a message about the new video.
The filmmaker was connected to Mr. Kushner by Jason Greenblatt, a former lawyer at the Trump Organization and then the White House envoy to the Middle East. The film was envisioned as a legacy project for Mr. Trump, according to two people familiar with how it came about.
Sotomayor noted the trajectory. “What a difference five years makes,” she wrote, “In 2017, I feared that the Court was ‘lead[ing] us … to a place where separation of church and state is a constitutional slogan, not a constitutional commitment.’ Today, the Court leads us to a place where separation of church and state becomes a constitutional violation.”
No evidence: In questioning from Schiff, Bowers recalled Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani talking about election fraud: “We’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence.” Bowers added, “I don’t know if that was a gaffe or maybe he didn’t think through what he said.”
Pressure continues: Bowers said U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. and chair of the conservative Freedom Caucus, asked “if I would sign on both to a letter that had been sent from my state and or that I would support the decertification of the electors.” Bowers replied, “I said I would not.”
Fake electors scheme in Michigan: The committee learned through testimony that Michigan Republican fake electors planned to hide overnight in the Michigan Capitol so they could cast their votes in the statehouse chambers the next day.
Trump aide: Staff members felt like ‘useful idiots’ and ‘rubes’ over fake elector scheme
The committee played video of a former Trump staff member talking about the anger he and others felt over the “fake elector” scheme that even campaign attorneys wouldn’t stand behind.
“We were useful idiots – just rubes at this point,” Robert Sinners told the committee.
Sinners also said that no Trump officials “really cared” if aides like him were putting themselves at legal risk.
– David Jackson
Freedom Caucus chairman also pushed Arizona House Speaker
Even after batting down requests from Trump’s inner circle to overturn the election, Bowers said he received a pressuring call from the then-chairman of the Freedom Caucus.
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., called Bowers on Nov. 30 — the day Arizona was supposed to formally award the state’s electoral votes to Biden — to ask if Bowers would sign a letter from his state or support decertification of the official electors, Bowers testified Tuesday.
“I said I would not,” Bowers testified Tuesday.
– Erin Mansfield
Bowers to Eastman: ‘No sir.’
Bowers described for the committee a Jan. 4, 2021, call with one of Trump’s lawyers where he refused to reject the state’s electors for Biden.
Bowers said the lawyer, John Eastman, suggested the legislature take the action and allow courts to sort out the dispute. But Bowers reacted incredulously and refused, telling Eastman it would violate his oath of office.
“You’re asking me to do something that’s never been done in history – the history of the United States –and I’m going to put my state through that without sufficient proof? And that’s going to be good enough with me, that I would put us through that, my state, that I swore to uphold both in Constitution and in law?” Bowers said. “No sir.”
– Bart Jansen
Arizona official on violating constitutional oath: ‘I will not do it’
Bowers cited his religious faith as one of the reasons he would not grant Giuliani’s request to remove Biden’s electors and replace them with electors for Trump.
Bowers said it is a tenet of his faith that the Constitution is divinely inspired. Bowers said he was concerned that Giuliani would ask him to violate his oath to uphold the Constitution without offering any “strong judicial quality evidence” of election fraud.
“For me to do that, because somebody just asked me to do it, is foreign to my being,” he said. “I will not do it.”
– Michael Collins
Members from QAnon, Proud Boys protest at state capitals
Schiff said the select committee uncovered evidence that individuals from groups like QAnon and the Proud Boys involved in the Jan. 6 attack participated in “stop the steal” protests at state capitals.
One of the protests took place at the Arizona House of Representatives building where protestors called for Bowers by name and stood outside the door armed with rifles. Protesters illegally entered the building and refused to leave, Schiff said.
One protester at the Arizona House building, “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley, was sentenced to 41 months in prison after breaching the Capitol on Jan. 6.
– Rachel Looker
Giuliani said he didn’t have evidence of fraud, Bowers says
Giuliani wanted Arizona to hold an official hearing to certify Trump as the winner because he claimed over 200,000 undocumented individuals and 6,000 dead people had voted in the election, Bowers testified.
On multiple occasions, Bowers and other senators pushed Giuliani and other Trump attorneys for names of individuals and evidence of fraud, but Giuliani never provided evidence.
“We’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence,” Giuliani told them.
“I don’t know if that was a gaffe or maybe he didn’t think through what he said, but both myself and others in my group and my counsel remembered that specifically and kind of laughed about it,” Bowers said.
– Katherine Swartz
Arizona Republican: Could not replace Biden electors with Trump electors
Bowers told the committee he adamantly told Trump and his aides that he could not ask his state legislature to simply award him electoral votes after Trump lost the the state’s popular vote to Biden.
The idea of even considering it was “totally foreign” to him, Bowers testified, and he wouldn’t have it.
Bowers said he told Trump’s team: “You are asking me to do something that is counter to my oath,” as well as “to the laws of the state of Arizona.”
– David Jackson
Bowers: ‘I didn’t want to be used as a pawn’
Arizona state House Speaker Rusty Bowers said he refused Rudy Giuliani’s request to hold a hearing on evidence of election fraud – evidence that Bowers said Giuliani never provided.
“I refused,” Bowers testified. “I didn’t want to be used as a pawn.”
Bowers said the “circus had been brewing” with lots of demonstrations about the election results “and I didn’t want to have that in the House.”
– Maureen Groppe
Arizona official says he asked Giuliani repeatedly for proof of fraud
Bowers said he asked Giuliani repeatedly for proof of election fraud but did not receive it.
Bowers said he was on the phone with Trump and Giuliani when Giuliani began listing off large numbers of people who voted but shouldn’t have — such as undocumented immigrants and dead people — when he asked, “Do you have their names?”
Bowers said Giuliani told him “yes” and that Trump told Giuliani to give him what he wanted. Bowers said he “never” received the information he asked for despite asking for the information “on multiple occasions.”
– Erin Mansfield
Bowers denies Trump statement election was ‘rigged’
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers opened his testimony by directly denying a claim Tuesday by former Trump that Bowers said the 2020 election was rigged.
Trump had issued a statement minutes before Bowers’ appearance saying the two had talked by phone in November 2020, saying Bowers called the election rigged. Bowers, who campaigned with Trump, confirmed having a conversation with Trump, but said parts the former president cited were untrue.
Bowers also denied Trump’s claim that he won Arizona instead of Biden. “That is also false,” Bowers said.
– Bart Jansen
PA House Speaker bombarded with calls from Trump lawyers
Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler received daily voicemails from Trump’s lawyers in the last week of November.
“Hey Brian, it’s Rudy. I really have something important to call to your attention that I think changes things,” former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said in a taped voicemail played during the hearing.
Cutler asked his lawyers to have Giuliani stop calling, but the calls continued. He said there were multiple protests at his house and district office following. His personal email, cell phone and home phone number were shared online.
“We had to disconnect our home phone for about three days because it would ring all hours of the night and fill up with messages,” Cutler said.
– Rachel Looker
Schiff: Trump’s pressure campaign incited “threats of violence and death.”
Schiff said Trump’s intense pressure campaign against state election officials “brought angry phone calls, and texts, armed protests, intimidation, and all too often, threats of violence and death.”
The pressure campaign singled out specific elections officials and workers. The Jan. 6 committee played a video of pro-Trump protestors chanting “stop the steal” outside Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s house. Protesters called Benson a “tyrant” and a “felon.”
Benson told the committee “The uncertainty of that was the fear. Are they coming with guns? Are they gonna attack my house? I’m in here with my kid, you know, I’m trying to put them to bed. And so that was the scariest moment, just not knowing what was going to happen.”
– Kenneth Tran
Trump used “escalating campaign of pressure” in battleground states: Schiff
In his opening remarks to the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff spoke of the layers of pressure Trump put on election commissioners and state legislators in key states.
Trump began by pressuring states to stop the counting of votes on Election Day. Then he put more pressure on officials who refused to certify him as winner of states he lost. When state elected officials refused to go back into session to appoint Trump electors, Trump further “amped up the pressure, yet again” Schiff said.
“Anyone who got in the way of Trump’s continued hold on power after he lost the election was the subject of a dangerous and escalating campaign of pressure. This pressure campaign brought angry phone calls and texts, armed protests, intimidation, and all too often, threats of violence and death,” Schiff said.
– Katherine Swartz
Trump did not care about threats of violence, Cheney says
Cheney said former Trump did not care that his false allegations of election fraud were leading to threats of violence.
“Donald Trump did not care about the threats of violence,” Cheney said. “He did not condemn them. He made no effort to stop them. He went forward with his fake allegations anyway.”
Cheney urged viewers watching the hearings to focus on the evidence and not be distracted by politics. “This is serious,” she said. “We cannot let America become a nation of conspiracy theories and thug violence.”
– Michael Collins
Cheney: Justice Department should examine Trump’s pressure on state officials
In her opening statement, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said Trump’s pressure on officials in Georgia, Arizona, and other states to reverse his election losses to Joe Biden should be deplored by everybody – including Justice Department investigators.
“Each of these efforts to overturn the election is independently serious,” Cheney said. “Each deserves attention both by Congress and by the Department of Justice.”
The Justice Department is already prosecuting rioters who breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 – Cheney and other committee members clearly want prosecutors to include Trump himself in their investigation.
– David Jackson
Thompson says Trump’s lie “hasn’t gone away”
Former President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud continue to reverberate in contests held after the 2020 presidential campaign,Thompson said.
“The lie hasn’t gone away. It’s corrupting our democratic institutions,” Thompson said. “People who believe that lie are now seeking positions of public trust.”
He cited the recent primary election in New Mexico where a county commissioner refused to certify the results based on a “gut feeling” about the voting machines. That same commissioner is among those who pleaded guilty to illegally entering the Capitol on Jan. 6, Thompson said.
– Maureen Groppe
Trump “amplified” threats of violence, chairman says
Thompson said former president Donald Trump not only knew state election officials would be threatened with violence for not overturning the election results in his favor, but that he amplified those threats.
“When they wouldn’t embrace the ‘big lie’ and substitute the will of the voters with Donald Trump’s will to remain in power, Donald Trump worked to ensure they faced the consequences,” Thompson said, referring to state election officials.
“Threats to people’s livelihood and lives,” he said. “Threats of violence that Donald Trump knew about and amplified.”
– Erin Mansfield
Thompson: Trump pressure on states ‘part of the playbook’
Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee chairman, opened Tuesday’s hearing by reciting evidence from previous hearings about former President Donald Trump’s pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election, but the scheme didn’t end there.
Thompson, D-Miss., said state officials from Georgia and Arizona would describe the pressure on them.
“In fact, pressuring public servants into betraying their oaths was a fundamental part of the playbook,” Thompson said. “A handful of election officials in key states stood between Donald Trump and the upending of American democracy.”
– Bart Jansen
Trump blasts Bowers before hearing testimony
Former President Donald Trump called Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers a “Republican in name only” before the lawmaker is scheduled to testify Tuesday about Trump’s pressure to flip his state’s election results.
Bowers has said Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, called to urge him to overturn his state’s electors for President Joe Biden and replace them with electors for Trump. But Trump said Bowers thanked him in November 2020 for getting him elected and that Trump won the election.
“During the conversation, he told me that the election was rigged and that I won Arizona,” Trump said in a statement. “He said he got more votes than I did which could never have happened.”
– Bart Jansen
British documentarian provides committee more video of Trump, Pence
A British documentarian said Tuesday he provided the House Jan. 6 committee with previously unreleased recordings of exclusive interviews with former President Donald Trump, his children and former Vice President Mike Pence before and after the Capitol attack Jan. 6, 2021.
Alex Holder said in a tweeted statement he began the project in September 2020 and hadn’t expected the recordings to be subpoenaed. “We simply wanted to better understand who the Trumps were and what motivated them to hold onto power so desperately,” said Holder, who has a deposition with the committee scheduled Thursday.
The recordings are scheduled to be part of a three-part series to be released this summer called, “Unprecedented.”
– Bart Jansen
Donald Trump hits Kevin McCarthy over lack of Trump Republicans on Jan. 6 committee
Former President Donald Trump is now attacking House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy over the lack of pro-Trump Republicans in the Jan. 6 committee hearings on the Capitol attack.
“It was a bad decision not to have representation on that committee,” Trump told conservative radio talk show host Wayne Allyn Root last week. “That was a very, very foolish decision because they try to pretend like they’re legit, and only when you get into the inner workings, you say, ‘What kind of a thing is this?'”
The committee does have two Republican members – Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger – and they are outspoken critics of Trump.
McCarthy – who is counting on Trump’s support to become speaker of the House should Republicans win control of Congress in this year’s elections – did propose other Republicans for Jan. 6 committee membership. But current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rejected GOP firebrands Jim Jordan and Jim Banks because they voted against the electoral vote count that elected President Joe Biden.
– David Jackson
What we learned at earlier hearings
June 9 hearing: Committee members gave an overview of what they called former President Donald Trump’s “sophisticated seven-part plan” to overturn the 2020 election. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards described suffering a concussion and slipping in blood while battling rioters. British documentarian Nick Quested played video of a meeting between two leaders of far-right rights the night before the attack.
June 13 hearing: The committee outlined how Trump’s aides on the campaign and at the White House told him repeatedly he lost the 2020 election. Former Attorney General Bill Barr called the allegations of election fraud “completely bogus and silly” in videotaped testimony. A committee member, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., called Trump raising $250 million after the election to fight election fraud “a big rip-off” because most of the money went to a campaign fund unrelated to the legal fight.
Thursday: The hearing focused on Trump’s pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to reject electors from key states and overturn the election for him. Retired federal judge Michael Luttig, who advised Pence, told the committee there was no constitutional basis for Trump’s strategy. “None,” Luttig said. Videotaped testimony from a series of Trump aides including his daughter, Ivanka Trump, described a Jan. 6 call between Trump and Pence as “heated” and said the president called his vice president a “wimp.”
Trump vs. Pence in 2022 endorsements
Former President Donald Trump supported Republican candidates hoping to knock off Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, but both incumbents won.
Wandrea’ ArShaye “Shaye” Moss, who will testify at a panel by herself at the Jan. 6 committee hearing Tuesday, handled voter applications and absentee ballot requests in Fulton County, Georgia, and helped process the vote count on Election Day 2020.
Bowers and the committee vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., also received the award.
Remember Trump’s ‘find’ votes call to Georgia?
A key event the committee is investigating is the Jan. 2, 2021, call from former President Donald Trump urging Georgia Secretary of State Brian Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes for him to beat President Joe Biden in Georgia.
The committee chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said Trump tried everything in his power to change the election results. “He tried to pressure state legislatures to reverse the results of the election in their states, but they refused,” Thompson said.
Former President Donald Trump continued to maintain in a statement Sunday his call to Georgia officials was “appropriate.” In a separate statement, he again called the investigation a hoax and a waste of time.
“My phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State, with many other people, including numerous lawyers, knowingly on the line, was absolutely PERFECT and appropriate,” Trump said.
Testimony from the Arizona House Speaker, Rusty Bowers, is important because the state was one of seven key states that President Joe Biden won in 2020, but that former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to overturn.
“We’ll show during the hearing what the president’s role was in trying to get states to name alternate slates of electors, how that scheme depended initially on hopes that the legislators would reconvene and bless it,” a committee member, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
“We want to know what she knows, what her involvement was in this plot to overturn the election,” a committee member, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. told CNN.
Norman Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, believes the hearing will yield new evidence that could prove useful to a Fulton County grand jury investigating Trump’s actions.
“I think we can expect Raffensperger to talk about the devastating effect that call had on him and his impressions of Trump’s intent — that Trump clearly didn’t care about the truth,” Eisen said. “This is the most important and challenging issue in any criminal case.”
Events in Georgia have already featured prominently in the House select committee’s hearings. But with three Georgians testifying, Georgia will be the star of Tuesday’s show.
Moss and Freeman have filed several lawsuits against right-wing news organizations and individuals, saying they endured harassment because of the false allegations. One American News Network has already settled one of the lawsuits.
Tuesday’s hearing also is expected to delve into Trump’s effort to enlist Republican officials in Georgia and other states to participate in his scheme. He found plenty of help in Georgia, where the Republican Party and a group of legislators went to extraordinary lengths to overturn Biden’s victory.
The party organized a slate of “alternative” presidential electors who would vote for Trump instead of Biden. The lawmakers spread Trump’s false voting fraud allegations and tried to convene a special legislative session to replace Georgia’s official Electoral College delegation with the bogus Trump slate.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is investigating the phony Trump electors — legal experts say they may have committed election fraud and forgery, and broken other laws. She’s also investigating the Trump phone call to Raffensperger.
“The hearing will give the criminal investigation of Fulton County DA Fani Willis even more impetus,” Eisen said. ‘She has strong facts because of the Jan. 2 smoking gun tape recording of Trump.”
Tuesday’s House committee hearing is the fourth this month focusing on the events that led to the Jan. 6 attack. Previous hearings have focused on Trump’s false voting fraud allegations and his effort to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to reject the legitimate Biden electors on Jan. 6.
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The Supreme Court’s term is drawing to a close in the coming weeks, and the most anticipated rulings will be handed down during this time.
About 18 decisions are still pending before the Supreme Court, covering some of the most divisive and impactful issues facing the country. Here are the ones that are arguably the most significant.
5. Kennedy v. Bremerton School District
High school football coach Joseph Kennedy lost his job after he insisted on reciting post-game prayers on the 50-year-line, despite his employer, the Bremerton School District, instructing him to stop. Kennedy is claiming this violated his First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise of religion, while the school district claims that a prayer from a public school employee ran afoul of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
The school district told Kennedy to stop reciting prayers on the field after an opposing coach brought it to the principal’s attention. He did, temporarily, then notified the school that he would resume the practice. The situation garnered media attention, and when Kennedy announced that he would go back to praying on the field, it raised security concerns. When he did pray after the game, a number of people stormed the field in support.
The school district then offered to let Kennedy pray in other locations before and after games, or for him to pray on the 50-yard line after everyone else had left the premises, but he refused, insisting that he would continue his regular practice. This eventually led to the school district taking action against him.
At issue is whether Kennedy’s prayer constituted government speech because he was a government employee, in which case it would not be protected. The court is also looking at whether, if the prayer is protected private speech, the school could still tell him to stop so that they would not be viewed as endorsing religion.
During oral arguments, a number of justices appeared to lean toward Kennedy’s side. Justice Clarence Thomas questioned whether Kennedy’s prayer could be viewed as government speech if the school district strongly and publicly opposed it.
Justice Elena Kagan raised the issue of possible coercion, as students had been joining Kennedy for the prayer. A lower court opinion noted that the principal had been contacted by a parent who said his son “felt compelled to participate” in the prayer despite being an atheist, “he felt he wouldn’t get to play as much if he didn’t participate.”
Kennedy’s attorney countered that by arguing that the school district never mentioned that when they fired him, and that their only reason at the time was concern for endorsing religion.
4. Biden v. Texas
This case centers on the Trump administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols, commonly known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy under which migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. had to stay in Mexico as they awaited hearings. The Biden administration tried to repeal the policy but was blocked by a lower court.
The crux of the case is whether the federal government can use discretion in carrying out the program or if, as Texas and Missouri are arguing in their lawsuit, the policy is needed to comply with federal law that says migrants cannot be released into the U.S. because the country lacks resources to detain everyone.
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar claimed during oral arguments that if the policy was needed to comply with the law, then “every presidential administration in an unbroken line for the past quarter century has been in open violation[.]”
Much of the argument was over statutory language. Prelogar pointed to a statute that said the attorney general “may return” aliens from contiguous territory back to that territory while they await a hearing. Justice Clarence Thomas pointed out that the same statute says that if an immigration officer determines that a migrant “is not clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to be admitted” to the U.S., the migrant “shall be detained,” which the other side was interpreting as a requirement.
3. New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen
In possible the biggest Second Amendment case before the Supreme Court in more than a decade, the justices are poised to decide whether New York’s process for obtaining a license to carry a concealed handgun is overly restrictive. The current rules require applicants to show “proper cause” for why they need to carry a firearm, and the government can exercise discretion in determining whether someone has satisfied that requirement. The result is that it is extremely difficult to obtain a license.
During oral arguments, conservative justices appeared to challenge the state’s position.
“Why isn’t it good enough to say I live in a violent area and I want to defend myself?” Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked.
In an exchange with Justice Samuel Alito, New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood recognized that if an applicant stated that the leave work late at night and have to walk from a subway station through a high-crime neighborhood to get home, that person would be denied because they did not cite a specific threat.
“How is that consistent with the core right to self-defense?” Alito asked, stating that this is at the core of the Second Amendment.
2. West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency
While this case – which is actually four cases consolidated to be decided together – is not centered on hot-button political issues but on the much dryer world of agency action, its outcome can perhaps have the greatest impact of all of these cases.
At issue is whether the Environmental Protection Agency has the power to issue sweeping rules that could overhaul industry practices and the country’s electricity grids to address climate change.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) logo is displayed on a door at its headquarters on March 16, 2017 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for 2018 seeks to cut the EPA’s budget by 31 percent from $8.1 billion to $5.7 billion. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
In 2015, the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan aimed to reduce carbon emissions at power plants. The plan was blocked by the Supreme Court in 2016, and then repealed by the Trump administration and replaced by the less extreme Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule. After President Biden took office, however, the ACE Rule became the subject of litigation that led to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacating that rule as well as the repeal of the Clean Power Plan.
The Supreme Court is now reviewing that decision.
The Biden administration argues that the EPA has the authority to unilaterally enact broad requirements to improve the environment. West Virginia and other states argue that this runs afoul of the “major questions doctrine.” This doctrine says that even though federal agencies generally have broad rule-making power as delegated by Congress through the statutes that create them, when it comes to issues of major economic and political significance to the country those statutes need to have clear language to support the agency’s action.
The Biden administration is also claiming that the case does not even belong before the Supreme Court because the EPA has said that it will not reinstate the Clean Power Plan, opting instead to develop and implement its own rules. The government argued that without any EPA rule currently in place, the other side is merely litigating over a potential future rule, not any actual current harm.
The case could determine the fate of President Biden’s climate agenda, as well as set significant precedent for how other federal agencies can act.
1. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
The anticipation for a ruling in this case has already led to protests outside the Supreme Court and the homes of several justices, as well as an attempted murder charge against a man who allegedly plotted to kill Justice Kavanaugh. This was all sparked by the publication of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito that, if published as the court’s opinion, will overturn Roe v. Wade and eliminate the recognition of a constitutional right to abortion.
The case came about after Mississippi passed a law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, blatantly going against the standard set by Roe that prohibited bans prior to fetal viability – understood to be at about 23 weeks. The ensuing litigation now puts the Supreme Court in a position to review whether a pre-viability ban should be allowed.
During oral arguments, some justices appeared interested in finding a way to uphold the 15-week ban without completely doing away with Roe. Chief Justice John Roberts spoke of possibly eliminating the viability standard while still ensuring that women have an opportunity to get an abortion. Both sides of the case expressed skepticism that this was a workable option.
Alito, in his draft opinion, not only said Mississippi’s law should stand, but eviscerated Roe and the case that upheld it, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. He bluntly said the cases should be overruled, which would put abortion rights in the hands of individual states where elected officials can set their own standards.
After Politico published Alito’s draft, the Supreme Court issued a statement noting that it is normal practice for draft opinions to be circulated among the justices as part of the decision-making process, and that the draft does not indicate what the Court’s final ruling will be.
The country will now wait and see if Alito’s draft, or something similar to it, will do away with Roe v. Wade after nearly 50 years, or if the Supreme Court ultimately decides to go in a different direction.
Last week alone the court released opinions in 11 cases, so if they continue at that pace these cases will all be decided by the end of next week. The court’s current term will end once all cases are decided, at which point Justice Stephen Breyer will retire. His replacement, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, will then be sworn in.
HOUSTON, Texas — A mother rushing home to prepare for a birthday party in northeast Harris County left her 5-year-old son in a vehicle for two to three hours before realizing he was in there, authorities said on Monday.
The child died as a result, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez. The investigation into the hot car death got underway on a cul-de-sac about 3:19 p.m.
Earlier, the mother and her two children – the 5-year-old victim and an 8-year-old daughter whose birthday party was being thrown – went to a store as part of the celebration preparations, Gonzalez said.
According to Gonzalez, investigators learned the son knew how to unbuckle himself and get out, to which the mother may have assumed that he did. So, she went inside to prepare for the party.
But it wasn’t until two or three hours later when she called for the child that she realized where her son was, the sheriff said.
Gonzalez added that investigators believe the vehicle is a rental and that the unfamiliarity with the door safety lock may have factored into the incident.
The sheriff’s office did not immediately say whether the mother will face charges.
Two American veterans who were captured earlier this month by Russian-backed separatist forces in a battle near Kharkiv may face the death penalty, Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov told NBC News.
Peskov said the fates of Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, and Alexander Drueke, 39, will be decided by a Russian court. They were “involved in illegal activities …(and) should be punished,” he said, adding that they weren’t likely to be protected by Geneva Conventions afforded prisoners of war because they weren’t part of Ukraine’s regular army.
The State Department issued a statement calling on “the Russian government – as well as its proxies – to live up to their international obligations in their treatment of any individual, including those captured fighting in Ukraine.”
Huynh and Drueke are believed to be the first Americans captured by Russian forces since the war began on Feb. 24. The veterans traveled to Ukraine in April to help Ukrainians repel Russian forces.
Last week, two Britons and a Moroccan were sentenced to death by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Prosecutors claimed they were mercenaries and not entitled to protections afforded prisoners of war. When asked if the Americans would face the same fate, Petrov said he “cannot guarantee anything. It depends on the investigation.”
Latest developments
►The Nobel Peace Prize auctioned off by Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees sold Monday night for $103.5 million, more than 20 times the highest amount previously paid for a Nobel. Muratov also donated to charity the $500,000 that came with the prize.
Ben Stiller meets with ‘hero’ Zelenskyy in Ukraine
Actor and director Ben Stiller, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee program, met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday after visiting ruined residential areas of Irpin and talking to people who survived the occupation.
“It’s really wonderful, you are my hero, you’re amazing,” Stiller said in greeting Zelenskyy. “What you’ve done and the way you have rallied the country and … the world, it’s really inspiring.”
Stiller expressed dismay at the devastation the war has wrought in Irpin – a city not far from the capital of Kyiv that was hammered, then abandoned, by the Russians. The destruction looks much worse up close than it does on TV or social media, he said.
“What you saw in Irpin is definitely dreadful,” Zelenskyy responded. “But it is even worse to just imagine what is happening in the settlements that are still under temporary occupation in the east.”
Attorney General Garland visits Ukraine for meeting with prosecutor
Attorney General Merrick Garland made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Tuesday for a meeting with Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova to discuss the continuing effort to identify and apprehend suspected war criminals, according to a Justice Department official. Earlier this year, the attorney general pledged U.S. support for an international campaign to hold war criminals accountable for atrocities being documented by Ukrainian authorities.
“Every day, we see the heartbreaking images and read the horrific accounts of brutality… but there is no hiding place for war criminals.” Garland said during a virtual meeting last month with his Ukrainian counterpart and other allies.
Before Russia invaded, Ukraine — a largely religious nation with a long history of oppression against sexual and gender expression — had increasingly become a rare bright spot for LGBTQ rights and a sanctuary of sorts for Eastern Europe. Ex-Soviet LGBTQ individuals would travel to experience a gay nightclub scene, especially in larger cities like Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa, where they could feel safer to be open.
Now, what would have been the 10th anniversary of the Equality March in Kyiv this month was relocated to Poland because of the ongoing war.
“We had a lot and I hope we will rebuild it,” said Yuriy Dvizhon, creative director of UKRAINEPRIDE. Read more here.
– Tami Abdollah, USA TODAY
Zelenskyy: Africa ‘taken hostage’ by Russia
Africa has been “taken hostage” by Russia, which is to blame for dramatic shortages of wheat and fast-rising food and fuel prices across the African continent, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the African Union continental body during a closed-door address.
Many African nations have close trading ties to Russia and have shown little interest in sanctions. Zelenskyy and the West are trying to change that – European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian exports amounts to a “war crime.”
Estonia chastises Russia after helicopter encroachment
A Russian military helicopter entered Estonian airspace without permission Saturday, flying above the Koidula region along the Russia border for about two minutes, Estonia’s defense ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
A flight plan was not filed, the transponder was switched off and two-way radio communication was not established with Estonian air traffic control, the ministry said.
Russia’s ambassador to Estonia Vladimir Lipajev was summoned by Estonia’s foreign affairs ministry. “Estonia considers this an extremely serious and regrettable incident that undoubtedly causes additional tensions and is completely unacceptable,” the foreign affairs ministry said Tuesday.
Estonia is a nation of less than 3 million people that broke from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Zelenskyy aide: Ukraine faces threat of ‘massive’ attack from Black Sea
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, said via social media Monday that Ukraine is under threat of a new Russian attack of large proportions, posting: “All six carriers of Russian cruise missiles lined up in the Black Sea and are most likely preparing for a massive launch of missiles.”
In a nightly address Sunday, Zelenskyy warned of a likely offensive coming from Russia this week, when the European Union will debate whether to make Ukraine an official candidate to eventually join the bloc.
“Obviously, we should expect greater hostile activity from Russia. Purposefully, demonstratively. This week exactly,” Zelenskyy said. “And not only against Ukraine, but also against other European countries. We are preparing. We are ready. We warn partners.”
If they do launch an attack, the Russians could be retaliating for Ukrainian missile strikes Monday on three drilling rigs in the Black Sea that supply natural gas to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula the Kremlin illegally annexed in 2014. The state-owned TASS news agency reported the strikes caused injuries. The Ukraine military has not provided confirmation.
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