últimas notícias

Despite the large number of Republicans testifying in front of the January 6 committee, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise called the panel “partisan” and its investigation a “witch hunt” while appearing on Fox & friends on Wednesday morning.

The witness during Tuesday’s hearing, the former top aide to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows – Cassidy Hutchinson – previously served as an intern in the office of Mr Scalise.

Representative Mary Miller, who was elected in 2020, defeated representative Rodney Davis in a member-on-member primary after redistricting by Democrats in the state legislature led to the two facing off.

Ms Miller ran an ad that painted Mr Davis as a Republican in Name Only–known as a RINO–and in an advertisement hit him for supporting so-called “red flag” gun laws which allow for authorities to obtain court orders to prevent people who pose a danger to themselves and others from obtaining firearms.

In the past, Mr Davis had voted for such legislation but was not among the 14 Republicans who voted to pass gun legislation that President Joe Biden signed late last week.

Similarly, Ms Miller criticised Mr Davis–who was ranking member of the House Administration Committee-for voting for the “January 6 witch hunt commission.” Mr Davis voted for a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 riot, but not to create the select committee that is currently investigating the Capitol riot.

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Lawyer John Eastman has dropped his legal challenge to the January 6 committee’s subpoena requesting his call log data.

The author of the memo outlining how then-Vice President Mike Pence could singlehandedly overturn the 2020 election on January 6 2021 went to court in December to stop Verizon from handing over three months of information.

In a separate and mostly unsuccessful challenge, Mr Eastman also tried to stop the committee from getting information from his work email.

In court on Tuesday, Mr Eastman said that he was dropping his challenge because the panel wasn’t seeking specific communication information, according to CNN.

“Plaintiff brought this lawsuit primarily to protect the content of his communications, many of which are privileged. The Congressional Defendants represented in their motion to dismiss that they were not seeking the content of any of Plaintiff’s communications via the subpoena they had issued to Defendant Verizon,” Mr Eastman’s lawyers wrote in a legal filing.

Panel member Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, told MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Wednesday that Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows “began to cooperate … and then suddenly pulled the plug on his participation, apparently when Donald Trump was angry”.

Mr Raskin called on Mr Meadows and Trump White House Counsel Pat Cipollone to testify before the January 6 committee.

Ms Hutchinson, a former White House aide, provided first-hand knowledge of what she saw and heard in the run-up to the US capitol riots at a surprise hearing on Tuesday of the select committee probing the insurrection.

Olivia Troy, who had served as the homeland security adviser to former vice president Mike Pence, said Ms Hutchinson’s life will never be the same again after her revelations about Mr Trump’s behaviour during the events of the 6 January insurrection.

“I am grateful for people like Cassidy who are out there telling the truth about what the reality was in the days and aftermath of the election,” Ms Troy told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday.

She said it is “frustrating” and anguishing at times to watch people continue “to enable such a dangerous individual who has proven to be dangerous time and time again”.

“And look, Cassidy, her life will be forever changed. My life will never be the same,” she said, adding that they had “stood up for our country” and spoke the truth.

She said the people testifying against Mr Trump before the House select committee have been receiving threats or are being bullied or intimidated.

“People will say, you know, oh there is nothing heroic about that – you worked in the Trump administration. Well, you are hearing about the intimidation of witnesses, you are hearing about the bullying.

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Testifying before the committee investigating the 6 January attacks on the Capitol on Tuesday, Ms Hutchinson said Mr Trump was so enraged by his then-attorney general Bill Barr knocking down claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election that he threw his lunch against the wall.

A White House valet “articulated that the president was extremely angry at the attorney general’s AP [Associated Press] interview and had thrown his lunch against the wall” in response, she said.

“So I grabbed a towel and started wiping the ketchup off of the wall to help the valet out.”

The attorney general’s public assertion that the results of the presidential elections were bereft of fraud was a major blow to Mr Trump’s efforts to convince the general public that his victory was “stolen” by Joe Biden.

Soon after the testimony, netizens took to social media to wonder about the components of Mr Trump’s lunch.

“What the heck was he eating that he needed ketchup for it,” asked Twitter user Leah.

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Mr Trump wanted to go to the Capitol so badly that he attempted to grab the steering wheel of “The Beast” after being told he was going back to the White House instead, she testified. He also grabbed at the clavicle of a Secret Service agent, she added.

Tony Ornato, then White House deputy chief of staff, told Ms Hutchinson that Robert Engel, the Secret Service agent in charge on 6 January 2021, had repeatedly told Mr Trump on their way back to the White House after his rally speech that it was not safe to go to the Capitol.

According to Ms Hutchinson, Mr Ornato recounted Mr Trump screaming: “I’m the f***ing president. Take me up to the Capitol now.”

The agent had to physically restrain Mr Trump, who was sitting in the back seat, and he used his free hand to lunge toward the neck of Mr Engel, Ms Hutchinson testified.

“Mr Trump then used his free hand to lunge toward Bobby Engel,” she added, while admitting that she did not witness the episode.

Mr Trump made 12 posts on his Truth social media site denying the allegations.

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John F. Wood announced in a prepared statement that he’s beginning the effort to get on the November general election ballot for retiring GOP Sen. Roy Blunt’s seat.

The announcement comes as some Republican leaders express concern that former Gov. Eric Greitens might prevail in a 21-candidate field for the Republican nomination for the seat in the Aug. 2 primary, then lose in November because of the sex and campaign finance scandals that pushed him from office in 2018. Greitens also faces allegations of physical abuse from his ex-wife, which he has denied. With the Senate evenly divided, the GOP can’t afford to lose what would otherwise be a safe seat.

Those concerns intensified last week when Facebook removed a Greitens campaign video that shows him brandishing a shotgun and declaring that he’s hunting RINOs, or Republicans In Name Only.

“I am conservative and a life-long Republican. But the primaries for both parties have become a race to the bottom,” Wood said in a prepared statement. “This was evident a few days ago when the leading candidate for one of the parties released a campaign advertisement glorifying violence against his political enemies, from his own party no less. Missouri deserves better. Missouri needs another option.”

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