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Republican lawmaker slams Trump for Jan. 6: 'You gotta speak up and take charge, and he did not'

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) slammed former President Trump on Sunday, saying he failed to stop the rioting on Jan. 6, 2021, and end the violence at the U.S. Capitol.

“The president had the opportunity for over three hours to speak up, and I think it was negligence. He should have done better,” Bacon, a former wing commander in the Air Force, told host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“The American people are going to have to judge this for themselves, whether it’s charging someone for a crime or not,” he added. “But we have to judge it from a political standpoint, and I think the American people by and large know it was wrong not to intervene and say something.”

Bacon voiced criticism of Trump before for the Jan. 6 rioting, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol to overturn certification of the 2020 election, and joined calls for a bipartisan committee to investigate the attempted insurrection.

The House panel held its first hearing on the rioting last week and plans to present six more throughout June. The committee says it will paint a comprehensive picture of Trump’s efforts to overturn certification of the 2020 election and place him in the center of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The panel last Thursday noted Trump did not call off the rioters for more than three hours and presented evidence that although his election fraud allegations were baseless, he continued to push to change the results.

Bacon said on Sunday that Trump’s rhetoric and temperament disillusioned Americans and were a primary factor for the former president’s loss in the 2020 election.

Bacon also said he will not vote for Trump in a primary election if he were to run for president in 2024, and neither should other Republicans.

“We need someone who has conservative policies, but I think we have to acknowledge the American people don’t like name-calling, they don’t like the rude behavior,” Bacon said. “They like folks who treat people respectfully, and I think that’s what cost President Trump in 2020.”

“We should take that as a lesson,” Bacon added. “Conservative values with optimism, respectable behaviors like [former President] Reagan. I think that’s what we should be embracing.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Pakistan cannot afford a showdown with the West

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan continues to protest his loss of power, calling for a revolution against what he describes as Pakistan’s subservience to American interests. Some of the protests have resulted in violence. Pakistani authorities are hopeful that they will hold back Khan’s agitation, which is supported by some Islamists, his own cult-like followers and anti-American retired military officers. But the damage Khan is causing to Pakistan’s relations with the United States and western countries might be more difficult to contain.

Khan, who once described Osama bin Laden as a “martyr,” claims that his removal from office through a parliamentary vote of no confidence was the result of a U.S.-backed conspiracy. It seems difficult for him to understand that the U.S. has its hands full with other international issues and was just not interested in him or Pakistan enough to want to engineer regime change.

There is a benign lack of interest in Pakistan among U.S. policy circles, which diplomats from both countries are struggling to reverse. Imran Khan and Pakistan’s domestic politics have received little attention in Washington for some time. The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has led many American policymakers to take a break from dealing with Pakistan and the complicated U.S.-Pakistan relationship, as well.

The U.S., of course, would not be able to ignore Pakistan forever, and Pakistanis would have to accept scrutiny of successive governments’ support for terrorism before both countries reengage. Engagement would have to be without illusions on both sides. But Khan’s incendiary rhetoric makes reengagement more difficult.

Americans do not want to give credence to Khan’s claims of collusion between his domestic opponents and the U.S. by moving too quickly to repair the damage from two decades of Pakistani support for the Taliban and from conspiracy theories of the kind Khan continues to spread.

Pakistan’s economic needs, however, dictate that Pakistan should mend fences with the U.S. and its European partners as soon as possible. Notwithstanding all the talk about China being Pakistan’s “all-weather friend,” the United States and the European Union are Pakistan’s key trading partners.

Pakistan frequently turns to Western-led multilateral financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, and cannot escape western influence at the United Nations and its Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which has kept Pakistan on its money-laundering and terror-financing watchlist since 2018.

Although Khan has made his followers believe that Pakistan could do well by partnering with Russia instead of the West, his assertions do not hold up under scrutiny. In 2020, Pakistan’s exports to Russia stood at $279 million while imports from Russia amounted to $699 million. The same year, Pakistan exported $4 billion worth of goods to the U.S. and $6 billion to the EU. Last year, Pakistani exports to the U.S. reached $6.1 billion and to the EU amounted to $6.6 billion.

These numbers reveal the irrelevance of Khan’s ideological rhetoric about a renewed “freedom struggle” from western influence. For Pakistan, it made little sense when Khan showed up at the doorstep of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the day when Putin invaded Ukraine. It was a poke in the eye of Pakistan’s multi-billion-dollar trading partners, the U.S. and the E.U., to curry favor with Russia, a minor player in Pakistan’s economy.

While in office, Khan had turned for help with the country’s economy to the Washington-based IMF, which has provided 22 bailouts to Pakistan since 1958. On the brink of default, Pakistan needs an inflow of $41 billion over the next year to pay back loans that are coming due and to keep afloat. Its economy still depends on a lifeline from the IMF, while Russia is in no position to help Pakistan, and China has adopted a wait-and-see approach.

Pakistan’s Middle East friends, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have made further assistance to Pakistan conditional on implementation of economic reforms proposed by the IMF. 

Against the backdrop of Pakistan’s economic realities, Khan’s anti-West rhetoric resembles that of Iranian and Venezuelan leaders, as does his talk of an anti-Western revolution. Chants of “Down with America” are a staple at protests by Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) party. A provincial minister from Khan’s party was quoted in a report on one rally as saying, “We have come out to support Imran Khan, who has challenged the capitalist forces.”

Of course, Khan and his supporters are far from challenging the global capitalist order and are unlikely to prevail even in Pakistan. Khan’s attacks on Pakistan’s current military leaders and his threats that he will make Pakistan ungovernable if elections are not immediately held might result in Khan’s arrest on charges of inciting riots. But Khan will leave millions of Pakistanis believing the fantasy of revolution and the view that Iran and Venezuela might be worthy role models.

Both those countries are suffering economically even though they are oil exporters. Pakistan does not even have the economic cushion that comes from being a major producer of a commodity like oil. Instead of letting Khan’s demagoguery cause long-lasting damage to Pakistan’s ties with western countries, Pakistan’s civil and military leaders must explain to Pakistanis that their country cannot afford a showdown with its economic partners and benefactors.

Husain Haqqani is director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute. He served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S. from 2008 until 2011. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Senators announce bipartisan agreement on gun proposals

A bipartisan group of 20 senators announced a framework deal on Sunday to address gun violence following a string of high-profile mass shootings that have reignited a debate over gun control.

The framework includes funding for school safety measures and mental health, a requirement to review juvenile records for firearm buyers under 21 years old and incentives for states to implement “red flag” laws.

The deal was announced by some of the lawmakers who have been negotiating and in talks about what gun-related measures could pass in the chamber.

“Today, we are announcing a commonsense, bipartisan proposal to protect America’s children, keep our schools safe and reduce the threat of violence across our country,” the group said in a statement. “Families are scared, and it is our duty to come together and get something done that will help restore their sense of safety and security in their communities.”

The bipartisan group includes Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Cory Booker (D- N.J.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Angus King (I-Maine), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

Shortly after the deal was announced, President Biden said in a statement that he would sign whatever proposals came to his desk as soon as possible.

“Each day that passes, more children are killed in this country: the sooner it comes to my desk, the sooner I can sign it, and the sooner we can use these measures to save lives,” Biden said.

Updated 12:10 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

Jan. 6 panel member says upcoming hearings will focus on Trump's 'dereliction of duty'

Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) on Sunday said the upcoming hearings from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 rioting will focus on former President Trump’s “dereliction of duty” and his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Luria, a member of the panel, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd the House panel will show in detailed evidence throughout the hearings a comprehensive picture of how Trump attempted to pressure local, state and the federal government to overturn the election, which he continues to claim without evidence was stolen.

“I frequently say if there weren’t some people in the right places at the right time, this could have turned out very differently,” Luria said of Trump’s efforts.

The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 rioting held its first June public hearing on Thursday, with plans for three more to be held this coming week on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Luria said the hearings will “lay out” Trump’s efforts ahead of Jan. 6, which she described as “intense” to witness.

“We’ve pieced together a very comprehensive tick-tock timeline of what he did,” she said.

Luria also said Trump is culpable for the rioting on Jan. 6, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in a bid to overturn certification of the 2020 election.

“This man had the microphone, he could speak to the whole country,” Luria said on Sunday. “His duty was to stand up and say something and try to stop this. So we’ll talk about that, what I see to be his dereliction of duty.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Jan. 6 Committee made the case for an attempted coup

The Jan. 6 committee, exceeding expectations, left no doubt that Donald Trump tried to stage a coup to overturn a legitimate presidential election, a months-long effort culminating in the mob assault on the Capitol.

The question is whether this moves the public opinion needle — not with the hard-core Trump faithful, but among more persuadable independents and moderate conservatives, and bolsters the likelihood the Justice Department will seek high level indictments, including the former president.

Especially damning for the former president was the taped testimony of former insiders — Attorney General Bill Barr, top aide Jason Miller, campaign lawyers, even daughter Ivanka — that Trump’s claim that massive fraud cost him the election was bogus. 

He lost by 7 million votes.

The preeminent figure, though, was Liz Cheney. She brilliantly, forcefully, but calmly, laid out the narrative on how Trump had a “sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power.” In the annals of seminal performances at congressional hearings, the Wyoming Republican joins the likes of former Sen. Sam Ervin during Watergate or Boston lawyer Joseph Welch in the Army-McCarthy hearings.

During the assault, Cheney said, Trump was so incensed at his vice president, who courageously stood up to him and refused to reject the legitimate presidential electoral tally, that Trump said maybe Mike Pence “deserves” to be hanged.

The select committee, chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), plans five more public hearings this month. It shrewdly teased that there are other major revelations in the offing. These are expected to elaborate more on actions in the weeks leading to Jan. 6, including contacts between some of the violent extremists and the Trump inner circle.  

Whether or not they affect anything, legally or politically, there have been few congressional hearings as important as these. They are about an attempted coup to sabotage American Democracy.

We learned more Thursday night about the particulars of the violent assault on the Capitol that sought to block the orderly certification of the last presidential election. The committee clearly has more about President Trump’s involvement over two months leading up to the insurrection.

And while there are major differences between this and the 1973 Sam Ervin Watergate hearings, which began the unraveling of President Nixon, these too are providing critical context of crimes. (As cited in the hearing, a federal judge already has declared that President Trump “more likely than not” committed federal felonies in trying to obstruct Congress and the election results.)

To be sure, the Trump apologists — most Republicans — preemptively launched a counterattack, charging it’s a political witch hunt. The reality is they were the ones, doing Trump’s bidding, who nixed a bipartisan independent commission.

If you’re tempted by the Trump/GOP phony claims, consider fabled journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who broke the Nixon-Watergate scandal a half century ago; they say Trump committed greater crimes than anything Nixon did. “The idea of the President of the United States trying to stage a coup is extraordinary, insidious, and we have never seen anything like it in our history,” declared Bernstein.

Likewise, Garrett Graff, author of the most comprehensive book on Richard Nixon’s offenses, “Watergate A New History,” told me it will be “much harder to bounce back from Donald Trump’s crimes against American Democracy.”

For one, he notes, today’s Republican party bears little resemblance to those predecessors like Bill Cohen, Howard Baker, Barry Goldwater who stood up to the president of their party. With rare exceptions, like Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) who are on the Jan. 6 committee, Republicans either are in the tank for Trump or scared to speak truth to his power.

Thursday night, Cheney revealed that after Jan. 6, several Republican congressmen, including Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, sought presidential pardons from Trump. That suggests they played a role in this illicit conspiracy.

These Republicans are following their rank and file. Some 60 percent of Republicans say the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol was not “very violent.” As an idiotic football coach said, it merely was a “dust up.” A half-dozen people died, hundreds were injured, and there was hundreds of millions of dollars of destruction.

The media — not just Trump’s right-wing boosters, but the mainstream media — too often debases the gravity of the crisis, treating it like a sporting event, who’s up and who’s down, or it’s all about the midterm elections, or snarky cynicism, everybody does it, or focusing on television ratings. A columnist for the New York Times wrote, before the hearings began, that the committee “has already blown it,” with a “small minded” focus on what happened rather than on protecting it from happening again.

Of course, it’s impossible to erect future safeguards without specific knowledge about what occurred and some consensus on how to fix it. That’s a tall order for the committee; it would be a travesty not to try.

Watching closely will be the Department of Justice, which has convened a Jan. 6 grand jury, convicted or gotten guilty pleas from over 100 defendants and indicted five members of the Proud Boys, a Trump-supporting, neo-fascist hate group, for engaging in a violent “seditious conspiracy” on Jan. 6.

Justice probably has most of the intelligence the committee possesses. But some new information and context may well facilitate subsequent indictments.

Al Hunt is the former executive editor of Bloomberg News. He previously served as reporter, bureau chief and Washington editor for The Wall Street Journal. For almost a quarter century he wrote a column on politics for The Wall Street Journal, then The International New York Times and Bloomberg View. He hosts Politics War Room with James Carville. Follow him on Twitter @AlHuntDC.

Source: TEST FEED1

Allianz chief economic officer says he fears inflation 'going to get worse'

Mohamed El-Erian, Allianz’s chief economic adviser, said on Sunday that inflation could continue to rise even after hitting a 40-year high last month.

“I fear that it’s still going to get worse,” he told CBS “Face the Nation” guest moderator John Dickerson. “We may well get to 9 percent at this rate.”

El-Erian also said the Federal Reserve “mischaracterized” inflation last year and failed to take enough action to curb rising prices, but he expects the central bank will increase its core interest rate by at least 50 basis points at its meeting this week.

“The lesson of history is once you fall behind, you lose the ability of the first, best response,” he said. “You end up in this awful situation that we are in today.” 

His remarks come after annual inflation hit 8.6 percent in the 12-month stretch ending this May, the fastest yearly price growth since 1981. President Biden has declared fighting inflation his top economic priority.

El-Erian, who also serves as the president of Queens College, located in the United Kingdom, added on Sunday that economists must be “modest” about what they know about future inflation as policymakers look for a “soft landing” in which inflation declines without a recession.

“You need to make a choice: Do you slam on the brakes hard to control inflation, risk a recession, or do you just tap on the brakes and risk inflation lasting much longer than it should?” El-Erian asked.

Source: TEST FEED1

Documentarian who testified about Jan. 6 says crew was aware they had filmed 'multiple crimes'

The documentary filmmaker who testified last week about the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol said on Sunday that he and his crew were aware they had filmed “multiple crimes” when they followed the far-right militia Proud Boys during the rioting for a documentary about division in America.

Nick Quested told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd that he saw crimes “on the steps of the Capitol” and “inside the Capitol.”

After filming the events of Jan. 6, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn certification of the 2020 election, Quested decided to cooperate with law enforcement.

“So I called a friend of mine, who’s a U.S. attorney,” the filmmaker said on NBC. “And he referred me to the criminal department of the D.C. police, who then referred me to the FBI.”

Quested, who also filmed a secret meeting between Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes in a parking garage ahead of the Jan. 6 rioting, said he “instantaneously” realized they were filming dangerous material throughout the process.

“We thought it was just an optically bad thing to do when we were shooting it,” Quested said on Sunday.

Quested testified in front of the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attempted insurrection last week. He also turned in evidence and video material to the Department of Justice and the select committee.

Both Tarrio and Rhodes have been charged with seditious conspiracy, a rarely used charge that accuses them of attempting to overthrow the U.S. government. Quested on Sunday said he has not spoken with Tarrio in person since February.

The documentary filmmaker said he still plans to complete his film, which will detail polarization and divisiveness in America and will “parallel” the committee’s investigation.

Quested, who comes from England but now lives in the U.S., said he and his crew had to take some time to process what they recorded on Jan. 6.

“I’m used to covering conflicts abroad and I can process that and I can separate that from my life. But to see it from the country I live in was particularly problematic,” he said on NBC. “I think America has become so divided, I don’t know if there is commonality anymore.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Schiff: GOP lawmakers seeking pardons was compelling 'consciousness of guilt'

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on Sunday that evidence showing several GOP lawmakers sought pardons related to their roles in overturning the election was the most compelling “consciousness of guilt” related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Schiff was asked about remarks from Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), a fellow member of the House panel investigating Jan. 6, who said multiple House GOP lawmakers requested pardons from the Trump administration. 

“We will show the evidence that we have that members of Congress were seeking pardons. To me, I think that is some of the most compelling evidence of a consciousness of guilt,” Schiff told moderator Martha Raddatz.

“Why would members do that if they felt that their involvement in this plot to overturn the election was somehow appropriate?” he asked. “So we’ll present the evidence that we have, as the vice chair outlined, along with the evidence of other actions that were taken by members of the Congress.” 

“But, again, I don’t want to get too far ahead of the committee. And we’ll be presenting that in the days and weeks to come,” Schiff added. 

Schiff’s remarks come in the aftermath of the House select committee’s first June public hearing on Thursday night, which drew nearly 20 million viewers. The second hearing is scheduled for Monday morning. 

Schiff also said on Sunday that the committee plans to show proof of former President Trump not condemning chants by rioters to “hang Mike Pence” and that Trump, according to lawmakers, said that perhaps Pence “deserved” it because he would not contest the 2020 election results.

“We will, I think, be demonstrating the proof behind that comment. Everything that the chair and vice chair said during our hearing was, you know, well-documented and analyzed and dotted every ‘i’ and crossed every ‘t’ in vetting what our committee would say. So we’ll be presenting the evidence of that,” Schiff said. 

“And, you know, that’s perfectly tragically consistent with Donald Trump’s character, which is, he doesn’t care about anything but himself and so people who are attacking the Capitol on his behalf, well, you know, they were for him and that’s all that seemed to matter to Donald Trump,” Schiff concluded.

Source: TEST FEED1

Summers: Recession 'more likely than not' in next two years

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said on Sunday that a recession is likely in the next year or two.

Summers said he disagreed with current Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that a recession is not “in the works.”

Yellen on Thursday dismissed concerns of an impending recession as the Federal Reserve looks to increase interest rates, which makes the cost of borrowing more expensive, while trying to avoid a major economic downturn.

“I think there’s certainly a risk of recession in the next year,” Summers told CNN “State of the Union co-anchor Dana Bash.

“I think given where we’ve gotten to, it’s more likely than not that we’ll have a recession within the next two years,” he continued.

Summers, who served as Treasury secretary under former President Clinton and later as director of the National Economic Council under former President Obama, has become a favorite among conservatives for breaking from the Democratic party line in his extensive comments on the status of the economic recovery.

Yellen and other Biden administration officials, who have pointed to low unemployment and large job gains since President Biden took office, have come under fire after previously describing inflation as transitory and a small risk. 

Summers in May 2021 warned about “very substantial risks on the inflation side” and characterized Biden’s fiscal stimulus as “rather overdoing it,” a concern he reiterated on Sunday.

Annual inflation hit 8.6 percent in the 12-month stretch ending this May, the fastest yearly price growth since 1981.

When asked by Bash if the inflation rate could go higher, Summers said it depends on the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin and fallouts on oil prices.

“I don’t think it’s likely to fall back very, very rapidly,” Summers said. “I think the Fed’s forecasts have tended to be much too optimistic there, and I hope they’ll recognize fully the gravity of the problem in their forecasts when they meet this week.”

He added that those geopolitical issues are driving inflationary pressures, and there’s “not a lot” Biden can do to bring down gas prices. Gas prices hit a record high on Sunday, climbing to a national average of $5 for a gallon of gas.

“It’s hypocrisy in the extreme when people say we need to stand strongly with Ukraine and then blame the administration for the fact that gas prices are higher than they were a year ago,” Summers said on CNN. “I’ve been disappointed by some of the almost demagogic statements that have been made in that regard.”

Source: TEST FEED1