Fast Forward The Big Lie has a sibling: The Big Ripoff

 

In its second hearing, the House Jan. 6 Select Committee put its finger directly on the two main reasons why Trump promulgated The Big Lie before the 2020 election and has continued to perpetuate The Big Lie for more than 19 months after losing the election.

1. Power and ego. Trump's megalomania has been on full display for decades, but his thirst to hang on to the power of the presidency is just as big a motivation. In his four years in the White House, he realized just how much power he had, whether he was ordering his Republican minions in Congress to do his bidding or marveling that he could press a button on his Oval Office desk and get a Diet Coke delivered.

2. Money. As Congressman Jamie Raskin pointed out, when you lose an election, nobody gives you money any more. The political contributions dry up. But when you win, the donations continue because there's another election on the horizon.

So how does a grubby, avaricious loser keep the river of green flowing? Pretend that you actually did win, but were the victim of a massive fraud, a vast conspiracy of biblical proportions.

According to the committee, Trump pretended to set up an "Official Election Defense Fund" and told his unsophisticated supporters that he needed money to "protect election integrity" and fight voter fraud. And then he pummeled them with dozens of emails and texts a day begging for money.

It was a scam. The fund didn't exist.

(Even if it weren't a scam, why people making $30,000 or $50,000 or even $100,000 a year are willing to send money to a self-proclaimed billionaire is beyond me.)

Not a penny was used to litigate election results. Not a nickel went to investigate reports of fraud. Not a dime went to study and develop new election procedures.

Instead, most of the $250 million that Trump collected for his phantom fund from small-money donors was funneled into his Save America PAC. From there, it was doled out to his hotels -- his hotels! -- as well as to a conservative organization that had done Trump a favor and hired some of his former campaign workers, to a political organization run by former chief of staff Mark Meadows, and to the company that set up and organized the rally outside the White House on Jan. 6 at which Trump exhorted his followers to march down to the Capitol and fight like hell.

A former Trump campaign digital director admitted that the "fund" was nothing more than a marketing vehicle.

Or, as Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren said, it was The Big Ripoff.

And remember, that "fund" was just one fundraising effort among many employed by Trump and Republicans to profit off the Big Lie by strong-arming their gullible supporters. What a disgrace.

Does Trump's willful misleading of his supporters constitute criminal fraud? Experts say it depends on whether it could be proven that the fraud was perpetrated by Trump or by others on his behalf, among other considerations.

Hey Trump supporters who sent him money: How does this make you feel?
 

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I must say, the committee is being quite organized and methodical in building its case that Trump engaged in a criminal conspiracy to overthrow democracy by trying to seize the office of the presidency despite having lost the 2020 election.

If you remember, in the last Fast Forward I set out the 7-point plan that the committee says Trump formulated in an attempt to illegally hold onto power. The points are:

1. Trump engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information to the American public claiming the 2020 election was stolen from him.

2. Trump corruptly planned to replace the acting attorney general so that the Department of Justice would support his fake election claims.

3. Trump pressured Pence to corruptly refuse to count the certified electoral votes in violation of the US Constitution and the law.

4. Trump corruptly pressured state election officials, and state legislators, to change election results.

5. Trump's legal team and other Trump associates instructed Republicans in multiple states to create false electoral slates and transmit those slates to Congress and the National Archives.

6. Trump summoned and assembled a violent mob in Washington and directed them to march on the US Capitol.

7. As the violence was underway, Trump ignored multiple pleas for assistance and failed to take immediate action to stop the violence and instruct his supporters to leave the Capitol.

GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney, vice chairwoman of the committee, was the one who laid out the 7-point plan at the first hearing. Yesterday, the committee began tackling each of those elements by focusing on No. 1: That Trump engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information to the American public claiming the 2020 election was stolen from him.

The committee showed dramatic testimony that revealed that every sane member of Trump's inner circle told him over and over and over and over that the conspiracies about election fraud being cooked up by an inebriated Rudy Giuliani, shady lawyers, and suspect hangers-on were absurd.

His attorney general, his campaign’s internal data expert, his campaign lawyers, his acting attorney general, his acting deputy attorney general, the kitchen steward who brings him his Diet Cokes -- all told him. (Well, maybe not the steward.)

The revelation that Trump's election integrity fund was a scam was a bonus.

(BTW, former AG Bill Barr's come to Jesus salvation is rich. Don't forget that for months he carried Trump's water by peddling the election lie that mail-in balloting was rife with corruption.)

The next hearing, which was postponed from tomorrow to Thursday, will tackle point No. 2:

Trump corruptly planned to replace the acting attorney general so that the Department of Justice would support his fake election claims.

Here's what I wrote last week:

Leading up to Jan. 6, Trump ordered top Justice Department officials to announce that the election was corrupt "and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen" (aka his spineless henchmen). Those Justice officials refused. So Trump decided to replace them with people as corrupt as him who would do his bidding.

He planned to fire the acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen -- who had refused to go along with his sedition -- and offered the job to Jeffrey Clark, an environmental lawyer at the Justice Department who had already been devising ways to cast doubt on the election.

Trump wanted the willing Clark to send a letter to election officials in Georgia and five other states claiming that the Justice Department had "identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election." It urged those officials to therefore withdraw their electoral votes for Biden.

It was a lie. Trump knew it, and Clark knew it.

In fact, Justice officials had repeatedly told Trump that their investigations had found no credible fraud that affected the election.

Top Justice Department officials, including Rosen and Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, joined by White House Counsel Pat Cipollone (I mistakenly said Don McGahn in the last FF) confronted Trump and Clark in the Oval Office and said they would resign if Trump went forward with his devious plan. 

Trump backed off, but continued to pressure state officials in key states to illegally flip the election to him.

BTW, Clark refused to testify before the Jan. 6 committee, invoking 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination Ditto Representative Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania, who tried to get Clark appointed as attorney general. In fact, Perry and several other GOP congressmen tried to get presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.

Now why would you need a presidential pardon? Inquiring minds want to know.

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Even as inflation thins our wallets, the fact remains that Americans are doing quite well financially. In a survey at the end of last year, 78 percent of US adults said they were either doing okay financially or living comfortably.

That obvious, isn't it? Inflation is being fueled by Americans spending like crazy. Part of it is still pent-up demand from pandemic shutdowns, with Americans buying scores of cars, treadmills, and washing machines. But some of it is because everyone who wants a job has a job -- unemployment is at its lowest point in 52 years -- and money to spend.

Wages are up. You'll hear that overall, inflation is outpacing those wage gains, but not in every industry. Those who work in leisure, hospitality, construction, mining, and logging have seen the biggest pay increases.

But that's not necessarily a good thing! If people keep spending, the prices will keep rising. So the Fed will continue increasing interest rates.

There are primaries in five states today. The most interesting could be in South Carolina, where two GOP congressional incumbents are trying to hold onto their seats despite having crossed The Orange Menace either by voting for his impeachment or voting to certify the results of the 2020 election.

Here's a rundown of that race and the others from CNN.