United States Senate 2

[GreyhoundFan]

[fraurosena]

*rubs hands in gleeful anticipation*

This is probably in relation to this:

Graham’s post-election call with Raffensperger will be scrutinized in Georgia probe, person familiar with inquiry says

Quote

An Atlanta-area prosecutor plans to scrutinize a post-Election Day phone call between Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as part of a criminal investigation into whether former president Donald Trump or his allies broke Georgia laws while trying to reverse his defeat in the state, according to a person familiar with the probe.

The individual, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing probe, said the inquiry by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will include an examination of the call Graham, a staunch Trump ally, made to Raffensperger 10 days after the Nov. 3 election.

During their conversation, Graham asked the Georgia secretary of state whether he had the power to toss out all mail ballots in certain counties, Raffensperger told The Washington Post in an interview days later. He said Graham appeared to be asking him to improperly find a way to set aside legally cast ballots.

Graham denied that, saying he was seeking information to better understand how the state verified mail ballots. At the time, Trump was trailing Joe Biden by about 14,000 votes in Georgia, which was recounting by hand all 5 million ballots cast in the election.

The call will “be looked at,” said the individual familiar with the investigation — though the person cautioned that little is known about the call for now, or whether Graham violated any laws.

On Friday, Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop said the notion that Graham’s call was improper was “ridiculous.”

“Sen. Graham was asking about how the signature verification process worked,” Bishop said. “He never asked the Secretary of State to disqualify a ballot cast by anyone. The timing on this is also quite curious. It seems to be a less than transparent effort to marginalize anyone who helps President Trump.”

A spokesman for Willis said Friday that the office is investigating all attempts to improperly influence the administration of the election.

The revelation that the probe will examine the Nov. 13 call adds to the number of roles Graham has played in connection to Trump’s attacks on the election.

The senator is currently serving as a juror in the former president’s ongoing impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate. Graham has also functioned as an unofficial adviser to Trump’s defense team, speaking with his lawyers and Trump regularly.

Now, Graham’s own actions are being examined in a criminal investigation.

There are no rules barring Graham from serving in various capacities, as an impeachment trial is a political process that is not required to follow judicial procedures. But experts nonetheless questioned what they described as the former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman’s clear conflict of interest, which they said makes it impossible for him to serve as an impartial juror — something the Constitution requires of senators in impeachment procedures.

“So Graham is sitting in judgment on Trump on a charge that cites Trump’s call to Raffensperger, while Graham may be a person of interest in a criminal investigation of his own call to Raffensperger,” said Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University who studies legal ethics. “Outside the Senate’s Wonderland court, a potential juror who is under investigation for conduct that is also the subject of the trial would be excused for cause.”

Bishop said the fact that Graham’s call will be scrutinized “does not present a conflict.”

Willis announced Wednesday that her office would investigate potentially criminal attempts to influence the state election result, including calls Trump made to Raffensperger and to the state’s chief elections investigator.

In a phone call on Jan. 2, President Trump insisted he won the state and threatened vague legal consequences. Here are excerpts from the call. (Obtained by The Washington Post)

In addition to the Fulton district attorney’s probe, Raffensperger’s office is investigating Trump’s calls to state officials.

Jordan Fuchs, Raffensperger’s deputy secretary of state, said Friday that the office would not look at Graham’s call as part of its investigation, in part because there is no audio recording of the call.

Graham acknowledged calling Raffensperger but denied improper intent. He said he called to learn how signatures are verified on mailed ballots.

Raffensperger said Graham asked on the call whether political bias could have prompted poll workers to accept ballots with nonmatching signatures. The senator pressed the secretary of state to audit ballot-envelope signatures — and wondered if all ballots should be tossed in counties that yielded high discrepancy rates, since it would be impossible to toss only the affected ballots, which are separated from their envelopes before counting to protect voter privacy, according to Raffensperger.

Raffensperger said at the time he was stunned that Graham appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss legally cast ballots. Absent court intervention, Raffensperger didn’t have the power to do what Graham suggested because counties administer elections in Georgia.

“It sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road,” Raffensperger said at the time.

Graham denied that he had suggested that Raffensperger toss legal ballots, calling that characterization “ridiculous.” Graham said he contacted Raffensperger on his own and was not asked to do so by Trump.

Graham did not personally respond to requests for comment this week.

But in multiple interviews in recent weeks, Graham described how he has been in close touch with Trump in both the run-up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and the subsequent aftermath.

Graham said he spoke to Trump the night before to warn him that Congress was going to formalize Biden’s win during its joint session that day. Graham said he told Trump, “It’s not going to work out for you,” adding that the president didn’t push back.

Graham also met with the then-president for four hours on the Friday after the riots, helping him, among other things, to plan events for the final week of his presidency.

Once the impeachment process was underway, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told other senators that Graham, rather than McConnell, would serve as the point person in the chamber supporting the president — unlike Trump’s first impeachment last year.

In an interview on the Friday after the attack, Graham said impeachment was not in the country’s best interest — though he had “never been so humiliated and embarrassed for the country,” he said, referring to the attack.

He said in the interview that he planned to continue speaking with president, knowing that many of his colleagues would not.

“I think you try to regroup, you try to shape events and you try to shape the battlefield,” Graham said. “There is a downside to being proactive and involved. Sometimes I get burned. But the best thing to do is to be proactive.”

Graham joined Trump on Air Force One during his last week in office to call other senators to ask them to vote against conviction.

Trump also leaned on Graham to help him find attorneys to represent him in the Senate trial, initially tapping a team of South Carolina lawyers recommended by Graham to defend him. Trump later parted ways with them over disagreements on strategy and money, but Graham has continued to talk with Trump repeatedly about his defense strategy, according to advisers and Graham himself.

Since the trial opened on Tuesday, Graham has told other senators that he has spoken to the president regularly. He has encouraged the president to stick with the argument that convicting a former president is not constitutional, rather than arguing that the election was tainted by fraud, as Trump wanted to argue.

“We’ve never impeached a president after they left office, for a reason,” Graham said in an interview with The Post. “The constitutional argument cuts strongly for the president. If there were statements he made that incited violence, they’d be played every 15 seconds on cable TV.”

Graham told reporters on Capitol Hill this week that he spoke to Trump after the first day of the trial and reassured him that he would be acquitted.

“I reinforced to the president, the case is over,” he said. “It’s just a matter of getting the final verdict now.”

 

[clueliss]

Louisiana Republican Party censures Cassidy

 

[SeekingAdventure]

What exactly does a censure mean? that he can't be reelected?

[AnywhereButHere]

2 hours ago, SeekingAdventure said:

What exactly does a censure mean? that he can't be reelected?

Bad dog! You shit on the carpet. But we’re just going to leave this steaming pile of crap right here for everyone to step in anyway.

It doesn’t really mean much. It’s just a public reprimand. It gets the republicans on public record that they disapprove of Fucknut’s behavior, so now they can say “See! We scolded him! We have morals.” But not actually punish him for it. 

My take on it anyway. Someone can probably give a better/more official definition. I probably shouldn’t have attempted before coffee...
 

 

 

[clueliss]

In this case it communicates to Cassidy, we don’t like that you did it tie the party line and we’re making it public so the next time you run we can put someone up against you in a primary that we think will,  I expect a lot of primary challenges for that group of Republicans (House and Senate) in 2022 and for Senate in 2024.  That’s why you didn’t see more break in the Impeachment.  
 

im an independent in an open primary state,  if someone who is more moderate runs against Blunt (up for re-election in 22) or Icky Vicky Hartzler (my Rep), I will vote in the primary to attempt to get rid of one or both (but likely I’m stuck with them).

[SeekingAdventure]

ah ok, thanks for the clarification.

Yeah, I figured that thats the reason a lot of them were not voting for impeachment, but it remains to be seen if it helped or hurt them, I guess.

I guess its one of those reasons for most of them (some work for more than one)

• they either are completely off the rocker (Cruz, Hawley)
• they are afraid to not be reelected
• Trump has something on them
• they wanna run for President or something else and want to take over the base by being ANTM (Americas next top-moron)

 

also, i read the first sentence, and had forgotten what I had asked and thought you called me a bad dog, and was a liiiittle bit confused for a second there. I promise i did not shit on the carpet! @AnywhereButHere ?

Edited February 14, 2021 by SeekingAdventure

[AnywhereButHere]

@SeekingAdventure Oh god, no! Sorry! See, I should never post before coffee. ?
 

The only bad dogs here are the Republican members of Congress who seriously need their noses rubbed in the shit they made.

[SeekingAdventure]

no, i read it again and then I got it. I was reaaally confused for a second there though haha

[Xan]

Lindsey Graham thinks Lara Trump has a good chance to win the NC senate seat.  

Question:  What is the dirt that Trump has on Graham?  Everyone knows that he's not married and most have guessed why and nobody really cares.  So -- what is so bad that Lindsey is still drooling over Trump's shoes?

[Dandruff]

2 hours ago, Xan said:

Question:  What is the dirt that Trump has on Graham?  Everyone knows that he's not married and most have guessed why and nobody really cares.  So -- what is so bad that Lindsey is still drooling over Trump's shoes?

I'd love to know, but could also imagine myself wanting to forget once I did.

 

[fraurosena]

10 hours ago, Xan said:

what is so bad that Lindsey is still drooling over Trump's shoes?

It could be something everyone else finds quite innocuous but to Lindsey would be the end of the world if anyone finds out, or it could be something absolutely horrific. The point is, it doesn’t matter what it is. It’s what Linsey believes it is.

[clueliss]

 

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[47of74]

Someone is looking to primary Chuckles in 22

Quote

Republican State Sen. Jim Carlin on Monday launched his campaign for U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Senate seat in 2022.

Carlin, a Sioux City lawyer and Army veteran, is the first candidate from either party to announce their candidacy for U.S. Senate. Carlin has served in the Iowa Senate since 2017.

“I am a trial lawyer and proud of it. I’ve made a career of fighting for the underdogs of this world. Fighting for everyday Iowans, the working people, the forgotten man of Iowa,” Carlin said in a speech at a campaign event on Monday.

Carlin highlighted some of his campaign’s priorities, which include containing the “growing threat of China,” breaking up Big Tech, and “preserving” rural Iowa.

Don't know if it's because Grassley is too reich wing or not reich wing enough for this guy.

[47of74]

The latest in the that aged well stack;

Quote

But it's this tweet from Texas GOP Senator Ted Cruz, still under fire for his role in the January 6 insurrection, that has many mocking him. Last summer, California suffered from rolling blackouts that were the result of "an extreme heat wave caused by climate change." Rather than express sympathy, or say nothing at all, Cruz served up a mean-spirited attack on California for being "unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity.

Millions of Texans are now without power in the middle of a winter storm that's dropped snow and brought temperatures to below freezing. Dallas-Fort Worth airport saw a negative 1 degree temperature Tuesday morning. Texas is in crisis and to be fair, the only ones who should be mocked or criticized are the ones who contributed to the failed political systems that contributed to this disaster, and refused to accept and respond to the reality of climate change. People in Texas are hurting, and some have died. But now that tweet has come back to haunt Cruz.

 

[Black Aliss]

This didn't age well:

Hope your constituents don't like heat, lights, and running water, Senator.

Edited February 18, 2021 by Black Aliss

[WiseGirl]

Rumors of Cruz leaving Texas for Cancun. If he was in Texas, whouldn't his PR confirm he was in Texas? Wouldn't he? Or is it better to go with no response like they are right now (*sarcasm). Texas you could have had Beto who is actually doing thing for Texans right now....

https://www.newsweek.com/ted-cruz-accused-flying-cancun-texas-power-outages-photo-goes-viral-1570118

[Penny]

I hope Ted Cruz gets sick in Cancun

[Cartmann99]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

So Cruz takes police officers away from doing actual police work to escort him because he's such a loathsome being that he isn't safe in public.

 

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Black Aliss]

17 hours ago, WiseGirl said:

Rumors of Cruz leaving Texas for Cancun. If he was in Texas, whouldn't his PR confirm he was in Texas? Wouldn't he? Or is it better to go with no response like they are right now (*sarcasm). Texas you could have had Beto who is actually doing thing for Texans right now....

https://www.newsweek.com/ted-cruz-accused-flying-cancun-texas-power-outages-photo-goes-viral-1570118

Seems like even friends and neighbors of the Cruz's hate them. Enough so, that at least two of them share with the press, a group text Heidi Cruz sent out complaining that they were FREEZING and about to decamp to the Ritz Carlton Cancun and inviting everyone on the thread to join them.

Spoiler

 

[WiseGirl]

"Obviously it was a mistake." Really? You had to wait until the press called you out on it to realize it was a mistake? Texas gets what they voted for a seditionist asshole that doesn't give a shit about his constituents.  

https://people.com/politics/ted-cruz-admits-flying-to-cancun-for-weeked-was-a-mistake/

I thought when the guy before Biden left I would stop yelling at the television.  Clearly I was wrong as there is a never-ending stream of two-faced, slimy, seditionist Rs to yell at.

[Becky]

Oh, Ted, you hypocritical asshole.  According to NPR, "He said a lot of parents would do the same for their children."  Really, Ted?  Do you really believe a "lot of parents" have the wherewithal to pack up the family on the spur of the moment to spend a few days at the Ritz Carlton in Cancun because the power is out at home? Jesus Christ, could he be more out-of-touch?

I am not particularly proud of this, but I am sort of gleeful about seeing Lyin' Ted on the hot seat over this.  Maybe it will open some eyes as to his true colors.