#Trump spreads #violent rhetoric by suggesting migrants should be pitted in fights for entertainment.
During a speech to #Christian#conservatives on Sat afternoon, & AGAIN at a rally in Philadelphia that evening, Trump claimed he told his friend Dana White, pres of the UFC, that he should start a spinoff competition featuring migrants, as part of his riff on restricting #immigration.
Sharks, #Trump claimed, were attacking more than usual (not true) & posed a new risk bc boats were being required to use batteries (not true), which cause them to sink bc they’re too heavy (really, really not true—the world’s heaviest cruise ship, Icon of the Seas, stays afloat bc of laws of #physics despite weighing >550M lbs).
#SCOTUS is hearing a challenge today to a federal #law prosecutors used to charge >350 people who attacked the Capitol on #Jan6.
>100 have been convicted & sentenced under the statute for obstructing or impeding an ofcl proceeding—the joint session that convened to confirm Biden’s victory.
The case could impact #Trump’s federal trial in DC for trying to remain in power, 2 charges he faces are based on the same #obstruction statute.
US Sol Gen #Prelogar said no, she didn’t think it was odd; it was in exactly the right place. Congress wrote the statute to broadly prohibit #obstruction offenses &the provision in question followed a passage that punishes the #crime of killing witnesses w/an even stiffer penalty—up to life in prison.
Prelogar also noted that fed sentencing guidelines for actual #Jan6 defendants who are first offenders &who plead guilty are far lower: 10-16 mos for #violent offenders, & 6-12 mos for #nonviolent.
Trump said Fri that a Colorado woman #convicted of 4 federal misdemeanor charges related to the Jan 6, 2021 #insurrection l is a “patriot” & shared a link on social media where people can donate money to help defray her legal expenses.
The woman, #RebeccaLavrenz, was convicted this week in DC of disorderly & disruptive conduct & 3 other charges. In his posting to ~7M followers on social media, #Trump referred to her as “one of Joe Biden’s J6 HOSTAGES!!”
Trump…has increasingly turned his attn & resources to people charged & convicted in the #violent attack, which resulted in the deaths of 7 people, ~150 #LawEnforcement officers were injured & lawmakers — incl’g fmr VP #MikePence, were forced to hide for their own safety. #law
#US#Judge Royce C. #Lamberth is the latest in broad, public push by #FederalJudges against #Jan6#revisionism [Another] #Republican-appointed judge said he plans to send a written response to supporters of a Jan 6 rioter who claimed that he did nothing wrong, warning the man’s friends & family members that justifying #PoliticalViolence risks further #violence in a “vicious cycle” that “rots republics.”
Judge #Lamberth’s move is the latest in a wider public push by #FederalJudges in Washington to counter what polling shows is an uptick in public #acceptance of the #violent breach of the #US Capitol on #Jan6, 2021, fueled by Trump’s escalating rhetoric casting defendants as “political prisoners” & “hostages” who did nothing wrong. #Trump has pledged to pardon #J6#insurrection defendants, including those who assaulted police.
April 4, 1968, #CivilRights leader Reverend #MartinLutherKing Jr., was shot & killed while standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in #Memphis, #Tennessee. Considered one of the greatest Americans to ever live, he was assassinated 56 years ago today.
#MLK’s son, #MartinLutherKing III, said the family feels it's important to be there in an #election yr, "This is the first yr that we actually are going back as a family to #Memphis, & we felt that it was extraordinarily important…," said King III's wife, Arndrea Waters King.
She said the King family sees little difference between the #violent rhetoric coming from some #ChristianNationalists today & the violent rhetoric from the #KKK 60 yrs ago.
Trump said at a "messaging event" in #GrandRapids, #Michigan, "It's a very bad thing happening. It's going to end on the day that I take office, which will be Jan 20."
#Republican-appointed judges raise alarm over #Trump attacks on #law
Federal DC Judge #ReggieWalton warned Trump’s attacks on #HushMoney trial judge & others could lead to #violence.
The Republican-appointed judge denounced Trump’s attacks against the judge presiding over his hush money trial in Manhattan & his daughter, calling them assaults on the #RuleOfLaw that could lead to violence & #tyranny.
Judge #ReggieWalton’s remarks came as several federal judges in DC appointed by #Republican presidents have spoken w/increasing urgency about #Trump’s disregard for historical #facts & alarmed at his increasingly #graphic & at times #violent description of defendants prosecuted in the #Jan6 riot as “political prisoners” & “hostages” who did nothing wrong.
#Republican Donald #Trump has launched his general election campaign not merely rewriting the #history of the #Jan6, 2021, Capitol attack [#insurrection], but positioning the #violent siege & its failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election as a cornerstone of his bid to return to the #WhiteHouse.
A laboratory found a pattern of cell damage that has been seen in #veterans exposed to #weapons blasts, & said it probably played a role in the gunman’s spiral into #violence.
The #gunman, #RobertCard, was a #grenade instructor in the #ArmyReserve. In 2023, after 8 yrs of being exposed to thousands of skull-shaking blasts on the training range, he began hearing #voices & was stalked by #paranoid#delusions. He grew increasingly erratic & #violent in the months before the Oct rampage in #Lewiston, in which he killed 18 people & then himself.
The coup leader/rapist/fraud is blocking a bipartisan border reform bill this month that would’ve provided billions for our border security. He blocked it.
The entire GOP has bent the knee and given allegiance to a man who is charged with #91Felonies, adjudicated fraud, adjudicated rapist, bragged about grabbing women by the genitals, engaged in numerous adulterous affairs, was held liable for sexually assaulting a woman, and is proud of helping kill Roe v Wade.
Republicans are weak and in profound moral collapse.