Violent neo-fascist congressman Clay Higgins (an Oath Keeper and Three Percenter) represents the southwest corner of Louisiana, including Lafayette, Lake Charles, New Iberia and Opelousas, a district that gave Trump a 68.0% to 30.3% win over Biden. Higgins faced no runoff after the jungle primary in 2022:
Clay Higgins (R)- 144,423 (64.3%)
Holden Hoggatt (R)- 24,474 (10.9%)
Lessie LeBlanc (D)- 23,641 (10.5%)
Tia LeBrun (D)- 21,172 (9.4%)
Thomas Payne (R)- 4,012 (1.8%)
Gloria Wiggins (I)- 3,255 (1.4%)
Jacob Shaheen (R)- 1,955 (0.9%)
Guy McLendon (L)- 1,620 (0.7%)
A violent rogue Opelousas cop, used car salesman and tax scofflaw, Higgins is the most “physical” member of Congress and was recording beating up a protester who tried asking Lauren Boebert a question about healthcare at a press conference. Needless too say, he’s a xenophobic, homophobic, racist and anti-Semitic member of the Freedom Caucus who has contracted COVID several times, has been divorced 4 times and has deleted more of his own Facebook posts than any other member of Congress. So why would this call-to-arms tweet surprise anyone?
Higgins is just one of many congressional Republicans seeking to undermine the rule of law in the wake of the announcement of the latest Trump indictment. McCarthy, Scalise and Jordan all rushed to defend Trump and smear the Justice Department. Several Republicans called for Biden to be impeached. McCarthy has obviously decided to use this as an opportunity to get back into the good graces of his fascist fringe which has forced the House to shut down over his deal with Biden on the turd sandwich. Stefanik weighed in with her own bullshit and GOP talking points yesterday:
David French, an attorney and propaganda writer, spent his life fighting for right-wing causes and now writes for the New York Times editorial pages. Unlike other conservatives, he’s certain that making Trump answer for his crimes is the right thing to do. “[N]o person,” he wrote, “is above the law. That’s, of course, easy to say in the abstract, but perhaps a better way to frame it is that Trump’s status as a former president means that he should be treated no better and— crucially— no worse than ordinary American citizens… Times news reports indicate that Trump is facing charges that include retaining national defense information, obstruction of justice, false statements, contempt of court and conspiracy. Each of those charges is substantiated even by the partial information we currently possess. The available evidence indicates that Trump’s conduct meets both the legal test for prosecution and the more lenient Comey test applied to Clinton… [T]he evidence seems sufficient to support an indictment. Indeed, given what we know now, not charging Trump would be the greater scandal. It would place presidents outside the rule of federal law and declare to the American public that its presidents enjoy something akin to a royal privilege. But this is a republic, not a monarchy, and it is right to make Donald Trump answer for the crimes he is accused of.”
Unfortunately, most other rightists seem to be seeing it differently and, like Higgins, have decided to use the moment to fan the flames of simmering violence on the extreme fringes:
Meatball Ron tweeted “that ‘the weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society’ and seeming to question why Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden had not faced charges. But he stopped short of saying he would pardon Trump if elected, instead promising that he would ‘bring accountability’ to the Justice Department… McCarthy pledged on Twitter that House Republicans would ‘hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.’ He falsely claimed that Trump had been indicted by President Biden rather than a grand jury made up of American citizens, and wrote, ‘I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice.’”
House Republicans reacted with outrage on Thursday night to the federal indictment of former President Donald J. Trump, vowing to use their majority in Congress to fight the Justice Department.
“WITCH HUNT” was posted on the Twitter account of the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee within minutes of news of the indictment becoming public.
The chairman of the panel, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, has used his perch to attempt to pressure the Justice Department over what he views as unfair treatment of Trump. Jordan this week sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding unredacted documents concerning the investigation of the special counsel, Jack Smith.
“It’s a sad day for America,” Jordan said in a statement on Thursday. “God bless President Trump.”
Members of Congress have no power to stop criminal charges, but they can attempt to interfere with prosecutors through their legislative powers, such as issuing subpoenas, demanding witness interviews or documents, restricting Justice Department funding and using the platform of their offices to attempt to publicly influence the case.
Several Republicans who are closely allied with Trump said, without evidence, that the indictment was an attempt to distract from their investigation into President Biden’s family, including his son Hunter’s business dealings. They made clear that they would target federal law enforcement in retaliation.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, said the case against Mr. Trump was a “stain on our nation that the FBI and DOJ are so corrupt and they don’t even hide it anymore.” She added, “We must win in 2024. We must beat these sick people.”
Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida and one of Trump’s closest allies, predicted that the former president would prevail against the charges, and that his rivals would be imprisoned.
“This scheme won’t succeed. President Donald Trump will be back in the White House and Joe Biden will be Hunter’s cellmate,” Gaetz wrote on Twitter.
It was the second time this year that House Republicans rallied to Trump’s defense after he was charged criminally. In April, Speaker Kevin McCarthy pledged to use the investigative powers of the House to hold Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, “accountable” after Trump was charged in New York with 34 counts of falsifying business records.
In the next few days, we’ll see how far congressional Republicans decide to go in setting the country on fire. So far the incitement is bad but not bad enough to get any of them arrested. This text went out this morning:
The fun is only starting. It will inevitably get worse.
Ever since I saw my profession used to steal a presidential election in my state in 2000, I keep waiting for the donkey's delusion that it can make nice with the GOP's Good Germans to finally end. Our current president campaigned on that delusion, and he bragged about his recent budget deal as an example of his ability to maintain that delusion.
We've already seen Alvin Bragg hauled before Gym Jordan on NY charges that are a warm-up act at best. The GOP is REALLY going to start hauling out heavy artillery now.