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Post by Admin on Jan 5, 2021 3:45:44 GMT
President Donald Trump cataloged a series of false conspiracy theories during an hourlong call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday in which he sought to overturn the state's election results, and they were familiar to anyone following the far fringes of the internet.
Trump floated fragments of several baseless conspiracy theories that were primarily pushed by QAnon followers over the last two months, including a widely debunked theory about voting machines from Dominion Voting Systems.
The wide-ranging slew of theories, spawned on extremist forums like 4chan, were repeatedly referred to by Trump as “rumors” that are “trending on the internet.” He claimed they were reasons Raffensperger should “re-examine it [the election] with people that want to find answers.”
And while Trump has embraced conspiracy theories for much of his tenure as president, Saturday's call offered a look at just how much he is now relying on some of the most outlandish theories from obscure corners of the internet to make his case for election fraud.
"Trump manages to distill down to a 10-minute monologue what would take the average person years to pull together,” said Joan Donovan, research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Donovan noted that many of the baseless claims floated by the president have been embraced in recent weeks by pro-Trump media.
“Everything from fakes, forgeries and machine hacking to collusion across parties, it's all laid out in detail with rapid fluidity,” Donovan said, noting the conspiracy theories laid out in the call “are very popular on right-wing media like Parler and Newsmax.”
Trump “pulled together all the major talking points,” Donovan said.
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Post by Admin on Jan 11, 2021 21:17:26 GMT
A Capitol Police officer who responded to the deadly riots in Washington last week died by an apparent suicide on Saturday, according to multiple news reports, as the department struggles to fully recover from the devastating and destructive siege carried out by pro-Trump extremists. Howard B. Liebengood, 51, worked in the Senate Division and had been assigned with the force since April 2005. He is the son of the late Sergeant of Arms Howard S. Liebengood, who died in 2005. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and colleagues,” the U.S. Capitol Police wrote in a statement issued on Sunday. “We ask that his family, and other USCP officers’ and their families’ privacy be respected during this profoundly difficult time.” A Fox 5 DC reporter circulated a message from Gus Papathanasiou, the chair of the Capitol Police Labor Committee, honoring Liebengood on Sunday afternoon. “We are reeling from the death of Officer Liebengood. Every Capitol Police Officer puts the security of others before their own safety and Officer Liebengood was an example of the selfless service that is the hallmark of the USCP,” Papathanasiou wrote. “This is a tragic day.” Papathanasiou sent The Daily Beast the same press release, but did not respond to a specific question regarding suicide as the cause of death. The release notes that Liebengood was “among the officers who responded to the rioting at the U.S. Capitol.” “We extend our deepest sympathies to Officer Liebengood’s family and we mourn the death of a friend and colleague who worked alongside us to protect the lives of the Members of Congress, their staff and all who serve at the U.S. Capitol,” the full release read.
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Post by Admin on Jan 13, 2021 7:03:06 GMT
U.S. Olympian Klete Keller -- a 2x gold medalist and former teammate of Michael Phelps -- was reportedly spotted inside the U.S. Capitol while pro-Trump supporters raided the building. 38-year-old Keller represented America as part of the U.S. Swim Team at the Olympic Games in '00, '04, '08. Keller was the anchor on the 4x200 meter freestyle relay team in 2004 ... and famously held off Australian superstar Ian Thorpe to narrowly secure the top spot on the podium. A Townhall Media reporter shared footage from inside the Capitol Rotunda ... and according to the New York Times, people familiar with the 6'6" swimmer quickly recognized Keller.
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Post by Admin on Jan 15, 2021 7:31:20 GMT
Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell have been Backstreet Boys bandmates for nearly three decades and cousins for even longer, but it looks like their bond is being tested. Richardson caught the attention of fans on January 13 when he tweeted an October Cosmopolitan essay headlined “I Lost a Friend to QAnon,” with the caption “Interesting read… 👀 ✌🏻 ❤️.”
Richardson followed that tweet with another Cosmopolitan essay, from the day before, titled “The Unlikely Connection Between Wellness Influencers and the Pro-Trump Rioters,” which he called “Another interesting read… 👀 ✌🏻 ❤️.” While Richardson could’ve just been having a good time reading Cosmo, his tweets looked pretty pointed to fans who’d been following the Backstreet Boys recently. Just days before, on January 8, a Littrell tweet directed his fans to his account on Parler, the controversial app currently banned from the Apple and Google Play stores, and now offline after Amazon Web Services discontinued hosting it. Parler is a favorite platform of far-right figures, conspiracy theorists, and QAnon supporters, and has been taken off these platforms due to its lack of moderation and posts inciting violence.
Littrell’s tweet came the same night that President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter, “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” Littrell has been a vocal supporter of the president for years, even telling TMZ that he wanted the Backstreet Boys to perform at Trump’s inauguration. (Littrell later said “it didn’t work out” with the rest of the band, citing their Las Vegas residency.) There’s no clear evidence that Littrell has fallen further into far-right conspiracies, but Richardson’s tweets could be directed at his bandmate and cousin. (For his part, Richardson also spent the day of the Capitol riot and the following day retweeting reports about the riot and statements denouncing the violence.) Meanwhile, AJ just celebrated his birthday and is repping the Biden-Harris administration, Nick is having a baby, and Howie is barely on social media at all these days. Not everybody’s playing games with our hearts.
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Post by Admin on Jan 16, 2021 23:07:37 GMT
A Capitol rioter known as the "QAnon Shaman" has been ordered detained until trial, after federal prosecutors in Arizona initially said his words and actions during the January 6 siege show that the intent of the rioters was to "capture and assassinate" lawmakers. Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin later said there is no "direct evidence" of kill and capture teams, and a prosecutor later stuck that line from the memorandum urging a judge to keep him detained, according to The Associated Press. Jacob Chansley, 33, of Arizona was indicted January 11 by a federal grand jury on two felony charges of interfering with law enforcement during the commission of civil disorder and obstructing a Congressional proceeding, threatening Congressional officials and disorderly conduct. Chansley, who is also known as Jake Angeli, was also indicted on four misdemeanor counts. Prosecutors say Chansley, a well-known fixture at Arizona pro-Trump rallies, is a "self-proclaimed leader" in the QAnon conspiracy theory movement. Images of a shirtless Chansley storming the Capitol wearing horns, a fur coyote tail headdress and face paint, carrying a bullhorn and a spear, quickly went viral on social media. He is being held in a federal detention facility in Arizona. In a detention memorandum filed Thursday, U.S. prosecutors in Arizona argue Chansley would pose an "ongoing danger to the community" and a flight risk were he to be released. While inside the Capitol, prosecutors argue, Chansley approached U.S. Capitol police officer Keith Robishaw and screamed that "this was their house, that they were there to get Senators, and that they were there to take the Capitol, to get Congressional leaders," the memorandum reads. "Chansley also used his bullhorn to communicate that they were there to take out several United States congressmen," the filing says.
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