No members of Congress are expected to attend the “Justice for J6” event in Washington, DC, which is organizing a former member of Donald Trump’s campaign in support of riot police who were arrested for assaulting the Capitol of the United States. United States on January 6th.
The revisionist history the Republican Party is going through (and which will take center stage at Saturday’s rally) threatens to become a political responsibility of the Republican Party, although Republican agents believe the economy and inflation will be the biggest problems. outstanding in the medium term. . At the very least, events like this weekend open old wounds in the Republican Party and put Republican leaders in an awkward position – they’re eager to turn the page on an ugly chapter in their party’s history, but they are forced to to combat an increasingly sympathetic fired base with riot police.
New York Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chairman of the Democratic Congress Campaign Committee, is already framing next year’s election in these terms: “Democrats want to move infrastructure and Republicans want to be insurgents.”
House Republicans only need to get five seats to regain the majority, and historical trends and redistricting maps favor the Republican Party. Democrats, who are facing an upward rise in their mission to retain power, are now uniting around a medium-term strategy that highlights Republican Party extremism in everything from electoral lies and conspiracy theories to the point of misinformation about vaccines and strict abortion laws.
Specifically, Democrats say they plan to paint vulnerable Republican lawmakers as loyal radicals to Trump, especially after the failed effort to oust the Democratic governor of California on Tuesday, which Maloney said was a rejection of the Trump brand and the message. of the GOP.
“This should cause a chill in the spine of Kevin McCarthy, who believes he can do these toxic Trump things without Trump’s involvement documenting how bad this message is for swing district voters,” Maloney said.
Republicans, however, strongly pushed back the notion that any broad electoral trend could be extrapolated from the withdrawal effort to the Golden State, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 2 to 1.
“Withdrawal elections will have no impact in the interim periods and anyone who claims otherwise has no idea what they are talking about,” Torunn Sinclair, a spokesman for the House Republican Party campaign group, said in a statement.
Republican leadership has not yet condemned the rally
Although the right-wing rally has raised renewed fears about political violence, Republican Party leaders have not publicly condemned the upcoming event and its cause, nor have they actively encouraged people to skip it, despite that McCarthy told reporters he doesn’t believe Republican members will attend and the best Republicans, including Trump, have not promoted the event.
McCarthy has also remained silent after freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina suggested the “so-called” election could “lead to a place, and that’s a bloodshed” and Rep. Mo Brooks, of Alabama, offered a measured sympathy for a suspect who claimed to have a bomb in his truck near the Capitol last month and criticized Democratic lawmakers.
Democrats amplify their warnings that the Republican Party’s continued adoption of Trump’s electoral lies and other extremist rhetoric could lead to the Jan. 6 repeat. And Democrats are also attacking some of the far right because they have martyred an riot police officer Ashli Babbitt, who was shot dead while trying to storm the Capitol. A CNN-reviewed internal intelligence note warns that there have been heated online discussions about Babbitt in connection with Saturday’s rally, which Rep. Eric Swalwell has characterized as a Republican celebration of “police killers.”
Even some in the Republican Party want their own party to do a better job of calling lies about the 2020 election.
“Frankly, I think we need more honesty,” said first-year Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan, one of ten House Republicans who voted to accuse Trump of inciting insurgency, during a recent Washington Post event Live. “We’ve seen what can be done when individuals feel like they’re winking and nodding.”
“These are literally implications for life or death,” he added, “and leaders need to be clear about where they are and they need to be clear about what they believe.”
Saturday’s group of speakers includes Joe Kent, who is running to oust Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington State, another of the ten Republicans who voted to oust Trump, and Mike Collins, who is running to replace Rep. Jody Hice. , a Georgian Republican running for Peach state secretary of state after pushing to overturn the results of last year’s presidential election in Congress. The public appearance of the pair of congressional candidates, who are facing Republican Party primaries, suggests that supporting imprisoned riot police is something they believe could give them a boost with their conservative base.
Even if no members of Congress attend, several House Republicans, including representatives Louie Gohmert of Texas, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Paul Gosar of Arizona, have lined up with a cause similarly, the insurgents imprisoned as “political prisoners”.
“I’m not sure I can do that [the rally], but we know there were people who were arrested for January 6 activities and who have been so mistreated, “Gohmert told CNN before the break.” So we didn’t give up. “
Prior to the rally, the four congressional leaders received security information from U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said law enforcement looks like better prepared this time.
“Congress leadership, on a bipartisan and bicameral basis, has been briefed by the Capitol Police Board on the nature of the threat and unprecedented preparations to address another attempt to contaminate our national purpose,” he said. Pelosi on Wednesday in a “Dear Letter from Companion.
Describing the rally, Pelosi added: “Some wish to continue the assault on the US Capitol with misinformation and malice. … Working together, we will respect the oath of our office to support and defend the Constitution, such as participating in the reconciliation and passing legislation for the people “.
Whitney Wild and Oren Liebermann contributed to this report.