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Famed actor Harrison Ford had nothing to do with the strange meeting between an embattled Georgia election worker and a one time publicist for the hip hop artist Kanye West. It was actually Harrison Floyd, who worked on former President Trump’s re-election campaign last year.
Floyd was the executive director of “Black Voices For Trump,” which was the centerpiece of the former president’s effort to woo African American voters in last year’s election. Speaking to The Uprising, Floyd claims he was pulled into the situation in December 2020 after hearing “chatter” from attorneys and other well-connected individuals who asked if the poll worker wanted to confess to engaging in election fraud. According to Floyd, they wanted to verify if the election worker, Ruby Freeman, was in danger and, if she wanted to come forward, to connect the election worker with people who could put her in touch with Trump himself.
“Lawyers and different people from all across the country were asking me … if I had heard anything,” Floyd said. “They were saying, ‘Well, if she wants immunity let her know that I would be able to give it to her.’”
The story of the meeting between Trevian Kutti, a publicist who worked for West, and Ruby Freeman, who was falsely accused by Trump and his allies of being involved in election fraud, first broke in Reuters earlier this month. At the time, Reuters reported that Kutti offered to put Freeman on the phone with a man named “Harrison Ford” who had “authoritative powers to get you protection.” However, as The Uprising outlined on Sunday night, there were multiple indications that Kutti was actually referring to Floyd.
Floyd has now come forward to admit he was indeed the man on the phone with Freeman and to share his side of the story.
“I was never contacted to confirm whether or not I was or was not the person on the phone with Ms. Freeman,” Floyd told The Uprising. “If I had been contacted, I would have been up front and honest and I would have said, ‘Yeah that was me.’”
A spokesperson for Reuters did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
In his conversation with The Uprising, Floyd was adamant that he was not working with the Trump campaign as he got involved with Freeman during the final months of last year.
“Since November 15 [2020], I have not worked in an official capacity with the campaign. I have not spoken with anybody with the campaign in an official capacity,” Floyd said. “The only conversations I have had were in a personal capacity.”
Freeman was brought into the spotlight by Trump and members of his legal team who highlighted a misleading video showing her handling ballots and described it as supposed proof of election fraud. Amid a steady stream of baseless allegations from Trump, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and other officials have declared there was no widespread fraud in Georgia or any other state during the 2020 election. The concerns about the footage of Freeman were specifically refuted by local officials who confirmed she properly handled ballots. On December 2, Freeman and her daughter, who was also an election worker in 2020, filed a lawsuit against a far right website that spread false allegations about their conduct. That suit claimed, among other things, that Freeman and her family received death threats and harassment due to the accusations. A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.
Floyd briefly ran for Congress in Georgia in 2019. According to him, in December 2020, one month after the election, he began hearing “chatter” from contacts in the state that Freeman “needed immunity” and “wanted to get a message to the president.” In other words, he was led to believe that Freeman was perhaps getting ready to admit participating in fraud if she was able to secure protection from Trump.
“I started getting phone calls from a lot of people saying they were hearing that Ruby Freeman wanted immunity and that she wanted to talk to the president,” Floyd said. “Lawyers and different people from all across the country were asking me if I had heard anything and, you know, they were saying, ‘Well, if she wants immunity, let her know that I would be able to give it to her, so reach back out to me if you hear something.’”
In a statement about her lawsuit, Freeman has described the allegations she engaged in any impropriety as “lies.” She could not be reached for comment.
Floyd repeatedly declined to name individuals he was in contact with about Freeman. At the time, a loose confederation of Trump allies that included his legal teams, campaign aides, White House staff, influential supporters, the former president’s family members, and far right activists were working on efforts to unearth evidence of election fraud and overturn Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden.
“I was getting so many phone calls from so many different people, like, I can’t be, I think, that specific,” he said. “My phone was going off nonstop about this.”
When asked why he was confident the people he was in touch with were in a position to grant Freeman protection, Floyd said: “For me, this wasn’t about them having any power, it was about what I could do at that moment in time.” He suggested that, due to his past position on the Trump campaign, he felt he could “relay” requests from Freeman to the right people.
According to Floyd, he got involved more deeply after a December phone call from a mysterious “chaplain who has a background in law enforcement.” That person allegedly indicated they previously tried to speak with Freeman and were unsuccessful.
“He had a law enforcement background and people had connected with him,” Floyd said. ”They were trying to see if he could connect with her on a faith-based lane.”
Floyd claimed the chaplain felt Freeman was “super skittish and scared … because he was an old white man and she was a Black woman scared in Georgia.” Hearing this is what motivated Floyd to get involved and he “offered to get on the phone” with Freeman.
“I’m a Black guy, I’m from Georgia, and I know how they do Black folks down in Georgia,” Floyd explained, adding: “The conversation was based around her getting immunity.”
Floyd repeatedly declined to identify the “chaplain,” but he said they were not in the U.S. military.
“It was in a personal capacity man, that’s my business,” said Floyd.
At the time, Floyd said he was based in Washington D.C. and was unable to travel to Georgia to meet with Freeman. Ultimately, it was Kutti and another man she identified as “Garrison” who came to Freeman’s door on January 4. As reported by Reuters, Freeman called 911 when they arrived due to the threats she had received. Based on recordings of that call, Freeman asked the Cobb County police to come to her home so she could safely speak with Kutti and hear what the publicist had to offer her.
“I want them to come back and tell me what it is they can do for me,” Freeman said.
The officer eventually allowed Freeman and Kutti to meet inside a local police station. Body cam footage of that meeting, published by Reuters, showed Kutti saying that there was an unspecified situation that “may be authorized in the next 48 hours” and would “disrupt” Freeman’s “freedom.” Kutti suggested she could help Freeman avoid that fate and “move” her to a secure location before offering to put her on the phone with Floyd, who the publicist described as a man who could describe the “situation” at a “detailed level.” At that point, the body cam footage ended because the officer stepped away to allow the pair to converse privately.
According to Floyd, Kutti’s remarks were misconstrued by Reuters as a threat. Instead, he claimed there was a plan to move Freeman that would only have worked if it was implemented within two days.
“Trevian said she had 48 hours to talk to her to try to get her the protection, and security, and be able to move her because I had already spoken with some people that I knew,” Floyd said.
That 48 hour period following Kutti’s January 4 police station meeting with Freeman was also the final two days before Trump’s election loss was due to be certified at the U.S. Capitol.
“I remember going into the call thinking that there was a lot riding on it,” Floyd said, later adding, “If a federal election worker is about to come forward and say, ‘Hey I got some evidence that I need immunity for and I need to get a message to the president before Congress certifies this election, that’s a pretty big thing.”
Ultimately, Freeman did not take Kutti and Floyd up on the offer to spirit her away from her home and have her join efforts to dispute the election. Freeman has not presented any information about issues with the election and instead sued some of those who accused her of fraud. Kutti has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
Floyd said that he was “aware” of Kutti before they worked together to approach Freeman.
“I had already known Trevian through the campaign. I had met her at a Trump rally, she had been to a bunch of different Black Voices events, people were saying she had all these connections,” Floyd said of Kutti.
Kutti previously worked as a spokesperson for West and the disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly. In the days since the Reuters story broke, West’s team has issued statements distancing him from Kutti. At the same time, Kutti published Instagram posts indicating she was positioned next to the stage for West’s concert with Drake at the LA Memorial Coliseum concert on December 9. In a prior statement to The Uprising, Pierre Rougier, a spokesperson for West, insisted that Kutti was “not associated” with West when she visited Freeman’s home earlier this year or at any point afterward.
“Trevian Kutti was not associated with Kanye West or any of his enterprises at the times of the facts that are reported in various articles or since these facts occurred,” Rougier wrote in an email.
West has been a prominent Trump supporter. The hip hop artist unsuccessfully ran for president last year on his own “Birthday Party” line, but his campaign staff included multiple Republican operatives. As a result, there has been widespread speculation it was an effort to help Trump by taking votes away from Biden. Rougier did not respond to specific questions about whether West’s team had any connections with Trump’s campaign. West has denied those rumors. The allegation West’s onetime publicist worked directly with a former Trump campaign aide to unearth evidence to support the former president’s baseless election fraud claims could revive those questions.
For his part, Floyd said he did not know whether Kutti was working for West when they approached Freeman.
“I have no idea about what was factually going on with her in any capacity other than what transpired with this phone call and what happened,” Floyd said.
This story was updated at 5:36 pm with additional comment and clarification from Floyd.
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On Dec. 12, Reuters published a story detailing how “a Chicago publicist for hip-hop artist Kanye West” visited the home of a Georgia election worker in the final days of Donald Trump’s presidency to warn that there would be dire consequences if she did not admit to bogus voter fraud allegations. Among many other wild details, the story claimed the publicist, Trevian Kutti, told the election worker she was going to put “a man named ‘Harrison Ford’ on speakerphone” because he had “authoritative powers to get you protection.” However, there are multiple indications that Kutti did not actually use the name of the famous actor and instead referred to Harrison Floyd, who was a staffer on Trump’s presidential campaign.
Floyd, a veteran of the U.S. Marines, was the executive director of “Black Voices For Trump,” which was the centerpiece of the Trump campaign’s effort to court African American voters in the 2020 race. In 2019, Floyd mounted a brief congressional campaign in Georgia before dropping out after less than a month. Floyd did not respond to requests to comment on record for this story.
A source close to Trump, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal campaign matters, indicated to The Uprising that they believed Floyd worked with Kutti. However, the source stressed these efforts were not directed by the campaign organization.
“They went out of their lane,” the source said of Kutti and Floyd.
Kutti did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The involvement of Floyd would be notable as it could link the Trump campaign to Kutti’s effort to persuade Freeman to support Trump’s effort to discredit the election. Cooperation between Kutti and Floyd could also tie West’s circle to Trump’s election team. There has already been widespread public speculation the hip hop artist engaged in subterfuge to boost Trump’s 2020 campaign.
West has been a prominent supporter of the former president and they famously met in the Oval Office in 2018. The hip hop artist ran for president last year through his own “Birthday Party,” but he failed to get on the ballot in most states and ultimately only gained just about 60,000 votes. West’s vocal Trump support, the haphazard nature of his campaign, and the presence of multiple Republican operatives on his staff led to widespread conjecture his candidacy may have been an effort to help Trump by taking votes away from the eventual election winner, President Joe Biden.
West vehemently denied he was in “cahoots” with Republicans to boost Trump during an interview with actor Nick Cannon that aired last September.
"Bro, can't nobody pay me," West said. "I got more money than Trump."
Reporter Ben Jacobs was the definitive chronicler of West’s presidential bid and wrote multiple pieces about the campaign for New York Magazine. Jacobs told The Uprising it was a “matter of speculation” whether the Republicans who worked with West were hoping to boost Trump’s campaign or simply to draw a paycheck from the hip hop artist’s personal fortune. Federal Election Commission records indicate that West spent over $12.4 million of his own money on the race.
“The way I would put it is that a lot of Republican consultants made money off of Kanye West’s campaign,” Jacobs said. “There was no political cost to them being involved and the question is, how much of this was a rat fuck and how much of this was a grift? … There was certainly some of each.”
According to Reuters, Kutti visited the home of the election worker, Ruby Freeman, on January 4. The prior month, Trump and an attorney for his campaign promoted a misleading video featuring Freeman as supposed “proof” there were issues with his loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Trump also referenced Freeman by name on January 2 when he called Georgia Secretary of State Ben Raffensperger. In that conversation, Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” more votes for him and overturn the election results. Despite a slew of baseless allegations from Trump, Raffensperger and other officials have consistently been clear that there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election. The concerns about the footage of Freeman were specifically refuted by local officials who confirmed she properly handled ballots.
When Kutti arrived at her door, Freeman called 911. According to audio of the call that was published by Reuters, Freeman indicated she had received threats due to the false suggestions from Trump and others that she was involved in election fraud. A spokesperson for the former president did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kutti was accompanied by a man who she identified only as “Garrison.” Freeman asked a neighbor to speak to the pair and hear what they had to say. In the 911 call, Freeman indicated she did not believe they had threatened her. However, Freeman said she wanted to be cautious and asked if a police officer could come to her home so she could speak with Kutti and hear what they might be able to do for her.
“They keep saying that time is running out and I’m going to need some representation,” Freeman said. “They’re saying that I need help and they can help me because they say they’re coming after me.”
A Cobb County Police officer subsequently responded to the scene and suggested Kutti and Freeman come to a local police station to have a meeting. That’s where “Harrison Ford” — or perhaps Harrison Floyd — got involved.
Based on police body camera footage that was published by Reuters, Kutti told Freeman that there was an unspecified situation that “may be authorized in the next 48 hours.” Kutti said this would “disrupt” Freeman’s “freedom” and suggested she could “move” the election worker to a secure location. Then, she asked to put a man on the phone who could describe the “situation” at a “detailed level.” Reuters indicated that Kutti identified this man as “Harrison Ford,” but the body cam audio is not exactly clear. Readers on social media who followed the story suggested it sounded as though Kutti actually said “Harrison Floyd.”
Kutti described Harrison as a Black “crisis manager” and called him “very high level, with authoritative powers.” She also suggested Harrison could get Freeman “protection.”
“There are federal people that are involved here,” Kutti added.
On his Linkedin page, Floyd notes his affiliation with the Trump campaign and touts “10 years of proven experience in operations, crisis management, government, and political campaigns.” Reuters did not identify the man on the phone beyond saying Freeman told them he “wasn’t the actor by the same name.” Freeman could not be reached for comment.
As she brought Harrison on the phone, Kutti expressed concern about a nearby police officer overhearing the conversation. The officer agreed to step away and the body camera footage published by Reuters does not include the call.
In the days since the Reuters story was published, West’s team has distanced themselves from Kutti, who also previously worked for the disgraced singer R. Kelly. Pierre Rougier, a spokesperson for West, issued a statement saying Kutti was “not associated” with the rapper when the incident at Freeman’s house occurred. On her Instagram page, Kutti posted a picture indicating she was near the stage at West’s concert with Drake that took place at the LA Memorial Coliseum concert on December 9. Asked about Kutti’s apparent recent proximity to West, Rougier insisted to The Uprising that she hasn’t been “associated” with the rapper since her visit to Freeman’s home.
“Trevian Kutti was not associated with Kanye West or any of his enterprises at the times of the facts that are reported in various articles or since these facts occurred,” Rougier wrote in an email to The Uprising.
Kutti has also used her Instagram and Twitter pages to suggest there are issues with Reuters’ reporting.
“@reuters Guess who’s coming to dinner? YOUR LIES! Now choke,” Kutti wrote in one recent Instagram post.
A spokesperson for Reuters did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kutti isn’t the only one who has used social media to dispute the Reuters story. On December 12, the conservative activist Candace Owens, who has met with West, posted a series of tweets indicating Harrison Floyd would come forward with revelations related to the article.
Owens, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has been cited by Politifact for making “false” and “mostly false” claims, so she should be taken with a large grain of salt. However, Owens suggested the Trump campaign was involved in the meetings with Freeman.
“I am told that eventually, after multiple conversations with the Trump campaign about what she wanted guaranteed in order to share what she told them publicly— she got cold feet,” Owens wrote.
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Tish James shook up the political landscape in New York state on Thursday afternoon when she dropped out of the governor’s race less than two months after announcing her campaign.
According to multiple sources, James’ shock decision came after soul searching that included a “long night staying up” and a nagging feeling that she needed to focus on her current job.
“I have come to the conclusion that I must continue my work as attorney general,” James said in a statement. “There are a number of important investigations and cases that are underway, and I intend to finish the job.”
News of James’ exit first broke in a tweet from NY1’s Zack Fink. Some of the initial reporting on her decision cited her position in the polls. A Siena College poll released on Tuesday showed the current governor, Kathy Hochul, with an approximately 18 point lead over James, who was her closest competitor.
Multiple sources in James’ camp who were granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations disputed the suggestion that poll numbers motivated the decision. While James is currently behind Hochul, her camp was adamant that she saw a path to victory. The sources said internal polling clearly showed James could gain on Hochul if she ramped up her campaign.
However, thus far, James’ campaign hasn’t been nearly as active as Hochul’s. A James ally, who also was granted anonymity, said an article that was published in Politico on Wednesday detailing how few events James had held was a “gut check” for the attorney general.
“She couldn’t make campaign events and she couldn’t allow her work [as attorney general] to suffer,” the James ally said.
James’ office is currently pursuing a series of investigations of high profile targets including former President Donald Trump, the National Rifle Association, and major technology companies. Shortly before James announced her decision on Thursday, the Washington Post reported that the attorney general is seeking a deposition from Trump next month as part of her investigation into potential fraud at his real estate company, the Trump Organization. Lawyers for Trump’s business have repeatedly described that probe as politically motivated.
The James ally said she decided to “call it a day” after her campaign prepared a detailed calendar of events that she felt would take focus from the investigations.
“Something had to go,” the James ally said.
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Tucker Carlson’s recent T.V. special about January 6 spurred a minor revolt inside Fox News with two contributors quitting and longtime on air personalities going public with their “concerns” about Carlson’s attempt to paint the January 6 attack as a relatively peaceful, patriotic event that is being used as a pretext for the government to wage war on its own citizens. And while the “Patriot Purge” special lacks any solid evidence for the clearly false claims about what happened on January 6, Carlson’s production does contain a major revelation.
The documentary-style feature, which debuted on Fox News’ streaming platform earlier this month, paints many participants in the January 6 rallies and the storming of the Capitol building in a sympathetic light. Ali Alexander, a far right activist who helped organize the “Wild Protest” outside the Capitol that day and serves as a prominent voice in the special, described working with members of Congress to plan efforts to have President Trump’s loss overturned on January 6.
In the first episode of the three-part series, Alexander discusses these conversations. Carlson also claims to have listened to audio of these “planning” discussions.
“We listened to never-before-aired tape of a January 6 planning session that took place between Ali Alexander and several members of Congress,” Carlson says. “There was no talk of insurrection. Nothing even close.”
In an email to The Uprising, Alexander said the call involved a big group and that he only talked about demonstrations outside the Capitol building.
“I don’t have a copy of that audio. I did not provide that to Tucker or his team. That was a very large call,” Alexander wrote. “I am glad that someone caught it so that it shows that our intentions were peaceful and to seek legal legislative remedies. Every time I mentioned the sixth in public or private, I only made reference to outside.”
In the special, Alexander described the conversations as an effort to strategize building public support for objections to the electoral certification that was taking place at the Capitol on January 6.
“I consulted members of Congress,” Alexander says. “They felt like this would add pressure to make sure that our voices were counted.”
Carlson’s special doesn’t provide much more information about the contents of the call. “Patriot Purge” also does not name the politicians who were supposedly involved in the planning session. The show only airs a snippet of audio where an unidentified voice declares: “We have several members of Congress on this call and state legislators.” Alexander, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story, has previously claimed that congressmen Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks, and Paul Gosar “schemed up” with him and “ came up with the January 6 idea.”
Two sources who were involved in the planning of the January 6 rally at the White House Ellipse previously spoke to me for an article in Rolling Stone and described “dozens” of planning calls between members of Congress and activists who rallied against the electoral certification. Those sources also said some of the organizers of the event at the Ellipse, which was the largest event of the day and included a speech by former President Trump, had concerns Alexander’s “Wild Protest” could spark violence due to its location adjacent to the Capitol.
In Carlson’s TV special, Alexander argues that his group was nonviolent.
“Stop The Steal was the most law-abiding movement that this country has seen in modern times,” Alexander says.
Alexander also describes being in touch with Trump’s “campaign” on January 6. Furthermore, he claimed it was a member of the former president’s team who instructed him and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to lead a march along Pennsylvania Avenue from the Ellipse rally to the “Wild Protest” outside the Capitol as Trump delivered his speech.
“I’m dead center to the president, front row,” Alexander recounts. “A Trump campaign staffer walks up to me and says, ‘You know Ali, there are people leaving the overflow and there are already tens of thousands of people at the U.S. Capitol. With your presence and the presence of Alex Jones, why don’t you guys walk down Pennsylvania, gather people together, and then position them for your rally.’”
According to Alexander, the “only reason” he was not at the Capitol as violence broke out and the barricades were breached is because “we stopped and made an impromptu speech.” Alexander described the situation as unfortunate, saying that the events “spiraled out of control.”
The violence that erupted that day aside, Alexander’s remarks provide new evidence of some level of coordination between January 6 rally organizers, members of Congress, and the Trump campaign. So, while Carlson’s special is a questionable effort to argue that the efforts to prosecute those who stormed the Capitol are worse than anything that happened on January 6, it inadvertently provided value and deepened the public’s understanding of events.
Others who appear in Carlson’s special actively downplay the attack on the Capitol. Darren Beattie, who was fired from his post as a Trump administration speechwriter in 2018 for attending a conference with white nationalists, cites incorrect initial reporting on the death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick and suggests the law enforcement response to the storming of the building was based on this false “pretext.” Elijah Shaffer, a podcaster with conservative site The Blaze, blamed the violence on “agitators” — including police officers who he falsely claims only launched tear gas after the situation “got peaceful.”
Along with downplaying the violence and suggesting it might have been provoked by some type of false flag operation, Carlson’s special attempted to position the crackdown on the Trump supporters who broke into the Capitol as a domestic continuation of the War on Terror. With a blizzard of footage that evokes old black helicopter conspiracy theories, speedy jump cuts of George W. Bush era archival clips, and evidence-free accusations from January 6 defendants and their attorneys, the documentary suggests the people arrested for crimes allegedly committed that day are facing conditions akin to Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Using a descriptor that The Hill has described as “the latest catchphrase in the racist lexicon,” Carlson called the arrests “a purge aimed at legacy Americans … who vote the wrong way.”
A spokesperson for Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the critiques of Carlson’s documentary or what he meant by the phrase “legacy Americans.” In the end, Carlson and his camera crews actually managed to uncover some new information about how activists coordinated with officials in Congress and on the Trump campaign to mount an effort to overturn an American election. However, in the mind of America’s top rated cable news host, that’s not the real story. Instead, he’s focused on the black helicopters.
“The helicopters have left Afghanistan now,” Carlson says. “They’ve landed here at home. They’ve begun to fight a new enemy in a new war on terror.”
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi apparently found herself persona non grata at a meeting of the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Thursday as she attempted to persuade left wing Democrats to sign off on bipartisan infrastructure legislation.
Multiple sources confirmed to The Uprising that Pelosi was “kicked out” of the meeting by Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal.
“She got kicked out and said she was leaving anyway,” a Democratic staffer, who was granted anonymity to discuss the confidential meeting, said of Pelosi.
Spokespeople for Pelosi and Jayapal did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Pelosi was observed entering the meeting and leaving just over ten minutes after she walked in. The speaker did not answer questions from reporters as she left. After this story was published, Pelosi’s Deputy Chief of Staff Drew Hammill disputed the characterization of her departure.
Hunter Walker @hunterw
NEW: Sources tell me Nancy Pelosi "kicked out" of the congressional progressive caucus meeting today by Rep. Jayapal. https://t.co/W2qsLwr0s2Chris Evans, a spokesperson for Jayapal, similarly denied Pelosi was “kicked out” of the meeting.
Hunter Walker @hunterw
NEW: Sources tell me Nancy Pelosi "kicked out" of the congressional progressive caucus meeting today by Rep. Jayapal. https://t.co/W2qsLwr0s2Pelosi has been trying to push progressives to vote for bipartisan infrastructure legislation, which is known on the Hill as “BIF,” as soon as possible to provide President Biden with a key legislative victory before he travels to Europe.
According to a second Democratic staffer, who was also granted anonymity, progressives are concerned about supporting the legislation without knowing that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) — the key swing votes in the Senate – are willing to back Biden’s larger “Build Back Better” framework. The White House unveiled that framework on Thursday morning with a statement declaring the president is “confident this is a framework that can pass both houses of Congress.” The second staffer, who was also granted anonymity, said progressives have their doubts.
“They don’t trust Sinema and Manchin because Manchin and Sinema have demonstrated over and over again that they’re not trustworthy,” the staffer said.
Sinema and Manchin have been asked repeatedly if they support Biden’s framework and have not given a clear answer. Spokespeople for the two senators did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Progressives left the meeting indicating their was unanimous support for Biden’s agenda and some, including Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), explicitly said they would not vote on BIF until the Senate votes on the BBB framework. Bush told reporters Sinema and Manchin “have not been good faith actors up until this point.”
According to the second staffer, Pelosi “probably wanted” to take progressives’ temperature. However, the staffer said this likely created an awkward situation since progressives typically expect a “family discussion” within their caucus.
“Having Nancy or [House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer] come into that is like having mom or dad show up at your slumber party,” the staffer said. “It crimps your vibe a bit.”
This story was updated with comments from Drew Hammill and Chris Evans at 4:45 p.m.
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For this week’s subscriber-only news roundup. I explored the larger tensions that were exposed by the Buffalo mayor’s race to bring you a behind-the-scenes look at what happened and what it means for New York’s major players going forward.
It was a rough week for New York State Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs. His comments on the contentious mayoral election in Buffalo a backlash that highlighted how he’s caught between progressives who view him as a “lap dog” for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and an uneasy relationship with Albany’s new chief executive, Kathy Hochul.
The drama also provided a prime example of how influential the divide between progressives and moderates has been in defining New York’s overall political climate. This latest dustup also offered glimpses of how some of the other major figures in the state — namely Hochul and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — are navigating the turbulent waters.
In an email to The Uprising, Jacobs acknowledged the party’s growing progressive wing has placed a target on his back. While Jacobs said he respects “the passion and compassion of those on the Far Left,” he argued Democrats “need candidates and issues that will play well and win in places like the suburbs and the various regions of upstate NY.”
“I represent the moderate-progressive wing of our Party. I am very comfortable with who I am, what I have done and what I stand for,” Jacobs wrote, adding, “Unfortunately, though well-intended, some of the policies promoted by those on the Far Left repel voters in the places where elections are competitive. If we lose in those places, we lose our majorities and we lose it all. THAT is what this is all about and I am just a vessel that carries that message – a vessel the Far Left would love to sink.”
Jacobs’ aversion to the progressive agenda got him in hot water when he weighed in on Walton, a self-identified Democratic Socialist, who defeated four term incumbent Byron Brown, in the Western New York city’s Democratic mayoral primary in June. Rather than accepting defeat, Brown opted to run against Walton as an independent. Many top progressives including Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have backed Walton and criticized other Democrats who have not supported the party’s nominee amid Brown’s unusual second challenge to Walton. But in an interview with Spectrum News on Monday, Jacobs was asked about Democrats — including Hochul — who have refrained from supporting Walton. Jacobs then used an extreme example as he argued endorsements are “optional” rather than “a requirement.”
“Let's take a scenario, very different, where David Duke, you remember him, the grand wizard of the KKK, he moves to New York, he becomes a Democrat, he runs for mayor in the city of Rochester, which is a low primary turnout and he wins the Democratic line. I have to endorse David Duke? I don't think so,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs immediately made clear he feels “India Walton is not in the same category,” However, his invocation of the Klan leader when discussing a progressive woman of color sparked a firestorm. Jacobs ultimately apologized.
“Even though I twice distinguished India Walton from the dumb example I used to make the point that I had every right to choose not to endorse a candidate even though they won a primary, it was unnecessarily and certainly unintentionally hurtful to India Walton. For that I apologized. I need to be more careful,” he wrote in the email to The Uprising.
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For her part, Walton said Jacobs made a “huge mistake” but also ended on a forgiving note.
“I was disappointed. But also, I've not always said the right thing at the right time so I extend a lot of grace to Mr. Jacobs,” Walton said to Spectrum News.
Walton’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Brown, who largely ignored Walton before he was beaten in the primary, has run a far more aggressive campaign this second time around characterized by sharp attacks against Walton. Some of Brown’s allies, including Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), who has endorsed him, have leaned into the notion the Buffalo race is a front in the ongoing struggle between progressives and moderates in the Democratic Party.
And this is far from New York’s first big battle in that ongoing fight. Indeed, for many members of the party’s progressive wing, this wasn’t their first clash with Jacobs.
‘Cuomo’s Lap Dog’
State Senator Alessandra Biaggi was one of the prominent progressive Democrats who quickly called for Jacobs’ ouster with a tweet that said, “Comparing the endorsement of India Walton to endorsing David Duke of the KKK is outrageously racist.” Biaggi was also among the more outspoken critics of Cuomo during the ex-governor’s scandalous collapse and Jacobs was seen as one of his closest allies.
In leaked recordings of debates over the governor’s potential impeachment, some legislators expressed fears Jacobs was working behind the scenes to help Cuomo. In a conversation with The Uprising, Biaggi described Jacobs as “Cuomo’s lap dog.”
“He basically just took orders from Cuomo and did whatever Cuomo wanted to do,” Biaggi said of Jacobs.
According to Biaggi, this hampered Jacobs’ ability to support members of the party since he favored the governor’s allies.
“He was like Cuomo’s lap dog thats what he was,” Biaggi said. “I’ve never met him in three years, not even one time, not even one phone call. … And why is that? Because Cuomo didn’t want him to have a relationship with me.”
She described Jacobs as more interested in trying to “carry out Cuomo’s grudges” than in building relationships with rivals. Walton has also criticized Jacobs for not meeting with her in his role as party chair.
For his part, Jacobs argues making endorsements is not in his job description. He accused progressives of being divisive.
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Amy Kremer is looking for help as she faces a subpoena from the House Select committee that is investigating the January 6 attack. Kremer, who is the chairwoman of Women For America First, the organization that helped organize the rally on the White House Ellipse that preceded the storming of the U.S. Capitol building that day, has launched a legal defense fund and is asking other conservative activists for support.
“It makes me sick but we have to have counsel for this. Otherwise they will destroy us,” Kremer wrote in a text message to an associate that was obtained by The Uprising.
Kremer’s text was provided by a source who is being granted anonymity due to the ongoing investigation. In the message, Kremer asked recipients to share a link to a fundraiser page on Givesendgo, which is billed as the “#1 Free Christian Crowdfunding Site.”
“We are reaching out to all of our friends and asking if they can help share the link,” Kremer wrote. “We are not a wealthy family and WFAF is only funded by the grassroots.”
Kremer, who did not respond to a request for comment, gained prominence in the early days of the Tea Party movement. She was chairwoman of the group Tea Party Express until 2014. According to documents obtained by the Center For Media And Democracy, Women For America First, which is a tax exempt “social welfare organization,” has been active since at least 2019. The group’s website describes it as focused on backing “the America First agenda” and stopping “the liberal crowd from controlling the media’s narrative and our efforts to Make America Great Again.”
After President Joe Biden won the election last November, Women For America First sponsored a bus tour and other events dedicated to promoting former President Trump’s false claims of victory. This effort culminated in the massive rally on the Ellipse, which was hosted by Women For America First. At the rally, Trump gave a speech wherein he urged the audience to “fight like hell” and indicated that he expected them to march to the Capitol complex. Rioters began to breach the Capitol before Trump concluded his remarks. Large numbers of people marched from the Ellipse to the complex following his speech.
Kremer and her daughter, Kylie, who co-founded the group with her, are among a group of activists and former Trump administration officials who have been subpoenaed by the Select Committee in the past month. Kylie Kremer did not respond to a request for comment.
The committee is investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the election and the various rallies and events that focused the false conspiracy theories about his loss. In the September 29 announcement of the batch of subpoenas that included the Kremers, the committee specifically highlighted Women For America First.
“Women for America First (WFAF) organized the January 6th, 2021 rally on the Ellipse, rallies at Freedom Plaza on November 14th and December 12th, 2020, and two “March for Trump” nationwide bus tours that generated interest and attendance at the Washington rallies,” the statement said.
That announcement said the Kremers were due to provide documents by October 13 and a deposition on October 29. The committee did not respond to a request for comment, however, multiple members of the committee have said they will consider criminal contempt referrals against anyone who defies the subpoenas. Lawyers for former President Trump are fighting some of the requests for documents and testimony by citing executive privilege setting the stage for what Lawfare has dubbed a “consitutional conflict” in the courts.
Trump’s former adviser, Steve Bannon, refused a request to testify last Thursday. An attorney for Bannon, who was not on the White House staff as of January 6, said he was directed not to comply by Trump due to executive privilege. Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, responded with a statement announcing he will hold “a business meeting Tuesday evening to vote on adopting a contempt report.”
“Mr. Bannon has declined to cooperate with the Select Committee and is instead hiding behind the former President’s insufficient, blanket, and vague statements regarding privileges he has purported to invoke,” Thompson said. “We reject his position entirely. The Select Committee will not tolerate defiance of our subpoenas, so we must move forward with proceedings to refer Mr. Bannon for criminal contempt.”
Kremer’s text and the webpage for her “legal defense fund” did not specify whether she has begun complying with the subpoena. Her message called the subpoenas “absurd” and said they were “19-20 page subpoenas for Kylie and me.” The webpage said the committee “has requested THOUSANDS of documents from November 1, 2020 until now regarding our Stop The Steal rallies, March for Trump bus tours and our three massive DC rallies (11/14, 12/12 & 1/6), in addition to testifying before them.”
“The goal of the January 6th Committee has never been about ‘finding the truth,’ instead it is nothing more than a partisan show trial intended to intimidate, punish and silence political opponents,” the page said.
The webpage for the Women For America First “legal defense fund” indicates they hope to raise $200,000.
“This is a huge unexpected financial cost for Women for America First. The legal fees already incurred since being subpoenaed are enormous and as this plays out will be a fortune. $200,000 as our goal sounds like a lot... But this is going to be on the low end of our legal fees for Women for America First,” the page said.
As of Saturday night, the fund had raised $13,892.
More Stories From The Uprising:
Going Down The ‘Big Lie’ Rabbit Hole With Former President Trump
Police Records Refute GOP’s ‘No Firearms’ Claim About January 6 Riot
PHOTO: Trump Met Man Who Helped Organize ‘Patriot Caravans’ On January 6
Andrew Yang Presidential Advisers Blame Tusk Strategies For ‘Crashing’ His Mayoral Bid
Arizona Senate Candidate Gave ‘Generous Contribution’ To ‘JusticeForJ6’ Organizer
This is a special breaking news issue of The Uprising, a politics newsletter dedicated to original, independent journalism. If you enjoyed this story and want to read more like it, please sign up!
The Uprising has obtained internal documents from the planning of the January 6 “March To Save America” rally at the White House Ellipse that immediately preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol building.
These documents, which you can read below, include a four page list of 109 “important guests” from at least 18 states. The guests were invited to the rally by the pro-Trump organization Women For America First, which “largely organized” the event. The list also identifies 12 members of the “DC Team” who helped stage the rally. That team included conservative consultants and lobbyists as well as employees for a security firm that worked the rally.
A House select committee dedicated to the attack is investigating the organizers of that event at the Ellipse. The Uprising is publishing these documents due to the apparent interest in organizers and participants in the rally that has been shown by the select committee.
The Uprising obtained the documents from a source who was granted anonymity due to the ongoing investigation. The House select committee, which is casting a wide net in its investigation of January 6 and the events that led up to that day, is in possession of the documents. Committee spokespeople did not respond to a request for comment.
At the rally, President Trump gave a speech reiterating his false claim that he won last year’s election. Trump encouraged his supporters to “fight like hell” and march to the Capitol where the vote was being certified. Many began the approximately 1.5 mile trek along the National Mall from the Ellipse to the Capitol complex as Trump wrapped up his remarks. Violence broke out at the Capitol before the president concluded his speech.
So far, the House select committee has made a “sweeping” records request to eight executive branch agencies for communications from within the Trump White House. According to the Associated Press, President Biden’s administration is cooperating with that request while Trump and his legal team are expected to challenge it. The committee has also subpoenaed testimony and documents from four former top Trump administration officials, eleven individuals who helped organize the rally at the Ellipse and other events, as well as two people and an organization associated with a “Stop The Steal” rally that took place outside the Capitol on January 6. Many of the people listed in the documents obtained by The Uprising have not yet been publicly contacted by the committee.
Some of the Trump administration officials subpoenaed by the committee reportedly plan not to comply. On Friday, an attorney for former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon sent a letter to the committee announcing he plans to refuse the subpoena at the “direction” of Trump. The letter claimed Trump and his attorney, Justin Clark, believe the documents and testimony requested from former officials would violate “executive and other privileges.” Clark and Bannon did not respond to requests for comment.
The committee responded to Bannon’s lawyer with a statement of its own that said two other former Trump administration officials are “so far, engaging with the Select Committee.”
“Mr. Bannon has indicated that he will try to hide behind vague references to privileges of the former President,” the statement said. “The Select Committee fully expects all of these witnesses to comply with our demands for both documents and deposition testimony. Though the Select Committee welcomes good-faith engagement with witnesses seeking to cooperate with our investigation, we will not allow any witness to defy a lawful subpoena or attempt to run out the clock, and we will swiftly consider advancing a criminal contempt of Congress referral.”
One of the documents obtained by The Uprising is a set of instructions for Kylie Kremer, the executive director of Women For America First, a pro-Trump organization that spent weeks spreading Trump’s “Big Lie” about the election and secured the permit for his rally at the Capitol. That document, which you can also read in full below, notes Kremer’s scheduled speaking slot and includes a diagram of the rally site. It identified a man named Ron Holden as helping coordinate speakers’ arrivals at the event. Holden and Kremer did not respond to requests for comment. The Uprising chose to redact Holden’s contact information from the document, but it is otherwise unaltered.
This guest list also details for the first time the full extent of participation in the rally from notable activists and officials in the pro-Trump wing of the Republican Party. Invited VIP guests ran the gamut of the MAGA extended cinematic universe including activists, prominent anti-vaxxer Dr. Jane Ruby, high profile Trump supporters like the YouTube stars Diamond and Silk, Bannon’s daughter, Maureen, multiple conservative recording artists, a defense contractor, My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, and former Trump administration officials. Ruby, Diamond and Silk, Maureen Bannon, the contractor, and the musicians did not respond to requests for comment.
Lindell sent The Uprising an oddly punctuated and misspelled text message that stressed he only attended the rally with Trump’s speech.
“I attended but I didn’t participate in anything???” Lindell wrote. “I was not a speaker and did not go to the capital.”
The pillow entrepreneur, who has been one of the leading promoters of the thoroughly debunked conspiracy theories that Trump won the election, further suggested the committee’s investigation was an attempt to distract from unspecified problems with the vote.
“I think they should be focus on China stealing our election and quit deflecting!” Lindell wrote, adding, “Write your story on that… Be a real journalist!!”
The VIP guest list for the rally also included several Republican politicians; Georgia gubernatorial candidate Vernon Jones, Delaware Councilman Robert Stout, Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano, and New York City congressional candidate Tina Forte. Stout and Mastriano did not respond to requests for comment. Jen Remauro, Forte’s campaign manager, reached out after publication and repeatedly, falsely claimed The Uprising did not make a request for comment.
“Tina did NOT attend that rally on January 6th. She kindly declined because she was there to do a flag drop at the Lincoln Memorial for artist Scott LoBaido which was aired on Newsmax,” Remauro said.
In a series of Twitter posts, Remauro further said she and Forte were "miles” away “from the Capitol when the insurrection occurred.” Snopes has previously published a review of Forte’s own social media posts including a livestream she recorded in front of the Capitol on January 6. In that video, Forte, who said she was wearing a bulletproof vest, described having been at the Ellipse, and encouraged others who were there to “get your ass to the Capitol.”
“So far, I’ve been to the Lincoln Memorial … we were at the Ellipse, Washington Monument, now we’re at the Capitol, and now we’re on to the next one,” Forte said.
Multiple people on the list of VIP rally guests have been involved in pro-Trump efforts to fight the election results in individual states. Melissa Carone, who achieved viral infamy with her baseless testimony at a Michigan House hearing was listed as an “important” guest at the event. Terpsichore Maras-Lindeman, a podcaster with questionable credentials was also on the list. Maras-Lindeman was a “secret witness” cited by pro-Trump “Kraken” lawyer Sidney Powell as she attempted to challenge the election results in the U.S. Supreme Court. Carone and Maras-Lindeman could not be reached for comment.
Some of the people on the list of VIP guests at the Jan. 6 rally previously were involved in notable controversies. Vincent Caldara, who was fired from his role as a pilot on Trump’s campaign due to a battery charge was on the list. Mari Stull, a former lobbyist, wine blogger, and Trump administration official who was accused of harassing State Department employees who were “disloyal” to the president was also an invited guest. Caldara and Stull did not respond to requests for comment.
Another “important” guest, Isabella Maria DeLuca, made headlines last when she accused people at an anti-Trump protest of attacking her. A Linkedin page that seems to belong to DeLuca identifies her as an intern in the office of Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY). DeLuca and Zeldin did not respond to requests for comment.
Harlan Hill, who has worked as a spokesperson for Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was also on the VIP guest list. Hill did not respond to a request for comment.
The Uprising attempted to reach out to all of the 109 people on the guest list. Some did not respond to requests for comment, declined to comment, or could not be reached. Others confirmed they did attend the rally.
Boris Epshteyn, a former Trump White House staffer and campaign aide who was listed on the document, texted that he “was proud to attend President Trump’s speech at the White House Ellipse.” Seb Gorka, an ex-White House aide and fish oil pitchman who was also on the list, responded to emailed questions about his attendance at the event, with an angry message that was riddled with typos.
“Take Long jump off a short peer you fetid propagandist of a hack,” Gorka wrote, adding,”BLOCKED.”
Gerri McDaniel, a Republican county committeewoman in South Carolina who helped lead Trump’s campaign in that state, insisted she did not go to the event at all despite being on the list of invited VIP guests.
“I did not attend the rally my sister had a heart attack while we were in Maryland unable to go to the rally,” McDaniel wrote in an email to The Uprising.
Some of the people on the guest list stressed that they were at the Ellipse for the speech, but did not go to the Capitol. Ryan Girdusky, who has worked at Hill’s consultancy that is linked to Gaetz, told The Uprising he “attended the rally as a guest” in a direct message on Twitter.
“I think important guest meant one with a seat, but that's all,” Girdusky wrote. “I have no regrets about attending the rally. … I have no idea what happened between the start of the event and the violence at the Capitol because when it was underway I was taking a nap at a friends house in DC and had no idea what was going on.”
Alan Mentser, who said he is part of a pro-Trump group called “Club 45” and a member of the Republican Executive Committee in West Palm Beach, Florida, told The Uprising he was “front row” at the rally. However, Mentser stressed he did not go near the Capitol building as it was breached.
“I didn’t go near the Capitol and I recommended that people not go near the Capitol because I thought it was a trap,” Mentser said in phone conversation, adding, “There’s plenty of circumstantial evidence that shows antifa was involved, FBI was involved, they don’t want to disclose those people.”
FBI Director Chris Wray, who was nominated by Trump, has said there is no evidence that anti-fascist groups played a role in the attack. The FBI has been the subject of baseless conspiracy theories that it was somehow involved. These claims have been advanced by Republicans including Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ).
Nevertheless, Mentser suggested the House select committee is a “partisan hack job” run by Democrats and “RINOs” who are ignoring the possibility the attack was staged “at the furtherance of other groups whether that be BLM or antifa … or other groups because of their Deep State connections.”
“There were six buses of people dressed in Trump regalia that were escorted a couple blocks away from the Capitol Building, but they were not our people,” Mentser explained. “They’re not us. That’s not what we do. We don’t do stuff like that.”
Pam Silleman, the coordinator for the Napa Tea Party in California, was also on the VIP guest list. In a phone conversation on Friday, Silleman said she went to the rally because Women For America First chairwoman Amy Kremer is one of her “best friends.” Kremer, who did not respond to a request for comment, co-founded the group with her daughter, Kylie.
Silleman, who said she was seated “front row center” for Trump’s speech, indicated that she didn’t expect violence that day. In fact, Silleman said she assumed that it would be a celebration because Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, would overturn the electoral college. Despite pressure from Trump, Pence did not try to override the election result.
“I thought we were all going there for a fun kind of thing,” Silleman said. “We had no idea Pence was going to do what he did.”
Silleman insisted that, after the speeches, she did not march to the Capitol, where violence broke out before Trump concluded his remarks. Instead, Silleman said she went to the nearby Willard Intercontinental hotel where Kremer and the event organizers had “a big suite.” Silleman said she took advantage of the amenities at the hotel while watching the riot unfold live on TV.
“I chose not to go down there,” Silleman said of the Capitol. “I chose to drink champagne instead.”
Read the full documents below.
This post was updated at 3:58 pm on October 10, 2021 to reflect the interactions with Tina Forte’s campaign.
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Four former aides to President Donald Trump have one more day to comply with subpoenas issued by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack. With the deadline looming, reports have emerged that the Trump allies plan to defy the subpoenas and, in one case, may have gone into the wind entirely. But a source familiar with the committee, who requested anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation, said refusal to comply with the subpoenas will lead to serious repercussions.
“You can’t ignore a congressional subpoena,” the source said. “The fact that they think they can get away with it doesn’t surprise me but there will be a legal reaction to that behavior.”
The committee issued subpoenas last month to the president’s on-again-off-again adviser Steve Bannon, ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, West Wing social media guru Dan Scavino, and Kashyap Patel, a Trump loyalist who was placed at the Pentagon in the days after the election. The subpoenas instructed the four men to produce documents by Oct. 7. They also called on Patel and Bannon to testify on October 14th, and Meadows and Scavino to testify on the 15th.
On Wednesday, The Guardian published a report saying all four men plan to “defy” the subpoenas. According to that story, their decision was made with instruction from Trump’s legal team, which is being led by former White House attorney Justin Clark. CNN also reported that the committee has been unable to locate Scavino to physically serve his subpoena.
Scavino, Patel, Bannon, Clark, and Trump did not respond to questions from The Uprising. A representative for Meadows declined to comment.
A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment on potential subpoena refusals. The strategy echoes Trump’s handling of investigations during his time in office. Trump refused to testify during his impeachment trial, which was held earlier this year and focused on his role inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6.
The source familiar with the committee investigation argued the situation is far different now that President Joe Biden is in office.
“This is no longer the Trump administration. We have a Department of Justice who cares about doing their job,” the source said.
Members of the committee have addressed the possibility Trump’s associates might try to refuse the subpoenas and similarly suggested the Biden administration is open to criminal contempt charges for those who try to defy the committee. At a press breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor last month, Rep. Adam Schiff, a member of the committee, suggested he and his colleagues “anticipate” some people might decline to cooperate. But Schiff also suggested the Biden administration had given “encouraging” signs about willingness to penalize people who attempt to dodge the committee.
“We may have additional tools now that we didn't before, including a Justice Department that may be willing to pursue criminal contempt when people deliberately flout compulsory process," said Schiff.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the committee, recently told CNN they are "going to do everything in our power to get them to testify” and similarly suggested there would be penalties for refusing the subpoenas.
"I mean, there is civil, there is criminal referrals that can happen if they refuse, refusing a subpoena from congress is a crime. We aren't out to try to hang this around anybody's neck. We want answers," Kinzinger said.
The subpoenas to the four Trump aides are part of a wide ranging investigation the committee is conducting into the Trump administration’s strategizing for overturning the election results, planning for the rallies that took place at the Capitol on January 6 as the results were certified, and the response to the breach of the building. Along with the subpoenas to the former president’s top aides, the committee has subpoenaed several Trump allies who were involved in organizing protests against the election. The committee has also asked for records from social media and telecommunications companies. Most importantly, the committee made a “sweeping” request for records from the executive branch to obtain communications from the White House, Pentagon, and other agencies. This last effort could mean that the committee is able to open a window into what happened within the president’s inner circle on January 6 and in the leadup to the attack. And the source familiar with the committee suggested that, with Biden in office, the agencies were complying with the records requests.
“The executive privilege lies with the Biden administration, not with the former Trump administration, so we’re going to get a lot from there anyway,” the source said.
The source also speculated that, with pressure ramping up, some of the targets of the investigation would turn on each other and cooperate with the committee.
“The prisoner’s dilemma is a real thing,” said the source. “Self-preservation is going to come into play.”
More Stories From The Uprising:
Going Down The ‘Big Lie’ Rabbit Hole With Former President Trump
Police Records Refute GOP’s ‘No Firearms’ Claim About January 6 Riot
PHOTO: Trump Met Man Who Helped Organize ‘Patriot Caravans’ On January 6
Andrew Yang Presidential Advisers Blame Tusk Strategies For ‘Crashing’ His Mayoral Bid
Arizona Senate Candidate Gave ‘Generous Contribution’ To ‘JusticeForJ6’ Organizer
Happy Sunday! The usual Uprising Friday night news dump was pushed back due to the big breakdown of all the chaos and drama in Albany that was exclusively for subscribers. These news dumps are usually just for paying subscribers too, but since this is a special edition, I decided to make it free for everyone. If you want more exclusive content from The Uprising, please sign up!
Since it’s the end of the weekend, let’s preview the days ahead with a look at what’s next with the continued “series of manufactured crises” on Capitol Hill.
Congress averted a government shutdown crisis and, as has become customary, set a deadline for their next crisis: December 3.
With that, Capitol Hill can move on to continuing to fight over the spending package associated with President Joe Biden’s agenda. This battle has led to an interesting alliance between Biden (who explicitly ran as a moderate alternative to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders) and House progressives led by the chairwoman of their caucus, Washington State Rep. Pramila Jayapal. This somewhat odd political coupling is negotiating against the two centrist Democrats whose support is needed to pass the legislation, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema. One Democratic Hill staffer offered me a very simple summation of what needs to happen next: “Manchin and Jayapal need to get in a room and figure their shit out.”
While the two Senate swing votes are often grouped together (to the point they’ve been dubbed “Manchinema”) CNN’s Harry Enten has some interesting analysis on how Sinema is far different from Manchin. Enten notes that, while the Democrats are lucky to have any level of support in West Virginia, Sinema’s home turf in Arizona has continued trending blue since she was elected in 2018. In other words, voters there are far more supportive of the party’s agenda than Manchin’s constituents. And while Manchin has made his position on the maximum spending levels he would support relatively clear, Sinema’s public objections to the legislation have been vague.
Much has been made of Sinema’s sexuality, athleticism, and, shall we say, unique personal style. But her ideological evolution has drawn far less scrutiny during her latest moment in the spotlight. Back in March, the lefty magazine Jacobin took a long look at how Sinema went from being an anti-capitalist Green Party activist to a centrist force in the Senate.
Sinema’s shift began around 2009 when, while a state legislator, she published a book on building “coalitions.” In it, Sinema encouraged reaching across the aisle and said she had gone from being a “starry-eyed idealist to (still) starry-eyed pragmatist.” The Uprising dug up an old blog Sinema wrote to promote the book where she described herself as a “reformed "stomp my feet in my office and alienate those with opposing views" type of politician.” It’s a fascinating look at her early political philosophy.
Today, Sinema is stalling passage of Biden’s ambitious package of infrastructure spending, social reforms, and environmental initiatives. Back then, Sinema was fighting against spending cuts in the Arizona budget while criticizing politicians who held up budget talks by refusing to compromise on their individual priorities.
“I'm in politics and I can't believe this behavior. It takes me back to, oh, I don't know, Junior High. It's interesting that in any other profession, behavior like this would ultimately lead to the party that's refusing to work with others' termination,” Sinema wrote. “So many politicians take the view that it absolutely has to go their way or they won't budge (sounds like a childhood tantrum, huh?), but they need to adjust their attitudes and get over their specific goals and outcomes and focus more on coming up with a plan that we all can agree on, a plan that’s for the common good.”
On her blog, Sinema wrote profiles of multiple former legislators including longtime Republican swing vote Olympia Snowe. Sinema wrote that Snowe proved she was “very committed to her job” by not missing votes. Sinema, who left Washington for a fundraiser amid ongoing negotiations on Friday, missed over eight percent of the votes in the last Congress making her “the 15th most absent member of the Senate.”
Sinema’s site also featured a blogroll of five recommended sites. It included four progressives blogs along with The Stimulist, journalist Carlos Watson’s precursor to Ozy, the site that became embroiled in a scandal over questionable traffic over the past week and subsequently went down in flames.
FUN FACT: In 1970, President Nixon ordered new uniforms for the White House guards after reportedly becoming enamored with police uniforms he saw on a trip to West Germany. Nixon’s vision for the uniformed Secret Service included gold braids, buttons and high military-style caps.
The sight of the Euro-influenced military gear inside the White House prompted a swift, negative reaction. Novelist Louis Auchincloss wrote that Nixon had, “dressed his policemen like the bodyguard of a shoddy dictator of a banana republic.”
Nixon’s Secret Service hats were reportedly scrapped within a month and the rest of the uniforms were abandoned soon after. They were put in storage for about a decade until 1980 when the General Services Administration sold about 130 of them to marching bands at high schools in Texas and Iowa as well as the band at Southern Utah State College.
Thomas Roller, the local official who purchased the uniforms for the schools in Iowa, told the Des Moines Register they did not include the brass buttons because “they had some sort of White House insignia on them and they didn’t want those getting around.”
“They will be fine for a band,” Roller said. “But they did have sort of a Nazi connotation when they came out and that offended some people.”
That’s all for today! If you haven’t already, please subscribe to The Uprising and tell your friends! And if you work in politics, please don’t forget to leave a (news) tip on your way out → hunter.walker@protonmail.com
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New York Governor Kathy Hochul is set to face a crowded, chaotic re-election fight. After conversations with dozens of insiders and elected officials, The Uprising has uncovered new details of Hoch…
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Welcome back to the Friday night news dump! The past week was a big one for the Big Lie, the false conspiracy theories that former President Trump actually wo…
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This is a special issue of The Uprising, a newsletter dedicated to independent, original political journalism.
Jim Lamon, a businessman and Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Arizona, gave a “generous” donation to a group that led planning for this weekend’s scheduled demonstration in support of the people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
That “JusticeForJ6” demonstration, organized by Look Ahead America, is set to take place near the U.S. Capitol on Saturday, September 18. The rally has been described as the “biggest security test” in the area since the attack on January 6, and police are braced for armed protesters. Lamon launched his Senate race one week after his contribution to Look Ahead America was announced.
Lamon and his campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment about his donation to Look Ahead America or whether he supports the “JusticeForJ6” event.
According to Look Ahead America Executive Director Matt Braynard, the “JusticeForJ6” demonstrations will take place at multiple state capitols over the coming weeks to “oppose the tyrannical and inhumane treatment of the January 6 political prisoners who have been targeted by the Department of Justice and the FBI.”
Lamon is the founder and CEO of DEPCOM, a solar power company in his home state. His donation to Look Ahead America previously madeheadlines due to the group’s involvement in efforts to question the results of last year’s election. Axios reported Lamon’s contribution was in the “millions” and that he “had been laying the groundwork for his run by the time he donated to LAA.” Since launching his campaign, Lamon has expressed a belief that last year’s presidential election was somehow illegitimate.
“It’s clear that there are anomalies in the 2020 election results that deserve to be fully explored,” Lamon wrote in a tweet on July 16.
Despite efforts by Trump and his allies to cast doubt on his loss, experts and officials have repeatedly concluded there is no evidence of widespread fraud in the election.
Reached via email, Braynard declined to say exactly how much Look Ahead America has received from Lamon.
“His contribution amount is staggered but I won't go into further details about his funding commitment to us.” Braynard wrote in an email to The Uprising. “It will all be reported eventually.”
Braynard suggested Lamon’s contributions would be detailed in the organization’s 2021 return, which is due next year.
Some experts havesuggested turnout at Saturday’s event could be weak because potential participants are worried law enforcement have infiltrated the event. For his part, Braynard has insisted the rally is “a 100% peaceful event in support of the nonviolent offenders from January 6th who have been charged.”
Over 500 people have been charged in conjunction with violence and vandalism that took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 as thousands of people who sought to disrupt the certification of President Biden’s election victory over former President Trump broke into the Senate chamber. Braynard’s group has described those charged as “political prisoners” who were “persecuted by the FBI” and “denied bail by a corrupt judiciary.” He did not respond to emailed questions from The Uprising about whether he believed anyone in the crowd acted inappropriately or violently that day.
Look Ahead America announced Lamon’s “generous contribution” on April 26. At the time, the organization said Lamon’s donation made it “possible” to launch a $2 million program in Arizona. The announcement of the contribution included a statement from Lamon.
“We will not allow these patriots to continue to be ignored by our nation’s ruling establishment that has put corporate, globalists, and special interests ahead [of] them,” Lamon said.
Braynard asserted that “100% of the funding provided by Lamon is exclusively earmarked for voter registration in Arizona and nothing else.” In the initial announcement of Lamon’s contribution, Look Ahead America said the multimillion dollar effort he made possible would be “an intensive voter registration and community organizing effort” in Arizona. When asked about the fact Look Ahead America declared the contribution supported both voter registration and organizing, Braynard claimed the two were interchangeable.
“We consider voter registration the #1 most important community organizing activity,” he wrote. “I like to toute [sic] ‘community organizing’ every chance I get. So it's technically redundant on my part when I say both of them together.”
Look Ahead America’s work in Arizona has included staging a “#FreePoliticalPrisoners” event in Scottsdale on July 14. The group is also holding one of its official satellite events in conjunction with Saturday’s rally at the U.S. Capitol in Phoenix on September 25.
According to records posted on an IRS website, Look Ahead America was granted tax exempt nonprofit status in 2018 and that status was revoked in 2020. An IRS spokesperson told The Uprising they could not provide any information about the group beyond what was publicly available on the website.
Braynard said the organization’s tax exempt status “was initially revoked due to a lack of filing.” Tax exempt nonprofits are required to file a form 990, which is an annual return filed with the IRS that includes detailed financial information. Prior to this year, according to Braynard, Look Ahead America filed a short version of the form for smaller organizations because they “never raised more than $50K.”
In a video touting the upcoming rallies, Braynard asked for donations to Look Ahead America to make the event at the Capitol possible.
“This event is expensive,” Braynard said of Saturday’s planned rally at the Capitol. “There are a lot of requirements to do an event like this in DC. We expect to have a large stage.”
And while Lamon has indicated support for the conspiracy theories that fueled discontent over last year’s presidential election, he hasn’t made high profile comments about January 6 — the largest manifestation of that discontent. Indeed, Lamon has positioned himself as something of a law and order candidate.
On Wednesday evening, Lamon held an event where he accepted the endorsement of the Arizona Police Association and the National Border Patrol Council. Neither of those groups responded to requests for comment about whether they were aware of Lamon’s financial support for Look Ahead America. At the exact same time Lamon was on stage accepting the endorsements from the law enforcement groups, workers in D.C. were installing fencing around the U.S. Capitol to prepare for the group’s rally.
More Stories From The Uprising:
Police Records Refute GOP’s ‘No Firearms’ Claim About January 6 Riot
PHOTO: Trump Met Man Who Helped Organize ‘Patriot Caravans’ On January 6
Andrew Yang Presidential Advisers Blame Tusk Strategies For ‘Crashing’ His Mayoral Bid
President Biden’s ‘Very Strange Decision’ That Could Send Thousands Back In Prison
Good evening! A big, weird campaign just wrapped up in California and I wanted to highlight a couple key points exclusiv…
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This is a special issue of The Uprising, a newsletter dedicated to independent, original political journalism.
I will never forget the smoke.
The September 11th attacks occurred the day after I turned 17 years old. My high school, Brooklyn College Academy, was about seven miles from ground zero and four from my house. After the towers came down, I managed to catch a bus out of Flatbush before they all shut off. It only took me as far as Coney Island Avenue. When I turned that corner, there was brown smoke and bits of paper wafting through the air. I was still six miles out in Brooklyn. My knees shook.
Seeing smoke so far from the site of the attack brought home just how bad things were. I don’t remember how it smelled as I walked through the haze, but I can still perfectly picture that corner with the day’s infamously bright blue sky turned sepia. Some memories don’t fade, they are seared into your subconscious. The mind makes permanent snapshots of terror.
My mother sometimes worked in one of the towers. I initially began a mad dash home across Brooklyn because I worried she was there and wanted to get my little sister. That fear didn’t last. I somehow managed to get a call through and discovered my mom had been in Midtown that day and was on her way home too.
Once I got to my house, I turned on the TV and saw dusty footage of stretchers being wheeled in and out of Stuyvesant, a high school that I had attended for two-and-a-half years. I thought my friends there were dead until I got someone on the phone. They had all been evacuated and the school was being used as a morgue. The friend I spoke to told me how they saw bodies hitting the ground.
The pain of that day persisted in New York. We felt it each time we looked up at the scarred skyline. For years, I saw shadows of the Twin Towers, an architectural phantom limb.
The World Trade Center wasn’t just buildings. It was ours. Those towers were where I went on a first date and experienced a treasured afternoon with my grandmother. They were in the background for almost every day of my life. Those skyscrapers were the very embodiment of New York City swagger. Seeing them anchor the city and glitter at night left no doubt that there’s no bigger or better place in the world.
Every New Yorker who was in the city that day has an acute awareness that some people had it far worse than others. The less tragic experiences seem almost not worth sharing. Being from the city also generally means being reluctant to talk about that day at all. Nearly 3,000 people died and tens of thousands were injured.
Many people — including friends of mine — have spent the two decades afterwards dealing with health problems and a system that cared for them terribly. Some of them died too. Nothing in our country’s modern history compares to 9/11. The years of war and terror that followed have only deepened the wound.
These things have kept me from discussing my own experiences from that day. However, this year I feel compelled to share because there were things I saw on January 6th that burned into my mind the same way.
Of course, the single digit death toll from January 6th is nothing compared to September 11th. The level of human loss is not even close. However, as members of law enforcement who spent hours in a “medieval battle” with the crowds that mobbed the Capitol have outlined in painful detail, there were essentially a series of small miracles that prevented more bloodshed on January 6th.
God knows what could have happened if Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman hadn’t singlehandedly managed to steer the surging crowd away from the Senate chambers. The democratic process that mob hoped to disrupt was saved thanks to a quick thinking staffer. And while both the officers and many of the rioters had guns, mass shooting didn’t break out. In large part, that’s because those officers knew it would be incredibly violent if they opened fire.
“During the assault, I thought about using my firearm on my attackers,” D.C. Police officer Mike Fanone said in a July congressional hearing. “But I knew that, if I did, I would be quickly overwhelmed and that, in their minds, would provide them with the justification for killing me.”
That calculus played itself out hundreds of times along the front lines as the January 6th first responders held back the crowd. The restraint shown by those officers as they were beaten, clubbed, and clawed at on the steps of the U.S. Capitol saved many lives.
One of the reasons we honor September 11th is the stunning heroism of the policemen, firefighters, and others who ran back into the towers as they burned. The law enforcement who protected the Capitol on January 6th displayed similar courage. They ran towards a violent scene at great personal peril. Over 100 were injured.
Yet we have not honored the sacrifice of these first responders on January 6th as we did the heroes of September 11th. Instead, we are allowing their heroism to be questioned. They have had to testify before Congress because there are people in this country who actually suggest that the attack on January 6th didn’t happen at all, or worse, that the perpetrators of that illegal, authoritarian assault on the very seat of our democracy were the real heroes.
September 11th and January 6th are the worst acts of political violence in our country in the past two decades. Their impacts were far different, but they belong in a unique category given that the targets were iconic symbols of the American idea.
Nevertheless, January 6th has provoked little of the commemoration we normally afford to terror attacks and tragedies. What color ribbon did anyone wear? Was there a #DCStrong hashtag? No. Instead, there are some — including elected officials — openly suggesting nothing happened that day and advocating for the rioters who broke into the Capitol. And despite all the fears and concerns about “cancel culture,” the people making objectively outrageous comments about January 6th have largely done so without consequence.
National attention has largely moved on as these deniers and defenders encourage collective amnesty. A violent crime directed at the core ideals of this country unfolded before our eyes. There are those who want you to believe it didn’t happen at all or that this is just another political issue that’s up for argument. It’s not. January 6th was a violent attack on America.
In the aftermath of September 11th, the country came together. This surge of patriotism and unity — for whatever else it did — served as a balm to survivors. Col. Philip McNair, who survived the Pentagon attacks and ran back in to help others, described this in an interview that aired on NPR for the anniversary where he talked about returning to work in the aftermath and said: “The thing that buoyed our spirits a bit was the patriotism this whole thing inspired.” We’ve given little of this comfort to the survivors of January 6th despite their great pain.
January 6 might not merit the same memorialization as September 11th, but it deserves more than we’ve given it. One is properly regarded as an attack on the nation and our core values while the other is being swept under the rug by some leaders of this country.
The truth that has made January 6th inconvenient is that a sizable number of our fellow Americans supported it. This doesn’t make it acceptable.
Denying the horror of January 6th runs the risk of letting the darkest forces that fueled it continue to metastasize. Former President George W. Bush underscored the dangers of ignoring domestic extremism in his speech marking the 20th anniversary of September 11th where he partly alluded to January 6th as “growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders, but from violence that gathers within.”
Trauma does funny things to the brain. It makes some memories unreliable and others crystal clear. The sight of that smoke on September 11th and certain scenes I saw on January 6th are some of the only things in my life that I remember with that persistent precision.
If I close my eyes, I can also still picture a particular moment when I watched people climbing through the broken windows of the Capitol. That was when I realized no one was in control and shooting could break out at any second. It was when it was clear that one of the county’s most sacred symbols had been violated. I also remember a vivid glimpse of the gallows that was erected at the Capitol steps. While it's burned into my brain, I didn’t get pictures of the noose. Even though I had been walking through the mob for hours, I had a sudden and strong instinct that, if I turned my camera towards the rope or walked closer, I would get hurt.
I’ve talked to therapists and other people who have experience working with trauma. Those uniquely sharp memories occur after we see something shockingly abnormal or dangerous. They are our bodies’ way of marking something that’s worth remembering and processing.
My brain cells are telling me that both January 6th and September 11th are unique traumas that must be dealt with. These two dark days are linked forever in my head as the visceral, tragic episodes of 21st century America.
Wounds that go untreated never properly heal. Attacks on our country should cause us to stop in our tracks. We must commemorate the insurmountable losses and deep impact of September 11. We should also remember and reckon with January 6 — no matter how much some want us to forget.
More Stories From The Uprising:
Going Down The ‘Big Lie’ Rabbit Hole With Former President Trump
Police Records Refute GOP’s ‘No Firearms’ Claim About January 6 Riot
PHOTO: Trump Met Man Who Helped Organize ‘Patriot Caravans’ On January 6
Andrew Yang Presidential Advisers Blame Tusk Strategies For ‘Crashing’ His Mayoral Bid
President Biden’s ‘Very Strange Decision’ That Could Send Thousands Back In Prison
There were children on the ground when the World Trade Center towers collapsed. Many of them attended my former high school, Stuyvesant, which was located mere blocks from ground zero.
Those students experienced a terrifying evacuation as the dust cloud surged around them — and the danger didn’t end that day. They were sent back to the building less than a month after the attack. Despite government assurances that the air was safe, many became sick breathing the acrid fumes of ground zero.
In the aftermath of the attack, author and activist Lila Nordstrom led the charge to fight for health benefits for her classmates. Nordstrom tells the story of her experience witnessing 9/11 and advocating for fellow survivors in her moving new book, “Some Kids Left Behind: A Survivor's Fight for Health Care in the Wake of 9/11.”
Nordstrom will be on The Uprising with me today from 12-1 PM talking about her story and what it taught her about the needs of communities where disaster strikes. She will be taking questions from readers in the comments on this page.
Please join us!
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Welcome to the Friday news dump, a roundup of the week’s most important and interesting stories. This is usually an exclusive feature for paying Uprising subscribers, but I am making today’s edition available to everyone since there are a couple programming notes about upcoming features in the newsletter. If you enjoyed this news dump, please consider subscribing.
The war in Afghanistan came to a formal end on Monday as the last U.S. troops left the country after almost 20 years. While America’s longest war is already fading from the headlines, there are many lingering questions.
The struggle is just beginning for the Afghan refugees who left the country in the American evacuation. Tens of thousands of refugees were taken to Qatar where they are being held in an airbase used by U.S. and Qatari forces. According to multiple accounts, the space where they are being held is so cramped and hot that some refugees reportedly made signs declaring: “I can’t breathe.” Two American congressmen, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI), visited the facility during their unauthorized trip to Kabul last week and expressed grave concerns about the conditions. In a conversation with The Uprising shortly after he returned to the states, Meijer said: “I worry that it's only a matter of time before some folks perish at some of those facilities.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about how many refugees remain at the base and whether they will be moved to a cooler location.
Here in the States, the evacuation led to major political fallout. A slewofpolls conducted in the past week showed that even though a majority of Americans supported Biden’s decision to leave Afghanistan, they disapprove of the way the evacuation was handled. The chaotic exit — during which U.S. troops rushed to evacuate American citizens and Afghan allies as the Taliban rapidly overtook the country — has tanked Biden’s approval rating. Meijer and Moulton are among many members of Congress who had urged the administration to expand and expedite efforts to evacuate vulnerable Afghans for months leading up to the withdrawal. Moulton has said he would welcome a congressional investigation into the missteps. In his conversation with The Uprising, Meijer described the situation as “enraging,” adding: “I could see the nightmare scenario that we warned the administration about months ago unfolding.” However, it’s worth noting that some of the Republicans criticizing Biden for his handling of the withdrawal — including Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) — voted against expanding the evacuation of Afghans who worked with the U.S. forces. Republican commentators like Tucker Carlson are also attacking efforts to settle refugees in this country.
Prior to the American withdrawal, many people in Afghanistan were dealing with food insecurity. The Taliban takeover has accelerated the problem: Mary-Ellen McGroarty, the World Food Programme’s country director in Kabul has said that the current situation “is absolutely horrendous and could morph into just a humanitarian catastrophe." (Full Disclosure: Your humble Uprising correspondent’s wife works for the organization’s American offshoot, the World Food Program USA.)
While the troops have gone home, military operations in Afghanistan have not actually ended. In a speech at the White House on Tuesday, Biden vowed to continue drone strikes against ISIS-K, the Afghan affiliate of the militant group Islamic State that the U.S. has blamed for a suicide attack that left 13 American troops dead in the final days of the withdrawal. According to The Hill, the subsequent drone strikes “appeared calibrated to send a message to militant groups that though U.S. forces were leaving the country, military operations are likely to persist.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about continued drone strikes. Without troops on the ground, experts warn drone operations could have higher civilian casualties. One of those retaliatory strikes, conducted on August 29, reportedly left 10 civilians dead.
The Supreme Court’s shadow docket decision allowing a law that effectively banned abortion in Texas raises the possibility other states may adopt similar measures. The development also increases pressure on 83-year-old liberal justice Stephen Breyer to retire. In a tweet on Thursday, Ben Rhodes, a former top adviser to President Obama said: “For everything he cares about, Breyer retiring would be a lot more impactful than writing more dissents.” Breyer has indicated he does not want to “stay there till I die” and hopes to avoid seeing “somebody appointed who will just reverse everything I've done.” However, even if Breyer does step aside, Biden will still need to get a justice confirmed, which will require the support of moderate Democrats in the Senate. Biden is also facing pressure of his own to reform — or potentially expand — the Supreme Court due to the entrenched conservative majority. On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki pointed to a commission Biden named to study potential reforms that is due to submit recommendations by October 6. Psaki said those will likely factor into Biden’s decision but specified that she doesn’t know “where he’s going to land.”
The Democrat-led House of Representatives select committee investigating the January 6 attack has asked telecommunications companies to preserve phone records associated with Republican lawmakers, former President Donald Trump, and members of his family who participated in the “Stop The Steal” rallies against Trump’s election loss that precipitated the attack on the Capitol. On Tuesday, one day after news of the preservation request broke, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy responded by threatening the companies with retaliation if the GOP retakes Congress. McCarthy was subsequently revealed to be among the lawmakers whose records were subject to the preservation request. One Republican who participated in the January 6 rally, Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), referred to the people who have been arrested in that attack as “political hostages” and “political prisoners” during a GOP event in his home state on August 29. Cawthorn suggested he and his colleagues are eager to “try and bust them out,” and when an audience member asked when he would “call us to Washington again,” Cawthorn said it was something he is “actively working on.”
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Next Tuesday, September 8, The Uprising will play host to author and advocate Lila Nordstrom, who will be discussing her new book “Some Kids Left Behind: A Survivor's Fight for Health Care in the Wake of 9/11.” Nordstrom is one of my former classmates at Manhattan’s Stuyvesant High School, making her one of the closest children to the collapse of the Twin Towers in 2001. Her book explores how the students struggled to receive assistance as they battled health problems associated with the attack and how their experience relates to victims of other disasters. Nordstrom will join us in a discussion thread on September 8th from 12-1 PM ET, and readers will be able to ask her questions along with me.
I will be posting our last book club event, which took place over the summer, very soon! I am still dealing with formatting the video and transcript for that one, which is part of why I am trying a new approach for the chat next week.
FUN FACT: I am coming to you this Friday afternoon from beautiful Luray, Virginia on the edge of Shenandoah National Park. This town is home to the Luray Caverns, which are the largest ever discovered in the eastern United States. The caverns are home to the world’s largest musical instrument, the Great Stalacpipe Organ, which was the brainchild of a musician and Pentagon engineer named Leland Sprinkle. Technically, the stalacpipe organ isn’t an organ at all. It’s a lithophone, which produces sound by striking 37 different stalactites located throughout the cave. Sprinkle hand selected the stalactites based on the tone generated when striking them. The instrument has been operating for over 60 years.
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Tonight’s Friday news dump, the second in our ongoing exclusive feature for subscribers, includes the extremely unsurprising information that Ru…
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The situation at the Kabul airport literally became explosive on Thursday as two suicide bombers and gunmen who have been linked to the militant group Islamic State staged attacks that killed at least 60 Afghans and 12 American troops. I just published a new piece for New York magazine on a controversial rogue congressional trip to the airport and have spent the past few days reporting on the situation in Kabul.
Please join me in the comments below to discuss this story and everything else I’ve heard about the chaotic Afghanistan exit including unofficial rescue operations, how the evacuation has led to a dangerous situation for refugees in Qatar, and the major issues with media coverage of the withdrawal.
This is a major moment in American history. I would love to answer your questions and hear your thoughts!
And, of course, if you want more original, independent politics news and analysis, please sign up!